Sweet Dreams

Look what I just walked downstairs and found at 1:30a.m. Aren't they adorable? Notice they are not in bed. Like I said before, no one in our house sleeps where they are suppose to. I've accepted it, it's just the chaotic way we love to live our lives in the Vergara household.
I don't understand, how could anyone not just love sleeping with their babies? I can understand the frustration of having a 2 year old who does gymnastics in his sleep in bed with you, but a baby? Come on! The way they just relax when they are next to you, pure joy. I love sleeping with Avrie (I would love it a lot more if she didn't nurse all night long, but hey, it's part of it right?). Sometimes when she starts to stir, I can just wrap my arm around the top of her head and she immediately stops flopping around.
There is nothing sweeter than a dad being a daddy. The way Steve plays with his girls is amazing. Every day Cailin watches out the window for Steve to come home from work and when he pulls into the parking lot, she runs and hides. Sometimes she has even built a huge fort out of cushions and pillows to hide in. Then Steve walks in the door and pretends he has no idea where she is and begins searching. He'll even ring the doorbell of her fort to see if she is home. She looks forward to that every day. He's an amazing daddy and his girls love him to death. And their mama thinks he's a pretty great guy too!

Successful Ear Piercing

Okay, here she is, the newest pierced member of the Vergara family! Don't her little ears look so cute?
I took her without Steve. He was completely traumatized by Cailin's ear piercing (Cailin cried for 1 minute and then was more concerned by the fact that she was allowed to pick anything she wanted from Claires - a girlie girl's paradise!) Steve, on the other hand couldn't stop thinking about the entire experience and talked about it for weeks afterwards. So, like I was saying we attempted Avrie's ear piercing without Steve and it was very successful! She barely cried, just a couple tears. She cries harder when we don't give her a cracker fast enough. She is not very fond of the 3 time a day ear cleaning which takes a whole of 15 seconds, but she tolerates it.
Cute Cailin quote of the day, "Daddy, you're not the one who is right, you are giving mommy another headache!" That's my girl.
Avrie has completely taken every scrap of paper and credit card out of Steve's wallet which I gave her to keep her off my lap. I will leave it strewn on the floor and pretend I don't know about it. Good night!

