New Places and Old Friends

We first met Olgaly and Warren in Kansas in 2001. Olgaly and Matt were in the same Ph.D. courses and we became fast friends. Warren and Matt were always up to some crazy adventure and Olgaly and I felt so very comfortable together, despite our two very different cultural upbringings.
After the Ph.D.'s had been awarded in June of 2005, Olgaly and Warren returned to Puerto Rico and Matt and I made our trek to the Northwest. We hadn't seen them since that day when we waved goodbye to a packed Subaru, 2 dogs, and Olga and Warren....until June 19th when our whole tribe landed in San Juan and Olgaly picked us up! What a fantastic reunion. FIVE BOYS later (Olga and Warren had twin boys, 3 years ago), we were all back together again...and it was as if time had never passed.

Olgaly's mother has an apartment in San Juan right near the beach so we stayed there the first few days. We explored Old San Juan, El Yunque Rainforest and Cava Ventana, before driving the 2 hours to Utuado in the mountains to the 37 acre farm that Olgaly and Warren own.

Old San Juan

Arlo with Pablo and Diego

Sam LOVED this lizard. When it was finally time to let it go he cried and cried. It was very sweet.

Entering the cave.

Inside Cava Ventana...so beautiful!
Looking across Olgaly and Warren's acreage at their house, the white building on the outcrop and below the view from their wrap around, second story porch in the morning and then at night.
When we all lived in Kansas Warren used to tell stories of his 1966 Land Rover. It sounded too good to be true and then we got to meet the 'ole gal. Warren took us for a ride through the jungle of his land and it was fantastic! Sam and Arlo went for a ride the next day and LOVED it!
Both Olgaly and Warren had to work some so we explored the island on our own a bit. We went to Guanica Dry Forest (one of only five in the world)! We swam in the Carribean Ocean and played on the beach. Even Otis went for a dip!
All in all it was an amazing vacation. We loved the culture, the food, the natural variations of the island and most of all it felt so good to be reunited with our dear friends and to get to know their children. All five of our boys played so well together despite the language barrier. Sam attempted Spanish with them and by the end of the trip both Pablo and Diego had some English phrases they were using with us. It was hard to return home to 95 degree heat with 70% humidity, laundry to do and lawns to mow....but we've settled.
Thank you Olgaly and Warren...we'll be back!

Chickens and Such

About this time last year I was writing a lot about the gardening and chickens and such. This year it feels like we are slow to start, but then again it is only June 1st. In Michigan our growing season is just really getting off it's feet. If you are a very dedicated gardener you might have seedlings going inside or have been planting outside, with great care, for a few weeks now.

I am not a dedicated gardener...yet. Small children make it hard for me be that dedicated. My time will come though.

We have been busy and the weekends do sometimes feel more crazy than the week days, and so is the nature of summer.

One of the more recent projects we undertook was building a chicken tractor! For those of you that are not savvy in the chicken department, a chicken tractor is a movable chicken pen! We've been wanting one since last spring when we first began our chicken adventures. The new baby chickens we took on this year (twelve barn yard chicken mutts) needed some new digs as they out grew the brooding box. We weren't ready to introduce them to the big girls as we have a pecking problem...and so we decided it was the right time!

Since these photos were taken Matt modified the brooding box so it is attached to the door and they have a place to roost at night, safe from raccoons. Our grand plan is to keep moving the tractor throughout the garden and let the chickens dig it up and poop on it...a bonus for our soil. We haven't planted a garden yet and may not do more than some cover crops. We joined a great new CSA this year, so we have lots of great organic veggies coming our way.
Our chicks from last year overwintered at a friend's farm south of here since we weren't living at the house. They keep roosters and our girls were pecked pretty seriously. Minus the roosters here we thought they would heal up, but once the skin is exposed they can't stop pecking! We're learning a lot about this issue and have found pine tar to be the best solution so far. We've been applying it every couple of days to the exposed skin and it seems to be helping.
They are laying, on average, six eggs a day (we have eight layers) and recently we had an egg that was HUGE. When cracked open, it had a double yoke! We couldn't even close the egg carton.
Building our homestead is a slow process and having babies along the way makes it even slower. We do see progress though and we're enjoying the hard work. We just recently bought a new garden tractor to replace our old one that finally kicked the bucket and it is making our lives much easier. As time goes on we'll get to where we want to be....or so I think, hope. A hoop house is in the plan and maybe a goat or two...

It's in the Genes

Sam, 12 weeks

Arlo, 12 weeks

Otis, 12 weeks

Five Years Later

Sam turned five on May 18th. He instantly became a big kid. Where did my first baby go?
Today is his last day of preschool...and as I write this, I sit here with Otis in my arms. What a great cycle. Sam has become such a wonderful boy to be around; so filled with curiosity and creativity.
We recently moved the painting easel into the kitchen area so I can "keep an eye" on Arlo when he is creating. Sam has rediscovered painting at home and his drawings are beginning to take on recognizable scenarios. He's drawn some great family portraits!
Sam is an excellent big brother and is a real help with Arlo. He can perform many tasks on his own now and is not afraid to things without asking for help (which can pose problems, but often does not). Sam's new "best friend" is a little girl name Adrienne from his school. She happens to live very close to us and her Mom and I have become friends. Erin also has a son Arlo's age and another new son just 6 weeks younger than Otis.
Having Otis has helped me to really appreciate Sam's "maturity". I don't find myself missing him as a baby at all and instead find myself loving where we are at so much more!

