Knit & Purl

Christian is a great knitter. He came home with this scarf he had made for Olin about a month ago. It looked pretty perfect to me, as in not a stitch out of place! So last weekend he taught me how to knit and purl. I didn't even know what purl was, but needless to say he is WAY better than me. My knitting is really loose and irregular and his knits are so tight and uniform. Those fine motor skills he has.....

And, there is something absolutely hilarious to me about the fact that my 80 year old Chinese grandma tried to teach me how to knit a decade ago and now, of all people, my 8 year old son is a proficient knitter and trying to teach me how to knit. Quite a difference in demographic!

I love this scarf. I want to commission him to make me a big one that I can wear in these exact colors. This scarf is a lot smaller than it looks in this photo.

Potty Talk

This morning Christian and Olin told me that they sometimes don't wake up very hungry. Then Olin said to me, while on the toilet, "You know what made me hungry? A really long pee, one poo, 6 burps and one fart."

Goodness.

Don't Tell Olin

Christian comes in to my room last night right before bed and says, in a low voice, "Mom, don't tell Olin........I have diarrhea"

A few weeks ago Olin said (and I promptly wrote in my phone so I wouldn't forget):  "Mom, if you didn't have any kids yet, and us two and bab were your options, would you buy us, even if it cost all your money?"

(I hope the kids don't get mad when they read back on all the things I record...too funny not to make record of)

Schweitzer 2018

Schweitzer is our tried and true. Nice and local (3.5 hours away), ski-in, ski-out, nice small village. It's perfect for our needs and always delivers! There are limited dining options (pizza and pub) so this time I packed Costco ramen bowls and pizza bites. Note to self - next time I need to pack more fresh fruits, and fruit snacks are a must during skiing in my opinion.

Blues! The kids can go up the quad lifts now and they do fine. They definitely revert back to wedge form when they're on steeper hills, but I can see progress. They each did 5 lessons when we were in Schweitzer. Lessons all day long. Ha! On Monday when we left, we picked up the kids from their lesson at noon and Olin's first question was "why can't we do a full day of lessons today?"

Lake Pend Oreille (I think it's pronounced Ponderay but for some reason I'm really confused about that because there is a nearby city called Ponderay and I don't know why the lake isn't spelled that way, or why the city isn't spelled Pend Oreille)

Heehee. Just as I said in the last ski post - our kids, especially Olin, enjoy a wide stance and resulting low center of gravity.

Good Morning

Christian's mornings: a pilfered pillow from our bed, a book, and two stuffed animals while waiting for everybody else to wake up since he still gets up 6am at latest.

Mornings: Olin + winter + heated bathroom floor.

Fountain at Seattle Center

Monster Truck Jam at Tacoma Dome.

Electronic Battleship

First Ski of the Season

White Pass. It was a very wet day...my least favorite. But the kids did a lesson and then skied with us for a bit. We ate a lot at the lodge, and they had a great time. They are currently working on keeping their skis "french fries" (vs. "Pizza pie"). Basically Olin really enjoys a wide wedge stance. 

The kids made a cute little duet. I think Olin plays A, C, and E while Christian does a series of arpeggios below.

4th grade spelling. I think about half of his class got promoted to 4th grade spelling. He definitely doesn't memorize these as quickly as 3rd grade spelling, but then again I was always surprised at how quickly he memorized his words. He'll have to work a little harder for these. 

First Chess Tournament

The kids' first chess tournament was last Saturday and went pretty well. It was an interesting experience. Christian won 1 game, stalemated 2 games, and lost 2 games. Olin won 1 game, stalemated 1 game, and lost 3 games. They were both in the K-3rd grade division. Which means Olin was competing against some seriously large kids...I bet the first kid he played outweighed him by 3x. The other moms had warned me that the kids play a total of 5 games over the course of 8 hours (!) and that was accurate...we arrived at 8am and didn't leave until 3:45pm. Each game took anywhere from 10-20 minutes for my kids and then they just played with the other kids from our school (12 total) during the downtime. We packed lots of snacks, and even a lawn chair and a book.

The kids had been pretty uncertain of the tournament beforehand. Both were hesitant about 'playing strangers' and asking 'what if I lose?" so Dae and I kept reiterating over and over, ad nauseum, that even if they lost all 5 games, which was a possibility,  we would be proud if they played their best. That said, after 8 hours of waiting and watching and nervously seeing their faces as they came back to the table (trying to determine by their facial expressions if they had won or lost) I was pretty drained by the end of the day! Luckily we went straight to a birthday party where they ran around like crazed people.

As it turns out, there were a handful of Unranked players - players who had never played in a tournament before. Christian and Olin were among these unranked players, and this tournament was nice enough to hand out a couple trophies to the top two unranked players. Christian got second place! He was SO happy to get a trophy. Their school got 4th place (with another trophy) overall, and the kids were seriously happy running up to the stage as a team.  It is hilariously all about the trophies at this age. But when I got to thinking about it, this is probably the first time they have had to actually earn a trophy rather than it just being handed out as a token of participation...sadly.

My friend Becky took some nice photos. They always shake before and after a match.

He asked if it was alright if he wore a fancier outfit to the tournament. Hence, collared shirt. 

He was euphoric :)

The team with Coach Stan, who coaches the kids every Tuesday afternoon after school. He's a good coach.

As an unexpected bonus, our entire family is now on the chess wagon. It is fun! Dae and I have been playing each other and against the kids. Dae is definitely better than me, but I finally beat him (twice!). He claims the first win it was too dark and he couldn't see his pieces. I told him the same thing I tell the kids - sore losers are not allowed in the house!

My Toys are Closed

I have been hearing the kids say to each other "my toys are open" or "my toys are closed". They told me that means that the other person can play with their toys, or not.

I realized it has morphed in to their own form of language. Basically, "my toys are closed" equals "I am mad at you". For instance this morning they had some small argument about who was going to make eggs, and when the dust had settled, I heard Christian say "my toys are back open" and Olin responded "my toys are back open too". (In my mind, they are saying "I forgive you". hahaha!)

Jan 1

Happy New Year!

Riding the bus to Trader Joe's on Capitol Hill. I have bad bus luck. The last few times we have ridden the bus we have had to wait around 20 minutes for the bus. We usually just miss the last bus, or the next bus is late, or both.

Beautiful New Year's Eve day ferry ride to Bainbridge Island. We rode the ferry over to Poulsbo to spend the day with Kelly and Maggie and kids, while Dae went with Alex, Daniel and Holly to the Seahawks game vs. the Cardinals. They lost :( On the ferry both ways, we got front row seats overlooking the water and skyline. Leelee goes "This is like first class!" and "Who needs first class when you can sit in these seats?" He kept saying first class and I kept laughing. Not sure how he knows anything about first class as we have never flown first class with these tykes!

Ferry back. Kids "stayed up" for New Year's until 8:30pm. We stayed up until 9:30pm.