Bushes

Bush / Vasvary Family Visit

Steve’s grandparents are visiting this week. Katherine has been busy entertaining them with Allison observing. Tonight we hosted them at our home. Katherine appeared downstairs in her bathing suit after asking “Mommy, you wash my bathing suit?!” She then dragged her sand toys and aqua shoes to the deck and pretended to serve sand as a dinner. Hm.

Staying Dry at Night!

Katherine has now stayed dry in her underwear at night several times. We’ve held out incentives like ice cream (only the first few times) and a Push-up pop at Grandma’s house. We just need to make sure that she goes to the bathroom before bed, and she’s all set!

What DID you do?

We’ve told Katherine numerous times not to lift her sister. What did she do last night? While I was picking up after dinner, Katherine tried to lift her sister who was playing on her mat and ended up hitting her on her head. All of a sudden I heard Allison wailing and found Katherine looking somewhat remorseful next to her. The next few minutes were tough for everyone. Allison took a few minutes to calm down and Katherine ended up in her room. We all learned a hard lesson last night…

More Berry Picking

Unlike last year, I wasn’t too enthusiastic about driving an hour to North Bend to pick blueberries. Instead we visited a small farm in Duvall only 20-25 minutes away. We picked the type of blueberries you’d find in the supermarket – not the big juicy ones that we got last year. Our yield – 7.5 lbs of berries. This wasn’t too bad considering Katherine poured some of our berries into her bucket and ate / dropped them on the ground. 🙂 Thankfully we were able to leave Allison with Patty given the intense heat and overgrown bushes that we tromped through.

Allison, Day 14

Sleep deprivation is taking its toll on our family. We had a couple tough nights this past week. For several nights Allison was getting up at 11PM, 1AM, 3AM and 5AM, and it was taking at least 45 minutes to get her back to sleep after an endless loop of nurse/burp/pooh/nurse/burp. As of Saturday night we’ve adopted some new tactics to get more sleep.

She’s now sleeping in her crib, so we don’t have to listen to her thrash, burp, pass gas, and make other noises in our room.
I’m modifying my eating habits – no more spicy or potentially gaseous food that will keep Allison up to all hours of the night.
We’re starting to employ the concept of shifts, where one parent is on shift with the baby monitor at any one time.

The good news is that she is putting on weight at a rapid clip. As of Friday, she was 6 lbs. 11.5 oz and 20″ long. This puts her in 75% height and 25% weight, a tall and skinny baby like Katherine. The doctor also said that her wheezing, sing-song breathing wasn’t a problem. It is likely caused by still soft cartilage in her nose.

Last night we finally got our first decent night’s sleep. Allison woke up at 11PM, then 3AM and then 7AM. 🙂 To counter this, Katherine woke up at 1PM demanding “Allison sleep with Mama, Katherine sleep with Dada in guest room!” We’ve been telling Katherine today that Allison is now in her crib, and we expect her to sleep in her junior bed as well.

Katherine is adjusting to Allison as well as can be expected, although she still acts up and tests us. When in the minivan she’s told us several times “I have to go to bathroom. Dada, please pull over now so we can go to store” and then didn’t have to go to the bathroom! Or, she will ask for a food and not touch it at dinner. She especially pushes Steve really hard, knowing that he’s more likely to listen to her incessant demands. Katherine takes pride in being a big sister. She insists on “closing the strap” on Allison’s diaper, getting towels for Allison’s bath and even trying to lather her up! She is as gentle as possible with the baby – and knows that if she sits on the couch she can hold the baby on her lap.

I’ve reached some exciting milestones as well. As of Day 10, the doctor gave a thumbs up so I can now drive! Also, I’ve packed away ALL my maternity clothes for future donation, hopefully never to see or wear them again! It’s very exciting to actually wear my pre-pregnancy (albeit chubby) clothes.

Allison Sarah Bush, Day 2

Day 2 for Allison. Last night Allison slept well for a newborn, waking up every 2-3 hours for “check-ups” by the hospital staff. Steve and Christine got a decent night’s sleep, all things considered. We’re tired but not exhausted.

It’s all coming back to us. We experienced a lot of firsts for Allison today: wet and dirty diapers, breast feeding, yawns, sneezes, fake smiles, turns to the light, etc. The second child is just as rewarding as the first. We missed a lot of “firsts” with Katherine as we were exhausted. It also gives us the opportunity to relive Katherine’s birth and Allison’s own growth plan.

Christine is recovering well from C section delivery. She’s been detached from all of the cords tying her down and is able to move around the room pretty well. Christine and Allison are mastering the art of breast feeding, every child has their own eating preferences.

Steve is spending his time in support of Christine and Allison, posting pictures to the web site and trying to tie up loose ends at work. He’s looking forward to finishing the open items in his parental leave transition plan so he can enjoy spending quality time with Christine, Allison, and Katherine. The people at Pure Networks have been fabulous in picking up any unresolved tasks.

Katherine visited Allison at the hospital today. Grandma Chang and Patty have been taking care of Katherine at the house. Katherine has missed mom and dad dearly and was really excited to meet her new baby sister. Dad met Katherine in the lobby and spent some quality time with her before bringing her back with Patty and Grandma Chang to the room. At Toby school, Katherine stood up during circle time and declared to all that she was a big sister now. Patty and Grandma Chang gushed with pride.

