Seven Months Old!

Our Snuggle Bug is seven months old! She has learned how to sit up by herself, and just over the past week she has started to do a lot of babbling ("da-da-da-da" or "ba-ba-bah"). She likes to jumpy-jump-jump in her little Baby Einstein jumper, and she has learned how to push down on the little keyboard to make sound. She also likes to make squeaking sounds on the keyboard cover of our piano, by sliding her little fingers along the wood. (In fact, she prefers to "play" the piano this way, more so than pounding on the keys themselves!)

Lucy is not very interested in eating solids yet. So far, we have had a tiny bit of success with her eating pears, but that's about it. She will not open her mouth for food on a spoon, although she'll try to put just about everything else (non-foods) in her mouth. We have jokingly called her "Fort Knox," "The Berlin Wall," and "The Great Wall of China," because she will not open up for anything. If we are able to get any food inside, she usually spits all of it out. But we are trying to bring down her little wall each day. Once she gets teeth, I may try doing Baby Led Weaning instead, if I don't ever have success with strained foods.

We have been sleep training Lucy, and we are now at a point where we can put her down in her crib (with her still awake) and let her fall asleep on her own. If she does cry, it is only for a minute or two. I used to sing her "Edelweiss" and "Inchworm" before leaving the room, but lately she's been acting annoyed, as if I'm keeping her from going to sleep with my singing. She knows when she is tired and is usually ready to just settle down and relax.

She loves going for outings in the Baby Bjorn. She usually is outward-facing in the carrier, but I think we were trying to get her to fall asleep in this shot. Here we are visiting the Pretzel Tree Trail on New Year's Day.

Sam is still her favorite person in the world.

Watching her first episode of Baby Einstein on YouTube. I love how the roundness of her tummy is perceptible here.

Another Baby Einstein shot. This setup (with Lucy in the exersaucer , looking at a laptop on a chair) is just about the same way that Sam used to watch Baby Einstein as a baby. She doesn't have a very long attention span for watching Baby Einstein (especially in comparison with Sam), but I can usually get something done for about 5-8 minutes with her in this setup.

She knows what it means when I say, "Smile!"

Getting Our Bearings

I took this photo of Sam about two weeks ago, since I was amused at the position that he assumed while reading his books from the library. But now, as I'm looking at this photo tonight, I think that it is a pretty good summation of what our lives have been like this past month. We are been functioning alright and getting things done, albeit in uncomfortable and less-than-ideal conditions. (Although I think Sam would counter that he thinks this splayed position on the loveseat is really comfortable.)

It's been hard for us to get into a good routine since school started up again after the new year began. Lucy had a mild cough at the beginning of the month, which disrupted our attempt at sleep training her. (She still is waking up in the night, but she is getting better.) Then, just as Lucy's cough was starting to improve, J had appendicitis and had to go into the hospital for an emergency appendectomy! We are grateful that his parents were able to help us through that ordeal and over the following few days, but that unexpected surgery took us for a turn. I felt pretty exhausted after that week, since J couldn't help me as much with the kids or daily chores.

And since J has returned to work, Lucy and I have come down with horrible colds. I haven't felt myself for almost a week, and Lucy has been miserable for probably four days. We both have a stubborn, hacking cough that wakes us up at night. My voice threatened to go out on Friday, but luckily I made it through my class. Anyhow, as a result from J's surgery and these various coughs/colds, we have spent a lot of time this month just sitting around the house. This is a typical scene for me to see:

Despite all of the discomforts and adjustments, we have had some fun, too. Last week Fictionist came up here to play, and it was fun to see the band play and catch up with them after the show. We haven't been the best at keeping in close touch with the band (and their wives) since we moved up here, and I'm a little bit sad about that, especially since we all look older every time we do get together. So for me, seeing the band now is somewhat semi-sweet: I have these melancholic notions of the passage of time and loss of close friendship (especially for J with the guys) but also a remembrance of our happy times and then fun that we had in being part of that tight unit.

