Escape from Snowzilla

The snowzilla- doomsday warnings increased in intensity all week, and by Friday when I headed to school, there were flashing signs lining the freeway that read "Blizzard Warning- Avoid Travel." So of course I raced out of class that afternoon to retrieve Finley from Michelle's (who was working from home since the government had already shut down and volunteered to save me the across-town trip) and we headed for the airport. Seth was already in Florida, enjoying 70 degree weather while drinking beer and fishing, and we were not about to miss the fun.

Hours later, we stared gloomily out our airplane window at this scene. It was really coming down, Reagan National only has one de-icer, and word on the street was that the airport was closing at 4.

We ended up surviving a three hour delay and being the second to last flight out of DC before the blizzard overtook it. Talk about a close call! I had already had visions of trying to get home in the whiteout dancing in my head- even the metro was shutting down! The only thing of comparable horror had to be five hours stuck on a plane with an alternately energetic and pissed-off Finley.

Luckily, the entire DC United Soccer Team had grabbed this last-ditch flight to get to winter training camp, and turned out to be remarkably good (and patient) with babies. This is Finley playing peekaboo with three members of the starting lineup. I was beyond grateful.

There was some wailing and gnashing of teeth once we were in the air, but eventually she gave up and passed out. Largely due to the amazing powers of the new girasol baby wrap, without which I will not fly for many, many years. (It can be used a little like a baby straitjacket.)

We finally made it, and Finley was overjoyed. She loves vacation, and wrapped up her evening by smearing mango-and-ham pizza on white hotel linens. Her favorite.

The "beach" aspect of our getaway ended with the tropical pizza toppings, however, since the storm rendered it unseasonably cold and windy. What luck! We had made it just in time for Florida's one weekend of winter, and I was beyond disappointed, having been in dire need of beach time and dreaming about reading a book by the sparkling beachfront pool at the cute retro hotel on a white sand beach I had spent hours selecting. Instead, our  little bit of"beach time" looked like this.

Luckily, the hotel had giant jenga (guess which part was Finley's favorite)

and the Clearwater Aquarium was open. Finley couldn't have cared less about the famous dolphins, but LOVED the nurse sharks

and petting the stingrays with Dad.

Sunday we realized that DC was still in a state of snow-induced panic and we were definitely not going to make it home that night, so Seth- bless his heart- drove to the airport and secured the next available flight. Which was Tuesday. We were pretty excited to have beaten the cancellation rush and to not be part of our legions of friends trying to dig out of their front doors at home, DC having gotten over two feet of snow. Unseasonable chilliness notwithstanding, the timing of this getaway was pretty epic (especially since we both ended up having school cancelled until Wednesday.)

And although I refuse to call the trip a "babymoon" as intended, since it involved zero beach time and lots of Seth-drinking-beer-with-Brian time (I was glad they had gotten to catch up, after all, and he did pull serious baby duty at Tracy's beautiful promotion ceremony, which had been our other justification for the plane ticket purchase), at least one family member had the time of her life. Partly due to the fact that "vacation" means she is allowed to have chocolate chip pancakes. With whipped cream.

Monday it finally warmed up some, and Finley got to enjoy that quintessentially Florida pastime, golf. The mini variety, anyway. She tried to swim in all the water obstacles, and somebody let her have her own golf club.

She also sampled- and loved- Cuban food.

By Tuesday morning, we had gotten a little bit of sun and it was time to come home. We were a little anxious about getting back, since we knew thousands of flights had been cancelled, but our luck held and we made it to Dulles only a little behind schedule. We were grateful to uber for the across-town trek to Reagan, which to be honest, was the fault of the travel agent- yours truly- and not the weather event. I wouldn't call our return trip seamless, but it was definitely less painful than it could have been.

Even if economy parking was a disaster area and my poor little car took some work to rescue. (Seth having taken Finley home triumphantly in his gas-guzzling monstrosity with offroad tires, for which I am grateful exactly once a year.)

Home safe and sound, Seth and I congratulated ourselves repeatedly for our well-timed escape. (We even made it back in time for Finley to enjoy some sledding in 50 degree weather! Although Seth had hours of shoveling and salting to catch up on.)

We're actually spending all week catching up, with compressed school schedules and still-ongoing ice delays. But at least we're not recovering from a long weekend of being housebound! which would have been brutal indeed.

Couple funny photos of the week. I was beyond excited Monday to finally get in a beach sunset. And this is what my beach buddies were doing: napping, and sports score- checking. Fail.



This one makes me laugh out loud. Like father, like daughter, glued to the TV at a sports bar while enjoying chicken quesadillas.

And, Finley's contribution to the shoveling effort. She stood at the door and yelled "yay, Dad, yay!"

