Sha Sha

Jane-ercise

Here's a video that we recorded yesterday. Jane cracks us up. I thought it would be fun to have exercise time with Jane to see what she would do. She decided to take charge.

Jane=Polite Little Girl

Jane has started early with good manners. For about the last month she has consistently said "Thank you," "No thank you," and "Sorry."
I've talked about "thank you" before, and not much has changed there, except the clarity of those two sweet words. I'm really not sure there's anything sweeter than a sincerely grateful two year old. She can be mid-cry and still turn to me and say "thank you, mommy" when I open the door for her. I feel like one lucky, appreciated mom.
Jane has politely learned to decline offers of food as well as things she has to do--like go to bed. It's pretty hard not to smile during this kind of conversation. Example:
"Jane, let's put some clothes on and go outside."
"No, thank you."
Even when it's something she likes to do, sometimes she answers our suggestion with a "no thank you."
Her apologies are a little less logical but no less sweet. And they sound more like "Forry." She'll be in the middle of a tantrum, and she will turn to me and say, "I'm forry, mommy." We can always hug and make up, especially after that.


Jane on first.

"I'm sorry, miss, this is not allowed."

I was walking up a path with Jane and had no idea what this nice, older gentleman was talking about. We weren't allowed to walk up the path? We were in trouble for falling behind the group? We were wearing t-shirts and the sun wasn't out? I was completely stumped by why this orange-vested man was blocking our way.
Turns out Jane is too young to take to the golf course. Jane and I had walked across the street with Brad to meet some of his coworkers at their annual golf tournament. We had fallen behind while following them to the second hole--after which I was planning to leave anyway--when we were stopped by the course security guy. Something about safety...he then pointed to a group of guys and said, "These guys don't hit straight and you never know where the ball will go." He then drove us to the curb in his golf cart, and all we could do was wave to Brad and his group as we passed.
It really was too bad--Jane laughed every time someone teed off, and was devastated when she didn't get a chance to play. We will just have to take her back in 4 years when she is old enough to play herself. It's also too bad Brad didn't have a camera to capture Jane waving from the golf cart. Priceless.
The upside...I rode in a golf cart for the first time. I liked it, but I would still rather walk the course.

Meg "Simpson"

This is a good look for me, I think.

Do The Puyallup

On Saturday we took Jane to the Puyallup Fair to see animals and do other fair activities.

The Petting Zoo

Jane loved seeing the baby pigs, cows, horses, rabbits, and ducks, as well as the various types of people who came to Puyallup. It seems like you can see anyone at a fair, and we did. We like being where the people are, at least once in a while.


The Carousel

The (waterless) Boats

Jane also enjoyed going on a few kiddie rides. She went on the carousel, drove a boat in the air, flew in an airplane, and drove an old jalopy. Sadly her parents did not pay enough attention before putting her on the flying ride, but luckily she recovers quickly and enjoyed the carousel again.


Before shot on the airplane. We didn't have the heart to take an after picture.

Jane fell asleep on the way home, and I like to think she fell asleep with that "still on the ride" feeling I used to get when I'd fall asleep on the ride home from Lagoon. Good times, those...

Janefaces

These are photos from Jane's first year. I'm finishing up her first year DVD and I wanted to do something with these pictures. It took forever to line them all up, but I like the way it turned out. A nice special feature for the DVD for sure.

My dollar bill

This is a dollar bill that I've had in my wallet for almost 4 years. One day I was sitting at my friend Mike's apartment, and I tossed a dollar on to the coffee table (probably to start a pot for some stupid dare or bet). The dollar instantly disappeared into Mike's mouth and he chewed it up into a small ball. He then spit it out and handed it to me.

I recoiled and told him that he could keep it, but he insisted that I take it back. He then proceeded to wash it in the sink with a dish scrubber. He used lemon soap, rinsed the dollar, and repeated. The bill was subsequently "ironed to perfection" and sprayed with cologne. Fortunately for me Mike documented the process on the bill in blue ink so I could always remember the event.

It sat in my wallet for a few weeks, and I laughed when I saw it in the back of my huge Texas billfold one day. I decided I would keep it in there until it disintegrated. There have been several times when I have been tempted to use it in a vending machine, but I have resisted.

Today I had an epiphany. Maybe this dollar will get me out of a huge jam someday. What type of jam could $1 get me out of, you ask? I have no clue. But I have a feeling that this dollar might save my life. I'll be thinking of scenarios, so I'll be ready when the time comes.

Dirt & Sunshine

Marshmallows+dirt=Jane's dirt goatee.


Ward Campout at Ensign Ranch.


Digging in the dirt at the park.

Jane has recently discovered the joy of digging in the dirt. We walk to a park about half a mile from our house, and that's how she spends our time there. She was in paradise when we went camping this past weekend--she got to play in the dirt AND sleep with her mommy and daddy AND eat marshmallows. Life doesn't get better...

