Catching Up: Eclipse Chasing

Once upon a time, back in 2017, there was a partial eclipse in our area of the US that made some headlines. A then-baby Elise and I went outside during the event and looked through our cereal box eclipse viewer. Woo! Minor excitement, we can say we were there, etc. etc. I guess I took a *fantastic* selfie at the time to commemorate it all.

Needless to say, news reports that heralded another eclipse this year in 2024 didn’t elicit much enthusiasm at first. It was going to be another partial eclipse. Our part of the world might get a tad darker for a couple minutes, but unless you were looking for it, you probably wouldn’t notice.

HOWEVER. I started seeing Facebook events from friends back in Vermont with titles like “Total Eclipse Viewing Party!” and “Eclipse Watching!” and I began to wonder if this was perhaps more exciting than I had once thought.

Finally, when another friend from here in MA texted to ask if I knew that the total eclipse would be visible from my very own hometown, I decided it might be worth doing a little more research to see if I might be missing something.

Lo and behold, total eclipses are FAR MORE INTERESTING than partial eclipses, and within a matter of days, a plan materialized for several of our homeschool co-op families to make the trek up to Jericho to watch the eclipse at a family friend’s farm and make it the most amazing field trip of all time. Emphasis required.

In preparation for our trip, we watched a bunch of YouTube videos to help us know what to expect. This one was a particular standout. The big kids were pumped. Did you know that animals start acting like it’s evening? Bugs change their sounds? The temperature drops? If you’re near a mountain, the wind starts to blow? The excitement couldn’t be contained. The moms going on the trip started a text thread that was going nonstop almost 24 hours per day.

The closer we got to the eclipse date, the more headlines about absurd levels of traffic started popping up. We started to get anxious. Three of us had a church obligation that held us at home until late Sunday afternoon, leaving us only the night before the eclipse to get up to Vermont in time. What if the traffic was so bad that we wouldn’t make it in time? Should we leave Sunday night? Monday morning? Would we be forced to watch a partial eclipse on the side of the highway in nowheresville, Vermont? Let’s be honest, there’s a whole lot of nowheresville in the state. The unknowns were piling up.

After much hemming and hawing, I decided to skip the second day of the church event so that I could go up earlier on Sunday morning. Our holier friends stuck it out, with one deciding to come up late Sunday night and another in the wee hours of Monday morning. Another family came up Sunday morning as well, while one Super Eclipse Chaser family drove through the night to ensure they’d get the full eclipse experience.

Not one of us hit traffic.

Eventually, all of us were in the same state at the same time, and we were all there several hours before the eclipse was going to begin. We passed the time checking out the Snowflake Bentley museum, hanging out by the creek behind the museum with plentiful reminders to not fall into water (which led to the snowmelt-swollen Browns River), sampling local fare (including many eclipse-themed goodies - shoutout to Snowflake Chocolates), and eventually making our way to the Davis Farm, which was hosting a viewing party event.

What could be better than watching an eclipse beside a charming group of cows? Nothing, I tell you.

Enter fears about cloud cover.

We started checking the weather obsessively. There were reports of a bank of clouds headed our direction. Would we still be able to see it? What had once been a completely clear blue sky started displaying an assortment of wispy clouds. Nevertheless, we remained mostly optimistic after finding that we could still see the sun through the light cloud cover.

At last, at 2:14 pm, the moon took its very first tiny nibble out of the sun. There was much rejoicing. Cheers of incredulity that it was actually happening echoed across the field. Our eclipse glasses started taking a beating as kids bent them over their eyes to see the moon’s shape engulf the sun.

Special note: a big thanks to my mom, who got Charlie to nap while the eclipse happenings carried on!

Since first contact happened at 2:14 pm and totality wasn’t until 3:26 pm, we spent the intervening period exploring the farm. We met cats, horses, and cows, the kids played on the embankment of the nearby cree, and we all enjoyed the lovely, if waning, sunlight.

Soon, though, we all came back to the viewing field. The temperature was indeed dropping, so we donned our jackets. The diminishing sunlight took on a strange hue, and I felt like I was wearing sunglasses even when I wasn’t using the eclipse glasses. Our colanders showed us that totality was approaching.

And then, all at once, the sun slipped entirely behind the moon and a mid-day evening fell over the field, eliciting screams of absolute awe from the watching crowd.

It’s hard to describe the utter wonder of those three minutes. I can honestly say I’ve never experienced anything like it in my entire life, and when discussing it afterward, every single one of the moms of the families present ranked it as one of the top ten or perhaps even five most amazing moments of our lives. I, almost never one to cry at major life moments, felt my eyes fill up. Perhaps it was because it was a sort of visible miracle. The fact that God cares enough to have created a world in which the sun’s distance from the earth so precisely aligns with the moon’s distance from the earth and allows us this moment of perfect wonder gives us a tiny foretaste of the wonder and glory of what it will be like to be with Him for eternity. If He loves us enough to give us this astronomical mystery as a common grace, how much more will we experience His love when we are with Him face to face?

Even though time seemed suspended for those three minutes, the moon did indeed emerge on the other side of the sun, and light flooded over us again as quickly as it had been extinguished. We took a few pictures (somehow, this is the best one we got…group photos are hard!), decided to grab some creemees (soft serve ice cream, for all you non-Vermonters) on the way out, and packed ourselves back into our cars. I checked the traffic as we ate and internally groaned when I saw the estimated travel time: 4.45 hours, rapidly increasing. Considering the drive up took three hours almost on the dot, the idea of five hours seemed miserable.

Little did we know…that was only the beginning. We got on the road and stayed completely just about completely still. We inched our way to the highway. We inched (quite literally) our way to one single exit. Granted, it was a long way between exits - the drive from Jericho to the Waterbury exit takes about 40 minutes on a good day, but it had been two hours just to go that far. I decided to then inch my way still further off that exit to see if the back roads would be faster. Apparently, 50% of the drivers had also decided to try that method, and we didn’t go any faster at all - in fact, it might have even been slower. We pulled over at a tiny grocery store for an hour just to see if it would clear up, grabbed some snack-like dinner to eat in the car, and I tried to address a migraine that was beginning to take up residence at the back of my head. My mom, who had been riding with my dad, came to the rescue and took up the noble driving effort as we left the parking lot, hoping for the best.

I suppose there isn’t much to say about the next several hours, except that a) my migraine took its full course while my mom piloted our car; b) it got so late that all three kids (blessedly) fell asleep and stayed asleep for the entire drive; and c) the moms’ text thread was constant until we’d all arrived at our respective homes. Our expected ETA had been around 8:30 pm when we’d left Vermont. Our actual arrival time was 2:46 am, a full ten hours after we’d left.

Was it worth it, you ask? Unequivocally, it was. Without a doubt. 100%. And to commemorate the entire thing, I now have a car magnet that essentially summarized the whole event.

Catching Up: Switzerland with Children

It occurred to me recently that quite a lot of notable events have happened since August of 2022, which is when I last wrote anything and actually published it. We had birthdays! Trips! School things! Room rearrangements! All of these things could have been recorded at the time when they happened, but in keeping with tradition of the last few years, they went by without a written word. The earliest of these unrecorded events was our trip to Switzerland in January of 2023. I don’t think I could possibly come up with a full recap of the trip at this point given that it was 18 months ago, but there are a few notable memories, along with a lot of photos.

1) We had a layover in Dublin on our way to Zurich. During that layover, I managed to leave my phone on the plane as we disembarked, and I did not have a phone for the remainder of the trip though I realized I’d left it before we even left the airport. Good for the efficiency of the lost and found team, I suppose. The only upside was that all but two of the pictures I took were on my actual camera.

2) The traveling bit went surprisingly well, considering how little the kids were and how long the travel actually was. We started to lose it a little bit at the end, though. The second flight from Dublin to Zurich was short, but it was after James had slept only a couple of hours, Elise hadn’t slept at all, Charlie sort of napped on and off throughout the (shortened) night, and the troops were restless. I spent most of that short flight trying rather unsuccessfully to keep James from putting his feet on the seat in front of him, and the passenger in front of me assured me that I apparently did a poor job at prevention when we stood up to get off. Also, midway through the flight, Charlie threw up all of the milk he’d consumed during the flight, and of course that was all down my shirt. My other shirts were in my checked bag. I smelled like baby puke for the next four hours until we got to our rental, which I’m sure was an absolute delight to the person that we sat next to on the train ride following the plane. Still, we made it, and we learned what to adjust for the trip home.

3) Apartment rentals are THE way to go when traveling with a family. Kids had separate bedrooms, there was a kitchen, and there was no housekeeping to disrupt attempts at baby naps. Win win win.

