Sunday, July 05, 2009

Dog is Thirsty

I bought a bunch of used children's books recently. One of the books, titled 'Dog is Thirsty', is sort of odd. It's about a dog who complains about being thirsty until finally, it rains. I think it was originally written in Japanese so maybe something was lost in translation -- Jack and I both find it fairly uninteresting. Lately, however, it seems to me that my inner monologue (and often, outer) sounds like this book. If I had to put a title on it, I would call it Mom is Tired. There would be no plot... just me walking around or laying down talking about how tired I am. My book would also be pretty dull. Here I am cruising into month 7:

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Traveling

We have been going out of town a lot lately. I think I am just trying to avoid our overgrown yard. In any case, over memorial day I took a trip to Coronado Island with my high school pals. Everyone left their kids at home so we mainly just sat around - We sat at the beach, we sat at our friend Sally's parents beautiful home, then we sat at a restaurant and then sat at an outdoor bar.. lots of hanging out - It was great.

Here we are watching the kite surfing:






Then a couple weeks later, Jack, Ryan and I headed back up to guemes island. We went on our favorite hike twice:






My mom and stepfather returned to town so we visited them this past weekend. Jack loved all the attention -- I loved all the sleeping.

I am bigger now and slower -- people at work continue to make that comment 'you're getting bigger' -- someone pointed out it was really the baby getting bigger but at this point, it's the same thing. I am trying to enjoy the pregnancy as it's the last one I plan to experience but the allure is gone.. if it was ever there. I don't mind it exactly but it's draining. As one of my biology teachers said 'for the female mammal, reproduction is expensive'



Unrelated to all the traveling, Jack seems to really dig the musical instruments. He strums his guitar and walks around the house singing like an old folk singer.



We find it endlessly entertaining.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

The Big Doughnut

Because of the lovely weather we've been so lucky to have on the weekends this month, we've been spending lots of time at a beautiful park by our house that has two of Jack's favorite things -- a view of the space needle and a big doughnut (or a sculpture of a big doughnut). He named the sculpture himself but I've always thought of it as a big doughnut too. For some reason though, he will absolutely not sit in the doughnut.. he likes it better from a distance.. so mostly we walk around the park. Jack really wants to jump in the pond there because it's full of colorful fish.





THere are also lots of great trees to climb:



Unrelated to all this, jack got a hair cut. This is the pre-haircut photo.. we were a little shocked at first but got used to it quickly.

Saturday, May 02, 2009

la hermanita

I am half way through my pregnancy (theoretically) so I went to my last ultrasound (i hope) where they measure all the organs and look at the brain. Basically, out of the almost infinite number of abnormalities, it seems the ultraound rules out about 8. I felt mixed about getting it.. but in the end, I decided it's better to have more information than less (in this case).

We found out the gender: we are having a girl.

I was a little shocked. For some reason, I saw myself as a mom of boys. Last December during the time when I could not know whether I was pregnant or not, I recall walking down the street and all of a sudden feeling like I needed to start thinking about girl names because I was going to have a girl. It was a strong feeling. But a few months later, I went to a vedic astrologer (long story) who was fairly certain it was a boy so I questioned my intuition and decided I just had no idea. In any case, I felt very surprised when the tech told me.

So little J will have a little sister. Crazy.

Tenacious J

Jack is asserting his will more often and he has very particular requests. He wants to have 3 binkies when he sleeps, if there are 5 things on the table, he only wants the one that will cause the most damage, when I unload the groceries he can always tell which box has the cookies even though he hasn't seen the picture.. and he just wants THAT box. He points at things and says THIS! so I've realized I need to get better at naming.. it's hard to explain the concept of demonstrative pronouns. If he doesn't get EXACTLY what he wants, he stomps one foot and says I WANT IT!

He also like to do the opposite of what I want to do. If I want to go uphill, he wants to go down, if I want to go away from the street, he wants to go towards it. One thing that is consistent is he always wants to be outside... at all times. I sometimes wonder if he doesn't like our house but then I think that's projection.

