Locking it up

The rest of the long weekend with Uncle B and Aunt J has flown by. We had a very nice time just visiting, though there was a bit of tourism as well; J had researched a few local tasty food establishments with high Zagat scores. While our favorite local formal restaurant was closed for the long weekend, I did take them into the city one evening for a yummy thali dinner. And a highly rated sandwich shop that I wasn't actually familiar with was our destination today. It's near the fabulous Golden Gardens and our wedding venue (has it really already been 10 years in just a month and a half?!), as well as the Ballard Locks, which I'd somehow never been to. Meh had a previous engagement, but O and I took them down to the locks, which were highly popular all around; a number of large boats were passing through as we arrived, and we watched the (completely empty at this time of year but for one stubborn minnow) fish ladder as well. Afterwards it was on to Paseo for sandwiches -- and for a non-descript shack with only picnic table seating, it was very tasty indeed! O was pleased to be able to have his lunch while watching cars and trucks drive by, and all of us had a very nice final day. And I happened to glance across the street, and realized we were indeed directly across from the venue where we got married. How did we miss this joint as part of the scouting?!

Uncle B and Aunt J are headed onward this evening to an Alaskan adventure - hope they have a fabulous time!

Bulls in a Glass Shop

A busy solo week gave way to a full house for the weekend; Meh returned from her trip (she had a wonderful time catching up with friends in both Houston and Fort Worth; you can read a brief reference on friends M & K's blog), and a mere 20 minutes later, Uncle B and Aunt J arrived from the east coast! They were part of the visual schedule I'd pinned to the refrigerator for Meh's trip to Texas, with two separate planes occupying the Saturday calendar box. The schedules worked out quite nicely; Meh's flight was late, theirs was early, and I was able to collect everyone in under thirty minutes. And the next morning, the boys were super happy to see both mommy back at home and Uncle B and Aunt J!
We had a very busy but fun weekend with everyone back; mommy was right back into the swing of things with a performance by her choir at the annual Northwest Folklife Festival the day after she got back. We all piled into the car and tromped down to the Seattle Center, where Meh was off for sound checks while we investigated the mob scene that is the festival. O enjoyed an elephant ear, fed to him piece by piece by Uncle B while he was up on my shoulders, while Z stuck with his standard fruit leather and crackers; both boys were pleased to later discover that the chocolate mommy had promised to bring back for them (an authentic Texas-purchased bag of M&Ms) had made it into our backpack.

We had a little bit of time to kill before the actual concert, so Uncle B and Aunt J suggested that we peek in at the very cool Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum. The boys were a little wild (and about to get a nice sugar rush from aforementioned snack), and I was kind of trying to hang back with, but before I knew it, we had tickets (thank you Uncle B and Aunt J!) and were on our way into the boys' very first museum. O was kind of falling apart initially, but eventually got very interested in the glass, asking why there was a boat full of glass and talking about all of the pretty colors and which ones I liked best. Of course for me the whole experience was, um, heightened by the fact that these amazing and amazingly fragile pieces were like right there in front of you, with no fence or gate or anything. The boys in general did a very good job of keeping respectful distance -- right up until I thought we'd made it through to the last room, a stunning glass greenhouse leading into the actual outdoor gardens. O bolted -- and I mean bolted (Aunt J caught the accompanying shot) -- across the open area, right up to a rope fence in front of the last exhibit, then ducked under it and immediately turned around and looked at me for a response. *sigh* At least he knew he'd been naughty.

It was concert time! This is the time when in past years I've generally ended up hanging out outside of the actual venue with one or both kids being unhappy. Not so this time - amazingly, we got into the venue right as her group started singing and both boys had huge smiles on their faces the entire time. When mommy's group was done and filed off the stage, the audience was quiet enough to nearly universally hear and chuckle at O's innocent "Where are they?" Z was concerned to see her exit, but we caught up with her outside immediately afterwards -- a very successful concert for all involved, hooray!

