to russia, with love

little schmatt turns 21 today.

in honor of his birth, we thought we’d share this video of summer saying one of her favorite words:

yes, she’s pronouncing it absolutely right, “gwakgwas.”

because of his extremely poor eyesight, matto basically came out the womb wearing eyeglasses. however, for the longest time, he did not know how to say “glasses,” and he called them “gwakgwas” instead. this newfangled word, in turn, became an integral part of family lore and was used intermittently growing up.

when bryan and i married, i brought him in on the “gwakgwas” action, which he took to rather effortlessly, and it has since become the only word we use for glasses.

and now, with baby summer eagerly playing along, the legend continues.

happy birthday, matt.

Old Man Power

As a wee lad of 14, I never understood how my old, out of shape scout masters could keep hiking mile after mile, even after the boys were long spent. And now, at the tender age of 29, I think finally get it: “Old Man Power.”

On Friday, I had the singular honor of leading the scouts on our first overnight hike of the summer. One upside of living in the Seattle area is our proximity to spectacular wilderness areas. Within an hour's drive, we can make it to a surprising number of trailheads. The downside is that one million other people also have easy access.

We reached Pratt Lake in good time. Nevertheless, the two lakeside camping areas were already taken. Longing for a little solitude (as well as our own lakeside access), we pressed forward to Lake Tuscohatchie. Upon arriving, we found the perfect spot nestled between some boulders and the lake's outlet. Unfortunately, another group had already staked their claim.

I glanced at my buddy's watch and was surprised to see it was already after 8:00PM. The boys were hungry and tired. And then it hit me. I felt great. I had it. I had the “Power." Turns out that Old Man Power is mostly in the mind. It won't get you there quickly, but it'll keep you going long after all the young guns have burned themselves out.

The boys trudged back down to Pratt Lake, grumbling about fatigue and hunger. I, on the other hand, had a nice steady, walk.

Left: The encampment near Pratt Lake; Top right: View of Mt. Rainier; Bottom Right: Ollalie Lake (we took a swim here – note the snow on the far shore)

thievery

june 26, 2009

 

dear diary:

 

today i stole my first cookie.

when mom wasn't looking, i reached up and grabbed the sugary, buttery, chocolaty goodness right off the counter.

looking forward to more cookie capers in the future.

love,

baby summer

Father's day feast

It was only a year ago that I thought I had entered the ranks of grilling purists around the world. I knew that charcoal was the only method of cooking meat that would cross my lips. Ever supportive, Emily and Summer indulged me with the world’s smallest grill. And so it began.

In reality, my relationship with that grill was tumultuous from the beginning. After a string of dismal performances, we agreed to take a break and pursue other interests. During this interlude, I reflected on what I wanted out of life. I realized that I didn't want the perfect grill. All I really wanted was perfectly grilled food. Enter the grill pan. Easy. Idiot proof (mostly). Year round.


To celebrate my fatherhood this year, Summer convinced her mother to produce an amazing array of dishes that put the grill pan to good use.



The cheesecake didn’t fit the grill pan theme, but was delicious nonetheless (5 packages of cream cheese tend to have that effect).

nesting

so every several months, i get an incurable urge to make something. you know, be “crafty” or whatever. i was bitten by the bug a few weeks ago when i decided to make summer a church bag.

i found a pattern and fabric, borrowed a sewing machine, and got to work.

my crafting usually follows a distinct course of events. first, things go smoothly, and i feel confident – i wonder to myself, why don’t i be crafty all the time? next, the project becomes more intense (wow, this is a lot more work than i signed up for!), and i am consumed with working on it for days. and then, disaster strikes (when sewing, the disaster is frequently the fault of zippers). during this phase (which bryan refers to as the craft massacre or craftacre), i lay around on the couch and bemoan my inability to finish the venture.

but finally, after much self-coaxing and a few reminders from bryan about how much my little endeavor has cost, i persevere and eventually get the job done – but not without a vow to never craft again.

so for now, sewing machines and i are going our separate ways.

here is my parting gift:

drunken dance

summer has found a new musical fascination with the ting tings, and their techno, repetitive songs put her into a zombie-like “twirling trance.”  the end of this dancing clip makes me laugh out loud – she seriously looks like she’s coming home from a bar.

