Pregnancy #2

I just had the thought, "Hey, what if I spend New Year's Eve doing the lamest of lame: updating the family blog!" And then Adam told me his sister was doing something even lamer tonight: chaperoning a stake dance, which is my worst nightmare way to spend an evening. So, bring on the lameness tonight, last day of 2010!

Well, as you may know, I'm pregnant again. Here's a leetle photo shoot from 15 weeks. Because when it's not your first pregnancy, you don't remember that you still need to pick up the camera to document now and then. So I finally got to it at 15 weeks. Now I am at nearly 19 weeks and will find out baby's gender on Monday. I think it's a boy because the tiny fetus profile at the first ultrasound is exactly my brother, Owen's. Adam is pulling for a girl. Let's be honest, so am I. If we could replicate any child with even 1/100th of the cuteness contained in Sienna, we will be pumped. We want her to have a little girl buddy, too. But I guess you can be buddies with whatever siblings you have, no matter the gender. Right?

So here am I. Maternal stretch pants and all.

Cup the belly!

Oh. My mirror is really grody. Look at that toothpaste streak.

I should really clean my mirror.

This pregnancy has been different in that I definitely felt the first trimester food weirdness right off the bat. Nausea and ickiness. Plus the fatigue that I felt with the first pregnancy. And then when the first trimester was over, it was like: zing! More energy, less food weirdness (although there is still some). I am seeing a high-risk OB/GYN and cardiologist, as usual, and have had some frank conversations about what my future really looks like in the child bearing department. Some of it is scary (like, I could be done having kids after this one or I could not - WHO KNOWS) so I am just trying not to freak out and doing my best to enjoy Sienna and pregnancy in general and all that goes with both. I have done my fair share of complaining about raising a kid (because it's so freaking ridiculously hard sometimes I just want to die) but when faced with the possibility, however big or small, of having just 2 kids when I had previously always envisioned having 8 (until I had a kid, of course) or at least 4 (after having a kid), it's a whole new mindset to adopt and a future I had never considered. Anyway, the good news is I am feeling great and have not had any heart trouble, and that is the best sign I can have. It just needs to continue ... hear that heart? Huh?!

Happy New Year! Here's to a year of birthing babies (for me, and many friends including Eirene, Mim, Shanna, and my cousin, Carrie). Go baby birthing!

A Merry Christmas Newsletter

I’ll admit, I’ve seen the year “2001” a few times this year and wondered, “Wait, is this the year I enter college? Or the year I have a one-year-old?” Figuring out which side of the “0” the “1” is on has been a challenge, so it is will gladness that I bid adieu to this confusing year. How was 2010 for you? And did you call it two thousand ten or twenty ten? Do we know what to call this decade yet? Early two thousands? Twenty hundreds? The zeros? Ponder on that.

As I reflect on the past year, we have plenty to be thankful for and also some things to be annoyed about. Let’s talk about it.

January started out with a bang. Adam’s first bike race resulted in a nasty crash and a broken collarbone and rib. It was his second time with the collarbone break. Doctors waited for, oh, three months to do surgery on it (none could be done for the rib). No biggie! He just had to sleep sitting up, deal with incredible pain, and sit out the entire racing season. He was broken in more places than his bones: his heart. Cycling is his second wife, so he suffered greatly the first half of this year without his beloved bike time. Now he has metal in his shoulder. That’s fun.

With his arm in a sling, he kept busy in after-work hours typing up business school applications and essays. He decided to go back to school to get a master’s degree in business so he could essentially ditch the world of accounting. He got into University of Washington and we made plans to move from sunny land (Irvine, Calif.) to rainy land (Seattle, Wash.) in August. How did I feel about this? Great. I was looking for a way out of California. If you think 2001 threw me off, try 80 degree winters. Is it May or November? I never knew.

Southern California did bring us many wonderful friends and opportunities, so our four years there were not wasted. It was lovely, in fact, and we never took for granted living close to the beach! But life marches onward and upward. Right before we left Irvine, I started an interior design business with a friend which we operate online. It’s been a dream of mine, and she was just the gal to help me go for it. It’s now what keeps me happy during Sienna’s naptime.

