Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Simple Pleasures
There are few greater joys than eating a slice of home-made bread with home-made peach jam, made from sweet white peaches fresh from the local farmers market. I have a feeling the 8 jars of jam I made aren't going to last very long. Guess I'll just have to make more next week!! (and blackberries are now ripe too... mmm, blackberry peach cobbler...)
Monday, August 18, 2008
A Comment About Comments
FYI I've relaxed the restrictions on comments so now anyone may leave one, even if you don't have a Google ID. However, we do prefer it if you sign your name so we know who's reading our blog. Thanks!
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Deep Thoughts
I've been doing a lot of deep thinking lately, mostly to do with a readjustment of certain prejudices that I didn't realize I had. I'm sure some of you have already been aware of the to-do over NFP in the blogosphere lately. Well, maybe you haven't. But trust me, there is one -- it all boils down to the "NFP is the best thing since sliced bread" vs. the "NFP is a hard sacrifice - almost too hard" debate. The experience of the Pickles household is that NFP has indeed been a great thing -- certainly a challenge at times (Miriam surprised us with her existence ahead of schedule, for example), but also a great blessing for our marriage and personal growth. We've been blessed with temperaments that haven't found occasional abstinence to be a heavy burden. But we understand that it's not that way for everyone, indeed for many of our close friends and family members. I even have a formerly close friend who left the faith because she and her husband found NFP just too hard. My heart goes out to them.
So the other day I was cruising around my favorite "mom blogs" and came across one post that really got me thinking. I normally don't read Danielle Bean's Coffee Talk Tuesdays, just b/c the comments are always so dang long, but this time I actually had some time to kill. So I read through several comments and suddenly found my heart racing. Sadly the comments degenerated into name-calling and some judgmentalism, essentially over whether poor people should have children if they're not sure they can support them -- and that perhaps they ought to feel ashamed for accepting government aid. Enter my prejudice. I had never voiced this to anyone, but I had always subconsciously believed that if a family could not support themselves, they ought not to have any more children, at least temporarily, and that they would be irresponsible to welcome new life into the world when they couldn't support the family they already had. Never having been poor myself, I didn't realize how bigoted this belief really was. But seeing my subconscious thought actually voiced by a couple of the commentors, and then seeing one commentor ask who gets to decide who's rich enough to have children, brought me up sharply. Who the h-e-double-hockey-sticks am I to judge another family harshly for wanting to bring another baby into the world? Why should it be wrong for a couple to want to incarnate their love for each other in a new, unique human being with an immortal soul?
Finally Danielle had to close comments b/c they were getting too snarky. But her response was another eye-opener. This paragraph really caught my eye:
We need to be very careful when we talk about “responsible parenthood.” All too often, this phrase leads to the idea of preventing pregnancy as the default mode for Catholic marriages. In this way of thinking, couples must meet certain criteria, financial or otherwise, before they are “allowed” to have children. I can think of many words to describe this kind of thinking, but not one of them is “Catholic.”
She also wrote an article for Inside Catholic about how prevalent the culture of death is even in Catholic communities. Since when did having children become a sign of irresponsibility? Have we been so brainwashed by the false fear of overpopulation that the idea of more babies makes us uncomfortable, or even afraid? It's so twisted -- children are supposed to be the hope of the future, not its death.
Finally, I found this post on a quote from Casti Connubi, about the state's responsibility to provide for families who can't support themselves. I found the blog author's comment particularly eye-opening: "...when social structures and economic conditions are such that they cause excessive strain on the family, it is not the duty of married persons to deprive themselves of the natural goods of married life in order to accommodate the State, but the duty of the State to make provision for and accommodate marriage and the whole structure of family life that results from it." In sum, married couples should never feel outside pressure to limit their family size. Whether or not they abstain from "the natural goods of married life" in a given month to prevent the conception of another family member is an extremely personal matter between them and God, and really not anyone else's business. If they so choose, they MAY use NFP to postpone a pregnancy, but it should never be required, or even expected, of them. And the rest of us should be willing to bend over backwards to give them needed help, lest they feel punished for being generous with God.