Another Driving Adventure

I thought it would be nice to show you some pictures of where I live, so I'll try to remember to take my camera when we are out and about. But, here is the first one for you. This is the view from our bedroom window, the front of our complex. Not very exciting. And yes that is what it usually looks like, grey and dreary, although in this picture there is a little more light than usual trying to filter through, the oppresive Seattle air would never allow the sun to shine all the way through but sometimes it is permitted a small peak.
Yesterday we went to the zoo for the first time here in Washington. I have never been to a zoo with snow on the ground. There wasn't much but it was still quite strange. They actually warned us to walk carefully because it might be a little icy and slick. So, I bundled up the girls, figured out how to get there and headed out for our adventure. It's actually a really beautiful zoo, even in the winter. (Their Orangutan exhibit sure beats The Phx Zoo) I'm sure in the summer, with everything in bloom and green it is absolutely gorgeous. It will be fun to make a whole fun day out of it, I can't wait, but that wasn't yesterday. It was freezing!! Why does it have to be so cold? It's completely unnecessary. Although they do have some cool animals that we aren't able to see in Phoenix. Like, a snow leopard and penguins. We didn't get to see the whole zoo because, like the unprepared mom that I am, I forgot to bring adequate snacks to tide the kids over past lunch time so, we headed home...or so we thought.
You know in your life when they tell you that even one little mistake can lead to horrible consequences. Well, the same theory applies to driving in Seattle. First of all, nothing is marked here, no signs telling you where you are, where you are going or what lane you should be in. No, that's not completely true. There are signs, they are just stupid or meaningless. For example, there is a sign in my town that says 405 OK (405 is the name of a freeway, and apparantly it is okay to drive on it) What the hell? That doesn't even make sense! There is another sign on the Alaskan Highway, wait I will get to that in a bit.
So, apparantly when leaving the zoo, one lane can either go straight and under an overpass or the same lane can go through the intersection and ontop of the overpass. Well, note to everyone...when leaving the zoo, don't go straight!! It will eventually turn and take you to the longest road in the history of roads to ever not have any way to get off of it. At some point I was thinking it will let me make a left turn and I can just flip a U, but no. There is an enormous horrific concrete wall dividing the street, which after driving for 10 miles became a freeway, which then 10 miles later became a highway. Yep, still no way of getting off! Oh, at this point we are now halfway around the entire city of Seattle, driving on, what Steve mentioned to me just 4 days prior, an elevated highway so unstable the city wants to tear it down and build it underground. You guessed, still no turn off. We have passed all the stadiums, we can no longer see the downtown, we've passed all the ferries and cargo ships. The highway turns back into a street, and we are finally able to make a left hand turn on what street? Diagonal Way! Does that sound good to you?
We eventually make our way back onto the highway from hell, the Alasken Hwy. Oh, did I mention that the people in the car consist of myself, my friend Josh from Arizona, a 4 year old and 11 month old? We saw a sign for the 220, which is what we wanted, it said "220 - Right lane", so we stayed in the right lane, but nothing happened, no 220 appeared. So, we decided we were not going to take that Hwy/Rd/Frwy/Ave thing all the way back to the zoo. With our luck we will just make the original mistake again and relive my own hell.
So, we venture into Downtown Seattle. This is not good, and I will tell you why. Seattle is built on a 90 degree angle! Your car has to magically climb mountains disguised as common roads. It is completely terrifying to drive there. As I wait at each stop light, shaking, my heart about to pound directly out of my chest, I'm just praying that my brakes are working perfectly because kiss ass behind me hasn't given me much room for error. When that light turns green, my feet have never moved so quickly from the brake to the gas, all the time releasing the clutch perfectly as to not stall and careen 10 blocks backwards straight into the ocean or lake or whatever enormous body of water surrounds Seattle. I hate those hills, they scare the crap out of me.
We eventually make it onto the correct freeway (apparantly, when they said 220 -right lane, they meant get off in downtown Seattle, go straight, make a left on Mercer, then a right on 2nd Ave. straight again, then another left on 1st and a right turn onto the freeway entrance which is largely and clearly labeled but completely obvious. And that is how you get to the 220 by staying in the right lane.) We returned home, that should have only take 20 minutes but turned into 1 hour. Fun!!
Today, with Steve, we went and saw Sqwahomie Falls, I ahve no idea how to spell it and I'm not going to find out how right now, I'll let you know in another blog. It was really pretty. The upper deck lookout scares me to death and I wouldn't let Steve stand near the edge (even though there is a fence) because he was carrying Avrie in the backpack and I'm a paranoid freak. We hiked down to the bottom of the falls, Cailin in the backpack and Avrie in the sling. The walk down was, as it always is, fast and fun. When you have to walk back up those hills. Yikes! Plus with Avrie in the sling, I felt like I was going hiking 9 months pregnant. Good exercise and gorgeous. Completely worth it!
Well, Avrie has nursed about 5 times since I have started typing this, she is now NAK (nursing @ keyboard), so we will now say goodnight.

Such a slacker

I've been such a slacker lately with my blog. I've been completely uninspired. Nothing exciting or annoying has happened to me lately. But, I'll give you a short run down of my life.
Cailin has found her soulmate. His name is Jonah, and he is completely adorable. They are the perfect match. Cailin has just enough roughness in her to satisfy him and he has just enough gentleness in him to satisfy her. They run around holding hands, they don't want anyone else to play with them, just the two of them, together. It's sooo adorable. And, a bonus... his mom is great!!! She had her last baby at home, she breastfeeds, her husband is going to school to become a homeopath, and best of all...the first time we went over to her house, it wasn't clean! Hallelujah!!! She's not a super-crazy mom...just normal! Mormon, but not Molly. Wonderful!
My friend Josh is visiting us this week, it's been nice having a familiar face around. It's forced me to actually venture out of my 5 square mile radius I call home and explore a little. We saw the Space Needle. It was fun to see the whole city from so high up, we could see Mt Ranier and Mt St Helens and some other volcanoes that might eventually explode and take mine and my families lives while I'm living in this God Forsaken Gloomville. But, to be completely honest, I'm not sure the point of this structure. It was built for the 196something world fair. But, why? And, my bigger question...who funded it? Probably the government. They like spending all of our hard earned money on things that look pretty, look good in photographs but serve no function at all! Let's see what else did we do? Oh, we went to Pikes Place Market, you know the place where they throw the fish. Lots of fun little stands and restaurants and markets. Cailin picked out 2 really pretty watercolors for her bedroom, and Josh picked up some really gorgeous Japanese prints. I'll tell you this, the food so far has been amazing!! The seafood and so fresh and everywhere you go you can always count on getting a cup of crab bisque or clam chowder. It melts in your mouth.
It's been pretty chilly this week, it hasn't actually rained but it really wants to. I'm sure it will let go soon.
Avrie now has 6 teeth. 4 on top and 2 on the bottom. She is nowhere near walking but I much prefer that. Keep them on all fours as long as possible, as long as she walks before summer. Its easier at the parks that way. Cailin is still taking dance class and loves it.
An announcement! I will be in Arizona, April 4-25th! I hope to pick up a little color while I am there, I've become quite ghostly.
Well, Avrie is wanting to type with me and is freaking out since I'm not letting her. Bye

