I was the first to claim a free piano (in allegedly good condition!) on Freecycle! Woot woot!! We'll be renting a UHaul to bring it on over--and then we have to figure out how to get it into our house (which has a million stairs and is built on a hill) but FREE PIANO!!!
I have my music corner all ready for it. It'll have the piano, the guitar, my flutes and fifes and other woodwinds, my psaltery, the dulcimer. SO EXCITED!
Monday, October 31, 2011
Sunday, October 30, 2011
random Nathaniel notes
Also, important for people who like to get Nathaniel stuff:
He is currently wearing 6-month clothes, but he is over 15 pounds. If he keeps growing at the rate he has been, he will be in 9 month clothes in about two weeks, or sooner. I've been saving clothes smaller than that for his future baby brothers (assuming he has those one day).
It's safe to get him clothes for 12-18 months, and larger.
Okay, Carl is telling me to get off the computer. Bye!
He is currently wearing 6-month clothes, but he is over 15 pounds. If he keeps growing at the rate he has been, he will be in 9 month clothes in about two weeks, or sooner. I've been saving clothes smaller than that for his future baby brothers (assuming he has those one day).
It's safe to get him clothes for 12-18 months, and larger.
Okay, Carl is telling me to get off the computer. Bye!
halloween decorating!
On Friday my mom had me and Jacque go down to her work to help decorate for a community Halloween party. It was the day after Nana fell and cut open her head. Here are some pictures.
Nathaniel in his fun Halloween onesie with his special cowprint-and-orange Halloween blanket Nana made him:
Nathaniel with his beloved Nana (complete with post-fall bandage!):
Slightly blurry picture of him with Grampy:
Nathaniel and his girlfriend, Elli (Jacque's baby):
The hall we were decorating:
On Saturday, Carl and I and Jacque and Nathan and our babies and Heather all went to go help out at the Halloween party. It was a real interesting time--longest two hours EVER. x.x;;; The community Mom manages now is super upscale, and filled with the sort of people who chose to work first and have kids second. So pretty much Jacque and I spent most of the time assuming that kids were with their grandparents. Nope. But the parents of these kids just waited until they were almost done with middle age to have kids. There were a few other babies our babies' ages, but they all had parents like twice my and Jacque's age. It was so sad.
Since it snowed, we had to do the entire party inside. The Halloween parade route was supposed to be like an hour long and outside, but instead the kids all just walked in a big circle inside the community clubhouse. Poor Carl and Nathan had to shovel a walkway into the building and neither was wearing waterproof shoes. Whoops. But they were good sports.
Heather kindly took bunches and bunches of pictures! So I'll have to post some of those later. We got some cute pictures of Nathaniel in his Halloween costume. He was a cow (hence his matching Halloween blanket featured in pictures above).
Nathaniel in his fun Halloween onesie with his special cowprint-and-orange Halloween blanket Nana made him:
Nathaniel with his beloved Nana (complete with post-fall bandage!):
Slightly blurry picture of him with Grampy:
Nathaniel and his girlfriend, Elli (Jacque's baby):
The hall we were decorating:
On Saturday, Carl and I and Jacque and Nathan and our babies and Heather all went to go help out at the Halloween party. It was a real interesting time--longest two hours EVER. x.x;;; The community Mom manages now is super upscale, and filled with the sort of people who chose to work first and have kids second. So pretty much Jacque and I spent most of the time assuming that kids were with their grandparents. Nope. But the parents of these kids just waited until they were almost done with middle age to have kids. There were a few other babies our babies' ages, but they all had parents like twice my and Jacque's age. It was so sad.
Since it snowed, we had to do the entire party inside. The Halloween parade route was supposed to be like an hour long and outside, but instead the kids all just walked in a big circle inside the community clubhouse. Poor Carl and Nathan had to shovel a walkway into the building and neither was wearing waterproof shoes. Whoops. But they were good sports.
Heather kindly took bunches and bunches of pictures! So I'll have to post some of those later. We got some cute pictures of Nathaniel in his Halloween costume. He was a cow (hence his matching Halloween blanket featured in pictures above).
Thursday, October 27, 2011
a day of miracles
Today was a day of miracles.
It all started when another darling friend named Emily--not the one who gave us the hat--invited me out to lunch. I wanted to go, but I had some errands to do beforehand. I hadn't gotten ready for the day at all, so I ran upstairs to put on REAL clothes (as in, not sweat pants). While I was up there, I found my phone, which I had misplaced earlier. My nana was calling.
