Amy - New Year's Reflections 2013

I started out 2013 resolved to write more, which was easy, because I like to write. Kind of like telling someone who likes to eat that they have to snack more.  I also find it therapeutic, as those of you with small children can relate, for much of the day I need to do an unimpressive form of mental gymnastics.  My thoughts race ahead then flip and twist, dash this way and that as I cook and parent, and play and parent, as I do laundry and parent, shower and parent, drive and parent, schedule an appointment and parent, teach, learn, screw-up, yell, apologize...

As soon as our front door swings shut, as I leave for my daily break, my thoughts spin inward and my eyes glaze over.  As I walk, my mind chases ideas, as colors, images, sounds, and smells swirl and evaporate again and again until one of them takes shape and my conscious mind grabs a hold. That's the one.  Then the words start to flow as I wander toward my destination looking for a warm drink and a table near an electrical outlet.
Soon I start to write, letters become words, words become sentences, paragraphs take shape as I paint with words, the pictures in my head.

It feels wonderful, like stretching after a strenuous workout.  I'm lost as the hands on the clock whir unnoticed. Sometimes my fingers outpace my thoughts and I pause to sip wondering how my drink got cool so fast.  I check the clock, I still have a few minutes, then a little more writing. Uh oh, I'm going to be late, I should stop... Just let me get this part out...

The rest of my day I spent as a typical wife and mama.

We have been lucky to have Oma and Opa over for overnight visits on alternating Wednesdays. It's wonderful to have company, and usually affords Charley and I time to go out together.  In fact, Boots, my former separation anxiety child, shoves us out the door to get more of Oma and Opa's attention for herself.

So that's my daily life, now for the highlights of my year...

In the beginning of 2013 I was facing my first mammogram. Not a big deal for most people, but with my family history, (100% of my maternal, female relatives have had breast cancer before menopause) it's a little worrisome. I've resigned myself to the certainty that I will get cancer within the next ten years, I just need to be vigilant and catch it early. My mom and grandma both survived, and I plan to as well.

My doctor wanted to start mammograms at age thirty, but because I spent my early thirties pregnant or nursing, it didn't happen. Now that we're done having babies, (*Sniff* Yay! *Sniff*) I had no more excuses for postponing it any longer. At my yearly exam, my doctor counseled me to wait for three months after weaning Berzo before scheduling my mammogram, putting me due for one in March. With CANCER heavy on my mind, I thought a lot about my life to date. I love my life and wouldn't change a thing, but it is much lighter on the adventure and travel than I thought it would be, and at thirty-five I had done very little. During a visit with my friend, Stephanie, I said in an offhand way that we should take a trip together sometime, like Hawaii or something, just us girls. To my surprise, Stephanie said, “OK, let's do it.”

I mentioned the idea to Charley in a joking way, wouldn't it be crazy if, and he said, “I think you should do it. And if you go, it'll have to be for a week at least, to make it worth the airfare and give you time to explore.”

“Seriously?” was my response.

“Yeah, seriously. You need to do this,” he said.

Feeling a little surreal, (a lot guilty, and little scared) we made the arrangements, spent the money and away we flew.

It was everything I was hoping it could be and more. We stayed in West Maui, on Napili Bay, and woke up to sights of humpback whales breaching through the bands of double rainbows. We snorkeled until our necks cramped and leg tendons ached. We went on a whale watching tour and saw dozens of whales; the first we saw was a mom and baby pair that were playing near enough to our boat as to make the captain nervous. Watching them play made me ache for my girls. Then amazing little swallow-like birds flew up out of the water then dove under, again and again. No wait—holy shit—flying fish!

Molokini Crater

Later that week we took a cruise to Molokini Crater & Turtle Arches to snorkel. The boat tossed and heaved, and so did many of the passengers, but Stephanie and I were too high on the thrill of adventure to feel anything amiss. Moored in the crater the waves still rolled and wind whipped. I was leery about jumping into such rough seas to swim, but I did anyway—of course. I bobbed around in the cool water feeling anxious, then I plugged in my snorkel and put my head under the water—it was pure peace; white noise filled my ears and the waves felt like a gentle rocking rather than a savage tossing. The water was clear, and brilliant little fish with unusual methods of locomotion swam around each person, their little eyes swiveling as they searched us over. Pacific Whale Foundation does not permit anyone to feed the fish, but clearly that rule isn't observed by all the boats that visit the crater.

