Hockessin Bliss

We went home for my high-school reunion over the weekend, and well, it was such an awesome trip. My parents really rolled out the red-carpet, as usual, to make it amazing. Mimi borrowed a Lightning McQueen bed for Lucia to sleep in, which was really, really helpful after our redeye flight Wednesday night/Thursday morning. Let me also just extol the virtues of Virgin America again. The in-seat entertainment is KEY with traveling with kids. They also had a hilarious paper airplane race to entertain us while our flight was delayed, and gave Lucia a prize for entering it. (I flew the airplane and didn't win, unfortunately). It was pretty hilarious: they called over the speaker, is there a Lucia? (we had written our name on our plane AND told the flight attendant her name) And Lucia perks up and forgets for a second that it's 11 p.m. at night and she's super exhausted. Then the flight attendant calls out, "with rainbow pants on?" (she wore her jammies on the flight) and sure enough, Lucia had to look down at her pants to make sure hers were rainbow. Then she loudly yells, I'M WEARING RAINBOW PANTS!!! And went to collect her voucher for a free show on the way. She chose Dora, and yelled out SWIPER DON'T SWIPE a zillion times, which I googled today and apparently there's a fox that follows Dora, et al, around and Dora asked the audience to help her watch out for him. 

ANYWAY. We slept when we got to Mimi and Big Pappa's house, then headed over to see Dick's mom and sister. We had a nice time, aside from when Lucia took a running header into Gran's antique chair. The chair was fine, Lucia was not. I was impressed with my mom's lightning fast reflexes -- she yanked Lucia up so fast and checked to make sure she hadn't knocked out teeth. Teeth intact but a wicked skin abrasion under her chin. She cried. :( 

Friday my mom and I headed to the mall for long overdue girls day of shopping. Minus Lucia. Which meant we could just lollygag and try on ridiculous new blushes and debate dress after dress for aforementioned reunion. Actually the dress shopping was pretty simple; I picked out a few and decided on one and rocked it. Not to brag, but OK, I'll brag: as someone who was a size 16 after Lucia was born, I never ever ever thought I'd have my body back. I have my body back. I was thrilled to pick out a size 4 and rock it on Saturday night. I have worked so, so hard to get to where I am. No diets, no gimmicks, just hard work. So yay. Pom-poms for me! 

Friday night we went to my stepsister's house to convene before going swimming with Lucia's cousins. Turns out once we actually got in the pool, Lucia liked it more in theory than anything. She didn't want to jump off the sides. She didn't want to practice any of her moves. I decided to see how far she was progressing in lessons and in about three feet of water, I let her go. Let's just say it didn't go well. Some coughing and general panicking on her part. I asked her why she didn't do balloon cheeks. She said she didn't want to. Sigh. Looks like we'll be making swimming lessons more of a priority. After swimming we had dinner with their family and then played kickball. Lucia thought it was soccer and Pete didn't know to run to second base once I kicked it and was headed to first. Those foreigners! 

Saturday morning we headed over to my high-school friend's house for a BBQ. I put a lifejacket on Lucia and she happily played in the pool. Win-win. Saturday night was the big party, so Pete and I checked into our free hotel (yay points!) and got ready for happy hour. The girls and their spouses, who we've kept in touch with and see pretty frequently, arrived around 5:30 and we proceeded to have a hilariously fun happy hour. Those girls and their husbands are so damn funny. So funny. 

The reunion was great. Having happy hour meant I was elated to see people and forgot about their high-school transgressions and just loved every bit of it. Regrettably, I didn't eat enough dinner so the latter part of the evening is a bit blurry but my god it was fun. So very very fun. One of our classmates' dad drove us back to the hotel in the van, then the rest of the crew home. Man it was fun. Did I already say that?

Sunday we went to brunch with Megan & Jon, which was awesome, then hung out with my stepsister and her family some more. The highlight of the day was seeing Lucia on a bike: Katie found an old bike and helmet and let Lucia ride it. It was pretty adorable. We're hopeful we'll soon live in a non-hilly neighborhood that's more conducive to bike riding. Although riding down by Lake Merritt might be OK. As a result of that day, we're talking about getting Lucia a bike for her birthday. 

Sunday afternoon we went to Pizza By Elizabeths, my favorite place to eat. I regret choosing the gluten free crust, it was not good. Next time I'll know better! 

