December so far

The kids are very excited for Christmas this year, especially Max. I wanted to jot down what we've done this month to celebrate the pending holiday.

I took the kids to see the reindeer at Swanson's Nursery.

We went to the Center House to see the holiday train.

Alicia and Loren took Max downtown for a special evening at the Westlake carousel and Santa's House.

Alice picked out an adorable elf tree.

We had a big cookie party with neighbors and friends.

I'm planning on picking up an advent calendar to help Max count down the days.

This friday is a holiday party at his school! I'll be in California on a solo getaway, but Alice and Shawn will attend!

I'm sure Shawn will get them to do a few holiday things while I'm down in San Jose for 2 nights visiting my sister.

I am planning on taking Max out to buy a gift for Shawn, he always loves picking out stuff for him.

On Christmas we'll spend the morning just the four of us and then head out to my brother's place for dinner and fun with his family.

It's been so sweet this year to see Max's eyes light up with the excitement of Christmas.

Today

I'm feeling an urge to jot down what we did today. Maybe to remind myself of how much we can do each day, even if between tantrums.

We woke late, l was asleep in Alice's bed. She wanted me close and after going back and forth from her room to mine three times between 2 and 4AM, I climbed in beside her. I awoke to find Max watching cartoons and Shawn sound asleep. We rushed off into our morning. Shawn to work and me running the kids up to their drop off playgroup. I jaunted to work, logging a few hours. I zipped into the grocery grabbing some special items for the kids lunches, picked them up and whisked Max to school. Alice and I made another store stop on the way home where she drove around a little car grocery cart. Home for some snuggles and reading. Again she refused a nap. Reading to herself for over a half hour. We then snuggled and watched her favorite backyardigans episodes about pirates. I tidied up the house and enjoyed the quiet. Max blew through the door at four with his friends and their mom who dropped him off. A whirlwind visit, and when the friends departed Max went stir crazy. We were off again. Our neighbor telling us on the way out of the beautiful sunset imminent over the Olympics. We scooted over to our beautiful Fremont Peak Park and played hide and seek, admiring the lovely yellow and pink hues above the mountains. A quick trip to the Ballard Library the kids picking out one book each. A few minutes of content reading and then over to the pool to meet Shawn. Max and I snuggled and read as we watched Alice and Shawn swim and have fun. And then home. Max loopy with tiredness. Shawn patiently entertaining them while I cranked out a fast and simple dinner. More playing with their dad. Books, cuddles, and to bed.

It was a good day. The mundaneness of it was welcome. I feel the heat coming out of the baseboard, making the living room cozy and I am thankful and happy.

Thankful

Tonight, as Max and I snuggled and watched Alice and Shawn in a swimming class Max told me ten things he is thankful for. Here they are:

1. Alice

2. Shawn

3. Me

4. Jumpstart (his new school!)

5. The toys in the pool lobby play area

6. Helping me cook and bake

7. Loving himself

8. All his toys at home

9. My love and care for him

10. When I let him watch tv

:) Happy Thanksgiving!

Today

Today I have fumbled around in the dark at 6AM to find a pacifier to soothe my baby. I held my daughter close and snuggled with her for a better part of an hour.

I laid in bed listening to my children watch cartoons, bickering, and then resolving.

I made breakfast for my children, boarded a city bus, flipped through a New Yorker, got off the bus and walked in the crisp fall morning air. I stopped at the market picking out some beautiful fruit for my family.

I arrived at my quiet office, hearing the security alarm enough as I shut the heavy door.

I chatted with a legendary mountain guide and talked bookkeeping with my boss. All the while smiling as I think of the children having fun at gymnastics with Shawn.

I piled into the old volvo with my family as the children greet me with smiles, asking for candy.

Just their luck, two pieces lurked at the bottom of the backpack Shawn had carried around all morning. The devoured their treats, happily showing me chocolate covered fingers. And then a banana each.

Home for awhile. Consoling a crying Max with snuggles and several books. A popcorn party, tasty fruit, and then they were off.

Up to the library with Dad. How they love to go on special outings with their doting father.

And they are there yet, while I cook pizza sauce from scratch, roast carnival squash with olive oil and kosher salt, and make homemade pan pizza.

It is a good day.

Max and his awesome moustache

Max got this awesome moustache as a party favor at a Halloween bash last night. We stopped on the street corner to affix it on our walk home. I just love this photo. Really love it. To me, it captures Max's awesome and adventurous personality.

Things haven't been too easy with him lately, trying to find a school that suits where he's at right now. And I've just decided to not be so worked up about it. We're visiting two schools this week with pre-K programs I hope he will dig. If he doesn't, it's not the end of the world. I've realized he's outgrown preschool. He's ready for kindergarten, I mean look at the guy, he's already got a moustache :)

Max the Dishwasher

Today, after a very full afternoon of playing with Max while Alice finally napped the hours away(fell asleep in her little easy chair while having a time out for hitting Max) I was feeling desperate for some quiet to pick up the kitchen and cook dinner. As soon as Shawn walked through the door I asked him to take the kids on a walk. Max piped up that he didn't want to go out. I thought to myself "ugh, I just want some peace!". So I told him if he stayed home I'd put him to work. To my surprise he LOVED working. He quietly and thoroughly washed a sink full of dishes, with a smile on his face. The one comment he made was that he loved helping me and loved working. What a sweet boy we have. Sharing the kitchen with him was delightful and turned out to be just what I needed. After dinner we had a delightful walk to our neighborhood grocery together where we picked out some fun things for his lunch tomorrow, and he talked me into a mini candy bar which he ate while we walked home holding hands.

This afternoon we made Halloween decorations, a construction paper pumpkin for our apartment door which he filled in the face on, a skeleton with a witch hat, and the best thing: construction paper cut outs of darth vader and luke skywalker. He watched a third of Star Wars last night for the first time, and he had the costumes down pat as we did our craft project. Then we spent awhile playing games from his Highlights magazine, and having a big snack. He's sure a fun kid to spend a few hours with :)

Max & Alice

Max and Alice have become the best of friends. Max waits to join the circle of children at the end of his preschool day until Alice arrives. When she greets him they hold hands, join the circle, and get rubber stamps from the teacher. He asks her with great interest in the car ride home what she did in her art class. And he wants to go see the ship on the playground where she takes her art class. When we get home from their morning apart they play together so well, laughing and giggling while I make lunch. Max has even taken to sitting and reading with Alice and I and helping put her down for her nap. Giving her a "sleep well" kiss and turning out the light. He told me today that if I lost Alice we'd need to call "everyone in the world" to help find her. They've spent all of their time together while I worked half time the last 6 months. They've really really grown close and it is so sweet to see.

Fall Cooking and Max

Fall has arrived in Seattle and I've been inspired to do lots of cooking. Big thanks to Shawn for watching the kids, and reading countless books to them for hours today so I could cook up some healthy organic fare for our family (veggie stew, pumpkin bread, salad). Max is struggling with some digestive issues in a big way. We hit the end of the road with our pediatrician, so he's seeing a naturopath now. We are using some vitamin c, fish oil, and magnesium supplements, but really focusing on his diet will help him a lot. I'm more mindful than ever now about lots of fiber in his and our diet, and a variety of fruit and veggies. Although he didn't eat the veggie stew I made tonight, at least he looked at it and didn't shove his bowl off the table. He did eat some cooked carrots and plenty of fresh fruit with his meal. I love this kid so much and I really want to help his body and mind be healthy. We recently discovered chia seeds, a great source of omega 3's and fiber, Max has been consuming them every day in smoothies. I'm hopeful within a few weeks things will be going smoother for him. We all love you, Max!

