My new toys!

I'm Three months old!

Our first week of working and taking care of baby is finally over, and we are both soooo tired.

Tims thoughts: "It isn't really as bad as I thought it might be, and I feel like we will be able to handle it. I enjoyed my first morning with Aoife, but as the week progressed and my energy level decreased it was harder to keep her happy. The hardest part is the constant uncertainty over what she wants/needs and how to deal with it. She picks up on how I am feeling quite readily and if I am lackluster in my duties she gets bored and upset. We will get used to each other though over the next few weeks."- T.J. Nice

This past week, nights have been insane. Starting Tuesday night, Aoife woke up every hour from 11pm - 3am then 5am then 6am. This really tested my motherhood. By Thursday, I decided that I could no longer go on like this, so I decided that we should move her to her crib. I also started to put her to bed later than usual, took out one of her naps, and fed her more before she went to bed. It worked great! Maybe she had also grown out of sleeping with us. In her crib she no longer has to listen to our snoring and tossing. I thought that I would miss having her in the bed, but in the morning I bring her into bed with us so that she can snuggle.

Monday-This was our first real day of being apart. I really truly missed her. It felt very strange without her for the whole day, but I was so happy to see my coworkers again. We didn't have school today. today was orientation for the new students. I did some speaking evaluations and was the Academic Advisor's assistant. It was fun to run around and make sure everything was running smoothly. My school also has a dormitory attached to it, so there is a lunch room where the teachers can eat for free! So, for lunch I bring a container to put Tim's lunch in. Tim and I met each other at 12:45 at the bus stop and quickly did the exchange before I hopped on the bus to go home.
Tuesday-It was my first day of teaching today, and it went okay. It's really hard to get back into it. It's hard to muster up all those old skills that I had for teaching. Today was the first day that I noticed Aoife grabbing her feet. She was grabbing her toes with both hands; she really loves her toes.

Wednesday-Aoife and I went to the school BBQ to welcome the new students. Aoife had milk flavored with a processed bratwurst. She enjoyed being around lots of people, and everyone said that she looked like me. One of my students gave me a gift; a Turkish spirit/energy protection charm. My co-workers said that she had grown a lot since they last saw her which was over a month ago. Tim came home early tonight, so that we could spend some time with each other.

Thursday: Three months old! She is now officially not an infant any more and she acts a lot less like one now. She is very very alert and curious of everything around her. She loves to look out of the window of our apartment. Se loves to be read to, and she talks a lot now. I really like this age. I feel a lot more comfortable as a mother, and we have a very good relationship. When I come home from work she just spends that first hour talking and laughing and giggling with me. I love coming home to that, and really cherish that hour.

Friday: Our last day of work. Tim came home early again to spend time with me, but we just fell asleep. We are so happy that it's Friday.

Saturday: Today we went to our friends house for a BBQ. Our friend is from Korea and cooked a traditional Korean BBQ for us. It was a lot of food, but I just kept shoveling the food down. My appetite was so large today, but during the weekdays, it was pretty small. Aoife didn't really enjoy being at the BBQ, so she fell asleep for a couple hours on their bed. It was really nice to hang out with people again. I love the summer time because we all get together and have BBQ's. After the BBQ, Tim and I went to a few bikes stores to look for a bike for me, but we didn't find one small enough. I want to start biking to work again so that I get some exercise. I only have two pairs of pants that fit me for work!

Sunday: We went to our old neighborhood today. First, we went to the farmers market and got some delicious jalapeño and cheddar cheese bread. We then got some cherries. The cherry and blueberry season are winding down in California. The farmers market was packed with people; I'd never seen so many there before. We then went to a baby store to look at carriers, jogging strollers, and a bumbo seat (pictured above). They didn't have anything within our price range so we went to a the local bike store. I test ride a bike that fit me to the "t"; it was a beautiful ride. It was comfortable, and smooth. They didn't have my size on another bike that the sales woman, Charlotte, recommended, so we'll go back next week to try it out after they have built it. We walked up to college to a used baby store and found a bumbo seat and a toy (gifts for her birthday). We got home and plopped her in it. She really fits into it well. She's at the age now where she likes to sit completely upright, and I can't believe that this seat keeps her upright so much; it's fantastic! Tim's off to his softball game in a few hours, and I'll probably spend some time lesson planning. I hope Aoife sleeps better next week. So far she seems to be doing great in her crib. I'm half asleep but I manage to stumble over to her crib somehow and feed her. The great thing is that she always falls back to sleep right away; she's a good baby.

