Skunk

This post *was* titled "Are. You F-ing Kidding Me?" but I toned it down. I was awakened from a sound sleep by the chemically toxic, nauseating smell of direct skunk hit. I waited for it to leave my bedroom- hey, sometimes a skunk walks by outside the window and it wafts in. It only got stronger. I finally peeled the kids off me and went to investigate. H-Mama is sitting downstairs on the couch reading and watching Heroes on DVR (cause I don't like it). She arrived home from her late softball game after the rest of us went to sleep. In response to my gagging query about the odor she asked. "Oh, you can smell it?".



The smell is so thick upstairs I actually feel ill. I've opened windows, put a fan on, and taken a Benedryl to help my brain get me to sleep despite the stench and the fury of so careless a decision as to let 2 digs into the house stinking like this. (Fury = I must say, I hate to be awakened, and have oodles if trouble getting back to sleep under the best of circumstances.) It is 11pm, we haven't got the ingredients required to deskunkify the dogs or their beds - I've placed both out on the porch for tomorrow and hope the dogs will keep from barking all night. I'll have to deal with it after she's gone to work Friday, with 2 toddlers wanting to help and with 2 nights of sleeplessness under my belt. Sigh.



If you have dogs. Commit this to memory and stock up:

1 bottle 3% hydrogen peroxide

1/4 c baking soda

1 ts dish soap

Mix, dilute with water slightly and scrub, keeping away from eyes.

Cosmo Acclimates

With the bare minimum of encouragement, Cosmo is proving to be a fair bet for agility trials. He found this out on his own, and we're encouraging it wholeheartedly.


I took him to the vet today, since he's had nothing but diarrhea since we brought him home. He was on a 5-day course of worming meds, and once those finished he should have been set to rights. No such luck. The vet said that he is most certainly not a Labradoodle, most likely an Airedale - Poodle cross. This is actually good news, since I wanted a terrier and love Airedales. Medically, though, he could have used some care in the past few months. He has gastroenteritis and giardia, a nasty little parasite that is easily treated. This explains the upset bowels a far sight better than stress. I had him tested for heartworms and we'll get those results in a few days. For now, he's on a special food that is high in protein & easy to digest, an antibiotic and a probiotic flora supplement. The vet said he should be markedly improved in 2 - 3 days. Phew. Both the vet and the vet tech commented on what a fantastic dog he is - one of the truly special ones. We happen to agree. It will be nice to have him out of the kennel and lolling about the house with the other dogs.

Hometown Love

I met some friends for brunch on Saturday. We are planning another big moms group family party, where we rent out a gymnasium and each bring a big toy or wagon or slide. Potluck food, a little spiked punch for the parents, and loads of fun. Lots of talk of travels, food, children's issues, you know, what constitutes edgy topics these days. We had our party planning discussion over fried eggs with apple, potato and sausage hash and lattes (mmmm) and then headed off to the new boutique baby store a block away. It is delightful - the owner had been running it out of her home for a while, and just got a storefront. She had all the fun, funky and expensive toys that I'd been reading about on the web but never got to touch. All things cloth diapering, maternity and nursing garb, lead-free toys, the perfect birthday present for my nephew who is turning two (!) in March. She also carries many different types of slings and carriers; I rented a KarmaBaby pouch sling to see if it would work for us. I have been meaning to whip up a pouch for ages out of some of my extensive fabric stash, but the time keeps eluding me. I could really use a pouch NOW, since I have to haul at least one baby outside with me for a quick potty run with the puppy. My wrist pain makes carrying a floppy 25 lb + baby around while also holding onto a vigorous dog on a leash more than uncomfortable. (Have I mentioned how excited the concept of getting Cosmo trained to the invisible fence makes me?) Anyway, the pouch sling will work but is fairly unattractive - they call it mocha; I call it ugly brown. I shall cut a pattern and find the time to make one. We did manage to talk the store owner into offering a door prize for the party which will be fun. I could easily spend a gift certificate in there! We'll approach a few more local stores. It is good that the moms group is 50+ strong and growing. There is a lot of power in numbers.

