25 Things About Marek

I know this is an old picture (he's certainly not 3 1/2 here!) and I think I've even posted it on this blog before, but as it's also one of my favorite photos of him, here it is again! I recently read a Father's Day idea of capturing your child's favorite things on paper, then framing it as a keepsake. Here is my version:

1. Marek's favorite color is purple.
2. He loves riding his red tricycle.
3. He loves hot chocolate - but not too hot! And not too much whipped cream!
4. He loves to sing, listen to music, and dance. I don't think he ever tires of singing the ABC song.
5. He has a great sense of humor. He definitely inherited the Ashby side of the family's fits of laughter.
6. He has a dimple in the same place on his face as his Grandpa Ed. Similarly, he loves popcorn, chocolate, oranges, reading, and Johnny Cash just like Grandpa did. They would have been the best of friends!
7. He loves to water things. Give him a hose and he'd be happy all day!
8. He has always achieved the various milestones of weaning, sleeping through the night and potty-training a year later than I expected, but at just the perfect time for him.
9. He loves giving kisses. Good morning kisses, boredom kisses, happy-to-see-you kisses, tired kisses, mad kisses!
10. He pretends he works at the library with me. He often says, "I need to go to work!" When I ask him what he does there he says, "I need to get books to bring home. What book does Grandma need?"
11. He wants to know exactly what he should eat to grow up.
12. He says that when he grows up he's going to drive the car with Mommy riding in the passenger seat and Grandma and Daddy in the back.
13. He wants to know how everything works. He often asks us, "Why you don't know why you don't know?" How does one answer that?!!
14. He loves to rhyme. The sillier the rhyme, the better.
15. He doesn't have many fears, fortunately. But the few he has are: getting haircuts, going too high in a swing, and loud noises (this includes noisy restaurants, hairdryers, and toilets flushing!).
16. He has a pretend friend named "France." She lives in a white house and doesn't have a car.
17. He doesn't like a lot of change. For example, he's not a big fan of the idea of caterpillars turning into butterflies, the idea of the moon waxing and waning, etc.
18. He's never been attached to just one teddy bear, stuffed animal, blanket or toy.
19. He never really used a pacifier as a baby. Unless you count me, the human pacifier. :)
20. When he first went to daycare as a baby, he refused to take a bottle for 3 days. He's always had a strong will.
21. In fact, he was kicked out of his daycare for refusing to nap as a baby.
22. During lunch last week he told a story: Once upon a time there was a boy and a girl and they went into the woods. They saw a witch and got scared and ran out! The end."
23. He's very concerned about turning off all of the lights in the house to help conserve energy.
24. He loves broccoli!
25. He loves uninterrupted, stay-at-home-all-day-and-play kind of days.

How's It Going Over There With Your's?

Tonight while we were eating dinner, Marek tells me how much he likes what he's eating. Then he turns to me saying, "how's it going over there with your's?" He cracks me up sometimes! I really, really need to get a new camera. I went shopping briefly this evening, but as usual, I was so indecisive that I decided to do more research on what camera to purchase and return later.

Marek has another attempt at a dentist appointment scheduled for this Thursday. Please keep him in your thoughts! The last time didn't go so well - he spit out all of his medicine prior to his appointment. I've been talking about it with him...trying to calm any fears and reassure him that he can be brave, get through it, and we'll do something extra special afterwards to celebrate his bravery. Hopefully it will work this time!

a summery day

Finally! A sunny day full of motivation for planting tomatoes, flowers, and carrots! Marek and I planted - he is such a great helper! He loves pulling weeds, watering with the hose and generally helping out in any way he can. We also worked all morning on a Father's Day gift.

Summer or spring, for that matter, is long overdue in my opinion. Today was so nice and hopefully it won't be the last day like this for awhile. With all of the crazy weather occuring across the nation, I can't truly complain about the lack of sun here these days. That's hardly a catastrophe. But, still, I'm really looking forward to summer right now...if the weather ever gets here and stays!

I haven't posted any new photos lately for several reasons. First, I haven't taken many since my camera doesn't have a rechargeable battery, which leaves me often with a great photo opportunity and no way to capture it. Secondly, most of my photos were on a desktop that this week completely crashed - blue screen of death and all. I hope to recover them, as virtually all of Marek's photos were on this computer. (I know, how can I be a librarian and not have an organized system of backup copies for archival purposes?)

So, as I sit at my laptop right now writing this, I have two new goals: 1. Invest in a new digital camera with a longer battery life! 2. Upload new photos regularly! I did create an album on picasa of a few past pictures of Marek, so I'll share that url soon.

Hoping you are all enjoying the month of June!

Recent photos

Gym Class fun

Here's a hodgepodge of photos from his last OSU gym class and post-class lunch on campus.

more Easter...

