January 30, 2005

Challenges of mobility

Now that Dorothy is crawling quickly and easily, many baby care tasks have gotten more challenging.

Tonight, I was dressing her for bed after her bath. Tom had helped me get a diaper on her (currently a process requiring at least two adults), and gone off to shave. I got a set of pajamas out of her drawers, by which time she was crawling down the hall following Daddy to our bedroom. I caught up with her in the bedroom, and managed to get the pajamas around her neck while she was frozen, staring at the unfamiliar sight of Tom in the bathroom with shaving cream on his face. I then managed to sit her in my lap long enough to get one arm through a sleeve and the other more or less aimed in the right direction, so she poked her arm through the sleeve when she squirmed away and started crawling again over to Tom in the bathroom. I chased her on my hands and knees, trying to snap the snaps at the crotch of her jammies while she crawled away as fast as she could.

Tom was regretting not having a video camera to record the scene. I finally managed to corner her in front of the shower long enough to get the last snap. Doing the buttons at her neck while she was crawling proved to be almost impossible, but she did consent to writhe in my lap for ten or fifteen seconds while I finished them, and then headed back to Daddy to see if he would help her walk.

I'm trying now to remember why we were so anxious for her to start crawling....

Posted by Elizabeth Nugent at 08:52 PM | Comments (0)

January 28, 2005

The New House

For those who are interested, here's an aerial shot of the house we're renting out here in Washington state. Yes, that's the house amidst all the trees. I think we'll all be getting some moderately clean air to breathe while at home...

Bellevue_AerialView.jpg

Posted by Tom Nugent at 10:53 PM | Comments (2)

The Dorothy Calendar

We made a calendar through CafePress of Dorothy photos that we gave to family for Xmas. Now that they've received their copies, we're making the calendar available to anyone who wants one. The small royalty we receive will go to Dorothy's education fund. You can see the cover art here (it's the same image we gave to Mary Chung).

If people really want other Dorothy merchandise, let us know, and we can add more items (e.g., t-shirts, coffee mugs, etc.) to the "store."

Posted by Tom Nugent at 11:10 AM | Comments (1)

January 27, 2005

Cats Help with Poop?

The following was said recently by Elizabeth, and I unfortunately completely agree with her:

It's a little known fact that having a cat stand on your shoulders does not help you poop any better.

Posted by Tom Nugent at 10:39 PM | Comments (0)

First Bellevue Photos

Due to popular demand by Dorothy's cousins, I've put up the first batch of photos from Bellevue.

You should also check out the photos taken by Caroline, including part of our crew in the airport, and some good inside shots of the house.

Posted by Tom Nugent at 09:41 PM | Comments (0)

Blog Update

As you can tell from the recent entries, we now have internet access again - yay! We're still unpacking, so posting may still be a bit sporadic, but we can receive email.

FYI, I've also switched the time zone for the blog, so the time on all entries starting today will be for the Pacific time zone, instead of Eastern.

Posted by Tom Nugent at 10:32 AM | Comments (0)

Last Photos of Norwood

The final set of photos taken in Norwood are now online.

Posted by Tom Nugent at 10:30 AM | Comments (0)

January 26, 2005

Moving from Boston to Seattle, Part 3

The final installation of the Saga of the Cross-Country Move...

Saturday, January 15

We threw out Rhodium's travel carrier, since it was so nasty. We went and saw the house in the morning, then went for lunch at the Old Country Buffet, which may (or may not) have been a bad decision.

We were going to return our rental van for two smaller cars, but on the way back to the airport, when stopping to feed Dorothy, Tom started feeling ill, and Dorothy threw up at the end of her meal. So we went back to the hotel. That night, Tom felt worse and worse, and wound up with vomiting and diarrhea through the night. Tom "stabilized" by early morning (3am?), and when it got closer to 7am, we called over to Jon & Caroline's room to ask for help with the baby, only to find out that Caroline had been sick all night too (starting 5 or so hours after Tom did). Given what everyone had eaten, we started to wonder if we'd gotten food poisoning at the Old Country Buffet....

