The Latest on the Lowes

We started this blog to share the transformation of our 1926 fixer...but with time and the addition of kids it has become my way of documenting two childhoods...the triumphs, moments of hilarity, lessons learned and everything in between.

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Summer is finally here!

Ah, Seattle, how you love to tease us with one nice weekend around the 4th of July, then a few more nice days sprinkled into load o' crap until August.  But at least you made up for it with what is now true summer.  Things are still ridiculously busy thanks to a certain Portland footwear company, but we've still managed to have some fun.  Quincy and Nolan came up at the end of last month for cousin time - complete with the zoo, rock climbing, King Tut and sushi, and this month was the annual block party with requisite bounce house and a new addition - cotton candy!  Remind me to never, ever rent one of those things again.  Nothing says stress like trying to spin cotton candy around a flimsy paper cone while 17 small people crowd around yelling "I WANT ONE!!!!" while their parents laugh at the sidelines.

This month Matteo has really upped the ante with development.  He seems determined to figure out how the world around him works - everything he picks up he immediately shakes to see what it does/if it makes a sound.  To foster this I introduced him to Lily's instrument drawer.  After just one time he remembered and now like to go back there to pick things out.  He'll strut around the room with a tambourine, then clapper, then chill with a drum, always delighted by the next sound discovery.   He also has caught onto routines and loves to take part.  When I'm straightening, he puts his blocks away with me.  When I come to pick him up, he grabs his jacket and wraps his arms around my legs.  When Lily leaves her bike helmet out, he brings it to her room and hangs it on the handle bars.  I'm not sure if he is mimicking us or if he's inherited my Type-A-ness, but either way, I'm impressed.  Except when he rolls in the dog bed and covers himself with hair before school.  That, less impressed with.

Lily's new trick is Eenie Meenie Minee Moe...but with a twist.  She's learned the song and gets the picking process, but very clearly skews the results for whichever one she truly wants to win.  The funny part is that she swears she simply doesn't know what to choose...but towards the end of the song it's quite apparent her mind is made up and Moe doesn't stand a chance.

Matteo continues to be a *very* early riser, but this month he has at least rewarded the parent who gets up first with extreme cuteness.  One day he covered his eyes with his binkies while giggling away his diaper change, and one morning he took his bottle from Chris, downed it, handed it back, put his hands behind his head, smiled and went back to sleep, still in Chris' lap.

Now that Matteo is getting older, Lily is getting more helpful with less attitude.  The other morning I was trying to get a binky that had fallen behind Matteo's crib when she squirmed in and got it without being asked.  I said "thank you, that was very helpful - I'm too big to get it" to which she replied "that's why you have a small kid!" Although she sometimes thinks she's big...like when I said it was too close to bedtime to get her bike out and she began to wail "but Georgia is riding her bike and she is only three-and-a-half and I am five-and-three-quarters!!" 


But she's more than helpful - she's also still 100% filter-free, God bless her.  She summoned me to the bathroom a few days ago to share this: "Look!  My poo is bright green.  Maybe it's Leprechaun poo.  That's awkward."  No, she doesn't know what awkward means, but boy-oh-boy does she LOVE to use it.

And speaking of awkward, I jotted down some of her other commentary, this time about the Olympics.  I honestly don't remember what event or ceremony we were watching, but it must have been good to inspire these:  "whoa that is awesome!" "that looks like a dead seal" "that almost landed in her 'pajina'."  Yep, awkward.