Sick Kid

I was in San Jose earlier this week and the trip, while good for work was unremarkable and there's little to report.

The city of San Jose has banned plastic bags and now most stores are charging 10 cents for paper bags. This would be the incentive needed for me to remember to bring my own bags into the store.  However, when traveling and in a rental car you have to buy the bag.   I did get into a small altercation with the kid at Target who simply set my 15 items aside after ringing me up and moved on to the next customer.  "Er... can I get a bag?"  "Sure, but it'll cost 10 cents."  "um, ok, you could have asked me."  "Oh, some people hate the charge."  At that point I was contemplating pay for my 10 cent bag with credit card, but opted to hand the kid a dime instead.  Grrrr.  I kept my fancy 10 cent Target bag and it now lives with my luggage that I leave under my desk at the office.  Should I need to go to the store again, I'll have a bag with my travel stuff that I can forget to take with me.  From now on it will feel just like home.  I respect the movement away from the plastic bags, but for non-locals it isn't practical.

The San Jose portion of my trip was fine, the hard part was what was going on at home while I was away.  Miss Lucy was sick.  She had a significant throw-up event on Dad in the middle of the night, and then got sent home from 'school' with a suspected case of Pink Eye.

Jason quickly obtained an appointment with the Pediatrician and not only was the Pink Eye confirmed (apparently it was obvious) but she also had the onset of an ear infection.  No wonder she has been cranky and not sleeping well.  We're now on a round of oral antibiotics for the ears and eye drops for the pink eye.  You have to know that she really HATES the eye drops.  Thankfully, we only have to torture her with those for 1 week.  The antibiotic is a 10 day event but she doesn't hate it.

She stayed home yesterday as the rule is kids must be 24 hours without fever (and one other symptom) before they can come back.  Lucy and I played on the floor all day yesterday.  She took good naps and was a happy camper this morning.  She was excited about school which was nice to see.  Apparently, Dad was solo parenting a cranky, lethargic kid who was not interested in food.

The first night I was home she was up in the night multiple times, stuffy and wanting to snuggle.  I was thankful for naps yesterday as it allowed me the 45 minute rejuvenation nap needed to function for the day.  Last night, she went to bed and with the exception of one moment at 12:30 where she put herself back to sleep needed no parental interventions.  HURRAH!

Jason is, as everyone suspects, a great dad. He's a good doctor to our little girl, but he was also VERY ready for me to come home.  Handling the sick kid is fine, but the cranky kid and a mess and medicine that you have to hold her down to administer - not fun on your own.  Let's keep our fingers crossed that Lucy will be in good health when I'm on my back to back trips in March.

We also established that Lucy will transition to the big kid room soon and that it will not be around the same time that Jason and I leave her to go to Maui.  I'm sure she'll be fine with grandma & grandpa but changing rooms at the same time seemed like too much going on.

I can't believe it has been a year.  More on that mind blowing concept later.

Hi!

Eating mama's (tofu) Mac & cheese

More weddings!

Oh I love a good wedding and with a few perplexing exceptions, my wonderful and delightful friends are paired up and wedding season seems to be waning in my world. (To all the single ladies in the world, I know of the last, smart, witty, fun, single and caring man on earth... give me a call and I'll assess your worthiness for an introduction.)  He's a straight as the day is long, so any of you single guys out there have to keep looking.

Any-who... back to my point.  The local news lately is filled with what I see as progress in our state.  I'm talking about the historic votes to allow all couples, regardless of gender makeup to marry.  Unless something drastic happens it will pass the next legislative step and then the Governor will sign the bill into law.  It's a darned complicated process but I'm rather excited about it.

I'm sure the signing into law won't be the end of it, there will be people who will sue, those that will suggest that a law won't be valid unless its voted on by the citizens of our state, but I say 'whooie!'  We elected the folks in Olympia and their work stands for us all - just because you don't like it doesn't make it wrong.  My dad taught me that.  It was a blinding lesson in reality, where he told me to "want in one want and spit in the other and see which one gets full first."  I had to test that theory about five times before I really figured out that wanting wasn't all that productive.  I also learned that a handful of spit wiped on the couch will get you sent to your room.

I know plenty of people who feel with the most deepest of convictions that homosexuality is a sin and that allowing these 'sinners' to marry is an affront to the foundations of marriage.  I don't agree, but I respect their right to believe that way.  I also respect their right to pick and choose which parts of the bible to follow.  Rules such as if you rape a woman and she isn't married you have to marry her.  We don't stand by that one... or the penalty for adultery being death by stoning.  Other non-practical rules, such as crop rotation have been clearly moved aside as not relevant to our modern society, and I doubt that all priests still don special undergarments when they approach the alter, lest the die of guilt (that's in Exodus, and thank you Google for a fruitful search of absurd Bible laws.)  I don't discount that many modern churches and religious organizations still call homosexuality a sin.  That is fine, for them.

Churches and religious organizations can (and should) lead their people according to their beliefs and interpretations of Gods (or whomever) divine law.  Those teachings however should not extend to how laws are crafted in our modern, religiously free society.  Who is to say that YOUR view of God is the same as mine or that it is more relevant or more right?  Basing laws on a specific moral code is not acceptable in our modern civil government.  Sure, thou shalt not kill has wormed its way into our legal system, but come on, when you murder someone you trample their civil rights just a bit.  It's not only an infringement of their ability to dine at McDonalds but also ties back to the 10 commandments.  However, we have not created laws that can result in capital punishment for all the commandments.   I can find no civil code to prohibit anyone from envying their neighbor or their hot wife.

I support the rights of  Churches to opt in or out of performing, supporting, condemning or endorsing same sex unions.  They can deem me a sinner all day long for my support for that matter.  However, the State (a non-religious based entity) should not participate in mandated discrimination of any kind.

The argument that a same sex union harms the fabric of or society, the basis of families or will impact the marriage of anyone else is (again I say) whooie!  There have been gay couples for ages and it hasn't really harmed anyone, or impacted the fabric of society.  I would argue that the feeling that these people should stay closeted or that it's ok to bully gay kids or anyone) has done more harm than loving acceptance would have done.    Just as a sham marriage between two complete strangers or celebrities has no impact on my world, a union between two women in Yakima would have zero impact on me.    That's not entirely true, if I knew them, and was invited to the wedding I might spend some money on a new dress, a wedding gift or two and maybe a hotel room.  That is a positive impact to our economy, that's not a bad thing.

The fight isn't over, the discussion will go on for a while, but hopefully it will be resolved once and for all and we can move on to bigger and more important things.

By the way, I was trying to look up a statistic that would support a statement I thought I wanted to make about most serial killers being heterosexual males and accidentally downloaded a rather large PowerPoint presentation from Radford University entitled "Serial Killers".  Should anyone important be monitoring my online activity I'm  not doing research for extra curricular activities. Turns out, the report makes no reference to sexuality other than to note that serial killers have a higher rate of sexual abuse in their past than the rest of the population.  Since consenting adult sexual behavior isn't abuse the point is irrelevant.    Point to note, abuse and dismembering of animals is a VERY strong indicator of future deviant behavior and should be taken VERY SERIOUSLY.

11 months

February 1, marks Lucy's 11th month on earth with us.   I looked back on the baby blog and last year at this time I was sleeping every other night, enjoying that "super pregnant" look and hoping to make it for the baby shower.  Not only did I make it, but as you'll recall Dr. Kristen had to reach in and force Lucy to come out.

