...and a Barley makes three

An Olympic Evening

2010-03-01T16:05:00.000-08:00

This weekend some friends and I celebrated the closing of the Olympics with a little party. Complete with Downhill Sliders*, Cob Costas, Curling Fries, Coleslalom, Shaun White-Cran-Peach juice and of course the proud sponsor of the 2010 Olympics Coca Cola.
We donned our sporty winter wear and had such a fun and silly time...

I had a wicked case of the day after blues after the closing ceremonies...but we are only 2 years from the Summer Olympics in London and that's not too bad!
In the meantime I will get excited over other things like: Greta has pigtails now!
And she holds my hand and walks with me in stores, and says things like "Here" when she hands things to me, and "Whas-at?" when she sees new things, and is generally being the most fun to be around.
Wow, proud much? (rhetorical question, but yes....yes I am.)

*Sliders is a term generally banned from this household. For it being a stupid word put to even stupider use. Really do we need to make burgers and sandwiches smaller to slide down our American gullets quicker and easier? (another rhetorical question...but the answer is no.)

Goings on...

2010-02-24T15:19:00.000-08:00

Here I am.
I have had several things vying for my time lately which might excuse my absence from the blogosphere. Pleasant things mostly. First and foremost I should mention that Greta is walking and has been walking for weeks now!
(It's funny how the silliest things make it to blog but the big stuff like baby's first steps gets mentioned weeks after the fact.)
But there it is! she's walking! Sometimes a very cute scissor step, other times a sort of Igor foot dragging trudge, and most of the time the tiniest and perkiest little steps you've ever seen. Very cute:)
Also teeth! Four whoppers right on top.
Then there's the Olympics which I watch with dog like allegiance.
Last weekend I went to camp! With a bunch of girls my age which makes it a women's retreat I guess. However it felt more like camp since we snacked in our pjs, talked about underwear and hid baked potatoes in other campers sleeping bags.
And lastly...now this might give some of you a shock...maybe you should put down the beverage you are drinking so as not to spit spray it...I joined a gym.
Yep. A gym member. Gold's to be specific, where I will attend classes!
Still confused? That's ok, I understand. I know I have always taken a pretty strong stance up until now about not being uncomfortable on purpose (which is synonymous with going to the gym). But I like the "did something worthwhile" feeling afterwards and enjoy seeing some of my friends who also go there every morning to be uncomfortable.
So I bought my first pair of real spandex and a yoga mat (both items I used to silently judge) and plan on making a complete exhibition of myself as a total beginner!
All in all it is going to be good for me.

Love Day

2010-02-15T11:49:00.000-08:00

There was us...There was food...
Homemade cards...

Shenanigans...

And a lot of love.

Happy Valentines. I hope yours was special too!

Greta's Day Out.

2010-02-05T22:11:00.001-08:00

This week Greta and I had a fun Mommy/Barley day out. We went to the park to play on the swings (a first!) and then the library to feast on some books. Meg came along and took lots of lovely pictures here are a few*...

Yeesh! Greta looks more and more like her dad by the week. She is also starting to get the hang of outings more, and going out with her is becoming more fun-tivity and less stress-tivity as she learns to interact and be content with her surroundings.
So cool:)
Stay tuned for teeth! She's working on 4 uppers (finally). One of these mornings she is going to wake up with a full grin. (The thought of which is simultaneously exciting and kind of creepy.)

*You can see the full day posted on Facebook.

Weird and Wonderful Things...

2010-01-27T14:05:00.001-08:00

I'm beaming.
It's because I'm a mom, and do you know how I know? (besides the obvious presence of birth child, and pants that don't fit the same.) Because I do weird and wonderful things with vegetables and soar on cloud nine afterward.
Greta LOVES pasta, particularly mac & cheese (sound like anyone you know?) but I refuse to have a child who eats only mac & cheese, so here is where the weird and wonderful comes in...
Monday night I made a home made Mac and snuck in shredded carrots and fresh things like herbs to add extra flavor (so she doesn't turn out to be a boring eater) and health (so she can live to eat another day.) I smiled and felt the satisfaction that life change brings:)
Then today as I was padding around the kitchen trying to avoid the mac & cheese box thinking something else would be better/healthier for our lunch but only wanting the mac & cheese box, I quietly relented but on my terms...
Voila! I give you Organic White Cheddar Florentine!A little garlic and chopped spinach and I called it Florentine. Greta loved it! I loved that she loved it! And again I felt satisfied that in this exact moment I was not just a lowercase mom (a mom by fact of nature) but a capital M Mom, one who rises to occasions and loves her children through things like vegetables!

A good afternoon.

I'm With CoCo.

2010-01-21T17:52:00.001-08:00

And yet sadly "The Chin" is coming back (usurping) The Tonight Show. I felt like I needed to voice my disappointment publicly following Conan's last show, instead of grumbling to myself around the house.
"The Chin..grumble grumble grumble...poor showmanship...grumble...not even funny...mmrrrrrr..grumble." It is truly remarkable what awakens my ire. It is a great mystery, but very few things make me feel this *crinkly.
1. Board games, any board game, card game, group game, competitive activity played with any person of any age.
2. The Chinese Government ( 3 counts against them)
- exploitation of their Women's Olympic Gymnastics team...bunch of 12 year old girls.
- putting lead in their plastic
- and plastic in their baby's milk.
3. Leno giving Conan O' Brian The Tonight Show after hosting it for 17 years himself and then not leaving forever. That's bad.
But taking it back 7 months later after failing at his own show? That's worse. That's being an **Indian Giver.
Greta has being shockingly stoic about the whole matter, but I feel instinctively that her little heart also carries a small weight of sadness. She's sleeping it off right now but I think she will be OK. Children are so resilient aren't they?

*Crinkly is a term I coined when my insides feel like they are being crumpled up like a paper bag...a tense sort of anger.

**Can we still say Indian Giver? I know it was like the worst thing you could say to your friends in the 80's, but is it PC anymore?

Antics

2010-01-17T12:33:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since I have posted a true Barley update! So here's how we're looking. According to her 1 year checkup a couple weeks ago Greta weighs a handsome 21 lbs putting her in the mid/average weight range. She is our little beanstalk and is still in the 98th percentile for height and the 91st for her head...good sized noggin, lots of brains.
Her favorite play time activities these days are climbing into her toy basket to read, stand, and generally take inventory of her stock. (I took these pictures with my phone, so yeesh on the quality.)She looks like the captain of her own little ship as sometimes she pushes her tub to various desirable locations in her room before getting in. Other times she is looking for leisure time and will just 'soak' in the corner with her arms on the sides enjoying the view.
But it's not all soaking in the tub for her, she is learning about those legs too and has been loving her new walker that her Nana and Papa got for her.She loves to push this little thing around, and sometimes we will open all the doors in the upstairs for a true marathon. When she's not pushing this, she is pushing her books, rugs, step stools, iphones (when she can get 'em) and cars around the room.
It's so neat to see her pushing around her little cars around and totally getting it!
One of my favorite new antics of hers though is how she talks on the phone. (I love that they reissued all the classic fisher price toys and brought back the chatter phone! I totally had this phone when I was little.)
She loves to talk on her phone. She puts the receiver up to her ear and one of us will put our hand over our mouth to 'disguise' our voice and she thinks it's the coolest thing that the President, Buck Shaw*, and The Captain of Fun has called to talk to her.
Actual phones aren't mandatory she will talk to books and toys too, and if you think about it her books more closely resemble our phones than this guy on wheels.
As for her health, she is going in on Tuesday for her kidney ultrasound and a talk with Dr. Margaret. Hopefully, good news!
And that's the Barley update!

*Buck Shaw is my 'Brokerage Professional'. The fictitious character I claim a close business acquaintance with, when I need a legitimate and reliable source for bogus information. ex: "Buck Shaw told me the other day that it is important for mothers to eat the last cinnamon roll...something about the folic acid being good for sharpening instincts."

Drum roll please...

2010-01-12T18:47:00.000-08:00

Ladies and gentlemen the results are in...And you guessed it!
Kent was Joe Strummer from The Clash, rockin the slicked back hair and those white arms the ladies all scream for.
I was Steven Tyler from Aerosmith which is a pretty easy recipe to whip up, just don't condition your hair, put on everything you own, and open wide! Greta was our very own Thom Yorke from Radiohead, complete with Kid A t-shirt and chocolate beard.
Thanks for playing!

Name that Rock Star!

2010-01-09T23:24:00.000-08:00

Our little friend Noah had a rock star themed birthday party today, and (of course) we dressed up!
Can you guess who we were?
*I will give you a clue that tattoos and insignia are big hints into our identities.
I'd love to hear what you come up with!

The Holidays (after the fact)

2010-01-02T17:54:00.000-08:00

The holidays are over and I feel oddly relieved. It is time to de-clutter, dust, and set our lives to rights for a brand new year.
We had such a good Christmas (if anyone even cares a week after the fact.) We feasted in jolly paper hats at my mom's house and enjoyed the comforts only a mom can bring to a holiday. Aren't mothers the best? Food is better cooked by them, boo-boo's (no matter how minor or made up) are better soothed and sheets are softer in the beds of their houses.
So we enjoyed these comforts and then scooted Christmas day over to my dad's. He shares a birthday with Jesus and proper respects were to be paid on both accounts.
Aren't dad's the best?
No one's driving is safer, knows more about fix-its and warranties, and is better at instilling calm where a woman wants to instill riles.
So we enjoyed these comforts then scooted over to my granny and grandpa's for what is always "The best meal I've ever eaten" and a lovely chat.
New years was equally nice as we just hunkered down at our house to play poker with friends and eat and drink the new year in, leaving the parties and reckless driving to other more brave/foolish people.
And Welcome 2010! I have been looking forward to you. Partially because it felt like 2009 was 2,000 and 9 years long (comes from having a now one year old I suspect.) and also because I think it has a classy ring to it.
I look forward to your offerings.

Hi! I'm One now!

2009-12-21T18:34:00.000-08:00

Hi Friends,
This is the Barley. I am writing to tell you all some very important news. Yesterday I turned ONE years old. Now, that I am one I can do things like eat cake, sit forward in my car seat, and voice my opinions and stuff.
That's a picture of me and my cake, it was chocolate with pink coconuts on top and I think I will just eat cake from now on.

Also we had pasta with red sauce because it's my favorite food and mom cuts it up really small so I like it. Also friends came over and my Grandma and Grandpa and they watched me eat these things and put them on my face.

This is a picture of me and dad blowing out my candle, but mostly my dad is.

Then there were cards for me with nice words all over them and lots of wishing me a happy things and telling me I love you.Afterwards my boyfriend Noah (who's just a friend) came over. He brought me pink daisies and we played with everything in my room including my new books, play mat with letters I like to eat, and cash register that goes *bing!Thank you for coming to my party I had fun.
Bye!

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree!

2009-12-14T15:09:00.001-08:00

Saturday marked our 2nd Annual Christmas Concert!
What started out last year as a way to put some holly in the heart of a hugely pregnant (and mostly i mobile) me, has now become a yearly tradition.
I LOVE the Christmas Concert!
There is something so pure and old timey about a Christmas Concert with everyone getting together to sing/play/strum/string/tap dance/eat/drink /and hullabaloo the Christmas season in!

The Feast!The Music!
The Games!

And the silliness!
Made it such a jolly night!
Merry Christmas!
*For a complete rundown of the nights festivities may I direct you to my facebook page? I haven't the heart to write everything all out again:)

Diggin' a well.

2009-12-07T17:42:00.000-08:00

Hi!
We are digging a well, want to help?
This Christmas our community group is trying to pull money together to fund the digging of a well for a village in Kenya through World Concern.
We have a couple of friends who are offering a "corporate" matching gift and will match everyone dollar for dollar up to $1,500 -- with a group goal of raising $3,000 to dig an entire machine-drilled well for a Kenyan community.
I am so excited about this. I have been thinking a lot lately about how I can be helping other women, specifically women and their families.
Becoming a mom has revolutionized how I see basic needs. I didn't used to think twice about the quality of the water I was drinking until The Barley came into the picture.
Then when pregnancy hit all of a sudden I was online researching the last 5 years of inspection reports for our city water.
Thankfully, our water rocks and I have regular access to clean (and tasty) water for Greta everyday.
It's heartbreaking though to think that just around the world moms like me don't have that luxury and are forced to feed their sweet babies unsafe/contaminated water, knowing fully that it will make their babies sick, but are still without a choice.
Not cool.
All this to say, if you want to join us, it's going to be a lot of fun!
Well, we won't do any of the actual digging, or meeting people, or telling funny stories around their newly installed water cooler, but we will be writing checks!

A Corporate Christmas

2009-12-06T21:51:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Kent and I went to our very first office Christmas Party.
It's probably silly that I got so excited about our First Corporate Christmas experience but I get excited about things most people don't: airplane food (it's always such a tiny surprise!), eating when people are sleeping (night cheese), toast....hmm I'm seeing a pattern here. Upon further thought I think the food was cause for most of my excitement....and if I stretch my memory a little further I do remember saying "There will be FOOD there!" as my initial response when Kent told me about the Windows Christmas Party.
Why am I not 500 lbs?
Anyway, it was a fun chance to get all gussied up and wear something I wouldn't wear in front of my friends.
We even bought Kent a whole Handsome Man outfit *including tiny tie for the occasion...raor.