New Fall Schedule

We've got a new set of things to do this fall and I love it. I think the kids do too. I've been working Mondays this month so the kids have been able to still see their sitter they enjoy. That will be ending on Monday though, and I'll just be working a few hours a week remotely or on the weekend. I've been enjoying having more time to spend with the kids doing fun activities. Tuesday and Thursday mornings Max attends a creative arts based preschool at the Creative Dance Center. He's enjoying it very much, showing me new songs and a few dance moves :)
Tuesday mornings I take Alice to a Toddler art class at a community center. I love watching her play, explore texture and finger paint, and then it's super great that I don't have to clean up the mess after a project! Wednesdays the kids attend a playgroup together up at the Phinney Neighborhood Center. They really like the lady Sam who runs the group. She's very fun, positive, and energetic. Thursday mornings while Max is at school Alice and I have been having playdates with toddler friends, it's fun to see her have one on one time with other tots. I think this is very good for her I love seeing her develop her own friendships. Friday is our "free" day and the kids and I do whatever we want. Last week we spent hours in the fall sunshine at a park.

We also have two evening classes! Wednesday nights Shawn and I are taking a parenting class and the kids enjoy the childcare there, it's like another playgroup for them. Last night Max commented on how nice the care providers are, that made me very happy.
Thursday nights is swimming! Max swims first, and then Alice gets to go in the water with Shawn, she loves that so much.

We went back to the UU in West Seattle on Sunday and had fun, I think we'll try to attend pretty regularly this fall, it's a nice activity for our whole family.

Thanks to Alicia and Loren watching the kids for us Shawn and I have gotten out for a few dates. This past weekend we went to a fun opening night party at On The Boards, and got to experience an art installation.

Right now, both kids are napping! This is rare, and the house has been quiet for 2 hours! I hardly know what to do with myself. I snoozed a little, now I guess I'll make tea and clean up toys. Max is asleep on our bed so I can't do much in our room, but I'm not complaining! It's his third nap this week!

In other news, Shawn's job is going well and I am so proud of the hard work he does that takes care of our family. We have a trip to CA coming up on October 8. We'll fly in just in time to attend Shawn's mom's 60th birthday party, I'm sure it will be lots of fun and I'm excited to see everyone and for Max and Alice to play with their cousins who they don't see often enough.

That's all the fall news now from the Kilburn house!

ps: a few photos from Alice's super fun pirate birthday party earlier this month. She's 2!!

Fun Weekend

We had lots of family fun this weekend and I wanted to jot it down for memories sake:

We spent hours in the Volunteer Park wading pool and visited with our friends The Eriksen's.

Shawn and Max had their usual saturday afternoon at the Greenwood Library

Alice and I had fun shopping at Trader Joe's.

This morning Max and I went to Fred Meyer and got stuff to make goo (slimy, stretchy play doh made of glue and borax)

We had fun playing with the goo.

We all went on a little walk and chatted with our neighbors who gave Alice a really cool radio flyer trike their son has outgrown (and I was just about to go buy her a trike for her birthday. Score!)

Alice took a long nap both yesterday and today.

I got an hour and a half to myself at beautiful Fremont Peak Park to relax and write a letter to my penpal.

Shawn got to take an hour out by himself for reading and coffee at Lighthouse.

Max and I painted on our patio and made block towers.

We all went and picked blackberries just down the street and came home with enough for a delicious cobbler, and enough berries left to put on cereal and in yogurt.

Shawn and the kids read several library books and had fun spending time together while I whipped up a delicious dinner: Fresh coho salmon with lemon and butter, quinoa cooked in vegetable broth and flavored with tamari, steamed broccoli, and the previously noted blackberry cobbler. How nice it was to make a dessert with berries picked just minutes earlier. We'll definitely be going back to these blackberry bushes soon.

What a nice mellow weekend. It was just what I needed :)

New Bunk Bed!

Max got his new bunk bed today! We went ahead and had the bottom bunk set up, too. There's no going back to the crib for Alice! Both kids LOVE the new bed, and are sound asleep, happy as clams.
Also, Max's Grandma Rose made him a beautiful quilt, lots of bright colors, just perfect for him! Our friend Vinnie bought him these totally cool Scooby Doo sheets. What kid wouldn't want a giant mystery machine picture on their pillow :)?

Celebrating Max

Today we had a "Max" day. He's finally fully toilet trained after a very long couple of years. It's been a week and a half and he's doing great. The bunk bed we promised him is on order due to be delivered this week, with a snazzy set of Scooby Doo sheets washed and waiting. We wanted to do something special for him today, as he has been working so hard. We started off the day with a family breakfast at the Hi-Life, Max's favorite breakfast place. He gleefully inhaled the kids grand slam. Alice ate 2 pieces of bacon lightening fast, it was pretty amazing to turn back to her a few moments after her plate arrived and see only bacon crumbles remaining where 2 large slices were a mere minute before. After our fun breakfast Shawn took Max to ride the Duck: http://www.ridetheducksofseattle.com/
Max has been wanting a ride on this since he was old enough to point, so we coughed up the big bucks today. After the neat ride they came home for lunch and Max excitedly told me all about it.

We then attempted to drive to a birthday party out on Lake Washington. Both kids fell asleep in the car (a rarity), and there was some festival going on out there with such traffic we were unable to get through. We drove to a shady side street and hung out and enjoyed some iced tea as the kids dozed. Later in the afternoon we headed up to a friends house in Northgate for a backyard hang out and dinner. Max had so much fun playing with our friends toys. He announced happily while eating: "Mom, this is the best dinner ever" (a cheese and refried bean quesadilla, cucumber slices, black olives, corn on the cob, and watermelon).

He was so pleased with himself and our special day. It was lovely to see. And he's even been good about not using this loud "quacker" noise toy that he got on the Duck in the house.

Such a nice day with the family. Now, if only Alice would stop biting other kids when she's over tired. She bit our friend Cleo twice on the arm and left purple bite marks, with puffed up areas where she broke the skin. I cannot wait for her to grow out of this phase!

On another note, today was a beautiful summer day. Perfect hot weather, but not too hot. Alice and I spent some lovely time this morning at our neighborhood Fremont Peak Park and we had a nice lunch just the two of us.

In September I'll only be working 1 day a week due to the seasonal nature of my job. I've got one lead at UW for a half time job with full benefits. My resume made it from HR to the hiring department, so I'm hopeful I will get an interview. For now I'll enjoy some time at home this fall with the kids. We've got them registered for a six session art class which starts mid-September, along with 7 sessions of swim lesson for both kids. They have been enjoying a drop off playgroup Wednesday mornings at a local neighborhood center and Max has really been flourishing being back at Trettin preschool on Fridays. It's really nice to have some activities lined up for them, they both love learning so much.