Our Airbnb was a cozy flat on the bottom floor, with the lovely Swiss-German speaking owners on the second floor. The kids loved it, and it was charming with a gorgeous view of the mountains. Admittedly, it would be nearly impossible to get a place without a view in the Lauterbrunnen valley, but it was a feature nonetheless.

4) This was a known fact, but the Swiss don’t mess around when it comes to sticking with a timetable. This is a challenge when you have small children who don’t like to get out the door efficiently. We nearly missed busses on the daily, but knowing exactly what to expect was great.

5) If you have a kid who loves all things transportation, Switzerland is basically heaven. Planes! Trains! Boats! Busses! Crazy snow removal vehicles! Gondolas! Funiculars! The list went on and (aside from the snow removal vehicles) we rode them all. 1.5 years later, James still asks if we can go back to Switzerland to ride all the things on the daily.

6) I think everyone had his or her own highlight of the trip, but for me, it was tobogganing (or sledging) down the mountains. Everyone thinks of skiing in the Alps as the main winter sport, and to be sure, it is, but if you’re not a big skier or you didn’t go to Switzerland in the winter prepared to ski (maybe that’s foolish?) sledging IS THE WAY. You can rent a sledge and helmet, take the ski lifts to places that also have sledge runs, and off you go. No experience needed, and you can double up so that you’re not sending a three year old down an Alp unsupervised. It was epic, and I would go back to Switzerland in the dead of winter again in a heartbeat just to do that one activity.

7) Don’t miss the hot chocolate, even if you’re not going in winter. It’s good. So is the beer, I’ve heard.

Above all, I’d say that traveling with little children isn’t for the faintest of faint hearts, but the family memories and the experiences make it all worthwhile. We’re about to do it again in a couple weeks, albeit to the French Riviera in the summer vs. Switzerland in the winter, so maybe this time I’ll report back asap after returning home instead of a year and a half later. We’ll see.

One Month of Charlie

We’re starting off strong here by posting about Charlie’s first month while we’re only a week away from his second, but that’s ok! We have a lot going on over here!

At one month, Charlie spent the vast majority of his time sleeping. However, he was (and still is) very happy when he wakes up in the morning, and loves looking around and visually exploring everything he can see.

Thus far, he has still retained much - although not all - of his dark brown hair, and it likes to stick up on the top, especially soon after he’s had a bath.

He sleeps quite well for a newborn, and consistently sleeps at least three hours at a time at night. I’m hoping that sticks around, because not waking up three or more times a night is excellent. We’ll see what happens when he hits the four month mark.

He’s a big fan of stretching himself out, clearly enjoying living in a world with space versus being curled up inside of a womb. He also frequently waves his hands around, often alternating one and then the other.

Overall, he’s a happy, contented little chap, and loves to snuggle. In fact, his preferred way of falling asleep is to be held until he dozes off, and half the time he wakes up when he’s put down, and lets you know he wants you to pick him back up. Once you do that, he will cuddle with you he falls asleep again, and then you repeat the cycle until he’s really and truly out. It’s both adorable and occasionally frustrating, depending on how many other children need me during the whole process.

And his biggest accomplishment of the month? On the very day he turned one month old, he started to smile. I wasn’t quite able to capture it in a photo, but it may be the cutest thing in the entire world.

We love you, little buddy!

Three to Get Ready, Four to Go (Adventuring)

There are two common schools of thought about the transition from two kids to three kids. One school of thought says, “You feel like you’re drowning, and then someone hands you a baby.” The other school of thought says, “What’s one more? It’s a piece of cake!” Happily, perhaps due to the personality of the child we got, or perhaps due to the fact that the older two of our now-three children already had a sibling relatively close in age to begin with, we seem to have pitched our proverbial tent slightly closer to the second camp. While I wouldn’t describe it as a piece of cake, it has certainly been significantly less taxing than the 1-2 transition was for us.

That said, it has already had some more entertaining moments, to describe it charitably. Take, for example, the first time I went adventuring with all three by myself. We decided to go visit the “birds’ house,” as we’ve come to call it - the local wildlife sanctuary where there are miles of trails and birds that will eat out of your hand. We’ve gone there many, many times, and the kids love it. This particular day, I fed Charlie while issuing commands like a dictator to Elise and James, hoping they would magically get themselves ready. The commands were marginally successful, with the key word being marginally; they both ended up wearing boots, in spite of the recent drought, and also in spite of my best efforts to persuade/encourage/direct them to choose more lightweight footwear.

Nevertheless, we made it. Things were going well! Charlie was sleeping! Everyone was excited! We were going to find some birds! Have an adventure! Discover a bridge! Wear explorer hats!

We made it about 20 yards into the woods before James wanted to sit down, but with the enticement of a stream at the bottom of the trail, he carried on, only stopping to pick up sticks and rocks about every five feet. It was slow going.

At the bottom of the trail, we discovered the stream was dry. It was a drought, after all. The boots were oh-so-useful, obviously. There was a nice rock for resting though, which James decided to make use of.

This trail ends by meeting up with another, so we carried on - there was a boardwalk! The bridge was nearby!

James said his feet hurt. Good.

We made some discoveries - buttonbush is an adorably named, very interesting plant, and better yet, there was a bench upon which to rest again.

We found both a tufted titmouse and wild blueberries, so things were looking up again. Until we got to the end of that trail, and Charlie started fussing and rooting around for milk while James decided he didn’t want to go ANY FURTHER AT ALL because…his feet hurt again. Curse those boots.

With many attempts at cajoling, we made it to the bridge at last, where I was at least able to satisfy Charlie’s immediate hunger needs. A great blue heron flew directly in front of us. We spotted a few turtles. The bird seed we had brought with us was a great source of delight to a nearby chipmunk. James wanted his boots off. Elise wanted to take another trail to go all the way around the pond that the bridge spanned. I said no.

With Charlie filled up, we moved on, but only a very, very short way because James was not going to make it back to the car with his boots on. No way, no how.

And thus, he hiked most of the rest of the way back in his socks, while I got to be the pack horse that carried the baby, the boots, a water bottle, several collected sticks, and a selection of rocks that he and Elise couldn’t bear to part with. At least they managed to carry their own explorer hats.

Pretty soon, we found some birds to feed, which was most exciting…

…until it wasn’t, because the bird’s feet were ever so slightly poky. Naturally, sobbing ensued.

We recovered, but only for a short while because the path is mostly gravel, which doesn’t feel so great when you’re walking around in socks. There was only one possible way we were going to get back to the car.

As a disclaimer, both Charlie and his neck were fine. Elise was really the champion of the outing and volunteered to carry James’ water and sticks, and I decided that I’d checked my first postpartum workout off my list.

At last, we made it back to the rock upon which James had rested at the outset of our explorations, whereupon we also discovered an excellent climbing tree.

If I thought our going was slow at the beginning of the adventure, the going was at least three times slower getting from the tree back to the car, but we did it! We managed our expedition, and we learned a few key lessons:

Lesson 1: Appropriate child footwear selection is maybe a hill you should actually die on.

Lesson 2: Going places with newborns is a lot easier than going places with toddlers.

Lesson 3: Laughter is good medicine. If I can remember to roll with the punches, the source material will spring forth eternal, even if it comes with a side of chagrin and sore muscles.

Charles Albon: An Arrival Tale

It’s been quiet around here lately, but things haven’t been quite so quiet at home, because we have a third baby! Naturally, of course, this requires a written birth story for posterity. Please feel free to skip this post if birth stories are not your thing.

In order to properly tell this tale, we need to go back several weeks before he was actually born. I had a relatively easy pregnancy, at least until 32 weeks or so, but things were a little chaotic at home for most of the time. Specifically, we’ve all lived through a pandemic, and the entire family was in a constant cycle of sickness of all varieties from the end of October 2021 all the way through to about…last week. We dealt with several common colds, at least two stomach bugs, RSV, a double ear infection, weeks of coughing (which for James, would wake him up at night and cause him to throw up), and then to cap it all off, we all got Covid when I was 32 weeks along. To be honest, Covid was not so bad for me personally - I had what felt like a mild flu for three days and then I was fine. But the kids had it worse, and when the kids are sick with a scary virus that has had the world in varying degrees of lockdown for two years, anxiety is a fun parental side effect.

After all of that, I was completely worn out. I got an extra ultrasound thanks to the Covid diagnosis and everything looked good, but it was hard to shake off the feeling that Something Could Be Wrong. Around that time, my blood pressure started acting up as well - I had a few instances of extreme blood pressure drops, where I would come close to either passing out or throwing up and which resulted in full body shakes and very low energy for a few hours afterward. Then, at a couple of my appointments, my blood pressure was reading high, which I was told was cropping up in a lot of pregnant moms who had had Covid during pregnancy. I was also dealing with near-daily headaches, and overall just not feeling well. None of these things did anything to help my anxiousness approaching labor and delivery. At around 36 weeks, I was sent to the birth center at the hospital for a non-stress test and lab work because of the high blood pressure readings, and while everything checked out normal, they had me return the following week for another blood pressure check just to make sure. At that point, they told me that if I had a third high blood pressure reading (and no signs of preeclampsia), I’d be put on a track toward induction as early as 37 weeks for gestational hypertension.