Snowshoeing and a Resolution

As J and I ate dinner during our anniversary, we recapped the ways that we have celebrated our anniversary over the past nine years:

• 1st (2006): Stayed in cottage at RB, ate Greek food in Bellevue
• 2nd (2007): Went shopping at outlets in Park City (I was pregnant with Sam)
• 3rd (2008): Spend this one apart; it was right after my mom was diagnosed
• 4th (2009): Stayed at home and J gave me four poems and gifts for each year of our marriage; this anniversary was right after my mom passed away
• 5th (2010): Went to Victoria and stayed at the Fairmont Empress hotel
• 6th (2011): Signed papers to purchase our new home! (We didn't go out that night, since we had just spent all of our savings that morning, but we stayed home and celebrated with Sam.)
• 7th (2012): Went to a fancy French restaurant, a performance by the symphony, and stayed at the Fairmont Olympic hotel (see post HERE).
• 8th (2013): We went to an Italian restaurant with Sam at Crossroads Mall. I was pregnant with Lucy. (J has to keep reminding me what we did this year; my food wasn't that great and it wasn't as memorable as other years. Plus, I was just getting over my stint of morning sickness in my pregnancy.)
• 9th (2014): We went snowshoeing as a family! And J and I had takeout food from the Bombay House in Bellevue, which makes delicious vegetarian and vegan Indian food.

Snowshoeing was a lot of fun. We had several mishaps in finding the right parking lot and place that we intended to go at Stevens Pass (only to find out that the Nordic Trail area was too icy and steep for Sam's little legs), so we ended up going to the Smith Brook road. We accessed the trail/road by turning westbound on the Highway 2 from the Nordic Trail Center parking lot, and then going just a mile or so up the highway. The parking was on the right side of the road. It was fairly level and not too steep for Sam.

 

Sam loved dressing up in all of his winter gear. He also loved using the little poles as he trekked through the snow.

We bundled Lucy up nice and warm - she fell asleep in the Baby Bjorn for about half the time that we were out

 

We had this little frozen waterfall be our ending point. Sam was getting a little bit tired, and we wanted to make sure that we stopped before he got too complainy. Since this was Sam's first time snowshoeing, I wanted to make sure that it was a positive experience.

I'm looking forward to this new year. I'm not trying to do too many resolutions, but I do have one resolution that I think will be practical and (hopefully) easy to keep. Since Lucy has been born, I have noticed that it is a little bit more difficult to have one-on-one time with Sam. Recently, when Sam and I have played together or read together, I often have been trying to care for Lucy or do some type of household task at the same time. My resolution this year is to have one hour of focused "Mom and Sam time" each day, when I can concentrate purely on Sam and do whatever he wants to do.

This time will need to happen when Lucy is napping or with J, but I think it will be good. Just in the past few days that we have started this new special time together, I have noticed that Sam has wanted to show me things or confide in me in ways that he hasn't before. The other day, when we got to go to a movie together, Sam mentioned out-of-the-blue that every night he checks to make sure there isn't a vampire under his bed. I had no idea that Sam had this fear, but we talked about it and I think he ended up feeling like he was conquering that fear through our conversation.

Here's to a new year!

Merry Christmas!

We had a lovely Christmas this year. My sister V came up to visit, and we had such fun spending time with her. I'm glad that she got to spend some time with Lucy, especially since she is growing and changing so quickly (and to top it off, V was not up here for Thanksgiving last month, when the rest of my family was in town). I'm also glad that V got to be with Sam on Christmas, which is such an exciting day for him.

We had a nice Christmas morning with V and my in laws. This was the first year that we had Christmas in our own home, so we tried to do things that could potentially turn into traditions. We intended on just looking at our stockings before breakfast, but we ended up opening presents too, since my father-in-law had to go to work. For breakfast J made ninety-minute cinnamon rolls with some really amazing icing, and I think that we will continue to have these delicious rolls in the years to come.

Here are some pictures from the weekend. We also had fun today with some cousins in the area before V had to fly back home, but we were so busy visiting that I forgot to pull out my camera for pictures.

On Christmas Eve morning Sam and J went with the cub scouts to pass out breakfasts to the homeless people in Pioneer Square. I think this is a great tradition and I hope we continue it in the years to come. In this photo J and Sam are riding on the bus to Pioneer Square with Sam's friend Leo.

Christmas Eve

Lucy with Gram on Christmas morning!

When J was growing up, his parents would take a picture of each child with the gifts that they received. As an adult, J has enjoyed looking back at those pictures to remember his toys and people who gave him those gifts. He wanted to be sure that we started the same thing for Sam this year. So far, Sam has enjoyed playing with his Angry Birds Transformers telepods, the magformers, and the Pokemon cards.

 

Lucy's big present was a jumper toy. She loves it! She also got some gifts, but she was more excited about the wrapping paper and ribbons than what actually was wrapped inside!

