Sarah and Zane are Here!

Sarah and Zane arrived yesterday, and we've been having a great time! The only bad part so far has been getting stuck in rush hour traffic on the way home from the airport while the sun glared in Zane's eyes (and made him cry). Other than that, smooth sailing.

Sarah has been cooking great protein-rich food, which I am loving. Sarah used to be a vegetarian, but is now quite the meat-eater. She made a wonderful beef stew for dinner tonight with brown rice, and tomorrow we are having meatloaf. Yum!

Sarah is my longest friend in California. I have known her since September 1999, when we worked together at Stanford at the Stanford Center for Professional Development (SCPD). I was the main graphic designer and designed all the promotional brochures, literature, etc. Sarah was the main web designer and designed their website. For our job, we sat in a one room office with our boss. We weren't supposed to talk (we were supposed to be working, afterall), so we would email eachother all day long (like every other minute). That was before IM really caught on, and besides, we weren't allowed to have IM on our computers anyway.

Over the years, we have changed a lot, but have remained close friends! Sarah now runs a successful doggy daycare business in Colorado. Her website is: http://www.divinecanine.net/

We've been having a great time hanging out, going to the park, and just letting the kids play together. Zane is very smart and active, which is just wonderful. Paprika LOVES him and will be sad to see him go. After Zane went to bed last night, Paprika kept saying over and over again, "I like Zane! Zane is a nice boy! He is a nice baby!" The first thing she said when she woke up this morning was, "Let's go see Zane. He's a nice boy!" Then after her nap today, I could hear her saying upstairs, "Where's Zane! He's such a nice boy!"

I was worried about the sleeping issue, since I am sleeping in Paprika's room with her and Sarah and Zane are sleeping in the Master. I set up a queen bed in Paprika's room for me - she is in her crib. Last night I put Paprika to bed and then waited about an hour for her to fall into a deep sleep before tiptoeing into her room. As soon as I laid down on the bed, I heard Paprika sit up in her crib and say, "What doing, mommy? What doing, mommy?" So, basically the second I opened the door, she woke up. I explained to her that I was sleeping in the room with her and she said, "Oh, okay!" and then went on to talk to me in half-gibberish for 15 minutes (all about triangles, dinosaurs, stars, Zane, the park, babies, and a bunch of other topics). Finally, she fell asleep. So, that was a success! I am considering having Paprika and the babies sleep in the same room after the first year. We shall see if that will work. It will be like a constant slumber party. How fun!

Anyway- Sarah and Zane are great company. Mr. Mustard is home tomorrow from his job in Santa Barbara and we will have the next two months together before he possibly has to go back to Santa Barbara to finish the job. Things are good!