We flew back yesterday. It was a blissful but super fast trip. My parents and family are really the greatest. I so wish Delaware was next door to California. Until that happens, I guess we'll have to get by with keeping in touch between visits. 

Pictures to come...

Serenity Now (Literally)

Pete had long complained about our bed; how it was impossible to read in bed without the iron (steel, really) poking you in the back. I wasn't happy with the overall look and feel in our bedroom and thought it was just a trainwreck. It was not relaxing and serene. Unless it was spotless, felt cluttery. Also, it may have actually been cluttery. And the white duvet/bedding, while very nice quality, just never did it for me. It always felt too stark for that room.

So in our recent let's feel better about our current living situation mass-purge/redecorate, I listed our bed on Craiglist one night, thinking it would take at least a few days to sell and even then, we'd probably have our fair share of CL shenanigans. We recalled when we lived in Redwood City, this one lady showed up in the Cadillac Escalade and tried to haggle over $10, and then called me practically sobbing over an IKEA chair. CL peeps are weird.  

So a few hours later, I got an email asking about it. I wrote back and didn't think much of it. Until they wrote back again and said they'd come and buy it the next day. Pete and I were kicking back with some Saturday night libations, and I did the buzzed-whisper-snicker thing and said, I THINK I SOLD OUR BED. Which? Again, we thought those crazy CL peeps will either 1. flake out or 2. bring like half of the cash and be all this is all I have, so we didn't think much of it.

The next morning, sure enough, there was another email saying they'd pick it up at 10 a.m. I went to wake Pete up. Uh, Pete? Can you wake up so we can disassemble the bed?

$100 later, our bed was sold! Woo! But ehm, we didn't have a bed to sleep on. We also had a jam-packed social schedule so we couldn't really take the time to go shop for one. So I pinned about a zillion of them on Pinterest and then we agreed on a few. In the meanwhile, we put the mattress on the ground like this.

It was like camping! Only not! Also, note the mess. As soon as I took those patterned curtains down, I felt a sense of calm. Phew. We put up some old ones and planned on purchasing some nicer ones in the future. 


We finally got around to selecting a bed, which included Lucia's first hang-time at the IKEA children's area. (While fueling up on free coffee with the IKEA Family membership, we spied her watching TV rather than coloring with the other kids, which we thought was hilarious.) We sat on a few beds then selected one and its matching headboard. But Lucia's carseat being in the way, meaning either Pete or I had to go get the bed solo, not as a family. Plus we had other plans that day, I think swim lessons or something. 

Pete went to get it a few days later just before the store closed. Mission accomplished. I made the mistake/blessing? of googling the bed instructions beforehand and there was a YouTube video saying it took about 4 hours to put together start-to-finish. So we postponed assembly for a few days and set aside a Saturday to git 'er done.

Headboard complete

Six hours later, we had it 90% done but realized we were missing the wooden slat things, which we had GIVEN away with our bed to the CL buyers. Fiddlesticks! We had plans at a friend's house for dinner, so we left a little earlier than planned and I ran inside to fetch it while Pete and Lucia waited in the car. 


Slats in hand, we finally put the finishing touches on our new bedroom. The surprise awesome curtains came from a dyeing accident, where I was trying to have our living room curtains progress from Ivory to light beige, and they ended up the exact shade of the old bedding, which I loved and had hung onto. Hurray!! We also moved that leafy pillow into the living room (post on that effort coming soon). 


We decluttered the room also, inside and out, meaning I finally gave away all those post-pregnancy clothes (a mere 5 sizes larger than my current size -- wooo!) and tons of other stuff cluttering the room. The bed's storage drawers are great for linens. 


We love the new look; it's wonderfully relaxing and serene in there. Ahhhhhhh. 

Happy birthday America!

We spent the day with who else, Eddie and his family. It was awesome and super relaxing.

