Our First Home

This is the apartment building Seth lived in for a year before we were married. We lived there together the first month of our marriage. Like so many others, we didn't have insurance at the time.

We sure are glad we didn't stay there.

An Eventful Christmas

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. We had 4 celebrations and we were all a little exhausted by the end of it. It has been great seeing all the family though.

We spent Christmas Eve at my parents' house, and Elena loved handing out the gifts to everyone. Sammy had a good time hanging out with Papi.

We spent Christmas day at Seth's parents' house and had a great time except for Elena burning her hands and nose on the fireplace. It was a pretty traumatic for us all.

She is very good about staying away from the fireplace when it's on because she knows it will be hot. Unfortunately, it had been turned on previously and was turned off when she touched it. Not only did she not realize it was hot, those of us in the room didn't either. I was feeding Sam when she started to cry with her hands on the fireplace. I thought they were stuck because she wasn't taking them off (I think she was just too shocked to move). Uncle Richie quickly grabbed her and we saw her hands had been burned. As we ran them under cool water and watched them blister, we noticed her little nose was also forming a blister (she now looks like Rudolph).

We got her some ibuprofen and stuck her hands in cold water. She cried and cried for over an hour when she finally fell asleep. Seth held her as we soaked her hands and iced her nose. She slept almost an hour before she woke up and continued to cry for about another hour. Then we moved her into the room with all her cousins and they did a superb job of entertaining and distracting her. She managed to stay in a surprisingly good mood the rest of the evening as long as we could keep her hands cool.

Here she is laughing at her cousins.

The hard part was when she wanted to get up and play. She could handle about 5 minutes of jumping or dancing, but soon her hands would start to burn again and she was just so tired of soaking them. Then we would have to force her to sit down and put her hands in the water again until she calmed down.

Here she is on one of her breaks.

Seth slept with her that night and she did really well. I am amazed at how well she adapted. She doesn't let it bother her any more than necessary. I think we could all learn a lesson from little kids in that respect. They don't waste any time feeling sorry for themselves. While we were all feeling so bad for her, she was happy and smiling as soon as the pain subsided.

The next day we celebrated with the DeCock side of the family (Seth's mom's side). Almost everyone was there so there were around 70 people - and too many babies for me to count! It was a little crazy and a lot of fun. Luckily, Elena's doctor happens to live next door to Seth's Aunt and Uncle's place where we were celebrating, so we ran her over to his place to look at her burns. He was kind enough to call in a perscription for her cream so we wouldn't have to spend the whole day in urgent care.

She had fun with all her cousins and adjusted almost immediately to her new condition, using the backs of her hands to climb and play.

Rudolph and Cousin Maddy playing with a Nativity set.

The best Christmas present of the year: Sammy.

(Fake) Laughter

We were reading "Who took the cookies from the cookie jar?" to Elena last night. On each page, the animal accused of stealing the cookies says, "Who me? Couldn't be..." and then says what he eats. After a few pages, Elena started reading along and said "No, not me. I eat meat." (At least that's what it sounded like). Anyway, Seth and I burst out laughing and then she decided this book was just hilarious and she laughs hysterically for each page.

Sammy slept through the whole thing - he is very used to Elena's noise and always wakes up from the quiet when she goes to sleep.

Sammy: take 2

Ok, to start I will explain Sam's name because people keep asking us why we named our child after a beer (which, in our defense, is at least a good beer). The first name we picked out easily; Seth's initials spell Sam, and we both like the name. The middle name was a little tougher. We thought it would be neat to have Sam's initials also spell Sam. Our favorite choice for a middle name was Seth's middle name - Adam. We went back and forth between James and Adam throughout the pregnancy, and on the way to the hospital, we decided to go with Samuel Adam and hoped that maybe someday (much) down the road he'll get a free beer or two and thank us for it.

As far as his arrival, labor lasted about 13 hours (half the time of Elena's!), only 2 of which were hard labor. Once I started pushing, he came out so quickly that the doctor hadn't even been called yet. That didn't surprise me much considering that the midwife at Elena's birth said she "came out like toothpaste." I was actually glad he didn't make it. For one thing, the doctor I planned on having was out of town, and I wasn't thrilled about the one I got (rumor has it he has given women episiotomies without their consent). Also, we knew my nurse from Minneota and we were thrilled to have her deliver our baby. After he was born, she told us he was her first so it was a neat experience for her, too. Of course, the doctor (who showed up 10 minutes after the birth and stayed no more than 5 minutes) will get paid for the delivery.

