As aforementioned, Lake has been sick for seven weeks straight now. Michael jokingly refers to it as kennel cough. Additionally Lake’s non-purulent serous eye drainage started culturing bacteria and it was finally time for antibiotic eye ointment. We want nothing more than for Lake to be fully restored to health, but it seems elusive as long as he continues to be exposed in the daycare warren-like environment. 

So, for a multitude of reasons, getting Lake out of the warren among them, we are so excited to be welcoming our new au pair next week! It has been a fortuitous luxury to have had the Bright Horizons available for Lake in the interim. There were many advantages. It has allowed for me to return to work prior to us getting our new house and the au pair bedroom sorted. It has allowed me to maximize my feeding time with Lake before, during, and after work, because right now he commutes with me. The folks at the daycare center have been very interested to care for Lake and very complimentary of his disposition. Ultimately, however, we are preferring to have Lake cared for in our home. It will be nice to have him outside of a school like setting while he is still so young. 

So enter our au pair Jo. Jo is arriving here from northern Germany next week! She heralds from near Bremen, home to the famous Grimm traveling musicians. 

Jo will be coming to spend a year with us, maybe two if we are lucky. She will be living in our home as an extended family member and caring for Lake 45 hours per week while Michael and I are out “pharming”. We consider Lake and ourselves to be very blessed to have such a talented young woman joining our family. We selected her from a plethora of online profiles among three different international au pair agencies. Pardon the analogy but it was a bit akin to online dating. After just two Skype interviews, with both trepidation and excitement we decided to both choose each other. We matched! We are feeling very good about the match and are looking forward to Jo’s arrival next Wednesday night!

Our little ginger has been continuously sick since the moment he touched foot in his daycare on November 17th for an hour long trial visit. The most recent iteration includes a lovely viral conjunctivitis wherein Lake wakes up every morning with his eyes glued shut. Hopefully the five day course is running itself out any moment now. 

Michael and I have an active debate about if and how breast milk squirted in the eye might be helpful for this condition. Enthusiasts seem to promulgate the utility of breast milk as the panacea of therapeutics. My husband is a huge skeptic. I’ve just got to report that it’s a lot more challenging to get any breast milk near Lake’s eyes than one might imagine. But I’ve also got to admit that amongst cries of protest, head turning and hands that are clearly against the idea, I’ve tried. How can you not with a face that looks like this?

Yesterday we finally got around to opening our Christmas stockings on New Years Eve Day. Among other things, Santa had brought Michael a ginger root.

Lake immediately took to that ginger root and began gnawing on it. Combined with the breast milk elixir, it surely stimulated his vis …

It’s inspiring to experience Lake’s unfazed joie de vivre in the face of the most undesirable circumstances. Blinded, snotty, sick teething and smiling! And with such radiance and trusting curiosity. 

Happy New Year, little Ginger! You light up my life! May health and happiness embrace you and your loved ones on this Perfect Day and in all the days of the year to come!

Cheers to 2017!

We sent off the tail end of 2016 with a very cold spell. Kicking around our hood. The Ave. Michael and Lake grooving in Ave Rat style. 

 

Today we walked down to the IMA which was closed. The sunshine might have been out for a bit and was a bit misleading. We were underdressed. It was too darn cold so we hopped a bus back up to the U District. And another bus up to Wallingford for some fancy pho before going to see a film at the Guild on 45th. Manchester on the Sea. Such a great theatre. They have a private room for babies too. So awesome. We usually end up having a diaper blowout or decompensation right around the climax of the plot though and transition from the front up to the private room and somewhere in there miss some crucial dialogue. So we are left wondering how Michelle Williams gathered so many accolades for her cameo in the film. I think that the diaper change took up most of her screen appearance. It was still a deep film; I cried my way through most of the film. 

