Thanksgiving pics

Hi this is Chris. I have something like a sinus infection, and thinking about going to bed now that it’s almost 9pm.  However until Emily has a chance to post her next entry, here are some pictures from Thanksgiving:

http://picasaweb.google.com/chris.browder/Thanksgiving08

Weekend update

Another great weekend in Seattle!  We took the kids swimming at the Bellevue Aquatics Center yesterday after lunch.  For Harry, it was getting close to nap time, but once he realized where he was, his little froggie legs went a kickin’.  He smiled and kicked and was so relaxed in the water it was wonderful.  A couple of times I turned him over on his back and he was so relaxed with his head rested on my shoulder that he seemed like he was falling asleep.  Surely he must be remembering his water birth just six short months ago.
Afterwards, I decided to head out for a bike ride.  I wanted to go for a longer, flatter ride since the last time I did mostly hill training.  So, I decided to follow the bike path to Seattle.  The trail sign said “Seattle 8 miles”.  No biggie I thought.  I could do 16 miles easy in Cleveland.  UM, not so easy.  Actually, I got myself in WAY over my head.  I wanted to get to the floating bridge that connects Mercer Island and Seattle because the views are awesome.  Plus, it feels like your on the water.  I got there in about an hour, but I had to get all the way back.  And did I mention we live UP the hill, pretty far up the hill??  Yeah.  I have never been so glad to see home.  Next time I set out I have to remind myself about hills.
Today we went to the “jeans” service at our Methodist church.  The girls call it “the Jazzie Service” because they have a band.  It’s actually very good.  I’ve never been one especially fond of Christian rock, but I rather enjoy the music and Harry does too.  He loves dancing around and being sung to. 
Then Chris and I left the kids with a babysitter and went hiking around Lake Sammamish State Park, and then some hiking trails not far from our house.  The views of the mountains were spectacular today because it was sunny and clear.  Sadly we had no camera.  I was busy trying to do some last minute tidying before the babysitter came, and Chris was busy duct taping a rusted pipe under his car.  Camera was left behind while we rushed out the door.  I’ll try to remember a camera the next sunny day (which may happen again in, well, May).

A couple quick notes.  Elyse & I just returned from a successful night at “Skate King”.  Roller skating is not as easy as I remember.  Elyse hugged the outer wall for the first half of the evening but eventually moved away and just held my hand.  We got tangled up a few times and this made us laugh hysterically.  It was fun.  Camille was a VERY good sport about the fact that Elyse and I had special time.  I think letting her have special time at the pool first was a good idea.  I feel a bit pathetic that Skate King was my big night out, but even more pathetic that I contemplated putting on makeup for the event.  As it turned out, I didn’t have time anyway.  Oh well.  Makeup is overrated.  Yesterday Harry was napping in the car before his Dr. apt. and I decided to go crazy and put on a little lip gloss (I know, Cra-ZY!).  I put it on, and then quickly remembered why I don’t wear lipstick or lip gloss.  I got Harry out of the carseat and went to kiss the top of his head and smell his freshly washed hair (Thank you Katie Herman for his awesome shampoo & body wash) when I remembered the lip gloss would leave a goopey mark.  Definitely not worth it.  I would much rather kiss his head and feel his soft little downy hair on my lips than look good.  The same goes for anything other than cotton shirts.  Try nursing 5 times a day in a blouse.  Not comfortable or fast enough for my kid.  I sacrifice looks for a lot.  I am still taking Elyse to the bus stop in my pajamas, but at least I don’t pick her up in them too.