"What's up?" I asked.
"Allie, honey, I'm in trouble," she said. She had fallen down at the mall and cut open her head.
Fortunately, Jacque and I were on our way out to do the errand anyway, so I just finished getting dressed and the two of us and our little babies were on the way to the mall in minutes. A lady was standing outside the mall waiting for me. Jacque was able to take the car as I ran out and assessed the situation.
Nana was sitting against the door, surrounded by blood. She was sitting kind of strangely and at first I assumed she had broken her foot or something too. But no, her foot was fine, and just her head was bleeding.
Bleeding like crazy.
We got her to the car and drove off to her doctor. She hadn't lost consciousness, and she was well enough to direct me to the doctor. We got there a few minutes later, but the doctor was out to lunch. We called the answering service but they weren't able to get through to the doctor.
We were going to just stand there and wait, but we decided to walk back to the car. On the way, we ran into the receptionist. She had "randomly" decided to come back a half hour early for lunch. I guess she assessed my nana's wound and announced that they were not qualified to deal with the problem. So they sent us to the local walk-in clinic.
Where we walked in, only to have the nurse pull off the bandage on Nana's head and gasp. Audibly. No, not audibly: freakin loudly. "You're gonna need a plastic surgeon!!! We can't deal with this here! You need the ER!" she squeaked shrilly. I was about ready to throttle her. She tried to throw the bloody bandage back on to shield her eyes from the wound, but Nana held out her hand.
"STOP," she said, strangely regal and commanding. "I want my granddaughter to see it."
So I braced myself and had a good look.
It looked as though when she landed on her head, the skin just split. The gash was in the shape of a star, with visible bone in the center.
I'm looking at her skull, I thought.
"How bad is it, Allie? Can't they just fix it here?"
Skull. Skull.
"Uh, you know, it's not TOO bad, but we should probably go to the ER," I said, grateful that I have probably seen worse on my brother James. "This clinic looks lame. If I were you, I'd want a real surgeon to fix it."
Nana sighed, and while she was getting her head rewrapped I called Grampy and told him to meet us at the emergency room.
Now, this whole time, Jacque was in the car with our two babies--two babies under 15 weeks. Nathaniel HATES the car he will usually just scream forever and ever, but instead, he just slept. Another miracle. And Jacque, the hero of the day, was able to take the car so I could just get out with Nana everywhere we went. It was amazing.
Also, even though my car wasn't totally empty in the morning, I felt like I should fill it on up (yet another divine intervention, I'm sure). We didn't have to worry about gas at all.
We went to the ER and got all checked in, and my mom and grandpa met us there. Carl was able to get off work early to help Grampy give Nana a blessing, and Jacque stayed with me while I went home to care for James.
At this point, the missionaries showed up at my mom's house! I'd left them a voicemail asking them to come to the ER to bless my nana, but they came to the house instead--and just in time. They got James off the bus for me and carried him from his wheelchair to the hospital bed in our living room.
Then hospice showed up, along with everyone from the ER, including Nana. She needed 30 stitches right on her eyebrow. Ow. But she was fine.
Basically, that is the long story of what happened. It felt like the whole day was set up from the beginning to handle my nana's fall. Everyone was in the right places at the right time to handle it all. The whole day I just felt so completely that God was watching us and making everything work out.
Other miracles that happened:
- Carl had a dental appt for later in the evening so he was already planning to come home early (unusual for him)
- We were uncrowded in the ER waiting room we went to
And I believe there are more but I can't think of them at this time. But let's just say, it was a day of miracles.
It all started when another darling friend named Emily--not the one who gave us the hat--invited me out to lunch. I wanted to go, but I had some errands to do beforehand. I hadn't gotten ready for the day at all, so I ran upstairs to put on REAL clothes (as in, not sweat pants). While I was up there, I found my phone, which I had misplaced earlier. My nana was calling.
"What's up?" I asked.
"Allie, honey, I'm in trouble," she said. She had fallen down at the mall and cut open her head.
Fortunately, Jacque and I were on our way out to do the errand anyway, so I just finished getting dressed and the two of us and our little babies were on the way to the mall in minutes. A lady was standing outside the mall waiting for me. Jacque was able to take the car as I ran out and assessed the situation.
