Day 37-- Birthday on the road

Jen with a precariously sleeping Sabrina.

I rolled out of bed this morning at 6, and packed the last few things on our list. I dropped an icepack on the linoleum with a clatter and woke Edgar up at 6:45, so I woke him up and enlisted him in helping me pack, with the promise that we could surprise Mommy by singing Happy Birthday once breakfast was ready.

I got my gift ready, although I forgot our new tradition of allowing Edgar to give a gift (for Christmas, etc.), so I quickly opened what I had and let Edgar choose. He picked a bag of M&Ms to give mom for her birthday. Breakfast was an agreed-upon toast and pears, with a 3-0 candle precariously jammed into the toast.

We sang happy birthday to mommy (Edgar sang too), and Jen woke up and had her breakfast. Edgar got impatient and asked mom for some M&Ms. She hadn’t opened her present, and said “I don’t have any M&Ms.” Edgar grabbed her present and said “Yes huh, Mama.” I gave Jen some records. Both of them came with a free digital download, so I downloaded copies and burned them to CDs to play in the car.

We got out of dodge, and went to my folks’ house for the first stop; had a bowl of goatmeal for second breakfast, and Sabrina was hungry, so I caught a quick nap in my old bedroom.

We made the long drive north, and by the time we reached the agreed-upon lunch spot in Aberdeen, we were starving. We ate at the Breakwater Fish market. We have discovered that the best seafood restaurants are ones with a fish market attached. The fish is super-fresh, and they usually know how to cook it so that it complements the natural flavor of the fish (as opposed to drowning it in raspberry sauce or what-have-you.) Jen, Edgar, and I shared steamer clams, fried clams and scallops, and clam chowder.

I’ve always loved the town of Aberdeen (and Hoquiam, its twin). It’s where Nirvana is from, but that’s kind of irrelevant. It was, at one time, a major metropolis. It was a shipbuilding site and major harbor in World War II. It has been a regional center for the timber industry. Now, the docks are empty, empty pilings line the harbor and rivers, the logging industry has died down, and the town has been in a steady decline (each year harder than the last, with less jobs and fewer people) for 60 years or more. Hard times are old news. Being near the coast, the elements are harsh, and there’s so much urban decay. The houses need painting every 3 years or so to keep from looking derelict. I think it’s kind of pretty watching nature reclaim a city, and it’s fun to watch the locals trying their best to hang on, and to cheer them on. Aberdeen has also got the best thrift stores in the world, and that’s a verifiable fact.

Anyway, after late lunch in Aberdeen, it was a little more than one more hour (asleep in the passenger seat) to get to our favorite place on earth, Kalaloch (the place, not the band). We checked into our cabin, located on a bluff over the mouth of Kalaloch Creek, with a fantastic view of the ocean and Destruction Island (also, the place, not the band). When we arrived, both kids were in meltdown mode. It took quite a while to get each fed, changed, comforted, changed, and happy. Yes, there were several diapers for each involved.

Once things were a little more settled, we took the kids next door where Grandma and Grandpa are staying in the next cabin. Edgar played while Grandma cooed over Sabrina.

Edgar modeling Grandpa's hat

Mom made us wonderful homemade beef stew, although she had a senior moment earlier, and cut up the steak that dad bought and marinated for another night’s dinner as stew meat. In her defense, it was really good stew meat. For dessert: birthday cake! I don't know how my parents managed to procure a birthday cake out here, but it was a sweet gesture.

What a blaze!

Edgar didn't want to stop the birthday celebrations.

We managed a few hands of 3-handed pinochle while Dad read Edgar all the books that we brought with us.  

Sabrina, in her bundle, with playing cards

Hey! I'm sleeping here!

Then, it was bedtime for Edgar. He was excited to sleep in his playpen, hastily put up in the kitchenette of our cabin. He went down easily, and it didn’t seem to bother him (or he didn’t notice) that when we walked out the door, we were leaving the cabin and heading next door. Thank goodness for baby monitors. Sabrina had crashed on the bed, freeing us for our favorite activity with my folks: pinochle.

After several rounds of pinochle and way too much microwave popcorn, it was back to our cabin to feed Sabrina and hopefully go to bed. Since it’s Jen’s birthday, she’s mine if she decides to stay awake after her feeding. Wish me luck.

Day 34-- Laundry and Taxes

There's not much to say about today. We've been planning for today ever since Sabrina was born. I kicked Jen and Edgar out of the house, and spent the whole day doing laundry and taxes.

Not my favorite things to do in the world, but things that I can dedicate some time do and get done.

So, I got an early start on laundry today. When Edgar woke up, we gave him some ibuprofen. Jen explained, "This is medicine for boys who have owies. Do you have any owies?" Edgar said, "Noooooo!"  We also re-bandaged his hand with band-aids.  He played with his hand like normal today, so it must not hurt too bad.

Look at them Band-aids! Edgar was proud of 'em.

Jen and the kids finally got out of here about 10:30 or 11.  Then it was just a matter of sorting through the MONTHS of mail piling up, throwing out the junk, and figuring out what I had.

I took a bike ride to Fred Meyer (thank you volkswagen shop that's had my car for 6 whole weeks with no word). I found a bike trailer for Jen for her birthday, but they were all out of stock in Salem, so I did the unromantic act of making her pick it up and pay for it while she was in Vancouver... Ah well.

You see, it's okay. I've got some credit in the bank. Jen forgot our anniversary year-before last, so if my birthday gift is subpar, oh well.

For the rest of the day, I napped, and did taxes. I made bacon and eggs for dinner. It was pretty unglamorous, but I accomplished everything I set out to do, so that's good.