Real Estate

It's probably not news to you that Oakland isn't our favorite place. True, our neighborhood is super charming and Lucia's school is pretty amazing (aside from the politics). But we've talked about it over the course of the past six-months and really want to move back to the Peninsula. It's where our buddies are. It's where we feel overall more relaxed and the pace and energy over there suits us better. I feel slightly guilty about this, meaning on some level I want to be a champion of a Better Oakland and shake my fist at the politics and ongoing pockets of crime that crop up. But I think being a parent has changed me; I just don't feel like it, and feel like people without kids or who have invested in real estate in Oakland -- that's their fight. Not mine. I'm lucky to have a job with flexibility in terms of what office/hours and where I work. Pete's contract job is now open-ended, which means it could end at any time, but the feedback he's getting from the team is they'll need him through the end of the year at least, and that's a brutal commute (although we're exploring ride shares and other alternatives).

We really want to move. But rent in the Bay Area has increased 15% in the past 6 months. For a lot of different reasons; the amount of foreclosures and short-sales in this part of the country is astounding, so the demand for rentals is there, and boom, there go the prices. The New York Times recently wrote it. The 2-bedroom apartment below us will rent out for $300 more a month than we pay, and that's still in Oakland. Another 2BR apartment on the first floor with a view of cement blocks (we have a view of Lake Merritt) will rent for $100 more than we pay. We've heard horror stories from friends who tried to rent in the areas we are coveting on the Peninsula, only to be the 20th person seeing the place, or having to write a 5-figure check before even seeing the place. I see listings for $2500 for a 2BR (900 square feet) and think, really? Do we really want to pay $1000 more a month to be close to our friends, for less space? 

So we've talked about it, and I think we've reluctantly agreed to stay put for now, until the rental bubble bursts. I also have to admit that I'm very nervous about prescribing to a Grass is Always Greener mentality where I think, if we lived over there (on the Peninsula) it would be so much more blissful in so many ways. But then I find myself negating the pretty blissful parts of our current situation. We go to the Farmer's Market here and I remember the clown who makes balloon animals is half-Norwegian and always remembers Lucia. Or I go for a run (listening to hip-hop, oh the irony) in super plush Piedmont among the million dollar homes, just a few blocks away from our place and think, this isn't so bad. We are making progress on decluttering our place to make it more livable and feel a little less junky. Something about throwing away old stuff helps you embrace the present and future; ever notice that? We are getting a new refrigerator today. It's a very livable place. Is it where I envisioned myself living as I near 40 years old? No. But we're happy, Lucia's thriving and sometimes, I think there's a benefit in actually realizing the good and the bad that comes with any situation. There's definite downsides to living in Oakland. But there's some upsides too. The point is that we're focusing on where we are today, and of course hoping and planning for different circumstances in the future, but embracing all of it, the good and the bad. 

Double Ear Infection

Lucia woke up Wednesday night crying and miserable, saying her ear hurt. Since she seems to have the pain threshold of some super charged Olympic athlete, we knew she likely had an ear infection. So off we went to see Dr. Dan., making sure of course we brought our Dr. Dan little golden book with us, of course. Dr. Dan said her one ear looked really bad and the other didn't look normal. Ten days of antibiotics. He also removed a disgusting amount of wax from her ears. Do they make kid-sized Q-tips? Because that was nasty.


Anyways, after we went to Whole Foods, mostly because we were hungry but also to buy probiotics for her. She chose a raspberry muffin for lunch and looked pretty miserable when I took this.

We came home and watched the three movies she has on her audio cd that plays in the car everyday: Cars, Finding Nemo and Toy Story. Here she is transfixed.

She slept through the night and seemed some better today. Pete is working from home today and she'll likely be on the couch, watching more movies.

Soon

Team Hansen is purging stuff and our reward is a newly cleaned off porch. Pictures coming soon. While we haven't gotten a little table and chairs set yet, tonight Lucia and I sat outside and soaked in the sunshine. And had a ticklefest.

Daddy's Day

Happy Father's day Pete! We love you lots.

That Time We Missed Her School Thing

The rite of passage known as parents missing a school thing happened this week to Team Hansen. I decided to skip the preschool potluck, given the sometimes snarky nature (read: bitchy moms) of these things and well, we've gone to literally every single event they've had, sometimes moving mountains to do so, with little payoff (sometimes) and me enviously watching the other parents who opted to say no. They were having a "transitions ceremony" for the kids who were moving up into a new class, and since her teachers hadn't mentioned it, I figured it was fine to skip. To make matters worse, I got off work a little early and called my mom reveling in the 90 minutes I had between work and when Pete would be home with her; I planned to go for a run, clean, make dinner, take a shower, etc. etc. I was so excited about my free time. Except when Pete picked her up that day, she ran to him and exclaimed, I'M A PINECONE NOW! And it seemed that indeed, she was moving up from the Acorns to the Pinecones.

