Butterfly Frenzy

Surf's Up with Sophie - 2008 Mavericks Surf Contest

Helicopters buzzed and waves crashed as Sophie and I braved the 2008 Mavericks Surf Contest today. After a rough night for us and with the day starting out dreary and cold, I had second, third and fourth thoughts about getting in the car. But, I'm really re-committing to the reasons why we live in the Bay Area, including the amazing outdoor experiences available. So, off to Half Moon Bay, we went.

And, I couldn't be happier that we did. Along with hundreds of other spectators, surf fanatics, and the pre-requisite stoners, we first checked out the scene from atop the bluff overlooking the Mavericks' sets. Normally, when we hike there, we barely see a soul, but the bluff was packed. I was able to watch a couple of surfers drop in on some of the smaller waves and feel the thrill in the air as people ooh'd and aah'd at the physical and mental feats these surfers achieved. There's nothing like seeing a tiny spec of a human catch a massive, 30-foot wave and actually stay up on it!

Then, we headed down to the beach area, where we normally like to let Roxie run wild. Thankfully, I had the brains to leave the pooch behind (though she looked quite forlorn) because I had my hands full with Sophie. The harbor-side of the beach offers a mellow tide, and Sophie wanted nothing more than to race into the water...in January...in Northern California.

I finally broke down, took off her shoes and rolled up her parents. She had a ball, squealing with delight when the water lapped at the shore and loving it when she moved fast enough to get up to her knees in it. Of course, I was feeling like a terrible parent until I saw about five other kids in various states of undress wading and playing in the water.

I did manage to convince Sophie to move past the harbor so we could actually get into the maw that was the Mavericks beach scene. It was packed! Hundreds of people crowded around the big screen to see the surfers attempt to catch and ride these monster waves, which, by the way, were considered small this year! At this point, the fog had completely burned off, the sun was out, and we were stripped down to our last layers. We made it around the bend, getting a shore-level view of the contest. High tide was rolling in, so we didn't make it there very long. After a couple of close, sweep the baby up the arms, calls, we headed back to the car.

 

Now, I'll admit that I expected the worst in traffic, parking and more. Luckily, we left early enough to miss most of the traffic, and the contest organizers did an amazing job to limit traffic snarl, by turning a local airport into a parking area and having rounds of school buses drop folks off in Pillar Point. Again, could not have been happier about making the effort...which is usually the case when we do.

Sophie's First Steps

About six weeks ago, Sophie took her first steps, and, amazingly, the camera was close enough for us to capture it on video. Her first steps kicked off a whirlwind of activity in the Wampler household, with three solid weeks of work travel and family emergencies on the horizon.

She'd been doing a lot of crawling, crouching and then, in a strained fashion, squatting up to stand...that lasted about a month. Prior to that, she'd been a crawling machine getting from room to room in our house in mere seconds, much to the chagrin of the dog.

She must have known that her time of complete focus from her parents on a Friday night was about to be curtailed, so she went for it. She started with her usual crawl-squat-stand motion and then teetered and tottered across the kitchen floor. Cackling all the way! It was so much fun. Now, she's walking 95% of the time with an occasional crawl up the front stairs.

Enjoy the movie!

Seattle Just Start event - 1000s Inspired to Leave the Rat Race Behind

Seattle, oh Seattle. How do I love thee? The city welcomed us with open arms yesterday as our first "Just Start" event kicked off in front of Westlake Center.

Thousands of folks interacted with the live event! Our JumpUp members did an amazing job of answering questions for people who want to leave the rat race. Every time I looked around, I saw people getting help to start a business. So cool!

We also had quite a few people enter the contest to win $50K in startup funds and expert help. Some of the business ideas were just incredible, and they reminded me of why we've been working so hard over these last few weeks. One of my favorites was the gal from the National Guard who is planning to start a gym for seniors.

Seattle, being Seattle, It did rain a bit yesterday. The clear tent was a genius last-minute addition. The tent actually helped draw attention to the event. And, the warm coffee and cookies brought the crowd in too.

It's supposed to be a sunnier day today here in Seattle, but cold. I'm excited get over to the event in a couple of hours. It should be a lot of fun!

More to come and more pics from the other events in Chicago and New York in the coming weeks.

Just Start a Business Contest - QuickBooks

Okay, okay - it's been two months since I've blogged! I've been agonizing about it, but I have a good reason. See, I've been "birthing" this other baby here at Intuit called the Just Start campaign. We're encouraging folks to get out there and finally, "just start" a business. Ten million consider starting a biz every year and just need that push to leave the rat race and make it happen.

Anyhoo, there's a $50K startup grant ($40K in cash and $10K in expert resources) up for grabs. Folks just have to tell their story in writing or in video for the chance to win. The videos and essays have been absolutely amazing - real, heart-warming, funny - it's addicting to spend time on the site reading the entries as they come in. I'm going to add some of my favorites to the blog over the next couple of weeks plus I'll add posts from our live events in Seattle, Chicago, New York and Boston.

