Christmas

December 10 - I didn't have to get up to go to work!  Lindsay and I spent a lot of time baking cookies and making little crafts (one-year old variety) and decorating and reading and playing.... being a stay at home mom was a nice change!

We spent Christmas at home with Missi and Kathi and Kent's folks and little brother Rob.  Although technically Lindsay's second Christmas, it was the first she could really understand and enjoy the packages.  And there were plenty to enjoy!  

 It doesn't take little ones too long to catch on to presents, does it?

Lindsay and daddy exploring

"Hug Me" baby saw many repairs through the years

My parents made this display when I was a kid, but
 we didn't use it much.  It just wasn't the message we
wanted to emphasize to our kids about Christmas.

Lindsay and grandparents (Kent's parents)

                

Career Status

So while we were in Missouri for Thanksgiving, my mom and I were talking.  She told me how she hated working when we (my brother and I) were babies, taking us out in the cold to grandma's in the morning,* and how she was sometimes so worn out she couldn't tell if she was sick or just tired, and how she was afraid I was at the same point.  So she made me (us) an offer - if we could manage so I didn't have to work, she would buy Lindsay's clothes to help out financially.

hiding from Grandma

talking with Uncle Doug

bet Grandpa's asleep before me

Grandma doesn't spoil me

On the way to work Monday morning, we got to talking about could we make it financially, and decided that we could.  I double checked, and I had enough in-service time, so I gave my two-week notice that day.  And we were all much happier.  My original office had disbanded (our special projects were finished) and I had been put in a new colonel's office (nice man, but a job with a lot more politics) and I really missed being with my baby.

Of course, Kent stopped going to California so much, so there wasn't that travel.  But he also started working 10 hours of overtime each week, so we didn't even notice a pay "cut".




*side story - Once when it was to be a particularly cold night, Dad and Mom took us back to Grandma Adams' house to spend the night so they would not have to take us out the next morning (mom was always a little paranoid about things).  My other grandparents' farmhouse caught fire, and they couldn't find my folks to go out there, cause they weren't at home, they were at grandma's with us.  The sheriff tracked dad down and told him, and they hurried out to the farm.... in time for dad to push the old piano that grandma wanted rid of into the fire!  Firefighting help was just neighbors, but the horse trough and well were frozen, so there wasn't much to do but watch it burn.  

Happy 1st Birthday!

I'm terrible at party planning.  I've always known this, but it's even more glaringly apparent looking back through old pictures.  So, sorry kids........

Lindsay had been sick so her first birthday was an extra quiet affair.  Her grandparents and some family friends joined us for the Butterfield tradition of chocolate cake, served picnic style on a white sheet on the floor.

Maybe someday we'll get the video transferred from VHS and can link it here... that's where all the pictures are!

the birthday girl!

snap links, blocks and...

stacking rings.. what more could you want?

just about partied out

Canning with my little helper

One summer evening Kent, Missi and Kathi had gone out and Lindsay and I were home alone.  I was blanching corn to freeze for winter.  Lindsay kept busy crawling round and round (you could make a complete circle through the downstairs).  Having her underfoot was not too bad, except when I had to drain the boiling water, so I would lead her into the next room, then run ahead and be done with the boiling water before she would catch up.

As I'm working away in the kitchen I realize I haven't seen her in a bit.  I go to check, and discover her hanging off the side of the aquarium!  She's holding on for dear life, but won't make a sound because she knows she shouldn't be there (it's only a foot drop to the floor; the aquarium sat on a end table next to the stairs... she simply climbed up two steps and onto the table.)

But the fish were well fed that night...... and for the next couple of days. :) 

helping dad is better than helping mom any day!

Watching the Blue Angels... from the top of the Sears Tower

We often daytripped to Chicago, visiting the museums or zoo, and sometimes we would stay overnight, usually at the Embassy Suites.  We especially loved to do that in the winter - take a mini-vacation and swim the weekend away.

