March Madness

     

It is still winter here in St. Paul, no matter what the calendar says.

New snow is just as pretty in March, no matter what Mom says.

Alex Kraker on fiddle, Rachel Crooks is offstage on piano at a Variety Show at Living Waters in Minnetonka.   Just finding my stage legs again.

We have all been sick.  All the time.  Steamy baths keep the colds from settling in.

Just another day in the life of Wesley.

Our adopted Grandma, Christine, puts William to sleep with Nursery Rhymes.  It was so cute I couldn't resist capturing this moment.

I don't know if Wesley understands how cute he really is.  He is just happy all the time.

The rare picture of me!

I am not planning to raise prodigies, but these two have an affinity for music that I can only describe as an obsession.  It might be genetic.

Sick of being sick, we went up to Grandma and Grandpa Sorum's little house in the country to spread germs and visit the aminals.  Yes, I spelled that correctly.  William finally met his match in the baby goats (there are 8).

This white goat was loose and played chase with William all over the barn, much to his delight.  When the goat finally caught up to him, he jumped up and licked him, which made William squeal even more!

William fed the baby goats some hay with great care.

William and Wesley enjoyed playing in the church nursery with the full, undivided attention of Grandpa and Grandma.

Grandma and Grandpa enjoyed it, too!

Introducing...

Everett Floyd Erhardt!!!

Born March 12, 2013

Our baby cousin~

Zac is a happy Uncle.  We are surprised at how distant a memory the newborn stage is, although Wesley just turned 8 months old.  It's such a precious, exhausting time!

Dan was an awesome labor partner for Mommy Aubray (Zac's sister).  He was excited to eat a little something the first day of his son's life.

Ok, so maybe he isn't happy all the time.

So much fun ahead for this little family!  We have enjoyed spending time with the new parents and little Everett in the past couple of weeks.  They are elated and adjusting well.

Emery is the cute, verbal, curious playmate we get to see at least once a week when everyone isn't sick.  He likes to talk intelligently and gets confused when William babbles or makes animal sounds.  They played together with the Bubble Thomas train for most of a morning.  One boy makes bubbles, the other plays in the bubbles, then they would trade.  They are magnificent little people to watch.

Wesley is busy every minute of his awake time.  Lately he moved on to Cheerios and little veggies on his tray.  Have I said he is a happy baby yet?

William is reaching a new stage of autonomy which is very confusing to both of us.  He wants me nearer and more a part of his life than ever.  Every minute he must know I am close-by and ready to comfort.  At the same time he wants me to go away and let him do it by himself.  The most important thing to consider when making any decision is what is his idea and what is my idea.  If I suggested going to Disneyland he would say "NO!"  Being sick and drained of energy does not lend itself to carefully strategizing how I will present each transition or smart parenting.  Instead, I sit on the steps and say, "Mommy's sick.  Please stop making messes."  My plea bargain falls on two-year-old ears.

Here is Everett at 1 week old.  I got to help Aubray for a few hours.

I came home from the Erhardt's to find the temperature plunging in our house.

I purged the boiler system of air, refilled the water level to restore pressure, and turned it back on.  Five minutes later the basement reeked of gas.  The kind man from Xcel Energy who came to our house told us we would need to replace the boiler igniter.  I had no car, no childcare, and only an hour before the appliance part store closed.  Luckily, our friend Christine (the one above reading the book) came and let me use her car to pick up the part.  It didn't work.  We called in her husband, Steve, to help.  The new igniter shattered, so we waited until morning when Steven bought and installed a new igniter.  In the meantime, we dressed warm and turned on space heaters.  It dipped down to 5 degrees in the night, and our colds took a turn for the worse with the space heaters running, but we did more than survive.  We are thankful to Christine and Steve for helping us out of this pinch!  The HVAC company was going to charge us $180/hour to do the same thing, and that didn't include childcare.

Elmo slippers imply an Elmo costume.  Of course.

It's been a hard month.  March Madness means something to me in a whole new way.  But, we saw a robin yesterday and the week's forecast includes daytime temps in the 40's.  Life could be entirely different next week!!  I've learned that, as a mom, optimism is a requirement, not a choice.