So lately I have been so busy reading other blogs, people’s facebook stuff and email that I am too exhausted to update this.  Can I say LAZY?  But, I just checked my blog stats (Chris finds this hilarious) and I see that suprisingly there are still people who read the entries.  Therefore, I feel obligated to write.
We had one of the best weekends here since the hoola hooping extravaganza (see late Aug or early Sept for that one).  The weather decided to compensate for a week of rain by offering us mild temps and sunny (yes, sunny) skies.  Saturday the whole family went hiking on some neighborhood trails.  Harry was in the backpack.  Sweet little lamb.  The girls hiked some really steep hills with enthusiasm.  We ended up at our neighborhood park for a picnic.    Later that afternoon I did hill training on my bike.  It was a half hour of alternating between barely being able to make it up a hill in position 3 (or standing, for you non-spinners) and flying downhill.  My hamstrings are still talking to me.  Sunday we went to church and the girls and I cleaned a bit in the afternoon (they enjoy stripping down to their unders and cleaning the kitchen floor on their hands and knees–who am I to argue?).  After an early dinner, the girls and I went for a evening walk in the dark.  They made up this game where we had to sprint every time a car drove by.  They must have run/walked a couple of miles like this.  It was really fun having time with just the 2 of them.  Then, later I did this yoga video I got from the library which was actually really challenging.  87 minutes of down dogs and sweat.

Speaking of being warm, while Nan was here, Camille and I got to go swimming together at the Bellevue aquatics center.  They have a heated therapy pool which is 90 degrees and feels so good.  Camille and I swam around effortlessly and I couldn’t help but feel extremely blessed with 3 healthy kids as I watched many special needs individuals get lowered by machine into the pool for actual therapy.  And speaking of healthy, Harry had his 6 month check up this morning.  He weighs 18 lbs. 2 oz.  which is close to average for his age.  He seems to be plateauing a bit.  He was a sport about getting his shots though.  He cried while getting the actual shots, but immediately afterwards he gave the nurse a smile and squeal of delight.  He knows a pretty female when he sees one:)
I forgot to mention in my last blog the following story.  While Nan & Teddy were here we played a little game at dinner that involved reading a “conversation starter” card and then each of us answering it.  One was “talk about something you did as a child and got away with”.  After explaining what this meant, Camille totally got it.  She confessed that one night, when Elyse and I were upstairs, she ate a chocolate chip cookie.  It was hysterical.  Elyse couldn’t think of anything.  Elyse, my little rule follower.  It’s ok Elyse, the only thing I could come up with was the time I lied about Ben wearing a tie to school.  And I’m 34.  Elyse and I are going roller skating tomorrow night for a special night out just the 2 of us.  I would say out of all of us, she seems to have had the most difficult time with the major transition (including the baby, the move, etc.).  She told me a week ago that she feels like she never gets any time with me.  It’s true.  She is at school until 4, and so she only gets the 4-7:30 time which is the most chaotic time of my day.  I’m trying to help her with homework, feed Harry and nurse him, put him to bed, get dinner, baths, clean up after dinner, etc.  I feel like I mostly just bark orders at her in the morning…”do you have your backpack, your coat, did you brush teeth, make your bed, clear your cereal bowl,” etc.  How do people have more than 3 children and still make time for all of them, and themselves?
Oh, and speaking of neglected, Eli is trying to adjust as well.  He had the good life in Virginia with my in-laws.  He was an only child, got to sleep in their bed, was fed on demand, and got his litter box changed daily.  Well, here’s a prime example of why he’d probably rather be back with Nan & Teddy.  I was trying to feed him the other evening while juggling my other tasks mentioned in previous paragraph.  I changed his water, then opened the can of wet food, and threw it in the bowl.  He walks over to his bowl, but a second later he comes back around the counter to where I am standing with a pathetic meow and a confused look on his face (seriously).  I walk back over to the other side of the counter only to realize I have thrown his food into the wrong bowl and now it is floating in his water dish.  Sorry buddy.  He probably dreams of his 4 month vacation at nan & teddy’s and wakes up disappointed daily.

Nan, Teddy & Eli Come!

