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Sept. 14:  It’s 11:45am and Bryan and Sylvia are both napping.  They both need the sleep. Last night felt a little like a Comedy of Errors.  I went to bed around 11pm.  At 1am I woke up to Sylvia crying (which is normal).  But Bryan told me that she’d been up regularly for the last couple hours, and he’d just recently come to bed.  She came down with a stuffy nose in the night and can’t use her pacifier.  So she was pretty unhappy.  We both tried for a while to have her fall asleep.  Sometime around 2, I think she fell soundly asleep.  Soon after, Spooky (our cat) started barfing on on the bed.  It was pretty startaling to wake up to a cat making hacking noises while curled in my arms.  So I tossed him off the bed where he proceeded to cat-yack all over our blankets.  So we cleaned that up.  Then around 3:30, Andrew crawled in bed with me.  I dozed for a bit but then decided I should move him back to bed.  I don’t want him getting the idea that coming into our bed at night is a good idea.  He didn’t want to go back to bed, and it took about 15 minutes and some creative talking (his whale needed him to sleep with him so he’d have good dreams) to get him to agree to try falling asleep in his room.  “But I want to sleep with you and DADDY!” he’d wail.
Then at 5am, Sylvia woke up and really acted like she was not going to go back to bed anytime soon.  So I got up with her and played with her in her room until Bryan came in to swap out with me at 6:30am.
Sylvia seems like she doesn’t feel quite right, and she got a runny nose.  But we all then had a lovely morning with waffles and coffee for breakfast, playing in the sunroom, and some great dancing to first Stone Temple Pilots and then the Nutcracker by Bryan and Andrew.  They got a good workout.  Now Bryan’s sleeping and I finally got Sylvia to sleep in her crib by holding her until she was sound asleep then transferring her.  Life’s pretty full right now!

Sept. 12: Having children often means acquiring lots of new stuff.  Kids need so many things…furniture, clothes, toys, diapers, diapers, diapers, coats, shoes.  And it’s so easy to find those things cheap these days that it can be pretty easy to go overboard.
When I was in graduate school, I studied natural resources and read a lot about American’s consumption habits.  As a nation, we are incredible energy hogs.  We buy too much stuff with too much packaging, we drive too much, we live in houses that are too big, we eat way too much.  That all might not be a deal if it weren’t that our consumptive habits have such a negative impact on the Earth.  And that we’re setting an example for much of the rest of the world that this is a great way to live.  It’s just not sustainable!  We use so much more energy than other nations.  It makes me very uncomfortable.
I try to live rather lightly.  I’d like my kids to have the opportunity to live lightly on the Earth.  So while we haven’t achieved any milestones in sustainable living, we try to do our part by keeping our acquisitions to a minimum.  Yet we’re not lacking for anything.  I’ve been the lucky recipient of so much baby gear, it’s incredible.  My friends have been very generous.

Looking around the kid’s rooms tonight, I noted the following:

• Crib – hand-me-down from Maretta
• Sylvia’s Dresser – hand-me-down from my co-worker, Sara’s parents
• Changing table – hand-me-down from Bryan’s co-worker, Matthew
• Rocking chair – garage sale find
• Andrew’s dresser – garage sale find
• Andrew’s bed – my bed growing up
• Andrew’s bookshelf – hand-me-down from Terry
• Andrew’s doll crib – mine growing up
• Andrew’s table and chairs – Maretta and Joe’s growing up

New things include: Sylvia’s bookshelf, Andrew’s rocking chair, their bedding, wall clocks, curtains, and rugs.

That makes me feel great!  My kids have nice rooms.  I love being in their rooms, and they are filled with things I really like.  I love that much of the furniture is old things finding new life in our home.

I’ve been incredibly lucky with Andrew and Sylvia’s clothes.  In both cases, I bought a fun number of baby clothes myself.  When Andrew was little, my friend Vicki handed us down all Alex’s old clothes.  For the first year or so, I think that about 3/4 of Andrew’s clothes came from Alex.  It was great!  Now with Sylvia, we again are getting clothes from my neighbor Kathy and my friend Pam.  It’s been wonderful to have closets full of nice clothes to choose from.  I like being able to buy some really special items to top off a full wardrobe!  Bryan’s mom is great at finding super-wonderful pieces for the kids.  It rounds out their clothing supply beautifully.

When Andrew needs clothes, I usually check resale shops and garage sales first.  When I find good brands, I stock up.  I don’t think his clothes have ever looked “used” (except perhaps when he stain them, but then he’s using them!), and I feel good about getting the bulk of his clothes by recycling.