Steve's grocery store adventure

First of all...

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!

For those of you who know my husband Steve, he is not so great at navigating his way through a grocery store. We had some videos to return tonight, we had to return them tonight or they would be 3 days overdue instead of just 2 days, and if that happens we might as well just paid for the 5 day rental up front instead of the 1 day, but if we return them after 2 days, we only pay late fees for one day and it is still less than the initial 5 day rental. I'm glad you all understand that.
I was going to do the returning because I also needed to pick up some laundry detergent and dishwasher detergent at the grocery store. But Avrie was refusing to give up my nipple so I could take it along with me to the store and since it doesn't detach very well I was not free to run this errand. So, Steve had to go. I wasn't even going to ask him to pick up my 2 grocery items but did mention to him on his way out that a little dessert would be nice. Maybe a "Warm Delight". Has anyone had these? Yummmmm!! Chocolate gooey fudge cake, heated up nice and warm. Delicious!
Of course I get a call from Steve standing in the middle of an aisle at the grocery store. I always get a minimum of 2 calls every time I send him to the store, no matter what he is picking up. After looking for a few minutes he calls me, I tell him they are in the dessert aisle (he thinks that's the cookie aisle). Another call later I inform him it's the baking goods aisle. He goes up and down the aisle. Up and down, up and down. Another call later, he still can't find it. I tell him to ask. But at this point he has now been standing in the same aisle in his pajama bottoms, a leather jacket and clogs for a full 30 minutes just staring blank eyed like a mental patient. He has been humiliated enough for one night, so he buys some Hostess Cupcakes and comes home. I guarantee you tomorrow I will walk into that aisle and immediately find them. I thought it was hilarious.
This story is probably funnier to me than you because I am deliriously tired. I was awakened this morning at 5am by my 15 yr old blind cat taking a piss on my leg. Yes, you read that correctly. She didn't pee on my bed or on a pile of clothes she actually peed directly on top of my legs. This is not the first time she has peed on top of someone. She peed on my good friend Tia the first night after we had moved into our new apartment. We were watching a movie and just crawled right up onto her lap and let it go all over her. She has actually peed on Steve several times (he is usually the one she targets, I'm not sure why I was lucky enough to be chosen this very special time. I do so feel lucky and loved). Anyways, I stripped my pajamas off, layed on the floor nursed Avrie to sleep, went to the bathroom and when I came back in the bedroom found Avrie (10 months old) sitting up, happy as can be, ready to start her day. JOY!
Oh, I also spent the day with a crazy woman. Someone I just met through someone else. She told me all about her abusive childhood, her controlling husband, her past drug abuse. I listened to her list every ailment that plagues her from depression to anxiety to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder to Headaches. She listed off her medications, Anti depressants, Anti Anxiety Meds, Sleeping Pills...Oh, she is also the mother to a 5 month old. Scary! She was actually nice but not a person I want to add to my friendship plate. I'll tag her as an acquaintance. Someone I wave at across the mall parking lot and then frantically lock all 4 doors of my car.
Okay, I'm going to bed now because I am falling asleep as I type.
Good night!!

