2019 Winter

Somehow it is already March. My blogging has been curtailed by a malfunctioning app but I didn't want to fall too far behind so I write this to you from an actual desktop computer. We had a very autumnal autumn, kicking off with an apple picking adventure to Skipley Farms with the twins. We maybe went a little crazy- let's just say we were well stocked in apple sauce all winter! Big fall highlight for the girls- on our trip the pumpkin patch/animal farm, there was a huge mama pig and a litter of a dozen or so piglets, and the mama got up and peed the biggest pee you can imagine. They still have not stopped talking about this! For Halloween we were the 101 Dalmatians crew: I was Cruella, Matt was my henchman, and the girls were puppies! Gloria refused to be a Dalmatian puppy but still, my lifelong dream of a successful family Halloween costume came true. #lifegoals

Then we were into birthday/holiday season. Charlotte had a dino theme party at the Pacific Science Center, which we picked in part because they allowed a fairly high kid capacity in the party room compared to other venues, which we thought would be great so C could invite all her old and new friends and my friends' kids, etc. In case you can't guess where this is going, it was a huge mistake- we stupidly tried to usher all the kids from the party room up the stairs and through the main exhibit hall into the dinosaur room and then back down the stairs- I almost had a heart attack keeping track of them. And then to finish it off, somehow we left before one little girls' mom came to get her- she was 15 min late and texted me but Matt had my phone and I still don't know how it happened but as we were driving away she called to say WTF! SO embarrassing. But Charlotte had a great time. Charlotte is very intrepid socially- she just shows up wherever and makes friends. Her reading skills are coming along, but she is reluctant to read on her own as it is still a fair amount of work for her and she prefers to be read to or to listen to her audio books. She and Gloria have been playing nicely together lately and for longer stretches of time, which is so great to see as she learns to compromise and be flexible with G. And she is getting really tall- I just had to put away of all the clothes I bought her in the fall!

Then we were off to Asilomar for Thanksgiving with the whole fam. We got some beach time in as well as a trip to the Aquarium, and of course the family play, which was Alice in Wonderland. They had lots of good cousin time and lots of gifts, but if you ask the girls, I am guessing that seeing David, our twenty something and very adorable family friend, was the highlight of their trip.

Let's see, we saw the Nutcracker, went to Wild Lights, and took some photos with Santa- Gloria didn't hesitate for a second to climb up on his lap! We saw the trains at Seattle Center, had a fun visit to the Burke Museum- such a gem of a natural history museum right in our neighborhood- all the good holiday stuff. And we saw the new Mary Poppins on xmas day- G sat through the whole thing, and we have been listening to the soundtrack on heavy rotation ever since. Then it was Gloria's third birthday! This girl is such a character. She went through a long stage of not wanting to wear pants- just shorts and t shirts in the middle of winter- I finally had to revise her wardrobe so this was not an option. She still pronounces "the" as "dee" so her speech patterns sound straight out of Song of the South: dee dog is in dee car. It is adorable. She has a very strong voice- I'm guessing a younger sibling adaptation to be heard in a crowd! And she has started gymnastics on Fridays which she adores. She is constantly in motion and always has something to say. Her current favorite toys are My Little Ponies, Barbies, and her baby doll and good old Sasha the knock-off American Girl doll. She loves to dance and jump off of any piece of furniture. When she wakes up in the morning, she calls for her Dada and is completely indignant if I come into her room before him.

I think we all got terribly sick in January- Matt was quarantined in the basement for like 5 days at one point!. Then the snopocalypse hit- 6 days of no school snow days. It almost killed me but we filled our time with sledding and snowmen and lots of hot chocolate. Just when the snow had melted, it was midwinter break- another week off! We had unfortunately scheduled a trip to- you guessed it- the snow! We went to Mr Rainier with my folks for 4 days- it ended up being a lot of fun, though. Charlotte even went on a fairly long snowshoe trek with us, bribed by the promise of candy.

Now we are back in the swing of school and work. Charlotte participated in her first science fair this week- she did an experiment testing if you can taste various foods with your nose plugged. I'm not sure how fun the whole thing was for her because she had a hard time visualizing the end product and Matt and I were a little bit too intense about making the poster look nice- but I hope next time it will all make more sense. Spring is almost here- it is supposed to break 60 today! Hallelujah.

