Auntie Marilyn comes to visit

Story time is always a hit with these two

Stopping to play on our walk in the neighborhood

Marilyn's first time picking blueberries

Chuck remembered "Senior" Tinkertoys. I guess I must be too young!

Chuck's sister from Iowa came for a visit last week. She never misses checking Heather's blog daily for updates on the twins (and mine too, of course). She was excited to actually see them in person and she had several occasions to watch them in action while she was here. They are always entertaining, to say the least, and she loved getting acquainted with them.

We took her out to a farm to pick blueberries one day; she said it was the first time she had ever picked blueberries. We picked about twenty pounds of them and then came home and made jam.

The next day we let her rest a bit as we drove up to Anacortes and walked on the ferry to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. While there we had lunch, toured the museum, and enjoyed the beautiful blue skies and water. It was a lovely day for a ferry ride.

Chuck took her to the Gold Rush Museum in downtown Seattle and of course we took her to Pike's Market -- a must attraction for anyone visiting here. We kept her busy and I'll bet she needs a bit of rest now that she is home.

Bell Ringers

Feet flat on the floor to reach the bell

Only the tips of her toes on the floor

On the back of the front door to our house in Shoreline, there is a thin red rope with little brass bells tied to it. It was not long before Emmett noticed the bells (they both notice EVERYTHING!) and he tried to reach the bottom bell. It wasn't long before he could stretch far enough to actually put his little hand on it and give it a swing, which made all the other bells ring. Each time they visit, he goes and gives that bell a swing or two. Now he barely has to stretch at all to reach it.

So the other day he went to swing the bell and I grabbed my camera to try and get a photo of him. Of course I was too late, so I tried to coax him into doing it again for me. He did it once but again I missed it. (He moves really fast!) I again asked him to ring the bells; he didn't. Maggie was watching and listening to this conversation and all of a sudden she got up off the floor and walked toward the door. She put her hand on the door for stability and reached up (with just her toes on the carpet) and rang the bells! Yes, I missed the actual second or two her hand was on the bell, but SHE DID IT! You can see by the photos that she is a couple of inches shorter than Emmett, but she can stretch! I applauded her accomplishment and she was quite pleased with herself, as if she were saying, "I can do that too!"

Teeth Brushing

If I could just get this CAP off...

To reinforce yesterday's comments about the kids liking "non-toys," I submit this photo. The last time I spent the night at G&H's, Emmett woke up early so I snatched him out of his crib and took him down to the basement to play. Instead of toys, I tossed him an open Ziplock bag which contained all my toiletries. Of course he got right into it and took everything out, including my toothbrush and toothpaste.

Heather has been introducing them to that bedtime task for a few weeks now. She puts some toothpaste on their tiny little toothbrushes and lets them brush their own teeth for a few minutes and then she "helps" them do a proper job of it. So Emmett knew exactly what to do with the toothbrush and toothpaste.

THAT WAS EASY!

Did you really mean to give this to ME?

I LOVE this big red circle thingy

It's my turn, so I'll just take it, okay?

That was easy!

These two little people have a plethora of toys to choose from ... enough to keep them busy for several "play time"sessions per day. But what they REALLY like to play with is a "non-toy," e.g., cell phone, car keys, remote control, digital camera, eye glasses (you have to beware once they start looking at your glasses -- they can snatch them off your face in an instant), laptop, or most any "not-for-babies" object that might accidentally be left within their reach. (Emmett has the LONGEST reach for such a little boy and he can STRETCH to the top of a cabinet to snatch something in an instant. Did I mention he doesn't easily give up on any task?)

So when Auntie Denise gave me a "non-toy" (remember the Staples TV commercials) to give to them to play with they were so pleased! Emmett didn't even know what to do with it, but he instantly knew it was a treasure -- an adult thing that was being handed to him. The look on his face was priceless. I showed him how to press the big button, but it was too hard to press for such little hands so he didn't try to press it much at first -- he just carried his treasure around the room with a great big smile on his face. (He later learned to step on it to make it work.)

Well, Maggie noticed that he had something, so she decided to check it out. I showed her the press-the-button-hear-some-words routine but her index finger wasn't quite strong enough either. (She uses her index finger to press EVERYTHING, point to EVERYTHING) but it was only a couple of minutes until she had mastered the "hold-with-both-hands-press-with-both-thumbs" method of getting the guy to proclaim his message (it's loud). And ... she figured out that she didn't have to wait until he was entirely FINISHED saying those 3 words before she could press it again ... and again ... and again.... Funny, but after that first day I never saw that big red button again .... Heather??? Greg???

Blueberries!

Lots of people on their way OUT while we were going in.

Chuck picking berries -- IN a row -- not much room to walk

No problem finding ripe berries

Weighing my box

Chuck's box was a bit fuller than mine

Mmmmm...

