Test Driving Looks for Norway

We're going to Norway for Christmas and getting geared up to endure the cold. How's this for a look? She looks like she's being tortured in this picture; we assure you she was smiling 5 seconds before this.

Could Moonwalking Be Far Off?

In the past few days Lucia has learned to walk backwards, and is very excited to demonstrate it at any time. We're working on getting video...

In other developmental milestones, Lucia is "talking" more and more. If you ask her if she wants to go somewhere, she runs to the door and the pitch and rate of her jabbering really picks up. She points to her shoes, and is clearly ready to go wherever you're going. Even if it's just around the block with the dog. I accompanied Pete and Mrs. B on their jaunt last night and held Lucia's hand tightly as she walked on the sidewalk. I think just going around the block was exhausting for her, but she seemed excited to not be carried.

Her feet are growing, and we purchased some new shoes today for her to wear this winter (please let them last until then!).

Run Lucia Run

Today was such a beautiful day, warm but not too warm, perfect for a walk in the park.

Lions share of fun

Lucia and the lion

Day care loaction

This picture is pretty long and wide, you may have to click on it to see the details. It shows where we live on the left and where Lucia's day care is located on the right. Not very far at all!

Sigh

As you know we've been sick. Lucia coughed twice yesterday morning, and it didn't sound great. We called day care and they said don't worry, and bring her over. So we did. I called at 3 to check in and ask about her cough; our day care provider said she had only heard her cough 1-2 times.

When I picked her up at 5 though, I noticed she was really congested, and when I got her home and sat with her, when she coughed I noticed she wheezed when she breathed out. I have asthma. My family unfortunately has a very bad track record with asthma (read: highly dangerous). But I didn't think it was asthma last night; I was freaked out at the prospect of having the H1N1 flu. Or really any flu. Because of her allergy to egg, she can't have flu shots.

The good news is that since getting her up 2 hours ago, she hasn't coughed once and her congestion appears to be gone. Hmmmm. Then I remembered that our daycare provider said she just loved playing in the hay in the backyard (Stacey has her backyard all decorated festive for Halloween/Fall). I'm highly allergic to hay. I didn't put it together until this morning.

She's likely highly allergic to hay. The symptoms that resulted out of this allergic reaction are upsetting; she might have asthma in the future. :(

Sick, Party of 3

We've all been sick this week. It started with Lucia running a fever Saturday, and Sunday. I felt bad Monday and went downhill. Yesterday I felt like I got hit by a bus. I'm better today, but now Pete feels like he got hit by a bus. Then Lucia started running a fever again tonight. Good lord.

After two days at home, I'm headed back to work tomorrow. I hope Pete and Lucia are on the mend soon.

Early rain this year

We expected at least a few more weeks before the rain arrived, but here it is. All of it, it seems. Fortunately no leaks except outside over the grill. A clogged drain probably.
Heather has been home from work today and in bed almost all day having flu-like symptoms. Don't think its the flu though.

Secret Speakeasy Blog

Due to several concerns we have decided to make the blog more exclusive. It will be on an invitation only basis from tomorrow on.

Please contact me on email for an invitation:

drazdiak@sbcglobal.net

RC Fire Dept. pays a visit.

How scary, how stupid. A few days ago I was cooking rice and I thought I burned it just a little bit. I checked it and it looked fine apart from being a little smelly, but Mrs. Baylee doesn't mind that Im sure. That's when I notice all the smoke in the apartment. I couldn't figure out where it was coming from the rice was still boiling when I checked it. I look outside to see if smoke is coming from the garage or laundry room. Nope, Heather says get the baby out of the house. I say no its probably just the rice that burned. Heather is calling 911. The fire department arrives 90 seconds later. There was some worry that it could have come from the guy downstairs which smokes but nope, it was me.

What probably happened was too high heat. I had just boiled chicken and while I had taken those out and was reusing the boiling water and had added more fresh water, I didn't adjust the temperature.

I would like to look at this experience as a very useful dry run or fire drill, no pun intended. We noticed that none of the smoke detectors went off, which is bad. I tested all of them and replaced their batteries regardless. The living room has no detector, while there's one out in the hallway I don't think its enough if there's smoke all the way over in the living room, so I am going to pick up a new detector and mount in the living room.

I also realize we need to prepare our emergency kit, (quake kit) and we also need at least two fire extinguisher inside the apartment. No use in having one in the garage when the stress makes you forget to bring the keys to the garage let alone have time go go all the way down there when the heat is on.

Liz's Birthday

We went to celebrate Liz's birthday last weekend and had a really good time. First stop was at this interesting teahouse in Noe Valley where they serve old style foods and lots of tea, the place may also looks like your great great grandmothers apartment. Second stop was a special home brewery bar; The Elizabeth Street Brewery. I liked this part the most. This guy Richard had his garage fixed by the show While You Were Out on TLC (the TV channel) and they turned it into a bar where he brew his own beer and have guests. Pretty awesome night. There was cake too.

Doctor visit

A routine checkup shows Lucia is tall and skinny for her age.

A walk in the park

Lucia, Mrs. B and I went to a park today to enjoy the nice weather. Unfortunately Lucia fell kind of hard on her nose so she bled a little, I didn't realize this until later because she didn't cry over it.
If you click on the image you can see she has a little red dot.