Easter inside

This is Easter morning. The weather was so cold and rainy that morning, so Marek explored his Easter eggs and basket inside. We spent Easter morning over at Grandma's house. In addition to his Easter basket from the Easter Bunny, Marek woke up to a chocolate bunny cake made for him. He had wanted a "brown bunny cake" for the occassion.
A pizza almost the size of Marek! He was excited for the delivery of pepperoni pizza this evening for dinner over at Grandma's. We just got back from a trip to Tacoma and Marek was looking forward to spending time at Grandma's when we returned. He hasn't been feeling well today, so it was a nice treat for him to spend the afternoon and evening, resting at Grandma's.

I promise to upload more pictures soon. I lost my USB plug to upload my photos from my camera. I'll try to transfer some this week to my laptop and send along more. Hope all is well with everyone! Happy Spring!

Oregon Winter 08

These photos are from one of our our recent snowy days in January. These brief encounters with snow were fun for Marek. We are doing well. The weather is back to typical soggy Oregon days and I'm looking forward to spring! Marek is taking music and gym classes this winter. He has really taken to music lately - singing songs, trying out instruments, and dancing. He's becoming quite the ham, too. Each day is full of his experiments with new ways to "be funny". This involves a lot of singing, making up new words and plenty of laughter. He has also fully entered into the preschool scientist pattern of inquiry. "Why?" is an endless question now. I am looking into finding a better way to share photos and stories of Marek online in a format other than blogging. I'll keep everyone updated. Speaking of updating, I'll share some holiday photos soon. Hope all is well with everyone.

post-thanksgiving

Greetings! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. Marek and I have been in the midst of a move during the past week and a half, so I haven't had time to post new photos or stories of him lately. Most recently, I returned from a trip to Chicago for a conference. The conference was great and I had a fabulous time in the windy city. I love that city! Marek stayed with Grandma that week. They had a good time, but it was a great reunion to see him again!

Marek got his new big boy bed this past week and is pretty excited about it. His new room is bigger and now he'll have two houses to explore here! His birthday is coming in about two weeks...I can't believe how fast time flies! He'll be 3...and it just seems like yesterday when he was born.

He finishes up gym class this week. He's been really interested in music, building things, reading books (he almost has the whole ABC song down), and especially puppets these days. We went to the annual Christmas parade in town last night. I am excited for the holiday season this year. But time has been moving especially fast lately - so I hope we all have time to savor it a little! I also have plenty of great Marek stories to share when I have more time. Hope all is well!

Fall update

Happy Fall! Hope everyone is doing well. We have a great big maple tree in our backyard that is midway through losing its leaves. Marek is having a ball playing with them, jumping in them...and as you will see below - being buried in them. We even started a book for him with his first leaf collection.





Today he also headed to the annual model railroad show at the library. He just loved it! There were all different scales of trains and he was mesmerized. I can't wait to build a layout with him when he is older! Uncle Kevin will have to give us some tips.





For those of you who haven't heard...our Halloween was not too eventful this year, as Marek decided he didn't want to wear his costume. [Anyone need a lion or chick costume? :) ] He did head to the Halloween party downtown, but it was "too noisy" and he wanted to leave early. He went to the downtown trick-or-treating with Grandma and me on his walk to the toy store, but only wanted one piece of candy. I think the costumes actually frightened him this year. But that's ok! We just went out for pizza, then headed home for an early bedtime. He had skipped his nap earlier, so that may have accounted for some of it! But it was a good day anyway!

We are all doing really well...very busy these days (as you can guess by the lack of regular posts here!). I'm heading to a conference in Chicago next week and will be missing my little guy like crazy then! But the conference should be interesting, too. I hope everyone is doing well these days and we will be in touch soon! Love to all.

Music Time!

One of Marek's favorite songs these days is "Ring of Fire" by Johnny Cash. Whenever we listen to that song, he gets wild with dancing around the living room. It's very cute to watch. Who knew he would be a Johnny Cash fan? He discovered the headphones the other day and wanted to listen to "Ring of Fire" in a new way. But, he insisted that mommy dance around to the song in the living room while he listened using the headphones.






This morning we were watching a live performance of Raffi on DVD. Marek moved along to the music and clapped with enthusiasm every time the song finished. He is really starting to like songs that he can act out as well. (He still sings Wheels on the Bus, the ABCs, and Twinkle, Twinkle very well. I wish you could all hear him!) Additionally, I've been playing some classical music during his quiet play times and a few times before bedtime or nap. He really seems to like it and calls it his "bear music."



