Lovely wilderness, Ansel Adams

This past weekend I did something I haven't done ever before. I left Louisa and Nate for two whole nights. I've actually never even left her for one. Karen, our pastor's wife, wanted to go backpacking for her birthday. She has three kids under the age of five and stays home with them full-time, so I'm sure she's been looking forward to a get-a-way sans kids for quite some time. The plans started to evolve when I asked when the "women in the mountains" weekend was. Nate went car camping three weeks ago with the men of the church, so I felt my question was valid.  There isn't a women's camping trip, was the answer, but Karen tries to escape to the woods once each year with friends, and she immediately invited me along.

The quiet. The beauty. The lack of chores. It was amazing. Betsy, a good friend of Karen's and recently mine, also came along. We hiked 5.5 miles to Lady Lake on Friday afternoon, attempted a summit hike on Saturday morning and hiked 8 miles back to our car on Sunday morning. Why the discrepancy?  Let's just say we weren't tired enough yet and wanted to hike a couple extra miles. New Orleans style BBQ awaited us at Todd's BBQ in Oakhurst. French fries and icy soda water never tasted so good.

Hello Little Baby!

It's hard to believe this little thing is in my belly. It looks so big on the screen, but I don't look pregnant yet. Well, I look a little pregnant if I just ate. A friend of mine who is about 20 weeks told me that last week, she went to bed with a flat stomach and woke up the next morning with a cantaloupe sized bump. I think that sounds exciting.



In the video, the doctor - who is from Madison, says, "oh and the nuchal looks fine - no worries there."  She's referring to a space near the spine that, when enlarged, could indicate down syndrome or other chromosomal abnormalities.  Nate and I decided that we wanted to forego the nuchal translucency screening like we did with Louisa and my doctor was fine with that, but wanted to do a brief ultrasound just to check the growth.  I'm not sure what we avoided in the end...maybe just blood work that goes along with the ultrasound? I have to admit, I didn't mind seeing the cute little one now that it's a bit more human like than the 8 week "pregnancy verification" ultrasound.  I think Baby Bosscher 2 is going to look like Nate, just like Loubear did/does.

In case you were wondering (because most people do) we are not going to find out the gender and BB2 is due early April.  So let's take a poll: should I attempt to potty train Louisa, who will be 23 months at the time, before BB2 is born? Sounds too ambitious.

When life gives you time, make videos

Nate and I both used to be very good at taking iPod videos of Louisa for our blog. And even if Anne and Marcia are the only ones that are entertained, I feel like I need to step it up.  Nothing too exciting in this one, but you can see one of Lou's favorite "playgrounds" - our back patio. She often will play outside while I'm in the kitchen which is great because they say independent play is important, right? She has only fallen off the step once and it was while I was outside too, so I figure things can't go too wrong while I'm inside within earshot. Don't worry, the video rotates once you press play!



Louisa has been going to sleep before Nate gets home these days. It's sad for him, but necessary for me (and her). She actually has been super-pleasant lately as long as she eats 3 meals and 2-3 snacks each day and we make time for a two hour nap somewhere around noon. My fig-to-plum sized baby has been tiring me out lately and I've been trying to nap too, although it can be hard. Sometimes it's just too enticing to get a bunch of around-the-house stuff done while Lou is sleeping. Today I did sit down and watch TV instead of sleeping (or doing chores). That has to count as rest on some level, right?

And now, a guest blogger...the one, the only, Nate, our Mac Daddy...

(he's here to share a bit about his job, for those who are curious and keep asking Marcia for updates)

Hi Everyone!  I'm a little over three months into my job now and am feeling fairly settled in.  The hours are longer than I would like, but the job is proving to be challenging and interesting.  I am working a lot with the China supply end of things right now, which is fascinating.  Mass production of consumer goods is something that is new to me and the learning curve has been quite steep.  Only after my second trip to China did I really start to feel that I knew what I was doing.  You may have noticed my company's big announcement last week... it was pretty exciting to be apart of the work that went into these new products.  We'll see whether the workload slows down a bit this fall, but for now I am enjoying my work and relishing the time I get to spend with Alicia and Lou at home.

We'll see if I can't get Nate to talk about the work he does at this mysterious company more often. :)

Little Trail Runners

The main event of Abbie and Paul's visit happened this morning: the Title 9K - one of the few organized running races that allows baby joggers (strollers).  Even if we hadn't done awesome, placing third and fourth in our stroller division, I would have felt proud that the morning leading up to the race went as well as it did:

1. Woke up on time (6:45 am)
2. Ate breakfast (cereal with blueberries, toast with peanut butter and jelly, banana)
3. Fed the kids breakfast (banana, blueberries, oatmeal with raspberries)
4. Swapped the carseats into the appropriate vehicle (Paul helped here)
5. Loaded up the BOBs (Paul also did this)
6. Found Quarry Park Recreation Area (30-ish minutes from our house)
7. Parked, re-assembled the strollers, picked up our packets, waited in the port-a-potty line...

