Rolls, Capes, and Princesses

Continuing with the updates I figured kids would be next...


Tristan has changed the most in the past few months. He is now rolling around, playing with toys, and has received his first war wound (nerf gun...not the dart, the actual gun...to the head while he was nursing).



Max has joined the Batman fan club. He now wears capes and plays with figurines along with the big kids. All of the superheroes seem to be called Batman at this point. He is quite a ham - singing (read more as yelling) into toys pretending they are microphones, saying things then breaking into hysterical laughter, chasing Steve the cat, and conquering the sledding hill.

Alex is still president of the Batman fan club. Daily attire is a costume, Batman is clean but Superman will do in a pinch, or a Batman cape and underwear. Makes for less laundry so I'm not complaining.

Katrina is still running the show. She is an honorary member of the Batman fan club though is often a princess or dinosaur that is visiting the Super Friends.

Back to the Blog

Things have been in flux here lately...hence the break from the blog. So I guess some updates would be fitting for awhile.

First major change: House - we left our large, country Wheatland Center Road house and moved into one of our rentals, a small, city house, as a temporary home.

The thoughts behind this seemingly insane move? The end goal is to buy a house close to our rental properties and Justin's work which is mainly on the east side of the city, one that doesn't require a TON of maintenance and remodeling. The Wheatland house was an old farm house that Justin was in the process of remodeling. Even when the remodeling was done, bring a pre-1900s house, it was going to need continual upkeep. It had 6 acres - 3 of which we mowed. We heated it with coal which meant tending the stove. Don't get me wrong - the Wheatland house was a fun house. But we are looking to simplify things in our lives right now and that house was far from simple. Moving to the city simplified our living in many ways - heat was only a turn of the thermostat away, no remodeling or major ongoing maintenance, minimal yard maintenance, close to the rental properties, Justin's work and life in general.

Why not move only once; why move into the city when you know you are moving again? We decided it would be much easier to finish the remodeling process without living in the construction. Justin could leave his tools out without having the kids "helping" during the day while he is at work. It will also be a lot easier to show the place without having to clean it and leave every time.

Don't Quit

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don't give up though the pace seems slow--
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than,
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up,
When he might have captured the victor's cup,
And he learned too late when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out--
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far,
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit--
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.

- Author unknown

Welcome to the World

Welcome to the world Tristan!

Academy, home, dinner with my in-laws and Justin, bed. Nothing really out of the ordinary for a Friday except the occasional belly twinge in the evening, but even that wasn't suspect. Went to bed and woke up at 1. Contraction or movement? Either way it went away quickly and I went back to sleep.

Woke up at 2:30...now this was something. But it was later than anything had ever started so I thought it might not be anything real, just a warm up. It was enough though that I had woken up enough that I wasn't falling back asleep. And it wasn't an isolated incident. At 3 I took a shower and things went from not very close to seemingly close but I wasn't timing and had no idea how long I had been in the shower so I didn't really have an idea where things might be at. Got dressed and decided that I would feel better if Justin's mother, who was going to come watch the kids, came over so when it was time to leave we didn't need to wait. She called on her way over to see how things were going and if we were going to rush out as soon as she go there, I told her I didn't think so. I realized I hadn't called the midwife yet so I put in a call to her and waited her return call. My MIL arrives, waiting for the call back but now I've decided we need to leave as soon as I talk to her, or maybe before and I'd talk to her on the way in. Call comes in, we head out.

As I'm walking to the car I get a contraction that stops me in my tracks. Bending over and looking down at the grass I am seriously thinking that we may not make it to the hospital. The more I thought about it I didn't know if I would make it back in the house. Looking at the grass I thought that I might deliver right there. But I didn't so the story continues.

We get into Grandma Tallo's car (so now added pressure to be able to make it to the hospital!) and off flies Justin. Definitely broke speed laws and ran lights. Not thinking about the difference between my van and this car, I urge him not to slow down over the railroad tracks - biggest mistake of the night! Needless to say I was much more patient crossing the second set of tracks.

A little relief sets in as we pull up to the entrance, Justin drops me off and I waddle in. The receptionist looks at me and has a really nice security guard wheel me up to labor floor. I get to triage and get the impression that she doesn't realize I am as far as I think I am...and I'm sure hoping I am as far as I think I am so I don't feel foolish!

"How far apart are the contractions?"
Not ever really have timed them, just knowing there were a lot going down Morgan Rd, I give her the "correct" answer of 1-4 min.
"For how long?"
Again, no clue. "30 min to an hour"
So this is when her skepticism kicks in. Usually that spacing has to keep up for awhile before anything is really getting there so I couldn't blame her but I knew I wasn't at the beginning of labor.
"And what where they before that?"
Again, feeding the "correct" answer..."5 min"
That seemed to settle her so she went on to get the monitor ready. Believing I didn't have time to get the time they wanted on the monitor before this baby came I asked to be checked first.
"Oh...9 and a half...let's get you going here!"
So me and the bed take a short roll down the hall to the next room and less than 10 min after arriving at the hospital Tristan Robert arrived at 5:27 am.

The Waiting Game

The due date approaches. I don't know why I'm really even entertaining the idea of going early/on time since it hasn't happened yet but there is just something about that date they give you, even when I don't really believe it (I think it should be the Oct 4 not Sept 27).

With any strange shift of the baby, I find myself analyzing if this would be a good time or not to go into labor...

no, not right now, I want/need to do XYZ
now wouldn't be bad, I slept really well last night
no, just too tired right now
no, I'd really like to go grape picking on Wednesday
no, I'm just not ready yet

I think I have more no moments than yes moments so it is a good thing nothing is really happening!

First Day of Academy

Today was the first day of Academy and all in all it went pretty smoothly. Katrina and Alex are in the same preschool class - which seems very strange to me. After a brief stop in Papa's office, Katrina told him that she had to go to class and happily went down to her room - such a change from last year when she would only go down when her favorite teacher would come to get her.

Their day consists of a music class, then a class that is based upon a letter a week with stories, activities, crafts, games, etc, and then a class that I really don't know much about yet. When I saw them at lunch they were both very excited about their morning...ate "ants on a log", played on the playground, sang songs, made pictures and glued things (no idea what they were gluing as it didn't come home this week).

I am teaching 7/8 general science again this year. Looks like a pretty fun group of kids so that should make for a fun year.

Rental Blog

Our lakehouse rental has a home online!

http://cayugarental.blogspot.com/