Wordless Wednesday: He Says He's Not A Photographer

Crazy 8

Today TJ & I have been married for 8 years.  Our marriage is the same age as a 3rd grader.  He explained to T that an anniversary is "the birthday of our marriage".  His simple yet accurate explanations are just one of the many things I think are awesome about him.

I made a little photo collage and discovered that I don't have a single photo of us together in 2008.  (Click for a larger version.)

In true tired parent form, neither of us remembered our anniversary until a few days ago. Since my parents will be in town soon, I'm looking forward to planning our first date night since BabyM was born.  Yes, it's really been that long since we went out alone together.  It's complicated when BabyM will only nurse to sleep. At least now her bedtime is fairly predictable, and she mostly can settle herself back to sleep if she wakes before midnight so we may be able to squeeze in a nice dinner somewhere fairly close to home.

One of the things I loved about M & T's wedding last weekend was how they involved all the guests in the hand-fasting, and asked us to affirm our support for their marriage.  It was similar to the Guest Affirmation in our own ceremony 8 years ago.  

In honor of 8 years, here are 8 things I am grateful for in our marriage:

1. He is an equal partner in our home life.

2. We made some nice babies. 

3. He will watch the crappy TV shows I like (Law & Order, Gray's Anatomy, Glee)

4. We are both introverts, so we understand each others' need for alone time.

5. Babies love to sleep on him.

6. He fixes things when they break, when my "solution" would be to throw it away and get a new one.

7. He's always up for a trip to Canlis.

8. Our travel "personalities" are well-matched, ie. we're homebodies who enjoy a big trip every few years.

I still marvel to myself how lucky I am to have found someone who suits me so well. 16-year-old me would have thought it was crazy if you said she'd marry that "mysterious older guy" she was crushing on.  

Life is pretty amazing sometimes.

2012 Creath Family Holiday Letter: All Is Calm

Happy December!  I can't believe it's time for our yearly holiday letter already. This year's letter will be short and sweet since I have been blogging regularly - I can just give you links to the big stuff.

(c) Kristi Lloyd Photography, Oct 2012

2012 was an exciting year for us!  The biggest news was the birth of Meridian Rayna in October.  But I'll start from the beginning.

In January, we had a big snowstorm, which is pretty unusual for Seattle. Trillian played in the snow for the first time.  She wasn't so sure she liked it.  

February was when we found out I was pregnant with BabyM. This was both exciting and scary, since we were used to being a family of 3.  Well, 5, when you count Peanut and Spike, who are now 10 and 12 and doing well.

In March, TJ took the extremely bold step of quitting his job to enjoy some time off and work on his own projects. We've absolutely LOVED having him at home and it's fantastic that we don't have to squeeze in family fun outings onto the weekends.  The Children's Museum is nice and empty on weekdays!  Trillian also started preschool in March, saying goodbye to the excellent daycare she attended since she was 13 months old.

April was super-exciting, because my life-long dream of visiting Ireland came true. We spent 3 lovely weeks in Kenmare, and traveled mostly in the south, though we did spend a couple of days in Dublin.  We definitely want to go back. I got sick while we were there (virus + pregnancy) so I didn't get to do as much, but TJ and Trillian had a few exciting daddy-daughter field trips.

In May, TJ and I celebrated being married for 7 years with a trip to the zoo with our favorite little person.  We also found out that BabyM was a girl!  Hooray for sisters!

I celebrated my thirty-mumble birthday in June. TJ and I went to dinner at Canlis, our favorite restaurant which is where we got married in 2005.  TJ also went to a track day with his motorcycle, to take advantage of the short riding season.

Summer came to Seattle in July, and it was short, but lovely as always.  At the end of the month, Trillian and I took a girls' roadtrip to Portland, OR for the weekend, and had a GREAT time.  She still talks about it. Next time she says we should take TJ and Baby Sister, too.

In August, we celebrated my dad's 70th birthday at a local restaurant.  TJ's Aunt Jane and Uncle Rick were in town so we met up with them for breakfast at our favorite cafe.

Trillian's birthday was in September, and all the grandparents, plus her great-Granny and Aunt Robin were in town for the party. She also started her new Spanish immersion preschool. She's learning so much! I spent September willing BabyM to stay inside until October, so T could have her own "birthday month".  

BabyM cooperated, and was born via C-section at her scheduled appointment on October 1 like a good girl. She spent her first few days refusing to sleep anywhere but in someone's arms, so TJ was awesome and slept sitting up so that we could get a little sleep.  We had a 0th birthday party for her at home, which Trillian helped plan.

We spent the rest of October and November mostly at home getting used to being a family of four. Trillian went trick or treating for the first time, and both girls went dressed as ladybugs.

My parents went back to Savannah in mid-November and we miss them! BabyM isn't on a regular schedule but sleeps and eats well so I've even had time to be crafty.  Thanksgiving was low-key but nice.

December will be full of Fun Holiday Activities from the list we made together. We're staying home for the holidays so it'll be nice and mellow, just the way we like it.

For an even more detailed summary of what we did all year, you can read through my Project Life posts.  I'm very proud to have kept up this scrapbook project all year, and I'm on track to complete it this month!

We wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Best Wishes for the New Year! May your days be merry and bright!

It's my godforsaken right

BabyM for President in 2048!

Election Day is not that exciting here in Washington where we all vote by mail. TJ and I completed our ballots on Halloween night and I dropped them off at a ballot box last week.

As the daughter of 2 naturalized citizens, it's been ingrained into me that voting is REALLY important. My first presidential election was in 1996. I was in grad school in San Diego and was very proud to get my "I voted" sticker.

We're not always on top of the primaries here, but are pretty good about voting in the regular election. I like our current process - we gather our ballots, voter info pamphlets, my laptop, and a frosty beverage of our choosing, and go through the items line by line. It's fun - we don't have a lot of political discussions in our house, but it's nice to chat about our views in this context.

