Sheep sheering day!

We went to the sheep sheering event at the Littleton Historical Museum today!  For you Indiana folks, it is called a museum, but it is a lot like Conner Prairie, with staff dressed in period clothing.  They have a working 1860's-1890's farm, with a log cabin, school house, blacksmith, etc.  It is also always free, which is great because it is just about 7 minutes away from our house.  The big event today was the once a year sheep sheering!  In the picture above, you can see the man sheering the sheep behind Perrin.  Then one of the fellas would wrestle the sheep back to the enclosure, and bring out the next one to sheer.

 Here you can see them getting out the next sheep.  It was a cool thing to see up close.  The sheep were surprisingly cooperative once the guy had them positioned and was cutting.  

We got to see the whole process, from sheering to spinning the wool, and finally yarn dying.  Now all I want to do is raise sheep, spin their wool, dye and knit to the end of my days.  I am only sort of kidding.  Someone will be googling "starting a sheep farm" tonight!  There was also a CO couple there who raise alpaca.  They had one alpaca and one llama there.  Their business is raising alpaca for their fibers; they only keep llamas around to protect the

alpaca from mountain lions and coyotes.  What a funny picture this conjures in my mind--this funny looking creature protecting that funny looking creature--boxing gloves would be involved...

Finally, there was a woman who brought 3 trained border collies and her own sheep to demonstrate how the dogs herd.  It was really fascinating to watch the dogs work the sheep.  They were just so into what they were doing, that even when we bent down so Perrin and I could pet the two dogs that weren't working, they didn't even look at us.  They were just super intensely staring at the sheep.  We didn't even exist.  I was jealous of their sense of purpose.

 It was such a perfect day for our outing...in the high 60's with sun.  Aaaaahh.  Tara and Jeff met us in the park next door before hand for a short picnic (is it a picnic if you eat Taco Bell?--Perrin did not eat Taco Bell for those of you gasping in gastric horror).  

I wanted to buy every skein of beautiful yarn I saw today--the way it hung there drying on the line in shades of indigo, yarrow, berry, and soft soft greens...I wanted to possess it, roll in it, knit it, eat it, anything...oh, beautiful yarn.  Seeing its source and how it came to be what it was, only made it more beautiful.  It is so easy to see items in stores and forget all the craft and/or work that went into it.  

Perrin moment of zen...

 

 A little Perrin relaxation time after a tough baby day.

To decompartmentalization!

Found a new great place yesterday evening in downtown Littleton.  I am hoping it can become our place.  I have always wanted to have a place.  It is called Jake's Brew Bar and is in an old downtown building with high ceilings with a nice throw back feel; a cool place that isn't trying hard to be cool.  This was one on the nicest evenings we have had in a while and we just stumbled into it.  Perrin and I were walking downtown just to get out of the house and stretch our legs.  Joseph called and said he had left work a bit early and could be at the train station to meet us downtown in 30min.  So we met him and thought we would try out this new place on Main Street.  We walked there and since it was a bar I started to think maybe we shouldn't take Perrin in and bother other patrons with possible baby issues.

So we got to the doorway and peeked in.  We saw another small baby and a toddler, so we had our ticket in.  We sat down and ordered a couple of beers and started talking to the woman with the toddler who was beside us.  The little boy was on the floor playing with toys and the woman invited Perrin to sit down with him to play. 

So there we are, drinking happy hour beers at 5:30 on a friday evening, with our daughter playing happily at our feet, talking to really friendly servers and other patrons.  One server held Perrin, took her to look in the mirror, then to go visit with the baby at another table.  How great was this!?  They brought us beer and took care of our child!  A random fact was that our server also turned out to have been on the show Survivor for two seasons (we were informed by another patron)...ah, random brush with celebrity.  Aaaany way... 

What I enjoyed so much about this experience was that I didn't just feel like we were having parent time, or just baby time.  We all three got to hang out together where we all got to have a good time and no one was sacrificing anything...P got to play and be social and so did we.  Usually our lives as parents tend to feel like oil and water with parent time and grown up time.  It was incredibly refreshing to feel whole.  Gotta figure out more ways to do that.

Perrin moment of zen..."Are YOU looking at ME?"

