Such A Tease

I think our cat, while not yet completely comfortable with letting Mac get too close to him, likes to watch Mac scramble. Today, he thought it would be fun to tease Mac for a while. Henry would crouch on top of his cat tower and watch while Mac scooted closer and closer. Then Mac would be almost beneath him (mind you, Mac still had to pull himself up to a standing position to be anywhere near touching the silly furball) and Henry would dart off to the other side of the room. He would turn and look, then wait for Mac to get just shy of reaching him again and then jump over him while bounding back to where he was perched in the first place! I figured Mac would become quickly frustrated with that whole scenario... but he would just turn, giggle, and try again to catch that impetuous creature!

Sweet

Here are some cute pics we took before G'ma & G'pa left today:

First Tooth

One night, at the beginning of this week, Mac woke up screaming in the wee morning hours and had the hardest time getting back to sleep. We noticed that he had a runny nose and felt slightly feverish so we gave him teething tablets and later put some Orajel on his gums. When he finally settled down, we tried to put him back in his crib but he would have nothing of it! He would cry and carry on until one of us picked him up to soothe him. I finally just decided that I would have to stay up with him and hold him so that he could get some good sleep. I, on the other hand, did not. He would stir every couple of hours, waking me out of my half-conscious slumber. He got fussy again and I ended up giving him some Tylenol.

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But guess what?!? Out of all that came... A TOOTH!! Literally overnight! I mean, I realize that it does lots of growing for quite some time under those gums... but when he went to sleep that night, I felt nothing there. That next morning, there was a tooth! It was so cool!

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Anyway, I've been trying to get a picture of it for the last few days but have been unsuccessful. But when I got these pictures from Steph, I was looking through them and there it was! The tooth!! She actually got a picture of it! Can you see it?? :) So here is Mac's First Tooth picture:

Another Dedication

Only this time, it's of the new Health & Science Building at NNU.

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First up, this afternoon's outdoor Dedication Ceremony. (Why they insisted on holding this outside, in the hottest part of the day, with the chairs set up in direct sunlight, I don't know.) Followed by tours of this gorgeous new facility. Mac was "allowed" to attend this event - which, I'm sure, he appreciated greatly. It got us out of the house, anyway. And he turned out to be a fine excuse to go find some shade in which to sit and play. ;)

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After the ceremony, we took a self-guided tour around the building. And we saw the lecture hall for which Brent's Great Uncle paid a hefty amount of change to get his (and, therefore, OUR) name on the door. Not to mention a very nice granite(?) plaque with some Jackson history on the wall inside the lecture hall. It was after we viewed this room that Mac decided to take a nap. So he and I came home to rest while the others toured the remaining classrooms and labs.

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Then this evening we attended the 2009 President's Dinner, which concluded the Dedication festivities. We were "encouraged" to find a babysitter for Mac for this event... and it's a good thing we did! The dinner was great but the program was loooooong! He definitely would've been bored there and either a) gotten fussy or b) fallen asleep! Although, with Mac away, we now had no excuses to leave before the completion of this entire lengthy convocation. NNU's new president seems like a nice enough man but, boy, is he long-winded! Just sayin'. Whew! :)

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The evening was interesting, yet somehow fun in it's own unique way. We spent some time during dinner visiting with some long lost relatives. Great cousins once removed... or something like that. Who, not too surprisingly, had the same odd Jackson sense of humor. And, while the evening was grand, it was sure nice to get home and snuggle with my sweet boy!

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Here are a couple of cute pics that Stephanie took while she was watching Mac:

G'parents...

...arrived today with Aunt Shawna. They're here for this weekend's NNU building dedication festivities. How fun to see them again after only a couple of months! We did a little bit of visiting tonight in their hotel room. Here are a couple of pics from our time with them there:

On The Keys...

Well, here's our little pianist in the making. He seems to be taking this quite seriously, too. For the most part. :) Fun stuff!

Standin'

Here's our big boy standin' up tall these days! Also, we found the cutest costume for Mac to wear this Hallowe'en. We thought he should try it on early, you know, just in case it didn't fit or something. :) We'll prob'ly have to paint a little nose on him too, of course. Gotta have the full effect. I'm still undecided on carrying around a leafy branch for him to nibble on that night. ;)

Silly Daddy

Brent thought it would be fun to let Mac try on his socks this morning. Silly boys.

