Sunday at the gardens

Maeve and woke up today after a wonderful sleep (see the previous post) and decided to go visit our friends that live in Troy Gardens. It's an intentional community north of us. There are 30 families living there with the idea of community embedded in all that they do. There is also community gardens that folks that live there and others can farm, as well as a CSA (community supported agriculture). I think the best part though is the restored prairie.

My friend Lael and I walked through the trails that meander through the prairie for well over an hour. The tall grasses swaying in the wind and crickets jumping to get out of the way made me long for a good hike. I can't wait until Maeve is big enough to take on a small overnight backpacking trip. I carried most of our gear when Mark and I went camping a few years ago, so if he can just carry her, we'll be set.

The CSA was sad to see today. The damage after a long week of heavy rain was apparent. Very sad here in WI. So many of the small farms were hit hard by this last week of rain. Some of those farms estimating in the tens of thousands of dollars for damage. We'll be sure to hit up the Farmer's Market to offer whatever we can.

Well off to rest, tomorrow is another day.

My amazing baby

Let me tell you a story of my amazing baby...

Well folks, it's been a long week away from the blog. The week in Madison has been a dark, dreary and very rainy one. The shores of the Yahara River and lake Monona are swollen due to all the rain and the rich folk that live on lake Mendota...but I digress. I will say that I was pretty happy about being on the second floor where it was always nice and dry, humid, but dry.

It was a week of indoor activity. Mastering pulling up on the furniture, starting to think about climbing on the bookshelves (oh dear, help the parents) and general baby mayhem. The week ended well though. The sun finally came out on Saturday in time for the Orton Park Festival. To date, this is by-in-large my favorite festival in Madison. Good music, some interesting food, great people watching and last but certainly not least Cycropia Aerial Dance. Cycropia is a dance company that does most of their pieces hanging from some sort of trapeze. They set up their equipment from this grand old tree in the park. The dances are set to music and the tree is all lit up as they dance. There is something magical in my mind about it. And I'll admit that it speaks to the heart of this once-upon-a-time gymnast. They offer classes and I think maybe next year I'll try to sign up.

I selfishly had to see this performance, and seeings Maeve hasn't done so well with nighttime sitters, I decided I would make the sacrifice of possible sleep and wake her up to take with me. The performance started at 9:00pm and my little trooper happily woke up and got dragged along with me. She smiled as usual to anyone that would make eye contact. She even watched some of the performance. Not sure if she was genuinely interested or just darn tired. We made it home by 11:00pm and she went right to sleep. She then proceeded to sleep her 2-3 hours, waking to eat only, and we slept in until 9:00am! I was so proud (and thankful) to my girl. She has won herself an occasional ticket to other late night activities should they arises. We both felt well rested and proceeded to have another great day together.

That's the story of my amazing baby. Doesn't take much to impress this mama!

Blog worthy

Well it's has been a long week away from the blog. Maeve's grandparents, Beth and Evan, were here for the week and she was busy entertaining them.

Maeve went to the Henry Vilas Zoo and the Mt Horeb Mustard Museum this week. The zoo is a bit ahead of her just yet, but she didn't seem to mind all that much. Until we tried to get her to feed the goats. Not a concept she is familiar with yet, after all, she doesn't each much other than breastmilk herself. The biggest goat climbing the fence and trying to hog all the food did not sit well. Maeve didn't cry, but she didn't smile or laugh either. We'll have to try that one again.

As for the museum, you'll have to ask Mark or the grandparents for that tale. All I know is that she came home with a onsie that says "POUPON U". Mark thinks this is the funniest thing. I suppose some of us never grow out of our potty humor stage!

Hhhmm, what else is blog worthy this week. Aahh, yes, the night of possibilities. I call it this, because judging by the last 2 nights, this is not a trend yet, but a glimmer of what is possible. On Thursday night Maeve went to sleep at 7:15pm and didn't wake up until 3:15am. That is 8 hours for those of you trying to calculate. I thought I had died and gone to heaven, but first I thought she died. I was up at 1, 2 and then 3:15 to check to make sure she was still breathing. It was like the first time she did not cry in the carseat. I thought for sure she must have smothered herself. There was no way my child could have slept that many hours in a row without waking up. Too bad it couldn't have been more like the carseat experience. That was like a light switch that got flipped. We've never had a screaming car ride since. But as I said, the last 2 nights we haven't been so lucky. I did try to give her as much praise as possible, but that didn't seem to have much affect.

Well, it's raining here this weekend. Trying to fill our days with indoor activities. Makes me tremble at the idea of being stuck in this apartment this winter. We'll have to get Maeve a good down snowsuit so we don't go crazy indoors.

Off for now. Hope you are all well.

Ode to Fatherhood

Definitely not Mark at his finest, but possibly his funniest.

I'll give him that he was up at 4 am minding the girl as she wasn't sleeping.

Two Rivers and Manitowoc

Last minute Mark put together a trip for us to Two Rivers and Manitowoc, WI. They are two neighboring towns in northeast WI on the shores of Lake Michigan. Before we left we checked out what might be going on for the weekend there and thought we were all set.

