At his 9 month well-child check yesterday he let his doctor really know how he felt about naked head-circumference measurements. He weighed in at 18 pounds, distributed over 21 inches. (I’m also still the same as last weekend 128.8… so far we are tying for “biggest loser” and we are both big winners. ) Anyway, this puts him at 78 and 22 percentile for height and weight respectively. A long and lean baby machine!

Then Lake got really wound up last night. It’s like he knew it was going to be his monthly anniversary so he needed to hit all his milestones in time. Plus there’s no 29th this month this year so he had to make the most of the midnight moment. 

Voila! He did it all. He was crawling for the first time. Giving kisses for the first time. And pulling himself up to standing from the floor. Really! Long and lean… what an all-star!

Lily Wu asked Lake if he had a girlfriend. Then she gave him an apple. He went right for it; he didn’t even need a serpent to tempt him! He is in love. We fell pretty hard for her noodle shop ourselves, with its authentic Northern Chinese cuisine and hand pulled noodles. 



As you can see, but not taste, from the photo, Xi’an Noodles is deserving of its many accolades and raving newspaper reports.  And it’s only a couple blocks away! We will surely be back, Lily! Thank you for your hospitality and welcoming Lake so enthusiastically. We all had a great dinner amongst the hustle and bustle of the build-your-own bowl cooler station and the other happy satisfied diners. 

We woke up to a white surprise here in Seattle this morning … more snow!

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Michael made it safely in to work driving early in the snow, and today is the day I start my new walking commute position at the UW Tower processing and authorizing medication refill requests. So I’m all set to go as long as I wear my boots with their all weather treads. So exciting! Now all I need are a few pictures in the snow with my snow bunny Lake!

Our fenced backyard isn’t quite cat proofed. There are significant gaps between the bottom of the fence and the gentle sloping grade of the ground. So we have been dreaming of fencing fortifications ever since we moved in late last year. When I spotted these while walking home from yoga this weekend, neither Michael nor I could resist. Suffice it to say we scavenged some bricks from the neighborhood build site for a romantic Sunday night date night. 

Lake helped of course!

The kitties can’t wait for spring and the prospect of going outside!!!

This weekend I discovered one of our neighborhood hair salons was having a grand launch party with free food and haircuts. What fun… so we all got our hair cut! What a festive day!

I went first

Then Jo

Lake watched and had some free food too! 

Thank you Suong (Susan), we love our spring cleaning trims!

We even came back with Michael when he got home from work! He looks super hot with his new trim. Hello Hair!

It’s a whole household effort to get me to yoga this weekend. Everyone appreciates when mummy goes to yoga, most of all me!

For Saturday I choose the 90 minute hot hatha yoga class. The one that humbled me last summer. Today it was a delight. The heat felt good. Especially after all the cold. It felt good to shed the layers. The big mirrors allowed me to really look at myself. See me. Say, 

Hello!

I wore my turquoise short shorts and matching lululemon yoga bra top. I looked myself in the eye. I looked at my torso, I looked at my toes. I looked forward. I looked backwards. I looked at myself from one foot, and then the other. 

Hello, body! It’s nice to see you! Thank you for carrying me around and all the wonderful work you do on my behalf every day. I love you! You make me laugh with happiness. 

These sentiments Lake models for me every day. 

Sunday I woke up sore. So I chose the 90 minute Vinyasa class to work out the kinks. No mirrors for this style of class. The gaze was internal. 

Hello ribs! Hello neck! Hello toes! Hello feet! Hello knees! 

This weekend of focused yoga work was like putting myself in the washing machine. I was able to clean things out. Clear things up. Coming out fresh and clean… limp but renewed. 

Last night I got crab snapped… by Lake! He was grinding his teeth pretty vigorously. Of all things in an almost nine month old… teeth grinding. We’ve always thought he was wiser than his years: an old soul. But teeth grinding is a bit much. It sounds like grinding glass. So I do what any caring but not thinking mother would do… I reflexively stuck my finger in his mouth to separate his chompers. 

Snap!

… and hold…

All told he has eight teeth and one strong jaw.

Owa! 

Being crab snapped by Lake harkens back to an earlier anecdote. To the time just before I was just pregnant with him. I went crabbing with Michael and some of my family’s friends from Quinault, Chuck and Gary. We went in Gary’s little boat out into Puget Sound just off of Bainbridge Island. It was thrilling and romantic. Gary offered to marry Michael and me using his captains’ privileges. The crab pots were set out overnight and we all had our licenses to harvest. Chuck gleefully heckled us as we pulled up the crab pots trying to beat the setting sun. 

Faster! Faster! You weak city folk!

When it came time to count the bounty from our crab pots, I stuck my bare hands into the buckets with the writhing mass of live (mad) crabs and counted. One snapped and wouldn’t let go. Chuck being nearby (and maybe feeling a bit bad about the heckling?!) jumped in to intervene. I thought I was going to die or at least be back at Harborview with an amputated digit. He was finally able to pry the crab off my finger, but not before I had nerve damage that lasted for weeks. I couldn’t have been any happier to be killingly the crabs after that incident! 

My dad referred to these as the “good ole days”. These days… of this here… three day weekend we just enjoyed. We cherished every moment of these past few rainy days together. Lake had a grand ole time. Inch wormin’ and scootin’ and rollickin’ … working on his crawl and his other basic survival skills: being charming. 

We did laundry and car maintenance and sorting/tidying and went walking and ate really well. Lake relished all his grandparents’ attention. I relished being off-duty for a bit and being able to read a novel. One day we will be looking back on these as the good ole days. Why not inhale them fully and enjoy them wholeheartedly in the present? These good current days. 

Carpe diem! Thank you Nana and Papa for the special Presidential weekend! We’re glad we spent it with you…

Friday was a beautiful day to introduce Jo to the Washington State Ferry system. Jo goes exploring! She walked down to the Seattle Terminal from Harborview in between Lake’s lunch and dinner. Jo traveled with the precious cargo (Lake) over to Bainbridge Island to visit Grandma Julie for the afternoon. 

They played in Winslow for a few hours. Thank you Julie and Jo for showing Lake around. A good time was had by all! Let’s do this again, eh? A perfect day, really and truly!

The common theme in our family lately seems that of having gained weight, being overweight or wanting to lose some weight. Mr. Cat recently had a near-brush with death whereby, among other lifesaving interventions, he incidentally got weighted (22 pounds!) and the takeaway message from the veterinarian was that he could stand to lose 1-2 kilograms. Doctor’s orders!

I’ve also been eating with impunity, thinking everything turns into milk these days. Which is true to a point. These past few weeks the scale has tipped noticibly towards the excesses of irresistibly delicious bread and scrumptious vegan butter consumed… Macrina, so good! Weigh-in today confirms the truth. A few weeks ago I was successfully maintaining at a pre-pregnancy baseline weight of less than 125. Today: 128.8. 

So, commences The Biggest Loser challenge. Lake is even throwing his hat into the ring. No one expects him to win though. He’s currently hovering around 18 pounds with his official nine months well child check coming up in a week. 

Our favorite tips for remedying our overweights are:

1. Halt the refined carbohydrates. 
2. Get moving! A walk around the block can easily become a walk around the city. 
3. Have a glass of water. Delicious and craving quenching… so satisfying!
4. Eat some fruits and vegetables!

Trading in this:

For this:

Want to join in the challenge? Let us know! …And we’re off to the races!