Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Scott Davidson & Nicholas Allen's LiveJournal:

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Tuesday, September 15th, 2009
1:04 pm	Day Four The scab looks a little smaller. Of course, he picked at it too, but it does look better. The bruising still looks awful. I have to be really careful pulling a shirt on or off over his head. I guess there is still a big white patch inside his mouth, but he didn't pull his lip down far enough to show it in this picture. I've been brushing his teeth very gently, as he complains that even his top teeth hurt. I'm guessing he clanked them together pretty hard. (Comment on this)
Monday, September 14th, 2009
1:47 pm	Day 3 Day 3: The swelling has gone down almost completely. One side of his lip is still a little swollen, but most of the chin swelling is gone. Tipping his chin up so I can see the bruising. Even this is fading already. Showing me that the inside of his mouth looks much better. The first day I didn't look, the second day it looked like raw hamburger, this morning it was all white inside. Now the injured skin has sloughed off and it's healing nicely. (Comment on this)
Saturday, September 12th, 2009
11:16 pm	Nick's first trip to the ER Nick fell off the top of a step ladder outside yesterday and hit his chin on a cement slab. His teeth went through his lower lip, and he's got some pretty good road rash. Waiting in the emergency room for the doctor. Nick is still holding an ice pack to his chin. This is about an hour and a half after he fell. He seemed to be feeling better by the time we got home and was willing to show off his injury for the camera. Opening his mouth to show me that it goes "all the way through." Day 2: his chin is developing some nice bruising, he's got a fat lip and under his chin is quite swollen as well. Lifting his head up to show me the bruises. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009
3:18 pm	First day of kindergarten Today was Scott's first day of kindergarten! Obligatory picture at the front door as we are ready to head out and meet the bus. So big! New backpack! Waiting for the bus. Crossing the road to get on the bus. He looks so tiny compared that huge bus! And the bus drives away, carrying to the first day of his school adventure! (Comment on this)
Thursday, August 20th, 2009
8:33 pm	County Fair Today, despite the nearly constant drizzle, I took the boys to the County Fair. They had a special on armbands that let the kids ride on as many rides as they wanted throughout the day, and it wasn't very crowded because of the miserable weather. In the ag/hort building, they had a couple of tanks set up with fish and a turtle. We had told Nick he could ride a motorcycle at the fair, and that's all he talked about! After we convinced Nick to get off the motorcycle at the end of the ride, the boys rode the jeeps. Nick makes motor noises as he goes around ;) Scott had gone off with his friend to do some other rides, so Nick took a turn in a boat with another little boy. Then he went back to the motorcycles to ride by himself. We went to see what Scott was up to, and found him riding the pirate ship! His friend is in the row in front of him, with his head tucked down. Lol. He gets motion sickness pretty easily. He didn't ride again, but Scott rode this one several more times and even hooked up with a couple of his friends from preschool last year :) Nick wanted to ride the train while we were waiting for Scott to be done. Turned out Scott was done in time to join Nick on the train. Going round and round. When the ride was done, Nick got out of his seat, went up front, and climbed into the engine! So we let him ride around one more time. Then he wanted to ride in a helicopter. Way up high! And Scott went up in this big contraption of rope bridges and obstacles to get to the top of the slide and come down. Nick was convinced that he wanted to ride in the big strawberry. Scott went with him and I think he had fun at first. Then the operator had to stop the ride to let some kids off, and I think Nick thought the ride was over so he stood up and got scared with the ride started again. The operator stopped the ride again about 30 seconds later and I saw that Nick was crying, so I signaled that I wanted to go in and get him out. After that he didn't want to ride any more, so he and I walked through the barns, petted some goats and checked out all the other animals while Scott stayed with his friend and his mom. When we headed back to the midway for a snack (mini donuts), we found Scott and his friend going down the big slide over and over again. It was kind of hilarious because in sunny weather this slide goes really fast. In past years Scott hasn't wanted to try it. But since it was wet, he had to keep scooting himself along with his hands to keep going down! By the time he was done he was completely drenched. He wanted some cotton candy, so we got that and walked though the horse barns. Then we sat out in the rain (on a towel I had brought) eating cotton candy and watching the horses and riders compete in the ring. Then I washed sticky kids in the rest room, changed them into dry clothes, and we headed for home after a very full day at the county fair. (Comment on this)