And we missed it. We missed the little ceremony! Noooooooooooooooo. While I was enjoying my free time, there was my kid, wondering where we were.

And I went into the spiral of despair: terrible working mom forgets kid's event. She actually said to us, "all the other parents were there but you guys weren't."

Stab me in the heart, kid. We apologized profusely and explained that had we known she was moving up, we would have been there for sure. And we were super proud of her for moving up the Pinecones class. Which, may have been a bit of a stretch, Mary kindly pointed out to me as I despaired. It's not like she overcame some struggle or adversity to make it to the Pinecones; the Acorns class simply got too big and she was ready to move up. So awesome, Lucia! We're psyched for you. We're sorry we missed it. We hope you forgive us.

Day Four

As Pete prepares for a super big-time job interview on Friday (cross fingers, prayers please people!), I've been basically single parenting Lucia for the past four days. It's been extremely fun at times and extremely hair-pulling at others. Friday we went to Eddie's house and basically camped out, complete with me falling asleep while putting Lucia down for a nap. Then we went for an impromptu dinner with them and our other good friends, which was so fun. (Pete had to work, boo). There's something totally awesome about friends you can bliss out with. We are lucky to have them in our lives.


Saturday we did a playdate with her classmate, and I think I might be all set on playdates from here on out. I learned some internal workings of the school that I wish I didn't and really don't matter in the long run; what matters is she's getting quality care. Plus it was cold and crappy weather, boo. 


Sunday we went to church and Lucia saw her favorite church member, a woman in her 80s named Bunny who used to teach art. They sat together after the service, in a time our church calls the "family hour" where Mommy fills up on free coffee and we get to meet other members. We also have a time during our service where we can ask for prayers, and I asked for prayers for some sad news our friend received about her mom and also for good luck prayers for Pete. Afterwards, several people came up to me to ask about our friend and Pete as well. We really love our church -- it feels like a community there. The Oakland-East Bay Gay Men's Chorus was there yesterday and sang amazing songs that made me bawl; mostly about not being afraid to be yourself and standing for love, hope and joy. Who can't be moved by those things? 


After church, Pete went home to work and Lucia and I went to REI to exchange my mother's day gift (it was too big) and for Lucia to try out the bikes. She talked about it the whole way over and we had lengthy discussions about what color bikes we should try out. We ran inside and she was so excited to get on the powder-blue bike. Except once I started moving it (it had training wheels), she was terrified and said loudly, AHM SCARED AHM SCARED AHM SCARED. So we aborted mission and exchanged our gift, then headed over to 'Potle for some tacos. Inside 'Potle she told me how she could wink. 

See?

Today our friends cancelled our playdate to my favorite museum (sadly, they were sick), but Lucia and I decided to make it a fun day anyway. We went to Mariposa, the gluten-free bakery, for goodies for Pete and her, and then Whole Foods for basic groceries. I made the executive decision about 5 minutes into our second errand that there would be no third errand across town, but we'd eat the $5-10 to buy the stuff at Whole Foods. She learned how to stand on the back of the mini-carts (with me pushing) and kept yelling to people, "Look at me! I can fly!" Today she also learned how to say excuse me when bumping into people, which perhaps would have come in handy as she slammed the cart into the Le Cruset display at Whole Foods. I nearly had a heart attack thinking those incredibly lovely (read: expensive) dishes rolling off the rack as a result. But they didn't, phew. 

After our burgers tonight we took her to get "ice cream" which was raspberry sorbet with stuff on it. She tried some candies for the first time (I've never given her M&Ms for fear of a milk-chocolate reaction) and didn't have a reaction (repeat phew!) and was so wound up from the sugar we decided to meet Pete at home; we walked and she ran most of the way. 

It was an awesome weekend. I'm so tired, but man I had some good times with my girl. 

Silly Faces and a bruise update

That arnica gel is really something- the bruising looks much better. Today at school when her teachers asked what happened, Lucia replied each time ominously: it happened in San Francisco.

As if that explains everything... Hilarious!