March 2018

March started off gorgeous! It was actually warm and dry enough to let Allison play outside on the YMCA playground. She was thrilled. She often runs to it, and I have to drag her away kicking and screaming since it's cold and soaking wet.

Here's sweet Allison naming all the wallpaper animals at Cascade Children's Therapy and reading with her new babysitter while Oscar and I went out for my birthday. We had delicious teriyaki for lunch, saw the Greatest Showman, and had fondue and games with friends that evening.

I signed both kids up for a session of swim lessons during the first 4 Saturdays of March.

Allison's lessons have to be done with a parent, which was supposed to be me. I ended up not being able to swim for the last two Saturdays, though, so Oscar did half of them with her. They have you use toys to motivate the kids to use their arms and reach for them. Allison would throw big fits when we took the toy away from her, so we had to let her hang onto one at all times.

I bumped Ty up to the next level even though he technically never passed the first. He's done so much swimming since then that I figured he'd be fine, and he was. Some kids were more advanced than him while some weren't as far along, so I figure he was just right. His listening and obedience skills still need some work, but they have improved a LOT since he last took lessons.

My sweet little church spinner. She likes this more than Tyler ever did. 

We went to Tyler's schoolmate's birthday party and bought him a gift online. After I wrapped it up, I asked Tyler to make him a card. This is what I got. He chose the mango and all, and even added an Easter egg of jelly beans to it after I snapped this photo.

The party was at a bowling alley. It was the kids' first time bowling.

I managed to get a picture of Allison waving bye bye to the ball 

 Adorable kids lifting heavy bowling balls. Tyler wanted daddy's 15 pound ball, and even Allison got a handle on the 8 pounder.

She lost interest in bowling, though, once she saw the arcade. She was initially happy without needing to spend any money, and then she found Pumba. Too bad I only had 2 quarters. 

Here are Oscar and the kids watching the garbage trucks on my birthday.

It was mostly a normal day with the addition of a delicious dinner and dessert made by Oscar and Tyler.

The dessert was so hot it started melting the bottom of the candles. We had to remove about half the marshmallows to make sure we didn't eat any wax.

Cute kiddos! Allison just walked into the bathtub one day and stomped around in the wet puddles. Good thing it was the morning and I was already planning on taking those pajamas off.

Sweet Allison singing hymns in church and Silly Tyler in one of his building creations.

Our 2nd Sunday of the month was gorgeous, so we took the kids to Kasch park after choir praactice. Tyler was thrilled to see his classmate there. It was our first time at the park, but his friend lives close and visits all the time.

Someone brought a bubble wand, which Allison loved. Google made a panorama with two Allisons out of these two side pics.

At first Tyler took his shoes off because his friend was barefoot, but quickly realized climbing without shoes was not very pleasant.

Later that week we had another gorgeous day and checked out Garfield Park downtown near the Everett YMCA. Ty had fun making a new friend on the teeter totter and learning some new climbing skills.

 Allison could have happily spent the whole time in the swing

I had to coax her into playing anywhere else, but once she was out moving around she had plenty of fun, particularly on the shaky bridge. 

 Spinning boy!

 I brought a bubble wand this time. Google made another panorama of the cuteness, this time with 5 Allisons.

Later that week we checked out another new park - Nickel Creek park. It has no parking lot and seems more like a neighborhood park than a public park. Thankfully it was pretty empty so I could park in one of the two parking spots.

Tyler thought he was hilarious walking down the slide.

I'd never seen her Allison doing balance steps like this. She got the hang of it pretty quickly.

This was Allison's first time in a swing that wasn't a baby swing. I was happy she could maintain her balance without getting hurt. She jumped off twice while I was gently pushing her, but she stayed safe and didn't fall.

A few days later we had another super sunny day so Allison and I went to North Creek park while Ty was at therapy. She threw a huge fit when it was time to leave to pick him up.

Sweet kiddos tuckered out at bedtime from all that fun in the sun.

St Patricks Day! Here's me doing Aqua Zumba in a leprecaun hat and Tyler wearing green while holding his Shamrock picture.

The kids had fun later at the obstacle course down at the Everett YMCA.

Moving through the balls and tires.

 Oscar was so impressed by how well Tyler climbed the rock walls that he decided to build one in our yard.

Ty zipped around the course several times while Allison was more into pushing the ball to mommy.

Rope swing!

Zonked in the car on the way home! She'd missed her nap that day, and slept from 5:00pm-7:15pm. I was surprised that it didn't ruin her bedtime sleep. She was sleepy again around 9 and slept the rest of the night normally.

This is Allison's lullaby book on my bed. She is obsessed with it. Her first one broke, so I got her another one because she loves it so much (they don't make them anymore, but luckily it was only $6 for a used one in good condition).

The joy this girl gets just from throwing a ball!

I had to take pictures to document Allison actually munching on broccoli. Hooray! She may actually eat her veggies one day!

Oscar bought a rope to go with his future backyard climbing wall. The kids had fun just running around holding onto it and spinning around with it.

Allison did her first projects towards the end of March (with help from mommy). I used to do paperwork projects with Tyler all the time, but he's losing interest and now prefers to do his own thing. I still have a bunch printed off, so I figured I might as well get Allison started.

The other two pictures are my sweet girl in the bath and running around dancing after my Refit class on Tuesdays.

Fun at Paine Field park!

 Cute kiddos!

Tyler is always playing in the laundry baskets these days. I'd give him these and buy more but he'd just want to goof around in the new ones too.

Silly Tyler eating his Ramen in the firedog hat he'd made at school.

One day in the YMCA lobby, an older lady saw Allison and said "oh are you coming up to say Hi to Ed?" So Allison went right up to her husband and said  "hi Ed!" My girl is not shy!

Tyler freaked me out one day while I was putting Allison down for nap. He just decided to climb up a chair to open the baby gate, put on his coat, go downstairs and open the garage door, then walk across the road to ask the neighbor kid if he could come over and play. I tried to explain to him that it's not safe to leave the house without me or at least without me knowing he was going. The severity of it was clearly lost on him. It worries me that he'll do that again, but I'm also glad to know that he knows how to get out of the house in case there's an emergency.

This is what happens when Tyler uses quiet time effectively. He spent an hour and 45 minutes quietly working on these structures. Let's keep this up!

And at the end of the month Oscar got the rock climbing wall up. He says "it was fun to build and now we can't get her to stop climbing. $32 for 22 climbing holds on Amazon and another $30 for the wood from home Depot. Totally worth it!"

Oscar was spotting her, but she was doing the bulk of the work and clearly pulling herself up. Usually she ignores the rock climbing holds at the playground, but she really took to this.

Oscar had to climb up behind her when she got too high. When it was Tyler's turn for spotting, she kept trying to climb on her own. I was up on the balcony taking pictures.

Quotes from Oscar

"This morning I gave Tyler a pancake on this plate. He drew on it last night and I thought he would like seeing a happy face. NOT TRUE. when he was half done with his pancake he had a meltdown, crying that he didn't want to eat food off "Mr. Plate." Stacy and I couldn't keep ourselves from laughing!"

And for the other project with the cherry tomatoes 

Oscar: "Tyler, what is this?"

Tyler: "It's an eye-see-er. For boys, not for girls."

Phew! I was a bit worried.

 And to finish off the month Tyler got to meet Woodsy the owl at school, learn about environment conservation, and make his own edible campfire out of pretzels, red hots, coconut and marshmallows.