These were Nicholas’s first words when he awoke Saturday morning. Michelle had arrived late the night before and the boys were excited to meet and play with her. After waiting to 8:30am, Nicholas shouted “Hello Friends!” and the real noised started. Michelle came down shortly afterward. She had brought the boys two Danish police cars, a Danish Firetruck and Ambulance, along with Danish soccer shirt and shorts. Now we can have a soccer match between Sweden and Denmark. Joel and I got chocolate and caramels and the cutest little Danish bobble-head that you’ve ever seen. Thank you Michelle!

Seeing that it was turning out to be such a nice day, we headed for the zoo. We have never headed out that late before – it was 10am before we left the house and the zoo opens at 9:30am. By the time we got there and circled 4 parking lots to no avail, Joel kicked us out of the car so that he could look for parking. No parking = grumpy Joel. The boys played happily at a park outside the zoo though. It took herculian effort to get them in the zoo so that we could meet up with Joel, who found parking at last, 30 minutes after getting to the zoo. Oops. It seems that a bunch of companies were having family picnics at the zoo that day. Wow – it was crowded. It felt like Disneyland. Poor Michelle – not the first impression we would have liked to make.

At this point in time, we were not aware that Dexter had Scarlet Fever. He was on day 3 of antibiotics and thus we felt he was not contagious anymore. But, walking around the zoo wore the little guy out and I ended up carrying him a lot of the time. Poor me. He’s getting heavy. Each time we go to the zoo, I feel like I see something new and this time we saw a dancing elephant. Joel thinks the elephant was doing a poop dance which delighted the boys.

Back to the car where they promptly fell asleep. We drove straight to the walk in clinic to get Dexter checked out for a rash that had developed after taking his antibiotic. What we thought was an allergic reaction to medicine was in fact, Scarlet Fever. As Joel and Dexter met doctors, Michelle, Nicky and I went to Fred Meyer to buy food and birthday cards for Joel’s birthday (which was on Sunday). We actually all got done at the same time and headed back home for play time.

On Sunday, we showed Michelle the Everett Farmer’s Market and celebrated Joel’s birthday. It was a very low key weekend and so far, no one else has caught Dexter’s germs.

Michelle, we are very happy you are now here. Welcome to the Yates Family.

Welcome Michelle

Tonight, I sit in front of the computer while Dexter lies in bed, muttering that he doesn’t like anything as he struggles to fall asleep. Lots of “Hmpfing” going on over there. This is day two of our trip to Vancouver, BC. The boys have now used their passports for the very first time and are two countries down, many more to see. Some of the questions that came up on our drive up to Vancouver included “is there a roof over Canada?” and “what’s a border?” We are still working on the concept of city, state, country, planet, solar system. (could be worse – if it were up to me we’d be starting from the other direction, Multi-dimensional branes, multiple universes, the universe, galaxy groups, galaxy clusters, individual galaxies, spiral arms, globular clusters, etc.)

After a easy drive up to Vancouver in which the boys asked questions the WHOLE ~2.5hr drive (I thought Joel was going to jump for it at one point in time, especially since he bought these incredibly cool Melissa & Doug car bingo games which sound like a loud clap every time you flip a bingo door closed and Dexter opened and closed those doors for about an hour before I got him to give me the game piece back). Driving in downtown Vancouver is another matter. Slightly more chaotic to say the least. Our hotel is incredibly close to 2nd Beach in Stanley Park and our room overlooks a busy bus stop, much to the boys delight. In fact today, as we were getting ready to leave for 2nd Beach, a bus broke down and needed a tow. That was pretty impressive to watch and the boys faces were glued to the window. Window washing will be a must for house keeping.

Anyway, we came up on Sunday and met my cousin Greg, his wife Nicole, and daughter Emma in Stanley Park that afternoon. Our goal, which we achieved, was to ride the little train in the park. What we didn’t know, was that on the train ride, a native american story is told, the subject being the Sassquach. “What’s a Sassquash?” was asked over and over again. Basically, we gave up and just said “Uncle Too Tall with more hair.” Sorry Ryan. Anyway, I must have retold that story about 15 times during and after the train ride as we then played in a play ground.

