You are currently browsing the monthly archive for March 2007.
We leave early in the morning to set up camp in San Francisco until little baby Nola decides to come out. We are transferring to UCSF and have rented a place in Noe Valley for a month. We’ll keep you posted about her arrival.
Ossian woke up this morning and immediately said, “I was dreaming about monkeys and a peacock. And the clouds were going round and around.”
Later in the morning she sat down in front of Faucet and said “Faucet wants to play. Faucet, do you want to do some yoga with me?” When he didn’t answer she said, “Yeah, let’s stretch, Faucet” and then proceeded to demonstrate her yoga poses for Faucet.
Next, she opened her animal encyclopedia (which is a fave right now) and turned to a fish page. She said to the fish on the page, “Fishy, do you want me to tell you a story?”. When the fishy didn’t answer, she proceeded, “yeah, there was a big whale swimming around…” and told the fish a story about a whale.
She has entered the “why?” stage. Her response to most things for the past several weeks has been “no”. Now, most things are responded to with “yeah” and/or “why”. Though the “why” sequences can be long and challenging, they are preferable to the nonstop “no’s”.
Ossian is super excited about becoming a big sister. She talks to my belly frequently and says “baby nola, come out.”
Here we go… when we return to this house, we will be four instead of three. oh my god.
I did take a shower today.. something that probably doesn’t happen enough now that we live in the “country”. I showered for our baby shower which was at our house this morning.
It was a sweet affair with many of our Petrolia friends present to celebrate, eat, and offer us wishes for our birth and expanding family. This pregnancy has been white noise behind our months of transition, work, and parenting. It sounds terrrible, but it has mostly been a physical challenge to endure as opposed to the semi-bliss, special time that my first pregnancy sort of was. The second time around there is no time for long walks, prenatal yoga, long talks about the magic of it all, and, most importantly, sleep. There is also the added layer of anticipatory anxiety about how anyone ever sleeps or travels or bathes or reads or does anything with 2 small children. With the length of a day and the effort of two adults and the already full menu of needs and gifts created by our 2 year old, the math just doesn’t add up when you factor in another baby. Somehow, people do it. They do it all the time. This was a thoughtfully planned pregnancy so we must have thought it was a great idea at some point.
Though this pregnancy has mostly seemed eternal, it now seems sudden to be reaching the finish line. We realized today that we have to put 2 car seats in the car to get to San Francisco because we are coming home with TWO CHILDREN instead of one. We had to repeat that realization to each other a few times in order to absorb the new level of reality that logistical detail represents. It was nice and important to have a ritual today that acknowledges the incoming new life and this moment in our briar-bonpane world. I was inclined to not have a shower and just get things done and go have a baby and come back and get more things done. But, Nola really deserved to have some celebratory recognition that she is not just another child but a totally new being that we are excited to meet and will surely be in awe of as we have with Ossian since day 1. Blase and friends had the wisdom to argue me into having the shower and I am grateful.. it was the right thing and felt really good. Who will Nola be? What will she look like? How will we ever function again with 2 magical beings to stare at in our house?
Ossian has a new song today that starts.. “Osh-magosh ( her current nickname) and Nola Granola (nola’s current nickname)”.
There are two other pregnant women in Petrolia right now… thus the triple belly photo.
P.S. Ossian likes to read books in the laundry basket.
These are hallelujah days in the Mattole Valley. It’s been in the 80’s, sunny blue skies, oranges are ripe on friends’ trees, and flowers are springing up everywhere. Warm days mean less time spent keeping a fire going to warm the house which frees up a few more moments in our already full days.
We have been working on getting the garden started before we head off to San Francisco for 2-4 weeks to have baby Nola. Ossian loves working in the dirt and is an excellent seed planter. She also has expertise in hose management and water spraying. We laid out some sheet mulch to prepare beds that will need to be further worked and planted when we return with our baby in April. We are leaving our beloved seedlings in our bedroom to continue soaking up sun and continue growing without us until we return. Last average frost date for Petrolia is April 25 so we’ll be just in time for sowing outdoor seeds when we return from the birth odyssey.
