Seal of Approval

I am delighted to report we are in Moscow Idaho!! It was a rather rigorous plane ride, but the disguised blessing of that was Colin deciding to sleep through the night when we landed. :) And here we are enjoying wide blue skies and the warm enriching fellowship with our family.
Colin has been meeting all his uncles, aunts, cousins and grandparents and I am happy to report that they all find him cute. Or to sum it up in Amara's words "I YIKE him mom!!" She proceeded to say this numerous times to anyone who would listen and follow it with "He's super cute!" (Colin thinks Amara is super cute too. Or at least I think so. He was grabbing her hair.)
We are snapping many photos of cousins and shall post as we can. In the meantime, it's off to the beach today for Colin's first ocean experience. Yes, the irony is not lost. He lives on an island in the Atlantic but his first view of the ocean will be the Pacific coast of North America. :) We'll let you know what he thinks of sand between his toes....

It's How He Rolls

So our son is rolling everywhere lately. This is really entertaining so far, but we realize that the time is coming where we need to baby proof the house. He is capable of sitting, but is clearly impatient with it--would much rather skip to standing. So in the meantime, he prefers to roll to his chosen destinations. These are such tropical places as by the rocker, under the table, under the coffee table, or under the bar stools. And he is STEALTHY. The first we'll know about this (if we're not looking) will be a pair of feet sticking out from under the coffee table. :) Or a dissatisfied clunking because he can not roll through the bar stool. So I made sure to catalogue a few of these moves just for you all.

The smell of bacon

I know it's been too long. I keep telling myself to be more consistent in blogging. It's not that I don't have lots of thoughts. I just seem to run out of time to write them down properly. But I think I'm a little to fussy on that front--a little too pedantic. So, I'll try to keep the teacher quiet for a while and just WRITE.

Mark and I recently bought an electric griddle and I tried out its paces this morning with pancakes and bacon. And it worked beautifully and I love cooking such an American breakfast so conveniently. But as I laid 8 strips of bacon out neatly side by side and they began their lovely sizzle and pop, I was suddenly overwhelmed by memory. Grandma and Grandpa Garfield's home--bacon in the morning that Grandpa always cooked to perfection; not too chewy not too crisp. Yes we had eggs and muffins and cereal too, but you all know how dominant the smell of bacon is. I really don't know why it is that memory that came over me. I've had bacon often while in England and certainly in my lifetime. But this morning by the new griddle I was transported to Grandma and Grandpa's house 15 years ago. It was quite powerful. Standing in my English kitchen, I could FEEL  my parents and siblings at the round table behind me. I could see Grandpa cooking bacon as I was doing and I could see Grandma pulling warm muffins and buns out of the oven. And I was vaguely excited because today we are going to the beach and we'll meet up with the Shermans at Holstrums and....
I'm in England and it's Mark behind me with Colin and I'm married and I have a son. Memory is so powerful isn't it? I shared this memory with Mark and amusingly, though not as strongly, I also had a picture of the Dwarves cooking bacon in Prince Caspian and Sam making bacon and tomatoes with the Hobbits.
We all know that smell is a powerful tool for unlocking the past. I think I rank bacon in the top 5 for doing so. And I'm grateful. It was a nice way to start the morning. :)