Big Truck

The truck obsession continues!  Keaton now says "big truck" instead of just "truck."  Anything with four wheels is a truck...and he has been known to wake up in the morning saying "truck" "truck" "truck" for no reason at all.

 

Daddy got a new red truck that Keaton just loves!  He loves to look out our bedroom window at it in the driveway.  And of course go for rides.  I'm not sure who likes it more...daddy or Keaton.

 

Twice this week we have seen fire trucks (at events, not at fires).  Keaton was brave enough to go in one of them.

 

The second fire truck sighting was when the firemen came to storytime at the library. 

 

Can you find Keaton? All the other kids are sitting next to their parents/caretaker except mine.  I'm still trying to figure out if it's OK to let your child wander in situations like this or if it's bad parenting?

 

 There he is!

 

The Last Frontier

We just got back from a trip to Fairbanks, Alaska.  "The Last Frontier."

 

Keaton was FANTASTIC on the airplane there and back (unlike the last flight we took where he cried the entire way home)!  The best parenting advice I have received so far was to buy a portable DVD player.  Worth every penny!

 

We did lots of fun things on the trip but the best part was seeing the three cousins having fun:  Emerald (4 years), Keaton (19 months), Crystal (17 months).

 

We went to Emerald's school for lunch one day, a play place with a bunch of bouncy houses, visited Santa at the North Pole, swimming at Chena Hot Springs, a hockey festival at University of Alaska Fairbanks, daily rides on Becky & Jason's "truck" and of course McDonald's (almost every day since they all have indoor play areas).

 

Santa Visit:

 

University of Alaska Fairbanks:

(In the bottom picture Keaton is dancing all by himself in front of a room full of people to "I'm too sexy...")

 

 

Keaton loves trucks right now so Alaska was a great place for him since they have lots of "trucks"

 

 

Grandpa and his three grand kids acting goofy!

 

 I think Keaton is still catching up on sleep since he wore himself out, not wanting to miss out on anything.  There was lots of fun times but the highlight was probably when I got to lay on the floor of a McDonald's bathroom and crawl under the bathroom stall to unlock the door that Keaton locked himself in...aah the joys of parenting!

 

 

 

 

Splish Splash

We have been trying to enjoy the nice September weather as much as possible since we know what's next (months and months of rain). 

 

Keaton has been in my Aunt Claudia's pool twice this summer and I really wish we would have gone more since he loved it so much.  He went in once last year (picture on left) and was very happy just floating around.  This year he seemed to think he could swim if he had a life jacket on and didn't want me holding him. He's a bit over-confident in the water!

 

We discovered the Mount Lake Terrace pool and it is so great I am going to drive up there to take him to swim lessons instead of the pool right down the street.  It is really warm and has a really great kid pool with fake sharks and ducks floating around.  We took swim lessons at the pool down the street last year but he didn't learn to swim so we'll take some more.  I have a feeling it will be a few years... 

 

 

 

Manny got to go swimming at the Arbor Heights pool down the street from us this week.  Every year they open the pool up to dogs before they drain and close it for the year.  We took him last year and this year got him the week long pass!  Unfortunately he wears his nails down within minutes and we have to leave from his bleeding...but he LOVES it!  For some reason the same dog is in the background of all the pictures...guess Manny had his own personal lifeguard dog.

 

Keaton, Grandpa and I went up to Birch Bay on what will probably be the last sunny day of Summer.  There was a lot of "splish splashing" happening here.  The tide was way out so got to play in the sand, collect shells and play with little crabs. We also saw a sign advertising homes for $29,000 so we are looking into that; you can barely even buy a car for that amount now a days.  My guess is there is a catch since Birch Bay is a pretty fun little beach town and at that price would be sold out in minutes!

 

So far it seems like everyone in the family loves water! I have never been that good of a swimmer and am still scared of the deep end of the pool and swimming in lakes.  Guess Keaton and Manny get their love of the water from their dad.  I'm better in the hot tub than the pool.

First Visit to Dentist

Keaton had his first visit to the dentist today.  Luckily his favorite cartoon, Bubble Guppies, just had a show about visiting the dentist so it helped to prepare him :)

He really liked the fish and toys in the waiting room so that put him in a good mood.

