spring-summer update

Sorry for not posting here for a while; we've just been too busy doing other good stuff! Leighton keeps getting praised at work (and given more and more work and responsibility); Lilly is thriving at her Montessori preschool (the school keeps a photo album of their activities here); and I'm looking forward to the fall publication of my book on feminist porn.

We had a lovely Memorial Day weekend, spent one day family birthday partying, another day at the beach, and a final one at our local Memorial Day service followed by a local afternoon baseball game. We barbequed on the sunny days, sipping margaritas, and felt quite lucky about our lives. (Beach day pictures here.)

Lilly got her first two-wheeler this spring (hand-me-down from good neighbors). Pictures from our first family bike ride outing are here (confession: Leighton and I had to bike really slowly... But it was so much fun to bike together! And we all enjoyed our lunch and ice creams afterwards at the cafe in Welch village.)

I've been teaching Lilly ballet since this past winter when she first expressed interest. Then it got boring for her with no other kids around. In March, she joined (as the youngest student in the entire school) a class that had been practicing for the spring performance since January. I'm proud to say Lilly did wonderfully at the final recital at the high school theater Friday a week and a half ago. Not afraid of being on the stage at all! Just so happy to have her mom and dad there watching her and cheering her on. More pictures here.

It's just wild to us that Lilly will be finishing her first year of preschool on Friday; in three days! Thank you family for your financial support with that. And to think she will turn FOUR two weeks after that (BTW Cheryl: ladybug-swimsuit still fits!). Lilly is writing and reading letters, excited about the pool opening on Friday (goggles are on her wishlist), and speaks enthusiastically about our vacation to look forward to this summer. She is grateful for her friends (and so looks up to her older ones), in love with her mom and dad, and totally into changing clothes every ten minutes, especially dresses. It's that stage. And it's very cute.

Oh, and we got new IKEA patio furniture last week! And we are so into barbequing and eating outside on the porch. Lilly is loving her (cold) hotdogs with ketchup (Leighton and I prefer both those and our chicken grilled). We got a big nice umbrella too for some shade when it gets too hot.

Here's to a good summer to us all!

Lilly and mama dancing on the porch

With all this warm weather, we've been taking advantage of the porch just about every day. Here's a video of Lilly dancing to the tunes on her drum machine. Mama got excited and joined in the fun!

spring spring ahead!

I confess to being prematurely excited when I exclaimed back in January that spring has sprung, but this time it's for real! It all happened so fast, and now, amazingly and suddenly, there are large patches of uncovered lawn, streets and sidewalks are dry, and the birds are chirping to the smell of mud. After a mild stretch with some sun and lots of rain--we even had our first thunder storm of the season last Thursday--impressive amounts of snow has either evaporated or been washed away. Temperatures have now reached their 50s, it's sunny outside, the Cannon river is rumbling high through the city, and we've inaugurated our sun porch. After walking with my good friend Amanda this morning, I even think I saw the faint hint of yellow on a forsythia across the street in my neighbor's backyard. Today we set our clocks an hour ahead to daylight savings time, next weekend is spring equinox.

Sunny Sunday afternoon on the porch with chips, salsa, and margaritas after a little stroll outside on the block, inspecting what's growing.

spring sprung

I realize it's premature, but when you've been dealing with temps way below zero (hovering around minus 15 F, which is minus 25 C), a rise in temps to around 15 to 30 F (that's minus 10 to 1 C) makes it feel like spring is all of a sudden here.  Leighton and I have been delighted to be able to walk back and forth to the library again in what feels like balmy weather; seriously, I've even heard birds chirping. When it's also sunny, and the ground covered in white snow (while some of the ice on the roads is beginning to melt or get scraped off), things ain't looking so bad. I've been holding on to the comfort, light and scents of Christmas with the tree, decorations, and frankincense up till now, but today I got everything taken down and packed away after lunch, and we'll haul the tree out tonight when Leighton gets home.

Additionally, the night time weaning is going really well!! It'll have been a week tomorrow. I find that it's really the reassuring talking to Lilly about how the boobs need to go to sleep at night, they're so tired, sleep feels so good, and then they'll be so happy to see her in the morning, etc., is what's doing the trick. Because when she wakes up in the middle of the night now, she knows they're sleeping and she can't have them. She'll sometimes whine, and one or two times per night, she might stay awake for a little while. But even then, she's so much calmer, not squirming for one boob after the other, frustrated she's not finding complete satisfaction. Instead she finds comfort in being stroked, snuggling, and then she will ultimately fall asleep again on my arm. Last night she woke me up with a loud snore at one point, but I was able to drift back to sleep again soon after.

With more restful nights, I might soon be able to pick up Siri Hustvedt's What I Loved (2003) again. I started it, and I like it, but it's too dense for my exhausted brain to read right now in the evening. So I've gotten into another mystery of Tess Gerritsen, The Body Double (2004), a follow up to The Sinner (2003) which I read in Greece this past summer.

More rest has helped Leighton and I feel less overwhelmed with parenting. The exhaustion made us both prone to bickering for a stretch, now there's a sense of optimism and "we can do it" feeling between us. We've become more creative in terms of how to spend our time with Lilly when she won't nap, we've gotten even more socially pro-active, and we've been able to let go some of our hopes and expectations for alone or me time.

Lilly's happy as usual, nursing just as much during the daytime, she's now also taken on nursing her baby dolls. And she's getting more into solids, preferably when she can eat them herself. She's very proud of her new toddler knife, like mama and papa; she now gets to eat with a knife and fork. It all creates a big mess, of course, especially since she refuses wearing a bib (and when we have tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner, like yesterday). But it's fun to watch too, and we're very proud of every spoonful she gets into her mouth.

springtime

Happy Spring, everyone! We're off to the Caribbean!