Our Seattle Times

Oh, bloggy blog, I have been neglecting you. I have a good reason this time though, even better than your run-of-the-mill holiday crunch time busy stuff that happens every December, and that reason is this: Sody and I went on a trip to Seattle! And it was awesome! And my girl is a rad traveler! It was interesting, to say the least, trying to navigate the airport and flights with a carseat and two carry-ons and a toddler all by myself, but all things considered it went pretty darn smoothly. Seattle is where I went to college so it was super fun to take Isota around to some of my favorite spots and show off the city to her. Or rather, show her off - I still have a lot of friends up there, some of whom haven't met Sody yet, so it was great to be able to finally introduce her. She was such a trooper the whole time, too...a messed up schedule, napping only in the car for 45 minutes instead of her normal couple of hours, being dragged around all over town in an attempt to fit in as much as possible...she totally went with it. It probably helped that we plied her with Christmas treats wherever we went. People of the Northwest are very generous with their Christmas cookies and lollipops and sugary goods.

We did a lot of Christmas-y things and a lot of eating and a lot of running around to my favorite restaurants. It was definitely a different kind of Seattle trip than I am used to taking: more kid-centered activities (natch) and less bars (zero, thank you very much). But the best thing - really, the whole point of the trip - was that I finally got to spend a good chunk of time with my best friend Beth, also known as She Who Started This Whole Blog (really! she has the very first entry here, go look it up!). She met Sody once before when she came out to visit us in Sacto when Sody was a teeny little four month old. But now was their chance to really bond, and bond they did. Sody fully fell in love and it just melted me. Watching them playing and reading together, me getting a break while Beth took over entertaining duties - you went above and beyond in that regard, Beth! - and the fact that "Beth" was the first word Sody uttered to me each morning because that is who she wanted to see...all amazing. Just knowing that my kid was so loved and that she was loving someone I love and trust so completely...can I say "love" any more in this sentence?? You get my point. There was a lot of love going around on this trip. We are both so grateful.

We love you and we miss you and I promise we won't always live so far apart!!


at Pike Place Market


my favorite pho place on earth, in part because they serve cream puffs before you have your meal. oddly enough, Sody didn't care about the cream puff but she absolutely DEVOURED the noodles. you don't even know how much it warms the cockles of my heart to watch my kid dig into a giant plate of vietnamese food. I just could not be prouder of her.



We met a giant dancing penguin. Can you tell Sody was not amused?



Late night hanging out with Beth. It's hard to tell in this shot but Sody was leaning on Beth for a long time, looking at pictures on her computer and the whole thing was very sweet.



Her favorite snack on earth, strawberries. Juicy and delicious and a great deal at Pike Place Market.


About to head home. Sody was completely and totally asleep here. So out that she stayed asleep while I took the carseat out of the car *with her in it*, strapped her all up to the carry-on, checked in at the airport, and rolled her all the way to the security checkpoint before she finally woke up. The sad part was she woke up crying out for Beth because she slept through the dropoff and didn't get a chance to say goodbye. Sleepyhead!