We stayed in Alki Beach, which is just a short ferry ride from downtown Seattle. It was the perfect place to stay with Tate since we were able to break up our sightseeing with plenty of trips to the beach to throw stones into the water and to the local park.
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| Brad and Tate throwing stones at Alki Beach. |
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| I made Brad walk something like a mile uphill to Kerry Park pushing the stroller, but the view was worth it. |
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| Tate does Tai Chi (?) in Kerry Park. |
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| Why you need to give toddlers a break from sightseeing. Sorry, honey. We learned our lesson. |
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| Tate with cousins Madi and Tondi at the cider mill. |
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| Tate with Grandma and Papa. |
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| Tate finally got to meet his Great Aunt Ilene... |
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| and Great Uncle Dennis. He put his head on Dennis' shoulder right away, so he either really liked him or just really appreciates quality cashmere. |
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| A dragon, Elmo, and a mermaid at the pumpkin patch. |
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| I think Grandma was the only non-grouchy participant in this photo. |
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| More cousins and Aunt Amy. Can you tell she and Brad are twins? |
Other than that Tate started swimming and soccer through the park district. He also has started making some progress with his speech delay. A few of the things they noted in his initial speech evaluation when he was two were failure to use two-word phrases, make animal noises, and refer to himself by name. He definitely does all three now. Some of his cuter phrases are "heh me!" (help me) and "shoo ball" (shoot the ball). He also likes to talk about everyone being "sheepy" (sleepy). He'll say "Mum sheepy, da sheepy, tay sheepy" and we all have to lie down together on the bed or on whatever random pile of pillows ("peh!") and blankets he has thrown on the floor. I really like this game, since I am almost always sheepy these days. Oh, and he knows that letters are somehow part of something called ABC's. Whenever he sees words he says "akey, ahshee," which is his word for a,b,c,d. He has also noticed that the ABC's and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star have the same melody, so he'll often combine the two and sing "Akey, ashee d, d,d, (blah, blah blah blah blah) you are."
He now makes animal noises like crazy (seriously, who know animal noises were some sort of important milestone? When the speech therapist first told me I was like, um, maybe we just don't make animal noises around the house on a regular basis?). And I love it that he thinks all birds quack. He made a quacking noise at Papa's bald eagle statue and at pigeons on the street.
We also took a kids' cooking class today. I'd love to say I signed us up for him, but it was mostly because the class was making pumpkin ravioli and I love pumpkin ravioli. It was really cool to see how much he could do, but also chaotic since he had an attention span of about 20 seconds for each activity. It would have been better if all of the other kids weren't seemingly glued to their seats while mine kept trying to run away, but it was still fun. He got to chop garlic, grate cheese, pick sage from the garden and wash and cut it with a scissors, and mash the pumpkin.
I am sure there is a lot more I'm forgetting. Time is moving too fast and I should update more, but between the part of my keyboard that I spilled the sippy cup on and the letters Tate has ripped off it's pretty rough going when I can't borrow Brad's computer.
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| How to rock a bikini when you are officially middle-aged: a) dim lighting, b) hide the scary parts under water, and c) distract everyone from your other flaws by sporting an awesome farmer's tan. |