Muted response

Mommy is back tomorrow - hooray! Z continues to recap the countdown to her return fairly frequently ("...and then on Saturday, mommy will be home after we're asleep!"), but both boys and I definitely miss her lots and brief occasional phone calls aren't enough to find out how things are with her and to share the goings on here.

O has always expressed, shall we say, concern with some loud sounds. Many times when I take him into a bathroom, he'll first ask if the toilet/urinal is going to be loud, then (regardless of my answer) he'll put his hands over his ears when he thinks the toilet will flush. This has lately manifest with films as well; while watching Cars the other day, he asked me to "make it quieter" for a scene where there are semi trucks honking at Lightning. I obliged, but he still wanted it even "quieter" -- as in, muted. This afternoon when we *started* the movie, he asked me to make it quieter "for the loud trucks". They're like 25 minutes into the film.

Yesterday, with rain continuing to hinder outdoor plans, O and I met up with friend S and her son L at an indoor playtime at a lovely indoor community center. He'd actually been there before with mommy and kept talking about a large bounce house with a giraffe(?) -- alas, they were down to a little one that fit like one kid at a time (S speculated that one of the kids who plays a bit rougher may have damaged it last time), but he had a wonderful time both with that bounce house, a bunch of playmats, and a little kids roller coaster-y thing that he nicely took turns with other kids on. Then the weather was actually turning nice, so the four of us continued playing outside on swings and a jungle gym for a bit, where O continued to practice his new-found skill of rolling his tongue.

Today at long last O and I followed through on his long-term interest in Seattle's link light rail. Every time we go to the airport, he first starts asking where the train is and then talking about it once we see one approaching or leaving the terminus of the rail line. So it was time to ride this thing and see how it went. Mima joined in for the adventure (we did all of this while Z was at school). Alas, nothing's simple -- the only station that has parking was completely full, so I started driving parallel to the line, looking for street parking at subsequent stations. At the second or third stop, I finally found a pay lot, so we got out and waited for the train. As a bonus, mima and my Orca cards meant we got to ride for free. O was super excited and smiled through station after station. Just before the SoDo stop, the tracks cross a very high bridge... over a dozen or more other link light rail trains at what must be their storage yard -- O was extra pleased to "look at all of those trains!" We alighted at the downtown stop and picked up sandwiches at one of them Seattle food trucks that I hadn't yet explored, a tasty salmon burger for both mima and myself. (O declined to try it or the tasty garlic/parsley fries.) A quick potty stop for O (at the posh Benaroya Hall no less), and we were back on the train heading home to catch up with Z's bus. A nice morning adventure, and finally something to cross off O's young bucket list. Of course when Z heard about this, he was quite interested as well, so we'll have to make another trip of it in the near future!

Random Musings

Getting to spend a good amount of time with O over the past few days, I've continued to be amused with the comments that come out of his mouth. I've tried to capture a few gems and e-mail them to Meh while she's away, but it's difficult to grab all of them! A sampling:

• (at 6 am, sneaking into bed with me): "Mm, the bed smells like mommy kisses."
• (after putting on his shirt): "Well, I look adorable in this!"
• (speaking into a bullhorn and trying to rally Z to throw a plastic ball with him): "All right everyone, it's time for baseball time!"
• (when at the mall we got a cupcake -- which, by the way, he picked out): "Mommy gets me one with swirl."
• "I bit my tongue because the ground looked a little bit brown".

We've had a busy couple of mornings while Z is at school. With the rain still hampering park attempts, we went to his favorite indoor play area yesterday morning -- and proceeded to go back in the afternoon with Z added into the mix.And today O and I went to the mall, where he played for a bit (and ate the aforementioned cupcake). Then we decided to do lunch, and he especially said he wanted to go someplace he'd never been before. I was ecstatic to support this newfound interest in expanding beyond burgers and sushi, but alas, by the time we approached an honest restaurant, he had reverted to strongly wanting Red Robin. Ah well, food exploration was still realized even if accidentally; the milkshake he requested ("with sprinkles") was for the first time served up with a maraschino cherry. He tried it, then made me eat it, then decided he really wanted it after all. The waitress patiently brought two more that ended up untouched on his plate. Still, at least he tried it -- and even briefly pondered mixing up his usual grilled cheese in favor of chicken tenders. We may have an adventurous eater on our hands. Some day.

