A Peek at the Poulsens

(In connection with the previous post,  here is a link to Natalie's birth story.) Natalie and I can't seem to shake this cold/allergy issue we've been having since we got home last week...my cold has sunk into my chest which is the worst part of the cold/cough cycle, and Natalie was sneezing ALL day. I pretty much just followed her around with a kleenex. She's been a trooper though, being cozy and sweet when she's not having a *sensitive* moment. sick baby with post-bath curlies With neither of us feeling great, it's been hard to get stuff done around the house but I had bought on-sale strawberries yesterday and needed to use them before they went south...hence, freezer jam! The strawbs were seriously perfect - all four pounds were beautiful, ripe, happy red berries. For the first time ever I didn't find a single bad berry to throw out!  Austin contributed by squishing the berries and by playing fruit ninja with the lemons. ta daaaa! look ...

Normally we just rinse Natalie's sippies in the sink or wash them in the dishwasher, but we accidentally left one in the car overnight and it required more attention so we whipped out the Ivory dish soap that we haven't used since Natalie was brand new. It brought me immediately and intensely back to when she was first born and had to stay in the NICU for five days. I wouldn't wish those circumstances on any parent, especially for the first child, but in a way it made me a different, stronger mother than I would have been. I felt like my hospital stay didn't really happen because we were only in the NICU with Natalie, so I don't even really have memories of that part post-delivery. What I do remember is the amazing, wonderful nurses who took care of our baby girl, and us at the same time. The neonatologists were capable and informative, but it was the nurses who really showed us compassion. One in particular, Ladonna, made the experience even close to enjoyable beca...

I love that old Carpenter's song "Rainy Days and Mondays"...such a good wailer. It also describes our morning! Natalie and I set off for our happy walk not knowing that a huge storm was looming...I guess the clouds were pretty dark, but we were determined not to make excuses. At the exact half-way point of our walk, it starts POURING. Like, guy-just-breaks-up-with-girl-movie-type downpour. Normally I would just traipse on home, but with such important cargo I was actually worried for our safety since it was getting chilly and the lightning was extreme. We huddled under a tree that sort of sheltered us for a minute, but the persistent raindrops were not feeling lenient and I was completely drenched, along with the stroller. Natalie was warm and dry inside, (thank you, Britax!), and sort of nonplussed with the whole thing. I waited for about five minutes with the pelting rain, and then decided it would be better to just suck it up and make it home since Natalie was safe in ...

We're baaaaack! It feels so good to be lounging on my comfy couch with candles flickering to dissipate the vacant apartment smell and Natalie asleep in her own crib and Austin watching game seven of the NBA finals (Spurs vs. Heat, for the record) with his family. In a nutshell, this is how the trip went down: SUNDAY: church/lunch in Omaha with the Plumbs; dinner in Des Moines with old mission friends of Austin's; decide to call it a night outside of Davenport note: plan hotels ahead of time. We didn't know how far we would get on Sunday so we decided to wing it and make a reservation on the road, but we didn't realize that the cost-effective Econolodge (the name should have made us halt right there) that seemed okay online was located at a truck stop and didn't believe in fitted sheets for their blue, skanky mattresses. It was a total yikes from the moment we pulled into the parking lot, but we made it through (although even Natalie was getting bad vibes and...