Family Pictures

This summer we had the opportunity to have some amazing photographers and friends of ours take some family pictures of us. I am impressed with them because I know how hard it is to take pictures of kids and actually keep them looking at you the whole time. It gets even more complicated with parents looking at the kids and trying to get them to look as well. Brett and Emily Faulknor were fantastic and did wonderful entertaining the girls and keeping them focused on a hot day for an extended period of time. Not only that, they got some GREAT pictures. So here are a few of them.

Crazy Summer

This summer has seemed especially crazy to me. Maybe it is life with two young children. Or maybe it is all of the different things we try to pack into the summer months. I think that partially, it is the fact that everyone in the Spokane area is fully aware that winter is coming again, and it is hard to predict how long our activities might be limited by the winter weather. Regardless of the reasons why, this summer has been busy.
Early in July we had the chance to pack up our little car and go on a road trip. We drove about 1800 miles in 9 days, saw most of Jamie's family, spent time with friends in Redding, went on a safari, and spent some mostly sleepless nights in a hotel. It was great to be at the cabin with family and really fun to spend some relaxing days at Trinity Lake. We got to swim, wakeboard, fish, and just enjoy being together. Natalie especially loved the time with family and still talks about her aunts and uncles and cousin Micah all the time. I think her favorite part was having two dogs around though. A lot of times she would just follow Cooper and Bailey around and talk to them and give them hugs and kisses. The girl truly loves animals. We then spent a couple of short days in Redding and really had a good time catching up with some good friends.
Since then, we have been busy enjoying the summer back at our house. We had some friends visit us from Redding a couple weekends ago and it was a special treat to spend time with Derrick and Danielle twice in the same month. Plus Natalie loved playing with Judah and Zoe and now she wants us to get her some transformers, since Judah had some that he played with a lot. After they left, both girls came down with a ridiculous throat virus that causes a severely painful sore throat so that they did not want to swallow anything - including their own saliva. We had to force them to drink to stay hydrated and mostly they just cried because of the pain and the high fever as well. Thankfully they are mostly healed from that now.
In the last few days, Kaia has pretty much decided that she is going to walk. A few days ago she would take a step or two before falling, but now she is often going most of the way across a room before falling. She is a determined little girl and progressing rapidly. It is crazy to see two little girls walking around our house now!
So that is a brief synopsis of the things happening in our world this summer. More to follow, including deep and profound thoughts. I just need to find someone willing to share those thoughts with me first...

The Truth

Brownie bear was my favorite stuffed animal when I was growing up. He was the one stuffed animal that I slept with every night for years. In fact, his right arm is permanently bent downward form where it was tucked under my left arm. On the other side, his left arm is curved upward from where I would grip it with my left hand and pull him close to me. His face is also lopsided from me laying on him for years. His ears are worn down and he has boots that my grandma sewed on after his feet got holes. He also has a hand knit sweater that my grandma made him. Consider yourself officially introduced to Brownie bear.

For several months now, Natalie has had Brownie on her bed, along with a plethora of other animals, when she sleeps. We have told her repeatedly to be careful with him since he is very old and he used to be Daddy's bear. The other day, Jamie went into Natalie's room after a nap and found Natalie quite concerned about Brownie bear. You see, Brownie's arm had come out of his sweater. Natalie has tried to take the sweater off before, but we asked her to leave it on so it doesn't get lost, or stretched out, etc. Anyway, Jamie asked Natalie how Brownie's arm came out of his sweater and Natalie said " I don't know". Jamie then asked if Natalie had taken it out of the sweater to which Natalie replied, "I'm a little baby, I can't tell you the truth."

What in the world kid?

Glimpses of Life Right Now

Kaia is crawling. That is enough to keep anyone busy. She started crawling a few weeks ago and ever since then, she is a speedy little kid who loves to crawl over to all the things she isn't supposed to get into and try to steal a few glorious moments of forbidden pleasure. For instance, she loves to suck and chew on shoes. As you can imagine, that is not the most sanitary of practices, so we have been hiding our shoes lately. She also loves to crawl to the book shelf and pull books off of it before we can get to her. She doesn't seem to want to play with them, just pull them off the shelf. She is a very determined and curious little girl.
Natalie isa walking now. Ok, she has been walking for well over a year and a half. She is still an incredibly intelligent little girl who has started asking the "why" questions a lot more. She is eager to understand why we tell her to do things, or not do them. She is curious about what we are doing and why we are doing it. The most impressive thing to me though is her large vocabulary and her articulate way of communicating. She sommunicates really well with kids who are several years older than herself, so it actually makes it hard for them to understand that she is not close to them in age. We find that older kids often treat her like an older kid herself. This creates some issues when they expect her to understand certain things that are beyond the grasp of a two year old. She does really good though for the most part. It must be hard being so smart sometimes!
One of our favorite things in the world lately is to see our daughters interact and make each other laugh. It is so great to see them light up and smile with pure joy when they play together or see each other first thing in the morning. We have learned though, that Kaia laughs at just about everything that Natalie does. That includes when Natalie is a bit rough with her. Yesterday, Jamie heard the girls both laughing and giggling a lot and when in the other room to see what was so funny. It turns out that Kaia was laying on her back and Natalie had laid on top of her with her arms and legs spread out like superman! I guess it is good that Kaia finds that sort of thing funny, we just have to be careful because it encourages Natalie to play rough. I mean seriously Kaia, don't laugh at your sister when she is hitting you, kicking you, or pushing you over - it just makes our job that much harder.
Anyway, that is a glimpse of our life right now with two wonderful girls.

