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Allison’s 3rd Birthday

Allison’s Birthday

Allison celebrated her birthday this year with a small family gathering and a little party for a handful of girls. Despite fairly low key events, we ended up with two very tired kids today!

Steve and I were thinking back to Allison’s first birthday when Katherine delighted in opening Allison’s gifts. Allison didn’t really seem to mind. She just loved the attention of having a birthday. When Allison turned two, I remember Steve holding Katherine back so Allison could open her gifts. One moment stands out for me: Katherine wriggling and crying as Allison opened her dollhouse. Now at three, she clearly wanted to open her own gifts. Katherine sat to the side and watched. Her biggest concern: would Allison share her gifts? I guess this is one of the first times that Allison has received interesting gifts that Katherine wants to share! Throughout the day, we’ve had conversations with both kids as they’ve debated and argued about whether they shared or not.

We’ve got a ton of pictures from the weekend that I’ll post tomorrow, when I have time to process the pictures.

Mother’s Day

Like every year, I woke up to find two kids sitting on top of me and breakfast served in bed. This year’s breakfast: cold cereal, cut fruit salad, coffee, juice, veggie sausage….and a big decorated cookie. ๐Ÿ™‚

Katherine sat next to me and talked all thru my breakfast. Allison practiced jumping off the bed.

For mother’s day, the kids gave me a new purse. Their thinking: the bigger the purse, the more I can carry on their behalf! New additions to the purse include Band-Aids, various lollipops collected this week and hair bands.

Skinned Knees Every Day

Now that the weather is finally almost spring like, the kids have started to bike more and more around the driveway and neighborhood. Katherine still needs someone to start her off on her bike, while Allison is self-sufficient and fairly possessed on her training wheels. Yesterday Katherine went for a bike ride with Steve around the neighborhood. Katherine ended up riding all the way to the local choo-choo train park (in Redmond Ridge) and back – probably a 3 mile trip total with a couple pretty big hills. Steve jogged next to her in street attire and shoes (ouch), while Katherine “slowed down” so he could keep up. (Note: she is a very fast cyclist once she gets going.)

Allison meanwhile had a total of 3 Band-Aids on both knees yesterday. She probably skins a knee once a day, whether from running full tilt on the driveway or biking. Katherine managed to even scrape her hand, trying Allison’s 18 inch bouncing ball on the driveway.

We also added Band-Aids at the Ice Cream Social this week at Eton School. This was our third social and probably the busiest yet. Steve was about an hour late, and I spent the full hour making sure the elementary kids didn’t mow Allison over on the playground. From kids running around fueled with sugar to Allison climbing a fort popular with lots of boys, I was convinced she was going to get hurt somehow. She did skin a knee somehow. And, Katherine somehow got a cut on her finger. Luckily we escaped further injury. The kids were exhausted the next morning.

Allison’s Development

Allison is a busy kid these days. She has swim lessons, soccer class and music class – and we’re thinking off adding gymnastics back now that she’s 3. One of her greatest joys is preparing for soccer. Allison received a soccer jersey and shorts that she wears with pigtails to a 3-4 class every week. After class she leaves the jersey on for the rest of the day. ๐Ÿ™‚ For her birthday, we gave her a set of small Pugg soccer goals. My mom got her a size 3 soccer ball, which we saw her moving down our lawn to the goal.

Her other favorite outdoor activity is weeding. Yes, bending down and picking small weeds! Our neighbor has a big maple tree which lost many seeds last year. These helicopter seeds blew into our beds and germinated into small 2″ trees. We had them all over the beds. Allison was a huge help picking them the last couple weeks. She’d gather up her plastic bucket, find a spot on the bed, hunker down and pick until I told her it was time to go in. She would say, “we don’t want trees all over our yard! look there are more weeds!”

Allison is still a very easygoing kid and likes to entertain the family. She spent this morning’s car ride playing with her new “silly” toy from McDonalds. She would move the doll arm and the toy would start blaring music. Allison would yell out, “Dance Mama Dance” and then go off in Spanish. Thankfully Steve understands what she’s saying, because I have no clue!

