Traffic jam

UGG - Seattle drivers do NOT do well in snow. People were abandoning their cars! It took me an hour and a half to drive the 5 miles home last night...

SNOW

It's been snowing all day today, and in the late afternoon it really started to stick! We took our sled down to the park -- at first Andy was not happy in the sled, but once he and I tried it together (with Shawn bravely taking the laboring oar to pull us around the park), he was ready to go it alone. He LOVED it! Shawn brought him to the top of the short but, in my opinion, pretty steep hill and let him sled down on his own. By the time I got there with the stroller, he'd already gone down once, which was a good thing because if I'd been there I probably wouldn't have wanted him to sled down on his own, but as it turns out Daddy's know what little boys are ready for and Andy wanted to go over and over -- "Again!" he kept saying. He didn't want to head home in the end, but we were all shivering so we called it a day. A great day!



It's steeper than it looks from this angle...


Keeping dry on the way home!

Play dates with Elisa!

The weather has been pretty miserable lately, so last Friday we had a little indoor play time at Monica and Elisa's house. Then this Friday, we met up at View Ridge park for the first non-rainy day in ages (it was still freezing COLD though). Andy and Elisa are playing great together these days -- Andy mimics whatever Elisa does, and she lets him know when it's getting annoying! Then we hit Grateful Bread for lunch -- ah the memories! This is where Monica and I used to come for lunch after prenatal yoga, and then after mommy-and-me yoga. I've missed our regular lunches, and yoga, and yes, that Caprese sandwich! C is for COOKIE!!!

At View Ridge park, trying to stay warm.


Grateful Bread

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have so much to be thankful for in our lives -- our marriage, our son, our families and friends -- and of course Herbie. What more could two people ask for? (Okay, a good night's sleep might be nice).

On Tuesday, my firm made me a partner, along with 8 other attorneys. I am thrilled and so relieved after months of going through a pretty complex and murky partnership review process. It's a really great feeling, no denying it!

We spent Thanksgiving with my family at Sid and Linda's house. Andy spent the first half hour being shy shy shy, and then did his usual flip and became his normal energetic self! Lots of pictures of Andy below in his new holiday vest, smiling for the camera and climbing all over Sid and Linda's room.



HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

Risotto

Colleen and Angelo hosted "risotto night" for several of us -- and 7 little ones! Colleen made the kids their fave - pasta with red sauce and parmesan. Then they headed downstairs for some play time with 2 fantastic babysitters while us adults got to have a wonderful sit down dinner with three risotto dishes -- pumpkin/squash, mushroom, and sausage. Thanks Colleen for a great night -- and for teaching us how to make risotto right!! Andy LOVED the pasta -- two helpings!
Relaxin' with the big boys.
Jen, stirring that risotto!

Mission Accomplished - NOT

So I spoke too soon last week when I said all was going well with the no-crib situation. Well, it was going well, until Andy realized the extent of his freedom, which includes 2am, 3am and 4am visits to his parents! For the past week, he's been keeping us awake at all hours. He climbs into our bed and does what I call the sleep spin-cycle -- he is half sleeping, half awake, but somehow keeps moving constantly, kicking and pushing the whole time. Consequently, we do NOT sleep during these events. Other times, he runs around our room saying "HI DADA" and "MORNING MAMA!" and hands me hand towels that he has thoroughly soaked in the sink. UGH.

One night, when I was foolishly trying to hold his door closed in the hope he'd just give in and go back to his bed (well, it's worked before!), he was suddenly quiet and I thought he'd done just that. I leaned in to listen at the door when all of the sudden, BANG! -- right in my ear. He hadn't gone to bed, he'd just gone to find his hammer! Lots of bangs later, I brought him back to our bed to try to salvage a couple hours of sleep for the night.

So despite my declarations of victory last week, we've been spending several hours a night trying to get Andy back to sleep - on his mattress, in the double bed, in our bed -- even on the floor next to me! We started contemplating locking his door this week as we all descended into a terrible cold (all the more fierce, I'm sure, because we are easy, run-down victims for all germs to prey on). Someone at work said "why don't you just get a plastic cover for the door knob?" DUH. So today my mom picked some up while shopping at Target - yay! So far, it looks like the plastic cover is going to keep Andy in his room.

Now, how do I keep my sweet little boy from hammering on his door at 3am?.....

Progress on the Kitchen!

We had some major progress on our kitchen this weekend! After months of planning and prep work, the cabinets and microwave are up, we have our new oven/range, and we've moved the fridge to its permanent home -- the enlarged spot under the stairs that required reframing and significant amounts of mud to get to the final product you see below!
Still lots to do of course, like the wiring for the microwave, installing the cabinet doors, trim and molding, replacing the center cabinets, painting the rest of the kitchen, re-doing the kitchen nook walls and windows, installing new countertops, replacing the back door ....... But enough of the to-dos, we're celebrating the fact that we have automatic ice and filtered water at our fingertips!!!

Halloween!

Andy's first jack-o-lanterns! The smaller pumpkin is the one that grew out of our compost pile and Shawn planted it in his garden.


When Andy started making gorilla sounds the week before Halloween, I got it in my head that he HAD to be a gorilla. Then I couldn't find a costume (okay, okay, I waited until two days before hand to look). So I bought the black fur and made a costume myself (until 2 in the morning). The next day, he wouldn't get near the costume, and would back away every time I came near him saying "no no no no!" My mom persevered, though, and even bought a stuffed gorilla to show Andy what he could be for Halloween. The stuffed gorilla and little bites of tootsie roll did the trick, and pretty soon Andy was walking the halls of my firm in his gorilla outfit. He never did put on the hat/mask, which was really just a full hood with a gorilla face-shaped hole in the front, but his curly hair was good enough for me!
A little overwhelmed by all of the attention at our first candy stop...One of the attorneys in our firm put his candy in this ceramic truck. Needless to say, he started to play. I had to pick Andy up to get him to move on and let the other kids get some candy at this stop!
A full bucket of candy! (the bucket, by the way, says "Cherise 1975" on the bottom!)
Happy Halloween!