"Babies are only and always blessings." Let's not make the challenge of welcoming them into some families feel like a burden. This appeal goes for me, too. I could always be urged a little farther out of my comfort zone to offer help to other moms who might need it, even if they're too embarrassed to ask.
So the other day I was cruising around my favorite "mom blogs" and came across one post that really got me thinking. I normally don't read Danielle Bean's Coffee Talk Tuesdays, just b/c the comments are always so dang long, but this time I actually had some time to kill. So I read through several comments and suddenly found my heart racing. Sadly the comments degenerated into name-calling and some judgmentalism, essentially over whether poor people should have children if they're not sure they can support them -- and that perhaps they ought to feel ashamed for accepting government aid. Enter my prejudice. I had never voiced this to anyone, but I had always subconsciously believed that if a family could not support themselves, they ought not to have any more children, at least temporarily, and that they would be irresponsible to welcome new life into the world when they couldn't support the family they already had. Never having been poor myself, I didn't realize how bigoted this belief really was. But seeing my subconscious thought actually voiced by a couple of the commentors, and then seeing one commentor ask who gets to decide who's rich enough to have children, brought me up sharply. Who the h-e-double-hockey-sticks am I to judge another family harshly for wanting to bring another baby into the world? Why should it be wrong for a couple to want to incarnate their love for each other in a new, unique human being with an immortal soul?
Finally Danielle had to close comments b/c they were getting too snarky. But her response was another eye-opener. This paragraph really caught my eye:
We need to be very careful when we talk about “responsible parenthood.” All too often, this phrase leads to the idea of preventing pregnancy as the default mode for Catholic marriages. In this way of thinking, couples must meet certain criteria, financial or otherwise, before they are “allowed” to have children. I can think of many words to describe this kind of thinking, but not one of them is “Catholic.”
She also wrote an article for Inside Catholic about how prevalent the culture of death is even in Catholic communities. Since when did having children become a sign of irresponsibility? Have we been so brainwashed by the false fear of overpopulation that the idea of more babies makes us uncomfortable, or even afraid? It's so twisted -- children are supposed to be the hope of the future, not its death.
Finally, I found this post on a quote from Casti Connubi, about the state's responsibility to provide for families who can't support themselves. I found the blog author's comment particularly eye-opening: "...when social structures and economic conditions are such that they cause excessive strain on the family, it is not the duty of married persons to deprive themselves of the natural goods of married life in order to accommodate the State, but the duty of the State to make provision for and accommodate marriage and the whole structure of family life that results from it." In sum, married couples should never feel outside pressure to limit their family size. Whether or not they abstain from "the natural goods of married life" in a given month to prevent the conception of another family member is an extremely personal matter between them and God, and really not anyone else's business. If they so choose, they MAY use NFP to postpone a pregnancy, but it should never be required, or even expected, of them. And the rest of us should be willing to bend over backwards to give them needed help, lest they feel punished for being generous with God.
"Babies are only and always blessings." Let's not make the challenge of welcoming them into some families feel like a burden. This appeal goes for me, too. I could always be urged a little farther out of my comfort zone to offer help to other moms who might need it, even if they're too embarrassed to ask.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Monday, August 11, 2008
Our Big Fat Family Vacation Aftermath
I forgot to post these pictures last time. Shortly after we returned from vacation, I nearly tripped over this touching little scene:
a bride- and groom-bear, newly married...
...with the maid of honor and flower girl in attendance, preparing to lay out the wedding supper.
a bride- and groom-bear, newly married...
...with the maid of honor and flower girl in attendance, preparing to lay out the wedding supper.
Alternatives to "Hush Little Baby"
No stranger to nontraditional lullabies (bawdy sea shanties, anyone?), I was still amused to hear Mr. Pickles tonight crooning baby Joseph to sleep with this theme.
He says that before that, he was singing: "Skip around the room, skip around the room, he won't shut up unless I skip around the room," which ironically actually helped Joseph calm down finally. He's teething, poor baby. Yes. I KNOW. FOUR months old and teething already. I told him he's not allowed to get any teeth before he's at least 7 months old but he wouldn't listen to me. Baby Orajel, here we come!