My Birthday - Day 2

Today's the day. It is upon us. Or, me, rather. This is the actual day of my birth 30++ years ago. ;) This morning was quite relaxing. We didn't do much of anything, really. I opened a gift from Brent and a card from Mac. So cute! Then I decided to break out part of my gift (red licorice) and share with everyone. Yep, even Mac! He loved it... to say the very least. There was red gooey stickiness all over the place in a matter of minutes! Maybe even seconds! :) Yay for messy birthdays! ;D Might as well just hop in the bathtub after that!

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After everyone was dressed and ready for the day, we went to one of my favorite places: Archiver's. For all your scrapbooking and paper craft needs! :) And, from there, we met some friends for a fabulous dinner out and then back to their place to visit. We were going to play games but never actually got around to that. We were having too much fun visiting!

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The place where we went to eat was absolutely wonderful! Tucanos is an all-you-can-eat Brazilian Grill and they specialize in MEAT. All the meat you could ever want... they've got it! And different kinds of meat, too. From marinated chicken hearts to bacon wrapped filet mignon to seafood... they even serve grilled pineapple! I realize that's not meat... but it was grilled, nonetheless. And they bring it to your table on skewers. You just have to be ready to catch it with your little tongs when they slice it off for you. They also had both a hot and a cold buffet line! With some normal buffet-type things: Salads and salad toppings, jell-o, pudding. And also some very unusual things: Heart of palm, quail eggs, some sort of bread crumb dish, fried bananas. They had an amazing beef stroganoff and a lobster bisque that was to-die-for!! My mouth is watering just thinking about it all!

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And to top it all off, I got another restaurant singing birthday parade thingy. Woo. And while I haven't a clue as to whether birthday parades are true to Brazilian form, each of the wait-staff had some sort of musical instrument (mostly percussion) in their hands to liven up the song a bit. It seemed culturally authentic anyway. :) It was all so new and fun that the birthday parade didn't even bother me this time. I was just enjoying it all!

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I wish I would've gotten pictures of the inside of this place... it was awesome! Busy. Festive. And quite a waiting line as well. Good thing we had reservations! Unfortunately, we were leaving by the time I thought to take my camera out. So I got a nice outside shot of the building. We'll catch the inside next time! And we joined their birthday club... so we'll definitely be back! :)

My Birthday - Day 1

Well, we apparently got started on the birthday celebration a bit early this year. Which is fine by me! :) I love a long party! Heh heh. Today my friend Stephanie called to see what I was doing. Absolutely nothing. So she offered to take me to lunch! Woo hoo! What a nice surprise! We went to the San Fransisco Sourdough Deli and had the most scrumptious sandwiches! Mac decided that he wanted to try my pickle... so... I let him. :) After the initial sour-shock, he was fine. But the picture sure is funny!! And it's always good to visit with Steph, too.

We, of course, had to stop by daddy's office to say hi. Since we were out and about anyway. Mac always enjoys that.

Then this evening we went for my free birthday burger at Red Robin! And the server took it upon herself to gather the troops who found their way over to our table to sing an obnoxious birthday song. That's right. We didn't even request that silly restaurant parade... we just got it. And actually... funny story... the first time they came over, since we didn't know they were coming over, Brent was in the restroom. Embarrassing!! So, I politely asked if they wouldn't mind returning a little bit later. So my husband could join us. :\ Heh heh. Thank goodness they obliged. However, the second time around they opted to return with the same ice cream treat they brought the first time - which was, by now, all melted together into shake-like consistency. Blech. I've never been too fond of shakes. Oh well. Mac decided to help himself though. Funny kiddo. Oh yeah... and they made me stand up and put balloons on my head. Weird restaurant birthday parade people. ;D Mac enjoyed it all though... so that made it worth the while. Fun times!

