A Week In Review

Well, the sun is partially shining today, the snow has almost completely melted, and the year is almost over. David, Vincent and I made it through our week of messy, snow covered roads and cabin fever. Looking back, it was a really good week. It was a bit stressful to have to constantly play things by ear, and guess if we would actually make it out for whatever we had planned. In the end, we were able to enjoy the Christmas festivities with people we care about and with each other. David returned to work this morning. Here's a recap of our week together.

Monday, 12/22/08 - Vincent's birthday (see previous post).

Tuesday, 12/23/08 - 1) We got a call that our bags arrived in Long Beach, and were on their way back to Seattle. Unfortunately, that flight was delayed 2 hours, which made it too late for David to make the trek to SeaTac. 2) We head to our neighbors' house, 2 doors north, and enjoy holiday celebrations & very delicious shrimp etoufee.

Wednesday, Christmas Eve - Snowing again! 1) After much pondering and waiting to see how the weather pans out, we finally decide to head to SeaTac and collect our bags. They only had 3 out of 4 of our bags, and 2 of them have been damaged. At least we got our Christmas gifts in time for the big day. No car seat. We were lucky to borrow one from a neighbor. 2) After the airport, we head to Federal Way to have dinner with Lucy's family. We get there late, but are welcomed with plates of delicious food upon entering. Lucy's oldest brother takes over watching Vincent and does a fantastic job playing with him. We all open some gifts after eating, and then it's time to head home for Vincent's bedtime. We had changed him into a fresh diaper and pajamas before leaving, which was a good thing because he was sacked out from all the playing he did with Robert & Halina. I was able to carry him to his room & place him right into bed.

Thursday, Christmas - More snow! 1) When Vincent woke up, we both led him out of his room into a dark living room with just the Christmas tree lit up. Under the tree were all the gifts that were in our luggage, wrapped and ready to be opened. We thought he would have some profound reaction, but he just went straight to one of the gifts (still in the dark) and tried to open it. The gift opening was a lot of fun, but I think Vincent woke up on the wrong side of the crib. We did a web call with David's family, and Vincent was acting wild and cranky. 2) After Vincent's nap, the snow had turned to rain, and we head over to The Hildebrandts for an early dinner. Thankfully, Vincent was in a much better mood after his nap. It was just the thing our little family needed. A relaxing evening shared with our good friends.

Friday, 12/26/08 - 1) They found our car seat! David drops Vincent and I off at Southcenter Mall to play in the kids area, and maybe do a little after Christmas bargain shopping, while he goes to retrieve the car seat. The plan was to have lunch at the mall together before heading home. David has an easy time getting back to car seat, but I have a tough time with a sort of rough playing toddler. After 10 minutes of circling the parking lot at the mall, David calls me and picks us up...we'll go eat in the International District back in Seattle, instead. I think the rest of the day continued pretty uneventfully, except for 2) Jen Beatty has her baby boy, Maxton Scout Beatty!

Saturday, 12/27/08 - 1) We had our most successful outing all week. We bought Vincent a new twin mattress. We had no idea it would be like buying a car. Somehow we got him to knock off about $200, just for standing around thinking about what to do. We also do a big grocery trip at Wholefoods. It felt good to stock our fridge again. 2) I got to visit Jen and Max at the hospital with my friends, Kari & Brian. On our way out of the hospital, the three of us get stuck in the elevator. Luckily, it was only for about 10 minutes, and I didn't go into labor. 3) Nog Night our at neighbors' house. We only stay for about an hour, but during that time, I met a woman named, Sparrow Hawk, who dangles a needle and thread over my belly and predicts I will have a baby boy! 4) David goes to the Thunderbirds hockey game with friends.

Sunday, 12/28/08 - David's last day of vacation. The roads are almost completely cleared. It's raining. 1) We have a delicious breakfast at Portage Bay Cafe, and head to Target for some bargains. Totally underwhelmed by the Christmas selection, but we did get new sheets for Vincent's new bed! 2) As a fun ending to David's time off, we decide to take Vincent to his first major sporting event, a Thunderbirds game. Yes, that's two in a row for David. We head to Queen Anne & grab a few slices of pizza at Pagliacci before the game. It was so cute to see Vincent holding the half slice of pizza and taking bites. He seemed to have a good time at the game. He immediately loved "Cool Bird" the mascot. We lasted only two periods, but it was still a very fun family event. This is about as crowded as I think we can handle with Vincent for a sporting event. We'd like to try a Mariner's game soon, but we'll see.

Happy 2nd Birthday Vincent!

The snow continues to fall here, in Seattle. Actually, it didn't snow today. The sun was shining at times and the some snow started to melt. The day before was pretty crazy. But, first, let me take you back a few days...