I had time left before H-Mama expected me home, so I zipped to the feed store to get nice big raw shank bones with bits of meat on them for the dogs. Big crowd pleaser, those. Anything I can do to help Cosmo piece together the difference between baby toys and dog toys is good. The baby toys do smell less like beef - he ought to be able to grasp that. Then on to the grocery store for a few items and a rolicking nice chat in the magazine section with a couple of novice knitters debating the necessity of following what the pattern said and actually buying a bowl the size of your head upon which to dry a felted hat. Um, you have your HEAD which is the exact right size to mold it to, right? These two pleasant women pegged me for a new mom immediately as I was swaying markedly as I perused the renovation mags. They had seven boys between them - egads! Then home to my family and a lovely warm afternoon in the house with the weather raging outside. As the afternoon wore on, we all needed a bit of distraction so we went off to the science museum with the kids. Pequita loves the turtles at the sea turtle display especially right now. After only an hour, we had closed down the place and we popped by Target to get some toxic fluid to keep my gas from freezing in the predicted 5 degree weather. We had a family nurse in my favorite spot in the Global Bazaar - private, but not hidden, with lots of gewgaws for Pequita to mess around with. They had a lot of boats on display in the mall, and I wanted to let Pequita play on her favorite, a huge pontoon boat with white leather seats. No go, though - there were a bunch of teenagers hunkered down. I figured that we could scare them off if I tromped up there with the baby, but I actually said to H-mama, "No, let's let the mall rats have their fun on a Saturday night." Um, when did I get OLD?

Sunday morning we went to the dog park to romp Cosmo. Since he isn't allowed loose in the invisible fence yet, he needs to RUN once in a while, and my town just fenced in three acres in the park for dogs. As we arrived, the 20 mile-per-hour winds picked up and a lot of snow started blasting down and the temp dropped to about 15 degrees. Most folks took their dogs and ran, but we just loaded the snowsuited kids into the stroller, snapped on the rain covers for some wind protection and took off for a walk. My kids watched Cosmo and Homestead Mama romp inside the fence as we walked around the perimeter. My Phil & Ted's stroller made it through two inches of snow on a grass path beautifully. Somewhere along the way they both fell asleep, and H-Mama and I had a nice time sitting in the warm car with sleeping babies watching the storm. Very peaceful, and their aren't too many moments like that together.

R.I.P. Dodger

Sorry. We don't get many opportunities for cliffhangers here at Homestead Mom.

The dog is alive and well. Homestead Mama and I couldn't remember the name Dodger to save our lives, and repeatedly called him many other things. I was in the process of putting post-its with his name on them around the house to remind us what to call him when I realized that maybe his new name just wasn't the right fit for him. He is a bit goofier than a dog named Dodger should be. He is also huge and furry - we decided that Dodger was the name for a smaller, sleeker pooch.

Meet Cosmo, in all his furry, goofy, playful, drippy chin glory. Yes, this name is sticking, I promise.

Cosmo Kramer wasn't exactly a namesake, but certainly the spirits match. When I saw the new pup run into the master bedroom and skid across the floor on his uncoordinated paws and bump into H-Mama, the name was cemented. He is a funny dog, and needed a funny name.

First Night Chez Homestead

Just when you thought the blog couldn't get any more annoying with endless stories of the babes, I get a new dog to talk about! and show you pictures of! and discuss ad nauseum. Lucky, lucky readers.

The first night with a new being in the house is the worst, be it new baby, new dog, new roommate. Last night with Dodger was no exception. You can imagine the confused whimpering, the intermittent barking, the explosive diarrhea in his crate at 2 am...wait, yeah, well, we didn't expect that either. Too much change, too many new foods, too nervous, we hope, versus real illness. Lots of trips outside through the night (no different from the baby waking us up, really), lots of training time in his crate today, lots of Immodium medicine, and we are at almost twelve hours later with no more blowouts. I'll get him a vet appointment tomorrow, but he seems ok at this point.

Having had Dodger for about a day now, I assess him thusly. He scores a 75 out of 100 right off the bat; his temperament is fantastic, he is playful, game, extremely responsive to our tone & commands even while he understands none of what we say or want yet. He is gentle with the babies, nuzzling them and being pretty respectful of their space without being sketchy or timid. He wants very much to romp with Luna and Cody, and is as respectful of the growly boundaries they are setting as any 11-month old pup can be. His two bad habits are that he is EAGER to interact with the cats, and I'm not convinced that he wouldn't bite them if given a chance. He's been repeatedly scruffed and rolled for this interest, and is now wary of the cats, tracking them but doing much less barking and chasing. His other distasteful habit is humping, primarily Luna. She will have none of it, and his desire and drive should diminish as the hormones diminish. This is the biggest problem with male dogs.