I don't really like the phrase terrible two's. I am glad that Jack is on track developmentally.. I'm glad he's becoming his own little person. I heard someone call this period "the tenacious two's" and I think that's a little more fair. He's so much more engaging than he used to be and that is a lot of fun for us.

Spring makes everything more fun anyway...
Here is Jack and his favorite cat, pumpkin. Every time he sees pumpkin he says "pumpkin kitty gentle?'



we got lots of great tulips this year:

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Are you calling me fat?

Last week, I ate lunch at the Nordstrom cafe. I work downtown now and I have an hour for lunch (something I have not had for 4 years). I have gone out for lunch every day because it's so great to be downtown and there is lots of great food. El Puerco Llorron has the best mexican food I have had in Seattle.. It's at the market which is only a 10 minute walk from the clinic.

Anyway, back at the Nordstrom cafe, I ordered a salad and a coke because coke is to the second pregnancy as cream cheese was to the first. When my coke was gone, the waiter returned to ask me if I wanted more DIET coke. I thought 'DO YOU THINK I SHOULD BE DRINKING DIET COKE INSTEAD OF REGULAR?????????? Are you trying to make a point?" PRobably, maybe, he wasn't. A co-worker suggested that most women who frequent that restaurant order diet coke. maybe. That is the problem with this point in the pregnancy. You could be pregnant or you could just be someone who likes a good cheeseburger. No one knows for sure.


Weekend getaways..

We've been out of town a lot lately. It's been really nice to go relaxing places on the weekend.. places where we have no errands.. where we can just hang out. We went to my mom's on the Olympic peninsula (probably a month ago now.. I dropped my camera on a hike only to find it rained on the next day. Luckily, the memory card was fine.)

We played some hoop in the backyard:



Then a few weeks later, we visited our friends' cabin on Guemes Island. We had great weather and this is when we took the camera-dropping hike. As you can see the view from the top, Mt Guemes is stunning. You can see many of the san juan islands. It's such a lovely place because it's actually really close to everything but feels very remote.







It was at the top of the mountain that we figured out the names for Jack 2. I will be the only one finding out the gender. Ryan doesn't want to know so I can't tell anyone. That could be tough.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Jack 2: Electric Boogaloo

For some reason, whenever we talked about having another child, we referred to the theoretical baby as Jack 2 Electric Boogaloo.. Don't act like you didn't see the sequel to Break Dancing.. well, we didn't either but I guess it rhymed with Jack 2 better than Jack 2: the alien resurrection. It also lightened the mood of the conversation. We just felt like now was not a great time for many rational reasons: ryan works for a startup that doesn't actually have any "revenue" in the "Worst Economy We Have Ever Seen." Then there is the fact that I am planning to go to an incredibly demanding graduate program next year, and also, we don't have any space in our house for a second child.. since we didn't really have the space for the first. So we'd put it off but always return to the conversation. This is the only issue I have ever truly lost sleep over but once we decided, I was at peace. Such decisions are better made with the heart.

So here it is.. your first intro to Jack 2.. we should probably change that name pretty soon. I am a little more than 3 months along -- due in mid-september. This is one of the 12 week ultrasound shots from a few weeks ago.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Sunday afternoon fun

This is our family fun. It was pretty hilarious for us.

The negotiator

Lately Jack has been less willing to go to bed peacefully. A while ago, he started asking for water, then it was a snack -- since I always want him to eat more that worked for a long time. Until finally I figured out he was never going to eat the snack. Now when we say it's bedtime he says "Snuggle?" This always works. What parent can deny their child a snuggle? If Ryan is busy, we'll lie down together, Jack will be still for about a minute, then he'll wiggle out of bed. When I then say it's bedtime, he says "Dad Snuggle?" That also always works on Ryan. J is a clever little dude.



Here we are in front of his favorite park which we call Space Needle park:

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Arizona in February

It's 80 degrees there. It's still a little strange to me that it can be so cold and rainy here yet so sunny and hot just 1500 miles south. We had a great time.. visited the zoo. Jack loves the giraffes although not so much that he wants to get too close to them. We mainly just hung out outside by the pool.





This is Jack danger. It's funny how he spent most of the time in the backyard inches away from the pool.. so I was inches behind him.



