Month: August 2015

Baby Enzo turned 7 months old on Friday. For those of you who haven’t seen him in the last month or so, you’ll hardly recognize him when you see him in person. He’s been going through quite a growth spurt lately; lots of outfits no longer fit him, and new ones are getting pulled out of the ether on a regular basis. He’s very aware of what is going on around him and does his best to stay involved with his sisters whenever possible. Any time Ava gets the iPad out he will do whatever he has to in order to scoot near her and look at the screen. Although he’s not officially crawling yet, he’s definitely mobile and has his own unique way of getting up on all fours, then rocking back and forth until he faceplants, then he sort of slides forward as he gets back up on all fours again. It’s not the most efficient sequence I’ve ever seen, but it seems to work for him. When all else fails he just log rolls to get around.

Over the past couple days the girls and I have gotten out together for various ‘adventures’ in order to give Jessica more time to paint. Friday night we went to Costco, which is always fun, then yesterday I took them to their first movie at the mall. My thought was to take them to a mall far away because getting there and back would eat up a lot of time, so I chose Southcenter mall, which I went to constantly (and even worked at) growing up. I knew it had been through a massive reconstruction a few years ago, but I haven’t really been there since then, so I couldn’t believe it when we got there. There was very little resemblance to the mall I remember from my childhood, but it was beautiful, and it was huge.

As the girls and I walked through the mall looking for the movie theater I’m sure we looked like the blind leading the blind to everyone we passed. Elise kept running ahead of with a maniacal laugh, then Ava would try to catch her and make her hold hands, then there’s me power walking behind them calling out their names and trying to stay close. By the time we reached the second floor I noticed a little play area so I decided to go there for a few minutes while we regroup and figure out where we’re going.

What I didn’t realize was that while we were inside the mall, there was a pretty major storm going on outside. I remember from the middle of the night before hearing lots of wind and rain outside, but I thought it was over. As it turns out, the worst was yet to come. Apparently the weather took a turn for the worse while we were inside, but I had no idea, so I took out my phone and saw a group text message to Jessica and I from the general manager at El Gaucho begging for Jessica to work later that evening.

I called Jessica and offered to come straight home, but she didn’t want us to miss out on our movie, and we figured with the movie starting at 1:10, there would be no problem for her to get to work at 5:30. With a new plan in place, the girls and I headed to the food court to enjoy a basket of fish ‘n chips from Ivars before our movie.

After we finished eating I took the girls up to the top floor, which is where the movie theater is, and immediately they started going crazy. They were so excited to be there that they couldn’t contain themselves. So I’m trying to wait in line to purchase tickets, then popcorn a minute later, but they won’t hold still and insist on running all around. As usual they got a lot of attention from everyone in line, but I just blamed their hysteria on this being their first trip to the movies.

After getting our popcorn, we went to our theater and sat in the furthest back row in the furthest corner. I wanted to separate us as much as possible from the rest of the people in order to hopefully not ruin their experience. We sat down at 1:00 and proceeded to wait 30 minutes for our movie ‘Shaun – the Sheep Movie’ to start. As you might expect the girls were impossible to keep still during that time, and there were multiple occasions where I considered throwing in the towel. I have to be honest though, it was mostly Elise who was being crazy. Ava deserves credit for mostly staying still, but Elise couldn’t be stopped from climbing over chairs and running into various rows. I kept having to chase her down, which she thought was hilarious.

I’m certainly not blaming Elise for anything here; she’s barely even two years old and there’s no way I would have taken Ava to a theater at that age. She’s just not ready to sit still in a foreign environment like that for an extended period of time. Once the movie started both girls settled down though, which was a relief, so I figured we were home free. About ten minutes later Elise starts crawling away from us and trying to hide under the seats. Not only is that disgusting, but I knew what she was doing. She had some business to attend to and was trying to get a little privacy. So I sat there and waited for the smell. I figured pulling her out too early would be a mistake because she might not actually go, so I just waited.

Once I was sure she was done (and likely so were a few others seated nearby) I scooped her up in my arms and told Ava we needed to go to the potty to change Elise’s diaper. I was afraid this would upset her because she was really into the movie, but she looked at me like a little soldier getting their orders and proclaimed (with a head nod) “Yes Daddy.”

