The 12th man of 700,000

Yesterday was the Seahawks Super Bowl celebration parade in Seattle. Last year, my wonderful friend Nicole took her kids into Baltimore for the Ravens parade, and I had parenting envy (I get that a lot where she is concerned). So I decided Nadine and I wouldn't miss this chance of a lifetime, to cheer a Super Bowl-winning team in their home city.

Todd was on call, so there was no way he could request the day off.  I figured the crowds would be crazy, but I was really excited to go, even solo with Nadine, so I planned it. (I must insert, I have finally detoxed off my antidepressant, which also regulated my anxiety, so I was a bit worried how this outing would go for the newly unmedicated me. There was some divine intervention in my ability to view the entire process as an adventure. I'm never able to do that.)

To deal with the cold, and give us some needed Seahawks gear, I made really cute Seahawks hats and scarves. I'm quite proud of them.

The parade started at 11. My plan was to drive to SeaTac airport, which is about 50 mins from Olympia, and catch the light rail near the airport. Then a short 39 projected minutes later, we would be in Seattle.

Ha.

I wasn't thinking, and we left the house at 7:50. Um, someone forgot to factor rush hour into the equation. It took us about an hour to get to the Tukwila train station. It took a half hour to find an off-site parking spot, then 15 minutes to walk to the station. We got to the station about 9:45, and waited in line to buy tickets.

The area was utter pandemonium. Happy, pleasant, excited, "Yay Seahawks!" pandemonium, but still. We waited in a mass of people for about 45 minutes just to get our tickets. 

Here's the crowd ahead of us as we arrived at the station. The crowd behind us quickly grew to this size and doubled.

When we were about 10 people from the kiosks, a transit worker told us they decided to make the ride free, so we should go straight to the train. More pandemonium!

We waited in a huge mass of people for about 10 minutes, missing 3 trains that were completely full. Completely full, and we were only the 2nd stop on the line!

At this point Nadine was cold (did I mention it was below freezing here?) and crying, so when the next train arrived, I shoved our way onto a train. The people inside said it was full, but I told them tough. I needed that train!

To make a long story short (too late), every step of the process was packed with Seahawks fans. We finally disembarked in Seattle and found a spot surrounded by grass, on which we could see the parade route. This came after we waded through an intersection of people literally packed shoulder to shoulder. 

Do you see how there are two BLOCKS of wall-to-wall people?!

This is the mass of people waiting to get onto transit, after the parade. 

The city was expecting between 200,000 and 500,000 fans, and they estimate 700,000 were there yesterday. 700,000 fans in a city that only has about 634,000 residents. I'm telling you, Seahawks fans are nuts.

Photographic proof--we were there!

It was such a fun day. I'm so glad we went, and that despite all the lines and the people and the shoving, we had a good time and enjoyed the adventure. Today at breakfast, Nadine said, "We're a Seahawks family." Apparently we are.

My sweet little Hawk.

Mother

Now I'm all choked up. This video is beautiful.



Most appropriately, my mom told me about it, and the wonderful line within,

"Life doesn't come with a manual

it comes with a Mother."

Mmm, what a fantastic line.

I am so grateful for my wonderful, beautiful, hardworking, supportive, loving, creative, nurturing, good-advice-giving mother and mother-in-law.

Sheesh

Here is reason #9,876,567,345 I don't want pets.

They don't know what to do with kids and will attack them.

At my friend's house today Nadine got swatted by a cat. Who hadn't been de-clawed. I am so grateful she closed her eye, because two of the three puncture marks are right by her eye. One was at the very edge of the bottom of her eye. Poor girl got a black eye from a cat!

She cried for a bit, but she's a tough girl. And then when the other cat appeared, she immediately screeched with joy and crawled after it. No harm no foul.

And yes, there is immense mommy guilt associated with this episode. I should have been right by her while she was in an animal's face, and I should not have allowed my baby to even be in an animal's face. Live and learn.

6 month well baby visit

"Well baby" is right--as of yesterday Nadine weighs 18 lbs. 13 oz. and is 26.5 inches long; those are in the 92nd (!!) and 87th percentiles, respectively. Sheesh. I'm so glad we got the car seat that holds a baby up to 30 pounds--I can't imagine having to buy another car seat six months after we started using the first one. Dang baby gear . . ..

In relation to her visit, here's the purpose of the post: I'm always interested that we hear what we want to hear (or what we decide to hear), and that we read into things that aren't there. Yesterday, in all our Nadine discussions with the doctor, the thing I took away is that I've been over-feeding her (the doctor did not say we'd been over-feeding; further, before anyone says, "Actually, your baby is a bit heavy," based on her percentages she's just a big, healthy girl). I think I read into it because I've been worried about how much to feed her.

Before I became a mom, I'd heard others say parenthood is a bunch of unknowns that you figure out as you go along. As someone who likes to plan every step of everything, it's been hard for me to realize parenthood is a bunch of unknowns that you figure out as you go along. I need a chart that says, "This feeding, feed your baby __ in __ ounces. Next feeding, give her __ in __ ounces," etc.

So because of all these feelings of uncertainty, I looked at her weight and took that to mean I was doing something wrong. Mommy guilt. But, she's still just a baby, and she's not underweight, so I'm not worrying about it. This is all part of the journey and the adventure.

Why do we read into things? It's so lame.

