We had a great weekend visiting with the Great Grandparents (Dorothy's Grandparents). Liam gave them lots of smiles and treated them to many fussy moments. Thanks for sucha great visit!
Monday, June 16, 2008
Great Grandpa and Grandma
We had a great weekend visiting with the Great Grandparents (Dorothy's Grandparents). Liam gave them lots of smiles and treated them to many fussy moments. Thanks for sucha great visit!
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
some videos
Liam has a favorite toy: his cow stuffed animal which came with an adorable children's book: I Udderly Love You. He will play with this toy for over 30 minutes at a time, remarkable for his 2 month old attention span... He likes to look at it from different angles, pull on its tail, suck on its ears, and stroke its side. And he talks to it. What fun.
Grandma and Grandpa Hall gave him this mobile, which he is finally noticing and really loving! It plays surprisingly good music (hurray!): rainforest sounds, Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart. I've been surprised by how much Liam loves to listen to music. Neither Gabe or I are particularly interested in music. Take it or leave it, it really doesn't matter much to us either way. Actually, I often prefer silence. Not so for Liam. His grandparents also gave him two sets of children cds, which we listen to every time I change his diaper. We also dance to the music sometimes. He loves it. When he is fussy in the car we turn on the music: Johnny Cash seems to be his favorite.
everyone loves the Boppy
We don't go for a lot of the trendy/gadgety baby gear, but this is one of those things that we just couldn't do without. How did people manage before this was invented?
Liam loves it.Dahlia loves it.
Gabe loves it.
Gabe loves it.Monday, June 2, 2008
sometimes he's happy
Getting ready to go for a walk in the stroller
Playing with Hopkins on the changing table
Liam enjoys being cuddled up in the sling...and I enjoy having my hands free
His feet were so fascinating when they splashed in the water
And sometimes he has meltdowns...Thursday, May 29, 2008
Iowa
We spent Memorial Day weekend at the farm in Iowa. It's a 9 hour drive, and we had no idea how Liam would do. So, we left our house at 5 am, thinking it could very well take ALL day to get there (If you think that's crazy, Crystal and Micah left for St. Louis at 2 am hoping Simone would sleep the entire drive...she did).
Much to our surprise - and relief - Liam was awesome. In fact, he was better in the car than he usually is at home. He slept the majority of the drive, waking up to eat, look at a couple of books, play with his cow stuffed animal - his favorite toy - and then back to sleep again. Only a few fussy moments to deal with, and he was great. Gabe drove the whole way, and I sat in the back with Liam. I had brought my breast pump and was able to pump his bottles just before he was ready to eat. It worked marvelously, although it is somewhat troubling using the breast pump so much on the way to a dairy farm...
At the farm, Gabe worked outside with his Uncle Jim and cousin Jared. He came in quite stinky, filthy, sore, and stuffy with allergies - nearly a perfect day in his mind...
Liam and I stayed inside to hang out with Aunt Janelle and Jared's wife Allison, who is expecting their first baby in October (hurray!).
On Saturday afternoon, the girls - and Liam - went to visit Mike, Wendy, and there teeny-tiny baby Amy (6 lbs), after Allison and I wrestled Liam's carseat out of the car (it keeps getting jambed in the base...we're planning to get a convertible seat soon). Amy is like a perfect little doll - Liam's 10 lbs 9 oz suddenly seemed enormous!
On Sunday, we went to church with Jim and Janelle: Liam had a major I'm-tired-of-not-being-at-home meltdown that lasted the entire service, and Gabe was attacked by a coughing fit. We were pretty bad company.
That afternoon, we hurried to dig up some plants to bring back for my garden (rhubarb, poppies, ferns, hens n' chicks) before the storm hit. The wind kept picking up, and the wind kept getting stronger and stronger. We finished up just when the rain started. Inside the house, Janelle decided to turn on the news just in case there were tornado warnings. Of course, there were, and we hid out in the basement for awhile. When it seemed as if the storm was letting up, we went back upstairs only to hear the TV announcer tornados on the ground in Aplington (that's where we were!). Back into the basement, and Jim and Gabe came in from outside because the wind had become eerily still and then picked up with gusto all of a sudden. Gabe said he had never seen Jim run so fast. The power went out; but then the storm passed, and we went back upstairs.
Then the emergency vehicles started racing past the house. They kept coming: one after the next from the neighboring communities and - as they kept coming - from increasingly distant towns. Dozens of fire trucks, ambulances, and police cars. Something bad had obviously happened. Janelle started calling people who lived in town in Aplington, hoping to find out what was going on. It turned out that the next town over, Parkersburg - where Mike, Wendy, and baby Amy live - was hit pretty bad. We were able to get power back thanks to the generator, and the news reporters described the town as "gone" and "leveled" on the South side, where Mike and Wendy live. For several agonizing hours no one heard from them. But they had made it to their basement and escaped without harm, although the same couldn't be said for their house. Sadly, Mike's grandparents died. They've salvaged what they could from the house, but could definitely use lots of prayer.
