It's a Miracle

Well Kiah slept from 11:30 last night to 4:30, yep folks that's FIVE hours. Granted it will probably never happen again, but I feel pretty great right now. Well Moira has turned in to a total t.v. addict since Kiah's birth. I tried going cold turkey with no tv yesterday which resulted in two screaming kids for several hours so we're revising the strategy to slowly reduce tv time.

We had a great time in the sun this weekend. We finished planting a couple of flower beds and introduced Moira to a bin of sidewalk chalk. The basketball court makes a great canvas.

Nick's first project with his new table saw was to build a trellis for this lanky rose next to the front door.

Nick has also dug out a new path that will go from the deck to the upper level of the back yard. This flower bed will border one side and the flower bed up against the gazebo is on the other side. This bed has two purple hebe we inherited from Judy and Paul and 3 white azalea and three purple azaleas that we got from Keron and Ross.

We also finished planting the bed next to the gazebo. It contains two indian hawthorn, a bleeding heart, 4 hostas two rhododendrons (I particularly like the peach/orange one) and 20 day lilies and a row of inpatients for some color.

Pity Party

Well I try not to be much of a whiner, but this is one of those rare times when I just need people to agree that this sucks. In addition to the normal trials and tribulations associated with taking care of a newborn I now have a cold. My fever is 102 I have a hacking cough, which only serves to accentuate the post partum pains in my abdomen, and a horribly sore throat.

Kiah sleeps blissfully for 3 hours at a time during the day, but wakes up every hour to eat at night. So I'm stumbling through the day in a zombie like trance. To top it off Nick goes back to work tomorrow, and my mom is still out of town. Luckily Keron will be here wed to help out, and my mom also gets back in town, so for now that is my focus and goal, I just have to make it 2 days.

Moira's doing pretty well with the addition of Kiah, but we've had a lot of acting out. How much of that is developmental 2 year old stuff and how much of it is in reaction to Kiah is hard to say. She's discovered the word MINE, and frequently expresses her ownership of all manner of things. Blankets and the boppy pillow have become highly contested items, and we're subject to a fair amount of whining over the most mundane aspects of our daily routine.

Last but not least Kess has injured her back. She's swollen right on her spine over her hips. Of course I would happily rush her to the vet for x-rays, but Nick has pointed out that we have no money. So we've agreed to wait a week to see if it improves. So in the meantime it's ice and aspirin for poor Kess.

Hopefully today I can get some one on one time with Moira, and a nap in and things will look a little brighter.

Danicin'

The newest little Ericson

Kiah Ashlyn Ericson joined our family at 11:52pm on April 19, 2008. We're just starting to get a handle on getting everyone dressed and fed and ready for the day at reasonable hour. Nick's decided to take another week off from work, which is great. He'll still gets a whole month off, and will probably take that later in the summer.

Moira is starting to warm up to the idea that Kiah's here to stay, but she has acted out a little. The most noticeable side effect is a lot more whining out of Moira. So far we're able to still both get some one on one time with her every day, and work hard at making the most out of the time when Kiah is snoozing.
Today we all headed out to Moira's school carnival. They had lots of games and little prizes for the kids. We followed up the carnival trip with a stop off at a little park near the house.

Several folks made it up this weekend to see little Kiah. It was great to see everyone and put our deck to use on such a nice afternoon.

Nick's Birthday

Well we couldn't have asked for nicer weather . . . it was in the mid 70's out on the deck for our afternoon barbecue. We all seized the opportunity to don short sleeved shirts and enjoy the sun. After eating all day we capped off the evening with a fire. Moira had a great time entertaining all of her aunts and uncles so of course we had to take pictures.

STILL waiting

Well after the Dr's promising report that my baby would probably born in a couple of days I thought I'd be posting baby pictures by now. Well a couple of days have come and gone. Since people are planning on coming down sat for Nick's birthday I figure it will happen then, and we'll just have a house full of people waiting around for us to get out of the hospital. However, I've learned not to cancel activities because I thought the baby might come. I would have been sitting around at home a lot this week if I hadn't just kept up my plans, and that makes the days even longer.

