Pictures of the Fambly

Tiny Man and Stinky, November 2010

Here are some new photos! (I'm on a black and white kick.) The first portion was taken around Easter before we attended a friend's wedding, the middle portion in early Fall and the latter portion near Thanksgiving at an impromptu photo shoot at nearly dusk. We got very lucky with cooperative weather, good behavior and a sturdy tripod! (Thanks Nono Jeff!)

Punkins at the Punkin Patch!

These were taken at a birthday party for Wilson's good friend, Madelyn.

Pics here.

More Pics of Childrens.

Water Play!

Lavender Festival.

I took the childrens to Sequim's Lavender Festival all by myself yesterday!

So, to begin: we all slept in. Until, like, 7:45. That may not sound late to some of you, but to me, it was absolute heaven! I am proud to say that once we woke up, I was able to quickly get my act together and get out the door by 8:05 (helped a lot by packing the car the night before).

I didn't stop for Starbucks on the way to the ferry, much to my temporary discomfort, but it was all made worth it when we made it for the 9:20 boat. We only had to wait in the line for 15 minutes, which we spent reading classics like "Where's the Green Sheep" and "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?"

Wilson LOVED the ferry! We went up on the deck and he stood in the wind and giggled and squealed and hopped around like an extremely happy little man. I tucked Wylet into my sweater so she could enjoy the wind too, but in some comfort. That 30 minute boat ride went extremely quickly.

Then the real adventures began. First of all, did you know that the bridge out of Kingston is a drawbridge? Yah, me neither. So when traffic backed up into Port Gamble, I panicked. But being firmly committed to seeing some damned lavender, I opted to spend an hour in Port Gamble ambling about. Which turned out to be great -- we walked down to the water, where Wilson found an enormous purple starfish on the pilings. We stood on the rocks and enjoyed the salty breeze. Both of my children were mesmerized by the water all day long in all of its incarnations. And after making a stop at PG's sunday market, we successfully made it across the bridge and back on track to our purple-plant-hunting adventure.

Once we reached Sequim, Tiny Man awoke from his nap. He then decided it would be funny to wake up Wylet from hers. (It wasn't.) After a brief stop for some rejuvenating bok-bok and fries (with diet coke for me), we parked in front of a sweet lady's yellow house, crammed into the umbrella stroller and baby backpack, and hit the Fair!

We only made it about 10 feet inside the gate. We entered next to the live music, and a band named "Bowi" was performing. They're an Irish Music band, and boy, Wilson lit right up. After three songs I managed to lure him away by purchasing their album and promising he could listen to them the entire drive home (which he did. I know many, many Irish songs now). We spent an hour cruising through market stalls, eventually taking home some lavender stalks, an iron quail for the front yard and a memento purple starfish to commemorate Wilson's waterfront friend in Port Gamble.

My primary goal in attending the festival was to purchase some plants for my yard. So I packed my two now-sunburned, cranky kids back into the car to make one more stop -- a farm! We hit Sunshine farm east of town, and found 5 nice plants to bring home. We also got some lavender lemonade, some marionberry-lavender ice cream and a yummy candle for my office. The best part was when I turned around inside of the store to leave and the bottom of the backpack swung into something expensive and porcelain. While the owner wouldn't let me pay for the piece, it was certainly a moment I would like to forget.

We left shortly thereafter. We were all tired, and some of us in the car (hint: not me) were poopy. To make things even more interesting, the wait time for the ferry was 2 hours and traffic was backed up into Sequim (!!). It took me nearly an hour to make it 5 miles. After some discussions with the cruise director at home (Josh) I decided it was better to drive home through Tacoma than to risk trying the wait for the boat. So, on we drove.

End-of-the-weekend traffic and one smucky trip to Jack in the Box later, we arrived home around 7:00pm. My kids were filthy. I was cranky. The car smelled of lavender, bok-bok and poop. But you know what? I totally had a blast. And I think the kids did too. Wilson told Josh when we got home that we saw "mommy's purple plants" and "I ran around!" It'll be great fun tomorrow after work when we all get home, settle ourselves, have some supper and then spend a few minutes planting the lavender in the yard. There are enough plants to go around -- one for every one of us!

