Summer Vacation Begins!

Last August, I accepted a full-time position at Walters State Community College's library. I LOVE my job- I get to do work I'm interested in and good at, I spend my days with co-workers whose company I totally enjoy, and the place is just, in general, a really great place to work. My new job also came with a nice little perk that I doubt I'll find any other time in my library career:

I work a 10-month contract. That means, as of June 15, I am off for the summer! It's been a strange adjustment, to be sure. It's been a long time since I've had a chunk of time off, and I had almost zero vacation time at my previous position, so it's been a huge relief. 

And here's the thing: we have to continue paying for daycare, otherwise Lukie would lose his spot at school. So, I'm working to find the right balance of extra time with my son and some time to get things done on the house. We have two years of deferred maintenance (ahhh, the child gap) to catch up on at the house. There is a lot of painting to be done, cleaning, organizing, all that fun stuff. Pete has to basically rebuild large sections of the porch and its railing, and we have three outdoor decks to paint, as well. So far, our summer schedule has been something along the lines of Lukie going to school at about 8:00 (after his pancakes and obligatory Mommy Snuggle, which has become a morning routine), I work until after his nap (he sleeps better at school, anyway), and then I get him and we come home and play. It's a pretty great life...can't I just always be a stay-at-home mom whose kid spends half the day at daycare? No?

As Pete put it, it's nice not having a job when you have a job. To be fair to myself, I'll note that I have worked my bottom off while at home. Last week, I painted all the bathroom trim and its two doors, in addition to touching up the trim in the kitchen. I planted a new rose bush and have been keeping up with the garden. On this week's schedule: paint the mudroom, paint the dining room trim and finish painting the new dining room window, work on an embroidery project that's been haunting me for possibly 2 years, process an insane amount of basil, and go through the kitchen for things to donate. Whew.

All while spending Tuesday at the Kingsport Splash Pad with Lukie and my dear friend Rebecca.

Now, for some pictures.

Blooming in the garden right now:

Above, those are black eyed Susan vines. They're on a neat trellis Pete hooked to the side of the house. They're right next to the new deck he's building. Below is a picture of the newly painted side door and the brand new dining room window. That's the new deck. Pictures to come when it's finished.

I'm a little obsessed with this flower, below. It's a coreopsis variety called Heaven's Gate. It's pretty and pink and lacy and I love it. I think I'll order a few more next summer...though I need to move this one because it ended up being a lot taller than expected.

I'm also really into this hosta, below. It's an Abique Drinking Gourd, and the leaves have this awesome curl to them which makes them almost cupped. It's in the corner of my new hosta garden. All the plants in here will get much bigger by next year, and whenever we leave this place, I'll definitely be taking starts. This hosta in particular is supposedly really neat when it's full grown; when it rains, the cupped leaves catch water until they are too heavy and then tip it. Apparently, it's like watching a living sculpture. I can't wait to see it next year!

That's also a deck that needs painting. See? Lots of painting to be done.

On to pictures of the inside of the house.

Our house has only one bathroom, but admittedly, it's pretty fabulous. We have plans to possibly add a second half bath upstairs, but they won't be happening this year, I don't think. The trim was poorly painted when we moved in, and over the years, it's taken a bit of a beating. I painted all of it, and also painted the two white doors to match the dark warm gray of the kitchen. I love it when a house flows from one room to another; seeing decor repeat itself in creative little touches makes it seem so much bigger and more cohesive.

The kitchen has undergone a major change or two in the last six months, as well. First, Pete built me a beautiful pantry cabinet for Christmas. Originally, we painted it mustard yellow, but in that small room, it just didn't work. I think in a larger, brighter kitchen, a big, colorful piece like that would have been fun, but in our kitchen, it looked a little forced and a lot too bright. So now, it's a nice charcoal milk paint color that blends with the trim, but has extra texture.

More pics of that to come later; Peter has since sealed it with a coat of polyurethane, so it's darker. I think I'm going to add a house tour page to the blog that I can periodically update with things we work over. So...I guess more on that eventually.

Pete's currently prepping for our big trip up North later in the summer. He bought some new rubber boots to wear when he's fishing in Canada, and Lukas has been very enamored of them.

And finally, I've also had time to work on a project I started a year and a half ago. For Lukie's first Christmas, I wanted to start making a map that would show all the places he visits throughout his childhood and trips we take as a family (and before we were a family). I bought a huge map, and Pete mounted it on foam core. I started embroidering it. I actually put our wedding trip out West on there, and then got busy with life and baby and work and stuff. I finally finished the wedding trip last week, and moved on to trips Lukas has taken. It's going to be fun to see it get filled up with lines as he grows up. Pete is going to build a frame for it, and I have to decide where it will go. I used to think above our bed, but I think maybe the dining room would be more fun, because we could show it to people and Lukie could tell them about his trips!