In other news Kess got bit by a dog at the dog park and when I told the people she'd need stitches they grabbed their dog and ran away. You got to be pretty low to run off from a huge pregnant lady, her toddler, and her bleeding dog. Karma shall exact my revenge. Of course it was after hours so I had to take her the emergency clinic. The next morning I had to leave the house for an hour and she promptly tore out her staples, there went $300. I called the vet and since the wound was more than 24hrs old, and since we have no money, they said to just watch it for infection until it dries out, and that it will just take a long time to close up.

The adorable toddler report is that Moira is a big fan of the harmonica Juju bought her and goes into foot stompin, gyrating fits when anyone plays it. I have yet to capture the phenomena on video tape.

Gotta start them young

Moira, my mom and I went for a picnic at the Seattle Arboretum. Moira has recently been requesting "go up in tree" I expect her Dada has something to do with that, although grandma said she practically lived in trees when she was younger.

Just in case you haven't heard I'm STILL pregnant. This little bun has already been in the oven 4 days longer than her big sisters stay. It's the waiting at the end that's the hardest, but for the most part I'm surviving.

Ahhhh. . . springtime

Well we've really enjoyed the nice weather the last few days. I even hauled my fat butt out and got the rest of the flowers I bought planted. Nick mostly finished recovering one of the flower beds, and got some shrubs that my mom brought over in the ground. Moira loves to go outside, outside, OUTSIDE. Of course she prefers the back yard where she can go up and down the stairs and taunt mom with death defying feats next to the retaining wall. She also really likes to run around in circles on the basket ball court. The only problem with the back yard is that it requires a thorough poo patrol before Moira can come out. I miss the days when the dogs just went off into the woods to go!



In other news this baby has officially baked 2 days longer than her big sister. I'm pretty sick of waiting, but since there's not much I can do about it, it's business as usual around here.

Moira investigates her shadow

Lucky Break!!

So way back in Jan I fell victim to a speed trap. I haven't gotten a ticket in 15yrs so I was pretty annoyed that the cop gave me a $250 ticket, plus my tabs had expired, which was another $200. So I decided to actually go in to court to see if I could get the fines reduced. Well I finally had my court date today. Apparently the city of Lake Forest Park lost their copy of my ticket and the copy that I sent in with my request for a hearing, so the judge had no choice but to dismiss my tickets since they didn't know what they were for. Unfortunately I was so happy I forgot to get anything to that effect in writing so I'll have to call them tomorrow. I could just see trying to renew my licence and getting told it was suspended for unpaid fines.

It pretty much made my day, week, month. I wish I could say that we went out and celebrated, but we're broke so we just rented some movies and had a pizza, but I might have to go buy a lottery ticket in the morning.

Sping time fun

After the tease of a couple of sunny days it's almost impossible to wait for spring much less summer. We've been busy with all sorts of projects as usual. We had a nice long weekend . . . Moira went to stay with my mom for the night! So Nick and I went out to a nice lunch friday and followed it up with a trip to the Seattle Art Museum to check out the Romans exhibit. It's several large marble artifacts brought over from the louve. Since I don't think I'll be in Italy any time soon it was well worth the effort to see the exhibit baby free! It really puts the troubles of our times in perspective when you're standing next to a 2000 year old masterpiece.

On sunday a friend came over and with her and Nick's help we made several obstacles to test your frisbee throwing skills for the upcoming disc dog season.

Last weekend was mainly dedicated to the yard. Nick turned the pile of dirt next to the retaining wall into a proper ramp, allowing us to easily navigate the lawnmower and wheelbarrow to the lower half of the yard. I had ambitions to reclaim some of the flowerbeds around the gazebo. After floundering around for about 30 min I conceded defeat to the belly, luckily Nick took pity on me and did a little digging. I've reigned in my gardening plans to filling the front bed along the house and reclaiming and planting the bed around the gazebo. Moira was only to happy to help with digging in the mud and getting dirty.

Back in the swing of things

Well it seems like life's just been to busy to blog lately, but we seem to be experiencing the calm before the storm, so I'll get everyone caught up. Moira had a great time at her second birthday and here's the evidence of her cuteness. She knows all about presents now and had so much fun blowing out her candle that she made Dada re-light it several times.