He says that before that, he was singing: "Skip around the room, skip around the room, he won't shut up unless I skip around the room," which ironically actually helped Joseph calm down finally. He's teething, poor baby. Yes. I KNOW. FOUR months old and teething already. I told him he's not allowed to get any teeth before he's at least 7 months old but he wouldn't listen to me. Baby Orajel, here we come!
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Like Grandfather, Like Granddaughter
Of course, these genes TOTALLY skipped me and went straight to my offspring.
Our Big Fat Family Vacation, part IV
And now, the final chapter in our saga...
For the few days that we were in California, we mostly hung out with the grandparents, caught up with a couple friends, visited John Paul the Great Catholic University (now accepting applications! tell your friends!), and soaked up some California sunshine.
And then, of course, there was the next wedding, starring Miriam as the flower girl once again.
She lurrrrrved this dress. I should have hemmed it an inch or two, but when she had her heels on it was far enough off the ground that I didn't feel it was necessary to go through the trouble of hemming the dress and the slip and trimming the net. Laziness is the mother of efficiency. :)
Joseph had recently discovered his fingers, which was a great help in keeping him entertained during the rehearsal dinner! :)
My two oldest friends, Christine and Anne Marie. I've known them for half my life -- they're the closest thing to sisters I've ever had.
Miriam and Aunt Tine have always gotten along swimmingly. :)
This gorgeous headband makes her look like a Hungarian princess. :)
H.R.H. Christine and her royal court. The dresses were all lovely, even if they were a nightmare getting altered! (all the bridesmaids received the wrong size -- caveat internet emptor!)
Miriam got to ride to the church in the limo with Aunt Tine!
Miriam takes her flower girl role VERY seriously. She couldn't help letting a tiny smile escape when she caught Aunt Katie's eye, though. :) (Dave and Katie were so good -- they took time off of their honeymoon to attend this wedding! It was fun seeing them as newlyweds!)
The father of the bride, who is also Jose Miguel! We all thought that was so cool when we found out -- AND his birthday is two days from our Joseph Michael's!
Hooray for Aunt Tine and our new Uncle Jimmie!
Miriam made out like a bandit with all her flower girl loot this summer. Aunt Tine has excellent taste in little girl-pleasing backpacks! Inside the backpack was a Barbie Princess coloring book, which I don't think Miriam lets Katie even BREATHE on, so sacred is it to her.
Katie got a pretty cool consolation prize too -- Littlest Pet Shop! She loves these things! I remember being a girl and loving itty-bitty things.
The grand entrance! Miriam with the ring bearer, who was the youngest of 6 (?) brothers. I should have gotten a picture of their table. It was a riot.
All little girls flock to the bride on the dance floor. Katie wanted to hold Miriam's hand, but Miriam maintained she had to hold her dress up (that's the whole point of wearing a long dress, right?). Christine made them hold hands, though, to make Katie happy. Tine's going to be a great mom. :)
After Miriam twirled around and held her skirt daintily and batted her eyelashes, one of the brothers couldn't resist any more and asked Miriam to dance.
Miriam confessed to Grandma later that that was her design -- she said she knew that if she looked cute enough, one of the boys would come over and dance with her. Joey was definitely willing! They looked very cute together. I just couldn't believe how conniving she was! I think Miriam is now in love. She's drawn at least half a dozen pictures of her and Joey dancing together with hearts over her head because "I just like Joey SO much and I wish we lived closer so I could see him again!" Next time we see Joey's parents we're going to have to discuss the bride price and betrothal ceremony.
A sure sign of a great party!
We're so happy for Tine and Jimmie -- they had to wait a very long time for this day.
The day before we left, we made another farewell trip to the beach.
My babies tend to sleep well on the beach. The warm sun, the fresh air, the sound of the waves.... mmm... getting sleeeepyyyyy.....
our little beachcomber. She STILL has sand permanently ingrained in this suit.
Ahhhh, how I miss this.... I finally took a dip along with Mr. Pickles and it was heavenly. I realized however how out of shape I am -- after just a few minutes battling the waves I was completely winded and had to come back in.