With everything we have planned this month I'm betting this February flies by a heck of a lot faster than last February did.  With Lucy seriously sleeping through the night we (Jason and I) are getting a lot more sleep and are far more rested than we thought we would be.

Lucy has her days.  Sometimes she comes home from school and is ready to play for an hour before we start the bedtime routine (dinner, bath, 2 pages of a book, a bottle then bed).  Sometimes, like last night she hardly has the patience for dinner.  We managed to linger in the bath and between the bath and bottle long enough to get bedtime in a hair under 6pm.  Our goal is 6:30 - 7:00 but 7:00 is RARE.

It didn't surprise me that she was awake at 5:00 this morning.  Since it is still the dead of winter it is DARK outside and I popped in gave her a pacifier and laid her back down.  That worked until 5:38.  Those 38 minutes were critical for me and I'm thankful for them.

I still can't get pictures of Lucy's top teeth - it is hard to get the kid to flash her upper gums, but trust me, when she bites on my finger I can feel teeth.  The books say that it is time to schedule her first dentist appointment.  Don't call me a naysayer, but I have a feeling that Lucy will not love Dr. Otto the way I love Dr. Otto.  Thankfully, this first appointment is simply about an initial assessment of her mouthal (yeah, I made that up) situation.

You can't tell by the picture above, but Lucy's curls have returned.  She will need another haircut before her birthday party.  I'm torn between keeping her in this adorable pixie cut or enduring a crazy grow out so she can have lovely little girl hair.  I can't stand it in her eyes (holy crap, I'm channeling my grandmother Elsie) but I do love the wave that her hair has.  Jason is no help - he said he would like it either way.   We have an appointment. scheduled for two weeks before her birthday; whatever damage we do there will soften up before the family arrives.  I'm not worried, she's super cute.

By the way, and totally off topic - I'm drinking a V8 V-fusion today.  It is vegetable and fruit and green tea, and I can totally taste the carrots and tomatoes.  I likely won't be buying it again.  I'd rather eat carrots & tomatoes.

Ok, gotta run.  

A terrible dilemna

What will we do?  I've been staying up nights unable to sleep because I'm overcome with worry.  We've put our names into the hat to win the 2012 HGTV Dream Home.

It is a 5000+ square foot home outside Park City, Utah.  It has an amazing kitchen, a glorious outdoor space complete with a hot tub, a tricked out 2 car garage (complete with an SUV) and everything you could think you might want.

I know they will pull our name and then we'll be in a terrible pickle.  This gorgeous place is amazing and it would be great fun to visit, but the darned thing only has 3 bedrooms so it only sleeps 6 people.  Can you imagine?  There is a very cool nook off the family room that kids can play in and I suppose Lucy could live in there, but the house isn't really equipped to deal with the large family gatherings I think we'd like to have.  The family room does have an Ethan Allen queen sized sleeper sofa and I hope that for $3947 the darned thing would be comfortable.  I haven't yet found a sleeper sofa that I would want to sleep on for more than 2 nights in a row, but maybe Ethan has that worked out.  Actually, my mom had a brilliant addition to her sleeper sofa - she slid a plywood board between the paper thin mattress and the jagged bars of the bed and it actually made her sofa bed bearable.  Not everyone has storage room for sheets of plywood that you might only use once or twice a year, but it made me feel special that she worked a solution to the tragedy that is "you don't mind sleeping on the pull out do you?"

So, I've been pacing the floors at night worried about learning to ski again - after all you can't live in Utah and not know how to ski.  I've been worried about how my 'can't ever keep my opinions to myself" nature will go over with the new neighbors and then how to keep the riff-raff from visiting.  By "riff-raff" I mean the relatives who a) don't read this blog and b) are boring or cause fights when they come around.

The real issue would be, move or don't move.  Our people mostly live here in Washington so a move to Utah for just the three of us would be sad, but I know I mentioned that this place has a hot tub.  There is an option where we could take the cash payout, which would be a pretty nice little addition to our savings account, but it would be sad not to get to hang out at the house for at least a month before they wrote us a check.  We could take the house and then find a property management company to rent it out for vacationers. I've always wanted to go to the Sundance Film Festival...having a tricked out place to stay would be great, or we could rent the last unused bedroom to Brad & Angelina.  Their kids would have to bunk with Lucy in the kids nook, but I'm sure they are use to sharing rooms anyway.

Oh well, I guess this is the burden I'll have to shoulder. I'm sure I'll figure out what to do before they draw my name later this spring.

It's been exciting around here

We took off a long weekend to spend some much needed alone time together and then Mother Nature decided that five days wasn't enough.  With the exception of a one day break we spent 11 days in each other's company 24/7.  It was great, it was fun and it was super exhausting.  I think we all benefit from Lucy's outings to "school".  She certainly likes her friends. When I left her this morning she and Connor, a fellow 'I can't quite walk yet' classmate were laughing at each other while handing a drum back and forth.  I think she likes the diversity of activities that they plan at 'school'.  Sometimes they do art, sometimes they play with shredded paper, sometimes it is peek-a-boo time.  At home, my entertainment skills are heavily reliant on the toy box and   books.   I don't get creative with arts and crafts.  I hope to be that kind of mom who can manage a rainy day with art, but at almost 11 months, it's a challenge.

We're happy that the weather has warmed up, but we had a major wind storm last night and it kept me awake. I could hear all the vents on the house being blown around and I just knew that all the trash bins that were outside were being strewn about our already messy street.  The big snow day was our trash day and for some odd reason (hills?) United Waste didn't pick up the trash.  We managed to bring our bins in for the week( it's called shoveling your walkway) but many of our dip shit neighbors couldn't get it together to do it.  If there's a reason why I won't be friends with many of the neighbors it is their complete lack of pride in keeping our street clean.  I understand why everyone (but us) has bins and extra bags out today, but they also have their recycling out as if some miracle will occur and the Recycle truck will come too, even though it's not recycle week.

Today the wind is gone, but we have what I like to call "big rain" and all the bins that have had their lids blown off are filing with water.  Could the neighbors bring in their now super soggy cardboard piles?  Hell no.  I called to confirm that there will only be trash pick up today and now I'm tempted to run around outside and put a sign on every pile that says "TRASH" so that the garbage people will just pick all that junk up.  I'm happy to recycle and it would be sad to have all that product go to the landfill, but I want it off the streets.



In Lucy news, we finally have top front teeth budding.  I noticed them last night after her bath.  She was singing and singing and I caught a glimpse of white in the upper palate.  She's still right on time with the teeth, because these teeth are expected anywhere between 8-12 months.  She'll hit 11 months on the 1st so she's fine.  I guess I just felt that because Jordan's teeth came in all at once that Lucy's would too.  Lesson:  different kid, different rules.