So the three of us head out to find a restroom and of course there is no family restroom, plus there’s no changing table in the men’s room. Luckily one of those large stalls for handicapped people was vacant, so the three of us went there. I had no choice but to lay Elise down on the tile floor, which is gross, but when you compare it to the movie theater floor she was just crawling around on, I think it’s a push. Although Elise usually doesn’t like to hold still during a diaper change, I don’t think she was too keen being on that bathroom floor, so she didn’t struggle with me very much.

After our bathroom debacle we went back to our theater and sat down in the same seats, intent on watching the rest of our movie. Once again, both girls seemed really locked into the movie for a few minutes, and I thought we were all good, but then Elise starts getting fidgety and has to start crawling over chairs. At this point I’m considering leaving, and without prompting Ava looks at me and says “Daddy, can we go home?” Without hesitation I said yes, scooped up Elise, and the three of us made a beeline for the exit.

At this point you might think our adventure was over, but we were just getting started. I don’t know how I always do it, but I managed to park as far away from the movie theater as possible, meaning the girls and I had to traverse the entire mall on a busy Saturday afternoon in order to get back to our car. Once again, it was the blind leading the blind, but eventually we made our way to the car, got strapped in, and headed for the freeway.

I could tell it had rained while we were in the mall but there was no reason to think twice about it. I called Jessica at about 2:20, just as we were getting on I-5 North, and said we should be home in the next 45-50 minutes. It was no problem on her end, she just wanted to leave the house at 4:30, which would give her an hour to get to work.

I’m heading up I-5 and the girls fall asleep almost immediately. I’m thinking I’m home free, and even considered getting some guitar time in at home before the girls woke up from their nap. Traffic is smooth sailing until just past Boeing Field, then as we’re getting near the exit for I-90 I see a message on the overhead sign saying there is a 6 mile backup ahead. Immediately I move from the far left commuter lane to the exit-only right lane, get onto I-90 East, and again it’s smooth sailing.

I’m pumped at this point; I just avoided a major traffic jam on I-5, and I can take I-90E to 405N to get home. I fly through I-90, get on 405 north, and again it’s wide open. I’m grinning ear-to-ear knowing that I’m going to be home ahead of schedule. Then, as if I even have to say it, 405 comes to a complete standstill near Kirkland. I had no idea why, but it’s jammed up for as far as the eye can see.

Determined not to be stopped by traffic, I pulled out my phone, fired up the Waze app, told it to navigate me home, and followed its directions to take the next exit from 405 and start heading through the neighborhoods of Kirkland. I followed along through the most random places for several miles, took a left at a light, and bam! Traffic. Not an accident or anything like that; just a complete standstill on some random two-lane road in Woodinville. It’s backed up for miles, and there’s nowhere to go.

The girls were still passed out at this point, so I decided to just ride it out. Had I known that the entire area was without power due to the storm that hit while we were at the mall, and that not a single traffic light in a 3 mile radius was working, I may have backtracked to the freeway. But I didn’t know, so I sat and waited, and waited and angrily texted Jessica about my situation, and waited. In the first 30 minutes I moved about half a mile.

At 4:05 I’m still crawling through Woodinville trying to get to the freeway, and Jessica is trying to find a place for us to meet, when all of the sudden things open up and I find myself back on the freeway. After getting off the freeway I started seeing tons of uprooted trees, and plenty of lights without power. Long story short, I get home at 4:25, just in time to let the girls (whom are awake by now) say hello and goodbye to Mommy before she heads to work. Jessica then has to take a backroads route to work because her normal route would have taken 2.5 hours, but she ends up arriving right on the dot at 5:30.

After all the excitement with the girls I figured we could all use some rest, so I turned on a show for them in their room, got them some snacks, and let them be. Then Enzo and I posted up on the couch to watch a show I had recorded. I give him a bottle, watch my show, and basically got 45 minutes of relaxation in. As the show finishes Enzo is sound asleep, so I decide to head upstairs and see how the girls are doing. As I turn the corner in our staircase I start seeing little torn up pieces of toilet paper. As I follow these lovely little breadcrumbs I soon find myself in our guest bathroom. A clean-ish diaper is on the floor, along with tons of ripped up toilet paper, and lets just say that a very special treat was smeared into the sink for Daddy.

