No, Mine!

Sweet Audrey will be 2 years old in a short couple weeks and is showing signs of being quite a firecracker. Her two heroes are Brother and DaDa. Anything Cole does (good or bad, but most notably bad) is copied almost immediately. She clearly idolizes her brother. She is also starting to talk more clearly.

No, mine, shoes, juice, mama, dada, flower, up. I know that she's saying more but we're not listening well enough.

We've had a super bug run through Bellingham taking out the young and old. Both Cole and Audrey have been sick and many of Cole's classmates as well as his teacher. This week they've only had 6 out of 15 kids attending Cole's preschool. I'm crossing my fingers that I'll come out unscathed but it seems unlikely.

I worked in Cole's classroom this week and snapped some pictures.

Teacher Heidi demonstrating the watercolor egg project.

Cole and friend Maren working on watercolor egg. These two get along really well. Cole played over at Maren's house and we had Maren over to our house last week. She has an older brother so she knows how to play "army" and she can hold her own.

Making hand-print chicks.

Chicks with tissue paper cherry tree.

No cherry tree blossoms for us this year. Sigh. We miss our lovely cherry tree in our lovely backyard at the Seattle house. Seattle backyard April 2008.

Story time. I Am an Ankylosaurus.

Cole's classroom.

Cole's new thing. LEGO.





Carrot sword dueling.

Good times at Pacific Science Center. Always Cole's choice for a Seattle outing.

Crazy NW Weather

We got some snow last week. The perfect kind of snow - enough to make a snowman but doesn't keep you from getting out of the house and goes away the next day.

Cole and Audrey played outside at their "sibling class".

Another one of Audrey just because I like this picture too.



00Arrow

Lauren, Cole and Alyssa (our neighbor) building a snow castle.


Family Day at the beach. It was sunny when we left the house but when we got to Deception Pass it was frigid and blowing with intermittent icy rain. The kids braved the weather for about 3 minutes then we retreated to the warm car for snacks.




Windswept ears.

Tired Audrey

San Francisco and more boat shopping

Alex casually mentioned we should go to San Francisco this past weekend. I love SF and haven't been in a long time so I took the bait. Turns out it was a sail boat shopping trip. Everyone won in the end - we all had a grand time sight seeing, visited with Alex's family, and saw four boats around the Bay area.

Day 1: We by chance visited on the weekend Louis threw his mom a surprise birthday party. So we got to visit with Alex's uncle, aunt, and cousins and eat delightful chocolate birthday cake too! Happy Birthday Rachel! Louis by the way was cheerful and having fun directing the proceedings.

We went to see the Golden Gate Bridge at night and sang "When the lights go down on the city, and the sun shines on the baaayy."

Day 2: Sight seeing at Fisherman's Wharf.


Toured USS Pampanito.






We spent the rest of the day at the Exploratorium.

Fun with magnetism.




Dad and Audrey got some quality time together on this trip.




Everyone was thoroughly worn out after a couple hours so we got into the car and drove over the bridge to Marin Co to see a sailboat. Sadly, a wooden boat in need of a lot of maintenance. The drive back induced much needed naps in both Cole and Audrey so we drove around seeing more of the city.

We ate tasty Tandoori Chicken, Palak Paneer, and Naan with cousin Judy at a restaurant a couple blocks from her apartment. We then walked across the street to enjoy the tastiest latte I've had in recent memory.

Day 3: The kids and I went to the California Academy of Sciences while Alex went to see another boat. This interactive museum was recently renovated and is phenomenal.

We dined in the grooviest cafeteria I've ever seen. No canned green beans or mashed potatoes here. We chose brown rice and a broccoli/cauliflower stir fry (and chocolate milk).


We went upstairs to check out the living roof. The tallest mound is the top of the rain forest exhibit.



Cole got upset when he saw the elevator was leaving us behind. I was trying to convince them to stand still for a sibling picture.


The aquarium was a nice cool and calming place to visit after the steaming heat of the rain forest dome.


We then headed out of town to visit the Golden Gate Bridge and see another boat.






Day 4: Almost everything about the Bay Area was enchanting; the architecture, parks, water, beaches, bridges.

Of the four boats we went down to see only one looked promising.


Cole was in denial about going home and kept trying to convince us we weren't leaving California yet.

But here we are ... and it's snowing.

Arrow, paleontologist

One of Cole's enduring interests is paleontology. He loves the idea of being a scientist.

We recently picked up a Baby Dino Egg Excavation Kit. It's an egg made of plaster with a "baby dino" hidden inside. The kit includes a wooden digging tool and a brush for excavating.

I hid it for him in a dinosaur nest (a pile of leaves and brush) and he got to work on the painstaking process of unearthing the baby dino.




Audrey helped a little.




The result of approximately an hour of play/work.


One of the things I adore about Cole is that he TOTALLY got into the idea of being a paleontologist. It doesn't take much to get his imagination fully engaged. His mind didn't automatically go to the end result - the plastic dinosaur inside. He was more interested in the process.

The egg provided even more imaginative play when Cole had his friend over the next day. Our friends Lisa and her daughter Ava came up for an overnight stay last week. This was Cole's first sleep over. He's been talking about it ever since we read the Berenstain Bears and the Slumber Party. Ava and Cole played well together all day then slept in sleeping bags on Cole's bedroom floor.

Goofin' in pj's.

Let's Share

Cole and I love lime popsicles and now Audrey does too. She makes a gigantic mess if you give her a whole one but I cut it up into bite sized pieces and put them in a bowl for her.

We only had two left so she and I split one and Cole got one of his own (he had a sore throat, no really!). He was still working on his after we finished but Audrey thought she could convince him to share. No such luck but it made for a cute scene.

We love Canada

Another sunny day in Sudden Valley but overcast and foggy in town and all the way into Vancouver. Alex wanted to take a look at a couple sailing boats so we made a day of it. We stopped in Ladner to look at a pretty wooden boat. If we must own a boat then I wouldn't mind if it were this one - although Alex thought it was overpriced. It has a lot of character and the man selling it has even more.

His name is Will and he seems to be a woodworker. He built his float home and refurbishes wood boats. I wish I would have taken pictures BUT with the magic of the Internet (and also because Will is selling) you can see it right here. We introduced the kids and Cole impetuously said his name wasn't Cole but instead was Arrow (He's insisted his name is Arrow for a month or more). Cole thinks we should call Audrey "Bow". For the entire time we visited, Will addressed him respectfully as Arrow. Cole had a grand time climbing and exploring the two boats Will has for sale. One a Hinkley 34 Sloop



and the other an old fishing boat.



Alex then dropped Cole and I off at the science museum while he and Audrey went to look at the other boat in West Van. We made a Ring Wing Glider in the "Contraption Corner." Here are some instructions.



Cole played with a computer program called Kaleidodraw. He is attracted to anything involving a screen.



Next we checked out a LEGO exhibit that I thought was amazing.













They had bins of LEGO out to make cars for racing down a ramp.



The place was a zoo, however, and Cole was too intimidated to try to make a car. So he sat in the DUPLO model of a car instead.



A trip to Science World is not complete without a visit to the giant hamburger. Inside the giant hamburger they play videos about farming and what goes into the making of a hamburger. The draw for Cole is a Star Wars spoof called Store Wars: The Organic Rebellion. In this video organic rebels Obi Wan Cannoli, Cuke Skywalker, and Princess Lettuce fight against the evil Lord Tater and the Dark Side of the Farm.