Ethan at the Nature Park in Beaverton, Oregon

Here’s our little guy doing some of his first steps while hiking near our home.

“Common Current recently released a report ranking U.S. cities on their ability to deal with a peak oil crisis. San Francisco comes out on top, with Oklahoma City ranks last.” Read the rest of the article at Planetizen.

What I find intriguing is the location of the Top 10 and Bottom 10 cities. Look at the locations and think about the politics. Then think about who is currently and soon-to-be leading our country. I think this country is in a great position to begin to design and plan communities that are energy efficient and improve our quality of life, not degrade it.

As a Portlander, I’m glad to see us at #7. Of course, with all great cities there is room for improvement. Portland recognizes this and continues to make strides. I just hope the bottom 10 recognize it because the ones paying for it are the citizens.

Top 10
1. San Francisco
2. New York
3. Washington, DC
4. Seattle
5. Oakland
6. Chicago
7. Portland, OR
8. Philadelphia
9. Baltimore
10. Boston

Bottom 50
41. Louisville, KY
42. Omaha, NE
43. El Paso, TX
44. Nashville, TN
45. Memphis, TN (tie)
45. Fort Worth, TX (tie)
47. Tulsa, OK
48. Indianapolis, IN
49. Jacksonville, FL
50. Oklahoma City, OK

Couple Shots of the Little Guy!

I’m told that I need to post more photos of our son. For now on, I will be sure to include at least a couple photos in my posts. Also, if you are on Facebook, we post a bunch of him on there. You have to be added as a friend though.

That's my boy!

Family hike

Last week was my birthday and to celebrate it, as well as get out of the 100 degree Portland weather, we headed west to Seaside for fun and much cooler weather. This was Ethan’s first time to the beach, walking on the sand, and putting his feet in the ocean. Enjoy the video.

Ethan also has his molars coming in. So far, two have popped out and two more are making their way. Of course this means he has been a little cranky, but always a charmer. After all four arrive, he will have 11 teeth.

We haven’t posted a video in quite some time so we thought you’d enjoy this one. Ethan had his first birthday a couple weeks ago. Mom and Dad gave him a Radio Flyer wagon which we just received today. Dad put it together and away we went. Ethan had a great time being able to have a 360 degree view, which the stroller did not allow.

In case the video doesn’t work, you can go here to view it.

In our effort to tire the little guy, we tried our infamous bouncing routine. Unfortunately, or fortunately for our video purposes, he found lots of amusement in being bounced on the exercise ball. He is now 7.5 months and about 21 pounds.

He is sitting up and making “ma ma ma” and “da da da” sounds, though he has yet to associate the sounds with either of us. He enjoys listening to all kinds of music and will sit on our laps as we play the piano for him. He usually tries to grab the sheet music so he can eat it.

A few weeks ago, we made the switch to cloth diapers and, in conjunction, we are using a toilet training seat. Besides the environmental reasons, it economically makes sense. We hadn’t switched earlier because of the frequency of pees and poops and we didn’t want to spend our days hanging out at the laundry machine. This has been proven to be a good time. Unlike disposable diapers, Ethan gets irritated after one pee in his diaper, whereas in disposables he could pee three times and not be irritated. We are practicing with the toilet seat so that he will want to use that instead of peeing in the cloth diaper. So far he uses his toilet 4-6 times a day. We just let him go with the flow and don’t force anything.

He has been eating solid foods since January and now eats two meals a day of solids. Laura is making most of his food, though we buy his rice cereal and a few organic baby foods. He eats apples, squash, pears, and popcorn. So far he has enjoyed everything he has been given. We recently introduced him to an all natural brand of Cheerios cereal that allowed him to work on his hand and eye coordination. He rarely actually eats the cereal. By the way, just kidding about the popcorn.

We left him alone with our neighbors for the first time a couple weeks ago. We were nervous about it, but let’s just say that when Laura came home to pick up, he almost didn’t know she was there because the four year old in the family was entertaining him so well. It was a great experience for all parties involved and hope our little guy will continue to feel at ease with his babysitters.