Friday night, we had the Demseys over for a little mini birthday celebration for Vincent. I made a cake. I'm not much of a baker, and I made the mistake of putting sugar sprinkles on the side and refrigerating the cake. I had forgotten that sugar melts in refrigeration, so you can see some sugar syrup here in this photo. Nonetheless, Vincent enjoyed having us sing to him and blowing out the candles, and especially eating the cake.

The next morning, Christmas came early. We had a web call with Vincent's grandparents in Cleveland, and we all opened our gifts from them, since we planned to be in L.A. for the holiday. We all received some great gifts, but the top gift in this household was definitely the Thomas and Friends train track set, along with a few trains from his grandparents and friends.

As I mentioned, the snow continued here. We were supposed to leave for So Cal on Sunday afternoon for a week trip to visit my family. David and I were on the ball getting to the airport. Everything went pretty smoothly through checking in, baggage drop, security, lunch and getting to the gate on time. Once we were at the gate, things sort of snowballed (no pun intended) from there. The flight out to Palm Springs ahead of us at the gate was still there & delayed. In fact, the passengers had been on the plane, and were now all getting off. They were moved to another gate, which gave us hope that we may get our plane soon. Not the case. At around 2pm, when we should've been boarding, they announced that our flight was cancelled. We were to go to baggage claim to retrieve our luggage, & strongly encouraged to go home and call Alaska Airlines reservations from there, rather than going to ticketing.

Baggage claim was a nightmare. Bags everywhere, people everywhere, and lines that nobody really seemed to know for sure where they lead. We happened to run into some friends who had been there longer than we had and were at the head of one line. They got some useful information, which actually helped us because we waited in the same, shorter line as they did. We ended up leaving our bags there, after giving the agent all our info, and headed for home.

The drive home wasn't too bad but scary. We drove very slowly. Unsure of the best route, we chose to go up one road that our friends had luck with a couple days prior. We had almost made it to the top of the hill when our car couldn't go any further. Luckily, David was able to turn us around, and we headed back on to the highway and tried another route, through downtown. We almost got stuck again, but somehow we made it home all in one piece.

So, here we are, in Seattle. Our trip to L.A. has been cancelled all together. But, we are making the best of it, even though all our gifts are either in already opened, in L.A. or in our luggage at SeaTac. Yes, this includes our stockings. For Vincent's actual birthday, we took a walk up to 15th Ave & found an artificial tree with lights for $20, and a few little cars to wrap up for Vincent as birthday and Christmas gifts. We also took him to Vios for lunch, so that we'd have a nice hot meal & Vincent could do a little playing. The street next to Vios was closed off, and there were kids sledding down the hill.

Here's David putting the first ornament on our new tree.

I baked Vincent a Betty Crocker cake out of a box & iced it with some whipped cream. We asked our neighbors to come over after dinner to help us sing "Happy Birthday" and have cake. Vincent was happy to have another cake & even did a better job blowing out his candles. He loved the cars & Playdoh we got him, and he didn't know the difference at all.

More snow and holiday cheer!

It's snowing again today, even harder than it did over the weekend. The roads outside look crazy. Busses are stuck up the street. In fact, I just looked out the window and the one that was trying to come down the street about an hour ago is still there, now with it's hazard lights blinking.

In anticipation for the bad weather yesterday, David's Microsoft commuter bus was cancelled completely for the day. David drove into work for a little bit yesterday. When he got home, we took advantage of the lack of snow and took the bus down to the Seattle Center for their Winterfest ice skating rink. Here are a few photos from our pre-snowday outing. Good thing we went yesterday, because we are stuck inside today!

On the bus.

Gettin' ready to take the ice!

A little wobbly.

Haircut - Finally!

I had a doctor's appointment this morning, and when we were done, I decided that if I could get a decent appointment time, Vincent would get a haircut. I've been so torn about this for a long time. I've even attempted to get him one a couple of times, but when they didn't have any "walk-ins", I would just shrug and that was the end of story. Today, it would be an hour wait. Since they had a train table, I took the appointment. Vincent played with the trains for a while, then we got a bite to eat, and came back for the haircut.

So, here are a couple of pictures, even though they aren't the best. He was distracted when I was trying to take these.

It's Beginning To Look Like Christmas!

I feel like I've been having a tough time getting into the spirit of the season. Up until last night, the only thing I have been doing to get into the holidays is buying gifts. I've been on a gift buying frenzy. There are so many people to remember. AND, there are so many birthdays to celebrate this time of year, too! So, I'm done with getting gifts now. There are still a couple of people left on the list, but David is responsible for them. The other thing I've done is hang up our stockings. Everytime I go to a friend's house and see their decorations, I have holiday envy. But, I just couldn't get myself together to make things more festive in our house. We've also opted out of getting a Christmas tree this year, due to a small, curious child.

