Conflagration

Eight menorahs for the eighth night.

A view from Daycare

The UW Portage Bay daycare will open from the winter quarter! And the view from Mimi's Montessori preschool classroom is spectacular. The toys and games are pretty fun too.   

Trampoline time for Mimi

Mimi starts her own gymnastics class this week. This is the last indoor playground she'll need for jet gym fix for a while. This week the trampoline was a huge hit. She bounced and bounced, then patiently waited her turn, to bounce some more.

Sunday snowfunday

We drove up to visit the snow at snoqualmie pass. Of course Zachary dived in, literally to tummy toboggan down the slope. He also made snow angels, a snow man, and had several snow fights. Miriam had never seen snow and was unsure about the cold wet stuff. This was exacerbated by her need to run around in a tutu with no leggings!

Bathroom

Nine year old to almost three year old.
"Close the door"
Pause
"No, get out and close the door"

Miriam comes out carrying potty full of pee. And say"Zachary needs his space, but I need to poop."

New step stool - New world.

We just made an IKEA run. The highlight of the trip apparently was a new GIANT STEPSTOOL. Our downstairs sink is in a giant 1980s built in, and it is just hard for Mimi to reach the sink. She just tried it, came BURSTING out of the bathroom with joy, explained about how great it was because now she can USE THE POTTY and WASH HER HANDS ALL BY HERSELF.

Then she leapt through the doorway and shouted:

"I FEEL A CELEBRATION COMING UP!!!!"

and ran a few laps around the loop.

Oh, there she goes again.....

Happy Halloween - Seattle edition

It rained! It was dark! We got to light candles inside pumpkins (no fire restrictions!). So much fun.

Halloween pt 2

Our neighborhood party, right nextdoor. So much fun.

Autumnal Leaves and Sunshine

Hard at work

After the evening constitutional of running around in circles to avoid B.E.D. Miriam decided she had some work to do. Pulled out Zs little old laptop toy, and lay on the floor to type, and put in a CD to play some music, and check her email.

Looping around

The advantage in our new house... 

Testing the fire ladder

Gymnastics for the gold

Zachary was inspired by the summer olympics. He would like to win a gold medal, who wouldn't! So he sensibly asked what event we thought he would be good at. Given his mad climbing skills and upper body strength we suggested gymnastics. He had already been really engrossed with pommel and rings. So I found our local gym - Seattle Gymnastics Academy. Z has class once a week and comes away glowing. On a Saturday, the SGA has free time at the same time Mimi can indoor playground. So here she is running around enjoying herself. Once she is three she can start classes too. She can't wait. 

Morning Commute With Miriam

Miriam: "Red, Orange, BLUE!"

Sarah:  "What, the traffic light? No, that's red, orange, green!"

Miriam: "NO! TREES!"

Sarah: "Oh. First they're green, then they're orange, then they're red."

Miriam: "YES! Trees!"

Sarah: "Yup. Look, just like that one."

Miriam: "Then what."

Sarah: "Then they fall off!"

Miriam: "Green, Orange, Red, THEN COCONUTS!"

Sarah:  "Sure, close enough."

Breakfast on the Terrace

requisite - smiles and monsters

Grandpa Michael Turns 70

Sit and Spin Cousins

Exploring St. Michaels Mount

At the Playground of Zs new school

NO KISSES

We are settling in here, and will try and get some pictures and stories up.

But until then...

NO KISSES.

Miriam is having a very serious, very in control of the universe stage. She is happy to tell you where to go and what to do. And also? NO KISSES.

Which is surprisingly hard because she's adorable and a total clown and kissing her on the head is basically instinct. But of *course* we want to respect her wishes. And if you forget?

NO KISSES.

WE MADE IT TO SEATTLE

There were some good things, and some bad things. Linus left us in Oregon, although we haven't given up hope. Wherever he is, I imagine he's having an adventure. The children are settling in nicely, as you can see. Really taking advantage of the upgraded space. Mark even managed to arrange to have the truck unpacked yesterday! The neighborhood seems amazing, now to settling in. More pictures soon...

Goodbye chickens, goodbye playscape...

T minus 10 days. We're accumulating last ofs, and goodbyes, and wrapping things up, and eating down the food.

