California: Davis and Jelly Belly

 Our first full day in California, Uncle Chris showed us where he works at UC Davis, and we went to the Jelly Belly jellybean factory!

 Isaac and Papa took some pictures with a palm tree. Papa really likes palm trees. Someday when we build our house in Burkina he would like palm trees. Given the climate of Burkina, I would say that is definitely within the realm of possibility.

After we had a good look at the lab, we got a tour of the greenhouses. 

I don't even know if I should be showing these pictures, they are so top secret. 

Just prepare to be astounded and blown away by what is inside.

 What kind of plants are these? 

 Well, there was a variety, but the one to pay the most attention to was the alfalfa. These are some experimental ones, I think. Uncle Chris is doing lots of alfalfa research. I would attempt to elaborate, but I would probably get it wrong. Ah, heck, I'll try to elaborate anyway. If I get it wrong, Uncle Chris can send me an email. Why is alfalfa a big deal? 

 Well, apparently the cows eat it (and did you know that California produces 21.3% of the nation's milk?) so they are looking at ways to produce more alfalfa to meet the need to feed all those dairy cows.

 Another bonus is that Uncle Chris has all the ag hookups so gets lots of free fruit and veggies. In fact, I believe it is quite rare that he actually has to buy fruit or veggies between his garden and his work connections. :) We enjoyed some delicious cherries courtesy of said work connections.

And now for something completely different. 

 We went to the Jelly Belly factory, which was somewhere down there (how bad it is it that I can't remember the name of the city) close by. Uncle Chris had never been and neither had we, so we figured it would be fun and potentially interesting for Isaac. I also had absolutely no idea how they made jelly beans so it was educational for me too. 

We had to wear paper hats on the tour, even if we had no hair.

 We learned that Ronald Reagan liked Jelly Belly jellybeans and probably helped make them famous. As a result, there are multiple jellybean mosaics of President Reagan around the factory.

 Here we are, ready to go on the tour!

 Oh no, a line. We have to wait in it. What shall I ever do? says Sonia. I shall just have to resort to eating my hand.

 We couldn't take any pictures on the tour but it was informative, plus they gave us each a pack of jellybeans on the way out. We also bought some fudge. Yum, yum! I need to learn how to make fudge. 

Afterwards we were pretty hungry, so we went to this favorite Chinese restaurant of Uncle Chris's: Golden Dragon. Much unlike the "Hungry Tiger" of Portland infamy (which does not exist anymore), the Golden Dragon had some good food. I ordered something with a really yummy black bean sauce.

The waitress there is very unique - she has an amazing memory and remembers facts about every person who comes in. By the end of the meal she had figured out who my mom was (from when my mom and dad came down before) even though Uncle Chris only said that I was his niece. I wish I had a memory half that good! 

Well you're never gonna get it.

As the wise song by the Barenaked Ladies goes (the Barenaked Ladies, for those who don't know, were some singing group - of guys, appropriately - that were pretty famous back in my heyday - my early teens, that is): "Who needs sleep? (well you're never gonna get it) Who needs sleep? (tell me what's that for) Who needs sleep? (be happy with what you're getting There's a guy who's been awake since the Second World War)" etc. Okay, maybe not so wise. Maybe just silly. Silly, like Isaac waking up at least once an hour on Friday, Saturday, and last night. To top it off, he woke up at 4 this morning - and at this point my patience was no longer existant. So, the ever-patient man of the house entertained our little ball of energy for about an hour before he came back to sleep and tried to play with me. Finally, he passed out on the other half of my pillow. It was pretty cute when I woke up, although I think I would have enjoyed that just happening without all the waking up instead.

I had a test today. I studied for it all weekend. It took me 15 minutes to complete. And I am 95% sure I got an A.

Here are pictures of the more fun activities of the weekend (i.e. not studying):
Papa and Isaac went outside in the nice weather. Here they are getting ready to go out, and Isaac has pulled up his sunglasses.