Sunday, January 16

We were low key for most of the day, with Caroline and Tom not eating much of anything. Jon came over to Tom & Elizabeth's room to help with Dorothy, while Elizabeth went over to Jon & Caroline's room to get some sleep and watch her mom. Dorothy vomited three or four hours after we'd given her some breakfast (which she'd not wanted to eat much of), and was having diarrhea instead of normal poops. We were wondering how Dorothy would have managed to get food poisoning at the restaurant, given that she'd only eaten a tiny bit of rice and part of a green bean. Tom wondered if perhaps we'd gotten sick from the house water, which was from a well. But he'd been the only one to drink it earlier on Saturday.

We went over to the house again in the afternoon because we needed to do laundry and start planning furniture layout before the movers arrived, which was supposed to be perhaps as early as Monday.

Monday, January 17

The moving company told us in the morning that the 18-wheeler with our stuff was in Washington state, and would probably arrive the next day. We were supposed to hear from the driver, but he never called. Then we saw on TV that the highway just over the mountains east of Seattle was closed due to freezing rain and flooding, so we hoped the driver (and our truck) was OK and just sitting somewhere safe.

In the afternoon, we got a new rental car (a full size vehicle instead of a giant van), which was for Elizabeth and me while we waited for our car to arrive (we only rented the van for the few days while Jon & Caroline were in town).

We also went and bought an air mattress, which we'll use in the future as a guest bed. But we decided to get it now so that we could sleep at the house until our bed arrived (and got set up).

Monday night, our first night staying in the new house, Elizabeth felt ill and wound up with the same vomiting and diarrhea at night that Tom had had. In the morning, when we called her parents over at the hotel for help, we learned that this tiime Jon had also been sick all night long. Their getting sick 48 hours after Tom, Dorothy & Caroline got sick made us think that it was flu instead of food poisoning that we'd gotten. So maybe the Old Country Buffet was safe after all. But we were still all miserable with the illnesses.

Tuesday, January 18

We all did a bit of planning in anticipation of our stuff arriving, then Tom took Jon & Caroline to the airport and returned the first rental car. Jon wasn't feeling well, but he was OK on the airplane ride home.

Tom spoke with our contact at the moving company, and was told (again) that our stuff might arrive the next day.

Wednesday, January 19

Our stuff arrived! Tom spoke with our moving company contact around 6am local time, and was told that the mover would be here in a few hours. So much for 24 hours advance notice...

The labor guys and truck driver managed to unload everything in 6 hours, leaving us buried in boxes. But at least we had our stuff!

Thursday & Friday, January 20-21

We began to unpack. We didn't yet have bedding for our bed or for Dorothy's crib, so we were still sleeping on the airbed, with Dorothy in the port-a-crib, but at least we could start using things like Dorothy's high chair.

On Friday afternoon, we took a break from unpacking to visit Dorothy's new daycare center, which she was slated to start at on the following Monday.

Posted by Tom Nugent at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

Moving from Boston to Seattle - Part 2

Here is Part 2 of the Saga of the Cross-Country Move...

Tuesday, January 11, aka Loading Day

Bright and early (just after dropping Dorothy off at daycare), we met the truck driver and loaders at the shipping company to witness the truck weighing, then we led them to our house. They spent all day loading up the truck. The poor labor guys had to lug all our boxes of books down multiple flights of stairs.

Wednesday, January 12

Wednesday involved some clean-up and post-loading work. In the evening, we went over to Brian & Susan's house to see them, Aaron, and their new baby Tara (who was less than a week old!). Tara was around 6 pounds, and looked sooooo tiny compared to Dorothy. It was hard to remember how small Dorothy was just so (relatively) recently...

Thursday, January 13

In the late morning, we went to see our accountant to discuss taxes, which is always a fun thing to do in your last full day before moving across country.

