Chiming in with another "Yes they 'can'. No they shouldn't. Ever"
Stupid evil corporations don't care what is actually good for babies - they care about making profits. Period. Remember: Fred Flintstone was selling kids Winston cigarettes.

Babies/youngin's shouldn't have soda pop at all. Nor juice for that matter. Nutritionally, they NEED neither. Yes, even fresh squeezed juice. I've asked.

Also: The carbonated gas can complicate their already-hard-to-bear gas issues. More and more docs are seeing gas as the cause of baby colick.

Emily's spot on: breastmilk FTW!

Nope.

I frequently look at babies and hate their parents, though!

Several serve north or all-seattle areas:
http://www.momsclubseattlenw.org/
Green Lake Moms: contact Melissa@benaroya.net
http://www.meetup.com/Seattle-Stay-At-Home-Moms/
http://www.meetup.com/greater-seattle-working-moms/
http://www.meetup.com/onthego/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BallardMoms/

I dunno about Phinneywood & Online per se, but there are parents' groups for sure:

http://www.phinneywood.com/2009/08/26/new-parenting-group-coming-to-phinney/

You may also want to check in with the Boys & Girls club, or Rising Stars for other possible resources.
http://www.risingstarsseattle.com/

You could also ask the folks at Mimi Rose, Top Ten Toys, Greenwood Space Travel Supply co, or even Childish Things if they have any links.

Etsy! All Seattle:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/vohandmade
http://www.etsy.com/shop/OrangeTwist (No wedding stuff up but does custom orders)
http://www.etsy.com/shop/ellothere (Beer bottle label!)

While these are all links to online stores- I've had awesome luck with local artists who are actually willing to meet up and share their work with you.

Velouria in Ballard often carries interesting handmade cards, as does Lucca, if you want a retail establishment.

Yes, start easy with Zula Patrol - on PBS. It's not half bad for the 3-7 age range (depending on academic inclination).

Then you can work up to a HowStuffWorks DVD from discovery channel and/or Stephen Hawking

Oh, I just found this link for the kids' activities question. It has corn mazes too. Might find some info. there.

http://www.pumpkinpatchesandmore.org/WApnw.php

Many of the Seattle community centers have indoor toddler playrooms with balls, push bikes, and things to climb on. Ravenna-Eckstein has a nice one. They now charge a couple bucks per kid. Try looking at the community center pages here: http://www.seattle.gov/parks/centers.asp , but note that these pages sometimes don't list all the facilities at each center.

On some days, Seattle Center's Center House has free performances that kids might like. They also used to set up big corral on the main floor with kiddie cars. I don't know if they still do that.

Seattle Center also has Winter Fest coming up, which will include a lot of performances from the end of November through the end of December. Some of these are free, but the schedule is not posted yet: http://www.seattlecenter.com/programs/detail.asp?EV_EventNum=24

Family memberships to the Children's Museum and the Zoo might be a good deal if you live close enough to go often, but they are still a bit pricy. The zoo is fun in the Winter, and has a newish indoor kid's area called Zoomazium and a tropical rainforest area where you can let the warmth seep back into your bones. The Children's Museum has some great immersive environments (like the West African, Philippine, and Japanese areas) but the interactive exhibits are not always well-maintained.

Northwest kids don't seem too bothered by the winter drizzle, so all the usual playgrounds are full of kids.

Three years old is also the right age for picking up rocks in the garden to look for slugs and centipedes. My son could do this all day at that age.

This is also a good time to read to your kid a lot. There are some good interactive books like the I Spy and Where's Waldo.

Madison Park's new playground is quite nice. Quite a few things to do, and right across the street from the Madison Park beach.

Magnuson Park has a large play area with several different structures and at the basketball court right next door one of the hoops is lowered down to 4 or 5 feet, so it would be perfect for the 4 year old to shoot some baskets. Also a good kite hill. The swimming beach at Magnusson is super rocky though, not recommended.

Lincoln Park has a decent play area, but probably the best zip line around and good beach exploration as well.

Carkeek Park, as someone noted has a nice variety of things. I recall reading somewhere that the Salmon slide was closed for rehabilitation by the original artist/craftsman, but not sure if it is reopened now or not.

Ravenna Park's new playground is pretty good too, but too bad that wading pool right next to it is closed down this summer.

Hit the farmer's market at the Phinney Community Center on Friday and the kids can play on the tall slides (or at least the 4 year old can)

Rattlesnake Lake in North Bend - the part closest to the parking lot can get crowded, but there is lots of space to spread out.