And there WAS food! Since the party was for the whole Windows division they rented out the Seattle Convention Center. There were 9 different rooms with various themes and live bands. My favorite was the 20's inspired speakeasy...love that music! (also that room had beef).
There was a room with a mean 80's cover band, but the award for best theme in my opinion was the International room. They had large tents set up with couches, and settees where you could sit and play board games and eat Pho which was a welcome sight to me as my fabulous heels didn't feel so fabulous by the end of the night. It ended up that we didn't meet anyone that Kent remotely recognised (except for one!), but we spent a lovely evening anyways drinking free drinks and scavenging for food.
No awkward introductions, no laughing at the bosses jokes, or any of the things I came to expect from watching sitcoms.
Not a bad First Corporate Christmas!

Home again.

2009-12-04T22:03:00.000-08:00

We are back from our Goodwill Virginia Tour! After much flying, driving, and general seeing everyone we have ever known, we are home and oh so done with the whole traveling thing for a while.
Don't get me wrong, it was totally worth it!
We had a great 2 weeks and got to meet up with so many good friends: Juice & co, Zack and Greta & co, Chris, Aaron, Mike, Paul...it was refreshing to spend time with them.
We spent the rest of our time with Kent's wonderful family as we crowded all the kids (9 cousins under 6!) together to mingle and mix at his parent's house in Virginia Beach. It was adults and children up to your ears and so much fun!
I don't have many pictures of us and the fam (boo.) But I do have quite a few from our Williamsburg Day! Ahhhh! History! I love it:)
I had hemmed and hawed about going for weeks before our trip out there, but Kent apparently he had enough of it as a kid, it being forced and educational at the time. So I had pretty much given up on the idea until we were driving down the highway on our way back from meeting a friend for bbq and what do you know? Greta had a dirty diaper! Where on earth were we going to stop and change her? Oh I don't know, how about that sweet looking town? What Williamsburg? How did that get there? Well, we should probably just find a restroom and... before you know it we were strolling the streets and geeking out over very old things (my favorite!)
Like Father Christmas. Greta was mezmorized by him and he was very sweet to give Greta some cheerios since candy is not yet on the menu.

*Reader Meg: There is a picture of a colonial person coming up after this picture. As they scare you and make you want to itch and wiggle. Get ready to close your eyes!....

.......

*OK! You can take your hands off of your eyes now, that was the only colonial person I am going to post. He was very friendly though and very interested in the harvest of his cabbages.

Greta stole that apple and that's how we landed here...in the stocks.

Except not really, and it was really a very perfect day. We even coined the term "Why can't everyday be like Williamsburg?"
Well, it is so so good to be back home. I always am reminded of how much I love it here when I come back after being away. I was the happiest Skirst in town today and found myself skipping a little quite unashamed of myself.

Coming to an airport near you...

2009-11-17T13:50:00.000-08:00

All's well here at the Walters, we are back to good health and packing our bags! Greta is very excited to see her Nana and Papa along with all her aunts, uncles, and cousins. Excitement this great deserves excited arms!
In just a few hours it's going to be 3 Walters, 3 airports, 2 planes, and 2 days...it's going to be an adventure!

Everybody clear off my lawn!

2009-11-09T11:32:00.000-08:00

I think I know why some old people can be so stereotypically outspoken and cranky...they must not feel well!
And neither do I so listen up youngsters I have some complaining to do!
This Tylenol is keeping my fever down for now, but I don't know for how long so let me speak my peace while I've got the gumption.
In my day when a girl got sick she got sick with 24 hour influenza, you threw up a little, bit a wooden spoon, ran around the block a couple of times and you were fit as a fiddle.
Now these newfangled flus are downright indecent if you ask me. Your throat (hah! throat, if you can call it that, I call it the devil's closet! Where the sins of the wicked sit and fester.) What's left of your throat is so sore you have to chew your water and forget about pills! Wont fit down your pipe, no room.
Get your rest you say? fiddle sticks! How can you when you aren't allowed to breathe the night air without waking up with a fit.
Fever! Chills! Balder all!
I'm tired, I'm going to bed, but you can tell that nice Mr President (from me) that he has a problem to fix and he better up and fix it! I don't want to catch him drinking tea with foreign dignitaries or fiddlin' with the taxes when this poor she devil can't get bodily peace enough to swallow her oats!
You tell him that. And then thank him for his time, I won't have any one saying that I have forgotten my manners.

*I have a Dr's appointment today at 2:00 and as I am not leaving there until they give me medicine (and it better be something fierce) I look forward to regaining my composure, my senses, and your friendship in time.)

I feel Grrrrrreaaaat! (or want to)

2009-11-07T11:10:00.000-08:00

We be sick.
Either I caught what Greta had last week, or it's an amazing coincidence, but we be sick at the Walter house.
I won't go on a limb and say it's a case of the oinkers (h1n1) but I do bare a remarkable resemblance to the list of symptoms. Fever, sore throat, body aches, chills. I kind of wish it is so I can go ahead and get it over with ya know...stare down that swine and be done with it.
Since Kent's remedy for sick people is to listen to funny songs and watch funny cat videos.
I have for your amusement (and mine) a commercial I have been laughing at for a solid week! Maybe I need to get my hands on a Nutri Grain Bar?

Halloween at Home with the Walters

2009-11-01T00:04:00.000-07:00

I love Halloween, I get excited about Nov. 1st for next Halloween.
Mostly I love a holiday where everyone dresses up and eats candy! It's tricky business though, this waiting all year, crafting and fine tuning your costume, and setting out your bowl of candy with high hopes. Because you will often find that you work on your costume more than you wear it, (and in our case this year) get two trick or treaters and a lot of left over candy.
But I will do it all over again next year.
This year we solidified nerd status with home-made Star Wars costumes. (All except little Yoda, time was running short and that ewok costume wasn't going to make itself...so we bought Yoda.)

I have always wanted to be a Princess Leia and wear those iconic buns! So I got the whole family to go along with me. I think Kent made a very convincing Han Solo.

And Greta was impossibly cute.
Since Greta has been fighting a sick, we remained absurdly decked out in our living room and watched Young Frankenstein and ate another one of Kent's chili creations. (fewer spicy peppers, Guinness instead of Dos Equis, more chocolate, and ground meat instead of cubed...overall two thumbs up!)

We got a little antsy later on and went over to our friends house to peek at the other costumes and play a little Rock Band.
And now I have a case of the 'day afters'. You know, the day after your birthday, or the day after Christmas when the tree is bare and all the hub bub is over and often you think...that was a lot of work for just a day?
So now I'm looking at my costume and weighing the idea of just keeping it on! Just keeping it on for as long as it takes for me to get my years worth of happy anticipation out of it.
Maybe just one more night?

All smiles

2009-10-30T23:15:00.000-07:00

Just a couple of pictures of Greta and her dad:)
Greta had just woke up from her nap and had sweet bed head and lots of smiles...I couldn't resist.
Greta has been fighting off a sick the last week so we have kept her pretty close to home. Let's hope she kicks it for good soon!
We have canceled our Halloween plans for tomorrow to keep her from spreading the love to others, so stay tuned for Lame Walter Halloween at Home! We will try and make it a party... but mostly it will be just the three of us way too dressed up, eating chili, and candy leftovers. Pictures to come!

Getting our Date on!

2009-10-24T23:19:00.000-07:00

We have a lovely arrangement with some of the people in our community group to have a sort of baby co-op! We each babysit each others kids the equivalence of about once every 4-5 weeks and then have the other 4 weeks for Friday night dates with our hunnies!
Lately due to colds, and the house taking over our free time we have been doing without the dates. But yesterday we got our date on!
I wore heels (because that makes it a date and not just an every other day.) And Kent wore what I layed out for him;)We saw a movie (the ultimate mom/dad luxury as it's 2 hours of sitting with our undivided attention not on a certain squiggly small person.) We saw Where The Wild Things Are which was so very good and not a children's movie but a movie about remembering what it was to be a child. And then scooted off to the new Purple in downtown Bellevue where we glimpsed into the lives of single people who lived rumpus lives and ate dinner at 9:30. Meg and Ryan joined us for our late dinner and it was all in all a raging success and a very fun "pretend".
I think we really would have fooled people too only we did stop to take a picture in front of the restaurant (Clue #1 that we don't go out enough) and then goofed it up with my flinging my head into Kent's elbow as part of our spontaneous "non-pose" (I always have to have a picture that isn't posed) and screaming things like Ow! and what happened?
However, I think our shenanigans came off to bystanders more as wine induced frivolity and less like 2 parents still reeling from the absence of a baby on the hip and a diaper bag on the arm.
We did snatch a picture by the elevators though. Timer on a trash can.It's posed, but I like it. It reminds me of us three years ago when every silly thing deserved a picture and every day was a date...and really, let's be honest with Kent it still is. But on Fridays I get to wear heels!

Glad Tidings!

2009-10-14T15:50:00.000-07:00

All kinds of good news!
Yesterday Greta had another ultrasound which a lot of things depended on and to make a long story short (as all medical stories should be made) her left kidney although still distended didn't get any worse, and our Dr. even ventured to say looked a little bit better!
Which means surgery is put on a shelf for now and we will continue to get ultrasounds every 3 months for however long it takes to either a) grow out of it (3-4 years) or b) get worse and they go in to fix it.
As much as I have not been known to enjoy this waiting game I find this wonderful news! If things are going to mend themselves, well that's different and I can do that kind of waiting with a smile.
So these glad tidings bring another. Since Greta will not be going under any knives this fall we can continue in our plans to go visit Kent's family in VA!
Kent will be taking his paternity leave in November which gives him a full month off of work to play with Greta and I. (I could kiss Microsoft!)
It has been much too long since we have seen his family last and we plan to swim in the company of friends-and-relations for a good 2 weeks of it. We will kiss the heads of babies newly born of friends, and shove our faces with BBQ. If there ever was a time I pine for VA it is during the fall. There is something so nastalgic in the air there. The excitement of starting a new year of school, falling in love, getting that boy to marry me...it's all thanks to good old fashioned Virginia.

My final and long awaited good news is that of a new addition to our small family...don't get so excited....Greta's first tooth!
It's just a pearly stub of a thing now, but thank goodness! Maybe she will feel the wastefulness of having such a fine tooth and start to eat with it.
I think this picture sums up her attitude toward eating perfectly.
But seriously, we cant have it all!

Enter The Will...

2009-10-08T12:57:00.000-07:00

"Greta is going through stuff."
I find myself saying that more and more lately to shield her from the reproach of others. It could be teeth, growing pains, or who knows, but she is exhibiting her will a whole lot more lately.
One of her latest and greatest is her decision to not wear hats. No hats, no ma'am! But what she has yet to learn I think is that she got that willfulness from somewhere and I like the hats.
*The Hall Family Willfulness or better known as"The Will" is no garden variety stubborness. It is simultaneously both a magical force and scientific fact. It travels within the family circle and when used wisely it bears discipline, steadfastness, and standing ovations as it's principle fruits. Improperly used and it results in friends, family, and spouses with grey hair and brains turned to mush.
Not only hats but food! We are throwing the tastiest of meals her way (and I mean throw quite literally as the only time she opens her mouth it to howl at the idea, giving us a small chance to toss in some food) with a hope she will start to like grown up mealtime, but so far it's no meals no ma'am! Why she would prefer bottles to exotic fruits, yogurts, and liquid thanksgiving dinner is truly beyond me.
Ladies and gentleman this IS the main event. Barley vs. The Parents. Place your bets!

Home Sweet Home

2009-10-05T12:55:00.000-07:00

Where on earth have the Walters been anyway?
Didn't you hear the "Yipeeee" heard round the world? We moved!
A couple weeks ago we closed on our house, got our keys, and flagrantly drank champagne off the trunk of our car...we are mortgage holders!
Since that day it has been non-stop work as we haven't worked since we labored abroad as teens. Only difference being, this time no one caught malaria.
We have been pulling up carpet, painting, installing wood floor, drywall, trim, lights, outlets, heaters, and waging an epic battle against the funk-nasty that has prevailed in this house for a year.
I tell you it has turned my already small patience with the animal kingdom into full fledged disgust.
It will be years before I can look at a dog without secretly in my heart growling, and more openly narrowing my eyes at it.
Because it is this animal that is the source of all my sweat and woe. PEEEEEE! Everywhere! Every corner in the house! Resulting in various and unending disinfecting precedures and extreme measures not limited to the removal of drywall and insulation. Odious beast!
Although these measures have curbed the nasty to make our house habitable, it is in no way gone. Much like the fight against terror it is a slow battle and demands patience, fortitude, and fresh approaches.
However, we are very happy here and affectionately call it "Our Mess". And when we have things a little more under control we will dazzle you with the before and afters.
Greta has been a brick through all of this. Spending a good amount of time in her play pen and passed around family and devoted friends like an orphan, her patience has been tried.
Which brings us to the Thanks portion of our program.

Here are our heartfelt thank yous to everyone who has worked on the house as part of the Walter Relocation Program.
Dad- (Although you don't read my blog due to it being on the internets), you have worked harder than anyone and we would still be living in our apartment if it wasn't for your help making our home habitable and safe!
Mom- Letting Greta stay with you and sparing her the worst of the move. (She says hi!)
Meg and Ryan- For taking such good care of our Barley and doing the things no one likes to do (painting ceilings, packing, and shuttling our un-packable junk in your car)
Wes and Leslie- Being at the tip of the spear for the initial house confrontation, painting, and for Wes's use of brute strength and lifting face.
Robbie and Roxanne- Bringing lattes for everyone and helping us paint.
James and Rebecca- Coming to a second Walter relocation after experiencing the hell of the first.
Marcel, Mike, Jeremy, Kirk, Marcus- Orchestrating and carrying out a superb job packing and unloading the truck.
Carson and Taryn- Coming over to welcome us and help to make our house feel more like a home.
Jeff and Paula- For putting up trim with us even after moving day when there was no pizza!

