Georgia, Snow and Another Georgia!

Greetings from Mariposa! Tis' the season for Holiday Silliness as shown here by the El Portal Elementary staff.

Lyell the Brave has weathered many new experiences this past month, not the least of which was taking his first four airplane flights. Here are Lyell and Matthew waiting at Fresno Airport, the mellowest airport we have been to. We flew to Atlanta to visit Matthew's family and Lyell was a trooper on all the flights. He has the funniest expression that I haven't yet been able to capture on camera when we go to new places. He is now so aware of his surroundings, and he perks his head up high and gets this big smile like, "I'm ready for anything, folks, let's go!"

When we got to Georgia, we met cousin Amber. It was precious to watch her interact with Lyell as she got to know this new being.

We celebrated Thanksgiving with Matthew's parents, his three sisters and their families.

Ruth, Matthew's mother, was the head cook and we devoured the beautiful meal.

While in Georgia, Matthew got to reconnect with his waterskis on the family boat. Carrie and George look on while Wally drives.

We spent a little time fishing and relaxing on the dock in the backyard.

Matthew's sister Emily and cousin Amber with the house in the background.

Lyell go to go swimming for the first time and of course he loved it. We even dunked him underwater a few times and he came up quite surprised but with a smile.

We left Georgia with full tummies and Lyell did great on the two flights home.

Back in Mariposa, Lyell has been very busy growing up. He can now sit up for a little while and loves to roll over and grab his feet. Here he is at playgroup with his friends Silas and Matiah. Lyell and I spend quite a bit of time with other mommies, which helps both of us develop in our new roles; Lyell's as a human being and mine as a mommy. As someone once said, "It takes a village."

I have started leading Family Hikes at our local preserves through the Sierra Foothill Conservancy. Our first hike went to the Striped Rock preserve (you can see Striped Rock in the background) and we had children aged 0-6. I am designing a hike series for the springtime.

This picture was taken back in April when there were four of us pregnant at the same time.

Here we are, almost seven months later, with our babies and our dear friend Jen who is 4 months pregnant, and starting the cycle all over again. Lyell, although not the oldest, is the biggest as he has just weighed in at over 20 pounds. All that chunk and he has yet to taste solid food.

Just as we were basking in the 60 degree fall weather we woke up to snow starting to fall. Soon it turned heavy and all of a sudden our golden hills with subtle red, yellow and oranges has been transformed into a world of white.

But amidst this subzero weather, all our attention was tuned to Hawaii, where my sister was giving birth to her first daughter Georgia!!! Born December 6 at 7am, Georgia Anne St. Germain is the newest member of our family and we are ecstatic she is here. My parents were there for the birth and hopefully we will be seeing Georgia as she might be the youngest passenger flying across the Pacific for Christmas.

Daddy Chip rests with his daughter.

Less than 10 minutes old, and unbelievable shot of new life.

Road Trip!

 Mommy and I had so much fun on our road trip last week... so much fun that I forgot to sleep! I was way too excited to sleep all seven or eight hours I had in my boring house, so I decided to wake up every hour or so to check out if anything new was happening. Mostly all I noticed was my mommy's eyes getting more and more red :)

First, Mommy, Daddy and I went down to Palo Alto to visit all our friends and relatives there. We went to our big neighborhood tailgate at the Stanford Football game. I tried to stick with Daddy and the boys to learn more about why men choose to barrel into eachother at full speed and inflict maximum bodily injury to themselves and their opponent. All I gleaned was that it's supposed to be "fun."

The next day we did another one of these races that mommy likes so much. I think Daddy and I had a much better time people watching in Golden Gate Park on a Sunday morning. Daddy explained to me that the people moving fast are exercising, and the people moving slow or not at all are recovering from something called a hangover.

Then came the sad part when we had to wave goodbye to Daddy as he went home on the train.

But there were so many more people to see. We spent the evening with Pat, Michelle and Molly learning about this whole MRI thing that I have to do soon. Everyone keeps saying it's no big deal, but going through a tube on my back seems a little scary. Or maybe it's my claustrophobic mom who thinks its so scary. Anyway, I was feeling a little shy and I couldn't preform my new rolling over trick for my guests. I still need some practice.

In her last post Mommy talked about how I didn't like her new baby carrier. Mommy is just a little impatient sometimes; I just had to get used to this new thing. Now I go everywhere in it, and I can tell that Mommy is a lot happier as her back doesn't hurt as much. She says I am really, "a big chunker" but she doesn't know that I have a secret contest with my friend Karsten to see who can cultivate the most inner thigh rolls before we start crawling. Anyway, here I am in my carrier visiting some Bay Area friends.

I got to see the real ocean in Santa Cruz, not the silly ocean sound that comes out of a sheep when Mommy is trying to make me go to sleep. Then we went to the place where Grandma works with the tallest buildings I had ever seen. We got to have lunch with Grandma, and Mommy told me that she comes here to work every day and still has energy to cook dinner for her family every night, although I have heard the word "retire" in some conversations lately.

We took a long car ride up north to see Aunt Josie and Uncle Nate in Sebastopol. Mommy says they're like my aunts and uncles because we love them so much. Aunt Josie even babysat me so mommy could go to a yoga class. Mommy seems to like all these things that make her hot and sweaty. Not me! My car seat keeps making me hot and sweaty and I'm trying my hardest to let Mommy know I don't like it, but she keeps sticking my in there anyway! I liked Sebastopol a lot because I could ride around in the stroller everywhere and we didn't have to get in the car at all. I noticed that Josie and Mommy liked to drink hot beverages and talk, talk, talk, until I reminded them that we had places to go :)

Here I am sneaking my first taste of Indian food while Mommy smiles for the camera.

