We Went Camping With a Baby

Camping on the Olympic Peninsula.

Lessons learned:

• If I have moved three times since I camped last, I should set up the tent at home before going to be sure everything is in order.  We managed to arrive with only one of the two tent poles - the other one was in a different bag in the closet at home.  However, a little ingenuity and $7 spent on overpriced nylon cord in the camp store will keep your tent upright.
• If I didn't bring my hammer for the tent stakes, a tire iron will work just as well.
• If I forgot my flashlight, it's fine, because my brother brought one plus two head lamps.
• I should not hand Annie to Jared while he is wearing a head lamp in the dark, because she will think she is being handed off to the boogy monster from the black lagoon and will be inconsolable with screaming for ten minutes.
• Anne likes sleeping in a sleeping bag in the tent.
• Anne likes hiking in the sling - looking at trees and napping with Mom on the trail are the most fun she's ever had.
• It takes at least two people to change diapers on mountain trails, because there are no flat spots which are also soft enough for her head.
• The more people are on a trip, the more planning I should do so that we can spend more time enjoying the surroundings than making breakfast and figuring out what we're doing for the day.
• The Itsy Bitsy Spider is super annoying to sing for hours on end, but it is better than listening to screaming on a long drive.
• It is much better to leave Seattle on a Friday before noon or after 6:00.  3:45 is a terrible time to leave, unless you enjoy sitting in five lanes of bumper-to-bumper traffic all the way to Tacoma.
• The Olympic Peninsula should be visited more often.
• It is amazing how many more muscles you use hiking with a 13-pound child in a shoulder sling than hiking with a backpack.
• It is important to align the baby's head with your pillow in the sleeping bag so that you are not awake half the night to see if you have to fend the sleeping bag off her face.
• KOA kamping has a lot of amenities we don't need - ice cream socials, movie night, go-karts, mini golf, heated pool, ping pong, and I kid you not - toilet plunger candy in the camp store.  Toilet plunger candy which comes with a plastic toilet - you open the lid, dip in your plunger, and coat it with sour candy powder.  I meant to take a picture, but maybe the world is a better place because I forgot.
• Blue grouse are funny birds.
• The camp grounds at the national park are cheaper, and if you get there early enough on a Friday, you should have no problem finding a spot.  The one disadvantage is the lack of showers.  But perhaps ingenuity could solve that one as well.
• Our next-door teenager is a decent, convenient, and cheap cat sitter.
• Almond milk tastes awful in coffee.  I didn't try it, but Linda learned this by experience.
• Forests don't have views, but they are very calming.

It was just about a year ago we found out that we were expecting Anne.  She probably looked something like this:

And now she looks like this:

Sideways?

Amazing how much changes in one year!

Anniversary and Logistics

Sunday was our seventh wedding anniversary.  We ended up going to Oregon for the weekend - rather impromptu - and I told Jared I was happy to go as long as we got a date sans kid.  Milk-pumping and generous grandparents ensured the outing.  On short notice, I couldn't come up with anything too creative to do near "home", so we went to the state park near his parents', and we walked, coincidentally, seven miles.  My original Seattle date idea involved spending seven dollars, so I supposed it saved some money and worked out to be equally symbolic.

Seven years of marriage... and the Lord has afforded us a lot of grace.  Being married has given me ample opportunity to find out just what a jerk I can be.  I'll spare you the gory details, but I thought I was a nicer person than it turns out I really am.  The good news is that if the Lord has been able to sustain us through seven years of more drama than planned and our own idiocy (ok, sorry I'm speaking for myself here), we're gonna make it a bunch more years just fine.  Lord willing.

