News from Corvallis

Hello, I know it has been two months but it is hard for me to carve out an hour on the computer to get this done.

In August we went to a Halbleib family reunion in Placerville, CA. All five Halbleib brothers were there as were some cousins from the Midwest. Evan and Dadoo did some rafting on the creek and Granda Halbleib did her own show (that we missed) one evening by stepping between two rafts and falling in! Then we flew 15 minutes east for a stay on Lake Tahoe with some of Mary's family. Chloe and Evan both got guitars at the craft fair (thanks Aunt Beth and Uncle David!). The hammock in the backyard was a hit as was the baseball practice stand Chloe brought. We were one block from the lake and it was beautiful especially from the air. Greg, Mike and Mary did a off-trail hike in the Desolation Wilderness, only a few miles from the house, the lakes nestled in the granite bowls were stunning and made us was five days with our backpacks -- oh and some child care!

Before this trip we took Evan on a test flight with four successful take-offs and landings (and a short aerial tour of Skip's farm) we decided to fly to CA on Halbleib Air. So this was Evan's first long distance flight and he was a super star! Mom on the other hand was not so much of one when there was some hefty turbulence over Lake Tahoe as we headed back to Oregon.

The day after we got home Dadoo took Evan to the coast and the weather was unbelievable -- just look at what Evan is not wearing while he ran on the sand dragging a piece of seaweed! This is a very sweet image for me as he is enjoying himself and not in pain (below there is more on why this is the case).

Evan loves to visit Skip's farm over in Albany; I suspect all of the large and green John Deere equipment makes it even better. He got to ride an onion digger driven by Skip and climb on anything on the farm. Evan selected his outfit this day, he truly likes bright colors!

Daddo comes up with the best adventures, he took Evan down to a park on the Willamette River that turned into a mud bog fun fest. Evan even had his sandals get sucked off his feet by the sticky mud.

Growing up and being like Dad is apparently on Evan's mind. On that note Evan starts preschool next week!

The new background reflects Evan's love for the color orange. He has orange Crocs that he picked out and he gets compliments on them quite often (he is wearing them in the tractor above).

Evan is having more GI issues so we are back at Doernbecker Childrens Hospital (aka OHSU) in Portland. We had a test last week to make sure that his guts are structurally correct, they are. Next week we go back for an gastric emptying test (3 hours long in the nuclear medicine department, this is new place for us). We are sad for him to have to endure so many tests but not sleeping, throwing up or being in extreme pain have become the night routine here. We hope to find an answer soon so we can move forward and get some sleep.

Evan went to California and had lots of fun (and mom too!)

Well I know this post comes so quickly after the last one, but I thought you could handle it. Since we just were in CA there are stories and photos to share. Evan loved Grandma Carole and Greg's pond as he asked to look at the fish and to see the concrete lion that was Grandma Gipe's. Then Grandma taught him to fish with a stick and to be king of the mountain (or rock in this case). Evan was so content with everyone -- he immediately asked Greg to read him a book about how things work (Greg is an engineer so he is very qualified for this job) and when Uncle David stopped by Evan climbed right into his lap with a book. Evan loves to read books, he even wore out Grandma's voice reading to him one day! Evan LOVES Percy - The perfectly imperfect chicken, this book was recently published by FastPencil where Uncle David is the Director of Finance. Uncle David's Shelby Cobra was a hit with Evan (the doors, hood and trunk open and it has a lot of detail), below Chloe is showing Evan the features of the car's engine.

If you know about the weather in Oregon this time of year you know Mary was making sure a mountain bike ride was on the agenda. Thanks to Dave for rounding up Dustin's rig, mom for watching Evan and Beth for the two shuttle rides (no minor favor!). David and Mary spent almost 4 hours in the back-country of Henry Coe State Park. We had pure sun and perfect temperatures for shorts and short sleeved jerseys for our cross country ride that included a shoes-off creek crossing at China Hole. For the first 3 hours we saw only a lone 70+ year-old volunteer hauling rock and wet soil up hill to level out the trail. He said he was applying for a $3K grant to the Pine Ridge Association for rock to improve the trail; he is an amazing person with a great attitude and genuine care for the park (he really wants that rock and if he gets it he will be wheel barrowing it in from the road over a mile down the trail and hiking back out to get more!). Bottom line for this wonderful day is: thanks Beth! Next time we will ride harder and do a loop climbing back up the most steep dirt road I have ever ridden to get back to the park head quarters.

