And now, for some photos from our Disneyland trip

(excuse the formatting; it's only temporary. I have Microsoft Expressions working and will republish the whole album using that when I have a moment. I love Expressions, btw. One click, all done. I just have to set up the upload settings so it publishes directly to my server.).

We'll start with our visit to the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique where, for a small king's ransom, your daughter can get dolled up like a princess complete with hair, makeup nails, dress, shoes, tiara, purse, gloves, and royal jewels. I kid you not. And she gets her own "personal royal photographer" to memorialize the entire event from start to finish. Which you can choose to purchase for a lesser king's ransom. Here are a few of them. It was TOTALLY worth it. Even though the look was completely destroyed in the torrential tornado warning rains and winds that were whipping around us as we trudged back to the hotel. She still loved the wet hair piece and insisted on wearing it the rest of the day.

---

Comments

Add a Comment

Happy Anniversary, my love!

To infinity and beyond!

---

Comments

Add a Comment

Date night :-)

Sent from my mobile phone

---

Comments

Add a Comment

Zoo-mazing

We went to the Zoo today. We saw Lions, Tigers, and Bears (oh BOY did we see bears!) Zebras, Gazelles, Tapirs, Elephants, Monkeys, Orangutans, Eagles, River Otters, Giraffes (we even fed them!) Elk, Mountain Goats, and a really big snake, among countless other animals. We started our adventure at 9:30am on a cool, overcast day - perfect time and weather for getting great glimpses of animals on the move, up close and personal. And Bobbin walked everywhere we went, which explains why she consumed the following throughout the day after having 6-pancakes (mini pancakes but still), 2-servings of oranges, a multi-vitamin gummi bear and 2 glasses of Watermelon juice for breakfast

- at least a dozen large strawberries
- 3 large slices of cheddar cheese
- 1 serving of watermelon
- half a baggie of cheese crackers
- 2 hotdogs (sans bun)
- 2 servings of large green seedless grapes
- half a dozen peeled baby carrots (raw)
- a serving of blueberries
- 1 and 1/2 cobs of corn
- 2 oz of "steak on a stick"
- several glasses of water

Talk about well balanced; I think we hit on all the food groups at least twice today and the only colour of the food rainbow we missed was purple.

She also had NO nap. At all. Up at 7am and didn't stop moving until 8pm. I ended up taking a nap but she opted to "play quietly in the living room with Daddy". Well, ok then.

So she's out like a light right now after having a bath, a story, and hitting the potty. Ooooh boy, I don't have to tell you that was not a pleasant aroma after all that stuff. I don't know if Bobbin did it or Tim did but I went back in a few minutes later and actually found the fan switched on!

I got my 30 minutes of exercise in on the elliptical; that's just the exercise I measured. I figure I got much more than that in actuality between the walk around the zoo, the rousing game of "EMERGENCY" Bobbin roped me into outside on her climber as we waited for dinner, and the breathless game of soccer we got into after that.

EMERGENCY was entirely of Bobbin's own making and entailed throwing Kitty off the top of her climber and yelling HELP HELP GET THE AMBULANCE CALL ONE ONE ONE" (she's still learning about 911 and doesn't always get the digits right). Then Bobbin would put her firefighter hat on (backwards; ie she'd wear it like a "baseball" hat) and slide down the slide yelling WOOOOoooooo WOOOOOooooo at the top of her lungs. Then she'd jump down from the bottom of the slide and, with hands making steering motions, would run at full speed around and around the climber and back field until she arrived at the injured party. She would scoop Kitty up and drive her back to the hospital at the top of the climber by climbing up the slide. There, she would take off her firefighter hat and become Doctor Bobbin and would get to work saving kitty's life by listening to her heart and breathing, giving her needles in her abdomen, checking her ears, and taking her temperature and blood pressure. Kitty was almost a goner there for a bit - her first temp reading on the Fisher-Price thermometer was 45, according to Doctor Bobbin. Her second one was thankfully, a much more reasonable 2 miles and Doctor Bobbin was visibly relieved to note the improvement. We're so glad Kitty finally came back to us. Alas, she'd recover only to get thrown off the top of the climber once again and have the whole scenario repeated. Sometimes the effort was a rescue attempt to get Kitty before the Dragons could breathe fire on her. Sometimes there was actually a fire and we all had to gather up at the top of the climber to escape the burning trees and destruction.

