Highlight of my day...

I

I was cleaning the bathroom when I heard this....

Staycation 2012!

Spring break has come and gone. This year we could have done more projects, the list is still long, but the money is short. So instead we had some pure fun, relaxation, and little day trips! It was not Mexico but it was fun.

On Monday we headed to Seattle for a trip to the Seattle Science Center. Adam comes with his students every so often and of course as a kid but this was my first time, as well as the kids. We got a membership which will allow us to visit the museum in Vancouver and also in Denver when we go this summer.

There were some fun things but it was much more geared towards older kids. Corbin did enjoy the bugs though!

Butterfly room.

Corbin would not go into the Dinosaur exhibit, which really surprised us, since he is so into dinosaurs right now. But they moved, were really big, and they just scared him. He said he knows they are not real but still wouldn't go in. Maybe when he is daddy's age. He did go see the Imax with Adam while I tried to get Eliza to sleep. He got scared multiple times, it was a prehistoric sea creatures in 3D. But they stayed and he watched the majority of it without the glasses!

After the museum we went and visited our good friends Nikki and Mark in their tiny apartment. Good thing the kids could do circles between the rooms!

Then on Tuesday it poured down rain, so we hit the FIG at the Whatcom Museum (kids museum here in Bham). Then lazed about while it rained.

My mom came into town on Tuesday afternoon. And we headed up to Vancouver on Wednesday to go skiing at Cypress with the kids. It was a foggy morning but great day once the fog burned off. It was gorgeous!

Corbin skied to the little lodge from the parking lot. We had hot chocolate and snacks. Then he got into the Chariot and Eliza got carried by Grammie! We were all on Skate skis, which I am not strong enough yet to go up hills, especially carrying an almost 30 lb toddler! But Grammie Dani is in super shape these days and took Eliza!

We then headed in for lunch. We all took turns taking a couple of extra loops while the kids played in the snow. Here is a picture of the old ski jump landing hill that used to be here.

One last loop for us. Eliza fell asleep and Corbin was close. Then Grammie tried to pass Adam and lost her balance. She did a great job of falling not on Eliza but she still woke up on impact. Now she says "Gammie bapack boom" which means grammie carried me in the backpack and we went boom!

On the way down into the city we stopped at an over-look. It was gorgeous! And we got some great family shots. This is the shipping lane just north of the City. Amazing views!

Adam unfortunately was so excited to head to the park that he was going too fast down the hill and got stopped and ticketed by a BC police man. He was the nicest police man that we have ever met but still it's no fun to get a ticket!

We then crossed the Lion's Gate Bridge into Stanley Park for a little stroll in the sun.

My mom then treated us to dinner at the Tomahawk BBQ in North Vancouver. It had recently been featured on Diners, Drive-in's, and Dives. It was yummy! Thanks mom!

Thursday we just hung out, went on some errands, the library and then Adam and I had a date! We went and saw "Hunger Games", had dinner at D'Anna's, and then met friends to celebrate a 40th birthday! A multiple hour date!

Friday was errand, garden, and relaxing day. And coloring eggs!

Just like Daddy!

Easter! Grammie Susan and Grandpa Mark came up for the night and day. The Easter Bunny visited last night. He left clues to find the baskets. Corbin got some rhyming riddles. He figured almost all of them by himself! Eliza got to follow the pictures!

We had a super yummy brunch. I got up at 3 am to put the ham in the crock pot. But couldn't fall back to sleep for over an hour. Eliza woke up at 5:30 and she and Adam got up at 6 to start the Hot Cross Buns, which wouldn't rise! But despite those hiccups, it was delicious! Ham, poached eggs over roasted asparagus and arugula!

Then we had an Easter Egg hunt in the yard but my camera got filled up so we only got these pictures.

We has some slight sugar coma's, short naps, and general over-tiredness this afternoon but everyone was asleep by 7 pm tonight! We hope you all had a wonderful Easter! Yay for spring!

Oh and enjoy this jumping bunny!

Books Books and more Books

We love books here. I don't know if you remember but we got Corbin a library card for his birthday. We use it weekly. We currently have over 40 books between the 4 of us out of the library. Most of them are kids books. We usually make at least one family trip to the library each week and sometimes the kids and I make another. Adam has been veraciously reading the latest young adult and middle level books. He is also finding new books for Corbin to fall in love with.

We are not pushing Corbin to "read" or learn his letters or write his letters. We are trying to let him lead and show us when he is interested. He is really into "reading" right now. I would say most of the time when he is "playing" by himself, he is reading instead of playing with his toys. He can recite whole books to us. Just recently he has shown some more interest in learning his letters and writing, so we have gone with it. We got letter fridge magnets, we found a great game on the computer (www.starfall.com), and we have been practicing some writing. At nap time or quiet time most of these days, he reads for 45 minutes before being allowed to play in his room, quietly. He has a HUGE stack of books in his bed with him. At night he has "quite time" books to read after we have left the room. Many nights I have had to go in and get the books he has fallen asleep with under the covers. We read to him all the time but we have had to limit our night time books to two books or we would be reading forever.

