good weekend (other than the stress)

Such an eventful weekend we've had! Brian's parents came in on Friday, and we had a lovely lunch at Luna Park. Then we hung out, and then we had Little Star pizza for dinner, and Nina and Bella stayed and had pizza with us. Charli and Bella are so cute together! Also, Charli has learned to say "pizza".

Saturday we went to the farmers' market, where were in time to get empanadas - yay! The peaches were delicious, and there were some delicious white and yellow nectarines, too. And, of course, we got some strawberries... The pear and cherry tomatoes are starting to show up, too, although they weren't very good this week, except at one stall (yay samples! Charli has learned to say "sample"). In another couple of weeks they'll probably be awesome! Then we came home and Charli napped while the Cardinals crushed Kansas - unfortunately, we didn't see much of it because there was a rain delay, so the network decided to show another game in the meantime, and then didn't switch back to the Cardinals after the rain delay was over. Then we had lovely stir fry for dinner, did I don't know what, and headed for bed.

Sunday was Father's Day! Happy Father's Day! *big kiss*

We celebrated by going to the model train over in Berkeley again, this time with Charli wearing her new, special engineer overalls. Next we have to get her an engineer cap - not that she'd wear it. Once again, Charli was transfixed - we rode in one of the open cars this time, and Charli stood by my knee and didn't move for the whole ride. I tried to turn her around once, so she could see the things on the other side of the train, but she immediately turned back and took up her initial stance, so I didn't try again. The train runs out and back, so she got to see everything on the way back anyway. This time we also got to see the other trains running, although we didn't ride them - last time they weren't running. They are small! Charli thought they were pretty interesting, though.

I can't remember what we grilled for dinner when we got home, but it obviously involved corn, because here's Charli eating her first corn on the cob ever! After that, I let Charli bash her head, and then on Monday Jerry and Donna had to leave. Waah!

stress

Last night Charli was taking a shower with me and she slipped and bashed her head on the tile ledge by the shower door. She screamed for a couple of minutes, and then she got over it and played in the water, and then she looked at me and said "bonk". Meanwhile, I was quietly panicking, visions of Natasha Richardson dancing in my head. I checked her head - no blood. I checked her eyes - no dilation. I finished washing her hair while talking myself out of taking her to the emergency room anyway.

Brian put Charli's pajamas on (her) and gave her milk (no vomiting) and read to her while I called the paranoid parents' hotline. The paranoid parents' hotline takes your number and a nurse calls you back, so I got online in the interim, where I found a very nice and reassuring page about head injuries in children that said it was most likely that nothing was wrong. Really I knew that already, but I also remembered reading an article about a little girl who got hit in the head and didn't show her symptoms until 2 days later. I figured the nurse, like the website, would probably tell me that everything was fine, and I should put Charli to bed and stop worrying, in which case, being completely unable to stop worrying, I might take Charli to the emergency room anyway.

The paranoid parents' hotline nurses, however, are very well trained. When she called back, after getting all the details on the incident, the nurse (Clarissa) prescribed a course of action which she probably thought was completely unnecessary, but which made me feel like I was not just sitting idly by while Charli possibly expired during the night: put Charli to bed, but wake her up after 2 hours, 2 hours, and then 4 hours, each time making sure she wakes up normally and recognizes us. If she seems extremely lethargic or hard to wake, or is disoriented, then call 911. Assuming everything is fine each time, then call our pediatrician in the morning and give him an update. Man, those nurses are smart.

Everything WAS fine every time we woke Charli up, and when I called the doctor in the morning, he said that cases like Natasha Richardson (he brought her up, not me) are usually associated with a brief period of unconsciousness at the time of the injury, and since Charli didn't have that and since it had already been 12 hours (and based on all the other details), I probably didn't have to worry about it or even monitor her anymore. Of course, having read that article I mentioned above about the girl who didn't show symptoms for 2 days (and having looked again at all the articles I could find on Natasha Richardson and not finding anything that said she lost consciousness at any time), I am still unable to completely dispel my paranoia, and I will continue to watch Charli very carefully for the next few days, but I really do think she is OK, other than the big knot on the back of her head.

I am also OK, other than the big knot of guilt in my heart for being stupid and letting her try to walk around in the shower while the soap was rinsing off of her. Charli still loves me. *sniff*

cotton

terrific day

Today we had a really terrific day. I thought I'd better write it down, so that we can appreciate again in times to come.

First, Charli slept late. Yay!

Then, we decided to go to the farmer's market at Civic Center, because we were unable to go the Alemany market yesterday. We've been to this market before, and it wasn't very good, but we were pretty much out of vegetables. The weather was so great, we decided to walk over. We stopped at Jackie's Cafe on the way and got delicious lattes, which we finished up just as we reached the farmer's market. Wow! The market is 10 times better than it used to be! There are a lot more stalls, and the produce is way better now, and there's a ton more variety! It's awesome! We got delicious strawberries, and Ranier cherries, and white nectaries, and lots of vegetables, and kettle corn...

Then, we got some breakfast at Max's Opera Cafe, where none of us have ever eaten. A new restaurant! How exciting! It's set on kind of a plaza, so we could take Charli outside to run around without being right next to the road all the time, which was really nice. And breakfast was delicious!

Then Sam had to go to her volunteer art program, and Brian and I took a leisurely route home, including stops at the comic book shop and a baby store (where Charli demonstrated a serious obsession with shoes) and a furniture shop. When we got home, Charli went down for her nap and I looked up projects for making kids' art tables. Boy o boy do I have plans now!