Of course, we were all properly toasted for the flight back. The girls weren't so bad, but Mr. Pickles and I had all our sunblock sand-blasted off by the waves -- WHY didn't we think to reapply? WHY? Toting tons of luggage around on a very sunburned shoulder is something I would definitely not recommend as a happy end to one's vacation.
Our flight back to Chicago went fairly smoothly. I'm not sure how this happened exactly, but I was stuck in a row with all three children while Mr. Pickles got to talk with grownups. It wasn't so bad, though -- I had absolutely no qualms about plugging the girls into their electronic babysitters for the whole flight, and only had to referee a couple fights about who accidentally pulled out whose earplugs. The only moment of excitement was the landing -- as we were about to touch down, the engines suddenly roared and we pulled back up sharply. That did it for Katie, who wasn't feeling so well anyway -- I had to scramble to find one of those airsick bags while Miriam went into hysterics begging to sit with Daddy. While we were circling around the pilot said we had to pull up b/c we were too close to another plane or something, so we had to wait for another opening. Finally we were able to land, but that landing was really rough. There were a lot of relieved passengers when we finally pulled into our gate.
Of course, this later landing pushed the rest of our schedule back too -- we had to wait longer to catch our shuttle to the hotel where our car was waiting for us. Meanwhile, Joseph chose this moment to grow out of the current size diapers we had for him, and went through two outfits and the moby wrap in quite a spectacular way. Fortunately he's my third baby so I had no self-respect to lose carrying around an orange-stained baby. FINALLY we got to our car, grabbed a quick dinner (the girls now recognize McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's on sight), and drove on to South Bend, where cousin Paul graciously offered their basement to us. We had a nice little visit with them, since everything had been so harried before the wedding. After a fabulous waffle-and strawberry breakfast we headed back to Steubenville for a couple extra days to break up our trip, and give Miriam and Edy a little more time together. We were pretty tired out from all our traveling of the previous days, so it was nice to have a little break before the final leg of the journey. When we finally left, Miriam and Edy were so depressed about their impending separation that they were well-nigh unbearable. :)
The last leg of the journey is a bit of a blur -- all I remember is that we took a slightly different route home to avoid the into-DC traffic. That was a nice diversion -- we passed north of the very tippy end of the Blue Ridge mountains, which was quite a spectacular view. And then we got home, unpacked, and slept for days! Seriously, it took about a week for us to feel close to normal again. We had a great time, though, and wouldn't have had things any other way! The trip was so busy, and full, and fun -- it was just so great seeing so much family in so short a time! What a blessing to belong to such a nice family. :)
For the few days that we were in California, we mostly hung out with the grandparents, caught up with a couple friends, visited John Paul the Great Catholic University (now accepting applications! tell your friends!), and soaked up some California sunshine.
And then, of course, there was the next wedding, starring Miriam as the flower girl once again.
She lurrrrrved this dress. I should have hemmed it an inch or two, but when she had her heels on it was far enough off the ground that I didn't feel it was necessary to go through the trouble of hemming the dress and the slip and trimming the net. Laziness is the mother of efficiency. :)
Joseph had recently discovered his fingers, which was a great help in keeping him entertained during the rehearsal dinner! :)
My two oldest friends, Christine and Anne Marie. I've known them for half my life -- they're the closest thing to sisters I've ever had.
Miriam and Aunt Tine have always gotten along swimmingly. :)
This gorgeous headband makes her look like a Hungarian princess. :)
H.R.H. Christine and her royal court. The dresses were all lovely, even if they were a nightmare getting altered! (all the bridesmaids received the wrong size -- caveat internet emptor!)
Miriam got to ride to the church in the limo with Aunt Tine!
Miriam takes her flower girl role VERY seriously. She couldn't help letting a tiny smile escape when she caught Aunt Katie's eye, though. :) (Dave and Katie were so good -- they took time off of their honeymoon to attend this wedding! It was fun seeing them as newlyweds!)
The father of the bride, who is also Jose Miguel! We all thought that was so cool when we found out -- AND his birthday is two days from our Joseph Michael's!
Hooray for Aunt Tine and our new Uncle Jimmie!
Miriam made out like a bandit with all her flower girl loot this summer. Aunt Tine has excellent taste in little girl-pleasing backpacks! Inside the backpack was a Barbie Princess coloring book, which I don't think Miriam lets Katie even BREATHE on, so sacred is it to her.
