30 Seconds of Sinclair Island Relaxation

From the swing bench, with sounds of kids playing down on the beach:

Relaxation Time on Sinclair Island

 

Our Island Getaway

We're back from our excursion to Sinclair Island and we seem to have survived its rustic charms. Going into this vacation, both Parie and I were very nervous about the scaled-down features of the compound where we'd be staying on this private island in the San Juans. First off, there was no ferry service, so our group had to hire a boat to drop us off on the beach (and we had a lot of stuff to feed, water and outfit our group of 8 adults and 7 kids).



We were also faced with the prospect of no potable water (which was fine for cooking or washing dishes), very little electricity (supplied through a small set of solar panels), and no indoor plumbing.



Parie and I aren't campers, and we don't "rough it" that well, and we were having nightmarish visions of vacationing in a survivalist compound. However, everything turned out to be a lot less stressful than we were conjuring up in our swirls of worry. The main lodge, where the three of us stayed, was very comfortable. (The other three families had smaller cabins set around the lodge.) And it turned out that we had more than enough electricity to power lights at night and provide hot water for both dishwashing and showering(!).



We were also afforded some fantastic views of the Puget Sound from our bluff, including several absolutely glorious sunsets over neighboring Orcas Island.



And, of course, we communed with nature and the local fauna, which seemed to mainly consist of banana slugs (we had to be careful not to squish too many while traipsing back to the outhouse).



Sofian had a great time hanging out with everyone, though unfortunately he wasn't quite big enough to join in with the other big kids on the great Sinclair Treasure Hunt (led by Sue).



But he did get to have some hang time with his new soccer buddy, Tavio (Ward and Sue's new son).



But mostly, it was just a great time for the LemonDrop gang to relax.







Here's the full set of pics that we took, with videos to be posted a little later.

 

Heading Out of Town

Tomorrow, we'll be heading north to the San Juan Islands where we'll be going to Sinclair Island, a private island for which we have to charter a boat to land us on the beach of the compound we'll be staying at. It's a good thing we're going with such good people -- Anne, Eric, Mari & Clara; Tina, Ryan, Grant & Orlando; Sue, Ward, Netty & Tavio -- cos we sure wouldn't have picked this vacation for ourselves.

We'll be staying at a private residence with a larger lodge-style cabin and three satellite smaller cabins. There's no running water (first time I'll be using an out-house since Cathedral of the Pines church camp back in my youth) and no electricity (save for a solar battery charger). Hence, this will be the first time I'll be without my laptop in a very, very, very, very long time. To pass the time, I'm bringing the new Al Gore book, and I suppose it'll be nice to relax and recharge some batteries.

Anyhoo, we'll be back late Sunday (fingers crossed that The Others don't capture us) and we'll update the blog early next week with the pictures and videos we're able to capture before our batteries run out.

Talk Talk

Wow. Someone turned super talkative tonight. After the video below was taken, Parie took Sofian into the bedroom to try to wind him down, and the jabbering went on for another half hour at least.

Tell It Like It Is

 

LemonDrop Musical

As an addendum to the post below, here's Parie's stab at singing a Spanish version of Frere Jacques, as suggested by our PEPS pal Beth:

Mama Sings to Sofian

But then I crashed the scene with my Happy song:

Happy Happy Daddy

Sofian just ends up looking dazed. Let it be known that shame is thrown out the window for me when it comes to getting a baby to smile.

 

The PEPS Gang, Friday 22 June

Had a wonderful time over at Ellis' crib (with her parents Amy and Matt), and Sofian was awake for most of the gathering for the first time (though he did have a cat nap after a snack). Matt took some pics with a crazy 8-lens Lomo Oktomat, but until those get developed, here's a sampling of the pics (from the full set) I snapped with my ho-hum single-lens digicam:



Henry with his Dad, Pete (with Sammy at the top)



Ellis with her Mom, Amy



The whole gang: Sammy, Henry, Sofian, Ellis, and Ayana (counter-clockwise from left)



Sofian, having a post-snack nap.

Here's a quickie video of Mr. Stretch, aka Sofian -- he seems quite in his element when in large groups.



Kristina, our volunteer coordinator/leader also provided some tips on singing to our wee ones, such as during changing to keep them from flailing around:



At our house, Parie goes with "The Gambler" (one of the few songs she remembers the lyrics to, but she sings it so tenderly that it really puts Sofian into a blissful state). I'll have to think of a quieter song to sing, but for other times, Sofian digs it when I sing this song by The Aliens to him and he really loves it when I dance around to it when played through the iPod. Sadly, Parie put the kybosh on me adding it to this summer's mix CD. You'll probably figure out why.