Last week, I took her to her third study at UW I-Labs. The researchers asked Allison to participate in defining a new protocol for a behavioral experiment. Allison was very patient throughout the 20 minute process, interacting with the research assistant. I think she was a bit puzzled by the repetition – “Allison where would you put the horse if you wanted it to be green? etc. etc. She answered most questions accurately, but began to get confused at the end of the experiment.

Katherine’s Development

Katherine’s big area of focus is emotional development. We’re working on identifying feelings these days and sympathizing with others. It’s gratifying to see progress. For instance, Steve was teasing me about something the other day. Katherine piped up, “That’s not nice. You’ll make mom feel bad!” On the other hand, she’s also working on testing boundaries, for instance around sassing, which we’re working on.

From an academic perspective, she can decipher different words in situ. On Friday, we sat at a light watching a school crossing guard. Katherine asked what she did. I asked her to read the back of the vest, which she did – “School Zone.” She will also occasionally read a few pages at night with Steve. She also practices basic addition/subtraction at school.

A Crazy 6 Weeks…

A Crazy 6 Weeks…

It’s been a crazy November and December with birthdays, family visits and various crises happening. After the big push around Steve’s and Katherine’s birthdays and Halloween, we then had Thanksgiving. Steve’s Mom broke a hip, and then we had my birthday. I also played my first gig in…only 15 years! And, we had a couple community events at Eton to attend. What else could possibly happen? ๐Ÿ™‚

I’m going to post a bunch of pictures to catch up and just summarize our big developmental milestones.

I go poop I get chocolate!!

Yes. It’s that time again. It’s potty training time, and Allison is done! We started in November and are pretty much done with the occasional incident. In all, it took 2-3 weeks. Chocolate from Grandma Chang was the big incentive. Not only did Allison get a Hershey’s kiss, but Katherine also every time Allison went potty the first couple weeks. Needless to say, Katherine was a big cheerleader.

Tie Shoes and Growing

Katherine has been on a massive growth streak. She now comes up to my bicep – a full 3′ 6″ tall and close to 40 pounds. As part of this, she needed a new pair of sneakers at Thanksgiving, and we went to Stride Rite to get them. By Monday or Tuesday of the following week, she announced and demonstrated how she could tie her shoes! I guess a bunch of 2nd and 3rd years wear tie shoes, and one or two them taught Katherine how to do it. She also practiced (I believe in Practical Life) at school. Now she ties her shoes and Allison’s tie sneakers. Allison won’t wear her expensive Velcro Nike sneakers anymore; she wants to wear Katherine’s old hand-me-down New Balance sneakers with tie laces.

The 12″ Wheels

The neighbors must think it the funniest thing to see Katherine pedaling around on her little pink bike. It truly is too small for her, being the smallest size bike available (12″ wheels). She’s told Steve that she wants a bigger bike, but she doesn’t think Santa can fit it down the chimney. Little does she know that I have a new 16″ pink bike from REI smuggled away in my mom’s garage for Christmas morning. Anyway, Katherine can now ride…without training wheels. This happened last week after the last day of school. She convinced Steve to take the training wheels off. The next think I knew, Steve was running down the street after her, while she pedaled by herself into the driveway!!

Allison’s Development

There is nothing this child will not try, a true testament to her desire to keep up with Katherine:

– She tries furiously to pedal her trike, but she’s still a bit too short. After a couple revolutions, she’ll turn to me and say, “push me, push me, I want to go with Katherine!!”

– She now works easily on 24 piece puzzles, the little ones that you get at the drug store for $3. ๐Ÿ™‚ She occasionally needs help with one or two pieces. She can breeze thru the big US Map without any issues and remember the names of her favorite states.

– She wants to do everything herself. If she can’t reach something, she’ll lug around a big wooden stool. I’ve even caught her putting the little rubber stool on top of the wooden stool for greater reach. Upon intervention, she’ll holler and cry for a few minutes and then set upon her next project.