Friday, August 14th, 2009
1:22 pm	Butterflies! Earlier this summer we brought three tiny monarch caterpillars into the house and raised them on milkweed we cut for them every few days. They got big, and finally transformed themselves into chrysalises within a day of each other. Then we waited patiently for the butterflies to emerge. Each day we could see more clearly the patterns of the wings inside. We had raised the caterpillars in a 10 gallon glass aquarium with a screen over the top. Here they are on the kitchen counter. I took them out into the sunlight to take some pictures before we released them. You can see all three of the butterflies in this picture. The one on the bottom of the tank had emerged the previous afternoon, the one on the screen had emerged the previous night, and the one on the stick had emerged just about an hour before (he hung around for another 4-5 hours before he finally flew away). I got some nice pictures while they hung out on the deck. The first one flew up into the spruce tree that's right next to the deck. The second one hung around on the screen for a few minutes letting us take pictures. When it finally flew, it flew up and landed on Scott's hat! It didn't seem inclined to get off Scott's hat, so I finally transferred it to a pot of hanging flowers on the deck. It hung out there for another hour before finally flying away. (Comment on this)
Sunday, May 3rd, 2009
10:06 am	Scott lost his first tooth! April 11 - Scott tells me he has a loose tooth. I look in his mouth and discover that the permanent tooth has erupted behind it. I swear it wasn't there the night before when I brushed his teeth! April 30 - The tooth is now so loose that he can push it out with his tongue or his other teeth. April 30 - The permanent tooth is even more apparent behind the baby tooth. May 2 - After some pretty serious wiggling, and some actual pulling (Scott, not me), the tooth popped out! He was so excited! May 2 - The new hole in his mouth. Hopefully the permanent tooth will move forward to fill in the hole with no further help from us. May 3 - The tooth fairy left Scott a glittery envelope and a little note, plus a dollar in quarters. He was pretty psyched :) January 2004 - Scott was seven months old and this tooth was his first, and only for quite some time. (Comment on this)
Monday, April 20th, 2009
9:34 pm	Vancouver Island Trip - Day 4 - Bug Zoo, Victoria, BC Our last stop of the day was the Victoria Bug Zoo. I expected that Scott would be the one who would get the most out of this, but it turns out we all enjoyed it! There was a tour in progress that we joined when we got there. Scott got to hold some kind of beetle right off the bat. Rainbow colored beetle. Nick enjoyed looking in the tanks and finding the bugs. Some were hidden and some were in plain sight. Ezri wasn't too sure about the bugs. Scott holds a hissing cockroach. Ezri thinks she doesn't want to touch the cockroach. But she changes her mind. Nick checks out the colony of leaf-cutter ants. Scott gets up close with a giant leaf insect (like a stick bug, but camouflaged to look like a leaf). Nick checks out the big tank of stick insects. Scott spent some time drawing insects and then telling me all about the special powers that his bugs have. After the bug zoo, we headed out (at about 4 pm) and the littles both fell asleep in the car. We ate dinner (shrimp stir fry) back at the resort condo and got the kids to bed. Mine were both pretty wiped out and went to bed at a decent hour. Ezri was up after a late nap, so Dawn and Tone drove up to Parksville to check that out and let her play at an awesome playground that we took all the kids to the next day. Then they picked up a bottle of wine, came back to the resort, put Ezri to bed and took a Jacuzzi bath together :) I stayed up too late and watched Wall-E. (Comment on this)
