words words words

I remember last year hearing Lucas, then 2, running around the house and chatting up a storm. At that time Wren was crawling, cooing baby. I remember thinking, "Wow. Next year this place is going to be really loud with 2 chatty running little people living with us." Well, now it is this year and, yes, we do have 2 chatty running little people living with us. They like to chase each other around, to copy what each other says, and yell "no!" and "mine!" at each other.

To help me remember some of the funnier things they say as my children steal my youth from me, I thought I'd share them here:

After a discussion at lunch btw Jeff and Lucas on how Thomas the Tank Engine likes to eat the same things Lucas does, Jeff said, "So you and Thomas have a lot in common." To which Lucas replied, "Yeah! And I have a lot in common with me too!"

Jeff then informed me that earlier that morning when Lucas was looking at himself in our vanity (which displays 3 reflections when angled right), he exclaimed, "Look! It's all my friends!" Jeff said he tried not to take it personally.

Wren has this funny habit right now of using a noun and her self-referent pronoun to let us know she wants certain clothing items on:
"Shoe me!"
"Hat me!"
"Bathing suit me!"

Which led to her asking me the other day to "Off boot me!" She got her point across.
Her favorite phrase of the month is "pumpkin patch." Every pumpkin is a "pumpkin patch." When she's been out of a room and then comes back to join us she proclaims, "I came home!"
Last night we went to a performance and after the 3rd song we had to take the kids out of the auditorium because in the pause between each song Wren insisted on shouting out, "All done! All done!"

She really has an amazing amount of sentences for being to little and I enjoy everyday of listening to her expand her vocabulary. It is as amazing as if I could see her grow in front of me.

My life is still super busy but my kids and I have hit a good groove and are relaxing into our fall days together. If you'd like to see more photos of us than you probably really want to go here.

18 months

18 months is like magic to me. I remember it with Lucas and I am watching it with Wren. Lucas turned 18 months at Christmas time. He had this sudden out pouring of language and social skills. However, with him all of this was somewhat muted because he had a fever, then an ear infection, then a cold, then another cold...all of this made him less eager to full engage the world around him.



However, Wren hit 18 months at full stride in the rich warmth of the summer sun. Or, at least in a summer month. Summer this year in Seattle has been a real disappointment with a surprising lack of "rich warmth" or "summer sun." We've been in long pants and long sleeves much too often for this southern girl's tastes. Anyway, Wren now names every bus, car, and bike we pass. She loves to point to Lucas's things and say, "Lucas's bed! Lucas's shoes!" She makes me pick her up and then says, "Walk!!!" as she points the way like a princess. She loves saying, "Hair!" and then working her way around the room attempting to touch everyone's hair. She is saying more phrases and clearly lets us know what she wants (Go! Car!...More! Book!). Last week she decided she didn't want help on the stairs outside anymore and very deliberately proceeded to learn how to walk up and down them without holding onto anything. She and Lucas have a great time laughing at each other, imitating each other, and chasing each other. Watching them together, I am grateful Wren showed up to make us a family of four earlier than I had planned. It has been a good summer together. I look forward to more times this fall.

Hopefully we'll actually manage to archive some more of our summer photos here soon. We're still navigating having 2 cameras and photos on 2 different computers. That's the problem with digital. You can take a ton of pictures!!! Then you have to figure out how the heck to organize them all...

One person's point of view

Lucas: "Look! It's a Lucas!"
Mommy: "Why is it a Lucas?"
Lucas: "Because he's sitting on a potty!"

flying to the beach on our airplane

sweet sweet summer

I wish I could remember the dozen amazing things my children say each day. Every day Lucas makes me laugh with the humor and unintentional wisdom of his words. Wren is just utterly delighting in having oh so many words. My chatty girl. I could hold her in my lap and smell her white blond hair all day. On this long, over brilliant blue-green days of summer I can think of nothing better than passing slow hours with my children at the wading pool, on the beach, in the sand. I have only one more paper to write for summer classes and I am so glad because I've already had such a taste of joy this week in slowing down a bit more just to be...to be with my family, with myself.