So, yesterday afternoon it was decided that we would go to Trader Joe's & get a wreath and some garland. After Vincent went to bed, we hung the garland with some lights. WOW! What a difference that made in my inner holiday spirit. Not long after they were hung, it began to snow! This morning, after breakfast & a quick web call to the Cleveland grandparents, we took Vincent out to play in the snow.

David made a snow angel (didn't get a picture) & I built a small (er, tiny) snow man. I think this may actually be my first ever. Yeah, yeah, I grew up in L.A. Apparently, it wasn't very good snowman making snow, so that's my excuse for it looking so peuny.

Afterwards, we walked over to the park across the street to see if there were kids playing in the snow. My batteries to the camera died halfway there, but not before I got this shot of Vincent. He carried the snowball most of the way to the park, and when he dropped it accidentally, I had to remake it for him.

Some photos

I thought I'd post some recent photos of Vincent. Enjoy!

Here he is having a semi-pureed meal: whole wheat noodles in a sauce I made by pureeing sauteed mushrooms & sauteed zuchinnis (separately). He won't eat either of those things if he actually knew they were in his noodles. He's also having a banana/blueberry milkshake. I'm in love with the Magic Bullet blender to get my child needed nutrients!
This past weekend, Vincent received his first Christmas and birthday gifts for this year. Here he is opening them up. It was very exciting! I think he's going to love both events when they come around.

This morning, Vincent was pointing to something on the dining table. I think it was my laptop, trying to get me to show him this online book from http://www.onemorestory.com/. Instead, I grabbed these sunglasses and put them on his head. It disstracted him from the computer & he kept them on the rest of breakfast. He also posed for me, pretending to eat his sausage. I think he finally ate that piece 10 minutes later.
These last two photos were taken today in the toddler class we take together at the Seattle Central Community Collge. Today was our last class of the quater, so I thought that I should finally take a camera with me for the first time since we started taking the class in January.

Here's Vincent "cooking" away. And, one with the streamers during circle time. I can't believe he was still crawling when we started this class. Now, he sings along with the songs, dances, does art, runs around, and knows many of the names of his classmates!

"Sorry Baby"

This phrase both super cute and super sad at the same time. "Sorry Baby" has quickly become Vincent's favorite thing to say. He has been saying it for quite some time now, though just on occassion. But, yesterday afternoon, I had gotten upset with him about something, and I apologized for getting angry. I feel like I spent a good amount of time talking to him about how I had gotten angry, and that I was sorry for raising my voice, etc. Today, I think he must've said "sorry baby" at least 20 times. He said sorry to Buster for something this morning, only it was specifically, "Sorry Busta," he said "Sorry Baby" to me when we got home from My Coffee House this afternoon because he screamed at me the whole ride home (he didn't want to leave the train table there), and then he said "Sorry Baby" to David during his bath when he made a fuss about getting his hair washed. Among several other random times, that I can't remember for what reasons. It is so cute to hear, but it I have mixed feelings about this, that I just can't quite explain.

Some other cute things coming out of his mouth these days:
-"No" in Mandarin, which is much cuter and easier to put up with than when it's said in English
-"Milk Honey", or "Honey" after anything he is wanting..."water Honey..."
-counting to 10 in English and Mandarin, and almost to 20 in English
-SINGING! He can carry a tune, and has some of the words to the songs; Twinkle, Twinkle in English and Mandarin, Old McDonald, Wheels on the Bus (his favorite), and a more than a handful of others in English, Mandarin, and a couple in Spanish (um, he doesn't know all three versions in all the songs; just one or the other). And, he has made up some words to tunes, too.
-The way he says, "Daddy" or "Mommy" when we go to his room in the morning when he wakes up, like he's so happy to see you.
-"too tight"
-"naked"
-Mommy or Daddy "pee pee"
-"roasty toasty"

Gosh, there's just so much coming out of this kid's mouth now. He's a talking machine. Most of it only David and I can understand. Ooh, a new one today was when I told him we were going to the ProClub gym this morning, and he said in Mandarin, "Mama exercise." Ahhhhh....

Feeling Better

Vincent is feeling better. After one rough night of sleep, we took him to see the doctor, and it seems like the antibiotics worked immediately. But, with a recovering child, comes a more cranky child. When he wasn't feeling well, he was just mellow, & wanted to cuddle more. This always happens. After he's had an illness, when he's on the mends, he goes through a few days of being difficult. He's gotten more energy to complain, but not quite enough energy to make any sense of himself. At least that's how it seems. I have to say that I'm glad David was here with me over the weekend, rather than me having to do it on my own on the weekdays. We can give each other breaks. It wasn't too bad, and you can't get mad at him because you know he can't help himself.

On another subject...one I said I won't talk much about...I'm HUGE! I dared to compare photos of myself from my last pregnancy. Yikes! Wanna see?

