End of the impromptu hiatus

It seems to have been quite a long time since last we blogged! We've had a busy two weeks, including a week of Sacha being on spring break. Since I have no hope of catching up if I attempt a full rendition of everything that happened since the dentist post, I'm just going to do bullet points.

Marshall the dentist continues to play an active role in our house. Since our dentist visit, Mateo has been very excited about brushing his teeth and even flossing the front two. We're thrilled that his first dentist visit was such a positive one!

We had a rather traumatic few days immediately following the dental visit. Among the things that happened:

• Sacha had been experiencing pain and sensitivity in her right eye for several days and finally went to the doctor. After ruling out any major problems, the doctor found...wait for it...a piece of saran wrap in her eye. It was about a centimeter in diameter and apparently had been hanging out in there for three days! We have no idea how it got in there, but she was very glad when they fished it out.
• However, a few days later, as Sacha was attempting to find the hidden key to our friends' house, so we could get in to feed their cat, she knelt down to look for something and didn't see the plant in her way. It poked her in that same eye and the bruise that it caused is only now beginning to go away.
  
• Later that weekend, while Mateo and I were hanging out at their house after feeding the cat, we were playing upstairs and Mateo wandered out of my sight for a minute. As I was going to find him, I heard the thump thump thump of him falling down their steep (but carpeted) stairs. Ack!! Luckily, he was okay. I felt horrible, though. Ugh.

After that, we all tried to be more careful and things have gone more smoothly. In fact, we had a lovely rest of Sacha's spring break. Sacha's mom came down to visit for the first weekend, which was the same weekend described above. It was actually a really nice weekend overall and filled with adventures! We all took in a young people's concert by the Portland Baroque Orchestra, the purpose of which was to demonstrate instruments played centuries ago. Mateo sat transfixed for an hour with Sacha, while I held our sleeping baby. She always goes to sleep to classical music on the radio and this was no exception! We then had a big adventure to find a place to eat dinner, which ended unexpectedly at the food court at the mall. It was too long to detail here, but we had a lot of fun getting there. It was wonderful to get to spend the weekend with Bubby!

Also that weekend, although not in chronological order, we went to two other concerts. It was a musical weekend! We saw the city's gay symphonic band with some friends and my grandma took Mateo and I to a big choir and orchestra concert at her church. Both were very fun. We felt extremely musical after three concerts in three days!

We then capped off spring break with a trip to Arizona with my family. We've gone with them several years for spring training and my parents very generously offered to take us again this year. And we happily accepted. We got there and we saw the sun! Shining! And emitting warmth! That was really all we needed, but we also got the company of my parents and brother and sister, a luxurious hotel, the fun of going to baseball games, and as much delicious food as we could eat. We returned to Portland with more vitamin D that we've gotten in months, plus memories of a great trip.

Here are some photos, including a comparison of Teo and Talia in the same outfit. I think he was about five months old and she just turned nine months.

First, him:

Then, her:


Also, us at the game, which we attended for about two innings due to nap schedules:


Teo on the plane, acting only slightly crazed:

And, cuddling at home:


I'll post more photos once I get them from my mom, who was far better about taking photos than we were!

Today, we're back in our cloudy city and back in the swing of things. Sacha's mom is down here again and we went to a mental health conference together this morning. Then, after we got the kids mostly ready for bed, I actually went out with a friend to a book reading in an actual bookstore. We went to see Dooce read and she was just as funny and engaging in person as in her blog. It was very fun. And so novel to have an actual social outing! Thanks, Megan!

Coming up, hopefully, are monthly letters to our kiddos, who are now almost 29 months and 9 months, respectively...