It was a pretty crazy night. We left early the next morning, since there was warnings of severe weather all through Missouri that day. We had some rain, and a bit of thunder and lightning, but other than that the trip was smooth. Liam behaved beautifully again, and we made it home that afternoon.
What a trip!
Much to our surprise - and relief - Liam was awesome. In fact, he was better in the car than he usually is at home. He slept the majority of the drive, waking up to eat, look at a couple of books, play with his cow stuffed animal - his favorite toy - and then back to sleep again. Only a few fussy moments to deal with, and he was great. Gabe drove the whole way, and I sat in the back with Liam. I had brought my breast pump and was able to pump his bottles just before he was ready to eat. It worked marvelously, although it is somewhat troubling using the breast pump so much on the way to a dairy farm...
At the farm, Gabe worked outside with his Uncle Jim and cousin Jared. He came in quite stinky, filthy, sore, and stuffy with allergies - nearly a perfect day in his mind...
Liam and I stayed inside to hang out with Aunt Janelle and Jared's wife Allison, who is expecting their first baby in October (hurray!).
On Saturday afternoon, the girls - and Liam - went to visit Mike, Wendy, and there teeny-tiny baby Amy (6 lbs), after Allison and I wrestled Liam's carseat out of the car (it keeps getting jambed in the base...we're planning to get a convertible seat soon). Amy is like a perfect little doll - Liam's 10 lbs 9 oz suddenly seemed enormous!
On Sunday, we went to church with Jim and Janelle: Liam had a major I'm-tired-of-not-being-at-home meltdown that lasted the entire service, and Gabe was attacked by a coughing fit. We were pretty bad company.
That afternoon, we hurried to dig up some plants to bring back for my garden (rhubarb, poppies, ferns, hens n' chicks) before the storm hit. The wind kept picking up, and the wind kept getting stronger and stronger. We finished up just when the rain started. Inside the house, Janelle decided to turn on the news just in case there were tornado warnings. Of course, there were, and we hid out in the basement for awhile. When it seemed as if the storm was letting up, we went back upstairs only to hear the TV announcer tornados on the ground in Aplington (that's where we were!). Back into the basement, and Jim and Gabe came in from outside because the wind had become eerily still and then picked up with gusto all of a sudden. Gabe said he had never seen Jim run so fast. The power went out; but then the storm passed, and we went back upstairs.
Then the emergency vehicles started racing past the house. They kept coming: one after the next from the neighboring communities and - as they kept coming - from increasingly distant towns. Dozens of fire trucks, ambulances, and police cars. Something bad had obviously happened. Janelle started calling people who lived in town in Aplington, hoping to find out what was going on. It turned out that the next town over, Parkersburg - where Mike, Wendy, and baby Amy live - was hit pretty bad. We were able to get power back thanks to the generator, and the news reporters described the town as "gone" and "leveled" on the South side, where Mike and Wendy live. For several agonizing hours no one heard from them. But they had made it to their basement and escaped without harm, although the same couldn't be said for their house. Sadly, Mike's grandparents died. They've salvaged what they could from the house, but could definitely use lots of prayer.
It was a pretty crazy night. We left early the next morning, since there was warnings of severe weather all through Missouri that day. We had some rain, and a bit of thunder and lightning, but other than that the trip was smooth. Liam behaved beautifully again, and we made it home that afternoon.
What a trip!
Liam really did enjoy seeing the cows...just not at this particular moment!
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
from the garden
Last spring, we planted a bamboo plant, which we had purchased from the farmer's market. It was Gabe's plant from the beginning: he was careful to water it regularly and would check on it most days after work. The only growth it showed all of last year was a tiny tuft of leaves just above the ground. This year, it has shot out 2 stalks (and a surprise 3rd stalk about 5 feet away...uh-oh), all of which have grown their full height within a few days!
Gabe is ridiculously proud of his bamboo. It is now well over 7 feet tall and still growing.
In this bed:
the 4 mother's day tomatoes
a mesclun mix of lettuces
carrots
yellow bush beans
green onions
broccoli
cauliflower
red cabbage
basil
1 returning fennel
In other parts of the garden:
purple carrots (oooh...exciting)
pak choi
yellow swiss chard
batavian endive
radishes
spinach
beets
watermelon
pumpkin
peas
cucumbers
zucchini
That's a lot of variety for such a small yard! But we plan it carefully and don't plant more than we can eat.
I'm rather insane about this lettuce.
Gabe is ridiculously proud of his bamboo. It is now well over 7 feet tall and still growing.
In this bed:the 4 mother's day tomatoes
a mesclun mix of lettuces
carrots
yellow bush beans
green onions
broccoli
cauliflower
red cabbage
basil
1 returning fennel
In other parts of the garden:
purple carrots (oooh...exciting)
pak choi
yellow swiss chard
batavian endive
radishes
spinach
beets
watermelon
pumpkin
peas
cucumbers
zucchini
That's a lot of variety for such a small yard! But we plan it carefully and don't plant more than we can eat.
I'm rather insane about this lettuce.
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