I think there is something about the spring weather in Seattle that really makes the fast approaching summer months sneak up on you. I mean, come on, it’s already Memorial Day weekend and we are getting so many highs still in the 50s. Warm up I say! Although our Memorial Day weekend weather is looking anything but summery, we did get treated with a warm weather weekend last week that was glorious and much needed! So let’s take a look back at what I missed to report in the past two weeks.

We reunited with Lottie on Friday night at Miller Park, after Reese’s pajama day at school. We played at the park for awhile before Lottie scootered and Reese rode her trike back to our house for an easy dinner off of the grill. We attempted another spontaneous sleepover with Lottie at our house but the minute the lights were out she requested her mama and I just didn’t have the patience or energy to calm her nor do I want sleepovers to be a traumatic experience for her so I dropped her back off at home. Saturday morning Lottie was back over for a few hours and the girls played in the backyard, walked up to the purple slide, and then went to the store to buy some flowers to plant because Lottie has been asking to do so.

Saturday night we had picnic plans with our friends Anne and Phillip and their two kids at Alki Beach. The girls played in the water, played in the sand, ran up and down the beach, each took spins on their balance bikes, and topped the night off with ice cream cones at sunset. We also had a great takeout Greek dinner on our beach blanket. It was a tad cool with the breeze off of the water but it was a great night out. Sunday night we had another picnic just ourselves after we walked to Amazon Fresh for pizza slices and poke bowls from Seattle Fish Guys thanks to a Yelp Elite event. I also played soccer on Sunday afternoon and the girls napped pretty much the entire time that Bryan was watching them! Reese made it back to gymnastics Sunday morning and I took the girls down the street to a park after gymnastics to give Bryan some time at home. It was all in all a wonderful weekend.

The previous weekend was also a great and social weekend with different friend’s events. We spent Saturday afternoon up at Polly’s house for her daughter Niko’s 1st birthday party outside. Gorgeous party and tasty food and we played at the park down the street from their house for some time afterwards to soak up the surprising sunshine. It was good to see many of our friends there. Sunday we headed to Ballard for drinks at Urban Family Brewing as Stephan and Ewelina were in town from Poland for a wedding and we got to catch up with them, enjoy some beers, and got some dinner at a place nearby. The girls did great letting us catch up with our friends for a few hours.

For the work week, Bryan is still settling into his new role and the new commute into the Everett office three days a week. I am pretty much settled into two days in the office myself. For drop off, Reese and I have taken the stroller, taken her scooter, taken the car (when Bryan is home), taken the bus once (on a rainy day) and just this week got my bike and the bike trailer up and working. We are still doing pickups by walking and heading to the park on more days than not. Brooke is getting along well with our nanny and is getting more vocal, sitting unassisted, and doing longer and longer stints on her tummy. She’s been enjoying books these days and likes to watch her sister color as well. Oh, and eat, she loves to eat.

Bryan has had a few more occasions out with friends. He got dinner and drinks with Billy last week and has gone to the driving range twice in the past week. I got my first night out this week with a delicious Ethiopian dinner and wine in Columbia City. It was glorious but I was still home to put both girls asleep (and proceeded to fall asleep in Reese’s bed while doing so). We had our first MJA Baking Competition last week with brownies (the easiest bake if you ask me) and Reese and my brownies placed in 2nd out of 8. And Bryan and I have started a weekly date night at home on Thursday nights. Once the girls are both asleep (i.e. 10 pm) we have a drink and catch up vs play on our phones or watch TV. This is very enjoyable and honestly necessary.

I’m looking forward to the long weekend. Although we don’t yet have set plans I have some ideas to keep us entertained so let’s see what we end up doing!