We're deep into logistics here.  I'm not much of a plan-ahead person, but three back-to-back trips with a baby, plus cats left at home, requires some forethought.  We have an upcoming camping trip with my brother (Four people - one baby: that's an ok ratio for camping, right?  I mean, nomads have babies and they are camping all the time, right?  Wait for the report...)  And then after a two-day turn around which involves heavier teaching days, Annie and I fly to Texas.  So we're going to see how Miss I-Want-To-Move-Around-And-See-New-Things-Every-Eight-Minutes treats our fellow Alaska Airlines passengers.  Last night Jeff and Linda came over and we went over some of the camping logistics - as in what time we'll leave, what food we're taking and who's bringing what and where we want to hike/sight-see.  More action steps to be taken on my part - looking up directions, hitting Costco, unloading the Closet of Doom* to pack the car. This past Monday as well as tomorrow involve shopping excursions for me so I can appear in Texas looking good and not wearing faded clothing and ripped sandals.  Fun stuff - I NEVER go shopping for clothes, but there's a store I like just down the street.  I've been having dreams about forgetting some essential piece of baby equipment on the plane...  Also had a meeting with our group class co-teacher today for some logistics regarding young violinists and cellists.  So right after I finish this update I'm going to be doing a little legwork to find us an outdoor venue or two for the group to perform in late August/September.

*Closet of Doom.  So when we moved from Alabama, we downsized as far as our floorspace, but not as far as our possessions.  So the closet in our second bedroom contains:  Bag of mailing envelopes, two tents, two large tarps, food cooler, water cooler, queen-size air mattress, tripod, spare violin case, iron, softball and bat and glove, frisbees, posters and maps, two small cat carriers, one enormous cat carrier, some tools, two humidifiers, two spare pillows, two twin-sized comforters, plant grow light, shipping box for violin case, box fan, miscillaneous other camping supplies, and two sleeping bags.  I may have forgotten something.  Last weeks' opening of the closet to acquire one of the mailing envelopes necessitated sorting all of the spare bedding in the house, repackaging it, and storing it in more logical spots.  When Roy stayed with us, you might imagine there was no room for his clothes in that closet.  He hung his clothes in the hall closet next to the winter coats and over the litter boxes.  When he left, Anne's hanging clothes took their place.

Activities and projects

Thursday we signed another 11 months on our lease.  Then I cleaned out my clothes closet since I won't have have the "I'm moving" excuse.  Also, my grandmother sent me some money with the suggestion that I get myself some "new duds" for my upcoming trip to Texas, and I need a place to hang these "new duds" I haven't gotten yet.

Friday Anne had her three-month appointment to be weighed (12 lbs. 5 oz.), measured (24 1/4 inches long) and immunized.  She got the Prevnar for Pc, but they were completely out of the HIB, so they're going to call us when they get more in.  So I guess she'll be on even more of an extended schedule than we planned.  I'm thinking it was good, though, because after her two-month immunizations she was a crab for about three days, whereas she has been quite delightful this weekend.

Saturday morning we played special music ("How Deep the Father's Love for Us" and "Jesus Draw Me Ever Nearer" at what I will affectionately term a boom-crash-bang church.  We got there plenty early and Anne and I went to the little kid's class.  She was squealing with all sorts of delight to see all the other babies and toddlers: "Mom, you found me some members of my own species!  :-)"

In the afternoon Anne and I went to the eighth birthday party of one of the boys I used to nanny, and it was wonderful to see their family again and chat with their lovely former neighbor that we would walk with in the mornings.

Today Anne and I went to a bridal shower for a woman from our church.

So that was the list of activities.

Now for my projects.  I've got three and they all require charts.  This is because I am not terribly disciplined and I need all the help I can get.  I was most recently inspired by a class I went to at the camp meeting about spiritual discipline and less recently by a book I've read about three times in the last year-and-a-half about living life to the fullest for Jesus, called "Bullet Proof".

Project #1
Duration: month of July to start with
What: Read at least three chapters of the Bible on my own daily, including at least one chapter from the Gospels. And read at least one chapter from a devotional book each week.  The current book is called Steps to Christ.
Prognosis:  Well, I did poorly on this the weekend we went to Oregon, but I've been getting caught up.

