Merry Christmas '09!

Yes, the old saying is true, give a kid a present and they'll love the box. The big box Grandpa and Grandma sent from Eastern Washington filled with presents became Soren's airplane (of course, those are wingflaps!) until it literally fell apart.
It's the day after Christmas and I have to say we haven't opened all the presents yet. Soren got so interested in the first present he opened -- a wooden train set with stackable blocks, from Grannie and Papaw -- that we held off introducing any more excitement. "Choo, choo...choo, choo," he immediately piped up with, and has barely stopped since.

Then it was off to "the Castle" for Christmas day dinner with my extended family. Manresa Castle, an 1890s gem (more interesting history here), has one of the fanciest dining rooms in town, so we dressed up for the occasion. Soren doesn't have a tux jacket or a bowler like Dad, but he does have a cute little vest and bandneck shirt, and they're not going to fit him much longer!
Here's our little family posed outside the castle, and the Testerman Troupe in the lobby. From left to right, Shelly, Ann, Soren, Bill, Nora & Jill.
We hope you enjoyed your Christmas as much as we enjoyed ours. All best to you and yours!

Our piano man

Soren isn't talking much yet (with his voice -- he uses 35 signs, however!), but he is usually quite clear in his communication.

Here, for example, he wants to play the piano. Grannie boosts him onto the bench. He gets into the rhythm with a sway and a smile. And with a flourish, adds a low bass note -- he is currently fascinated with the left end of the keyboard. The high notes on the right don't hold much thrall for him.

Yes, that's a clear "Mommy" you hear at the beginning, and from then it's 21 seconds of our Piano Man.

(This video is from the new camera and should be much better quality. Hope the file size isn't too cumbersome.)

Visit with Clear Lake friends

This week Soren and I made a trip to Clear Lake to visit long-time friends -- and ride on a rocking horse that has been around their house for about 25 years. I might well have ridden it!

Anne and Ann (our Grannie Annie), both pictured above, have been friends since their children were very young. In the past year, they both became grandmas!
Here's Anne's grandson Keegan (three months older than Soren) and his mother Heather.
This was the first time for Soren and Keegan to meet, and they played very well together. A highlight was romping around Anne's yoga studio with balls. Keegan taught Soren how to request a somersault: by getting in "downward dog" position with your bottom in the air and waiting patiently until an adult flips your heels over your head!
At some point Soren started a hug-fest that had both boys hugging all four adults -- and each other!
Taking a walk with the Ann(e)s. Soren sometimes likes to hold two hands, and he's awfully winning when he reaches up for yours!

Preview Soren's book, Volume 3

I've been busy at the computer in the evenings, wrapping up Soren's first year in pictures with Volume 3 of S'ing Around With Soren. This volume covers 7-12 months. Papaw Bill is featured on the cover, and Soren just keeps getting more creative with his S-verbs!

Until Dec. 15 (this date is based on when I uploaded the book to order it), you can click through the book's pages here. Start by clicking on the banner that says "Preview" on the book's cover. Enjoy!

New camera records lagoon, tree-lighting

Main Street, Port Townsend ~ annual tree-lighting ceremony at Haller Fountain, shot from steps connecting downtown with uptown.

For months, I've known I needed a new point-and-shoot camera to carry in my purse or diaper bag, and finally I am the proud owner of a Canon IXUS 800 IS (6.0 megapixels). It's part of the Digital ELPH Powershot series, and my father-in-law Jim helped me find and purchase it on e-Bay over the Thanksgiving holidays (my first auction, and an interesting experience in itself). It's a second-hand camera we got for a really good price, and an early Christmas gift for the Randall Roost. Thanks, Jim & Gloria!

I took it for a test run yesterday and recorded these shots of our visit to the lagoon to watch the ducks and downtown (after dark) to watch the tree-lighting ceremony. All were shot with no flash, which is my preference. I'm pretty pleased with the results, and the resolution -- these could be printed at 8x10", which is good for photo books.

Soren & Shelly at Haller Fountain; no flash, color-corrected (to a point!) in PhotoShop.

Sign in window of Wandering Angus, the Celtic shop where we buy our favorite Irish-blended tea (Barry's Gold Blend).
Soren & Jeff at Kah Tai Lagoon; county courthouse clocktower in background.