That all being said, he has no bad habits. He is learning fairly quickly, and is happy to be treated with cheese or hot dogs. (Um, no more until after the bowels have returned to normal, though.) He calmly follows H-Mama or I around the house as we go about our business, which is good, as it means he is our bitch. Um, I mean he accepts us as alpha.

I'm feeling more optimistic in the light of the new day. He laid down in my lap this morning while the kids ate breakfast in their booster seats on the floor in the living room and watched Thomas the Tank Engine. Dodger let me brush him, groom him, snip mats out of his coat around his ears and face, let me roll him on his back, legs splayed open, while I trimmed his toenails. Anyone with a whit of dog experience knows this is unbelievably good. He actually fell asleep on his back while I worked on his face. Homestead Mama is starting to fantasize about an agility champion or two in the household. (A, he is like your beloved god-dog Moody was , but less afraid. You will love him when you meet him, my German friend.)

I have but one serious regret. Pequita is love with the kennel we set up in the living room for Dodger. She walks right in, pulls the door shut behind her and organizes her toys on the padded bed in there. Had we known she'd like it so much, we'd have brought it our for her weeks ago. She cries when we make her get out to give Dodge some quiet time. (And right now, he's asleep at my feet on the hard dining room floor while I stand and type this. Sweet boy!)

That black saddle thing on his belly? A 'belly band' I whipped up last night. It presses his willy up to his belly, making it hard to mark (pee) in the house. He apparently did this in the rescue lady's house; he's shown no sign of it here, maybe because we have only females. Better safe than sorry, I say. I have no time to clean pee off the walls. It was a lovely pair of Danskin velour lounge pants that I had in the give-away pile. Reduce, reuse, recycle.

Welcome, Gus

Funny. I was about to change the subtitle of my blog from 'life among the ever expanding pack' to something less expansive, since we are pretty much done having babies. BUT. Welcome to Gus, the pooch we committed to adopting this afternoon. He's a Labradoodle who has had a rough first year in a Mennonite breeding kennel. He hasn't shaped up like they needed him to, either he doesn't meet the required standards for Labradoodles or, being a submissive fellow, couldn't, um, properly sow his oats with the females. Regardless, we'll have to help him learn how to play. He is already good with dogs and cats, and seems to have all the right instincts towards kids. Homestead Mama is getting over her preference for the Aussie with the wild hair up his 7 month old butt who would have been a very smart, very challenging dog. Frankly, we don't have two hours a day to spend training a challenging dog. We are both happy to be betting on Gus to be an easy and grateful addition to the household. We'll get him home in the next few days.

Whoops - Saturday Already?

Time flies. We are mostly better. Homestead Mama and I are eating regular food, and aside from some lingering fatigue and weakness, are well on the mend. She went to work on Friday, but not before grumping and sniping at me repeatedly until we were actually fighting. She did the only correct option to set the day straight, calling me from her car about 20 minutes later to apologize; we are both still irritable and out of sorts from being sick and cooped up for a whole week in a messy house with puking babies. I went to work as well, in a fashion. I took advantage of the babes being ill, quiet and very logey by playing our entire Tivo'd collection of Teletubbies (bloody brilliant show) for them. They played quietly, drifting between the dual peripheries of mummy and the TV while I swept & scrubbed the kitchen floor, cleaned the appliances, made things shine more than they have in a while. I washed the rugs, tidied, tossed a bunch of stuff, did 4 loads of laundry and got it put away (!). I was about to make a new fabric skirt for a rolling cart I have in the kitchen that houses my Kitchenaid mixer (true love) and our dusty breadmaker when I realized that I actually bought the cabinet for that spot in November. Sheesh. I planned a baking center when I designed the kitchen, a cabinet for all my equipment and supplies with a granite top for rolling out dough and making delicacies. Our less expensive line of cabinetry didn't offer a shorter specialty cabinet for baking, and I figured a regular cabinet would do fine even if I have to knead dough every day. So, with Monito watching from his seat and Pequita holding my tools I put together the cabinet & got it standing up in the right spot. And decided that I'm going to have to spring for a real, shorter baking cabinet which will stand a few inches lower and not interfere with our old fashioned low farmhouse windows. Duh. With no remorse, I'll put this nice maple 30" wide cabinet up in my craft area to start making it nice. I'm happy with the decision.

This morning we're off to meet a 7 month old Australian Shepherd who is up for adoption and will likely be too much dog for us with the babes. Tomorrow we go to meet a Labradoodle who is sounds perfect. In between, we hope to get Pequita's blood drawn again for her follow-up lead test. I'm terrified it will still be high and we'll have to get a hazmat team in here to decontaminate our house. H-Mama is just focusing on the cafeteria lunch we'll get at the hospital. She's a woman with odd tastes, assuredly.