Project #2
Duration: 100 days
What: Practice the violin for a minimum of 10 minutes for 100 days in a row.
Prognosis:  If I get it together, today will be day 6.  And in case you're wondering why I'm blogging right now instead of practicing, it's because Anne is asleep on my left arm.  Also, there is a camping trip coming up, and I'm working on figuring out a practice, since I can't take my don't-ask-how-much-it-costs fiddle and leave it in the car or tent.  I may take a "practice bow" and do some bow exercises.

Project #3
Duration: through October 13th
What: Train for half marathon
Prognosis: I have done a few runs since Anne was born, but I realized this week that I am about three months out from the race, and the training schedule I did for my previous half marathon was twelve weeks.  So, let's get going!  I walk several miles about 6.999 days a week, so this involves converting three or four of the days into runs of various lengths between one and twelve miles.  Thursday I ran 3 miles and today I ran 4.5 miles.

Happy Birthday

Today is the first year anniversary of my entering the crazy world of blogging.  It was on this date in 2012 that I was finally convinced by more than one individual that my life was story-worthy enough to be recorded in this fashion.  I didn't really know what purpose the blog would serve when I started, but my thinking about the blog has evolved over time, such that now I see it as a way to write open letters to various individuals, and I see it as a way to play a little of my part in the great drama of God's revelation of his love to mankind.  I've always been more frank in writing than in my spoken life, and this blog is no exception, though out of a sense of personal decorum I am far less frank even here than in my head.  Though by "less frank" I do not mean less honest - I just mean that not everything which crosses my mind needs to become public information.  Most of my entries are written with a specific and usually anonymous person in mind, and sometimes that specific person is my future self.  Some examples which may be more obvious:

For my mom's amusement: Creative Skills: verbal, musical
For my friend Edith: Cute Overload
For my future self: I forgot the sky.

Sometimes, and I'll be a little mysterious here  ;-) I write for someones who will probably never read the blog.  Anyway...  One of my biggest surprises has been that I appear to have more than ten readers, that is unless one of you is reading my entries multiple times and fooling the counter - a possibility which I can't dismiss.

I read a very inspiring paragraph in a devotional book yesterday morning:

God has bound our hearts to Him by unnumbered tokens in heaven and in earth.  Through the things of nature, and the deepest and tenderest earthly ties that human hearts can know, He has sought to reveal Himself to us.  Yet these but imperfectly represent His love.  Though all these evidences have been given, the enemy of good blinded the eyes of men, so that they looked upon God with fear; they thought of Him as severe and unforgiving.  Satan led men to conceive of God as a being whose chief attribute is stern justice, - one who is a severe judge, a harsh, exacting creditor.  He pictured the Creator as a being who is watching with jealous eye to discern the errors and mistakes of men, that He may visit judgments upon them.  It was to remove this dark shadow, by revealing to the world the infinite love of God that Jesus came to live among men.

I've been thinking about how God might want me to use this piddly format to help reveal His love, and basically it seems to me that above all I should basically just be honest about my life.  I'm sure if you've been reading any number of my entries you can see that a lot of my life is probably rather trivial and I obviously manage to do a number of stupid things in between my *brilliant* moments.  Also I think my goodness and badness is sort of irrelevant, because His goodness is what matters.  And hopefully I remember to write about that sometimes, too.  I don't know always who my *eleven* readers are, but I do actually pray for you, that you'll have the best life possible and all the specifics that might entail.

So, onward.  And we'll see if I last another year in the blogosphere.  I'm thinking yes.

Creative Skills: verbal, musical

Since a rather young age I have been the possessor of a certain set of verbal and vocal creative skills which more than probably drove my mother to the brink.  And most probably while she was driving and I was in the back seat.

Rather unbelievably, I was in the backseat of the car on Sunday and was able to put those skills to good use to help keep my husband, the driver, sane.

That is because Anne had seemed to have used up her nap quota before we started our drive back from Oregon, and she was not entirely pleased to use her awake time sitting strapped into her car seat while traveling I-5.

