Our Budding Naturalist?

19 05 2010

I made a few interesting discoveries about Patrick this weekend. First, while Alex has never show much interest for just taking a walk through the woods, Patrick may be more interested in the woods than in playgrounds. The whole family went to Ravenna playground this past weekend. While Alex remained firmly planted in the sandbox with mom, Patrick wandered off with me, found Ravenna Creek, and followed it through the ravine. All along the way, he kept pointing to the creek and saying, “Daddy! Waterfall!” (There are a few small waterfalls.) That was the second discovery: He knows the word “waterfall.” I didn’t teach it to him!

I took Patrick back to Ravenna today. (He was running a high fever in the morning so we had to keep him home, but by mid-morning he was happy and needed to get outside.) The novelty hadn’t worn off. He had a great time chasing after squirrels and crows, and he eagerly sought out every source of running water he could hear.

Mischevious

I Like Dirt





Today’s Funny Alex Story

17 05 2010

One of the “floater” teachers stopped me as I was picking up the kids this afternoon. She told me that she had stopped by Alex’s classroom at snack time, and he looked sad. She told me about their conversation.

Teacher: Alex, why are you sad?

Alex: Because all of these people want to marry me, and I can only marry one!

Teacher: Oh! Well, which one will you marry?

Alex: Annika. She asked me first.

I’ll let you know when they’ve set a date!





We’re Part of the Revolution

17 05 2010

Our friend Dawn noticed this on Friday:

http://jofrsea.com/post/534092117/teach-a-kid-to-cook-day

Keep scrolling to the bottom.





Another Year, Another Street Fair

16 05 2010

This is the third year we’ve brought the kids to the University District Street Fair. It’s turned into a nice little tradition.

Face Paint

Street fairs bring comfortable predictability. You know you’ll get to eat fried food. You’ll walk past countless booths selling pottery and paintings. This being Seattle, you’ll see petitioners gathering signatures to legalize marijuana.

What I didn’t realize until this year, though, is the University District Street Fair is not just predictable, it’s actually identical year after year. The same street performers were at the same bus stop. The same photographer sold the same triptychs of mountain wildflowers. There were the same people making balloon animals. It’s Groundhog Day in May.

En Garde!

Feed the Frog

We did encounter one new gem, though: A jump rope performance by Ropeworks. I didn’t know you could make a “performance” out of jumping rope, any more than you could make a performance of squat thrusts. It’s just something from gym class, right?

Well, just check out the video.

That’s one thing I’d be happy to watch again, year after year.

Ropeworks





Red and Blue

13 05 2010


Red and Blue, originally uploaded by B.K. Dewey.

Patrick clearly enjoyed his vacation!





Boy Meets Dinosaur

1 04 2010


Boy Meets Dinosaur, originally uploaded by B.K. Dewey.

One of our adventures in St. Louis was the Science Center. In the basement, they have a life sized animatronic Tyrannosaurus Rex, which had just killed a life-sized Triceratops. It’s amazing how BIG these creatures were. When you stand under the T. Rex, you just feel small. When you walk down the staircase to get to the exhibit, though, you’re level with the T. Rex’s head and he’s staring right at you… THAT’s scary, even to an adult. Alex didn’t linger on the stairs!





Back From St. Louis

30 03 2010

We’re safely home from our trip to St. Louis. This is was my first plane flight since I dictatorially imposed a travel moratorium that started when Patrick could walk and was supposed to end when Patrick turned two… (Alex resumed being a good traveller on his trip to Maine when he was a little over two years old, so that’s been my yardstick.)

We returned from the trip with no travelling-with-children horror stories, so I think that’s a resounding success! Yes, Patrick was a little fussy on the plane. And no, the timezones did not work in our favor… the kids still thought 6:30 was a perfectly reasonable time to wake up. And of course, in spite of slipping effortlessly into St. Louis time, upon the return to Seattle they stayed stuck in Central Time and woke up at 4:30. But if that’s all we have to complain about, it must have been a good trip indeed!

Photobomb!Stolen Walking StickBoysFamily Visit





Getting More Vocal?

15 03 2010

Patrick’s language seems to be entering that rapid development phase that comes around two. Today, we were playing in the back yard when Cleo escaped. When I put her back inside, Patrick pointed and said, Cleo (which was expected), and then he said House (which is starting to sound like he’s trying to put a sentence together).
And this was his note from school today:

At nap, Patrick was being very vocal. While Tricia [one of the teachers] was cleaning, he kept saying, “Hi Shi-Sha!” And when Tricia walked over to the other side of the room to start patting kids’ backs, he started yelling, “HI SHI-SHA!!” All of a sudden, he says, “How you?” It was adorable!

Kiss





A few more Patrick notes

10 03 2010

From today:

Patrick told Matt [one of the teachers] that he was poopy this morning so that he would change him. When Matt checked Patrick, he wasn’t poopy. Patrick just laughed, then proceeded to check Matt to see if he was poopy! It was funny and very unexpected!

And yesterday. (The context: The toddlers got to do “a day at the beach” — they filled a large container with blue sand and had little plastic starfish to play with.)

Patrick loved running his fingers through the sand during our sensory table activity. He was so serious at first, but as soon as he saw me pull out the camera, he kept yelling, “CHEESE! CHEESE!” and holding up various sea animals to show me.

Talk to the Hand (Unretouched)





From The Bark

9 03 2010


From The Bark, originally uploaded by B.K. Dewey.

What I think is coolest about cherry trees is how you get clusters of blossoms coming right out of the trunk of the tree. It’s like it can’t decide if it’s a tree or a bush.