oh, well, there's always next year!

Despite Rosebud (and all of us!) dressing up and cheering her little heart out, our beloved Patriots still lost to the evil Giants. This next photo sums up how we all felt at the end of the game:

J actually had a really hard time with this loss. But we had a good discussion about what being a fan is all about, and how as disappointed as we all are, there are 30 other teams' worth of fans whose teams didn't even make it to the Superbowl. I think it was a good learning experience for him. (Though, let's face it, I still would have preferred if we'd won....)

We did clean up on our family's Superbowl pool, though, so hey, it's not all bad! ;)

visiting

We took Rosebud out visiting for the first time this weekend. We visited friends:

And we visited lots of family. Like Grandma:

Cousins:

Mimi and Grampy:

More cousins:

Brothers got some photo opportunities with their sister too:

And of course we all had to pose for pictures:

I tell you, all that visiting is just exhausting when you're only 3 weeks old:

fitting a baby into the daily rhythm

The kids started back to our regular schoolday rhythms last week, and the Map Man went back to work this week, so we're pretty well into the swing of things again, although the boys are working in a "practice" block that doesn't require much in the way of energy or time from me. Good thing, too, because you really DO forget how much time caring for a newborn takes!

I thought I'd jot down a few notes about how integrating Rosebud into our schooling rhythms is working out, for those that might be interested. (And I figured a few more pictures of the darlin' would be nice for the rest of you!)

Our day starts at 7:30 -- I wake Zoo Boy up (J gets up on his own at some point before 7, not sure when actually, because I personally am still asleep until 7!), and both boys get dressed and go out and do their chores. J feeds the pony, goes across the street to take care of the neighbor's chickens (his "paying" job), then returns here to let the ducks out of their shed for the day. Meanwhile, Zoo Boy feeds the goats, opens up the chicken coop for the day, and collects the eggs. Then they both take care of their rabbits, and come back into the house. They then have an hour or so to play -- by then I've fed and changed Rosebud, and I deposit her in a bouncy seat in their bedroom to hang out with them while I take put the dogs out and take a shower. She finds her brothers so entertaining that most days she's happy to stay with them while I cook breakfast, but on those few days where she's had enough before breakfast is ready, she joins me in the kitchen until breakfast is served (she loves hanging out on her changing table, which is in the kitchen, so she's safely out of the way of hot things). Then I nurse her again while I eat, and she generally naps nearby while I prepare the kids' worksheets for the day.

When the kids are done eating, they brush their teeth, then come pick up their worksheets. They are doing practice work with Language Arts (synonyms and antonyms, prefixes and suffixes, and defining words by context) and Math (long addition and long subtraction, word problems, and measurement). It takes them about 45 minutes to complete 6 worksheets each morning. We then work on a bit of multiplication (I'm very gently introducing the times tables and starting work on memorizing them), and then I read them a chapter from our book. This block we're reading Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder. It's the perfect choice, with the winter farm setting, and with Almonzo turning 9, just like Zoo Boy is about to. The boys are really into the story, Zoo Boy keeps commenting on how much harder life was back then (he says it's hard to believe that it's a true story) and how many rules there were. I think he's fairly appreciative of how easy he's got it in comparison.

Then comes lunch, followed by free time to play until we need to leave for dance and/or karate. They'll be starting work on a Science Fair project for our Monday Homeschool Classes Science Fair starting next week (they'll have 4 weeks to complete it) -- Monday classes are currently not running, they decided not to hold the winter session, but we'll have a Science Fair meeting this coming week, then get together for some seasonal fun for the few weeks before the Science Fair. Classes will start up again mid-March-ish.

J also just started a weekly Homeschool Astronomy class being held in the planetarium at one of the "local" museums. (Zoo Boy is too young, the class is for kids 10 - 14.) Plus he will again be singing with the youth chorus that he loves for the spring season, that starts in another week. And our Science Friday co-op starts up again tomorrow. So we've got plenty of outside classes and activities on our plates.

Here's Rosebud's lot in life, every afternoon. We've been mini-van gypsies the past two weeks, since Rosebud hasn't been approved for public visiting, we've spent a lot of time sitting in the van in the parking lot while the boys are in classes. She's actually really good about all the driving around, and she doesn't seem to care if she's nursing and snuggling in a house or in a vehicle, so long as the milk is warm and Mom gives her plenty of kisses. It's certainly wearing a little thin on me, however, and I'll be quite relieved to be able to just take her inside with me at the various studios, etc, starting next week. (We're cheating and starting tomorrow, actually....technically today is the 2 week mark, and I'm going to stick by that!) Then everyone who's been asking can finally meet her at last! She's going to have a busy weekend as she attends a couple of "coming out" parties at relatives' houses so that everyone who's dying to see her can.

So anyway, that's what life is like for us! I feel like we've transitioned a baby into our lives fairly seamlessly. Life is good. Very VERY good!

by request, more cute baby pics

Caving into peer pressure and posting a couple more pictures of baby Rosebud. I'm hindered by several factors: 1. my camera totally sucks -- it's broken, in more ways than one, including the fact that I can't see anything but a black blur in the view finder, the fact that the view finder, bad as it is, is actually off subject -- no matter how carefully I center subjects, they wind up with heads or feet cut off. Oh, and the fact that the light meter no longer reads accurately, so the auto-flash function either doesn't work when it needs to, or goes off when it doesn't need to and washes everything out.

and

2. The vast majority of the time Rosebud is like this:

Seriously, it's like the kid is narcoleptic. Which works for me, I'm the most well-rested new Mama on the planet! No lack of sleep around here. I know babies are SUPPOSED to sleep a lot, but neither of our boys seemed to know what a nap was, nor did either of them sleep longer than 1 1/2 hours before waking and demanding to nurse until they were about 3 years. Rosebud has already settled into a pattern of only waking every 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 hours per night (yes, you read that right, she's only waking ONCE during the night to nurse), then goes right back to sleep. It's hardly even disturbing to my sleep. Heck, I haven't slept this much since....um....before conceiving J. Which is GREAT for being well rested! But not so great for photo opportunities, especially when the request is "more pictures with her eyes open, please".

