Parentheticals

Our week in California was wonderful, just like it is every year. Timmy liked playing with Grandpa Craig, Sara and Rea both liked everything about California, and Alison like sitting on the beach and talking to her parents and siblings. Mike liked being with Alison and the kids among other things. Rea thinks that we should mention that we built sand and water structures on the beach. Mike found out that the natal plums that grow all over the place out there are edible (which is cool). Perhaps next year we will make a salad out of them, and bring some seeds home to try and plant inside our house. Rea and Sara both loved the beach and stayed out all day with whatever grown-ups were there. They played in the sand and the waves and Rea even learned to boogie board. Timmy liked the beach somewhat but was always happy to go back to the house and didn't ever get wet. Alison sat and held a baby inside or outside, and Mike worked on his NaGaDeMon game and kept Alison and the kids compan

This last week Gideon got sick. Timmy has had a cold since two weeks before Gideon was born. No one else had gotten it, so we were feeling fairly safew, but then the day after Gideon's one-week checkup, he came down with the cold. Rea started sneezing, too, and Sara claims she's sick as well though Alison hasn't seen any evidence of it. No fun! Timmy is almost better - just a lingering cough at night - and Rea can blow her own nose and be fine, but Gideon was stuffed up and couldn't breathe. Alison stayed up with him Tuesday and Wednesday nights to hold him upright so he could breathe a little better. By Thursday she was utterly exhausted (Thursday was not a good day), so Mike took the baby between feedings Thursday night. He was starting to get a little better by then: Mike got a solid 3 hour chunk of sleep and some smaller naps with Gideon sleeping on his mattress. (We have Gideon's mattress on the floor and a mat next to it for a grown-up to sleep on, and whe

Mike took this week off work to help us adjust to having a new baby. The adjustment has gone quite well. Alison's midwife always recommends at least a week in bed after having a baby, but Alison actually felt so good by the end of the week that she was itching to get up. She's had a very easy recovery this time. The kids have loved having a new baby; we were a little worried about how they'd respond, but they all seem very happy. Baby Gideon is determined to be different from his brother and sisters, in good and bad ways. He is our first baby who likes to suck beyond what's necessary for eating. Alison got really sore before we figured that out. Now we're trying to convince him that he likes pacifiers and wants to keep one in his mouth, while he much prefers to suck on a parent's thumb, We're also working on him sucking his own thumb, but that will take longer. He's very quiet; he pretty much only screams for diaper changes, and even that is much quiet

For some reason I'm feeling lazy today. Here are a bunch of pictures of things that happened this week. Halloween costumes: KGB agent, African lady, Pioneer girl, Princess, and Cowboy. We let the kids eat candy Halloween night and pick 6 favorites to save, then chopped up the rest of the chocolate and made chocolate chip cookie dough that we can eat for the next few months. Everyone likes the plan except Rea, who is old enough that she could ration her candy and just eat it for months; we might adjust how much candy they get to keep based on age next year. Grandma Julie took Alison and the kids to This is the Place Heritage Park on Thursday in hopes that walking would bring on labor. (It didn't.) We rode the train and saw a family of deer only a few feet away. Rea thought this was about the coolest thing she'd ever seen: "I've never seen a live deer before, Mom!" We petted a sheep at This is the Place. The wooden train at This is the Place