BEST. DAY. EVER.

I've been biding my time for awhile now, waiting for the perfect opportunity to have a Colton and Mom day in Seattle.  As an almost-six-year-old, he's become soooo much easier.   No diapers, naps, meltdowns, sippy cups, wandering off, emergency potty breaks, etc.  Not only that, I also wanted a day for just the two of us so I could give him my undivided attention.  As the oldest in a house where there's still a baby and a barely-preschooler, I feel like he gets put on the back burner at times because the littler kids' needs seem so URGENT. 

All we needed was good weather and an empty weekend calendar, which can be tough to come by.  I'm so glad I waited.  This day will go down as one of my favorite days.  Of all the days.  Of my WHOLE LIFE.
He knew nothing about my plans ahead of time.  I snuck into the boys' room just after 6 AM and quietly stole him from his bed.  I knew if we woke Casey up, things might get a little messy.  I was all packed and ready to go for the day, so he got dressed and sunscreened and we took off in Shawn's car toward Bremerton.  We got a latte and a hot chocolate and walked around the waterfront for a few minutes, and I casually said, "Oh, look.  The Seattle ferry is docked."  He looked mildly interested.  I had just taken all the kids on the foot ferry from Port Orchard to Bremerton last weekend (just to wander around), so this was nothing new to him in his plethora of experience.  Then I said, "So do you wanna get on it, or what?"  That Colton smile broke out over his face and he said, "Don't tell me we're going to Seattle."  He became (quietly) very enthusiastic, especially as the bicycles, motorcycles and cars began to load the ferry.

Here's my little Seattleite--  sandals, shorts, hooded sweatshirt, and Starbucks on the ferry.

After we toured the entire ferry (a few times), we settled on some outdoor seating (except for the 'sitting' part):

Coming in on the ferry, we had an excellent view of the new Seattle Great Wheel. 

When we arrived in Seattle, and after we watched every single bike, motorcycle and car unload the ferry, we walked for a bit down the waterfront, then took Harbor Steps up to 1st Ave.

I thought that maaaaayyyybe, since it was before 9 AM, we'd be some of the only people at Pike Place Market.  I forgot to consider that this is July and it was sunny outside.  There were people everywhere.  I noticed the line at the original Starbucks was out the door and down the street.  I showed Colton a few vendors, including the fishmongers, but he was mostly interested in checking out the underground shops.  Nothing was open yet, but there were so many stairways and twists and turns and mazes, he couldn't get enough of exploring the market.  He even showed me to a couple areas that I hadn't seen in years.  Eventually, he sniffed out a bakery and his exploring was derailed.  He picked out a poppy seed raisin roll for us to share.  Of course he had to find the perfect place to sit down, which ended up being a bench at the top of these stairs:

After we ate, we did some Post Alley wandering...

... where we saw the President.

After having a long conversation about exactly how many people in the world the President can boss around, we headed back under the market (because it's the best place EVER), and eventually ran into the wall of gum:

Before I could stop him, he walked up and ran his hand over it and said, "What IS all this stuff?"  Oh, well.  Not like it's fresh out of someone's mouth, right?

There was a Fire Festival in Pioneer Square starting at 11 AM.  Lots of vintage firetrucks and police cars were on display.  Perfect opportunity to hop on a Metro bus!   He's been wanting to ride one for a loooonnng time.  We were lucky enough to get a 'springy' bus, as he calls them (an articulated bus with a pivoting joint, like an accordian).  We sat right behind the springy section so he could see what happens when the bus turns.  He watched with great intensity, and I kept an eye out for Grandpa, hoping we'd pass a bus he was driving.
I accidentally left the long lense on the camera before I left the house that morning, so it was hard to get good pictures at the Fire Festival:

This fire hydrant was being operated by the guy in the white shirt, and the guy in the blue shirt with the headset was doing the voice for it.  It was so cute watching all the little kids talk to it, totally convinced that they were having a real conversation with a fire hydrant.  Every once in awhile, the hydrant would say it had to sneeze and water would spray out of that little hole onto the kids.  Heeeee.