Tidbits

• The battle with the breast pump may finally be over. We bought the Ameda Purely Yours pump shortly before Sofian was born, and it seemed to work alright for Parie in its early usage. But then it started to take forever to do a pumping, no matter how much Parie jiggled the knobs (pun intended) on the pump controller. We called Ameda, described what was happening, and their first-rate customer service told us it really sounded like a motor problem. So they shipped us out a replacement via next-day air.
  
  But... the replacement didn't seem to be working either. Could we have gotten two duds in a row? We decided to give Ameda one more try, went through the customer service line, and got a replacement next-day-aired. And that was a dud, too.
  
  We contacted Ameda one last time to request our money back (which they will be doing -- again, their customer service has been top notch), and Parie went and purchased the Medela Pump In Style (which we almost bought originally, especially after hearing it recommended on one of our fave telly shows -- Weeds). She inaugurated the pump this afternoon, and it was amazing how well it worked!
  
  
• I feel somewhat defeated. I just pulled the trigger on a window air conditioner purchase from Amazon. We're looking at a hot summer here in Seattle, and our house doesn't have the best ventilation. That wouldn't be too much of a problem for me, but Sofian runs hot blooded (check it and see), as does Parie, and I'll do whatever I can to keep them from screaming in discomfort.
  
  As it is, Sofian is pretty much refusing to go to sleep cos he's so uncomfortable, so we're off for a drive...
  

What Time Is It?

Tummy Time! Parie tried a new strategy today, propping Sofian up on the boppy pillow. He actually enjoyed himself on his tummy for once:

Tummy Time, Part 1

Tummy Time, Part 2

And here's a bonus pic of the two of them -- Sofian's eyes are starting to match his Mama's.

Another Battle with the Butterfly Console

Another Battle with the Butterfly Console

Two Recent Vids

For your enjoyment:

Sofian Gets a Massage

C'mon, You're My Trained Monkey

My First Father's Day

I just added a gig recently where I'll be providing blog posts to the newly created Baby Babble blog at Amazon. It's been a little rough sailing during its first week (I still wish they'd fix the images in this post, or just get rid of the image tags completely -- I look like a dunderhead), and unfortunately one of my first posts never got published. Here 'tis on this Father's Day, my first of many to come:

One of the benefits of my recent entry into the Parents Club is you get to celebrate a new holiday--either Mother's Day or Father's Day. Since I'm still a little new at this, I had to be reminded that my holiday is just a few days away. Whoops.

I don't think I can expect that Lil' F, our three-month old, will have shopped for a tie for his old man (though a gift of a day free of spit-up would be great). But I am hoping that he has some good napping time on Sunday, which would allow me to reread some of Crawling, by Elisha Cooper. I ran into this book almost by accident last year during my wife's pregnancy, when I was fretting about my future. I had many friends with kids, who all seemed to like my clowning antics, but I couldn't imagine dealing with a little critter day in and day out. As I paged through the first pages of Crawling, I came across this passage, and knew that this book might just speak to my jitters:

For starters, I had never liked children. Like most men in their twenties, I would sooner have been handed a bomb than a baby. If someone asked me to spend time with their children (no one was asking), I would have felt the same way if they had asked me to spend time with their ferrets. That I wrote books for children was something I chalked up to irony, and chance.

Cooper has a very dry (occasionally profane) wit and unsentimental view of parenthood (for the most part, though that certainly evolves), which might not be everyone's cup of tea. But I really appreciated the honesty, both in emotion and in retelling some potentially embarrassing tales from his daughter's first year, and it helped to put myself into a frame of mind to accept the responsibilities that were coming on quickly.

By the way, Cooper's children's books also quite delightful--I love his minimalist illustration style--and I'm hoping that Lil' F becomes as big a fan of them as I am. And on second thought, sharing Magic Thinks Big and A Good Night Walk with my son would be a marvelous way to spend Father's Day, even with a bit of spit-up.
~Agen G.N. Schmitz, Amazon Baby Babble

Aunti Keri Visits the LemonDrop

Keri came by to check out Sofian yesterday, and luckily he didn't sleep through her entire visit. Here she is playing with one of his favorite toys -- a very colorful book with lots of textures, bright colors, and a mirror.





And some candids:

Latest PEPS Gathering

Had a wonderful time over at Henry's place (his parents, Beth and Pete, had a great Mexican spread for us), with lively conversation about what we're all doing about balancing our work lives with our new lives as parents. Our group was all over the spectrum -- going on a two-year leave of absence, getting daycare at the workplace, planning two options for daycare only to have them fall through. Parie and I are very lucky in that we're very flexible with our work schedules (thanks to my freelancing and Parie's half-time work that she'll return to in September), with the plan being that I'll take care of Sofian on Parie's work days. Hopefully that will work for us so we can avoid having to deal with the maze of daycare applications that seems to be akin to the volatile housing market here in Seattle.

