Finisterra at the Bloedel Reserve

Here is a picture of Finisterra's concert at the Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island yesterday. It was really amazing. There were eagles and herons and the ocean... oh, and beautiful music!

Finished!

I finished the last Harry Potter yesterday! It was SO GREAT! This is a picture of me on the car ferry going over to Bainbridge Island for one of Kevin's concerts. I am on the last few pages with Elena blessedly asleep. It is one of the most exciting endings to a book I have ever read! But I will say no more (because most of you reading this blog haven't finished yet!)

Cute bath baby

Sling-along

I got a new sling. I still love my wrap sling, but this one is very convenient and warm cozy fleece. It is called a pocket sling-- you can see why. Elena loves it!

Kevin at play

This last weekend, Kevin went on a camping trip with his buddies. Coincidentally, one of his buddies is a pilot for American Airlines and has a small plane, so they decided to fly away from the rainy coldness in Seattle and go to sunny Oregon! Here is a picture of Mt. Rainier at sunrise as they head south!
They climbed Diamond Peak (David is taking the photo)...
and camped next to a beautiful lake...
and even took a dip in the clear blue water! Well, most of them did. Where is Kevin?
And finally went on an adventure in a lava cave!

Sleep well, Elena!

You are looking very, very sleepy, Elena! Perhaps it is time for a lovely long nap. Here, take this sweet little concoction Mommy has prepared for you to help you sleep better...

Distraction

Inspired by Elizabeth's farmer's market post (www.bloomingtonautica.blogspot.com) we went the local farmer's market this morning and brought back some lovely fruits and vegetables! Then we waited all day for Harry Potter. Where is he???

New colors

I was inspired by a beautiful new hand-me-down shirt from Adeline to change the colors on our blog.

WHY WON'T MY BABY GO TO SLEEP?

I am trying to take a picture of Elena and me in front of the microwave clock to mark the time. I cannot reach high enough. Notice that she is chewing on her lower lip... she has two new teeth to munch on. Is this what is keeping her up?
So here it is: 1:39 am. Why won't my baby go to sleep? Who is this baby anyhow?

Coming soon to a CD player near you!

This was mastering week! After many many months of hard work, Finisterra finally mastered their CD! Here they are in the mastering studio do their magic. As always, Kevin is the brains, passion, and energy behind the entire endeavor and has truly created a masterpiece! (Actually, he is still at the studio now putting on the final touches.) We hope to have a final product ready for sale and review by the end of this month or early next month.

Here is the trio at our celebatory dinner: Kwan Bin, Tanya and our very own Kevin.

I'd rather do it myself, thank you

We discovered that Elena really likes to feed herself. Finger foods (and nightly baths), here we come...

My baby vampire

Elena has a first tooth!!It is not on the bottom center like most normal babies. She has a vampire fang! Can you see it??? It also does not seem to be coming from the bottom of her gum. Is this normal? Is she a freak of nature? Should we strat putting aside money for orthodontia? Her other fang is also coming in on the other side! She already is great at sucking, so I'd better watch my neck...

Rolling

Elena's new trick. She is not very consistent. Usually, when I put her on her tummy, she plays for a few mintues, then starts whining till I flip her over.

Gourmet baby slime

I was inspried by my friend Andrea to make baby food! After a few trials and errors, I think I have a good system going. I really enjoy it, and so does Elena. So far, our menu has included avacado, bananas, plum-spinach-banana, spinach-banana (featured above) , and my personal favorite-- apricot-banana (banana makes everything sweet and slimy!). I cook the fruits and veggies (except for the banana), then puree in the cuisinart and stick in ice cube trays. Voila! baby slime!

bad mother moment

I am trying to make baby food for Elena. I picked up some lovely organic baby carrots from the framers market and lovingly washed and peeled them, put them in a pot to boil, forgot about them, and burned them. Better luck next time.

Adeline

Adeline turned one last week. Here she is sporting a Swaddlebees organic cotton velour cloth diaper. Molly is also a cloth diaper freak... maybe it runs in the family?

Family visits!

This week, my eldest sister, Marian, her daughter Molly www.pictureperfectevening.blogspot.com , and Molly's daughter Adeline are here to visit. Molly actually has a workshop for science teachers that she is evaluating. Sunday we all took a trip on the ferry to visit one of Molly's friends in Gig Harbor.
In the car, the babies got fussy and I discovered that I had a fruit leather buried in the diaper bag. Would Elena like it, I wondered? She LOVED it. She sucked on that thing like there was no tomorrow.
Adeline is a such a wonderful baby! Here she is being cute in the car before her naptime meltdown. Unfortunately, Elena is terrified on Adeline's cry, so we had two crying babies for a good portion of the trip.
Three generations of Hildebrandt women: Marian, Molly and Adeline.

Cedar tree

Here is another one of our trees. This cedar is on the super busy southwest corner of the lot.

New best friend

Elena discovered herself in the mirror today. She likes what she sees!

Not a baby picture

We have some really beautiful trees on our property. I am going to try and post all of our trees on the blog. This is our Locust tree on the northeast corner of our yard. I took this picture from the window of my upstrairs study/baby room. This tree stays a gorgeous light spring green all summer and into fall and has beautiful big white flowers in the spring.

Self portrait 2

Big changes

Look how much my baby has changed! Here she is now (5 months) and at about 4 weeks.

Work

Except for a short respite day and a half camping trip, Kevin has been incredibly busy this summer working on his first CD with his trio, Finisterra. After several weekends in Yakima, they finally finished recording and now Kevin is working day and night editing. Here he is in front of the computer doing this incredibly difficult and time consuming job. I am so very proud of him for all the work he is putting into this, and I will be even more proud of the fabulous CD once it is finished once and for all.

Newgrass

We stopped for burgers on the way home and Elena felt grass for the first time! Apparently, many babies cry when they feel grass for the first time, but Elena was quite curious and pleased.

She was also very curious about Daddy's humburger...

Elena loves sleeping in the tent!
Scarmbled eggs in the morning takes four hands.
Diaper changes in the car.
We brought a lot of stuff. But it was worth it!

Camping!

We went camping this weekend! Here is Elena in our tent nest, complete with futons and a down comforter. Amazingly, she only woke up twice in the night to nurse-- this is a true record. I have now decided that we must go camping A LOT. Or, move next to a huge river, and sleep in a futon nest in a tent every night.
We in hereited this old Kelty backpack from some friends. It works great! We took a nice hike to Esmerelda Basin.

Ellis slept peacefully the whole way up and most of the way down.
Breakfast: Kevin and our friend Chris prepare the sausages on the fire.