Another Snow Day

I have officially lost track of how many snow days we have had.  Before today, Elyse’s last day was to be June 25th.  Now my guess is that it will be Friday the 26th.  God forbid we have 2 more, the poor child will be in school until July.  That would be sad, because they start back in August.  The summers already go WAY too fast, but this is rediculous.  During the school week, she has very little free time to play.  She comes home at 4, has a snack, does homework, eats dinner, gets read to and hopefully also reads to us, and then gets ready for bed.  Today she has had so much fun playing all day with Camille and so I am greatful for the snowday.  She has started to design her birthday invitations.  She wants to have a Haunted b-day party and wear her vampire outfit from Halloween again.  She and Camille made tons of pictures of spiders and webs and flies that get eaten by the spiders and have hung them all about the house.  She used Halloween stencils for her invitations.  I feel funny about a Halloween type party in April, but I am not about to try to butt in.  I’m just hoping that in the next couple of weeks she’ll change her mind.   I’d like a more spring like theme, but hey, it’ s not my birthday. 
The snow melted pretty fast and so I took the girls to the book store so that Elyse could cash in her first “reading incentive” reward book.  She loves to be read to, but really drags her feet about reading aloud to us.  Her teacher suggested that I do a reward program to help her get over this phase so she get on to the kinds of chapter books she loves.  She read for 20-30 minutes 15 days and so she got to buy a book.  The girls also got to pick out something for their “best traveler” awards.  (We like to reward positive things, and I feel guilt free since they had a  lousy Christmas)  Camille picked stationary and so now the girls are writing letters to their friends. 
Harry seems to be doing ok with the yogurt we gave him a couple of days ago.  So this means he doesn’t have an allergy??!!  I know he isn’t allowed to have straight milk until one yr., but will someone who has had a normal kid please remind me exactly what things with milk in it he can have??  Does this mean he can eat cheese? like I could make him a grilled cheese, or macaroni and cheese??  Help me out someone…

9 Months

Harry had a 9 month check up today.  He weighed 20 lbs. 9 oz and is in the 50% for weight and height.  His head was 75% which is a big jump from previous visits.  Nothing to worry about, but if it keeps jumping up then they’ll have to figure out why.  He could not stand having to lie on his back to get his length measured and cried.  He also didn’t care for getting his ear looked at.  He cried again.  He did dig the cherry flavored tongue depressor though, and had a so much drool on the paper liner that he was sitting on, that the nurse wasn’t sure if it was saliva or pee.  She wondered how he could salivate that much and not become dehydrated.  It was impressive.  I could have used one of those cherry flavored tongue depressers to entertain Harry on the airplane!  I’ll have to stock up on those for any future trips.  Harry seemed to be doing all of the things a 9 month old is supposed to do…likes to play peek-a-boo, crawling, sitting, eating solids, rolling over, saying “da da” and he also says “Kitty” (Elyse’s first real word too).  He got the go ahead to have some foods with milk in them so we’ll see how that goes this weekend.

Dayton Visit

First of all, for those of you who just want to see the pictures, I don’t know how to move them from the picasa album onto this blog, but you can just skip the reading and click here:  http://picasaweb.google.com/chris.browder/Feb2009#
Read on if the pictures just aren’t enough. 
Our trip was really wonderful.  The 2 flights out were very do-able, connecting through Minneapolis and the flights weren’t too long. We got into Dayton around 10:30 pm but that was only 7 west coast, so no one was too exhausted.  We had a bit of a rocky start when Gigi tried to take Harry from me and he cried.  She was crushed, but after about the first day, he remembered her and everyone got along wonderfully.  The first couple of days we were there the weather was really mild and Chris and I enjoyed running outside.  The girls were so happy playing in Gigi & Pop Pop’s basement rediscovering all of the fun toys.  They got to go to work with Gigi on Friday and see their grown up friend Casey (who is in his mid to late 20s and very cute) who they just love.  They got lots of treats at Gigi’s work and then Casey and Gigi and the girls went out to Applebees for lunch (big time!!).   On Saturday they spent much of the day making and decorating Valentines cookies.   
Some of the highlights for me were a trip to Columbus to have lunch with some girlfriends from Cleveland, and dinner out with Chris and our high school friends Stefanie and Ty.  We also got to have a little play date with 2 of my high school friends Stefanie and Brooke and their kids on Sunday afternoon.  I also finally got my hair cut for the first time since this summer.  Way overdue!!  Tues. night the whole family went to Carrabba’s for dinner and had a really good food and a nice last night together.  Gigi and Pop Pop and Nini all loved seeing the kids and spending time with them and I loved all of the help as always.  It was very SUNNY (even though a bit colder the rest of the visit) and I really appreciated all of the sunshine.  Chris and I got lots of sleep–we slept in every morning and went to bed between 10 and 11:30 every night.  So we were on West coast time in the morning and east coast time at night.  Being well rested made the return flights bearable.  We flew Dayton to Cinci which was too short of a flight.  Just as Harry and I were falling asleep, we were rudely awoken by the landing.  Then we had to exit the plane and go outside to claim the stroller in the pouring rain.  Needless to say, that was the end of Harry’s nap.  Then we had a  4 1/2 hour flight from Cinci to Seattle.  That is a long flight!!  The girls were pretty good and luckily Harry got an hour and a half nap in thanks to Chris’ dilligence.  I am overwhelmed at all there is to do upon our return, but if I didn’t update this blog Elizabeth was going to fly over from Abu Dhabi and hurt me… so now it’s updated.  But now I need to tackle cleaning my frigerator, and emptying the suitcases, and finding homes for the stuff that has already piled up in the mere 12 hours since we arrived.

