I am so grateful to have my Internet connection back thanks to my father-in-law! But I shouldn't get ahead of myself...there is much to report before that happened! When we left The People hanging we were planning to have our two week check up and Caspian's circumcision on the same day. Well, at the check up we discovered that our little chunk is even chunkier! He had already gained a whole pound from his birth weight (so more than a pound since he had lost a little) and was up to 9 lbs. 9 ozs. What can I say, he's a good eater!
Then we had the circumcision appointment. All I can say about that is that we were totally unprepared! When Koa had his done, the doctor wheeled him out of our room and when I went to try to find them I couldn't. When they brought him back he was asleep and he slept for several hours afterward. It didn't seem like a very big deal for him.We had the procedure explained to us back then, and then again on the day Caspian was having it done and we thought we understood what was going to happen. We didn't! If we had, I don't know that we would have had it done! My advice to those who are going to have it done no matter what is that you just live in ignorance and send your boy with a doctor you trust and DON'T WATCH!! From what I now understand (after talking to a few people since that day) it depends a lot on the doctor. Maybe Dr. Ed is not the guy for this job...
On Wednesday of that week, my parents came to visit. They drove up from Colorado and stayed with us until Friday. It was really nice to have them here and Koa had a ball playing with them the whole time they were here. When they came they brought with them a cooler full of meat (beef, elk and deer) and had intended to bring a freezer that had been in my grandma's house. The freezer thing didn't work out, so they bought one when they got here and we put it out in the garage. Now we have plenty of meat to last us for a while. I am so excited to have a freezer full of good quality meat! It's a small freezer, but there is still plenty of room for us to be able to buy some good quality chickens from the co-op we have recently joined!
My dad also bought a pole saw to help trim our cherry tree (he was needing to get one for himself anyway, so it worked out for him to get it here and take it back with him) in hopes that it will produce a little better this next summer. Unfortunately the tree is just so big that he wasn't able to do as much as he would have liked to do. Koa was quite enthralled with that whole process and came up with his own pole saw (stick) which he calls his "rank".
Dad brought his knife sharpening stone with him and sharpened all of my knives for me which was wonderful! The stone I have is of poor quality, so it takes forever to sharpen on it and in addition to that, I am just not as good at it as he is, so it would take me a long time anyway. Now I have wonderfully sharp knives!
Koa had a great time playing with Papa and Grandma and they were such a big help while they were here, (I think it is the only time I have actually been caught up on my household chores since Caspian was born!) but they only got to be here for a couple of days! They had planned to drive from here to Illinois to be with my sister, Becky, and her family for Thanksgiving and Tyler's promotion ceremony for the Air Force. Unfortunately, the day they were leaving I ended up getting mastitis, an infection in the breast. I thought it was just a plugged milk duct, so I could not figure out why I felt so very bad, but I was a complete disaster. It was a good thing my parents were still here because I think the kids would have been neglected if they hadn't been! They left a little after noon and I laid down to take a nap, but couldn't sleep. I finally figured out that afternoon that I had a 103 degree fever and that explained why my whole body felt so very bad!
I was supposed to pick up our first order from our co-op that day and almost missed the drop off completely, but was rescued by a concerted effort of Wes and Jessi and my new friend, Michele. I was very thankful for that!
Due to the fever and the fact that I also ended up with diarrhea before it was all said and done, I woke up to feed Caspian in the night (Sunday morning) and had no milk to feed him. I don't know if there is any worse feeling in the world than knowing you have a very hungry baby and nothing to feed him. So, that night I spent a great deal of time praying and in the kitchen making myself some Mother's Milk tea with coconut oil in it (for the calories and to kick my metabolism into gear) and eating anything I could find to eat quickly. Fortunately Caspian eventually went to sleep and didn't wake up for three hours and when he did I had PLENTY of milk to feed him!
We all got up and dragged ourselves to church wondering along the way if we really should, but hating to miss a chance to meet with our church family! By Sunday night Zak and I both were totally wiped out with a cold! So we drank some ginger tea, took our colloidal silver and went to bed early. We woke up feeling much much better! Monday afternoon Zak's parents flew in from Virginia and the next party started!
We spent the next week being spoiled and entertained by Stimple and Tutu! What a blessing it is to be close enough to actually have family visit for the holidays! And what a blessing to have a father-in-law who is a computer guru! Thanks, Fred!