My reference source is our local alternative newspaper, The Stranger, which publishes a useful Election Guide with their endorsements.

I know that sounds sketchy but they actually interview the candidates and do a good job of explaining why they favor a particular candidate or position.  I don't always agree with their conclusions but their info is helpful for the local elections where we don't know much about either side.

I HATE the game of politics, though.  HATE it.  I don't see this as a spectator sport, and hate the ridiculousness spewed by both sides.  If I could block all political posts on Facebook, I would.  Luckily we don't have TV anymore, so we don't see political commercials except for a handful on Hulu.com. We got rid of our home phone line so we don't get robocalls.

A few things I noticed about our voting preferences:

• TJ doesn't vote on uncontested elections.  I thought that was interesting.  I need to look up what happens with those - if those candidates get just 1 vote do they automatically win? 
• For local races where we didn't have a strong preference (like Lands Commissioner), we tended to vote for the candidate with a better educational pedigree.  PhD scientist from Berkeley, we voted for you!  Editor of Yale Law Review and Rhodes Scholar, we voted for you too.  Make us proud :)
• If one candidate didn't bother sending in summary info for the pamphlet, we tended not to vote for him/her.  Seems sort of important, considering most people don't do extensive research on their state representatives and other local officials.
• As much as we don't discuss politics in our house, we're in agreement on most of the bigger issues and candidates, which is nice.

I feel good about completing my civic duty for another year. Now onto holiday preparations!

Project Life: October 2012, Family of 4

Doing my Project Life pages every 2 weeks was an awesome change.  It's long enough that I'm sure to have enough photos even if we don't do anything exciting.  It's also enough time between pages that I am excited and ready to work on the next set, rather than feeling like I need to catch up or worry about getting behind.

What I can't decide for next year is whether to do one week per 12x12 page, or keep the 2 week time interval across two pages.  I think the week-per-page approach will make me feel that pressure again to not fall behind, though, even if I decide to work on the pages every two weeks.  It also means that for weeks where we don't have much going on, I need to make sure I have some photos or something to write about.  As I write, I'm talking myself out of 1 week per page, and keeping the same approach of 2 weeks per 2 pages.  I love it when a plan comes together!  (Yes, I realize I can just go back and delete this entire paragraph, but of course you wanted to know my entire thought process.)

This past 2 weeks was pretty low key.  We're sort of getting into a routine at home, as much as we can with a tiny baby who sleeps at random times.  But generally, I do the night feedings for BabyM and TJ takes the night wakings with T.  He gets T ready for preschool while BabyM and I sleep.  We often sleep in until 10 or 11, which is awesome, even if we are getting up every 3 hours or so for diaper change/feeding.

Click the photos to see a larger version.

Oct 15-28: Sleep is good, Children's museum

Oct 15-28: Meeting Thatha, Sisters, a tired baby is a good baby

The highlights were my dad meeting BabyM for the first time, and a trip to the Children's Museum where I got a lot of really blurry Instagram photos (unfortunately!).  Mostly we hung out at home.  The time period ended on Oct 28, so Halloween photos will be in the next spread.  Arbitrary, I know, but I wanted to get back to a 2 week time period instead of half-a-month.

I grabbed some of my recent purchases for these pages - the Basic Grey Shine On 6x6 pad and some silver doilies I got at Jo-Ann's, and the "This is Life" card from the newly expanded scrapbooking section at Target.  I also recently sorted all my miscellaneous 3x4 printed cards by color, so I can grab one that matches for an empty slot - I love the "So Tweet" one!  If I hadn't cut them all apart and put them in a box near my desk, I'd never use them.

This spread was pretty easy to put together since it was mostly photos without a lot of "craftiness". I did experiment with stamping on a photo using the Staz-On solvent ink (the "I Love This" on the photo of TJ and BabyM), but it's pretty subtle.  I'll use a lighter photo next time.

I can't believe I've kept up with Project Life for this entire year!  Only 4 more spreads to go!  I'm definitely doing it again in 2013.  What about you?

Linked up with The Mom Creative for Project Life Tuesday.

We may only have tonight

I wanted this weekend to be Big and Special, as it's T's last couple of days with us all to herself.  Instead it started out with the Great Oatmeal Standoff of 2012 which left more than one of us in tears and all of us a little out of sorts for a good portion of the day.

It was the same drama that plays itself out in every household at some point.  Parent serves a meal, kid refuses to eat it.  Kid makes a request (in this case, extra maple syrup), promising to eat it, then doesn't.  Power struggle ensues.  No one wants to "lose".

This hasn't happened before.  T is pretty easygoing about food - we give her a couple of choices and she picks one.  But today she pitched a fit, spit it out, and got everyone all riled up.  We found ourselves in a situation where we couldn't back down, or at least that's how it felt at the time.

After both of us took a long nap, I figured a way to disengage without giving in would be to present the oatmeal again at lunch, with something else to eat chosen by us.  (In our case, a hot dog.) No more choices would be offered today (we typically let her choose most things - what to wear, activities, etc.).  When she turned down our choices, we told her that if she ate the oatmeal like she promised in the morning, then she could make her own choices.  Apparently this wasn't worth it.  (I have to give her credit for her stubbornness, er commitment to her principles.) 

The oatmeal reappeared at dinner, along with shrimp, which she really likes.  She finally agreed to eat the oatmeal in order to get more shrimp so we alternated bites of oatmeal and shrimp.  She proceeded to eat the entire bowl of oatmeal without incident, much to my surprise.  She got her choices back - what to wear to bed, what to watch before bed, etc.  And even earned a star for her potty-training chart.  (She's 2 half-days away from getting a toy she's wanted for a couple of weeks.)

