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Saturday, December 29, 2018

Christmas 2018

This year, we had a busy but wonderfully cozy Christmas!


Lucy and Alice were in a Christmas Eve concert at a local church. Lucy was in the Nativity play this year as a shepherd, and Alice was in the toddler choir. 



Alice's performance



Lucy's performance... you can hear Esme in the background starting to get fussy.

After the Christmas Eve service, we had a little family gathering at our house. It is our tradition every year to have cheese and charcuterie on Christmas Eve. This year, my parents were in town, and my brother and sister-in-law also came over with our nieces. Our house was loud and lively, and the excitement of all those little girls was so contagious! 

After everyone left, Lucy and Alice hung up their stockings for Santa. We cuddled up on the couch and read The Polar Express and "The Night Before Christmas". Then we put two tired but very excited little girls to bed... 


Hanging their stockings...

On Christmas morning, the girls did not wake up at dawn. In fact, the grownups had time to get a little coffee before we heard the pitter-patter of little feet on the stairs. Lucy and Alice came out and opened their stockings. Santa was very good to them this year! 

After stockings, we sat down to our breakfast of warm cinnamon rolls and lit the Christ candle in our Advent wreath. When we had finished breakfast, the girls were ready to open their presents...


On Christmas Eve, Morgan surprised us all (including me) with matching PJ's. There was a pair for the whole family, including Baby Esme, so of course we had to document this: 


I just realized Esme was missing one of her socks... poor third child!

After all the presents had been opened (and the wrapping paper cleaned up), it was time to start on Christmas dinner. While the older girls played with their new toys, the grown-ups were cooking and baking.


Except for my dad and Esme, who were napping. :)

Every year, it is our tradition to make a Buche de Noel, which is a French roll cake made to look like a Yule log. The recipe has been passed down in my family from generation to generation. 


This year's Buche de Noel... and we are still enjoying the leftovers!

That afternoon, we went over to my brother's house for Christmas dinner. There was beef tenderloin and roast chicken and asparagus and mashed potatoes and hot, buttered rolls. And, of course, the buche for dessert. 

Afterwards, we got the girls into their coats and said "goodnight". It was such a merry Christmas that Lucy and Alice (and the grownups) could barely keep their eyes open.



"Was there a moment, known only to God, when all the stars held their breath, when the galaxies paused in their dance for a fraction of a second, and the Word, who had called it all into being, went with all his love into the womb of a young girl, and the universe started to breathe again, and the ancient harmonies resumed their song, and the angels clapped their hands for you?"
 –Madeleine L’Engle






Monday, December 17, 2018

Alice's Winter Recital

A couple of weeks ago, Alice had her winter dance recital. It was just too precious for words, so here is a video. You're welcome! ;)



St. Lucy's Day

Obviously, we've been a little busy around here lately! Between caring for a newborn, recovering from mastitis / infections, and the craziness that is this time of year, I have had to take a little break from homeschooling. Fortunately, I had some planned vacation time already built in to the schedule for the holidays, so we haven't lost too much time.

Speaking of holidays, we have been reading about holiday traditions around the world. Last week, we celebrated St. Lucia's, or St. Lucy's, Day, which is on December 13th. As you can imagine, Lucy was especially excited about this holiday. She even dressed up in the traditional costume (minus the crown of candles... fire hazard...). I think she made an adorable St. Lucy!



There are so many incredible books about Christmas traditions around the world. We have been reading this one and love it so much. 



Happy Advent Season!

One Month

Our sweet Esme Rose is one month old! How is this even possible?!

At one month, Esme has become so bright-eyed and alert. She is also STRONG. When she is laying on her tummy, she can pick up her head and look all around. She also has a powerful kick (which I knew from her time in the womb). She follows voices, especially her big sisters', and she turns her head like she's looking for them.

It's difficult to tell what Esme's little personality is going to be like, but she seems very calm and sweet. She loves to be snuggled and sung to. She also loves the play mat and the swing. We are so excited to watch her grow!



