And Big Opa makes 4

Big Opa arrived with Nana to meet Egan and celebrate Thanksgiving with us.

He got lots of cuddles from our sweetie pie.



He was here for a week and couldn't take the long grass. He refuses to use our push lawn mower, so while Jake was at work, he snuck out and rented a gas lawn mower. I caught him in the act though and he had to confess to Jake, anyway.




And he was the favored read of 'Going on a Bear Hunt' (as well as the favorite to play the bear while running through the house chasing Elena).

Wreath of Thanks

In early November we started writing every night on a hand print what we are thankful for. Here is a random sampling of some of the responses....

We are thankful for:

Elena and Egan, the people who brought us dinners after egan was born, Christmas,
Bruce Springsteen, Elena's teachers, That Egan was born, Sunny afternoons, Our garden, The internet, That people love everybody, Good friends, That my grandparents visit, Fall hikes through the leaves, That you guys love me, Mountains, Great-grandparents, Bikes, Big winter days, Farmers, Our church, That egan loves us.

Amen!

Our new day

Egan is almost 2 months old! Over the past few days he has been 'chirping' a lot more and working on batting toys. It's incredible, his newborn time is gone. Now we have a baby. A very sweet baby, no doubt.

In honor of those sweet newborn days, I made a little video. In addition to the maternity photos, we also had pictures taken with Egan when he was 5 days old. These are some of our favorites.



Photography by Isabelle Marchant
Music is You are the new day by the King Singers

And some things never change

Like Elena's outfit selection.



Believe it or not, there is actually a theme to this outfit - everything except the unders and hair kerchief were given to her as 'new big sister gifts.' You can't tell, but even her socks don't match each other. (and the arms is not actually hurt but a 'pretend sling' since a classmate broke his arm and now everyone's arm hurts.) Tami, if you are reading this, it's your hoodie butterfly shirt put on backwards!

A few small, precious changes

We have been pleasantly drifting through this newborn time with our little guy. He's growing and was 8 lb 2 oz at 4 weeks and at 6 weeks is around 9 pounds. We have been rewarded with his first smiles. They are most frequent when he is over your shoulder cuddling or sitting in the kitchen in the bouncy seat; he likes to watch his sister antics. They, of course, disappear when the camera appears. Egan is getting much stronger in the neck and head and has started a daily regime of shoulder push ups. I tried putting him tummy down over the boppy and he wasn't at all pleased with that idea, so we've got a few more week to wait on that one. He has started to make a coo'ing noise, just one sort of an 'ahhhhh' sigh. Unfortunately, he's also gotten his first case of the sickies and has a little eye infection (which involves putting eye drops in four times a day which is lots of fun for everyone involved) and general fussiness (I'll spare you the tell tale 'poop' signs of a virus.)


Almost caught this smile, but the sleeper got in the way.

little opa

And our final week of grandparent assistance was provided by little opa who had an exciting week. He cleaned the fridge, mopped the upstairs, cleaned the bathrooms. In return we took him to an apple orchard and he took elena fishing where they caught a duck (not recommended but the trauma to all parties seems to have passed.) He also got good nap snuggles with Egan and was rewarded with a much more engaged baby, as Egan is starting to see much better.


At the orchard - which is really out of production and our only method of getting the tasty, high apples was to try and 'whack' them with sticks. Very popular with Elena.


It snowed while little opa was here! You can't really tell in this picture, but there were snow flurries.


Elena introduces little opa to egan


Hanging out with the whole gang!

Bright eyes

Today Egan was looking over my shoulder through the window outside. I could tell that he was seeing something new today, that he was seeing further or with more definition than ever before. I watched as he stared in awe, his little hand gently petting my arm. I wondered what he saw--was it the pine trees bending in the strong wind, the leaves fluttering on aspen trees, the occasional leave falling through the sky, the clouds moving through the sky. Likely it was the dynamic shadows of the first wintery day - with sun, sky, bright clouds, strong wind. It was so inspiring to experience that with him. He was so fascinated with what seems every day to us now, leaves, shadows, trees, grass...I appreciated the opportunity to look outside with him.

I reflected on how calm he is. I used to describe Elena as an observer. I now think that might be slightly incorrect. Elena is actually analyzing things - where does this fit in? How do these things compare? How does this relate to me? She has done this always; she has an intense curiosity. Egan, however, seems to reflect on and just experience things while he observes. He has a calm curiosity. (at least for now!)