Katie got a pretty cool consolation prize too -- Littlest Pet Shop! She loves these things! I remember being a girl and loving itty-bitty things.
The grand entrance! Miriam with the ring bearer, who was the youngest of 6 (?) brothers. I should have gotten a picture of their table. It was a riot.
All little girls flock to the bride on the dance floor. Katie wanted to hold Miriam's hand, but Miriam maintained she had to hold her dress up (that's the whole point of wearing a long dress, right?). Christine made them hold hands, though, to make Katie happy. Tine's going to be a great mom. :)After Miriam twirled around and held her skirt daintily and batted her eyelashes, one of the brothers couldn't resist any more and asked Miriam to dance.
Miriam confessed to Grandma later that that was her design -- she said she knew that if she looked cute enough, one of the boys would come over and dance with her. Joey was definitely willing! They looked very cute together. I just couldn't believe how conniving she was! I think Miriam is now in love. She's drawn at least half a dozen pictures of her and Joey dancing together with hearts over her head because "I just like Joey SO much and I wish we lived closer so I could see him again!" Next time we see Joey's parents we're going to have to discuss the bride price and betrothal ceremony.
A sure sign of a great party!We're so happy for Tine and Jimmie -- they had to wait a very long time for this day.
The day before we left, we made another farewell trip to the beach.
My babies tend to sleep well on the beach. The warm sun, the fresh air, the sound of the waves.... mmm... getting sleeeepyyyyy.....
our little beachcomber. She STILL has sand permanently ingrained in this suit.
Ahhhh, how I miss this.... I finally took a dip along with Mr. Pickles and it was heavenly. I realized however how out of shape I am -- after just a few minutes battling the waves I was completely winded and had to come back in.
Of course, we were all properly toasted for the flight back. The girls weren't so bad, but Mr. Pickles and I had all our sunblock sand-blasted off by the waves -- WHY didn't we think to reapply? WHY? Toting tons of luggage around on a very sunburned shoulder is something I would definitely not recommend as a happy end to one's vacation.Our flight back to Chicago went fairly smoothly. I'm not sure how this happened exactly, but I was stuck in a row with all three children while Mr. Pickles got to talk with grownups. It wasn't so bad, though -- I had absolutely no qualms about plugging the girls into their electronic babysitters for the whole flight, and only had to referee a couple fights about who accidentally pulled out whose earplugs. The only moment of excitement was the landing -- as we were about to touch down, the engines suddenly roared and we pulled back up sharply. That did it for Katie, who wasn't feeling so well anyway -- I had to scramble to find one of those airsick bags while Miriam went into hysterics begging to sit with Daddy. While we were circling around the pilot said we had to pull up b/c we were too close to another plane or something, so we had to wait for another opening. Finally we were able to land, but that landing was really rough. There were a lot of relieved passengers when we finally pulled into our gate.
Of course, this later landing pushed the rest of our schedule back too -- we had to wait longer to catch our shuttle to the hotel where our car was waiting for us. Meanwhile, Joseph chose this moment to grow out of the current size diapers we had for him, and went through two outfits and the moby wrap in quite a spectacular way. Fortunately he's my third baby so I had no self-respect to lose carrying around an orange-stained baby. FINALLY we got to our car, grabbed a quick dinner (the girls now recognize McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's on sight), and drove on to South Bend, where cousin Paul graciously offered their basement to us. We had a nice little visit with them, since everything had been so harried before the wedding. After a fabulous waffle-and strawberry breakfast we headed back to Steubenville for a couple extra days to break up our trip, and give Miriam and Edy a little more time together. We were pretty tired out from all our traveling of the previous days, so it was nice to have a little break before the final leg of the journey. When we finally left, Miriam and Edy were so depressed about their impending separation that they were well-nigh unbearable. :)
The last leg of the journey is a bit of a blur -- all I remember is that we took a slightly different route home to avoid the into-DC traffic. That was a nice diversion -- we passed north of the very tippy end of the Blue Ridge mountains, which was quite a spectacular view. And then we got home, unpacked, and slept for days! Seriously, it took about a week for us to feel close to normal again. We had a great time, though, and wouldn't have had things any other way! The trip was so busy, and full, and fun -- it was just so great seeing so much family in so short a time! What a blessing to belong to such a nice family. :)
Our Big Fat Family Vacation, part III
At long last, we present the continuation of our trek across the country and back...