When not by the pool, he loved blowing bubbles or mainly putting the bubble blowing aparatus in his mouth. He won't touch a vegetable yet really enjoys soapy bubble fluid.

The Ga-deau

Jack's latest thing is that he is obsessed with the space needle. He calls it the ga-deau. He first noticed the space needle in a book we have about washington state given to Jack for his birthday. For a while, he talked about the gadeau but we didn't know what he was saying. We repeated the word gadeau and then he'd say it again and again until finally we figured it out and said "oh the space needle" Only then did he stop repeating gadeau. As Jack expands his vocabulary, he will say a word over and over until we repeat it correctly.. sometimes this leads to frustration. In any case, Jack sees the space needle everywhere. Last week, we visited the grandparents in arizona. When he walked into my mom's house, he immediately started saying gadeau and I said I don't think there is any space needle here. He continued to talk about it until I noticed that my mom has a space needle pepper shaker on her table. Jack has an eagle eye for the space needle.

Sunday, February 08, 2009

Play it J

Friday, January 23, 2009

Olympic peninsula

Last weekend, we wanted a little break from city life so we went out to my mom's on the olympic peninsula. It was a beautiful weekend.. we mainly just hung out -- took a nice beach walk in pt townsend.



this is what Jack is looking at:





and later, this..




It was cold so we taught J to put his hands in his pockets:





my mom has a tv (we don't) so jack and ryan also watched the basketball game (for about 5 minutes until the zoned out look on jack's face freaked me out). Since then, every time Jack sees a TV he says "hoop!" and "ba-ket ball"




He does have a good memory..

Thursday, January 01, 2009

Up hill both ways in the snow

On Christmas eve, the snow started about 3am. I know because I was awake. We were supposed to leave for arizona at 11am and I knew if it snowed, we would have an arduous journey to the airport. I would have walked all the way, if necessary, as I was determined to leave town after a week of being snow-bound.

We left the house at 7 with Jack on Ryan's back. I carried a backpack, a roller bag and our carry-on for the flight and Ryan carried his backpack on his front. There were no buses running on capitol hill and the roads were not driveable because we are surrounded by large hills. We walked two miles to the bus tunnel downtown in the snow. Then we waited for an hour for the airport bus. When the bus finally came, the 40 people who were assembled at the stop cheered. The ride to the airport was crazy as the bus slid all over the place but we made it. Our plane took off ontime and we arrived in sunny arizona in the afternoon.

We had a great time. We put our jackets away for the week and enjoyed lots of great time with family and friends. Jack loves it there because he gets lots of attention from the grandparents. We gathered with my high school friends. 3 of them had children this year.. a result of turning 35 I think.

Again, I didn't take that many pictures. One of my resolutions is to get better about that... Here is a random assortment.

My high school pals with all the kids:



Charlie holding a gun which is actually a lighter.. something probably only my dad would buy:




Katie and J:



Jack is playing in one of those plastic houses for kids.. I took this with my iphone which normally takes not-great photos but I liked the light.

Monday, December 22, 2008

Snow!

Last week it snowed a little bit and we had fun outside. It was cold enough for Jack to wear a snowsuit and the whole thing was novel and delightful.







Then on Thursday, it snowed for real. The snow is knee deep at our house and dressing up like astronauts to go outside has lost its novelty. On the bright side, we hunkered down at Bridget's house for the weekend with her family. We've also been watching people snowboard down our street. Crazy.


Jack and friends

A couple of weeks ago, Ryan's parents sent us an Elmo doll that is really more of an Elmo robot. Elmo has many routines.. jokes and stories that he tells depending on which part of his body you press. I thought Jack would be frightened by the talking monster but he is completely in love with him.




In other news about Jack's pals, Lily has the cutest clothes. Here are the kids in Lily's faboo winter coat:


Thursday, December 04, 2008

And it's also true that I lost the map

On the way to Guemes, I was listening to Liz Phair's Exile in Guyville. I listened to it a lot in my 20's and haven't listened to it much since. When I listen to her now I wonder who discovered her because I think they had to be brilliant. She doesn't have a great voice but she wrote great songs. Her music was filled with anger, defiance, sadness, craziness and fun.. things that remind me of younger years. Then I listened to her later music and it's really, really boring in comparison. As I read a little about her life I learned the big change that happened between the two CDs was that she had a child. And suddenly, she became .. well.. kind of .. dull. She sounded happier though.

