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.

Spring 2017

It's May already and lots has happened since our last post. Gloria has gone from walking to speed walking- she is so fast! Turn your back for a second and she's swishing around in a toilet! Lots of new words, her current list includes: mama, dada, sis, cheese, hop, up, off, more, balloon, ball, dog, nanni, and egg. More every day! Right now she is obsessed with dogs, inspired by some friendly encounters with our neighbor's dog Lucy.

We took a family trip to Suncadia in Cle Elum for spring break with Nanni and Poppi. The girls had a blast sharing a room and sleeping on bunk beds. We borrowed a bike trailer from a friend and loaded them up for a ride. Smores, swimming, elk sightings, lots of fun.

We hosted an Easter egg hunt. We had a fun field trip to Carkeek with C's class. And Matt went to Jazz fest in New Orleans for 5 days- a long time to be solo mama! Nanni and Poppi had a sleepover at our house one of the nights which was a huge help. And the next weekend C, Nanni and I finally went on our rescheduled big girls trip to San Francisco! We rode the cable car to Ghiardelli Square, saw sea lions off the wharf, went to the Botanical gardens in Golden Gate Park with some friends, and even made it to see Matisse at SFMOMA.

Marching On

March has zoomed by! Gloria *can* walk, but she chooses not to. She prefers to walk around and around the house holding my finger, chasing her sister. She will growl when you ask her what a tiger (or bear) says. After a couple nights when she had trouble falling asleep, we introduced 3 stuffies in her crib with great success, which Charlotte has named as follows: Heartly the monkey, Spots the giraffe, and Dewey the dog (Dewey's name came from Gloria's most frequently babbled syllables). Plus of course Po the lovey panda. When you ask her to say Dada, she clicks her tongue and won't say the word- a mystery! We also moved her out of her high chair with tray into a kid chair with straps that pulls up to the table. It is mostly working, however she often insists on eating with one foot up on the table. Very laid back. She has also taken to Cs old baby doll Stella, whose hair she likes to brush.

Charlotte has been really into a women in science book she got as a gift- mama loves it, too. And speaking of mama, I had my first night away from G since she was born, a weekend in Palm Springs with my college friends.

Matt has been hard at work building us a mud room so we have somewhere to put all our coats and boots and hats- a must in Seattle! Our first project in our new house.

February 2017

February is often on the sunny side in Seattle, but this year it has been snowy and rainy. The Wasses were happy to have a snow day and quicky turned that snow into a snowman. We have otherwise had a pretty mellow month, celebrating Valentine's Day, touring kindergarten classrooms, and fun with friends and family. Matt has been baking up a storm lately inspired by British TV baker Paul Hollwood, with tasty results. Charlotte and I saw Moana and we have been listening to the soundtrack on heavy rotation- it's really good!. And it's the first Disney movie with no prince, no romance, no marriage, hallelujah. Charlotte has lately taken to the concept of mitzvah which she learned in Hebrew school and has been clearing the table and doing other acts of kindness and generosity, much appreciated. She is very patient and understanding with Gloria, it is really a testament to her ability to empathize with what it means to be a baby. Her creativity in imaginative play is astounding. She has two alter ego recurring characters, Fritz and Naughty Rose Red, who make tons of bad choices, are very rude and mean, and act out all of her rebellious fantasies. It is absolutely fascinating to engage in with her, and very informative! Sometimes it feels like she does not stop talking/interrogating us from the moment she wakes up until the moment she goes to bed, but Matt reminds me that in the not so distant future we will miss hearing exaclty what is going on in her little head and we should enjoy it now while we can. Truth.

Gloria has taken some steps here and there and continues to try to climb anything on which she can gain purchase- packages, suitcases, chairs, sofas, beds, anything she can summit. She loves climbing up in her little orange chair and getting down and climbing back up and standing up, etc. Right now she has 3 molars coming in at the same time but she has been a real trooper. She loves to fork and spoon her food and will make a forking motion to ask for a utensil if we don't provide one. She loves to brush her teeth with her sis and will come crawling at high speed to the bathroom if she hears the word toothbrush. No new words quite yet, but she is working on dip, Gloria, and sis. She is still sleeping like a champ- 2 2-hour naps and 12 hours at night 7 to 7, just like her sister, god bless them both.

Happy New Year 2017

Given that I spent last New Year's Eve birthing a baby, I was pretty much happy to do anything else this year. We went out to dinner with Liz and Eric at a hip new street food restaurant on Capitol Hill. We were supposed to have a birthday party for Gloria on New Year's Day, but Charlotte got a case of the barfs so we had to postpone to the following weekend. Matt made her a panda carrot cake, and we repurposed Charlotte's second birthday banner into a first birthday banner for our littlest pup. But apparently the party was a bit of a germ fest. Matt and I contracted Cs stomach bug, G got a really bad cold, which Liz and Nathaniel also came down with, then Nanni got a sinus infection, I got the cold, and then Poppi got the stomach bug and Charlotte got the flu. Bleached our house top to bottom 3 times! We had to cancel our trip to San Francisco, and unfortunately Charlotte was still sick on inauguration day and was not able to join me in the women's march. So between a plague of illnesses and a megalomaniac taking over our country, January has not been the best month!

Gloria is up to all kinds of new tricks. Her favorite pursuit is climbing in and out of her little orange chair or rolling around and climbing on the sofa or on pretty much anything she can get on top of. She's getting very good at signing for more, waving hello and goodbye, and of course her favorite clapping. I wouldn't say she really has any words yet, although she sort of says more and mama and hi dada. She loves walking around the house and can now do it holding just one hand. She loves to push her push cart around and climb in and out of it. Her favorite toy is whatever Charlotte is holding in her hand, usually a Barbie. She has a very keen eye for issues of equity and fairness, and she's always scoping out the dinner table to ensure there's nothing that anyone else has on their plate that she has not gotten her fair share of.