Back to normal

At the Denver Aquarium 

I drove Grandma Callis back to the airport this morning so it is time to get back to our normal routine.  How wonderful to have company that you love and can actually enjoy spending two weeks with.  It is sometimes a bumpy path getting back to our normal weekday routine where Joseph is at work and Perrin and I are a twosome with no Grandma to help me out, play with Perrin, and tidy our kitchen secretly when I am not watching (thank you mom!!).  This just illustrates one of the strange things about the daily task of taking care of a baby.  The days are very monotonous, but yet such small experiences you have with your child or things you observe them doing feel huge and hilarious, and you think you will burst for loving them.  But you don't.  What you do is keep feeding them, keep cleaning them, keep putting them to bed everyday.  The way everyday is monotonous, but at the same time so remarkable, confuses my feelings about being a stay-at-home parent.  

With limited ability to be spontaneous, I feel like my world has gotten much smaller since becoming a parent.  This is tolerable however because it has also gotten so much richer.  I am trying to relax more about Perrin's eating/napping/bedtime schedule.  We were spontaneously asked to an early dinner the other night...and, WE WENT!  We didn't get Perrin to bed early like we should have since she missed a nap that day, but we had fun, she had fun, eating bits off people's sandwiches and drinking water from Grandma's straw (hilarious), and we all survived the day.  The problem for me is feeling like no matter what I do for Perrin, I am probably not doing it right.  When we buck the afternoon nap time and go out on errands or to the library (because I have cabin fever!) I feel guilty for not respecting her schedule, but if I turn down everything that comes up because "it's Perrin's nap time," I feel like one of those parents who drowns themselves in their children's lives and ceases to exist for their own sake.  I hope finding the middle ground becomes easier with time...it must, yes?

As for the happenings while Grandma was in town...we went hiking with Perrin in her new backpack, we went to the Denver Aquarium, bowled, and dressed Perrin up in some of Tara and I's old baby dresses that my mom brought to give to me, aaand discovered that Perrin loves bubbles!  I don't know if she had more fun laughing at them fall or if we had more watching her.

 For months now we have been having diaper rash issues with Perrin.  We have tried different creams, oils, stripped diapers, changed diaper detergent, changed diaper wash cycles, tried disposables, and so on.  Her doctor said she just has really sensitive, dry skin.  We haven't nailed it all down perfectly yet, but her butt is looking less angry--which is good because it was seriously having some scary raging days where it just made you sad to see her little bottom.  

Here are the three things that are helping us--I think.  

1. No more coconut oil!  Parents on-line had raved about coconut oil, especially for cloth diapered babies.  We used it for a good while and didn't even consider that something so natural could be bothering her.  But I put the jar away last week and switched to olive oil (moisturizing and safe for cloth diapers).  This seems to be a good thing for her.

2. We stopped using disposable wipes.  I always bought sensitive skin, non-scented wipes, but they still have alcohol in them, plus ingredients that I don't recognize, so that seemed bad.  I got some soft cotton and cut it into squares.  Now when we change her, we spray a mixture of water, olive oil and a bit of tea tree oil on her butt and the cloth wipe, then just toss the wipe in with the dirty diapers to be washed.  This turned out to be much easier than I thought when I heard of folks using cloth wipes.  Secretly I always thought, "Come on! Cloth wipes?  That is overboard!"  But I was wrong.  Simply put, it is easy and cheap!

3. When her bottom is looking red and she is getting itchy from dryness, we are putting oatmeal soak in her bath.  I started out buying the Aveeno oatmeal soak, but it was expensive!  So I looked on-line and you can make your own by literally just finely grinding up oats, period.  Colloidal oatmeal that helps dry skin isn't anything special that you have to buy.  If you have oats, you have colloidal oatmeal--just grind it up to a fine texture and toss it in your bath.

Perrin moment of zen...

                                                                Huh?

Visit from Grandma

"Grandma is coming to town!!!!"

Yep, my mom is coming to visit us for a couple of weeks this Wednesday. I am trying to think of fun Denver things we can do that we haven't already shown her...  I wonder, is 8 mo. too young for Perrin to get any kick out of the Children's Museum...  To be honest, I just really want to go there myself.  There are always fun things to play with and see; now we have the excuse.  "It's my baby--she has been bugging me and bugging me to go see the Children's Museum." 



