Mark is a big school boy!

I still need to update our blog with pictures from our weekend at the beach... BUT first I want to share the BRAND NEW pictures of our big school-boy Mark!

Today was the first day of school, and Mark was SO EXCITED that he woke up super-early and got ready and then came to wake us up "just in case we don't hear our alarm clock" (which wasn't scheduled to ring for another hour).

Here is Mark, just before leaving for school.

"I'm ready, Momma!"

Check out Mark's cool Boba Fett jet pack backpack. Mark really wanted to take it to school, so we let him. He has a 'real' backpack, too... but since they don't really carry anything heavy at the beginning, anyway, I figured it wouldn't harm anything if he wore this one.
Ben was able to arrange to work a little later today so he got to accompany Mark to school with us this morning. Sean really missed Mark... he ran all over the house calling for him, and was pretty whiny. I kept busy, and focused on being proud of what a wonderful big boy Mark is growing into, instead of letting myself be sad that my kiddo is growing up so quickly...

Mark is now officially a school kid. He had a great first day - his teacher is wonderful (she is a friend from our church! How awesome is that??!), and he already made a friend with a boy who had the same shirt on as he did.

For my German friends: here in the USA only some children go to pre-school (which in Germany is called "Kindergarten"), and then at 5 years, all children begin with Kindergarten (which in Germany is called "Vorschule"). Children are expected to know their alphabet and basic reading and writing BEFORE starting school in K here. The material they learn in American Kindergarten is roughly equivalent to German first grade.

Playing catch-up... again.

Looking through my photo folders for the last 6 weeks, I have so many that I have not yet shared! Life has been busy, but good.

Blogger is having issues with the pictures loading in reverse chronological order... but rather than re-ordering all 30 or so pics I'm putting in this post, I'm leaving them in the order they loaded in. I'll try to at least label the photos so you know what event they belong with!

Mark is excited...

...because we just hung up our indoor hammock-seat! We got it many years ago in Germany, and stored it in our garage since we got here. I was hesitant to hang it in our garden because the squirrels around here have a reputation for chewing through hammock strings. We have recently had to rearrange the furniture in the living room to accommodate a certain walking, climbing youngster, so we decided to add the hammock for fun.

Last weekend we had a wonderful visit with Gramma and Grampa Griffing. We went blueberry picking and Gramma and Mark made breakfast and there was much reading and cuddling and playing.

Both Mark and Sean really love spending time with the Grandparents. It was fun to see that Sean really recognizes my Dad, and wanted to be held by him, volunteering snuggles and hugs.

On August 2, 2011 Ben and I had our 8-year-wedding anniversary. Ben surprised me by taking me on a date to have a delicious crab dinner. We rarely go out without the kids (because we are one of those weird families who actually enjoy being together), and it was a treat to have Ben all to myself for a few hours! Add in wonderful food and a breathtaking view of the sun setting over the Columbia, and our evening was just perfect. I love you, Sweetie!

Don't be fooled for a moment by the angelic curls... do you see that little twinkle in Sean's eyes? This one means mischief! (In German: "Ihm sitzt der Schalk im Nacken!")

Sean now thinks of himself as a walker, and only rarely crawls. Thank goodness for the extra padding the diaper gives him, because he frequently tries to walk so speedily that he falls down a whole lot.

Sean especially loves following Mark everywhere.

Sean frequently wakes up at the crack of dawn. I am able to "cheat" and get him to fall asleep again by snuggling and nursing him. This means he sleeps in our bed from about 5am-8am, but I'm ok with that because it means I get a little bit more sleep.

About 2 weeks ago I climbed our giant bigleaf maple to cut out a bunch of dead wood. A few widow-makers were dangling precariously above the area of our garden where Mark most likes to play. We are getting ready to build a tree fort with some wood our neighbor gave us, and so didn't want to risk large logs falling on anyone's head. We also didn't want to pay the $300-800 that were quoted us by tree services, so I slipped into my climbing harness and fastened myself to the tree while Ben was on belay. I ended up climbing about 35-ish feet (about 11-12m) into the air.

