Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from us and ours to you and yours!

Today I'm stopping by to share a few of the many special things we've done to celebrate the Christmas season (besides keeping the radio tuned to the 24-hour Christmas music station...much to George's dismay).

Visited Santa:

Took our annual family photo at the poinsettia tree (2012, 2013):

Posed for professional family photos:

Picked out Elliott's first Christmas tree:

Decorated the tree:

Redirected Madeleine to decorate her tree (much more successful this year):

Celebrated with our PEPS Group (2.5 years and counting):

Dressed the kiddos in matching Christmas jammies:

Visited a Christmas light display with some of our friends:

Enjoyed our out-of-town friends:

Hope your holiday season has been as fulfilling!

In lieu of tomorrow's Friday I'm in Love, picture me loving on the precious faces featured above. 

Weekend in Photos

Our weekend started on Friday. George took the day off work so that we could have all hands on deck for our big 3-day potty training adventure. We knew that Madeleine was (really, really) ready for this when she started playing potty a few weeks ago.

She did a great job telling us when she needed to go to the toilet (sometimes even when she didn't) and is in underwear full time now. Hopefully the sleep wets will resolve themselves over time.

Grandma and Papa's package with firefighter hats, a new book, and stacking logs arrived at the perfect time! 

Madeleine's not the only one who got to enjoy extra Daddy time!

When the kids were sleeping, I started an overhaul of my craft storage, including uniformly folding all 52 yards of Madeleine's fabric (that big one in the middle is fabric from Hawaii that will be the back of a quilt for her). 

This morning, Elliott and I joined a friend for a cruise around a local quilt show. I soaked up lots of inspiration, including this original design. 

As we try to do most weekends, we took the kids to the pool. Madeleine is a water maniac while Elliott happily floats along. 

After his swim, Elliott was exhausted. He connected with his hand for just long enough to put himself solidly to sleep.

Once we were home and he was fed, Elliott allowed me to capture his beautiful smile. He's very content but rather stingy with his big, toothless grin, so I'm especially happy to have finally captured it. 

We're bracing for a busy week and much colder temperatures. How was your weekend, and what's on your agenda for the week?

Happy Halloween

Today's the day when my Facebook and Instagram feeds burst with cuteness, and I can't wait to contribute!

Around the house, I did a few simple decorations this year. I just love that the brainchild behind the handprints on the pumpkins managed to have the worst print. Repeat after me: more paint makes a better handprint. Madeleine is a handprint-making expert, so I should have followed her lead. Next time!

The kids' costumes, on the other hand, were an all-around success. For the past two years, Madeleine's costumes have been determined by whatever was in good shape and her size at the consignment store. Even though Madeleine doesn't really "get" Halloween yet, this year I wanted to choose a costume for her that might help her understand the concept. One of her favorite books right now is Green Eggs and Ham (aka Sam I Am), and I knew exactly what we had to do as soon as I saw this blog post. [More details here.]

Madeleine's Sam I Am costume consists of a hat made of felt and stuffed with batting, a yellow t-shirt worn under a yellow dress sewn from fleece using one of her existing dresses as a general pattern, white tights, white shoes, and a little plate with green eggs and ham made using felt, cardboard, batting, elastic, and hot glue.

I've always told myself that I wouldn't make Halloween costumes because it's only for one day, but this was a lot of fun (and surprisingly easy)...and even has me thinking about whipping up some real clothes for Miss M. She was so excited at every fitting and so proud to wear the final product (for at least five minutes)!

Elliott's Cat in the Hat costume is even simpler. He's dressed in a black onesie, black pants, and black socks topped off with newborn white gloves, a bow tie made of felt hot glued to a pin, and a (way too tall) hat made of felt and stuffed with batting.

I'm off to check out the rest of the Internet's costumes...and maybe sample some candy. What do you like best about Halloween?