This is me pregnant with Vincent at 27 weeks:

Here I am, this time around, at 26 weeks:

Yes, each pregnancy is unique, and you tend to look bigger, sooner, the second time around...but yeah, I'm big!

**Okay, I just happened to read this old posting: http://vincenttomi.blogspot.com/2008/03/1st-quarter-review.html

Looks like I had the same comments (towards the end of that post) about Vincent, when he feels sick & is on the mends, even back then...

My Sick Child

Vincent has had a mild cough for a few days now; starting either Monday or Tuesday. Nothing major at all. It did seem to be getting slightly worse early yesterday, but it was hard to tell if it was actually worsening, or just changing a bit. As I'm typing this, I realize that this may all seem like I'm a horrible mom for not knowing my child's illnesses better. He was definitely acting more tired than usual by the time we left the Hutryas after Thanksgiving dinner. We figured it was because it was past his bedtime and he took such a short nap.

By midnight, last night, he had a fever. We ended up bringing him to bed with us. Vincent has never slept well with us, even from the beginning. That's one of the reasons we didn't co-sleep. There are mornings that he will wake up early, and we'll try to bring him into our bed, hoping that he'll just fall back to sleep in between us. Doesn't work. He does enjoy the cuddling & hanging out, and we get to lay about for a little longer, but there's no more sleeping to be had. When Vincent and I were in L.A. back in May, I did bring him into bed with me one night because he was having a tough time sleeping & he actually slept next to me. We weren't sure how it would go last night. I'd say that he didn't fully fall asleep until past 2am, but he slept. And, he slept until past 9am this morning.

He was definitely acting more out of sorts than usual today. After we got him down for his nap, David decided to call the children's clinic, just to make sure there wasn't anything more we should be doing for him. Apparently there was. They said they wanted us to take him in. Well, it's a good thing Vincent has a good dad because it turns out he has an ear infection in his left ear. A pretty good one, too - with puss. He was not happy about the visit to the doctor, but he happily took his antiboitics when we got home.

He just about rejected all of his dinner. He took the tiniest of bites here and there just to appease us, but didn't actually eat. I gave him a hot shower, and he was ready to call it a night. It's 10:30pm, I'm not entirely sure what kind of night it will turn out to be tonight. My poor baby. Thank goodness this is a long weekend for David.

Warning: Parental Advisory

Happy Thanksgiving! We made our semi-traditional trip down to Federal Way to visit our adopted family, The Hutryas. They're one of my bestfriend's parents, and I've spent several Thanksgivings with them since my move to Seattle. It's always a wonderful time, with tons of food. Vincent was very happy to enjoy some pumpkin cheesecake. He has recently learned the word, "dessert" & gets very excited over the idea of having it. I actually don't know when/how he connected the two, as we rarely ever have dessert.

Now, here's the "parental advisory" part...Vincent has these Chinese/English flash cards given to him when he was born. They're fun for practicing words in both languages. He doesn't look at them all that often. Today, he pulled out the stack with the "ABC's," one that he hasn't seen in a while. There are some extras to go with the alphabet, including this one:

Vincent was so amused by the naked boy and his, um, little boy parts! He kept pointing at it and saying, "Pee pee! Pee pee!" And, then he'd say, "Naked." Only, I'm sure it didn't sound so clear as that...more like "nek-ked" or something.

The Pictures Are Up!

Last week, Vincent posed in his very first photo shoot! It sounds more glamourous than it really was, but it was a lot of nonetheless. It was a shoot for Alina's Cucina, and they are working on putting out a cookbook. Vincent did a really wonderful job with it. I wasn't sure if he would be up for all that attention or the food (since he hasn't been too adventurous lately), but MAN! what a ham I've got! He really enjoyed the jerk chicken dish. Please check out this blog for the details & photos!
http://onetreephotography.blogspot.com/2008/11/last-thursday-i-met-alinas-cucina-at.html

And So It Continues...

The hitting. It's not just of me, it's of David, and this morning, of other children. It's so weird for me to see this happening with Vincent. Up until now, he has been many things: active, playful, a little naughty, wiggly, sometimes wild, full of energy, clingy, sweet, fussy, cuddly...but he certainly hasn't been aggressive. Usually, he's the one getting a little beat up. It's hard to see your child get hurt from another child. I can't say it's any easier having your child be the one doing the hurting. I mean, it's not like he never pushed another child aside while playing in the past. It just happened so rarely, and it would be barely anything. But, I'm seeing more and more aggression coming out of this little child of mine.