WARNING: motion sickness sufferers watch with caution.

first ear infection

time's up

all right ladies and gents, the polls have officially closed. and we are yet again much impressed by the mental prowess of our faithful blog followers.

there were many imaginative and whimsical (after my own heart) name guesses submitted, and – against the odds – we do have a winner to be crowned. thank you all for your participation; our new name champion will be revealed simultaneously with baby wheeler’s debut.

in the meantime, here are the top three reasons why this pregnancy is so over:

1) i’m finding it nigh impossible to shave my legs (during swimsuit season – eek!!)

2) it can’t be good for my long term health to continue eating two bowls of ice cream a day.

3) summer’s injury incidences have been doubling due to my slowing reaction time. it’s just unsafe for toddlers to have pregnant moms.

so cross your fingers that it won’t be long!

expelled

guess who was kicked out of nursery today for biting?

 

(hint: it wasn't bryan -- at least not this time.)

 

a house of order

this morning, as i was pouring some honey nut cheerios for summer's breakfast, some of the cereal got away from me and spilled onto the floor.

summer ran over, pointed at it, and with disappointment in her eyes, looked at me and said, "mess."


i just know her first full sentence is going to be something like, "now, clean it up!"

i guess that's what having an overbearing, compulsive cleaner of a mom will learn ya.


serves me right.

baby name game 2.0

it’s finally that time.

time to guess what outrageous name we have come up with for baby girl number two. and ya’ll better be in top form for this one because i have it on good authority that our previous name champion (christina) is going for a clean sweep.

to help with the guessing this go 'round, i’m offering up some insight into my relationship with names. first off, my own name is emily anne young wheeler. solid. simple. common. and, as i felt for most of my life, boring. in fact, i absolutely hated my name until falling in love with the lower case “e” at the age of thirteen (thank you, mr. cummings).

so naturally, having some angst about my own “normal” name, my naming tendencies tend to go a *bit* too far to the other extreme. here’s a sample of the most notorious names (according to bryan) that i came up with for summer’s sister: lux, bay, ever (it was very hard for me to let go of that one), and v (yes, just v).

bryan’s role in the whole baby naming process is usually just to reign me in. he’s out there stumping for the julies and audreys whilst i’m lost in never-never land with the azures and callas, and somewhere in the middle (well, maybe not quite middle…) we agree.

so without further delay,

here are the clues:

1) begins with the letter A (anna, you should have an advantage here)
2) has fewer than seven letters
3) according to the SSA, in its most popular year, it barely made the top 1,000 names
4) despite its apparently low popularity, bryan and i know three people with this name – each in a very different age group

here are the rules:

1) between now and monday, june 15th, leave a comment on this post with ONE guess at baby wheeler’s name (if more than one guess is given, only the first guess will count)
2) be sure to look at previous comments because only the first person to guess the correct name will win
3) as always, we will not post comments from people we don’t know, so no secret identities please
4) if we find our friends and family to be totally missing the mark, we will re-post the game next week with additional clues, so keep second guesses in the back of your mind

wanna know what you’re playing for?

first and foremost, the coveted baby naming crown, but additionally, your choice of:

1) cold stone gift certificate
2) see’s candies gift certificate
3) jamba juice gift certificate

(if, perchance, my rural and foreign friends, you do not live near any of these establishments, we’ll work with you and come up with an equally desirable treat.)


all right people, get your name on!

the cat's away

while bryan was off hitting the trails with his dad and brother in whistler, the ladies and i decided to take advantage of the freedom and hang out for a few days double x-chromosome style:

we painted our nails.

went shopping.

ate chocolate.

and dined out.

but oddly enough, even though we had his credit card, we still missed daddy.
after all, to whom else would we show off summer's manicure or my dazzling new shoes?

that's what daddies are for.

Postcard from Whistler

Dear Summer:

After braving Vancouver's rush hour traffic as well as rampant pre-Olympic construction along the Sea to Sky Highway, we finally arrived in mountain biking Mecca. Grandpa Mike wasn't quite ready for lift-served biking, so we hit up some local trails instead.

Behold the mad skills of your dad as he nails the teeter totter:

Behold the courage of Uncle James even though the teeter totter refused to cooperate:

duvall farmer's market

giant homemade oatmeal raisin cookies.

beautiful fresh flowers.

