Up close and personal

Dylan and Nana waving to gorillas at Woodland Park Zoo over the weekend. We went to go see the Turkey Toss: carnivores got raw turkeys. The grizzly bear devoured it within minutes!

Preschool story time

Two bundled up kids getting their nightly story. After 5 years (for Ava) it's still an occasional favorite. I live this age.

Driven to (non-alcoholic) drink

Rough day on the parenting front. I don't drink, but tonight trading sparkling cider for sparkling lemonade.

On a related note: does the French Foreign Legion have a minimum age or potty training requirement for inductees?

Band-aid's stuck on you

We've reached the scabby knees and assorted size band-aid stage of childhood.

End of an era

Last toddler daycare update for Dylan, who'll start preschool in a couple weeks. Now I'll just have to guess when he's gone potty during the day. ;-)

Fresh feeling

Note to self: before walking through spray park to take pictures, note which features drop water and which ones spray up at your crotch.

Firefighter heroes

Dylan is two and a half years old and all about trains and firefighters these days. Whenever we pass a fire station, fire truck or ambulance, he calls out its presence: "Firefighter heroes! Going to help someone!"

Recently, while we were out and about, we passed a Seattle Fire Department station where the firefighters were out washing the trucks. I pulled over, told them about Dylan's love for firefighters and asked if we could just get a quick up-close look at the equipment.

The lieutenant said, "Sure! Come on in. We'll show you all the tools." By opening all the compartments, she opened a huge door into my kids' hearts. She explained what everything was for and what situations called for each item, then introduced them to some of the other firefighters who were around and let them sit in a ladder truck. 

The ear to ear grin on Dylan as he sat in the rig said it all: this kid was overjoyed by the experience. Even Ava, who is soon to be five and already declaring some things to be "for babies," initially deemed the visit "boring because it's just going to be boy stuff" walked away with a smile: "She was really nice! I like firefighter things now. And princesses."

We sent a thank card and Ava included a drawing of her and the lieutenant holding hands.

 Kids' passions affirmed? Check. Horizons broadened? Check. Thanks to a caring firefighter who made it possible, my work here (for today at least) is done .

Bicycle Sunday

When the weather warms up, the City of Seattle closes off auto access to portions of the street along Lake Washington so that bikers and others on small wheels and on foot can roll along and meander in peace, without having to share the road with large vehicles.

With this weekend's warm (for Spring in Seattle) weather, I felt compelled to finally secure a tricycle for Dylan and bicycle for Ava. I'd been checking Craigslist for weeks and finally found a tricycle in good condition, at the right price, the right distance and from a seller who actually responded in a timely manner. Really: what is up with listing something for sale on a service that used email for communication, then not responding to email?!

The two biggest selling points on the trike? A parent's push/steer bar and a "trunk" on the back just perfect for holding a few Thomas and other assorted mini trains.

So we got the trike, but couldn't reach the seller of the girls bike we wanted. So we just hit our usual fave Target to see what was available. It's funny to flash back to last summer when we did a bit of a dry run on this bike purchase. In the toss up between a Barbie bike and the Disney princesses, the princesses won because of the doll carrier that was included. Like the trike, cargo space is critical!

While Dylan at first didn't seem to understand that it was for him, he soon jumped right on and was thrilled with his new wheels. So was I, because it means that I can now rollerblade alongside them instead of hunching over Dylan's scooter to push him along. Goodbye back pain, hello independent riders.

In contrast to Dylan's quiet joy, Ava's bicycle-induced squeals were so loud dolphins at Sea World said, "What the...?"

We hit a local bike trail and Ava did great, only taking one small spill before getting the hang of applying the brakes when she feels like she's going faster than she feels comfortable. All we need now is a few more days with temperatures north of 60. Happy kids? Check. Yet another cool childhood milestone that makes me feel even more like a parent? Check. Simple pleasures that remind us: blessings abound.

Sense of self

Dylan's burgeoning sense of self.

He knows who he is, even if he pronounces his name "Dy-n."

What's funny is that since being released from speech therapy, his word count and complexity have continued to grow by leaps and bounds. Still, some things he says are not so clear, like his name. But other times, he clearly articulates phrases like "Wake up Daddy" and "Ava: what the heck!" That one threw me for a loop tonight.

He's also clearly catching on to the verbal wackiness that ensues around here. We've always played this ridiculous game where we insert the sound "shhhh" into an otherwise normal sentence as if we really have something important to convey. It started out as a bedtime thing when one of us was trying to go to sleep and the other was piping up with some question or comment about the day. The sleepy one would finally say something like, "That's a great question. Let me check my shhhh!" As in, "Shush. I'm trying to sleep."

We did it with Ava too, and it has become an occasional bedtime game. Like, "Okay, it's time to lay down and put your head on your shhh!" or "Oh man, Ava what is all that in your hair?! It looks like you fell in shhhh!" Any permutation is guaranteed to elicit peals of laughter.