Both Jason and I got a little emotional (not tears or anything like that) when we saw the teeth.  We are excited but I, for one, am going to miss that gummy smile.  This year has gone by so fast.  She's such a little girl these days and I'm sure walking is right around the corner.   She doesn't quite have words yet but we occasionally hear "mama-mama" and "da" and the ever embarrassing "die die die".  Sometimes she sounds really sweet when she's babbling and other times it sounds kind of expressive, so the difference between cute 'dai, dai, dai' and demonic  "die! die! die!" is remarkable.  She does growl at us, but most to express displeasure and I'm sure it will go away when she has the word 'no'.  She already knows what shaking her head no means and we get hand signals to let us know when she's done eating.  It looks like a grand two handed wave, but it is the sign language move for "all done".  She knows what "more" looks like (pinch your fingers together and touch the tips of both hands) but an outstretched arm, the gimmie hand grab and an expressive grunt works too.

This weekend is Jason's birthday and he and I will be going out to dinner.  Lucy will be staying home with Rico and Mrs. Rico but just so it feels like she's with us in spirit we'll be scattering a handful of Cheerio's on the floor around our table. I'm sure the staff at El Gaucho will see the humor in that.

Playing with pictures

Lucy's New Circus Tent

Snow Day

We're home again due to weather. Yesterday it was simply snow that caused the schools to close and since our day care follows the school district closures we had a stay at home baby yesterday. I was able to attend all my meetings and keep up with email, so it wasn't a total (work) loss. We're home again due to freezing rain. Yesterday I shoveled part of the driveway (and Jason did the other half when he got home) and overnight it has filled with about 3/4 of an inch of ice. It looks like a big soupy puddle but it's frozen solid. The picture below this post was taken this morning on the little tree in front. The power lines look the same. In fact, our power has been flickering on and off all morning. I'd be doing laundry, but I worry that if the power goes out for a long period of time that a tub full of wet clothes would be a bad thing.

 Hanging with Lucy is fun, but she really does the same things over and over again She unstacks the stacking boxes, pulls the blocks from the bin, removes the coasters from the coffee table (what they did to her I'll never really know) and then makes the annoying "learning puppy" sing. (Thanks DOUG for the Annoying Learning Puppy!) The damn thing has the most irritating song that Lucy seems to love. Imagine this in a fake child voice "It's fun to see you laugh and grow, learning as you play. It's something something and here is what I say I loooooove you, I loooove you , morning noon and night, I loooooove you, I looooooove you, you make my day so bright." It seems innocent enough, but there are times when I really want to punch that happy puppy right in the nose.

We're in kind of a growth spurt with Lucy right now and she's a sleeping machine. She woke up at 6:30 this morning and had to have a morning nap at 8:30. It's been over an hour and there's been nary a peep from the nursery. She'll likely take another nap this afternoon and still be ready for bed in the 6:00 hour. The other Lucy issue is that we're still dealing with a minor diaper rash. It gets better then flairs up again. We had it in pretty good shape after our 5 day weekend together, but one day at day care and we were back to a flaming red bum again. I'm not sure what that's all about. She does eat a lot more at 'school' than she does at home and seems to pooh a lot more there too. They are changing her every hour and applying the doctor required paste - something about school makes Lucy's butt very very angry.

Enough about baby butts - we have a follow up appt with our pediatrician Friday (provided we can get there) and we'll get to the bottom of it. Ha Ha, get it, I said "bottom" while discussing a diaper rash... I'm so funny. snort. My book group meeting is scheduled for tonight, but even if it warms up and melts today, I likely will not be going. I don't have any fear about getting there (if it gets warm during the day) but once the sun goes down the soggy slush will be an issue and since BG is optional, I feel safer skipping. Hopefully the ladies are in agreement and we can find another day to meet. I did finish the book and am interested in their thoughts on these strange and mildly unlikeable characters. there goes the baby.... off to be a mommy.

Brrrr

Scary Snow Day

Winter Duo

Jason, Lucy and I went for a walk yesterday and we stopped for a mildly cute picture along the way.  We bought this silly blue snow suit for Lucy before we went to Denver for Christmas and didn't get a chance to wear it.  Lucky for us, the snow gods in Seattle have blessed us with a winter blast.

We're enjoying the snow, the cute suit and of course as always the camera.  Dragging the tripod on our walk seemed silly, but if we go out again I'll insist that we take it, as the only thing that would have made this picture more perfect (more perfecter?) would be to have Jason in the shot.  However, Lucy is flirting with dad in this picture and if she were simply looking at a camera on a tripod she wouldn't be so happy.

The weather people say we're in for a whopper tomorrow, so I'm trying to get as much done at work today as possible (minus the time to blog) so that if I'm home with a kid who has no "school" that I'm not horribly behind.

We cut short our trip to Long Beach due to the snow and it was a good decision.  Sadly we had to cancel dinner with a friend, but having a whole day at home was great.  We made an amazing stew, Lucy took two very long naps and had fun not being in the car all day.

Last night, our power went out at 2:30 am, which is reason to have to get out of bed and power the computers down (they have a back up battery to save us from hard unexpected power outages) and to reset the house alarm.  It only takes a few minutes (as a team) to do all that, but neither of us could get back to sleep.  Maybe the house without the hum of fans, heaters, or the glow of all the electrical lights is too dark and quiet to sleep in.

Power was restored before 4:00 am and we were able to get a couple hours of sleep in before we had to start our day.  Everything seems back to normal, but our satellite TV is out.  The big blob of snow that was on the satellite has sloughed off, so I'm wondering if Mr. Fix-It needs to reset the main box.  (Or if there is a main box to reset...)  I tell you this, if Jason should ever leave me the tvs, phones and computers will never work again.  Everything is magically connected and I don't really understand it all.  Seriously, if he were to go get cigarettes and never come back I'd be like the 40's housewife who didn't know how to drive or that there was a mortgage payment to pay.  You'll come over and I'll be sitting in the dark with a candle and a paper book feeling really sorry for myself.

Our back yard

Grandpa Parke

oregon coast being iPhotographed

Oregon Coast - Ecola State park

10 1/2 months

Lucy's at the ocean

come close, I have a secret to tell you

In Tillamook,Or

Traveling

The new year has started in earnest. I’m traveling this week in San Jose. Thankfully it is a short flight and the weather here is pretty nice. It was a “roasty” 60 degrees today, but should dip down to a chilly 40 tonight. I braved this trip with only sweaters and am a tiny bit sorry I didn’t bulk up a bit. (There was some crazy dude in the outdoor pool last night...it was NOT warm enough for that activity.)
Alaska Airlines changed their available flights out of San Jose and instead of getting home at 5:45 tomorrow I’ll be landing at 9:00. The difference is only a few hours, but it does make for a long day. Oh well, it’s nice that our home is near the airport and I don’ t have to add on a 45 minute freeway trip on top of the flight time. I didn’t travel enough last year to retain my “elite” flyer status and the real bummer is the added ten minutes it takes to get off the airplane when we land. For some reason those ten minutes feel a lot longer than any other part of the flight. I’d like to complain about the loss of my “elite” status, but it really means that I spent lots and lots of time at home in 2011. 2012 will see the return of my status but thankfully I will not hit the “super elite” status. I frankly don’t want to travel that much.

It was Mom’s birthday on Sunday and I used my go to birthday gift generator (Amazon.com) to mail her two movies – the recommended hit “The Help”, which I really enjoyed and I know many of you read the book. I also sent her the documentaries “Babies”. My parents watched both movies yesterday and I heard that the Babies movie was such a hit that it was going to get a second viewing in short order. So – yeah!

