April 12th to the 18th!

April 12^th – April 18^th 2012

Jessica and I had anticipated that when I returned we would have more time for many things, and that with both of us helping everything would be easier.  For the most part this is true. One person is no longer changing every diaper, or answering every cry.  However when it comes to updating Olivia’s blog, we have been doing so much with Olivia that we (and by we I mean me, Adam) have neglected to update the ‘Daily Olivia’.  Sometimes I just can’t help it, as I sit down to write and to document her daily adventures I am so easily distracted by her smiles, or by her funny gestures.  Even now, she is engaged in a deep conversation with a mirror suspended over her swinging cradle.  I will attempt to spend more time each day writing this record.  We intend not only to write for our friends and relatives who are half a continent away, but we will also share this with Olivia some day so that she knows how grateful we are to have welcomed her into this world.

Thursday, April 12^th

Today Olivia was very lucky indeed, she was invited over to have a play date with Sarah for a few hours so that she could enjoy some time away from her stuffy old parents. (We went to see The Hunger Games.) Sarah considers Olivia to be almost a sister, and has anticipated lots of playing, starting even months before Olivia came to us.  Sarah and Olivia particularly like playing in the jungle, especially because it gives Olivia many targets for her increasingly agile feet.   Although we could have stayed away longer, we missed Olivia after a short while and we returned to shower her with kisses.

Today we also picked a date for Olivia's baptism (The 17th of June) at the Bridgewater Congregational Church, the same supportive congregation where we were married.  Since we had a date confirmed, we were able to select fancy invitations to mail out to our relatives and friends. 

Friday, April 13^th

With the weather getting nice and warm and the roads begin to dry, we decided to take a trip out to Two Rivers.  Just east of us, at the next stop along the trail of the Yukon Quest is Two Rivers. Jessica and I had originally only known this area as a waypoint on the way to Chena Hot Springs, however as we learn more about Alaska, and meet more of our neighbors we have come to find Two Rivers has lots to offer.  Seemingly a mecca for sled dog mushing, we have been able to watch some of our favorite mushers race from the Two Rivers General Store.  Today we were treated to an excellent massage (well, just for us adults, not for Olivia).  Jessica had come out to this peaceful cabin in the middle of the woods while pregnant for an amazing prenatal massage.  After raving about the quality and service of Stephanie, we decided that after the last year we could both use some good pampering.   Olivia was also treated, to several of her favorite things, she is an avid fan of ceiling fans, and can entertain herself to no end whether they are spinning or not.  Then Olivia was treated to all different unique scents.   I think she is just beginning to notice different smells.  The one that she can place is of course milk, however she wiggles her nose at the smell of bananas.  She was able to smell so many soothing and different smells in the massage studio.  We have been trying to introduce her to as many sounds, and textures as we can, and now I have started on smells as well. Olivia, as usual was perfect during our few hours in the middle of nowhere. She lounged in the sun, studied some local birds, and slept peacefully.  Once again we were treated to a compliment, that although we have heard often we are always grateful to hear.  As we were getting ready to leave, Stephanie told us ‘as an outside observer, can I just tell you that your daughter is beautiful’.  We of course know this, but we always very happy when others recognize just how blessed we are.

Saturday, April 14^th

Olivia has been working very hard to become the strongest baby that she can. Her neck and back muscles are growing every day.  When she is uncomfortable, she lets us know with a strong arching of her back. Believe me, if you aren’t prepared for it, she can almost get away from you.  She has also become able to either choose or reject certain things by turning her head away.  She will move towards a pacifier if that is what she would like, or she can move away from a particular toy if she doesn’t feel like playing with it.  Her most beautiful action as of late involves kisses from Mom, when Jessica plants several kisses on Olivia, she will blush, hide her face in my chest, and then quickly turn back, smiling for more kisses.  No mater how many times I see this, my heart melts. 

