Sick Days

I'm not sure if it's the excessive travel (22 hours in planes, 16 hours in airports) over the last 10 days or that I picked up a bug that Chris got from the nanny (who had similar symptoms, only shorter lived) but I'm having an official sick day. It's my first in at least a decade (unless you count time off to give birth to Jamisen ... which I don't) and I am soooo bored. I don't feel good enough to do anything, even read.

I figured out I was sick in a surprisingly dramatic fashion. Last night, I hosted a business Mastermind group at our home. It's a round table of sorts, for busy entrepreneurs  to talk business, work/life balance and learn from each other. Right before everyone arrived, I felt a little nauseous. No sooner had everyone sat down, when I walked into the kitchen and started vomiting with a vengeance. It was disgusting  retching, with sound effects. And, to add massive insult to injury, I of course, peed myself while vomiting.

That's right little Baby Girl #2, you are sitting on my bladder so perfectly that the vomiting forced me to pee myself in front of 5 astute, smart, business people I like and respect. It was epic.

Everyone left within 2 minutes of said puking and I proceeded to vomit 2 more times over the next 8 hours, peeing myself each time (seriously Little Girl, the things I do for you). Norman, our COO at work, decreed that I had to stay home, which I am. There's no reason to typhoid Mary the 50+ employees at Bramble Berry so I can play hero. Plus, I'm feeling so sick that I haven't even been reading - just laying down and wishing the day would go by faster. Seriously, so bored.

My biggest thing now is that I'm going to miss my Nike Fuel Points goal for the day unless I go for a walk. But I'm pretty much too sick to leave the bed. But, my streak is 212 days and I hate to break that for a little fever and vomiting.

 

 One of the 22 hours of plane rides took me to California for a regulatory conference. After the conference, I spent an extra day with my girlfriend Cealleigh who is also pregnant. I'm 6.5 months and she's like 7 weeks but it was fun to talk all things baby for a day. =) I have a huge belly by the way. I'm not sure why the photo above isn't showing it but I'm definitely all tummy.

Jamisen got a hair cut recently. He was very unhappy about the clippers but extremely happy about the pint of ice cream we put there to distract him!

Jumping SuperHero (video)

Remember to click through to the blog to watch the video if you get this blog emailed to you.


Proving that Grandpas always knows best, he purchased this trampoline for Jamisen well before Jamisen came of age. This trampoline is designed for kids 3 and up. Look at our little 20 month old just absolutely love this activity! He adores it and jumps on it so many times a day. Wearing his baby blanket is new but adorable. The balloons are so fun when we have them. Jamisen loves to push them around, in between jumps. The screaming ... not so new. He loves to jump and scream and the same time.

Catherine Marie?

We're narrowing down the possible names for Jamisen's little sister. Catherine Marie is currently the name front runner in my head. But, there's still 3 months to change my mind. Before that name, I was going for 'Elizabeth' but Chris nixed that idea. I love strong female names and Catherine is one that has a rich and storied history. Hopefully she doesn't take after Catherine the Great with her age or her excess in her personal life (she only lived to 34 - but wow, she got a lot done!).

We had such a fun weekend with Jamisen. We fed the birds (Jamisen was so puzzled that the birds would not come up to take the food from his hands). We made Gnocchi from scratch (review: just buy it next time!) and Jamisen was a big fan of it. Of course, what's not to like about potatoes, olive oil and cheese?

We threw rocks at Lake Samish. The lake was gorgeous - glass smooth and so clear - with the sun shining (though, it was very cold). Jamisen did an admirable job staying dry and out of the water.

We went to the park but it was cold, cold, cold. Even with a warm jacket and hat on, it was too cold to stay long but we managed to go down the slide, watch the dog play fetch and marvel at the girl playing basketball.
 

 Jamisen has taken to asking Mommy and Daddy to jump with him when he's jumping on his trampoline. It's adorable. If one of us isn't jumping, he stops everything and calls our name until we come over to start jumping again. Yes, that is his blanket that he's wearing as a cape.
 

 I have spent the last couple of weeks (squished in between a major trip to Washington, DC) editing the galley proof for my new book coming out in August. Piece by piece, I finished the editing. Between me, my assistant, 2 copy editors and 1 editor, this book will have been reviewed a minimum of 45 times before it is actually published (no joke; we've all gone through the manuscript in full at least 3 times). I couldn't be happier with how the photography turned out. It is absolutely luscious and gorgeous.

