At the apple blossom festival

A tradition in NW apple country to celebrate spring, apple blossoms, Mother's Day, and, judging from the parade and other activities... Marching bands, Harleys, beauty queens, basketball, quilting, pancakes, and local arts and crafts. Yes, I'm talking about the Apple Blossom Festival! Rebecca and I made the drive over the mountains for the weekend activities.

It was a whirlwind. Cousin Hannah (actually my second cousin, once removed) was crowned Apple Blossom Queen of Manson in a pageant on Friday night. It featured a procession, a choir, and waltzing. She also got to ride on a float in the parade along with her two princesses. Royalty from other towns made appearances in the parade, and different floats of course, and there were probably half a dozen middle school and high school bands. 

From this pageant and related discussion, I learned and was reminded that women of all ages take beauty very seriously, particularly when there is an opportunity to be admired in front of others, particularly when things get competitive. The (ahem) beauty in the pageant construct is that it combines all of these elements into one event! There can only be one queen, i.e. every girl but the queen was not queenly.  Bestowed upon this queen is the admiration (and envy) of all who witness her grandeur ... and a crappy costume jewelry crown of some sort. Point out the silliness of the event at your peril: this is high stakes, win-for-life, kinda stuff. We heard stories at lunch about how a princess from 1954 still holds a grudge for not being queen and hasn't made it to a reunion since.  I suppose this is how a lot of women might feel about sports. :)

In Phoebe news, she's reliably saying a few words now: 'pawpaw, Mimi', for dad and mom, ahbry for strawberry, and baybeez for her baby doll, and, perhaps demonstrating a wisdom beyond her years for belly. She failed the placebo test, however, because she also says 'baybeez' when she points to Papa's belly. She loves to run around outside, she loves to point out airplanes and big trucks and buses, and gets really excited about socks (particularly stripey ones) and toes. She is increasingly demonstrating her independence by feeding herself, trying to dress herself, and running in the opposite direction from where Papa is trying to herd her. She has an infectious laugh which makes it hard to punish her for being naughty.... although I keep reminding her that she's getting closer and closer to her first spanking.
She is really fun to be around, when she's not being willful or purposely difficult. Rebecca and I are really enjoying this time with her, while also agreeing that having a little brother or sister will be very good for her in terms of additional responsibility and empathy.

Speaking of Phoebe, weekends, and parades, nothing says Seattle in May like a Norwegian-themed parade! Right? Right!? Well, apparently. Rebecca and I stumbled upon a local tradition last Saturday. I'd read that there was a Scandinavian tradition in our neighborhood, but I had no idea that it manifested itself on Norwegian independence day in the form of a parade with bands, viking floats, and lots of kids on unicycles! It reminded me of a sort of St. Patrick's day (or Fiesta in SB) in which Irish roots suddenly get discovered and leprechaun suits are dusted off and worn, only to be forgotten for the rest of the year. I saw more viking helmets than you can shake a broadsword at! It was very bizzare and fun at the same time. We caught a few minutes of the action before Phoebe had to be home for bedtime, and we are looking forward to next year when we will be better prepared. Hipp Hipp Hoorah!

The pageantry. The majesty.

Phoebe checking out the action

Taking it easy after the parade

Back in Seattle for the Norwegian version...with unicycles!

And Vikings...

And more unicycles!!

recent developments

Phoebe's latest thing is stairs. She has been able to crawl up the stairs on hands and knees for some time, but her big new development is that she really wants to walk down the stairs like a big person. Whenever she is at a new place with stairs, particularly small steps, she will practice going up and down them, for as much as 10 or 15 minutes. She is so determined that she will cry if you pull her away from her practice prematurely. She is a very determined young lady.

She's also been making noises that vaguely sound like English words a lot more lately. Here are a few entries in her growing dictionary.

Phoebe dictionary

aahh-daaahhh (n) 1. dad, pappa  2. indeterminate object in that general vicinity (gesturing)

mum-mum-mum (n) 1. milk  2. food of any kind 3. whatever the adjacent person happens to be eating

aistsch (n) 1. that thing (gesturing) 2. house  3. this thing (holding object)

aahh-maaahhh (n) 1. mom, mother 2. indeterminate object in that general vicinity (gesturing) 3. quantification of the level of upsetness (scales with volume)

Around the world in 6 days

Last week, I was fortunate enough to travel to Bangalore, India for work. The trip was the culmination of several weeks of extensive phone interviewing, as my boss had made the decision to staff a group of folks in our Bangalore office. The whole experience was interesting. Trying to wade through a 13.5 hour time difference, let alone cultural and linguistic differences, proved unexpectedly challenging over the phone. Whether it was spotty phone connections, fatigue, lack of clarity on my part or the candidates' part, or some combination of all of it, I had to muster a great deal of patience and thought to communicate my questions and receive answers that I was sure I understood.  Various other members of my team joined me in this cycle: phone interviews early in the morning, then work all day, then phone screens at night. By the end of it, everybody was thoroughly sick of interviewing.  With this subtext, I departed last friday for the 24 hour trip to Bangalore with a mixture of dread, excitement, and resignation.

