Last Friday Night

In last week's review, I forgot to mention that David and I got to go out on a date, and Audrey put both boys to bed for the first time. We went to see the Seattle Symphony at Benaroya Hall for this Celebrate Asia! concert. When the show got out, we tried to leave the parking garage but there were so many cars, we moved only half a level (we were parked on level 6) in about 10 minutes. We ended up reparking & went to get a drink at Wild Ginger's bar.

As for the boys, Vincent did fine, but Tyler was pretty upset for a good 45 minutes. He eventually gave in and let Audrey rock him to sleep. She didn't back out on putting the boys to bed again in a couple of weeks, so it must not have been too bad on her. She's an angel.

Week In Review

Wow, another week has gone by. Here are some highlights:

Monday - took the boys to Mandarin class and then to lunch at the tofu place we love. They did great, considering we had to wait a while for a table & ended up sharing one with two different groups.

Tuesday - Vincent went to preschool. I can't remember what else happened.

Wednesday - took the boys to Country Village Bothell to play on the pirate ship I had heard about. Vincent loved it and has asked to go back there everyday since. They also have a train (but it doesn't run on a track & it's really a tractor dressed up like a train) but it wasn't open. Lots of roosters & ducks walking around, too. Vincent stepped in some type of fowl poop. Both kids passed out in the car on the drive home. Transferring them to their beds at home didn't go too well. Bummer.

Pirate Ship & The Village Bean (coffee, lunch, lots of toys)

Vincent blowing bubbles by himself for the first time. Thursday - Vincent went to preschool in the morning. In the afternoon Tyler and I went to a class at the community college while Vincent & Audrey played at the park across the street.

Friday - took the boys to the Target, then to Red Robin for lunch. The plan was to go to KidsQuest children's museum after lunch, but Vincent upset me too much at lunch that I threw in the towel on our outing. Both fell asleep on the car ride home, again, and only Tyler transferred to his bed, but not as bad as Wednesday.

Saturday - David took Vincent to the barbershop & they both got haircuts. Here are some before & after photos.

Vincent's before David's before
After

They have little matching tufts of hair in front.

Saturday night - Movie Night! No Tyler. We've had a couple of movie nights with Vincent. He and David pop the popcorn in the Whirly Pop while I put Tyler to bed. Then, we watch some kids flick & let Vincent stay up late.

Sunday - I got to sleep in. Thank you, David. After Tyler's morning nap, we rode the bus downtown then took the lightrail one stop to the Central Library. We returned some library books while Vincent played on the kids' computer & Tyler crawled around. Then, we rode the train back to Westlake Center & ate lunch at the food court. Gourmet. Took the bus back home, walked in the rain with the kids from the bus stop to our house, and now it's supposed to be naptime. Vincent just came out of his room, wide awake.

BIG NEWS! Today, Tyler took his first steps! Yup, just shy of 11 months old, he took a few steps towards me. He then took a few towards David. He also took a few steps at the library. He's obviously not officially a walker, but this is a huge milestone nonetheless. Last night, when he kept us up from 1am to almost 3 am, I said to David, "It must be developmental. He seems like he's getting ready to walk." Well, well, well...but he also woke with a runny nose.

A Good Weekend

We had planned to take the boys to the snow this weekend...we also planned it last weekend. Things aren't quite panning out for us so far this winter. Last weekend, Tyler had a pretty bad cold. This weekend the snow reports weren't so good. We didn't want to get out there and have slush. Unfortunately, next weekend we have too many socializing to do, then the following weekend we have a birthday party and David's going to Vegas...when will we get to play in the snow????

In the meantime, we have been enjoying our time together nonetheless.

Saturday, Vincent and I went grocery shopping in the morning. After Tyler's nap, we took the boys to Red Mill Burgers (YUM!) and then to the zoo. It was cold and damp, but we mainly wanted to take them to the "Zoomazium" which is an indoor playspace.

Sunday (today), we drove to the International District, parked our car & rode the lightrail down to SeaTac airport. We wanted to check out the new stop. Then, we rode back one stop to Tukwila & went to McDonald's. Yup, that's right, as in "Happy Meal" McDonald's. We got a hot tip a few months back about riding the rail down there and going to McDonald's to play. I gotta say, it was a total hit with both boys. Vincent made it all the way to the top of the play structure, which was super crowded with bigger kids and really tall. Tyler was the smallest of them all & he crawled all over and climbed on the foamy statues. On our way back to Seattle, Tyler passed out in the stroller & Vincent finished the remainder of his lunch. The only draw back to the outing was that their naps were sort of messed up, but Tyler actually took a third (and long) nap when we got home. Vincent fell asleep on the way back from the rail stop & did not transfer into his bed. Oh well.

We ate tacos for dinner & now I'm gonna go have a Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich.

It's 3:30 in the afternoon. Do you know where your glass of wine is?

I know where mine is...sitting right in front of me on a small table next to my laptop and my sandwich en baguette (chicken liver terrine), waiting to be sipped. The table that just sat down next to me is contemplating wine. Sweet. I'm not a lush. But, I am drinking alone. Ahhh, alone. That's nice, too.