And here he has put them back down. Now he is super cool.

We are growing some mint in our garden, and I made a delicious cup of mint tea with a sprig. Mint grows like weeds around here, so I figure I am just doing my part with weed control by making some tea every now and then. This sprig was enough to make a very tasty, full strength herbal tea (tisane in French)! So if you have mint growing around your house, or in your garden, this is really easy and refreshing.

And, because we couldn't resist, here is another video of Isaac's use of his new gesture: "no".

Happy week to everyone!

jumped in his sleep

So, one more final to go (tomorrow morning) and my first term will be over! I am soooo looking forward to this break and hanging out with Isaac. I might bring him to daycare on Thursday and Friday though, because I have a big research project I have to do a lot of work on, and I'd rather just get a lot of it done up front rather than have to work on it all throughout this long-awaited break. So, that's the plan.

Isaac has finally figured out how to jump in the jumper, and he really enjoys it. So much so, that he fell asleep while jumping several times over the weekend.

Here are a few pictures that haven't been posted yet, before I go back to, well, kind of studying for the last final. It shouldn't be all that hard, but best to be prepared, right?

Father and son :) My favorite boys.

Isaac with his favorite toy of the moment: books
That's all for now! Maybe I will post more once I am officially free (tomorrow at 10!!!). And maybe, if I remember, I will round up some pictures of Isaac from daycare for a nice review of the term. They have lots of nice pictures.

recharge

Isaac has been eating a lot today and yesterday, and that makes me happy. He went to bed really early tonight though, around 7. I guess the shots still have him a little wiped out. Just one more day and then a lovely weekend, topped off by Isaac's six-month day on Sunday! I think if I put my mind to it, I can actually finish most of what I need to do for next week tomorrow. This is very, very exciting. I am looking forward to some Isaac time this weekend. Grandma and Grandpa DeBen came to visit yesterday and it was great to see them, even though poor Isaac was not a happy camper because of his shots. I got one of my clinic assignments for next term and I'm very excited about it.

grad school hookey

I'm skipping my classes this afternoon. But, Isaac is sick so that's my reason. He can't stay at daycare all day and expose all the other babies. Still no time for pictures. Three things:

1. Not to be overly proud, but I'm starting to think the babies in our family are just cuter than other babies. Not that the other babies are ugly. Ours are just cuter. By ours I means the Hurliman, Capri and Compaore sides. I don't know about the other ones.

2. I'm trying to take my cousin's observation from Mother Teresa to heart: "We can do no great things, only small things with great love" or something like that. But, instead of applying it to so-called menial tasks, which I would frankly rather be doing, I'm going to try to apply it to my attitude about grad school. I've been feeling pretty negative about the whole thing and I need to remind myself that it's not something I should just quit. It's just so hard with a little guy when you are always worried that someone is not doing as good of a job as you could be doing. How handy it would be to be in three places at once. I feel like I've been getting pretty close to that lately.

3. I wish I could talk more about what we're doing in clinic, but, it's confidential. So you won't be hearing much about that. It is fun though. That much I can say!

For now, I'm going to just enjoy the afternoon with my little sweet boy.

hunger strike

Well, it has certainly been awhile. Last weekend, we went to Newport on Saturday for a little family vacation. Here is a new family picture. Despite the troubled look on someone's face, I like it.

Here is Isaac playing with his frog. Actually, with the biggest of his three frogs.

And making a little flirtatious face at the camera in the new shirt Auntie Anna got him.

We tried to give Isaac a mohawk the other day in the bath. By "we", I mean me. Mohawks don't work too well with curls, I have found.

