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.