From Amber to Taryn

Sunday, January 26, 2020

Taryn's Kryptonite

Taryn loves two things most in life: puppy doggies and soft, fuzzy things. Either can stop her in her tracks. This is classic (and makes me laugh every time): Taryn is bopping around in the kitchen, wanders into the family room, comes back into the kitchen and encounters her fuzzy blanket. Upon touching her blanket, she immediately lies down on the floor, sucks two fingers and caresses the blanket (oblivious to all else). Sandi and I need to be careful not to trip over her.

If we need to calm her down or distract her, we just give her something soft to feel and she is putty in our hands. Her stuffy, Puppy Doggie, is not only a puppy doggie, he is a SOFT puppy doggie. Taryn is powerless.

Monday, November 4, 2019

First horse rides

One of Sandi's co-workers has a 3-acre mini-farm with miniature horses and chickens. She invited everyone for a potluck and promised all the kids rides on the horses. We jumped at this opportunity.

It was a beautiful November Saturday. The drive down to Corvallis was amazing. The food was plentiful and delicious. Best of all, both Amber and Taryn had fun with the horses. Each petted the friendliest horse and Amber gave her a carrot. (Sandi and I was sure Amber would shy away from an animal 10x her size, but she was pretty taken with them.)

The saddles are special kids saddles - these miniature horses can only carry 75 pounds.

Taryn even got a turn.

Amber also got to ride in a carriage!

It was a pretty special day for us. We drove home the back way enjoying the spectacular fall colors and the girls' car naps.

Trick or Treat!

This year Amber was a mouse....

... and Taryn was a ladybug.

We had a great time taking the girls around the block. Amber chose the spooky houses (and only on one side of the street). We tried to get her to say 'Trick or Treat' but she couldn't because "she lost her balance" each time. Our neighborhood is great for trick-or-treating because the houses are far apart and there was a reasonable amount of families going through.

We got home and they checked out their booty.

yummmm!

Getting Ready for Halloween

After our pumpkin outing we were ready to carve pumpkins. Grandma and Grandpa came down the weekend before Halloween so it was the perfect time to carve our pumpkins.

Amber wanted to paint her pumpkins so we got our her color pallet and created master pieces.

Annual Trip to Home Depot

It is now a tradition for us to make a family trek to Home Depot to see spooky things. Amber reminded us this year because she had such a great time looking at the dragons on display last year.

I'm pretty sure this was Taryn's first time, but she confidently took the wheel and drove to the spooky scary section.

Amber loved it! The witches, goblins, cats and ghosts enthralled her. Taryn held it together until the headless horseman's horse spooked her. We then bailed on the spooky stuff and consoled Taryn by looking at the Christmas decorations across the way. I had a little shopping to do so I took Taryn in search of a scraper and Sandi took Amber through the Halloween section again.

Taryn's First Bikeride (poor Taryn)

I had to pick up Amber from preschool one day. Though it is only a half-hour walk from our house, I decided to expose Taryn to the joys of bike riding. It was not only her first ride, it was her first solo ride in the trailer.

This captures Taryn's first ride in the bike trailer. I don't think it was the ride as much as the helmet required to ride.

Amber is a pro at this. Taryn calmed down considerably when Amber joined her for the ride home,
though she still wasn't took keen on the helmet.

This is what Taryn thinks of Daddy blogging about her first ride in the trailer

The pumpkin patch

Living on the urban growth boundary gives us great access to local farms (and wineries). Each fall we make a pumpkin run and an apple run. This year we visited Hoffman farm with 'this' Grandma and Grandpa

. They have a tractor that takes you two their pumpkin patch.