Work hard, play hard

The last few weeks have been super busy, both with responsibilities and fun activities. Glen has been very productive at work lately, which keeps him late some nights, and my company moved locations in September which has kept me busy too. At the same time, with the generosity of some friends and family, we got the opportunity to do some very cool things too. Last weekend we saw the Huskies beat California in a very exciting football game. Glen's coworker gave us awesome seats about 20 rows back. They're tearing down the stadium after this season, so it was great to be there one last time. Then, we celebrated Gina's 30th birthday by going go-cart racing. Gina is a bit competitive, so she smashed her car into (actually under) the wall on the 2nd lap trying to cut off Chase. She had a badly bruised knuckle and the car needed some cosmetic repair, but we were able to finish the race. I came in last place, but I blame Gina for making me scared to run into a wall! Then we got up the next morning and drove to Vancouver, BC because we were headed to the Pearl Jam concert, with Mudhoney opening. My very cool friends got front row seats and backstage passes. Both bands rocked and it was an amazing concert. And then, a couple days ago, Glen & I celebrated our 4th anniversary! We played it low-key this year considering all the fun things we had done just days before.

Claudia has been loads of fun lately. She does have temper tantrums from time to time, but overall she is such a joy. It is so fun to see her language and sense of humor develop. Claudia is very much like Glen -- clever, quiet when she's concentrating, and talkative when she gets an opening! When I pick her up at daycare, she runs to me and wraps her arm around me in a big hug, so I've nicknamed her Monkey Sue, although she usually corrects me with some rambling version of "I'm Claudia baby big little monkey Sue." Glen & Claudia have the George Orwell game, which I don't really understand, but it involves yelling out "George" and "oh well". Besides being silly, Claudia is working on learning her shapes and letters.

I'm demonstrating the safe way to drive a go-cart.


The winners circle.


At the Husky game.


Claudia refused to take a nap, but then feel asleep on the couch watching a movie. She is a lot like her daddy.

Learning new things

Claudia can be quite literal at times, for example it took her almost a year to master colors, which is an abstract concept. But she is also very imaginative. She likes to pretend to eat a bug, spit it out, and then give it to you. You need to repeat the same back to her. Or she pretends to be asleep (complete with a fake snore) and then you have to kiss her to wake her up. She loves puppets and Glen especially cracks her up doing different voices. Her language has developed so much lately and she is saying new words and expressions daily. She can repeat pretty much anything back, so we had some fun one day and taught her the expression "whoop, there it is" when the song came on the radio. A few weeks ago she surprised us by listing off everyone sitting in the car and then exclaiming, "everybody in the car." I thought it was pretty clever to learn the concept of everyone/everybody. She links lots of words together now, which sometimes don't make sense, like a "big little." I've heard that it's difficult to learn the concept of "and" so we've been working on that and yesterday she said it for the first time. She saw a picture and said "there is boat and whale." And my favorite language development is that she now knows her first, middle, and last name and she knows our names too. She still forgets Glen sometimes, but she definitely knows I'm Amy Banks.

At 2 years and 5 months, I've decided to start phasing out the binkie. I'm kind of a softie, so nothing too drastic, but binkies are now for bedtime, naps, and car rides only. She has quite an overbite, so I want to cut it out completely sometime before she turns 3, although the dentist said not to worry. I introduced Claudia to her the "binkies are for bedtime" rule and she was totally fine with it because she didn't want to be forced to go to bed! She now has 19 of her 20 teeth. Two more molars poked through sometime in the last month. I have to say Claudia is out of the worst of the "terrible 2s" now. The whining has decreased and she no longer has meltdowns after daycare. Although she is now starting to push boundaries and do stall tactics, so maybe it's just a new version of the "twos".

Some of my friends welcomed new babies recently. Heidi & Mike had Avery Ann on August 24th and Christina & Sean had Liam Cohen on August 27th. Congrats guys! I just met Liam last night and Claudia amazingly let me hold him. This is the first baby she has let me get anywhere near. We've done other fun things lately, like going to the beach with our friends Kristi & Rich, attending a Luau party at the Wilkins, and Glen & Emilio going to a Husky football game. The summer sun is sadly dwindling fast, so we're trying hard to squeeze in as much as we can before fall hits.

Having a picnic at North Beach (NW Seattle).


Glen & Claudia eating sand ice cream.


Hanging in the kiddie pool at the Luau.


Eating a Rice Krispie Popsicle. I was very proud of myself for making these. It's dipped in chocolate with sprinkles.


This is how Claudia sleeps. She has all her favorites: Elmo, kitty, baby, and ladybug blankie.

