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We had some photos taken of us at Golden Gardens park in Ballard. The weather was strange for July – cool in the early morning, heating up by 11AM, with intense sun and cloud and lots of humidity. We got some good shots which I am sharing here. There are beaches in Seattle – just don’t show up wearing your bathing suit because it will likely be too cool.

Marc and I swinging Marshall around. Wheeeeeeeeeeee!

Excavation in progress.

Looking wistfully out into Puget Sound (actually, we were watching a man in a wetsuit trying to parasail).

A big hug for my big boy.

Group photo.

Me and the boy.

Last group photo before disbanding for the Ballard Farmers’ Market.

Marshall loves his trike! Vroom vroom in the living room…

Amazing what will keep a kid occupied for a half hour or more. In this case it was his rubber boots (put on, take off, repeat to infinity) and his tricycle. He had so much fun pretending to ride it that he was screaming with excitement near the end. All this and he doesn’t know how to pedal yet!

We hosted my PEPS group last Saturday and it was so much fun to see the almost-two-year-olds. All the “babies” are like little…PEOPLE! I still have a mental image of these toddlers as flailing infants, lying helplessly on the blanket spread out on the floor, playing with their rattles and chew toys.

Saturday was a reality check as all of the kids were definitely mobile, with their own agenda to boot. To demonstrate their autonomy, they were attracted like rare earth magnets to Karla’s back yard. Our fence has fallen down in several places, exposing the kid heaven that is her back yard. There is a humongous trampoline, too many wheeled toys to mention, and lots of colourful toys casually strewn about her yard. Fruitless efforts were made to retreive the kids from Karla’s yard; Maggie spent half the time playing in her yard. I finally had to drag out the Superyard baby gate to keep the kids and the chihuahuas on the deck. Even Faye was wandering into her yard!

It was great seeing everyone – hearing about exciting news (Lois!) and getting to see Maggie and Molly after they were away for almost a year in New Zealand.

Molly, Marc, Janica, Lois, Will, Marshall, Grace, Maddie and Maggie hanging out on the deck.

Marshall brokering a toy deal between Grace and Maggie.

Pffttt…I’ll let them hash it out.

Marshall loves his first bike! I would love biking too if someone was pushing me from behind :^). I got him a helmet before I let him on the bike for the first time. He is so used to it that he will point to the “hat” and put it on before getting on the bike. Way to go! Perhaps he’ll do the STP one day?

Marshall has been saying a few words for several months now. Over the last two weeks he’s really increased his vocabulary.ÂHere are some of his words.

Clearly Enunciated Words:

“Babies”. He loves pointing to photos of babies in his books. This is the only multisyllabic word that he enunciates perfectly. He will slowly pronounce this word perfectly – so cute! We never use this word at home but I had borrowed a book from the library called “Everywhere Babies”. I read it to him every night because he loved looking at the illustrations of the babies. For the five weeks that we had the book, I would read it to him and he would just point to the photos. On one of the last nights before I was to return the book, I finished reading and closed the book. I flipped it over to the front cover, re-read the title, “Everywhere Babies” and was leaning to put the book away when he softly said, “Ba-bie-s”. They weren’t kidding when they said that reading to babies increases their vocabulary! Today he took a 3-6 month Robeez shoe that was on the floor, put it beside his large (in comparison) foot, looked at Marc and said, “Ba-bee”. Awwww!

“No”. Duh!

“Ella” and “Bella”. Next-door neighbor (Ella) and brown chihuahua (Bella). FYI – he has no word/sound for Faye.

“Mum”. Spoken like a Canadian.

Words we can understand due to frequent usage and context:

“Ehs”- Yes.

“Uck” – Truck.

“Gow” – Cantonese for dog.

…and the list keeps growing day by day. Now I’m waiting for the day when he’ll say “More ice cream”.

For some strange reason Marshall LOVES wearing my flip flops. He even manages to co-ordinate them with his outfits (I swear I didn’t help him). See photos below.

Front view. The white shoes go well with the shirt.

Back view. So fashionable.

Black goes with the darker tones of his one piece. Fabulous.

I have more than four pairs and he manages to get his toes in the right place and walks around the house in my plastic shoes. They make “baby” flip flops for toddlers which still have the piece of plastic that goes between the toes, but they also have a heel strap to ensure that they stay on. I’m not too crazy about him wearing real ones yet – he’s got a lot of time for that later. I am however loving the Crocs that he wears daily. They are the best thing ever for toddlers. I’ll definitely be getting more of them when he outgrows his current pair.

Ezekiel turned 3 on Monday so Karla had a small party for him the Friday before. There was cake, ice cream, treat bags, a sprinkler, blow-up pool, and fun fun fun!

Yes, that’s my son sitting in a Rubbermaid container full of water. Karla reported that he wasn’t interested in the pool but LOVED the plastic container. Go figure!

The kids gathered ’round for cake, ice cream and present opening ceremonies at 3PM. Karla said that Marshall was the only one that really finished both cake AND ice cream sandwich. You can see in these photos

that the rest of the kids were focused on playing and opening gifts, and Marshall’s priority was cake and ice cream. I think Dana and Ora would both be impressed – this boy has his priorities straight.

I arrived to pick him up at 5:30 PM and Karla served me a piece of cake and an ice cream sandwich. Guess who ate most of my ice cream and more cake? Yes, the Dessert Man dug in for more.

Here he is chowing down on his second ice cream sandwich in two hours.

We returned home with a goodie bag full of candy, Pop-Its, and a mini-watering can (cute!). I got a quick lesson on Pop-Its (throw it to the ground and it pops). Marc went through the majority of the box of Pop-Its with Marshall:

Pow! Whoa! Clean-up time.

Here I am playing blog catch-up. We took a trip to the Woodland Park Zoo on Saturday July 1st. It was the lead-up to the 4th of July holiday. Note – no Canadian flags seen at the zoo :^(. We walked around and visited the African painted dogs (they were sleeping), hippos, giraffes, etc. The really fun part was when we went to the petting zoo. Marshall ran after the goats and gave them each a hug. No matter what kind of animal it is, he always manages to put his head on it as if to give it a hug. It doesn’t have to be a live animal either. He does it with images of animals in books too. Perhaps he’ll grow up to be the animal whisperer.

Here is a photo of him hugging a goat.

Marshall poking a bunny.

The following day, Kip came over and spent the afternoon with us. We sat on the deck all afternoon and caught up with his life.

Here’s a photo of Marshall and Kip.