July 25: I just love this time of year. In the past I haven’t been as big of a fan of summer. Fall and spring were my favorite seasons. And maybe they still are…but right now I can think of no time I’d rather have it be than late summer. The fireflies are lighting up our yard with their dances each night. I made avocado ice cream last night from The Perfect Scoop. Bryan and I took a walk with Sylvia before dinner, and we talked and pushed her in a stroller, and it was so peaceful. I’m really enjoying this one-child vacation!
On Wednesday night, we attended our first Concert on the Square this summer. It was a soft and mild summer evening, and the light was great so I took lots of photos. Bryan and I have been filling our evenings recently re-watching Band of Brothers. Last night, we watched the last three episodes. What a great show.
Sylvia is squealing and spinning in her exersaucer. She’s improving her sitting skills by the hour. It’s a lot of fun to get to focus just on her for a bit here. But I think she misses the excitement of her fabulous big brother:)
Off to Texas tomorrow morning! Word from the grandparents is that he is having a tremendous time. What a lucky kid:)
Happenings this past week
July 24: I got photos downloaded off my camera yesterday afternoon (post-Andrew departure), and it reminded me of all the fun things we’ve had the chance to do this last week. I really like this staying at home gig. It provides lots of opportunities to spend time with my kids and people I love and for us to do all sorts of fun things. And the weather! It’s been gorgeous!
Pictures of our galavanting adventures are in the gallery.
Last Friday, we went to the County Fair with Uncle Bubba. I’d stayed home all day on Thursday, and it had driven me slightly mad. I’m just not that good at being home in the house with both kids and no activities or adult interactions all day. Nope. So Friday afternoon, Uncle Bubba rescued me from myself by meeting us at the fair. We walked through all the barns and saw large numbers of animals. It was kind of amazing to see how much Andrew has grown and matured. He was intrigued by the animals, ran up to try to pet them, and even let a woman pick him up and put him in the pen with a couple huge pigs. Last year, he was facinated but very hesitant and the year before he was interested but rather terrified. He’s really growing up!
On Sunday, I helped co-host a baby shower for Sarah. Her mom and sister and neice drove up from Chicago, and we all had a really fun time. Andrew loved eating the M&M’s. We drew pictures on onesies and chatted away the afternoon. Sarah’s due in late August/early Sept., and it’s a lot of fun to anticipate the arrival of the wee one.
The night before we had gone to a baby-welcoming party for another Sarah (Wyatt’s mom). Her baby is due (via c-section) tomorrow! She’s looking so great and strong…it’s going to be fun to see Wyatt as a big brother very soon.
Sunday evening, Andrew went to a Mallards baseball game with Bryan and my dad. It was my dad’s birthday present to the little guy. Andrew had an absolute blast. He came home nearly vibrating with excitement and spilling over with tales of jumping in the big blow-up duck, playing in the sandbox, and eating popcorn, a hotdog, and potato chips. Oh, yea, they also watched a few innings of the game:)
On Tuesday, Jessica, Eli, and Celia came over and we all enjoyed a fabulous summer day together. While Jessica was point person of the 4 (four) kids, I headed up a craft project of dying play silks with kool-aid. Years before having kids, I was really, really wanting to fill my life with colorful play silks. But for $11 each, I just haven’t been able to justify it. So I was pretty excited when I found that you can get silks for $2.50 each and dye them with a few packets of Kool-aid! We made 16 silks. The boys even helped with some of the stirring and dye-packet-dumping. I now dance around the house just like these kids.
So it’s been a good week! Happy summer!
She cut a tooth!
July 23: Sylvia’s been working the teething thing a lot recently…chomping hard on knuckles and about anything else she can get in her mouth. Last night I thought I could see the white of a tooth just under the skin, and this afternoon, it appears to have cut through!
Oh dear, my baby is soon to have a toothy smile instead of a gummy grin. I’ll need to get some good final gum shots of her before that tooth pushes up and becomes visible!
Way to go, Sylvia!
And he’s off!
July 23: An hour ago, Andrew and Granny flew away on what is Andrew’s first trip without his parents. He’s heading to Texas to spend the next few days at Granny and Grandad’s house. Sylvia, Bryan, and I will be joining him on Saturday.
Andrew was excited beyond words. All morning long he wanted to go to the airport. I’m excited too! It’s fabulous that he can be spreading his wings and having one-on-one fun with his grandparents. And I’ll get to focus on Sylvia for a few days. Focus on Sylvia and (hopefully) find a little extra space in my life to breathe.
Now I can turn to my five-month-old and ask, “Darling, what would you like to do this afternoon?”
Tom’s recuperating at home
July 21: I haven’t done an update on Tom in a while, but no news is good news. He’s back at home recovering and doing pretty well. Sleep does wonderful for healing. I hope he recovers from this surgery as handily as Mom recovered from her Whipple procedure in January 2006. They seem to be somewhat similar in terms of being major gastro-intestinal surgeries!
