I’m ahead of the game (for now). Starting on July before the month is even over. I figure I best get going on this before the chaos of moving and the start of our homeless stint.
July is the last month in our place. We sold back in May and accepted a long escrow, which has been beneficial to us and the buyers (they’re in a lease). It’s been a great 8.5 year run and I know come August 12 when we leave for the last time, it will be a sad day. We bought this place on a whim after a few months living in Washington, with every intention of moving back to California and never having kids. HAHA. Having not planned on moving so soon—we planned on moving in two years—or while pregnant, it’s been an interesting last few months. When I worked and had hard deadlines, I would always think, “Come next Tuesday, it’ll all be over with.” That mindset always gets me through trying times. And it’s the same with this. Come November 1, we’ll be in our new house with a new kiddo and all this nonsense will be a distant memory. Until then, chaos it is. And during this chaos, we’re still having a good time…
What better than to start the month off with a picture of The Worm? She rarely makes an appearance during the day but with all the heat we’ve had, lying on the cool tile became her spot. She’s looking pretty good for almost 15.
This was the first year we decided to take the kiddos to a Fourth of July fireworks show. We’ve been in California the last two years on the Fourth of July celebrating with my sister’s family at their neighborhood block party. And before then, the kiddos were too young to care (or stay awake). Neither Brian nor I are crowd fans—we actively avoid them—so we decided Carnation would be the best place to go. And bonus since it’s our future hometown. We arrived around 8pm, found easy parking, and made our way to the park area where the show would take place. It was a nice, laid-back environment. The kiddos played in the dirt and climbed a tree with a few other kiddos before we settled down on the field for the show. It was close to 10:30pm when the fireworks started. I was worried Saige would freak at the loud noises. I should have realized the easiest baby alive wouldn’t even care. Because she didn’t. The show lasted about 15 minutes and we packed up and left for home after. They all fell asleep on the way home (even Blaise). Brian transferred them from the van to their beds and even managed to brush their teeth without an eyeball showing. I think it was the latest Brian and I have stayed up in ages, just past 1am (we won’t be doing that again soon).
The next day it was going to be in the 90s. Again. I read that this area usually gets three days a year in the 90s and we already had six days (and this was before a few more). We decided to take Brian to the Cedar River Watershed since he hadn’t been before. And, no crowds. What a beautiful area. Rattlesnake Lake under Rattlesnake Ledge. And the visitor center, a nice place to beat the heat and they have vacuum ball tubes for the kiddos to play with. Great place. The kiddos may have been wearing the same thing from the night before…
The weather cooled a bit—down to the 80s—which was a relief. It was still hot though, so we made plans with our neighbor and her kiddos to head over to Idylwood Beach Park. The big kiddos took to digging and playing right on the water while Saige got dirty playing in the rocky sand (and maybe eating a little). After she got covered, I took her down to the water to wash her off. She immediately crawled INTO the water. Kid thinks she can swim. I let her play a little, splashing and soaking herself before I rallied up the kiddos to change them from swimsuits to dry clothes. It had been close to two hours and they were hungry. We picnicked, packed up, and went to the playground.
Saige settled into the stroller and eventually gave into her heavy eyes. While she slept, the big kiddos enjoyed a popsicle (or ice lolly as they call them, I love that) before we left for home.
Because of all the heat, it seems the blackberries are in season earlier than usual. One of the benefits of them growing everywhere in the wild up here is that we can just walk up the street and pick some. (They’re already excited that the new house has some up the street, too.) And it’s a bonus having them close by on the days we’re low on fruit for snacks. They each took a baggie and would have probably filled them to the top if they hadn’t eaten so many while picking. Saige enjoyed a few, too.
After blackberry picking, Blaise and I played a game of Battleship (and by played, I mean put pegs in wherever he wanted) while the girls napped. Ever since Laine’s epic meltdown over chocolate milk which resulted in her breaking her iPad, she’s been napping daily. She has to lie in her bed for an hour but she falls asleep every time. Her mood has been drastically better since we started naps again and we’ve avoided meltdowns all together. She’s like me; she needs her sleep or watch out.