After an hour or so in the water we were chilled, but we stayed in until they dragged us out. We then motored to Turtle Arches and I was so cold I thought twice about jumping in the water, but I did anyway—of course. We saw several huge sea turtles. They came so close it was tempting to try to touch them. We lasted for another forty-five minutes or so, before deciding to warm up on the boat. The trip back was rough waters as well. It was pleasant at Turtle Arches, but you could see the wind on the water out in the distance and the captain advised us to use caution and hold on. Sure enough, like passing through a door, the wind slammed into us and ripped at our clothes and hair as we searched the water for whales; it felt like flying. What an adventure!

As I got comfortable snorkeling, I learned to dive a bit, and a few feet under the water you could hear the whales singing clear and true from anywhere on the island. The pressure eventually perforated my left eardrum, but it was worth it, and it stopped hurting—bonus. We hiked, strolled, paddle boarded, shopped, got lost a few times, (I was navigator) drove a scary road around the northwest side of the island, sampled the World’s Best Banana Bread, dined, laughed, lounged, took thousands of pictures some of them underwater, and felt ourselves renew.

So fun!  I've been trying to convince Charley we need one for Oysterville.

The days flew by and Stephanie and I savored every last moment. However, when we got to the airport, we couldn't get home fast enough. It was a red eye that arrived at seven or so in the morning. The elation of hugging my little family again and breathing in their smells was like a hit from the best kind of drug.

For the rest of the year, I've floated on the notes of that trip.

Some of you might be thinking, "Hey wait a second.  Amy doesn't even work, [for money] how can she possibly go to Hawaii?"  And I would say to those people, you're absolutely right; it's not justifiable.  It was by pure grace that I got to do this.  A gift that goes beyond the expense to my family, Charley hates us to be apart even for a day and we have two small children to care for.  I will be forever grateful to my family and everyone else who helped, for giving me this once-in-a-lifetime gift.  Not a moment was wasted and I'll remember it always. Thank you.

Once back home it was time to face reality and get my very first mammogram. The results were negative. Whew! My doctor and I discussed genetic testing. He said the first step is to have my mom tested, because she was the one who had cancer. I've discussed it with my mom several times, and explained it carefully, but to no avail. I'll keep trying though, this not only affects me, but my girls' risk factors as well.

During our summertime trip to Lina's, Charley's brother-in-law, Dave, took out on the Wynoochee river to fish for steelhead. Which is another item I got to check off my bucket list. Although, now I've added, landing a steelhead to the list. It was fun driving along the river with Dave telling us who lived down many of the driveways, and which of their animals he treated, and what fishing holes are near their stretch of water.  He has permission to park and fish anytime of course. Our visit to Lina's was a wonderful trip. From there we headed to Lina's other house in Oysterville and spend the remainder of our vacation there.

Summer is the season of birthdays in our family, Berzo's comes in June, Charley and Boots' in July and mine in August.  It seemed like I was in a continual state of shopping, party planning and baking this last summer.  By the time mine rolled around, I was glad to have a non-party birthday; we spent a the day hiking.  It was the perfect gift.

Then summer reached its zenith with the Oysterville Regatta, wherein we see many people we only see there, and we cheer on our favorite sailors while peering through binoculars misreading numbers on the sails, and chatting up the other spectators. The girls pet the dogs and play in the bay water as the high tide pushes up towards Clay Street. After the races, we enjoy the amazing dinner catered by Lina and Carol, and watch the trophy and tee-shirt presentations.  This year, Lina's daughter, Caylin won the cup.  The first female to ever do so.  The celebration this year was crowned by a watermelon. The seeded kind. The oblong, seeded kind. The oblong, seeded kind, from Hermiston. The lost revered watermelon of Tucker's childhood. It was delicious.