Trial Run

6:30a.m.-Aoife wakes up to be fed. Feed and cuddle for 10 minutes. She rests for another 10 minutes, and poops for another ten minutes. Papa wakes up and changes diaper. Mom pumps 3.5oz. Papa spends quiet talking time with Aoife.

7:30a.m.-Papa has breakfast. He changes Aoife clothes. "Mama leaves for work"Mama takes garbage out and talks to neighbor, Kate. Kate gives Aoife a gift of onesies.

8:30a.m.-Papa feeds (a little) and bounces her on the ball while singing a Bob Marley song.

8:45a.m.-Aoife sleeps (in her crib)

9:20a.m.-Aoife wakes up. Papa feeds her and burbs her. Aoife cries, so papa changes her diaper, and tries to get her to laugh with funny noises; it works! More play time.

10:30a.m.-Aoife looks tired again. We decide to go to Berkeley Bowl and Walgreens. Aoife slept the whole time.

11:30a.m.-Papa tries to take a nap, but Aoife wakes up. "Happy Nappy time", and Tim puts her in her chair while he tries to nap. Aoife doesn't let him nap.

12:00pm-Papa gets disparate and starts doing jumping jacks in the kitchen while making
pancakes while Aoife sits in her chairs and chews on her teething blanket. Aoife cries, so Tim
feeds her her last drop of milk.

12:30pm-we eat our pancakes and "mama" comes home. Tim is relieved and takes a long long break before heading off to his softball game.

Another Hot Day

Aoife slept well last night almost 6hrs straight. I was so relieved. I guess it helps to reduce the amount of naps she takes during the day even though it's very hard to do. We hung out all morning at home and Aoife took a two hour nap after lunch and so did Tim and I. It felt so good. Lately she's been cat napping, so it felt good to nap for that long. After she woke up, we headed to the library to get her some more books. Tim and I also wanted to treat ourselves so we went to Crixa Cakes and ate the best Boston Cream Pie I've ever had in my life, and some chilled iced tea. Aoife fell asleep in her sling sitting up which looked so funny. She just loves going for walks and looking around now! We took a trip to Berkeley Bowl and then headed home. Starting next week Tim is going solo taking care of Aoife in the mornings, so this afternoon we did a practice run. Tim's mom sent Tim this "Rookie Dad" book many months ago when I was in my first trimester. I read the "When mommy's not here" chapter to him while he practiced taking care of her. Tomorrow, we are going to do a full day practice from 6:30am-1pm.

Our Last Yoga

Today was our last day at Yoga. I'm going to miss yoga a lot because it really made me feel good. I wish they had an afternoon Yoga because then I could go to it with her. I still have one session left that I paid for so maybe (maybe!) Tim will take her. There was a man at yoga one time, and I really liked that he was there with his baby. I think Tim would enjoy it, but he might feel a little funny being there. Aoife liked the mommy baby yoga and the massage. Again, we didn't get all the way through the massage, and so I dressed her and she fell asleep on her bed while I continued with the yoga. Some of them are hard for me to do, but I try my hardest. I especially like the breathing techniques that we do. They give me a lot of energy. My mind also becomes clear when I do yoga and that internal chatter disappears.(except for the "OMG my body hurts!"). Aoife liked the drums today, and again was staring at all the beautiful boys! Today after yoga, a woman came to talk about a workshop she is giving in September about homeopathic medicine for children and the benefits of it. I'm looking forward to learning about it mostly for little things like colds or ear infections, or things like that. After yoga we went to a local bakery, and I had some iced tea. It was so hot so Aoife and I quickly ran home. I jumped into the shower while she napped. Aoife was up every hour again last night, so I'm determined to keep Aoife awake until 8pm so that she has a good nights sleep tonight.

