Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Iain

Iain is nearly 10 months, already! This past month has definitely been the most fun, so far. Iain is becoming more interactive, his babbling is increasing, he's eating more, he's more mobile and likes to explore, he's sleeping better, and he loves his mommy very very much! We have our good days and bad days, good night and bad nights, healthy weeks and weeks with colds, but overall, motherhood is definitely growing on me in ways I wouldn't have thought possible 8 months ago. Iain is such an indescribable joy to have in our family...and a joy for every lady he smiles at when we're out and about, as though they are his whole world (he doesn't smile as freely at men, for some reason).

I have recently ventured into the domestic arena of making my own babyfood. I can't believe how simple, cost-effective and delicious it is. What do I do?
- Crock-pot some meat (I've done both chicken thighs and a beef roast). - Whatever meat you might make for your family is fine, as long as there are no allergenic ingredients, and then use the leftovers for babyfood
- Mince/chop and LOOSELY pack in ice cube trays and freeze. When frozen, transfer cubes to a ziplock bag. Packing loosely is key, so that the meat cube crumbles easily when you want to serve it.
- To prepare: crumble 1 or 2 meat cubes into microwave-safe bowl. Add about a tsp. of liquid (I use rice milk or water). microwave for 20-30 sec, just til thawed. Fork-press any large lumps into bits.
- I usually add a 1-2 tbs. applesauce (for flavor), 1/3 cup baby cereal - barley or oatmeal, and an equal portion of rice milk. You can use real milk if your child isn't allergic, of course.
- Microwave mixture for 30 seconds and serve to eager baby. :)
- I've also done the ice-cube tray bit with leftover minced veggies such as asparagus and sweet potato. These can be microwaved to thaw with the meat.

Here is the result:
Iain started making these faces one evening at the dinner table and we couldn't stop laughing. He had no idea he was being funny. :)

Ireland and Brady Halls have a traditional first-snowfall-of-the-season snowball fight. This year's occured around midnight and it definitely sounded like the world was ending! (This picture doesn't do it justice, there were 100s of guys out there at its peak.)
Guess what Dad is trying to get Iain into?
Our first (homemade) family portrait. Iain had a cold and low fever, hence the ruddy cheeks. He fell asleep about 10 seconds after this picture was taken.
My little goof :) This was just after we got home from a family walk in rain/sleet. brrrrrr. Note: Iain is being held up by me, he does not even sit for long on his own, yet.
Not a great pic of me, but I had to include our little JPII. Iain was a big hit among the moms at the All Saints party because of what he's wearing on his head....you nursing mothers might guess...(hey, it was Mark's idea!) :)

Thursday, November 6, 2008

I caved

I guess all I needed was my own permission not to post pictures in order to make me realize that I'm a sucker for sharing cute pictures of my kid. Well, here you go, world:

By the way, Iain had his 9 month check-up today. He is 23 lbs and 30.5 inches. He's also got a bit of the "preemie, big boy" syndrome: his size is hindering his delayed-due-to-prematurity gross motor skill advancement (though he could win medals for his ability to roll to get around!) But no worries, he'll catch up soon and everything else is on schedule or ahead. :)

This is at the MOA (Mall of America). Iain didn't really understand that we were trying to measure him. Apparently the store didn't get it either, as you'll notice the ruler doesn't hit the floor despite starting the measurement at zero.
Caught in the act! We really do need to keep an eye on those keys! Ok, really this was during a fire alarm drill, during which we kept out of the cold in our parked car. Incidently, the alarm went off just after Iain went down for his early evening nap and dinner was cooking. I was not a happy camper.
One of my favorite pictures. My baby is getting so big! He's happily gnawing on an apple slice.

I couldn't resist, they were $1, and he's just so cute!
Did I mention the cuteness?

Not so skilled in the sitting department. I was going for that classic Autumn shot; it didn't quite work the way it had played out in my mind.
I love this pictures. My two favorite boys!
Visions of the future? It's good to know they sell shoes this size at The Rack (Nordstrom)
The world is an exhausting place, and sometimes you just need some sleep...and even then Mom just won't let you be!









Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Catching up (yawn!)

As much as I would love the simpler life of the Amish (ok, I would love some small tastes of particular parts of their life...they can keep most of it for themselves), I have missed the internet on my computer. It's back after a long hiatus. I don't know why it stopped working or what brought it back. I am, quite simply, not an IRT lady. But the IRT lady was, and I have much to thank her for...and Mark, who resucitated it once again this morning.

