We have been experiencing some very dry January weather lately, which is nice after all that snow we got last month. But down here in the southern end of the Willamette Valley, all we seem to get is fog! For most of last week, we had dense, cold fog all day long, and the temperature hovered in the 30s. Even though it was dry, I didn't feel like going outside with Morgan - it was just too cold and dreary. I realized I was going a little crazy and needed to get out of town, so I planned a family day at the beach, which I knew had been warmer and sunnier than Eugene. We loaded up the car and Morgan last Sunday and headed to Yachats, a small town north of Florence. 
As we left Eugene, the sun was actually shining and making all the frost-covered plants sparkle. It was strange to be heading to the sunny beach on such a frozen winter's day. The drive was really nice, and it was fun to be on a different highway than the one we normally take to Oceanside. When we arrived in Florence, we drove north along the gorgeous coast with the sun shining! It's a neat stretch of coastline with rocky coves, crashing waves, and lighthouses. We stopped at one viewpoint and saw at least 50 harbor seals sunning themselves on the rocks.
Since traveling with a toddler dictates our schedule a bit, we decided to have an early lunch in Yachats. I had never been there before, and it is a cute little village with a river leading out to the sea. We rarely go out to eat these days, so it was fun to take Morgan to lunch. There was a band playing and Morgan was fascinated with the music. She swayed to the beat and stared at the singers. After lunch, we went to the nearby beach where the river meets the sea. We found a sunny spot out of the wind, where Morgan could watch dogs, seagulls, and play in the sand. But more than anything, she wanted to walk! She is getting close to running and so she went speedwalking toward the sea. We had a hard time keeping up with her. My normally clingy daughter could have cared less that she was yards away from her mom in a strange place. She was having a ball with all that freedom! 
We left in the afternoon when we could tell Morgan was running out of steam. Even though we were only gone a few hours, I had such a good time. I guess I didn't realize how much I needed a change of scenery and a break from the winter weather. Plus getting away just as a family gives Sam and I the chance to catch up on things and have real conversations about our lives, which doesn't seem to happen when we are in front of the TV or chasing after Morgan. Surviving parenthood (and life, for that matter) is all about finding balance with what is important in your life. Getting off kilter is bound to happen once in a while, but recognizing it and getting back to that happy place is a lesson I am finally figuring out.
Below is a video of Morgan in the car driving home from the beach. She is learning words at an astonishing rate these days (and teething at the same time), but this seems to be her favorite phrase. (When she says "see see?" that means she wants me to show her her picture in the camera - she has already figured out life in a digital world!)
While my busy toddler naps, I sit here trying to think of her latest and greatest adventures. It seems like she is changing and evolving (and moving!) so quickly these days, I am just trying to keep up. All of Morgan's new little skills - asking to be picked "up! up!", wanting to climb on the couch, requesting "crackahs" - are all cute, sometimes annoying, and definitely imitations of what the adults around her do! Her demands seem to be increasing daily, and often puzzle me. Only later do I realize that she is mimicking everything we do! It's both a compliment and an insult. Kids really are a reflection of us, and I am seeing both the good, bad, and ugly of myself. Not only do I like to sing, read books, share, cuddle, and play (according to my daughter), but I also like to sit around on the couch, get snacks from the cupboard frequently, talk on the phone, and sigh loudly when I get frustrated! These kinds of things are all she in interested in doing these days, despite the oodles of toys strewn throughout the house. What Mommy (or Daddy or her nanny) do is just what Morgan wants to do! So that has made me reflect lately on the type of role model I am for my daughter.
There are some benefits to this stage in her development: she loves to sweep the floor, push the laundry basket around, and sort her toys. She is really into collecting blocks, dishes or small toys, putting them in a bag or tub, dumping them out, and then putting them back in. She can keep herself occupied for quite a long time, and I am thrilled that objects are actually being picked up after being dumped out! But then what do all these skills say about what I do all day? Clean, do laundry, pick up stuff, organize it, etc. Perhaps I should be doing other things with Morgan besides household stuff (isn't that just reinforcing traditional gender stereotypes?) I suppose I could get all philosophical about it, but I realize it's just a phase and she has A LOT more time to learn all about what she can do. I should find it flattering that she wants to be like Mommy, and I promise to teach her that she can do or be anything she wants in this world. (Although she has taken a recent interest in throwing a ball around, so that makes Sam happy!)
Here are a couple of the videos I was trying to post. One shows some clips from Christmas with my family - highlighting the typical joys of family chaos and fun. The other clip is Morgan doing stunt riding on her new wooden scooter. As you can see, she is getting more and more talkative these days and finding most things in life quite hilarious. She continues to be our happy (and over-confident) girl!
(PS: Morgan didn't even cry after falling - don't worry!)