Yesterday, it was at our class at the community college. Today, at the community center. I will say, in his defense, it has happened because another child is trying to take away something he really wants to play with & he was actually there first. Well, it all depends on how you look at it. This morning, at the community center, the little girl was at the play kitchen first. Vincent joined her and started to play with the blender that she wasn't playing with. Soon as she saw him put his hand on it, she tried to grab it. He got defensive and pushed her hand away, etc. Then, there was the little slide incident. I didn't get to see the whole thing, but I think Vincent started it. I'm not sure who got to the slide first, but I did see Vincent smack the kid next to him several times before I could run across the gym and stop him. Poor kid was crying. And, finally, he was playing with his friend, Evan, and got aggressive with Evan, too. That was my cue to take him home. At least that's when the open gym playtime was about up, anyway. Sorry, Evan.

Why am I sharing all this negative stuff? Since this is my baby journal, I think it's important for me to keep track of these events, since my memories seems to fade day by day.

There are many positive memories as well. For example, I used to say to my friends that I will be rocking Vincent to sleep for his naps until he's 18 years old. About a month ago, it seemed harder and harder for me to get him to fall asleep in my arms during nap time. One day, out of frustration, I got up and just set him in his crib. I figured he would get up immediately and want to be picked back up. But, he just rolled over and laid there, so I walked out of the room. Not a peep. Now, when I go to put him down for his naps, we go through our usual routine, snuggle a bit while I sing, and he falls asleep in his bed. I still get the sweet cuddle time with him, but don't have to worry about the whole 18 years old thing.

Another fun thing Vincent's been doing is climbing into his highchair for meals. Today, for lunch, he climbed in there, and grabbed the bib in front of him & put the tray on as well. I had to go and adjust things for him, but he looked so proud of himself.

One thing David has been very happy to see with Vincent is during bathtime. Sorry, you get a blurry image, but it's hard to get a good shot when he's swimmin' around in the tub! Vincent has gotten very good at taking directions during his baths. When David tells him to stand up so he can wash his different body parts, Vincent does it! He has also started doing this swimming thing in the tub that is so cute. And, with his hair so long these days, we can make fun hairstyles for him with a little help of shampoo.

I don't have a ton of photos to share these days. I'll try to take more and post them soon.

**I just realized, this is the 100th posting of this blog!

Wow...

I got the Rufus Wainright, Release The Stars, album months ago. I played the CD, thought it was okay, but didn't really pay much attention. It was playing, in the background, while I hung out with Vincent, doing whatever it is we do in our daily lives. I might have even thought it a little boring at the time (the album, not playing with my kiddo - or maybe I was bored with him, too!).

But, today, while Vincent is napping, and I should be doing something more productive, I suddenly realized that I should be catching up on my music listening while he naps and I fart around online. Popped in the earphones, chose good ol' Rufus, and WOW...I'm really liking this album. Funny how things sound differently when you can actually listen. It's a good general lesson in life, huh?

It Could Happen To You

During Vincent's first year of life, I went to this support group through the Community Birth and Family Center. It was a drop in group that I went to once a week, for the first 6 months, and then once a month for the next 6 months. It was great, and helped with many of the day-to-day ins and outs of raising a newborn to age 1, and I've also made great friends from the group.

The facilitator, Ann Keppler, used to say to us, somthing to the extent of, "these are the things you worry about now, but when your child is older, it'll be discipline..." "One day, you'll find yourself in the middle of the grocery store, with a full shopping cart and a toddler throwing a huge tantrum, and you need to leave the store immediately, abondoning that cart full of groceries..."

You guessed the punch line - that was me, today, in the middle of Madison Market. Okay, not quite in the middle. More like at one end of the store: bulk items. Sure, it was crazy of me to try and go shopping at 4:30pm on a Saturday afternoon when all of Capitol Hill seems to like going to Madison Market (& Trader Joe's) for last minute dinner fixin's. I should know better. But, after being mostly cooped up indoors for the day, I thought Vincent would love to go to yet another non-toddler INDOOR space. In my defense, I was planning on taking him to a coffee place with an indoor play area between the market and cooking dinner. I figured the mini shopping cart would be fun for him. Ahhhh, so there's the difference. I abondoned a mini shopping cart & a handheld basket right in the middle of bulk items.

Why? Because bulk items seems to be a very popular area, and a short person (less than 3 feet tall) seems to get in the way. When you try to pick up and move said short person (for his safety & not to piss off the taller people), he gets very upset and begins to slap you (HARD) in the face. You calmly tell short person that "hands are not for hitting" (and in front of the crowd of bulk item goers), and he proceeds to whack you in the face several more times. My next move was to temporarily leave the groceries and duck into the nearby restrooms (both occupied) & have a little chat with Vincent. He seemed to get it and was calm, so I carry him back towards our groceries. On our way, I repeat, "Hands are not for hitting," and BAM! in the face again! Game over, we go home.

So Much To Share

I have so much to share!

Look at my little boy! He climbed up to this airplane play thing mostly on his own the other day, and his little feet can touch the "peddles" now! He seems to be growing up so fast.

