Seattle Aquarium

This past Tuesday we went down to Seattle to do a little shopping at Ikea and also to go to the aquarium. We were there last January and got a membership because with the group we had, it was cheaper than everyone buying day passes. We never thought we'd get back down to use our membership again this year, so it was nice to be able to just walk right in.

The aquarium is fun but not as nice as the one in Vancouver (my opinion).
Jeff and Kaylee checking out the "Window on Washington Waters" exhibit

This fish seemed very interested in Kaylee. He kept coming back to stare at her. Maybe he thought she was lunch??

Jeff and Kaylee watching the seals come up and swim on their backs. Kaylee was much more interested in the ball that was floating in the water.

The Window on Washington Waters display... pretty amazing!
Afterwards we walked down the waterfront and found a diner that served clam chowder in a bread bowl. For some reason, whenever we're on a pier we just crave that meal.

Update on Kaylee. She is an early riser. Putting her to bed later doesn't help. But now I found a blessing in disguise. Kaylee really likes the new jogging stroller we got. So first thing in the morning (usually around 5 am) we grab some water and a snack and head out for an hour long walk. It's really helped me feel a lot better with this pregnancy. I've noticed that I have a lot more energy during the day and I just feel better in general.

Kaylee is still working on her ABC's and 123's. She sings the ABC song now on her own, only her version is a lot shorter: "B C me!"

Story time at the library started up again this past Monday. Kaylee participated for the first time. Usually she sits and just watches everyone. But this time she did some of the hand motions to Itsy Bitsy Spider and a few other songs, and even danced a little bit with me. This morning as I was getting ready, Kaylee kept saying and signing "Cow" and then drumming her hands on the floor. Soon I realized she was remembering the "ring around the rosy" song. The second verse they do at the library is "Cows in the meadow, eating buttercups. Thunder, lightning, we all stand up!" The thunder is made by drumming on the floor and then we clap our hands for lightning. I thought it was pretty cool that she remembered that. So we sang that song over and over for about 10 minutes this morning...which probrably doesn't seem like a long time, but think about it. 10 minutes. Ring around the rosey.... Come on.

Kaylee loves to drink tea with me. Anytime I brew a cup of decaf Red Rose she wants some too. It's cute to see her standing on her chair with her little plastic cup taking sips and saying "tea!!"

I think she might have an idea that there's a baby on the way. Today she was sitting in her high chair and pointed over to the fridge saying "baby" (there's an ultrasound picture of the baby on there) and then pointed at me and said "tummy". So I got the picture down and showed her the baby's head, nose, mouth, hand, etc... , held it to my belly and said, "the baby is in here". Won't be long now, only 6 or 7 more weeks to go!

Kaylee can pretty much get anywhere she wants to these days. She can climb up and down from her high chair, her changing table, and her car seat. Soon we'll get her new room finished and she will be able to get in and out of bed by herself and even turn the light on and off. I'm HOPING that she'll be able to get out of bed in the morning and play with the toys in her room and not disturb me with her usual "MOMMY, MOMMY, MOMMY, MOMMY..." Once this baby comes, I'll need all the sleep I can get!

Happy Father's Day!

We had great weather for Father's Day this year. This morning Kaylee helped me make some coffee cake muffins and apple juice. She helped to pour the different ingredients into the bowl and then she helped to stir it. She was very helpful in sampling the crumble topping to make sure it was sweet enough! We put the muffins into the oven and she immediately wanted up in her high chair to eat. She didn't understand that they take time to bake. She then helped me make some apple juice. She was able to pour water into the pitcher and stir that as well. This she was able to sample immediately and she seemed quite pleased to have made it herself!