After the film it was colder and almost snowing. Lake only had one shoe and sock on because the other side became a casualty of the diaper blowout. I tied my hat around his legs like a sleeping bag foot to help protect him from the sleet. We walked home and swung by Trader Joe’s for some hot drinking chocolate fixings but they had just closed. So we seized the opportunity to check out our neighborhood Indian grocery Mr. B’s Indian Imports instead. No drinking chocolate, I think that was the Mayan Indians, but we did come away with an array of goodies for a delicious dinner Michael whipped up. And we discovered our local source for dried beans: lentils garbanzos and such. We also have a neighborhood vegan grocery. Real gritty Ave Rats. 

We arrived home and we were extremely grateful to have a warm house to call home. So maybe not true Ave Rats, but certainly in the spirit of the old school Ave. Good bye 2016. Thank you for bringing us Lake! You were SOME YEAR!

Lake is seven months old today. I celebrated by eating pie after he went to sleep at eight o’clock. I fed him all evening so he should be well tanked up. Then I needed to replenish myself too! My friend was right, it’s hard to keep the weight on after the breastfed baby casts off his training wheel appetite and really tucks in for his dinners. 

So, behold this beautiful pie Nana made especially for gluten free vegan mummy! Perfect with a Coconut Bliss accompaniment. Now, Happy (monthly) Birthday Lake! You enrich our lives so much with your ebullient spirit!

These are precious days. It’s hard for me to believe Lake will be seven months old on Thursday. We are enjoying watching as he explores the interface between his body and the world, both intentional and unintentional. 

He is practicing his dry ground swimming… 

His lean into gravity…

His pushing himself up for a better view. 

And how his smile invokes such delight in his mummy…

We are deeply appreciating what are likely the final days of his pre-ambulatory phase. It’s a luxury to set him down and know that within the confines of a roll or a spin he’s staying relatively “put”… We know his scooting and crawling and then running and walking days are coming up fast and will keep us on a whole new level of “our toes”…

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We hosted some folks for Christmas Eve. It was a bit of a Moving Day reunion actually. So nice to be in our new house in time for the holidays! There are still a few boxes yet to be unpacking and I’ll be darned if my glassybaby candle holders weren’t in the very last of the boxes waiting to be unpacked. I really didn’t think we could host a holiday dinner party without them, but somehow we managed. 

We are having a great time starting new traditions for our family and for Lake. 

So far our neighborhood has heralded many delightful surprises with near daily revealings. Our neighbors introduced themselves last weekend and it turns out we struck neighbor gold. We could not have asked for a nicer family, except maybe if they had a son Lake’s age. Then presto, the very day after meeting them, their son was born. Now, at one week old, Peter is a promising young playmate. We have already bumped into him out cruising the neighborhood, hanging with his family out in front of the local coffee shop. And there are more great neighbors too. And even more red headed boys! What fortune! New house, new neighborhood, new neighbors, new friends new traditions; some Christmas!

My family has a bit of a tradition for a holiday walk before dinner, any holiday will do. So this Christmas Eve, although it was cold and rapidly becoming dark, we bundled up Lake and set out towards the forested ravine of Ravenna Park just a few blocks north of us. We walked all the way through the ravine and then it was becoming darker so we headed back home by way of Ravenna Boulevard. In the process of our homeward bound predinner perambulation we discovered we live very close to Candy Cane Lane. I was perfectly delighted by the surprise!

Some Christmas Eve! We are already looking forward to next years’ festivities to share with family, friends and Lake! Candy Cane Lane will surely become one of Lake’s fond memories of our Christmas Eve traditions. 

Peek…

…a boo!

Good morning Lake-face, and friends! Welcome to a perfect day! Enjoy ❤

Lake is getting more and more interested in exploring our food. Last night he got a basilica stalk from Daddy. He gripped that thing so tightly. It stayed in his hand and he chewed on it throughout the second half of our dinner. 

First half he was showing strong interest in the pho bowl, sucking on the side and gazing longingly into the depths of the broth. Lake, I know just how you feel little man. Pho mesmerizes me too… I love it on a cold night. 

He’s Pho Than Brothers newest fan!