2:26 pm	Vancouver Island Trip - Day 4 - Undersea Gardens, Victoria, BC From Beacon Hill Park we walked downtown to the Undersea Gardens. I didn't get a picture of the outside of it, but it looks like a big boat anchored in the harbor. I was expecting a glass-bottomed boat, but instead it is filled with closed aquariums full of all kinds of creatures from the Pacific. Dawn tries to get Ezri to touch a sea star. Ezri gamely gives it a go. Scott pets a sea star. Then there was a show where a diver came down into the big tank and showed us various sea creatures. Octopus! Then we were treated to a free show when we went to leave. The diver was sitting on the dock outside and had attracted a friendly seal. The diver got in the water with the seal and we watched them cavort for a good while. (Comment on this)
1:54 pm	Vancouver Island Trip - Day 4 - Beacon Hill Park, Victoria, BC The resort we were staying at was up the eastern coast, north of Nanaimo and south of Parksville. It was about a 2 hour drive south to Victoria. There's tons to see and do in Victoria, but it wasn't worth being in the car for four hours every day, so we decided to make the trip every other day and let the kids have a "day off" in between. So Monday was our first day down in Victoria. We got up very early so we could leave the resort by 8 and be in Victoria by 10 am. Our first stop was Beacon Hill Park. We wanted a place to let the kids get out and stretch their legs and play after being cooped up in the car. We also packed a picnic lunch to eat there. Nick immediately fell in love with this Jeep play structure and stayed on it for a long time. In the meantime, Ezri was sliding. Soon enough, Nick was ready to slide. This "small" metal slide was just too fast for him, so he poured his body down it very slowly. All the way to the bottom. Then he'd climb back up and do it again. Finally the little daredevil was hanging on by the top bar, although he never did drop down and slide from there (thank goodness). After lunch we decided to leave the van parked and walk through the park to downtown Victoria. Lots of ducks. Mallard. I believe we also saw an American widgeon, but I didn't get a picture for positive id. Pretty stone bridge. Dawn, Tone, Scott, (Nick and Ezri) on top of the stone bridge. Everything out there was lush and green and blooming all ready. Beacon Hill Park. A native Beacon Hill Park resident. (Comment on this)
Sunday, April 19th, 2009
9:13 pm	Day 3 - Time at the Playground After our morning walk, we went back to our room for lunch and to attempt to get the littles to take naps. Nick did not nap at all. After that, we took the kids to the little playground that was right down the hill from our unit. The playground equipment was shaped like a pirate ship. Misbehaving children were sent to "walk the plank." It was a pretty cool playground. Ezri said her favorite part of the whole vacation was "whee." Which is Ezri-ease for "slide." Ezri at the bottom of the slide. Nick enjoyed the sliding too. Nick slides again. Scott goes down the twisty slide. At first, Nick needed to be spotted climbing up. But soon enough he was stepping off the ladder all by himself. And Ezri was right behind him. After playing for a good hour, we decided to do some swimming in the indoor pool, and then have dinner. I didn't get any pictures of the swimming from Sunday, but did get some on later days. I also didn't get any pictures from the restaurant that night, but have some from the restaurant from a different day. I do, however, have a couple more pictures from walking over to the restaurant. Nick, Ezri and Scott hold hands while walking to the restaurant on the grounds. I tried to get a picture from the front, but Nick was done by then. (Comment on this)
12:03 pm	Day 3 - A Walk Along the Seawall After sleeping in a bit on Sunday morning, we all got up, breakfasted, and got ready to explore the resort. We had gotten a map and decided to head for the point and check out the seawall that went all the way around the point, just above the beach. The tide was out when we headed out. Just a short walk from our unit put us on the path right to the beach. The whole resort was kind of in this protected harbor, with one big point that stuck out into the harbor. There were kayaks you could use off to one side, and then a long beach on the other side. Looking toward the kayak beach. Continuing our walk through the gardens down to the point. The kids brought along some sand toys. I was continually amazed by how much greener everything was there than in Minnesota. Right at the point there was a large deck area that had a hot tub, grill and picnic area. Looking out from there you could see this big rocky point that was basically covered by water when the tide was in except for a big knob of rock at the tip. This picture was taken when the tide was out. Scott had a blast