Baby cheek

Today I woke up to banging outside.  They are building a new house behind us in the tiniest lot ever.  Sure, we too have a "skinny" house (as we call it), but at least we have a bit of a front yard, and a small, but decent sized backyard.  This house will only have enough room in the backyard for the tiny slab of concrete that we call our patio, if they even provide the patio space.  So I am a bit short on my sleep for the day.

I spent part of the afternoon helping Lisa, new mommy, sort through clothes they received for Essex, their new baby.  I was extremely happy to help and pleasantly surprised that Lisa asked for help, as she, like most Virgos do not like to ask for help.  I like being a new Auntie.  :)   Essex was being a bit fussy today, but he has much be fussy about.  Many many changes in his life--new parents, new surroundings, new time zone (three hour difference), new teeth arriving.  Lisa said from the beginning, that he is a pretty good baby, but does not like change.  I met Essex for the first time on Monday night when we had the absolute privilege to pick them all up from the airport.  He was in fairly good spirits considering it was the middle of the night for him--11pm here, 2am on the east coast.  I probably would have been more cranky than him. 

So to distract Essex, Lisa has resorted a few times to putting in the DVD of "Baby Van Gogh".  She demonstrated how when he is inconsolably fussy, that he quiets right down with his eyes glued to the TV.  It was pretty amazing, but of course she is not very keen about this.  It is one of the ways the previous caregiver entertained him.  I am sure they will be able to wean him from that once he is a bit more adjusted.

After a few minutes of quiet with the TV on, I started to play with him to distract him, then Lisa turned it off.  To keep him quiet, I suggested we go on a walk.  She thought it was a great idea since he loves the stroller and being outside.  By this time, Kronda had ridden over on her bike after finishing her JAVA final exam.  The three of us headed out for a quick stroll in the neighborhood.  Around the corner, we ran into Lisa's neighbors who have a few kids so we chatted with them.  Of course, we ran into someone Kronda knew.  Well, actually she knew both of us.  She works at REI and recognized us both because we are there so much.  It was a lovely afternoon and I cannot wait to get some more baby cheek soon. 

Home Sweet Home

This adorable and apparently sweet boy will be arriving home tomorrow. I cannot WAIT to meet him, hold him, hug him, and kiss him. Our friends, Lisa and Spike, adopted this little gem, Essex. They went to DC to pick him up last weekend and hope to arrive home with him tomorrow night. K and I are going to pick them all up from the airport. We are so excited for L and S!

In other news, today K and I had the last of our Church of Waffles (CoW) for this winter. For those of you who may not be familiar, K started CoW just before I met her after she got dumped by her previous girlfriend. She needed a way to stay busy and see her friends, so she decided to start her own "church". Every Sunday she invited all of her local friends (and yes, she knows tons) to her house for a potluck where she would provide the waffles and everyone else would bring something to share. That started back in the winter of 2005. CoW is now a bit of a tradition, although due to busy schedules and the fact that K now has a girlfriend she loves spending time with :), we only host CoW once a month during the winter months. In lieu of CoW during the more temperate months, we will be hosting game night, hopefully once a month. Not sure yet when those will start, but hopefully soon. To warm up, K and I played a game of Rummikube last night. If you have not tried it, you should, it is fun.



In wrist-land, yes, I have been doing my exercises. They are getting a bit easier, but still pretty uncomfortable. But let me say that K is ecstatic that I am able to do many of the dishes and other chores now. In fact, after everyone left from CoW today (and some help from some special friends before they left), we cleaned the entire downstairs and all the dishes in less than an hour. She said, "wow, I forgot how quickly the cleaning up goes with two people!" It was really nice to be able to help and feel useful again.

Backing up a bit...Friday, we mostly had a lazy day around the house. But in the late afternoon we headed out to go to MacForce where K bought some more RAM for her Powerbook. It was getting too slow with multiple large programs open that she needs to use for her websites and various other homework. After that quick stop (they installed the RAM in less than 10 minutes!), we headed to Roots Brewery for a BikePortland.org social. We were probably one of the only ones arriving by car. But of course, I have a good excuse, so I was not feeling too guilty. It was a pretty cold and rainy day out there, but normally, that would not stop us from riding our bikes. We then headed to Hodas for some Mediterranean food. This is where K had the unfortunate beginnings of horrible food poisoning last year. No, it was not from the food at Hodas (it was from Sushiland), this is just where she started to get sick. At that time, we were also on our bikes and pretty far from home (probably a good 8 miles). Poor K. So we tried to erase those bad memories and she said she had a good dinner. On our way home, we sinfully stopped at Burgerville to split a chocolate hazelnut shake--one of our forbidden fruits. Mmmm it was good. But dairy and I do not mix well, so I paid for it later.