To Portland ...... And Beyond!! (Part II)

Tuesday, Sept 1: Well, this is what I get for not blogging during vacation. I can't remember now if it was really last Sunday evening that we went for sushi or today for lunch. I'm thinking it may have been today. Hmm. Well, no matter where we ate, I do remember getting Jamba Juice drinks (YUM!) on our way to Powell's Bookstore in downtown Portland. This particular bookstore outing would've been fun... but we forgot that 8 month old babies don't really care to just "hang out" in bookstores for any longer than, say, 10 minutes or so. We were there for 45. Mac was not impressed. He was fussy, however. So we left. Bummer. Oh well. Onward to Chad and Nichole's place! ~

I must say. Their house is quite the place! Located in the West Hills of Portland, it's beauty and grandeur left us oooing and aahing well past sunset! It's 3 levels... Sort of. If you count the outside patio below, it's 4 levels. Ok, we'll compromise and call it 3.5. ;) But that .5 is at the veeerrry bottom of the steepest hill ever!! It's a beautiful flagstone patio with ample space for seating. If only they could get some chairs down there. Because the only way to get down there is by hiking, no, rappelling down the hill/ cliff at the side of the house. ~

The rest of the house is quite lovely. The bottom liveable level is actually above the patio and is very nice with a deck of it's own. The middle level is the main living quarters. This level also had a deck. If you're scared of heights, however, you may not want to step out onto this deck. On it, you will be face to face with the tree-tops! And it's a loooonngg way down! Then there's the top level. No deck on this level. Prob'ly a good thing. :) ~

We had a fun night out at Red Robin with them. Nichole is about 3 months pregnant so we had a great time talking all about babies! :) Mac got to meet the Red Robin mascot: that big red bird. I thought for sure he'd be scared of him... but Red didn't seem to faze him a bit! And a good time was had by all. :) ~

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Wednesday, Sept 2: This is the day we determined that we would go to the coast! Yay for the Oregon coast!! This just happens to be Mac's 8 month birthday, too! So what better way to spend the day?!? Lots of "firsts" for Mac today, as well. First time at Mo's - YUM!! First time wiggling his toes in the sand. First time to experience the ocean!! And when daddy stuck Mac's feet in the cooooolllldd water, he didn't even jerk away! Brave kid. :) Oh yeah, and Brent found a deceased (pretty sure, anyway) jelly fish. Slimy. Weird. ~

But first things first. We had to come up with a plan on how to spend our day: We went up through Beaverton, stopping off to see my old boss, Dr Stanchfield, for a few minutes. It was so good to see him... he's such a nice guy. By the time we got to the coast, it was time for lunch... ok, a late lunch... so we went to the Mo's in Cannon Beach. And again I say, ♪♫ YUUUM!! ♫♪ It was such fabulous weather, we decided to stay in Cannon Beach and do our playing there. It must've been about 80° with only a very slight breeze - just perfect!! And rather than doing lots of driving (like originally planned) we wanted to really enjoy the time we had there. ~

Next stop: Tillamook Cheese Factory. Stopping by a viewpoint or two on the way, of course. I think we pulled into the Factory around 6pm so we had almost 2 hours to browse the gift and food shops. And of course we had to get ice cream... so we sat in the food court and enjoyed that sweet, creamy goodness. Lincoln City would've been next on the agenda but we'll have to do that next time. Our coastal trek ended with a drive out to Cape Mears just west of Tillamook. Neither of us had ever been there before so it was a new and fun adventure. The sun was just setting at this point so we didn't actually get to the Lighthouse up there. I'm sure it would've been closed anyway. We'll have to do that next time too. We ended up getting home pretty late but it was such an awesome day! Love, love, love the ocean!! It's the best! ~

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Thursday, Sept 3: Well, this morning was a lazy morning. We slept in. It was nice. By the time we had gotten ourselves together and finished eating brunch, it was almost time to meet mom in Canby. She's been going to the same chiropractor who used to adjust my back years ago. Anyway, mom told him that we'd be in town and he wanted to meet Mac. So we stopped by his office and chatted for a couple minutes. It was nice to get caught up. Afterward, we went to Burgerville for a late lunch. I think the lady behind the counter was enamored with Mac. She was completely thrilled that there was a baby in her store! She was so nice and she told us all about her granddaughter who was about the same age. She noticed that we had a camera and offered to take our picture before we left. Fun. And we couldn't leave Canby without stopping by the Dahlia fields. Talk about an endless sea of flowers! It was beautiful! Pictures don't even do it justice! But I'll try and give you a glimpse. ~

*Thanks for your patience, everyone! After about 10 days of working on this post, I'm finally DONE! ;D