First of all, for all of you who want to see Iain pictures, I have a winkflash account and I have, thus far, consistently posted pictures there at monthly intervals (his 8 month pics are now up). If you'd like access to that account, let me know and I'll add you there as a friend. That being said, I don't know how much I'll keep posting them here, it just takes too much of my time. Maybe...we'll see if I cave. I do think [my] blog without pictures is just boring. Your welcome. :)

So, what have we been up to since my internet stopped working? Not much, so I'll just ramble on about my baby: Iain's two bottom front teeth have appeared. His vocabularly has increased to include "ma-ma" and he seems to have some concept of that being me - that became apparent last night at 3 am when he included it in his wailing during which there was a notable absence of "bah-bah", the consonant sound in which he is most fluent. Along the same lines, he's become incredibly clingy and is inconsolable in arms other than mine, or other places for that matter. At this rate, he may never learn to crawl; though for those minutes and minutes that he's content on the floor, he has increased his arm strength and is quite the push-upper these days.

A friend called yesterday, just to ask how my weekend was. I couldn't remember. I just sat there trying to recall anything. She even gave me some prompts (ie, did you do anything for Lord's Day?); it was like grasping at fog...no, grasping at thin air. Nothing came to mind. Fortunately, Mark was there, so I asked him, so I could tell my friend. While I was slightly amused by my completely empty short-term memory bank, I was also equally appalled. Life really should be more memorable, right? I think so. I now see why I don't remember Iain's early months. Nadda. I remember how I felt, but I don't remember Iain. Good thing I have pictures. Hopefully I'll be more aware for my subsequent children...when I'm even more sleep-deprived. hmmm... Here's to hoping that tonight Iain sleeps better, longer and without fussing!

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Worth the Hype

With varying degrees of vigilance and success, I have been pretending to keep house for nearly three years. I have also spent these 3 years ignorant of perhaps the greatest invention of mankind. Had I been aware of the freedom granted by this simple gadget, my husband may have spent 3 years in the home of the wife of Prov 31 instead of... Ok, let's be honest, I doubt my works will be praising me at the city gates anytime soon, but I do have to give praise where it is due. Let's have a big shout out for....

The duster!!! (electrostatic, feather...take your pick)

I have long loathed dusting. In terms of the rewards of housekeeping, there is not much that falls lower than pulling out the dust cloth and spray and wiping down a piano, computer, TV, etc. only to have it nearly instantly dusty again, leaving behind the lingering smell of dusting spray. yuck. And what about those little trinkets that are everywhere...the thought of tediously going over every one of those beloved knick-knacks just makes my eyeballs shudder (I'm not sure what I mean by that, but I think it conveys the idea).

I'm sure many of you are asking yourself what planet this poor sap grew up on, as most 27 year olds have probably been aware of the usefullness of this little gadget since they were old enough to swat their siblings with it, much to the horror of their Prov. 31 mothers. Well, first let me say, it was no fault of my mother's, as we did have a feather duster in our home. I actually even used it a time or two. However, at some tender age I heard some little tidbit about dusters that lodged in my head like the gospel truth. That being that dusters merely move the dust around, only to have it settle again, thereby not really accomplishing much.

While I realize there may be some truth there, it dawned on me, as I gazed around my dust-covered home, that using a duster that takes 1/52 of my time (or less) and leaves no awful smell in it's wake and solves the how-to-dust-the-Pieta problem would at least get the job done, (and leave me more willing to accomplish it with increased frequency!) which is more than can be said for the old cloth-and-spray method that was happening at the same frequency as the seasonal changes.

I write this in a dusted living room. Yes, there may be a bit more dust floating in the air tonight, and my home may not have that 3 minute post-spray gleam, but at least it doesn't smell of canned lemon, I'm not covered in a layer of sticky grime and there is no extra laundry to do. And when that dust settles, well, it has me and my duster to reckon with.

Take that, dust bunnies!

Friday, September 19, 2008

The Crucible

The last 48 hours have reminded me of a crazy idea that I had a few months back. More to come about these last 2 days, but first, my idea which I'm afraid would probably leave the world underpopulated if it ever caught on...

The Mommy Crucible:

In Catholic circles, as men and women approach their indepedence (and beyond), they are encouraged to seriously discern their vocation: Marriage, Religious Life, Consecrated Single life.... Now, focusing on women for the moment, it is not unheard of for ladies to go on vocation retreats with different Religious orders, to become more familar with their particular way of life.