– Steve put together the junior bed, which the kids played with for a bit. Allison decided that she wanted to sleep on the big bed though. The junior bed is now in our “get rid of” pile awaiting the right opportunity. Allison has tried to sleepover in Katherine’s bed a few nights. That only lasts 30 minutes until Katherine kicks her out of bed, “Mom, she makes so much noise. I can’t sleep!!”

 

More On Swimming

More On Swimming

I’ve finally downloaded a gazillion pictures from the camera, so you can see what the kids have been up to this summer. First three pictures show a very happy Katherine diving for pennies, floating around the pool and waiting for her turn to jump off the diving board. What did we do or say to help enable the turnaround? Besides leaving the pool area, I talked to Katherine about the need to swim well (for pool parties among other things), how she overcame her fear to learn how to bike, and how her Grandma Dottie used to be a champion high school swimmer. Funny enough, Katherine told me after class that she told her swim teacher, “My Grandma used to be a champion swimmer.” Her teacher who has probably heard it all said, “Cool.”

Training Wheels

Katherine has been begging all summer to ride her bike without training wheels. This seems to be an opportune time, especially since she’s outgrowing her 12″ wheel bike. Steve has raised the seat as far as it will go, and it’s time to give the bike to Allison.

Last weekend, after more practice on a balance bike (doesn’t have pedals), Steve took off the training wheels of the little Trek bike. They spent half an hour riding around the neighborhood before Katherine asked him to put the training wheels back on. They then went for a Huge Ride to the Redmond Ridge Community Center – a good 1.5 miles in each direction. Not only was Katherine pooped afterwards, but also Steve since he had to push Katherine on her pink bike up a few big hills on the way there and back. This was also Steve’s first ride on his bike since breaking his collarbone.

We’ll probably keep practicing sans training wheels over the next couple weeks. Once she gets this down, we’ll head back to the bike store and buy a new pink bike.

What did Allison do while Katherine practiced? She lounged in Dad’s camp chair drinking water and eating almonds. ๐Ÿ™‚

Blue Angels

It was an ambitious idea that kind of worked. It all started when Steve and I talked about whether the kids would be ready to watch the Blue Angel show during Seafair. The kids overheard and asked, “can we go see the blue jets?” So, we hauled the kids into Seattle and parked near Steve’s old office building in Leschi to see and hear the show. We ate lunch at Perks and got a great spot on the pier to watch the show. Unfortunately, the sun, blaring music, crowds and boats were just too much for Katherine. So, Katherine and I ended up standing underneath Steve’s old office building overhang. Allison and Steve were in the parking lot, and we *really* experienced the show. Most memorably we got buzzed a couple times by a huge plane before the Blue Angels, and we saw the Blue Angels go flying by over Lake Washington and the boats quite a few times. This conversation with Allison afterwards says it all…

Mom: “Did you like the Blue Angels, Allison?”

Allison: “The blue jets were LOUD!”

Company Picnic

This was a surreal experience for me, but the kids loved the MS company picnic. Despite the 85+ degree heat, big crowds, a huge field to walk across and long lines, the kids had a nice time. Their favorite part…free ice cream! They also bounced in the toddler bouncing houses, checked out the bigger kid rides (but didn’t try) and wandered around until Allison’s nap time.

Bowling

Last summer our potluck group raised a nice chunk of change for a kids activity. This funded a nice bowling expedition to Tech City Bowl. Just imagine 4 and 5 year old kids hurling 6 pound balls down the lane…Anyway, it took almost an hour, but Katherine’s bowling group of three finished a game. She scored a whopping 60 something, largely because she kept putting her hand over the line thereby negating several of her second bowls. One big highlight for the kids was the $3.50 milkshakes. Next up…Jump Planet!

Idylwood Park

Katherine and Allison have several favorite parks that they love to visit. Among them is Idylwood Park on West Lake Sammamish. I took them a couple weeks ago and they had a blast with a couple little friends. Memorable moments:

  • Katherine and Allison lounging in their “hottub” (pool made out of sand)
  • Allison walking into Lake Samm up to her shoulders (ack!)
  • Katherine falling and taking her sister with her into Lake Samm (only 4-5 inches of water)
  • Allison surfacing, only to have her sister accidentally push her down again
  • Me grabbing Allison who said thru sandy hair and water, “I’m OK…I’m OK!!”

