Urban Homestead?

Love the hair here! She really can pull off a spectacular bed head! Here she is first thing in the morning with her Hanna PJ's and her backpack. I wasn't quick enough with the camera to get a shot with her sunglasses on. Trust me when I say, it really pulled the look together. :)

Willie loves Baby too!

Basil harvest! I'm making pesto today! Woo Hoo! It hasn't been the best growing season but the basil has done well in the greenhouse. We have lettuce galore, Swiss chard, broccoli, carrots, turnips and potatoes growing in the beds this year. The greenhouse is where we are trying our best to get some tomatoes, peppers, and various herbs. Things have been cold and its a bit slow going in there. I'm sure we'll get a bit but not a lot. I'm also sure that all those tomatoes will be ripe while I'm gone and Brian doesn't eat tomatoes. Hmm...

The little ladies roosting on the garden fence. The other day when I opened the door to head outside Fiona said "Hi Ladies". It cracks me up. She loves these chickens and chases them all around the yard. I catch them for her so she can pet them. She loves to point out the beak and says it over and over. I suspect ole Whitey is a Roo which I'm totally bummed about because she/he is so beautiful. He loves to roost in the tree in our yard and will even fly to the top of the shed. I wish we could keep him. We'll wait it out to know for sure but I expect to hear crowing practice before too long.

It will be a busy week of cleaning the house and packing since we leave a week from today! Who am I kidding, I won't pack till the day before we leave! We are all so excited to be getting off the rock for a bit. We get about 1 week in Ohio with Brian's family and Fiona and I get 3 weeks in Washington with my family just after. Sunshine here we come! I"ll be sure to post pictures of our adventures!

Jumping Skills!

Fiona learning to "jump"! I love how she grunts. She's always very proud of herself. As a bonus you can hear her rooster call which she heard on the TV and ran off to investigate.

Summer???

Tacos! Black beans are a favorite around here!

Broccoli is another favorite! She's helping me make dinner here. She loves to help!

Putting together the new grill! Happy Father's Day Brian!

Chasing her chickens around the garden. We have 4 babies and 2 adults now. She loves them!

Bundled up to play in the yard. It's a lightweight fleece at least! (good grief!)

Glad I posted those pictures in my last post. That was our week of sunshine. Since then it's been rain, rain, oh and more rain. Sometimes it gets to be a bit much. Is it too much to ask for sunshine during the summer months? Apparently. I can't tell you how much we are looking forward to our trip to Ohio and Washington next month! Be prepared with your shades folks because this Alaskan family is going to glow in our shorts!

We've had Brian home for a couple of weeks now. It is so nice to have him here! Fiona is pretty attached to him these days. As soon as he's home from work she's all about Papa. If we visit him at work she cries when we leave him. We've been playing lots of Bocce in the yard these days (between rain showers!) and Brian always plays with her in arms or on his shoulders. Somehow he still wins everytime!

Fiona is talking up a storm! We have hit a language explosion. She repeats anything we say! I feel like I can't keep up with teaching her new signs fast enough too. She remembers them way better then we do! The phone rang yesterday and I said "where's the phone?" and she echoed, "yeah, where's the phone, here it is!" We just hung a framed photo of her in our bedroom the other day. She was crawling into bed and pointed to it and asked "who's dat baby?" What?! Who told her she could grow up so fast?! I'm used to her 2 word sentences of hi papa, stuck mama, help peas, nu-nu yeah yeah, and more peas. But these big sentences are new. Pretty cool!

She's fighting a bit of a stomach bug right now. Hopefully it will go fast and she'll be feeling and sleeping like her old self again soon. We're all a bit tired today.

PS. when uploading photos for this post I clicked on the "last 12 months" button on my iphoto. Pictures from our Montana trip were right on top! Remember how fun that was?! Ma and Pa, hope you have a great trip there this week! Think of us when you are swimming in the hotsprings!

