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.

From one beach to another

Gerry's early birthday present from his parents this year was a trip to visit them in their new home in Florida. We were hoping to get some warm Florida sun, but while the weather was not as cooperative as we had hoped (only occassionally hitting low seventies and usually grey), we still had a wonderful time!

Our first day there was the coolest, requiring some layering to play outside, but we were bound and determined to be outside! One of Reed's favorite features at Grandma and Grandpa's house was the garden, filled with agates. He'd pick them carefully out of the garden and deposit them in waiting hands or sometimes, the pool.

Gerry's folks have a couple of Shih tzus (Florida dogs!) and they waited "patiently" for any cracker bits that Reed might "accidentally" drop. You’d have the same look on your face that Reed’s wearing here if two dogs almost as big as you were watching you, hungry-eyed, while you snacked!

It didn't take Reed long to figure out that if he pointed at where Grandma kept her animal crackers, he would promptly be rewarded with an animal cracker for each hand.

Gerry's folks only live a few miles from the beach so we made several trips. Reed has a bit of an aversion to getting his hands messy, but we didn't know that this aversion applied to his feet too, so when I tried to put him down on the beach for the first time, he curled his legs up as far as he could to avoid touching the sand.

Reed's first sand castle. Okay, this is really just a pile, but give him a break, he's only 14 months old!

The family out on the beach.

Three generations of the men in the family.

Reed does his best impression of Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible.

The difficulty in getting a baby to look where you want him to. "No Mommy, you look here!"

We found some shells for Reed to take home. Shortly this picture was taken, Gerry and I noticed Reed playing with half of what had started as a whole sand dollor. I quickly scooped the other half out of his mouth as Gerry noticed that the shell still contained its deceased resident. Yuck!! In typical mom fashion, I worried for the next 24 hours that Reed had swallowed some of it and was sure to get some bizarre food poisoning, but he was just fine.

It was a wonderful visit and I look forward to the next time we'll get to visit our Florida home!

And our New Year's

We spent a wonderful few days over New Year’s in Pacific Beach with our friends Dave and Sarah, and their son Robbie. The three of them are currently living in Tokyo, and prior to that, lived in San Francisco so we don’t get to see them all that often, and cherish every opportunity that we do! (BTW, I owe a thank you to Dave for sharing their pics with us so quickly, as our camera was on the blink for most of the trip.)

We did a lot of walking on the beach and the weather was fairly cooperative. At least it didn't rain! It was fairly windy, and it turns out that Reed is just like his mommy when it comes to wind, he doesn't like it one bit!

Reed's first walk on the beach!

It was really fun watching Robbie and Reed play together. Robbie is 4 months older than Reed, so in some ways, every time we see him, we get a sneak peak at Reed's future. Here the boys are having a drum circle!

Reed and Robbie are definitely distinct individuals. Both boys are very sweet, but where Robbie is gregarious and independent (here Robbie gives Reed a hug), Reed, at least initially, is quite shy and prefers to stay close to me. It took Reed the better part of the 4 day trip to decide that he could play on his own without needing mommy quite so intensely. It's okay though, I wouldn't trade my little snuggler for anything (although I do sometimes miss going to the bathroom alone...)

All in all, it was a wonderful trip. Perhaps the only down side, is that I was reminded of how much I really love these friends and now miss them more than I did before.

Our Christmas

Well, it was a busy, but wonderful holiday season for us this year! We geared up for Christmas by baking some Christmas cookies... Okay, Gerry baked the Christmas cookies while I said, "no, don't make them, we'll just eat them", but they were good. Here's Reed enjoying his first ever Christmas cookie.
We got up early on Christmas morning, and wouldn't you know it? Santa came!! "If I give you a cute look, can I start opening my presents??"

Reed got lots of new books...

And toys. This one seems to be his post-Christmas favorite. It has lots of noisy buttons and Reed loves it! Despite the obvious appeal of all the buttons, his favorite feature seems to be the seat, which lifts up to reveal a small storage compartment. He likes to hide a toy in it, after which he gives a great dramatic gasp, then lifts the seat, gasps again, and pulls the toy out, then we start all over again. It's VERY cute.

And it snowed on Christmas day! This was a first for both Reed and I, as I don't ever recall having seen it snow on Christmas. So of course, we had to get the wagon out and go for a walk.

After dinner, to celebrate the fact that Reed can now eat a nearly normal diet, we let him have the cake he couldn't have on his birthday. Only Reed didn't want it! Perhaps I shouldn't have fed him dinner first, but I didn't want him to get hyped up on sugar just before bed. He didn't want anything to do with it though, so no cake covered baby pictures for us!!

Here he goes!

Here comes Trouble!

-Gerry

Funny Stuff

So Reed has figured out a few new things this week. He clapped a few times yesterday, and discovered that it's pretty funny to hit your knee... I guess you could say it's a real "Knee Slapper"!