I'll try to get a list together of words Pequita actually speaks now. She recognizes many, but has quite the repertoire. Her favorite is still MORE! MORE! MORE!

Pooch-a-rama

As I mentioned (in mind-numbing detail, I imagine) one of our dogs is terminally ill and we are looking to find another to keep our remaining dog company. We just went to the SPCA for a family outing and found an excellent prospect. This 5 year old 45 lb female was very smart, energetic, and would have been a great match for us. An old couple were just in the process of adopting her. They are clearly couch potatoes and bordering on elderly. What business they have to adopt a vibrant dog who loves to run and can jump 6' in the air I do not know. We left our names in case they bring her back because she is too much for them.

We aren't in a hurry, exactly, to get a new dog. Goodness knows we are busy enough with the babies. I sure do hate to see bad placements happen, though. No dog should have to live as a 'yard dog' chained to a tree outside, which is all I can see this couple doing. I'll get over it. Sigh.

Dwindling Pack

When I moved in with Homestead Mama, we had a combined total of four large dogs, seven cats and four parrots. It was nuts, but the pack was peaceful and well behaved. My goal was always to get down to two dogs, at least one of which was a mouser/ratter to keep the yard clear of small furry things with designs on wintering over inside our farmhouse.

All of my pets from Before (before meeting Homestead Mama, that is) have died. My lovely lab shepherd mix, Maggie, was a huge black sweetheart. She survived Parvo virus at 5 months old, getting hit by two cars and being lost for a week. She picked and ate raspberries off the bush by herself - I'd find her wandered off in our old yard grazing at the garden berry bushes, deftly avoiding the thorns. She slept with a part of her body touching mine at all possible times, and guarded me and my house with a ferocity that made me feel safer than at any other time in my life.

Misha, my cat who raised Maggie like a father and was one of a very few cats I liked, died at 22 years old a couple years ago. He was an amazing hunter, and could grab a fly out of the air three feet off the ground with his paw. He preferred to sleep in the bowl of cast iron sinks in the summer for the cool comfort.

Moody, my frisky little Cattle dog mix just died last year. I miss him daily. He was a funny little dog, nicknamed 'the mayor' for his habit of greeting each person in a room/ park/ car/ wherever he went. Now that Pequita is eating solid foods, he would be kept busy. He is the only pooch I've met who preferred veggies and fruit to meat; all the grapes and bit of banana that I find squashing under my slippers he would have eaten. He was the most gentle of all the dogs, and would have slept next to the baby, letting his fur be pulled as much as Monito wanted. He was the kind of dog that would have tolerated Pequita dressing him up in outfits. He died of a mix of old dog ailments.

Homestead Mama lost her shepherd mix Cherokee a few winters ago, to a freakish autoimmune disruption when Cherry was five. She was the smartest dog I've ever known, Cherry would patrol the house after we went to sleep and eat everything that she could find - pies on the counter, crumbs on the couch, feminine products in the trash can. She defended the car with everything she had - if we passed another animal, she would bark and paw at the window as if trying to dig her way out of the car - she was 80 lbs, so her pawing would sound like the window was going to pop out of the car, frequently startling passers-by and scaring the animal in question. While Cherry was very social and not at all bloodthirsty, she chased a deer across our property until it experienced death-by-Ford on our street. Cherry sat proudly by her 'kill' while H-mama returned to the house for the tools she needed to gut the deer and bring home the venison. (Growing up in the Adirondacks had advantages.)

Homestead Mama has also lost four cats in the years since I moved in. Bubelah, Dr. Seuss, Sasha and Marlena. I don't like cats much, and never really warmed up to these. She also finally agreed to find new homes for all four parrots in the last couple years.

Yes, our house was full of beating hearts when we first got together. I am most pleased that attrition has shrunk our numbers, because even though we love animals we had way too many. I'm even more pleased to be replacing the pets with babies.

We are left with two aging cats and two wonderful dogs, Cody, who has been with H-mama for nine years, and Luna who we rescued together. We found out on Thursday that Cody has a malignant carcinoma in her thyroid. We cannot justify spending the $3000+ that it would cost to try to save her, so we're giving her an NSAID that could slow the growth of the tumor and keep her more comfortable for her last weeks/ months. It is a huge blow to H-mama, and will be very difficult for Luna who is an extremely social three years old. We'll end up getting another dog as a companion for Luna, but this is going to be a very hard transition. I waffle between teary and sad at the thought of the hole Cody will leave in our household, and worried about house training another dog if we decide we need to get one right away. I barely have time now to feed the pets we have. Wait and see, I suppose. I have a bad habit of trying to count chickens before they are hatched.

