Melting in Seattle

The Burien Splash Park...nice and small...

...just her size.

We've been working hard at not melting this month in our house and keeping busy outside having fun.  Our regular Saturday BBQs have continued to be lots of fun and we've seen lots of good friends who are wonderful enough to come to our house to partake in a hot dog and s'more.

I caught a rare Dad-Nap on camera!

Watching Frozen on our new outdoor movie screen!

Our scientist was the only one still interested after about 5 minutes.

Zoë had her first sleepover with two of her friends and had a great time!  We had pizza, created snack necklaces for movie time, did science (balloon rockets), played on the swings, and watched an outdoor movie (Frozen, duh) on the temporary screen Chris built just for the occasion.  The girls were finally asleep at 10:30pm and woke up bright and early at 6:30 (of course) for pancakes and a little bit of playing before they went home.  It was a great success, but we'll wait to do it anytime soon.  Or, at least until Oliver's a bit bigger and we can really have all hands on deck!

Big sister helping, and brother thinking she's the greatest.

She's been having a hard time going to sleep.  She likes to lay in her bed and scream our names over and over again for about an hour after we do bedtime.  So, we've pushed back bedtime to closer to 7:30 to see if that helps.  Her last day at daycare was on Wednesday, so getting up later in the morning will probably throw a wrench in our plans, too.

Zoë with the sign her friends made her at daycare.

Wednesday was a bittersweet day in the Seaman household: Zoë's last day of daycare with Lesley.  I've cried a multitude of times lately over the fact that Zoë won't be spending her days with Lesley -and NOT just because she'll be spending ALL of them with me! wink emoticon
  

Zoë and Lesley at the Angle Lake Splash Park.
The only way she'd go in the water was if
Lesley was holding her. 

Lesley is a member of our family and has taken the best care of Zoë; weathered her tantrums, near-biting episode, potty accidents, thickening her drinks, and mothering her when I couldn't be around to to it.  I will forever be thankful for her and Ipo and Joselyn for teaching Zoë all of the things they have in two years. Sure, we'll be right next door and intend to go craft and play outside every once and a while, but we'll sure miss the daily love and support we got from their family in learning how to raise our first born and having someone to celebrate every little milestone with us.

Baseball cap for the win.

My strong and big boy sitting up with
just a little help from the Boppy.

Oliver is continuing to grow and develop at breakneck speeds.  Last time I stepped on the scale with him he weighed nearly 18 pounds (with clothes on...so probably a bit less than that).  He's started to spend more time sitting up on his own (with the help of the Boppy pillow) and also loves to sit in the high chair at the table with us.  Today he even started grabbing some toys while sitting there and they ALL went directly to his mouth.  I can't help but think he's teething.  He CHOMPS on my hands and fingers whenever he can get them close to his mouth.

He hasn't been going to bed very easily the past two weeks, either.  And, of course, when I say "not very easily" I mean, for Oliver.  He needs a bit more rocking and we have to go in several times to reset the pacifier.  The recent heat hasn't been very helpful, either, I'm sure.

Fox Hollow Farm Adventures

We went to Fox Hollow Farm with Baba and Dedo last week, which is a great farm with animals, miniature farm vehicles, and pony rides in Issaquah.  It was a bit pricey, so not something we'll do more than once per summer, but Zoë LOVED it and went on her first pony ride!!!  Baba bought her ticket and none of us had much hope that she'd actually get on the pony, even after introducing her to Pegasus beforehand AND after watching friend Ethan ride him before her.  BUT, she GOT ON THE PONY!  I think I was way more excited than she was, but she did great and even wants to go again!  WOO HOO!  She also saw a new foal born two days before we arrived who was a preemie.  The staff didn't even know that the mother was pregnant.  Very exciting!

Grandma, Oliver, and Zoë chilling in the tent in the backyard.  Fun!

Oliver and Grandpa

Zoë and Oliver have spent lots of time with Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Connor, too during the month of July.  They've had lots of fun adventures including helping Grandpa with the car maintenance.  :)  We're looking forward to an even busier August with a trip to ABQ for me and Oliver to meet my new nephew, Mason, and Chris and my Alaskan Cruise at the end of the month (yes, kidless...we are SO excited!).

Three Months of Oliver!

Mr. Serious

Oliver's first dip in the pool!

