Oops, we skipped May

We were busy. Enjoying the weather, going to concerts, directing concerts, preparing for big work things, setting up big girl beds.

Some May highlights.

Tulip Time. Slane and I met Ema, Ella, and Aunt Brenda for an afternoon among tulips and the parade. Slane insisted I cover her ears for the entire first half of the parade, and Ella drank coffee. The girls had fun and slept well.

Inauguration. Slane and I watched the ceremony with Ahsan, and Q got to represent Hope as a delegate (gown and all).

Goo Goo Ga Ga. We have finally switched Slane from an obsession with the Disney movie Cars to Lion King. Yes, she loves the mommy and we watch that scene 10 or 12 times before we convince her to let us keep watching the rest of the movie. We often spend Saturday mornings all cuddling in bed, and one of those mornings Slane kept saying, "goo goo ga ga." We could not figure out where that was coming from. She kind of knows there is a baby coming, and maybe she was slipping into baby mode or something. Until one day we were watching Lion King, and when Hakuna Matata came up, she said it again, "goo goo ga ga." She was trying to say hakuna matata!

Grinnell Heritage Farm. We bought a share this year in the farm, and the daughter of the owners is Slane's age. They had an asparagus picking event so we went to their farm for a few hours. It rained the whole time, but we did eat a lot of asparagus, and explore the greenhouse, and Slane got to plant a pea plant. She loved it and still asks to go back to the greenhouse.

Commencement. Ahsan, our host student from Pakistan, graduated from Grinnell. His parents came from Pakistan and his brother flew in from Texas (he is at Trinity). We had fun hosting them, getting to know them, eating their food and dressing Slane in the kameez and salwar they brought for her. I'll get pics of that up soon (the pics are all on the computer at home and I tend to post from school). We were proud to see our kid graduate and enjoyed being able to help him out for a few years. Slane will miss her big brother. We do have an open invitation to Islamabad.

They Might Be Giants. Memorial Day weekend was crazy busy, but so much fun. Saturday was rainy so we took apart the day bed in Slane's room and set up her big girl bed. Except for paint and another dresser, that room is new baby ready, and Slane is intermittently sleeping in her big girl bed. Sunday we made a good breakfast and then took Ahsan to the airport. We had tickets to Every Family Rocks, so after the airport and an excellent brunch at the Drake Diner, we headed to the state fairgrounds for the shows. We didn't realize there would be so much else to do, so we made a frame with our picture in it, and Slane did an obstacle course, and we listened to some of the other acts. We did the instrument petting zoo, and ran into some friends from Grinnell. Slane loved the show! She knew some of the songs and the look of pure joy on her face while she and Q were dancing was priceless! She was so into it that she fell asleep a few songs before the end...she is still asking to listen to the Alphabet CD in the car. Then on Monday we went to the family picnic for Grandma's birthday and got to play with several cousins around the same age (give or take a year).

Grandma Camp. Yesterday we swung by Ema's to pick Slane up. It was reunion on campus and Q and I were both working in different capacities (that is his job, I was just doing child care, and as it turned out, rock wall supervising and security at the Harris party), so Slane went to Grandma Camp. She had so much fun! She got to feed chickens and pigs, and ride a horse (I'll have to get that pic from my mom), and "drive" my dad's truck. She was just all smiles when we picked her up. She is at an age where most of the time she is just a lot of fun to hang out with (though she is also testing the waters with a few tatrums here and there).

Other stuff. We had a Level 2 ultrasound a couple of weeks ago. Dr. T asked if there was a history of heart defects in the family, and I have a cousin who was born with a hole in her heart among other issues, so we got the big guns for an ultrasound. It wasn't much different than any other ultrasound, except that they took video of the baby's heartbeat and checked a few other organs as well. We did not find out the gender and that is making my students crazy. They don't understand why one wouldn't find out in advance. Pregnancy is going well otherwise, though I have had a lot of foot and ankle swelling and am extra sweaty.

The shirt has something to say!

