Our 2001 Honda CRV has been running a bit rough, blowing blue smoke at start up and getting really crappy gas mileage.
Took it into Honda to have it looked over.
Needs a new engine. We’re having them check the car to see if there is anything else major that needs to happen, and we’ll call a few other places to see how their prices compare.
We are also considering replacing it.
The CRV has been a great vehicle for us. We will be sad if we have to replace it.
We’ve got enough clothes to keep EKA decent into her 2nd year, plus a few of her friends.
We could still use diapers…
As requested, the diaper registry has been updated:
http://www.arcticbabybottoms.com/registry.htm?rgid=17&rguser=aralynne
Elizabeth Katherine is up to 8 lbs 3 oz and eating 90 ml 8 times a day.
I’ve been bragging about our versatile cardigans, and how nicely their historical traits (herding, family dogs, watch the children…) have been shining.
Bing loves Elizabeth. Kate is interested mostly in EKA’s business end.
Both corgis have been very good with Elizabeth. Curious about her noises and enthused about changing diapers. Bing notifies us if Elizabeth is crying and we don’t respond quickly enough.
They are very helpful corgis.
They must have heard Scott telling me about a diaper that needed to be rinsed. Those sweet corgis decided to ‘help’.
Eww.
Time to switch to a taller diaper receptacle.
Short on sleep but doing well.
My mom is up for a visit – wonderful!
EKA is closing in on eight whole wonderful pounds. Singing continues to be an EKA favorite. She really likes ‘Field of Oats’. Nursing is successful but really slow. We are improving. Elizabeth’s official due date has past – May 19th. Now she’s like a newborn. A shower for her tonight – many awesome, beautiful, thoughtful and generous gifts. We are overwhelmed.
Scott is back at work and doing house stuff in the evenings. Trying to finish the closet in the master bedroom. Needs varnish and a few other things. A closet rod too. And a curtain to cover it all.
Mom is going to make a curtain for the master bedroom closet. This will be an improvement over the bifold doors – quieter and will effectively make the closet deeper to accommodate the broad shoulders of Scott’s shirts.
I am still home recovering and learning to be a mom. Steep learning curve, but we are managing. Not a lot of sleep. Neither Scott nor I have dropped Elizabeth Katherine, so we count ourselves as successful.
Our secret to happiness? Lower Your Standards.
Both dogs are home. Kate came home last Saturday. We are working on getting her more comfortable – some engorgement as her milk dries up. Not comfortable for the dear girl but part of the process. We are making her as comfortable as possible with warm compresses. She is enduring a 24 hour fast to help speed the process under Dr. W’s advice.
Had Tony’s Enterprises out to do the spring clean up. Yard looks fabulous. Driveway is edged, leaves are gone, grass is shorn, bushes are trimmed back into submission. Garden got tilled by a guy I found on Craigs list. Awesome. Ready for potatoes.
Chickens are happy. Bing is happy. Kate is coping.
Elizabeth is astonishingly wonderfully mind altering cool.
We are tired.
There will be photos. Eventually.
Scott, Elizabeth Katherine and I drove out to the herding seminar this afternoon to watch Bing and our friends in action.
Oh what good herding dogs we all have. We saw some very nice work from all of the dogs. I loved seeing how all of the dogs have progressed in the last two months, and seeing the growth in their handlers too. We saw some lovely ‘outs’, ‘go byes’/’aways’ as well as impressive ‘downs’.
Watching our friends working their dogs, seeing the sheep respond was the best kind of tonic.
The weather was cool but not bad. Our presence distracted Bing a bit – he kept getting drawn back to the top of the arena and losing contact with the sheep. He is a mamas dog for sure.
Bing is very curious about Elizabeth Katherine. When we get home tonight we’ll introduce them properly.
Great day. Wonderful to see the sheep and all our friends again. And even better to be heading home with our goodie boy in the Honda with us.
Bing brags
This past winter I continued taking the dogs out sheep herding. I continued herding with Kate myself however couldn’t keep up with Bing so turned handling Bing over to Suzanne. Bing likes working with Suzanne. She knows what the sheep and dog are going to do next, understands their dance, and is so fast in her reaction times.
When Bing works with me he gets frustrated because I give him the right cue but several seconds late, turning it into the wrong cue. He KNOWS when I’ve given him the wrong cue. I have many more years learning to gain the skill Bing deserves.
So Bing and Suzanne have developed a beautiful working relationship. She has been handling him in my absence at the herding seminar.