Weekend getaway

Shawn and I had our first night away from both kids. Our first totally kid free night in over 4 years. Shawn went down to Portland on the train thursday morning for a bachelor party of a good friend. Saturday at noon Alicia and Loren came over to stay with the kids, I hopped in the car and trucked down 1-5, making it to Portland in just 3 hours. I picked Shawn up at a friends house. We had a lovely summer walk down the street to get a bite to eat, we browsed a vintage clothing sale, and drove over to our nice hotel, the Inn at Northrup Station. We used to live 4 blocks from there and I'd always been curious about the rooms. We checked in and had a nice hour and a half to ourselves before we had to leave for the wedding. We took the street car down to the Chinese Garden where the wedding was. We enjoyed chatting with several friends and walking through the garden. The ceremony was very sweet, our friends Nick and Vickie were so happy, and it was really sweet to be able to just sit and hold Shawn's hand and listen to the ceremony. We enjoyed tasty food and more good company. Around 11pm we headed back to the hotel, walking about half way, just enjoying walking through Portland on a summer evening. We awoke this morning with plenty of time for breakfast before driving back to Seattle. We had a good chat in the car and got back here by noon. It was a really lovely 24 hours away!
Alice and Max had a great time, too. A&L took them to my nephews birthday party at Jump Planet (think tons of bouncy houses, giant ones), to play at Greenlake, made them a tasty dinner and read them many bedtime stories. They went to sleep easily, and slept through the night! This morning they played at a park enjoying the weather. Right now Alice is snoozing, and Max and Shawn are up at the library. I'm enjoying some time to reflect on the lovely night away with Shawn. We can't wait to do it again!

4th of July weekend

Friday we kicked off the holiday weekend with a 5 hour outing at the Volunteer Park wading pool and playground! We had lots of fun hanging out with our friends and soaking up the sun. A little too much sun, Max & Alice got their first sunburns. Max's is pretty bad on his chest and shoulders. I've acquired a swim/sun shirt for him with long sleeves that should help. And Alice's days of being in her itty bitty suit outdoors are over, she'll sporting a swim shirt and trunks now too. With their swedish and irish genes, tans just aren't in our family. Saturday morning I worked a few hours while Shawn took the kids for a long and fun (they were out of the house by 8:30AM!) outing to Meridian Park, Max's favorite Seattle park. I picked them up and we came home for a quick lunch and Shawn and Max took off for their weekly library trip and to pick up Shawn's mom at the airport. We had fun hanging out with Grandma in the afternoon. She brought some fun gifts for the kids and they spent some time getting to know each other again. We had a nice family dinner and then all went to bed exhausted :)
The kids woke up super early sunday morning and Shawn took Max to Meridian Park again, and drove his mom to Mass. Alice took a super long nap and I ended up working from home for 3 hours while she snoozed. Shawn took his mom and Max out to lunch and to see "Cars 2". They all thought it was lame and ended up walking out of the movie! I took Alice up to a park to play with friends after her nap and then we came home and had another nice family dinner. Finally got a teething Alice to sleep (thanks, Tylenol!) and Shawn and I were able to step out to catch the sunset and go for a drink. It was sure nice to have someone here holding down the fort! This morning both kids got up at 5AM again, so another early breakfast and I was out the door with them headed for the zoo before 9AM. Shawn and his mom got to spend some nice son and mother time getting coffee and taking a walk. They met up with us at the zoo, we enjoyed perfect weather and then headed to Uneeda burger for a delicious lunch. Home for resting, napping and playing games. I was able to take a leisurely trip to Fred Meyer by myself and pick up some much needed summer shoes for the kids (for you locals with kids, clearance sale on kids summer sandals right now!). I scored them each a pair of new shoes for $28 total, a real steal! It was still so nice out when I got home that we packed up a picnic dinner and headed to Volunteer park for more wading pool time. We had fun playing with the kids and picnicking. Now we're all home, exhausted again, and waiting for the kids to fall asleep. They are currently talking while laying in bed....

It was a fun weekend and I'm glad Grandma Rose was able to come visit!

Little Alice and Fathers Day

Little Alice got sick last night, and threw up for hours. She went through 5 sleepers and a pair of pajamas. The morning she had a lowgrade fever. By mid morning it was high enough for Tylenol. She took a 3 hour nap and this afternoon she was not very energetic during a short outing to the playground. I was holding her on the couch around 5pm and she just sacked out in my arms. I've got her in her crib now, and hoping she'll sleep for a good 12 hours and get to feeling better. Shawn and Max just left for a special Father's Day dinner over at Alicia and Loren's. I'm bummed we couldn't join them. But even more bummed that Alice isn't awake for dinner. I was looking forward to having a quiet little dinner with her tonight, just the two of us. I've got a burrito in the oven and when she is well she loves to pull off pieces of the flour tortilla. I had planned on making her some quinoa, too.
So sad when she doesn't have the energy to read or play.

On another note, it's Fathers Day. I even remembered to call my Dad and say hi. Shawn was able to take himself out to brunch and some meandering around Ballard today, he got a good 4 hours out to do his own thing. While Alice napped Max and I played little board and card games, it was fun.

I wanted to jot down some of my memories of Shawn as a father:

He cut both of the kids cords when they were born.

He held both of them as newborns for hours, cuddling and soothing them.

He took Max to his first movie theatre movie, Rio.

He takes Alice on little walks around the block where she can go at her own pace and stop to examine every flower petal.

He plays with the kids every single night, from the minute he walks in the door, so that I can prepare dinner in peace.
He plays with them after dinner, too. They get a solid 2.5 hours with him every night before bed.

And at bedtime he lovingly reads them stories every night. And then after the lights are out he tells Max special stories loosely based on Jack and the Beanstalk and stories from his own childhood.

One of my favorite things Shawn does is when he arrives at BF Day, our closest neighborhood playground, he runs across the soccer field to the kids with a huge smile on his face and they both always run to greet him. Lately we've been spending a lot of late afternoon hours there and it's really fun when Shawn meets us after work.

We love you, Shawn!

Photography Project Idea

I haven't done any photography in years. At least 5 years. I have my dad's old Yohika D 120mm portrait camera from the 1930's in a closet. Languishing. Negatives with images of my Dad's mom from the early 1960's in the case. I'd like to print some of those old photos. I'm thinking though, of dressing the kids up in something stylish (not sure what) and photographing them at the beautiful and nearby fremont peak park. then printing the negatives myself in a darkroom. We don't have any framed photos of them up, and I'd like to do something really unique as a keepsake. Now I guess I need to order some old film online as I don't know if you can even purchase 120mm film in stores anymore.

In other notes, we had a fun weekend. Shawn and Max bought a new computer, we had friends over for brunch, we had a bbq at my brother's house, we played at the park, and Max and I had some special time just the two of us shopping and going to his gymnastics class. We've got a busy week ahead. Max's last swim class is tomorrow night. We'll be babysitting for a friend tonight and Wednesday night, seeing old friends and going to the queen anne farmer's market thursday evening, and friday having friends over for dinner. Phew!

Work has been super busy but it's going well. Shawn just finished a huge project, and we'll be taking a weekend later this month for a much needed trip to Portland. We don't get out of dodge as often as we should.

Alice is cutting her 2 year molars and talking up a storm. Max is getting better at writing his name and is keeping us all busy with his elaborate imaginary super hero games :)

Childcare

Our regular sitter whom we really like is out this week recovering from sinus surgery. I've had to scramble to cobble together childcare coverage for 3 mornings this week. Today I had to use a woman in the neighborhood we've only used once before. The first time she sat for us she seemed fine. Not very energetic, but fine as an ocassional sitter. Today was a different story. we've modified Max's diet a bit to help with some digestive issues he's working through and I had asked her to take the kids out for a bit, even a simple walk in the neighborhood. I came home to find she had not prepared what I requested for snack or lunch, they hadn't gone out, toys were all over the house, and they'd watched an hour and a half of tv. Well, Max watched TV whle Alice played by herself and the sitter sat on the couch. LAME! (I'm glad Max is old enough to rat out a lame sitter, tell me about all the TV and tell me about all the snack food she let him eat) I feel scammed out of $70.