By that time, I just wanted to be done being pregnant, since I was so tired of feeling so unwell for so long. However, I didn’t end up with any additional high blood pressure readings. I generally found that if I drank a ridiculous amount of water, kept my dessert consumption very low, and got a semi-reasonable amount of sleep, the symptoms were kept more at bay. And so as each day went by, I slowly crept closer and closer to my due date and started believing that we’d actually make it to full term.

With all of that health nonsense, I was absolutely dreading the idea of going through labor without pain medication - I’d had more than enough of discomfort and feeling out of control with health stuff for the previous months that I wasn’t in the right headspace to manage contractions all the way through to the finish line, so to speak. On the other hand, I’d had such a bad experience with the epidural I got during my first labor that I felt pretty apprehensive about the idea of dealing with that during delivery again. So, on a 1 to 10 scale, my enthusiasm level about giving birth could probably be placed somewhere around negative 5000. I decided to pray for three very specific things: 1) that I would go into labor during the day rather than the night, since I was constantly so tired; 2) that the delivery would be smooth and quick; and 3) that I’d feel peace about it as we got closer.

Finally, I had my last scheduled appointment the day before my due date. Up until this point, I had mostly seen the midwives at the practice, but that day, I saw one of the OBs. She’s European, and it showed - every sentence she spoke was succinct and to the point. We wasted zero minutes on small talk and she started off by immediately asking if I wanted a sweep to get things going. She very clearly wanted a yes or no answer provided in (again) zero minutes, and since I wasn’t terribly eager to remain pregnant even though L&D felt ominous, I agreed to it. She did that, scheduled me an induction date for the following Thursday if I didn’t go into labor, announced I’d bleed a bit, and waltzed out the door in the span of three minutes, and I was on my way.

My parents, who had come down to watch the other kids while I was at the doctor, decided to stick around in case things picked up. I was having sporadic contractions that were more uncomfortable than the Braxton Hicks ones I’d been having for the past few weeks, so I was hopeful that things would actually pick up. We waited around for the rest of the afternoon, ate spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, and got ready for bed, half expecting to wake up in the middle of the night to make the trek to the hospital.

And then we all woke up the following morning, very much still at home.

We all took it very easy the next day. It was my actual due date, so I kept hoping that we’d have a due date baby. Wouldn’t that be statistically fun? However, I told Chaz that I really preferred 6/18 to 6/17 as a birthday, just because it seemed mathematically better. 18 is divisible by 6 after all…17 is just too much of a prime number. The contractions from the previous day were fewer and farther in between, although when they did happen, they had picked up in intensity just a little bit more. My dad installed a new light in our basement stairwell, with James’ assistance. Elise had her quiet time during James’ nap, and I decided to go lie down in her room. We ended up both taking a nap, which is something that doesn’t happen very often anymore.

My parents stayed around for the day, just because it did feel like labor was imminent, even if not starting at that very moment. We were so grateful for their help that we decided to go out for dinner that night. We ate Mexican food and drank margaritas outside (well…no margarita for me) and had a really nice time. Once again, contractions picked up in intensity a tiny bit, but they were so few and far between that I didn’t think we’d be heading to the hospital immediately. We joked that we picked a restaurant in Newburyport because it was close to the hospital. Nevertheless, we finished our tasty dinner, headed home, did the bath and bedtime routine for the kids, and then watched the Return to Space Netflix documentary like the nerds that we are. If you’re into that sort of thing…it’s good! Watch it! Eventually, we all went to bed around 10:00.

A contraction woke me up at 1:30. It felt not much different than the ones before, but something about it seemed more purposeful. I got up and used the bathroom before climbing back in bed. Chaz half woke up and asked if everything was ok, and I declared everything was fine. Two contractions later, I decided to start timing them. They were still 12 to 13 minutes apart, but they kept going instead of fizzling out. Over the course of the next hour, they gradually got closer together, and I woke Chaz up for real at 3:00 when they’d reached 6 to 7 minutes apart. I hadn’t called the birth center quite yet, but Chaz started packing his things and I went downstairs in the dark to refill my glass of water and work through a couple more contractions by myself. I didn’t think I was making any noise, but the Disturbance in the Force must have woken my parents up, because my dad popped out of the guest room and we all knew there would be an external baby sometime today.

Finally, I called the birth center. Actually, I tried googling the birth center’s phone number directly, but it turns out their webpage doesn’t have their phone number on it (?!??) and I had to call the general hospital line and be transferred. I guess they don’t want calls for no reason? Mysterious. The midwife asked me about my other two labors and when I mentioned James had been born in under four hours, she told me to come in!

We were on the road by 3:52 - which I only know because I remember looking at the clock specifically - and the horizon was just starting the lighten the slightest bit. The contractions slowed down on the road. I think I only had two or three on the way there, and I wondered if they would send me home. My anxiety about the birth process had come back in full force and I was trying to get rid of the fear around it since I knew it had to happen one way or another.

We arrived at the emergency entrance to the hospital shortly thereafter and I told Chaz to drop me off at the doors before he parked. I waddled my way to the elevator feeling uncomfortable and made my way up to the birth center on the second floor. They were expecting me when I buzzed the buzzer and they let me right in, guiding me back to a delivery room and hooking me up to the monitors. By this time, the contractions were even further apart and less painful than they had been even in the car, so yet again I worried they might end up sending me home. However, the nurse and the midwife both assured me that things would pick back up, and since I was already past my due date, they weren’t going to send me home. I told them that even though my birth plan had said I wanted to go without pain medication if I could, I didn’t want that at all anymore and I’d probably want an epidural.

Right away, we noticed that any time I had a contraction, the baby’s heart rate dropped really, really low. Given my state of mind, my thoughts went automatically straight to the nuclear potential outcome: I was totally going to have a c-section, for which I was zero percent mentally prepared. I looked at the nurse and said, “For what it’s worth…if I have to have a c-section, I want to be totally knocked out. I do not want to be awake for surgery.” Maybe not my best moment, but at least I was honest? She laughed and said, “Well…if it comes to that, there might not be time. But what makes you think you’re going to have a c-section?! You’ve had two natural deliveries already!” That was mildly comforting, as was the fact that his heart rate stabilized even through contractions when they turned me on to my left side.

After an hour or so on the monitors, they checked me and told me I was at a 4 centimeters, which was both good (I’d made some progress since my appointment two days prior) and bad (I was hoping for more), and they asked me if I wanted the epidural now or later. I decided I’d try to get things moving a little before taking the plunge and having a giant needle stuck in my back. They took off the monitors and I stood up and walked around a bit, even telling Chaz to take a photo while I could still stand up…and definitely between contractions.

Sure enough, that did the trick, and within probably 20 minutes I told them I was ready. Fortunately, they’d given me the pre-epidural IV when I arrived, so within five minutes Dr. Parker, the anesthesiologist, walked in with all of his consent forms and tools for the job. I told him my history with the first time I’d been epiduralized (that should be a word, I say) and he told me that they’d given me extra hydration with the IV to avoid the blood pressure drop, and they’d start me on a very low dose. Ok! Sign me up! I put my signature on all the paperwork, Chaz was instructed to sit in a chair on the opposite side of the room to ensure that he didn’t pass out (I suppose this was frequent enough with husbands at births to make it standard procedure) and I made sure to look far, far away from any sharp objects on Dr. Parker’s tray.

A few minutes later and I was lying down comfortably on the bed, relaxing while the nurse told me that I hadn’t even blinked when I had a contraction. BEAUTIFUL. And then we were mostly left to our own devices, and after I had bided my time a little bit to see if any weird side effects happened (they didn’t!), I settled down to wait. I could still move and feel my legs, but there was no pain. It was peaceful (answer to prayer number 3), calm, and quiet, and our nurse, Michelle, checked on us every once in awhile. I ate a popsicle. A red one, per request.

In a couple of hours, I realized my labor shakes had gotten worse, and I wondered if I’d hit transition. A quick check confirmed it, and the doctor asked if I wanted to have my water broken to speed things up. Since I wasn’t keen on more interventions than absolutely necessary and I was feeling fine, I declined for the time being, and we continued to wait. I started noticing that I felt like I needed to push a bit with each contraction. Very shortly after that, Michelle came back in and studied the monitor for a moment. Remember when I had first arrived and the baby had heart rate decelerations with each contraction? It had started happening again! “Baby is letting us know he wants to come out!” she said, and without much hesitation I told them to go ahead and break my water to get him out, safe and sound.