Be mine

We've started watching Nadine while she sleeps (I know we're the only parents who do this). She's so dang cute; plus, she's started sleeping on her side, with one leg over the other and her hands entwined by her face. It's so precious.

And in response to the (suggestion? request?) on her adorable sleeper: we are hers. Hook. Line. Sinker.

Don't worry, be happy

Nadine and I flew home Friday night. Our flight was supposed to depart at 6:15, and we boarded at 5:40. We were some of the first people on the plane, and we settled into our seats--the seat pocket in front of me (I love how stewardesses say that like it's one word) contained Nadine's "it's my dinner now" bottle, my magazine, and my snack. The Benadryl was within arm distance too, just in case.

We sat and waited. And waited. Passengers didn't start streaming onto the plane, and I knew we were in trouble. Then the captain got on the PA and told us the water to the coffee machine and bathrooms didn't work (coffee, not important; bathrooms, important). So they told us to grab everything and get off the plane. Never a good sign. They said to wait an hour for an announcement.

So we waited the hour, then 30 more minutes. Also not a good sign. Then an employee finally announced our plane was broken and we had to wait for the next Hawaiian Airlines plane to arrive. At 11:15. Four hours from then. (Cue groans and then a really loud buzz of everyone talking on their cell phones; it cracked me up.) I bought People magazine to tide me over, and they offered us a food voucher and a Hawaiian Airlines voucher. We were placated.

But at midnight, 45 minutes after the passengers had disembarked the new plane, when the doors were still closed, we were less placated. Especially because as the passengers deplaned they saw the "6:15, Delayed" flight on the screen and gasped and looked at us with pity. THEN people started showing up for the 2:30 AM flight to Hawaii and really looked at us with pity. Though I looked at them with pity because they had our old plane.

We finally boarded, at the time we were supposed to be landing in Hawaii. Sigh. But at least the flight hadn't been cancelled.

However, the purpose of this post is not to complain; it actually wasn't as terrible as it sounds. I want to gush about how wonderfully the delay was handled by a five-month-old baby at her bedtime, because it proved what a good-natured baby she is. She slept for four of the six and a half delayed hours, then slept nearly the entire flight. Which meant I got to sleep. She is such a great baby for whose chill and pleasant personality I am so thankful.

Oddly enough, this perfectly describes our island baby.

During my flights, I learned two cool baby-traveling tricks.

1. Playtex Drop-Ins bottles are wonderfully handy while traveling. You can just throw away the liner and don't have to worry about cleaning an entire bottle on a plane (we normally use Dr. Brown's, which are especially hard to clean, so this really is a coup for us). This means you don't need to have three or four (or five or six) bottles taking up valuable space in the diaper bag.

2. Most baby formula companies probably do this, but the Similac we use is available in liquid form. I've wondered why you'd use this

product, but then I realized how convenient it is to not have to mix formula on a plane (this is especially true when traveling without help). You can even put a nipple right on the travel-size formula container; no pouring required. Fantastic.

*The trip also reaffirmed my love for the Munchkin Formula Dispenser. This is one of the best baby products ever. The container allows for enough formula for three bottles, and because airlines let you carry on liquid formula, I had three 8-ounce ready-made bottles and enough formula for three 6-ounce bottles. After the delay, I was especially glad I brought that much.

We're flying again in a few months, so do you know any other cool plane tips?

The joys of babyhood

Do you remember this song? It is one of the few Sesame Street songs I have remembered and loved for years; I sing it to Nadine quite often. She'll be so retro and cool.

It got me thinking about the other things parents do to try to jump-start their kids' learning. In addition to the nerdiness of me singing a Sesame Street song I learned when I was little, we also bought a few toys for Nadine because she is tracking and focusing on things.

We bought these ADORABLE hand and wrist bugs, in colors infants and babies can see. They don't do her much good now, and she doesn't notice them, but they make me so excited for when she'll realize her feet and hands actually belong to her. And that her feet have fun toys on them.

We also got this ginormous peacock to hang from her car seat. I thought the bird was so blasted cute, with all the colors and layers. And though I knew Nadine can't see the colors yet, at least there was something she could look at during the few moments she's awake in the car.

But then we opened the package and saw the back of the peacock.

Genius! "Colors" a newborn can see, with fun patterns. What a cool toy.

So, I'm sure these toys, songs, etc. won't necessarily quicken her progression, but I know it can't hurt to stimulate her brain as much as possible. Plus, it's just so fun.

Do you guys have any "smarty" things your babies/kids enjoy?

But the animal is inside out. ... And it exploded.

The other night Todd took the mid-early morning shift and let me get a few hours of uninterrupted sleep. He came up carrying a happy Nadine and said he needed me to hold her while he cleaned up a poo mess. I was thinking maybe she just pooed all over her changing pad. But oh no.

Below is a picture of her changing area--the changing pad is on the dresser. Do you see the drops of brown mess on the pad? Gross and no fun. But then look down on the floor, FEET from the changing pad. See those spots? Also baby poop. She exploded on poor Todd (or as Uncle Dave would say, she had an assplosion). She seems to like to shoot her poop at her dad.

So poor Todd was cleaning baby poop at 3 AM off our carpet; he said he got a blister from scrubbing the poo. A poo blister. As if the story couldn't get more hilarious. We were cracking up and had to take a few pictures. Apparently her intestines are really strong.