climbing around on these huge rocks. Nick got right in and started digging up sand. He was having fun just flinging it everywhere. More climbing around on rocks. We did see some wildlife. There were mallards, seagulls, and I believe this was a red-breasted merganser. I did bring a bird book, but I should have brought my binoculars. Even the littles got into climbing around on the rocks a bit. Scott found the claw of a crab. Ezri was just having fun exploring, despite the cold and wind. Scott climbing on the big knob of rock on the point. So proud of himself for getting up there. Ezri wanted to get in on the climbing. So Papa (Uncle Tone) climbed up to the top with Scott and Ezri. (Nick was still shoveling sand.) Scott found some kind of flower up there and picked it and brought it down for me. Every day he went out and picked me fresh flowers :) When we were done on the beach, we continued to walk along the seawall path to a pretty waterfall. Our unit was not too far from the top of this waterfall. Pretty. The kids had fun playing on the little bridge by the waterfall. Nick :) Looking up the river. Water was flowing all the time, but it didn't look like much when the tide was out. (Comment on this)
9:56 am	Day 3 - The Resort We settled the kids in fairly quickly on Saturday, having a quick dinner of ravioli and garlic toast in the unit, baths for the kids, then bed. We didn't have a chance to look around much. But what we could see we were very impressed with. We were all eager to get out an do some exploring the next day, Sunday. Here are some pictures of the unit we stayed in. It had everything! Two fireplaces, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, three tvs and dvd players, washer and dryer, full kitchen, nice dining room, and a great view! Living room. Fireplace in the living room, and the big lcd tv. Dining room. Tiny, but full, kitchen. Master bedroom, looking out toward the patio with a view of the Sound. Master bedroom, looking in toward the fireplace. Gas fireplace in the master bedroom, along with the giant closet and looking into the huge bathroom. Jacuzzi tub in the master bath, with the other side of the fireplace. The kids loved taking baths in it! Second bedroom, where Nick and I slept. Little sitting area in the second bedroom. This part of the unit could be rented separately from the main unit, so it had it's own sink and mini fridge. It also had it's own sliding door going out into a tiny courtyard. Said tiny courtyard had a single plant in it. The unit from the outside. You can see the sliding glass doors from the dining room and the master bedroom, leading out onto our patio with table and chairs. We had a little garden area, and a great view. More pictures of the view to come. (Comment on this)
Saturday, April 18th, 2009
8:40 pm	Vancouver Island Trip - day 2, part 3 - The Ferry After the zoo, we headed for the ferry terminal in plenty of time to catch our ferry over to the island. Up on the sun deck of the ferry. Ezri poses with her Papa. Mountain view from the sun deck. Nick enjoyed the ferry ride very much. Scott complained that it was cold and windy, which it was. So we retired inside, where we found a nice children's play area with no other children in it. The littles had fun looking out the window at the water and occasional boats or sea birds. The also had fun playing on the toys. A view of the lighthouse just before we pulled into port. Then we drove to the resort that night. I have a few pictures from that night, and many more from the next day, that will go in another post. (Comment on this)
1:15 pm	Vancouver Island Trip - day 2, part 2 - The Zoo The goal of the first leg of our trip was to visit the Greater Vancouver Area Zoo before heading out to catch the ferry to Vancouver Island later in the afternoon. Because of our late start, it was a bit of a whirlwind trip at the zoo. Nonetheless, we saw tons of stuff and had lots of fun. We have arrived and are in search of zoo animals. Tone and Ezri check out the lions. Nick also checks out the lions. He is impressed. The Zimmerman family poses for a picture. Scott checks out a black panther/jaguar. ( Click for pictures of lots of zoo animals... ) The boys pose for a picture on the back of a giraffe statue. There was a raptor show about to begin, but we were off to catch the zoo train. We stopped to get lunch and see the monkeys. Despite the sign saying "Do Not Feed the Monkeys," they had obviously been fed as they were begging us to give them tidbits (we did not). Despite appearances, Ezri very much enjoyed the ride on the zoo train. Scott poses for a picture on the zoo train engine after the ride. We tried to get a picture of all the kids together, but failed. I'm not sure we got a picture of all three kids together the entire vacation! We had a little time to kill before we had to leave to catch the ferry, so we checked out the reptile house. Here, Nick is peeking in at the giant python. There were marmosets in the reptile house, and they found Ezri's shoes fascinating. Heading back to the van. Scott and Ezri holding hands. Awww. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