When it comes to toys, I feel like we have a good balance going in our house.  We’re not overrun by toys.  Andrew has loads of puzzles, shelves of books, a big basket of stuffed animals, dolls, instruments, blocks, a train set, lots of animals, Noah’s ark, a farm, a garage, a doctor’s kit, dress-up items.  His creative and learning needs are well-met.  And yet, I really like the fact that when the house is cleaned up, stacks of children’s books, Sylvia’s high chair, play mat, and exersaucer, and a shelf of toys in the sun room are the main indicators that children live in the house.  I like keeping the toy madness toned down in our home:)

So now that I’ve patted myself on the back about being so moderate about consumption, now comes the part of the post where I say what I want.  I want lots of beautiful wooden toys.  I want my kids to have them, but in truth, I want them for myself.  Mom told me that she got all four of us kids double t-strap shoes because she had always wanted them as a kid.  She knew that she was fulfilling her childhood wish by getting them for us, and she warned me that parents often do lots of things for their kids that are really things they wanted for themselves.  She encouraged me to try to limit it to things like double t-strap shoes.  For Christmas, Byan’s parents (or perhaps Santa…I’m not sure which) got me a silk play bower for Sylvia.  I think it whetted my appetite.  Now, I want a fairy house.

I really hope Sylvia or Andrew want it, because I think they are going to get it.

I was looking through the Magic Cabin catalog, and I realized that assuming that Sylvia is our last child, some of the baby toys I may never have reason to buy (for myself) again.  Will it be that I never by a cute wooden chew toy?  Maybe that’s OK.  There’s lots of wonderful, magical toys that are to come.  But I started to think about what toys I want to be part of our life before those little kids of mine grow up.   In fact, I made a list.  A long list.  Here’s my $1,000 wish list from Magic Cabin toys.

Join with me!  Love very expensive, European-made, wooden and simple and imaginative toys that warm the soul!

Sept. 11: Sylvia is seven months old today!  Andrew is at preschool this morning, and Sylvia is napping.  I got a couple loads of laundry going, and now I’m taking a half hour before a conference call to check favorite websites and to work on a new, prettier fall template.  But first, I needed to delete the 30 or so spam comments and do a quick update on our weekend.
It was a relaxing, beautiful weekend, and it really started feeling like autumn. Lisa invited us on an apple picking outing, so on Saturday (after Lisa and Michael babysat Andrew for a few hours), we all went to the Eplegaarden orchard.  Lots of pictures are in the gallery.  The trees in the open rows had been quite picked over, so all the remaining apples were way high in the trees.  Fortunately we had two strong guys and one little guy, so Bryan and Michael hoisted Andrew up over their heads for most of our apples.  I made apple pie and apple muffins shortly thereafter.  Thanks, Lisa, for a fun outing!

Sept. 11: (aka DC recap volume four)  The underlying reason for our trip to DC is because my lovely friend Kacy got married on Saturday, August 30.  It was a stunning wedding.
Kacy, Anne, Heather, and I were good friends in high school…the Fab 4 was what we were called.  We were all in cross-country, drama, mock trial, National Honor’s Society, Kace and I were in debate…so lots of extra-curriculars!  The four of us met up in DC in December to hang out together, but in general we only see each other in Wisconsin on holidays.  So that all said, it was so much fun to spend a couple days hanging out together.  We laughed and laughed and danced and couldn’t stop smiling.  It’s so fun to be at a wedding where a friend is marrying a really great partner.  It feels good.

Kacy did a beautiful job designing an elegant, fresh, beautiful event with many carefully tailored details.  Photos are in the gallery.  There were around 75 guests attending.  They had an outdoor ceremony with a string quartet and cicadas providing background music.

I loved her flowers.  Roses in pinks and reds, green and white hydrangeas, and pink calla lilies set the tone.  The bridesmaids wore deep pinky red dresses.  And her cake – it was stunning.

One nice idea she had was to frame wedding photos of family members and to have them on display on the mantels where the reception started.  It was a nice way to tie in family.  She also gave her bouquet to her grandma – who was clearly touched.

I loved discovering all the well-thought-out details.  From the linens to the delicious menu to the way they had named their tables after places they had visited together, it was a really fun and polished affair.

We also really enjoyed attending the rehearsal dinner the evening before where I got to meet some of Kace’s friends that I had heard a lot about over the years.  It was fun to see her parents and brother again as I don’t think I’ve seen them since high school!