We got a slice of pizza before leaving Pioneer Square, and Colton loved watching the Ride the Ducks tourist vehicles passing by as we were eating.  He really wanted to get on one, but......... no.  Sorry, Dude!

The next thing on our agenda was to take a bus back to the Westlake area to hop on the monorail to Seattle Center.  I figured that since we took a street bus on the way to Pioneer Square, we should probably try out the bus tunnels for our return trip:

For some reason, he was very concerned about the bus getting stuck in the tunnel, but once we got moving, he was totally fine with it.  I think the ride was a lot faster and smoother than he anticipated.

We played around the Westlake area for a bit before catching the monorail.  It was so nice outside and there were so many people to watch!  And... someone painted the trees blue since I last visited?

After Colton finished marvelling over the EMP architecture when we first arrived at Seattle Center, we headed to the fountain.  My water-wary boy was not into getting wet, but he had a lot of fun dancing around the outskirts.  Such a ham!

Since Seattle Center eradicated the old arcade and rides section and replaced it with a Dale Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum (lame!), I didn't think that kind of kid fun was even an option.  HOWEVER... on the way in on the monorail, Colton zeroed in on a new little section of rides and inflatables.  He wanted to go on the swings, and we both tried the zip line.  He was SO confident about stepping off that ledge with his harness and cords!  I don't have pictures of us riding down together, of course, but here are some pictures of other people doing the same thing! 

We walked around Seattle Center for a little while longer after that, where I got the goofiest look from Colton when I offered to let him borrow my sunglasses.  He had been complaining about the sun being in his eyes for awhile, but it clearly was not bothersome enough to wear girly mom sunglasses.  His look just said, "Are you kidding me?"

Eventually, we caught the monorail back to Westlake and walked back down to Pike Place Market.  We took the long stairs down to the waterfront, which was INSAAANE by that point.  We checked out the new ferris wheel, but even Colton wasn't too keen on the idea after seeing how long the line was.  We'll tackle that one when it's not so new-- and probably not during tourist season.

We stopped for an ice cream cone, and Colton led me back to some concrete stairs he had admired a few yards back so we could sit down and eat.  We both had waffle cones-- Colton chose cotton candy ice cream, and I chose the only flavor I ever choose, mint chocolate chip.

We had fully intended to make a stop at Ye Olde Curiosity Shop to check out the oddities and grab Casey a souvenir.  I have memories dating back to childhood about that place, and when I was 19, I worked at its sister store, The Waterfront Landmark, a couple piers down.  The latter has since closed down, but I can't imagine the Seattle waterfront without Ye Olde Curiousity Shop.  Unfortunately, we only had 10 minutes to catch the ferry and neither of us wanted to wait an hour and a half for the next boat.

Once again, on the ferry, gettin' crazy, dancing, and putting on a show...

I thought he would have had enough Ferry Tours from the morning ride, but once again we were up and down and around, over and over and over on that boat.  He claimed his feet hurt, but apparently not enough.

I just love that boy!  Like I said... BEST.  DAY.  EVER.

Sloppy Incoherentness and Bouncing Through Time

All right, enough is enough!  I have many short beginnings of blog posts from the last few months that I never finished, so I'm going to plop all the tiny, tiny tidbits into one messy entry.... because that is what I have time for.


AND THEN THERE WERE TWO.  IN ONE ROOM.
We finally fixed the sleeping arrangements a few months back by moving Colton into a twin sized bed and moving Casey from the crib into Colton's firetruck toddler bed.  They now share a room and it's gone pretty smoothly.  But the first night, they (or Casey... maybe just Casey) had a lot of fun with the concept of having a BRUDDER in the same room at bedtime.  Shawn and I laid down the law before we said goodnight.  Stay in your beds, and only talk for two more minutes. (Like a two-year-old has any concept of how long two minutes is.)  We tucked them in, then raced downstairs to turn the monitor on to listen to the conversation (and this is the only part I managed to write down a few months back before I forgot about it):


Shawn:  I know the first thing we're going to hear when we turn on the monitor is "Casey!  Stay in your bed!"
Monitor on.
Colton:  Casey!  Stay in your bed!
(muffled noises, giggling, Casey mumbling...)
Colton:  Casey, you're not going to be talking all night, are you?  We can't talk all night.  Okay?
Casey:  .................. Chicken butt!!