Nana & Poppy visit Seattle

In mid-August, Glen's parents (aka Nana & Poppy) came out to Seattle to visit us for a few weeks! We were so thankful they made the long trek from Australia to see us. Although Claudia doesn't remember Nana's last visit to Seattle when she was a baby, she knows her well from Skype, so she gave her a big hug when she first saw her. And then she got down to business and asked Nana for the "big boots" she had promised. Claudia not only got boots, but a whole suitcase full of clothes and shoes!

We hung around Seattle for a few days and did some touristy activities like the aquarium, Pike Place Market, and Glen took David to his first baseball game. Claudia introduced her grandparents to the "Boo Game" which never gets old (in her mind), so we pretended to be scared a lot. Then we went east to Alta Lake (which Claudia calls the Big House) and enjoyed relaxing and catching up. After that, Glen & I went back to work while Claudia stayed with her grandparents during the day and enjoyed being spoiled with toys, treats, and lots of love.

Now that everyone was reacquainted, we decided to go on a big adventure together... another country... Canada! We're lucky to have family friends who have a vacation house on the Olympic Peninsula, so were stayed there for a long weekend and did a day trip to Victoria, BC via the Port Angeles ferry. Claudia loved running around the ferry saying hi to other kids and we even saw a gray whale. The Coyners were wonderful hosts and took Glen and my dad crabbing and us girls beach combing. Lyn paid them back for their hospitality by smuggling a Cuban cigar back from Canada for Tom. My parents joined us and we all went to the Olympic Game Park in Sequim, which was really neat. You get to drive around this reserve of retired Disney film animals and throw bread at them, so they come right up to your car.

We were all sad to say goodbye, but happy to have spent some quality time together. Time moves quickly these days, so fast forward one year, and we will all be together again. Love you.

Claudia getting ready to go to the airport to pick them up. She was so excited that she forgot a few items of clothing.

A classic pose from Kerry Park showing the Space Needle in the background.


Having a BBQ dinner at the Lake Chelan Winery.


Hanging out on the deck at Alta eating a blue candy.

Running around the gardens of the Empress Hotel in Victoria, BC.

Family photo in front of the fountain.

Taking a break from shopping around the streets of Victoria.

On the Olympic Peninsula, hanging out on the rocky beach. Claudia loved throwing rocks in the water and trying to splash Nana.

Claudia & I kayaking. You can faintly see Mt. Rainer in the background.

On the deck at Tom & Penny's house.


Claudia petting a sheep at the Olympic Game Farm.

David's Pooh Bear, who needs a photo in every country he visits, although (for the record), this is his 2nd trip to America. :-)


In our old stomping ground (Wallingford, Seattle) checking out the boats on Lake Union.

Fun in the Sun

We had a fun July. The weather has been nice and we have been taking advantage of it. We have a lot of good parks around us and Matthew's Beach is especially nice because it has a sandy beach and a playground. Claudia is slowly increasing her comfort level and will now play in the sand with a bucket and shovel and walk around barefoot. She went through an "icky dirt" phase, but she is tolerating it more now. She loves washing her hands, role playing washing herself, and washing her bath baby (a doll that goes in the bathtub).

Whining has been an issue lately, but we made a breakthrough in that she now understands what whining is, so I can ask her to talk in her normal voice instead of whining. I would say she is now officially potty trained for #1 and #2. We haven't had an accident at home in about a month and amazingly, I don't even have to ask her if she needs to go, she just tells me. How great is she? I'm so proud of her. We still do Pull-Ups for naps, long car rides, and of course at nighttime. She knows the difference and if we don't pull the diaper off after naptime, she will say with a smirk on her face "pee-pee pants?" and go right there in the diaper. Just in the last few weeks as well, she has make another turn in her independence. She can now play by herself for a few minutes or be entertained by a DVD for maybe 15 minutes. I know some toddlers are always able to do this, but up until now, she has demanded 100% of my focus during the "grumpy hour" of 5-6pm, which makes it nearly impossible to start dinner, do a simple chore, or even go to the bathroom. So I'm jumping on this new independence and I have convinced her that she is "too heavy" and that I can no longer carry her from the car to the house nor can I stand up and hold her every night while we sing songs. While I miss this snuggle time, my hips have been causing me a lot of pain lately because I just can't support her weight anymore.

We made the trek out for "Alta Lake Week" this year, although we had to cut it short by two days because we needed to get back to work. We still had loads of fun. We got to see the jet ski races in Pateros as part of the Apple Pie Jamboree, play at the lake, play on the deck, and of course do lots of golfing. Claudia even got in some time on the putting green. My parents hosted us wonderfully like always and we got to visit with some of our family friends. Claudia definitely loves "Papa & Grandma's Big House."