As if this wasn’t enough, there was still another breadcrumb trail of toilet paper for me to follow into their room. Not surprisingly there was tons of ripped up toilet paper in there, along with Ava looking very guilty. When I asked her where her diaper was, she said “it’s in the sink.”

So I quickly found myself doing an impromptu deep-cleaning of the bathroom, as well as my daughter. I couldn’t help but notice that the substance I was cleaning from the sink and countertops had dried there (a little bit), and essentially reminded me of trying to scrape peanut butter out of the sink. I actually even took a picture of it and sent it to Jessica so she could see how things were going.

Eventually I finished cleaning everything just in time for Enzo to wake up from his nap. The rest of the night was pretty much normal, meaning the girls were still up when Jessica got home from work, and that I (other than Baby Enzo) was the first one in bed. I’m starting to think I should have titled this post “A day in the life.”

Luckily the rest of our weekend has been really laid back. Today we stayed in pajamas all day, watched a bunch of shows, and had a quick little dance party. Speaking of dancing, I’m always playing all kinds of music for the girls in the car, and lately I’ve been listening to the soundtrack from the movie ‘Dazed and Confused.’ It’s all 70’s stuff like Rick Derringer, Ted Nugent, Foghat, Alice Cooper, etc. The girls actually like it, and I’m not just saying that. It’s important to me that they know good music and aren’t just into whatever is most popular. Their absolute favorite song right now is ‘Jim Dandy To The Rescue’ by Black Oak Arkansas. Super random I know, but they get really excited when that song comes on. Ava thinks she knows the words and does her best to sing along, while Pippo (the purple hippo) goes on a crazed dancing spree as her Gepetto Elise smiles and bops along.

Amy and Tom are on their way up here in the RV and should be arriving on Tuesday. I’m taking Friday off work and we’re heading East to Lake Chelan, one of my favorite childhood destinations, for the holiday weekend. Several of our neighbors will also be there, so it should be a lot of fun. Some of them are actually already there and have reported that it’s crystal clear and there is no concern of fires. Sunday we’ll be spending the day at Slidewaters, which is the water park owned by my Dad’s old boss. We used to go there every summer growing up, and the story of how my Dad was connected to it was interesting, but that’s another story for another time. For now, here’s some recent pics.

Baby Enzo at 7 months

#BestHair

The little Frank Sinatra

#Busted

I think I’m getting gray hairs on my chin. I say ‘think’ because some days they’re there, and other days they’re not. Might have something to do with lighting or angle. I wish they’d just make up their minds already. I don’t mean that in a pejorative way either; I’m down with a salt & pepper in my beard, mostly because it goes so well with the rest of my ‘I’m getting old’ mantra, which goes something like: “I’m 35 years old, married with 3 kids, a dog, and a mortgage. I live in the suburbs, work for a big corporation, and have gray hairs growing out of my chin.” There isn’t a culture in the world where the equivalent of that statement doesn’t mean one thing and one thing only: you’re old dude.

In other family news, Enzo is now sitting up on his own! Although he needs a little help from time to time, he is doing quite a bit these days. We’re well past the days of struggling to take a bottle. At this point not only does he regularly drink from a bottle, but he even holds it up by himself from time to time. He has developed quite the set of pipes and seems to enjoy hearing himself make noise. He’s not upset (usually), he just already has a lot to say. Can you imagine if he becomes as talkative as his sisters? He also keeps placing himself in a prime crawling pose, but he can’t quite get moving. It won’t be long before he figures it out though, and then that will be it. At that point all 3 of them will be mobile, and we’re officially done for. For now he’s content to roll over in order to get around.

The girls are both doing great. It’s been a really nice summer here so far and they’ve been out enjoying it every day. Earlier this week Jessica took the kids to the Woodland Park Zoo, so all week I’ve been hearing from Ava and Elise about the kangaroos, giraffes, monkeys, and many others they spent their day observing. I’m continuously impressed with both of their vocabularies and often find myself wondering where they heard various expressions. There’s no question that they are the best of friends and are always looking out for eachother. Ava, in particular, has become quite protective of her little sister. Even when Mommy or Daddy needs to scold her or threaten her with a timeout due to her behavior, Ava is all too quick to say “Hey, you don’t say that to my sister!” As far as Ava sees it, she is the only one who can do anything to Elise. Everyone else better watch out.