REMEMBORY
Apparently I don't have one.  A 'remembory', that is, which is Colton's word for memory.  Shawn and I recently broke out the Memory game, a gift from Memere to Colton for Christmas.  This game shines light upon the radiant intelligence of a child, and casts shadows upon my feeble, dried up brain.

Colton is THE SHIT at this game.  At first, I was like "Duuude, he's only five, let's take it easy on him."  Now I am fighting for my life in this game, and he annihilates me at every turn.  There was one game in which he got sixteen matches, and I got two.  TWO.  Granted, Mackenzie was fussing and making that horrible, high-pitched complaining noise for half of the game, causing my brain to be on overload and totally impatient to escape the situation.  But really-- that's my excuse?  Even without Mackenzie (and possibly maybe a little bit of wine), I just got my ass whooped.  By a five-year-old.

UPDATE:  I have won since then, by the way............  I just wanted to put that out there.


CASEY TALK
I have a Tourette's-like problem of saying "What the heelll?" and for some reason not being able to child-proof it out of my vocabulary.  Casey caught wind of this, and it became his new favorite thing to blurt out (with a thick drawl-- 'what the heeeyy-uuulll?").  I continuously correct him on this-- "Casey, you don't say that.  You say 'what the beans?'"  Somewhere along the way, he became confused.  Twice recently I've seen something strange and said, "What the beans??" and he gasps and says, in a hushed voice, "Mama.  You don't say that.  You say 'what the hey-ull.'"

(Side note:  I wouldn't say he has a drawl, but words that end in L come out that way.  Grill is gree-ull, rail is ray-ull... and I run on a treadmee-ull.) 



And now that I'm playing with my blog, I'll add one more recent kid conversation.  Casey was hiding behind the curtain the other day, waiting for Colton to find him.  I was in the kitchen and I hear this:
Colton:  You don't need to hide from me, Casey.  I can smell your farts, so I know where you are.
Casey:  (giggles)


Okay, okay, one more thing.  Yesterday, Mackenzie learned to crawl and clap her hands in the same day, and I'm pretty sure she waved hi to Shawn today.  She was a baby, and then she was a little person.  Just like that.

Where's mah blanket??

I lost Mackenzie's baby blanket at the Tacoma Macy's yesterday.  The one I crocheted for her that took me hours and hours to complete and I brought her home from the birth center in.  NOTHING PERSONAL OR ANYTHING!!  I retraced my steps and looked everywhere and asked every cashier and employee I saw and called lost and found and called them again this morning and nothing.  I really hope it turns up.  I was going to keep that blanket until the end of time.

Mackenzie, 8 hours old

...and 2 months old

...and five months old.

To put things in perspective, I had one of those long, terrible, inescapable dreams last night that it was Mackenzie who was missing and not her blanket.  But I can't help it, I'm still sad!  It's just the ONE really personal thing that I loved having for her.  She's my last baby, damnit!  That was her blanket!  I have to go now.  I'm going to go to the Tacoma mall and kick everyone I see!!

UPDATE:  Everybody be cool!  Resume regular activity!  Shawn found it.  I think he was a little desperate because his wife suddenly turned into a freaking lunatic over a blanket.  He checked every register at Macy's while he was out Christmas shopping today.  Yay!  And wow.  I love that blanket a little too much, I think.

Um... Merry Christmas!!  hehe

A Wise Man Once Told Me...

I feel so cheated.  I feel so absolutely cheated out of naptime today.  Do you know what I did?  I spent naptime reading people's advice on internet forums.
When will I learn?  My only intent was to see if there were any decent articles regarding a whining issue with a 2-year-old.  Casey has been whining quite a bit the last couple weeks and I wanted to check out some ideas that I may not have tried yet.  BIG MISTAKE.  Turns out, people who spend time doling out advice on the internet are completely unreasonable douchebags with really low IQs. Here, take a look at the responses this poor mother received when she posted the simple question, "What are some tips to stop my 5-year-old from whining so much?" 


