Adventures of a Family

Hey-We're snowed in, and Michael and Jonah took full advantage of it. As most of you know, we live on a pretty steep hill. What a delightful sight to see Michael and little Jonah sailing by our house on the sidewalk, Michael and Jonah sitting on the snowboard, both of them with a smile from ear to ear. They were too quick to catch in action, but I did manage to photograph them right before they took off down the hill. And by the way, they're saying that this is the most snow Portland has gotten since 1968. We all believe it!

How I love this gentle, beautiful, curious and happy girl.

This event started out in the bay area by some wonderful friends of ours. When we moved up to Portland we realized that we would sincerely miss this holiday event and so began our own our first winter here. This is our 3rd annual now and has brought lots of our friends together. This year was the first year that we had the cook-off in late afternoon to allow us to enjoy the celebration with the many kids that are populating the lives of our friends lately. The Interactive Nativity included make your own speech bubbles along with a whole host of angels and action figures.

Well, our friends Amy, Eric and Mary came over, brought us dinner and hung out about a week ago. I was hoping to have a marriage contract drawn up at that time between Mary and Jonah because she is just soooooo cute. But it was rejected. I even offered our fabled Goat tree. It produces goats each spring. Here is a picture of the marriage offering. And here are the beautiful ones smiling on cue.

Mae's groovy hairstyle..nice tuft! Look at that face..already filling out!

What a whirlwind since this little girl came into our lives. I said to Michael one day "this little thing just eats, sleeps, and poops, but look what change she's brought to this household!" And change there has been. I finally came out of my post-delivery, hormonal, on another planet funk about a week ago, and have even had four or so days of taking care of both kids AT ONCE! And- NO ONE DIED, OR WENT HUNGRY, OR EVEN HAD MUCH TO COMPLAIN ABOUT!! I felt so accomplished after those days were over. I think my greatest challenge is Mae's crazy appetite. If she's not sleeping, literally she's eating. She does have a couple 10- 15 minutes increments a few times a day when she's just staring at me, or hanging out in her little bassinet, but beyond that, it's all about being on Mommy. So often times as I'm preparing Jonah's meals, I've got Mae attached to me while I'm running around the kitchen getting food ready with one hand. I'm sure it

This morning, While searching the kitchen for food to fill my lunch bag Our friend Ryan Knocked on the dining room window I opened the door and was handed a plastic container Fresh turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy He thought we might enjoy the food .

Jonah has been taking "messy art" class through two local rec centers and, though he doesn't enjoy getting his hands messy, he does love crayons. Here is his first major installation.

Our little Mae is quite the cutie and succeeded in gaining 12 ounces in 7 days. Her secret? Constantly feeding. Here is a rare moment when I didn't find her face smooshed against Hallie's breast.

Our friends Miq, Thuy and Boris came over and brought us dinner last night. The boys had a great time playing.

It has come to my attention (thanks mom) that, with a title like, "2 of my 3 favorite people in the whole world" it would be wise to mention that Michael is the author, not Hallie. Sounds nicer that way. :)

People have been asking what we did with Jonah while the birth was happening. Hallie and I went on a date Saturday night figuring it would be the last on for a while. Grandma and Grandpa Diltz agreed to take Jonah for the night. We went out to dinner at Kenny and Zukes and Hallie watched me have a couple drinks at Ringler's Annex . Made it home by midnight and had a night alone in the house together. 3 am Sunday morning Hallie was up. 4am I was up. 6 am we were at the hospital and 8:31 am we were holding our unbelievably beautiful daughter, Mae. Meanwhile Jonah was at "Meinma and Poppa's". We recuperated in the hospital and then at home for a day while Jonah got showered with love and attention at the grandparents' house. Grandpa was even the caregiver for 2 mornings getting him changed, fed, played with, changed, fed, fed, etc. When Jonah returned home he didn't even seem to care. He just said, "poppa" at 5 minute intervals throughout the

From Michael- Sleep deprivation and the task of taking care of more than one child can strain your mental capacities. In just 3 days I have lost at least one third of my IQ. Here are some of the ways I know this to be fact. 1. While changing Jonah I tried unsuccessfully, for much longer than should have been the case, to apply Mae's little tiny diapers to Jonah. When that didn't work I figured something was wrong with the diaper and tried again. With Mae's diapers. I figured it out now though. Big diapers for big kid, baby diapers for little baby. 2. I actually caught myself getting mad at my socks for having holes in them. I threw them out and grabbed a new pair. These socks also had holes in them. I said loudly and emotionally, "I am sick and tired of holes in my socks!" I then took off the second pair and put them back in my drawer. 3. Realizing that I left the stroller outside this morning in the rain, I went to the computer to check the weather rep

