Birthday 2.0

Well, today marks the momentus second anniversary of Benjamin's birth, and if you think I am late in posting, I say hah hah! You are wrong! He wasn't born until 11:10, so I still have almost a full hour before I am late! Also, I was busy all day doing fun things with the young man, which was more important anyway. Today Loren and I played hookey from work to hang out with Jamtot on his birthday. We had pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream (cake! berry! whip!) for breakfast, which Benjamin helped make. He is becoming quite the chef these days. He then refused his fork, and opted to eat his pancakes, which were little mini baby sized pancakes, with a giant red spatula instead (spatul!). We opened presents (omp! omp!) after breakfast, which was a big hit. In particular the birthday boy was a fan of the little wooden knife which came with one of his presents, and wanted to use it to open the other packages, and then to do things like install batteries with it. After that big excitement we went to the aquarium. The big news at the aquarium was the diver, which Benjamin did not stop talking about all morning, followed by the fish that looked like Nemo. Sadly not one single good picture from the aquarium. Sigh. We will have to go back. We went to lunch at a very touristy fish and chipsy type place on the pier, and rode the carosel after lunch, which was a big hit with Jam (he had woken up in the morning saying "red horsie!" I'm not really sure what that is about.) We also ran into my big boss (big important, not big in size) on the way to the car, who was spending his rainy lunch time running, probably doing something disgusting like 5 miles in 30 minutes. So it was a good thing I didn't call in sick. We pushed the poor guy way past his nap limit and he zonked out in the car on the way home. After nap time we gave him his big deal present, a vintage (fancy way of saying bargain second hand) radio flyer red trike. He was a little unsure about it at first, but then kitty rode it, and he got more excited. The bike is just a squidge too big for him, and he can barely reach the peddles, if they are positioned exactly correctly, which made it all a little tricky. We will either need to modify the bike a bit, or wait for another inch or so in height before he really gets going. So after a little trial biking, it was time to go rake leaves and shovel dirt (digger!) in the back yard. Then Pop and Grandma stopped by with a birthday balloon, bib and cup for the boy. He was really excited to see them and was at the window shrieking "citey! citey!" when he saw Pop get out of the car. After that it was dinner, cupcakes and ice cream, followed by watching the Jungle Movie on the couch with mama, which is just a cheap ploy on my part to get him to snuggle with me. It was all in all a great day, and much fun was had by all. I have high hopes of a more thoughtful and reflective post on how great my two year old boy is, and how much he has learned and changed and grown since I have known him, but that will happen maybe later this week. Right now I must tuck myself into bed, as I am very tired and a little sniffly nosed.

Rain Gear

We tried out Benjamin's head to toe rain slicker ensemble and rubber frog boots the other weekend on our coffee walk. Very agreeable for puddle

stomping. He is still not sure about the rain though. I think he forgot what is was over the summer. He looks up at the sky kind of squinty and says "rainy. windy." in a kind of critical tone.

drums please.... summertime

Well, since labor day seems to be marking the official end of summer, with rainy rain rain, I am staying inside and posting about summer, which seems very long ago right now. I am teaching Benjamin early about the joys of a lounge chair in the sun, and he is reminding me about the importance of sun block. We are a good team. He is such a cool guy in his shades, I can hardly believe it.

Yard Boating

One of my smallest curliest readers complained about the lack of new posts recently, so to try to redeem myself and appease her, here are a few photos of me and Jam playing in the backyard in the kayaks. He is all about the boats these days, and as you can imagine he loooves the paddle. (pad! pad!) Its very cute and funny. And slightly dangerous. This is a one person kayak by the way. Jam cleverly converted the storage hatch into a second seat.

Camano for the 4th

We (including the usual suspects plus mom, dad and the Issaquah Fernies) spent the fourth of July at my Aunt Lisa's house on the beach on Camano. I think it might be a new tradition, it was so much fun. It was quasi-camping, which means we were fed a feast of crab for dinner and a breakfast buffet including strawberries from the garden, and other fabulous treats. And we got to watch the end of a knock down drag out Wimbledon final that went to 15-13 in the last set. It was crazy. Quasi-camping also meant that Loren, Jam, Maisy and I spent the night in the crabshack, which totally rocks. We had a queen size mattress in a loft with an amazing water view. Also no worries about bugs, damp sleeping bags, dirty tent floors etc. etc. And the whole ceiling is covered in glow in the dark stars, which was very cool. We played in the kayak and floaty toys, looked for crabs, played swimmy fetch with Maisy, I read a fabulous book, we ate tons of yummy snacks, got a little sun, saw an amazing sunset, and then got to watch the whole coastline set of huge fireworks displays while we toasted marshmallows and ate smores. All in all it was fantastic. Looking back at these photos though, I better start taking some pictures. Poor Loren never gets in any.

Lake McMurray

We went up to Loren's childhood friend and neighbor's house on Lake McMurray a couple of weekends ago, and apart from one miserable boat ride, Benjamin was beside himself with glee. I have never seen so many wheeled vehicles, both designed for children (battery powered Barbie Jeep and Monster Truck) and not (riding lawn mowers, tractors, what have you). He sat on a big kid bike, played with approximately seventeen thousand different kinds of balls, played on the swing set, chased the dog, ran in the grass, peered over the deck into the water, and ate a fudgesicle. It may have been his favorite day ever until we had to drive home for 2 hours while he was awake. Hoo boy, did he protest that. But overall a very fun day. Some other people took photos too, which I must dig out of my email and add to the post. Also, a couple of pretty funny picture of Jam and Loren with very similar expressions, and Jam and me with very similar expressions. Funny enough that I am breaking my own photo sensoring rule and posting an un-pretty picture of me. It might not be as funny in small facebook format, where you can't see the expressions as well, but never the less, enjoy!