Technical difficulties

Ugh. In an attempt to free up storage on Picasa (a service I didn't know we even used before being told our storage was full) I managed to delete 99% of the photos from the blog with no way to restore them that I can figure out. I'm angry and sad. We do have all of the photos on our computer as well, but the blog has been our kids babybook and now it's ruined. I feel very foolish. So now I'm trying to re-create most of this in a hard copy format and it's tedious and sad to see what I ruined.

I'm not sure if we'll try to keep going or restart or what. Stay tuned and we'll let you know.

Apple Orchard

In case anyone was wondering if we were all still alive after our last posting. Indeed we are and things have settled down just a tad. 

We make the trek again this year to Sedro Wooley Washington. Even though Washington is the place to be for growing apples, there is a lack of places close to Seattle to pick apples. So we drove.

We had great weather last year, but we didn't get quite so lucky this year. It was cold and rainy, but we donned the rain gear like true Pacific Northwesterners and braved the mud. We had a fantastic time again this year. 

Here's a re-run of our trip last year.

 And now for the muddier 2012 version. 

We got soaked picking apples and then got soaked again on our tractor ride. Good thing that everyone was in good spirits and the weather brightened a bit. We finally retired to the barn area and Erin went through the haunted house this year. She told me it wasn't scary, but I'm pretty sure she ran through it with her eyes closed.

This may have been the most junk food Erin has ever been allowed to eat. My stomach still aches just thinking it.

Wow

Nora and Erin are giving us a run for our money.

Nora is coming into her own and asserting her independence constantly. Even as her vocabulary is expanding daily, she's frustrated by the things that she can't communicate and the things that we don't understand. She also continues to have a very short fuse and this all of this conflict is leading to a lot of tantrums. She's still working on ways to handle her frustration without hitting, biting, kicking or pulling hair. Realistically, she's got a ways to go. She's also of the awkward age when she needs two naps, but only will take one. And as I know that this is all totally appropriate for her age, but it's exhausting and I'm ready to move on.

She spends her day spitting out food, throwing food on the floor, throwing herself on the floor screaming, stealing toys, biting, and hitting. It's not that she doesn't have good times. She does better when Erin is at school. When she's happy, she's affectionate and funny. She loves to imitate us and wants to do all of the things that Erin is doing. She sings and chatters and plays with her farm animals. She loves to watch cars and trucks out the window. She packs up bags and waves "adios!" She can be absolutely delightful, but we're seeing so much of the other side that it's been really tough.

Erin is thriving at Zoom. She loves her teachers and seems to be getting along well with most of her classmates. She chatters constantly in Spanish and is starting to move from just saying nouns, to putting together full sentences. I knew it wouldn't take long, but she officially knows more Spanish that me. She's finally getting excited again about her numbers and letters. She showed me last week how to write a 5, "una linea aqui, una linea abajo y una panza." A line here, a line down and a belly!

On the flip side, she has been sick and whiny this last week. She's tired, but not sleeping well. On Saturday night she woke up every few hours and called out to me. Sometimes she needed something: a drink of water or a trip to the bathroom. But when she woke me at 4:30am, she called urgently, "MOM!" I rushed out to her bed and she asked me "do you think that it's going to rain today?" ARGH!!!

She's seems restless and unsettled. She wants an adult to play with her all day. When she can't have our attention by playing, she picks at Nora and instigates some of Nora's worst behavior. 

Like I said, Matt and I are needing an extra dose of patience these days. Unfortunately we've been struck by the sudden onset of the gloomy, rainy days here and are feeling blah ourselves. 

We are all in need of a dose of contentment these days. I'm hoping that getting out and about more this week will help.

Happy October

I feel like I am finally coming up for air. 

I worked too much in the last 2 weeks while Jan and Dean were here. Granted, that's why they chose to come now, but I missed out on time with them and the kids. Now I've got more time, but they're gone and we're trying to get back to our normal routine. 

The kids had a great time with Jan and Dean. Jan patiently played bear, or bird or Ma or whatever other role she was given. Dean played with Nora, wrestled with Erin and fetched us treats at a moments notice. Matt and I were relieved of almost all parenting duties and appreciated all of the cooking, cleaning, playing, laundry and entertainment that happened without us while they were here. We are very lucky.

Nora is learning new words almost every day. This weekend she mastered "Nora" and "baby." Her favorite word is "wow," and we wake up daily to her saying, "Wow, wow, wow. Dada. Mama. Wow!" I'm pretty sure her vocabulary is bigger than Erin's was at this age, which worries me. We may never have another quiet moment in this house once she really gets going.

