Because You Asked

Lace and Button wallpapers for your computer monitors...

And Baby Clara! She is doing just fine. They are slowly starting to add a teensy drip of nutrition into her stomach through a pic line. It will be a super slow process, taking up to a week before she can take all of her nourishment through her digestive system. They are running the standard tests for a preemie, and so far she seems to be passing with flying colors.

This photo was taken in the brief moment that my Sister got to see her Clara on her way out of recovery. Since then, my Sister hasn't been stable enough to move, and Clara can't be moved either, so photos and video have been their only connection.

My Sis has to be able to sit up in a wheelchair without getting dizzy before they will take her to the NICU for a visit. I talked to her on the phone last night, and her attitude is very positive. She's a trooper. We are all praying with all our might that her body will rally soon so that her Mama's heart can be soothed by being able to be with her baby.

Here's Clara again, with her Daddy's hand as size reference.

And a bit of video that my Dad took about an hour after she was born.

Did that little squeak just kill you, or what?

Auntie Beth is on her way! Just as soon as school lets out this afternoon, I'll be heading up to look into my Sister's eyes and see that teeny little babe. I can hardly wait!

Babies with Cowlicks

Clara's Daddy had to go back to work for a few days this week, so Auntie Beth got to go sit with her Mama yesterday. It was so nice to be with them again. It has been a week and a half since I last got up to the hospital, and let me tell you, my Sis looks like a brand new woman compared to our last meeting.

Although she is still staying in the hospital to be with her baby, she has been officially discharged and is finally on the mend. At my last visit, she could barely stand, and was still in need of around-the-clock care. That HELLPS is bad, bad, bad.

Clara is up to 3 pounds 9 ounces now, and is taking the optimal amount of food for her weight. Her next task is to be able to take all of her food by mouth so they can get the feeding tube out. They won't take the top permanently off of her incubator until she is at least 4 pounds, and she will have to be able to regulate her body temperature all by herself. At this point, they think she will need to be in hospital for at least another 2 weeks, and possibly more.

This was the first time I got to spend more than 5 minutes in the same room with her, and she charmed my socks right off. She does sleep a lot, but when she's awake, she is so very alert and tries with all her might to get those eyes to focus on her surroundings. I swear she was trying to make eye contact with me. It probably helps that I chose to wear black and white stripes. :)

One teensie foot resting in her Mama's hand. Can you believe how little she is?

My Sister was born with a cowlick. She has never been a fan of it, but I remember distinctly being a bit envious, because it gave her the most adorably heart-shaped face.

Bably Clara appears to have a similar swirl on her little tow-head (she gets that pale, pale hair from her Daddy).

Which brings back memories of my own sweetheart when she was a baby...

There once was a girl
who had a curl
right in the middle of her forehead.
When she was good,
she was very, very good.
But when she was bad she was horrid.

Mm-hm. It applies to my sister (oh, the stories I could tell!), my daughter (don't let that angel-face fool you), and only time will tell if this new baby can triple-prove the nursery rhyme to be true.

First Birthdays

Remember my teenie little niece Clara? The one born 7 1/2 weeks early?

We just celebrated her First Birthday. She has continued to grow and thrive, with no forseeable problems from her early start in the world. I don't usually write much about my extended family, choosing to keep it a little closer to home for privacy reasons, but I know that many of you were following along in those first several weeks of her life, and thought you might like an update.

She had quite the papparazzi there recording every last possible second.

Including far-away cousins who were wishing they could eat some of that yummy cake too!

Thank you, sweet Baby Clara, for being such a good girl on the long, long drive to the Pacific Northwest. We were all so very happy to be a part of celebrating the first year of your life!

36 Hours

For two days and one night, I shared Clara's space.
She mostly slept and ate while her Daddy, Mama, and I packed boxes.
But for a brief evening spell, she was awake and enchanting and in my arms.

 As of now, she continues to fly past her health checks, and is pretty close to the size of my firstborn on the day he came home from the hospital... but still tiny... he was only 5 pounds 4 ounces.

It is truly amazing how quickly the time goes by. He is a giant now, and I had a hard time, as I held Clara, wrapping my brain around the fact that he was so teeny not so many years ago.

