Do you know the way to Santa Fe?

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we decided to take a little trip to Santa Fe to visit the Farmer's Market, one of the top 10 in the country. Let me tell you, Santa Fe is a city of characters. We forgot our camera, so will have to rely on word pictures and phone-camera snaps.  We saw many at the Market. Women in turbans, fur coats, ponchos or leather fringed skirts... Men with big silver and turquoise belt buckles and cowboy boots... the preppy retired New England set in collared shirts and khakis... the artists wearing hand knit ponchos and Indian jewelry inquiring into exactly what kind of diet the goats had whose hair was being sold as yarn... a few wandering musicians, and people like us pushing double-strollers through the crowd!

People sold all sorts of wares, mostly proudly organic. We saw chile pepper Christmas wreaths, yarn from said goats leading a free and organic lifestyle, knit sweaters, hats and ponchos, the biggest parsnips we ever have seen, breads, soups, salsas, vegetables, soaps, herbs...

We stopped to listen to a fiddler and banjo player for a while before heading outside to check out the famous Santa Fe trains Elijah was quick to spot. Eva was well bundled and slept soundly through this adventure.

We lunched at one of our favorite New Mexican spots, Maria's, also full of character with its uneven, well trodden wood floors, fire place and Southwestern art on the walls. We feasted on enchiladas, chile rellenos, and Elijah's favorite sopapillas. Elijah loved watching the lady make tortillas, and kept waving at her. Eva attracted attention with her general cuteness, ALL BUT SMILING at Elijah and me. I can't wait til she smiles...

Both little ones napped in the car on the way home, and David and I enjoyed uninterrupted conversation. There is so much to explore in Santa Fe. We'll be back. Just taking it in bite-sized pieces!

More Coping with Crying

Cope-with-crying strategy #4: Go for a drive...
We never have been so thankful for our loud, rattling Saturn car a.k.a. "Rickshaw."  Its vibrating has a wonderful soothing effect on Evangeline.  Elijah covers his ears comparing Eva to Thunderbirds fighter jets he saw at an air show... "Really Loud!" He has a great attitude and sense of humor about it.
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Coping With Crying

Cope-with-crying strategy #1 includes putting a screaming Eva in my carrier, cranking up "Hairspray" on Pandora and Eli and me dancing around the house like crazy people. It works... She falls asleep, with the added benefit of a very active 2-year old burning a little extra energy and squealing with laughter...

Strategy #2 involves putting her in our stroller and walking to the park down the street. The fresh air often helps her, and does me good, helping reduce the ringing in my ears...

Strategy #3 or Project Pacifier is progressing well from Zero-Tolerance-No-Way to today's grudging acceptance.  I credit my Mom's encouragement. When she was here she went to the store returning with every brand she could find, determined Eva could find one to suit. Eva settled on the MAM brand... The ones with snappy sayings. I've seen kids with ones that say "Mute Button," "Hello," "Monkey See/Do," and my personal favorite, "No Comment."  I'll have to find some with sassy sayings for her!

Elijah is happy to dance and go to the park, and has been telling me "Monkey cry. Monkey need paci." Today he decided Monkey needed a carrier.  Wonder where he got that idea?
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Evangeline at 1 month old

 Evangeline Elizabeth Voss... 1 month old

weight: 8 lb 13 oz

height: 21.5 inches

head circumference: 28.5 cm

This past month has been a blur... In some ways, we can't believe little Eva is one month old, in other ways, we have lived every minute of this 1 month, and it feels like she's been a part of our lives for much longer...

We praise God for the healthy little girl she is... Early prenatal ultrasounds showed cysts that appear to be disappearing (one is gone, the other shrinking, praise God.)  Evangeline was born with a VSD (essentially a small hole in her heart), but a recent trip to the cardiologist told us that it is smaller than at birth, and will most likely close on its own.  It is not affecting her growth or health in any way, as seen by the energetic way she yells...

Yes, poor little Eva is a crier.  We believe this is due to reflux and an inability to settle herself to sleep, resulting in overtiredness... It has been hard that when she is awake she is usually either nursing or crying, though we are starting to see patches of awake-and-happy Eva that are so encouraging.  She loves being held, so the Moby wrap carrier has been invaluable.  Elijah does remarkably well with the crying, though he announces with joy when, "Eva HAPPY!"  I can't wait til she smiles at him!

