Father/son car bonding

Thank goodness for Dylan: Dad finally has someone to play cars with.

New workplace consultant

13 m.o.?! They're hiring these consultants younger and younger these days.

1 year 1 month old Dylan does toddler chores

A year and a half ago, I marveled at Ava eagerly helping to load clothes in the dryer and vowed that:

"If we are blessed with a son some day, I will play these same "cleaning" games with him because as I was reminded once, I'm not just raising a child, I'm raising someone's future spouse or partner and they should be able and willing to share the household task load, whether they work in the home or out of it. After all, those clothes and dishes aren't going to wash themselves." 

Well, careful what you wish for because the boy child arrived. Now true to my word, he's following in his sister's footsteps with toddler chore assistance.



He already tries to climb into the dishwasher. Maybe he's trying to tell us he really wants to do dishes too.

Milestone alert: self-feeding

A month after his 1st birthday and taking his first steps unassisted, Dylan is safely navigating food into his mouth w/utensils. A dropcloth is still essential though.

Ava getting her library card! Yay!

We met up with our PEPS peeps for our monthly gathering at the Central library in downtown Seattle for the very cool story time with a children's librarian. Apparently it's new and put in place for parents who work during the week and can't make the regular reading times. 

Afterwards, we made our way over to the desk to get Ava her very own library card, followed by my lengthy instructions on caring for it and any books associated with it: no chewing, juice splashes, accidentally tearing, throwing, or otherwise treating these like books you own. Because hell hath no fury like a book-lover aggrieved. Said book-lover being me.

Ava nodded somberly and carefully tucked the card into her hot pink, sparkly purse, with all the other important things: sparkly sanitizer, sugar free gum, tiny pony figurine, bracelets, tiny toy parts, etc.

Christmas and cousins and carriers, oh my!

So much holiday hoopla and some not-so-fun flooding aftermath at our place that I'll cover later, so blogging's going to continue to be sparse for a bit. But Christmas itself was lovely.

We had breakfast with J.'s family and Ava and Dylan got to run around with their passel of cousins.

 Merry Christmas, from the Joneses!

We asked Ava to take a break from the fun to take this picture. Hence her Bob Cratchit-worthy expression.

But her frown turned upside down later when she opened her gifts, which included this new doll, to replace the one that went AWOL somewhere out in the world while she was traveling with us or the grandparents.

As mentioned before, we do the babywearing thing at our house and we Santa did spring for a new ErgoBaby carrier for Ava, in her favorite color. She squealed with delight when we snapped it together for her and loves wearing her doll and playing out elaborate scenarios filled with lots of baby changing, burping, and nursing ("Dolly needs some boobie milk 'cause she's sleepy. See? She's rubbing her eyes.") Ah, the simple joys of childhood.

And thankfully, Dylan still doesn't understand what all the hoopla's about, so he busied himself with a kiddie laptop in the playroom. He was thoroughly underwhelmed by the big truck we Santa got for him, but loved his waffle. Again: simple pleasures.

Next to the doll and carrier, Ava's other favorite gift was these Dorothy-goes-to-Oz-worthy glittery pink shoes from Grandma. They've been worn almost every day since. Luckily they go with almost everything in her wardrobe.

Despite the challenges of this past year, we are all incredibly blessed, especially to have all these lovely, smiling faces to call family.

Merry Christmas!