Most of my good photos wind up having Zoo Boy in them. He's crazy mad in love with his little sister (tho don't tell him I said that, he'll deny it for sure). Which makes for totally adorable photos that I'm just nuts for, but also means all our photos sort of look the same.

Totally off topic, but check out the skin tone difference in those two kids!! Both J and Zoo Boy have The Map Man's pasty white German complexion. Rosebud's complexion is just like mine. She's also going to have brown eyes, I'm pretty sure, or at the very least hazel like mine, unlike the blue in all our men-folk. Hair color is still a mystery -- I was born with very dark hair which lightened over time, The Map Man was born with very light hair that darkened over time (the same with the boys). Rosebud doesn't have enough hair to even make an educated guess (although the Pediatrician says she's going to be blond, due to her lack of dark eyebrows, we know that's pretty much genetically impossible, so we're not betting on it).

Sorry, that's all I've got for today! Hopefully things will pick up a bit once we start getting her out in the world a little -- if nothing else, other people with GOOD cameras will start having access to her.

auditions

To add chaos to our already busy lives, we decided to have a baby right in the middle of Summer Program Audition season (for ballet). This time of year all the major ballet schools are auditioning for spots in their summer dance programs. Summer dance is a great way for students to experience other schools, instructors, and programs, and gives them a taste of what a career in dance feels like -- training from dawn to dusk and living and breathing dance all day for a couple of weeks. The age ranges of the programs vary, as do the length -- older kids have intensives that last for 5 or 6 weeks, including room and board. Most schools also have programs geared at younger dancers, some with and without room and board. J's at that in-between age where he could qualify for either type of program, but given his relative inexperience (he's only been dancing for 2 years) and immaturity, we've decided that a day-program at the younger dance level is the best fit for him. This has reduced the number of appropriate programs greatly.

Number one on his list of preferences is the American Ballet Theater's (ABT) Young Dancer program, which is held for 2 weeks in New York City for dancers that are 9-11 years of age. Auditions were held this past weekend in Boston, and J attended along with a bunch of his classmates (see photo above). His instructors drove him up and back -- I really wanted to be there, but Rosebud still can't go out in public yet. I hear he did great at the audition, and suspect he will be offered a spot in the program, but the expense of having to stay in NYC for 2 weeks means that we'll only be able to afford to send him if they give him a scholarship (which I figure is fairly unlikely, but you never know!). So everyone keep your fingers crossed for that! We should hear back sometime in the next 10 days, then we can decide which other programs he will audition for this season.

Last summer he attended the 2 week intermediate intensive at his regular ballet school (plus the one-week Modern Intensive). Honestly, I'm OK with him doing that again, and continuing his private lessons through the summer (the expense would come out about the same). He's still young enough that I feel like he's got plenty of years ahead of him to attend programs at other facilities. But since this is the last year he qualifies for the young dancer program at ABT, I figured we'd give it a shot, as I'm sure it would be a very valuable experience for him, and give him a taste of what living in a big city is like, which can only serve to help him in deciding whether or not ballet is a suitable career for him, or if he'd rather keep dancing as a hobby rather than a profession.

the cat who wanted a baby

Above, Linus the cat and "his" baby, Rosebud.

Linus has never had a normal life. I don't think he knows he's a cat. He's not quite human either, of course, but some sort of strange human/cat hybrid. I bottle-raised him from the time he was a day old -- a woman found him and his brother, newly born, in the trunk of her car, after seeing their mother jump out of her back window while she was driving. She tried giving them milk and brought them into the veterinary hospital where I worked the next day -- Linus's brother had eaten quite a bit of the cow's milk, and he ultimately didn't make it. (You just can't feed a kitten cow's milk and expect it to survive.) But Linus had not eaten well, so he survived, and I raised him on kitten milk replacer. He went everywhere with me, since he needed to be fed every couple of hours. He went to restaurants in my pocket, he went to dog shows in my car. I was pregnant with J at the time, so Linus was still quite a young cat when J was born, and I guess he figured J was his littermate. They were inseparable, and the vast majority of the photos I have of J (and subsequently Zoo Boy) as babies has Linus in them as well. From that point forward, Linus only wanted to be with the kids, he pretty much stopped having anything to do with me. Instead, he became the world's best kid's cat -- he let them dress him up, stick toy kittens on him as though he was nursing them, and fawn all over him.

About 2 months before Rosebud's birth, Linus suddenly took an intense interest in me again. He started following me around, crawling all over me whenever I sat down, sleeping up against my belly at night. He started greeting me at the door when I came home, and watching me intently whenever I was at home. It confused us for the first week or so, then we figured it out -- he somehow realized I was pregnant and was waiting for the baby.

Now Rosebud's here, and Linus doesn't really want much to do with me anymore. Why would he, he's got the baby he wanted at long last!

family photos

Just a few random shots from the past week of us all enjoying having our Rosebud with us.