On Thursday night, in the pouring rain, Chris was able to retrieve Nan, Teddy & Eli from the airport. We have been so busy doing all kinds of sightseeing, we haven’t had time to update the blog. Oh wait, we haven’t done ANYthing of the kind (unless you count walking up to the top of our hill and viewing downtown Seattle & Bellevue from there).
What we have REALLY been doing is putting people to work. This is nothing new. Friday was rainy so Teddy took a conference call and Camille & Nan spent time playing in our lovely garage. I got to spend an hour with Elyse at school, helping Mrs. Lockwood and observing her 19 first grade students. That afternoon we dragged the kids out for a drizzly walk in the neighborhood.  Saturday Chris, Dave (Teddy) and the girls went to Chris’ soccer game. The morning started out lovely, and … you guessed it, eventually started to rain. Dave spent most of the morning keeping the girls separated. Elyse’s jacket never actually protected her from the rain because she wouldn’t actually wear it.  She gets off the bus on rainy days with it tied around her waist. Whatever.  Too cool for school I guess.
We tried to take the girls to the park and it rained, again. ,Finally we gave up and Dave, Sarah & I went shopping for new light fiixtures for our eat in kitchen & dining room. The weather turned out to be gorgeous that afternoon of course..but we were too busy shopping to enjoy it.  We went to 3 different stores, and ended up back at the 1st store and decided on 2 coordinating lights. Dave & Chris spend Sat. evening hanging the chandelier in the dark with the occasional minor electrocution only to discover that the energy effecient chandelier can’t go on a dimmer switch and it is also WAY too WHITE for a dining room in my opinion. SO, 2 hours later, the fixture was back down and repackaged into the box for return.
Sunday we went to church and then to IHOP for brunch and also a quick swing by the lighting store for an exchange for the same fixture only energy ineffecient.
We did have a rather funny incident with Camille getting ready for church. She was dressed in a sleeveless yellow polkadot number.  I suggested that she perhaps pick something a bit warmer since it was, after all, November.  “Well, Mom is wearing a sleeveless shirt” she argued.   It was, for the record, a sleeveless sweater). Nan, trying to be helpful, said “Yes, but she’s also wearing nice warm wool pants”. Camille’s winning retort was “well, MOTHS EAT WOOL”.  With that line of logic, she won hands down.
Sunday afternoon it was back to the dining room chandelier project. Today Teddy worked on the girls’ sliding closet doors which were always falling off their tracks. Also, he had to assemble a storage tower for Elyse’s closet because she has very little shelving. I got to go to Camille’s Circus Day at school and paint faces as well as lead the kids in a song (unknown to me until that very moment) which involved dancing like an elephant, penguin and blackbird. How do you dance like a blackbird?
Sarah & I got to talk a hike this afternoon with Harry in the hiking backpack.  We were trying to go to  Summit neighborhood, where Chris and Teddy had walked the previous day, but we took a detour.  Regardless, it would have been a good workout without 20 lbs. on my back.  I will sleep well tonight.  Sarah has raked our leaves, read for hours to Camille & Elyse, swept, done dishes and laundry, and watched Harry so I could actually visit Elyse & Camille’s schools without Harry in tow.  This help, as well as having lovely lighting in my kitchen & dining room has been wonderful. 

Here is a link to a couple of videos of the little guy.  Chris has him training for the 2 and under travelling soccer club.

Also, we’ve baked and eaten A LOT of brownies.  here are some pictures of that too…

Pictures

Seattle PST

This is Chris. I know it’s been a while, but Emily usually has more interesting stories than I do.  We recently released a lot of new content to Target.com.  Please try it out and give feedback.  You can look at Quick Info pages (those are those “pop-up” like things when you click ‘quick info’) or detail pages (those are the pages you go to for specific products).  If you have some annoyance with Target.com, that’d be great too.  We try to make it better, really. And only know about issues if you tell us!

I attended my first Amazon all hands meeting yesterday.  Tom Cruise showed up for an interview and talked to Amazon employees.  Jeff Bezos was there and had many interesting things to say.  He made several funny remarks about his interview with Oprah (see part of it here:

.  Mostly about how his job was just to sit there and nod.  Amazon was offering free tickets to screenings of Bolt (new Pixar-like Disney movie, but in 3D!) as well as screenings for Valkyerie (Tom Cruise new moving coming out in December) and Madagascar 2.  Unfortunately, the timing for Bolt was bad because my parents are coming in tonight.  It’s too bad the screening for Bolt wasn’t tomorrow because they would have liked it.

