Allison Sarah Bush was born 2 weeks premature on May 9th in 2005 at 2:53 AM at Overlake Hospital in Bellevue, WA. She weighed 6 lbs, 7 oz and measured 19.5 inches in length at birth.

Busy Month This has been an extraordinarily busy month. It started with Steve and I taking a much awaited cycling trip to Sicily. Indeed, it was a very hily ride; a common phrase from the guides was "gently rolling hills". We did a lot of low grade hills that kept going and a couple steeper climbs. I averaged 25-30-35 miles a day; Steve took a couple extra extensions. Unfortunately, due to rain and a high guide ratio (11:1), he wasn't able to complete a European century. But, we enjoyed a LOT of food during 3 hour lunches (seriously), wine and very nice hotels. We did some cool local tours - to watch a family make ricotta cheese, a walking tour, wine tastings and pasta making. Steve is working on publishing the Sicily pictures, the bike routes, etc. Right after we got back, we celebrated Steve's birthday, and I started up a consulting gig. The kids geared up for two Halloween parties and trick or treating. At school, the teachers requested that the kids dress up as people in the community. Allison chose to be a firefighter, and Katherine a doctor. After school, they turned into Tinkerbells for a potluck party and then trick or treating. Since Halloween, Katherine caught a bad cold circulating through her classroom - and stayed home from school for three days. She's still coughing a lot, occasionally having coughing spasms. Allison, Steve and I haven't caught it yet... Learning about World Affairs As part of Halloween and their world learning at school, the pre-elementary kids trick or treat for UNICEF. The teachers explained UNICEF in circle and provided the orange boxes to the kids. Allison came home proudly with her box and told us the following: Mom: Allison, do you know why your collecting money for UNICEF? Allison:  Because...some children don't have clean water. They will buy new pumps. If they drink dirty water, they will get sick. Katherine has been collecting money for a couple weeks from friends' parents - taking over $39 to school for UNICEF. The kids also have taken an interest in politics. Thru the fall, they've watched debates, provided commentary and even did a victory dance chanting "Obama Obama..." last Tuesdsay. Katherine asked us last week unprompted, "Why does the radio keep talking about Joe the Plumber??" She thought it was really funny that CNN and NPR would talk about some plumber as part of the presidential election. Dinosaurs Every classroom at school has "units of study" - basically topics that are woven throughout different works in a section of the classroom. Allison's classroom is studying dinosaurs. As a result, we're also learning about dinosaurs. Apparently, Allison has been listening pretty intently to her teacher who's been presenting this information at circle. Allison: The tyrranasaurus rex is a very angry dinosaur. He eats other dinosaurs. He's like the king of dinosaurs. He's MUCH bigger than our car. Mom: Really, what other dinosaurs have you learned about?? Allison: The brontosaurus was very afraid of the tyranasaurus rex. His favorite dishes were leaves and bushes. Mom: Favorite dishes, hm... Allison: And, then there's the bracheosaurus, the allisaurus, and the stegasaurus. The stegasaurus had plates on his back and his tail. He had four plates on his tail. He used them as a weapon against the tyranasaurus rex. Steve and I were rather dumbfounded, since dinosaurs haven't been a major topic in our house. Katherine kept trying to interject, but Allison kep rolling along with her narrative all the way to school. Katherine thinks that Allison is very amusing and often says, "she's soo cute." Allison pushes her sister sometimes, for instance wanting to play with Katherine's new toys or counting money in Katherine's wallet. Thankfully, Katherine is relatively patient with her sister. "If she likes ponies" Before the summer, Steve and I met with Katherine's teacher to discuss progress and the upcoming summer. Her suggestion for reading: find out what she wants to read and then encourage it! "If she's interested in ponies, then check out books about ponies." This may seem totally intuitive, probably because its spot on. Katherine LOVES the Disney Fairies - Tinkerbell, Beck, Fira, etc. She saves her allowance money to go to Borders and buy the big, picture Disney books. (We buy her the chapter books to read.) Her prize possessions are the Fairy Homes and Inside Pixie Hollow. She just started reading the chapter books tonight, carefully using her finger to read the small text and turning the page corner for tomorrow. By Steve Bush at 9:22:18 PM |  |