We refuse to let our kids watch or have any screen time while in the car. I use TV at home but not in the car. Corbin reads, draws, watches, listens to books on CD while in the car. He and Eliza have a book box in between them. They fight over books. I love it!

We have started two new things in the last couple of weeks too. Books on CD and Chapter books. He has listened to music or his Winnie the Pooh CD before going to bed for a while. But then he requested more. So we went to the library in search of some more books on CD. We came home with more Winnie the Pooh, which he carried and listened to for 24/7, it seemed. He got a few shorter books that were fun too but Winnie the Pooh definitely stuck out. He then started playing Winnie the Pooh and reciting word for word the CD. So Adam decided he was ready for a Chapter book. So obviously, he picked Winnie the Pooh! Corbin LOVED it. He started asking for Adam to put him to bed every night (which is unusual)! It's so cool to see Adam instilling his love of reading with Corbin. It truly has become their special bonding time. But since Adam (and me) would still like to switch each night, I found a book to read with Corbin too. We started with the Magic Tree House books. The first one is Dinosaurs Before Dark, perfect because we are also in a dinosaur phase right now. Except we read in one day! He loved it! My friend sent me a great link to websites on choosing chapter books for pre-schoolers. One website also said to just choose a book that is about 3 levels above your child's reading level, so a preschooler would listen to a book for a 2nd grader. But we haven't stopped reading picture books either, which is also important. His new favorites are Mo Willmens books, especially "Elephant and Piggy" books. they are AWESOME! We are excited about this new adventure!

And of course, Eliza is also starting to want to read more and new books! She was not as content to listen and look at books as Corbin was when she was a baby. But she is loving them now!

Last Wednesday was World Read A Loud Day. Adam celebrated it with his students by reading books to the younger kids. The kids then raised money to buy their library those books, and then donated the rest of the money, $200!, to the Whatcom Literacy Council! Awesome! Adam has been doing some pretty amazing things with his student and reading lately, especially in his Guys Read book club. I am extremely proud of him! He is Skyping with authors, tweeting with authors, and making videos to introduce authors! It's just awesome!

We celebrated it here, by making a nest and reading lots of books, which we do every day. But it was still fun.

And last but not least...

In which Eliza does yoga while learning phonics.

play!

Adam requested a night off of watching "Friday Night Lights", which I am addicted to so he could read. I can now catch up on some blogging. The kids have been having more fun playing with each other lately. It's a bit of fresh air from the constant refereeing which I seem to be also doing a lot. I know I am not in the clear but it has just been wonderful to watch them play.

The kids have been sick again this week. It's so frustrating. Just as we get healthy, they get sick again. I don't know if it's Corbin being in school or both of us working. Or that we need to wash our hands more. Or all of it. Corbin was sick on Tuesday (one of my work days) so Adam stayed home. Now Eliza has a fever tonight. And I work again tomorrow. So I am staying home and a friend will watch Eliza in the afternoon. It's been a rough winter of sickness. Let's hope for some health in the next couple of months.

Here are some videos of skiing, sledding and playing!

Also, happy 18 months to my baby, Eliza Jolie! I can't believe she is one and a half! I am so lucky to have her as my baby!!! Maybe I will write a 18 month post for her this weekend. Maybe.

Christmas Extravaganza!

Christmas came and went fast! We are in the midst of trying to figure out new traditions for our own family as well as incorporating some of each of our own from our own childhoods. It's been fun and a challenge to figure out how we want our own family's traditions to go. One of the things we have struggled with the most is traveling at Christmas time. It's hard to let go being with our own families of origin to now wanting to be home at our house with the kids. As hard as it might be, this might have been the last traveling one for a while. I really want to have that special Christmas morning at our house. And not have to bring all our presents wherever we go. It's a give and take so we will see what next year brings but I think we might be at home in Bham for at least Christmas eve and day. We were lucky to spend this past one with Adam's family on Bainbridge. What are some of your traditions that you have either kept with your own kids or do now with your kids?

Our little elves!

One of the traditions that I am trying to keep, is reading the "Night Before Christmas" a Tasha Tudor illustrated version from my 1st Christmas in 1979, on Christmas eve. This year Corbin helped by saying the last word in almost every phrase! We also ate some yummy lasagna for Christmas eve dinner and ate too many amazing cookies that Susan makes. Adam and his brothers used to all sleep in the same room on Christmas eve, we thought the fact that the four of us sleep in the same room was good enough to not include everyone any more :-)

We also both grew up leaving Cookies and Milk for Santa (and a carrot for the reindeer!). Corbin was so much more into Santa this year. In fact he wouldn't tell me what he wanted from Santa. He told me is was a secret between him and Santa! Good thing I was standing close by. I think next year we will write a list :-) It was really fun seeing him believe in the magic of Santa. For me Santa is all about being a kid, believing in magic and the spirit of giving. And when it's over, it's about carrying on the spirit of Father Christmas and making it special for someone else.

Corbin was so excited for Santa to come and he had a nap that he was up till just past 11pm! At one point around 10pm he said he saw Santa fly by above the trees. He was worried he wouldn't come back! We told him that he only comes once you go to sleep. He then said that he would just circle until he fell asleep. Eventually Susan went and sung to him and then he finally fell asleep when I came to bed at 11. Silly boy!