Finally I got to meet Phyllis and all of her beautiful cats at our last stop in Napa. Phyllis made me laugh with her stories of her own grandchildren and her travels.

I think that Mommy was a little bit nervous about driving 5 hours home with me alone after I let her know that the car seat was no longer my favorite place. She seemed like she was in a bit of a hurry as she pulled over to quickly change my poopy diaper. She didn't notice the large stink bug that crawled into my onesie during the diaper change. I didn't mind too much, as I knew from my insect studies that stink bugs are harmless creatures. Besides, I will never forget the expression on my mom's face after we arrived safely home and she took off my outfit. She nearly jumped out of her skin as a large insect crawled out! But we all survived and we are happy to be back in our cozy home where the November temperatures are reading 81F. Until next time...

Change is in the Air

All this change makes me sleepy!

We are finally feeling the change of season here in Mariposa, and it came on abruptly with a 30 degree temperature drop in two days. Lyell is absolutely loving it, however, as he seems to have his dad's hot blooded constitution. Two Sunday's ago he stained the carseat with his sweat as we drove home in the 100 degree heat. Last weekend we found ourselves in sub-zero temperatures at a mountain wedding.
Beyond the climate, change seems to be everywhere. Lyell's eyes are changing color; the outer rims are still a dark blue but the insides are swirling with brown, green and grey. His awareness of the world is changing too; as he seemed to become aware of himself in the mirror this week. He looked at his reflection for minutes, first with surprise, then concentration, then joy. Lyell is now able to use his hands to grab and pick up things, although he mostly likes to employ his hands by stuffing them in his mouth. He can almost fit both fists inside! I am still researching if I should be concerned about this or not ;)

I am feeling some welcome changes after a year of baby-growing I am back in the running world. I completed my first 10k on September 26- three months after Lyell's birth. I am already planning my next series of runs, bike rides, ski trips etc... Yahooo....

Another change is our entry into the El Portal community as Matthew settles into his job there, and I come down at least one day a week for a Preschool program. Here we are at the community Taco Night, which is a major social event every other Thursday.

Here I am trying to implement the change of baby carrier as Lyell is finally big enough for the Ergo (pictured above) which is by far more comfortable than the others. Lyell, unfortunately, is not quite sold on the change, as he likes to be facing completely outwards so he doesn't miss a thing (sound a bit like his social mommy?)

Lyell had a very special exprerience this month as he got to meet John Muir (or a fabulous reinactment of him) at the end of Grandpa's big hiking trip. My dad, Pete, did a 7 day backpacking trip to raise money and awareness for the Restore Hetch Hetchy cause and dedicated the trip to Lyell! Here they are at the reception event at the end of his trip where John Muir spoke about the importance of resoring this amazing valley (the lake behind them should not be there!)

The one thing that hasn't changed is how fabulously cute our little guy is everyday, and how much he amazes us and amuses us as he discovers this world!

Labor Day and Beyond

Lyell meets Uncle Gorge

Making dinner with Carrie, George, Matthew and Lyell

Late summer on the Merced with Yosemite Falls in the background.

Chilling with Chip

Chip had Lyell on a strict training regimen.

Relaxing on the Boppy with Patty and Chip

At the Farmer's Market

Watching the 4-H at the County Fair

All dressed up!

The Thinker

It's Labor Day. For so many years this weekend has meant the start of the school year for me, whether it was teaching outdoor education or in the classroom, September was the start of something new. Now it's Labor Day and tomorrow I will not be returning to any classroom, nor any time this year. My decision not to return to work was instinctual and certain. After spending nine months of pregnancy pragmatically weighing all of the options, the decision needed no rationalization when Lyell was in my arms. I couldn't imagine not being there to watch this perfect creature discover the world, nor could I miss the chance to inspect the contents of every diaper. So Labor Day is here and tomorrow will not bring any new students.
Matthew, on the other hand, has entered the ultra-busy state of starting the school year, being a new father, dealing with a 50 minute commute, and managing a huge garden harvest. I am trying to be helpful and understanding, but I don't think I'm doing a very good job. Adjusting to having daddy gone most of the day has been a hard transition for Lyell and I. I suppose it's a dance that all families go through and I can already feel a new schedule emerging after two weeks of work for Matthew.

Enough about us... what about Lyell???
Lyell got to go to the Mariposa County Fair this weekend. He stared at all of the animals from his perch in the Baby Bjorn, and watched mommy eat polish sausages and cinnamon rolls. In the past couple of weeks he has moved out of the "bouncy stage" and into the "stares and smiles" phase. Just a few short weeks ago when Ruth and Wally were visiting, Lyell needed constantly to be rocked, swung or bounced. I would sit on the exercise ball with him and bounce until my quads were trembling, but he was finally asleep. Somewhere around two months I looked down and he had fallen asleep in my arms with no bouncing necessary. He is still in love with his swing, however, which he is rapidly growing out of.
Now, Lyell loves to stare and smile. Mostly he stares at peoples faces. He will look intently for several seconds and then break out into a big smile that just melts your heart. He can hold his head up by himself for minutes at a time, so I can sit him on my lap to look out at the people on all our excursions. His favorite spot is riding face out in the Baby Bjorn, so he has a good view of what's going on around him.

Aunt Patty and Uncle Chip just visited for a week, which was fabulous. They are gearing up for their own journey into parenthood and were incredibly helpful with every step of Lyell-care. Lyell got to feel Georgia kicking, and Chip had the most success directing Lyell's tummy time ("No pain, no gain").