While her parents grabbed a quick soak in the hot tub, I introduced our newest family member to a few of my favorite things... Whiskey Sours, Raspberries, and Star Trek the Next Generation.

She decided these things were all very exciting.

Then we went back to packing boxes.

 Which she thought was very boring, and shortly after she fell fast asleep.

Now I'm back home with my own babies and a house that has been neglected for two days and one night.

Guess I had better get busy.

Tiny

This is SO NOT the exciting news I was hoping to share with you today. And the productivity certainly wasn't on my part. But that is the way life goes... your prayers are coveted for my baby sister, her husband, and their brand new baby this morning.

Clara Clementine was delivered by emergency C-section at 1:30am, being only 32 1/2 weeks into her gestation, and weighing just 2lb. 15oz.

I haven't had a chance to talk to anyone yet to find out what her prognosis is for being ready to leave the hospital, but it appears (from the photo, which I stole from my brother-in-law) that she is breathing on her own, which seems like a small miracle to me.

My sister had HELLPS, a nasty combination of super high blood pressure and dangerously low platelets. I had the same syndrome with my firstborn, but in my case it didn't present until I was at 37 weeks, and I was able to delivery naturally. My sister has a long road of recovery ahead of her, and so does her perfectly-perfect little doll-baby.

In Loving Memory

My Grandmother Clara Nielsen Whittaker Borovec was born October 8, 1915.
She passed peacefully from this earthly life on December 14, 2007.

Grandma with her parents and brother in 1930:


Undated photo of Grandma with her Mother in a hayfield (here's proof that I am descended from farmers!):


In 1939, after her wedding ceremony, with new husband David Whittaker:


At a recent Thanksgiving family gathering:

Hodge Podge

In which I unload a bunch of random photos that have been waiting in my "for blog" folder, too good to throw away, not good enough, apparently, for a full blog post. Poor photos.

Da-dum, da-dum, da-dum... welcome to Amity Island!

This one is called, "Dandelion Bokeh":

To be followed by "Red Poppy Bokeh":

I think I'll leave my bokeh experimenting for lighted scenes.

Know anyone hooked on sudoku? My dad and son both are.

Personally, I'm hooked on Rhubarb Custard Pie.

And goofy-cousin photo ops.

And kitties napping on coffee bags.

And chartreuse trees trimmed with day-glo red hearts.

And my family...

We are all together only about every three years. The last time we united was in 2009. This photo was taken on Sunday. My parents and two brothers with their wives and most of the grandkids are seated on the ground. Back row is my two sisters and I with husbands, babies (Clara's first visit to Twistville!), and our Uncle.

My Great Grandma Dagmar

Marie Dagmar Nielsen was born in 1875 in Denmark. Her mother died when she was 11 years old. When she finished her required 7 years of school at the age of 14, she was apprenticed in the delicatessen trade, learning to make sausage and cheese. She later had several housekeeping jobs and helped care for people who were sick.

In 1907, at the age of 32, she met Niels Gregers Nielsen. An excerpt from a letter written to my Grandmother by a cousin tells the story of how they came to meet. “Your father were home in Denmark for christmas 1907. He stayd by his father, and a couple of days he go to visit my parents. And there he said: “I must find a girl, I can take with me to USA” My mother said: “Your uncle have a housekeeper. Her name is Dagmar and she is a handsom girl.” Then your father said: “Well let’s go to take a look at Dagmar” !!! —and shortly they were married!”

A family legend tells the story of their engagement: “During their courtship, Niels & Dagmar walked to visit friends. They crossed an icy lake that was partially thawing. They slipped and Dagmar fell on top of Niels. “Dagmar wouldn’t let me up until I agreed to get married” he never stopped teasing her about that.”

One week after their marriage in February 1908, Niels and Dagmar departed for the USA, where Niels had previously worked for several years. They first lived in Wyoming where there was work for a blacksmith in the coal mines, and Dagmar took in boarders. Three little boys were born to them there, but the first two died in infancy.

In 1913, they moved to Washington State and tried their hand at farming, but Niels much preferred the work of a blacksmith, so Dagmar, who had some experience with animals, would milk 30 cows each day. She said that her arms would ache badly from the chore. As a gesture of appreciation, after delivering the milk to town one day, Niels brought home 6 flats of peaches, which she then had to can.