Unfortunately, beside the school of their own family and perhaps exstensive childcare, there is no way, with which I am familar, to help women experience the particular challenges of motherhood. I am convinced that this is some sneaky plan that may be cousins with the old "bait and switch," without which the human population might quickly die out. Well, perhaps not, as mother nature has given us the gifts of selective memory and a biological clock that keep the species going. Or perhaps that was God, in His infinite wisdom. I suppose that's the more likely answer. :)

Anyway...

This idea is quite skeletal at the moment, but it would be a series of exercises done to simulate some of the "joys" of motherhood. (Feel free to add your own ideas in the comments section) One example:

- To simulate night feedings of newborns:
Woman sets her alarm for every 2 hours throughout the night. At each alarm, she gets up and sits in a dark and quiet room with a full-to-the-brim glass of water in hand. She must sit there for 30 minutes without spilling a drop.... Teaches: ability to stay awake and aware even in the most fatigued state, in a sleep-inducing enviroment.

more to come, I'm sure...

In my current state, that's the only one of my brilliant exercises that I can recall. Now, why do I find myself in this state?

Perhaps it's because I was up most of the night, 2 nights ago, doing 7 loads of laundry, in hopes that I could rid our home of germs, after I sent my husband off the ER, (incidentally, driven by his boss's son who happens to live across the hall!) because Mark had a case of dehydrating food poisoning and, after catching all 200+ lbs of him as he passed out in the bathroom at 2 am, I realized it had officially gotten beyond me. Note: a few liters of IV fluid, some Zofran and a handful of hours later, he was home again and on the upswing. He's not fully recovered, but at least he's no longer the human Niagra Falls!

Maybe it's the stress of constant disinfection in hopes that my 7 month old and I don't catch whatever it is that Mark had. (So far, so good...please do pray!)

Last and very least, it might be that I was anticipating that I could get some sleep last night, only to discover that my 7 month old, who had spent the entire day nursing every 2 hours (leaving me hopeful that perhaps that meant he would sleep through the night for the first time in 4 months, having tanked up all day) continued his 2 hour trend alllll through the night...and day, today. Did I mention he also woke up with quite the runny nose. Hey, I'll take a runny nose over other runny alternatives, any day!!!

I don't know how working mothers do it! On that note, my new favorite motto is: What doesn't kill you... takes a few years off your life. ;)

Actually, all in all, aside from the passing out incident, which was scary for me, this whole experience has been so much more bearable than I would've imagined. Thank you Lord for giving us grace as we need it, and for not letting us see what's coming before we have the grace to handle it!

Saturday, September 13, 2008

It's not Fall yet...because I say so

We were cheated out of May and spring this year. It went from winter to summer and spring was a blip somewhere in mid-June. Now that it's September the weather seems to think that it's permissable to go straight into Fall...leaves turning and all. Despite digging in my heels and whining, time has not stopped and I apparently have to come to terms with the end of summer. To be honest, Fall is my favorite season, but evenso it feels dreadfully misplaced, like a snowstorm in July.

It's dismal and dreary in St Paul, today. I believe the British description of the weather is "spitting". I'm waiting around for Iain to wake up so I can feed him and get on with my day. I have errands to run. Yes, it's one of those exciting days. This evening we have an all-NET,SPO,CCR Mass to attend after which there is a pizza dinner. Unfortunately, the food is strictly RSVP and we did not, so we will BYOP(izza). This is yet another example of scheduling blunders that have afflicted our family recently. Too much to do and not enough motivation (until now?) to have a boring calendar meeting in our free time. Oh well.

Mark is thoroughly enjoying the school year thus far. Every evening we're around he slips out of the apartment to play pool in the basement with whomever happens to be around. He loves that he is getting paid, in his role as chaplain, to play pool, organize fantasy sports teams, hang out with guys, etc. With this year starting off markedly different than last year, we are considering a longer tenure here than previous thought...my jokes about babies sleeping in the bathtub and dresser drawers may not be far from the truth. We shall see... ;)

Baby's awake.

Monday, September 1, 2008

Fallen Hero?

I think not! Paraphrasing Mark, he asked me if I still think Sarah Palin is made of gold now that we know that her 17 year old daughter is pregnant. Roundabout answer: Well I can only imagine the difficulties that a 17 year old will have as a soon-to-be-married-very-young-mother. And, let's just call sin, sin... I'm not happy that she's arrived there by participating in something that is aimed at that end. However, the baby itself is NOT the issue. When, oh when will people "get it"?!

