Mr. Sandman, I love you

Oscar after his 3-hour nap, bringing Mama a giant cookie at work. Right after this shot, he bit right through the plastic into that chunk of sweet goodness. Photo by Jillian Daley.

Many, many of you have listened to our family's woes about lack of sleep. Every night. Every day. Ugh.

The beloved Sandman paid us a nice visit yesterday (3 hour nap for Oscar) and last night. Oscar was up 3 or 4 times by 10:30 p.m., so we gave him some baby pain killer for the excruciatingly huge molars that are cutting through his sweet, soft baby gums. We've done that before, so it's likely unrelated, but he slept—like a baby—until 6:15 a.m.

Adam got to bed after we dosed Oscar, and he didn't have any insomnia. Yea!

I was up for a work project until midnight, but I got a solid 5 hours in, until I started worrying that we hadn't heard Oscar yet. I slept fitfully for the next hour or so until he woke us up.

I'm not foolish enough to hope that this will continue. But I am grateful that my family got a good night's sleep. We needed it.

Oscar loves broccoli

Willow Creek Railroad

Journey, Adam and Oscar waiting for one of the trains to take off.

We made our second visit this summer to Willow Creek Railroad, this really cool place that's part of Antique Powerland.

Oscar contemplates a life ridin' the rails.

Beth reserved the place for a 3-hour party a couple Sundays ago and several of us showed up to picnic and take our little ones on the trains. The day turned out sunny and warm; a lovely time was had by all. Thank you, Beth, for organizing such a fun family outing!

Beth and a tuckered-out Eli.

Oregon State Fair

Getting dressed for the fair in a onesie with tractors and cows!

We went to the state fair tonight and had a fantastic time. It was perfect. Saw the cows, piglets, sheep, draft horses and my favorite, the poultry barn; looked at some farm equipment (saw this crazy, tall and narrow thing that turned out to be a crop sprayer, for row crops); saw some textiles and vegetables (again, got to see my favorite, the oddities and entries for "cutest vegetable"), decorated cakes, including our friend Marion's, fine art, calligraphy (a kind calligrapher gentleman wrote Oscar's name on some poster board for us, for free!), voted for Peoples Choice in the kids division and amateur art; ate fried food while listening to a Johnny Cash cover artist, who was pretty good.

Oscar watches me eat a hand-dipped pronto pup and brick o' fries for dinner. Mmm, fair food.

Here's my favorite part: We were sitting on a bench outside the Jackman-Long Building (art exhibits). I'd just finished nursing Oscar and Adam was burping him. A couple of women were sitting across the path from us. When they saw us preparing to leave, one of them came over and told us that she raised two children and her friend had raised "Oh, seven or eight," and that they both thought we were the nicest family they'd seen all day. I thanked them and told them that meant a lot to me and that, in fact, it had made my fair experience. I got teary as we walked away and told Adam how I remembered strangers making similar comments to our family when I was a kid and what an impression that made on me. Thinking about it now, how willing are you to go up to a perfect stranger and give them your opinion, no matter how well-intended and kind, about their family? I've done it a couple times in my life and it's always paid off with more kind words and big smiles.Here we are in front of the big tomato.

Happy to be home

We had a fantastic road trip last week: we drove from Salem to La Grande on the 7th and stayed with my dad and Rebecca; drove to Nampa, ID, on the 8th and stayed with my brother and his family for two nights; returned to La Grande on the 10th and stayed with my mom and returned to Salem on the 11th. Whew! Our hosts were wonderful and we saw too little of all of them.

Grampa and Oscar
Justin and Oscar
Gramma and Oscar
The purpose of the trip was to attend Adam's 20th class reunion for Centennial High School. It was fun to see Adam's best childhood friend Aaron, along with his wife, Deb, and to meet the folks who used to live in his neighborhood when he was a kid. It was also great to see Mrs. Billingsley and Deb and Aaron's kids. Back in La Grande, we had a lovely visit with Beth, Kevin, Tess and Colm.

Aaron, Elizabeth, Adam and Oscar
Beth and Oscar
After staying in three places over four nights (setting up good middle-of-the-night spots to nurse and change diapers was interesting!) and an 8-hour trip home on Monday, we were so glad to be home. I'd wisely taken Tuesday as a vacation day, so the three of us just relaxed and enjoyed ourselves. Here's a video of just how happy Oscar was to be home:

Back to work

Just a quick update to let everyone know I survived my first day back at work.