Eliza was up earlier than Corbin, so we came down and checked everything out till everyone else got up. She still wasn't so sure about this whole Christmas thing. Next year it might be a different story.

When Corbin finally woke up, we all opened stockings. Eliza was trying to put things back in. We all chipped in and filled everyone's stockings. It was fun to find little treasures!

Every Christmas has to have a picture of a baby in a box! This one is complete with some bat ears.

I love Christmas and getting everyone something I think they will love. I often go way over board with Christmas. This year we had a need to pair down (financially) and well as a desire to as well. We tried to follow a friends idea about getting them something they want (Santa), something to read -books, something to wear, and then we decided to also to something to do (art) and each kid always gets an ornament. We stuck to this pretty well minus just one extra each. We also got them each something small to give to the other. Next year Corbin will help out more with this than he did this year. This year all he did was help wrap his gift to Eliza. We also have started to do gift exchanges with our families. This is also nice because then we get one person something bigger and each person a stocking gift too. It's been really nice.

Santa brought Corbin a Bat Cave. This was what he really wanted. We debated for a while on this...this is his first big plastic commercialized gift we have ever gotten him. We really wanted to get him something he could play with, manipulate, pretend, almost like a doll house or something. When we looked at some of the higher quality wooden things like this the price was almost 3x the amount. And it's what he wanted, so Santa got it! He LOVES it!

Eliza is a little baby obsessed. So she got a baby doll from Santa and Uncle Kevin and Aunt Meghan also happened to get her one too. It was almost the exact same one. She is SO excited to have not one but two babies!

Family! We missed getting Kevin and Meghan in this one...

They both love their Grandparents (on both sides)! Thanks so much Grammie Susan and Grandpa Mark for a great Christmas on Bainbridge.

We are now in Bend with my family. A lower key Christmas since we were on Bainbridge and Jed and Kara are in Kentucky.

Here are the Santa presents...





I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday however you celebrate it!

Preview

No training wheels just pedal power (and daddy's pushes). Go Corbin go!

The BIG 3!

How can I be the mom of an awesome 3 year old! Crazy!

Happy 3rd Birthday Corbin Dean! We love you SO much. You are curious, generous, inquisitive, energetic, smart, fun, challenging, thoughtful, imaginative, and full of life! Life without you would be boring. I am constantly amazed by your imagination, your questions, and your constant wonder at how the world works and how you fit into it. You constantly ask WHY? Why? Why? Why? All the time. You are trying to joke around with us. You are also very into pretend play and dress up. Your dress up hooks are getting really full. They include your new main interest of Batman, capes, masks, fire helmets, fire jackets, construction hat, astronaut helmet, knight shield and helmet, chef hat, apron, tutu, frog suit, back pack, tool belts, and I am sure more.

You also love to ride your bike, go for walks, play on the swing and at the park. You also love art, playing legos, puzzles, trains, and reading books. Really I have not seen very much that you don't love to do. You try new things with caution but then throw your whole world into it once you understand how it works.

You help dad cook. You help him with the recycling/trash. You help take your plate in and pick up your toys. Sometimes you get dressed by yourself. You like to be on the sweat pants team with daddy. We are trying to help you become a little more independent.

You have a love/hate relationship with your sister. You can make her laugh like no other. She just lights up when she sees you. You also have some really good friends. Your closest friends at this point are Brody and Alden. We see them the most but have some really great friends. It's fun to see you develop friendships with other kids and actually play with them.

You are almost fully potty trained. It's been some steps forward and then some back. These days you are mostly wearing undies all day. You still have a diaper/cloth pull up at night and nap but most of the time you wake up dry. But you won't go pee in the potty in the morning. You prefer to go in your diaper. But you always ask if you have a diaper or undies on. Lately you will say you have to go and then say, no I don't. You have been having more accidents but I know we will get there soon.

You take an afternoon nap still abotu 50-75% of the time. Even if you don't nap, you have quiet time which includes either reading or playing quietly in your room for 30 min-1 hour. You still sleep with your best buddy- Blu Blu. Night time sleep is pretty good. These days you will wake up sometimes scared. Sometimes you go back to sleep easily and others not. You have slept in our bed more often. You have developed more fears lately and we have been working through them.

You are an amazing little boy, Corbin. We can't wait to see what year 3 brings!

Daddy's last day of school and annual pancake lunch for his students was on your birthday again.

When daddy got home, we opened your presents. Besides your bat, we got you some knight figurines, a dinosaur, 2 headed dragon, and a book.

You were so sweet and let Ellie help you open one of your presents.

I made you an ice cream cake, your choice. It was the easiest cake I have ever made!

We hosted another combo birthday with Alden. Lots of friends and family were here. We woke up to rain but the rain stopped at about 3 and held off for the rest of the night! It would have been quite crowded with 30+ people, kids, and babies in our house!

Aimee, Alden's mom, made some amazing yummy desserts.

Whoa, was that Batman (boy) that just went by in a new bat cape?

Thanks everyone for a great birthday!