A Pregnant Christmas Gift

I can't find a picture that can do City Flowers' (a florist shop on the 1st floor of the Hyatt, here in Bellevue) Christmas Display justice. Imagine a floor to ceiling Christmas display in Neiman Marcus smashed into a box about 9 ft wide and 20 ft long and you will have an idea of what City Flowers' shop looks like right now. It was beautiful and intimidating all in one breath and the store was so full that you couldn't lift your elbows away from your waist without fear of knocking something down. The cheapest something running no less then $100. Okay, they had tiny olive ornaments for less then $100 but even they were almost $10 a piece.

So I was in this florist shop waiting for my order of a dozen long stem roses for my Bosses' Wife, for their proposal anniversary, and I was weaving my pregnant self in and out of the opulence, gawking over prices, and how beautiful some of the artistic sculptures, ornaments, and chocolates were. As I was looking around and listening to the clerks and a customer discuss flower displays and how pink tea roses were $25 each, a gal came in wanting to look at their decorations and Christmas items. Turned out she was doing her Christmas shopping early and just had to see what they had. She had that really rich lady air about her but she was super nice and turns out super gracious. I had stepped out of the shop to allow her to circulate around the tiny aisle and when she came out she said excitedly gesturing towards me up and down "Oh, it looks like you are expecting, possibly a Christmas baby?!" I said "I am!" with as much exhuberance. She said "That is wonderful! When are you due?" I told her January 26th and then she said "Oh, that is so exciting and you just look so lovely and so skinny! You must work out! Do you work out often because you look so lovely and slender!" The whole time she was talking with a look on her face like "you just can't be 7 months pregnant and look so good!" I just about fell over. I said "Oh, no, I don't get to work out; just try to walk around often" (a total lie). She said "Well you just look wonderful and congratulations!" And she made to leave. I was gracious back to her, thanked her for her kind words and wished her a great day and good luck on her shopping.

I was just about wowed out of my Alice Crocs and thought, "now that is how you talk to a pregnant lady!" Just about then my flowers were ready to be picked up and paid for. What an extremely nice gesture! The one thing I like about being an admin; being able to go places and meet people you would otherwise never have the opportunity to go into or approach.

Great Giant Pumpkin! That Was a Great Halloween!

This year Walter, Padon, and I were invited to a Halloween Party with the theme "Come As Your Alter Ego!" Walter and I were stumped as to what our alter ego would be but if Padon had an alter ego, one such ego would definitely be a puppy and a puppy costume I could do! I also already had the fabric for it and was in the mist of sewing Padon some new pajamas, so using the pattern I had already created for the pajamas, I made him a Puppy costume and it came out awesome!

Poor Bean! I didn't realize how tried he was until after I took this picture and took a good look at his face.

The Wednesday before Halloween our friends Joel and Stacey invited us to come with them to the annual Trick or Trunk party at their church. It sounded like a lot of fun and a great way to introduce Padon to Halloween. Stacey was amazingly helpful as we went through the festively decorated rooms where there were games to play and prizes to win. There were small children running in and out and helping Padon while maneuvering my pregnant self was proving to be really difficult so for the most part Stacey took Padon through all the activities: musical Halloween cut outs, bobbing for donuts, feeling for body parts (Padon ate the spaghetti intestines and so we stopped there and left the room), haunted hallway (too scary, we turned around and went back), putt-putt golf, bowling, pin the nose on the Jack-o-Lantern, and a bean bag toss. At every station Padon got a prize no matter how he did and that was just so cool.
About an hour into the rooms everyone evacuated the building to start the Trunk portion of the Trick or Trunk party. In a portion of the parking lot there were roughly 20-25 cars with their trunks open (most decorated in a Halloween theme) and in the trunks sat someone handing out candy. It was like hitting a bunch of houses but in 20 minutes flat. Padon was super cute, walked up to every car said "trick or treat", said "thank you", and then ended with the most adorable little 2 year old voiced "Bye!". By the 6th car or so Padon threw out the need to say thank you and just said bye but everyone thought he was so adorable. And he was so caught up in the large amount of candy being offered to him that he kept pausing at cars and staring into their bowl of candy just mesmerized which often awarded him another piece of candy from the awwwwwing and touched candy holder.

I think Padon was a tad overwhelmed but went with it in a state of "wow!" with Walter from car to car.
The Trick or Trunk Party was a great introduction to Halloween. I had already decided that instead of attending the booze fest that would be the Halloween party Walter and I had been invited too I would stay home with Padon who would sleep better in his bed and where I wouldn't feel so out of place not being able to drink the booze offered (Walter went to the party as a Vault 42 Fallout character). Everett Mall was having their annual Trick or Treat sponsored by KMPS and I thought that would be a great thing for Padon and I to do. He was more than happy to get back into his Puppy costume on Saturday, and off we went. We both were overwhelmed when we arrived. We entered through Sears and hit a wall of people circulating the mall. There was no real starting point and so we just joined the line of people shuffling from store to store collecting candy. I kid you not! Every single store in the mall, including the food court was giving out candy with the exception of maybe 20 stores.

