Happy New Year's Eve!

Merry Christmas Eve

Ruby celebrating with her boys

He loves his ball from Gigi and Popi

Christmas eve feast! (not a single request for lutefisk)

Life on the lane...

On early Thursday morning right after a 2am feeding I heard the strangest noise as I was drifting back to sleep. A cracking and rumbling noise. In my half comatose state I assumed I was hearing things. I turned to Zan and said "I think there was a landslide," to which he replied, "I'll deal with it in the morning." I rolled over and tried to get a few more hours of sleep, sure that I had been half dreaming.

Well unfortunately I was not dreaming. When I got up to take Ruby outside this is what greeted us:

 

I quickly ran back inside to tell Zan, and then hopped in the car to see if we could get off of the street. This is what I found:

The road was covered with a slide and two trees. Looks like my baby group won't be able to make it to the get together at our house. I quickly ran back to the house to call and cancel everyone coming over. As I was making phone calls I looked out the front window to the North and saw this:

4 feet of mud covering the roadway below. It certainly made the slide behind our house look small, and made me question at this point whether the Mayans were right. Was the apocalypse starting a day early?  Zan ran across the street to make sure that the little old man who lives there was ok. He started to build a barricade with old railroad ties to divert the muddy water that was still coming down the hillside like a river and going into his garage. At this point multiple neighbors came out to assess the damage. My Dad came down to help and had to hike in from way up on Picnic Point Rd to get to us. Luckily with his full rain gear from his construction business days he looked official enough that the County crew let him pass and climb up over the slide to get to the street without too many questions. Zan and my Dad worked the rest of the day diverting water from up on the hill, digging and climbing through mud up past their knees in the pouring rain. Leif and I spent the day looking out the windows, packing evacuation bags and being anxious.

The silver lining to all of this is the support and camaraderie we found with our neighbors. People we had never met before came out, and everyone pulled together to help find a construction company to clear the road that was covered that is not maintained by the County. People shared stories and insights of their 30-40 years here on Possession Lane. Sharing how they control slides on their property, as well as insurance plan insights. We will now be getting a DIC insurance policy. However, I find the name of this to be rather ominous and those of you in the medical field probably know why :)

At the end of the day we found ourselves safe and dry, and thankful to not have had more damage. 

"Life on the Lane: when you first move here you look to the west, in the winter you look to the east!" -Neighbor Matt

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

When else in life can a man wear boots with the fur?

Janna and the case of the terrible, horrible, very bad mom brain

I have self diagnosed myself. I have now broken a total of 3 drinking glasses, my favorite mug, and the french press. I am at a loss for words and the amount of times I have asked Zan the same question, following up that question with whether I have already asked that question have been numerous. The final act to make me sure I was losing my mind was when I left the car door open while we were at the dog park. Yes, I packed up the baby and the dog and just left the door open and walked away! 

All of the differential diagnosis floated around in my head. I have never diagnosed myself with so many things, except for a short period in nursing school where I think everyone thinks that they have the symptoms for every horrible disease that you are learning about. It finally dawned on me. We are in the bleary-eyed, cloudy survival mode that is called parenting a 10 week old who has decided sleep is overrated. Yes, we are in the trenches. 

Once I settled on that and tried to let go of  thinking I must have a horrible disease I could direct my research  towards fixing the sleep issue. Sleepwise, Happiest Baby on the Block, Baby Whisperer the resources are endless. Not to mention the scores of "mom chats" online. Everyone using acroynms like "LO" (little one) STTN (sleeping through the night) etc, which has done nothing but make me furious that people use 800 words to describe their situation, but don't want to write out these extra few words. Also these posts generally being full of how their baby is the best and it is because of their superior mothering skills. I have to admit that before the last few weeks I felt pretty smug that I had it all figured out. Leif had started to sleep 5 hour stretches and it had to be because we were doing things the "right way." Parenthood is such a lesson in humility and patience. 

But for the moment he is sleeping, and I am grateful.

Good thing it is hard to feel tired and cranky with this little guy

 

I finally caught him on camera rolling over.

Baby's first Thanksgiving

We had a great first Thanksgiving with Baby Leif. He was showered with so much love and hugs and kisses he didn't know what to do with himself.

Lily and Leif celebrate their first Thanksgiving together

Wait, it's the holidays already??? 

Mormor and her little turkey

The Tryptophan does it every time

Leif is always a happy guy with his Gigi 

 

Asleep like a baby lion in a tree

Leif with his Great-Grandma Uffelman

This Thanksgiving was busy with Zan's yearly "Turkey Bowl" football game and seeing family and friends. We were able to visit with Leif's Great-Grandma Uffelman and cousins and Aunties and Uncles. As we were going to bed after getting home Sunday night Zan and I started cracking up as Leif lay in his crib in the dark clicking and popping away with his mouth- a new found skill he learned from his Gigi and Popi!

2 month stats

Leif had his 2 month appointment last Tuesday and is 12lbs 5oz! He is holding his head up so well and tried to roll himself off the Pediatrician's table, since she wasn't expecting him to move so much! He is getting more fun everyday with smiling, cooing and "talking". Man, time is flying by!