We have some amazing friends to thank for all the wonderful hand-me-downs for Evan. Deana, Kenny and Oliver have given Evan so many wonderful toys, books and bikes. Others to thank include Dylan, who works in Mike's group, who just gave Evan a German Kettler tricycle, then there are Sandy, Erica and Riley who shared many nice clothes, Kathy Gunter has loaned us a Bob running stroller and high chair and the Hunter and Gale families have sent many books and toys from their boys. If I have left someone off this list, hopefully not -- thanks to you too.

Nana Fran is taking spring break off so the three of us are thinking of coming back to Morgan Hill for most of that week (we have to fly somewhere before March 29 - Hawaii sure sounds good! - as that is the date that we have to buy three tickets so commercial air travel is about to get a lot more expensive for us. Evan is VERY good on the plane, he even sleeps through the landings. He can tell you we just flew on a Boeing jet to CA!). Beth and Grandma Carole like this idea as they want to host a b-day party as Evan turns TWO in 7 weeks! Wowee, as Evan likes to say.

Time zooms by and Evan is almost 14 months!

I know it has been a long time, sorry as I wanted to get to this to keep everyone in the loop. The situation is that Evan has been having health challenges for some time now including eczema, allergies and many colds. We just found out he is very allergic to gluten (got two sensitivity genes -- so both Mike and I carry that), dairy, soy and eggs. So things will improve with those things out of both of our diets. Last night Evan had a blood draw (the max they can take from a little guy) for some tests and the three nurses said he was the best baby they have ever seen in the lab. He is such a sweet and affectionate little person. Now that I have said that let's get to the fun things that have happened in the past two months.

Evan had a birthday party and many friends stopped by to see him. He got many presents though I told everyone all we wanted was them to come over. Very sweet. The next weekend we went to the beach and Evan decided walking was the preferred way to get around. We think the large place we had with brand new carpet throughout was good for him as we have mostly hardwood floors. We tried to go on a hike -- it was raining sideways and we still loaded Evan up and he was fine with it but there were so many down trees and we did not pack Evan an adequate lunch so we turned around and went to check in. The place we go to has beach access so we did a lot of beach walks and Evan tried hard to say the word ocean.

We went to fantastic local nursery (Oregon grows a huge amount of nursery stock for the US) get a wisteria to grow on our pergola and found a great way to have Evan contained while we shopped (ha ha). Evan seems to like our homegrown raspberry puree from last year especially on fresh bread right out of the oven.

Evan is saying a lot of words: car, truck, tractor, hat, duck, cat, all done, outside (his #1 favorite), dad, mama, bath and ball. He is working on more clearly saying diaper, block and bike (we like that word). He LOVES to go outside, look at books with photos of trucks and other vehiciles and play with his megablocks (Mike is amazing and builds him a new structure every day so when he gets up that is what he sees in the front room).

Evan and I went to CA to meet Macie (David and Beth's 2nd daughter born in February) and see Grandma Carole -- of course. Macie is very sweet and calm -- even smiles during tummy time -- wow. Aunt Beth threw a wonderful birthday party for Evan and he got his first cake! Most days Evan and Grandma went on long walks and played at the park often.

The next weekend Carole and George Leone came up from San Luis Obispo to meet Evan and we got to hear some about their safari trip to Botswana in April. Wow on the wildlife they got to see -- as they said it was done right -- the animals were free to roam and the humans were in cages (cabins at night and land rovers during the day). It is hard to get things done here so here our creative way to get the lawn mowed. And in the last few days Evan has decidd that he loves Mike's hat - taking it off dad and putting it on his head. So cute.

It is early SUMMER up here -- meaning 75-80 and sunny just about everyday so we are outside much more. Just last week Mike and I were both in the house and Mike looking out the kithcen window said, "Are you with Evan out on the deck?" -- so it seems he has learned how to open the screen and get out. We were caught off guard by that but Evan is one determined little guy when it comes to exploring and getting around. Last minute news - I saw a bobcat in the woods today, 2nd one I have seen in 13 years biking in the forest. And Mike caught his first honey bee swarm so we may have three hives now. With love from Corvallis.