Reading Board We finally took a picture of Katherine and her tattered reading board. We still owe her a visit to Chuck E. Cheese. Violin Lessons Katherine got to learn a new bowing/rhythm last week - "Ice Cream <rest> Cone" (ready change). Basically, it's two quarters, one quarter rest, one more quarter than change string. Katherine and I have also worked on her holding her violin for 5 minutes at a time with her sand timer. She was soo excited to expand her repertoire. :) 36.5 mpg I've been mulling over the concept of improving our average mpg. So, I went over to Bellevue Honda and bought a Civic Hybrid last week. The car has steadily increased its average mpg during this week. We are now at 36.5 mpg. What helps? - highway driving - driving on flats - not driving it like a sports car :) - coasting The kids seem to like the little blue car. Katherine explains that there are two engines - one regular engine and one special engine. Allison asked if the car needed special gas.  I love zipping into parking spots.     By Steve Bush at 10:37:48 PM |  |

Where are your manners? Allison and I had a very amusing conversation several days ago: Mom: Allison, where are your manners? Allison: Someone took them. The next day: Mom: Allison, I hope someone didn't take your manners. Allison: I lost my manners. Katherine just chuckled throughout. Mondays at the Playground Because Katherine and Allison are in different classrooms, they don't often see each other at school. Monday mornings are the exception, when their recesses overlap on the playground. According to all teachers, both girls are SO happy to see each other and play together until Katherine's classroom lines up. That's when Allison has started to tear up, "I miss Katherine..." Katherine still walks her little sister to the classroom. It's very sweet. Developmental Milestones Katherine finally got to 100 on her reading board. She was so proud of her accomplishment. Her reading these days includes Henry and Mudge, a couple short chapters at a time, and Sammy the Seal. Allison, by comparison, is trying so hard to read. One of her favorite activities is pulling out Katherine's old beginner flash cards and sounding out letters. Surprisingly, she eked out some simple words last week by herself- JET, HAT and a few others. Katherine and I cheered her on. Katherine is working hard on her math these days. To help her along, we took out her old bead board. She thinks its a hoot for me to hold up a flash card and see how many she can do in a certain amount of time. She also flips over a 5-minute sand timer. Between holding up flash cards and holding Allison back from our sand timer, it gets a little crazy during math time. Katherine and Allison are progressing with their violin studies. Katherine is now working on a new rhythm - "ice cream <rest> cone" then changing strings. Allison is learning how to hold the bow like a baby bird and not squeeze the living daylights out of it. I told her tonight that IF she could relax her right hand, we would ask Katherine's teacher to assess her for readiness. The imagery seemed to help quite a bit; she held it delicately with no pressure for a bit - until she started squeezing again. It really is amazing how little kids can learn correct bow technique at such a young age. By Steve Bush at 9:44:19 PM |  |

Chuckee and The Jumbo-Tron It was a very busy weeked. First, our family celebrated Katherine's progress with her reading board. Between various trips and activities this summer, we managed to squeak in 50 books (read by Katherine, not us) of increasing interest. Her first couple dozen books were primarily Bob books. Later books included high literature such has "Fred and Ted Go Camping," "Dora's I Love My Papi," "Ruby Bakes a Cake," and "My Little Pony Tea Party." All good stuff. For her celebration we went to Chuck-E-Cheese. We bought a bucket of tokens and tried to win as many tickets as possible. Allison also rode some of the kiddie rides and tried to go thru the tunnel, but was scared silly by a large boy perched in the tunnel entrance. Despite some setbacks, we must have earned a couple hundred tickets which bought the kids 4 bubble bath tablets, 2 plastic combs, 2 plastic frisbees, a ring and a plastic lizard. The highlight for the kids was seeing Chuck-E-Cheese himself at a nearby birthday party. Allison just stared at the party, finally turning to me and saying, "Thank you for bringing me to Chuck-E-Cheese. Can we go say Hi to Chuck-E?"  She was so overwhelmed that she repeated her thanks in the car, "Thank You Everyone for Chuck-E-Cheese." On Sunday, we took the kids to a Mariners Game. I had prefaced the game half joking by saying, "Maybe they'll put us on the Jumbo-Tron!!" Well, in the middle of the first inning, lo and behold...we looked up...and Allison and I were on the Jumbo-Tron! The girls ate Dipping Dots, a bucket of popcorn. We made it to the 6th inning and finally left amid a huge rainstorm to go back home. I'll have to post pictures tomorrow from our non-stop weekend. By Steve Bush at 11:16:09 PM |  |

