Seven Quick Takes: Advent Edition

1. Adam and I went to see the Pacific Northwest Ballet's new production of the Nutcracker last Friday! The old version, which ran for over two decades, had costumes and sets designed by Maurice Sendak. The new version kept the children's author tradition by hiring Ian Falconer, creator of the Olivia books.  

Do you see Olivia in the mural on the left? We really loved the new costumes, but missed some elements of the old production. The way they made the tree grow wasn't nearly as cool. 

Hooray for date night! There's a Melting Pot in walking distance to the theater and we had planned to have chocolate fondue there after the show. When our fantastic babysitter let us know she could come over earlier than we'd originally agreed on, we changed our plan to cheese fondue before the show instead. Definitely not recommended. Even with a reservation, The Melting Pot is just way too slow if you have somewhere to be afterward. We repeatedly reminded our waiter that we were going to the ballet and would have to leave at a set time, but only half of our order came in time.

2. On a very gray and rainy Saturday, we stayed home to bake cookies for the girls' teachers and Adam's coworkers. We made gingerbread men, chocolate mint cookies, and jam thumbprints. Cooking with my children is much easier than it used to be. Partially because Claire is old enough to mostly listen to directions and pour things without spilling. And partially because I've actually grown in patience.



3. That evening, we took the girls to the holiday carousel at our outdoor mall and then to a drop-off childcare event at their Kindermusik studio. It was a rare opportunity to have them both out of our house, so we very anti-climatically went home to clean the garage. It may not have been the most exciting evening, but certainly made me in particular feel much less stressed. Now that Claire doesn't usually nap, it's harder to tackle projects like that during the day and, of course, hard to summon the energy once they're finally tucked into bed at night. As we drove by our favorite burger place on the way home, we couldn't resist stopping for dinner. Much better than the pb&j we'd previously planned on!



4. We didn't do anything besides read a few favorite picture books to celebrate St. Lucy's Day and Our Lady of Guadalupe. We did remember to wear pink for Gaudete Sunday, but forgot to take a picture. We were asked to bring up the gifts at Mass, always an exciting occasion. Our parish is so welcoming towards families with young children. Even though Claire and Maggie are far from well-behaved, we get comments every week about how adorable they are. I think the fact that we make the effort to dress nicely helps - somehow it's easier to ignore the toddlers climbing under the pew if they're wearing matching dresses! But mostly it's just that our fellow church-goers and pastor are very, very kind. These cards are waiting in the pews each week - we saved this one from a few months ago because it was Claire's first attempt at drawing people.



5. I gained two pounds at my prenatal appointment on Monday. Wearing heavier clothing did the trick, so my doctor is holding off on the late-term ultrasound for now. In somewhat related news, my favorite leather boots bit the dust this week after three winters of wear. Since I am quite short (and have very short legs, even for a short person) and not exactly thin (I wear a size ten) I had a challenging time finding wide-calf boots that would actually fit. Thankfully, this Naturalizer pair came to the rescue. I just think it's frustrating that the medical profession expects someone who has to scour the internet to find boots that will zip should gain at least twenty-five pounds during pregnancy!



6. I am so looking forward to a two-week break from kids' activities. We really don't do that much. Claire isn't in preschool, just a few classes (Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, a cooking class at our community center, and Kindermusik, which they both attend). I learned my lesson about scheduling two activities in one day. We have our church playgroup on Wednesday mornings (which I lead), then we'd grab bagels for lunch at Panera, drop Claire off at cooking class, and run over to the library to return books and pick up holds. Especially as I became increasingly pregnant, I was so exhausted by the time I got them both down for nap/quiet time at 2:30. Claire loved going to the class and Maggie really enjoyed one-on-one library time, but I'm glad we won't be continuing it next semester. (They'll both be taking gymnastics on Saturday mornings instead.) Every time we went to the library, Maggie stopped on this bench outside and asked me to take a picture!



7. Adam's work randomly had Elsa and Anna at the main cafeteria all week, along with live reindeer and ice sculpting. We met Adam for lunch there today and Claire was literally jumping for joy upon seeing Elsa in the flesh. I love that his company is so family-friendly. Well, at least his department. He got a month of paid paternity leave when Maggie was born, but over the summer they changed their policy to three months of paid leave. Can you even believe it? I'm still pinching myself.

