The Torchlight Parade

Well, if you've been following my blog for a couple of months, you might remember my list of "things to do for the summer". One of the things on my list was to go to the Torchlight Parade. I used to go with Cassidy and Alex, and last year we brought Bailey for the first time. This year's parade was a huge hit with Bailey. She, of course, loved riding the rides at the Seattle Center. But, she also loved watching the many princesses and pretty floats. She hadn't had a nap (it was a busy day) so she had some pretty zoney and mellow moments (although, she announced frequently, "I'm not tired mom".

This is the view that we had of Bailey most of the time - her running ahead of us!!
Bailey loved riding these cars - she probably would have been fine if we'd just left her there with a bunch of tickets!

When Bailey's older I think I'll compile a collage of pictures of her with the pirates - she always looks terrified, but then wants to go see them again!

The Discovery Channel has a program on called Deadliest Catch. While I've only seen a portion of it once, the bit that I saw was pretty exciting because one of the boats was able to rescue a man who'd fallen off of his fishing boat into the freezing waters in Alaska. Anyway, this year's "celebrities" were a couple of the crew members for the Northwestern. As an aside - my family on my mother's side is Croatian and many of them were fishermen out of Anacortes. As I read biographies, I thought of my Uncle Tony and my mother's father.
So - here are Bailey's first photos with "celebrities" (in this case, dudes who fish for crab).
Jake Anderson
Edgar Hansen (not of the singing group Hanson)

Matt Bradley

These next two pictures are where Bailey clearly demonstrates that she's NOT tired (haha)!

Bailey really enjoyed seeing any of the Asian groups - their costumes and floats were very colorful!

Of course - who could miss the clowns!

And - one final ride on the Carousel!!

She sacked out on the car ride home - it was an exhausting day!!

Bellevue Arts Fair

It will come as no surprise to anyone who knows me, that I am not artistic in anything other than music. I flunked stick figures and have not improved much. Then there's my daughter - who LOVES art! She loves to paint and color and cut with scissors (which she pronounces, cups wif seesers". Well, her newest art activity is to glue. But, not actually to glue anything to anything - simply to squeeze glue out of the bottle. Now that is an artistic event that I just might be able to excel at!!

Company Picnic

When you work for a company as big as Microsoft, the company picnic is not your usual, "bring a blanket and share some chicken" kind of affair. For Microsoft, the company picnic is spread out over three days (you RSVP for the day that you plan to attend so that they can accommodate the number of people) and consists of HUGE bounce houses, pony rides, tractor pulled hay rides, entertainment on a couple of stages, AMAZING food (burgers, vegan, vegetarian, ribs, indian, thai), and a lot of people.

We attended on Sunday the 20th - Bailey wanted to move in. Especially when she found the pony ride.

The Aftermath

Well - after the Vomiting Vegas week we had a number of "laying low" days, but I can happily report that Bailey made a full recovery with no relapse. At the end of the week was a weekend that was relatively full. Our first event (this post) was to go to the Bite of Seattle. It's an event that is held at the Seattle Center every year with entertainment and food. Bailey decided that it was a perfect opportunity to visit the Pacific Science Center (which is located on the grounds of the Seattle Center). So we visited the dinosaurs, touched a starfish and hermit crab (sadly, none of them were named Don so they didn't answer when she called for them) and then finished up with an ice cream cone. I feel safe in stating that Bailey's favorite event of the summer is ice cream cone eating. If there was a fair completely dedicated to having ice cream cones, she would totally sign up!

Vacation....Interruptus

4:30am - Circus, Circus Hotel Room, Las Vegas, Nevada:

"Hello" (spoken as gruffly as you can imagine due to second hand casino smoke and air conditioning)
"Kim, Bailey's been throwing up since 1am and I wanted to see if you think that we should take her to the hospital."

And that is how my day began. It is a parent's nightmare. Your child is really sick and you are many miles and a 2.5 hour flight away from her. Certainly I knew that Kristi and Gabe had the "parenting chops" to handle it. But, this is my baby. And, I know how she likes to have her back rubbed and what key she sings the theme song to Miss Spider's Sunnypatch Friends and exactly how she likes to be snuggled. And yet I'm not there to take her to the hospital where they may have to IV her to get fluids in her, or might have to admit.

