Third Annual BryceLand Wild Plum Festival

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Well, the sun has set on this year’s plum harvest. It didn’t seem like there were quite as many plums on the tree as we had that first year, but they were in better shape on average, with fewer bruises and weird spots. Most were on the large side, too, so I had plenty to work with, and got two batches (about 20 cups) of jam from them all.

Looks like I didn’t mention the Festival at all last year. That’s because there was hardly any fruit on the tree, so it was kind of a non-event. Hmm, in fact maybe this one should be the Second Biennial BryceLand Wild Plum Festival instead. Anyway, we’d had a hard storm just as last year’s blossoms came out, and it blew them all off, so the tree got hardly any insect attention.

This year I had to do most of the jam work while Riley was asleep. I was able to do some chopping with him feeding himself in his highchair, though. It’s actually a little more work than I can rationally justify, given how slowly we go through jam, but then we give away most of it. And it’s pretty satisfying to see the finished product.

My grandpa usually makes wild plum preserves too, but this year he probably hasn’t been able to, with Jeanette being so sick. I’ll send them some of mine.

Just a Few Noteworthy Items for Now

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Riley’s front two top teeth have just broken through in the past couple of days, bringing the grand total up to five. The next two out from those are almost through too, you can see the gums straining to hold them in. (Still no sign of the second bottom right incisor, but it must be in there somewhere.)

I’ve been taking photos of Riley with my cell phone to send to Laura while she’s at work. I’ve started archiving them in my LJ scrapbook. I like the current scrapbook layout, but I want to add some links in a sidebar or something. This would be pretty easy, except the source code for this style isn’t public. So now I’m thinking I might reverse engineer it, in my copious spare time. 😛 Unless somebody reading this knows of someone who’s already reinvented that wheel.

Father’s Day brunch here at home tomorrow, consisting of huevos rancheros. Mmmm.

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My Grandma Betty died Wednesday morning. She’d had cancer, discovered at an advanced enough stage that she decided not to treat it at all. I really respect her for having the strength to make the decision. As much as I love her and wish I had more time with her, I know everyone is happier that she suffered as little as possible. And I’m not sure it would have given her much more time anyway.

I’d known for a few months. She’s always been reticent about health problems, preferring not to worry us. All along, she seemed as emotionally prepared for death as anyone could be. Knowing how she hated to worry her family, I wondered whether she was just putting on a brave face for us all. But when I spoke with her, and especially when I saw her in person, it was clear that she really was at peace with it. She was thankful for her life, and looking forward to heaven. She was always a strong person with strong faith.

I got to see her at Christmas, and I know it meant a lot to her to meet Riley, even though she was already basically confined to bed by that time. It was like a lot of visits in recent years: I felt like we never got into the real substance, we were just catching up on little daily details, and distracted by all the rest of the family. But this time it was probably just as well. I found it easier to keep from crying if I stuck to telling her about Riley and not focusing on the fact that it would, in all likelihood, be the last time I ever saw her.

If I can be called a nice person at all, I have Grandma to thank for teaching me by example. She never had an unkind word to say about anyone. She was always patient and supportive. I remember when I was little, she always treated me like a child in the good ways, like making me feel safe and loved, but she never patronized me or made me feel like my opinion was any less important than anyone else’s. I wish I could have her guidance through my own parenthood journey.

She spent her last days at home, surrounded by family, with hospice care managing the pain as best they could. The funeral is this afternoon, and here I am a thousand miles away. I feel pretty lousy about it, but there it is. Apparently everyone else in my family is there.

I’ve been giving myself a pretty good subconscious thrashing lately for not being a better grandson, and just feeling sad in general because home won’t ever be the same again. But I know that Grandma wanted us all to be happy. So I’m trying my best.

lateral career move to Senior Domestician

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Laura’s maternity leave gave out in early November. Since then I’ve been watching Riley during the day, just the two of us here at home. I’ve also still been working for IBM, 20 hours a week or more. So I haven’t accomplished much else for a while.

It’s gotten steadily more difficult to meet expectations at work as Riley’s gotten older. He’s at the stage where’s developed enough to want to interact and explore, but not developed enough to accomplish much himself. So he gets bored and frustrated unless you’re right there entertaining him all the time. Which of course I’m perfectly happy to do, but then I can’t be working too. (Not that I haven’t tried; sadly, watching me type is as boring to him as it would be to anyone, no matter how dramatically I read aloud as I do it.)

When I started out, Riley was napping for two or three hours every morning, and at least an hour every afternoon. Then after a few weeks his naps kind of evaporated. So for the past month or two, most of the work I’ve been able to do has been at night after he’s gone to sleep. About the last thing I want to do at night is read dry technical articles about database software. So I’ve felt less and less motivated to go the extra worker bee mile.

As much as I like my job (and I really do, despite how this must sound), I don’t want to end up resenting it or doing it badly. So I’m phasing myself out of it now. I’ll stay for another month or so, while they find someone to replace me, and then take a hiatus to focus completely on Riley. My manager said he’d love to have me back when I’m ready, which is great. The idea here is to leave while that’s still true. I would like to come back eventually, if it’s feasible.

Meanwhile, I can’t believe how fast Riley’s grown. I look at the earliest photos of him now and can’t fathom that he used to be that small. See for yourself. He’s so much more fun these days, he smiles and babbles at us a lot. He responds well to music, and really loves getting swung around in the air. He also loves going out wherever and watching new people. We’ll be doing a lot more of that once I’ve stopped working. He’s going to love it.

Riley arrives

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Around 8:00 on Friday night, while we were having dinner at home, Laura’s water broke.  We were sort of surprised; this was the first sign we had that
she was going into labor.  While we gathered our stuff and headed to the hospital, she started getting more painful contractions. They got stronger over the next couple of hours, while we got checked in, evaluated, and finally moved into a birthing suite.

Laura got an epidural at around 11:00 pm, which made a world of difference.  Sometime around 1:00 am, things got to the point where she could start actively pushing.  She was amazing.  At 1:33 Saturday morning, our baby was born.  He weighed 7 lbs 3 oz, and was 19.5 inches long.

I will never forget how it felt to see him for the first time.  Nor will I ever be able to describe it adequately.  I was just overcome with joy and excitement.

It took us a couple of days to settle finally on his name, but we’re calling him Riley.  There are a few photos here. I’ll add more there soon. It’s hard to catch him when he’s not sleeping or eating, but now that we’re home we’ll hopefully have better luck with the photo ops.

Everyone’s doing fine.  Laura’s pretty tired, but feeling better each day.  Riley’s eating well, and is in good shape all around.  I’m very proud of them both — much more than I feel like I deserve to be, given that I was basically a spectator for the whole thing. :)  But I’m doing what I can to keep him settled between feedings so that Laura can sleep then.

We’re both very grateful to have Laura’s mom staying with us for a while.  Without her help we would probably have left our wits’ ends far behind by now.  Instead, we get to focus on the baby and eat very well. :)