Phriday Photos

Our dishwasher may be on it's last legs, but Graeme revived it yesterday for at least awhile. Kate helped him, and I'm sure she was the reason it's working again.

A list

I just posted a note on Facebook because I'd been tagged by a number of people. It's a meme, and although I put it off for a couple of days, when I sat down to do it, I thought it was quite fun. I tried not to overthink it or try to make myself sound clever or interesting or whatever. Just posted what came to mind.

So, here is it. May as well get a post out of it here too, right?

25 random things about me:
1. I've worn glasses since I was 8 years old. My eyesight is terrible.

2. But I have excellent teeth. They have been described by more than one dentist as 'perfect'.

3. I change my hair colour every few months. I'm no longer fond of it's natural colour. Too boring.

4. I am completely in love with my daughter, Kate.

5. I am also completely in love with my husband, Graeme.

6. Graeme and I met in high school, have been together for 17 years and married for almost 10.

7. I love cookies.

8. I was bitten by a Canada Goose when I was a toddler. I'm still kind of scared of them.

9. I can wear children's shoes.

10. I think smile lines are a sign of a successful life.

11. I'm an excellent cook and baker.

12. I am incapable of following a recipe when I cook. But I can when I'm baking.

13. I'm agnostic. Maybe.

14. I love love love mountain biking.

15. Before having Kate, I competed in endurance mountain biking and adventure racing. I've just started getting back into it. I may never been as into it as I was, and I'm ok with that.

16. I knit.

17. I'm not as tall as I think I am.

18. My favourite book is "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" by Annie Dillard.

19. I'm Canadian, through and through.

20. I could eat the same thing for breakfast every single day - granola with yogurt and fruit.

21. Tea. While there is tea, there is hope.

22. I have a very poor memory of my childhood. My sister's is much better, and I wish I remembered more. I'm not sure why I don't.

23. I adore my sister.

24. I miss my mum. She died four years ago.

25. I'm very generous. I get it from my mum.

Getting better

We're slowly getting better around here. We've been sleeping for days, it seems, but today Graeme went to work and Kate and I went for a walk. Kate is napping now (in her crib! That hasn't happened in months!) and Im doing some knitting. The house has been disinfected, and we all seem on the mend.

Keep your fingers crossed for us that it's all over.

Regular, non-vomit related posts to resume soon.

Can't think of clever post titles when the house smells like vomit

Updates:
Kate slept from 8-2:30 with a vomit incident around 11. Nursed at 2:30, kept it down. Nursed at 7, vomited. Now still sleeping at 9:30.

Thursday's surgery has been postponed until mid-February.

The house smells like vomit.

Weekend recap

Here we are at the end of the weekend, and we're all exhausted. This weekend could either be summarized by 'Beth's return to racing', or as it will probably be remembered 'vomitfest 2009'.

I got a call from Graeme about 10 hours into the race while we were out on a mountain bike leg. Kate was sick, which we knew was a possibility because on Friday one of the kids at co-op was sick. I had told Graeme that I would keep my phone with me in case anything happened. We finished that leg of the race and then I came home, leaving my team to finish the race without me (and officially unranked because of it).

It was the right decision. Kate has been sick all day and until just before bed she couldn't keep anything down. (She kept down two bites of banana and some breast milk before falling asleep.) We have done countless loads of laundry today, had multiple baths and showers and have probably used two weeks worth of water today.

Kate, of course, is feeling very crappy. She has no energy, just wants to be held, and is very quiet. Since I only got four hours of sleep last night, and she was so tired, we spent most of today like this:



The race, what there was of it, was good. I felt a lot better and more prepared than I expected. I think I would have been fine to continue to the end. I'm sore today, but it was all much better than I thought. And it was great to be back, even though it was very cold and somewhat miserable due to that. I'm hoping to do some of the shorter races later in the spring. It was good to be back.

Back in the saddle

Tomorrow I'll be doing my first race in two years - the Big Chill Adventure Race out at nearby Bastrop State Park. I did this same race two years ago when I was eight weeks pregnant. I had grand plans to only take a year off of racing, but that was before I had any idea what I was talking about.

I'm feeling quite nervous about it. Although my fitness is pretty good, my endurance is nothing compared to what it used to be. I'm nervous about slowing my team down, or worse letting them down by not being able to finish. I'm nervous about how Graeme and Kate will fare with me being gone for 20+ hours, much much longer than they have ever done before. I'm nervous that I won't be good at it anymore.

But I'm also looking forward to doing it again. I loved adventure racing and I miss playing in the woods with my teammates.

Wish me luck. I'll let you know how it goes.

