Family Ties

Radha had another milestone family visit last week, as my sister from Iowa flew out to stay with us for a couple days.

Apparently Danelle brought the Midwest heat with her, as us Portlanders experienced a very odd May warm spell of temps in the mid-90s during her visit.  Before the heat was unbearable though, Danelle was a huge help to us around the house.  She volunteered to mow the front and back yard and pulled up an incredible amount of weeds from the back (6+ yard debris 

bags full now going out tomorrow!).  Inside the house she had a blast getting to know her niece, learning about the joys of "tummy time", playing with Radha in her bouncer chair, and also experiencing the not-as-fun things like dirty diapers and long crying spells while giving me some down time.

Ro, Danelle, and I also experienced another milestone...our first dinner

 

outing with Radha!  The timing worked out one night to head down the street to the nearest sushi restaurant and Radha slept the whole way through dinner.   I managed to make dinner another 

night (trying to get back into normal cooking routine) and another night we ventured out to our favorite Chinese restaurant, Wong's King.  Radha was less excited about that outing, but we managed to enjoy most of our dinner before Radha and I excused ourselves to the lobby while she wailed up a storm.  Wong's is a big place and very family-friendly luckily, but we still felt a little self-conscious as the volume of her crying intensified ("People are staring at us!" "Should we leave or wait it out?")  I'm sure all parents get used to this eventually, but we're still figuring these things out.  

Friday I took Danelle to the airport, which was the first solo trip with Radha and I in my car.  It was a smooth, relatively quick outing, but sad as none of us wanted to say goodbye to Aunt Danelle.  :(  We look forward to visiting her in Iowa in the near future, going on boat rides on the Mississippi River, and showing Radha some of her Midwest roots.  Until then, Radha has many places and things to experience in Oregon and some more growing up to do.  :)