An Afternoon in Seattle

So these pictures are out of order, but I want to show some of the pictures from our Ride The Ducks. The "ducks" are vehicles in Seattle that are tour bus type things that take you around Seattle then into the water and around the water a bit. Pretty cool. So here we go. and by the way, I have no idea why all my words are underlined.
That (oh. hmm..the line is gone. how odd.) anyway. That tree is made from metal. Cool from a sculpture point of view.
This one of the girls was taken on the way back. The rain and wind had been coming in for over an hour, and they were getting cold.

"the girls" are Kaia and her friend A, both very strong willed girls who seem to want to be best friends while arguing about EVERYTHING they do.

Ben and I in the "duck" while still on land. He was really well behaved considering the ride was during naptime.

The anatomically correct statue in the middle of a fountain downtown.

Our driver, Captain Who-Ha. He was awesome, very friendly, extremely knowledgeable, and all around cool.

Ben with his Quacker, very cook toys that make quacking sounds. I bought 3. one for each kid, and one for me!

The girls at the beginning of the ride, with quackers of their own. yes, the quackers became annoying. but they are still marvelous.

Ben's First Haircut

Okay, so blogger is doing some strange thing where it puts your photos in the opposite order in which you picked them....but ok. Here is Ben! He had his first haircut today! The top one is the "after" though admittedly not a great one, but it does show the difference on the sides. Ben was awesome, though below you can see how he felt about wearing the apron, so we took it off. He got a balloon at the end, and carried it proudly with him for hours afterward.

Ben's Impersonation of Andy Warhol

Yoda and Luke Take Over The Hallways at Daddy's Work

This picture was taken late in The Great Candy Gather of 2008, so both Luke and Yoda are a bit worse for the wear.

Yoda, by the way, discovered a Great Love of Nestle's Crunch bars when his guardians mistakenly let him hold an unopened one. It took him about 3 minutes to chew through the wrapper and discover the Yummy Goodness Of Heavenly Chocolate Crunchiness, and his rage when it was removed from his Iron Grasp of Desperation was epic. He screeched, he yelled, he GROWLED, he sobbed. He was soon mollified with a chicken nugget, but his now-much-wiser guardians watched carefully for the rest of the night to make sure no candy stayed in his grasp long enough to be in any danger.

Luke wore her mask on the top of her head most of the night, to no surprise of her mother, who had repeatedly told her masks were unnecessary and just got in the way. Luke, with much determination and purpose, took very little time to plow down the Hallways of Free Treats, until her bag was quite heavy.

Her hand looks strangely fake here. It freaks me out a bit.
Both kids had a great time, though Yoda took a dive into a table and bumped the bridge of his nose, and yes, there was a bit of blood. He's fine now. Some candy was consumed, some laughter heard, some tears shed - by both kids. Halloween is fun, but I am happy to be done for this year. Except for the next few days of course....more candy to be eaten, argued about, and gleefully sorted through over and over...and over.

My Boys

Daddy's Shoes

Boy With Drumstick

Had too much fun to take many pictures.....

I didn't take very many pictures while Andrea and her kids were here....in fact, I only took pictures while we were at the water spray park. We had a wonderful visit, and I can't wait to be able to head over there for another visit!

Here they all are, hanging out under the tree. It's hard to see Katia, but she's there!

Rockin'

The Party

We had 11 kids plus Kaia come to her party. We held it at the same park she and her class used to go to on Fridays. The picnic tables were in the shade, and there was a nice wind, so as long as I stayed there, I didn't get too hot. The kids ran wild for the first hour or so, then sat down for ice cream cakes in little planters. I put crushed oreos on top with gummi worms and bugs. They all seemed to enjoy them, and ran off again after eating. A few of the other women helped me get them all rinsed and ready for planting, then we sat down to open presents. However, in a repeat performance from last year, Kaia took a brief moment to head out to the field to throw up. With the combination of sugar and excitement, she was just undone. Natasha came to the rescue with homeopathics and aromatherapy face spray, and Kaia, feeling much better, commenced the gift-opening. She got some excellent loot, and is currently playing with her fairy garden, occasionally looking over at her bag of other goodies and grinning.

Not sure when exactly this was taken, but here are three of her friends walking with her up the hill. She is holding the Star Wars card Mike and I got for her. When it's opened, it loudly plays the Star Wars theme song.

Ben had a great time watching everyone, but got tired pretty quickly. It was a lot to take in for such a little man!

We planted flowers in the pots after gift opening. Went pretty fast, really. Not the best craft for a party if you're looking to take up time....but the kids who took part seemed to have fun.

Ben crashed in his daddy's arms and slept for a bit. After he woke up and spent some time playing in the grass, and playing a game called "how many times can I get this stick in my mouth and how many times will my parents pull it out?"

The kids all played on the playground equipment for awhile, then slowly trickled home. Overall, I think everyone had a good time.

