A Very Special Trip

My sister and I just returned from a trip to Washington D.C.  When Bubbe was diagnosed with lung cancer, she said to me, "There are two things I want to see before I go - you be a mom and Washington D.C."  Well, she got to see the former, albeit for a short time, but she never got to visit Washington D.C.  Ben had even planned a trip that was canceled due to her deteriorating health.  It was just sort of unspoken that my sister and I would one day take this trip for her.  We got a cute luxury apartment on VRBO and spent 5 days sightseeing, eating out, and lots of quality sister time.  We got to visit with our cousin, Sarah, and see the aquarium in Baltimore.  Here are some pictures from our trip.  Neither of us brought a real camera so these are just from our phones and are pretty random.  

  

We brought some her ashes in this little wooden box.  This sat on a bookcase in our living room growing up and I always loved it.  

Jessie even got Michelle Obama bangs!

One of the first things we did in D.C. was visit the National Museum of American History.  Mom would have LOVED this museum.   We started with the First Ladies exhibit, which was pretty cool.  The Star Spangled Banner was pretty incredible too.

Gelato = happiness.

We had dinner with some of Ben and Jessie's friends and went out for gelato after.  I love gelato.  One of the happiest moments in my life was eating gelato in Venice 15 years ago.

Meanwhile, Charlotte was at home making "a jingle belt."

One of the joys of traveling in these modern times is getting pictures and text messages from home.  Mike sent me lots of pictures of Charlotte being her adorable self.

We also visited the Hirschorn Museum and sculpture garden.  I loved this oversized stick of butter.

Mike and Charlotte went to Choo Choo Bobs

Waiting in line, it was cold.

We went to the Holocaust Museum first thing in the morning to wait in line to get tickets.  We got tickets for the afternoon.  Then we had lunch in the cafe at the American Indian Museum and then spent the day walking up and down the mall to see the memorials.  My mom would have loved the presidential memorials. We spent over 3 hours in the Holocaust Museum and we didn't even see all of it.  That's the thing about Washington D.C. it's impossible to see it all in one trip!  We'll just have to go again!  And our dad always wanted to go to Greece and never got to go, so one day we'll have to do that too.

Baby Music

My sister, Jessica, teaches Music Together so we signed up for her class.  It's music class for babies and families.  Last night was the first class and Charlotte had the highest adult:child ratio (4:1).   My sister is a fabulous teacher and the class was a lot of fun.

My sister, Jessica, showing us how to make music.

Here we are singing a song with some eggs that you shake.

We're singing to Charlotte and shaking our eggs at her.

Now Jessie is shaking her egg at Charlotte.

A quiet song at the end of the class.

Slingers

Emily, Charlotte, Bailey, and Jessica

My aunt Nance took this picture on Christmas day.  My sister and I are sporting our baby slings that we bought on etsy.   A little while after this picture, Nance came in and said, "look what I have!"  And she was wearing Netta in a sling.

Auntie

Jess holds her niece

I've been telling my sister for years how much fun it is to be an auntie and now she gets to see for herself.  Charlotte is a very lucky little girl.

Sisters

One of the best things about being pregnant was that I got to share the whole thing with my sister.  She was pregnant with twins and our due dates were 3 weeks apart.  When we both found out we were having girls, I was so excited!  We grew up with a close clan of female cousins, and I always imagined the same for my own kids.  Since she had two kids already, I could ask her all my stupid pregnancy questions and we could share protein shake recipes and pregnancy complaints. 

Of course, we also had some fun photos together.

Me 24 weeks, Jess 27 weeks

Me 29 weeks, Jess 32 weeks

At first, my mom was worried we would have our babies on the same day at different hospitals.  That seemed completely ridiculous!  She was having twins and would probably have them early so the births would be over a month apart.  I would be able to help her out with her newborns weeks before I had my baby.  Then, I was on bedrest and my sister, pregnant with twins, was coming over to make me lunch.  Nobody expected her to make to full term with twins and that I would deliver >6 weeks early .  We gave birth a mere 3 days apart!  Now we can barely find time to talk on the phone with eachother, but once these baby girls are a little older they are going to have so much fun growing up together and making trouble.  Here are their first fun photos together.

Bailey, Charlotte, and Netta.

A Catalog of Thanks

As I wrote the last post and reflected on the insanity that was the last two months of Emily's pregnancy, I was reminded just how impossible our ability to function would be without the help of others.  To accept so much help from others, initially, was a very hard thing for me to do.  But that doesn't make me any less grateful for all the love and support we have received.  And I have to remind myself, if the shoe were on the other foot, I would be just as eager to help.  So many people to thank!