Above, our wedding trip. We started in Champaign-Urbana, drove to the Badlands, Yellowstone, Craters of the Moon (Idaho), northern Oregon, Cape Disappointment in Washington, down to the Oregon Dunes, and then inland to my Grandma Dot's house in Ashland, Oregon, where we got married. Then, we went out to the coast for a few more days, and finally high-tailed it back, stopping in Iowa before getting to Illinois. We camped the whole way and had so much fun...we can't wait to take Lukas on a southwest version of this trip when he's older. And, Pete and I plan to take a trip to the Northeast next year for our 5-year anniversary!

Lukie's trips, so far, have been mostly local to the South. He's been back and forth to IL a lot, of course, but he's also taken trips to Kentucky, North and South Carolina, and Georgia.

See? It's huge! Pete will be making a BIG frame, and it has to be removable so I can keep up with our vacations. Incidentally, this is not an easy project to embroider. After bruising my finger repeatedly, I finally lighted on a technique of using a pushpin to chart my course and then coming back and flipping the map over and over as I embroidered with floss. There's a lot of looking back and forth, especially since the needle often gets lost in the foam core between the front and the back.

I think the whole project will be worth it, though. Imagine what it will look like when he's a teenager!

Anyway, that's what's been going on lately! I'll be adding a house tour page sometime soon! Lots of things are changing around here!

A Mama Milestone: A Year of Nursing!

So, true to form, I took no pictures of the Gatlinburg trip. I'm waiting for my brother to send me a picture that the entire group, minus Peter who was at the cabin working on homework, took at the top of a 2-mile hike. That's about it.

It was a great weekend, though. It was so awesome to just hang out with my friends, something I haven't gotten to do since we moved to Tennessee. Seeing Lukie's Uncle Eric was pretty rad, as well, and even though Pete and I spent the better part of the weekend chasing Lukas around a 4-story cabin that was basically a baby death-trap, I'd do it all again in a heartbeat.

So, on to the real reason for this post.

Lukie turns 1 year old next week. A long time ago, when I was having trouble feeding him, struggling with a baby who cried all day long, and wallowing in some serious post-partum depression (which really only started to lift around Christmas-time), I thought we'd never make it to 1 year. Then, he turned six months old, and things started getting better. He stopped crying so much. He and I settled into a feeding routine that has worked. He got a little bit of independence and started turning into this awesome, smiley kid that he is today.

Life has gotten so much easier since then. Lukas woke up every 1.5-2 hours between the beginning of November and the end of March. Think about that. I never slept more than 1.5 hours straight between November and March. Somewhere around 9 months old, though, he started sleeping for closer to 3 hours at a time, and now he's up to 2-3 wake-ups per night. For some mommies, that might be terrible, but it feels great to me. Lukie goes to bed at 8:00, wakes up around 1:30, eats, and then goes back down until approximately 5:00. I feed him again, and most mornings (though none this week), he sleeps in until 6:30 or so. I feel like a totally different person when he lets me sleep like that.

Lukas' one-year birthday marks another serious milestone for Mommy. I will have made it an entire year breastfeeding my son exclusively. I never thought I'd get there.

As a quick re-cap, our bf'ing experience started out rocky, to say the least. I experienced awful pain in the first couple of weeks, and when I realized that it wasn't getting better and I wasn't just "toughening up," I sought out help. It was really hard to find, but after a week of frantic searching and crying and feeling guilty and almost giving up completely, I found Katherine of BreastFeeding Essentials in Bristol, TN. I owe her so much (and any mommies in the East TN area-- seriously, if you are having any trouble breastfeeding, or even just want to learn more about it before you try-- give this lady a call! http://www.breastfeedingessentials.net/index.html).

Over the phone, through multiple tear-filled phone calls, Katherine diagnosed Lukas' extreme lip tie. He was biting me to try to stay latched on, never getting full (hence and needing to eat every 1.5 hours). His biting was causing me horrible pain. Katherine brought me to a cosmetic dentist who, in approximately 10 seconds, lasered Lukas' lip, cauterized it, and solved the biggest issue we were having.

My sweet little guy getting his lip tie fixed at 3 weeks and 2 days old.

Things didn't get 100% better from there, as I got a thrush infection that felt like I was on fire every minute of every day for a week. We went through a couple doses of medication and some seriously scary blue stuff to fix it...

