Sunday, September 29, 2013

Peri Likes: Summer 2013 Edition

Peri has found a lot of new things she likes. She likes hiking, with and without her backpack. In the last few times we've gone out, she's ended up walking a half mile on her own. She also loves her new bike, and has her own little toolbox for her wrenches to work on it after every ride. Furthermore, she's warmed up to her trailer and her ladybug bike helmet.

She likes taking pictures. Every time we get the camera to take pictures, Peri begs and pleads for a chance to have a turn with the camera. You wouldn't know it, because I am really bad at taking pictures, but for a two-year-old, she's an amazing photographer.

Peri is really into asking politely for things now. We're hoping to cultivate that. She likes to ask, "can we go outside?" and "can we get some ice cream? Pleeeeeeeeeeeezzzzzzzzzzzee?"

She likes her little pool, and is stoked every time I blow it up and fill it.

More than anything, Peri likes singing. As I write this, she's underfoot singing "The Wise Man Built His House Upon the Rock." She's got a catalog of about twelve songs she'll go through in a day, and at bedtime, we let her choose what she wants to hear and sing. Her doctor was really impressed when we told her and we were very happy when Peri decided to overcome her shyness around others and sang the alphabet song.

Peri loves Nursery at church. She gets excited and talks it up all week. She even does our "dun dun dun, Superman" song, replacing Superman with SuperNursery! She loves learning the songs and playing. She doesn't interact much with the other kids, but that's because she's observing and learning, absorbing as much information as she can process. This is really cool for Naomi and me, because when we taught Nursery in Pullman, we always felt like we weren't making a difference and the kids weren't learning anything.

We've Moved!

We've moved to Auburn! The fourteenth largest city in Washington is our new home, and it's great. We found a great little apartment close to downtown, the train station, and everything we could possibly want. The train station is a nice one for me, as it facilitates an easy commute to Kent, where I got a new job. I now work for Out of the Box Manufacturing. It's a cool little company that is on the grow (so much that we're moving to a new location next month and tripling our floor plan in the process), and I think I will be happy there for a very long time. I've been able to really dive in and do what I know how to do, and learn some new things, too.

Naomi is happily working on getting us unpacked and the apartment in some kind of order, and Peri is absolutely thrilled to have her own room and a giant space for playing. 

We want to give a big thanks to Naomi's brother, Ben, who came over with us and helped carry everything we own into a courtyard and up a flight of stairs. This is the third or fourth move he's helped us with now and by far the most... grueling, and we owe him something nice for his efforts.

Not only is train commuting a possibility in our current location, but we're also situated next to the Interurban Trail, a bike trail for the cool guys who can ride their bikes ten miles like it's not a big deal. The sudden snap of rain and cold has put me off a little bit, but I can see myself enjoying the summer months so much more. I've also figured I can ride the distance almost as fast as I could drive.

Peri got a little art easel for Christmas last year which has been sitting in storage, and now it's her favorite thing. I get a lot of requests to draw cats and dogs and mommy monsters. Also, potty training is under way with fairly reasonable results. She's got a whole repertoire of songs she likes to sing, and she can memorize a new song after hearing it once.

We also have a little climber. I really just wanted a pretense to show these two pictures:


This is one of Peri after having climbed by herself, unassisted (though we did keep really close behind to catch her if she fell).





This is the full size of the rock she climbed by herself, unassisted.

Pretty cool, eh?