Unfortunately, I was only told about the trip about 1 month beforehand, which was too late insofar as Eric and Kristin had already arranged to fly up the following Thursday night and stay with us for the weekend. So, my week-long trip in India, hopefully including a site-seeing excursion to the coast or a hill station, turned into a hectic 2 days of flying and 3 days of work. Although the interviewing didn't actually start until Monday, I departed Seattle Friday afternoon so that I would arrive Sunday morning and have all of Sunday to relax. It was a good move. The two colleagues that joined me on the trip delayed their departure by a day and were totally wiped out by Monday evening. meanwhile, I had all day Sunday to enjoy the accoutrements of the Sheraton's (across the street from our office, where we stayed) pool, club lounge with free snacks, eager waitstaff, and to window shop at the mall just down the street. With the exception of my final night in country, when my coworker Soni took pity on me and piled me into an auto-rickshaw for a drive across town and some authentic Southern Indian food at a good restaurant, the hotel & mall were the extent of my 'indian experience'.

Nevertheless, it was a fascinating glimpse of a country that I'd long been intrigued by, and I'm really looking forward to another opportunity to explore it further.

Some impressions:

I had a layover at Dubai on both legs of the journey, and the Dubai airport is super interesting from a sociological perspective. There are probably few other places where one can see so many cultural differences packed together under one roof - from very traditional Muslim women in full burkah, to American backpackers in flipflops, to European retirees in sensible shoes and sweaters around their shoulders, to Chinese duty-free attendants, and more, it was really crazy to just walk around and look and listen. It also neatly illustrated some of fundamental truths of humankind: everybody likes a deal (duty free) and convenience (mickie Ds).

Upon arrival at Bangalore at 3am local time, I was confronted by a few stereotypes that looked to be true: 1)lack of personal space, as in the woman behind me in the customs line bumped into my back after every single step forward. Not that she minded. 2) excessive layers of useless security, as evidenced by the cop dozing off in the chair while keeping an eye on us passengers. 3) lots of chaotic traffic. even at 3am and relatively empty roads, my taxi driver made sure to honk at every car that we passed, just in case they couldn't see him coming. In fact, the sound of the horn seemed to be what was necessary to encourage the drivers ahead of us to remember that there were traffic lanes separating the road, and that they should be in one or the other instead of both.

I was disappointed by the lack of wildlife. I've come to understand that not every Indian city is like this, but the only animals I saw were fleabitten dogs and birds.  No elephants, no cows in the road, no monkeys stealing tourists cameras. Hollywood lies! The birds at least, were in abundance. I've never seen such a concentration of hawks as there were around our hotel. They seemed to have all the pigeon they could eat, so no wonder!

More security than I anticipated. Given Bengalore's relatively modern image (the 'silicon valley' of India), I was surprised at just how often I had to go through a metal detector or get my backpack scanned. Better safe than sorry though.

The city itself (as little I saw of it) was underwhelming. Perhaps similar to Silicon valley in that respect too. It looked pretty much like any bustling developing city: pockets of walled-off opulence, serviced by fancy malls with lots of glass and grass, upwardly mobile youth trying their darndest to embody the global citizen via gadgets and consumer goods, everything more expensive than one wishes or expects, but on the whole, somewhat pleasantly uninteresting. The weather was very mild, which surprised me, hovering between 60-80F. Life seemed pretty good for most people, particularly those that worked for tech companies, and the race was on between their individual respective salaries and the rapidly-climbing cost of living. Although I was admittedly removed from any kind of authentic experience, this idea that I had of a bustling mass of beggars, merchants and thieves was nowhere in evidence. Perhaps I'll find that next time I go, or in another city.

A few photos from the trip...

