We are in Seattle. Have been since Thursday and will be until Thursday. Everything is going well, Tony is off at his conference right now, Ali is napping. I have been trying to upload photos but have had zero luck with Tony’s computer. So that will have to wait. Friday, our first day here, it snowed! Craziness. Though it didn’t snow as much as it did at home. You know, the beach. VERY CRAZY. We always miss all the outlandish weather.

Just a quick update.

Ali at the pet store.

Playing peekaboo with Matthew.

Outside with Alyss.

You can see the cat scratches.

First Easter egg hunt.

Pretty good.

Her Easter dinner.

After getting her pictures done.

Shayla!

What a cute trio.

Shayla rocking out.

This will be kept extraordinarily short. Thursday we got here fine. We scored the diapers we needed. Friday we hung out with the girls, who had an extra day off from school. We met with Monica and Eeamon (and they met Ali) over Starbucks at the mall. That night Ali got her first real "owie," she got swiped by Bonnie, our cat who is recovering from an abscess and cranky, across her forehead. Saturday we went down to Salem to celebrate Easter and birthdays with my mom’s side of the family. It was a brunch. Then we went up to Vancouver to have a spaghetti dinner at Cass’s with Pete (her boy), and Cynthia. This morning we went to church (got dressed up but I didn’t take any pictures! Good thing we’re getting ones of Ali tomorrow) and then came home and had a turkey and hung out with Trista and Alyssa, and my dad all day. Ali’s sleep schedule is already shot (he new bedtime is apparently 10:30) but she’s been going down in her pack’n'play pretty easy which is more than I would have even asked for. I’ll edit this tomorrow with pictures. Between a different computer and a new back-end I need more time to do what I want to do. Check back.

So, did you notice?

It goes without saying that we made some changes around here. You’ll be noticing new things wherever you look, so I wanted to put together a quick post to let you in on some of the finer points. But first, a massive thanks to one Karlin Johnson, our designer at Oregon Coast Design who did a fabulous job on not only this site, but on the OCD one as well. Karlin is a joy to work with and does an outstanding job. Also, of course, thanks to Ashley and Ali for their patience during all of our projects, including this one.

The design is cleaner and crisper, more contemporary, and more pleasing to the eye. I won’t say too much about the new look because it pretty much speaks for itself.

On the technical side, things should be much quicker. We’re using a newer version of the WordPress platform that has significant speed improvements, and we’ve pared down our plugins a bit. Also, there are less images to be preloaded, and we’ve begun caching local copies of the images, which means (in english) that those of you who couldn’t see the images before, should be able to now.

The navigation has been reworked to move some of our infrequently used features (links, archive) into the main menu. The archive has been significantly overhauled, and the links will be renovated in the coming weeks. The contact page is slicker now, and should be just as impervious to spammers.

Now for my two favorite new features. The first you may have already noticed. Right under the byline of each post is Ali’s exact age (to the minute) at the time the post was made. For pregnancy posts, the time to delivery is listed. Also, in the upper right corner of the page, you’ll see any posts which were made on this day in previous years. For now there’s only one previous year, but in the future it should get increasingly interesting. If there’s nothing there, it means we didn’t post on this day last year, so check back tomorrow.

Just a warning, in the future you may get some ads. They are a necessary evil, but we’re working hard to make them as minimally invasive as we can. Each ad will be handpicked by us, so there won’t be anything we don’t approve of and if you get the urge to click, please do, because it helps us to pay server costs.

Finally, a plug. We carried out this project exactly as we do each and every site we design, and it is indicative of the high-quality work we produce. If you are thinking about creating a web site, redesigning your web site, or just want to pick our brains, please contact us at Oregon Coast Design.

Thanks for reading and enjoy!

I just noticed both of Ali’s top teeth poking through a few hours ago. No wonder we have some rough nights a few weeks back. Four teeth all in a row! I’m sad to see her fangs go though. They are just the cutest thing.

Turns out I have an inflamed SI (sacroiliac) joint. For which basically nothing can be done except alternating hot and cold, stretching, and avoiding activities that aggravate. My doc said he would have me do physical therapy if my insurance covered it. I can’t take any pain meds or muscle relaxers because I’m breastfeeding. The best outcome is it starts to resolve itself in about a month(!). If not, the next course of treatment is an injection of cortisone into the joint. I also had some white blood cells in my urine, which is being sent for a culture to see if that’s anything.

I’ve been alternating heat pad and frozen veggies for a few hours and it’s becoming more painful with every turn. Like, it makes me nauseous. So I’ve definitely been a happier camper.

So, Angela sent us an Easter package last week. It got here on….Thursday? I can’t remember now. Anyway, it was about the best thing Ali has ever experienced and pretty freakin’ funny/joyful for her parents as well. This is one of a few posts I’ve been meaning to get to for too long. Angela, you are too sweet. And you really made our day!

Ali, just up from a nap, stylin’ outfit, red eye, and all.

Cannot contain her excitement.

She had just fallen headfirst into the box.

Mr. Easter Bunny Potato Head. Or something….

Bullets again my friends.

• We are especially exhausted around here today. A number of reasons I’m not energetic enough to go into.
• I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow afternoon to get my back looked at! I found a lump in it about a month ago that would cause pain if I moved the wrong way. I’m not sure what it is, but imagine just some weird knot. Tony has been telling me to get it looked at and the fact that I’ve been borderline immobile since Thursday has pushed me to go ahead. I sure hope something improves soon.
• Stressing about the upcoming upheaval. But it’s the little things,like making sure we use all our perishables, do all possible laundry, keep as much clean as we can, clean the house so we can return to some bit of sanity (difficult with the back issue – I cleared the kitchen out to clean the floors Saturday and have yet to feel up to it). Also we’re having a get-together here the sixth…mere days after we return.
• Did I mention we’re getting pictures taken on Monday? In Portland. Which is a whole other thing to plan ahead, as far as outfits go and keeping them clean while out-of-town.
• This morning Ali started grinding her teeth. At first I didn’t know what it was and was all digging around in her mouth trying to figure out what she’d gotten her hands on. Then I realized it was nothing. I cannot handle the sound. It makes my teeth hurt and literally raises hair all over my body. *cringe*
• I miss exercising and I think the lack of it has caused a great deal of my lethargy. Since Thursday I believe I’ve left the house twice: dentist appointment on Friday, and the store on Sunday. Not even walking to get the mail!
• Ali wore pigtails for the first time today. They were SO ADORABLE. I imagine she will be wearing them much more.

Still, I’m sure the less said the better

Isn’t that kind of how we all feel? Ali has been broadening her foods on an almost hourly basis it seems. Probably the top of her list is strawberries, anything crunchy (Baby Mum-mums, or Gerbers puffed sweet potatos and corn), and bananas. She also eats a lot of grapes, apples, and yams. Today she was loving grapefruit too. Yesterday while I made Tony a sandwich forlucnh Ali tried cheese and a little bit of turkey. She eats pickles and tomatoes pretty regularly. She also tried dry spinach and liked that too. Also, avacado and the other night she was LOVING some frozen berries I was eating with a little cool whip. Not suprisingly she has a very definite sweet tooth. And that brings me to this video of her trying her first bit of brownie. I think this was Wednesday night? Maybe Tuesday…