Ah, so now we get to the real story. I have a ton of requirements for my grad program, and one is that we get certified in adult and child CPR as well as first aid. So, this Saturday (yesterday) I had to take an all-day class to get all of that out of the way. Papa and Isaac stayed home together. However, it turned out that Isaac would not drink the thawed breastmilk Papa tried to give him when he was hungry. He would also not take formula, but just spit it back out. My cell phone had died so I was unaware of this until I had a chance to charge it. By that time, it was time to go home anyways, so I sped home as fast as I could and found a content Isaac laying on a blanket on the floor, smiling up at Papa. Papa called this his little "hunger strike". He only took 4 ounces from 9 to 4. I'm wondering if he is eating less than he used to. It seems like that may be the case. Last night he actually didn't eat until around 5 am. We will just see how his schedule changes now.

Here is Isaac with Papa after their fun day. Or, maybe this was this morning. Yes, I think so.

Today, we went to the Oktoberfest in Mt. Angel sans Papa, since he was so tired from the week of commuting and his adventure in trying to feed a picky baby. I suppose Isaac will just have to learn one of two things: to be very patient and wait until I come back from class, or to take the pumped milk from the bottle.

Here are some fun pictures from our culinary adventures at the Oktoberfest. As you can see, Isaac has some very strong toes.

He would have liked to have eaten that corn too. I have completely changed my mind about waiting until six months to feed him solids. There is no way. My new idea is to wait until his saint's day, which is October 19. However, do not be surprised if I have a video of him tasting rice cereal this Tuesday night, when he turns 4 months old. This little boy is very very interested in food. He watches you grab it and then watches you bring it to your mouth and put it in your mouth. He knows what is going on. There's no denying that.

On Friday (going backwards, I know), we went to Corvallis for Isaac's 4 month appointment and shots. He weighs 15 lbs 13 oz now and is 26 and 1/4" tall. It was a little less weight gain than I had expected, but he is still exactly on the 75th percentile line so I guess that was just the healthy amount for him to gain! He is still just above the 90th percentile for height, so the pediatrician thinks he will end up being tall and slim. I finally saw a picture of Uncle Herman, who is supposed to be the muscular one in Papa's family, and I have concluded that there are no big muscular genes in the pool at all. So, Isaac should end up being slim, even though he's in a high percentile for weight.

Also, last Friday (sorry to jump around so much, but I really haven't posted much lately), we went over to Great-aunt Christy's house. We tasted some lox (it is really tasty) and played with Isaac's cousins. Little Malachai surprised me because I went to wipe his hands, which had some delicious banana on them, and wiped the first one, then said, "I need to wipe your other hand" and he gave his hand to me! Then I said, "And I'm going to get your face too," and he put his face up for me to wipe. I had no idea that at 9 months they can already understand basic things that you tell them. It could have been coincidence but then he understood something I said later too (can't remember exactly what right now, maybe that his sister was coming back). I am getting pretty excited for that stage now.

Finally, here is a video of Isaac's talking from sometime in the last two weeks.

The last two weeks have been a bit of a blur because, as I mentioned, I have had so many grad school requirements that I have been running around trying to get finished. Luckily, everything is done now, because tomorrow is Orientation Week. Auntie Anna is down and is going to be taking excellent care of Isaac tomorrow! I'm so glad that she could come. I am also already planning to come home for lunch although it is supposed to be a brown bag lunch. I just have a feeling that the first day is going to be the hardest, and I want to try to reduce that as much as possible. So, I'll make sure they take my picture first for the "get to know everyone" sheet.

Candy, ice cream, lollipops... and all free, today!

Here's the video I was hoping to put up yesterday, but never got around to.

I finally finished my second final! One more to go and I am officially free until September 21.. from grad school stuff, that is. I actually got this one $1000 award to do research, and I have to revise my budget and probably find a different conference to go to with the award, since it's a little less than expected, but I am confident that it will work out.

I am so excited for Isaac's baptism this Sunday!

He might need it. In case you forgot, it is August 9th at 11 am at St. Mary's in Corvallis (the 11 am Mass). If you read this blog, you are invited. Mike and Kayleen and Louisa are coming down on Saturday, so I am looking forward to our little BabyFest. We will also probably try to set up some food thing for afterwards, but that is not finalized yet.

