All for Kids

On Saturday we made a pilgrimage up to All for Kids bookstore in Seattle, which is about to close. I wouldn't even have known about it if I hadn't seen this post on Mo Willems' blog. When I read the article I knew we just had to go see it before it was gone.



Kate had a fun time playing in the kids' area and checking out the puppets (and even wanted to read a few books, later).



This is what I was there for--the event room, with its autographed and illustrated walls.




It was amazing. After we'd showed Kate the pigeon on the door, she wasn't really interested in staying in the room, so we had to take turns staying with her. So I'd go in and read the walls for a bit, and take some pictures, and then go out and find Doug and say something like, "Did you see the David Shannon in the corner?" and he'd go look again while I stayed with Kate for while.

















A lot of people are wondering what's going to happen to these walls when the store closes. Perhaps some wealthy benefactor will swoop in and save them, and have them removed and displayed somewhere. We can hope!

After the bookstore we stopped by the Seattle Folklife Festival for a while. It was insanely crowded, and it was also quite a bit hotter and sunnier than we'd been expecting, but we had a good time. Kate enjoyed a participatory drumming session.

Watching Paint Dry

We've been getting a lot of use out of the kids' craft book that Barb sent us. Kate loves looking through it and telling us what she'd like to make. The brad-jointed paper animals especially are a big hit. Lately she's been wanting to paint them herself. This requires a bit of supervision, of course, but she does pretty well. The hard part is waiting for the paint to dry before she can play with them. Mostly we've been going outside to play "kickety-kick ball." (That's from Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! Thank you Wubbzy for giving us kickety-kick ball and hippity-hopscotch.) Sometimes she lays the paint on rather thickly, and then we have to wait longer. Waiting is hard when you're three.



(Excuse the messy hair!)

I've been managing to get a rest most days, after lunch. Here's a cute little Sculpey dragon that Doug made for Kate while I was napping. Its tail got singed in the oven. (It looks deliberate, no? Like Siamese points. Shhhh!)



We had a couple of miserably hot days this last week, but things seem to be back to normal now (rather gray and rainy). We took Kate to the splash park on Friday, which she did not like. Well, she enjoyed watching the fountains, but didn't want to get in the water. We did get her to step on a couple of the fountains. (Baby steps, baby steps.) I got a little sunburned.

Mom stuff

Three years ago, Doug made this flash movie for his mom for Mother's Day. I just dug it up today and thought I'd share it here. Kate sure was a cute little squidgit.

We are excited about the new little one! The official due date at this point is Christmas, but I'm thinking it'll be a bit after that. We'll have to see what the measurements say when I get an ultrasound in a few weeks. If it's a girl we'll be able to use all the same clothes again, since the seasons will match.

I'm doing okay, mostly, so far--a little queasy, a little more tired than usual, and my appetite is doing weird things. Kate's not feeling well today so we had a nap together.

Mother's Day, and a sweater

Happy Mother's Day!

Today was Kate's first time singing with the Primary kids in Sacrament Meeting. When I say "singing" I use the term loosely--singing in this case consisted of standing up there grinning, holding a yellow tulip and waving it up and down in time to the music. She didn't know either of the songs. (I told Doug we'll have to start teaching her "I'm so glad when Daddy comes home.") She was pretty cute, though.

Here's our traditional Mother's Day photo:



Kate has a bruise on her cheek. We went out to eat this last week, and she kept sliding down under the table, and then bonked her face on the table leg. Ouch! It's looking rather greenish now.

I just finished crocheting this little sweater for Kate. I did most of it during General Conference at the beginning of April, and just got all the ends worked in this week. I found a picture of the scalloped flower stitch online (I can't remember where, now. Edit: found it!), and then made up the rest of the pattern.




I wasn't sure if it was really going to fit, but it seems to work okay! Here it is on Kate.

Children's Day

We did the Korean thing for Children's Day (yesterday) and went down to the park to take pictures in front of the flowers. The Japanese garden makes a great backdrop. (And they do Children's Day in Japan, too, so that's appropriate.) It was a lovely day--warm enough to run around in our shirtsleeves, but with a nice high bright overcast that made for good photo lighting.



Kate enjoyed going across these stepping stones with a little help from Daddy.



The obligatory flower shot.



We played Pooh Sticks (Pooh Cones?) on the bridge with cedar cones and fir cones and various other cones. (Doug's picky about his cone identification--his dad was in the forest service.)




We went over by the playground where there were tons of these little daisies growing all over. While Doug and Kate played on the slides I made a quick daisy chain and adorned Kate with it.



I think she liked it but I couldn't really get her to smile. When it fell off she tried to replace it by herself, with amusing results. (And then it broke.)



This is not a standard Children's Day activity. In Korea, if you put flowers in your hair it means you're crazy. Shhhhh!



We went down to the beach and played in the sand for a bit, and met some cute kids who shared Kate's sand toys. (And the little boy didn't even complain when Kate dumped a shovelful of sand on his head.)



And here's our special surprise for Children's Day! :)

Fun with Disaster Simulations

I've been the secretary of the Stake Emergency Management Team (at church) for about four years now. Scott recently asked for Doug to be on the team, as well, so it's become a family affair. They just completed running another Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) class, and finished up with a disaster simulation down at the port this last Saturday. There seems to be no shortage of disused buildings at the port, and Scott has previously run these simulations in an old bank, a gym, and a kite factory. I don't even know what this building was.




I was there to take pictures of the simulation, but I ended up taking a lot of pictures of Kate, too. Since Doug and I both had to be there we just took her along with us. She did very well. (Right at the end her patience ran out, and she kept asking, "Are you ready?")



Tom put these sunglasses on her. Har har.



This seems to be Kate's new "smile for the camera" face.



Asking her to say "Wheeee!" works sometimes.



Here Doug gets to practice putting out a fire. (Kate thought this was very cool.)



And here's the "victim" from the cribbing exercise, Headless Harry.



Doug and Kate share a doughnut.



After the simulation we went to Chevys for lunch (yum!) and then I took a long nap. That was lovely.