 

 

what more could anyone ask for on a small town spring day?

Return to Rattlesnake Lake

Readers with long memories will remember that 364 days ago, we took Summer to Rattlesnake Ledge on her very first hike.The glorious conditions of late inspired Emily to plan a repeat hike and follow it up with a picnic and wading in the lake. Naturally, we had our doubts about Summer’s viability, since she hadn’t been on a hike in eight months, and attempts to strap her into any type of restraining device usually end in violent protest. But oddly enough, when I retrieved her throne from the garage, she squealed with delight.

 

We returned this year with seven of Summer's friends (aka the Darrington family) plus Summer's baby sister in utero. Sunshine, long weekends, and proximity to Seattle always produce one thing around here: crowds. At times, I felt like, instead of on a hike through Washington wilderness, I was walking in a line at a Disney World ride. Fortunately, a Starbucks latte really only lasts 30 minutes on the trail, and the caffeine fueled crowd thinned substantially as soon as things got really steep.

 

Summer enjoyed herself immensely and those squeals of delight were the only ones we heard.

betty spaghetti

a handful of important events are captured in every child's life.

among these are generally births, christenings, first teeth, first haircuts,

and, of course, first encounters with spaghetti.

baby emily, december 1984, 17 mos old

baby summer, may 2009, 18 mos old

intermediate hairstyling 201

 

so it's not perfect (let's face it, granny "the laser" wendy i am not).
but i think i deserve a solid E for effort.

 

and summer, for her part, gets props for even allowing me to experiment.

day four: fly away home

sigh. we have come to the end of our san diego saga. day four was spent in more gratuitous leisure as we laid out in the morning by the pool and ate giant ice cream sundaes at mootown in coronado.

thank you much, california, for a great vacation.

queen summer surveys her loyal subjects.

summer learns to share.

it's time to go back home.

day three: wild animal park and coronado beach

day three is where the wheelers hit their stride. having spent two days fulfilling the “vacation” mentality that both bryan and i grew up with (see all, do all, go home exhausted), we decided it was time for a break. we introduced a concept unheard of in the family trips of our youths—one that would have mike and dennis crawling out of their skins—“leisure.”

first stop: wild animal park. we were skeptical of visiting another park masterminded by the malicious san diego zoo; however, this place is AMAZING. if it’s not on your list of san diego attractions, include it.

adding to our wild animal park experience was the fact that lisa, a good friend of mine from high school, was able to join us there. lisa does iron man triathlons and spends weeks at a time in the wilderness. how she and i ever got together remains a mystery to most. nevertheless, it’s always a pleasure to see her, and this time, she got to meet our vivacious little summer.

next stop: coronado beach. there’s a reason it’s named one of the best beaches in america—perfection. the sand. the water. the sun. and finally, baby summer could wander around and explore at will. of course, as soon as we arrived, she impetuously ran straight into the ocean. she frolicked with delight in the waves until she eventually ended up face down in the water. this, by her own pronouncement, was the end of her ocean fun. luckily, there was still plenty of good times to be had in the sand. sand which we are still finding in shoes, bags and hair four days later.

day three review: let’s just say day three had me looking up real estate opportunities in coronado. we’ll definitely be back.

 

 

  left: we continue in our quest to bring summer closer to the animals.
top right: summer loves the tram ride (and her lucky charms).

 

 

 

  top: no, that lion is not fake.
for the first time ever, we see a live, active male lion.
let’s just hope there’s always a fence between us and him.

 

meet lisa.

beach babe.

 

oh sweet sunshine!  where have you been all my life?

 

 

 

unfortunately, due to the necessary liberal application of spf 85,

emily came home with just about as much of a tan as she had when she left.

 

 

bryan finally fulfills his bodysurfing fantasy.