Meantime...check out the video that we put together to tell the story of the campaign. Lotsalove, Kira

Baskets are a parents' best friend

Blogging has been a little low on my priority list lately. Things at JumpUp have been jumping (pardon the pun), and life at home has been super busy. And, WikiOutdoors has blown through the 100K pageview mark. So, things are good...it's just getting hard to prioritize.

Anyhoo, back to blogging...one of Sophie's favorite past-times these days is taking things out of the various baskets that litter our very small house. We've got baskets full of puzzles, books, toys, musical instruments...you name it, it's in a basket. Sophie crawls (the real cross-crawl now) to a basket, pulls herself to a confident stand and then starts pulling things one at a time out of the basket. In some instances, she deeply investigates each item and in other instances she just flings things out of them.

Now...for teaching her how to put everything back in the basket!

Shout Out: San Mateo Public Library

On of my favorite past-times, shared by many members of my family and my husband's, is reading. So, it should come as no surprise that hitting up the local library is a well-used tactic on my part to get out of the house with Sophie.

Luckily, our local library, the San Mateo Public Library, delivers treats beyond the obvious benefit of being around grown-ups during the day. The new library opened in August, and it's a beautiful building. The parking lot is well lit with spaces wide enough to lug a child out of a car set, and the interior space brings in lots of lovely natural light. There's plenty of room for reading, relaxing and surfing the net.

Wait, wait - I was writing that last sentence like an adult without a child. Let me re-state, there's a great kids section with toddler, family and baby storytimes occurring on a regular basis. Sophie loves to scoot-crawl on the ground chasing after kids just slightly bigger than her. She's not only fascinated with the puzzles (normal) but also with the grates on the floor (strange). There's also great diversity at the library so Sophie gets to meet and interact with people of all ages, ethnicities and walks of life.

To top it all off, as if the previous paragraphs weren't enough, the library holds regular Friends of the Library Book Sales. We stumbled into the one happening this weekend, and all I have to say...score! We walked out of there with probably 20 books for various family members for about $10.

Shout it out - The San Mateo Public Library rocks.

Put that baby down! Getting the baby to sleep - Part 2

Sophie is officially on the move. She's doing a funny little scoot-crawl that gets her, fairly quickly, across the floor. She's also sitting herself up, everywhere, including in her crib. As with all things baby, it's three steps backward for every two forward. So enamored is she with her newfound skills, she doesn't want to sleep. Sleep after all would mean missing out on the possibility of pulling yet more paper out of the garbage can.

But, of course, she must sleep. Sleep is good for baby, good for parents. So, this installment of getting baby to sleep at night and during the day tackles the tricky topic of crying it out.

I will first say that I consider myself a fairly miserable failure at crying it out. Since Sophie was so high need in the early weeks, she had the ability to cry on end for hours. One memorable afternoon found me climbing the 30+ stairs in our backyard for several hours because that was the only way that she'd stop crying. So, I've had a phobia for letting Sophie cry because I was haunted by the memories of her ability to cry forever.

But, going back to work and having a husband with more guts than me, led our family to a new place. We do now let Sophie cry it out. After three Sundays in a row of Sophie waking up every two hours, Jeff put his foot down. I slept out in the garage, and he toughed it out listening to her cry at 1AM until she went back to sleep. It truly did only take three nights, though we're not completely consistent. If we're traveling and in a strange place, we don't let her cry it out late at night.

Some of the tips that worked for us:
* Mom finds a quiet place, Dad toughs it out:  The Bay Area being the Bay Area, you can hire someone to solve any of your woes. Sleep-deprived parents can hire sleep trainers. Or, if you're lucky, you have a husband stronger than you who will stay in the vicinity of the baby while you hightail it somewhere quiet.
* Start with one interval at a time: We decided not to force her to cry it out for every sleep occurrence. She still eats around 10PM even though she first goes down around 7:30-8PM. For us and for Sophie, it was too much to have her cry it out at every interval. It was more important to us that Sophie sleep through the night (a 6-7 hour block) in the wee hours of the morning.
* Set the baby up for succees: We made sure that Sophie had plenty to eat throughout the day, had lots of interaction with others to wear her out and that she gets enough naps (particularly in her crib).
* Signal sleepy-time: It sounds crazy, but even in the early months, babies crave routines. Sophie takes a bath, has play time in front of the morning and gets some snuggle time with mom before she goes to bed. We do this every night, no matter where we are.

We hope some of these tips help you. Happy sleep hunting!

Quote of the Month

This morning, during a mom multi-tasking moment, I was reading the New York Times Book Review, pumping and eating breakfast. (hope you enjoy the visual!)

