Just Cute

Art Projects

We needed some pumpkins in our house because tis the season but don't really have money at the moment to be buying pumpkins and so I came home with paper plates and the thought that maybe Padon and I could make our own pumpkins while Walter had friends over for a game night.

For Padon's first birthday he received finger paints and until now he had been way to oral, and impulsive to consider passing off paint to, no matter how washable they were. I set up his table, laid paper underneath, got paper towels ready, laid out the plates with the pumpkin sketch, put his smock on, and opened the paints. It was fun. He was interested in the paint but was concerned that it was "yucky" and that maybe he wasn't supposed to stick his hands in it. So I went first and the project was on. I wasn't fast enough to keep the two table spoons of orange finger paint from making it in his mouth and down into his stomach (which you could tell didn't taste good) and did have to remind him probably another 8 times to keep his hands out of his mouth (I think each color inflicted a need to taste it again and again) but it was fun. He went hog wild on the plate and I made a mad dash to his room to grab the canvas that had come with the paints on his birthday so he could keep going. Once he started drawing in the paint with his fingers I wished he would keep going but the fact I had kept him focused for about 10 or 15 minutes in one thing was already a great achievement and I lost his interest in showing how he could now draw pictures in his colors. I got a couple good scratches in the paint on the canvas out of him and then it was a dash into the kitchen to wash off the paint before he touched anything or anyone as he said "all done!" and tried to run away.
I think it is a lovely piece of artwork and a fantastic gift idea. I scratched Padon's name and the year on the canvas in the lower right hand corner and set it up to dry. I look forward to asking him tonight where he thinks we should hang it. I'm really tempted to turn a portion of the right hand side of our hallway wall into the family artwork section.

I Love You Woody *Sigh*

I don't know how many times during the day Walter gets asked to watch Toy Story but I get asked every night. Always followed by Woody? Buzz?. Until recently this was also followed by Woody! Woody! Hello Woody! (enunciating every syllable as well as Padon can). Super cute we have totally indulged Padon in his love of Woody and Buzz and plan on surprizing him with his very own Woody and Buzz for Christmas. I got this great picture of Padon after I tried to pass Aladdin off on him and 5 minutes later had changed to Toy Story2 because he woulnd't stop begging for "Toy Story 2" (showing 4 fingers). Two mintues later he was like this on the couch watching Woody be concerned about being shelved because his arm had torn. I loved the look of complete adoration on Padon's face. "Ahhhhh, Woody, I looooovvveeee yyyooooouuuuuu. And you too Buzz."

Toy Box?

So I was pregnantly sitting on the couch in a my-hips-wont-ache-this-way position and had one leg up which on a two year old level left an open doorway to the couch on the other side. Before I knew it I had, had, through that little triangle space, shoved one dinosaur, 4 books, two dog chew toys, a toy piano, a rubbermaid tub, two XBox styrofoam spacers, a couple Fischer Price people, a Winnie the Pooh, and a My Pet Monster. There may have been a couple other items but I can't remember anymore. As it seemed that Padon was loosing interest in my toy pile (I felt like the lady in the junk heap in the movie The Labyrinth) I unpiled myself when Padon was away but when he saw that I was no longer stacked high with the toys he repiled me in the same way. It seemed very necessary for a picture.

New Baby Things

A generous friend at work has been giving me all her daughter's clothes that no longer fit and Padon and I have been enjoying going through the bags of goodies alot. I would totally have more pictures of Padon sampling the fabulous wares but he has passed his smile for the camera phase and often either tells me he doesn't want his picture taken or won't stand still for it. It's like he has suddenly realized that he might be embarrassed by these pictures later. But I did get this smashing picture of him trying on the baby sized Cherry sunglasses which he LOVED.

When I brought home this latest treasure Padon was so excited that he kept shouting "Ooooo!, Oooooo!" his arms pumping out at his sides the whole time with the anticipation of pulling out the next great thing. The best part after finding the glasses and needing to wear them was that Padon would oooo and ahhhhh over every little tiny hat, outfit with a ruffle, flower, or butterfly and go and show Walter, who was at the computer; Padon never taking off the glasses. It was so super cute that I had to ask him, as we were talking about the baby clothes, how cute they were, and how they were for the baby in me, "Wouldn't it be nice if we had our own baby?" He responded back with a "yeah" that elluded at that time and moment it would have been wonderful to dress a baby in all these fun clothes. I think 10 minutes later that moment had passed but it was super sweet in anycase.

