Tree lighting

Yesterday we went to see the Mayor light up downtown Seattle for the holiday season. We decided to take the streetcar downtown to avoid parking headaches and to please Evan. Ever since the street car line became operational Evan has been tirelessly waiting to take a ride on the purple street car and it was his lucky day! We walked right up to the front of the crowd, listened to the (never ending) music and finally witnessed the lighting of the tree.

After the tree lighting there were some fireworks - and Evan loved them. Here he and I are looking up skyward at the show.

Happy Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year we went over to our friends Dave and Anny's house for a fantastic kid filled Thanksgiving. Anny made a fantastic turkey and a good time was had by all. Here are the requisite Thanksgiving holiday poses:

Here's Evan and Vincent giving each other a cheers over dinner.

Even though we were far away from family this holiday it felt nice to have good friends around to make the holiday brighter. Also, Alexis turned one month old on Thanksgiving -- but more on that in a later post.

Another new trick: taking a bottle

Alexis now takes bottles further opening up a multitude of activities for Jill where she's not tethered to Alexis. She drinks like a champ! Also I remember how nice it was for me to feed Evan. I was excited to finally get my chance to participate in feeding time.

A Monorail Ride

Last weekend we decided to go to Westlake Center for lunch and there's only one good way to get there -- by monorail. Here's Evan, Jill and Alexis (I promise she's hiding in the black sling) on the monorail. IT was Alexis' first monorail ride - no telling if she'll like it as much as Evan but may as well start young.

Hippo Time

As every week passes Alexis is awake more and beginning to look at things. We've taken to calling this time "Hippo Time" as one of her toys she looks at is a stuffed purple hippo. This is the face we're greeted with during hippo time. It even looks like the beginning of a smile if you ask me.

Lantern Walk

From time to time Evan's preschool has family events. This fall there was a lantern walk. Evan decorated his lantern at preschool and we arrived one cold, rainy, windy evening for the walk. It was so windy that all the lanterns kept blowing out! After a short walk everyone had pretty much had enough and we went out for dinner. Here's Evan with his lantern in full rain gear.

Time with Grandma

Jill's mom was nice enough to spend the past two weeks with us helping us out while we begin to acclimate to having two kids in the house. Here's a shot of Grandma with her two grandchildren.

And here's Grandma with a momentarily very awake Alexis

Thanks again for all your help. You made our transition that much more bearable.

Evan and the mouse cupcakes

Last week while Jill's mom was here helping us deal with having two children she decided to embark on a somewhat ambitious project with Evan: making mouse cupcakes. While I was not around during the actual event I can say I got positive reports from both Grandma and Evan on the experience. Apparently Evan had a great time mixing, measuring, matching eye colors and counting cookies. They were pretty good too. They baked a ton and we froze most of them so if you stop by, just ask and we'll defrost you your own mouse cupcake.

A short video

I shot this video when Alexis was two weeks old. Her eyes are open more and she's moving her arms and legs around, Enjoy.

Alexis and Evan - Two Very Different Babies

Now that we've had Alexis in our lives for almost 2 weeks I thought I'd make some observations. Unlike Evan in his first month of life, she spends a lot of time sleeping during the day. She's happy to be laid down in her crib, her pack-n-play or on our bed. In stark contrast, Evan didn't let us put him down without crying.

She's been sleeping real well at night. Knock on wood, we're feeding her once before we go to sleep, once at 3 or 4 in the morning and then again after 7am. It's still a tiring routine but way easier than with Evan.

Her eyes are open more and more now too. Her eyes were closed almost all of the time her first week, but now we're often greeted by her wide open eyes sometimes for hours.

One other Alexis perk: so far she's pretty portable. She'll sit in her stroller or in her car seat at the mall or in a restaurant (which we've done now at least 3 times). When Evan was this age we couldn't take him anywhere.

It's still real early so anything and everything can change but we're thankful thus far. It's amazing how Evan and her are so different.

Halloween in Magnolia

You may be thinking to yourself "I recognize that costume" -- and you'd be right. Evan was the very same bear last year. The costume was so big last year it was almost falling off him. This year he was so big he was just barley able to fit into it. He wanted to be a ghost but things were real busy and the bear fit so well we convinced him a bear would be a great costume to wear. If you'll remember, last year we had some real trouble getting him into his costume, and especially had issues convincing him to wear the "bear hat". This year we thought it was all going to be different. The picture below was a dry run a few days early and it went great! It was hard to get him to take it off. He ran around trying to scare Jill.

But it wasn't going to be that easy after all. There were two nights of trick-or-treating. The first night was up and down the main street of Magnolia. Evan was dead set against going and was absolutely against wearing his bear costume. I had to take him out of the house in his regular clothes, dress him under protest in the back of the car and carry him to where the trick-or-treating began. He was tentative at first but after the first block he was totally into it. He was running from store to store saying "Trick-or-treat"! Then one of two things would happen. First, someone may put a piece of candy in Evan's pumpkin bucket. If this was the case he'd take time to try to figure out what was put in there, like in this picture.

Second, they may let Evan choose what he wanted. In this case he'd take a REAAAAL long time looking at all the possibilities while the line behind him backed up. Finally he'd make his choice, put it into his bucket and say "Thanks!".

The next night Evan and I went down West Viewmont which is apparently the place to be on Halloween night. There were thousands of people packed going up and down the street. Houses were decked out in decorations. Alleys were turned into haunted lanes. A guy with a chain saw jumped out at Evan but he just said "Roar!" and the guy ran away. He came home with tons of candy. Here he is at his last stop, our house. He really wanted to ring the door bell and have Jill give him some candy.

The real trick since that evening has been getting Evan to forget about wanting the candy every night. It was impossible at first but now he's down to remembering every other day. Soon, his little pumpkin will disappear until next Halloween. We have no costume in reserve for him so I'm looking forward to hearing what he wants to be next year.

Bath Time

It was time for Alexis' first bath so we took Evan's old bathtub out of the garage. Evan volunteered to clean it out.

After the tub was prepared Alexis got in. She didn't cry but judging by her face she didn't exactly love it either. She came out clean and smelling quite good so I'll declare success.