Gentian Violet. It worked...but seriously...ew.

After we finally killed the thrush, things got better. I went back to work when Lukas was 8 weeks old. My depression started to lift a bit, and I settled into a routine of pumping 4 times a day (now 3) while at work and sending what I pumped to daycare with him. We had trouble with him taking bottles for months, and each Monday, after nursing all weekend, he would be a bit persnickety with the daycare ladies, but for the most part, it has been a really successful breastfeeding experience. I haven't had to give him formula since he was 2 days old and needed a little supplementation until my supply established itself.

Lukas has done so well on breastmilk. His daycare teachers notice how soft his skin is and how, even though all the other babies at the daycare have runny noses, neither he, nor the other baby who is breastfed, have them unless they have a cold. Which, by the way, has been remarkably seldom. 

I don't judge moms who can't go for as long as I have. I've been lucky that pumping has worked well for me, that ultimately, my child was willing to go from bottle to breast and back again, and that I have a work environment that's supportive of my decision to breastfeed for an extended time. I'm hugely proud of myself, however, for sticking it out. It hasn't been easy, and it's been a source of stress, but I'm very, very glad I did it.

Where will we go, nursing-wise, once Lukas turns a year old? Pete and I have been discussing it, and I think we're going to start weaning him off breastmilk during the day at the end of July, once I've had time to talk to his doctor and find out what we should use in the breastmilk's place. My goal is to eventually get him off of daytime feedings, or at least cut my pumping back to once at lunch time, and then feed him in the morning and night every day until he decides he's done breastfeeding. It'll give me the solution I want: let him be the final decision-maker as far as our breastfeeding relationship goes, but make it easier for me as I work and live a slightly more flexible lifestyle.

Here's my big, beautiful, chunky kid. I'm proud of every pound of happy!

(And no, those aren't teeth in that second photo. Still no teeth. Just swollen little gums.)

Will He Eat It? Episode II: Vegetable Curry Rice

Lukie is starting lumpy foods and finger foods! I bought some sweet potato puffs for him at the store (not loving the added sugar and salt, but I can't make everything), so last night he spent some time playing with them. Notice I didn't say eating them; that's a step he hasn't really figured out. I can put them in his mouth, and he'll make a face and eventually eat them down, but he hasn't quite figured out that he can actually transfer food from his high chair tray to his mouth and eat it. All things in good time.

Buddy tried some of my vegetable curry rice last night. Pete and I really love Indian food, so I'm experimenting with curries lately. This one wasn't my favorite, but it was really healthy; tomatoes, cauliflower, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and green beans with a tomato/curry/yogurt sauce. In general, the curry flavor probably wasn't strong enough for either of us. That's why you keep trying, I guess!

So...not really. I don't think it was the taste that caused the "face." It's still texture. He makes an, 'ew, that's lumpy' face every time I try to put real solids in his mouth. We'll get there! At least he didn't gag this time...that was what he did forever!

And somebody was chatty during bath time last night....

Here are a couple awesome pictures, too...

Miss Sara took this picture of him at daycare yesterday. He's crawling all over everything, but still not crawling. If you give him something to hold onto, he'll pull himself up onto it or over it (specifically, he likes to use my legs to launch himself up into my face and then chew on my shoulder). He's trying!

  

And this photo I took this morning. Lukie lives in a house divided- Peter is a Cubs fan and I am a Cardinals fan. Knowing this, and being a Cardinals fan herself, my friend Jodi sent the little guy a Cardinals onesie (made for a 12-month-old, oy). I think he looks good in Fredbird Red. I'm sure Pete would beg to differ.

Also, look at those hams!

And we're back...

Wow. It's been a while since I updated! The reason I didn't update last weekend was...well, there just wasn't a whole lot to say. The weekend before, Lukie's cough had gotten a little worse and then gotten better. Then I got the bug and came home early from work on Monday, stayed home Tuesday, lost my voice, and was back at work (though not happy about it) by Wednesday. Pete started feeling icky on Friday and was sick Saturday and Sunday, causing us to cancel a planned date night and a bonfire with friends to get our little boys together to roast marshmallows. Ah, well. Is what is.

Mom and Dad, knowing Pete would probably be better by Monday, went ahead and visited this week! They came in on Monday and stayed until Friday morning! I am always a doofus about remembering to take photos, so I just have a couple from their stay, but I'll pepper the post with other pictures of Lukas.

Mom and Dad got in on Monday evening just before I got home from work. I had put together some baked spaghetti so that dinner would be ready, and it was nice to get home and have dinner with my family. Lukie had a pretty good evening, and Mom helped me give him his bath.

