Sick Aggie, Healthy Aggie

This morning, as soon as Agatha woke up I knew something was wrong: she had a weak, whiny cry and she didn't want to nurse. She had no fever, but was pale and lethargic, with periodic wincing and crying. She didn't have any vomiting or diarrhea, but she did urp some slimy yellow stuff a couple of times. We were very worried. Her pediatrician is just 3 blocks away, so we all walked over there and were standing outside the door when they opened at 8:30 am. Luckily, the nurse-practitioner thought it was just a tummy bug. Without the vomiting or a fever, I didn't think that's what it was, but the nurse thought the pains were periodic cramps. She told us to give her little sips of Pedialyte and half-strength breast milk, and not to worry about food today. By the time we got home, she was so tired and ready for her nap, and she fell deep asleep without nursing. She slept for nearly three hours, at which point I had to go in and peek at her to make sure she was okay. She sat up and nursed immediately, and then came downstairs with me and wanted the grilled cheese sandwich I was making for Henry! She nursed, ate some crackers, and then got down on the floor and played with toys. I was so relieved. Except for lots of sleeping (she took another extra-long nap in the afternoon) and a yucky poop, she seemed pretty normal and ate and nursed as usual the rest of the day.

That's got to be the shortest-duration digestive bug ever! (knock on wood) It wound up being a fine, lovely day, but was a good reminder not to sweat the small stuff. When your kid is sick, the world comes to a halt and nothing else really matters. We are so fortunate to have such vigorous, antsy, energetic, healthy kids almost all the time. Thank goodness!

Mt. Gretna

Today we went to Mt. Gretna with some of our friends.  It's a little town about 20 miles away, atop a forested "mountain" (you Westerners would call it a hill) that is/was a resort town going back to the 19th century.  It still is a Chautauqua site, with a playhouse (a musical was happening today, which we peeked at), library, philosophy hall, and so on.  It was also a "camp meeting" town, which is where people who belong to a certain church denomination would go and spend summers together (there still are a few of those here in PA).  And it was served by a pleasure railroad line until 1917, so people would take the train and spend the day there, to get out of the summer heat.  It has darling little gingerbread cottages, with paths in between (no cars then), and a set of small public areas, all set amid the woods.  There is a nice little lake with a beach, privately owned, which you have to pay admission to enter.  Very different from the West Coast model of public lands!  But it was charming, with grassy picnic areas, a nice beach, docks, diving boards, and a trapeze that teenagers were swinging on and jumping down into the lake.  Very old-time East-Coast summer fun.  We spent several hours at the lake, wading, swimming, and picknicking.  And then we went to the famous "Jigger Shop," an ice cream parlor since 1892. 

Both kids had a great time.  They are both very social, and light up when they are around friends, both kids and adults.  Agatha LOVED the water!  She sat in the shallows, crawled and splashed, and we swooshed her all around and she adored it.  Henry didn't want to get in at first, but once he did we couldn't get him out.  He has really changed lately, becoming more emotional and also even more verbal.  I have the sense now that he is fully fluent in English-- nothing gets by him, and he can express precisely what he means all the time.  It seems like he notices everything-- every stand pipe on a building, every stray shopping cart-- but I think it's really that he can easily verbalize every single thing that he sees and thinks.  His emotionalism is definitely different.  He is very loving and expressive toward us, and toward his sister.  For the first time, he is really trying to care for her, and if he accidentally hurts her he wails and cries and is so upset.  At the same time, he seems more timid than he used to be, and more prone to freak out and cry if things don't go his way-- even tiny, silly things.  As my mom said, it almost seems "hormonal," and maybe it is, or maybe he's just going through a phase.  I wonder if it is a matter of coming to understand feelings more, the emotional and psychological aspect of getting along with people, wanting them to like you, starting to have fears and doubts, and so on.  It is always interesting watching him grow and develop.  

Berry-licious

We picked black raspberries out at our farm-share yesterday.  Here is the "after" picture of Agatha; you can't quite see the smashed berries all over her nose.  Then we made black raspberry ice cream, which Henry is eating.  Yum.

Crawling!

Agatha has learned to crawl! This video is from the first day she crawled, last week, June 18.  Now, a week later, she can scamper across the floor and chase after her little Nerf football or whatever she wants.  She is so happy about it!  It has made it a little hard for her to settle down and sleep the last few days at times, just because she is so excited about life.  She has also gotten really good at pulling up and, just today, cruising along tables and furniture.  Henry has a somewhat proud, somewhat concerned, somewhat annoyed attitude about it all.  

Henry pitting cherries

Cousins

These photos are a month old now, but they are so cute I had to post them.  Eric and Rebekah took these on their Lancaster visit. 