Now that we are back! Stay tuned, all kinds of happenings coming your way!
*If you are not on this list and would like to be, just remind me of your service and I will probably feel so bad that you will make it to the top!

Only got the good stuff

2009-09-15T15:59:00.000-07:00

We took some pictures outside over the weekend. I love how these three show some of Greta's unique personality traits.
Like her curiosity. She can sit and pore over a book, her fingers, or a leaf for an extended period of time, while remarking in a very small voice "ta.ta.ta.ta" and assessing her findings in a whisper. (She fits right in with the family as we are most of the time studying our books, phones, and little findings.)
Second, her silliness. She likes to drum her lips with her fingers and make burbly sounds. And she will do it to anyone else who gets close enough.
And lastly, her happy nature! She is quick to smile, laugh, and be amazed!
Of all the traits she could have landed with, Kent and I are glad she got those! We sat up laughing last night as we named all of our faults and what it would look like to have a child only inherit our flaws. The poor victim would be an overly sensitive toast glutton, scared of people, sky, land, and sea. Simultaneously idle and freakishly charged. Spends the day rubbing out his/her eyes and not doing the laundry. Spends the night as an insomniac mathematician factoring prime numbers (not knowing what a prime number is), and hoping it was something like prime rib.
It really makes a couple feel blessed:)

Dr's Notes

2009-09-09T23:59:00.000-07:00

It's time to spill the beans...well, the kidney beans to be exact (narf!)
We discovered ages ago when Greta's home address was 123 Womb Street, that one of her kidneys was larger than the other, however with everything else about her vitals normal it wasn't a huge concern, just something to keep our eyes on.
We have had numerous ultrasounds since her home address changed to the greater Redmond area (USA). And we have met with numerous tests, procedures, and Dr's since then. Some very interesting and others most unpleasant. All which have made it known to us that she has a Ureteropelvic Junction, or the partial blockage of her left kidney.
Our Dr gave us the word picture of a 'kinked hose', and I think that explains it nicely (ureter being the 'hose' leading out of the kidney).
So now that it has a name and we are certain of her condition we get to share it with you! We were hesitant to share too much before we had all the facts. But here's how it is:
As of her latest study she has two fully functioning kidneys, so this should dispel all rumors that may fly using the words "kidney failure", "transplant list", or "great calamity". It's wonderful news that her kidneys are still healthy, and shows us that she is in no present danger of imploding or such nonsense.
Both kidney's take in what they ought, it's only the left that doesn't get rid of fluid as it should which has caused that kidney to swell (hydronephrosis). This could lead to serious problems if left unwatched/unknown but thanks to early discovery and watchful eyes she is in a very blessed position.
We have two options, one is to operate, the other is to watch for a little longer to see if it corrects on its own (as some children's do). However, operation seems more and more likely as her kidney has continued to swell over time.
We have had one Dr. who sees her likely going into operation and another who is gathering a few more images in a few weeks time to be sure.
So it's all up in the air and just the right time for your helpful prayers. We have known all of this for some time and feel no great shock or worry over the matter, except for the occasional motherly regret that my sweet little baby has to endure such discomforts. However, when they do occur they are brief and soon forgotten because she really is still the happiest little Barley, who doesn't know or care a fig about some bum kidney-tube.
She's blissfully ignorant of the whole deal and has been enjoying the duty of keeping me on my toes lately. I told Kent the other day that I feel more like a wrangler than a mother as most of my daily duties involve herding Greta out of places and keeping her from grazing on our electrical chords. (Today I turned around and she was gone like a flash! I found her stuffing her face greedily with the chord to our lamp, as she knows she is forbidden to, and was getting all the fun out of it in a frenzy of about 5 seconds.)
So, now that we have filled you in we will be keeping you posted on all her kidney's goings on. Thanks for caring!
(And sorry there was no pictures this post, I tried to find a jolly picture of a kidney to put up...it doesn't exist.)

Love Love Me Do!

2009-09-03T13:11:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I feel sorry for people so acutely it makes my heart sick. This last week I have felt sorry in particular for the boys who lost their innocence and optimism during WWI. (I am reading a book where that is the setting and I almost never read a book without being fully engrossed and therefore am subject to all kinds of moody moods.)
But this morning I just feel sorry for everyone who isn't married to my husband.
Because I feel certain, with conviction, that he is better than everyone.
Did you know today is Thursday? And it's not my birthday, nor is it any other day where I should warrant any special attention.
But no matter, this morning I woke up to the click and jangle of keys and someone coming into our house.
What the devil was Kent doing home from work? I thought for sure he had thrown up and the poor boy was sick. He came into our room with two large boxes of breakfast he picked up at our favorite breakfast place, it was a holiday he said and he had the next 5 days off! (a gift from his managers manager for the great performance of his team) and in the napkin he gave me there was a clue.
From there on I was on a scavenger hunt and I was walking all over Redmond (and I do like a good scavenger hunt!)
I had messages to decode:This one told me to go to Starbucks and say "I'm Kirsten, I would like a Kirsten" Which was a special concoction I made myself (and named) in my old Starbucks days. And behind the counter they had my next clue waiting for me with my favorite drink.
From there I went to the grocery store and rifled through countless boxes of cereal to find my next clue, then off to the library to do some research.

My clues eventually led me back home and into the fridge. Ah-hah! The old hollow egg trick! This was my last clue, and in it I discovered that the treasure I was seeking was with me the entire morning, it was at home when I was home, and out when I was out....my surprise was in the soles of my shoes!
Kent knows how I pine like a silly tween for the Beatles! And I have been especially giggly for this game coming out next week (however I was not too hopeful considering the current moratorium on all spending that has fallen on our household as we save for our house). But that just added to the surprise! So calling all Friends-And-Relations you are cordially invited to bop your heads with us in the coming weeks, however a warning... I will be doing this...

Babies in tummies babies on floors!

2009-08-29T21:45:00.000-07:00

She sees the camera, she likes the camera, she eats the camera!
And if my girl doesn't have her daddy's sweet eyes then I will eat my hat...(or the camera?)

Today Greta and I made a trip to Silverdale with Aunties Meg and Lindz to celebrate Lindsey's little Brennan in her belly!
It was great to see some of my favorite people from the place I spent so much time growing up in.
and crazy to see all of the babies of my friends crawling around the floor where I used to be crawling on the floor (only in my case it was teenage angst).
Time does zoom!

Happenings

2009-08-25T09:53:00.000-07:00

Things are surely picking up around the Walter house.
We are still knee deep in the closing process of this little number.If I haven't mentioned it before it's only because I still can't believe that we are actually pulling off buying a house (such a grown up thing) and that we really will be moving next month!
So we are pricing repairs and renovations and spending way too much time thinking about things like grout.
Then you have Greta, braking records in the 200 meter crawl. As I posted last week she was inches away from crawling and later that day she did! It's been "Wow! You're over there!" since.
On top of Dr.s visits and friends and family flowing in and out we have had lots of happenings!
Tomorrow we will be joined by the Great Juice Johnson, whose name is neither really Juice nor Johnson but to every one else a simple Lindsey will do. She is great with child and has come from VA to show us her tummy and to play!
So if you don't see me for a few days it's because well that first big thing, then chasing the other thing, and playing with that last thing.
Oh and one more thing!
This stuff! Now available at my Etsy Shop:)

The Market!

2009-08-17T15:23:00.000-07:00

Saturday mornings Kent takes me to the Saturday Market to let me play.
It is our favorite way to buy eggs, flowers, and produce for the Maison de Walter. It is also where we get new and tasty vittles for The Barley's meals.
This week we are on a beetventure! After much back and forth-ing at the market (Kent being on team beet, and me being on team anything the doesn't stain like beets) Kent rallied for the win and Greta will be feasting beets for the week.
Our trips usually have the objective of picking out Greta's new veggie, but along the way we are happy to pick up whatever tasty snack presents itself whether it's a hot hero sub served by two very tan, very Italian men, or a ratatouille tamale fresh out of the imagination.
Greta is eyeing Dad's sub. I don't blame her, it's Nom!
I think one of my favorite parts are the amazing flowers. There is something so luxurious about having fresh flowers at home during the week. 5 dollars and 15 dahlias later I parcel my bouquet into smaller vases and place them about the house to add sunshine.
The market is such a happy place! All the stands of seasonal fruits, vegetables, and smiling mom and pop farmers. Each week we go we leave with the impulse to quit what we're doing and start carrying shovels.

-P.s. Greta is breath away from crawling...so you can expect a post saying "Look who's crawling!" to be popping up soon.

All aboard for Ocean Shores!

2009-08-14T09:52:00.000-07:00

We had such a lovely vacation last week!
A whole gang of family (21 of us at least) made it to Ocean Shores on Sunday to spend several days together in a train-turned-house to play games, eat food, and all in all enjoy one another and the beach.
It was Greta's first true beach experience and her first dip was thoroughly documented.
During the day there were kites, boccie ball, Frisbee, and sandcastles....actually just one sand castle, also known as Kent's Pride which there is more photographic evidence of than New York City.
It is a great Hall tradition to make sand castles at Ocean Shores, the like that will land you a spot in the news (true!) This year the building was overseen by Kent S. Walter eager to prove that the Walters can represent.
And when everyone else was back at the train eating lunch and playing Yahtzee he was at the beach dating the sand castle.
Upon completion it featured a working moat, draw bridges that could withstand the weight of an adult, a mud quarry, and stable area!Each night all the aunts, uncles, and cousins would cozy into the kitchen caboose and lie to one another in noisy games of Mafia. Nothing brings a family together like suspicion, deceit, and betrayal:) Then we would pile into the hot tub until half of the water had displaced and it was just a jumble of cousin's limbs much like pickles in a pickle jar.
We had such a good time though it was a sad day Wednesday when we had to say good bye to everyone.
We had family going back to Texas, California, and Idaho, and it was like the day after Christmas when all that's left is scattered wrappings.
Greta spent most of our time at the beach on grandpa's shoulders. I think this picture is hilarious and it looks like she didn't want to go home either.

Hot Tomale!

2009-07-30T01:00:00.000-07:00

Oh what a day!
It's been hotter 'n hades today! It broke an easy 105 degrees today and some thermometers in town read 109! It's the first time in Seattle history it has broke 100 since they started keeping track in 1841.
Many of you realize that this is hot, but you don't know hot until you live without AC and are living/sleeping in 100 plus weather. Blech.
SO measures have been taken. This is our second night camping downstairs in the living room like one big hippie family. We moved the mattress downstairs, moved all of Greta's things so we can glean the precious bit of coolness that the downstairs holds.
I haven't put a toe outside in 24 hours and am happy as a clam. Or maybe an oyster...a sweaty oyster...a sweaty oyster that is ready to be thrown back into the sea...so maybe happy as a clam is a bit of a stretch. But I am more of a hopeful sort of mollusk.
All on all though as miserable as it has been....it's actually kind of fun!
There is an element in emergency type situations that I like! They bring people together and upset normal schedules, you know, doing what you have to in order to get through the heat. Like spending the day in your unders, not moving, or in Greta's instance soaking all day in a bath in the dining room! It's all very out of the norm and memorable.

( I took this picture with my phone because nothing short of a pyroclastic cloud (worst fear) could chase me up those hot stairs to get my camera.)
Greta spent most of her day adorned thus. And I have been humming "How do you solve a problem like Maria" all day.
She has been a sweet little trooper that just doesn't quite get why things are so uncomfortable all of a sudden. But nonetheless she has been very sweet and wishes me to tell you that her favorite new food is zucchini, that she is learning how to use a sippy cup but is finding it a little confounding (why doesn't the water come out when I put it upside down?) and that she is currently on expedition to the greater "downstairs" region of our house and those wishing to see the underside of our chairs may enquire, however positions are filling up.

Mamamamama!

2009-07-16T10:36:00.000-07:00

Mamamamama!
That's been the common refrain for the last few days.
But I don't mind:)
She reaches for me when she wants to go "up"
And holds on tight.
She likes to be carried into stores and sit in the cart.
Being a mom just keeps getting better and better.

Unwedged

2009-07-13T10:17:00.001-07:00

The week we spent in the hospital after Greta was born it was discovered that Greta had acid reflux which made sleeping uncomfortable for her (and us).
Enter... The Wedge.
Children's fitted her with a giant foam throne complete with large blue Velcro straps to keep her sleeping in a comfortable semi-upright position. They told us that she would probably not need it by the time she got to be 6 months.
Well, 6 months came and went and she still slept in her wedge. Now the function was replaced by its comforts and Greta didn't fancy sleeping without it.
It was comical really seeing this big baby with her shoulders crammed between the foam sides, and arms sticking out and up since they couldn't fit at her side anymore. Foam groaning and buckling under the strain.
We tried taking it out cold turkey and I can't remember a more miserable night for either of us. She kept turning over looking for the side of her wedge to snuggle into and kept lodging herself in the bars of the crib instead.
Another complication was that she wasn't an ambi-roller yet. She could roll back to front, but front to back was something else. So one roll and she was stuck. Despair of life inevitably followed.
However lately she's been rolling to AND fro so we have been weaning Greta into what we call "Big girl naps" (without the wedge), and finally 2 nights ago we took the plunge and had her sleep...bum, bum, buuuuum...WEDGELESS!
Happy to say she did great, and proved herself again last night!

