Oh Happy Day

Anders is two months old and Barack wins!  

Here are Anders and Aunt Joyce enjoying Barack Obama's victory speech, which was very inspiring, but wasn't enough to keep Sleepy McGee awake. 

Catching Up Part Two

Ok, my hope is that the rest of our posts are NOT titled "Catching Up Part X".  That just seems to sum up things right now.  So here we go, time to catch up again.  

First we went to the cabin back on October 21 (Tuesday).  It was Anders' first trip up there.  We were all feeling lazy on Wednesday - here is how Will and Anders spent part of the morning.  Aw cute!  Oh, I should explain that it gets really warm in the cabin with the wood burning stove going - we frequently have to crack a couple of windows to keep the temperature bearable, so you don't have to worry that Anders was cold there.

If Will moved, Anders would pop up  his arm in protest.  It was rather funny. 

When he finally got out of bed, Will decided to work on his wall, while Lucy basked in the sun.  It was in the mid 40s, and felt really warm in the sun.  

Anders and I decided to go for a walk down our road.  It was a good hike, but I forgot the camera and had to go back for it, so we basically did it twice.  Lucy did not join us, she preferred to continue to be lazy in the sun.

So here is one of the hills that we tackled on our walk (our cabin is in some very hilly country).  I think of this as the roller coaster - I think that Anders could have some fun sledding on this.  When we leave the cabin at the end of our stays up there, driving up this hill is always a bit of a thrill as we wonder if we will make it to the top.  Last time we were up there (when we hit the deer) we didn't make it to the top and had to back down for another run at it.  This time we just made it.  Anyway, it is a good workout to walk up with while holding a baby.  

This is how it looks as you are nearing the top of the hill.  I'm not sure the picture does it justice, so you will just have to come visit us up there sometime.  

Then when you get to the top, you turn to the right and have more climbing to do.  

But when you get to the top, you have this view to check out.  Once again the picture doesn't really do it justice, so start thinking about when you want to visit us there.  

Ok, this is the view from the top of the hill heading back to the cabin.  It is the other side of the roller coaster, I guess.  If you click on the picture you should be able to see one of my favorite boulders on the property.  Actually this isn't on our property - it is on our neighbor's, but I like to think of it as ours.  

I found these cool fungi on the road while on the walk.  I'm working on identifying them, but they appear to be some sort of cup fungus - possibly Scutellinia scutellata but I'm not 100% sure.  They were cool though. 

Here is the view of the lake as you approach the cabin.  At this point we were on our property.  

Anders loved going for walks up there - in general, I feel like he really enjoys being outside, but I admit that I may be projecting my love of the outdoors on him.  We basically spent the week just hanging out.  Lucy helped with the dishes, without even being asked to help out.  

Will built a step going from the deck into the cabin.  We put the canoes away and covered the wood with tarps, but otherwise we didn't do much work.  

Yep, I washed diapers.  It took me around 2 hours to wash 7 diapers and 7 or so wipes.  I washed them first in cold water (with soap) and then in really, really hot water (with soap again).  I rinsed them many, many times and I have to say they came out cleaner than when we use the washing machine.  I used a washboard that Will's mom gave to us - it used to belong to her grandma.  It was very useful.  And yes, I used water from the lake.  

I had planned to write thank you notes and knit some, but Anders still really wanted to be held a fair amount so I didn't get much done there.  I do have to say though, he finally started allowing us to put him down.  He just started to really enjoy the baby papasan he is borrowing from his cousin Eleanor (thanks Eleanor) and he started smiling at us that week.  

We decided to go to the Gunflint Lodge on Friday night for dinner.  Neither of us had been there and it sounded like a nice change for dinner.  Anders really liked the drive there - that is until we went from the dirt road to the black top, at which point he woke up and started crying.  We got him back to sleep and ended up in the nicer dining room (as opposed to the more casual dining room) at the Lodge.  We had just gotten our salad and delicious Walleye Chowder when Anders woke up.   It is very difficult to eat salad with a baby in your arms - especially if the salad needs some cutting up.  I think Will actually had to cut something for me - but I cannot remember exactly what it was.  Anyway, when our meals arrived (more delicious walleye - this time beer battered and fried) the owner of the lodge, Sue Kerfoot, came over and took Anders so that we could enjoy our meal.  We got probably a half hour of baby free eating - we ate fast - it was super nice.  

On Saturday we left the cabin and headed off to visit our friends OB, Kathleen and their kids Hazel and Cy.  We enjoyed an easy and tasty meal of pizza and rootbeer and were entertained by Hazel and Cy.  It was nice to catch up with them, they are expecting their 3rd baby any time now - we cannot wait to hear what they have.  

After that we headed up to Sawbill for Anders' first visit there.  We got there just in time for pumpkin carving.  It was great to see everyone there and Anders did his best to make a good impression so that he can have a job there some day.   These are the pumpkins Will and I did.  There are more pictures on the Sawbill Newsletter.  

