Category: General News

April 7: It’s a miracle!  Both kids are asleep.  I just snuck out of the bed after lying down next to Sylvia for almost an hour.  She really only likes to nap either on my lap on next to me in bed.  Occasionally over the last hour, her eyes would flicker open, and a brief smile would spread across her face as she noted that I was still next to her.  What sweetness.  But then she seemed more lax, more asleep, and I snuck away to have a few moments in a room by myself before the next round of parenting starts.  Andrew is sleeping this afternoon too. After spending the morning at Alivia’s house, he came home quiet tired.  And happily, today (as opposed to the last couple days) he took a nap.
Andrew loves Syliva so much.  I got home from Carleton late on Saturday night. On Sunday morning, Andrew came around to my side of the bed and asked if Sylvia was there.  Then he crawled over me, cupped her chubby cheek in his two-year-old hand and said, “She’s so beautiful.  I love her pretty eyes.”  Then he got cozy under the covers and cuddled with all of us.  What a sweet boy!
Pictures from the last several days are in the gallery.

I drove up to Northfield, MN on Thursday last week to attend an Alumni Concil meeting at Carleton.  Sylvia had been rather fussy the previous couple days, so I was rather skeptical that it was a good idea to try to drive four hours with her solo and have her sitting in two full-day committee meetings.  However, the whole experience was a good one.  She didn’t cry much on either leg of the trip…maybe an hour, but she tends to cry for around an hour in the evenings anyway, so it was pretty managable.  She did great during the meeting times, and it was a lot of fun to share her with the other people on the council.  I love playing “pass the baby!”
While I was gone, Andrew went to daycare at Karen’s on Friday and had a great time.  I think he enjoyed getting to see Karen and some of the other kids he knew.  On Saturday, Becky came over to watch him in the morning while Bryan went to a Madison Film Festival show, and then Bryan and Andrew spent most of the rest of the day outdoors.
It was a lovely weekend.  The air was pretty balmy, and we got to see many of our neighbors as we swept out the garage, raked all the leaves out our gardens, and threw balls around in the yard.
Today the weather is back in the 30s, but warm spring is peeking around somewhere. I just know it!  I have several pots of pansies waiting to be planted when the last piles of snow disappear.
We’re off to Wichita this weekend to introduce Syliva to Bryan’s grandparents and aunts and uncles.  Bryan’s parents and Ben and Melanie will be driving up from Texas to join us.  We’re looking forward to it.  This will be Sylvia’s first plane flight.  And she is eight weeks old today!

March 25: I’m typing with a sleeping (at the moment) baby slung across my lap. As is her want, she fell asleep nursing, and I should not move her if I want her to continue to sleep.  Andrew is taking a nap today (thank heavens…I think it’s his first one in the last seven days!!).  So I can sit amidst the silence for a moment and just be still.
Today is the first day that I am home solo all day with both kids.  Since my maternity leave has no end (I’m not going back to work at Gathering Waters), I kind of feel like today is the first day of my new job as full-time mom.  It’s been wonderful and amazing to have had help for the first six weeks of little Sylvia’s life.  Bryan, his mom, Grace, and my siblings have been such a huge help.  This on-our-own-ness is coming at a good time.  Sylvia wakes about three times in the night to eat…meaning that I’m only awake for an hour or so cumulatively.  I’d love 8 uninterrupted hours, but our current system is working pretty well.

And spring is just around the corning (isn’t it?!).  The sandhill cranes and red wing black birds are back. The chickadees and cardinals are singing their spring songs.  I’m really looking forward to all the outdoor activities I can do with the kids and with my friends this spring, summer, and fall.
This morning I pushed Andrew down to the library in his stroller.  It feels good to get out and stretch my legs!  (When we got out of the library, we discovered that the stroller had a flat tire, so Andrew got to walk home and stretch his legs as well.  We stopped at every puddle to hop in.)
How very lucky I am to have two marvelous kids to spend my days with and such wonderful friends to play with as well.  Cheers to the future!
Oh, and Happy Birthday to Joey today.  He’s 20!