Their fourth child, my Grandmother Clara, was born in 1915.

They were somewhat successful on their farm, selling milk for high prices during WWI, and being able to pay off their mortgage. Then, during the Depression, when milk had little value, they sold eggs and chickens as their main source of income.


Dagmar enjoyed photography, knitting, and liked to play cards. She was known for her cooking skills and was a very good seamstress. She was a quiet person with a fun-loving personality, and always enjoyed a good joke.

She died in 1945 at 70 years of age.

These Days

With only two days of school left, my head is full of Summer planning and all the things that need to be juggled right now. I've had a pattern ready to release since the beginning of the month, but keep putting it on hold to give myself time for the more important things.

We almost certainly have another litter of puppies on the way, due to be born at the beginning of August. I am already starting to prepare myself, I think it takes me all 60 days of gestation to emotionally prepare to be housebound for the following 7 weeks of puppy care. People ask how I can let those sweet puppies go to their new families, but let me tell you, after being on such a short leash for so long, its always a happy relief to see them going to the homes that are devoted to caring for and cleaning up after them for the rest of their lives!

Speaking of cleaning up... our 13 year old water heater decided to start leaking last week, leaving a soggy mess in the bottom of our hall closet, and requiring a late-night emergency replacement. What is it about this, the 13th year of our marriage? I'm not one to be superstitious, but SO much has happened to us this year, and the water heater wasn't the first large appliance to need replacing. I know... that is just the way life goes, and we learn to roll with the punches, right? All in all, we are so very blessed to have each other and this bit of land to cultivate.

We thought we were going to lose our Bailey dog a few weeks ago. I couldn't even blog about it, it felt so real and imminent. He was super sick and stopped eating over Memorial weekend. We got him in to see the vet first thing Tuesday morning, and of all things, discovered that he had salmon poisoning, most likely from eating the rainbow trout head that my husband had taken out to the woods to bury. Bad dog! He was so bad, that it took a full 3 days of antibiotics before he started to get some pep back in his step and become the usual wiggle-butt excited dog at meal time. We are happy to be able to keep our elderly friend around for awhile longer. He's 9 1/2; we're hoping we get another 5 years with him. We would take even more, but realize it isn't likely he'll find the fountain of youth the next time he's out digging in the woods.

I spent most of Friday and Saturday with my Sister, giving her husband a little freedom to be with baby Clara and spend time with their visitors. She is still on a pretty restricted visiting schedule, needing lots of rest and calm. She is finally able to get up for visits to the NICU to hold her wee baby, which makes everyone happy.

Our garden is growing, but with so much rain lately, we are having to re-seed some veggies, and the weeds are quickly trying to overtake the rows. I earned myself a set of sunburned shoulders yesterday while weeding around the firepit. Careless me, after two days in the hospital, I was in such a hurry to get outside that I completely forgot the sunscreen.

And that's how it goes around here these days. What's up in your world?

Answers

Well, I certainly didn't expect a HUGE response, but I also didn't expect that most of those that answered my call for questions wouldn't ask questions at all, but rather spend their whole comment saying nice things to me!

Thank you for those nice things you said. It feels really great to have people tell you to stay just the way you are, and that you make them happy just by posting pictures and words. Have no fear, my intent has never been to change the way I write and post on this blog, I just wanted to add a little more in the way of two-way conversation.

I did get several great questions that I plan to answer over the next few days, as they work into the natural flow of my blog. I also plan to respond to a few of the comments, just because.

The most startling/urgent questions answered here and now...

NO, I am not pregnant (the booties being sent to me are for baby Clara).

and sadly...
NO, there are no puppies coming (apparently Jazzi had both a false cycle AND a false pregnancy, because she had us fooled right up until the last two weeks). Next projected litter may not be until the Spring now, since we have decided to never again have kennel babies in the cold of winter.

My kitchen windowsill really does look like that right now. The perfect pairing of a flower from my boy, handed to me last night just before he darted through the sprinkler, and a beer bottle snagged from the to-be-recycled section of my counter. A reminder to hold onto memories of times with friends, and the family togetherness of Summer.