petit compaore

 Then, he fell asleep at Mass and got a little birthday blessing. When we got home, he woke up, so he really only had about a 1 hour nap, which is a little short for him. We started setting up for Isaac's little birthday party. I have some better pictures (from Nana's camera) and will share them soon. Out of consideration for people who may not want pictures of their children on the internet, I had to leave out a few cute ones for now, but at least you can get the idea..

When everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to Isaac, it was the cutest thing ever. He was beside himself with happiness. I think he had been anticipating that moment for so long (for him), since so many of his daycare friends also had May birthdays. He was smiling, squealing, and wiggling around. His nose was even running and he wiped it and got a little wayward snot going off to the side. But he was so happy, it was absolutely worth all the preparation. I could just tell he was thinking, "It's finally my turn! They are singing to me!"

We didn't put the two candles on a cake because recently Isaac has been getting a little spit in there when he blows them out. On his actual birthday, he was totally appropriate so I guess it was a needless precaution.
 Nana, Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Mikey, Uncle Greg, Auntie Anna, Baby London, and one of Uncle Greg's friends stayed behind for a little while after the party was over. Isaac opened a few presents, and really liked all of them. I'm not sure what he liked more: the garden trowel of his very own, his new toy boats, or the Bambi DVD. I'm glad we went with no presents for the party though because we are seriously running out of space in this little apartment. I'll have to sort hrough Isaac's old toys and see if there are any it would be appropriate to part with.

Then, after a long, happy birthday, Isaac was very tired. He actually fell asleep while Mama was getting ready for bed. He is such a big little boy, and we love him so much!

Oh, but now on to the dumbest mama part. We went back down Skinner Butte and went to pick up our car. It took a few minutes, but we got it and went back home. On the way, Isaac fell asleep. Mama carried Isaac out of the car to the door and had Papa look for the keys in her purse. He couldn't find them. We handed off Isaac, who by this point had awakened. Mama couldn't find them either. So we had to call the community assistant to come help us get into our apartment. She was busy with a project on campus for another hour. So, we played outside (although it was too cold for Mama) for an hour, then finally got inside. I went to rectify the wrong of losing the keys somewhere due to a messy purse with too many things in it. The hypothesis was that they had just fallen out somewhere and I hadn't noticed. Because - we were sure the keys were not in the purse. I retracked my steps downtown, to Amtrak - had they seen any keys in their lost and found? - no. I went to re-park closer, said a prayer to St. Anthony re: the missing keys and started climbing up Skinner Butte again. I was feeling not so great as I climbed up, and for some reason, reached in my purse into one of the little pockets. Of course, I found my keys. I paused for several moments, pondering whether or not I should lie to Papa about finding them. I could always say I found them while I was on the trail up Skinner Butte. It wouldn't quite be a lie... Finally I decided the best way to go would be to just tell him because sometimes when you feel that dumb, you need someone to tease you. So I went back, imagining the conversation that must have taken place between me and St. Anthony, of which I had clearly not heard the response.

Me: Dear St. Anthony, please please please please help me find those keys, and help me to pay enough attention so I can see them.
St. Anthony: (shaking head) Okay, this one is not that hard... try the purse. No really, try the purse. Okay, she's not listening. I'll wait. (ten minutes later) Oh, don't you need something in your purse???? See, they were there all along. Next.

Anyway, Papa ended up not making fun of me, which I guess was okay. And next time, I will check every single pocket of the purse. Or, just keep the keys all together... that would work too.

Isaac turns two tomorrow. He is so precious I can hardly stand it. :)

I think it would be helpful to have the information about how to do this yourself in one place. I had to look at a lot of different websites to figure out what was what.

How to prepare your very own escargots from those pests in your garden:

 After thousands of stitches...and a nearly two-year gap...

Nevermind the odd color change near the end. I have decided to entitle this piece: Oregon Daydream. That should justify it. Think of it in an abstract way, and look at the sky. (Maybe I ran out of blue yarn... but it was from my great-grandma's stash so I figured it would be hard to find more.)

Earlier this week, we went to Uncle Mikey's confirmation. Unfortunately the lighting is not the best in St. Mary's... But congratulations nonetheless to Michael Steven Thomas! :)
 Isaac found the holy water font he was baptised in. At first he thought it was a "swimming pool" so we had to keep a close eye on him, but then he just put his hands in. We figured it was a good distraction (this was after the Mass, by the way) while everyone tried to get pictures with Archbishop Vlazny.
 Uncle Mikey soon cracked down on Isaac's renegade behavior, however.