Here is a picture of the tree, as seen from our neighbor's yard (I'm not sure if he took pictures because he thought I would surely die, or because he just thought it was interesting). If you click on the picture to open it in a new window, you can see the red arrows on the branches that I cut. The yellow arrow shows my leg.

Here are all but 2 of the branches I cut down. The 2 missing ones landed in the neighbor's yard (in spite roping them before cutting). We gave them to our friends for fire wood.

Mark and Ben and Dad had fun a few weeks ago making "bacon pie" for men's night. Mark enjoys helping in the kitchen.

Sean really likes Grampa Bradley, and it seems that the feeling is mutual! :o) We are so thankful that Larry lives so close to us.

Here is Mark, reading while we drive home from Gig Harbor (sorry pics are out of sequence). Mark got lucky, and didn't inherit Katie's tendency for motion-sickness. He can (and does!) read for hours in the car.

We had such a wonderful afternoon at Great-Grandma-Nana-Carol's house (Mark still insists on calling her by all of her names, even though she told him just to call her Nana).

Mark had fun playing with his cousin (2nd cousin?) Evan, and they made a fun little robot craft, which he is showing to Nana in this picture.

I can hardly believe my luck. I caught Ben in a picture with a real smile! Too bad the picture is a little out of focus... but it's a keeper nonetheless.

Sean wasn't able to play in the grass because Ben's uncle had just treated the lawn for bugs, weeds, moss, pH, and aliens. This meant he got to be held a lot.

This would have been a lot more difficult if Sean hadn't spent a good bit of the afternoon sleeping. He was tired out from a night of teething.

Mark and Evan had a great time playing in Nana's forest. It is every little boy's dream in there!

Mark showing his little robot craft. This was the boys' very own idea: they asked for paper and pens and scissors and tape, and disappeared into the kitchen for about half an hour.

Sean, who normally never naps during the day, made everyone jealous of his apparent ability to sleep through anything...

So, now you are caught up on some of what we have been up to, and definitely on the pictures I have from past weeks. I will try to be more diligent in posting...

Dossier = mailed!

We would like to invite you to take a little detour to our adoption blog - we have met another milestone in this wonderful but long journey.



Mark and Sean both caught on to the excitement of sending off our dossier!

Video of Sean standing up and walking

Here is a video of Sean standing up and taking some steps all by himself. His record so far is 10 steps. *Eeeek!* ...I'm not sure if I'm ready for this!

Happy (late) 4th of July pictures

I apologize for the 2-week lapse in blog posting.

We have been wonderfully busy! (You might have heard this ludicrous excuse from me a few times in the past... to give you an idea of last week, we were at Vacation Bible School from 9-12 every morning, had an assortment of play dates and appointments in the afternoons, and had to take Mark to swim lessons in the evening...)

Without much further ado, here are some pictures of the boys. The last post(s) had more pictures of Mark, so I tried to include a few more of Sean this time. Our camera is kind of acting out a little, so please excuse the bad (horrible) lighting in some.

Believe it or not, of the 8 pictures I took of the boys on the doorstep on the 4th, this one of Sean investigating a rock and Mark looking off to the side was the best. I have pictures of a variety of faces being made, little boys escaping, Mark fishing a rock out of Sean's mouth, and Ben's arm reaching into the photo to prevent Sean from tumbling onto the cement while trying to climb Mark. It's a good thing we don't send out 4th of July greeting cards, because I have no print-worthy photos from this day.

We had a yummy BBQ dinner at our friends' house. Sean was trying very hard to eat Meghan's coupons (have I mentioned that Sean finds paper very palatable?) so he ended up spending a decent bit of time on Ben's lap or in Katie's arms.

Sean playing at Meghan's house.