Jeff & Soren at the lagoon; cold and windy!

Giving thanks

This Thanksgiving 2009, Soren is thankful for... a grandfather who will read him stories.
...a grandmother who will play with him at his new sand table (literally hours of entertainment with shovel and buckets here!).
...these same grandparents who will drive all the way across the state to spend this special holiday with us, and take us out to eat so we don't have to cook a complicated meal when it's Soren we really want to spend our time with.
...caring parents who love him very much, and who will chase after him in shifts when he tires of sitting in the high chair at the dining table.
...and delicious butternut squash bisque, the highlight of his Thanksgiving buffet!

Hope all of you enjoyed the holiday. We are thankful for you!

Jeff is Bob Crachit this theatre season

Sporting glue-on sideburns and a not-quite-Cockney accent, Jeff is currently playing a key supporting role in our community theatre's production of Scrooge: The Musical. Do you recognize him as the head of the impoverished but cheery Crachit family (including Tiny Tim with a crutch that Jeff crafted) in the photo above?

Yes, Jeff is Bob Crachit, humble clerk to mean ol' Mister Scrooge, and he made his Key City Public Theatre debut last Friday in this ambitious musical by Leslie Bricusse. That means he sings -- and he even has a few solo lines. A fellow cast member reported to Jeff that she overheard someone in the grocery check-out line say, "I'm going to see Scrooge so I can see Jeff Randall dance." Which he does, after a fashion, if you count the choreography of the Crachit family shrugging their shoulders in unison as they sing 'round the Christmas goose.

But Jeff's always been a dancer; that's no sweat. And he has no trouble conjuring tears for the tragic scene at the tombstone of Tiny Tim -- he just thinks of his own son succumbing to an early death, and has most viewers reaching for their kleenex. He'll tell you the voice training has been the most challenging aspect of this show. He's the lead tenor and has been studying his parts diligently for months now, with the aid of a new digital voice recorder.

For the record, I encouraged him to audition for the part this summer after I heard the director (a friend and fellow actor) say she was looking for a Bob Crachit who was "very likeable with a good voice." And Jeff had been thinking he'd like to try his hand at this acting thing I'm so fond of (I've been in two mainstage shows and a couple of readings), he was just waiting for the right opportunity to come along.

Which means I've been putting Soren to bed myself quite often for the last month, and will continue to do so through closing night on Dec. 20. And I haven't even seen the show yet, although Soren and I attended some rehearsals and Jeff's parents were in the audience on opening night. I'll try to keep Soren awake through the Family Night performance on Dec. 9, then I'll go again that weekend while my parents are visiting (and seeing the show). Sister Nora will attend on closing night and watch Soren sleeping while I join Jeff at the cast party.

If you're a local, you won't want to miss this one. Get your tickets soon (info here), as many performances are already sold out.

The first review, in our local paper, is glowing. Leader Arts Editor Kathie Meyer says, "It was like having a really good seat at Seattle Repertory Theatre." Jeff is not called out specifically, but his photo accompanied the piece. Read it here.

"God bless us, every one!"

Two weeks to preview Soren's book, Volume 2

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's nearly 7:30 p.m. on this holiday and Soren is fast asleep and Jeff and I and his parents are relaxing with full bellies. We ate a delicious dinner OUT, perhaps the best part of which there is no sticky kitchen to clean up and NO dishes to wash. This makes MY holiday.

Will post pictures soon, but wanted to give y'all the opportunity to preview the first third of my newest photo book creation: S' ing Around With Soren, Volume 2 (3-7 months old).
Volume 3 (7-12 months old) is in the works. Yes, all the photos portray him in an activity beginning with "S." It's a great way to cull hundreds of photos of our cutie, and the books are super gifts for the relatives (if you received Volume 1, Volume 2 is coming your way...).

For the next two weeks (until Dec. 7), you can click through the book's pages here. Start by clicking on the banner that says "Preview" on the book's cover. Enjoy!

Returned from Jill's adopted hometown, Portland

So we spent four nights in Portland last week, returning home Sunday night. As always, it was good to get out of town, and we really owed my sister Jill a visit. She's been making the four-hour drive to visit us quite often since Soren was born, and we had yet to make the reverse trip. We experimented with taking the train down (and then we got a ride back with Sierra, a Seattle friend who joined us for two nights).

