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Walking amidst the wildflowers

wildflowerweekend.JPGMay 4: What a lovely weekend!  On Friday, Sylvia and I drove out to Jack’s house to attend his annual wildflower weekend.  Sylvia “sang” well over half of the two-hour drive both there and back.  Urgh.  But for the rest of the weekend, she was just delightful to be around.  Jack’s house is on the Wisconsin River; I think it’s just about my favorite place in the world.  Around 20 people attended the weekend this year…mostly friends of Jack’s whom I’ve known since I was small.  Sylvia was a big hit with everyone, and she really enjoyed meeting Jack for the first time.
Photos from our spring weekend are in the gallery.

On Saturday, we took a nice long hike across Jack’s land, down through Bergum Bottoms, up a big, big hill, across a lovely, windy meadow, and back down.  Aside from chasing Andrew around, I haven’t been particularly active over the last five months, but the 11 mile hike was good.  Sylvia was in my front carrier, and she dozed most of the day.  We all stopped for a few breaks while I nursed her, and she made sure to keep the party going by getting fussy and demanding that we (or at least I) resume walking promptly after her meal was over.  It felt great to be introducing her to so much fresh air and such a lovely place at the tender age of two months:)  And I enjoyed the challenge of scrambling over trees and clambering up and down muddy hills with a wee one.  A little challenge is a good thing:)

We had lots of yummy meals, good music, and great company.  Most everyone else camped, which was pretty much winter camping since the temperature got down to below freezing last night!  I figured that it was a bit too early for Sylvia to camp in freezing weather, so we were sung in the house.

There were lots of fantastic birds to be seen at the feeders in front of the house.  At one point, two indigo buntings and two goldfinches perched on a tube feeder.  Someone mentioned that it looked like the Michigan flag!  There were oriole sightings, rose breasted grosbeaks, and lots of other sweet little birdies to watch.

I hadn’t been on the wildflower walk since 2005 – when I was pregnant with Andrew – and it was great to get to see everyone and hike the trails again.  I’m already looking forward to our annual family summer trip in August!

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Who’s awake now?

May 2, 3:45 am: Sylvia is spending her first night in her crib tonight.  It’s (I believe) the first time since she was born that I’ve gotten out of bed at night.  That’s one of my favorite bits about having her sleep right next to me.  I barely have to come-to at night to feed her.  But the last week or so, my right hand has been numb every morning, so I figured that my body had had enough of sleeping funny (my arm off to the side over her head) and she should try out her new room.
I’ve gotten out of bed a couple times to nurse, and she went right back to sleep this last time.  But I didn’t.  For the first time since she was born, I tossed and turned and couldn’t sleep.  And my hand is still numb even without her in bed!   So I decided to get up to hang out on the computer for a bit and listen to the thunder storm before heading back to bed.  Bon Soir!

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My favorite blogs

April 29: I really enjoy following a variety of blogs, and it occurred to me that some of my readers might like to hear about a nifty tool that allows you to check on the status of your favorite blogs without having to visit each one.  “Wouldn’t it be cool,” you might think, “if there was one website I could go to and see if there was anything new to read on my email, favorite blogs, favorite news sources, etc.?”  The good news is that there is just such a tool and the even better news it that it’s ultra easy to use and the one I use is very pretty to look at.

iGoogle allows you to create a your own customizable homepage (it takes about 30 seconds to set up).
You can have all sorts of content on the home page.  Mine for example (see the image below) shows new emails I’ve received and the top three stories of all the websites I regularly view.  So I can see at a glance if any of my siblings or Julie or Karen have written a new post.  I also have a spot where I can see if I’ve had any new comments on my website (because I just love reading my comments!).  To add new content to my Google homepage, I can either click on the RSS icon in my web browser’s address bar (it’s the orange and white icon) on the right-hand side or type in the URL of the blog.

While I’m sharing info about cool things you can do with this tool, I should mention that Google news alerts allows you to create custom queries for news.  So I can set up a Google news search for “Dotzour” to see where Bryan’s dad was last quoted.  Or I can create a search for articles about land conservation that are printed in Wisconsin.  The results of these searches can be shown on my Google homepage as well.  Very handy!  And potentially makes me feel much more on top of things than I really am!  Just remember that whenever you see the RSS feed icon in the address bar that you can add it to your Google homepage (or other RSS feed aggregator).

I’ll also just say that I love Google’s calendar…it’s what I use to keep myself organized…and Google Documents which allows you to create and share Word, Excel, and PowerPoint-type documents.  The best part is that you can access them from anywhere – a real help when I was working on things from home, work, and the coffee shop!

