Da Boyz

We hosted a baby shower on Sunday for our dear friends Laura, Noah and Eli. It was really nice to see all our friends from residency again and welcome the newest addition, Micah, Elizabeth and Bill's new son.
I was able to capture these four boys in one photo frame. Of course no one is looking at the camera, but what do you expect at this age! Here is Owen (2 yrs.), Otto (22 mnths.), Eli (3 in Dec.) and Liam (4.5 yrs.). We hope they grow up together and share happy memories just as their parents have done together.

Bubble Bath

With all the recent parties it was time for Otto to get clean. This was such a cute photo from his bubble bath I had to share it will everyone. I think the bathtub was the fullest it's ever been.

Happy 60th Birthday Grandma!

Otto's Grandma Joan turned 60 on Friday and we celebrated with a surprise birthday party for her. I forgot my camera so hopefully someone will email me some photos of the momentous occasion. Happy Birthday Grandma!

Happy 2nd Birthday Addy

Addison turned 2 on Friday and we were invited to celebrate at the Children's Museum in Olympia on Saturday. We had a great time playing and eating cake. Happy Birthday Addy!

Officially a Chubby Bunny

Last Thursday was one of those dreary Seattle afternoons. So after Otto's nap we had hot chocolate and marshmallows together. Otto was able to fit several marshmallows in his mouth at once so he's now officially part of Daddy's exclusive Chubby Bunny Club.

Otto's First Presidential Election

Recession, Economic Turmoil

Otto's putting it straight into the piggy bank.  Maybe I should do the same.

P.S.  If you look really closely at this photo Otto has a shiner on one eye, a cut on his other cheek and a band aid on his finger.  I promise you these were all self induced injuries.

Play Date with Ruby

Lucky, lucky us!  We got to babysit Ruby last weekend.  Andrew played with the finger puppets with them.

They colored and played together nicely.  Otto says, "Wooby."  It's very cute.

October: Halloween

Happy Halloween!

Love, Andrew, Kerry and Otto (the "bap")

Otto finger painted pumpkins and made brownies for all the neighbors this year.  We then took our treats to them.  We are thankful to have such wonderful neighbors.

October: Counting and a Shiner

So determined, Otto moves the beads across and sounds like he is counting.  He is really concentrating.  

Today when Otto was playing peek a boo with Daddy he hit his cheek bone on the bed rail.  It's not so bad in this photo, but it turned into a real shiner.  Ouch!

October: Another Weekend in Wenatchee

We enjoyed another beautiful weekend at Great Grandma's in Wenatchee.  This time we were joined by Great Uncle John and Great Aunt Dana.

Otto's first tumble weed.

We rode our bikes around the 11 mile loop at Riverfront Park.  It was nap time for Otto.

Otto checking in on the three cows across the street from my grandma's.

October: The Pumpkin Patch

Otto and I met our friends Nicki and her daughter Addy and Heidi and her son Carter at the pumpkin patch in Nisqually.  We also met up with Grandma Joan, Cousin Lauren, Aunt Lisa and Uncle Jason.  It was tons of fun with lots of activities.  Here is a photo of Otto and Addy hesitating to pet the sheep.

Otto wore his halloween costume.  Yep, he's a "bap." (he can't pronounce the /t/ at the end of words yet)
Otto, Addy, Carter and Lauren all got to ride the ponies.  They went around so many times I got dizzy.  Again, Otto was a natural.  Even uncle Jason thought so.
Here's Otto with Grandma drivin' tractor.  His legs are still too short to reach the pedals.
Lauren is pumpkin bowling and Otto is trying to "help."
Here's a family photo.  Lauren really likes to play with Otto.  The feeling is mutual except he's not much in to the hugs.

October: Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease

Our poor little Otto had a bad case of hand, foot and mouth disease.  It looked a lot like chicken pox, but they were little blisters primarily on his hand, on his feet and in his mouth.  He was m-i-s-e-r-a-b-l-e!  A couple of the blisters on his feet turned in to blood blisters and he ate yogurt and ice cream for a few days.  We could tell he was in pain and had a hard time sleeping.  Thank goodness he's all better now.

September: Autumn in Wentachee

My mom, Otto and I spent a gorgeous weekend in Wenatchee visiting my grandma and my uncle John.

While there we caught a preying mantis, which fascinated Otto.
We also made our annual pilgrimage to the fruit stand just outside of Cashmere.  Otto went through the petting farm and fed the sheep some carrots.
He was shocked to see a goat on the rooftop.
We rode the cow train.  It was like a roller coaster ride.  I laughed hysterically the whole time.  Of course at the end Otto belted out, "Mmmmore."
He also pretended to drive a real tractor.