Even the cleaning staff was dressed up! I thought this guy was great!

Padon had a great time looking at the other kids, commenting on their masks and costumes, and he did a great job of moving through the grade school kids to the candy gifters, saying Trick or Treat and collecting his candy. After I explained that you shouldn't touch people who haven't asked you to because it makes them feel funny, Padon stopped touching the other kid's costumes and would point at them and say "Don't touch!" and then elaborate about what he thought was neat about their costumes (Incredible Hulk's teeth for example). Too cute! He was really impressed with the plastic pumpkin trick or treat buckets (for the life of me I hadn't been able to find one to buy him in time for Halloween) that were a multitude of colors including orange, yellow, and blue. He was most impressed with one that looked like Elmo's head.
Padon ate some candy while we were walking in the line and just when I thought we had, had enough, and was about to propose to Padon that we get out of line I saw Sears again. We had actually done the whole mall! To end this trick or treat excursion properly we plunked ourselves down in a big open patch of floor in the middle of the mall and I let Padon go through his bag. We went through 5 lollipops (opened at the same time and passed off as one was sampled after another), one Smarty (he gave me the first one, aaaaahhhhhhwwwwwww ), one box of nerds, one piece of gum, and a package of chewy life savers before Padon got bored and got up to play with the gumball machine island stationed near us. The lollipops were so reminisent of Patrick having found Jane's stash of lollipops and being caught with them all in his mouth.

Padon and I ended the night eatting popcorn and watching "The Nightmare before Christmas." Padon sweetly treated Romeo (cat) and Roadie (dog) to some popcorn which I tried to inforce was only ok because it was Halloween and we didn't do that on any other days.

He had a really good time and Walter and I have created a small candy monster. Eh!, was bound to happen sooner or later.

Note to Self

Don't play Dance Dance Revolution when 6 1/2 months pregnant. I have always loved this game and when we had more money and the Playstation was our exclusive game station I told Walter I thought he should buy it for me (you can get a mat that goes on the floor with the game disc and you dance on that mat) for Christmas, or my birthday, or whenever. He just laughed, didn't believe I would really play it, and I have never gotten it or really tried it for that matter. So last weekend when some friends took me to GameWorks for my birthday I thought, darn it, I'm going to try it! The minute I stepped on it though I thought, oh what the heck am I doing, I can't move that fast and jump?, yeah right! I tell you I tried though. So I had to hold onto my protruding belly and I got thoroughly boo'd by the game for not hitting the steps hard enough or jumping at the right time but it was still fun and I learned I suck. Ha! I still would love to go again, it was fun, but next time not pregnant. Funny enough a 4ish year old girl stood their staring at me half the time with a look on her face like, "what the?!...."I think Sophia slept through the whole thing.

Have to Remember!

Oh, I have to blog about this because it is too precious to forget and I will if I don't write it down.

Some where or maybe even more than once Padon has noticed it has gotten hard for me to get in and out of bed, and to get up out of a soft chair like the couch and bless his little heart he tries to help me get up. He comes over quickly when I am starting to get off the bed (usually after changing out of dress clothes to regular everyday clothes after work) and grabs me around the leg or with a hand on each hip, my middle and with over exaggerated grunting attempts to lift me up/ help me up. Sometimes I am already standing and he will run over with an "Oh!" and then grab me around my hips and again make a lifting motion with a helpful grunt added in. This has been followed by a smaking of his hands, like "job well done", and a important "there!" motion of his head and body as he turns away. I was shocked out of my stripped socks the first time he did it and am so incredibly touched everytime he does. I may not be able to get a kiss out of him but he loves me in so many other wonderful and surprising ways.

I also don't want to forget that: blanket in 2 1/2 year old Padon speak is "gangkie" and a motorcycle was, until recently, "Gak, gak, gak, gak" in quick succession. Now I believe it is just "zoom!" All animals and items have come with a descriptive sound word instead of an actual noun name; "Mooo!" for cows and "MUH-huhuhmm" for horses, for example. I don't want to forget that Monkey Cheese means Macaroni and Cheese and that Niplets are nipples.

Just Cute

Art Projects

We needed some pumpkins in our house because tis the season but don't really have money at the moment to be buying pumpkins and so I came home with paper plates and the thought that maybe Padon and I could make our own pumpkins while Walter had friends over for a game night.