Monday night we (the work peeps) went to dinner at an “Asian Fusion” restaurant and we filled our table with entrees from Thailand, India and Japan. It should have been flavor collisions, but alas I wanted to tuck tidbits of the meal into my shirt pockets to eat later in the evening. I know that licking the bowls during a business dinner is slightly unacceptable, so I had to hold myself back.
Jason is “solo” parenting while I’m away and of course is doing just fine. I’m sure they both miss me as much as I miss them. Jason does a nice job of sending me a photo every day to keep me in the loop. Yesterday we went over Lucy’s day care sheet. Each day the ‘teachers’ at ‘school’ fill out a sheet to let us know when she ate, when she slept (never) and all diaper changes. Usually the sheet comes home with notes like “Lucy ate green beans!” or “Lucy needs more pants”. Monday it was “Lucy pooped at 6:30, 7:45, 10:15, 12:25, 3:10 and 4:10 today”. May I just say – WOW, that is a lot of poop. We’ve been managing a semi-industrial sized diaper rash and all the #2 does not help the healing process. I do think it’s nice that she’s so relaxed at “school”, and I guess I’m paying a lot of money for those diaper changes so I shouldn’t feel at all guilty about them.

When Jason picked up miss Lucy from ‘school’ yesterday he was asked when I was coming home. He felt a little judged so his response was “Why, am I doing something wrong?” The response was that of course he’s not doing anything wrong but that Lucy seemed “off” and seemed to be missing Mama. He seemed a tiny bit indignant that they would suggest that she would miss me considering how little awake time she has at home during the week. (1 hour in the morning and maybe 90 minutes after she gets home.) Part of me agrees that it’s crazy that she would notice in that timeline that I’m not around, however the idea that she would notice does my heart good. My guess is that when I get her up tomorrow she’ll be clingy and snuggly. I won’t mind that. The only bummer of not having middle of the night feedings anymore is that I don’t get to snuggle with her until tomorrow morning. It would be a bad mama moment to wake her up when I get home, no matter how much I miss her.

Other than that, not much is going on. We are planning a trip to Long Beach in the near future. I’m looking forward to solo time with my guy and the peanut. Doing it away from home is a special challenge because of all the stuff we have to bring, but also allows us to ignore all the things we should be doing instead of just hanging out with each other. We’ll be having dinner one night with Connie and Kendall – a couple that I know from high school. They married in 1987 or 1988 and have managed to stay together all these years. They are super nice and it will be great to reconnect. They started their family early on and have at least one son in college (or was in college and is now exploring other options) regardless, my point is that the only time I question our decision to do the parenting thing is when I hang out with people my exact age who started their journey 20 years ago… I know that my journey is the right one and I had many wonderful experiences prior to bringing Miss Lucy into the world and am enjoying my time with her . I have no regrets – it’s just the only time I feel like an “older mom” is when hanging out with my peers and they are talking about their college aged kids.

Hi!!

New Art

Holidays 2011 Recap

I do love the holidays and am sad to see them end.  The alarm this morning was a sad jolt back to reality.  Thankfully Miss Lucy slept until almost 7 which allowed both Jas and I to wake up slowly and ease back into the routine.

Our Christmas holiday was spent in Denver with Jason's parents.  It sucked not being with my own family but circumstances were going to make that not a reality even if we were here in Seattle.  We decided to take advantage of Lucy's mobility and lack of long term memory to take our party to Denver.   Next year we will be home and all relatives will be invited to join us.

Actually, we decided to throw a cocktail party on December 22nd.  Mark your calendars, we'll be dressing up and serving appetizers.  We'll be inviting family and friends, so don't make other plans. Christmas day next year will likely be just us, and both sets of parents.

To get to Denver a family must either fly or drive.  Since a driving vacation to Denver is a summer activity and one we won't put Lucy through until she's forward facing in the car so we can lull her to sleep with the on-board  DVD player, we flew.  Don't worry about that DVD thing though, she won't be watching Hannah Montana for 3 days straight, it will be PBS shows like Year in the life of a beaver pond, or Discovery Earth.   Flying with an infant is an adventure that I'm happy to have had a partner to share it with.   The airlines kindly let you hold an infant on your lap until they are 2 years old and it costs you nothing.  Well, nothing but personal space and worry for the people around you.

Lucy did very well on both flights.  The outbound flight she slept almost the entire way and on the return flight she was awake but mostly happy. We did ply her with Cheerios and other treats to keep her occupied, but I don't think we were wrong.

We decided a couple things though... unless the cost is horrific we'll be buying her a seat from now on and she's uninvited to our upcoming Maui vacation.  Thank you to Grandma Susie and Papa John for coming out and keeping our girl company, as she's a tad bit too young to stay alone.   I feel some guilt about leaving her behind but am also pretty excited about a week in Maui with my fella and no schedule to keep.   Instead of dinners on the lanai while the Peanut sleeps, now we can go out to dinner and maybe even a luau!  Walks on the beach at night and maybe even some skinny dipping.  Well neither of us are skinny, so technically it could be "tubby dipping" but you get the idea.

Ok, I hope that didn't give you a visual.  Let's get back to the holidays.  For the first time a trip to Denver did not include a neighborhood wide party to celebrate some nonsense like an engagement, pregnancy or birth and we were mostly free to do what we wanted. What we wanted to do was shop.  I mean, isn't that what people do who are limited to certain amounts of luggage and have yet to open the piles of presents under the tree?

I think the purchase of a big and fluffy bathrobe was entirely reasonable and the winter coat with the liner was super practical.  Heck, if I had to I was willing to wear all three on the plane.  I actually am in love with both items and found a way to make room.  We actually had almost 6 pounds of leeway with our bags (4 free bags of 50 pounds) so we had room for at least another pair of jeans or something equally important.

After all the shopping we also kept ourselves busy by frequenting our favorite breakfast and lunch joints.   Lucy doesn't do dinner out, so it's up early for eggs at Sam's #3.  We did get out twice for dinner.  Once with the family and an alternate grandma was brought in to sit with Lucy.  The other night, she was home with the real deals.  Both evenings were lovely, it is a bit strange to be out past 7pm in the evening.

While in Denver, Lucy attended her first Catholic Mass.  She did pretty well considering the late (for her) hour and the hot hot temperature in the room.   (We weren't early enough to be in the Churchy church part of the building.)   Papa John (not the pizza king) proudly paraded her through the room sharing his mild joy and adoration for our little girl.  She likes to see all the people so it was a great form of entertainment before all the talking began.

Lucy was somewhat unimpressed with the Christmas morning activities and had to take a nap between the stockings and the opening of the gifts.  She likes the paper, or to be more specific likes to eat the paper.   The new toys and all the beautiful outfits she got were not really her concern.

We were in Denver a week and it flew by very fast.  We arrived home Thursday and then enjoyed four full days of a home vacation.  We planned and prepped for a New Year's Eve celebration, de-Christmased and spend a day on the couch watching movies.

Today it was back to life day.  Lucy went to school at 7:30, I hit the gym for the first time in for ever and there is laundry production happening.  I'm logged on to work and have resolved the emergencies that did not occur while I was out and am making my long to do list to keep myself on track this year.

This long post is not really on the plan, but I needed to catch you up so I could get back to complaining about customer service or politics.

What's in the box?

Go go!