View of hotel and skyline from office conf room

In rickshaw with colleague Soni

After a successful dinner

Back in the rickshaw to head home, clinging on for dear life. The blur accurately captures the terror and thrill of the journey

News and notes

Phoebe is just started to walk, which is very exciting and terrifying. She's also unbelievably cute. It makes sense now that people have told us that this is a 'good age': She's too young to know how fun she is, but not old enough to get into too much trouble. Tonight at dinner I was wearing a tshirt with a picture of a piece of cheese on it. She wasn't thrilled with her food, so she pointed a my shirt and grunted. Then grunted more urgently. Then grunted louder. I had to walk over to her, have her lift up my shirt and peak underneath, touch the fabric, and repeat a couple times before she was sure that I was not wearing a big tasty piece of cheese for her to eat. Too funny! 

The cuteness isn't going to last too much longer I'm afraid: we've had a few trial tantrums, where she screams until she gets what she wants. We haven't learned to differentiate these from a real emergency yet, so we haven't been as stern as we should've. We'll enjoy these few short weeks before the next challenge.

***
I was looking back at my notes from December when Rebecca left for 10 days for a work trip...
10 days. Alone. With a crying baby. While holding down a stressful full time job. Sounds frightening, right? Well, that was then scenario that I was facing during the past two weeks. Rebecca had only ever been away from the baby for one night before this, and she was leaving the country for two whole weeks. Yikes. Fortunately' P took it easy on me. No random rashes, unexplained tantrums, hospital visits, or sleepless nights. She learned quickly that yours truly was the new meal ticket, and she quickly accorded me the new respect. In other words, she got comfortable wiping her grubby paws and snotty nose on me instead of just on Rebecca. We through toy enjoyed our time together - lots of walks, lots of stories, playtime after dinner - good times!! 

So, in addition to all my wonderful family and friends, I'm really grateful to have had the time and opportunity to bond with  Phoebe.

I felt like for the first time I was able to really bond with Phoebe, which was not possible earlier because mom overshadows everything, and I was maybe too quick to attribute a fussy moment to her asiking for mom when I should have just held my guns. Now hat she's drinking super well from a bottle, there's no excuse for me not to take the reins a little more (if I can elbow my way in a little bit ;)

Pointing is an effective tool for getting what you want

 Story time with mamma

 More please

 P's cooking tonight

 You can walk, she's going to drive her car

 with Clara at the nannyshare

Walking isn't so hard!

1 yr of Phoebe!

Life has a different hue when you’re under the siege of a newborn’s whims and wants, but the good moments are really good, and we mostly don't miss the things we used to do. It's funny, because our weekends used to be action-packed - these days, when asked what we did the past weekend, the response is silence: we usually have a hard time remembering, and the interludes between naps and mealtime which yield a quick errand or trip to the park are hardly noteworthy.  I recall with irony my frustration at friends when they had their infants around - it was so difficult to carry on a conversation with attention shifting to their little creatures! Ha.     

Anyway, today Phoebe is 1 year old! A big milestone, and a good excuse to recap and prognosticate. She's showing a lot of personality - already displaying remarkable level of indifference (boredom) at papa's antics. Despite my best efforts a entertaining her, making all manner of animal noises, pretending to sniff her like a puppy, tickling her, using hand puppets, her usual reaction is to look bored, and search around the room for momma. Or just to plain ignore me. Ocassionally, she'll even give me a slighly offended look as if to say 'how childish. stop that'. She's wise (a wise something or other) beyond her years!

in terms of physical developments, she's crawling, standing up on things (her favorite target / support post is Rebecca's pant legs while she's cooking in the kitchen), and getting into things she's not supposed to (e.g. the recycling bin). She's an avid reader, in the sense that she will rapidly flip through magazines and tear pages out and throw them on the floor. If the pages are already separate (and placed in the aforementioned recycling bin), she will comb through them all, carefully examining each piece for texture, color, and shakeability before tasting it and/or tossing it on the floor.

She's a goodish eater, and is eager to try new foods, but arrives on her favorites (cheese, avocado, hummus, bread) rather quickly, and her food hierarchy remains firmly entrenched until she runs out of the good stuff. Feeding her carrots, peas, or broccoli is tiresome and a good portion of it does not make it into her mouth. She learned very quickly that when good stuff (hummus, for example) is mixed with not-so-good stuff (bread), it is a simple matter to remove the good stuff and spit out the bad stuff. She has a special knack for this and figured it out the first time we tried it. She has applied this skill to many different combinations, even removing the skin of a black bean from the bean insides, and spitting out the skin. I was super impressed that she did that without hands!