So - we quickly call the airline, shower, pack, check out of the hotel, get a cab, and get to the airport. By the time that we got on the plane she had been able to keep a few teaspoons of apple juice down for about 20 minutes and was heading home with after care instructions. Thankfully it was minor, as far as emergencies go. But, no easier for us to handle.

In retrospect, could we have stayed in Vegas and "stimulated the economy" and enjoyed some shopping and entertainment? Probably. And, Bailey would have been just fine with Tree Tree and Uncle Dave (as she's now calling Gabe). But I wouldn't change our actions. I remember pondering whether we should head home or not and figured it was probably the flu (which it was/is). But, what if it had been rotovirus or worse? I think that one of the toughest things about parenting is that you constantly wonder if you've done good enough. If you've made the best choices. If you've disciplined appropriately. There's just so much pressure that we place on ourselves (often unnecessarily). Sometimes, we can't take the action to head home. Sometimes we HAVE to wait. But, when the opportunity exists to head home. Well, that's the right choice. So - we're experiencing vacation interruptus. And we're snuggling, and rubbing Bailey's back, and singing Miss Spider's Sunnypatch Friends, and enjoying our time together.

As for our 23 hours in Vegas - we had a great time! Adam had a little unexpected windfall - he was sitting at a slot machine as I sat down to cycle a little coinage through the machine and he saw what appeared to be credits on that machine. When he selected to cash out it printed a ticket for $25.80. So - he decided to play it by "betting the full amount". He hit a bonus and ended up winning $280 - Happy Birthday Honey!!

The "wall" for the Revolution bar in the Mirage - I'm sitting in the "U" - can U tell?

"All we need is love" - we saw this show - BRILLIANT!!

I purchased a glass of wine. I'd figured (when I saw the stadium beer cup) that they'd just fill it about 1/4 of the way. Nope!! Full cup of wine!

yeliaB - We NEVER find items with the name Bailey, so we were delighted to find this Piggy Bank with her name. Bailey' thinks its brilliant and would like some more coins (it's almost full as is - we had extra change from our trip).

This is where Bailey chose to snuggle. She pretty much stayed on the ground wrapped in her blankets from 1pm until 3pm. She didn't want to move to the couch when I asked her. Get well Princess!!

What a Day!

If there's one thing that we have counted as a great blessing, it is that Bailey has always been an amazing sleeper. Since she was 6 months old, she has slept between 10 and 12 hour nights plus naps. She goes to bed easily and wakes up around 9am happy as can be. However, occasionally the fates align poorly and she wakes early. Typically, on a day that I have a deadline to meet and I'm trying to finish up a few little tasks. Yesterday was one of those days, although she didn't get up too much earlier (only 7am). What made yesterday a little different is that we had a full day planned. So - we just started a little early. I'll confess, it was kind of nice because I got extra snuggles in the morning!! Let me outline our day though:


10am - Mommy has a Dr. appointment. The good news - the foot surgery has been claimed to be a great success. I now have 70 degrees of movement in my big toe where it was previously limited to 39.

11am - Children's Museum in Seattle where we played for about an hour.

Noon - Eat lunch (2 mini burgers and fries) at the Seattle Center Food Court

12:30p - Momo and Johnny join us for lunch

1pm - Pacific Science Center with Momo and Johnny - the Dinosaurs!!

2:15pm - Soccer starts up again

3pm - Quick trip into the grocery store

3:15pm - Nap - Bailey was so tired that when we got in her room she pointed at her bed and said, "night night mom" as if to say - just put me in the bed, no rocking, no talking, I'm pooped. Bailey usually sleeps anywhere from 2-3 hours. She slept for 4 1/4 hours!! And - she had to be woken up. I was at rehearsal and Adam went to a concert, so our babysitter was here and finally woke her at 7:30p.

Here are some pictures from today. I think that some day I will compile a video of all of the pictures that I "almost" captured. I have a lot of those. Sometimes photographing a toddler is like trying to capture a still photo of a moving ostrich - I get a lot of the back of her head, or side of her face, or a fuzzy photo because I was trying to click before she was done with whichever activity she'd just completed.

