day at the beach*

*Okay, so maybe not the beach, but I told him that's where we were. The annual Sand-in-the-City charity event is this weekend so we went downtown this morning to check it out. Thomas enjoyed pointing to the objects he recognizes and shouting out what they are. Car! Choo-Choo! Car! Choo-Choo! He also got a kick out of pointing and shouting Choo-Choo! every time the light rail went by. I never realized just how frequently the Max trains pass by Pioneer Square. It seems there is one every five minutes or less.

Some of our favorite sand sculptures this morning...

14 months

Thomas really enjoys bath time. Every evening I ask Are you ready for your bath? Sometimes he'll actually reply Yeah, but he always gets up and walks straight down the hall to the bathroom door. He'll stand there with his hand on the door, waiting for me to follow and open the door for him. Pretty much anything involving water ranks up there as a favorite pastime.

music worthy of clapping

We packed a picnic dinner and headed for the riverfront park tonight for some live music. Playing tonight was a '30s swing jazz band called The Stolen Sweets. It was a popular event -- perfect weather for an evening out, nice crowd and great music. Thomas must have agreed because tonight he clapped for the first time! It seems that many babies clap earlier, but he hadn't yet (though he seems to do many other things early - go figure). I'm guessing he needed some good live music worthy of clapping. Of course, now he can't stop...

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We started the day at OMSI with his playgroup. I didn't know it could be so fun for him. He had a fantastic time! His favorites were the puppet theater where he entertained his friend Clara and, of course, the water station. Boys and water go hand in hand, don't they?

Chinatown

The Classical Chinese Garden provided a wonderful respite from the warm weather this afternoon. We wandered the site looking at the beautiful structures, plant collections, artwork, stone walkways and the extensive waterscape. Neither of us had been there before so it was especially fun to experience it together with Thomas. He seemed to enjoy walking along the paths, across the bridges and inside the structures (they echo!).

The Chinese Garden is based on a garden built in the city of Suzhou, China during the Ming Dynasty (1369-1644 AD). Most of the materials were brought in from China and most of the work was created by Suzhou workers. Quite authentic and very beautiful.

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Afterward we continued the Chinese theme with dinner at a Chinatown restaurant. Thomas enjoyed banging the table with his chopsticks while I fed him steamed rice and things out of my soup. Yum!

The Talented Miss Bela

She reads.

She plays the piano.

She holds the ball for Greta to chew on.

slip slidin' away

Two Sides of Thomas

Thomas is at such a fun age. These are two of the views of him we see most frequently. Either he's peering at us from upside down and between his legs or he's coming towards us full steam. He's so silly.

constant motion

Thomas has been trying all kinds of new things these last few weeks. His favorite seems to be climbing. The sofa is still a tough one, but he's climbing up on the stroller, scrambling up our stairs to the second floor and getting up on everything else that he can.

He's also been seen crawling under his highchair like it's a tunnel and moving chairs around. He really seems to enjoy "putting things away". Some things are stashed under the sofa, while others are placed on top of tables and chairs. This morning I found a shoe on the dining room table, a sock hanging on a plant in the living room, and some of his books and toys under the sofa. Vocabulary also continues to grow with words like shoe, sounds that we understand to be duck and signs for things like hat. Exciting stuff!

Every day seems to bring something new.

morning hike

They look evil in this photo and were running way too fast to snap a non-blurry image. With tongues flapping and legs moving as fast as they could, Bela and Greta had a fantastic time on our morning hike.

s'mores, please!

M often tells me I'm an advertiser's dream. If they say I need it or I see an ad for something, I am suddenly convinced I need it and/or want it. The same holds true for this t-shirt. When I see him in it all I can think about are s'mores and how yummy one would be right now...

Thomas walks backwards! Not a step or two, but the entire length of our hallway. This morning we saw him walk backwards while pulling his 'push car'. He always does everything the hard way.

summer colds

It's been a long week for both me and Thomas. His nose started running Sunday afternoon and I've been sick since Tuesday evening. He's handling it better than I am though. He continues to run around and looks happy while I am the complete opposite.

I snapped some photos of him today in this fancy new sweater. The woman I usually see at the nail salon made this for Thomas so I wanted to get some photos of him wearing it to send in a Thank You card. I was so touched by her thoughtfulness!

Hot Kids in the City

Today's high temperature broke the previous record by 8 degrees. At 102*, it was hot. Fortunately we have central air conditioning in our house, but frozen fruit bars and playing in the swimming pool have also kept us cool during this heat wave.

