potty training

I swear we've been stepping toward potty training with Lucas for a year now. One day it will all click. For now I'll have to console myself with cute photos.



On a totally different note, here's another great Christmas photo. We had friends over on Christmas Eve, including Sylas's dad Phil and brother Judah who's just about Wren's size.

december activities

Wren's new favorite nursing pose.

Popcorn lover.

Christmas Eve, new plane.

First baby doll.

Watching the Grinch with friends (who kept reaching over and patting him on the cheek).

Christmas snow! (Ok, it's not a lot but it's something!)

bed roll

Wren's favorite thing these days besides playing with my cell phone is rolling around on the pillows on our bed. Of course, she's so stinkin' cute while doing it I must take 5o bazillion pictures of her.

bad hair day

Family

Snow

Come back

Lucas has been getting short shrift in the photos lately, so i think i'll throw some in of him.

(The title there is also a reference to one of his new favorite phrases, "Come back! No, don't go! Wait!" This is said when he's not cooperating with nap time so we say, "well, alright, i guess you don't need to be tucked in. have a good nap." It is important when imagining him saying these things to picture them said in an overly dramatized fashion. He's completely sincere but sounds worse than a beginnning actor overstating his lines.)

Bedtime reading

Lucas, um, "helping" me clean.

In his apron from Ruthie. Thanks Ruthie!

Happy 9 months, little bird

3 seasons with Wren already.

I am so totally in love with this happy, smiley, giggly baby. She's so snuggly, playful, and expressive. Last week she officially stood on her own two feet and every day since has gotten better and better at it.

Today she was having a great time walking around the great room pushing Lucas's ride on airplay back and forth. We fully expect her to be taking her first steps sometime this month.

Ninjas vs. Pirates

8 months and counting

Wren deserves an update. She is so big and active now.


Wren, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways...
The way you chase me around the house and insist I pick you up (you should see the speed she crawls at!). The way you giggle when I tickle your feet or when Lucas makes funny noises. The way you head for the bathroom when you hear the bath water start. (I don't like the attraction you have to playing with Lucas's potty. We really need to talk about that). How happy you look every time the cat jumps up to be near me. The "yeah-yeah-yeah" and "ga-ga-ga" sounds you make as you converse with us and your toys. The way you grin and tilt your head to the side (yeah, you know how cute you are). The way you quickly crawl and cling to me as if life depended on it when Lucas barrels down the hall into your bedroom. I suppose I love the whole of your sweet snuggly self. I'm glad you are enjoying the world. It is nicer with you in it.

Go on train. Go Portland.

I've been wanting to take the train up or down the coast forever. It didn't work out for the spring so we finally found a fall weekend to hop a train and head down to Portland. Every day for a month Lucas would ask, "Go Portland today?" He happily wore his train shirt and played with his Thomas trains on the train. It doesn't get any better than that in his world.
For the weekend we stayed with Nate and Deb who were awesome hosts (thanks Nate and Deb!). Despite having canker sores all weekend and having to live on smoothies and baked potatoes, I came back feeling very rested.

I'm looking forward to our next chance to take the train and to go back to Portland. I'm hooked on both.

good times at bed time

And have I mentioned the Wren is crawling like a fiend? The girl chases me around the house these days. 7 and a half months! We're in trouble.

how did you get so big?

goodbye summer.

we'll miss you.

i think they are winning

I have no chance now that they are both mobile.

look out world

we almost didn't make it

So we went to the North Cascades on Friday. We arrive a bit later than planned and dark was creeping in while we scrambled to pitch our tent and feed the kids. Jeff gets the tent almost up, it is almost completely dark out, and Lucas suddenly realizes that sleeping in the woods in a tent might not be quite what he imagined. He bolts for the car begging to be let into his carseat and crying, "Go home! Go home!" Jeff pleads with him a bit and then finally heads over to take the tent down. As Jeff works on the tent, Lucas begins to explore the campsite. (Meanwhile I am eating the pureed peas and brown rice that Wren didn't finish because I am starving and in the midst of all of this there really is no time to fix big people food. I am also having to hold Wren because every time we set her down she crawls off and begins to stuff her face with pine needles). The tent is totally down and Lucas, thanks to his exploration and the encouragement of a neighboring camper, decides that maybe he'd be okay sleeping here and that hiking in the morning sounds cool. Jeff puts tent up again.

At this point we were all totally wiped out and went to sleep. Thankfully the kids slept great and the next day we got out and did a beautiful hike. Wren was happy to let us cart her along wherever we went and Lucas did a great job of hiking 3 miles in his Crocs (I promise, Lucas, I'll get you some decent shoes to hike in next summer).

simplifying

I am grateful for the times I get out on my own and for the books I read besides picture books, but I am also very thankful for the daily conversations I have with Lucas that keep me solidly earthed in the simple things. So, he's doing pretty darn well with the potty training. Yesterday as he peed in the toilet I said to him, "That's all that milk you drank earlier coming out." He looked up at me and eagerly proclaimed, "Lemonade!" Clever boy.

A clever boy who is about to get a wake up call. Wren is officially crawling as of the past 2 days. It is slow, but she gets what she wants. Even before she was mobile Lucas spent half his day taking toys from her saying, "No Wren! Don't have that Wren." (We've been trying to teach him to trade if he insists on taking what she has but then yesterday I caught him somehow attempting to trade her a toy for something with an xacto blade in it. I've got to work on that child proofing again...).

Oh, and one more story. Lucas really is a good big brother. This week he's attempted to spoon feed Wren, push her in the swing, and comfort her in the car as she wailed on the way home to bed. ("It's okay Wren. Mama take care you, Wren.") And, melt my heart, he told me "Love you!" for the first time out of the blue at the play ground on Sunday. Sweetie.

somethin' fishy

Watching the fish. It's a great time of year to watch the salmon migrate or check out the aquarium.

summer's eve

six months

Wren will be six months old this coming week. She's sitting up all by herself, getting up on her hands and knees and rocking, and managing to maneuver herself after toys. What happened? Last I looked she was sleeping in my arms while I was chasing after Lucas. Now there are two little people with abundant personality occupying my living room floor. Our days are filled with Lucas saying, "Here ya go Wren!" as he hands her toy after toy--soon followed by Wren's howls as Lucas decides to take back whatever toy she's picked up to suck on.

I was really hoping not to start her on solids til, oh, another week or two but Wren decided she was going to find a way to eat whether I wanted her too or not. So, she's now feasting on rice cereal and bananas and is eagerly anticipating her first taste of phad thai.

not so lazy summer days

But we try to fit in the fun. It helps to have a playground, a wading pool, and a beach all in walking distance.

Yesterday we took Lucas and Wren to see Ratatouille (which I recommend. It is a lovely film). Wren did a great job of being totally mesmerized then falling asleep. Lucas was excited and thrilled and loved the popcorn...and then the previews started. I never realized how loud and large they are. Poor Lucas's eyes became saucers and he began saying, "Outside! Outside!" We moved to the back of the theater, endured about 20 previews, and then finally the movie began. Lucas did a good job of sitting through the whole thing, and enjoyed a lot of it, but he seemed relieved when he could tell
us "Go potty!" so that someone would take him out of the theater to some place more familiar. I'm glad I saw the film but I don't think I'll put Lucas through that again til he's a bit older. Once again, I have a whole new perspective on the experience of movies (the big screen really is different from watching things on TV at home).