Back home but not for long

Wow, speaking of being behind, I just realized that I never even mentioned the fact that we moved 2,745 miles across the country from Seattle back to our current home in upstate NY. So, yes we did.

Unpacking was a treat because prior to leaving we threw (some literally) our personal belongings in one bedroom so that we could sublet our apartment for the summer, and the mountain of belongings was so large that we could barely close the door. After a couple days we decided to ditch the unpacking in favor of a road trip.

Our first stop: Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is a beautiful city, and felt perhaps more foreign than I expected which made the trip seem like a real getaway.

Perhaps the greatest highlight was spending time with Joe's childhood friend Will Butler, his wife Jenny, and their adorable son Alex. Will is an actual rock star which makes him an unusually interesting person to me, but both he and his wife are incredibly down to earth and super nice.  We all walked around Mount Royal Park and dined at Aux Vivres, which is the kind of cool, vegan restaurant that I eat at all the time in my dreams where I am an actual cool person.

Other Montreal activities included:

The Biodome

Seeing a huge catfish which Jack loved

Sampling poutine--to my knowledge, the most famous local cuisine. French fries + cheese curds +gravy.

 Visiting St. Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal

Looking over the city at sunset

Strolling around the city, admiring the graffitied walls

 And buying some delicious berries at Atwater Market, the "Pike's Place" of Montreal

After Montreal, we spent a night in Lake Placid which has something of a Jackson Hole meets New England kind of vibe--a very happy place for me. Our priceline motel had the name "Motor" in the title--that tells you everything you need to know about the room we slept in, but the motel also had free kayaks and paddle boats to take out on Mirror Lake. This we loved!

Jack loved dragging his hand through the water as Joe paddled 

Maggie loved paddling which means we also did a lot of floating

We finished up the trip by taking in a 360 view of the Adirondacks with a hike up Owl's head mountain. Then we called our trip a success.

How did I get so far behind and family pictures?

I swear, I don't know what is going on, but I can't get anything done. I feel like I am behind on my entire life. The only thing I can boast is that my kids are still alive, healthy (except for Jack's snotty nose), and that we have been squeezing in lots of fun stuff. I guess if you have enough fun, eventually you run out of time to write about it? At least that is how I am trying to console myself. We did play outside twice today--Maggie got to ride her trike, play on the monkey bars, climb a tree, Jack ate some apples and some mud. I guess a person must have priorities, and lately this blog has not been one of mine. However, I love having record of our family, so I am going to hopefully do some catching up.

Here are some pictures from our recent family photo shoot. Thanks to the fabulous Jen Kelly! I know this is a lot of pictures, but can you narrow it down?

This is Joe's favorite. I think besides the obviously cute baby, it is funny that he is totally sprawled out in Pioneer Square. For those who know Seattle, Pioneer Square is not exactly the place a baby should be sprawling out on the ground. Also, this picture reminds me just how quickly time passes because Jack wasn't even walking yet. He certainly is now . . . 

Living with Maggie

Maggie is a delight to talk to. I love listening to her chatter, and I often scrawl down what she says on whatever piece of paper I find lying nearby. Then I loose the papers because that's how I operate. Luckily, I did manage to save a couple scraps with precious words and now I am typing them here for safer keeping.

Maggie: I think it's going to snow soon. (mid-August)
Me: What to you think about that? 
Maggie: I think snow in my mouth makes me really happy.

Maggie: (to Joe and I) You two guys can pretend you're smart. I don't have to pretend 'cause I'm smart already.

Maggie: (while I am preparing her food) I want a princess fork 'cause it's a dancing fork! 
Maggie: (now dancing around the kitchen) I'm dancing all day morning! I'm dancing all day morning! I'm dancing all day morning!
Maggie: (pointing at me) You're that word! 
Maggie: (now having a drink of root beer with her dinner) My drink is spicier than yours! Root beer hurts the side of the part (while pointing in her mouth).
Maggie: I could drink spicy drink all day morning! [Maggie calls soda "spicy drink"]
Maggie: Dancers don't have any ears or seises.
Me: Do you mean faces?
Maggie: No. Dancers don't have any ears or seises. Do you know what seises is? It's like a big wall like a top (while reaching as high as she can).
Maggie: Talkers are like things if you have faces you can be a talker pine.
(No, I don't what she was talking about. That is the fun!)

Maggie: (to me) Do you need one kiss? 
                          I will give you one kiss.
                          I will give you one kiss.
                          Give me your head.
                          Give me yourself.
Then she grabbed my hand and gave it kisses.