At some point during Slane's birthday party a month ago, after the friends left but while the parents and grandparents and godparents were still here, Q changed Slane's shirt...and this is what it said:

How happy is happy?

Wunder-blogger Penelope Trunk writes about families and happiness today. She highlights an article about a super-busy family and raises this question: are they happy, or just engaged?

We've asked ourselves that a few times. We both work full-time in jobs that don't strictly obey business hours. Our most recent date night was our Maundy Thursday service at church. (Yeah, we live large.) Each of us has significant volunteer interests. Are we happy? Sometimes. Our family is curious - we like interesting, even if interesting is complicated. And our curiosity contributes to our happiness. We make connections at the campus Passover seder, at Saints Rest, taking Slane for a walk. Slane gets invited to participate in the ISO fashion show. These are good things, even if they make life messy and complicated and cause us to think twice about doing the dishes or the laundry.

Our pursuit of interesting is our pursuit of happiness.

Slaneycue

Slane is so funny. I love to listen to her commentary on life and the things she sees.

Things like:

See the moon! The moon is flying!

Hear that! The bird is singin'!

Flag!

You daddycue. I'm Slaneycue. That's mommycue.

I need to see my (insert name of person of the day)!

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I also love to watch her play on her own. Her imagination is amazing!

I've seen her do these things lately:

Saturday we were raking leaves. We had just gotten Slane a toy rake, so she "helped," but as she helped, she was moving leaves out of the piles, all while carrying a purse.

She races her toy cars on the piano or the couch. Sometimes she races her "BIG TRUCK" from Epa!

She carries around a cabbage patch and tells us the baby is crying or sleeping.

She is very concerned about the hungry animals in her barn.

She plays with her hockey guys (and sometimes they get into fights and go to timeout!).

Worth a read

Miscellaneous reflections after an entire week of parenting - Amid celebrating Slane's second birthday and preparing for BabyCue #2, I liked reading Chris' observations. Maybe we should start a baby girl's clothing collection free of pink. Of course, it now seems to be Slane's favorite color. (h/t to Tyler Cowen)

R.I.P. Flip Camera - We love our flip and we don't have an iPhone (yet). It fits us now - quick videos, but able to shoot higher quality, too. MamaCue has used it for her music classes and performances. But phones have better cameras now and if/when we get a dSLR, the Flip may become Slane's camera of choice. (h/t to Jason Kottke, who also notes, "There's an app for that")

Here's looking at two

Slane turned two last week. And this year more than last year I remembered all that went with her birth. The labor, her being stuck, the C-section, the feeding issues, etc. But, all worth it for our healthy, happy, spunky little girl. It was spring break so I even got to spend the day with her. We had lunch with my mom and sister and went to the science center to play for a while. She knows she is two, and if you ask her she will hold up five fingers and tell you she is two. She can't figure out how to hold up two fingers yet. She'll get it. Her party is Saturday, and we'll have birthday pictures then. We haven't had camera batteries for a while and since we rearranged and redid our living room, our computer has been out of commission, so we will get to it. Promise.

infected!

Poor Slane has a double ear infection. This time I called it, about halfway through the Wizard of Oz production that we probably shouldn't have taken a feverish, moany child to. But she loved the show and I knew she would, so we took her anyway. At least we weren't infecting other kids with some horribly contagious disease. But she will have to be on antibiotics for her birthday, which is not fun.

We have cabin fever. It was nice enough Friday to go for a walk, and once I convinced Slane to ride in the stroller that I picked, and not the wagon, we had a nice walk. We headed to the athletic center on campus and watched a bit of the high school indoor track meet. It was crazy packed and there was no way I could let Slane out and run so we only stayed for 5 races before we headed home. But Saturday was not so nice and we only went to the post office. Slane was starting to get sick that afternoon and spent a lot of time just lying on the couch while I made massive amounts of muffins.

We are anxiously awaiting weather that is nice enough to stay outside until the sun sets. Next week is Spring Break, maybe it will be nice for us. Maybe. I intend to get in as much Slane time as possible before we go back to the grind.