Portland

We took a family trip to Portland recently, which involved a lot of stuff, and culminated in picking up an exchange student at the airport. We went to the Portland Narrow Gauge Railroad, which has received rave reviews. We really weren't that impressed, and on top of it, it was civil war reinactment day, which basically consisted of the following.

Two women in civil war garb were seated on the train with us (taking up lots of room in their giant dresses). When the train slowed down so as to begin heading back the same track we had come on, on of the ladies said to the other in a melodramatic voice, "Are there supposed to be men on the track today? Oh, no! Rebels!"

At which point, the men in garb jumped off the train and shot their muskets at each other for a while. This picture actually makes it look much more eventful than it was. One ran our direction and was "captured" by the guys on our train. The worst part was that the guns were REALLY loud and Remick did NOT like them and wailed the whole time. Not what I paid for. Makili liked the train though.

We also went to Crescent Beach STate Park, which was fairly nice, but Raph doesn't like sandy beaches (what a pain!) so he complained a bit. We went for a nice walk though and it was absolutely idyllic weather!




And then we went out for dinner at our favorite Maine vegetarian restaurant, stopped by the Children's Museum to burn some time! And then we picked up a total peach of an exchange student! It was a good day!

3 Months Blowing By.

My little guy turned 3 month old two days ago and it's taken me this long to get to this post. Life is busy!!! But good busy. Full. Kids, friends, gardening, work. That is about it! If only we could get sleep to figure a bit more prominently into that list, we'd be set.At 3 months, this guys is pretty sweet. He LOVES me! He spends endless amounts of time cooing and smiling at me. He is SO verbal. He will talk to himself in the back seat of the car for like 1/2 hour straight. He is generally an easy baby EXCEPT for sleeping. We had gotten to a good place where he'd sleep for 4-6 hours streches, but now we're back to waking every hour or more! Ouch. Not so much for nursing, just because he wakes up. And the thing about Remick is that though he's smily and cute half the time, he tends to be a wailing siren the rest. He wants things a specific way and won't stop wailing till you figure out that he wants to be swaddled, with a pacifier, left in the swing with the white noise on. Any variation on that recipe and he wails. So needless to say it takes a while sometimes to figure out what that recipe is, as it changes.
Remick very steadily holds his own head and likes to be sitting up (or standing) most of the time. He gets bored and likes to have new scenery (unless of course he's looking at me). He spends so much time looking at faces and taking things in, which is so different from Makili. I think Remick is going to be an earlier talker than Makili. I was telling Raph the other day that I think I could start signing to Remick now and he'd be signing back at 6 months.

Remick is in the heat of learning to use his hands. We picked up an exersaucer yesterday from Nadine's pre-yardsale and he's been digging the short periods of time he spends in there. And I don't think that I'm going to be as lucky with Remick and I was with Makili in terms of not putting things in his mouth. He already likes to have his hands in his mouth all the time, and yesterday he got a plastic bag in his hand when I was changing Makili's diaper and it went straight to his mouth. Uh Oh.

He still likes music and is generally soothed by listening to music, both at home and in the car.

He still tolerates his big brother's incessant doting admirably. I can't wait to see how thier relationship develops...

Just my everyday prettieness.

Just for you Dad!

I don't know what it is dad, but Makili likes you. Today we were playing with Mr. Potato head, and I asked him what the potato head's name was, and he thought for a second, while staring thoughtfully at this and said, "Opa!"And for some reason when we read Dr. Seuss's The Foot Book, every time we get to the page of the "fuzzy fur feet" he points and says, "Opa."

Hmmm....

Garden Reflections

My garden is something of an obsession. I love it. I spend a ton of time out there and love to watch things grow. This year has been something of a disappointment though in some aspects of the garden (not due at all to the fact that I was busy earlier this summer!) Our nasty month of June saw the demise of many plants. All that rain allowed the slugs a buffet of my recently sprouted seedlings. The flea beetles knocked out so many early greens and broccoli plants that it really irritated me a LOT. And then there was the whole case of tomato blight which knocked out all but two of the 50 plants we originally put in! And we bought some bigger blueberry bushes this year since the tiny one we planted last year are really about the same size and didn't even flower this year. We waited patiently for those berries to ripen, only to realize that they'd been swiped by some form of wildlife by the time they were ripe. Damn it.

But like all situations, there have been some highlights as well. We have 50 beautiful bulbs of garlic in the shed. And garlic happens to be my new favorite crop. The snow melted in the spring and the garlic was already out of the ground! We planted some onion seedlings (not sets) and leek seedlings that I got super cheap-o at the farmers' market and they have done FANTASTIC! Our tomatillos (never grown before) are incredibly cute - like paper lanterns for the spiders. We harvested a pretty good amount of potatoes that have been DELICIOUS. Our brussel sprouts look incredible. Our eggplants have been prolific and we've been enjoying quickly devoured trays of roasted eggplant out of the oven.