In Feb. I helped my mom put on her annual women's boating seminar. This was the 11th year. It's a big event with several speakers and around 100 participants. As soon as that was done I decided to try making a new web page for my frisbee dog club. I'm in charge of soliciting donations and well was just plain embarrassed to send to people to the old page. I think it turned out quite nicely, and the best part was that I didn't have to learn any programming. I found a microsoft program that just let me drag and drop everything in to place. Then I had Nick around to fix the tricky bits. You can check it out at www.woofd2.com .

We've had numerous projects at the house, and got a good start on the two flower beds that we are determined to reclaim this year. We have big plans to put a large bed along the street in front of the house, but that might have to wait until fall. Nick got the bathroom wall repaired and now we just have to get some money, figure out what we're going to do, and put the rest of it back together.

Moira Year 2

Well it's that time of year again! Moira turns 2 on monday, and everyone is coming down to help her celebrate on sunday. In honor of the event I made a short video . . . you can see last years under march 07.

Happy Valentines Day

I couldn't resist the goofy flower headband in the $1 bin

Of course the tourture extended to the poor dogs. Suki either lacked the discipline to keep the headband on or wouldn't submit to the indignity.

snow, snow, snow, snow . . . . .

Snow Day

Even as an adult I still love the feeling of waking up to the suprise of snow. At least for today it was only the dogs and myself that got out to enjoy the winter wonderland. Moira still has near panic attacks about the snow and Nick's home sick. Suki and Kess have been charging around all morning having a blast. I figure I'll get Moira bundled up after her nap and try once again to show her how much fun snow is.

Looks like we found our first remodel project

This morning Nick wanted to take a look behind the shower insert in the guest bathroom upstairs. The seal on it was broken in a couple of spots and mainly we wanted to check/clean up any mold and re-seal it until we were ready for the major remodel. Well once the first panel was removed it became apparent that there was quite a lot of damage. All of the 2x4's and exterior sheeting are rotted through right out to the exterior siding which you can see in the picture. Since this will require actual structural repair it's a bit intimidating for our first project, so we'll have to call in some expert advice. So while it's a little depressing after a project like this we should be comfortable tackling other projects around the house.

Sew busy

Well for whatever reason I launched in to a flurry of sewing activity over the last week and I wanted to show them off.

This is a quilt I've started for Moira's birthday. I still have to cross stitch the four corner panels to complete the top and bottom rows, but I've got enough done that you can get the idea. This will be my first quilt and even though a couple of my seams didn't line up exactly I'm pleased with the outcome so far.

I made these two covers for boppy pillows for my sisters baby.

Last but not least I cranked out 3 baby blankets. One for me, one for my sister, and one for a co-worker of Nick's.

In addition to the quilt I have a couple of other projects I'd like to complete in feb. so lets hope my enthusiasm isn't diminished as the projects go on.

Well at least I can blame it on hormones . . .

Well somehow I convinced Nick we should get another dog. I have been browsing craigslist and petfinder for around a year looking for a smaller dog that likes kids. I really wanted a mix, and I came across border collie/jack russel. I was expecting something smaller, but she had a great temperament and let Moira hug and kiss on her, which was really the most important thing. Her name is suki. She's got a nice light and athletic build, and though we had a few rough days everyone has settled into their routine and we're all getting along now. Kess is still a little jealous, but she's starting to realize that having another dog around can be pretty fun.

Snow and sunshine

Well Moira was really excited about the snow a couple of weeks ago. She kept running to the window and pointing and declaring sno sno sno. So despite it being dark and cold out we bundled her up and headed outside. It was at this point that Moira decided she wanted nothing to do with the snow. she refused to put her legs down at first and eventually conceded to standing right next to us as long as she could pelt Kess with snowballs.

The following day proved to be nice and sunny so we hung out on the stoop for a while and eventually Moira took some tentative steps out into the snow. She still wasn't very keen on the whole thing, but at least she worked through her snow anxiety.

Do you soduku?