When the imagination games finally wound down, we played soccer up and down the hill, Bobbin doing most of the running as I was instructed not to try to take the ball away.

But it was all goodness. We had a great day. Zed and her parents joined us at the Zoo and Bobbin and Zed seemed to have so much fun together. Until we were in the cave in the Zoomazium and Bobbin was explaining to us that it was were Dinosaurs live; I asked without thinking, "Really? What sound do they make?" and Bobbin belted out a ROOOOAAAAARRRRRRRR that had me holding my ears in this enclosed little cavern, and that sent poor Zed into sobs of fright. Bobbin asked what happened when she saw Zed crying, and was quite concerned for her but I thought it best to just tell her that Zed was feeling tired and wanted to go home. Best not to reveal the fact to Bobbin that she has the power to scare other children with her monster scary godzilla voice. She doesn't need to have that knowledge yet.

After we got home and I napped, Uncle Rich arrived to help Tim with the wood that we finally got around to getting cut up into 2x4s from that tree that fell over 2 years ago. (We're a little slow :-), and he stayed for dinner. Then we had a rousing game of "Hungry Hungry Hippos". Bobbin explained the whole game to a patiently listening Uncle Rich, telling him which button to press when, and what you were supposed to do when the marbles were in the middle. Then Tim joined the fun, and I managed to catch a couple of pictures that I'll have to post later. She loves that game almost as much as her Elefun game from Aunt Patti and Uncle Les last year. What kid wouldn't love Elefun: a plastic elephant that blows little cloth butterflies out his plastic trunk as a fan spins in his butt. The kids run around with little butterfly nets trying to catch them. The one with the most butterflies wins, but we actually haven't gotten to the point of caring who wins. It's the act of playing that is the reward. Hungry Hungry Hippos has the same thing going on; who has the most marbles is not as much fun as all the silliness that ensues as your trying to get your hippo to make a grab for one, and pushing the buttons to release all the marbles at once!

Tomorrow it's back to work and back to school for all. Bobbin's supposed to move from "Early Preschool" to "Big Preschool". We'll see how it goes.

---

Comments

Add a Comment

5 years worth celebrating!

Yesterday, Saturday August 30th, as many of you are aware, was Tim and my 5 year anniversary :-) And it just keeps getting better and better every year :-). I managed to squeeze an hour walk in during Bobbin's nap, which I'm glad I did because we went to Yarrow Bay Grill and had an absolutely heavenly dinner with perfect wine and scrumptious dessert. So I'm glad I did a little extra during the day in anticipation :-)

Getting out of the house was the only downer of the evening. We had Miss B over to babysit Bobbin. Miss B is also a teacher at Bobbin's school and Bobbin really likes her. Except when she's here because Mommy and Daddy are going out without her. I don't even have the energy to replay the scenario here for you; it was too long, too emotional, too mentally and emotionally and at times physically hard. But we got out even as I was running over rocks in my silk stocking-d feet since my heels don't do well on our gravel path. Oh - yeah - worth mentioning: I wore a SKIRT and a NICE BLOUSE and even some JEWELRY on my EARS AND around my NECK. and MAKEUP.

Bobbin had her fair share of makeup on when we left too, from her beauty session with Mommy. She's convinced she needs to "keep me company" no matter what I'm doing. Most of the time I enjoy it. But there is one thing that I like to do in the bathroom alone with no audience. Actually two. And you think you know which two that is, don't you. Alas most of you would be wrong. I had long ago given up on peeing and pooping in private and much to Tim's chagrin I even find myself leaving the door open by habit for all passersby to see even when Bobbin hasn't accompanied me. What are you gonna do. But what I have not yet caved on is that Mommy gets to have Showers and Baths in private. No watching.

That set her off for quite some time. Tim had to close the gate to the back part of the house to ensure she couldn't get back there. I locked the bathroom door too just in case she figured out how to climb over. I got peace, for the most part, outside, but there was little peace inside as I stood in my shoiwer trying to calculate the minimum minutes I needed to wash and deep condition my hair, exfoliate my face and then give it a moisture mask while shaving my under arms and legs and then rinsing all the head and face gunk off, putting on loition, spraying in volume stuff, doing my makeup and trying on the 3 new bras I bought at the shopping store but not knowing which one fit me because I didn't want to try them on at the store.

