We finally had snow today. Other areas in the Seattle metro area have been getting snow since the weekend. Ballard has had minimal snowfall and anything we got melted off almost immediately. Today finally qualified as a snow day.
After breakfast and a few Skype calls with Grammi & Papa and Uncle Jeff, we bundled up to head out into the winter wonder-white. It was really white & bright outside! Carli was so excited and couldn't wait to get out in the snow.
We made snow angels...
We tromped through the snow and made snow piles because the snow was too dry to make a snowman. (Dry snow in Washington?!?)
We threw snow. Nicely of course. Except daddy, who tossed snow right in Carli's face, and put some on her head. She was a good sport about it though...
Carli had a grand-ol' time... she didn't complain once. Until we brought her inside to warm up and have lunch. Here's what ensued.
She was NOT happy about coming in.
(My SLR camera was fogged up coming in from the cold, so I switched to the trusty iPhone.) Carli went right to the door and tried to get back outside. Clearly upset that the door didn't open when she willed it to.
She tried asking nicely to go back in the snow. "Can we go outside please?" And was again disappointed when her manners were appreciated but the request was gently denied.
So she went back to the original method of expressing herself.
Can't remember what distracted her, but it happened quicker than expected! Carli - 0, Mom - 1 :)
After she discovered the echo when talking into the PVC roller, she began singing into it. Here's Carli singing Jingle Bells at the gym. Thanks Rachel for the video!
Happy Holidays everyone! I usually do a Christmas letter and include it with our cards. But this year I decided to try something different. In the interest of time and resources, I thought I'd see how a holiday blog would work out instead. I was able to mail our cards out today and had this blog partially written. Now I am in a race to finish this before the bulk of the cards reach their destination!
Carli saying "my mommy's right there" to Santa. She wasn't thrilled to see him.
Even while carried she wasn't sure of Santa.
This year (like every year) has flown by. The thing that I noticed this year though, is that it seems like we've done so many "new" things. It's definitely refreshing to see life through a new lens. In Carli's second year, we've continued to enjoy many firsts as parents. Seeing things in a new light as Carli experiences many things for the first time definitely helps me/us to see them as she sees them. It may sound cliché, but there really is joy in the simple things in life. She finds wonder and delight in things that we have long forgotten are fascinating. We have been getting many "What is that for?", "What is that?", "What is in that?" type questions. Last week, she was very interested in the door stop that keeps a door from crashing into the wall behind it, flicking it with her finger and finding the "boingy" noise very funny.
Aside from discoveries, we have kept very busy. Alex is still at Lockheed Martin and also back to school (again) to finish up his Masters thesis at Digipen Institute. If all goes as planned, he should be done with school this summer. We will celebrate like mad people because it has been a long time coming. It is hard to hold down a full-time job and get a Masters degree! I am still fortunate enough to be home with Carli. Carli is definitely a 2 year old now and some days it can be exhausting, I don't know how teachers and daycare providers handle the number of children they are entrusted with. BUT, I wouldn't have it any other way. It is an amazing privilege to get to take such a major part in creating this little person, and to see all the changes that occur at the speed of lightening in her development. In addition to being Carli's mom, I have continued to work on my fine silver jewelry business Nohea Designs. I haven't worked as much this year as 2010, chasing a toddler/pre-schooler around takes much more time and active supervision than an infant, but 2011 was a good year for my little Etsy shop. Through the support of friends and family, my network is growing and I have also gained a few new customers who have just stumbled upon my shop via the Etsy marketplace. Thank you to everyone for helping Nohea Designs grow (or stay as busy as is possible with a toddler)!
As for the rest of the year, our Christmas card is aTOP TEN Moments of 2011. Here is some elaboration on those "moments" (and pictures too! You can click on any collage to enlarge it).
10) PLAYING WITH CARLI AT THE GYM
As most of you know, we are a Crossfit family. We've been working out at Level4 Crossfit Seattle since 2007 and it is a second home to us. Carli has been coming with us since before she was born and it has been fun seeing her grow up in such a friendly, positive, healthy place. She loves the gym and it is hard to get her to leave. She refers to our CF friends as "our gym friends". Her athleticism is constantly growing, and we can't wait to see what she chooses to do with it as she grows up!