This weekend we had a lovely party with lots of friends, and a prime HEB chocolate cake with a squiggle-ized Space Needle rendition that was pretty damn fancy (and delicious, the last bites being consumed now). Last week we sent the chickens to their retirement village (really a retirement village, not a euphemism.)

It turns out two and a half + moving is a rough ride. Who would have guessed it. Miriam is incredibly verbal, so sometimes it can feel like she is much older... and then she has total utter meltdowns just because her feelings are big and the world is big and there is a lot going on. A lot going on. Sleep is erratic, and comes late, and she requested the other night to "Go to sleep in the new house in Seattle." Soon, baby, soon.

Sunday a local school sent folks to come dismantle the play structure to take it off to its new home, where lots of children can clamber all over it, so we're going to call that a definite win.

Still not packed up for the Seattle dump truck, but getting closer. Pictures are coming off the walls, clothes are getting significantly

Mark & my dad scoped out the new house, and it appears that we haven't made a tremendous error, huzzah. Just a little over a week now.....

Sno cone season

It was dreadfully humid today, as we were mostly spared the storms that have been flooding humid. We had some banking to do in Fiesta (man, am I going to miss Fiesta), and the kids earned "bunny icees" (sno cones) from the best sno cone trailer in Texas.
And then, for a minute, instead of being nutsobozo, they were super sweet.

(Miriam let us know at dinner she was ready to go in the dump truck to Seattle. Almost there, baby girl, almost there.)

Spa times

Honestly, what words do I have? She was eating yogurt, then she wasn't, now she's in the bath.

Spinning by the Space Needle

Prof. Tuttle leaving the UW Astro Building

Children flee before her! Really the kids were just having a super fun time after hours of house hunting. Although everyone thought the houseboat was a amazing idea with it's 1.5 Bedrooms in 400sqft. The woodwork and light inside was fabulous.

Piggyback

Househunting - The departure

I left home at 4am to head to Seattle to try and find a house.

Well, I tried to leave. I got up at 3:30am to take a shower. Miriam, who currently is barely succumbing to sleep on the best of days got out of bed and leaned on the bathroom door moaning "MOMMY". I eventually rescued her from despair. Then we embarked on an endless game of "What does the baby need?" that involved changing a diaper, being naked, needing different pajamas, needing a yougurt stick, needing to be in mommy & daddy's bed, and needing wheetabix (cereal) WITH milk AND sugar in the RED bowl with the matching spoon.

Eventually she just blockaded the front door and said "I GO AIRPORT" quite forcefully. I told her to learn to count to five, because that's how many days it would be until she went to the airport, and then the taxi came.

Good luck, Mark. I suspect you will need it ;>

(Update: We have not yet bought a house.)

The truth of children...

I was picking the kids up from school the other day before I headed out of town, and the wind was fierce. It was blowing in a storm, and my hair was blowing every which way. Miriam thought it was delightful and kept patting at my head and laughing.

As we got into the car she mashed her hair all over her head so it stuck out every which way and grinned. "Look! Like mama!"

*ha*

Thanks kiddo. Indeed. Just like mama.

Aunt Debbie, Uncle Mike, and Cousin Ari come to play

To Read or Not to Read

Look how they've grown!

wheel barrow ride, as much fun as I remember it beginning

2nd children

Well, *apparently* Miriam knows her ABC song. Now, I know they must have been doing it at school because a few weeks ago I sung it "with" her, and she sung the "Now I know my ABCs" bit...

But Mark just started and she just got through *the whole thing*.

Allow this to be an advertisement for having other people look after our children. With us she would have just learned to eat olives on her finger tips (a favorite past time) and chase the cat.

Humourous postscript. I tried to sing it with her and she was having none of it. Mark is magic, apparently.

Second postscript - Zachary is playing violin a bit at school, and Miriam has been getting a bit jealous. I'm making her a box violin this weekend so we can all play together because she keeps saying ME VIOLIN PRACTICE. Yes, ma'am.

Pictures to follow.

Hacking the NSA?

Sleeping Baby. Flashback.

This is just a post to remind me that Miriam did, once, sleep. And sleep well. And by herself. Because she liked it. For *ages*.

*sigh*

Miriam on the Toddler Wall

Rocking in the new year