A Guy, Two Girls and a Pup

Well, we finally got around to visiting a dentist for the first time since moving (I KNOW.) I like her — her name is Dr. Fukuda and her office was very friendly and fun — she must be a UW alum, because every exam room was FULL of memorabilia!

We all walked up to 82nd street to get to my appointment at 8am (Daddy had to carry Meredith on his shoulders the last few blocks because Miss M. was having fun dawdling and carrying Baby…) Meredith found a naked Barbie doll in the toy box (”NA-KED! NA-KED!”) that she wanted to bring in with her. We all went into the exam room together so that Meredith could see what was happening, because it would be HER turn next. The exam went really well — got X-rays done, got the cleaning (AHHH — feels so good) and then it was Meredith’s turn. She had been doing well up until that point and didn’t seem to be nervous or anything, but once we actually got her in the chair, she didn’t want to let the hygienist clean her teeth at all. (Although she was very good about opening her mouth so that the dentist could see how many teeth she has and how Momma brushes her teeth.) Everyone was very nice and understanding and said that it was perfectly normal at this age — they don’t push anything so that the little ones will have only good experiences at the dentist. Meredith still got to pick a goodie from the treasure chest — a little green frog. So maybe next time we’ll actually get a cleaning in — in March!

So we left Daddy to do his appointment at 9am (which also went fine — a couple of spots to watch, but no cavities!) and we walked home to meet up with Esme at 10am. A big day full of new experiences!

I thought I remembered writing a blog at some point… Sorry for the lack of updates — things get busy and then get away from us, as usual. We girls have said goodbye to Kevin again for over a week this time, so we are trying to keep ourselves amused. (For Meredith, this mostly means dragging me around the backyard by the hand. :>) We can tell that Daddy is still on Meredith’s mind, though — the very first words out of her mouth this morning were “Daddy go?” Yes, Daddy went to Australia…

New little things here and there: Meredith is starting to read along with us when we sit down with her favorite books at night. Well, she’s still not very patient about the books and flips forward many pages while we’re trying to read. But when we reach a spot she likes, she’ll say the words with us! She’s also becoming a champion puzzle-solver — where just a couple of months ago, she couldn’t even match one shape, she can now get them all pretty much on the first try, and quickly! She also goes gangbusters on her shape sorter. She’s starting to get the idea about singing — she often wants Kevin and me to sing for her (especially “Tingle-bye” — Twinkle Twinkle Little Star). While we’re reading her Mother Goose book (which has lots of nursery rhymes and songs), she’ll talk her little Meredith language but do it in a sing-songy way that’s obviously meant to be a song of some sort. Hopefully she’ll be able to carry a tune better than her daddy. ;>

Otherwise, not much new here. After more than a year of looking, I finally found a replacement for my old office chair, which is now sitting at my desk. It’s black leather and looks very similar to the (fake) Eames chair in our front room. And the best part? NO CASTERS. So now anyone who sits at my desk doesn’t go rolling toward the front window as soon as they sit down…

So the girls are counting the days until Kevin gets home safe and sound — I know that, halfway around the world, he’s doing the same. Maybe if we’re lucky, he’ll log in and post an update if he gets bored…

First of all — congratulations to Christi and Nick, who finally made it official and got engaged during their camping trip this week!!

We took Meredith for her first visit to the wading pool at Greenlake Park this afternoon; she finally got to wear her Little Swimmers diapers after all this time (we were a little worried they wouldn’t fit anymore, but no problem.) They’re actually pull-ups, so she got a little taste of big-girl-style pants. We put her in a little sunsuit, her hat and her flip-flops, slathered her up with sunscreen and headed off.