This little girl kinda rocks my world. She is a little sprite. She is very empathetic. If Jack is crying, she wants me to attend to him immediately. She is passionate and emotional. When I said, "yes" to a ride on an old fashioned carousel today, she danced and jumped all the way to the car to fetch $$, told each person we passed about her good fortune, and then continued to jump, dance and sing all the way to the carousel. When the ride ended and it was time to leave, she cried all the way from the carousel to the car and most of the way home because she was so crushed that her ride had to end. Joe probably thinks I am intensely emotional, but Maggie brings it to a whole new level, and one that I actually admire. Sometimes I feel like I am on autopilot while Maggie feels things so deeply. Forgive the Anne of Green Gables reference, but I am Miss Cuthbert to Maggie's Ann, and I wish I was a bit more Anne like my little girl.

Maggie is very strong willed. I think that when strong willed and determined people are pointed in the right direction they have an amazing ability to accomplish good. Also, I think when strong willed people are three, they are challenging to their mothers. I admire strong people, and I want to be stronger.

Sometimes Maggie drives me crazy, but I admire her strength and I love her spirit.

As Maggie donned each bit of this outfit, including the princess attire, jewelry, stethoscope, bunny ears, and darts (a carrot snack) she told me that she was getting ready for the jungle! Then, under her direction, we walked around the jungle picking strawberries. Our strawberries included things like socks, magnets, toy food, and scraps of paper.  What silly joy it is to be a mother. 

Happy Birthday Jack!--One Year Old!!

Jack,

You are such a little bundle of joy. It seems strange to think that there was ever a time when you were not a part of our family. I am so happy that this last year is just the beginning.

Here's a bit about you right now.

You have the sweetest snuggles but you are a little stingy about giving them away. When I get a snuggle I cherish it! I think I got the longest Jack cuddle on record today when some thunder woke you early from your nap. I held you, smelling your sweet, distinctive baby smell and loved every second of it.

You are very generous with smiles and giggles though. You give them to adults, Maggie, and occasionally other kids. Other babies make you cry (haven't really figured out why.) You give super slobbery, wide-open mouth kisses which only a mom can really love . . . and I do!

You are a little mover; even though you don't have much interest in walking yet, you get around with a speedy crawl, and pull yourself to standing.

You love to crawl around with toys in your hands. If you have found an item that you like (some recent favorites include a fake chicken leg, a sand shovel, a sunscreen stick, and the remote control) you hold onto it for a long time (I am talking like 30 min long)--until you find something better, or until I peel the item out of your tight little grasp. The other day you crawled with a phone from the living room up the stairs to the bathroom and then threw it in the tub. Oops :)

Your favorite place to play is on the bottom step of the stairs in our townhouse style apartment.

You love hearing your voice echo which means that you are really loud in bathrooms (especially the one at church).

Bath time is a wet adventure. You love it, and start crawling up the stairs as soon as I tell you it is time for a bath. You like to stand up, and when sitting, kick your legs hard and fast to make big splashes. Tonight, for the first time, you sat back down when I told you to (or course only to stand up moments later). When I pour water on your hair, you start crazily grabbing at the side of the tub, crawling and slipping around, basically freaking out (I think maybe you learned this from Maggie). Once I get you bundled up in a towel you are nothing but smiles.

The fridge is one of your favorite objects. If you seen me open it, you crawl fast and hard to get there before it closes. If I pull you away from a closing fridge, you kick, kick, kick your legs in a little baby sized tantrum.

At bedtime, we brush your teeth, which makes you giggle, and then we read a book. You excitedly turn the pages until you loose interest, usually with about 2 pages to go; then, no amount of work from me can keep you sitting on my lap. I try to sing you a song but you start wiggling and push away from me before I can finish. Then you go to sleep in your bed with one binky in your mouth and one in your hand. I almost always find you have turned 180 degrees in your bed and rolled to your tummy before falling asleep.

You sign the word for "food" or say "mum mum mum" when you are hungry. You signed "all done" for the first time today. It was kind of a one armed crazy wave. I haven't heard you say any other words or sign anything else yet, so I guess food is very important to you. You are a great eater though--it is not unusual for you to eat as much as Maggie. If you get bored with a particular food, or if you are done eating and still have good on your tray, you throw every last piece onto the floor. If I don't get it swept up quickly enough you will come back and eat it (I probably shouldn't admit that). You love fruit, especially blueberries, raspberries, watermelon, or anything that is nice and juicy. Those foods you do not throw on the floor.

