We had an awesome weekend visit from our friends Chuck, Jessica, Malina, and Logan from SF. The kids played so well together and Malina and Zara were fast friends holding hands everywhere we went. We also had a lot of fun showing them our local favorites including our favorite walk in Discovery Park. It was so much fun to see him and we wish they lived closer!
View our February 2013 photos.
We had planned for Amy’s sister Deb to visit and help with the kids during the first week of August when Ciara, our nanny was in Ireland on vacation. Z had a last minute business meeting in China the last week in July so we knew the week would be crazy for Amy before Ciara left on vacation. The day Z left for China, Amy and the kids went to a pick your own blueberry farm. The kids ate far more blueberries than they paid for and we had a few incidents of turning the buckets upside down but all in all it was a huge success and something we’ll do again next year.
On Monday morning, Amy reminded Ciara that with Z gone it would mean she would have to work more hours. Ciara’s response – you do remember I’m leaving for vacation on Wednesday, right? OH CRAP. No, the dates were in Amy’s old work calendar that she lost when she changed jobs. Somehow the dates had never made their way to Z’s calendar so he had no idea Ciara was gone (and Amy’s CEO would be in town) when he picked the dates to go to China. This meant Amy was alone with no child care, a new job and a her CEO being in town and no Z to help. UT-O looks like it’s going to be a stressful week!
Let’s just say it was a little stressful for a few days but fortunately, our previous nanny’s daughter Chelsea had just graduated from high school and was willing to take on the challenge. Thank goodness she was a trooper and saved us! The only problem that she ran into was that Gabe, who tends to be a little shy with strangers, hid in the corner of his crib and refused to get out. After a little coaxing and the promise of play dough, he came out and warmed to Chelsea. The week was crazy but Amy and the kids survived no problem. The kids were super excited to see Daddy when he returned from China and they were also excited because Aunt Debbie visited to watch them the following week.
Debbie and the kids had a lot of fun while she visited and fortunately she wasn’t freezing when she visited!! We did all sorts of fun things like the Salmon ladder, Pike’s place, and a yummy waterfront dinner. Aunt Debbie and Amy also went whale watching. It was a beautiful day and pretty scenery but I don’t know that Amy is one for “hunting” for things. It was great to have Aunt Debbie visit! We can’t wait for her to come again soon!
Aunt Debbie left a day too early and missed out on the fun of Seafare (she said she had to work or something silly like that!). Seafare is a big summer festival in Seattle. There are parades and boat races, and the coolest part is the Navy Blue Angels show. Our friend Bryley lives right on the lakefront where the planes fly so we were lucky enough to have a front row seat. It was very hot and loud so we’re not sure that the kids loved it this year but it played them out and they took a very long nap!
View our August 2012 photos.
We had a lot to celebrate in May. Zvonimir turned 40 (though he didn’t want to celebrate!) and we had a low key weekend at home. We went hiking and had a date night on the town. We also celebrated Amy’s new job. After 15 years at her old company, she took a new job working for a very small consulting firm.
Gabe and Zara are chatting up a storm. They get very frustrated when you don’t understand them but they seem to understand each other just fine. They learned at Gymboree to clean up when they are done playing with toys so they sing “Clean up clean up, everybody clean up.” They’re pretty good about putting their toys away. They also developed a love for play dough. It seems that they would be happy playing with play dough 24 hours a day! A recent ploy to get out of going to sleep is that they have to give Maggie a treat before they go to bed. At first Maggie was terrified and stayed as far away as possible, but it seems that now she’s starting to get it that she’ll get a treat if she’s there.
View our May 2012 photos.
We had a few really nice days in February and were able to get out some hiking in our local park. The kids did great. They walked nearly a mile in total and loved picking up sticks and leaves. The weather was so beautiful that we went hiking 2 days in a row. The 2nd day we went hiking on a gravel trail and it was Gabe’s mission to pick up as many rocks as he could. We quickly determined that if we didn’t put them in the backpacks, we would never make it to the lighthouse.
Ciara is doing an awesome job working with the kids to teach them colors, letters, and words. They say a lot of words but sometimes get very frustrated when we don’t understand them. They amaze us every day with the things they say or observations they make. For example, I learned that when I’m looking through their closet to find them an outfit I say “hmmmm, what should we wear?” I now know this because they both started going through the clothes going “hmmmm.” It’s pretty funny when they pick up on things that you don’t even realize you do!
Poor Zara continues to be a klutz. As she was running back the hall chasing Gabe, she fell head first into the corner of the wall. She had a huge goose egg on her head and our wall had a huge dent and crack but like a trooper Zara was up and running in no time. Zara is one tough little girl! She won’t let a boo boo or a rough brother get her down!
The kids love going to art class and doing art at home. They are so proud to show us their art creations!
View our February 2012 photos.
We took the kids sledding for the first time in January. We found a little hill near the ski resorts (about an hour away) that was perfect for the kids to go with us or by themselves. They had a blast sledding but found walking in their snow outfits difficult.
I had a genius idea to let the kids finger paint while sitting on the floor. I didn’t really think thru the whole leg/foot thing and would have been better off with them sitting at the table! Our kids really hate being dirty and having a “mess” so I’m not sure what they thought of it. My luck ran out when Gabe got paint on his toe. He flipped out and was done painting.
We had our first big snow in the city this year. We had gone to the Aquarium for the afternoon and didn’t bother to carry our jackets inside since we parked right across the street. By the time we came out it was like a blizzard and the roads were pretty terrible. About 2 miles away from the downtown, the snow stopped and there was not a trace of the snow for the next mile or our neighborhood. While we did not get any snow the entire first day, Ciara (our nanny) had over 6 inches in her neighborhood only a few miles away. It was a strange storm! Seattle historically doesn’t do well in snow storms because they have very few plows and do not believe in salting the road (affects the salmon population). We ended up working from home the entire week because we only had one car (Z’s car doesn’t work in snow!), and he would pick Ciara up and bring her here so we could both work from home. We had a lot of fun sledding in the neighborhood with the kiddos but by the end of the 7 days, we were all pretty happy to be back to our normal routines!
Zara and Gabe are continuing to talk more and more. Our favorite word is helicopter pronounced something like keli-cop-cop, other favorites include pocket – pock pock, airplane (we live in the flight path!) – bear-plane, clementine – clem-tine. Maggie is no longer nah-nah to Zara, she’s Cat. They’re starting to have a lot of opinions about what they want to wear and do (or not do!). They love giving kisses (and blowing kisses on skype), they love it when I jump out and say BOO, and they also love the water.
We took them to this award winning pool that is essentially a large baby pool with fountains, water dripping from above and a padded floor, a deeper pool, and a pool with a lazy river. The kids had a blast. We took them to the deeper section where they had floating mats you could jump off of. Even though they were wearing life jackets they still went under when they jumped in. We thought they would be upset but they immediately said MORE Please when they came out above water. At one point Zara lost her balance and fell backwards off the mat to the other side. I quickly swam under and met her on the other side but she wasn’t bothered in the least! We’re excited that they like the water so much and are looking into swimming lessons in the spring.
View our January 2012 photos.