I was tickled to get an e-mail from one of our friends who had this to say about Bings work yesterday:
“Bing was great! He appropriately tore into a couple of rams that had been buffaloeing dogs all day, and with well placed between-the-horns bites, letting the bastards know who was boss. One of the rams really pissed him off and he laid down the law with authority! Great to watch! Funny, Bing looks so much bigger when out on the herding grounds then he does when I’m walking him between his runs! I’m not a Corgi fan, but I sure am a Bing fan. He’s such a little lion out in the paddock!”
I am so proud of our herding boy. Go Bing man!
Our first week at home has flown by.
Elizabeth Katherine Has grown to 7 lbs 1 oz. She had her first bath at home (she liked it at NICU, did not like it at home). She is a night owl. There hasn’t been much sleep at the Anderson household. To be expected with a new baby, so nothing shocking there. We’ve been using disposables for the first week just to keep things as similar to the hospital as possible. That won’t be continuing much longer. EKA has generated 10 lbs of diaper trash. 10 lbs. In just under 7 days. Wow. A dry diaper weighs just under an ounce. That’s a lot of baby by product. We’ll be switching to cloth pretty quick here. We need a LOT more cloth diapers.
Elizabeth Katherine had her first visit with her pediatrician. She showed off her lung capacity. We’ve also done some visiting around town. She’s been to the White Spot, Great Northern Guns, Northern Security, and Fire Island Bakery (just a few of our favorite spots). She’s also visited both mine and Scott’s work. We are not letting folks touch her yet to limit her germ exposure, and we keep visits brief.
My health continues to slowly improve. The gallbladder incision sites remain painful and the abdominal muscles are weak but there is improvement. My p/t took a hit bringing EKA home however am getting back into it. I have met the weight loss goal I set several years ago – my BMI is now at ‘normal’ weight. There is a lot of flab instead of muscle so I expect to increase in weight as I regain my muscle. I am ok with that.
The nursery is complete except for some minor details. I need to hem the curtains and obtain some storage bins for clothing, burp rags, diapers, etc. Elizabeth Katherine has been sleeping in her bassinet in our room. We use the nursery for nursing and diaper changes and getting her dressed at this point. Scott rearranged the furniture in the master bedroom with the help of a friend, and even got the three book cases moved from the living room to the master. This makes room for the piano in the living room (not here yet and we’ll hire professional insured movers for that move). Scott is going to work on completing the master bedroom this weekend – it needs work in the closet.
Tonight we visited Kate and her pups. Oh My. They are 6 weeks old Monday. They were worn out and sleepy when we arrived but still absolutely adorable. Kate was enthusiastic in her greeting. Kat says Kate is ready to come home. She’s kind of ‘done’ with the whole puppy thing. She’s still being a good mama, but 6 week old pups have sharp little teeth and who can blame her for not being eager to nurse them? She’ll stay at Kat’s for another week or so.
Bing is still with Mel and Chris and has acclimatized well. He has actually warmed up to Chris (Bing rarely warms to anyone) and was playing ‘Touch’ with Chris. This is a big huge deal for our boy. Bing has been attending a four day sheep herding seminar with the help of some friends. They’ve been coordinating to get Bing to the seminar – this is fabulous as there is no way I could get him out and back at this point. Bing has done very well at the seminar. Once I’ve got permission I’ll post some of the words others have written about him. I am so so so proud of our Bing man. He is a herding fool!
Spring is well underway. The crocus are done, with daffodils just about blooming and the tulips not far behind. All of the snow is nearly gone. Just a bit left of the monster pile uphill from the chicken run. The bleeding heart is quite large, and the columbine is up and making progress. I need to clear the area around the delphinium this weekend or there won’t be delphinium!
We had the garden and chicken run rototilled this evening. Cost about the same as renting the tiller, and a lot less effort. The chickens were delighted and hussled over to eat broken worms (sorry buddies) when the carnage was complete. The run has lovely dark soil – we may have a friends son move some of it over to the garden to enrich the soil.
Scott and I are doing a pretty good job double-teaming Elizabeth. It is difficult but not much more difficult than we anticipated. I absolutely love watching Scott interact with our daughter. His delight in her is tangible. He is gentle and patient and excels at calming her. Being fatigued has been the most difficult adjustment, and nothing for that but time. The adage to ‘sleep when the baby sleeps’ is smart. Now if only we could pull that off…
Some photos to enjoy…
We got the news just a few hours ago.
Elizabeth comes home tomorrow!