There really weren’t as many people there as I had expected for being a beautiful warm sunny day — not a cloud in the sky! There were lots of kids, true, but definitely lots of room to move and splash around. Meredith was very hesitant about stepping into the water, despite the fact that we do it in the bathroom at home. So we walked around to the other end where there’s a gentle ramp into the water. We walked around holding her hand for awhile until she got used to it, and then she was good to go! By the end of the day, she was even running around a little, splashing around and pouring water on herself! We were all pretty soaked by the time we had to get out so they could put some chemicals in the pool, but it had been about 1 1/2 hours — a good long time. Meredith walked around waving and meeting new people and learning how to share toys with others. (A good skill that she can help Kevin with. ;>)

There was much sadness and tears when we had to leave, but I think that was partly hungriness, too — she chowed down on some grapes while we sat and dried off in the sun. Then off to home to have some dinner and crash (Meredith was doing the thousand-yard stare already at 7pm…)

Pictures as soon as I can sit down and pull them off the camera!

This weekend, we spent most of Kevin’s birthday down in Fremont (aka The Center of the Universe) attending the Solstice Parade, the biggest event of the year there. Most of Seattle, it seems, congregates to take in the sites of colorful floats, eccentric characters…and yes, naked bicyclists.

Meredith did great for pretty much all of the parade — there was a little crabbiness about 4/5ths of the way through when she started getting hungry and sleepy, but otherwise she was content to sit with us, watching everything that went by. And there was a LOT. (Including the big beach ball above.)

Saturday night I went for my usual run, with one big change: for the first time ever, I was able to run all the way around Green Lake without stopping, which is HUGE. I haven’t been running since, so it may have been a fluke, but we’ll find out next time.

Sunday was, of course, Father’s Day, so we celebrated with some chocolate-stuffed french toast and bacon, and then Kevin finished up work on the fence, which turned out really great! Now Meredith and Devi can run around the backyard to their hearts’ content. The rest of the afternoon/evening was Kevin’s D&D game, so Meredith and I had a girl’s-only dinner, just the two of us…

Hugs for everyone! Meredith is really into hugging right now: Baby, Devi, random people on the street. (Well, maybe not that last one. YET.) Which is just so cute it makes your teeth hurt. :>

Kevin and I are both working hard the last few weeks — I have a big project that is keeping me occupied all day, every day. It’s fun and challenging, but hard work that keeps the ol’ thinker ticking. Kevin is likewise working on learning the ropes and finding out more and more every day about how Cray is put together. His Australia trip has been pushed back to August, which is kind of nice, since he’s in the middle of building our fence for the backyard! It’s coming along really well — I’ll take pictures when it’s farther along.

Meredith is doing better and better and getting to bed and falling asleep by herself, and she’s even getting back into her sleeping-through-the-night routine. Yay! I’m sure part of it has been a veritable explosion in vocabulary — that will disrupt anyone’s sleep schedule, for sure.

Otherwise, things are good here. Kevin and I are looking forward to date night tomorrow, going to dinner and the Experience Music Project. Sunday, we’ll be doing the Furry 5K race (me running, Kevin and M walking). And summer has finally come to Seattle — temps climbing steadily (today was almost 90!) At least it’s a non-humid heat — add some wind and it’s almost pleasant! (Almost.)

Meredith had a big day with Daddy today, accompanying him in the truck (in a big girl car-seat turned FORWARD, no less!) to get his emissions test and licensing done, to buy groceries and go to Best Buy. Apparently it was so exciting that a nap was simply unthinkable — when they got home, I tried to put her down for a nap, but an hour later, she was still alternating crying and laughing.

But after bathtime and having some nice lotion rubbed on, we made it through one book and had just started into Curious George Goes To The Hospital when BAM. She was OUT. I can’t even remember the last time I put her to bed asleep. As Kevin said: “Hopefully it lasts”.

Nothing much planned for the weekend. I got my hair cut, wooo. We might wander around the zoo at some point. I was also thinking about going back to the rhododendron garden we went to last year, since when we got there last time, lots of the blooms had already fallen off. We’ll see what the weather brings…

It always feels a little hard to get back into the swing of things after having visitors! We very much enjoyed having Grandpa and Grandma B. here with us last weekend — I still need to go through the pictures from their visit and upload them to Flickr. This weekend.

