What do people do for fun when Southern California Edison has a scheduled power outage for the day?
Well, baking is out: no Kitchen Aid mixer and no electric ovens. So, too, is any cooking: opening the refridgerator isn't the best idea, when one wants to conserve a cool temperature for the food inside. Obviously, we cannot watch television. Computers don't work. Not even my iPod Touch works for Internet access: our wireless router plugs into the wall. We can't dance to music (other than what we sing or make-up on our own). Even vacuuming, the world's most fun chore (seriously) is impossible. And forget ironing!
To start the day, Katie and I played with her puzzles and read books.
Then we met our CPA and picked up our tax returns (refunds this year---yay!)
After that, we had an appointment with Amie to taste cakes for my brother's wedding. Amie offered to be responsible for the cupcakes, and she was going to make all ten dozen. She is an excellent baker, and I have learned everything I know about baking and cooking from her. When we really thought about it, though, we realized that icing 120 cupcakes the morning of the wedding would be quite hectic! So she has desired to hire it out. We met with Baby Cakes today, and we loved Janet and Trish, and moreso, we loved their cupcakes. My brother and his fiancee Ashley want three different kinds of cupcakes, and all were delicious: dense and yet moist and not overly filling. In particular, the red velvet cupcake achieved the perfect balance between the cake and the cream cheese icing. The icing did not overpower the cake. The chocolate cupcake obviously used several different intensities of high-quality chocolate. Katie went along to the tasting, of course, and she loved each cupcake. My mom decided on the spot to hire the ladies, and I think she made a great choice. So delicious!
Home again, we noticed the power still wasn't on... So we decided to drive around the neighborhood with Amie and look for the electric company's ultility trucks to see if they were still around and working, at least. That is to say, we started out innocently enough. ;-) We didn't see any on the first pass, but then we sighted one. Being so awesome and cool, (ha ha) we decided it would be fun to follow this truck around and see what it was doing. We kept a little ways behind it and watched it travel from box to box with some kind of long orange rod. At one point it turned left, and then made a u-turn and started going the other way. We made a joke about how the men inside were probably trying to shake us (the crazies following them) off their trail. It was one of those situations where were we cracking ourselves up...especially since we knew that stalking the Edison truck was a little close to being weird. But, hey, what else were we going to do for sheer entertainment with a dark house? We were really laughing by the time we decided to call it quits. That's one reason I love family and my friends-like-family: you can do random and bizarre things with them and they get it and it's totally funny.
Eventually we settled for playing outside at our house and picking dandelions and enjoying the grass and the sky. Probably we'd be a little more normal if we had just done this from the beginning. :-)
So tomorrow we have our gender ultrasound! I am so excited. Katie is definite in her opinion that she is having a little sister---we'll see if she is right!
We have been nursing another cold this week---can you believe it?? We're never this sick. It's crazy. I feel like we're in a funhouse. However, we are constantly around other toddlers these days---with our classes and time at the big park and so on. Toddlers pass viruses around like nobody's business. Thank goodness we're vaccinated against the really dangerous ailments. I can totally see now how quickly and surely certain viruses can spread---and all we're talking about here is a little cold, not even the measles or mumps or anything as potent as that. Both of us feel better now, though. I was down for a couple of days, and so was my mom, but Katie had this one for only a day. My dad came over yesterday and brought chicken soup and played with Katie outside so I could sleep and so that she could have some better stimulation. Bill and I have been seriously talking about doing fewer children-based activities with Katie. We'd keep her music class, of course...but here's the thing. Until we started all her classes with toddlers this year she was never sick. Being around other children has its advantages, but staying perfectly healthy (as she was hitherto) is not one of them. Anyway, we have six more weeks of gymnastics and art classes, and then we'll have to do some real thinking. You see, Katie can handle a virus now and then and so can I (although let me tell you, being pregnant and sick ranks as one of the most mentally challenging things I've been asked to do, since I don't believe in taking anything to help with symptoms). But a newborn baby certainly doesn't need a cold. Katie was insulated for most of her young life, but we have to make a decision about whether we want to take the risk of introduing a virus into the house via Katie or me when Little Sib is born.
But would it be right to ask Katie to sacrifice some of her extracurriculars in order to keep Little Sib as protected as Katie was as a newborn? Ah, the balance of having more than one child...and having to make the best decisions for both of them at once. How do we weigh it?
In other good news, I was able to keep to my eye exam appointment before I knew I was virus-ridden. My prescription is holding steady. That makes four years of no changes for the worse, thank goodness. Dr. Yazdan also took pictures of my retinas and said they "look perfect." Hurray!
Katie's newest favorite movie is South Pacific. I love that she has the Mitchell/Yoder gene for loving musicals. After her very first viewing, she internalized Nelly Forbush's song, "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair" and has been singing it when she dances in water outside (as we water our flowers) or in the tub. She only saw it once, but she does some of the dance moves as well. It's supercute. I am sure I sang this song a couple of times in her newborn days when I went through my whole musical repetoire, but I am still impressed with what she gleaned from watching the scene once. We've since watched it a couple of more times, and she likes to pretend that she is Nelly. Rodgers and Hammerstein forever! ;-)
So that's what we've been up to these days... Hope everyone has been having an awesome Spring or Spring Break!
I will post tomorrow with news about Little Sib!
