2 year Well Baby Appointment

Gus, aka The Green Lantern, had his 2 year old well baby appointment. He weighed 25 1/2 pounds which is 15th percentile for weight. His percentile dropped from the last check up. He measured 35 inches tall or 68th percentile...a significant jump from last time. Since he suddenly has no round belly and he usually does AND he is having a hard time getting comfy the last week or so when we sit in the rocker, I suspect he just got taller all of a sudden.
he has 50+ words and understands when people speak to him and points and engages with people and whatnot. He can move and run and climb and such. So...nothing at all to report. Normal across the board. The doctor was not concerned with his weight percentile drop since he still happily eats a variety of fruits and veggies and seems to have shot up in height. We assume the next round of growth will be some weight instead of height to balance it out.
As we were finishing up he started on the "Why?" routine. The doc thought he was a little early for that. I've been thinking we were on the downward slope of the whys because it's been non-stop for a couple of months now. It's hard to judge what is typical because Reese really just had his Why? phase immediately before Gus started...so significantly later than typical I guess.
A highlight of the visit was no shots. So all in all a great report. Gus is doing everything he is supposed to and nothing he is not.

Menu Plan Monday

Even though I have been a blog slacker I do always have my menu plan on the dry erase calendar. It is my intent to keep up with regular blogging for the rest of the year. My poor Gus will look back at his 18-24 month old period and wonder why I barely have photos or info about his life. So, in an effort to stick with my plan I am back to posting the menu. I promise to have more cute photos of Reese and Gus on Tuesday.

MONDAY: tortellini and peas --- 2yr well baby appt.
TUESDAY: Trader Joe's Chipotle Flat Iron Steak, homemade steak fries, broccoli/cauliflower/carrot medley
WEDNESDAY: Pork Loin, scalloped potatoes, lima beans (Gus' new favorite)
THURSDAY: Burgers on the grill, baked beans, broccoli
FRIDAY: Spicy Napa Cabbage with Soba noodles and pork stir fry (leftover from the loin) from the Food Matters cookbook
SATURDAY: GUS' BBQ BIRTHDAY Guy Fieri Tri tip from Costco (hopefully it's good), Macaroni Salad, Baked Beans and PW's Iced Coffee

You can get ideas from other people at Organizing Junkie.

TWO!

Gus is TWO years old today! He is growing so fast. Five more pounds and he'll catch up to Reese. He says a zillion words, loves cars and trucks, motorcycles, trains, puzzles, Little People, superhero suits and especially playing outside. Of course he also wants to play whatever Reese is playing.

This was way back on Day One.

He's wearing his cow suit at about 3 months old.

Cute cue ball at 6 months.

One year old!

At 18 months old he went to his first Children's museum visit.

Sit and spin at about 21 months.

Right before going to bed for the very first time as a two year old.
I can't believe this sweet boy has been here two years already. Gus is so sweet and cuddly and becoming just a little bit ornery too. We sure do love this boy.

Mukilteo Lighthouse

Over the Memorial Day weekend we visited the Mukilteo Lighthouse. The Coast Guard gave the lighthouse to the city about 10 years ago. Now a group of volunteers mans the lighthouse on weekends and holidays so you can tour the grounds and lighthouse.

This is the lighthouse building. There is also the keeper's home currently being used for storage of archives and the assistant keeper's home which is now the gift shop. The gift shop also houses a historical time line of the lighthouse.

It's a "short" lighthouse, so it was easy for Reese and Gus to climb the stairs to the top. Here's Gus and Daddy out on the landing.

In the background are Whidbey and Camano Islands.

This is the lens currently in use. It has an itty bitty 50 watt bulb. All the reflective mirrors are what make the light bright enough for boats to see.

This is an old lens circa 1895 that was salvaged from a fire. Once upon a time they put candles in the center.

Then we checked out the beach. This rock came home with us.
Reese would have liked to throw every single rock on the beach in the water, but then there would be nothing under us since the "beach" is really nothing but rocks.
He toned down the enthusiasm a bit and then chose very specific rocks to throw.
We watched the ferry pull out for Clinton, Whidbey Island.
It turned out to be a really nice sunny and warm day. The boys had a blast running all around the beach. We learned a lot of info about lighthouses. Did you realize lighthouses all have a unique signature of light? Mukilteo is 2 seconds lit up, 3 second pause. They also all have unique daymarks. It's how they look in the daylight so you can tell your position from sea. One of the few other lighthouses I've visited has a very distinct daymark. They have a cool passport program that gives you stamps in your passport and patches for visiting lighthouses. I am excited to do it when the boys are a little older. We had a really fun day!

IMAGINE!

We went to IMAGINE! Children's Museum in Everett last weekend. It is AWESOME! We totally want to move up there so we can go everyday! Seriously, it was that cool. There was so much we couldn't do everything. The rooftop is an outdoor play area.

ALL the boys enjoyed the dinosaur bone area. There's a huge dino skeleton as well as smaller bones on the ground covered in rubber mulch for excavating.

They really enjoyed digging out the bones.

Gus enjoyed collecting all the shovels best though. I'm hoping this is an effort to clean up, not be a hoarder.

Inside the bank vault is an area with steel plate money thing. You use money shaped paper to make a dollar bill rub.

There's a giant sized connect 4 style game using big coins.

They have a cool black light glow room. All the building shapes are transparent neon acrylic. It also has a big "light brite" style wall. Super cool.

This is Reese on the screen. The colors change as you move around. We spent a lot of time jumping around like Spiderman in this room.

This is the front half of a real bus. You can walk up the stairs and drop in your fare. The driver's seat has all the controls and a working microphone so Reese could instruct his passengers to "move on back."

We spent the bulk of our time up on the rooftop. It has about 7 or 8 slides on the playground.

The boys tried out the big musical instrument area.

Reese got into it a little bit more than Gus.

Reese took off up this climbing wall like a pro. I think this may have been his highlight.

Gus really liked the slides best.

We will definitely be going back. I wish it was a little bit closer. We are considering buying a membership, but there's no way to know if Kyle will work in Everett again, so...how much will we use it? 80 miles is pretty far for a play day at a place that closes at 5pm. Perhaps if we ever become morning people we could get there in a timely fashion. :)

Summer Movies

So probably not appropriate, but we took Reese to see Thor. I was really nervous that we'd be those people that brought a way too little kid to the theater that would annoy the other movie patrons. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to focus on the movie because of all the judging eyes boring a hole into my bad parent back. But the theater was packed with way too little to watch a PG13 movie boys. Reese was so excited to wear his Thor helmet and carry his Thor hammer in the movie theater.
He was also really excited about movie popcorn (see his mouth full?) and soda. It was a fun treat for him. Now he can't for Green Lantern, Captain America, Cars2, Kung Fu Panda 2 and his lost goes on and on.

Spring Fluke

We did actually have a couple of warm days. I even popped the a/c on for a moment when it hit 73 and I wanted to vacuum without roasting. But it was totally a fluke. We are back to wretched weather. In the few hot warm moments the boys like to use their water guns. We've been using those cheapie tiny ones that you'd get in a bulk package of 3 for $1 for party favors. I can't stand refilling them every 45 seconds. So a search for guns that could really hold some water was in order.
Reese is using the Scatter Blaster to water my plants.
Gus is trying to get a handle on the Point Break model. It holds 6 ounces of water, so it's a little front heavy for him. he can make it work though.
Reese moved on from the plants to Gus... ... who is not pleased with this turn of events.
Then we moved on to trying to shoot the water over the fence. They will do this as long as I will refill the water. I can't wait for more hot days so we can actually use these.