Bean Anderson: 05/01/2006

We spent Memorial Day in Oregon City. Kennedy and Grandpa read quite a few books together.

After her nap, we took Kennedy to the local park along with the dogs. Here are Kennedy and Toby showing each other their tongues. They had a great time at the park.

In preparation for summer Susan put together Kennedy's Adirondack chair. Susan and I put together our Adirondack chairs years back and they're still holding up. Mema and Papa said it was 96 degrees at their home in Texas yesterday. We sure don't miss that kind of heat but we sure do miss our families in Texas and Kansas.

There's only room for one of our chairs + Kennedy's chair on the front porch, though.

Kennedy learned a new game last night - Slap Jack. We were really impressed at how fast she picked up how to play this game. Distinguishing between face cards was a little challenging. We even had an extra layer of complexity with the "Joker" card counting as a "Jack" too.

Niece Robin left this hat on a visit back in 1999, Well, maybe Sheryl took possession of Robin's hat when she visited is a more accurate statement. Anyway, Kennedy enjoys wearing the hat now. We all sat together and read many of Kennedy's books before her bedtime last night. She went to the Doctor yesterday. She has an ear infection and the Doctor is concerned that her congestion could develop into pneumonia so we're watching her very closely.

Elle was concerned about Kennedy too. She kept brushing up against her. Here's Kennedy petting Elle.

Today Kennedy seems more healthy. She's been playing a lot with her roller coaster. This is one of the faces she makes when she's concentrating.

Sheryl got a gift certificate to Borders Books from the Project Management Institute for volunteering this past year. We used it to buy Kennedy some new books. One of them is My Grandpa's Briefcase and it's full of activities and glasses and gadgets. Kennedy has a lot of fun finding and removing all of the pairs of glasses from their respective cases.

Kennedy is learning how to say the names of a lot of family members now. She's very good at Mimi, Mema, Papa, Grandpa, Grandma, Stacey, Shelly and Carlene. Every night we practice saying names and we've added sending good energy and saying "See you in December" to Carlene who is undergoing a hard round of chemotherapy treatment. It will be good to see her all healthy once again.

It was still cool enough Sunday morning to put on the scarf and hat before walking to the store.

Good news from Tennessee. Dear friends Martina and Dan are expecting their first baby. So exciting!

This morning started a bit cool – but dry; a perfect combination for a little yard work. Sheryl was busy removing moss from the sidewalk and trimming a few trees while Kennedy ‘helped'.

Of course – proper attire is required when working in the yard – here’s Kennedy with her work glove; she was so pleased with herself.

This afternoon we got a rare treat in the form of some thunder, lightning, heavy rain and even a little hail. Kennedy didn't think much of it; I, however, enjoyed it thoroughly.

Today the sun returned after some morning clouds. Megan came over this morning to take Kennedy to music class – they had a blast as always. While they were at music class Sheryl and I took a trip to Home Depot for a small air conditioner for Kennedy’s room and some additional window fans for those days when it’s not overly hot.

Sheryl spent the early afternoon tearing down a small run of fence that runs along the drive. It really didn’t serve much purpose and its removal really opens up the yard.

After Kennedy got up from her nap we grabbed the kiddo back pack and headed to one of our favorite local State Parks that is great for hiking. Check out those trees!

Kennedy had a great time riding in the backpack; she hadn’t been in it since last summer. Here she is tickling Sheryl's ear. Too funny.

Alas, the fantastic weather we’ve had this last week has come to an end; cooler weather and rain set in this afternoon.

After work, Kennedy got busy with her new favorite ‘chore’ – picking up pine cones. She loves finding them and placing them in the yard debris canister. We, of course, don’t mind having a cleaner yard, so who's to stop her?

With the warmer weather I pulled out summer clothes last week and I’m thrilled to report that previously tight pants are now nice and baggy since I’ve been working out and eating differently – thanks to the South Beach diet. Woo Hoo.

OK - so my new favorite website (and a second to follow...) is Gizmodo. This is a technology blog which reviews new releases of all things in the gadget category. The number of entries per day is staggering - in the last two days they've covered everything from cell phones, air purifiers, speakers, websites, flatuance filters, bondage gear, and much much more. Completely bizarre and totally interesting.

Secondly - thanks to the site above - I've discovered a new web site (which is sure to suck up more 'free' time than you have - so reader beware) is one called My Heritage. This site has as a part of it's suite - a facial recognition tool. You can load up a photo of yourself and it will analyze the facial features and return a listing of the celebrities you look most like.

Awesome - and funny. I loaded a couple of photos of myself and had matches as funny as Quintin Terrantino, Gerard Depardieu and Stephen Hawking and as 'cool' as Holly Hunter, Hillary Clinton and Tori Amos. I also loaded photos of Sheryl which returned funny hits like Michael Caine and David Hasselhoff (sorry, honey). On the flip side, Sheryl also matches to hotties like Cate Blanchett and Jennifer Jason Leigh (I knew I had good taste) Hugh Grant and Sinead O'Connor. Good stuff.