Tomorrow night Jessica will be bartending at El Gaucho, meaning I’ll be home with the kids. Hopefully it will be a non-eventful evening with nothing much to speak of, but knowing my luck the chances of that happening are slim. Either way I’m glad she will be getting out of the house and doing something on her own, even if that something is going to work. Saturday nights at El Gaucho are always fun and everyone there is always happy to see and work with her, so it should be good.

In the next week or so I’ll be reaching the 6 month mark at Microsoft. I can easily say without hesitation that I really like working there and am glad I made the switch. I work with a team of really talented and cool people, and I’ve already learned a lot since joining. I’m also really happy about my long-term opportunities for growth. It’s funny because if you would have told me a year ago that I’d be leaving Amazon voluntarily for a position at Microsoft, and that I would love Microsoft, I would have told you you’re crazy. I’ll be the first one to admit that I was a Microsoft hater for a long time, but I also have to give credit where it’s due, and my experiences since joining them have been overwhelmingly positive. At this point it’s probably fair to say that I’ll be with Microsoft for a long time.

Last weekend I read a scathing article in the New York Times about what it’s like to work at Amazon. Although I felt the article was a bit dramatic and extreme, I think there was a fair amount of truth in there as well. One problem I had with it is that you can’t make a truthful blanket statement about what it’s like to work at any huge company like that. Your circumstances vary so much depending on which organization you’re in, and which team you’re on. There’s no question that some of the experiences they described were truthful, but to assume that everyone’s experience there is like that would be silly. I never saw anyone crying at their desk, and whenever anything family or health related came up, there was nothing but pure support from my managers. At the same time, the only ‘nervous breakdown’ I’ve ever experienced in my life was during my time there, but it was caused by a combination of work and school, so you can’t place all the blame on Amazon. I certainly wouldn’t rule out going back there if I was available, but also wouldn’t be too surprised if my experience there was atypical.

We’re continuing to paint the inside of our house, but honestly there is so much left to do. As I said in a previous post, it’s impossible for both of us to paint because the girls will always get into everything and make a mess. For the last couple weekends I’ve taken them out of an ‘adventure’ on Saturdays, allowing Jessica several hours to paint. I wish I could be there with her getting stuff done, but it wouldn’t be fair to the girls. I also wouldn’t have a problem with being the one to stay home and paint, but Jessica gets so much more time with the kids during the week than I do, so it makes sense for me to go out with them on the weekends. It won’t be long before Amy and Tom are back here, meaning we’ll be working on our floors as well. I’ve never done floors before so I’m looking forward to learning, but even more so I’m just looking forward to seeing and enjoying the finished product.

At least we’ll be mixing up all this housework with camping trips in Lake Chelan and at the Gorge. There are some bad fires going on in Eastern Washington right now, so it’s possible that our plans could be affected, but for now I think it’s safe to assume that everything will be fine. I’m not surprised that we’re having all these fires because this summer has been incredibly dry; I just hope they can get them under control because several people (including 3 firefighters) have already been killed.

That’s about it for now. Before we know it our summer will be over and we’ll be busy as ever. At least its football season now. Go Hawks!

Ready for dinner with our friends, the Palmers

Momma’s boy

After a very nice 3-week visit, Grandma Amy headed home to Colorado yesterday, presumably to sleep for a week. As always, she was extremely helpful with the kids, which gave Jessica and I lots of time to get stuff done, as well as get out and enjoy ourselves. We were just saying that we probably took a little more advantage of her on this trip than normal, but I hope she knows we don’t take it for granted and appreciate it very much.

We got a lot of painting done during Amy’s stay, but there is still a lot to do. When you’re painting the inside of our house, you have no choice but to get the girls out and about, otherwise there is a 100% chance that one or both of them will get into some paint and make a mess of something. Therefore I decided to take them to Alderwood mall this afternoon so that Mom could stay home with Enzo and get a bunch of painting done. I would have liked to have been able to stay home with her and help with the painting, but keeping the girls occupied was a necessary contribution. We ended up having a nice time walking around the mall, playing in the kids area, and eating fish ‘n chips in the food court. I haven’t had a day with just the girls in a while so it was a nice way to spend my Saturday afternoon.