The Olympics and Katherine's Scrapbook I've been watching the Olympics just about every night, which explains my bleary eyes and tiredness in the mornings. This is probably because I have many fond memories of watching the games when I was a kid. I vaguely remember something about Mark Spitz when I was *really* young. And, I definitely remember Nadia, Olga and all the star gymnasts since 1976. I suspect that Katherine will remember the 2008 Olympics for swimming and gymnastics. Thanks to Tivo, we've watched the big highlights of the games, and Katherine has been so impressed. She's taken to flipping through our Seattle Times and Wall Street Journal to find swimming and gymnastics pictures.  She's also started her official 2008 Olympics Scrapbook. It consists of a dozen pages or so in a binder. The pages have carefully cut pictures glued to them...LOTS of glue. She's got a cover page, a final page with the Olympic rings colored with dot paint and other art too.  Tonight, she insisted on giving us the narrative of her book after dinner. She proudly told us about Michael Phelps and his 8 gold medals, Nastia Luikin and of course...Shawn Johnson. Allison has gotten into this with her own scrapbook. Her pictures are a little more ragged, and some random newspaper copy has made it into her book. But, she's very proud of her work. Allison also told my mom the other day, "Pau-Pau, you're taller than Shawn Johnson!" Katherine's First Violin Lesson My mom said that it's payback time for all the violin lessons and practicing she endured when Sharon and I were kids. :) I took Katherine to her first lesson this Monday. We brought her rented 1/10 violin and her Suzuki Book 1. Katherine was very serious and listened to her teacher explain how to hold the bow. They worked on that for several minutes. Then she played the open E and A strings - four 16th notes and 2 quarter notes - "I'm a little monkey" - over and over again. The teacher kept checking her bow hand before every iteration. Frankly, while I was proud of her progress, it was a real exercise in patience and tolerance. The good news is that I can coach Katherine using the teacher's techniques. My goal is to get 5-10 minutes of practicing in daily for now. Biggest challenge is fending off Allison who is insisting on her own lessons (talk about clutching that bow! I could barely pry it out of her hand.) Swimming Continues We're wrapping up our second week of swim lessons this week. Despite the rain during class, the kids are getting more comfortable swimming. Allison can now swim about 10-15 feet under water, kind of like a frog. She takes a big breath, pops under water, and then re-emerges on the other side of the pool. Katherine is still working on this skill - often standing up to take a breath every 5 or 6 feet. On Monday, Allison earned her first red ribbon which states, "I swam the width of the pool." Katherine earned another purple ribbon, "I dived off the diving board." It was mayhem in the car afterwards; Katherine was SO bent out of shape that she didn't get the red ribbon tool. Today, she managed once to get across the pool without standing up and got her red ribbon. Both kids dived (belly-flopped) off the diving board and swam to their instructor at the end of class. Very cool. By Steve Bush at 11:10:35 PM |  |

I don't know how to swim yet! This is our second summer of swim lessons with Miss Suzi, who is a wonderful kids swim instructor. I took the kids this morning - both were super excited to hop in the pool and get going. Because Allison is now 3, she was able to join the class for bigger kids and Katherine. They started with kick board work and ended with the diving board. Katherine went first off the diving board, falling into the pool in diving position with Miss Suzi holding her. The instructor then backed up 20-30 feet for the next two kids, who dived off the board and swam to her. Next...we all heard Allison pipe up in her 3 year old voice, "I don't know how to swim yet!!" The instructor then swam up to her, and she fell into the pool in diving position with assistance. Allison' sense of humor continues to be very quirky and unpredictable. The girls and I were working this afternoon on their workbooks. Allison flipped to a page that required her to know her vowels. The conversation went like this: Mom: Allison, you know your vowels right? Allison: No... Mom: <starts to sing the AEIOU song from Leapfrog> AEIOU, we're the vowels, we're the glue, we stick words together, we're very sticky letters Allison: AEKIOU, We're the vowels, we're the glue Mom: You mean I not K, right? Allison: I can change the vowel song, can't I? Mom and Katherine: Uh No!!! What else? Allison and Katherine are so excited to play with the neighbors' kids. As a result, they can get rather zealous in their recruitment of other kids for playtime. Case in point...I was cleaning up after dinner tonight while Steve was watching the kids. I went outside to find Steve in the garage, Katherine on the driveway, and Allison's bike next to the neighbors driveway. I ran across the street and found Allison standing in front of the neighbors door asking, "can you come out to play with us??" Their favorite activity is biking up the cul-de-sac near our house and then zipping down the hill at full speed. Katherine is thankfully in control of her bike and uses her brakes well. Allison has decided the best way to descend the hill is to barrel down the hill full speed and then come to a screeching halt at the bottom of the hill. It's just heartstopping... By Steve Bush at 10:00:49 PM |  |