Seven Quick Takes: Airplane Busy Bags

I spent twenty hours on a plane with a two and three year old last month. And it was actually pretty easy! Claire and Maggie brought these Skip Hop backpacks filled with the following: 

1. Books. I bought a set of eight Disney Princess Golden Books at Costco for $6. That way, they both had a new book for each leg of our trips. I normally don't allow movie character books into our home, so they were very exciting. These are pretty long, but managed to hold Maggie's attention because of the special subject matter. They each had three picture books from home in their backpacks as well, carefully chosen to interest them both (Little Critter, Robert Munsch, etc).

2. We always read books when the plane was taking off, because you have to leave the tray tables up. Then we pulled out the coloring books, blank notebooks, stickers, and crayons. Triangular crayons are awesome because they don't roll off the table. 

3. Water Wow. We have four of these notebooks - animals, vehicles, fairy tales and make-up. Apparently they now have a bible stories one? They got one in their backpack on the way there and a new one on the way back. I'd have them color theirs, move onto another activity for a bit while it dried, and then switch.

4. Play dough. We prefer the Rose Art mini four-pack you can often find at the Target Dollar Spot because the lids are animal stencils. Built-in entertainment. I also packed some matchbox cars, so they could make roads and hills to drive on.

5. Wind-up toys. We have four - a waddling penguin, creeping caterpillar, and two flipping foxes. I've found them all at local toy stores. I'm pretty much always on the look-out for items that would make good airplane surprises. Watching these move across the tray table is surprisingly entertaining!

6. Travel magnetic drawing board. Ours are actually Crayola brand from the Target Dollar Spot. Another really good thing to pull out during take-off or landing because it doesn't require the tray table.

7. Bonus Items: Wiki Stix and Spot It Jr. I didn't pack these but we picked them up on the trip and they were great additions to our entertainment stash. When we visited Nashville, my friend Abigail gave us the Wiki Stix for the flight home. The girls loved the novelty factor and immediately set out creating rainbows. Spot It was the kids' toy of the moment at Chick-fil-A, where we ate during both of our trips, so we acquired a camping set and an animals set.

Once we'd worked our way through all of these items, at least two hours had passed. Then it was time for a meal, a bathroom break, and a movie for the second half of the flight. I can't believe I actually got to read a book while traveling with small children!

P.S. For our trip to West Virginia, we packed all our clothes (four people, five days) in one large suitcase. We bought this duffle bag to hold our pack-n-play, toddler air mattress, their bedding, and diapers. We also have these car seat bags (we always check our car seats) and this stroller bag, which fit our Baby Jogger City Select double stroller perfectly. West Virginia was the first plane trip we've ever done with our double stroller for (usually we go the single stroller + ergo route). Since we had quite long layovers, it was nice to have them both stroller napping in the airport. Of course, the stroller and the rest of our luggage just barely fit into our rental car, even though we upgraded to a 5-passenger SUV. 

Seven Quick Takes

1. Our fall schedule has been in full swing for three weeks now. Claire is going to music class, cooking class, and catechesis of the good shepherd on her own. Well, with good friends in each class. She seems to be transitioning fine so far. We had one rough goodbye at catechesis, but I think that was mostly because the girls slept in that morning and I had to rush them out the door. That was for a 10:00 am start time! It's hard to imagine potentially getting everyone ready for kindergarten drop-off at 8:30 a couple years from now. (We are calling Catechesis preschool because she's learned about it from books and tv shows.)

 

2. I've been really enjoying having some one-on-one time with Maggie while Claire's off doing her thing. It's been so nice to soak the last months of her as my baby. Music class is 45 minutes long at our outdoor mall, so it's just enough to browse the clearance rack and grab a free sample at See's Candies (oh, and pick out a chocolate for Claire!) Cooking class is also 45 minutes at the community center, which gives us just enough time to zip over to the library to pick up our holds. I definitely appreciate only having one child to help check in and out books. No more fighting over who gets to press which button! Catechesis is by far the longest at two hours - so far we've been to Trader Joe's, Ben Franklin (our favorite craft store) and Goodwill. I'd forgotten what it's like to shop with a kid who doesn't ask to buy everything she sees!

