Summer mini-vacation - Lake Chelan

After a successful two weekends away earlier this summer we thought we'd try again - this time for a little further and longer trip, by ourselves (another family we knew happened to be at the same place the same weekend, which was really nice, but mostly we were on our own). Layla's really into swimming right now, we haven't had much summer in Seattle yet and the Studly Hubby and I really needed something easy and relaxing - so we rented a fancy place in a resort by a beach (Lake Chelan, we stayed at Wapato Point), a good 4 hr drive East where it's actually sunny and warm (it got up to 100F today!). This place had it all: two bathrooms (!), a pool right outside our door, a beach a little walk away, a deck overlooking the lake, and lots and lots and lots of things for kids to do - playground equipment, boats, mini-golf, wading pools, fresh clean grassy lawns to run around barefoot, and a fairly unrestricted attitude about screaming and nakedness (especially good for us, erm I mean Layla).

I have to admit, the whole hotel-by-the-beach thing is not a regular thing for us. I was a little worried after spending all that money that the drive, the toddler, and the heat might get to us - but we really really enjoyed it and would do it again in a heartbeat (the drive and the toddler did get to us but it was still worth it). Our biggest challenge was that our fiesty girl decided she didn't need to nap at all while we were there, which doesn't suit her well, so the afternoons got very long and wearing (especially Saturday). Fortunately the place offered many good distractions to help us get through it.

My favorite activity: the waterpark, which had FIVE slides we could take Layla on and a Lazy River (which she also liked, surprisingly). Derek's favorite: the hotel pool and throwing Layla up into the air so she could splash in the water on her way down (the first time, she sucked down a bunch of water and spluttered around a bunch and then screamed with glee, "DO IT AGAIN!!!"). Layla's favorite: the paddle boat, which gave her much fodder for imaginary play once we got home (now when we pretend to go somewhere we can do it in a boat, which is much less complicated than a car because there are no parking or traffic problems).

Summer bucket list

Saw this on a recent blog, and even though summer is 'half' over for all you normal folks, it just got started here in Seattle. But, I'm proud to say we're already making a lot of progress on the list, despite the extra-cool and rainy spring. So here it is:

The J & D & L Summer Bucket List:

- GO TO THE BEACH!! (there are many kinds of beach and we want to get to as many as we can)
- GO SEE SOME TIDEPOOLS (already checked!)
- GO TO THE WADING POOL (check, check and CHECK!)
- GO PICK SOME BLUEBERRIES! (does the Farmer's Market count?)
- EAT A PICNIC LUNCH OUTSIDE (CHECK!)
- GO FOR A BIKE RIDE (where IS my bike!?)
- RUN IN A FAMILY 5K (CHECK!)
- CHECK OUT A SPRAY PARK (Found one! it was at Crossroads in Bellevue - nice!)
- GO TO A WATERPARK (heading there on Friday!!)
- GET AWAY FOR THE WEEKEND (Check and check... and this weekend, check again!)
- CALL MY DAD (oops! did you say you were moving to Texas?)
- TAKE A FERRY TO AN ISLAND (whoo! made it!)
- GET A PEDICURE (Check! First one ever - thanks B for getting me motivated!!)
- DO SOMETHING TOTALLY NEW (hmmm.... see above)

Well, I guess we're doing pretty good!!! I'll be calling my dad this weekend though...

Summer with Miss Layla

Well, summer is full-on here in Seattle, which means it totally stopped raining and gets above 70F every once in a while. For the first time since I was a kid, I can't WAIT until it gets above 70F so we can bust out to the pool, the neighborhood wading pool, or the beach (we can get to the Puget Sound inlet from our house, it isn't the ocean but it's saltwater and beautiful). Layla LOVES it and now so do we. On days that it doesn't get above 70 (which are a lot) we go to the indoor pool and totally wear ourselves out. Members of our baby group (8 families all with kids the same age) are joining us more often than not and helping create more fun.

Layla has started to go to bed later and later (her bedtime is now 8 pm) and it's a whole new routine - we've been leaving work a little later, taking turns putting her to bed (I recently started going to an evening yoga class, which has been awesome), eating dinner as a family more, going out  at night to BBQs and parks (something we could never do before), but also the Studly Hubby and I have a little less time to ourselves which takes some adjusting to.

Layla has changed so much over the past month. She has taken the super-hyper-crazy down a few notches and is finally calming down a bit (although she's still on the super-hyper-crazy side, don't get me wrong). She is sitting still for up to 20 minutes at a time (40 the other night!!!) to watch a little TV (she switches preference but is currently coming off of Dora and heading into Backyardigans). She'll also cuddle every once in a while, play on her own in a rare moment, or sit down and have a whole conversation (dinner is SO much more pleasant, and we're finally finding out what she does at daycare all day!). She says all kinds of crazy things to us and a lot of them we can't really track down from anywhere so she must be dreaming them up herself - it's so weird to have her putting together her own ideas and then sharing them with us. Speaking of, she is REALLY into imaginary play and invests a lot of time and energy making up and acting out situations with us like getting a hair cut (including a final spray with pink hair dye, where did she get that idea?), buying ice cream (she likes to give us money, then give us ice cream, in flavors like 'pink' and 'purple'), and throwing a birthday party (she'll spend a half an hour trying to find adequate party hats for each of us and passing around pretend birthday cake). What we find especially endearing is that some of her favorite things are our favorites too (ice cream, the farmer's market, the wading pool, sushi, legos) and therefore easy to accommodate. Some things are totally of her own preference, however, like eating lavender and rosemary out of the garden (constantly), scooting on her scooter, and trying on other people's shoes.

