Seattle Trip in Pictures Part 1

Mara's first trip to Seattle went pretty well.  The first day (Friday) didn't go as planned AT ALL, because we got started about two hours late and the traffic was awful.  We didn't get into Seattle until about 10:00pm that night.  Mara had a really rough trip up.  She cried for about 2 of the 3 hours.  Actually 2 of the 4 hours because it took us 2 hours to get out of Oregon!  Anyway, despite several stops she was miserable.

Mara's little feet sticking out.

My mom after we left Centralia, WA.  We went to the Centralia Outlet stores to break up the trip.  I got Mara 1 pair of pants, 1 pair of shorts and 3 pairs of pajamas for $29 from The Children's Place outlet!!  And the lady even saved me the tax when she saw my OR drivers license.  Awesome!

The traditional I-5 selfie.

We got in at about 10, got settled and put Mara to bed (a feat in itself because the crib was very low to the ground with high sides and it was tough to get her in without waking her up.  In fact, my mom had to do it that first night!)

We had a single suite, so my mom slept in the bedroom and Mara and I slept in the living room, me on a pull-out bed.  It was actually pretty comfortable and perhaps a touch nostalgic for me because I used to sleep on a pull-out bed when I was like 9-10 years old.  I had a regular bed but I preferred that one.  Probably because it was queen sized lol.  

Anyway, the next morning we went down to breakfast and got a seat right by the window.  I was SEVERELY uncaffeinated, having been up since like 6:30am and I'm pretty used to having coffee almost right away!  This was the view during breakfast:

 For breakfast I had toast, hard boiled egg, fruit and coffee.  My mom had oatmeal and fruit.  Mara, who had nursed upstairs, had mum-mum and egg. 

"Where's my food??" (Yes she's actually pounding the table)

"Umm, Mommy are you sure this is edible?"

After breakfast we loaded up and went to Pike Place Market.  I borrowed a friend's ergobaby carrier to try out.  I am SO going to get one!! Mara loved it (she fell asleep several times in it throughout the weekend) and it was super comfy.

Posing with a fisherman carving.

The cool thing about this picture is actually what happened right before it was taken.  I was sitting on a bench across the hall from this fisherman, nursing Mara under the nursing cover, and this group of ladies came by to take pictures of each other with the fisherman.  They were speaking Spanish and one of them said to the others something like, "it's so nice that she's breastfeeding right here" in Spanish. I smiled up at her and she said, in English, "beautiful, beautiful!" I thanked her and she asked me, in Spanish, "a girl?"  I nodded. "Beautiful," she said again. It was sweet. 

We made our way through the top floor of the market, stopping to buy a T-Shirt for Mara that says "I got my looks from my daddy and my attitude from my mommy" (LOL!) and wandered down to the waterfront.  It was a beautiful day.  Clear, sunny and about 75F!  We decided to buy tickets for an Argosy harbor cruise at 3pm.  In the meantime, it was only like 10:45-11:00am, so we headed for the Seattle Great Wheel!

Mara, who had gotten tired of the ergo, waiting for the Great Wheel!

My silly kid!! I love her to bits!

To be continued in part 2.....

Pigtails!!

Mara's first pigtails happened yesterday!  SO CUTE!!!

Also this made me laugh so hard:

For real though....!

Hello June

4 days until Seattle!  Not much else to say at the moment. DANG I'm tired! (It's 4:20am)

My girl and me

Oh hi buddy. :)

6 Months - Good Job Mama

Miss Mara Soleil turned 6 months old last Saturday.  I realize that was nearly a week ago and I've been slacking on my timely posting of her monthly pictures but.... I have a 6 month old who is extremely wiggly, active, alert, busy and almost always AWAKE! Lol.  It's hard to find time to do a lot of things. Like clean, cook and sort through our massive piles of stuff to get ready for this garage sale we're having on June 12th. 

Anyway, here is Mara's 6 month picture and stats from her doctor appointment yesterday:

Weight: 20lb 4.5oz

Length: 27.5 inches

Head: 44cm

Mara likes solid food. Her favorites are mum-mum, oat cereal, apple, apple/mango/carrot, blueberry and peach.  She can sit up by herself for long periods of time. She doesn't roll much but is starting to attempt to army crawl.  She loves baths, nursing, stroller rides and pulling mommy's hair.  She has 2 teeth and chews on everything!  Generally she is a happy baby and sleeps well.  We are so blessed and we love her so much! 