Jen and the kids came home. I rebandaged Ed's hand in gauze and put his mitten on his hand, and rocked him to sleep. Dealt with a fussy Sabrina. The only thing that seemed to work was bouncing her and singing "'Brina is a punk rocker".

Finally finished the laundry, played a little 'tendo with Jen, and it's time to call it a night so I can get up early for skiing.

~~~Theme song for the day: Tsunami - Hockey. I've always admired the synth sound they achieve later in this song. I got to see Tsunami in the basement of a house in Salt Lake in 1997. It was legendary. ~~~

Day 31-- One Month Old

This beautiful little girl (the one on the left, silly!) is one month old today! Her big brother loves her very much. They even look like siblings.

When we last left our fearless adventurers, Sabrina was sleeping in the car seat, and was expected to wake up any minute, but surprisingly wasn't waking. Her parents finally got smart at 1:45 and went to sleep, fully expecting to be awakened by a hungry and fully awake daughter at any time.

At 7:30, we were awakened to cries. They were Edgar's. We spent a moment of panic wondering why there was no baby in our bed... then we realized that she was still asleep. Next to our bed. In her carseat. Where she had been sleeping since about 9 the previous evening. Wow. Finally, Jen woke her up and fed her.

Edgar and I chilled and watched some He-man. I blogged. We got dressed and went to music class together. It was still weird. I still can't put my finger on it why I felt uncomfortable. We listened to the Wiggles implore us to shake our sillies out. I wondered how they could manage to make a light australian accent sound so completely smarmy...

After music class, we went home to pick up Jen and Sabrina, and the four of us went to Monmouth to visit some of her old professors, etc. While it wasn't a riveting, exciting day, we had fun. Edgar and I ate at Yang's teriyaki, the best (and cheapest) teriyaki in the western hemisphere. Jen was supposed to join us, but she was stuck in the car feeding a hungry Sabrina and changing an epic diaper.

If you just asked, "Wait, Alex... What, exactly, is an epic diaper?", well, here is how they come about.

Sabrina had an epic night's sleep (roughly 10 hours-- approximately 13 times her big brother's typical night's sleep at this age). Following the epic sleep, she had an epic feeding. Following the epic feeding, well... you get the picture.

For a low-key post-lunch activity, we headed to Baskett Slough wildlife refuge. Baskett Slough is about 10 miles from Salem, and one of those places that we've driven past a million times, but never bothered to stop. I'm glad we stopped. While the kids dozed in the back seat, we drove a gravel road through the refuge, and saw ducks, hawks, a bald eagle, and more canada geese than my mind can comprehend. I didn't manage any good pictures, but I've never been much of a wildlife photographer. Since the kids fell asleep, we went home, and did the Jen-and-Sabrina nap inside, and Edgar-and-Alex nap in the car. We've discovered long ago that you can't move Edgar during a nap. If he falls asleep in the car and you try to take him inside, he wakes up cranky and doesn't go back to sleep. So, sleeping in the car.

Edgar and I woke up fairly soon in the car and went inside and had some chill time. Watched some Signing Time and most of Sword in the Stone while I got dishes done and some cleaning up. Jen and Sabrina slept on. Finally, we had run out of milk, and were feeling kind of restive, so Edgar and I went to the store. We got ambitious and went to the record store, too. Edgar brought along his He-man sword. He was very good in the record store, and let me browse through all sorts of records. This was an unusual trip, as I came out empty-handed. I couldn't find what I was looking for, and the dollar bin didn't hold any amazing surprises for me like it usually does. Oh well..

Came home to a well-napped wife, and made dinner for Edgar, and got him trundled into bed. I played a bit of Super Mario Wii, although my heart wasn't in it.

Jen picked up Taco Bell (a favorite) and a Redbox. Knight and Day, starring Tom Cruise and the mom from the Brady Bunch.

[disclaimer: Jen and I love, love stupid action movies. I know I should be all arty and watch only french neu wave and stuff like that, but, seriously? Explosions and hanging off helicopter landing gear.]

Knight and Day looked like an okay movie (other than the fact that Tom Cruise is a creep in real life), except for one little HUGE thing: the title.

Seriously, the title. Sounds like the worst 70's buddy-cop TV show ever.

It reminds me of the sitcom Friends, where Joey gets a job acting in a stupid, stupid cop show called Mac and C.H.E.E.S.E. I mean, come on!

Okay, so we watched the movie. It was pretty fun, escapist, low-grade action with hokey shootouts and lots of fake looking digital effects. Just what you'd expect from a movie with Tom Cruise in it. But, the title? We find out 3/4 of the way through the movie that Tom Cruise's character's real name is "Knight", but it's irrelevant to the plot. ...And "Day"? NOTHING! No significance. Now we have the stupidest title in the world for entirely no reason.

Our movie was quite interrupted with a fussy Sabrina. Much of it was spent with one spouse watching and eating Taco Bell, and one spouse standing and bouncing the baby.

Then, it's off to bed and to fill this blog with words. I was going to go skiing tomorrow, but I think we're going to do something different instead.

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Here are the promised pictures of the air museum visit.

  

Edgar and his favorite plane.

Sabrina and I relaxing in first class (no coach seats recline like that), and Edgar climbing in the cockpit.

Edgar ready to blast off.

In the kiddie area of the museum was this apparently real personal helicopter. I tried to find out stuff about it on the internet just now, but couldn't find anything. I want one. The brand is Rainbow. It's got a little volkswagen-sized engine behind the seat, minimal joystick and foot controls, and it seats one (maybe one and a baby) comfortably. Looks like the view would be fantastic.

Finally, Grandma and Grandpa with their grandkids: