December 18-24, 2011

Sunday

Playing around at a rest area in Eastern Oregon.

Then we went to Ninkasi for lunch! What started off as some snacks and a nice diversion from the road turned into a private tour of the brewery with one of the owners, pints of pilsner directly from the fermenting tank, and free Ninkasi t-shirts. It turns out that in the tasting room full of people drinking, the owner correctly identified the biggest beer nerds.

Then we headed up to Portland, where we met our awesome friends for Zoo Lights and dinner at the Washington Park Zoo. It was another welcome diversion from the road.

Monday Nothing today.

Tuesday

We decorated sugar cookies at Uncle Jon's.

Then we decorated the tree.

Wednesday

We went to see Santa. Emma seems to be the only one pleased about this.

Then we went on the carousel at Westlake Center.

We also went to Pike Place Market for lunch.

Will and Emma walking through Post Alley.

Thursday

We decorated Grandma Gail and Grandpa Bill's house.

Friday

Saturday

Christmas Eve at Grandma Gail and Grandpa Bill's

Riding back on the ferry.

December 11-17, 2011

Sunday

We went to Eric's birthday party on Sunday. There were stone bunnies in the yard and Evie wanted to pet them all. Also, we got her these boots so she'd have something at least slightly more waterproof than her Converse, and now she wants to wear them all the time. She brings them to me and goes, "Boots? Boots. Booooooots." And then she does a little dance once she has them on.

Will hitting the pinata at the party.

Monday

Something tragic happened on December 12th, apparently.

Tuesday

Lorney and Evie

Wednesday

Evie in her Meathead hat.

We went up to Gramma Jo's today. The ladies of the family were having coffee and discussing Christmas plans. We won't be in town for Christmas, but I came anyway because I like hanging out with them and Will and Evie like playing with the other kids. Before we headed home, Will and his great aunt Marla picked some tangerines for us to take with us. Some of these looked a little green but they're tasty and totally ready to eat. Lorne's mom's family owns a citrus and avocado farm in north San Diego County, so we're often sent home with delicious goodies like these.

I still miss Seattle, but I'm so thankful that we live close to family down here. I also love that Will and Evie get to frequently spend time with the people and in the places that provided Lorne with some of the happiest memories of his childhood.

Thursday Nothing today.

Friday

We drove through San Bernardino County.

Saturday

We drove by Mono Lake on the way to Reno.

December 4-10, 2011

Sunday

I don't think Will looks much like me, but sometimes I see myself pretty clearly in his expressions. He's had the eyebrow raise down pat since he was a wee thing.

He's decided he doesn't like having his picture taken recently, except for when he's posing with Thumper. Today he found Evie's little ladybug from her birthday, which he decided he liked because of it's "nice, friendly smile," and decided he needed pictures of the three of them.

Monday Nothing today.

Tuesday

Crunching leaves together after preschool.

Wednesday Nothing today.

Thursday

Running around where they weren't supposed to be running around.

Friday Nothing today.

Saturday

Lorne spent the weekend studying away. Will took his "computer," the book Corduroy, and took notes "just like daddy." It was pretty cute. I won't share the picture here though, because unlike Lorne, Will was going pantsless.

Bottle Up and Explode

Last Christmas our friends Alison and Daniel gave us this awesome book of projects to make with your kids. Lorne pulled it out on Saturday morning and he and Will looked through it to figure out what they could work on this weekend. Will's choice? Water bottle rockets. Awesome! They got the materials (wood for the launchpad, bike pump, wine bottle cork, soda bottles) on Saturday and built the launchpad.

On Sunday morning Will and I painted the bottles. They were dry when Evie got up from her nap, so we headed outside to set up mission control.

Our three rockets, the wood launchpad, and the bike pump.

Lorne attaches the first rocket.

This was our first flight. Lorne did a good job of preparing Will for the fact that sometimes, when you make things at home like this, they don't always work right away, but then you get to have more fun figuring out how to fix it.

Lorne pumps up the first rocket.

We didn't have to worry about fixing anything with the rocket launcher though.

Covered in rocket fuel.

Undeterred by the fact that he'd just been sprayed from head to toe by the first rocket, Will helped set up and pump our second rocket.

More success!

This handy tree doubles as a landing pad.

Rocket number three was a full two liter bottle, so Lorne and Will worked together to launch it.

We spent the afternoon refilling the rockets with water and launching them up until they all got stuck in trees or on the roof. Though after the first launch Evie wanted nothing to do with the launcher. She was happy sitting off to the side, where she wasn't going to get sprayed in the face with water, thank you very much, which is kind of surprising, given how much this child loves water.

She was happy to go retrieve the bottles after they landed though.

Next time we use our launcher we'll have to plan a little better and go to an area with less trees and roofs. There are some open fields at nearby parks that would make an excellent spot for our new mission control.

Parenting Backfire.

On Wednesdays and Thursdays at preschool they have a half hour of gymnastics before it's time to go home. When I went to pick Will up on Wednesday, he was sitting next to a little girl, Radhika, and they were giggling and conspiring about something. He said goodbye to her, then we left. In the car he was acting mopey, and I saw him making his sad face in the rear view mirror.

It's pretty much this face.

So I asked him what was wrong. Will said, "I miss my new friend. We had so much fun together. I don't know why you had to come pick me up." We talked about how she was probably eating lunch, that she was probably spending time with her family, just like he was spending time with his family.

When I picked him up on Thursday he and Radhika were sitting together again, laughing about something. Will's teacher came up to me and said how cute it was, earlier in the day he walked up to the teacher and said, "I'm going to play with that girl now and we're going to play together all day." His teacher said they did, but then dropped the bomb. "Radhika's moving to full day preschool on Monday, so you should probably prepare Will for that." When I told Will he was devastated. I planned on asking her father if they wanted to get together so the kids could play some time when I picked Will up on Friday, but by the time Evie and I got there she was already gone.

Over dinner Friday night Will was telling me how sad he was that she wasn't going to be in his class anymore. So I tried to sympathize with him and talk with him about the time my best friend in 3rd grade moved away and how sad it made me, and how it's hard to say goodbye to people, but how I had eventually made new friends.

Will said, "What was your friend's name?"

I thought for a moment and said, "I think it was Kathy. Or it might have been Katie. Or--"

Will cut in. "You don't remember her name?"

"Well, it was a long time ago."

Will asked, "Did you ever see her again?"

I said, "Well...no."

"YOU NEVER SAW HER AGAIN? AND YOU DON'T EVEN REMEMBER HER NAME?" And then he started crying.

That was not the intended outcome of our talk.

November 27 - December 3, 2011

Sunday Evie put her backpack on her arm like a purse and wandered around with an apple.

Monday Nothing today.

Tuesday Nothing today.

Wednesday We went to the zoo! Will climbed the sabertooth tiger.

Thursday Nothing today.

Friday No pictures, but we went to Lorne's MSTP holiday party. The owner of the house where the party was held had two Great Danes.

This not one of them. This is just to remind you that Great Danes are GIGANTIC.

Will was terrified of them. And I mean, why wouldn't he be? They were a head taller than Will. He spent the entire evening in either my arms or Lorne's arms.

Evie, however, loved them. Two Evies stacked on top of each other would not be as tall as these dogs were. She pet them. She chased them. She fed them her dinner. When they licked her face, she laughed hysterically. Evie is relatively fearless. This scares me a little.

Saturday We went to the North Park Toyland Parade.

Waiting for the parade to start.

"You're just going to let me sit here with my feet in the street like this?"

The highlight of the parade.