Harvest Moon

Fall time, Neil Young anyone? Man! I cannot get enough of him this time of year...well that and pumpkin spice in my coffee beans...the calm before the holiday storm.

Avery's first ferry ride...did you know they now have bomb sniffer dogs for those old rust buckets?

Day of the Dead 80's back up dancer

Try and guess these costumes! We are a highly creative bunch here on Austin St.

RIP the superest of Sonics RIP

Nakey Baby!

Why does such a little person require so many towels? Heavens Child! This girl loves to splash! Bathtime is fun, everyone ends up wet and the dog always tries to get in on the action.

Standin' and Screamin' and Teethin'

Long time no postie...Fall has arrived and we have all been sick for a week! Yippee for rain soaked days! These pictures are from the very end of summer...as you can tell my Avery's "pick me teacher I know the answer pose up top."

Avery is pulling herself up on just about anything, including knee caps. She also has two pearly whites on the bottom and more teeth starting the show their painful little heads. She has been gabbing a lot more...she thinks everyone is DADADADABADA. But she'll get there. Avery's hair is finally starting to fill in...Dad thinks it's brown, I still said RED at least when the sun hits it. We are having fun but everyone misses summer and all the clothes Vivi only got to wear once.

Zoie also joined the household full time and we are so very happy to have her. She is in a Seattle school called Pathfinder that is a K-8 school with small classes and borderline hippie teachers...which is great and we love love love it! She is making fast friends at school and is doing great in her classes and has been the bestest big sister a sweet baby could ask for.

Battin' down the Hatches!

The Kid Can Crawl!! Holy crap we are in trouble and a whirlwind of trying to vacuum up cat hair and dog toy fuzz. Avery El has developed a new trick and has mastered the crawl, or I guess it's only the 5 step crawl, but still. So far she has only tried to go after the dog and dirty shoes to put in her mouth, but I'm sure my wallet is next!

Hot Swing, Summer in the City

Jeez Louise, August really?!? We've been busy so far this summer. Zoie was with us all of July and her days (and ours really) were filled with day camp, soccer, and just one sunburn (and on a cloudy day no less). It really was a hoot and we miss not having her around asking questions and doing the dishes. She is getting so dang grown up! She is an awesome kid, and she's funny, which seems so important in my book. Avery just loves her and lights up when ever she sees her and since Zoie has gone back to her mom's, Avery tried to point at her picture and smile.

We've learned a lot so far this summer....

Avery hates the crowds at the cheesefest, even though she was strapped into the baby bjorn, Avery hates the Seattle wading pools...they aren't nearly warm enough,

The free "plays in the Park" are still filled with annoying drama major types, and not worth even a 5 minute stop

Nora can successfully make the "best chocolate chip cookies in the universe recipe" from the NY times...and she can eat most of the batch in less then 5 sittings.

Puppy Tennis is awesome, the dog can run and run and run without a leash, but the broad is still fenced in!

Avery loves the baby swings at the park...but granny thinks she goes to high.

Kitties can grieve.

On a sad note, our fat fluffy Seamus died in July. We don't know what happened but our neighbors found him on their front steps. He had been watching the Miss. Universe pageant with Zoie and I the night before but the next day he was gone. It was the first pet that Zoie has lost, and it was the first pet that I had lost after having Zoie and Avery around, so it was a wacky thing to cry and be sad but then quickly try to pull it together because Zoie was so upset, I guess that's part of the whole parenting thing huh? But we miss him around here, my 20 pound monstrosity of fur and love and really loud purrs. He knew his name and he pretended to play fetch and he was brave enough to put Maizey in her place, even though she had 60lbs on him. He was a good cat, and hell I hardly like cats. Ben says I can't replace animals...but I'm trying to wear him down even though I know one crazy Maizey and one tranny cat is more then enough.

Happy "sit on stanger's lawns and watch stuff explode day" plus 4

Oh yes, the fourth of July, once a dreaded and feared day that left little redheaded bi speckled Nora tear stained and shaken, now a day that she gets to play "don't you dare light that in your hand!" and "eccckkk! is the neighbor's roof smoking from our illegal flying explody things?"

Despite my fun games we had good ole American fun, ie: we drove around trying to avoid crowds but still get the best view of the fireworks which lead us to sit on a stranger's lawn and laugh at their jokes and farts (really, apparently they served really good beans about 3 hours prior to our arrival). In case you were wondering, the 4th of July-ivars fireworks, not so great, WaMu 4th, how-did-they-do-that good. We did a case study since we could see both shows. So fireworks are supposed to be illegal in Seattle, but it sounded like bombs over baghdad in our neighborhood and the po po's frown on you calling in your neighbors, so we just watched and listened for screams or flying fingers.

and good news! The Zoo is open on the fourth and not very crowded, but we discovered that anyone that has to work on the fourth tends to be bitter and grumpy, and I don't blame them...