Michelle set up her delivery table, and then the doctor came in and suited up. She broke my water, and then things got a little crazy. They had turned the monitor volume all the way off while I was laboring, but turned it back up so I could hear the heartbeat while I pushed. When the next contraction came and I could feel all the pressure to push, his heart rate dropped again - but it dropped so much that it sounded like it stopped. I heard them call the neonatologist and a couple of NICU nurses. I was rolled to my left with no success, and then to the right, again without any change. They had me get up on my hands and knees, and when that didn’t change anything, I went back on my back. His heartbeat was normal when I wasn’t contracting, but it was very clear that he needed to come out now. The c-section fears started to creep in again, but he was right there. I heard the doctor ask for a vacuum, and I suddenly imagined a repeat of the end of Elise’s birth along with the really rough recovery. With the next two contractions, I pushed as hard as I could, and I actually thought the doctor was using the vacuum, and with the completely unmentioned threat of a possible episiotomy hovering over me, Charlie came out in two pushes.

He cried right away, and all the fears immediately disappeared. He was pink and perfect, and he promptly pooped all over my belly as soon as they laid him on me. I guess he knew how to make an entrance. Just like with James, I got to cut the cord, and all was well.

I worried a bit that recovery would be rougher than it was after James was born, since everyone says that recovery from a natural delivery is so much easier than recovery after delivery with an epidural. That was certainly true for me between my first and second births, but this one has been perhaps the easiest. The birth felt a little redemptive - it had none of the slightly traumatic drama from the first epidural, episiotomy, and really painful recovery, and it had none of the out-of-control factor from the second unexpectedly natural labor. So while I didn’t start labor during the day, the other three prayers were answered in full: it was a smooth delivery, and, though it was longer than James’ birth, it was still quick, but long enough to feel peaceful instead of frantic or rushed. Thanks be to God.

James and Elise came to meet him in the afternoon, and then two days later, we were all at home once again.

Now, at three weeks old, he’s a contented little creature and we love him to bits. What a precious gift.

Liturgical Living: Michaelmas Through Epiphany

I had the greatest of intentions to write about each of the liturgical calendar feasts we observed this year, starting with Michaelmas back in September, but here we are in January having had Michaelmas, All Saints’ Day, St. Lucia Day, St. Nicholas Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas itself, and Epiphany, and I have written about none of them. I guess we’re just setting the bar for 2022 goals very, very low.

I suppose we could have leaned into each one of these holidays a bit more - in fact, I think Michaelmas probably had the most intentionality about it, and each holiday/feast day afterward had a bit less, but I've really enjoyed the traditions we’ve started, and we can always build on them as time goes by!

As such, here’s a brief rundown of what we did for each.

Michaelmas

This one largely followed the same pattern of what we did last year. Like before, my agenda for the day was to go exploring outside, pick some asters for our dining room table, have a feast, and sing a hymn after dinner. Most of that went well, although after finding quite a few bugs on our wild asters, I decided that next year…we’ll plant some asters in our garden and harvest those instead.

True to form, our feast involved a roasted chicken, carrots (because tradition!), and a St. Michael’s bannock, and this year I did find a way to incorporate a blackberry dessert that wasn’t straight up blackberry pie, and it was a hit. Thanks, Claire Saffitz/the Dessert Person cookbook, for an excellent blackberry tart recipe!

I know I mentioned All Saints Day in my first paragraph, but upon looking through pictures from the past several months, apparently we did nothing that day. Room for improvement next year, I guess. We DID dress up for Halloween though, which maybe sort of counts? Unless it’s blasphemous? Jury’s out on that one. I’m including it here only because Charlotte and Wilbur were awfully cute.

While Fern Arable made an appearance, Farmer Zuckerman preferred to be behind the camera lens instead of in front of it.

Moving on to Advent!

We do “regular” Advent activities, including a Jesse tree (I think we made it through day 16 or so this year, so it’s a work in progress), a chocolate Advent calendar from Trader Joe’s (because who doesn’t love chocolate?), and decorating the house (which I suppose should traditionally be done on Christmas Eve, but a decorated house is so festive!), but then there are some feast days during Advent that we’ve built into our Advent routine over the past couple of years that I really like.

St. Nicholas Day

As an Anglican, I’m ashamed to say this one wasn’t on my radar until last year, when I saw other Anglican and Catholic moms posting on social media about it. At that point I realized we were missing out on some fun, and immediately decided to do something about it the night before it happened. This year, I was slightly more prepared. The kids put their shoes by the door the night before, and in the morning, they were filled with chocolate coins and oranges! Maybe next year we’ll go all out and add some fuzzy socks or something, but this year, we kept it pretty simple. We also read a book about St. Nicholas, but also the sugar from the chocolate coins mostly prevented us from doing anything productive until the second half of the day. Keep that in mind if you decide to participate in the future.

The following week brought us to the next feast day!

St. Lucia Day

St. Lucia Day was tied at our house for least effort involved. We busted out our anglaspel Christmas decoration (which I LOVE - new favorite Christmas decoration by a long shot) and made ourselves some lussekatter saffron buns. That afternoon, Elise had a bad headache, so the day sort of ended on a low note, but the holiday was marked nonetheless.

The next few weeks were marked more by Advent/Christmas church services, including my favorite service of the year for oboe-playing: Lessons and Carols. By the time we get to that service, it usually feels like Christmas has officially arrived, even though it’s a few weeks ahead of time. Per usual, it was full of jollity, and this year I was able to do two of them, which made it even more fun. With all the festivities leading up to Christmas, however, I was getting a bit tired trying to figure out how to balance feasting with church schedules…

Christmas Eve

…Enter Sally Clarkson with a timely Instagram post (and blog) about how her family always did a simple Shepherd’s Meal on Christmas Eve, and I instantly knew that was the solution. Our menu became a crockpot soup with sourdough baked in the morning, alongside fruit, nuts, and cheese. We gathered family after our Christmas Eve church service, lit as many candles as we could find, turned out all the lights (except for Christmas lights, of course!) and enjoyed our meal. While I can’t speak for the rest of the family, it was perhaps my favorite observance of this whole string of feasts. We’ll definitely repeat this new-to-us tradition next year!

Christmas Day

Christmas Day itself always starts the same way at our house with a blurry picture, presents for our immediate family, and cinnamon rolls (confession: this year, they came from Costco rather than our own oven).

After that, we get together with the family again, and this year we went to my parents’ house. While I can’t really claim this as liturgically-focused, we do always have a Yule Log cake, and while I didn’t roll it particularly well this year, the taste made up for its appearance!

The day included your standard stockings, presents, and feasting, but we finished the day with carol singing thanks to our resident pianist and a large number of various hymnals. Fortunately, most of them had the same words, so we all sounded relatively together!

In the days following, our family promptly got sick, although we have (thus far) avoided Covid somehow, and we remained cycling through each member being sick for the remainder of Christmastide. New Year’s Eve happened without much fanfare, James had a birthday during which he was stricken with RSV and a double ear infection, and we watched far more tv shows than were good for us all the way through to Epiphany. As a result, Epiphany was a last-minute after thought that was only noted by the baking of a galette des rois, which was very tasty.

Next year, we might add in a blessing of the home from the Book of Common Prayer and/or a parade with the wise men from our nativity set, with We Three Kings as festive music to go along with it, but we’ll see!

Now we have a little break, but after quite the litany of feasts and such, a break feels quite restful! It’s been such a joy to really delve into the richness that the liturgical calendar has to offer, because the more reminders we have of God’s goodness, the more we remember it day to day. I’m so grateful to have those reminders for myself, but even more so to be able to make them part of our family culture. Thanks be to God.

Pandemic Reflections

I haven’t felt like blogging much for the better part of 1.5 years. The pandemic sort of killed any inspiration I might have had; daily life felt too small, too sheltered-in-place to have anything either worthwhile to report or to look forward to. Like many, I’m sure, I was feeling overly anxious about anything and everything, because it felt like leaving the house - unless it was to go somewhere outside - seemed hazardous and required extra precautions. Who wants to hear about the 114th Covid-style trip we made to Trader Joe’s where one kid licked the cart handle and I worried for two weeks? No one, that’s who.

I’ve never been one prone to anxiety, but between what felt like an everlasting tough transition to two kids and a global pandemic during which a lot of smaller stressors that would have felt like big stressors during non-pandemic times occurred (I’m looking at you, multiple trees that fell and damaged and then totaled our cars, as well as our church going through a schism in more recent months), I suppose feeling a bit out of sorts isn’t to be unexpected. At least the tow truck taking away the totaled car was entertaining.