OK, I’ve been meaning to write a post about the joys of my Google homepage for quite some time.  It’s too fun a tool not to share!  Plus, you can make it pretty with all kinds of fun themes.  I love that kind of thing!

Enjoy!

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Morning activities

April 29: Andrew is counting to 20 in his room instead of napping.  Sylvia is sleeping with intermediate wake-ups.  She’s very mad when she wakes up, but then pop in the paci, and back to dreamland she goes.  Andrew has been wearing big-boy undies for the last several weeks, but he came out of his room a bit ago with a “poopy diaper”  a.k.a. poopy underpants.  While I was washing out his undies, he sat on the toilet and dropped his dad’s dice into the water.  (Bryan, if you’re reading this, sorry!  I pulled them out and washed them off with soap.)  Trying not to lose my cool, I got the little guy re-clothed and back into his room for continued quiet time.  Which since it is not particularly quiet nor restful for Andrew I may re-name “Mommy-needs-a-break-time.”
Michael came over this morning.  He’s back from visiting Joe in Maine with Terry and hasn’t yet started the job hunt.  I rented a van, and we moved our queen-sized guest bed to his house.  Then he brought over Rocky’s pizza for lunch.  Michael stayed home with the kids while I picked up an dropped off the truck.  It was one of the first times I’ve left Sylvie.  They did fine:)
Before he left, Michael helped me set up an art easel that Granny and Grandad got Andrew last Christmas.  I’d been waiting until we moved the rooms around to pull it up.  When Andrew gets up from his “mommy needs a break” time, he’ll have a fun surprise!
Thanks Uncle Bubba, for all your help today!

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New bedrooms!

cutekids.jpgApril 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!

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Waiting

aliviaandandrew.JPGApril 28: Alivia and Andrew are currently lying on the mattress we have temporarily stored in the sun room.  They are all wrapped up in the mattress pad.  Each has a baby doll.  And for the last ten minutes (which is a long time for little kids), they have been staring at the clock, whispering and waiting for it to be 1:00.  It’s currently 12:54.  I’m impressed.
PS.  They did wait until 1pm.  Then they put on a dolphin show…leaping and cavorting around like dolphins.  The dolls were baby dolphins.  SO cute!
Pictures of these two clowns are in the gallery.

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Sylvia’s birth story

April 27: Heather just did a nice post on her website (lernerclan.net) about Evie’s birth story.  Reading it spurred me to write down Sylvie’s birth story.  I’ve been meaning to write it down for a couple months, and I better do it soon or I’ll forget some of the fun details!  I’m writing this for Sylvia to have in the future, but in the meantime, if you like this sort of thing, here’s our story.

Sylvia’s due date was calculated as February 8.  Andrew was born five days before his due day, so I was all ready for the little one to be born for about a week before.  It was a snowy, snowy week.  In fact, a couple days before I went into labor, we had a truly tremendous snowstorm.  Glad we weren’t trying to get to the hospital through that!  By February 10, the roads were snow free (but our street was covered in a very thick layer of ice).  Since we couldn’t get outside and since I was at a bit of a loss as to what to do with my humungous self, Bryan and I decided to go walk around Target and West Towne Mall to see if that would get my systems in labor mode.  While LuAnn watched Andrew, Bryan and I enjoyed one last pre-baby outing together.  We went to Target where I was delighted to find a couple final sets of the birth announcements that I’d been looking for for weeks.  Then we headed over to the mall and walked up and down.  At one point, I stopped by The Children’s Place and picked up a pair of teeny white fleece pants.  There were displays of Valentine’s Day clothes, but I didn’t bother looking at them since I figured I could still be pregnant when Valentines Day came around.
When we got home around 4pm, I sat down to address baby announcements and make some thank you cards.  It was about that time that I started having contractions.  Bryan joked that my body had just been waiting for me to have everything in order before kicking in labor.  Once all baby announcements were acquired, it was go time:)

I sat on the sofa and exerted some creative energy while I started experiencing contractions that pretty quickly became regular and about 5 minutes apart.  LuAnn made pasta fagioli for supper.  I really enjoyed it but ate rather sparingly, figuring that if labor progressed that night I might not want to have a full tummy of food!  During early contractions, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.  They lasted about 20 seconds.  From 5-6 pm, contractions got stronger where I couldn’t listen to others talk during contractions.  Between contractions, however, I felt perfectly fine.  Andrew came over to talk to me after dinner, and it was pretty weird to try talking to a two-year-old while in labor!