9) TRIPS TO COLORADO, HAWAII, AND CALIFORNIA TO PLAY IN THE SNOW, SUN & SAND
Since our family is all over the US, so are we. We headed to Evergreen and Vail in February to take Carli to the snow. We had lots of fun playing in the snow with Grandma & Nonno, and Carli enjoyed playing with Tyson and Missy (Grandma & Nonno's dogs).
At the end of summer we headed to Hawaii to get one last trans-Pacific flight in without having to pay for a ticket for Carli. While she did really well on the flight, when she fell asleep, no one was comfortable. Not her, not us, and now we understand why you wouldn't want to have a child older than 2 on your lap! Carli loves the beach and we played in the water (ocean or pool) everyday while we were there. Carli became very comfortable in the water and would swim between us by herself with her arm & chest floaties. She even got a little bit of a tan (she's got a little of mom's pigmentation after all!).
In September Carli and I left Alex in Seattle and headed to Los Angeles to meet Grammi for a visit with Uncle Jeff. He moved to LA in May, so we went to see his new digs. The highlights of that trip included the Santa Monica pier, shopping at the 3rd Ave Promenade and a bike ride down to Venice Beach.
8) HULA DANCING & FAMILY DANCE PARTIES
Carli loves dancing. In particular, she likes hula dancing while adorned in fake flower leis, dancing to Maroon5's "Moves Like Jagger" and almost any Dancey Dance segment from Yo Gabba Gabba.
7) ANNUAL COUSINS' CAMPING TRIP AT LAKE PEARRYGIN
We have been making the trek every summer to Lake Pearrygin (near Winthrop, WA) to camp with my cousins since 2006, with the exception of 2009 when we had a friend's wedding to attend. Aside from the 4.5-5 hour drive, it is a relaxing fun-filled expedition where we get to sit in the sun on the shore of a small lake, go hiking, swim, and eat lots of yummy food. Thanks to a portable DVD player from Uncle Nic, the car ride passed by much more easily than last year. We didn't have to "rough it" in a tent this year, and we had luxury accommodations in Ronnie & Adriane's trailer. The older kids are great with Carli and it was entertaining watching her interact with them more and try to keep up.
Bonus: Video of Carli singing "I'm Chinese" at the campfire.
6) EVERY NEW WORD, SENTENCE & SONG
Carli has always been a talker. She is up to about 10-12 word sentences on occasion, and is definitely a little parrot now. After hearing a word/phrase once, she is testing out how to use it. Including "Darn it." Whoops. That was my doing.
She's also asking the "what" questions, such as "What is that Mommy?" or "What is in that box?". A new development this week is she is starting to make occupational observations or questions. Alex was watching football and she asked him "You watching Broncos Daddy?".
As her speaking skills increase, so does her ability to sing songs. After hearing a song once or twice, Carli sings along, and there are many songs she can sing solo. She has a pretty good repertoire of music that includes among many others: Nursery Song classics (Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, ABCs, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Row Row Row Your Boat, Patty Cake, etc), Moves Like Jagger, and Christmas songs like Jingle Bells, Deck the Halls, and Rudolph. We are especially entertained when she says "Like Columbus" during Rudolph.
5) STAY-CATION IN DOWNTOWN SEATTLE
For my birthday, we used some miles that were going to expire and stayed at the Marriott on the Seattle waterfront. It was a relaxing weekend playing tourist. My mom came to town for my birthday too and joined us for brunch. Each morning we walked up to Pike Place to eat breakfast and we got in some birthday shopping and a trip to the aquarium before heading home. We also swam in the pool at the hotel, which was a special treat for Carli!