Among other things! Tonight, we all went to an exhibition that Esmerelda (Meredith’s nanny) was holding at a coffee shop up in Shoreline. She is a terrific photographer in addition to being a terrific nanny! Very pretty pictures of her hometown in Mexico! I can’t wait to see more of her stuff. And it makes me want to print out some of MY pictures!

Tomorrow we are going to go to the annual artwalk up on Phinney Ridge: businesses from 60th to 87th street will be featuring artists’ work. We went last year while we were considering buying our house and it was one of the reasons we fell in love with our neighborhood.

And then, of course, it’s Mother’s Day on Sunday! Hard to believe that this will only be my second Mother’s Day (third if you count the one while I was pregnant. I don’t, really.) Meredith continues to fascinate us and everyone around her — we got so many compliments while we were at the photo exhibit! Yesterday, she was putting her baby doll into the high chair and feeding her eggs! Monkey see, monkey do. She continues to beg to go outside at every opportunity and is repeating pretty much everything we say. AND it feels like she’s packing on the weight — she’s certainly eating like a horse. She is definitely taller, too — the overalls that we had to roll up just a couple of months ago now fit just fine. Our little goober is growing up! That’s especially apparent after the 20 minutes I just spent going over pictures of her as a tiny baby — hard to remember when she was so small… :}

It’s been a rough couple of days for Meredith: she finally succumbed to the stomach bug that Aurora had at the beginning of last week. 3:30am on Friday she started throwing up and kept it up for a good (BAD) 3 hours. The strange thing is that in between bouts of puking, she was apparently her normal monkey self, climbing on the furniture and running around playing. So it definitely isn’t slowing her down much. Since then, she’s thrown up a couple of times here and there and had some SUPER runny poops — she’s drinking tons of water, although not eating quite as much as we’ve been used to lately. But I’m sure in a day or two she’ll be back to her old self.

In the meantime, she’s been surprising us with new words and behaviors all the time. She’s becoming more insistent about having things done: if she can’t do it herself, she’ll grab one of our hands and drag us over to do whatever it is she wants us to do. While it’s been nice, she’s be DESPERATE to be outside, grabbing our hands and pulling us to the door to open it, all the time saying “SIIIDE” (outside). This is even after a full day at the park with Esme and Aurora! She’s learned that she has an outfit with a monkey on it, and can point it out saying “MAHN-KEY”. Also, every beverage now is “milk” (MOOK).

We’re looking forward to having Grandpa and Grandma Bingham visit on Thursday! Much cleaning happened today, so we in good shape — it doesn’t look quite so much like we live in total squalor.

As soon as I started working with Aptimus, I jumped right in to working on the new design for the University of Phoenix site. It’s been a busy couple of months, but all the hard work has paid off, as the new design goes live April 17! Check it out!

In non-work-related goings-on, we’re trying to get Meredith to start saying “please” when she asks for things. For some reason, she’s not as keen to repeat the word “please” as she is, oh, every OTHER word she hears. You’d think she’s be MORE likely to say it, especially if it gets her delicious Teddy Grahams that much more quickly.

And, last, but not least, happy birthday to Christi!! It’s already April 17 in the Eastern Time Zone, so she’s officially another year older. We love you!

So… Interview #3 for Cray is lined up for next Tuesday. Interview with a Hiring Manager for a second-shift contract job with Microsoft is pending. Interview with an international legal firm downtown is pending, likely Friday. Waiting, always waiting…

Christi is due in for the weekend on Friday; we’re excited. Offered to take the neighbors to the airport at the same time, since they’re heading out for the weekend, but they haven’t gotten back to me yet. Not sure what all the weekend will entail, or exactly how Friday night dinner will be handled. Waiting, always waiting…

Got a few emails out to friends to see how things are doing with them. Nothing currently in my court that I’m aware of. Thinking about working with my sister to manage the twenty-year class reunion in a few years. Waiting, always waiting…

Need to make some Jello, because we haven’t had any in a long time and M would probably have fun with it. And so I can wait for that, too.

What are you waiting on?

-K