After dinner, Bryan and I headed back to our bedroom while LuAnn put Andrew down to bed.  I was interested in hypnobirthing, so Bryan helped to make a calm, quiet environment for laboring.  We put on some soft classical music, turned off most of the lights, and propped me up on pillows.  Andrew came in to say goodnight.  Contractions were increasingly intense and were coming every 3-5 minutes.  After a while, we moved over to the tub where I labored for a while.  It was in the tub where I had some contractions that I thought I could have named as they do with hurricaines.

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“Singing”

sadface.jpgApril 26: Sylvia spends a lot of the time she’s in her car seat…screaming.  I feel like I need a different word for that because screaming is such a violent, negative word and she does it so much that I want to re-name it something more positive.  So today as I again drove across town accompanied by her gasping, gurgling on saliva, full-throtle screaming, I decided that I will refer to such behavior as “singing.”  And as long as she was singing, I might as well sing too.
Usually I spend the first 5-10 minutes of a drive trying to soothe her by singing, shushing, stroking her face, trying to get her to take the pacifier, and then I give up and sit in resigned silence for the remainder of the drive.  But this time I put on a new kids CD I got at the library called Ralph’s World and sang Happy Lemonade about 10 times in a row.

The lyrics are as follows:

Happy lemons for happy days
Happy people with smiling faces
Happiness is a glass of lemonade

Lemonade, in the shade
Everyone loves lemonade

Happy lemons for happy days
Happy people with smiling faces
Happiness is a glass of lemonade

La la la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la la lemonade

So Sylvia and I “sang” a duet on our drive across town: me belting out “happy lemons for happy days, happy people with smiling faces..” and Sylvia “singing” wahhhh wwaaaahhhhh…gasp, gasp…silent scream…very audible scream…gurgle-cough from saliva that collected in the back of the throat during the last extended scream.  cough cough cough.  ANGRY cry from the coughing.  wahhhh waaahhhhh  waaaaaahhhhhhh. And meanwhile I’m at “la la la la la la la la…”

I may be scarring the poor girl by singing about happiness being a glass of lemondae while she’s in the throws of deepest carseat misery, but at least I’ll be heading toward a nice Willy Wanka-esque insanity:)

PS.  Joe did a nice post about Syliva’s carseat crying back in March.

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My mom’s shopping finds

shortalls.jpgApril 25: In the last couple weeks, I’ve gone down to the basement and sorted through all Andrew’s old clothes to see what Sylvia can use and which things can get passed along to friends.  I had mixed feels about the whole experience.  I loved Andrew’s baby clothes, and it was wonderful to look through them all again.  But so many of them were either from my mom or I had purchased while with my mom.  And it made me really heart-sick to remember how much fun we had baby clothes shopping.
Now that it’s spring, I also just pulled out some clothes I had bought at the end of the season last year.  In the box were the last of the items that Mom and I had bought for Andrew together.  I still can’t believe she’s not here.

It is really hard to hold some cute outfit that we had discovered and loved over together and know that there won’t be any future clothes shopping trips with her.  I can remember the store, the rack, the other things that we bought that day.  Shopping was something we always had fun doing together.  And that’s really an understatement.

I feel so sad that my mom wasn’t able to have fun looking for clothes for her beautiful granddaughter.  And I feel really guilty for being the only one of my siblings to get to share a grandchild with her and to benefit from her parenting advice and expertise.
It really all just sucks.
Especially when I see the spring line of cute little boy shortalls that Mom admired last year and to be re-reminded with that hollow feeling in my gut that she’s not here to see them this spring.  So I guess I’ll just admire them for her.

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Sylvia has met all her great-grandparents

April 25: Andrew, Sylvia, and I drove down to Janesville today and got to visit with my mom’s mom (Mum) for the first time since Sylvia was born.  Mum thought the little girl was just wonderful, and Andrew did an admirable job amusing himself in Mum’s rooms during our visit.  I had picked up some hamburgers from Culvers, so we all ate those and some of Mum’s yogurt, admired the baby, and went through some small items from Mum’s house (which has now sold).
Sylvia (who does NOT like her car seat) screamed for about half of each of the drives, but overall she did really well.
It’s a spring-y day, and our maple tree has just burst out full of the springiest green flowers.  The tulilps that we planted last fall are all coming up, and the magnolia tree I got for Sylvia is starting to bloom even though we haven’t planted it in the ground yet!
Beautiful spring is here.