Monti and Dahlia traveled a long way to meet their new cousin Willow.
It was worth every penny. Monti kept saying, “She is just so
adorable.” Dahlia was just in love. I asked her what she wanted to do
while Brecken napped and she said , ” I just want to stand here and
watch Willow sleep.”
We love OMSI – Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. It has great
activities for all ages. I was surprised when I realized our previous
favorite area of the museum was filled with babies and toddlers. My
girls looked like giants compared to all the young kids in the
Scientific Playground. It hit me that my little girls have grown up so
we headed to the “big kid” section. We had the best time doing
chemistry experiments, designing flying objects, perfecting sailboat
building and experiencing a simulated earthquake. We had to miss
school to come here but I think we did a pretty good job experiencing
lots of new things that day.
We had the whole pool, hot tub and sauna to ourselves at the Embassy
Suites in Portland. We used all three.
The girls have now mastered the ski lifts. Joe and I got a chance to
ride up with each of them on Sunday. Dahlia is so comfortable that she
told me she almost fell asleep on the long quad lift up the hill.
Their legs are so cute in the way they go straight out instead of
bending at the knees.
While we were away the girls were totally showered with attention. Above they made cutout cookies. They also had formal introductions announced. Monti was quick to tell me that Rosa would make 2 half sandwiches for her lunch. One was a cheese sandwich, the other one PB&J. She could eat whichever sandwich she was in the mood for at lunch.
Moments before the variety show evening performance began Dahlia told
Joe her heart was “beeping” fast. I had to manage the backstage area
during the performance so Joe had to care for Dahlia. He took her out
to the car to see if she could relax and get her heart back to normal.
Relaxing wasn’t working so I would leave backstage every once in a
while to try something new to get her heart to slow down. I tried
gagging her, holding her upside down, and splashing her face with cold
water from the drinking fountain. If anyone saw me doing these things
they would have thought I was just plain abusive. Nothing was working
so I finally told Joe to start driving towards the ER. On the way over
she feel asleep in the car. The little nap did the trick! As they
pulled into the ER parking lot Dahlia woke up and she told us her
heart was OK. At first we weren’t sure that she wasn’t just saying
that because she didn’t want to go in but it truly had slowed down and
no doctor intervention was needed. Thank goodness!
The project seemed very simple but even “simple” with a class of
kindergartners can have its fair share of frustration. The kids were
to create a design using straight or curved lines but they had to do
it without ever lifting their pen off the paper. As a parent volunteer
you want to help several children instead of focusing on your own but
Dahlia just wasn’t getting it. I finally took her hand and physically
helped her make some designs. These are the moments when I crave more
patience.
This is the normal site I see when we eat at a restaurant with a TV
playing. Joe and the girls become absolutely engrossed in whatever
program they are showing. Here they are watching downhill skiing.
I took Dahlia to Seattle Children’s Hospital to get a second opinion
on her fast heart”beep” as Dahlia would call it. It general both
doctors said the same thing while this doctor seemed to lean more
towards the idea of a beta-blocker medicine if the episodes start
happening more.
Shamu’s Happy Harbor at Sea World area was perfect for our girls. It
was full of little kiddie rides that even Dahlia would get on. We
would not have even made it over to this area of the park if our
flight hadn’t been delayed for 2.5 hours. It worked out great with the
delay except for the fact that we didn’t make it home until 2 am after the 6 hr, 4 minute flight.