July 2018

Summer is finally here and we have had lots of excitement in the Wasse household. We took a trip to Southern California for spring break for some beach time and some family time. Charlotte and Gloria had a blast with their cousins and extended family.

Gloria started preschool at the same school where Charlotte and her cousins attended, and needless to say she was VERY ready. I don't think she even gave a second glance when we dropped her off for the first time, and all reports from her teachers indicate that she is having the time of her life. She is not super verbal but definitely manages to get her point across. Her oft repeated sayings include: wazzizit? For me? Me do it (a million times per day). And she still says wawee for water which I find endlessly adorable.

Gloria is very gymnastically inclined and will flip over anything she can flip over. I'm definitely going to have to get her enrolled in some classes this fall! She is totally potty trained, which has been pretty amazing for a two-year-old. She still wears a diaper at night and during nap but has very few accidents at this point. She is firmly convinced that she is a big girl, and so we try hard to do everything we can to support that vision for her, even though to me she of course is still my little baby.

After 2 weeks of relaxing, Charlotte is off to camp which she loves- sweet freedom/ minimal adult supervision. She had a great year in kindergarten, made lots of friends and really enjoyed school every day. So hard to believe she will be a first grader next year! Her reading has really picked up, although I wouldn't say she enjoys reading quite yet, it is still hard work. Charlotte loves: anything sweet, playing ponies, our next-door neighbor Harper, being silly (and rough and tumble) with her sister, being read to, and snuggling and chatting at night before bed. Matt and I have realize that we are probably a little too hard on Charlotte, that our expectations for her are probably more advanced than is actually age-appropriate. So we have been trying to lighten up and to have more patience for her shenanigans and her complete inability to do what we ask her to do when we ask her to do it :-) I went on a spring field trip with Charlotte's class for the day to Camp Long on Vashon Island, and it made me realize that she is actually fairly cooperative compared to most of her classmates. All in all she is a really easy kid – no major problems of any kind- so I'm trying to be more appreciative of her.

We had a fun 4th of July parading in our neighborhood parade, complete with popsicles and a firetruck! What more could a kid ask for :)

We squeezed a lot of fun into this summer- a trip to Camano Island with the Alexanders, blueberry picking, another trip to Vashon with the Maloneys, lots of beach time and biking. We finished summer off with our annual trip to Remlinger farms. We also managed to squeeze in a Yes Day for Charlotte- a day when she get to plan everything we do and eat and we say yes to all her requests (within a few basic rules). Kids are such simple beasts- Charlotte's dream day entailed going out for breakfast, a visit to the candy store, selling cookies on the trail with our neighbor, and having a sleepover with her bestie. 

Spring 2018

Yesterday Seattle broke a Record for warm weather, and the weekend was very warm as well. We took the opportunity to get out and do some bike riding, and Charlotte had a breakthrough. She rode her two wheel bike all by herself around and around the playground, it was a very exciting moment for all of us. Gloria meanwhile was scootering up a storm, going really fast and loving it. Other goings-on lately: we had a fun trip to Suncadia with the whole family, Charlotte and I went snowshoeing, lots of sledding. Gloria was not a big fan of the snow, so I put her in my carry pack and carried her around, which she loved. The cousins had a great time playing together and invented a game called "you're getting on my nerves."
we all got together for Purim for some hamantaschen making, the girls were very focused both on the process and on eating the product.
Developmentally, Gloria has been making leaps verbally, she chatters constantly, although she has a pretty strong toddler accent which makes it a little hard to understand her. Her most frequently used sayings are me see it, me do it, what's that, and why? She has also demanded that we stop using diapers, and she pees poops in the potty with some consistency. She has also now entered that toddler stage where she insists on picking out her own clothing, but she does a pretty great job of dressing herself. Unfortunately she has started to resist going to sleep at night, we usually have about an hour of callbacks and various other shenanigans. But at least when she's asleep she's quiet until morning. She has also really started dancing up a storm after she saw Charlotte perform in her school's talent show to Katie Perry's roar. Gloria requests dancing sessions almost daily, and of course insists that her audience is seated, not singing along, and paying rapt attention to her moves.

