Guess who did something new this weekend?

We all did!

1. Natalia took her first steps on Saturday. We had driven up to meet Sacha's parents in Seattle at a folk music festival. It was a long car ride and I guess she was raring to go by the time we got there. She stood up (which she can do now on her own, without holding onto anything) and lunged forward and fell. Then, she stood up again and took a step... and stayed standing! Wow! It was in the middle of listening to a sea chanty band playing a song about being a pirate. She apparently found it motivational.

2. Mateo learned how to stay awake in the car. He has been a reliable car sleeper since we first put him in his Marathon car seat. It's difficult to take him places in the late morning, because he will conk out before nap time. However, this weekend, when we were counting on him to fall asleep on the way up to Seattle and then again on the way back down to Portland last night, he was wide awake. He did a great job overall though. We had some rough moments which featured both kids screaming their heads off simultaneously, but those were a small fraction of the overall driving time. Teo hung out in his seat, ate snacks, drank from his sippy cup, looked at books, and generally acted like a rock star passenger.

3. Sacha got ready for her two interviews coming up this week! She applied to a bunch of open jobs in the district and got offered two interviews - one for a half time job at a posh middle school and one for several different full time positions at an elementary school. We have a friend who used to work at the posh middle school and he told us there had been 150 applicants for one position in an earlier hiring round. So, getting an interview is a big deal!

4. And, finally, I had a new cooking milestone - I made my first batch of ultra-premium ice cream tonight. That's the kind with egg yolks in it. It was a deep chocolate ice cream and it was YUMMY. My friend, Catherine, made a vanilla version of this ice cream on our Sagehen weekend and I was inspired to try it out myself.

All in all, it was a lovely weekend. We had a wonderful time with Sacha's parents and got to celebrate Talia's birthday a bit early with them last night. Both kids enjoyed seeing their Bubby and Poppa.

Today, we were a bit bleary-eyed when we got up, as the kids had a rough night last night after getting in late, but our student nanny was here today and she quickly pepped us up. I spent some time talking with her this afternoon and it sounds like our family is the talk of the nanny school. All the other student nannies are fascinated by the two-mom aspect of our family. They have a two hour weekly class on their practicum experience and she said she's always getting peppered with questions on what we're like. Interesting, eh?

Anyway, then Apa came over and we had a fun dinner of pizza and beer and the fabulous ice cream. I love long weekends. And late spring in general. Yay!