I have an internal alarm that goes off every morning around 9:30. I try to have myself and both boys dressed by this imaginary buzzer. It is tempting to leave Eli in his pajamas all day. It is even more tempting to stay in my own pajamas all day. However, I feel very strongly that leaving the house in sweat pants screams out to the world “I give up!” And that, my friends, is the exact opposite of how I am feeling these days. I feel fabulous. The energy of a new year has lifted my spirits and I have reached the point where I am comfortable juggling the demands of two children under 2.

Our joy has doubled now with Eli in the family. It is amazing to see how our “love rubber band” can just stretch and stretch. You don’t have to take love away from one child to give to the other. And then there’s the sweet sibling love. Phin is a remarkable big brother. He genuinely LOVES Eli. He wants to include him in all of our games and traditions (dancing in the kitchen, playing the piano, kisses goodnight, etc.) When Phin leaves a room, he never hesitates to say, “Bye, Mamma! Bye, Baby Lye-jah!” He seriously can’t go to bed at night without giving Eli a kiss on the head.

I feel so priviledged to be their primary caregiver and not a random daycare down the street. Every day is a lesson in patience, humor, true love, creativity, negotiation, humility. And then I get to do it all over again the next day. Being a mother is the best thing I have ever done and ever will do. Wow. I can’t believe I just typed that. Thank you Phin and Eli for being my favorite teachers.

I never expected to come home, kiss my wife, and hear her say, “Phinny and I were just playing some hammer Scrabble.”

Phin’s favorite things are (in order):

1. Mom
2. Hammers
3. Scissors
4. Knives
5. Getting his yogurt-covered hands all over my shirt and tie.

Yogurt hands are my least favorite.  There’s something just creepy about those live and active cultures chasing me down on ten wiggly digits.  Alli almost had some yogurt come out her nose when I told her my feelings on yogurt hands.  We used to read the Economist together and discuss pertinent issues of the day.  Now it’s yogurt hands.

This afternoon, it wasn’t Scrabble that received Phin’s hammer love.  It was the end table and wall in the living room.  I know that it doesn’t make sense that he should have access to hammers, but we’ve been doing a lot of home improvement stuff lately, and we’re not done, and I don’t put things away.  But even when I do, he gets the piano tuning hammer out of the bench or climbs to someplace where he can access something dangerous.  The terrible twos will be a joy with his need for potentially dangerous objects.

Today when Alli was cutting some fruit for a snack, he HAD to have the knife.  ”Cut! Cut! Cut! Cut! Cut! Cut!” With some guidance, he cut a bit of kiwi and we did a quick switch so he could play with a plastic knife for a while.

At library story/craft time (so Alli tells me) Phin was trying to cut his lips with the scissors.  Other moms looked on in horror.  Alli helped Phin cut the paper (at least a bit), and if she turned away for a moment, the scissors were back in his mouth.  ”No! Mine!” was the response to any reasonable intervention.

What I’m trying to say here is that I’m glad we live in a place where summer is only a couple of months away, and our kids will be able to go outside and play with rocks and sticks and bugs instead of our indoor hazards.  At least the outdoor ones fall into the “green” category so it’s more politically correct to let them experience that.  I’m also saying that parenting makes you a little less able to hold an intelligent conversation.  Or at least I’m going to use that excuse as far as it will take me.

Craigslist does have a section for Eastern Colorado, but when people really want to do business, they call the Swap Shop show on KFTM radio.  Some people also e-mail and fax their ads.   That’s how we got our lawn mower near the end of Summer.  Alli insisted that we share some of the more colorful Swap Shop offerings from the past week with you, our family and friends.  For those of you in rural areas, this will seem familiar.  For our big-city friends and family, this will give you a taste of the place we now call home.

(Text is direct copy-and-paste of entire ads from the KFTM website.  We just took out the phone numbers.)

• Johnny Stewart Deluxe cassette tape game caller with 25′ detachable speaker & 3 tapes – $50 obo; Casio cell phone with extra battery – $50 obo; Deer antlers & heads…
• Six laying hens to give away… ask for Holly
• Looking for farm kittens…
• Three miniature donkeys for sale; Two neutered, declawed cats to give away…ask for Linda
• Looking for an 84″ HD dirt bucket for an N.H. C-185 track skid-steer… ask for Mike
• Looking for a hog feeder…
• Looking for someone with a snow plow to remove snow in Brush…
• Rabbits; Looking for a place to hunt coyotes…
• Three ice cream buckets to give away; Clint Eastwood whiskey decanter – $30 obo; 6-gallon crock…
• Hydraulic hose making machine with attachments; 1985 Chevy S-10 racing pickup…

If you want to sell some sort of item we can’t live without, leave a comment about it.

