Archive for 2009

Open The Barn Door

Saturday, December 19th, 2009

In September we made a short trip to LA to see Ronin’s new cousin Damon. I don’t think were any help, but we had a lot of fun playing with Riley and cooing at Damon. We also drove out to Claremont for Maddox’s first birthday party. The country fair theme was great and we ended up with some good pictures that didn’t make on the blog because it was right before our trip to the south. All the kids got copies of Open The Barn Door as party favors. Ronin really liked her’s and yesterday I finally managed to catch her reading it to Nigel.

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It’s hard to catch these moments because she usually stops by the time I get the camera out.



The bunny was a star attraction.

Ronin finally had a chance to wear her western duds.


Happy Birthday Oma Peggy

Sunday, December 6th, 2009

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Thanksgiving

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

[Mom took this photo of Mt. Hood from Kelley Pt. the Sunday after Thanksgiving.]

[Kelley Pt. in that beautiful glowing light right before the sun set at like noon or some shit.]

My mom finally made it to Portland to soak up some of that rain we get here. Thanksgiving day really dished it out with a steady drizzle from sunup to sundown and then all through the night. Otherwise though it has been clear and even sunny. Kind of amazing since I can’t even remember the last time we had sun. Oh wait I do actually—it was the day I had my face irradiated for skin cancer and I wasn’t allowed outside for 48 hours. It was nice that day.

Ronin is much better for Oma Peggy than she is for us. Typically she shrieks and squirms like mad when I try to put a barrette in her hair. I came trudging out early one morning and Ronin’s hair was pulled back out of her eyes in A BRAID. Braided. With a rubber band. Mom looked innocent and said she sat just fine for her and had so far not even tried to pull it out. I was utterly shocked.

[Punk Rock Girl is a current favorite amongst the stuffed crew. Ronin has been taking her everywhere we go lately and frequently requests to hear her theme song.]

Mom gets up early and so does Ronin so we had a full week of sleeping in; it was awesome. As soon as Ronin popped up out of bed with her little baby agenda (read ‘Sheep and a Jeep’ six or seven times, then maybe a meatball for breakfast) we shooed her out of the room with the promise of grandma attention: Maybe Oma Peggy can nuke you a meatball in the kitchen! She would stomp off in hot pursuit and we wouldn’t hear from her until mid-morning when she pooped her pants. Heaven.

[Pre-turkey caviar and champagne.]

For three days straight we ate nothing but turkey, stuffing, etc. washed down with boutique gin from Ashland. On the fourth day we emerged blinking into the sunlight and drove out to a Sauvie Island for some holiday accouterments.

Ronin had a field day running amongst the trees and we had the satisfaction of picking ours out of thousands. We got a noble fir because I liked the needles and color and the doug firs were all way too shorn (think furry pyramid). We (Joshua) carried our tree up to the front and they put it in a special tree vibrating machine, secured it in a festive net, and we were on our merry way.

[This isn’t our tree; we went to a public ‘tree lighting’ thing and Ronin transformed instantly into a Toddler Obsessed. We’re just lucky we didn’t have to crawl down underneath the tree to retrieve her.]

We chose a smaller tree for our own living room because we have never done this before and own only one ornament (thanks Michelle!) so far. I made some more and plan on making still more. Currently we have it decorated with twinkly lights, Ronin’s finger puppets, and various lightweight toys. Ronin thinks the tree is about the best thing she’s ever seen in her life and spends a great deal of time poking at it, touching the lights (licking them too when we’re not looking), destroying my paper ball, and removing/replacing the nesting bird ornaments I made.

Oma Peggy returned home yesterday and Ronin asks where she is and what she is doing about a hundred million times per day. Hopefully we’ll see you again soon mom!


New website

Saturday, November 28th, 2009

We interrupt the usual baby photos and poop stories to brag about my new website. I drew the pretty pictures and Joshua made it all happen. After much trial and setback and extensive persnickety requests from me, it is finally live and I think it looks lovely. I also put together an etsy shop if you are looking for an online shopping experience…


Oh Yeah

Saturday, November 14th, 2009

Michelle was here a few weeks ago and did some shoe shopping. Ronin thought her new boots were about the coolest thing ever.

When I worked in Kharkov, the office next door was a mail order bride agency. They gave me a brochure… This picture reminds me it. So sweet, so Russian, so ready to disco.


Cheyenne Weil, Joshua Coxwell