Mr. Oliver is three months old today!  He is still growing, growing, growing out of his clothes.  I suspect he'll be in 9 month clothes within about a month or two.  He could probably wear them now, but I don't want to get rid of his 6 month clothes yet.  He has started sucking on his hands a lot.  I'm not sure if it's just because he found them or because he's beginning the teething process.  I'm hoping it's the former.  I woke up one morning, turned on the video monitor and saw him rolling on his side in his swaddle.  Just rolling back and forth but not completely over yet.  I think he's close, but since he hates tummy time so much I'm guessing he's not too keen to roll over to his stomach.  He's still doing a fantastic job sleeping at night: asleep around 9pm, sleeps until 6am or later, nurses and then will often snuggle and sleep with me until 9am!  I'm going to miss that morning routine when Zoë's done with daycare.  He doesn't do as well with naps and is quite the cat napper, sleeping about a half an hour many times throughout the day.  Sometimes he surprises me, though, and will treat me with an hour or even two in the afternoon!

Hanging out in front of the mirror with Daddy.

He's obsessed with the TV and appears to watch it every time it's on.  I'll admit sometimes I put him in front of it while I make his bottle or prepare lunch for Zoë just to make sure he's content.  Ahhhh, second child.

Playgroup with Mama

Oliver and I have been attending the baby group at VMC again like I did with Zoë and I'll say I love being around all of the (relatively quiet, compared to a bunch of 2 year olds) babies again.  It's so fun to see how much they've all grown already in the three months we've been going.

My two monkeys.

Zoë is continuing to astound us with her learning and growing.  She is doing MUCH better with using the toilet and we have way fewer accidents than even a few weeks ago.  She's even been telling us with enough to time to RUN to the bathroom when she needs to go.  A couple of weeks ago we were at Southcenter in the Container Store and she said she had to go (after saying NO! when asked about four times in four different easy to get to the bathroom locations, of course) and I literally grabbed her and started running without a word, leaving Chris and Oliver behind us in the store.  We RAN to the Sears where I knew the location of the bathroom all the while I'm singing "hold it, hold it, hold it" to Zoë.  She made it!  And we came back to the Container Store to find Chris and Oliver on their way out since Chris was SURE I was going to come back covered in pee.  Ahhhh, parenthood.

We went to see Daniel Tiger at the Woodland Park Zoo and
she wanted nothing to do with him after standing in line for over an hour.
Typical. 

Her sleeping has been great the last couple of weeks with few nighttime marathons of "I'm waking up now".  We're going to have a campout with two of her little girlfriends in the backyard in a few weeks.  Tent, outdoor movie, s'mores and all!  That should be quite an adventure.

Pool time!

On our way to the pool!

Early morning snuggles.

Reading with Daddy.

She has been exercising her (non) right to yell NO! at either one of us when she doesn't want to do something, more often to Chris than me, which really, really fries him.  The screaming that ensues after being told YES!  is epic.  Absolutely epic.  But, overall, these over-the-top tantrums are really not too often or long.  Surely she'll grow out of them soon, right?  :)

Just plain sassy.

As we introduce her to new things that we think are going to be super, super exciting, she continues to disappoint us with either how not-interested she is in the event/activity or how she actually is scared of it.  Chris and I remember fondly one of his company BBQs a few summers ago where we watched a two year old enjoy her first stick of cotton candy.  Seriously, this little girl was covered in red, sticky sugar and she enjoyed every moment of it with the best look of glee pasted on her face.  We could. not. wait to introduce cotton candy to Zoë.  So, on the Fourth when we walked down to the Des Moines Marina, we were ready to let her try some.  We found a stand, made her walk all the way back to our blanket before we opened the bag and let her try it (on camera of course).  She took two bites, said, "I no like it", and asked for fruit instead.  FRUIT!  Really?!

Mowing the lawn with Dad.  I love Chris' face in this picture.

Other than that we had a great time on the Fourth of July with good friends and lots of fun.  Zoë tried her first sparkler (I told Chris he was lucky we were around lots of people because I wasn't ready to let her near one).  Oliver slept through most of the fireworks thanks to his new ear protection.  We made it home by 11:30 from the fireworks show, and the late bedtime didn't destroy her too much.

Trying out his ear protection before the fireworks.

Our family on the Fourth.

Zoë's first sparkler.

Chris' safety lecture before Zoë's first sparkler.

My two sparklers.

We've had a couple of summer BBQs so far and have enjoyed hanging out with our friends in our backyard.  We're so lucky to have such a fun yard to host in and have lots of fun things for kids to do.  I feel pretty thankful that they'll come hang out with us!

Milestones

My medal!

