Unconditional Love

I was going to write this really mushy post about unconditional love and then nixed it. I'm just too private of a person to put those thoughts on here for all (I know... not as many people care as I think) to read. However, I do want to say that watching my little son sleep in my arms makes me understand a lot more about it then I used to. At this point my little boy loves me like no other. He doesn't care if I'm pretty or fat, if I've brushed my teeth or showered. He is unaware of my body odor when I forget deodorant and thinks the sounds my farts (sorry, it's the best word for them) make are funny. He doesn't know that I have two bachelor degrees or that I no longer make one single cent. His world is filled with cuddles and eating and wriggling little body parts. His joys are mirrors and being thrown in the air and the terrifyingly exciting tickle monster. Some day when the world gets to him he will care about all the silly things we all care too much about, but until then, I will snuggle my sleeping baby and bask in his unconditional love.

Petey the Bird

I'm sorry I have been absent from the blogging scene. I don't really have much of interest to talk about. I refuse to be one of those mommy mush brains (as my friend Jeanne describes them) who only talks about her kid, and their poops and pees and eating habits... So I find that I have less than nothing to blog about.
I do need to post a little obit for my parents bird that died recently. Here it goes:

Petey Rubottom died early Sunday morning of old-age. He was found sleeping peacefully at the bottom of his cage. He had a long life (20+ years) for a cockatiel. Petey was adopted when he was 5 and had unfortunately had his wings clipped before that. While he could not enjoy flying around he enjoyed many bird related activities. He would chirp in sync with the television-- to which curse words would be hurled at him-- and one of his favorite pasttimes was calling the imaginary dog over. In later years Petey enjoyed taunting the cat (inhereted from me) and gazing out his cage at a world he was unfortunately unable to explore. He will be sorely missed. He is survived by his adopted parents Tom & Debbie Rubottom, and two siblings that never really liked him.
In lieu of flowers please send donations to Leah Sandven who will use them to set up a foundation in his name that will be used for various non-bird related activities (most likely Starbucks).

I don't have any pictures of Petey so here is a mommy mush brain moment:

Lars eating cereal for the third time. He likes to do it himself.

Tor, Lars and Monkey

Three Norwegians

Me and Lars dressed in our ugly sweaters for the ugly sweater party :)

Our Christmas tree

Time Flies!

Here are some pics from the last week. Time sure flies. I can't believe that Christmas stuff is already in the stores!

Holidays with babies are so much fun, and they totally bring back all my memories of childhood.

Tor and I were just reminiscing about Halloween. We both remember being totally bummed when we had to wear our heavy coats over our Halloween costumes so we wouldn't freeze to DEATH. I also remember having those plastic costumes (I was Strawberry Shortcake a lot) and it was so cold that the costume would freeze and crack all night long. Man the things we kids did for some free candy.

My sister gave us a hot air balloon ride for our wedding. We finally got to use it in Denver a couple weeks ago. It was amazing!

Saturday Nights

Saturday nights have definitely changed. Not that I've ever been that terribly exciting of a person, but occasionally I would get dressed up and go out dancing with my girl friends. Later, Tor and I would meet up with friends and have a couple beers. I've always been a little flabbergasted that these nights started so late. Why can't people have fun at 8:00 pm instead of midnight? What do other people do for those four hours??? I usually fell asleep on the couch waiting to go out. Now that we have a baby our entertainment has changed again. I'm not ready for a baby sitter quite yet, plus they're kinda expensive, and I definitely can't stay up until 2 am. I might DIE.

So we use what we got.

Around this time of year that's a baby and a pumpkin. Please don't call child protective services, the kid had fun too :)

This is Leah-- the chimp at the zoo. Tor gets a kick out of this every time we go and we have about 1 bagillion pictures of her.

We like to call this the Lars O'Lantern. We filled it with warm water and it was like a little mini punkin' hot tub. I wish they made them in size Leah.

Birthdays & Babies

It's official. Lars is becoming human. There for a while I was convinced he was going to stay this wriggling, demanding, eating and pooping machine. But then-- bam he started interacting with us. He laughs and smiles and makes cute little coo-coo noises. He is still wriggly and demanding, but I can put up with that part just to see another of his sweet little smiles. He's also BRILLIANT. Any time a camera comes out to verify these changes he clams up and makes a frowny face. He also likes to cry when he's on skype. Like I said, Brilliant.

On another note: Tor's Birthday party was super fun. We had it on the roof and there was only a light drizzle for part of the time. We had a couple party crashers who proceeded to make out in the hot tub, big-time (I thought it might be funny to tell the story of Lars' hot tub experience and see them sputter). Other than that it was a very fun night. Thanks to everyone who came and those of you who didn't... Suckers!

Surfing Oregon

IT was an absolutely B-E-A-utiful weekend and so we decided to hit the Oregon coast for a little sun and surf. We found this great beach and and perfect weather. Tor braved the frigid waters to do a little surfing. He explained later that every time his head went under the water he got an ice cream headache. I prefer to get my ice cream headaches the old fashioned way...

We three at the beach

At the Portland zoo. These little girls really liked Lars, or the next ad for United Colors of Beneton (I thought these were sooo cool in 8th grade).

Lars looking super "fly" in his froggie stuff. Get it?

Happy Birthday to Me!

I turned 30 on September 1st. Yes... that's right, 30. I feel 24 and I think it's because I took this quiz on the Internet a few months ago when I was pregnant and bored and it told me that my REAL age is 24. This is due to the fact that I don't smoke, drink rarely, and I lied and said that I exercise moderately. The computer jiggled its garthump and came up with the arbitrary number of 24. So, I feel 24. I'm glad I'm not 24 however because I'm MUCH happier at 30 then I ever was at 24. I have so much to be grateful for: I have a wonderful husband, two sets of family that I love, a great group of friends I've had FOREVER, and a beautiful baby that just took a big ole poo in my lap and is looking sublimely happy. What more could a girl ask for? Not that I wouldn't accept a few belated gifts...

Tor saying "Hi" from the OR.

Lars looking very "G" in his hoodie.

Our first hike with Lars on the outside. He slept the whole time. Wish Tor would carry me in a pack.

My baby is now very mad that he is still sitting in his poo while I write this blog. Some people are so demanding!