Recently in Ptown Category

Here are the things we have been up to this month, none of which involved updating this blog:

- Went fishing, where Teo caught a beeeeeg fish, swam in the river, and threw some rocks.
- Enjoyed separate visits from Julie, Kara, and Kathy. Rock on ladies. So great to see all of you. Congrats to Mrs. Savoie, by the way. You guys are really blessed, and I wish I could have been there to celebrate with you.
- Tested out the camping idea. Conclusion: keep the kid up until 11 pm, and he will sleep anywhere. Also? Queen-sized sleeping bags nicely fits two adults and a kid, in a pinch. Good times.
- Made homemade curtains for half of the house. They look good, even better than I thought they would. Might attempt to make the second half this weekend. It wasn't anywhere near as difficult as I thought it would be.
- Got an interesting job offer completely out of the blue. More on that later. Maybe. Turned it down, but am still sort of aching from the decision.
- Learned some going-to-bed coping mechanisms. Give the kid the illusion of control. "Do I put the cover on or off? Do I close the door? Do I leave the light on? Ok... if I do all those things like you say, will you not cry like a big boy? Great." No going-to-bed issues for the past few nights. This is miraculous. Even better? He has started announcing to me that he is ready for bed, and that "I'm not gonna cry, mama." The pride bursts from my heart.
- Discovered the awesomeness of fake, wooden food toys. Cut them! Put imaginary salt on them! Pretend eat them! The fun never ends. Most recently, he learned the word cinnamon while playing with said toys. So cute to hear a little man try to say that word.
- Picked fresh peaches on Sauvie's Island and made a peach crumble. Tasty.
- Went to several kid-friendly concerts hosted by friends of Mr Whiskey. His friends do music, that's their thing, and it's definitely the sort of ambiance I can get behind exposing my kid to early on in his life.
- One little boy started peeing in the potty in earnest. Still not fully potty trained, but definitely heading in that direction. We have had several three-pees-in-the-potty days of late. On the flipside, sometimes T just stops, grabs his crotch, and says, "Oh hey! I'm peeing in my diaper!" Thanks for the news flash.
- Attended a live performance by Demetri Martin. Hilarious. The man is really, really funny. Before the show, we also got to enjoy drinks during our third child-free night on the town. I felt like an actual grown up doing things adults do for fun.
- Made several rounds of soup out of vegetables harvested from the garden. Hallelujah. I wish gardens produced good things year-round, but I sense this is the beginning of the end of fresh backyard deliciousness.

There is so much more than that, but if I don't publish this now, it seems I never will.

Hellloooo September!

I have gotten some harassment from friends to post some pictures of the house. These are bad photos, taken in a rush the morning I picked up my keys early one morning on my way to work. I would like to provide some better ones now that we are a bit settled here, but I've got a lot going on right now and figured I'd give my homies something to tide them over.

La casa:

We are doing better. Mateo is less cranky but sleeping a lot, which is a nice mixture for me at the moment. He is still my smiley baby. Today, Kari stopped by after work and we the two of us were hanging out with him. He was playing and smiling and then suddenly lying on the floor face-down -- clearly exhausted. We started laughing and he popped back up again. "Who me? Tired? No way!"

He was asleep by seven.

Work is getting better in that I am getting more comfortable with the ropes. My boss was very excited by something I did today, so excited that he called over the Big Boss who then sat at my desk and discussed things with us. It was great to get a feeling of satisfaction after a week of bewilderment, and it prompted me to tackle a Big Scary Project that I have to finish in the coming weeks. It is still Big. And it is still Scary. But I think I can get it done.

I have also decided that people in this town are just freaky crazy nice. I have befriended the deli girl at my supermarket. She is super rockin. The checkout guy is also cool, as he is a vanilla yogurt fan and so am I. These are small things and little conversations but they do add up, and they really make this a pleasant place to live.

My house is also coming together. Mateo still desperately needs a dresser, as his room is just clothes piled in his closet and a crib at the moment. The dresser would also house the changing pad, which is currently on the floor in my room. It works, but could be better. I did, however, receive the awesomest of awesome couches a few days back, so I should just wallow in that greatness for awhile. Next project? Lampage.

I am also getting phone and internet installed this weekend, so I can quit wasting my time waiting for pages to upload. Instead, I will waste my time waiting for things to download.

Anyway, I am happy with these last few days. It is nice to feel so accomplished. But, but. I will be very happy when it is the weekend, too...

I am stealing two things right now: 1) a brief moment while Teo is asleep and 2) the free wifi internet connection available in my apartment. It is ridiculously slow and will absolutely not do long-term, but it might be a little while before I get on the ball enough to set up my internet properly, so I am grateful.

Today was my first day at work and Teo's first day at a new school. We trucked out of the house at 7:10 this morning, and were very early to both as a result. Mateo seemed to have done well, though the day care called me this afternoon to warn me that he had fallen while pushing a baby lawnmower toy and had had a bit of bleeding. You wouldn't have known anything had gone wrong by the way he was giggling and playing happily by the time I came to pick him up this evening. The girls at the day care told me he did really well and that he didn't seem phased by his new environment in the slightest.

