My Delight

Having two children is more work than double the work for one child. Yes, we know what to expect the "second time around," and we are not so nervous about every little cough or sneeze, but the factor by which our lives has changed is not a regular or predictable integer. This statement is not meant to be a complaint, but rather a line to serve as a balance to what absolutely delights me these days.

I drive the girls around in the minivan almost every day for one reason or another. I remember seeing a comic strip wherein a frazzled mom of many kids in bubbled thought said, "If I'm a stay-at-home Mom, why am I always driving?" Anyway, Leah faces forwards like the big girl she is, while Nad-O is still in the safe, yet vertigo-inducing backwards position. The upside of this is that they can see each other, like lovers on those old-fashioned two-way couches.

Natalie can be in a cranky mood when I squish her into her car seat, but as soon as we get rolling and she locks eyes with her sister, there's magic. Leah says a funny word or shakes her arms about and she sends Natalie into hysterics that neither Matthew nor I have been able to replicate. I glance back via the rear-view mirror to see Natalie's smile huge on her chubby-cheeked face as she watches Leah's antics.

My babies - making each other laugh. I love this.

Being the cautious driver I am, I cannot take a picture to capture this moment for you. Instead, I'm going to try to upload a video for the first time. This is of Natalie listening and reacting to hearing Leah on the phone. Leah was coming home from Minnesota with Matthew and wanted to make Natalie laugh over the phone. You can see for yourself how she did. Caveat Emptor: It's pretty stinkin' cute. Enjoy.

Holidays, Family, and Silence

Happy Easter, readers!

Annual events and holidays tend to make me nostalgic. I think back on what I had done, where I had been, and who was with me on this same day, years past. When I was young, we piled in the station wagon while it was still very dark to attend a 6-something church service. Back then, I think I presumed we went to such an early service so that there was more time for the candy hunt later that day. Now, I suspect we did it to avoid the crowds of church goers who regularly worship only on big church dates like Easter and Christmas.

One year, as Dad turned on the headlights, we watched a bunny lope across the street from our neighbor's house into the swamp.

"It's the Easter Bunny!" I squealed.

"Let's run over it!" said one of my blood-thirsty brothers.

Most years, perhaps all of them, our family enjoyed a big meal, and usually with a guest. Sometimes it was our near-penniless neighbor, sometimes Grandma and Grandpa made the trip up for it, and sometimes we entertained and were entertained by my parents' close friends. There's probably a yellowy picture of each one to chronicle the event.

We never got the huge baskets, wrapped in colored cellophane and overflowing with sugared goodies. And we never got big presents like clothes or a new bike. (It wasn't until high school, I think, that I learned that most of my friends enjoyed a virtual second Christmas on Easter as they showed off their new Walkmans, jewelry, and tennis shoes.) But we did get enough chocolate eggs to fill a cup that we found under sofa cushions, on top of picture frames and doorways, and inside tea cups. We did not complain. (At least I don't think so - Mom and Dad, feel free to set the record straight.)

Getting married and having kids complicated the gatherings, but the big feast, lots of people, and the inevitible egg hunt for the chilluns are pretty reliably present. This year, for me at least, has been significantly different.



I'm home with two dozy greyhounds (we're dogsitting one of them), my baby girl, and the silence that fills the house since Matthew and Leah are out of town. I enjoyed a very nice weekend with all three of my brothers, ending with a belt-loosening breakfast at a local family restaurant this morning. I will not eat ham today, but I did enjoy a peanut-butter and honey sandwich. I will not hunt for eggs or candy, but I did hunt to find matching socks before putting them in the washing machine. I will not entertain guests, but I do very much enjoy the solitude as the window-shaped box of sunlight stretches and migrates across the carpeted floor.

I do miss going for a walk with everyone to help dinner move through our system, and I miss catching up on extended family news. And of course I miss Matthew and Leah. But I'll take this day just as it is for what it is: peaceful, pretty, productive, and pleasant.

The Big Melt

I think you can only truly have a "big melt" when you've had all the snow we've had this winter. (And the weather reports say still MORE snow tonight and tomorrow!) With overnight lows still above freezing, the gi-normous mountains of back-breaking precip, are quickly dwindling into dirt covered mounds. More snow be damned, Spring is on its way. The cardinals are belting out their video-game songs at first light, the piles of dog doo in the back yard are resurfacing like b-movie zombies from their graves, and we can take a walk without a coat or mittens. Yes, by golly, winter has had its day.

Because of that and the fact that Trader Joe's always has super cheap flowers, my mommy bought a few springy buds to banish the winter doldrums. Here are two pics from "Day 1" of the bouquet. Don't they look purdy? I think I may have to replace my desktop picture with one. Help yourself!



(Yes, I know these photos are a little Mapplethorpe-ian or O'Keefe-ish. They are "two-lips!" O.K. get your minds out of the gutter, people!)

Snow Baby

Through Matthew's side of the family, I think there might be a smidgen of Swedish heritage. Perhaps that explains why Natalie enjoys being bundled up and toted around in the sled when the outside temps are barely double-digit. Did you know that Swedish families put their babies outside for their naps - year round? It's true! When my SIL's friend from Sweden was visiting over the holidays, she napped her youngest daughter outside. Rebecca, my sister-in-law, felt compelled to call the neighbors to assure them that A.) she was well aware that there was a baby in a stroller outside her front door, and that B.) she was o.k. with it.

While I'm not brave enough or whatever enough to nap Natalie and/or Leah outside, I'm quite fine letting her be a happy little babushka, sitting in the sled, her apple cheeks ripening in the sun, especially when she looks like this:



In that snowsuit, she reminds me of Maggie Simpson in her star-baby bunting.
Of course, we won't have nary a flake left with the balmy weather we've been having. And I am NOT complaining one bit. Nuh-uh.

