Rainy deluge and dreams of sunny hikes

It's been raining like the dickens (etymology?) for several days. Most of the local rivers have risen to near or are at flood stage now, especially along the North Coast. Everything's sopping wet. And we love the water...but our whole household is longing for a sunny hiking break. So we figured the next best thing was to go back and look at some of our hiking photos from this past year. And it worked. Except now we're REALLY longing for a sunny break in the weather, and it looks like it's coming this weekend! Nevertheless, we thought we'd share some of our (mostly) sunny outdoor photos from this past year with ya'll.

("Huh! How 'bout that?! I said ya'll. I guess I AM local!") name that movie...

Baby Limpet's first doctor appointment

And there you have it. Limpet's first exposure to modern medicine; the probing ultrasound. But the pics came back and guess what?! Limpet should be pluralized!

No not really! The doc just happened to flip the monitor around for a mirror image of the same thing. But it sure made our hearts skip a beat for a second. Cat had been thinking about the "what if" thing (naturally) but we hadn't really discussed it together this time (we did prior to Finn) so it did cause us to pause and look at each other momentarily. But Amy (the doc) saw our faces and musta read our thoughts/looks and alerted us to what she had done.

Since we are all about the experiential things in life, Finn accompanied us to the appointment and thought the whole ordeal was pretty cool. But her interest started to wane as nap time drew near. We'd been having discussions with her that a new brother or sister is on the way and she sorta gets it. But on our ride to the doc's office, Jeremiah began explaining to Finn how baby Limpet isn't really in mummy's tummy but next to it in the uterus in it's protective shell called the placental sac. Aaaaand that just about sent Cat over the edge, given the slightest things can set her stomach to untold nausea in hundreths of seconds flat. And that little discussion had done it...and thus ended that discussion (for the time being, anyway).

Mummy had a full blood workup and Papa and Finn played with chairs. That's right, there were all kinds of toys around. But Finn wasn't interested. She wanted to organize chairs into rows. And she informed me it was supposed to be "just like a schoolhouse like Laura on Little House on The Prairie". Oooo-kaaaay. Our girl's just may have been born in the wrong centery...


And just as we were about to leave the office, Finn looks up at a gentleman (in his early 60's I'd say), and looks at me and says "Papa, look! It's Great Grammie!" This gentleman is obviously taken with her and smiles and waves back. I say "You mean he looks like Great Grampie Gowey" (Great Grammie's son)? And she says, "No, Great Grammie!" She waves to him, he kindly smiles and says something to the effect of "Seasons Greetings" or "Happy Holidays" or "Merry Christmas" or the like, says "She's beautiful" (funny how she gets that all the time) and carries on about his business. Finn again says, in an excited tone, "Papa, it's Great Grammie". As many of you know, her great great grammie Gowey is fast passing into this next world, we had just visited her again a week ago, and she is totally taken with Finn...has been since she was born. As Great Grammie (as we call her) slips in and out of consciousness, I couldn't help but wonder if she paid Finn a visit, through another's persona, in the doctor's office just to see her shiny face and perhaps tell her everything's ok. I was without words...

I love you Great Grammie. J

Our Exciting News

We had some amazing news...we learned this weekend that we are expecting our second child. We are still in the early stages yet so we're a bit nervous. Our first appointment is Christmas week...after that we'll feel a little more secure.

We were going to wait to tell everyone for a bit...but I'm already feeling sick and didn't think we'd be able to hide out for awhile with the holidays coming or convince everyone I have the flu for a month and a half...


Thanks for sharing in our glad news!

Love,
Cat/Jeremiah/Finn