We are by no means regular Amtrak riders (it had been about five years since my last jaunt), but it was a great mode of transportation for an energetic, walking toddler. I chased Soren up and down the length of the 9-car train for what felt like the entire 3-1/2-hour journey. One of the conductors was kind enough to let him try on her hat!
But the friendly face at the final destination was worth it. Here's Auntie Jilly with her sweet nephew. She knitted that hat for him! The short story on Jill's career track is that she graduated from nursing school at the end of August, passed her certification exam at the end of September, interviewed for her dream job that week, and was hired and working by mid-October. She's an emergency room nurse at Providence St. Vincent and is part of a new-nurse training program, so she shadows a mentor during the day for her first three months -- before she starts a night shift on her own. We're very proud of her.
On our first full day, Jill had a playdate all lined up for us with the nephew of a nursing school classmate. Kimary (her parents liked both the names Kim and Mary) and Oscar met us at the park and we watched the ducks, shared a snack, chased a ball, etc. The next evening we took Kimary up on her very gracious offer to sit with Soren after he'd fallen asleep, and we gals went out to a wine bar for drinks and dessert. How adult!
Yes, Soren would rather push the stroller than sit in it himself. Jill's backpack got a ride down this sidewalk. Look at that grin!
This is the only good photo that was taken of Jill's 600-square-foot apartment, but it wasn't as crowded/noisy as I had feared. Soren slept in a borrowed Pack-n-Play that we screened in with a nearby closet door and a hanging sarong, and we would go whisper in the kitchen for 10 minutes and then he would be asleep and we would bang pots, talk normally, etc. Soren slept just like he does at home; a good lesson for me that he doesn't need tiptoeing around as much as we do. (Yes, those are Tweety Bird slippers Soren is trying on for size!)
This is the entrance to Jill's classic apartment building in a very walkable part of southeast Portland: near the Belmont and Hawthorne street districts. And very close to a Stumptown Coffee bar (a Portland original), which served the best cup of drip French Roast coffee I've ever had!
Happily, I was able to connect and have lunch with my sophomore college roommate, Karin, who is a surgical resident at the same university hospital where Jill just graduated from. We hadn't seen each other in over 10 years, but we both exclaimed, "You look the same!" Except that she's pregnant and due in a month (doesn't she look great?) and I have a Soren-appendage. Otherwise, exactly the same.
And here's the happy Testerman trio on the Portland waterfront (thus Soren's bollard seat). We browsed the Saturday crafts market and ate a picnic lunch. It was colder than it looks, but we are a hardy Northwest lot.
Here's our friend Sierra, who was the Seattle driver who joined us for her weekend off. We three women were all friends way back in elementary school. How wonderful that we still are!
We also attended a family-friendly contra dance one evening, took the MAX light rail to the Children's Museum (see Soren's account), introduced Jill to IKEA, went Goodwill shopping for new jeans for me (Jill and Sierra ordered me to throw out my old ones!), and generally had a good time.

I'll sign off with these shots of us on one of the pedestrian bridges that crosses the Willamette River. Portland really is a beautiful (and to my mind, manageable) city, and I'm sure we'll be visiting Jill lots more.

An odd energy inspector

Halloween weekend we were visited by this geeky energy inspector. He boldly knocked on our door and asked if we were interested in a free energy audit. That's when Soren saw past the disguise and ran into Daddy's arms! The fake teeth and thick glasses really change Jeff's appearance. And since he is getting ever-better with his accents as he rehearses for his play, even people who know him well do a double-take. He fooled our neighbors in a great gag.
We've been lucky to find a great teenaged babysitter who lives just a few blocks away. Soren loves Kaila, and she has a great time with him. She comes 2-3 times a week for a couple of hours at a time. I took this picture in part because they were dressed in matching outfits!
And we'll close with a cute shot of Soren hefting a squash from our fall centerpiece and displaying one of those rare expressions where you can almost see what he'll look like as a grown-up. But he's a long way from that now, at 14-1/2 months. Thank goodness!