This all happened without tears or whines from Louisa or Max and they both happily rode along for 5.38 miles.  Because this was a race only for women, there was a lot of "YOU GO GIRL" sentiment, especially if you were pushing a stroller.  Next year, I think we'll try to win...we would just have to run 8 minute miles instead of 9:30 miles.  The other option would be for the over-achieving winner to run without her stroller, because we only finished one minute behind the second place stroller.  Regardless, it was a fun event!

Wasabi Wonder

Abbie, Paul and Max are visiting this week.  How fun to have a live-in friend for Louisa!  Since Abbie babysat Lou regularly while she was an infant, she has an instant re-bond with her every time we get together.  On Thursday we went to Santa Cruz to meet a midwife.  Abbie and Max played at a park with hot slides during the appointment and then the babes and the moms went to the beach.  It was a gorgeous day and the kids had fun dipping their toes in the ocean.

Yesterday, Friday, we drove to Cupertino to have lunch with Nate at Mac Cafe.  The options are seemingly endless so we were all able to satisfy our cravings - including me, the pregnant woman who craves (non raw fish) sushi.  Lou and I have been to lunch at Nate's office four times and haven't noticed high chairs, so as usual, I set her on my lap to eat.  Unfortunately her curiosity and hunger got the best of her when she reached out and grabbed some wasabi from my plate.  I heard a wimper and a cough and looked down.  Poor Lou was moving her tongue around, trying to spit out the horribly spicy green stuff.  Nate said, "it's wasabi!" and I prepared to run away from the crowd of Apple-folk so Lou could cry it off.  Wasabi is cool like that though - the pain goes away pretty darn quickly.  I gave her a blackberry and a sip of melon-infused water (fancy, I know) and she was over it.  Maybe her tolerance comes from the time I accepted $20 from my dad to eat a teaspoon of straight wasabi?  Regardless of how we all escaped without making a scene, it was great!  Of course this all happened quickly so we didn't get a picture, but this picture sort of invokes that same image - tasting something green that's a bit disappointing...

Tasting apples in the front yard

Today, Saturday, we plan to do a little family wine-tasting.  It's a family wine tasting trip only in the sense that the babes are coming along to Sonoma with us.  Don't worry, the pregnant lady can't ingest wine, so I'll be in charge.

Lou's favorite little Packer fan, Mr. Max

Dear Diary,

I'm sure the thought has crossed my mind that a blog is like a diary, but I haven't approached our blog that way before today. From time to time since about fifth grade, I've journaled like crazy, mostly writing prayers to God about what was good, offfering praise, or bad, asking for help.  Lately I haven't been in this habit but I'd like to get back to it.  Today though, I'm absolutely using our blog as an outlet...to write things down so I don't hold 'em in.  Now you probably think I'm going to get all serious and sappy. Nope, I just want to complain for a minute.

Ries was up most of last night with diarrhea. And Louisa went to bed at a reasonable hour, but then insisted on being up (with Nate, thankfully) from 12 to 1 o'clock in the morning.  She partially-redeemed herself by sleeping until nine this morning.  Around 10 am, we went to run some errands, leaving the diarrhea-dog at home.  When we came home, Ries had thrown up on the carpet.  At this point, Louisa asks for food, so I sit her in her chair and give her some crackers.  She eats one, then gives one to Ries. "NO," I say, "food is for Lou, not for Ries," and I go clean up the vomit.  I hear giggling in the kitchen, and go back in to see Lou purposefully throwing goldfish crackers on either side of her chair, down to Ries. What really got me is that the vomit I was cleaning up was yellow/orange.  In a split second, no doubt carried away by fatigue and nausea, I decided to give Louisa her first timeout.  I plucked her from her chair and carried her into her bedroom, laying her down in her crib.  Yes, she cried this time.  I calmly closed the door and proceeded to vacuum to drown out the sobbing.  Sorry Louisa, you might be too young for a timeout, but I reached my limit.

Thankfully she is now happily playing by herself with her toys that were somewhat hidden behind the red couch I was trying to sell on Craigslist for the past two weeks.  It's like Christmas now that the couch is gone!  With all this free time, I may just read about how early timeouts are effective.

She's Back and I'm Relieved

Louisa and I returned from DC last week Wednesday and Nate returned from China on Thursday. While we were all happy to be reunited, we were disappointed to realize that Louisa was not her normal self.  On Saturday night we used our digital thermometer for the first time and quickly consulted the American Academy of Pediatrics book to figure out that magic cutoff for consulting the doctor.  Tricky: if it's over 103, call the doctor, but also consider other symptoms.  Well, hers was 103.2 but she didn't have any other symptoms.  Long story short, the fever came down on Sunday but she was tired, cranky and spotted until Tuesday when I finally took her to the doctor. The verdict? Roseola. Nothing serious and no treatment needed.