We said our good byes, and finally checked into our hotel room. (Speaking of our hotel room – Joel and I just witnessed a good old fashioned fist fight outside. I had just checked to make sure the boys were sleeping when we heard more than usual noise outside. We pulled the blinds to see two men getting their assess handed to them by a mean man. Cops showed up too late but then went after the mean man. Don’t see that every day, but I digress.

By the time we had checked into our Best Western hotel, we had missed the dinner window for the boys = cranky. The restaurant advertised has since been remodeled and is not kid friendly. Oops. So, I went in search of pizza & fruit and we ate in our hotel room. I think we had a half hour of PBS TV time and then we waited for the boys to fall asleep. OK, here’s the funny thing. You know you are getting old when you’re walking through the city looking for food and you smile at a passing man. Then the thought pops into your head – he’s in his twenties and you are 40. What happened? Also, I brought booze on the trip. Yep, following in my father’s footsteps. I had 3 little baby bottles of booze left over from my 40th birthday party favors. So, I made Joel and I mixed drinks. In fact, I’m sipping another one tonight.

OK, this morning, we headed back to Stanley Park to visit Vancouver’s aquarium. The boys got to see their first Beluga whale show, hear seals bark and do tricks and see dolphins being trained. They did fairly well for having to wait around a lot. I got to see a dolphin poop. It’s green in case you were wondering. Back to the hotel for a nap. I fell asleep the quickest, followed by Nicholas, and Dexter. Joel had the misfortune of falling asleep after he woke Dexter up while I was out of the room purchasing a picnic dinner from the local Safeway grocery store. It was the repeated call of “I’ve pooped” that got Joel going again. Once I returned, we got ready to go to 2nd beach and you’ve already heard about the city bus tow truck incident. We had tons of fun playing on the play equipment, followed by our picnic and a dip in the city’s salt water pool. That’s where I saw a Daniel Craig look a-like. Complete with form fitting swim trunks. OOOH LA LA.  (sorry, no picture)

Now here Joel and I sit, sipping our drinks, turning toward the window any time we see flashing lights. I think 4 police cars have passed by since the fight. Tomorrow, we meet our friend Linda at Granville Island before heading home.

(It’s now a week later – boy how time flies.) Tuesday worked pretty well. The boys got to watch a ton of PBS TV as we packed our bags, ate breakfast in our room, and got ready to leave the hotel. We were actually a head of schedule to meet Linda when the boys realized that I had authorized Joel to take the boys’ luggage down to the car. A twenty minute medium tantrum followed which pushed us 10 minutes late. Not too bad. We met Linda at her condo on the other side of downtown Vancouver. Man, it was good to see her. We met Linda and John on our Rick Steve’s tour before the boys were born and thoroughly enjoy their company. Too bad John was on travel with work. From Linda’s condo, we walked down to the water and took the little people ferry over to Granville Island Public Market. I should mention that 4 ferries docked to say they couldn’t take us before one showed up that could. We walked around the market a bit, but it was hot, and crazy busy and close to lunch. The boys were a little overwhelmed. Linda gave them both $20 Canadian to spend on toys and that was a lesson in patience as the boys tried and tried to decide on which toys to buy. In the end it was cars for Nicholas and trains and one car for Dexter. A little lunch followed and back to the ferry we walked.  Thank you, Linda!

It was now 2pm and time to head for the border. Joel navigated us smoothly to the border and we crossed with no problem. We powered through to home and arrived around 4:30pm. It was good to be home. Alas, we didn’t get to enjoy it for long as we ate a quick dinner and then were off to swim lessons. When we got home and were putting the boys to bed, Dexter told us he was sick. We now know that this was the first stage of Step Throat followed by Scarlet Fever. Yippee.

It was a great trip and we had lots of fun. The rest of the week at home, not so much fun with Dexter sick and a to do list that didn’t get finished. But now Michelle is here and routines will be established once more. After a week off, I’m not looking forward to going back to work.

We’ll be back some day, Vancouver.

Vancouver – July 2012

So, this week, Joel and I have the boys. We started it off with a bang and are ending it on a whimper. Sunday through Tuesday, we were in Vancouver, British Columbia – enjoying the sites and visiting with friends and family. It was awesome and I’ve already written up 2/3′s of that blog. Just need to finish it and add pictures. We came home Tuesday night so that the boys could go to their swim lesson that evening. As Dexter was climbing into bed, he turned to Joel and I and stated, “I have a cold.” Oh. That’s new. He’s never really said that before. It was curious because he wasn’t showing any signs of being sick.