The day after the wedding, pretty much everyone cleared out, but not before most of the families got together for a Father's Day brunch at the hotel.
What a great bunch of dads!
This is such a quintessential picture of Max -- lying down, playing with his cars. He was doing this at the reception the day before, too, but I wasn't able to get a good shot.
We took one more swim in the pool, and spent the rest of the day packing up.
Joseph got his first dip in a swimming pool. He took it in stride, like most things.
(and no, Miriam's not drowning -- she's showing us how she can touch the bottom with her tippy-toes)
our other little mermaid
For getting to CA on our chosen airline, we had a choice of one of two flights: either way late in the evening, getting us into CA at an unbelievably late hour, making us all miserable; or else getting up at o'dark thirty and taking an unbelievably early flight in the morning, making us all miserable. The grandparents took the evening flight, so we decided to take the next morning's flight to give them at least one night to be home before we descended and took over their house. :)
Ahh, to be young. Not looking too bad for 5:30 in the morning.
Katie made sure her bear was buckled in securely. What a good little mommy.
Since we were at the airport at such an ungodly early hour, there weren't too many hordes of other passengers, even though it WAS Chicago O'Hare. Getting through security with a baby can actually be a help, especially if all your security officers are new grandmothers, and your baby is as cute as a button. Joseph got lot of oohs and ahhs and all the checkpoint people were so solicitous and helpful. Score one for cuteness!
Joseph took the flight in stride. He was an angel, actually. He either slept or nursed for takeoff and landing. Poor Katie was the one who suffered on landing, though -- the rapid change in air pressure bothered her ears. Other than that the flight went relatively smoothly. JetBlue, our airline of choice, has screens on the back of each seat, so you can descend into electronic oblivion for the duration of your flight. Great for traveling with kids, hence our airline of choice (that, and they actually treat you like a human being instead of a head of cattle). We basically just turned the channel to Nick Jr. or the Cartoon Network, opened the snacks, and they were quiet for 4 solid hours. :) Katie didn't even need earphones -- she was happy just staring at a glowy screen.
We finally arrived in CA, a bit battle-weary but no permanent damage done (except to the carseats we had to check -- they were severely battered). The day after we arrived we made a point of going to the beach. It's not a REAL trip to so. Cal. without at least one beach day!
The water was icy cold and set everyone shivering pretty quickly. It was even too cold for me to jump in. Mr. Pickles was brave enough to submerge himself -- but he's from Minnesnowta so he's not as afraid of hypothermia as the rest of us. Katie loved the warm sand and spend most of her time wriggling around in it.
Of course, Miriam had to bury Daddy in the sand at least once.
Joseph LOVED the beach. He was having a great time. He was FASCINATED by the water. After a while the lovely ocean breeze got a little too cool for him, so he got to snuggle with Grandpa and check out babes.
Miriam has gotten so daring. She went plunging in the water right away. Katie was a little more reserved -- those big waves can be pretty intimidating to a little half-pint of sweet cider half drunk up! But after I told her we were going to chase the waves, and then run away before they could catch our toes, she thought that was great fun. And THEN she wanted to splash in them.
My arms got a workout!
This is a great expression -- terror and excitement both at once!
We made the obligatory sand castle, complete with moat. Grandpa made a dragon which had already eaten all the little people in the walled village, and was going to go after the princess next. :)
The girls got lots of great Grandma and Grandpa time while we were there. I wish we could visit more often.
Grandpa having Story time with all the grandkids.
Guess who's on Grandpa's shirt?
Katie loved the elliptical in our room. It was so cute watching her tiny self moving the big pedals. Personally, I couldn't figure out how to get it to work without overworking my knees every time. No great loss -- I preferred just lying around and reading, anyway. :)
The day after the wedding, pretty much everyone cleared out, but not before most of the families got together for a Father's Day brunch at the hotel.
