November Post

It's December already!? December's a great month! Christmas, the lead-up to Christmas, 2nd Anniversary, my BIRTHDAY! It's a big one! (no it's not)

But November was great too. Let's talk about it. 

These kids are still total goofy goobers.

And the deck is DONE!! Ok, it's not 100% done, we still need steps and lattice and sealing, but we're at a really good stopping place. I just want a few months of family weekends and a few months of not spending a single cent on that beautiful wooden structure attached to our house. 

The finishing touch before stopping, Brian built these lovely gates. So much prettier and easier than baby gates.

Popsicles and "love taps." It was way too cold for popsicles. Behind the camera I had my hoodie on, but they insisted.

We threw a deck warming party (!!) that happened to fall on Everett's half birthday, so I thought we should celebrate that a little during the party. Partly because I had some great ideas of ways to celebrate (half cupcakes, 4.5 balloons, guests bringing jokes as gifts) and partly because he had been denying that he was four-and-a-half and telling people he was just FOUR, which I thought might get a bit confusing if he approached five and was still demanding that he was just four.

Our new "lawn"--please stay with us leaves so we don't have to go back to dirt!

And our driveway, which isn't too great for party parking.

It was a wonderful party. Whenever we get our friends together, I'm overwhelmed by how lucky we are to have all these awesome people in our lives. I think we found the best people in Atascadero. I mean, I'm always willing to meet new people. But I'm pretty sure we already found the best ones.

Not surprisingly, the best people have the best kids. They all had a blast playing inside and out.

The next day I asked Everett if he had fun at the party, I was sure he had, but he stuck out his bottom lip and said, "but nobody was staying!" He can be shy sometimes, but he's definitely an extrovert. He said he'd like to have his friends here "all day and night" and I believe him.

After the guests left, the spoiled, half-birthday-boy got to sit on the counter and eat cupcakes. He was in heaven.

We went to Albertsons to use the CoinStar, and when we came out feeling flush with cash, I let the kids ride as many times as they'd like (I mean, until I got tired and wanted to go home for lunch).

Grandpa George and Grandma Kathie went on a trip, and we got to babysit the Monarchs. It's always exciting to watch them change, no matter how many times you see it.

I've been trying to get a good picture of them together, but it's so hard! Too bad I was in the wrong position for this first one.

We went to a birthday party where the favors were umbrellas and fabric markers to color on them with. Crafty, shiny fun.

We decided we wanted to take a trip to the Santa Barbara Zoo during Brian's time off, and we asked my parents to join us. Luckily, they were available! Fun to share a favorite place with family. We all rode down together in my parents' mini van. Everett was VERY excited.

Everett telling jokes to the grands.

And Buttercup, the 2-week-old baby giraffe.

This was an amazing experience. The gorilla was napping by the glass. To see his giant hands and human-like ears super up-close. It was incredible.

Everett's favorite spot in the zoo this time, the Ewww exhibit. Bugs, spiders, snakes, lizards, etc.

Everett wanted nothing to do with the train this time, so we took our family photo out front. Everett was beyond tired by this point. Poor guy.

My in-laws commissioned this painting a good long time ago, and with some frantic last minute painting, I had it done in time for Thanksgiving! Second picture for size reference.

Everett has been really into writing lately, so he wrote place cards for everyone spending Thanksgiving with us.  The night before, he wrote a note for Grandma Gion to remind her not to set the table until he found enough pine cones.

Katie and Michael came for the holiday! And we get to see Katie at Christmas too! Yesterday Everett said, "I really like my aunt."

The Grandpas marveling over technology. I think Phil was asking Siri a joke.

The food was amazing, of course. Lydia had a long nap and woke right as we were sitting down to eat. She perked up half way through the meal and gorged on mac and cheese. 

Lydia's sweet, little scribbles. She'll often say "bee!" Is she drawing bugs? 

Everett added something to the shopping list. Ha! Yes, he's been really into writing lately. He has to ask for a lot of help with spelling, but he knows the letters that go with most sounds, if you work with him slowly and patiently.

Hand in hand with writing, he's been READING! The first time he did a lot of reading at bedtime, I was floored! It totally snuck up on me. I was expecting a slow progression to reading, but it seemed like, all of a sudden, he was reading full words and big chunks of words. I mentioned this to his teacher, and she said this was totally normal after all the letter and sound work they've done over these many months. 

Watching him learn to read and write is even more amazing than I'd imagined. 

Posted on Facebook:

Everett: eenie beady miney mo, catch a fire by the toe, ashes ashes, and mom picks the best one you've ever seen!

We've moved beyond me helping with Everett's Lego sets to Everett giving me tasks to complete on the Lego set. He tells me I'm helping, but I'm not buying it.

December's going to be a fun month!! 

October Post

It's October blog time!!

It's been a pretty mellow month. We spent a lot of free time painting wire and building the deck railing. Fun (if terribly tedious) for me to get involved with the deck. Add in the obligatory October festivities, and that was our month!

Everett's friend Henry got E. coli and was in the hospital for SIX WEEKS!! We thought about him a whole lot while he was gone. Everett made this card for him (with Gion's help). When Henry got home, we had to coach Everett on what to say to him. "I'm so happy you're feeling better." Not "next time you should wash your hands before you eat." Haha. I guess he actually has been listening to our warnings about germs. Even if he doesn't understand E. coli.

We're loving our music class more and more each week! Lydia participates more every week. Everett pretends to be bored on Saturdays, but when he has music during preschool (with the same teacher--Janna), it sounds like he participates more and his practice on Saturdays has made him much more familiar with the music and motions.

Frank came to visit! We went to Cambria to see the the scarecrows. While we were there, sort of a dance "flash mob" happened. The music was Kesha's Timber, which Everett knows and couldn't help dancing too.

