Seattle Aquarium with Nana and Papa

Nana and Papa arrived for their Christmas vacation on the 21st. On the 2nd we headed to the aquarium to check out the underwater wildlife. We spent about two hours walking around and looking at everything. I think the coolest part for Matthew was the hole in the plexiglass near the salmon ladder and all the "teeks" (sticks) floating in the water.

One of the first tanks we saw that was filled with fish and "bugs". All the way through Matthew called all the sea anemones and star fish bugs and he refused to touch them.

Looking at fish with Papa.

Holy Smokers thats a big one.

Everyone was so intent on getting Matthew to look in my direction that they forgot to smile.

Nana and Matthew.

Papa and Matthew.

Trying to get a cute portrait of Papa and Matthew on the Orca whale statue.

Still trying...

THIS is how he ultimately decided to pose. Very helpful!

Watching the seals swim around.

We'll go back again in a couple years and it will be a completely new experience for all of us.

Sharing a seat with Moe

Often when Matthew climbs up to see what's happening on the computer Moe is on the chair. Since Matthew is not strong enough to push him off, they have worked out their own arrangement.

You see Moe grabbing for the edge of the chair to prevent the pushing off part.

Now Matthew is getting a leg over.

And in the end he decides to just sit on Moe. Not once have I seen Moe surrender the chair no matter how squished he might be. For all the PETA members out there, I intervene before Moe gets hurt.

Whipped Topping

The day after Thanksgiving Aaron was enjoying a little more pie and Matthew was learning to love whipped cream out of a can.

Thanksgiving 2010

We were lucky this year to have the buggle wrangling skills of Uncle Brian on hand. There was a lot of guitar playing and singing and yelling "I wanna rock" (Matthew's version "OCK")

This year Matthew decided he needed to sit at the table instead of in his high chair. And of course he brought his smile to Thanksgiving.

Again we deep fried our turkey and this year Aaron got to stand outside in the dark with snow instead of just rain. We have improved his cooking conditions by erecting a tent so it is a smidge less miserable.

Grandma Joyce was also with us this year. You can never have too many buggle wranglers.

Matthew was the first one to eat and the first one done by far. In fact by the time we got the whole meal on the table he was in the tub. Next time I will know not to try to make him wait for the whole meal, it just leads to fits of rage in toddlers.

Chilaxin' with a Cell Phone

Since it was chilly day yesterday, after nap#1 Matthew and I hung out in bed, ate Cheez-its and watched skating with the stars. He seems quite interested in skating right now. These are the pics we captured with my cell phone while we chillaxed.

Nice big smile from the blurry, little, old man who lives with us.

A smile with teeth. This was a first and we both thought it was pretty funny.

A serious pose for the artists out there.

For those of you not in the know. The orange square in my hand is a Cheeze-it. The yummiest, cheeziest cracker on the face of the earth. We are totally addicted thanks to an afternoon trip up to Alex and Darcie's. They gave us the first one free, bastards.

Snow Day 2

So we woke up this morning to about a foot of snow and 20 degrees farenheit. I know our Canadian fans are now laughing their asses off but we are finding it downright chilly not to mention transportationally disabling. The office was closed today so Matthew and I decided that it was a beautiful sunny day and that we needed to get out of the house. We did better today and left M's footie pjs on under his clothes as long underwear and a second pair of socks.

Around the corner from our house Matthew

found this wonderfully track free yard. He fixed it in a hurry.

The north corner of our street.

Just stepping out onto the street.

Wondering around the front yard.

New steps out into the snow.

I tried to put these in order but the computer was not co-operating AND being very slow so you'll just have to deal with them the way they are.

First Snow Winter 2010-2011

This morning we woke up to a very light dusting of the first snow of the season and by 4pm it looked like this outside. All day Matthew would climb up to look out the window and say "Noing, Noing" so we figured we had better get out into it for some milestone pics.

Our yard covered in about 4 inches of really dry snow.

First steps into the white stuff. Notice the high tech snow gear.

Reaching for the first handfull. Notice the Mitts? Those are some knitted socks we got that go up above his elbows as the mitts we have barely cover his wrists and were really easy for him to remove.

Daddy is helping to get a good handful.

First taste test was not so good.

This whole snow thing is old hat now.

Hmmm, maybe this snow doesn't taste so bad after all.

Dashing through the snow.

Stomping through the snow.

Mummy demonstrating a snowball.

Turns out snowballs are really just an easier ways to get yummy bites of snow.

I would like to point out these last two photos have Matthew actually facing the camera and are missing the "smile". Pretty good photography skills.

When we came in he was so sad he was sobbing, I had to distract him with a piece of chocolate.

It was a pretty cozy indoor day but getting to work tomorrow is going to be a little tricky.

First Trick or Treat

Last night Matthew and I headed up to Alex and Darcie's to join them and the Mason family for Trick or Treating. Daddy was having tummy trouble so he stayed home.

Our little dinosaur with the newly perfected version of his "smile"

Trooping down the street to the first house. That's Darcie on the right.

The whole crew. From L to R: Matthew, Elliot (Cpt. Kirk), Olliver (spider), Tessia (Tinkerbell)

This was a very short lived moment. I believe Alex said "no adults in the picture" so I let go of Matthew and Christine scooted out from the back and we all held our breath and snapped as fast as we could. I think it worked out fairly well. Jenn I thought you would be pleased to know that what you call "cat herding", Darcie calls Whack-a-Mole.

Our first house. Everyone was a little unsure how this whole thing worked. Matthew went right on into the living room and helped himself to a bunch of grapes from the bowl of plastic fruit on the coffee table. Yes, my kid was the one that felt he needed a tour of each house we stopped at. We got pretty good at having people block the door or grabbing a spike and holding on.

Elliot was very pleased with his first acquisition of the night.

Sometimes down is not as easy as up. Alex helping out with the parenting, Thanks Al!

Up to the door of the next house.

A little help from Christine with all those "Big Steps". At this point I would like to say that I come from a world of no steps (we live in a single level house in a flat neighbourhood and I work on the first floor of my office building) and entered a world of many, many steps (we were going around a hilly neighbourhood where all the houses are raised up above street level). Turns out Mummy needs to get back to the gym!

They were totally getting the hang of it now. Knock on the door...

This is a good shot of the GIANT spider on Olliver's back.

Step back and wait for someone to open it.

Smiley Tinkerbell

Matthew trying out the goods before he leaves the bowl in case he would like something else.

Thanks to Alex and Darcie for inviting us and supplying the eats both before and after T & Ting. Thanks to for Christine and Tim for helping out with the steps, traffic and general herding. I thought all the kids did great and loved Elliot's "cooze me" as he tried to politely remove the crowds on the steps! We had a great time and hope we can do it again.