Museum of Flight on Father's Day

We had a lovely Sunday celebrating the wonderfulness of Michael and also the wonder of giant pieces of metal speeding through air and space. If you've never been to the Museum of Flight and are interested in airplanes or spacecraft, I'd recommend it. They have everything from early propellors fashioned from wood to cutting edge space technology to all kinds of cool vintage planes in between.


The centerpiece of the museum is an enormous room filled with gargantuan, gorgeous airplanes, some on the ground and others suspended midair, as if in flight. When we first entered the room and descended the stairs down to this main floor of planes, Rosalie took my hand and steered me right back upstairs immediately. I went along with it, in no hurry. Then she said, in a tiny voice, "I'm scared they're going to get me." OH! Oh, yeah. Wouldn't you be?

I explained that the airplanes would not be able to move because a) they were not turned on, and b)there weren't any people in the pilot's seat. After that she relaxed quite a bit, especially when I showed her an empty pilot's seat through a window, but she was sort of glazed over for most of the trip. It was a lot to take in, especially if you can't read. She was a champ the whole time. It just LOOKS like we were dragging her around in the pic below. She was actually posing!



There was a kid's area that had petite airplanes, though, and she liked that part the best. She was able to get into a small, vintage plane, control the rudders,


and also the flaps.



All in all it was educational for me and Michael... and Rosalie had a great nap afterward. Happy Father's Day!

Camping!

This weekend was our very first camping trip together as a family. It was an enormous success! We went to Lake Wenatchee State Park and camped with another family and some friends of theirs (and four dogs total). Rosalie slept great in the tent for bedtime and naps (no comment about the parents. How did the ground get so hard, anyway?).

On the trip over we saw some beautiful small mountains/large hills, and there were some low clouds embracing one mountain like a huge, gossamer tutu. I pointed it out to her, and she commented, "Steam!" Yes, I said, clouds do look like steam. They are both made of water vapor. "Water Paper?!?" she said. "No..." as if to say, "Silly Mommy." Good point. Why would a mountain have water paper?

She had just learned a lot about camping concepts/vocab at her school, because camping had been the theme. It was so cool to see her identify things: "It's our campsite!" "Here come the marshmallows! So happy!" Back at home we had already set up the tent in the back yard and had practiced taking shoes off before going into the tent, so she knew what to do there.

When we first arrived we did have to do one safety time-out in the carseat, because she was raring to go and explore, and we needed to set the tent up before dark. After that, she was very responsive to us when we asked her to stop and come back or change directions. But wow, she was into looking around.

On our semi-old-growth forest hike, Rosalie kept looking around and saying, "It's amazing!" We also worked on a new word for what we were seeing: Gorgeous. But really, it was amazing. She was a real trailblazer on the hike, walking ahead of us and urging us on. She stayed on the trail for the most part. She seems to have a knack for hiking! This was a day for repetition; she sang the ABC song on that hike approximately 20 times. At one point our friend Robert asked her how quickly she could sing the ABC song, and it essentially made her sing it louder and more aggressively, punk-rock style. For some reason we didn't see any wildlife anywhere during this hike.

During lake time, she and her friend Tyler were making a "lake" by filling a hole in the beatch with water they gathered from the (really cold, snow-fed) lake. She was very brave, walking further and further out into the water with each trip, and was up to her chest near the end. On that last trip, she tripped on the way back to shore and dunked underwater--when Michael grabbed her out, she was not coughing and spluttering--looks like her swimming lessons paid off in good breath control underwater! After that exciting, bracing moment, she opted to fetch shallower waters for the rest of beach time.

This is unrelated to camping, but the other night she was making pyramids (by herself!) with paper cups. She kept saying something like "Dow cat" over and over again. "It's dowcat! It's really dowcat." She was saying it in an instructive tone. What was she saying about this thing she was building? Oh! Delicate! We agreed. "It's really delicate."

By the way, in this picture, she's holding some beads she found on the ground at the campsite. We found almost a whole bracelet's worth of beads there.

Big Girl

Wow, so much has happened and I just need to get something written here! Sorry the posts have been so absent lately.

Today, though...today was monumental: Our girl went pee-pee on her potty for the first time! I am so excited for all concerned.

Also in first-time news, Rosalie had her first haircut a few weeks ago. Wow, it's almost already time for another one! We go two plus years without any of that, and then suddenly she has official bangs, and we've got some cuteness maintenance to do.


Rosalisms:

Michael: What does a robot say?
Rosalie: (in monotone robot voice): "WOBOT-WOBOT."

Reported from the backseat on Monday: "My feel happy and sad." ("My" means "I" in case you haven't figured that out). I could be wrong, but it seems really sophisticated to be aware of conflicting emotions and also be able to report them. Wow.

The other day Rosalie was being uncooperative during diaper change with Michael (i.e., flailing around), until Michael told her that her flailing was making him very angry. Awhile later he was giving her a bath, and I overheard their conversation from the kitchen:
Michael: Rosalie made it hard to change diapers today. It made Daddy angry."
Rosalie: I sorry.
Michael: Ohhh...thank you Rosalie! I forgive you. I love you.
Rosalie: I love you too.
(Sound of parents' hearts melting)
Later on she was very cooperative with Michael on the changing pad.

I am blown away by her moments of awareness like that. Like where she seems to really understand how her actions fit in the world.

Sometimes when she's having a struggle with a friend over a toy and the friend starts to get really upset, she changes her mind and hands it to the friend to make him/her feel better. That really touches me. Maybe every kid does this, but it doesn't make it any less profound. It's like, HUMANITY, you know? She's exercising her awareness as a compassionate human. Oh, I'm so proud.

Put that together with today's pee in the potty and I'm pretty much busting my buttons.