The Summer glare faded and fall glowed. Fall has long been my favorite time of year. The sticky heat of the valley is blown out by the crisp notes of fall breezes. The trees put on their most beautiful dress as they get ready for their grand ball, then drop them like a courtesan, littering our yards and sidewalks with their gold, orange, and red sequins.

Fall brought back-to-school time for Boots and the aforementioned anxiety issues. I want to extend my thanks to everyone who sympathized and passed along their help and advice.  It was invaluable.

These guys look pretty tough, yeah?  I smoked them all.

Charley, Clark, Jason and I ran Warrior Dash together this year. This was the first year we had our girls with us. Jason, Clark and I ran in the 10 a.m. wave together and Charley ran in the 11 a.m. wave after I took over the girls. I finished well, having scooted by a line-up that cost Clark and Jason ten minutes—TEN MINUTES. They were not happy. I finished nineteenth for my age group. With better conditioning, (I have to walk the uphills) I might be able to move up a couple spots, but I don't think I could ever touch those women in the top ten. We won't know, due to the nightmare it is to get in and out of Horning's Hideout, and the pile-ups at obstacles, and crowds of people craziness everywhere, we're going to find new races to run. They're simply packing in too many people into a single day of races.

The Turner Family

We had Thanksgiving at our home again this year. It was lovely. We cleaned our house, baked a pumpkin pie, and supplied a few side dishes and hors d'oeuvres. My mother-in-law arrived around nine on Thanksgiving morning and put in the turkey. She also provided the stuffing, chocolate cream pie, sweet potatoes. My side of the family showed up around eleven. Ericka brought her amazing rosemary rolls and a pie. Clark's family showed up around dinner time and brought roasted root vegetables. Aunt Patti came and brought a jelled fruit salad. Many hands make light work—indeed.

I'm a ball player!

We had a total of six kids in the house ranging in ages eighteen-months to nine-years and they all got along beautifully. We played Wiffle ball outside, enjoying the warm fall weather, and the kids played well inside too. The dinner was delicious, the company and conversation was lovely. The only thing that would have made it better was if Lina and Dave could have been there too. Perhaps next year.

Having unloaded the dishwasher after Thanksgiving, I found myself thrust into the Christmas shopping season. I’m no Christmas shopper. I get dizzy and stressed out in crowds. So I made good use of the Internet and all those wonderful promo codes and free shipping offers. I was able to complete about ninety percent of my shopping online. The shopping I did in stores was relaxed browsing, oh-this-looks-fun sort of shopping.

I found myself really anticipating Christmas Day. I pushed to get our tree up earlier, and savored the whole process. I flopped on Christmas cards this year though, sorry!

The weekend before Christmas we took our annual family trip to Lina's house and had a wonderful time. Lina is an amazing host and it is fun visiting with Dave and their now-grown kids. Seeing these “kids” in their twenties reminds me just how not-twenty I am any longer…

Although we had Christmas Eve all to ourselves, we were craving a little company and decided to have an open house. We invited friends and neighbors to drop by whenever it was convenient for them. Charley got out his homebrew and we sampled and snacked, and had a lively visit. Clark's family came over, and Boots and Mimi were nowhere to be seen for hours. Charley and Clark, in effort to keep alive a sacred family tradition, ordered up some take-out Chinese food. We had dinner together and visited and laughed.

Christmas morning came and in moments the several hours spent wrapping gifts was reduced to a pile of shreds. As it should be. The girls spent the rest of the morning playing with everything. We got Boots several arts and crafts kits, we thought would last her weeks—maybe months, as she worked through each one. She did them all on Christmas day and was happy as a bee in a field of flowers. It was so much fun. I gifted Charley a CO₂ kit and keg for his homebrewing hobby. He and the girls got me a new sewing machine; something I've wanted for years.

We spent New Year's Eve up at Oysterville with Oma and Opa.  We enjoyed the company and the very odd, very pleasant weather they were having.

And thus the year ended. 2014 is a blank page on which we'll write another story of another year.

And now for my resolutions...

