Night-Night, Mommy!

Shrike is off work today, because she worked Memorial Day, so yay!

This evening, I made Peeper get out of the tub before she was ready to, because she was splashing after multiple warnings, and she was not happy with me, so she asked Mommy to read her stories. When I popped in to suggest that it was time for "lights out" she said that she wanted Mommy to stay.

I could hear them talking for quite a while, ("I'm telling Mommy some jokes!") but eventually it got really quiet, so I went to check, and this is what I found!

This is the first time that she's fallen asleep for anyone but me, if I've been around. She's gone to sleep for Shrike a few times when I've been out gallavanting about at bedtime, but those are few and far between.

Down on the Farm

We've finally worked up the nerve to join our local CSA (just a half-share, picking up every other week) and today was our first pick up.

As one would expect in late May, we got mostly greens - spinach, lettuce, mixed greens, lemon balm, rhubarb, radishes and a tomato plant. We also picked some mint - both pepper and spear.

(Recipes appreciated!)

What was the first thing we ate, during our CSA adventure in healthy food?

Cupcakes! (One of the farmers offered us some. She had them leftover from something else.)

(Yes, this is the outfit that Peeper put together to visit the farm. She's a boy doggie, I believe.)

Cleaning up

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Baby Visit

As planned, T and I went up to the hospital today to visit with A and N.

MOMS Club toured a grocery store this morning, and amazingly, after being up until almost midnight last night, Peeper was actually awake and interested in going. After the tour, we ate lunch at the store's snack bar and then went over.

T is a better mom than I am, and she had a whole bag of books and toys to keep Peeper and C entertained. Of course, I let her go in first, since I'd already met Baby N last night, while I watched the girls, and then we switched.

I got to hold him for a while again, until he started fish-facing and rooting around, at which point I told him, "Sorry, that's Peeper's!" and handed him off to his Mommy for a little snack.

Welcome, Baby N!

As foreshadowed on Monday, our friend A was induced this morning, and Baby Boy N arrived at 8:12 pm, after only about 20 minutes of pushing.

I went up to the hospital for a while this morning before work, but there wasn't much going on then. I texted with her a bit while at work, prepping my students for tomorrow's final.

One of those students, as luck would have it, is DoulaK, with whom I've been texting back and forth for the past week or so, relaying message to A about natural induction methods and such. When we started the exam review, I just handed her my phone, and said, "If you see anything from A, just go ahead and reply."

After work I came home for a while and worked on lining up a sitter for Peeper. Thank you, thank you, thank you to T who was willing to have her over until bedtime, which turned out to be past bedtime.

Here's a photo she texted me of Peeper and her girls. Her caption was "All on their 'phones' talking to each other. I'm seeing evidence of our future ;) "

When I got back up to the hospital around 5 pm, another MOMS Club friend of ours, R, was there, along with some of A's family, of course. R and I ended up in the room from then until time for her family to pop in and out for a quick visit before time to push (which was just her and her husband.) We were each really glad that the other was there, since it would've been kind of weird for either of us to be the only non-family member.

She had an epidural by then, so we were just chatting for most of the time, while I texted back and forth with DoulaK, giving her a centimeter-by-centimeter report of A's progress.

At one point, I asked her "When you become a midwife (that's why she's in nursing school), can R and I work with you as doulas?" (At which point, A said, "Me too!") That's the first time I've actually voiced that desire out loud to her, but it couldn't have been a surprise.

I don't know when it would be practical to make it happen, since there's that whole on-call, gotta go when you gotta go thing, but it really is something that I think I love to do eventually.

When R and I left to let A's family in, it was pushing time for me to go pick up Peeper, and for her to go home for an online class, but we made plans to come back afterward. A was probably pushing for just a few minutes when we left, and literally as I pulled into T's driveway, I got the text from A's husband that "He's here!" In response to my question about stats and photos, he said (when N was about 20 minutes old) "Apgars 9/9. He's nursing now; they will weigh him in a little while."

T, R and I all had to get verklempt about that one. A's big concern about the induction and all the interventions that can lead to was that she might not be able to hold and nurse N immediately, but as it turned out, he went straight into her arms, and nursed pretty much immediately - for about an hour!

I collected Peeper, and we met up with R for a bite to eat and then went back up to the hospital, where her family was still waiting to see them. A and her husband have said all along that H would be the first to see the baby, and we were waiting for her to get there. Once she arrived and had a visit, the family went in for a while, and when they were done, R watched Peeper out in the waiting room while I went in, and then she took a turn when I left.

He is beautiful. I even got to hold him for a little while, because A was eating a well-earned dinner. I took a couple of photos to show Peeper, because she was really mad that she couldn't go in and see him, "That's not fair! H gets to go in the room!" Yes, honey, that's because H is his sister.

Congratulations to A, M and H and thank you for letting me share in your special day!