Zoë has become so charming.  She talks our ear off at home, at dinner, in the car, everywhere!  She loves to sing the "Hi My Name is Zoë" song from Sesame Street...but it ends up just being "I am Zoë!  I am Zoë!  I am Zoë!" over and over and over again.  She has become a gymnastics superstar and last week they had a end of season "Big Show!" to show of the skills the kids learned all season.  They had an adorable medal ceremony at the end of class and called each kid up to give it to them.  I'm not a huge proponent of the "every kid gets a trophy" mentality but geez, I ate it up.  :)

Zoë and her teacher, Miss Erin

The "Big Show"!

Perfect.

Watching Disney movies together when Zoë was sick.

Forward facing girl

We turned her carseat around in the car to face forward because the seatbelt was digging into her legs.  I cried.  After she came back from gymnastics class with Chris I asked her all about it like I always do and then a few minutes later, totally unsolicited she said, "How's your day, mommy?"  And I cried.  She's growing up so fast and becoming a real person!  She understands the nuances of language more and more every day and every once and a while she says something and Chris and I will look at each other and go, "did she just say__________?"

She has become oh-so-affectionate and loves to give hugs and kisses.  She usually starts with a kiss and then when she leans over to give you a hug will always whisper, "hug" as she does it.  It's adorable.

Panera.  Yum!

Oliver is still smiling and smiling and smiling.  We're working on tummy time (he's not a fan), taking naps in his crib, and he giggled for the first time on Tuesday!  He LOVES to be on the changing table and will coo and giggle for 10-15 minutes there.  He is also starting to roll onto his side to look at objects...I'm hoping rolling over isn't much further behind.

So chill.

Practicing tummy time

He went in for his two month doctor's appointment this week and weighed 15 pounds 4 ounces and is 25 inches in length.  That's above the 97th percentile for both!  It is absolutely crazy to have a baby this big!  His length is like a typical four and a half month old and his weight is like a typical five month old.  No wonder my arm feels like falling off when I carry him in his carseat around.  His doctor says he looks good, strong, and healthy.  He had a fussy day after his shots, but nothing too out of the ordinary and that a few doses of infant tylenol couldn't fix.

Zoë feeding her baby.  :)

My favorite guy on Father's Day.

Two Months of Oliver!

Mr. Oliver is 2 months old today!  He is a champion eater (every 1.5 hours during the daytime, seriously) and sleeper (between 7-8 hours every night, and then will go back to sleep after his 5:30am feeding for another two-three hours!).  He is growing like a weed and is just over the 14 lb mark and about 25 inches long.  That means he's gained 4 lbs and 5 inches in two months.  Crazy!  I'm not able to keep up with him with breast milk, so he's getting a supplemented formula bottle or two a day to keep him happy.  :)

Six month clothes already!

He is SUPER easy and truly only cries when he's hungry or tired (or, in the case of this past weekend, when it's 85 freakin' degrees in our house at 6pm).  He is enjoying his tubby time and we're working on tummy time.  He usually only makes it a couple of minutes before he starts to cry, but I feel like his neck is super strong.  He seems like he's pretty solid on holding up his own head now.  He's got the most charming smile and he's pretty quick to do it for me.  I can't wait to hear what his giggle sounds like!  He's just started cooing and babbling which sound amazing.

The whole Seaman clan.

I cleaned out his drawer yesterday of all 3 month clothes.  He's officially in his 6 month clothes.  Yikes!  I didn't even have time to really get attached to a whole bunch of 3 month clothes by the time he grew out of them.  My goodness.  His official two month doctor's appointment is in another week and a half, we'll have to see how big he is then.

Loves her Fona.

Zoë's new favorite app on the iPad,:Endless ABC.
She's OBSESSED with it!

Zoë is still proving to be a great big sister and is actually pretty helpful where Oliver is concerned.  She can hold the bottle for him, can grab a burp rag if it's out of reach, and loves to bounce and talk to him.  We ventured to the spray park on Monday and Zoë wouldn't go in the water unless Lesley held her.  So disappointing to me that she is so timid with such fun things.  She'll grow into it, I suppose, but I want her to run and splash NOW!

Komodo Dragon, Dedo!

She's learning and growing like crazy.  Her storytelling abilities are so entertaining and the things she remembers and can parrot back to us are impressive.  She still loves our trips to the Zoo (we went today with Dedo) and it's super fun to plan something fun to do every day whether it's a trip to a park or baking cookies in the afternoon.

Typical lunch, and I finally got Zoë to take a selfie with me.