Bad Drivers

I am not sure what the real cause is, but it seems like there are a lot more bad drivers around this area than there used to be. Maybe my memory is being too generous with the past. Or maybe more people are just trying to drive while texting on their cell phones. Then again, maybe people are just truly as clueless about traffic rules as they appear to be.
When we lived inthe Philippines, the traffic appeared to be chaos at first. Yet after observing it for a while, it started to become clear that there was a definite system at work. It was very different from what I was used to, but since everyone seemed to be using that same system it worked. When I started driving there, it became even more clear. What appeared to be chaos was just a very fluid system of give and take - kind of like water flowing down a hill and finding the path of least resistance.
Coming back to the United States was an adjustment at first. I still slowed down for green lights in case traffic just decided to go on a red light. I found myself slightly more aggressive in my driving habits at times. Also, my awareness of motorcycles increased greatly. I gradually settled back into the "system" that we have in place here where people are expected to obey the laws, merge safely, and actually pay attention to lane lines. the problem seems to be that there are a handful of people trying to mix the two different systems. The vast majority of people here try to follow the laws but the ones that don't, either purposefully or because they are oblivious, create some serious safety issues. So for now, let me just express a few of my frustrations specifically.

Four way stops: Please learn the "right-of-way" concept! The first person to arrive is the first person to go. If two cars arrive at the same time, the person on the right goes first. It really should not be that hard. I mean the term "right-of-way" actually has the word "right" in it.

Merging on the Freeway: When you merge with traffic you are actually supposed to look and see if there are cars already in the lane. You can't just drive onto the freeway without even looking at the existing traffic in the nearest lane. Another key to merging is to be going close to the speed of the traffic on the freeway. It is NOT good to come to a near stop and wait for an opening to try and get in.

Turning: When there are multiple turn lanes, the car in the inside turn lane is supposed to turn into the nearest lane.

Changing lanes: When you need to change lanes, put on your turn signal and gradually merge into the next lane when there is an opening. It is NOT safe to just stop in the middle of a four lane road and put your turn signal on hoping that traffic will stop and let you in.

I suppose that is enough complaining for now. I think I just expected to feel at least as safe on our roads as I did in the Philippines, but I often find myself more frustrated and nervous here than I usually did there. Driving is for real, take it seriously.

Anomalies of Parenting

Why is it that when kids get to bed later than normal, and are more tired than normal, they seem to sleep worse?

How does Natalie hear me so accurately when I mumble something (sometimes not appropriate) under my breath, but she fails to hear me speak the words "no" or "stop" when she is right in front of me?

How do my girls test every last piece of my patience and yet manage to completely melt my hear with one look or sometimes a few words?

How can someone so small and seemingly helpless teach me so much about myself, life, and what is important? I thought I was supposed to teach them?

Reading

The other day Natalie brought out a couple of Curious George books while I was sitting in the living room with Kaia. I asked her if she wanted me to read them to her and she emphatically told me that SHE was going to read them to ME. So I sat back as she opened "Curious George Goes Camping". Keep in mind that we have only had this book for about two weeks and we might read it to her once a day or occasionally twice. Natalie started on the first page and "read" it word for word! I was surprised but I figured that maybe she had the first page or two memorized, but after that she would just make something up while looking at the pictures. The crazy thing is that she turned each page and told me exactly what each page said with the exception of a word here and there. I am pretty sure she can't truly read yet, but she had the whole story memorized word for word! By the time she was at the end of the story I could hardly congratulate her enough...I was just so amazed. But I guess Natalie has always had a really good memory.
But who knows, maybe she is starting to read. The week before Easter, a local church came to hang fliers on our door knob telling us about their Easter services. I grabbed the flier and set it on the table where Natalie found it. She picked it up and asked me what it had on it. I told her it was words and asked her if she could tell me what words it had on it. She said "God". OK, I figured she just made a guess, and as coincidence would have it, it was a church flier that DID actually have the word "God" on it. So I asked her where the word "God" was and she pointed directly at it! This kid amazes me and kind of scares me already.