March 21: In a continued effort to reach the 100 inches of snow mark this year, we’ve got loads of the white stuff falling from the sky.  Enough!  To get a much-needed dose of spring, Maretta, Andrew, Sylvia, and I headed to Olbrich this morning.  They have their spring bulb show going on right now, so we enjoyed smelling the brightly colored flowers for a bit.  Then we trekked across town to look at the proofs for some engagement pictures that Maretta and Kyle had taken the other day.
Maretta watched Andrew in the afternoon while Sylvia and I ventured out to Woodman’s for a much-needed grocery run.  She cried the entire time.  Her cry is still so newborn-sounding, that I got lots of sympathetic looks from all the other shoppers.  Maretta and I went shopping last night and found Maretta some great-looking dresses for her to wear to weddings this summer.  I also got Andrew a sweater vest and shirt and tie for him to wear to Maretta’s wedding in May.  We also met with Nakoma Country Club to go over all the final reception details, and I’m feeling really excited about how beautiful it will all look.
Andrew helped us make his first-ever batch of Rice Krispy treats. MMmmmm

Photos from the last several days are in the gallery.

March 20: My mental list of things to write about has been growing and growing these last days. It’s 10 days since my last fun post, and I’ve started keeping a little slip of paper with reminders to myself about things I wanted to share.  It seems though that I barely turn on the computer before Andrew needs something or Sylvia isn’t cool with the idea of me trying to hold her and type simultaneously.  My siblings are all in town this week, and we’ve been doing fun things.
Maretta and I have been doing wedding planning.  We took Joe shopping for a new suit.  We celebrated Michael’s birthday yesterday.  There’s good stuff going on!  And in the evenings, I am totally out of energy for anything.  Oh, my poor neglected pile of thank-you cards!
I’m continuing to take lots of pictures, and there are some good ones from last week in the gallery.
Andrew is doing wonderfully as a big brother, we’re getting out for walks now that our road is not a solid ice field, and Sylvia is consistently doing at least one 3 hour stretch of sleep at night.
When I started this note, Andrew was in his room for his rest time, and Sylvia was asleep.  Now Andrew is taking apart a box of printer cartridges, and Sylvia is nursing as I try to type.  If I don’t catch the phone when you call or am long in replying to your emails, just know it’s because my hands are full.  Fully of fun, very active little ones!
Happy first day of spring!

March 7: Wow…it’s already Friday!  Bryan’s mom flew back to Texas on Tuesday (and she called this morning to say that it was in the 30s and snowing in College Station!).  Then Andrew and Sylvia and I were on our own Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday.  We even did a solo trip to Woodman’s!  Wednesday late afternoon, my dear friend Grace flew in from DC to help us and spend time with us until Sunday.
We’ve been having a good time together:)  Yesterday we went to Madtown Twisters again, and Andrew had a wonderful time jumping and swinging and running about on all the gymnastic equipment.
My Happy Bambino mom’s group has been providing us with dinners every Tuesday and Thursday night for the last couple weeks, and the delicious meals are going to continue coming to our door twice a week through March.  What a pampering treat!  And it’s so wonderful not to have to think about dinner.  Since Sylvia really most prefers to sleep on me, it makes it easier to just sit and be her pillow knowing that dinner will be provided.
Grace has been a big help with Andrew, and it’s a lot of fun to just be spending time together these last couple days.  I think today we’ll do an outing to the library.
Photos from the last week are in the gallery.

March 4:  We’re just back from having dropped Granny Lu off at the airport.  We had a wonderful visit with Mark and LuAnn and Ben and Melanie from Thursday through Sunday.  Then LuAnn stayed until today to give me some extra Andrew-care while I buzzed about town with Sylvie.
It was so fun to introduce Sylvia to her family.  It’s amazing that we’re all just meeting her for the first time, and yet she is going to be such an important person in all our lives from here on.  The weather was cold for our Texan family members, but they braved the elements and headed out into the yard to build a snowman.  The snow wasn’t that cooperative, so they ended up adding a snowman head to the top of a large pile of snow.  It turned out really cute.
Bryan’s mom gave us a beautiful quilt that she’s been working on these past months.  It’s purple and yellow and just wonderful.  I want to look at it all the time.
[Side note: Sylvia woke from what should have been a long nap and was very fussy.  So I just sat her in her chair and turned on the loud fan above the oven.  Now she’s either asleep or totally content.  Wow. White noise does work!]
Andrew loved playing with some of his favorite people these last days.  He just adores his family.  And they must adore him too, given how willingly they play the games he wants to play over and over and over and over again!
Pictures of our weekend are in the gallery.  Also, for a fun comparison, check out the pictures from Andrew’s third week in the summer of 2005.

