(thanks Jared for passing this my way)

Rowan's grandma Heather crocheted this beautiful green and orange number, a feat that required a few sizing adjustments for Rowan's sometimes gargantuan proportions. His head does indeed fit into this one, helped by the fact that it zips up the back. Keeps him warm and toasty now, and should protect him from the February blizzards...

I really should write more about our big adventure to the Indian Ladder Farms yesterday, but we're literally walking out the door to carve up some mean pumpkins.....I really shouldn't even be typing any of this at all.......I'll write more later.

Meanwhile, A big thank you goes out to Jess, the budding photographer, for taking these lovely pictures.

Can you believe that it was just one year ago that this, this, and this happened? It is just amazing to us! Suddenly he has all this hair (well, comparatively speaking that is. The kid has been bald his entire life up until now), he's walking/running/climbing ALL OVER the place, and he's nailed his first few words: dada & mama (of course!), wow, and rooster. Yes, rooster. He goes out to collect eggs with Grandpa Theron every day and together they talk about various farm animals and echo the sounds they all make, and apparently roosters are his favorite animal ever. So he's managed to conquer all sorts of amazing feats the past 12 months. Not a bad first year for Mr. Rowan! Here he is eating his very first cinnamon roll on his very first birthday.



And for your viewing pleasure, here he is with his dada jumping on the trampoline (another favorite here on the farm)!

Ok. Ok. I admit it. I've been a slacker. It's been nearly 2 WHOLE MONTHS since my last post. Rowan was still crawling then. And as Dan and Jess pointed out last night, many of you may still be under the impression that he is still crawling - when in fact - he is not. More on that soon.

Speaking of Jess, hop on over to her blog to see what we ladies have been up to.

Uh oh. So it begins. Rowan has managed to get himself into all sorts of trouble this week. He is crawling EVERYWHERE and over EVERYTHING! And the size of that head isn't exactly making things easy for him. He scratched his nose on the "welcome" mat, whacked his front teeth (yes, teeth - he has 4 on top and 2 on the bottom) on the arm of a chair - thank goodness it was cushioned. He bonked his head on the wall next to our bed, and just as the scabs on his nose were healing away from the run-in with the welcome mat- he nicked his forehead on the side of a bench while maneuvering over from a table...ouch.

But you want to know the amazing thing? He cries for a few seconds, then gets right back into "Rowan the Explorer" mode. He's off! He's on-the-move! Watch out because this kid is on a mission. On a mission to give his mom miniature and frequent heart attacks!

Which has made me think quite a lot about my own Mother and how many hundreds (if not thousands) of heart attacks she must have endured from not only me, but my four other siblings. Mom, I am sorry for all the mini-heart attacks I gave you. Like the time you found me on top of the refrigerator when I was 18 months old. The time you received a phone call from Kimberly's Mom at 6:30 a.m. because I walked my big bad toddler self to her house 4 blocks away because I wanted to play - and in my nightime diaper too. That was surely embarrassing, and I'm sorry. Sorry for all the times I fell asleep with gum in my mouth and woke you up to help me get it out of my hair (hooray for peanut butter and its tricky gum removing properties!) Oh - and I'm really sorry for swallowing that quarter when I was 8, and that you and I had to spend a long night in the ER, and that a 25 cent piece of metal turned into a couple thousand dollars, and I know you really wanted to spend that money on something other than getting a lodged coin out of your kid's throat......I think my list will stop right here.

Not only am I sorry, I'm also really grateful. Grateful for a mother who helped me along my way. I just know you pulled me lovingly off the top of that refrigerator and I can just see you gently convincing me not to do it again.....but if you had to use force instead, I totally understand. Thank you for using force to keep me safe! You were a Mom with lots of disciplinary tricks up your sleeve, and now I get to use them on my own son. A son who is already keeping me on my toes. Thank goodness our fridge is surrounded by built in cabinets...

Happy Mother's day to all the mom's out there. And if you're a kid, I hope you give your Mother an extra tight squeeze today. And maybe give her a piece of chocolate every time you remember a dopey kid stunt you pulled - I'm sure she'd really appreciate that too!

We've been inspired! Inspired by Kristine at LimaBeanHome after she made this post on her blog. Hamish and I are always looking for ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle (we just feel better about not creating a ton of waste). We also love supporting local farmers (if I lived in Idaho, I would sooooo go to the Haunted World - which is owned and operated by my fun (slightly demented) farming uncles Scott and Steve!) - so Hamish made a quick call to Meadow Brooke Dairy Farm and guess who was at our door this morning? The milk man! He'll come on Tuesday mornings and pick up two empty glass jars in exchange for two bottles full of deliciously fresh MILK! And no plastic jugs or paper cartons to recycle! Hooray! Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure!