Catching up

A turbo post, in case Pequita wakes up from her nap early:

We have been without internet, phone, and a second car in various combinations in the past week. All is back up/ online/ on the road. We are all still sick - Homestead Mama just got it on Wed in earnest, I just entered what seems to be phase two, with swollen glands and MORE fatigue, along with the requisite massive cold sore to alert me to my immune system's battle. (Because the fevers, chills, aches and the like were inconclusive.) Pequita is still very congested, but getting better. Monito is holding steady - no improvement, but no real down turn either. Still wheezing and coughing, still very cranky. We've only used the albuterol and nebulizer a few times - it is a stimulant (no one warned me; took me two nights to discover why we were up EVERY 45 MINUTES) and makes him very very jittery. The homeopathy and head steaming are helping him breathe, and I have to trust that his little body will shake the virus. And just THINK how strong his immune system will be after beating this!

Monday, Canadian Friend and her family arrive for a few days visit with their young daughter - I can't wait! My parents arrive for a pre-Christmas visit the following Monday, my sister & family arrive the weekend before Christmas. We're feverishly cleaning and putting the house to rights. We had really sunk into a bit of squalor with all four of us so sick for so long.

We managed to make a massive run with an overladen station wagon to the auction house with all our antiques - they'll sell them at the monthly auction and send us a check. I would have given them all away at this point, just to reclaim the space they've been taking up. We also decided to adopt out the last parrot, Peaches, a Goffin cockatoo who is bald of feathers all over her body due to self-plucking. She was hand raised, and is very tame and sweet. She is also incredibly loud and demanding of our attention. She's doing very well where she is, and I have started putting together the kid's space of my dreams in the alcove off the dining room. Homestead Mama is so pleased with how nice it looks, how well it will work, and how much Pequita likes to just be in her own space that it is taking the sting out of having gotten rid of her last bird.

And she's awake. More later, now that I'm back online.

Interspecies play

Pequita has breached the species barrier. She discovered that she can feed the dogs, and now feeds all her unwanted expensive organic food to the pooches, piece by piece, much to the dogs' joy. When we hand her dog biscuits to feed them, she eats them. Of course.

The Golden Boy

Monito has sadly graduated to a convertible car seat. Sadly because this means I can't leave him sleeping in the infant carrier and tote him around. He'll be in the same seats as his sister. I put his together, got it all adjusted and set it on the dining room floor until I had enough daylight & time to install it. Homestead Mama's bastard cat peed in it overnight. The cover is now in the tub soaking in enzymatic cleaners, and the base has been hosed off and blow-dried to keep it from rusting or gumming up in a way that could effect its functioning. H-mama has kept both her cats outside and away from me all day, which was a good plan. I installed the other new car seat in my car so I'm ready for the week to start, and we'll put the now tainted one in H-mama's car once we are assured it is clean. Goddamn cats. I don't ever want to own cats again once these last two die (and may that come swiftly.) Grrrrr.

Pequita and Cody

They have formed a friendship. Pequita borrows all Cody's rawhides & cookies, then gives them back, all with no growling on either part. Excellent.

Friends Who Cook

A new friend of ours was an OB nurse at the hospital we delivered in. She is now a nurse manager at our pediatricians office. She was the kind soul who came to the house and stripped my membranes when I was so ready to deliver Monito. She has been wanting to come and do something to ease our lives since the arrival of the second baby, and tonight was finally the night. All day long I worried about not having time to tidy, vacuum and clean up the house. I obsessed about the clutter that is growing and that I don't have time to deal with right now, since I am spending almost all my days holding the sick baby boy. Despite all my needless concern, our nurse friend showed up at our home and cooked us a delicious dinner of Moroccan Chicken over couscous. We cracked a bottle of wine and ate in the living room since I didn't have a chance to clean the dining room. She did this lovely mitzvah for us with no mention of the state of our home. I forget how nice it is to have people over, the kind of people who help us instead of draining us. Dinner was yummy, and we had a nice time chatting and getting to know each other a bit more. After dinner, I finally remembered to offer to let her hold Monito. It isn't that I want to hoard him, it is just that I am so used to shouldering the responsibility that I forget to share him. She was happy to get her hands on him, even though he pees or leaks his diaper on her every time she holds him. Embarrassingly enough, tonight was no exception. I can't imagine how that happens, but bad diaper management must be a big part of it. (Neither of our kids let us know when they are wet, and neither get rashes, so we have to remember to change them regularly. NOTHING should be left up to my memory these days, or Homestead Mama's.)

