I’d like to be able to sum up what turned out to be one of the busiest summer weekends of our parental career..so far, anyway. However, we’re just now finishing cleaning up after the birthday celebration and it’s time to get back to the daily grind. So, I’m going to reserve these few last minutes of the ‘weekend’ to say ‘Thank You’. Thank you to everybody who made Charlie’s birthday party special and exciting for him. He’s only two and he’s already got great friends for life.

My other ‘thank you’ goes over to our new friends, Jen and Roth. We were invited to their annual seafood bake and it was…awesome.

Here are some photos of the weekend at a glance:

The obligatory Seattle Seafair Blue Angels air show. We thought Charlie would be more into the airplanes, but really he just wanted to go run through the parking lot behind us and try to eat his ear plugs

Charlie’s friend Cole’s birthday party. Happy birthday Cole!

The Seafood Bake. I see food…and I eat it. Yum.

Eat Me!

Roth and Jen did an amazing job on the feast.

Oh yeah..and did I mention that we got to hang out with THEEE Sizzle and THEEE Fella? That’s right.

Sunday was Charlie’s birthday party. We got one of these piñatas that you don’t have to beat with a stick, which I think would have given Charlie a complex. Instead, you pull strings out of Curious George’s butt until the candy falls out…Maybe next year, we’ll skip the piñata altogether.

The party was a lot of fun for Charlie, Thanks again to all of his friends for coming!

I wish I had the energy to write more about the busy weekend, but I’m exhausted. I’m going to go to work now for some much-needed sleep.

I remember, before having kids—even when Andrea was pregnant with Charlie—the idea of a little squirt running around, constantly getting into my business, torturing the pets, keeping us up at night and assuring that our house was a consistent wreck seemed just as I’ve made it sound—like a nuisance. Sure, I thought, I’m on-board with having a kid or two. Who else will take care of us when we’re old and senile? Plus, I figured that they’ll eventually do my chores for some puny allowance when I’d rather bask in the sun and drink beer (that I will likely have purchased with said allowance—”thanks kids! now you be careful on that ladder!”).

better than what I had for lunch.

It didn’t take long—once Charlie was born—for my feelings to drastically change. In the past two years, we’ve put up with every nuisance that I’ve described above; and then some. Simply put, it’s been the best two years of our lives. From the moment he took his first breath, right up through yesterday when he decided to help himself to the tub of Land O’Lakes margarine from the fridge; he’s been nothing short of amazing.

We love you Charles James. Happy Birthday, little man!

The morning tickets went on sale for Zoo Tunes, I got up extra early to go stand in line. This year’s line-up included Indigo Girls, Taj Mahal, Emmylou Harris, Aimee Mann, yadda yadda yadda.. These are all fine performers, I’m sure; but seeing as how it turns out that I’m NOT made of money, we decided to pick two shows to buy tickets for. Andrew Bird and the Avett Brothers—both of which made my list of top 10 albums of 2007—happened to be playing this year’s Zoo Tunes. Andrew Bird was last Wednesday and throughout the day, Andrea’s sciatica became progressively uncomfortable. At the last minute, she decided it wasn’t in her best interest to sit on the hard ground for several hours. My ‘good husband’ instincts kicked in and I decided to give the tickets away and spend the evening pampering my suffering wife with massages and her favorite home-cooked meal followed by a series of decadent desserts…Of course, I’m slow and those instinct didn’t actually kick in until Andrew Bird’s encore.

I was a little nervous about trying to handle Charlie alone—about him annoying others by sticking his paws into their potato salad or singing along to the band too loudly. However, he and I managed to make it through the entire show. In fact, Charlie did amazingly well—even when I left him alone to go to the beer garden*. Andrew Bird was great. He really is an incredible musician; I don’t suggest you pass up the opportunity to see him…that is, unless you have sciatica. Then you can stay home..but try not to think about how much fun everybody else is having.

I told Charlie we were seeing Andrew Bird…he was very confused.

By the way, next month’s Avett Brothers show is apparently not sold out yet. If you are in Seattle, you should really consider treating yourself. See you there.

*joke. there is no reason for you to call CPS. I did not leave Charlie unattended to go to the beer garden..I snuck him in under my jacket.