This afternoon, Vincent and I had lunch with Sarah at a nearby Greek restaurant, Vios, with a play area for the kids. After he finished eating, Vincent went back to playing while Sarah and I sat and chatted. At one point, he sat down on the mini sofa with a little half plastic, half cloth baby doll (you've all seen these). Attached to the baby doll was a little pacifier. I sat, getting teary eyed, watching him play with this doll, and sort of talking to it, and trying to give it the pacifier. He was putting it in its mouth, and then he took the little baby doll hand and helped it suck its thumb. It was so sweet and loving. I felt comforted in thinking that maybe when baby #2 arrives, Vincent won't freak out as much as I have pictured in my head.

On the same day as the airplane, David and I tried to take Vincent in for a haircut. The place does walk-ins, but they didn't have a space available for another hour and a half...that's not a walk-in, if you ask me. I would have to book the appointment if I wanted the spot, so it's definitely NOT a walk-in. Anyway, I had to pee, as pregnant women seem to have to do ALL THE TIME. They had this nifty little seat in the restroom of the haircut place so that I could place my active toddler while I go. Lucky for me, I happen to have my camera!

Pictured below is a side view of what Vincent's hair is looking like these days. It's long, kind of bowl like in the front/top, and curly in the back. It's adorable, but he does need to have it cleaned up a bit. I'm obviously not in a hurry, as I didn't take that "walk-in" spot and haven't made any future appointments for him. Stay tuned...

Below, you can see Vincent's new toy. I got him a little razor scooter at a consignment store. It was the first thing he saw when we walked in the door, a pretty good price, and in good condition. I had a 15% off coupon for $30 or more, and this was under $30...looks like I'll need to buy him some books. My original thought was to go in that store and get him $30 worth of used books. That would've been a lot, which isn't a bad thing, but this is way more fun, and especially cool when you add the sunglasses. I just want to note that he asked to put those on (by his own accord) this morning while getting on the scooter. How did he know that he would look so cool? I think I've given birth to a natural hipster. I mean, just look at those doggie pajamas! It must've been all the hip music I listened to when I was pregnant.

Speaking of pregnant... Here's the most recent picture I have of my pregnancy...with a new haircut, too. This was about a week and a half ago, so I was around 23 weeks, I think. Much bigger than what I looked like at 23 weeks the first time around, for sure. I'm just chuggin' along here. I found out my friend, Nilu, just had her baby this morning...all natural, to a 9 pound, 10 ounce boy! I vowed to myself that this blog would be mostly about Vincent, so there's not much more to say about my pregnancy or about this other baby (that, and I don't know anything else about her baby boy). I will say that when Baby #2 - which we have nicknamed "Pat" - arrives, there will likely be a switch to a Hunt family blog of sorts. Sorry, "Pat," you won't be getting your own dedicated blog, but be comforted in knowing that Vincent no longer will either. We'll see how I feel. Maybe I'll be a multi-taskin' writin' machine. I do have that food blog, too! Is there a group for blog addicts?

At The Park

What did we do this weekend? Not a whole lot. I'm hoping that I didn't make some major commitments to anyone, but spaced out in actually writing it down in my day planner. When we woke Saturday morning & David asked what we had going on this weekend, all I could come up with was, "nothing." Well, except we had Mandarin class on Sunday.

We had a weekend free to do whatever the heck we wanted! Chores, cleaning, catching up on this or that...but, we really didn't do much at all. I feel like there was a lot of eating, but even that's not really true. Neither of us felt particularly great this weekend anyway.

But, this afternoon, we decided on an little outing to Madrona Park, then getting some cupcakes across the street. While at the park, someone fell. No, not the 22 month old toddler who can't stand still, but his 32 year old mother. Yup, I lost my balance and fell forward, tearing open my jeans, and gashing up said knee. All because I was rushing over to comfort Vincent when he started crying because I was on the other side of a fence from him, and trying to walk around to his side. Funny thing is, I fell while he was crying, but then he said something like, "Mama fall down," and then stopped crying and went on his merry way to play...not even coming anywhere near me, after making such a fuss about me being on the other side of the fence. I swear, I don't understand toddlers.

Later on, he was playing in a huge pile of leaves. It was so darn cute, but every picture I tried to take with my phone came out bad. So, you'll just have to use your imagination.

Potty

Vincent pee'd and pooped in his little potty today! I don't expect this to happen again soon, but I wanted to make sure I made a note of it - mainly for myself.

After his nap, I went to change his diaper and he said, "Potty." I wasn't going to put him on it, but he kept asking, so I thought, "Okay, I'll let him sit for a few minutes." I made a mental note to not let him sit for more than 3-5 minutes. About 4 minutes into it, he looked down and said, "Poop," but he was actually peeing. He got up quickly after being done, pointed and said, "Poop," again. Then, he grabbed the insert and walked it over to the toilet saying, "Bye, poop." I dumped it for him and let him flush.