I came across the following - "We Do the Impossible Immediately. The Miraculous Takes a Little Longer." This from the unsung four-star general, Brehon Burke Somervell, who built the Pentagon and was responsible for supply and logistics in World War II.

I was struck by how often I see other parents and colleagues manage to do the impossible right away and pull off the miraculous on a regular basis. It also made me feel a little better about the precarious state of my existence right now! Enjoy.

The Hidden Kitchen Dinner Series 1 - a Mom's Eye View

A few short weeks ago, my hubby Jeff, kicked off his business, Eclecdish, with an amazing event - The Hidden Kitchen Dinner. Twenty four foodies from around the San Francisco Bay Area joined us as Jeff and my sister Katy dished out some delicious treats. From passed yummies like Gruyere fritters to Jeff's famous fig-crusted Halibut, everyone left full and, as I'd hoped, ready to spread the good word about Jeff's business.

All of this fun didn't come without some parenting challenges. As a reminder, we live in a teeny, weeny house. And, we have a vocal, sleep-is-very-important baby. Jeff had arranged for our neighborhood babysitter to watch Sophie starting at 3PM on Saturday. After all, Jeff had organized everything from prepping in our small kitchen to picking up a truck in Davis to managing the logistics of a free refridgerator. So, planning child care should have been a breeze.

At 10AM on Saturday morning, Jeff answered the phone. After a few minutes, he approached me in the "command center," where, as his CTO, I was desperately trying to map his blog to his domain. "We've got a situation." As is always the case with me, I immediately thought "how bad could it be." Well, our babysitter had the flu and couldn't watch Sophie!! Unbelievable.

Some good karma was on our side though because Sophie napped for a full three hours in the afternoon, giving us time to help Kathy turn the backyard into an al fresco dining experience. And, Kathy agreed to stay a little longer to watch Sophie. We turned our bedroom into Sophie's play area, and I shuttled between my job as hostess and my mommy job. At one point, I had to take off my fancy dress entirely because I couldn't nurse with it on!

Anyhoo, as my boss said,  these experiences provide the content for our lives, and our blogs.

How to camp with a baby - or not

Jeff and I had big visions of camping with Sophie, and I'd declared, while pregnant, that we'd be camping in October. Well, dreams turned into reality, and we didn't go get into the woods until last weekend. The day started auspiciously with a great wake-up, an easy drive and a really fun pit-stop in Carmel.

Then, we headed to Ventana Wilderness, where we camped next to the famous Ventana Inn & Spa. Okay, stop conjuring visions of the cheapskate Wamplers pitching a tent next to the fancy spa. Ventana actually has a campground as well on its property with about 80 sites.

We had thought about the logistics of camping with baby a fair amount. We actually had to put a halt to the logistics of the trip because we realized we would overthink ourselves out of going.

We purchased a rather large tent where we'd be able to set up the pack-n-play, the sleeping bags and, of course, Roxie's bed. We brought lots of toys, the Bebepod and, thanks to Jeff, some really yummy food. The afternoon was going so well. We had a great hike, and Sophie even napped for an hour. In a cavalier way, I declared that this was the best idea we'd had in a long time.

Murphy's Law struck with a vengeance just a few hours later. Camp quiet hours didn't start until 10PM, and the sites were very close together. Sophie woke at the sound of children screaming through the campgrounds, and then she refused to fall back to sleep.

Sophie being Sophie, she was quite clear and quite loud about how displeased she was.

Eventually, I tried taking her to the car, in the hopes that the Subaru-rubie would block out the sounds of her piercing screams. Jeff finally joined me in the car and, after five minutes of attempting to amuse her with the chimes, Jeff started driving. Along Highway 1. In the middle of the night. With a screaming child. All the way to Carmel...and back.

In the end, we were all back in the tent, with Sophie on my thermarest and mostly in my bag. With me on the ground, and Roxie, pacing and puking because she'd managed to eat something nasty along the way. I haven't had that little sleep since Sophie was born!

The next morning, she woke full of smiles and enjoying herself thoroughly. Bleary-eyed and stumbling, we somehow took another hike, packed up the car and hit the road. We did so a little later because we remembered hearing something about a road race.

Then, the day got really fun. That little road race turned out to be the Big Sur International Marathon. Our three-hour drive took four and half hours with me using every trick in the book to entertain Sophie. The major blessing of the day was that Sophie was so exhausted that she slept through the entire night, 7PM to 6AM, and napped constantly throughout the day on Monday!

Even as I'm writing this, I'm laughing at how ridiculous the whole experience was. I told Jeff it was easily the biggest test of our family's relationship, and, somehow, we managed to laugh through most of it. Like labor and delivery, the hard parts seem funny and far away, and we're already planning another trip.