We planted strawberry plants this year and against all our instincts plucked the flowers to keep them from fruiting this summer, so that next summer we'll get more strawberries. But the crazy plants are still at it and we finally gave up and let them fruit. We've only eaten a few, but boy they were good! Hopefully next year we'll get a whole lot of love from them. Last year I put in some raspberry canes. We got a good handful this summer, but the most exciting thing is that the plants are FULL of fall raspberries. I can not wait for them to ripen! Our pear tree is full of pears that Makili couldn't reach.


And we've planted a whole bunch of new stuff in our greenhouse, hoping for a fall harvest!

Happy Birthday Daddy-O

We had a great time singing "Happy Birthday" to Raph yesterday. Makili is really into singing that at the moment. It was Raph's golden birthday. September 9, 2009 or 9/9/09! I even made him a cake! I really like this guy. It works out that we're stuck together in a super-human maga life bond (this was what he wrote on our wedding invitation) because he is great. I appreciate that he goes to work every day so that I can stay home and is still present enough after working with teenagers all day long to come home and have quality time us, playing basketball with Makili (another current fav), getting Remick to laugh (a new thing that is SO cute), or helping me with my projects (too many to count). I love that he wants to go to the beach on every opportunity, or be outside, and eat good food (though he certainly doesn't complain about a bag of Doritos), that he can fix my car most of the time. I love that we share values and visions about our future, that they are things we don't disagree about. I appreciate that he makes time for me to exercise (running over 3.5 miles at the moment!), holding a screaming baby if necessary. My life would be empty without him. So Happy Birthday Raph.

Beach fun with the Mastersons

We had a really nice afternoon at the beach with our new bffs, the Mastersons. George is the guy that got Raph his new job (though he denies this it's true.) They have three boys, who remind Raph of the Cesere brothers, who we lived with in Hawaii. They also recently bought my dreamhouse. They're pretty cool.

These Two

I'm pretty glad Makili is a good sleeper and has yet to wake up because of Remick's screaming. I'm pretty glad Remick came into this world not minding Makili's aggressive love, because Makili wants to kiss him and hug him and smother him with hugs all the time, especially when I'm holding him. When Remick was born, I had a terribly difficult time watching Makili adjust to Remick's new presence. It absolutely broke my heart to think about hurting him and in fact, the day of my sudden C-section, I HAD to drive home (and ended up being late) to hug Makili before it happened. I cried the whole way home about how I hadn't read to him the night before. And afterward, Makili did pretty well, but he did lose some of his normal joy for a while and it absolutely crushed me to watch and endure and not be able to fix. Thinking about it now makes me cry.
But we've come around the other side of that corner and I am so excited to watch these two grow up together, as brothers. My aunt Suzanne once told me that she was excited to raise sisters, and I now know how she felt. There does seem to be some magical bond between brothers (or sisters) that is exciting to watch unfold. It will be a joy of my life to watch how these two souls who are quite different already share this early part of their lives. And then I can hope it lasts.
They are different. Makili was an INTENSE baby, crying pretty much all the time until he was few months old, and then being fairly predictable and dare I say "easy?" He slept well from the moment he came home, never napped well, always ate well. He didn't seem very affected by noise or sound ever. As an infant he never seemed to care for me of anyone else in particular, except that I had the milk bags. Remick, on the other hand, came out mellow but has turned out to be a baby of extremes. He is either smiling and cooing endlessly or screaming his bloody head off! He is an unpredictable sleeper, though he has gotten a little better with the swing (last night sucked A LOT though). He loves me over anyone else and Raph frequently complains that he will do the exact same thing as me and get screams and I get smiles. He is far more sensitive to sound, looking for me as soon as he hears my voice, and loving music. Both these guys loved to be one the move, and swaddled. There were both so aware and alert very early. But I daresay from the getgo I feel their personalities are so different. I can't wait to see if my hunches are right...

So BUSY

I can barely find the time to update this blog any more. Though I am on the computer frequently, I'm usually nursing, and it is hard to type a post one handed. I have a lot to say too. My babies are growing and changing so fast, Raph started a new job, a new season is upon us and we've been on the move a lot. So much going on. Above are a few shots from summer with some of the people that we've been blessed to spend time with. Summer is winding down. I'm wearing fleece and sock and Raph is lighting the wood stove for the first time. Remick is wrapped in fleece too and sleeping sweetly while Makili runs his little wooden dump truck over his body. We sat on the beach this afternoon with friends, eating pizza as the sun went down. Good times.

My big little guy.

This kid is growing so fast.
He's already
working
so hard trying to get his little hands
onto objects that he sees. It is fun
to watch
his knitted brow
concentrate
on an object as his little fingers
spastically grab.

He learned to get those little fists into his mouth.
He love
things in his mouth.
My arm. My hand.
His hand.
And to rub his eyes when he's tired.

He smiles so BIG and fully.
I am the center of his universe. Scary, huh.
For so long. He smiles at me for so long.
Big and full and sweeping
that smile.

He likes to be swaddled for sleep.
In the swing.
He grunts
and fidgets, but most nights sleeps pretty well.

He's getting hair!
A soft fur.

He likes it when you tickle his cheek.
Sing songs.
Walk around.
Rock.
This kid likes to move.
We should have know when we chose a name with the initials
RPM.

I'm smitten.