My new hat

Lucy & Mommy

Headstand

Strawberry hat

Lucy & Daddy

Christmas PJ's

I'm not touching it...yet

Christmas Eve

Lucy & The Tree

A much needed nap

Lucy in a box

Crawling

Christmas hat

X-mad with mommy

Don't take my picture, help me!!!

Poor Lucy... she was exploring all the nooks and crannies at grandmas house and decided to try to crawl between the two arm chairs. It was a terrible fail, as she couldn't move forward and couldn't back out. Instead of rescuing her immediately, I grabbed my camera.

I'm glad that grandma was right there because I did have to lift one of the chairs to free her and it required a second pair of hands.  Lucy survived, but I doubt she'll ever view the garbage compactor scene in Star Wars without a faint traumatic memory.

Christmas came early

Friday Night Solo

I'm a supporter of a unique concept started by the church I attend called Luther's Table. It is a cafe, pub, non-traditional worship space in downtown Renton. This not-for profit place has a pastor leading the show and custom brewed beer served by volunteers. It's a crazy concept to bring the welcome and community aspect of "church" to people who are not likely to show up in a chapel on Sunday.

I'm turned on by it because I'm spiritual but not churchy. I don't quote the bible, I don't expect God to speak to me in matters of life, and I certainly don't think my attendance on Sundays will earn me anything other than the peaceful feeling I get.

Tonight a benefit concert is being held to keep the doors open. We attended the "gala dinner" a couple weeks ago and I was going to opt out of tonight because we had already had a babysitter event this month and I (selfishly?) felt I had done my part.

Well, I'm not one to say no to direct requests for help. So, in addition to selling tickets for the last 3 Sundays, today I baked cookies and got here early to be a ticket taker.

Jason and Lucy were going to come and we had her all dolled up in super cute holiday pj's. I left the house at 6:10 and they were going to come at 7. I received a sad text from j that said:

And........

She's asleep. :(

See you when you get home.
- J

Jason is at home watching over a snoozy Lucy while I'm manning the ticket table. I think he's also providing tech support. I wish we were hanging out together but I appreciate updated anti-virus.

The concert I didn't want to attend has been amazing. I hope Jason is enjoying his night of almost bachelorhood. Once the tech support is done I'm guessing he'll watch some of those shows that are in the DVR that I refuse to watch...Real Housewives of King County. (kidding)
Terri

Did I mention that I cut my hair?

Memories

I'm pretending to be a regular worker bee today. I'm attending a meeting in downtown Seattle and instead of driving I opted to commute by bus. For the first time in almost three years (since I started shacking up at Jason's condo in 2008) I took the same metro bus route that took me to MegaBank for almost 10 years.

I was a bit excited to work out the timing, the bus fare and had some hope that I might run into a former bus friend or two. Maybe I just wanted to brag about how good life is, new(ish) fabulous husband, mildly cute baby, great job...my list goes on and on these days. It didn't work out the wayI had planned, two buses were clustered and the bus I was on didn't stop at the park and ride where the majority of "my" bus friends connected. It was a quiet ride into the city and I was able to make a dent in my book.

Getting off the bus downtown is kind of a strange thrill. It's dark, wet and people of all circumstances are everywhere. The business people zip by carrying their needs for the day in all manner of shoulder bags or back packs. The people who spend their days and possibly nights are tucked under bus shelters and doorways with their needs stashed in bags that are closely guarded.

I passed a gaggle of people who were coming up Marion street from the ferry. At Second Avenue they split into two groups moving in separate directions. There were calls of "have a great week end" and "Merry Christmas, if I don't see you!".

While this has been fun I am glad to be able to "commute" to my office across the hall from my bedroom. Getting up at 5 and spending no time with Lucy this morning is not how I would like to spend every day. I'm extraordinarily fortunate to get to play with her for an hour each morning. Before I know it she'll be 13 and won't want to play on the floor with me before school, so I'm soaking up these days while I can.

My meeting is at the Seattle Harbor Club, which is fantastic because if it is super boring I can stare out the windows at the view of Puget Sound. Oh relax, I'll pay attention. One of my fab co-workers is speaking and I have a list of super uncomfortable questions to ask him when we get to the Q&A portion of the program.

1) When you first lost your hair, was it gradual or kind of all at once?
2) I heard you voted for Sarah Palin, can you explain that?
3) I "Zillowed" your house value and I'm wondering if you plan on continuing to pay your mortgage or let the bank have it back?

I'm SURE he will see the humor in it. No?! You don't think so...oh well maybe I'll stick with supportive comments that highlight how truly brilliant he is. BORING.

Well, I've successfully killed the 45 minutes I needed, and am off to start my day as a faux-business person. Too bad I'm looking forward to the event, spending the day further downtown in the shopping district would be fun too.

Spaghetti Head

Standing!

Lucy can now be found standing in her crib, in the port-a-crib (aka the Lucy Containment Device) and at the coffee table.  This new skill is exciting and it is great to have an upright kid vs. the swaddled or sitting kid.  However, at 3:00 am, this skill is rather frustrating because while she can get up, she cannot get back down on her own.  She can "fall" to a sitting position, but that is generally quite traumatic and causes loud squawks of anger.

She's been sleeping really well, but last night was messy in that I had to do a 3am diaper refresh which flies in the face of don't pick up the kid between bedtime and morning.  The books say that getting a middle of the night snuggle is counterproductive to sleeping through the night.  All that is well and good, but a 90 pound wet diaper is not acceptable.  She simply did NOT want to go back to bed after the diaper change and was rather loud about her displeasure.  Jason and I took turns going back in to her room to  lay her down at the pediatrician recommended 10-15 minute intervals.  I will confess that my tolerance for the panicked "I'm sitting and I can't lay down" cry is pretty small and my version of 10 minutes at 3:20 in the morning is more like 6-7 minutes.

Jason asked me what I hear in her cry that tells me it's more than "I'm awake and bored" and rather  "I need help!"  I can't pinpoint it, but I can hear it.  There's a tone in the cry that sounds more alarmed than irritated and manipulative.

The 'funny' thing is that she was a pill at 3:00 am and then at 6:00 she was happy and flirty (see the pictures as evidence.)  You can't harbor any resentment for twilight behavior when you get smiles like that in the morning.

You can't stay mad at this face!

Playtime at the grandparent's house

Playing with grandma's boots

I own this section of the floor!

Post Pediatrician Update

Miss Lucy is 19 pounds 8 ounces (in a heavy diaper that I put at at least 4 ounces). She's 28.5 inches tall, which means that when standing flat footed she's 2 feet tall. Such a big girl.

We are on target nutrition wise, and developmentally.  Her use of words should become more clear in the next 3 months, and hopefully the loud squawking will abate somewhat.

Where we got into a bit of, well, not quite trouble but gentle advisement from the doctor was regarding our sleep habits.  She suggested that we stop the middle of the night feeding right away.  So, after a discussion we decided that Wednesday night was the last night of a bottle between 12:30 and 4:30.

I was nervous about her reaction and it wasn't so great, but it wasn't terrible either.  The first wake up I did a bad thing and gave her the pacifier and she zipped right back to sleep.  The second wake up, I waited the 10 minutes before going into her room and sure enough, she put herself back to sleep (after a period of intense fake crying.)  I know it was fake because of the lack of tears and the lack of longevity.