Ralphy, I can't put my arms down!

Happy Thanksgiving!

gobble gobble

Election Results

The elections are finally over.  Votes have been cast, ballots counted, and results tallied.  And as you all might have read, there has been some pretty significant aftermath in Washington, especially in the Uffelman household.  It was a close race between Mom and Dad for Head of House.  Dad started out strong but made a devastating blunder mid-campaign by criticizing 50% of the household for not holding jobs or paying taxes.  Mom quickly capitalized stating that 25% was not of working age and the other 25% provided significant services to this household, specifically chasing away mountain gophers, and being furry and cute.
Dad tried to refocus his campaign on his efforts to increase Defense spending but Mom countered postulating that Dad's Krav Maga lessons are not going to make the household any safer.  Mom easily carried the victory.

In other results, I-574 the Legalize Spanking Initiative failed 3-1.

And now, here is what you all came for:  More Leif. 

Bath time!

Leif and Ruby (AKA the 47%)

A little bit of Thursday cuteness

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Happy Birthday Zan!

For Zan's birthday we did what made the most sense for two new sleep-deprived parents. We went to the Seattle Coffee Festival! We did lots of sampling and ended up being very caffeinated and pretty excited about life. We then watched a football game with Jenny and Gary and had Indian food. A day full of Zan's favorite things!

Leif and the L'Occitane aftershave lotion he gave Zan. Don't ask me why he gives so many French products...I also have a sneaking suspicion he voted for Obama

Zan is the best husband and father we could ever hope for. Even on his birthday he tried to bring me coffee and make me breakfast. What a guy! I don't know what Leif and I would do without him. We love you!!

Portland visit

We went to visit Gigi and Popi to meet more cousins, family and friends. Leif was wonderful and was sweet through the kid and dog craziness. At one point there were about 20 people and 4 dogs in the house!! He just slept through the chaos, true to his Uffelman genes! He was sure comfy in his Gigi and Auntie's arms (thanks to Patty, Kylie, Kara and Joan for their baby-whispering) We had such a great time and can't wait to see you all again at Thanksgiving. We love you! (Also I need to get better at taking photos like an experienced Mama. I seem to always get home and realize we don't have any photos of people with Leif)

With Auntie Joan

Ready for a good snooze after all of the family action

He loves his Gigi and Popi

Happy morning everyone!

After being awake off and on since 1am Leif is sure darn happy!

Happy Fall and Halloween!

At the pumpkin farm. Not very tall yet...but I think that  lamb is cheating

Leif the scarecrow and Lily the pumpkin

Family photo with a fall motif

Halloween at the Burns' house.  Why does one family own so much  tie-dye you ask?  Ina May would be proud!

Leif got to do many baby Fall/Halloween activities with his BFF Lily bean (aka the pumpkin), including going to the pumpkin farm and sleeping through the tricker-treaters. 

Birthdays and bottles

This was a big week for Leif. First, we are so lucky to have welcomed baby Freya into the friend family. Congratulations to Ryan and Louise! We visited again on Monday with Jenny and Lily and Leif got to spend some time with his ladies. 

 For my birthday Zan and Leif took me out for lunch and to get a massage. It was wonderful! As part of my present Leif got me bath salts from France. The boy has good taste. Finally on the drive home we saw a complete rainbow. It was an amazing birthday with my boys.

 Leif had his first bottle! He took to it without a problem and Zan did great. Afterward Zan looked up at me and said he could see why I loved feeding him so much. He looks at you with such love and trust while you are feeding him.The boy loves to eat! He is already 10lbs 4.5oz.

Finally, at our pediatric appointment yesterday his Doctor was impressed with how healthy and strong he is. He can hold his head up for extended periods of time and tracks our voices really well. He is starting to really focus and loves staring at faces and the painting I made for him of green crabs. He is such a sweet active guy who never stops moving and making noise. Even in his sleep! In the video below he had just finished "tummy time" and was tired of holding his head up. Even though he was tired he is still constantly moving his body.

One month old!

Perfect hearing! We are lucky enough to have our own personal Audiologist. Auntie/Dr. Bennett checked Leif and confirmed his perfect hearing!

Leif continues to love bath time. After being in the tub we wash his hair in the sink. He loves it so much he will crane his neck under the faucet, and turn his head from side to side. Our little spa baby. 

Great Grandma came to visit

Out and about this week and representing Gonzaga

Meeting new friend Freya! 

Baby cousins

We were so excited to have Becky, Travis, and Cadel come to visit! It was Cadel and Leif's first cousin play date. I'm afraid Leif wasn't very exciting and spent most of his time sleeping. I'm sure the play dates will be much livelier in the future! We are so lucky to have them so close.

Is this the same baby?

Baby Zan

Baby Leif

First cousin visit!

Auntie Kara, Uncle Travis and Tyler and Carter came to visit! (Annamarie stayed with Gigi and Popi) We had so much fun! For some reason we didn't get any photos on our camera of everyone with Leif (Auntie Kara will you send some?)

Ruby's crate was a huge attraction

Babysitting at the Uffelman's house




Uncle Zan was a hit with rock, paper, scissors and building a fort