Katherine literally gazed at Allison in awe. It was a beautiful sight. She’s truly a proud big sister and will nurture Allison through her growing years. As a parent, it’s truly amazing to see the sister bond start to form. Katherine will be a great big sister.

Grandma Chang couldn’t wait to hold Allison. She beamed with excitement for new new granddaughter. As a parent, it’s rewarding to see the joy a newborn brings to the lives of extended family.

Nanny Patty patiently waited her turn to hold Allison. We are truly blessed to have Patty as a caregiver. She’s shown great love and guidance for Katherine and helped Christine and I raise a well adjusted child. We’re looking forward to Patty’s help in raising Allison as well.

Mom and Allison are asleep as I write this. I’m publishing it now without Christine’s editorial approval so this entry may be improved later when she wakes up and reviews. 🙂

Our Zoo Weekend

The theme for this weekend was animals…lots and lots of animals. Steve, Katherine and I have been exploring a lot of the local animal parks and discovering lots of unusual, endangered, threatened animals locally. This past Saturday we visited the Cougar Mountain Zoo with Grandma Bush. It’s a rather eclectic park that houses not only cougars, but over a dozen macaws, lemurs, reindeer and other rather interesting animals. While not large, the park is very friendly to younger children and big enough to capture their interest for a couple hours. You’ll see in the pictures that Katherine had a great time on their metal animals – pointing out the roo in the kangaroo’s pocket. She also fed some Formosa deer (extinct outside of captivity) apples and played peek-a-boo with macaws.

We decided to put our new minivan (see below) to the test and took it for an inaugural road trip to Northwest Trek. Per our previous trip, we saw lots of NW animals up close and personal – from peering into beaver, sea otter and other caves to seeing animals roam their very natural surroundings. One of the biggest surprises, picture to be loaded soon, was the family of beavers that we saw with mom, dad and 2-year old child cuddling in their cave. Unlike our other trip, we didn’t get to see many moose on the tram ride, but Katherine used the ride to wolf down her PB&J sandwich and crackers. It was a fairly long trip which warranted “Buzz and Woody” and we got a host of questions each way like “Where’s Woody’s dog?” “What happened to Woody’s arm?” “Where’s Buzz?”

Why is Madeleine in Hospital?

For those of you familiar with “Madeleine,” you know that she has appendicitis and has to have it removed. We’ve been reading this book for a couple months now. Katherine, by and large, sits with Lambey and sucks her thumb. Tonight I got a barrage of questions. They ranged from “Why is Madeleine sick?” “Why aren’t other girls in bed?” “Where is Madeleine’s mama?” and I must have spent several minutes explaining that Madeleine would get well, come home and sleep in her junior bed. 🙂

Exploring Museum of Flight

One of my goals has been to take Katherine to new places and have lots of adventures before the baby is born. Two Fridays ago, Steve took the day off and we took the Bushes to the Museum of Flight in Seattle. It definitely exceeded our expectations. Unlike other museums it has hands on exhibits for kids and even a cool area for kids to play in real, small sized planes. Katherine was fearless – marching into a Blue Angels small model plane, grabbing the joystick and moving the plane around. We loved the cafeteria which was affordable and accessible from the main airplane hangar area. And, we even ran into Sid, who is a museum regular.

Biting the Bullet

Steve and I did something we swore we’d never do, which is buy a minivan. After maintaining our Volvo station wagon for 7 years, we caved and bought the next family automobile – a Honda Odyssey minivan. Aside from the ridicule from friends, it drives like a Honda (big plus) and has an amazing range of amenities. Our hope is that it lives up to its brand and has low maintenance cost and high resale value! The other benefit is that Katherine thinks the minivan is really cool. Not only does it have the entertainment option, which allows for movies on long trips, but she has her own captains chair that she climbs in and out of. She’s identified where she wants to put the baby “when Mama goes to hospital and baby comes out of tummy” and loves to strap any stuffed friend into her seat. It now takes an extra 5 minutes to leave the house just to get Katherine into her seat. To be frank though, the biggest downside is perception among other drivers. Other drivers figure that minivans are slow and conservative drivers and that they should cut us off – hmmm.

Thanksgiving 2004

We had so many memorable activities that it’s worth describing our Thanksgiving week. It started out with the Bush home in Trilogy closing on Tuesday – coming down to the wire right before the Thanksgiving weekend. Suffice to say, everyone was relieved that the closing happened in time for Steve’s parents to stay in the new house. Wednesday was a flurry of activity, as grandparents settled in and Katherine and I ran errands prior to the weekend.

On Thursday, we all trooped over to Steve’s Aunt and Uncle’s house for an extended (and we mean extended) family celebration. With half a dozen great-grandchildren, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, it was a raucous celebration. As you can see, Katherine befriended Mandy, a very patient golden retriever who allowed Katherine to play with her at length.

The following day, we celebrated my birthday at Amy and Jason’s house. You can see the birthday cake which barely fit all 36 candles. 🙂

And, then on Saturday, Sid and his parents came over to hang out. For a snack, we made smoothies for the kids. They liked it.

Later that evening, Grandma Bush babysat while Steve and I went to the “Incredibles.” Suffice to say, we weren’t disappointed, and I understand the terrific ratings.