Camels

About a week ago we decided to take the scenic route home from town. We drove out through the countryside where I grew up and decided to go past a farm where the owner has collected and bred exotic animals for several decades now. While there was not a lot of animals there this time, we did get to see a couple camels and a cute "little" camel that looked like it had been recently born.
Natalie liked seeing the camels, but I did not realize that she remembered the event so well since it was pretty short. Well, this weekend we went to my parents house for Easter. The first morning we were there, four elk walked through my parent's yard pretty close to their house. As we all looked out the window and watched them, Natalie said, "look at the camels." So there may not be many wild camels just outside Seattle, but at least she has a good memory and associated them with a similar animal.

Potty Training

So we are starting the gradual process of potty training with Natalie. It has definitely been a gradual process as we are trying to encourage her to tell us when she needs to go to the bathroom but she often doesn't say anything. So we have started to try to find ways to motivate her. We will cheer for her, clap, sing songs, and tell her how proud we are when she does use the toilet and that seems to help a bit, but so far the most effective motivator is if we give her a hanful of M&M's every time she goes to the bathroom in the toilet.
Well a couple weeks ago we were at some friends house when we noticed that Natalie had followed one of their daughters into the bathroom and was standing right in front of her watching her go to the bathroom. Jamie rushed in to tell Natalie that we needed to let her have her privacy. The other girl was about four or five years old so I would guess that she has been potty trained for a while. When Jamie told Natalie to leave the bathroom and let her be alone Natalie looked up hat her and said very sincerely, "But I am just so proud of her!" As Jamie held back her laughter and started to pull Natalie out of the bathroom, Natalie broke out in a cheer and said , "Yay!" and started clapping for her.
Well I guess we have at least been successful in teaching her that going to the bathroom in a toilet is something to be celebrated...now we just have to teach her the appropriate time for celebrating and the people to celebrate with!

Going on a Date

So last week Natalie started asking more about times when Jamie and I would go out on a "date". So we decided it was time for me to take her on a date. I have taken her out to do special things before, but this one was actually called a "date".
So Natalie got all dressed up in a pretty dress, put on some make up, and borrowed a pretty necklace from Jamie. Then we left for our date. We headed to a pet store for the first stop. While we were driving there, Natalie asked me when we would get to the date. I told her that we were already on the date but she quickly corrected me saying, "no we're not on a date, we're on the road". Ok, so the concept of a date as an event might be a ways off. She actually asked me that several times throughout the night.
So the pet store was fun, and she had a great time walking around a large glass tank, chasing a tortoise. She also like the tarantula and the birds a lot this time. In fact, she told me that when she was older she was going to get a pet bird so that she could "throw it up to the ceiling and it could fly all around and around and around and around." Maybe I will just get her a hamster.
After the pet store, we went to dinner at IHOP to get some pancakes. She was very polite and after I had ordered our food she looked at the waitress very pleadingly and said, "please can I have some pancakes?" Apparently she did not realize that I ordered her food as well as my own. Either way it was very cute. then to finish off the night, we went to a store down the road and bought her a magnifying glass. She had seen one somewhere and liked them, so I got one for her to play with.
It was a fun date, but the best part was at dinner when she just leaned her head into me and said "I love you daddy." That is what it's all about. She can make my heart melt like none other.

Sickness, sleep deprivation, and bad dreams

So we have all been sick off an on for a few weeks now and seem to be passing around the colds and recycling them in our house. It is a miserable version of the cold that settles in your chest and gets you all congested in their so that you cough and sound like you are trying to cough up a wet rag. Anyway, that has led to less sleep than normal (it is possible) and long nights. Last night was actually a "good" night in my opinion because I was only up 6 times, and only one of those lasted more than 15 minutes.
The most interesting part of the night though was when Natalie woke up screaming. I went in her room and she was crying and saying something about holding hands with Grover from Sesame Street. Apparently she had a bad dream that involved Grover, her, and her having to let go of his hand. It breaks your heart to have your child wake up from a nightmare, but at the same time, it is hard not to laugh out loud when she tells you what the scary dream was. I held it together though and managed to pray with her and rub her head until she was almost asleep again.
Oh, the joys of everyday life!

Politics and a 2 Year Old

So on Tuesday morning, the day of President Barack Obama's inauguration, we decided to flip on the TV and watch what we could of the event. Natalie was a bit disappointed that she didn't get to watch Curious George, so I tried to explain to her that on that day, Barack Obama was becoming our president so we wanted to watch. Shortly after that conversation, I had to leave for work. Then, just a few minutes after I had left, Natalie walked out of her room and came right up to Jamie and said "Barack Obama is coming over today and bringing presents!". If only it could all be that simple - Barack Obama and presents, at our house.

The Slide

Just a little video of Natalie having fun in the snow!

What a Winter

So the snow just keeps coming. We keep breaking records. Now, on top of all that, it has warmed up abnormally fast and the warm weather is coming with a lot of rain. For those not familiar with snow, it acts like a sponge with rain. Roofs are collapsing, streets are flooding, many schools are still closed and unable to reopen after the Christmas break. Crazy. But I am having fun. Here is an article from the national news.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090107/ap_on_re_us/spokane_snow_blues