7 week pictures!

Seven weeks old!! She's grown a bit, eh? Seven-week-old Ivy is a smiley girl, but also a fussy girl. More awake and alert, more interested in the world, she is also finding it harder to go to sleep. Overtired Ivy can make a lot of noise! We are relying on the swing a lot right now...

Time flies, except when we're driving...

What was that about the trouble with summer, too many events, etc? Can't seem to keep up with it all even as we are living it. Much less to record it. Will try to catch up this week...

Last week the grandbabies enjoyed being thoroughly spoiled by Grandpa and Vovo, who stayed with us for much of the week. All of Jack's Skype-ing time paid off-- he was immediately at ease with his grandparents and seemed to be well aware that he had a rapt audience at his disposal. His silliness was definitely ramped up a few notches all week! Grandpa especially could get him giggling, with funny faces or noises or by breaking into song. All that dramatic talent! Vovo worked on teaching him songs in Spanish, which resulted in Jack making up his own new language from time to time. One of the highlights of the week was the recounting of when Vovo tucked Jack in for his nap on Tuesday (Nat and I ran off together for my 6-week postpartum visit, taking the baby but leaving the boy with his grandparents. We'd reassured them that really, it was no big deal if he did not go down for his nap until we got home. With us, he is a notorious dawdler at both nap and bed time, after all, and we assumed he might try every trick in the book with his unsuspecting grandparents. Well, we got home to a quiet house-- a boy not only down for a nap but already sleeping... Turns out he walked Vovo through each and every step of his naptime routine, from holding the handrail up the stairs, to reading only 3 books even when she offered him 4, to having her turn out the lights even though he wanted them on. What a kid-- I guess he knows the rules, even if he chooses to break them for us!

We had a lovely week with the grandparents, the highlights of which included a trip to kiddie park and lots of quality time in the sandbox.

From june 2010

From june 2010

From june 2010

From june 2010

From june 2010

From june 2010

From june 2010

Friday morning we packed the car and managed to get out the door by 9:30am on our first venture to Farley's as a family of 5, for the Morehouse Boat Reunion weekend. The Subaru was definitely not as full as it could have been. There was even room for a little rug for Cor to lie on in the back. And the suitcase only fell over on her two times, so not bad. We have gotten very used to our drive to Aurora, and have gotten very used to it taking 5 1/2 hours. Even with Jack, now that he is an independent little man of the world, it takes 5 1/2 hours. But you add on one teeny little person more-- if that little person needs to nurse, and fuss, and scream loudly about how much she hates her carseat (my interpretation)--and suddenly we are spending the equivalent of a full workday en route. Ugh. Said screaming and fussing infant not only made the trip longer by 2 1/2 hours, but helped make the hours we were in the car SEEM infinitely longer. Nothing makes a drive more relaxing like reaching behind the driver's seat to rock, jimmy, and shake a carseat in the hopes of placating the infant. The positive side of making this trip two times in 3 days: my left tricep is getting some very nice definition.

Once we got there, our quick stay at the lake was pretty nice. The trouble with a short trip is, just as we were getting into the rythm of being there, it was time to leave. The kiddos actually slept pretty well. We weren't sure how we would manage sleeping arrangements for 4 in the 1 bedroom cottage, but things worked out well. Jack slept on a crib mattress on the floor between the twin beds in the bedroom, and was thrilled to be sharing the room with Daddy. Ivy started the night out in her carseat (yes, the same one she hates so much in the car. Apparently its not so bad on the floor of a cottage) and then joined me in the pull-out queen size in the living room at about 3 am. Jack started his day at 6:30am on Saturday-- phew!-- but slept to a more reasonable 8am on Sunday. This bodes well for our extended stay in July, I think.

Here are some pictures of our beautiful children by the beautiful lake. Trials, tribulations, and long-ass drives aside, it is a lovely place and we are blessed to be able to spend time there. I look so forward to watching both my babies grow up summering at Farley's, surrounded by family and sunshine and water and boats and all the magical memories that combination can inspire...

From june 2010

From june 2010

From june 2010

From june 2010

From june 2010

From june 2010

From june 2010

From june 2010

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From june 2010

From june 2010

From june 2010

From june 2010

Happenings!

The trouble with summer is that it is over-full with pleasures. Too many wonderful days, too many summertime happenings, to keep up with...

Where did we leave off? This week has been a string of one event after another, an embrace of summer at full tilt...

Tuesday, date night at Playhouse Square for Fiddler on the Roof, the summer city surrounding us with soft breezes and lights.

Wednesday, Wade Oval, a summer sea of blankets and idyllic family revelry.

Thursday, the Coventry street fair, crowds and dancing and loving our neighborhood and the way we really know our neighbors now.

Friday, Jack's first trip to the pool, and a pizza dinner outside with Melinda and Will, sitting with babies on the deck watching our boy on the tree swing with the sun in his hair.