Tomorrow begins our summer as a family and I have been plotting my survival at home with three boys! Lots of outdoor activities, slow mornings here at the homestead or out and about. I'd like to revive our weekly city bus rides to the library. We plan to meet some friends at the local splash park somewhat regularly, as well.
We're traveling to Puerto Rico for 10 days in June and Matt's mom and dad have rented a house on Lake Michigan for a week in July. They will take Sam and Arlo with them for the week and Matt and I plan to join them for a day or two as well. We'll have our (now) annual 4th of July party and my sister may come visit in August (yeah!). I'd love to take Megan to Saugatuck Dunes State Park and the beach for a day.
This summer will fly by as fast as the last 5 summers and I plan on trying to take things slow. The kids require some level of momentum, but I want them to have as fond memories of thier childhood summers as I do of mine.

Otis' Birth Story

Otis' Birth Story

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Six Weeks

Six weeks (and a few days) have come and gone. Though with the other two boys, I felt a definite sadness with the passing of time; this time I do not. It has been a really hard six weeks. I am not going to sugar coat it at all. Otis seems to have a bit of colic and that makes what would already be challenging, just down right hard. There are predictably fussy times (like evenings) and we are beginning to figure out his cues and what works to calm him, but there are also very unpredictably fussy times. He seems to be very easily over-stimulated. Why on earth the universe decided to deliver me a third boy that is easily over-stimulated, I'll never know! The poor guy has little chance for quiet. We try to provide it as best we can, but I am not going "shhh" Sam and Arlo all the time. We compromise and during his fussiest hours (which happen to be before bed times anyway), we try to keep it more mellow. He is an exceptional sleeper at night and that has been a saving grace. Things are certainly getting better. Whether it is because he is getting older, or I figured out the food sensitivities, or we learned some of the triggers and soothers, or the frequent trips to the chiropractor; I don't know, but I have stopped trying to figure him out and am just trying to accept him. I have also stopped comparing him to Arlo as a baby or Sam as a baby. He is Otis as a baby and he is pretty damn cute (even when he cries).

Sam and Arlo are doing wonderfully and taking this all in stride! I am very lucky to have such aware and accepting kids who really love their little brother despite his current disposition. They both try to offer suggestions as to why he might be crying like, "maybe he needs milk", or "maybe he wants to be held", or "maybe he wants to eat some cheese"...most of the time they are great suggestions. Arlo seems to be rebelling a bit lately and I have noticed him acting out for attention. We are trying to nip that in the bud with more direct one-on-one positive attention. Although today was a challenging day and Arlo threw a sippy cup onto Otis' head in the carseat and then a piece of cheese. Whether he was trying to "soothe" Otis with the cheese after the sippy cup hit his head, I'll never know!

The first two pictures below were taken by my friend Shelie, who took the amazing images of me in my last days of Otis' pregnancy. Otis was about a month old in them. Since then he has lost a lot of hair and now smiles! The lower three are more recent images I took. Otis is six weeks old and you can see the hair loss. Sam and Arlo are being the creative little monsters we usually see in the other two. They really have become excellent friends and despite the occasional argument, they play together very well and it is a lot of fun to watch. Sometimes we see super heroes or transformers running around our house and usually they carry some sort of gun they have made from legos, or blocks or something of the sort. Arlo especially likes to make guns out of everything, even the crust on his sandwiches!

All in all we are getting by quite nicely and enjoying most of our waking moments. Spring has certainly sprung around here. We have twelve new baby chicks in our brooding box, little flowers and perrenial herbs and things popping up everywhere and the apple trees are just about to blossom. There is lots happening outside on the homestead...but that is for another post...

A Non-Baby Post

Well, for those of you that read my blog somewhat regularly, I am sure you are getting sick of baby talk...baby this, baby that, isn't my darling chubby baby so cute, blah, blah, blah?
So, in an effort to keep all my readers entertained and to let you all know that even though my 24 hours a day is consumed by baby right now, even down to smelling like baby when baby is sleeping and I have a moment to myself...I am going to post about something non-baby.

I am a frequent reader of Franklin Habit's knitting blog The Panopticon. He's a writer, cartoonist, knitter and photographer in Chicago and I really enjoy his writing style, humor, sensitivity and his fantastic knitting! His most recent post, Strangers on a Train, made my jaw drop. Go ahead, click the link, read the post; I'll wait for you.

Appalling, isn't it? I suppose being a white woman in a more liberal part of the Midwest puts me in a fairly safe place. I am not likely to be in a situation where I will be heckled or singled out. Even breast feeding (oops, that is baby related) in public is accepted here.
Being so safe in my place I forget that there are truly ignorant folks out there. Franklin poses a great question at the end...if two very different people with opposing views can not find the gumption to endure a simple conversation on a train together; "how are opposing politicians and entire countries going to reach accord?"

There really is a world outside of my comfy little home and it isn't always as sweet as my darling little baby (sorry, had to get that in there).