Somedays my little part time job that brings in a very small amount of income does not seem worth it and these was one of those days. As soon as the sitter left I got the kids ready to go out and we enjoyed a walk to our neighborhood Fremont Peak Park. We played hide and seek and ran around for an hour. Alice was tired (Max wasn't ready to come home) so we headed back for her nap. Then Max and I had some fun playing a computer game and hanging out pretending to have a slumber party in me and Shawn's room. I sure love how snuggly he can be when he gets some one on one time with his Mom :). He's growing up so fast that it was really sweet to have this time with him on my lap where he showed me how to play a game on the iPad! This kid knows way more about computer games than I do. He's such a fast learner.

He said something to me yesterday as I was driving that I need to write down. We were on the way to meet our friends at the library and he began to reminisce.
Max "Mom, Alice and I drank up all your milk. You looked different when you nursed us. When I was a baby you had curly hair. Curly hair looks like waves. Like the wave statues at the Locks" (Ballard Locks). He is so sweet, I just love the things he says.

Sure, he and I have our power struggles over going pee, picking up toys, and eating brocolli but I sure love this guy and I'm glad that even though I'm working I get to spend a lot of time with him and Alice. This afternoon I actually woke Alice out of a heavy sleep so we could go to our nature school p-patch garden. Both kids placed the rocks they painted in the border of the garden bed, Alice got to swing on a large swing with 3 other children, and Max got to spray a big garden house and water some plants. Max also got to pull a radish and pick lettuce. He delighted in learning from his teacher Sara how to pinch and pull lettuce leaves. He was beaming as he carried the bag of lettuce back to the car, announcing to the folks parked behind us that we were going home to make salad. He said "I don't like salad but my mom and Shawn do and I'm going to wash it for them because there are little slugs on the lettuce!"

Although I was pretty upset by the lame babysitter morning I'm glad I managed to salvage the afternoon and get them out twice. It's so very important to me that they get out and run around and see their friends. I'll be talking with my two bosses next week and am seriously considering cutting my work days down to three a week. I'm not making that much anyway, and the money I have brought home thus far has helped us replace our car. Now that's taken care of I feel like we can breathe a little easier and I want some more time this summer with the kids for outings.

Alice's words

Alice is almost 21 months old. Here are her current words:

Hi
Bye
Duck
Quack
Dog
Cat
Gagilla (gorilla)
bath
no
yeah
"baba ma" (brother Max)
Mamma
Dadda
Uh-oh
oh no
moo
that
this
applesauce
cracker
egg
cheese

She is running, climbing, reading, smiling, jumping, and mostly jovial. She delights in finding her baseball cap each morning and putting it on backwards. She waves "bye-bye" to me in the morning when I leave for work, and runs to me when I get home. I love it. Today during a fun family outing at the zoo she delighted in petting goats.

Now the little one is sacked out for a nap while Shawn and Max are on their weekly trip to the library. I'm about to lay down too!
Very busy week with many hours at work. We're hoping to get away to Portland in a few weeks for a few days. In other news, we sold our old Honda which Max named "Norman" this morning. I took Max outside to say goodbye to the car. He rummaged through it one last time making sure there weren't any toys left in it, and had one last moment in the drivers seat. He held my hand and cried as the new owners drove it away. We came back to the house and he put his energy into some art projects, cranking out a fun collage with construction paper and glue, and then he and Alice did some watercolors together. I sure love these 2 kids :)

Sunny Afternoon at the Zoo

Life has been really really busy this week. Yesterday, though, the kids and I had lots of really nice time together. Alice napped early for our babysitter, and when I got home I made a nice lunch for the kids and then we took off for the zoo. We were there for 4 hours and the weather was absolutely perfect. We played house in the african savannah, both kids drummed together, we transformed into superheroes and ran to where the "trouble" was in the "my backyard" area of the zoo. This is one of the kids favorite spots, and since we don't have a backyard, it really is like their backyard. They climbed on and played in a cave. There was a grandpa in there playing and roaring like a bear at the children. They would shriek and run out. But not Alice, she turned and roared back at him and they both laughed and laughed. It really made Alice's day, and soon she had all the kids roaring with her, back at the grandpa. Max taught Alice how to climb the rope spiderweb, they climbed into turtle shells, and played in the water with sticks.

We then found a nice spot to have a snack and went to play with the dinosaur robot behind zoomasium. There weren't many kids there so both Max and Alice had very long turns of moving this robot around. Max was especially enthralled. He convinced me again to shell out $6 so we could go through the robot dinosaur exhibit. Alice said "Wow!!" as she stood in front of each dino, and Max excitedly asked me the name of each one. We played on the boat by the penguins and finally called it a day. Max fell asleep in the stroller on the way home at 5:30pm! I thought he was out for the night as he wouldn't wake for dinner, but around 8pm he stumbled out of bed. Shawn and I enjoyed feeding him dinner while Alice was asleep (we had a lovely dinner with just her, too) and then Shawn and Max read a superman comic and played some games. After some dessert and a chat with our neighbors Max and I settled in for a slumber party with his stuffed animals. We read 2 books, turned out the light and snuggled to sleep. Shawn and Max are still asleep in our bed. I'm off early to chat with a mechanic at an auto shop. We had a buyers inspection done on a used volvo sedan yesterday. I hope it all checks out! The price is affordable, and our Honda is really on its last legs.

Grandpa Tim arrives on the train tonight. Tomorrow will be a busy day of taking both kids to the dentist, playing with Grandpa at the zoo, buying food for Max's party, and making tons of cupcakes and cake! The party is Saturday and we are all looking forward to it, especially Max :)

Dinner tonight

I just have to gloat: alice dipped steamed brussel sprouts in feta cheese dressing. Both kids ate brown rice and tofu sauteed in teriyaki sauce. Max even asked for seconds. And that was after a birthday party lunch of pizza, juice boxes, and chocolate cake. I'm so glad healthy food tastes good to them!

On my own for a the weekend

Shawn left yesterday around noon for some much needed R&R in Portland. He'll be back late tonight.

Today was a good day, but boy was it long. Max woke at 6:40AM. Our morning started out quiet enough, with him watching a little cartoon and snuggling with me. Alice was up by 7, and by 8AM they were zooming about and it was clear we needed to get out sooner than later. We were out the door heading for the zoo before 9AM. I just took the single stroller and had Max walk, all 13 blocks up to the west entrance. We got in and saw the new dinosaur exhibit before it was too crowded and only had a few minutes of begging for a toy as you have to exit the dino exhibit through the gift store (lame!). I was not about to buy something as I had just spent $6 for us to get in. We were thrilled to learn the carousel was giving free rides for the whole day, we took four rides! Max and Alice really, really enjoyed it. I loved seeing the big grins on their faces when the mirrors caught there reflection as we went around. After the merry-go-round Max picked out a lovely spot on the green for a picnic and the kids gobbled up their snacks. So quickly all the food disappeared that I ended up buying them lunch at the zoo two hours later, something I never do. We shared a table with a nice family from the eastside who's kids were exactly one year older than Max and Alice (also a boy and girl, the girl even shares Alice's birthday!). The kids gobbled up chicken strips and fries, and there weren't too many tears from Max about having to share his white chocolate macadamia nut cookie. After lunch we headed straight home. Max was so tired he barely made the walk, many times sitting down while we waited for a stoplight to turn, and telling me he was as tired as a turtle.

