Baby K and Miss Pretty

Miss Pretty

Baby K in his dozing burghermeister pose.

Thanks to one of my more devoted readers and commentors, (I'm talking about you, Karen!) the twins have received nicknames that really seem to suit them right now. They also have other nicknames used en famille which are hopefully not going to stay with them forever so I won't use them here.

Holding Baby K's hands for a bottle feeding.

Baby K is a strong fellow. He is way ahead of the norms for strength and so giving him a bottle is like trying to wrestle with a small python... "No, I'm the granny, I'll give you the bottle." His forceful, unworded reply, "No, I'm the baby and I'm starving here, so I'll just take the bottle!" Sometimes he looks like a burghermeister about to give his ruling on the taste test for some rather nasty beer, and other times he smiles with such a winning and dimply smile my heart simply flips over and I know he is going to have that same effect on some vulnerable young lady years from now.

Miss Pretty's big smile.

Baby K trying to hold his own bottle with his papa.

Miss Pretty could easily be on all those baby commercials with her delicate pursed up mouth and an amazing smile that is truly given in recognition, not from gas. She was the leader in weight when she arrived, but her brother has out-distanced her by several pounds now. Not too surprising as once he started really eating, he is taking in 1/3 more at each feeding than she is. But it is her delicacy that has earned her this blog moniker, and when you hold her, (for all you doll people) she is reminder of those days when you played with a friend's life-size doll-baby and wished you'd get one of your own for Christmas.

Is there a Girl Scout badge for this?

Big Sis & huge cookie!

We took the children to a Girl Scout picnic where everyone got a chance to hold them, and two of the little girls in Big Sis E's troop took quite a bit of time away from the water sports to practice their holding skills. By my calculations, in eight years these two young ladies may be good candidates for baby-sitting and by then Big Sis may need all the help she can get!

Now comes the sad part, friends. I have to head back to Colombia for awhile and while Big Sis E has her moments of being frustrated with all the crying, shrieking, babbling, and flatulent noises that babies make, it has been made clear to me that I will be fully checked before leaving the house to make sure I haven't tried to hide one or both of them in my luggage.

So tiny those little feet...

Baby K on his daddy's arm.

I don't want to go, and this time with the family has been an awesome one. It was approached with trepidation, not knowing how much any of us could stand of the other being around ALL the time, but we have proved that we could manage the stress, the fatigue - and the joys - for the singular objective of giving these twins the best start they could have in life.

Baby K is growing exponentially daily...

Amazingly these two months have flown by and like so many life experiences, there will never be any like this again. I am glad I made the offer to be here and as it turned out, there were several times when it was clear it was Divine Planning for me to do so. And it also means this is the end of twin-shots until I see them again.

No tears... no wailing or gnashing of teeth. No long, drawn-out goodbyes, no special promises... just going. I will miss these two little rascals desperately and hope I am given the chance to return and to re-acquaint myself with them... it is up to the Higher Authority as to when that might be.

Mt. Rainier in the dusky light of sunset in September.

Sandy and the Chocolate Factory

Apologies to Willy Wonka... but I have the very best Son In Law ever! Knowing my love for chocolate, he decided to make an appointment for a tour of the Theo Chocolate Factory here in Seattle and to go with me... that's sweet, isn't it?

As you will see on their website, their mission statement is "Proud to be the only Organic, Fair Trade, Fair for Life certified Bean-to-Bar Chocolate Factory in North America." (Like many public relations and mission statements, this is their statement, and I do not know if it is completely factual. There are lots and lots of chocolatiers in this area and in North America... can they really be the ONLY one?)

Isn't it amazing that there are people all around the world working together for the good of all concerned, and mostly what we hear about is those who aren't? Like the naughty children who get attention while the well-behaved ones seem to disappear into the background...

Last week for blueberries, but not beer...

But due to a variety of things, we decided to cancel it until my next trip out here. I have now put it on the Must-Do things when you visit Seattle. In looking at their website I learned so much about chocolate and growing the cacao and the importance of keeping your chocolate properly cooled - it's definitely not like those chocolate things you pick up in a rush which I will not dignify by naming. That would be like trying to compare a well-aged wine to something inside a paper bag.

