A day at Baker

Yesterday, I awoke to grey drizzly skies, which normally would be an indicator of a quite wet day for a pre-construction tour of the Upper Baker downstream fish passage facility (a.ka. the floating surface collector) and the future construction site for a similar FSC at the Lower Baker Dam.

To my surprise the skies opened up as I traveled northward and the skies were full-on blue in Mount Vernon. It was a gorgeous day at the project with 9,127-foot Mt. Shuksan (below) and Mt. Baker out in their full glory. Expecting liquid sunshine rather than the real thing, I got a little sunburn and enjoyed a wonderful day at the Project.

8 hours!!!

Just a few days ago I reported that Molly was sleeping 6 hours strait. Unbelieveably, she has slept through the night for 8 hours the last two nights - no feedings, nothing. The best part is that at night she zonks out at about 9:00 pm and doesn't wake when we lay down to sleep. This also means I only had to spend 10 minutes bouncing her on the balance ball rather than the back-breaking and character building 2-3 hours that it has been every night for the last 8 weeks.
We are still sleeping with her in the bed, since it has been a struggle enough to get her to sleep with us, let alone with out. We are going to start letting her sleep on her own this weekend... that should make it interesting again.


She is getting all the more alert and aware by the day. She is responding to our voices with little smiles more frequently, stands and supports her own weight on her own volition (we stabilize of course), and is actually entertained by moving things and other visual stuff - not just 'seeing' it.

I had a real fun hour or so last sunday dancing with her in the living room with a Dave Matthews Band concert DVD playing on the tele. She was enjoying it, and I was having fun. That was the first of those types of events.

Things to come: sleeping on her own and bottle feeding (we hope that we can get those going before she learns the hard way at daycare :0 )

6 Hours!!!

We are seeing, or at least hoping we are seeing a shift in here sleeping patterns. Two nights in a row she has slept for 6 continuous hours. One middle of the night feeding and a diaper change and she is back to sleep with ease, well relative ease. Last night she had some serious bogies that were audibly impeding her breathing. After a few tries with the little blue frontal lobe extractor, we retrieved the invading bogies and she was much happier, even making some happy baby sounds.

She will be 8 weeks old tomorrow. Watching her develop so much so quickly has been incredible. Trina goes back to work in a month. I guess I need to start planning out our road trip before she goes back...Redwoods here we come.

Chubs goes to the ball game

A beer and a hot dog at Safeco: $15

A new fitted Mariners hat: $34

Molly at her first Mariners game: Priceless


Grandpa and Grandpa M were in town for the weekend to catch a Mariners game and, of course, see Molly. We were curious how the game would go with her, and figured she would handle it fine, and she did. There was some fussing, a little crying, but nothing a little 'lunch' or bouncing couldn't cure. In fact, a little girl seated behind us had a little stuffed Mariner Moose (the M's mascot) that she loved to watch.

The M's played the lousy baseball of yesteryear and lost 8-2. Although they have a 7 win - 4 loss record and are in first place, they are going to have to score some runs and not make errors to keep fans in the seats. Maybe next weekend we'll check out a minor league game and Everett and not have to pay $7 for a beer...

Cotton Candy

Spring has fully sprung in western Washington. We get a few teasers through March, along with some really retched weather that is no better than December and January, such as the snow that prevented me from participating in the two bike races I planned to do in March). I've raced in sub-40 degree downpours w/ snow mixed in. Been there done that - pure masochism. I digress...

Back to the point - spring.

- (view looking north from in front of our house)

A week or so ago, the dogwoods started blooming, and what a delight. They are like balls of pink cotton candy tossed along the road. It really is delightful. The cherry blossoms are blooming as well now, to add to it. In only a couple of weeks we'll be into one of the most beautiful times of year here with everything in bloom. The azaleas are budding out in the front yard and I am sure the rhodies are not far behind.

- (dogwood flower off of back deck).
The weekend is forecasted for lots of sun and perhaps into the 70s for Sunday; perfect for a Mariners day game against the Tigers. Trina's parents are rolling in tonight, and we'll all be out for Molly's first ball game on Sunday. Although we still have a couple of months of wet weather ahead, April through October really are pleasant.

Happy Feet

This blog should be called 'It's a Molly's Life' now...for that is how our lives are centered. :)

She is growing and developing so quickly. Her first true smiles in response to something showed up this week. I can get her to smile by doing little 'zerberts' on her cheeks. She give the same smile when entertained by her best friend, the ceiling fan. She is also occasionally vocalizing a few sounds other than a 'pain cry'.

She's obviously packing on the pounds. She weighed 9 lbs 14 ounces last week and has certainly passed 10 lbs by now. She now has that chubby baby feeling, which makes her all the more cuddly.

She becoming all the more alert every day. She loves me to bounce her and calls out for me to continue when I stop with a sharp "Ahh!" I've added my own core workout to it by doing it on the balance ball.



Every once in a while I can hear the happy sounds of Molly chugging away and see is two feet sticking out from under Trina's arms. It is very cute.


Those are some happy feet.