Blueberry Picking

 

We took Jamisen and Lily Blueberry hunting last weekend.

Funny story; we showed up and the woman behind the counter suggested that Jamisen buy a 'grazing pass' for $5. We (Chris) assured her that Jamisen would only have a handful of blueberries and we did not need to buy a pass. She graciously let us out into the field, without the $5 pass.

Well, she knew better than we did because Jamisen ate and ate and ate and ate. Daddy and Jamisen made the long walk back to the shop and bought the $5 pass so Jamisen could eat to his heart and belly's content.

 Jamisen soon learned that it was much more efficient to just take blueberries from Daddy's bucket than it was to pick his own.

Plus, he seemed to have some difficulty discerning the green blueberries versus the actual ripe ones so it was probably better from a food-poisoning standpoint that he chose from Daddy's bucket.

We bought 4 pounds of blueberries for $12.50. It sure made going to the store to buy a pint for $5 seem like it was super, duper expensive but it was sure fun to go picking and see Jamisen's joy.

Jamisen misses Grandpa

Jamisen is turning into quite a reader. He loves reading at bed, he loves reading in the car and he loves reading basically all the time. What's super funny is that he'll be done with the iPad within 15 minutes but he'll never be done with reading. He's his Mother's son.

Jamisen is missing Grandma and Grandpa Faiola. He got used to having Grandma here a lot and with Grandma, comes Grandpa ("Grampa comes on the train! On the TRAIN! ON THE TRAIN!!!!"). He sings himself to sleep at naptime with the song "With Grandmpa in the family, happy happy home." It's adorable to hear him trying to sing his toneless little tune. Thankfully, we have Oskar's birthday coming up this weekend (play date buddy) and that's distracted him well. Click through to see the video of what he wants to share with Oskar:




 Lily really enjoyed this meeting of the Meritage marketing team.

We came up with a name for our shopping cart - sadly, predicated on only what domain names we can get and basically, there is nothing left out there to buy. We ended up with Merchello (merchant + hello) but also have some other names banked, like Coinetta and Merchetta if we need to change for any reason. I could buy USales for the low, low price of $20,000 or "FunDabble.com" for the low low price of $99,000. Thus, we are perfectly happy with Merchello.

Here Jamisen is with Nanny McKenna and demonstrating his incredible love for his sister. I'm sure he will appreciate these photos when he's older. He went in for the mouth kiss at least 10 times. It was charming, as opposed to creepy. In 13 years, we will probably have crossed the line into creepy but for now, seriously cute-a-rific.

Lily's neck strength is getting much better. She is still like a little wobble bobblehead but it's in an adorable way and not in a "support her neck or else she will DIE" way.

I was worried that Jamisen had never tried Jell-o (nor will he in our home; there is so much sugar and artificial flavors and colors in that stuff) so I harvested marionberries from our garden and made a marionberry juice for the gelatin base. To get all fancy, I did a layer with coconut water and a layer with the marionberry. All Jamisen's body said when it showed up was "Nom nom! Sugarsugarsugar SUGAR!!!" and was unimpressed with all the work it took to make the berry juice and do a two layered gelatin dessert. Whatever. Me and this blog will know and eventually, when Jamisen is 32, reading this, he will finally understand how much his Mommy loved him and all of the work will be worth it.

Interview with Jamisen

I want to ask Jamisen  (and Lily when she can speak) these questions periodically. I think it might make a fun long term project. Thus, Jamisen at 27 months old:

What do you want to be when you grow up? "Dentist"

What are you afraid of? "Bugs"

What do you dream about? "Trains"

What is the meaning of life? "I teach you."

I'm trying not to read too much into the last answer but gotta admit, that answer gave me shivers.

 
This week has been a mix of good days and bad days. The thin dividing line between the two is how many hours Lily sleeps. Shockingly (not), there seems to be a correlation between how easy going Chris and I are with each other and how much sleep we get. Lily must be going through a growth spurt because she's back to eating every 2 hours, including at night. It's been a less than optimal week. Jamisen has had a few time outs, mostly for hitting Mommy or not obeying on the first command.

But, this week saw the return of the amazing Norm, Bramble Berry's COO and with it, my sanity. Finally, I feel like I can exhale. He's been gone over 4 weeks and though, in theory, I can do all his jobs at Bramble Berry (ha! who's kidding whom? there's no way ....), I do them all poorly. I'm out of practice managing the entire company on my own and the cracks were widening into chasms when he walked back into the office on Friday. To commemorate his return, we made him his very own bobblehead. It's been so hot in the office that Lily has been virtually naked every day this week to keep cool.

He has decreed that I can work no more than 10 hours next week and that if he sees me at work before noon on any day, I have to eat a burger.... from McDonalds. YUCK! As a lifelong vegetarian and McDonald's boycotter (have not eaten at McDonalds in over 17 years), that is definitely some decent motivation to stay away.

Thus, I am doing a staycation next week. I'm trying to convince Chris to join me as I garden, clean, and keep moving into our home. It would be lovely to have Lily's room finally unpacked and artwork up on the wall by the end of next week. But, the bigger goal? All the prep work to build Jamisen his own play house (!!) in the upper lawn, by the garden. Chris is grudgingly rolling his eyes at the idea but I think we can do it.