San Jose, California

We visited the San Jose area last week. Our flight down was full of firsts: first flight as a family of four, Elliott's first flight ever, Madeleine's first flight in her own seat, and Madeleine's first time being responsible for carrying her own little backpack. We had lots of success and a smooth adventure. We seem to have mastered our routines for the tough parts - unloading the car, checking the bags, getting through security, boarding, and deplaning - so that really cuts down on the overall stress.

In Silicon Valley, we rented a condo, and it made a huge difference. We had plenty of space and didn't have to worry about noise during naps or eating out with grumpy kids. Madeleine did great adapting to a different big girl bed than her own. Because we had an actual place rather than just a hotel room, we were able to entertain some friends, which meant more time visiting and less time trying to entertain a fidgeting toddler at a restaurant table. The location was in the heart of a downtown area, which had perks like walking to sushi and story hour at the local library.

This was primarily a business trip for George, so the kids and I kept ourselves busy during business hours. One morning, I took the kids to downtown San Jose to explore the Children's Discovery Museum, and it was a big hit. Actually, it probably would have been a big hit even if we didn't go inside because it has a giant inflated rubber ducky on the roof, train tracks beside it, and the SJC approach path right above. What more could a transportation-obsessed toddler want?

We did go inside, though, and Madeleine spent about a third of our time there playing on and around an old fire truck. This was rather convenient given that Elliott decided he needed to eat as soon as we got there.

This is serious business.

Even so, Madeleine decided that her favorite part of the museum was the bubble exhibit. Who wouldn't love playing in tables full of bubble solution and a machine constantly dropping huge bubbles from the floor above?

Of course, my favorite part about visiting Silicon Valley is eating at La Villa catching up with our friends in the area. In addition to a fun and delicious but unphotographed Sunday brunch with Mike and Tracy, we had several play dates with the Midglets and some time to hang out with their parents.

Of course Madeleine's favorite part of the art class was reading books.

I can't help but think back to when the toddlers were closer to Elliott's age.

At two months old, Elliott was mostly just along for the ride but seemed to enjoy the new scenery. We're lucky to have such a happy baby and (by all appearances so far) another good traveler.

After so much fun with our friends and exploring some new places in the sunny 70-degree weather, it was a bit tough to return to rainy, 50-degree Seattle...but there is no place like home! 

Summer Update II

The changing leaves and grey skies tell the story of fall's arrival. I love changing seasons, and this change gives us a chance to reflect back on our summer. What a summer!

At the beginning of the summer, I shared our aspirational summer bucket list. A bit later, I shared our update from the first half of the summer. Today, I'm happy to share that we made more progress on our list without accomplishing everything.

JUMP AT THE TRAMPOLINE PARK: Just last week, I was finally able to take Madeleine for another morning at our local trampoline park ($5 for an hour and a half of toddler-exhausting jumping is a steal in my book). It was nice to spend an hour and a bit with my girl, bouncing and smiling, laughing and making memories.

"1, 2..."

HELP MADELEINE WITH COUNTING: Counting and ABCs are frequently heard around our house these days. Her counting is coming along but still not perfect; it usually goes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 11. I'm a bit confused about this development as she used to insert 8 as every other number. She can fill in the alphabet when we sing together and is really close to being able to do it all herself, though pronunciation for L, M, N, O, P will probably remain comical for a while. I feel a little guilty about it, but I haven't exactly drilled Madeleine on any of her academic concepts (numbers, alphabet, colors). Rather, they seem to be coming together organically by talking about them in everyday life.

HAVE A BABY: Check him out!

FINISH THE NURSERY: Fun fact: according to my blog history, I finished Madeleine's nursery one day earlier than Elliott's nursery. Given that Madeleine was born on her due date and Elliott one day after his, their nurseries were completed the same number of days in advance of their respective arrivals.

STOCK OUR FREEZER WITH FOOD: Even though I saved it for later than I should have done, I am happy to say that we have a chest freezer full of meals. Most of them were made during the two or three nights of marathon cooking that George and I tackled together. Hopefully they'll be handy as we adjust to the reality of our new normal (ie life after George's parental leave ends).

