Ah yes, it helps having grand-critters around shaming us into making a new post! Here's some recent hectic haps of the McBacons...
I made my first trip back to Los Angeles for work, which was stressful indeed but Mike & Anne-Sophie did a champion job taking care of Evelyn back at home. She's so little that she hardly noticed I was gone! (Womanfully, I here restrain a trembling of the lower lip....) At work, a bittersweet situation has developed that is forcing me to become an independent consultant. It was just a matter of time, really, so although it's a tad sooner than I expected, I'm going to join Mike as a freelance consultant. We're re-branding our fledging business and getting ready to launch ourselves as an IxD + development team. Onwards & upwards!
We hosted my friend Amy for a lovely visit this past weekend. She was charmed by Evelyn...as who would not be?...and I greatly appreciated re-connecting with her on the adult front. Along with Anah, we enjoyed some splendid meals (thanks for cooking, Amy!) and did lots of fun shopping around Portland. I'm ever-so-pleased to look beyond maternity wear. Those nine months plus were a tough slog on the fashion front!We also had a fun time bringing some dinner over to our friends Mike & Carolyn, who are enjoying life with their 4-week old baby girl, Elliott. She's such an itty-bitty peanut! It's astonishing how small newborns are, and that's coming from new parents, even. They're all doing quite well and we look forward to having more good times with them, as we watch our daughters growing up at the same time!
Some of the other fun we had recently was celebrating Anne-Sophie's 19th birthday. We had a delicious brunch at the Heathman Hotel, then wandered around Portland's Saturday Market. It was also St. Patrick's Day, and she was bemused to notice the quantity of green clothes being sported around town, as well as the antics of bagpipe players marching in circles around the sidewalks.
I'm sorry to report that my grandmother Barbara was recently afflicted with some heart problems, and she also suffered a small stroke that has affected her short-term memory. We're happy to see that she's improving, though, and we're all hopeful that her memories will reknit themselves in due time. Meanwhile, my parents have hired a live-in caregiver who can attend to her needs and ensure that she doesn't miss medications and such. It's tough to see this wonderfully sweet lady go through such a trauma, but everything that can be is being done to take care of her properly.
Life appears to always provide a mix of the bad with the good, the beautiful with the not-so-beautiful.
Mainly, our eyes fall on Evelyn, and most of the rest of the world fades away to the background. She grows more bright every day, in a literal sense at least, as she practically sparkles with the blush of infancy. Physically she's chubby in the right places and is growing well - we'll get our next true progress report from the pediatrician in a couple weeks. Developmentally Evelyn's been in quite a smiling, happy zone lately, in some sense a plateau where she's been practicing recent skills in terms of manual dexterity as well as now sitting up and doing some disorganized creeping. She's napping very little, as she seems so intent on exploring her world and not missing out on anything that happens. Anne-Sophie's doing a great job keeping her entertained throughout the day, and helps her get in some cat naps at least. Verbally and emotionally, Evelyn makes funny razzing sounds a lot and smiles at us easily, though she remains rather hard to amuse to the point of laughter...something that tips her over into giggles one day gets a smile the next and is practically humdrum thereafter. She's our little novelty-seeker!
--Liz