The first thing we wanted to hit was a kayak paddle down one of the rivers that ended in a street fair, Roger Street Days. Well, Maeve lived up to her sleeplessness as usual and we didn't get to bed until very late Friday night. It did mean that we slept in a bit Saturday morning...so we missed the paddle. We decided that was OK and took a bike ride to Manitowoc. Had some ice cream sodas and treats from one of the oldest shops in town. The towns boast that they are the originators of the 'sundae.' I can't confirm or deny this, but at least every ice cream shop in town did sundaes really well. We biked back to Two Rivers in pursuit of Roger Street Days. The advertisements promised music, dancing, food, beer....the usual fare. Well, when we finally stumbled upon it, all I could think to myself was that I have seen more people show up for a blood drive. It was a really sad sight to see a few families camped under a couple tents eating their hot dogs and music playing from a boom box. We almost sat down out of pity, but instead decided to go hang out at the beach.


Maeve as usual had a great time in the water, despite it being pretty cold. That girl is a 'Sconie after all. If you close your eyes and imagine salt in the air, you could almost convince yourself that Lake Michigan is an ocean. You can't see the other side and the wind kicked up the water so at one point decent size waves were rolling in. Maeve did cuddle up for some warmth when she was done playing.

On Sunday we spent some time at Kohler-Andre State Park. It's beautiful there and we'll definitely have to go again when we have some more time. The park is just south of Sheybogan, again on the shore of Lake Michigan. Lots to see, beautiful landscapes and a little more fun playing in the surf.

Until the next post! Goodnight Madison!

Amoebas

Ever look at amoebas under a microscope? Constantly changing shape and always in motion. That is what Maeve and Milo looked like the other day at the gelato shop. What a lovely site to see these two beings, both dressed in sherbert orange learning to move their bodies.

First things first though. The initial folks that looked like a bunch of amoebas were the flock of girls that surrounded Milo on the street. Those boys eyelashes just pulled those girls in like moths to a flame. Should have heard them ooohing and aahhing at him. Then they saw Milo's girlfriend, Maeve. Another few oohs and aahs and they were off. We then took the celebs to the gelato shop to cool down.

Maeve and Milo sat/stood/crawled/bounced/bopped, you name it, on the bench next to us. It's amazing to see their little bodies always in motion. Always making corrections and adjustments. Their little orange clad bodies were sometimes wrapped around each other as they made their way. Gross motor skills and motor control depend upon the proper functioning of the brain, skeleton, joints and nervous system. Soon they will master that and move on to the fine motor movements.

What I would trade, beg, borrow or steal to witness just a few more moments like these before they move on .

Alternababysitter

For those of you that haven't read Alternadad, give it a read. On second thought, maybe just the folks that are currently or soon to be parenting young children that is. The humor might be lost on the other folks.

If you have read it then you'll think Alternababysister is funny too. Katie is Maeve's babysister, alternababysister that is. Do not be fooled by the tattos, the self-admittedly low cut shirt and funky hair. Katie is not your average gal, she is all the things you want in someone caring for your kid though. She's warm, fun, caring, has the voice of an angel, plays the guitar and the list goes on. Maeve adores her and Katie tells me the feeling is mutual.

Mark and I attempted a night out on Friday with Katie as our stand-ins. She did great, Maeve on the other hand decided she was going to try out Katie's bag of tricks. Eventually we came home early 'cause it sounded like our girl had had enough and well, we want Katie to want to come back. We gave her some combat pay that will hopefully make up for the bad night.

Accidents happen

Accidents do happen...this goes on record as the first major official parental screw up Mark and I have had. Unfortunately, it also goes on record as the first major injury Maeve has had. Notice I say first. My daughter does not seem to have a lot of extra fear hanging around, so I imagine I'll be putting my nursing to degree to work at home as much as I do at the clinic.

At dinner the other night, Mark had just finished frying up some fish and put mine on my plate. I was busy getting Maeve into her highchair so we could all sit down. That girl and her lightning fast moves grabbed a piece of the fish before I even saw it coming. Her little brain had not had to process something so painful until that moment so it was a delayed reaction for her to open her hand. By the time I got the fish out and we got her hand under water, she already had a blister forming.

She's OK. She has 3 small blisters on her right hand. After some TLC, and hour of crying and some ibuprofen she finally went to sleep. I thought she might be affected by it today, but it didn't seem to slow her down at all.

We all survived the event and like I said, I think this is the first of many to come.

Fun at the dinner table

In attempts to get Maeve to eat something, we've gone to just having food time be fun time as much as possible. Mimi and Pop Pop can attest to the fact that Maeve will suck the juice out of a piece of chicken in her little mesh bag, but she isn't such a big fan of getting spoon fed mushy food stilll.


Soooo, we've just adopted the 'have at it' method. She seems pretty happy right? Her face and everything else around her is covered in the cracker she was eating. Then there was the spaghetti noodles that I gave her to play with. Those puppies were stuck to everything.


Then there was the clean up. Another fun activity for baby that created more work for Mama later....but well worth it in my opinion. I had a chance to clean up most of the dinner things while she played on the floor in the water. There was tons of water on the floor, but that needed to be mopped anyway.

I bet you are all dying to have Maeve over for dinner at your house!