She woke up again around 4:45 and I waited 10 minutes before going in and she put herself back to sleep.  It made me wonder how many times I've gone to her when it wasn't really needed.  The other thing that made me realize we are doing the right thing is that she didn't wake up at 6 ready to eat her mattress.  She was the same happy kid who was thrilled to eat breakfast at 7am.

We'll see how tonight goes.  We hope that by Monday the idea of a bottle at 12:30 will be long gone.

Then we can work on the pacifier.  If we get it gone by her first birthday we're done with it.  If we still have it at 18 months, chances are she's a kid with a pacifier for ages and ages. We're going to eliminate it from daytime use (except in dire emergencies.)   Of course with an airplane trip in our future we can't say for sure that we're going to opt for baby training over the blissful silence that the pacifier provides.

I guess part of this training thing is parental training too.

Happy 9th Month

I think we might just survive this first year of parenting. Lucy is officially 9 months old as of today.  She is crawling, but really wants to be walking.  She is babbling (mostly nonsense, but we talk back and she seems to like it.)

We have the two cute teeth, the top two teeth should be next but could arrive in up to 3 months from now.

Lucy is happy to be standing and will play with her activity cube for long periods of time.

She is somewhat uninterested in the Christmas tree, it helps that we've given her some great things to keep her busy and when she finds herself at the tree she is greeted with a calm, but firm "that is not for Lucy".

Her sleep patterns of late have been more of a challenge and I'm not sure if it's the cold we've been passing around to each other, or her growing pains or our failure to keep the pacifier out of the crib.  Either way, she has brief wake-ups during the night and is still having a light feeding about 6 hours into the night.  The last week or so she's been waking up at 5:45 or earlier and that is not fun.  We take turns with who gets up in the middle of the night and then who gets the morning, but the morning is pretty easy in that she generally just comes back to bed with us.  I do love that morning time before we start our day, but with Lucy's new mobility it is a far more active time than it use to be. We do get parent specific snuggles which is awesome and she's very vocal about wanting us both around.

Trips to the grocery store or any store where shopping carts are the norm are super fun.  Lucy loves the visuals and the movement.  To her it's a giant roller coaster.  She flirts with all the people and the entire experience is far more social than it ever was as a single person or as a twosome.  Since there's no requirements to become a parent (other than some kind of child procurement) I wonder what it is that makes you think that people with kids are more accessible? I don't mind the interaction with strangers, but it is remarkably different than before.

Lucy has not started the "grabs" or the "I wants", but we will not be immune from such behavior.  There was a sweet little being at Target the other day whose dialog sounded like this:

"Grandma, I want this"
"Grandma, and this is what I need."
"Oh and I want this"
"This too, Grandma"

Grandma looked beat and was not throwing the "needed" items into her cart, but it was clear that shopping with her Angel was getting on her last nerve.  My hope is that we are able to cure Lucy of the "I wants" pretty early on and that she learns the difference between need vs. want and not to pester sweet Grandma for "things."

We do think that dinners out with Lucy are over for a long while.  It is not that Lucy is ill-behaved, it is that she doesn't have command of her voice just yet and any attempt at communication is frustrating and LOUD.  Even at a rock n' roll place like Red Robin, we were uncomfortable with her squawking.  In spite of the fact that we had come prepared with food, activities and anything else she might need it was not a pleasant meal.   This is not a horrific development, we were expecting it and know that eating at home is better for us anyway.

 Today is Lucy's 9 month pediatric appointment and we're looking forward to the check in on her height and weight.  She seems fuller in the face, but I don't think we've got a chunky baby on our hands.  We'll see what Dr. Robin has to say.

My other pediatrician questions are related to food.  We're not supposed to give Lucy milk until 1 year, but the books say that introducing cheese and yogurt is ok.  I want to confirm this before the joy that is yogurt passes her lips.

Lucy has been eating more finger foods lately.  She has nibbled on Cheerios (a staple), rice, well cooked carrots, edemame, fish, bananas and broccoli.  The ladies at school gave her green beans and peas.

I opened a can of black beans to add to my salad today and will give her a few of the sweet beans to try this evening.  Anything she can pick up, and gum that is healthy is a good thing.   My fear of transitioning to solid foods is waning and I am confident we'll do just fine.  Lucy will take the goopy baby food up to a point and then push the spoon away as if she is full, but will nibble on the finger food treats as long as we will dole them out.  My guess is that we're going to have to transition sooner rather than later to more 'real' food vs. goop for nutrition purposes.  Since we're not loading her up with cookies we should be just fine.

Our Girl

Thanksgiving Weekend 2011

Because Jason's employer will not entertain the idea of vacation during the busy holiday season, we will likely not be traveling anywhere for Turkey Day.   I miss the trip over the pass to see my family, but the adult sisters are acting like children again (still?) and thus the family get together is rather tainted by their inability to communicate, forgive, or have an ounce of perspective.   Still, I missed seeing my parents and especially since having to cancel our previously planned trip due to a small case of the plague.  (I am feeling better though - still have a cough, but my voice is back and other than a date with a box of tissues every 10-15 minutes I think I will survive.)

Wednesday, Jason was able to leave work an entire hour early so he and I zipped down to The Rock and enjoyed an entire hour of happy hour.  The one-on-one time is important.  We do love hanging out as a three-some, but it's hard to get into detailed conversations with the Peanut around.

That night, after Miss Center of Our World  went to bed we started making our part of Thanksgiving dinner.  We were on deck to bring stuffing for the family.  We chopped onions, celery, apples and de-cased sausage.  It was a team effort, but by 7pm our kitchen smelled fabulous.    We made enough stuffing for 15-20 people and felt we had plenty.  I had a bit of trouble going back to sleep after the 1am infant sleep interruption and checked the Internet for important life updates and saw that our Thanksgiving Day hostess said that she was looking forward to all 27 guests.  27!?  I knew the recipe would not stretch to 27 and debated about jumping out of bed and running to the grocery store for another onion, apple and other much needed supplies for a second batch.  Thankfully, reason set in and I eased back to sleep.  (The cough syrup with codeine that I've been taking at night time was also reason enough not to get in the car.)

We (Jason) did make an emergency run to the store Thursday morning while Lucy and I (mostly me) made breakfast.  She helps by hanging out in the kitchen (sometimes in the high chair, and sometimes on the floor with a rubber spoon.)   We whipped out a second batch of stuffing thus making our house smell even MORE heavenly.   Lucy went down for nap which allowed us to gather everything we were taking.

Jason's young cousin and his wife are expecting their first child in May and since they are college students they don't have any extra funds nee, I venture to call them "starving students."  As an aside, I have a friend whose kind of girlfriend broke up with him because I called her a 'starving student'.  I think she may have been overreacting and was a bit crazy to boot.  In the end, he met someone else and is in that "happily ever after place" with a reasonable woman who can hold her own against his erudite wit. I think Miss Starving can (to coin a phrase) suck it!  Anywho... we packed up lots of items that Lucy required and now, eight months in does not need or want anymore:

• Giraffe Swing (allows the infant car seat to be connected and thus a sleeping infant can be continually rocked and ideally stay asleep after car rides.)
• Baby bathtub 
• Bouncie Chair - this battery operated vibration chair was a life saver for us.
• Bumbo - a soft plastic 'chair' that cradles the infant in an upright position so they can "sit" before they can sit.
• Infant Car Seat accessories (they get the infant car seat at Christmas.)
• The remainder Maternity tops (some were so nice that I didn't want to give them up, so giving them to the new mama felt better than donating to charity.)
• The Potterybarn for Kids activity mat.  Lucy wouldn't stay put on an activity mat to save her life right now.  Her whole world is an activity mat.

