Spring is here

We had a delightful picnic lunch with Shawn at the Olympic Sculpture Park today.

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.

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.

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!

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!

Holding it Together

Well, we're managing to hold it together with two kids pretty well. Thanks to Shawn taking Max out to the park for an hour every night after work I'm managing to put together some well rounded dinners. And a big thanks to Alice for being such a mellow baby. She slept through the night the last two nights. Amazing. Am I tempting fate by bragging about it on my blog? Probably. Alice has been a delight. She's usually happy to sit in her bouncy chair batting at toys while I make meals and throw in loads of laundry. Max is adjusting very well to being a big brother and he really enjoys cuddling and burping Alice. He said something priceless on the way home from school the other day. Alice was crying in the car, guessing she might be hungry I told her we'd be home soon and that I'd give her some "Mamma's Milk". Max piped up, saying that he needed to nurse her and that she needed his milk. I love it.

I've been trying to give him more one on one time. On Monday we started what I hope will be a weekly tradition. I took Max out for a special dinner, just the two of us. He was so happy to go to a restaurant with just me. Tonight he and I baked up some pumpkin muffins to take over to our neighbors for pumpkin carving tomorrow. He really loves baking and cooking.

Tomorrow I have a parent interview at a preschool in the neighborhood we hope to enroll him in. I am hopeful a spot will open up soon for him. We visited and he was so excited by the environment. Most of the time is spent playing outside, which he loves. All the toys are wood, and the kids get to help make their own organic snacks, and they get to bake a mini loaf of bread on fridays. It sounds perfect for him. He's doing well at the drop-in school we're using in the University District, but it's a bit of a drive and I think he'll do really well in a permanent school where he goes to school with the same kids for a few years.

Shawn's Dad visited us this weekend and we had a nice, laid back time. Tim was super helpful and watched the kids so Shawn and I could check out a rental house (we're not moving into it), and rearrange Max's room, making room for Alice to move in there in a month or two. Shawn and Tim had fun taking Max to the zoo and park, and I even got to hit Goodwill by myself while they watched the kids.

The days can be crazy and long when Shawn's at work, but overall it's going really well. Alice is growing and thriving, already fitting into three month clothes. She has a knack for waking up when Max goes down for a nap. It's pretty cute, she wakes up all smiles and we usually get in a good hour of Mamma and Alice time. Today I gave her a leg massage and she cooed and rolled around on the bed. I'll post more pictures once we get them uploaded. Happy Halloween!

Two weeks of fun with Dad

Shawn sent me this photo taken this morning at the Ballard Locks. It's his last day off work today and he took Max out for a special morning. Max got the kids Grand Slam breakfast at the Hi-Life (Pancakes, eggs, bacon and OJ!) and then they went to run around at the Locks, one of Max's favorite outings. They are on the bus on the way home now so I'm attempting to crank out a quick blog entry before they get here and before Alice wakes up. It's been really great having Shawn home for the past 2 weeks and we are going to miss him very much!
He has taken Max out almost every morning for some special Max and Daddy time at parks and the zoo, and it's given me really valuable time to recuperate at home and bond with sweet little Alice.
The photo above was taken on her third day. She's 2 weeks old today and already noticeably more chubby and longer. It's amazing how fast newborns grow. I'm taking some quiet time this morning for myself. I've had a cup of coffee and baked up a batch of chocolate chip muffins, and done some reflecting on my parenting skills, both my weak and strong points. I'm going to try and breathe deep these next few weeks while I adjust to mothering 2 kids on my own during the day and hope that I can find the patience I need when Max is in a challenging mood. He is a sweet little boy, he's just 2, which includes a lot of hugs, and a lot of testing limits (throwing toys, screaming in the house, and jumping on the bed --all on the "No" list in our house). We are thrilled that he has been so sweet to his new sister. He loves to hold her, and give hugs and kisses. She is a very mellow baby, a good sleeper and eater, a better sleeper than Max, thankfully :). More pictures coming soon.