Simple Solutions to Traffic Congestion

This is a very powerful, short video produced by the Sightline Institute showing how easy it would be to address traffic congestion. I have done some mapping work for Sightline in the past, and they are a fun, smart organization with lots of good ideas.

Dosewallips

We sneaked out of Seattle mid-week for some camping at Dosewallips state park. The park is on the Olympic peninsula, right on Hood Canal and the Dosewallips river runs along the northern boundary, so there is water everywhere. It wasn't quite warm and sunny enough for swimming, but we did a fair bit of hiking and beach combing. The boys really enjoyed looking for crabs, oysters, and clams, but Liam's favorite find by far was the partial skeleton of a harbor seal. At least, we think it's a harbor seal, given its size and the fact that we found it wedged under a piece of driftwood out in the estuary (if there are any taxonomists out there who want to provide a more accurate ID I'd be happy to send additional photos of the bones).

Lochlan Dancing with Grandpa Stevenson, Xmas 2007

I finally took the time to put some video clips on YouTube. Here is one of Lochlan dancing with his grandpa Stevenson in Phoenix last Christmas. Thankfully, Loki has his mother's sense of rhythm!

Liam's Last Day at FCS

Liam is finished with preschool! After two years at Fremont Community School, he 'jumped the log' and is moving on to North Seattle Fives. His birthday is three weeks before the cutoff for kindergarten, and after talking with a bunch of teachers (including my mom), doing a bunch of reading, and talking with other parents in a similar situation, we decided to wait a year before sending him to kindergarten. On an intellectual/academic level, I think he would do great; but Amy and I were more concerned about the emotional/physical aspect of being one of the youngest and smallest kids in his class. I think North Seattle Fives will be a great place for him to spend the next school year--it is strictly for kids in his situation and provides a much more structured and stimulating environment than preschool, but it is not as demanding as kindergarten and is only 4 days a week (sounds ridiculous to say that, but in Seattle Public Schools they are starting to teach kids to read in kindergarten now!).

Here are some shots from the log jumping ceremony. At the end he received a golden key and a handwritten book with the lyrics to the most frequently sung songs at FCS. Liam was quite pleased.