Lake Wenatchee  This was our third year camping at Lake Wenatchee. Overall, the kids loved the camping experience... - They rode all around the North Campground at the State Park with their friends. - They walked then rode down to the beach on their bikes. - We popped popcorn and made smores. - We watched Leapfrog DVDs and ate snacks to and from the park. Despite the lack of sleep and packing/unpacking/cleaning process, it was another successful camping trip. The kids are already asking if we're going to go again next year! Allison and the Bus Katherine had mini sports camp last week in the mornings. As a result, Allison got to run around with Patty and her choice of activity? It was riding public transportation around Bellevue. :)         By Steve Bush at 3:01:04 PM |  |

Allison's Summer School Adventures Allison wrapped up her two weeks of summer school last Friday. I was very thankful that these two weeks were relatively uneventful, with the exception of a couple teary goodbyes the first week and a bathroom incident the second week. As Allison's teacher observed, "she seems fine when you drop her off..." :)  After talking with her, Allison told me somberly, "I'm not going to cry," and she didn't. What did she do? Lots of practical life works, some stencil drawing, letter writing, and sensorial. Allison was determined one morning to "write her letters" and exclaimed to her teachers, "I know my letters." She came home that afternoon with her name on paper and was very proud. One day, she told my mom a reassuring story. Apparently, my mom asked about the other kids. This prompted Allison to tell her how one boy in the classroom wasn't very nice - and had been a bit physical with her in the playground. But, the teacher told him, "You need to be careful with Allison. She's very little."  (Yes - she was the smallest kid in the class.) Eating her snack pre-pickup with the other kids was a very big deal. Everyday I would pack Allison several snacks, like fruit, crackers and a bar, and water bottle. She dutifully put it in her locker and would pull it out before pickup. At pickup, I would find her sitting with her snacks carefully arranged in front of her on her placement. When I would ask her to pack up, Allison took great care to put everything back in her lunch bag and clean up. After her last morning of school, Katherine and I picked up Allison who was sitting on the grass eating lunch with the other kids. The teacher said, "Goodbye Allison; we'll see you in September!" at which point all the other kids chimed in with "Bye Allison!!" It's good to know that she made friends this summer and had a good experience. Katherine and the "Redmond 545" What did Katherine do while Allison was in summer school? She became acquainted with all the places that the Redmond 545 bus would take her with Patty. For a whopping $2.50 each way (for Patty), they rode to the Pacific Science Center one day. Another day after Katherine asked Patty to take her on the bus, they visited the Arboretum. Apparently, the bus driver was very nice to Katherine on the return trip from Seattle, even letting her sit in the driver's seat while they waited for the passengers to arrive and board the bus. Allison was a bit bent out of shape to miss the adventure. But, Patty reassured her that they would try the bus someday and have an adventure too. The Company Picnic Every year, we head out to the Company Picnic to check out the rides and entertainment. And, like every year, there were ups and downs for the kids. They loved the popcorn, the lemonade and ice cream. The bouncers that they did ride were fun, and we watched a very exciting motorcycle show. The biggest bummer: Allison was about 2" too short for almost all the kid rides. She couldn't ride the ferris wheel, almost all the bouncers...just about everything she wanted to do and probably could have easily done. The helpers told her to go to the toddler section, which was really too young for her. So, after walking Allison around 6 rides, comparing her to the height bar, and realizing she was too short, we headed home. :< "Wollipops" One of the biggest attractions for getting their haircuts is the post-cut lollipop bin. Given their long manes, haircuts were long overdue. I took Katherine last week while Allison was in summer school. This caused a ruckus, especially when Katherine painstakingly described her lollipop to Allison. Well, turnabout was fair play a couple days ago. Katherine and I took Allison to get her hair trimmed up (looks very cute now). Allison got the lollipop and sucked it all the way home - which drove Katherine just nuts. Storm Game Thanks to some friends, we attended the Storm game last night. Before the game, the kids and I went to Dick's for the first time. Despite eating their entire burgers, the kids were hopping up and down for popcorn, pretzels, dibs and thundersticks once we got inside. Allison was sooo excited to wave hers around, with Katherine and I ducking whenever the sticks would pass by. Oh yes...We also watched the game, which the Storm won. :)           By Steve Bush at 9:24:48 PM |  |

First Day of Summer School Allison was so proud to go to summer school today. She exclaimed last night and this morning that she's "going to pre-school!" We followed our typical morning routine and drove to school. Katherine was excited to accompany Allison to the Main Building for class assignment and then Mezzo Building. Once we entered the classroom, Allison put her backpack away, washed her hands and then headed straight to the shelves to handle the materials. The teaching assistant directed her to a practical life work. We all said goodbye to Allison, who didn't even look up as we left... According to the teacher, Allison worked well this morning and listened well. She said that she played with "toys" but didn't do work?! I asked her if she ate her Cliff bar before pickup (while the other full day children ate lunch). She said, "Yes. But I didn't have anything else."  After that statement, Allison clambered off her kitchen chair, opened the pantry and told me, "I pack my lunch now." She packed peanuts, almonds and got an apple from the fridge and put it in her lunch bag for tomorrow. Derby Days One of the big summer highlights is Derby Days, namely the kids bike parade, the main parade with candy, and rides afterwards. This year, Allison rode the 12" pink bike with training wheels. Katherine rode her 16" bike with no training wheels. They were thrilled to decorate their bikes with red, white and blue - and flags too!  July 4th Aunt Sharon and Uncle Jamey visited over July 4th weekend. It was a fun-filled three days. We picked raspberries at Remlinger Farms, made pie & cobbler, took the kids on a bike ride to the "choo-choo" train park, and a hike around Trilogy. Katherine went to Tiger Mountain and hiked a third of the way up the mountain with her aunt and uncle. We were proud to hear that she braved the bushes and mud. Allison was very sad to miss the hike, as she tearfully told us that she "didn't get to go."         By Steve Bush at 9:09:46 PM |  |

Lake Chelan The kids had an amazing time at Lake Chelan with their friends. Steve and I are exhausted. :) Here are the highlights: - The water park with slides was a hit. The kids went on all the rides they could with us, and then the beginner slides by themselves. It was a hoot to see Allison buzzing down the slide with her arms straight out and her mouth in a big smile. Allison tried everything without hesitation. Katherine resisted the longer slides until she saw Allison go down three times with Steve. Katherine had to try it then. She kept going at full speed until we all left. - We spent much of our free time at the beach, building sand castles and flying kites. Steve practiced his kite technique, while Katherine ran around with her kite (thankfully not wrapping the line or kite in a tree or a person). - A different family would host dinner each night. That meant the kids would run around before and after dinner in the RV Park. They befriended a neighbor girl who had a Pink ATV and let the kids ride it. Allison TORE around the park with Steve chasing her. The kids pretended to be a car wash, to fix the ATV, etc. They made up all sorts of chase games and pretend games to occupy themselves. - Allison bowled for the first time -- ball between the legs straight down the alley. Wouldn't you know it, she won the first game too. This wasn't really fair since she had bumpers. And, Steve would give the ball an extra nudge. - The cherries from the fruit stands were delicious. We hit 2 or 3 stands during the course of our trip, indulging in Bing, Chelan and Ranier cherries. The kids also went back to their favorite ice cream store (Das Big Scoop) in Leavenworth for enormous ice cream cones. - We also visited Ohme Gardens, which was originally created privately by a family and later purchased by the state. The kids ran around the park, perched on a mountain over Wenatchee, like mountain goats. We later visited the Rocky Beach Dam, checking out the fish ladder (and one sole fish swimming through) and the exhibits. The coolest part was standing inside the dam, looking out a window directly that the spillwater. We have TEN car seats Today we managed to finally start culling down our herd of car seats. Patty mentioned, as she was about to re-install the Britax Roundabout in her car, how Allison was the only kid who could fit into the seat. It dawned on me that we could swap out the Roundabout for a larger car seat, allowing Patty to keep the seat in her car. So, here's the conversation we had as we drove along: Mom: We have 3...no 4 Britax Roundabouts. And, we have 2 boosters without backs, and 2 boosters with backs. And, we have 1 Britax Marathon and then 1 travel car seat. Wow, we have a LOT of car seats. Allison: We have 10 car seats. Mom: What did you say? (looking around from the passenger seat) Allison: (with 10 fingers up) We have 10 car seats! Not sure if that was a lucky guess, but we all stopped to listen to her. Now, we're down to 9 car seats. I peered at the manufacturing date on the Roundabout, and sure enough it was manufactured in June 2002....almost 6 years to the day. If you believe the "plastic starts degrading at 6 years," that means the car seat has only one place to go. Sigh!       By Steve Bush at 8:38:53 PM |  |