Happy Father's Day

We had a busy and fun Father's Day.  We've adopted a plot in the new student-run vegetable garden on campus, next to the baseball diamond, and today we planted a lot while Agatha played on her blanked and Henry ran all across the fields and jumped off every rock and stump in the area.  Then we had cherry pie made with the cherries we picked yesterday.  Summer goodness!  Love to all the wonderful fathers out there, and to our fathers who are no longer here with us.  I am so grateful for my wonderful dad.  Now that I have a daughter, I see the joy she takes in her dad and I'm so happy she will have that special bond too.  I miss him very much, and wish he could enjoy these summer days with us.  But I'm grateful for all he gave me, and for our many wonderful years together.  

p.s., Hey, I know our bare plot looks terrible next to the students' plot!  They got started a lot earlier, and just released these extra plots to first comers among the staff last week.  We are excited to have a place to garden with full sun, since our small yard is very shady.  I hope it'll start looking more impressive in a few weeks!

Guest Blogger: Dad

Fortunately I realized last night that Father's Day is best not about what special things can be done for dad, but appreciating the joy of being dad.  It's been wonderful spending more time at home and with the kids in the last few weeks since I finished up my semester's work, and especially these last few days since we got back from our trip north.  Henry gets up every morning full of energy and says "Daddy, do you want to play....," thinking up something for us to do together.  His current favorites are Construction Guy (building with Legos), Knights (with his new PlayMobil castle), Rassle Boy (kind of like wrestling, rolling around the floor), and "making soup," which is done in a plastic picnic basket and consists of crushed stone, stone dust, and water.  Agatha, ever cheerful (except sometimes in the late afternoon), loves to be with Henry and watch him, and now she can, and does, crawl over to whatever he is doing.  Henry and I call this the Agasaurus.  Watch out!  Here comes the Agasaurus!  The Agasaurus happily destroys Lego ships and eats puzzles.  Henry is a good and protective big brother, though he still sometimes happens to want just the toy that Aggie has just taken a liking to.  It's a joyful time.  As Amelia remarked, my first Father's Day as a father of two.  Happy Father's Day!

Friendly's

Today Mom took us out for lunch at Friendly's, following a morning of grocery shopping and garden centers.  This is a good example of how boring things become fun when you have kids-- everything is interesting to them.  Henry liked choosing from the kids' menu, and ate all of his macaroni and cheese and applesauce because the waitress told him that he needed to do that so that he could have ice cream.  "How did she know that I like pickles?!  I didn't ask for them, but I do like them; how did she know that?"  

When his chocolate ice cream came, it was in a scalloped metal dish.  "The ice cream goes all the way to the bottom," Henry pronounced, noticing the condensation on the outside of the dish.  "If you scoop sideways, you don't spill the sprinkles," he also discovered.  "Did I ask for that?" he said, pointing at the whipped cream and cherry on top.  I explained that putting that on top makes his dessert an ice cream sundae.  "But it's really grown-ups who like that, and when I'm a grown-up I will, but right now I'm just a kid!"  So I ate his whipped cream for him.  

The Puzzler

Aggie is napping, Michael is at the office, and Henry and I are home having afternoon quiet time.  I was just tapping away on my computer and not noticing him too much, until he said, "Look, Mom."  He did this 60-piece puzzle all by himself!  Seriously!

Agatha at 9 months

Agatha had her 9-month check-up today (even though she's already halfway to 10 months).  She is healthy and wonderful, weighing 19 pounds and measuring 28 inches, a tallish (70%) and slimish (50%) girl.  In the last week she has really been working on getting mobile, and there were two milestones today: when I went into her room to get her this morning, she was standing up in the crib; and, I saw her actually crawl a couple of "steps" this afternoon, not just slide and scoot around on her bottom.  She remains a super-happy, cheerful and adaptable child.  We messed with her nap schedule many times on the trip, and she always remained cheerful and then went right to sleep, even if it was an hour or more late.  She's making lots of noises now, blowing raspberries and saying "mamamama" and "dadadada" and all sorts of wonderful things.  She's also a good yogi-- I think that's Bridge Pose she's doing in the photo above.  She had almost done a Wheel a moment earlier (that's where you put your hands by your ears and arch up your back).  

Home Again

Soccer in New Hampshire:

Reading Hemingway with Kaitlin:

We are so glad to be home, although we had a great 10-day road trip.  The kids did remarkably well, and it emboldens me to travel more with them.  Henry spent lots of time writing and drawing on his clipboard in the car, and the advice I was given to have lots of snacks and some new toys for the trip was right on.  They adapted well to sleeping in new places, and both kids were happy to see all our hosts, not shy or retiring one bit.  Everyone was their new best friend, for the time we were there.  It was really gratifying to see them be so cheerful and flexible.  We had good visits with friends and family.  Besides the first fishing trip, other highlights included touring the Budweiser brewery in Nashua, NH, canoeing, and riding on the famous swan boats in Boston's Public Garden (since 188-something).  It was also nice to just spend lots of time together as a family, playing soccer or reading or whatever.  