Joseph recently took Perrin and I on a tour of his med school campus and to see Children's Hospital.  Most buildings on the campus are really new.  The University of Colorado teaching hospital and Children's Hospital are both on campus and were built in 2007. However the 500 building, at the heart of campus, was built in 1941 and used to be an old army hospital.  At the time it was the largest structure in Colorado.  President Dwight Eisenhower had a heart attack while visiting Denver in 1955, and was treated in the 500 building, then called Fitzsimons Army Hospital.  He was there recovering for seven weeks.  Now you can go and tour the Eisenhower Suite, which has been restored to just how it looked in 1955.  

Children's Hospital is awesome.  You walk in the lobby, and it looks like a really fun place to be, not a place to fear.  They had children's crafts going on in the lobby, they had a teen lounge, and tons of natural light, especially in the areas were the patients actually stay.  They seem to really want to make it a place where children and their families feel comfortable and not intimidated by that hospital feeling.  There is this great ball machine in the lobby that I could watch for hours--loops, springs, bells, the works.  Sure they probably practice really great medicine there--but the ball machine...I'm tellin' ya...

Thrift store shopping for Perrin the other day turned up a little baby scrub top!  He he he he.  I couldn't resist.  So here is a photo of Perrin Clere-Callis MD.  I want to get a pic of her in it wearing a stethoscope with the end of it in her hand--hilarious.  

Oh! We had sort of a major step with Perrin on Saturday.  She was playing on the floor while Joseph and I anchored her wardrobe to the wall.  We look over and she is on all fours rocking forward and back!  We were so excited--as though she was going to take off like a drag racer all of the sudden.

I am excited for her to crawl, but also thinking how much more vigilant we are going to have to be...  There are all sorts of random things laying on the floor or just a foot up.  I now see everything in terms of the size of a baby throat.  I look around and realize we are swimming in hazards!!  How does anyone live to adulthood!?  So...thank you mom and dad for all the work you did keeping me alive back in the 80's.  Good job--I had no idea.

                                           Zen moment with Perrin.
                                          "Giraffes taste like meat." 

Amazing news!!

Last week we got the news we had been waiting and hoping for...Joseph got into Anschutz Medical school here in Denver!!!!!  This is thrilling for lots of reason, but mainly- we are going to med school at our top choice school, it is in the top 10 for pediatrics, which Joseph is interested in, and we get to stay in our lovely little home.  We are feeling so lucky right now, but I know it was not just luck.  Joseph worked so hard- getting up the will to go back to school, starting back at our local community college, working full-time and going to school full-time.  He earned this opportunity for sure.  I am really proud of him.  

 Now after all that work, he gets to do many more years of work!  But at least he knows now what the outcome will be, instead of just having the hope to drive him.  

Training to do something you are passionate about--that is it.  Of course he will have the double challenge of being a father & husband on top of school...  We have already been connected with a second year student with a family to give us information about what that experience is like, as well as practical things like insurance and childcare.  This guy wrote us back a full page email with lots of useful information--that ultimately is pretty discouraging.  He said that everyone he knew on campus with children had a spouse that worked.  This is because there is a federal limit on loans; so it sounds like my time as a stay-at-home parent is going to come to an end this summer.  I guess I have known that this would be necessary, but was sort of in denial about it.  Come August, it will truly be all three of us getting used to a new phase of life. 

Why are my parents so tired?  Today is great!

A couple of nights ago we lowered the level of Perrin's crib since she will be able to start pulling up on it soon.  Weeeeell, evidently that was a very upsetting thing for her.  She woke up at 2:30am very upset, then wouldn't go back down to sleep.  The following day she wouldn't nap, just laid in her crib complaining for the duration of both nap times.  Wow.  We were just beat and cranky most of the day.  But, the day was saved by...the installation of our new microwave!  Our old one had the decency to die the week we got our tax return money.  We actually installed it after Perrin went to bed; we were using the drill, making all sorts of noise but thankfully P decided she had come to terms with the level of her bed and slept right through it till 5:30 this morning.  Being moderately well rested and with the ability to reheat my coffee with the touch of one button, the day is a bit rosier today.