4) MAKING NEW FRIENDS AT NORTHWEST TODDLERS CO-OP PRESCHOOL
In September we joined the Northwest Toddlers Co-op that is a program through North Seattle Community College. Carli is on the older end of a toddler class which has 14 month olds - 2+ year olds. She and I go once a week on Friday mornings for 2 hours. I stay there with her, and every other week I am either a teacher's assistant or in parent education. In addition to classroom responsibilities, I volunteer as the Chair for the Co-op Board. It has been a great experience, and Carli and I are both enjoying making new friends and the social interaction! Here are a few pictures from the first day of school.
3) CARLI'S 2ND BIRTHDAY PARTY
We had "everyone" in town for Carli's birthday. Alex's mom (Grandma Suzi) came to visit in October since everyone else was coming in November. Within 2 weeks, my mom (Grammi), my dad (Grandpa), and my brother (Uncle Jeff) & his girlfriend (Aunty Christian) all came to town to help Carli celebrate turning 2. Carli had a Yo Gabba Gabba themed party. If you haven't heard of Yo Gabba Gabba, it's a Nickelodeon children's TV show. While a bit frenetic, the messages are appropriately geared to toddlers and the characters make the songs quite catchy. We have Uncle Jeff to thank for turning her on to this show.
The morning of her birthday we woke up early to finish decorating the house. We had these crazy star glasses that we all put on and we took pictures in our pajamas! That afternoon's party ended up being a very full house of friends and family, all people who love Carli. We are lucky to have so many people who are a great influence on Carli!
2) FAMILY & FRIEND TIME
We are fortunate to have family come visit us quite often, and we also have been able to visit them very frequently. While sometimes having a rotating door of visitors can make life very hectic, we really are happy to have visitors! Come anytime!
Hanging out with friends has taken on a new meaning. Playdates with other little ones & their parents is the newest incarnation of hanging out, but we still enjoy seeing our other friends from "BC (Before Carli)" too. It just usually involves staying in rather than going out. We are thankful to have friends that are happy to just stay-in with us or to go to family-friendly establishments!
1) HEARING CARLI SAY "I LOVE YOU"
We say "I love you" to Carli a lot. I mean, a lot. If someone said it to me that often, I'd probably say "Yeah, yeah, I know already." But thankfully she hasn't tired of it. She now responds to us in return saying "I love you Mommy/Daddy". The best is when she will say it independently, completely unsolicited. She will just stop what she is doing, lean over and say "I love you Mommy/Mama/Mommidee (her nickname for me)". It is the BEST thing in the world!!!
And a BONUS MOMENT?
Both Alex and I didn't think of this when writing our card... our TEN year anniversary! We celebrated 10 years of marriage on August 11th. Our friend Cameron was in town and was staying with us, so she volunteered to watch Carli so we could go out to dinner at Ponti Seafood Grill. Then we brought cupcakes home so we could have dessert with Carli and Cameron. A great night in beautiful Seattle summer weather!
In reminiscing about the past year, I realize that life really is about all those little "moments" and not necessarily big milestones. The big things would never be possible without all the little in-between things.
2011 was really good to us, but I think that 2012 is going to be an even better year! Here's to new adventures in the new year!
If you're here looking for a holiday blog... it will be posted "soon"! :) I had to get the cards out, but the "letter" that goes along with is still a work in progress.
The summer weather in Seattle has been a little more elusive than normal. Summer normally arrives just in time for 4th of July, but more often the right after the holiday. This year Mother Nature is keeping us guessing and we have had beautiful near-80 degree days interspersed with rainy mid-60s weather. Some days we see both types of weather in the same day. Yesterday was one of those days.
Since the morning was cool and overcast, Carli and I set off for the Ballard Public Library. We had a great time browsing the shelves, shrieking in delight at all the books within reach (her, not me), and using the computers provided in the children's area. After a little effort checking out (there are sometimes when it would be nice to still have a library staff member help you!), we headed out to pick up lunch and head home.
Carli fell asleep in the car on the way home. When she woke up, Alex went to get her from the car/garage. He asked her "How was the library?"
Carli's reply, "Ahhhh, it was... books." (We are loving the new level of communication that she's developing. Everyday we are amused/amazed by the sentences she comes up with!)
Don't fall on the floor... two blog posts in one day!
We were on Skype earlier today with Grandpa & Uncle Ryan. Carli was running around (sans pants) entertaining them just being herself. She was doing squats, rolling on a foam roller, and "reading" the Baby-gami book. While she was looking at the book, she was saying "baby laughing" and "baby sleeping" over and over. That was pretty funny... Until what happened next. Alex had some coins that fell on the floor, Carli picked some of them up and here's what ensued.
Carli woke up on Monday and saw the phone on the nightstand. She wanted me to hand it to her. Here's the phone conversations she had with Rosita and Elmo (from Sesame Street).
New resolution: More frequent, short blog entries supplemented with occasional longer posts.
Here's the first one. Since Carli is 20 months old today, I thought I'd post a RECENT picture as opposed to pictures from a couple months ago. It's amazing how much her looks change from month to month.
This is her at Magnuson Park Playground yesterday (7/13) when we went on a playdate with Liam and his mommy Anna. Carli LOVES to swing on any swing, and she LOVES to swing on yellow swings even more!
Carli is 20 months old today! Lucky for you, I had a HUGE blog post almost complete and I lost it ALL about a month ago. (Yes, it was bigger than the one here.) I am going to redo it here but I feel like I'll forget something... I was trying to undo something minor and inadvertently went back one undo too many, then couldn't "redo" it. Ugh. Darn being a perfectionist!
Since I haven't blogged since JANUARY, I have been taking notes and jotting down the things that we feel are notable. There's lots to catch up on.
Hopefully you're on Facebook and get intermittent updates there, but in case you're not... Here's what Carli has been up to the past few months. (Warning, this blog post is going to sound like parental bragging but IT IS! We are so thrilled with every silly little thing this little girl does it's ridiculous.)
In the past few months, we've seen an explosion of development! Our little baby is quickly on her way to becoming a little girl. Though we sometimes wish she'd stay this little for just a little while longer, it sure is a kick to watch her grow up!
Carli the Talker
Carli has always been a "talker" (see"can you hear me now"post), but her sounds and babbles have been replaced by words and sentences! She has a growing vocabulary which grows daily. Sometimes I'm surprised when Carli says a word that I used months ago either explaining something to her or that she's seen in a book. I've also noticed that while sometimes she still uses sign language and a spoken word, some of the signs have been replaced completely by a word. (Sometimes she still uses a sign if it's "easier" for her to "say".)
Carli parrots most words we say these days. My favorite is when I will say something to her and use a term of endearment like sweetie or honey and she says it back to me. Some of the funny words that Carli says are callous and "meck"=mess (at time of blog publishing, mess actually sounds like mess). Dad taught her callous and she used to laugh and say "meck" when I said "You made a mess". It's amazing how many words she understands and recalls, but included in her vocabulary are a lot of colors, animals (& animal sounds), bubbles, book, draw and many of the Sesame Street characters. My personal favorites of these are "Burp" for Bert and "Tata" for Rosita, but Carli's favorites that we hear all the time are Elmo and Abby.
She's starting to add more and more short sentences too and it is endless entertainment for us to see what she says. "I did it!" was officially her first grammatically correct sentence that she said about 2 months ago.
Carli the Storyteller
Carli began telling stories a few months ago... The first ones we recall are about a dog and a yellow swing.
Carli had the opportunity to walk a little doggie named Hawk. We happened to catch it on video and the way she tells this story is "Walk, Hawk, Meee" followed by a "fff, fff" for woof woof while patting her leg. The potluck was in April and she still tells this story. The other story that she told early on was about riding on the yellow swing at the playground. This story goes, "Yellow, Wheee, Meee".
We love hearing her stories and she now has more stories in her mental library. They include tales of her hanging from things at the gym and playground, her friends from the gym, driving vehicles and the sounds they make, and many of them include Elmo and Abby!
Carli the Helper
Carli has definitely been able to follow simple directions for quite some time, but now this ability to complete tasks has become "helpful. For example, the first thing she did in entirety that surprised me was taking an empty toilet paper roll from the bathroom and putting it in recycling in the kitchen. This was actually helpful. Most times her desire to help just slows me down and makes extra work, but it sure is cute!