Response to Heather's blog

Heather-
That tree that you have a picture of on your Tuesday post. We call it a cum tree because the blooming flowers smell like semen. Pretty gross.
Anyways, just wanted to share that but didnt want to post it on your blog, but I dont care if its on mine.
Anyone interested in seeing a picture of this tree just check out the "Let's go fly a kite" blog I have listed on my links.
Jenny

I found it

Okay people. I finally found the post office. Much easier in the dark. But, apparently 6th Street & 4th Avenue intersect eachother 3 times!! What the hell kind of sick twisted psychotic place do I live in? 3 times!!! The other thing about driving around here, the roads change names over and over and over again. I am suppose to find the intersection of 106th St. & 166th Ave. First I turn onto 119th St which then turns into 154th Avenue which then turns into 114th St. and then turns into 160th Avemue. At that point Im asking myself how is 160th Ave suppose to intersect with 166th Ave. Well, it doesnt, it then turns into 106th St, and then intersects with 166th Ave. Oh, you have to keep in mind, I have only traveled 0.3 miles. Yeah, that's right, not even 1/2 a mile. It's there own variation of a grid system, not too wise up here are they? Crazy town!
Change of subject. What is it about the site of baby poop and vomit that makes men instantly and completely useless. It almost stuns them and they have no idea what to do. Whereas women go into "fix the problem" mode. They just stare and dance around the pile of whatever bodily fluid that has just come out the baby. Avrie is the absolute worst to put a diaper on, it's like wrestling a baby goat, I should get a prize at the end. So, I let her be without a diaper for a whole of 2 minutes. During that 2 minutes she decided that was the perfect opportunity to let herself go. She pushed a whole pile of poop out right onto the carpet. I immediately grabbed her and threw her into the empty bathtub, and yelled for Steve. I'm not quite sure why I yelled for him. Maybe I was thinking that maybe, just maybe this one time he would act like the 6'3", 210 lb man that he is and help with the gross baby. But, of course no. He helped in the only way he knew how. He proceeded to sit on the toilet and instruct Avrie to please be a good 10 month old and not play in her own feces. He wouldn't even get close enough to the poop to turn on the bathtub. I realized at this point the only instruction (I hope) I could count on him to carry out was to make sure she didnt put any of it in her mouth. He actually succeeded in this, at least that is what he says. Completely useless. Good thing he's cute, I only keep him around to carry sleeping kids up to bed, pay the bills and the good sex.
Cailin has her first talk in church tomorrow. She is really excited! We have been practicing and I think she is going to do really well. I'll let y'all know!
Good night!