• The cousins and aunts who painted our bedroom and Charlotte's bedroom.
• Zach who assembled Charlotte's crib with me (actually I did him a favor because he gets boners when he assembles IKEA furniture).  Zach also helped me restore Emily's old dresser to working order for Charlotte. 
• Doug and Erin who have taken Pancho off of our hands time and time again so I can focus on being with Emily (and eventually Emily and Charlotte).
• Erin also cleaned the house and sorted the baby clothes for us.  But like Zach, we were doing her a favor.  Organizing and cleaning gives Erin lady boners.
• My mom and sisters for helping host a shower for Emily and traveling all the way up from Texas for the occasion.
• Maureen and Angie for co-hosting as well.  Maureen hosted the shower in her home.
• Nathan for bringing us Potbelly sandwiches a few days after Charlotte's birth.
• Emily's mom for bringing food for Emily and just being herself.
• All the people who gave us gifts at Emily's shower.
• Nathan, Kirk, and Marty for organizing a Finn Shower for Dudes, which may go down in history as the most inappropriate shower ever.
• Emily's cousins Cait and Amy who made us two huge batches of excellent soup.
• Emily's mom cooked some spaghetti soup for me one night.
• My mom bought a library of books for Charlotte to grow up with.
• My niece Sophia and nephew Calvin both made homemade books for Charlotte back when she was just a future cousin in utero.
• My other niece Hannah is knitting Charlotte a scarf.
• As I type this, Emily's aunt Deb and her cousin Laurie are coming over with roast beef sandwiches.
• Bob and Jules made us some homemade mac and cheese freeze and store. 
• Laurie sent us so many supplies for Charlotte, like a car seat, swing, bassinet, and many other things.  Then Deb called on her mad Rubik's cube skills and assembled the bassinet and swing with no instructions, but the help of Cait and Amy.  Take that Zach!
• Emily's friend Missy bought Emily some slippers, nice shower gel, and an Eyebrow Wax Lady came to the hospital to beautify her.
• Emily's sister was amazing.  While toting twins in her belly (that came out three days after Charlotte) she cooked for us and visited Emily in the hospital whenever she could.  No small feat for a mother of two.
• Ben took those stunning pictures of Charlotte's birth that are priceless to us. 
• Also, one day Emily's work computer crapped out and Ben first brought her one of his old computers so she could stay online in the hospital, and then he took her broken computer to Emily's workplace to get fixed.  No small feat for a father of two with a wife pregnant with twins.
• Emily's friends Rachel and Kate took Emily to lunch.  Just giving Emily a chance to escape the hospital for a few hours is a huge relief to her.
• My employer has been incredibly supportive through all this.  So has Emily's.
• The staff I work with has been great too.  From asking questions and offering to support, to giving gifts, including tea for lactation, molasses to prevent anemia, books for bedrest, and the proverbial "I LOVE MY DADDY SOOOOO MUCH" onesie.
• The Longleys brought us Blizzards and ribs.
• Maureen brought us candy corn and Leann Chin.  
• My sisters and mom are sponsoring a cleaning lady for our house.
• This summer I was coaching a marathon training class and my co-coaches Anne and Marty were very understanding, as was the whole class, the times I had to bail on a practice at the last second.
• Emily's step-mom gave Emily some much needed fresh fruit in the form of honeycrisp apples.
• Zander and Julie brought us a whole homemade dinner (including leftovers that I used for lunch) and the entertainment of their son Jin, of Jin Quote du Jour fame.
• Paul and Karen came to visit and two days later, Charlotte was born.  Karen brought some magazines to make Emily's bedrest more tolerable.  And typical Professor fashion, Paul took a copy of the day's paper from the front desk.
• At least three different moms gave us complete sets of baby clothes that they no longer needed.
• Our friend Heidi had a daughter at 34 weeks and visited Emily to reassure her that things would be okay and told her what to expect.
• Angie brought Emily her favorite State Fair food (now being sold in downtown Minneapolis), World's Greatest Turkey Sandwich.  
• Maureen and Bill brought us Stress Free Crosswords which Emily and I did together quite a bit to pass the time.
• My friend John, whose son was born the same day as Charlotte, gave me a book, The Survival Guide for First Time Dads.  And yes, I need it.
• I run with John, as well as Greg and Nick.  All of us have wives who are expecting or already delivered this fall.  In 16 years we will be one runner away from having a  pretty good co-ed cross country team.
• Emily's friend Kate brought "Cashew Trail Mix" which I call "Devils' Mix."  You eat one bite and you are condemned to eating the whole container because it is THAT good.
• Emily's aunt Nancy then brought another canister of the Devil's Mix upon request.  I first accidentally typed "upon regret."  Which is how you feel after 30 minutes of eating the cashew, M&M, Milk Dud combo.
• Jen was visiting from Grinnell and gave Emily some magazines and homemade pumpkin muffins.
• Emily for being Emily.

The list is impressive in its quality and length.  Here is how I can summarize it the best.  Last Friday was garbage and recycling day.  I always budget an extra ten minutes before leaving on recycling day because you never know what hiccup I may come across as I gather and take out the recycling.  

Well first I went to get the trash bins and push them to the edge of the driveway so the garbage man would take them.  Both bins were empty.  In one week I had accumulated no trash.  

Then I went to get the recycling out of the basement.  None there.  Maybe I already transferred it to the garage.  Nope.  None there either.  In TWO weeks, I had accumulated nothing that needed to be recycled.  

Holy crap.  That just shows you how ungrounded I had become.  "It's upside down and backwards; the foot's on the other shoe," to quote James McMurtry.  And yet I am healthy, eating three square meals a day, and able to  make to the hospital everyday to be with Charlotte and Emily and we know we can finish off getting the house Charlotte Ready.  That last sentence could not be true without the love and support we have received from everyone.  

Charlotte is blessed to be born into such a caring network of family and friends.