Toys

Yesterday, Gideon and I were practicing picking things up and dropping them. By that I mean that he was grabbing toys I held out just to move them to the side and drop them and then I'd cycle them through and give them back. He particularly enjoyed grabbing an empty Toblerone box (they are triangular prisms) because its just small enough he can barely grab it but shaped just so its hard to keep hold of. Anyway, at one point one of the rings he was picking up and dropping didn't fall when he opened his hand because it was around his hand. This didn't bother him, he just grabbed for the next toy anyway, also a ring. This then wrapped around his other hand. Now the rings were blocking his ability to grab and it was funny to watch him try.  Ironic with all the expensive toys in the store, some of his favorites are an empty Toblerone box and the little bags of fruit snacks. He doesn't eat the fruit snacks, of course, he just likes how they crinkle. Go figure!

Canada!

We took a trip on Saturday to Canada. It's a 2.5 hour drive from Seattle to Vancouver and we figured Gideon's such an experienced traveler he wouldn't mind. Well everything was going great until we got to the border and realized as we were in the 40 minute line to cross into Canada that we were missing Trevor's passport. I thought I'd checked to make sure we had both, but apparently I'd missed it. We were way bummed that we had traveled so far (and with an infant) and would have to just go straight back. There was nowhere to turn around until we got to the front of the line with the border control. When we got to the officer he asked to see what documents we had, asked a couple questions and then just let us cross. Now we were in a foreign country WITHOUT a passport. We were a little nervous, but excited we didn't have to just turn back.

We headed first to Burnabee Village Museum. It's a cute little museum where they made a whole village to look like back in the 1920 era. They had costumed tour guides and tons of artifacts from that time.

 Here Gideon is in front of the bridge that crosses into the main village. As you can see its very VERY green, just like Seattle. There are a lot of similarities between Vancouver area and Seattle area.

Here Gideon is ready to hold up this bank. You can see the open vault right behind him!

 Next we went to a crepe place (amazing!) and then to Stanley Park, the biggest park in the world!

Then we finished the day at the Nook, an Italian restaurant where we got to sit right at the chef's table! It was soo good.  We were nervous about coming home because of the missing passport, but the border control just asked us a bunch of questions, rolled his eyes at the Canadian border control and let us in. Gideon is very well traveled now, having been to 6 states and Canada all before 5 months old!

Learning from Tragedy

Sometimes when tragedy strikes, not only do you feel a wave of compassion in your heart, but you start wondering about your own life. Am I ready?  How would I react? I don't mean this post to be gloomy, but rather a way to learn from the events around us so we can live more fully and be more prepared.  This week we've had one thing happen after another that remind me how blessed I am and I wonder how prepared am I if something were to happen to me?

This last Sunday, we found out that one of our neighbors in our ward at church just lost their 9 month old in a tragic accident. There are no words to describe how I would feel if I lost Gideon. He is my whole life. Sometimes I take him and the time I get to spend with him as a stay-at-home mom for granted, but he brings love and joy to our family every day. What would you do if you lost a child, spouse, parent, or sibling?

Sometimes things in our life are both a blessing and a curse. For example, in our apartment here in WA we have a shared laundry facility in the room right next to our apartment. In it there's one washer and one dryer. The dryer looks like it was at one time intended to be coin operated because the coin slot is there and marked, however, you don't have to actually put in any coins to make it go.  Nice!  The other nice thing about it is that it doesn't just go for so many minutes and then you have to add coins like a normal laundromat, it just keeps going until you open the door. While we never have to worry about wet/damp clothing, this brings a concern about a fire hazard. To make this concern even more real, someone put laundry in the dryer Sunday night, probably between 11pm and midnight. At 4am, when Gideon woke me up, it was still going (I'm assuming it was the same load). They STILL haven't come back for it. Maybe they forgot, I mean its just a few rags, but if Gideon hadn't got me up and we hadn't lived right through the wall from the laundry room I'm pretty sure our whole complex would be burnt to the ground by now. What would you do if your home was destroyed? 