Christmas breakfast with our crowns from our crackers (although Lucy is wearing a separate crown that was a gift from V). Lucy also tried solid food (rice cereal) for the first time on Christmas morning, which was fun. She has been really interested in eating food (and even would practice masticating her little jaws while she watched us eat), while helped me realize that she was ready for trying to eat something new.

 

 We went to Zoo Lights for the first time this year with V, and it was really fun. One of my favorite displays was of the giant octopus on top of the aquarium (you can see some of its tentacles on the far right side of this photo).

 Sam with his glowing light saber that he carried around Zoo Lights

We are wearing semi-matching outfits from my sister C

The Benefits of a Cough

Yesterday Sam stayed home from school, due to a hacking cough that not only was probably contagious, but would have been a big disturbance in a classroom setting. Otherwise, though, Sam felt fine and was quite cheerful about getting to spend the day at home. He decided that it would be the perfect opportunity for him to pretend to be a cyborg character like General Grevious (who coughs due to a flaw in his technology). It was cute to see him think about his horrible cough in a positive way.

Alphonse Mucha Girl

The other day, Lucy was a bit grumpy (she was in want of a good nap), so I decided to dress her up in a bright and cheerful-looking outfit from my grandma, with a little headband that my friend Joanna made and gave to Lucy. I don't like a lot of headbands that are made for little girls (especially those with huge flowers that look as big as a satellite dish), but I think Joanna makes some very cute ones.

I think I have flowers-in-hair on my mind lately too, because I seem to come across books and calendars with art by Alphonse Mucha wherever I look. It seems like Mucha is really trendy and hip right now. I actually really like the Art Nouveau aesthetic of his art: it's flowy and gauzy and classical (in a timeless, female-personification sort of way) and celebrates nature. Plus, the images of women with flowers decorating their hair remind me of representations of Ozma by J.R. Neill (like this one from The Lost Princess of Oz). I used to think Ozma was the most beautiful creature, and I still regret not having the idea to be her for Halloween until I was an adult. Now I'm too old to convincingly dress up as the girl ruler!

Anyhow, here is my little Lucy, dressed up in her girly, flowery outfit. Perhaps her hair is too wispy and her cheeks are a bit too roundy round to let her pass for a Mucha girl, but I like to think that she fits with the aesthetic in a roundabout way. Here she is paired with a detail of Amethyst (1900) from Mucha's The Precious Stones series:

We love this little girl, even on her grumpy-ish days. She usually greets everyone with a big smile, right from the moment that we pick her up from her crib in her morning. She brings us a lot of joy.

"The Grapevine Connection" and a Valley Girl

When I was in fourth grade, I was in a musical called The Grapevine Connection at my elementary school. I wanted to play the part of Abby, a valley girl. I remember when I auditioned for the part, I took off my headband and handed it to a friend, so that I would be able to use my hair more easily as a prop (in order to sweep my bangs away from my face when I said phrases such as, "Like, fer shurr!"). My music teacher Miss Kendall watched me take off my headband and she paid close attention to my audition. When I got the part, I was convinced at the time that removing my headband helped me secure the role.

I remember that there was a boy in our class named Zach Smith, who played the lead role as a nerd named Stanley. He played an excellent nerd and the whole class was cracking up when he auditioned for the part. Years later, I thought it was amusing that in high school Zach became one of the star quarterbacks of the football team as a freshman, and he was instantly catapulted into high society with the popular kids. I used to wonder if he was embarrassed about his role as a nerd in the elementary school play, when he hobnobbed with the elite in high school.

Anyhow, when I was in the play I had to sing a solo about Thomas Edison. The song, which discusses the invention of the light bulb, is set up in such a way so that it shows how Abby, the ditzy valley girl, is actually more intelligent than one might assume. I still remember the lyrics of the song, and for some reason the lyrics of the chorus came into my mind:

"A drifter, a dreamer,
He lit up the world,
And he did it incandescently."

However, when I was thinking about the song an these lyrics in my mind yesterday, I was surprised to realize that I didn't pronounce the word "incandescently" correctly in fourth grade. I stressed the incorrect syllable back then, singing the word as "in-CAN-dee-scent-ly" instead of "in-can-DEH-scent-ly." And now that I've realized this, I wonder why my music teacher didn't correct me on the pronunciation. Did she not notice? Or did she not know how to pronounce the word herself? Perhaps she thought it would be in character to have a valley girl mispronounce a tricky word that isn't normally part of a fourth grader's vocabulary? I will never know!

I can't find any video clips from this musical on YouTube, except for this performance of the chorus number "Way Back." This isn't my elementary school, but I think that my performance was about the same year (circa 1992).