The qualities of fine chocolate are just like those of fine wine... and like wine, when you are going to taste chocolates, there are some things to do first:
1) Make sure you have eaten something ahead of time. If you are taste-testing chocolates and you are hungry, you will gobble it and miss the fine nuances that going slowly will allow.
2) Not a good idea to have complicated foods beforehand... garlic and onion linger to affect the taste of chocolate. (I was such an uneducated heathen before that I thought that is why you ate the chocolate - to get rid of the onion after-taste!)
3) Have a pitcher of room temperature water and a plain cracker (saltines without the salt, for example) nearby to wash out your mouth between tastes. (Wonderful! As this suggests, you are going to have lots of different kinds of chocolate to test and taste... sounds like a really fun way to have a party, doesn't it?)

Did you know that chocolate can have a temper? (I have a temper tantrum when I cannot get good chocolate - LOL!) "Temper" (from the Theo website) refers to the crystalline structure the cocoa butter molecules form in the chocolate when cooling from a melted state (during production) to a solid form. The cocoa butter takes on a different structure based on the temperature at which it’s cooled, resulting in a chocolate that is soft, greasy and spotted (at the wrong cooling temp) or hard with a nice shiny, even surface (at the right cooling temp)." 

The proper temperature at which to eat chocolate is at 'room' temperature - about 75 degrees F; not pulled out of a bag from a hot car, or grabbed from the refrigerator, or horrors-of-horrors, eating the one that sat in your rucksack for three weeks being heated and cooled depending on where you were.

Like tasting wine, tasting chocolate requires some patience, some time, and plenty of chocolate options. I honestly think this tour helped to make me more of a chocolate connoisseur and further justifies my philosophy that good chocolate is good for me/you. The antioxidants and the theobromine, a mild stimulant similar to caffeine, are reportedly beneficial. But this is only in chocolate with careful processing because if it is overworked, all those benefits disappear. But Theo Chocolates take it another step by saying that eating and buying their products improve things worldwide... now that is a great reason to eat their chocolate!

Mt. Rainier in August on a particularly clear day...

All this information was gained from the website and you can read the details there. They also have some awesome recipes using chocolate. While I missed out on the chance to be a chocolate taster, my waistline is the better for it and hopefully on my next visit I will have had plenty of sleep and can fully appreciate the tour.

NOTE: There are over 50 chocolatiers in the Seattle area... this is only one of them, so if you are coming this way, perhaps you will want to take the Pike Market Chocolate Lover's tour as well so you can sample other decadent, delicious and dreamy possibilities. You can see why I love this area, can't you?

The Apollo Project

When I was graduated from both high school and secretarial school, I was still unmarried and living in Boston, Massachusetts. I found a job with the "The Apollo Project" at the MIT Instrumentation Lab (It was renamed in 1970 the Charles Stark Draper Labs after its founder.) in Cambridge, overlooking the Charles River. I was a technical secretary assigned to work with project manager George Cherry's team and so I learned to type all kinds of equations which were part of reports and documentation for the Lunar Excursion Model (LEM) for the Apollo 11 launch. (Obituary for George Cherry here.)

One of the fellows working on the same project was Allan R. Klumpp, an engineer who regularly trained for many marathons, but his dream was to run The Boston Marathon, a 23-mile challenge that is staged on Patriot's Day on the outskirts of the city. It was not uncommon for Allan to run into work from his home, and since this was before showers were considered part of the work benefits, on warmer mornings he was pretty damp by the time he arrived. But that is not the reason he was a memorable part of the team, at least not for me. He was a kind man, tolerant of my inability to be as precise as an engineer and ready and willing to review my equations to be sure they were correct. (The document shown here was something I remember typing for him.) I expect that without his attention to detail the LEM would not have landed on the moon. But it was at his expense this joke got passed around the inner circle: "What sound will the LEM make when it lands on the moon?" Answer: "Klumpp!"

All my memories of working for the Apollo Project came rushing forward today after reading about the passing last week of Neil Armstrong, commander of Apollo 11 and the LEM. I remembered meeting him one afternoon when he, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins came to the lab to go over documentation on the LEM. Back in the mid-60's an astronaut was on the 'star' list (pun intended) and NASA took full advantage of those draws. So did some of the secretaries at the Lab, using every feminine wile possible to be in the presence of these soon-to-be-famous entities. I was still too new to my job to risk leaving my desk, but thanks to Allan Klumpp it wasn't necessary. He brought all three of them to me, and introduced us, telling them that I was just as important as he was to the whole project and they needed to respect everyone who was working to get them up to the moon and back, "because," he said, "we cannot afford the luxury of one little error. One degree in calculations could throw everything off and you'd miss the moon, one mis-fire could ruin the return, one sloppy mechanical installation could mean failure." I worked harder to be accurate after that, and when I left the program to move to California with my husband and daughter, I received a commendation in the mail from NASA for my work.

