And the living is easy

We've been hitting Mathew's Beach on Lake Washington to keep cool in Seattle's record-breaking heat. Here's Tristen showing off his wetsuit and life jacket.

Butterfly pie

On our second Mom and Tristen day of the summer, we made "butterfly pie": rhubarb and blueberries. Same delicious recipe as last summer, when we cut butterfly shapes out of the top crust using our playdough cutters. But this year, Tristen wanted to also cut out a caterpillar and a horsie. Can we still just call it butterfly pie?

Thanks for the rhubarb, Shelly!

Fat Salmon

Things have been crazy here with Chris being sick, but a few weeks ago, life settled down enough for me to finish an open-water swim I'd been training for.

Originally both Eric and I were in, but because of everything that was going on, he didn't come up -- we'd decided mid-week not to swim. Then Abigail arrived the night before race day, and I decided to go for it on the spur of the moment. Gep hung out with Chris and Tristen that morning, and Abigail came with me, thank goodness. I could NOT have managed without her.

I actually enjoyed the first 2/3 of the race. The last 1/3 was pretty choppy, and I got super motion sick, despite taking medication and wearing earplugs.

I did make it! But I was much slower than I expected, coming in just under an hour -- 90th out of 93 people in the 1.2-mile, wetsuit division. Plenty of room for improvement next year!

Big thanks to Abigail, who was just so fun to hang out with before the race and who rubbed my back and fed me crackers and watermelon for what seemed like an hour after the race, then drove me home.

And thanks to Chris, who helped me train by spotting me in the kayak even when he wasn't feeling that great and who encouraged me to go for it.

The pix: before the race, during (I'm in there somewhere!), and after -- Abigail sporting the Fat Salmon shirt at the finish.

"It was a long, long drive..."

Catching up with vacation video from early June...Tristen really loved his vacation and asks if we can talk about it anytime we sit down for a meal together and at bed time. He always starts off the same way: "It was a long, long drive..." This is his summary as of yesterday -- the order of things is off. I've annotated a bit.

It was a long, long drive, and then we made it. [I'll say it was long. The kid screamed for much of it, despite our attempts to drive while he was napping or sleeping and attach a DVD player to the back of the passenger seat. I think we started out flunking family road trip 101; took a few days to get in the groove.]

We played with the fishies in the park. And me and Daddy and "Phawap" walked to dinner. [Drinks and a walk with Philip salvaged a difficult first day. Thanks to Chris for taking on bed time by himself.]

We went to the party, and I played and played with Finn and the Lucy who is a baby -- not Teacher Lucy. I played horse shoes. We threw rocks in the fire. [Had a great time up at Lubrecht with Heather, Paul, Lucy, and all their other fabulous friends and family. We were celebrating Heather and Paul and their new marriage!]

We threw rocks in the river. [Several times. Every day. We threw rocks into Rattlesnake Creek at Doug's place, into Rattlesnake Creek at Greenough Park, and into the Clark Fork at Caras Park.]

I ate pancakes with Daddy. [Chris and I split up a couple of days, each of us alternating taking Tristen with getting out and about on our own.]

Oh, and we went to the market. There was a big train. [And we saw Chuck -- a defnite highlight for me.]

We went to the carousel. I ride the Paint Horsie three times. And we got the golden ring. It means you get a fwee turn.

I played at Dragon's Hollow with my friend Stella. We went on the dark, dark slide. We were really being silly, runnin' around and around.

[What about seeing Gary and Claudia, I ask.] Yeah, they have toys. [Thinking of you Gary and Claudia!]

I played fwisbee with Ryan and Jacob. My friend Jacob is big. [Thanks for dinner, Sandy and Troy!]

I went swimming and scraped my foot. There were two pools. A big one and a little one. The little one was too hot. We threw the ball. I put my face in the water. [No he didn't.]

We hiked to the letter [made it about 2/3 to the "L" on Mount Jumbo]. We saw four kinds of poop: deer poop, coyote poop, horsie poop, and dog poop.

We had dinner with Vicki and looked at the shells. She give me wolf. [Thank you, Vicki; it was wonderful to see you!]

We drank milkshakes on the way home. It was long.

Baby came back in the mail. [Thank you, Holiday Inn, for finding Baby and sending him/her home!]

For the truly dedicated:

Happy Birthday, America -- and Jeremy

A keg, a slip-n-slide, BBQ, and fireworks. Is there any better way to say, "America, Jeremy, we're glad you were born!"

Three!

On his third birthday (July 3), Tristen made himself an egg and pancake breakfast, with Daddy's help. Then we sauntered over to Maple Leaf Park, where we met some friends for "cupcakes and climbers," which is what Tristen said he wanted. There were bubbles and stomp rockets, too. Elana, Liam, Logan, Owen, and parents were able to join us, plus new friend Sam, who we met at the park that day.

After nap, Tristen opened the best birthday present ever: a $3.00 marble run Chris picked up at a yard sale several weeks ago. We have it configured for two possible routes: one that spins a wheel and plinks down a little maze and one with a ramp that shoots marbles across the room if you don't have the catcher in just the right place. I think we're all kind of in awe of it.

We also set up Tristen's big boy bed! We placed an all-cotton futon in a bed frame that came with the house. The previous owners' kids grew up in this bed, and now Tristen will, too. Kinda cool. Below: Owen and Tristen snacking at the park, Tristen in his new bed.

Pedaling and pullups

Tristen is pedaling his trike daily and wearing pullups more and more often. This is one my favorite recent pix, taken at some point in the spring. So happy about the hand-me-down robe.

He's such a little person now -- and so much more astute than I usually realize. Last weekend we were holding hands and walking into the Fremont Market (a weekly street fair) when I leaned down and reminded him, "Hey Tristen, this is one of those places where you need to use your eyes only, not your hands."

He replied very matter-of-factly, "Okay, Mommy. I will try not to use my hands."

It was as if he understood I needed confirmation that he heard me. And as if he also understood -- maybe even accepted -- that he'd do his best but ultimately fail.