All that to say, now that Covid cases have gone dramatically down, restrictions are lifting, the transition to two kids feels a little bit more normal, no more trees seem to be crushing our cars, and the church is regaining stability, the anxiety seems to be lifting a tad bit more every day and…dare I say it? normalcy feels like it just might be around the corner.

A friend visited from Maine a couple weeks ago, and she observed that it sort of felt like the year and a half that was locked down didn’t really happen. Somehow I feel like it does have a dream-like quality to it (I mean, let’s be honest, it was a nightmare, not a dream), and I suddenly felt rather mournful for James’ first year of life that could have been. To be fair, he wouldn’t have remembered it, but I would have. Would our transition to two have been easier because we could have kept things more normal for Elise? Would he have ridden on a plane or two? Would Elise be less fearful of the world now, since she spent the last year most likely picking up on our fears that I tried so hard to keep out of her range of experience? Would our church have avoided its schism if the underlying issues weren’t exacerbated by Covid restrictions and responses? I guess we’ll never know, but I can emphatically say that I’m extremely glad that it seems to be fading in the rearview mirror, and I’m looking forward to being able to actually move forward, and have things to look forward to again.

I’m rambling now, so I guess this has all been a preface to say that we’re doing things again, and there’s more joy and awareness of the privilege in ability to do them than I think we had before.

Now looking back, it’s easier to thank God for his faithfulness through it all, though he was faithful all along. I’m thankful for Zoom Bible studies that grew my faith in a way that I don’t think I would have experienced otherwise. 7pm in-person Bible studies are near impossible with a baby in the house.

I’m thankful for healthy, growing babies who are daily learning to love each other better, in spite of the struggles over sharing toys and access to mama’s lap.

I’m grateful for a husband who works long hours, but who works those long hours from home so that we get to see him even with the heavy workload.

We are blessed to have remained healthy, when it felt like sickness was perpetually on our doorstep.

I’m looking ahead to the future again, which is something I didn’t feel like I was able to do for so long, and now there are exciting things to plan for. Here’s hoping we’ll travel again in the upcoming months, but for now, we’re practicing by riding a couple of stops on a local train. Children, with their wide-eyed wonder at even these little adventures, are a miracle.

Liturgical Living: St. Patrick's Day

Back in September, specifically around Michaelmas on the 29th, I wrote about how I’d been wanting to add more liturgical patterns to our yearly home rhythms. We’re a few months into that now, and while I still consider myself quite the extreme novice in this area, I thought it might be helpful to provide an update. In my research I’ve found that this type of information is readily available to you…if you’re Catholic. Liturgy, feast days, and holy holidays seem to be automatically built into a Catholic lifestyle, but that is not the case if you’re not Catholic. Hello there, fellow Anglicans! This is for us!

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention a few blogs that have been helpful in this realm already. First, my friend Sarah has been a significant inspiration when it comes to finding ways to integrate the liturgical calendar into her home. I mean, look at all these great ideas for Holy Week! Also, while I don’t know this blogger personally, I love all the ideas that Hannah has for Advent on her blog, The Art in Life. Finally, Phylicia Masonheimer has excellent ideas for celebrating small holidays in a way that elevates church history, like these for Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day (you’ll see a lot of similarities between her list and our activities here)! Since all of these mothers have more children that I do, I feel comforted in the fact that all of these things are doable with multiple kids under our roof, and that is no small thing.

Today is St. Patrick’s Day, and since we had so much fun observing Michaelmas and more recently Valentine’s Day (albeit a much smaller celebration), I decided we needed to do St. Patrick’s Day as well.

Look! We wore green!

I based our holiday agenda on what we had done for Michaelmas, because it was great fun. The basics: have a feast, add some (very very simple) decor, and sing a related hymn or two. I also decided that we should have some learning materials, so I got a few books via Thrift Books. Tomie dePaola’s Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland was my favorite of the bunch, although two of the books I ordered have yet to arrive in my mailbox, so I suppose that could change. Finally, we made sure to listen to traditional Irish music and do some Irish-themed crafts, like these fun name cards for our feast table.

Elise even made a full-sized one as a picture rather than a name tag!

To give credit where credit is due, I got the idea for these here.

For our feast, I went for a fully Irish menu: Guinness beef stew with colcannon and Irish soda bread, with an apple cake for dessert. I’d rate the stew, colcannon, and soda bread all five stars, but I’m not linking the apple cake since we all agreed we’d try something else next time. I’m planning ahead and I’m nearly certain this will be dessert next year.

And I will say…the cake LOOKED good, so it definitely had that going for it, if nothing else.

Before eating, we prayed a portion of St. Patrick’s Breastplate, which helped us remember why we were celebrating. Perhaps when the kids are a little older and less wiggly, we’ll pray the whole thing, but even the bit that we did was a blessing.

But beyond the food, the best part of celebrations like this is the hymn singing. Especially in Covid-world, where our regular source of communal singing (church) is on hiatus, singing a hymn together is something that I will never take for granted.

With an assortment of hymnals, we had slightly different lyrics among us and even a different number of verses for Be Thou My Vision, but it didn’t matter. It felt a little bit like a foretaste of heaven, which is what I have certainly sorely needed lately. Next year we’ll also do a bit more planning, so that our only version of I Bind Unto Myself Today isn’t only available in one hymnal, with only the melody printed. You win some, you lose some.

Like I’ve said before, this year (plus!) has really hammered home to me how much I’ve needed a firm foundation of faith to carry me through harder days, and therefore how much I want to provide opportunities for my kids to grow that foundation as well. Our pastor’s statement - “We remember what we celebrate” - along with the richness of tradition found through church history gave us a treasure trove of celebratory occasions that might have otherwise been overlooked, and that point us back toward the goodness of our God.

“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” Ephesians 16-21

Twelve Months of James

Hey hey! We have a one year old! We also had Christmas, a new year, and a little birthday party since I last posted. Definitely a busy time of year, but it did remind me that I’m very grateful that James was born in January rather than late December. Those couple extra days beyond the holidays really did make a big difference!

The vast majority of pictures this month are blurry, because he just moves non-stop. His preferred speed is As Fast As Possible, which is slightly dangerous since he’s not entirely steady on his feet all the time. Hence the little bruise on his cheek, which he acquired first thing in the morning on his actual birthday. It was a bit of a rough start, but the balloons cheered him right up and he would probably say he had a delightful day, if he could tell you verbally.

Speaking of verbal skills, he doesn’t say too many things, but he can say Mama, Dada, and, when prompted, Uh Oh, which is quite useful since he likes to drop food and water bottles off his high chair when he has finished with them. Fortunately, this particular skill didn’t affect his birthday cake.

His absolute favorite thing to do remains climbing up anything he can manage, which has most recently included our dining room table (not pictured, for safety’s sake). He climbs up a dining chair, plants his hands on the table, and then pulls himself right up. And he doesn’t stop there; oh no, if he’s not standing on the table, his ascent is only partially complete.

At his 12 month checkup, his doctor declared that anyone would be hard pressed to find a taller baby, although we have quite a few friends with equally tall children, so perhaps we just have something in our local water. Nevertheless, he is quite tall, and so I find myself using strollers more than baby carriers since those are getting harder to use. He’s also got a couple of top molars and is working on the bottom ones and all of his canines, so teething has been rough lately. In spite of that, he remains a very happy camper the vast majority of the time, and the discomfort has mostly affected his sleep rather than his mood. As a result, all of us are very ready for the teeth to be all the way in.

At 12 months, he was still requiring two naps a day, but within the last two days, he suddenly seems to have perhaps dropped down to only needing one. We might give that a try tomorrow to see how it goes, which will mean some reshuffling of our daily schedule. When better to do that than a weekend, right?

His birthday party was small and I guess sort of Covid-style, although to be honest we mostly do small but happy birthday celebrations all the time. After his balloon-fest and his morning nap, we had immediate family over for a taco lunch, birthday cake, and presents. James loves blueberries, so I decided to make a lemon cake with blueberry frosting between the layers and a whipped cream outer frosting. I will never win any awards for cake decorating, but I can make them taste good! If it’s not too boastful to say, I think this was a very tasty one.

He got a layer to himself to smash up as he saw fit, since I was nearly certain he wouldn’t eat the entire thing himself. He enjoyed stabbing it and squashing it with his fork, and I think he may have put one bite into his mouth. The rest of us ate the other two layers, and then my dad took the smashed up leftovers home and consumed them later. Leave no trace, I suppose.

And then after exploring his new car toy a bit, he settled down for a long birthday’s nap and enjoyed living his best one year old life. Can’t get much better than that, according to him!

He is a joy and a delight, and life with him in it is better than we ever could have imagined. Happy birthday, little buddy. We’re so blessed to call you ours.

Eleven Months of James

And just like that, James is 11 months and his first birthday is right around the corner! He is as happy as ever, and as daring as ever to boot. Just with the past couple of days, he’s learned to climb up on to the window seat in the dormer in the kids’ room, and now that he’s figured it out, he does it nonstop.

