So, here’s the thing. You may have noticed that we’ve been sorta sparse in the blogging arena. We registered, designed and produced this site as a way to keep a public journal of Charlie’s life. Our intentions were good; but tell me, what happens when you have one website specifically geared and branded towards your first and only kid..and then you have a second?

When we found out we were pregnant with Lucy, I purchased betababy.net, without thinking much about it. However, we certainly don’t have the time or energy to run two blogs—we barely run one.

This brings us to our options. Option 1: quit the blog and revert back to my real, true passion—scrapbooking. The collages, the stamps, the stencils, the texture if the paste in my mouth…

Or option 2: start a new blog—a blog that is slightly more generic. Less specific to the life of our amazing child, or even both of our amazing children. A blog that we feel comfortable discussing subjects completely irrelevant to children. Like, for instance that really awesome movie that we saw the other night. Not that we see movies; we have children, remember?….Well we’ll think of something.

Now, I’m going to ask you—especially if you’re a loyal reader—to click the link below. And please, make sure you update your RSS reader. We have no intention on dissolving alphababy.net—we’re far too nostalgic to scrap this ‘baby book’. We may even continue to post here when relevant. Our primary focus, however, will be directed here:

Thanks! Over and out.

This weekend was Grandma B’s birthday. I won’t mention her age, but it may or may not rhyme with schmixty. Happy Birthday, Gramma!

Her birthday also happens to mark Charlie’s HALF birthday, so naturally, we all got together and ate 1 1/2 cakes. And today, we will eat another 1/4 cake to celebrate Lucy’s 3-month birthday. And, unless anybody has a reason to eat the last 1/4 of the second cake, I will eat it without one.

33 months of children.

At the Children’s Museum.
Most kids want to be a fireman or astronaut. Not ours.

We are not spontaneous people; especially since having kids. So, at the beginning of last weekend, we were shocked to find ourselves driving to Portland for a couple of days. Our friend, Sizzle gave us the idea by missing her train to visit her Oregon friends. Andrea and I ‘joked’ about giving her a ride with the kids in the back seat. Then after a brief pause, we found ourselves looking for last-minute hotel deals. Sizzle ended up rescheduling her train, so didn’t tag along, which, in retrospect was a very good decision on her part. We knew it was a tight fit with the two car seats in the back, but we had not anticipated Lucy screaming for the entire 10-hour drive. Ok it was only 3-hours…but felt like 10.

We spent the weekend wandering the Pearl District and Downtown Portland. On Sunday, before heading home, we decided to take Charlie to the children’s museum, which, we’re certain is where he picked up croup.

Charlie, waitin’ to get out

It wasn’t until Tuesday that he really started showing symptoms — the hoarseness and barking cough. We put him to bed that evening and started to wind down. About an hour later, we heard him gasping for breath through the monitor. We ran into his room to find him sitting up, scared. His airway was so restricted that he was really having to work to get full breaths of air. After consulting the nurse’s hotline, we headed to Children’s ER. He received some steroid treatment that made him feel good enough to run circles around the room until we were finally discharged, around 3:30AM.

It was just shy of 4AM when we pulled into our neighborhood to find the single lane between parked cars blocked by a large SUV. Two of the passengers were out of the car and had opened a parked truck’s tailgate and canopy. A third guy kindly moved their SUV out of our way and rather casually went about stealing everything out of the back of the pickup. I immediately called 911, hoping to once and for all catch these guys. We couldn’t get their license plate number because of the fog—both literal and figurative. We watched the police circle our neighborhood several times, but I’m guessing the criminals got away, once again.

On my way home from work on Wednesday, the victim was outside examining his truck. I stopped to tell him what happened and quickly learned that he installs surveillance cameras for a living. He already had a plan to catch the crooks next time they decided to violate his property. Will they come back again? Yes. Yes they will.

In the last few months we have become exceedingly lazy. Between the Holidays, a new baby, and SNOWMAGEDDON ‘08 (which we can clearly blame on Al Gore), exercise had become less frequent. One night, as the new year was rapidly approaching, we were sitting around eating potato chips and spoonfuls of Nutella, when we got to thinkin’ about our ‘resolutions’. Andrea decided to dust off the 30-day Shred DVD that was currently being used as a coaster and begin working out. And I decided to quit being fair-weathered when it came to riding my bicycle to work. Seemed realistic.

Andrea got ’shredding’ right away, and is already showing great results; and last Tuesday, I finally went to pick up my bike from a much-needed tune-up. I was pretty excited to get back on the saddle and—ignoring the weather forecast—I had a dry ride into work on Wednesday morning. I spent most of my day at my desk on the 11th floor, paying as little attention to the weather as possible. At quittin’ time, I pulled my bike out of the parking garage to learn that it had begun pouring rain earlier in the afternoon—and had not let up.

By the time I got to the base of ‘Dexter hill’, I was drenched. But with another cyclist behind me, I stubbornly gave it my all. At the top of the hill, as we were picking up speed, I was paying close attention to a bus that had just left a stop and crossed over the bike lane. As it gained some distance in front of me, I once again began accelerating. It was that very second that my light struck what I only instantly saw as the inside of a car door opening. I managed to begin steering my bike to avoid collision but was unsuccessful. I ended up clipping the door with my upper body, shattering the window. I remember hearing the crunch of the door being hyper extended, the clap of my laptop bag hitting the ground next to me and the clattering of the cyclist behind as he landed on my bike. As I got up to brush the mud off and to assess the damage, I realized that I couldn’t lift my bag with my left arm. The other cyclist—who, it turned out also just got his bike out of the shop—hung around for a few minutes but was ok to continue his ride.

View Larger Map

That night, instead of going to dinner with friends, as originally planned, we ended up at the Northwest Hospital ER, learning all about what it means to separate a shoulder. Luckily, our friend Dr. Hodge was working that night and was able to get us star treatment—it was the quickest, most pleasant ER visit I’ve ever experienced. Thanks Doc!

I might need another sling

Since last Wednesday, I’ve given a lot of thought to the accident. I realize how lucky I am that it didn’t turn out worse than it did. I’ve heard about people being seriously maimed or even killed from being ‘doored’. Now, while I take a breath and wait until I am able to ride again, I will have to reassess my resolution…and unless anybody has a better suggestion, I’m thinking that it really ought to involve more Nutella.

Two of the fastest months of our lives.

At least her clothes fit now.