I don't feel very good about how this went down.  In general, it makes me very uneasy to "force" a particular food on someone.  I'm not willing to be a short order cook, for sure - we let her choose one of two or three options, typically, so that she'll eat something, but if she doesn't want it, she can choose to eat it or not eat it. There are no other options until the next meal or snacktime.  But I don't feel the need to "exert my authoritay" on her, certainly not on something this inconsequential.  But age 3 is a bit...difficult.

We got into the power struggle, and couldn't get out.  I was tired having barely slept last night (thank you heartburn and snoring).  She was tired from her messed up sleep schedule for 2 weeks, despite our best efforts to get her back on track.  TJ was annoyed about the spitting, my grouchiness, and the tantrum.  We found ourselves "stuck".

I'm still not sure what the right course of action would have been - maybe not even getting her to *try* the oatmeal would have preempted the spitting and tantrum.  Or perhaps this was an unavoidable train wreck given everyone's lack of sleep.

Sigh.  But like the old adage about never going to bed with unresolved issues in a relationship, I feel like we worked this out as best we could.  And tomorrow is another day.

Following our dreams

It appears that the Mondo Beyondo magic is rubbing off on our household.  (And of course this was my intention!)

My fabulous husband gave notice at his job, so his last day is Friday.  He doesn't have another offer lined up, or a detailed plan.  In his words, he's "borrowing 2 years of retirement". 

my two favorite people

I should be freaking out, right?  ZOMG, primary breadwinner quit his job.  How will I afford my Starbucks on my days of "leisure" that I'm not at my part-time job? 

But I'm not stressing.  In fact, I've been encouraging him to do it for a while.  I'm of the opinion that if you're not happy, then you need to make a change.  If you can't change your job to make you happy, then maybe you need a new one.  Or some time off. 

I don't subscribe to the "work until you're 62.5 and then sigh in relief when you retire" philosophy.   62.5 is a long way off, and that's a long time to toil in a job you dislike.   What about finding a career that you *like* and maybe doing it past the standard retirement age?  Or try out a few different career paths?  Life is all about exploration, yo.

Of course,  we'll be adjusting our lifestyle a bit.   Our next Canlis dinner may be a long time from now.  And I'll probably be making my iced soy chai at home, since it doesn't require any fancy equipment.   I increased *my* hours at work to 25, which isn't much of a stretch since T's now in preschool 3 days, and I have the option to go back full time as needed.

But dude, I am *so* looking forward to trips to the zoo mid-week.  And trading off toddler-care when it gets crazy up in here. And maybe restarting custom orders in my Etsy shop if I can convince the Mister to handle all the administrative stuff, so our throughput can be higher.

Hooray for being brave!

My top four parenting-related Time Hacks

For the first year and half, my top Stressful Thing About Parenting was the lack of sleep (and that was with a relatively *good* sleeper - I shudder to think what it would have been like with a "bad" one...) I fantasized about checking into a hotel just for one night, BY MYSELF, to do nothing but SLEEP all night and most of the next day.

Now that T is sleeping solidly at night (knock on wood, salt over shoulder, etc etc), we've moved on to the next Stressful Thing About Parenting, which, for a couple of introvert parents, is not having enough time to be by ourselves quietly and do whatever it is we like to do, be it crafty things, reading non-parenting books, watching a sporting event, or Internetting.

Thanks to the holidays, my dear hubby has had  many days off, so I've gotten used to sleeping in. If I were charming and British, I'd say (in my kickass British accent), "I've been able to have a bit of a lie-in."  This extra time with him at home also made me realize we've been sharing the parenting load and trading off more, which lets each of us get that daily alone time.

Us in Nov 2011. (C) Mariah Gentry Photography
We'd totally use this for our holiday card if we sent out photo cards.

Here are four things we've done lately that help me "find" more time in my schedule.

1. Daycare Dropoff/Pickup Switch
This one has been AMAZING and I'm surprised we didn't come to it sooner.  When T started daycare, TJ dropped her off  because it was on his way to work, and it was more socially acceptable for him to come in later and stay late at work.   Bonus for me, because I did NOT want to face dropoff related tears because it made me feel like a horrible mother.  (Not that it didn't make TJ feel bad, but he is much more resilient about it.  I'm just a huge crybaby.) 

So the deal was that I'd get up early, and get myself to work post-haste while TJ would wait for Trillian to wake up, get her fed and dressed and drop her off between 8:30 and 9am. I picked her up around 5:15pm and TJ was free to work as late as he needed on those two days.  We wanted to minimize the length of her day, so that she wasn't spending 10+ hours in daycare regularly.

I'm NOT a morning person so it was a struggle for me to wake up earlier than 7, much less get to work by then as I had hoped, since I had to leave by 4:45pm to pick her up.  As I've mentioned before, the pickup round trip took twice as long at that time of day and we were racing the clock to get home and eat before bedtime (never mind "quality time").  Not to mention that T was especially tired on daycare days, so bedtime had to be earlier or else we'd all pay for it at night.

A few months ago, we had a day where we needed to swap the usual routine.  I think it was because TJ needed to go to work really early that day to make progress on something.  Something just clicked with the new routine and we kept it.  It worked so much better for us, personality wise - TJ is a super early riser and is sometimes out of the house before T or I wake up.  I'm happy to sleep in and use T as my alarm. 

I felt like I had been given a HUGE gift of time by having a couple of extra hours to work in the afternoon, rather than being constrained by daycare pickup and the resulting stress.  On a few occasions, I've been able to stay at work until 9 or 10pm to work on something uninterrupted.  I'm definitely a night owl and do better work at night, and TJ is just the opposite.