Fun, fun, fun!

September: Daddy's Socks

As I was folding and putting away the laundry today Otto wanted to put on Daddy's socks.  He looked ridiculously cute so I had to take a photo.

September: A New Sweater

Otto's a very lucky kid!  Grandma knit him another sweater.  It's a beautiful green and has lots of room to grow.  He'll be nice and warm this fall and winter.

September: Sponge Painting Con Binkey

Otto tried sponge painting for the first time and really liked it.  His picture was a keeper too.  He's pretty much given up the binkey except for sleeping, so this must have been right after nap time.  It worked well though so he wasn't tempted to eat the paint like he usually does. 

September: Walking the Duck in High Heels

As I'm getting ready for work in the morning Otto steals my shoes and takes the duck for a walk.  He loves the clip clop sound of my shoes on the hard floor.  Almost every morning he steals my shoes.  I'm proud to say he definitely gets the "shoe hound" gene from me.

September: SMILE

Still working on that smile...

September: Harvesting Carrots with Opa

Opa helped Otto harvest some delicious carrots from our garden.  It's amazing how sweet a fresh carrot tastes.  Otto loves learning new things from his Opa.

September: DINOSAURS

One of Andrew's colleagues gave Otto a collection of dinosaurs that her son had outgrown.  Otto was very interested and curious about them for several weeks, but now he's not so interested.  I'm not sure he knows what to do with them and his imaginative play hasn't totally developed yet.  So, well keep them around and continue introducing them to him in hopes he'll find more enjoyment out of them.

August: Taking After Grandpa

So, you might think this is a park or a golf course because of the lush and weed free lawn with each blade of grass exactly the same length, but it's Grandpa and Grandma's backyard in Olympia.  Remember not too long ago I said Otto was a gadget guy and liked the real thing.  Well, I spoke too soon.  He got a new bubble mower from Grandma and Grandpa and must have mowed the lawn for an hour.  He's taking after his Grandpa.

Maybe Grandpa can teach Otto how to smile.

August: Happy 93rd Birthday Great Grandma

We went to Wenatchee to celebrate my grandmother's 93rd birthday.  She lives in her own house and drives.  She's sharp as a tack, happy and healthy.  Pretty amazing for 93!  Otto's got 91 and a half more years to go.

August: A New Friend is Born

Welcome Baby Gabriel!  Gabriel Ricardo Marroquin was born in June to our dear friends Nate and Renee.  I was lucky enough to see him again at our friends Ryan and Dawn's 10 year wedding anniversary.  Otto isn't too sure of Gabriel just yet.  He's mostly just jealous that Mommy isn't giving him attention.  How can I resist when Gabriel is just so adorable!

August: Grocery Shopping with Grandma Joan

Otto loves the race car carts at Fred Meyer.  I think he thinks he's a real race car driver.  Wonder who he gets that from?

August: Helpin' Mama Garden

Otto is a gadget guy.  Forget giving him kid intended toys.  He wants the real thing so he can investigate and explore.  He is a great helper in the yard and LOVES to water the plants.

August: Tech Saavy

Who doesn't like to blog in their undies???

August: Annual Visit to the Evergreen State Fair

First stop, fair food.  This was Otto's first ever corn dog.  As you can see, he ate off the fried corn meal coating and left the hotdog untouched.

Next we headed through the animal barns and Otto loved watching the goats, pigs and sheep.  Last year he was afraid of their unpredictable movement, but this year he joined in their vocalizations.  He does a great goat impersonation.  Can you call it an impersonation if it's in reference to an animal???

Otto took his turn "drivin' tractor," that's farmer talk for "dad pushing me on the toy tractor cause my legs don't reach the pedals yet."

Then Otto took his first pony ride.  At least the sign said "pony rides."  What actually constitutes a "pony?"  This looked more like a horse.  We were afraid he would chicken out at the last moment and the sign said we could get our money back if the child wouldn't get on the horse.  We were all set to get our 2 bucks back, but remarkably, Otto rode solo and seemed to be a natural.  He had that true cowboy swagger.

And last but not least, Andrew, Grandma Kathee, Opa and I challenged each other to a game of "gopher" bopping.  Guess who won?  Yup, that's me the "Gopher Bopping Champion."  And for my good gopher bopping efforts I won a giant cow for Otto.  He was incredibly cute hugging his near life size cow all the way home.  Oh boy I'm glad this is an annual tradition.  I wonder what we'll win next year.

August: To the Zoo With Zoren

We met in the rose garden and Zoren shared his grapes with Otto.

Then they followed each other around the rose garden and smelled all the beautiful roses.

We had fun walking all around the zoo and finding all the different animals on a beautiful August morning.