I also wanted to mention that Emily’s pizza making skills (or steps) still need a little refinement.  I’d like to add a step 3b.  If pizza requires it, put it on a baking sheet.  I luckily saved a pizza last night from an unfortunate fate, but it turned more into a very lumpy calzone rather than a pizza!

Here are some more pictures: <http://picasaweb.google.com/chris.browder/Halloween#>

So what I really wanted to mention is that I don’t think the issue with Seattle is the rain.  Course I say that now before winter and it really gets rainy.  The issue with Seattle is that it is north and west in the timezone.  With daylight savings, it’s getting dark about 5:00pm or so?  now and it’s not even mid-November yet.  I think it’s the lack of light that gets people rather than rain.  I’m thinking about full-spectrum lights and some of these lamps (just click the button)

Halloween recap

Despite the fact that it poured all day on Friday, it cleared up just in time for trick or treating.  Bits and Andy arrived with Zack around 5:45 after an uneventful drive up and we quickly shoved food into the boys so that we could go to the neighbor’s Halloween party to shove food into our mouths.  God bless my nneighbor Linda.  She had 4 different soups for the adults and mac n cheese for the kids.  Bits and I marvelled at how this woman could feed an entire house full of people, use REAL china, and serve a lot of them their food and drinks…smiling the whole time.  I can’t even feed my own family, and here she is minutes before trick or treat time, feeding our whole neighborhood.  LIttle sidebar here…Coincidentally, Linda’s sister in law was there, and I recognized her because she was the PTA president of Elyse’s 1st school (on Mercer Island).  She told me that Alfie Kohn, (an author of many interesting parenting/education books) is coming to speak some time this winter.  I’m very excited about this! 
So anyway, after the party I took Harry home so he could go to sleep, and Chris took the rest of the gang trick or treating.  They were joined by Elyse’s classmate, Brady, and his parents and 2 little brothers.  Spend time with Elyse and you’ll hear a LOT about Brady.  Camille tired out around 7:30 so she, Bits, Andy, & Zack came home, and I went out with Chris and Elyse and Brady’s family.  The kids got a lot of candy.  Luckily Chris and I are happy to help with the chocolate bars.  Maybe we’re even a little too helpful.
Saturday Bits and I tried to get some exercise but by the time we took the whole family on a walk, and then offered to take the girls to the park, it started to rain so we gave up.  Sunday, the sun came out for a bit, so decided to walk again.  But, by the time we got Zack fed, gray clouds were appearing.  We set out anyway, with Zack in our fancy stroller with rain cover.  We got about 15 minutes into our walk when it started to rain.  A man drove by, rolled his window down, stuck his head out the window and said “Don’t you know it’s raining out?”  I smugly replied “This is Seattle!”  Bits and I walked proudly on in our fleeces.  (didn’t figure we’d need raincoats when it was sunny just a short while before) 5 minutes later the rain turned into a severe DOWNPOUR, complete with sleet.  The streets flooded.   Our pants were so drenched they were weighting us down.   Amazingly, Zack stayed completely dry.  Not a drop of water on the boy.  So much for taking a nice walk.  Chris had parked his car in the street so the trick or treaters could easily get to the front door and his wheels were 1/4 burried in water.  The sewers were totally backing up all over our neighborhood.  Incidentally our neighbor Linda drove by us as we struggled up the hill soaking wet.  She must think we’re slightly nuts.
Today my mishaps included spilling half a bottle of Tide Coldwater all over my laundry room floor while trying to innocently throw in a quick load of laundry before I took Harry for a walk, and then this evening I managed to drop a gallon jug of apple cider on my kitchen floor.  God help me.  It’s 9 pm and I’m going to bed, before I have some other major catastrophe.