No.

Judging from test results posted on www.seattleschools.org, CSHS is significantly below even the districts own low averages.

Whereas, Roosevelt, for one, is wildly OVER the district & state averages.

If you give him a weird first name like Moonbeam, give him a normal middle name like John. If you give him a lame first name like John, then give him a middle name with a little pizazz, like say, Moonbeam. Then if he turns out differently than you had envisioned with your kooky or bland first name, he can fall back on his more acceptable middle name. Or better yet, pick a completely different nickname. Happens all the time and everybody's happy.

Kids who are bitter toward their parents over their name are probably motivated by some deeper issue. Adults who think they would have been a bigger success if only they'd had a different name are fooling themselves.

Choosing a name is not that big a responsibility. But it can distract you from thinking about more important challenges coming your way.

That said, I am particularly fond to the names in Brad Neely's Wizard People, Dear Reader. Dazzler, for example. Excellent name. Mouthoil. Catface Meowmers. All good names.

l don't think such a thing is even deserving of an answer. l'd probably walk away, and advise my children to ignore that shit and explain why. Heterophobia/hate is just as distasteful as homophobia is. Expressing either in front of children -worse, AT them- is childish, selfish, and truly pathetic. And as l said in response to another answer, even if they knew each other and this was their way of one-upping, it says a great deal of their character; they must be a real joy to date themselves, and are maybe better off not being parents, biologically, adoptively or otherwise.

l've never understood the breeder insult, and find it interesting that an individual so intimately acquainted with prejudice would then turn around and apply it to another. l get the whole 'breeder' thing applied to unfit parents who continue to have children or something, but otherwise it's the same level of ignorant bigotry that is leveled at the gay community by homophobic assholes. lt's stupid. And l'll take my downvotes and stand by this statement any day.

Damn kid, why's he only raking only a small part of my lawn? If he's gonna give me unasked goddamn charity, he should do it right and rake my whole damn lawn!

Seems like those houses were breaking the rules! Unless they were only answering the door for little kids and they saw adults or something and decided not to answer. I think the traditional way to indicate you have run out of candy or you are not giving any out is to turn your porch light off. If it is on AND you have decorations you better be handing out candy by god!

I know how it goes. Things that have worked for me with my niece and her best friend:

Taking them to a movie. Not super quality time, but frequently it's the only compromise available when the 6 year old nephew is along. I earned points for taking them to High School Musical 3 (truly awful) and Twilight (awful but hilariously so).

Zoo/aquarium. I was surprised by how high the animals scored with the girls. I thought this might be something they were too cool for, so it was a pleasant surprise.

Taking them out for sushi. This was ultra cool to them and scored me many "cool uncle" points.

Taking them to a tapas joint. They were lukewarm until I taught them how "tapas bar" sounds a lot like "topless bar." I then had to teach them what a topless bar was, but once they got the idea, the whiff of scandal delighted them and suddenly tapas was cool.

Theo chocolate factory tour. This was only OK, by their standards.

Taking them shopping. At first I thought this idea would be a surrender, but I managed to turn it around (for me - they were into it from the get-go). I basically took the opportunity to talk to them about the things they wanted, how much they cost, shopping sale items, what things they might want to save up for, etc. When my sister told me that my niece bought an entire school year's clothes and came in more than a hundred bucks under budget, I figured our mall discussion had come in handy.

Teaching them to drive something. My sister rented a wave runner (basically an aquatic motorcycle), and I taught them how to drive it (illegally), and turned my niece's mild-mannered, sweet, retiring best friend into a complete speed demon terror on the lake.

Something that wasn't such a big hit: Camlann Village, where we had dinner at the medieval Boar's Hede Inn. I was pretty sure it wouldn't go over well, but my sister charged ahead with it. My niece and her two friends were totally disrespectful, constantly mocked the poor dude who was playing the lute and singing, mercilessly tore into his goofy british accent, and asked him if they sold condoms when they went to the bathroom. In other words, they were almost as charming as my sister and I were at that age ;-)

Good luck, and if you find any other good activities, let us know! Unclin' ain't easy.

As a Washington native that now lives in Alaska I say take a little mini vacation to the San Juan Islands. If you have time, there are actually ways to get there taking only public transportation. That might be an adventure in itself!

http://www.northsoundtransitguide.com/home.php

Ride the bus to Anacortes and take the ferry to Lopez or Orcas and camp out on the beach. Both islands have some nice state parks.