Looking Back

It's kind of fun to look back at the old posts... Things that seemed to have happened soooo long ago, actually happened only within the last year. Like what I wrote in a post from last October "hopefully as Luka gets older he will sleep through the night". Well it's August 09 and Luka is 17 months, and he still does not sleep through the night. I don't really believe that any baby does. I think some parents are just heavier sleepers. I feel like Eric and I have learned a lot- and we are working hard as ever with little to no breaks. Anticipation and dread both awake us in the morning... but overall things have been good for us, and our little Luka is pushing us towards becoming great.

Timothy Lake Camping

This past weekend for my birthday we went camping in the Mt. Hood National Forest on Timothy Lake, elevation 3500 feet. It was a great weekend. We arrived on Friday... it's a beautiful 50 mile drive from Portland via 221 through Estacada. My best friend Matie, her 2 dogs, and her boyfriend Kenny went. Our friend Anna, who used to be a co-worker of Matie's was there. And one of Eric's co-worker's Chris (and his dog) went... The camping spot is actually one of Chris' regular spots. Timothy Lake has four campgrounds, but we were across the lake in the woods at an unmarked site... One either had to take the boat there, or walk a 1/2 mile down a trail to get to it. So no cars and no toilets. Chris had to make about 4 trips back forth across the lake to get us and all of gear. Luka loved his first boat ride. It was a great place to set up our tents on the lake shore, with a fire pit already made. The woods were swarming with bee's, but despite all the food we had laying around they never bothered us. I don't even think there were any critters or wild animals near us... we left a piece of cooked steak out overnight (not a good idea) and a piece of corn, and it was still there in the morning.

Luka stayed up until 11:00 pm the first night and thankfully slept in until 8:30 am. It got down into the 40's I would guess. We slept pretty comfortably in our tent, on our air mattress so that helped. Anna, Luka, and I hiked to the car and drove to Government Camp (near Timberline Lodge) to get a few important items (coffee, corn, creamer, syrup, potatoes) that we had forgotten. We made food and drank all day. Luka took a very long nap, and we waded and tubed in the lake. That night we made salmon, steak, hamburgers, corn, hotdogs, potatoes, and 'smores. We had so much food.

Sunday we packed up and drove home. It was the first time I was on Mt. Hood, with the weather clear enough to see it. The tip of it you can see peeking over Timothy Lake, but as we drove home we got closer to it- and it's pretty breathtaking. We stopped at Calamity Jane's for lunch, which is a cute little country hamburger place. Luka had a pretty fun time, and we all enjoyed getting away from the city. Unfortunately, I did not have batteries for my camera, so the 3 pictures above are from Anna's cellphone.

Luka's school

This is the First Gear Academy, where Luka will go at least 3 days/week starting September 21st. On study days when I am in Portland (Monday's and Fridays) I might send Luka to the Grasshopper playschool here and there as needed, since Jessica (the teacher) really liked our family and was willing to be very flexible and accommodating for us. So, it would cut down our monthly childcare costs if we decided to do that.

Anyway, Luka is going to be under excellent care, and we are so excited for him to be around other kids. Now that he is almost 18 months, I feel we timed it just right.

First Gear Academy

I posted that Luka will be starting a playschool next month, but I really like a daycare center that I visited last week. Now Eric and I need to decide which school he should go to. The center can enroll over 100 children. It has several infant, toddler, and preschool classrooms. It's brand new (opened January '09), Eco-certified, experienced teachers, and located in the Swan Island industrial area- so it sits right on the Willamette River. All of the classrooms have huge windows that look onto the river and the West Hills. The teachers say that the kids love to watch the boats go by. It's more expensive than the in-home center, but less expensive than other daycare centers in Portland. They also cook and serve lunch, whereas the playschool we would be responsible for packing his lunch everday. And, the center's hours are from 6am-6:30pm, whereas the playschool is only open from 7:45am-5pm. And there are certainly days when Eric has to work late. I think I'm leaning more towards the center even though I had really liked the playschool when we visited. I will let you know what we decide.

Hot!

Luka's gift from Oma

Luka's Playschool

Luka is going to be starting a play school next month! I'm really happy to have found it. It's off of Alberta... about 3 miles West of us. I really like the woman who runs it (out of her home). Luka will be with 5 other children ranging from 1-3 years. I think it will be a nice transition from staying home with me. He'll still be in a house setting, with toys, and a nice backyard, and other children to play with. We'll keep him there for about a year and a half until he is ready to begin preschool.