But be it ever so humble... 

Henry never seemed eager to go home, but he did keep track of how long we were going to be at each place and how much longer the whole trip would be.  "So just two more days, right Mom?"  or "We're going home after THIS day!"  It was touching.  We got home about 9:30pm last night, and Henry stayed awake even though I tried to convince him to fall asleep in his carseat. He said he needed to stay awake to pilot the vehicle, like Daddy.  

Some funny Henry-isms from the trip: He really likes the idea of a spyglass, which he imagines is an essential pirate accessory.  But he calls it an "eye-pod".  "Mom, can you make me an eye-pod?"  Huh?  "You know, it is smaller on one end and bigger on the other end and you look through it."  Also: "Daddy, can I have a drink out of your urinal?"  By which he meant our little metal coffee thermos that we keep water in.  Both urinals and thermoses are new words and objects from the trip, both involve water, but you wouldn't want to mix up which one you drink out of...  

I mostly took little videos on the later part of our trip, so I'll post some in the coming days.  Going away always helps me reflect on my life and get perspective on it.  And I have to say, the perspective I gained was that I am very, very happy.  I am so blessed with my wonderful children, excellent jobs and job security for Michael and me, a great place to live with great friends, and my mom right around the corner.  I am so grateful for it all, and take nothing for granted.

Gone Fishin'

Henry has been talking about going fishing (see also my earlier post about hunting) for a year.  Last summer he saw a guy fishing while we were in the car driving somewhere and was instantly fascinated.  "What's that guy doing, Mom?  I want to do that!"  I promised myself that I would take him fishing somehow this summer, and the chance presented itself yesterday.  We are in beautiful upstate New York, staying with friends just a few miles from the Adirondack Park border.  Yesterday, our hosts went to work and school and we went to the local convenience store for coffee and a newspaper.  Driving back, we were discussing what we should do that day, and Michael suggested maybe going for a hike in the woods.  Henry, overhearing, said, "Yes, and you know what?  If you get a long, long stick, and you put it way deep into a pond, all the way to the bottom, and you catch a fish, that's called fishing.  Can we do that?"  It was a great feeling to be able to say, "Yes, we can!"

We stopped into Bob's Bait Shop just a little ways down the road (Henry had also spotted it and somehow knew it was a fishing shop, even though he can't read), and got outfitted with a SpiderMan fishing pole, bobbers and sinkers and hooks and worms ("large or small nightcrawlers?").  A nice customer told us exactly what we needed and, more importantly, where to go.  We drove just about 10 miles up the road to Lake Luzerne, put the pole together and cast the worm into the lake.  Instantly: a hit, a strike, and the worm was gone!  This happened about four more times until we remembered the part about "setting the hook."  On the very next try, Henry's first fish! 

It was a great, great day. 

 

School's Out!

Henry's first year of primary school is over, and we are on our family road trip (more on that to follow).  This picture shows his wonderful afternoon teacher, Kathy, with Eileen in the background, the assistant teacher in both his morning and afternoon classes.  It's been a fantastic year, and he has blossomed so much.  Right now he is so interested in counting-- he counts everything and is constantly interested in the numerical aspect of whatever is the issue at hand-- how fast can he run ("10?"), what do those numbers on the road signs mean, etc.  He may well have been thriving anyway, but we feel so fortunate to be able to send him to that great school.

Kill bug

In the car: "Mom, I see a kill bug back here!"  "You mean a pill bug?"  "No, a kill bug.  It shoots boiling hot lava out of one hand, that's why they call it a kill bug."  "Wow! What does it shoot out of the other hand?" [a few moments of silence] "Out of the other hand, it shoots water and conditioner." 

Road trip

We are hitting the road tomorrow morning for a 10-day road trip.  I've prepared as well as I could and have lots of snacks and treats and activities for the road.  We have a 6-hour drive ahead tomorrow, but we've given ourselves all day to do it, so I'm hopeful it won't be too dire. The other legs of the trip are about 3 hours each, so the other driving days won't be so bad until the return day, which will be a marathon of 9 hours or so.  I'm looking forward to seeing friends and family, getting out into the woods, watching Henry interact with nature, and spending lots of time together as a family.  

Wish us luck!

Kinda weird, kinda beautiful

Michael took this picture this morning as I was nursing Agatha and snuggling Henry at the same time.  Blurry and odd, but also a lovely picture, I think.