Rowan's been doing a lot more these days. It really seems like he finally has the world figured out after staring at it for 9 months. He is becoming really good at pulling himself up on furniture and cruising around the room. He can go from the couch to the coffee table and back, even letting go for a few moments and standing on his own. Ellen and I both think that he is a very advanced little child, but what do we know. The only thing we know for sure is that at 9 months he has already grown out of most of his 1 year clothes. He's a monster.

He's quite a bit more interactive recently as well. He laughs at noises and smiles when you call his name. He can now motion with his hand for you to "come here," as that's what we do with him when we want to pick him up. We've been trying to teach him a few other signs to communicate, but so far they haven't stuck.

Right now he's sticking a block in his mouth, probably to make his gums feel better. His sixth tooth is just poking out and he is finally figuring out that he can rub things against his gums to make them feel better. He used to just wait until we did it for him. Is he lazy? I don't really think so. I think that he was waiting until he had things figured out before he would try it. He likes to think about things first before trying them. We'll see how that turns out.

Hamish, Rowan, and I made a quick trip to Washington D.C. this past week. We had the best hosts known to man (other family members can attest to this) because we stayed with Bill and Linda. We had such a great time with them!!! They took us out for a night tour of all the monuments in the city, fed us the best food (Linda makes the most amazing omelette's!), gave us the best local advice, and we slept in the most comfortable bed every night. THANK YOU BILL AND LINDA! We look forward to more visits! :)

The trip started off a bit (actually very) rainy but that was no problem because we ducked in and out of museums. Plus, there were a few hours of rambunctiousness in Tom & Asa's hotel room - Asa couldn't sit still for one second (as evident by the blurry photos). Rowan had great fun watching his father and cousin wrestle - and watching a rubber baseball (and cousin) ricochet off the walls. The weather finally shaped up and we really enjoyed the warm and beautiful offerings of spring. It felt as though summer was just around the corner. Now that we're back home in Albany, where daffodils are just poking up and showing off their faces, we've gone backwards.

All the Greenaway men were able to hang out - in fact this trip was really meant to be what Tom called a "man-cation"....they were so kind to let me crash their party. They did go to a few baseball games without any silly girls to interrupt the fun, so that made me feel better. I was able to sneak a few pictures of them all together.

One quick blurb about Rowan. While on this trip he really got serious about pulling himself up and standing. He's taken standing to a whole new level by letting go and balancing himself completely solo...is the world ready for this? Perhaps, but his parents are not!

Happy 56th Birthday! I searched through our photo library and decided on this picture for a few reasons. One, this FARMALL tractor is one of your most prized possessions. I also like this shot of you, Dad, because the sun is so bright it almost looks like you are smiling in it (a rare shot indeed!). And the third reason I picked it, is because you are holding one of my most prized possessions in your arms......couldn't help it! :)

Happy Birthday Pops! Lots of love!

XOXOXO, Ellen

Today, many of us went to Dairy Queen and ate Peanut Buster Parfaits in honor of mom's 52nd birthday. She loved to treat herself to these ice-cream, peanuty cups of chocolaty goodness. And we loved surprising her with them too! It felt good for us to take time out of our day and acknowledge her birthday, and remember some of our funnest moments with her...

For those of you who did not know, we spent the last two weeks of March (spring break) in Oregon visiting family and friends. We had such a great time staying at mom and dad's and spending time with Dad, Holly, Pamela, and the girls. Not only did we have a fun time together, we really got a lot done! Dad, Pam, Hamish, and I made a goal last fall, to keep Pollywog Pottery alive as much as possible. Mom worked so hard for her studio and kilns and taught each of us so much. Learning to fire mom's gas kilns was a the top of our list of things to do, but something we'd never done solo before. When we'd help mom with a firing, she would give us instructions based on which cone was down - or - which cone was not going down fast enough. Everything depends on gas, air flow, and flame interaction and each influences the entire atmosphere of the kiln. It took all of us banding together to approach such a daunting task. We spent a good part of a week preparing to fire mom's gas kiln and test her glazes.


We were very careful to load the kiln up with pieces that were not necessarily important - 99% of it being things we made. Mom was able to sculpt a few birds, totem beads, even a dragon last spring along with some dinnerware pieces for Lane and Holly. That is a load that will wait until we feel more confident about firing such treasured items!

