Summer Sweetness

Aside from my work in Haiti, we had an unexpectedly quiet summer, full of family adventures and peaceful days at home. Here are some of the highlights:

-I taught anatomy to Physician's Assistant students for just a couple of lectures and I remembered how much I LOVE teaching. I hope that whatever direction my medical training takes me, I will always be able to teach (in the classroom, the clinic, with patients, colleagues or students).

-Uncle Dan and Aunt Marcelle gave us a video camera, a pint-sized rolling suitcase and a pair of All Star's. All are now staples for our adventuring.


-Ethan got to meet his Lowmaster cousins. He had some intensely focused play in the sandbox and really seemed at peace with his new buddies.



-Camping! We are finally getting to a place where Ethan can really enjoy family adventures. I am also leaning to slow down to a toddler pace. In the past, I always wanted to camp in the most remote spots and hike long treks, seeing awesome vistas on high peaks. Now, I'm beginning to embrace the fun of car camping (in a quiet campground), taking a leisurely walk to collect acorns, and letting picking blackberries be our afternoon activity. These videos are from a little campground outside of Portland, ME.



-Seeing Mark, Debbie, Maeve and Jude. We drove to Mark's parents house in upstate NY to visit these beloved Madison buddies. It was just like old times. We really love these guys.

We also got to visit a few goats and a donkey on the way home. Hee-haw.



-Learning to use the potty. Ethan is figuring this out amazingly quickly. He really loves using his little potty. While no potty is pictured here, you do get a view of the cute new undies.


-Canning. We made pickled beets and dilly beans with goodies from our CSA. Ethan particularly likes the pickled garlic from the dilly beans jars. Who would have guessed?


- 3 sweet weddings, including two live bands which inspired some phenomenal dance moves by our young Ethan. Note that all dance moves were reserved for private viewing at our house after getting back from our wedding escapades. When we were actually in the presence of the bands, Ethan stared with rapt attention, unmoving during the music, and then clapped enthusiastically after each song.



-Just being home. What a blessing to have these weeks the decompress after our hectic schedules last year. We all really needed some quiet time to read, nap, play Mr. Potato Head and take a few wagon rides.

Having fun at the Quechee Gorge

[Jeremy] On the advice of a friend, we took a trip to the one of the closest state parks to our little home in West Lebanon... Quechee State Park. The main attraction of Quechee State Park is a rather large gorge in which there is a small but robust little river. After a 15 min hike down the length of the gorge, you come to a beautiful section of the gorge where you can easily climb on to rocks in the river. In this section, the rocks are big and randomly placed and create many little pools and tiny waterfalls. We weren't sure if Ethan would like it at first, but once he started exploring, he kept at it for over an hour. Everyone had gone home before we started to make our way back to the shore. Below is a video of Ethan doing some exploring with his papa.



NOTE: After a visit back to PA for a wedding a few weeks ago, I found a few of my old toddler shirts that my mom had saved (and that I had packed away when I was moving out of my childhood home in Homer City, PA). Two of the three shirts were Penn State shirts... Ethan has been wearing them a lot this summer -- they have been washed so many times that they are SUPER soft. Anyway, if you look closely, you can see that Ethan is wearing one of them in this video.

Hand, Foot, and Mouth

[Jeremy] Just a little update about Ethan's health....

About 2 weeks ago, Ethan came down with a case of hand, foot, and mouth disease (WebMD LINK). It happened during the last few days of the week Jody was in Haiti, so it was my first test of dealing with an issue of Ethan's health by myself. Luckily, he was scheduled for his 2 year checkup that Friday, and our doctor quickly identified the illness from the rash Ethan had on his hands. All in all, it was not a bad illness. The worst part of it was the VERY sore throat that Ethan had for almost a week. I had to force feed him some Gatorade a few times to keep him hydrated, but we made it through.

During the process of getting through the illness (it's a virus and lasts about a week), Ethan learned the words HURT and OUCH. He has been using them both words to great effect ever since. It has actually helped us communicate much more effectively when he hurts himself.

Pipes

It has been so hot here, I can barely think... but I got inspired yesterday when I was in Home Depot buying some spray paint for a little project. For less than $10 I built Ethan a little PVC pipe play set like the one he loves to play with at the Montshire Museum of Science. We actually built most of it together at the kitchen sink. :-) I am hoping to expand the set in the near future... Ethan often asks for "more pipes!? Below are two videos I took of him playing with his new hand-crafted "pipes."

Paul comes to Visit... James is born

[Jeremy] As I am writing this blog entry, Jody is in Haiti doing some work for the breastfeeding project she got grant money to work on.