Finley's Luxurious Weekend Getaway

By mid-week I had started to feel almost human again after two weeks of battling a vicious cold, and Finley had stopped waking up at night in a coughing fit. So of course Seth came back from Minnesota with a suspicious-sounding cough, and by the next day was a full-blown victim to whatever particular and awful strain of winter plague we had contracted.

He, at least, could take some cold medicine to make it tolerable, so we set out for the Eastern Shore on Friday, determined to beat traffic and enjoy our long weekend getaway. Seth had been gifted a duck hunt (complete with accommodations at a waterfront inn) months ago, and we had finally decided to schedule it.

For once, I was bummed to miss out on a hunting trip since I do kind of like duck hunting, but Seth convinced me to tag along by scoring an upgrade to the opulent Admiral's Suite and convincing me that the weather was going to be rotten anyway. (It mostly was.) So Finley and I enjoyed a little five-star pampering in our luxurious quarters.

By which mean, she was delighted to discover fancy chocolates on the pillow (and tore into them and stuffed one in her mouth before I even saw the little gold box).

She also fell wildly in love with the marble jacuzzi tub, insisting on several baths a day,

and lounging in an Egyptian cotton bathrobe afterwards.

To top it all off, she feasted on chick-fil-a in bed.

Seth caught his limit by 9am and by lunchtime was soaking bloody goose and duck meat in our sink, so I insisted on a field trip to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, where Finley climbed the lighthouse and learned how to drive a boat.

I squeezed in a little bit of Amy Time when the skies cleared, and did some kayaking around lovely St. Michaels (a summer sailing town that we pretty much had to ourselves this time of year).

That night we took the little beast out for a nice dinner, at which she devoured real Maryland crabcakes like a pro and loved the oysters.

We made it home Sunday just in time to beat the snow!

and had Monday to recover. Which meant a trip to Whole Foods (in her gorgeous new girasol wrap) for Finley and 100 loads of laundry for Mom and Dad.

In the spirit of our "still goin' strong" family new year's resolution, though, we braved the suddenly biting cold wind and spent the afternoon in the city at the National Museum of Natural History, where Finley loved the dinosaurs and the gemstones, and actually licked the earth's oldest known rock. And got to do this. We love the Smuthsonian.

Now we're tackling the short week, which means lab research (Seth) and papers we should have written over the weekend (yours truly) before we race off to Tampa this weekend (hopefully beating this nor'easter that's been all over the weather news.)

The photos of the week are of Finley's goose stew tasting. Which, to be honest, she liked just fine. She's just become a little bit of a ham at dinner.

Sick Germs and Missed Kicks

Some weeks you're just gutting it out. We've had about two of those back to back, though, so I'm crying "Uncle" this chilly Monday on which Finley and I still sound like residents of a tuberculosis ward after more than a week of fighting a vicious cold. To add insult to injury, babies and pregnant ladies are the two unfortunate categories of people who can't rely on cold medicine to make things bearable. I never realized what a crutch Dayquil had become during cold and flu season! Honey and lemon juice and heavy-duty humidifiers just don't cut it. And poor Finley can't even use the neti pot (although last night she was so miserable, I briefly considered it.)

Plus, Seth is currently dragging himself back from a trip to Minneapolis for what the radio told me was the third-coldest football game in NFL history. He and Jayne and Tony were on hand for the agonizing loss.

We (literally) can't win at the moment.

We did get a bit of good news last week at a follow-up doctor's appointment. The week prior, an ultrasound had shown what looked like some excess fluid, causing a maybe-worrisome cervical shortening. The doctor wasn't panicked, but definitely ordered me to take a week off of any (and I mean any) kind of exercise to see if it resolved on its own, and visions of the dreaded bedrest danced in my head. I think Seth was even more worried about the prospect of a sedentary Amy than I was, and it ended up being just a long week for us both. We cancelled new year's plans to go to the Eastern Shore because I refused to sit in a hotel room while Seth golfed and kayaked and played outside without me, and I tried not to pout when he got in a good workout (largely because I'm really proud of his progress on what he refuses to call a new year's resolution to eat better and workout every day.)

All told, we were delighted when the follow-up indicated a clean bill of health for me and the baby, and I got the no-exercise-restrictions blessing.

Plus, we think baby Nieman is looking pretty cute.

It was a bright spot. The rest of the week involved Seth scrambling to keep the household running while I stayed up at night with a coughing baby, googling natural cold remedies and generally being miserable. I am a terrible sick person. Being pregnant at the same time makes me really not fun to be around.

I did start ILE, which significantly lengthened my commute but which is going to be alright. My small group is composed of varied and interesting people, the workload seems to be manageable, and the hours are not bad at all. I'm still getting into a routine and wading through an insanely boring first couple weeks of reading, but I think the next few months are going to be a nice break from the Pentagon.