But this was a summer trip with the kids and grandparents.  Kent and I took Missi and Kathi up to the top of the Sears Tower, while the grandparents watched Lindsay down below.  While we were looking out over Chicago, we were surprised to see the Blue Angels rehearsing!  Sometimes they were at eye level, and sometimes actually below us.  It was an amazing sight.  When we finally went back down, Kent's folks said they though we weren't coming back, but they understood when we told them what was going on.

Canoeing and grandma's day with the little angels

During our family get-together in Missouri over Memorial Day, we decided to take Missi and Kathi canoeing, along with my cousin Nate and his wife Mendy.  My mom volunteered to watch Lindsay and their daughter Trisha, who was 6 weeks younger than Lindsay.

We went to Bennett Springs State Park, where the girls wanted to go every time we were in Missouri.  They loved to feed the fish at the trout hatchery.  So we headed out, rented a couple of canoes and had a great afternoon on the river.

Not wanting to take too much advantage of mom, we didn't stay out all day.  What did we come home to find?  The babies were playing quietly, and mom was vacuuming.... Vacuuming up all the dirt from the planter they had pulled over... you know, the one mom sat there watching them, saying 'they can't pull that planter off'.  Everyone/thing was fine - except the plant.  But it didn't stop mom from watching our kids many more times in the future.  She was great like that!

It wasn't me, really........

Who? Us? Cause trouble??

Food poisoning

The days quickly fell into a routine.  Up, sitter's, work, sitter's, home, dinner, play, bed.  Repeat.  Every other weekend with Missi and Kathi, and always church on Sundays and then dinner with Kent's folks.

When I went back to work, we splurged and hired a housecleaner for three hours a week.  Shirley came on Monday afternoons.  We always left the money for her on the table, but unless we were running late she was usually still there when we got home.

So we got home and Kent went out to mow the yard while Shirley and I visited and played with Lindsay.  After I few minutes Shirley left, and then I thought 'I don't feel so well'.  I put Lindsay in the playpen (yes, I know, I'm an evil person, using a playpen) and hurried to the bathroom, where I was violently sick.  From fine to "dying" - all in a matter of minutes.  I can't get to the door, so I'm pounding on the window, hoping Kent will hear me over the mower.

I continued to be sick all evening.  At some point, Missi and Kathi's (who had been with us over the weekend) mom called and said they were both extremely sick, to the point of broken blood vessels under their eyes from throwing up.  (And she's not happy with us.)

I finally made it upstairs to bed and actually slept.  Around 2:00, Kent got up and, feeling fine, went downstairs - and had to basically crawl back up.  He got sick that fast.  Knowing Lindsay was likely to wake at any time, and knowing neither one of us could care for her, he called his folks, who came out and got her.  They had to drive back out again a few hours later to take her to the babysitter's, then back again after work to get her and check on us.  And they repeated it all the next day, until we were better.

Turns out, we had all gotten food poisoning from a local restaurant over the weekend.  NEVER want to go through that again!  We were so thankful to have Kent's folks close enough, and willing, to help out.  And we got our chance, with a middle-of-the-night call years later, to help with a daughter/son-in-law/granddaughter in need (only they were 300+ miles away, but worth every mile!)

Back to work

What a dreaded day.  Maternity leave was over.  I hated going back, but I needed to get my three years in (to ensure rehire rights, if needed in the future).  At least my maternity time counted toward my three years (I was off over 5 months).  So we found a sitter, and headed back to the Arsenal.

I still enjoyed my work, but a lot of the projects and a couple of people, had changed and I felt out of place - when at work I was always thinking about home, and at home, I was thinking about work.  My focus was .... all out of focus.  It also brought other changes.  Our babysitter wouldn't use cloth diapers, so disposables took over (we used them overnight already - triple diapering didn't even work - so we only used a couple of cloths a day, and it took too long to get enough to launder properly.)  Also, nursing time got cut in half.  In March I got bronchitis, and the medicine finished off nursing altogether.

Lindsay was advanced in most things, but holding a bottle on her own wasn't one of them.  Or so we thought.  Whenever we'd try to have her hold it her poor little hands would just fall to her side.  I walked in to the babysitter's one day a little early, to discover her holding her bottle, looking all around, happy as could be.  And then she saw me... and her poor little hands fell to her side.  So yes, we have been played by that child for a very long time.