Then we just heard about Oklahoma and the HUGE tornado that just ripped through their lives. In the wake of Sandy, Katrina, tsunamis, and all the other recent turmoil what would you do if a natural disaster happened to you?  What danger zones do you live in?  I have family in Utah and Nebraska and am suddenly very aware of the huge earthquake that's overdue in Utah and that Nebraska is also in Tornado Alley. I have no idea what Washington is known for and hope I don't find out the wrong way!  What if disaster strikes?  In some cases you can prepare, but for the people of Oklahoma, all they could have done is made a shelter to protect themselves during the tornado itself, even then the news said the tornado ripped into cellars and other protective places. If they had food storage its gone. 72 hour kits? Gone. They are lucky to simply be alive.

The news said we are in a new era of weather patterns. Record heat, drought, storms, etc. as was prophesied for our times in days of old. As we turn to the Lord we can find comfort and peace, which may get harder and harder to find elsewhere. I'm grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life and the security I feel through Him. May God be with us all.

Another Day, Another Park

One of the things Seattle is very good at is parks. Yesterday, Gideon and I were on a play-date with other mom and kids from our ward at Hamblin Park. We've never been to the same park twice as there are so many parks to choose from. They even have the good old playgrounds with little rock climbing, monkey bars, teeter totters, and all the equipment they took out of Utah because it was deemed "unsafe". One thing I agree with the liberals on!

On Wednesday we had the missionaries over for dinner. It's a rarity in Utah to have the privilege of inviting them over because the ratio of missionaries to member is so low, but here they are a lot more accessible. After the dinner, Elder Boland invited us to be happy and find joy in the moment. Now that I'm a mom, I find it a lot easier to enjoy the little things and to savor the time I have with little Gideon. I think I got caught up in being busy when I worked full-time and just didn't appreciate near as much the people in my life and the blessings I have to be grateful for. So, thank you all, for making our lives special!

Emerald City is Very Very Green

Emerald City is the greenest place I've ever been.  Green in the foliage and in the hearts of the city and people. For example, Seattle made a law that says that stores cannot give out bags unless they are thick enough to be considered reusable.  That means at our local grocer they only give out paper, not plastic and at the mall J C Penney bags would cost 30 cents each. There's also a huge push for solar power despite the lack of sun bringing many to need Vitamin D supplements or lights.

If you've ever seen "Man of the House" with Jonathon Taylor Thomas and Chevy Chase, there's a scene where Thomas scolds Chase for throwing everything away in one can instead of sorting the trash into the four bins for different recyclable materials. I was reminded of that scene on our walk because today is trash day and each home has one can for yard and food waste; another for paper, plastic, and cardboard; and another for garbage.

I mentioned the grocery store before but thought I'd give a shout out for local and organic foods. I was in the spaghetti sauce aisle and there was a jar of sauce that was over $10 for 19 oz. A bottle of Ragu is under $2 for 24 oz just for comparison. There was also a $9 jar and other high priced, organic options. Later I was in produce and looking at asparagus. I've never really done much with it, so I asked an older lady next to me what she looks for when buying asparagus. She told me a couple tips then said, "Well, it all looks good and the price is good, but where is it from? Is it local or is it from Mexico or something?" I don't think I've EVER asked myself that question. Turns out it was from Washington. Go figure.

I feel like I'm getting an education on the care of our planet living here. I'd heard of different initiatives, but here the people really go out of their way to save the planet.  I respect that.

Fun with Beans and Mirrors

Alright, alright. We all know posts with pictures are our favorites, so here we go.

Today we tried green beans. He liked them quite a bit, but as you can see, his bib and chin got just about as much as his mouth did!

Then we had some fun with a fun mirror from his play gym. I have to admit, this little play gym has been one of the best investments in baby stuff so far. He LOVES it. It's the Infantino Twist and Fold play gym. At first I was disappointed it doesn't have anything that plays music and nothing lights up, but its kind of nice as a parent that its relatively quiet. Of course, Gideon more than makes up for its lack of noise with his own sound effects. He's a VERY noisy little kid. To the point that you can't always tell if he's yelling because he's happy or sad.

After eating the beans, he tried voraciously to eat this teething butterfly. Wasn't the same so he kept smacking it down on the mat and then trying again. 

Blindness to the Rescue!