Another thing Layla really really enjoys is cavorting around naked or in totally ridiculous outfits (like a cape and her swimsuit, or one of my tank tops). We spend most of each morning convincing her to wear SOMETHING that's decent and if we succeed we often have to race her up to the daycare immediately after or risk her changing her mind. To make things worse we keep confusing her by taking her to clothing-optional events like the famous naked bike ride and Solstice Parade in our neighborhood (hey, it's Seattle). From the many hilarious questions we got afterwards, we suspect she was carefully thinking the whole thing through for a while.

As for the Studly Hubby and I, we've been busy like two worker bees this spring/summer. We've been alternating going out of town (me: San Francisco, Michigan; him: Texas, then London) in between finishing up enormously time-consuming projects at each of our respective jobs. We've been coping - we're using the discounted nanny service provided by his work, scheduling play dates to keep Layla occupied, keeping things fairly simple at home (this is where renting is nice!), and before Layla's bedtime recently moved back we were putting in lots of productive work-nights. But, a few things have been suffering: the blog (sorry!), the extended family (again, sorry!) and our houseplants (hang in there, you can make it!). Hopefully things will slow down later this summer but I doubt it - we still have several family trips coming up (yay!) as well as lots of summer-y weekend plans. But, at least it's all fun stuff.

Energizer bunny

We are realizing over and over again that we have an extremely energetic, adventurous and independent toddler, even compared to other toddlers. Having only ever had one toddler, we sometimes wonder if we are correctly assessing things, or if we are partly to blame (other than genetics. With regard to genetics, I blame her father). Our recent trips with other families of toddlers, and some acute observations at the daycare, have led to the following observations:

1) Layla is much more trouble than most other toddlers, but not the most trouble. These other more troublesome toddlers are boys, and are bigger and just a little more adventurous. Layla seems to have at least a little sense of caution, which is tremendously helpful.

2) A few really big benefits come out of this - first, she doesn't hesitate to try everything and do anything, which makes every outing very fun. Second, like her mommy, she finds hanging around at home kind of boring, so we have a good excuse to go out and do family-friendly fun things when we can, and we have found a lot of neat things to do. Third, I don't worry about her getting enough activity when she's being watched by someone else - because I know she'll make sure she gets it.

3) A few other things: she is a GREAT sleeper at night, and she seems to have made that necessary cognitive leap so she understands where we're going and what we're doing - hugely useful when things aren't going as planned or we're in a new environment. She's also pretty tough and doesn't whine a whole lot when she gets hurt, something she couldn't have gotten from me.

I have no idea how much of this is her and how much comes from the way we're parenting her - but I get the sense that it's mostly her. It must be fascinating to have twins that are totally different, so you can see this. And I'm sure it will be very very interesting to see how this toddler morphs into a little person and finally into a grown-up person.

The things coming out of Layla's mouth

Layla's starting to be able to tell us about more than just her opinions, although we're still hearing plenty of opinions (mostly involving milk, her scooter, and the playground). She can order events and associate different things and remember directions. Today on the way home from daycare she told me she wanted to get some milk, bring it outside, and then scoot with her Daddy. When she falls down at daycare, she can tell us about it and who was there and how she fell and what she hurt. She reads books to her Tigger, and she actually tells Tigger about the pictures and sort of tells the story to him. Although she is talking constantly, we still can't get her to talk on command (she NEVER reveals anything useful when I ask how her day was, or when we Skype with one of the grandparents). But, the new level of chatter is changing the way we handle her and how we plan our days (we can actually ask her whether she wants to go to the playground or go scooting). Most important, we can explain - and she understands - what we are doing and it has made traveling a ton easier. And it is probably a big relief to her, to be able to finally articulate what she is thinking!!

Potty training update

Apparently, our girl has decided it's time for potty training. She insisted on wearing underwear all day today at daycare and actually went potty in the toilet - something we didn't even know she knew how to do! She only had one accident at the end of the day.

We are a little bit surprised, and not ready, and don't really know what to do... but I guess Layla will lead the way as she has done with everything else!

Another toddler vacation

We finally got away this weekend for a wild time up at Orcas Island. This is about a 2 hr drive split by a 1.5 hr ferry ride (because it's an island, it's only accessible by ferry!). The island itself is about a 45-min drive across. It's surrounded by other islands and is totally beautiful - but it's also very rural so the island itself reminds me a lot of my home country of Iowa.

We happened to have TOTALLY beautiful weather. We really had a marvelous time. Three families stayed in a big house and two other families stayed in nearby cabins. All the kids played hard all day then after they went to bed the adults partied hard at night (a bit too hard...). Layla was the only kid that slept through the night, and wasn't even woken up by the other kids that thought 5:30 am was a perfectly natural time to get up and scream a bunch. We considered it a great success, and are even thinking about traveling some more with her this summer. Maybe by ourselves next time.

Below are a few pictures of the resort where we stayed, Doe Bay - it has a bunch of cabins, camp sites, hostels and yurts and a swimsuit-optional hot tub, organic cafe, and yoga classes. But, what really got our business was the playground and sand pit right outside our house. Layla was a huge fan of both. She also loved the beach, which was very beautiful and offered much for exploration.

While we were there the kids did a bunch of really cute things. They all took a bath together, they carefully played with the little babies, they read books to each other, they wrestled and knocked over furniture and then tattled on each other, they each melted down a few times, they made lots of demands and chatted it up and even held each other's hands a few times. It was so, so cute to watch them play together and so good for all of us parents to stop our crazy regular lives to take it all in for a few days. For the most part, the kids were pretty good and easy to entertain while we were there.

Below are a few pictures from their website to tide you over while we get our own pictures off the camera.