Packing peanuts, play babies, jumping, and a water feature

My mom shipped our stroller back to us after we forgot it at their house, complete with a big box full of packing peanuts. It arrived yesterday, just in time to provide entertainment to our poor stir-crazy kids, who had two sick moms who were running on fumes. They had a great time rolling around in this box for what seemed like an hour.


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We get these little reports from Mateo's preschool every Tuesday and Thursday, telling us a little about what he did that day. For the last couple of weeks, his "favorite part of the day" section has said: "Playing babies with my friends." I asked his teacher what they did when they played babies and she said that it involved a lot of calling the doctor to say that the baby was sick. Then, they apparently use a soup ladle to administer copious amounts of vitamins to the sick doll, and then put it down for a nap.

The teacher said she thought it was very Portland to be giving so many vitamins that they fill up a soup ladle, and I had to agree! Anyway, this coincides with Mateo's recent interest in putting his stuffed animal friends down for a nap. Just like when he goes to bed, he sings to them and then lies down next to them for a minute while their music plays. His little froggy is on the couch and Olin, the stuffed bunny, is on the cushion on the floor.


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Have I mentioned how crazy in love with our cat we are? We love our Yarn! Here's our not-so-little feline family member recently. She knows exactly when the kids go to sleep and comes trotting out right on cue, looking for a lap.


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We recently got a membership to the local children's museum and Sacha and I have each taken them once since then. Here are the kiddos playing at the water feature. This is going to be a staple of our winter activities next year, I can already tell. We'll just have to bathe in hand sanitizer after we get home.


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Finally, Natalia has learned how to jump! After intently studying Mateo jumping for, well, her entire life, she figured out how to do it. It started with her hopping off the ground with one foot while keeping the other firmly planted on the floor. Now she can really do it with both feet. It is very cool. In this video, we're at the end of a lot of practice jumping, so she's a bit disheveled! We finally convinced her to wear a barrette to keep her hair out of her eyes, but they don't always stay in very well. Here's the jumping girl!