In his little cocoon

I would sneak in and take a picture, but he isn't asleep yet. Instead I'll describe this.

Now that Josh has learned to talk, you'd think it would be easier for him to get his  needs met. Except that before, when we tried to put him to sleep and he just cried, we would sigh and pretty much ignore him, figuring he just needed to "cry it out" a little, and eventually he'd fall asleep. Now he uses words - or at least, approximations of words that we can sometimes understand. Makes him a lot harder to ignore. 

So his new bedtime thing goes like this. I set him down in his crib. 

"Gancket!! Gancket!" 

"Oh, you want your blanket?"

"Yeah" 

"Okay, here you go..." laying his blanket gently over his curled up cute little body.

"AAHHHeeee!" What was that? Oh - Eyes? You want to cover your eyes? And I pull the blanket up so it totally covers his head and eyes. "Is that better?"

"Yeah. 'Night!" 

I start to walk out...and hear: "Bahhhl! Bahhhl!"

Turn back and place his water bottle under his arm. 

"Arrrrr! Arrrrr!!!!" Meaning: Arm. A few stray fingers have escaped from underneath the blanket. Must re-position blanket.

I have to admit I'm getting good at understanding these words made up almost entirely of vowels.

Anyway, when we are finally done, he is in a little blanket cocoon in his crib. "Bye bye!" he says cheerfully from under the covers, and I walk out the door. Nearly as soon as the door closes....

"Ganket!!! Ganket!!"

Altogether too many princesses

Anyone who exists at all in the world of a preschool aged little girl these days knows about The Princesses. Not just the standard ones we all grew up with - Snow White, Cinderella, Belle, and Beauty. There are also Jasmine, Ariel, Pocahontas, and Mulan. Amazingly there is not yet a Little Red Riding Hood princess, but just wait and see - you never know what they'll do next!

In our house, Princesses run the show. They dictate hairdos and clothing and shoes, and often Gabrielle insists she must only wear one shoe because Cinderella only has one glass slipper. To get married. Because getting married is the other thing that fills Ellie's world. These days anyone who spends any time with her will know that she is getting married to her husband, Amy, with her friend Katrina, me - her flower girl, Josh, her ring bearer, and Ryan, her father of the bride, all in attendance. She'll wear a white dress and a white veil and Amy, her husband, will wear a black suit. And where is her husband Amy? "In Washington!"

Washington is where many things are right now. Her old preschool. Her old room. Her old microwave.

But I was talking about princesses. I guess it's not surprising in this princess overloaded home that Josh also enjoys wearing necklaces and slippers and scarves. He brushes Ellie's hair and talks on her pink cell phone with a radiant expression on his face.

And today, this man of only about five or six words took his love of princesses one step further. I suggested that the kids could watch a movie this afternoon. Do you want to watch "Lion King, Babe, or Cinderella?" I asked them. "EWWA! EWWA!" Josh replied, running over to turn on the TV.

Why I will always buy them french fries

The other day we finally closed on our house, after what has to have been the longest escrow period in the history of the world. Typically, escrow is a month. But this one? It was seven weeks long. And not just any seven weeks - seven weeks of living with my parents! They are great parents, and great to put up with us for theh last three months, but we are definitely all ready for our own space.

Though I think the time at my parents' house has been amazing for the kids. It's a big change from Seattle, all this sunshine. It means long warm days and my parents have a great, wonderful, BIG backyard. The kids love the warmth and outdoor playtime and WATER time here. Did I mention they like to play in the WATER? Oh and DIRT! My parents have a planter with no plants, only dirt, and Gabrielle has taken to bathing in it. The good thing? They have also gotten the idea that clothing is unnecessary in all this sunshine, so at least the dirt baths have not meant extra loads of laundry.

Fortunately, our new house also has a backyard and so they'll be able to continue this new found love of water, dirt, and nakedness. So the day we closed on our house we were very excited and drove over after Ryan got off work to take a look. It was Big and Empty which I think when you are a kids is secret code for "Run wildly screaming and spinning in circles."

By the time they were done with the running and the screaming, the kids were pretty hungry, as were we. So on the way home we stopped off at Carl's Junior for some food. First let me say that my daughter who will eat two grapes and four bites of cheese and say she is done downed five chicken stars without even breathing because - well - they were chicken STARS. Then the stars were all gone and she began work on the french fries. I handed them to her one at a time. Accidentally - or rather, because I thought she wouldn't notice or care - I handed a particularly soggy one to her. She dangled it disdainfully in front of her face, watching it flop back and forth. "I don't want this one!" She said. Why? "It's too SWINGY!" Nothing gets by that girl, not even soggy fries.