He is also fully mobile at this point, and prefers walking to any other mode of transportation. I suspect he’ll be running within a week.

Just today I noticed that he’s popped through one additional tooth, which brings the total up to eight, and I’m assuming is why he hasn’t been sleeping terribly well for the past few days.

His latest tricks include lots of dancing (bouncing up and down or shaking his head back and forth), and, more frequently, blowing raspberries. He thinks it’s hilarious when you do it back at him.

He loves baths, he loves pushing around our hedgehog riding toy, he loves being anywhere near his big sister, and surprisingly, he loves snuggling, as long as he’s the one that comes to you, not vice versa. He despises having his diaper changed and he turns into an absolute alligator whenever you try.

I really can’t believe that he’ll be one in a month. We have so much stuff going on between now and then (like…actually a lot, not a sarcastic pandemic a lot) given that we’re trying to observe Advent and we’re looking forward to Christmas. It’ll be a fun month!

We love you, little buddy!

Ten Months of James

Every month post is getting a bit later here. For what it’s worth, the pictures were taken right at the month mark, so at least we know that much is accurate! This past month was a big one for James, so I didn’t want to let it go un-commemorated.

For starters, he took a few steps! He had been independently standing before the 10-month mark for a few seconds at a time, but then one day he decided it was high time to take standing up to a whole new level and add some motion to go along with it. I don’t know if I’d quite say it’s full walking, but it’s definitely an accomplishment nonetheless.

I had to take two sets of pictures…his regular white onesie was in the wash at first!

He also said his first and only word, which was “cow.” Elise and James and I were all sitting around the table at breakfast time, and we noticed that there were pictures of cows on several of our food items at the table. I pointed to each one and said “cow!” after each point, and then James just followed suit! His favorite non-word syllable is “gah,” so while it is a bit hard to differentiate between “gah” and “cow,” they were different enough that I’m pretty confident in calling it a word.

While the steps and the word were notable, his most significant accomplishment appears to be climbing on things. He climbs on literally anything climbable, which has led to some close calls. I don’t take my eyes off of him for a second when climbing structures are nearby, including things that are not your typical climbing structure. Example A:

Less you miss it while having a heart attack over his position, please take note of his expression. This is a very, very accurate representation of his approach to life, and I am here for it. Oh, you want another look at the rocking horse ascent? LET ME OBLIGE.

I should also note that I was closer at hand than this picture makes it look. He is always spotted. Gotta cover my bases in case some variety of mom police are out there.

He also climbs your standard things, like benches.

Last but not least, he sprouted two more teeth! We had some rough nights when they were coming through, although I think we’re mostly back on track after that setback.

So there you have it! Way to go, little guy.

Nine Months of James

Another month, another post. Also, another several days late…I think every month yields a later post. Hopefully I’ll get back on track by his first birthday!

James at nine months is a hoot. He figured out how to clap recently, and he likes to do it all the time.

He moves constantly, and one of his favorite activities is pushing Elise’s cart or rolling hedgehog toy all around whatever room he’s in. He gets very, very frustrated when he bumps into something and can’t figure out how to turn himself around, screeching and throwing a baby tantrum until I point him back in a direction with more room. Once he’s off again, he’s instantly delighted. Moods change on a dime these days.

He has a favorite book - In My Tree - that has a built-in finger puppet of an owl. He laughs and laughs when the “owl” says, “Whoo whoooooo!” and he likes to poke the owl with his finger.

When it comes to eating, he still has yet to meet a food he won’t try. He makes a disastrous mess every time he has a meal, but it pays off in the sense that he feeds himself until he’s full, and he eats what we eat and I mostly get to eat my food at the same time in relative peace. This month he’s seeming to really enjoy watermelon and pretty much any kind of meat…the little carnivore.

In addition to clapping, he also likes to both flap his arms all over the place and also thump them on things, including me. At bedtime he alternates between snuggling his head into my torso and then sitting upright and flapping both arms to thump my shoulders, which sounds somewhat painful but is really just funny.

Whenever we’re in a room with cabinet doors or drawers, he takes it upon himself to open them and explore their contents. He particularly likes the bathroom cabinet that contains a box of Q-Tips, but fortunately he has yet to dump them all out. In the kitchen, he goes straight for the drawer that contains all the kid cups and bowls, probably because they’re colorful.

Speaking of the kitchen, he’s earned himself “Dangerbaby” as a nickname - he figured out how to climb up Elise’s tower, which allows her (and I guess now him) to stand at counter level. I can’t turn my back for a second with him before he’s off to explore new heights.

He’s very pleased with his newfound abilities. And I think that’s all we have for now! I still can’t believe we’re creeping up on a year already…but I can’t wait to see what he’ll accomplish before then.

Michaelmas and Liturgical Living

It’s not anything revolutionary to say that managing family life during this pandemic has been challenging, but I’ve found that it’s brought to fruition a few things that I’d been wanting to implement in our home for a long time. Up until now I hadn’t had the…time? motivation? GUMPTION to make them happen, but since so much of our focus is on being at home (and being at home well) these days, I’ve started to do a few things that I hope to keep as part of our family traditions for a long time.

One of those things is paying a bit more attention to the liturgical calendar. Just prior to James’ baptism on August 16th, we met with a few families and our priest to discuss the meaning of baptism and how we were going to be leading our children in faith. One of the things he said stuck with me: “We remember what we celebrate.” And it’s true! For most people, myself included, our fondest memories of childhood surround celebrations - Christmas, holidays, birthdays, achievements.

I want my children to have fond memories linked to celebrations of God’s goodness. That’s easy for things like Easter and Christmas, but those only come around once a year. But the liturgical year includes so much more richness that we haven’t yet plumbed, and now is the time.

I started small. Michaelmas, a feast day on the liturgical schedule that celebrates Michael the Archangel defeating Satan, was next up in the calendar year (September 29th), and historically was celebrated with a host of traditions. These traditions ranged from the doable to the folklore-esque, so I picked from that bank of ideas and made us a Michaelmas celebration. I chose four things to do: we’d spend time outdoors to appreciate the unseasonably warm but still fall-ish weather; we’d pick wild asters (also known as St. Michael’s daisies) to make a bouquet for our dinner table; we’d have a feast for dinner; and we’d sing a hymn. Fortunately our hymnal contains a handful of hymns for the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels, so we had some good ones to choose from.

For the outdoor adventure, we checked out a place we’d never been before, and it was a complete home run. I can’t believe we’ve lived in this area now for five years and hadn’t discovered it yet! The Parker River Wildlife Sanctuary made me totally love Plum Island, and I now “get” Plum Island. It previously hadn’t held a lot of appeal for me beyond one of our favorite breakfast spots (I’m looking at you, Mad Martha’s), but now consider me a FAN.

When we got home from our exploration, I put the kids down for their nap/quiet time, and then I started cooking. In Celtic tradition, the Michaelmas menu usually includes roasted goose, carrots, blackberry pie, and St. Michael’s bannock. Not having a goose to roast and not particularly loving blackberries myself, I opted for a roast chicken, carrots, roasted potatoes, and St. Michael’s bannock, for which I found a recipe thanks to the wealth of information that is the internet. For my own future reference: I used this recipe for the chicken and gravy (though the gravy was FAR too salty, so I’d do that differently next time), and this recipe for the carrots. I didn’t use a recipe for the roasted potatoes…just chopped them up, doused them with olive oil, salt, and Italian seasoning, and roasted them at 450 for 25-30 minutes. They were delicious.

Sidebar: the Michaelmas association with blackberries is the bizarre folklore bit that I mentioned above. Lore has it that when the devil was hurled out of heaven down to earth, he landed in a blackberry bush and either trampled or urinated on the berries, depending on who you ask about this story. Given that they are supposedly either squashed or gross, adherents to this story consider September 29th to be the last day blackberries can be harvested. Please note: this is not even remotely biblical and it actually made me laugh. Perhaps I’m a Michaelmas heathen.

After Elise got up from her quiet time, I sent her out with my mom to collect the asters (and goldenrod) for our supper bouquet while I cooked. Asters are one of the latest-blooming flowers of late summer/early fall, and given their alternate name, they found their way into Michaelmas tradition as well. Elise had a blast and she and my mom collected quite the lovely spray, even if I tend to think asters and even goldenrod look a tad bit weedy. Now they’re weedy and festive.

I finished cooking, and we sat down to the table. Before eating, we took a break from our standard ad hoc pre-dinner prayers and instead read the collect for Saint Michael and All Angels from the Book of Common Prayer: “O everlasting God, who hast ordained and constituted the ministries of angels and men in a wonderful order: Mercifully grant that, as they holy angels always serve and worship thee in heaven, so by thy appointment they may help and defend us on earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.”