10:03 am	Vancouver Island Trip - day 2, part 1 We woke up early in the morning and spent several hours loading the giant van that we had rented for the trip. We finally got on the road a bit later than we intended. The van was a Dodge Caravan, which I called the "smuggler's special" due to the hidden cargo spaces under the floor boards. Yes, we crossed into Canada, and no, we weren't searched. Side view of the van. Everyone loaded into the van. Scott and I sat all the way in the back. The little kids sat in the middle row of seats. Dawn drove and Tone acted as navigator. My official position was "child wrangler and retriever of thrown toys and sippy cups." (Comment on this)
Friday, April 17th, 2009
11:39 pm	First day of our trip On Friday, we got up extra early in the morning, drove to Hibbing, and got on an airplane :) We spent the day on airplanes and in airports, finally landing in Bellingham to spend the night at Dawn's house. A few pictures from the first day: Scott on the first leg of the flight. It was a tiny airplane with one row of single seats opposite a row of two seats, so Scott had his own seat next to the window. Nick, all buckled in and ready for takeoff. I had Scott take a picture of me and Nick in our row. We flew from Hibbing to Minneapolis, then got on a 747 to Seattle. The boys were entertained for a while looking out the window. Then they got bored. Pretty soon they started wrestling around. All in all they were pretty good on the plane though. When we hit Seattle we had a decent layover. Nick fell asleep in the stroller, Scott and I got a snack in the food court, then we found this neat play area. He had a lot of fun there, and Nick napped for about an hour. Nick woke up in time to ride the subway back to our gate to catch the last airplane of the day. Last flight of the day put us into Bellingham a little later than scheduled. Then my suitcase was damaged and we had to spend another hour getting it replaced. Then we had to pick up Ezri from day care and head to Dawn's house. I guess I didn't take any pictures at Dawn's house that evening. We had pizza for dinner and went to bed early in anticipation of a busy day the next day! (Comment on this)
Friday, March 20th, 2009
12:08 pm	Happy Birthday Nick! Nick turned 2 today! To celebrate, Scott wanted to bring cupcakes in to his preschool class for snack today. The teacher was fine with that, so I brought Nick back there around 10 and we had cupcakes with Scott and his classmates :) We'll have his family party next Friday, when Dave has the day off. Nick climbed right up in a chair and sat down like he owned the place. He mostly made a mess of the cupcake, and then drank the juice ;) The kids all sang Happy Birthday to Nick. The teacher made him a birthday crown to wear. Birthday boy eating string cheese. After snack the other kids went outside to play, but Nick wanted to stay in and play with all the toys in the classroom while I cleaned up a rather impressive amount of mess from 15 kids eating chocolate cupcakes. (Comment on this)
Thursday, March 19th, 2009
12:00 pm	School field trip This morning our ECFE class took a field trip to a sheep farm to see the baby lambs that are being born this time of year. This was about the best picture I could get of Nick and a baby lamb. It was crowded in there and hard to move around to get a good shot. These are the baby lambs that had to be separated from their mamas, for whatever reason, and bottle fed. This one had been born the night before. One of twins. These twins were born while we were there! Here, one of them in standing up for the very first time. Minutes old, nursing for the first time. One of the teachers takes a turn bottle feeding a day-old-lamb. Michael takes a turn holding it. Then the lambs and their mamas were turned outside for some exercise and fresh air. Nick just kept saying over and over "Wambs. Wambs!" (Comment on this)
Sunday, March 1st, 2009
10:05 pm	Some pictures from when Dave took Scott ice fishing last weekend. He had fun, caught the most fish, and caught the biggest fish! Proud, happy boy. Proud daddy :) Look at the size of that walleye! That's a pretty serious bucket of fish! (Comment on this)