Born to be an Elf

Elf, originally uploaded by PaulaK.

Does he look like an elf, or what? He is actually a lot cuter than this, but this photo is hilarious.

Christmas Girls

Girls, originally uploaded by PaulaK.

Of course, little A. wouldn't wear hers.

Christmas Boys

Boys, originally uploaded by PaulaK.

We've had our tree up for 2 weeks now, but the night we put it up, the kids donned their Santa caps.

Happy Birthday Daryl!

The love of my life turned 43 yesterday. As is typical, there was a family Christmas gathering on his birthday. There was a birthday cake and the family all sang to him, but it wasn't really a birthday celebration. So I decided to have a special family dinner in his honor tonight. I made pasta with 2 sauces: tomato with olive and capers (jarred) and pesto (homemade). We had crusty bread dipped in olive oil, caesar salad, and his favorite apple pie. We sang again, too. The house started out an absolute wreck because Saturday was a family Christmas gathering also, so 2 days in a row we rushed to get ready and out the door, leaving a mess behind. We arrived home late last night, emptied the van of the mountain of gifts we'd collected, and deposited them in the family room. Everyone rushed off to work and school this morning, leaving me with the mess, but I was able to use the birthday celebration to motivate them to clean it up tonight.

Thanksgiving

We invited my entire family and Daryl's entire family to join us for dinner. As it turned out, only my mother-in-law accepted our invitation. On Wed. afternoon the day before Thanksgiving, I called a friend in town to see if she would be in town for the weekend, as I wanted her daughter to babysit on Friday. As it turned out, her family was staying home due to an impending snow storm. They were planning to have dinner by themselves so I invited them to join us. They have 6 children, so it made for a lively household. Daryl had also invited several students over who would otherwise be alone, and one accepted his invitation, so there were 19 of us. We put 2 tables together and were able to seat everyone. J. and I. made placecards for everyone, which made the table look really nice. I cooked a fresh 20 lb. turkey, which I got in the oven around 8am. Daryl got up with me and we ate fresh bread from the bread machine that I'd put in the night before and watched the movie "Sideways" on the laptop while I got the turkey ready to go in the oven. It was nice to have some quiet time together before everyone else got up.

I made garlic mashed potatoes, gravy, salad and a sweet potato pie with a shortbread crust. My guests, who are vegetarians, brought salmon, pumpkin pies and stuffing. My MIL brought peach pie, berry cobbler, rolls and cranberry sauce. The salad had mixed greens, goat cheese, pinenuts, dried cherries, and grape tomatoes with a simple dressing of olive oil and balsalmic vinegar. It was really good! Unfortunately our grill ran out of gas, so we had to broil the salmon, but we did that while Daryl carved the turkey and I mashed the potatoes. Our guests washed a lot of the pots and pans before dinner! That was wonderful. We ate around 4pm. I bought " kid wine" (sparkling grape juice) for the kids, which they love. The food was scrumptious and a wonderful time was had by all. Our guests left around 6:30pm and we layed around and munched dessert the rest of the evening.

Stroller Racing

DSC_0515, originally uploaded by PaulaK.

Perhaps I shouldn't have allowed this, but they were both having a great time!

Double digits--a decade old!

DSC_0913, originally uploaded by PaulaK.

On November 20 (the day after A's bday) we celebrated another birthday. L. turned 10! He had a party with some friends the day before. We had it at our house, and the boys played sports outdoors. I served pizza, cupcakes and ice cream. A good time was had by all.

On the actual day we held our family celebration. He got a skateboard and helmet and some action figures from Daryl and I. His sister gave him a new jackknife, since he's been doing a lot of whittling lately and the one he had is tiny and not really up to the job.

The birthday child picks the meals all day long on his birthday, and he chose blueberry pancakes for breakfast, leftover pizza for lunch, and tacos for dinner, with homemade cheesecake covered in blueberry topping for his birthday cake. Mmmm was that cake good!

L. is an extremely affectionate, sensitive child. He is very tuned into the feelings of others, and goes out of his way to be kind and helpful. He has a great sense of humor, and is a lot of fun to be around, so he has many friends. He is also very smart, excelling in all areas. He brings joy to me every day!


BIRTH STORY

L. was my only child born before my due date, 2 days "early". I had gone to water aerobics in the morning, then taken an afternoon nap while my little ones napped. I woke up and ate an apple with some almond butter. I noticed a few contractions then, but didn't think much of them because I have so many contractions at the end. I began making dinner, and the contractions began to be more regular and demand my attention a little more.

I called Daryl around 5pm, who asked me if he had time to go running first, but I told him to get right home! Meanwhile, I stopped making dinner as it was distasteful to me. He came home and finished making dinner and fed the kids.

Soon I felt it was time to call the midwife. She told me to come in. First we had to call our wonderful friends who had offered to take the kids. The contractions were getting more intense, and the kids were responding to my mood. J. was hanging on me and demanding to be picked up. I really couldn't handle it, so Daryl took the kids next door to our neighbors while we waited for our friends to arrive.

By the time we arrived at the birth center it was 8:30pm, somewhat later than we'd told the midwife, and she was beginning to wonder if I'd changed my mind! LOL As she checked me she said, "You're about 5cm and I feel a big bulging sack -"SPLASH! My water broke and splashed all over. She literally jumped back to avoid getting doused. There was a tiny bit of meconium in the fluid but not enough to worry about.

I began pacing the room. I tried the tub, but didn't like it so I resumed pacing. Then we realized that we had forgotten to get more film for the camera! Luckily, a janitor was in the building, and Daryl asked him to run to the store, which was very close. (I wouldn't let him leave). After a while I squatted on the toilet which felt really good. As it got more intense, I told the midwife that I had changed my mind, and I didn't want to have this baby today! She laughed heartily at that one.

Eventually I went and sat on the bed. She turned down all the lights. I felt drowsy and dozed between contractions. Transition was intense, but then after many hard contractions in a row, one began and then petered out without ever getting really bad. The midwife told me that that sometimes transition ends abruptly that way.

I was suddenly very sleepy and not having any contractions. I dozed for 5 minutes or so and then the contractions resumed and I felt the urge to push. After only 2-3 contractions, out he came! The midwife helped ease his shoulder out. He weighed 10 pounds exactly and was born at 10:30pm. He was extremely alert after his birth and we have many photos of him looking right at me.

This was my most "textbook" labor and one of my easiest deliveries. It was my first midwife attended birth and birth center delivery. Daryl thought it wouldn't make such a big difference in the experience, but was awed by how intimate and special it really was.

We had brought some snacks, which I ate, and then after a while, I felt good enough to get up and get dressed and we went home, arriving around 2am. We joke that it was just like going on a date, only we came home with a baby! Despite the quiet house, I was unable to sleep, of course.

Our friends kept the kids until the next day midmorning. They had made them each a "big brother" and "big sister" button and stopped and gotten them each a small "gift" to give their new baby brother. He was born on Monday, 3 days before Thanksgiving.