I was thinking about this after a couple of activities I had with friends who have no children. Their lives seem so full of adventure to me.. big trips to faraway places, staying up late.. sleeping in (maybe my standards are a little low for adventure). They know interesting things because they read .. books. There are many differences between the two paths and I don't think one is better than the other. However, my life focus is currently very small .. 33 inches and 25 pounds .. and it feels small.. very rich but small. I am pleased with my decision. I imagine Liz Phair feels the same.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

happy birthday jack!

I cannot believe j is 2. This year seemed more like a month than a year. We had a little party at a local pizza place. Jack received lots of great gifts -- books and learning toys (what a great community of friends we have). He was a little overwhelmed by all the noise and attention. I can't believe this but I actually forgot my camera so I have no pictures. So sad.

But we have many pics of Jack from almost every other day in his life. Hopefully that makes up for my mistake. Since J's bday is so close to thanksgiving, I'll post those pics. We had a great time with friends and you can see Jack enjoyed the dessert as usual.





Then we headed off to Guemes Island where some friends built a very cool cabin overlooking the water. It was so peaceful and quiet. We loved it in spite of the gray weather.






The latest with Jack is that he is starting to talk in complete sentences. This morning he said "Where'd my dad go?" His favorite phrase is "where did my (fill in the blank) go?" He says that almost as much as he says "binky? binky!" or if he is in a room that has a guitar "Tar! Tar!" It is very entertaining until the 50 or 60th time then I am no longer entertained but I admire his tenacity.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Traditions

I attend a parent-child class at my local community college and I love this class. Every week, the parent-educator raises a different topic and we discuss as a group. This week, the topic was traditions. She asked what traditions we remember having as kids and what traditions we have created with our new families. I actually cannot remember one tradition in my family which may be a result of a poor memory of such things rather than an absence of them. Moms from the group had some lovely traditions. One woman's dad traveled a lot. Every year during berry season her mom picked a day he was out of town and took the kids to a local berry farm. They picked as much as they could, then went home and the mom made home-made ice cream. That night, that's what they all ate for dinner.. nothing else. Another family made pizza every Sunday night. Another family let the kids decorate the christmas tree by themselves with ornaments they made.

We have a few traditions.. one of my favorites is our Saturday morning walk. We choose a bakery somewhere in town then go to a nearby park for a walk. Last Saturday after our bakery run, we went to a park near our house. The weather started out crummy but then became another sunny beautiful fall day that we have been having a lot lately. Jack has really been digging the slide lately.. as you can see.

Sunday, November 02, 2008

Happy Halloween!

We dressed Jack as John McEnroe for Halloween. Why? Because he has curly hair and throws some mean tantrums. Unfortunately, he would not keep his sweat band on so no one really knew who he was supposed to be.. Here's bridget subtly holding his arms down:



Lately Jack has been asserting his independence (euphemism for freaking out constantly when he doesn't get what he wants even if I don't know what he wants). It has been trying my patience. After dutifully avoiding the books, I needed some help. 'Positive Discipline' has been highly recommended by many people I respect so I consulted. Jack has been demanding to be carried a lot and the book gave some great advice: instead of picking him up, give him a hug. This works. Ryan and I sometimes follow Harvey Karp's advice and get on the floor with him as he throws the tantrums.. sometimes that helps. But I have realized that just like everyone else, Jack has good days and bad. Friday (Halloween) was horrible. We were at a kid-friendly restaurant and maybe J was tired, but he bit me really hard and I wanted to throw him. It was sad. Then this weekend has been great... The weather was amazing.. we spent lots of time outside. Reading the parenting book re-energized my spirit and reminded me that the skills it takes to be a good parent often do not come naturally. Luckily, I continue to enjoy parenting more and more. Jack's vocabulary and motor skills are expanding rapidly and it's a wonderful experience watching him discover his new world.