We're also in the painful transition from two to one naps with Nora. She still could use two, but won't take both. Last week we gave up and had her go to just one afternoon nap. Some days she does ok, but lots of days it just a really short nap which leaves her rather short tempered by the end of the day. Today we got only 45 minutes in the afternoon. Early to bed for this one today. 

Erin is starting to really love Zoom. She babbles in Spanish day and night. The other night at 2:30am she started counting in Spanish. She started at uno and got to treinta y neuve, but didn't know cuarenta. So she just started back at viente and kept on counting. She got from treinta y neuve to viente about 6 times before I finally went out to quiet her down. She seems to like the other kids at school, but I feel a little out of the loop since the teachers don't spend much time talking to the parents. Oh, and Jan and Dean were on drop-off and pick-up duty for the last 2 weeks so I was even more out of it. 

Erin is also doing swimming lessons and gymnastics this fall. The swimming is less of a hit than it was last winter, but she's warming up to it. She spends a lot of time negotiating with her teacher about what she'll do (no to face in the water, maybe to jumping into the pool). She loves gymnastics and is very enthusiastic (sometimes too enthusiastic) about participating. Her favorite is the foam pit that they jump in. 

Reading herself is finally on the radar. They've been doing a lot of letters and numbers at school and  Erin told me last week that she'd like to learn to read a chapter book. Trouble is she doesn't seem to want to do the little steps needed to learn to read a chapter book, but we're making progress.

Erin is still enjoying the little house books and is adopting some of the language she hears in the books. When Jan was combing her hair last week she must have hit a snarl and Erin told her "it hurts dreadfully."

We were in Portland last weekend for the Portland Marathon. Matt ran a great race and finished 30 minutes faster than his last marathon (and only a few minutes off his PR). It was a fun whirlwind visit and we reveled in the sunshine and the warm weather. I feel like our days of sun are limited so we'd better enjoy every last minute.

Mt Rainier

There are some things that are awesome about living in the Pacific Northwest. It's crazy to say that I lived for 18 years in Portland and have lived in Seattle for 14 months and haven't visited Mt Rainer yet. It was amazing. We drove with Jan and Dean and the kids this morning and spent the day exploring and doing little hikes and then headed home in time for dinner. Why haven't we done this before?

It started off a little reminiscent of our last outdoor adventure with cool, cloudy weather. 

Erin loved exploring the trees and the lush, damp forest. Her favorite part was the circa 1870 log cabin in the woods.

Up at Paradise, the sun was out and it was considerably warmer and we took another short hike. Matt got to wear Nora to keep her from pulling my hair. She's brutal.

Grandpa and Erin discussing the vistas and the altimeter. 

Erin checking out the flora (Matt taught her flora vs fauna).

 Matt, Nora and Mt Rainer

The Myrtle Falls.

 Silly Erin and silly Grandma

Silly Erin and Jan and Dean

Nora in the pack, "cold." She also now says Grandpa, sit, Erin, truck, si, agua, bye-bye and banana. The girl is still full of personality. 

Matt on his throne. Too bad we still don't feel the need to worship him. 

Our day was great. We did have a little scare with Erin when she tripped and fell head first into a boulder and split her scalp open. LOTS of blood, but the cut was small and didn't need anything to keep it closed. The trauma was mostly solved with ice cream and but she did ask me later why I made her trip into the rock. What? I have a feeling I'm going to come out the villain in this story as she tells everyone what happened. Ah four year olds and magical thinking. What is truth really?

First Day of School

Last year was such a whirlwind that we just started preschool without much fan fair. This year, we've talked about it for weeks and actually got a first day of school picture. Wow. We'll see how long I can keep up this "good mommy" charade. 

Erin is starting at Zoom, a Spanish immersion preschool  (or "Spanish emergency preschool" according to Erin) near our house. She did a camp there this summer and had a great time. Her Spanish skills are really taking off and soon will be way more advanced than me, although for now I still win because I understand the concept of conjugating a verb and sentence structure, however, my days are limited. 

We're trying out afternoon preschool this year because that's what was available. I'm still bracing for disaster with no naps.

Erin is very into the Little House on the Prairie books. We've read several, listened to them in the car, cut out the paper dolls and played "Laura and Mary" at home. Interestingly, Erin always chooses to be Mary and then other characters are assigned (Nora is usually Pa) but often times Laura is forgotten. Today I made her a prairie skirt and apron. They turned out pretty cute considering I had not patterns and have only a very basic understanding of how to put in an elastic waist (turns out I did it wrong, better luck next time). 