Smiling at herself at the doctors office yesterday. 

In other news, my mom, Mara and I are going to Seattle, WA next Friday (one week from today). That should be fun.  I haven't been to Seattle since last year when I was pregnant with Mara but didn't know it and I was soooo miserable.  I'm positive this trip will be better!  Also, 61 days til our Connecticut trip end of July. Yay! 

The title of this post says "Good job Mama" because people keep saying that to me when they find out how big Mara is!!  I guess I can see why... I do have to work hard to keep my supply up and nurse her all the time but... it still feels weird when people say that.  I'm like, "I did not do anything! She is just growing!" Lol.  It seems odd to me that peoples' first reaction when they find out her size is to comment on what a good job my boobs are doing! (Currently "dairy cow-ing" as I type). 

Busy morning. Taking Corky's car to Kia to get a new windshield as an early first Father's Day present for him.. His has had a giant crack all the way across it for over a year and it drives me crazy!  For one thing, it's not safe! For another thing, when I drive his car it's difficult for me to see because the crack is right at my eye level. It doesn't bother Corky as much because he's like 7-8 inches taller than me, so he can see right over it but I can't.  Then take him to work, drop Mara at my mom's, go teach Zumba and then pick Mara up.  Then when he's off at 5, pick him back up because he won't have a car.  Whew!  Not as busy as Wednesday when I had a PT appointment, a chiropractor appointment and had to meet the appraiser at the condo we are renting out.  And all of that AFTER teaching Aqua Fit at 9!  I didn't stop moving like the entire day lol.

Including today, 3 more days of May! Wow!!! Where is the time going?  Mara will be one before I know it. 

Little creature after her bath, posing with mommy. :) I love her so. 

Picture Dump

Mara on Mother's Day, hanging out on the couch with Daddy. I told them both to smile - at least one of them listened! 

Biggie girl playing with her toys

My kid is like half the size of me. 

Weeeee! Mara at a picnic 5/17/15

6 months old... lookin' like her daddy in that bottom pic! 

Gasp!!! You caught me eating Mum-mum!

Rolling away mid-diaper change is the most fun game ever, at least in Mara's opinion! Mommy doesn't share that view all the time. ;) 

Sleep deprivation at its' finest! 

To add on to the previous pic.....

Mara decided mommy was not allowed to sleep last night, but instead needed to be a sentinel all night just in case monsters were residing in the closet unbeknownst to us all.  We camped out on her bedroom floor on a comforter where she slept and I doubled as a milk bar and a bodyguard. Lol!!

Mara and daddy hanging out at a coffee shop. 5/24/15

Mara rockin the aviators.

In other news, I'm going to Seattle next weekend (June 5) with my mom and Mara. Should be fun! 

Ghosts Again!

Well... I guess I should start by saying I'm not sure that ghosts are in fact what I'm dealing with.  I'm also not sure a "haunting" is as permanent as people often seem to think.  A drive-by haunting? Lol!  Sounds funny, right?  But is it such a weird idea, really?  If all ghosts are is energy, and energy is moving all around (electricity for example) then why couldn't some hauntings be fleeting?  Like a ghost made a bump in the night as he was just passing through your house on his way to wherever.  Like he was zooming by, in his ghostly way, and happened to bump a table with his energy and knock something off of it and then just continue on his way.  And then you're there thinking OMG my house is haunted! But it never happens again. 

I can't remember if I wrote about this or not (and frankly I don't have the desire to go hunt for it in the archives) but there's a spot in the living room that Mara always stares at and smiles, coos and giggles.  I always just assumed it was my grandma.   Mara didn't do it all the time, just occasionally.  And there aren't any windows, lights or colorful things over there.  It's just a fireplace.  So I figured it was grandma, popping in to say hi and check on Mara and me. 

One night a few months ago, Corky was in the bathtub and I was brushing my teeth.  It was probably around 10:30pm, Mara was in bed. I heard a crash downstairs.  The dogs were asleep on the bed.  I looked at them to see if they reacted but they stayed asleep.  Had I imagined it?  No, I was sure I had heard something.

"Did you hear that?" I asked.

Corky looked up from his Kindle. "Hear what?"