We went to church this morning and then Kaylee took a nap when we got home. Once she got up we were able to get outside and have some fun. She was wearing her very adorable spring dress today and she just LOVED wearing it. Up until now, she would cry anytime I tried putting a dress on her. But today she stood in front of the mirror with a big smile, adoring herself. Throughout the day she would lift her skirt and say "cute!" She also traded in her toy dog for a dolly. What a little girly-girl she was today! She was so sad when I had to change her into her pajamas tonight. I guess I'll have to start shopping for more dresses.

Anyway, back to our outing. First Kaylee took us on a short walk. She wanted to push her dolly around in a stroller. So cute!


Next we took Kaylee to Whatcom Falls park here in Bellingham. She said her "oh WOW" again when she saw the big waterfall. We took a short walk around the park and stopped to see the young salmon in the fish hatchery.

Last of all we went to a "swing slide" park. Kaylee was being so photogenic, I just couldn't help myself with the camera. What a perfect Father's Day!

Vancouver

Here's the long awaited update on our trip to Vancouver. Okay, well maybe nobody besides me was really waiting...

We had a fabulous time! The weather held out okay. It was overcast and cool, but it never actually rained until the day we left. After arriving we went for a walk down to the waterfront and found this fun little playground. Our condo was located in downtown Vancouver and had floor to ceiling windows. It was amazing to look out on the city from the 20th floor, especially at night with all the lights. Kaylee's room had two walls of those full length windows and we put her porta crib right there in the corner. She loved looking out the windows. The morning after we arrived, I opened up the blinds for her after she woke up. She kept yelling "oh WOW!"

That day we went to Stanley Park and to the Vancouver Aquarium. The aquarium was definitely the highlight of our trip. We all had a lot of fun there. It was especially fun for me to watch Kaylee and Jeff hang out and discover each and every new sea creature they came across. She said a lot more "oh WOW"s that day! I don't have any pictures of us at the aquarium because I just had the video camera going the whole time.

Here are Jeff and Kaylee at a spot along the path that goes around Stanley Park. We could look across the water to the big yellow sulfur pile that you often see in TV shows and movies filmed in Vancouver.

We were only minutes from our condo, so we decided to take Kaylee back there for her nap. She only made it to the parking lot before falling asleep:
Later that afternoon we took a walk to see other sites we recognize from some of our favorite shows. The building right next to our condo was used in Star Gate SG1. Below is an art museum which was used a number of times in the show 4400.
We planned to go to the zoo on the way back home, but as we got there it started to rain very heavily. It was good we didn't stop, because the rain continued for the rest of the day. Out here most of the animal exhibits are outdoors, so it wouldn't have been much fun.

Like I said, we had a great time. Vancouver is a lot of fun and it's so close. It's crazy that we don't go more often. Depending on border traffic, it really only takes an hour to get to downtown Vancouver from where we live. We will definitely be back someday!

What a cutie!

Here are some recent pictures of Kaylee and one of our family as well...

Kaylee's pajamas say it all. What a cutie.

Kaylee's been talking a lot lately. Her vocabulary is really booming. Just about every morning she says to me "swing...slide...park?" She can't just say park. She must make sure they have her minimum requirements. :) The weather has been nice lately so we've been going to the park just about every day. She is also starting to learn her letters. Jeff just told me that she was able to name about 12 letters just a few minutes ago. It cracks me up that every time she sees an "O" she says "oooooh" as in ooh la la!

She is quite the climber too. She climbs up into her high chair and her changing table. She just has trouble getting down. She is also able to climb up on any couch or chair in the house. Of course her favorite thing to climb on is me. I keep telling people this baby is going to come out pretty funny looking with all the jumping around on me that Kaylee does.

It's been fun to feel the baby react to Kaylee - when she climbs on me or is crying or talking loudly, the baby gets really active. I look forward to them growing up together and seeing what kind of relationship they develop.

Oh yeah, her other new trick lately is being able to open the doors in our house. If it's not locked, she's got access. I suppose it won't be long when even locked doors won't be able to stop her. :)

Kaylee has her own fashion sense. One day she decided she liked wearing her shirt up around her head. It worked out pretty well as she was playing with the sand/water table. She managed to keep her shirt dry. :)

Our first real taste of summer was a few Fridays ago when it got up into the 80's. We met up with some friends at a local park and had a KFC picnic by the water.

