When you live in Wisconsin, February 15 is a day that brings some relief: you've crossed the summit and are now scooting down toward March. And you are three weeks away from daylight savings time, imagine that!
For us, it was one of the coldest days of this winter, but hey, now we can look forward! Things can only improve. And the furnace is still chuggin' along, the cars are starting, and the cheepers survived the worst of the worst, and they're growing back their feathers and soon they'll be digging for worms in the garden and I'll get really annoyed at them for the damage they'll be doing to my young flowers. Yay! Spring is within sight! (Today, they're still keeping to the shelter of the barn.)
And breakfast? Well, the usual, except that Ed surprised me with a request for eggs straight off the skillet, with a bagel and a beer. If you drink only one beer every month or so, why would you have it in the morning? Ah, the mysteries of the Edwardian taste buds!
During this leisurely meal, I outline my plans for a garden expansion for this spring. Our big effort was, of course, last year, in preparation for my daughter's wedding, but I have ideas on more improvements and though by the end of last summer, I was tired of tending to all the gazillion plants and veggies and shrubs and trees we have planted, predictably, my enthusiasm for creating finer landscapes has returned.
As for Snowdrop -- well, my daughter didn't really need my help today as she has two wonderful friends visiting this weekend (one from the east coast and one from the west coast, so you can say that people have come from far and wide to meet and greet the tiny one!). Still, my girl sensed that I would miss a moment with Snowdrop and so she invited me to stop by and visit and I did and it was jovial and delightful -- as it always is when all the people in the room are half your age (or thereabouts).
So I do leave you with a couple of Snowdrops here today, including one with my daughter's west coast friend.
Little Snowdrop gave us the best of herself...
...I'm sure they'll forgive her if/when she later falls apart and retreats to her young six-week old self. (Personally, I think she is adorable even when she gives in to a long hard wail, with the true pathos of a tired little one.)
Evening. I bake a cake for a brunch tomorrow for the young people. The Ligurian cake. The one with lemon and raspberries and olive oil.
Ah, but that's tomorrow's story.
For us, it was one of the coldest days of this winter, but hey, now we can look forward! Things can only improve. And the furnace is still chuggin' along, the cars are starting, and the cheepers survived the worst of the worst, and they're growing back their feathers and soon they'll be digging for worms in the garden and I'll get really annoyed at them for the damage they'll be doing to my young flowers. Yay! Spring is within sight! (Today, they're still keeping to the shelter of the barn.)
And breakfast? Well, the usual, except that Ed surprised me with a request for eggs straight off the skillet, with a bagel and a beer. If you drink only one beer every month or so, why would you have it in the morning? Ah, the mysteries of the Edwardian taste buds!
During this leisurely meal, I outline my plans for a garden expansion for this spring. Our big effort was, of course, last year, in preparation for my daughter's wedding, but I have ideas on more improvements and though by the end of last summer, I was tired of tending to all the gazillion plants and veggies and shrubs and trees we have planted, predictably, my enthusiasm for creating finer landscapes has returned.
As for Snowdrop -- well, my daughter didn't really need my help today as she has two wonderful friends visiting this weekend (one from the east coast and one from the west coast, so you can say that people have come from far and wide to meet and greet the tiny one!). Still, my girl sensed that I would miss a moment with Snowdrop and so she invited me to stop by and visit and I did and it was jovial and delightful -- as it always is when all the people in the room are half your age (or thereabouts).
So I do leave you with a couple of Snowdrops here today, including one with my daughter's west coast friend.
Little Snowdrop gave us the best of herself...
...I'm sure they'll forgive her if/when she later falls apart and retreats to her young six-week old self. (Personally, I think she is adorable even when she gives in to a long hard wail, with the true pathos of a tired little one.)
Evening. I bake a cake for a brunch tomorrow for the young people. The Ligurian cake. The one with lemon and raspberries and olive oil.
Ah, but that's tomorrow's story.
That Ligurian cake is a perfect combination of flavors. Thank you for sharing the recipe last summer.
ReplyDeleteI adore the young people! The wit, the warm laughter, the true caring they have for one another! They are smarter than I was in that they are making more of an effort to stay connected with their dear friends. It seems I was always just marching forward. When we moved from one college town to another, I never looked back. Only now do I pause and fondly remember a few special people. I realize this generation is more mobile (they have much more money than we did!) and of course more connected thanks to iPhones and such.
Lovely Snowdrop smile!
And I, too, loved hearing our little babe holler good and loud!! She does not like a cold baby wipe in the middle of the night! Tell us all about it, I thought! You go, little girl!
So true! Between blogs like this, social media, Skype, and Google Hangouts it's so easy to stay connected. I remember long distance phone calls a couple of times a year with my grandparents in Hawaii, with airmail letters a few more times a year... and two month long vidits in my youth, making me one of the few kids in my school who'd even been on an airplane. (If you remember those cool airmail envelopes, you're old!)
DeleteWhen ai mentioned Tim Berners Lee to my Sixth Grade students a couple of years ago and told them he was the founder of the World Wide Web, they said "He's still alive??!!” Time moves fast for them... just think of the world Snowdrop will grow up in!
I remember those cool airmail envelopes! I used very many of them to write to my friends and family back home!
DeleteAnd yes, Joy D, I feel the same way about the differences between our young set and us: they're more savvy, more established... That's not to say it's better or easier, just different!
Your night time wipey story reminds me of what a young, more experienced mother told Snowdrop's parents a few weeks back: "when she wakes up at night, dont change her diaper!" Since then, they've never had problems getting her back to sleep after a night feeding!
Ew, haha, sleep in it! Nursing babes eat and have a long leisurely evacuation at the same time. Must feel just lovely. :) I remember having to change them while they were so peacefully asleep. Then they would wake and want to nurse more, but suck-suck and their little mouths would fall away.
DeleteMary knows you can buy a wipe-warmer (of course you can) but she just chuckles to Cadence "get used to it". A warm washcloth would do, I think, especially since they're already washing all those cloth boppers. But gramma says nothing. :)
This feeding thread reminds me to tell you something I have just learned, in a book called Bright from the Start. (I thought I could use a refresher). Well, bottle-fed babies would ideally be switched from one side to the other, as in nursing, because crossing-the-midline is beneficial in brain development (integrating the two hemispheres of the brain). Well, I know about crossing-midline activities in preschool, but I never thought about the feeding. Especially as baby becomes more interactive with the caregiver during feeding, with eyes and hands.
What a wondrous journey we're all on! Awesome!
Two things I learned today: evacuation works differently for different babies (Snowdrop's never in the middle of the night) and secondly about the left side right side idea. I'll pass it on! Super interesting and certainly easy to implement. Snowdrop is very attentive to the feeding face. It's as precious to observe now as it was when my girls were that age...
DeleteThe left side right side connecting with alternate breasts in breastfeeding or bottle side to side switch... fascinating thought!
Delete