Jack--what a wonderful adventure it is to have you in our family. I am grateful for the day you ame to join us, and I look forward to seeing what comes next!

xoxo
Mom

Kidbits

Jack:  I recently got my first high five from Jack. It was proceeded and followed by a bunch of giggling. When I tried to get a repeat performance, Jack laughed and laughed. Then he kissed my hand.

Maggie:  There is a troll that lives under the bridge in Freemont. We went to visit the troll, and not surprisingly, Maggie was not a fan. She is a bit of a scaredy cat about statues and sculptures (e.g. the Lincoln Memorial made her wail in terror) and unfamiliar creatures. But, after seeing a few pictures of the troll, she summoned her courage and asked to go see him again. She has since talked a lot about the "Con-troll." I guess we don't encounter many trolls. The word apparently does not yet exist in her vocabulary.

Did I forget anything?

I once had a nursing supervisor say, in frustration to push back that she was receiving about a new charting request,

"If you didn't write it down, it didn't happen!"

While this may be a good guideline for medical documentation, I find that this notion seriously gets in the way of my blogging. I feel like I have to write EVERYTHING down. Why? So that I can one day prove that I did indeed take my kids to the splash park?

Obviously, I can't come close to writing about everything that happens, and let's face it--no one, especially me, wants to read that novel. Yet, I have a really hard time finding a balance between writing about the facts of life (which is all my nursing instincts tell me I am supposed to write about), and sharing more intimate thoughts and feelings (which, when I read later, I always think sound ridiculously dumb and boring anyway). So, I try to compensate for my lack of ability to write by taking lots of pictures which effort succeeds in severely annoying Joe, and frustrates me further when I look at the poor quality images I have created that are supposed to tell the story of my life.

So here I am rambling away--wondering exactly what I should write about. I do know that I would love to read a compilation of my mother's thoughts and feelings when she was my age, so I am trying to expand what I write about, even at the risk of reading this later and thinking myself a moron.

On that note, I am going to write more about the facts of our lives this summer. The kids and I have continued to have a rockin' fun summer. There are just so many fun things to do in Seattle. Poor Joe is not having quite as much fun, but every once in awhile he does get to play with us.

Here are some highlights from the last few weeks:

• More berry picking at Harvolds. Vanilla ice cream, heaps of raspberries, chocolate chips. Seriously  heaven. I am going back again because I want to gluttonously eat more raspberries.
• Newcastle beach--probably my favorite beach park yet and I finally got to swim
• Festival at the Center for Wooden Boats and sailing on Lake Union in a 118 year old (I think) fishing  boat.
• Fourth of July festivities including small town parade, BBQ with family, and 3 firework shows across  Lake Washington
• Discovery Park playground and lighthouse
• Visit to the LDS Seattle temple grounds with my kiddos
• Olympic Sculpture Park and the waterfront. Yummy fish and chips although nothing compares to  Malibu Seafood. Malibu Seafood I miss you.
• Widbey Island, Ebbey's Landing Hike, and deception pass. BEAUTIFUL. More about this later.
• Crossroads Splash Park and Lake Union Splash pad
• Seattle Premium Outlets. Okay, so I spent more on gas than on stuff and didn't even get to shop for  my own clothes because I was looking for a dumb sunhat (which I never found) but whatev
• Freemont and the "con-troll". More about this later too.
• More time at Magnuson Park which is still our go-to on days when we don't have anything else going  on
• Chinafest. Best food: Mango tart. Worst food: Curry fish balls. I accidentally spit them out when my  friend said they were made of fish testicles (they're not) but he did surprise me and they didn't really  taste all that great anyway.
• Greenlake park and Volunteer park. I really like both of these parks.
• Wallingford Park
• Maggie is finally potty trained. WHAT? I know! That is the biggest highlight of all.

Well, that is all that is coming to mind right now. Plus I need to go wake up Maggie so that we can go have a picnic dinner and a dip in the lake.

Maggie's "Robot House" She was playing with Jane the Pink Robot (the girl whose voice first inspired the robot and who apparently also inspired a drift wood robot house) 

Newcastle Beach

Sailing on Lake Union

Lake Union Splash Pad

Cute little buddies

Jack spraying himself in the face at Crossroads Splash Park

Loving the sandbox at Magnuson