Since Jon has been keeping you all updated with his latest household projects, I thought it was about time to update you on MY latest project. "Project: Betababy". I am now rounding the bend to 24 weeks pregnant, meaning that we’re now beyond the halfway point. As you may remember from my first pregnancy, I had a lot of issues with morning-sickness, along with some issues with one of my kidneys. However, without boring you with my complete medical history I’ll just say that my body doesn’t handle pregnancy very well. It seems like any quark that may come with being pregnant, comes my way. My latest adventure has been dealing with some less-than-pleasant sciatica. But if this is the worst I have to deal with for the duration, I’ll take it. (knocking on wood)

Betababy, or as Charlie lovingly refers to her ‘baby sushi’, is doing great. Measuring right on for our dates and partying up a storm. I can reliably count on at least an hour of full-on kicks and spins as I try to fall asleep each night. We have now reached the point where we can actually watch my belly ripple as she moves and grooves in there. Charlie seems to have taken to the idea of having a little sister; or at least one that lives in his mother’s tummy. He often tries to get her to come out by pinching at my belly button (if it were only that easy kid). We’ll see how he reacts when she is actually here, but for now he’s very sweet and often gives the baby lots of hugs, kisses…and the occasional ‘raspberry’.

The house in 1946

We bought our house in 2004. It’s a smallish Cape Cod in Seattle that the seller’s grandparents purchased new in 1944. I don’t think it was long before we moved in that the attic was mostly finished to accommodate two extra bedrooms, making it a 4-bedroom house. Since moving into the house we’ve had four major items on a long list of things we wanted to do to the house to make it our home.

1) New fence (DONE). Not long after we moved in we had the 3-foot, rusty chain-link fence replaced with a higher-than-legal cedar fence to give us some privacy. Which really translates to: we didn’t want to look at our neighbors’ unkempt homes on either side of us. On one side, we have a circa 1970s gargantuan, brown, needs-to-be-painted..and cleaned…and landscaped…..split-level home. The owners are quite nice; they just don’t make their house a priority. On the other side is an empty lot where there used to be a charming home (we’ve seen pictures) and now houses broken down cars, trucks, mobile homes, trailers, etc. As much as I hate the term, the best way to describe it is: ‘white trash’. Needless to say, the fence helps.

A strange panoramic photo of the fence being built.

2) Patio Deck (DONE). We started designing and excavating for a patio, but, as the project drug on, we changed our minds to a deck. We built an enormous Trex® deck that spans most of the back of our house; when the weather is nice, it adds quite a bit of livable space to our home.

3) New kitchen (IN PROCESS, due end of summer). We’ve been putting it off for far too long; we’ve finally decided to take the plunge and remodel our tiny kitchen. We won’t be adding square footage to the room, but—all said in done—will have at least twice the storage than we have now and will of course have updated appliances, lighting, flooring, etc.

photos circa 2004 (before we moved in). Anybody want that oven?

4) Finish roughed in bathroom upstairs (NOT DONE). Will hopefully be able to finish in concert with the kitchen. At least, that’s the plan.

The past few weekends have been dedicated to starting what we can on the kitchen. Last weekend we installed French doors off of our dining area. This weekend we closed off the door from our kitchen to make room for the added cabinetry. Next weekend I hope to get some of the wiring done for the outlets and lighting. We still have a long way to go, but as soon as we order cabinets, by the time they arrive, we should be ready to install them and have a functional kitchen within weeks. I hope.

A special thanks goes out to Charlie’s grandfathers who have both been an incredible help with various projects. Without their guidance, I’d be standing in the middle of our back yard staring at the back of the house holding a hammer in one hand and scratching my head with the other.

Stay tuned.

dibs on not changing his diaper.

We ended up spending much of Independence Day up in Edmonds, where Charlie’s Oma and Opa live. We spent the previous night in Poulsbo, where The Fourth is celebrated on the third to avoid competition with other near-by firework displays. It works out well for us since we have family that lives there, on the water, with a great view of the fireworks. Plus, coming back, the ferry happens to drop us right in Edmonds. The terminal is just blocks from Oma’s toy store, where we were able to park our car. Oh, but that’s not all. On the morning of The Fourth, there is the annual Edmonds parade that is preceded by a children’s parade. The children’s parade is much like a slo-motion running of the bulls, only instead of the threat of being gored, you have to keep from being pelted by hard candy and your toes from being run over by razor scooters.

Our plans to watch the big fireworks show from a boat on Lake Union fell through (hope everybody’s feeling better), so we ended up staying in Edmonds for a delicious dinner with the family. We decided to head home before the Edmonds fireworks started to avoid traffic. However, looking at the clock on the way home, we figured that we could make it to Fremont in time to find a decent view of the big show. So, with Charlie passed out in the back seat and Pedro shaking on our laps, we sat in the driveway of an apartment complex and watched the impressive display. The camera was in the trunk, but it did look a lot like last year’s show