Lydia isn't talking much, which is throwing us for a loop since Everett was SUCH an early talker. I was watching videos, and the things he was saying at 20 months! Crazy. But she's still within normal range for her age, and we know she's working on all sorts of other skills. Words aren't her priority. She seems to understand almost everything. She can follow complex directions. She's great at mimicking everything anyone does. She's skilled physically. She can jump and throw and she's quickly developing her social skills. She's getting so much better with babies, very gentle.

When Everett was Lydia's age, he woke up early (4:30/5:00?), which I didn't love, but he would watch Sesame Street while I dozed on the couch. Lydia wakes a bit later but won't watch TV for long. She demands a banana (which she hasn't been eating, so now we give her a tiny apple). She demands water. And she keeps going to the bedrooms to try to wake up Brian and Everett. It's not restful. And yet I keep trying to rest.

This illustrates a big difference in their personalities. He was content to watch Sesame Street and absorb what those muppets were teaching him. Lydia needs to be moving and doing and DEMANDING fruit! Their personalities are both wonderful, just different. 

I feel like I haven't mentioned what Everett's been learning for months! Things go slower as they get older. But lately, he's been learning so much so quickly it's blowing me away! He often points out rhymes or makes rhymes himself. He likes to talk about opposites. One night after dinner, we played a game where one of us said a word and the other had to say the opposite and then we switched. We played for a long time, and he was SO GOOD! Afterward we took out my copy of OppBULLsites (OpuesTOROS) and read through it. He's also been recognizing more words. And he's really good at sounding out words. He's sounding out words!! He's getting so close to reading it's amazing.

He taught himself to whistle! We kept telling him to keep trying, but we weren't sure he'd actually be able to do it. But he figured it out! First it was really soft, but now he can get pretty loud!

And he's started to draw a lot lately! He's never been particularly interested in art or drawing, and I would be so surprised when I would see drawings of people and recognizable objects done by 4-year-olds when Everett could do barely more than a scribble. But he's gotten really interested in drawing "plans" and "inventions" just in the last month or two, and he's been doing some cool drawings!

pictures above: kids enjoying caramel apples. Everett kept bringing up caramel apples, so Phil and Gion bought us all the ingredients from the pumpkin batch. MMmmmmm.

Above is a paraglider, a hot air balloon invention, and a wolf saving invention. Also, a robot. Of course, all his invention names end in "-anator 3000." Or something like that. "Paraglidanator 5000." Phineas and Ferb reference. 

We visited my parents at Open Studios. Taking pictures with kids can be hard sometimes.

I bragged about Everett's language, arts, and whistling skills earlier, but he's already pretty fantastic with numbers too! And he's so lucky to have a dad who enjoys teaching math tricks at the dinner table.

Above: Everett singing songs from music class at home, our deck is almost done! And Lydia is such a daddy's girl, it's hard for Brian to get work done on it, Everett got a new iPod (new to him) for listening to audiobooks, and the kids went to the doctor's for their flu shots.

We love Fall and playing in the leaves!

I mentioned before that Lydia is a daddy's girl. I feel weird saying that since I know it's an over simplification, but she wants to be with him all the time. When he's home, she wants him to be holding her. A few times, he's offered to make dinner or breakfast, but I ended up doing the whole meal because her whining and crying made it impossible. She still prefers me at bedtime and during the cuddle/lullaby section of music class.

We went to Colony Days! We met Gion, Ann, and the Hunters, but we also met my parents there!! They hadn't gone in YEARS because they were busy with Open Studios. This year, they opted only to do the first weekend. Fun for us!

I've been taking the kids to library story time on Mondays. They love it. Especially when they get to see some familiar art! (my Dad's)

Pretty much the extent of our Halloween decorations. And Lydia's kissy face.

It was still warm enough in October to eat popsicles!

Everett's preschool had a back to school night. It was busy, and Everett was a bit overwhelmed at first, but eventually he warmed up. He showed us the solar system model. He placed all the planets in order, and he actually placed all the labels without having them read to him. Amazing!

Yay!! More deck pics! It's almost done and totally functional!

The kids eating lunch on the deck. Aw. It's the best!

Everett (when we picked him up from preschool): let's just go home and make art on the deck.

We got to celebrate Grandpa Phil's birthday at AJ Spurs again this year. It was lovely. Everett ate ribs and dessert. Lydia ate EVERYTHING! Three helpings of soup, cucumbers from everyone's salad, carrots, croutons, rice pilaf, bread, meat from everyone, dessert. Brian accused me of starving her all day. I promise I didn't!! She's probably going to grow three inches!

We had a Halloween themed DECK warming play date!! It was so awesome to open the space up and play inside and out at the same time! Plus there were cute kids running around in costumes and yummy food! It was a great morning! Above I made a comparison of Everett at 17 months and Lydia at 20 months wearing the bird costume. Everett's second Halloween costume.

Everett and Lydia were a park ranger and a bear for Halloween. So cute!! My in-laws brought the two hats and the junior ranger's badge back from Yosemite. Then I collected a few things and did some light DIY. It was great. I was in the mood for a simple Halloween. Sorry for all the pictures! I just couldn't eliminate any of them. They're all so cute in different, funny ways!

The traditional "walking down San Pedro" photo. This time with Lydia!!

We caught the very end of the preschool carnival, then we went to San Pedro, saw Grandma and Grandpa, went trick or treating around their neighborhood (we started finding people home as we got closer to Traffic Way), then came back to San Pedro as it started to rain. We ate chili and enjoyed the RAIN!! It was lovely and perfect. The kids didn't mind at all that we didn't go back out after dinner. Older kids would have for sure.

I didn't get a picture of her holding her bucket up as they said "trick or treat." It was so sweet. She's already a pro!!