 

And he was happy playing in the chair and with the little duck that they gave him.

 

But when it came time for the dentist to look in his mouth the fun was over...

 

There were some tears (screams) but it didn't last long. I asked about any tricks to make it easier at home and she didn't really have any except keep doing it, even through the screaming and tears...so doctor's orders we must keep at it.

 

He wasn't too happy after but did get to keep the duck and got a bag of "treats". Keaton calls everything a "treat".

 

 

 

 

planes, bears, parades, grumpy guy, etc.

We did lots of little things in August so I decided to put them all into one post, it's kind of random...

 

Keaton has been a little "off" this month.  He's woken up more at night this past month than he has in the past year. He's had fevers and been very clingy.  Here he was at a play date (after a 3 hour nap!!!) and not too thrilled to be there.  He is usually a very happy guy!

 

He does love his new DVD player that we got for a few upcomming flights.  I loved the Pac-Man game that he "pretended" to play while I was waiting for our cheese burgers.

I was in my first parade ever (at age 35) and Keaton was in his first (at age 18 months). At the rate this kid is going there won't be much left he hasn't done when he turns 35-that is the goal! I made a bunch of posters for my dad's church so we decided to walk with their group, which was by far the largest in the Monroe parade.

 

Grandpa Morgan got Keaton a horse, luckily it doesn't eat much. Keaton also really likes the bear at grandpa's house.  He likes to growl and pet it at the same time.  We're heading to Alaska in a month and will need to have a talk about bears before that trip since he could actually see a real one up there and we don't want him petting it (and I'm pretty sure his growls won't scare it off).

 

We had some time to fill last week and took a quick trip down to the Edmond's waterfront.  Kids sure do love water...we didn't make it out of there with a dry kid!

 

Thanks to TJ's fabulous Microsoft prime card we can go to lots of Seattle attractions for practically nothing. Yesterday we went to the Museum of Flight, somewhere that doesn't get nearly as much attention as it should. Keaton was talking and pointing the entire time with excitement!  We even got to go into an Air Force One plane, which was pretty cool, Keaton and Daddy are in the presidential boardroom below.  I thought we should strap Keaton into a seat for 6 hours so he could practice for his trip to Boston but that didn't happen.

 

 

Manny has been enjoying the sunshine too and been swimming a few time. Last time there wa another boston terrier learning to swim and he wasn't nearly as fearless as Manny.

 

 

Fun in the Sun

Having kids is fun because you get to do all the stuff that you did as a kid again and it's fun because you have a little one to enjoy it with.  I asked TJ what is favorite part of being a parent was and he said seeing his son happy and having fun.  I completely agree that is the best part of it all. 

This looks like the face of a happy kid having fun at Jetty Island!

You take a 5 minute ferry ride over to the island, which is the perfect length of time for kids.  It would probably make more sense for them to build a bridge over there but a ferry is more fun.

There isn't much on Jetty Island besides a BIG beach, lots of sun, floating bathrooms and lots of people (the pictures we took make it look like there weren't any people there but there was).  The beach is perfect for kids because it is big, sandy, flat and the water is very shallow and calm...it is quite a hike just to get to water when the tide is out as you can see from the pictures.

This was Keaton's first time to a real beach and he loved running and splashing in the water and playing in the sand.  Luckily he had some bigger friends with him to show him what to do at the beach.

We will be back, they have puppet shows on Monday so maybe we will head over one more time before Summer is over to do more exploring!  And we learned a good trick, call and make reservations and tell them you are an Everett resident. They didn't even ask for an address and it saved us from having to wait hours for a free boat.  Oh, and you will spend more time there than you think. Time flew buy and we were scrambling to pack up to make the boat.

Busy Saturday

Keaton had a very busy Saturday.  He took the bus to the grocery store...

To get food for camping...for some reason the food didn't taste very good at this store...

It was a long drive but he made it.  After setting up the tent he did some exploring and found a bunny...good thing he didn't see the giant bear in the background...

I guess his camp fire must have got out of control because the fire department had to come...they did let him drive the truck...

Busy Saturday at the Seattle Children's Museum.