I know you are not supposed to talk about your work on these blog things, but I do have to say that my new gig is pretty decent. Hell, I got a MacBookPro out of the deal, so I can't really complain. They also decided to give me an extra week of paid vacation somewhere down the line, just because. I am confused as to how I got so lucky. The actual position is incredibly challenging and I am going to have to remember to breathe, that I can do this, that I am going to come out of this with a ton of great experience. But man -- it is all a little overwhelming at first. I think I held my own today, but I have a feeling I am going to be doing occasional outside work late some nights. I have a lot of ground to cover. As my quasi-boss said to me today: "You're already a year behind." Meaning: they have been wanting to get some of the projects I am responsible for off the ground but are just now getting around to it. I have a lot to learn. Tomorrow is intensive training for much of the day, and oddly I am grateful to sit back and be in the position of The Learner. Today was a lot of on-the-spot thinking and brainstorming in a company that I am not really familiar with yet, so naturally it was quite tricky. I think in a few months I could grow to really like this job, but for now it stands before me like an enormous beast I have to tackle.

Another enormous beast is my house. I am at a livable but totally chaotic point in the unpacking process. I have my mattress on the floor and Mateo's crib set up. I have one kitchen chair and my kitchen table is both my desk and my eating area. I have garbage accumulating in one corner because I still don't know where I throw out trash. And I have so, so much more to do. I have decided that I will not focus on these issues this week, as everything is all about prioritizing in the end. Last week was the house, this week is the job. And every day is Mateo day.

Oh! And I bought a new car. See how crazy things have been? I forget even big news like that. Pictures will come soon. We are working on a name.

Alright -- I am hoping to go find a garbage bin somewhere while Teo is still asleep so I should get on that. I can't wait for that day when everything is pretty much in place and I can sit down with a tasty peppermint tea and think, "Ok. Time to sit and do nothing else."

UPDATE: Found the trash. Threw out lots. Feels good.

Mateo and I have made the trek out west, and all I can say for the moment is thank God for my sister and brother-in-law. They have been crazy helpful and I could not have done half of what I have accomplished without them. We have been staying at their house while waiting for the heat to turn on in our new home -- keep your fingers crossed that everything is taken care of today. This week has been insane, just absolutely exhausting, and I do believe I will be needing a vacation after everything is good to go. Of course, instead of a vacation, I will be leaping head first into a new job, but that might honestly seem like small potatoes compared to the chaos of moving.

As I type, I am sitting in my sister's living room with Mateo asleep in the study. All of the boxes my parents shipped from Michigan are here, and I will soon load them into the car to take them to our new apartment. It is a beautiful place -- I am so happy with it and can't wait to make it ours. We have already done two necessary (and spendy!) trips to Ikea and a few stops at vintage/used furniture joints. The basics are taken care of, and I suspect I will find some other goodies to put into place in the coming months. In the the meantime, Teo and I have a little house to set up this weekend, and probably another Target run to make in the process. I promise pictures will come soon.

I have also found a day care for Teo, which was no easy matter. He spent the morning there today while I hung around to help with the adjustment. I honestly think he looked over at me twice the whole time. He would smile as if to say, "Oh, hey mama! Check out the block I have in my hand!" but nothing much more than that. I took that as a good sign. Hopefully, his transition will go well. This day care is nice -- the people are sweet and the environment is pleasant. They cook all vegetarian, homemade natural food for the babies, and they are happy to do the cloth diapering thing as well. I am so grateful to have found somewhere... it is a little pricey but I am finding that all day cares are.

I also had to get Mateo to a doctor while out here, as his ear infection still has not completely cleared. Poor dude has six zillion new teeth coming in, and still-infected left ear, hasn't slept in a real be in days, has had no sleep or eating schedule in any way shape or form, and he is still a smiliey guy most of the time. I am so happy that he is such an easy baby, even if we can't seem to get him away from the electronics. I stumbled upon his pediatrician by calling my insurer and finding someone -- anyone -- in the network who could see him. Turns out his doctor was absolutely awesome and very much on the same page as me, so I am happy to have found her.

So yeah -- I still have to buy a car and assemble many a piece of Ikea furniture, but things are actually coming together. I promised myself a massage if I managed to get everything accomplished by Friday (today) that I would buy myself a massage, and it might just happen. If not, I will come very, very close.

Now I have to go gather my things to "move out" of my sister's house and into my own. Tonight will be our first night in our new home and I can't wait to open this chapter of our lives.

Oh, also: Mateo learned to clap. Came in handy during "Wheel of Fortune."

Kari has an awesome camera and has gone picture crazy. In a good way.

I just got an apartment.

A good one. It is awesome.

And it is entirely thanks to my sister, who is essentially my one-woman welcoming committee. As a matter of fact, she is also responsible for my getting hired, as she sent me the link to the job posting. She is phenomenal.

I cleared out all of my job-search emails a few days ago. I am now taking out the house-hunting bookmarks. Life is grand.

Mateo and I leave in a week. We will be so, so sad to say goodbye to my parents; I have enjoyed living with them and know I will be a little lonely without them. But, new beginnings are also very exciting, and I am happy things seem to be falling into place thus far.

In other news, Mateo is getting four new teeth at once. Although grumpy on occasion, I have to say he is being a good sport overall.