Carli the Big Girl
When we got back from Colorado in early March, we had a potty seat that we ordered from Amazon.com waiting for us. I began sitting her on it just to get her comfortable on it, and she slowly became more interested in it. She now asks to go to the potty almost every morning and she does her "business". She also goes before bathtime in the evenings (it's become her stall tactic to delay bath/bedtime). Carli doesn't consistently ask to go to the potty during the day yet because she's too busy playing, but soon we'll start potty training.
one of the early potty practices (March 2011)
Carli the Athlete
Carli is a regular at Level4 Crossfit Seattle. She has been going to the gym with us since she was an infant. In the beginning, she would sleep through the din and clatter of weights being dropped and loud music playing throughout the gym. Then she watched with wide-eyes from the safe haven of her car seat. Once she was mobile, she often perched herself in the garden of colorful kettlebells, while observing workouts.
Ever since she has been able to walk, Carli has started doing her own "workouts" of sorts. The past few months have been especially fun for us as we have watched her physical "prowess" develop rapidly while she plays with the gym equipment. She is a sponge and through observing mommy & daddy workout, she's learned little CrossFit or Olympic Weightlifting habits and skills without ever expressly being taught.
Some of Carli's major accomplishments at the gym:
Hanging from the rings or pull-up bars
10 kilogram kettlebell deadlift (yes, that is currently approximately 1 pound more than she weighs!)
Lifting a barbell with good form
Doing overhead squats with a PVC pipe
Having one of the best looking squats at Level 4 CrossFit Seattle!
Here are some of her "workouts":
Carli the Entertainer
I'll let the picture speak for itself!
Carli the Artist
Carli enjoys drawing a lot. She also likes painting. She will sit at the table and draw with various mediums like pens, crayons, or dry erase markers. Her attention span never ceases to amaze me. I think the longest she has sat while drawing may have been almost an hour (while also skyping with Grandpa).
It may be safe to say though, that she enjoys painting the most! Here are pics from a fingerpainting session in May.
Alex and I wish that Carli had thought bubbles that would come out of her head when she's "talking". These days she talks a lot! She constantly babbles and says things to us. She'll look you straight in the face and say something in a very matter of fact tone of voice. Usually there is a hand gesture too which emphasizes her point of course. (We are trying to figure out where she gets this habit from...)
I would especially like to know what she's saying when we try to get her take a nap or go to bed and she doesn't want to. After she cries for a bit we'll go in to comfort her and regardless if it's me or Alex, we get an earful. I wish that we had audio or video recordings of that because it's too funny. Sometimes it is hard to keep a straight face and not laugh.
During the day, she'll hold "conversations" with us that last for minutes. Most of which we have no idea what she's talking about. Occasionally we'll get a lucky clue because she's pointing to or holding the object that she's talking about. Or if I'm really lucky, Carli will use a sign language words that help me follow along. Most of the time though, it's like she's speaking a foreign language.
The one exception to this guessing game though is what Carli DOESN'T want. I think we can safely say she grasps the concept of "NO" and when she can use it to get her point across. For example, I am trying to sneak whole milk into her diet by making smoothies with strawberries and milk. I asked her if she wanted to drink some and I received a clear as a bell "no" reply. She knows that I'm trying to do and it only took her a few sips this morning to figure out my motive.
Of related communication news though, Carli is getting quite proficient at signing and I feel like I should get her new signing DVDs to watch together. She uses almost every sign in her DVDs. When we're in the car listening to the Baby Signing Time songs, Carli will sign the words in the next song before it even starts or just a few notes into the first bar while I am usually still trying to remember which song is next. Baby brains are amazing.
I think our favorite signs of hers are "dog" where she pats her leg and says "ffff" (woof), and "cold" where you put your arms up and shake them as if you're shivering. Another one she likes to use a lot is "bird". When she sees birds flying by, Carli will point it out to me by signing bird.
Here are a couple of pictures of Carli taken by Sandra Coan that shows her signing "baby" and (her version of) "cat".