A day in Kirkland Washington

We finally made it out the door yesterday to go to the library. Well, first I was attempting to find the post office which apparently is in some other dimension somewhere on 6th St. & 4th Ave. I drove past that intersection at least 5 times. Unless post offices in Kirkland are hidden away in apartment buildings that post office was not there. I am going to attempt it again today. This whole car trip involved Cailin yelling at me to turn up the music...louder...louder...louder. And then she gets upset when I can't hear her screaming at me that she wants a different CD. That's the thing about kids that drives me out of my mind, works my nerve. They never make any sense!!! They are completely out of their minds!! And, a little bipolar on top of it all. Oh, and Avrie screams the whole time we are driving. Not a cry just a low pitched yell that sounds like Chubaca (sp?) from Star Wars. Very irritating, but a little funny at the same time.
I finally gave up. This post office thing was not happening. So, I somehow found the library. We get inside, everything is fine. Then, of course, the only day I am there, the fire alarm goes off. And as the entire library of desensitized Americans continues to read their books and use the computers with this horribly hideous alarm blaring in our ears, I thought, hmmmmm maybe we should actually leave the building. That's when the library workers have to scream over the blare of the alarm for everyone to evacuate the library. No wonder people die in fires. But, as we are leaving the building, we can smell the very familiar smell of burned popcorn. How embarrassing to be that employee, to be the one to overestimate the time it takes for popcorn to pop in the microwave. But, to be honest, if the microwave doesnt have a popcorn button, I do the same thing.
We all stand around waiting, it was raining, we are covered, but somehow in Seattle even when we aren't actually standing in the rain, you still always feel wet. But that's the other thing, even after we all left the library, we all still stood directly outside the doors. I suppose if we had seen flames spilling from the roof, we might have all gotten in our cars and left. But, in this case we all stood right outside waiting for the fire dept. to come and turn off the alarm. 20 minutes later we are led back into a stinky library. My plan was to grab our books and leave, but that is when Cailin decides she needs to go to the bathroom and can't hold it. This is when I hate big warm comfy jackets. When we all have them, I have a 10 mos old that wants to crawl on the bathroom floor, and wont sit in the sling, and I have to hold these 3 big poofy jackets. Why is it that is takes a 4 year old 20 minutes to poop. In the comfort of our home, 10 minutes, tops. In any public restroom, a minumum of 20 minutes. Do they do any of the work themselves? or do they just sit there and let their bodies do it? I hear no effort on her part, just a bunch of singing, humming and attempted whistling. She has absolutely no problem hanging out in a disgusting public restroom, but let the earth stop rotating when she gets any egg from breakfast on her finger. This is what I'm saying, they don't make any sense.
Oh, today is Cailin's 4th birthday. She got a wonderful birthday message from her friend Preston, we immediately printed it out and hung it in her room, right next to the beautiful picture she received in the mail from him the day before. She was so excited that her friend had made her a picture. She also got a birthday card from both sets of grandparents. Very exciting!!
Avrie gives kisses now. When you say "Dame un beso" She opens up, big and wet, sometimes a little tongue is involves, but it's very cute. Oh, and she points. She points at anything she wants, things she doesnt want, things she likes, things she is scared of. Lots of pointing.
Okay, I think I'm going to end this blog now because I have roofers walking up and down a ladder right outside my bedroom window as Avrie sites here and exposes my breasts to all those lucky men. Bye.

Where is all the cynicism?

So I went to the playgroup yesterday. There were about 5 women, including myself. We all met at the church and let our kids run around and play. What a great idea, a neutral location, someones house isnt getting destroyed by all the kids. But they forgot one little detail. No heater was on in the church. It was so incredibly icy cold we might as just been outside at the park. It was freezing. At first I thought I was just being an Arizonan wimp but no, I looked around I wasnt the only goosebump ridden person. I wonder if they know they could turn on the heater? Do they think that they have to just suffer? I am not really into the martyr thing, so I might suggest it next time I go, or just bring a freakin comforter.
So, everyone was very nice, but I just didnt feel like the dynamics Im use to were there. Everyone was very quiet and layed back. I wasn't irratated with any of them, which is nice. But where was the animation? The cynicism? The sarcasm? It was just nice polite conversation.
It is typical for them to pick up lunch and then head over to someones house after. I'm not sure why they don't just do that in the first place, but hey not my place to fidget with something that has been going on for so long.
Cailin wasnt having a very good time at the church but had a blast when we got to the home, she played so well, so abnormally well.
So, I was thinking maybe the conversation cautioned on the lighter side because we were, after all, in a church. But no, same nice conversation. Do you think they were just being polite because I was new and I was there, or do you think that is how they always are. Am I looking for something that isnt there? I think I might be trying to replicate what I had back home.
Not once did one of them complain about anything a husband did. Where is the humor, I need to laugh! I mentioned this to Steve, he said maybe I should start the conversation with something idiotic that he did. He said he would be sure to give me plenty of material over the weekend. Joy!
Obviously I will still go every week, what else am I going to do? Although, next Wednesday is my first La Leche League meeting. Ive never been more exited for LLL than I am now. Hopefully it fills whatever it is I feel I am lacking right now. The meeting is in Redmond the next town over. Believe it or not I havent really ventured out of my town of Kirkland alone. Im very much a wimp when driving in new places. But really how bad can it be, they only have 2 freeways here.
Tonight I'm going to a movie. I would rather go with someone, but by myself is better than no movie at all. Im going to go see Brokback Mountain. Im so excited, everyone who has seen it so far has loved it. Steve said its one of his favorites, it even knocked the movie Munich down on his totem pole of movie selections.
I'm sorry this blog is so boring, nothing exciting has happened this week, but I am going to the Post Office today, that always has the potential to bring about a story of annoyance. Ill keep you posted.