The Pictures from this Weekend Party planning began last month when I asked Allison what she wanted to do for her birthday. She said promptly, "bike on the driveway with my friends." So, we planned a bicycle-themed party for little friends that consisted of: - making foam license plates for bikes/trikes - decorating butter cookies in the shape of bicycles, hearts, flowers - pinning name on the road (pin the tail on the donkey) - hitting a pinata The kids had a blast decorating cookies. We had frosting, decorator frosting pens, and sprinkles on the table. The kids and adults used all the cookies and supplies - and took the cookies home with them. Also memorable was our pinata. Steve hung it from his basketball hoop and provided the kids with a piece of PVC pipe. They must have each hit that pinata 5 or 6 times to no avail. So, he offered his baseball bat to Allison. Unfortunately, they whacked the pinata so hard it flew up and hit the basketball backboard. I think the swing also hurt Allison's shoulder, and she cried for several minutes afterwards. Needless to say, one of the kids finally got the pinata down intact. The dads broke it apart for them.       By Steve Bush at 3:33:51 PM |  |

Allison's Birthday Allison celebrated her birthday this year with a small family gathering and a little party for a handful of girls. Despite fairly low key events, we ended up with two very tired kids today! Steve and I were thinking back to Allison's first birthday when Katherine delighted in opening Allison's gifts. Allison didn't really seem to mind. She just loved the attention of having a birthday. When Allison turned two, I remember Steve holding Katherine back so Allison could open her gifts. One moment stands out for me: Katherine wriggling and crying as Allison opened her dollhouse. Now at three, she clearly wanted to open her own gifts. Katherine sat to the side and watched. Her biggest concern: would Allison share her gifts? I guess this is one of the first times that Allison has received interesting gifts that Katherine wants to share! Throughout the day, we've had conversations with both kids as they've debated and argued about whether they shared or not. We've got a ton of pictures from the weekend that I'll post tomorrow, when I have time to process the pictures. Mother's Day Like every year, I woke up to find two kids sitting on top of me and breakfast served in bed. This year's breakfast: cold cereal, cut fruit salad, coffee, juice, vege sausage....and a big decorated cookie. :) Katherine sat next to me and talked all thru my breakfast. Allison practiced jumping off the bed. For mother's day, the kids gave me a new purse. Their thinking: the bigger the purse, the more I can carry on their behalf!  New additions to the purse include bandaids, various lollipops collected this week and hair bands. Skinned Knees Every Day  Now that the weather is finally almost springlike, the kids have started to bike more and more around the driveway and neighborhood. Katherine still needs someone to start her off on her bike, while Allison is self-sufficient and fairly possessed on her training wheels. Yesterday Katherine went for a bike ride with Steve around the neighborhood. Katherine ended up riding all the way to the local choo-choo train park (in Redmond Ridge) and back - probably a 3 mile trip total with a couple pretty big hills. Steve jogged next to her in street attire and shoes (ouch), while Katherine "slowed down" so he could keep up. (Note: she is a very fast cyclist once she gets going.) Allison meanwhile had a total of 3 bandaids on both knees yesterday. She probably skins a knee once a day, whether from running full tilt on the driveway or biking. Katherine managed to even scrape her hand, trying Allison's 18 inch bouncing ball on the driveway. We also added bandaids at the Ice Cream Social this week at Eton School. This was our third social and probably the busiest yet. Steve was about an hour late, and I spent the full hour making sure the elementary kids didn't mow Allison over on the playground. From kids running around fueled with sugar to Allison climbing a fort popular with lots of boys, I was convinced she was going to get hurt somehow. She did skin a knee somehow. And, Katherine somehow got a cut on her finger. Luckily we escaped further injury. The kids were exhausted the next morning. Allison's Development Allison is a busy kid these days. She has swim lessons, soccer class and music class - and we're thinking off adding gymnastics back now that she's 3. One of her greatest joys is preparing for soccer. Allison received a soccer jersey and shorts that she wears with pigtails to a 3-4 class every week. After class she leaves the jersey on for the rest of the day. :)  For her birthday, we gave her a set of small Pugg soccer goals. My mom got her a size 3 soccer ball, which we saw her moving down our lawn to the goal. Her other favorite outdoor activity is weeding. Yes, bending down and picking small weeds! Our neighbor has a big maple tree which lost many seeds last year. These helicopter seeds blew into our beds and germinated into small 2" trees. We had them all over the beds. Allison was a huge help picking them the last couple weeks. She'd gather up her plastic bucket, find a spot on the bed, hunker down and pick until I told her it was time to go in. She would say, "we don't want trees all over our yard! look there are more weeds!" Allison is still a very easygoing kid and likes to entertain the family. She spent this morning's car ride playing with her new "silly" toy from McDonalds. She would move the doll arm and the toy would start blaring music. Allison would yell out, "Dance Mama Dance" and then go off in Spanish. Thankfully Steve understands what she's saying, because I have no clue! Last week, I took her to her third study at UW I-Labs. The researchers asked Allison to participate in defining a new protocol for a behavioral experiment. Allison was very patient throughout the 20 minute process, interacting with the research assistant. I think she was a bit puzzled by the repetition - "Allison where would you put the horse if you wanted it to be greeen? etc. etc.  She answered most questions accurately, but began to get confused at the end of the experiment. Katherine's Development Katherine's big area of focus is emotional development. We're working on identifying feelings these days and sympathizing with others.  It's gratifying to see progress. For instance, Steve was teasing me about something the other day. Katherine piped up, "That's not nice. You'll make mom feel bad!"  On the other hand, she's also working on testing boundaries, for instance around sassing, which we're working on. From an academic perspective, she can decipher different words in situ. On Friday, we sat at a light watching a school crossing guard. Katherine asked what she did. I asked her to read the back of the vest, which she did - "School Zone." She will also occasionally read a few pages at night with Steve. She also practices basic addition/subtraction at school. By Steve Bush at 9:31:23 PM |  |

