Bumbershoot Countdown

This week has been a fairly regular week.  Tomorrow we're going to Bumbershoot and we're going early.  David and I are thinking that we probably won't get to do as much of the live music this year that we would normally be going to see as the main stage is in Key Arena this year.  That much sound wave vibration might get to the tykes more so than an open air stadium like they usually have for Bumbershoot.  So I figure we'll check out the visual art and flatstock right when we get there.  Then probably the rest of the time will be spent with kid's stuff or spectacle or feeding our faces which will still probably result in a full day and thus getting our money's worth.  Maybe by some miracle we'll get to see Jane's Adiction tomorrow night but we're doubting it.  Then we'll have Sunday and Monday to recover.  I don't know what we'll do those days, but the weather is going to be good so I'm sure we'll figure out something to do.

6th Wedding Anniversary

David and I celebrated our anniversary this weekend.  Grandma Claudia and Grandpa Jet came to babysit Holiday and John and the kids did well.  We went to Benihana's for dinner, which was quite delicious and fun, and then went to a movie afterwards.  It was the Expendables 2 which we liked.  Most critics don't like it, but you would if seen a number of those guys' action movies, which David and I have.  Cliche after cliche...I thought it was great and laughed a lot.  It was nice just to be a couple for a night too.  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa. 

Pictures from Holiday's old daycare

 

I would say these pictures are probably from late winter through spring, some obvious St. Patrick's Day crafts in there as well.  Holly likes to play dress up like usual with some toddler gymnastics in there.  The gal that ran her former daycare has officially retired to Arizona and her assistant has moved on to the downtown Seattle Kindercare.  It's really too bad because Holly really thrived there.  The bright side is that she does like her new nannies at her new playschool.  Johnny is doing well there too.  I know Marie really dotes on him, calls him 'Papa John' or 'Doctor John'.  I have to admit that it's catchy.  And overall, it costs us a little less each month.

Teething...It's Official

Yes folks...as of this weekend I noticed that Johnny's front bottom right tooth has cut through the gums.  He was pretty fussy and slobbery yesterday but no fever, so that's good.  He did wake us up twice last night which is less awesome but understandable.  Holly has been having her set of firsts as well.  She went potty by herself she just needed help with the ladder to wash her hands.  We need to find a stool that fits our bathroom so she doesn't need to heft herself up on the toilet.  Holly insisted on changing into her pajamas herself.  "I can do it!" is practically her catch phrase now.  I think it was last week when I made our bed she was inspired and made her own bed by herself.  She's still 3 though and we help her with these things most of the time and especially when she doesn't want to cooperate, which is often.  We still have the morning battle of getting her dressed which she doesn't want to do because that means we're leaving the house and she can't watch Sesame Street.  Holly's getting better about that but the battle resumes a couple days a week.

Seattle Heat Wave

We got through yesterday's heat well enough.  I'm trying to get the dishwasher run as close to after dinner as possible...I figure the sooner it finishes the sooner the house can start to cool down.  We keep all our curtains pulled close to keep out as much daylight as possible during the day, which helps some.  Considering it was 91 degrees outside when we got home yesterday and 81 degrees inside, it let in some heat but it kept out a sizable amount.  We work pretty hard at an orchestration of fans/AC/opening of windows at a certain time to keep the house tolerable for the kids as well as ourselves.  I know when I was breastfeeding Holly I dried up in the heat wave of summer '09 and I'm trying not to let that happen again with Johnny.  It's hard because I really dislike hotness so I'm hitting the fluids like crazy.  Today is supposed to be a little hotter so we're going to the mall tonight instead of going straight home.  Tomorrow the temperature will come down some but the humidity is going way up so it'll be a challenging day as well.  I'm hoping the weather people are right and it'll be in the 70's on Sunday.  It'll be a better day to get some yard work done.  I finally got a call back for dance lessons for Holly so we'll see what we can do once they send us a class schedule.  Johnny's been rolling onto his side on his own.  He works pretty hard on the tummy time too.  Now he's starting to pick up the baby toys we're giving him, trying to figure those things out.  He seemed to discover his hands this week, I saw him holding his hands out staring at them.  We've been playing the "smile at the baby in mirror" game too.  Johnny has Mommy's gasping laugh she had as a baby too.  Holly did the same thing.  He basically is smiling really big and makes this gasping hiccup sound that sounds like he's choking but he's really laughing.  My dad hated it when I did that at that age.  I guess it scared everybody and they constantly were checking me to see if I was choking.  Johnny laughs quite a bit.  :)

Who buys a new car on a whim?

Well if it's the right price and right time...we do.  And it's not that we haven't been talking about it for a while anyways.  David was taking the car in for maintenance and it was going to take 3 hours so he decided to check out the used vehicles to burn some time.  Then this spiffy Grand Caravan caught his eye.  It's a 2008, which is newer than our car but has more miles on it...probably a commuter vehicle.  Whoever owned it took care of it though.  So David took it on a test drive to our house so then the whole family could check it out.  Holly tested out all the seats including seat belts.  Loves that you can push a button to automatically close the doors.  When David got back to the dealership he found out that the car was going to need more stuff done, like new battery, fluids for everything, it adds up.  Not exactly immediately but probably within 3 months and altogether would have cost about $1,000.  Not to mention tabs would be due in October and we would have needed to go through emissions testing this time.  So David got a deal he was satisfied with and we have a new rig.  Haven't named it yet, the old car was named Orion if anyone was interested.  It's quieter than the car and I certainly feel safer being so high up now.  Now we have room for all the stuff as well as the kids and if the kids wanted a little friend along we have room for them too.  I don't think we could have managed a road trip to visit relatives or even gone camping in the car, there simply wasn't enough room. We've also been talking about another Refi as recommended by our real estate agent since rates are low right now.  It might be a good time to do that and roll the car into it so we don't have to think about it anymore.  I'll be making calls this week for sure.