The past month has been filled with so many challenges - just not the sort of challenges we expected! I have been extremely sick with mastitis and clogged milk ducts (yep - just as much fun as it sounds!). As I mentioned in my previous post, Esme was having trouble eating and gaining weight at first. She was actually losing weight, which was scary and made us feel helpless and anxious. I was pumping around to clock to get enough milk for her, which was exhausting and emotional to say the least. Thankfully, Esme seems to have turned a corner! She is nursing again and growing well. At her one-month doctor visit, we learned that she is in the 4th percentile for weight. It may not be much, but we are incredibly relieved and thankful. 


Through it all, Esme has just been the absolute sweetest dream-baby. We are all head-over-heels in love with our sweet Esme Rose!

Monday, November 19, 2018

Esme Rose

Sweet Esme Rose joined our family on Sunday, November 4 at 1:25 a.m. - 6 lbs. 8 oz. 19 in. She has a head of dark hair, rosebud lips, and the sweetest dimple in one cheek. We are all madly in love. This is the story of how she was born.


Friday, November 2 was my 31st birthday. Morgan had gotten a babysitter for Lucy and Alice, so the two of us could go out for a fancy birthday dinner. We went to Donna Chang’s, one of our favorite local spots, and ordered crab Rangoon, pork wantons, and shrimp fried rice. Afterwards, we walked next door to Condor Chocolates for dessert. It was the yummiest meal and the most relaxing evening!

We went to bed full and happy. I was just over 38 weeks into my pregnancy, so I wasn't expecting Baby to arrive for at least another week or two. Which is why, when I woke up at 5:30 the following morning (Saturday) with a strange wet feeling, I was extremely confused. For one thing, my water has never broken on its own. And for another thing, it was not the big, dramatic gush like you see in the movies, but more like a gradual trickle.

Half-awake, I called for Morgan. “I think my water broke,” I said.

He came in the bathroom, still half-asleep but trying to register this information. “Are you sure?”

I nodded. “Pretty sure.”

Morgan started to look more awake. “What should we do?” he asked.

“Can you call the midwife? I’ll start getting my things packed.”

Thankfully, we had already packed our hospital bags; we just had to grab our toiletries and call someone to come stay with the girls. Since it was so early in the morning, we had to call several people before one of them called us back. When I realized my water had broken, I assumed that contractions would start right away, and considering how fast my other two labors had been, I was anxious to get to the hospital.

Our friend Ruth showed up to stay with the girls. Before leaving for the hospital, I went down and kissed them goodbye. Lucy immediately shot up, wide awake.

“It’s time for me to have the baby,” I said. “Your dad and I are going to go to the hospital, and soon your baby brother or sister will be born.”

Lucy was so excited. “Oh, congratulations!” she said.

Alice sat up, rubbing her eyes.

“Alice, Mommy is going to have her baby!” Lucy said. Alice looked so sleepy and confused, but Lucy’s excitement was contagious. “Who is going to stay with us?” Lucy asked, ever my responsible first-born.

I told them they would have a babysitter, and that their grandparents would arrive soon. This made them very happy. I gave each of them a big hug and kiss and told them I loved them. Lucy seemed very excited but also a little anxious, so I did my best to reassure her. Alice just rolled over and went back to sleep, clearly not phased.

Ruth arrived soon after, and we got into Morgan’s Jeep (with me sitting on a trash bag) to head for the hospital. When we got there, we had to be admitted through the ER because it was still technically after-hours. The ER waiting room was completely deserted, so we were able to get checked in
pretty quickly. They took us up to Labor and Delivery, and I changed into a hospital gown. A nurse checked the fluid leaking out of me to verify that it was indeed amniotic fluid (as if there were any question). It was, so the midwife was called in, and we talked about my options. She explained that she could check to see how much I was dilated and effaced, but if she did that, because of the risk of infection, it would start the timer for 24 hours to delivery, which increased my chances of being induced. I decided to wait and see if my body would go into labor on its own.

After I had my vitals checked, I started walking. I wasn't allowed to leave Labor and Delivery, so I just walked back and forth, up and down the halls. At this point, I started to experience some contractions every ten minutes or so. They were not painful, and they did not grow closer together, so I began to wrap my head around a potentially very long labor.

