The Ergo Baby Carrier has Arrived

Many moons ago Peter and I were at the Duluth Area Harvest Festival selling hot sauce and produce. I was newly pregnant and I was checking out all the hip baby carriers and strollers coming by our booth. One that caught my eye in particular was the Ergo Baby. It just seemed to make sense. I finally splurged and spent $92 on cottonbabies.com and yesterday Mike, the UPS guy delivered it to my door. I love it! It's so smart. It works as a front carrier (as in picture), back carrier and side carrier. Fredrik is maybe a couple pounds small still, so I have his legs tucked in. Once he's a bit bigger he will sit in the carrier with a leg dangling out each side. There is a little hood that works as a rain, sun, and wind block, and also a nursing cover and a place for him to rest his head if he falls asleep (which happens immediately). It's ergonomically correct for both me and baby, and he will fit in it until he is about 4 years old.

I recently splurged on this because the three of us planted potatoes, peas, green onions, radishes, and some other stuff on Sunday and he didn't enjoy sitting in the stroller unless it was moving and my other slings and carriers didn't work so great. I ended up using a Peanut TM sling, which he loves, but I still need to support him with one arm and bending over is impossible.

On a side note we had about 1" of wonderful rain right after the seeds were in the ground. Too good to be true?

First Night Out

Last night Peter and I had our official first outing since Fredrik was born. We went to the Hutchinson Theatre Company production of Mousetrap. It was REALLY WEIRD being away from the baby for nearly 3 hours! Peter stopped the car to drop me off at the door, then, realizing I wasn't pregnant anymore, we both laughed and parked the car together. The past two months went really fast. I was getting pretty antsy during the play and made a quick call during intermission to check on things. My parents were watching the boy and assured me that things were fine. During the second act I was getting antsy again, but I had to see who the murderer was so leaving early was out of the question. We darted to the car (the first ones out of the building) and found a content baby at home. All in all, it was a fun night, it was a funny and mysterious play and we can now say we've been on a "date." Sort of.
Here are four pictures that my mom took of her darling grandson while we were away, proving that he thrived without us for a few hours!

Spring is Here...Maybe Not

I thought that spring was here to stay, but no, not even close. We are in the middle of a three day blizzard right now and it is "the pits." Fredrik was starting to like stroller rides, and I was starting to enjoy the exercise of pushing the storoller around the farm. Peter was also experiencing parental bliss carrying Freddy around in the front carrier (it's the cool dad thing to have a front carrier) and showing him the sights and sounds of the farm. The grass was starting to green up in spots, the quack grass anyway (a horrible wretched invasive weed). We had days that were sunny and blue with huge summertime clouds floating by. The greenhouse was filling up with plants, some spinach and greens plantedin the ground and hundreds of seedlings; tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, cabbage, onions, leeks, flowers, and herbs were all doing great. Yes, this last sentence is written in the past tense since our greenhouse now looks like a tornado came through.
Last night Peter got home from giving guitar lessons and ran out to check on the greenhouse before we settled in for a long winter's nap. To his dismay he heard a thunderous sound which was the greenhouse plastic whipping in the wind. Not a good sight. He ran back to the house and said, "Katy, we have some work to do." By his tone I knew this was serious. "The greenhouse top blew off?" Yikes. My first thought was, "The baby." I thought fast and got that little guy to sleep in about a minute, our emergency-only pacifier went in his mouth, I strapped him into the jogging stoller that was now in the kitchen and turned the radio to static (white noise). I wheeled the stroller back and forth until he fell asleep then took off to the greenhouse where Peter had already parked the van next to the gaping side. Inside, it was really dark but the headlights lighted the way. Hail was flying in our faces, the wind must have been close to 40 mph, and the ground was mud and slush. We loaded the van up with seedlings, drove them to the house, made room in the house, unloaded, went back to load up again, and again, and again. All the while I was running back and forth to check on Fredrik. He was still sleeping, sucking away with a pleasant smiling expression upon his face, OK, run back out into the blizzard, run back in, still peaceful, out again...pretty soon we had gotten all of the plants inside. Our kitchen, living room, and dining room floors are covered with all the plants. We're going to leave them inside until tomorrow when we will bring them out to our smaller greenhouse. Peter is rigging up a heater and some better insulated sides for their next home. Craziness.
Here is the recent past when the weather was getting better all the time. Fredrik's first buggy ride with Grandma Barb, he loved it.

Peter with Fredrik after a good walk-around:

The peaceful baby amidst the greenhouse plants in our kitchen:

The greenhouse this morning:

Getting Bigger all the Time

He likes to flail his arms. In the back right is the birth announcements ready to be sent out. Yea!

This picture is a little blurry but just look at that smile!

Peter enjoys reading exciting things like this book, "Torts" while feeding the baby. Sometimes he is also drinking a cup of hot tea. Safe!