Since we’ll be moving shortly, we’re enjoying our weekends close to home while we can. And Brian’s latest hobby of finding a hobby is tennis, and he takes lessons Saturday mornings. So the kiddos and I hang at home until he’s back before we start whatever family outing we end up doing. During one Target trip, I picked up some toothpicks and marshmallows for the kiddos to build structures. We spent Saturday morning marshmallowing.
Our weekends these days typically include a visit to Carnation to check out the house progress. It’s become more of a reality now that there is something to see. If only it were going to be ready sooner! On our busy weekends, Saige is reminded that she isn’t actually three-years-old and needs to nap more often than the big kiddos.
Saige is growing tired of being confined to her excersaucer while the big kiddos play out back. She’s actually pretty much outgrown the sucker since she can almost escape by bending forward and getting her hands to the ground. I’m sure she’d be out in two seconds flat if I didn’t stop her mid-bend. I’ve been letting her have at the ground and get dirty as she pleases. Especially since every day is a bath day now that she eats anything and everything, making a huge mess all over herself.
It was August 2014 the last time I took the kiddos to Farrel-McWhirter. That’s basically forever. It had always been our go-to park, and my favorite. I’m not sure why we haven’t been going other than life has been busy in other ways. We made plans to play with a friend and I asked if they’d be up for Farrel. They were, score. I packed Saige in the stroller along with some snacks and our beach toys, and we headed toward the water to play. I remember why I love it there. We’ll be going back more like we used to.
Brian had been working on a major release deadline which ended July 15. It was the first project he spearheaded as a lead. After a successful release that morning, he left early to enjoy the afternoon. His division had rented out Vasa Park for a family event. He was going to take just the big kiddos while Saige and I enjoyed some quiet time at home but we ended up going as a family to Idylwood Beach. It turned into quite the outing, considering we typically wind things down around 5pm here with dinner followed by the bedtime routine. It was 4pm when we left for Idylwood to play in the water and at the playground, and then the kiddos asked to go to Carnation to see the house. We picked up a pizza, went to our future neighborhood park to eat, and then walked over to see the progress of the house. It was a really nice family outing. As a planner, sometimes the non-planned outings are a nice change.
Busy, busy, busy so far. I suppose we’ve been making up for all the hot days we spent at home (me in front of the fan). The next morning I was still in go-mode. We had been talking about going blueberry picking. Since last summer actually. And having played out back with one of our neighbors and her boys, she mentioned they went to a great blueberry farm in North Bend. I packed up the kiddos and we left for North Bend. (I love taking the back roads, such a beautiful drive.) The farm was directly under Mt. Si and there were ample blueberries. Blaise took it pretty seriously, announcing to everyone when he’d find a jackpot. And he’s our social guy, talking to everyone picking close by. Laine enjoyed picking for about 1.5 rows before she said she was ready to go home. Hard work isn’t exactly her thing. (Unless it is horse-related. Watching her at a horse lesson is like seeing another kiddo.) Saige just chilled in the stroller at first until she figured out that she could pick blueberries from the branch and eat them. Once that clicked, kid was the happiest on the farm. She’s easily earned the title Fourth Dog with her food obsession.
We left after two rows and five pounds of blueberries (which all were eaten within five days!).
And the busyness continued that night. We were in desperate need of milk so I told Blaise I’d take him with me to Target and on a date. It happened to be July 16, which is my half-birthday. That’s no big deal at 36 but as a kid, it was a huge deal. I think because my birthday is in January my parents felt bad about it being Christmas and then my birthday in less than a month, having to wait 11 months before getting presents to open (aside from a few Easter gifts). So every half-birthday (until 10 I think) we’d go miniature golfing as a family, followed by cake and presents with both sets of grandparents. It was a nice family tradition that we’ll start up next year (been meaning to and well, they won’t remember before five I hope). So for our date, I took Blaise miniature golfing. There is a family fun center about 20 minutes away which was more like 45 minutes away since it was after-work traffic. I loathe the 405. It was a good date. He didn’t have much patience to learn how to do miniature golf so we played our own way. After golf, we played inside a bit, did bumper cars (which they wouldn’t let me do pregnant, no fun), and ate dinner at the cafe. We hit Target before heading home to the girls already asleep and Brian relaxing alone on the couch (a rare sight!).
Sunday was Laine’s birthday. FOUR!