Ladies and gentleman... The Wedgeless Wonder...

Portland

2009-07-06T11:01:00.000-07:00

This weekend we went down to check out the Land of Ports (as Kent calls it). We kept on hearing how awesome it is there and what a cool arts community it has. Almost every other person on Etsy is from there it seems:) So we thought we would go down and see what all the fuss was about.
We met up with some of my cousins there and Jessa Mae so graciously allowed us to stay at Casa de Yay for the duration of our trip.
We did our homework before going and chose a few places we particularly wanted to go and In the beginning there was: Pine State Biscuits.
Oh mother of pearl, that was some good food! We saw it on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives a couple weeks ago and it did not disappoint. They specialize in biscuits, but not your average biscuit... Giant, fluffy biscuits smothered in the worlds best sausage or shitake gravy (usually a "no thanks" for me, but was a "gimme that!" at Pine State) with every breakfast food that deserves to be around stacked on top. Since the owners were a couple of guys from the South who met up in College they had lot's good old southern flair there, even Cheerwine! I hadn't seen a bottle of that since I was in North Caroline. If you like breakfast and you are ever in Oregon run don't walk to Pine State, just look for the line wrapped outside the door and all the happy people.
Then there was Powell's! The worlds largest independent bookstore. It was numerous stories high and meticulously categorized by color, room, and shelf to make searches a breeze.
I hear people say all the time that you can spend the rest of your life in Powell's. And I can see how it would be easy to do because first you would get lost, second you would look around and realize that you didn't care, and then lastly they would find your body (someday) beaming under a stack of books.
Our last must see spot was a little donut shop called Voodoo. Famous for it's odd flavoured donuts (like Captain Crunch, Tang, even a maple bar with bacon on top) as well as their odd shaped ones like their namesake, a donut shaped like a man with red jelly inside that's been stabbed with a pretzel.
Overall the donuts didn't blow our minds, As a novelty they were fun though and the place certainly didn't lack in character (or morbid charm).
In between all of our must sees we shopped vintage stores, drank Stump Town coffee, perused record shops, markets, and restaurants galore. Greta was a champ for the whole trip. Each day she emerged from her stroller sticky with sweat but smiling.
She didn't seem to mind the hot as balls weather or the fact that she spent almost her entire day being pushed around at everything we wanted to see and probably nothing she did.
So thanks little one!

Sunny Days!

2009-06-28T22:12:00.000-07:00

So this weekend we went down to Olympia to visit my mom and do a little playing in the sun.
We checked out the mushroom festival (lackluster), played putt-putt (always fun watching Kent win), and ate gobs of UH-mazing food (Nom).
Greta had a great time at grandmas getting tossed around, kissed about, and generally smothered with love.

She ended the day with a nice big meal of peas! Last weekend's Kent-speriment was to make her first weeks meal of peas, and today he made a weeks worth of green beans. She's loving her veggies!

Hey!

2009-06-21T13:31:00.000-07:00

So, on occasion I have to add something here completely unrelated to Barley business, just for the plain and simple fact that it made me laugh so hard.
Kent found it and knew instantly that it was Skirst funny... and he was right.
So for all those daddys out there, Happy Fathers Day! And Hey!

Can I eat that?

2009-06-19T13:43:00.000-07:00

We are approaching Greta's big 6 month birthday tomorrow. And she has been hitting all kinds of milestones lately. She is sitting up unattended like a champ, and prefers to spend most of her time that way. However, right now she is content to lay in her crib and smile at me while I type. Do you think she knows I am writing about her?
She spends some good time playing in various containers seeing as she is curious and capable of household domination. Well, at least she thinks she is. Everything she comes across in her mind can and must be eaten. So it's cribs and playpens more than floors and bed tops.
She has fun though...see!

Look what the cat dragged in!

2009-06-13T23:07:00.000-07:00

www.kirstenkirsten.com

Dad was here visiting for the weekend which gave me the necessary time to work up this little gem! (With Kent as my Nerd-Tech to code and such) Now my website is finally updated! It's kind of funny because this was on my list of to do before Greta was born. My thought was that once she was born it was neeever gonna happen. But lo' and behold six months later!
Here's Greta playing outside with her grandpa.Having a good time I'd say! Happy 25 weeks little Barley!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

2009-06-08T12:53:00.000-07:00

Saturday was Kent's 27th birthday! So to celebrate we did everything he wanted to do and nothing he didn't want to do.
We went to the Woodland Park Zoo which was AWESOME both of us have never been so it was a real treat, ate bbq, and played putt-putt which is a Kent Walter Birthday Tradition.
There was such a great show of friends, we kept hopping from one fun-tivity to the next until we crashed late Sat night from too much fun.
Given the theme of Kent's favorite things we decided to give his birthday a kidd-o theme and it was all zoo animals, juice boxes, cake cones, and party favors I haven't seen since I was in grade school. I think my favorite was the "Reading is your Boyfriend" bookmarks I made for the occasion.
Saturday also marked Greta's 24 week birthday! She was one lucky lady and got to spend her special day looking at all the zoo animals with her dad!

Our friends gave Kent this alligator hat which he happily wore all day. I thought it suited him perfectly!
Thanks everyone for celebrating with us and helping to make Kent's birthday so much fun!

La Vie en Rose!

2009-05-30T18:27:00.000-07:00

So, I hesitated getting Greta these glasses for the fact that at first sight they looked a little "Brittany Spears"...but now, really, they are more "Elton John" than anything and beyond that it has been so bright and sunny I was tired of her squinting her way through the spring. Besides she looks just too cute in them!
Now she can sit back and look at the world through rose colored glasses.
Happy 23 Weeks little Barley!

22 Weeks

2009-05-23T21:53:00.000-07:00

Beautiful day here!

Putt-putt, grilling large meats, and having a grand time with friends. Just stopped to post Greta's 22 week picture. Look what she can do!

Sitting up all by her lonesome! She is getting better and better at that without assistance. What a doll!

Toes, Tarts, and Type 1 Diabetes

2009-05-18T13:29:00.000-07:00

What a great weekend! You know those days that can sum up happy times and bookmark happy seasons years down the road? Well, our sunny weekend was kind of like that. We didn't sleep much but we had enough fun to make up for that. There was gorgeous weather, beautiful mountains, steaks grilling, a happy baby, and happy family around to share it all.
And so many victories!
Saturday mornings at our house usually are characterized by what we call "Kent-speriments". There is something about Saturday that stirs the Susie Homemaker in Kent, and within our first waking hour he has a 9 fingers marked with things he would like to cook/plant/or make. He usually asks me first because in the past they have had Hiroshima like results, and it's just nice to ask the person you are living with if they are ok with setting off a bomb in the house.
Usually, I help pare his ideas down to one or two or three...and Kent scrambles out of bed like a man on a mission.
Last week (and the week before) it was bag els, homemade jalapeno bites, and skyline chili. This week it was Strawberry Rhubarb Tarts,
Limeade, and Grilled Pizza.
All of which were huge successes and gave new honor to the term "Kent-speriments". They also made me consider throwing in the towel and hand the title Homemaker to Kent as I skulked away to find a job for us. But we go to MH, so I thought otherwise and instead I relished in the knowledge that I was married to the perfect man and languidly asked for sliced strawberries in my limeade as I strewn myself upon the couch.
Then there were toes!
Greta discovered 10 of the tastiest little treats in her little world! And we were so proud.
Sunday was our Beat the Bridge for Diabetes run.
We had originally planned to bring the Barley however, when we decided to bus it to UW at 6:30 am we thought it might be easier for all involved to leave Greta with grandpa and go out footloose and stroller free.
It was a great event! There were over 10,000 runners and tons of family and friends doing the family 4-miler event.
Our team did the walk, and have decided to do the 8k next year. It was a gorgeous day and such a great cause. All the money we raised is actually funding the research study Meg is participating in at UW. So, thank you everyone who donated! It's making a difference in Meg's life and so many others.
Also Sunday, I got to go to a rare treat for a mom. A movie! In a theatre! The award winning Kent of Kent-speriment fame offered to watch Greta so dad and I could go see Star Trek together. My Star Trek past has been closeted for years, but I have been recently emboldened by the great production quality of this lastest installment and have found comfort once again in monologue of "Space the final frontier..."
It was awesome! and I am prepared to face the consequences of my choices. Around Redmond nerds run rampant and if I must I will make new friends who think Spock is cute and are also dreaming of careers in Starfleet.
Lastly, Greta turned 21 weeks this weekend and will be officially 5 months on Wednesday!
She is growing so fast. This morning I witnessed her making a fast break for it as she triple rolled herself across the floor. Much like you would see James Bond do to escape an oncoming train. And just last night she got the hang of the whole food/cereal thing and is actually eating semi solids! But most importantly she's my happiest little baby. I think she has enjoyed herself this weekend too.

Diabetes Repair?

2009-05-13T09:58:00.000-07:00

Hi all!
The Barley and I are fixin' to do something awesome!
Sunday morning at 8:00am we are going to be down at Husky Stadium looking for the cure for Type 1 Diabetes.
Sunday marks the 27th annual Beat the Bridge to Beat Diabetes fun run. The Barley and I joined team McWalto (a combo of our team's names) to raise money and walk 4 miles to do our part in helping find the cure for Type 1 Diabetes.
This is extra special to us this year because just a month or 2 ago we found out that our Meg (of "Auntie Meg" and Hello Grey Day fame) was diagnosed with Type 1 and it has changed her life and ours.She faces so much responsibility everyday as she constantly says NO to her beloved mashed potatoes and milkshakes, checks her blood sugar levels and gives herself insulin shots...which she will have to do the rest of her life without a cure.
There is a permanence in this disease that must feel daunting at times, but she is such a trooper and we are really proud of her!
So if we can walk 4 miles for a cure for Meg on Sunday, than we will be there! (with bells on our toes.)
If you want to support our team in meeting our personal goal click HERE! And then choose my name on the list (p.s. I added an Esq. to my name because I thought it sounded jaunty. I thought it was some sort of royal suffix but apparently it just means you're a lawyer.)
I know, I hate asking people for donations, but I hate more the idea that Meg can't eat what she wants and has to go "ouch!" 8 times a day.
Stay tuned for more mad cap fun from our Beat the Bridge adventure!

25 going on 50

2009-05-11T13:33:00.000-07:00

Whew, what a week! It has been a non stop party here since last Thursday. I turned 25 last week and we heralded in this important sounding number with a costume party and all kinds of fanfare! As we were planning my party (which I don't usually like to do, parties have so much pressure on them to be fun and I don't like "planned fun".) I thought about what kind of party I had always wanted to go to? And voila! A classic cinema costume party it MUST be! Everyone was to come as their favorite old movie character and we would party like it's 1949!
So Kent ordered food from my favorite restaurant (Purple), we got all gussied up and then to put the cherry on top Kent flew up Dianer (one of my favorite people) from California for the occasion.
Fun and games ensued...

Kent came as Prof. Henry Higgins (his all time fav). He manned the bar, put the twists where twists were needed and gave the room a scholarly air.
I came as Holly Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffany's. I drank bubbly, was bubbly, and lent over all birthday purpose to the event.

Doris Day, Audrey Hepburn, and Princess Grace

An old fashioned sing along! Just like in the movies...a lifelong dream.
We also had a Sherlock, a Baroness Von Schraeder, a Katherine Hepburn, a Dorothy and Scarecrow duo (complete with munchkin 4 month old), a Desi Arnaz, Mary Poppins, Dude in a suit, and sailor from South Pacific.
Oh and who could forget the Barley as James dean!She was our little rebel without a cause. We even put a little ciggy behind her ear (candy of course).
It was a wonderful night. My dad came to run the baby check upstairs so all the parents could enjoy the night foot loose and fancy free.
The best part of it all was that everyone who came had fun with the theme, played my favorite silly games, and got a little lost in yesteryear...because really, haven't you at least one time or another wanted to live in an old movie?
Happy Birthday to me!

Hi there, Barley here...

2009-05-02T17:29:00.000-07:00

Mom can't blog at the moment since all of her insides currently want to be on her outsides, and she is laid up on a bed of pain resting. So I thought I would take this chance to exercise my burgeoning talents for all of you and write my first blog post. (By the way, blog is a silly word it sounds like something that should come out of my nose.)

This week has been full of firsts for me. I had my first taste of real food, and appropriately, it was barley cereal (the parents had a chuckle over that one.)

I have been rolling over to AND fro, as well as displaying scooting power. This is a darling picture dad caught of me mid-scoot.

I was just scooting off that pillow on my way to Marseilles. (I hear the weather is particularly fine this time of year, and have no known cases of that swine flu everyone is talking about.)

However, I was rerouted last minute by my dad who assumed I was just being cute. I have since changed my mind on the whole matter... None of my shoes fit and I am not going to go galavanting around Europe like a shoeless vagabond.

Besides, things are nice here! Dad vroom-screeches me around the house as if I were a truck and tosses me in the air (the weightlessness of the experience thrills me to my toes!) AND he makes bagels on the weekend.

And mom, well, she's just too cute.

Oh, and speaking of cute, I was sooo cute the other day. I was in the middle of one of my rolling over exercises and got sleepy (I think I was up too late that night querying about something or other) and I just fell asleep right on my side mid roll! Can you believe it? Mom got a picture. She thought it was just the sweetest... but then again she thinks that about everything I do:)

Well, I think I had better go I have a rumbly in my tumbly and that must mean it's 6:00 and I get delicious dinner milks.