I think I've mentioned before that I'm a crier. Happy, sad, proud, relief--many emotions evoke tears from me. So last night and this morning I cried and cried. I told Adam I didn't know how or when it was ever going to stop. I thought maybe I'd stop when I climbed into the shower. Nope. At least not right away. I was starting to tear up again when I thought of my Mom and heard her concerned yet stern voice: "You're going to make yourself sick!" She used to tell me this when I would cry for a long time (I've been racking my brain all day trying to remember what ever made me cry like this and can't remember. Weird.). And it was true: I'd exhaust myself and would often get sick shortly thereafter. Remembering that admonishment from my mother helped me settle myself. That, and imagining that my tears were using up all the liquid I need to make milk for Oscar!

Folks at work welcomed me back warmly and enthusiastically. I spent most of the day going through email and vmail. Adam brought Oscar by to nurse at 11:45 a.m. The little rascal wouldn't take much milk from a bottle at home; he also really struggled nursing. He did much better taking a bottle from Adam for the afternoon feeding. They walked in to pick me up from work just after 5:30 p.m. and we all walked home together, with a trip to the store on the way. Lovely.

Once home, I nursed Oscar while Adam made an incredible dinner of wilted spinach salad with all kinds of goodies in it and an equally yummy side of squash & onion sauté.

Thanks to everyone for your kind words, thoughts and support to both Adam and me as we faced and now are making this transition. It helps.

Touch and go

I've been touch and go today because I go back to work tomorrow. For some of the day I've been necessarily oblivious to the fact. Tomorrow morning may not go smoothly at all as I haven't pumped in a couple of weeks and don't have a purse ready (I've been using the diaper bag as a purse for three months!). Other parts of the day, I've been struck by practical thoughts like, "do I have clean clothes to wear?" and "do we have food to make my lunch?" Much of the rest of my day has been spent mourning the end of this magical time we've spent together as a family and being grateful for my happy and healthy son and my incredible husband. Lots of tears and sighs, lots of time holding Oscar and playing with him, lots of sustaining hugs from Adam. A new chapter in our lives begins tomorrow. I'd better go get some sleep so I have a chance at starting off well.

Solo: Day 2

Oscar slept in 'til 7:30 a.m.! Unheard of. And oh so nice!



Here's the little sleepy head after breakfast.

He was fairly fussy throughout the day. Sure cure: going outside. We walked over to Salem Nurse Midwives to finally get a picture of Oscar with Karen Armstrong, the midwife who helped Oscar enter this world. I hadn't ever walked there and ended up taking a long route. Oscar didn't mind--he was zonked out in the stroller about two blocks into the journey.


Nurse Midwife Karen Armstrong and Oscar

Later in the afternoon, I was playing with Oscar, talking to him and loudly kissing his neck. He laughed like I'd never heard before. A full-on laugh. I kissed him again, he laughed and laughed. One more time, and then I burst into tears, holding him to me, struck to my core how much I love this little person.


Tears of joy

In preparation for our visit to Indigo Wellness Center to visit Tara, my prenatal yoga instructor, I put this "Om" onesie on Oscar. I knew the opening for the head was tiny so I stretched and stretched it before trying to get it on him. It was still a panic-inducing struggle and left a long red mark on his head! I promised I'd cut him out of it while he was sleeping tonight. I couldn't imagine taking it off him (the arms were difficult and I swear the leg holes were cutting off his circulation!). It's labeled 3-6 months, but it should be newborn. I was able to take it off without incident.


Chant "Om" in order to put on this onesie without personal injury.


Last, but not least, here's Tara, Oscar and me at Indigo Wellness Center.

While at Indigo, I also got to see Eryca, who's due today. Good luck, Eryca! And thank you for taking our photo!

Chicago, Van Morrison and Prince in tha house

This morning as Adam was preparing to leave for a five-day trip to San Diego for Comic-Con International, I overheard him singing Chicago's If You Leave Me Now: "Ooo no, baby please don't go."

I had Van Morrison's Baby Please Don't Go looping through my head: "Baby, please don't go, baby, please don't go, baby please don't go down to [San Diego], you know I love you so, baby, please don't go."

Then I heard someone humming Prince's Take Me With U: "Don't care where we go, I don't care what we do, I don't care pretty baby, just take me with you." I traced the sound to Oscar, trying to stow away in his Papa's suitcase!



I wouldn't be surprised if Adam denies singing Chicago...I don't think he was aware of it. He wasn't singing the whole song, just that one line here and there throughout the morning.

And regarding my song lyrics choice, I just want to state that I am happy that Adam's going to San Diego for Comic-Con! Oscar and I will miss him terribly, but he's going to have a great convention and be home before we know it.