Minutes felt like hours. The midterm elections were gearing up, so I watched the news while I paced back and forth in my hospital room, still leaking amniotic fluid (which, by the way, is the strangest feeling). I wasn't allowed to eat solid food (my last meal was The Amazing Birthday Dinner the night before), and I was starving. Morgan brought me Popsicles and Jello from the snack room, but all I wanted was a cheeseburger and fries. As time passed, my contractions petered out and eventually stalled. I was discouraged, frustrated, hungry, and tired. I was anxious to meet our new little one, and I missed Lucy and Alice. After talking with Morgan, I decided to go ahead with induction.

My midwife was assisting with another birth, so we had to wait for her to finish up. It was around 7 p.m. by the time she finally came in to check me. I had dilated to 3 cm and was 80% effaced. When she had checked me at my 36 week check-up, I was 2 cm dilated and 50% effaced, so I had not progressed very much at all. "I don't think it will take much pitocin to get your labor started," my midwife told me. We decided to start with the lowest possible dosage and see what would happen.

Sure enough, in under an hour after starting pitocin, I was in labor. I sat on the birthing ball, breathing through my contractions, until they became close together and extremely painful. I have always heard that contractions are far more painful if your water has broken. Since my water didn't break until late in the game with Lucy and Alice, I never knew how painful contractions could really be. All I have to say is - OW. After several strong contractions, I asked my midwife to check me again to see if I was anywhere close to transition (the most painful part of labor). I moved back into the bed, and she checked me. I was dilated 5 cm, only half-way there. This was not what I wanted to hear! I was already so exhausted, and there seemed to be no end in sight.

My good friend Mallory was one of the sweet nurses who was taking care of me. I knew she had gotten an epidural when she gave birth to her boys, so I asked her about it. Since I am terrified of needles (and my other labors were so fast), I had never even considered getting an epidural before. But this time, I was desperate.

"If you're going to get an epidural," my midwife told me, "now is the time."

After another excruciatingly painful contraction, I decided I wanted an epidural. The contractions I had while waiting for the anesthesiologist to arrive were horrible. I began to worry that he would not make it in time. Fortunately, he appeared and got right down to business. I was in so much pain by this time that I did not think twice about the needle. (Morgan told me afterwards that it was terrifying-looking.) I had a strong contraction while the doctor was administering my epidural and suddenly felt the urge to push. I became terrified that I would have to push a baby out with a giant needle sticking in my back. Before I could worry too much, the epidural was over and done.

At first, my contractions were still painful. Then, my legs started tingling, like they had fallen asleep. My contractions became less and less painful, but I could still feel a sort of pressure, like I had to push. My midwife checked me again, and sure enough, it was time to push. Suddenly, the room became hectic, and the mood was serious. Pushing with an epidural is so different! I couldn't feel any pain, so I had to rely on my midwife to tell me when to push.

"So what do we think, girl or boy?" my midwife asked.

I suddenly remembered that we still didn't know who this little person was going to be, and I became desperate to meet the baby who had been growing inside me all this time.

"Look at that dark hair!" my midwife said, and I became more desperate still. With the next contraction, I pushed with all my might. I felt Esme moving down, and she was crying even as she came out.

"It's a girl!" I heard someone say, and they placed Esme on my chest. I held her, and she stopped crying, as if she already knew me and felt right at home in my arms. Morgan cut the umbilical cord, and the nurses toweled her off, while I let Esme nurse.

Since I had an epidural, I did not feel a bit of the afterbirth pain. Also - cue choir of angels singing - no tearing! This recovery was, by far, my easiest yet. I'm not sure if I have the epidural to thank for this, or if it's just because it was my third time around. Either way, I felt pretty great afterwards, considering what a {comparatively} rough labor it was. My friend Mallory went out to get me my cheeseburger and fries, and it was the most delicious cheeseburger I've ever had.

We couldn't stop staring at Esme. She was so beautiful, so calm and sweet. Even her little cry was like a soft, little whimper, like the bleating of a tiny lamb. I immediately forgot how tired I was. I forgot about the pain of labor. I was only aware of Esme's tiny fingers and beautiful dark hair and perfect lips and dark eyelashes and hairy shoulders. She was so perfect, even more than I had ever imagined.


Meeting for the first time...


Daddy snuggles...


Can't stop looking at her!


Sweetest sisters...


They are so in love!