After we got home, we were all hot and sweaty, so we got into bathing suits and went to the pool. It made all four of us feel much better. Kaia swam over 5 laps lengthwise!! I don't know where she got the energy! We came home after an hour or so, put Ben to bed, and are now just relaxing a bit.

Two Top Teeth

and now, for the close up! He doesn't usually like to show off his top teeth, so I was happy to get a shot of this smile!

Picnic at the park

My mom's group had a huge picnic today at the park! It was awesome weather, not cold at all, but not glaring down sun. We had a wonderful time hanging out with other families, and Kaia had a blast running all over the place. Ben likes being out and about, so was perfectly behaved. He spent some time on the grass, which he loves, and also in a baby swing, which he also enjoyed quite a bit.

I asked someone to take a picture of all of us, something you rarely see, since I am usually the one with the camera! I also gave it to Mike so that I could be in some, and so I could spend some time with Kaia.

I used to love the swings, but now they make me sick after a few minutes on them....

I think Ben would have been happy for a lot longer in his swing. At one point I let it slow down, then stop, and he kicked his feet like "hey!! push me!!"

He also had fun swinging with Mike and I. We decided we really want to go to a park or somewhere outside every weekend this summer, weather allowing.

Next month we are going to be in a parade, so the kids decorated the banner with their handprints.

sleeping woes, continued

not good. I've set us back a bit in our efforts to help Ben go to sleep at night and at nap times.

First, last night I let him fall asleep on me for about 10 minutes. Before we put him to bed we woke him up and got him into jammies, but the damage was done. He had remembered how nice sleeping on Mama is, so he was FURIOUS when we put him in his crib. He cried for over an hour.

Then in the middle of the night sometime (no idea when, I wasn't coherent, or it wouldn't have even happened) he woke up and instead of letting him go back to sleep in his crib, out of old habit I got him out and fed him. Then he fell back asleep in our bed, so of course woke up a few times and wanted to eat again. At that point I knew it would be hopeless to put him back in his crib, so he spent the rest of the night with us. Which meant he ate a few times at night, instead of waiting until morning.

So now it is naptime again. He isn't pleased that we've gone back to the evils of solitary crib sleeping. I have to be diligent about not letting him sleep on or with me, even though now that it's not ALL THE FREAKIN' TIME it's sweet again. Last night when he fell asleep on me it was just so wonderful to cuddle with him again while he was asleep. I am sure I'll be able to do that again, after he's fully used to sleeping on his own. I really hope so, because the idea of NOT being able to is very sad. I like sleeping with my boyo, just not 24/7.

Right now, however, it's an all or nothing thing, or he gets confused. I can't wait for this transition to be over.

He's learning faster than I'd like

Holy Crap. He's learning how to move things around to help himself. He took Kaia's sink out of her kitchen, then dropped it on the ground. At some point he figured out that if he turned it upside down and stood on it he might be able to reach the things under the sink. He couldn't, quite, but still! He moved it where he needed it and stood on it! I'm in trouble.

Standin' Up

Yesterday Ben pulled himself up to standing for the first time! He stayed there a long time, enough for me to take a few pictures, and for Kaia to come out and play with him for a while. He has the strength to walk, I think, he just needs the balance.

Ben's On The Move

So he has a strange way of crawling, you'll notice. He kinda sits with one leg, and just moves it forward while crawling normally on the other knee. This is as fast as he can go right now, but I'm sure he'll increase in speed in no time!

Spring Faire!

So this hat didn't last long, as he hates hats, but it stayed on long enough to take a picture. He loves having his picture taken, so will stop whatever he's doing to grin at the camera!

Kaia and several of her friends listening to a story teller. Kaia says the stories were about "a monster one about 2 princess sisters and there was this guy that changed one sister into a heron and one into a bear and the other story had blackberries they were picking and they heard this rattling and suddenly a monster came out of the broom"

Kaia didn't wear this outfit to the Faire, but she did get this garland and wand there, as well as a fairy tea set, several beads, a shell and two gnome stones.

Here is one of the things I bought...this bracelet was woven by women in Africa. The website is www.uhuruafrica.com to learn more, and get something if you like! I fell in love with this one, and thanks to mom was able to snatch it up! as well as....

...this wool roving! it's not the best for felting, but it's perfect for fairy hair! on the far left is black though it's hard to see and it goes all the way to white! I love having such a range to choose from! I'll be giving some of this to my mom for her fairy making endeavors! Thanks again mom!

We had a wonderful time at the Faire. It was REALLY hot, but I'm not going to complain, I love it after the long winter and cold spring. Kaia had a blast too, there was a lot of activities for her to do, from digging in sand for treasure, to fishing for treasure, to making her ribbon wand. The heat got to Mike a bit, and he started out tired, so 5 hours was a bit much for him, but he had fun too. When we got home the kids and I got into a bath, and Mike got into a shower, and that cooled us all off and improved 4 out of 4 moods!