A week and a half ago, Eva and I bid farewell to the five foot pile of snow in our front yard and headed West for a balmy vacation in Seattle. Matt flew out and met us a few days later.
The Pacific Northwest is having the warmest winter on record, which sounded more appealing than Washington DC’s snowiest winter on record. It was a spring vacation; bulbs were peeking out of the ground, trees were blooming, and we rarely needed coats (or pants, if you’re a baby).
I planned the vacation in part because the gap between December and May seemed too long for Eva to go without seeing her West Coast Uncle and Grandparents. Just two months after Christmas she’s a different person, and nine months is an exciting age. I watch her learn and grow every day, and she does it with cheer and giggles (most of the time). It is an age that is meant to be shared.
As is becoming tradition, my brother took me rock climbing. We went to Vertical World in Redmond, and I was pleased with my progress since my first climb last November.
If you’re a climber and look closely at the picture at left, you’ll see that I’m not following a route (my hands and feet are on different colors). I did, however, climb that wall a second time following a 5.6 route (beginner) without cheating. I managed to make my climber extraordinaire brother proud.
We planned the trip to coincide with the Kasdan’s trip to Seattle. Mitchell just turned one, and Eva had a lot to say to him. She likes to be around other babies, and is especially interested in babies that move independently (crawl or walk) like Mitchell can. It took him awhile to warm up to her, but they were batting each other on the head by the second visit.
Eva made great strides with her stranger anxiety on this trip. For the last three months she has taken days to get used to new people and situations, and often had to be attached to me. On this trip she immediately smiled and waved at everyone she met, and even allowed Marissa to carry her around at a crowded event.
Overall, it was a fantastic trip, and I was as thoroughly spoiled as Eva. I barely cooked, saw a movie, and came home with a suitcase of clean clothes I didn’t fold. If that’s not a good trip, I don’t know what is.
I have one more entry to post on this trip; in the meantime, there are more photos here.
Did you know there are Christmas decorations hanging above the ruined streets of Haiti? That is what I learned this morning while reading the most recent entry from my friend and colleague Cindy’s blog, Dispatches from Haiti.
Cindy is in Haiti for four weeks working as a communications officer for a not-for-profit called HelpAge. She visits nursing homes and homeless camps and reports what she sees both back to HelpAge and on her personal blog.
I’ve kept up with Cindy’s blog from the beginning, but I sat down with my mother this morning and reread the whole thing over coffee.
When we finished, I said, “I should really put a link to this on my blog.” My mother said, “Why isn’t this isn’t on your blog yet? You should post a link. Today.”
My mother is normally not so forthright, so I decided I had better follow her instructions.
There you have it – my mother and I highly recommend you read Dispatches from Haiti. It is a human interest story, and far more interesting than any news story you will read about the earthquake recovery effort. After a few posts you will feel like you, too, have witnessed tent living and lived through aftershocks.
After our second historic winter storm you would think we would get a break. And we did – for one day.
Yesterday a blizzard dropped 10 inches of new snow. A storm that I agree actually was a blizzard, and I’m picky – I’ve read The Long Winter multiple times and have a literary sense for what a real blizzard is. It’s the kind of storm you get lost in while walking home from school and are saved from death only by brushing the edge of the last building in town before wandering onto the prairie forever.
Okay, our blizzard wasn’t that bad. But there were 50 mile an hour wind gusts that blew our powdery new snow all over the place, and visibility was extremely limited.
Meanwhile, Eva and I started to get cabin fever. Matt has been out shoveling every day and even got to go to work for a half day on Tuesday, but Eva and I haven’t seen the outdoors since Friday, aside from the ten minutes we stood on the front stoop on Sunday. Add to that our lack of Internet and a cold (how did I catch a cold while housebound? I am baffled), and I might have been getting a little cranky.
In the name of Mama and baby sanity, we did things we never do, like watching to the local news (all snow, all the time) and figure skating. Matt managed to get Muppets Studio working on his laptop, and Eva visited with Animal and Beaker for a few minutes. As Matt took pictures of Eva watching YouTube (at right), I said, “This is a preview of teenage Eva, lying on the floor and flipping through a magazine… Oh wait, she’ll probably never read magazines.”
The blizzard ended yesterday at dusk and Matt went out to shovel. I strapped Eva to my chest and we stood outside for a half hour. That half hour made all the difference in the world. I saw that there was an end in sight, and Eva was shrieking with laughter by the time I brought her inside for a bath.
It is a clear sunny day and I am still Blackberry blogging. We don’t have a yard stick, but I would guess we have the same amount of snow as Reagan National airport – 18 inches.
I know that doesn’t sound like a lot, but this was actually the fourth largest storm recorded in DC, and the area is ill-prepared for any amount of snow. Even though we’ve cleared our walkway and access road, we haven’t seen a plow on the main road. If we’re lucky we might be able to leave the house by Tuesday.
We took Eva outside to play in the snow this morning which, as usual, involved putting her in the backpack and standing around watching Matt shovel. We stayed outside for ten minutes – the same amount of time it took us to get into our snow clothes.
Here are some pictures from our morning outing:
Babies in snowsuits are slippery, so we always go out in the hiking backpack.
I would like to have taken a walk, but this ice slick was my only option.
Matt’s car. All we need is for a plow to come through and it will be buried forever.
Matt is standing next to our four foot tall azalia.
Babies in snowsuits cant quite sit up straight.
Eva concedes snowsuits are good for one thing – playtime.
We’re at the tail end of a record breaking snowstorm. It has been snowing for almost 30 hours, and we have at least 18 inches of snow.
Wait, you might ask, didn’t you already blog about this? Good question! This is the second snowstorm this winter to make the top ten list for storm accumulation. We’ve had several small storms in between, and we’re running out of places to put the snow.
I found a quiet moment to put up some pictures this morning only to find Snowmageddon relieved us of our Internet (thankfully we still have power – not everyone does). So I decided today would be a good day to test out the new Blackberry WordPress app. It’s working well, but slow going – and without the assistance of Word I fear this is riddled with spelling errors.
Here are a few pictures – the first two are from this morning, and the second two were taken in the afternoon. Now I’m off to figure out what one does without Internet…
Eight months is an exciting age. We’re finally getting to milestones that are concrete – not as much wondering, “Is that a laugh or a cough? She can sit! No wait… she can’t. Is it a new tooth or a cold?” Finally Eva has coordination with some intelligence behind it, and we’re starting to see actions. Several months ago Eva waved for the first time (to a very happy Grandpa Steve), last week she signed, and today she clapped.
I’ve been signing to Eva since she was three months old, and I increased the practice when we received the Baby Signing Time series for Christmas. I’d like to say we learned our signs through books, but it turns out that someone (that would be me) needed to learn through visuals and songs. Now that we have the songs, we’re signing much more consistently.
As I was feeding Eva breakfast last Thursday and signing and singing “More, more, more,” I noticed she bumped her fists together. I turned to Matt and said, “Do you see this?” We weren’t sure she was really signing until she did the same thing at lunch, and then at dinner… and only during mealtimes. Now she also signs when we watch signing videos. A song about bugs? No problem, Eva can sign “more” the whole time.
This morning Eva and I were playing quietly when she started clapping out of the blue. Well, by out of the blue I mean that I was not clapping first. In actuality she’s spent a few weeks trying to figure out how to (1) open her hands and (2) keep them open all while (3) getting her palms to make contact. It’s hard to be a baby, people.
I thought for sure her signing would suffer, since I wasn’t sure she understood the difference between “more” and clapping – they look awfully similar when done by baby hands. But I underestimated the eight month old brain – she understands the difference perfectly. She sat around clapping with open hands all day, but when I was not spooning banana fast enough, closed fists bumped furiously.
Matt and I caught the signing on video over the weekend. It’s a two minute long video, so we cut it to 30 seconds for the blog. If you’re so inclined, visit my YouTube page to see the full-length HD version. And if you like some baby-cheer in your life, feel free to subscribe – we post videos semi-regularly for Eva’s suffering West Coast fan base.
February is not far away and I find I am unable to write a traditional Christmas post. Perhaps it’s because we have a paltry 207 pictures chronicling Eva’s first Christmas. I might be a little overwhelmed.
Instead, I present one tiny theme from our Christmas week. I give you… Captain Eva!*
It all started with an innocent onesie. You can see the culprits laughing in the background (below left).
Next we received the Star Trek movie (above right). Several members of the family are obsessed with that movie. Eva, of course, experienced it in the womb.
Finally, Star Trek Uno** appeared, and we played it in between games of Quiddler*** for the rest of the trip. I highly recommend Star Trek Uno – we all enjoyed the addition of the “Beam Me Up” card.
Over the holidays, Captain Eva ruled. Because who are we kidding – isn’t the seven-month-old always in charge?**** Below, Captain Eva orders fine dining, a piano lesson, and some snuggles.
Finally, Captain Eva commands you to rock.
* We are not crazy Star Trek fans. I swear.
** Hmm… the evidence is starting to disprove *.
*** A note to The Northern California Quiddler Committee: The word “za” was used several times over Christmas, and once in conjunction with a new discovery, “mo.” Look up “mo” in the Scrabble dictionary and weep.
**** This is not true, though it sometimes feels that way.
Over the weekend the D.C. area was hit by biggest snowstorm we’ve had in years. And in December – it’s virtually unheard of! It started snowing last Friday night and continued steadily through Saturday evening for a total of more than 16 inches in 24 hours. We live close to the city, which means we always get the least amount of snow – neighboring cities saw 20+ inches.
I thoroughly enjoyed this storm. It arrived with plenty of warning on Friday evening so Matt, Eva, and I were able to hole up for a planned three-day weekend. The view out our living room window looked like the picture above all day Saturday. I think we were technically experiencing a blizzard, but if you grew up on The Long Winter like I did blizzards in real life never measure up to Laura Ingalls Wilder’s descriptions.
Though it snowed until late Saturday night, the worst of it tapered off in the late afternoon and we were able to go outside and shovel our walk (picture at right). It was still miserable outside, and Eva and I didn’t stay out very long.
Matt spent two hours shoveling on Sunday morning (picture at left). Our whole neighborhood was out at the same time in a big shoveling fest. If you’re going to do backbreaking work, you might as well get some warm fuzzies witnessing a community effort. It’s times like these when we are grateful to live in a townhouse just a few steps and an access road to clear out – and with some really nice neighbors.
D.C. cannot handle this amount of snow, so the region has barely started to recover. The freeways were cleared yesterday, but the side streets are a mess. The government is closed, schools are closed for the rest of the year (they started the holiday break a few days early), and the airports are a mess because no one was able to fly out over the weekend. Matt braved the streets today and successfully ran a few errands, so I think life will be back to normal tomorrow. Not that Eva and I will do anything more than take a walk around the block.
I’m so thankful we were able to stay home this weekend and a enjoy a snowstorm for a change. There are a few more pictures below, and a whole gallery of snow here.
We’re housebound by a foot and a half of snow, so I spent my Saturday giving our blog a much needed upgrade. It hasn’t had one since we started it almost three years ago – and now that I help other people build their websites, it seems like mine should look more modern.
We picked a new (to us) WordPress theme called Atahualpa, which allows for much more customization. A few new features:
Email subscription. If you’re not an RSS person but want notification of new posts, there is now an option for email subscription. Just click on the By Email link in the top right hand corner. The old RSS posts and RSS comments options are still available, and the URLs have not changed.
Photo gallery links. If you’re someone who uses the blog to access our photo gallery, the link is in two places – across the top and on the right link bar, just under the banner.
A new archive page. I am probably the only person who will ever use it, but I love archive pages and think it’s pretty cool. And I’m pleased the list of months is no longer taking up real estate on the side bar.
The banner picture on the blog is now really easy to change. If I’m on top of things, it may even start rotating while you look at it. Right now the picture is as current as it will ever get – a picture Matt took yesterday of our snow-covered holly tree.
We’re still in construction mode – e.g. I’m not pleased with the font or font size, and might tinker with the width a bit more – but it’s getting there. A note: the old posts are going to look bad. The code I used does not work well in the new theme.
We flew to Seattle on Thanksgiving morning – it was wonderful to have a relatively quiet airport experience and fly on a half full plane. If you look at our pictures, it looks like all we did that weekend was bathe and feed a baby… well, maybe that’s kind of accurate.
There were so many baths, many directly after feedings. This is my favorite bath picture, though don’t be fooled by the peacefulness of the shot. A few minutes later, the scene looked like this.
We were so excited to introduce Eva to the Rutledges, my friend Marissa’s family (sadly, Marissa was not there). We’ve known each other for 20 years now, so it was fun to watch Eva play with Calvin, Marissa’s nephew.
One of my biggest highlights was rock climbing. My brother Austin is an avid climber, and took me to his favorite gym. He taught me the basics, and after a few tries I found myself at the top of a 20-foot vertical wall, and then hanging upside down. It was exhilarating, and I hope to find a gym in D.C. so I can go again soon.
Eva and her grandparents had tons of quality time together. Grandpa taught Eva to play peek-a-boo actively, and Grandma spent time reading to Eva and showing her how to turn the pages of her books. My mother now has what I call “Happy Grandma” face – you can see it here, as Eva gives my mom a hug.
On our last day in town, we all went for a walk along the Redmond Slough. Matt took a series of nature shots that turned out beautifully – start here and click next for eight shots total.
As always, the trip was way too short, and Eva is already looking forward to seeing her West Coast grandparents and uncle in a few weeks. All of the pictures are here, complete with captions.
A week and a half ago, Eva and I bid farewell to the five foot pile of snow in our front yard and headed West for a balmy vacation in Seattle. Matt flew out and met us a few days later.
As is becoming tradition, my brother took me rock climbing. We went to Vertical World in Redmond, and I was pleased with my progress since my first climb last November.
Matt spent two hours shoveling on Sunday morning (picture at left). Our whole neighborhood was out at the same time in a big shoveling fest. If you’re going to do backbreaking work, you might as well get some warm fuzzies witnessing a community effort. It’s times like these when we are grateful to live in a townhouse just a few steps and an access road to clear out – and with some really nice neighbors.
