Debut of Mr. Silas

Because Zoe and Paul had both arrived a little before their respective due dates, I fully expected our most recent addition to also debut a bit before expected. As such, I gave Dan a bit of grief about scheduling an out of town interview on March 17, knowing I was due on March 20. The day came and went, with not so much as a contraction in sight, and I got a bit of grief for prolonging the job hunting process. Soon Dan was on vacation and seemingly a bit annoyed that we had moved his vacation to accommodate my due date and his time was being wasted. Our little bundle of joy continued to sit tight past his due date as we approached the long string of interviews scheduled for what was supposed to be my second week with the baby. On Wednesday, we decided to take steps - Castor Oil. A most unpleasant experience: there were contractions, I suppose, but it could have just been the serious gut-cleansing because they stopped as soon as the oil began to wear off. The midwife on call said she'd be happy to induce me after the day of awfulness, but we'd lost precious time and didn't want to risk a prolonged induced labor.

So Dan went off on another interview as we approached a week overdue. We went through our normal school routine, exhausting though it was at this point. Nanna came over to hang out with the kids and make things run a little more smoothly. We even went to Fun Friday at the library as we usually did, but with no big change in things. As Dan flew home Friday into Saturday, I got a few of my first contractions. By morning, I let Dan know I'd had a little hope and we decided to go forward with our plan to induce on Saturday morning. We got the kids up before dawn, got them into the car in their jammies, with the promise of a box of waffles when they got to Nanna's. Paul didn't let go of those waffles from the moment I attempted the bribe until Nanna cooked them.

After a quick breakfast, we headed to the hospital. We got into the triage area pretty fast at 10am, but waited until noon for a room to become available. Inductions, even past due date, are lower priority than folks in active labor. With no contractions to speak of, I was at the bottom of the list. Once we had a room, we got started on the antibiotic and pitocin. Ahh, contraction medicine...I did not miss it. I had gotten hearty doses of the stuff after Zoe was born in an attempt to stop the bleeding. This lovely bag of gut-wrenching evil would be my companion for the next 24 hours. I started this scene with 4cm dilation, so knew it could be a long haul to 10cm. Dan and I hung out in the room for a while, chatting. Another check- not really exciting progress, so let's break the water. Some more time with weak contractions, sitting on the exercise ball and chatting away. Eventually, contractions got uncomfy enough to ask Dan to hook up the TENS machine. Things were then pretty bearable and we continued to talk about travel plans, who was coming when to help out, etc.

Eventually the midwife and nurse returned - apparently her other patient had delivered successfully and she could turn her attention to me. We all sat around as talking as the contractions continued to strengthen. It was weird, though, because everyone kept looking over my shoulder at the machine measuring the strength of my contractions.
    "Did you even feel that one?"
    "Yeah, and it was a decent one."
    "You didn't even flinch."
    "I did feel it, though."
I felt like I was the star of my own episode of Nature as my audience watched the line on the monitor and then glanced at me to check my reaction. Eventually, I started to feel very shivery and the contractions became more distracting, so I lay down under the covers for a bit. The midwife checked - 6cm at about 6pm. Ugh! These contractions were painful. I couldn't do another six or eight hours of this. Then, inexplicably, the midwife asked the nurse to get the delivery kit opened up. A few minutes later, she asked if she could check what was taking so long, with a hint of urgency in her voice. Someone came and opened the kit. After that, I was pretty much in the zone, so don't recall too many specifics. I had made what is likely an unusual request to take things very slowly during the delivery process. I had powered out Penny and Zoe in a hands and knees position, giving myself some nasty injuries each time. Paul I delivered on my side very slowly and his delivery was pretty problem-free. This time, I delivered on my back, I think I responded appropriately to requests to pause or push a little, and thankfully avoided any serious injury to myself.

I soon (6:44pm) had a little boy plopped onto my chest - his hands slightly blue, but otherwise pretty active and awake. Dan said he had a heart-stopper on his end of things (he often watches the emergence since I'm pretty ok during the pushing part of the program) because Silas emerged totally blue, with the cord wrapped around his neck twice. The midwife adeptly released the cord upon exit and soon had the little guy breathing fine. However, Dan emphasized again that he did not wish to return to the delivery room for fear of losing someone.