When we got home, after 1pm, I heated up a bottle for Alice. She drank it, but had no interest in a nap. Max was bummed! He wanted his quiet time to play a computer game with me and hang out. I did manage to get them into cutting paper and drawing for about 10 minutes while I started some soup for dinner. Then they started bouncing off the walls and I realized we should just head back out. So, at 2:30 we left for the BF Day School playground to meet up with our friends Jennifer and Henry. The kids were both tired and moved around pretty slowly. We came home at 4pm, and Max was so tired that he crawled on his hands and knees up the driveway! No joke. I had taken the double stroller for this outing but wouldn't let him ride the whole way because he is SO heavy. Seriously, he must be over 50 pounds now.

We were eating dinner by 5pm, then I caved and let Max and Alice watch this cute little English cartoon "Kipper" while I cleaned up the kitchen. By 5:45 they were in the tub, and both were fast asleep by 6:50pm.
It's only 8 now, but I'm ready to conk out. I don't know how single parents do it!! And I didn't even really delve into yesterday, but for memories sake, I left for work just before 8AM, and Shawn spent the morning with the kids and took them to Max's gymnastics class and then picked me up from work at 11:30. We came home, made a quick lunch and then Shawn hit the road. Luckily, Alice took a 2 hour nap and then we headed out for some informal soccer fun with friends, we ended up spending 2 1/2 hours out for that. I'm pretty tired out from all of our outside time this weekend!

Our babysitter is going to be out of town for a few days this week and I haven't been able to find someone for Wednesday morning. I am hoping I can work super early for a few hours and then Shawn can bring the kids to my office and then I'll take them out, I'm not sure what else to do as I can't really take the entire day off.

Ok, now I'm just rambling about boring stuff. I need to try to sleep. Last night I stayed up until 11pm watching two Mad Men episodes, and then I was up with Alice around 1AM giving her a binky. I got some sleep but not as much as I should have. Max has been stirring with this reoccuring bad dream. He says all the doors in our apartment pop off the hinges and a bad guy comes in. (Too much Jackie Chan Adventures cartoons?). Tonight he even got out of the bathtub to check on Alice in the kitchen, wanting to make sure she was ok. I told him that we keep our house locked and we have sticks in the windows, hopefully this will calm his thoughts. He's been talking to me about this same dream for three or four days. He's got such an active mind!

Growing Max

Max has been eating us out of house and home lately. For memories sake, here's what he ate today:
(and I might even be missing a few things since I worked this morning)

1/2 blueberry muffin
1/2 kiwi
glass of vanilla almond milk
piece of toast with peanut butter
apple
pomegranate limeade
several slices of salami
bread and butter
yogurt with boysenberry jam
large amount of grapes
2 pretzel sticks
...and all of THIS for dinner:
1 meatball
1 chicken apple sausage
1 small raw carrot
sweet potato fries
small chocolate bar
2 pieces of raisin apricot bread with butter
bowl of cheerios with milk
water

and in comparison, little Alice:
1/4 blueberry muffin
1/2 kiwi
water
applesauce
cottage cheese
multigrain crackers
pretzel sticks
grapes
sweet potato fries
cooked golden beets
1/4 of gardenburger patty
1/4 of small chocolate bar
2 8oz. bottles of whole milk

It's no wonder I'm at Trader Joe's every week!

April Happenings

For the past few weeks Max has consistently asked for a real coconut. He wanted to crack it open and drink the milk out with a straw. That's exactly what we did this morning. Hopefully I'll get photos up. We had such fun picking one out at the store and then coming home from a fun gymnastics class to open the coconut. Max stood eagerly on a chair next to Shawn while they worked on carving a hole in the top, Max got a pink (his favorite color) straw, and we all had a few delicious sips. Then our friends Vinnie and Hillary, who we don't see nearly often enough, came over for a lovely brunch. They brought fruit from the farmers market, and we had scrumptious bagels that Alice and Shawn went out and got this morning. We had a fun two hours of food and good conversation with the kids running all around.

We've had a really busy month with me working. Things have mostly been going well, but this week Max had a really hard time in the morning, really crying a lot and wanting me to come home. It's so hard to be at work and hear him crying on the phone, begging me to come home to him. Our sitter is really good and working through it with him kindly and patiently. I think in a week or two he'll be more settled down. The little guy has had me all to himself for almost 4 years and this is a big change for him that I'm gone four mornings a week.

I thought I'd jot down a few things from the month of April before it's completely whizzed by.

Max swam 2 strokes by himself in swim class last week!

Alice now says her name, "Als"

Shawn and I got out for a lovely dinner date at Oaxaca and a tasty dessert at a new place called Pie just down the hill last Saturday.

I had a whirlwind trip to portland and back on sunday for my friends baby shower and I was able to squeeze in coffee with my good longtime friend Jenni, and a bit of tea and chatting with friends Nick and Vicki before heading back to I-5.

Alice loves hummus so much she eats it out of a cup with a spoon almost every day for lunch.

Max REALLY wants this toy story 3 toy: buzz lightyear in a rocket that you shake and it scoots around. I bought it for him last week and I'm going to have such a hard time keeping it hidden until his birthday! Just this morning, as he knew we were going to Fred Meyer to get a coconut and new boots for him, he asked for this toy. Fred Meyer is where he first saw it and he is beside himself about how much wants this toy.

We've been enjoying neighborhood walks looking at tulips and daffodils. On Monday we spent almost 5 hours a the park and zoo. As Alice watched the gorillas she beat her chest and said "aaaahhaaaahh --gagillas!". They looked at each other and then back at her :).

Rainy Sunday morning at the zoo and other things

Alice is taking her first nap in three days. The poor girl is teething hard and also really trying to figure out language and her verbal skills. Yesterday she talked to herself in her crib for two hours!! The kids have been so energetic and nonstop that I just made our second pot of coffee today. They were both up at 6am so after breakfast at 7 we set off for the zoo at 9 and waited a few minutes for it to open. The kids didn't mind the rain and romped around in the zoomasium. Little daredevil Alice likes to zoom down the slide on her stomach. We wandered through the tropical rainforest, ate a huge snack in the cafeteria and spent a long time outside and max showed shawn how he's mastered climbing a big rope spiderweb. Alice splashed through the mud puddles and ran all around. We got home at noon but it felt like we'd been out all day. I finally got Alice to sleep and made a nice lunch for shawn and I. Now i am starting in on making dinner for friends who have a three week old baby.

Max started a gymnastics class yesterday and had a splendid time, his eyes were bright with excitement. Alice was sad she couldn't participate in thus class. Next time she can take one, we just can't afford to enroll both of them at the same time. We are all adjusting to me working part time. I really am enjoying the change of pace, and still having lots of time at home with the kids. I love having Fridays off, the kids and I spent a long time at a playground with friends.

In two weeks I'll be taking an overnight solo trip to Portland! I'm looking forward to dinner with a friend on my drive down and an old friends baby shower. Hopefully shawn will take a trip by himself the following weekend.

I'm enjoying looking at the blossoms on the trees outside our living room window and watching shawn and max enjoy a samari cartoon that they picked up at the library yesterday. My two boys head to the library together every weekend and max looks forward to it all week.

