tada!

Whitney first learning obstacles. She is excited about it, but it looks uncomfortable. Aug 2010
Whitney really learning how to crawl. She had this day where chasing a toy on the smooth floor was fun, but it kept getting stuck behind the toilet. Sept 2010
Whitney playing in the morning.
Whitney and Tucker playing in the morning She rules the toys. Sept 2010
Tucker playing in the morning
Tucker learns to pull himself on the toys. Whitney no longer reigns. Sept 2010
Whitney at the Sculpture park. Sept 2010
Tucker learns to stand at the window. Sept 2010. Whitney looks on. big deal. She already knows that trick.
Whitney and Tucker at the park. Sept 2010
Double babies.
Babies in the swing.
hey aunti jill! Recognize these? This was the last night they could fit in these pjs at the same time. Sept 2010
Rocky has been ousted. Aug 2010
Tucker christens kitchen with the first diaper change. 10/11/10
Whitney checking out the new window. This shirt glows in the dark, by the way. 10/11/10
Who's having more fun playing? 10/14/10
Whitney is not so sure about this new weather. Aug 2010
View from the duck tour 8/10
Overlooking Puget sound. The sculpture park. I spent a lot of time there enjoying the view. 8/10

The babies at the Sculpture park with the space needle in the background 8/10
All of us on the duck ride 8/10

Tucker and Whitney playing in the window the first time in Seattle. 8/10
The babies at the Sculpture park 8/10
Our first dinner in Seattle. Jim made awesome seafood, of course. 8/10

Sammy traveling to Seattle 8/10
Rocky traveling to seattle 8/10


Tada! We moved in. I guess I forgot to blog last week. I think I started it, but then my brother called, so that ended that. This week was quite the adventure moving. I would have to say having someone move you definitely is worth it. The advantages for someone moving you outweigh the disadvantages, although other things happen that wouldn't happen if you moved yourself. Like possibly getting someone else's stuff. The truck showed up Tuesday to deliver our stuff. It was supposed to come last Friday, but that was due to an underwriter at the bank that caused that. We closed on Friday morning and it was recorded at the courthouse at 4:30 pm. 30 min before closing time for a three day weekend due to Columbus Day. Perfect. Because we camped in our house on Monday night, something we wouldn't have been able to do until the house was officially ours.

So back to things that happen when someone else moves you. I didn't realize the process, otherwise I would have made Jim stay home from work on Tuesday. As the movers pulled stuff off the truck, you are supposed to check off the numbered item on this list so they know we have it. Then you tell them where to put it. Which is awesome when you are not trying to entertain or feed crying babies that are clingy due to all the changes in the past few days. Most of the time the babies were good or it was during a nap time, but there were some crazy hours to hold two babies and hold them outside. Thank heavens it wasn't raining, a real miracle here. So they started pulling things off the truck, after the guy double checked we were the correct Andersons. A few items into pulling stuff off the truck, several bed items came off that I didn't recognize. They stopped unloading the truck and everything was double checked again, when I suddenly remembered that we had packed Noelle's stuff, including her daybed, which is the stuff I didn't recognize. Opps. The driver said, "Mandy! You scared me!!!" I might have stressed him out. Well, as much as you can stress out an Islander.

Then I discovered the vacuum was present but is missing the top. The part that keeps the dirt in. Rats!! It was the last off the truck, so I think it fell when they opened the truck and didn't find all the parts when they put it together, or it got moved around in the warehouse here. I guess our stuff was in a sort of cubby for 2 months. The dogs tracked in all sorts of bark and pine needles and Whitney is having a grand old time vacuuming without a vacuum. For some reason it is very fascinating to pick up scraps of bark and eat them before Mommy notices.

Then the third party crating guy shows up. He was asking the moving guys (who were at this time unpacking all of my boxes, so there was paper, boxes and loose stuff everywhere on any flat surface) where different things were for the baby cribs, the washer and dryer, and the TV. I think he was irritated. I guess the third party crater on the other end didn't leave instructions on how to put the crib together. The guy here had to guess and ended up putting it together 3 times. Then the washer hose was broken in the move, but he didn't notice it, so there was water all over the place when he went to check that it was in good working order. At least he checked before I did. Then the movers thought at first that they had to put together the tv, so they had started opening the crate a little, so the third party guy was looking for parts, walking around asking the mover guys where a box was and they said it was unpacked... and so on. It was a zoo. All during this time there are 4 other guys plus two babies and me all making lots of noise.

Something else that always happens is that not all the stuff comes off the truck. Parts of shipments often get left in the warehouse. Once the truck was unloaded and all the numbers were checked off, I went through all the items that were not received (about 20), most of which were all Jim's. I thought it was funny, but he didn't. Half of his desk didn't show up. His Ikea TV stand and chair weren't there. His desk bookshelf was there, but not the bookcase it goes to. So all of his office gadgets and books were strewn all over the floor, but nothing to put them in. Like I say, I thought it was funny, but he didn't. Oh yeah. His grill didn't make it the first trip, either. Or his bike. It ended up coming the next day, though. I didn't notice anything missing. Until yesterday. I can't find my piano music. There is one box that I packed (possibly my piano music) and one box they packed of clothes that never got checked off, but then there are a ton of boxes in the garage, so maybe it's there. I really need to find my box of sponges and cleaning rags, too, but I'm not ready to tackle the garage. I have to say, next time someone moves in, I know exactly what helps them unpack. Pulling everything out. Even though it was a huge mess and I had to barricade the babies to a certain part of the house, at least I could see everything and all I had to do was put everything away. It saved a ton of time to not deal with the boxes and paper all over the place.

Anyway, we are really enjoying our new house. I love all the trees I can see and we've been lucky with the weather so far. There has been sunshine during part of the day every day this week.

For baby news, Whitney is getting to be a real speed crawler. She crawls on her hands and knees most of the time, instead of military crawling and is really good at feeding herself. She really loves chasing balls and is having a blast with all of her "new" toys that I pulled out of storage. She pulls to stand on this mini table/toy thing and has a great time banging on it and singing about it, too. And she hates the vacuum cleaner. Every time I tried to make it run (at the apartment last week) she chases it like she wants to kill it. Smart girl.

They often play together, chasing balls, fighting over the frisbee and crawling around following the dogs. Tucker finally grasped the concept of feeding himself small bits of food this week, too, and has long mastered holding the bottle. He is really talking up a storm and smiling at anyone that looks his way. I trimmed up his hairline again, but that's as far as I got. He is a lot more wiggly. This may be a two person job for a little while. He continues to spit and growl lots too. He also hammed it up at the title company and loved sitting in the big chair.

Something I got a big kick out of is when Jim was playing with the babies. They were playing with a toy that sings a song. The song was playing when the babies hit it and stopped the song. Jim said "Oh! I like that song".

Lots of the pictures were of the first part of seattle, since I didn't have this computer to get the pictures off, so enjoy! The videos are of the babies chasing balls, eating, and Tucker likes to push things back and forth. Like the dog dishes. And high chairs.