Category: General News

April 28: We were productive over the weekend!  While Bryan mulched and dug weeds and planted Sylvia’s new magnolia tree, I played musical rooms with our bedrooms.  Sylvia sleeps in bed with us, and her dresser has been in the guest room.  We change her diaper and clothes either in our bedroom or in Andrew’s room or in our room.
I’ve been planning to move Andrew to the guest bedroom and make Andrew’s room back into a nursery for Sylvie.  So in the last couple weeks, I acquired some safari-print sheets for Andrew’s bed, a cool new clock for his wall, and a zebra rug for the floor.  Then on Saturday, I moved Sylvia’s stuff from the guest room to our room.  I moved the queen bed out to the sunroom, and transferred Andrew’s bed to his new room.  I swapped the dressers in the tow rooms, and  I pulled the puff rocker from the sunroom into Andrew’s room.   Bryan helped me pull the crib up from the basement, and we got that all set up in Sylvia’s room.  Then I had fun hanging pictures on the walls and organizing book shelves.  I got to hang the beautiful silk canopy above Sylvia’s crib (don’t worry, I’ll take it down when she gets old enough to grab it) and put pretty touches around the room for her.
Andrew leapt wildly about his new room, rolling around on his rug and cheering.  So I don’t think I have to be worried about him liking it.  Pictures of the new rooms (and of other cute kid antics) are in the gallery.

We also go the kid a new mattress for his bed.  The bed frame is one that I used, and we got the mattress quite used back in the ’80s, so his new sheets are covering a much firmer, cushier bed.

Syliva’s room has two sound machines…one I bought specially for her and the Sleep Sheep that my mom had used for a long time.  It seems like having both of them going simultaneously helps my very sound-sensitive daughter find her way to dreamland.  We put her down in her crib last night, and she slept there until around 1am.  It was the first time we’ve slept in separate rooms ever.  I flipped between feeling luxuriant and missing her dreadfully.  Bryan brought her into bed when she woke, so in the morning, I had my little one snuggled up against me.  What a sweetheart (as Andrew says!).

Now each kid has his/her own space, and it feels really nice and settled. Wow.  We have a full house!

PS.  Any ideas about how to move a queen sized bed across town?  I’m going to take it over to Michael’s house, but I’m not sure how to do it other than renting a truck!

April 25: I meant to write this post about a month back, but I never got around to it.
It was one of my first mornings home alone with both kids, and I decided to try to take a shower.  Andrew usually played in the bathroom while I showered, but he had recently learned how to open door knobs, so could take off and play elsewhere.  Sylvia was in her bouncy seat next to the shower so I could peak out and look at her.
So I hop in the shower, and almost immediately, I hear the door open-Andrew has left the room.  Oh well…hopefully he won’t destroy himself or anything else.
Then Sylvia starts screaming.  “OK,” I think, “I just need to be quick here.”
Then the steam from the bathroom floats out into the hall and sets the fire alarm off.  Great.  “This is relaxing and restorative!” I think over the screaming baby and the fire alarm.
Then Andrew comes in and announces (over the din) than he took off his diaper and had an accident.
I decide at that point to stop hurrying and just stay in the shower as long as possible.
Fun times!

April 25 update – Her name is Evelyn Rose Lerner
April 23: I just got off the phone with Heather, and she is happily holding her sweet baby girl. The little one arrived at 3:33 this afternoon. She weighs 7lbs, 6oz and is 19.25 inches long. Heather said she has dark, wavy hair. She has super-long finger nails, a perfect little rose of a mouth, a little half-moon chin, and chubby thighs.
I’m hoping for pictures on their website (lernerclan.net) soon. Heather was doing well and sounded great. I’m sure it’s been a big several days!
Welcome new little one. You are much loved.
Some early pictures are in the gallery.

April 23: 1:45pm – No recent news from Heather and Michael, but early this morning, Michael’s blog post said that they were re-ramping up the pitocin and breaking the water with the idea of getting the baby out today. Heather called me last night after they’d stopped inducing for the evening. She sounded really good – a bit tired and pretty hungry, and she was alright that they were taking a slow approach to induction. The baby’s vitals were all looking good.
It’s strange to be calmly enjoying a beautiful day knowing that such a dear friend is in the midst of birthing her child! Especially after having so recently delivered Sylvia. Big times!

April 22: I’ve been following Heather and Michael’s blog throughout the day. She was admitted to the hospital last night for her scheduled induction. As of mid-day today, it sounded like labor was progressing. However, this afternoon, what I’m hearing is that the things aren’t moving forward, so the doctors are planning on continuing with the drug-induced labor until 8pm tonight and at that point shut off the drugs to give Heather a chance to eat and sleep. Then they’ll start up again in the morning.
The medical professionals are all really happy with how both Heather and the baby are doing. And just so you know, whatever happened to Allan occurred before labor even started, so there isn’t any increased concerns about how this baby does through labor and delivery. We just really want to get her out and hold her!

April 20: I’m really excited for Heather and Michael.  Their baby girl should be born this week.  Little baby girl Lerner is going to be induced on Tuesday, April 22 (Earth Day:)  Statistics show that risks to the baby increase as they go past 38 weeks gestation, so they will be inducing at 38 weeks.  Heather’s blog is lernerclan.net, so you can check that for pictures and updates.
Heather and Michael have been through so much after losing baby Allan at 41 weeks in September 2006.  I’m sure these final days of waiting are going to be quite challenging, and they could probably use any loving thoughts you have to send their way.
Little baby girl, we can’t wait to see you!!

