Oh, baby, baby!

It was a life-affirming day.

On Monday I went to lunch with my neighbor Kim and her adorable daughter Abby (yes, this Abby) and noticed how low Kim was carrying her pregnancy.  I had a feeling things would happen soon, but I had no idea how intricately I’d be involved in the whole adventure.

On Tuesday afternoon, I got a call from Kim who had taken Abby to a routine OB appointment.  At that appointment, the doctor decided that the baby’s heart rate was dangerously low and had suggested an immediate C-section.  But what to do with Abby? Kim’s voice was shaky as she asked me to come to the hospital immediately to get Abby, who she had to leave in the care of nurses.

No matter how loving and kind the nurses were (and they were), this is a terrifying experience for a 2-year old.  When I arrived, she was crying her poor, sweet eyes out in the arms of a nurse, surrounded by three other nurses who were doing their best to console her.

I couldn’t console her either.  Until, that is, I asked her if she wanted to “go see Shasta and Quinn.”

Abby stopped crying for just a quick second, looked at me again as if she was just realizing who I was, and then reached out to me to hold her.

(Insert melting heart here.)

My intent was to take Abby home, feed her dinner, play with her a bit, and put her to bed in her own room.  But I had no car seat so we had no choice but to stay at the hospital until I could somehow get a car seat from Kim’s car.  A nurse took us to the room where Kim would be brought after her surgery and suggested that we wait there for her (and hopefully for her husband Zach, who Kim had, of course, also called when things got wacky).

Once Abby settled down, we explored a variety of photos and games on my iPhone (alright, who taught this girl to play Angry Birds?!), took a few walks, found an area with children’s books, toys, and a small train table, and even found an Elmo doll for her to hold.  An hour or so passed and then who should appear but Abby’s mommy (wheeled into the room in her bed, of course), her daddy in his OR duds and, in his arms, her new baby brother, Ty! (Who was perfectly healthy – guess the decreased heart rate was a momentary fluke…?)

I brought Abby right up to Zach and Ty.  Zach introduced Abby to her new baby brother and asked if she wanted to touch him.  In a move that I somewhat expected (because the same thing happened to us years ago), but Zach likely did not, Abby turned defiantly away from Zach and Ty, burying her head in my shoulder and tensing every muscle in her little body.  Clearly this little girl was already on sensory overload, and now a baby brother too?!

As Abby caught sight of Kim being wheeled into the room, she said every so quietly, “Hi Mommy,” almost as if she were asking a question.  Surely everything was out of context and confusing for Abby!  Mommy is in a big moving bed, surrounded by strangers in matching outfits.  Daddy, if that man IS Daddy, has weird paper clothing and a hat on and is holding a bundle that looks funny and makes funny noises.  What is going ON here?

Zach seemed to know exactly what to do.  He sat down in a chair and took off the paper OR cap.  “Hi Daddy!” Abby said confidently.  He IS Daddy after all!  Again, Zach asked if Abby wanted to touch her new baby brother – which is exactly when I took this photo:

Things were finally beginning to make sense to Abby.  So THIS is Ty!  “Mama’s belly isn’t named Ty,” Zach told Abby.  This little guy is Ty!  He’s your new baby brother!”

And then they were a family of four.

And all was good with the world.

Well, that might be a bit optimistic.  If Abby is anything like Elisabeth was when Peter arrived…

(Insert melting heart here.)

…it will take a little while for them to find their “sibling groove,” but it will happen, and I am sure that Abby will be an awesome big sister to baby Ty!

Isn’t he adorable?  And doesn’t he look so much like his big sister?

Shortly after I snapped the photo of the new family, I quietly slipped out, as Ty and Abby’s REAL grandma had arrived and Kim’s extensive extended family was beginning to arrive.

I’ll have to be patient and wait for my own grandchildren to arrive when the time is right.  But for now, I feel so honored to have had the opportunity to share this amazing event with Abby and to be among the first to meet Ty. 

All is good with the world when a new baby arrives in it!

Abby and the Animals

Look who came over to visit for a bit this evening – Abigail, our adorable next door neighbor – who just had her first birthday on Saturday!  Her daddy broke his toe last night (and will have surgery tomorrow!), so Tom and I took Abby for a bit this evening to give her very busy and tired mommy a break.  What a joy she is!

Shasta’s sure Abby was here solely to play.

Abby and Shasta

Bailey isn’t sure why she’s here.

Abby and Bailey

(And macho Boo was scared of sweet Abby and hid under the bed!)

Me?  Ready for grandchildren?  Sure!  But our kids are pretty far from ready to provide them for my enjoyment.  Good thing we have Abby nearby!

Isn’t she adorable?

The best kind of birthday party

There's nothing quite like a four-year-old and a two-year-old throwing a birthday party for a nine-year-old and a three-year-old -- especially when the first two are the cutest kidlets ever and the second two are the cutest dogs ever!

I'm babysitting for our neighbors, Abby and Ty (the kidlets) tonight which, it turns out, is the day after Shasta and Quinn's birthday.  If you mention something like that to pre-schoolers, this is what you get:

"Put the frosting on the cupcakes?  But that's a wasted opportunity!"  Look at Ty's cheek!

An entire cake and a whole bunch of cupcakes, all for dogs!  No way!  They'll get sick! 

Solution: bring most of the cupcakes to Tom and save ONE for each dog.

Once the cupcakes were decorated, the kids brought them to our house and presented them to confused, but very happy dogs.  Quinn always sits nicely when she wants something!

Abby and Ty even bought and wrapped presents for the birthday girls!

A whole package of balls!  Shatsa is in heaven!

Needless to say, so is Quinny!

Doggy heaven, defined.