I hope the warmth of love and friendship rests upon the houses of you and yours.

-The Barley

p.s. Today I turn 19 weeks.

4 Months...and taller than you.

2009-04-23T09:13:00.000-07:00

So we had Greta's 4 month checkup on Monday and she's doing great! All healthy stats, fat enough, strong enough, smart enough, oh yeah and taller than you.
She is in the 99th percentile for her height! Which Kent pointed out is the biggest number you can get statistically because to be in the 100th would be saying that she is the tallest baby in the world. And well, I don't know about you, but that just sounds boastful.
So my fears of her being a behemoth when I was 9 months pregnant are coming to fruition, and all the pants her age are capris.
Like any good parent Kent is making the most of her skills and since she is skilled at being the tallest ever he is trying to teach her how to walk and get some use out of those daddy long legs.
But we don't push her too hard, we still give her quality time with her friends, like Mr.Snail. She has been fascinated with this little snail for months! Staring at it, learning its secrets, and now it has blossomed into a special friendship.

Couple of Misfits

2009-04-17T12:00:00.000-07:00

Do you ever have those days where you feel you don't fit in with the rest of the human race...and for some reason that's a bad thing?
Well then you know. Yesterday was just such a day, a blue day.
But I married someone just as odd as I am, who has been there, and also happens to be the only living expert on "Me". So he went to work banishing those blues for me.
We went down to our favorite pub and just spent the evening being a couple of misfits together.
It's not so bad being the worlds only you, if you have someone to share it with.

Happy Easter!

2009-04-13T08:24:00.000-07:00

We spent Easter this year at grandma's house in Olympia!
We had all sorts of Easter fun. We painted eggs (Meg's egg won), had a bird hunt (Kent won) played games (I won!), and searched out Greta's very first Easter basket!
And Easter isn't Easter without all the little kiddos coming out of the woodwork in their little suits and ties, and best dresses.
I think Greta felt very special in her stripey strawberry dress from Nanna. Here she is in her Sunday best!

...And happy about it too!
I hope everyone had a blessed and hopeful Easter!

wonderment

2009-04-08T00:31:00.000-07:00

Greta gets this look when I sit her down in her swing that fills me to my very top with love.
She gets the sweetest look of wonderment on her face and her jaw drops (her pacifier goes with it every time). There is a mirror up top and leaves and birds that circle around her reflection. She is amazed by it, and it charms me to see such innocent fascination.
I have often tried to capture her look but she is aware of the camera instantly and the moment is usually lost. I was sneaky though today and got a glimpse of the rare Greta-Bird...entranced.

artsy things!

2009-04-02T15:47:00.000-07:00

I am streamlining my interests.
I have started a blog (see side bar for link) for all of my art updates and creative dealings. It is my attempt to separate home and work a little bit. Now pictures of the Barley will not be smushed next to blogs about my work, and vice versa.
Have a look!

Roar.

2009-03-28T19:17:00.000-07:00

This week's pictures are brought to you by Greta the bear!
Ours is and always will be the kid masquerading as an animal. The last 2 weeks she was a bunny, this week she is a bear, and the future is wide open to a new whim.
We are also sure that when she has all of her proper faculties about her she will be allowed to dress herself. This means that in a large crowd of kids you will be able to peg Greta as the one wearing a skirt on her head and 3 pairs of shoes.
To go along with her appearance Greta has adopted a bear sized appetite. She just guzzled 6 oz in 5 minutes, and has an appetite for 8 oz most of the time!
Granted this doesn't mean much to most people who live in the real world or have been out of baby land for a while. But it has been a hefty change around here, and it all kinds of fun to see her eating and growing so well.
I am relieved at any rate that I am better at growing children than I am at plants. For as much as I love flowers and herbs you wouldn't know it by their dried up carcasses and week long life span. I am in the process right now of killing a lovely orchid that makes our piano look very distinguished.
Now, if my flowers were as darling as my Greta, I don't think we would be having this problem at all.

3 Months!

2009-03-23T00:34:00.001-07:00

Happy 3 month birthday Greta Cherie!

This week she has been learning all sorts of valuable lessons, and why not? She is 3 months old which is the ideal time to start learning valuable lessons.
Like while multitasking is an important skill, it is wise not to over commit yourself. For example stuffing one fist in your mouth can be a fun treat, try and stuff both and you will end up with neither. (also your parents will laugh at you and take pictures.)
She has also begun the drooling phase of life, leaving her shirts nice and soggy about 70% of the time, and not minding too much 100% of the time.

12 week update!

2009-03-16T00:13:00.000-07:00

This weekend Greta went to her first birthday party in Silverdale for her good friend (although she doesn't know it yet) Audrey. Audrey is one of the large batch of girls my friends have produced. All of which look almost everything like their fathers and none like my friends themselves, and were born in the same time span of a year or so. (Greta is also a part of this prosperous batch.)
The season for weddings is over, there are no more bridal showers, and even baby shower invitations have slowed down, now it is all about baby birthdays...and I feel 40.
Here are Greta's 12 week pictures. We took them in the car on the way back from her first party.

This week has marked a lot of growth for Greta! She has been more vocal, expressive, and curious about her surroundings. Today after eyeing Megs necklace for a good while she reached out and grabbed it (!) then just a little later she picked up a toy (!!) and put it in her mouth (!!!) This may seem like a small task to most, but seeing your baby who looks surprised when she hits herself in the face with her own arm do something so intentional is sooo exciting!
And to top it all off Greta has had two 8 hour night time sleeps this week.
So, it's safe to say that 12 weeks has been pretty good to us and our little Greta Girl.

Talk Talk Talk!

2009-03-12T19:59:00.001-07:00

Talking Even More - 11 weeks

Sandwich day!

2009-03-12T14:21:00.001-07:00

The sandwich is a subtle art form. There are few who respect it and even fewer who are truly masters.
Today we went to visit the legendary Salumi to see if the sandwich kings and foodies call the best in the world really exists.
A brief history: Salumi is owned and operated by Mario Batalli's dad and family. It is an italian sub/meat shop open only a few hours a day, a few days a week, where all of the meats are cured in the store, and their cheeses and breads are made fresh and local.
The shop is the size of your closet with meats hanging from the ceiling and a queue outside and around the corner to get in.
And having eaten there today I can see why.
Nom!
I consider myself a student of the sandwich, and I could write my masters thesis at Salumi. The meat was singularly unique, the mozzarella smoothy sweet, grilled peppers and onions mingled with delicate tapenades, on fresh baked bread the size of your face. It was sandwich nirvana.
Also, it was Greta's first trip downtown!

And although she only had milks for lunch, I would like to think that some of today's sandwich was appreciated by her, and that we have made life long friends.

Hello Grey Day!

2009-03-02T12:01:00.000-08:00

Hello!
So I will give you all a sneak peak into what I have been up to lately. This last December Meg and I decided to start up our own etsy page. And we have been thinking and tinkering around with ideas since then. (When I'm not tinkering around with Barley business, which I am definitely doing full time.)
It has always been a 'what if' of my to make cards. I probably made more cards in my college career than I did homework and it makes me oh-so-happy to boot! We are calling our line of work.
Because Meg and I both love our Seattle grey days enough to greet them with a smile, and let it inspire us to create.
We have been working several days a week coming up with pretty creations for our cards. And this little birdie made me so happy and is one of the few things I haven't eventually grown to hate so I thought I would post it for you.
She has some other tree friends to go along with her in a similar style.And hopefully soon they will all be together on our etsy page for someone else to take home! I am specializing in handmade ink/acrylic/paper cards and postcards sent in matted frames for framing or sending.
And Meg is working on a line of vintage silhouette greeting and note cards.
It is a whole lot of fun, and I will keep everyone posted on our progress and eventually our first shop update!

10 weeks!

2009-02-28T20:26:00.000-08:00

This weeks pictures are extra special because Greta is wearing the little blue dress I wore when I was her age!

Last Saturday makes 9 weeks!

2009-02-25T22:18:00.000-08:00

As per request I have Greta's 9 week mug shots for you all.
The first one is entitled: Just Behavin'
And the second one is of her doing her Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) impersonation.She had her wellness checkup at the Pediatrician Monday.
Her stats are as follows:
She is 11lb 12oz putting her in the 72 percentile for weight.
Head size in the 68 percentile.
and in the 94 percentile for height at a whoppin' 24 in.
She's one healthy little girl!

Mountain Day!

2009-02-22T16:20:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was mountain day! We finally made our trip to Stevens Pass for some swoosh-swoosh-swoosh!

It was a beautiful day! And such fun to have a whole day playing in the snow with my favorite boy.
Well, I am only sort of paying little to no attention to what I am writing as I am mostly watching the beginning of the Oscars. I am hopelessly interested in what everyone is wearing, and I don't care how girlish that makes me sound; and seeing as I have even dressed for the occasion and am sipping ginger ale out of martini glasses I think I should get back to my business.

Happy Love Day!

2009-02-14T15:35:00.000-08:00

Today the boy and I celebrated Love Day John and Yoko style. We had a "bed in" not for peace exactly but for some of our favorite things. Also, we didn't invite reporters. We had brunch in bed and munched on cheeses, baguette, Nutella, and sipped our beloved Orangina, while we watched the dvd of our trip to Paris.
It was a happy trip down memory lane. After all it was our spring break to Paris that helped me realize that Kent was the man I needed to marry. Beyond the fact that he is better than everyone...he was a man that made my dreams come true.

Feasting

Romancing

And licking various monuments. This is the Arc de Triumph.

This is also little Greta girls eight week birthday! So I would be doing you a disservice if I did not post her 8 week picture. This one is hot off the press and cute cute cute.

Well, enjoy this happy Valentines.
Lots of love,
The Walters

Getting up to speed

2009-02-10T15:59:00.000-08:00

Now, thanks to our Visitor I have a little catching up to do.
I never did do my posting on the nursery. Leaving her room behind was the hardest part of the move I think. I wish I had a picture of it all set up just so, but I did run over there and took a few shots of the mural before it was painted over "apartment white".

It was Greta's little forest, and the trees bent over her crib for her to look at.
Now I get to start again from scratch (A blessing and a shame.) I have a few ideas.
Also, since the moved you missed out on Greta's day out- a series of pictures Meg took of us playing in the park while avoiding our "visitor" at home.
I posted a good amount of these on my Facebook if you are interested in peeking in on our fun day out.
And then lastly, but oh so importantly is Greta's first bath in her little pink tub. She has had about a zillion showers, but yesterday Meg and I put her in her own little tub to see how she liked it. She was much pleased.

The Visitor

2009-02-10T14:08:00.000-08:00

Last week we were visited by an unwanted guest. And unlike most solicitors (youths wearing navy suits or school children selling wrapping paper) we killed this one and moved straight away.
Before you report us to the authorities you should know something of the nature of our visitor, as a matter of fact I happen to have a picture of him right here.
Although charming in oils, he is not so charming when prowling around your house in the dead of night snacking and pooping in corners.
It has been a tiresome week of moving, but we are happily 5 doors down from our old address. Kent has been a champion and did all the moving (with the help of Ryan) while Meg and I snorganized the house completely on the other end. (I had washed my hands of that entire residence and didn't care to discover any of his friends-and-relations (if any) and sully them.)
However things are looking a whole lot brighter now, literally, as our new space has a lot more sunlight and warmth. I think we will be very happy here, just us three!
Well, I best be going there is all kinds of nesting to be done!

Super Barley!

2009-02-03T20:21:00.001-08:00

So I think that this is my favorite picture ever. Somewhere across the planet someone is calling for help. The Barley is heeding their call.

So Meg came over the other day with her kickin' camera and took some impromptu pictures of the Barley in her cuteness. Which spawned the idea to do family portraits!
More on that soooooon!

I haz a 6 weeks!

2009-02-02T00:06:00.000-08:00

6 Weeks now and putting on the chub! We weighed her in this week at 10lbs. 13oz which puts her in the 75% percentile for weight.
Nice 'n healthy!
P.s. We got a new camera so now we can capture all of the Barley's subtleties!

Over the river and through the woods...

2009-01-30T18:34:00.000-08:00

To grandfather's house we go!
We are packing up what seems like the whole household to visit my dad in Silverdale. Indeed this will be Greta's first time over to her grandpa's house...should be fun!
In the meantime I hope you will be amused by this video. (Thanks Richard!)
It made me laugh oh-so hard. This guy looks like a little squiggly bug!
What fun we have to look forward to!

Social Butterfly

2009-01-29T23:46:00.000-08:00

I am awake at this late hour due to what seems like a developmental breakthrough on the Barley's part. Social behavior.
The last 2 nights she hasn't been sleeping her angelic 5-6 hours between feedings. Instead she wakes up every hour or two to stick her tongue out at me for more food or for some quality time with one of her 3 best friends: Me, Kent, or her pacifier. If we deny her this social opportunity panic immediately sets in and she emarks on a tour de force of cries, wails, and gut wrenching sobs.
Given this recent habit of hers I have gotten into the habit of not sleeping. Last night as I shuffled into the bathroom for what seemed like the umpteenth time to rinse one of her bottles, I was startled to look up and see some stranger with wily eyes and stringy hair flung over their face in a desperate manner staring at me...sadly, it was only me.
Needless to say, things were a little tense between the Barley and me this morning. Our inner dialogue went something like this...

Me:"Good morning Barley" (I nod coolly)
B:"Morning Mother" (counter nod)
Me:"What's it been, like 20 minutes?"

