Christmas in the PNW

I'm typing at my sister's house where we will be staying for the next couple nights. Mike and I decided to extend our stay in the PNW by 10 days so rather than flying back to Boston on Christmas morning, we'll be here for another week. Hooray!
I am sick with something and have only been awake for a total of about 2 hours though it is 4 o'clock in the afternoon. E is sick with the croup and is napping under piles of blankets. So much for our flu shots - must be east coast bugs only that we are immune to. We spent yesterday morning taking E to her old pediatrician for a dose of steroids to help with the inflamation around her throat. She has her first runny nose and sounds like a little teenage frog.
Otherwise, it is so wonderful to be back in the PNW. Our first day here we felt like we were in our element for the first time in months. It was also nice to be able to walk around without fear of freezing our... eyeballs. We are seriously considering coming back for the summer and will keep you posted with our plans.
Time has been flying by and we would like to see a few more people before heading back east. Hope everyone is enjoying their vacations and time with friends and fam. Isn't it so nice to be with the ones you love?

going on

Where are you going?

E's belly was so full with cornish game hen, potatoes, carrots and "nuh nanas" (bananas), that her inny belly button almost became an outie.

Visitors from good 'ol Bellingham.

It snowed. Again. This is the view from our window after only TWO days of snow!

Close shot of a neighbor's car.

Happy Birthday to Me!

The morning of E's birthday.

You say I'm going to like it, but how can I be sure?

I can't believe I didn't take a single picture at Emmy's birthday party. That is what exactly one year of inadequate sleep will do to you. My friend Andrea came a couple hours early to help me set up and prepare. There were a couple toddlers and one kid and lots and lots of adults. I'll try to do better for her next time. We played “How much does Emmy weigh?” The winner came close at 21lb 30z (off by one ounce!) who said she felt like a little less than half a 50lb barbell.

We sang happy birthday, which seemed to confuse the birthday girl. I blew out the candle, Emmy smacked her cake with her hand and refused to eat any. One woman said babies instinctively won't eat anything brown. You can guess why. E tried two nibbles of frosting after my prodding, poked around for a few minutes, and then moved on to the toy maracas someone bought her. That mess you see in the photo is from Mom picking off bits of chocolate frosting. Maybe I shouldn't have made a whole wheat cake.

The Republic of Cambridge

Life in B’ham was like life in a bubble. If I were Mormon, I’d say it was like life on a star, which sounds more poetic. It was too good and still true.

Once again, I find myself in a town that is a bubble. A star bubble. The only difference is I’m not a student this time. Oh yeah, and I have a husband and a kid. Oh yeah, and rent is exactly 8 times what it was in the republic of B’ham. I’m not kidding. Oh yeah, and rumors of winter weather and wind chill are beginning to make me a bit shifty. Oh yeah, and everybody in this town goes to Harvard. Or MIT. And one person I met, both.

Before our move east I wondered if we would meet a few pretentious academics out here. We’ve all met that kind of jerk who, by opening his/her mouth, so easily spoils business meetings, Q and A’s, lunch... When your education takes you to such lofty heights you cannot relate to the rest of the world, you not only do yourself a grave disservice, you make the whole world have to deal with yet another intellectual prick. And it’s not a real education you’re getting if you think what school you go to or what you learned makes you any more special than the guy sitting next to you on the metro. I mean, we just want to know - can you, or can't you, break it down on the dance floor.

What I have found to be true is that few people actually give a rat’s tail what school you go to out here. Everybody and their uncle is or knows somebody at a big named school - either here, or NY, or the other Cambridge or somewhere else.

Imagine: every single person in your apt is getting an $80,000 degree from Harvard. Every kid in the building across the street, and the building behind you, and the building behind that one, and the one across the street from the building behind the one behind you as well. Everybody goes to Harvard here, everybody has the sweatshirt to prove it. However, what does seem to be important is the brand of shoe you are wearing. Aren't those what really make the man? Shoes and overcoats. You definately need a good overcoat. Some days Mike and I must look like a pair of homeless bums walking around with a beautiful baby we must have kidnapped or something.

Life in the republic of Cambridge is a bit rediculous, but we do enjoy it here. Meantime I'm trying to convince Mike to get a pair of winter shoes, something pretty and warm to keep his feet from falling off in the cold.

t h a n k s g i v i n g

My favorite holiday. Family, friends, food, gratitude for all the above and more. Mike’s friend, Eric, from Austin (whom I’d only met at the Pardue wedding years ago) and his wife, Paulina, invited us up to New Hampshire to spend the weekend with his family. Their amazing hospitality was such a gift after months of hard work and going it alone out here. So here are some fall-in-New England pictures as I’ve promised.

(E discovers a window at the Shire)

We spent the first night at the “Shire,” on 19 acres of New England pines and fog. It turned out that the heater was broken, so we stayed in a bedroom with a pellet stove. We (Mike, Emmy and I) went to bed around 2 am, unplugged the stove (not how you’re supposed to turn off a P stove), awoke a few minutes later when the house fire alarm went off because our room had filled up with smoke. Down to the cold but clean air basement we went and finally got some shut eye sometime after 2:30 with E suited up like an Eskimo and under 10 inches of blankets. The bog down the road was frozen over – needless to say it was very cold that night.

(view from outdoor shower)
In the morning we went to the “Cabin,” more accurately called the “Mansion Cabin,” by Paulina. The spread was beautiful and the food was the tastiest I’ve ever enjoyed for Thanksgiving. (Sorry Mom! But you are an amazing cook and the most inspiring and wonderful mother!!) E loved their dog, I loved the radiant stone floor heating and outdoor shower, Mike loved the eternally brewing coffee pot. How I wished the space was mine to have decorated it as my own. Mike and I were both taken by the beauty of NH and wonder if we'll buy a little old house there someday. Rent in the city, spend summers and holidays at our own cabin.

(Mike with E on couch - he "forgot" to bring his dobro)
This was the first Thanksgiving I didn't hear a football game playing on the TV from one of my brothers watching. After dinner was the traditional music night, where instrument clad friends as far as Vermont arrived ready to sing by the fire place. Crazy family you say? We felt right at home! We stayed the night at the cabin and were warm with a good time.

The next day we decided to head home as Mike had lots of work to do for school and a new commercial gig he scored right before we left and I have to compile audio clips for a job interview this week. We got home late last night exhausted but happy to be in our own place again. Mike had the idea of cooking another Thanksgiving meal for the three of us. "What's Thanksgiving without leftovers for days after?" he asked. Not a bad point. So at 8 o'clock in the evening we made a rice and mushroom stuffed chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, brussels sprouts, stuffing and rolls. I am so stuffed I've only managed black coffee and chocolate today - the best way to feed a food hangover.
I wish we could have personally wished each of you a happy Thanksgiving. You are lovely and we are grateful to call you our friends and family. I'm thankful to God for your lives and hope you find great joy and purpose as the year wraps up.

Cutting Teeth and Hosting Friends

I am looking out the window watching the snow fall quietly on Mike and our friend Carter as they walk to the T(rain). I am considering yelling down at them to stop so I can take a photo, but Carter has a plane to catch and the baby is sleeping in the other room. I can’t believe I didn’t take a single photo during his visit. And no mention of any of our other visitors on the blog! So here’s three cheers for Biz, Carter, Julia and my mom who have all ventured out here to our place in Cambridge.


E has 6 teeth now. She started walking last week and self weaned shortly after that. It sort of broke my heart that she could become so independent so quickly. Well, not sort of, I have only today recovered from being a weepy mess all weekend. Anybody reading this should call their mother right now and apologize for growing up so damn fast.
Mike wrapped E up in her Eskimo get up and walked her to the dr’s after we noticed a little blue blister on her gums. (I thought it was a piece of basil three days ago.) Did you know you can bruise your gums? The trauma of the doctor’s probing has made teeth brushing an even more difficult task. I tried wiping E’s teeth as she slept and wouldn’t have been able to get a putty knife wedged in if I tried for how tightly sealed she kept those lips.

gushing blood

The first time Mike ever called 911 was when I was pregnant and fainted and while on my way down to the floor hit my head on the dining room table – you know just to secure the experience of unconsciousness.
The second time Mike called 911 was a few days ago when the kid with whom I was pregnant at said unconsciousness hit her face on the kitchen floor. No big deal, Mike just scooped her up when she started crying hard. Half a minute later she hadn’t stopped. Miked came back into the kitchen with Emmy still in his arms and said, Look, she’s bleeding!
Until that day I had never seen gushing blood. I had heard about, seen it on TV and in movies, but never witnessed with my own eyes bleeding so severe that it would qualify as gushing. Emmy’s mouth was a fountain of deep red, thick, healthy blood. I somehow had the time to think her chin looked like a goatee.
Then I panicked. Outwardly. I made Mike call 911 because I didn’t know what to do first: try to stop the bleeding or try to determine whether she had actually swallowed a piece of tongue she bit if it was still attached at all.
Five minutes later nearly a dozen men, yes so many that they took two elevators, came to the rescue. Only the second before they came through the door, Emmy stopped bleeding AND crying. Her newly sprouted upper teeth had cut the inside of her lip. They suggested popsicles to keep the swelling down and probably enjoyed a few laughs on the way back to the fire station at our expense.
One thing we learned is that you don’t get charged for having an ambulance arrive at your call. Mike was talking to his friend (who I call Black Dan to differentiate from White Dan, call me racist, whatever) about it, who said,
“All black people know that. You can call 911, but DON’T get in the ambulance.” That’s when you’re out about 500 bucks. Did you know that? If something happens again and we have to take E to the emergency, I am putting what appendage fell off into a zip lock bag and running the half mile to the hospital myself.

ready for East Coast snow!!!

first hair cut

had to cut new bangs while E was napping

waking up to a new do

now to do something with the back...

faithful grocers and east coast oddities

Catholics say they love the fact that they can go to mass in any country in the world and feel right at home. It's the exact same mass, given at any hour of the day somewhere in the world. If that were the only thing that attracted me to Catholicism, I'd never convert since I enjoy that same comfort getting my groceries at Trader Joe's. The crew at the Cambridge Trader Joe's wear the same inspiring T-shirts, have the same neighborly demeanor and always smile and thank you for bringing your own bags. Likewise, if there is a Traders in town, the inside of our refrigerator remains the same wherever we go: soy milk, mushrooms, eggs, bread, butter, beer, green onions, onions, potatoes, ground turkey, prefab leg o' lamb, bacon, cheese, salsa, cilantro, bagged greens, cabbage, and condiments. And best of all, we can afford such extravagance.

It's nice to have some consistency in your life when everything else is turned upside down. Still getting used to the East Coast experience. This week started off with us cracking 9 sets of twins out of one carton of eggs (a reason to buy organic eggs). I found a not so little plastic googly eye in E's diaper. (For those of you who did not live for arts and crafts as a child, a googly eye is a plastic shell, white and opaque on one side, clear and colorless on the other. Inside the shell is a smaller black disk that rattles around when you shake it. These can be adhered to various surfaces, instantly creating a face with just one or a pair of googly eye! And there one was, staring at me in a little brown oval shaped head after E's breakfast, about the size of two nickles stacked together. I have this story filed away if the child ever complains about having to swallow vitamins when she's older.)

But fall arrived last weekend and it is getting right pretty out. I'd upload some pictures but blogger's having some troubles with them...

E dawg in da house!

Check out my crib, yo!

ten months old now!

more blueberries Dad!

getting into the pots and pans cabinet

hanging out downtown Boston

I'll keep posting even for an audience of 5

Though it feels like pledge drive week at NPR here!

A couple Snapshots, more to come soon.
The Harvard Lampoon building; my favorite building in Cambridge so far. Over a couple hundred years old and a block and a half from our place.

E's favorite perch in the whole apt. Many a college kid has she waved to down on the walkway below.

East West

Today is a perfect coffee drinking day. Lucky for me, my sweetie brought home some Swiss water processed decaffinated coffee from a little Italian coffee/tea/chocolates/salami place up the road. The coffee is called Cafe la Semeuse, and it is delicious. And today, since it's overcast and cool and Saturday, I'm going to drink 5 cups of it.

Moving Part 28 - Landing in Cambridge, Mass

It did't hit me that we were moving to the East Coast until I saw Lake Michigan from thousands of feet up in the air. That beautiful lake that always seemed like an ocean to me until last week when I saw its eastern shore for the first time in my life. At that moment I knew we were leaving all we ever considered normal and were starting over in a foreign land... New England! I felt like Bart Simpson; mesmerized by the counter clockwise flush of Australian toilets some years back. I realized just how must our orientation is rooted in time and place, that the Pacific Northwest is as much home to me as Grandma and Grandpa are to others. I believe I love the Pacific as much as Merriweather Lewis did the first time he saw it.

But Boston is beautiful. It feels like Italy, like Guanajuato, Mexico. Despite that so much US history transpired here, it doesn't feel like America to me. So strangers in a strange land are we. At our core, Mike and I are West Coast people. Slow paced, flower sniffing, coffee sipping, friendly people. So how do we like it? We love it!!! It's a new experience and we couldn't be enjoying ourselves more.

As for E-news, crawling is so last month, ma! The girl is entirely about pulling herself up to standing, and if possible, pushing furniture along as she tries to walk. I remember in our last days in Seattle, putting Emmy to bed only to find her rounding the corner into the kitchen hours later on her own. It was like she was looking for a party to crash or something. She might well have been frying up an omlette as shocked as I was by the sight. Seeing her move around like she is now she doesn't seem so much like a baby already. I feel that at any moment she is going to look up and say to me, "How dee do, Mom," as if she's been talking all her life. The girl is growing!

Pictures to come when I take them. Lots of beautiful sights just outside our apt. Shall I continue? Are people still checking up on this blog? I'm fishing for some comments here!

E napping on our borrowed mattress... thanks Andrea!

The Move Part 27: Boston via Chi' town

Hanging out with my aunt

Sorry no pictures of Dan and Rebecca but it was really nice to see them in their beautiful apt on Printers Row. Solo parenting while travelling = more time spent at wit's end = less time taking pictures. Also wonderful to spend time with Greg to whom E took an immediate liking.

Trying out the silver spoon and cup from her Great Uncle, originally a gift from his grandparents back in the 40's.

"Tastes better than plastic!"

all tuckered out
Thanks to Uncle Bruce and Emoh for making our visit easy, fun, and memorable. What would we do without familia?

last pix in Seattle

Plus a wonderful visit from an old friend. (That's not a photo of us but our kids! We only met in college:))

The Move Part 2 - Camping at home

My brother just left from a visit from the Peace Corps. He’s been calling the Philippines his home and enjoying views of tropical beaches and hot Filipinas on tropical beaches for 15 months now. Actually, we know he is really there to save the world. Just kidding, it’s really about the Filipinas on beaches. Just kidding again.

Emmy took a liking to him immediately and confirmed my theory on familial pheromones. His visit comes at a good time; a little later and he’d have missed us, a little sooner and we wouldn’t have had his help in loading our moving pod.

All our things are en route to our new apt on the other coast and we are living quite sparingly for the time being. I went to the thrift store to buy a frying pan so we wouldn’t have to continue scrambling eggs in the aluminum camping mug I forgot to pack and found a pretty pyrex thing that is doubling as our tea kettle. Ah the simple life.

Some things you've missed in Emmy's life these last few weeks: she's crawling, clapping, and saying, "Oooohhh!" She's also got her two bottom teeth in now.

The rest of our days here in the Pacific Northwest will be spent saying goodbye to family and friends and thanking them for the wonderful love and life we’ve enjoyed together the last few years.

The Move Part One: Packing

We've decided to rent a storage crate, that's right, just one, to ship our things to the East Coast. We taped a corner of our living room to its dimensions and whatever doesn't fit in the 5x7x8 crate will not be coming with us. It's all about strategic tetrising, as my friend eurecatherine.blogspot.com would call it. I am grateful a childhood playing video games is paying off now.

See kids, video games are good for you!

This also means we get to do some big time shopping when we first arrive in Boston. New bed, new couch, new dining set, and lots of other fun purchases. Hooray!

family portraits

Don't you think my sister should be a professional photographer?

camping pix as promised