Halloween 2014: A pirate and a fire fighter

This year Lydia is 1.  She is a one-year-old pirate.  She doesn't quite say "Arg!" but it's close.  She says "HI!" and "Dog-ghee" and "ma ma" and "Uh Oh" and probably 10 dozen other words that we don't recognize yet!

Dustin is 3. He is a three-year-old fire fighter. He has been so excited about this costume for a really long time.  I think we may attach the vacuum hose to a kid backpack for trick-or-treating tonight.  We tend to discourage play that involves guns and shooting, and I think that's part of his intrigue with fire fighters. He can squirt everything with water!  At some point I have to say that I'm not crazy about playing with imaginary squirting machines that squirt all the people in the house, but it still feels like a more comfortable premise to me than pretend-play with guns.

 

What Fun. Thanks to Heather for sending me these pictures while I'm at work!

Lydia just loves her bead necklaces. She will sit on the floor and put them on her head endlessly.  Then of course she struggles to get them off of her head, which is necessary to put them back on her head!  The boots came from Heather's sister-in-law, and they are perfect. The shirt actually fits Dustin, but it works!

You may have guessed that Dustin's face mask is some repurposed packaging.  It looks even better in real life than it does here. Although he has a fire fighter style jacket at home, this jacket came from our friend Bram, and it surpasses the other jacket!  It comes with a fire extinguisher and even a horn that sounds like a fire engine siren.  Dustin has been telling us for the past few weeks that he needs a fire truck to go with his costume.  We're working on that!

Now the only question is how to have fun trick-or-treating tonight and keep the sugar consumption in control!

Lydia's First Birthday!

We told ourselves we would be different. We would take just as many photos of the second child as the first child. We would be equally involved in the photo-documentation of our babies first years. We debated changing the name of this blog, since "GrowingDustin" rather focuses on Dustin and doesn't mention Lydia. Since their full names are Dustin Archer Kleiss and Lydia Autumn Kleiss, we thought about a blog title like "LAK and DAK."  But when you write it out: lakanddak.blogspot.com, it just looks like you're stuttering or dyslexic or you have frost-bit fingers on the keyboard. So here we are, on August 14th, 2014, on Lydia's first birthday!  And the last time you saw her on this blog she was peeking out of her pumpkin-colored Moby wrap at a mere 2-months of age.

Here's a joyous picture I snapped this morning. She was laughing and hollering and shouting. Dad was laying in bed, keeping an eye on things.  She found the ziploc bag that has his glasses cleaning supplies in it -- you can see all of the wet-wipes strewn across the floor. She has merrily turned the cleansing fluid into an aqueous rattle, and loves to shake it and hear the "whish! whish!" of the fluid inside!  And this is just 5 minutes of this active girl's day!

 I also took a little video of Lydia walking to me as I was on my way out the door to work.  She's getting better and better at walking!  Like many one-year-olds, walking is one of her favorite things.  If you let her hang onto your fingers, she will cruise with you all over the house and the yard, occasionally collapsing to her knees, but then climbing right back up to continue trekking. She still crawls to get where she really wants to go, which is usually FROM a place where she is alone TO a place with people! But when enticed, she loves to walk into your arms, as you see here.  Dustin is in the background (in white), as is Grant (in blue), who spends the days at our house with the nanny in a nanny share (more about our amazing nanny later!) You can see that the boys heard the call for hugs and kisses, and the video shuts out just as Grant beats Lydia to the finish line. It's OK - everyone got lots of hugs and kisses.  Although the pictures might be a bit shy for the second child, the hugs, kisses, and affection certainly is not!





 http://youtu.be/y_uZPHwh5yc

Pumpkin Patch!

It seems to be the Portland Trend to go to Pumpkin patches this time of year!  Here's a couple photos from our recent trip to Kruger Farm out on Sauvie Island. 

There was a dilapidated tractor near the pumpkin patch.
It gave us a good long time of entertainment.  Look at those wheels! 

A nice family picture while on the Hay Ride.  Lydia is incognito.

Here's a sneak peak at Lydia snoozing inside her pumpkin disguise.

Dustin in the pumpkin patch.  Looks forelorn, doesn't it? 

Here's the pumpkin we picked to take home with us.   

Jeff and Dustin in the hay ride

Grandma Jean encouraged Dustin to give the pony rides a try.  He warmed up to it. 

Meeting Baby Lydia

We were really glad to get home from the hospital, and we were welcomed home by Grandma and Dustin. To our surprise and enjoyment, Dustin was really excited to see his sister. We managed to capture the moment on video, so you can enjoy the moment also. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enJbYoqlHjE

Mud puddle jumping

Perhaps one of the best things about a Portland winter is the mud puddles!

Lesson to self:  When you go to the park, bring along a towel and a spare change of clothes.

Photos taken Feb. 23rd, 2013.

Pushing daddy's buttons

Here's a fun game Jeff & Dustin play, where the buttons on Jeff's shirt turn into actual Buttons, and Dustin can push them to get a reaction. It's hard to tell who is having more fun!  (but I think it's Dustin)

See the video here:
http://youtu.be/RoImnwPhJF0

Dustin is 19 months old in this video (taken Feb 19th, 2013)

Pictures From September

Here are some pictures from Sept. 2012 to share with you:

A pebbly beach on Puget Sound, at Ana Cortez. Shortly after this picture, Dustin went running into the water up to his ankles before mom could catch him.

Growing up to be a big, brown bear.

Playing with rose petals in a fountain at the rose garden.  By the end of this afternoon, Dustin's entire front side was soaking wet.  Getting wet is a common and fun past-time of ours.

How do you juggle rings that are wider in girth than you are in breadth?