When did it become merely the ends and not the means that causes scandal? Why is it the baby and not the misplaced baby-making that has our country up in arms?

In a country that seems aware and all but encouraging of fornication, how is it that this still scandalizes us? The only remaining conclusion is that the scandal is the failure or absence of birth control. HORRORS! SHE FORGOT A CONDOM!

Well folks, when we get right down to it, I think this reaction of the media/country is a muddy-but-hopeful message. The fact that our country still thinks that a 17 year old unmarried pregnant teenager is scandalous means that despite the moral decline of our culture, we haven't yet forgotten that there is something here by which we are scandalized. It is our job, as intelligent Christians, to remind people of why they are scandalized... clearly it's not the failure/lack of birth control (let's just be honest, as a scandal that's just laughable). Rather it's that somewhere deep down inside, despite the best efforts of this relativistic culture, our country still knows that the place that God intends babies to be made ...means and ends... is within marriage.

I, the pessimist, still have hope.

Maybe someday soon we'll remember that sin is sin and babies are not sin.

So, to directly answer the question about Sarah Palin: Having read her response to the media concerning her daughter's pregnancy, she has done it again... calm, collected, mature, parental and loving. I still think she is 100% my vp candidate! Go Palin!

Friday, August 29, 2008

Proud to be an American! (and a Minnesotan)

I'm not one to discuss politics on my blog ...but Sarah Palin, anyone?! WOW! So far, I can't find anything I disagree with her on. Way to go, McCain! (And it has little to do with her being a woman...though I admit that as a frequently-overwhelmed mother of a 7-month-old I may be a bit intimated by her super-womanness.) :)

Glenn Beck (of whom I am a big fan) is apparently doing an interview with her on CNN this evening, which I'm really looking forward to.

Suddenly the Republican Convention, that's going to be right here in St Paul, actually seems like something to be excited about. Rather than feeling like I must brace myself for Obama as President, I have renewed hope for McCain, not to mention being thrilled that his VP is someone I believe I can support 100%!

Hurray!

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Return of Moving Day, Part II, The Sequel...

That pretty much sums it up. We're in the process of moving yet again. To be honest, this is the most peaceful moving day, to date. We had a whole handful of dedicated guys helping us this morning and we (er, they) successfully transported all the heavy stuff over to Ireland Hall. Praise the Lord! All that's left to do is the bed/bath rooms. That will happen later when Mark returns.

So, Iain is sleeping, I'm taking advantage of my last chance to do laundry right around the corner rather than 3 flights down, and Mark is off at a softball tournament.

For those Iain fans out there, here's the latest: Iain's rolling over both ways now, he likes to sing/gargle with a whole ocean of saliva pooled in the back of his mouth (that's his favorite sound, currently), he gives wonderful wide-open-mouth drooley kisses, he gets nearly constant praise for his huge beaming smiles which he throws in all the appropriate (female) directions, he has now held hands with 2 little girls and 1 boy, he's still a huge fan of "mirror baby", and last but not least, he hasn't pooped in a week!

As for that last note, the Dr. recommended prunes (pureed, I hope it goes without saying), but I haven't been to the store recently, so I keep hoping that things will just move along...here's to hoping. Iain doesn't seemed bothered by this standstill and it's not unheard of for babies to go up to 10 days, so I'm trying not to let his poop color my every waking thought (which is why, of course, I would never blog about such things, thereby announcing it to the whole world!)

For those of you in MI, Iain and I will be coming your way this Thursday, the 14th, for a Saturday wedding, and leaving on Monday evening. If you're around and available, let me know! :)

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Saturday adventures

If you've read my last post, you probably guessed that I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed and under-rested recently. I'm not talking about a lack of sleep, though that probably doesn't help, but rather that sense of a busy life lived in a succession of endless Mondays.

Yesterday morning, I decided that I needed a change, a "let's pretend we're on vacation" kind of change. Something exciting and different needed to happen and I was bound and determined to go for it. Fortunately, my husband was more that willing to set aside his work for a few hours and humor my energetic whim.