Tuesday Pete took a big group of students on a field trip to Old Salem in Winston-Salem, NC, where they toured the old town and the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts. It's place after Pete's heart- full of old furniture. He said the student who had taken the material culture class from him last spring did a good job of identifying different periods of furniture, and I think that made him feel good. He was gone all the way until 9 p.m. that night, so I was sure glad to have some help!

DROOLMONSTER.

Thanks for the cools duds, Grandma Vickie.

Standing against Mommy...not so sure about balancing, though...

Mom and Dad and I took Lukie to Johnson City to shop for Lukas' winter clothes on Tuesday. We have tons and tons of onesies for him, but he needed some warm pants and jackets in which to bundle up when we're leaving for daycare in the mornings! Mom is a saint (a saint who likes shopping for baby clothes, I guess) and bought Lukie his whole wardrobe. He's been sporting some pretty dapper looks this fall, already. After that, we strolled over to the bookstore to pick Grandpa Bob up and then went to Five Guys Burgers. Mom and I had eaten there before, but Dad never had. We knew he'd like it, and as burgers aren't really Pete's thing, it was a good time to go.

We came home, cooked some dinner, and hung out until Daddy got home. Well, Lukie and I were asleep, but we left Pete some pretty righteous pumpkin bread pudding that I had made from the pumpkins we grew in the yard this year!

Wednesday, I had to work. Boo. Nothing really happened Wednesday, but Mom and I both noticed that Lukie's cough was getting a little worse, and I noticed he was starting to pull off when he was nursing, like something was bothering him. I amateur-diagnosed an ear infection, since I figured the pressure of laying on his side might be what was bugging him. I called the doctor on Wednesday to set up an appointment. Nothing really ALARMING was happening, but Lukie had had the cough for about a month, and while it wasn't bad, it was starting to bug me a bit.

Dad and Pete also got a digital antenna up and running. We had gotten so sick of poor service from DirecTV, and honestly, we just didn't watch enough TV to justify the cost every month. We got satellite service when we moved into the house a year and a half ago after living our first year down here with only Netflix, but it's just never been something we really felt like we needed. So, with the antenna up, we canceled our satellite service and were still able to watch the World Series opener. I fell asleep with Lukie way too early to find out the outcome, but Pete informed me the next morning that the Cardinals had lost. He tried to keep the glee out of his voice. Glad they've tied the series up now.

I'm glad I set up the doctor's appointment for Lukie. Dr. McGill (whom I really, really like) diagnosed an ear infection in both ears, a minor sinus infection, and maybe a bit of gunk in his bronchial tubes, as well. None of those infections were bad infections, but they were enough to be causing him some decent discomfort. As of Thursday, Lukie has been on antibiotics. I think they're helping. Oh, and Lukie now weights 17 lbs. 10 oz. What a big boy!

Eyes are still blue. 

Thursday afternoon, Mom, Dad, and I took Lukie to Asheville, NC. It's basically Pete and my favorite town within easy driving distance. Pete and I went to the North Carolina Arboretum in the spring, and we really thought it was something Mom and Dad (Dad especially) might enjoy, since they had a really neat bonsai exhibit. My dad is a tree lover, so it seemed like a Bob type activity.

Lukie was totally passed out from his antibiotics and slept the whole way down, and then slept pretty much the entire time we were at the Arboretum. I was right about my dad liking the bonsai...but what's not to like? TINY TREES!!!

Lukie all bundled up and sleeping. Poor kid was knocked OUT from those meds.

They had a LEGO art display going on. This fox and rabbit exhibit was my favorite. The fox was at least as big as Maggie is.

Lukie did really well until after the Arboretum. Then we had a melt-down in the car because he was hungry (Mommy's bad. Should have fed him before we left the Arboretum), so we stopped in the parking lot of a Dunkin' Donuts to feed him while Mom and Dad went and got coffee. Then we went to have a painting that Dad inherited from his grandfather appraised for auction. The auction house was REALLY neat, and they had an original tile by Henri Toulouse-Lautrec there that they are planning to auction in November. It was worth the stop just to see that tile!

About to fall asleep holding Mommy's hand.

The drive home went smoothly until about Erwin- the same place Lukie broke down the last time we went to Asheville. It's hard work entertaining a freaking-out baby for 20 minutes, but I did my best.

Mom and Dad left at about 4:15 on Friday morning. My folks have always been crazy early risers, and they figured if they were up, they might as well be driving. I don't blame them, but it always makes me sad to wake up and they're already gone. House feels kind of empty on those mornings.