The next day, I had made reservations to go to Jetty Island – all four of us. The weather turned south, meaning cloudy and cold – not good beach weather. Dexter still insisted he did not feel well and didn’t want to go. He and Joel built train tracks at home while Nicky and I built sand castles on Jetty Island that morning. When we returned, Dexter was definitely off and felt like he had a mild fever. Being parents, we immediately started the Tylenol dosing. By bedtime, Dexter clearly felt really crappy. They both went down around 7:45pm. Around 9:00pm, all hell broke loose. Dexter woke up and completely lost it. Ran around the whole house crying, wouldn’t let us help, wouldn’t tell us what was wrong – it was awful. We tried TV, Dumbo, a new train. Nothing worked to break through. The tantrum finally ended when he ran back upstairs to bed, got in bed and continued to cry until and sat down and started reading Bernstein Bear stories. Finally he fell asleep and Nicky woke up. He wanted to hear more stories.

At 3:45am, Dexter started to wail again. This time he puked many times too. The new carpet needed to be broken in at some point in time, I guess. He rejected all medicine and finally told us his throat hurt.

7:30am – boys give up on us coming into their bedroom and instead come to ours. Dexter looks bad. Won’t talk. Won’t eat. I finally cajole him into letting look into his throat with a flashlight. I see white nodules. That must be bad, right? I call the doctor. We go in. Yep, it’s Strep. Bleach everything he has had contact with. Do you know how many plastic toys we have out right now? All the trains, the cars, the Playmobil house, wooden blocks, etc…… Crap. Nicky has already been playing with most of the toys Dexter played with. I’ve been scratching my eyes out due to allergies and I was the one puked on the night before.

Now we are waiting to see who will catch it next – Nicky, Joel or I. Oh, or Michelle, who joins the hot zone tomorrow night. Welcome to the infectious zone Michelle. Frequent hand washing is a must right now.

Currently I’m sitting on my deck sneezing up a storm (I hate allergies), waiting to skype with Michelle as the boys play in their sand boxes. It is an absolutely beautiful day today, which is why we are outside, slathered in sun screen and wearing our hates. As gorgeous as this day is, last weekend, the weekend we went camping with my college sorority sisters, the weather was not that kind to us. Nothing like a little rain to create cabin fever, but I digress.

We finally reached our destination around 4pm. It was then the made dash to entertain the kids while moving the picnic table 4 times (so heavy), setting up the inside of the little cabin (one room consisting of a double bed and bunk beds) and cooking dinner. The clouds looked a little threatening so Joel set up the newly purchased rain awning (boy – did that come in handy over the weekend). Soon our friends rolled in, and the socializing / playing began in earnest. Joel and I took the bunk beds and the boys slept on the double. That arrangement worked out pretty well. The baby monitor’s range extended across the street so after Nic and Dex went down, Joel and I were able to enjoy some camp fire / S’more time with friends before calling it a night.

The weather forecast called for 50 % chance of rain on Saturday. I think we averaged a 1 hour window of no rain for an hour window of rain. All day – off and on. We took advantage of being outside between down pours and Joel took cabin duty so that I could chat with friends. He is such a good husband. During the middle of the day, we did manage to get out and ride on Mike’s boat between rain squals. Nicholas and Dexter LOVED going fast and hitting waves. Super big smiles. But eventually, cabin fever set in on the Nic, Dex and Joel. Thank goodness for the boys’ rain “Hazmat” suits and rain boots. We decked them out in rain gear and then went in search of the biggest mud puddles we could find to jump in. At first, they didn’t want to do it. And then they got into it and Joel and I wished we had brought the camera with us to capture these joyous moments. We had kept to the same sleep schedule that we follow at home which was a good thing because from about 9:45pm to 10:30pm, the night sky erupted in HUGE fireworks. The booms reverberated off the hillsides. The baby monitor lit up – basically glowed. I have never seen such a huge display before and it went on forever. Too long, in fact. But the boys slept through it, amazingly enough.

