Dutch Sweet Dutch

I’m slowly remembering why we canceled our dial-up service. Ahhh, the joys of watching internet pages load. S L O W L Y. It’s the watching paint dry of our generation. If you’re using dial-up, that is. Could be that it just seems particularly slow after the magic of big city speed. We may have to break down and get cable. When you’re using this internet, it’s handy to have a book handy.

On that note, here’s what we’re reading. It’s of great interest to all you non-parents, I’m sure…

Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason by Alfie Kohn.
Watch Me Grow I’m Two by Maureen O’Brien
Your Two-Year-Old: Terrible or Tender by Louise Bates Ames and Frances Ilg

After a long night of eating and pooping, Stokes is exhausted. Actually, you would be too if you pooped out as much yellow mustard as Stokes just did. The pooping lasted for about half an hour. We started to worry that he’d get the hemmoroids. Just joking, but seriously, he might’ve lost about 10% of his body weight with that one. Imagine that! You could make millions in Hollywood if you could get that going in grown-ups. Oh wait, I think Olestra already did.

So we’re back in the land of the rural pace. Aside from the internet speed, it’s a pace we love. Moseying along everywhere we go. After readjusting, you really do feel like you are hauling ass on those 35 mph straight-aways.

All our snow melted. The other day it was 51 here. 51! Winter! At least the surf is up. Not that Boppa Loppa has a lot of time these days. It’s 2 on 2, and it’s a workout! Boodah’s still a wildfire, but fortunately that’s balanced by Stokely Bering’s amazing placidity. The Lummox would be proud.

Thank you to all those who helped us out so much on our big trip to Anchorage! Thanks Todd and Lauren for letting us house-sit! Thanks Grammy and Rainold and Dulcie for braving the de-icer-less Seattle airport and all the delays. Thanks Grandpa and Nana for all the cooking, Ella-sitting, house cleaning and Boodah-sitting too! Thanks Regan and Nami for all the hospitality and the Boodah-sitting while Stokes was born! Thanks Musashi and Arashi for entertaining the Boodah while he was at your house. Thanks to Alex, Kevin, and Sean for making the trek up to visit! Thanks to Peter, Natalie, and Sarah for hanging out with us at Moose’s Tooth.! And thanks to Boppa’s work for letting him work from Anchorage until Stokes came along. And thanks to Enterprise rental for the free upgrade to the sexy Dodge Ram Crew Cab! Thanks Boodah for being such a great big brother!

Yes, we have a lot to be thankful for!

And as the year winds down, we’re thankful to be back home! Soon, there will be enough snow to play in the snow. Yay! Right now, there’s about a centimeter, unless you count drifts. The good news is that the surf is up. Right Stokes?

Big Boy Redux

At 8 days, Stokes weighs 9 lbs 5 ounces. He's put on about a sody can (11 ounces) since his last weigh in 5 days ago. He's still super mellow yellow.
Boodah weighed 9 lbs 2 at 20 days. Kind of interesting, how unique each rugrat is! (Yet probably excruciatingly similar to those who aren't especially into rugrats... ahhh, the David Cross moments go on and on!)

Blue sky powder turns. He's got the form down already!

Listen to Boodah laughing!


So, we couldn't wait until Christmas, or even Solstice to give Boodah his present. The sun was shining! Who knows how long it will last? The first two weeks we were here we saw the sun once, so we felt motivated to get out there and play in the light.

Okay, the boots may be a little too big... we've actually replaced them with a size that fits. But the laughter, the laughter is contagious!

Paxson Revel Boodah Name-Brand Williams. Actually, we got quite a deal on the whole package due to our newfound shopping prowess. Plus, Burton really does make excellent stuff. Burton in China I should say. They really make sure the Chinese factories make excellent stuff.

Swimming House Part II

Five more well spent dollars kept the whole family entertained for a couple of hours. H2Oasis is Alaska's indoor water park (probably the only one) and it is pretty awesome. It makes for a great tot-time substitute. And the big slides look super fun. They aren't open during the tot-time, but you can definitely see the potential. It's no Seagaia, or even Edmonton Mall, but it's pretty great for around these parts.

How did Stokely like it, you ask? He was stoked!

Okay, Stokester does open his eyes. And he's been doing it more often. Here's proof:

Go ahead, go shred.

Who knew Anchorage has a perfect beginner ski hill (Hilltop) right in the middle of town? It's a mere five minutes from where we're house sitting! Boodah, Boppa, and Alex took advantage of the blue sky for some afternoon shredding.

It was Alex's first time ever down-hill skiing, but you'd never know it. He conquered the mountain no problemo, and left with perma-grin. Good times were had by all. What was Stokely doing? Hmm.... (boodah and boppa are the tiny dots in the background).

Apres ski nachos in Kevin's honor. And once again Boodah used his hang-around-and-look-cute routine to score more sugar. (Birthday cake.)



And after all that, a nice evening dinner with Team Wilyo. Stokely actually stayed awake for a lot of it. In fact, today may have been a record for awakeness for the old Stokester Von Bering. Lots of eye opening time.

Here are some of Mister's favorite tricks. "Skiing and jumping house!"


Special kudos to anybody who recognized the title of this entry as a North Shore quote.

More American Culture

Stokely, still yawning it out!


