Portland was a ton of fun and the Steins were great hosts (as always). Jeri, Ethan and I got to spend a lot of quality time together seeing the sites of Portland. On Thursday we met up with Ambar and Anisha Jain and had lunch. I used to work with Amber at ProLaw and she just so happened to have moved to Portland three days before I got there! It was good to catch up and introduce mutual friends. After lunch, we said goodbye to the Jains and the three of us went to the Rose Gardens. Jeri said we were a couple of weeks away from the peak of the season. I can't imagine what it looked like in full bloom! It was gorgeous with roses absolutely everywhere. That night Jason volunteered to watch Ethan while Jeri and I went to see Star Wars. I FINALLY got to see it - only 3 months late - and it was just what I expected. A little light on the acting but lots of cool special effects. Before leaving for the movie, I covered the baby care essentials with Jason in a 15 minute crash. Who knows why Ethan chose that night to get the world's longest lasting case of hiccups? You have to give Mr. Stein credit for not panicking! The hiccups eventually went away, but not before Jason had tried to contact three different sources to ensure that the baby was okay. Jason will be a great dad some day - Ethan told me so!

Jeri and I also took Ethan for a day trip to Tilamook for a tour of the cheese factory and a trip to Cape Meares to see the lighthouse. The scenery was just beautiful, the cheese was tasty, and Jeri and I got in some long awaited and much needed QT. Those are the highlights of the trip - other than that we ate good food, went for walks, went to the Saturday morning street fair and hung out. It was a great trip and Ethan couldn't have been a better traveler. I have posted the Portland Scrapbook for those interested in seeing all the pictures.

Ah yes. There's nothing like a couple of first dates to make me feel like I am right back in high school again. All giddy and nervous. Not knowing what to say and driving home wondering how it went. Watching stuff come out of my mouth and thinking "holy COW!! Did I just say that out loud!?!?!?" But all in all, it's been a blast and is helping me take myself a lot less seriously and get back in touch with who I really am. I have had a couple situations where I've had to decide what was really important to me and then put my money where my mouth is. At the time it was very hard, but it has always turned out to be the right choice for me and I end up trusting myself more in the end.

So as it stands, I have met and am dating one very nice man and am "trolling" for others. Just to make it fun, I have assembled a committee for myself. I have selected three people in my life who know me very well to look through the prospects online and pick ones for me that they think I would do well with. The deal is that they make an effort to find me someone great and I e-mail the proposed match with no questions asked. It is interesting coming across the resistance (to my own plan I might add!). Why I just KNOW this one or that one won't work out. Then I let all of that go and e-mail anyway. It's been a great way to remember it's all a game anyway and should be FUN! I'll keep you updated as things progress. In the meantime, wish me happy hunting!

My sister wrote the following for Ethan to put online for his personal ad:

SWM 8mo. Loves to jump, drool and screech. ISO SWF 6mo-12mo. Must enjoy music and bubbles.

We ROLLED on the floor laughing over that one. Can't you just see someone replying to something like that? Anyway, as you can see from the picture above, things are getting interesting around here. Ethan is EVERYWHERE!!!! He has completely given up the commando crawl for the joy of REAL crawling. He is pulling himself up like he has been doing it his whole life. Although occasionally unsteady on his feet, he's showing a surprising amount of coordination and strength. Maybe that's from the jumping continually for the last eight months? Nah :) I fully expect him to (and will be totally surprised if he doesn't) start cruisin' around the furniture in the next month or so. He's also started to imitate people in a way that you can tell that HE is doing it because YOU just did. He clicks his tongue at Grandad when Grandad clicks at him. He puts his hands up in the air and claps for Grandma when she does it to him. He puts his head down on his arm (SOO cute) when Aunt Sheila does the same. And it's adorable to see him anticipate the tickle that comes from Aunt Alli's long hair on his neck. It's been great to see him not only start to take in and interact with the world around him but to really see him start to connect with my family. I uploaded a ton of new Ethan pictures for those of you who can't get enough.