The weekend has been notoriously uneventful, except for the three hour block last night when Nikole and I were both unable to sleep -- initially, because Thea's chest congestion sounded so dreadful, and then, once we moved her sleeping, rasping, well-wrapped body onto my chest for sleep, because we could barely hear her breath. The curse of the overly concerned parents.
I don't even remember when Thea slept this weekend, even though Nikole has a gorgeous and meticulous chart penciled in blue, green and purple that spells it all out -- when she slept, when she was awake and when she was ferociously asserting her independence by refusing to go to sleep.
Nikole bears the brunt of it these days. Thea's face usually lights up when she sees me. She gets a goofy little grin on her face that you couldn't wipe off with a five-pound bag of sugar. But put her in my arms to rock her to sleep? Pfah. She squirms and screams and turns beet red. Which means that most of our sleep cycles revolve around Nikole, who has the patience of Job and some phenerome that lulls babies to sleep.
And so I spend all of that spare time doing what I do best -- cooking, cleaning the kitchen, cutting up fruit or making salads so Nikole has food during her breaks or while I'm at work.
Friday night was a rough one. Nikole was up well before dawn with Thea, and I woke at 7:00. I put Thea in the Baby Bjorn, put Rilo on a leash and headed out for an early morning stroll through Bellevue. Nikole headed straight back to bed. Thea was asleep when we returned home after an hour, and I was soaked with early morning sweat; I wore her in the house for another 20 minutes before she woke ready to eat.
Nikole went back to bed with Thea from 9:00 until around 11:00 so I cleaned, ran to the Lakeside Farmer's Market and tried to figure out iMovie. I also made a fritata with potatoes, spinach, onion, red pepper and chicken sausage.
The market -- small and uninspiring as it is what with the concrete and chain link fencing -- produced some exceptional fruits and vegetables. I came home with corn, green beans, blueberries, cucumbers, tomatoes, red potatoes, the best cantaloupe ever and a red pepper.
When the girls woke, I ran by Barnes and Noble, Target, the library and Ukrop's.
Mid-day we zipped over to the ART 180/Johnny Z/Bizarre Market event in the Fan. We chatted briefly with Ward from Chop Suey, Erica from Bee's Knees Studio and Amie from ART 180.
Thea also got to experience the joys of the nebulizer as it shot steam into her lungs. Several times.
Nikole and I took a stroll with Thea and Rilo in the early evening. Too hot. We bought beer and wine at Once Upon A Vine, and ran into Joe from the city's planning department -- he had a six pack, his young daughter clutched a small container of Ben & Jerry's.
This morning, another walk with Thea and Rilo. She was fussy. It was hot.
We went to Circuit City to buy a battery charger for the camera. The 16-year-old sales associate was all like, "Cameras have batteries?" Stopped by my mom's for a few moments for grandmother/granddaughter love.
Made lunch. Cut up a melon. Made macaroni salad with celery, onions and red peppers. Posted videos.
We wrapped up the day with sorbet at Deluca Gelato.
Thea is asleep. We're crossing our fingers.