Dd turned 2!

Dd turned 2 in October and we managed a socially distanced (bring your own food) party with close family up at Jack's family's property, near Cle Elum.  I was happy to share it with my family and delighted to learn that it was Jack's (maternal) grandma's first visit after 30 years of Jack's mom and step dad being together.

The balloons were popped quickly

model social distancing

GG dressed for the parade walk my mom lead

Dd remains a delight.  His particular interests are trucks and infrastructure like heating systems and drains of all kinds.   

He's a good sleeper, a good eater and a pretty happy kid.  His most common malapropism is "pick my body out" (instead of "up" which is usually when he's hungry and we're trying to cook).   The song we are most sick of singing is Old MacDonald, which is mostly about trucks, not animals.  Our copy of "Machines Go To Work in the City" is heavily taped and much-loved by Dd as it was by D.  Being a second child seems to work well for Dd and he has been exposed to bad knock knock jokes at an earlier age.  His are all about food and don't have a punchline.

As is typical, his verbal skills have rocketed up this year and he recognizes most letters and numbers.   Our present to him was a three-wheeled scooter and he has learned to actually coast on it, although the breaking is not yet reliable.   His hair only just grew long enough to be cut and he continues to resemble Jack as a kid.

zip strips are holding us down and keeping us stationary!

I know we have much more serious issues facing us, but here's an annoying little thing in our lives.  In July, we returned home from a getaway with our bikes safely attached to our car.  After taking them off the bike rack, we somehow lost our bag of plastic clips that attach the bikes to the rack.    We realized they were gone in August.  We've searched and organized the basement, but I think we must have left them outside or on the car perhaps.  In any case, they are literally impossible to buy and this is the first time we've ever encountered this in our spoiled little lives.

We ordered them in August and they were supposed to come in October, and now that site says they will come in March.   We ordered some more on Amazon, but we are pretty sure they are just lying about having them in stock as the shipment is just inexplicably delayed now.

We've tied the bikes on to the rack once but it was pretty hard and time consuming and still didn't feel very secure.  Considering that it takes us a really long time to just load the bikes, drive somewhere and unload them, even at the best of times, we will be riding from home for the foreseeable future.

On the other hand, considering the shortage of all things bike related, we did have a lot of good bike buying luck this year.  I bought a new bike in January,  just before the bottom dropped out. In addition to the uber feminine "acid strawberry" color, it has frame dimensions for women, which I've learned is essential for me  (no more reaching way forward for the handlebars, while having the seat all the way up).

The kids are growing like weeds so we've been changing bike set ups a lot.   In April we got D a used bike for a good price that was borderline too big (24" wheels), but a month later seemed just right for him.  Within a couple of months he was shifting gears pretty well.  Dd showed that he had outgrown the Burley trailer by being able to stick his foot out to reach the back tire of the parent towing him, or smooshing the side of the trailer so that the wheel rubbed.  So we sold that and bought and bought a used Weehoo trailer, also in April. Then in August we bought D a really nice used  (Burley piccolo) ride-along for a great price as well.  It is way more stable than the $40 ride along we bought last year and can fit him for a few years.  It even has gears!   With both kids in trailers we can safely ride from home.

Soos Creek trail in January.  D is on the ride-along because there were hills and he didn't have a gear bike yet.

First time on the big bike on the Green River trail in April

We did the Green River trail again

This was the last trip where we had the clips, in July.

We rode in Yelm in July

Dd started on D's old strider bike.

Riding in our neighborhood in October with D on the new ride-along

kitchen upgrades

We’ve been cooking more than ever during this pandemic.  Jack and I went on a dinner date in February and we get takeout every other week or maybe less.  It always seems like a good idea when we're busy, but then the money and time it takes to decide what to get, to order it and maybe to pick it up often doesn't feel like that much of a time saver.  

Restaurants have been open in King County with lots of restrictions, but they don't sound appealing, especially with the kids.  A year ago, my favorite place to eat was the Whole Foods hot food bar, but that is also not a realistic option these days.

Anyway, we like to double recipes and cook big portions so we've now outgrown several kitchen things.  The instant pot doesn't build up pressure if it is more than about 2/3 full and literally not being able to stir a soup in the dutch oven for lack of space is quite annoying.  If you make a one pot meal, it has to be a pretty big pot :)

Happily we were able to sell our 6 quart Instant Pot and put the money towards a 10 quart model.  My goal is to use it every day so that Jack won't put it away in the cupboard.

We also used our 4 cup glass measuring cup so much that all of the lines and numbers wore off and when I went to replace it I saw an 8 cup measuring cup with a lid, so I went with that.  It's great.

Lastly, we just welcomed our 13.25 quart cauldron, which we considered for about six months before finally seeing a real sale on the non-doll-house-sized le creusets!

We are ready for a new president

Actually we are beyond ready.  

D was quite curious and engaged with many of our voting decisions and the whole political process, listening in on the politics podcast Jack frequently listens to.  

It’s interesting to watch much of the rest of the country start working from home and voting by mail/drop box. Just as I am totally accustomed to working from home already it’s hard to remember when we had to vote in person.  

the series of the moment

No, not the world series .... books!

The Seattle Public Library finally opened up a few weeks ago for curbside pickup.  I've been going once a week to pick up holds and D's rate of reading and the fact that there's no browsing has been keeping me on my toes.   My mom has also brought us lots of new books for the last few months since the King County Libraries opened earlier.

