The Smith Family Adventures

Since we are having such nice hot weather, my mom and I decided to take Elias to the fountains again to cool off yesterday. He really enjoyed his time there, and was a little more brave at being near the spouting water. He even stuck his hand over the spout so that it squirted in all directions….including his face! By the end he just wanted to sit near in the water and chew his shoe…but over all it was a very nice time.

Elias feeling the water with both hands.

Grandma helping Elias walk between the spouts.

The shoe is the best part!

Elias tried out a new kind of swing...he's not quite old enough for it yet.

Elias eating a snack in the shade before we went home.

We have had many busy weekends in a row, so Nathan and I wanted to take advantage of this three day weekend to get in some relaxing. We planned to have no plans on Labor Day. Our weekend turned out to be just perfect. We had lots of time to spend with Elias.

Here we are at the pool

On Saturday, we went to visit Grandma Smith and to use her pool. Elias had lots of fun swimming and trying to get Mommy’s sunglasses to sink to the bottom of the pool. The temperature both in and out of the water was just right. Luckily we had already been in the water for a long time when a couple of rambunctious boys showed up and we decided to head out of there. Hopefully we can teach Elias to be more respectful when he reaches that age. I know boys will be boys…to some degree….and they were just playing. But their attitudes and their language was just disrespectful. Elias has an excellent example in his daddy so he has a head start!

On Sunday, Nathan and I packed up and went off to church again. The nursery was closed due to only having one attendant…so we tried bringing him into the sanctuary. It was actually very cute when he decided to play on the floor quietly in front of our pew….but that lasted for about 4 minutes. So I ended up taking him down to the nursery myself. They have a play shopping cart down there that Elias seemed interested in so I set it in the middle of the floor and put some books in it. He stood up, held on to the handle, and started walking and pushing it around! It was very slow and awkward for him, but I can’t believe how close he is to walking. When Daddy came down to get us for the Eucharist, he got to see too. We had our own quiet celebration down there in the nursery watching our son having fun and growing up.

When we got home, we decided that we wanted to see Harry Potter, Part 7, Part 2. We had seen it once before, but liked it so much that we wanted to see it again. Elias got to spend some time with Grandpa and Grandma Bartle and Uncle Greg. He had lots of fun as usual over there.

Today was the day of no plans so we had lots of options. After Elias napped, we decided to head over to a park that a friend had showed me for the first time just last week. We packed a picnic and a swim suit for Elias, and headed out for some fun.

Here he is enjoying the swings:

Elias with his "serious" look.

Do I have the cutest son ever or what?

Elias sitting in the fountain area.

We decided to let Elias try playing in the fountains even though he is probably not quite old enough to enjoy them fully. We found out that they are chlorinated which is pretty amazing. He had fun crawling around and patting the water. We didn’t want him to get too close because the fountains shoot up unexpectedly and didn’t want any to shoot up his nose or anything. Overall, I wonderful family weekend.

I want to be the kind of person that gets out into the community. I want Elias to be able to name Portland’s bridges because he’s actually seen them in person. I want to play outside at parks and take walks just to enjoy God’s creation. I want to eat picnics at the Rose Garden or the park blocks, or play in the fountains. I want Elias to care about his community.

So when a friend told me about the Oregon Symphony concert at water front park, I jumped at the chance to go. Elias and I met Nathan and we headed down to the concert. It was so much fun! Of course….I was changing a poopy diaper during the star spangled banner, and therefore could not stand….and despite our many attempts to keep Elias on the blanket, he still touched lots of goose poop…..and we had to miss the cool fireworks display in order to get Elias home for bed (he still stayed up an hour later than normal even though we left at intermission)….but we had a good time just enjoying time with each other, our surroundings, and the music. Overall a very happy evening.

Elias the 11 month old.

Elias is 11 months old today! It is hard to believe that in one month we’ll be marking his one year birthday. It has gone by so fast.

Elias decided to celebrate his 11 months by trying to climb up on everything. If he can get his little knee up high enough, he can climb on a lot of things now. He made it up onto the ottoman in his bedroom, and onto two different shelves that are pretty low to the ground.

We also got to go have lunch with daddy at a park near OHSU. We enjoy those times immensely.

Elias right before he tried climbing on the ottoman.

Today was the feast day of St. Bartholomew. Since our church is named for him, we always have a picnic on this Sunday. Our family has also been out of town quite a bit in August, so we were glad to get back. It was fun to talk with people at the picnic, and to let Elias crawl around in the grass.

It is becoming quite difficult to go to church with Elias. When he was first born, he slept through the services! Then, there was a period where he would be awake, but generally quiet. Now since he can crawl, and he is much more vocal, it is getting very difficult. People say that they don’t mind, and that they like to hear him in the sanctuary….but it is a worship service. People should be able to worship during it without being distracted or disrupted. A few little “ba ba’s” from Elias are cute…..but a lot of them gets tiring. We’ve tried putting him in the nursery. Today he cried hysterically almost the whole 20 minutes or so he was down there. It makes me feel so sad. I know that he will never get used to being away from me if he never is away from me….but he was perfectly happy staying with my Dad all summer when I was working so that is not it.

It’s just a difficult phase, and hopefully it will all be worth it in the end.

In other news, we got to meet the new rector for our church today. We’ll look forward to getting to know more about him in the coming weeks.

Yesterday I received a book I had ordered in the mail entitled story maker. I ordered it because the author is one of my housemates from college, Molly VanBenthuysen. I wanted to support her. It is a book for children or for adults to do with children. I was really excited to find out that she had written the book, but after I read it, I felt so inspired.

I really enjoyed living with Molly for a year. Although busy schedules made it difficult for all of us in the house to hang out frequently, my senior year was definitely my favorite in college, largely because of where I was living.

I was so excited to see Molly letting God work through her in this book. The book is a message of hope for kids. Her theme is “God is writing a good story with your life…(even with the bad stuff!)” Elias is too young to get anything out of it yet. But I’ll definitely use it with him when he is older, and I recommend it to anyone with children who are a little bit older. Especially elementary age! The book offers opportunities for children to become familiar with scripture, reflect on their own lives, and to think about how God might be working in their lives. I think it is a terrific tool for teaching kids about the God they cannot see. Even though we cannot see Him, we can see evidence of His work.

I’m so glad Molly has found her place and that she is working in childrens ministry. Receiving and reading this book really made me inspired to work harder at developing my passions. Thank you, Molly for all your work!

If you are interested in finding more about the book, you can go to: http://storymakerbook.com

I feel quite satisfied this evening, having eaten fresh salmon for dinner. Even better, it was salmon which I myself reeled in two days ago. How did I come into these sublime circumstances? I shall now relate that tale.

Kim, Elias, and I embarked on a weekend “camping” and fishing trip to Ft. Stevens State Park this weekend. I say “camping” because we stayed in a yurt, which has electricity and is temperature-controlled and has very nice facilities including showers within easy walking distance. So it is pretty easy in my opinion.

There is of course no need to qualify fishing with quotation marks, because it was full-on fishing. We were fishing the lower Columbia for Salmon, the so-called Buoy-10 fishery. If you have not experienced it, it is hard to describe. You are out in the mouth of the Columbia where the river is miles wide. There are hundreds of small fishing boats swarming around the huge tankers in rough chop. And there are lots of fish. It can be chaotic and action-packed.

I was lucky enough to catch three of the aforementioned fish, two of which were keepers. On Saturday I caught a wild Coho which we then released. Shortly thereafter I caught a hatchery Chinook (about 15, 16, 17, or 18 lbs – the weight eternally increases with my retelling). And then on Sunday I caught a small hatchery Coho (pictured below). My fishing companions had luck as well and in two days we caught seven, with four keepers.

Whilst I was fishing Kimberly and Elias were having fun at camp and out shopping with Grandma. And when we boys came back from fishing there were games, naps, meals, campfires, and s’mores. We got to head down to the beach to let Elias play in the sand. Yes, he ate some sand. And we also visited Battery Russell, part of the old World War 2 era fort.

It was a fun weekend for all. See some pictures below.

Everyone should experience a little bit of heaven on earth. Here are a few things that have made me feel very happy lately:

– My son blowing raspberries on my shoulder.

– Listening to my parents sing to Elias at bedtime while we were camping.

– Seeing the bottom of the laundry basket.

– Hearing Elias laugh at his Daddy during play time.

– A man took my cart back for me at the grocery store when he saw I had a baby and lots of stuff to deal with.

– Elias crawling to me for a hug and a kiss, then going back to playing.

– A letter from Zimbabwe!

-Petting the cat.

-Sun and blue sky!

-Seeing the stars shine bright at Fort Stevens Camp ground.

-Praying together at dinner time.

-My son’s two front teeth.

-Finding out that the new Switchfoot album is coming out soon.

Hmmm….I could go on, but I think I’ll stop for now.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the famine in Africa. To say the words “world hunger” evokes images of beauty contests….what was that Sandra Bullock movie where she plays an undercover beauty pageant contestant? Oh yeah…”Miss Congeniality”. The movie makes fun of the fact that most of the contestants want to change world hunger. But I am getting off topic….

I want to lessen world hunger. Why is it that I get to worry about what to feed my child….whereas some mothers have to worry if they will be able to feed their children? It makes me tear up to even think about the agony of watching a child starve. Why do I have water to spare when others have to walk hours twice a day to get just enough water to survive? Why are we spending so much money on destruction in war when so much less could help multitudes if spent on wells, education, or medicines? I read some statistics… 400 million children are hungry, and one of them dies every six seconds from hunger-related causes. I feel helpless.

I do a little. It’s not like a sit around just thinking. But I want to do more. I support World Vision through money and a little bit of time. I think they do very good work. Someday when Nathan and I are retired, it’s my dream to volunteer for them. But I want to help now! How can I raise Elias to want to help? When is too early to raise his awareness about these issues? I know he is too small now….but I will start early. I will succeed if his little heart grows love and compassion rather than judgement.

A family friend had this posted on her facebook status this morning:

“Parents rarely let go of their children, so children let go of them. They move on. They move away. The moments that used to define them—a mother’s approval, a father’s nod—are covered by moments of their own accomplishments.”
— Mitch Albom (The Five People You Meet in Heaven)

I am still far away from having Elias ready to go out on his own. He is not even one year old yet! (Although that milestone is coming up very soon) But I have to admit that this quote made me tear up a little. It is pretty safe that Nathan and I are the most important people in Elias’ life right now. We feed him. We change him. We provide clothes and books. We love him and hug and kiss him. It is difficult to think that someday that will all change.

But then I thought about it more….and isn’t it every parent’s hope that their child will grow up to be successful? So I guess it is a positive thing to look forward to. Just another momentous event on this path we have begun.

Well…I am finished with my breakfast now…so that is all the time I have for writing down idle thoughts.