Wow! Happy Birthday To Me!

I had a really nice Birthday. A few people in my office bought me a cake for my birthday. It was so nice, and really a delicious cake, go Safeway!
This graciousness was followed by a lovely breakfast of Crab Eggs Benedict on Saturday (my actually B-day) at the Stanwood Cafe, a day of spinning Alpaca for a hat for Padon, a long nap, and a fabulous dinner at the Spaghetti Factory in Seattle. Padon loved the Spaghetti Factory and I felt full of squishy yummy love having such a wonderful dinner with my two great guys.

And then, the following weekend, I was so lucky to have Sarah and Wayne take Walter and I out for an all you can eat crabfest at the Muckleshoot Casino and awesomely Jane and Jason could come along (man that was good).

The weekend after that I went out shopping for baby blanket yarn for Sophia with my Mom and Jane and had a wonderful brunch at the Portage Bay Cafe!

And then the second to last weekend in October my friend Nick, his boyfriend Andy, and their friend Jeff took me out for a delicious brunch at 22 Doors on Capital Hill and then down to Game Works where we played shooting games, tried Dance Dance Revolution (yeah, dumb idea pregnant, but oh so fun), and a really fun Japanese Namco Bandai drum game a lot like Dance Dance Revolution but with drum sticks (Nick, Jeff, and I totally got blisters playing that game).
Man it was a really lovely Birthday. Who could ask for more then a whole month of people celebrating you; I wish I could do this for all my family and friends!

Cuteness Extreme

So Walter, Padon and I made an excursion to Walmart on Friday looking for a particular can of spray paint and while paroosing the microwaves (ours is trying desperately to kick the bucket) we passed by the bed and bath section. Padon is going to get his very own big boy bed come January and I have been dying to see what kid of bed spread he will pick out. The long store aisle passing the bed section had four bedspreads at the end of one of the bed linen aisles (there were many more to choose from down the bed linen aisle but from the end this is what we could see); one Batman, one Spiderman, one Transformers, and one Disney Princess. I stopped Walter and said "I'm dying to see what Padon will do, Padon what blanket do you like?" Padon stopped looked at the blankets and with about 20 seconds of thought hugged and tried in vain to get the Disney Princess spread off the shelf. He asked me to get it down and Walter said "Show him the Spiderman" (Padon had tried to take a Spiderman doll home from the Pike Place Market the week before). So I pointed out Spiderman and Padon looked at it with less enthusiasm but also tried to pull it down. But because he couldn't (they were snug) he went back to the Princess spread again asking if he could have it, trying to pull it out. I pulled it off the shelf and and he tried his darnedest to walk off with it even though it was almost as big as he was. Luckily he was understanding when I told him we couldn't buy it today and I was totally tickled that of all the bedspreads he wanted it was the Disney Princesses. When we actually go to buy a spread I wonder if we will truly be coming home with a princess spread. I will totally buy him one if that is what he really wants, but I can tell you I will be documenting it with a ton of pictures!!!!!


On Sunday we went to Macy's with Walter's Dad, Leo, after a breakfast date, and I was waddling behind Leo, and Walter; Walter pushing Padon in the stroller. I was totally thinking about nothing and wasn't really paying attention to where we were when I got snapped out of my daze as my mind realized that Padon was calling and calling me, looking around for where I had gone. He was trying to get my attention and saying again and again "Mommy, Mommy! Shoes! Mommy, shoes!!!? He was trying, with a lot of excitement, to point out to me all the women's shoes we were passing in the shoe section. For a second I thought, "why does he think I care about the shoes" and then I realized, "well, why not?" Who else in our household almost always has a land mind pile of shoes on their side of the bed threatening to break ankles in the middle of the night, but Mommy?! I was so touched that I came to mind as we passed by a rather large selection of "Chloe" type shoes. I tried to be just as excited back at Padon, thanking him for thinking of me, and letting him know that yes I did really like all those shoes!


