Lovely November

What a fun month we've had so far and it's only half way through!

We spent Veterans Day morning down in Mukelltio. We had an awesome time throwing rocks, exploring the lighthouse, watching the ferry dock, and of course train scouting. Colter had the perfect train scouting position.. you'll see in the pictures to come.

After our time at the beach, we stopped for lunch at Paine Field and watched the airplanes take off and land. 

For family dinner this week, we tried out a new Chicago style eatery in Ballard. We ordered deep dish piza and while it wasn't exactly like Chicago, it was pretty darn amazing.

                                       

We're still going strong with our date night swap. Last week we went to Fremont and ate dessert at Simply Desserts and played cards. I haven't been there since the night we got engaged.. memories!

I hosted the annual apple/pumpkin ladies night. It was so glorious to spend the evening with most of my closest friends, eating amazing things!

Colter and Ben went on a special date to Edmonds and got the super bonus of going into the railroad club train room that just happened to be open!

My friend Jackie and I took the kids to see Caspar Babypants. If you had to guess, did Colter love the music or want to leave?

I love every season in Seattle. It's such a blessing to live in such a fun city!

October fun continues

I am now in the land of smart phone users, so I have been taking a bunch more pictures! I love the ease of using the camera phone, compared to bringing along a separate camera. We had a great month!

Jessica & I hosted a Halloween part for the kids. She's an amazing host/party planner, so it was fun to join forces! The kids had a great time.

Pumpkin carving with little kids makes me laugh. I always have these visions of starting and finishing the pumpkins together, but it always ends up poor Ben by himself. Colter lasted about .5 seconds until he decided pumpkin guts are still nasty. Madison was super tired and in bed by 6. I have no attention span for detail oriented projects, so there sat Ben, finishing up the awesome Thomas the train pumpkin. Some year we'll finish a pumpkin together!

                                       

On Halloween, we went and visited Ben at his work. We happened to show up right when his building was hosting a Halloween trick or treat for kids. The kiddos scored a bunch of fun trinkets.

                                   

The train conductor had some important calls to make

                                   

 At night we joined forces with the Heavilands and Wornicks for some yummy Boo-rritos at Chiptole and trick or treating around our neighborhood.

 

The leaves on the trees have turned so many beautiful colors. It's amazing to me how one day a tree can be full of brilliant shades, and the next day totally bare.

Happy Fall!

The kids lately

Colter

What a wonder it is to watch this little boy grow and change before my eyes.

He's sleeping in a big boy bed and doing awesome. This transition has gone WAY smoother than I thought it would.. he's done a great job obeying when I ask him to stay in his bed for nap.

He is totally ready to be potty trained, we just haven't done it yet. He loves to wear his Thomas underwear around and will go pee any time we put him on the toilet.

                                  

His memory is incredible. He repeats huge sections from books all the time. Most of his imaginary play is acting out various scenes from books. We'll read a library book 3 or 4 times and he can recite most of it.


                                                  
This video is him acting out a scene from the book "Goodnight Gorilla" where a bunch of animals follow the zoo keeper home from the zoo and go to sleep in his room. These are the animals saying good night.



This next video is a section of the book truck talk



                                     

His strong willed temperament still challenges us regularly, but I've seen so many improvements in his spirit recently. We are having many more positive transitions from activities, a lot more verbalization of his feelings and what is upsetting him/making him sad, and just an overall greater sense of calm. A HUGE blessing.

                                                
He's still absolutely obsessed with signal lights, crossings, trains, diggers/construction sites, and the mighty machines dvd. He loves to climb any chance he gets.

                                

                                

                                           

His imaginary play is so fun to watch.. taking his animals on a carousel ride at the zoo, playing restaurant in a fort in the couch where he makes me "pumpkin spiced chai" (they are ALWAYS listening), driving the conductor to the hospital because they're sick, having concerts where the crowd always requests John Jacob or EDMONDS, shoveling coal (bark) to get the train running. His mind is always playing out different stories.

                                          

He makes me smile on a daily basis with things he says. Some thing recently that I remember are:

 "I want to play all DAY MOMMY!" (He has been randomly shouting this in a whiny voice to anyone ... but he still says mommy)
"This one is probably the hooker." (about a toy tow truck)
It was a beautiful day outside and I told him we HAD to get outside. He said "Because it's so GORGEOUS outside!"
"The pumpkin will tell us where the samples are." (He's obsessed with Whole Foods samples & their race cars)



Miss Maddie Paddie, as I call her often, functions in two modes: happy and more happy. She pretty much never cries unless she's tired or hungry. She's patient, interested in others, and her eyes sparkle. She makes me tear up regularly because she's so sweet.

                                                 
I can't wait to see the kind of girl she becomes. She is so interested in people. I got the fun chance to take her to a little gym class and she could not get enough of the other kids.. shrieking, clapping, and so so happy.

                                                

Some of her favorite things are a brown puppet, fish tanks, balloons, animals, people, Harper, playing band/listening to music, instruments, bath time, cars, train tracks, standing up at activity table, and chewing on random objects.



                                               

She talks all the time and can mimic a lot of sounds- mama, dada, and something that sounds like baby. She will copy raspberry & blowing noises.

                                             

Not super close to crawling, but she can scootch backwards really quickly and get where she wants to by rolling, and turning around while sitting up.

                                                     

                                        
She's getting better at standing on her own, but she's still pretty wobbly!

                                           

She eats like a champ.. still loving the chunky foods... never ended up doing any purees. Favorite foods are broccoli, bananas, pears, carrots, bread, sweet potatoes, and of course puffs! She seems to get cranky after dairy so i'm not sure if she has a sensitivity or not. We've given her pancakes and waffles that have eggs in them and she didn't seem to react, so I think we're in the clear with any egg allergy.

                                                  
I forgot to edit down this video before uploading it, so excuse its length!



Her sleep has improved dramatically! We are finally working out a 2 nap schedule, at 9 and 1. Her 9 am nap is usually 30 min. or at most an hour, but her afternoon nap is usually up to 3 hours! It's hard to keep her awake more than 2 hours at a time.. this little lady likes sleep! She's an early riser and the time change did not help one bit! She's up normally between 5:45/6:15 right now and usually asleep by 6:30. She tends to get up once in the night around 2 or 3.

She popped out her two bottom teeth at the beginning of October and started clapping shortly after. Any time she's excited or hears music she claps.

                                          
I'm a blessed mom.