April 20: On Thursday, Sylvia and I joined my Gathering Waters friends for a fun day in Chicago.  Everyone (but Vicki) drove down to Chicago for a fun day of eating and shopping and museum-going.  A perk for both current and recent employees.  I was so happy to be included; I just love my co-workers.  They are some of my favorite people.
Pam and I drove down together with both babies.  Mercy is a week younger than Sylvia.  All day, the girls were champs.  They hardly had any problems, and they fit right in.  Meanwhile, Andrew spent the day at Karen’s having fun playing with all his old favorite toys.  Pictures of our gang are in the gallery.

We shopped at Nordstrom’s. The shoe department was…amazing.  Karen wrote a great description of the shoe experience in her blog.  We ate lunch at a great restaurant by chef Rick Bayless called Frontera.  Oh, boy, it was gooood.
Then we went to the Shedd Aquarium for much of the afternoon.  When the aquarium closed, it was rush hour, so we decided to shop and eat instead of returning home.  We explored Crate and Barrel and then had a yummy dinner at the Grand Luxe Cafe, where everything, especially the portions were grande.
Pam and I didn’t get home until almost midnight, but we had a wonderful day.  I feel so lucky to have such great friends.  They make me laugh and feel oh-so good about life.

April 20: Maretta and Kyle’s wedding is coming up in only one month and four days!  They’ve been engaged for over two years, so it’s kind of hard to believe that the wedding time is nearly upon us.  Maretta is graduating with a degree in theater (acting) from the College of St. Catherine’s on May 18, moving out of her dorm, and heading down to Madison for a week of preparation.  The wedding is on Saturday, May 24, and after that, Maretta and Kyle will be heading back to St. Paul.  Kyle is a PhD student at the UM, and he has a few years left in his program.  Maretta will look for work and hopefully get some acting roles in the Minneapolis/St. Paul theater scene.

Nearly everything is lined up for the wedding.  Maretta, Kyle, Kyle’s Mom (Marilyn), and I have teamed up to do the organizing.  When Maretta was home over spring break, we got a lot done.  With spring on the way, it’s feeling more and more like wedding time!

April 14:  We just got home from a great weekend in Wichita visiting Bryan’s family.  The whole weekend was a lot of fun, but our flight home was a little more exciting than I prefer my flights to be.  First of all, I can no longer go around thinking that my children don’t cry during flights.  Andrew has probably flown 20 or 30 times, and he’s never made much of a fuss.  And the first three legs of our weekend trip, Sylvia was quiet as well.  But the flight from Memphis to Madison was different.  She was mad from the moment we got on the plane, and although she fell asleep (from utter screaming exhaustion) for a while, she was inconsolable nearly the entire time.  She had zero interest in nursing, which Bryan noted makes me a little bit like Superman in the face of kryptonite.  So, that was fun.

Then when our plane got to Madison, we started circling instead of landing.  After a bit, the pilot got on the intercom and announced that we were maneuvering to Madison’s longest runway because the plane’s flaps weren’t going down.  Therefore, the plane was going to be going a lot faster upon landing than usual, and they needed a long runway to give time to stop.  Wow.  That’s exciting.

The emergency row folks got extra briefings, we were told that the landing would be hard and fast, and we should really make sure all our belongings were tightly secured.  In order to prevent Sylvia from becoming a projectile, I got out my coat and zipped her up in it.  The pilot said he’d done this kind of landing before, and the flight attendant wasn’t seeming too phased, and the tenor of the passengers was calm, a little baffled, and probably slightly nervous.  It wasn’t until we after landed (there was a big thump and a lot of breaks as we stopped) and saw all the fire trucks and ambulances with their lights flashing…waiting for us that I felt worried:)

Many of our fellow passengers took pictures of the plane surrounded by emergency vehicles.  Sylvia stopped crying when we got off the plane.  I think at this point, my brain has re-congealed after melting from an hour or so of having her cry on my lap:)
OK, off to Sylvia’s two-month doctor’s appointment!

April 10: We’re off to Wichita in the morning!  We’re really looking forward to seeing Bryan’s grandparents as well as his mom and dad and Ben and Melanie (who are all driving up from Texas to meet up with us).  We haven’t been to Wichita since last April, so they’ll see lots of changes in Andrew.  And of course, it will be a lot of fun to introduce them to Sylvia!  Our bags are packed, and I we’re nearly ready to roll.
I’m returning Ben and Melanie’s super-cool camera to them, so I downloaded some last photos from it.  They’re in the gallery (amended to an earlier set of pictures).
We’ve had a great time seeing lots of our friends in the last week.  Andrew and Alivia have been playing together a lot.  Eli and Jessica came over the other day.  We got to see Sarah and Wyatt last Thursday.  Fun times!  I also just did a tour of a nearby (as in a block away) preschool, and I registered Andrew to start in the fall.  He’ll be going two mornings a week from 8:45 to 11:45.  The classrooms were so crafty and playful and wonderful.  I wish he could start next week!
Tootles!