Last night Gideon woke up just as we were getting ready for bed. I'd just taken out my contacts and Trevor was holding Gideon and walking around our bedroom with him when a spider ran across the floor. Since Trevor had Gideon, I grabbed a shoe from the closet and killed it. Now, just some background, I'm pretty well blind without glasses or contacts. On the optometrist scale of 0-8, 8 being the worst your eyes can get, one of mine is well past 4. Anyway, so after I smashed what really looked like more of a small shadow to me, I grabbed my glasses and went to go throw the spider away. Now that I could actually see, this spider was HUGE!!!! I'm not typically scared of spiders, but this was like a June bug with spider legs! I actually made Trevor get rid of it because now that I could see I was afraid. Ironic that the live spider didn't bother me at all, but dead...

So, using this as a parable, I'm glad sometimes we have to trust God and blindly follow where he leads. If we could always see the plan we might question more and run in cowardice knowing the big spiders that our in our future.  It's always easier to look back at our past and be proud of the obstacles we've overcome and just trust that God will help us in the future too.

It's Official...

It's official...Gideon's ticklish.  Especially when he's really tired, but he giggles and laughs and loves being tickled. He's also getting into Peek-a-boo. He's still only rolling from his back to his tummy for the most part but he's learned how to arch his back and then kick, which effectively rotates him around in a circle.

He's also very interested in solid foods. He ate banana like it was the best thing ever, avocado though he's not so sure about. He would get all excited when he saw the spoon and lunge for it, give a "yech" face then spit it out. I would gather it off his face with the spoon, which when he saw the spoon he'd get all excited and we'd do it all again. Oh, well. Experts say to let him try it 10x before conceding that he doesn't like it, so we'll keep at it. My mother asked recently why we chose banana and avocado to start him on and honestly it's because I wanted to make his food myself and we don't have a blender out here in Seattle. We will once we get back to Utah so its not worth buying another one.  So, until then, I'm just doing foods soft enough to mash up or that I can do in his little food grinder I broke down and bought.

I didn't think I was that into cooking until I got here and am trying to cook without all the tools I'm used to. Like a 9x13 pan. Or a muffin tin. Or a variety of knives (we have two cheap steak knives). Or spices. Ohhhhhhh, spices. We have salt, pepper, and season-all (the apt didn't have any and those are the only ones we've invested in). Ah, my kingdom for some garlic salt, or lemon pepper, or onion powder, or, or, alas. We did cave and buy measuring spoons/cups, a cheese grater, cheese slicer, some vanilla, and a couple other things, but its so hard wanting to buy things and then realizing we'll be back in Utah in a couple months and won't need duplicates of everything.

Luckily, we're on a "health kick" while we're here in Seattle, so I'm trying to keep our meals as unprocessed as possible. So we've had baked potatoes, salads, etc instead of casseroles and other things I can't make anyway. Sadly that also means I haven't bought ice cream since we got here either, which we don't have a scoop for anyway. It's nice that with spring and summer produce comes into season and becomes so cheap and its usually very easy to prepare.

Observations about Seattle

We've been in Seattle a little over a week, and it's very different than Utah. Here are some observations I've noticed about the city so far, in no particular order.