After dinner we went to our other friends' house for dessert and to light fireworks. The families in the cul-de-sac our friends live in put on quite the show.
Sean slept in his Mayan wrap attached to me (Katie) for most of the evening. I held my hands over his ears so his hearing wouldn't be damaged by all the explosions. Did I mention that a mortar exploded INSIDE the tube? It lit a bush on fire, and everyone was a bit shaken (literally) by the shock wave, but nobody was hurt.

Mark had fun with sparklers, and was Ben's little shadow for the evening. Unlike last year, he didn't mind the loud noise. He was pretty worried after the mortar exploded on the ground, but was brave about it.

Mark has been having so much fun with some of the new privileges of being a 5-year-old. Among other things, he now has free access to the craft cupboard, excluding clay and play-dough. Two weeks ago, Mark chose a pirate-craft-and-history-book for himself at the library. He read it all by himself. One day after lunch, Mark announced that he was going to make himself a pirate hat. He got the book, read the directions out loud, and followed them. He made THIS hat all by himself. He drew the outline of the shape, drew the skull and cross bones, added the "pirate" label, and then taped it. I helped him size it to his head, but the rest was 100% done by Mark. Can you tell he is proud of the hat he made? (and yes, he drew himself a pirate beard...)

Sean was very interested in Mark's craft. The colored crayon I offered him was taste tested, and then thrown overboard, with the new comment of "Oh-oh!"

Mark and Sean like taking baths together now. Sean is still a little apprehensive of that weird wet stuff he is supposed to sit/stand in, but gets more comfortable as time goes by.

I was hoping to get some cute bath pictures, but the ones in which both boys are looking/smiling at me are, *cough* not internet-safe.

Hiking and playing in the fountains...

On Saturday we (and by that I mean, "I") spontaneously decided that it would be fun to go on a little hike together. When we first moved to Vancouver, we lived very close to the Vancouver WSU campus, and there are lots of lovely walking trails on and around the campus, including a butterfly field, lots of forest and fields, a wetland that you cross on a plank walkway, and several hills. The best part: there is a very play-able fountain on the campus that Mark got to play in afterwards!

Sean is ready to hike! (my view)

Ben and Mark enjoying time together

"I'll lead, ok Dad?"

Uphill was a little harder...

...thankfully we could cool off in the fountain!

Sean is getting pretty heavy to lug around (24.5 lbs!) like this, but some parts of the trails aren't stroller-friendly.

It's hard to take a good picture of a happy boy playing in water! Zoom!





Remember this? Mark was about 2 years old here... playing in the same fountain 3 years ago!

Curly, curly

The Bradley household is looking forward to a 3-day-weekend!

Here are a few fun, unrelated pictures I thought some of you might enjoy (you know who you are!)... since Mark got the last blog post all to himself, I tried to include a few more of Sean this time.

Sean follows Mark around like a sweet, lost little puppy dog. He adores his big brother. The feeling is (mostly) mutual.

Little Dad, model 2.1

Little Dad, model 2.2

We are SO proud of Mark. He decided last Christmas that he wanted to save for the Star Wars Lego "Ice Monster" set. He worked hard (e.g. earning $1.57 by getting 1 cent per pine cone he picked up in the yard; or 1 cent per stick; or $3 for scrubbing the algae/moss off of our lawn chairs etc) and diligently saved every last penny. Without the money he was given for his birthday, he saved up $29. Including the birthday money, he was able to buy himself the long-wanted Lego set AND a small set that compliments it! Good little capitalist!

I know there is a dearth of Sean-pictures. He is so wiggly and so grabby it is hard to get a good one of him... unless he is sleeping!

Sean has become an incredibly quick, incredibly grabby little crawler.

Eeek! He's coming for the camera!

Because Sean is "all grabby arms and hands" Ben has nicknamed him "the Kracken" ...

Mark calls him "the little Mischief-Maker"

...have you noticed how curly his hair is getting? And he has teeth! As far as I can count, there are somewhere between 6 and 100 in his mouth...