Mud

Our dainty, girly, princess.......I mean our dirty, belly laughing, smarter than her own good Hailey loves water. She also loves dirt. Well, she really loves mud!

The video probably says it best. But the pictures will be worth showing her a few years down the road :)

Preparation

Test run

Good times

Why we will be taking many showers and going through many clothes each day this summer

Yummy Ice Cream

The Big Difference

I feel like this sums up one of the big differences between Tyler and Hailey.

Tyler, after swinging through the sprinkler, "mom, can you bring me a towel to dry off my feet. They are wet and I have a piece of grass on them.

Me, " Why don't you get off the swing and come over to the deck to dry them off. If you dry them on the swing they are just going to get wet and grassy again when you get off the swing and step on the ground.

Tyler, "Can you just bring me my sandals then?"

Hailey, on our way home from the zoo, eating a chewy granola bar. "Mommy, mommy, look at this"

"What is it Hailey", as I turn around.

"My toes!" she exclaims with a huge smile as I see half the granola bar deliberately squished in between all her toes.

The Zoo

Dave's schedule is changing for a month or so (there goes my routines :)) starting today which is a little bit of a drag. But, on the upside, he ended up getting a four day weekend. We took advantage of his Tuesday off to go to the zoo. The kids had a great time. Tyler as always, loved bug world. The new penguin exhibit was a big hit and so was zoomazeum. Tyler loves the slides at the zoomazeum. Hailey discovered the puzzle tent and probably spent 20 minutes in there working on puzzles. They have these fantastic wood puzzles and she particularly loved the penguin puzzlebecause it had numbers on that you were suppose to put in order. She loved searching for the numbers. She really only left because we were trying to get the kids back outside to look at animals.

The gorillas were a big hit

As were the penguins

Here's Hailey working ont he puzzles she loved so much

Tyler brought his Easter money along which has been burning a hole in his pocket.

So, we walked out of the zoo with this slithery but snuggly thing.

Water park

It's still a bit chilly here, maybe reached 70 this weekend but that didn't stop the kids from enjoying the water park last night around dinner time. Hailey thought it was the greatest....I think we will be here a lot this summer.

I think it's going to be cold....

But still fun!

And of course after everyone was dried off, there was some biking

Attitude

Static

Sunny Days

We've been enjoying the sunny days this weekend. There have been lots of visits to parks and bike rides. We've also been playing in the yard a lot. We've had the sprinkler out almost everyday. It still seems a bit cold to me but the kids love it. The like to have it running right by the swings so every time they swing forward they get wet. And they also like to have it at the bottom of the slide. So, we have broken in all the swimming suits and I think all these activities will pretty much be our life for the next few (hopefully sunny) months.

Snacks on the deck

Ready for water

Swinging through the sprinkler

Swinging

Tyler's had a pretty big weekend. He learned how to swing all by himself and ride his bike without training wheels. Tyler has never really had a whole lot of interest in "pumping" on the swing. We've talked about what you need to do and even worked on it some but for the most part he's always been more interested in getting a push. On Friday afternoon we were out in the yard swinging through the sprinklers and he just all of the sudden started pumping by himself. So I stopped him and asked if he could get himself started from a stop. Sure enough, he did it. I guess everything just clicked all of the sudden. What freedom for him. He has had such fun swinging this weekend. We've been doing a whole lot of swinging and he is thrilled that he can now make himself go REALLY high.

Tyler On Two Wheels

I can't explain the delay in Ty going from training wheels to two wheels other than the fact that I just wasn't ready. He has certainly been pushing the idea for some time but I had..concerns rather than doubts. I was not ready for the following....;
"Dad, can I ride my bike on the sidewalk next to cars?"
"Dad, can we ride bikes to Safeway, on the sidewalk next to the busy street with all the FAST cars?"
"Dad, can I go ride my bike in the road?"
"Dad, can I go ride my bike all by myself?"
"Dad, I don't need you anymore, I'm moving out."
Nope, I wasn't ready for any of that.

Well, yesterday I thought we'd dip our toes in the proverbial waters and pulled off the training wheels and pedals to practice some coasting and balancing on the back deck.

After a little dinner out on the deck we decided to walk down the hill to the neighborhood park to try out some more coasting in a more open area. Tyler was quickly bored and asked to try it with his pedals on. I had brought them along but wasn't really committed to trying this. I remembered clearly his first day on the bike with training wheels, the many tumbles and spills, scratches and bloody elbows/knees and....crying. Nothing of the sort today. The first clip here is fantastic and although it ends with a rough dismount there was no blood, a tiny scrape and minimal crying. Really, it was the only tumble that Ty took and he seems to have mastered bike riding in all of one afternoon and about 20 minutes.

South 47 Farm

Hailey and I visited the Thursday morning Tot's on the Farm at the South 47 Farm in Woodinville this morning. It is a pretty good set up. They have everyone gather in a tent where they sing a song and then learn about something on the farm. Then they get to go for a hay ride, do a project, pick things from the garden, and look at a few farm animals. Dave and Tyler went for a bike ride on the trail and then met up with us at the end.

Hailey was able to plant her own pea plants today an then pick 5 pieces of collard greens out of the garden. And finally we ended up at the animals (which she loved). Who would have guessed that while watching the animals Tyler and Hailey would start eating the greens she picked from the garden and actually like them. They finished them all off before we got home. Never would have guessed......

Here is the tractor that pulled our hay wagon.