Shift my perspectives...
See my failures and mistakes as opportunities to learn and practice.
See conflicts and misbehavior in my children as teaching moments.
Stop doing things halfway. I want to be fully present when I play and interact with my kids, and be 80% absent when we're not. Gotta keep my mom radar on—for safety's sake.
To feel guilty less and thankful more.
Be kinder to myself and more relaxed with my family.

And to make a little progress...
Make this year a training year for a half-marathon in 2015. Whoops, forgot, I suck at running.  I don't think I'm going to make this one anytime soon...  Maybe a 40th birthday thing.  When I have more time to work through my running suckiness...
Make more time for Charley and me (us), even when the girls are around.
Spend more time outside.
Develop my photography interest. (Apologies for the pun…)

And finally:
Be bold.  

Postscript...  I thought about creating a new post about our hopes and expectations for 2014, but since it's already mid-February I think I'll just make a list below...

2014:

• Swim lessons for Boots—she's doing fantastic!  
• Berzo will start preschool in the fall.  Just a one day a week thing at Gymboree Play & Learn, where she is comfortable and will learn to feel safe apart from our family.
• Charley and I will be fixing up our kitchen, bathroom, stair case, and painting the exterior.  We hope to put our house on the market Spring 2015.
• Camping the Deschutes this Spring around the salmon fly hatch.
• Camping on the Mckenzie this summer.
• Vacation in Oysterville.

Charley - New Year's Reflections 2013

Charley's year was a hectic one at work. He took over as the Pattern Shop Supervisor about a year-and-a-half ago, which added a lot of new challenges (stress) to his job. The company has also been restructuring its culture and manufacturing process, which is never easy and particularly difficult in a company that is over one-hundred years old and has many employees with thirty or more years on the job. However, many of the upper management personnel have retired recently, effectively severing the moorings of this very large, very old ship.

The beginning of 2013 brought a young, energetic general manager, Johnny, who was keen on moving and shaking. Charley is an earnest, hard-working fellow that embraces new processes that clearly benefit the company. That made Charley the new GM's go-to guy. While Charley certainly could see the benefits to the company and was glad of the changes, the extra stress was not always welcome. This past year he created a new production board that tracks individual pattern maker's progress on their projects, he researched and purchased a CNC machine, is working on training patternmakers to use it, is augmenting his production process to leverage its abilities, and he headed up a new Continuous Improvement Program that solicits ideas from employees and provides a reward structure for ideas generated by individual employees and departments supporting the efforts. He was also the second chair on the AFS board. All this and he still managed the day to day operation of the pattern shop. He is lucky to have an excellent group of guys working for him, including a very competent Lead Man, and backups.

New CNC machine

Whew. No wonder he always looks relieved to be home, even though I saddle him with the care of two young kids while I go out for a walk and to write, all of which helps me maintain my scant hold on my sanity. (They don't nap.)

As you probably already know, Charley's been doing quite a bit of running. He and his running partner Dalt logged around six hundred miles last year. He schedules enough races to keep himself motivated throughout the year. The first would have been the Shamrock Run, but we were afflicted with the crud and collected our tee-shirts but posted no time. Charley also ran the Bridge to Brews, Portland Half and the Warrior Dash. He PR'd in the Portland Half with a 1:42:45, but was disappointed in the Warrior Dash. He had to run a later wave than I did, because we had the girls with us, and he got caught in a fifteen minute line-up at a rope wall. The girls and I were waiting for photo ops at the finish line and I was getting concerned when the forty-minute mark came and went. Then finally he came sliding down the mud-hill and trotted across the finish line. Doused in mud, bearded, and scowling, he looked like a warrior.

This summer Charley turned forty. Yep. Really.

At first he was thinking he'd like to have a big BBQ party and a band, but the closer it came the less enthusiastic he was about the idea. Then after a short sit at our computer, he looked around the wall into the kitchen and said, “There I did it. I just got us tickets to the Hops Baseball game on my birthday.” 