We're going to stay up in Vancouver for a few days so hopefully we'll have lots of fun pictures to post when we get back. We plan to visit the zoo, aquarium, and science museum. Hopefully we'll also find some time to veg out and relax as well. This is our last get away before the baby comes!

Holland Days

I decided to take Kaylee up to Lynden for the Holland Days Festival so she could connect with her Dutch roots. First we watched the kids dance the May Pole in their wooden clogs. Kaylee didn't seem too impressed...
Here they celebrate the time honored Dutch tradition of child labor: :)
Next I took Kaylee to the Lynden Pioneer Museum. She was mostly impressed with a chair and table she found in the lobby area. Her next favorite thing was going up and down the stairs. Oh well, maybe in a few more years. Then again, in her defense, it was an hour past her usual naptime.

Tulip time!!

Me and my very bad hair day...(it was raining, what can I say?)
On the way back to the car, I was able to have Kaylee keep up with me by holding a cookie just out of her reach. She never gave up trying to get that cookie though, and when we made it back to the car, she finally got it. Here she is with cookie-face!

April Showers

Here are some recent pictures of Kaylee. The first two are when we were in Phoenix visiting Jeff's family. The next two are coloring Easter eggs and the last one is Kaylee making her first collage:

Out here in Wa, it seems April showers don't matter so much since we already have flowers. We've had tulips, dafodils, and hyacinths for a while now. I just love those hyacinths. I shouldn't say "We've had", since I have never had the forethought to plant any such bulbs, but rather, "My neighbors have".

I'll try to remember all the many little things Kaylee does that are so cute. Let's see. Last night she chained two words together for the first time. She said "bye-bye daddy" as I was bringing her to her bedroom for night time. This morning she also said "bless you daddy" when he coughed. She says 'bless you' for coughs as well as sneezes. Although it sounds more like "ap-ple", but we know what she means. She also says "do-da" for thank you. Those are the only two strange ones we know of. Most other words are clear enough.

Her favorite craft right now is sticking tissue paper, ribbons, etc. to clear contact paper and making a collage out of it. She also likes to draw with a pen on paper.

Today she did two brand new things. She took her shirt off by herself after much distress - but I could tell she was very proud that she did it by herself. She also, for the first and hopefully last time, decided to shove her hand down the backside of her diaper to verify that indeed she did have a dirty diaper. She seemed pretty fascinated with what came out. YUCK. I picked her up immediately to go wash her hands and she proceeded to wipe her hand on my shirt. Thanks.

Kaylee loves to climb. She can climb up on the chairs now. She also likes to climb up into her stroller when the tray is down. She climbs up and over it. But for some reason, she needs the tray removed so she can get back down. She also likes to climb in and out of cardboard boxes. They're kind of her favorite toy right now. Just plain old cardboard boxes.

One day, seemingly out of the blue, she started saying "Elmo" over and over with a lot of gusto. I don't know where she picked it up from. She had an elmo book and an elmo phone - both of which had long been put away with the other "baby toys". So I was at Target and showed her an elmo doll. It scared her. Then I found an Elmo DVD called "Elmo's Potty Time". I figured that'd be nice since we really want to start her potty training. She loves watching Elmo. It's nice to sit her down and pop it in when I need to start dinner or attend some other involved task.

Kaylee is extremely shy. When someone comes over, even if they have kids with them, she just stands where she is with her head down. We think she feels they won't see her if she doesn't move or something. Eventually she will warm up if the people don't pay too much attention to her. She talks about "bapa" and "mama" all the time (my parents), but when we call them on Skype, she does the same thing. Head down. Then she ignores them until we hang up, then she says "bye bye!" really loudly.