Thursday was Dorothy's last day at daycare, and it was sad for everyone. We're going to miss her wonderful teachers, and they're going to miss having such a happy baby. We're also going to miss Dorothy's buddy Ian and his parents Susan and Scott.

Thursday evening we picked up Elizabeth's parents from the airport (they were helping us to fly two cats, a baby, and lots of luggage across country) and then met Toby & Krystyn for dinner at Mary Chung's. Everyone from the restaurant commented on the photo we'd given to Mary, and one of the staff even gave Dorothy a nice little zebra, which is currently a carseat toy.

Friday, January 14, aka Last Day in Boston / A Day of High Entertainment

We were a little slow getting going in the morning, but finally made it over to the house. There we did last minute prep for our flight, and threw out a bunch of garbage at the house. We were too busy and rushed to say a long "goodbye" to the house; we were just hoping we'd gotten it cleaned up enough for our agent, Paul, to be able to finish cleaning and prepping it to be sold.

We left a bit late for the airport, but still arrived at 4pm for our 6pm flight. We checked in, then Tom headed out to return the rental car, getting stuck in Friday afternoon traffic and being delayed enough that he only made it to the airplane's gate 15 minutes before our flight was scheduled to leave.

Elizabeth, Jon & Caroline had lots of fun going through security with the cats and the baby. None of us were quite sure how the cats (in carriers) were supposed to go through the metal detectors. It turns out that they have to be taken out and carried through the detector, while their carriers are X-rayed with the other carryon items. We had the cats' harnesses on them, so Elizabeth took them both out and put them on their leashes, giving Dorothy (in her stroller) to Caroline. The cats were pretty freaked out by all the people and commotion, and Cobalt laid down and refused to move (Rhodium was in Elizabeth's arms, but she couldn't carry both cats at once). Security was telling Elizabeth to "walk the cats through the detector now!" and she was exclaiming "I'm trying!" while pulling on Cobalt's leash. Eventually, she walked backward through the detector while dragging Cobalt on his back (much to the amusement of the poor people stuck in line behind them). Unfortunately, they set off the metal detector, so she had to go through again. Security thought it might be the leashes that were setting off the detector, so she took them off and put them in the X-ray machine, gave Rhodium to Jon, and walked through with Cobalt. Bzzzt - the machine went off again, so she and Cobalt were escorted to the holding area where they could be searched. Jon walked through with Rhodium without setting anything off, and got her back in her carrier successfully. Cobalt was patted down for bombs, and then put back in his carrier while Elizabeth and her carryon luggage were searched. It turned out that in all the excitement, she'd forgotten to take her cell phone out of her pocket.

Meanwhile, Caroline was attempting to get Dorothy out of her stroller and figure out how to fold it up to put through the X-ray machine. A security guard eventually showed her how to fold it, and also took the car seat off its luggage carrier for Jon while he was occupied with Rhodium. Dorothy was completely calm and relaxed through all the commotion - the only one in the family not frazzled by the experience! As they were collecting everything to leave the area, one of the security guards told Caroline, "Whatever you do, don't go out and come back in."

Once they all got to the gate, Elizabeth gave the cats their kitty Valium, and they stayed pretty calm for the first few hours of the flight, at least. Unfortunately, Rhodium had diarrhea sometime on the flight, so when we got off, her carrier stank to high heaven. Tom tried doing an emergency cleaning in the baggage area with limited success (while the cats skulked around the luggage on their leashes and got some water). We spent a while getting the rental car (we asked for "the biggest thing they had to rent," and got a pretty good-sized minivan that actually held all of us and our luggage without having to carry stuff in our laps, unlike the minivan we'd gotten in Boston), and then headed to the hotel, where we checked in, cleaned up, and crashed.