We have also been working on her balance, and her standing.  She is getting better every day at staying upright (with a little assistance)  today she was able to hold her self onto the side of her rocking cradle with only her hands as support. 

As for crawling, she doesn’t seem to enjoy it, and that is ok, however when she is distracted and not noticing that she is crawling, she does just fine.  My latest trick has been to distract her with a iphone playing ‘Yellow Submarine’ when she sees and hears Ringo, she lifts her head of the ground and tries to move towards him.  She is already pretty opinionated at only 4 months. 

 Today, Jessica  went and got lunch at The Chowder House and met Morgan for lunch at Creamer’s, while Daddy and Olivia watched part of Winnie the Pooh for the first time. (there are so many Disney movies and other classics that Adam hasn't yet seen) Today Olivia was 16 weeks old. To celebrate,  we took her for a walk in a new stroller.

Sunday, April 15^th

Today we went on errands first thing in the morning. We went to Wal-Mart and got things for jelly making & yarnbombing. We got lunch at Wendy’s. We tried to fix the Blazer, with no success. Looks like Olivia will have to share her car with Adam for a while longer. In the afternoon Morgan came over and played with Olivia. She & Mommy educated her about things like Care Bears. Adam made pepper jelly and then cooked dinner for everyone. Isn't Olivia lucky to have a father that cooks?





Tuesday, April, 17th

This morning Olivia made her Daddy very happy.  For the past few weeks, as a newly returned face in Olivia’s ever-growing world, she took several minutes, and a little bit of holding to warm up to her father’s embrace.  This morning however, as I was standing over her watching her in the last few minutes of her sleep, he eyes crept open and she immediately recognized me, she gave me a huge smile, following by uncontrolled laughter and happy noises.  I look forward to many more mornings where she beams like that.  The whole past year of difficulties can easily be erased by such amazing sights.

Her abilities have been ever-increasing, at least to her doting father it seems that way.  Her feet remain the most active limbs at her disposal.  She doesn’t simply use them to kick or to stretch, but she has a unique way of intertwining her toes, almost as hands clasped in a devious movie villain way.  Silly Olivia, in no time you will be up and walking, and you’ll have to use those feet for moving around instead of playing.

This evening Olivia was in a very cheerful mood, and we have always been good about trying to arrange skype dates around her moods.  So we quickly plopped her down on a lap in front of the webcam and dialed Connecticut.  Olivia is so very lucky to have such a grandfather as Big Boppy (as we have taken to calling him).  His repertoire of entertaining songs is endless.  He can delight Olivia from across the country with songs about dogs, old ballads, Czech folk songs, and even a rendition of Yellow Submarine.  Now, some of you may have heard of Olivia’s fascination with the Beatles, I had thought that perhaps it was simply the moving images on her favorite video, or the colors that it presented.  Big Boppy disproved all of this, as he captivated Olivia with his version of her favorite song. 

We cut our skype short as we quickly remembered that tonight was the Volunteers Appreciation Dessert at the Georgeson Botanical Gardens (http://georgesonbg.org/)  Before she was even born, Olivia has been volunteering to help maintain these beautiful gardens, and now that she is older she plans on continuing this summer.  As the society is made up of mostly retired folks, Olivia quickly stole the show upon entering the fancy new green house.  She was swarmed by new admirers, who were very happy to meet the ‘youngest garden volunteer’.  The event was to thank the volunteers who have helped in the past year, and to allow them to meet each other.  The evening also included a raffle, to which Olivia was given three tickets.  She was one of the first ones selected as a winner, and she received a nice yellow t-shirt… it is much too big for her, but at the rate she is growing it won’t take long for her to fill it up.  A few raffle tickets later, and Olivia WINS again!  This time she picked a farming book for her father.  Just when we thought we couldn’t get any luckier, Olivia WON a third prize, however with the car seat, the diaper bad, the toys, Olivia, and the two prizes that we had already received, we decided to leave the last prize unclaimed.  Olivia was able to meet a great bunch of people who will be with her during her first summer of gardening!

