D’s first (seven) Christmases

[♬ sing to the tune of The Twelve Days of Christmas, substituting a full name for “D” ♬]

At the first family Christmas, our darling son Dxxx, talked with ONE younger cousin.

      

At the second family Christmas, our darling son Dxxx, thrilled TWO cooing aunties.

At the third family Christmas, our darling son Dxxx, ate THREE new foods (scallops, asparagus and cauliflower).

At the fourth family Christmas, our darling son Dxxx, wore FOUR types of dinos.

 

At the fifth family Christmas, our darling son Dxxx, walked FIVE holes on the golf course.

At the sixth family Christmas, our darling son Dxxx, scored at least SIX points with his jersey.

At the seventh family Christmas, our darling son Dxxx, stood up SEVEN times (or more).

 

 

Thanks to all of our wonderful PNW families for a busy but lovely Christmas.  We’re lucky to have you.

holiday crafts

I enjoy arts and crafts from time to time, but we don’t have the space or style to display a lot of artsy homemade stuff all the time.  Holiday decorations are the perfect solution, giving me lots of seasonal satisfaction without the permanent clutter. 

This year we painted a “first Christmas” ornament for D, which is on display on our wreath.  Some day we’ll get a tree, but for now, a fresh wreath does the job.

I also used circular needles for the first time to make a stocking for D (of course).  It was a lot of fun.

on pregnancy weight

A few weeks ago, I reached my pre-pregnancy weight.  It was a nice thing to see on the scale, but since it is still pretty far from my target weight, it was also a bit anti-climactic.
There's a lot of talk about pregnancy weight, but I found most of it to be supremely unhelpful.  What follows is my two or three cents on the subject.
The total -  I know a lot of new moms now, and most everyone I have talked to has put on more than the recommendation.  These are educated and moderately (if not more) active women.  This isn't really a surprise, given that so many of us struggle with our weight even prior to pregnancy.  My peers don’t smoke like previous generations did, which probably throws off some stats.  It also seems to me that some of the most active women put on the most weight because they aren’t able to keep up their normal exercise habits.
But what gets me is the recommendation.  For my pre-pregnancy weight, I was told 15 pounds would be good.  Has anyone ever put on that little?  It would mean that you'd be essentially losing weight as you gain weight....    It felt so far out of reach as to be irrelevant and various medical professionals threw out that number without much conviction.
The rate - The linear weight gain graphs are pretty useless.  The reality is as curvy as, well a pregnant lady.  Here’s what my graph of gain and loss looks like:

The measurement - Given that so much emphasis is placed on the number on the scale, you'd think that it would be measured accurately, but it is not. To keep my sanity I weighed myself at the same time in the same conditions, at home and tried to ignore the post-lunch, fully-clothed numbers at my appointments.  The difference between those two numbers was easily more than 10 pounds in a single day.  This really bugged me.

a few ASL signs

For the last few months we’ve been trying to do some signs with D.  The idea is that he’ll be able to communicate with signs long before he’ll be able to speak intelligibly.  We would love it if grandparents tried to use these same signs too.    So far we use “milk” and “more” most often and I think he might be understanding them.

These are links to short videos of a few signs.

• milk
• more
• cat
• mom
• dad
• music
• kiss
• happy

PEPS is the best

 

In Washington, we are fortunate to have access to a phenomenal parenting support organization called PEPS.   It matches up families by babies age and neighborhood and the first 12 weekly meetings are facilitated by a volunteer.  After that you’re on your own.  

I have read many articles about the isolation of our modern lifestyle and know from my time moving every few years that making good friends can be a real challenge.  Another great article I read, but sadly can’t find again, presented a recipe for friendship, pointing out why it is often hard to make new friends in adulthood.    PEPS follows this recipe perfectly.  It offers:

• Common interests: Babies are a big deal and we have lots to talk about.  We also joined a moms and dad’s group, meaning the other people in our group are also very interested in equal co-parenting and moms continuing their careers.
• Proximity: I love traveling such a short distance to get together and we get great ideas and recommendations for nearby activities and restaurants.
• Repeatability: One of the things I miss about school is seeing the same people so regularly and work friends are nice, but I do the motivation for some separation between work and my social life.
• Vulnerability: Parenting is rewarding and challenging.  Talking about it at a deeper than superficial level gives an excellent chance to get to know other people.

Obviously, no one should go out and have a baby in order to make friends, but I highly recommend that anyone who is having a baby find a way to join a group like this. 

Here are two pictures of our babies from a few months ago:

swimming fun time

 

I love swimming.  In my own, non-extreme way, it has been part of my regular life for as long as I can remember, so it’s important to me that D learn to swim well enough to feel comfortable in the water.  We’re doing “lessons” with some other families we know.  Jack could use the practice too :)

hiking report 4

Previous hiking reports: 2014/01/ –3, 2013/07/-2, 2012/11/-1

 

16 January 2014 – Cougar Mountain

- about 3 miles from Red Town trailhead to Coal Creek Falls in a loop

-  http://your.kingcounty.gov/ftp/gis/Web/VMC/recreation/BCT_CougarMtn_brochure.pdf

- Cari, Ethan and Alex

 

20 January 2014 – West Seattle

- Seattle Stairways Walks route through Schmitz Park and down on Alki

- old growth trees in the park

- about 5 miles

- Cari and Rachelle

 

16 February 2014 – Dungeness Spit and nearby bluffs

- about 4 miles

- Jack and Cari

18 June 2014 – Seward Park loop

- from the central parking lot out to the end of the peninsula on the trail with the unpronounceable name

- about 3 miles

- Cari, Steve and D

 

5 July 2014 – Mary E Theler Wetlands

- about 1.5 miles in a light drizzle in in http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/mary-e-theler-wetlands-nature-preserve

- pretty grasses, medium-low tide

- Jack, Cari and D

 

19 July 2014 – Larrabee State Park

- about 4.5 miles to Fragrance Lake from Larrabee State park campground, and the to the beach

- cool, steep, nice trail

- had to sing D down the trail because the trees won’t let him sleep

- Jack, Cari and D

 

12 August 2014 – Haleakala on Maui

- 0.30 miles at Leleiwi Overlook with Kathy, Jack, Cari and D

- about 2 miles on the sliding sands trail with Jack and Cari

21 August 2014 – Eagle Landing

- 0.8 miles down the beach at Eagle Landing (from Seattle Stairways Walks)

- super peaceful, great shade, good cardio carrying D, nice rocky beach and view

- Cari and D

 

12 October 2014 – Redmond watershed preserve

- 5 miles with our Bob stroller on a beautiful day

- trillium trail and pipeline trail

- http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/redmond-watershed-preserve

-Becky, Jason, Steve, Janet, Myra, Jack, D, Cari

 

1 November 2014 – Madrona Woods

- Seattle Stairways Walks two mile route through Madrona woods

- first time using our snazzy baby carrying backpack

- followed up with Molly Moon’s

- Jack, D and Cari    

happy half birthday D!

Here are 7 pictures for D’s first 6 months.  We love him so much.

 

     

 

permit – yes!

 

Recently we got our building permit, which means we have 18 months to start building.  You can renew the permit, but we hope to get started before then.

Jack has been working hard on the construction docs.  Yesterday we went on a “date” to Ikea to talk about all sorts of things.  Amusingly EVERYONE else in the store was either very pregnant or shopping with kids in tow, or both.  We spent two hours there and were pretty glad not to have D with us.  Jack has some cool ideas about building around Ikea cabinet dimensions so we bought a few small pieces to measure.

return to Montreal

 

At the beginning of the month the three of us spent a long weekend in Montreal, for the wedding of one my old roommates.

Things that went really well:

• Meeting the partners of my two favorite roommates!
• Traveling three times zones east was way easier than traveling three time zones west.  We did our best to keep D on a Seattle schedule and we still got to do evening activities, like the wedding.
• We rented a little apartment in the Plateau through airBnB. It was in a charming neighborhood and it included a playpen/baby bed.
• There's a “new” route 747 airport shuttle bus which has replaced the metro-metro-bus-bus route I used to have to take to the airport. Back in the day, the second bus didn’t even run on Sundays so Jack and I had some long cold walks across expanses of highway and airport parking lots.  This new bus is quite an improvement.
• With Jack’s enforcement, we didn’t check any bags so we were able to hop on an earlier connecting flight from Chicago to Montreal.
• We had putine at the Mariott, which is only the 2nd or 3rd time I’ve had it and Jack’s first time.  It was decadently tasty.
• Bringing the stroller, after some debate.
• D likes looking out windows and watching the ground from the airplane window was fun.
• D got a cute new hat and some adorable booties.

Things that didn’t work so well:

• I had to bring my laptop and squeeze in a day’s worth of work due to an important deadline at work.  Lame.
• I kind of forgot that credit cards are not as ubiquitous as in the US and so after intentionally spending most of the 65 CDN I found in a drawer at home, we found ourselves in the unpleasant situation of having no way to pay for the meal we had just eaten at a diner.  We were traveling light with one credit card and we were nine dollars short.  Jack had to go to the bank and then eventually back to our apartment and to the bank again to get a debit card, which worked at an ATM but not at the restaurant.  I got to entertain D for an extra hour as a voluntary hostage at the restaurant.  In addition to Canada’s less credit heavy style, they, like the rest of the world, are switching over to chip cards.  I won’t travel abroad relying on our out-dated and unsafe magnetic strip cards again.
• The Chicago airport was backed up when we passed through it on the way home.  What’s new?
• This resulted in us missing the last light rail when we got back to SeaTac.  Without a car seat, a taxi wasn’t an option so we had to call Jack’s step dad to come rescue us at midnight and drive us home. 

Returning to a once-familiar city after several years was interesting and mostly quite pleasant.  While we were in school, Jack visited enough times to also notice changes.  We saw the city with older and better traveled eyes, which led to lots of interesting discussions. 

I think walking around with Jack (and D) has to be one of my favorite things to do.

 

Seattle celebs

I get excited about Seattlites of our generation who make it big.  It's even better when I personally appreciate their talents!

My current list consists of hip hop artist, Macklemore (aka Ben Haggerty), and the web comic author, The Oatmeal (aka Matthew Inman).  

I can't help but consider them in the context of other local celebrities though.  My dad's generation of Seattlelites includes Bill Gates and Jimi Hendrix.  I would posit that, outside of the performing arts (Michael Jackson) and politics (Obama), Bill Gates is the single most globally known living person.  Counter suggestions are welcome.

I wonder if anyone from our generation will achieve that level of fame?