T does not cry at dropoff - in fact, her teachers have to remind her to say goodbye to me because as soon as she gets to "baby school" she gets engrossed in a book or toy and doesn't even notice I'm still there.  This totally changed our schedules and our stress levels.  The bonus of TJ going to work super early is that he can come home before T's (ridiculously early) bedtime.

2. Mundane Chores During Awake Time
This one is probably obvious to moms of older/multiple kids, but it took me a while to learn it.  My new mama guilt, conveniently installed at T's birth had me thinking if she was awake, we should be doing delightfully enriching things together constantly. After all, she's only awake for a short time, right?  I wanted to MAXIMIZE the time with her, and plan all sorts of fun and educational things for us to do.

Obviously, we do those things, but I found HUGE value in letting her play by herself (at first in her crib, then in our babyproofed living room) for the 30 minutes it takes me to shower and get ready.  Before that I'd get dressed while TJ was still home in the morning, and shower at night after T went to bed.  I changed this when she was about 8 months old, and then a few months later, it became our regular routine.  When she was a baby, I would shower quickly, always listening for her, and jumping out of the shower if she pitched a fit.  One day I listened to her cry, but gave her a little time and realized she worked it out.  I "peeked" at her from our bedroom and noticed she had gotten the toy she was reaching for and was happily playing with it. 

Now that she's a toddler, she's all over our living room, talking to her toy dinosaurs and teddy bear, making them "food" in her kitchen, etc.  I can not only shower and get ready at my leisure but can even put away the laundry while she plays happily.  I realized how little time she gets to play by herself each day - we're so busy with daycare, errands and planned activities, so there are whole days where she spends no time alone with her toys.  Judging from how engrossed she is with them when I shower, I think it's good for both of us.  I am especially happy that she's learning how to play by herself.
The other part of this came just a few months ago.  I started a chore "routine" to keep it a bit more predictable - unload/load/run the dishwasher every day, and do the laundry a few times a week rather than a HUGE pile on weekends.  This actually takes me less time, and is definitely less stressful, because it's not hanging over my head.  For the first couple of weeks, I'd "save" these chores, including a quick pass to pick up toys, for T's naptime or after she went to sleep.  But I realized they were eating into the precious alone time I have when she's asleep.

So now while she eats meals or a snack, I load or unload the dishwasher.  I ask her to play by herself for a bit while I collect and load the laundry, and sometimes she actually helps me sort the clean laundry (surprisingly, this is actually helpful!).  I discovered by accident that she LOVES to clean up her toys once she knows where everything goes, so she actually does this chore herself.

This lets me spend naptimes and evenings after she goes to bed, to craft, watch (non-kid-approved) TV with TJ, or get a little (office) work done.  I've "reclaimed" a LOT of time this way.  It's stunningly obvious to most experienced mamas, but took me a long time to figure it out.

3. Morning Bath
Nearly everyone I know and read about, bathes their kids at night, as part of the bedtime/cooling down routine.  I never liked that because by the end of the day, I'm often mentally fried, and end up rushing through everything just to get that "down" time after T's happily in bed.  That was shortchanging BabyT for what should be a nice, relaxing bedtime, so I started bathing her earlier in the day.  We didn't do baths on the days I worked, and somehow having a "random" bath time made it easier for us to forget (horrible parents, I know!). 

With winter approaching and T's sensitive skin needing extra care, I realized we needed to get into a routine, just like we do (religiously) for naps.  Bathtime is one of the "joys" I'd love to share with the hubby (aka, foist off on him occasionally) so moving it to first thing in the morning ensures two things:  that either of us can do it,  and that we are consistent since our early mornings are all the same.

At first it sounded like a HUGE hassle, and T was not happy about waiting for her morning soy milk.  But it's working well - she's gotten a bath every day like she needs to, it's faster since we need to change her anyway, and since we go into daycare relatively late on the days I work, we have plenty of time to add this into our schedule.  And of course the secret bonus is that on the days TJ is around when T gets up, he handles morning bath and food.  Hooray!  

4.  Big Meal Sunday
Feeding a toddler healthy food 5-6 times a day is a hassle, no doubt about it.  And obviously, it's not something I'd like to outsource (Lunchables? McDonald's? no thank you!).  I struggle with meal planning in general.  It's such a simple idea - plan what we're going to eat for the week, do all the shopping and prep when I have some time.  I just can't seem to get it together.  We're lucky that T still eats a lot of "toddler food", ie ingredients rather than elaborate meals, like fruit, soyogurt, pasta and sauce, BBQ chicken, oatmeal, edamame etc.  So a meal for her is usually just 3 or 4 different items from a small list of things she's likely to eat.

This doesn't really work for grownups, though, so I've taken to making ONE REALLY BIG pot of something on Sundays - Thai curry, chili, stew, etc.  We eat it for dinner on Sunday, and are usually able to get at least 2 more meals out of it for all of us.  This also helps for the days that one of us isn't home for dinner - there are leftovers in the fridge that comprise an actual, balanced, homecooked meal.  If it's something T really likes, she'll happily eat it for lunch and dinner, which gives me the peace of mind that she's eating healthy, real food with protein and vegetables, and not just subsisting on fruit leather and soymilk.

This alone has reduced the money (and health cost) of "desperation eating out", which is what happens when we look in the fridge/pantry, decide there's nothing to eat, and call the pizza guy or go out to some vaguely unsatisfying chain restaurant within 5 miles of our house.  I just finished reading The End of Overeating by David Kessler, and OMG was it eye-opening about the food industry.  So depressing but really motivated me to think about what I eat in a different light.

It also saves time, since meals are often quicker when we just stay home and eat something, rather than getting ready to go out, waiting for our food, vigilantly watching T to avoid a meltdown, and then heading home, *not* relaxed and only partially nourished.

It helps that I love to cook. I also have two favorite new cookbooks, Well Fed by Melissa Joulwan and America's Test Kitchen: Slow Cooker Revolution. So far everything I've made from either one has turned out great, which makes the initial time investment on a weekend afternoon *totally* worth it.