For those of you who actually read this far down I have some news for you. We had another ultrasound done today and were able to find out what we're having. If you don't know already and want to know, email me or something. I won't put it on here for those of you who want to be surprised. It was a great ultrasound though. The baby was very active and we got to see it's cute little bottom. We also got a good look at it's face and saw the baby yawn a couple of times. Seeing that made the reality of this little one all the more clear. I simply can't wait for August to be able to hold this adorable little baby!

Sorry it's been so long!

Just about everyday I think I need to get on here and make an update. Then something happens and I get busy and forgetful. So here it is, March already!

The big news for those of you who don't know - we're expecting another baby in August! My due date is August 6th - three days before Kaylee's birthday! Its so different this time around. Now that I'm into the second trimester and not so sleepy all the time, I tend to forget I'm even pregnant. Then I'll feel a little kick and it always brings a smile to my face. At first I was a little worried about the challenges that having two would bring. But now I'm all - bring it on! I'm so excited to meet this new little one.

So I haven't updated since early December, huh? Well lets see. We had a nice quiet Christmas at home. Kaylee seemed a lot more interested in her actual presents this year than the wrapping paper! :) I can't believe it, but I didn't take any pictures around Christmas at all! Jeff had made a dvd of all our video and so I guess I was in the mindset of taking video instead of pictures.

One very memorable thing that happened recently was on Feb. 1st. That evening Kaylee had gotten a hold of the phone and was punching numbers on it. I never worried about it because I figured the worst thing that could happen was that she'd dial 911 - but the chances were so incredible that it just wouldn't happen! Well...Kaylee seems to be able to beat any odds. Yep, she called 911. I noticed she had dialed something - but usually it ends up being an "unable to connect as dialed" - so I just hit the "off" button. A few seconds later 911 called saying they had a hang up call from our number. Fortunately the police didn't get dispatched and nothing came of it. But we calculated the odds to be 1/234,256. If I were to let Kaylee dial the phone 100 times a day, the odds are she wouldn't dial 911 again for another 6.4 years!

I met a celebrity at Target the next week on a day I could've won the frumpiest mom award! I was so excited to see David Hewlett who plays Rodney McKay on Star Gate Atlantis (I'm a big sci-fi fan). I said hello and asked for his autograph. He was so kind to oblige and not run away from scary mom with unwashed hair and no makeup wearing laundry day clothes! He had his 4 month old son with him so we started talking babies. Kaylee was even kind enough to offer him a cracker, to which he politely refused. Well from that day on, I haven't been frumpy since. I got my hair cut, got some nice clothes, and never leave the house without a shower and some makeup on.

Kaylee has been SO much fun these days. She is starting to talk now. It's fun to hear her try new words and have those little phrases that only I can understand. For a while she decided to start waking up around 4:30-5 a.m. I could never get her back to sleep so I thought I'd check out this thing called mall-walking. It's been nice to have a warm, dry place to walk in the early mornings when there's nothing else to do and nowhere else to go. We're the youngest people there by far, however. Most everyone else looks to be retirement age. As you can imagine, Kaylee is quite a big hit! Since the time change, she's been sleeping in longer. We can still go to the mall to walk in the afternoon, but the weather has also been getting nicer, so we tend to stick around the neighborhood.

Kaylee loves to play in the van. I don't quite get it...but it works out okay for me. I let her play in there while I wash it or sit in the back and read a book. Hey, whatever works! Her favorite toy right now is a ball. She loves balls of all sizes. It's often the first thing she asks for when she gets up in the morning. Its either that or "Wii" - it's so cute when she says Wii.

Yeah, I need to blog more often. There are so many times I would say, "oh, I have to get that in the blog!" but now I can't remember. I'll post some recent pictures and write back when I start remembering stuff.

***well I tried twice now to upload photos, but I keep getting an error and "try back in 30 seconds" message. I'll just post this now and put some pictures on here later.