Christmas Eve Park Fun

We spent the holidays in Memphis having more forced family fun then anyone counted on. Between visits to the park (check out the standing and sliding below), games of house tag, dance off parties and learning to ride a bike we remain thankful that there were no broken limbs. It was a bit of a wild ride. Elizabeth has taken 2-3 hour naps every day since returning to Seattle. We'd do it all over again.

Even Auntie Laura got in on the fun, often she is the instigator.

Highlight for sure was Pops and Bill sliding. Complete nut jobs!

Lets go snowing!!

This past week we constructed our annual plan of how to survive Seattle rain. Folks that don't live in Seattle think we all must just love grey and rain. We don't. Some do but they are nuts. The rest of us devise various plans of how to survive the long rainy months. Plans include escaping to sunnier locations, happy lights (if you don't know what these are you don't live in a gray climate) and, for us this year, bi-monthly trips to the snow. Elizabeth calls this 'going snowing'.

She is trying out snowshoes for the first time. The mostly make her laugh. She loves the skiing as this involves her merrily riding along in the chariot sled (you can see it in the picture above). Jeff is a rock star for pulling her along and at quite a good pace. Helps when she is shouting 'faster daddy, yeah, faster'.She loves to build a snowman and was even willing to concede that it can be small as their was no fresh snow.
She did insist that the snowman needed eyes and a mouth. She didn't mind that he wasn't smiling.

We just have to remind ourselves that rain in Seattle means snow less than an hour away!

Diapers be gone

Elizabeth loves her diapers. I'm sorry, that is not accurate. Elizabeth LOVES her diapers. Why do we know that? Well because she says "I LOVE my diapers" and she says it often. We prepared her prior to her third birthday that the diapers were going away. There were previous attempts at saying goodbye to the diapers that failed miserably partly due to her not being ready, partly due to us not having the energy to stick with it and partly due to the fact that she LOVES her diapers.
So over labor day weekend we said bye bye diapers and it went well. Then she went to school and she was devastated to wear panties. She cried and her teachers said 'Elizabeth is a happy girl and we don't want her to be sad so she will wear diapers'. Elizabeth immediately reported to me that 'I get my diapers back at skoolg. I love skoolg. I wear panties at home but not at skoolg.' I was annoyed for a moment but then thought of my mom. How she could never stand for us kids to cry much less her grandkids. All she wanted was for us to feel safe and be loved. How she would be so happy that Elizabeth is loved this much at her 'skoolg'.
So last week, Gui, her teacher, said Elizabeth is now ready and won't wear diapers to school. We told Elizabeth and guess what... she was ready. Not a tear, no sadness, no fits. Guess her teachers were right. So happy they know my little girl this well.

Dinner Time

I swear she has manners. She uses her utensils for eating, napkin for spills and even says a lovely 'may I be scused' when leaving the table. Dessert on the other hand, especially ice cream, allows for deviations from our good manners. Elizabeth, like her mom, does not want to miss even a drop of her ice cream.

The Boy Who Cried Wolf

Elizabeth went to her first play this past weekend. It was fun talking it through as she didn't really understand what it meant to see a play. In her mind it was something like her dance class. She kept saying 'we are going to a play and momma and daddy will sit and watch my performance. I can't sit with momma'.

I would then try and explain comparing it to a concert but she didn't get it and wanted to then know if she would be able to take a bow at the end. Even though she can now articulate I know there is so much happening inside that little head and I so wish I could see those thoughts. Despite not knowing what was going to happen she was thrilled to just go.


At the end we got to go up front and meet the actors. She told them all 'thank you for the performance'. When asked what her favorite part was she declared loudly 'the dancing!'.

The play fort for the forty year old girl in our family

One of my favorites parts of having a kid is being able to play like a kid. Consequently part of my request as we did the back yard was to add a play fort. I have always wanted a tree house and since we don't really have any large trees in our yard a fort would do just fine.


The back yard has been a wasteland and until this summer I had only ever been back there twice which is sad and time to remedy. We had to haul in tons of dirt and bark to cover up the wasteland and then planted well over 150 plants.


Added a nice little patio and fort construction began. Elizabeth loves to help daddy cause 'girls can be workers'. We mostly do a lot of running around with the tape measure which entertains Jeff as he works.

The bridge is up and functional.