 

 I also hit a personal fitness goal this weekend when I worked out for 200 days straight and met my Nike Fuel "points" (essentially, a 'movement' tracking system) goal.

 

Jamisen is still refusing baths (seriously, the kid must have had some major trauma that we don't know about) but we have managed to get him to shower on his own now and take a modified bath.



Tonight, Daddy and Jamisen had a guy's night out while Mom grabbed a quick walk and dinner with girlfriends. Chris reported that Jamisen said "Thank You" (via sign language) when Chris ordered food for Jamisen. Our little guy is growing up!

 

More Rocks? Yes, Please!

Chris was gone this week on a business trip. I was so thankful that Grandma Faiola came up to help me out for a few days and then Grandpa joined us. He took the train up from Olympia.

  

Grandma and Jamisen are the best of reading friends.

 

We also had a visitor to our property this week. Such an angelic little guy right?

 

We had wondered where our birdseed was going! We just thought we had very, very hungry birds. It turns out we just have one very hungry deer!

  

 Grandma went out with tennis shoes to defend the honor of our sovereign birdfeeder territory. The deer did not care.

   

We went to Boulevard Park and relished the arrival of the sun. Jamisen did not want to get out and play but then, miraculously changed his mind after a Spinach/Feta twist from Woods Coffee. =)


 

 Jamisen ran, threw rocks, followed seagulls, ignored other children his age and got his shoes wet while frolicking on the beach.

   

We went to Dashi Noodle Bar and Mallards Ice Cream. Jamisen loved the sticky steamed buns (plain) at the Noodle Bar and stole Grandma's Licorice Ice cream.

 

We had such a fun weekend; Jamisen was a joy to be with and we were all so happy to see Daddy when he arrived back from his trip late Saturday night. Things aren't the same without him and Chris adds so much to our happiness as a family.

Valentine Card for Daddy

 

 Thanks to Pinterest, every crafty idea I see, I want to immediately turn into a reality. And not just any reality but one that I drag my entire family into.  With all the fun Toddler Art projects floating around, making fingerpaint from scratch was just a matter of time. Add Valentine's Day in there and it's a recipe for reds, pinks and fun messes.

 

Fingerpaint Recipe

2 cups flour

1/4 cup salt

3 cups boiling water

1 Tablespoon vegetable oil

Make a master batch of uncolored fingerpaint. Fold the flour into the water and oil, while beating with an egg beater. If you don't beat with a mixer, you'll get lumps (which are fine but dry funny).  

 I saw this crazy cute idea to do a LOVE sign with the 'V' as little feet and the 'O' as a hand. I wish I could take credit for this idea but I can't (hat tip, Pinterest). I can take credit for the painting box however. We designed a cardboard painting shield to keep the floor clean during the painting process.

Color Variations

Burgundy

6 oz. Fingerpaint Paste

1/4 tsp Burgundy Oxide

1/8 tsp Electric Bubble Gum

Pink

6 oz. Fingerpaint Paste

1/4 tsp Electric Bubble Gum

1/2 tsp Pink Oxide

Red

6 oz. of Fingerpaint paste

Red Labcolor to preference

We tried dipping his Jamisen's feet in the paint to start with and that didn't work well. See below for visual proof of that; too much lumpy paint on the page did not allow for delicate footprints to show through. Also, he hated having paint on his feet. Despite showing him the photos and explaining the concept, he was not having any of it.

 

Then, we moved onto painting his feet with a paper towel dipped in the fingerpaint. Jackpot! Painting the color on worked way better.  

 The paper towel paint application worked much, much better because we were able to control the amount of paint we got onto the paper. Getting his handprint was also tricky but totally doable with the same paper towel technique. Bonus: this fingerpaint washes off so easily with water.

Notice I changed clothes for the painting project? I thought it would be way messier than it was! Neither Jamisen nor I ended up getting any paint on our clothes.

Adding the picture of Jamisen + Daddy at the bottom was potentially overkill of cute but too much cute is always appropriate in our house.

 Note: We threw all the excess fingerpaint away. We were worried about washing it down the sink, fearing it might turn to glue. =)