Cupcakes

 
 
 

The kids and I made cupcakes. Rebecca enjoys them (Yes, I feed her cake before her first birthday).

Sweet Music

Why should you sing to your child? Because I say so! Check out my newest article at ParentMap: Why you should sing to your baby.

Alex's goals

Alex's future career: "I want to be a missionary nice pirate!"

When asked about possible pets: "I want to have a dinosaur farm. With lots of Tyrannosaurus Rexes!" His favorite dinosaur? "Stegosaurus." (See Halloween.)

Destination: Wallace falls

 
 
 
 
 

The Hike: Wallace Falls

Visible from highway 2, Wallace Falls is a series of waterfalls on the Wallace River that plummet nearly 1000 feet in less than 1 mile of hiking. From the parking lot, the trail has a fairly low grade for the first mile, as it passes under the high tension lines before following the Wallace river up the canyon, and then begins to climb a bit more. It's just over 2 miles one way to the lower falls; another half mile to the middle falls, which are the tallest of the three, at 360 feet, and another half mile to the upper falls.


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Leprechauns

After a leprechaun lesson in kindergarten, Katherine started looking for leprechauns on the way home and collecting gold from them. Our take: at least 100 million gold pieces. We can't share, for fear of flooding the market, but here are some tips from Katherine:

--Leprechauns live in families of at least 10.
--Leprechauns can disappear into the ground. But if they do, they'll leave you at least three bags of gold.
--Don't bother searching far afield; the leprechauns on your street are the most generous. Katherine collected one gold piece from the first leprechaun she saw on the way home from school, and seventy million from the family in the ditch on the corner. "The more closer you are, the more they give you," says Katherine.
--They like living in ditches, in grass, on leaves (they sleep on leaf beds)
--If they're by your home, they'll give you a lot, even if you're sleeping. Always sleep with your hands open, just in case a leprechaun drops by to hand you a gold piece during the night.
--Take kids along. Leprechauns like children, so if kids are having trouble finding them, the leprechauns will don magnifying glasses to make the search easier. Grownups are on their own.
--Use a leprechaun spotting scope, a toilet paper tube painted green and decorated with sparkly star stickers..
--If a leprechaun would give you a thousand gold pieces on a normal day, he'll give you a million today. So start hunting!

Happy St. Patrick's Day.



Katherine also says:
--Leprechauns don't wear coats because they make their own heat, like her and Alex (but not like mommy, who is perpetually cold).

Moose Goose Kemperoos Cake.

 

Chocolate, at that.

Photo Drop

Snow

It's snowing AGAIN! Doesn't the weather know that this is Seattle?

Sick

Alex got up this morning with a mysterious illness. "My tummy hurts," he told me, as he curled up on the couch. I sent him back to bed.

When he woke up again a few hours later, I went to check on him. "Are you still sick?" I asked.

"A little bit sick," he decided.

"What part is sick?"

He thought about this a moment. "My knees."

I think the crisis has passed.

Rinsing

Hard as it is to get Alex in the bathroom, it's even harder to get him out. Some things he's rinsed this weekend:
--A syrupy toy
--His shirt
--A roll of toilet paper

Becca Stood Up!

I'm not sure she knew she was doing it. She was so mad that Alex wouldn't let her suck on his pants that she just stood there and wailed for a moment. Then she realized she wasn't hanging on to anything anymore, and down she went.

Alex's number rhymes

One bun
Two shoes
Three bees
Four doors
Five hives
Six sticks
Seven up in heaven
Eight smells like bait
Nine up in vines
10 in the Ben