Winter 2017

The winter season is always busy at the Wasse's house from Halloween to charlottes birthday, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, our holiday party, Christmas, New Year's and then Gloria's birthday, we have a lot going on. Mercifully, we did not have to travel anywhere this year, which was fantastic. Thanksgiving was a lovely local affair with the family- Charlotte made place cards with everyone's names on them which is her new trick. Her reading skills have really taken off, and she has a lot of sight words and can sound her way through a surprising amount of words. Charlotte is taking gymnastics on Saturdays and Hebrew school on Sundays, neither of which she is terribly enthusiastic about, but we persist.

For her birthday this year Charlotte wanted a rainbow cake and a pottery painting party, so we of course delivered. Or should I say Matt delivered the cake- gorgeous as usual. Charlotte asked for an American girl doll, inspired as she is in many things by our neighbor Harper, so we obliged, not knowing the fury it would unleash in our home. Needless to say, the moment that Gloria laid eyes on that doll, it was love at first sight. She wanted to put her to bed, pat her hold her, visit her every day, and Charlotte was has been absolutely as generous as any six-year-old could possibly be, but still it creates a lot of tension in the house. This tension was not resolved when we got Gloria an imitation American girl doll from target, and trimmed her hair to look just like charlotte's. Gloria took one look at her, noticed the slightly inferior quality of her hair and said "scalp." As in I can see her scalp, don't try and fool me, people, this is no Ramona.

Gloria has taken off in terms of language development. Lots of three and four word sentences going on. The things she says most often are: sit down, me do it, eat it, have it, sit close to me, and happened? She also wants everything "biggie."

For vodkas and latkes this year I had the genius idea to hire a neighbor's home from college student to do the latke serving and bar management, which made all the difference in terms of our enjoyment of the party. Charlotte had her first sleepover at Carrie Ellis house that night, and when we picked her up in the morning we were not a little surprised to hear from Kate that she was the most generous, flexible, and accommodating child at the party. Gloria spend the night with Nanni and Poppi, much to her delight. I have never met a two-year-old who is less clingy to her parents than this girl, I'm hoping that is a good thing.We were ahead of the game because we saw the Nutcracker and got our tree Tday weekend, so we had to work a little bit extra to generate that holiday cheer. Cookie decorating entailed Charlotte and I frosting the cookies while Gloria essentially ate a bowl of sprinkles. In my eternal quest to implement family traditions, I got us an advent calendar with little drawers into which we put a piece of candy for each night, quite a hit with the Girlies. We had lots of Hanukkah fun with the family; our annual trip to Swanson's to see the reindeer and get a picture with Santa; we had the Maloney's over for Christmas eve dinner, and then the twins over for Dutch babies Christmas morning. Our attempt at Jewish Christmas was almost a total fail- we waited for two hours at the Chinese restaurant but luckily managed to have enough appetizers and soup to keep the girls happy before we had to cancel the rest of our order and run out of there. And most exciting of all, we had a white Christmas this year, the first time in 10 years! Charlotte and Harper and Gloria all got on their snow gear and were out sledding down the driveway for hours.

Matt's parents were supposed to come after Christmas, but they got bad colds and couldn't travel. So since Matt and I had already planned on taking the week off, we just did a bunch of stuff around town: Seattle Center, wild lights at the zoo, Museum of flight. We celebrated Gloria's birthday on the 31st, with bagels and lox and a puppy cake for the whole family plus Liz's in-laws were in town. Gloria has been singing happy birthday to herself ever since. When asked how old she was she replied without missing a beat, six. And for New Year's Eve, we took the girls out to dinner at Ivar's on Northlake, looking out over the water at the space needle- they loved it, although Gloria was a little more squirrely than usual. all in all, I would say we had a very lovely season, although I think some of us were a little bit glad to get back to school and work and our usual routines.