Oh, and we finally did get those statistics - 6 lb 15 oz and 19.5" long.

Yeah, Again

Panda Pics: Fifty-Five Months

S'mores!

Our friend A from MOMS Club (mom of little H) is almost 41 weeks pregnant, and really trying to go into labor before her scheduled induction on Wednesday, so Peeper and I went over to drop off a yoga ball for her to do some bouncing on. We hung out and visited for the afternoon, and ended up roasting marshmallows at their firepit and having s'mores. I loves me some s'mores!

Sunday Grilling

It was a beautiful day out today, although we spent most of it inside the sunroom, putting together some new storage units ("after" photos to come, when we're all done). We did get outside later though, for dinner and a little play time.

Steaks, purple onions and red bellpepper. We also baked a couple of potatoes in the oven.

Summer Vacation

I've still got a couple of days to work, but this was Peeper's first day of summer vacation, not that you could tell it from the weather.

"I can do it! Help, I can't see!"

She and I bundled up and went to opening day at the local Farmer's Market, where we bought a jar of local honey, an $8 (down from $10) brick of local raw-milk cheese, and a bunch of radishes.

From there, we walked to the library, where we turned in some (overdue) books, played a while and checked out a new stack of books. Then we dropped the books off at the car and walked down to a little Italian cafe for lunch. While we were there, Peeper spotted the giant slices of cake and torte, but I wasn't about to buy us one of those, so I told her that after lunch, we could walk to the candy store for her to pick something out. Let's see, giant slice of chocolate torte right here, versus walk a couple of blocks for a bite-sized piece of candy. I can't believe she bought it!

After "dessert" we decided to head over to the children's art studio for a couple of hours of "open art." She played with toys, dressed up, and even actually did a bit of art. This is a painting of the sky, with thunder and lightning.

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All in all, it was a lovely start to the summer. (Sweatshirts and all.)

MDO Preschool - First Day / Last Day

Last Day of MDO Preschool

And I only cried a little bit.

Mrs. D, the director.

Mrs. S, the lead teacher.

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Yeah, One of These, Again

Teacher Gifts

Tomorrow is Peeper's last day of Mother's Day Out, and I'm pretty proud of myself for having our teacher gifts together last night! A whole day in advance!

I would've preferred to have given them something like a Starbucks gift card, but there are eight that she wants to give gifts to, so that's not happening! She has four regular teachers (three at a time), plus the director. Then, she also wants to give gifts to three others who've subbed in her class quite a bit. So, I knew I'd better do something cheap.

Their end-of-year program and party tomorrow are pirate themed (she gets to wear her costume!), so I thought I'd go with that, and after going a few different directions with it in my mind, I came up with this.

Thanks to Pinterest, I found this awesome print/cut/foldable treasure chest.

In Photoshop, I colored it and added personalized labels for each teacher, then printed them on heavy paper. Actually, it was greeting card paper. I was a little concerned about the crease, but would you believe (I couldn't!) that it ended up right where I needed to fold anyway - the "hinge" of the lid!

Then we filled them with treasure!

On the bottom we were able to just perfectly fit some "silver" (Hershey nuggets) and "gold" (Rolos).

It was Peeper's idea to use M & Ms for "jewels." I wasn't sure the teachers would get it, so I found a graphic and made a label for them.

Of course, we only needed some of the colors, so Peeper helped me sort them (she did most of it, actually) and we got to eat the leftovers.

We had just enough room to fit them on top.

A few days ago, I "interviewed" Peeper about school and her teacher, then I put her answers together in letters to each teacher. They were all the same except for the first and last lines, where I put what she told me each teacher (she stuck with the "treasure" theme) and what she says they "always say." I printed them on an off-white paper, roughed up the edges, and had her sign them all.

Guess who?

A sample letter (the font is Treasure Map Dead Hand.)

Dear Miss S,

I loved being in your class. You are a diamond!

Thank you for helping me learn how to share toys and how to be careful.

My favorite thing about MDO is the toys. My favorite things to play with are the magnifying glasses, and my favorite books are the ones about Clifford. My favorite thing we do is going to the gym and running around. My favorite songs that we have sung are Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and Happy Birthday, Jesus.

I have also learned that I should have “Helping hands, looking eyes, a quiet mouth, listening ears and wiggly toes,” we should walk “Straight like a pencil, not like spaghetti,” and in the elevator, we should “Zip it, lock it and put it in our pockets.”
I will always remember the way you tell us, “Hands in your laps.”

Have a great summer!
Your Student, Peeper

She described the others as "a ruby," "gold," "a necklace," "an emerald," and "jewelry," and remembers them saying "Be quiet when somebody is reading a story," and "Mrs. D. can hear you," and rocking the babies to sleep, coming into her class, and being "sometimes in the kitchen."

Then I printed name tags for each, rolled them up and tied the tags on with twine.

I found a basket just the right size, and they're all packed up ready to take to school in the morning.