Look at Isaac's neck extension during his bath last night! Not surprisingly, he is starting to smell a lot less cheesy these days.

Uncle Mikey came over today and Isaac slept on him for quite some time.

And now, on to the last final, which is actually a large final project. Oh boy. At least Isaac is cute and provides rewarding study breaks.

Port Out, Starboard Home

I think it would be fun to make the title of each blog post in the month of August something that is in the movie "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" - which is my favorite movie of all time. So, here we go.

That said, let's recap what Isaac has been up to. I think my last post was Wednesday evening, because Grandpa and Uncle Mikey had not come back from Alaska yet. On Thursday, you guessed it, they came back. They stopped by to say hi to me for about two minutes over at class, then Grandpa said, "We'd better get going [to go see Isaac, of course]." They brought some reserves up for Isaac to eat and were on their way. Luckily, Grandma took some pictures so I could live vicariously through them.

On Friday, life was good. Isaac slept a little in his cradleboard (actually for a few hours) although we didn't tie him in there as well as he could have been. We just tied it around his waist so he couldn't wiggle out, but he was pretty tired.

Later that afternoon, Papa went up to Seattle for our friends Greg and Michele's wedding. We decided against all of us going because it was going to be a very long trip for Isaac, and I decided it would be much better anxiety-wise if I just stayed with Isaac, being the food source. So, we walked over to American Dream Pizza and met up with some old friends who were passing through town. Isaac was sleeping the first hour, but when he woke up, he was so good and patient, and just looked at everyone. We were the last ones to leave because I really had no special reason to go home and hang out quasi-alone. As we left, Isaac got a little fussy, and I ended up feeding him in the OSU Federal Credit Union parking lot. He of course relieved himself, so I found a grassy spot right outside Kappa Delta to change him. Not their lawn, exactly, but just on the other side of the sidewalk, although not directly in front of their house. Grass is a very useful place to change a baby.

We went to bed. This was our first night alone with just the two of us since the second night after Isaac was born, and that one wasn't really alone much because there were all the nurses right there. However, everything went smoothly. Papa had given me a bunch of tricks to try out if Isaac got fussy, and I have to say that they all worked. I am so glad Papa took care of Isaac a lot over the last few weeks because he is more sensitive to Isaac's cues and was able to give me some explicit instruction in reading them. As a result, I think I am doing a little better at it now.

The next morning, we woke up and played. Isaac took a bath, then a little nap in his sling. He woke up, ate again, and got dressed, then Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Mikey and his friends showed up. We all went over to the Benton County Fair.

Here is Isaac with his posse.

I don't know about you guys, but I can't say I've ever seen a cooler baby. It's really all about the shades though. It was actually pretty hot outside. I would say he was a hot baby, but that just doesn't sound right. Here he is joining the shades club with Grandma and Grandpa.

We ate way too much food, looked at all the exhibits, got very warm and maybe a little cranky, and might have accidentally exposed the food to innocent bystanders as a result of Mama's lack of blanket expertise. Isaac pooped, and then we changed his diaper and started the cycle again until we ran out of diapers. I thought I had put one more in the bag but I guess I miscalculated.

As always, he was a very sweet boy and just observant of everything when awake. This tired him out several times so he took some naps. Around 8 pm, we went home to get ready for bed.

Papa didn't get home until after midnight, and we were both already asleep.

Today we were very very tired, and I finally figured out the answers to the first of my three finals that I still have to finish. The final product is in the works and I am very glad to be starting a week tomorrow in which I do not have to go to school. Hopefully I will finish this final up before going to bed and then I will only have two left!