This year really felt like Morgan's first Christmas for me, and it turned out to be a white one! We were lucky that we were even able to get together with our families at all, considering Portland had one of the worst snowstorms in decades. I still can't believe 8-12 inches fell in the Portland area, forcing people to be stuck at home. But thanks to my sister's 4-wheel drive vehicle and Sam's steady driving, we were all together for our traditional celebrations.
Here is Sam driving on packed snow and ice on I-5 on December 23rd.
A very snowy downtown Portland with the Freemont Bridge.
We spent Christmas Eve with Sam's family, enjoying cocktails and yummy food all night. Morgan had fun playing with Aunt Kim and Grandpa and Grandpa, oblivious to the reason she was getting nice gifts. She was our cute little elf, running around in her striped p.j.'s. On Christmas Day, we headed out through the snow to my parents' house for our traditional German dinner. Morgan got her first taste of saurbraten, red cabbage, and potato pancakes. She seemed to like it, and I always look forward to this meal and good times with my extended family. 
Morgan seemed to get the hang of opening gifts and had fun tearing through the paper. As you can see, she was pretty excited about those presents! One gift she got was a wooden scooter. It is actually a hand-me-down from her older cousins, (Marissa and Brenna, I think!) and she is really loving it. She doesn't quite know how to scoot around on it, but prefers to do some stunt riding. She likes to stand on the seat and giggle, making sure that I see exactly what she is doing. This morning I walked into the living room to see her trying to climb up the TV by standing on her scooter! She has already taken a few tumbles, but I don't think that will deter her much in her quest to live dangerously! Perhaps we should have also gotten her a helmet for Christmas!
(I wanted to post a few videos of Christmas and Morgan's scooter climbing, but blogspot.com seems to be having technical difficulties. Grrr! Hopefully I can get them posted in a few days. Happy New Year!)
Last winter when we had snow, Morgan was only a few months old and barely knew who I was, let alone what snow was. But over the weekend we were in Portland for Sunday's snowstorm, so Morgan got to really experience snow for the first time. Despite the chilly weather, we ventured out to walk around the Pearl District with Aunt Kim, Grandpa Ron, and Grandma Dinda. Morgan didn't seem too impressed with all the white stuff and was definitely not interested in touching it. But she was a good sport for her enthusiastic family.
We made it home from Portland safely on Sunday to see no snow here in the valley. But Monday morning we woke up to a couple of inches and school was canceled! Yes, it messes up all my teaching plans, but I have to say that I get almost as excited as my students about a snow day. There is something very special about being in a warm, cozy house cuddling with my daughter, as snow falls outside. But I did bundle up Morgan again so we could wander around our street in the snow. (Thank you to Kim, Erica, and Dinda for supplying Morgan with her warm winter clothes!) Despite being puffed up like the little kid in "A Christmas Story," Morgan was able to waddle around in the snow pretty well. While she doesn't really see snow as something to play with, she definitely loved watching the excited neighbor kids and dogs run around and play. She did fall once with a face plant in the snow, but I don't blame her for crying about that.
Here is some video of Morgan walking around in front of our house.
Today I am home for our second snow day, and I'm beginning to wonder if I will leave the house this week. It's about 13 degrees and sunny here right now, and all that snow has turned into ice. I'm not sure if it's a good idea to take Morgan outside for some fresh air with it being so cold and slippery. And with more snow or freezing rain coming tomorrow, I'm thinking my Christmas vacation got started early this year. Oh well.... I can think of nothing better than having a day in p.j.s with my favorite little girl.
As a child growing up in the United States, I never really thought much about how lucky I was. I had friends who were "rich" and others who definitely weren't, and I was somewhere in the middle. But we all had in common families and communities that could provide us with everything we needed. Then, when I started traveling abroad (beginning in La Paz, Mexico at age 10), I started to realize that what I had was pretty good. From Mexico to Ecuador to Eastern Europe to Africa, I saw the vast differences between life in the US and life in developing countries. As a traveler, I learned to harden myself a bit in order to navigate different cultures and languages. I also sometimes distanced myself from locals to make myself feel less guilty about growing up in such a privileged country. It wasn't my fault that I happened to be born in the US, but was is my responsibility to turn that guilt into something positive. After all, we have SO MUCH more than we ever could possibly need to live happily, and it makes me sad when people in our country (myself included) have the luxury to worry about things like the latest fashion trends or how to keep from gaining weight over the holidays. How lucky we are that we have these kinds of problems to deal with.