A few notes about Alice:
She loves hummus and eats huge portions of it.
At the end of a meal she enjoys putting her bowl on her head like a hat.
She likes to say "hi".
She loves all trucks, and all books about trucks

Max :
Loves making up superhero games, assigning each family member a character and role to play.
He is totally into the here comes science TMBG album and watches the DVD of videos daily. His favorite song is The Bloodmobile.
He now prefers plain yogurt with fruit over sweetened yogurt. Hooray!.

Welcome Spring!

Yesterday we spent at least 4 1/2 hours outside with the kids. We all thoroughly enjoyed the weather. We spent a lovely morning wandering around the Locks and were delighted to see two salmon at the fish ladder. Max made up a really cute game pretending to be a salmon hatching out of his egg. Alice and Shawn spent tons of time practicing Alice's stair climbing. Alice must have been so revved up from all the activity that she refused to nap, so we fueled up with Lighthouse coffees and banana bread and headed out for an afternoon at the park. We had a great afternoon romping around the playground. We all came home tired, happy and hungry. We gobbled up dinner and the kids were asleep by 7:30pm! It was so refreshing to just be able to go to a playground and not have to spend a few loud crazy hours inside some indoor playground. I've gotten tired of those venues over the winter and can't wait to spend some more fun afternoons outside.

My first week of work went very well. The kids are adjusting to their sitters, and it felt so nice to do something different with my mornings. I'm looking forward to going to work this week and digging into some learning and challenges in my new job.

We will register Max for more swim lessons this week. He loves his swimming class and is really thriving. He can even swim for a bit with some flotation devices! Saturday he will start a morning gymnastics class. I'm also organizing a neighborhood soccer "league" to start next month. I think it will be great fun for all the kids to get together and kick a bunch of balls around. I played one on one soccer with Max yesterday, on an actual soccer field and he was asking me questions about how an actual game would be played. This is a huge change over last spring when we enrolled him in a sports class he had very little interest in. Alice is already pretty good at kicking the ball around. We're looking forward to lots of fun outside time!

Little Alice is sleeping off some kind of odd little stomach bug and I'm getting ready to prep some dinner. Shawn and Max are up at the library, one of their usual weekend outings. Tonight Shawn is meeting with his bookclub. We're just moving right along, and so glad spring is here!

The Castle

Max has been asking to visit this "castle" every time we drive by for at least three months. Tonight I finally googled it and learned it's the site of a Methodist Church. The church office is open tomorrow afternoon, so we are going to check it out! I love going on little outings that satisfy his curiosity.

My first day at work went well. Working 4 hours in the morning felt like the perfect amount of time. I arrived home feeling refreshed, ready to make lunch for the kids, snuggle Alice down for a nap, and spend some time with Max, reading, playing superheroes, and some computer games on pbskids. I'm so happy they got along well with the sitter!

Tomorrow

Tomorrow is my first day at my part time job. I'll be working 8am to noon Monday through Thursday Mornings until the end of June. I'm excited and nervous. Plenty nervous about leaving my kids with childcare providers who seem great, but I don't know how the kids will do, especially Max. He's been vacillating between clinging to me and being angry with me, saying things like: "You need to stay home forever! Dad makes the money. You stay home and make our food.". This will be my first stint working outside the home since he was born.

I've loved my time at home with him, and Alice, but it's time for me to spend a few hours a week doing something different, and the small amount of income I will net after childcare and parking will be helpful. I'm trying my best to assure him that he will be fine with his babysitters, and he'll probably have some fun too. I'll be home each day by 12:30, so there will be plenty of time for hanging out with Max one on one while Alice naps and then we'll have afternoons for outings.

I'm really looking forward to getting some balance back in my life. I've never been very good at that, balancing everything. Lately I've been overwhelmed and I hate to say it, but burned out from the amount of energy and attention Max has needed lately. He's so hungry to learn and interact. He knows all of his letters, can count to thirty without much help, is in the very early stages of reading, getting close to being fully toilet trained, and what else, he's interested in everything. He wants to talk about black holes, all of the scientific elements, every single super hero in existence, learn every computer game, and build everything possible out of legos, trios, and tinker toys. He wows me by how active and intelligent he is. We are constantly striving to find things to challenge and stimulate him. Just this week we've gone to the the UU church in West Seattle, visited friends and their 1 day old baby boy at the hospital, played at a friends house, had friends over to play, went to the Pacific Science Center, a birthday party at the Burke Museum where the kids got to see a huge mastodon skeleton and many dinosaur exhibits, a trip to the library, a 2 hour geologic program through our friends nature preschool, the seattle aquarium, registered for a gymnastics class, played play-doh, made molasses cookies, and I'm sure there are other things I'm forgetting!

Right now Alice is asleep (after getting up at 5:28AM on day light savings day!), Shawn and Max are up at the library, and I've corned beef simmering for an early St. Pattys dinner with Alicia, Loren, and Katherine. I'm about to prep an Irish soda bread recipe so that Max can mix that up with me when he gets home. He loves hands on projects.

In continuing to count our blessings, I am remembering how fortunate we are to have all of the things that we do as I am feeling the strain of neccesseties such as gas and food eat up more of our budget as prices rise. I am remembering how much more we have than many others. And my heart just aches for the terrible tragedy in Japan. I think we can find a few dollars in our budget for MercyCorps.

Shawn's recovering from a cold and has been very busy and challenged at work with the course he is currently writing. We are fitting in little bits of fun where we can. Last sunday we got out for dinner and drinks while Alicia and Loren watched the kids. The other night we watched "The Social Network". Last night we sampled some Guinness ice cream a friend made. Yum! I'm making a cake to go with said ice cream at a St. Patty's party on Thursday at a friends house. Yesterday we took a brief family walk at sunset. It was delightful to show Max a rainbow and watch the sun setting behind the Olympics. Alice delighted in finding flower petals on the ground, and we are all delighted at the signs of spring.

Word names and word play

Lately Max has been playing a lot with language. I had to share what shawn tweeted today:

Max called me paint. I called him a paintbrush. Then he said he painted me on the wall. This meant a big hug. Sweetie.

We love how unique Max is!

Alice at 18 months

My little girl is 18 months old today.

Alice, at 18 months you love to stand on the couch keeping watch at the big living room window watching for garbage trucks. You know their sound and when you hear one you drop whatever you are doing and hurry over to the window.

You love watching animals, especially ducks, dogs, and cats. Yesterday you delighted in petting an 11 week old black lab puppy at the playground.

You love flavorful foods and recently have enjoyed soy chorizo with salsa, veggie tiki masala, salami, steamed chard with basalmic vinegar
baked beans, fried eggs, Rosemary bread with caramelized onion hummus, and yams stir fried in soy sauce.

You now play with playdoh without eating it and enjoy kneeling on a regular kitchen chair rather than sitting in your high chair.

You love playing peek a boo and chase with your brother.

You are a delight. We love you, Alice Wren.

In the middle of the night in our house

I got up at 4:30AM to give a crying Alice a binky and get her back to sleep. As I walked out of our room I was blinded by every single light in the kitchen, living room, and hallway being turned on. I looked into the living room to see Max asleep on the couch. At least the light in the kids room was off. Alice never really did go back to sleep and ended up in our bed. Last night at dinner we
told Max that if he came into our room in the night (he's been doing this for over a week) we'd take him back to his room. So I guess he decided to try out the couch. When I asked him this morning why he'd come out to the couch he said he needed his privacy from Alice. Already?!