The second half of summer is nigh
July 21: I can’t believe that we’ve already reached late July. Oh, sweet summer. Slow down, slow down! The days fly by on fleet feet. So far, our July has been remarkably unscheduled. We had three weekends in a row with almost no pre-planned activities. But now, all that changes. Here’s a quick snapshot:
- Bryan’s mom is flying up here tomorrow and will be taking Andrew down to Texas for his first solo visit. Bryan, Sylvia, and I are following this weekend and will be coming back up with him next week.
- Our annual weekend at Jack’s house is the first weekend in August this year.
- The second weekend in August, Sylvia and I are flying to Vermont for my friend Jennifer’s wedding. Jennifer and I went to graduate school together. Grace and I will be meeting up there and rooming together.
- The third weekend in August I’m home and unscheduled.
- The forth weekend in August, I fly with the two kids to Washington DC to visit Grace, Tim & John; Heather, Michael, & Evelyn; and Kacy & Reuteger. Kacy’s wedding is on August 30. I’ll spend a week hanging out with folks in DC (my new stay-at-home role allows for such lollygagging!), and then Bryan is joining me for the wedding. I’m really looking forward to it!
We may be heading to Ann Arbor for a visit in September too, so that’s our late summer travel excitement. It all should be a lot of fun:)
Chocolate face
July 18: So the chocolate sorbet that I made yesterday is rather good. Like lick the bowl good. I gave Andrew (my boy who likes to eat batter) the bowl and a spoon, and this is what happened. Oh my.
Just note that if I had turned the camera around, my face may or may not have looked similar. I truly love Andrew gusto for life.
In other news, as I wrote this post, I said, “That’s my big guy!” and he replied, “I’m not big. I’m still quite yiddle.”
My two kids
July 18: Aren’t they both adorable? Here are pictures of Andrew at Sylvia at a bit over five months.
Preparedness pays off
July 17: Some people like to be prepared in case there is a natural disaster. I like to be prepared for any kind of emergency baking situations. My kitchen is stocked with almond paste, sweetened condensed milk, tapioca, many kinds of flour, dutch process coca, etc. One never knows when a baking need will arise and one will need to whip out a dessert at a moment’s notice. No running to the store for me! When we moved from our house in Ann Arbor, I had about eight packages of butter in the fridge. Running out of baking staples is, I believe, a subconscious fear of mine.
But today that preparedness paid off. I strapped Sylvia to me in her ergo carrier, chopped up chocolate, and quickly made The Smitten Kitchen’s Chocolate Sorbet. It’s currently cooling in the fridge. Mmmm. I love chocolate. And ice cream.
Sylvia these days
July 16: Sylvia is five months old now. Hard to believe! Andrew was five months old around Thanksgiving of ’05. I still think that they look a lot like each other.
So here’s a snapshot of some of the cute things that our little girl is up to these days.
- She’s smiling. A LOT. With her big gummy grin.
- She’s rolling…mostly from back to front. But she’s very good at it.
- She loves to fall asleep by rubbing a soft blanket on her face. And sucking on her paci.
- She wakes up two to three times a night. Sometimes more…and that’s no fun. Sometimes just twice. She goes to bed around 8 and usually wakes at 12, 2, 4, and then 6 am starts the day.
- Around the end of June (so when she was about 4 1/2 months), she stopped crying/singing when in her car seat. It was around the time she was getting better at grasping toys. The difference in my life has been notable. Going places is so much less stressful! Now crying in the car is not nearly so common.
- She’s also been doing great in the bike trailer. We’ve done several rides in the last week, and the only time she really got crying was when Big Brother bit her finger. Not sure what he was thinking there…it didn’t seem to be maliciously intended. She started screaming so I stopped the bike and went to pick her up, wondering if the sun got in her eyes or if her tummy hurt her, and Andrew said cheerfully, “I bit her, Mommy!” Sure enough…teeth marks on her finger. Anyway, that’s another story.
- When Sylvia is on her tummy, she often pushes up with her arms so she can get a good look around the room. It’s a really cute pose.
- She’s also working on sitting up. She can reach out in front or to the side to balance herself (sometimes), but she needs someone ready to catch her at all times!
- Sylvia thus far is not so in to books. She does like faces, and she’s been reacting strongly to the books I just got her with photos of baby faces. However, the reaction is fiercely screeching.
- Over the weekend, she started adding the “D” sound into her vocabulary. She does a lot of “aahhh” and “ooohhhh” “ooooo” “ggaaaahhh” “gooooo” normally, but “daaahhhh” and “doooo” and “ah da ah da” is new. She say it a lot. Especially AH DAH.
- She’s got a great laugh. And she laughs most of all for her beloved brother. He can make her laugh in a second. My assessment is that she’s over the moon about him. And he about her. And he’s working on being gentle. Babies are so cute, sometimes it’s hard not to want to pinch and squeeze and nibble upon them. At least I think so!
~A