The GREAT news is that today she was finally, absolutely back to her normal, funny, happy self.  The one AWESOME "side effect" that has stuck around is that she goes down without a cry at naps and at bedtime. Nice work Loubear!

To celebrate normal life with a toddler, we went to Happy Hollow Park & Zoo in San Jose. Fun! As the name implies, it's a park (with play structures, picnic areas and carnival rides) and a zoo (with interesting animals like lemurs and capybaras).  I didn't blog about our trip to Half Moon Bay on Sunday, but the highlight was Louisa touching a "wild" starfish.  She stayed true to her wild side today - eagerly touching a python and a small tortoise.  Way more daring than her mother.  Speaking of her mother, I have something in common with the goat pictured below: I'm pregnant!

Mehhhh

I'm not sure why Lou's hair is so crazy, I guess the cars were faster than I thought?

The python Lou touched

Plums from the neighbor for dessert

It Costs Money

When I was younger, my mom always used to say, "it costs money just to stay alive."  I don't remember the circumstances, but I imagine it came up most often when I was a teenager and complained about how much things cost and the lack of money I had.

Today that phrase rang through my head over and over again.  I'm sort of in house-hunter mode, but the trouble is, we need to save a whole lot of money before we can actually buy a house out here.  So being in house-hunter mode makes me be in money-saving mode as well.  It's good, and I think I'm pretty good at saving money, but it can be so frustrating when unexpected expenses pop up!  You can't say "wait" or "no" to these.  For example, if your new (used) car has a leaky coolant line, you have to pay more than $400 to fix it.

I'm a big coupon girl, so today when I went to get the oil changed on aforementioned car, I printed off a coupon: $21.95 for a premium oil change. What did I end up paying? $69.95 plus tax! And that was a special offer. Ugh. I learned about synthetic oil today.

Those pesky little (and big) expenses that you don't anticipate. No fun.

What a downer blog post! I think I'll add a picture of Louisa to try and make this visit worth your time. Let me know if that did the trick.

The tide pools of Bean Hollow Beach

Enjoying the smooth pebbles on the beach

To Five Years!

Yesterday was our fifth wedding anniversary, so Lou and I celebrated today by going to Waffle House for lunch. Seriously! In case you think I'm kidding, here is a picture to prove it.

Here's the background story.  Nate and I talked yesterday while he was at a hole-in-the-wall, Indian restaurant in downtown Hong Kong.  He was super-excited about how good and cheap his meal (dal mahkni, chicken briyani, naan and two beers) was. To understand my story, its important to know that Nate and I enjoyed many a good Indian and Ethiopian meal in Uganda in 2008 and still enjoy cooking Indian food together.  So when he commented that his meal in Hong Kong would have been an appropriate anniversary dinner for us, he was spot on (and romantic...sigh).

Fast-forward about 18 hours to Louisa and me driving north on highway 85 through North Carolina. Louisa was acting as if she had a dirty diaper and I was hungry, so I started checking out my options on the green highway signs. When I saw a sign for Waffle House, I immediately dismissed it since I don't like breakfast for lunch, greasy food or chain restaurants. But something in me wanted to make an exception. Obviously chain restaurants are all but unavoidable on a un-planned road trip and greasy breakfast at 11:30 am sounded perfect. So we exited, parked, and ran through the rain for a warm meal.  The grits, bacon, raisin toast and eggs over-easy all tasted great and the coffee was decent. The waitress was really sweet with Louisa while taking our order and telling me about her triplet nieces that visited her last night. Just the word "triplets" made me realize that a 6-hour road trip with a toddler but without your husband - even on your anniversary - is easy easy easy.

A pause in the story for a warning: the ending to my story is not funny or surprising, although I know that is not why you read our blog, so I'll continue without further apology.

The ending is just that sometime during the journey from the Waffle House to DC, I realized that the reason I chose that particular greasy, chain, breakfast restaurant is because its totally the kind of place Nate would pick.  So despite the 12-hour time difference, we each celebrated our anniversary apart/together - he at a tiny Indian restaurant and me at Waffle House.  Happy fifth wedding anniversary, Nate.  You're an awesome husband and an amazing dad.

(For further proof of the amazing dad bit, check out the first picture in my last post, below)

DC Family & Carolina Friends

We've been on vacation, so I apologize for my absence from our blog.  We celebrated my dad's retirement from the US Navy and now we're in Durham, North Carolina visiting Adrienne, Paul and Geneva.  Erin drove up from Charlotte to be with us too! Lou and I drove down from DC yesterday, leaving Ries behind with Romeo, Oliver, Sarah and Dan. Nate left mid-week for China. Oh Apple.

Louisa (16 months) and Geneva (25 months) are both awake now, so we may take off for a mini-adventure of some sort, so for now, here are some pictures!

Lou pooped right as we all got assembled for the photo, so we had to get creative

The we excused the mobile babes and took a sibling + Oliver photo

Sharing a peach at the Durham farmers' market