Buzz Aldrin is photographed walking near the lunar module during the Apollo 11extravehicular activity on July 20, 1969.
Photo: Associated Press

But the greater part of the memory was on July 20, 1969 when Armstrong walked on the moon, after the LEM delivered them to it. I don't think there was any recording of the sound it made when it landed, but because my daughter was sitting beside me as we all watched on TV and she and her cousins were chattering in their toddler tones, I would have missed it anyhow. I can say that I was proud then and still am today for the very small part I played in that event, so that these three men had a successful mission and long lives thereafter.

For those who are interested, Don Eyles wrote an interesting hindsight report here about the screwups and how close the whole mission came to failure. Frankly, I am still amazed when jet aircraft fly, when my car starts and when my phone connects me to someone... my oldest and dearest BFF recently asked me, "How did we manage to do all we did without cell phones?"

Change of Scene

Discovery Bay near Sequim, Washington

I was granted some time off for good behavior with the twins, and their parents, and by the grace and goodness of my son-in-law, was provided some transportation to go and visit Sequim, (pronounced SQWIM) over on the Olympic Peninsula, and to catch up with an Intender Buddy there.

Now better known as the lavender capital of North America, it was once the hunting grounds for the S'Klallam Tribe and apparently the word sequim means just that... hunting grounds. I guess for me it was a kind of hunting, looking for a change of scene/pace/sound/energy. You can read more about this part of the Olympic Peninsula here and see some aerial photos.

Hood Canal bridge is a relatively new replacement.

It is, in my opinion, faster to catch the ferry north of Seattle than to go to the port for the trip to the peninsula. The ferry ride from Edmonds is less than half an hour on the water, but the line to get on can take a lot longer. Then the drive to Sequim is about 45 minutes more through some incredible scenic views of the Olympic National Park and harbors. I went over there once when I first arrived, before the babies did, and had a short visit which only whetted my appetite for another one.

You cross over the Hood Canal bridge after leaving Kingston, going toward Port Townsend. Well maintained in its Victorian era housing, Port Townsend is rather well identified as an 'artist's city,' but it also seems to carry some of the taint of artists who aren't doing much more than claiming to be one from what I was hearing by residents of other villages in the area.

Oh well.... I didn't have the time to investigate for myself, so take it with a grain of salt water from the Puget Sound. Passing the Jamestown S'Klallam tribal center and casino going around Discovery Bay is a lovely drive. To be fully appreciated it probably should be done in the fall on a bicycle... slower pace to enjoy all the various colors.

Bond Ranch Retreat is just what is needed for some peace & quiet.

I was booked into a B&B called Bond Ranch Retreat just past Sequim on the road to Port Angeles, which is about 15-20 minutes further along the peninsula. Port Angeles is where one catches the ferry to British Columbia and is an easy cruise for a day trip. What a special place this B&B is!! From the moment you arrive until Tess waves goodbye to you, you are treated as a special person with lots of sweet details.

Lavender in a small vase...

First of all, the beds are incredibly comfortable! Anyone who has traveled knows that some places economize on the beds, but that isn't the case here. Tucked into the Rose Room with a large down comforter over a hand-made quilt in rose and yellow tones, a small bowl of fresh raspberries had been put on the nightstand with a special message and a small sprig of fresh flowers - it made me feel warmly welcomed. I slept almost without interruption... is it possible to hear twin babies crying across the water in Seattle? I woke up at 3 a.m. briefly and realized I didn't have to go to them and went back to sleep.

Campfires are a great way to meet new people, too.

The nights on the peninsula at this time of year are getting brisker, and it was a good reason to snuggle but I'm basically an early riser and was up at 8 to have a 'farm breakfast' of all natural and good foods: eggs, sausage, bagel, yogurt with fresh fruits and orange juice. I was hungry when we discussed breakfast the night before, but my appetite that morning didn't do this wonderful breakfast justice.

I took some time after breakfast to walk around the farm, looking at all the outbuildings and the place where they offer a nightly campfire, a cottage for a family fully self-contained, a chapel, a place for having a cookout and meal as a group, really it seems as if all you have to do is call or e-mail Tess and let her know what you need and she will find a way to put it all together in her unique and artistic way.

