Testing out...

...blogging using BlogIt

Another view of the addition

with the shed for perspective

The state of the house addition

hopefully we'll get a roof next week.

Honkin'

Rollin'...

... but only backwards - five gears in reverse.

At the Delridge Mini Gym

Addition Update

Things are starting to take shape -- with wall framing taking place.





Here's the hallway that's being built outside Sofian's west-facing window; we'll be replacing that window with a doorway so the boy has ready access to the addition where our master bedroom will be.

 

Sunny Day in Seattle

We're getting into the gray and drizzly season (which last about 6 months), so when the sun came out this morning and the weather sites promised a warm morning, we decided to head out to Queen Anne. Our first stop was Urban Kids Play, a kid's store that has a good selection of shoes as well as loads of toys from our fave toy maker (Plan Toys). We stored some toy ideas for Christmas, but we did get the boy some cool new shoes. He liked them enough to ask for them later in the day.

After our shopping was done, we headed over to the kids' playground at Queen Anne Park and had a pretty good time... not playing on any of the equipment. Rather, Sofian preferred to do a lot of rock walking.









Altough, Papa was able to convince SoSo to go down the slide once.



And we did make a pitstop in the sand pit:

 

Better Under Construction Photo

don't know what my iPhone was doing in that last one.

Under Construction

The crew put up a tarp this morning due to the return of Seattle rain.
It's beginning to look like the skeleton of an addition.

Sofian at Ercolini Park

The world may have changed, but it's just another day for the boy.

Do We Still Love Our Child?

That's a question you might have asked yourself lately, since there haven't been any substantive blog posts for over a month (though I have tried to upload an occasional photo from the iPhone while on the go). It's been a very, very busy period here at the LemonDrop, as the last month has been focused on finalizing things for the construction of our addition. I'm happy to say that we chose a contractor and started construction in earnest about two weeks ago. To celebrate, he had some folks over for a ground-breaking party where we also collected items for a time capsule.

Here's everyone who could make it to the party:



Our contractor, Dan, started out doing some excavation:



And this Friday, the concrete truck came to pour the first layer of foundation -- Sofian had a great time with that (and even got to sit in the truck for awhile):





Sofian has also been very busy with going to pre-school once a week. It's a co-op pre-school that's run out of the local community college, so that means that the parents are there in class with the child and helping out with tasks and board duties (I'm the secretary). There are a number of different play areas that they can try out (including a water table for splashing fun), and there's also some singing and snacking together. Sounds like the boy is doing very well and enjoying himself. We also have him going to a Y gym class so he can move around all sorts of obstacles, and we're probably going to have him return to the pool when the next session starts in the next few weeks.

Here he is at the co-op pre-school class:



And, of course (and, even more in these days of economic meltdown, thankfully), I've been busy, busy, busy with freelancing duties, trying to make sure we can complete our addition project and keep us in organic produce.

So, that's what we've been up to in the recent past. I'll try to be slightly more regular with the posting, especially with progress on the addition.

And if I don't get to posting, be sure to check our Flickr photostream as I'll also try to post pictures more often there (and remember, not every picture that gets posted there gets posted here, so check it out).

 

Checking out the passing cars...

... while waiting at the car wash.

18 month stats

Went in for Sofian's 18 month wellbchild check up and get a couple of
shots. He's doing really well and is pretty darn healthy and happy.
The boy is 34 inches tall and he weighs 26.88 pounds - which
translates to the 90th and 60th percentiles respectively.

In the Bath

Mama and Sofian at Kubota Gardens

Our Picasso of the Magna Doodle

These are all the scribblings of our young artist. I'm sure he knew
exactly what he was going for.

Beating the Heat

We're having a heat wave here in Seattle, with several days in the upper 80s/mid 90s, and Mama doesn't do so well with the heat now that she's a bona fide Pacific Northwesterner. So after Sofian got up from his nap, we headed to some air conditioning in the form of the Museum of Flight -- our first visit there. We've heard a lot of great things aboug it, especially from our pals Glenn and Lynn, whose boys have made it a favorite destination. We were hoping SoSo would take to it, and he certainly did, as the pics and vids below show.