Beautiful Esme

After two weeks with Esme, we are more in love than ever. After we got home from the hospital, I developed mastitis, and Esme had trouble gaining weight. I had to pump ever two hours, so that we could feed her from a bottle. Because of all of this, my recovery has not been quite as easy as I thought it would be, but it is worth it to see Esme healthy and growing. Even with her feeding struggles, she is the calmest, sweetest newborn I have ever met. 

Welcome to the world, sweet Esme! We love you more than you could ever imagine!

Friday, November 2, 2018

Halloween

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. Both girls were old enough for trick-or-treating, and we did not have to bring the stroller. This year, we decided on family costumes...




I was originally going to be Peter Pan, but M thought a pregnant Peter Pan might traumatize trick-or-treaters. The rest of my family looked mighty cute though. :) 


The family costume was really fun! I think it might become an Angert Halloween tradition!

Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Tea Time

Lately, I have been feeling so tired in the afternoons (Hello, 38 weeks of pregnancy!). It's also the slowest time of day; we are usually finished with "school" before lunch, and the girls spend the afternoon playing independently (since they are both apparently finished with naps). If I don't pass out on the couch (sometimes, I do), I usually need a little pick-me-up around 4 o'clock.

So lately, around 4 in the afternoon, I will brew some herbal tea (with milk and honey for Lucy, mostly all milk for Alice) and get out my fancy tea cups. We usually also have a special snack of some sort (Aldi usually has random European cookies or pastries on sale), and I read aloud from a chapter book.


Lately, we've been reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. 
Lucy LOVES it.


What started out as a way to make it through the afternoon without going comatose has become one of the best parts of our day. I wish I could take credit for this idea, but I stole it from some of my fellow (read: more experienced) home school moms. Many of them have older kids, and they use afternoon Tea Time as an opportunity for their kids to get their Keeping work done. Obviously, my girls are too young for Keeping notebooks (they have Nature Journals, but they usually make their entry during "school" hours), but I thought afternoon tea would be the perfect opportunity to read some of these beautiful chapter books. For months, I have been trying to read aloud to the girls in the evenings before bed, but evenings are so busy for us that we have not been consistent with this habit. I'm so happy to have found another time of day in which to incorporate this wonderful part of the Feast.

And, yummy treats are a welcome bonus! :)

Tuesday, October 23, 2018

Sun Printing

Today, since we had such beautiful weather, we tried out sun printing...


Lucy and Alice's collected subjects...


Sun print in progress...


... the finished product!


I treasure these slow, quiet days with my girls!

"In this time of extraordinary pressure, educational and social, perhaps a mother’s first duty to her children is to secure for them a quiet and growing time, a full six years of passive receptive life, the waking part of it for the most part spent out in the fresh air."   
 -  Charlotte Mason 

Pumpkins

Last week, we visited the pumpkin patch to pick out our jack-o-lantern pumpkin...



Lucy, of course, wanted to find the most deformed, wart-covered pumpkin in the patch, while Alice wanted a tiny, cute pumpkin that she could cradle in her arms like a baby. 

The hunt took a very long time, and we ended up with three different pumpkins to satisfy everyone involved. Never a dull moment with these two! 

Wednesday, October 3, 2018

Fall?

It is finally - FINALLY - starting to feel more like fall. The mornings have been cooler lately, and the trees are starting to change color. We have been collecting leaves around our neighborhood, and the girls have had such fun identifying them - oak, sweet gum, dogwood, magnolia. (It helps that we don't have that many different types of trees!)


Of course, the afternoons still feel like summer. But hopefully, fall is just around the corner!

Thursday, September 20, 2018

Nature Journaling

Part of our routine these days is to try to spend as much time outdoors as possible. This is certainly easier said than done. Between the heat and the bugs (not to mention that I am hugely pregnant), we would much rather sit inside in the air conditioning. But, I have found that going outside - even if it is just a little stroll through the woods in our backyard - is so good for our bodies and our attitudes. If we are having a hard day - complaining, whining, moodiness - some fresh air seems to be the magical cure.

As an added bonus, there is always something new to discover, wherever we happen to go. Lucy even started keeping a nature journal to record her observations.