I know it's a bit confusing - I'm still learning so much about the firing process - but check this out: we got that baby all the way to a smokin' hot 2,300 degrees (cone 10)! Not only did we do that, we reached temperature in about the same amount of time mom did. Which was important because this particular kiln uses propane gas, which is not exactly cheap these days! This would not have been possible without the help of mom's (and our family's) dear friend Heidi. Thank you Heidi for coming all the way from Glacier, Montana - We Love You! And we had SO MUCH FUN too!

This picture is for all of you out there who think Rowan looks like his Grandpa Theron. There are some striking similarities, right? I mean, look at those eyes! nose! hairline! Rowan just loves his "Grandpa-T", and everytime Grandpa entered the room, Rowan was all smiles! He also loved manhandling those handlebars so conveniently located on Grandpa's face.

Here they are. Two little cousins just 9 days apart. They both share a love for blocks, rolling over, and blowing raspberries. They also approach life with the same chill, happy, easygoing manner. Seriously, both of these little rugrats are just such content little creatures!

There is one major difference, however. And I'm not talking about gender...

All the ladies in the house wanted to have a tea party.......so the girlies got busy making cucumber sandwiches and special "chocolate-raspberry-blueberry-m&m-cream cheese filling" cakes. Each little baker made their own version.
The party was a hit! And the girls were quite proud of themselves. Notice the daffodils on the table. Elizabeth and Sophia halted the proceedings exclaiming, "We have to have flowers! Flowers! Let's get some flowers!" The crazy thing about this tea-party was that there really wasn't a bit of tea involved. The girls opted to serve hot chocolate instead!

Every morning I (Hamish) get up with the babe and hang out with him for a while. I read the paper while Rowan plays. Lately he has been infatuated with Dewey. Throwing the ball for Dewey is a sure fire way to stop Rowan from crying. I took these pictures the other morning, trying to take advantage of the sunlight streaming in through the front window.

Ellen has been searching for just the right highchair for Rowan. Years ago she reupholstered a vintage metal high chair for her parents, and really enjoyed the process of giving the old chair a new and improved look, but didn't think of the little humble chair often until...

she nannied Elizabeth and Sophia. Part of her job was keeping the girls highchairs clean - which proved to be a beast of a job. There was not only one, but two of these beasts to clean and care for. They were huge. They were plastic. They had leather cushions. And they were always a bit stinky no matter how hard she scrubbed. They looked very similar to this chair. Eric and Doug will probably recall that Ellen didn't do the best job staying on top of these "highchairs" - Ellen admits to hating them with a passion. Every time she pealed back their cushions and hosed the little food bits out of the plastic crevices, it would be time for the next meal and they would be filled with bits of food all over again. Ellen would recall and daydream about her mother's simple metal vintage chair. It could even fold up into a tidy, flat, hangable position. Easy! Easy! Easy! And it was cute to boot.

As soon as we saw that little positive sign on the pregnancy test, Ellen's search for a little vintage high chair began. And it continued throughout the pregnancy. Her search went on through Rowan's first months of life as the high chair of this particular species proved to remain elusive on all fronts. In fact, the search has only recently ended - much to Ellen's delight! And now it sits in our kitchen, and little Rowan glows as he sits in it and eats like the little prince that he is! And Ellen is able to quickly, and easily wipe away any sweet potato he may have left behind. And there has been much rejoicing and dancing in our house ever since.

BEHOLD! We present to you the little-vintage-metal-foldable-wipeable-odorfree highchair!

...............................................BEFORE.............................................




...............................................AFTER..............................................

We had a few friends over last week, and enjoyed some Mango Sticky Rice (THANKS MIRIAM!) for dessert. It was not only easy peezy to make, but delicious too (even though I slightly undercooked the rice). This dessert was the perfect complement to a pineapple shrimp red curry. I thought I would share the recipe for all the adventurous Thai cooks out there - you know who you are!



RECIPE

MIX TOGETHER (in pot)
14 oz Can Coconut Milk (Miriam says that LIGHT coconut milk works just as well without all that fat)
1/2 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Calrose Rice
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1/2 teaspoon Coconut Extract

Cook on HIGH, stirring, and bring to boil. Turn on LOW and place lid on pot. Cook for 30 - 35 minutes.

While rice mixture is cooking, cut mango into either slices or bite size pieces. Mango can go right on top of rice, mixed into, or as garnish on side. Serve warm or cool, whichever you prefer. ENJOY!