Wayne and Rebecca Madsen

I believe we are superstitious people.

In the past, we would write in our weekly family post about any hopeful change Paela would have in her sleep patterns, only to have her change them within a few days. We began to joke with one another that her sleeping habits were contingent on us talking about them. Thus, we stopped mentioning her sleep habits in any post.

Granted, I don't really believe this is what happened. We only wised up to how inconsistent our daughter is and felt our reports were cheapened by mentioning something that would change with the wind. However, in time I have realized we haven't kept a record of what it is she does, even if it changes from time to time. So I am writing this brief entry as a document of the past month so we know what happened.  read more »

the thing was good. then we checked out another thing. and we learned about the thing.

Our cell phones died. Suddenly. Maybe it was the cat who chews through our battery charging cord, or perhaps it was just time. Either way, new phones were desperately needed. And AT&T was no help, so we tried Sprint. All things being equal, we probably should have gone with sprint. In the AT&T store, they told us that the reason why we can't get free phones for resigning our contract (even though we've been with the company for years) is that there is a slew of people standing around getting paid who need to get their money from someone, so it should be us.

Solution: order phones online.  read more »

Wayne's last months of work came to a close this weekend. I think there are still a few odds and ends to wrap up and exhibit openings to enjoy, but he and Red76's Sam got the exhibit set up at the San Jose Museum of Art Friday. Paela, of course, helped -- even when gallery directors indicated they prefered babies not to be in the museum where ladders might fall on them. Why do they have such dangerous ladders? Who knows? Paela stayed though...she didn't want to be lonely, after all.

Of course, this is just the conclusion of one of Wayne's projects. He still has school for a few more weeks this semester, and will help set up another project tomorrow probably.  read more »

We didn't want to sound boring this week, so we drove to Santa Cruz and played on the beach with Paela this weekend. It was warm enough to enjoy some sand and surf and despite Paela's cold, we had a good time learning about sand and the cold ocean. Paela wants to walk everywhere, even though she doesn't understand balance. But she hangs onto our fingers and takes giant steps in the direction she wants to go.

While in Santa Cruz, we walked her on the sand and down to the water's edge. She would kick wildly when the water got on her legs because it was so cold.

The remains of the week was overwhelming work, as usual. My residency project with Red76 is coming to a close and so we are frantically trying to verify everything is finished and in the appropriate place. We should make our May 10th deadline.  read more »

We started off last week making Melissa's perfect chocolate cake Sunday evening when it started cooling down again. Wayne made the ganache Monday and we frosted the cake when I got home from work so we could invite Chris and Alyssa and Karl and Angela over to sample it.  read more »

Thinking positively is hard to do when Paela is screaming all the time. Why is she screaming? It's either the heat or she might have some teeth starting to come through. If it's the teeth, then we're in for a long time with a fussy baby, because we can't see/feel the teeth at all.

Paela recovered well from jet lag and sleeps regularly during the night. She goes down around 6pm, wakes up at midnight and also at 5am. Then starts the day at 6am. She also scooches everywhere, but no where near as fast as the Rock's child can crawl. He's a speed demon.

We had the Rocks come over to our place. They're moving away from the area in search of employment and so it's sad to lose our good friends. It makes me wish I had reason to leave this area. We pay exhorbitant prices for nice weather and are surrounded by ubercompetitive people -- not my idea of fun. However, our nice weather went away the past couple days, it's been in the upper 80's and sweltering.  read more »

Who knows where to even start with such a full trip? We raced here and there and everywhere, all over Germany for an eventful 10 day trip with Karl and Angela and Thomas. Wayne drove the whole time (manual van was fun; lots of snow, not so much; babies loudly protested being buckled into car seats by the end -- or even by the middle).  read more »

This is Paela's dream toy. And yes, if she had it, she would sleep just like that.