Developmental Milestones

Allison is a full-fledged two year old. She has a sunny disposition, a larger than life sense of humor and a great deal of persistence. She freaks out when a family member (often me or Katherine) does something that she wants to do. Examples: putting on her shirts, putting her straw in her sippy cup, going to get something. What we hear is, “I can do it…Noooo…Noooo…Don’t do it…I can do it!!”

She’s grown very attached to certain pieces of clothing, asking about the whereabouts of her A shirt or her warm shirt which is pink with stripes. Allison revolts at wearing some of her new summer clothes and ironically loves her hand-me-downs.

Allison speaks in full sentences and is aware of phonics when asked. For instance, today I asked her what letters the words Grandma and Lamby start with. She thought hard and answered each after some consideration. On the other hand, she still gets some of her lower case letters mixed up, telling me that a “u” was a “n.” We counted to through thirty nine in the car.

Katherine and Allison can play together for a limited amount of time without intervention. After about 5-10 minutes, I will often hear “noooo …. nooo…Katherine took my <toy>” or I’ll hear “Mooommm…Allison messed up my <toy>.”

If they’re in good spirits, they’ll decide to do pretend play together. Latest game is putting on ballet shows on top of the train table. Allison can now fully outfit herself in hand-me-down ballerina and shoes from Katherine and pretend to do first position (with feet right next to each other!) Katherine loves trying to teach Allison first through fifth position and tapping in her shoes.

Speaking of which, Katherine is turning into quite the helper these days. She is turning the corner to five, which means a greater adherence to rules and desire to help other family members. Katherine makes her own bed now when asked, puts away toys in her room, helps with clean dishes and laundry occasionally.

Allison receives lessons in not only ballet but academic works. In the picture below, you’ll see Katherine teaching her sister how to write a capital A. I caught Katherine telling Allison, “you go up, down, then across.” Allison, who desperately wants to keep up, kept muttering to herself, “up down across” as she wrote As, then Bs and Cs and other letters on the dry erase board.

Your Shoulders are Crooked

Your Shoulders are Crooked

It was inevitable that Steve would have an incident on his bike. It just so happened this past weekend with STP (Seattle to Portland) bike race, in which an overloaded bike bag fell into his spokes and caused him to catapult over his handlebars and break his collarbone. The family has reacted in interesting ways. Katherine has tried to be very helpful, fetching Steve’s ice pack from the fridge and trying to “help.” Allison doesn’t really understand why Dad can’t give baths or big hugs, so she gets kind of whiny at times. Bisco wants to be around Steve whenever possible, even trying to mooch his way onto the bed last night. All in all, we’ll be happy when the next several weeks pass, and all returns to normal.

Derby Days (aka Free Parade + Candy)

For the second year now, we’ve marched in the Redmond Derby Days kids parade. This is the largest, or one of the largest, kids parade in the country. We arrived probably 30 minutes earlier than we needed to, so the kids were squirrelly by the time we started. Nonetheless, Katherine pedaled for half the parade, and Allison shared her Red Flyer wagon. The best part for them was the adult parade. Before the parade, we had put down in a nice shady spot a towel which a neighboring couple watched for us as we marched. After the kids parade, we settled on and near the towel with friends, and the kids were on the lookout for … candy! We probably have half a pound of candy that the “floats,” marchers and such threw or gave to the kids. Katherine and Allison ate quite a few pieces, at which point I confiscated the rest which is on top of the fridge probably until Halloween. ๐Ÿ™‚

After long naps, we headed back downtown for a quick dinner, the adult bike races (fast!) and the carnival. What we didn’t realize was that Allison was much too short for any of the rides. So, Katherine rode several rides by herself, and even a few with Dad. She loved the rollercoaster; Steve and she rode the first time. The second time she requested the last seat in their coaster and screamed all the way around!

