Save the Milk

I just got back from an amazing (mind-blowing, earth-shattering, perspective-shifting) business conference - the Fortune Growth Conference. With notables like Ram Charan and Stephen M.R. Covey and top thought leaders of this decade, my head is spinning from the absolute wonderment of it all.

I got the thrill of my life when I was pulled up, on stage, to talk about micro-specialization as a trend. Verne Harnish, a teacher of mine from my MIT Entrepreneurial Masters days, was the Master of Ceremonies for the conference and he was so thrilled about my book (and the fact that it was his advice to write the book) that he came and grabbed me from the crowd, told me to wait on the sidelines and then called me up to the stage. I was honored, thrilled and had no idea what he would ask me!

While I was in the always lovely Las Vegas, this is how I talked to my kiddos - Facetime, courtesy of Apple. Can you believe this technology didn't exist just a few years ago? Talk about a digital disruption!

I am proud to say I've been to the strip once, for only 4 hours, for a wedding, in my entire life. Las Vegas and all it entails (gambling, overindulging, grey moral lines) has never been something I've subscribed to (of course, the Tony Hsieh Vegas on the other hand, I am all in! He was a speaker on how he's recreating Downtown Old Las Vegas and his idea of community was motivating and inspiring). However, for this trip, a group of us that were all coached by the same coach (the amazing Ron Huntington) piled into cabs to go eat at a quintessential Las Vegas restaurant, Nobu. Ron insisted on paying. I kept warning him that the prices at Nobu were ridiculously expensive (like crazy high) and he was equally certain he wanted to show his clients a large amount of gratitude and largesse.

When we got the bill, we found out the Wygu Beef was $38 per ounce. That flaming stuff? That's Wygu Beef. All of it. $38 per ounce. And we had 8 equally impressive courses with impeccable service and taste. The bill was so much money (over $4500; discretion did not permit Ron to tell us the actual total) that one of the other larger clients with half of the guests split the tab graciously.

When it was time to go home, I was so delighted. Between pumping breastmilk in airline bathrooms and at breaks in the conference, I was miserable. I developed a clogged milk duct (painful!) and my right breast had swollen to such an uneven size that I looked like an indecisive stripper. I carefully packaged 12 ounces of breastmilk in a plastic ice bucket (graciously provided, unwittingly, by room service when I lifted it from a room service cart coming back from another room where it had delivered Hagen Daaz ice cream), filled with ice, packed in a plastic bag, surrounded by another plastic bag and then, packed in a bag that had handles for easy carrying. TSA didn't even raise an eyebrow and quickly and professionaly performed a test to confirm it was breast milk. Phew.

Because of the breastmilk, I had arrived at the airport almost 3 hours ahead of my flight (I wasn't sure what would happen!) That allowed me to give up my first class seat to fly middle seat, stand by, on an earlier flight and take a bus back to Bellingham from SeaTac instead of flying back to Bellingham on a later flight. That was probably the right thing to do since the rolling fog was pretty intense so I don't even know that the flight would have landed. When Jamisen heard I was coming home early, he was pretty excited! (actual screen shot above when he got the news). It was all worth it to be home for the midnight feeding and, for pancake making with Jamisen the next morning.

Sweet boy asked me to make blueberry pancakes. He was pretty dang happy about them and ate two. He asked me to make some for Daddy and was very concerned that his Daddy have some too.

Lily was her gloriously happy self and the morning after I got home was full of joy and laughter and yes, chaos but it was happy chaos. There's no place like home.

Lily is 5 months

Oh Lily Lily Bobilly,

You are 5 months old today and continue to amaze and delight us. You and your brother have a fantastic relationship. He loves to kiss you, hold you and tries to help out whenever possible. Every so often he has a rush of emotion that comes out in the form of hitting or kicking you but for those times, he has special bite toys that he bites down on realllly hard to try to keep himself from hurting you. We're all thankful for that. You're getting some decent neck strength and roll over all the time. You still can't sit up on your own and would wiggle out of all of your little seats if you weren't belted in. You love to watch us with your wide eyes and squawk at us whenever we put you in your little seats to get anything (laundry, cooking, cleaning) done.

You are eating at 10 p.m., 1 a.m. 4 a.m. and 7 a.m. and basically are still trying to kill your parents, especially your Mother. Your Dad is proving to be much more resilient than your Mom. I am merely tired and more often than not, Dad gets you and Jamisen up and lets me sleep in for another hour. Dad is sure setting a good example for your brother on how a husband should be.

We love you more and more with each passing day and are thankful that your little personality has joined our family. We didn't think we could get any happier as a family unit but it turned out that we were just missing our final piece: you.

Love, Mom and Dad

Fall Orchard Time

It is officially fall in the Pacific Northwest. And, while I'm extremely sad about this, it does make some really gorgeous photos and fall activities, like hanging with family. Hi Auntie Cheriss!