Evangeline has the most feminine features and has an adorable way of clasping her hands together as if in prayer.  Her hair continues to be dark.  We watch its growth with interest.  She has the classic Voss cow-lick, and I think David's eyes...  We think she is beautiful! 

Gazing at the ceiling fan... something of deep interest to Eva.

We are so thankful that Evangeline is a fantastic little nurser.  One hour after birth she was nursing like a pro.  After the months of time we spent helping Elijah learn to nurse, this is such an amazing blessing.  Even my getting mastitis (twice in 3 weeks... fever, excruciating pain, swelling...) hasn't interfered with her feeding, though it pretty much wiped out any remaining energy I had.  Thank God that Mom and Mom Voss were able to be here helping us through this time when I needed them.

Though Eva takes a long time to settle, once she is asleep, she sleeps for hours.  For 3 nights in a row she has slept a 6 hour stretch.  I feel like trumpets should be sounding with confetti floating down at this feat which Elijah did not manage until 15 months old.

In some ways, we feel experienced with a newborn, and are much more relaxed with her.  In other ways, she's a new little person, very different from her big brother.  We marvel at the differences.  Elijah slept for the first 3 months of his life.  We had to wake him for nearly every feeding.  He had much difficulty nursing and lost weight.  Eva announces when she is ready to nurse, which she does with gusto.  She has clear sleep and awake times, and has been gaining weight steadily.

We look forward to seeing her personality shine forth in the weeks to come.

Elijah at 2 1/2 years old

Elijah David Voss... 2 1/2 years old

Elijah is the happiest little 2 year old imaginable.  He is extremely social, friendly and finds delight in the world around him.  He runs or dances everywhere he goes, and points out objects of interest along the way... airplane!  backhoe! motorcycle...  Elijah has been on a word-explosion for the last 6 months, and now chatters from the moment he wakes up til the moment he goes to sleep.  We often hear him talking to himself in his crib as he winds down or wakes up.  He has also started to "monologue" when he plays, which is adorable to listen to, often featuring details from his favorite book "Jack Tractor."  Digging and dumping continues to be his passion in life, as well as any vehicle that moves... trains, planes, rocket ships, hot air balloons... Living in Albuquerque has caused Elijah to think that jet planes, rocket ships and hot air balloons are as common as school buses and mail trucks, thanks to our access to the Air Force base and the Balloon Fiesta Park.

Elijah and I are happiest when we are out and about, and so have made quite a schedule taking advantage of the (free) activities and parks ABQ has to offer... MOPS, storytime at the library, and storytime at the Balloon Museum are Elijah's highlights of the week, as well as any time he can play with his friends, particularly his buddies Caleb and Leah.  I adore the cackling, gleeful laugh Elijah makes when he sees his friends, and the little dance-run he does to greet them.

Elijah has learned to recognize about half of the letters of the alphabet, and can sing the "ABC" song, as we do it each night while we brush teeth (we need some way to measure time so he knows how long we do this...)

Sports are also starting to be an interest (no surprise there!) and we often bring soccer balls, baseball bats, footballs and frisbees to the park across the street (along with 2 buckets, shovels, a backhoe, a dump truck and a front-end loader...)  Red Sox season especially made an impression on him, and he often announces, "I Big Papi (David Ortiz, designated hitter of the Red Sox)  I hit home run!" He is an excellent runner and climber when he pays attention.  Accidents happen when he is more interested in the people around than paying attention to the climbing wall of which he is nearing the top. 

Sleep has always been Elijah's issue... mostly the settling and calming to go to sleep.  He had about 6 months of near-perfect sleep til his little sister came... We expected some acting out with the change of the added little one, but it has most obviously taken the form of refusing to settle for naps unless he is rocked to sleep.  For me for now the 15 minutes it takes to rock him to sleep is worth it, as he'll sleep for 2 hours and be happy again when he wakes up.  Poor little Eva has to cry for that time, but as you'll read, that's what she does...  I also don't mind the chance to hold my little boy close for a bit!