Fourth of July

Aunt Sharon and Uncle Jamey visited for Fourth of July this year. We didn’t pick berries this year, since we still have frozen strawberries and raspberries from last year. But, we did make pie. Bisco went for long walks every night. We took the kids the park, to the Kirkland waterfront, to the aquarium. It was a generally relaxing long weekend.

 

Going to Ferryland

I want to go to FerryLand

It was a low key weekend. Katherine was in a funk yesterday, so Steve offered up an interesting adventure…going on a Washington State Ferry. Katherine was enamored with the concept, despite the fact that she didn’t know what a ferry was. We headed to Seattle, found a great parking spot and headed across the street to walk on the ferry.

Our round trip to Bainbridge Island and back was 2 hours. We boarded, made our way past the cafeteria, bought popcorn (Steve) and found seats up front. Katherine promptly began to inhale the popcorn. Allison settled for bunny crackers. We took turns taking the girls outside for five minute stints. Allison was outside with Steve when the horn blew – and jumped about a foot in his arms.

Given the time of day, we opted to disembark and promptly re-embark on the same ferry. On the way back we found a booth and looked at boats and cruise ships out the window. In all, Katherine loved the adventure telling us that she wanted to go back to “Ferryland” today!

Lots of Biking

We’ve been biking up a storm with the kids the past several days. One favorite trip is from Redmond Town Center to a park in Woodinville. Another is around Redmond Ridge and the “choo choo” train park. Besides the parks, Katherine loves the snacks and very diluted Gatorade. Allison is more ambivalent – she really enjoys getting out of the Chariot!

Today we had a particularly scary event in the RTC parking lot. Steve had propped his new bike on the minivan to avoid scratches and speedy Allison made a beeline to check it out. Next thing we knew she was wailing from underneath the bike! Holy Cow. We were very lucky that she emerged unscathed (but very, very mad) from this incident. Good thing she tried to play with the carbon fiber bike and not my tank.

The Marble

This is a very sensitive subject for Katherine, but one worth mentioning. Last Monday, Katherine and Allison went to Ferrell McWhitter Park with Patty, and Katherine found a small, round, glass marble. She was so proud of finding the marble and carried it for much of the afternoon. Patty was clear in telling her that she could hold it, but she couldn’t put it in her mouth. What happened? Patty turned around to find Katherine’s eyes big and watering. “Did you swallow that marble?” “Yes…” She didn’t mean to swallow it, but it just happened. Since talking to friends about this, we’ve learned that this is not all uncommon unfortunately.

We spent the next two days obsessing about the marble. Katherine was pretty upset, not sleeping well at night and talking to herself about it. “I wish that marble would come out soon,” I heard her mumble to herself as she pulled on her PJ pants. We figured that besides the enormity of having a marble in her intestines, Katherine was verklempt because of Curious George. If you haven’t read the story, Curious George goes to the Hospital describes how the monkey eats a puzzle piece and has to go to the hospital to have it removed. This was definitely top of mind for her, and she was very worried that she would have to go to the hospital despite our assurances that the marble would pass harmlessly.

Steve was a total trooper on the pooh patrol – and found the marble two mornings later.

I think this incident has pretty much cured her propensity to put small objects in her mouth. We asked her if she would ever put something like a marble in her mouth again – and got an emphatic no.

Going back to School

Katherine heads back to school on September 6th – this time to Eton School. We’re pretty excited for Katherine to meet new friends and learn in a Montessori environment. We find out this week which classroom she will be in for the next three years. Katherine is excited for a more tangible reason, which is that she will carpool to Eton with her friend Audrey.

More New Words and Developments

– “Siiih” – for Sit
– “Mooo” – for cow
– “Ri” for ride

Allison also tries to practice her spoon and fork skills whenever she can. She dips her spoon in applesauce, yogurt, anything – and gets a lot of it in her mouth. Today she tried to spear tofu on her fork.

Allison has also decided that she wants to go down stairs like her sister. Instead of on her belly, which Katherine did for months, Allison prefers the “sit, scooch and stand” approach.