After returning from the University, Jessica and I had very little trouble getting Olivia to sleep.  After such a busy day, she was truly ready to call it a night!  We almost considered doing the same, but as we were flipping through the late night channels we stumbled upon the local PBS channel which was showing  “Small Farm Rising” (http://www.smallfarmrising.org/) which detailed the lives of several small first-generation farmers in Upstate New York.  One of our favorite pastimes is planning our future together.  Sometimes we will talk about traveling during our retirement, or having a small farm somewhere in New England.  While I realize that retirement is a far off concept for many, for those of us in the military it has a somewhat different meaning.  After a twenty-year tour of service in the military, one can retire and start a second career.  Many civilian sector jobs I know do not even offer a pension, and those that do have a much longer term of service.  I’ve even heard of some teachers having to work for 37 years before they can retire.  Jessica and I will have the luxury of my first retirement in 8 years.  At that time the Army will give me a monthly pension, and we will have health care provided until we are old enough for Medicare to kick in.  Having a guaranteed income, albeit a small one, will permit us to do things because we want to do them, not because we must.     This documentary really hit home for both of us.  We had always liked the idea of having a farm, although I wasn’t really sure if I was talking about being a ‘working farmer’ or a ‘gentleman farmer’, at least until we began to discuss our dreams.   The documentary took place in northern New York, very close to where my family spent many years of my childhood (just outside of Plattsburgh, NY).  One of the farms in the film was a farm that used to belong to Rockwell Kent, one of my favorite painters.  There were so many personal connections intertwined in both this PBS film, and in our idea of farming that it seems to have stuck in our heads once again. 

We stayed up for many more hours discussing, planning and dreaming.  The end result being that Jessica has started her certification process to become an Alaskan Master Gardener (at the University of Alaska), and I have begun preparations to start an MBA program which is focused on Sustainability and Agriculture.  With Jessica’s skills in planting, and mine in marketing and regulation, all we will need is Olivia and many siblings (to be named later) for the labor.   I hope you don’t mind getting a little dirty Olivia!

Wednesday, April 18^th

Today was my first day back at ‘work hours’. I had been getting up when Olivia got up and spending the first few hours with Olivia. Today, however, I had to get up and to work at around five-thirty.  I was only able to play with the dogs for a minute, and not Olivia.  I had gotten so used to mornings with Olivia, that I missed her very much.

Jessica went to Breuggers bagels for lunch, and as it happened they were shooting a television commercial at the store.  So if you happen to see it, and you hear a baby crying in the background… well that baby is our OLIVIA!!

Oh well, we knew that it was going to happen sooner or later. Olivia seems to have begun teething.  Although we haven’t seen anything pop through yet, it is obvious that her gums are starting to feel it.  We are open to any and all suggestions to find what might work for her.  The only tip that we haven’t tried yet, is one that I remember my father telling me about years ago, and that is using a soft cloth dipped in Scotch to sooth the gums.  Maybe back in the 70’s that was considered ok, but I don’t want to start Olivia on the single malt just yet.   Two things that we have tried with some success, have been the use of refrigerated teething rings (one cute one is shaped like a lady bug, and looks funny being sucked in and out of Olivia’s tiny mouth), and the other has been an Amber necklace.  When Jessica first mentioned it, I wasn’t sure what to think.  I envisioned a necklace meant to chew on, and that the amber would somehow help her teeth come out.  I think that I remembered reading about Victorian era teething toys which were made of ivory, but I couldn’t help but think that amber would be much too hard against her gums.  That is until I saw the necklace.   It is very similar to these http://www.amberartisans.com/frasqu.html , supposedly the natural properties of the amber, containing 3-8% of succinic acid, a scientifically examined medical substance used in contemporary medicine. The highest content of the acid is found in the amber cortex--the external layer of the stone.  So far her teething pain seems to have lessened, as has her drooling.  It may be a coincidence, or it may be the amber.  Who knows?