3.3.13
These past two months just flew by. Already in March and 15 days away until the first day of Spring and 24 days until Sydnas 16th birthday. It almost feels a bit overwhelming ... emotions overload. Having to deal with three different parenting stages at once {teen, preteen, and toddler} has had its challenges but it has taught me to remember to spend one on one time with each of them as often as I can ... whether it's simply talking about life, playing games, reading books, or watching movies together. It also has been fun and like I've said in the past ... I love the age difference between my two oldest kids and Riley. A baby will definitely bring a family closer. My favorite thing to see is when either Sydna or Nathan take Riley by the hand and walk together or when they read him a book. Just seeing them interact with him is very touching. They sure help us out a lot with the little guy ... because we all know that Riley is so full of boundless energy.
He thinks it's fun to watch tv from the hallway.
The city we live in has a laid back feel to it and I like that. Although I love living close to big cities I really don't want to live IN a big city. I prefer the laid back lifestyle. The less complicated my life is the better. I like that we live about five minutes away from grocery stores, post office, medical facilities, restaurants, gas stations and retail.
The other night we had to go to the store. We brought Riley with us. After the grocery store we stopped at Starbucks and enjoyed some coffee. Riley got hot chocolate ... he loved it and he also spilled some on his hoodie. I'm just glad it wasn't a light colored hoodie. That reminds me ... I still need to buy a cup from Starbucks that has Seattle written on it. I've bought Starbucks cups from all the places we've lived at.
Remember two weeks ago I mentioned that the kids were sick with colds? Well, I ended up getting sick all last week ... but thankfully I got over it fast. I did go through four tissue boxes in two days. By Thursday I didn't have a runny nose which was great ... it was just stuffy and I had a cough but by Saturday I was feeling 90% better.
I totally recommend the Puffs Vicks tissues and the Kleenex Cool Touch tissues. They are the BOMB!
I should have drank tea but I don't enjoy tea as much as I do coffee. I'm really not a tea drinker. There are only two tea flavors that I like. One is chamomille and the other is green tea ... and I prefer sugar {sugar in the raw} over honey. I don't like the way honey tastes which is too bad because I know that honey is very good for you. Maybe I'll force myself to like it one day.
Well ... it happened. Riley drew on a wall and all over his slide with crayon. It really was no big deal but I also wanted him to know that it's not good to write on walls or things. So I pointed at the wall and asked him what happened. He looked at me and said "uh oh mess". Me: yes mess, did you do it? All he did was look at the wall and back to me. It's hard to hold back a smile sometimes. When I know I can't I look away.
Thank goodness for the magic eraser, they are awesome!
And for the past couple of weeks I haven't really been able to get on the computer because once he sees me typing he tries to sit on my lap or crawls under the chair and begins playing with his toys under the desk.
Stopped for ice cream one day. Got a Sunday. I'm thinking next time I'll split one with Riley. I couldn't finish my ice cream and of course Riley didn't either.
Sometimes I'll wake up just before Jacobs alarm goes off, at 4:30! That's crazy and what's more nuts is that sometimes I can't go back to sleep. So whenever that happens which in all reality is not that often I take advantage of Riley still sleeping and I get ready. I can finally enjoy a shower without being rushed or having to peak from behind the shower curtain. I even make the kids a warm breakfast ... they love that!
Jacob had Friday off. Before moving to Washington I researched a whole bunch of things that we're into and new things we would like to do. I found there are two outlets locations. The Seattle Premium Outlets has more stores so we made plans to go to that one. It's about an hour away. We left the house around 9:30am.
In order to avoid traffic we always take backroads. I sure love the country side. It's so pretty. I think I like it just as much as I like the coast and watching the sunset.
We drove through Seattle. BIG mistake. We wasted about 40 minutes stuck in traffic. This much traffic in the morning? Unheard of. Next time we're driving through Bellevue and change freeways there.
Driving into Tulalip WA. Thought it was pretty up here. Besides their tribal population of 4,000 and 2,500 members residing in the 22,000 acre Tulalip Indian Reservation, it is rich with natural resources: marine waters, tidelands, fresh water creeks and lakes, wetlands and forests. I told Jacob that I would like to visit again on a sunny day.
And after driving for almost two hours because of the traffic we hit in downtown Seattle this little guy had done great. No doubt he was bored but he didn't fuss during the drive. He did tell us he wanted to walk. I'm sure he was tired of sitting down.
We got to the outlets around 11:30am. We really didn't have a lot of time to shop because since we were an hour away we needed to leave at least by 12:45pm to go pick up the kids from school.
THE only way I can completely enjoy an apple. I got one caramel apple and one large chocolate covered strawberry ... my second favorite.
We made stops at our favorite stores and for the first time I didn't spend any money on Riley. I forced myself not to. He really is not in need of any more winter clothes. And given that it will more than likely remain chilly into Spring he will wear all his winter clothes then too.
It was cold. Colder since we were closer to Canada. We were beginning to get hungry but we didn't have time to stop for lunch. We left the outlets at 1:10pm. We were somewhat in a hurry. I did feed Riley in the car. I didn't want my little guy to go hungry.
After about 15 minutes this little guy had passed out.
Sydna gets off at 2pm and Nathan at 2:30pm. We were still about fifteen minutes away by the time Sydna got out. I texted her five minutes before she got out to let her know we were gonna be late. We then decided to pick up Nathan first since he was on the way and because he's younger. We got to his school right on time.
We had dinner at Spaghetti Factory. On a cold day I always crave Italian food or pot roast and since pot roast was not an option we had pasta. I have to say that Spaghetti Factorys lasagna has got to be the tastiest lasagna I've had. Better than Olive Gardens. This little guy ate fettuccine alfredo, his favorite!
And to end my Friday I ate my caramel apple I got from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. They are so delicious and I could really eat two all by myself!!
Saturday.
Jacob wanted to get himself some brown shoes to wear with slacks and some vans. We went to the mall in Bellevue. It's bigger than the one by Jacobs work. In order to have a successful shopping expereince with a toddler I thought taking him to the play area first would be good ... that way he can burn off all of his energy.
He had a great time. Running from one boat to another. It was so funny.
Had lunch at the mall. He wont eat a sandwich unless we separate everything and give it to him in bite size pieces. Jacob also ordered him soup which he mostly ate. I got the club sandwich ... it was so good and fresh. It had Mayonnaise, Stone Ground Mustard, Turkey Breast, Ham,
Sunday was grocery shopping day. The dreaded outing but a must do. Before we headed to the grocery store we stopped at a taco shop. We saw it one time driving along a street that we sometimes take and close to the Target that we go to. Who knew that they sold rolled tacos, carne asada burritos, well the works. And you know what? It was GOOD! YES!!! We cannot believe we found a good legit taco shop not that far from the house. Woo Hoo! I was enjoying my rolled tacos so much that I forgot to take a picture of it. Next time. You bet we'll be regulars there.
Ever since I bought this guy crayons he will not put them down. He'll take them out of the case and put them back in and carry the crayon case all over the house. And he'll hand you a color crayon that he wants you to color with and if you try to get a different color he'll shake his head and give you the color he first gave you. Hilarious.
Little Einsteins is still a favorite around here. He's learned so much from watching this show. What 2 year old can remember what a baton and a sphinx looks like. He pronounces these two words good too. He's memorized a lot of the music and when we're in the truck and I have it on the classical music station he will tell you it's from Little Einsteins. Very smart. He can also count to 10 with a little prompting. Way to go little guy!
March should be a fun month. Several events planned, looking forward to seeing my mom, and celebrating Sydnas birthday. And continue to look at old and new homes.