Nora is getting bigger and bigger. At some point recently she stopped being a baby and is now very much an independent little girl. She loves to do things for herself. She can feed herself her whole bowl of oatmeal with a spoon. She does great with a real cup or water bottle. She loves shoes and will bring a pair to one of us to put on first thing in the morning. Her vocabulary is expanding (including a few Spanish words) and she's picked up a few new signs (please and thank you). She is still quick to get frustrated, but is doing less biting these days. She is much friendlier with everyone and likes to wave at everyone regardless of whether they are paying attention. She likes to pretend to be a kitty and crawl around meowing. All in all, she's a very funny little girl who gives us lots of laughs.

Camp Disappointment

 

Yikes. I got behind. Again. So we'll start with the most recent and work backwards. Eventually I'll catch up.

We went camping last weekend at Camp Disappointment State Park. It's located on a peninsula at the mouth of the Columbia River. It was a bit of a hike to get there, but a very cool spot and the kids had a blast. It was a beautiful weekend in Seattle and the weather looked good for camping as well. We headed out on Sunday morning. It was a gorgeous drive down along the coast and was sunny until we hit Ilwaco, about 3 miles from the camp site and then we were hit with dense fog and high winds. Apparently the peninsula has it's own weather.

We got out of the car and immediately had to put on fleeces and sweatshirts... it was not warm.

 We went to check out the surroundings. Mom wonders "Is there a reason it's called Camp Disappointment?" Only Nora seems entirely unfazed.

 As a child of the Northwest, I should never had expected sun and mild weather at the beach. Erin and Nora were happy with the sand regardless of the temperature. 

The views are spectacular there, but this was all we could see when we got there ... fog. Like I said, the kids didn't seem to mind the weather. Erin found a driftwood house. Nora rediscovered how much she likes (to eat) sand.

 We made it back from the beach and set up camp. Nora was particularly fond of exploring our campsite and telling us she was "cold." We found a few short hikes in the park. The first took us to the North Lighthouse which was the first lighthouse on the pacific coast.

The second little hike took us on the bay side of the peninsula and through some old growth forests with some HUGE sitka spruce.

 Erin was pretending to be a bear in her den.

 We were looking at different types of pine cones. Even Nora thought it was interesting. 

Erin crashed for a nap and Nora and I drove to Astoria to get her a nap. She's amazing. She won't fall asleep with other people around except in the car. And when she sleeps in the car, you'd better plan to drive the whole time because the moment the car stops, she's wide awake. Stinker.

Luckily the weather improved some after nap time and we got to enjoy some sunshine and enjoy the views on the beach. Note that our fleeces are still on because it was still only 60 and VERY windy, but at least we got the use the beach toys. 

 Back at camp for dinner we were treated to some of Nora's best silly faces.

We enjoyed a tasty dinner of hot dogs, potato salad, carrots, grapes and lemonade followed by some very tasty s'mores. We got Nora to bed around 8:00 without too much fussing and Erin followed at about 9:00. Unfortunately Nora woke back up at 9:30, but by 10:15 we were all snoozing.

The weather on Monday was a repeat of earlier Sunday. Foggy, cold and misty. Luckily the wind had died down so we did a little exploring after breakfast. We walked out on the North Jetty and saw the fishermen, the pelicans dive and a few ships in the distance.

 Just to prove that Matt was there. He was the photographer all weekend. What a treat!

Lessons learned from our solo camping trip:

1. Bring more warm clothes than you think you'll need..
2.  Ditto number 1 and not just for the kids.
3. The solar lantern only works if you remember to charge it during the day.
4. Nora is officially an 1:1.
5. We're not ready to do any real cooking because of #5.
6. Although I felt like we brought SO much stuff, in comparison to several of our camping neighbors we were minimalists.
7. Bring/buy more wood.
8. Somehow 36 hours of camping requires several days planning and several more to recoup. We're exhausted!
9. It's hard for a 4 year old to understand why we can't just take all the cool things we find home. Strangely I remember trying to learn this same lesson when I was 4 in Yellowstone.

PS. Just because I may forget to include this elsewhere, Nora is saying a lot more words. She's still spotty about using the ones that she knows, but she's always good for animal noises. She's 15 months old in a few days and here is her list of words: All done (done), cold, ball, bowl, shoe, nonono, Mama, that, hi, car, milk, rock and good. She'll also make animal noises for: crow, dog, cat, cow, horse, elephant, lion and owl. She has learned to play "kitty," from Erin and the cousins. In REI the other day she refused to be carried and wanted to crawl around the store meowing. She still has a temper and is easily frustrated by things, but also loves to get snuggles, give kisses and read books. She's still a total ham for us and loves to play silly games and make silly faces. And unfortunately she still bites and pulls hair, but I think it's getting better. Gotta love our little biter.