Well - sort of sad news; no baby this month but we're optimistic for our next try. To be honest, we're not all that surprised. There was a bit of a hitch with our sperm we had stored from these last several months (we had left-overs from when we were trying for Kennedy). I spoke with the cryobank yesterday and they were dismayed at the quality as well and we'll get a credit to our account so at least we will have some cushion to order more.

Many of you have asked if our next child will have the same genetic donor and the answer is an adamant 'yes'. (I mean, come on - how amazing is Kennedy and why would we want to mess with something that came out so fantastic?!?) Luckily, our donor is still available and we'll be ordering more of his genetic contribution since what we had on ice is now spent.

More on this topic in about a month...

Kennedy and Sheryl wrapped my Mother’s Day gift in brown paper – perfect for chalk decorations! Kennedy had a blast helping to dress it up.

Inside I was thrilled to find a new computer bag that is functional and oh-so stylish. The best part is that it was made by a local company called Clark and Mayfield.

One of the best parts of spring is the infusion of fresh produce. Kennedy is particularly fond of sugar snap peas. She likes to break them open and pick out the little peas and only eats those. It’s pretty funny – albeit hard work for only a few little peas.

Is this outfit cute or what? Susan picked it up at a local resale shop. The shoes too. Score.

For mother's day we got our first homemade gift from Kennedy. At her school they crafted macaroni necklaces and bracelets and a nice little jewelry box.

Susan and Kennedy made up a scavenger hunt for me this morning. They had me going upstairs and downstairs and outside too. My favorite clue was the first one: "I'm silver and smelly; I reflect peach; I look at Aunt Shelly; She's just out of reach." I found the next clue underneath a silver trashcan in Kennedy's room under a picture of Aunt Shelly.

Grandma and Grandpa came over for dinner. Here's Kennedy helping Grandma open her gift.

Kennedy played hard today. She played with chalk, picked up more pine cones and went to the park with Grandma and Grandpa and then helped me water the flowers. Here she is before bath time eating some tofutti cutie.

I got these orchids from Susan and Kennedy today. Elle cat has batted around our flowers in the past so I'm going to move these to our bedroom this evening out of her reach. Orchids are too fragile to be bat around by cat paws. Aren't they beautiful?

Besides reading, Kennedy's favorite evening activities are chalk drawing

and playing with stickers. Susan got savvy and bought stickers from a wholesale company instead of us paying premium prices at the grocery store.

We like Spring becuase with it comes increased friend visits! Here are C.K. and Stephanie with Kennedy.

Finally, our technical issues are resolved.

Lucy came for a visit this past weekend with her parents Tim and Beckie. Lucy's such a cutie and an absolute blast! She's got a great spirit and a lovely voice and we had so much fun playing. Plus, she has the coolest pink chuck taylor's ever!

Kennedy was a little shy at first, but came around well.

Technical issues are to blame for the silence on this end...

We went for our insemination on Saturday morning so keep your fingers crossed that we succeeded on the first try. We should know something more in about a couple of weeks for sure.

We took advantage of some sun breaks this weekend and played with chalk on the driveway.

After some serious drawing, Kennedy decided she wanted to see how the chalk tasted. Unfortunately, this became something of a game for her. 'No, Kennedy - don't eat the chalk. Open your mouth - spit it out...'

Then Kennedy decided she would help by picking up pine cones in the yard and putting them in a recycle bin. She was a busy girl. She must've picked up 20 pine cones or so.

Kennedy’s hair continues to grow. It’s funny, I was looking at photos from several months ago and it’s amazing to see her with so little hair. Here’s her girly look:

And leave it to CK to fix her first mohawk. Here they are earlier this week.

On the home front, there’s lots going on. Last night we got a call from Stacey who was caught in a major thunderstorm in Texas. There was golf-ball sized hail and the threat of flash floods. We were so glad we picked up when she called because we were able to keep her company while she waited for the hail to subside. Luckily, it all worked out and Stacey got home safe and sound.

The biggest news is that tomorrow morning we are going to see our doctor and hopefully we’ll walk away with the start of a new little brother or sister for Kennedy!!! It’s a little surreal and at the same time totally exciting.

Every day it seems as if Kennedy is leaving baby-hood further and further behind. Case in point: here’s some of what today’s daily summary from the day care said:

This morning at the touch tub Kennedy was playing with the bugs making them crawl on the walls and floor. Molly (another toddler) thought it would be funny to chase Kennedy around with a spider and Kennedy thought it was funny too, pretending to scream; they were both laughing and giggling about it.

Kennedy got her first kids’ meal from a fast food place. Now, before you all start calling us hypocrites and other names too offensive to publish here, the meal was from Burgerville which is a local chain focused on hormone-free beef and local produce. We really like them because of their commitment to being ‘fresh, local, and sustainable’. The surprise in her kids’ meal was a little planter set with pea and sunflower seeds. That seems appropriate after the flower planting weekend we just had. Hopefully the weather will hold for this weekend. Here's a picture of Kennedy trying to lift one of the pots we planted this weekend.

We went to visit Jake and Adrienne and Kim this past Sunday for lunch/brunch and had some great fritata. Here are Jake and Kennedy at the lunch table.

On Sunday afternoon we planted flowers. Kennedy has her own garden equipment. She can be found underneath this hat somewhere!

Bean Anderson

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

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Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Monday, May 22, 2006

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