<30 minutes of steely glances>

Me: "How was that last milk I made for you, satisfactory?"
B: " Yes, until it gave me gas."
Me: "I'm so sorry Barley, did I not burp you according to your specifications?"
B: "No, you might try a full 45 minutes next time."

And it wasn't until 11:00 am that I realized I was actually giving my 5 week old the silent treatment and felt like a total jerk. Anyways, sweet voices and songs ensued and we are on excellent terms.
As a matter of fact she can't get enough of me, and wails when I leave the room to get what some people call, what is it...sleep?
It is truly touching to be wanted by your own child. Especially when she can tell you a part from the rest of the crowds we pass her around to. And To feel that you can offer someone else who is so helpless some comfort and safety is such an honor.
But, I wish that I could do all of that and sleep.

5 Weeks! Or How I turned 5 weeks and moved out.

2009-01-24T22:37:00.000-08:00

So I realize that my titles haven't been what you call "Original" or "Interesting" as of late, just your basic baby time line. And while I want to keep an updated time line of important Barley milestones I don't want to turn off my readers who are looking for that little bit extra. (After all we have got to keep up with bloggers like this guy) So it is for you with that fine palette that I have elongated the title.
Anyway...
Yes, as you have guessed by now today the Barley is 5 weeks old. Kent has an alarm on his phone set for every Sat. that reminds him to take a picture of Greta to mark her growth...and thereby giving us blogging fuel.
Here is her 5 month mug shot.

Well, wish us all luck folks! Tonight she is moving into her own room.
Until now she has been sleeping in her bed an arms length away from me. I can pop her pacifier in her mouth about every 3-5 minutes or so to soothe her, and stroke her soft little head to...well... soothe me.
But enough people have advised us that this age is the best age for moving little ones into their own room, and I only listen to them because I know they are right.
I would rather her wake up and find herself alone in her big girl room now when her thoughts are only of "Where's my milk" and "Hello there, are you my milk?" than months from now when her thoughts might be "Why am I alone in this...what's the word? ah! barren, that's a nice word... this barren place that smells like Johnson and Johnson?" and "Are you punishing me for that poop I laced you with this morning...it was only a goof?" it might amount to no small trauma.(Felt mostly on my part.)
So for the greater good we are setting her in her crib for the first night.
And I can't help but feel like it's Wendy's last night in the nursery and marriage to a nice banker is just around the corner for her.
I will keep you all posted on the success of the move. Or not, I may be too tired from dangling over her crib all night.

One Month Old!

2009-01-23T17:49:00.000-08:00

Tuesday was The Barley's one month birthday. I was lost in the hub-bub of the inauguration on that day so posting was out of the question, but we did manage to get a sweet picture of her! Kent's family was over for the week, and his dad took this picture. (Which would explain the increase in quality.)
Lately she has been impressing us with her strong grip, strong neck, and her ability to hold her gaze at you just long enough to make you feel like you hold a place in her heart. She has been doing particularly well at voice recognition and on several occasions has followed our voices around the room with her eyes!
All in all we have been having a good time at the Walter house!
We have a steady flow of friends and family streaming through to pay their tributes to The Barley and receive spit ups. Then on our off days we sing the wrong words to Baby Beluga loud and proud all day, and watch Kent incinerate the undead with level 5 inferno courtesy of Fable 2 in the evening.
Life is sweet.
*Also note: Yes, Kent still has a job amidst the big Microsoft layoffs, in this we are pleased.

Children grow up so fast don't they?

2009-01-18T15:32:00.001-08:00

Well, Greta is already four weeks old and doing the darndest things!

2009-01-05T12:54:00.000-08:00

I'm 2 weeks old!

2009-01-04T20:58:00.000-08:00

Our little Greta is two weeks old already!
Since her hospital visit she has been sleeping better, eating better, and has been all around happier!
She is chugging along at getting back to her birth weight (8.14, we think she is just about there), and is no longer the color of a pumpkin...so improvement all around!
Kent and I have really been enjoying the sleep all day phase she is in, and have been pleasantly surprised at how portable and flexible she is in various social situations. We have been out to eat, over at friends, and in and out of stores and none of which were the nightmare I was bracing myself for.
Lets just face it folks...OUR BARLEY ROCKS! We spend a good amount of our time in between feedings just looking at the fun little faces she makes, smelling her sweet little head, and exclaiming to one another "She really is better than everyone!" (and she is.)
And how I know is because I don't know of anyone who could poop on say...Kent from 4 feet away and not only remain in his good favor but get kisses when all is said and done (and cleaned up.)
Which gets me to thinking, why on earth am I sitting here writing a blog when the Barley is over there being cuter than ever?
...dash!

Christmas at the Hospital

2008-12-25T15:20:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone!

Thank you for all of your Christmas wishes and prayers for us this last week. We just got our laptops and cell chargers about an hour ago, so now I can explain why we have dropped of the map for the last 4 days.
We are going on our 4th day staying at Seattle Children's Hospital. Greta had her first Pediatrician visit on Monday and we discovered through some blood work that she had a very high bilirubin count. It shows itself in the form of jaundice (very common for infants) but Greta's was reaching a point where she needed immediate hospital care. We headed straight over to Children's Hospital (without bags or even charged cell phones) and her blood work upon entry put her bilirubin count at 24! ( A normal count starts at 7).
She was immediately put under lights resembling a tanning bed, and has been chilling under them for the last several days.
Thankfully she started to improve right away, and being one step away from a blood transfusion this came as a HUGE relief.
We are very blessed to have caught her situation when we did, going much longer without treatment can cause possible deafness or brain damage.
So praise God for the prompt care she has recieved! Her rates are dropping and this morning she was at 16 so we are hoping to be able to go home tomorrow!
Here is a picture of her in her little "bili bag". It keeps her toasty and gives her the max amount of light. She is such a mover and shaker though! She is constantly getting all tangled in her IV's and suction cups. We are so happy to have such an alert and perfect little sweetie. We are constantly laughing over her funny faces and flailing arms and legs.

Our little family made attempts at Christmas Stockings last night. We wrangled up some hospital footies and while Kent was sleeping I scoured the hospital vending machines and reception desks for treats. Nothing says Christmas like a bag of Fritos and a plastic cafeteria spoon.
Kent had been sneakily storing my Christmas gift in the trunk of the car, so I woke up to the boots I have had bookmarked on my computer since summer! Weeee!

Santa came in to our room last night and dropped off a sweet little stocking for Greta with a blankie and toy! He also made his rounds today and dropped off a little stuffed puppy and gave her her first Santa pic!
It has been quite the unconventional Christmas season for us, but sitting here next to our sweet little girl who is on the mend and having just took my first shower in 4 days I feel like the happiest woman in town!
Thanks everyone for your prayers, they are truly felt!
Merry Merry Christmas!
I will leave you with a video we took yesterday of Greta's 4 day birthday!

Greta going home

2008-12-22T11:38:00.001-08:00

Look what we did!

2008-12-21T07:21:00.000-08:00

Hello All!
It's Kirsten, and I am laying right next to our sweet little Greta! She is faaast asleep right now, and we like it that way. It has been a long night, but so so happy...I even got 4 hours of straight sleep!
We are still in the hospital at Overlake recovering and what not. Greta is doing well, and so am I! However I do feel like a train wreck...or like I gave birth to a 8lb 14oz baby. Not sure when we will be going home, but we are pretty sure it will be today sometime.
But, here is the skinny on Greta (since pictures won't be coming until later). Firstly, she is perfect as any mom would tell you of their new baby.
She has my chubby cheeks and long toes, Kent's nose bridge and upper lip...and a full head of the softest darkest hair.
It is still a little hard to believe that this is our Barley!
And soon we will be taking her home to our house to live and play with us!
Now we just have to figure out how we are going to get her there through the snow and ice...

Greta Cherie Walter

2008-12-20T13:13:00.000-08:00

She's here! A big 8 pounds and 15 ounces, 21 inches long. Kirsten did a really amazing job, and both of my girls are healthy and strong and sleepy. I think our camera cable is at home still, unfortunately, so no pictures for the time being, but rejoice with us that the newest Walter is alive and well and looking really healthy! More to come later, and pictures too!

Baby Time!

2008-12-19T22:50:00.000-08:00

Kent here with a guest post series.

10:51 PM, 12/19: I had this picture ready just in case, and I’m glad I did. The weather is insane lately with the worst, by far, yet to come over the next couple of days (check out the weather reports for Seattle, and you’ll see what I’m talking about), and the roads are better than they were, but the timing still doesn’t lend itself well to driving around. Fortunately, we’ll be staying put for a couple of days, because we’re legit now! Kirsten’s water broke at home about 9:30 tonight, and we made it up here to Overlake Labor and Delivery in our own car. We were grateful that the roads got plowed and cleaned up well enough that we didn’t have to take an ambulance. We’ve checked in, and everything looks ship shape so far. All my other updates will probably be a lot shorter than this one as the action picks up, and if you don’t see anything else until we’re back home… Well, just trust that we were a little too busy. More to come…

12:40 AM, 12/20: Our awesome midwife Nicki just got here and checked in with us, and Jenni, our nurse (also fantastic) is across the room hooking up the penicillin to Kirsten's IV. Kirsten has a bacteria that plenty of moms do, called Group B Streptococcus. It's just one of the many bacteria she's got going on, and though it's nothing harmful to grownups, newborns can get some gnarly infections from it, so they do a couple of doses of antibiotics to protect the little folks. A nurse here told us on a previous visit that she's never seen a baby get infected with the B strep after the penicillin dosage, so it's really just standard procedure. Contractions are a lot more intense at this point too, so keep watching.

2:02 AM, 12/20: Dilated to 4 cm now, and more effaced. We've just decided to go ahead and get epidural medicine. The biggest motivator at this point is that it's the middle of the night, and Kirsten's really going to need her rest when she starts pushing. If it was daytime, the dicussion may have looked just a little different, but night time is for sleeping, and that's something we both really need at this point.

3:00 AM, 12/20: The epidural went in with no complications thanks to Dr. Silverman (UVA guy; we talked about Virginia a little bit). Kirsten's next mission (and Nicki specifically said the word "mission") is to get some sleep. That makes it mine too. More updates after we wake up.

7:49 AM, 12/20: Well, that wasn't the very most consistent sleep in the world, especially for Kirsten, who had to switch sides every thirty minutes or so and do some periodic monitoring and whatnot, but "this epidural business," as Kirsten has just said, "is fantastic." The last check was at 5:30, and we were hanging out at 6 cm. Still lots of contractions, but they're new and improved, with 99% less pain!

8:51 AM, 12/20: Hey, 9 cm! Alright! The guard changed, so now our nurse is Malinda, and today's midwife is the very friendly and very informative Jennifer. She just checked in with us for the first time and broke the last of the water to make a little more room for everything. We've been assigned two more hours of sleep if we can (hard work and little sleep ahead!), and after that, it's probably time for pushing!

10:32 AM, 12/20: Well, between another bag of epidural medicine and some extra pressure, we didn't really go back to sleep yet. Jennifer just checked again, though, and we're all the way at 10 cm! The extra pressure was from Greta turning and getting lower, which is exactly what she should be doing. If she keeps moving down like this, we'll be in the pushing part pretty soon. And then I won't be updating as much. Stay tuned.

2 Years! What a difference!

2008-12-18T04:17:00.000-08:00

Two years ago today I woke up in Charlottesville, VA Mrs. Walter! Kent and I were just married and on our way to Prague for honeymoon and Christmas. It was the most beautiful and memorable week.
This morning...I woke up at 3:00am Mrs. Walter and co! with some lovely contractions and the makings for another very memorable week.
Today I am seeing my midwife, and the hope is (especially if my contractions keep up pace like this) we will be bringing home our sweet little girl sooner than later.
What a difference 2 years makes!
Kent and I were talking last night about the last 2 years and have come to the conclusion that we have the happiest marriage that any two human sinners could strive for. And now we are starting in on our 3rd year, and there is so much to look forward to.
Thank you to everyone for coloring our lives with friendship and love, we are SO looking forward to what lies ahead!

Makes me laugh!

2008-12-17T17:56:00.000-08:00

Seeing as I am sick with a cold and carrying a behemoth child, not too many things make me laugh nowadays.
But! Bloopers, especially sports and news bloopers never fail. I saw this last night and thought I would laugh my child out!
Does this make me mean?
(Juice, I think you will particularly enjoy this.)
(p.s. I miss you.)

Holy Smokes!

2008-12-12T15:31:00.000-08:00

So our Greta girl is full of surprises!
Here is the run down from the last couple of days.
The Barley is now "of age" she is 37 weeks and can be delivered safely anytime now. So we were very excited yesterday when I was having those classic symptoms you here tell about! Contractions 5 minutes apart and fantastically uncomfortable..."this is it!" It's baby time! We go to the hospital and they hook me up to monitors and do some charming tests only to find that my contractions aren't doing anything to progress my labor, and that I was still at the same measurements I was 3 weeks ago. Rats. All that pain and no progress. They tell me to go home and try and get some rest.
So instead we go out and try and help her along with some exercise, walking around looking at the Christmas lights and shops in Bellevue then dinner at Maggiano's. (We are only just a little impatient.)
However, today brings new motivation.
They had me come in to do another ultrasound after her heart rate was having some low dips just to make sure her fluid levels were healthy.
Good news! She is healthy...boy is she healthy...last week they estimated her weight at about 5-6 lbs. Today with all of her ultrasound measurements she clocked in at 9 1/2 lbs.
NINE AND A HALF POUNDS... POUNDS!
And this little turkey has 3 more weeks to cook! Granted, there is a few pound margin of error, but we certainly weren't expecting this from our little preemie! Needless to say the technician had to scoop Kent and I out of the room and practically deposit us out the door.
NINE AND A HALF POUNDS! Her head measured at 39 weeks, her femur at 40, her belly is actually off the charts as over 40 weeks.
Where did this giantess come from? Is this the same little sweetie I have been bedridden with for these last several weeks to give her a fighting chance at health and happiness?...Because I think she found it!
So there it is...my new motivation to do stairs and drink Raspberry tea. And now we can all stop singing "ohh poor little Barley" and unite in a song of "ohh poor Skirst" and for everyone else "ohh I'm glad it isn't me".
But with all shock aside, there is a sense of relief at our house today. All signs are pointing to a healthy happy baby and I would much rather do the fighting for her in childbirth than have her fighting for her life.
That's what mommies do!