Chelsea

It has been a hot minute since I have written a post on Reese and her ever evolving developments and personality. But, I feel like just in the past month or two, Reese has matured quite a bit. She’s developed new interests and is having full on conversations with those around her. It’s really something to see…

• The biggest change I have noticed in Reese is her interest and focus for more sit and play activities lately. Reese has really gotten into puzzles and coloring and I’m all for it. She started out not really sure how to work some fairly simple puzzles but just lately has finished some (with minimal help) that were like 50 pieces. We’ve colored with crayons which is fun but we’ve also been really big fans about the magic ink coloring books and paper since they are free of messes. Reese has gone from just freely coloring, to doing really well staying in the lines, and now is even helping coloring in the sky, grass and surroundings in pictures.
• Reese is trying to strike up conversations with anyone around her. We first noticed this in Hawaii when we would ride elevators with strangers and Reese would start a conversation with “Hi. I am Reese. I am from Seattle. I am three years old.” She’s done this more at parks around here too and is a great story teller if she has caught someone’s attention, being able to talk for long stretches of time, and what always gets me is that she recounts and retells real life events in very great detail, even about events that have happened a long time ago. She’s not just making up stories.
• Reese is learning the concept of time. She is starting to get the difference between a minute, five minutes and ten minutes, as well as the concept of later, tomorrow, yesterday, today, etc. Similarly, she is actually understanding that if we say two more times, that means two more times and if she goes one time then she has one time left. That’s a big step!
• Reese has gotten excellent on her scooter. The scooter riding really clicked in February during our Covid times and has only gotten better. She’s learned to use her brake to feel more comfortable on gradual descents and we often bring it to school in the afternoon at pick up and she can ride it the whole way home (1.5 miles).
• Reese can pull herself up a pole. This she has demonstrated to me a few times on her jumping gym in the backyard. She can also flip over a bar and is getting better at walking a balance beam by herself.
• Reese has finally been sleeping through the night in her own bed. We have had a few wakeups just recently where she has gotten upset about something, whether it’s been a bad dream or not having one of us in the room with her is unclear, but we are finally there. She’s also been sleeping in and we are now having to wake her up sometimes around 7:30 in order to get ready for school (this weekend she woke up around 8 am each day although she wasn’t going to sleep until nearly 10 pm). Unfortunately, Brooke doesn’t sleep in that late.
• Reese loves toast. Sugar toast or Nutella toast she is all about right now. She still loves pizza, mac n cheese, pasta, chicken nuggets, and French fries, and of course fruit and sweets and hummus with veggies. She also ate a coconut shrimp in Hawaii which really surprised me. Also while we were in Hawaii she got into potato chips and this is still a rather hot commodity these days.

Reese really is growing up and we both just love her so much. Brooke does too!

Chelsea

This past Mother’s Day was one to remember. It was certainly more enjoyable than last years which was mostly alone and with withdrawals of my parents heading back home and Bryan being in Charleston. Plus I have two girls to enjoy this year!

We actually had a social and busy day on Saturday which was nice and needed. We got together with Reese’s friend Mika’s mom and her two girls and they all burned their energy at the Inflatable Zone at Arena Sports for the full two hours. We got to catch up and the girls were hands off more or less the entire time. We came back home for a nap and then our friends Phillip and Anne and their two kids came over Saturday night for our belated Cinco de Mayo dinner and we enjoyed carnitas and spicy margaritas. We hadn’t seen them in ages and it was very enjoyable to spend some time with them and even agreed to a group trip to Chelan for Father’s Day weekend.

Sunday morning Bryan took Reese to gymnastics so Brooke and I had some quiet time around the house, taking a bath, singing songs, etc. When Bryan and Reese returned they came bearing gifts of a beautiful bouquet of flowers that Reese picked out (they had purple flowers) and some chocolate covered pretzels and cookies for me. We walked to the Arboretum for my first soccer game in at least 18 months. We had a 1 pm game and it was close so I decided this was as good a day as ever to get back on the field and I’m so happy that I did, and that Bryan watched the girls for me while I did. Reese got a slice of pizza at Pagliacci’s with daddy and spent most of the first half at the playground there but then wanted to watch my game the whole second half. She was wearing her shades and about every five minutes would call out my name and wave to me. It was soooo cute!