A first time for everything

Last weekend, to celebrate our fifth anniversary, Ryan and I left the kids with my parents and went to Carmel. Alone. Without the kids. Did I mention this was with no kids at ALL? This was the first time in their lives I had ever left them, barring the two nights I vacationed in the hospital while giving birth to the younger (thus leaving the older one - though really only for one and a half nights, since we left for the hospital around 10pm after Gabrielle was already in bed). And I think that's a darn good excuse.

Anyway, yes I did miss them and I did call home once. But just once. And I didn't miss them all that much.

Carmel was beautiful. The beach is amazing. The sand is white and so fine that when it slips through your toes you can't even feel it. The sunsets turned the sand purple and blue and the water an otherworldy green.

On our last day we went to Pt. Lobos, which is actually where all of these pictures were taken. (I somehow managed to NOT bring my camera down to the beach during either sunset, and the days were overcast and not particularly photogenic, though beautiful in their own way.) One of the places we "hiked" (and I have that words in quotes because if you think I was going on some long hike you are grossly mistaken. These were more accurately described as Walks on Trails. Nevertheless, the trails were rocky and the views were beautiful.) was called Bird Rock. And you can see why. It was looked exactly like one of those icebergs covered with penguins, except without the ice and the birds were cormorants, with an occasional seagull or pelican smattered among them.

It did feel good to need a sweatshirt for a change. After a few months in California, I am actually starting to miss those days that never go from misty gray to bright. I have yet to adjust to the constant sunshine, and thank goodness there is lots of shade in the backyard. We've only had one day of "rain" the entire summer - a slight drizzle but hey - and that was on the day I took the kids to the beach. Go figure.

Taking turns

And another fine quote from my daredevil daughter.

Today at the playground, I showed her how to climb up this neat spiral thingie onto the playstructure. I made it look even more fun than it was, with lots of excitement and big grins and an enthusiastic "TA DA" at the top. Then I turn to her and say "Okay, now it's your turn!"

And she, with great conviction, replies: "Okay, now it's NOT my turn!"

Speedy delivery to the Statue of Liberty?

"Hey. Hey! Mister McFeely can go in a helicopter and see the Statue of Delivery. Okay? Okay!"

This blog was dead

We’ve been in the throes of moving from our house in Washington to sunny, golden California. Since we had no place to live when we got here, we moved in with my parents and POOF it was 1990 again and I was back in high school, sneaking off campus for lunch at Little Caesar’s pizza. Or something like that.

Since we’ve been here, we have:
Sold our house.
Bought a new house.

But here we are, 73 days 4 hours and 52 minutes later, still living with our parents since our house has not closed. Within a month, though, we’ll be moved! Into our House! With our own Stuff!

We’ve done some other cool stuff that being here in California makes infinitely easier than being in Washington – basically, we’ve seen people.


Ellie with Aunt Cindy in Sacramento. How lucky that she was visiting Grandma Carol the same weekend we were!



The boys: Alexander and Josh, the two toddlers, playing in Los Gatos.


Gabrielle and Dana in Santa Cruz. The girls had a blast at on the rides!



Here's proof that little Ellie actually DOES have a daredevil spirit hidden inside that quiet exterior. This ride was surprisingly fast!



Josh was too little for the rides but he did love the sand.

Time for an update

So much going on, so little time to blog. That's ok, but I think it's time for an update.

Gabrielle

For the last month or two, Gabrielle declared herself a bride. Every day she needed to get married. And this required a certain uniform: red dress, purple necklace, red veil, pink sandals. And when these items needed to be laundered she cried and fretted and FINALLY agreed to wear a different color dress and veil for the minimal time needed to do a wash. We sometimes snuck a wash in during the night while she slept. This past week we had a breakthrough and three of the five days she wore DIFFERENT CLOTHES which was extremely exciting.

Josh

Josh will be one in two days.

He has four teeth which he uses with fantastic skill, to eat almost anything we put in front of him. Including things perhaps not best eaten, like tanbark at the park or dirt.

He is easy and happy and curious and energetic - all excellent qualities! I do wish he'd slow down enough to sleep past 5:30 in the morning, though. Or take a nap without protest. Yes that would be nice! Still, he's so much fun.