The adventure began at 11:14 AM as we snapped a nearly-sleeping baby into his carseat and headed off to the St Paul Farmer's Market. We had never been, and it seemed like it might be a rejuvinating (free) adventure. It was wonderful! We ended up spending a whopping $3 for 2 basil plants and 5 honey sticks - yum! It was very refreshing to be surrounded by home-grown produce, plants, jams, cheese, and assorted meats and jerkies, including bison!

After that, we meandered across town to Bruegger's Bagels for lunch, with a brief stop in a small but nicely landscaped "central park" that we discovered. Lunch was followed with a frozen treat from Starbucks.

3 hours later, feeling like life had taken a wonderful turn for the better, we headed home to indulge in everyone's favorite Saturday activity: chores. Iain napped, Mark plugged away at work and I accomplished a week's worth of cleaning. Meanwhile, that energetic frenzy still brightly burning, I managed to talk Mark into an after-dinner family excursion to an Observatory.

We arrived just before the mosquitoes came out in full force, and aside from the 15 minutes we spent in the car to escape them until they settled down for the night, we enjoyed our little adventure in star-gazing. The telescopes were enormous (and free!) and we were able to catch sight of Saturn, rings and all, Mars, Jupiter, the moon (of course), and the Hercules cluster. It was thoroughly enjoyable, even in spite of the bugs, though I think if we return, it will be in the Fall when there are no bugs, it gets dark earlier and generally the humidity is less. For those of you who are not avid star-gazers, apparently the humidity causes "atmospheric turbulence" which affects the quality of telescopic image. And of course the best sights are seen after "astronomical twilight," according to a volunteer who Mark guessed is also fluent in Klingon.

Iain did amazingly well, especially considering our adventures disrupted his sleep a bit. We arrived home before midnight and I felt as though we had lived an entire wonderful vacation in less than a day! Thank you, Lord!

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Summertime, and the living is ...busy

Summer in St Paul is a wonderful but incredibly busy time of the year. Having a 5 month old who no longer sleeps more than 3 1/2 hours at a time, can make those busy days seem even longer. However, his enormous smiles, grabbing at anything within reach, rolling over and increasing chatter are wonderful consolations when the sleep deprivation hits hard.

In brief, here is what the last month has found us doing:

June 2nd: arrived home at 11 pm from world travels
June 3rd: packed up apartment and moved to 4 bed/2 bath apartment palace for the summer
Rest of June: Thank the Lord for the blessing of our "summer home" and get used to our summer schedule

Average summer evening schedule:

Monday: Mark goes to SPO Men's night, Betsy leads a women's group
Tuesday: Couples' group
Wednesday:Prayer meeting
Thursday: Take a breath and wonder where the week has gone
Friday: Cheer for Mark as he plays Softball and chat with the crowd of softball-groupies
Saturday: Celebrate the "Lord's Day" and have dinner with lots of nice people
Sunday: Be thankful that we don't have anything going on...unless we do

Now, I'm not complaining, but I do think our life is a bit full. Is it any wonder that I'd rather spend the daytime by myself (with Iain) than hang out with people? After all, I am an introvert, despite what some people may believe. :)

All the same, when my boss called and asked if I could work on July 1 (first time back since Iain was born) I jumped at the chance. A 6 hour break from mommyhood sounded like just what Nurse Betsy needed. The catch? Iain hadn't had a bottle since he was 1 month old and he wasn't too keen on picking up that lost skill! 3 days of trying the bottle, 1 day of realizing he's now allergic to diary-based formula, and 45 minutes of screaming later, he eagerly downed a whole bottle of soy-formula. I tried again that evening and he drank it like it's all he's ever known (though he's still a nursing champ!)

Work went like a dream, Iain did wonderfully for the sitters and despite the fact that I only got about 4 hours of sleep the night before, I felt like a whole new woman! I NEVER would've guessed I'd be that mom that wanted to work after her baby was born, but I tell ya, that one day back was absolutely wonderful.

I love my husband, I love my baby, I have a life-giving and very-occasional job, I'm a huge fan of our summer apartment, and I guess I'd rather have any overly-full life than an empty one! I am very blessed, indeed!

If only we could go on vacation...

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Christian Baby!

