Zuzuday: An apple a year…

Posted on November 16, 2010 by Cole | Leave a comment

This weekend I was looking back through all of the fall photos I’ve yet to post from our fun and festivities of the last few months. When I got to the pictures from our apple picking in September at our favorite orchard, I realized what a little growth chart I had from comparing previous falls. Both the growth of our family and the kiddos individually. The first fall after Zuzu was born we didn’t make it to our favorite orchard but went to a little more local place and gathered just a few with Zuzu snuggled tidily against me with her little newborn feet tucked in my fleecy pockets.

The next fall we didn’t quite manage a trip to any orchard. Zuzu was had a series of ear infections from May till October that kept her out of school and us homebound way more than I care to document. This picture was one taken of her Thanksgiving weekend though.

The next year we headed up to our favorite orchard though; and had so much fun with their playground, apple slushies, apple donuts and the discovery of a local bakery and BBQ shack that this trip became cemented into an annual foray.

Now I look forward to getting the girls to pose before their height chart. Who would have thought to put one there. It strikes me as quirky but yet so very right!

In 2009 when we realized this was going to become a photographic occasion as well as a pantry filling one we started thinking about dressing Zuzu in anticipation of the happy shots. It was this year that I noticed I wasn’t the first party to come up with this annual idea. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen such a collection of DSLR cameras out on display!

Maybe it’s something in the apples that has her growing like a weed?

This past September we were all set for photographic and picking merriment but the whole thing turned into more of an “I Love Lucy” episode and no actual apples made it home with us. Managing two children a stroller and a cart to hold our apples didn’t go so well. Things close by were pretty picked over and we had to venture further into the orchard to get any apples. As the name of the orchard is fitting- Skytop- you can guess what happened. An almost 4 year old pulling a cart on the side of a hill didn’t work so well. The cart went flying into a tree when she realized she couldn’t steer and the apples went flying.

By the time we went for our annual height picture, feelings were a little cloudy and it was time to head out.

I think maybe next year will be a banner year for our pantry though….

Mommaday: I am who I am, or am I?

Posted on November 15, 2010 by Cole | 1 Comment

Something little made me smile the other day. It was an off-hand comment, but it came at just the right time for an unknowingly-teachable moment.

Every now and then I hear commentary about myself that I’m just so positive, so laid-back, so happy…and it makes me chuckle.

See I want to be like that. I think you make your own happiness, I think you can in theory choose how to react to something big or little. But sometimes you just react. And I’m a nervous person by nature. I get pretty anxious in certain settings and then I tend to ruminate about them ahead of time and afterwards. But, I’m also a pretty good coper, generally I note what situations make me feel like that- and I avoid them! I know some people naturally try to work through their issues and conquer them. I’m generally not a conqueror. It’s not my style. I’m ok with my weaknesses and I’d rather just try to work around them. I try to think about what matters, and rationalize whether something is worth fretting over or not. Of course if I find that the process to figure that out in and of itself is eating up my psyche- well, then I need to work on it.

At any rate, I was sitting ruminating about something that was bugging me. It’s something that’s come up before, and probably would come up again. And probably would bug me when it does again. Right at that moment that I was stewing about it, I got a phone call and when I told her what I was just thinking about she said, “Well you are the right person to deal with that, you’re so laid-back! I’m sure it doesn’t really bug you at all!”

It was just the push I needed at that moment to get over it, get over myself and move along. Sometimes we just need that little reminder, that others already see us as the person we want to be.

Gratitude Journal

Posted on November 14, 2010 by Cole | Leave a comment

1. Angry Angels

2. strawberry strudels from The Sister’s

3. pesto croissant’s from them as well

4. egg, cheese and bacon croissant’s from our local bagel shop

5. Lovey cooking

6. working on a project together

7.feeling better

8. choosing to be calm

9. being reminded I can choose to be calm

10. rascally sisters

11. artwork from babies

12. holiday cards

13. photo books

14. working on a project together

15. a day off

16. a new book in at the library!

