It rained last night

It rained last night.  How do I know?  Well, not because of the weather this morning - it was bright and sunny.  I know it rained because I was woken up in the middle of the night by an ear-piercing scream coming from Miss Nory... who is absolutely terrified by the sound of rain.

Huh.  We'll have to work on that.

Pumpkins!

Last weekend my parents visited and we went to the Lane Farms Pumpkin Patch down the road.  The pumpkin patch is complete with pumpkins, a hay pit, a tractor-pulled hay ride, animals (horse, goats, donkey, pig), scarecrows, and a corn maze.  Whew!  Dan was there with his camera but he hasn't downloaded those pictures yet - however here is a little-c camera glimpse into our visit.

(My) Daddy and I braved the corn maze.  It was a little harder than I bargained for, I'm surprised we found a way out!

Ok, Nory!  You can keep any pumpkin... that you can carry all by yourself (a good way to limit her to the $3 and under pumpkins...).

Nory and Nana in the Hay Pit

Nory and I went back on Tuesday with my mom's group, in costume.  That's my cute little fish next to a train engineer, ballerina, hobbit, and witch.  So cute!

Finally, we selected a pumpkin for each of the kids.  Nory carried the big one all by herself.

What was that?  Kids?  Plural?  Well possibly if you read this blog you already know that we are expecting Klein #4 to arrive sometime around May 4th 2011!  13 weeks along and feeling like crud.  However, since I was sick for over 20 weeks with Nory, I fear the end is not in sight.  At least this time I know what to expect!

Art...?

Nory brought this home from preschool today.  Toilet Paper Roll With Feathers.  I know it is the first of many (charming) pieces of artwork she will bring home.  So could someone please tell me what I'm supposed to do with it?  Do I have to keep it?  Or can it be (briefly) enjoyed and then tossed?

The Zoo In Rain

The zoo is always crowded on weekends.  But weekends are the only time we can go as a whole family (before my best SB buddy Erika got put on preggo-bedrest, Erika and I and the kids would go to the zoo during the week at least weekly).

So what a treat it was to go to the zoo on Sunday.  It was raining.  Barely.  Which meant that the rest of SB was staying indoors and we had the place to ourselves!

 

Typically the gorilla exhibit is much too crowded for an up close encounter!

So glad we braved the wet pavement and adventured to the zoo!

Practice

Today when we woke up, the ground was wet and the sky was cloudy and looking like drizzle (no actual rain fell today, but it did stay threatening all day).  And it was cold.  66.

I had the day off so I decided that it was a great day to start practicing for our new life in the Pacific Northwest.  First, Nory and I went over to the preschool for a couple hours.  This is Nory, still eating snack long after the other kids have finished and started playing.  She is either a really slow eater or wasn't sure about the pancakes and apples.

Then we did some running around in the World's Cutest Raincoat.

Unfortunately for mommy, Nory only slept for 45 minutes at naptime instead of the usual 2-3 hours.  Ugh.  I had an idea that maybe she would sit on the couch and watch a movie while I finished up cleaning the kitchen and doing some stuff on the computer.  It seemed to me that if we live somewhere with lots of rain, my kid should learn to appreciate a good 1/2 hour of kid TV here and there.  However, I couldn't figure out how to work our TV, and the only remotely kid-friendly video we had was Planet Earth. 

Which I turned off after noticing that one of the first scenes is of a wolf chasing down a baby moose and eating it.  Oh well, maybe I can just sneak onto the computer while Nory is playing with her toys in the living room!  Nope, because Nory has discovered how to turn off my computer.  Who on earth designed a power button that glowed blue, anyway?  This, by the way, is why I don't blog nearly as frequently anymore.  It absolutely cannot be done while Nory is awake.

Instead Nory played "look at what I am climbing up, standing on, and dancing around on!" with a laundry basket (among other things).

 The house was a frigid 67 degrees so I decided to make some pumpkin bread, which has to bake at 350 for an hour.  Failure - we were out of eggs.

Then we read lots and lots of books. Nory read some books with mommy and some books all by herself.

Later this afternoon, a friend called and asked if I wanted to meet for coffee.  This seems like something I will do often in the Pacific Northwest so of course we said yes.  Is it cruel and unusual punishment to park your kid right next to the cakes and then give her an apple?

Nory never stays in the stroller long if it isn't moving.  Soon she was running around the restaurant. 

Here are Nory and Keoni, ready to leave! 

After coffee, Nory and I went to pick up daddy from work.  Daddy doesn't bike on rainy days.  Or on any day that isn't perfectly sunny.  I guess we should sell all of his bikes when we move north.

Back home, having stopped for eggs, I decided to make pumpkin soup and pumpkin bread for dinner.  Maybe a little overkill on the pumpkin, but the chilly weather put me in the mood.  I seem to remember eating things like soup a lot more frequently in the Pacific Northwest.

We let Nory feed herself soup.  Dinner is always right before bathtime, so messes aren't as big of a deal.  Maybe in the Pacific Northwest it won't ever be warm enough to let our kid eat soup naked, but this was only practice!

All in all I think we had a very successful practice day.  A few more of these (and a pair of more reasonable shoes for Nory) and we'll be ready to move back!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like...

The Klein's might be moving to Washington by Christmas!  Dan has decided to accept a job in Bellevue.  So we will be trading in our life of sunshine and ocean for a (much nicer) house in the suburbs and two weeks of vacation (for Dan - I still get four) and rain.  

Hmm am I sounding crazy?  Well you just have no idea how much I want a house with two bathrooms!  It is bound to be a hectic few months for us but we are looking forward to connecting with all of our Seattle friends again and discovering the toddler haunts of King county which we never had reason to know about before.  I think Nory will be getting some rain boots for Christmas!  And maybe the rain cover for the BOB...

Walking to School

Please ignore my backside in this video.

First Day of School

Today was Nory's first day at school.  We'd been several times for "visits" but I had always stayed with her - this was my first morning leaving her at the school while I worked.

The morning started with me making Nory's lunch.  Thank goodness her school isn't one of those "no nut" schools, I don't know what could have been better in a first day of school lunch than PB&J.

Then we had a nice healthy breakfast of cereal and part of mommy's bagel with cream cheese.

When everyone was ready, we made the long "commute" to school.  That's the school, at the end of our driveway.

I added Nory's new penguin lunchbox to the pile.

Then we went outside to play.  These girls are too big!

Hmm this girl looks just my size.  I think I'll play with the cars.

The cars have always been Nory's favorite activity at the school.  I guess she is her father's daughter in more ways than looks.

So far, so good.  Okay, time for mommy and daddy to leave!  Bye-bye Nory!

By the time we made it back to our house, Nory's ear piercing screams were hard to miss.  She stopped crying after about 20 minutes but I was biting my nails and pacing the house and on the phone with my friend Erika who owns the school the entire time.  After a couple hours, around 11:15, I heard the tell tale scream start up again.  This time I went over to the preschool.  Nory settled down a few minutes after I got there and we played with her class and then joined them for lunch.  She was happy again by the time we went home.  She settled into a nap and I went back to finish up my interrupted work day.

Better luck next time.