family

Easter

On Easter we celebrated new beginnings and the symbolic third day in our own way: it was the third day of our new one-nap-a-day world order. Viola was a little sleepy, but she held up like a champ. Was it the resurrection of a well-rested life for us? Only time will tell. As you can see, there were requisite headpieces and an egg hunt. Viola had no inkling that there was supposed to be anything inside them.

Welcome to the holidays, Viola

In the past two weeks, some stuff has happened.

We put you in the car at bedtime and picked up your grandparents at the airport. You woke up when we walked in the house, near midnight, and stared very seriously at them for 15 minutes or so, then gave your grandpa the full lower-lip treatment. We left you at home the next day with these strange people while we went to work.

Your laundry built up for a day or so while the pipes to the laundry room froze.

Your mama went to Seattle for work and forgot a part for her breast pump, so spent most of the day worrying about the front of her shirt. Then she waited on the wrong side of the street for the bus for 90 minutes before making it home with mammary glands ready to burst. Meanwhile, your papa took the car in for an oil change and found it needed $500 worth of new rotors.

We dragged you out in the rain and dark to pick out a Christmas tree. You marvel at it every day, and we tell you not to touch it.

Your parents left you alone all night for the first time. While they were staying in a luxurious waterfront bed and breakfast, you were wondering where your nighttime food source had gone. You banged hard on the windows the next morning as we walked up the sidewalk.

You picked up a mouse turd off your cosleeper bed. Your parents and grandparents started getting jumpy when they entered new rooms. Some strange people came to set up traps all around the house; another thing you aren't allowed to touch.

You mistook your mama's nipple for a chew toy, and drew blood. You cried with her.

You were trapped at M-Space for two long days for the annual blow-your-own ornament event. You were nap-deprived and walking-deprived.

And then tonight, you sat on the floor of the laundry room while mama shut off the valve to the hot water heater, to stop it from spraying energetically around the laundry room. You watched while we carted out soggy photo albums and lots of other old stuff from before you were born.

On the other hand, you got to spend a precious seven days with your grandma and grandpa Balsam, who you adore and who adore you right back. They got you lots of fun new toys and clothes for Christmas already, though mostly you're interested in the box they were shipped in.

All this, and Christmas isn't even here yet!

And I thought we couldn't do it!

I thought our trip to Boston was going to be really tough. A six-hour flight, a four-day conference at which I was presenting, 2 different hotels, a 3-hour time difference, a child with trouble falling asleep even in her own time zone, really hot weather, and so on. But we did it, and it was fun! Check out the pictures to prove it.

One of the things that made it so great (besides seeing Adam and Stephanie) was that Adam borrowed a really fancy stroller for us. We were all Sally McPractical when we got our stroller - we chose a model that got the thumbs-up from Consumer Reports but didn't cost much. We've had to outfit it with aftermarket sun shade and cup holder, but other than that, we thought it was pretty nice. Until we met the Bugaboo Frog.

It was a little rolling home for Viola. And I'm sparing you the details of its virtues by deleting the paragraph I just wrote about the 4 positions of the sun shade. Suffice to say, we went everywhere with the stroller - on the subway, on a train, on a ferry, up the stairs to our B&B, and down many, many sidewalks.

We were also mildly successful in continuing our routines and keeping the baby mostly happy. Here's Joe feeding her some sweet potatoes in the hotel room, her third food (after pears and plums in the previous weeks).

Did I mention she's even cuter than ever? By the end of the trip she was starting to wave, clap, and even say "ma-ma" - who cares if she doesn't know what she's saying?

12 things that happened on our trip to Illinois, only one-quarter of them involving poo

1. Viola's poo squirted out the side of her diaper just as we were about to leave for the airport. It got all over my jeans and on every piece of her outfit. Note that this has never happened with her regular cloth diapers, only with the disposable ones we were using for the trip.

2. We picked up the wrong stroller on the walkway when we landed in Chicago. At first we thought it was no big deal because it was exactly the same model as ours, but then we noticed it was rusty and missing a sun shade. Oh, and there was sticky stuff on the handles. Anyone need a free stroller?

3. We went out in the boat on the river. I don't think Viola liked her life jacket at all.

4. I started eating dairy again for the first time since she was born, and a few days later she started pooping green. The green poo lasted for a week. Here, Joe, Stephanie, and Adam are at the Dairy Haus in Rockton, minutes before I tasted a bite of Joe's black walnut ice cream. Tsk, tsk.

5. Viola saw her first cornfield.

6. We drove down to Normal, Illinois to visit our good friends Matt & Carmen and we met their daughter Josephina for the first time. A video of Viola and Josephina follows; it will definitely be boring for most of you if you are not the parent, grandparent, or aunt or uncle of one of the featured children.

7. Viola had her first go on a swing (an infant swing-set swing - how do you say that?) I thought I took a picture of it somewhere...

8. Michael Jackson died and lots of Illinoisan people complained that there was too much media coverage about it. I bet these same people didn't complain that there was too much media coverage when Elvis died.

9. My parents threw a party and showed their granddaughter off.

10. Viola sat in her first highchair at a restaurant and chewed on the table.

11. Viola cried and sobbed for about an hour every night when we tried to put her to bed.

12. On the flight home, she pooped during descent and it got all over her, my shirt, and my jeans. Indeed, it was green, and I couldn't get up to change it until we landed.