Plus, Finley helps me study on my Army-issued nook. I'm just getting the hang of it. She already has.

The little beast and I had a low-key sick weekend at home with Seth gone. By Sunday, we were driving each other nuts, so I dragged Finley out for a lunch and shopping date (this is her destroying her room, and then perusing the racks/ practicing her yoga at the lucy sale),

and to Michelle's house for a change of scene. She left with some hilarious and awful hand-me-downs from Grace, including this shopping cart and the world's ugliest princess chair recliner. Which she obviously adores. I am beyond grateful for my best friend of almost 20 (!!) years, whose house I can show up at in sweats with a cold and a sick baby who hasn't napped in days. And still manage to have a good time.

We also feel ridiculously lucky that even when she's under the weather and tired, Finley is unfailingly charming and happy. The photos of the week are proof positive: this is her cracking up with her Dad at bathtime,

looking like the godfather in her highchair,

and getting loopy over Sunday morning cartoons (her only TV time and a real hit.)

And THIS is the face she makes when I tell her "no." Usually involving throwing her food on the floor at dinner time. She laughs uproariously while she does it. We know at this stage it's best not to react, and Seth gives me dirty looks when I have to race out of the room so she can't see me cracking up. His poker face is much better than mine.

Ringing in 2016 with Resolutions and Shared Guac

So this was our New Year's last year. Kind of hard to believe how much has changed.

And also how much has stayed the same. (This was also Finley watching football with her Dad on New Year's Day. The big difference is that she did so while stubbornly wearing her favorite hat, for some reason, and stuffing her mouth with cheese.)

We did have another quiet New Year's Eve at home, which didn't appear to bum Seth out too badly since it there was college football on. I napped in front of the TV but managed to be awake at the stroke of midnight, unlike my by-then-snoring husband (the big upsets and the Vikings game still being several days away.) We waited until the next day for the much-loved (or hated, depending on who you ask) Walters Family tradition of writing new year's resolutions for each other (and then burning them), and it didn't go too badly at all (although we had to move outside due to the size of the flame.)

We also finally got around to watching Fed Up, which we highly recommend to anyone not contemplating sending their kids to public schools (because it will make you want to pack them off to Switzerland.)

One of our joint resolutions for 2016 is to squeeze in all the "DC Appreciation" experiences we can during our last 7 or so months here, since it's starting to dawn on us that it will probably definitely be the last time we live here (or in any big, interesting city). For all the times we curse the traffic and the crowds and the lack of parking, we're pretty lucky to have the proximity to places that people travel from all over the world to enjoy, and we're determined to leave here feeling like we "did" DC- and Bethesda, which is also no slouch in the culture department. We took Finley out for New Year's dinner and walked around Bethesda Row, where she enjoyed street music

and Belgian food.

Since it was definitely not my resolution to cut calories (thank you, baby #2, those sweet potato fries were for you), I sweet talked Seth into brunch at Baltimore comfort food icon Miss Shirley's the next day, where Finley and I stuffed our faces with the best chicken and waffles we had ever tasted.

And then we took her to the Port Discovery Children's Museum, which of course she enjoyed but which couldn't hold a candle to the children's museum in Minneapolis. Still, a visit had been on our "to do" list for a long time, so we felt like we were doing a killer job with our resolution so far.

We were on a roll with this resolution! So yesterday I dragged Seth and Finley out from in front of the ESPN network for a trip into the city to check out the holiday decorations at the U.S. Botanic Garden, where Finley mostly practiced her walking

and threw fits when we picked her up. (Do not be deceived by this charming photo of her.) (Also, I know I look about 12 months pregnant in it. I'm throwing away that sweatshirt.)

We were later reminded just how terrific the Smithsonian is. The National Museum of the American Indian has a great children's discovery area, where Finley got to drool on authentic baskets, was totally unimpressed by the tipi, and screamed when we made her get out of the kayak. All in all, a nice day- and validation of our family resolution to get out and enjoy our DC backyard.

Now for those personal resolutions...

This was my favorite photo of the week. We stumbled upon the Americans Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial, which is a little strange and very oddly titled, but which Finley enjoyed mostly because she had it all to herself. She loves climbing on monuments. I snapped this shot of her and her Dad, just out for a stroll.

And this one is from right before the Vikings kickoff. She apparently demanded "taxes" on the guacamole (although she won't touch it for me.) I rounded the corner from the kitchen and encountered this adorable moment.

 

Here's hoping 2016 is healthy, happy, and full of moments as heartwarming as they are hilarious! Cheers from the Niemans, who are off to a pretty great start.