We order most things that we need online. It takes a while for mail to reach us but it is far easier than trying to shop while on a bimonthly grocery trip to town. The town trips are orchestrated around naptime and there is usually a prenatal visit and a rushed meal that have to be fit in as well. No matter how you slice it, the town trips always take the entire day.
Ossian finally received the bike helmet we ordered many weeks ago and today, she got to break it in. Blase towed her in the bike trailer. When he got on the saddle, he beamed and said “this is my dream”. How cute is that? Ossian couldn’t get enough either.
Pregnancy is a raw time. I remember when I was pregnant with Ossian I was so easily moved by things I cried little joy cries all the time. For example, on more than one occasion, I was on the elliptical trainer at the gym reading some smutty hollywood magazine and I would come across an ad with a photo depicting something touching like a man and a small child playing ball (probably a hair replacement ad) or a dog getting its belly rubbed in the sun by an adoring human ( probably an ad for anti-depressants or allergy medication) and I would have to cry while working out. Not a lot of crying, but absolutely impossible to hold back.
Today, I was driving back from the beach and Ossian was reading a story about Santa Claus ( in March??..we don’t even do Santa!), Faucet was in the trunk eating a peanut butter sandwich (who gave him that?), and Sweet Child of Mine (remember Guns n roses?) came on the radio. I was so moved by the lyrics that I had to cry. Maybe he was singing about his child??!! It was SO moving. The cows stared at me like I was crazy as I drove by, music blasting, tears running down my smiling cheeks.That’s the power of hormones.
Have I ever mentioned that we drive 1.5 hours to go grocery shopping on a road called the Wildcat?
There are many times when this feels pretty far. We’ve gotten good at shopping strategically so that we only have to go twice a month to “town”. The consolation prize is that the drive is breathtaking. The cows around here have the best real estate in the United States. Look at what I see on my way home from the grocery store…
Ossian and her friend Nick like to play instruments and sing. We have formed a band. We practice every week and I asked them what we should call the band. Nick said, “women”. So, be watching for Women’s upcoming tour schedule as they get their set list worked out. At this point, they mostly cover classics like, “Wheels on the bus” or “Mary had a little lamb”. More and more though, they are writing their own lyrics. One tune that they worked on last week was all about the bobcat that lives in Nick’s yard. One verse went, “the bobcat is so fast and shy, fast and shy, fast and shy..” . The next verse was, “the bobcat says meow, meow, meow..” etc. (to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb).
Another development is that Ossian got a sling for carrying baby Emma. This has really bolstered her attachment parenting style. Sometimes, other creatures get to ride in the sling, too – but just while Emma is doing other things.
This morning I was driving O to her friend Nick’s house. We passed by the goat herd at Chambers’ flat and I noticed there was one goat who had left the herd and was by herself. She was rocking back and forth on the ground, laying on her side. Her legs were outstretched and she was soaking wet. I thought for a moment she might be in labor but continued on since O was late for her date. I drove back 10 minutes later and the goat had given birth. She was just finishing chewing the umbilical cord off of the baby and then she stood up to allow the baby to nurse. The placenta was hanging out of her and her udder looked full of milk. The baby was wet and trying to stand to get some milk. After a few minutes, they worked it out and the baby was jabbing with its mouth and seeming to feed.
It turns out that I am quite pregnant and soon to deliver a baby of my own. Seeing this goat mom give birth all alone, in a field, with no help was the inspiration I need right about now. Makes my birth plan look like club med… what a relief that I don’t have to chew off the umbilical cord or immediately stand up to nurse the newborn and watch for predators.
We have an incredible forest around us. We can walk through our field, cross our creek, and walk on broad paths through towering trees. We love it. Waylon likes to follow us but since there are large animals that live in these woods and she is a bright orange, petite cat, we have to be sure we bring her home with us. Once, we forgot, and Blase had to hike back out to find her where we’d turned around. She was hunkered down and eager for an escort.
life on the lost coast 