March 3: Melanie and Ben were visiting us this weekend, and they left us with a wonderful loan…their lovely SLR digital camera complete with it’s super-cool flash attachment.  I had a blast taking pictures of the kiddos in the last couple days.  Oh, they are so cute!
Pics-of-wonderfulness are in the gallery.

Feb. 26: I think Sylvia is starting to look a bit older.  I can’t quite pinpoint where the changes are happening, but she doesn’t look as newbornish to me as she did last week.  Yesterday was her two-week birthday.  She’s currently nestled on my chest, her long fingers gripping a handful of my shirt.  I can almost hear her thinking, “Can’t I nurse again while I sleep, Mom?”
She did a cluster-nursing marathon last night, starting about 6 pm and finally falling asleep for a couple hours around 8 am.  I really don’t think she stopped nursing for more than about a half-hour at a stretch all night.  I think this is the nursing mania that proceeds the 2-3 week growth spurt.  Makes for one tired mommy, though!
Fortunately, Andrew was perfectly content letting me sit on the sofa and talking him through his bird book or exclaiming as he jumped off the sofa onto a pillow 53 times.
Sylvia just decided that sleeping on me wasn’t quite what she wanted.  She wants, very strongly, to nurse while sleeping.  She normally fusses for about 10 seconds before letting out a shriek, but this time there was nor warning.  It’s a stunningly loud sound, somewhat reminiscent of a red-tailed hawk.  OK, now she’s a happier girl.  Good thing I didn’t have anything planned today!
On Sunday, we drove down to Monroe to see my grandma.  She was happy to see Sylvia, and she held the little one in the crook of her arm for quite some time.  Poor Grandma is so very frail.  The skin on her hands felt almost transparent.  And from the sounds of it, her recently-diagnosed stomach cancer isn’t giving her much opportunity to eat or drink.  As she said, it’s a hard place to be.  It was nice to sit with her, though, and to share Andrew and Sylvia with her.
Sunday night, Sylvia and I went to my friend Sara’s house for an Oscar party.  I love watching the Oscars.  And now I not only have my fashion tank filled but I also have lots of new movies to add to my Netflix cue.
Yesterday was my first day home alone (but just for the morning) with the kiddos.  We packed up and went to the Pinney library branch story hour.  A good way to spend some time.  I took advantage of my at-home day today by baking a couple loaves of whole-wheat bread.  It’s a new recipe that I got from one of LuAnn’s friends.  So far, I give the dough some big thumbs up:)
Bryan just got home for the afternoon, and I’m going to take Sylvia in for her two-week appointment in a bit here.  Have a good day!

Feb. 23: I have utterly lost track of what day of the week it is.  I haven’t forgotten that it is winter, but that’s only because of the pervasiveness of the snow.  Bryan has been off work for the last couple weeks, and our days and nights all blend together.  It’s been a good last week here in the Dotzour home, so I guess knowing the date is
just one of those things I’ve decided don’t matter right now.
Bryan heads back to work next week, but he’s only working in the mornings.  He should be home in the afternoons, so that should be a nice transition.  Bryan’s mom and dad and Melanie and Ben fly into town next Friday, and LuAnn is staying until Tuesday.  Then my friend Grace is coming into town on Wednesday, March 5 and staying through the weekend.  Then Joe will be home from Bowdoin until March 23.  Maretta will be home as well from March 14-23, so I imagine that there will be lots of opportunities to have another adult around.

On Thursday, I did my first trip solo with both kids.  It was pretty low-key…I took them to Gathering Waters to have lunch with my co-workers.  Vicki arrived the same time I did, so I even had help getting all my stuff in the building.  Karen held Sylvia the whole time – and she loved it.
Yesterday I ended up staying in my pajamas all day long, which was mostly nice, but I kind of felt like a human milk supplier/pillow for the littlest one.  Sylvia vastly prefers to sleep on a person than in her chair.  And in general, I think she deserves whatever makes her happiest.  I hope the magazines I got at the library today will help give my brain something to do during the sweet hours spent with the little one.
Today Sylvia had her first restaurant experience.  We went to Rocky’s, where Andrew ordered a slice of pizza “with pepperoni and sausage, but no mushrooms.”  When did he grow up?
We are planning a trip to Monroe to see Grandma tomorrow morning, and at this point, we’re enjoying a quiet and sunny wintery Saturday.  see, I now know the date:)  Pictures from the last couple days are in the gallery.