Aoife is starting to explore her feet now and likes it when I put her toes in her mouth. It's funny watching her explore her feet as if they just appeared recently. Her back is starting to get stronger. She's able to push back with a lot of force, and today she was sitting up against me with little support. I'm really looking forward to when she can sit up by herself; it shouldn't be too long now.

Heat Wave

The weather was HOT today, so I decided to dress Aoife up in my favorite hot weather outfit that faux-aunt Dawn sent for her. I put this dress on her a month ago and it was way too big, but now it fits just right, and she looks so adorable in it. This picture almost made Tim puke with its too cuteness. We stayed inside today. The sun is very harsh and it's too hot to carry her anywhere. Aoife was up again every hour last night. She took so many naps today. I woke her up every time but she just passes out in my arms. I'm not sure what to make out of it, but it better be over by next week because I start work on Monday. Even though I was so tired all day we still managed to have fun. I read to her "Slugs in Love" three times today; she just loves that book. One thing she likes in books are little songs here and there, or poems that rhyme. She also likes the Francis Badger books because they have little songs in them too. She also really loves airplane rides. I hold her up and go weeeeee...and then she drips drool onto my head. Yummy! I really like this age so far; it's fun.

Little Monkey

Aoife has been waking me up every night every two hours again. It's very exhausting, but I'm being patient hoping that this is just a trend that she'll grow out of. The problem is that she is drowsy during the day. She sleeps every two hours for 30-60 minutes. I try to keep her awake, but her eyes get red and she bawls. She then passes out. I guess she's still recovering from traveling and shots. I went to the library with her today. She prefers to sit up in her sling now and look out at all the world. She especially likes the color green. Whenever we would pass a green bush or garden she would look at it and follow it as I passed. She really likes looking at tree leaves. We got these two books. I read slugs in love for her bedtime tonight. It's so amazing to me how she pays attention while I read! I think she's going to be an avid reader when she's older.

Yoga-bun

We went to yoga again today. We couldn't go last Friday because of her fever. I was excited to go and made sure that she had a nap before we went. I put her in her sling and off we went. As usual we did some baby-mommy yoga. This time I noticed that Aoife was looking more at the other babies this time, and it seemed to be mostly the boys she would look at! There was one boy next to us that was cooing at Aoife, and she actually cooed back. She really felt comfortable at the yoga studio this time. I saw a baby that was 6 weeks old, and it was amazing to me how much Aoife has changed since then. I still remember her being like that but I was not as nostalgic as I thought I might be because I love the age she is at now. We did the baby massage. This time I used chamomile oil to massage her. She liked it, but started to get fussy so I took her to the other room, fed her, and put her to sleep on her pillow bed. I then went back to doing the yoga. I feel a lot stronger than last time I did it. My back still is not in good shape. It's not as curvilinear as it used to be and seems to be more rigid. I'm sure it's still getting back into shape after carrying all that weight from pregnancy. My stomach muscles are getting tighter. Before it felt like a soft empty pouch, but now it is getting more firm. I looked at all the other mom's who had older babies, and they all look in shape. I need to loose about 20 more pounds before I'm back to pre-pregnancy state. I'm sure I'll be able to shed it off when I go back to work. Anyway I woke Aoife up from her sleep for the final goodbye song, and we headed on home. We had a wonderful day today; I think it has been one of my favorite days with her so far. She was in such a great mood, and we had a lot of fun playing with each other, and taking an afternoon nap. I hope you can click on the video above of Aoife laughing. If you can't I'll be happy to set it up on you tube or something so that you can watch it; just let me know. I think I might start posting a video once a week on her blog. I'm not sure how much space they give me for blogging, so I might post them somewhere else. So, enjoy the clip. Her face at the very end makes me laugh the most.

Two mommies?