Those are the top things working for me these days, and keeping the beasts of stress and not enough 'me' time at bay. Got any tips for me? I'm a TOTAL time management junkie, so would love love LOVE to hear what works for you!!

Do you know what I know? (2011 Creath Family Holiday "Letter")

Hi everyone, and welcome to this year's Creath Family Holiday Letter Thing.  I was going to write a summary of what we did by month, but I'm just not feeling it, so I'm aiming for short and sweet.

2011 has been a great year for us.  Trillian started walking in May, and is quite the chatterbox!  She reliably sleeps through the night and speaks in full, amusing sentences.  For example:

Mama: Trillian, would you like some broccoli?
Trillian:  No, I would NOT.

We had her second birthday party at home in September with my parents and a few of her/our friends.  Spike is now 11 and Peanut is 9, but they're both doing well, though they sleep a lot more than they used to. 

TJ and I are still working at Competing Large Software Companies nearby, and are happy to have short commutes that are unaffected by the WA-520 bridge tolling fiasco.  Trillian likes the daycare she attends twice a week and brings home random stories about her classmates, like who drinks cow's milk vs. rice milk, or who fell on the climber.

In March, we celebrated TJ's *mumble*th birthday at Canlis with a small group of friends.  Hint, it's 0x28 in hex.  :)

We didn't travel much, but did go to Iowa this summer for the burial service of TJ's grandparents.  Though a sad occasion, it was nice for Trillian to see her grandparents, great-Granny, and her Aunt Robin. 

We also drove down to the Bay Area to visit friends and for TJ to do some work at the Mothership.  It was super hot but we had a great time visiting with our little friends Nicolas, Arturo, Zephyr, Anisha and Jaya. 

Right after that trip, I started a new job on a new team.  It's still part-time, and the team has been great.  They also taught me about the Honey Badger.  (Note: he is not kid- or work-safe.)

In September, we had a visit from Trillian's friend Maya and her family.  For a couple of almost-2-year olds, they did some pretty good sharing.

My parents were here for the summer in their new place nearby, and TJ's family came to visit for Thanksgiving.  We cooked a somewhat non-traditional Thanksgiving meal.



Amidst all of that, we went to the zoo a couple of times, made lots of trips to the dog park and Trillian's favorite "rumble slide", and had swimming lessons and Little Gym classes.  We've been having fun!

We wish you joy, prosperity and health in 2012, and hope to see you in Seattle!

Love,
Anandi, TJ, Trillian, Peanut & Spike

Thank you thank you silence

It's 7pm and the whole family is in bed.  Sad, I know, but we had a nice, busy day.  TJ's parents and Granny came over this morning, right around the time I started cooking, and kept BabyT and the dogs entertained and even better, out of the kitchen.

Cooking started off on a low note, with the pumpkin vinaigrette dressing tasting mostly like garlic.  I think the issue was using garlic paste instead of minced garlic. It wasn't bad, just not that pumpkin-y.

Rather than fretting about timing the cooking exactly, I just started cooking, and figured I could pop the early items back into a warm oven to reheat when it was time to eat.  We were aiming for a meal around 3pm, which would coincide nicely with the end of BabyT's nap.

I had a rule where I only had 2 things cooking at a time so that I wouldn't get overwhelmed/forgetful.  I also like to clean up and put things away as I go, which is something I learned in all the Chem labs I took at Caltech.  We even had a bit of downtime to run a load of dishes midway through the cooking (thanks TJ!).  Again, the Heating of the Ham confounded us.  Instructions say 7-8 min per pound, but also heat to internal temp of 130 degrees.  No word on whether that meant we needed to get it to room temp first.  So we didn't and it took more an hour for the ham to reach temperature.

The meal was a success, except for the mysteriously dry ham.  But that was TJ's gig, so I'll let him take the credit/blame for that.  And to be fair, neither BabyT nor the dogs had any complaints about the ham.

I could make a list of all the usual things I'm thankful about - my family, our cozy home, our health, etc. etc. I'm thankful for those things every day, and I know I'm blessed and lucky (to steal a line from 10,000 Maniacs).  But that's not very interesting, is it? 

So here's my list of little random things I'm grateful for:

1.  Vegan pumpkin pie.  Yessiree, it turned out AMAZING.  Even better than the Trader Joe's Apple Pie, which is the stuff babies are made from.  Or, well, my baby anyway.

2.  My in-laws are not outlaws.  They are really nice people. Seriously, no complaints here. Except their failure to finish all the roasted bacon squash, which meant we needed to dig up a tiny container to store the leftovers.  Because nobody throws bacon away.

3.  The fact that TJ wakes up ridiculously early in the morning (some of us call it the middle of the night).  99% of the time he's already been awake for a while when BabyT gets up. So he gets Morning Baby Duty (hehe, I said "duty") and I get anywhere from 30 min - 2 hours of extra sleep.  Hooray.

4.  The Whole9/Whole30 folks for fundamentally changing how I think about food.  I may not be perfectly "clean" but I have eliminated so many processed foods and feel *so* much better about it.  Today's Thanksgiving dinner was almost entirely made from whole, unprocessed foods, with the exception of the boxed gravy (last-minute addition) and the Trader Joe's stuffing, both of which I could totally live without.  Thanks Whole9 peeps!

5.  King County Library System and its amazing online catalog thing they've had at least as far back as the late 90s when people were using a text-based web browser (Lync? Lynx? whatever.)  Even back then, you could look up books online and request they hold them for you at your local library, regardless of where the book lives.  And they have *everything*, seriously.  Right now I have 6 books that I requested, and all I had to do was run in and grab them from the 'R' section of the Holds shelf.  Though, phooey to the other Redmond resident whose first name starts with 'ANA' and last name with 'RAM' because I keep trying to pick up the lame DVDs he/she requests, and it confuses me.