(I take no responsibility for the grammatical dipshittery you are about to witness, as I copied and pasted all comments):


"Let him whine. As long as he knows it bothers you, he'll keep doing it."

"Have you asked him why he is winnging give him big cuddles he is upset about somthing".  (Let's go ahead and assume that the person seeking advice from the internet never tried that.)

"From a simple behavioral standpoint, what should do to decrease your child's negative behavior is to first of all establish what is the antecedent (what happens right before) and what happens right after (the consequence of this behavior) in order to you to change this. Try by telling your son in a calm, but strict tone, "No whining." Praise him and give him something desirable, like your undivided attention as soon as he stops whining."  (not much to say about this one, 'cept it annoyed the crap out of me.)

"he could sick and you don't know it take him to see a dr"

"when u c that yr child is calm approach them with arm out sitting on the floor and say to them i love u very much sweety plz tell mummy what is that is upsetting u . but if u feel u tried these suggestions & u don't get no where then u need to seek 2nd opinion i.e doctor paedotrition or take yr kid down yr local early child hood center.  Hope my suggestions where helpful."  (I'm not sure, but... probably not?)

"are you spoiling the child? If so, you need to stop!"

"First you must realize you are a parent so please take responsibility and take the good with the bad."  (Thanks, Asshole.)

"He is whining bcoz he needs ur attention.Just u need to be calm & understand him."  (I mean, that's all.  Come on, Mom!)

"Have him checked for allergies." 

"A break sounds good. Please remember that until recently we (humans) lived in extended families and no one was responsible for a small, demanding (and children are by nature childish and demanding) child 24/7/365. Find a way to trade off with other women in similar situations."  (I actually like this comment.  You are awesome, internet stranger.)

"kids lie to feel important to. let him he is a big boy .praise him for the little things he do make him feel important and always talk to him like he is a big boy never talk baby talk."  (I think you're on the wrong forum, freakshow.)

"please check his HB count.  Also, calamine lotion is a good soother and so is paxyl for any kind of burn."  (um.........)

"take the toys away takee eveything he injoys away until he learns to shut it."  (I see where you're going with that, but I think I might call CPS anyway.) 

"I have a 11 year old that still whine, however, she does have some ment health problems."

"The question is why is he whining? Have you moved recently? If so, does he miss his friends? If so, have him call them to set up a play date (after you and their mom have already done so)."  (that is some random and off-the-wall shit.)

"Paint the nails, color your hair, perm your hair or even a bubble bath with your favorite candles burning will help."

(And this comment was written as a response to an article that called the 2-year-old example 'she', probably just so they didn't have to use 'he/she' constantly...):   "Actually, the only place where it refers to a male child at all is when they have the real example. The rest refers to only 'she' children." 


Duuuude.  Can you believe that I learned nothing today, and that Casey is still whining this evening?  From now on, I think I'm just going to watch Dr. Phil for my education.

Somebody open me up a mutha-f*#kin' bottle of wine!!

And then stand the hell back, 'cause I'm drinking the whole thing!
It's mid-October, which means Shawn is on his hunting vacation.  Hehe.  Bwah ha haaaaa!!  HAAA HAAA HAAAAAA!! Sorry, inside argument joke.  Anyway... Meredith offered to take the boys all morning long, so I went out for a Girls' Day with Kinney Kinz.  We went to the mall, we each bought a dress ($16 for mine, yo!), I got a latte, we popped by the grocery store and didn't lose our ever-loving shit over the candy at the register, and when Meredith brought the boys back, it was almost  naptime..........  but tonight, I STILL lost my cool and sent Colton to bed without dessert!
Now, before you think I am a spoiled monster, I will give you a quick recap on what happened:
MY FIVE-YEAR-OLD COLORED ON THE COUCH AND THE WINDOW.  HE COLORED.  WITH A CRAYON.  ON THE COUCH. 

What's that you ask?  No, no.  Not my two-year-old.  MY FIVE-YEAR-OLD. 

But surely he picked out a washable Crayola product, right?  Noooo.  No he did not.  He picked out some off-brand leftover restaurant crayon, the cheap, "please don't scare off the other patrons, take whatever you want, paper, crayons, a shot of whiskey aaaahhh!" crayon.

