And that was January of 2012! So much for my plan of writing more, keeping up and instilling a better sense of calm around these parts! We did a quick trip to the Bay Area to see Jim and Judy and I have more to say about that (and pictures, though, seriously, could someone help me with my focus? So. Many. Blurry. Pictures.).
For now though, I’ll leave you with a picture of a Dragon Dance that we just happened to get a perfect view of for lunch after trekking around way too crowded the International District. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I need to go no further than 7 Stars Pepper.
The kids loved the fireworks and dancing and were mesmerized for most of our meal. A great (and peaceful) lunch!

Dragons

Dragons and Fireworks

Jonah has started calling Corbin “Corb” but since he’s still not great at his “r” sounds it comes out like “cobe.” It’s pretty cute. I occasionally call him “CJ”, at least enough that he does actually respond.

I’m not sure if either of the kids will grow up with nicknames except for the pet names I personally call them. I call Jonah “jojo” and have since he was a baby. He doesn’t seem to mind. Yet. My dad calls him “JJ” and after the last time we visited him Jonah asked why. I guess he hadn’t put two and two together about his first and middle name beginning with “J” but it all clicked when he remembered us talking about how Corbin is called “CJ” sometimes because his names begin with “C” and “J.” What a fun conversation, seeing him put the pieces together!

Seattle has basically shut down in the midst of a few inches of snow so we’ve had some forced at-home time, with no school, band, meetings, etc. The kids seem fine with the “vacation” schedule though and have enjoyed some snow time and lots of extra art projects at home.
We are supposed to head out for a quick trip to the Bay area on Saturday though so I hope the snow is gone by then!

I can’t ever get pictures of them next to each other without them wrestling so this is a flash moment in time.

One of our favorite pastimes. Waiting for the garbage or recycling truck.

The kids enjoy some snuggles with dad before he had to go back to work this week.

I think Jonah’s expression just about sums it up for us!

Happy Holidays to you and yours!

Hello all. Anyone out there still pay attention to this blog? I’m sorry we haven’t updated as often as we should. I feel like a small part of it stems from wanting to chronicle our major milestones, the ones that take a few more words/time/downloading of pictures, but not really having the time. And then we don’t move forward. And then there’s annoying silence.

I’m hoping we can get better since I’d like to look back on this record to fill in the gaps about what our life was like with two little tykes!

All that is to say, we took a little trip at the beginning of Fall and have made no mention of it here! We traveled to Germany for Joe and Andrea’s wedding and then made it to Iceland for a few days before our return home. Overall, Jonah and Corbin did great traveling and we had a fabulous time. Of course, traveling with kids requires an entirely different methodology than when we were just the two of us. We’ve also been to Mainz (where Joe and Andrea live) before so our time there didn’t seem as much like touring around. We also stayed in a house with some of Joe’s other friends that have a child so our days when not involved with wedding related activities were basically spent walking around, going to parks and stopping in at beer halls, which are incredibly kid friendly in Germany. The weather was awesome the whole time we were in Germany, a sunny 70 degrees every day. Parks there were also interesting. So many play structures that you would not see in the States. Think teeter totters, humongous slides and other lawsuit inducing equipment.

Awesome lunch boxes (complete with activities and cool colored pencils) from Iceland Air

Bridge over the Rhein. We walked this route multiple times a day.

At the park: Jonah and our new friend Powell

Corbin did a lot of stroller napping

Jonah up high

Blurs (Mark and Jonah) going down the huge slide.

Beer hall: Jonah even got a mug of apple juice (and an awesome coloring book).

The wedding was beautiful and we were so happy for the opportunity to attend. Schloss Freudenberg, where the ceremony was held, is an awesome old castle/mansion turned art instillation and I’d love to go back just for more browsing at all of the projects they have going. I should have Mark insert his take on the Schloss here but I will say that I wish we’d gotten more pictures of the “stuff” around and that the kids had been a little older to take part.

The Schloss

Exchange of rings

Balancing circle

Happy Couple, with Andrea's family

Clement on the driftwood playground, an huge structure for kids

Nepali Swing

Hanging rock instillation: the tour guide (after the ceremony) had a little trouble getting volunteers to shimmy under this large rock hanging from a 20 foot structure.

Joe and Mark

We sent balloons free with messages of things we'd give the couple if the message was found and returned to them (each was a postcard with their address. The received ours back shortly after we returned from our trip!).

Just about the time we were getting adjusted to the time zone we were off to Iceland. After we landed and were waiting for the bus Jonah said that he was really cold. I told him to put up his hood and then he responded by telling me his eyes were cold. That pretty much set the tone for our Iceland adventure – beautiful, fun, but COLD! Mark found us a cool apartment near the Hallgrimskirkja Church, right up the hill from the down town core (and complete with an awesome little coffee shop around the corner. Icelanders take their coffee seriously. Our kind of people). While in Iceland we acted much more like tourists and walked everywhere in Reykjavik, went to an art museum, went swimming at one of the (many) neighborhood hot springs pools and even rented a car to drive around part of the countryside. It’s a place unlike any I’ve ever seen and I’m already scheming on how I can get back during a warmer time of year.