Ty and Abby teach Quinn and Shasta all about one-to-one correspondence.

It was all over too soon.  Goodbye, friends!  Thanks for the party!  Sleep tight!

(This is another blog post from my Chromebook, using the Blogger app.  I dunno, the formatting feels a bit kludgy.  I'll try to figure this out before we leave for Europe in three weeks!)

Abby “trains” Shasta

(Or is it the other way around?)

I was unfortunately a little late in getting this on video, capturing only the tail end of the scene.  Before this, Abby was actively teasing Shasta, pretending to throw the ball, then just not letting go, and dissolving into laughter as Shasta bobbed her head up and down, intent on the ball.  Hilarious!  Abby definitely knew that this was HER ball that Shasta could want, but not have.  Toddler power!

This little 18-month old has a bigger, better sense of humor than many adults I know.  She cracks everyone – including herself – up! 

“Absolutely A-durable!”

Abby’s poor mom not only has morning (or rather, all day) sickness because she’s – yay! – pregnant, she now has the stomach flu too!  Poor Kim! 

So this afternoon, when Elisabeth (and Danny’s PUPPY, Grace) came over, we spent time time entertaining Abby. 

Or rather, she and Grace spent some time entertaining us.

Peter watched how fearless Abby is and dubbed her “durable,” and then Elisabeth decided that she’s “a-durable.”

Totally!

Baby Fix!

Our neighbors were kind enough to go on a date this evening, allowing me a very much needed baby fix!

Introducing the cutest baby in the world, Abby!  Now this baby is seriously CUTE!  And what a total girly-girl actress!  See?  She’s waving hello to you…

(Kat used to do adore herself in the mirror like this!  Her best friend at this age was her own image in the mirror.  Aleks, on the other hand, was completely bored by his reflection and seemed to look right through it.)

And now she’s waving a backwards good-bye to you…

(But a backwards good-bye is still hello, so stick around!)

Abby and I played and chatted and had high tea for a few hours this afternoon.  I was in heaven!

OK, I lied about the high tea.  That’s actually drool, poor teething princess!  Or rather, sweet, HAPPY teething princess.

What a happy, easy-going baby!  I am absolutely goo-goo over this baby doll!

And I’ll bet after seeing this, you will too!

I was so sad when Tom saw me on our neighbor's porch, babe in arms, and promptly announced, “You do realize that you’ll eventually need to give her back, right?”

Abby’s amblin’!

No, she’s not my grandchild (duh!), but I adore her as if she were!  Look what she did today!

(My kids should be grateful that my devotion to Abby keeps me from pressuring them to get going on the grandkid stuff!)

Then vs now

Two years ago my days consisted of working as a Senior Project Manager at Microsoft during the day and with our production team in Mumbai at night.  Deadlines were unrealistically tight, pressure was constant, and rewards were few.  My week started on Sunday evening and ended on Friday evening.  I often worked 16 hours a day managing up to 35 technical and marketing projects simultaneously.  This went on for a little over two years and by the end I was bone tired and suffocating under the pressure. 

Today, my day day looked like this:

This represents just a few moments from my not-very-stressful day, an impromptu visit from Abby and her mom.  But it really brought home how much things have changed since the days when my work life balance was so very seriously skewed and I felt like I was slowly dying.

28th Anniversary Fieldtrip: The Plan

Tom and I got married over Memorial Day weekend 28 (gulp!) years ago.  My thinking then was that we could go away for a long anniversary trip together each and every year.

Pffffft!  Obviously that was before we had four kids within five years!

For many, many, (many) years, we hardly ever got away alone together because we had four kidlets at home – and who would take four kids under the age of, oh, 18, for three full days?!  But now those four kids are adults who are willing to come back and pet/slash/house-sit so Tom and I can get away for our anniversary. 

And THIS is where we’ll be going:

This all started when our wonderful neighbor, Kim (Abby’s mom) reminded me that Alderbrook Resort, where she works (remotely - she doesn’t commute there every day!) has a Memorial Day special.  We’ve been wanting to head over there for over a year now and what better opportunity than an anniversary get-away? 

So on Saturday morning (oh, please, please, please, weather gods, shine on us!) we’ll get on a ferry*…

and head to “the Ports” – Port Ludlow…

Port Hadlock,

The Dungeness Spit, home to -- yeah, those…

Port Townsend,

and Port Angeles, where we’ll stay in this hotel on the water.

On Sunday morning we’ll take a short trip to one of the most beautiful lakes in Washington, Lake Crescent. 

And from there, we’ll head into Olympic National Forest to visit Hurricane Ridge, from where (on a clear day) you can see pretty all (or a whole lot of, anyway) the Olympic Mountains.  We’ve lived in Washington for almost 20 years now, and I’ve never been to Hurricane Ridge!

And then we’ll head here, to Alderbrook Resort and Spa, which deserves a few photos (right from their website)!

(Yes, we have a waterfront room reserved for us!)

I am so looking forward to some kayaking (oh, pretty please, weather gods, with a cherry on top, please shine on us!), some hiking, and maybe even a spa treatment… or just a good book (suggestions?) and a long nap.

On Monday we’ll head back eastward, but hopefully we won’t be in too much of a hurry (unless Kim calls us to inform us that 50 cars are parked in front of our house… but that’s so “I’m in high school and my parents are gone for the weekend…!”), so maybe we’ll stop somewhere on the way back. 

But where? 

And hey, did we miss a “must-see”?  If you’ve had some great experiences around the northeast corner of the Olympic Peninsula, do let us know!

*Photos in this post courtesy of Google images and websites indicated there… but photos in future posts regarding this trip will be courtesy of me!

**PS:  Kat, can I borrow your Nikon?