Once again, Seth was a great help during the birth. Our nurse actually said that she wants Seth to prep her husband for labor whenever she gets pregnant. So far, I have somewhat enjoyed the labor process (up until the end part) because it is such a great bonding experience for Seth and me.

Elena stayed with my parents the 2 nights we were gone and she had a great time. We were worried she would struggle being gone from me so much, but she didn't seem to mind a bit. She came to visit in the hospital and fell in love with Sam right away. She wasn't quite as thrilled when we brought him home. Sharing Mommy and Daddy has been a bit of an adjustment, but her temper tantrums are gradually decreasing day by day. She loves holding Sam, giving him kisses and helping change his diaper (she hands us the wipes).

Holding Sammy for the first time

He loves being bundled up in his car seat.

Kisses

Sammy

Well - I just spent an hour writing about Sam's entry into the world and Elena somehow managed to delete the entire thing so you'll have to wait awhile more. Sorry!

It's a boy!

After a few false alarms, Samuel Adam (not Adams - I'll explain the name later) was born on Nov. 30th at 3:12 am. He was 6 lbs 12 oz and 20.5 inches. Everything went well and we're very happy to have our little boy with us. He's just beautiful. The general consensus seems to be that he looks like a Myhre only with lots of dark hair. I'm pretty tired so I'll just put up a couple of pictures and write more later.

Gobble gobble

Playing with a spider in her Thanksgiving outfit.

We started our trip up to the cities to celebrate Thanksgiving and my grandma's 98th birthday, and I started having contractions every 10 minutes. After 5 or 6 contractions, we were almost halfway to the cities and decided to turn around. Once we got back to Minneota (where we celebrated with Seth's family) the contractions, of course, stopped. But after driving 3 hours to go to a house 4 blocks away from where we started, we enjoyed a lovely afternoon. To all of you on my side who missed us, we made the video below for you.

Elena's Cure for Cabin Fever

Step 1: Place an object on the floor. Examples of good objects might be a hat, a book or your mother.
Step 2: Turn on some music, preferably something fast, repetitive and upbeat.
Step 3: Wave your hands and run in circles around the object until you fall over.
Repeat step 3 as often as necessary.
(Clothing is optional)

Case In Point

Less than 24 hours after writing my blog about hunting (see previous post), I was enjoying a monthly ritual of having supper and discussion with a group of friends at our priest's house. During dinner, Father Jeremy brought up the subject of hunting. He began talking about his first time hunting a few years ago and he described it as this "enlightening, freeing and liberating" experience.

He didn't get much farther before 2 other women at the table and I looked at each other and burst out laughing. Joy and Lila had both read my blog that day and we just couldn't help it. Sorry about that, Father. Your timing was just too perfect. We'll listen to the rest of your hunting story next month.

Hunting Season

It's that time of year again. I actually used to go through the years relatively unaware of the passing of hunting season...until 7 years ago. As I joined myself with the Myhre clan, I became aware of what a huge deal it is. After witnessing this event year after year, you'd be hard pressed to convince me that there is no instinctive difference between men and women (in general - I realize, of course, there are always exceptions).

Obviously, the vast majority of hunters are men. It's not so much that women are discouraged from hunting. In fact, I think most men like the idea of a woman who hunts. It's just that we don't have that ambition and desire to spend all day out in the cold, tracking down and killing an animal for food that is more difficult to prepare than what we could easily pick up at the grocery store.

The men I've talked with who hunt speak of this heart-pounding, sweaty-palmed, take-your-breath-away adrenaline rush they get when they see a deer. Apparently, the thrill and excitement of "the hunt" is practically indescribable. I actually tried the hunting thing a few years back. And I saw a deer or two. Yeah. I didn't get that reaction. I'm afraid I made a pathetic hunter.

After going out before sunrise and sitting in sub-zero temperatures for 3-4 hours (motionless, I might add, so as not to be heard by the deer), staring at a bunch of snow-covered trees, tears started to trickle down my cheeks from the pain of my nearly frost-bitten feet and hands. I later realized that the lining had been missing in my boots, which didn't help, but I'm one of those people who gets cold feet in the middle of July. I think it took several days for me to warm up completely. Fun, fun.

But the boys enjoy it and they get in some good quality male bonding, and that's what matters. It looks like Elena might want to join in when she's older. Although I think keeping silent and motionless might be a bit of a challenge for her. She likes the hats anyway.