Recovery went well, but the late hour of delivery meant a two night stay at the hospital. A nice respite for a newly minted mother of four. I was beginning to fear that they wouldn't let us go at all, though, because Silas absolutely refused to pee. He was a little jaundiced the second morning and the nurse thought perhaps a bit dehydrated. So we went on a serious breast feeding campaign and by lunch time had a nice wet diaper to show for it. Yay! We were cleared for take off.

Because Dan had already taken off for his next interview, we had actually left our three little dears with Aunt Rose, Aunt Helen and FCOR John. She'd had a crash course with Dan on their schedule. We simplified things by keeping Paul out of school for the day. Dan gave a driving tour of schools and other important landmarks. But they were all on their own for that first day and I can only imagine how much fun that was. After Girl Scouts, Aunt Rose ventured into Brooklyn to pick up me and Silas. So that's Silas' heading home outfit - perhaps convict stripes shouldn't have been my first choice.

We had an uneventful journey back to Staten Island, where I just caught Penny as she was drifting off to sleep. Everyone else had somehow managed to get to bed already. Kudos to Aunt Helen, who was our holding down the fort person, while Aunt Rose explored the neighborhood via trips to schools, etc. Nanna came over to visit the next day (seen here shadowed by photographer Penny's finger). The rest of the week was nice and quiet, without visitors, which is honestly how I like it. We then ventured out to Easter dinner at Dan's uncle's house for Silas' second big field trip since going home. There, he received a warm welcome, with lots of comfy shoulders to sleep on. Thus did Master Silas Prodeep debut to his New York family!

Confession

Every year, Penny's school has a number of contests and I always rail a bit about how parents get a little too involved in creating their kids' supposed submissions. One such event is the one hundred days hat. All the kids have to make some sort of hat with one hundred things on it. Most of the hats are big hats purchased at the store and the parent or kid chooses one hundred of something that the parent hot glues to the hat. They then parade around the school and some sort of judging occurs.

Penny's first hat - she wanted hearts, so we cut out 100 paper hearts and I mounted them on pipe cleaners that emerged from the holes of Paul's green baseball cap (that way he'd get to have his hat back). Year two: Penny wanted flamingoes, so I cut a paper plate with flamingoes facing each other and forming a heart, then she covered it with 100 sequins. Perhaps a little too cheap looking.

This year, she decided pennies. Heavy. My first thought was Chinese crowns - golden, covered in flowers or other designs that have lots of little disks. I showed Penny, sketched a phoenix hat with a fanned tail...no interest. I did a little more digging in the photos and came across some peacock shaped crowns. I tried a new sketch  on Penny and it was well received.

I cut out a cereal box to form the backbone of the hat, gave Penny a stack of Christmas paper to choose from for providing her hat with basic background colors. I traced, she cut out and glued. I counted out 100 pennies from Paul's piggy bank (replaced by quarters), then set them in some vinegar to shine them up a bit since many were collected on our walks to school. Once they were dry, Penny began the arduous task of gluing on all her pennies with our bottle of Elmer's. When we found the form was too small to fit the 100 needed, I devised some pipe cleaner add-ons (using scraps from prior year's hat). I used beads from the playground for head bobbles, She placed jewels from other craft kits for face and decorations, then used some hole punches I'd made to put the eyes on all the peacock's spots, and voila, a 100 days hat to be proud of. Total project price: $1 (or however many pennies would get lost over the course of the parade).

The morning of the parade, we had just finished up gluing the last batch of pennies (had to do batches for the band because one side would slide off depending on which side was up). I asked Penny to pose with the hat on because we had discovered that pennies popped off every time the cardboard bent to fit her head, so this would be the only opportunity to see it intact. She went to pose and my other little hams tried to muscle their ways into the picture. This blurry shot was all I could get as they moved around trying to get the best position in the picture. Sadly, Penny tilted her head to dodge Paul, dropping the hat to the floor. Instantly, dozens of pennies shot in every direction and there was only one hour until Penny had to be at school.