This week has been back to semi-laziness. We’ve spent most of it at home aside from meeting a friend at the Cedar River Watershed on Tuesday, followed by driving by the house (as requested by Blaise) and finding the Carnation Farmers Market. We were walking past a man doing chalk art on the ground and Blaise asked if he could too. The nice man said yes, so the big kiddos spent about 30 minutes doing art with him. I LOVE that town. So anxious to move there.
As of today, Friday the 24th (which was Laine’s official due date), we’re having a lazy at-home day. Laine is napping while Blaise and Saige are doing a couch playground and blowing raspberries on each other. I’m taking the day off—aside from making sure they’re fed and content—from playing mom. I may have not even showered yet… (teeth brushed though). Brian has another tennis lesson tomorrow. Sunday we are renting a truck to move a load to storage. We have less than three weeks left here. I’m not sure what those weeks will bring yet.
The Rest of July (added August 19)
I don’t really remember the rest of July so I’m relying on pictures I took to spark my memory. We did rent a Budget truck the last Sunday in July and moved a full load to storage—in the heat—and filled one 10×10 unit to capacity. That, I remember. The rest, in pictures:
We check our mail maybe once a month, sometimes twice if we remember. When we finally got around to checking it for July, there were a few birthday cards for Lainey Bug. She was pretty excited. Kids love getting mail. And a random picture of a sleeping Saige hiney.
I do remember it was a hot week. Between packing and trying to get everything ready for the move, and our impending California homeless stint, the kiddos got the shaft. Thursday rolled around and they hadn’t had much kid time, aside from playing at home and out back. We piled in the van and went to the Carnation Library. It’s such a cute little library. I’m anxious to be able to walk there (it’s just up the street from our new house). We spent about an an hour and a half there before I grew tired of chasing turbo crawler Saige around. I said they could each check out five books, which turned into about 10 books for Blaise. All truck related. He’s methodical; he pulls out several books from the transportation section, lays them out on the table, and proceeds to go through each one before narrowing down his final picks. Laine selected two horse books when we first got there before scrambling to pick three more right as we were heading out. She was focused on the computers when we were there instead of book selections.
Friday was awful. I woke up and didn’t feel 100% but I chalked it up to being tired, pregnant, and the stress from all the chaos going on. I enjoy a morning cup of coffee, which is really sugar and milk mixed with a little coffee. It’s more of a routine thing than an enjoyment thing. I wasn’t able to finish it which isn’t normal. The day went on with me lying on the couch while the kiddos did whatever so long as I could hear them to know they were okay. I just needed to rest up. They started coloring themselves. Fine by me, they were busy and happy. They asked to color the baby. Sure. She liked it and laughed as they colored.
I wanted to sleep so we moved it upstairs to the kiddos’ room where it was safe to let Saige just be while I rested. She read some books while the big kids did whatever they did, I have no idea.
Lunch rolled around and I could barley eat. And then I got sick, and sicker, and then the start of a migraine… I called Brian home. I kept going downhill. I wasn’t even able to keep water down. That was a first. It was well past 11pm and I was so thirsty and yet I couldn’t stay hydrated. I consulted Google (because it’s a great way to diagnose yourself from being dehydrated to having an incurable cancer) and found multiple sources (probably not at all credible) that said if pregnant and dehydrated, to call your doctor. At 11pm on a Friday night, that wasn’t an option. Brian called the nurse hotline and they said to go to the ER. Yay. If not for being pregnant, I would have just said screw that, I’m taking a sleeping pill and calling it a night. But, baby. I went. The ER doesn’t mess around. I walked into a room with about eight people waiting to care for me. They immediately pumped me with whatever they pump you with to hydrate you, and called down a labor and delivery nurse to monitor the baby on a machine. All was well after some anti-nausea medicine (and they finally let me have some ice cubes and drink water). Talk about boring being there though, and I was so tired. It wasn’t until after 3am I was released. I made it home and to bed feeling like a human being again. Albeit, a sick one still.
I woke up the next morning feeling better just to find Brian had come down with whatever the hell it was I had. We survived Saturday somehow and the kiddos were still alive and fed come bedtime. It’s a blur. Sunday wasn’t much better. That was July and the start of August. Good times.
Jumping Raccoons 