"That crash downstairs."

"No, I didn't hear anything."

"It sounded like someone knocked something over.  And the dogs are up here!"

I decided to go investigate.  Corky wanted to do it but I vetoed that.  For one thing, he didn't have any clothes on and for another, he would drip water everywhere.  As it turned out he jumped out of the tub, dried off quickly and followed me. 

I arrived downstairs in the dark, and everything was quiet.  I turned on the kitchen lights and the living room light.  Corky appeared at the bottom of the stairs behind me (ever the protective husband) and we looked around.  Everything seemed to be in place.  We ventured into the living room.

"Corky, look!" I exclaimed, pointing.

A picture frame hung empty on the wall.  The picture (a landscape of trees and crows that his mom painted for us as a housewarming gift) stood on the floor, propped up against the leg of the desk that the picture frame hung above. 

THAT was weird. For 2 reasons: first, how did the picture come out of the frame all by itself after it had been hanging there, intact, since last spring?  Second, how did the picture clear the desk, hit the floor, and manage to prop itself up nicely against the leg?

The weirdest coincidence?  It was near the grandma corner. The picture hangs on the wall about 6-7 feet to the right of where Mara looks, perpendicular to the direction she is looking so I know she's not actually looking at the picture. 

The whole thing just gave me a chill - the same chill I remember feeling as a child in my parents house when something weird would happen.  (See April 2013 archives for the blog post about "Paul".) 

Mommy's big girl

Dear Ed

The other day I wrote a letter to my eating disorder (also known as "Ed".  I know, not a very original name but... whatever!) and the words surprised me.  I feel like I've been going along saying, "I'm all better!" out loud ever since pregnancy but in my head I've been saying "I'm still sick!"  Those 2 statements ARE mutually exclusive.  If you're even still a little sick you cannot be "all better."  But the quantity of "sick" can change and means that improvements are possible.  It's not like pregnancy.  Either you're pregnant or you aren't.  You can't be "a little" pregnant!  

When you're heading out of "sick" and into "well" (the word recovery makes me cringe) there's a lot of gray area there.  You can say "I'm still a little sick" or you can say "I'm doing some better."  The second one sounds more positive, wouldn't you agree?

My Dear Ed letter (which I destroyed after writing, for fear that Corky would find it) started off something like this: "Dear Ed, please don't leave me."

.....................what?

"But Kate," you say, "I thought you didn't want to be sick anymore!"

I don't!

"I thought you wanted recovery!"

I do!

"So then why did you write that?"

I have no idea! It just came out!

So then I have to call into question that statement three lines above.  Do I really want recovery?

Here is the honest answer (and maybe you'll think this is my eating disorder talking but I'm not about to start arguing about THAT one): I do not want recovery if it means I will be fat.

I am SORRY!  That is the TRUTH!!!!!!  The raw and honest TRUTH!  Judge me all you like for saying it but that is my truth.  

My Dear Ed letter went on to say something like, "I know that you can't be out in the open like you used to but you don't have to leave.  I can hide you.  Corky and Mara can never see you but I can!  We'll just have to be sneaky."

Okay... so maybe that is a little worrisome.  But seriously... Ed is like my security blanket!  I don't know how to live without it and I don't always want to learn.

All of that being said, though, take a look at my actions.  I made it through 9 months of pregnancy, WITHOUT THE HELP OF A NUTRITIONIST!!!!!!!!!!!!! I did it all on my own.  I gave birth to a healthy, almost-9-pound baby.  Obviously I did something right.  Now that baby is almost 6 months old.  I've been nursing her for her entire life.  This baby is now over TWENTY POUNDS and is almost 2 and a half feet tall.  Go ahead and tell me I'm unable to do it.. I f*cking dare you! (not you guys, just, you know, hypothetically.) 

Obviously, despite my ambivalence on "recovery", I am doing something right.  But will I be able to sustain it after I'm done nursing, whenever that is?  Maybe not.  Do I want to?  Maybe not.  To be honest.

I saw some old pictures of myself recently, from before Ed, and UGH!!!!!!!!!! I was hideous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I never, ever, ever EVER want to look like that again!  That just reinforced in my mind that Ed did me a huge favor and I cannot afford to let it go.

Me posing with my mom's

Mother's Day gift

5.10.15