spring break

it's spring break for our friends the walshes, and they made the long drive from boise to spend the week with us. unfortunately spring in bellingham means a lot of rain, but we've also had a few nice days.
highlights have included: listening to very cute conversations between jasper and noah ("you bonked your head, jasper?" "yeah, i bonked." "you bonked?" "yeah." etc.); peeing outside (not the grown-ups); going for a few walks/runs/explorations; eating really good food; drinking beer and laughing a lot; reminiscing about the north shore and all the folks we love there; soothing fussy babies and refereeing grabby boys; not sleeping much; and drinking lots and lots of coffee.



we also got to visit briefly with the scott-fishburns, who are on whidbey island this week for the presentation of josh's master's thesis. it was lovely to meet little pascal and see josh and rose again. the last time we saw them rose was very pregnant with pascal and i didn't realize, but i was very newly pregnant with isla. and now these two little ones are not so big!

here are some whidbey island pictures:

hooray for seeing old friends! if only the rest of you long-lost folk would show up on our doorstep...

visitors from the east

nope, not the magi. my sister and our friends andrew and jess were both recently here for visits.

hillary was here for a little under a week, before her spring semester began again at gordon. it was really nice to see her. noah developed a very big crush on aunt hillary, following her around the house and even into the bathroom. (privacy is not a concept he understands.) they read many many books together, sang many songs, played lots with trains and trucks, made vegan cookies, watched a john deere tractor movie, checked out facebook, sent text-messages, primped, etc. noah was very sad to see her go, and also sad that he couldn't ride with her on the cool white bus to the airport. poor boy.

aunt irene was here the day hillary left, and to allay the sadness of hillary's departure, we all took a bus trip of our own to fairhaven and back (about 5 minutes each way). it was a simple but very fun adventure. in fairhaven we hit up the bookstore, the toy store, the bakery and the train station, then took the bus back to downtown and hit up a coffee shop. noah was thrilled. he was especially excited about watching a freight train go by at the station, and playing with the cars, trucks and trains at the toy store. (we were in there for over an hour, and his cheeks were rosy and his forehead sweaty from the intensity with which he was playing. it was very cute!)

here's aunt irene and isla lou at the train station:
then a few days later, we spent some time in vancouver and down here with our dear friends (and noah's godparents) jess and andrew. we went to jess's art show on granville island, (thankfully sans noah in the tiny craft shop).

here's jess with some of her tiny dresses

andrew and noah had tea together and munched puffins

and maryka, jess and i enjoyed some educational reading: entertainment weekly. so much to learn about the world!
now all our visitors are back home in the east, shoveling themselves out of snowstorm after snowstorm. we miss you, hillary, jess and andrew!

etsy

if you're still christmas shopping, consider visiting these etsy sites:

my friend christina, who lives here in bellingham. she is a lovely painter and maker of pretty things. and her little girl autumn was born on the very same day as isla.
my friend rosemary, who lives in gloucester, massachusetts. she is an amazing artist and she has a really wonderful laugh.
my friend sarah, who lives in grand rapids, michigan. she is raising her little girl eleanor to be an artist and to live on the edge. they are both very cool.
my friend sarah's sister jenny. she lives in port townsend and gave us our very first baby gift for isla, which was a bunch of these lovely block-prints on onesies.
my sister-in-law jessica's friend brielle, who lives in oregon and who i met once at a birthday party for my niece kate. i really like her silverware sets.
i don't know this woman, melissa, but i love the things she makes. she is a new zealander living in norway, and she has two lovely little children.

thanksgiving with the H street crew

we had an early thanksgiving dinner at our house with our H street friends. we had a delicious feast and lots of good cheer. sadly, though, it was our last dinner with our friend shannon, who's been living at H street for a few months and is now off on new adventures (including european travels and fishing in alaska!).

here i am dolloping mashed potatoes. please note the tub of friend onions for green bean casserole in the background.
here are maryka and isla watching kevin eat his pumpkin cheesecake. (i love that kevin looks so happy about it!)

kevin challenged noah to an arm wrestling match. i'm not sure who won.

and lily read some bedtime stories to noah. thanks to caren for inspiring us to look up mary azarian!