Nana was sitting against the door, surrounded by blood. She was sitting kind of strangely and at first I assumed she had broken her foot or something too. But no, her foot was fine, and just her head was bleeding.
Bleeding like crazy.
We got her to the car and drove off to her doctor. She hadn't lost consciousness, and she was well enough to direct me to the doctor. We got there a few minutes later, but the doctor was out to lunch. We called the answering service but they weren't able to get through to the doctor.
We were going to just stand there and wait, but we decided to walk back to the car. On the way, we ran into the receptionist. She had "randomly" decided to come back a half hour early for lunch. I guess she assessed my nana's wound and announced that they were not qualified to deal with the problem. So they sent us to the local walk-in clinic.
Where we walked in, only to have the nurse pull off the bandage on Nana's head and gasp. Audibly. No, not audibly: freakin loudly. "You're gonna need a plastic surgeon!!! We can't deal with this here! You need the ER!" she squeaked shrilly. I was about ready to throttle her. She tried to throw the bloody bandage back on to shield her eyes from the wound, but Nana held out her hand.
"STOP," she said, strangely regal and commanding. "I want my granddaughter to see it."
So I braced myself and had a good look.
It looked as though when she landed on her head, the skin just split. The gash was in the shape of a star, with visible bone in the center.
I'm looking at her skull, I thought.
"How bad is it, Allie? Can't they just fix it here?"
Skull. Skull.
"Uh, you know, it's not TOO bad, but we should probably go to the ER," I said, grateful that I have probably seen worse on my brother James. "This clinic looks lame. If I were you, I'd want a real surgeon to fix it."
Nana sighed, and while she was getting her head rewrapped I called Grampy and told him to meet us at the emergency room.
Now, this whole time, Jacque was in the car with our two babies--two babies under 15 weeks. Nathaniel HATES the car he will usually just scream forever and ever, but instead, he just slept. Another miracle. And Jacque, the hero of the day, was able to take the car so I could just get out with Nana everywhere we went. It was amazing.
Also, even though my car wasn't totally empty in the morning, I felt like I should fill it on up (yet another divine intervention, I'm sure). We didn't have to worry about gas at all.
We went to the ER and got all checked in, and my mom and grandpa met us there. Carl was able to get off work early to help Grampy give Nana a blessing, and Jacque stayed with me while I went home to care for James.
At this point, the missionaries showed up at my mom's house! I'd left them a voicemail asking them to come to the ER to bless my nana, but they came to the house instead--and just in time. They got James off the bus for me and carried him from his wheelchair to the hospital bed in our living room.
Then hospice showed up, along with everyone from the ER, including Nana. She needed 30 stitches right on her eyebrow. Ow. But she was fine.
Basically, that is the long story of what happened. It felt like the whole day was set up from the beginning to handle my nana's fall. Everyone was in the right places at the right time to handle it all. The whole day I just felt so completely that God was watching us and making everything work out.
Other miracles that happened:
- Carl had a dental appt for later in the evening so he was already planning to come home early (unusual for him)
- We were uncrowded in the ER waiting room we went to
And I believe there are more but I can't think of them at this time. But let's just say, it was a day of miracles.
crunchiness and conservatism
Last night I had a dear friend come over, and we talked about our mutual crunchiness, and our mutual conservatism. I'd kind of felt alone in being both, but my friend had a really good point:
Conservatism is all about taking responsibility for yourself. So is crunchiness. Both of those philosophies are about taking responsibility for your body, your health.
Conservatism is also the philosophy that everything is best local--same as crunchiness.
Anyway. I thought that was a great point. I no longer feel quite as weird being a cloth-diapering, breastfeeding, bedsharing, babywearing, former-vegan conservative. All of those things go hand in hand with being responsible, staying local, and being a good steward of the earth.
Conservatism is all about taking responsibility for yourself. So is crunchiness. Both of those philosophies are about taking responsibility for your body, your health.
Conservatism is also the philosophy that everything is best local--same as crunchiness.
Anyway. I thought that was a great point. I no longer feel quite as weird being a cloth-diapering, breastfeeding, bedsharing, babywearing, former-vegan conservative. All of those things go hand in hand with being responsible, staying local, and being a good steward of the earth.
pictures!
Here are some pictures of my darling baby! Finally got around to uploading them.
First, here are some pics of him in the CUTEST hat we got secondhand from our darling friend Emily:
[I was shielding him from the light of the flash in one of the pictures]
Here are some pictures of him in his chair:
And some of him from this morning in one of his several Halloween outfits. He gained a bunch of weight while I was in Utah and I think it shows.