Continue with Part 3

Posted by Tom Nugent at 11:57 PM | Comments (0)

Moving from Boston to Seattle - Part 1

The past couple of weeks have been crazy, to say the least. Moving across country when you have a 10-month old baby, two cats, and way too much "stuff" is not for the faint of heart. Rather than writing individual entries for each day, we'll just put the entire story in a couple of successive posts, and label each day.

Saturday, January 8
Our "Farewell to Boston" party was great fun, only marred by the driving snow. Tom went to Cambridge to pick up food from Mary Chung's, and to give Jen a ride to our place. At Mary Chung's, Tom gave Mary a photo of Dorothy reading the menu, which we'd taken back in December. Mary really enjoyed the photo, and wouldn't let Tom pay full price for the food.

The party was scheduled to start around noon, and we got back around 12:30pm. Dan was there already. Then, with only two guests there at 1pm, we received a call from some friends saying that the streets were too icy for driving, and so they couldn't make the party. We'd bought food for 30 people, and were suddenly worried about having tons left over. Over the course of the afternoon, a majority of the people who said they could come did, in fact, make it, no thanks to the weather. We got to chat with lots of old friends, but unfortunately there was never going to be enough time to spend lots of time with everyone. Various people enjoyed playing with Dorothy, and we played various fun gamesl later in the day. As a bonus, we were able to sell and give away various items that we didn't want to bring with us to Seattle. By the end of the evening (the last people left shortly after 10pm), practically all of the party food had been consumed (thankfully) and were were exhausted.

Sunday, January 9
We were shipping our car to Seattle, and needed to drop it off on Monday. So on the prior Sunday, we headed up to Logan airport at 9am to pick up a rental car from the airport to last us through the week. That went well, and then we picked up Krissy, the babysitter (who was also one of Dorothy's daycare teachers), and her baby so that she could babysit Dorothy for us while we tried to get lots of work done. We were doing last minute sorting, throwing out, and general prepping for the movers, who were due early on Monday. We got a ton finished, but could have used another few days to really sort through the stuff we thought might be trash.

Monday, January 10, aka Moving Day / Invasion of the Packers
Tom dropped Dorothy off at daycare just after 7am, then picked up a waterbed pump for emptying the waterbed later in the day. Elizabeth tried to drop our car off at the auto shipping place, but they weren't open that early, so she had to go back later in the morning (after the madness began).

Five men showed up at our door just before 8am. They packed up our entire house in just over four hours. It was total madness. We were overwhelmed.

In the afternoon, we needed to empty the waterbed, but had problems with maintaining suction. Eventually we got it to work, but not until late evening. Dorothy got to take an evening nap on a pad on the floor inside a crib made of boxes (packed fresh that day!). Finally, around 10pm, we went to the (pet-friendly Red Roof Inn) hotel, and crashed.

Continue with Part 2

Posted by Tom Nugent at 11:55 PM | Comments (0)

January 17, 2005

Update on The Move

We've arrived in Washington, and I just wanted to post this brief note to let everyone know we're still alive. The entire story of The Move will have to wait until later, but just to give you a feel for what's been happening this past week, here's a few of the highlights:

  • Invasion of the Packers!
  • Cat pat-down by airport security
  • Tom almost misses the flight
  • Cat diarrhea on the plane
  • Food poisoning or maybe a 24-hour flu

The 18-wheel truck with our stuff is due to arrive tomorrow (Tuesday), and then we can enjoy the fun of unpacking!

Posted by Tom Nugent at 02:25 PM | Comments (1)

January 06, 2005

Losing Weight

We're in the final days before the movers arrive to pack all our stuff and then tote it out to Washington state. Today we attacked the boxes in the attic, trying to throw out as much as possible, and consolidate non-trash into fewer boxes. We're also trying to sell or somehow get rid of a bunch of decent stuff which we no longer need, especially the heavier items. We're doing this because a large fraction of our shipping costs are based on the total weight of what we move, so we're motivated to sort through years worth of crap and eliminate as much as possible. If only we had another week or two, we'd be able to do a much better job. As it is, we'll likely be shipping at least a couple boxes worth of garbage all the way across country.