Cool! We went out to the Helvetia Tavern for dinner, decked out in our Boston gear and Hops hats and arrived in time to see Boston lose. It didn't dampen his spirits though. After all we were in a bar with freshly pulled pints, eating humongous burgers, alone together, (thanks Oma and Opa!) after which we were going to a ball game. A single A ball game, but who cares! A ball game in a stadium is pretty neat for us. Despite the Hops eventual loss, we had a great time at the game, and the game was really well played, with several of those moments that you hope to get at least one of during a game.

This summer Charley also became a brewer. He has brewed three varieties so far, a bitter (which isn't at all bitter), an amber, and an IPA. We have also had fun designing labels. Charley chose the photos and an effect he liked, I created the general layout and Tucker took both of these elements and turned it into something that looks professional. I would buy a bottle off the shelf, all they're missing are the warnings and a bar code. Each brew has a name, “Broken Boom Bitter”, “Ash Breeze Amber”, “Brooklyn Bombers IPA”, and a story. If you want to hear them, you'll have to come over for a sampling.

At our visit to Lina's he enjoyed spending time with his sister and brother-in-law Dave. Charley and Lina have an enviable relationship. They are each a stalwart friend and advocate for the other. At Lina's bachelorette party, waaay back in ‘98, we were in a bar celebrating, and a guy struck up a conversation with me—this kind of thing doesn't happen to me... He talked to me a bit, and while I wasn't interested—obviously, I'll admit I enjoyed the novelty of the attention. About thirty seconds into the conversation, there's Lina in her bachelorette finery, a cheesy bride to be tee-shirt and tiara, telling this guy to get lost, I'm married to her brother. He gave a whoa, hands up gesture and got lost. It was so cool... But I digress.

Charley and Lina had a great time catching up and reliving old times together. Charley also was in seventh heaven dining on Lina's cooking. Oh my, they know how to make amazing meals. I know it takes planning and effort, but she makes it look easy. She obviously inherited the Wachsmuth chef gene. She just brushes off the compliments and tells us how easy the recipes are. What she doesn't see it that it's her talent that makes it easy. I tried to duplicate a recipe they fed us called Halibut Fillets with Bombay Tomato Sauce and it was passable but didn't touch the tender fish, subtle flavor layers she was able to create. We followed the same recipe, from the same book! I think Charley and I gained five pounds each that week at Lina's.

This year at the Oysterville Regatta Eve gathering at Lina's cabin, Charley popped the tops of a couple bottles of the Broken Boom Bitter and everyone sampled, even those, like Tucker, who don't particularly care for the flavor of beer. Charley also went to the Oysterville Social Hour at the Stevens' house and entertained everyone with a discussion of the brewing process. He came out all grins as he recounted the conversation.

Brost!

Charley has a very meticulous nature, well suited to the controlled environments you need as a brewer, and all of his brewing ventures have turned out really well. I would love to see us with a little Farmer's Market Stall in a few years, giving away samples and selling cases. Until then we are happily drinking his brews and sharing with friends, family and neighbors.

While Charley doesn't share our enthusiasm for the holidays, for the sake of the particular holiday, he always is out there dutifully decorating the house with lights and dragging plastic boxes of decorations out of our storage spaces, while the girls prance around in a state of delight.  He does however treasure the company of family and friends that the holidays bring.

Thanksgiving was at our house this year and we love getting our families together.  Charley and Clark had a nice opportunity to reconnect too.  After the third or fourth shared bottle of home brew the brotherly brothers decided to sign-up for Tough Mudder this year.  In case your not familiar with Tough Mudder, it is an obstacle course race that goes ten miles, featuring electrical shocks and pools of ice water to crawl through...  Feeling brotherly?  Sign up for their team!

The last few years our tradition has been to visit Lina and Dave for a weekend, a week or two before Christmas.  Charley looks forward to this immensely.  He spends the weekend tucked in with his family visiting, dining on Lina's amazing cooking, shooting clay pigeons, and in general having a good time.  This year he brought up some of his beer and we had great fun sampling, visiting, and sampling some more.  The next morning, although feeling a bit sluggish, Dave, Lina, Charley and I managed a three mile run, while Opa and Oma watched our little ones. The area they live in is absolutely beautiful and the run was as pleasurable as the company.