And then we feasted.

It was delicious, and we followed it up with apple crisp and chocolate, because no meal is complete without dessert, in my humble opinion. Even (especially?) when it isn’t blackberry pie.

We finished our evening with a rousing rendition of O Ye Immortal Throng, thanks to our resident pro pianist who expertly accompanied our singing. I took zero pictures of that because I was too busy reading the words on the page of the single hymnal that we were all crowded around, which felt more important than photography at the time.

All in all, we decided it should be an annual thing. Throughout the last several months I’ve felt a strong pull toward pursuing a deeper faith, and having these types of celebrations as milestones throughout the year is a helpful reminder to look to God as the source of all goodness, and particularly this year, hope during trial. Bring on All Saints’ Day, Candlemas, Epiphany…we’ll celebrate them all.

Eight Months of James

Well. I guess I only post on my blog once a month now. Here we are at eight months and James just keeps on growing!

Getting non-blurry pictures of this kid is becoming increasingly difficult. He’s on the move constantly, crawling like a speed demon and pulling himself up like it’s his job. He cruises around furniture with ease, transferring himself between coffee table and couch like he’s been doing it his entire life.

On his 8 month birthday, he both graduated to size four diapers and started making a new clicking sound, which is his new favorite thing to do. He clicks all the time, and seems quite pleased with himself for having figured out how to do it.

This month was also momentous in that he got sleep trained, which wasn’t the most fun process for three nights, but now that those nights are behind us, he goes to bed between 7:00 and 8:00, sleeps all night until between 5:00 and 6:00, eats once and goes back to sleep, and then gets up for the day between 7:00 and 8:00 am. I had been totally against sleep training with Elise, but after not sleeping through the night until 22 months with her and now seeing how much better we all are getting a full night’s rest each night, I’m totally on board with it now. Three (hundred) cheers for Taking Cara Babies once again.

He and Elise are also now sharing a room, which is fun! I have a few more decor changes that I want to make, but it’s nice to have an actual nursery room.

In other news, he also learned how to scale the staircase, which means we now have it blocked off with a pull up bar (very high tech) to make sure that he doesn’t climb up and/or fall down while my back is turned. Of course, that didn’t stop me from spotting him and letting him do a little exploration to document his accomplishment…

He also continues to love to eat almost any food put in front of him, and he seems to enjoy gobbling every variety of fruit, toast with peanut butter, bell pepper, and chugging water with particular gusto. I’m trying to capitalize on his enthusiastic food exploration now, since things change around the year mark, so we’re trying to get as much new food exposure as possible now.

Finally, he’s started really enjoying watching Elise play, and he tries to see what he can do with her, occasionally to her chagrin.

And with that, I think we’ve had enough of a report for this month (even though the report was two weeks late). We’ll return next month for more, although I hope to post at least once more between now and then. Huzzah!

Seven Months of James

This little guy is seven months old, and I’m almost two weeks late on reporting the details!

All of the photos this month are a little blurry because he won’t. stop. moving. The only times he stays still are either when he’s sleeping or occasionally when nursing, although the very second that he’s done he’s twisting his body out of my arms to be on his way again. He went from almost crawling at 6 months to speed-crawling and pulling himself up all day every day at 7 months. The only downside is that diaper changes are now nearly impossible, but we make it work.

He’s also been loving eating solid food, and seems to particularly enjoy Cheerios, shredded carrots, and freeze dried fruit. He also likes toast strips, which is both good and bad - within the last few days I’ve needed to give them to him just one at a time, or else he’ll stuff it all in his mouth and start choking, which is scary.

He’s also completely stopped using his bath sponge while bathing, which means that he’s in an open tub. It’s become one of his favorite activities - I fill the tub with only an inch or two of water, and he crawls around in the water, stopping every so often to lift his hand up and down over and over again to make a splash. He must really enjoy the patting/splashing motion, because lately he’s taken to doing it on any surface, whether it’s water, a table, or my shirt.

In terms of growth, James is busting out of his 6-9 month clothes and starting in on 12-18. At his last doctor’s appointment in between 6 and 7 months, the doctor noted that he was in the 99.9th percentile for height, and he has an appetite to match. Between all his growing and moving, I think he eats nearly as much as Elise does at every meal. He and Elise are starting to play with each other a bit more, which is fun to see. I’m hoping that they’ll be lifelong friends, and that they’re setting the groundwork now. She likes to give him a kiss before he goes to bed, which is particularly endearing.

He’s just such a delightful baby and it’s the best thing to see how excited he is about discovering the world around him. What a gift.

Six Months of James

I’m a few days late in writing this down, but James is now six months old! It feels like a lot has changed since last month, which is pretty exiting. The two main ones are that he has started sampling non-milk food and that he’s probably just a couple of days away from crawling!

He loves getting up on his hands and knees and rocking back and forth, and hes managed to move his knees forward a few times already. He hasn’t quite figured out the hand motion yet, but he’s getting there! While he’s figuring that out, he’s conquered the army crawl, and he can wiggle his way from one spot to another in no time. I suppose we’ve reached the point where we actually need to baby-proof.

He can also sit up unsupported for brief spurts of time, although he’s liable to tumble backwards since he hasn’t quite figured out that there isn’t anything behind him when he’s in that position. Based on the fact that he’s nearly mobile, it looks like we’ll skip the potted plant phase entirely…sitting and crawling are happening simultaneously rather than sequentially. Elise did that as well, so it’s not like this is unfamiliar territory!

Sometimes you just need a break, you know? Also, look at all his hair! I realize that “all the hair” is relative, considering some babies are born with significantly more hair than he has now, but it’s fun to see it starting to come in.

James is still very early in his food-eating experiences, but we’ve checked off all the major allergens so far: he’s successfully eaten eggs, strawberries, and peanut butter with no reaction, and he’s also sampled red pepper, guacamole, a taco (which he loved), broccoli, pork carnitas, oatmeal, plain yogurt, sour cream, and a bit of bread. He may have also licked some bacon at one point. Essentially, he gets a little taste of whatever we have on our plates at every meal. He still hasn’t really gotten used to having anything with texture in his mouth, so his reactions are pretty amusing.

These days, it’s very hard to get him to stay on his back, which is particularly challenging during diaper changes and (to a lesser extent) baths. He just wants to practice crawling so much that he doesn’t have the patience to stay facing up, so I’ve resorted to handing him whatever object is both hold-able and nearby whenever I change him. Frequent objects have included diaper cream, a tennis-ball-sized plastic Playmobile tunnel piece, and a 1/2 cup measure. Aside from the diaper cream, I’m not sure why any of those things are nearby, but they hold his attention long enough for me to change his diaper like a ninja. Thankfully while he’s taking a bath, splashing his feet distracts him enough that his rollover speed is slightly slower.

If you want to make him laugh, either kiss his cheeks or brush his teeth. Both of these will reliably produce contagious giggling. I can’t wait to see what he can do by next month!

Best Baby Gear (Second Child Edition)

I actually wrote up this entire post once already and then shut my computer without saving it, and it DISAPPEARED. It was tragic, but perhaps it was poorly written and needed a second go-round. At least that’s what I’m telling myself to make it seem better. Onward!

When Elise was very small, I created a list of most used/loved baby gear. I like to think that I’m perhaps slightly more experienced and/or well informed the second time around, although since every child is different, maybe I still know nothing. Regardless, there are things that we use all the time, and maybe it will be useful for other soon-to-be moms out there. Alternatively, if you ARE already a mom, please tell me if I’m missing some crucial items that I need to add to my baby collection!

Item Number 1: OxiClean

It is a fact of life that babies make a lot of messes on their clothes, so having a stain removal system is a necessity. I think there are several products that make stain removal easy, but my personal preference is OxiClean powder. Get yourself a gallon of cold water, add a scoop of the powder, stir it all up and throw in the clothes. Leave it in the solution for a few hours (or if you’re like me, a few days, because your laundry room is in the basement and out of sight = out of mind) and then wash the no-longer-soiled garments with the rest of your laundry. Voila! No more stains! Considering how often poop gets on clothes (or, you know, older baby stains, like food, dirt, berry juice, etc.), I recommend buying this product at Costco.

Item Number 2: Halo Swaddles

Halo swaddles were a life saver this time. I didn’t get the hang of swaddling during round one, but I’m glad I figured it out because it seriously helped with sleeping. I should add here that I also had fallen prey to marketing and great reviews on the Ollie swaddle, which people seem to rave about. In my opinion, the Velcro is way too loud and the whole thing seemed too stiff, and James seemed to really dislike being in it, while Halo swaddles kept him nice and cozy. I know I’m not towing the party line on that one, but there you have my two cents!

