Eleven Months

Archer’s eleventh month was such a busy adventure!  So much walking and exploring to be done, and so many new thoughts and opinions.

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There are new kids on the farm younger than Archimedes now.  They’re okay.

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Opinions: he has them.  He spent a week deciding he didn’t need to go to sleep at all ever… his godmother got us this pillow in a miracle of foresight!

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Smoothie time!  Gotta use up last summer’s berries before this summer brings us more.  Archer had some great berry lipstick going on in the sun.

 

We are seeing a lot more use of sign language; he uses “more”, “food”, and “up” frequently, and has just started using “all done” in correct context.  He’s very good at climbing up and even better at being safe getting down, which is great!  He’s still very attentive and usually complies when asked, although he does love to run away when you mention a diaper change, he is pretty good at being still for the change itself.

So hard to believe it’s almost been a year…

Ten Months

Archer spent his eleventh month becoming such a toddler.  He is an expert walker now, and is learning to get down stairs, as well.

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Grandpa John came to visit from Arizona for a little while – this time, Archer seemed to recognize him, and had a lot of fun hanging out with him.

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We had a big work party in late March, and Archer was a big help outside.  He hung out with his Tia Ana…

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And really loves playing on the front patio. Like a boss.

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Mom took him for a walk at Miller Woods and he did a great job hiking the trails!

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One more month and we have a one year old on our hands… he’s already walking and talking so much, we just want things to slow down a little so we can enjoy them!  Archimedes is such a happy, fun-loving kid already, we are excited about a summer together.

Nine Months

For his 9 month birthday, Archimedes walked!

A goal hard-won, we are so proud.

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Grandma’s birthday party – Archer loves his Grandma very much viagraindian.com.

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Old enough to interact with other lifeforms, some human, some not.

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Lastly, the big snow came this month!  Archer was not actually a fan, and he had trouble with his cheeks getting too cold, but we were glad to get to introduce him to the phenomenon (and a little downhill sledding).

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Eight Months

Lots of developmental changes for Archer this month.  He’s crawling like a racer now, cackling and asking to be chased, sticking EVERYTHING in his mouth (and turning his back to try to hide from us when he does).

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After this photo was taken he took several steps away from Grandpa to try to get his green toy.

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It’s so hard to believe this perfect little human face is the result of so much science and hard work.  His nose is red because he just did a face plant into a bookshelf… more science and hard work required yet, I think.

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FOOD!  After wavering in his interest, Archer rediscovered food this month and he is in LOVE.  Rice, especially, is the best thing, but potatoes are also his favorite.  He eats a banana regularly at Grandma’s house for breakfast, too.

Seven Months

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At the beach with Mom and Bosa in Lincoln City.  Beautiful but SO cold!

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Enjoying his holiday present from the moms: an awesome tree stacking toy from Plan

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All decked out for the cold weather this month: wearing his dinosaur hat and his accidentally matching winter Ergo leggings made by Grandma Glenna.

Merry First Christmas

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Archer was 7.5 months old for Christmas this year. Cutest. Elf. Ever. Enjoying a ribbon at Grandma Cassy’s family party. A hat from Grandma Glenna, and a cardboard box: the best gift.

Happy New Year!

Dear Ones,

This year opened in the last week of December, when Talina hit black ice on her way to work and flipped her Jeep into a ditch, an accident that looked terrifying, but from which she miraculously walked, making us very glad for mandatory safety measures in automobiles! So, January was a pretty terrible month, adding car shopping to the schedule with Megan working at a local client, but with a 45-minute commute, and routine 12 and 14 hour days. In addition to car dealerships and work, we unexpectedly lost a few animals on the farm. Thankfully, Megan’s brother Thaddeus and our friend Adam were both staying with us for the month, so Talina had help keeping the farm together while an increasingly pregnant Megan ambled from work to sleep and back again.

In March, we completed the process to legally change our last names to Corvus. We both kept our maiden names as new, second middle names, but are thrilled to share a last name for ourselves and especially for our future child! Corvus is the genus name for crows and ravens, and we chose it because we like the word, and we like the smart, social birds we share our farm with.

As the weather warmed, Megan’s father John found himself able to take a break from work, only to find himself up at the farm nearly every day, “working”. Between John, Thaddeus, and a huge number of family and friends who stepped up to keep things moving even as Megan became less mobile by the day, we accomplished an amazing list of tasks this spring: having cut down, then cutting up and clearing two enormous 100ft+ pine trees formerly on the east side of our house (and shading our garden), a beautiful new deer-proof fence around the garden space, a new gate and pasture area for the sheep, a new barn in the “Neutral Zone” pasture, frost-free pipe installed, blueberries and grapes planted, an entire 4,000sqft garden laid out and planted, construction and implementation of a chicken tractor for our 40 pastured laying hens to grow up in, completion of a turkey coop and separate run for our holiday birds to live in, and the successful births of 10 goat kids and 2 lambs.

And then came May. Megan worked from home the last weeks of April, and began a nice, calm week of pre-baby maternity leave on May 6th. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha… very early Tuesday morning, we went to our hospital, OHSU, to have some minor bleeding checked, and our midwives recommended induction. Thanks to the support of our family, and our doula, the delivery went pretty easily, and Archimedes River Corvus was born at 12:30pm, May 8, 2013: a Fibonacci baby (1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13…)! Unfortunately, shortly after Archer (for short: don’t you dare call him ‘Archie’!) was born, doctors and midwives determined that Megan had a retained placenta, and whisked her away to an operating room, where there was some drama, resulting in Megan spending the next 16 hours in the ICU while Archer was checked into the NICU (our hospital has no well-baby nursery, so although Archer was healthy, his mom wasn’t, and so the NICU it was). Those were not a fun 16 hours, and Talina and Megan’s sister Ana ran up and down the elevators many times to care for both Megan and Archer.

Thankfully, by mid-afternoon on Thursday, everyone was reunited in a recovery room, and after a few more days, everyone got a clean bill of health and we went home.

The rest of 2013 has flown by in a blur of diapers and farm chores! Archer attended four weddings (including ours, in Seattle, to make a legal marriage out of our 2008 Domestic Partnership), and visited 4 states: Washington, California, Indiana and Ohio! We were especially grateful for the opportunity to visit with so many family members, some of whom came from far away.

From welcoming Archer to our family to saying goodbye to a dear friend, we weathered unprecedented highs and lows this year. We are grateful every year for your presence in our lives, but this year we have received massive support for which we do not have enough words to express thanks. Be it with words, food, gifts by mail, or physical exertion, you have made this year possible for us.

This season, please know how much we love and appreciate you. Thank you.

Six Months

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Modeling the lovely sweater made by his Great Godmother Carol

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Archer and his best friend, Watson.

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Archer adores this contraption, which allows him to walk around the house and still grab at things with his hands. Grandma loves it because she might not need back surgery next month, now, afterall!