So there's my list of what's been making me all warm and gooey on the inside.  What about you?  How did your dinner go?  What are you thankful for? Inquiring minds want to know, plus you can leave me a comment while recovering from food coma in your stretchy pants.

Do you see what I see? (2009 Creath Family Holiday Summary)

Instead of killing more trees than I already am, with the handful of real live Christmas cards I send out, I thought I'd do one of those "year in review" letters online instead.

So of course, the big news for 2009 is that our family of four increased to a family of five. TJ and I and Spike and Peanut welcomed our new baby girl, Trillian Mira, into our family in September. But that's getting ahead of ourselves. I'll start at the beginning.

At the very end of 2008, we were invited by a friend to the recording studio where my new favorite band, Star Anna and the Laughing Dogs, were working on their newest album, The Only Thing That Matters. That was an unforgettable experience, and well worth driving through a few snowstorms.

On January 17, 2009, I found out I was pregnant. I didn't believe the test at first, so I did it twice. Luckily my doctor was open on Saturday, and they confirmed it there as well. We found out for sure while we were having lunch at Matador. That night, our BabyX got to attend her first live rock show - Star Anna & the Laughing Dogs, of course. Since she was just a bunch of cells at that point, I'm guessing she didn't hear anything.

Shortly after finding out, we went to Savannah for a long weekend to visit my parents, but unfortunately I spent most of the time in bed with an awful cold. Sad.

Though we told our families pretty soon after we found out, we kept it a secret from everyone else until we made it past the 12-week mark, in March. That was really hard for me, since I can't keep a secret worth a damn. We had a bit of a sticky situation in January, literally 3 days after we found out. Through a charity raffle at work, I won a free private dinner for 8 people at Crush, a trendy (and yummy) restaurant in Seattle. The first course was salt-cured raw tuna, which I couldn't have, but I had to find a subtle way to let the chef know. I wasn't subtle enough and my friend Jenna (who was also pregnant at the time, but not stealthily) picked up on it. But thankfully she could keep a secret.

We both learned some new skills at the beginning of the year. TJ took an art welding class at Pratt Fine Arts Center (the same place I took my metalsmithing series last year). Around that same time, I took a few months of rock drumming lessons. We both loved our classes, but haven't been able to rationalize getting either a welding setup or a full drum kit for the house. Sad, I know.

TJ went on several trips to Oregon for motorcycle track days in the middle of nowhere in April, May, June and the beginning of August. He took both the Ducati and the Triumph in his fancy trailer. The dogs kept me company at home though they were often confused at bedtime, because TJ was not there. On the bright side, they know that I like to sleep in so I was spared the Food Whining of the Beagle at 7am. He usually waits until 9am when it's just me.

Both of us continued to work at Microsoft. We love living so close to work. TJ can walk to his office in 19 minutes, and it would be even shorter if he could just cut through other peoples' yards.

We found out BabyX was going to be a girl in May, but they weren't sure, so we had them confirm it again at later ultrasounds. Fortunately, they were correct :)

My mom came to visit in June and we did a whirlwind of baby shopping, then TJ's parents visited in July and helped out with some house projects. Both visits yielded us some yummy food as well.

In July, we started our "getting ready for baby" classes. In retrospect we did get some great information, even if it was horribly annoying at the time. I found out that my husband and I are equally squeamish about watching videos about childbirth. I think one of them actually made me cry. I'm really grateful that TJ attended all of the classes with me. That made it more fun, and he convinced me to go when I wanted to bail out.

My friend Kristin came out to visit for July 4. We tried to go to the International Beer Festival at the Seattle Center, but waiting in line for over an hour was not happening for me, especially since I couldn't drink any beer once I got there. So we rode the rickety Seattle monorail instead. Now I can say I've done it, and don't need to do it again.

We didn't do much traveling - we wanted to stay close to home to get ready for BabyX. The end of July was nasty-hot (for Seattle), temps above 100 degrees. At 7 months pregnant it was pretty uncomfortable so I spent a lot of time at work, and the rest of the time holed up with the dogs in our air-conditioned bedroom (the only room with ac in our house). TJ was roasting at a sport bike rally and track day weekend at this time, sleeping outside in Eastern Oregon. Poor guy.

I spent a decent amount of time during those hot, uncomfortable months sitting in our hot tub, which we haven't used much since buying our house 5 years ago. It was nice and relaxing and helped a tiny bit with the swelling in my WALL-E feet. (remember the fat humans on the space ship?) If it weren't so darn funny, I would have been mad at TJ for being mean to me like that.

August and the early part of September were spent with me getting huger and eating lots of apple pie, and TJ and I freaking out about how there was going to be a BABY in our house, and what the heck were we going to do with A BABY?!

And then she arrived, and in an instant changed our life. She's been (knock on wood) a really cooperative baby, and she seems to follow the milestone "schedule" on cue. ie, exactly on the day I was 20 weeks pregnant, I felt her move. Exactly on her 6 week birthday, she smiled at us on purpose (it wasn't gas or poo).

Of course we are thrilled, but we've also had adjustments to make. The pups don't get as much attention or trips to the park. (Wrangling baby, stroller, and two dogs is a bit more than one person can handle.) We're not going to Vegas anytime soon. (I really don't think Vegas is a family vacation sort of place, plus what do we do with the baby when we want to play hours of pai gow poker?) Quick errands aren't so quick when you have a baby in the car too. Even something as simple as returning library books isn't - our closest library branch doesn't have a drive-up book drop, so you have to go inside to return books.