First, here are some pics of him in the CUTEST hat we got secondhand from our darling friend Emily:
[I was shielding him from the light of the flash in one of the pictures]
Here are some pictures of him in his chair:
And some of him from this morning in one of his several Halloween outfits. He gained a bunch of weight while I was in Utah and I think it shows.
Monday, October 24, 2011
babies and airports!
We got back from Utah on Saturday night. I left my laptop at home and had internet access only once during the whole week, for about five minutes. So that's why I didn't blog. But we had a good time with family. My aunt's funeral was sad, but it was so good to see everyone.
Now, obviously Utah is like 5 hours away by air from Maryland. It's a long flight. Also, with the restriction on checked bags, I was a little concerned.
If you ever have to travel with an infant-in-arms, this is how I did it.
First, you have to call the airline and let them know you'll be carrying a baby. They need to put the baby's name on the manifest.
Now, when we went to the airport, I brought my carseat-stroller combo. Basically it's a stroller base that the carseat hooks into. I didn't realize (though I should have) that I would need to put the whole stroller through the metal detectors. So I had to take it all apart. If I hadn't had my super nice baby sling that I love, it would have been very, very annoying. But the security peeps folded up the carseat the right way and I managed the stroller with my baby in my sling, and it worked out. I think then I had to put the sling through, too, but again, it worked out.
We went to the gate and they checked the stroller and carseat planeside--hooray! So convenient!
Nathaniel slept during takeoff, and then during the flight we nursed a lot. But he was very good. On the way down he nursed and dozed. No tears. We picked up the stroller planeside as well.
On the way back home from Utah it was the same, except I was "randomly" selected for an extra screening by the TSA. So, so, SO stupid. I was holding this tiny baby in my arms--okay, he's like 14 lbs, so NOT that tiny--and they wanted to swipe my hands while I stood in this tiny plastic box. They kept on telling me to hold out my hands... um, how was I supposed to do that without dropping my baby? They were not very understanding or cooperative. If I'd had the stroller right there to drop him in, I could have done it all more easily, but I didn't, because they made me put it through the metal detector. Ugh. TSA = fail.
But we did that and lived, and the return flight was the same. I read that the most important thing is to keep babies sucking on something during takeoff and landing, so their little ears don't pop so much.
Anyway. Maybe you guys already know that, and about checking strollers planeside, and all the rest of that stuff, but I didn't! I only hope this can help someone who was just as clueless as I was originally.
Now, obviously Utah is like 5 hours away by air from Maryland. It's a long flight. Also, with the restriction on checked bags, I was a little concerned.
If you ever have to travel with an infant-in-arms, this is how I did it.
First, you have to call the airline and let them know you'll be carrying a baby. They need to put the baby's name on the manifest.
Now, when we went to the airport, I brought my carseat-stroller combo. Basically it's a stroller base that the carseat hooks into. I didn't realize (though I should have) that I would need to put the whole stroller through the metal detectors. So I had to take it all apart. If I hadn't had my super nice baby sling that I love, it would have been very, very annoying. But the security peeps folded up the carseat the right way and I managed the stroller with my baby in my sling, and it worked out. I think then I had to put the sling through, too, but again, it worked out.
We went to the gate and they checked the stroller and carseat planeside--hooray! So convenient!
Nathaniel slept during takeoff, and then during the flight we nursed a lot. But he was very good. On the way down he nursed and dozed. No tears. We picked up the stroller planeside as well.
On the way back home from Utah it was the same, except I was "randomly" selected for an extra screening by the TSA. So, so, SO stupid. I was holding this tiny baby in my arms--okay, he's like 14 lbs, so NOT that tiny--and they wanted to swipe my hands while I stood in this tiny plastic box. They kept on telling me to hold out my hands... um, how was I supposed to do that without dropping my baby? They were not very understanding or cooperative. If I'd had the stroller right there to drop him in, I could have done it all more easily, but I didn't, because they made me put it through the metal detector. Ugh. TSA = fail.
But we did that and lived, and the return flight was the same. I read that the most important thing is to keep babies sucking on something during takeoff and landing, so their little ears don't pop so much.
Anyway. Maybe you guys already know that, and about checking strollers planeside, and all the rest of that stuff, but I didn't! I only hope this can help someone who was just as clueless as I was originally.
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