A few notes

Me and Alice's new favorite breakfast: Medium grain brown rice with soy sauce and earth balance margarine. :)

Max's new favorite game: Making all of his toys into transformers

His wish for the weekend: for us to take a family ride on the monorail.

Our plan for today: staying home and making muffins.

I think all of us are ready for a more mellow day.

We're listening to Billie Holiday and hanging out. I'm on my 4th cup of coffee. It's nice.

Today

Today was a crazy string of events and I wanted to jot them down for memories sake:

3am. Max crawls in to our bed. He's been doing this almost nightly since I've started talking seriously about working part time.

5:50am. Alice wakes. She won't go back to sleep it takes me 45 minutes to realize she has a massive dirty diaper.

8:45am. Delve into construction paper project with kids. Max has been asking me to cut out paper boats, fish, pirates, etc for him to make a collage with.

9:15am. Drop kids off at friends house. Drive to new job to fill out paperwork. Enjoy seeing old boss and coworkers again.

10:30am. Pick up kids, drive to preschool to drop off max. He does not want to be there and bursts into tears. I go against my gut and leave him there, finally departing at 11:30 with a seemingly tired Alice.

Noon: change another huge dirty diaper of alice's. Feed her lunch. Call max's school - he is still sad, we rush off to pick him up - wish i had listened to my gut.

12:30. Arrive to find a very sad max. Lovingly whisk him into car and he finally eats his lunch, his face splotchy with tears.

1pm. Get alice a story, bottle, and in to crib. She talks to herself for an entire hour.

2pm. Alice gets really fussy, I go into her room to find another huge dirty diaper. She is, of course, wide awake and in no mood for a nap.

2:30. Kids chase each other all over house and start driving me nuts.

3pm. Head out in the rain to drive over to our friends p-patch garden to play. It starts raining hard but we persist. On the walk down the hill to the garden I slip in the mud and fall flat on my butt, with a scared Alice in my arms.

3:30pm. Max wanders off and empties his drawers. I change him on the cement floor of the tool barn. We are grateful for this shelter from the rain and the kids play with a few tools and eat snacks.

4:30. We start walking back to our cars. I slipped and fell three times with alice in the mud trying to make it uphill. Thankfully Sara is more spry than i am and carries alice up the hill while I climb up, with max patiently waiting by the car, asking me if I am ok. I am so covered in mud that I have to remove my skirt and sweatshirt in front of passing cars, and drive home in tights and a t-shirt. I peel off alice's wet rain jacket and muddy shoes and thankfully she is happy again, but still no nap!

5:00. Arrive home, all three of us get in to warm bath. Kids play contently in tub while i rinse mud out of clothes in sink.

5:30. Get kids out of tub and into jammies. Start their dinner.

5:50. Shawn finally home. Try to leave for my 6:00 haircut, max cries and clings to me, wanting to come along. I manage to get out the door and quickly start a load of laundry as I hear his cries coming from our apartment.

6:05. Arrive at hair appointment only 5 minutes late.

6:30. Walk over to grocery store with new spunky haircut and self medicate with a deep fried deli burrito.

6:45. Arrive home to two very tired kids. Delight max with a package of animal crackers. Alice of course wants some. As I pick her up to put her in the highchair I notice she needs a change. Again. 4th dirty diaper of the day, and even her clothes are soiled. Poor kid!

7:35. Both kids finally asleep.

8:00. Enjoy tasty quiet dinner with Shawn. He went vegetarian about a month ago, so lately and we've been having some delightful meals. Tonight was simple. Golden chard steamed and tossed with balsamic vinegar and myzthra cheese, and rosemary bread with caramelized onion hummus.

8:30. Take 2 vicodin pills for my aching neck and shoulder (maybe later I'll blog about how friday afternoon max ran out behind a car that was backing up and while trying to catch him I fell while carrying alice, dropping her on the pavement, and injuring myself).

9:00. Shawn heads out to visit with a friend. The quiet of the house finally settles around me. What a day!!!!

PS: Max got a mullet haircut yesterday. It was just what he asked for and it's downright adorable.

A few things of note

I am enjoying some quiet on the couch, lazing for a few minutes watching the storm outside and having some hot tea. A few things of note:

Max is spelling out short words in scrabble

Alice ate 1/4 cup or more of guacamole last night

Our family visited the UU church in West Seattle this morning and we all enjoyed it and plan return next week

For the first time EVER we have a cleaning service coming tomorrow morning. Needless to say I am overjoyed.

Max is swimming in the pool with the help of flotation devices.

Alice's new word this week was "glasses"

My ear infection is finally gone!

We took a trip to portland last weekend. It was good to see my sister grace and many of our friends. Some parts of the trip were very hard with the kids, but I'm still glad we went. Shawn and I might each take a solo trip down this spring.


I waiting to hear from a former employer if I will be starting some part time temp work (3 mos.) In mid march. I really hope that works out, we could use the money and I could use some time in a quiet office :)

Highlights from our week

Today I took Max on a special outing, just the two of us. It had been a long time since he and I have gone out to do something just for fun. We went to see these two jugglers, Brothers from Different Mothers. They were great and I enjoyed their jokes. It was really sweet to watch Max's eyes light up with excitement as he watched the performance. After the show he picked out his first ever snack and juice from a vending machine and thought It was SO cool. We sat in the high school cafeteria eating our snacks and having a nice chat. It was a really special outing. Alicia and Loren came over for dinner tonight and the kids had such fun playing with them and staying up late. max sure loves his godparents.

Yesterday we trekked down to the aquarium where the kids enjoyed playing with replica octopus tentacles, trying on scuba gear (max walked in three different huge pairs!), touching starfish, and watching a scuba diver in a huge tank. On the way there Alice looked out the car window and said "taxi" for the first time. Earlier in the week she pointed to a picture of shawn and his dad and said her first sentence: "daddy in dat." So cute,

Thursday we met shawn for lunch at a Thai restaurant near his office and the kids behaved so well and ate a good lunch. As shawn so well put it, their restaurant behavior has really turned a corner.

Max has excelled at cooking this week, mixing up cornbread batter with no help from me, we baked a great cranberry orange bread during Alice's nap the other day and he has so delighted in eating bread he made. this morning he helped make pancakes, he is getting to be a big help in the kitchen.

Max is desiring more complicated projects, little activities we do each day while Alice naps. He used to be satisfied with a memory card game or a construction paper project, but now he wants to do more hands on projects. He loves creating and making things. So,I have started scouring a book of preschool activities shawn picked at the library. I think I will be making a trip to the craft store soon to pick up supplies. I also going to comb a few thrift stores in search of another set of tinker toys. He sure loves creating with those. I'm at a bit of a loss of what to do with my son who is no longer interested in playdoh, duplo legos, or reading with me during the day. I have started working with him on adding and counting numbers, it is so fun to see him grow.

Alice is thriving and gaining weight, the iron supplement we started her on a month ago has made such a huge difference, she is more cheerful, her coloring has vastly improved and and her appetite has more than tripled, we are overjoyed to see some babychub on her frame.