But we're rolling with the changes, and having a great time with BabyT. She got to meet both sets of grandparents, her Aunt Robin, and her great-Granny in late October and early November. She has started playing with toys a little and randomly whacking her head with her hands less. She makes awesome baby noises so we can pretend like we're having a conversation. Now that she's 3 months old, we can take her out to more places, though we're still careful because of the dreaded swine flu. She's been to several local restaurants and a few friends' houses and behaved admirably. I'm guessing that won't continue for long so we should enjoy it while we can.

Like all new parents we've been taking lots of pictures. Our Christmas present to ourselves this year is a brand new Canon S90 camera, which will be much better for baby pics, so we're anxiously awaiting its arrival.

Now that BabyT is a bit older, and sleeping pretty well, I've been able to get back to my craftiness. I've been really busy with orders this holiday season. My work was featured on Good Morning America on December 7. That really boosted sales, and continues to be good for my shops. Woo hoo! And that came from a chance encounter - one of my customers happened to work for GMA and asked if she could feature me.

So things are great with us, and we hope they are for you, too. Merry Christmas and best wishes to everyone in 2010. Happy New Year!!

In the desert of my dreams I saw you there

OK, so I'll try not to turn this into a "mommy blog" because I know no one wants to read tons of posts about the mundane details about somebody else's kid, but of course I can't avoid the subject entirely, being completely taken over by this new person in our house.

So on Friday Sept 18, on a bright sunny afternoon in Bellevue, Trillian Mira made her debut to the outside world. I honestly *could not* have asked for a better experience.

We had a choice to make a few days before that, about whether we wanted to induce labor, or schedule a C section, since her fluid levels were fluctuating, and it was safer for her to be delivered than stay in. I was not at all attached to the idea of a natural childbirth, and in fact, spent a good deal of my pregnancy being terrified of what was going to happen at the end. I wanted quick, painless, and preferably to not have to be there at all :)

So when my fabulous doctor said she definitely saw medical reasons to do a scheduled C-section, I jumped on board right away. I'm a planner, and oftentimes the anticipation of something bad is worse than the actual event. So we set up our appointment for Friday and went on our merry way. Well, I did. TJ stressed out about it for the 2.5 days, enough for both of us.

We had to get to the hospital a couple of hours early and of course we were a bit late because I couldn't sleep much the night before. After getting shuffled around between buildings due to the various remodeling projects we ended up in the pre-op prep room. At about that time, I decided I didn't like it at the hospital, and wondered if we could just go home. Side note: I've never been in the hospital for *anything*, except to visit other people, so being the patient was weird. TJ, having injured himself many times, was a big help in keeping me calm.

So they did the usual stuff - got the IV hooked up (yuck), took lots of blood pressure readings and blood samples, and the anesthesiologist and my doc and the assisting doc all came by to talk to us before the procedure. Of course, at this point I was internally freaking out, but time has a way of moving along so it was time to go into the OR.

And let me say, that the OR was nothing like Grey's Anatomy. It was *very* brightly lit, unlike at Seattle Grace, where I'm amazed any of the surgeons can see enough to get things done. And there was a ton of stuff in there - coolers with meds, chairs, stools, tables with instruments. It almost looked like a very clean storage room for tons of medical stuff just lying around in random places. I'm sure there was an order to it, of course.

I won't go into the gory details here, mostly because I didn't have any idea what was going on myself. TJ and I specifically asked all of the doctors *not* to give us the play-by-play of what they were doing because we're both horribly squeamish. Oh, and I should back up, for those who don't know, they do a standard C-section delivery with a spinal block, meaning I was numb from about the chest down. Which means I was awake during the whole thing. I tried not to dwell on that before the surgery, hence our request to *not* have the play by play analysis.

The doctors were amazing. The anesthesiologist was about our age, and 36 weeks pregnant, and she was friendly, and gentle, and calm and patient even when I couldn't get relaxed enough for her to do her job easily. That was the roughest part - for her to get the anesthetic in the right spot.

During the procedure, TJ sat next to me and we talked. About what, I don't really remember, but it was a nice distraction. The doctors were working behind a curtain and talking amongst themselves about random stuff, which oddly, made me feel much better because it seemed like this was a normal, routine, procedure. I really did not feel anything, which was GREAT.

And then my doctor announced they were ready to get the baby out (woo hoo!) and we heard that first cry. You always see this moment on TV and everyone gets weepy, and I'm cynical and not particularly sentimental, so I figured it would be no big deal. But I took one look at TJ and got all weepy. In fact I'm a little weepy now just thinking about it (of course, that might be the hormones, too.) They did confirm she was a girl, and I gave silent thanks that we would not have to buy a whole new wardrobe or repaint her room.

At this point I need to give a shout out to the delivery nurses as well - it was brilliant to watch the efficient, practied, expert way they handled my baby, got her cleaned up, and made sure she was healthy in those first few minutes. One of them even took all the early pictures for us, for which we are really grateful.

And the cool thing is that they do all the baby prep (is it like dealer prep when you buy a new car??) so that TJ and I could watch it, which is a nice distraction again from the rest of the surgery. I think the second half was actually longer, but we barely noticed because we were just watching our baby get ready for the world.

My doctor informed me that I had "abs of steel", which I guess I should be pleased about if I can ever get that nice flabby cushion out of the way for anyone to see them ;)


We hung out in the recovery room for a while with our new baby while various people came in and checked on both her and me, and eventually were taken to our "real" room for the rest of the weekend. Again, I was really impressed and thankful for all of the amazing nurses who took care of us. Clearly they love babies, and were so patient with our dumb questions, and spent lots of time educating us on how to feed and take care of this new little person, and how I could speed up my recovery. I am sure that we would not have gotten such a good start without all of these amazing women around to help us out. It was very tiring to be woken up every hour or two for vital sign checks, pills, and feedings, but I definitely think it's the reason I feel so good now.