Here's a place that's gotten a lot of air time recently. What, you don't recognize it? That's Main Street, Wasilla, for crying out loud! And the library we heard so much about. Sure, there's no Donut King on every main street (although there should be... delicious maple bars, mmm), but it would be fair to say that the main street (incidentally not Main Street, but rather the Parks Highway #3) does look a lot like every other strip mally place in this good old U S of A.


How did we wind up in Wasilla? Seeing the sun, and realizing we still need a picture of the fam for our Christmas Cards, we headed north for some prime photography opportunities. The sun wasn't exactly blazing. Yes, that's -10. So our modeling sessions were limited. Highly.

On the way back we checked out Alpenglow, another of Anchorage's ski areas. It's on Fort Richardson, an army base, so that makes it interesting. The signs say 'speed limit 30, 10 if troops present.' In any event, it looks like a super fun hill. We caught a lovely sunset. At 3:30 PM. Alaska!

The real intro to American Culture came during the evening entertainment session. Rage City Roller Derby! Watch out! The athlete's names were the best part. Here are two of our favorites:

Sarah Im-Palin

Spenard Itch
(That's funny because Spenard is the seedy part of town.)

Roller Derby Action

So it's kind of a complicated game. Basically, each team has a dasher, distinguished by a starred helmet. The dashers start out behind the pack. The first to battle through the pack and lap it once gets points. There may be other ways to score, but that's the best I could figure out. These were definitely Alaska girls! Not afraid to smash one another. Who needs Monday Night Football? It looked pretty fun.

We had to leave before finding out who won, on account of a small bloody head injury to Boodah. He's taken a few shots these past couple days!

Day 3

Still tired from the move.* The doctor says to enjoy it while it lasts. At today's check-up, Stokes weighed in at 8 pounds 10 ounces, which is pretty good. It can take up to two weeks for a newborn to regain its birthweight. Stokely is a pro at the nursing. Here's a little head to head comparison of the two bros.


Aside from the check-up, we introduced the dudes to some American culture with a trip to the mall. (Mow, as Boodah pronounces it.) We attempted Madagascar 2. We were successful in terms of number of shshshs's pointed in our direction. Boodah loved the I like to Move It Move It song, but wasn't too into it during the dialogue. Stokely's favorite part was the giant boob in his face. He only saw it when he wasn't sleeping.








*Steven Wright:

When I was a baby, I kept a diary. Recently, I was rereading it. It said, "Day 1 -- Still tired from the move. Day 2 -- Everybody talks to me like I'm an idiot." I was upset because on my second birthday, I went from being one to being two, and my age doubled in a year. I figured at this rate, by the time I'm six, I'll be ninety.

When I have a kid, I want to buy one of those strollers for twins. Then put the kid in and run around, looking frantic. When he gets older, I'd tell him he used to have a brother, but he didn't obey.

Day 2

This picture's a little more flattering than the previous Cartman shot.

Stokely is so mellow, it is unbelievable. Boodah didn't keep any discomfort secret when he was this age... his first foray into the car seat you'd think we were cutting off a toe. Of course, maybe he just didn't enjoy Foreigner on the radio. Stokely is laid back. It could be because he was born to boarder music, reggae, and Greg Brown. He might go wah, wah (that's just two wahs) and then stop. I guess he thinks we'll figure it out. It's almost disconcerting. Dare we get our hopes up that he'll be a good sleeper? We just want him to be healthy and happy, of course. But being a good sleeper, wow, that would be just dreamy.

This blog was interrupted by Boodah's first bloody nose and an upper lip that looks like this. A pretty serious face plant onto the hardwood floors. Whew!

Day 2 of life was full of library story time, airplane watching, and hanging out with Team Wilyo. But for Stokely, it was mostly sleeping.

Unpregnant Tastebuds

Rolling out of the hospital with two little sleeping dudes.

Celebrating with Flying Dutchmen tasty pastries, and prolonging the napping session. Boodah had a lot to catch up on. (As he's not a very heavy sleeper, you know he's tired when he's moved from the car to the hospital and back again and out again without stirring.)

Stokely Von Eric Cartman Bering?



Hanging out back at the homestead.

Genevieve is now back to enjoying foods again... "mmmm, this steak is DELICIOUS, mmmm this decaf is DELICIOUS."

Stokely is still super mellow, and Boodah enjoys holding baby brother Stokely. So far he isn't kicking him in the head too much. We have had to institute some more rules. Rules schmools. The old rule was 'no surfing on momma'. Now it's 'no surfing on boppa when he's holding Stokely'. It's a lot for a 2 year old to handle.

It's a cozy existence we have going in the office room, the one warm room in the house where we are staying. (It's a cool house architecturally, it's just not well insulated. So fairly chilly. Not that we're complaining... We have so much to be thankful for! Healthy rugrats, kind friends, loving family - those blessings keep us truly warm.)

Homeward Bound

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The hospital gave us a celebratory birthday cake, and it was tasty. Team Wilyo came by to help us celebrate last night. And this morning we were discharged at 10:30 AM! YaY!

Stokely Von Bering Williams

3:06 PM, 8 pounds 11 ounces. All natural birth. Stellar performance by Genevieve, of course! The official Doctor arrived after it was all over, but he did put in the stitches. Kind of a lot of stitches. Right now he's eating. He was very purple at birth, and didn't cry much. Chipmunk noises, mostly.

He is one mellow dude. 20 1/4 inches, 13 3/8 inch head. Can't remember Boodah's stats.

Real Time Updates

Three minutes apart, and strong. Thank goodness for infotainment!

In Transit