 

3.  Allie has been visiting us for most of September and I've become completely spoiled. We went maternity shopping twice - once for an actual winter wardrobe which resulted in lots of coupons and a second trip to use those coupons on nursing bras, pajamas, tights, etc. We spent a good long while at Ben Franklin selecting fabric for Betsy's first eight monthly pictures (which will eventually become a quilt for her first birthday). She babysat so Adam and I could go out for dinner, test out gliders at Babies R Us, and pick up wood at Home Depot for a project we're cooking up. It's amazing how much less stressful a trip to the hardware store is without toddlers.

4. And then as soon as my parents arrived last Friday, my sister and dad went to the bank to sort out some leaving-the-country-for-a-year issues and I went to get a hair cut, pedicure, and flu shot. Not only did my mom watch the girls, but she also did all my laundry. Having your parents live four hours away is so, so, so much better than living on opposite sides of the world from each other!

5. Sadly, our days with Allie in Seattle are numbered. She and my mom are visiting my grandma in Ottawa this week. My dad will drive in on Saturday to pick them up from the airport that evening, then my parents will drive back to Richland on Sunday afternoon. Allie will fly to Houston on Tuesday morning, where she'll spend a week visiting friends before leaving for Guatemala the following Tuesday. She'll be in language school there for two months and will arrive at the orphanage in Honduras right before Christmas.

6. At least I have pumpkin baked goods to drown my sorrows in. It's only October 2nd and I've already made pumpkin muffins, waffles, pancakes, and scones. And devoured an unspecified amount of pumpkin bagels with pumpkin cream cheese from Trader Joe's. For book club next week, I've got my eye on these pumpkin oreo cheesecake bars.

7. I forgot to tell you guys about our last excursion of the summer to Fox Hollow Farm in Issaquah! We met a bunch of toddler friends there and had the best time. You get to chase and feed various farm animals, ride little tractors and the world's tiniest train, jump on an inflatable, play on a really awesome playground, and go for a pony ride. Basically little kid heaven. I wish we were up to something equally exciting today, but instead I took the girls to the dentist. And tomorrow they're going for their twice-a-year hair cut. Hope you have similarly noteworthy weekend plans!

Seven Quick Takes

1. It's been quiet around here this week because I've been trying to finish up some house projects before the rain begins again in September. Just spray painting (with a pregnancy-approved mask!) and a few landscaping things. You know you'll hear all about it eventually.

2. After two months of non-stop visitors from mid-June to mid-August, we've been taking the last few weeks pretty easy. We've just hung around our town on the weekend - going to the farmer's market, swimming at the lake, and riding bikes to the ice cream store. All our weekly summer activities ended this week, but we have the first two weeks of September completely free before our fall schedule starts up. I'm hoping we get a few more days of sunny summer weather to check off the last items from our summer bucket list.

3. Which reminds me, I haven't told you about some fun grown-ups only outings from the last couple months! My sister and I have become really big fans of giving each other experiences over gifts. For my birthday, she took me to afternoon tea at the Salish Lodge. It's only offered on Sunday afternoons, so we went the day after our Mount Rainier excursion. So much fun and absolutely delicious!

4. And then for Allison's birthday, we gave her tickets to see Jim Gaffigan, the night before our trip to the Cascades. We had hoped to have dinner at Delancey beforehand, but the wait was ridiculously long, so we went to Cafe Presse in Capitol Hill instead. It's the more affordable little sister of our favorite fancy French place, Le Pichet. 

5. To thank Allie for watching the girls during our anniversary getaway, I treated her to dinner at DERU Market, a new restaurant in our town that I'd heard rave reviews about from multiple sources. Their pizza was amazing (without a two-hour wait like Delancey!) and all their desserts looked so delicious that we had to split a chocolate chip cookie and bring a slice of chocolate peanut butter cake home to share with Adam. After dinner, we stopped for groceries at a new-to-us store, Metropolitan Market, because exploring new grocery stores is our idea of an exciting night.