She's able to communicate well, and has recently taken to pointing to things that she's interested in using a very decisive index finger. When asked if she's "all done" or "wants more" at dinner, she will also grunt in the affirmative once we've identified the thing that she wants more of. She typically will first grasp and points with her left hand, so we think that she might be left-handed, just like her grandpa Carl. This makes me happy to observe and think about.

She's been a joy to us the past year, and we're excited to see what happens next! Below are a few recent photos!

Nomads

there's a lot to catch up, but I'm so far behind I'll just hit the highlights... In the last 2 months, I quit one job, started another, dragged Rebecca and P across the country, we sold our house, and we have moved apartments twice. For those keeping score, P will have lived in 4 different places in her first year. So, basically, we're nomads. Or we were (fingers crossed we won't be moving again for a little while). 

I'm spending my days trying to make Amazon more money, and Rebecca is trying to help WWF get more money, and P is trying to figure out how to put her mouth on every fun looking object in her vicinity. Yesterday we hosted an afternoon tea, complete with 5 kiddos and 8 adults, and it was a fun, if slightly hectic, success. Now that we're in our new apartment, we're trying to return to the social world a little bit more to connect with people and make new friends. But house-related chores seem to continually crop up. Sigh..

In the cross-country trip, Phoebe was a superstar. She wasn't crawling yet, thank goodness, so she was very patient looking out the back window of the car for hours on end, snacking, and napping. We were so grateful that she was such a good traveler. Our route took us to Cincinatti, Peoria, Mitchell South Dakota, Giletta Wyoming, then a couple days with Joe and Judy in Montana, then a day in Chelan, then to Seattle!! Sister-in-law Sabrina flew in the day after we arrived to help take care of Phoebe, then I started work a day later and the rest has been a whirlwind. 
In stats: 

Number of weeks in town: 7

Number of visitors hosted: 5

Number of babysitters tried: 4

Number of apartments lived in: 2

Number of meals consisting of take-out or frozen pizza: countless

But hopefully things will start to settle down now. The new job is intense, but exciting in its newness. We're looking forward to a (long, dark, rainy) productive winter.

P's first swing - just after arriving in Seattle

Celebrating on rooftop of apartment

A very familiar location during our trip

P on a saddle in front of plains backdrop, South Dakota tourist trap stop ( can't remember which one)

Jet Setter

We just returned from a nice, long, two week vacation to Washington. It was the longest trip with P so far, and to be honest, it was a little trying at times. She did very well flying. She was excited by all the noises and lights and new people. Unfortunately, as a consequence, she didn't take many naps on planes (and when she did, the not so helpful announcements by the crew always woke her up). That meant she was overtired when we arrived in Tucson (our first leg), or when we arrived up in Washington. Those nights were rough. because we were traveling 'light' by not bringing a separate crib, it also meant that she would have to sleep between us on a bed, which meant we didn't sleep much. After getting past those little bumps, though, things were great!

We went to cousin Annie's wedding in Tucson, which was really enjoyable despite the 115-degree weather. Copious AC and pools had a lot do with that.  Although missing our flight out of Tucson (our fault) we befriended some nice crewmembers from Delta and Alaska who were able to rebook us on another fllght, free of charge. We roadtripped around Washington state, seeing Sequim and Port Townsend and driving through Mt. Ranier (and staying at a few unsavory motels with unsavory characters). 

And, of course, we enjoyed being full-time parents again. It was also really great to be able to spend the days with her rather than heading off to work. I'm going to make Rebecca do the driving next time so that I can get more backseat time sitting next to Pheobe.

Highlights from the trip: cousin Annie's wedding in Tucson was great, despite the heat. Spending a week in Stehekin with Grandma Bucky, as usual, was wonderful. Eric and sister-in-law Kristin and her family were up there this time too, which made it fun.  No long hikes, fishing trips, or other strenuous adventures, just slow-paced relaxation with family. Which was just fine with us.

We spent a few days downlake in Manson, where we mixed it up with all of the extended family and spend afternoons and the lake or at the pool. It seemed like the first time in a long time, we were able to enjoy eating dinner with others while Phoebe was entertained and held by loving aunties. Perfect! How nice it was to be surrounded by family!

We're looking forward to our next chance to head west and see family, particularly those that like to babysit!!

And now the photos...

Phoebe all dressed up for the wedding. Sure, her dress was short, but it was 100+ degrees

 Lunch at the harbor at Port Townsend. Tremendously pretty

An all-too rare sight: Phoebe sleeping peacefully on the road (usually she should be crammed into bed between us)

 Phoebe and her favorite hangout spot in Grandma's living room

 Enjoying the great outdoors!

 Me with two of my favorite ladies in the whole world!