After the museum, we headed down the the nearby Georgetown area of Seattle to our favorite pizza place, Stellar, which also offers some outside seating -- a favorite activity of Sofian's during the summer as he gets to watch a cavalcade of wheeled vehicles. (Mama and Papa also found a new favorite place -- Full Throttle Bottles, which sells loads of our favorite foreign and microbrew beers; we left with some Brother Thelonious -- Parie's new favorite -- and Laughing Buddha.)



And we ended the day with a nice cool bath.

 

Sofian at the Museum of Flight

and loving it.

Some of the new track

and we've got a lot more.

Puzzles at the library

construction-themed, of course

Checking out the new tracks

Scored a load of tracks and trains off of Craigslist this morning. I
think we'll have enough to tide us over for awhile.

Catching Up

Last night was a return of the old Sofian, where he was having some severe problems getting to sleep (brought on possibly/probably by his parents feeding him too much pizza at dinner) and I decided to drive the boy around to get him to sleep. Well, it wasn't a slam dunk. Usually, the car gets him to sleep pretty quickly, but last night it took 90 minutes. Got to see a lot of Seattle. And catch up on some podcasts. But he didn't get to sleep until very late (well after 11pm). And I've just gotten an update from the LemonDrop that he's refusing to take a nap today as well, so I might be headed home early to help with that.

Things are progressing in talks with two contractors about the upcoming addition to the house. Both are coming in with higher bids than we hoped (no surprise there), and Parie is going to take some time to try and sort out where we can try to save some money by cutting things out of the plans.

Here are some vids of the boy checking out his new ride-on recycling truck (the box calls it a garbage truck, but we like to think green around the LD):

 

On the merry-go-round at Ercolini Park

Funking up at the Sharon Jones Concert

Last night we went over to the Zoo, one of our fave Seattle destinations, for an early evening concert by Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, a modern R&B group that does soul like they were playing for the Stax label back in the late '60s. (Check out their MySpace page for some tuneage samples.) We met up with the Carlson clan (Jeff and Kim and their daughter Ellie), and had a pretty darn good time hanging out and digging the music. Sofian also did a pretty good job at keeping himself contained to our blanket on the grass. We did get up with him a couple of times to go for walks, but when the music was playing we did enough entertaining to prevent him from invading the neighboring blankets.

Here are a couple of great shots captured by Jeff and his spiffy Digital SLR:

 

At ZooTunes...

...with Jeff & Kim & Ellie, attending the Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings
concert.

Today's train track (25 July)

Today's train track (24 July)

Nature boy

At the park today, Sof seemed more interested in hanging out in the
tall grasses than playing in the sandpit or on the play structures.

Today's train track (24 July)

Set this up while the boy was napping. Got the new suspension bridge
parts this morning. Seems I'm becoming a train addict.

Obama Boyz

New Skill: Making faces

Yesterday, the boy decided that he really liked to make a new face, where he smiled as he scrunched up the rest of his visage. We tried to capture it as best we could, but hopefully he'll keep doing it and we can get it on video.

Practicing the delicate art of drinking from a cup

The train track from 22 July

Big boy in jeans

Train track - 23 July

I'm pretty proud of this design. Going forward, I'm hoping to document
the various track designs Parie and I come up with each morning. (Yes,
the train is technically the boy's toy, but we have a lot of fun with
it, too.)

Walking at The Junction

Out to Breakfast

Usually, Sunday means it's Waffunday at the LD, but today we decided to breakfast out at Easy Street Records.

It'a good to be home

Visiting Babe with Harry

The World's Most Dangerous Polka Band...

...at Nye's Polynaise Room on Mpls. Dad's Night Out (me, DGA and Ward)

Thinking about my next move...

Menacing clouds in Minnesota

OK, this isn't about the boy, but thought I'd share these gathering
thunderstorm clouds from Minneapolis. I'm here this weekend to visit
my Grandfather as well as see some college pals from far-flung places.