12-21-06
Aaaaand we're off!
The laundry is done, Sean is presently cleaning out the fridge, and I will pack as soon as Ever's awake from her late-night nap. We leave at 6:30 a.m. and fly and fly and fly until we arrive at my Mom's in northern Indiana late tomorrow night. We'll be there until the 27th, then to Florida until the 5th. Thanks, everyone, for the thoughts and cards and well-wishes! Wish I had the time to make you all cookies....
Safe and Happy Holidays to all of you!
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12-16-06
Sean and I have been tormenting ourselves for a couple weeks now regarding the introduction to solids for Ever. I planned to nurse exclusively until 6 months, then start her on avocado and cooked yams. I knew I wanted to avoid rice since it didn't do much. Apparently that's why you start with rice. Anyway. The 6 month thing I knew for sure.
But this girl - she's so independent. She wants to feed herself already! She watches us eat and she still doesn't nurse well, so it was food or formula - and we chose food.
I went to a Lactation Consultant (who's also an M.D.) and then got twenty more opinions - and they were all different opinions. In the end - Ever now gets one serving (about 2 teaspoons) a day of organic all-natural rice cereal mixed with water or breastmilk. She took to it like gangbusters, I tell ya. She grabbed the spoon then finally just grabbed the bowl with both hands and brought it up to her face. By day three she was chewing and swallowing like she got it. She will still be breastfed as long as I can do it - hopefully a year but we'll see how it goes. Obviously we'll be adding more foods - probably in about a month, but I still plan to nurse at night and as needed. It was a big, heartbreaking step for us. Our baby is growing up.
I am currently packing up her 0-3 month sized clothes. Even some of the 3-6 month stuff is too short even though she's only 5 months on the 20th. She's long and skinny!
We are anxiously awaiting next Friday, when we head to Indiana to spend Christmas with my Mom's side of the family, then we head to Ft. Myers for New Years with my Dad's side of the family. I am packing for snow, beach, and baby. We need a giant trunk!
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12-13-06
The Greatest Commercial Ever Made
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12-11-06
Home Again Home Again

Ever with her Auntie Tori and Nana
 Our trip to California was great. We had a couple days with Sean's Mom's family before Sean had to leave Monday, then I stayed until early Thursday morning. A LOT has changed in Palm Springs/Palm Desert since we lived there (briefly) in 1998.
Ever was great on all of the flights. On the first flight out, we flew from Vancouver to Portland on a tiny prop plane - there were ten people on board including the flight attendant. Once we were up, I walked Ever up and down the tiny aisle since she wasn't in the mood to sleep, and a man sitting behind us began to talk to me in short spurts each time we walked by. He mentioned that he had three kids and flew with them often. Then he mentioned that he had offices in London and Tel Aviv. Then he mentioned that he was 37 and retiring in 29 days.
The more this guy spoke to me to more obvious it was that he wanted to tell me what he did for a living or who he was. He had a flashy expensive smile and kept throwing out these weird leads. He also said he was going to go to South America soon to look for a place to retire with his family since he heard it was a nice place to raise a family (the whole continent?). He kinda looked like a television evangelist - you know - nice suit, super perfect teeth, really really nice, and something just so creepy about him although you can't really put a finger on it. Meanwhile, Ever needed the laps so he just kept talking to me. No matter how many odd leads he gave me, I didn't ask who he was or what he did since it was just so obvious that he wanted me to. The invisible "danger" sign above his head was flashing.
Once we landed at Portland, we rolled up to our gate where two police cars and border patrol cars and officers were waiting. We all got out our I.D.s but they paid us no mind. We were the last to get off the plane except for this man (he said "No, really, go ahead.") and sure enough, once we walked past, Sean said "Turn around" and the guy was already in handcuffs.
I am SO ANGRY with myself for not asking who he was and what he did for a living.

Mathew, Sean, Tori, Ryan
 Tori and Ryan came up to visit with us for the first couple days, then Ever & I hung out with Margeret and Mathew (and Margeret's husband Harry, although he was recuperating from surgery) for the rest of our visit. Pretty much every time I ate it was mexican food, thankfully, as it's so hard to find good mexican food up here. Margeret and I went shopping on a few excursions and got Ever some adorable clothes and she also got us a Canon video camera (direct to mini DVD) and once we have the battery fired up we'll try recording some stuff and posting it on youtube.com. I just got some DVD-RWs today to record onto.
The weather all week was in the 70's and cold at night. Ever did very well except for a couple car rides - it was a lot of traveling for her.
It was also during this week that the Kim family was stranded in the Oregon wilderness, and I spent many hours watching CNN and waiting for a rescue. Once they found the girls and more and more time went by, my heart broke. It made me miss Sean even more.
Early Thursday morning Ever and I flew to our 2-day layover in San Jose so we could visit Auntie Nancy. It was such perfect timing! We crammed as much good stuff as we could into the visit, including meeting CatieCake at Starbucks and having many friends over for dinner Thursday night (and catching up with Virginia), plus baking cookies, shopping, and some well-deserved long talks. I look forward to seeing Nancy and the boys again in a few weeks in Florida.

Ever & Catie!

Cousins Lukas, Me, Ever, Dylan
Our flight out of San Francisco was delayed for over 2 hours, so we spent an awful long time waiting at the gate, but once we were home we all snuggled in a heap like kittens.
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12-01-06
The Return!

Dave & Ever

Ever & Katie
Sean, Ever, and I are off to Palm Desert tomorrow morning to see Grandma Margeret and the rest of the Fritz household. Sean comes home Monday, but I stay until Thursday, and then I head to San Jose for an extended layover to see Auntie Nancy and her gang. I also plan to have coffee with CatieCake!
Today our check arrived from ICBC - the car insurance company. When Sean cancelled his policy for the work van (he gave it back - long story), they said they'd mail him a check for the remainder. It arrived today and I threw it into my purse on the way out the door. While in line at the bank, I had a better look at it. It was made out to "The Estate of Christopher Sean Dayment" and I thought "Wow that's some formal jargon there!" and then I looked at the paperwork attached and it said "Reason: Deceased."
Um. No.
It looks like maybe someone at ICBC hit F1 instead of F2 for the reason of the cancelled policy. I hope this doesn't cause problems later with his active policy. Like "Sorry Dude, but you're dead."
Since it's almost midnight I guess I should start packing. YES I HAVE THE ITINERARY.
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