This year has brought us a lot of changes. We’re in a new house that we’re sharing, the kids are growing at an alarming rate, and the days are filled with activity.
Our biggest change this year has been moving to Seattle, combining households with Shannon’s parents. Walker’s tastes in “interesting” places to live appears to come about even when he isn’t involved up-front, as Shannon, Ruth and Ellis picked out quite the place while he was off with Moira (but more on that later). We’ve long since stopped discovering new corners of the house we’d overlooked before, but that’s been replaced by discovering how many people we are able to accommodate for dinners or parties.
Davis has grown as one would expect of a newborn. He’s happy, playful, curious and determined. He is not easily distracted with simple tricks like handing him the broken remote control, or hiding something behind our backs. Lights, however, work very well as a distraction. He’s also proved quite proficient at biting and chewing before getting teeth - he quickly and eagerly gummed mochi to bits, and teeth have only made him more formidable.
He’s also exploring mobility, which is leading to gradual babyproofing of the house. Unlike his sister, he’s been content to crawl to get around the house. He takes a few steps on occasion, but drops to all fours when he really wants to get somewhere. His focus appears to be much more on climbing, opening drawers to serve as platforms for reaching greater heights, and navigating stairs.
For Moira, the challenges have been more with ballet, skiing and biking. The new house has given her more flat real estate on which to learn to pedal. Moving to Seattle has changed her options for classes, and we’re now able to get her into the ballet class she’s been asking for (along with Mandarin), and she graduated from the magic carpet to a ski lift earlier this year.
In February, to give Shannon a chance to bond with Davis, Walker took Moira to Disneyland for a week and a half. They had a great time, and Moira is very eager to go back. Several rides were too scary for her, so she’s saving them for when she can help Davis go on them. She was very taken with It’s a Small World and they went on it many, many times. While in the past, few adults would be willing to ride that nearly a dozen times over the course of a week, the dynamics of visiting a theme park change dramatically when you have a smartphone.
As noted, we’re now living with Shannon’s parents, and Moira loves being able to visit on a daily basis. There are more adults for her to play with and to read to her. She still greatly prefers to have books read to her rather than reading them herself, although she does occasionally read one to Davis. For those keeping track, our household grew 33% last year, and 50% this year. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
Shannon continued with her quilting group, helped with Norwescon organization, wrangled Davis in addition to keeping up with Moira’s activities, and continued with the co-op preschool group Moira is attending weekly.
For Walker, autocrossing wasn’t much of a thing this year, as the Porsche factory graciously repurchased his car after an issue with the transmission, enabling the purchase of the new house. It isn’t exactly clear what will happen with enabling the speed addiction, between autocrossing and Moira soon being old enough for a go-kart. Only time will tell...
Wishing you a happy and healthy 2013,
Walker, Shannon, Moira & Davis
No comments:
Post a Comment