17. being told you are one of their favorite people

18. hearing others note how laid-back you are after you were just feeling not so laid-back

19. giggling with the 4 year old

20. finding a Jodi Piccoult book on cd on the library shelf (they’re usually all checked out already)

21. starting up the Christmas music stations on Pandora

See What I Saw Saturday

Posted on November 13, 2010 by Cole | 2 Comments

She's up on all fours! Go Baby Go!

Fave-O-Lit Friday

Posted on November 12, 2010 by Cole | 1 Comment

Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted. ~ John Lennon

Quailday: The Toddler Diaries

Posted on November 11, 2010 by Cole | Leave a comment

Before I get into more of the daily journals, I have to announce that she’s willingly vertical these days! It’s coming slowly, but it’s definitely coming. As I mentioned in Asheville she seemed to suddenly get that she could choose to stand her own self up and started. Since then there have been more instances. Being true to her nature though, you still can’t “make” her do it. She’s got to want to. But the good news is, she wants too! She was home with the stomach flu last week and luckily it passed faster then her contagious period so we got some quality one-on-one time before I succombed to her little gift. She was so stinking cute and cheerful! After a night of barfing interludes occuring every 30-45 minutes I woke up to her sitting up in bed and chattering to me about everything around us. She’s very into saying, “What’s that?” and “Right there”, while she points, index finger out, thank you very much. I’m so happy that I no longer have to allow her to stick it up my nose in order to encourage her perfection of this skill! Through out the day she repeatedly named her high chair, signed Momma, tried to put her bib on, brushed her hair with her hairbrush, signed drink, said cracker and attentively watched me try to explain how we barf into the bowl rather then bucking back to spray paint the room.

And can I tell you my secret dream? I’ve debated saying it out loud. I’m about 53% sure I’m wrong. But- I hope with every fiber of my being that I’m right and I do think it’s possible. I think I’ve mentioned that in October we noticed the Quail having ALOT more energy. It seemed to coincide with her moving into the toddler room. It also coincided with her starting back on singulair and pulmicort. Those steroids are really the most likely culprit for the ants in her pants. I know that. But here’s the thing, last year when she started taking them. No one noticed her being more active. I’m sure it could affect her differently at different times. But here’s my secret dream- that the reason for her increased energy is that the hole in her heart has closed. I think about this, dream about this and pray about this routinely now. I know some people think that if you put good thoughts out there in the world and visualize them it actually works to make them come true. I don’t know what I think about that. But it can’t hurt. A girl can dream. We won’t have another echo until next July. The reason this even occured to me was when I suddenly remembered her cardiologist telling us that we may think she isn’t tired now, but wait until her heart is repaired- she will be like another person. She’s be a madman tearing around. Well she sort of is these days- at least for her. So if you are reading this and you are of the praying or thinking good thoughts makes them come true sort of persuasion- would you mind adding the thought that her VSD could close on it’s own on your list?

Anyway, time will tell. Now back to October in the Toddler world:

10/5/10: The toddlers were out on the playground when I got there today so I tried doing most of our stuff out there with her. She picked out her puzzle to play with first so we played in the grass. She pushed the circle in by herself and then a few other toddlers came over to play with us. At first it was a little overwhelming for her, but she watched a couple of the kids putting puzzle pieces into their spots and copied what they did. She got the oval and the square in after that.

She did a great job using her kneeling positions to get to the ball and pick it up when I asked. (I’ll add in here- this has been coming along too- and is exciting. I don’t think she is trying to properly crawl- it looks more like it would take more effort to flop back down on her belly sometimes if she just has a couple paces to go and is focused on getting to something in front of her. When that’s the scenario she will now take a couple of regular crawl strides before sitting back up or flopping down to her belly. It’s so cool to watch!

Then Zuzu’s class came outside and Zuzu ran over to say hi. The Quail was so excited to see her she waved and blew kisses and they held hands through the fence. (This friendship is so stinking sweet. I’ve been trying to “use” it to my advantage. A couple of nights ago Zuzu was zooming around the house in her birthday suit while got the Quail ready for a tubby. She started her favorite game of running up to the Quail, stopping short and hollering something then running off to start over. The Quail wanted to add a hug into routine and was giggling so hard in anticipation of her sister coming back that she was willing to stay standing while she waited! Now that’s what I call working your PT into your daily routine!)