One of my favorite books that I checked out of the library when I was a kid was Blueberries for Sal. ( I have a copy of it which I will read to my GRANDS one of these days.) Right now there are WAY too many words per page -- especially for Maggie. She wants just a few words per page and then wants to turn the page; Emmett will allow a few more words before he wants to go do something else. Heather gets books for them from the library and they both love to sit down and read books -- and we love reading to them. We ask Emmett to go get a book to read and he will go find one of his favorites; Maggie will respond to the same request -- usually bring a different book that is her favorite. We are amazed at how well they understand what we say to them.

So why am I talking about that book? Keep reading. Today I decided I would do some sewing -- that was "Plan A." Then I remembered that Chuck wanted to go and pick blueberries. So I looked in our little "U-pick" catalog and noticed that Mountainview Blueberry Farm was open today -- still in the 1st picking -- so off we went north to Snohomish (Plan B). It wasn't exactly like the hill in the book, but it sure had lots of delicious berries.

When we first arrived at the address, we thought there wasn't a crowd; only one car in the parking lot -- then we drove down the hill, following the "parking" signs and we were amazed -- LOTS of people were out on this cool cloudy morning to pick blueberries. We got our buckets and off we went. It was a little jaunt into the field, but once we got there we were surprised to see how many berries were on the bushes. They were LOADED. There were so many berries that the vines were all drooped over into the rows. It was hard to even make our way into the rows. We found out that we wouldn't have to move very far to pick all the blueberries we wanted. Just stop, pick up a branch from the ground, and start filling the bucket. So nice!

After about 45 minutes I had picked 4 pounds of berries and my little can was full. I told Chuck I was ready to go. When we came out of the row, he had picked TEN pounds of berries in the same amount of time. Okay, so he's an experienced berry picker. When he was a kid he was paid to pick berries. He thinks he got 5-cents for every quart of raspberries he picked. And some days he picked all day long. Well, when I was in high school I detassled corn! (Only mid-westerners have probably heard of that term.) So I guess I do have SOME farming experience.

So now we have about 14 pounds of blueberries. We will eat some (we already ate some while we were picking -- there were some REALLY big ones and oh-so -sweet. I think I will make some blueberry jam, freeze some for blueberry pancakes and maybe make a pie. And share some with Roger ( "Denise doesn't even like them).

Future Ballet Dancer?

Maggie has decided it's time to quit crawling and start walking -- Heather said Maggie would do it when she had mastered it to her personal standards (and when she was good and ready). And that's the way it happened. She's been walking for a week now and rarely crawls.

The photo above was taken a week ago, when she was visiting us. She definitely loves her G'pa and when she sees him she puts out one arm in his direction and utters her little high-pitched staccato "hum!" -- which we translate as: "get over here and pick me up." She uses that particular form of communication often to tell anyone within earshot numerous unrelated requests. For instance, she is holding a little toy duck in this photo that makes a loud "quack-quack-quack" noise (3 sets of 3 quacks!) when you hit it on a hard surface. She loves it; and as soon as it quits quacking (or even on the second set of quacks), she holds it out to you, gives you her "hum!" and wants you to do it again for her. This can go on for quite some time until she gets distracted and moves on to another toy; or YOU distract her because you can't stand to hear it one more time.

Seafair and the Blue Angels

two up, two down!

I think everyone who lives in northwest Washington knows about Seafair. It's been going on for 60 years and it all began as a plan to celebrate Seattle's centennial in 1951-1952. Ever since then it has grown from one parade and boat races to neighboring communities getting in on the action by planning additional activities such as marathons, festivals, pow-wows, parades, car shows, fairs, concerts and any other excuse a community might come up with to celebrate summer and make some money. (Not many tourists visit Seattle in the winter :) This year the celebration lasts from June 27-August 2.

SO ... we decided to see what it was all about by going to see the Navy Blue Angels yesterday afternoon. We WISELY took a shuttle to the event; we noticed there wasn't a single parking space for miles around the event on Lake Washington. People were dragging chairs, coolers, kids, cameras, sun glasses, and hats to sit on the shores of the lake. We stopped on our way to the shoreline to partake in some "fair food." I am sure we exceeded our fat grams allowance for all next week on a "brick" of fresh-cut french fries -- oh, so good...

I didn't lug my "big" camera along with me, so it was not easy to get any good pics of these guys thundering over us, but I did get a couple for the blog. For those interested, these guys (and one gal) fly F/A-18 Hornets. I tried to get a shot of two jets playing "chicken," but as you can imagine, my camera was not nearly quick enough for that (or I wasn't smart enough to click early enough!). It was an impressive show; unusual that they perform over water and hard to believe how close they fly to each other.

Unlike the past week, it was ONLY in the low 80's during the air show. And we were sitting in the SHADE, right by the water, so it was very pleasant. I won't tell you about the ride in the NOT-air-conditioned school bus on the way back to the parking lot. Does the term " bumper-to-bumper-" or stop-and-go-traffic give you any idea?