Latest Developments

Odin's new skills:

• The word "Hello" (only when shouted through a tube)
• Spinning in place
• Drinking from a cup (most of the time)

We got Wii Fit and Odin loves watching us play on it. He laughs at some of the things we try to do.

My hands are too bruised from playing Rock Band to practice on my real guitar....

Lots to say

A lot has happened. We went up to Portland for the weekend and had a blast. We did so much.

Friday we just hung out and caught a movie. Mom watched Odin so we could go see it and he apparently had a blast taking her to the park. Saturday morning we went to Farmers Market and ate and danced and ate and shopped and ate. Then we took Odin to Omsi and let him play everywhere and looked at the new dinosaur exhibit. From there we walked to Saturday Market and ate some more and then ate more after that. Then we took the Max to Lloyd center and wandered around forever and ate again. We went back downtown to browse around Pioneer place and the caught a bus home. On Sunday we all ate German Pancakes in the morning and just hung around all day having fun.

Been falling behind on homework. Oh well. I got another driving lesson today. I'm really getting good on a stick-shift.

Alyssa finally discovered a bus that would take her a block from her class so she doesn't have to walk for 15 minutes and have to take an earlier bus from home to get there on time.

Ann and Emily are coming over tomorrow and Alyssa has finished a song for her and Emily to sing on and record so the makings of our band begin!

Driving

I got my first driving lesson today. It was on a stick-shift and it was really fun! Learning to shift was interesting because we didn't have enough room to get up enough speed to get past second gear and it was hard to slow down in time to not crash. Heh.

Alyssa had her first Beethoven class today. Four weeks of learning about Beethoven every day. Mostly it was the orientation today, I can't wait to see what they start to do in class.

Fun times

Odin spent the whole weekend at his great-uncle/aunt's house. He had fun watching fireworks and playing with the gardening hose for hours. He also sat in the swing with Rylie and loved swinging from the tree in their backyard.

Sometimes when we walk to the convenience store a few blocks away, we don't bother bringing the stroller -- we just carry him. Lately he's gotten to heavy for that, and he wants down anyway, so we set him down today and he just grabbed both our hands and walked the whole way there and back. It was so cute walking along with him, he was so proud of himself.

The thing Odin laughs the hardest at this week: our puppy chasing a laser around the house, our puppy running up the stairs, and when he pants and his tongue goes really fast (he was just trying to grab it but was laughing to hard).

Carrots with your ranch?

My dad was just here. We were talking about my habits as a kid when I was Odin's age. I'd each carrots and dip them in ranch, but then suck the ranch off and never eat the carrot. Well, our landlords were hosting a BBQ down by the pool, and they had carrots and ranch, and sure enough, that's what he did. He just kept sucking up the ranch and never eating the carrots. What he did do, though, is hold them at the back of his mouth so he can chew down on the molars he's cutting. It looked so funny because the carrots were trying to poke out of each cheek.

Doors are opening up everywhere....

Odin has figured out what a door knob is and he can open some of them. He just lets himself into rooms.

Lately he's really be trying to communicate. He's not just babbling in his own language anymore, he really tries to say specific things. He's mimicked a lot of words but he's not quite saying them perfectly. He even gets frustrated sometimes because he tries so hard and really wants you to know what he's saying but he can't get it right.

Odin also knows what a diaper change is. When you hold a diaper in front of him, sometimes he'll just lay down and let you do it. He also lays down in front of you the same way when he wants a change, which is totally a new thing. He used to not care if he was messy at all, but now, sometimes it will be uncomfortable so he'll actually ask for one.

Today he fell and scraped his whole leg up and it was bleeding a bit. He didn't even seem to notice though, just kept going.

His favorite thing right now is laughing at the dog when it sneezes.