On June 1st, we celebrated with Iain as he was welcomed into the Christian family through Baptism. We had the great honor and privilege, all thanks to Kevin, of celebrating this Sacrament in St Peter's at the Vatican. God's grace was abundantely clear in many ways, in particular as Iain stayed alert and content and even cracked a few smiles through most of the baptism, despite having not eaten for over 4 hours (a miracle by any mother's standards!)
As you may recall, Iain (the Scottish form of John) is named after John the Baptist. It was our great delight to see, in the baptismal chapel, this painting of John baptizing Christ.
Fr. Tim was generous with his time and performed the baptism, despite feeling somewhat overwhelmed by his studies. God bless you, Fr. Tim! Behind him is the baptismal font.
Heidi and Kevin, Iain's Godparents
Fr. Tim blessing the water
Iain, being born again in the waters of Baptism! Praise the Lord!

Iain, with his white garment
the baptismal candle
Fr Tim, us, Kevin and Heidi (Godparents)
Fr Tim, Adam (Mark's older brother), Mum Archibald, us, Dad Archibald, Godparents
Happy Christian family! :) (well, mostly happy...one of is very hungry and needs a new diaper)
Babi and Grandad holding the newest Christian member of the Archibald family.




Saturday, June 7, 2008

Around the world

Mark, Iain and I have recently returned from a whirlwind trip to Scotland and Rome. Rather than boring you with long-winded paragraphs, I've picked some favorite pictures to show off in chronological order.

Uncle Adam, Mark's older brother, with his favorite (only) nephew. This view overlooks part of Edinburgh. It was a nice little walk, though quite windy; my mother's heart was frightened of gale-force winds throwing my baby, stroller-and-all, over the side of the hill. Needless to say, we didn't stay up there long.

Our little family spent an afternoon walking around downtown (if that's what you call it). Here, we stopped at a little cafe so I wouldn't die of hunger...nursing mom strikes again! Despite Iain's appearance, it wasn't a cold day. Rather, he had (and unfortunately now has again) quite a case of what has since been diagnosed as Seborrheic Dermatitis, or, as our family doctor called it "Scottish skin". How appropriate. The hat and sock-mittens were to keep him from scratching at it.
An absolutely beautiful picture of Iain and his Babi (Mark's mum).
While in Scotland, Mark dusted off the old Super Nintendo which he purchased at age 11. Many an evening was spent reliving the old days for a 1/2 hour or so before bed. Here he is playing "Zelda".
A wonderful golden birthday. I turned 27 on the 27th. This was actually on the 26th, at Babi's house. Natasha, the girl on the left, charmed us all while we spent the afternoon visiting with Mum's side of the family.
Iain and Babi...or rather Great-Babi (?) (not sure what the Polish term is).
After a wonderful week+ in Scotland, we headed for Rome to see Uncle Kevin and Aunt Heidi...and BABY!!!
Aunt Heidi, practicing her moves. She has 7 months to perfect them...if all goes as planned (not that I would know anything about that).

I had to include all three of these pictures. Mark has quite a knack for making Iain smile...though when he's in the right mood, he needs no help! Here, he is smiling and chatting.


Ancient Rome was known for its baths. I don't think they went quite like this.
Piazza Navona is a popular tourist site. This is pretty much how our visit went: we traveled to Italy so we could gaze at ....Iain. :)
A trip to Rome is not complete without the famous and delicious Gelato! (Yes, I am a nursing mom, but that's no excuse for double-fisting it; I'm holding Mark's as well.)
Mark and I marvel at how we are blessed with the cutest baby in the entire world. :) This was in Termini station, as we waited for Mark's family to arrive from Scotland. They were able to join us for the celebration of Iain's baptism!




Thursday, May 8, 2008

3 months!

Mark will be home from the Dominican Republic in exactly 24 hours and I can't wait to see him! Iain and I spent the last week in MI visiting family and friends. I won't bore you with too much detail, so you can go right on to the important stuff: pictures. I will say, just briefly, we have one SMILEY boy. I wish I had more smiley pictures to prove it, but he is a charmer! (And that's a quote from the lady who stood behind us in line to board the 2nd of our flights, yesterday.) Speaking of which, I think I scared the poor guy I sat next to on our first flight, yesterday. I don't know which he thought was worse: a screaming baby, or the remedy, which was me nursing Iain. :) I will try to get more smiley pictures posted soon.

Our baby is getting so big!


The thinker I love the expression on Iain's face in this picture, it makes me laugh. :) (And doesn't Mark look handsome?!) :)


The way you dress a baby for a walk in April, in MN. Cousin Charlie...sorry it's blurry.
Iain charming his Grandma and Great-Grandma
After all that hard work, smiling, he peacefully drifted off to sleep in Great-Grandma's arms.