We aren't doing music class this fall because I didn't want to overschedule him. So I'm happy to see he is still interested in a lot of music on his own. If we do music class in the winter, it will be interesting to see if a few months older makes him more participatory. We went to the indoor play park on Friday morning and he was much more social than usual. I'm happy to say he isn't as out of control or aggressive as some of the other kids there. He just loves his friend Elizabeth. She was there, too, at the play park. He recently went to her 2nd birthday party and still talks about her on and off throughout the week.

We're taking swim classes again this fall, as well as his favorite gym class at OSU. He could stay at gym class all day! I'm hoping everyone is having a great start to the Fall this year! We definitely are - we love the cold, rainy, cozy days! Marek picked out his first pumpkin of the season and we decorated the kitchen windows with Halloween fun. I haven't picked out his costume yet...but I'm leaning towards a lion this year.

Keep in touch and take care!

Wheat grass

Marek was busy this past month with planting his first pot of wheat grass. He was excited to watch it grow everyday until it became a huge pot of tall grass to be proud of.

He is getting so big and curious. He wants to know how everything works.

I just applied for our new apartment. We'll see if we get it and how he transitions to our own place. He loves it here with Grandma in his big house and yard, so hopefully a small apartment won't be too much of a shocker!









Here is a photo of the end result - tall wheat grass to sit and admire! He still likes to watch it everyday. He feels very proud!


Hope all of our friends and family are doing well.
We miss you all!

We Heart Bikes

Marek loves hanging out in the garage and working on my bike. (He calls it fixing my bike.) This basically means he spins the pedals and watches the gears turn.










He's also a big fan of turning on my lights on my bike. This is serious stuff. He's starting to learn how to pedal on his own bike, but of course mommy's bike is more fascinating.










"Come on guys! Let's go hang out in the garage!" Stop by our house and you'll hear this often.

Can't wait until that day when we start pedaling together!!

Hiking in MacDonald Forest

Friday morning I took Marek hiking in MacDonald Forest. Here he's running toward me at the Oak Creek entrance. He loved crawling under the gate and reading the signs. It was great weather here that day. We didn't hike too far - his little legs still only want to walk (or run) so far before he demands being carried. But it was a nice hike anyway!







He found a dried leaf along the way and fell in love with it. He carried it the rest of the way during our hike. We had to bring it home with us.












Stopping to read a trail closure sign next to the creek. He really wanted to go see the water up close and get off the trails at times. But poison oak would not be a fun side effect of that for him!

Whenever we see a sign, he always demands that we stop and read it. He is learning the scientific names of flowers and plants this way. Not sure he remembers it or has any idea what I'm saying when I read these names, but when he becomes a scientist, I'll take credit for adding to his vocabulary.





Here's our friend, snail. It was pretty big and moving as fast it could. Marek was fascinated and wanted to watch it go across the gravel in front of us. He kept cheering it on, "Have a nice trip snail! See you later!"









Marek posing with the snail and his leaf - the two treasures of the morning.

Sandbox Fun

Marek's showing off his new sandbox that Grandma and I built for him with his friends Isaac, Madeline and Caitlyn.

He loves the sandbox. I wish we'd built it much earlier in the summer!








Marek enjoying the sand and sun in our backyard!

Finished painting the seats...just need to hammer them down.

As promised, here are a few photos from Marek's recent trip to see his cousins, Aunt Michelle and Uncle Rob.
Here is a picture of Ashby, Marek, Robby and Makenzie.

Here is a picture of Robby and Marek. Marek just loved hanging out with Robby and playing trains.

Although this turned out dark, I think it's a great photo of Marek and Makenzie sharing their thoughts about being toddlers over breakfast.

Marek and Grandma (and Monkey) as they wait for the train to head south...

Makenzie, Ashby and Marek hiding behind the furniture.

summer training

Marek and Grandma are back from vacation in California. I'll be posting some photos from their
trip shortly. He had such a good time with his cousins. He road the train down with Grandma, played with his extended family in Tehachapi, and then headed back home via train to Mommy. He definitely got homesick, but also had so much fun playing with everyone there. We can't wait to return at Christmastime. I wish he had a big family here to grow up with. He is becoming more social these days. Yesterday he asked if he could go visit his cousins again. Of course, next time he has to bring me with him!















These photos are from summertime in Tacoma...
Marek is working on his stance on the skimboard.














Toes to the nose - Jake has been teaching Marek the basics...
No sharks in the backyard at least!













One of the highlights of Marek's summer was going fishing with his "honorary Uncle" Jim from Tacoma. Marek came back talking about fishing, the boat, and Jim's big truck. All very important things!

He also saw his Grammy from South Dakota last weekend and had a great time visiting with her.

Marek and I met up with our friends this morning for a playdate. We hadn't seen everyone in awhile, so that was really nice. Marek is definitely playing well with the other little ones. He remembers picking strawberries with them and Isaac's play "house" that he loves. Summer is flying by way too fast this year...