Lily was a big help this week on the SoapQueen.TV set (shot at our house because the set is way too warm). She was a model for the baby massage oil recipe we designed and did amazingly. She also attended many meetings with me this week and was extremely well behaved. I think she likes all the talking and activity. This is the meeting (at law offices, no less) for the official formation of Meritage Technologies, our new company to code a full open source shopping cart system.

I've been cooking up a storm - chocolate chip banana and oat cookies tonight and quinoa pancakes for breakfast to have with the homemade dandelion apple rhubarb syrup my Dad and I made last week. Tomorrow, I'm hoping to make Quark protein yogurt popsicles for Jamisen and harvest enough blackberries to make a coconut water blackberry gelatin. The boy has never had Jell-o and I'm pretty sure I'm about to get my Mom License yanked if I don't introduce him to that special joy and wonder.

Jamisen had his first Dentist visit this week. He screamed and screamed and screamed and screamed. The Dentist declared that the age of the binky was done and just like that, childhood.... over. No more binky for bed. This is the Dentist's office with a full play area!

Planes, Trains or ... just trains

 

Life is settling in with two children. Those who have made the transition from 1 child to 2 know the tiredness, pain, frustration and moments of glee and hilarity Chris and I are going through. Jamisen remains 95% loving and curious and 5% mischievous when it comes to his little sister.  

 Like, is he helping in this photo? It certainly would appear but ...  

Lily remains a textbook baby (thank goodness, since Jamisen was definitely NOT) and is able to come to work with me every day. She is quite the little office mascot and is comfortable with the smells and sounds of the Bramble Berry offices. 

 Lily is a full 6 weeks old and is sleeping 4 hours at a time now. I feel like a new woman, capable of coherent speech and patience (a miracle!) if I get a stretch of 4 hours of sleep per night.

  

We had a fun (busy, exhausting) weekend with Grandma and Grandpa here. It is always a blessing, and such a relief to have extra hands to help wrangle the children and give Chris and I a moment to ourselves every so often. It's nice to get a quiet moment to remind each other that we do indeed, like each other and catch up on the news of the week.

  

 With their help, we ventured out onto a good old-fashioned train ride - emphasis on the OLD. The trains that we took were over 100 years old and never would pass safety inspection today. Thankfully, they never traveled over 5 miles per hour, making a very short trip last and last and last. Jamisen's first handcart ride was a success (though the same can't be said for the next group that took it. Their handcart jumped the tracks, leaving us all very thankful that Jamisen wasn't on that particular handcart ride).

  

 His sister was less excited about the train trip and did not delight and amaze our cabin. She screamed and screamed for 85% of the ride. I tried to walk her around each train car to give equal opportunity screaming to each train car.  

Jamisen is obsessed (OBSESSED) with trains. This trip was epic for him and he was awake over 2 hours past his nap time, running on pure happy adrenalin. I see many more train trips in our future this summer.

  

We had lots of play time this weekend, including three different parks. It was wonderful to have Grandma and Grandpa there to help with both kids. Jamisen is developing a close relationship with them, especially Grandma who comes to spend entire weeks with us. Both Chris and I feel thankful, blessed and exceedingly grateful to have such a strong support network on both sides of our family.

 

The weekend went far too quickly but, there's always next weekend!

Big Boy Bed

Jamisen got a transitional big boy bed. It's not a full size twin; more like a crib that's on the floor without bars. He doesn't really like sleeping in it. He will usually slip in it for naps but prefers the crib. 

Dear Lily, in case you're ever curious, your hospital stay was $24,358. We're thankful to have solid medical care and insurance. =)

Jamisen and Oskar are fast becoming friends. Here, Oskar's Daddy Deron looks on as the boys run on the 'water blob' (two sheets of plastic taped together and filled with water). 

Of course, the aftermath on our lawn wasn't very pleasant. The water inside of the sheets heated up to a degree that it burned the lawn underneath it. Whoops. Thank goodness for understanding husbands, right?

Jamisen is fully riding his tricycle now, like a big boy. He says "Riding bike! Riding bike!" and he is proud of himself and his achievements.

Here, Uncle Erik prepares for having his own two-legged children. He's a great daddy to his four-legged kids and we can't wait to indoctrinate him into the life of two-legged children. No pressure. No pressure. 

Both sets of Grandparents remain extremely supportive. Grandpa and Grandma Faiola have been sanity-saving. Grandma has now spent three weeks of Lily's six weeks up in Bellingham, helping. Grandpa works a full week at work and then comes up on the Friday train. Chris and I feel blessed and Jamisen is over the moon happy when they visit and has requested that I call Grandpa for him multiple times this week. When he sings 'Happy Happy Home', he always starts with 'Grandpa' and moves quickly onto 'Grandma.'

Miss Beautiful Baby Lily comes to work with me every day. She dressed up a couple days ago - probably to make up for the horrific day we had the day before. It was so bad that I had some (lightweight) retail therapy to make up for the disaster that the work day turned out to be. Thank goodness for Chris; he came from his office to hold Lily for 90 minutes so I could review some legal documents that needed my full attention. I've already told Norman that when he gets back from his five week sabbatical that I'll be taking a week off just to sleep.

