Had some random images on my computer that I wanted to get up here. No rhyme or reason to these…
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Had some random images on my computer that I wanted to get up here. No rhyme or reason to these…
Sennet slept in this morning, and Stacie had an early photoshoot so I was going to take Sennet to school. He woke up about 7:50 and asked if he could have pancakes. He’s wanted pancakes the last couple of days. Since I already had informed work that I would be late because I was taking him to school, I decided to take him over to the Hi-Spot Café around the corner from our house for breakfast. First I made him a home-made fresh squeezed juice of apple, carrot, and orange with a little bit of kale and beet in it. He loved it.
At the restaurant, he ordered Mickey Mouse pancakes and I asked if he wanted berries or bananas on them. He said no. I asked if he wanted butter or syrup on them. He said no. He ate them plain, and loved them. It is interesting, because he likes berries, bananas, butter and syrup, but just wanted plain pancakes today.
For only being four years old, he has a pretty sophisticated – and unusual I think – palate.
When we order pizza, he really only wants to eat the “Verde Primo” pizza that has artichoke hearts, mushrooms, pesto, goat cheese, garlic, and mozzarella with tomato sauce. Most little kids I know only eat cheese pizza, or maybe pepperoni. And he will eat that occasionally, but he always has two or three pieces of the Verde Primo. I don’t think I would have touched a pizza like that until I was in high school maybe. With the pizza sometimes we order a pasta salad that has corkscrew pasta, sweet peas, and artichoke hearts tossed in a creamy pesto dressing. He gobbles it down, often asking for more. And a lot of the time he’ll ask if he can eat Stacie’s crust from her pizza. Seems most little kids only eat the “pizza” part, and leave the crust. He loves the crust, and sometimes eats that part first.
And he loves all bread, really. He loves bread and butter, and he’s a fiend for dipping bread in olive oil & balsamic vinegar. And he eats his sandwiches crust and all too.
When we went to the Red Mill Burger’s place with Finley a couple weeks back, Finley would only eat his burger with each bite dipped in a ton of catsup – same with his fries. I didn’t offer Sennet any catsup and he didn’t ask for any. He ate his burger and fries just as they came, with no extra condiments at all, and kept humming and saying “Yummy, yummy for my tummy.”
EDIT: we ordered Thai food for take-out last night. We got green curry with chicken, Phad Thai with fresh tofu, and wok fried garlic green beans. Sennet had white rice with a little bit of the green curry on it (glad I didn’t put too much on because he thought it was a bit spicy), some green beans, and some of the Phad Thai. He took a bit of the fresh tofu and said, “Yum, this chicken is good!” I told him it was called tofu. He ate a few more bites as he thought about that. Then he said, “Chicken is called tofu?” I explained that it wasn’t chicken, it was something different that looked a little bit like chicken but was called tofu. He asked how to make it and I told him it was a plant called soybeans. He ended up asking for more and eating about 10 pieces, along with more beans, Phad Thai noodles, and most of the rice. Good little eater.
A week or so ago Rob and I took Finley and Sennet over to the playground. Someone had donated a few “gently used” toys to the playground, including a little, red car that kids could sit in and “drive” via the Flintstone method. Both boys were infatuated with the tiny car. Sennet jumped in and began cruising around. He looked hilarious in it, as he was really a bit too big for it. It reminded me of a clown driving a tiny car at a circus.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9FQ9eFZIJ8&feature=youtu.be]
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The other day Sennet asked if he could watch the iPad. He likes to download videos of cartoons (Mickey Mouse!) and airplanes and helicopters. He took the iPad into the kitchen and sat down at the table and began watching with his headphones on. I was struck by how upright he sat as he watched. I’m very glad he doesn’t take after his father’s poor posture. He sat like this for about a half an hour, content in his place.
The Junior League of Seattle sponsored an event this past Sunday called Touch-a-Truck. They rounded up dump trucks, fire trucks, semi trucks, busses, tractors, diggers, police cars, cranes, and the like over at Magnuson Park. I took Sennet and met Rob and Finley over there. It was free to get in, with donation buckets to raise money for the League. We got there right after it started at 10 am, and it was already super busy. The lines to sit in the trucks were really long. We wandered around a bit and then Rob stood in line for the fire truck while I kept the kids occupied. After their turn to sit in the fire truck we decided that the even was a bit underwhelming and so decided to go get lunch.
We drove over to Phinney Ridge and ate at my favorite hamburger place of all – Red Mill Burgers. I got my normal “Verde Burger” – a nice big hamburger with jack cheese, lettuce, tomato, red onion, Mill sauce (a smokey mayo), and in-house fire-roasted anaheim green chile peppers. I also had them but bacon on it. It’s really an amazing burger. Sennet got a normal cheeseburger – and ate a surprising amount of it. He had never had one of theirs before and exclaimed, “It’s super yummy, yummy, yummy!” He hasn’t eaten many cheeseburger anyway, and hasn’t seemed very into them before. He’s never had McDonald’s or Burger King, and we have fed him another local Seattle place, Dick’s Burgers, just a couple times.
It was a fun morning.
Charley has now been with us for about four months. She’ll turn two in September, and she’s full of crazy energy. I decided that I had better step up the exercise with the dogs or she would tear the house apart. After the sore knee was finally better I began taking longer walks, and then runs with the dogs in the morning. Easy half or one milers at first, then two miles, and then more. I found a new route that is really nice.
From our house we jog south on 32nd down to Yesler Way (about a mile). A cable car used to run from Pioneer Square in downtown Seattle, all the way along Yelser Way east until it ended at Lake Washington. The cable car has been long gone (it ran from 1888 until 1940), but there is a wooded trail where the drivable part of Yesler Way ends down to Leschi and the lake. It’s a short, but steep winding trail of bare dirt and stone steps that ends at a small park right across from the Leschi Marina. We jog down the Cable Car trail and then back north long the lakeshore, past Leschi, the marina, docks, beaches, and parks. It’s a great route.
At Madrona Park Beach there are a few different ways you can climb back up the hill to our neighborhood. We usually hike up the staircases that put us out at Union a few blocks from our house (750 total steps), occasionally we will climb back up another wooded route a few blocks south. If we walk back home this way the route is just at 3 miles. Some days after we finish the climb, we jog down to the overlook near 35th and James and back, for one final mile. Then a cool down walk past Sennet’s playground, Verité Coffee – the local coffeeshop, the Madrona Alehouse and Hi Spot Café, before finally arriving back home. The dogs, and I, have really been enjoying it. Most days I’ll let them romp into the lake for a bit as we jog past the beach. Good for all our health – mind, body & soul.
We got 31.7 total miles (jogging, hiking, walking) this last week – Sunday to Saturday – according to the GPS on my phone. That usually included the 4 miles in the morning and a half mile or more in the evenings, just around our blocks.