Moira loves to copy mom and dad. She'll sit for quite some time carefully making little marks in the soduku book, and of course she has to ham it up a little when the camera comes out.

Kess Herding

Most of you know that Kess and I have taken sheep herding lessons off and on since we got her. This is really a great outlet for her and a chance for me to develop a completely different relationship with my dog. While she's not quite ready for the hills of Scotland we've had about 15 lessons with a new instructor and she's really doing well so I thought I'd post some video. Since I'm very preggo now Brian handles her most of the time, the stick he's holding just has a plastic bag tied to it, and though he gets after her a little for those of you who know Kess hitting her upside the head with a 2x4 would only distract her momentarily. Our focus in training is to get her to work at a calm speed and to be thoughtful about her actions while around the sheep.

Christmas

Yet another christmas has come and gone. We had a great time this year (despite having colds) and really appreciated everyone coming to Seattle to join us in our new home. Moira had a great time seeing everyone, and after a little coaching was a real pro at opening presents. We feasted on both christmas eve and christmas and managed to squeeze in all the relatives. Moira couldn't hide her delight when it came to the party hats in the christmas crackers.

To top it off it even snowed on christmas. Luckily it was pretty warm so it didn't impede driving to terribly, but it was beautiful. It's always hard to get everyone together with such a large family and so many different things going on, but it's well worth the effort. I feel very fortunate to have met Nick and to be so warmly accepted into the family. Regardless of all of the differences it's a family full of love.

Kess manages to take a break from staring incessantly at the frisbee

Ross and Paul enjoy an afternoon cigar

Our big gift to Moira was a play kitchen, some assembly required was a bit of an understatement, but luckily we had lots of help.

Hmmm . . . maybe we should look at the directions

Our big day downtown

Well since Santa was a bust we decided to head downtown for some other christmas fun. First stop was the christmas carousel. This was a big hit with Moira who requested another ride after the first, and wanted to stay on longer but mom and I were both starting to feel sick from all the spinning. Moira got really excited every time she caught a glimpse of the carousel for the remainder of the day.

Next stop was the teddy bear room. This is in a fancy pants hotel in downtown, and it's pretty much what it sounds like. A room decorated up with lots of teddy bears. We were the only ones there at the time so we had a full on photo shoot. It was also a nice break from the pouring rain and cold outside. Everyone had lots of fun and I look forward to going again next year.

Pretty Funny . . .

My mom e-mailed me this link. It takes a little bit to load up, but it's worth the wait.

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1425354485

Pretty cool . . .

The first thing that's pretty cool is that I managed to catch chaos. He had traveled to our old house again. After a week in the cold he seems to be a little more content to stay inside. Unfortunately he has a really bad ear infection, so it's off to the vet today. I'm not sure how long he's had the infection, but I would guess at least a week, as it's very swollen. Having suffered from ear infections my whole life I know just how painful these can be, and perhaps this is the cause of all of his wanderings.

The second thing that's pretty cool is the Bellevue Botanical garden in the winter. We had lots of fun there at various times in the summer, and were delighted by our trip last night. They put up Christmas lights to mimic the flowers, they're all LED and they are only on for 5hrs a night, so it's even fairly environmentally friendly. It's also free to go, which is always a plus! Moira was pretty excited by the whole thing and ran around at top speed squealing with delight at each new set of lights.



The third thing that's pretty cool is that Nick's Cousin Abbi has moved to Tacoma from Atlanta, and she came with last night. She got to meet Moira for the first time and escape the motel six she's been calling home for the evening. Luckily she gets her apartment today so she can start moving in.

Maybe next year santa . . .

Well mom convinced me to give pictures with santa a try. After one look at that jolly fat man, Moira declared no, no ,no and headed outta there. Despite trying to entice her with candies, she wasn't going anywhere near Santa. We all had a good laugh, and even though we don't have pictures with santa here's the rest of the christmas pictures to supplement what went out with the christmas cards.

Back online

Well as of yesterday we were once again able to get online. We've finished several projects around the house . . .

-Nick installed a dog door to the garage so we could keep the pets food and cat box out there. The only problem is that Moira also fits nicely through the door so we have to keep it closed all of the time. It gives us some incentive to finish unpacking the garage so it wont matter if she makes it in there.