We decided to take it easy today. Aoife has not been quite the same since her shots and seems to be fussy-tired all the time now. We stayed inside today, and just hung out with each other. Aoife really liked to air dry after I take her dirty diaper off. She does a funny little Elvis dance. We moved her "changing table" into her nursery. It's on top of a dresser which has a mirror attached to it. For some reason she gets a kick out of having two mommies; the one in the mirror and then one that touches her. It's pretty funny to see her confused face as she looks in the mirror and then over at me. She sometimes sees herself in the mirror and puts on a bashful smile, but for the most part ignores her other self. We also read books today. We lie down together on a pillow and I hold the book above us and read it. She likes to look at the colors of the pictures and listen to my voice. I like the stories. It's a good time to figure which books I think she'll like when she's older; there's just way too many of them. She likes her swing too but only if I sit with her. She is slowly figuring out that her best friend buddy the butterfly is not ever going to change his expression, and I think she doesn't like that quality in him. She likes it when I pull her up from with her arms when she's laying down. It makes her feel like a big girl. Aoife is really changing and it's becoming more and more exciting!

Happy Father's Day

I had a very hard time with Aoife last night. She kept waking up crying and had a hard time getting back to sleep. I think she is still having problems from that oral medicine they gave her. I think it really upset her stomach. Still, I was able to wake up and make Daddy a special breakfast. I put Aoife in her swing so that she could watch me in the kitchen. She really enjoyed watching and didn't put up a fuss. I made buttermilk blueberry pancakes. They turned out really well. I went downstairs and picked a large beautiful rose for decoration, and we also had a bowl of cherries. Tim was a very happy man! He deserved it for being such a good daddy. He took good care of me during my pregnancy, and is doing his best now.

We were relaxing having a cup of tea when we heard the door bell. It was great-aunt Dorrie back from church. Aoife was sleeping so we showed her pictures of our trip while we drank our tea. Aoife woke up when we were finished and was happy to see Dorrie. I think she recognized her. Dorrie said that she changed quite a bit. Mostly it was her size that was bigger. Dorrie had a good time with Aoife, and she took Aoife out to our "porch" and told Aoife all the different trees in our back yard. We have a redwood, a lemon tree, a cherry tree (to our surprise), and a banana tree. Then Dorrie headed out for the day.

Tim had a softball game today; the first one of the summer season. While he was gone I baked a custard fruit tart. When he came home, he was very surprised, but not all that much since it was hard for me to hide the ingredients from him. It turned out okay. The custard had little lumps in it but you couldn't really tell. I think I cooked it too hot too fast. We ate it with a glass of white wine. It was delich!

I'm better!

Aoife woke up this morning with her temperature back to normal! I was so happy that it passed quickly. Tim and I had a pretty restful Saturday. Gramma Rachel introduced us to the slow cooker, and I decided that it would be nice to get one since we are both going to be at work starting next week. We decided to go to Urban Ore to see if we could purchase a vintage one. They had many rice cookers, but no slow cookers. What a disappointment. We seem to be having bad lunch at Urban Ore lately; still it is fun to look at all that stuff. After we got back, I took a solo trip first to the library to get Aoife some books and then to Berkeley Bowl to get some ingredients for treats for Father's day tomorrow. I tried to get Aoife to laugh again today, but it didn't work. I wonder what made her able to giggle on the airplane. Still we shall try more tomorrow.

Feeling better-somewhat

Well, she woke up many times last night needing feeding and comfort which I was happy to do. She has a very sad little cry now. She woke up this morning smiling and seemed to be happy, but she still felt hot. I took her temperature this morning, and it had gone down to 98.7 degrees which is cooler than last night, but not her normal temperature of 97.7 degrees. She is pretty groggy today and seems to be sleeping a lot. I put her into a sleep sack to keep her nice and cozy.
I checked her temperature after she was having problems sleeping this afternoon and it was up to 100.7. Once again I panicked, so I called the pediatrician, and they told me that it is normal, and to give her infant Tylenol if I want. I felt better calling them. Her temperature went down again and stayed down. She's now sleeping the night away.

Sick-bun=broken hearted mommy

Aoife went to the pediatrician today for her shots. We got there early and the nurse took her to a room to weigh her and measure her. Her head circumference was 14 inches. Her length was 24inches; she's grown 4 inches since birth! Her weight was 11lbs 5oz. She must have been going through a growth spurt while we were in Wisconsin; no wonder I was eating so much food! Liz, her doctor then came and took a look at her and said everything looked great and asked me if I was feeding her at MacDonalds. For those that are interested, she's in the 75th percentile. Then the nurse came in with the shots. I was so scared, and sadly i think Aoife sensed it because she started to wail before she even got them. The nurse gave her her oral one and ten two shots on one thigh and a third on the other. Aoife was not happy about it, and let everyone on the block know about it. I felt horrible, but knowing that she won't get a terrible life threatening disease is well worth it. That evening I took great care in comforting her by reading books and rocking and singing. She was drowsy at around 6pm and had a strange cry that i had never heard before. I carried gentle her around the room and we cuddled. She fell asleep in my arms upright which has never happened before. I put her to bed and Tim and I hung out for a while. Then she stirred around 9:30pm, and when I went to check her, I noticed that she was very very hot. I took her temperature and it was 99.7. I was so scared and so I called my mom. She was good at getting me to calm down saying that babies will sometimes get a fever after getting shots, so I felt better. I prepared her some sugar water in case she wouldn't drink my milk, and after Tim settled her to bed, we drifted off ourselves. She ate through the night and seemed hot and drowsy, but okay.

I like to chew my hands now

Being back home feels good. Aoife knew she was home again and was happy to see familiar favorite objects.

We were very worried about Puck because it seemed that he had no food or water in his bowls, and he didn't come home all night. We were very very worried, so I decided to check my phone messages to see if anyone had called about him, and someone did. A man called saying that Puck had been hanging out at his house for a few days and didn't seem to be going home. So I called him back and he told me where he lived so that we could call him back home. Puck hadn't gone very far just the next block over. Still, Puck didn't come to our calls, and I figured he was angry at us. He did come home later in the night looking very skinny. He wouldn't come near us; he just ate his food and left. He's very angry! I'm not sure what happened. We asked our landlord to feed him, so he should have been okay.

It's time to get Aoife onto a schedule because I'll be going back to work very soon. Mostly, I need to get her sleeping through the nights, so I'm putting her on a nightly routine of a warm bath, message, story, feeding, and bed. Hopefully, we'll be able to keep this up; the whole thing took about 1/2 hour which is pretty good.

Goodbye Wisconsin-giggles

We took our time getting to the airport in Minneapolis today because our flight wasn't until 7p.m. I packed our bags, and Tim repacked them again; then we headed off. Aoife was a little bit more fussy this time, and we had to stop a few times to change her diaper and feed her. She got pretty fussy when we got to Pepin, WI, so we stopped for a while. I took Aoife out, but it took her a while to quieten down. We decided to take a look at the museum in Pepin that was dedicated to Laura Ingles Wilder, the woman who wrote "The Little House on the Prairie". It was interesting to see the old artifacts. They had a replica of a river boat and Gramma Rachel climbed the stairs and had fun being captain at the steering wheel. We went into another museum, but Aoife got fussy, so I left. We decided to continue our journey even though Aoife wasn't very happy. Gramma and I took turns vibrating the car car seat so that Aoife could sleep. We made it to St. Paul where we went to a tea shop that Grampa Steve likes. We had some iced tea and Steve bought some teas that were on sale. We were shocked at how late it was, so we quickly went to Chipotle for burritos. Our original plan was to go to Minnehaha park and have lunch there, but it was too late. Steve drove us to the airport. People let us cut in at the security line so that we would make it to our gate on time. thank God we did because we would have been late for our flight. We made it on time, and we had the very last row on the flight with an extra seat available for Aoife. This was much more comfortable for me. Aoife didn't enjoy this flight and was pretty fussy, but I manage to calm her down and miraculously I figured out that horse lips makes Aoife giggle. On the ride up, Rachel and I were talking about how Aoife was getting close to giggling. She giggled a lot!!! Then, Tim joined in the fun, and we must have looked and sounded pretty strange to other people, but we couldn't believe she was giggling. It was so funny. Our flight wasn't as long as I thought it would be, and we grabbed our luggage, and we headed back home on the BART.

Aoife's first hotdog roast.

Rachel and I went to the store today to buy some "yipee" hotdogs and ingredients for soap and smores. We made soap after we had taken naps which turned out really well (see below) Tim's family has a tradition of roasting hotdogs over a fire on their land. Luckily it was a beautiful day, and we set Aoife out on a blanket to enjoy the leaves blowing on the trees. The hotdogs were delicious, but the smores were better. Smores are an American camping treat where one melts a marshmallow until it is barley hanging on to the stick then it is sandwiched with chocolate between two graham crackers...yummy!!! I really enjoyed that afternoon. It is by far my favorite time that I have spent with the in-laws.

Camomile soap

Camomile Soap

1 cup clean rendered tallow
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup cold soft water
1/4 cup lye flakes
2 tbsp camomile flowers
1/4 cup talc

Rachel went out and picked camomile from her garden and dried them over night. The next day I ground the dried flower to a fine powder. Then I mixed it with the talc with olive oil.
We melted the tallow with coconut oil, and set it aside to cool. Then we stirred the lye flakes into the cold water until it was dissolved. While we let that cool, I greased the mold with petroleum jelly.

When fats, and lye water were lukewarm, we added the lye to the fat stirring constantly. We had to stir it until it was thick like honey. 15 minutes went by with me stirring and nothing happened, so Rachel took over for 15 minutes. Still nothing, but it was thickening a little. Then I went at it again for a while and it still wasn't thickening. So, the book recommended that we set the bowl in cold water and stir it. It started to thicken. I stopped stirring when the solution made a ribbon on the surface.


Then we added the camomile-olive oil mixture to it. It made a beautiful green color. We then poured it onto the molds.


It made 12 molds. I kept 6 and Rachel kept 6. Because the soap is coconut based it took a little longer to set about 3 days in a cool place. Ten it needs to cure for three weeks until it can be used. I really enjoyed making the soap. Rachels mom taught her how to do it and now she showed me, and when Aoife is big enough, I'll teach her too! It was interesting to read the soap making book. I learned about the original ingredients used, and how they have changed to more processed ingredients, and now commercial soap is nothing like the real stuff. I remembered when I was young, my grandma, Irene who tells amazing stories, told me that when she was young the women would just wash their hair with soap and they would have the most beautiful sheen. She was commenting on how our modern shampoo's do nothing for our hair. Now I know why because the ingredients are so unnatural for our hair. So, here is the final product; looks great! Just have to wait a couple weeks to try it out.

We left my family at 9:30am for Morrison, Illinois. It took us a long time to get there because the freeway had some major construction going on. We got to Morrison later than we had hoped, so we were glad that we left early. We made it to the nursing home and almost got blown away by the wind. We had remembered where Mary's room was and while making our way there a lot of ladies kept approaching us admiring our little Aoife. We finally found great-grandma in her room reading a book. She looked very happy to see us, and we let her hold Aoife. She sang a few lullaby's for Aoife while Aoife looked out the window at the leaves. Great-grandma told us that Vivian liked to look at the leaves blowing on the trees. Aoife smiled at Great-grandma, and great-grandma would say, she didn't remember any of her babies being that little. We then said our goodbyes and great-grandma told Aoife to always be kind and good!

We traveled onward to Great-uncle Eldon and Lisa's house. Tim tried to remember his way to their house without Google maps and did pretty well. Eldon greeted us and showed us inside where Lisa and Leah Grace were waiting for us. The last time we had seen Leah grace was when she was about Aoife's age at Christmas time. Leah Grace was huge! She greeted us with a massive smile which went ear to ear. She was very excited. Lisa had prepared a fruit salad and some lemonade for us. Great-uncle Harvey also came to visit. After finishing our food Lisa and I went to the other room to nurse and try to get the babies to sleep. Leah Grace was being a cheeky monkey for mama and was quite distracted with having Aoife in the room. Lisa and I talked "baby talk" while the men talked politics and stuff! I'm so happy that Aoife has a little cousin her age to spend the summers with. I'm sure they will be good friends when they grow up. When we were leaving Aoife was crying and that would make Leah Grace worried, and she would cry with Aoife. It was so cute to see Leah so concerned about Aoife's well being. It was getting late, so we decided to leave.