His sleeping schedule is great, though actually getting him to bed isn’t always easy. Once he is down, he will sleep 9-11 hours a night. In the daytime, he usually does a late morning 2 hour nap and a mid-afternoon 30-60 minute nap.

No children were injured in the making of this video, but there was lots of laughing. We guarantee it!

VIDEO NO LONGER AVAILABLE. Sorry.

Ethan is sleeping, not suffocating, with his dog Blue.

Ethan’s first snow hike in the forest.

Our beautiful son!

Duff and Ethan hanging out with the toys.

Ethan galloping on his horse Norm.

Ethan riding on his dog Duff.

We have been staying busy with Ethan time, school, work, and visiting family. Here are a couple recent photos of our little guy.

Future Peace Corps Volunteer!

Our little guy has hit another milestone in his life. He is now rolling over from his tummy to his back. Here is a video of him doing it for the second time. Despite all our efforts to capture on film his first rollover, we were not prepared.
This video is no longer available. Sorry.

I believe the video speaks for itself.

That is if the video still existed. Sorry.

Ethan is smiling a lot more, and we are trying to capture this moment on film, though it seems they are mostly blurry. He made a great horse for Halloween. After visiting the four houses on our street, he passed out from all the excitement. He enjoys being flown around the house, especially while strapped in his car seat. I hope to make a short film about this. Enjoy the photos.

We just posted a new video of Ethan hanging out just being Ethan. Enjoy!

It’s a boy!

Ethan William Holt arrived at 7:47pm on Monday, July 30, 2007. He weighs 7.5lbs, is 19 inches long, and other than a little jaundice, he is doing great. After staying one night at the hospital, we were released the next afternoon. Mom and Ethan are doing great.

The quick labor story:

Laura felt contractions around 11am on Monday. She went to her weekly doctor’s visit at 2pm where the doctor confirmed she was in labor. She called Brett who biked home from the UO in record time. We stayed in the comforts of our home until contractions reached 3 minutes or so apart. We arrived at the hospital about 5pm and, after a few outbursts such as, “Goodness gracious” and “Ohhhhhh”, Ethan joined us a few hours later. Laura is a strong woman and had a perfect and beautiful labor!

Thank you for your messages and phone calls!

We have just a little less than a month to go until our child arrives into this world! We have one week left with our birthing class, did a hospital tour, have names picked out, and purchased all major baby equipment. We take a refresher CPR class next week. We are 98% finished with the baby’s room and are basically in a holding pattern until he/she arrives.

Here are some photos of the baby’s room. We painted the walls, refurnished and painted the dresser, mirror, and nightstand, and a bunch more stuff. We just need to finish the curtains. This stuff can sure take a while.

Here is the latest of Laura and our child. This was taken today after Laura spent a few hours out in the garden planting crops.

We know that gifts are not required, but if you are looking for any gift ideas for our child, we have set up a few registries for you. We pretty much stick to the basics. We anticipate shopping locally for a lot our clothes.

View our Baby Gift Page for ideas.

Craigslist.org offers some great deals on baby items, though, because of the nature of Craig’s List, we didn’t list anything on our baby page for you to view.

Thank you in advance!

Laura’s belly button is becoming an outie. We have a doctor’s appointment on Tuesday. We’re still waiting until the due date to know the sex of our baby.

This is the first time we heard the heartbeat of our future child! Very exciting.

Laura is doing well as the 2nd trimester has begun. She isn’t as sick as she use to be and has more energy. She does enjoy the occasional afternoon nap. The headaches have come and gone for now. We have our 2nd doctor’s appointment on Tuesday. We are going to bring the video camera to film the sound of the heartbeat. Perhaps we will get to post it on the site later.

Laura has hit 12 weeks and has a little bump protruding out. She is going to be the cutest pregnant mom. She has switched to maternity pants and will slowly make the transition to a complete maternity wardrobe over the next few months.

Our niece Caitlynn, 3 months, looking very adorable as she discovers the art of sticking her tongue out.