So, do they look alike?

4/27/2011:

 5/2/2013:

Did I mention how cute my kids are?

I suppose he's pretty cute too:

My life is so glamorous...

Both children are screaming & my glasses are so smudged, I can't see out my right eye.

Helping Daddy fix the refrigerator.

Mom, can you get him off me, please?

Parker's sunglasses

The Easter Bunny brought Parker sunglasses this year, or according to Parker: "The Easter Bunny came back with my sun glasses".  They are a very popular toy in this family.

The sun's out!

I don't have any clever commentary to go with these, I'm just excited to be outside with my cute kiddos.

Zoo Trip

It's sunny out, so we (and the rest of the city) headed to the zoo.

Parker was so excited to be at the zoo, we even got to look at the monkeys without terror, that's an improvement.

We even brought our lunch and had smoothies on the lawn.

Washington Coast Vacation

On the recommendation of a friend, we booked a cottage in the town of Seabrook for a few days of vacation.  Seabrook is this adorable "planned" community on the Washington coast.  We rented this little cottage, called "The Roosevelt":

This cabin was in a circle of identical cabins all built around a central fire pit.  We loved the idea of parking the car & being able to walk to everything, including the beach.

The cabin was about 600 sq feet, so it was cozy, but it was big enough for a few days vacation.  The only tricky part of it was the upstairs loft.  I knew it had a loft, but I assumed that Parker would be frightened enough of the ladder that we could carry him up there every night & he'd stay-put.  ...I was wrong.

He LOVED the ladder, which meant that I spent much of the week telling him to get off the ladder and stay away from the opening.  I hate to spoil his fun, but I had constant visions of him falling 12 feet to his death (including a dream the first night that he did a belly-flop from the top of the ladder).

Since we couldn't trust him to stay off the ladder, we ended up with all four of us sleeping in the downstairs bedroom.  Cecily in the pack & play in the closet, and the three of us crammed in the (queen sized) bed.  It was cozy.  Cecily, our horrible sleeper, did a great job with this arrangement.  Parker, our super-duper sleeper, not so much.  It usually took four or five times of putting him back to bed before he finally settled.  

But, scary ladder aside, the cabin was great!

We spent most of the week just relaxing & playing with the kiddos.

We especially enjoyed the beach.  Parker loved being able to run as far & as fast as he wanted.  He brought his pail & shovel; he would walk two steps, put one shovel full of sand in the bucket, run five steps, one shovel-full, etc for hours, it was great.

He & Keith also chased the ball down a little "river" in the sand for a long time.

The weather was fantastic the entire time we were there.  It started raining the day we left, otherwise it was beautiful.

Parker learned the word "vacation" this week, he was often running around saying, "We on vacation? We go on vacation?"

The community also had an indoor pool that Parker loved.  He has officially lost his fear of the water, I think he would have happily spent the entire week in the pool.

 We would highly recommend Seabrook for vacation to anyone.  We're already planning a trip back, only next time we'll get an actual 2-bedroom with actual stairs & a door on the bedroom.

On our way home, we stopped at the Olympia Children's Museum.  Parker had a great time.

The fire truck was Parker's favorite, he kept running back to climb back up and put the helmet back on.

Our boy is going to be a Doctor when he grows up.  He loves when Cecily gets a shot at the Doctor (I didn't say he was sympathetic, just that he'll be a Dr.).  We've been playing getting shots at home, he wipes the spot with his alcohol wipe, then gives you a shot with the other hand, then pats you on the tummy & says "it's okay" if you cry.  Here, he's practicing his skills on one of the babies at the museum.

What a great trip!