Team Wendorf Report

We recently added a playhouse and sandbox to our arsenal of outdoor children’s entertainment. Here’s a short collection of pics and videos:

Recently I decided that our family needed a fire escape plan, particularly because we all sleep on the second floor. I bought a few hundred dollars worth of equipment but it has just been sitting, so I decided that the next step was to write up a simple project plan that included steps for what we still need to accomplish to be prepared.

I of course wrote this in all seriousness even though I included a few humorous items in the plan, but Kristina felt that the entire thing was funny. So funny in fact that she was doubled over in laughter about the whole thing. So much for trying to apply project planning to family goals.

Here’s what Team Wendorf will do in case of fire:

Equipment Available:

* Two fire masks - one kept under each side of the parents bed
* Two fire blankets - both kept handy in master bedroom
* one fire ladder - kept in Kai’s room

If we are awoken by fire during the night we will do the following:

* pee pants
* put on fire masks
* Kristina wraps Otto (and self if necessary) in fire blanket
* Kristina takes Otto to Lucias room
* Kristina takes Otto and Lucia out window onto porch roof
* Jason takes fire blanket and goes to kai’s room (wraps self in blanket if necessary)
* Jason puts ladder out window
* Jason carries Kai down ladder to yard
* Jason helps Kristina, Otto and Lucia off of porch roof
* Jason rushes into flaming building to save Russel (our basement renter)

What we need to do:

* learn how to use ladder
* learn how to use fire masks
* possibly buy one or two more fire blankets (to keep in kids rooms)
* possibly buy one more fire ladder for master bedroom as alternative escape option
* pray we never have to deal with this

Click here to see more photos

Last night at 2:30am October 28th the incredible Kristina Wendorf gave birth to our third child; a boy officially named Otto.
Some of you may remember that Team Wendorf Report kicked off a year and a half ago with a post titled ‘Welcome Kai, this is your life!‘ announcing the birth of our second child, first son, Kai Atticus.

Otto came pretty much right on time, so we were able to deliver at the birthing center of our beloved midwife Charlotte Geddis. Kristina’s labor wasn’t quick as Kai’s but still faster than Lucia’s. It was ‘intense’ like the other labors but unique from the others as well.

We are very grateful to God for our third child and are continually amazed by His grace and love for us.

Kristina is doing well considering the nature of childbirth, and Lucia and Kai spent the day with their ‘Aunt’ Mandi and apparently had a great time. Jason is counting his blessings in that, at this point, he has only one wedding that he will have to pay for in his future.

Much thanks to everyone who has been praying for us. The evidence of God’s kindness is amazing.

More info soon…

We had a rare treat/annoyance a few weeks ago. We got quite a bit of snow in the Seattle area, which is uncommon. The conditions have to be just right; usually a snowstorm followed by dry, cold air. The snow has to stick and then not be followed by rain, which is usually the case when it snows in Seattle.

(for more info about Seattle weather check Steve Pool’s awesome weather resource at the humbly titled www.stevepool.com)

The annoyance was getting stuck on our own street. We live on a steep hill that crests about 20 yards south of us, and gets steeper for about a quarter mile to north of us. After the initial snow the roads were fine at the crest of our hill, but in front of our house and down the hill was a solid sheet of ice, about an inch thick. We were literally stuck for almost a week because our front wheel and rear wheel drive cars couldn’t make it the 20 yards to the crest, and going down hill to the next main street was a quarter mile bobsled run littered with cars in ditches left by the brave and idiotic.

The treat was the beauty of the snow, which was stunning the next day as the sun came out (which we hadn’t seen for quite a few months). We took the kids out in the snow, which they didn’t really know what to do with, but it was fun anyway. I shot a video of the snow and the kids using the dv camera we got for Christmas (thanks mom and dad). I then threw a short video together using the automatic movie creation tool in Windows movie maker which, as it turns out, is a nifty little program.

btw, I know that the intro to the video says ‘Snow Day 2006′, but in reality it was 2007, so shut up.

…and speak what we hear. This seems a simple and obvious statement, but over the past 3 months Team Wendorf has learned just how complex this statement really is.

Kai Atticus was born 5 ½ weeks early at the UW Hospital. He failed his (now routine) newborn hearing screens at the hospital, however we assumed that he had fluid in his ears which is a common cause of inconclusive results for all babies, especially those born preterm. Being stubborn I did not deem it necessary to take Kai in for further testing and felt it a disruption to the new schedule we were trying to implement with 2 babies in our family.

Upon the urging of medical professionals we took Kai for a follow up hearing screen. The results were the same, Inconclusive/Failed, at which point we were referred to Children’s Hospital. A few more weeks passed before we were subject to extensive (and tense) 2 hours of testing which determined that Kai had a bilateral mild to moderate hearing loss.

Our audiologist was kind and did her job well but due to hospital policy (and a non-urgent diagnosis at a hospital filled with crisis) we were sent away with a hug, a pamphlet on hearing loss and a return appointment 6 weeks later to confirm or correct the results from this day’s tests.

(stay tuned, this is the first in a series of upcoming posts about the story so far regarding Kai’s hearing issues)

Just to make things official for those of you who don’t know, Kai’s middle name is Atticus. Yes, it is taken from the character Atticus Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird. I’ll explain more about that choice in a later post.

We went trick or treating tonight with our good friends the Ianniciellos and their kids. Kai just hung out with Mom in the baby bjorn while Lucia made her way from door to door in her flower costume courtesy of Nana Betro. Not much to say that this video can’t say…

It’s been a while since we posted. Sorry to all 5 of you who keep tabs on our blog. There is lots to write about, so we are going to try to post something every day this week. We’ll see how that goes.

Also, Kristina has promised that she is going to give this blogging thing a whirl, so be on the look out for that.

To kick things off here are a few photos that we shot this weekend at the Mt. Si Nursery which is right next to Mt. Si, strangely enough.

(click on the photo to see more)

This is the third year we have driven up there to take in the scenery, look at pumpkins, and shoot pictures of the kids (only the last two Octobers for that).

Not that it really matters all that much in 2006 in Seattle, but Tully’s is now offering free wifi. Of course their free wifi is almost redundant at this point since pretty much anywhere in the city you go you can access someone’s open wifi, be it business or home network. But starbucks isn’t doing this (yet), so it does make Tully’s a more attractive option if you need to find someplace to work online. In fact chances are I will probably end up working at a Tully’s when I’m off site considering there are almost as many as there are starbucks, so if I can’t make it to Motore I will probably look for a Tully’s.

On the downside though, their wifi only ran at 11mbps, and it required me to sign an online agreement form before giving me access to the web. Minor, but kind of annoying, especially since I had to go through the agreement process again after losing connection for a minute.

Two things of note in this video:

1. Notice the lush, green grass
2. The grunting in the background is Kai