Thomas loves Grandma

Thomas had his first sleepover at Grandma's house this weekend. From the sounds of it, they had a great time. His cousin E was there for awhile so they all walked over to the park to play and had dinner together. Later in the evening, Grandma gave him a cool bath and then he settled down to sleep on the living room floor. We were pleased to hear it all went well and found him napping on Grandma when we went to pick him up. Looks pretty content, doesn't he? There's no place quite like Grandma's house (or arms!).

Tiny Tot

The local library's storytimes have resumed! They were on hiatus for a few weeks so the librarians could visit local schools and sign up students for the summer reading program. Prior to the hiatus, we had been going to the Book Babies storytime which is geared to the under 12 months, non-mobile set. Thomas enjoyed them, but the last time we went all the other babies were under 6 months and it wasn't as interesting for him.

Today I took him to the Tiny Tots storytime and, though he was clearly the youngest one, he seemed to enjoy it more. He wasn't able to follow along with some of the physical movements related to the singing, but he enjoyed walking around and watching the other toddlers. During the actual reading of a book, all the children sat with their guardian except Thomas. He was the first one to walk over to the librarian and really involve himself in the reading (the others quickly followed). I was so proud of him! He seems to go through periods where he's more bashful than other times and it was great to watch him jump right in like that.

Thomas has completed the first path on the Summer Reading Program gameboard! We've been done for a week, but finally were able to take our boardgame in this morning for validation and a prize. He chose this red ball pictured above. Balls are his new interest and a word he's recently added to his vocabulary.

Thomas' new cousin

He's absolutely beautiful and perfect!

Fun times with the girls

Thomas had so much fun today with his cousins and their friends. He loved checking out all the things on their farm, esp. the chickens and the huge trampoline in the backyard. The girls were all so great to play with him, show him around and make him laugh.

Thomas caught some air on his bottom...

...and again on his feet!

summer haircut

I took Thomas in for his second haircut this afternoon and decided to have it cut even shorter than before. Once again, I didn't think he could get any cuter, but he did. Handsome boy!

got art?

Thomas' first artwork. Everything he does requires the use of both hands, even coloring! It isn't enough to have one crayon. He has to have a crayon in each hand. You might call him a "two-fisted colorist". He incorporated some stippling, some simple strokes and, when helped, even a little heavier hand to get some great areas of color. Budding artist?

He has been dabbling in all kinds of new foods these last few weeks. Those with stronger flavors make his taste buds happy. Kalamata olives, cherry tomatoes, raspberries... In an effort to further expand his tastes, this morning I saw him reach into Greta's food bowl (bless her heart -- she didn't protest verbally or physically!), pull out a kibble and pop it into his mouth. He stood there smiling at me as though he understood we don't eat dog food. I, of course, removed the kibble and quickly escorted him out of the kitchen and away from the girls...

Margie

Thomas sneaks a drink from his cousin J's cup while their great-grandmother Margie watches...

our little boy

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Stopped at the park this afternoon to enjoy some sunshine.

love at first taste: strawberries

Thomas loves blueberries, but last week he tried strawberries for the first time and it was love at first taste. He nearly ate the entire pint and probably would have if I'd let him. Yummy.

[Note: Yes, that is a bruise on his forehead. He seems to have two speeds -- Stop and Move as Fast as I Can. The latter one isn't always his friend. At least this one didn't result in a bloody nose like some of the others...]

library's summer reading program

We read to Thomas at home, but probably not as much as we should. So I signed him up to participate in the library's summer reading program to help remind us to read to him. We track his progress on these handy little charts provided by the library. For every 15 minutes that we read to him, we color one of the stones along the path. Once he completes a path, he'll receive a little prize. After completing all four paths, he'll earn a t-shirt or some other prize.

13 months

The photos have been far and few these last couple of weeks. Thomas is constantly on the move so it's hard to photograph him. Many of them turn out blurry and/or we end up snapping photos of his back or parts of his body. He's enjoying being mobile and is really keeping us on our toes these days!

Thomas loves to point out all the dogs while we are out, but lately even his beloved canine friends have been trumped by the sight of a car or truck. He points out every car and truck he sees and tells us what it is. Even while in the house, he'll point to a window and say "car" when he hears one drive past our house.

Greta

caught in the act!

I put Thomas down for a morning nap but when I went in to check on him, he was reading one of his favorite books instead...

sshh...sshhi...sshhu...

Thomas has been adding to his vocabulary. We're not sure what he's trying to say with this latest sound, but it sounds alot like he's swearing. We don't use this word around him so I don't think it's really that word. But it is enough that you have to stop, look at him and wonder aloud, "...did he just say...?!?!" We have both done this and so has my mom.

rain, rain, go away...

...come again another day,

little Greta and Bela want to play!