The Mitchell Messenger

Friday, July 31, 2015

Ju-lying on the Beach

Believe it or not, summer is not stressing me out very much. You (and I) might expect it to be otherwise, considering that there is now a small human in the house who requires a great deal of feeding, changing, quiet time for sleeping, etc., but it's a case of more hands makes light work. I love dodging out to go grocery shopping or to hit a yoga class knowing that my kids are taking the best care of their little sister (and that I don't have to wake her up from a nap to strap her into her car seat). We don't have as many weekly plans as we do most summers, but we are managing to hit the pool with friends at least once a week, and to spend the day on the beach at least that often as well. The bigger events are harder to manage, because there aren't always good spots to slip away and nurse a baby (Cora is not a very disciplined nurser), but we managed to fit at least a couple of those in anyway.

One of our big events was the Del Mar Fair, which was loud and bright and a complete thrill for most people in our family. We got in some pie-eating and monster-truck watching (using torn-up earplugs to fit in Cora's tiny ears), and I was just as happy when we were done. We followed that up with a visit to a tractor and steam engine fair out in the direction of Julian, where we saw a few of the old cars Aaron loves as well as some well-preserved farming equipment and a huge display of electric trains. My favorite hands down, though, was making good on the tickets Aaron rounded up for us to go see Harry Connick Jr. when he did a concert downtown--the first of his tour. We left our little snuggler with a friend (who said she slept nearly the whole time), and Aaron and spent a marvelous night hearing from one of our absolute favorite performers, along with his fantastic band. Favorites for the night were definitely our old standard It Had to be You, a killer rendition of How Great Thou Art, and a new favorite love song, Nobody Does "I Do" Like We Do.

The kids have had a fair amount of time to themselves this summer, and it's awesome to see what they get up to when left to their own devices. Asher has practically melded his feet onto the skateboard his awesome friend got him for his birthday, heading down to the nearby skate park whenever we'll let him (though there are usually several hoops to jump through first, including doing his jobs, practicing piano, and reading), and has perfected the arts of "dropping in," "ollying," and "trey flipping." Addy has been making good use of the bike she bought herself this spring, riding down to her friend Rhea's house, or parking near a neighborhood tree which she and Rhea climb and talk for hours. Emerson and Sera have made the best of losing their playroom (now Cora's nursery), and have moved their Lego exploits out onto the balcony, which has actually proven to be a spectacular location. Aside from making my occasional morning yoga practice in that location undesirable, I can't say I have many objections to a playspace that doesn't require constant cleaning or monitoring, and yet is contained.

During the last week of July, Aaron signed all our kids up for vacation bible school at the Lutheran church where he plays. Emerson and Sera got to be camp participants, while Asher and Addy volunteered as camp leaders. They came home with a bevy of new songs and sayings, as well as a better familiarity with several Old Testament scripture stories, from Daniel to Moses to Elijah.We enjoyed the opportunity to eat lunch with them and the rest of the camp leaders on a couple of occasions, and appreciated the opportunity to be involved. It's hard to believe there's less than a month before everyone goes back to school, and this time I'm less excited about that prospect than ever before!

Summer fun

I came downstairs one day to find Cora nestled into this cute little nest.

I love the creativity that comes out during the summer--I believe this is a synthesis of Mary Poppins and Nanny McPhee

And here we have our resident rapper

Steam and Tractor parade

Asher had an awesome week at scout camp out in southern Utah--here's the crew before they left

Pool days!

I love the peacocks that wander around our neighborhood pool

Steam and tractor show

Del Mar Fair pie-eating contest

Steampunk crusaders

Addy and I at the "flea circus"

Dinner at Casa de Bandini before Harry Connick

Loved hearing Harry Connick Jr. live--he put on an amazing show

Vacation bible school--Addy's group

Asher with his group

I think I somehow missed getting a photo with Sera, but there's Emer in the back

Addy and Emerson got to attend "Apple Camps"--learning to work with Apple technologies

Emerson and his friend Jack made a pretty cool movie

Cora loves being at the beach more than pretty much anywhere else--it's her happy place

It's a happy place for all of us!

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

A Baby in the House!