Recently, as we tucked Dylan in, he piped up, "Mommy: I said shhhh!" Whaaat?! His proclamations are so unexpected that they crack us up every time. This kid, like his sister, is a hilarious character in his own way and I love watching him develop.

Ferry-enabled fun

Jones guys hanging out on Bainbridge.

Quality time

Curing the nature deficit disorder.

Family night out

Friday night dinner at La Spiga. Kids were well behaved. Started losing them at one point near the end and turned to Thomas the Tank Engine videos on YouTube to give us time to finish our meals.

Best part? Ava to Jason out of the blue as we ate: "Thanks for taking us out Dad." Nice to see some of the home training is sinking in.

Seattle's first snow of the year

Seattle had its first snow of the year and really its first snow of the winter. It really didn't start sticking until late afternoon. I went to put Dylan down for a nap and would up sleeping myself for a bit. But what a nice way to spend part of a snowy Sunday: snuggled up with a warm toddler. When I put him down, the front yard had just a dusting. A half hour later, we had a couple inches of accumulation.

So we bundled up and got the kids out for some snow person-making and snowball tossing.

Jason did the heavy rolling and lifting of building the snow base.

Then he led off the snow ball tossing. Don't mess with Dad: he's got an arm like a cannon!

First snow person done (with baby carrots for a nose) and first family shot of 2012. Time for cocoa and soup.

Christmas 2011

We had a lovely Christmas with 35 or so of Jason's relatives for Christmas brunch, followed by a small gathering with my folks at our house. But I was focused on being present rather than on documenting everything, so we didn't even get a family picture this year. But I did capture a few shots.  

 Dylan checking out the Santa figurine at Jason's cousin's house that was the same size he is...

Me and Ava, who asked to have her hair blow dried for the special occasion...

 Which worked out well when she opened the gift that got the biggest squeal: an American Girl doll with straight hair too. The matching dresses came from Ross a couple months ago. It's a line called Dollie and Me, which is toddler and preschooler-sized outfits with matching doll size dresses. My agony over the decision of whether to spring for the doll and if so, what hair type is worth a separate post.

And I didn't get a shot of Dylan with his two favorite gifts: a Thomas the Train talking caboose that can run on his little wooden train set with the other magnetized cars, and a Thomas backpack that can also be pulled on two wheels. It's what he uses for toting around his birthday gift matchbox cars, trains, and these two dinosaurs, which he likes to hold facing each other while roaring, as if they're have a steel cage pose-off in the WWE. Which gives me an idea: man bags for boys. It could happen.

Unbeknownst to him, he picked all of his gifts a couple nights before during a Target run. Unlike Ava, who has fully fallen prey to the marketing juggernaut of commercials during kids shows and basically asks for everything that is shown on TV, Dylan still doesn't get what all the fuss is about and can't verbalize his wants exactly either.

With Ava's requests, we simply say, "You'll have to put that on your list and see if Santa brings it." Since she doesn't read or write yet (beyond her name and individual letters), we might as well say "write an app that will download those to daddy's iPad." But it's bought us some time, since she usually forgets about it within minutes, or until the next commercial or visit to a store featuring one of the coveted items.

With Dylan, I simply took them to the toy aisles in Target and watched what he was drawn to. I already knew anything Thomas the Train would be a win, but watching him beeline for certain items helped. And when he refused to put certain ones down (like the backpack and dinosaurs) until I could distract him or enlist Ava to distract him, I knew we had winners, which I then furtively stuffed under grocery items in the cart while his back was turned. I was like the David Blaine of toy shopping. And he was none the wiser Christmas morning.

Soon after Dylan's birthday earlier in the month, I asked Jason what he wanted to do for him for Christmas.
"I don't know yet but he's getting the full deal," he said rather forcefully. Seeing my blank look he explained, "My birthday was right before Christmas too and I always got that BS 'This gift is for your birthday and Christmas' line. I'm not doing that to him."

"Mm-hmm: basically you got hosed because your birthday wasn't some other month besides December," I replied.

"Exactly," he said. "And it's total bull." Clearly, this is still a sore subject and I'd never realized how much because I've always done dual gifts for him. Your birthday is special and separate from other celebrations, whether it's in April or the day after Christmas. So we did get Dylan several nice little gifts.

Yet all in all, this Christmas seemed to reflect the still-challenging economy and our interest in getting away from gift overload and spending more time with each other rather than money on things we don't need and will just be looking to purge later. It felt right-sized.

And we will be purging the kids' things anyway in the next month or so because they're outgrowing many of their infant and toddler toys. They will hopefully be loved by some other kids soon, freeing up valuable toy box real estate for the Christmas and birthday items.

I hope your family's holiday celebrations were just right for your needs too.