So here we are, new parents for 5 days. We're pretty lucky because Trillian sleeps for 2-3 hours at a stretch, and has only had a few loooong crying episodes, both of which were fabulously handled by her daddy who seems to have the secret baby juju. He's also a much better baby burrito-maker than I am.

So there it is. More later once Princess SnuffleFlower has eaten and gone back to sleep. Everything gets done in tiny blocks of time around here.

Someone like you loved me

This blog is not about deep philosophical topics or insightful social or political commentary. I am enthusiastic about the things I love. And I like to tell people about them, in case you haven't figured that out already :). I blogged about my visit to the recording studio where Star Anna is recording their newest album here, and in my 1000Markets blog.

So one would think that was enough excitement for a week, or even a month. I certainly felt like I had a once-in-a-lifetime experience there.

Except, as it turns out, it was a twice-in-a-lifetime experience. My friend Dave let me know yesterday that I could come back to the studio if I wanted. Woo hoo!

But I had to convince TJ to drive, because my car is completely useless in the snow. Because he is so nice (yay TJ! props to TJ!) he agreed and we spent our Friday night back in North Seattle at the cozy warm studio, listing to the band record the last couple of songs and bits of songs.

So instead of yammering about it (ok, in addition to the yammering), I'll share a couple of short videos that are quick peeks into the studio. Here's Justin Davis, the fabulous guitar player (his making fun of my Queensryche shirt notwithstanding). If you look closely, you can see TJ at the very end of the video.



This one sort of captures the essence of the experience in the studio - the attention to detail and careful listening to the tracks, the collaboration with Brad Zeffren, the kickass recording engineer, and of course, the mountains of take-out food fueling a week of hard work:



It was another really fun, mellow evening filled with *great* music.

The last song blew us all away. It was just Star and her acoustic guitar, on a song called "Tripping Wires" (I think). I don't write well enough to adequately describe the way this song made me feel, or the atmosphere it created. It makes me a little weepy just to think about it. (And like I said, I'm not *that* girl.)

There was pin-drop silence in the studio, both while she recorded it and when they played it back to listen to it. It was so freakin' amazing, I was rooted in my spot on the couch, almost afraid to breathe. And there was *lots* of snuffling all around.

It was a privilege and an honor to be there. To be in the presence of talent of that magnitude just rocked my world. That moment reminded me of being college, and meeting people who were on an intellectual plane so far above me, it was awe-inspiring. And then a few minutes later, those same people would go with me on a donut run, like they hadn't just solved a problem that no one else in our entire class could even begin to tackle. And it always left me thinking "Where the heck did that come from? How can one person *do* that?"

Yowza. And with that, I leave you with a video of my favorite song, "Wait" from Star Anna's Crooked Path album. I wonder if they'll take requests when they come to play here at the house? ;)

The places we exist

We've had an eventful past couple of days here at the House of Peanut. Unfortunately not all of it good, or of our choosing. But we're getting back on track now :)

Sunday I finished and mailed the necklace and earrings set for Katie, the winner of my custom jewelry set in my high school's charity auction last spring.



Monday night, Dave and I went to see DragonForce, a power metal band. I wasn't a HUGE fan of them, but liked a few of their songs, and it was an inexpensive show and you all know how I love metal. So I was only marginally excited pre-show. And then we got there, and it ROCKED. The two opening bands, Powerglove and Turisas, were INCREDIBLE. Powerglove plays metal renditions of old video game music.

Turisas dresses up like Vikings and has an electric violin and an accordion as part of their band. Oh, and they're from Finland (of course!) Here's an awesome cover of a disco song by Turisas:



It was the total rock spectacle and so much fun! Totally worth the $25 and I found 2 new bands I like. Not a bad way to spend an evening!

Tuesday was Election Day! And my guy won! I voted in the morning, didn't have to wait in line, and got my sticker.

Unfortunately, yesterday was also the day that TJ's appendix decided to call it quits. Our doctor sent us to the ER instead of having us come in, and we sat around and waited, got some tests, and then TJ had to get the stupid thing removed. He also got to spend the night at the oh-so-luxurious Chez Overlake in Bellevue, and got to come home this afternoon.

I do have to give props to Overlake Hospital for their free wireless Internet so I could keep up on some personal and work email while I was waiting and also obsess a bit over the election results.

Sadly, I had to miss the Matt Nathanson concert tonight (what is it with concerts and illness??) and the next time he returns to Seattle he'll probably be playing at Key Arena given the number of times I've heard "CMon Get Higher" on the radio. Oh well, such is life. The Microsoft dude I gave my tickets to (for free!) better be having a good time, dammit!

Oh, and Trista received her birthday gift from Paul that he designed and I made for her. So I could finally post this custom personalized bracelet in my Etsy shop, in time for potential holiday shopping. This is what I wanted to blog about earlier but couldn't.



I am really pleased with the way it turned out. I was so nervous to work with the more expensive sterling silver sheet after spending all my time on copper and nickel silver, but I guess the practice paid off. And I cannot thank TJ enough for introducing me to my Dremel for all the polishing/finishing steps. Rumor has it that Trista likes it, so that makes me happy.

I'm working on another one for a friend's wife, but since it's a Christmas gift, I can't post that here until next year. But it'll be fun.

In other exciting Etsy news, I doubled my first year sales already in the past 6 weeks! (Actually, it happened before that because I got orders for 10 stamped ID tags and for 5 tags and lumped them into the same order, so Etsy only counts those as 2 sales even though they were 15 items total.) If it continues, I'll hit this year's goal of 104 sales in a couple of months. Woot!

Well, it's that time, and I should get some sleep. Tomorrow is a loooong work day ahead of me to catch up on the past two days, plus making sure TJ is supplied with pills, English muffins, and hot chocolate.

Hopefully your past couple of days have been good ones!