Armloads of Babies

We shared a lovely weekend with my folks who, in return for giving them a lousy place to sleep, cooked and cleaned, built and repaired, and managed our darlings for us. Thanks again you two for sharing your time and energy with us. Here are a couple of pics to remember the weekend.

Nana with the Wisconsin Granddaughters -- all a blur at eight months!


And Grampa with Nad-O in a jacket pouch to keep her warm during our walk.


Along with longing for a guest bedroom, I also look forward to our next visit "Up Nort" when you can cook and clean for us in the comfort of your own home. tee hee

Natalie Claire at 8 months

Here's the little, toothy-grinned bear, posing so nicely for her 8-month photo.

"Aren't I cute? You can easily see my two bottom teeth. Can you see my top toofers too?"



"Not cute enough for you? How 'bout this one?"



"Still not enough? Tell me you can resist this look!"



As expected, we love this little stinker more and more every day and are constantly amazed and humored by her every change. She's working on getting up on all fours, so I fear it won't be long before I'll be chasing her puffy heinie around the house. Last night, Matthew and I shared a look when we heard Natalie guffawing in her crib after we'd put her and her big sister to bed for the night. We can only assume the giggles were in response to some silliness exuding from one Miss Leah Bear. It was one of the moments I think both of us knew we'd have someday as parents. And there it was, our two little miracles yukking it up when they should be sleeping. This rocks.

Green-Skinned Thumb Suckers

Our home has been invaded by a pair of what appear to be green-skinned thumb suckers. They made themselves comfortable on our futon and commenced their characteristic thumb sucking.



Once spotted, they quickly withdrew their thumbs so as not to be so easily identified. They also began their notorious act of looking cute in hopes of winning a more permanent place in our home.



But the thumb-sucking urge is strong, and they were unable to resist.



Soon, the urge, like a magnetic force, pulled the second hand towards their mouths for a rarely photographed double-handed behavior.



Finally, they wore us thin and we succumbed to their powers. The green-skinned thumb suckers were victorious.



Lock your doors and keep on eye out for these dangerous critters. Once you let them in, you will never be the same. ;)

Play Hard, Sleep Hard

About 4-5 times a week, I can get both girls down for a noonish nap. Soon after I put the second babe to bed, I raise my fisted hands above my head, close my eyes and hear the Rocky theme in my mind. There should be a merit badge for this.

As much as I relish a double-kid nap hour, I am often in awe of how much they sleep. Reading a bit about the nature of sleep, I get that it's a kid's time to recharge, review, and grow. It's as essential to their development as good food and rattles. Perhaps what I find more amazing is the broad range in dynamics. When I'm awake, there may be a time or two when I'm wacky, loud, and/or jumping up and down (usually after an Etsy sale), but most of the time, I'm fairly laid back. So when I sleep, it's only a slight easing down of my already mellow demeanor. The girls on the other hand go from monkey-like antics, shrill screams, and camera-blurring flailing to totally, can't wake 'em if you tried, zonked out.

As a teen, I was a babysitting superstar, sometimes working for three or four different families over a weekend, and stockpiling my wad of neatly folded checks. I learned early on that kid naps are essential for parents and caregivers as well. After the last kid was read to, tucked in, and scolded for trying to sneak out for the umpteenth time, a little magic occurred. Suddenly the slimy little fartheads I just spent all morning trying to tame seemed more like the cherubic sweethearts whose gleaming smiles and twinkly eyes lit up the hallway from behind gold frames. Wiped out in their little beds, hair askew, mouth open, eyes fluttering, they almost made me want to wake them up again so we could play the 232nd game of Chutes and Ladders, let them ride on my aching back some more, or do stunts on the living room furniture. I said, almost.

Ah, the power of sleep.

The mini Mississippi

Craftster's challenge this month was do make something crafty to represent your hometown. My first thought was to create a papercut of Paul and Babe as these statues are perhaps the hottest and kitchiest tourist stop in town. But outside of a few memories of staring at old gum on Babe's enormous blue underbelly and pictures taken with visiting relatives, the pair doesn't really "do" anything for me. What I like most about my hometown is its relationship with the Mississippi river.

Bemidji is known as "The First City on the Mississippi" because latitudinally and following the river's course from headwaters to mouth, it is the first city (of any size anyway) to surround and make use of the mighty river. The Mississippi runs north from a little lake in Itasca State Park, then east into Lake Bemidji before it turns forever southbound. The name "Bemidji" is actually an abbreviated form of an Ojibwe word roughly meaning "river runs through it." Perhaps the Ojibwes who named the lake had some idea of how massive this river became farther south.

Anyway, the headwaters of this river is a really pretty spot. Once in the state park, you follow a rustic yet well-worn dirt path through a pine forest to reach an unobtrusive swamp of a lake... with a leak. There's a tall stump carved out to declare the official site of the river's birth, and a line of rocks across the river that I think every Minnesotan is obligated to cross at some point. Some years ago, they put in a less treacherous version of a bridge a ways down to make the crossing more accessible. Like allowing motor boats in the BWCA, it took away much of the charm and challenge, but it made sense.

So I crafted a little papercut of the Mississippi headwaters for the challenge. Using a photo from the state park Web site and a map of the Midwest, I tried to capture the general shape of the river as it flows all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico. It doesn't look quite how it looked in my head and of course it's not to scale, but I like it. There are way cooler and craftier entries for the challenge, so I don't have my hopes up to win, but it was fun to enter and really neat to receive comments from other people who KNOW Bemidji! "...there's so much that we share, that it's time we're aware, it's a small world after all..."

Oh, and don't worry. There will not be a test on this.