Day 29: A Garden Gnome

I got a little taste of what the future would look like today.


First off, we had another hard night with Sabrina last night. More waking up moaning and crying, but not really being awake or lucid enough to drink or follow instructions. We recognize this from Edgar's night terrors as a semi-awake but mostly asleep state. We've found (with Edgar and Sabrina) that it's super tough to wake them up from a state like that, and the best strategy (even with Sabrina's crying, kicking, moaning, and shivering) is to get her to go back to sleep and hope the next time she wakes up, she wakes up all the way.

Because the fort took up the living room (see yesterday's post), I slept downstairs on the couch. I am discovering that this new (used) microfiber couch makes me sweat all over, which is no good for me or the couch. I got a rotten night's sleep, and had to be awake before you know it.

Up at the crack of dawn, I was out the door quick, and I said goodbye to a just-waking-up Edgar and a not-very-awake Jen before rushing out the door. I drove from foggy Salem into brilliant and beautiful Silverton, 10 miles away.

I had a work meeting-- I was asked especially to make it to this, so I went.

The meeting was held at the Oregon Garden, which I'd never been to before. It has a beautiful location on the hills over Silverton, and has a beautiful view of the whole valley.

The meeting was a work meeting. We talked about stuff that was pertinent and useful to work, but it was 8 hours of meetings. Having been off work for the past month, I seemed to have the hardest time of anyone in the room sitting still. Seriously, my brain checked out after 3 hours of it. It was enjoyable seeing my coworkers, and several people were envious or curious about the blue/green hair.

I also talked to my boss-- Plans are still a bit up in the air, but this 7-weeks-off plan for parental leave is mutating. Best guess now is that it will be 6-weeks-off-1-week-on-1-week-off. I don't know how that works around the blog, but I'll keep you posted. Most importantly, I'm trying to keep the (very nice) extra time off while extending my leave through the first week of november.

After the interminable meetings finally came to an end, I took an hour or so to enjoy the Oregon Gardens. Also, there were some pokemon calling my name.

this fountain, for one, was a pokemon gym.

Oregon Garden fungi

what a view, though.

The garden reminded me a lot of the gardens at Thanksgiving Point -- pretty, a little overmanicured for my taste, Obviously a place for super-rich donors to gain some sort of tax exemption. Looks like the sort of place that you would go for an end-of-the-year field trip in elementary school if your teacher didn't want to think or work too hard.

(If you're looking for a beautiful garden in Oregon, might I suggest Deepwood?)

After battling two pokemon gyms and getting my own pokemon installed in there, I headed home.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I gather Jen had a hard day. Sabrina's pain was even worse today. Again, we're trusting the doctor who said her pain would peak today. She had a lot of crying fits, and spent a lot of the day listless in front of the TV, although she is still getting some hydration.

Sabrina picked out Betty's outfit.

...and did pedicures.

These girls love each other. You can see how much mouth pain Sabrina is in, though.

I brought home, by special request, orange creamsicles for Sabrina. She ate four in a row, so you know she's getting some hydration. I'm glad to give them to her.

Had Fred Meyer Sushi for dinner with Jen. That was a favorite/craving when she was pregnant with Betty. It's also a convenient dinner.

Put Sabrina and Edgar to bed, and watched some netflix with Jen (with a sleeping Betty), including (on impulse) an episode of Murder, She Wrote. We love Jessica Fletcher, but after seeing Manchurian Candidate, she's also more than a little spooky.