• Utah has crazy drivers on large, wide roads with huge shoulders plus a parking lane in some cases. Seattle has crazy drivers with squished roads, no shoulder, and the right lane can suddenly turn into a parking lane on a 50 mph road. Don't drive in the right lane in general because there are lots of buses too that can stop in front of you and there's no room to maneuver around them, unless you're from here and then you just zip wherever you want to go. Defensive driving isn't a courtesy, its a survival tactic as you are in such close proximity to all the other drivers. Also, with all the photo enforced lights, no one is running the yellow and I haven't seen very many California stops. People don't speed like in Utah, but I think that's more because traffic is bad enough its difficult to do so. It was funny driving up here because it was obvious when we crossed state lined just based on the driving behaviors of the cars around us. The same cars that we drove next to in ID suddenly went exactly the speed limit once we got into OR and were VERY courteous. As soon as we got over the WA border we were back to slightly speeding (traffic in general). Interesting.
• Utah is a flat place with a mountain range as a backdrop. Seattle is rarely flat in the city. Huge hills are everywhere with roads going straight up them.This road doesn't look that steep in the picture, but it does in real life. Its nothing compared to the other roads here.
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Seattleites are very health conscious, in some ways.Half the produce section in the grocery store is organic. Driving down the road you see signs for restaurants boasting "healthy alternative to Chinese food" or "healthy Mexican restaurant". However, on the flip side, there are not nearly as many people out exercising, at least the visible exercising. Usually Gideon and I see very few fellow walkers, runners, bikers, etc in comparison to Utah. Smoking, drinking, and coffee all seem to be very in, though. Note: today I saw an organic espresso shop. 
• Not sure if its a health thing or part of the melting pot of cultures here, but Falafel is also here in abundance. In restaurants and in the frozen section of the grocery store. I've never had hummus, but it's all the rage here. I don't think I recognized half the stuff in their grocery store. I went to buy rolls to go with dinner and they had everything from Artisian breads to Take and Bake French Baguettes, but no normal cheap basic rolls. They have small sections on things I'm used to having a large selection on (I had a hard time finding Cool Whip) and huge selections on say wine and alcohol. Go figure.
• Seattleites are very friendly and welcoming. I tried two different groceries stores, neither of which are around in Utah, and was welcomed at both by stockers and the cash registrars. Not just a "welcome to Seattle" but a full blown 5-10 min where are you from, what do you think, here's a run down of x, y, and z, etc. The LDS people are always friendly, but here we've had several people jumping to meet us and introduce themselves at our ward. When we first got to church last week, a kind gentleman saw us looking around and quickly jumped in to establish which ward we were in, told us our bishop's name, etc, then at the end added that he was in the other ward, but he hoped everything went well. Even the parking attendant at one of the lots came to talk to me and tell me where better parking for where I was going was.
• Where the rest of the country has "snow days" in school where the weather is so poor that buses can't run they cancel school, one private school canceled school last week because the weather was so nice.  Sunny days are so rare here they wanted the kids to be able to enjoy it.
• It's green and beautiful here. Everywhere. And there's water. Everywhere. In Utah you see a large body of water and there's very few options of what it could be. Here, not so much. There's parks everywhere and it's just a beautiful place. 
• Parking is crazy. You have to pay to park, if you can find a spot, almost everywhere you go. So Trevor takes the bus instead of paying at least $10 to park while he's at work, that's $10 per 10 hour period.
• I've never seen so many people at local museums. Most museums here have free days, which may explain why so many people were there when we were there, but still. Droves of people at every museum we've been to!

Anyway, its an interesting place, with a people who love all things peculiar, so we're fitting right in!

3 Days at Museums

We've had a busy couple days hitting museums. Seattle has a TON of museums and most of them have free days once a month, usually the first Thursday. So Thursday we went to the Museum of History and Industry.
 

 Gideon's not quite big enough to ride on Daddy's shoulders.         Here he's the star of the screen in his viking hat.

 Then here they're pounding away at the railroad. One lady came up behind Trevor and though Gideon was pounding by himself. She was quite astounded!

Then Gideon tried his luck at the slot machines. According to the machines he not only wouldn't have got a fortune if he had come west back in the day, but rather he would have perished, hence the three tombstones.

Then Friday we went to the Bellevue Arts Museum and became the faces of the $2.

I don't remember which day we took this but Gideon was giving Daddy "kisses" by licking/sucking on his cheek. Daddy's trying not to laugh.

Saturday we went to the Seattle Asian Art Museum. Since that was just today I don't have pictures yet. :)

A Walk in the Park

It's beautiful and green outside. Very green. The temperatures are cooler than we're used to, which can be nice, but the humidity is the biggest surprise as we head outside.

  Today we took a walk to the park. We go on walks almost every day, at least we did in Utah. Now we're getting back in the habit, and enjoying being outside. We're not used to bringing an umbrella with us so last time we had to go home early, but this time skies were clear so out we went. Carkeek Park is just a couple blocks away and feels very secluded. The trees are so thick you can't tell you're still in the middle of civilization. It has some nice trails, a creek, and if you follow the trail all the way (a mile or two) you get to Puget Sound. Maybe its just because I come from a desert state, but I had never heard of a "sound" until I came here. According to dictionary.com, a sound is "a long, wide inlet of the ocean, often parallel to the coast. Long Island Sound, between Long Island and the coast of New England, is an example."

 Gideon slept through the whole thing, of course. But its nonetheless good for him to be outside. Luckily, Grandma and Grandpa Edlund lent us this umbrella stroller so we could have a stroller while we're up here in WA (our regular one was too bulky for the move up).

 The trees at the park were soo tall and straight. I don't think I've ever been in a forest like this.

They had an odd plant that looked like "snake grass" from home, except that it had fern like leaves jutting out. Interesting...