I let her in after I was out of the shower and robed. And she went straight for the makeup drawer. "What's this for?" and I would tell her it's cheek blush. And she'd brush some on her cheeks and forehead. "And this?" that was eyeshadow; when she learned how it was applied she preferred instead to apply it to her temples and forehead. Lipgloss was easy - she's used it before. My little princess, Into the girly girl stuff. Well... so far only when I'm into it (which is apparently once every 6 months or so).

When we left it just plain sucked. But by 7:40pm she was eating icecream and watching nemo. If those two things were happening I had a pretty high degree of confidence that she was ok and if she wasn't ok on the inside, then she was filling her insides with things that she loves to compensate for it (ugh really need to learn how to finish a thought and move on).

When we got home she was out like a light. We had promised we'd wake her. we both gave it our best shot but she was not to be woken. She stirred a little and might have mumbled something but for the most part, immovable. unreachable. So we kissed her and hugged her and went to bed.

Completely unrelated note; just doesn't warrant its own post: With yesterdays 1 hour walk on the trail I met my goal! barely but met it. Today I started off a new week with a full 60 minutes on the elliptical watching Point Break (or is it Break Point?)... the surfer movie with Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze. It's a fine exercise movie. Can't imagine it's good for much else though.

---

Comments

Add a Comment

Because I can.... :-)

Last night, as Tim and I were lying in bed, watching the 11pm news before going to sleep:

[On tv: a story about Mike Holmgren - Seahawks Head Coach - 's youngest of 3 daughters who is an amateur sports photographer]

Tim: It's too bad one of his hot daughters doesn't do anything newsworthy.

Me: He has hot daughters?

Tim: Yeah.

Me: [Liking the opening I've been given for having a little fun] Hmmm... but what's not hot about this daughter?

Tim: [long pause as Tim carefully considers his response]... um... she's blonde.

Me: That makes her not hot?

Tim: I don't like blondes.

Me:[Pause]... Hmmm. Are any of his other daughters blonde?

Tim: [longer pause]... uh... I don't know. [sheepish look].

Me: [Tempting, but I'll let it go. There's more here. I'm going for it.] You prefer brunettes?

Tim: [with relief, thinking he's out of the woods because, of course, I'm a brunette] Yep.

Me: [knowing exactly what I'm doing]You think I'm hot, right?

Tim: [before I could even finish the sentence and knowing full well I'd call him on how fast he answered] Yep.

Me: That was too fast.

Tim: No matter what speed I would have responded with, you would have criticized the speed.

Me: Ok. Am I hot?

Tim: [looooong pause] Yes.

Me: That was too long.

Tim: See?

Me: One more time. Am I hot?

Tim: Yes.

Me: Of course I am. I'm a brunette. [Pause]. With grey streaks in my hair. Now how hot is that?! Woohoo!

Tim: [looks at me and says nothing].

Score one for the hot chick with grey streaks in her hair :-)

---

Comments

Add a Comment

The Cirque is in town!

Took Baby Girl to a matinee showing of Cirque Du Soleil today. She was enthralled. Made it almost the entire way through without fussing! Of course, she had no afternoon nap either as a result so we're suffering the consequences of that as I type... Tim's feeding her her last bottle of the day in the hopes that it settles her down to sleep. She's been revving non stop since the show ended with the exception of the 15 minute nap she took in the baby bjorn and car ride home (lucky for us the Cirque is just quite literally down the road from our neighbourhood).

And then as a bonus, Tim had arranged in advance for a backstage tour after the show! It was way cool :-)

That's about all I can muster for now. we're all exhausted from our day.

---

Comments

Add a Comment

The new old-fashioned way

A conversation between Tim and me on Saturday:

Tim: I'm not going to the game on Sunday. I'd rather stay home with you and help take care of Baby Girl (who had us shoulder deep in diarrhea diapers at the time)

Me: Cool. That would be a big help. We can watch the game on TV together. It'll be fun. I'll make popcorn!

Tim: How? We sold our microwave in our garage sale, remember?

Me: The old-fashioned way. Jiffy Pop!

---

Comments

Add a Comment

Monday's dinner was grand

Baby Girl's Washington Grandma and Grandpa came over for dinner on Monday night for a belated "happy grandparents' day" celebration.