Unfortunately on that Friday my Grandpa Art died.  We found out after our dinner at the Gunflint, but did finish out our trip as planned.  My parents arrived at our house (messy house) on Saturday and were there when we got home on Sunday.  My sister Sarah and her family came up for the funeral on Tuesday.  Here are Zach and Uncle Will enjoying some movies of dogs doing crazy things on YouTube while the rest of us got ready for the funeral.  

And Anders making a goofy face at Grandma Ruth. 

Thanks to everyone for their kind words regarding my Grandpa.  It was a bit of a surprise to have him pass away - when I last saw him he seemed to be in good health.  That was back a few weeks ago when Anders was around 3 weeks old (the 4 generation picture on an earlier post is from that visit).  I have a happy memory from that visit - my grandpa didn't know who we were, but if you go look at that picture, you can tell he is so happy to be seeing a baby and I like to think that he knew we were people who cared about him.  Anyway, we had brought some pictures to hang up in his room, so we went down to his room to do just that and my grandpa took off in his wheel chair.  My last memory of him will be of him wheeling himself around, up and down the hallway in a rather happy-go-lucky way.   I'm glad to have that as a last memory rather than having some depressing memory.  I'm sad that he is gone, I'm sad for my mom, but I do have to say that my grandpa had a good life.   My sister Sarah has some good pictures and memories posted on her blog.  

Here are a couple of shots of one of Anders' favorite past times - he loves to look at his cranes that hang above his changing table.  Please note how stylish he is in his Banana Republic onesie (on loan from cousin Cam) and his orange leggings (a gift from Aunt Betsy) and his fun Robeez (on loan from cousins Henry and Clara).  The hat is his.  Anders is very lucky to have so many male cousins to give him hand-me-downs.  Anyway, he does a lot of dancing and smiling while looking at the cranes.  

On Friday we went to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.  It was a nice day and my last day off for maternity leave and I wanted to do something outside.  Here is Will collecting Tamarack Seeds.  We would like to have some Tamaracks on our property (they are all around it, but not on it for some reason).   We also collected acorns so that Will can try to grow an oak tree - we aren't sure yet where we will put it if it grows.

Here is how Tamaracks look in the fall - they are part of the larch family and drop their needles in the fall after turning a beautiful gold color.  They are very pretty in the fall. 

Anders was kind of pesky on Friday - he was very fussy.  He split his time between this:

And this.  

If he was awake, he seemed to be crying.  It was a real bummer.  

So, I went back to work on Monday.  It was hard to leave home, I was sad.  Luckily Joyce came into town on Saturday night to help us out this week, so I didn't have to worry about Anders.  I was actually more concerned for Joyce's well-being if Anders acted like  he did on Friday.  He didn't act that way though.   He had a big first that day - he napped in the morning!  He has never done that for me, but somehow Joyce got him to sleep for 4 hours.  

Now we are spending the night watching the election results come in.  Things are looking good so far, but we will see...

We did get Anders involved - we took him to vote - we want him to know how important voting is from an early age and he is wearing his Obama Rocks shirt again for good luck.  

Harvest Time

Will and I took turns holding Anders on Sunday in order to get a few things done.  The big thing was harvesting and digging plants out of our garden.  That stuff in the middle of the picture in the big basket is all basil.  Today I spent 3 hours removing the leaves from the stems so that Will could make us a gallon of pesto to freeze for the winter.  It was very tedious.  Ironically, in June I insisted that we didn't have enough basil and I bought two more plants just to be sure that we had enough so that I could eat tomato, mozzarella and basil salads all summer long.  I obviously was wrong, but I'm not sure you can ever have too much basil.  

Other than the stuff in the basket, these are the plants we are going to try to find a spot for in the house, though we had an unexpected frost last night, so who knows what will survive.  We've got bay, tarragon, oregano, sage, rosemary and that tall thing on the right is basil. 

 
Here is one of the things our neighbors get to see at least 3 times a week.  I'm washing more right now in preparation for our trip to the lake.  

The big news for Obama this weekend was his endorsement by Colin Powell, but I'm sure that Barack would be even more excited about this endorsement.  Oh, I see that the shirt isn't super easy to read, but it says Obama Rocks for those of you that cannot make it out.   Also, Anders likes the Beatles.

Tune in next week for adventures in the wilderness with a 7 week old and no electricity or running water.    

Oh and Lucy is doing quite well - she really wants to go for a walk, but isn't allowed to yet (besides, I think she would be mortified if any other dogs saw her with this poodle cut).  She is showing more interest in Anders these days and is putting up a fight when it comes to taking her meds and coming up with all kinds of reasons for us to give her more treats.  No news yet from the lab on the grade of tumor or whether or not they got it all.    