Disneyland Katherine asks every other day when we're going back to Disneyland. And, she's been asking to bring her autograph book to school. So, it's reasonable to conclude that she had a great time on spring break. Allison loved it as well, although she was a bit too short for the really fun rides. I'm posting a handful of my favorite pictures from the trip. You may notice that many of my favorite pictures don't include Katherine - who developed a nice habit of saying, "Mooommmmm" and then giving me a grinchy face at Disneyland.       By Steve Bush at 2:34:39 PM |  |

Easter Egg Hunts The kids had a great time this weekend, hunting eggs three times. First, they went to Trilogy, then at our house and then at Grandaunt Pat's house. I consolidated their stashes this morning. And, boy, do they have a LOT of candy! Perhaps the most memorable moment occurred during the Trilogy egg hunt. Allison was with my mom, while I helped Katherine uncover eggs on the other side of the clubhouse. Unfortunately many of the older kids had scooped up the younger kids' eggs on the way to the other side of the clubhouse. So, Katherine found 23 eggs - Allison got none. Thanks to some of Grandma's friends, Allison received a few prized eggs after the hunt. Katherine also let Allison pick several eggs from her bag. You can see Allison checking out her half dozen eggs; she kept opening and closing the eggs looking for more candy and treats. The next morning the kids raced around the house looking for another round of eggs. Allison looked for one color eggs; Katherine two-toned eggs. Bisco also managed to get some treats after Katherine put her basket down on the floor and left it. During the minute that she was gone, he snarfed around 10-12 chocolate eggs and kisses. Luckily, it wasn't enough chocolate to make him ill (since he's a whopping 75 pounds), but Katherine was pretty upset at him. We managed to find replacement candy, and all was well. :)  Katherine was particularly psyched to find one egg with two quarters in it. She exclaimed, "The Easter bunny gave me money to save for college. You won't have to pay for my college!"  Ha! In the pictures you'll see the kids riding the Gator at Aunt Pat's house, Katherine at a Build-A-Bear party, kids with Lolly the clown, dying eggs with Grandma Bush and celebrating Grandma Chang's birthday last weekend. Take a Load Off! Allison's favorite movie these days is Madagascar. She will say out of the blue, "What a bunch of pansies!!" or "Pansies!!" (Yes, we've told her it's not very nice, but that seems to encourage her!) Last Friday we had Steve's parents over for dinner. Katherine raced to answer the door, with Allison right behind her. What did Allison say?  Quoting Marty she said, "Come on in - Take a Load Off!"     By Steve Bush at 10:42:32 AM |  |