It has truly been a while since I last updated the site in any meaningful way, and once again, I apologize for that (especially to those of you who regularly pop in to see if there are any updates). Life can be unpredictable and ours seems to be more so than most, so I can't promise that the situation will improve anytime soon. However, I will make my usual promise to see what I can do about that. In the meanwhile, here are the highlights of the Bauer family since the last update:
I had been a contract Software Test Engineer within the Windows Phone organization for about a year and a half. Unfortunately, the work was drying up and most of us on the LG Dedicated Team had an idea that it would be a matter of time before there would be some kind of organizational change that would probably not work in our favor. However, I thought that we would probably have until the end of the fiscal year. I was wrong.
My manager had announced that there was indeed a reorganization and that most of us would soon work under a new manager, but in the two weeks that followed, nobody contacted me about who my new manager would be. That was a bad sign. So I went back to my old manager on a Tuesday morning and he admitted that he really had no idea what my future held, but he had heard "in the grapevine" that the organization was switching to a new contracting model where all contractors came from a single company and would be contracted as a single "package". Unfortunately, that company was known for their low wages and he advised that it might be a good time to find a new position while I had the opportunity.
I immediately went back to my cubicle and called my recruiter and let him know what was going on. I sent him a copy of my latest resume and half an hour later he called back with a potential job. He described it to me and it sounded almost like somebody had written the job requirements with my resume as a guide. Needless to say, I asked him to pursue it. He lined up an interview for Wednesday night after work. At the interview, the hiring manager basically told me that I had the job after 30 minutes. I went home that night and called my recruiter and told him the news.
On Thursday morning, I got the official offer (including a nice raise) and I accepted. On Thursday afternoon, my recruiter got the word from my existing job that I would no longer be needed in two weeks. Whether it was a lucky coincidence or a helping hand from a greater power, I was incredibly thankful for how that turned out. The new team does have its own challenges, but there is plenty of work and I feel both appreciated and well utilized. Hopefully I will get the chance to finish my degree while at this position.
It had been a while since Zoya had visited family and friends in Russia, and of course nobody over there had seen the girls in person, so we decided that it was time for us to go. Unfortunately, paid days off are pretty sparse in the contracting world, so either I could go (and lose two weeks of income in addition to what we would spend on the trip) or I could stay at work while Zoya went with the girls. We opted for me to keep working, but the problem was that we knew for a fact that traveling to the opposite side of the globe with two young toddlers would be too much for Zoya to handle alone. Therefore, we asked her friend Lusine to help out. She had already helped us with the girls shortly after they came home from the hospital. We bought a ticket to bring her from Minneapolis to Seattle and then she flew out with my three girls from here.
Almost nothing went to plan. The girls flew from Seattle to Chicago, where they had a layover. Unfortunately, there was a thunderstorm in the Chicago area, and as a result, their flight left an hour or so late, which put them in Helsinki after their connecting flight had already left for Saint Petersburg. The next flight was not for another 7 hours or so, and that left Zoya and Lusine 7 hours to keep the girls happy and quiet (with varying levels of success). This was complicated by the fact that since I was not there (and the girls were not completely comfortable with Lusine yet), they were incredibly insecure and clinging to Zoya. In some ways, I was happy that I was not there.
Once in Russia, Zoya's family met them at the airport and they were able to help with the girls. Of course, these people were complete strangers to the girls and so Alexandra and Sophia were acting incredibly shy around them. This includes their arrival at the home of Zoya's brother, Vladimir. However, everything changed once the girls realized that he had a cat and they were immediately off in pursuit of that poor old cat. Thereafter, they were apparently more comfortable with both the apartment and all the "strangers" in it.
The girls were in Russia in the last week of May/first week of June, and by that time the length of the days were long enough that it never got completely dark. Thus, in addition to the strange environment and strange people, the absence of darkness encouraged the girls to not go to sleep when they were supposed to. This was further complicated by the fact that they were not fully "contained" within their own individual cribs. Instead, they were sharing a queen sized mattress with Zoya and her mom (each adult on an end and the girls in between) that was very low to the floor… which just invited exploration. There was a lot of bed jumping (as well as a lot of falling off the bed) in addition to a lot of fidgeting and wriggling. Obviously, the girls did not get much sleep… and neither did Zoya or her mom.
The trip home went a bit better… at least there were no cancelled or delayed flights. When I met up with the rest of the family at baggage claim, I was expecting a spirited reception by the girls, but they just looked at me with tired eyes and I was not sure if they even recognized me or not. They were strapped into their strollers, so I came up to them and hugged them in their strollers... and that did not trigger much of a reaction either. However, when I stood up, they started crying and reaching out for me… so I guess they did miss me after all.
It took a few weeks for the girls to sleep through the night again, and they were both rather insecure, so dropping them off at the nanny was a real pain. That did seem to get a bit better after the first week, but it was still a problem (off and on) for a while thereafter (and the problem has not completely gone away... we still have an occasional bout of separation anxiety once a week or so). One of the things I found most perplexing is that (in my opinion) it seems that the girls came back from Russia speaking more English than before they left. I have no way to prove it, but it seemed to jump out at me and I found that very curious indeed.
Luckily for the girls, we had not really kicked off summer while they were gone. To be specific, the people in the Seattle area had tried to kick off summer, but the weather was not cooperating. La Nina stalled the start of summer until well after the girls got back from Russia. The weather was not really bad but it was not very hot or summer-like… though I liked it just fine. Eventually, summer did finally kick in and we started taking the girls to some of the better parks in the area. We are lucky to have so many wonderful parks to choose from.