What a great bunch of dads!
This is such a quintessential picture of Max -- lying down, playing with his cars. He was doing this at the reception the day before, too, but I wasn't able to get a good shot.
We took one more swim in the pool, and spent the rest of the day packing up.
Joseph got his first dip in a swimming pool. He took it in stride, like most things.(and no, Miriam's not drowning -- she's showing us how she can touch the bottom with her tippy-toes)
our other little mermaidFor getting to CA on our chosen airline, we had a choice of one of two flights: either way late in the evening, getting us into CA at an unbelievably late hour, making us all miserable; or else getting up at o'dark thirty and taking an unbelievably early flight in the morning, making us all miserable. The grandparents took the evening flight, so we decided to take the next morning's flight to give them at least one night to be home before we descended and took over their house. :)
Ahh, to be young. Not looking too bad for 5:30 in the morning.
Katie made sure her bear was buckled in securely. What a good little mommy.Since we were at the airport at such an ungodly early hour, there weren't too many hordes of other passengers, even though it WAS Chicago O'Hare. Getting through security with a baby can actually be a help, especially if all your security officers are new grandmothers, and your baby is as cute as a button. Joseph got lot of oohs and ahhs and all the checkpoint people were so solicitous and helpful. Score one for cuteness!
Joseph took the flight in stride. He was an angel, actually. He either slept or nursed for takeoff and landing. Poor Katie was the one who suffered on landing, though -- the rapid change in air pressure bothered her ears. Other than that the flight went relatively smoothly. JetBlue, our airline of choice, has screens on the back of each seat, so you can descend into electronic oblivion for the duration of your flight. Great for traveling with kids, hence our airline of choice (that, and they actually treat you like a human being instead of a head of cattle). We basically just turned the channel to Nick Jr. or the Cartoon Network, opened the snacks, and they were quiet for 4 solid hours. :) Katie didn't even need earphones -- she was happy just staring at a glowy screen.We finally arrived in CA, a bit battle-weary but no permanent damage done (except to the carseats we had to check -- they were severely battered). The day after we arrived we made a point of going to the beach. It's not a REAL trip to so. Cal. without at least one beach day!
The water was icy cold and set everyone shivering pretty quickly. It was even too cold for me to jump in. Mr. Pickles was brave enough to submerge himself -- but he's from Minnesnowta so he's not as afraid of hypothermia as the rest of us. Katie loved the warm sand and spend most of her time wriggling around in it.
Of course, Miriam had to bury Daddy in the sand at least once.
Joseph LOVED the beach. He was having a great time. He was FASCINATED by the water. After a while the lovely ocean breeze got a little too cool for him, so he got to snuggle with Grandpa and check out babes.
Miriam has gotten so daring. She went plunging in the water right away. Katie was a little more reserved -- those big waves can be pretty intimidating to a little half-pint of sweet cider half drunk up! But after I told her we were going to chase the waves, and then run away before they could catch our toes, she thought that was great fun. And THEN she wanted to splash in them.
My arms got a workout!
This is a great expression -- terror and excitement both at once!
We made the obligatory sand castle, complete with moat. Grandpa made a dragon which had already eaten all the little people in the walled village, and was going to go after the princess next. :)
The girls got lots of great Grandma and Grandpa time while we were there. I wish we could visit more often.
Grandpa having Story time with all the grandkids.
Guess who's on Grandpa's shirt?
Katie loved the elliptical in our room. It was so cute watching her tiny self moving the big pedals. Personally, I couldn't figure out how to get it to work without overworking my knees every time. No great loss -- I preferred just lying around and reading, anyway. :)
Friday, August 08, 2008
08.08.08
Mr. Pickles just brought the coolness of today's date to my attention.
Thought you all ought to know.
P.S. Sorry for the blogging silence -- we just finished Bible camp today, which has been an all-consuming, exhausting ordeal. After I've slept for a couple days, I've got a few posts lined up!
Thought you all ought to know.
P.S. Sorry for the blogging silence -- we just finished Bible camp today, which has been an all-consuming, exhausting ordeal. After I've slept for a couple days, I've got a few posts lined up!
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