Lights on in The Nest

Two weeks ago (or so), a trench was dug across our backyard and lined with conduit for electrical cables connecting The Nest/Garage to our house. Going around our existing concrete patio was deemed the most direct route. Oh, well, the grass needed reseeding anyway. We're in for a major re-landscaping project after the building is finished.

Soren was fascinated for the whole day it took to dig the trench with this machine that looked like a chainsaw attached to a rototiller!
The end result is that the new building has power and thus lights. The garage has some utilitarian fluorescent tubes, but we put more care into the lighting in The Nest. We are using some of the "leftovers" from the construction of our house, such as the two exterior round lights that match four others already installed on The Roost. Our street is very dark at night, so these will come in handy as guests make their way to bed.
The weekend of Halloween, we parked our car in the garage for the first time! My parents are caretaking Matilda (our 1989 VW van) at the moment, but when she's with us, she'll live in the garage, too.
Here is a picture of Christopher, our friendly electrician, who has installed all the lighting...
...and the ceiling fan. We are big fans of fans. And can you see that the walls are painted a warm, pale yellow? The bathroom is pale blue.
Soren likes it; how about you?

PT named "Solar City of the Year"!

It's in the newspaper today: Port Townsend is "Washington Solar City of the Year," an honor accorded it by the Northwest Solar Center. It has more solar systems per capita than any other city in the state. And our house has one of them!

Jeff accepted the award at the annual conference last week on behalf of the city. His picture and some good quotes from him were in the paper. Read the article in the Peninsula Daily News here.

It's all good!

On another topic, Soren and I are preparing for a trip to Portland to visit Auntie Jill. We are taking the train down Wednesday and catching a ride back with a friend Sunday. Will probably be reporting on that adventure next...

You don't say?

Where does our little boy come up with these expressions? These were teased out of him from his "Auntie" Sierra on a recent visit.

Maybe here Soren is recalling his shock at glancing down our stairwell recently and seeing this out the window...
Yes, one of the town's feral deer--a young buck--had plopped down in our yard and there he stayed for most of the afternoon. Was he hurt, resting? We didn't bother him because he wasn't eating our garden plants. This is why a significant portion of our yard is fenced. If we catch the deer nibbling, we throw ice cubes at them. They are not cute wildlife. But that's another subject.

Soren was fascinated, to say the least.
To see what kind of animal Soren was for Halloween, see his blog post!

Autumn's bounty

The growing season has been productive here in the Pacific Northwest. Not that we grew much in our own garden, but we are loyal customers at the Port Townsend Farmers Market (sic: the apostrophe is officially missing from the name; a cowardly decision if you ask me). Two weekends ago, when Sierra was visiting, we were charmed to find Midori Farm selling the biggest leeks any of us had ever seen.
We bought two and let Soren run around with one. He literally stopped traffic in the corridor as two other shoppers joined me in whipping out their cameras and trying to capture his glee. P.S. Thanks to Kathie M. for the new knitted hat!
Later, Soren marveled at these stalks of chard that are still growing in our raised beds. We added them to a risotto we made incorporating as many local ingredients as we could: foraged chanterelle and cauliflower shrooms, pastured-pig ham from Walker Mountain Meadows Farm just to the south of us, Walla Walla sweet onions. Yum! (I just finished reading The Omnivore's Dilemma and never want to eat factory-farmed meat again...)
And I'll sign off with this picture of Soren having a ball during our county's Farm Tour in September. This was the precise moment I decided I needed a new point-and-shoot digital camera, one that fits into my fanny pack. (I'm still looking.) Again, Soren's photogenics kicked in once he was hoisted up to the wheel of this stationary old tractor at Red Dog Farm. I gave a camera-wielding out-of-state tourist my email address and he sent this adorable thumnail, but by the time I (busy mom that I am) emailed back to ask for a high-resolution version, he said he had deleted the original files. Aaaackk!! Why would anyone do this when computer memory is so cheap??? Oh, well. The moment was captured in digital minature, so at least I can share it here with you.
By the way, we signed up for a Winter CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) "share" from the above-pictured Red Dog Farm and are really looking forward to it starting around Thanksgiving. I'm sure you'll be hearing more about how we cook up all the yummy produce we receive in our weekly box.

Happy eating to you all, and make the Earth happy in your eating, too.