3 Weeks

Today Cam is three weeks old. Only three weeks, 21 days, and I can't imagine life without him. Already the complaints and pains of being pregnant are hazy and life with only one child is starting to fade.

I remember the first few weeks after bringing Willa into our life - I kept waiting for our life to get back to normal. It took a while before I realized there wasn't a 'getting back to' but only a 'new' normal. But now, it seems that Cam has completed something; that there was a 'normal' just waiting for him. I never realized how much our family was waiting for this son, this next child, until we got him home.

So far, so good. Cam seems to be a mild baby. Just in the past two days or so he's spent a few extra hours awake during the day. I've been enjoying his 'newbornness' so much more than I enjoyed Willa's. Maybe because I now know you can't really break or ruin this little creatures. Willa is proving to be a great big sister, despite her complaints that he's not growing fast enough for her (she really thought he'd be able to control his arms and hands by now). And of course, Jamey is the master diaper changer and super-daddy. Can't wait to see what happens next week!

What's in a Name?

While I don't think the whole concept of growing another person is easy by any means (or comfortable, for that matter), I do think what's far more difficult in this whole ordeal is coming up with a name!

Jamey and I had the same problem with Willa. It was two weeks before her scheduled birth and we did not have ONE NAME that the two of us agreed upon. We made a date, agreed to both show up with a list of names and agreed that we would not go home until we had a list we agreed upon. After dinner, we ended up at the Barnes and Noble cafe. We were there for five hours, but we did come up with a list.

This time was more difficult because we must have both boy and girl names. Jamey is convinced we are having another girl. He insists that with all of the pictures from our multiple ultrasounds we would have seen some dead give-away if this is a boy. This is not enough proof for me to ignore the boy names, although I admit, between the two of us, I like the girl names better than the boy names.

The good news is we only have two weeks left to meet our little something. The bad news is that the little something may not have a name for awhile!

Anticipation

Today Willa woke up and shouted from her room, "Is it Christmas Eve?" I think she thought something magical might happen this morning, so I went in and reminded her that Christmas Eve NIGHT is really when the magic occurs.

We've filled our day today shoveling (4 inches of so of snow that arrived overnight), delivering homemade vanilla and treats to the neighbors, baking gingerbread people for Santa (he will be the only one that will want to eat them after Willa dropped the whole dough-ball on the floor), and planning our evening. We're heading to 5:00PM church, then coming home to feast on super nachos, complete with red & green chips. We'll open the last of the count-down stockings, and then we've decided we can all pick on present to open before bed.

We're doing no traveling this Christmas. I'm so thankful my parents came here two weeks ago - we had a great Christmas together. They completely surprised Willa with their visit. I wish had I gotten it on tape. We do have many projects planned for this time at home, though: priority is to get Willa's 'new room' ready. We'll get that painted during the break, and then I can do some decorating. We've also got new kitchen tile on our to-do list. I'll be so glad when both of these tasks are done.

Anticipation grows for our own new baby, too. I had an ultrasound yesterday and we got a good look at baby's chubby little cheeks and little nose. He/She looks a lot like Willa from what we could see. We're on the countdown - baby will be born on January 28 and we can't wait. Dr. Hess says "it's going to be big!" I said "then can't we just get it out sooner?" No dice.

Thanksgiving in Vermont

We spent the Thanksgiving week this year in Vermont. While it would have been wonderful to be somewhere a bit further south, we had a great time. Jamey's cousin Donnie, his wife Naomi, and baby Thatcher are living in Barre temporarily. Willa was off school for the week, so we decided it would be a great time to hang with Donnie and Naomi, and get to know Thatcher, too.

We flew out of the Quad Cities Airport on Sunday morning and arrived in Burlington, VT mid-afternoon. We spent the first few days at the Anchorage Inn in Burlington. It was 'quaint' (in an 1960s-travel-lodge-ish sort of way) place. Willa enjoyed the pool though, and it make a good base for our explorations.

Donnie has become a great Vermont tour guide. The three of us, along with Donnie and Gaye explored a maple syrup farm, toured the state capitol building in Montpelier, and saw some incredible glass blowers. Jamey, Willa and I also got in a tour of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Factory, complete with samples.

On Wednesday we headed out into the wilderness. We rented a two-bedroom cottage on Fletcher Lake. It was much more remote than I imagined based on Google Maps. Willa and Jamey thoroughly enjoyed the hot tub on the covered porch, despite temperatures in the mid-20s. Luckily the upstairs "tower bedroom" had exceptionally high ceilings. The other parts in the upper levels required Jamey to stoop over.

We prepared a big Thanksgiving feast, complete with burned pumpkin pie and tiny rock-like dinner rolls. Donnie, Naomi, Gaye and Thatcher drove out for the day to feast and play games. After they left, Jamey and Willa hit the hot tub again for some relaxation and we made a fire in the three-seasons porch.

After a nature walk in the snow on Friday morning, we headed back toward Burlington, taking a little side trip to explore some of the coast of Lake Champlain along the way. We spent some time in the downtown Burlington shopping district (a ped mall filled with great little eclectic shops) and then played at the ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center.

We spent our last night at a very comfy Marriot Courtyard, which Willa declared the nicest hotel she'd ever seen in her whole life. We had to get up at 4:30AM to catch our early morning flight back home. Despite almost an hour and a half wait for the security lines, we made the flight and all was well. It was weird to be home by 10:00AM after traveling half-way across the country.

Vermont 2008 Photo Album.

Ode to Izzy

On Saturday, we put our thirteen and a half year old cat down. It was a hard decision, but after a month of searching for a 'cure' we realized we were out of time. We all agreed that it would be selfish to keep Izzy around to suffer a long, drawn out, potentially painful death when there was really no hope for more of a good life.

