Berkeley Family Comes to Visit

Recently my family visited from California. Sister, stepmom and dad. A good time was had by all in our new cozy little home. New little tinkering house projects were completed by my dad. Carolyn brought me her old sewing machine and gave me lessons during Oliver's naps. Baking, cooking, baby squeezing, movie watching, a great time indeed. Miss you guys!

Right now Oliver is off with his dad. Just an hour, a little break for the Mama. While there is a long list of things I should be doing ranging from chore related up to indulgent, here I am instead paying homage to the wonderful man that just whisked away my baby for a brief moment in time. I have a few categories that I could have chosen to catch up on in the blog world right now but it was this little grouping of photos from a recent trip to Look Park that caught my eye.

I would have included these photos of Gabriel and Oliver in some post at some point but the truth is that my wonderful neighbor Lex's blog sort of inspired this particular post. There are two things that have been stewing in my mind about Lex's blog. Primarily I salute Lex's bravery to make her blog truly about her daily life, not just the glossy perfect one. Don't get me wrong, I ADORE blogs like Soulemama and Sew Liberated, and look forward to looking at them almost every day. I am inspired daily to try new recipes or craft projects from looking at blogs like these but after looking at the same blogs for years and now having my own child I have to wonder, do their children never fight? Is their house never a mess? So I love Lex's blog because I think she has a beautiful life, with a loving wife AND she isn't afraid to share some of the harder aspects of trying to keep it all in balance. The way they approach the stickier subjects with love is in itself beautiful.

Secondly and more pertinent to this post, Lex has been sharing her experiences as the non-gestational parent of their son Leo and I am so thankful to her for making me examine once again the relationships in our own family. I can't tell you how jealous Gabriel and I are of the idea that both parents in a partnership could both have the experience of being gestational parents both to share the joys of each experience and so that we could each truly know what the other person has been through. I can't speak for Gabriel and what the experience of being a non-gestational parent has been like for him but looking at Lex's blog has made me really think about all the ways in which the non-gestational parent is so incredibly special and critical to the daily success and joy of our family.

Where my energy is depleted, Gabriel's always fills the gaps. When my face can't crack another smile, Gabriel whisks Oliver away and manages to get the biggest laughs out of him of the whole day. As I give and give and give to Oliver, Gabriel supports me all the way to the last moments of the day when he washes my feet every night before getting into bed. I know that the joy of being a gestational parent lies in the fact that for so long Oliver and I are like one being. Most of the time this is a great comfort to share ourselves so closely, but this can also be overwhelming at times when he just claws at me whining and I feel like he is trying to find the zipper to crawl back inside of me. In these moments the fresh face of Gabriel always arrives to rescue us both.

Sometimes I am jealous of Gabriel's ability to be the "fun" parent which I attribute to the fact that his time with Oliver is more compartmentalized than mine is. I have to multitask my time with Oliver more where Gabriel has been thinking all day about getting back home to Oliver and when he arrives can give him undivided attention.

I guess for us it is important to find a balance in all of the rolls that we play for each other. Sure it is important for all three of us to spend time together as a family but I think when we all cherish our time in our own pairs we nurture our special bonds as well. As much as I wish we could have both seen Oliver's many tricks and trades through out the day, sometimes it makes me feel special to think that they were done just for me.

So thank you my Love. Thank you for being the wonderful husband and father that you are. Oliver and I are so lucky. I try to imagine what it would be like to do this without a loving partner and I just can't imagine. My success as a parent would not be possible without you by my side.

And to Lex: I could go on and on about the finer points but simply put, you are a wonderful Mama and a mama 100% to all of those rascally 4 boy you have.

Oh, and to sweet little Oliver, Happy 10 months little man!
Bellow is Oliver's first train ride. Cute cute cute!

CEEEELLLLOOOO!

It was hard but Gabriel let Oliver and I go just for a few days to head back to our home away from home in Celo. It just would have been heart breaking if Oliver's first summer had come and gone without being baptized in the waters of the South Toe, bottle fedding the baby goats, picking blueberries on the edge of Roan Mountain, having dinner at the Knife and Fork, and having dinner on grandma's porch, in the house that his dad grew up in, with the crickets chirping while gazing at Mt Mitchell. Sigh....Once again, Celo just hits the home run as the most wonderful place on Earth.

Sampling blueberries for the first time








Flowers from grandma's garden


Auntie Em and Uncle Alex


Meeting new life


Napping by the river with 9 week old Shaw and Gray








Crawling to grandpa Bruce


Giggles with grandma Marilyn


Many trips were made to the washer and dryer which are right at Oliver height and right outside of our bedroom




More river time with grandmas



Oliver loved riding back up the driveway from the river in the back with no car seat.






He was also a big fan of grandpa's iPad





Becoming the new face of Mountain Farm yarn

The wild flowers on my mom's hillside were just amazing.

Visit With Cousin Brodie

We have been really lucky so far to have had a good number of visitors already in the month and a half that we have been here in Northampton. We have had many of our parents, friends Will and Jason, and also Gabriel's brother, Jason, his wife Clare and little Brodie.

Oliver's cousin Brodie was born just 2 and a half weeks after Oliver was born which is just remarkable. They were the first grand babies for all of our families and it is so special that they are both boys, and so close in age. Gabe and Jason have a really great relationship so this is all very fun for them to share. They live in Brooklyn and we had been so sad all through our pregnancies and births to live so far away when we were experiencing the same things at the same time. Now we live only 3 hours apart and will get to see much more of each other which is such a huge bonus to where we ended up.

Their visit also fell right on Gabriel's birthday which was an added treat.

As a side note. This lovely hammock was a wedding present from our friends Pace and Laura. They had picked it up in Mexico. We have always loved it but in our almost 5 years of marriage we haven't had the right living conditions to hang it up and use it. As a birthday present to Gabriel this year I got a stand for it. We LOVE it! If you can't find one of us in the house check the hammock.