Tim grilled steak and veggies, we had cake for dessert and Baby Girl was in charge of entertaining Grandma. Which she did very well :-)

---

Comments

Add a Comment

Because he can...

http://www.crappymusic.com/archives/000157.html

;-)

---

Comments

Add a Comment

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Yup - 2 years ago today Tim and I were married :-) We chose our usual low-key route to celebrate, with just the 3 of us spending the afternoon and evening together.

Our gift to each other this year was a nice comfy new area rug for the TV room which we went out and bought today. Although Tommy is convinced we got it for him ;-). Then for dinner I made lasagna and garlic bread which we ate at our dining room table, while Baby Girl sat on the table in her bouncy-chair vibrating away (it just seems wrong to put her down by our feet. So we sit her on the table so she can see an interact with us!) This was my first cooking adventure in our new kitchen (till now Tim's been doing all the cooking - and you'll not hear any complaints from me!). All in all, another heavenly anniversary :-)

Speaking of Baby Girl - she's now making sounds other than crying, which is fun! She also performed her very first "Grab and Mouth" this evening. We'd been "practising" for a while - ie, I hold things in front of her and then guide her hands to them. But this evening when I dangled her rings in front of her, within 2 seconds her little hand had shot out of her own accord, grabbed them in what appeared to be a quite purposeful gesture, and promptly stuck them in her mouth.

I have no idea if it was intentional or just happenstance. We were able to repeat it though... but who knows :-) At any rate, the aftermath made for a cute photo :-)

---

Comments

Add a Comment

Social Butterflies

Well - we had a pretty big weekend so far, the three of us! Social butterflies, we are.

First, we went to our first Friday Night as a family of 3 :-) Baby Girl did so well! We brought her bouncy chair with us, and sat her at the table by her Daddy's feet when we had dinner, thinking she'd fall asleep but she stayed awake the entire time, eyes wide, listening and watching and absorbing everything.

Saturday she met her Aunt Patti and Uncle Les for the first time, and then the three of us went for a walk along the trail, and then we went to Janel's "Hey, I'm leaving for grad school and you're not gonna see me till christmas" BBQ.

All of this activity made for a very hungry girl

and even when we were full, we thought we were hungry, so we needed some clever distracting from Mom and Dad (not sure the wrist rattles were effective in that mission, but we tried ;-))

But at least we sent Auntie Juan off in style with the appropriate amount of warm baby cuddles.

---

Comments

Add a Comment

We've Moved!

There's been a flurry of activity since my last entry...

Baby Girl is now 11 days old. On Friday she had her first pediatrician's appt. She's doing great, perfectly healthy, and well on her way back to her birth weight! We've sorta kinda started establishing a feeding and sleeping pattern but it's been somewhat randomized by the hot weather, which makes her really sleepy which in turn makes feeding her a challenge :-) and also randomized by all the stuff that's been going on the last couple of days. But we're slowly settling down into what I hope will be a fairly predictable routine.

And... we've moved! We are now living in our new house - the "dream house" :-) Final inspection passed, and over the course of Friday, Saturday and Sunday - with MUCH MUCH MUCH help from our family and our friends (THANK YOU! We really can't thank you enough and we couldn't have done this without you!) we're actually moved in. Still lots of unpacking to do, but that will happen in time. And we've got a bunch of cleaning, etc to do at the old place to get it ready to sell. So it's not entirely over yet. But it's just nice to finally be here and to have some space!

I'll post pictures of both Baby Girl and the new house all moved-into as I get time (but don't be holding your breath - time for anything other than Baby Girl, eating, sleeping, and laundry is pretty much a luxury now ;-))

---

Comments

Add a Comment

New beginnings...

...bring a new twist on an old tradition :-) Our first "self portrait" as a new family of 3 :-) This was taken just outside the hospital before loading into the car to come home :-)

Her little pink knit cap was a gift from the midwife that delivered her.

The staff at our hospital, Evergreen Medical Center, was absolutely fantastic.

---

Comments

Add a Comment

Happy Valentine's Day, Love!

:-)

---

News Flash

9:14PM PST, Ocotber 18, 2004 ... Mrs. H acted catty

We return you to your regular programming

---

Comments

Add a Comment