The next day started with drizzle but ended in sunshine. Sunday was a beautiful day. The boys played with Ben, Kate, Abby, Jordan, Ethan, Camryn, Becca and Maddie. They idolized Ben and we’ve since named Lego people after Ben parents (Dexter’s godparents) Mike and Monica. After all the rain on Saturday, and because the start of the day was rainy too, Joel and I decided that even though we had paid to stay through Monday, we would hit the road at 9pm, thus having a full day to play and pack and giving us the opportunity to have sleeping boys on the drive home. As the day grew nicer, we came to regret that decision. Especially since we were also celebrating Mike’s 40th birthday. We’d wanted to leave because those last mornings are always frantic, packing while trying to keep the boys safely out of the way, and with so many people there we thought it would be even worse. But in the end, only Mike & Monica’s family ended up staying through to Monday. Oops.

I know this blog is not that exciting but it is hard to remember funny moments and write coherently when there is a pollen party going on in my nose and all I want to do is scratch my eyes out because of my allergies. So, time to sign off and stick my head in a box of Kleenex. 17 years of camping with friends – not too shabby. Thinking about Mike’s birthday reminded me of something. How funny how conversations change with time. When we first started camping together, it was the sorority sisters and their boyfriends, who then became husbands. In the beginning, at the campfire we talked about sex and drank booze. Now, we watch kids and talk about mammograms, colonoscopies, surgeries, etc….. It’s just comical how life changes.

Because we are currently without an au pair, we’ve had to be a bit creative with our time. The week before the 4th of July, Joel and I were on duty with the boys. We filled the time with cooking camp at their new preschool, playing at parks between rain showers, and trying to pack for camping while they played around us. The Friday of the camping trip began with an hour long tantrum over getting dressed. We’ve entered that stage and have had numerous Nic and Dex trantrums as of late. (I think Nicholas is not so happy with all the transitions we are going through at the moment. Any ideas on how we can get through the next couple of weeks without fights?) We left Nicholas to his protest while we finished packing the food and eating breakfast. The tantrum ended about the same time we were ready to roll, which was perfect timing.

Our first stop on our journey south to Mossy Rock Resort & Campground (southeast of Chahalis) was the Le May car museum in Tacoma. WOW – the boys were so excited to see all the cool “fancy” cars. It was a neat car museum, but I wish I had had more time to read the descriptions. The boys took us on a fast pace tour of the cars, shouting out – “What’s that?” at every car, leaving us little time to actually look at the descriptions of the cars. A short stop at the little deli in the museum (over priced!), a few more cars to look at, and we got back into our very packed Kanga – next stop, Walmart, so the boys could use their birthday money to buy a few more cars for the trip.

Sorority Sisters Camping Trip 2012

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, our next Au Pair, Michelle, will be arriving on July 20th.  She’s from Kolding, Denmark – not terribly far from Malin, and also very close to where some of Katie’s ancestors come from in Southern Denmark.  We’ve Skyped with her several time, trying to help the boys with the transition, and are very excited about her arrival.  Her picture is now on the refrigerator, along with those previous Au Pairs who have been memorialized.

We keep asking the boys what they want Michelle to do with them, and where they want her to take them.  They’ve been pretty consistent on playing with cars and trains and legos, and having her take them to the Zoo and St. Edward’s park.  My guess is they’ll think of a few more things to play with and places to go once she arrives, but that’s probably enough to keep her busy for the first couple of days anyway.

When we were matching, it took a lot longer than it has for us previously.  We also had our first ever real rejection, which hurt a lot more than we were expecting.  I mean, we’ve had the first-brush rejections with each matching – the “I want to live in California / Florida / East Coast”, or “I only want to watch girls”, or “I’m scared of redheads” – but that always happens right away, prior to us feeling confident enough to make the offer.  On the other hand, one very important thing we’ve learned about hosting au pairs is that if they aren’t happy and excited to be a part of our family, then it just isn’t going to work out well for anyone involved.  We also had a couple of girls that we really liked and thought would be very good Au Pairs – but talking with them on the phone or on Skype was very difficult and hard to get a conversation started, so we found that we just didn’t know if we were going to be able to connect with them.  Being able to connect and build a relationship is very much what we’re looking for in an Au Pair, so we just weren’t willing to take the risk.

It doesn’t really matter how long it took, though, because once we saw Michelle’s profile, and talked to her on the phone and over Skype, we were very relieved and completely confident that she was the right choice to come and live with us, share in our lives, and help us keep our boys from killing themselves.  Afterall, she’s from Denmark, which is where Legos are made – that has to be a sign, right?

Welcome Michelle – we can’t wait to meet you!