10/7: We were on the swings for about 10 minutes. She thought it was really funny when I stood in front of her and pushed her by her feet. I would say “Pick up your feet” and she held them up for me to push and laughed. Then she wanted to play in one of the playgrounds. She tried to pull herself up in it and I gave her a little boost. She stood up with her arms on the side, no belly touching for about 5 minutes dropping a toy car and watching where it went while I picked it up for her to drop again. Then she sat down and we played peek-a-boo through the holes of the playground. Then she saw one of the toddlers scooting by her on a plastic horse and pointed to him so I sat her on another horse and pushed her around following him. Some of the other toddlers started crowding her though which was distracting. She’s handling that much better now. She didn’t get upset she just nudged one of them out of her way and crawled somewhere else.

10/11: I got out her cups and worked on two-step commands of “put the cup down” and “stack the cup” she did really well with this and went really quickly so she could get to the knocking cups over part of the game. Then I put the cups on top of the big foam arch and put the smaller foam arch in front of that to help her get up the big one easier. She got over the little one with no trouble. Then she spent the next few minutes trying to crawl up the bigger one, taking rests with her head rested on her arms, and sitting up and signing “please” to me before trying again. Eventually she was able to grab one of them and I grabbed the rest for her. Then the rest of the toddlers came back inside. Ms. Ashleigh got out some books for storytime and the little bookworm crawled right up close to her and signed “please” for story time. After storytime was over I crawled away from her and she followed me over to a wall. I tried to do some standing with her back on the wall since we haven’t done that for a while. She wouldn’t put her feet down at first and then put her feet down but tried to weasle her way into hugs instead of standing. I’m a sucker for Quail hugs so I let her get away with it but I distracted her with toys and she leaned back against the wall.

corner view: autumn

Posted on November 10, 2010 by Cole | 6 Comments

Ahhhhhh… autumn….I love this season. Always have, the cool crisp air, the comfortableness of sweaters and fleece and scarves and mittens! The savory stews and delicious breads and pumpkin-everythings! Lovey, well he’s not much of a proponant for autumn. He’s really more of a winter and summer kind of guy. To him everything is dieing. But that’s just fine. It means it’s just my job to keep us looking at the leaves and feeling snuggley! It’s nice that the temperatures here in South Carolina range from 40 and 70 degrees; perfect for perfectly crisp play dates and park dates and nature walks and baking and stewing. I grew up in much colder weather, where by now you would be waking to a daily morning frost, happily puffing out your breath in little clouds as you crunch through the fallen leaves and…snow! Now that we’ve moved south though I expected to bemoan not getting regular seasons. I thought they would all just fade into each other. Not true! The seasons actually match up to the calendar markings! It’s fall here from mid September through December. We finish raking our leaves by Christmastime and get treated to brief snow days in January! I will say it seems after living here for 7 years that the weather is a tad more geographical than seasonal. If we want snow we drive to the mountains. If we want sun and sand we head to the coast.

Well this season I’ve been able to play with a new camera with a much better macro-focus then in previous years. And what better way to practice, than looking up to capture the last leaves rainbowing before they make their descent to our little forest floors. Just be careful under the oaks. Either those acorns have a mind of their own, or those squirrels are taking matters into their own hands. Here’s a few from last months bounty of color that I was able to capture after dear Cyrena explained a few of the logistics of operating our new camera obscura!