Pequita isn't really into being held right now unless she is tired or hurt. She was tearing around the living room and kitchen the whole time. At one point I went to check on her in the kitchen as it had been quiet for 60 seconds and she was standing up holding onto the dog's bowl. Luna, our shepherd mix, was sitting next to her looking miserable as Pequita stirred her hand around in the bowl of dinner Luna had been enjoying until a few seconds earlier. I swooped in and grabbed Pequita from the bowl and as expected, spotted the 2 kibbles in her mouth that she was happily mashing on. Oh, how she howled when I removed her prize from her mouth. I was only slightly comforted by the fact that we feed the dogs human-grade food. It is still dog food, and a right proper choking hazard. And a little funny, too.

Tomorrow, Friday, Homestead Mama's father and stepmother are coming to visit from out of town. They are attending a conference in a nearby town, and are taking the opportunity to meet their new grandson for the first time. It is great they can come down, as I don't think we'll make it up to their house until Christmastime. Homestead Mama has to run a training all day for work, so I may be on my own with them until she arrives. I hope Pequita's stranger anxiety is really easing up, as it will be hard for them if she is afraid of them. No one likes that kind of reminder that we don't see enough of our relatives.

Summer Vacation Redux - Part One

It was surprisingly difficult to not have Internet on vacation. There was so much to blog about and so many good pictures.


Our departure was, as usual, completely nutty. My 14 year-old dog shattered his foreleg jumping from only one foot off the ground the afternoon before we left. The emergency vet hospital visit took 4 hours the night before we left, basically consuming all our planned packing time. The x-rays showed that my pooch likely had early bone cancer and we decided to euthanize him - the leg was irreparable, and he had several other serious aging dog issues. This was horrible for me, as he was my constant companion for his whole life. His nickname was The Mayor, as he was friendly to a fault and always wanted to wander around politely greeting every person in the park. It was a less than auspicious ending, because Homestead Mama and I had both babies in a small exam room for the whole time during and through their bedtime. I was unable to properly love on my pooch and process what was going on because Monito was crying and Pequita was licking the floor, exam table legs, chairs, whatever. (She's going through a bit of a phase right now.) When my dog was being put down Pequita was bleary-eyed and chewing on the door stop (in a vet hospital - how clean could that BE?) and it made it hard to focus on the dog, so strong was my desire to keep her from contracting some deadly bacteria from the surfaces she was so lovingly tasting.

The next morning, instead of waking up and jumping into a packed car, we awoke and had to both tend babies, nurse, and pack for 10 days away from home. We managed to fit everything we needed into our car. It took about 12 hours with traffic to make the seven-hour drive, and Homestead Mama kept the babies happy the whole way by sitting squeezed in between the two car seats in the back. I was grateful to be the one driving. Due to a traffic jam at the end of the trip, we made our ferry with THREE minutes to spare. I have never sped so much in a car - I am usually a pretty lawful driver. I was spurred on by the thought of being stranded in a vacation area at 8 pm with no hotel vacancies, no way to get our car-load of stuff across the ferry (reservations fill up in January) and with two exhausted babies. I was giddy with happiness as we sat in the car nursing and breathing ocean air deeply. We got set up to put the babies to sleep immediately upon arrival (after hugs all around) and crashed pretty quickly ourselves. I woke up early almost every day, to the sunrise view below from the balcony off our room. The ocean is a block away, and while it doesn't show up in the photo very well it is huge, blue and looks gorgeous from the house.

Monito was exhausted from his first 2 months of life, and really took to vacationing like a champ. (And yes, I packed his mobile. He looks at it when he wakes up and it buys us more sleep time.)

My family has been renting the same vacation house for about twenty years. It is like sliding into a comfortable old robe to arrive and unpack, shake off our travel clothes and stress and meander down to the big porch that overlooks a park and out onto the ocean with a gin and tonic (or this year a baby and a passel of toys.) The house is close to the beach, grocery store, restaurants and a great park - the location can't be beat.

