The Pollard Place: March: The Outback in the Northwest, a Visitor, and 26

March! Normally March is filled with springtime weather, but here the raining is still going strong. I think I said this in the last post, but this has been the wettest year on record. So many people that we know are taking off to Arizona, Hawaii, Florida or Mexico to get some sun. We have definitely been doing a lot of indoor activities because I was starting to get stir crazy!

Henry and I went to the Aquatic Center again! The last time Rusty and I took him there he was only about 8 months I think, so this was completely different. He LOVED it, but I was having a hard time keeping up with him running around in the shallow part ha. His favorite part was by far the slide. Another think that we did was go to Gymagine, a little gymnastics place. They have a drop in time in the morning that you can bring your kids and let them play on the equipment. Henry wasn't really sure what to do, but ended up liking this runway trampoline thing a lot! He would run down it and then jump (more like very tentatively step) into the foam pit.

Another place we visited was called WiggleWorks. It's in a mall in Bellevue, but basically it looks like you entered into Dr. Seuss' world. They had all kinds of things to do and it was all so colorful! There was a big area with huge fans blowing these balloons around and Henry wanted to go in so, so badly but was too scared. So he spent a lot of time going down the slide but every time he passed the balloons he would look so longingly at them. It made me feel sad. Eventually, HE WENT IN! And he had a blast! It was just constant giggling from him haha. Then he must have felt really brave because he went on every thing that they had. He climbed things, rode things around, and played on this cool waterbed thing. I was so proud of him!

Baby Girl is still doing awesome! My back hurt so bad in the first trimester, but in the second it has gotten a lot better. Rusty can feel her kick now and he has started to talk to her because it feels more real. When we found out that we were pregnant, I immediately thought it was a girl. And I knew that I wanted to name her Adeline Faye. We have talked about other names since we found out it was a girl, but nothing has beaten it. Rusty calls her that but I still don't just because I want to see her to make sure it fits. But at this point, we don't have any fall backs haha. I probably won't hold out for much longer.

Rusty's sister Kandi came out to visit for a week. We had a ton of fun showing her around and playing. One of the things we did was finally check out the Kangaroo Farm. It was so much more fun than I thought it would be! We got there and there were chickens running around the parking lot, which automatically put Henry into laughing fits. The tour was about to start so we went inside and bought our tickets and then hung out with some birds before the tour started with lemurs and goats. She fed the lemurs bananas and then stuck the peels through the fence to the goats haha.

After that we got to go and see a big tortoise and touch its shell, and then we got to go into the kangaroo enclosure! They gave us pieces of bread to feed them and Henry was in heaven! He was so excited! He loved to pet them and feed them, and one of them even had a baby joey in her pouch!

An albino wallaby

Then we got to see donkeys and a little miniature horse. Inside with the donkeys was a peacock and it spread his feathers wide and then started squawking, and I was so surprised that after we went home out of all of the animals we saw he wanted to talk about peacocks! He wanted to watch videos and walked around the house making those sounds haha. The little miniature horse was named Oreo and liked to race people haha. We also saw some emus, but we ended with seeing alpacas! I love them so, so much! We got to feed them, and they suggested that we put the food in our mouth and then give it to them. That's what I did and it was hilarious!

At the end of the tour we got to hold that little joey!

Something else that we did was visit the Chihuly Glass Museum. That has been on my list since we moved here, but Rusty wasn't super into it so we never went. Kandi really wanted to go too, so it worked out that we could go together!

This was one of my favorite pieces. It was ocean waves with some marine life pieces. How can you even make glass like this?!

We saw a live glass blowing demonstration!

The museum is right next to the Space Needle and the reflections were really cool

One day we went to Discovery Park downtown and walked along the trails and had a picnic. We also drove out to see the lighthouse. Henry had a great time poking at trees with sticks and finding cool leaves along the way. The weather wasn't great, but at least it wasn't raining!

My birthday came! Wow, 26 year old I can't believe that the years are going by so fast. Rusty let me sleep in and then woke me up with breakfast in bed and cake. Then we got ready and headed downtown!

We walked around Pike's Market and then got food at Piroshky Piroshky, which has been on my list for such a long time! And let me tell you, it did not disappoint. DELICIOUS. Seriously.

We got some chowder at Ivar's because it started raining, and then headed to the Aquarium. It was fun to be back there after not volunteering for so long.

Our final stop was at Red Mill Burgers, which was also a place that I have heard such wonderful things about! It was really good, I think one of the best burgers I've ever had! Then when we got home I opened up presents and Rusty had gotten stuff for all of us to do facials at home! We gave Henry a mask of whipped cream. It was so fun!

The last thing that we did was go to Whidbey Island where we spent the day. We visited Deception Pass and hiked around. Then we went to Fort Casey and climbed the lighthouse, but it was so windy that we pretty much just did the lighthouse. Then we drove to the Blue Fox Drive In where we had dinner and played arcade games until it was finally time for the movie to start. Rusty and Kandi also did some go kart racing! The movie we saw was Beauty and the Beast and it was so, so good!

The weather has been so rainy lately that any day that there was some sun, or at least if it wasn't raining, we ran out to parks to enjoy the sun as much as we could!

Another change that happened is that we bought a duplex in Pueblo, CO with our partners. The upstairs is just studs so it needs to be completely finished, and the downstairs has an existing tenant. I told everyone that I would be the main point of contact with the property manager, and that has turned out to be so difficult! This is by far our hardest property. We have been through three property management companies, and I had to interview and go through contracts with all of them. Then we found out that two houses down is a drug house, so I have been talking to the Pueblo Police Department. Later we found out that the tenant had no intention of paying rent for April at all because she was planning on ending her contract early and moving out in May. I don't understand people! How can you just say, "Oh, I don't intend to pay rent."

Henry's Highlights:

Toddler bed. He is now sleeping in a toddler bed! Oh my gosh, I can't believe it. We had the bed for a few days but I just couldn't follow through. I kept crying and saying, "He won't be my baby! He'll be so big." I'm blaming part of that on the pregnancy hormones, but mostly I just know it's me. I have a hard time with change and he is growing up so fast! I am excited to see all of his changes and progress, but I miss him as a little baby. Sometimes I also get sad about the new baby coming because he won't be my only baby anymore, but I know it is going to be great! I just have a hard time moving on.

He gets up in the night and moves to weird spots where I find him when I go to check on him haha. It can't be comfortable.

Loves his kitchen, his riding giraffe, and his barn. We have to sing Old MacDonald for each animal that he has in the barn.

We had an interesting experience happen with honey. This is one of Henry's top three favorite foods, and one night Rusty and I were upstairs looking at some stuff for the business and Bailey and Henry were downstairs. And it was that too quiet feeling, and I went downstairs and saw him scooping honey off of the couch that he had poured on it. He also got it on himself and Bailey. At least it smells good!

Loves to sing songs at story time and the pre-school class. He especially loves The Wheels on the Bus, Ring Around the Rosie, and this highway one. It is the cutest thing ever to watch him sit around that circle rug and sing the songs with the other kids.
We finally got him a helmet for his bike. He started getting pretty daring with curbs and stuff and so I told Rusty that we needed to get one right away. Rusty's the best and ordered one right then! It is adorable and makes him look so old. He LOVES his bike.