Tomorrow we’ll be spending the day with Kristy, Madi, Jim and Brenda in celebration of Kristy’s birthday. Knowing that there’s a party on the horizon always gets the girls excited, so all night last night and all day today Ava has been asking if she can go to Kristy’s party. We try to explain to her that the party isn’t until Sunday, but she remains undeterred. I doubt patience is a virtue for any three year old, but when you add Ava’s level of persistence to the mix, let’s just say it can be hard to change topics, particularly when the topic is a party. There’s a chance we’ll be going swimming, so we’ll be ready for that, but either way it’s going to be nice to spend an afternoon with them.

We’re currently in the middle of this every-other-month schedule in terms of being busy. June was a quiet month (although we made it difficult because of our diet), then July was really busy for us. It’s August now, and we don’t have much going on, but then September is going to be crazy with camping/concert trips and more house renovations. October expects to be nice and quiet, but then in November we’ll be going on our trip to Austin, celebrating Ava’s birthday, and doing Thanksgiving (possibly on the same day) so that should be another exciting and busy month. Then you have December, which is crazy for everyone.

With Amy in town, Jessica and I were able to get out and celebrate my birthday last week, which is something we haven’t been able to do for the last couple years. I decided to take advantage of the opportunity and ended up taking Wednesday and Thursday off work. We went to the Mariners game on Wednesday afternoon and had a really good time. The weather was perfect, the Blue Angels did a flyover after the National Anthem, and King Felix was pitching. Unfortunately Felix gave up 4 runs in the first inning and we were never able to recover, but it was still a good time. I had never been to the ‘Hit it Here Cafe’ before so we ended up hanging out there for a few innings. The combination of it being Seafair weekend and King Felix pitching meant it was a much bigger crowd than we’re used to on a weekday afternoon, but there was a lot of energy so it was cool.

Later that night we had dinner at 99 Park in Bellevue; it’s in Old Bellevue right off Main street, and it’s directly across the street from a nice park that reminds me of Bellagio in Las Vegas. What an excellent meal! Honestly if you’re looking for a nice place to eat in Bellevue you should definitely check it out. Our old friend Quentin is the chef and the menu he has put together is outstanding. I guess if I had to label it I’d call it Modern American cuisine; it’s just a bunch of really solid dishes prepared with top notch ingredients and a touch of modern flare. Every single thing we had that night was delicious, so I look forward to returning as soon as possible. Quentin wasn’t working that night, which was a bummer, but he ended up coming into the bar later on, so we were able to say hello and catch up. It was definitely the best birthday dinner I’ve had in a while.

The next day we mostly chilled out at the house all day, then met up with Butch, Carol, Shayla, Greg and their two kids, that evening for dinner at their favorite Mexican restaurant. It doesn’t take much convincing for me to try out a new Mexican restaurant, and as expected we had a really nice meal. After dinner we walked over to the frozen yogurt shop for dessert, which was a big hit with all the kids.

Yesterday the girls received a very special present in the mail from Grandpa; his old iPad. We’ve been thinking about getting them a tablet for a bit but weren’t sure if they were ready. Well, apparently they are because Ava refuses to put it down, and Elise is hot on her tail. She consistently refers to it as “my iPad” so we have to explain to her each time that it is also Elise’s iPad, and that they need to share. Should be interesting. Anyway thank you to Grandpa Rick for sending it; it’s already been a huge hit.

Looks like things are pretty much back to normal now until the end of Summer, which will end with a bang. I’m really looking forward to camping in Lake Chelan over Labor Day Weekend, especially because we’ll be there in Tom and Amy’s RV. I’ve never ‘camped’ like that before so it should be pretty cool. Lake Chelan was where we went every summer when I was growing up, so taking my kids there this year will be fun. Then the following weekend we’ll be taking the RV to see the Foo Fighters at the Gorge. We’ll stay the night there then head back to pick up the girls at Kristy’s house the following morning. What a badass way to end the Summer! And speaking of badass endings, here’s some new recent pics.

The girls at the park on Daddy’s birthday

Happy little guy

Shopping with Grandma

Teaching the girls ‘Lefty Loosey, Righty Tighty’

Ava and ‘her’ new iPad

Grandma’s girls