6. One more fun event from the summer: celebrating St. Clare's feast day! We had a special Italian dinner of homemade pizza (on a weeknight - entirely out of the ordinary over here) with nutella pizza for dessert. I based it on a dessert we all loved in Montreal. You just bake a plain pizza crust for ten minutes, slather it with nutella, sprinkle powdered sugar on top, and serve with berries so you feel slightly less decadent.

7. Have a wonderful weekend, you guys! We have a babysitter tonight, so I'm sharing the awesomeness of DERU Market with Adam. Rain, rain, and more rain is on the forecast for the weekend (it's like we live in Seattle or something) but hopefully the clouds part long enough for a quick family bike ride. 

Seven Quick Takes

1. Our summer schedule is in full swing! We've been enjoying kids' concerts at the lake and playgroup park dates.

2. Claire is doing toddler soccer at our neighborhood park. We've been switching off attending with her while one of us goes to the playground with Maggie. It's been a nice way for us to get some one-on-one time with each child. It's on Tuesday evenings and concerts at the lake are on Tuesday mornings, so it's a very picnic-y day for us!

3. Allison's visiting the first two weeks of July and last week her friend Amber was in town visiting as well. That meant trips to our favorite Seattle sightseeing spots, Pike Place Market and Snoqualmie Falls. It also meant a date night for us to see Spy and try a new Mexican restaurant.

4. Maggie rode her first roller coaster at the town festival last Friday! Claire has been before, but we weren't sure how Maggie would react. It was so cute to see them sitting together and holding on tight.

5. We went raspberry picking yesterday at our favorite u-pick farm. It wasn't as big of a hit with the girls as strawberry picking, but I sure appreciated the much easier picking work.

6. We just finished watching Chris O'Dowd's hilarious show, Moone Boy, about a twelve-year boy and his imaginary friend in rural Ireland. You can find all the episodes on Hulu - we'd highly recommend it! Now we're looking forward to The Gaffigan Show. The two preview episodes have us very excited for the rest.

7. Today, we're driving into the Cascades to meet my parents and brother for a weekend in the mountains to celebrate their 30th anniversary. It's promising to be a really great time. Hope you guys have a wonderful weekend too!

Seven Quick Takes

1. Claire officially completed two weeks of swim lessons at the private swim club down the street. She didn't learn a ton, but she had a lot of fun making new friends. And entertaining Maggie at the pool every day wasn't nearly as difficult as I imagined. Growing up in Houston, everyone was on the neighborhood swim team starting at age three and we often went swimming twice a day. It feels weird that my three-year-old is nowhere close to swimming independently, but it's just not really necessary here in Seattle.

2. Swim lessons were at 11:30 every day, so we went to the Y almost every morning beforehand. I tried going to the gym all last fall, but Maggie had really bad stranger anxiety and hated the childcare. We put our membership on hold in January and just now renewed it. Miraculously, both girls are perfectly content to play while I work out. I need to take advantage of this much more frequently! It's hard to fit in a trip to the gym in the morning though, so I need to get in the habit of going from 4:00 to 5:00 in the afternoon and then coming home to finish dinner.

3. We took Claire to see Inside Out on Father's Day. It did not go well. She saw Cinderella back in March and was perfectly fine, but for some reason she was completely inconsolable after about halfway through the latest Pixar film. I know the storyline was probably over her head, but there's not even a villain! We left before the end. Definitely one of my worst parenting traits is how frustrated I get when I take my children on a special outing and they just hate it. Last summer, our town had a "big truck day" for kids to explore fire trucks, garbage trucks, construction vehicles, police cars, etc. Unfortunately, kids were allowed to honk the horns as often as they'd like and Claire freaked out at all the loud noises. My reaction was similarly poor.

4. This past weekend, I went to a jam making class at The Pantry, the cooking school behind the famed pizza place, Delancey. I had the best time learning how to make strawberry and raspberry jam from the owner of Blue Chair Fruit. I plan to try myself after we go raspberry picking in a few weeks.

5. My mom treated me to a Shark Steam Mop when we saw them on sale at Costco. Even though it revealed just how dirty my wood floors are, I am in love. Well, as much as you can love a cleaning implement. It works so much better than my previous mop and it only uses water!

6. Allison is visiting for the new few weeks and my dad just got back from Italy yesterday, so the whole family is together for the holiday weekend. I'm really liking this everybody-living-in-the-same-country-again thing so far.

7. We're actually road-tripping to Richland today, my parents' new residence in Eastern Washington. It's going to get pretty cozy in their two-bedroom temporary apartment, but that's what family bonding is all about, right?

Seven Quick Takes

1. Claire is potty trained - hooray! We started right after her cousin's (who potty trained first) visit. Claire insisted on wearing underwear as soon as we got home from the airport. Turns out potty training is pretty easy when you wait until your subject is three years and three months old. We celebrated a successful week with a trip to the ice cream store, of course.

 

2. We had the most awesome weather last weekend. We brought out the baby pool and water table for the girls to play with while we planted lavender and washed windows. The Texan in me still finds it hilarious when Seatteites complain about how hot 82 degrees is.

3. My dad went back to China for my brother's high school graduation and brought my mom and Scott back with him. They're all officially Eastern Washington residents now! They drove to Seattle on Tuesday evening to fly out to Scott's college orientation the next morning. Tuesday also happened to be my mom's birthday, so we had cake and surprised her with a KitchenAid mixer.

4. My parents left their car (our old Kia Forte) with us while they're out of town. The timing was perfect because Adam's bike broke the day they arrived. It was a birthday present from his parents when he was fifteen and when he took it to the bike repair shop at work, they said it was in the worst shape they've ever seen. But in good news, his name is going on a patent application!

5. I will almost certainly never get a patent, but I do get to spend two hours on the couch in the middle of the afternoon reading Outlander if I so desire. I just started the first book this week and I'm a tad obsessed. I bought the eBook with Whisper Sync for $6 and I'm loving being able to switch between both. Totally fueling my obsession while allowing me to not completely neglect cleaning and making dinner.

6. The girls and I went strawberry picking with our friend Leslie this morning! We all had a great time ticking the first item off our summer bucket list. I know it's technically still spring, but doesn't it feel like summer really starts after Memorial Day?

7. Have a great weekend, you guys. We don't have any big plans - I'm going to switch the girls' clothes over to summer and make some strawberry ice cream. And I think Adam's going to be shopping for a new bike!

Seven Quick Takes

Joining Kelly for Seven Quick Takes. 

1. After a couple delays, Chick-fil-A finally opened in Washington! Apparently we weren't the only ones excited about it, because the crowds have been absolutely crazy. Of course, that hasn't stopped us from visiting twice in the last two weeks.

2. We took Claire horseback riding again at our city farm park. At her lesson back in September, I suffered from allergies the rest of the day even though I didn't touch the horse once, so this time I learned my lesson and just watched Maggie yell at all the farm animals.

 

3. We're officially a one-car family again. My dad flew in last weekend and drove our trusty Kia Forte back with him. Adam's gotten back in the swing of biking to work and all is well. Dad's brief visit was much appreciated - he helped with yard work, bringing a meal to the homeless shelter, and setting up our new bike trailer. 

4. We ordered this double bike trailer and went on our first family bike ride last weekend. Claire and Maggie were a little hesitant at first, but they were perfectly happy with our final destination - the ice cream store! It was my first time on a bike since we were in Europe five years ago. We are planning to bike across the Golden Gate Bridge while we're in San Francisco so we want to get plenty of practice in beforehand.

5. You know how our backyard descends rather steeply into a pit of weeds? Well, until this week there was also a huge pile of concrete down there. I think it was the remains of a patio? We didn't think much of it last summer since our children were younger, but thankfully our landlords had it removed on Monday. Our backyard already feels ten times less unkempt and dangerous.

6. My friend, Leslie, and I went to see the Sound of Music in theaters on Wednesday evening. Turner Classic Movies sponsored a special showing for the film's fiftieth anniversary. It was such a delight seeing one of my favorite films on the big screen! All the sweeping shots of the alps were even more beautiful. I wish Claire had been old enough to join us for the occasion.

7. Have a wonderful weekend, you guys. We'll be celebrating Adam's birthday!