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.

Wade Oval Wednesdays!

What a wonderful summer day it was today. Seventy-four degrees of breezy sunshine with a wash of clouds off and on, a weather forecast threatening storms which never came to fruition. Both the babes slept in today, til after 8:00, and both had dispositions as sunny as the weather. Nat remarked with some surprise as we reviewed our day on the porch this evening, "Both of our children were really good today!... I guess we deserve it." It WAS good, and deserved, to have a day we could relish at its end, finally.

Ivy and I went to Baby and Me group, (we walked there, which makes us hard core) where she is no longer the youngest baby. A mum who we'd met in Baby and Me with Jack was there with her new 2 week old. It was kind of stunning to see how much Ivy has changed from that 2-week-old stage already. I look at her and see a still-tiny baby, still mushy and snuggly and new. But compared to that little bundle, our girl is an independent woman of the world, moving and exploring and interacting to such a greater extent. In the past day she has started, I think, to turn the corner from being 5 weeks old. Suddenly she is coming out of that newborn cocoon and we can see glimpses of the little butterfly to come. For one, the baby acne is starting to fade. She is no longer bright red and only somewhat scaly. Her eyes are open more, and wider, and she is looking intently at the world. During her alert periods she is branching out from just 2 modes-- impassive gaze or angry squawking-- to include a face of wonderment complete with smiles and the beginnings of coos. She showed this off nicely at group this morning, even doing smiling for while with me while I bounced her on my knee. Yep, bounced her on my knee while making ga-ga noises at her. We were, in retrospect, possibly bordering on sickeningly sweet there for a minute.

Nat and Jack joined us for lunch bunch at noon and all told Ivy and I were at the parent center for about 4 hours. Jack was a fabulous boy all morning, per Nat's report. They'd been to the History Museum and to Whole Foods before coming to group. Jack was thrilled to report, upon coming in to group and unpacking the Whole Foods bag, "Look mom! We brought EVERYTHING!" He snacked on blueberries and a bagel before heading off to play "run and run" with friend Max. With whom he played nicely today, nary a moment of their usual discord. Seriously. It was a good day.

Home for naps (which were taken promptly, with no hour-and-a-half of mischief in his room like yesterday). I got some much needed cleaning done on the second floor. Turns out this is a much bigger house now that we are using 3 more rooms than we used to... whew! Why is it the house gets bigger just when my time to clean it gets shorter? We are re-purposing Mike's room as a guest room and decided we needed to repaint this week. Of course, we need yet another unfinished project...So I got a bit more done in there too before relaxing for a bit of chatting, reading, and iced coffee with Nat on the porch, after he got back from his bike ride. Pretty damn idyllic.

After the babes woke up from naps, we headed off for the first Wade Oval Wednesday. We got free street parking (good day continues...) Walking into the park, the sounds of the live reggae band drifting across the green, children kicking and catching and chasing balls in the grass, family upon family gathered on blankets strewn in the shade or sitting at the umbrella tables by the bar tent, the smell of charcoal grilling and corn dogs in the air-- I felt that we had stumbled upon summer, that it had been waiting for us in this exact spot all along. It was perfect. Nat and I took turns sitting on a blanket with Melinda and Will and the babies, while the other followed Jack around. He was simply thrilled to be there. He ran and kicked and threw his ball, wanting to be just like all those other kids. Then we wandered among the blankets where he would occasionally plunk himself down in the grass, legs out front, and sit for a moment watching the music and the people. He must've thought, well, everyone else is doing this, I suppose I should too. He was stinking adorable. He also wanted to pet every dog he saw. We got to meet a few police horses, and a few little girls, 4th grade-ish, who Jack adored. Nat taught him to say "enchante" when introduced to them. Can I tell you how cute he was saying "enchante" in his little boy voice with his little shy smile and his twinkly eyes flirting away?

Ivy was also thrilled to be there. She really did seem to enjoy herself once she woke up, laying on the blanket and looking around, wide-eyed, at the shapes of trees and people and dappled sunshine. Smiling up at us from her stroller as we walked around the perimeter. It is exciting to think she is only going to get more interactive, more and more interested in her world, that there will be more to her than warm baby snuggles and little baby fussing, and soon. I keep saying that I am not really in love with this newborn stage, that it lacks much of the reward of parenting other ages. And yet. It is sad to think that she will never again be as small, as soft, as mushy and bundle-y and simple as she is right at this moment. That she will continue to grow, at warp speed and we will blink and she will be two and I will miss the snuggly weight of her, having her wrapped on my chest, bouncing her in the crook of my arm, comforting the baby-fusses with rocking and nursing and touches to her oh-so-silky head. Motherhood somehow makes it entirely possible to want two conflicting things, completely, at once...

A few recent pictures...