First sip. Thank you, Cafe Presse.

Hard To Say Good-bye...

...to baby clothes. Really??? I'm going through the stuff Tyler has outgrown, and I'm sort of having a hard time parting with some of the stuff. I see certain outfits and picture both of my tiny little boys in them. The stuff that I loved on Vincent weren't the same as the stuff I loved on Tyler. Some of the stuff Vincent wore the most were too small on Tyler by the time I got around to digging them out of the boxes. He repeated some of the clothes, especially as he's getting bigger & his growth is slowing down, but the ones I put him in the most were actually given to us new. The seasons/sizes were a little off around age 3-6 months.

Anyway, I can't believe I'm having a hard time parting with some of the items. Am I lame?

Sleep, Sweaters, Shaving

David and I have said that if there was anything good worth mentioning to others about our kids, it's best not to, because inevitably, the moment you utter the words, things change. We all know that's not true (even if it seems like it).

So, I will dare share with the world that Tyler slept through the night last night, from about 8:15pm until 5:30am. Woohoo! I definitely don't think this will be a trend, hence my bravery for speaking up about it. I wanted to post about it because the funny thing is that our cat, Stella, was in the room with him the whole night. We thought that maybe she was in there because we heard some funny sounds on the baby monitor, so David went to check. He did not see her. I suspected that she might be in there because she usually comes to sit on our laps in the evening, but last night she didn't. David was sure that she wasn't in there. Either way, I figured that if she was and she woke Tyler in the night, it wouldn't really matter because he would wake up anyway. They both surprised us! It was great that he slept so long, but he did wake up an hour earlier than usual...wide awake. But, I can't complain because I, too, slept through the night.

Now, some pictures!

Matching outfits! At Target, I found kids shaving kits on sale for like 2 bucks. Vincent picked out Transformers, over Lightning McQueen and Thomas. He asked me what this kit was about, and I told him it's to get rid of "whiskers," as he likes to call David's stubly face. He was so excited to try it out, but I told him he needed to wait until Daddy got home. He said, "I gotta shave those whiskers!" Soon as David walked in the door, Vincent went running upstairs to get the kit.
Here he is shaving.

Bathtime & Holiday Lights

Gave the kids a bubble bath last night. Vincent got a bottle of Mr. Bubbles from Santa. I had decided to get in with him, and then Tyler wanted to join in. They had a lot of fun, and it was so much easier to bathe them this way, not to mention the warm water was soothing for me.

I meant to post these pictures last week, but forgot...One of the last things we did in 2009 was take the kids to see the holiday lights at the Bellevue Botanical Garden. This was such an amazing sight. Vincent absolutely loved it. He called them the "twinkly lights." All the "plants" and "animals" you see are all made of lights.

Happy New Year!

The first day of our new year went pretty well, if you don't count the minor blow up David and I had towards Vincent about 30 minutes after we all got up in the morning. After Tyler's morning nap, we took the kids to REI to get them outfitted for the snow. We are determined to take them sledding (hopefully more than once) this winter. It was actually only Vincent that needs the clothes. We did get Tyler a pair of warm booties to go with his hand-me-downs. The idea of going to REI was so Vincent could run around the play area, but there were too many kids for him.

After REI, we went for lunch at a nearby restaurant. Towards the end of the meal, Tyler got pretty fussy. David and I took turns holding him. When it was time to pay, I decided to take him to walk around the restaurant. As I was holding him, I felt something damp on his legs.

Poop.

I cannot tell you the last time I had to change Tyler in a public restroom. I have even had to change out the baby wipes in my diaper bag because they had dried out. It was like we were both experiencing something new. I struggled and wrestled that little munchkin as if he was a wild animal.

The rest of the afternoon was pretty uneventful. The kids both took monter naps & we had QFC roasted chicken with some roasted potatoes and buttered carrots that I made.

This morning, 4am, to be exact, Tyler woke up and nursed as usual. But, he did not fall right back to sleep as usual. Instead, he cried for a while, then pooped. David cleaned him up, but Tyler was still upset and did not fall back to sleep. I went in to comfort him, and he ended up vomitting all over his bed, the floor, and me. Poor baby. After that, he seemed quite happy. His little system seems to still be a little out of whack, but otherwise he was a happy baby.

I took Vincent to a birthday party. He did a pretty good job there, but pretty much only wanted to play with one toy - the same one many other boys wanted to play with. He mostly took turns and shared, but a few times there would be a kid that would come and want a turn, but Vincent would get upset. It was so much easier to have just one kid, though. Since he was busy playing, I got to eat pizza & chat with other parents.

Finally, the highlight of our day...DINNER. Pizza, again, but I didn't know they'd have pizza at the party. AND, this was homemade pizza. My first time. Thank you, Alice Waters for your pizza dough recipe. It turned out really well. Better than I could have wished. I made one with Salumi's salame, San Marzano tomatoes, basil & gruyere cheese (that's what I had in the fridge). The other was chicken, balsamic cippolini onions, with the same tomato, basil & cheese base.

Here's David and Tyler posing with the salame pizza before it went in the oven.