Baby bites

Sound/video bites of my trip, before my camera died...





Here are some bits of emails I wrote to the girls while I was at Kat's house and just after that sum things up pretty well. (Edited out bits are just trying to figure out logistics for meeting up with them late summer/early fall.)


On 6/17/06, Heather wrote:
I am in MN and have a few minutes while Lamir is out to a parade with Grandma, and "First Knight" is on pause while Mom is putting Trillium to bed. It's been a really sweet day, just hanging out with the little ones, and Lamir almost didn't go to the parade because he wanted "Special Heather time" hahaha! cuteness...


... Baby is asleep! Gonna go soak up some solo Kat time before the rest of the gang comes home. Don't know that I'll check email again or not, and my phone is in roaming, but I'll be back home late Sunday night.

Love yous!
H

On 6/18/06, Heather wrote:
Not sure why the heck I am awake at 6am, but I walked past the computer on my way back from the bathroom and it called to me! Kat will think I'm crazy to be awake so early when she reads this - the one thing in the world she wishes for lately is sleep!! Hugs poor dear!!...

...Lamir came back from the parade extremely happy, covered in stickers, and when I sat next to him at dinner he leaned over, gave me a hug and exclaimed "I missed you!" This morning the cats (remember the tiny kitten Katja brought home from the shelter in FF? - she and Bart's cat they got at the same time are practically the same size as Trillium! - who also managed to grab their water dish yester day and take a few gulps, while spilling the rest of it down his front, heehee) are staring at the floor under the table trying to find any "spagetti sized" bits of hamburger left from the night before. Lamir decided it would be better to eat his hamburger in the same size he's used to eating ground beef - in the tiny bits he has in his spagetti sauce. Not all the bits he smashed up made it to his mouth, and the cats are estatic with the few they can find, I can tell.

I do wish we could all be closer together and it was easier to help Katja more often - as I'm sure any of us who have kids will wish for too! It's quite the job, and for a couple days it's nothing, though I'm pretty sure it's worth quite a lot for the mom. I hope so at least! I'm having fun!

Ok, really should try to snooze a bit more so I'm not sleepy for the drive back - which is a breeze in the new car! wheeeeeeee!



On 6/18/06, Heather wrote:
It's hard to believe I was just in MN for two days, well, not quite two I guess, but here I am home. It was a lot shorter drive than I expected, and luckily I got off work an hour early on Friday, which helped a lot! I had thought I was going to have to drive as far as I could, stay in some hotel, and then drive on to Katja's in the morning, and do a similar thing on the way back, and drive straight in to work, but I realized I was pretty close and could make it there by about 9:30 or 10pm, so I called to see if it was ok to come that night, and then just pushed through and did it. It helps that the roads to Des Moines have improved quite a bit, bypasses and stuff, and they've increased the speed limit to 70 on the bigger roads, so I did it in about 5 1/2 hrs each way.

Lamir came downstairs around 7am, I think... I had gone back to bed and was just dozing, but heard him come in, and he sat and watched me quietly for a few minutes, till I turned over and "woke up" and said good morning. I had promised him that if he had mom read him his bedtime story as usual (better not to rock the bedtime routine boat, all of us over 3 years old thought), that I would read him a story in the morning when he woke up, so we read a few chapters of "The Land Before Time", skipping over the "I don't like this part!" when Littlefoot's mom dies and going straight on to where he meets Ducky and Petrie. :-)

It was lovely trip, lovely family, lovely farmland, and good to get away from FF for a bit, and all the thoughts and "stuff" that lives with me there. (and I think would no matter where we lived, there's just something about vacation mode...)

Can't remember if I mentioned there was a BIG debate between me and G about whether he was coming, which we finally resoved over instant messenger (after a cranky evening, 1am bedtime for me while waiting for him to fall asleep, and not speaking in the morning). What it came down to was I didn't want to share my "Katja time" any more than I had to by adding another person into the mix, and he didn't particularly care either way about coming, but is way overly worried about me driving alone to pretty much anywhere - even to Ottumwa :-P

So after reminding him that I've been driving since I was 16, and all my previous road trip experience - my weekly Landmark course in Kanas City, in the middle of winter for example, and assuring him that I would call frequently from the road to check in, and being invited to a soccer/world cup watching party, he got to a more ok place of me driving. I told him that some degree of caring for your loved ones is normal and natural, but for him to be THAT oppresively worried about me was HIS problem, pointing to perhaps the growing up in a city of crazy drivers, and a family where dad did 98% of the driving might have something to do with it. If I hadn't had the confidence of my mother and a few other people who were FINE with the idea of me driving myself, it might have been something else, but with him the only one... anyway. I'm back in one piece!

Bart has turned into an amazingly good songwriter, and we both brought our guitars out on the lawn and played stuff for a semi-captive audience. ;-) Trillium is quite the musical baby - very attracted to the tonal qualities of the things he bangs around, and the music that Uncle Bart would practice in the house a lot. I got to pretend I was a traveling singer - bringing my guitar with me on the road. Not that I could remember how to play much of anything, or that I could stand up in comparison to Bart's skills, but it was fun, and the audience very accepting and forgiving, heh heh.

There's more I'm sure, but I need some sleep - work tomorrow.

6/19 Heather wrote:

Ok, with father's day today, this article popped up on the "news of the day" section of Yahoo, and with babies on the brain it called to me. I thought it was nice, because seems like most of the focus is on the woman, and it's nice to give the dads some attention. perhaps just something to file for future reference. ;-) Kat, it brings up that point you were talking about this weekend - breastfeeding is cheaper than formula, hahaha.

http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/pregnancy_newborn/pregnancy/father.html


And no, being with the kids for two days did NOT scare me off having babies at all, and NO it did not make me want to rush home and make one either. We are still thinking of trying next summer, after Europe. the only thing it made me think was "Crap, I should start reading about it now!" although part of me is freaked out to start, because the universe might take it as a sign that I'm ready, when I'm not quite... sigh. But, whatever God/Goddess/Universe has in mind, well, that's what I'll get right?

Ok, really bed? Maybe? hehehe

Hum





Footnote: Arriving home I realize it was really good G didn't come - so much babyness would probably have been overwhelming!