We have also enjoyed this gorgeous weather--lots of sunshine. We are soaking it up since we don't know what kind of winter to expect.

Boy, Girl, or Still Unknown?

Boy or Girl?

Brad and Jane are coming with me for my first doctor's appointment with Junior. I'm 18 weeks along, so there's a chance we will find out more about this baby than just their heart rate. Brad has been teasing me that it will be twins, which is possible since it runs in his family, but then I think I would be a lot bigger than I am.

All These Things That Jane Does

Jane smells flowers. We did show her that.

Jane surprises us everyday with new words, expressions, and discoveries. Sometimes we wonder if some little elf sneaks in her room at night when we're not watching and teaches her these things. Like proposing a toast. We've said "cheers" and raised our glasses for months, but we have never specifically said, "here's looking at you" or "to BYU Cougar Football." So tonight as we toasted with our chocolate milk, I said, "Cheers!" and Jane said, "To fwends [friends]!" Where did she learn that? We are also puzzled at her new interactions with her current favorite book, Curious George Makes Pancakes. When we read the page about George sprinkling blueberries on the pancakes, Jane pinches a small amount from the illustrated basket and sprinkles them on the illustrated pancakes. On the page where people are holding plates of fresh pancakes, Jane "helps" them with their plates and talks to them about the weather (well, something in gibberish). Neither Brad nor I taught her these things, so while we want to give her the credit, we can't help wonder, did someone else show her to toast friendship? Is there really some educating elf in her room at night? Was it YOU?

Baby Toupee

Jane is finally getting some hair, so we don't have to go to these drastic measures.

A Few of My Favorite Things: Seattle Edition

Blackberries in our backyard
Watching the salmon run at Ballard Locks
Music videos on the Seattle Channel
Vern Fonk insurance commercials (yes, these are real)
The view of downtown Seattle from the ferry
Farmer's Markets
Riding or walking up or down the bike trail near our house
The path from our backyard that goes up to the powerlines
Getting on the freeway knowing someone will let you in
Trees, trees, everywhere
115 state parks, several near to us
Seeing Mount Rainier on a clear day
Walking around downtown Bellevue with the very rich
The catchy street and city names
Thai or Vietnamese food on every corner
Knowing we are two hours from Canada
Left arrows at 90% of the intersections
Tillamook cheese, sour cream, huckleberry yogurt, and ice cream (the cheese is excellent and more widely available; we had never seen yogurt or ice cream)
80 feels "hot" enough to go swimming
We know it can rain a lot, but people love it here and get outside anyway. Some even kayak to work.

Day Trippers

On Saturday we decided to go somewhere to see water--we decided the Puget Sound would be great and packed some snacks and toys for the 2.5 hour drive to Sequim (said "squim"). Sequim is a smallish farming community located on the Olympic Peninsula. We drove down through Tacoma and switched drivers, which I'm pretty sure was a trick to get me to drive over the bridges. I'm a little nervous on bridges, especially driving across them. Anyway, our first bridge was the Tacoma Narrows bridge, and as we started to cross it, Brad decided to ask me if I've seen the video of the bridge. If you haven't seen it, click here.
On and on we drove through tree-lined highways and over more bridges. Finally we arrived in Sequim, the lavender capitol of North America. It was sunny but cool, and we enjoyed walking around the quaint downtown. Next time we want to stop for some Dungeness crab, and I would like to try cooking with lavender. Brad thinks lavender is the wussiest ingredient he's ever heard of, so we'll see how that one shakes out.


Downtown Sequim

We debated the best way to get back home, and finally decided to take a detour to Bainbridge Island where we could take the ferry to downtown Seattle. Jane loved running freely around the sun deck, and we loved the different views of the city and the sound. She loves water and boats and anything related. Brad wanted to drive on one more bridge on the way home, so we took I-90, which crosses over Lake Washington. We also hadn't driven by the temple yet, so we decided to make it our last stop before we headed home. We arrived there at dusk, so it appeared even more lovely. Sadly our camera battery died during our ferry ride, so we couldn't take photos of the temple and some of Brad's pictures on our ride didn't come out. He took some great video though. All in all, it was a beautiful day.




On the ferry




View from ferry

I Heart REI

I went down to our local REI at 6am today to get in line for the annual garage sale. We're going camping with our ward next week, so we needed a tent and sleeping bags (we used to mooch them off of Meg's parents, but now we're on our own). I found this Sierra Designs tent for $200 (it retails at $480). We also got these cool North Face sleeping bags for half-off. It was a great morning. I forced myself to stay away from the climbing, fishing, backpacking, and ski areas because I could have spent an entire paycheck in that store. Anyway, we're happy to have some new gear with plenty of room to grow.



The tent is 6' tall and the footprint is 14' x 7'



These sleeping bags zip together, which is nice; however, both zippers are on the right, so somebody gets to sleep with the pillow in their face.