It's a good thing that Bailey didn't live during the dinosaurs - she would

Bailey in a dinosaur footprint!

Johnny and the T-rex teeth.

"I Kickee De Ball!"

I Speak Whale

There's a new water park in town! We checked it out a couple of weeks ago and it received two very enthusiastic thumbs up!

The Mariners Suck a Little Less!

Well, we in Seattle are the proud cheering section for the Seattle Mariners. The MLB team that is sitting so far at the bottom of the league that we'd need a wild, wild card to see any post season play. But - we decided to take Bailey to a Mariners game tonight. Whether at the bottom or the top of the league, we felt it would just be fun to attend. We were right. However, Bailey's favorite part of the game had nothing to do with the game itself - it was the playground that they have for kids just off of center field. Ah, and the Moose. Every time that we saw a stuffed animal Moose (the Mariner Moose is our "mascot") she yelled, "my moose" (have I mentioned that she's two - SO POSSESSIVE). Ah - and the Mariners ended up winning so, um, YAY TEAM!!

Here are some pics!

The Fourth 4th

The 4th of July, as with most holidays, more or less glides through year after year without really leaving a great impression. Certainly, it is enjoyable. However, it's not like each year is so memorable that I can tell you what I've done every single year. As this year's 4th came to an end I realized that there are only four 4th of July holidays that I clearly recall. Without further ado - I present my four 4ths.

1976 - The bi-centennial. I was 8 years old and was visiting my Great Grandmother (Nana) in Texas. For the 4th of July we went to Baylor stadium and participated in the festivities there. What I remember most is being at Baylor and watching fireworks.

1990 - The year that my father had died. He died on July 2nd and what stood out on the 4th that year was the fact that the neighborhood kids (I was staying with my mother) were behaving like imbeciles. Well, at least I thought they were. The truth is, they were behaving like teenage kids. They were loud and they were shooting off fireworks and I remember considering calling the police on them (I knew that they were underage and were drinking) simply because they were pissing me off. It somehow seemed wrong that they were able to have fun and my dad had just died. My lesson learned in that was that life continues to move forward no matter what the situation.

???? - I've been racking my brain for the year, but I just can't recall. What I do recall is that Kristi came over for the evening. We ate barbecued ribs -which took a lot longer than I'd expected. And then, we did cheap fireworks out on the street next to my apartment at 102 D Street. And she did this sparkler dance that almost had me wetting my pants. And, I've asked her to do it since and she has declined every time. I like to think that I'm the only one who she has shared this with and she wants to keep it that way because I'm "just that special". Whatever the reason, it was truly memorable!!

2008 - Bailey's first fireworks. We took her to Bellevue Park for the Bellevue Family 4th. There were bounce houses, the play area, bands on the mainstage (ending with the Bellevue Philharmonic) and then Fireworks. When we'd first mentioned that we were going to see fireworks she immediately assumed that meant that we were going to DisneyWorld. Makes sense seeing as the only Fireworks that she has seen have been at a Disney park. We told her we were going to Bellevue-World. As we waited for the fireworks we played hide and seek under the blanket with the flashlight and played patticake, and prayed that time would pass more quickly. Then they began. Having just had thunder storms the day before, the noise initially reminded her of the thunder. But, she quickly settled in and kept going "oh wow" in her enthusiastic voice. And then, she laid down next to Adam and covered up with the blanket and just watched. It was such a sweet moment and one that is now etched in my memory as the best 4th ever!

Mi-mi-mi-mi-mi-millipede

I've shared a number of times about our trips to the farm - the South 47 farm. Bailey feels so at home running around there. At Farm Tots yesterday Bailey was able to see a millipede, a centipede, and a ladybug - what a morning!! She asked me to take a picture of the millipede, so I'm sharing it will all of you. Then, we went into the field to pick peas. That was fun for Bailey - and we discovered that she enjoys eating raw peas. I'm recording this day as the first day that she's volunteered to eat a vegetable (ok, I know it's a starch) other than a cucumber.

Mommy Bailey is a Fashion Icon!

I've mentioned Bailey's sense of style, but now she's really topped herself. She just needs some high heels and she's set as a fashion icon. I just can't figure out who her role model is - I never did dress like this to carry her around town!!