Other than that, Elijah loves being a big brother.  He is so proud of her, often going up to people and announcing, "I have my sister, Eva!" and pointing her out.  He does very well with her, though he just wants to play with her, and can be rough without meaning to.  He loves holding her, and once grabbed her (with me sitting right beside them!  That fast!  But I'm learning...) by her waist and held her... upside down... with her head dangling above the floor... with a look on his face like "Now what?!"  Of course we have some issues when Eva is nursing, and Elijah wants attention, but overall it has been a very smooth transition to "big brother," and we are so proud of the way he is handling it.

brother and sister

November 12-13 we celebrated Evangeline's 1 month birthday, and Elijah's 2-and-a-half birthday.  We are learning the difficulties of getting two wiggly little ones looking at the camera, looking reasonably happy.  I was so pleased at this picture.  And yes, Elijah is sitting in Eva's swing.  In a moment of weakness I gave in and let him sit in it so I could snap this picture.  We will have to re-train him not to sit in her swing, I know...

 We took pictures of Elijah with his frog stuffed animal each month for the first year, then every six months.  I debated using another animal with Eva, but the frog is nice as it is just a little bit bigger than they are as newborns...  Here are my two babies and the frog. It will be fun to watch them grow...

The Zoo: 1st Family-of-Four Outing

Yesterday we had our first family outing with just the four of us: we visited the ABQ Zoo. The ABQ Zoo is the best little city zoo we've been to, and we're continually amazed at the number of animals they have, the quality of habitats, and how well designed the park is. This time we stumbled onto a new path that lead us to a part of the zoo we've never been full of gorillas, orangutans, African dogs, two rhinos, and a host of exotic birds.

Peacocks roam around the ABQ zoo and if you're lucky you can see one them open their feathers. 

It was a beautiful fall day at the zoo with all of the trees a golden color. 

 Elijah was thrilled to ride the train around the zoo. The train led us through parts of the zoo that you can only see from the train and not walking. This was where we got our first view of the rhino.

The zoo had a baby giraffe that was 9 weeks old. The conductor told us that the day the giraffe was born that when the train passed the pen there was no baby, and by the time it came back the baby had been born, that quickly. 

Coffee and Tea

Those who know us would testify that coffee and tea factor greatly in our lives! Elijah is fascinated by both, though has only sampled decaf tea on the rare occasion. When he asks, we usually say "No coffee for 2 year olds!"

Today we were enjoying what has become our traditional after-church coffee. Elijah, sipping his milk, announced, "Mommy, I get little  bigger, I drink coffee."

We laughed and David asked him "What about tea?"

Elijah responds, "I get big like Daddy, I drink TEA!"

"my story says..."

Elijah has a favorite show he watches called "Super Why" in which the main characters enter a fairytale, and use the power to read to change the story for the better.  For example, in "Little Red Riding Hood," the Big Bad Wolf confesses that he would like to change his ways, but it's "in my story that I'm big and bad."  The Super Readers change his story so he can be a Big Good Wolf.

Yesterday Elijah was throwing his toys around the living room.  We told him not to throw his toys.  He grabbed a thick book I had been reading, flipped to a page in the middle, pointed and announced, "It's in my story.  Elijah throw toys right now."  David and I could barely keep from laughing.  Clever kid!

We tried to use the power to read to change his story, but there was none of it.

Mom Voss visits to meet baby Eva

 God worked the timing out... right after Mom Otten left, and I got mastitis again, Mom Voss came to help out and meet Eva!  For the first month of Evangeline's life, I had someone else around to help!  How wonderful. 

Unfortunately, David was back at work most of this visit, and I was left to man the camera... that would be why there aren't that many pictures of this visit.  I never think to take pictures like David does...

Mom helped so much... the laundry still magically folded itself, dishes were done, and Elijah had loving attention while I figured out life and nursing our little newborn.  Mom came with us to a Moms group, and on a playdate to meet Caleb & Leah and company.  She was a great encouragement.

Grandma and granddaughter getting to know each other

Reading "The Little Engine that Could"... a classic and a favorite

Grandma showing Elijah the special tractor she brought him.  He instantly named it "Jack" after his favorite picture book "Jack Tractor."