Interview with a three year old

This was a difficult project, as my interview subject, usually so self-expressive and voluble, was highly resistant to direct questioning and tended to give nonsense answers or none at all. I managed to collect the following over several days.


Headed out to "Shade Park" for a picnic



What can you do now that you're big? Use a big drill!
What did you use to do when you were a baby? I would cry, and sometimes I couldn't walk.



What's your favorite thing to do? Use a leafblower.





What do you want to do when you grow up? Cook! I will cook eggs, and I will cook dinner.
What kind of dinners do you like? Ricey.
What foods do you like to eat? Cheeses, and string cheeses, and some dead animals that are not bloody.







What can you do with Laramie? Give her a pacifier.
What will you do with her when she gets bigger? Hug her. And put my eye in her eye and her eye in my eye! Because Laramie likes a Carson eye!





Who is your favorite person? My dad.
Is your dad your best friend? Yes.
But you have other friends... Yes, like Hannah and Malcolm and Tess...
And AJ and David, and Reaghan and Abby? Are they your friends too? No. Sometimes I throw balls--soft balls--at them.



If we could go anywhere today, where would you like to go? I would like to go down to the train tracks. Do you like trains? Yes, but I don't like loud trains, only good trains.





What makes you happy? Goin' to junkin' houses.
What makes you sad? I don't know... we'll have to ask the monster. [?! He then proceeded to give this answer to the next 3 or 4 questions I tried to ask him.... The End!]

Laramie, 6 weeks later

It's been fun to experience, the second time around, just how fast babies develop. In her first month Laramie seemed always to be sleeping...

Two weeks old

Four weeks old

But by 5 weeks she was smiling, making eye contact, and cooing, and now at nearly 7 weeks she's positively flirtatious.

(The following photos were taken just shy of six weeks)





So far she has been a very easy baby. Other than a few fussy days when she insists on being held constantly, she hardly cries; she will usually make small dissatisfied noises for some time first, giving me plenty of opportunity to figure out what she needs. We took her with us to see Skyfall last night, something we never would have attempted with Carson, and she did great!







She is a great sleeper and goes 7-8 hours at a stretch at night already. I love this! At this age with Carson I was exhausted and frustrated with his inability to sleep long at night or take more than a 40 minute nap during the day; everything feels much more relaxed with Laramie.





As she is getting more interactive, she also seems to want people around more. Left by herself she may start to fuss, but will often return to smiling if someone comes back to visit her. I don't remember this with Carson, but perhaps he wasn't left alone much! Fortunately, with this baby we have an extra person around to keep her company.

A perfectly lovely fall

The coming of autumn always makes me sad. I have to say goodbye to those long summer evenings; my hiking days are coming to a close for the year; the garden dies and we're stuck with broccoli and winter squash for dinner seemingly every night; and most of all I dread being in the cold and dark for what feels like half the year.

BUT the fact is that the end of October into the first week of November is likely the prettiest time of year here in Siskiyou County. We have these gorgeous black oaks, you see, and the hills turn bright orange. Most years there is fresh snow on the mountain. The nights are cold, but often the days are in the 60s and sunny. So I try to drink in the beauty and enjoy this moment.

Here are some views from two walks we took this week out our back door:






























And as I write, it's snowing and the moment has passed... thank you for blessing us, fall! We'll miss you!

Signs he's actually been listening to the catechism?

Carson, contemplating the eternal nature of the kitten: "Who are the three persons of Tess?"


I considered this for awhile... I think they are Cuddly, Ravenous and Insane, but unfortunately only Cuddly is easily captured with photos.


 Her Cuddly nature is not intimidated by babies either:

October's sad goodbye

We've put it off as long as we could, but tonight we've got a predicted 29 degree low and 100% chance of snow. So, the garden is done. It's been chilly for the past week or so, and even in the absence of a true frost, here's how the poor plants looked yesterday:



So I brought in our final harvest of zucchini, beans, and the three butternut squash we managed this year:

That's two smalls and an extra small. But I'm encouraged anyway--there's hope for next year!

And picked all the tomatoes, ripe or not. We'll see how many we can coax to ripen off the vine, but I also plan to make some green tomato salsa. Look for several posts to come on this year's garden labor and results! Here is the final haul for the season:

parent in training

Since Laramie's arrival, Carson has felt the need for a baby of his own to care for. Sometimes he is our kitten Tess's mother (mubder), which she appreciates when it involves his feeding her extra tidbits, but not so much when he wants to tote her around or wrap her in a blanket. A more compliant object of his ministrations has been the WubbaNub, a stuffed duck with attached pacifier, which he used as a baby and was recently unearthed for Laramie.


Stands to reason a duck would need frequent diaper changes...


This set off a persistent interest in baby wipes, and one day while my back was turned for a few minutes he emptied an entire 100-count package, applying them one-by-one to the duck's backside.


Also, he informed me that he nurses his duck "from his tummy" just as I nurse Laramie, and he drinks lots of milk and water so that there will be plenty available to feed the duck baby. I said, "What a lucky duck baby to have such a caring duck dad."

"No, I'm a duck CARSON."

New kid in town...

On September 24th we finally got to say hello to our baby girl, Laramie Rose.



Although it felt as if the waiting would be interminable, when she decided to arrive, she made quick work of it. Labor started about 5 a.m. and Laramie was born at 9:02. She was only a little bigger than her brother, at 7 lb 12oz and 20.5".





Our initial impression is that she resembles Carson quite a bit, but with more delicate versions of his features. Compare this newborn Carson to the photo above:



My mother was on hand to help usher her into the world, as were dad and big brother.





All went well and we were happy to be bringing our daughter back home that evening after a 12-hour hospital visit.


God has greatly blessed us!