Item Number 3: the Zipadee-Zip

While it has a silly name, this swaddle transition sleep sack is great. James was quite dependent on being swaddled in order to sleep well while he was tiny, but ever since he started the very first signs of rolling, he had to be unswaddled ever after. Enter the Zipadee-Zip. It still offers a little bit of resistance when moving, and it covers his hands, but he still has a full range of motion and can roll over with no problems. Hooray! When he’s not wearing it, he takes forever to fall asleep. He also looks like a cute little starfish while enrobed in it, which is a great plus.

Here’s a blurry photo of him wearing his Zipadee-Zip to display how he’s nice and cozy.

All of these things (minus the OxiClean) seem to share a theme. Specifically, if it helps him/us sleep, it’s on the list. Which brings me to…

Item Number 4: Taking Cara Babies Sleep Courses

I’ve raved about the newborn course offered by Taking Cara Babies in other posts, but I am calling it out in particular here. This course taught me how to get James to sleep by himself. Bedtime is a breeze, he has never cried himself to sleep (in fact, there was no crying involved at all), and he doesn’t have to nurse to get himself back to sleep when he does wake up in the night. I wish I had known about this when Elise was born. While James still does occasionally wake at night, all he needs is his pacifier popped back in, which takes about three seconds. It’s beautiful. I will sing Cara’s praises to anyone who will listen and cares about getting babies to sleep. And if you’re a parent to an older baby who might feel like you missed the window on the newborn class, she has classes for older babies as well! It’s not the cheapest thing in the world, but it’s WELL worth the price.

Item Number 5: Hatch Rest Sound Machine

This is another thing that you’d probably find on almost any mom blogger’s blog, because I’ve seen it all over the place. But I LOVE this sound machine. Right now Elise is actually the one using it in our house, but eventually both kids are going to be sharing a room so it’ll benefit both of them; therefore I say it still counts as “baby gear.” You can control it both on the machine itself or via your phone, and I think they even have a new fancy version that can be linked with an Alexa device, if you have one of those. Another benefit is that down the line (as we’re doing with Elise), you can use it as a time to rise light, so you can set a time for it to change to a specific color and sound to let your kid know that it’s ok to get up. If you have a kid that rises at ungodly pre-dawn hours like Elise, this is a giant plus.

Item Number 6: Ergobaby Carrier

While my first love (when it comes to baby carriers) will always and forever be a Solly baby wrap, I found that my lower back hurt more after this pregnancy and I needed a little extra lumbar support in the early days. My Ergobaby carrier fit the bill, and it really helped me get things done that I wouldn’t have been able to otherwise while holding a baby in my arms. I have the original version, although it looks like they may have stopped making those in favor of some fancier new versions instead. It turns out that they also have a reselling page on their website, so you can get refurbished ones for a lower cost!

Item Number 7: Anything from Little Unicorn

Little Unicorn makes my absolute favorite baby bath towels, swaddle blankets, and non-homemade quilts. The patterns are the cutest, and the quality is fantastic. The quilts are my favorite blankets to bring places while traveling, because they’re warm but also fold up decently well, and overall just seem very cozy. Here’s Elise with one of the big kid towels (a gift from Nana!) while perhaps casting a spell?

And James joyriding in his stroller with one of the quilts:

Pro tip: wait for a sale.

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Those are the main ones I’d recommend, although I’ll throw in a few more honorable mentions. We use Bibs pacifiers, and James took them right from the beginning. We also use this door frame bouncy seat all the time, and James bounces all over the place while squealing with delight. Also, I count Trader Joe’s dark chocolate peanut butter cups as indispensable baby gear…for me.

And there you have it! If we ever have a third kid, you can probably expect a similar list, because more kids = more knowledge.

Five Months of James

The world feels a little bit heavy right now, so this post seems almost frivolous amidst all of that. So the quick facts are these:

1) James has started laughing all the time at all sorts of things, and it’s the best sound in the world.

2) After four months of hating tummy time, he now prefers to be on his stomach most of the time, and flips himself onto his stomach to sleep.

3) He absolutely adores being in the door frame bouncy seat that we have, and goes crazy every time I put him in it.

4) He seems like he might be starting to discover that his thumb is a nice pacifier. I’m torn about whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

5) He’s wearing 6-9 or 6-12 month clothes, and has recently outgrown a pair of Elise’s old pajamas that she wore when she was between 6 and 9 months old.

The innocence of a baby is such a balm in a hurting world. The quarantine has been a tedious period of time, but the more recent racist altercations have everything in a more painful uproar.

As a result, I’ve had Micah 6:8 on my heart more than usual. My main job, as the mother of both James and Elise, both of whom are about as fair-skinned as one can possibly get, is to guide them to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with their (and my) God.

Doing that behooves us to recognize the image of God in our neighbors, of every tongue, tribe, and nation. I pray for unity and reconciliation in our land, and that the country that these kids grow up in becomes one that is more just and merciful toward our POC compatriots than it has been in the past.

I’m not sure what else to say today. I’m hoping that between now and next month, things will both have improved and calmed down. 2020 has been…a year.

Four Months of James

What day is it again?

#quarantineproblems

It took me a hot second to realize that another month had passed. Fortunately, I paid just enough attention to the calendar to remember to take some photos during the daylight hours, and even get a blog post up on time!

All my photos are slightly more blurry this month, because he just likes to wiggle around! He successfully rolled over from back to belly at exactly 15 weeks, and has repeated it a couple of times since. However, being on his back is much preferred to being on his tummy, so he’s not too motivated to get all the way over very often. That said, he has taken to sleeping on his side, so I imagine that he’s pleased to have found a means to rotate himself even part of the way.

I’m also happy to report that my suspicions about teething last month proved to be correct - he has two bottom teeth! He was pretty miserable in the two days just before they popped through his gums, so I’m glad that the worst is behind him for those at least. He had a brief reprieve from drooling but seems to have started up again, so perhaps more teeth are on the horizon for him. Time will tell.

He has now mastered a wide range of vocal skills, his evident favorite being a sort of growly squeal that, in spite of “growly squeal” sounding dreadful, turns out to be rather infectiously joyous. Would that we all had such skills.

His two favorite activities seem to be lying on the floor to (visually) explore his surroundings, and standing up with a supporting hand or two. In fact, if he’s fussing, standing him up will almost always quell his agitation. Standing up also highlights the little rolls on his knees, which is adorable.

He naps like a champ and goes to bed like it’s his job, although he’s not currently spectacular at sleeping through the night. He’s typically up three to five times per night, so I’m tired. The fortunate thing about that is that he doesn’t need to eat every single time, so often popping his pacifier back in will do the trick.

Eventually, he got tired of his photo shoot today…

…so I guess that’s as good a place as any to stop. Until next month!

Three Months of James

Well…I meant to have at least one other blog post up between two months and three months, and considering we’ve been practically quarantined, I definitely had the time, but no dice. Next time!

James is three months old today!

He’s the smiliest baby there ever was. He’s also growing like a weed and has started inching his way into 6-9 month clothes. That’s been kinda fun, because the only 6-9 month clothing I currently have for him has come from Elise’s stockpile of baby clothes, so she definitely wore the onesie in these pictures.

Fortunately, white onesies are the most neutral of baby clothes.

In addition to smiling a ton, he has also started exploring his vocal range, which is adorable - he’ll tell you all kinds of “stories” that only he can understand. If you respond in a way that he finds particularly amusing, he’ll even giggle at you.

He spends a lot of time chomping on his hands and drooling, and I’ve actually thought that he might be teething. It seems ridiculously early, but I miiiiiight be able to see two bottom teeth just under his gums. I’ll report back next month to tell you if I’m delusional or not.

He has come very close to rolling over from back to tummy, pulling his knees up as high as he can and getting over on his side, although he hasn’t made it quite all the way to his stomach yet. He did manage to roll from tummy to back one time, although I don’t think it really counts because I had positioned his arms in such a way that rolling wouldn’t be terribly difficult.

He absolutely despises tummy time, and will start fussing within 30 seconds of being put down in that position. As a result, I’ve been quite indolent in my efforts to make sure he fits tummy time into his obviously very busy daily schedule of eating, playing, and sleeping.

He seems quite unaffected by the current quarantine situation, which is great. In fact, he’s probably benefiting from staying at home, when my natural tendency is to try to get out of the house at least once a day to run errands under normal circumstances. Instead, our near-daily outings have been limited to outdoor walking areas or our backyard, both of which seem decidedly healthier habitats for children than…say…Target.

His nicknames range from the normal (Jamie) to the slightly unusual (Guy) to the downright weird (Bubbo, Buddaboo, The Jamesophone). Those last three are limited to at-home use only, which is pretty easy these days. We’re all looking forward to the end of the coronavirus so we can visit with everyone again!

We love you, little guy! Keep growing!