January

Hey everyone -

The horses nap like dead beasts, sunning themselves splayed out in the newly-fallen snow, and Owain sits (all by himself!) at my feet, playing with loud glee as I madly type, wipe his snotty nose for the fiftieth time today (cold season) and try to get a little something on the blog for your reading pleasure.

Hanging out with Owain and Ellis has made me realize that having kids this age means going from taking what is essentially a tiny quadrapalegic friend with you everywhere you go (in the early days) to housing a small foreign exchange student who is trying to get you to learn their language via immersion. Note this recent conversation between Ellis and myself:

Me (staring into the open refrigerator while holding Ellis): Ellis, what would you like to eat?
Ellis: Beak diai Caaaaaaaaaaaa.
Me: A pickle?
Ellis: Peaaaaaaaaa. Tlak akeleallsa. Dagle, dagle dagle.
Me: Some dates?
Ellis (with increasing intensity): Peaaaa! Caaaaa! Baaaa! (signs for "please" by rubbing his tummy)
Me: Cheese?
Ellis (now excited): CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEA!

And that's the way the conversations go around here. Pretty much. And they're even less intelligible with Owain, though he's pret-ty, pret-ty, pret-ty good at getting his point across. It seems that at 5 months Owain has gone from sweet baby to hyper little spazz monkey overnight. He continues in his bid to become the world's youngest sumo wrestler, recently graduating into one-year clothing, is becoming increasingly vocal and ticklish, loves the cats, and is now helping me type this by pressing return on a semi-regular basis.

He's VERY interested in our food these days, and we have to watch out for his lightning-fast reach (he pulled down a bowl of rice krispies last week in record time). He's in constant motion, bicycling his legs and kicking at my belly while nursing and being generally rambunctious and noisy. The johnny jump-up and the walker are getting good workouts as we need outlets for this kind of energy. Despite his teething issues, we have yet to see a tooth (please god, any day now would be nice) and are feeling the fallout nightly. Let me just tell you that world is pretty bleak-looking from 2 - 4 every morning. Especially in the winter. In Wisconsin.

We're now in the process of putting our and Owain's mattresses on the floor of our bedroom together so we have one big crazy bed designed to keep little spazz monkeys from sustaining head injuries when they roll over the side.

In farm news, we're signed up to go to the MOSES (Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service) Conference in February, a huge event in LaCrosse that is organized by my friend and trusty midwife Krista. We're excited to get to some good workshops to continue to hone our focus for the farm. I'll be going to a draft horse and tack auction at the end of this month to see about getting a wagon and harness for Gideon so we can put him to work and end equine obesity for good around here. I've been alternately loving and feeling overwhelmed with being a new mama, but I'm happy to report I continue to gain confidence and have more fun all the time, despite my desperate want for sleep. We look forward to spring and with it, this year's garden - a promise of new things to come.

Love and snowy days to all,

Charis