Master Britton

Do we have to call him Master now? Britton received his Masters degree in Aeronautical Engineering last week. (two weeks ago?) And he's not done yet! He has about three more years of focusing on his research and creating a disertation masterpiece before he is completely done with school. And then even after that he will probably do a "post-doc" which will take another year. This man was made for school and homework. It's OK though. I love his flexible schedule.
So for this graduation we had just close family come. And Paola, Clark, and Clark's brother Bobby. It was a nice, to-the-point ceremony with only a small graduating class. Plus they tried to make it more entertaining than serious by introducing the professors with a baby picture along with their current picture. Very cute. One of the professors was shown riding a little airplane as a kid.
Congratulations Britton! You have really rocked this grad school thing:)

What Up From Oakland!

I never thought I would be living in Oakland, but here we are. As you can tell from the pictures of our new place...it's not your typical Oakland. We're here because Britton is doing an internship at the Lawrence Berkeley Lab this summer, the commute from Stanford is killer, and rent in Berkeley is also killer. Do people say that anymore? Killer... You know you're getting old when you look up words in a slang dictionary.
I love the new place. It's only a one bedroom so Will just sleeps in the main living/dining room as you can see.

It's got a kitchen stocked with pretty much everything we need. We left most of our stuff at Stanford with our sub-tenants who seem very nice and responsible:)
I love the view from our balcony! You can see all the boats, and a small corner of a nearby park.

Please meet the new member of our family. Fuji-san came as a graduation/Father's Day present for Britton. Fuji-san will be used for commuting, and the occasional recreational ride. Britton promises this bike will not make him a spandex junkie. We'll see. It seems like the roadies always end up decked out in spandex.
So we start our Oakland adventures today. Britton and I both tried out BART today, and it's been a painful learning curve.

I'll do a graduation post when someone emails me some pictures. (We packed up our camera too soon.)

9 Month Post

Will has officially spent more time in the outside world than in the womb! Congratulations boy! He is into climbing up things as you can tell from the cute picture above. His chubby legs are surprisingly speedy getting him up the stairs when I least expect it.

More good news is that I am finally making him sleep through the night! Congratulations to me. Right now it's hard to remember what uninterrupted sleep is like.

9 Month Stats
Height: 25th percentile
Weight: 63rd percentile (!)
Head: about 75 I think

He just keeps changing and growing. He loves to make strangers smile, and giggle and laugh with other kids. I am excited to watch him show more personality in the coming months.

The Beach?

I don't know why we haven't learned our lesson yet. We keep assuming that sunny and warm here means it will be sunny and warm at the beach. Not true for 8 out of 10 trips to Half Moon Bay. (rough estimate)
Some of Britton's family joined us early in the morning to beat the Memorial Day traffic. We ended up roaming the trails and beach in our sweatshirts and blankets before noon. But it wasn't crowded!
Will ate some more sand. Yummm.
Here's a shot of the older (more mature?) Olson boys laughing as the younger Olson boy struggles to get out of their sand trap.
I think this is a beach tradition for the Olson family too.
We ended up making a little cabana out of this chair by draping towels and blankets over the canopy. It was great to get a break from the wind for a little bit. Will was a pretty good sport during the trip. Especially after taking a little nap in our cabana.
It was fun to just play by the ocean even if we were freezing.

*Not pictured in this post is Derek's girlfriend Paola. (the real reason he's visiting) She was shivering under a blanket most of the time.

Health Update

This is for Grandmalita who is still worried about Will's health. He just discovered how much fun it is to play with balls, climb on things, and open doors.

Mother

It's a little late for a Mother's Day post, but I just thought I'd share these pictures. For Mother's Day this year I made a cute book for my mom with my Mac. (the gift possibilities are endless!) It was so fun to look through the pictures of my mom with her little babies. Sometimes I look at them and think it's me and Will! (minus the awesome glasses) Here she is in chronological order with all four babies.

I'm the bald girl baby at the end... I think I looked like a boy until I was about two.
She really is a great mom and example to all of us, and an incredibly thoughtful, indulgent grandma.

Just for fun here's one of those classic fluorescent pictures from the early 90s.
I only wish Loren was wearing his fluorescent Bart Simpson "cowabunga" shirt. Or did it say "Ay Caramba"? I wonder if those are worth anything now. Ah, the 90s. Clare and I loved our matching shirts and socks, and our fluorescent sunglasses with the handy strings.
But I see sunglasses like that except not so fluorescent on teens these days. I can say things like "Teens these days..." now.

Death Cap for Cutie

Here's the death cap


Here's the cutie


I decided recently to be more of a "fun" mom and let Will explore the backyard playground regardless of all the sand and leaves that might be tasted. So he LOVES it! He loves moving his feet around in the sand, scooping up the sand in his hand, crawling in the sand, and playing with the toys. Sure a little sand got into his mouth. I wasn't worried. He tasted a pinecone, rock, piece of bark, pine needle, some girl's shoe, etc. He would usually put it down, but when he didn't I just threw it out of reach. (He is a boy with a shoe fetish)

Right before we headed inside Will puts another unidentified object in his mouth. It weirdly resembled food. After fishing it out I realized it was a mushroom! I threw it as far away as possible and make a beeline for home. Halfway there I realize I need to know what kind of mushroom it is. So I went back and found one in the same area. The poison control lady was disgusted at how clueless I was about poison mushroom protocol. I went back outside to find the exact mushroom cap to see if Will had actually eaten any of it or not. Couldn't find it so she said I better take him to the ER because the mushroom I described sounded dangerous.

Did I mention Britton is on a trip right now?

The ER staff was great. They loved Will and Will loved them until they made him drink a weird charcoal/chocolate milk thing. It's a good thing Will had no idea what was going on because all the bursting into laughter of everyone that saw him and snapping pictures is probably enough to crush a little ego.

Well, it's over. I just changed his charcoal diaper and he's been acting completely normal. Before we left the ER the doctor handed me a piece of paper with the scientific name of the mushroom I had captured in Ziplock. "Amanita Phalloides" she wrote. I Googled it at home and found out the common name for it is DEATH CAP! Smart move doctor lady, smart move.

What did I learn from this?

The scientific name for death cap mushrooms, and also some handy trivia about the band Death Cab for Cutie.

What am I supposed to do? Ban him from all outdoor activity until he can crawl? I just can't. It keeps both of us sane. I think I'll just be permanenantly creeped out by mushrooms and avoid playing under the pine trees and live oaks.

Also thank you Tia for reminding me about the Poison Control number mere days before this occured.

A Few Opinions

Spitting like a motorboat is one of Will's new favorite ways to pass the time. Especially when he's bored like during choir yesterday. Britton's pants were glistening with spit beads....ewwww.... He only did it a few times here on this video.