Randomly, after listening to an NPR book review

Has anyone ever noticed how important place is to mystery series?

Hiassen and MacDonald, Florida

Chandler, L.A.

Sayers, Perry, Grimes, England

Penny, Three Pines, Quebec, Canada

and now Loomis, Provincetown.

All famous, justifiably so. And all with superb ability to convey place.

Caspian Pierce

was a super mellow baby earlier this week.



It was a rainy afternoon and he'd already been snoozing for two hours.



But he couldn't quite make up his mind to wake up.

Sadly, that state of affairs has flown out the window. He's been giving his Papa a hard time today, and judging from the cries I'm hearing right now, I don't have much to look forward to tonight.

Sigh.

Kids are like tiny vampires, which is why it's good to be young and selfish. No, you have to say sometimes. I am going to write a blog while you lie in your bed warm and swaddled and clean and fed and complain. Because it's not all about you.

Mostly.

But not all.

Thoughts on Babies, #999

As much as I hate to be one of those girls, every picture taken of me since Caspian's birth horrifies me. I'm a vain lady, and I am not looking my best these days. So y'all are just going to have to wait until I deem myself half-way decent-looking again. (I keep thinking I should be back to normal by now, and then I'm like, oh yeah: two babies in 17 months, dumbass. Let's hold our sh*t together until Christmas, at least-- if at that point the stroller-walking and crunches and no carbs between meals hasn't worked, then you can freak out and spend money on fat camp or something).

So until then, behold some TRUE beauty:




Caspian smiles all the time. ALL THE TIME. Especially when you make eye contact and coo, "Who's Mama's boy? WHO IS MAMA'S BOY?" because he ain't no fool.




The light comes through to the dining room so beautifully in the morning. Sets Annaliese's curls a-glowing and the red of the zinnias just makes me HAPPY.




And this? I was crouching behind her crib in the doorway Wednesday, when she stayed home and had an afternoon lie-down with her much loved copy of The Big Red Barn.

She now asks to be put down for naps and bedtime with a book. How awesome is SHE?

Right now, my children and my house are my world (with the occasional Farmers' Market foray). It's not a very big world, no. But I don't think we can have everything all at once, and so I am doing my best to take professional satisfaction from things like swept floors and clean diapers; friend contact from emails and phone calls and the occasional lunch/beer out; marital harmony from savoring the few conscious minutes when we go to bed at the same time (one of my favorite things, but I am perennially ready for bed, and K always wants to watch a movie! Bake banana bread! Perhaps because I am the one getting up at 1 and 4?!); alone time on the morning walk I take with Caspian, when he falls asleep in the stroller and I can walk and think my own thoughts for a blissful half-hour.

All that being said, I am one LUCKY ASS WOMAN. Because I do not KNOW how women with young-uns like mine deal with having them both home at the same time. I only have to cope for 3 hours by myself during the week, from 2:30-5:30, and I am unrepently glad. Annaliese's play school is worth every dime.

Can you beleive we were all babies once? Hard to comprehend. And strangely, if you ask your mother, chances are she won't remember much from those first hard months. I can barely remember Annaliese's-- it's as if she's been going to bed at 7 and taking 2-hour naps FOREVER, when really it took over a solid year.

Anyhow, cheers!

NB. K came home irked by me saying that my world is bebes and house, no mention of him. When what I mean is you know, world! Daytime world! He goes to the office, I go to... bebes and house! Then he comes home and we're in Family World! He should know I like him best because I'm always saying things like-- how old do the kids have to be before we can leave them and go to Iceland?

Sheesh.

Our phone line got zapped last week and killed some piece of eqipment necessary to connect to the Internet. But since it also heralded a cold front that has us with our AC shut off, cool nights, and even some gloriously cool damp days of soft rain, I haven't minded much.

Gorgissimo.

Things have been so good, in fact, that yesterday evening's insanity of bawling children (culminating in Annaliese spilling passionflower extract UP HER NOSE) and last night's misery of K and I like Jack-in-the-Boxes between our two children has left me relatively unphased.

However, Annaliese has a cold. Which means she's staying home with me and the baby. All day, by ourselves. So we'll see how long this good cheer of mine holds up! Especially considering K's leaving at 7am on Saturday to spend the day kayaking with friends on the mighty Mississippi! Leaving me-- you guessed it-- with our two kids all day. (He asked, though, and I said yes. So I'm not giving him poop. Just a little elbow nudge in the direction of undying gratitude.)

Chickens are good. I've decided to plant a chasteberry tree this fall behind the house, near our bedroom. Annaliese can now say "ap-bul" and asks for one every afternoon as snack. I can now, just barely, squeeze myself into pre-pregnancy jeans.

We're getting back to real life.