At 8:35 am this morning Hallie had a natural birth to a beautiful, healthy baby girl. She is 5 lbs 12 oz. 19 inches long and did I mention beautiful? Her name is Mae Kathleen Stargazer Diltz. Pics to follow tomorrow. Contractions began at 3:15 am and baby arrived at 8:35 am. Slightly shorter than the 30 hours for Jonah. Jonah visited and is staying with Grandma and Grandpa Diltz. We'll be home by Tuesday afternoon. Love, Michael

Enough said. Except that I have the greatest husband in the whole world, who takes care of me, takes care of Jonah in any spare moment he has, goes to work all day, cooks for me, and at the same time is still dealing with the overwhelming suspense of waiting waiting waiting for this new person and the short-lived upheaval it will cause the Diltz-Clark household. Michael Diltz passes the super husband test with flying colors. Lucky me.

(but not for Obama to be elected;). My body has decided that it is going to go into this labor process in a long, slow manner. Labor seems to start, stop, keep me up all night, allow me to sleep for a few hours, and then start again. I'm hoping that all this pre-work is going to help make light work of the actual event. BUT-the waiting is very difficult. Half the time I have all this adrenaline running through me in anticipation of giving birth, and then the next, I have to try so hard to sit and attempt to relax. So if anyone is reading this out there, send me some positive vibes and thoughts, 'cause this is exhausting, and the baby's not even here yet!

We don't yet have Jonah costume photos..but we thought we'd share a photo from our visit to our local pumpkin patch to keep you in the Halloween spirit. Oh and by the way, there was a Great Pumpkin sighting from this very patch just hours ago;)

Happy Birthday mommy. I have been taking some art classes lately as you know and, though I hate getting my hands gooey and sticky, I sacrificed my comfort to create a few pictures for you. awah-vu, Jonah

The weather was beautiful this weekend and we were fortunate enough to have plans for the beach. We stayed at a beach house in Manzanita Oregon with grandpa and grandma Clark and Auntie Kealie and her boyfriend Chris. We came back from one of 3 trips to the beach today and stopped for some ice cream. Jonah pretty much stole my ice cream and had a wonderful time doing so. He is a happy kid. I love this little boy so much.

Maybe you can help us. We need a new blogger url for our whole family blog because our new little baby will be here soon and halliemichaeljonah.blogspot.com just isn't going to cut it. So if you have a snappy title that might work let us know. Also, we are in need of some baby name recommendations and books aren't cutting it. We had to throw out the last baby book we were using. As we went through the boy names one night we came to "Beelzebub" and knew something was amiss with the book. We gave it the benefit of the doubt and cruised through a couple more letters. When we came to the F's and discovered "Frankenstein" I followed that with another F word NOT in the book and we tossed the book. So, if you can suggest names better than Beelzebub Diltz or Frankenstein Diltz let us know. In addition to all of these requests we have one more. Many of you know Jonah is blessed with the coolest middle name ever, TIMETRAVELER, and the new little one deser

Jonah is learning! Night times are a dream, nap times are coming along. He still protests at nap time, but I am able to put him in his crib fully awake and he lets me know about 2 hours later that he's ready to get up. There is still about 10-15 minutes of crying, and maybe there just always will be. Note to new parents...children are fully capable of learning to fall asleep on their own..so start early to avoid going through this at 18 months when the kid is so much more aware.

Jonah has been learning a new skill, albeit painfully for all of us. I realized a few days ago that it's not going to be possible with a newborn to continue rocking Jonah to sleep for naps and bedtime. We will simply not have the capacity for this. Although his Daddy and I love to rock him, there's just no way it's going to work with another baby to care for. So little Jonah has been doing a little growing up. The days have been pretty bad for the two of us, although we've only gone through 2 days of learning this new skill (but it seems like a year!). Yesterday, he didn't nap AT ALL-just refused to allow himself to fall asleep on his own-and of course there were lots of tears. This, of course, makes for a long weary day for both of us. Being a parent is so difficult sometimes. I know intellectually that training him to fall asleep without me will not only benefit him, but all of us in the long run, but at the same time, I HATE putting him through it, and I realize

This is a bit of an older picture but it captures Jonah's happiness pretty well.  He sure loves hanging out with grandma.

We bought an air conditioner or something else that came in a box, and it came with a free baby toy.  The box.  So much fun to be had going in and out of the box.  When he is a little older I know I'll be off finding refrigerator boxes for use in setting up a massive fort in the basement.  Until then I guess he will have to enjoy it one box at a time.

Jonah is 16 months. At "menma" and "mempa's" house he enjoys watering the plants in the backyard, climbing and sliding on the awesome play equipment, eating his third lunch, and cracking himself up while throwing scoops of sand into the air. Going to the grandparent's house is so much fun.

Yes, new moms out there, although it is contrary to what you may believe, toddlers' love to eat cosmetics. In our case, lipstick and lots of it. So remember-zip up those purses!! OYE.