I lost it on her. After all the work I had put into this hat, she had completely destroyed it at the eleventh hour. How was I going to fix it in time for school? Elmer's glue takes time to dry and I don't have a glue gun or other method I could whip out at this late juncture. I tore into her about how stupid it was to dump her hat like that when she knew it was so hard to balance. She was soon in tears. I continued to grumble as I hurriedly glued all the pennies and blue dots back into place. I carefully placed the hat out of reach on the counter, then dashed to get everyone ready to head out the door to do school drop off. First, we took Paul to school, then came back to the house in hopes that 30 minutes was enough time for the glue to at least keep things in place enough to be transportable. I gently placed the hat in a stiff bag for transit and then dropped Penny off with explicit instructions to handle with care until parade time so the glue could set properly.

For the entire rest of the day, I ruminated on how I had completely ruined what should have been a fun activity for my daughter by tearing into her and making her feel awful about her hat. She takes this kind of thing to heart, so I felt really bad about hurting her feelings. I had gotten so bent out of shape because I was offended that she hurt MY artwork. I was guilty of that sin I so often condemn in others. As soon as I picked her up from school, I apologized for how I had acted in the morning. She, of course, forgave me because she's awesome like that. She also handed me a bag with the hat and a pile of loose change rattling around in the bottom. She was excited to have found a nickel that day because she was pretty sure she lost some of the pennies.

When asked how her day went, she said the hat was nearly impossible to wear because of the weight and the fact that it was SO front-heavy. Her teacher really liked her hat. Apparently, the teacher pointed out her hat specifically whenever they passed another adult during the parade. I wouldn't exactly describe her tone as excited as she mentioned this, but it seemed like she was at least pleased that her teacher had taken an interest in her hat. I asked Penny whose hat she liked best and she cited one of her friends, whose mom had hot-glued 100 particularly cute little chickies to her hat. A few days later, Penny said that there was an announcement about the 100 days hats, listing three winners from each grade and all three winners for first grade were in her class (the contest is for pre-K to 2nd grades, but there are 5 first grades classes, each with 30 kids, so still a pretty stiff competition). She was proud to tell me that hers was one of the names that was announced and she got this spiffy certificate as well. She seemed a little more pleased about the public recognition of her hat, though I'm not sure she totally sees it as "her" hat. I felt pretty darned excited that someone thought the hat was cool. I was pretty proud of the process and ingenuity of the hat. I obviously still need to work more on giving Penny a say in how it is put together and giving her more ownership over the project, though.

I haven't decided what to do with the hat. Though I am darned proud of its construction, I am also ashamed about how I behaved about it. So far, it sits in tatters on the counter, little glue spots indicating where its fine feathers once stood. The certificate hangs on the fridge with artworks whose authors are more clearly delineated. Perhaps I will leave it a bit longer to remind myself to let the kids have more say in how they put together their projects. It seems like such a fine line sometimes, so it is good to be reminded to be aware of that line.

Conspiring

Collaborating to construct a play house

 My little cuties are beginning to conspire together. The other morning, I was awake before them, probably making school lunches. I sat down on the couch to rest for a minute. I heard all three of them upstairs plotting to sneak up on me. I quickly closed my eyes and pretended to have fallen asleep on the couch.

Now the first question that popped into my head as I listened to them hushing each other and planning what they'd do when they reached the bottom of the stairs: "How did Zoe get out of the crib?" I'm not totally sure of the logistics, but Penny is helping her out, perhaps by climbing on the outside of the crib and then giving her a giant hug. Somehow, this occurs without dropping or Penny collapsing under her weight. Zoe is close to 20lb, Penny about 40lb, so it is a pretty impressive feat in the grand scheme.

The next question is, of course, "What are they going to do when they think they're free to do whatever they want?" Well, that was a pleasant surprise. Penny went to the kitchen and grabbed the folding stool. She got the cereal, bowls, cups and handed them to her younger siblings to put on the table. Then she got down and handed out spoons. It is important to remember what a complicated task this is - not only are these items on high shelves, but each one of them has a color preference and a certain way they like to have things on the table, so setup can be a bit complicated in the morning. They were conspiring to put together their own breakfast because Mommy was too tired to make it!

Working together to free the Mega Blocks

Eventually, somebody did something that upset Zoe and she came crying to me to fix it. I patted her on the head, told her to hush and not give away that I was awake. Penny and Paul continued their setup for another minute or two. Then I had to "wake up" so that I could administer the milk and cereal and breakfast could get underway.

