Warming Up!

Last Saturday we went to the Seattle Center (home of the Space Needle) on a lovely warm day. We were there to see Sidi Goma at Giant Magnet (formerly the Seattle International Children's Festival) and to visit the International Fountain. Had a great time and Lucas loved it so much we went back for more the next day.











I love having free entertainment options like this nearby! (Well, except for parking...)

At the Tulip Festival

Ho visitors! Welcome back...

If you go north of Seattle an hour or so on I-5 you'll run into the Skagit Valley, home to more tulips than anywhere else in America. Every year there's a Tulip Festival to celebrate. This year Cris's parents were in town and we took an excursion.

Sister + kids

 

It's been awhile since I've made it home to Alabama, so sister and family pictures were in order. Of course, once you start gettting beyond two people in a photo the chances of getting a good one go way down. So I think we made out pretty well with this one. There were 3 or 4 other cameras firing so hopefully I'll get some other group shots to remember this visit by as well. It was a good time all hanging out together and doing little more than socializing and eating.

Sisters

 

Cousins

 

Tea party

 

Love you Nana!

 

The kids, up close and personal

I just have to show off our beautiful children... You really should click on the pictures and see them full size. So what's up with the family these days?

Wren's very chatty and has a new tea set and a Cabbage Patch doll from Nana she's quite into.

Lucas is busy with trains and rockets. I'm reading The Chronicles of Narnia to him--we're in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader currently.

I'll try to come up with transcripts of something clever or hilarious the kids say--they're a hoot--but like most parents we usually forget to write them down when they happen.

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