Mother's little helper

Good thing I'm wearing my camouflage jammies so mommy can't see me sitting in this drawer!

Really? I can have this frosting for breakfast?!

A busy week!

We have had quite the week! It started with the snow and rain last weekend, then on Monday, I witnessed Reed take his first two deliberate, balanced steps (as I'd mentioned before, he'd taken a few lunging steps before but they definitely didn't have this level of control). I thought maybe he'd forget about the walking trick for a few more weeks, but he's continued to take a couple of steps every day or so. It may still be a little while before he's walking all over, but he's moving in the right direction.

Then we had Reed's 12 month checkup. He gained almost half a pound over the last month, which should make our dietician relax a little (we see her this week). While Reed was getting his vaccinations, I notices a little white spot on the roof of his mouth. I felt it, and sure enough, it was one of his pre-molars. When I got home, I discovered he had a pre-molar erupting on each side. Then a day or two later, one of his eye teeth broke through.

Reed has also figured out how to make truck noises when he plays with his dump truck which is really cute. Especially since they are more of a high pitched growl than a truck noise. He's also figured out that if he hands us a book, we will sit down and read it to him. It's fun to watch him sort through his box of books, find a favorite, and bring it over. Very sweet!

And Sunday, we headed out and got a Christmas tree. We were a little hesitant about getting one because we figured it would be a fair amount of work to keep Reed away from it, but what the heck, we'll only have it for a few weeks.

This one? I don't know...

The top of this one is a little straggly Daddy.

Here it is! This is our tree.

RAIN!!!

I thought some of you may have heard about the state of emergency that has been declared for Kitsap Couty and I just wanted to say that we're just fine here. Despite the fact that we've basically had a hurricane here, Gerry is still going to barbeque chicken tonight!! :-) He wasn't feeling so well this morning and stayed home, which turned out to be fortunate as stretch of Hwy 3 got shut down which would have made for a long drive home for him. We decided to drive around town and see what we could see. Here are some of the more dramatic scenes.

The water in Sinclair Inlet was really high! This was taken an hour after high tide. Thank goodness there was no wind or the swell probably could have caused a lot of damage to docks like the Annapolis dock here. You can also see (kind of) in this picture how brown the water was from all the eroded dirt in the stormwater runoff.

Lots of flooding near houses. I'm glad I don't live here!

And standing water in any low area. This is actually taken from the foundation area of a piece of land that's for sale. Gerry and I have toyed with the idea of buying it. It's good to know that the foundation would be on dry land, even in a catastrophic rain event. Still, I don't know how well I'd sleep with the water creeping into my back yard. Incidentally, the tree covered hill in the distance is where we live.

The water here is pouring out of one yard, across the road, and into another yard. This is taken from the shared driveway of the previous property.

Reed had a good time riding around in his new "cow-moo-flage" car seat. "Check out my new tooth!"

SNOW!!!

It was still snowing here this morning so I got Reed all bundled up to go experience the snow. He got to see it and touch it last year, but he was so young, he didn't really react to it. Even though we got dressed and ate breakfast as fast as we could, it had still turned to slushy rain by the time we actually got outside. Sigh... he'll get faster at eating breakfast when he gets older, otherwise how will we have time to make a giant snowball/snowman (so there's still snow when Reed get home from school) before the school bus comes. Anyway, I took these four pictures (the first four ever with my new digital camera Gerry gave me for my birthday). I thought they were a funny series, so I'm posting them all.

Hmmm... I don't know about this Mommy.


Are you sure this is supposed to be fun?


You know what, actually, this is pretty cool!!


Okay, please pick me up now, I'm done.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Gerry, Reed and I headed over the river and through the woods (okay, over the Narrows bridge and through Tacoma) to Grandma and Grandpa's house for Thanksgiving. Gerry and I have hosted for the past few years. I didn't realize quite how much work I was anticipating with hosting again, until my mom offered to host and a wave of relief washed over me. Thanks mom!!

We had a marvelous dinner, and Reed even got to have some mashed potatoes with butter as dairy is his new food for the week. Speaking of Reed and eating, he is finally back to enjoying one of life's simple pleasures, eating, which is nice. He stopped letting us feed him when he decided that all we gave him was food that tasted like metal (a result of briefly putting gross formula into his food to try to boost the calorie and protein content; one of our dietician's "brilliant" ideas). Anyway, it took him a few weeks to figure out that we weren't trying to poison him anymore. That and the addition of his new favorite food, saltine crackers.

And a few milestones, Reed has sprouted a top tooth and is standing, unsupported more and more often and for longer periods of time. He now stands for several seconds or as I discovered yesterday, long enough for me to take 4 digital pictures. He has also taken a few lunging steps on two occasions. I haven't seen him accomplish this yet, but I know I will soon!