When Isaac woke up from a nap around 5, I fed him, changed his diaper, and we went over to Borders because it was pretty hot outside, although it was overcast. I looked at this book which tells you how to make fancy bread in your oven. I am going to try it, although I am not planning to buy the book because Borders is right across the street, and I may need to use that money to buy a pizza stone instead if I really want to make the bread. Isaac read the book with me, reaching out and touching the pages with his hands. We went and looked at a picture book of the ocean too. Then, Isaac started loudly sucking on the Baby Bjorn carrier so we went back home. However, since he didn't act hungry once home, we played some more. I sat him up on the couch and gave him various textiles to explore. He grabbed at a knit hat. He picked up the burp cloth and wiped his face. I clapped and said "Good job!" and he looked up at me and smiled that beautiful toothless open-mouthed smile. Finally, he played with my skirt until he got tired, then wrapped him up, nursed him, and put him back in the sling.

I am really enjoying how he is starting to use his hands and feet to explore his near environment. At the fair on Saturday he was also trying to grab at the flowers on my shirt. Finally, tonight when he was going to bed, I saw him join his hands at midline. He is just a little man. Well, I had better finish my final so I can send it off and go sleep so the little man and I can play again tomorrow!

2 months

Today Isaac is two months old.

I came home from school and there was some random dude sleeping on our couch...

I decided it was unnecessary to kick him out though. He smelled pretty good and he wasn't causing any problems.

Grandma and Uncle Greg came to visit him today, and he got a very nice card from Auntie Barbara and Uncle Theo too! Isaac is definitely filling out more all the time!

Here is Isaac getting a bath again. We are guessing his baptism will go smoothly, because he likes water so much. We will see.

Highlights of the week so far:

Too much homework, too little sleep, but...

The week is going by quickly

My pants got soaked with pee that was not my own.

And, finally, we just got two cute videos of Isaac laughing.

And now, we are both going to bed. I am soooooo excited not to have to put Isaac to sleep and then stay up three more hours writing a paper! Just one more day then only one more week.

separation anxiety

So, this last week was my first week of classes. I have to take 4 four week classes (all in the same four weeks) this summer as part of the requirements for this grant I am receiving that will fund my tuition for the next four terms. It's really an excellent tradeoff because this means that I won't have to work during that time and can just go to school and spend the rest of my time with Isaac. However, it is from 9-4 Monday through Thursday, in Eugene, where we don't live yet. So, Isaac stayed home with dad for the first three days while I commuted back and forth and didn't have enough time to pump on a lot of the breaks we had. That was a little uncomfortable. Still, Henri greatly improved his baby-sitting skills and is now an expert. They had fun together. And, we got to snuggle in the evenings in Isaac's favorite way, seen below.

On Thursday, Isaac and his Grandma came with me to Eugene and went to see Grandma Hurliman and Aunt Christy and Uncle George and all his little cousins. Evidently on Wednesday and Thursday he slept a lot when I wasn't there. I think it was because of a broken heart. He was sad that his Mama wasn't there. Yesterday we made up for it though by spending the whole day together. I didn't get one iota of homework done. I hope today works better as far as that is concerned, only because I have one 3-4 page paper due Monday and one 4-5 page paper due Tuesday that really should get done this weekend. I think this weekend will be the most intense, because in a way we are trying to do all the things we should have done before class this week as well as the things we have to do before class next week. Monday and Tuesday kind of breezed by though. It probably helped that we got out early on those days and I got to come back home right away. On Highway 99, a bunch of hay blew onto the road from the fields and you had to slow down driving through it. The next day, I saw some ODOT guys parked on the side of the road, looking up at the telephone poles. Huge bunches of hay were hanging from the telephone wires. You knew they were thinking, "How the heck did all that get up there?"

