Last Summer Fling

PACCAR made employees this year take two mandatory weeks vacation between May 18th and September 4th to help save money and I took my last weeks vacation the last week of August. I really wanted to make the most of this last week and so we made an excursion to La Conner, about 26 miles north of our house. La Conner is a great little sea side town, much like Poulsbo; quaint with a bunch of little shops and cafes (and yarn store!). We had a nice time walking around town and ironically it was Walter who changed Padon's incredibaly stinky diaper, on the floor, in the corner, of the yarn shop while I browsed around looking for a delicious baby blanket yarn for Baby Y.

After La Conner we followed some scenic driving directions that Walter had mapped off of Google Maps and found ourselves south west of Anacortes at a new resturant on Flounder Bay. Padon got to work on his coloring, a favorite past time now, and felt the need that I take a picture of his sandwich after seeing me take a couple of other pictures.

I even got to knit for a while in the car on our long ride home, completing the back left side and binding off of the front and back (yes, yes, I know, knit speak). It was such a nice day and Walter and I both agreed we love these types of excursions. Too bad manila clams aren't in season. It would have made it an extordinary day to have a bucket of those too. Yum! We love them!

Last Trip to the Science Center - So Sad

With our free Pacific Science Center Pass, with an expiration date of August 30th, 2009, we made one last venture to the Science Center August 29th. It was really kind of sad for Walter and I because we had, had a really good year at the Center and really used the pass as well as handed it out to friends and family so they could enjoy the center as much as we do. We wanted to make this one last trip really count and so we bused it into the city and hit all our favorite spots.


We were sure to go to the Tiny Tots area where, like a whirling dervish, Padon ran from room to room playing with all the well known toys, played in the water trough, and kicked a girl (on purpose) in the chest twice in the block tunnels. We spent a long time running around and around in the Dinosaur room and stopped to pause and watch the Dinosaur movie that I grew up with and my immediate family knows so well we can repeat for verbatum almost the entire script.

We had lunch in the Center House and stopped in at the Animal Grossology exhibit which Padon and I had been to but Walter had not. Padon was finally able to see and interact with some of the exhibits that had been all but inaccessible the last time we had gone which turned out to be opening day.

And after eye balling the 3rd room we went and played with the water features in the central courtyard of the Science Center. It was kind of a full circle of Science Center activities as we did almost everything we had done the first day we had gone which was on my birthday last year.

August 2009
October 2008

We are sorry to be done with the Science Center but think that were we to purchase a pass that we might do the Zoo this next year. I'll have to figure out the bus schedule but that could be a year of fabulous experiences too.

5th Annual Stitch 'n' Pitch!

There are a group of gals that meet every Wednesday in Bothell to just chat and knit. I can never get there in time to really make the mad dash and gas worth it and so I don't get to see them often but I do really enjoy it when I can. Last year they were talking about attending the Stitch 'n' Pitch Mariner's game and how much fun they had the previous week. I was jealous they had been able to go to such a thing and I so wished I had gone. So when the newsletter popped up in my email asking who wanted to go to the 5th Annual Mariner's Stitch 'n' Pitch I was all over it.
I had not been to a baseball game since I was 9 and I felt at the time that the game was super boring, incredibly slow, and the highlight of the game was throwing peanut shells, with my Sister and Cousin, on the people below us. Since then the baseball field, colosseum, arena, (what do you call it?) has been remodeled and was really nice. They put all the Stich 'n' Pitcher's up in the 300's and when you got off the top of the most top escalator there were vendors galore selling yarn, fiber(!), books, knitting/ crocheting needles and all kinds of other wonderful fiber goodness. I depressingly glanced over the vendors I had to pass to get to section 337 because there was no money for more fiber goodness but it was wonderful to know that there was such a turn out. Now I know to plan for a little knitting or spinning treat next year.

About half of the knitting group was there and it was nice to sit with people I knew even if just slightly. It was also really nice to be surrounded by so many people who had a similar love to me.

And the seats were really great. Just behind and to the left of home base I had a great view.

The Mariners lost 8 to 4 to the Kansas Royals and it was still an extremely boring game but I would totally go again and look forward to the 6th annual Stitch 'n' Pitch. I got a lot done on a little sweater for Baby Y, loved the knitting vibe I got from the many different generations and kinds of people around me, and relished the uninterrupted knit, knit, knit.

I'm Two, How Are You?

Padon has become more and more two and the changes are fast and amazing. This means, he has stopped listening without me counting to three and makes obvious decisions to whether it is worth a two minute time out or not. He has also gained the patience and attention span to withstand an almost full feature Disney movie, especially when it is Toy Story. I got this awesome pick of him totally lounging on the couch totally engrossed in the tube. This has turned into a pretty regular demand for a "movie?!" which usually sounds more like "poopy?!" We indured two no bones temper tantrums leaving Jiffy Lube because we had to walk away from Toy Story.

He has also started to harass the dog with a lot more aggression which used to be a nice pay back for the years of in your face torment she has caused him but he has finally out smacked and belly flopped her. Because in all her harassment she would never bowl him over, if he didn't bowl her over first and lives in fear of hurting him because she has been well trained not to hurt anyone especially anyone toddler size or smaller, we are having to protect her more and more. You can tell they do enjoy playing with each other and I really do think she could have a best friend in him. He doesn't care if her ball gets slimy and will throw it for her everytime even if it is directly into her face.