They are such funny stuff some days. Paul has been increasingly articulate, which allows him to tell us not only what he wants, but how he'd like to help out. He often loses the ability to talk when frustrated, so we had no idea he was getting frustrated about being unable to help in the way he wanted.  He is very particular about how things are supposed to occur or be set up, so getting more talkative has been rather revealing. I'm hoping the trend toward being helpful continues.

Zoe MUST choose her own gloves

Zoe (in contrast to Paul) is becoming very independent. The other day she was very determined about putting on her shoes and socks for herself. She now does it rather regularly. Dan was all excited that perhaps Paul would not like to be shown up by his little sister, so would begin to start dressing himself, wiping his own nose, etc. I explained that, unfortunately, that's not how our son works. Paul is a stickler for rules and procedure. Zoe puts her own shoes on...he takes them off because she's not supposed to wear them in the house - even if that means tackling her on the stairs and ripping them off her feet as she slides down the stairs. She puts on her hat and gloves, he takes them off and shoves them back in the drawer because it's not time to leave yet. There's a lot of sobbing about things being put away in their proper places around here. Zoe's pretty determined, though, and I'll need people who can take care of themselves, so I think she'll find a way to continue to build that independent streak.

New England, Part II

We didn't let our soggy visit in the White Mountains deter us as we continued our New England tour. As we left the park and headed through back roads into Maine, we kept our eyes peeled for moose. There were traffic signs everywhere warning of their presence, but their nocturnal nature meant we had little chance of actually spotting one. The search did get us looking out the windows, though, and it seemed the closer we got to our destination, the more colorful vegetation seemed to be intact.

We reached Portland, Maine, just in time for an afternoon at a park in the Promenade. It had amazing views of Casco Bay. While we enjoyed seeing the lighthouses, historic fort and more among the beautiful colors, the kids reveled in the opportunity to run, climb and jump until dinner time. 

It got a bit brisk as night fell, so we grown ups were eager to head to the car in search of food. After circling the posh main drag for a bit, we settled on Andy's pub for our exploration of Maine cuisine. As it would happen, "Andy" was having a birthday party that evening, so we were invited to partake a cake and snacks with our meal. While the kids tried more traditional kid foods (pizza and fries), we tried the Mac n cheese with lobster, shrimp bisque, and something else with lobster. Somehow, the chef managed to get perfect little extracted claws in the lobster dishes, ensuring that we knew we got the real deal. Totally creeped out the kids, but pretty tasty.

We checked into our enormous suite at the hotel - two bedrooms, separated by a hallway and a sitting room overlooking the local jetport.  The kids couldn't stop running around all the rooms from excitement.

After a very nice breakfast, we headed to the Portland Head Light. A school group tour kept us outside for a bit exploring the various out buildings. The kids enjoyed seeing some of the historical things in the museum, but the beach was way more fun. After a quick nap, we got out and built stone castles on the rocky beach. Penny and I scaled some slimy rocks to see what treasures lay in the tide pools. We were rewarded with a boatload of snails, but not much else.

After a cold picnic lunch at a playground near the Head Light, the kids caught another nap in the car on the way back to the hotel. Something seemed a little amiss as we drove around the jet port. There seemed to be cops on every corner. Not making a scene or doing anything, just watching. I turned to Dan to comment how reminiscent that was of Washington, DC, but he was sound asleep. When we got to the hotel, I took a moment to do a quick web search to see if any celebrities might be visiting Portland for the day. Lo and behold, our fearless leader was scheduled to campaign in the local gubernatorial race that very evening. The great debate: how would we get food if they totally shut down the neighborhood around the hotel? If we leave to eat, how do we know we'll be able to get back in by bedtime? Darned President! Always getting in the way of the little person's plans. We eventually decided that we had enough time to send Dan out to get food before everything shut down. If he wasn't able to make it back in time, I'd be able to feed the kids some of our remaining leftovers in the cooler and get them to bed on time. From our super suite on the fifth floor, we'd be able to monitor police activity and the runway to notify Dan if he had to rush back or not. 