Lukie had a rough day at daycare yesterday. He didn't want to eat all morning, I'm assuming because his ears hurt. Refusing a bottle is a sure-fire indication that something is wrong with this kid-- he usually LOVES to eat. I called the doctor and asked if it was okay to give him Tylenol in combination with his antibiotics, and I think giving him some pain killer helped because he ate better in the afternoon. Poor kid has had a rough go of it. 

The fact that Lukie gets sick so often at daycare makes me feel kind of guilty that he has to go. There's no changing it, as I have to work, but it doesn't make it easier to know that he's having a bad day that could be made a little bit better if Mommy was around. I work because we need me to financially and because I'm a happier person with a career and life of my own...but oy, is it a tough line to walk. The worst part is that I don't get to spend tons of time with my son; often it's only 45 minutes to an hour after I get home that he falls asleep for the night, and those 45 minutes are often his fussiest minutes of the day, since it's getting toward bedtime.

Oh, well. I value the time I spend with him and I look forward to the day when I can get home and we can all sit down at the table and have dinner together, talking about our days and finding out all the cool things Lukie learned at daycare that day. I know it's a ways off...but it's a thought that keeps me going when I feel bad about not seeing him for 11 hours a day.

At least he's THIS CUTE when I get home.

3 Months Old!!

Lukie is 3 whole months old! We did our traditional (can it be a tradition after only 3 months?) birthday party. We were lucky enough to have my mom around at the last two, but in her place, my friend Suzi came over. I'm a doofus, so I didn't get any pictures of her there, but somebody had to hold the camera to take our 3-month family photo, so trust me, it was a party with more than just me and Pete!

I got off work early (yes, I rearranged my time this week so I'd get off early on Lukie's 3-month birthday) and came home to make dinner and pie. I spent all afternoon cleaning the house up and cooking; we had chicken pot pie, french bread, Illinois sweet corn my mom froze last time she was in town, and coconut pie!

Suzi came at 6:15 or so and we ate dinner, but Lukie started falling asleep while we were eating so we rushed through and brought out the pie to take pictures. It's amazing how much he's changed since we started doing month birthday parties. Here are his first two:

And here he is on Thursday, October 3rd, his three-month birthday (with an actual "3" candle instead of the same old "4" candle we'd been using:

Little bubs is starting to lose some of that beautiful hair, especially on the sides, but he's raelly starting to look like a little boy!

I've been trying to recreate pictures each month so that I have comparisons to show.

Here he is at one month again:

At two months:

And at three:

He's doing some serious growing up!

On the daycare front, the ladies have told us that he's a totally different baby since he started coming. They used to tell us he was having a good day...yeah, apparently they were blowing smoke up our you-know-whats and trying to make us feel confident, because he wasn't always having such a good day. I kind of appreciate that. I didn't need to know every time he was fussing, and it would have made me feel guilty that I wasn't there to make him feel better.

Talking with the director the other day, though, she says that he really seems content now. He doesn't fuss much at all, and he's learning to be patient a little longer when he's hungry. They can't always pick him up right away, and he's learning to wait until they can get him. He's much more content to just lay around on the floor and play when he's home, too. We used to have to hold him all the time, it seemed; now, we can put him on the floor with some toys and play with him, but we can also make a quick trip to the bathroom or walk around the room tidying up talking to him without fears that he'll have a meltdown.

Lukie has also started batting at toys a little bit. Tomorrow, we're going to go to Target and buy him an activity mat. He likes the one at school and will lay there and stare at all the things dangling in front of him, so we're hoping he gets as much fun out of one at our house!

I've also caught him watching and smiling at the dogs a little bit. Dixie in particular is very interested in him.

We try to keep her from licking him, but I also don't want to yell at her every time she comes near him. I'm pretty sure she gave him a French kiss earlier today, though...

Finally...sigh...I thought we were doing better as far as sleeping goes...but no. Last night was another rough night. He falls asleep early, and I really don't want to mess with a 7 or 8 p.m. bedtime because eventually, that's what I'd like his bedtime to always be, but it often means that he gets hungry before midnight or so. I wake up and feed him, and then it seems like we're up every 2 hours or so after that. Until 7 a.m. when it's IMPOSSIBLE to wake him up to feed him before I go to work and Pete takes him to daycare. Go figure.

For the last two nights, we've tried moving back to his bassinet from the buzzy seat, but last night he woke up barking again and I had to sit him upright to sleep the rest of the night. Oh well. I guess we'll figure out something that works for us, but I'd really like to move him to the crib within the next couple of months.