Whaaaaat?  I can't color on the couch?  Is this some kind of new rule?

You know the rules!!  Coloring is for paper only!


 

Oh, what? I'm sorry, you were talking, but I'm pretty sure I just fell asleep.

                                                 

 Oh right! The crayons. That's a good one. You're funny, Mom.



 

I mean, what else are we supposed to do for fun? Play with any one of these 800 toys? Color the Halloween pages that you printed for us?

Oh, you're serious? Um, ok, Pollyanna, you keep making the rules, I'll see what I can do. 





 

 

CUT TO:  Bedtime, 7:00 PM, lots of tears, no dessert.

Oh, except for me.  Because I'm the MOM, damn it.



The Word of Casey

I may have to revise this one non-stop!  These are just a few cute tidbits I remember from the past couple weeks...

On Friday, we were driving to McDonald's for a birthday party.  Colton, of course, was talking nonstop in the backseat, and Casey, who is usually pretty quiet in the car, suddenly yelled, "COLT!  Be quiet!!  I tryin' to talk to mom!!"

Then, while driving on Sunday.... um, Colton was talking nonstop.  'Cause that's just how it is.  About 15 minutes into the ride, Casey said, "Colton?", waited for Colton to say 'what', then said, "BE QUIET!"

On Saturday, he toddled on out to the living room where I was feeding Mackenzie, looked out the window, and said, "What the hellll?"  (don't know what he saw, and I'm not sure that's really the point anyway.)

Another Sunday, someone was helping me carry my things out to the car after church.  One of those 'things' included Mackenzie in her car seat.  When Casey saw someone pick her up and head towards the door, he ran to me and screamed, frantically, "They're takin' my sister!!  They're takin' my sister!!"

Halloween decorations-- we keep trying to convince Casey that the scary decorations are actually funny, not Bad Guys.  Last night, I dressed up our skeleton in Mackenzie's polka-dot onesie and a superman cape to render him less threatening (he even ate some of Casey's dinner and sat on the potty.  On a side note, Colton tried to reenact that this morning and dipped the cape in the toilet).  Then today, I hung up a huge, scary face in the window.  I was pretty sure it would be a no-go with Casey, but Shawn and I tried it anyway.  Casey was outside playing, so Shawn called him over to look at the window.  He stopped dead in his tracks with his eyebrows up and said, "Funny guy?  Bad guy?"  Then he saw me peek around the picture and said, "Bad guy got momma??"

This post is 'to be continued', I'm sure...

We're sorry, Colton is unavailable at this time...

At the bus stop after school today, I was informed (by Colton) that Colton will be staying at a vacation house in Leavenworth for a few days.  His friend 'Hoodin' will be our guest.  Hoodin is five years old, has blond hair and blue eyes, and talks a LOT.  He admires Colton's artwork and the way he decorated the house for Halloween.  His own mother would have fed him pizza for lunch, but he will settle for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich if it's all I have.

Hoodin has a 2-year-old brother, a 1-year-old sister, and an 'older' brother... who is also five.  He would not care to discuss their names at this time.  Maybe later.

Hoodin does not have to go to the bathroom before he takes a nap, but understands that if he is staying in this house, he must abide by the rules.  Also, he is highly capable of putting himself to bed, thank you.

Hoodin:  "Oh, I didn't know Colton had a phone.  It's not a hi-phone like mine.  Maybe you should get him a hi-phone, so when he comes back from the buh-cation house, he will be surprised."


Hoodin is resting in bed right now.  I can almost hear the wheels in that head turning from here.  It will not be a quiet evening... 

9: 26 PM.  Update/revision:
Pardon me, I had the name entirely wrong.  His name is Hoonin.  Hoonin Fernin Fick, actually.  I kinda thought he was bullshitting me, but I asked him numerous times throughout the evening and he is quite consistent. 
Hoonin's bathtub is sooo much bigger than ours, but our grapes are bigger than the ones he eats at home.  His little sister just turned one yesterday, and her party was at Chuck E. Cheese.  She was not scared of the 6-foot rat when it came out to celebrate her birthday.  That's all the information I have for now...