Visit from Jeanne and Bud

We had a nice visit from Peter's grandparents Jeanne and Bud Carlson this week. They drove up from Des Moines to meet Fredrik. They thought he was quite adorable and quite strong for his age. We had a tasty dining experience at Peter's on Lake Ripley in Litchfield where we traded off walking around with Fredrik.

Here's Jeanne with her signature "lap sway" baby calming technique. It worked, Fredrik was soon snoozing:

Here's a 4 generation shot with Bud, Roz, Peter, and Fredrik:

Flannel Elephants

Another First: Fredrik snuggled with this little stuffed elephant/blanket from Great Grandma Jeanne. I laid him in his bassinet while I ran to get something and when I came back he was hugging and sucking on this snuggable thing. It was very adorable. He has snuggled with it a few times since. He is now realizing that there are objects that he can manipulate. He's playing much more actively with his floor gym. He even pulled down one of the toys today and some of the plastic rings that held it up were around his wrist. Now that is talent.
Fredrik suddenly does not like bathing. He always had scared look on his face when he was in the water before, but as long as he made eye contact and I had my hands on him he was fine. Now it is a scream session. I feel like I'm burning him, or freezing him, but really, the temperature seemed just right. His bum was a little red, so maybe he has some diaper rash that is irritated with water. I don't know. This reminds me that I have not gotten a picture of him in his bath yet. I'll have to get Peter to take one because there is NO WAY that I could take a picture during bath time. Check the blog at a later date for a cute-as-can-be bathtime shot.

Father like son. Flannel. Now I realize that those moccasins are still too big and the pants too small. Oh well.
Well, I best be getting back to readying our house for showing. It is a task that will never be done but we will just have to get as close as possible to having a presentable place. It's hard to be neat and tidy when you are also growing vegetables for 60 families and taking care of a 2 1/2 month old. Possible, yet, but not desirable. This is how I have come to terms with our newest decision to sell the farm and move. I COULD do it all, but I don't want to. I would rather have a little less stress in my life, and, in Fredrik's life. Peter probably would enjoy less stress as well. Or at least a different kind of stress.
The procrastination must end.

Fredrik and Madeline

Last Saturday we participated in the Cystic Fibrosis walk around Lake Calhoun in honer of Fredrik's cousin Madeline. It was a bit blustery but we walked a bit. "Team Madeline" was able to raise over $3000 and the entire walk raised about 670,000. After the walk we went to Aunt B's new apt for a little get together-B's birthday and just an event to have everyone in one place. It took about 1 1/2 hours to get out of her place and to a restaurant. First Fredrik ate, then Madeline, then Fredrik again... It was pretty baby intensive. I took these pics with the two babes on the bed. I think they are getting diaper changes or clothes changes..it's all a blur.

He's been sucking on his fist for about 2 weeks now, but today he finally found the thumb. He's in heaven.

Here's the latest picture of the duder.

Last week we had a little visit with cousin Madeline.
I haven't taken the time to put pictures of Freddy up on the blog for awhile, so, even though we are INCREDIBLY busy right now, I decided I would take a time out to blog a bit. Fredrik is doing great, he had a Dr. appt. last week, he weighed 12 pounds 7 oz. and was 24 inches long. He's in the 43 percentile for weight, 60th for length, and 35th for head size. All of these are normal, I guess they don't have to match up. He doesn't look like a pin head or anything.
We are super busy with so many things right now. Having a 2 month old baby is probably enough to keep one busy, but we are also getting our spring planting done between rain showers. Yesterday the three of us were out for about 20 minutes transplanting brassicas, then I went in with Fredrik while Peter worked alone, then I went out and finished up when my mom and grandma got here (Peter is still teaching guitar 2 nights a week). Today we had some hand weeding to get done in the greenhouse, we got most of it done.
The big news is that we decided to sell the farm. It is official. We met with a realtor (a CSA member, of course) this week and we will finalize things tomorrow. We actually already have a potential buyer. We are running around here like crazy trying to get things ready for showing the house-painting, de-cluttering, rearranging, cleaning the barn... We have a huge garage sale pile so we're thinking of having a "Granary Sale" in our granary this spring.
We will be venturing to the cities on Saturday for the Cytstic Fibrosis walk around Lake Calhoun, then to Aunt B's new apt in St. Paul for a little Aunt B birthday bash. We might look at a few rentals while we are there. We'll see how the day goes.