Christmas Concert '08!

2008-12-06T13:17:00.000-08:00

Our scheduled Christmas activities have been somewhat of a question mark this year. All eyes are on the Barley. However there was one Christmas tradition that I wanted to institute and observe if I could at all help it...A Christmas Concert!
A time to get together and sing Christmas songs with friends like they did in old 50's movies. (sans the hot toddies-maybe next year!)
So I busied myself (as much as one can busy oneself while not moving from the couch) with plans. Mostly I busied my mom and Kent with the baking and the Christmas decorating. A task that I envied them for...I love setting the house in Christmas order and making things just so (also, maybe next year!)
However, I was able to make these darling little mistletoe pins in the meantime.
So, with everything in order we called on our good friends Meg and Ryan to come celebrate with us around the Christmas tree.
Kent played the guitar, and Meg charmed us with her cello playing. Ryan and I chose less "Traditional" instruments and played the keys (car keys) in all the jingly sorts of songs.
A festive time was had by all! With baked sweets, cider, cocoa, and ornament decorating! It was a very cheerful evening. (Minus my discussion of our flagging economy and the predicted doom and utter economic collapse they say we are headed for in as little as 4 years. (I have nothing to do but read this mess on the news all day)...also start gardening.)Now, some may wonder at my crazy Christmas antics and wonder what was I thinking?...what with all the standing, jingling, and sitting at the table shown above. Surely this breech of Dr's orders catapulted me into labor?
Nope..and relax! The Barley had a blast, and really would never dream of interrupting the Christmas Concert '08! It was a lovely night off and I sang and laughed until my prego belly shook like a bowl full of jelly!
Merry Christmas to all!

The Final Countdown...

2008-12-04T03:42:00.000-08:00

Da-da-da-duuuuuh, duh-duh-du-du-duuuuuh!
As discussed previously, the Paper chain is the countdown method of choice in the Walter Household.
Used to countdown major events and milestones. And if getting off my butt, (or left side to be more precise) to join civilization isn't a milestone I just don't know what is. Ahh, to feel the wind on my face and pavement under my feet again...richness.
As is, we have 6 links left in the paper chain placed by my afternoon perch.
6 links left and it's "Look out world the Barley and I are back and taking no prisoners!"
Kent and I have had the feeling that as soon as I am off these muscle relaxers, and we give my uterus permission, it's going to spaz out as it's been aching to (and ache it does) and presto we got baby!
So if you look at it that way, it really is The Final Countdown!
Peace and quiet...final countdown. Night time is for sleeping...final countdown. A time where I have to sqwunch up my face to remember what spit up smells like...final countdown.
But also it's having a little homemade person, who is totally and completely brand new to the world to teach you new depths of love and sacrifice. You don't see a lot of things on earth that no one else has for the first time. And I have a little paper chain to countdown to one!

P.s. If she doesn't come by next Friday we are going to IKEA. I can't of anything more labor inducing than walking 5 miles of Swedish warehouse looking at sales!

Bed Rest(less)

2008-11-29T12:40:00.000-08:00

I am currently writing to you "off the hip". I mean that most literally, as I am on bed rest where I am ordered to lay on my side and only my side. (Minus those glorious minutes I get to shuffle to the bathroom or sit up to eat.)
You would be amazed at how little there is to do while laying on ones side. When I first heard the news bed rest I had hopes of finishing our wedding album, working on some branding for my new up and coming business venture with Meg, sketching, listing...etc. But alas I have found that all of these are for those lucky stiffs who can lounge on the couch on their back.
As is, I am growing intensely uncomfortable writing over my shoulder and will make this post short.
We had another Dr.s visit yesterday and they recommended I stay on my Terbutaline (muscle relaxer) and bed rest for another 11 days. Blech. It is doing a good job so far and I have had half the contractions I started the week out with. So that is good for the Barley, and if they keep on working she will have a chance to get a little bigger and avoid some complications.
For that reason, I am happy to do it.... but let us be honest with one another...this sucks.
I am getting stir crazy, and what I wouldn't do for some exercise!
So if anyone has any fun sideways activities they know of...let me know! I am open to mixing up my routine of movie watching and contraction counting.
Well, my faithful nurse "mom" is bringing out lunch so I had better goooo! But really, I'm not going anywhere...I will be just here for 11 more days.

Crazy Little Thing Called Labor

2008-11-25T13:49:00.000-08:00

Hi folks. Kent here, guest posting for Kirsten, since she's just *this much* indisposed at the moment. I'm in the rocking chair by the window up at the Overlake Hospital Labor and Delivery Unit, and Kirsten's in the bed next to me. Don't panic, though! Every visit we have now, if it's not a scheduled appointment, happens over here at L&D. They just have better monitoring equipment and whatnot, and it's right next door to the place we usually go.
Here's the news: yesterday morning, very early, Kirsten started having pretty bad cramps, so she called the consulting nurse, and they had us come on in. After a lot of checking things out and monitoring stuff, they told us that she was actually in the first stages of labor! Wow! That explains the cramps, I guess. They eventually gave Kirsten medication to stop the contractions, and once they got that to work, we went on home with several doses of the same medication in pill form. It's been sort of working, but today brought some more weirdness, and contractions a little closer together than they should be in times of non-labor, so we called and they had us come on back in. Pretty much the same story today, and we're headed home in a little bit unless anything changes. The idea is to keep labor at bay for at least another week or so (until 36 weeks), and then if Greta wants to come on out, they'll let her, and we'll care for her appropriately. Should be in good shape at that point.
If things pick up or anything else changes, we'll be sure to let you know.

Thanks for tuning in! :)

Kent (for both of us)

Big day for the Barley!

2008-11-13T10:38:00.000-08:00

So yesterday was a big day for the Barley!
Firstly, she is now enjoying a new corner office with a view of my pelvic floor. Yesterday she by all signs "engaged" or "lightened" as they say in the books, or as I would say "dropped like a ton of bricks."
Which is super exciting considering this means she is doing her thing to get ready to go-go-go, and I have more room to breathe, eat, and otherwise enjoy a little more of life's upper abdominal comforts. However it does come at the price of lost lower ones. Her little head is nicely nestled on what sometimes feels like knives, an anvil, and my bladder in between.
Goooo Barley!
Also yesterday I had a monster headache and nausea which was my cue to visit the hospital which was the hospitals cue to check my blood pressure, whose impressive new highs cued the Dr to label my pregnancy "hypertension", which was the cue to steal my blood and pee, and give me drugs I don't want to take.
So, now I am officially an old man and am on blood pressure medicine and monitor my bp 4 times a day with my new handy and so dandy at home cuff. (batteries not included).
The new medicine makes me feel all floopy and light-headed, and I distrust it. (I think any mom would distrust a medicine that clearly states not to take it if you are pregnant or going to be pregnant...and boy if I'm not anything but pregnant.)
However they say it is better for the Barley than the alternative. Lets just hope the poor Barley does not feel as silly as I do. So far I haven't heard any drunken songs echoing from my uterus...but I feel one coming on so I had better sign off.
....They caaaall her the irish roooooover!

33 week checkup!

2008-11-05T08:19:00.000-08:00

So we had our last ultrasound yesterday! The next time we get to look at The Barley she will be a little more 3D...with surround sound! It is getting more and more difficult to see what's what in the ultrasound as she gets bigger, so unfortunately there will be no picture for this post. The one we got was barely recognizable seeing as the poor girl is stuffed so tight, like a ham in a pickle jar.
However we did see what amounted to blinking and mouth moving. Also, she was sucking on her foot, which I think shows remarkable skill.
The reason for an ultrasound this late in the game was to check up on her kidneys which were growing at 2 different rates last visit. This time they noticed that they were the same size, just one was holding more fluid than the other. Thankfully, this is not a dangerous or worrisome complication, as her fluid levels and everything else look normal. So praise God for that!
Greta is right on track to be a Christmas Eve baby, they bumped her due date back to the 24th!
She currently weighs 4lbs and 7 oz and that puts her smack dab in the 64th percentile for weight. The midwife predicts she will be around 7lbs when D-Day arrives. A nice little bundle if I do say so myself.

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-01T08:53:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone had a happy Halloween last night?
We had a fantastic time hanging out with friends and shoving our faces with sweets and pizza rolls.
Kent and I had a tough time this year trying to figure out what we should be. I have rigorous guidelines when it comes to costumes. They should be semi-homemade, I don't want to be a man, or an inanimate object, and would like the costume to be somewhat uncommon. (ex: no witches/or pumpkins). This year had the added challenge of incorporating the Barley. But I think we pulled it off.
We we were a 50's housewife and the milkman. (tee-hee)
I thought Kent looked particularly fine in his little white shorts and bow tie. (meow)

'Here we go a pumpkining'...

2008-10-28T09:18:00.000-07:00

...'Among the leaves so orange!'
So, this weekend we gathered our fall spirit up and went a-pumpkining! What could be better than a fun afternoon in the park gutting and carving large vegetables, drinking cider, and of eating Halloween candy?
I submit that there is nothing.

The boys had a HOOGE pumpkin so they teamed up on one together. They were very proud of their handy work. Even now Kent's is propped up by our front door with a rock under it to give it a better showing. It is a scene of wolves howling at the moon.
When I discovered his initial design plans, I had imaginings of us all left howling at the moon as Kent meticulously carved his pumpkin with a knife the size of a hair pin. He is known in our parts for his astounding attention detail, and consequently for being the slowest ever.
However, it was I who was the last to finish carving.
Mostly because I spent my time eating candy, but also I was deliberating over all the design possibilities. Would I try and make a political statement? Or something that would make all the little trick or treaters stop and consider the preciousness and brevity of life? Or maybe I would just settle for something so funny they must puke up their Whoppers.
In the end I decided on a harmless little heart with leaves, giving an overall impression of a tramp stamp. As typical Skirst, I decided it was too much work to think through and eating would be more fun.
The day ended with us all lined up like proud parents holding our orange young.

And then fake smashing them.

Happy October everyone!

Party...with a y.

2008-10-21T13:23:00.000-07:00

Soooo, cats out of the bag. Happy Shower to me!
This last weekend the incomparable Meg threw me a surprise baby shower. It was gorgeous, and personal, and sans the games we have all grown to loathe.
So thank you SO much for those of you who came, it made the Barley and I smile.
Now I have been busying myself with finding places for all the lovely gifts and loans everyone has been so generous with.
Today's highlighted gift: The nubby blanket Meg made with her own paws. I think my favorite part is the sweet little G that is sewn into the corner.
The nubby part of the fabric has a real name, but I'm new to the 'mom club' and just call it the nubby part.
Also...what's with all the y's ladies and gentlemen of the marketing sector? We've got the Boppy, the Onesy, footies, Robeez...o.k. that's not a y but it sounds like one. Yipes! Confusing!
Granted, y sounds are catchy, and take years off of your tongue when you say them. (I myself find the word "Lambie" particularly charming and use it to refer to one of our dining room rugs. You might even find that it makes up for all the adult words that are so popular right now that are aging you fast and giving you gas, words like: fiscal, bailout, and earmark. Not a y in the bunch) But really, the more I am exploring "baby land" (mostly I'm lost) I am finding that all the product names basically boil down to one simple equation. Cute non-real word+element of product function but mostly confusion+y or ie=expensive baby product crucial for your child's comfort, safety, or development.
Well, I am starting to get to the bottom of things at least. I hope all is going well with all of you!
Stay tuned for nursery details! The mural starts this week!

28 Week Check-up

2008-10-06T14:30:00.000-07:00

Greetings from my big comfy chair!
This morning we had our monthly check-up and things are looking well for our little Greta. She was measured at 26 weeks (normal) and her heart rate is 150 (normal).
I on the other hand I have high blood pressure (un-normal) for me at least. The last 2 months I have been in the 140's over mid 70's. A far cry from the so low I could be dead rates I'm used to.
This on top of the fact that I weighed in 9lbs heavier than last month for the second month in a row have us all raising eyebrows and making me feel like a fatty-fatty-2x4-can't fit through the kitchen door.
Now, let me pause here for those out there who might misunderstand this and take it as an unhealthy mind set. I'm not saying I am fat, I know there is a difference from being pregnant and being obese. I'm just saying there are days in every pregos 9 months where regardless of anything else you just feel like Large Marge Big as a Barge...and today as I breathlessly shuffled myself from the hospital freshly banned by my midwife from drinking cran-blueberry juice (too many calories)...was one of those days.
At any rate, Ive been ordered to go in next week for another check up instead of my monthly, so as to keep tabs on my all too impressive blood pressure.
Also I am cutting out my most dearly loved sweets, and per Drs orders choosing "low fat" dairy (blech). Well, no one ever said pregnancy was going to be easy:) but I am happy to do anything to keep this bun a cookin nice and healthy like!