Two year olds are wonderful!

And The Baby's Gender Is...!

We are so excited to announce the up and coming birth of Sophia Nanci Warren!

It’s a Girl!!!!!!!

Due January 26th! Well most likely! Yeah!!!!!

Fresh Apple Pie!

In a quest for farm fresh apples to make a delicious apple pie for a good friends b-day party we made one of our treks down to the Pike Place Market to sample their goods. The day was beautiful, sunny, and warm. The fountain in the square in front of Westlake Mall was going and I was dieing to see what Padon would think. To my surprise, with no problem, he followed me down the steep step inside the fountain and was excited about the really loud and very wet path we had to walk down to get out the other side. It was a spray you in the face and constantly get you wet sort of fountain however, so when Walter called me back so he could snap our picture Padon started to act concerned. I'm a tad bummed that he wasn't looking at the camera because he really did think the fountain was fun and we had a whole happy conversation about how his shoes, and my shoes, and Daddy's shoes were wet and how our pants were kind of wet but that, that was ok because it was so sunny and warm we would be dry soon.

Padon plopped into the stroller we made our way to Pike Place and I was surprised at how hospitable people seemed to be to the stroller (I wasn't pushing it mind you, so maybe I missed the hassle) and Padon seemed to enjoy himself and asked to be in the stroller. Until of course he found this sweet ride while we waited for Walter who had gone to the bathroom. He was so excited to be on it and while rocking on it would point out the large selection of eggs in the window.
We did find some nicely prices apples (apples suprisingly weren't in season enough to find a deal at most stands where they often were $2.99/lbs) and I even got a whole apple to sample. Well I got two bites, and Walter one, before Padon confiscated the rest of it. We then went down into the underground portion of the market to check out the eclectic stores and stopped in the pot smoker store where Padon happily let us try fun hats on him and where I found the coolest cat fleece hat (for me!) but knowing the price of a yard of fleece wouldn't spend $21 in a million years on it.
I got so close to getting Walter to try one of the scrumptious crumpetes at the Crumpete Shop but in his denial to ever eat one (at least I got his foot in the door) it became aparent that it was very necessary to hit one of our regular spots, Kells Irish Resturant, a couple blocks away, down Post Alley. Padon now eats enough that sharing a meal and drink isn't always enough so after out crumpetes we did share a sandwich but he got his own soda and I got one for me. It was his first glass bottle of soda and he was tickled pink and drank half of it before he indicated he could drink no more.
Passing the time I let Padon take pictures with my camera. "Why won't it take my picture when I click on the camera button about 20 times in a row really fast?"

After alot of pleading I finally got Padon to lay down on the bench we were sitting on. When Padon was 6 weeks old we made out first post birth excursion out of the house and went to the Pike Place Market and to Kells for lunch. At a point he fell alseep and we laid him down on the bench. What a difference two years makes.

2 years and 3 1/2 months

6 weeks old

After we were done with lunch and had gone past the remaining crafty vendors, drooling along the way, we made our way back towards Westlake Mall and our bus stop where we passed by a large group of pigeons and a couple people feeding them stale bagel bits. Padon was overwhelmed by the number of "chickens!" and after exclaiming loudly to him more than once not to eat the bread himself he tried very hard to get the chickens to eat out of his hand.
It wasn't happening (smart chickens) and so with proding we got him to throw the pigeons the bread. He had a really good time and the people thought he was cute.

It was such a nice day; and Walter and I agreed we loved laid back days like these!

Poopies; a.k.a Movies

Awe, the power of television. We don't get channels that have things like Sesame Street and PBS type stuff so we go through a smackeral of movies such as Finding Nemo, Monster's Inc., Winnie the Pooh's Grand Adventure, and Toy Story. Currently Toy Story and Monster's Inc. top the favorites and I love the dead stare they inflict when we put them on. It's just too funny. They often allow for a short reprieve to check email, make dinner, or take a personal moment.

I especially loved the chosen seat for the watching of Monster's Inc. this time.