Road Tripping, STP and more

2.5 Weeks on the Road

We had so many memorable experiences and learned a lot of lessons the last 2.5 weeks. It all started with Steve riding STP in 1 day (wahoo!) and ended with a flight from Long Beach back to Seattle. Here was the itinerary:

  • I drove the girls down to Portland while Steve did his STP thing. My biggest point of pride was stopping only 3 times for snacks and bathroom breaks…and lugging all the kids luggage, etc. to our hotel room while carrying Allison too! (No, the Residence Inn Riverplace does not have a bellboy!)
  • The next morning we drove to Belknap Hot Springs to meet up with a bunch of friends and family. It was super warm with no A/C, but the girls really enjoyed hiking, watching the river swish past our suite window and exploring the gardens around the resort.
  • After two nights at Belknap we headed down I5 to Ashland on another 90+ degree scorcher day. We stayed right in the center of town, dragged the kids to a local park and to pizza for dinner. After three prior nights of poor sleep we finally got a refreshing night of sleep in Ashland before heading out the next morning.
  • Sacramento Arden West presented some pleasant surprises. We were delighted to find that the Hilton had a bellboy and a Nordstrom across the highway. Arden West Mall far exceeded our expectations. Not only did they have a nice mall, but it also had a carousel AND a Fresh Choice – soup and salad restaurant. One of our big disappointments happened when we drove past the first In and Out in California, but we recovered at Del Taco.
  • We then made a trip to the Jelly Belly Factory Tour after the Sacramento leg. We drove then to visit my Uncle Richard and Aunt Susan, so the girls could meet my Dad’s family. Following this visit was Carmel – and a very neat, historic place – the Carmel Mission Ranch. We stayed at a refurbished barn and checked out the Monterey Bay Aquarium the next day. We were blown away by the 1 million gallon tank – the hammerheads, sun fish, enormous tuna and turtles. Everything about the aquarium was on amazing scale – from the kelp tanks, jellyfish exhibit, children’s exhibit and much much more. Our dinner the preceding night was at a very touristy restaurant, bubba gumps; we had one of the best tables overlooking sea lions basking on rocks below.
  • Santa Barbara was our next spot for two nights. We arrived at dinner time, visited the beach briefly and had some really tasty Mexican food for dinner. The next day we walked up the street, window shopping, and split up while Allison napped. Steve took Katherine to another beach before we shopped on State Street that afternoon. That evening Steve and I were alarmed when Allison awoke just drenched and hot. Her temperature must have been 103-104. Thankfully we had Infant Motrin on hand, and we were able to get her temperature down in about 20 minutes.
  • Timing for Allison was fortuitous because we were scheduled to go to Steve’s parents house that morning. The next four days were very low key. We decided to cancel our San Diego hotel reservations and instead let Allison recover from what turned out to be Roseola. We had thought that Allison had Roseola several months ago, but it clearly hadn’t happened then. As the pediatrician we visited in Orange County said, she ran a super high fever for 3 days. After it broke, a rash appeared on her chest. It sort of looked like little red pinpricks – not totally obvious because of her skin coloring – but still very clear on closer inspection.
  • During that time, Steve took Katherine to Disneyland one hot scorching day and to a local beach. It was sooo hot in LA during these four days, with rolling blackouts and temperatures regularly above 90 degrees.
  • Allison’s rash disappeared on Saturday and we were able to finally hit Disneyland that weekend. Allison really was a bit young for the park, but she loved “it’s a small world,” the carousel, all the activity around the park and the parades. She a bit apprehensive to meet the bigger characters, e.g. Woody and stoic on some more active rides, e.g. Alice Wonderland, teacups, Dunbo etc.
  • On Monday we climbed on our plane at Long Beach airport and had a relatively uneventful ride home. My mom picked us up and, boy, were we GLAD to get home. ๐Ÿ™‚

Needless to say, we were so tired after this vacation. It’s been two days and we’re finally starting to recover. Katherine’s listening is much improved (whew) and Allison is back to her regular sleep schedule.