P.s. I had my glucose test today for gestational diabetes. Naaaaasty it's like drinking a jug of unfrozen orange otter pops. You know something is going to be disgusting if they make you sign a waver first.

Moving in...

2008-10-05T00:25:00.000-07:00

It smells like curry and cardboard down here.
I am sitting amongst a pile of my possessions, writing instead of sleeping because yesterday we moved into our new place (Our Barley's first place!) and my mind is too full of the things needed to be done.
For example...this unwelcome smell. The tenants before us seemed to have had an affection for curry and it haunts my very sleep. Of course I am the only one that can smell it because I am prego and my smeller is particularly keen now. So I burn candles like a devout Catholic, (only my candles smell fantastic) and do laundry in hopes to bring about the familiar scent we have left behind at our old home or as Kent affectionately called it "The Shoe box" or "Tooth"....for it was the size of one.
Our new home is much older and loaded with character. We are thrilled at the added square footage, but there is a lot to get used to and I have not quite accepted it as my friend yet. It is a little wonky. I am still suspiciously opening drawers and drawing up an eyebrow at the dishwasher's suspicious ways.
I am still mulling over the possibility of whether or not our house is trying to poison us either with black mold hidden in it's bowels or if it is planning to lull us into a false state of relaxation at which time it will crumble in on us like a house of cards to the ruin of everything, leaving us with only a cloud of dust to pay rent on.
I have just a few things like this to sort out. Also where to put all our stuff.
Our friends have been so awesome helping us get everything off of the truck and into it's proper place. And of course Kent has been an absolute hero making sure I don't lift anything heavy and take my breaks and naps. He takes good care of his girls.
All in all we have been incredibly blessed. We have our work cut out for us for a little while but fiddle-dee-dee I love these kinds of challenges, and soon our little Barley is going to come home here and the real fun will begin!......but first something must be done about this smell.

Sweet Cheeks!

2008-09-26T09:29:00.000-07:00

Here are two pictures from her last ultrasound appointment. This is 24 weeks! Here are her feets! They look mighty long, and the Midwife says her legs measured at 26 weeks. She is crossing her legs like a little lady.

Is is just me, or are her little cheeks just the sweetest?...Her face cheeks that is.

Registered

2008-09-22T22:36:00.000-07:00

So we went ahead and registered today!
I have been kind of squeamish about doing it before because it feels so presumptuous. Like "Hey get us things!" But, we have been getting a lot of questions about what we have and don't have, as well as what we like, so hopefully this will be a nice way to get that all out there.
Right now we are registered at Target.com. We have just started adding things so it will be a work in progress. And really I can't think of where else we should go to register. Can you?

Places I wish I could register at include:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Top Pot (that one's for me)

But all you moms/friends-that-are-moms, do let me know what is missing off my list and what you have found to be fabulous! I'm new in the club and the idea of registering for things like a breast pump still scares the bajeezas out of me. So I would love to hear what you have to say.
It has been so fun the last little bit to go over all the little clothes and shoes we have and think about how in 3 months they won't be empty! EEP!
Well, I had better give it a rest, tomorrow I am going on a H&M pilgrimage in efforts to find the perfect diaper bag. I will need to be rested and of sound mind and body.
G' Night!
p.s. The Barley went woosh! yesterday for the first time. You know when they don't just kick, but they go woosh! and drag their little feets from one corner to the next...well it was just like that... woosh!

Little Greta Girl

2008-09-16T08:05:00.000-07:00

Hello!
Thanks to technology and a lady with some goo in a squeeze bottle we found out last week that the Barley is a girl! However, no one is too surprised at this, seeing as everyone was of the opinion it was going to be a girl in the first place! Except for two people (you know who you are).
I myself feel great satisfaction in my own gender predicting instincts. It took me two months at the beginning of my pregnancy to realize that the possibility was even out there that it could be a boy.
There were those who scoffed at this "lack of scientific proof" and completely disregarded "womanly instincts" and "motherly intuition" and "I like using these quote things, they're so jazzy". Saying that it was merely a 50/50 chance and math and something smart. This (scoffer) will also remain nameless because I love my husband and wouldn't expose Kent to public criticism like that. After all it was his genes that determined that little girl chromosome to manifest itself in my womb and I am in the deepest of gratitude for his efforts.
So now it is full steam ahead planning the birth and life of the worlds sweetest little Barley Girl. There are swatches to be chosen, a doll to be made, little bunny hats and small knee socks to find. And of course a name to be decided on.
However, we were prepared for just such an event and as the title states we have decided to name her Greta.
Greta Cherie.
Isn't that lovely? I think it is only fitting that a Kent and Kirsten should have a Greta...with big cheeks.
Cherie will be her middle name, it is mine, and was my grandma's first name. The Cherie is of extra importance because if there is any way a certain name can produce qualities in a person akin to its previous owner I pray that little Greta receives at least a few of my Grandma Cherie's. If she does we will have a joyful girl who laughs more than she talks, loves others more than herself, and has a ferocious appetite for living life and devouring masses of food.
There is news of our new place (moving in 2 weeks!) and other fascinating Barley details on the way, but right now it is time for toast.

Kickin' Around

2008-08-28T12:49:00.000-07:00

Kent and I have found out, much to our glee, that the Barley likes music! We were listening to Viva la Vida last week and the Barley went wild for it. Kicked me right in the gut as if to say "Mom! Don't touch that!....I'm pondering death and all his friends." It was such a swift kick I could see it out of the corner of my eye. Promptly this led to "I wanna see I wanna see" from Kent who at that point hadn't seen or felt the Barley move yet. They had been playing a game of hide and seek for a couple weeks and Barley was the one in the kitchen cupboard refusing to come out full knowing that it had hit upon the world's best hiding spot and to leave now would be to forfeit glory in what would be called the greatest round of hide and seek the sentient world has ever known, and become fodder for the BBC and children's songs alike.
But, a little bit of food, some good music and the Barley can be coaxed... Hoof! We have been enjoying an active and lively little Barley all week.
Like mother like Barley.

Gimme gimme gimme!

2008-08-14T19:52:00.000-07:00

So, for the first half of my pregnancy I figured that those notorious "cravings" women get didn't apply to me. For me the definition of a craving at that point was finding the only thing that didn't make me want to throw up and die...and eat it for the sake of the Barley.
Well, happy days are here again! And with gusto!
Not only is nausea a thing of the past but I am even surpassing my previous (notorious) hearty appetite with records heights I'm surprised at!
In particular I want sweeeets. No, I don't want, I pine and will do dangerous feats for sweets. This is almost as exciting as my new belly button! It used to be that when we went out with friends for dessert I would be the only one sitting there with a BLT.
But now, I would straight trip someone for their ice cream cone.
For those prudent and worry-prone readers out there, don't worry, I haven't thrown all caution to the wind (mom). I still eat all my fruits, vegetables, whole grains, blah, blah, blah... but my new rapacious appetite allows me to have my cake and eat that too.
And the best part of it all... It is 100% guilt free! I was never one to put too much stock in what people thought about my second and third helpings, or order salads because everyone else was... That's balls. They can be fabulous and hungry and also inevitably mad at the world if they want to, but it's always been pass the gravy for me!
And now eating is like doing someone a favor! I learned yesterday that the Barley can taste now, and what I eat, the Barley tastes in the amniotic fluid whether it is sweet, savory, or mediocre Thai. And I am bent on making The Barley's first culinary experiences ones to remember.

It's a.....?

2008-08-04T12:27:00.000-07:00

So we had our 20 week ultrasound today...and the good news is it's a human! and it's healthy! But the bad news is we still don't know what kind of human it is. I'm not talking about character qualities either. We already know all about how the Barley is genuine, kind hearted, unwilling to tease others even when provoked, and has an exceptional knack for picking good friends and resisting unsavory influences. It's whether the Barley has literal balls or not that we haven't quite figured out yet.

Unfortunately for us the technician who helped us was less than talkative and even less charming. She took some fabulous pictures, and images of almost every inch of the Barley's body...except for the most crucial and interesting inches in the nether region!

There were other discoveries however. The pictures showed that Barley has a few small cysts in it's brain that they want to make sure clear up. (The midwife assured us that it is normal given their small size, they're not dangerous during this stage of pregnancy and that they should clear up.) They also want to make sure that my currently low lying placenta hikes up where it should in the next 4 weeks as well. Which means...we won't know for sure if it's a Barley Girl or a Barley Boy until I go in for tests next month!

As disappointing as that is, it was still such fun to see our little Barley grown up so much! It was wiggling and kicking the whole time and even gave us a thumbs up, just to say "No worries dad I'm doing fine, aren't I cute?"
And yes Barley, you are cute. However, I'm not gonna lie you could scare the the habit off a nun with the look you're giving us in your front shot. We have lovingly entitled that one "THE BARLEY IS WATCHING YOU". For those who are not pregnant or nursing and at least 5 feet tall you can check it out at the above link or visit kentwalter.com. He is posting all our pictures from today.

Look what I found!

2008-08-01T16:22:00.000-07:00

What you are looking at is the 20 week mark! Half way, ladies and gentleman!...gestationally speaking.
People have been clamoring for the "belly photo." Mostly, I think, so they can tell me how large I look. I am starting to learn, however, that during pregnancy this is usually intended as a compliment. Nonetheless, it is a compliment that takes getting used to. "Yes, thank you ma'am, no I am just 20 weeks......yes I am large for my fetus's age."
However, I am pleased to announce that along with being given the gift of pregnancy, which is the most fun I have ever had being uncomfortable, I have also been given a rare and once in a lifetime opportunity! To see the bottom of my bellybutton! I have a smallish sort of button the bottom of which has never before been documented... until now! it is growing more shallow by the hour, and its progress fascinates me!
It is a visible countdown much like those turkey timers that go POP when it's done cooking. Keep roasting, little Barley!

Proper Education

2008-07-07T14:45:00.000-07:00

Today marks the first day of "The Police... a week long countdown to a sublime musical journey". This Saturday Kent and I (and the Barley) are going to see The Police at the Gorge. A countdown marked with daily Police trivia, non-stop music and of course a paper chain.
Growing up if there was an event of any real magnitude, there was ALWAYS a paper chain to count it down.
This is a practice I would like to hand down to the Barley. That, and commemorating important days in music/rock history as soon as The Barley is capable of abstract thought.
The following is a list of some of the holidays to be instituted (and corresponding discussion topics) heralded by the paper chain.

-November 17th, Jeff Buckley's birthday
Discussion topics: Evils of liquor overdose, the unique qualities of a telecaster, short career-big influence in today's music.
Celebration style: Listen to Live at Sine, have a who can sing higher contest.

-February 7th, The Beatles land in America
Discussion topics: George, John, Paul and Ringo's separate influences, the bands evolution from head bops to beards, Helter Skelter- first heavy metal song?
Celebration style: Listen to Abbey Road, Eat Yorkshire pudding, play "name that singing Beatle".

-April 5th, The Clash releases first Album
Discussion topics: The birth of punk rock, The changing London social scene, why a drug-free band is a smart band.
Celebration style: Listen to London calling, make our own shirts (Like Joe Strummer), play Rockbands The Clash set list.

-August 10th The Police became a trio
Discussion topics: Pioneering reggae in mainstream rock, why teamwork is important, and why solo songwriting hurts feelings and breaks up rock legends
Celebration style: Make our own Police cover music video using cordless electrics and everyday objects for drums. (another topic of discussion, why drummers can't help but look stupid in 80's music videos)

The list continues with celebrations for Sigur Ros, Django Reinhardt, BB King, and Brian Eno.
Here's to a well-rounded Barley! Cheers!

Captivity makes me Peevish...

2008-07-02T11:48:00.000-07:00

However, seeing as I am 4 months pregnant and feeling 4 strokes under par basically always, I often find myself at home in my favorite Sherlock Holmes-ish chair drinking things like cran-bluberry juice instead of what I really want, reading about what size the baby is in reference to fruits and household objects, and eating toast.
Some people might be silly enough to think I have it 'made'. However these same people clearly don't know me very well, or have never known the tedium that is unemployment.
I am not saying that I myself am unemployed, I just told you, I drink juice, eat toast, and split cells all day. You can make a fine living I am told creating humans. However, I do have a career to fall back on as an artist. Small bits of paper on mostly white canvas is my specialty. Also, committing to design projects for people who you never hear from again. I do this particularly well.
Kent thinks a blog will help curb the adverse effects of my captivity and as an added bonus make me a less private person. We will see.

To start, I am carrying a person in my uterus called "The Barley". Many wonder at this, but I have a knack for creating nicknames (from scratch) that stick, whether you want them to or not.
Someday when my child is graduating from college it will turn to me with sageness and ask me why I have called him/her a hardy cereal for all these years. And I will reply with my typical sageness "that it is because I first fell in love with you when you were just the size of a Barley". We'll embrace and it will be caught on video.
But anyone else who asks will get the answer that it was the size of a Barley when it started stripping away my health and forced me into blogging.

Also a note! If you intend to peek in on my writing on a regular basis you will notice a couple of things that I would rather tell you about first so that I can have a sort of "I told you so" satisfaction. I have decent grammar, but not flawless and don't intend to make it flawless for fear of losing it's "conversational quality". If you are looking for brilliant writing without error go to kentwalter.com. Also I use "quotes" and (these guys) incessantly, and many of these ... dot dot dots.