Surgery scheduled

I realized today while talking to Karen that I forgot to post about Kate's eye surgery. It's scheduled for next Thursday, the 29th. We're glad to be getting it done, since it seems like her eye has gotten worse. We'll have a pre-op appointment on Monday morning and then the real deal early on Thursday morning.

Four years

I don't feel like I have much to say this year on the anniversary of mum's death. I still miss her all the time and I'm so sad that Kate won't know her except from my stories. I looked at some pictures today, but unfortunately, all the digital pictures I have are from when she was sick, so they make me sad. They make me wish I had been able to spend more time with her in the last few months.

I don't really want those to be my memories of her. I want to remember when she was well. Those are the stories Kate will hear. I guess I'd better dig out some photo albums.

I miss you, mum. I think you would think we're doing a good job down here.

Excited

Tomorrow is inauguration day when we finally say goodbye to the worst president in US history. Even though I'm not american, I live here and am affected by government policies. It's been hard to live here the last eight years, but I'm hopeful that it's going to get better. At least now it won't be embarrassing.

Tomorrow we'll be celebrating over brunch with friends. The champagne is already chilling.

This small paragraph in a New York Times article today made me excited all over again:
"On Tuesday, as the inauguration and inaugural parade occupy much of the heart of the day, workers will be moving the Bushes out of the White House and the Obamas in..."

Phriday Photo

If, in 16 years, Kate asks to go to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, the answer will be no.

Black hole of toddlerdom

Let's say you can't find your keys and you have a toddler who likes to play with keys. After you've looked everywhere but still can't find them, where would you look next?

found! In front garden where Kate was playing yesterday afternoon. phew.

Fool me once...

One afternoon last week, I decided Kate needed some naked time, so I took off her clothes and diaper to let her wander around. She waddled to the coffee table, and within a minute of having her diaper off, she peed on the floor. While I was cleaning up around her feet, she peed a second time. Erika carried her off to the bathtub while I cleaned up the floor.

No point in putting a diaper on at that point, right? She's already gone pee, we'll be safe for awhile.

Within one minute of being back out in the living room, post clean up, and she peed a third time. Again, to the bath with Erika while I cleaned the floor.

Now we're definitely safe. There is no way she could pee again.

Another minute, more pee. She seemed to realize it was a game and that peeing meant a trip to the bathtub. But this time, we learned. Diaper on. We're a bit slow sometimes.

A fun day

Yesterday I suggested that we go to the zoo- an excursion we've done a few times lately. The Austin zoo is very small and has rescued animals, so it's not a fancy zoo like the one we loved in Seattle, or some of the other big zoos around the country. But it's not too far away, and it's ok. But then I had a crazy thought. We could drive down to San Antonio to their zoo, which is a good fancy one with lovely enclosures for the animals. Kate could nap on the way there, we could listen to NPR podcasts and everyone would be happy.

That's just what happened. Kate slept the 1:20 it took to get there, we listened to 'This American Life' and then we saw about half the zoo. It is a good zoo, although Kate mostly loved splashing in the Koi pond. That's not because she didn't like the other animals, but because it was water - her favourite thing.

Unfortunately I forgot the camera, which is too bad because it was great. Kate was waving at the animals and saying 'hi' to them and gasping when she spotted something like a swinging monkey. It was really fun, and except for the meltdown on the drive home after dinner, it was a really great afternoon. We decided to buy a membership because we know we'll be going back at least a few times a year.

Kate and her family

The whole Henkelman clan were here for New Years, and Kate LOVED having so many people around to play with and entertain her. Because she was, of course, usually the center of attention.

Here she is with her peeps:






Westley liked it too:

New hat

Winter (as we know it) returned to Austin today after very warm temperatures yesterday. Fortunately, I just finished making Kate a new hat:


(coming soon: family pics)

Kate's fortune

Today at dim sum, Kate's fortune cookie said:

"Although one in authority is frustrating you, try to listen and communicate."

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope 2009 is joyous, prosperous and fun.

A look back at this year, from the blog. I did this last year too. The first line of the first post from each month:

January: Happy New Year!

February: Kate has started showing interest when we're eating.

March: Yesterday we decided to do something new, since we have pretty established set of things we do

April: It's kale season!

May: Yesterday I finally finished the sundress I was knitting for Kate.

June: On Saturday we loaded up the bikes again and headed back to Deep Eddy pool.

July: Sorry for the sudden stoppage in posting.

August: I have been uninspired to post, obviously.

September: I'm having the same problem as Karen.

October: Karen posted last night about our last few days.

November: Last weekend we went out for a few hours and left the back door open so that Westley could go in and out while we were away.

December: We're going to crawl out from under here at some point.


This list doesn't reflect at all, I don't think, our year. We had six trips by plane, a road trip to Canada, lots of great times with Kate, adventures around town and new friends. I'm looking forward to 2009.