On Wednesday though, I really missed little guy. That class did not get out until 4. I've read that a study found that on average, women who work part-time are happier than women who work full-time or are full-time homemakers. The first part of the week, I would say I agreed. It is nice to get out and learn more, and feel like you are going to be helping others too, but still spend time with your baby. However, by Wednesday, I realized that this must be referring to women who work part-time after their babies are a certain age, maybe three months or something. I felt like I must be missing out on something really important that was happening. Evidently Isaac did start to chuckle while I was away, and now he does these funny half-laughs. They are like the start of a laugh, and then he just leaves it at that. So, now he has lived up to his name. I guess it wasn't that hard. Isaac means "he laughs". Yes, it is a verb. I think it's awesome to have a verb as a name.
Thursday was better because Isaac came down with me so I got to see him up until right before class, at lunch, and right after class. I love this boy. He just smiles when he sees me, but I can tell he missed me too. I am really lucky that after these classes are over, I have until the end of September to give him my undivided attention. It is really nice not to have to work, as I already said.
Here's a picture of Isaac when he was at home playing with Papa. He was having lots of fun, as you can see! He is starting to get a lot more calm when necessary things must be done. This includes fingernail clipping and nose clearing. For the fingernail clipping, I decided I would show him it was okay by clipping my fingernails in front of him. He was a bit more compliant after that. Also, yesterday his nose was so plugged up that he had to breathe fast, but I was nervous to suction his nose because in the past he hated it. However, we got back from my doctor's appointment and he had been breathing hard all the way back, so I decided it was time to suction his nose whether he liked it or not. He was actually really relaxed, and just watched me. I think he was glad his nose was finally getting cleared out so he could breathe, and so he didn't fuss. He is just getting to be a bigger boy every day. Speaking of that, I brought him into the pediatrician's because his intestines had been making some super-bizarre noises. He checked out fine, though. They weighed him and he is now 11 lbs 15 ounces. I think that's a healthy weight gain. It doesn't seem like as much as the last time, so he's probably adjusting a little more.

Well, I guess I have to start writing that paper sometime. Now seems like a good time.

just another day

Today was my first day of classes for the summer session. I have to say it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The time went by quickly. I was a little distracted during some of the class, thinking about little guy and his precious toothless grin that has developed in the last week. Henri did a great job babysitting though, and it looks like little guy needs about ten ounces to make it through the time I am gone. Just fifteen more days to go.

Isaac gets to test out the newest edition of the Ages and Stages screening test, which just added the 2 month questionnaire with this version that came out in May. I'm excited to see how he does! Right now he's pushing the keyboard away with his foot. "No more of that, Mama," he says, "it's time for another fun-filled night!" Last night he woke up at 2 am and refused to go back to sleep until 5 or so. Not cool. I think we will try a bath tonight in hopes of relaxing him more. On a more positive note, he is starting to appreciate that diaper changes result in a more comfortable situation. He's also grabbing onto things like shirts, and still burying his face in my elbow from time to time. We went to Newport for 4th of July. Alrighty, it's bath time!

No one to blame

Today we drove all the way to Eugene for a book I couldn't find at the bookstore or elsewhere. I was really mad about it, because it was a "Recommended" text but we needed it for our assignment, which I thought was due Monday (hence the emergency trip). Then I looked at the syllabus more closely and saw that the assignment was not due until the second week of class. So I made a trip which takes at least two hours total, with someone who was bound to start screaming his head off and did a few times on the way back, which turned into a three and a half hour epic journey, for nothing. This makes me mad too, but then I have no one to blame but myself.

I am wiped out today. I guess I didn't sleep well last night, so I tried to sleep in during Little Guy's "morning nap", which only lasted one hour this morning and was followed by two hours of fussiness. By the time he finally fell asleep again, I figured we had better get going to Eugene before it got near the predicted high of 94 degrees. On the way back, I was mad and tired and seriously considering just dropping out of grad school because the whole experience was so terrible. It had better be easier once we move down there. At least from what I've seen, even the most disorganized faculty members in CDS are more organised and less ambiguous about which textbooks are needed than this syllabus was. I think I'm trying to shift the blame again.

Isaac was just nursing again. It's cute - he's been grabbing onto my shirt lately when he nurses, as if to anchor himself there, or maybe he's just a really serious eater. Actually, he is a really serious eater. It will be fun to weigh him again sometime and see how his weight is coming along.