 

 

‘till we meet again.

day two: sea world

we arrived at sea world a little before 10am on tuesday, paid for parking, and received our change. gasp! a two dollar bill! things are looking up already.

as a HUGE fan of aquariums and sea creatures, sea world was everything i’d hoped it would be. the shows and exhibits were stunning, the signage was very helpful, and walking around was quite pleasant . the only holdup here was (guess who?) baby summer.

before we left on our trip, we had great parental expectations that summer would see and love the animals—that they would somehow capture her tenuous attention. but in reality, all she wanted to do was wander around and play with rocks and drains. and any time we stepped in and tried to focus her interest on an exhibit, she quite vehemently voiced her displeasure.

though she did have one moment of exuberant emotion during the shamu show. after watching the whales perform, all of a sudden and for no easily discernable reason, she began clapping and squealing with delight! ‘twas a moment that, as a mom, made the rest of her troubles much more manageable.

speaking of shamu, we of course went to see his latest act, “believe.” and while the performance itself was beautiful, even bringing a few tears to my eyes (hormones, maybe?), by the end, i wasn’t quite sure what i was supposed to believe in. the orcas? conservation? whale training? myself? it was all a bit over my head.

one line they kept repeating was that orcas and humans are two species who, at their core, are trying to become one. this, i believe, is fundamentally false. having seen the killer whales out in their great wide ocean, i believe they could care less about “becoming one” with us. but hey, who am i to rain on sea world’s parade?

day two review: we drank more water, sat down more often, and summer, while not perfect, was far less difficult than she could have been. add that to the fact that sea world rocks and we have a solid B+ day.

join us next time for a report on the best. day. ever.

right: summer's disapproval of the "leash."

walking on water.

 

mom enjoys the manta rays.
summer enjoys the water.

in the middle of sea world, there is a little kid's park with a few amusements.

we soon discovered, however, that there are two reasons summer does not like rides:

1) you have to wait in line. 2) you have to be buckled in.

really, it's just more of "the man" and all his "rules" trying to bring her down.

 

eels are creepy.

summer hearts shamu.

day one: touchdown and the san diego zoo

we left seattle early monday morning amidst chill and rain showers and arrived not too long afterwards in the land of sunshine and shorts. i walked outside the airport, put on my sunglasses, and didn’t take them off for three days.

first stop: in-n-out burger. and while we wish we were cool enough to order “off” the menu, we just aren’t. in fact, i made a classic “i’m a tourist” blunder of ordering medium shakes. apparently, their shakes only come in one size (duh!).

next stop: the so-called “world famous” san diego zoo. an unfortunate disappointment. we should have been tipped off that something was amiss when we discovered they offered bus tours of the zoo. now, both bryan and i have visited quite a few zoos around the world, and we can’t recall any offhand that have bus tours available. so why this zoo?

1) the terrain. up, up, up. you must spend half the time you’re there hiking up. which, as a pregnant lady pushing a stroller and melting in the sun (didn’t we come to california for the sun?), did not make me a happy camper.

 

2) the signage. there are very few signs at this zoo, and those that are posted are difficult to interpret. we utilized a great deal of precious energy walking in circles (up…up…up) looking for particular exhibits.

neither bryan’s experience as an eagle scout nor the three and a half college/graduate degrees between us proved valuable in our battle against the zoo. we were defeated.

day one review: our feet hurt, we’re tired, we’re dehydrated, and it’s become an obvious pain to keep summer in her stroller AND to let her out. was the jump from lounging around in the cloudy northwest to mountaineering in the southern pacific sun too much for the wheelers?

find out in our next installment.

 

summer learns to dip french fries.

 

 

how emily spent most of the afternoon.
a cheery lass, no?

 

the petting zoo.

top left: summer shows us her true feelings about animals.

bottom left : summer's favorite part of the day was washing her hands

happy mother's day

 

mon premier bebe

behold: summer's first baby doll.

the only toy we have ever brought home that she has played with for more than three minutes.

she refused to eat, she refused the tub (gasp!), she refused anything that would part her from this new enchantment.

somebody's going to love having a sister.

summer shoots hoops

to anonymous donors (suspected: grandma and grandpa wheeler):

 

thank you so much for my new basketball hoop!! after but five minutes of practice, i can already sink more shots than my dad. you guys rock.

 

love, baby summer

 

trashy

adventures in parenthood continue: summer has discovered the garbage can.

lately, i’ve been trying my best to enter summer's little toddler mind and better appreciate what the world must look like through those big brown eyes. and for one thing, it probably seems a bit haphazard how bryan and i walk by the trash can and randomly throw things in it. to summer, our selection process for what we toss into the “garbage” is a bit unclear.

obviously.

because the other day, i found my wedding rings in there.