It's been a good week, I am finally feeling almost back to normal. I saw my naturopath on tuesday who thinks I caught the HIB virus just a few days after christmas. An ear infection is a common secondary infection from HiB. it is good to know finally what i have been sick with for over three weeks. Supplements and acupuncture are helping a lot. We have a fun week coming up. We are looking forward to friends coming over for dinner tomorrow night, Sara Egbert's fabulous nature school Monday morning, Max's swim lesson Tuesday night, and I can't remember all what else right now, but I'm so glad to be feeling better. shawn has been such a huge help, hooray for awesome, patient and generous husbands!

Counting blessings from Max and Alice

I'm continuing to feel better and get some energy back from what my doctor thinks is the nasty HIB virus. Thankfully kids these days are vaccinated for it! I. So thankful to have more energy to do projects and play with the kids. Yesterday I taught a little cooking class project to max and his friend colm. It was so fun to watch them put together a little filled pastry that they got to eat and enjoy. It has made me think of many things I love about max and Alice.

Spontaneous afternoon popcorn parties with Alice

Leisurely mornings with max and making him special eggs at 9am

Afternoon dance parties to random itunes mixes

Watching the two of them snuggle and max asking his sister for more hugs

Alice playing in the tub for ages

Max telling me "mom, you are the best maker of things"

How cuddly both of them are when they wake and that I get to soak it all up without hurrying on to get out the door.

Max constantly inventing fun games for us to play.

Looking out the window at garbage trucks with Alice.

Its made me realize that having your health really is everything, I am glad mine is returning even if this means no goat cheese or wheat for few weeks (my doctors advice so my ear can heal and not be bothered by these foods).

It is 11pm, I really should get to bed, alice has been waking early with new teeth coming in.

I love you, my little family (you too Shawn!)

Productivity!

Lately I've been feeling flustered that I can't seem to complete a project or even make a meal from start
to finish. This morning Shawn took the kids to the library and I finally moved everything out of our old storage
unit (it's only been a year!), took stuff to Goodwill, fixed Alice's scooter, put a new bin stacker in the kids room
for organizing toys, and pulled out infant toys and books for a friends baby shower later today. It felt so good to
get some things accomplished! I'm in a good mood today, yesterday and today my hearing has really improved. I'm
very relieved and thankful. I'm looking forward to an evening out tonight at my friends babyshower and seeing other girlfriends.
Tomorrow we are going out to my brothers house for dinner. Max is excited to go play with his cousins. My brother built his
kids a clubhouse, I'm sure Max will love it!

Alice is FINALLY down for her nap today and Max and I are about to try a chocolate soymilk icecream recipe from his Highlights magazine, you shake chocolate
milk, sugar and ice in a ziploc bag until it sets. Fun :)!

Slow progress

I went to see the doctor again today about my ear infection. Truthfully, I've still been feeling really run down and was wondering if those super strong antibiotics that are sapping my energy and tearing up my gut were working on my ear. They are. The infection is gone, but the damage, swelling and fluid remain. He thinks my hearing will return in a weeks time. If it doesnt I'm off to see a specialist. I just returned from a soothing acupuncture treatment which I hope will speed the healing. I miss being able to hear fully and I just want to feel like myself again.

Today I'm thankful shawn's company is offering a healthcare flexible spending account again this year, we are able to put aside tax free money to help defray our medical costs. We didn't do much today, went over to a friends house for a morning play date. Max especially had a good time, I love watching him with his friends. Here's to hoping I feel better soon and I am able to get out for some more fun activities with the kids.

Max, closing in on age 4

Max can't stop talking about how he's almost 4. He's already planning his birthday party, telling me that he wants to have it at Meridian Park again. Fine with me, a beautiful pesticide free park that I can use for free! I'll brag about his accomplishments for a minute: he's getting close to being fully potty trained and has been dry at night for at least a month. He's been very good about sharing and his manners rapidly improving with him saying "Thank you" and "You're welcome" during his imaginary play. He's enjoying playing with many new Christmas toys, including transformers and tinker toys.

He is really enjoying structured learning activities such as ABC cards, books about counting, finding hidden pictures in his Highlights magazines, and memory games. While I've been under the weather I've tried out some structured 20 minute activities with him and he's really taken to it. So, starting this week we are having 1 morning a week with some at home preschool lessons. I hope each week that a friend or two can join us to enhance the fun. Max has also told me that soon he'll need a "bigger kid" preschool as his school accepts children as young as 2. I'm hoping he can hold out though the fall as I would be delighted to have him and Alice attending the same school together!

Today I'm thankful for my hearing. I have a severe infection in my left ear. I'm on antibiotics, but I've lost most of my hearing in that ear. I hope it's only temporary, but there's a chance I may not regain all hearing. I'll know in about a month when the eardrum has fully healed. It's really made me appreciate what I CAN hear out of my right ear.

I'm also thankful that I am home with the kids. As hard as it is some days, I know in my heart this is where I'm happiest. While Alice took a much needed four hour nap, I had a delightful afternoon watching Transformers cartoons with Max, making tinkertoys telescopes, and even dozing for awhile on the couch while Max played on the iPad, he woke me with a kiss on the cheek when he needed a snack. Such a sweet boy.

Thankful

I am sitting here in bed on the iPad, it's almost midnight, I've taken two vicaden and I am battling a sudden, extremely painful ear infection, due to the nasty cold I've had for a week and no doubt not helped by the fact that I've been cheating and eating some dairy as of late.

I'm counting my blessings. The awesome dr at our neighborhood clinic called in antibiotics for me tonight and shawn ran out to get them. As the pain is slowly subsiding it is reminding me of how very thankful I am for shawn and so many things in our life. Even though our car is old and leaks and I've been complaining about it, it allowed shawn to get me the medicine I desperately needed in thirty minutes, we were also able to quickly travel the 20 miles down to seward park in south seattle this morning to go on a delightful toddler hike which both kids thoroughly enjoyed. As hard as many days have been due to numerous health problems I have had this past year i am so glad I am home with the kids. They are both so wonderful and special and I love watching them grow.

My new years resolution is to remember to give thanks each day. I am thankful for shawn and his job which he so enjoys that provides for our family. I am thankful for my children who are happy, healthy, and love one another. Every morning and evening they hug and snuggle. I am thankful for friends and family who brought over groceries and fresh baked bread this week when the kids and I were sick. We really have so many good things in our life and I want to reflect on them all this year.

Alice at 16 months

Alice turned 16 months old today (this photo is from August, but I love it so much I wanted to post it anyway). I wanted to jot down a few things about her while I have a moment. Today at lunch she laughed more than I had ever heard. She had a tupperware with orange slices in it and she delighted in putting the lid on, shaking the tupperware, and having me take the lid off. We did this for at least ten minutes with her just laughing and laughing. I got some delightful pictures which I will post on here when we get the latest batch of photos off the camera. She is starting to talk more. Here are her words:

Gi-on (our 2 year old friend Gideon)

Dat (that)

Dis (this)

Guck (truck)

Dad

Mamma

Ma (Max)

Owie

Zoo

I

Yeah

Fish

Book

She loves snuggling with Max and watching a few minutes of cartoons (this week it's Richard Scarry's "Busytown"), racing matchbox cars with him, climbing on furniture, watching garbage trucks (she could seriously do this all day), brush her teeth, and read books. She constantly brings us books with a big smile lighting up her cute little face.

We love you, Alice Wren!

New Years Brunch

We enjoyed a lovely brunch with our friends The Careys and their nice friend Sean who took these pictures of us. It was a great way to start the new year, yummy pancake breakfast, an 18th century punch, and lots of nice conversation.