Camille dines out

For quite some time now we have been promising to take Camille out for dinner.  She is such a good sport about trying new foods and we wanted to reward her for that.  She likes sushi so we were going to take her out for suishi.  Elyse (our not so adventurous eater) had a birthday party to attend on Sat. from 4-6 so we thought that would be the perfect opportunity.  Unfortunately, the sushi place wasn’t open til 5 and we were afraid that would cut it too close, so Chris decided on Top Gun Asian Seafood instead.  Chris said it got good reviews (whose reviews, I don’t exactly know).  Anyway, we pull in to this place and it is really off the beaten path.  Near the on-ramp to I-405 I think.  I’m skeptical.  But I see Asian people going in so I give it a go.  We get in and are seated, but there’s no sign of them bringing a high chair for Harry.  I cannot immagine how we are going to manage holding Harry and feeding him and ourselves  and Camille without somewhere to put the kid.  Oh, and did I mention there is no silverware, just slippery (not wooden) chopsticks.  Our waiter doesn’t come over for a bit, and just as I’m wondering if we should up and go, Chris spies a high chair.  At this point I’m not sure if I’m happy about this or not.  Although the menu is extensive, I’m not exactly sure what Camille will eat, besides rice, because there’s no California rolls in sight.  Chris orders beef and chinese broccoli and I order a seafood noodle dish, but then flag the waiter down a minute or 2 later to change to Thai style noodles because the people’s at the next table over looks appetizing.  I’m not sure that the waiter understands my request because as I utter the words he is practically running back to the kitchen.  I assume he doesn’t speak English well, but actually he must have had to run back to stop the chef because minutes later out comes our entrees.  Meanwhile, Camille has been sipping her Asian tea.  Camille proceeds to try the beef and broccoli.  Her first bite of beef is so chewey that she can’t tear off a bite sized piece.  We try a different piece.  She LOVES it.  And doesn’t even mention (let alone complain) that the broccoli is not regular broccoli but Chines broccoli–quite different in my opinion.  She eats broccoli, beef, rice with soy sauce, sips her tea, and is a complete delight.  Oh, and we kept asking her if she wanted us to try to get her a fork or spoon, but the little thing was determined to use the chopsticks.  She actually did better than I did with them.  Then, she even tried my spicy thai noodles.  I like spicy food, and was very happy with my entree, but it even made my eyes water.  (Harry let me know later that night that spicy food is not nice to pass on to a nursing baby.)  Anyway, Camille was so great at dinner that we took her to Cold Stone Creamery for dessert.  We were so pleased we will definitely take her out somewhere new again.

No jacket required

I’m probably jinxing myself here, but since I heard rumors of snow this weekend anyway, I figure what have I got to lose.  We have had such beautiful weather here.  (By the way, the post below is by Chris.  That explains the incomplete sentences and misspelled words–oops did I spell “misspelled” correctly?)  Anyway, to expand on his entry, the girls and I started the weekend with hula hooping on the back deck in the warm sunshine.  Then the whole family went for a hike on “Summit Trail” in our neighborhood.  It was about a 1 mile hike up to the top and the girls did awesome.  They commented on how much fun they were having while hiking up.  Then they played in the park at the bottom of the hiking trail (pictured below).  Then I got to take a gorgeous bike ride through yet another new neighborhood.  It still amazes me that after all this time there are still so many nearby places to explore.  The hill climbs were a good challenge and it was great to be back on my bike, especially in January!  That night Chris and I went to his Amazon party at the Museum of Flight in Seattle.  The party was a bit overwhelming because there were so many people.  But luckily we did see a couple we know and had some appetizers and conversation with them for a good part of the party.   Sunday we went to watch Camille sing with her classmates at the Lutheran church where she goes to Pre-k.  Their Christmas concert was cancelled so this was the make-up concert.  They only sang 2 songs though.  Bummer.  Then we all watched the superbowl (which I really enjoyed because it went from 3-6 instead of 6-too late).  West coast time works nicely for the Superbowl.  During the halftime show, the whole family went for a walk to the local grocery in search of 3-D glasses.  No luck in getting the glasses, but we did all get a 2 mile walk in with minimal whining.  That is a big accomplishment for us!
Monday wasn’t sunny, but it was mild and Harry and I took a long walk in the Mercer Slough Nature Park.  He fell asleep, but woke up to see ducks and birds which is awesome because I’m really trying to get him to learn the signs for those and it helps to see real ones instead of just pictures in a book.
Today was so warm I didn’t even wear a jacket.  I went out and raked leaves, hosed off a stand up ball toy for Harry to play with (now if only I could find the ball to go with it), and Camille and I hula hooped some more.  Our back deck is a sunshine mecca.  It’s wonderful on a sunny day. 
With all of the nice weather I decided to try to get the group of ladies from Camille’s school walking again.  We walked a few times in the fall, but then once the holidays arrived they all got busy and the walking group dismantled.  SO, tomorrow we are meeting to hopefully enjoy at least one more nice winter day in Seattle.  Keep your fingers crossed.

One Sunny Day…

A family of 5 (plus one cat) woke up one morning. Groggy yet still amazingly loud for such an early wake up (it was 7:45am) and on a Saturday no less.  The dad hurried to get his soccer cloths together and head out. The rest of the family cried about needing to eat immediately. The dad tried to ignore them. But wait… what is this… Did they install new street lights? Perhaps a series of floodlights. The dad will have to complain to the neighbors. It makes you squint. It hurts your eyes. Birds? Are those birds singing? We must get out and investigate.

One sunny day... At the Park!

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