Tuesday morning I got up with Zak and started making breakfast for all of us. As I was cutting up an apple to put in some oatmeal I learned an important lesson in using sharp knives when you are just barely awake! I nearly lopped off the end of my wedding ring finger! I gave Zak a start as he was getting out of the shower and I was rushing in the bathroom to clean it. He helped me bandage it up enough to stop the bleeding and I went back to making breakfast. When I had time a little later I got out the super glue and glued my finger back together. Zak thought this was ludicrous. I think his exact question was, "You won't even drink water out of plastic bottles, but you put caustic chemicals on an open wound?" He has a good point, but I figured I didn't have the time or budget to go sit in the emergency room and I certainly was not going to take a newborn baby to an emergency room with me, so I figured this was the next best thing! (Update: My finger actually looks pretty good and is almost completely healed with the exception of some numbness and I figure that will get better with time!)
Thursday was Thanksgiving and we had a full day of cooking and eating! We got up early to start cooking and then went to breakfast with Stimple and Tutu and then out to Dignity Village to visit and provide meals for the residents. Several members of our church family live out there and it was nice to spend some time with them for the holiday. Stimple and Tutu got a tour of the village and seemed to enjoy their visit, as well.
After we left there we came back to the house and Tutu and I finished assembling/cooking the dishes we were providing (cranberry salad, candied yams, apple pie and green salad) for our Thanksgiving meal with the Clarks. We headed over there and enjoyed a lovely evening with more of our church family until I was passed out on the couch and everyone else was stumped by 80's Trivial Pursuit.
On Friday we were treated to a day at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry by Stimple and Tutu and were all totally over-stimulated by all the activities that go on there! It is a really neat and educational place. Koa hated to leave when the time came. While we were in one section all about health and wellness I needed to feed Caspian, so I found a bench to sit on and proceeded to feed him. As I was sitting there, I realized I was sitting right in the middle of the "Conception to Infancy" display and the signage next to me was explaining how healthy breastfeeding is for a baby. One guy looked at me and then turned to his wife and said, "You're gonna' love this display. It's very life-like!"
When we finished at OMSI we had planned to go to Nightstrike again. We really wanted Zak's parents to be able to experience this awesome ministry. However, when we got to the church, no one was there. They had taken the night off. We never even thought to check the website to make sure they were serving that night. That was especially a bummer because we had planned our whole day around it. We were thinking about going out to the coast, but decided to stay closer to home so we could go to Nightstrike. We will have to save that for next time, I guess.
Friday we got to take Stimple and Tutu to Mt. Hood. We started out the journey just driving up the Columbia River Gorge and visiting Multnomah Falls. Then we drove up and had dinner at the Timberline lodge. It was a really nice afternoon. It stayed clear just long enough to have a beautiful view of the peak when we got there and then the clouds rolled in. It was incredibly cold when we arrived, but warmed up a touch with the cloud cover. Koa and I ventured outside for a spell and he got to have his very first snowball fight first with me and then with another two year old. The other little boy, Charlie, wasn't wearing any gloves, though, and wasn't terribly interested in making snowballs. However, he was more than happy to react dramatically when Koa struck him with a snowball. So, it was a great symbiotic relationship as Koa got to practice his new-found skill and the little boy just stood there and screamed. Ironically, Charlie's family spent several years living on Kaua'i and just moved here a couple of years ago. So, his dad was giving me tips on how to survive the winters here without becoming depressed.
On Sunday we got to introduce Zak's parents to our church family at Agape. That was kind of like finally getting to introduce two friends that you've had for a while but they have never met. I think it was a good experience for all involved and we look forward to many more meetings!
We spent the rest of Sunday visiting Portland, the city. We perused Saturday Market and Powell's Bookstore and visited Pioneer Courthouse Square. It was a nice visit since Zak and I haven't even had a chance to do that since we've been here. We go downtown for church every Sunday, but we always have to hurry back home for Zak to work on school. It was nice to get to show him around a bit, as well. We got to have dinner together again at what we have affectionately named Pink Thai upon Tutu's request.
That night we said good bye to Stimple and Tutu (or Fred and Regina--do they even have real first names any more?) since they were flying out the next morning. The kids were wiped out that night and we had major melt-downs from each of them. That's how you know you've really milked the vacation! It was sad to see them go, but hopefully the visits will be closer together now that we are at least all on the mainland!
We all slept in on Monday...