Oh, if you know any good places to help you get rid of unwanted household items (besides freecycle.org and wegetridofit.com, which we've already investigated), please let me know!

Posted by Tom Nugent at 10:32 PM | Comments (1)

January 04, 2005

Understanding

At times long ago, when some disaster or other struck somewhere around the world, I might have given the event a simple "that's sad" type of thought and then moved on, not truly feeling how significant the event was to those whom it struck and generally not feeling a great amount of empathy. Since becoming a father, however, my perspective has changed. Stories about children now strike me more deeply, and the stories about the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster are appalling, and scary. By "scary" I mean that they make me think even more of what it might mean for me to lose Dorothy, or for her to lose her parents. Every week I learn more about how much Dorothy means to me, and just how strong a parent's love for his child can be.

Two Daddy blogs eloquently (even if off-handedly) give perspective to our lives and describe the sense of gratitude I feel for having a happy, healthy family:
MetroDad
and LaidOff Dad.

Posted by Tom Nugent at 10:22 PM | Comments (0)

Unexpected pleasures

In the category of things I never thought I'd say (and never really want to say again): "Mommy's nostrils are not for pulling up on."

Posted by Elizabeth Nugent at 07:22 PM | Comments (0)

The Sea In Which She Swims

Elizabeth was reading some books to Dorothy as part of her bedtime routine when I leaned in and kissed Dorothy a few times, told her good night and that I loved her. She mostly seemed to ignore me, looking instead around for the next book and at what Mommy was reaching for. I wasn't bothered by the apparent dissing, because I also remembered how often, when being held by someone other than Mommy or Daddy, Dorothy would turn to me and reach out, longing for the comfort of her Daddy. All of these events helped me to realize that to some extent, Dorothy is like a fish, and Elizabeth and I are like the sea in which she swims - at times she doesn't notice us, until we're not there. I imagine most parents feel this potentially disturbing (hurtful?) combination of extreme need and off-hand neglect by their children, especially as the balance changes over time.

Posted by Tom Nugent at 07:17 PM | Comments (2)

January 02, 2005

Ring Out the Old Year

The last Dorothy photo album of 2004 is now online. Given our schedule over the next few weeks, there may not be any new albums posted until near the end of January.

For the year, we have roughly 4,800 photos of Dorothy (that number includes some of Elizabeth pre-delivery, and Dorothy's toys, an occasional cat, etc. and also includes some photos taken by grandparents). Online, we have over 1,500 (the gallery's count gets messed up when you have sub-albums, so I'm not sure I believe its count of 1,574). So, despite my trying to publish fewer photos online, we wound up staying pretty close to our never-changing average of 1 out of 3 photos making it online.

Posted by Tom Nugent at 08:43 PM | Comments (0)

Mud In Your Eye

While feeding Dorothy dinner tonight, right after a minor accident:

Here's turkey in your eye, kid

Posted by Tom Nugent at 06:26 PM | Comments (0)

Out of Context, #1

Quote, by Elizabeth to Dorothy, taken out of context:

Maybe you and Daddy can spank your balls together

Context: We were talking about a beach ball and a small yellow ball that came with the exersaucer, and the way in which Dorothy hits them. Get your mind out of the gutter! ;-)

Posted by Tom Nugent at 02:55 PM | Comments (0)

Quotes Category

I'm creating a new category for the blog. The category title is "Quotes & Misc. Humor" and I'm starting it specifically for its first entry (you'll have to read that post to see what I mean).

Posted by Tom Nugent at 02:52 PM | Comments (0)

T Minus 8 Days and Counting

The movers arrive on Monday, January 10th, to pack up our belongings.

Aaaaaauuuugghhhhh!!!!

Posted by Tom Nugent at 08:19 AM | Comments (0)