Eli in his natural state:

Eli when Phin is hovering over him with a piano tuning hammer:

No children were harmed in the making of this post.  Every day is an adventure.

Phin is in a great stage where he enjoys organizing things.  That doesn’t mean that he organizes the way we would like; he just has a place for everything.  Right before Christmas, he opened the fridge, took out a cabbage, played with it like a ball for awhile, and then put it away on the toilet.

As you can see, our 1959 pink toilet is the stylistic centerpiece of our home. 

Phin also found two bottles of spray paint in Alli’s craft stuff and placed them in the fridge.

Quick Phinny facts:

• Favorite food: noodles (“noo-noos”)
• Favorite drink: Ovaltine, a.k.a. Magic Milk.
• Favorite book: Anything with trains or animals
• Favorite song: The Wise Man and the Foolish Man “Rock! Rock!”
• Favorite character: Perry the Platypus
• Favorite parent: Mama

Phin’s recent verbal higlight reel:

• “Neeze!  Ah-BOO!”  When Eli sneezes.
• “Miss Nanny!”  When we go to see Alli’s mom, it’s hard for Phin to leave.
• “Toot!  Hee hee hee!”
• “Orange Juice”
• “Baby awake!”  We get to hear this one a lot.  Sometimes Phin is the reason for the awakening.
• “Spinach”
• “Hooray!  Again?”  At Nanny’s concert.
• “Book, read.”
• “More juice, please.” “Gang koo.”
• “Uncle Chris”
• “Bite!”
• “Buddy” (his word for butter)

Phin loves feeding his brother.  He will also take Eli’s diapers to the trash and throw them away for us, saying “Away!”  How convenient!  Phin always kisses Eli and pats his head.  Then he grabs his little hand, brings it to his fist, and says, “Pound!”  (Alli’s preschool friend Brandon taught Phin to pound when he was visiting around Thanksgiving.)  Lately, Phin also holds Eli’s hand and kisses every finger, or holds his foot and kisses every toe.

It’s really nice that Phin is good to Eli.  We see some terrible twos on the horizon, but Phin is always good to his little brother.

We are thrilled to announce the addition of Elijah Wesley Howe into our family.

Stats:

• Escaped the womb: Tuesday, November 17th, 2009, 1:41 am
• Topped the scale: 6 lbs 11 oz, 19.5 inches
• Labor Team: Mom, Mother-in-law, sister, sister-in-law, husband, nurse and doc [my father-in-law was at the hospital, but I kicked him out during the particularly gooey moments.] 
• Slip-and-Slide: it took 4 pushes. seriously.

DISCLAIMER FROM NATE: Some of the aforementioned “gooey parts” are described below.  Proceed with caution.

I don’t know about you- but I consider labor and delivery the most exciting sporting event. I feel like I am the MVP with amazing fans rooting for me. I love reading labor stories, so I must share mine to contribute.

I had a suspicion that my water was leaking the same day I had a routine appointment scheduled. My ob did a super cool pH test and determined that it was indeed “the great waters.” She asked if I had a bag packed with me. Are you serious? Of course I didn’t bring my hospital bag to my appointment. The real truth was that I didn’t have anything packed. Not even a tooth brush. Eli wasn’t due for another 12 days so I figured I had ages to pack.

Nate and I went home and began to pack. Phin played like normal, Nate quietly panicked, and I spent 15 minutes deciding what outfit to bring the baby home in. Team Efficiency! We finally called a friend (Thanks, Tammy!) to watch Phin and scooted off to the hospital. The hospital in Fort Morgan is a great asset to the community. However, it is extremely different from any other hospital I have experienced. I am using the word “different” to be polite. 

Okay, on to the exciting parts. I really wanted to be free from an IV and other crazy gadgets for as long as possible. The nurse had different plans. Happily, she didn’t freak out when I unhooked everything to get in the shower or bounce on the birthing ball. She inserted a small strip next to my cervix that was full of prostaglandin. It got things moving right away. Unfortunatly, my uterus was on the varsity team and my cervix was still second string JV. My uterus was contracting every minute against a nearly closed cervix. (Picture a tube of toothpaste being  squeezed with the cap on.)  My doc said that this caused my placenta to start to bail ship early, known as placental abruption.

To avoid c-section, they gave me a shot that was supposed to stop contractions.  Instead, it slowed them down to 3 minutes apart.  After that, my cervix put on its game face and got dialatin’.  (Nate says that this post definitely contains too much information.)  I got to a 7 pretty fast, then threw up, which got me to a 10 in seconds.

The nurse encouraged me to hang out and wait a while once I was at a 10.  “Alright, Allison.  Just try to breathe through the contractions – that way you won’t have to push as long.”  I thought she was joking.  I told her I was going to push.  It took what seemed like ages to find my doctor and put together the baby-catching cart.  Four pushes later, we met Elijah.  Once he was cleaned up, we toasted with dollar-store sparkling cider and Phin’s plastic cups.

Here are some updated photos of the marvelous Phin. He has been my little companion as we explore Fort Morgan. We spend a lot… a lot… of time at the park. It is one of the only ‘community resources’ for toddlers and their cabin-feverish mothers. When winter strikes, I will teach Phin how to run laps inside of Walmart.   

We had a snowstorm in Colorado that gave us 2 days with Nate! I love snow days. Here, Phin is pictured in his new Russian disco suit.

We had a great time preparing for Halloween. As you can tell, we made our costumes this year. Nate and Phin look more like ‘The Joker’ than friendly Dr. Seuss characters. BUT we laughed and squealed the whole time getting ready. It was worth painting crazy eyebrows on Phin with eyeliner.

I am sure you weren’t aware- but The Cat in the Hat was indeed pregnant.

Phin with his new cousin, Cyrina. I was nervous to let him hold her. But he was very gentle and sweet. He called her, ”be be” and gave her hugs and kisses. We’ll see how he does with his own little brother in a few weeks. The kisses may turn into “love bites.“ 

We love you all.

Earlier this year Nate was commissioned to write an adaptation of the LDS hymn “Come, Come, Ye Saints.”  He was approached by Glenn Gordon of Melbourne, Austrialia who had asked 11 other composers to put their own spin on the hymn. It all culminated at a big concert in Melbourne with harps, organs, and yes, a marimba. The Melbourne Chamber Choir provided the vocals. Here is a link with information about the composers, performers, and the concert: http://ldschoirs.com/reflections/

Unfortunately, we were unable to attend the concert. I will post the MP3 of Nate’s composition being performed once the recording has been cleaned up a bit.

I really appreciate Glenn Gordon’s vision for this project. The participants were from around the United States, Australia, and even one composer from Argentina. He drew from his own diverse musical community, which included musicians from different faiths. The choir had no religious affiliation and a few of the composers had never heard the song before. It was a very powerful experience for the choir members. If you have time read the reviews at LDS Living and Mormon Times. Nate is even mentioned… by name! Wa zow!

4 Weeks of the Fort Morgan Experience:

I can wave at any mail man or police officer and get a wave and smile back.

The cashiers at Wal-mart are friendly- and everywhere else.

I am on a first name basis with the rec center and library staff.

We know our neighbors. They have have even stuffed us full of fresh zucchini and cucumbers.

There is a garden in every backyard. 

We are within walking distance of 3 corn fields and the beef processing plant.

We walk to church on Sunday. (Well, Nate walks and I waddle.)

We have gone on two Friday night dates- Fort Morgan High School football games.

Small towns have their perks. We are learning to love our new home in Fort Morgan.  Here are a few photos of our first few weeks:

Nate and Phin cheering on the Fort Morgan Mustangs

Phin enjoying the pond bacteria at Riverside Park

We are proud lawn owners. Phin is doing his part to keep it green. (I have discovered the “hose game” gives me enough time to hang the clothes on the line.)

Here is a shot of our very Al Gore-Friendly dryer. (I do have a gas one as well… but this one helps me get more vitamin D.)

Tomorrow I begin my first Mom and Tot exercise class at the Rec Center. Wo hoo!

I want to confirm the rumors that we are moving. Yes. It’s true. The Howe family is moving to Fort Morgan, Colorado, USA. Population 10,000.

Unthinkable you say…That is quite contrary to their plans to travel to Thailand or Australia!

Although it is not what we had in mind for ourselves there are wonderful things in store for us in Morgan. (The locals call it “Morgan”)

1. Nate will have a job.
2. An Amtrak Station
3. Nate will have a job.
4. Wonderful House Chinese Restaurant
5. Nate will have a job.
6. Shake, Rattle, and Roll – Mom and Tot classes at the Rec Center

Employment is a great blessing. There are many teachers in Nate’s field who are having a difficult time finding a job. Nate will be teaching 7-12th grade choirs. It is exactly what he wanted to do. We are certainly being looked after.

Here is a snap shot of the house we are buying. You are welcome to visit and enjoy the relaxed pace of Morgan.

Here’s to change!