Santa came early this year.

Ready to roll.

Generous old man that he his he brought us ski equipment, a rack for the car and season passes to Eldora, the resort in town. The season began 2 weeks ago and Shane and Sage have been up 3 times now.


Riding the chair lift for the first time.

Sage's first day out the bunny slopes were closed so they went straight to the green runs and hopped on the chair lift. Boo and I sat by the lift and watched Sage and Shane on their first run together. Needless to say it took a long time and many spills to make it down the mountain. After that Micah and I went on a walk then headed to the car for some lunch and snuggles in the open trunk. The skiers joined us later for some grub then back to the mountain.



It was a nice day for everyone. Micah napped in the car after lunch and I dozed a bit and by the end of the day Shane and Sage managed to squeeze in more than dozen runs! On the way home as Sage snoozed Shane told me that she did really well. She loved going fast and had no fear and never fell again after that first run. She'll be coming down on her own in no time.

Today this made me laugh...

Listen Up

The members of Pat McGee Band are machines; they do something like 200 shows every year. They've been around a long time and their sound is still fresh.

Wouldn't you know there's not a single decent youtube video of these guys so go here to listen.

Surrendering.

Our old kitchen...I miss that dishwasher...a lot.

I did it.

I finally caved and hired a house cleaner. Today was Yuliana's third time here. All it took was much badgering on Shane's part, Elder Uchtdorf's talk (slow down in times of turbulence) and then my SIL telling me that during a recent crazy, stressful time in her life she had a cleaning lady.

Fifteen months of sleepless nights have resulted in one tired mama. First it was the nursing woes...Micah and I would be up for an hour plus each time he nursed at night. I thought that was rough. Ha! Try getting up 6, 7, 8,9 times each and every night (for 10 months) to comfort an itchy baby. Sometimes it's easy and I just pop a binky in and we drift back to sleep. Other nights I'm in for the long haul....the walking and comforting, rubbing tummy or ears (his magic spot).

What took me so long to get some help? Some part of me felt that having a cleaner would be admitting that I'm a failure. I love keeping my home neat and clean. I love making everything from scratch (errr...used to). I love keeping it all together. But keeping it all together has been a distant memory this year. Unfolded laundry sits in baskets for a week at a time, floors gather dust and crumbs, dishes pile up all day long and we eat many a grilled cheese sandwich for dinner.

That said Shane is a marvelous helper. Guess who does the dishes most every night? Guess who makes yummy hearty breakfasts for his wife every morning? Pancakes, bacon and eggs, always something good to fill my belly. Guess who patiently takes Micah each morning at 4:30 AM so that I can get a few hours of real sleep? Only trouble is most nights we get the kids down and he hops on the computer and gets right back to work. Not much time (or energy) to clean at night.

We already love Yuliana. She comes once a week, cleans and even does some cooking. She showed up on her first day with homemade frijoles, tomatoes and peppers (from which she made homemade salsa) and tortillas. We gobbled her dinner down that night and we both agreed that it is worth every penny to have a clean home and delicious food that we had nothing to do with.

Listen Up

Thankfully the days of icky, sticky, painful break-ups are over. Even so I love Francis Dunnery and his ode to breaking up and moving on.

At last.

Micah is signing. We knew how darling it is to see a baby communicate this way since Sage was a big signer but it's even more thrilling to see Micah catch on...every milestone is long in coming with him and we've eagerly anticipated this day.

He signs: milk, more, apple, dog, light and up. We're working on other signs like: change diaper, daddy, mommy and lots more.

P.S. Micah doesn't really drink milk...we just call it that. It's millet, pears, salmon and ground beef blended with water and herbs and supplements. Bottle feeding is just the easiest way to get lots of calories in him.

Listen Up

In the words of Goldilocks, Matt White is just right.

Notes on Pregnancy

From the front....what baby?


Ohhhh...there it is.

I had Sage take those photos because I was in denial. Until I put this belt on and suddenly instant baby bump.

It seems like everything happens a little faster the 3rd time around. I'm 14 weeks along and already I've pulled out the maternity clothes. That skirt in the picture? Maternity. These skinny jeans I'm wearing at the moment? Maternity.

And this time I felt quickening pretty darn early. Would you believe it if I said 9 weeks? That definitely surprised me. I think Shane thinks I'm imagining things.

I love being pregnant. I feel really really blessed because besides peeing 4-5 times/night (I'm up with Micah...might as well empty my bladder and be comfy), craving steak and potatoes constantly, a humongous belly in the works and feeling a bit tired pregnancy is easy peasy. No morning sickness, no back pain, no nothing. I don't think I fully appreciated how easy it is until this time; I have a feeling it might be impossible to care for Micah (day or night) if I was sick and miserable. So in the midst of all the yuckiness of eczema there are still blessings to count.

Now I just need to find a midwife. There are a dozen or more home birth midwives in Boulder alone. Yikes. I'd better get a move on it.