It felt good to rid ourselves of these items.  The house feels less weighted by baby stuff.  Of course, our main family room is being taken over by things, but we make an effort to pick everything up each night so that our baby world transforms back into adult world, even if it is for 2 hours and I nap through the most of it, it's still good to pick up the blocks and toy cars.

After Lucy emerged from her nap we loaded up the car and headed to Duvall.  In spite of the rain it was nice to drive up there without fear of being snowed in, flooded in, or any other kind of dramatic weather event.  Dinner was nice but there were NOT 27 people on hand and thus we came home with a lot of stuffing.  Oh well...better to have too much.  There was no drama or super exciting events that occurred during the family gathering. One year a relative stepped away from the table, went upstairs to his room and pulled out a gun and shot a squirrel who had been running along the fence in his back yard.  I don't think I need to say that no one will ever go to their house for holidays ever again.  Jason said to me "could you imagine your dad's reaction to that?  Heck he'd drop to the floor, grab the side arm that is in his walker and take aim against the host."  (Sorry Dad, but I think you would have been an unfortunate guest at that party, everyone else was shocked and pissed, but I think you would have been ready to take the host out.)  We were at Eric's that year dodging uncomfortable conversation with his mom's strange "doctor" friend.

So, with the enjoyable and firearm free holiday behind us we headed home.   Jason had to work Friday, but had planned to go in early.  Actually, he had planned to go to Target for Black Friday door busters, and had set his alarm for 4:45.  We had a rough night with Lucy up multiple times and then when we finally got her back to sleep the power went off.  No biggie right?  Well, we have to manage the computers and the battery power back ups (which aren't designed to keep you up and running during a power outage, but to keep your systems from a hard surge shutdown).

With the house eerily quiet it was hard to go back to sleep but I eventually did.  I did hear the power pop back on and heard Jason get out of bed to manage something.  As the selfish wife I am, I dropped back to sleep and woke at 7:30 when Lucy started to stir.  7:30!?  Unheard of.  Anyway, Jason was long gone and I was sad that I hadn't heard him come back to bed or get up to leave.  Later I learned that he was so "untired" after all the power stuff that he opted to simply stay up.  He reset all the clocks and computers.  Then he got dressed and went to Target and Best Buy.  He was at work by 6am.

Lucy and I spent a quiet morning together then we packed up and took Jason's car for an oil change.  I know, we should have been shopping and spending lots of money, but alas a 30 minute side trip to Old Navy was all I could muster.  

Because of Jason's early arrival at work he was also freed early and we started our "long" weekend at 2.  Yeah!

Saturday we were at Costco when they opened and picked up some much needed items as well as some things that 'should' be for Christmas but simply aren't.  Jason found this amazing activity cube with lots of doors to open, levers to pull and balls on wires to grab and play with.  We opened it and Lucy was instantly in love.  Heck, we put up the shiny Christmas tree and all the lovely ornaments and she could care less.  She has the activity cube!  She stands at it for long periods of time and then when she either gets bored or her little lets start to give out, we sit her down and she plays with the sides of the cube. It's a huge hit.  (and no batteries needed.)

Our tree is up, and because we're not hosting Christmas this year we did tone it down on the decor.  My beautiful upstairs silver and red tree is still tucked safely in its box.  Maybe next year, or the year after that.  My pretty tree will live again!

We tried to watch a movie - Horrible Bosses and it was an aptly named movie, but the "Bosses" was not necessary   Heck we simply turned it off and went to bed.

Sunday was a quiet day with some shopping and cooking.  We've been enjoying two new cookbooks and have been making at least 1 recipe a week from one or the other.  Last night I made a chicken, rice, carrot and edemame dish that was pretty scrumptious.   I'm becoming a convert to dark meat vs. white meat - especially for cooking.  I still want my fried chicken to be the breast piece, but when making a dish like a casserole the dark meat holds up better.   (Gosh, I can't believe I"m blogging about white meat vs. dark meat.)

So, that was our exciting weekend.  I know you're totally jealous. 

New Toy

oh did I forget to mention Lucy is crawling?

And today, she did something really new in that she pulled herself up to standing from a sitting position.



I think we're in trouble.

The perils of online shopping

I love online shopping, the packages that arrive at my door remind me of how much I loved getting mail as a kid.  The only bummer is when shipping errors happen.

During the wedding planning there was an unfortunate delivery event with our custom fortune cookies (yes, a required wedding item), where they were delivered to the wrong address and the recipients actually signed for my package.  They opened them as well, thus we ended up getting an emergency shipment of new, untouched cookies.

Where our house sits on the street it is a bit of a challenge to find us, but FedEx, UPS and the postal service custom delivery people have all managed in the past.  Sadly, there was a delivery "fail" yesterday.

According to the tracking information the (tired, weary, cold and wet) UPS person delivered my package from (can't tell you) company at 4:40 last night.  I was home at the time and there was no quick knock on the door, nor was there a package at our door.  Lucy and I were here and playing downstairs, we would have heard the door.

Phone calls to UPS were frustrating, first they say it was delivered and did I check "around my house" as if the driver would walk past my covered front door and throw the package over the fence into the unlit backyard, then after getting attitude that the package was delivered as addressed the "nice" customer service agent asked if I checked at my neighbors.   This really gets under my skin, if the tracking info says it was delivered to 123 Main, how on earth could it be at 125 Main?  Wouldn't the tracking info reflect that alternate address?

I did do a walk about in the neighborhood and have found no evidence of alternate delivery, and even disturbed the neighbors (who don't ever step foot outside) to confirm it didn't get scooped up in their daily deliveries.

I called the shipping company (per UPS' instructions) and they are re-sending the package, but it irritates me that UPS could deliver the package incorrectly and then be so damned adamant that they could not have made an error.  It's their arrogance that I resent the most, the suggestion that I'm too stupid to find a big package at my front door is aggravating.  "Have you looked outside?"  Well, no UPS I figured you'd break a window to set it inside and thus it never occurred to me to look on my own porch where you say you left the package.  GRUMBLE.

Plus - even if it was delivered to my door and some random person happened to walk down the long driveway to take if off my porch, I was home, so why not knock on the door?  It's the northwest, at 4:40 pm when someone is home you can see it, lights are on in the house.  I can understand not knocking on the door of an unlit house, but when you see the warm glow of life the least you can do is 'rap on the damn door.'

ok - end of rant.

Parents of the year

Jason, hands down, wins husband/dad of the year award for taking care of Lucy while I was sick.  Granted he didn't really have a choice, the simple act of getting up to do anything would cause my fever to spike and I had to change pj's multiple times during the weekend simply to avoid the chills.  (Sweat through the pj's then get cold because of the wet items.)  But, he made it ok for me to sleep the illness off without any guilt that he was tired or needed a break, and for that I'm very grateful.

Here's a parenting secret that no one wants to say out loud - no matter how much you love your baby it is exhausting to be "on point" at all times.  Her needs come first, and you don't realize how much you need 10 minutes to collect your own thoughts until you don't have 10 minutes.

