Winter in Seattle..and Kat's First Steps

Kat finally took her first steps today!! She's taken to screaming while standing on her own, she's so excited. But a few times today, we got her to walk from one of us to the other. She did great and will probably be running tomorrow..... Good thing, her physical therapy appointment of last week was cancelled when the school district was closed (though we never had snow that day). Our schools have now had 4 snow days, so far. Lucky kids who will have lots to make up for.

Kat, giving Boo the empty pop bottle. It's his (self-proclaimed) job to remove the lids from all bottles. So she hands them to him. And then tries to help him, which forces him to move all over the room to try to get away from her and her "assistance".

This is what winter should look like. Of course there are thousands of people stuck at the airport (and likely those all over the country, as winter has announced its presence with authority), the bus station, the train station. SO GLAD to not be traveling this year. Staying home and warm sounds so much more fun than sleeping in airports, etc.

Dan, Kat, Bob and the sled team.

Heidi and the team. I actually have walked both dogs in the snow, with the stroller (and Kat) by myself. It is way less fun than it appears.

Kat enjoyed the outing, she was having a great time--at least until some unnamed four-legged critter took her rice cake out of her barely-functional mittened hands. Then there was crying. That shortened the walk.

Dan had Kat and I had the boys. Though they did assist with the stroller on the uphill segments.

Ahhhh winter........ We're loving the 4WD vehicles- this dude might have liked one, too.

Our house in snow. No branches down, so far.

The boys at the dogpark in fresh snow- they have waited THREE YEARS for winter to arrive! They were so excited to be romping in the snow at long last.

Love Boo's ears.


The river at the dogpark, in snow.

This is what happens when roads/cities are shut down for a few days.....I was driving down a closed road (wasn't closed where I came in) and I encountered these two characters running down the road like they owned the place.

Snow in Seattle

Sorry about the delay in posting pics. I think that laziness is the only excuse.

Kat's xmas pics. She wanted to make sure you got to see the entire outfit that Grandma gave her.


A better view.

Awwww.

So cute.

Isn't this what you do with your own kid-sized table and chairs? (She's sitting on the table).

Last Sunday we headed to the mountains to take our family picture. There had been little snow before then. On that day, it was +14F, with a bitter wind chill. This was poor little Kat's introduction to snow. Lucky little girl. Once we got up there, we kept the car running with the heat cranked up. We stuffed her in her little Columbia snowsuit and boots (that are too big to walk in, not that she wants to walk). We threw her on the sled, I snapped 2 pics with the timer and we stuffed her back in the car where she then watched the idiot twins prance around in the snow, no doubt wondering exactly what she had signed on for.

Since her intro to snow was so brief, AND since we then got 6" of snow here in Bellevue on Thursday, we thought we'd let Kat have a better look at the white stuff. You can see how impressed she was with the experience.

I thought I saw a smile when Dan was pulling her on the sled and she was moving at a good clip. I may have been wrong, cause we saw no other sign of it.

Modeling her snowsuit and fleece hat and mitts indoors. I think she preferred that.

The "baby power" fist bump with daddy.

I know it's mortifying. I really feel terrible every time I put the pink fleece bear suit on her. I swear I do. But it's the only one that fits and did I mention that we have snow and cold here (currently 27F outside), despite this being Seattle?

This is like a double whammy...the bear suit IN baby prison. The poor kid, we should start therapy now. This is not a regular occurrence.

And this....is a crib tent. My mother thinks it's only fair that Kat climbs out of the crib, as apparently I wouldn't stay in it after 9 mths. Luckily, in the 2 decades since I did it, someone invented this. Now she can bounce to her heart's content and we don't have to worry about her escaping. I think.

In Dan's office- for Toddler's xmas lunch.

Despite not being officially winter for another 1/2 day, most of the country is getting snow, ice and cold, losing power and having miserable winter weather. We are as well. It's cold here, has been below freezing all week and we got 6" of snow yesterday. For those of you who have been here, you can imagine how fun the driving is with snow and ice on all of the hills. Not to mention being surrounded by folks who have NO IDEA how to drive in winter conditions. The forecast is for more cold, more snow AND wind gusts of 70-90mph. The last time we had wind gusts like that was 2 years ago, just before x-mas and due to the volume of giant trees that went down, taking power lines with them, we had no power for 8 days. It was mid-40s outside (and inside), and we didn't have to worry about keeping Kat warm. It should be interesting tomorrow through Sunday. I really hope we don't lose power.

California for Thanksgiving

Well, as we had just been in Buffalo, we found good airfares to LA and decided to head south for Thanksgiving week, in the hope that they would have sun there. They had some.

I have no idea what setting the camera was on, but I thought this was actually kind of cool.
The Queen Mary. We decided to check it out. The ghost tour was pretty hokey. The rest was cool, but a lot has changed since the 1930s.

Our only family picture from the trip.

Dan and Kat.

One of the propellers on the Queen Mary.

Part of the Queen Mary.

A giant panda (and baby in a later frame) at the San Diego Zoo.

The baby.

Mom again. They are so cool.

The mountain lion. It was hanging out in the back of the cage. Then the lady in the wheelchair approached and it flew over to the corner that she was coming to. It didn't react at all to strollers, but seems to sense weakness in the wheelchair. I have seen a similar reaction in a mountain lion, maybe it was at the Calgary Zoo. Only a little creepy. But really, really interesting. It was growling at her.

Dan and Kat waiting for the bus at Bubba Gumps.....

Dan swinging Kat with the Santa Monica pier in the background. We really, really, liked that beach.

Hollywood Dan and Kat (she has her shades in her hand, wouldn't actually wear them) on the Santa Monica pier.

Kat experiencing the (cold) waves in sequence....she didn't much care for them.

Dan holding her high after dipping her feet.

Kat in front of John Wayne's hand/footprints at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in DT LA.

It kind of looks like Times Square. Except for the palm trees.

CRAP! These beach pics are in the wrong order. At the bottom is the pre-sand-covered Kat. The top pics are of her during and after she decided to see how sand tastes (apparently not so good).

Note the sand on the bottle. I cringe all over again looking at these pics. It took days to get all of the sand off/out of her.

This is the before pic. Damn she's cute.