The day she left, our good friend Morgaine went in to labor. Her husband is away on a summer internship and she had a friend visiting from France (Gaelle) who took her to the hospital... taking care of her 2.5 year old son Paul, was our responsibility. Saturday morning, Morgaine sent me an URGENT text message about 9:00am or so saying that it was the day (8 minutes between contractions). She brought Paul over at about 10:00am, and he stayed at our house the rest of that day, spent the night, and then left the next day after diner. It was a bit rough at points (2 two-year-old boys...) but it was also a wonderful experience for all of us and I was overwhelmed at the trust that Morgaine and Paul had placed in Jody, Ethan, and I.

Jody stayed until after bath time and then drove to Boston to stay with a friend. I put Ethan and Paul to bed and the crashed, exhausted. We started the next day at about 5:30, and played hard all morning. It was so hot outside that we had to spend most of out time indoors which made things a little more difficult. But, by the second day Paul and Ethan had gotten used to each other and were playing much better side by side, and were both doing a much better job of sharing.

Paul does not quite have the stamina that Ethan does (he usually gets up much later) and fell asleep in his bowl of yogurt at about 10:00. I wiped off his face and poured him on to the bed. He slept a solid 2 hours. Ethan went down a bit later, and slept a good length as well.

The visit was a bit of a wake up call for me. We are hoping to have another child soon and 2 are a LOT more work than one. And since, I am gonna probably be the primary caregiver for the next few years... much of that work is gonna be mine.

Nonetheless, I try to envision myself as some manner of Renaissance super-dad, that jogs in the morning, makes breakfast, cleans, shops, fixes stuff around the house, tends the garden, works on the house (with help from two munchins), cooks diner, supports my partner, makes art, plays rugby and chillaxes... we'll see.

Anyway, on to the goods... below are a few pictures from Paul's visit (the one of them napping just makes my heart melt):









So, Morgaine went to the hospital at 10:00am and James (her new little marshmallowly cute American born French-bred nugget) was born at 12:10. He came joined the outside work weighing in at 4.4 kilos! Morgaine and James are doing just fine... Hot and sweaty, but fine.

2nd Birthday - Bounty #1

[Jeremy] This is the first post of what will be a number of posts about Ethan's second birthday. Although the second year landmark is just a day, it seems like so much has changed in Ethan's life the past week or so. On Thursday (6/24/10), all three of us (Jody, Ethan, and myself) embarked on a trip back to my home state of Pennsylvania for the wedding of Jared Greece (a very good friend of mine from childhood).

It just so happens that Jared's wedding was on Ethan's birthday. As a result, on this trip, Ethan has been showered with so many wonderful and thoughtful birthday presents that we are were wonderfully overwhelmed. There are a number of presents which I am sure will be in his life for a long time, but the first to be highlighted in this blog is his new wooden tea set. It was a gift from our dear, dear friends Mark, Debbie, Maeve, and Jude in Madison, Wi. The day after we got back from our trip, I showed Ethan his new tea set before taking him to his one day this week at the childcare center.

Bring on Summer

I am done with my first year of medical school! I am exhausted and also feeling quite proud. For all the long hours and the endless onslaught of information, for all the time spent away from these sweet guys, I never considered not continuing in med school or taking a break (until there is another baby, that is) until yesterday, as I was studying for my last final. I had the distinct sense that I do not want to keep going in this way, day after day. Convenient, as I don't need to keep going this way any longer. I can take a good long break this summer! I trust that this feeling will abate with some old fashioned R and R.

How will I wile away these summer days? Playing, reading, splashing in the sprinkler, and doing two projects related to school but also related to service and fun (1: consulting on a breastfeeding education program for HIV+ women in Haiti and 2: teaching anatomy to Physician Assistant students).

As for the boys, Jeremy graduated from his teacher certification program this week and is hoping to teach middle school or high school English this fall. Ethan is a crazy toddler, just beginning to use the potty, talking ALOT, eating constantly, and starting to really notice his peers. He has a special love for Paul, a little French boy in our neighborhood, and Jacob, another kiddo at school. It is so sweet to see Ethan follow these kids around, trying to share toys and snacks, taking the first steps towards building friendships. I hope that in the midst of all the turnover of the Dartmouth community, we can find some consistency for Ethan as he makes and keeps his buddies.



Ethan's best friend, of course, is Nana. Books, toys, puzzles, splashing in rain puddles, going to the grocery store, getting cozy behind the crib - if it's with Nana, it's pure joy.