For better or worse, children's chapter books seem to be all in series so I've had to get organized about tracking which books he's already read.  To celebrate D's reading and to keep track of future books for Dd, here are the series we've been reading.  He reads a lot of these in about an hour, so finding age appropriate stories that can keep him busy for longer periods of time is getting tougher.   

Series We Have Read Several of:

• Dog Man - graphic novels with witty pun titles referencing classic titles like "Brawl of the Wild", these are probably D's favorites
• CatStronauts - also graphic novels that make D laugh, set in space
• Captain Awesome - I don't really know but D seemed to enjoy them
• Sherlock Sam - these have a higher level vocabulary and have been mostly read aloud books.  They are set in Singapore.
• The Clubhouse Mysteries/Black Dinosaurs - We started out reading these aloud and then he kept finishing them on his own.  The characters are pre-teens who keep getting into scrapes.

Series We Have Just Started:

• Desmond Cole - ghost stories - we've read one and look forward to more
• Luciana -  science adventures
• Cam Jansen - I think I read some of these as a kid and they are plentiful, quick mystery reads
• Upside-down Magic - a misfit girl with magical powers
• Lemonade Wars - set in a the real world, with lots of math embedded in the story

Books We Want to Read:

• Redwall
• Narnia
• Trumpet of The Swans -- one I still remember that is not part of a series!!
• Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter - we'll continue with these when the time is right

Lastly the category of books we have read 5,000 times is brought to you by Dd.  All four of us can recite “machines go to work in the city” by heart. 

Did you see highly camouflaged D in this last picture?   Boo!

beach - smoke - beach - sickness

As noted, September has a miserable amount of wildfire smoke.  Dd brought home a cold that knocked me down as well.  Miraculously we managed two little getaways exactly in the gaps without smoke or sickness.

At Grayland Beach State park (Yurt 118) we had relaxing time wandering the beach and visiting with my sister and brother in law.  Packing was even on the simpler sides since we shared dinners, didn't pack all the normal tent camping sleeping gear or our bikes.   It was a little cool, but that suited us.

Two weeks later we took the new Argosy small ferry to Blake Island and met my parents there, who kindly carried most of our gear.  They have probably taken their boat there four or five times this season since it is one of their closest getaways from Des Moines.  We had planned to camp two nights but the smoke didn't let up until Saturday morning and Dd's cold improved a lot Friday evening, so we were pleasantly surprised to make it there for one night of camping.  Because of the recent departure of the smoke and a rainy Friday night, the very popular park was nearly empty on Saturday and Sunday morning, which was a treat.  We played on the beach, hiked a bit and spent some good time with my parents.   We had a gorgeous site (#28) and set up our tarp very successfully because there was a bit of rain.  We bought a new tent at the end of last season and this was our second time using it and our first time testing it in the rain and worked very well (unlike the tent it replaced, which would have been miserable in a serious rain).  No one could say we slept well, but compared to our camping trip last August, it was a big improvement. 

thoughts on childcare

This is the first month in our parenting career where one of our kids is enrolled in full time childcare.   

I’ve been through quite an evolution in my thoughts on daycare.  Initially it made me a little sad to send D, and I do still think there are some dismal childcare situations out there.  Now, however, I feel bad for the kids (over age one) who are missing out on the consistent, group experience.  In the time before preschool age there is so much to be gained!

That said, the social benefits of childcare definitely don’t depend on full time attendance, so that part is about families making it work, like us, right now.

We have been so lucky for so many years to have regular help from our parents.  Having grandparents help 1-2 days a week balanced routine social time with other kids with one-on-one attention and flexibility.   Together our parents and the kids (hardly ever both kids, due to timing) read lots of  books, went on adventures, napped according to our kid’s needs and gave us the chance to go to mid day music classes or the library.  They also did loads of dishes and laundry :)

It’s sad that this is over, at least for a while longer.  Dd knows his grandparents well, but I hope they gets the bond that D has, from regular time together without the interference of me and Jack (well, mostly).

However, in a time where childcare centers, which already struggled (being simultaneously expensive for many families and not being able to pay workers well enough), are closing left and right because of COVID-19 challenges, we feel so extremely fortunate to be part of a center that is well-run, convenient, cheerful and reliable.  It is not only shielding us from some unknown upheaval of our careers and finances, but it is providing Dd with developmentally key normalcy in this bizarre reality.

Speaking of reality, this full time thing is still theoretical.  The last week of August was the center's annual closure week for cleaning, organizing and planning.  Since Labor Day the kids have been kept inside because of the air quality and perhaps this lack of outside time is the cause of the longest nap mutiny I’ve heard of in any of the classrooms.   Dd has skipped napping altogether a few days and had several days with 30 minute naps instead of his typical 1.5 hour school nap.   Then Monday's air quality was so bad that we kept him home because the center didn’t yet have air filters.  Today he is home, and currently in the bath, with a runny nose that would not prevented him from attending school during normal times.   

But hey, I already took some time off this week in anticipation of another little vacation that is delayed (or cancelled?) because..... it's 2020.

Since we no longer go inside the center for drop off or pick up they've been good about sending us pictures more often.  Here are a few recent ones.

Lastly, D, who was originally signed up for seven weeks of camp this summer, got to go to five weeks of summer camp.   Two were at the science center and the rest were at or near the arboretum.  There were a few covid scares that turned out to be nothing, but we were so extremely grateful he got to go out and do things away from us before diving back into another at-home school year.

I get a good laugh when I remember worrying in February about the one week of summer we hadn't yet filled with a camp for D.