One of our favorite activities to do while on vacation is to go quahogging. We crack some open while standing hip-deep in the bay and eat them on the half shell, but end up bringing home a half-bushel for later transformation into chowder. Some days it can take a couple hours to rake up that many, other days it only takes a short time. The new digging site we went to this year was so rich with clams that we were done quickly. One of us got 22 clams in one scoop - an all-time record, to be sure. Homestead Mama wore Pequita in the Ergo carrier because she felt strongly that Pequita would love the experience. She did, until she fell asleep. This isn't an easy task, as H-mama was bending, dipping, digging and bouncing the baby around the whole time. You can see her head lolling to the side in the picture. Have I mentioned how our baby girl will sleep anywhere?

I only raked for about 10 minutes until I felt the pull of my Cesarean incision site, and opted to be the photographer in lieu of popping my almost-dissolved stitches.

Monito stayed behind with grandma on the porch. He spent time swinging in the hammock, which he loved. I really never have to worry when my mother has the kids. She is incredibly nurturing and innately skilled and patient with infant and young children. She taught kindergarten - third grade for her whole life, and it shows in all her interactions with our kids.

My dad makes the best chowder recipe (from the New Basic Cookbook) and he spent the day tending to that, and we had it for dinner. The quahogs last all week, too, so it is a good thing to do early in our vacation.

A Very Big Day

A quick post, while everyone naps on Sunday afternoon.

Saturday, Hottie Friend came and picked up Pequita around 8 am to pal around the Farmer's Market together so the rest of us could sleep in. She dropped off a tired and hungry baby around noon - I was in the shower so didn't get the play-by-play, but perhaps some pictures, HF?

I set off with Homestead Mama, my parents and the babes around 1 pm for a friends birthday party for her 3 sons, twins age 10 and the other 8 years old. We spent 3 hours at their house enjoying the cool summer day. There were screaming children running around all sugared up on cake and playing with new birthday toys, adults sipping beer and chatting on the lawn, and later on fishing in the pond and skeet shooting. (I told you we lived in a rural area.) Pequita spent the afternoon attached to Homestead Mama, and I spent my time with an 8-day-old barnacle stuck to my chest nursing. Just as H-Mama and I were ready for a nap, we all got in our car and headed off for a city about an hour away to go to the zoo - I slept the whole way there. The fertility clinic that we used to get our babies was having their 10th anniversary, and had rented out a local zoo for all its clients, past and present. I know there were over 2500 RSVPs, and when we arrived (about 20 minutes after the scheduled start) the place was already packed with children of all ages, hundreds of minivans in the parking lot and more strollers (single, double & triple) than I've ever seen in one place. The RE (reproductive endocrinologist) Doc who owns the practice is a whiz at marketing, and I'm sure the press was there and that it was a tax write-off. Regardless, it was quite an amazing time - the staff we had grown to know and appreciate over the past 4 years were there milling about, and the Doc spent the entire 4 hours that the zoo stayed open for the event at the end of a line that resembled the line to see Santa at Christmastime at the mall. We enjoyed the catered hot dogs and hamburgers, decided to stroll the zoo and come back to shake hands with the Doc later to avoid the line. He'd met Pequita, but we wanted to introduce him to Monito. So stroll the zoo we did. Pequita is old enough to really enjoy animals which are obvious to her - the petting zoo parts were her favorite. We patted an elephant and some goats, and saw tigers, penguins and many other animals. Grandma and Grandpa posed for a picture with the unhappiest penguin on the face of creation.

The highlight for Pequita was riding atop Grandpa for most of the trek around the zoo.

It was perhaps too much for me 8 days post-C-section, carrying the nursing baby the whole time. I was exhausted and sore by the end of the day, but we had a really great time. Upon returning to the zoo entrance, we found the good Doc still at the end of a huge line of grateful families all waiting to get their picture taken with him, and show off the kids he helped them have. We decided to skip it entirely and go visit the office in the next 2 weeks while Homestead Mama is still on parental leave. I have some expensive meds to donate to them anyway - they give them to patients with no insurance who need help affording the IVF process, and my account gets credited. This will help with storage costs for the embryos we still have in the cryo-tank; we'll be hanging on to them for a while longer until the dust settles with our family and we are certain we don't want more kids.

Needless to say, we all slept in on Sunday morning.