Speaking of our little Birdie, she turned one in May and learned to walk in August. Watching her learn new things is a daily thrill for us. She just entered nursery, runs, babbles with conviction plus a few words, and can be found climbing up in my rocking chair and quietly thumbing through her books (she’s gifted). I realized this year that sleep training is a farce (to my frustration, then relief, then full acceptance). I realized that a Sunday nap for myself can mean the difference between Scranton Strangler and Responsible, Loving Mom. I realized that a hug and kiss from your own little child is better than … sushi. Mmm, maybe they’re the same.

Speaking of sushi. I’m pregnant! And I’m not supposed to have any. This means I need extra hugs and kisses from my small child to remind me again why I’m going through all the sacrifices of having another small child. Baby #2 is due a month after Sienna’s birthday, which will put them at a nice two years apart! No word on gender yet, but we’ll find out soon!

Now that we are comfortably situated in an upstairs apartment in a triplex in the Crown Hill neighborhood of Seattle, life is considerably different than it was a year ago. More wet (yet much more sunshine than we anticipated), more urban, more eclectic, more time entertaining a toddler who has dropped her morning nap and … less time with Adam. We take the good with the bad and call it all good. Even if some of it is annoying.

The best thing in life continues to be our knowledge of the gospel and of Christ who makes the dark days bright. We hope you have wonderful holidays. Merry Christmas! And Happy New Year Two Thousand One One (that’s how I’m going to say it, anyway).

Adam, Martha and Sienna Ware

Back From the Dead - For Now

Hello faithful followers of my wife's blog. I'm here for my semi-annual contribution. I've read a few of Martha's "Brain-dumps," wherein she ruminates on a variety of seemingly unrelated topics. I thought I might give that a try. It's sure to be more of a "brain-barf" than a "brain-dump," although now that I've written those terms down together, one doesn't seem much worse than the other. Anyway, before I get started I should mention that I have no delusions of grandeur; meaning that I fully appreciate that readers of Martha's blog probably have little to no interest in laboring through multiple nonsensical paragraphs of A-Ware musings. Still it's raining outside, I'm out of school, the Bird is napping, Martha's at a Dr's appointment, and my Christmas shopping is done... so... this actually is the best use of my time.

Being a Dad. If you know my daughter, you know that she is the sweetest little thing that there ever was. What really amazes me is that no matter how cute she is, she figures out a way to even cuter the next day. For example, a few weeks ago she figured out how to jump. I say "show me your jumps, Bird!" and she does the cutest little hops. But just when I think that's the cutest little thing I've ever seen, she starts begging me to read "Where the Wild Things Are" every single night at bedtime. She finds the book, climbs up in my lap, and says "mmmm?" expectantly until I start reading. At the very end of the story, when Max sails from the place where the wild things are, back across the ocean, and "into the night of his very own room," the Bird looks at the little bowl of supper on his little table and says "hot!" It. Is. So. Cute. So if you're thinking of becoming a father I recommend it wholeheartedly, but don't get your hopes up. Your kid will be adorable, but not nearly as adorable as mine.

MBA School. I just finished up my first semester of b-school at the University of Washington in Seattle. In the past I've usually been pretty cynical about education. I'm that guy who was always asking his classmates "when are we ever going to use this?" or "I'm sure that's not the way they do it in the real world," as if an undergrad actually knows anything about "the real world." This time around I've been trying to approach school with a better attitude. I'm really trying to buy in to the whole process because, after all, I'm paying for it this time, and what do I have to lose? Here's a summary of things I've learned since starting the program. (1) I'm not nearly as good at Finance as I thought I'd be (2) I'm way better at Marketing that I thought I'd be (3) Being an CPA actually comes in handy once in a while (4) Apparently Apple and Google are the standard against which everything on earth is measured, because that's all anyone talks about (5) Just because you nailed the GMAT doesn't mean you're smart (6) No matter how much you wave your arms around, Statistics is still nauseatingly boring and (7) The best thing to do right before a test is foosball.