We also modified our balcony with extra kid fencing and a big patch of indoor/outdoor carpeting. The end result was that the girls had full run of the balcony and they readily claimed it as their own. We added a kid-sized patio table and chairs and the girls loved to sit outside and eat their lunch (and the occasional popsicle). They also became very familiar with our neighbors Fadi and Nadia, and their baby girl, Layla. Thereafter, they always wanted to be lifted high enough to see if the "baby" next door was available (on the neighbors' balcony with her parents). Whenever Layla was not around, the girls would ask "Baby?" and we would tell them that the baby is sleeping. To this day, whenever we go outside and don't see the baby, the girls tell us "Baby sleeping upstairs".
On August 6th, the girls celebrated their second birthday, and my mom and sister flew in a couple of days before to help celebrate and spend some time with the girls. We had a little party and celebrated it in the "Russian" style (too much stuff to eat and drink). Our neighbors came over with their little girl and grandpa. Our nanny came over with most of her daughters, and our friend Rose came over as well. It was an interesting combination as the group included folks from Lebanon, Iran, Armenia, Russia and the United States. It was not unusual to hear discussions in two or three different languages at once. I think everyone had a good time (including and especially the girls). I was busy with the cooking. I barbecued ribs, hamburgers, hot dogs, bratwurst, chicken and corn on the cob (and I made some potato salad to boot). I also whipped up a ton of home-made barbecue sauce. I think it all turned out well.
My mom and sister watched the girls over the course of the following week and that worked out great. All of the girls got to really know and love each other and the time with my daughters really seemed to have brought a physical change in my mom. She seemed to be happier, stronger and more agile than I have seen her in years. I hope that we can do it more often.
A couple of weeks later we did the same thing (but on a smaller scale) for Zoya's birthday. We had a few people over for dinner and the girls still got a few late birthday gifts out of it. They seem to enjoy when we have company and they were behaving (relatively) well. I barbequed again and there was another surplus of food. Over the course of August, I gained almost five pounds.
For the Labor Day weekend, we tried a rather bold experiment. We took the girls on a weekend road trip. We had put a lot of planning into it, but we were not sure how the girls were going to handle it. We booked a cabin on the west side of the Olympic Peninsula and planned to use that as a base of operations with probable runs to the beach and Olympic National Park. Generally, the trip was a success. We did have some problems with the girls being in the car for such a long time on the way there (we tried to time it so that they would wind up taking their naps en route… that worked, but not as well as we hoped).
The cabin had a big yard full of flowers and trees and all sorts of things that the girls were eager to explore (though still under our watchful eyes). We took a trip to the Hoh Rainforest, but that was a bust as the girls got tired and zonked out once we got there… and when they finally woke up, it turned out that though the trail is an easy hike, it was a little too tricky and hazardous for a couple of two year olds (Alexandra fell at one point and I was lucky to catch her before she fell into a stream). Carrying both of them for the entire trip was not an option either. So we turned back. It was not a complete wash though as we still had a nice little picnic near the Guest Center and the ride into and out of the park was pretty spectacular and relaxing.
On the way back to the cabin, we stopped at the beach. Despite the fact that it was 85 degrees (Fahrenheit) or more at the cabin and the rainforest (both of which are just a few miles inland), the beach was a "balmy" 65 with high winds (that drove the wind chill down into the forties). It was too cold to take the girls anywhere near the water, but we did stick around to eat at the Kalaloch Lodge (which turned out to be pretty nice in itself).
The trip home was interesting. We drove back the long way (around the top of the peninsula). That took us through Forks (home of all the Twilight hype) where we had a nice breakfast at one of the local diners. The big event was the ferry ride from Bainbridge Island to Seattle. The girls really enjoyed it.
Unfortunately, by the end of September I had caught a cold that stayed with me through my birthday and forced us to reschedule most of our family celebration plans. However, thank you to all of you who still tried to brighten my day. Ultimately, the cold led to a sinus infection (which I only recently recovered from) and the discovery that my "cold" was most likely an allergic reaction. Up to his point, I have suffered seasonal allergies every spring, but it would appear that I now have autumn and winter allergies as well.
Then there was Halloween… or not. We went to a lot of effort to find great costumes for the girls this year. We found a bunny costume for Sophia and a pink poodle costume for Alexandra. I also went to a lot of effort to check with our team admin about what activities I could bring our girls to at work and then made arrangements to do just that. The big events were on 28 October, and I left work early to pick up the girls at the nanny's house and to dress them in their costumes. Apparently the girls had a different plan and refused to put on their costumes (along with a lot of yelling, screaming and fighting). Luckily, there was still time before Halloween itself, but the girls just don't like to put on clothes nowadays (hopefully it is just a phase), especially "extra" clothes.
Halloween night was a little better. Sophia put on her bunny suit with no problems (and she looked adorable), but Alexandra went down fighting when we tried to put her in the poodle suit… so we decided to stay home this year. On the bright side, it was a banner year for trick-or-treaters at our house. We had a pair show up, and they were the first trick-or-treaters we have had in three years. Needless to say, we still have a substantial pile of Halloween candy… but my officemates seem to be helping us with that problem.
And that is all the news that is even remotely noteworthy. We are looking forward to the rest of the holiday season and we are tentatively making plans for the Schafer family reunion next summer. We hope that all of you and your families are healthy and doing well. Take care and God bless you all!