Wayne and Rebecca Madsen

Where do you want to go today, Paela? The toy store. She says. And so Wayne and the girls went to the toy story a couple of days when it was too too hot to stay outside. And the mall play area.

And then when hurricane Earl was cooling things down for us (it didn't get much more intense than a bit of rain for us), they joined forces with Cameron and Camilla to visit the zoo. Paela reported that her favorite part of the zoo was when the birds landed on her hands. She got to feed some seeds to a bunch of birds, and she talked about birds landing on hands for the last couple of days. Happily, Aderyn tolerated the stroller for the zoo visit (normally she screams and screams when we try and use the stroller and we thank heavens for the moby), since she got to sit next to her favorite cousin Cameron.  read more »

Summer is almost over.

But that didn't stop us from going to a new splash park in the area Saturday night. Both girls frolicked in the water, but Paela ended things early because she only wanted to do the swings.

And we went on a canoe ride up in Concord. I hadn't realized we've been married for over seven years and never done any kind of boat ride. Rebecca has never been in a canoe. But we found a great -- and contaminated -- river to have our adventure on. Paela was hesitant, but Aderyn was completely fussy, for the first half hour of the trip. But the rest of the time, the girls figured out what to do and how to enjoy their water adventure. I'm impressed the boat rental place didn't have a problem with us dragging our nine month old on a boat.

Aderyn did her nine month check up and she's still in the same high percentages as before.  read more »

For a second I thought it was a pretty calm week. And it was. But it was also birthday week, so at least there's a little bit of newsworthy material.

Wayne had a birthday. We celebrated a bit early with Camilla and Victor coming over Sunday evening to hang out. But I made Wayne wait until Tuesday to carry on with presents and cake and such. I'm such a stickler that way, I guess.

Paela did an excellent job keeping the surprises secret. She helped me choose wrapping paper and wrap presents, and when Wayne tried to ask what he was getting for his birthday, she said "presents" and when he asked what was in the presents, she said "surprises." She wanted to get him something clown red for his birthday, or maybe it was a clown which was red. We're not sure which.  read more »

Rebecca and I disagree as to whether Aderyn took her first steps this week. She wouldn't walk towards Rebecca or I, but managed a stepping-while-falling approach towards Paela. She has been standing solo more and more often, and she loves to raise her hands above her head in the "So Big!" position.

We finally visited Walden pond this weekend. We had intended to take a nice long walk in the peaceful forest, but instead spent more time "wading up to our necks" in the water. At least, that is what Paela did. She saw the water and walked right in -- with her clothes on -- and sat down. It was fun and next time we'll bring our swimsuits. 

There was a trip to the zoo somewhere in the week as well. Paela wanted to see the baby jaguar, just like on Diego. The bears tried to lick Paela through the glass, and she liked that.  read more »

One day this week Wayne showed up at work with the terrible news that our car would not go in reverse or change gears very easily. After consulting with my dad, Wayne headed off to the local mechanic expecting to need a new clutch (or whatever the automatic transmission equivalent is). But he quickly returned home. The mechanic could not duplicate our problem. 

Remember when you were in school and you had a question so you called the TA over? By the time the TA got there and you started explaining your problem, you answered your own question before they could say a word. 

Isn't that just the way of things?   read more »

Happy Anniversary to us. At least, that was true on Monday. But that seems like a lifetime away.

Aderyn got sick last night. We heard from Camilla that Cameron was sick and she was concerned she had passed the delayed bug to us, but it wasn't manifest until last night [so who knows if it really is the same bug or just looks the same]. And we settled ourselves down for a long and painful night, only to find it to be amiable. Aderyn was so sick, all she wanted to do was cuddle and be drowsy, all night and all day. She took several more naps than usual and spent much of the day clinging to Rebecca. Until the last hour, when she exploded with energy (and Paela as well) and has decided that the long and painful night should be the first night after recovery since she slept all day already.

At least, we hope this is recovery, not relapse.  read more »

The week started off slow. It's summer, what can you expect? Also I can't really remember what actually happened early on.

I think the chip-in farm may or may not have been visited. Story time may or may not have happened. I am pretty sure we did not pick up library passes this week, so that means no drumlin farm or zoo. But what else?  read more »

We tried to stay wet.

One morning, I took the girls to the Lexington park -- because Paela likes their slide selection better -- but the heat and sun were so stifling, we changed our plans and went to an outdoor splash park instead. I wouldn't say that our area is "ripe" with free summer entertainment, but we have managed to stay wet via splash parks or swimming or whatever. Both girls are quite the tadpoles.

I had another phone interview for another possible job. I really wish there was more I could say about these, but until I am out of the hiring season, I'd rather not mention too many details. My interviews go well, but with the job market commanding hundreds to thousands of applications per opening, it makes employment seem distant.  read more »

It was hot this week. And hot some more. And then another day it was hot too.

We stayed indoors with blinds closed trying to escape the heat. We were grateful beyond words for the little window AC unit. We bought some more fans because the bedrooms don't get much of the cool AC air into them. And we looked forward to the predicted rain that was supposed to cool things down a bit. Mostly, the rain just made things muggier. We didn't realize that was even possible.

But, Paela and Wayne and Aderyn enjoyed the spray park in Waltham one morning. So much so that Aderyn stayed up well past her naptime that day. Paela asked me yesterday if she could go to the spray park again, or the beach again. You think she likes water activities??

Another day was a mall play area trip because the mall is air conditioned. Notice a theme? And story time was attempted and abandoned. It was a different library from normal, so what can we say?   read more »

Salisbury Beach is a dump. The kind of dump that shouldn't still exist in this world of high technology and advanced marketing analysis. But it does, and it is a spot to treasure. It isn't that we fell in love with the "townies" who had sun-baked themselves into a cancerous leather-like skin, or the crusty boardwalk food -- but the ambiance was definitely so thick you could cut it with a knife. We decided to spend the morning of July 5th at the beach when we realized Aderyn hadn't been to the ocean yet.  read more »