Journalism - I love the opinion page, be it in the paper, the radio, or the TV. But when you read or listen to these people you really have to watch out for fact-twisting, which I disdain. Rush and Glenn - whom for years I have regarded as nothing more than entertainers - were downgraded this year in my book to "not even worth thinking about" (I recognize the irony in that statement). It was the $200 million per day Asia trip thing that pushed me over the edge. Good opinion journalism took a huge hit in 2010 with the death of Daniel Shore. I only wish I were 25 years older so I could have heard him in his heyday. I read Paul Krugman religiously. I find his column captivating, though he never quite convinces me. I try so hard to read the WSJ opinion page (thanks to a free subscription provided by my cycling buddy Peter Harker), but I can't help wondering whether Rupert Murdock looks over the opinionators' shoulders as they write. Finally, I have this recurring fantasy in which David Brooks leaves his post at the New York Times and runs for President.

Politics - Speaking of recurring dreams, I have this one in which Sarah Palin gets her own reality show. She thinks it sets her up perfectly for a 2012 run, but in fact her tomfoolery on the show just further refudiates her own ability to lead a natio... oh wait! But seriously, she's embarrassing, and I'd totally add her to my people-I-want-to-punch-in-the-face list if I thought it would do any good. Other 2010 realizations: John Huntsman is better than Mitt Romney, Michael Bloomberg is better than Ralph Nader, Chris Christie is better than just about any Republican out there, and anybody is better than Christine O'Donnell.

Seattle - Meh. I'm pretty torn. On one hand it's a great place to live: the temperatures are moderate, I hardly ever have to drive, the bus service is easy and reliable, the chain restaurant to non-chain restaurant ratio is lower than anywhere I've ever lived (not counting Italy), the people are great, and the surrounding countryside is stunningly beautiful. On the other hand, the roads in the city are awful for road biking, it rains a lot (although not as much as I'd expected), the days are really really short in the winter time, and the whole place is sort of dingy looking. I haven't made a final decision yet... I'm withholding judgement until I've experienced a Seattle Summer.

Cycling - Back in Irvine there was a heavy guy at my church who used to always tell me that he was thin and fit as a whistle until he "turned 30 and started grad school." It never bothered me until he found out that I was turning 30 and going to grad school. "You watch out," he'd say. I actually appreciated his honesty and frankness. You see, I've been thin my whole life, so if I ever refuse a piece of cake people say things like "oh come on, you can spare the extra calories," or "like you care, you're just going to bike/swim it off tomorrow morning." I'm not complaining here; overweight people endure far more obnoxious comments than that. What I'm saying is that 2010 was a bad year for exercise. Maybe my worst ever. It started with a crash and a collarbone break in January which kept me off the bike for months. Grad school hasn't helped either. I'm down to 2 hours per week, on a good week. Last year at this time I was getting 8 to 12. I'm no William Howard Taft (yet), but I sure wish I could get on the bike a little more.

Snow Day in Seattle

The week of Thanksgiving, it snowed for a couple days and the whole city shut down! It was awesome! Adam and every other person in school around these parts got out for two days. And even when UW was considering holding school the second day instead of cancelling it, their message board got tons of nasty comments from people saying things like, "I care about my education, but I care more about MY LIFE!" Whoa! Talk about dramatic. But, really, it was pretty scary driving around. Tons of ice plus hills is not a good combination. We didn't go out much except to introduce Birdie to the stuff. I consider this her first snow, even though she's seen the stuff in Utah and Colorado last year during the holidays, because this is her first time actually living in it, not just visiting it, you know?

Here she is in her darling little marshmallow parka, hat and mittens taking a walk around the neighborhood.

Could that red little nose and cheeks be any sweeter?

Oops, a little fall.

She thought she'd venture into uncharted territory. Nope, coming back out. Too deep and too cold for tennis shoe wearers.

Tasting it!

Our reflection in a business window.

The view outside our living room window.

My lima bean wreath on the front door.

Snow, come back! I want to see you again in Seattle.