TAKE MADELEINE DOWNTOWN ON A BUS: I wrote a whole post about Madeleine's bus adventure. Apparently the experience made quite an impression because she requests a repeat pretty much every time we see a bus, which is pretty often.

HAVE A WEEKEND WITHOUT PLANS: It probably defeats the purpose when you have to actually schedule a free weekend, but we did manage to have a weekend without plans before Elliott's arrival. Come to think of it, I think there was only one weekend without plans in the six months or so before he joined us. No wonder we're a little lost now that our schedule is so wide open.

VISIT AT LEAST THREE DIFFERENT FARMERS MARKETS: We made it to three different farmers markets but that was it. I admit that my Saturday morning prenatal yoga commitment precluded a lot of visits we could have made, but I wouldn't trade that time for anything. The markets we visited were fun and full of delicious produce and treats, and one of them was held during a festival celebrating basset hounds. The Basset Bash is another experience Madeleine routinely requests to repeat. Our most recent farmers market included the newest member of our family, who was a trooper until about 3 minutes before we were going to leave.

On top of these anticipated experiences, we also visited the aquarium, had a visit from Grandma Janie, and had a big girl bed transition. Between all of this fun, the second hottest Seattle summer on record, and Elliott's arrival, we won't soon be forgetting the summer of 2014.

In the spirit of the new season, here is a "foxy" picture of our kiddos all ready for fall:

Recent Happenings

As expected when there is a new baby in the house, the blog has been rather quiet. I can assure you, though, that our house has not been so quiet as we are all learning to adapt to our new normal. Spoiler alert: a new baby is not the only change we've experienced over the last month.

Like Madeleine's growth spurt wasn't enough, she suddenly looked like a giant next to Elliott!

I've spent a fair amount of time - though never enough - admiring this beautiful baby boy.

At his first brunch, Elliott asked to be fed as our food was arriving and, after being fed, was very chill again. 

The week before Elliott was born, Madeleine climbed out of her crib for the first time. We pretended like it was an isolated incident until, first, we watched her on the webcam as she threw her leg up over the side of her crib and then we had to run across the house to stop her from launching out of the crib...two days in a row. After that, we deployed operation Big Girl Bed. 

In preparation, I took Madeleine fabric shopping so that she could pick out fabric for pillowcases for her new pillow. I whipped up a couple of simple pillowcases using this tutorial. This was a big moment for me, handing over design control after pouring my heart and soul into the perfect room for Miss M. Her primary colored underwater creatures now hang out with Christmas puppies and pastel zoo/safari animals. 

On the day of the big move, Madeleine busted out her tools and helped her dad turn her crib into a toddler bed. 

I can't tell, but I think she may have been excited about the results. We've had a few hiccups, but I'd say that the crib to bed transition has gone much better than expected, especially given the poor and sudden timing. If we could only end the nap strike that is nearly a month long and counting...

For Elliott's first trail walk, Madeleine busted out her hoodie and prepared her pockets for trail treasures, though we were sure that the blackberries she picked went in her mouth and not her pockets.

Elliott enjoyed his inaugural ride in the Beco Gemini. 

Another day, Elliott enjoyed his first bottle al fresco. I'm so grateful for the flexibility of having George feed him liquid gold when I want/need to spend a bit of time away from Elliott.

Grandma came to our rescue for a couple of weeks, and we were so grateful for the time she spent with each kiddo, books she read to them, and weeding she accomplished in our yard. While she was here, we went to the aquarium, where the octopus, Delilah, put on a great show. (Madeleine has asked to go back and/or pretended to swim like a diver at the aquarium almost every day since our visit.)

I wonder if the ice cream treat we got while downtown has anything to do with her attachment to the aquarium.

None of us wanted Grandma to leave.

Elliott and I had a great play date with Eloise and Misha. Can't wait to watch these two (slowly, please) grow up together! Hopefully this is just the beginning of regular play dates.

I hesitate to say that we're starting to find our stride as a family of four. Some days/nights are better/worse than others, but we're making it through and trying to take advantage of George's few remaining days of leave by going on some family adventures. We just might survive this period of intense transition.