-Nick, with a little help from Moira, finally managed to fix all of the leaks in the bathroom. This project had become much larger than it's initial appearance. The most frustrating part was knowing that we plan on remodeling the bathroom next year and all that work would just be removed, but we really needed a downstairs toilet and sink!

-We also got the front door painted and the new locks installed. This had become more pressing since Moira liked to play with the old key (it had an led light in it). She had wandered off with it a few times and it was always an adventure finding out where she'd left it. We got to use a gizmo at the store which used a green paint chip from the outside of the house to tell us what the best colors to use would be. It really only confirmed my choice which was purple, and convinced Nick I wasn't insane.

Our little wandering kitty has left us again. After spending five days in the house he dashed out the door sat. morning and failed to return. Hopefully he's headed back to the old house again. We plan to try one more time to convince him that this house isn't evil. If we find him Nick's going to set him up with a deluxe hidey hole in the garage and one in our bedroom. If this doesn't work we'll need to find him a new home, so if you have space for a kitty let us know.

Tons of other stuff has happened, but I'll just leave you with a little preview of some Christmas card cuteness . . .

Unpacking and other woes

Well we finally have some rooms in the house looking pretty good. We've even managed to conquer a few projects on our ever growing list of things to do. It seems like every project we start leads quickly to another. The 2hr job to replace a leaky stop valve under the sink is now going on day 3. Nick pulled out the cabinet to get better access to valve only to find mold, which extended under the linoleum. So we pulled that up and got everything sufficiently bleached and dried and back in place to find that now that one leak was fixed another had occurred within the facet so now we have to replace the gaskets inside the faucet. We have gotten a lot done :

-repaired leaky shower control and faucet

-installed proper venting for the dryer and got washer/dryer hooked up

-cleaned up the yard some more

-unpacked tons of stuff

-finally figured out where all of our utilities come from



On a sadder note our kitty chaos has disapeared. He got out some time mon night. Neither of us actually saw him leave, but he is nowhere in the house, and we've seen no trace of him since. Hopefully he'll find his way home since I doubt that he'd let anyone catch him.

Moira serves up some fun

Moira's Big Girl Room

So I've been giving an obscene amount of thought to what theme I want to use for Moira's room. I was thinking butterflys and fairies, but Nick said no way. So them we decided on dragons/fantasy we already have a few things that fit this idea and it seemed to suit both our requirements. Well the only dragon bed sets I could find cost big bucks so the next plan was to make my own bed spread, but I couldn't find anything sufficiently girly until last night. The new plan is to buy a comfortor cover and add this to the top, and then go from there for curtains etc. I e-mailed the e-store to double check and they say it's 45" fabric so I guess you get two stripes in 45".

The other thing we've aquired for Moira is a nice chest of drawers and matching end table. I scored these for free off craigslist. They need a paint job (and we just happen to have lots of purple paint) and a piece of trim replaced, but they're solid pine and very sturdy.

STILL waiting

Well the house failed to close today, and because it's a holiday weekend it will not close until tues or wed next week. A couple of things came up at the end . . . first the guy who owns the place didn't show up to sign the paper work, then we discovered a lien on the house for $750 for a delinquent water bill. Last but not least the short sale company, which is owned by the listing agents husband made some sort of clerical error shorting the bank $900. The bank will have none of that since the home owner already shorted them 50k so they had to do a bunch of paper shuffling today. On the upside they haven't asked us for any more money and we should get about $400 back from the escrow company since we paid as if we were taking possession today. Our realtor has assured us that this is quite normal in short sales and that our is actually proceeding more easily then others he's worked on. After a little searching on the Internet our experience has been pretty painless compared to other stories online. It looks like it should be no problem to get everything squared away early next week, so the big move is still on for next weekend!

Surprise Adventure

My friend Aaron went to sheep herding with us last week and afterward we met a friend of his and took his plane for a quick trip. It felt and sounded a little like launching a volkswagon bug into the air, but it was pretty cool and I even got to fly for a bit. I've never been up in a small plane before and it was quite a different experience from large passenger planes.