We spent our New Years in Oysterville in the company of Oma and Opa.  None of us could make it to midnight so the fun favors had to wait until morning.  The morning came and went.  Then the next day it was time to go home and still the favors were untouched.  With the car was loaded and idling, we got out the noise makers and poppers and rang in the new year.  We brought the remainder of the favors home and had a big celebration.  The girls were crowned with tiaras while blowing horns and popping poppers.  Thanks Oma and Opa!

Berzo- New Year's Reflections 2013

Berzo and I enjoyed the quiet time together while Charley was at work and Boots was at school for the morning.  Although it only amounted to a few hours, it felt decadent to be able to focus solely on her.

Once Boots was in school, I assumed that Berzo's toddler-hood would be more or less a repeat of Boots', but it wasn't. We do some of the things that Boots and I did together, but we've also invented many new routines and rituals.  We'll stroll to Starbucks and she'll get a Apple Juice Love-It, (other people call it a Kid's Apple Steamer—I prefer Berzo's nomenclature) then we'll go to play in a park nearby. It has columns holding up a covered area. We weave through the columns, playing tag, and hide and seek, I hide behind a column and act shocked that she could see me and find me. We pretend we are in a rocket blasting off to orbit the earth. Usually we don't escape Earth's gravitational pull and plummet back down to the ground. However, sometimes we build enough thrusting power and I fly her through the air, her body laid across my arms and we take several orbits of the earth before returning to the launch pad. We also pet the friendly dogs that frequent the park for other reasons...

There is another park nearby with a bridge over a creek, and we spent copious amounts of time gathering sticks, leaves, and rocks and dropping them off the bridge into the water. We took trips to another park to feed the ducks, play in the Echo Tunnel, and visit the library.  We'd also meet our friends, Cathy and her son, for fun play dates at our parks, library, zoo...

Cutie and Berzo awaiting the sea lions.

Last fall we also started taking Gymboree classes once a week with Berzo's friend Cutie. She loved Gymboree immensely. The room is cleverly re-arranged every two weeks to complement a new theme, e.g. Fast and Slow, Loud and Quiet. The teachers then coach us parents on the theme and we guide our kids through the activities. The forty-five minute class alternates between fun activity time to quiet listen and learn time. Berzo was all for the fun activity time, but usually opted out of the listen and learn time, and would dash around, climbing, jumping and sliding while many of the other kids sat quietly on their parent's laps playing a game or listening to a story. Luckily, the toddlers are encouraged to go at their own pace and explore as much or as little as they want.

At the ER.

In early February, Berzo fell while walking down our sloped driveway with a bucket in her hand, catching all her weight on her left arm, breaking the bone just below the elbow. She normally calms right down after a spill; I'll pick her up, kiss her boo-boo and she's usually good to go. In this case, it took a long time for the crying to taper off, then whenever she moved her arm, even a little, she screamed out in pain. This was familiar from when Boots  broke her arm the year before, so I rigged up a sling and took her to the ER. Four or fourzillion hours later we were discharged with a temporary cast. After four weeks in her cast, which slowed her down—not at all, her bone mended perfectly. It took her less than twenty-four hours to regain her full range of motion. Ah, to be young!

It was around this time that I took my trip to Hawaii with my friend Stephanie. I knew Charley and Boots would be OK, but leaving my baby-girl behind—wow, that was hard. She cried out for me when I went through security and my heart dropped—plunk—into my stomach. Charley said she stopped crying by the time they got back to the pick-up and she was happily watching Baby Einstein on her DVD player on the way home. With her doting Papa and protective big sister looking out for her, she did just fine.

In June Berzo officially left babyhood behind—sniff!—and turned two years old. We had great fun with friends and neighbors at our house for her monkey themed birthday party. She seemed to enjoy the novelty of being the center of attention.  She asks to watch her birthday song video over and over and over and over...


The school year passed too quickly and it was summer again.

