Dino times

Bill and I have picked up on Collin’s interest in dinosaurs. He loves the How do dinosaurs learn their colors book and he makes a cute dino impression—with the hand gestures. So I had great intentions of making him a homemade dino costume for Halloween.

I even found the McCalls pattern. However, Bill found this costume for less than the cost of fabric. So I decided to save my energy for future costumes when Collin might remember, and better appreciate my effort.

Unfortunately, he didn't share our excitement about the costume. See for yourself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dB6oP0cGNs

Dance party

Every morning and evening this week Collin has turned the house into a dance party. It has been the highlight of my morning all week!It’s so fun to watch him groove and I love that he doesn’t care about my lack of rhythm. Easy jazz, classical, alternative, reggae—he vibes them all and just shakes it.

Bill and I have tried to get a video but it just hasn’t worked yet. Stay tuned.

The tail end of summer

Now that it is September Seattle is finally getting some sunny days. It makes me think of all the spots I wanted to see so far but haven’t gotten to. Here they are:

• Take a ferry to Victoria BC and visit the Butchart Gardens
• Woodland Park Zoo
• Pacific Science Center (I even have a coupon for this one, it expires in November which creates a sense of urgency that might cause me to act)
• Stay in a Yurt
• Get reservations to stay at the Kennedy School

You said what?

Here’s a list of words the little boys can accurately say in no particular order:
Cook, cracker, bird, car, walk, shoes, socks, milk, mama, dada, plane, no, bye-bye, moo (for any barn animal), ruff (for any dog or kitten), ‘side (for outside), shhh (when sleepy), vroom (for any car, truck or van driving by)

Barnyard buddies

There are many benefits to having a child. One of them is beating the crowds since you wake up early even on the weekends. We used this to our benefit last weekend when going to the Puyallup Fair. We were early enough to shimmy into free street parking, yes—an extra $15 to spend on Fair Food!

Collin loved the real life barnyard animals and managed to not hurt any of the sheep or goats in the petting barn. Bill packed Collin around in our new child carrier. Collin had the benefit of height to see over the animal stalls and we had the benefit of mobility to snake through the crowds.

Calculate your solar energy potential

Becoming ‘off the grid’ is an ongoing discussion for us. We aren’t in a hurry since 1) technology keeps improving and therefore pricing goes down and 2) we aren’t settled enough in life to start investing that much in our house.

We are both excited to rent an Earthship and get some inspiration for the future. I just tinkered with RoofRay a free tool to calculate solar potential of an existing roof using Google maps, perhaps Washington isn't the best location for solar power.