Here's the garden where Hailey picked her greens

Here is proof that they actually ate the greens (still blows my mind)

Here are a couple of the animals that Hailey loved. She had absolutely no fear about putting her hand up to their mouths. She even kept putting her whole arm through the fence. A risk taker she is :).

Every Single Night

Hailey has a nightly tooth brushing tradition that started about a month ago and it happens every single night. When it's time to brush her teeth, I get her toothbrush ready and hand it to her (she like to brush her own teeth for a while (while I bursh Tyler's) before I brush them for her. With toothbrush in hand our nightly conversation goes like this:

Hailey holding her toothbrush every close to her hair "on my head?"
Me, "No....."
Hailey holding her toothbrush to her ear "on the ear?"
Me, "No....."
Hailey holding her toothbrush to her other ear "on the odder ear?"
Me, "No....."
Hailey holding her toothbrush to her nose"on the nose?"
Me, "No....."
Hailey holding her toothbrush to her eye"on the eye?"
Me, "No....."
Hailey holding her toothbrush to her mouth (finally, I mean really, every night :)) "on the mouth?"
Me, "Yes...." with much celebration every single night.

Kidz Bop World

The dancing you are about to see has not been choreographed and to our knowledge Ty has never seen a music video. These moves are all his own.

Out on the Deck

During the sunny weekend we had some good play time on the back deck. Don't you just love Hailey's little hat? Tyle is sporting his new Paine Field Aviator's hat.

Hailey Underpants

This is just plain cute.

Hailey's Kinda Sick

So, I think I mentionned in another post that Hailey was a little under the weather this weekend. You wouldn't have known it unless you were there for the barfing! Well, that's not true, cuz I missed that but Val's graphic phone call while I was at work made me FEEL like I was there. Well, it didn't help that one or two nights she didn't fall asleep till 930p or 10p and since Quigglekids LOVE getting up with the sun (thanks summer for the 6am wake up calls) she has been kinda tired.

Monday was Hailey's day to go to toddler group. At about 10am she was saying she was kinda tired and I picked her up and we sat down on the couch. This is ordinarily a 15 second snuggle and she will just wiggle her way off of me. Well, next thing I know she's asleep and Val turns the corner ready to go to school. What's a Dad to do when his little angel wants to sleep on your shoulder. Toddler Group's loss was definitely my gain!

Here Kitty Kitty

So, last week during one of our trips to Silver Lake Park we managed to recover soem bravery in Ty as it relates to animals. He is not a big dog fan, especially ones that come close to him and insist on touching, jumping on or licking him! One day, while I was watering the lawn, he had the misfortune of opening a gate that leads to our neighbors house and they happened to be sitting for a yellow lab puppy. Ty just wanted to get a ball that rolled off our deck but what I heard was him screaming and then he bolted past me, his eyes wide in terror, as this puppy came trampsing after him obviously thinking it was a game. I swear for a moment the puppy looked like a pitbull but I quickly saw it for what it was and gave it a squirt. Anywho......we had the good fortune of meeting a kid who brought his 6mo old Chihuahua puppy named Peanut to the park. I swear it could fit in the palm of your hand and Tyler was soon petting it and loving it. In fact, on the ride home their were tears when I wouldn't take him to get a Chihuahua puppy right there. He does love pronouncing it cha-hooa-hooa and I find that quite funny too!

Look, Orangy loves to be picked up...apparently! Again, same hair color!

A Trip to the Park on Video

Over the past weekend we took a couple trips to the nearby Highlands Park, otherwise known in our house as 'The Big Slide' park. Tyler with his boundless energy insists on running the entire way to the park and aside from a couple breathers he does just that. It's probably about 1/2 mile to get there. I took some video before the trip and once we got there. You'll notice Hailey's new pastime, playing with bugs on the slide. I finally got what we have labelled Hailey's 'sinister laugh' on video! What is making her laugh like that? Well, when she blows on these little bugs they turn upside down. Then, their little legs start moving like crazy to turn themselves upright and this amuses her to no end.

P.S. I am getting better at this being a Dad to fair skinned red-headed kids thing....NO SUNBURNS THIS WEEKEND!

A Weekend in the Life of....

This was a great weekend both weatherwise and funwise. Saturday saw a trip to Paine Field in Everett for their annual General Aviation day and both Ty and Hailey had fun looking at the planes, seeing them takeoff and land and just generally run around. There were a few trips to the park, Silver Lake, Highlands (Big Slide) Park, and a new one just off of Hwy 527 near Gold's Gym that included a boarded walkway through a marshy bog (used to be a peat bog). Thanks to Jamie from Hailey's Toddler Group for the suggestion on that park!

Oh, I guess there was the slight change in plans where I was called in to work Sunday from 7a-1p which coincided with both kids waking up before 6am and Hailey puking on her bed and most everything around it. She has since uttered the words, "I'm kinda sick" whenever her mood turns mellow. Nonetheless, she has remained a trooper and we actually got her to bed before 8pm tonight! Hooray!

We hope you all had great weekends as well.

A mini-break standing next to the runway. Watching the airplanes? Nope, Hailey is checking out the bugs on the ground!

Can a two-year old hig-step it? You bet!

No need to tell Ty what to wear on Paine Field day, he picked out the shirt and later got a killer Paine Field hat to match!

Heading off on a bike riding adventure through the bog! Wait for me Ty-Ty!Hailey may have a little mountain climber in her blood. She seems to conquer most climbing obstacles the first time she tries them.
Tyler exhibiting his power as I pushed him back and forth across the sliding rails.

A few pictures from Silver Lake Park and Hailey with her snugglies!