Saturday, one of our long awaited events, Alumni Weekend. A fabulous day for us in Hiram-- lounging on the green with some of our very favorite friends from the class of 95; a Madrigals reunion, singing with strangers that shared our history and our songs; beer on the back porch of Bowler; little moments like coffee from the vending machine in Hinsdale, or just walking past the library garden and remembering. As is the norm for Hiram, the weather was perfect for the event. The thunderstorms that had been forecast, never materialized, and the dapply shade on campus was perfect. Ivy came along and was also a perfect baby, all day, with plenty of smiling and wide-eyed gazing at the trees, and plenty of sleeping too, as she was passed from friend to friend... And never fear, though he did not attend the reunion, Jack also had a fabulous day, staying with Gram-gram where he went to both the Lakewood Pool AND his very first movie in a movie theater (Toy Story 3). Did very well with it, by all accounts, and told me over the phone, "I watched the guys dance in the movie!!" when asked about his day.

Sunday, a road trip to Strasburg to spend the day with the Cobes family-- including Grandpa and Vovo who are back east for a visit. A classic Strasburg day of sitting and relaxing and eating copious quantities of barbequed chicken, potatoes, corn, chips, and that decadent ice cream sandwich layer cake dessert that we have come to expect when we go down. Not much has changed down there, except that the kids keep getting bigger. Megan is off to college and she and Savannah could both be models, they are so pretty. Carrie just got married; the circle of chairs keeps growing.

While Jack had a blast- running with his cousins, playing with a dollhouse for the first time-- Miss Ivy decided to go on a sleep strike for the afternoon. Too hot? Too many people holding her? Whatever it was, the young lady was difficult. It didn't seem to bother her family, who fawned over her beautifully. These kiddos are so lucky to be surrounded by such love, and from such wonderful people.

6 weeks old!

Here are the official portraits...

Ivy made her first foray into the world of hair accessories this week. I like it, Nat doesn't. Your thoughts?

Chlorine and Sunscreen

Today my boy's head smelled of summer, chlorine and sunscreen. I couldn't get my nose out of his hair...

He and daddy took their first trip to Cumberland Pool today. (yes, we've lived here, across the gully from the pool, for three years and we'd never been. no, I can't explain why that is...) We went ahead and bought pool passes in the hopes that it would force us to go. Nat has decided this is the summer Jack needs to learn to swim. And, from the reports of how today went, I do believe it will happen. By all accounts, a good time was had by all. When I got home from taking Ivy to BSG (breastfeeding support group, from here on out), Jack came running up to me, all damp and pool-smelling and adorable, and told me, "I went dwimming! I jumped to daddy, and and and I went in the pall pool too!" His face was alight.

We added to the summer-ness of the day with a pizza picnic at Melinda and Will's, where the boy enjoyed their tree-swing in the wonderful evening light that filters through their giant oak, and a trip to Baskin-Robins where he coated himself in chocolate ice cream and ran giggling around the outdoor tables, mustachioed face beaming. Delicious.

In other Jack news, the boy has been motivated to try and sit on the potty, averaging 1-2 attempts per day the past 3 days. This is new, from the boy who was actively refusing to have anything to do with the potty prior to this. The fact that he gets an M&M for trying, doesn't hurt, I am sure. He also gets to earn 2 more M&Ms for a success. And tonight before bed, he earned a grand total of 5. That's right-- pee and poo in the potty. Happy mommy. I am not holding my breath, we've had some "false alarms" of interest in this process before. But this is at least a little bit promising, I think. I hope. I am so ready to be done with giant almost-3-year-old-boy poopy diapers. Really.

On the Ivy front, the girl is embracing the fact that she will be 6 weeks old tomorrow by being increasingly fussy in the evenings. Two nights in a row now we've had 2+ hours of nearly inconsolable baby on our hands. We are just not used to this behavior from calm girl. Not that she's really that bad in the grand scheme of things. She continues to sleep much of the day, and we got a 6 hour stretch of sleep last night, on top of the regularly-occurring 4 hour stretches most nights. And, the smiling! At least once a day we have a lovely alert period with smiling and cooing and kicking... Why is it that the fussy hours must come at night, when our reserves are depleted and we just want to be asleep, when we are least prepared to soothe and shush and be patient? How is it that this baby, so easy by day, can be so frustrating in these moments, in the dark? The hours of fussing are the longest imaginable... Of course right now, after 2 and half hours of crying and squirming and flailing, like a switch the girl has changed her mood-- to alert and kicking and cooing in her bouncy seat. Yep, just what we want at midnight, honey....

Coventry Craziness...

Details of our day and our trip to the street fair to follow, but here are a few pictures to tide you over... sleep is calling...

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Here are some pictures recently rescued off of Nat's phone. I find that the cell phone picture seems to capture moments in time differently. These are moments we didn't plan to photograph; we didn't bring the camera along. These are moments that surprised us, that begged to be remembered, that left us saying, "oh, where is my camera when I need it??" These are pictures snapped in a hurry, no thought to composition or lighting; a little grainy, unposed; life in still-frame.