For Padon's first birthday he received finger paints and until now he had been way to oral, and impulsive to consider passing off paint to, no matter how washable they were. I set up his table, laid paper underneath, got paper towels ready, laid out the plates with the pumpkin sketch, put his smock on, and opened the paints. It was fun. He was interested in the paint but was concerned that it was "yucky" and that maybe he wasn't supposed to stick his hands in it. So I went first and the project was on. I wasn't fast enough to keep the two table spoons of orange finger paint from making it in his mouth and down into his stomach (which you could tell didn't taste good) and did have to remind him probably another 8 times to keep his hands out of his mouth (I think each color inflicted a need to taste it again and again) but it was fun. He went hog wild on the plate and I made a mad dash to his room to grab the canvas that had come with the paints on his birthday so he could keep going. Once he started drawing in the paint with his fingers I wished he would keep going but the fact I had kept him focused for about 10 or 15 minutes in one thing was already a great achievement and I lost his interest in showing how he could now draw pictures in his colors. I got a couple good scratches in the paint on the canvas out of him and then it was a dash into the kitchen to wash off the paint before he touched anything or anyone as he said "all done!" and tried to run away.
I think it is a lovely piece of artwork and a fantastic gift idea. I scratched Padon's name and the year on the canvas in the lower right hand corner and set it up to dry. I look forward to asking him tonight where he thinks we should hang it. I'm really tempted to turn a portion of the right hand side of our hallway wall into the family artwork section.

I Love You Woody *Sigh*

I don't know how many times during the day Walter gets asked to watch Toy Story but I get asked every night. Always followed by Woody? Buzz?. Until recently this was also followed by Woody! Woody! Hello Woody! (enunciating every syllable as well as Padon can). Super cute we have totally indulged Padon in his love of Woody and Buzz and plan on surprizing him with his very own Woody and Buzz for Christmas. I got this great picture of Padon after I tried to pass Aladdin off on him and 5 minutes later had changed to Toy Story2 because he woulnd't stop begging for "Toy Story 2" (showing 4 fingers). Two mintues later he was like this on the couch watching Woody be concerned about being shelved because his arm had torn. I loved the look of complete adoration on Padon's face. "Ahhhhh, Woody, I looooovvveeee yyyooooouuuuuu. And you too Buzz."

Toy Box?

So I was pregnantly sitting on the couch in a my-hips-wont-ache-this-way position and had one leg up which on a two year old level left an open doorway to the couch on the other side. Before I knew it I had, had, through that little triangle space, shoved one dinosaur, 4 books, two dog chew toys, a toy piano, a rubbermaid tub, two XBox styrofoam spacers, a couple Fischer Price people, a Winnie the Pooh, and a My Pet Monster. There may have been a couple other items but I can't remember anymore. As it seemed that Padon was loosing interest in my toy pile (I felt like the lady in the junk heap in the movie The Labyrinth) I unpiled myself when Padon was away but when he saw that I was no longer stacked high with the toys he repiled me in the same way. It seemed very necessary for a picture.

New Baby Things

A generous friend at work has been giving me all her daughter's clothes that no longer fit and Padon and I have been enjoying going through the bags of goodies alot. I would totally have more pictures of Padon sampling the fabulous wares but he has passed his smile for the camera phase and often either tells me he doesn't want his picture taken or won't stand still for it. It's like he has suddenly realized that he might be embarrassed by these pictures later. But I did get this smashing picture of him trying on the baby sized Cherry sunglasses which he LOVED.

When I brought home this latest treasure Padon was so excited that he kept shouting "Ooooo!, Oooooo!" his arms pumping out at his sides the whole time with the anticipation of pulling out the next great thing. The best part after finding the glasses and needing to wear them was that Padon would oooo and ahhhhh over every little tiny hat, outfit with a ruffle, flower, or butterfly and go and show Walter, who was at the computer; Padon never taking off the glasses. It was so super cute that I had to ask him, as we were talking about the baby clothes, how cute they were, and how they were for the baby in me, "Wouldn't it be nice if we had our own baby?" He responded back with a "yeah" that elluded at that time and moment it would have been wonderful to dress a baby in all these fun clothes. I think 10 minutes later that moment had passed but it was super sweet in anycase.

Wow! Happy Birthday To Me!

I had a really nice Birthday. A few people in my office bought me a cake for my birthday. It was so nice, and really a delicious cake, go Safeway!
This graciousness was followed by a lovely breakfast of Crab Eggs Benedict on Saturday (my actually B-day) at the Stanwood Cafe, a day of spinning Alpaca for a hat for Padon, a long nap, and a fabulous dinner at the Spaghetti Factory in Seattle. Padon loved the Spaghetti Factory and I felt full of squishy yummy love having such a wonderful dinner with my two great guys.

And then, the following weekend, I was so lucky to have Sarah and Wayne take Walter and I out for an all you can eat crabfest at the Muckleshoot Casino and awesomely Jane and Jason could come along (man that was good).

The weekend after that I went out shopping for baby blanket yarn for Sophia with my Mom and Jane and had a wonderful brunch at the Portage Bay Cafe!

And then the second to last weekend in October my friend Nick, his boyfriend Andy, and their friend Jeff took me out for a delicious brunch at 22 Doors on Capital Hill and then down to Game Works where we played shooting games, tried Dance Dance Revolution (yeah, dumb idea pregnant, but oh so fun), and a really fun Japanese Namco Bandai drum game a lot like Dance Dance Revolution but with drum sticks (Nick, Jeff, and I totally got blisters playing that game).
Man it was a really lovely Birthday. Who could ask for more then a whole month of people celebrating you; I wish I could do this for all my family and friends!