Growing up so fast

Johnny looks like he's getting into 9 month clothes now.  David put a 9 month onesie on him the other day and it fit with a little bagginess.  The 6 month onesies are much more snug but still fit.  I'll have to try out something that is 6-12 month size to see whether it's too big for him or not.  That's the size range that The Gap and Old Navy carries (some of my favorite stores for kids clothes).  But he definitely can wear the 9 month stuff (which is the size that Fred Meyer carries, another favorite).  Holly still seems to be in between sizes.  4T seems way too big for her and 3T is a little tight and short.  Since she mostly wears dresses and shorts right now so it doesn't seem to be a big deal just yet.  Johnny is starting to try to sit up and when he has tummy time, he's starting to make that turning action.  He likes peek-a-boo and the yellow duck from the Brown Bear Brown Bear book.  The pooping has gone from about 12 times a day to more like 1-3 times a day.  He still has man farts and burps.  His hair really hasn't gotten longer but thicker so he seems fuzzy.  Holly is still doing really well with the potty training.  We haven't bought pull-up diapers for her in a month, but will need to do so this weekend.  She only needs them at nap time, bed time and the occassional accident in a pinch. 

And so the teething process begins

We went to Toni and Drew's last Saturday to visit and to see the new kittens.  Well we only got to see one because the other one was in hiding and very shy...and Holly is an excitable and energetic 3 year old who loves "KITTIES!".  She certainly liked the hyper kitten and was throwing that cat toy around like crazy.  We endured the weekend heat as best as possible.  The kids didn't seem to feel very well on Monday morning.  Holly threw up and Johnny had a low grade fever.  Holly got over it within hours and had a proper breakfast and was her usual busy little self.  I suspect Johnny's begun the whole teething thing.  He's been stuffing he's fist in his mouth along with blankets and any toys he gets ahold of.  He got us up twice Sunday night but went right back to sleep after a quick feeding.  He's also been drooling like crazy which makes the blowing of bubbles quite exciting.  The fever went away within the day.  I think Johnny will go through this a couple times before actual teeth show up because taking a look inside nothing seems to be coming through just yet.  I've been getting more committed to working out again.  Nothing super-duper though since my sciatica won't allow it.  My calf seems to be doing a little better this week.  It's going to be a really slow process until I'm done with breast feeding, but Johnny is 3 months old now so I'm about half way through my goal.  David is still at war with the bushes and the blackberry vines in the backyard.  Those things really sunk their teeth into him this week, must be getting into older blackberries with really nasty thorns.  The bees were massing in the same spot so David's trying to make sure they don't reestablish themselves.

Busy Bees

This was from our photo session a couple weeks ago.  Both the kids did pretty good.  Not all the shots worked out.  Mostly because as much as Holly loves holding her baby brother, he's too big for her to hold and then they both slump over to the side.  Some of the shots look funny because of that, but some of them I still wanted anyways since it was a funny moment.  We had another Zootunes this week, Los Lobos, it was pretty good.  Holly really likes the picnic part (and stealing Daddy's chair).  Johnny is pretty much content no matter where we go as long as he gets to be held.  If the terrain isn't too bumpy he'll fall asleep in his stroller or the shopping cart and pretty much always in the car.  I finally got to meet our daycare lady, Marie.  It's just kind of how it's worked out.  All the kids there were talking at me at once.  "I like zebras!"  "I like to play outside!" "What's this called?"  Holly couldn't wait to show me her "play school".  We had to pick up the kids early since we had been alerted with an issue to our house as we were getting ready to leave for work that morning.  Our neighbors pointed out to us that we had a giant bee's nest under the eave of our house.  So David had it taken care of yesterday afternoon.  He figured it would be better to have a professional take care of it since there are so many YouTube videos out there of some unfortunate soul who thought they could do it themselves with it ending with disasterous results.  The man put on a bee suit for a reason.  The bee guy takes the bees and sells them to labs who work on medical applications from bees, mostly allergies I think.  We'll probably be checking our eaves more often now.  Lesson learned.

Some great pictures

Holly dressin' up pretty.

That just makes me want to sleep Johnny looks so comfortable.

Peek-a-boo...

...I see you.

This was at Zootunes for Grace Potter and the Nocturnals.

Big smiles!

Johnny trying out the kid's chair.

Holly liking the adult's chair.

Little froggie butt...with his red hair and green outfit, Johnny looked distinctly irish.

Practicing sitting with Daddy.

"What's that?  Oh, it's Mommy with the camera again."

Biggest smile contest.  Hmmm...Daddy's is physically bigger, but Johnny's takes up most of his face.  We'll call it a tie.

Best outfits ever.