Parks and Recreation

Meh is off to Texas this morning; I constructed another calendar view for the boys, with this fine image of O and a freeway rest stop buffalo sculpture (from our previous family trip to the Lone Star State) as the indicator of where mommy is, and one airplane today and two on Saturday -- since she'll return alongside Uncle B and Aunt J for a family visit -- hooray! Z is already counting off the days of the week until mommy comes home.

The aim had been to keep our schedule as consistent as possible while Meh was gone, but things immediately got bumpy when we learned that O's nanny had broken her leg - wishing her a very speedy recovery! So I'm taking likely the whole week as vacation and getting some quality O time. We had a fun but exhausting first day today featuring trips to four (!) separate parks. First we went to one of O's favorites and had a lovely time running around, playing, getting pushed on swings and spinning things, and then of course continuing to scare the heck out of daddy by climbing up a 20-foot-high rope net to O's favorite giant slide. Then I rang up friend K, whose daughter A is in childcare with O and was thus similarly having a day at the park. We met up for lunch (OMG, somewhere other than sushi or Red Robin) and then played at another park down by the water -- en route, O discovered the joy of getting to pick up and wave one of the city's many pedestrian-empowering safety-orange flags as we walked through the crosswalk. The sun made an appearance and it was actually warm; the kids decided they wanted to wade into the water, hiked up pants (O) and dress (A) and all. O also discovered some other kids' beach toys and was super excited to be shown how their water pistol worked. As I said on Facebook, Meh went to Texas and O just went Texan.

As we dropped off K and A, they mentioned a fun nearby park that had a castle and other fun toys. Hearing this, O suggested that we head over -- and after another pedestrian-flag-waving street crossing, our third park of the day didn't disappoint, with not only a castle similar to O's favorite park's, but also a wooden fire truck and train. Finally, exhausted, it was time to head home. O didn't make it, conking out as we got about halfway. I didn't want him to sit in a sunny driveway for his doze, so I drove us to a fourth park for the duration of his nap, before we finally got home for supper with Z and a quick call from mommy to let us know she'd gotten in safely. An exhausting but high energy first day for the Selfon boys!

Manly-cure

To distract O while Z had a playdate on Thursday with a friend, Meh offered to paint his nails. Of course he got to choose the colors - and different ones for each foot no less. When I tried to compliment the lovely nail polish on his right toenails and called it 'red', he looked at me and indignantly said "No, daddy, they're pink - and also these [right toenails] are blue." (As mima likes to say, his tone here often seems to imply the unspoken additional two words 'you idiot'.)

Summer de Mayo

Usually it's July 5 that summer starts in the northwest - or at best in June you'll start to get some tantalizingly sunny days during the week and consistently dreary weekends. Oddly this year it's all backwards, and we have our first fabulous weekend in May. It always amazes me how the switch flips and everyone is immediately outside at every possible park, beach, outdoor pedestrianized area, etc.

The boys and I beat the crowds out of the gates by dropping off mommy at work and going immediately to one of their favorite parks, which O has started calling "Singing Edward". It was an epic visit of more than 2.5 hours, with slides, swinging (both regular and a tire one that they both piled onto), a nice little picnic (O picked out a table with a nice view across a large field towards the bike trails; Z commented several times, "It looks like London!"), and more. And then while we were playing, I noticed a fire truck and firehouse ambulance pull into the parking lot sans flashers. We took the boys over to investigate, and sure enough, they were giving tours of the various compartments and of course letting kids climb up into the cab -- both boys were pretty darn ecstatic, and it had been a solidly fun day by 1 pm! Back to the playground for more fun before finally, exhausted, they waved goodbye to the fire truck, ambulance, slides, and swings, to head home for a quiet afternoon. Ah, summer!