This was a hard concept to explain to Willa. Normally a very concrete thinker, Willa wanted to know how the medicine the vet would give Izzy would stop his heart. She also wanted to know if we'd have her killed if she got too skinny. She wanted to know what would happen to his body after he was dead. Today she wanted to know why Izzy's dishes were still about, because, after all, he was dead and no longer needing them.

She also wanted to know if we could get another cat. Perhaps harder than explaining the circle of life concept (pets, people, etc) was explaining that we can't replace Izzy. Izzy was the first "joint" possession for Jamey and me, although we didn't possess Izzy as much as he possessed us. For all the cats I've met, Izzy was the coolest, and I'm not just saying that because he was mine. He WAS a cool cat.

Izzy was not one of those aloof "I'll-rub-up-against-you-if-I-want-to-be-petted" sort of cats. He frequently came to the door when we walked in, actively sought our love and attention, and fetched WAY better then the dog. He liked to sit in the window and bark back at the squirrels. He loved yogurt, and would use his paws to steer your spoon away from your own mouth toward his own greedy tongue whenever he could manage it.

Izzy was the first thing I really had to take care of as an adult. After living alone for awhile, then living with Jamey for awhile, there was Izzy. Although he was quite self-sufficient, there was always the consideration for this 'other' every time we left, when we moved to Florida, when we moved to Iowa, when we decided to go for a dog, then a child. 'What about Izzy?' we'd ask ourselves, because he was, after all, our first.

It was weird this morning to not see him slide out of his peaceful slumbers and saunter to the kitchen for his morning attentions and breakfast. Odd to not hear him purring while I slept, pawing at me and seeking a warm space around my legs or head during the night. It will be a long time before I feel his true absence - before I forget to say 'What about Izzy?'

Preparing

Yesterday was one of the CR Downtown Farmer's Markets. CR does these on the first Saturday of the month, but of course we missed a few due to the floods.

With the weather starting to turn, I've been thinking about 'putting up' some vegetables. So at market, we bought extra sweet corn, green beans and peppers. This stash, along with a bag of tomatoes and peppers from Mike, seemed like a good start. I chopped green beans that we'll use for soups; I sliced up hot peppers for chili, I made a little tomato sauce from finely chopped green peppers, tomatoes and basil from my pot out back, and then cut corn from the cob and bagged it. If the weather holds, maybe I'll do some more of the tomato sauce.

I love the feeling of having these things stored away for the winter. I reminds me of Ma and Pa and the girls filling the attic in the Big Woods of Wisconsin full of onions, pumpkins, squash and potatoes. It also reminds me of summers on my grandparents farm. They would plant several acres of sweet corn; on the perfect weekend, aunts and uncles and cousins would join together to put up the corn. Your job depended upon your age and gender: usually the men and younger kids were in the fields picking corn and then sitting on the back of Grampa's old yellow pick up shucking corn. The women and older kids would be in the kitchen, blanching corn, cutting it from the cobs and filling bags. I enjoyed the outdoor work the best. By the end of the day, we'd leave with coolers full of bags of bright, beautiful corn for our freezer. I don't think I ate corn that came from anywhere other than my grandma and grandpa's fields until sometime in high school. 

Putting up my own corn, reminded me of the fun and family togetherness of those days doing corn on the farm.

Riding the Northwoods

As an alternative to RAGBRAI, Jamey and I decided to try TRAM - The Ride Across Minnesota. It was the same week as RAGBRAI, but only five days, and just under 300 miles. It was an awesome ride. It's a fundraiser for the MS Society, and it was one of the most organized, well-supported rides we've done.

We were originally planning the ride with a small group, but everyone else dropped out due to lost work time because of the floods. Jamey and I had planned on it, Willa was stoked about spending the week with Gramma and Grampa, so we decided to go anyway.

On Saturday, July 20, the three of us drove to Albert Lea, MN to meet my parents for the "exchange." Willa was stoked for the week and couldn't wait to be ride of us, so we were soon on our way to the Twin Cities. We got a hotel room in the suburb of Eagan, and met up with Jamey's godson, Justin and his new wife Megan for dinner. It was nice to hang out with them, and visit them one on one, away from all the other family obligations.

We got up Sunday morning and headed for Duluth. We realized that we had not prepared for how chilly Northern Minnesota would be at night, so made a side trip to a Target for some extra sweatshirts. We hit Duluth around noon and found UMD - the meeting point for the ride. We grabbed out bikes and headed back down to the lake toward a little deli we'd seen on the way into town. After fueling up, we got checked in, loaded out bikes on a semi, and got into a charter bus for the ride to Grand Rapids. It was about 2 hours through some beautiful scenery.

In Grand Rapids, we stayed at the fair grounds. We got our tent up, found our bikes and decided to tour the town to kill some time. By the time we got back to the fair grounds, the weather was looking a little ominous. We grabbed dinner at the grounds - a church group selling spaghetti, and found shelter in some type of quonset shed so we could eat out of the rain. After about an hour of rain, it cleared off enough for us to walk about the grounds, enjoy the entertainment of a Native American flute player, and then decide we'd seen enough.

MONDAY: Grand Rapids to Chisholm. 63 miles. Grabbed some breakfast at the fair grounds, and spent the first 35 or so miles on the bike trail. I was a little worried that the trail would be crowded with 1100 riders, but it wasn't bad. I was freezing though. They had stocked stops every 10-15 miles. At the first stop we had cereal and milk and breakfast bars. 

More to come...