Day 20-- A Serenade / The Grandparents Arrive

I'll start today off with a video shot this morning of Edgar serenading us on the piano with "You Are My Sunshine." I find the piano technique reminiscent of Gastr del Sol.

Jen's parents showed up today! They flew in from Utah and rented a car, and we have adventure on the horizon.

Here's us all pretty this morning, ready for Grandma and Grandpa. Edgar is in this rad 70s corduroy jumpsuit that our niece found at a garage sale. He picked it out himself today.

We spent the morning cleaning the house to not-quite-as-clean-as-we-hoped. Jen and Edgar had vacuum wars.

And Grandma and Grandpa were here! This is Grandma first meeting Sabrina.

(Trust me, they became better friends).


After getting acquainted, grandma and grandpa got acquainted with their hotel, and we all got acquainted with a nice long nap.

Upon waking, we paid a visit to the Salem Carousel, and spent some time on the playground. Grandma was convinced that the 50+ degree weather (absolutely balmy for the northwest) was too cold for a bundled-up Sabrina, so they cuddled in the car.

I don't have any pictures of that (Jen forgot the camera), but be forewarned: Grandma and Grandpa are photo-happy. What this means for the blog is: if you're facebook friends with grandma, you'll get lots and lots of pictures. If not, we generally don't take pictures when grandma and grandpa are around because with both of them taking pictures, any other shots seem superfluous.

Dinner was at Jen's favorite restaurant, and Edgar got to show off why he's more difficult to deal with than the new baby, screaming, hitting, and generally being a menace throughout dinner. Two trips to a cold bench outside with dad did very little to curb his craziness.

After that, Jen's mom and dad were worn out.

Over the course of several years of marriage, Jen and I have come to realize some hard truths about visiting her parents: Her parents keep very early schedules. Usually, they are awake by 4 AM and in bed by 7 PM every day. Jen and I do not keep early schedules by any stretch. Add to that a 1-hour time zone difference, and, regardless of if we visit Utah or if they visit Oregon, we are 4 to 6 hours off their schedule. This means they are awake for 4-6 hours every morning before we get up, and we are awake 4-6 hours after they go to bed. Every visit.

This means that a day with grandma and grandpa is much shorter than usual. It also means that when we spend time with grandma and grandpa, at least two of us are very tired. It's a lot like Ladyhawke, except without the fantastic magic or epic romance... which means it's not at all like Ladyhawke.

This is why Jen made an appointment to tutor a student at 8:30 tonight... which is where she is right now. I'm at home, with a sleeping Edgar, and a fussing Sabrina on the hands-free:

Tonight will hopefully bring the conclusion of the season of 24 we have been watching, and hopefully with that, a return to normalcy rather than this manic have-to-watch-one-more-episode-before-we-go-to-sleep thing.