One of Bond Ranch's best...

This is still a working ranch as Morris, the founder of the facility, raises Quarter horses. This lovely creature took time out of her breakfast munching to look up at me.

One of several inviting places to sit and enjoy nature.

There are lots of places to gather for conversation, to play cards, to have a cup of coffee or tea inside or out, places to walk or bicycle, and both days I saw plenty of local wildlife, including deer that at first I thought were lawn ornaments, but then they moved!

I came to the ranch, exhausted from too many nights of interrupted sleep, and in just one very quiet evening, I was restored enough to go back for more with these special twins.

I am grateful Tess was such an attentive hostess, checking to be sure all my needs within her purvue were being met, and everything was clean and fresh and pleasant. Go to their website and read their story, and then when you are thinking about a weekend getaway or an event with friends or relatives, consider this treasure on the Olympic Peninsula.

And for me... one night is not enough. I will come back again.

Sleep Deprived in Seattle

It has been three weeks since the twins were born, three weeks since I started being a Mother's Helper to my daughter, three weeks since I've had more than a few hours of sleep in succession - just like my daughter. Tonight actually is the second night in a row that I will have had at least five hours of uninterrupted sleeping, thanks to the Night Nanny. Two days ago my daughter looked at me with that kind of battle-worn fatigue and said, "We will have relief in two days... we can make it!" We have.

Mr K is asleep right now, but when he wakes up.....

The boy has established himself as a screamer... when he wakes up he is hun-gar-ree and he wants to eat RIGHT NOW! Changing his diaper first just enrages him and he is absolutely certain he is being deliberately tortured. His scream tone conveys that very well.

Miss H was sleeping on my chest for this shot.

The girl is laid back. She knows food is coming, she wants to enjoy it with a dry diaper and is willing to let us administer to her without much 'sturm und drang' (fuss). I have already been rewarded by a huge smile from Miss H and although it is early for any baby to truly smile in recognition, Miss H is a most remarkable baby... of course, being my grandchild I would have that opinion in any case.

I only have a few more weeks before I leave and although the hours of missed sleep are beginning to take their toll - I cannot remember simple things like how to spell the name of that white stuff in a tub that goes on a bagel for the grocery lists - I am going to miss even more those special little faces that are only just now beginning to be really interesting creatures.

And, I should add, I will miss my 8-year old granddaughter who further endeared herself to me by showing her big heart and showering her baby sister and brother with some of her particular love. There are challenging days ahead, but Big Sis E is, I think, up to the task.

Tending the Twins

The modern conveyances - car seats.

The arrival last week of the twins - a boy first and then the girl, 15 minutes apart - was a week of adjustments. My eight-year old granddaughter stayed with her nanny at the nanny's family house for three nights which helped her get rested up for being at home where sleep is interrupted regularly with the yowls of hungry or gas-filled babies and howls of displaced (three) cats. It is not enough for the cats to protest with sound, but at least one of them left several nasty green vomits, unseen in the dark, on the rug in the basement where I was walking with one of the restless babes.

Mom and Dad are pleased with the products which were well over projected arrival weights, and came with fingernails, lovely reddish gold angel hair on top and Baby Boy "K" has already smiled to show off his dimples. Sister "H" not to be outdone, demonstrated how strong she is by rolling over on the bed! While Bigger Sis is not all that impressed with these two interlopers, she does bestow kisses quite regularly on their heads and tiny hands.

It's been a wonderful, awe-inspiring journey to get to part where we watch daily for the changes that demonstrate good growth. So far, so very good!

The hardest part for me will be leaving... heading back to my Other Life as a retired granny, because in this daily demand for granny help, I have felt necessary, useful and purposeful. Not that I don't feel that in my Other Life, but being of service to your children is, as one friend put it, "the highest calling for a parent."

My S-I-L said today, "The wonderful thing about having babies when you are older as parents is that you can truly enjoy today, with less fear because you know you have already brought one along..." and there is a sort of relief in even the crying because it doesn't last forever either.

The fatigue is greater, however, for all... harder to get through days where the nights are foreshortened with distress, demands for feeding or something that cannot be determined. The nanny for my granddaughter has been a wonderful asset and a treasure for keeping structure for a little girl who is struggling to make sense of a mother who is now dividing her time five ways instead of only three (her husband, her daughter and herself). But it will all get itself sorted out.

Meanwhile, to all my readers, thank you for your attendance on this great good news!