I had a feeling he might not have been done, so I had him sit back down, and I read him a book. After 2.5 times through the book, he took a poop! Again, he stood up and said, "Poop. Bye, Poop." I gave him a wipe, dumped (no pun intended) the contents, & he flushed again. Then, we washed his hands and went to put on a diaper.

The Maltby Cafe - Round 2

Last fall David and I rented a Mini Cooper and drove out to Maltby to try out the famous cafe there. We just wanted to know how mini the Mini really is. It poured rain that day.

This morning, when we woke up, we realized it was the end of daylight savings. So, 7:10am, when Vincent woke us up, was really 6:10am. We were able to get out of the house by just after 7am, and make it to the Maltby Cafe before the rush.

At the cafe, they serve a cinnamon roll for $6.95, and it's about the size of my head! You can see how happy Vincent was to have some of it. The portion sizes of the rest of the menu were all large, too. We couldn't finish our food, but will have some tasty leftovers for breakfast in the morning.

Vincent did really well at breakfast, but then about 10 minutes before we finished up, another family arrived with a little girl slightly older than Vincent. Suddenly, he turned cranky & wild. He wanted her crayons, even though he had a cup full in front of him. Then, he seemed to want to show off to the other family that he was eating a biscuit or something. And, when we were getting up to leave, he threw a fit. It was so weird. Must be the end of daylight savings getting to him...

Halloween!

Halloween this year started off with dressing up for preschool. These are about the best shots I got of him all day. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring the camera out with us when we did our trick or treating with David. So, you won't get to see him as an upright walking mouse. Hope these will suffice.

At preschool, we made a paper ghost, a paper jack-o-lantern, and sang "scary" songs. There was also lots of playing with trucks, trains, & fake food in the kitchen. Snack included a slice of cheese in the shape of a pumpkin!

Vincent has warmed up to his preschool setting, and now knows that when we get there, he needs to first wash his hands before he can go play & before gets his snack.

David got off work early so that we could go get our picture taken at the preschool photo booth down & go trick or treating in Madison Park. Many of the businesses participated in passing out goodies for the neighborhood kids. There was a fire truck that Vincent sat in for about 30 seconds before deciding that the strange man in the yellow & black suit was too scary. Yet, the giant mummy walking down the street didn't seem to phase him. He caught on to the whole treats thing very quickly. He even said, "trick or treat" quietly whenever he walked up to get his goody.

We wanted to make one more stop to a few streets up closer to our home before calling it a day. Since we still had time between neighborhoods, we stopped off at our friends' house for a little rest and quiet time. They have 3 little girls. The youngest is in our class. The two younger girls hung out with us parents as we talked. David and I pre-ordered a pizza to be delivered to our house by the time we get back.

At about 5:30pm we arrived back in our neighborhood. About 5 blocks or so from our house are some beautiful, large homes that go all out with decorating each year. It's like a row of haunted houses. When we got there, they were all finishing up with getting ready, and there weren't any other kids walking the streets yet. So, we just walked up and down and looked at the spooky decorations until we saw more kids. We stopped at our friends' home for a bathroom break. They were having a party with many toddlers running around. When we got up to the door, Vincent must've recognized them because he went running right into their house and started playing! He's usually so shy. After the bathroom break, we stopped at a few houses, but they were all just too scary for our little Vincent The Mouse.

Good-bye Columbia City Farmers' Market, See You Next Year

Today was the last day of the Columbia City Farmers' Market. Since this was our favorite of all the markets this year, and it was such a gorgeous day out, Vincent and I couldn't miss it.

It took us a while to get out of the house, but once we got there, it was worth it. I didn't even really know what I wanted to buy.

I left there with $30 worth of salmon, one soft pretzel for Vincent & I to consume before getting home, a dozen eggs, 3 apples, 2 sweet peppers, 2 tiny heads of garlic, 3 shallots, 2 heads of beautiful lettuce, 2 European pastries, and a big, beautfiul $5 bouquet of dahlias (which ended up matching Vincent's shirt). Whew!

We skipped our usual romp in the grass, as we were cutting it close to dinnertime. But, the best part of it all was when we got home & I didn't have enough hands to hold everything, so Vincent helped. He carried the flowers from the car to the foot of our front steps with the biggest smile on his face.

Good-bye Columbia City Farmers' Market. It's been a great season. Your market was one of the highlights of our summer this year. I look forward to going back next year with Vincent and Baby Hunt #2.

Seattle Afternoon Outing

Vincent and I had a nice little outing this afternoon. David had taken the car to go to a downtown bar for some football watchin' with a friend. The weather was quite nice, so I decided that when Vincent woke up from his nap, we would catch the first bus we could downtown. I wasn't really sure what we'd do down there, but at the very least, get something to eat, and maybe we could play with the trains at Barnes & Noble.

When Vincent woke up, I told him we were going to go for a bus ride. Now, I know he understands a lot of what I say to him, but I didn't think I would get such an enthusiastic response about riding the bus. That was all he could talk about until we actually got on the #43. He loved it.

After a bite to eat the La Brea Bakery in Macy's, I decided that we'll go for Vincent's first Monorail ride. He has only seen it in his "Goodnight Seattle" book. It wasn't an over-the-top experience, but he definitely showed interest in it. When we arrived at the Seattle Center, we walked out to their "Fun Forest," an old carnival-like setting, which is said to be closed in the near future. Before we could even make it down the ramp from the Monorail, Vincent was shouting joyously, "Horse! Horse!" for the carousel. Then, he saw the little car ride...Whoah! The height requirement was 30", which he exceeded, so I thought I'd give it a try. I thought, for sure, he would freak out crying as soon as I put him in it and walked away. But, nope! He sat there patiently waiting for it to start and when it did, my heart melted when I saw how happy he was to be "driving" that thing.

I waited for David to come pick us up before letting him go on again. I told him, "When Daddy comes to pick us up, you can go on the cars one more time." So, as soon as he saw David, and I let him out of the stroller, he didn't run to David, he ran straight for the cars! This time, he sat in the front car, and whenever he passed us, he would give us a little wave.

Harvest Party

Oxbow Farm is this wonderful farm out in Carnation, Washington, that we get our CSA (community supported agriculture) box from. This year, we shared 20 boxes for the season with our friends, Nate & Kate, from mid-May until mid-October. It's a fantastic way to make sure we're getting some of nature's yummy goodness into our tummies. At the end of the season, Oxbow puts on a harvest party at their farm & invites all its CSA members.

That is where we ended up today on a gorgeous fall afternoon! There was a whole roasted pig as the main course, and everyone was asked to bring a dish to share. Our contribution was eggrolls. Vincent really enjoyed it, even if we never made it on the tractor hay ride.

Vincent and the tractor.

Waiting for the hay ride we ended up missing.

Searching for the perfect pumpkins.

Big boy finds a Vincent-sized pumpkin!

The guys and their treasures.

Other fun things included a ride in a wheel barrow, eating some delicious food, the two little frogs croaking when Vincent sang his frog song, and an apple cider press that Vincent really wanted to help crank but was a little small for (not to mention the big kids hoggin' it up & not giving him a turn as he patiently asked, "Turn? Turn?").

Tiny Tots

I happened on tickets to the Seattle Symphony's Tiny Tots this week. Today was the first performance of the season. They are half hour long musical performances geared towards children ages 0-5 years. We went to the 9:30am showing. Seems so early, but Vincent's schedule is early.

We went down to Pike Place Market's La Panier for coffee and pastries. That place was packed at 8:30am! I was amazed at how busy the market was, in general, at that hour. But, it's a gorgeous fall day today, so I don't blame people coming out of the woodwork to enjoy it.

We gave ourselves enough time to find parking, but scored a sweet spot just across the street! We had just enough time to finish our coffees and find a good seat. The show had a barnyard theme, which featured the banjo, the fiddle, a pair of spoons, and another instrument that I can't remember what it's called! It starts with a "d" and it's played on your lap...I've gotta ask David's brother the name of this instument! Anyway, Vincent had a blast. He danced along to the music and clapped, and even sat quietly watching. Thirty minutes was just the perfect amount of time, too!

Oh, and David dressed Vincent in this cute little linen suit that was passed on to us from a friend. We have been waiting to find an event to dress him up in it! I would post a picture, but I couldn't find our camera this morning.

San Diego

Last week, we spent 5 days in (somewhat) sunny San Diego. I've been so wrapped up in this family dinner challenge thing I'm doing for our family that I haven't had time to update this blog. Plus, I had to organize all my photos from the trip. So, here are some of the highlights:

First stop, Sea World!

This is part of the tots area at Sea World that is Sesame Street themed with a couple of rides that Vincent's still too small for. But, he wasn't too small to get wet!

And not too small to go up the giant nets and on to the suspension bridges above the tots area.

The look on your child's face when he sees "Shamu" for the first time (while sitting in the 'Soak Zone') is worth the price of admission. Somehow, we were the only ones not to get wet!

The Midway aircraft carrier parked down near Seaport Village. Something "PopPop" really wanted to see, and it was worth it.

The Hunts on the aircraft carrier runway.

Had to make sure we tested out the hotel pool.

It was my dad's 65th birthday that weekend. One of our 3 birthday meals with him was at The Fish Market for dinner. Vincent's meal included a giant scoop of ice cream that he so nicely shared with all of us.

A-Gong shows Vincent how to feed the pigeons.

David wanted to dip his feet in the ocean; Vincent went along for the ride.

Beached seals in La Jolla.

And, just because these are so cute...