A few years ago I heard about a Portland-based international relief organization called Mercy Corp, after one of my good college friends started working there (click on the name to see their website). I was impressed with the organization and the types of aid they were offering globally: helping African women build and sell cook stoves so they don't have to go in search of firewood (risking their lives in the process), helping Central American families become self-sufficient by providing them with a pig, or supporting the health of women and children around the world. Even though money is scarce with a husband in grad school, I still feel compelled to give because I know it is the right thing to do. When I think about how tight money is this year for all of us, it seems easier to pinch pennies then let them go. But when I think about how extremely blessed we all are to have the health, education, freedom, and happiness (especially as women) that we do, it seems so easy to give. And by giving someone a Mercy Kit as a Christmas gift, everyone gets something precious. I truly believe it is important for each of us to find the charity or person or cause that is meaningful to them and to continue to give back.
Top photo: Muslim women in Zanzibar wait for their fisherman to return with the day's catch. Bottom: A beautiful Maasai girl, taken in the Tanzanian village of a man with 9 wives.
According to Sam, I am a little dorky when it comes to Christmas traditions. Since we have been together, I always insisted on going out to a tree farm to (have him) cut down our Christmas tree. It had to be a noble fir and be just the right size and shape. One year (or maybe a couple years) was very rainy, I took forever picking out the right tree, and after sawing it down we had to haul it uphill through the mud. He won't seem to let me live down my past years of obsessively picking out a tree. But he is a good sport. Somehow, I have become the Clark Griswold of the family, not him. But that is because I grew up with these traditions (including repeated viewings of "Christmas Vacation") and enjoy carrying them on. (It's not like I make him string popcorn and cranberries or anything!)
This year, I have really been looking forward to celebrating a Christmas at home with Morgan. Last year we went to Mexico and I was just trying to keep up with my new role of motherhood. This year Morgan is much more aware of everything, it is also our last year in this house, and I want it to be a special one. So, yesterday we went to a tree farm in nearby Pleasant Hill that I found online. It seems like in recent years, tree farms are a lot cooler than they used to be, and this one was no exception. They had cute, rustic buildings covered in greenery and lights. We took a tractor ride out to the fields of whichever variety of tree you were looking for. There were farm animals to look at and hot coffee for sale. It was quite a booming business and way more fun than the tree farms of my youth. But that is probably because it was SUNNY! That seemed to make all the difference in the world. It was a gorgeous day to be outside and it made us totally forget all the mud and drama of past Christmas tree outings.
Morgan had a great time too. She loved the tractors and was quite focused on the ride, taking everything in. She kept saying "vroom vroom" when she would see a tractor. There were lots of families with little kids to watch as well. Best of all, she loved exploring amongst the Christmas trees. The ground was a little muddy and very uneven, but Morgan insisted on walking by herself with some serious wobbling, then landing with a splat in the mud. I think she enjoyed getting her hands dirty, although she did lick her hand just like she did with the sand at the beach. Yuck!
We all had a great time as a family, and that is really what Christmas is all about. Now we get to pass on all our dorky traditions to Morgan, and hopefully not too much of the drama. On our way home from the tree farm yesterday, Sam said, "I actually had fun this year!" All I could do was smile.
As we left Eugene, the sun was actually shining and making all the frost-covered plants sparkle. It was strange to be heading to the sunny beach on such a frozen winter's day. The drive was really nice, and it was fun to be on a different highway than the one we normally take to Oceanside. When we arrived in Florence, we drove north along the gorgeous coast with the sun shining! It's a neat stretch of coastline with rocky coves, crashing waves, and lighthouses. We stopped at one viewpoint and saw at least 50 harbor seals sunning themselves on the rocks.
Since traveling with a toddler dictates our schedule a bit, we decided to have an early lunch in Yachats. I had never been there before, and it is a cute little village with a river leading out to the sea. We rarely go out to eat these days, so it was fun to take Morgan to lunch. There was a band playing and Morgan was fascinated with the music. She swayed to the beat and stared at the singers. After lunch, we went to the nearby beach where the river meets the sea. We found a sunny spot out of the wind, where Morgan could watch dogs, seagulls, and play in the sand. But more than anything, she wanted to walk! She is getting close to running and so she went speedwalking toward the sea. We had a hard time keeping up with her. My normally clingy daughter could have cared less that she was yards away from her mom in a strange place. She was having a ball with all that freedom! 
We left in the afternoon when we could tell Morgan was running out of steam. Even though we were only gone a few hours, I had such a good time. I guess I didn't realize how much I needed a change of scenery and a break from the winter weather. Plus getting away just as a family gives Sam and I the chance to catch up on things and have real conversations about our lives, which doesn't seem to happen when we are in front of the TV or chasing after Morgan. Surviving parenthood (and life, for that matter) is all about finding balance with what is important in your life. Getting off kilter is bound to happen once in a while, but recognizing it and getting back to that happy place is a lesson I am finally figuring out. 