Summer!

Fiona and I are making the most of our summer days. We've been enjoying walks, playing at the beach and spending a lot of time in the yard. She always wants to be "side". She often brings me her shoes or coat and tells me "side, side" in the morning. We're loving it!

She is talking up a storm these days too. I think Brian is going to notice some real changes in her vocabulary when he gets home (9 more days!!). She's not only adding words and signs but words she already used are getting clearer. She says again instead of gee and waters (always with the s!) instead of wawa. She is forever pointing at things and asking whats that, or in her words, "sat?". Her go to word when she wants something that is out of reach, can't get down from the precarious place she has climbed up to, or can't quite get to where she wants to go is "stuck." I hear it all day long! "Stuck, stuck!" But my favorite word is octopus! Opata is sort of how it sounds. I think its fantastic!

We're missing Papa on Fathers Day especially but we'll celebrate with him when he gets home next week. Can't wait!

Just us girls...

It's that time of year again. The summer survey cruise. This year Brian is back out to Dutch Harbor and heading west for a 3.5 week bottom trawl survey. He'll be back at the end of the month. We can send emails back and forth every few days but won't have any phone contact. I hope the days fly by! He's only been gone a few days and we miss him already! The good news is that it's only one leg of the cruise. In the past he's had to do two legs... 8 weeks out at sea!

Meanwhile, Fiona and I are holding down the fort. We've planted the garden and have the greenhouse full of tomatoes, peppers, and various herbs. I finished getting flowers planted this morning while she spent an hour playing with our neighbor girl, a middle school girl who Fiona adores! We also have 4 new chicks to add to our flock! Fiona LOVES them! She wants to kiss them and hold them tight. I've taught her to pet them gently with one finger and figure lots of kisses will only make these chicks kid friendly! For now, they live in the garage but I'm anxious to get them outside to our old greenhouse soon. They will live in there until they are a bit bigger and we can introduce them to the older ladies in the coop. Who knows how that will go!

I hate to write this and find I'm wrong but I think that we have figured out her allergy. Her skin is clearing up and hasn't flared up in over a week. The culprit... wheat! It is such a relief to have found some answers. I'm going to give it a bit more time before I make a final declaration but her skin hasn't looked this good in months! Thankfully there are quite a few wheat free products on the market these days. I found some good stuff at our local health food store. I'll keep you posted on how this goes.

Time Flies...

One year ago Fiona was just learning to roll over...

Today she's a sassy little thing running around the yard in funky sun hats and shades and taking walks through the neighborhood with Papa. She is embracing toddlerhood with gusto! Brian and I are learning how to parent this little girl who is showing more and more independence all the time. As Brian said, it was much easier when she was a baby and didn't have an opinion about everything! She is a Jacobson girl after all and we like to do things our own way!

not the best picture but shows her rash...

sometimes its better and sometimes its worse then this

water play! Fiona loves the sand and water table from Grandma and Grandpa Knoth. We fill it with hot water!

Our smiley girl!

Here is where I stray from my usual happy news and updates.... After all parenting isn't just about the happy bits!

What a long week I've just had! Brian was in Seattle for training and my back and hip were killing me. It is really hard to keep up with a toddler (and daycare kiddos) when you are in constant pain! Thankfully Brian is home now and I got some treatment from Zoya which has helped with my back pain. I'm still sore but not nearly as bad as before. Fiona and I were both thrilled to get Brian home last night though.

Fiona's rash is not improving which has been really frustrating for us. We are now treating it with an antibiotic ointment. We've tried eliminating various foods, treating it as a bacterial infection, and now we are treating it as a fungal infection. If this is not it then we will eliminate wheat from our diets. Since she is still nursing she and I have to give up these things together. And since we are giving them up, Brian might as well too! I just want it to go away, we've been dealing with this for months! GRR!

That's all for now... I'm going to go crawl in bed with my sleeping girl for a bit of a nap!