Here are the people I love spending my days with...

That's Lucas's granddaddy there making a guest appearance. And that little boy with the squished up face would be you-know-who. Anyone know a good trick to actually getting a 3 yr old to smile nicely?

2008 fremont solstice parade

Saturday we went to the Fremont Solstice Parade at the Center of the Universe. Fun times!

The bikers:



The parade:

wren's turn

With all the attention lavished on Lucas lately it's time for a Wren update.

Scene: the Ramsdale family bed, this morning...

Cris: Achoo!
Wren and Jeff, simultaneously: Bless you!

Well, Wren's was more like "bess oo". She's also pretty good at saying "thank you" without being prompted.

Here's the little tyke:



Contemplating crushing her brother and his new bike:



On the trail to Twin Falls:

From A Hike to Twi...

On the trail back from Twin Falls:

lucas gets a bike

For his 3rd birthday we gave Lucas a bike.

From Lucas Gets a ...

His sister went into a fit of jealous rage.



So he ran her over.



All better.



The bike is a Boot Scoot Cruiser. You might notice it doesn't have any pedals as it's a balance bicycle. That's so little guys can learn to balance without messing with pedals or training wheels (which teach bad habits). Evidently they are all the rage in Europe...

lucas turns 3

Little Lucas turned 3 last week! Strapping young lad. He's curious, mischievous, a joke teller and a fine conversationalist. One failing is his inability to pucker his lips effectively for proper candle-blowing, so mom had to help. Here he is prior to the attempt:

From Lucas's 3rd B...

Like his mother, he enjoys being celebrated.





Meanwhile, Wren entertained herself...



Thanks all who made it!

an introduction

Long-time readers may recall several break-ins here at the old homestead over a year ago that resulted in the loss of numerous cameras and laptops. Recently we finally replaced the digital SLR, resulting in an up-tick in photographs captured (better weather hasn't hurt either, though that is certainly in short supply this year). This camera is more typically used by Jeff, so he has been granted publish rights to this little blog so that he might post some of said photos. In fact, Jeff is writing this post, which also indicates the degree to which Cris tends to overload her schedule. Here's wishing myself much success in keeping you, dear reader, engaged!

Lucas, as we are skipping and hopping down the sidewalk: "We're like fireworks!"
Mommy: "Why are we like fireworks?"
Lucas: "Because we are jumping up and making loud noises."

my big boy

munchkins

i love me some blanket

mondays

Mondays are our house are "Erica day," a very exciting event. Erica comes in the morning and watches the kids until mid-afternoon, ans she sometimes bringing along her lovely dog to grace our home. She (meaning Erica...and I suppose meaning the dog as well) lived with us for a month when she first moved to Seattle when Lucas was the age Wren is now. I like to think they've been tight ever since (Erica and Lucas...and I suppose meaning the dog and Lucas as well). However, Wren is pretty hooked on her now too. She hurries to her to gives her hugs when she arrives. This morning the little bird was sitting on my bed and I said to her, "Guess who is coming today? Erica!" And she quickly hopped off the bed and hurried to the door. Sadly, I'd said this about half an hour before our company had actually arrived so Wren had to hold onto her anticipation a bit longer. But look at that genuine smile in this pic. That's one happy kid.

bunny

life with a 1 and a 2 yr old

Lucas and Wren keep getting bigger.


And sometimes they actually have story time together, though typically Wren is such a ball of energy she's all over the place.

Wren's new fav activity--rocking with no hands. Funny that I got the rocking chair when she was a new born for Lucas to feel like he had a seat of his own when Wren was in her bouncy or swing or whatever. Now she's taken over.
And Lucas now has a tatoo that I believe will never come off his arm. It was a reward for staying dry all day but now the reward just goes on and on and on and on...

first ice cream cones of the new year

We've had some nice springy days lately and we have a new Italian cafe down the hill. All of that adds up to weekend gelato!