We had fun watching the set up. Someone in the security team went up in the elevator with us and began knocking on nearby rooms. The cavalcade arrived and lined up. A little band of people, hair blowing in the wind, huddled and waited on the tarmac. I noticed that cars on a nearby road were starting to be diverted, so texted Dan that he'd better hurry home. There was a knock on our door and a hotel staff member asked us to close all our drapes. We were not supposed to watch the plane land. The secret service guy behind the staff member gave a serious enough look to get immediate compliance. We may have taken some extended peeks, though. We watched as the snipers set up camp on the airport roof...then as they began watching us watching them. Quick drape close. I told Penny we had to stop watching because there were people with guns who were protecting the President and they didn't know whether we were bad guys or not. She said something about "Lock Down" or "Code blah" and ducked under a table. I guess it's good to know that they're practicing their shooter in a school drills and all. A little sad at the same time. I explained to her that there was only a risk if we kept peeking through the windows and she came out from under the table. Dan had come back by that point and chose to peek from a different room. He was chastised soundly by hotel staff in the parking lot who insisted that he stop. 

The plane finally landed, though we never saw it exactly. I'm guessing there was waving and a quick step into the car and away they went. We waited a long time before peeking out again. However, we were rewarded by a beautiful double rainbow over Air Force One. We didn't fully reopen the curtains that night, though. Bummer because it really was a fabulous view and fun activity to watch. Alas, sometimes I miss all the excitement in Washington. I don't miss all the traffic that usually results from presidential movement, though.

Penny has been really excited about a book series called the "Magic Tree House," so when I saw that there was a planetarium show starring the characters from the book, I thought it would be a good idea to go see it. Unfortunately, I managed to pick a location that wasn't open on the day that we'd be able to pass through. So after hyping it up for weeks, I had to figure out where we could still manage to see it. Thus we entered Boston to visit the Museum of Science without actually going into the museum it self. Try telling small children fresh from their naps, "No, no. We aren't here to see that dinosaur exhibit. Big sister is just going to go watch a movie with Daddy while we go to the cafe to eat this cold fast food we brought. We will not be playing here." Thankfully, eating takes a long time and the planetarium show did not, so just as we were heading to find a playground to keep the kids entertained, Daddy and Penny emerged from the show. We then battled rush hour traffic (or something) to get out of town to our hotel. We spent the evening catching up with a Cornell friend who recently got engaged. It was a nice visit. We had some take out down in the lobby during the hotel happy hour, which seemed like a good idea at first, but apparently, children weren't expected at this happy hour and we got some sour looks and a good scolding from one of the hotel staff. The next morning, I took the kids down to the indoor courtyard because other kids were playing there. Mine decided they were suddenly to shy to play, so we headed over to breakfast. Just in time to get scolded again by the same staff member for letting my kids play in the courtyard. This time, though, he was scolding me for three kids that weren't even mine. Seriously, how many kids did this guy think I had? Six kids ages 10 an under? I'm not really that ambitious, despite some of the jokes I've been getting from my Grandmother about trying to beat her record. I was glad to put that hotel behind us.

The day was soggy again, so our big plans to visit Mystic Seaport seemed ill-conceived. Instead, we headed to the Mystic Aquarium. As luck would have it, they were celebrating Halloween with a series of games and giving away candy corn. The kids had a blast checking out all the animals, playing the games and generally running around. Zoe was constantly frustrated to have to follow the pack. There always seemed to be something interesting in a totally different direction and we kept pulling her back to follow her older siblings. We spent all afternoon enjoying the exhibits (mostly indoors), then had a lengthy round in the shop right before closing. Penny insisted on getting a stuffed pink penguin, whom she named Penny. Paul was tougher to figure out. Eventually, we settled on a giant floor puzzle of fish. It was ludicrously expensive, but he got quite a bit of enjoyment out of it for the rest of the trip and weeks after we got home. I figured it was a good early birthday present.

