Brotherly Love

At 7.5 weeks, I feel like we’ve begun settling into a sweet little family routine. And the love between these two (well, it’s one sided from Potamus to Lil G at this point, right?) is so sweet.

Yesterday I took Lil G down to Olympia to hang out with my bestie. When I came back it was late afternoon, and so we spent some time outside looking at the trees blowing in the wind and feeling the sunshine on our faces. Of course Potamus wanted to snuggle his baby brother and I captured this sweet shot. Be still my heart.

These moments are why people say they’re glad they have two or more kids.

Easter…in Pictures…

I think the bunny went THAT way mom!

Penguins have names like Fiona and Tyrone and Louis

Apparently the rest of the country is buried under snow, but here in Seattle we are having GORGOUS weather (complete with sunshine AND warmth!), so we had to get out of the house to do something more exciting than grocery shopping at Costco. So we headed on up to the Woodland Park Zoo to renew our yearly membership and see some animals! Potamus has been obsessed with making animal noises (his particular favorite is the chimpanzee, which I have NO idea where he learned that from…haha).

I realized when we parked, that I had brought a 2 year old to the zoo without a stroller as tired-leg-backup. What’s fun about going places with kids is that it’s new every time. He squealed and pointed and even drew the attention of passerbys who even said “wow, he’s really excited.” I don’t like to stifle his excitement, because FUCK YEAH PENGUINS ARE COOL BABY! I guess I didn’t notice all the ‘well behaved’ (aka quiet) kids at the zoo who ooh and ahh with tiny exasperated adult voices…because my kid has enthusiasm just like his mom.

 

On our way out we stopped back at the penguin exhibit and watched them get fed. I was struck by the zookeeper who was calling out their names as he threw them a fish. Hey Tyrone, here you go! Fiona, you need your vitamins too! Louis, eat the fish, don’t drop it that seagull will get it! I was fascinated, because of course penguins have personalities and you would know them, but I found the names funny. I think a children’s book called “A Penguin Named Tyrone” would be cute. Anyone want to write that?

Snow Boot Determination

 

It’s been unseasonably sunny here in Seattle, and we’ve been taking full advantage of it by going for walks around our neighborhood. And by walks, I mean, I’m walking and Potamus is stomping and running and squeeling ahead of me in a typical 2 year-old fashion. He’s obsessed with the Value Village snow boots that are at least one size too big, but doesn’t let the clomping deter him as he speeds ahead of me down the road. Thankfully our neighborhood is mostly quiet so the fear of cars is minimal and his opportunity to express his freedom is high. Like how I kept walking even though he turned down a dead end, and his little impish wave ‘bye bye’ as he blew me a kiss and pretended to get too far away from me to be caught. Of course he knew it was all a game and came speeding back to me in no time, laughing all the while.

I’m really enjoying this stage.

He isn’t quite talking yet, though he does say two-three word stunted sentences mixed with lots of grunting and pointing. He has his own caveman language, and often calls me “da” though he also knows me as ‘maa maa,’ so I’m not sure what’s up with that. His favorite phrase is “le go!” which is “let’s go!” and modeled after hours of watching Jake and the Neverland Pirates…of which, is taking over our life. Last night he went to bed clutching the second hand purchase of the pirate ship featured in the show. And his Jake and Cubby and Izzy figurines go with him everywhere. Clearly it was the best $7 purchase of the whole Christmas vacation.

in case you didn’t believe me that this pirate ship goes EVERYWHERE with him…poopy diaper time!

Anything cute or annoying that your kiddo is up to lately?

Seattle Summer & Divorce Rates

Every year I am shocked by the intensity of our heat waves. I feel that it’s early this year, usually happening later in July, so I hope that it doesn’t happen twice. It’s usually this five or so day stretch with temperatures heading into the 90’s and beyond. While the rest of the country swelters under MUCH HOTTER temperatures, there is something sinister about our heat, here.  Or maybe it’s the lack of AC in any of the houses, so we’re all forced to deal with skyrocketing temperatures…in our bedrooms.

To beat the heat during the day, I’ve been spending time with a good friend and her two sons. And for all my uncertainty about being a mom, let alone a good mom, there is something so refreshingly nostalgic about watching my kid run in the sprinkler and eat blue otter pops. And we sit in the grass sunning ourselves, drinking beer and watching the two kiddos splash in the kiddie pool. If only I could sleep in the kiddie pool, that would be cool enough!

Potamus is definitely weaning. He’s not happy about it, and neither am I (in some respects), and napping and sleeping is super hard for all of us. It’s taking about two hours to put him down at night, and the other night, after nursing, he fell asleep drinking from his water bottle…after wiggling and playing tent and wanting to dive off the bed to start playing with legos. It’s a challenge to my patience, to say the least, and it’s worse because I’m sweaty and wish that he could just nurse to sleep like when he was a wee baby. I feel like my milk is drying up and he’s frustrated that my boobies aren’t working like they used to. But the night he fell asleep drinking water he slept really well, so I think that we’re in this place of transition and both aren’t wanting it to end, but I think it’ll actually help. Sigh, I’m so torn.

There have been a few years where Boof and I head over to his parent’s house to sleep for a few days to save our sanity. They have air conditioning plus all the bedrooms are in the basement, so it’s almost TOO cold over there. But we’re actually heading on up to a local island to stay in some cabins for a few days with my parents. While it’s not going to be cool, hopefully it’ll be cooler by the water. In India when it was hot I slept with wet woolen socks and a wet dupatta pulled up to my chin. Not sure Boof would want me to re-create that scene in our bedroom now!

How do you beat the heat? Tried and true tricks?

A Good day for a Faux Hawk

Sometimes I just need a change, so yesterday I rocked a faux hawk in the Fremont district of Seattle. The sun was out and there was a spring in my step, despite the dwindling amount of sleep we’ve been getting in the past few weeks (seriously, the teeth just need to COME IN NOW!). I had the day off since it was evaluation week and class wasn’t being held, so I headed on up to meet a friend for lunch.

Potamus was rocking a pirate-ship tank and skinny jeans. He fits right in as a circus strong-man or a hipster.

 

Before lunch we headed on down to the river to watch the boats go by and were visited by some friendly ducks.

The ducks enjoyed our snacks, though Potamus didn’t quite have the trick of crumbling the crackers down. After he threw 3 full animal crackers into the water I decided that we didn’t need to waste our entire lunch on the ducks. Needless to say, Sir Duck was less-than-thrilled with this arrangement. He came right on up to me and basically said, “what the DUCK lady, I want more snacks.”

I then decided it was time to leave and make it to our lunchtime extravaganza!

Of course we ordered Rainier Beer. Fremont’s Red Door has the old Rainier Brewery sign out front and a light beer on a sunny day was JUST what I needed. We sat and chatted and sunned ourselves and Potamus behaved himself beautifully. It was one of those perfect moments that I wish I could bottle up…

Of course he fell asleep on the ride home, which meant for a less-than-perfect naptime schedule. Not sure if that contributed to his supreme crabbiness the rest of the afternoon or the fact that he’s an extrovert and would love to be out all day if he could. Sometimes that is EXHAUSTING for an introvert mama. I do love spending time with my friends, but when I come home I want to unwind and Potamus is crabby because the house is quiet and he wants there to be a lot going on. I admit, this is when I sometimes turn on the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse to fill the house with sounds that don’t drive me too crazy.

 

Easter weekend

Seattle sunshine + Easter egg hunts + church + family + getting dressed up in our finest + good food + good news + okay sleep = great weekend. Hope you all had a Happy Easter weekend!