Summer has arrived

We had a good rest of June, celebrating Father's Day with lots of good food and a sleep in for Glen, which is a treat for him because he's usually "in charge" of mornings. We've been swimming in our pool several times a week. Claudia likes to sing/play motorboat, complain about bugs and dirt, kick her legs, and throw a ball around in the water. As always, she's not very adventurous, but she does get that mischievous look in her eyes from time to time. She has been pushing her boundaries lately and seeing what she can get away with. She has a lot of demands and she is not shy to whine and cry when she doesn't get what she wants. She is definitely a toddler. The positive side is that her language is getting so much better. She is saying new words every day. She has been saying, unprompted, "thank you" and sometimes even "I love you" or "please", so that is really fun. Of course she will not talk at all around strangers and needs a big warm up a period with friends and extended family. She also got a new molar in, so she only has 3 more teeth to go before she gets her full set of 20 baby teeth.

We went out to Alta for the 4th of July weekend with Neely & Emilio. We were all golfing well and the weather was a perfect 80 degrees and sunny, so that was fun. We're looking forward to going out again in July with Grandma & Papa. Glen & I both celebrated our birthdays; we're both now 30-something. Claudia is super interested in birthdays and parties. She can sing "Happy Birthday" and she talks about party dresses, cake, and blowing out candles.

Finally able to break out the shorts.


And the summer food (corn!)


Playing with Auntie Nee-nee.


Grandma got a new kiddie pool for Claudia.


Splashing around the big deck.


My big girl can still squeeze into the baby bucket.


Feeding Neely a birthday cupcake while wearing a cupcake hat!


Now Claudia's turn to eat.

Talking

Claudia loves toast. She likes cheese toast (cream cheese), peanut butter toast, jam toast, butter toast, and even Vegemite toast. I bribe her with candy so that she will sit still to get dressed and have her hair done, so she likes to say "I love candy," "I need two candies," and "I love lollies." She is getting better with her numbers and can count to ten unassisted although she usually cheats and says "1, 2, 3... 8, 9, 10." She is quite interested in parties lately and is always telling me that she needs a party or that she needs to wear a party dress. We went to her friend's 2nd birthday about a month ago and ever since then she has been talking all about Hadley, referring to the gift she gave her, her party, or that she wants to visit her house. She has only met Hadley a couple of times, so it's pretty cute that she's latched onto her (in thought).

Overall, we've been having a lot of fun with Claudia and enjoying hearing her thoughts on the world even if they're mostly demands. She does whine a lot now, so I hope that phase ends soon and her regular voice comes through more. Her favorite word is "big" and she also likes the number 2. She calls Glen "big daddy" and tells us she needs a big house. Sometimes she needs two big houses. She is usually pretty girly, but has a current interest in one boy in her class, so she likes to follow him around and mimic him. So she now knows how to make monster/dinosaur noises, but she still won't play in the dirt. She has been very loveable lately and likes to give all kinds of kisses and hugs. Her favorite varieties are big and baby (little), but she also gives cheek, Eskimo (nose), and butterfly kisses (eyelashes).

Playing in Grandpa & Grandma's backyard.


Having a tea party on the Alta deck.


And splashing around.


Our condo's pool opened for the season.


It was a bit overcast, so Claudia needed her leg warmers. :-)

Potty Training

Claudia has officially started potty training. She now wears underwear to daycare and sits on the potty regularly. She still does some diapers (naps, nighttime) and we've had some accidents, but she definitely understands and wants to do it, so we will get there soon!

For Mother's Day weekend, we went out to Alta Lake with our friends the Hsis who have twin 1-year-olds. The three toddlers played well together and we got to enjoy the wide open spaces. Claudia and I "golfed" 9 holes with Glen and even though she was a little scared of the golf cart, she still enjoyed running onto the greens and rolling her ball around. Every time Glen did a practice swing she would yell "almost!" I was also treated to a dinner out in Wenatchee and a new Keurig coffee maker as a gift, so I was spoiled this year. Glen has been working a lot lately (boo), but Claudia & I have been out enjoying the sunshine whenever we can. We went to the Syttende Mai (17th of May) parade in Ballard, which celebrates Norwegian Constitution Day, with Auntie Neely & Emilio. We have also been going with friends or by ourselves stroller walking or to the park. Claudia is shy to interact with other kids and is very non-competitive, so she doesn't like the jungle gyms with the slides as much anymore (unless it's completely empty), so we stick mostly to the swings.

On the potty.


Walking to Alta Lake.


Grandma's trike was popular.


Daddy teaching Claudia to putt.


In the hole!


Dancing machine: