Breakin' the law

Reed has his first run in with law this morning. I was hoping we could avoid these sort of confrontation all together, and definitely never expected to have to deal with this before he's even two! This morning, as Reed played in the living room, a sheriff's car parked beside our house. I thought it was strange, but thought it was even more strange when the officer got out of his car, and seeing me through the window, beckoned me outside. So out we went. The officer asked if there had been a 911 call from this house. No, I said. He asked if he had our address right, which he did. And then it dawned on me. Reed had been playing with the phone earlier!! Oops! Reed had dialed 911 (plus a lot of other numbers) then hit the call button. I explained to the officer and apologized profusely. He smiled (he was very good natured about the whole thing) and said he would usually explain the importance of 911 to kids, but recognized Reed was a bit young for this lecture! I felt terrible, because really, I should have been watching more closely, or better yet, not let him have the phone, but it's hard to say no to these eyes. I still feel a bit bad for having wasted the officer's time, but on the bright side, I can't imagine that 10 am on a Friday morning is a busy time for them.

A good weekend and a hard day

Gerry, Reed and I had a great weekend, helped in no small part by the fabulous weather! We celebrated Gerry's birthday on Saturday by going out to dinner together, without Reed. A rareity in this family. :-)

We took advantage of the gorgeous weather on Saturday by climbing Green Mountain. The last time we attempted this, I was about 7 months pregnant with Reed and had no energy. Not surprisingly, I remembered the hike as being much more difficult than it was! We made it to the top no with no problem this time!

Here are the boys with a view of Seattle and the Cascades behind them. It looks hazy in the picture, but was really crystal clear. Our new baby backpack was one of Reed's birthday presents (thanks Hama!). It was much easier on the back than our soft backpack which is great for shorter trips.

Reed found a stick to play with while we had lunch at the top.

A few gray jays, or camp-robbers as Gerry called them, were quite persistent about getting a snack from us. Beautiful birds!!

Yesterday, we seized on the nice weather again to get some yard work done. Reed wanted to follow his daddy everywhere! He'd cry if Gerry got out of his sight, so while Gerry did yardwork, my main job was just making sure that Reed was close enough to Daddy to be happy, but not so close that he was going to get hurt (we were pruning some big branches).

And the hard day today was Reed's first day of daycare. Turns out it was harder for me than him. He didn't cry a bit when I left (which is more than I can say for myself). It was definitely tough for me. I'm feeling really torn right now between being a mommy and being in the workforce. I keep reminding myself that I shouldn't make any decisions based on the first day of daycare! If I still feel this conflicted in a few weeks, then it might be time to reconsider.

Home is where the heart is

We decided to stay home this year for Valentine's Day. I briefly tried to talk Gerry into going out for an early dinner, but Gerry talked me into staying in for a home cooked dinner. I think it was probably a good decision considering we'd probably have been fighting crowds, and with a tired little boy too (Reed only had one nap today and usually still needs two).

Reed and I had a wonderful afternoon yesterday! We'd been busy running errands all day and I'd been wanting to get outside and do some gardening. Finally, when Reed got up from his afternoon nap at 4:30, I noticed it was still nice and we still had sufficient sunlight (hooray for the days getting longer!) so we got bundled up and out we went! It's been such an awful winter that Reed really hasn't spent much time outside lately. He had tough time toddling on the deep grass and moss, but at least his landings were cushy. He let me stay out long enough to clean up all of last year's growth from our daylilies and irises. When I was done, he started pointing toward the house. I told him to lead me where he wanted to go. He walked right up the path, crawled up the stairs and pointed at the door. To my disappointment, he was done with outside time.

Reed and I also got invited to our first playgroup which we attended on Tuesday. It was great to see him interact with the other kids. There were 5 other kids there and three of them were within a month or so of Reed's age which made it even more fun. The best part about it is, that this playgroup led me to find out about an attachment parenting online forum for Kitsap county. Through this forum I'm beginning to find more local, like-minded parents which makes me feel a heck of a lot less isolated!

I've also been seeking a daycare for Reed and happily, have finally found one. I wasn't thrilled with the idea of putting him in somebody else's care, but when I found the right place, I suddently felt a lot better. It's an in-home daycare and the instant I walked in, I felt at home. This was the first daycare in several I'd visited, that did not have the TV on when I came in (nor has it been on in subsequent visits). That's just the first of many things that fit our parenting style. So Reed begins next week. I'll keep you updated on how he does, and how I do (this may be nearly as traumatic for me as him!)

A week or so ago, Gerry installed a new glass shower door in our bathroom. No more ratty old shower curtain. Woohoo! Ever the little helper, Reed held on to Daddy's level until he needed it. (Reed looks tiny in this picture to me. Either it's the angle, or I have no concept of how big my child is.)

Just another cute picture from our shower door installation.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Yes We Can!

This past weekend, our state held the presidential caucuses. Watching the politics play out in the early states, and super Tuesday, gave us the sense that something was really happening in America. We have some of the best candidates we've seen in a long time.

One of our biggest reservations about having children, was not knowing what kind of world we'd be bringing them into. In a world plauged with reactionary violence, and disrespect towards our planet and fellow humans, we doubted whether we could leave our children a world that was better than the one we'd inherited.

Lately, we've found new hope in one candidate with a positive, hopeful message. It is time to strive to become the best that we can be. And It is time to do what is right, regardless of whether it's the way that we've always done things. We believe that Barack Obama will be the kind of president that inspires us all to achieve greatness, and that we can, once again, leave a better world for our children than the world that we were left with.

So on Friday, we took the ferry over to seattle to try to go see Barack at the Key Arena.

While trying to get to the parking lot, we noticed masses of people migrating towards Key arena... then we saw a line forming near Mercer Arena, but going towards Queen Anne hill. (The line was so phenomenal that I thought it was worth a map to show just how long it was, you may need to click on it to see it well). We parked, and went over to see what the line was all about, and found out it was the line to get in (at that point we could see the line stretching about as far as the question mark on the map). Of course, where we once had seen the end of the line from the car (the # sign), was now wound all the way back up towards Key Arena, looping through the Fun Forest. We finally found the end of the line up by the monorail (at the X), but it was growing faster than we could walk.


Once we finally found the line, we had heard from folks with friends inside, that it was already nearly full. We decided to hang out a bit to see what was happening, then the police directed everyone in our portion of the line a different direction (the orange arrow on the map). Straight in through another entrance to the arena. Considering how far back we were, we were EXTREMELY lucky to get in!!

Here Reed and I are hanging out in line. It's hard to get a feel for how many people were there from this picture. It was really exciting to see how many people had turned out.

Reed and Cammy waiting for Obama to speak.

It was jammed packed, definitely over capacity, but we found a great little spot behind some folding chairs, and one really nice lady gave up her seat for Cammy and Reed. There was a little 'cave' underneath the stairs that Reed enjoyed playing in.



And he made all sorts of friends with the people jammed close to us. He was much more social than usual. Perhaps being in such close proximity with politicians, he felt he should practice his shmoozing skills.

After about two hours of waiting, and some other speakers including Governor Gregoire, Barack took to the stage.

I wish I had more to say about his speech, but it was so loud, that we only caught about 2/3rd of what he was saying. You could definitely feearakl the electricty and energy in the building.

So the next day, all three of us went to caucus. Thankfully, we're democrats, because republicans don't allow kids at their caucuses. Reed had lots of fun toddling around meeting our neighbors, and the overall theme of the caucus was UNITY. Our caucus eventually went 23-5 for Obama, but everyone was happy with both candidates, and there was real hope that real change was coming to our country.