On Sunday, Anne and I attended a bridal shower for Kace at the Tabord Inn.  Another fun event…I’m so glad I was able to come to DC for her wedding!

Sept. 9: This could also be entitled Trip to DC recap part 2.  Pictures are in the gallery.
It’s been ages since I have been able to spend many days in a row with Heather.  It felt lovely!  My Heather-tank has been refilled.  I went to Heather and Michael’s house on Monday and stayed through Friday, and then we got to see each other at Kacy’s wedding on Saturday as well.
Heather worked a bit while we were there, but mostly we had her to ourselves for fun-making.  Michael, on the other hand, had to work a lot, so unfortunately, we didn’t get to see as much of him.  Heather is working for the Smithsonian where she is researching avian (bird) genetics.  Michael is working for NIH, and I’m sorry Michael, but I have no idea what you are doing there other than a rough guess that it’s something related to molecules…maybe proteins…and other small things.  Wow.  My memory is stunning.  They are both doing pos-docs.  They’re both smart.  Let’s leave it at that.

Heather and Michael have a border collie named Pippin, and we all took several walks over the course of the week to a nearby playground.  Andrew loved seeing Pippin climb on the equipment and even slide down the slide.

Heather took me to see some cute stores in downtown Takoma Park.  My favorite was a store called Now and Then that had great kids toys, beautiful gifts, yarn and knitting supplies…pretty much “hand me anything in the store and I’m happy” kind of place.  Andrew enjoyed finishing off the day with some ice cream.  OK, I enjoyed that too.

It was wonderful to get to spend some time with little Evelyn.  She’s such a peaceful and contented little girl.  She’s four months old now (a bit over two months younger than Sylvie), and her little personality if just blossoming.  Aside from having strikingly beautiful eyes, they also look at you with an awareness that is almost startling.  This little one is taking things in.  Not much is going to get past little Evie!

She also made it clear that Sylvia has a comparatively dogged personality.  When Evie is sad, Heather can (get this) hold her hand and she’ll stop crying.  She feels her mama’s sweet hand, and she is comforted, and she stops crying.  Sylvie’s response has been, “WOMAN!  I did not say hold my hand.  I said PICK ME UP!”  Don’t cross Sylvie, man.  That’s all I’m saying.

Other times when Evie is fussy, Heather can sing her a song and she stops crying.  She even smiles.  And her smile is just so wonderful.  I’ve recently learned that loud techno music can stop Sylvia from crying.  Also, leaping wildly in the air/very active bouncing can sometimes quiet her.  Usually I just do what she wants me to do or suffer the crying because she is not an easy one to distract at this point.  Maybe next week.  Perhaps next week she’ll discover the joys of distraction.  But I digress…

Mid-week, Heather took us to the National Zoo.  Her offices are there, so I walked around with the three kids while she worked.  Andrew loved seeing elephants, pandas, tigers, a hippo OUT OF THE WATER, prairie dogs, farm animals, an elephant shrew etc.  If you ask him what he saw, though, he may well say, “We didn’t see the cheetah.”  It’s true.  We missed the cheetah.  If you ever have a chance to visit the National Zoo, I recommend it.  It’s a great zoo.

On Friday, Heather took us to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.  She also has offices there, and she attended some meetings while I took Andrew and Sylvie around the museum.  Holy cow, we will be coming back.  Andrew was beside himself.  I think I need to do a separate post about the museum.  See pics here.  It was too cute.

Andrew ate an entire box of Trader Joe’s peanut butter crackers during our visit.  And about 12 Trader Joe’s yogurts.  Both are delicious, so purchase with caution.

Heather showed me how to make Jim Lahey’s no-knead bread…a recipe I’ve been eying for years.

We thoroughly enjoyed our week in the Lerner household.  Thanks, guys, for a wonderful time.  I hope we can all join up again sometime soon.

PS.  If you were curious, Heather post-doc work focuses on “establishing molecular and morphological phylogenies of Hawaiian songbirds.”  Thank, Google.

Sept. 8: Last week I did a couple little photo shoots of the kids.  In one, they were both naked about about to take a tubby together.  I planned to get one good picture of the two of them together, but instead I got loads of sweet pictures, and one really good one of Sylvie.  Pics are in the gallery.
Then last Thursday after Andrew’s preschool orientation, both kids were wearing my favoritest outfits, so I did a little photo shot there as well.  Andrew gave me about 10 seconds before he said “STOP!”  I seriously really love these outfits.  Both are from Bryan’s mom.  Oh, cute kids in cute clothes really does something for me!  More pics in the same album of the gallery.