She does look like quite the little perfect princess when she sleeps. You can't see the temper on her when she's sleeping =)

Chris has taken to calling our little girl 'Bald Eagle' for obvious reasons. I try to comfort her by telling her that bald eagles are majestic, strong and proud but I'm not sure she grasps those concepts yet. 

Here she is being introduced to the water. Notice that she basically looks like she hates us and wishes she was born into another family. We decided to switch to showers and she does okay with those until the end. She seems to get tired of the showers around minute 3 or so but overall, a normal baby reaction.

Here Lily is with Mommy at the lawyer's office with Norman calling in from Europe (see the iPad with the face? That's Norm) and Rusty, our new business partner in a e-commerce web extension shop. I dressed her up in a ladylike dress for the occasion.  Our first work party for Meritage Technologies (new company) is this weekend. The developers are all flying in from all over the United States this weekend. It will be fun juggling everything. 

Overall, Chris and I are still sleep deprived and both still in the throes of transition for our family but remain thankful for our healthy children, our strong family unit, our commitment to each other and our extended family support. We are blessed.

Fourth of July Fun

Happy Fourth of July weekend! We spent the actual day of the Fourth wrangling kids and generally wondering when the chaos ends and the carefree joy starts. There were so many times today when both children were screaming that Chris and I just looked at each other and either laughed, rolled our eyes or gave each other panicked looks. 

 We did manage to get out of the house to go to Home Depot ("I rode tractors! I rode tractors!"), the park and the koi pond store ("Fish! Big Fish!"). And by  "We", I mean that the entire family was in the car but only 50% managed to get out of the car. Lily slept the entire time so Mama stayed in the car with her, watching through the window as Jamisen and Daddy had fun. Thankfully, I had the iPhone and the Nook to keep me busy. 

Jamisen continues to want to be a great older brother but doesn't seem able to handle his potent emotions. He loves to hold her, to kiss her, to see her ("I wanna see Lily! SEE LILY!!!!") and hold her hand. He also has these little spurts of emotion where he doesn't know how to work them out so he hits her, or tries to bite Daddy (rarely Mama, knock on wood) or squeeze her hands or feet so hard that she cries. And today, I swear I saw him examining her bouncy chair for structural flaws to stage an "accident."

Jamisen is hilarious. We laugh so much with him and he is learning his shapes (and by "learning", I mean "guessing" when asked what a shape is). He is starting to sort of color (a bit). And, he is attempting to read books on his own. He shows no signs of wanting to potty train, despite promises of riches (yogurt covered pretzels), resists the concept of potty time. His favorite books are the copious amounts of potty training books that we have in the house. If we tell him he can choose 3 books to read before bed, he will often pick 1 potty training book and have me read it 3 times.

I am struggling with the lack of one-on-one time with Jamisen. I am constantly breastfeeding. CONSTANTLY. No really, all I do is breastfeed. Chris takes care of Jamisen 90% of the time and I take care of Lily 90% of the time. I look forward to that changing because I miss Jamisen and I worry about the ramifications, long term, of his Dad forming closer ties with him right now than I'm able to give.

Lily is a beautiful child, inside and out. She physically is delicate and adorable. Inside, she seems extremely positive with a very outspoken, fiercely impatient streak. She demonstrates this loud voice usually when she's hungry or upset about some affront to her being (here, she's upset about her first shower).

 Breastfeeding is going much better. The lactation consultant came last week and we did this interesting experiment; we weighed Lily before and after feeding and found that she only needed to eat around 4-5 minutes per breast (compared to the average 10-12 minutes for the average newborn) to drain each breast of milk. Learning this dramatically cut down on the stress, and the crying. I was trying to force her to feed for way longer than she wanted to - which just led to screaming. Now I know that if she eats for 10 minutes total that I just need to give her a pacifier, shove her up near my breast and let her nuzzle in with the binky, to keep her happy. She was FURIOUS when she got milk after she was done (but still wanted something to suck on) so this has solved so many problems. Thank God for lactation specialists that make house calls.

 Our garden continues to astound and confound. It is growing like crazy. So many experienced gardeners have come over and said that they've never seen anything like it. Our strawberries are like little trees. The chard and kale come up well past the knees. We make green juice daily and I'm already planning next year's garden (adding cucumber and garlic for sure). Jamisen loves to pick the berries and eat them, or at least malign them while pretending to eat them.

Jamisen is starting to be a picky eater. He still drinks his green drinks (good boy! Kale is for rock stars!) I've been making protein shakes and he's been refusing them. So, I froze one and gave it to him as a popsicle. Mission accomplished! He ate the entire thing and thought he was in heaven. Popsicles for breakfast, anyone?

The transition from 1 to 2 children has been a little rockier than I expected but overall, we remain thankful, happy and so committed to each other and our family unit. We both feel great about where our family is and is going and feel that we can trust the process. After all, millions of parent (including mine!) have transitioned from 1 to 2 before so I know we can navigate these waters too.