The following day, we headed off to Dinosaur State Park. I had almost forgotten this amazing East Coast gem. Usually, when I think dinosaurs, I think of big fossil finds in Montana, Colorado, and points West. However, if you're looking for dinosaur FOOTPRINTS, the East Coast is the place to be. As we learned at the museum, that's because the conditions for preserving footprints are totally different from those for preserving fossils, so they rarely occur together. For an avid fan of the Dinosaur Train, this stop was the mother lode. Mr. Paul went racing through the museum, feeling the footprints real and replicated, checking out the life-sized models of who made the footprints, and generally making a lot of racket. Thankfully, there weren't a whole lot of people to disturb. Just when he was starting to have a hunger crash, we discovered the hands-on room with embossers that made footprint bookmarks, actual fossils to examine, toy dinosaurs, dinosaur hand puppets and all kinds of exciting things. That bought us another hour or two of entertainment, but then sent us to the edge of hysteria as hungry, sleep-deprived children now had to be removed from someplace fun. Thank goodness we had both parents and a stroller to use as a restraining device and get everyone to the car. I think Paul might have been asleep by the time we got to the nearest fast food place and then we had to decide whether to wake the sleeping bear. Can't remember what we decided on that one. I know it's a tough decision almost every day recently.

After nearly two weeks on the road, the kids were getting a little punchy and sick of the tough travel schedule. Penny had certainly had quite enough sharing fold out couches with Mr. Paul. She insisted on sleeping in a pillow nest on the floor for our last night on the road. Paul does move a lot in his sleep on a normal night and he was getting pretty wild at bed time by the end of the trip, so I totally understood her point. Heck, I had a near miss myself sharing a hotel bed with my sister back in the day (apparently, she sometimes punches in her sleep), so I DEFINITELY understand Penny's position on the matter.

Our last day on the road was Penny's birthday. Not the greatest way to spend your birthday, to be sure. However, there were a few things that made the day special. While at breakfast, Penny searched for bananas and found none. When she asked the staff member at the hotel if she could track any down, the lady said they were out. She offered to bring out an apple with some caramel sauce, though, as consolation. As luck would have it, she chose a Granny Smith apple (Penny's favorite), and you just can't go wrong with caramel at breakfast. Daddy had done a little homework when he was out scouting for food earlier. He had discovered a really nice beach nearby. So after breakfast we headed over there for a jaunt across a boardwalk onto a beach like none we had seen in Staten Island. For starters, this one needed no beach zamboni to go around removing litter. We had arrived a nearly low tide and it was absolutely covered with seashells; so many you couldn't avoid crunching and crushing them as you walked. There were slipper shells, the beautiful see-through orange ones, oysters, clams, moon snails, and who knows what else. The seagulls were busy taking some of the occupied shells and dropping them from a height in an attempt at a quick snack. As low tide continued, a peninsula slowly lengthened, reaching out to a tree-covered island across the water. You could see gulls standing in the shallow water that remained between us and the island, so it had to be safe enough for people to cross, but there were signs all over that warned how swift and sudden the currents were when the tide came back in. So we ventured out a bit on the peninsula, but didn't attempt to make it all the way to the island. The kids had such fun collecting shells, seeing the creatures that lived inside a few of them, scaring the gulls, and just crunching along without me constantly telling them to "put down that dirty thing" like I have to do on Staten Island beaches. It was a really nice way to wrap up our trip to New England.

After a relatively short and painless drive, we arrived back home on a Monday afternoon. Plenty of time to rest and prep for our family photos and dentist trip first thing on Tuesday. Yeah, I pack this action in when I know Dan is on vacation and I've got help with these things. So that Christmas card you might have gotten with everyone looking all chipper and happy, that was after 10 solid days of driving all over creation and nights hoping everyone would actually go to sleep despite the excitement of novel surroundings. Not too bad in the grand scheme. They're little troopers, to be sure! I think they all had a really good time, though. Some of Paul's smiles were hard to capture because he was too busy exuberantly jumping up and down. Zoe was hard to photograph as she launched headlong into exploring absolutely everything. Penny made sure to write down her various adventures in a series of short journal entries and postcards that she wrote to each of her classmates throughout the trip. So that should be fun for her to look back on some day. I know I have a few journal entries from some of our big road trips out West and they always bring a smile to my face. The things that seemed like such HUGE discoveries back in the day - driving through a cloud of grasshoppers, rocks painted more colors than a crayon box. I'm glad we were able to see things that were fun on their level so the trip would be something they look back upon fondly.