The other night Livia was crying in her crib shortly after we put her to bed. Andy went in to see what was wrong.

Andy: What's wrong, Livia?

Livia: ...silence...

Andy: Livia, do you need something?

Livia: ....silence...

Andy: Livia, if something is wrong you have to use words to tell me so I can help you.

Livia: Meow!

Andy: Meow? Are you a kitty?

Livia: Meow! (While handing him her blanket to indicate she wanted him to cover her with it)

Andy: (covers her up) Are you okay now?

Livia: Meow.

(Help- We finally upgraded our operating system to Lion and now I can't figure out how to upload pictures. Anyone have any ideas???)

This moment after dinner tonight so perfectly exemplifies my kids' personalities...

Landon asked to play with his USA map puzzle. We point to a blank space in the puzzle, and he tells us what state goes there; then he finds the piece and puts it in. 
He loves this game.

Livia, meanwhile, spent the evening repeatedly jumping off the coffee table, randomly shouting out state names.

Can't wait to see what little brother/sister will be like. 

(it's blurry because I took it with my phone. This big pregnant mama couldn't make herself get up out of our pregnant-lady-friendly IKEA chair to get the real camera)

Seattle

We just got home from a week long trip to Seattle. I guess we just needed a break from all this 70 degree weather. I mean, it just doesn't feel right to wear flip-flops every day of the year, you know?
Actually we went to visit Andy's wonderful aunt and it seems we were quite lucky with our timing. We just missed the huge snow storm that shut down the city, and the airport, by a few days. When we arrived his aunt was still without power so she very generously put us up in a swanky hotel in downtown Seattle, and we got to remember what a real city is like for a night. The next morning we walked to the Science Center so the kids could explore and play before heading back to Aunt Ann's house which finally had power again after 3 days.

Checking out the sea anemones with Andy's cousin, Christy. When we first got to the museum Landon sought out her hand, then turned to me and said, "Mommy, would you please go over there now (pointing to the opposite end of the play area).  I just need to be with Christy. "

Livia barely stayed in one place long enough for me to snap a picture, but the blocks kept her still just long enough for this one

We planned a hike for Sunday but the constant Seattle rain made that a bust so we settled for baking cookies with cousins instead.

The kids were very hands on with this baking endeavor, so we weren't exactly sure how the cookies would turn out with all the little extras from Livia's enthusiasm and not quite enoughs from Landon's spills. Turns out Nestle Tollhouse cookies are even yummier when made with 1 1/2 eggs rather than 2. 

Play time with Ann while cookies bake

 Monday the sun made a rare appearance and we got in our hike around Tradition Lake after all. Livia insisted on hugging every tree within reach of the trail, and Landon got a kick out of finding the numbered posts that went along with the map of "things to notice".

Tree hugger

A rare smile from my little man. He was very anti-picture on this trip. 

 I don't remember the order of the rest of the days (traveling is lots of fun but also very exhausting at this point in my life) but here are some of the other highlights from the trip:

Playing with starfish at the aquarium

Landon trying not to get his picture taken

Watching the seals play in the harbor

Right after this picture was taken a news crew with camera walked up and tried to interview Andy and me about "nagging in our marriage". For those who know me well, I'm sure you can imagine how successful they were at getting me to talk on camera. 

Landon helping Ann buy some elephant garlic at the market to go with the fresh scallops we bought there for dinner. So good.

Some fun things I'm disappointed I didn't get on camera:

We had a really scrumptious crepe lunch at Pike's Place Market. I really didn't know crepes filled with tomatoes, basil, and cheese could be so delicious. 

We also paid a visit to a salon while Aunt Sue watched the kids. Andy lost a bet and had to get his back waxed. While we waited, Ann treated me to a manicure and pedicure. It was luxurious. One of these days Andy will learn to stop making bets with me.
When we got home Aunt Sue had helped the kids turn the entire living room into a giant fort. It was pretty awesome and something I'll never be able to live up to back home.

We experienced our first frozen yogurt bar. I'm not sold, but the kids had fun picking out their own toppings even though all Landon wanted were green M&M's.

It was a great time for all. Now we're back in Florida and our flip-flops trying to prepare for baby.
9 weeks to go...

This is not a post about Christmas

Although ours was magical and merry and pleasantly white, and maybe I'll blog about it someday. 


But today...

I was vacuuming a few hours ago (trying to ease back into real life responsibilities before Andy goes back to work tomorrow) when Livia decided to explore our outlets by trying to unplug the vacuum cord. After being told no, she thought for a minute, then figured she'd probably be better off using her tongue to experience the physical attributes of the plug anyway. 

She started to lick it. 

And just so we're clear, by "it" I mean the exposed metal prong part of the plug that she had just a minute ago loosened from the outlet and which was still actively conducting electricity to my running vacuum. Awesome. 

The outlet of discussion is behind her

Landon was in the background singing and "jumping" to Roger Whittaker's Twelve Days of Christmas, which was playing on repeat. Not that this is relevant. Just thought it might add another dimension to your visualization. I think I'm going to have to come up with some way to make that song go away until next December. Maybe I'll blame its sudden disappearance from our iTunes library on The Elf. 

I think my kid is maybe a little weird

It's been apparent to Andy and me for a while now that Landon is smarter than either of us, but lately I'm beginnig to feel like he totally out-classes us all together. He's never shown a huge interest in music; he hates it when we sing along to songs on the radio and usually asks us to "make it quieter" when we play music at home. Turns out, maybe we just haven't been tuning in to his style of music...

A few days ago we were playing on sesamestreet.org and we found a C is for Cookie video segment that he recognized from his Sesame Street DVD. He was really excited and wanted to play it repeatedly so he could "jump" to it (his idea of dancing), and I was really excited because it entertained both of them while I finished making dinner. After a while he started messing around on the page and discovered there are several versions of C is for Cookie. He soon realized that his favorite version is the one by (apparently) famous opera singer, Marilyn Horne. He is obsessed. He'll come up to me throughout the day and tell me he needs to jump to C is for Cookie. "The one she sings, Mommy." 

I thought this was a little quirky, but it makes him happy, so whatever. 

Well, today we were listening to Christmas music on Pandora while eating lunch and a very operatic version of Twelve Days of Christmas came on. He declared a few times that "this is my favorite Christmas song!" which was news to me because for the last week he's been all about Jingle Bells. Then, suddenly, he insisted he was finished with his lunch. Now it's very uncharacteristic of him to say he's finished with lunch while there is still food on his plate, but I thought maybe he just wasn't into his food today. Unfortunately, I didn't get to him before the song ended. As soon as it stopped playing He Melted Down. It was crazy. He started sobbing and telling me, in the most heart-broken voice imaginable, "Mommy, I need to jump to that song!" 

I found a punk version in our itunes, but he just looked at me disgustedly and repeated, "No! I need to jump to that song."

So apparently...

Our little opera fanatic

Halloween

Landon wanted to be Oscar the Grouch

So Livia got to be Abby Cadabby
(We learned that none of the retirees in our neighborhood have the slightest clue who Abby is but all thought she was such a cute butterfly/fairy/ballerina...)

Our themed pumpkins that took entirely too long to carve

It took bribery to get Landon to stand this close to her. He started out on the wall across the room.

A girl on a mission

Trying to break into some candy at the trick-or-treat trail at our zoo

Bubble fun at the zoo

Squadron Halloween party... the bigger kids were a bit perturbed by Livia's dedication to climbing the corn hole game they were trying to play

With her pumpkin

Checking out his fellow grouch

I think this is Livia's answer to the removal of the rocking chair from her zone of play following the "rocking chair on the kitchen table" incident...