Pics of Childrens.

Happy pictures of happy childrens.

Pics here.

Keepers.

Today we went to a birthday party, and I must say I am so pleased that my children were well-behaved. In many ways it was miraculous; the three hours preceding the party were heavy with wailing, whining and buckets of tears (from both buttheads, sadly). But once they got settled into the party groove, they were personality-filled little angels.

Good babies!

...Then you're too old

Wilson's favorite volume level for music is "too loud." If something is playing and he says, "too loud, Daddy", that's his way of telling you to turn the volume not down but up. Which I guess came from one of us at one point turning music down and telling him it was too loud.

See, we're making a little rocker man here (well, except for all the Eagles, I guess).

Sleeping with a younger man.

Daddy's in Vegas for the weekend celebrating his 39th in high style -- chuggin' a 12-pack with his buddy Al and rolling in the dirt or something.

Anyway, in his absence, I've replaced him with a man much younger, but equally snorey and warm. I shall sleep soundly and happily, provided I can make room among the pile of toy cars he brought with him.

I'm Fast!

Here are some more pictures of us (and especially Little Man) playing in the snow, mostly because I can't get enough of them.

The title: After one of his ski runs behind the house, Wilson looked up at me and said, "I'm fast!".

Tdukka Man & Wylet.

Yay, more pics!

Yes, now where's my sticker?

The voice tonight from outside the bathroom door: "Good job Daddy! You peed in the toilet!"

A Tiny Man on Tiny Skis

Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Milk

Wilson's latest dietary fad is "raisins and snack". "Snack" is vegetable-flavored Pirate's Booty, available in the hippy section of most grocery stores ("raisins" is raisins). Wash enough of it down with a cup of milk and there is really no need for lunch or dinner.

Midnight Oil.

I didn't like my children very much this morning. Violet woke up at 3:30 demanding (loudly) for a "ba ba". And then Wilson decided to creep into our bedroom at 5:15am to "snuggle". All the while he whispered in my ear, "All dee bed" and "Let's go usstairs". After about twenty minutes of his niggling nagging, I gave in and spent the remainder of the "night" on the couch trying to catch a few more zzz's in-between renditions of The Wiggles' greatest hits.

Rough morning. But I suppose I like my kids now that I've had my coffee.

Oh, to be the Age...

When 3 M&M's are an awesome treat.

Coupla New Pics.

The sun came out today. Between daylight savings and the snow, it was very welcome!

We took advantage of the nice light to snap a few pics of the childrens. Mostly Wilson, as he was the only one we could convince to sit still.

Milestone

Yesterday at daycare, Wilson peed in the toilet not once, but twice! We had to go out last night and get him new potty-training diapers. We're very proud of him. I can't believe we're at this point already... what a little man!

I also let him know that is merely step two of a man's development:
1. Peeing in the diaper;
2. Peeing in the toilet;
3. Peeing in the general vicinity of the toilet.

Wilson and Violet (2/24/09)

Here are your pictures. So quit whinin' already.

Take it to the Lemon... One More Time

Lately Wilson has a new favorite band--in addition to Buddy Holly, of course: The Eagles. He dances around the house, demanding "Eagles! Eagles! Eagles!" I don't think the Eagles even like the Eagles as much as he does. His favorite song right now is "Take it to the Limit", which, although some lines can be misinterpreted in the ears of a two-year-old (see post title), has a fun repetitive chorus. He also likes the Stray Cats well enough (mostly for dancing).

Violet is more of a Waterboys fan; I'm hoping this will translate someday into her being more into the Dropkicks than Baby Man is.

In any case, I'm looking forward to 20 years from now when Wilson is in some hipster Seattle band and I can remind him often of his early and deep love of the not-quite-so-hipster Eagles.

Christmas Childrens

For everyone who hasn't quite gotten their fill of Christmas, here are a few pictures of Violet and Wilson and some family (we kind of dropped the ball on present-opening pictures this year; you can thank me later).