--Annaliese is her new and adored Hanna Anderson jacket, a present from K's boss. We have to hide it or she insists on wearing it/dragging it around like her treasured blankie.
dCaspian YESTERDAY, smiling like a champ.
e
And an older pic of Caspian and his Grandmama at the Farmers' Market. Note the Polo onesie. I admit to buying that for him my very self.

For someone who has been getting up at 2, 4, and for good at 6 for the last 6 weeks, I am really ridiculously cheerful.

It helps that the baby smiles now.

And that Annaliese is daily more entertaining/cool/a real person.

And that I really, really, really love our house.

And K seems just as delighted with our son and daughter and home as I am.

And we have five home-grown eggs in the fridge right now.

And it's raining again, meaning I don't have to drag the hose around for an hou to water my fruit trees, which-- speaking of-- are the ENVY of my farmers, HAH.

An explanation about the air mattress

So, K's really tall. We used to sleep on a custom-made mattress for a custom-made bed that was given to us by my aunt and made for her father, but it is narrower than a full, and as we moved/welcomed Caspian we made the decision to put the bed in storage and buy ourselves a new custom-made mattress, one as wide as a queen but longer than anything on the market.

And then I read about how fire retardant can contaminate your breast milk, and decided that we didn't need THAT chemical sprayed on our mattress either.

Can we say ka-ching?

So we're waiting a little bit, saving up, not compromising, and meanwhile the air mattress was working fine.

Until K's side (it's got two comfort level thingies) sprung a slow leak.

That's the explanation.

In other news... we have one laying hen dutifully depositing an egg a day,, but the rest are slacking off. No matter.

Annaliese likes to crawl into Caspian's bassinet, a pacifier hanging from the corner or her mouth like a pirate with a cigar, and say, night-night! (Let it be noted she would.never.sleep.in.the.bassient.not.ever and she also never took a pacifier.)

Caspian is still definitely a newborn....he cries, saves up poop, wakes, etc...but the scale is pretty manageable, knock on wood. He is not even 6 weeks old and last night we watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall (which I highly recommend) in its entirety with him sacked out on my lap. Not so bad, n'est pas?



In less fun news, K apparently thinks Mila Kunis (that 70s show) is pretty cute. He got that sheepish grin when he nonchalantly said something about her last night (she's in the movie) that revealed his mini-crush. Sorry I can't COMPETE right now, I just had your SECOND CHILD. Idiot.

Although this pic does not reveal it, we got the chicken yard up, so they now spend afternoons and evenings wandering around outside. The fresh-grass pens come later, once the scrap wood is moved.



Oh, and we have a major mice problem in the attic. I have considered getting a cat and throwing it up there, but the poor thing would probably die of the heat. Summers in Mississippi are my least favorite part of the year.

Feel updated! Off to bathe the baby.

It's raining, it's pouring...

Little man is snoring...

Pics later.

The white flag is in the wash, because someone pooped/puked/peed on it

K. is in New Orleans on business. Last night he ate at a great restaurant for free and then slept in a hotel suite by HIMSELF.

What's with that? He should be in OUR bed, the air mattress that has a leak so you have to re-inflate it every hour or so, getting puked on by a gassy baby and listening to our toddler scream.

You know, like me.

Babies totally kick my ass.

Chickens!

Last Thursday one of my farmer buddies called me and said he knew of a 10-chicken flock that was a good deal.

Pity you're not set up for chickens, he said.

I called K., who said Go for it! I have a 3-day weekend.

And so:













The chickens are sleeping on their roosts, the amount of scrap wood in our yard is greatly reduced, and K deserves a round of applause for laboring all day outside in the sticky Mississippi summer.

We'll keep you updated.

The day before the Fourth of July

(We also got a care package from Eliza. Noise sticks!)

Today, Caspian turns one month. Tomorrow, America turns something or another... (a lot? come on. even if I tried to do the math, I'd get it wrong.)

In K&A news-- K's mother is still here, taking the babies at dawn, sweeping the floors, and generally making herself invaluable. (This two-kid/new baby thing will be a lot harder when she leaves and I am on my own during the days for the first time. But on the other hand, my midwife recommended I drink a beer or two every day with a meal to promote lactation. Every new mother should be prescribed beer.)

Annaliese's school has a fourth-of-July parade today. I ran around and took pictures like the crazy mom I am rapidly becoming.


And Caspian... well, as K said today, we don't have much of a sense of his personality yet. His brain is still loading (ever heard of the fourth trimester? Google it. Fascinating.) But on the other hand, he fell asleep today holding my hand, seems to like me, and is slowly but surely awakening to the world around him. Today he smiled!


So cheers:

To Caspian and America, for still being here

To Maman C, for letting me take naps and understanding the necessity to sweep the floors every day

And to a cold Guinness at bedtime!

Happy Fourth!