Fall 2017

Gloria loves to do everything for herself- pouring the milk for her cereal, brushing her own teeth, putting on her own clothes, brushing her own hair, putting on her own shoes. Me, she says frequently, meaning I want to do it myself. And she is rather mechanically inclined. Taking things apart, unscrewing and re-screwing the tops on things, squeezing cream out of tubes, these are a few of her favorite things. She is obsessed with buses, most likely related to her daily experience of meeting Charlotte at the bus stop. She's also started spending a lot of time playing in the doll house with the bunny family and various pieces of furniture, the toilet and high chair being her favorites. Her lovey Po is a constant, as is Po's best friend Mimi the dog. When she plays with dolls or animals, they tend to do a lot of sleeping, dressing and undressing, and bus riding. At the playground she is very watchful, often just staying in one place and observing the goings-on of the other kids. She also likes to hang from a good bar. Slides are not her favorite thing, but she enjoys stairs. Drawing is also a favorite activity, although playing with the pencils and markers tends to take up more time than any actual artistic creation. God bless her, she's is still always happy to go to sleep, both at nap and at night -I've never met a baby so pleased to be put in her crib. She is such a sweet little thing, when I kiss her and hug her too much she tells me, space mama. When she's upset about something, usually she wants access to some item and that access is denied, I calm her down by holding her close and gazing out the window together, watching the cars, the birds, or of course the buses.

We had a blast on Halloween-we organized all the kids on our block to go trick-or-treating together in a pack. Charlotte got out my old peacock costume, Gloria was a flamingo, Matt was a last-minute Batman, and I was medusa.

Fall 2017

Summer this year was extremely hot, we mostly survived with a combination of our portable air-conditioning unit, lots of fans, and hanging out in the basement. Charlotte, Harper, and Addie took advantage of the weather by selling some lemonade and cookies on the trail. Charlotte lost not one but two bottom teeth, making her officially a big kid. Gloria's vocabulary has been growing exponentially. Her favorite words are ME and OWN. As in me, I want to do it myself, or me, give it to me, or Own, I want my own.

We managed to squeeze in one last quick weekend getaway to Carnation before school started. It almost turned into a disaster weekend- The air was full of smoke from forest fires, Matt was deathly ill, Charlotte got stung in the eye by a bee, and Gloria sliced her toe open in the shower. But somehow we managed to have a great day and Remlinger Farms riding all the rides.

And before we knew it it was time to get ready for kindergarten. We attended a bunch of play dates with charlottes prospective classmates, went backpack shopping, met Charlotte's teacher, and read a lot of picture books on the topic. When the big day came, Charlotte could not have been more ready. She couldn't kick me out of that classroom fast enough! Not so surprising as she will be six in November, I guess. Her favorite things about kindergarten so far are riding the bus home, buying lunch from the cafeteria, and music class. Gloria is extremely envious of the bus riding- several times per day she says, "bus, sissy, me!"

Summertime

It's hard to believe it's already July, June just flew by. Gloria is now running, in fact running away from me every time I try to get her to do something like change her diaper or come to the table for dinner. She has a mind of her own and is now firmly a toddler. She says no and yeah to let you know what she does and does not want. She loves playing with her sis, in a fort or sliding down the slide in the backyard, or just running around the house. She eats beautifully with a spoon and fork and loves experimenting with a cup full of water. I'm afraid I've lost track of how many words she has now, needless to say new ones every day. We have often asked Charlotte to give Gloria some space (she loves to get right up on top of her), and now Gloria has caught on and will put her hand out and say "space" when she wants us to leave her be. She loves to do everything her sis does, including applying lotion, somersaults, playing dolls, walking down the stairs, putting on dresses, and "helping" with various household chores. Her favorite summer fruit is blackberries (dap dap), which we have been picking every time we take a walk on the trail.

Charlotte graduated from preschool which of course made me cry thinking about how big she's gotten, what an amazing kiddo she's become. The caps and gowns were too much!

We spent four days at a beach house on Whidbey Island with Nanni and Poppi, Liz, Eric and the twins. It is an understatement to say that all the kiddos had a fantastic time. Sand, sea. treats, playing together. And the grown-ups had a pretty good time as well.

The girls are very excited about the playset we had built in the back yard- complete with platform swing, climbing wall, slide, and a baby swing for G. Charlotte struck up a friendship with the girls who live next door and they have all sorts of fun back there.