Here’s a summary of pictures.

Hanging in with the Leif Ericksun statue, in front of Hallgrimskirkja.

Inside Hallgrimskirkja we got to hear some really lovely organ music as someone practiced.

View from Hallgrimskirkja Tower - looking towards downtown Reykjavik.

Icelandic Fish and Chips. By far the best fish and chips I've ever eaten.

Pingvellir, the site of the first settled area of Iceland (I could be getting that bit of history wrong).

Countryside.

Waterfall above Gullfoss. At this point Corbin was getting so cold that he would cry any time we would take him out of the car. I think I shed a few tears myself.

corbin points at a troll whilst holding his troll (a cheap souvenir mark let him have because he thought it was funny that he wanted it ((it's rather ugly)) but is still Corbin's prized possession and we are now fearful that it is slowly falling apart).

I’ve been meaning to jot some things down about the kids since time has been passing by so quickly without my putting very many records of our lives here. Today I’m starting with Corbin.

At 22 months, Corbin is doing so many new things so fast it really is hard to keep up. At about 17 months we were pretty concerned about his lack of speech. Just shy of the 18 month deadline, though, he really took off and now tries to say most things. I think he figured out that if he tries to communicate, he gets more of what he wants! He’s definitely still in the stage where most outsiders can’t understand what he’s saying but it has been so nice for us to feel like we are communicating with him that the rest of the world can wait. He loves to walk around the house yelling, “Joe-ma!” until Jonah answers him or “Gama!” until she comes up the stairs. Some of his other favorite words are “wa-wa” for water, “ca-whoa” for color, “hungy” for hungry and “TOLL!!” for his troll doll. It’s been an interesting process to see – lately he’s been switching around consonants in words, as if experimenting on whether they sound better and that’s something I don’t remember Jonah doing. I need to get how he says no and yeah on video because in his little voice they are both so cute!

Corbin loves loves loves trains right now. He’s getting very good at putting together tracks and can sit and build for a long time on his own. In fact, when Jonah’s not around it seems like all he wants to do is play with toys by himself. I assume it has to do with having them all to himself and no one else telling him how to play or taking things away from him, which happens all too often when big brother is around. Some of Corbin’s favorite books are “Little Blue Truck” and “Yummy Yucky”, though he will also sit and look at a Richard Scary book for a long time, pointing out all the different pictures, especially if there are trucks and trains. In terms of toys, aside from the trains, he loves stacking things in bags and bins, taking them from one place to another and he also loves my old baby doll. He likes to try and change her clothes and diaper, which is how she ends up sitting around naked a lot.

Although he wasn’t a good sleeper for the first 11 months of his life, Corbin is now a better napper than Jonah has ever been. Not that we’ve had a lot of difficulties (knock on every wood surface in the house!) but Jonah has always had periods of struggle with nap-taking (great once he’s asleep, but the getting settled down and actually falling asleep has had its ups and downs). Corbin, on the other hand, wants to take naps. He goes in his room willingly, refuses to come out when Jonah begs him to play for another minute, we read a book, I sing him a song of his choosing and he goes right to sleep when I put him down. I think I can count on one hand the amount of times he’s skipped a nap in the past year. That’s amazing! Of course now that I’ve written all of that down I’m sure he will change his tune! Speaking of tunes, just like Jonah, Corbin loves music. He really likes playing the little instruments we have around and he and Jonah have little marching parties. Eating-wise, he is doing much better these days but still hates and refuses vegetables unless I hide them in things. We have a lot of smoothies around here (just look past that spinach or carrot or squash, it tastes good. really!).

When Corbin is mad he stays mad. I won’t lie, it’s been a bit of a struggle to help him understand that life is about occasionally dealing with disappointments along with all of the good stuff! (Go ahead and ask me sometime about an incident at Safeway when he couldn’t have cookies and screamed while at least 3 employees tried to distract and console him. It wasn’t one of our finer moments.)  When something doesn’t go his way he launches directly past sad and goes to mad. Distraction works sometimes but I’ve also found that at times just waiting it out is what has to happen. Now that he’s talking it is a little easier to get him to talk through what’s going on so I’m hoping as he gets older it will get easier for all of us. On the other hand, he’s the sweetest most cuddly kid ever. He gives kisses and hugs to just about anyone once he knows them. He picked up, “thank you” without me consciously teaching it to him and he uses it really often. Being the one person in our family who deals the least well with strangers and crowds, there are times when he’s clingy and shy but I think he’s getting faster at warming up.

He’s getting to be a boy so fast, I don’t even know where the time has gone. But, when he lets me hold him like an infant as I sing to him before bed, he remains my little baby bear, my snuggle bug, my littlest, sweetest baby boy.

Heavy load for a little boy.

blue eyed boy