There is a fair amount of guilt when you have feelings of relief when the baby finally takes a nap and you can sit and 'veg' for a moment.  There is (internal) pressure to get the house spiffed up or take care of those things you can't do while the baby sleeps.  Sometimes this works.  Case in point, Sunday while Lucy napped Jason and I were able to put up the holiday lights on the front of the house.  When you're solo parenting, you need that nap time to rejuvenate yourself.  Sometimes it doesn't work, when I was sick, nap time was a much needed dad break.  Our house was a messy land of bottles, toys, half sorted mail, un-stowed groceries and other evidence of projects half completed.

I know that I have a good partner because he didn't complain about this weekend of solo parenting nor did he think it was a burden.  Parenting is something we knowingly signed on for and it is fantastic when there are two of us to make it easier, but both of us are aware there will be times it is a single parent activity.    Ages ago, I heard the husband of a friend say he was "babysitting" and my girlfriend flipped out a bit and had to remind him that he was not babysitting, but parenting.  Technically it is just a label, but for my friend the difference was the implication that his being "on point" was unusual.  It has been over 10 years and this man has showed himself to be an excellent father, so this verbal misstep wasn't a critical parenting fail.

Before the baby came, we did lots of reading and a common theme came up over and over. Parents are tired.   "I feel like I haven't slept in 15 years", "I haven't slept the whole night through since 3 months before the baby was born", "I'm asleep before my head hits the pillow."  I would confirm that indeed, I like these parents am tired, but it is not an overwhelming weariness that some of the girlfriends described.  I'm thankful for that, especially since I'm doing this parenting thing 10-15 years later than most of my peers.  I was worried that the 'tired factor' would be like a fog that would plague me every day.

Now for the reason that I get parent of the year.  Last night we had a bathtub / poop situation.  I thought the grossest thing I would have to deal with in relation to blow outs that escaped a diaper, or boogers.  Oh boogers are so very icky.  <gag>    Lucy is so happy in the tub, she loves to slap at the water and chew on the float toys. Bath time is a great way to spend 30 minutes with a tired girl at the end of her day.  I really do love it and while it oddly conflicts with my need to be doing multiple things at once, sitting on the floor by the tub is a treat.  Last night, well, not so much.

I went to get a towel (2 feet away from the tub) and came back and she was making the "intense" face.  I knew what was happening, but my options were slim.  I could freak out and grab the naked, wet and actively pooping child and put her on the floor, in the clean towel I just grabbed, hold her in mid air or I could let her finish and then take her out of the tub immediately.    I chose the last option - it seemed the least messy.  I did try to scoop up the toys (but ended up bleaching them all anyway) and wash cloths that were in the water.

Poor Lucy - once she was done she knew immediately that things were not right.  I mean, normally there is poop and it stays in the diaper until Mom or Dad make it go bye-bye.  It is very contained and she never has to see it.  She was unhappy with the situation and did not mind the quick extraction from the tub.  I got her cleaned up, a sponge bath after the bath, dressed and then took her down to dad (who was making me dinner).  Then I had to come back and clean it up.  I considered just moving to a new house, but the idea of packing up all those DVD's makes me nauseous.   When I was done, the tub was properly cleaned and the bleach smell as abated as of this morning.   The cleaning fairy comes Friday  and she may be cleaning the cleanest tub in town, but that's OK with me.

I used the "sanitize" mode on my fancy washer for the first time (towels, rugs, wash cloths, my shirt) and I feel safe in that the situation has been contained.  Lucy doesn't seem traumatized, which is nice.  I would prefer for her not to have poop hangups.  I'm a bit traumatized but I guess that is to be expected.

Logic says there will be something MORE disgusting in my future, but I'm thankful I can't imagine what it might be.

I feel confident that this month, Jason and I have earned our 'parents of the year' badges.  Someday, when Lucy is 15 or 16 I'll retell the poop in the tub story in front of some new friend or maybe even a boyfriend.  Oh, I can't wait.

Thanksgiving

Here is my sappy list of what I'm thankful for this year (in no particular order):

1) A warm home
2) hot beverages on a cold day
3) A car that starts when you want it to
4) health insurance
5) not being pregnant (it was fun, but once was enough)
6) the tiny little socks in my dryer
7) a girl who naps
8) our holiday lights are up and ready to be turned on Friday afternoon.
9) a husband who cooks
10) the cleaning fairy who comes every other week and cleans our bathrooms
11) Miss Alexis, Miss Valentina and Miss Miriam at "school" who love Lucy so much
12) Online shopping
13) feeling better
14) friends
15) family
16) soup
17) a trip to Maui that is planned and mostly paid for
18) snugly blankets when I'm cold
19) air conditioning when it is super so hot outside
20) people who are witty
21) people who are forgiving
22) a working vacuum cleaner
23) Thanksgiving at someone else's house.
24) naps
25) a husband who quietly asks "are you awake?" and can tell the difference between the yes that means yes, and the yes that means I was asleep.

Taxi cab attorney

I survived the sickness enough that the urgent care doctor told me I could travel to my business meeting Tuesday.  My flight was somewhat easy, but I was the slow lumbering person you hate to get behind at the airport.   Eventually I made it to sunny, but chilly Las Vegas (65... brrrrr)

My taxi driver initiated conversation, asking where I was from and why I was in town.  I said for a meeting and he kept asking questions so much so that I shared that I was in information security and through the course of the conversation that I had worked at a bank.

Serge (not his real name) perked right up and said "You worked for a bank?  What do you know about short sales?"

"Not much, I've done some reading."

"I got this paper here that says that they are selling my house and I need to know what it means."   Then he hands me this 5 page letter from Bank of America.  As he's handing it through the glass I'm telling him, I'm not a lawyer. "no, but you seem smart, please read it and tell me what it means."

I quickly scanned through the document and it was pretty clear.  He had a mortgage for $200k, the bank had accepted an offer for $130k and would be writing off the remaining $70k.

He asked me to explain the fine print which essentially said that Bank of America could NEVER sue him for the  remainder amount of the loan, that he would be entitled to zero monies as part of the transaction, no funds would be handed to him even to hand over to the other party and that the deal would close on December 15.

We had a brief chat about Primary Mortgage Insurance and how the bank would be getting any money from any claims related to PMI on his loan.  It was then that he said that he had saved for years and years and bought this house with 20% down so he didn't have PMI.  He asked why if Bank of America would accept $130k for his house from Eduardo Somebody, why they wouldn't take $130 from him so he and his family could keep the house.   That is the question of the decade Serge.

At the end of the short cab ride, Serge asked if he could sleep that night.  I told him that yes, the deal seemed good, he didn't have to pay anything, he wasn't in any trouble and as long as they were ready to move by December 15th that yes, he could sleep at night. At the hotel he thanked me profusely and took my cab $25 fare and was off.  Heck, he almost hugged me.

I felt pretty good about our interaction until the cab ride back to the airport and the charge was only $12.50.  

I guess no good deed goes unpunished.

I did sit down at a 1 cent machine and put in $5.  I walked away when my winnings totaled over $50.  I felt that for a business trip that was a nice conversion rate.  Other than that little moment in the casino I was in my room.  I napped, took a bath, ordered room service and went to bed early.  So much for Terri's Wild Vegas Evening.  The meeting was good and really worth my time.  It sucked getting home at midnight last night, but much better than another night away from home.