Summer Cycling

Not sure if you noticed this photo, but the West Seattle 4th of July Children's Parade really changed Franklin's life. He's had a bike for a few months now, but was never especially interested in it... until his friend Pax rode the same kind of bike in the parade. Now this is an almost daily site in our Alaska Junction neighborhood:


In fact, here he is getting started later in the day on July 4th:

Happy 4th of July, happy bike ride!

A video posted by Yancy Hughes Dominick (@yancy9) on Jul 4, 2015 at 6:47pm PDT

It's a balance bike, apparently the new cool way to learn to ride. And he really is learning—here he is just one week after the 4th, touring through the West Seattle Summerfest:


All right reader, ride on!

Did You Ever See?

Cooked a pretty tasty stew today, but it was slower than expected... Thankfully Franklin was there to help keep Emily and Grandma in good spirits while we waited:



Been a busy month otherwise. As you probably know we had a big party last week:


















Many many thanks to the excellent folks at the West Seattle YMCA. Such a great job with the party!




What else? Ah, recent trip down to throw some rocks in the water (down by the bay?)...






And of course this awesome present Franklin got from a daycare classmate:


Okay let's read one last story, and then good night!

A Cheery Grin Will Get You In

I think Franklin is basically guaranteed admission to Santa Claus' party, at least according to these lyrics:

For whatever reason, that seems to be Franklin's favorite Christmas song... He heard it on one of our CD's, but it's not one I know very well, so I'm happy to have that video to help out!

Meanwhile our holiday festivities will take place under some great new decorations:

Santa & reindeer from Grandma Christine, plus super cool painting of Grandma Christine (third from right) with the rest of the Kuta family:

Franklin's Great Aunt Pauline, Great Uncle Al, Grandma C., Great Grandpa & Great Grandma Kuta, Great Aunt Dorothy in her Sisters of the Resurrection habit, and cousins (once removed) Alex and Louis in front.

Great painting, and great idea to hang it there, Emily!

And in front of that painting, we will toast and celebrate and listen to even more Christmas music. A little incongruous but here are a couple of my current favorites:




Also heard some nice music last week on Alki Beach during the Christmas Ship Festival. No sound, but here are a couple of photos:




And now, at last, I'm on holiday break. So, let's see... how about story time at the downtown library?


Franklin was really into the puzzles afterward:



I'm pretty sure he did this by himself. But can't be positive: he was really in the zone, and when I came over to see he said, "no, you go away!" :)

Also time to do some complicated cooking! Like this delicious Winter Vegetable Curry from the Times:

Photo: Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

Even time, as you probably heard, to join Franklin's class from the Intergenerational Learning Center on their first field trip!


Bus ride!


To a park!

Myrtle Reservoir Park. Definitely have to go back there soon!




All right, I'd better go wrap presents! Have a great holiday, reader!

I Was Happy To See It

Can't believe I haven't posted here in three weeks! Oops!

So, okay, where did we leave off? Marmots? Okay, here's Franklin reminiscing about part of the trip:

Just for the record, the whole "I was angry to see it" thing seems to be his idea of a joke. And I think it's pretty cool that he now is apparently old enough to tell jokes :)

What else... Oh, this might have actually been filmed before the marmot trip. I forgot about it, but maybe it's still worth a look:


At home, Franklin and I have switched to staying home together on Thursdays. Today was an excellent mix of books, dinosaurs, lunch with Pete, and even a nice nap. No photos, but here's one from a couple weeks ago:


Beautiful end to the summer, as I'm sure you know:


What else? Ah, Franklin's really coming along in the kitchen. Helped us make stuffed pasta a few days ago, cookies with Emily recently, and here they are working on the chicken curry recipe from the cookbook his daycare class put together:


Can't always eat at home of course:


Also some nice outings, including some cross-country racing at the Sundodger Invitational:




And a cool KEXP mid-day show at the Triple Door. I'm wasn't sure Temples was his kind of thing, but he was pretty transfixed at the show. Lighting was low and dad was distracted, so no good photos from there.

Did give us a good excuse to meet up with Grandma and take the water taxi though:




Also still enjoying the new neighborhood, including all the toys waiting to be used at Ercolini Park:


And of course the beach. Monday was the last day of summer, so I felt like I should get Franklin from daycare early and head over there. He seemed okay with the idea:






Even convinced Emily to come over after work:

Pretty solid end to a pretty solid summer.

And here's sunrise on the first day of fall:

So, not a bad start. Cheers!

the wild mountains then the sea and the waves rushing

So glad I have this crew to help make the most of the warm weather and the new neighborhood!

Wildlife at Constellation Park marine reserve.

Back a few days to the 10th, when we toasted Emily down at the beach. No photos, alas, but when we got back home Franklin had some fun trying on his mom's new shoes:

Or "kayaks" as he calls them, inspired I assume by the color and material :)

Great sunsets and moons this week. Not quite the supermoon in this photo, and it's in the wrong direction for a sunset, but our new neighbor looked pretty good the other night:

Bigger version here.

So, mountains and water, yes. Sounds even better in the title for this post, though, no? It's a little bit of Molly's monologue at the end of Ulysses. We had the rare pleasure of reading and discussing some of the novel with some friends down on the beach last night.

Here's the rest of the stretch I quoted up top:

... God of heaven theres nothing like nature the wild mountains then the sea and the waves rushing then the beautiful country with the fields of oats and wheat and all kinds of things and all the fine cattle going about that would do your heart good to see rivers and lakes and flowers all sorts of shapes and smells and colours springing up even out of the ditches primroses and violets nature it is...

Just amazing.

And in case you're wondering about gathering on a beautiful summer evening to read Ulysses while the sun sets over the water, I'll just note that The Economist said it's "maybe the best book you take to the beach this summer"... So there you go.

All right, before I move on it's probably unfair given my recent comments about myself to leave out what Molly says immediately after what I just quoted:

as for them saying theres no God I wouldnt give a snap of my two fingers for all their learning why dont they go and create something I often asked him atheists or whatever they call themselves go and wash the cobbles off themselves first then they go howling for the priest and they dying and why why because theyre afraid of hell on account of their bad conscience ah yes I know them well who was the first person in the universe before there was anybody that made it all who ah that they dont know neither do I so there you are they might as well try to stop the sun from rising tomorrow

Fair enough.

Now as for what comes after that, well, the last stretch of Ulysses is among the most beautiful things I've ever read, and I don't think it's quite fair to paste it into a blog post about Franklin getting a haircut and going to a street fair. But if you scroll to the bottom of this page and read picking up near the rhododendrons on Howth you won't be sorry.

But yeah, so Franklin got a haircut!

Took him a little while to warm up to it...



But he sure looks good now:


Then we stopped by Lincoln Park to cool our feet with Wendy:

More wading on Sunday, when I took that picture of the crab up above.

Video too!

All thanks to an awesome -3 foot low tide. And thanks to this cool program sponsored by the Seattle Aquarium we had great help finding sea stars, anemones, sea cucumbers, and more!



After a little rest, we ended the day at the West Seattle Summer Fest:



Up next is California. Actually, what am I doing sitting here at the computer? I need to pack!