My entertainment for her included:

• Practicing "wiggle, wiggle, wiggle thumb" - the first step toward making a bowhand - for way too long, inspecting the wiggling thumb from every conceivable angle
• Singing The Itsy Bitsy Spider with personalized lyrics in a sequence of keys, modulating up a half step each time
• Repeating all of the English pronouns in all of their cases as quickly as possible in tongue-twister style:  "I I I I I I I me me me me me me me me my my my my my my my my mine mine mine mine mine you you you you you you..."

I'm also slightly concerned that she learned more from the experience than she should have and in a couple of years I will thoroughly regret it when I am the one behind the wheel.

That's why I've been mentally rehearsing this super useful boundary phrase:  "I know you're not done talking yet, but I'm done listening for right now."

Blah blah blah...

It's been a week since I've written anything, and I don't have anything brilliant to say now.  Do I ever?  Well, not really.  But the baby is currently sleeping on my right arm after far too little napping today, and I am loathe to put her down since I am 88% certain she would wake herself up and scream....

The Fourth of July was quite raucous here - our apartment neighbors evidently spent many thousands of dollars on explosives and spent several hours detonating them.  I've never seen so many fireworks in an urban area before.  Black Bean and Anne were alert but not overly concerned.  Feathers and Nutmeg spent the night inside the hole they dug in our box spring.

Friday we went down to Oregon, and Anne got to meet another aunt and uncle and their dog and one of their cats.  Very fun!  We spent two nights with Jared's parents and spent an afternoon with Jared's grandparents.  Jared picked several pounds of blueberries which we're enjoying...

It's hot here.

Anne finished the hearing study in only two sessions and got a cute shirt in 2T which she won't probably grow into for years.

Time for Jared and me to practice a couple of praise songs we're playing at the "celebration church" this weekend...

Scientific Progress Goes Oink

If you're a reader of Calvin and Hobbes, you'll recognize the title reference.  In this case, "oink" refers to a hand puppet of Piglet from Winnie the Pooh.

I enrolled Anne in a study being conducted at UW (pronounced "You Dub") in the infant hearing lab.  I'm not exactly sure what they are trying to determine, but I have pity on grad students trying to do research, and I'm happy to contribute a few minutes of my infants' life to further their work and the general body of scientific knowledge.  I've seen video footage of a similar study set-up before, but if you haven't I'll describe it to you.

Anne and I and Research Assistant step into a soundproof booth (looks more like a deep freeze than a Wenger Practice Module, but it's a similar idea).  Research Gal sits outside the booth behind some one-way windows.  I sit in a chair facing those windows with Anne on my lap, also facing those windows.  Research Assistant sits in the corner more or less in front of us where she has access to all sorts of fun toys, including the Piglet hand puppet.  Research Assistant and I are wearing headphones playing bad music so that we cannot hear what Anne hears and influence her in any way.  My job is to be as unobtrusive a seat as possible for Anne.  Research Assistant's job is to keep Anne facing toward the one-way windows with the use of the toys so that Research Gal can see her face.  Anne has a tiny earphone taped in her right ear through which the test sounds come.  I know it involved vowel sounds and different pitches, and whenever through her facial movements she indicated that she recognized the sort of match the researchers were looking for, a little TV screen in the other corner of the room would light up as reinforcement.  The three of us sat in the booth for about ten minutes, each of us doing our jobs, and afterward, Research Gal said that Anne had passed all four levels of their test.  She is going back twice more next week to help them again.

After we'd done our time in the infant hearing lab, we walked across the street to a large park area and I sat down against an enormous oak to nurse her before we drove home.  Anne was so enamored of the tree she kept forgetting to eat.  She would suck once or twice then look at the tree wide-eyed and comment about it.  She was quite happy looking at the tree and screamed her poor little head off when I eventually made her get back in the stroller and leave it.

My family participated in another scientific study being conducted by researchers at University of Rochester once upon a time.  It was attempting to discover what genetics might be linked to perfect pitch.  It involved taking a listening test off a CD, answering some questionnaires, and sending them some samples of cheek swabs.

Here's a picture of Anne waiting for her grandparents to arrive last Tuesday so I could go teach up north: