we took peleh to the beartooth mountains this weekend and had a blast with our friends taylor and alexei. they went skiing and we went hiking. we’ve posted some pics of our fun weekend. we pitched a tent, but it was too cold for peleh so we slept in the back of eva’s car… slept being used in the loosest sense. peleh slept fine, but eva’s car isn’t made for luxury sleeping. we drove up the pass during one of peleh’s naps and drove back down into red lodge to buy some supplies. being the first camping trip of the season, we weren’t even close to being prepared and had to bum lots of stuff off our friends. we’re still learning how to travel with peleh, so didn’t think about camping too much. all in all, it was a great trip and hopefully the first of many camping experiences this summer.
our next adventure is a southern expedition to florida and mississippi to meet up with just about the whole shaltes side of our family. we’re also going to get to see eva’s grandmother and aunt linda and uncle frank. we’re really excited, but have four flights just to get there. it’s going to be a long day, but worth it.
Some time last Spring I bought some new jeans online and when they arrived I was disappointed to see that they were stretchy. But now I LOVE IT! Thanks to the miracle of stretch denim I’m back in (one pair of) my pants that don’t have an elastic waist band. Woo hoo! I love jeans!
I also read an article on Babycenter.com about post-baby bodies and what 7,000 women interviewed think about themselves. It reported that every type of body after birth, at every rate is normal. Whether or not it was because of the article, the stretch denim, or my one-time three mile run/walk around the lake, I feel great about myself and I think I look great! Of course Noah always tells me how great I look and that makes me feel really good too!
Now we’re getting ready for our big airplane adventure to Philadelphia. We both have slings now to carry Peleh in and hopefully those will keep him quiet and content for 7 hours.
After our trip Peleh will no longer go to work with me but will stay at home with Noah. So out come the sling for Noah and the pump for me. He gets the way better end of the deal! I’ll soon switch to part time so I can spend quality time with Peleh during the days and we’ll work out the rest of the details.
We’ll be flying with Peleh (will be 11 weeks) to Philadelphia to make it to my Grandpa’s memorial service in DC. Does anyone have advice for flying with the little guy? We’ll have two flights each way, each at least 2 hours long, and we didn’t buy him a seat so no carseat on the flight with us. I’m pretty nervous about him annoying all the other passengers.
If I were to paint the color of Peleh’s eyes I would start with blue then add brown and lighter than charcoal gray, then mix mustard yellow with the brown around his pupils. Tenaya at work said that’s called hazel.
We had an excellent weekend in Chateau Rouge with Pop but he took most of the photos and I haven’t figured out the quickest and easiest way to share them. We went to the Candy Emporium as recommended by one of Noah’s workers. It was full of mini barrels of candy and cases full of their chocolates and fudges. Pop bought me a whole pound of bon bons. He and Noah helped eat some of them but I was left home alone with the whole bag for a whole day. There aren’t any left. We drove up into the hills a little bit and walked around some. We actually slid around on the snowpack that was in the sun. It was fun. Deseo had a good time too chasing frozen snow chunks. Peleh spent the whole time in Pop’s jacket so he didn’t really see much.
We’ll pick Pop up in Billings on Friday just after noon and hit the road for Red Lodge! Peleh is very excited to meet Pop and we’re really looking forward to a fun weekend with him. We’ll stay at Chateau Rouge in a 2 bedroom condo/apt with a fireplace(!) and kitchen, just on the south side of town. We plan to walk around and check out some of the galleries and hopefully the nature center. Hopefully the weather won’t be too unbearable. It’s supposed to be upper 30s and rainy/snowy. Maybe that’ll blow over and it’ll be sunny.
Stay tuned for photos!
Peleh’s friend Jenna was born one month after him, but she came about 3 months early. She’s doing well though, thanks to your prayers.
We’re looking forward to meeting her and playing with her. Thanks for your prayers for her and her Momma.
Peleh is getting really big. We’re looking forward to his first non-gas-induced smiles and enjoying his eye contact. Maybe tomorrow we’ll see how long he is now. He’s grown out of his newborn sized outfits and just seems to be getting so big. His chapati cheeks are still delicious. I like to imagine him as a man when I’ll still remember chapati cheek snacks (that’s when we kiss them).
We discovered that we don’t know all the lyrics to any children’s song and not the tune to many of them. We’ll have to expand our music collection. Peleh enjoys Beethoven for now though.
We’re looking forward to Grandpa Pop visiting in April and then our big adventure trip to DC in May. I’ll go back to work in April so for now I’m trying not to think too much about that, but trying to prepare at the same time. We’re still looking for a nanny too.
Such an old little man! Peleh is getting bigger and better.
His eyes are learning how to focus and we’re just sure he grabbed for one of the hanging toys over his head the other day. He loves his nakey time lying on his back between dirty and clean diapers. It’s fun to watch him move his arms around - he usually does the flying superman stance with one up above his head and the other tucked at his chest. He doesn’t like belly time on a flat surface, but I figured out that if I lay on my side and prop him up on my ribs or hip he still gets to kick his legs, hold his head, have a different view of things, and generally experience all the benefits of belly time. He’s getting really good at holding his head up.
He’s been having more awake time but I can get him to go to sleep pretty easily during the nights. His baby acne seems pretty bad but I think it’s clearing up. I hope so anyway. And I hope it’s not an indication of how his skin will be when he’s a teenager, poor guy.
I’m keeping myself busy with little projects around the house, and some big ones. We really need to get on the garden planning and planting. I’ll do that this week. It’s going to be so much fun to have Peleh outside in the warm weather and let him explore the garden.
We had some very brief and concerning news about a friend and her baby last night, so please pray for their health.
we had our two week check-up on monday. peleh’s doing great. he gained a pound in two weeks and was up to 8 lb 13 oz. we high fived to that!
week two of the food blessing has been delicious. thanks to everyone!
we took peleh to reid’s hardware today to have him meet our friends there. yeah, that was the highlight of the day! yesterday, eva took him to the grocery store, post office, and library. monday he went to costco with us. he’s starting to turn into a man about town!
aunt katie posted her pics from when she came to visit, so we put them up on our site too. they’re at the bottom of our album page and i didn’t want anyone to miss them. there are pics of our 3 mile hike with momma eva 41 weeks preggers. thanks katie.
We’ve set up operations (with the help of Grandma) in the living room and spend most of the day here. We have the changing station, Peleh’s 0-3 wardrobe, pumping station, and our eating and napping spots. It’s a nice little set-up. Everyone has their own sitting area. I take the couch with Peleh when feeding. Deseo has her love seat. Noah is on the other love seat and Seeger is in the rocking chair Banita and Pop bought for us. With occasional trips into the kitchen and bathroom, we spend pretty much the whole day in the living room. We eat our meals, do our work, take naps, and watch movies all day, everyday. It’s a good life in the Living Room.
I tried to go back to sleep after the 1:30 this morning and just didn’t feel good. I was chilly and achy. Noah gave me an extra blanket and took the 4:30 and 7:30 so I could rest. This morning we did some web-md research and diagnosed that the soreness I noticed in my breast yesterday afternoon was probably an infection: mastitis - I’m not comfortable with this term because I’ve only heard it in reference to cows. I called the nurse hotline and was told it probably was mastitis and I should see a doctor today. At the time I had a fever and didn’t feel like going to the doctor, so I slept for a little bit. In the late afternoon I called the police department and she took my name and number and the doctor on call gave me a call back. I went in and got some antibiotics and instructions for feeding, pumping and resting. Noah made me a hot pack with an unclaimed and un-paired sock we had floating around, and some rice. He actually used my sewing machine! It’s amazing what my husband is willing to do when I don’t feel good. I read that about 30% of breastfeeding women will contract mastitis, but now that I’m treating it, I should feel better in 1-2 days.
That’s about all we did today. Noah went for a bike ride with Deseo. It rained and snowed today. We had steak dinner (compliments of our friends the Leaches). Last night dinner was from Torrey, fried rice. Mmmm!