My favorite people

Happy Birthday Little Bird!

I can't believe she is one! I'm so proud. I was worried that whatever child followed Lucas just wouldn't be able to match up to the bushels of personality he has, but Wren has no problem whatsoever with this. She's a totally imp, playful and mischievous, and very funny. I love my girl.

from my perspective

people in, time out

seems we've had a ton of people in our home lately, including the amiable and enjoyable Amanda and Daniel.

it is a sad day for the kids when no one drops by our place for a cuppa.

we've also had a ton of time outs and other creative discipline techniques round these parts. i suppose he is two. we still like each other.

hummmmmmus

life in our homestead

Wren is now climbing everything she can (resulting in more than a couple hard knocks to the head. We are keeping a close eye on her these days).

Lucas is thankfully a hard sleeper overnight. This leads to some great bedhead.

And Chloe just wants you all to know that she definately doesn't get her fair share of meat. She still loves us though.

quotable (or not so much but I'll do it anyway)

So, this is a place that I'm keeping a record for myself as well as updating family and any of the rest of you voyeurs. I know, I know, it isn't really voyeurism if I'm asking for it. Blogs are just a whole new thing. And while I'm on the topic, I'm just AMAZED at the blogging communities out there. Mom blogs. Dad blogs. Foodie blogs. News blogs. Knitting blogs (I haven't looked at this, just guessing). I can waste HOURS of my precious evenings jumping from blog to blog to blog.

Anyway, this post isn't suppose to be about how I waste my days but rather about Lucas's growing communication skills. Here's the lovely boy in the flesh. Well, actually it is a virtual photo which let me tell you really doesn't communicate the extent of his charisma.


So, for my own sake, I'd like to record some of what Lucas has wanted to talk about lately.
Today he told me, "My name Asher. Me became Asher." We've been trying to teach him his full name. Today he decided for 2 minutes to go by his middle name. If he wants to down the road, I'm fine with that. I wanted his first name to be Asher anyway. However, after 2 minute of calling him Asher I realized that it is much easier to say Lucas over and over again.

Related to potty training:
"Poo poo come out this hole. Pee pee come out this one." I'm so glad we've got a smart kid who can figure these things out.

Coming into our bedroom in the morning:
"Mommy! Get up! Cuz me awake!"

"Me have some daddy milk?" a request made one night when we told him he was too big for mommy milk. "Me get milk out of your belly?" a request made to Jeff on another night when I reprimanded Wren for attempting to suck milk out of my belly.

"No. Don't do that. That not nice. That not fair." When I take something away from him that he shouldn't be playing with or, as in the case of this morning, when I threw his shirt to him instead of handing it to him. "No throw it. Hand it to me."

And the constant refrain since he learned I can't eat wheat: "you not like wheat mama?" "Dada like wheat?" which then moves onto other food topics "You like chocolate chips mama?" "yeah" "Me like chocolate chips?" "yeah" (the yeahs are Lucas answering his own question). "Towey (Chloe) like chocolate chips?" "yeah" No I don't think Chloe likes chocolate. "Towey like meat!" Yeah, Chloe likes meat. "You like chocolate chips mama?" "Wren like chocolate chips?" And so it goes for hours, and hours...

The other night he was having a great time in the bathtub. I walked into the bathroom (Jeff bathes the kids) and he looked at me and said, "Mommy. Get in bathtub. Take your clothes off!" Which wasn't nearly as bad as the morning when he walked into the bedroom as I was putting my bra on and told me, "No! Take that off. Me wanna see those!" Oh my.

It only gets more elaborate from here, I am sure. Since already we are hearing stories about some orange cow that wanders into his bedroom, spent a month closing his bedroom doors so "no dinosaurs come in," and always have animals outside when we leave the house in the dark (which doesn't seem to bother him but disturbs me everytime he says it).