Hanging Out at Grandpa's

We ventured down to my parent's house to meet up with immediate family and my cousin Andy and his wife Anna Maria. It appears I didn't take any pictures past when Andy arrived but I did get a nice picture of these cuties.

Allergies or Just Plain Being Pregnant?

So I have been struggling with allergies for I don't know how many months now and have been blamming a good amount of sneezing at our poorly vacuumed carpets and second cat. Then just on a whim I thought I would Google allergy symptoms and pregnancy. Come to find out an alarming number of other to-be-mom's also struggle with sneezing, runny, and stuffed up noses. Most of which they attribute to a heightened sense of smell and increased blood flow to the nasal blood vessels. I kind of feel like collapsing on the floor in front of my computer chair, yelling, fists waving above my head, "Nooooooooo!!!!!! God, Why me???!!!!!"

Zertec has helped me hold at bay the 14 sneezes in a row (was it that many this morning at 4am, sure felt like it) and the extreme itchiness and constant running of snot pooring out of my head; taking my brain with it. Sadly Zertec makes my whole body tired, much in the way (I realized this morning on the bus) a sleepy muscle relaxer might. And if I don't take the Zertec at the first sign of the sneezes to come I get to snort and blow for the rest of the day as my nose tickles from time to time and my sinuses feel so moist that it feels like they may give out any moment causing me to blow and blow and blow, which in itself makes my sinuses swell. I can tell you I'm excited about getting to enjoy this for the next 5 months.

I'm not trying to be overly negative I am just so shocked. I suppose I should be reassured that I'm not the only one out there grossing out their cubicle mate, one cubicle over, with my honks and snorts. At least I'm not making anyone sick even if it sounds like I have a bad cold when I talk.

No Twins Here

I got my first "Twins" comment today. Some how I had forgotten about this part of being pregnant although something inside me was expecting it.

It's amazing how people don't get that it is rude to ask if you are having twins in response to their mental diarreah and surprise at how much bigger you are then they thought you would be at what ever gestational stage you are in. And the craziest thing is it is always women that do this. Oh, with the exception of one of the lawyers in our law department, who very rudely eyeballed me at 10 weeks and told me he thought I looked big right before he told me women shouldn't work because they get preggo and therefore aren't reliable (in so many words). At least neither of them touched me although I have been getting more of that with this pregnany then the last.

Big Sigh of Relief, One Heart Beat Down and 9 More to Go!

You know, I just don't like to fail. I like to be right and I like to do what I do well. I think being pregnant for a Type A can't be an easy progress. Pregnancy doesn't fall under the lines of perfection except for maybe the baby that comes out in the end. Although I think we all know not everyone's baby comes out as perfection either; Sinfeild comedy sketch entered here.

Sarah was so wonderful and bought me a heart monitor so I could listen to Baby Y all night long if I wanted to and now that I am officiallly 15 weeks I think I will try it again. Either the little lemon sized bean was just too small to hear or a great swimmer but I couldn't get its heart beat when I first tried. But according to the directions between the 14th and 16th week I should be able to detect a bit of a whoosha-whoosha (or as the directions describe it, a galloping horse) at roughly 55 beats per minute.

Now that I have fallen (yes, fallen, because passing from one pregnancy hormone to the other doesn't quite melodiously flow) into the 2nd Trimester I feel better. Much better. I'm still tired but think that, that aquates a lot to my commute. I think as I get older it just gets harder and I like to watch movies when I get home from work which often means a bed time of no earlier then 10:00pm. 10 is just too late not to feel tired the next day. But besides that, I feel more like myself and happily exclaimed to Walter last night that I was feeling more like I was a part of the Pregnancy Club and Too-Be-Mommy Club again. A feeling (I coined with Padon) of feeling connected with every single pregnant woman on the planet. Hug on pooching tummy, tender breasted, crying jag, constipated, soul sisters! Walter smiled, relieved I think, to hear me feeling more upbeat. It's hard watching someone you love feel bad about themselves and knowing there isn't much you can offer other than another boiled artichoke and cup of melted butter with lemon juice with a Butterfinger Blizzard on the side.

I have read back over the previous post a few times trying to gage and decide whether I was having a manic pitty moment but still feel it's true. That panic attach was bad. But we have now cleaned out Baby Y's room and taken a couple car loads of things to Good Will and that has made me feel closer and more romanticised about the days to come. It helps too that Padon is starting to get excited about the new baby. He still doesn't quite get the whole magnitude of what's going on but did tell our friends that there was a baby in me. Official quotation: "Baby in der" and "Baby Mama". That's pretty darn close. He is super exicted about the now empty room waiting to be Rug Doctor'd and painted but I'm pretty positive it's just because it is a room that he has never been in before and has no toys to trip over in it. Who doesn't love finding new and special places.

Walter, of course, and as any to-be-new-again-Father would, looks forward to the new baby with happiness and apprehension. He periodically offers reassuring pats to the baby which fills me with a gushy love of them both. Not to mention Baby Y has already had it's first conversation with Darth Walter - something along the line of "hello baby this is your Father..." with all low and not normal voice range talking. Funny everytime, especially since he isn't trying to sound like Darth Vader.