It was glorious sunny weather after my game so we sat in the grass for a while before heading back home. Reese took a super late nap and woke up a cranky monster. We had plans to go over to Sarah and Lotties to see them before they leave again and Bryan went to pick up middleeastern from Tanoor for us. Meanwhile, we were trying to keep the two girls from getting after each other, both were in moods. Dinner was delicious and fortunately the girls snapped out of attitudes shortly after dinner and Brooke lasted until after 8 pm before we headed home to put her to bed.

It was a wonderful weekend and I’m just so lucky to have my family, both my girls and Bryan and my mom and grandma who have always been such wonderful role models for me. I felt the love this past weekend and I’m just so ready for more sunny weather, more time with friends, and more soccer games!

Chelsea

Brooke keeps getting cuter and more interesting by the day. The past month has been one where Brooke has really found her voice, took to daddy, then developed separation anxiety for mommy all over again. She took her first family vacation, touched sand for the first time, and took a few more dips in a pool. Let’s take a look.

• Brooke has gotten so much better at pushing buttons, making things move or make noise, and entertaining herself.
• She is food obsessed. The girl goes absolutely nuts when we are sitting down eating meals, to the point that we broke out foods for her weeks ago to appease her while we eat. So far I haven’t really found anything she doesn’t like. She has had applesauce, banana, strawberry, melon, potato, and her first actual baby puree that involved some weird combo of peas, kiwi and banana that she didn’t seem totally in love with but still ate.
• She still loves bath time, especially with big sis.
• We’ve gotten a few more giggles the past few days, usually from something her sister does.
• She has been extremely clingy and already seems to have developed object permanence and does not like it when we walk away from her or disappear. She is also a bit dependent on mom these days.
• She still loves walks and being on the move. That has not changed and she did a lot of baby wearing in Hawaii.
• She’s gotten good at pulling Reese’s hair. She also seems to always want to have her feet on Reese whenever Reese is near.
• We are officially in size 3-6M clothes now and she is finally fitting into them. She weighed 12 lbs 2 oz at this weeks doctors appointment so she’s right with her sister at 3% weight. She’s just over two feet tall so about 50% for height.
• She seems to enjoy reading but truthfully we’ve done very little of that for her. Good thing the nanny is starting.
• She loves being sung to. Our whole family really gets into the “wheels on the bus” but we need to learn some more songs too.
• She’s really gotten into touching (and scratching) at my face when I am holding her or nursing her. I remember Reese doing this too at one point.

I was going through Reese’s updates at 5 months and though they are similar, I do think Reese was physically more advanced and Brooke seems to take more to the food, books, and music more than Reese did. Reese was just starting to sit unassisted at 5 months and already getting on all fours and rocking back and forth and Brooke has a little bit to go before she is sitting. Although she wants to be, she wants to do everything her big sis can. We need to work on her on tummy time a bit more. She’s no different than her sister though in terms of poor sleep; the girl has been waking up a lot early in the night before we are even in bed ourselves.

And this week was a tough one for all of us but especially Brooke. She came down with some kind of bug Sunday night and it was touch and go all week. She was not well on Monday when Reese had the day off of school (thank goodness Reese had a playdate already scheduled for this day) and I seriously was only able to set her down for about 30 minutes total throughout the day. She only slept on me, with me holding her, through the night Monday night and then her fever seemed to break at 5 am Tuesday morning but wanting to take her to the doctor’s just in case, we got her four month vaccines which I knew meant would be another sleepless night. And I was right. She only slept with me holding her again on Tuesday night and come Wednesday I was spent. Thankfully the nanny started for us on Wednesday (after calling her off for various reasons on Monday and Tuesday) and since then Brooke has been getting better and seems in the all clear now.

Of course then Reese got the bug and stayed home yesterday school sick. Both girls were tired and had fevers but no other noticeable symptoms. This was a rare sick day for Reese that she just wanted to watch movies all day, which was A-okay but also sad to see our spunky girl out of her character. This morning she was ready and eager to go back to school so I see that as a good sign and I truly hope we don’t have anymore sicknesses in the family for quite some time!

Chelsea