He's a Reader

As you may have guessed from our video post of him being read to, Miles loves books. He loves to eat them, rip them, bend them, have them read to him, jab at pictures, and turn the pages. We live with a little literary destruction in order to encourage a love of reading as he grows up.

Grace Recommends... (part three)

Our lack of posts in this area is not due to a lack of reading on Grace's part. On the contrary, she looks at books daily and is starting to actually read. (From time to time she announces a word and we have to look around to see where she's reading it. The other day it was "home" on a cookbook.)

No, Grace is definitely a book lover, and has made the move from board books to books with real pages. (We keep the tape handy.) Here are three of her recent favorites.

Babar's Book of Color by Laurent de Brunhoff
I always loved Babar books, and Grace loves this one. She's learned a ton about colors -- how the colors mix to make other colors, etc.










The Best First Book Ever by Richard Scarry
Oh, heavens, is there anything better for learning vocabulary than a Richard Scarry book? The illustrated animals are fun and Grace has learned the names of so many things that we're having trouble keeping up with showing them to her in real life. (And be sure to look for Mr. Frumble chasing his hat on every page.)







Are You Ready to Play Outside? by Mo Willems
This story is told by the conversation between two pencil-sketched friends, Piggie and Gerald. The facial expressions and body language are amazing, and the simple lesson of finding joy despite the rain is taught almost without effort. A definite favorite.

They Grow Up So Fast

I was in Starbucks yesterday with Miles and had a parent of teenagers tell me to enjoy these times -- kids grow up so fast. If I had a nickel for every time we've been told that...

On a day-to-day basis, minutes and hours often seem to tick by so slowly. Why do mealtimes, playtimes, and getting dressed/undressed for the day take absolutely forever, but naptimes pass in a flash?

On the other hand, the weeks, months, and years are moving so quickly. It's difficult to believe that Grace is 2 1/2 and Miles will have his first birthday in a few weeks.

I think we're making a good effort to embrace the joys of each phase of our kids' lives and to keep calm as possible with the frustrations of each phase. Grace and Miles are changing so quickly that neither a stressful stage nor a really fun stage lasts very long and often the stress and fun are part of the same stage. We have a lot to learn in so many areas and want to continue to grow in our ability simply to savor each moment.

Here are a few of the moments we've enjoyed recently -- some time outside during a rare day of good weather, and Grace's first painted fingernails (she found my rarely-used nail polish and wanted to try it out). Incidentally, our color choice was influenced by her desire to match the brown shirts we were both wearing that day. And no, we didn't let Miles eat the rock.

Belly Laughs

They say children laugh 300 times per day, while adults only laugh 15. What they don't tell you is how often adults who are parents of young children laugh. I'm willing to bet it's a lot more than 15. Here's something to bring your total for the day up to 16 or 17.

(Oh, and this is our 100th post, something which brings a smile to my face.)

Snow Days

Snow in the Seattle area, while not rare, is not exactly common. Particularly snow that sticks around for a while. After nearly a week of chilly temperatures, sunny skies, and snow on the ground, the rain has returned. But not before we snapped these pictures.

What Some People Are Getting

We are looking forward to Christmas!

Grace is enamored with "making". She always wants to cook or bake something, and can list all of the ingredients that go into chocolate chip cookies, as well as quite a few for smoothies, tomato cobbler, and several other meals. Of course, she'd rather climb up on a chair, put on her Strawberry Shortcake apron, and help with real food preparation, but she also likes to pretend. So to that end, I'm making her a variety of felt foods. (Hope she likes it, but even if she doesn't I've had fun making it.)



Miles is too young to care a whit about Christmas. All he wants is his teeth, and an end to the discomfort that goes along with getting them. Come to think of it, that would be a great gift for the rest of us too.

Teething

Poor Miles. He is getting six teeth all at once.

(Poor Grace, Vic, and me. We hear moaning and crying all day long.)

We are thankful for infant Tylenol and Hyland's teething tablets. We are also thankful for 2-3 minutes of belly laughs from Miles that make us laugh too and that soften the rough edges of a long day.