Having Cora home has been so different than with any of our other babies. Different and good. This little baby of ours gets so much love and zero jealousy. She has older siblings who argue over who gets to change her diapers and get her dressed in the morning, who adore holding her, burping her, feeding her--the works. All that makes it about a hundred times easier on the mom, and anyway, despite becoming completely intolerable to be around in the weeks before having a baby, I get a euphoric rush after giving birth--being me is not a bad gig right now. We went back to church together the first week after bringing Cora home, and were blessed with the most amazing testimony meeting that really gave us courage to deal with whatever is ahead of us. Unbeknownst to me, another mother from our ward had been at Rady Children's Hospital just overlapping with me, after her 18-month-old son's seizure, and he had been diagnosed with a rare brain disorder. Our ward is brand new--carved from two other wards just a couple of months ago, and this meeting was probably the most beautiful I've ever had the chance to experience. So much love was poured out for both of these babies with special needs, and I felt so incredibly loved and cared for. Over the next two weeks, meals came into our house nearly every day (and they were phenomenal meals--my family has never eaten that well with me at the helm), and I loved having the chance to share my baby with everyone who came over.

I had those same couple of weeks to pull things together around the house (it would be impossible to overstate the sheer ecstasy of bending over to pick something up without a pregnant belly to contend with) before the kids got out of school, although I only did a so-so job--newborns are so time-intensive. We set up a temporary nursery for Cora in our little "secret room" (our bedroom closet is two full rooms--who could possibly use that much closet space??), with the intention to move the boys downstairs into the playroom and create a more permanent nursery in their room as soon as she's sleeping through the night (something she is doing surprisingly well at). Besides that, I managed to jam in a handful of the traditional end-of-school things that were happening, although I missed many more. I held a little piano recital for my students at the house, there was a school talent show for which Emerson and Sera played piano, and we even got out to celebrate Asher's birthday the week after Cora was born. We took everyone to see San Andreas at the new luxury theater that recently opened (everyone got their own recliner), and Cora slept straight through the whole thing. Besides that, we even pulled off a little birthday party for Asher--some friends at the neighborhood aquatic park and skate park, plus pizza and cake at the end. Not too shabby, all things considered--frankly it was nice to have an excuse to skip a couple of things, like the three-hour promotion ceremony for Asher that was held on the school's enormous, unshaded field on a 90 degree day (I double parked the car for a few minutes and took a couple of photos through the chain-link fence and called it good).

Once school got out, the kids finally got the time they had been craving with their baby sister. Aside from wanting to wake her up all the time, they are awesome at snuggling her, feeding her, ogling over her teeny-tiny toes, and even babysitting her for short stretches while I steal out for groceries or to take people where they need to go. They can hardly stand to be separated from her--when Asher got home from a week at scout camp, he barely bothered to say hello before making a bee-line for his sister, who he couldn't be parted from for an hour afterward.

The last week of June, Aaron and Addy left for a Children's Choir tour to New Orleans. Lucky for me, my mom, her husband, and my sister Aubrey came out for a visit and helped us so much! They helped move everything from the boys' room downstairs, including disassembling and reassembling their gigantic bunk bed and dealing with whatever was growing under Asher's bed (he has a long record of sneaking food into his room), and helping set up the new nursery. Though it isn't quite finished yet, it's going to be a fun little bedroom soon! We also had a wonderful time going to the beach, a Padres game, and delicious Casa de Bandini.

Meanwhile, Addy had the time of her life, singing in amazing cathedrals in one of America's oldest cities, taking a New Orleans cooking class, visiting an aquarium and a wax museum that featured lots of historical scenes, and taking a trolley tour of the city and cemeteries. She had a fantastic time, even if her delicate palate couldn't fully appreciate the nuances of bayou cuisine, and I'm especially glad that she had her dad along, not only to conduct the choir, but also to take all the photos that I'm sure wouldn't have happened if he hadn't been there. Of course, I'm still jealous that the rest of us couldn't have come along, but for right now, I'm pretty content to snuggle my baby and save the adventuring for another day not too far into the future.

That said, I'm not sure if I mentioned that I was accepted at USD law school? I'm incredibly excited about the prospect, though Aaron hasn't quite matched my level of enthusiasm just yet. For one thing, the scholarship I've been awarded would only amount to about a third of the cost, and while I could make up another third by teaching piano classes, that would still leave a pretty hefty chunk to pay out of pocket, not to mention the cost of a nanny. Still, I'm busy petitioning for additional funding and applying for outside scholarships to see if I can make this work. As much as I've loved my years as a (mostly) full-time mom, I have an itchy brain, and I'm incredibly anxious to be making contributions to the world in other ways as well. Already I've started calling Cora my little "accessory baby."