We were pretty tired, and I mostly stayed in the back of the car to keep Aoife companion. We drove up to Wisconsin via Boscobel, the town where I went to highschool. To get there we drove through Fennimore to take a picture with Igor,the mouse. Great-Aunt Elaine would always stop there with Uncle 'Topher and Tim to take their picture. We went on to Boacobel, and I gave Tim the "grand tour" of my school and our church and old houses.

We finally got back to Holmen at around 10pm. It was a very long day, and Grandma Rachel had stayed up to see Aoife again. She spent about an hour with her before we all collapsed into a deep sleep.

This morning we woke up with the thrashing of rain and the trembling rumbles of thunder. It was so powerful that the house shook. Aoife didn't seem to pay any attention to it though. Today was pretty fun because Erin and Michelle stayed home from school, so I got to spend more time with them. Tim and I took Michelle to get her a birthday present and some cotton material to make some stuffed toys. By the time we came back, Aoife was still sleeping, and Erin had just woken up.

We spent most of the day talking while Erin made a lizard and Michelle made a monkey. "Lady Mike" came to visit Aoife for a little bit; it was nice to finally meet her.

Mark called from the court and told us that everything was okay, but we had no idea what he meant by that, so we had to wait until they got home to hear the details. The suspense was killing us. Apparently, he has to agree to voluntarily leave the country by July 31 and not return again until September. He's hoping to get a religious visa to come back and live and then reapply for the green card again. He seemed relieved to have it over. So, we had a relaxing evening and last supper before we once again head off.

Tomorrow we are going to see great-grandma and Tim's uncles in Morrison, Illinois.

Great-Grampa

Today, we had lunch with Fr. John. Fr. John is the priest that had helped my family move to America and with many more things since then. He is basically family to us. He was so happy to meet Aoife and he was able to say her name properly after much practice. He cooked us Morel soup and cold sandwiches. Afterwards, we took a walk around his farm to see what he had fixed up. I've always enjoyed rummaging through the farm buildings looking at the old stuff. He also showed us his garden and his potato patch which he planted in an old silo foundation. After visiting Fr. John, we went home, and my dad and brother left for Minneapolis for my brothers' immigration court date.

Gramma Moose

Today, we took off to Sullivan, Wisconsin to see my family. No sooner had we pulled into the garage when my mom, dad, and brother ran over to the car to see Aoife. They were so excited that I think they forgot who transported her to see them! My parents fell in love with her instantly. My dad couldn't get over how tiny she was and was quite shocked when he held her to feel the bones in her spine. My brother was also very excited and was so gentle with her. My mom spent every spare minute as she could holding her and taking care of her. She was really good and patient with Aoife. She help her for hours helping Aoife get up burps and rocking her and putting her to sleep. But for some reason, nobody wanted to change her diaper. My sisters came sheepishly home after school and stared at her. I think they were not yet prepared for her lack of development in social skills, so they admired her from afar. Michelle had shot up a foot since I last saw her at Christmas, and Erin's spunky personality is starting to shine. It was great to be back with my family again because I's missed them all so much.

Tim's uncle John and aunt Mary Ellen came to visit today. Mary Ellen knit Aoife a beautiful outfit that will probably fit her when she is about a year old. Aoife seems to be sleeping a lot here. It seem that she wakes up, gets fed, gets changed, gets played with by Gramma and then is ready to pass out into a deep sleep again. I wasn't expecting to have so much time on my hands, so I buried myself in some craft books. Hopefully we'll be able to get some things done while I'm here. Rachel wants to paint walls to give them some texture. She also wants to make a wreath out of wild grasses that she dried, and we'd like to make soap. I'm excited for the soap part.

Today, we had gramma'pa's old neighbor come to visit. Grampa made his famous sour dough waffles and I helped Rachel put together a feast of delights. Lorraine and Charles, the neighbors, were great fun to be with. Lorraine told us stories of her life and Charles told us about conspiracy theories. It was a pretty interesting morning. In the afternoon, we took a walk to see the fish in the pond that Grampa put in. There were a lot of fish about six inches long. There were also a lot of tadpoles. Aoife got a bit hot in the sun so I had to take her back up. Later that night I gave her a massage to cool off, and Gramma played with her.