Anyhoo, here are some shots from the meeting, starting off with some tummy time on the blanket in the round. That's Sofian in the orange pants (natch), Sammy the left and Henry at the top. They all kinda wiggled around like a bunch of grubs, though Sammy definitely had some forward movement thanks to his strong legs.



Henry and Sammy discussing the pros and cons of socks:



Sammy and Ayana checking out the ceiling:



And Sofian getting burped:

Pics from Last Weekend

We headed down to Portland last weekend to celebrate TomTom's birthday (that would be Sofian's grandfather Tom, also known as Tutu Kane). Had a grand time, which might explain why we kept forgetting to whip out the camera. Luckily, Tutu (aka, Grandma; aka, the Reverend Doctor Mom to me) was there to help out. Here's a sampling:



Thomas and the new kid on the block.



Tutu and Sofian reading the New York Times.



Papa and Sofian rocking out.



Mama and Sofian enjoying TomTom's special birthday dinner.



Papa's doing something funny (funny-strange, but still laughable).

Two New Milestones

Sofian slept well over 7.5 hours last night. I can't believe how rested I feel!

And today, Parie took the little guy into see Dr. Guerra, as his upper respiratory thing (which might be asthma related) is still going on. Sofian weighed in at a whopping 16 pounds, 8 ounces. It doesn't seem this illness is having an effect on his growth. Pretty soon he's going to resemble the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters:



Speaking of Dr. G, he's got himself a new blog where he's mining his treasure trove of old LPs (which he's digitizing using using this USB-connected ION turntable--I think I need one) as well as documenting the suffering and misery index of kiddie birthday parties.

PEPS Comes to the LemonDrop

Last night, we hosted our PEPS group, and we had a blast with everyone. It culminated with a meeting of the babies on the floor, which lasted a lot longer than any of us would have thought. Though it was a slightly strange spectacle with the grown-ups hovering around like some parental Thunderdome (five babies enter, one baby leaves).

Below we have, clockwise from the top, Ellis (love those flowery pants), Sammy, Henry, Sofian, and Ayana (corrected).

Boys and Their Toys

I'm all a-twitter today cos I got my new MacBook Pro (check out my Amazon blog post on it), and Sofian has seen how excited his Papa gets with his computer. Luckily, he's got his own butterfly-shaped console to work on.

Tidbits

• We took Sofian into the doc's yesterday, cos he's got a bit of a respiratory thing going on. Since both his parents have a history of asthma, we were sent home with a prescription for a nebulizer (which shoots medication through a mist pointed at the little guy's mouth and nose, and which was delivered to our home by a tatooed nebulizer technician).
  
  
• While at the doctor's, we got an update on his weight: 15 pounds, 13 ounces. Crikey!!!!
  
  
• Last Friday, we had our first PEPS group get-together (PEPS stands for Program for Early Parent Support), where we were introduced to about four other families with newborns who live in the West Seattle neighborhood. We had a pretty lively discussion going throughout about sleep deprivation, poop, and other such exciting topics, and we got to share our birth stories. Interestingly, turns out many of the folks are Mac-based creative types. We're going to be doing the hosting this week, and I'm definitely excited to do some recipe research in some of our recent Brit foodie mags.
  
  
• On Saturday, we'll be making our first road trip, going to Portland to see my Mom (grandparent code-name Tutu) and step-father Tom (grandparent code-name TomTom), and we'll be there through Monday. While in Portland, we'll also be hooking up with former Seattleites Adam and Korey and their two lil' ones, Owen and Amelia.
  
  
• I'm slowly getting back into the blogging groove, and am starting to post things occasionally over at my ol' poltical blog, Cracks in the Facade. Definitely won't be as regular as it used to be, but I'm finding a few items that need to be shared.
  

Bathtime for Sofian

Man, is it hot in Seattle! It's currently 83 degrees, which by standards of some family who might be visiting the blog, might not seem like much. But here in the temperate clime of the Emerald City, that's too darn hot! To cool our little guy down, Parie ran a cooling bath for Sofian. I took a video of one of his first baths in the tub a couple of weeks ago, but I was told I could not post it (as Sofian was screaming a bit and Parie was stressed out on camera). But, since then, Sofian has really taken to enjoying bath time, which is more than just scrubbing up in the tub. Afterwards, Parie gives him some commando time (aka, sans diaper) and massages him with some Burt's Bees oil, as well as gives him some tummy time.

Before you begin to watch the video, please note that it is rated PG for prolonged nudity and discussion of body parts (which seems to offend some sensibilities).

Click to go to larger version...

Here are all the nudie pics from today. And as a bit of contrast, here he was getting a sponge bath back in his first week of life:

Great Day in Seattle

It was hot (but not as hot as it was earlier in the week), so we hung out on the stoop in the shade, tickling the little guy with a flower from our garden (which is desperately in need of some weeding).

See larger version...