Then Sam came home and we did some deck work, and then we had a lovely webcam with Mom and Dad, where Charli might have come up with a name for Mom: Binka? We'll have to see if it sticks. She seemed to apply it to both Mom and Dad, but I think we'll try to encourage her to actually call them different names. It'll be easier on everyone (except her). :)

Then we had leftover curry, which was not as lovely as it was last night, but it certainly was easy to prepare. And then Charli went to bed, and I worked on lots of blog posts, and now we are right up to the minute with what's been happening! What an awesome, productive day!

I have no pictures of today, so instead I give you this picture from yesterday, and you will just have to take my word for it that we are as happy as Charli is cute.

bonk

Charli fell down the stairs today. :( She's been taking a lot more tumbles, which I guess is expected as she gets more adventurous. I live in the hope that this will make her more careful in the future, but it is probably in vain.

Other than that, Charli is doing terrific! She is developing new skills incredibly quickly, and she seems to pick up 2 or 3 new words every day. She still says 'bonk' (indeed, she said it after the afore-mentioned tumble), frog, bat, shirt, pants, socks, Nina, grandpa, jacket, night night, light, that, ding, up, oops, yeah, o geez, doggie, agua, eyes, feet, knee, toes, hand... She recognizes all kinds of animals, from cows and dogs and cats to crocodiles, elephants, and kangaroos. She makes fishie lips and lion roars. She is learning to nod 'yes', where previously she only shook her head 'no'. This is a lovely development. :)

Here's how Charli asks for some of your food: Aaah. Aaah. Aah! Aaaaah!! AAAHH!! AAAAAAAAAH!! And then when you aren't fast enough, WAAAAAA!

fire on the roof

Last night around 11:30 or 11:45, our doorbell rang a few times kind of frenetically - it rang once and then stopped. Then it rang 1 1/2 times and stopped. Then it rang again and stopped. None of those rings were long enough for me to actually reach the doorbell, and you can't see who's at the door or buzz anyone in if they've already hung up, so I just ignored it and kept on doing my thing, whatever that was. A short while later, someone knocked on the door, said there was a fire in the building, and we all needed to get out. At that point, my mind went pretty blank other than "Get Charli." Sam was home too, but Brian was still at work. We got the baby and some stuff together and headed out to the street.

Just as we got down to the lobby, some firefighters broke down the door on the way in. We headed out and they headed in. We had pretty much no idea what was happening, and couldn't see any fire, but there were 3 big fire trucks and couple of smaller fire vehicles right outside, and they were sending the ladder up the side of the building. Turns out there had been a fire on the roof, and a passerby had seen it from the street and was the person ringing all the doorbells, trying to contact someone to tell them there was a fire on the roof. Our neighbor in #2 was the person she actually managed to contact, and he ran up to the roof and tried to put out the fire with the hose up there. He was able to contain the fire, but not actually extinguish it. There had been a party up there early in the evening, and some idiot had put their cigarette in the planter box, where it smoldered for a while before eventually setting it on fire. Fortunately, our deck is made of ironwood, which doesn't really burn so well, so the fire was not able to spread much. The planter was just redwood though, and is now gone.

The damage was not too bad, as it turns out, thank goodness. There was obviously damage to the deck, and a little bit of damage to the roof below it, and some of the siding on the deck wall nearest the planter melted. There was water damage to the unit below the planter, and in our stairwells where there was soot tracked all over as well as water damage from the firehose pipes. But no one was injured, and Charli and I actually got to meet some neighbors from across the street, who saw I was standing outside at midnight with a baby, and asked us to come inside while we were waiting.

Perhaps you are wondering how Charli was throughout this ordeal? Well, she actually slept all through me getting her out of bed and wrapping her in a blanket, the door being bashed in, and all the general chaos out on the street. She didn't actually wake up until I started talking to someone, and then she lifted up her head, and pointed and said excitedly, "Guck! Guck!" Yes, Charli, those are trucks... She stayed awake for maybe the next hour or two, being very cute and happy, and then she went back to sleep without too much of a fuss when we put her back to bed. What a wonderful child.

Firetrucks outside our building


Hanging out outside at midnight


Cleaning up a bit


Damage

fun with kelly

Kelly came out for a totally laid back weekend. She got here Friday and I showed her lumosity.com, Sam's new employer. That took up pretty much the whole the time until Brian got home and they headed off to the ballpark for the evening.

Saturday we went to the farmer's market and missed the empanadas AGAIN! Man, we suck at that. But we got lots of other yummy things and had a good time anyway, as we always do. Then we sat around for a while, like we do every weekend after the farmer's market, and then we wandered over the Castro to shop and visit Tiny Tots and look at our house that we never got to see the inside of, much less buy. On the way back, some incredibly rude gay guy crossed paths with us and referred to us loudly to his friend as "breeders". Wow! I've totally never heard that before! Crazy!

Sunday we all went to the game. We headed out early and took a walk down the Embarcadero - it was really nice. We left the stroller at Brian's office and headed for our lovely seats just off home plate. Those are some nice tickets! Charli likes garlic fries and churros. Sam did not get beaned by any foul balls. Maybe around the 6th inning we headed inside to try to get Charli to take a nap, which didn't work at all, as expected. But at least she actually could run around a little bit, as opposed to when we're sitting out in the seats. Brian and Kelly and Sam headed back to the seats for the last inning, but we still didn't win. :( Boo! At least we were dressed for success.

Monday Kelly found out that our favorite spa, re:fresh, had closed. Boo! But on the other hand, she got to go to bluegrass night at Amnesia - yay! So, all in all, a highly successful weekend (except on the Cardinals side), and one we hope to repeat again soon!