See the seasons of the world:

jane – ian – bonnie – joyce – kim – kay – trinsch – ritva – francesca – state of bliss – cabrizette – isabelle – janis – kari – jgy – lise – cate – otli – dorte – b – sophie – mcgillicutty – sunnymama – daan – ibb – pienduzz – kelleyn – ninja – sammi – theresa – cherry b – juliette – shokoofeh – cole – grey lemon – lucylaine – lynn – skywriting – anna – dorit – conny – l´atelier – kamana – anne marie – rosamaría – victoria – tikjewit – juniper – annabel – andrea – valerie – merel – soisses – mlle paradis – cacahuete – wander chow – barbara – emily – tally – nadine – matilda – don – flowtops – susanna – tania – dana – ingrid – mary – hinke

Zuzuday: The surprisingly patient patient…

Posted on November 9, 2010 by Cole | Leave a comment

This update is a bit overdue! The brief surgery to remove the tube from Zuzu’s ear went swimmingly! She still had one in from when they were inserted in 10/07. We had been warned last spring that if the one in her right ear didn’t come out on its own we would be removing it this fall. Sure enough it didn’t so off we went. The stisters arrived together bright in early in true solidarity- coordinated Dora jammies.

Zuzu was a little nervous I think. I’m guessing this because she was surprisingly stoic throughout the morning until we returned home. No tears, no tantrums. Just a little girl in her Dora Jammies quietly doing what she was told. She did tell me when they returned her from the OR that she didn’t want to speak to the nurser. Yes- nurser. Not nurse. Nurser. The same word for what she was up until a few months ago. I’m not quite sure how she understands the word exactly but it makes me smile everytime she says it.

They put in a paper patch which should help to bridge the open hole and we were told to be extra careful about not getting water in her ear for the next 6 weeks or so.

Probably the best part of the day was finding The Cat in the Hat on PBS post surgery and getting to have it along with a little apple juice.

We were warned not to take a person who has been under anesthesia out in the wind and rain and not to let her jump and run today or tomorrow. Apparantly I should have bought a leash. Oh well.

Mommaday: Mountain Momma rises again.

Posted on November 8, 2010 by Cole | Leave a comment

Did I mention we got to go to Asheville, NC over Halloween weekend? Oh, I did already? Well I’ll mention it again because I really think Asheville is one of the happiest places on earth! BC we used to go fairly regularly. We would go to see live music shows in small clubs, eat wayyyyyy too much tasty food, walk around, snuggle in cabins, eat more food, buy tasty baked goods to take home and drink too much coffee. It’s just so darn pretty and the people are just so darn nice. AC, it’s become a bit more difficult to enjoy. Our kids are really more the, take me to Chuckee-Cheese or McDonald’s playland sort of rowdy bunch then the sit quietly in the adult restaurant while Mother and Father commence to fine dining. We do bring along what we fondly refer to as the “Fog Machine” though and let them zone out to Dora and Word Girl videos while they eat whatever they can identify as the Happy Meal equivilant from the menu. Hey- it’s an indulgence for all of us I guess.

We did manage to find some happy mediums this time though. The cabins we stay in are perfect for little people because the neighbors aren’t on the other side of the wall. The laid-back attitude of most of the employees we seem to run into also helps to make things easier. That drink in the last photo….well it was concocted by my new favorite waiter at the Lexington Avenue Brewery there. Seeing that Zuzu wasn’t tickled about the selection of juices offered he kindly suggested that she could have “The Zuzu” and went on to describe a blend of juices that ended with a cherry splash creating a pink ambience! Well he didn’t describe it quite that…um.. descriptively. But he did call it The Zuzu and made a fuss over how she would be the only person in the restaurant with it.

We also found a wave of new coffee shops that weren’t there the last time we ventured up! And I’ve decided a latte is a perfect stroller fare for a park trip. Mostly because the foam keeps the hot coffee from sloshing out over the rim and onto the baby below!

It was a happy trip for the most part. The girls while excited to be there were a little less then thrilled to not be headed home to their beds each night. The Quail also decided that weekend was prime time to perfect her pulling up skills. Each night after I laid her down to sleep in her pack-n-play I would lay down next to it and then see one pudgy little hand wrangle the rim, then the next and a little wobbly head slowly rise up over the edge. Even when I tried to keep a straight face and closed eyes I couldn’t when she would then start giggling at her triumph.

It was a quick trip, but I figure better to leave wanting to come back then to overstay your welcome. We didn’t manage to make it to a number of our favorite restaurants. But we did try a few new ones and figured out that arriving on a friday night means a good plan includes ordering take out from one of said favorite restaurants and eating it snuggled in your cabin.