Laura now has top and bottom teeth. This morning she discovered she could make a very annoying sound by grinding them together. Sara used to grind her teeth to my distress. Her teeth have come in just fine.
This is the 3rd night Laura has gone to sleep in her own crib in Sara’s bedroom. She seems to be getting used to it. She still cries in the early morning and I get her from her room and transfer her upstairs. I do this so not to wake Sara. Laura has a place to sleep in 3 rooms of the house. Hopefully, she’ll settle on her new fangled crib. This morning, she slept in till 6:30am after the 4am transfer to the upstairs pack n’ play. Wayne and I are reveling in having the upper floor of our house again. No more sneaking into our bedroom trying not to wake up Laura. No more questions of “should I put her in the office or the bedroom.”
I got adventurous at nap time. I put both girls in the room awake at the same time. That did not work. After 30 minutes of aborted cries and interrupting giggles, I moved Laura upstairs with me. We all slept much better. Sara is getting used to having her nighttime routine outside her room. I have her come upstairs with me and we read in our bed. It makes it seem more like a special treat that way.
Both girls are growing and changing so much, I feel I barely have time to blog about it. Sara has learned how to pump a swing on her own. This happened since we got back from Tofino. Laura has learned to crawl. In Tofino, she was rocking back and forth on her legs. She was tentatively crawling the next week at Gold Basin. Now she motors all over the place. Today, I took down one of our gates and let her crawl up the stairs with Sara egging her on. She loved doing it. She can climb up the step stool in the bathroom. She cries in delight when she sees the water in the bathroom sink.
The other think that continues to grow and evolve is the girls relationship with each other. Sara is much more interested in Laura as a playmate now. Laura has always been fascinated with Sara. Sara will play tug of war with a stuffed animal with Laura. Laura giggles hilariously at this. Sara will take a box and pull it across the floor while Laura holds on the trails behind. They thoroughly enjoy each other.
August 31, 2007
Teeth to grind
August 26, 2007
Social Sabbath
This week feels calmer. As part of Summer Part III, we left our weekends unscheduled to do maintenance projects. Still our Sunday got very scheduled.
Annie and Stan wanted a place to hang out while their house was being shown. I was happy to have a gathering and a last hurrah before Annie finally leaves for San Diego at the end of this week. We walked down to the Locks together. Ironically, we have strollerage for all the 5 kids. The Chinook were running and large. I learned that wild salmon have an adipose fin intact and hatchery born salmon don’t.
We had Jon and Claire over after a 2 month hiatus. It was Ruth and Grace’s first visit to our house; the first of many. The girls have gathered some chunk and are at a whopping 7 lbs. The parents look tired by insanely happy. It’s so much fun to have 4 girls between our families that get to grow together. We cooked carne asada and had ice cream cookie sandwiches.
We ended the evening by watching Breakin’, an old 80’s movie about breakdancing, for Stupid Movie Sunday. Our neighbors hold an outdoor cinema. The criteria for the movie is that it’s a silly movie. Past fare was the original Robin Hood and School of Scoundrels. Now I’m ready for bed.
Some snapshots from the week:
*Saying goodbye to Laura’s daycare provider who’s worked for over 15 yrs with kids and is now going to have grandkidlets of her own. We walked to school and enjoyed cake and socializing.
*Swimming at the pool with a friend from Bethany and having pizza at Snoose Junction. It was a perfect day and made me glad I stay home with the kids.
*Looking at switching jobs within the hospital that I currently work at.
*Wayne fixed our shower leak and put up the crib. Laura cried bloody murder and refused to go to sleep in it. We’ll see about integrating the girls into the same bedroom. It’s a work in progress I suppose.
August 17, 2007
Date at Summer’s end
Seattle has decided the summer is really here. The weather is warm and the nights pleasant. Wayne and I have survived a week of roofing ruckus. Wayne just got back from SIGGRAPH, his big graphics conference, on Thursday evening. Normally, he sleeps 16 hrs straight after a week of sleeping from 2-8am. That was pre-Laura. He got to run right back into the kid grind. Up at 6am, keep moving, down at 10pm.
I threw a farewell party for my friend and work partner, Annie, the following Saturday. I’m sad to see her go. It was fun to have four families together with 8 adults and 9 kidlets running around. Only 5 years earlier, we all were finishing up residency and without kids. Since I was hosting 9 kids under 5 and most of them crawling or toddling age, I pressured us both to babyproof the house. Laura is explores more than Sara did (explore = puts everything in mouth).
So I spent 4 nights being a single Mom while Wayne was away and then kicked into high gear on Thur, Fri, and Sat to declutter our house. The party was actually the relaxing part. It was nice to sit down and talk with my friends. I will miss Annie very much. She’s been my friend and colleague at work. It’s been fun to begin our careers as mothers and physiatrists together. It’s always a balance to do both those roles.
By Sunday, Wayne continued to be exhausted, still sleep deprived from his conference. We went to church for the first time in weeks. We taught the 2-3yo class and didn’t even attend service. It was fun to play with Sara and her friends. Laura spent most of her time with us, shunning the nursery.
I gave Wayne the afternoon to prepare the house for roofing while I took the girls to an afternoon tea at Carolyn’s to introduce Bethany to it’s long standing Hong Kong missionaries, the Brad and Carol Jordan. It was wonderful. Laura hung out with me and even took a nap. Sara played with a babysitter the whole time. I got to learn some history of the church from over 20 yrs ago. I wept at the memory of precious youth lost and for a mother’s grief. I was reminded that God is good and what it means to be a church.
Monday night, as usual, was a stress point. The dishes from the party were starting to build up. We were trying to get dinner on the table. The only entrance was from the side of the house. The house had to be closed up because of dust despite the warm weather. The girls were hungry and tired and I was trying to get them fed while Wayne was assessing progress on the roof. He realized that we had not arranged for insulation. He was climbing up into the attic to inspect our lack of insulation and discovered a large, blazing wasp’s nest the size of a beach ball. Even the thought makes my skin crawl. There was also a large box of who knows what from the previous own sitting in the rafters. Then, Karen, Wayne’s sister, called to announce the birth of Landon, Sara’s new cousin. What a chaotic stressful evening. I also had to prepare a presentation. We spent the late evening hours scanning photos for my talk about Buttock Pain titled “Pain in the Butt.”
Tuesday continued the roofing with a long day and pounding till 9pm at night. We still weren’t able to get insulators. I did a late shopping trip and stocked the house. The dishes continued to back up and I just brought more things into the house without the space to put them away. Now our breakfast nook was starting to become ridiculous. Our floors were dusty and weird things were being tracked in. I was worried about Laura swallowing splinters and staple gun residue being tracked in on our feet. I read a Parent’s magazine about lead in dust and started to obsess about the cleanliness of our floors. Laura wasn’t able to get to sleep till late due to the noise.
Wednesday, roofers think this will be the last day. I took the girls in early so I could exercise and tackle dishes. I still don’t get to the party dishes (which need to be handwashed, and thus need an empty sink), but make a dent in our regular dishes before I hurry off to work. I-5 is also closed close to the VA and traffic is stressful. I get caught in Mariners traffic on the way to work. Wayne and I take the girls after dinner for a walk even though we’re exhausted. We see the best sunset of the summer.
Thursday. Roofers are still there and work all day. Less noisy which is nice since I’m home all day. I take the girls to OAC to work out. I drop by the toy store and buy Sara a toy for using the toilet all week (this is a big deal for the Wooten clan). She is so excited. Even though I work on it every moment I have, I still don’t get to the dishes by dinner time. Wayne is stressed because the insulator guys still have not come and our roof is done. I feel relieved when I see the roofers packing up and open windows. I don’t close the windows in time and all my clean dishes that are air drying get covered in dust from the leaf blowers they use to clear out debris. Wayne and I collapse after putting the girls to bed. I say I’m going for a walk. Wayne relates my earlier anxiety attack about chores undone. Together, we finally finish the dishes though tired. I feel like a weight has lifted off my shoulders.
Friday. The roofers come and wait for the insulator installer. All the work is done. All that is left is the Honey Bucket. I get a rare call from Claire. I bend my schedule and get to see Ruth and Grace for the first time in 2 weeks. They’re doing well, up to 7lbs. I walk to the park with Claire and then pick up Audra, Eilidh, and Johanna for a swim playdate. We head to OAC and have a blast. We make quite a parade with a stroller and a big swim float for Laura. Laura laughs when i put her in her new float. She floats above everyone. Sara and Johanna play constantly for a whole hour.
So we get to the date. It’s been a stressful week and we are just happy to be alone together. It’s soothing to my soul to spend time with my love without interruptions. We eat at the Hi-Life after scrapping a plan to eat downtown at Tom Douglas’ new Serious Pie. We immediately get seating at our neighborhood haunt. I’m always impressed with the Hi-life. They do tapas, regional cuisine, brunch, pizza, bar hopping, kid haunt, and family style meals very well. We ordered small plates and had the following: grilled peaches w/ parmesan and prosciutto chips and mache leaves; corn fritters (like hushpuppies); polenta fries; apple and bread w/ fondue; coconut prawns in a honey walnut reduction; and skirt steak purses finished with a desert of chocolate- pot du creme and a hot fudge sundae. We looked at the clock, looked at each other, and sprinted out the door to catch whatever movie we could at the Majestic Bay. We walk into the Bourne Ultimatum 15 minutes into the movie and sit in the front row. We hold hands and enjoy the wild ride, shaky camera angles, heart pounding action. We’re home by 9:30pm. Then our babysitter refuses to let us pay her. What a gift!
August 11, 2007
Summer Part III
Summer has been busy. We’ve mentally partitioned the summer up into 3 acts. Summer Part I merged with the Laura Wooten Road Show. After traveling to Milwaukee, Maui, Atlanta, Nashville, Tofino BC, and Mt. Ranier, we felt like enough people had been introduced to Laura. We have sworn off airplanes and travel in general for a while.