Happy Thanksgiving

Turkey day is here. Auntie Nichole came 'home' for the weekend. We had our typical low-key family dinner. Just a quiet day around the house, except for Alex's piano recital.

Pike Place Market

Rain? What rain? You must know by now that won't stop us! Today was Seattle shopping day. We headed up to the Market for fruit, flowers and crafts. Once we convinced Alex that pushing the stroller through the crowds wasn't in the plans, we all had a fun time. Of course there were fruit samples, and flying fish. But Alex and my favorite was the mini donuts! Yum. Before I had even paid for them, he was pulling them out of the bag. Then he saw the famous Brass Pig and ran up to it, put his hand on its back and waited for his photo op! You'll notice he didn't let go of his donut. For lunch Alex had a ham and corn humbow from the little Chinese shop, which he ate overlooking Puget Sound, watching the ferries. Next we headed down to the Waterfront and while Zachary and I stayed behind, Alex and Phil went in search of the carousel. Apparently it spins faster than any Alex had been on before, but I think he had fun. Then they played games at the arcade and Alex won his first arcade ticket playing a disco dance game. We all met up again to get chowder at Ivar's. Yum. Lastly, as the boys slept, we drove around our old neighborhood checking out the changes and the things that have stayed the same. It was a long, fun, tasty day!

First Flight

Today was the day I've long thought would be crazy. We took 2 lap babies on an airplane. On the plus side, having them both be lap babies meant we only had to pay for two tickets. Next time, Alex will probably be 2 and we'll have to buy him a seat too. As is our routine, we planned to take the bus to the airport. A bus schedule reading error caused us a bit of stress, as we didn't actually get on the road until an hour before our flight. Yikes! Some deep breathing exercises and short lines at the airport kept the stress level resonable. The flight wasn't full, so we ended up with 6 seats all to ourselves.
This was Zachary's first flight. He was perfect! As we were going down the runway, he was drifting off to sleep, but as the wheels started to go up, his eyes flew wide, wide open! Then he smiled at me and slept for the rest of the trip!
Alex has flown before, but this was the first time that he was interested in what was happening outside the window. He had fun looking at the cities far below and spent some time coloring too. On the way out, he got to peek in at the cockpit.

All about Zachary

Yesterday was Zachary's 4 month birthday! His checkup is later this week, hopefully we won't get in trouble with his doctor for some of our recent decisions. ;)
One of our playgroup friends offered us the use of this little Bumbo chair. I'm not sure how I feel about the chairs in general, but I know how Zachary feels! He loves it and is so happy to be sitting up and in the action.
We decided to offer Zachary some rice cereal for dinner now that he is 4 months, and always hungry. He took to it right away, and knew what to do. He even tried to take the spoon from me and do it himself!

We just treated ourselves to a new Flip and hope to get the video up and out soon. So many projects...

Tailgaters

We took the boys to their first football game! The Oakland Raiders are not a team I would choose to root for (as I'm sure you know), but they are so bad I almost feel sorry for them. We stopped for sandwiches on the way and had lots of other yummy snacks for our tailgate party. Unfortunately we didn't get a very good parking spot and there was no room to spread out, but we opened up the back of the Highlander and ate on the actual tailgate!
When the cheerleaders came onto the field, Alex started to clap. What a little flirt! I'm going to hold out a bit of hope that he was just mesmerized by the shiny silver pompoms. Throughout the game he cheered and clapped, and not necessarily just because everyone else was. He really seemed to enjoy it. Towards the end he did get pretty antsy and tired, in fact at the 2 minute warning, he fell asleep! Zachary had a little nap somewhere in the middle and charmed everyone around us with his big smile.


Diehard Raider fans were quite impressed to see us walking out at the end of the game with one sleeping toddler and a sleepy-eyed baby in tow. We put Alex in the back of the car (that tailgate sure came in handy today) to rest while Zachary had dinner and a little snooze of his own. Once the traffic was cleared up, we woke everyone up and got them into their seats.



Both boys were super troopers! Sadly (or yay, depending on how you look at it) the Raiders lost. This drops my NFL record to 3 of 4 (games I've attended that the home team has won) and Phil is a dismal 1 of 4.

Wee Play

It was a bit chilly yesterday, so our playgroup decided to meet at Wee Play. The boys and I had never been before and didn't really know what to expect. When we got to the sign up table and Alex got a peek into the play room, it was all over. He couldn't/wouldn't/didn't wait for me to sign in and pay, but took off into the land of push-toy heaven! There was every kind of pushing thing you can imagine in there. Picture the elementary school cafeteria, you know the kind, with the stage on one end, full of lawn mowers, vacuums, ride on and ride in cars and pull toys. That's what we experienced. Needless to say, Alex had a wonderful time. Although he didn't try them out, there was also a play house, 2 slides and a tunnel to crawl through. And, when Zachary is a bit bigger, there is a blocked off babies area too! We will probably be buying a drop-in pass soon. I didn't capture the mayhem in pictures this time, but I'll give you a peek after our next adventure! But since a post doesn't seem complete without pictures, here are a couple just for fun.

Are you European?

I think Alex might be European. He always gives me kisses on both cheeks. Such a sweetheart!

Rain walk

The rainy season started quite abruptly last night. It has been raining with periods of pouring all night and now all day. Rain is great! However it does limit our outside play time. So this afternoon during a break in the downpour, we bundled up and went for a walk. Before long it was pouring again, but the boys didn't seem to mind so we kept on going. The bonus of rainy weather in sunny California is that everyone stays in, making the world seem like it is all ours! The downside is that our patio completely floods. But again, on the plus side, we have a newly cleaned blank slate (patio) for our chalk creations!
Alex actually rode his tricycle during the "walk", the picture above is when we got home and he found his stroller in the garage.
Next time it rains, try an adventure!