Lucy's New Look

Grandpa Bill and Grandma Kathie visited us yesterday and today on their way back home from Wisconsin.  Unfortunately Anders was kind of sleepy and fussy for their visit (we've had a bit of a rough week).  Here is Anders falling asleep under his favorite arch.  

And Grandpa Bill getting in on the action.  

But really, this post is about Lucy.  We went to the U of M's College of Veterinary Medicine last week to meet with an oncologist about her tumor.  Long story short: he suggested we meet with a surgeon about having the mass cell tumor removed.  So we met with a surgeon there on Wednesday and Lucy had surgery yesterday.   They had to make big incision to get the tumor out and we don't know yet if they got it all (we will know next week).   We just picked Lucy up a couple of hours ago and she is doing fine.  She has to take it easy (no big walks) for the next 2 weeks and has 4 different drugs she is on,  but that is ok.  Here are some pictures of her incision, she is probably not thrilled with her new hair cut and poodle tail.  Oh and I should say that the people at the U of M CVM were wonderful - they really made this experience a good one, all things considered.  I would definitely recommend that people take their pets there. 

Lucy wasn't very happy when she realized Will was leaving for Iowa tonight, she decided to try get Anders to gang up on Will with her.  We will see what they have planned when Will gets back tomorrow - hopefully they don't gang up on me tonight.  

Catching Up

A lot has happened since our last post, so here is a run down of the last few weeks.  First off, we are still learning/adjusting to life with Anders.   We are developing a new definition of free time and don't have much of it, whatever the definition, right now.  We frequently go to bed between 8 and 9 pm, but sometimes stay up until 10!  Anders doesn't like to be put down.  He needs to fall asleep with somebody  holding him whether in your arms or a sling or Baby Bjorn, thus the unclear definition of free time  - is it when he is asleep, but on your body somehow or is it when he is asleep in his bassinet or the swing?  I guess there are varying degrees of free time.  He is starting to enjoy brief periods of time looking at the ceiling, his mobiles, the ceiling fans or our neighbor's house (he especially likes the color I picked out for the arch between the dining and living rooms) - those are usually at most 10 minutes long, but it is a start.  And just to give you an indication of how fleeting free moments are - it has taken me 4 days to create this post and now  Blogger isn't saving it so I don't know if this will even get posted.  

So since the last post about our ingenious way to keep Lucy off the furniture, Anders has travelled to Iowa City to meet relatives and see his dad off to a football game.  He met his oldest cousin, Henry, who did a great job of holding him.  

He met his Uncle Pete and cousin Clara, who looks smashing in her Iowa football jersey (Anders will have to get one of those, but his dad has some specifics of what it has to be like, so we will just let Will take care of getting that for him). 

He also met his Great Aunt Joyce who gave him this fun pacifier (click on the pic to make it larger), his Great Great Aunt Jean, his Aunt Carrie and Uncle Rob.  Not pictured (sadly) are his Aunt Betsy and his cousin Eleanor, both of whom he met and loves.  Eleanor wasn't sure about Anders (maybe she knows something the rest of us don't know?) - she didn't like her mom and dad holding Anders. 

I think Rob is smelling Anders.

Aunts Becky and Sarah and cousins Cameron, Zach and Drew came on my birthday and stayed through the 5th.  We had lots of fun going to the park, the rides at the Mall of America and hanging out.  The adults enjoyed my favorite chocolate cake after the boys went to bed.     Anders also got to meet Uncle Mike, who came up Friday night, but once again, we didn't get a picture!  Anders and the boys also got to go out to dinner with Great Uncle Bill and Gloria who were on their way up to northern MN to enjoy the fall colors.  We went to the Spaghetti Factory with them and Anders slept through all the noise.  Notice we have no pictures from that visit either.  We are very bad.   Here are a couple of pictures from that weekend.  Check out Sarah and Mike's blog for more details on the fun.

Grandma Jean came back for a week of cleaning the house, cuddling with Mr. Don't-Put-Me-Down and humorous bickering with Will (it is especially entertaining to have them cook together).  
Anders and I went to our first yoga class together.  Here he is all ready to go.  It turns out he was over-dressed for yoga as the babies get surprisingly warm during the work out.  He did quite well and we are looking forward to future sessions.  

Anders gets to spend the evenings with dad.  Here he is meditating in post-yoga bliss on Will's lap.    
Some random pictures from earlier - one of the few family pictures we have and a 4 generation picture with my mom and her dad, who is 95 or maybe he is 96 now.  

And finally, Anders is starting to smile.  He loves his mobiles and smiles at them frequently.  Today after his bath he was smiling at one of the raven pictures in the bathroom (I told him ravens are very cool birds and he seemed to get it).  He seems really close to smiling a real smile at us.  We are eagerly awaiting the moment.