Christmas is definitely over. We’re in the middle of Wooten birthday celebrations. It’s just now that I’m getting to blogging about it all.
1/5/05 Shirley (Grandma) arrived as did a new addition to my Mom’s side of the family, Aidan. Grandparents, Dad, Mom, and older brother are very proud.
1/8/05 We enjoyed a long deserved visit with Dave and Kay from our church. We used to be in a home group till they moved to Kirkland. We enjoyed a Kringle from Larsen’s, homemade scones, eggs, and wonderful hospitality. Steve and Abby entertained Sara very well.
Ironically, on the same day, we hung out with our current home group and gathered in Edmonds at Leslie’s house for chili and Denise’s cornbread (amazing) and key lime pie.
Childcare
We started looking in earnest for childcare to replace Cora who had a fall before Xmas and unfortunately can’t care for Sara anymore because of broken bones. Luckily, it had been less than a year, so the nanny agency Careworks was willing to help us find a replacement for free. I decided to look at all options and investigated in home daycare as well as regular daycare as well as nannies. The net result was not much. I was surprised with how hard it is to get childcare. I’m not talking about the “top” daycares, just any daycare to take a kid over one. Only one place had openings. For now we are going to continue to do the nanny dance. We were lucky enough to get a wonderful new nanny to care for Sara. Sara’s been enjoying doing lots of water play and adventures with Kathie.
Month with my Mother-in-law
What a fun time! Not what you expected me to say, huh? Besides the fact Shirley, who’s between jobs luckily for us, generously agreed to come for this month in order to take care of Sara while we found childcare, I had lots of fun. Shirley is a joyful, fun-loving woman. It was a nice opportunity for her to get to see the rhythms of our home life and for me to get to know her beyond holiday visits. We had Jon and Claire over several times for food and Mexican train. Mexican train? A game of luck and a little strategy played w/ multicolored dominos.
Shirley and Sara bonded as they were supposed to. Shirley was more adventurous with feeding then I was. While Shirley was here, Sara completely transitioned from bottle to sippy cup. Shirley taught her to say, “uh oh” and “shewww” for smelly diapers. She tried to get her to say, “mama” (the prelude to grandma), but Sara would (and still does) reply, “Dahdee” with a sly expression.
We didn’t do too many fancy outings while Shirley was here. She fulfilled her goal to have fish and chips 3 out of the 4 weeks. Lockspot is her favorite place in Ballard with Totem a close second and Coney Island a distant 3rd. We went to Chinooks in Fisherman’s Terminal for the last night of all you can eat tempura prawns. I enjoyed the cedar plank salmon. Sara behaved like an angel. One morning, we treated ourselves to pain au chocolate and fresh brioche with strawberry jam as well as capuccino and hot chocolate at Cafe Besalu on 24th. We haunted Fred Meyer and checked out Me&Moms, Too (a cool kids consignment store). We tried to buy Sara new hard soled shoes. She screamed the entire time I had her try them on. Later we took Sara to a different consignment shop and Shirley picked out a red purse with big handles Sara could play with. She loves putting toys in and out of that purse.
The last week she was here, we went to the zoo. Sara got to see giraffes up close and at her level. My favorite part was sitting and looking at the gorillas for 15 minutes. Sara kept pointing at the baby gorilla. Later we played with the bronze statues of the gorillas in a nearby garden. She was afraid of the lifesized statue of the silverback male gorilla. Around the jaguar exhibit, I lost Shirley. I lost her for over 25 minutes. It got my husband in a bit of a panic too. Eventually we got reunited after a cold, long wait.
Karen’s Whistler
Shirley’s best gift was a 4 day weekend caring for Sara while we went to Whistler. Check out Wayne’s cool photos before this entry. I did Whistler but without the skiing. I guess that was ok since there was essentially not snow. I was an adult for 4 days. I got a massage, saw 2 movies (Sideways and In Good Company-both excellent), ate sushi and crepes, hung out with Kellie and Melina, read 2 books (The Last Days of Summer by Margaret Maron and L.E. Modesitt’s lastest in the Coran? series), and slept late. We made chili for our night of dinner, enjoyed steak at the Key (again no silver cloud, but now I have the recipe!), and enjoyed soup with the Jenkins. We didn’t have our own hot tub, but Kellie and Melina let us use there’s after a hard day of movie watching. Wayne recaptured his childhood with multiple hours playing SoulCaliber, a fighting game with enhance anatomy on silly characters chattering corny lines (‘can’t we all just get along?’). It was lots of fun and I was ready to return to Sara at the end. The little minx decided to start walking while we were gone. A treat for Shirley, though.