Luckily the three year old finds the fort equally entertaining and I'm just happy that I can keep playing.
Don't be concerned by the lack of sides as it is not quite done yet. Still need to add the ladder, slide, roof and pulley system.

Happy Halloween

Puppy Dog and the Princess

Monsters are funny!!

Punkmen Patch

Elizabeth and I have never been to a pumpkin patch and today Jeff decided it was high time to correct this travesty. Who knew the things that you could do at a pumpkin farm.

Well the first thing you do is take a hay ride then sink in the mud.

Then there is corn to eat.

There are ponies to ride and

bikes for all sizes to ride (well not all should fit but we make do).

There are also crazy hand made cow trains that are pulled at amazingly fast speeds by a mini tractor.

That is enough fun that both mom and dad need to experience the joy/terror.

Oh and there are also pumpkins however I prefer how Elizabeth says it 'I love the punkmen farm!'

Happy Halloween and remember that the mantra is 'monsters are funny'. Much needed mantra for my very concerned three year old.

Waiting for Daddy

This is a little girl waiting for her Daddy to come home.

The smile upon his arrival.

The very silly Daddy!!!!!!!

THE END.

Another Great Weekend with the Corvalis Crew

Met up last weekend with Scott, Carolina, Lucia and Oscar at Breitenbush. This is a lodge in the Oregon mountains on a river surrounded by hot springs. It was phenomenal. The girls loved running and playing outside and Oscar did a great job keeping up.
We taught them Autumn lessons such as the difference between deciduous trees and conifers; why the leaves are changing colors; and most importantly if you walk quietly through the woods and you are super lucky you just might spot some forest fairies. They were spellbound with this possibility.

Don't they look like a Hannah Anderson add

Best Friends

Tashlik at Lake Washington

This week we celebrated the Jewish new year and Tashlik. Tashlik is a ceremony where you symbolically cast off your sins by tossing bread crumbs in a body of water. I like the idea of reflecting on your year and looking forward to ways to improve and grow. Also like the idea of letting go of that which was burdensome. I like the symbolism involved with water washing clean. However I did NOT enjoy the hoards of birds and ducks that descended like a scene from a Hitchcock film when the group began tossing bread. Elizabeth and I ran for cover and reflected quietly far from the mayhem.

It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed an afternoon in the sun thanks to a resurgence of summer weather.
Elizabeth missed the part about casting off sins and instead just casted off her clothes. Just as well. She is a pretty cute no clothed girl.

Summer has ended

It was just two weeks ago and we were reading night time books in the hammock. Summer is slowly ending and Elizabeth is slooowwlly giving up the hammock. For a few nights we were just turning pages and telling stories as there was not enough light to read or see the pictures. She didn't mind one bit. As I'm typing Jeff is now reading her books in bed. Summer is over.

As Elizabeth says... 'bye bye summer, see ya next time.

Pops and the garden

Pops came to visit this past week and we are now a bit lost without him. Last night Jeff and I tried to decide what was the best meal. Was it the scallops, the crab stuffed shrimp, mushroom stuffed pork chops, or homemade curry chicken salad. Basically we are bad people and totally take advantage of my father. He cooked, he folded laundry and most of all he planted a truck load of plants. I mean a truck load. We are revamping our backyard and he was out there for three days straight.

This is what some were doing while the rest were digging holes and planting over 100 plants.

Well I do know one thing we don't miss... Pops doing Elizabeth's hair. You can't tell here but he put about 8 clips in and they both thought it was hysterical.


Tonight we just finished the left overs. We may starve now. Come back Pops!

Does anyone out there have a G rated video about poop?

For two months we have been telling Elizabeth that when she turns three she will wear big girl panties. We planned our summer of camping leaving Labor Day free for this exciting event. Well this little girl right here has been a rock star. Now I don't want to say that we are done but three days in and we have yet to have any accidents, she loves her panties and is thrilled with the potty. Not bad.

We have a little potty video that she has been able to watch and loves it. There are songs about going potty and a skit with a princess that uses the potty. I think the princess is what convinced her that the potty was ok.

So for her reward for using the potty she wants... wait for it... a video of kids going poop. She is very specific that she does not want the video to talk about pee. She wants poop. I've looked at Amazon and unfortunately also on youtube where I encountered VERY unfortunate videos. So does anyone out there have G rated video about poop?