We went to Whatcom Falls Park and checked out the fish (happy, happy fish!) and had a breakthrough! Breakthrough! Jamisen has hated swinging, of all types. He never liked being in the baby seat swings, big boy swings, in our laps ... nada. But this time, we got him to swing for at least 37 seconds and check out that grin. Whoah! Yeaah, little boy, lovin' a traditional childhood past time.

We also went to Bellewood Acres. Jamisen loved this terribly unsafe rocking horse thing. I say it's terribly unsafe because the rocking horse is on concrete. I love that place but was somewhat terrified as Jamisen rocked his little body in an unstable manner over concrete.

The reason Jamisen isn't looking at me (and I have 15 photos just like this one) is because he's staring at the donuts that are being made fresh, right in front of him. Apple Cider donuts, hold the sugar, because Chris is such a conscientious Daddy.

 

We picked apples in the apple orchard and Jamisen ate them directly from the tree. Go Jamisen! Also, look, it's Lily! She was here for all of these festivities but when Mommy is holding the camera, you don't see Lily because I'm also holding Lily. That's also why these photos require massive editing and culling.

We had a wonderful time at the orchard and at the park with Uncle Erik and Auntie Cheriss. Fall is a magical time of year.

Beaches and Babies

Precious baby Lily is 4.5 months old and though she may look angelic in this fuzzy amazing little get-up (thank you Grandma Kelly and Grandpa Winstson!), she has it in for her Mommy and Daddy. Though, for the nanny, she goes a full 8 hours during the day with only one feeding (really; that's not a joke), she eats 3 times in an 8 hour night for me. So Chris and I are really tired again. I'm already worrying about how break her of this comfort habit when we go to sleep training. I know that she likes to wake up and be comforted by me and since I'm away all day now, I like the extra snuggles but I really wish she'd sleep 5 straight hours and then give me some snuggles at say, 5 a.m., a more civilized time of the morning for cuddling.

Grandma and Grandpa Faiola were up this last weekend and it was amazing weather; truly off-the-hook awesome for October. We went hiking to Clayton Beach three times and Jamisen walked almost the entire way each time. That's a 2 mile hike for a little boy. I was so thankful to have Grandpa and Grandpa since Chris was on a business trip and taking care of two littles is entirely possible but not a recipe for a thriving, stress-free household.

Jamisen loves the beach soooooo much. He's still a very clean little toddler so doesn't go running into the water or get very dirty (which, truth be told, suits his Mama just fine) but he excels at rock throwing. 

The only thing he loves more than rock throwing and cooking is his sister. He kisses her. He hugs her. He tries to tickle her (rather ineffectively). He asks to see her every morning when he gets up. It's extremely sweet and makes my heart melt with gratitude. How did we get so lucky to have such a sweet little boy?

While Jamisen may not like getting dirty much, he sure is adventuresome! He has no fear or concept of safety when exploring. He also has no idea how sharp barnacles are!

Grandpa assisted Jamisen on some of the more difficult dismounts.

This picture makes me laugh. Jamisen is in this somewhat giant outcropping rock formation / cave. He found a stick and is literally pounding the dickens out of the cave while yelling a primal scream at the top of his lungs. It's all very caveman "I found my tool! And now, hear me rooooooaaaaaaar!"

Both of our children clearly love to have their fingers in their mouth. Which makes me wonder, is fingernail biting genetic? I bit my fingernails until I became pregnant with Jamisen. I quit cold turkey right then and there. After all, Moms don't bite their fingernails! =)

Baby Lily, or as I call her 'Gerber Baby' has started oohing and coohing, and doing mini laughs. She's not doing the big full-on baby peals of laughter but little happy giggles. She also has found her feet and practices the Happy Baby yoga pose often.She is our happy baby and we love her and our expanded family unit more each and every day.

Everything

“Family is not an important thing. It’s everything.” – Michael J. Fox

I’m so excited; Grandma and Grandpa Faiola will be here this weekend (!). This means lots of delicious food (I’m cooking Halibut for dinner with a beautiful arugula salsa verde) and laughter (so, so much laughter).

Grandma arrived early this week so we played a little bit of hooky this morning and went hiking with Jamisen to our favorite place in Whatcom County, Clayton Beach. Jamisen was delighted to rock climb (“I climbed a mountain!”), play with sea anemones and better yet? We saw a train!

Soap wise, it has been a crazy busy week. If you haven’t seen Instagram, you definitely need to check out our Vine and Instagrams.  It’s difficult to say what my favorite one is but it’s probably the Fall Leaves soap we did yesterday. And, we also gave a sneak peek of our Rainbow Clouds soap. It got 105 likes in Instagram, the most ever for any photo we’ve ever posted on Instagram thus far.