Productivity

Pequita and I had a lovely 20 minutes outside in the 90+ degree weather. I got Pequita set up in the shade with a couple of toys. She tolerated being set down fairly well as long as I stayed in sight and loudly sang her favorite song, Oom Pah Pah from the musical Oliver. (All about alcoholism and whoring around, but with a catchy beat.) I imagine the people in cars driving by thought I was a nutcase, but it couldn't be helped. If the singing stopped, the crying began. I have already done more humiliating things since we brought Pequita home than ever before in my life - dignity is easy to sacrifice for a smile.

I weeded the lily of the valley bed - the weeds were so bad that we totally missed the blooming last month. Mostly useless weeds, but I also pulled enough spearamint to make enough iced tea to last the week. Keeping in mind that I'm 9 months pregnant and only had 20 minutes, here's the before:

and the after:

The dogs came out with me and after a short romp, decided that yes, it really was too hot to trot. We all retired back into the cool house when Pequita started to choke on a mint leaf. She really hates having her mouth swept out with a finger, and the screaming was angry and loud. I made it up to her by introducing her to mango - oh, the joy. Mango love:She cried for more when she sucked the first piece out of her little mesh bag. Then about 40 seconds of bottle before she crashed for a nap. I'm blogging fast so I can join her.

Sunday's Nor'Easter chez nous

Sixteen inches of heavy, wet snow fell this past Saturday & Sunday. My belly is too big to shovel, so poor Homestead Mama had to deal with it all, despite being on antibiotics for her sinus infection. It was lovely, though.

This is our front entry. The branches are usually at least 8 feet off the ground, but the weight of the snow has really weighted them down.

6 month milestones

Pequita has fed herself. She turned 6 months old last Wed, and this afternoon managed to properly hold her bottle for an extended feeding. She is lying in the antique cradle that Boston Grandma bought for her at an auction that we keep in front of the stove - since it was snowing here today (we regularly get a storm or two in April) it is the best nap site in the house. Once she was full, the playing began and it got a little messy. The dogs took care of the clean up, though.

After the recent press about BPA toxicity, we bought her BPA-free plastic bottles from Born-Free (better safe than sorry) and will sell all the hand-me-down Avent bottles we were using. We also got some glass bottles from Born-Free, for home use. They keep the milk warmer for longer, although it will be a while until we trust her to hold one on her own. I will be making felted wool bottle covers for them, both to insulate them as well as make them less likely to break when we inevitably drop them.

Homestead Mama still breastfeeds Pequita full time, pumping when at work, and we supplement with formula for a few bottles a week, mostly at daycare. I've been giving her bottles of breastmilk since she was few weeks old, at first when Homestead Mama was having breastfeeding pain and now to give Homestead Mama a break from duties to give her some free time. We haven't started giving her food yet, although she is old enough. We will soon, I think, because we are intrigued with the prospect and also Pequita is starting to notice us feeding ourselves and is interested in the process.

Pequita is a sturdy kid, which is good for me as my style with babies is vigorous. She likes being swung about, tipped upside down, and lifted above my head. She chortles with delight when dropped a short distance into the pouf of duvets on our bed. She is standing a lot more - propped up, holding onto our hands, and as you can see below, clutching the cage of her beloved parrot Peaches. Of course, she lets go when distracted, so we are awfully diligent. Bets are still out on whether we can get her through toddlerhood with only the one big head bump.

Birds, update

We have found good homes for the two hardest birds to place, Magpie the goffin cockatoo, and Kyri the Umbrella cockatoo. The house is SO much quieter! Homestead Mama is still interviewing people to adopt Baron, the African Grey. He'll be gone by next week. We'll keep Peaches, the bald goffin cockatoo, since she is very tame and pretty ugly since she plucks out all her feathers. She and Pequita are developing quite the mutual admiration society. Hopefully they'll be good buddies and no one will sustain injuries.

We're off tonight for a weekend in the Adirondacks to let H-Mama's dad see the baby again. We sleep in their 30' camper which is parked in the driveway when we visit, so it is like having a very compact B&B room to ourselves, which is far, far preferable to sacking out on the leather couches in the living room, especially with the baby. I never realized how important it is to have a guest room! We had two in our house, but one turned into a nursery. When we do the last stage of renovations (currently scheduled for summer of 2009) we'll be creating a family room / guest room, so we'll be back up to 2 places for guests to sleep.

I have many new pictures, belly shots and other things, but haven't had time to post them. Hopefully this weekend, if I can get internet access. If not, early next week. Pequita is changing and growing so much! (As am I, I suppose.) I haven't had time to return phone calls, letters, emails. I'm sorry! If you're waiting to hear back from me, I'm working on it & thinking of you.