With Boots home all day our dynamic changed, but we still had a lot of fun. Although Berzo spent a lot of time in the pickup while I ushered Boots to summer camps and other activities, I was careful to plan in plenty of playtime for Berzo. While Boots was in Farm Camp, we'd stop at Hagg lake, and Berzo would wade in the water and throw rocks and sticks. If I could get her out of the water, we'd hike around on the trails, but the call of the water would soon draw her back in. Boots also had a camp at a wetlands center, and Berzo and I spent the time hiking the trails and counting ladybugs. (We got to eighty one day!) During Boots ' clay camp, we wandered downtown poking around in the book shops, petting dogs, and visiting parks.

The girls kept asking to go swimming so I decided to declare Wednesday as Swim Day at our local aquatic center. The girls loved playing in the warm, shallow pool specially designed for kids. I had fun too, but I also sprouted a couple of new gray hairs worrying over changing room cooties and small children's propensity for touching and tasting everything.

Berzo enjoyed our visit to Tante Lina's where she played with their dogs, Cutter and Potato almost continuously. If she was outside, she was throwing the drool saturated tennis ball for Cutter. Inside the house, she'd throw Potato's little stuffed toys. Walking around the house, she'd randomly shout, “What's that Katato doo-wing!?!”

She loved spending time with Tante Lina and getting tickled and tossed around by Uncle Dave. The nearby river was a big deal for her too.  There's just something zen about a river. The cold, clear water tumbles by washing away stress; hours glide by unnoticed as we throw rocks, wade and watch.

Also, big sister isn't the only horse girl in the family.  During our visit to Lina's, Berzo also got to ride a horse at Sue and Bob's farm. When Boots was riding, Berzo was out at the pasture fence, playing with the other horse, Spider, who seemed just as interested in her as she was in him. When Berzo's turn to ride ended, she burst into tears and was only consoled when we took another trip out to visit Spider at the fence.

Our time in Oysterville was wonderful for Berzo. We had lovely warm weather and every day Berzo insisted we go swimming. She insisted so vehemently that we took her even when the bay was going to be very cold, just so she could see for herself that the warm water of yesterday was going to be cold today. She dipped in a big toe and agreed it was too cold for swimming that day.

Shoalwater Bay is a tricky place to swim. The tide breathes in and out twice a day, and when the tide ebbs the mudflats go on and on, stranding the last of the water in the distant channels. The best conditions for swimming occur when the tide is out in the morning and the mudflats are allowed to bake in the sun until it flows in the early afternoon.  Then the mudflats warm the frigid ocean water making it rather pleasant for swimming. Sound tricky? It is. When there is a good tide for swimming, you must seize the moment, even if it is 7 p.m. It's magic when everything lines up, and difficult to explain to your two-year-old when it doesn't. Luckily, a walk through Oysterville and down Clay Street to see the bay is never a disagreeable experience.

Fall fell upon us and it was interesting to watch Berzo be aware of the changes. First the leaf colors changed and she'd remark on the golds, reds and oranges, as she collected them. “Look at this pretty red leaf, Mama!” Then they dropped off entirely and she'd declare, “The trees are all naked Mama!” Then she'd have a good laugh at her joke. She and Boots spent a the warm fall afternoons raking, and arguing over rakes, and jumping in the leaf piles.

Berzo loves music and often disappears to my room to play CDs on my clock radio. She then dances on my bed, or creates a “toasty nest” of blankets for herself and looks at her books. A door slam is my clue that she needs some time to unwind. She is attracted to instruments of all kind. This Christmas Santa brought her a wooden xylophone and cymbals, and their sound often tinkles through our front room.


Although, having two girls has made our life infinitely more complicated, and their fighting is disheartening at times, I couldn't imagine my life without this adorable little bug. Having one child changed me in so many ways, and I couldn't imagine loving another child as much as I love Boots ; then I had Berzo and my heart simply doubled in size. I see it in Charley and Boots  too. She has touched each of our lives in a way that binds us tighter as a family and helps us to focus on the sweeter, gentler things, and Berzo is the embodiment of that.

When I asked Berzo what she wanted to say to every one she gave me a coy grin and hugged me.  So here's a hug from Berzo >:D< mmmmMMm.