{Lucy making a nature journal entry, after yesterday's Nature Walk.}

Charlotte Mason said, "It is infinitely well worth the mother's while to take some pains every day to secure, in the first place, that her children spend hours daily amongst rural and natural objects; and, in the second place, to infuse into them, or rather, to cherish in them, the love of investigation..." 

How right she was! It is infinitely well-worth enduring the heat and the bugs just to see their little faces light up over the discovery of a mushroom or a spider's web. Their wonder at an acorn or a wildflower gives me new eyes to see that which I foolishly considered ordinary. 

"We are all meant to be naturalists, each in his own degree, and it is inexcusable to live in a world so full of the marvels of plant and animal life and to care for none of these things."
- Charlotte Mason

A Little Getaway

This past weekend, we enjoyed a short getaway to Jekyll Island, off the Georgia coast. We almost canceled our trip due to the hurricane, but after tracking the storm obsessively for a few days, we decided it was safe. I'm so thankful we didn't cancel; the weather was absolutely beautiful!




The girls loved playing at the beach! Lucy has a boogie board and has gotten pretty good at surfing the waves. Alice is not such a fan of the water (yet), but she likes to chase seagulls and dig holes in the sand. 

Our trip was so refreshing. It was hard to say goodbye to the beach on Sunday and head back home for another busy week. We can't wait to go back!

Monday, August 20, 2018

Homeschooling Update

We have just begun our second week of homeschooling, so I wanted to share a little update on how things are going. Last week was very much about getting used to the new rhythm, and some things proved to be more challenging than expected. For one thing, the weather in Georgia has been extremely hot, and the mosquitoes have been even worse. This made spending time outdoors a bit of a challenge. We had to forego our forest exploration and head to our local park instead, where the mosquitoes were not quite so bad. Thankfully, today was cool and overcast, so we were able to take our first Nature Walk.

Lately, we have noticed these large web-like nests in the branches of our neighborhood trees. Today, we were finally able to get a closer look and learned that they are made by web worms, a type of caterpillar that builds its nest in late summer / early fall. Eventually, the web worms will emerge as a type of moth.


A close-up look at the web worm nests... I actually think they are kind of amazing.


Lucy has also been working on her reading. This is something that she initiated, and she has made some amazing progress. Last week, we started with reading the Mother Goose rhyme "I see the moon, and the moon sees me..." 


Today, Lucy was able to read the words even when they were out of order and all mixed up. She even put them back in the correct order. 


This month, we are reading books about the calendar, learning the seasons, holidays, days of the week, and months of the year. My favorite book that we read last week was Seasons by Blexbolex. 


The illustrations are really beautiful and simple, and many of the words are easy enough for Lucy to read herself. Highly recommend! 


Week 2, here we go!

27 Weeks

I'm about to enter my third trimester, and so far, I have taken one photo of myself this pregnancy. I guess it has been a busy summer!


Here is my bump, all dressed up to go to a wedding!


Things I want to remember about this pregnancy:

- Symptoms: Exhaustion and nausea tsunami waves in the first trimester; extreme hunger and occasional dizziness in the second trimester. Also, occasionally my ears get stopped up for no reason, like I'm riding on an airplane. I've heard your mucous membranes swell during pregnancy, so maybe it has to do with that?

- Cravings: Peanut butter and jelly

- Baby: Like I mentioned before, we are not going to find out the baby's sex until he or she is born. So I don't know very much about this little one, other than what the ultrasound image tells me. I think he (or she) looks a lot like Lucy. Their little profiles are very similar (see below). It will be fun to see if this baby is also born with a head full of black hair!


Look at those little lips and that chin!


We can't wait to meet you, little one!


Thursday, July 26, 2018

Homeschooling

As I mentioned in my previous post, we are going to give homeschooling a try this year. There are a few reasons for this, and decisions about education are so personal that I hesitate to share those reasons with you. I'll just preface this by stating that I know homeschooling is not an option, or a desire, for everyone. And that's totally fine! Better than fine. For our family, in this particular season of life, homeschooling just so happens to be an option and a desire that we have.



The "desire" part comes primarily from a longing to see Lucy enjoy her early childhood as much and for as long as possible. For her, that looks like more time to play and be outdoors, less time in a classroom or doing homework.

Now that the WHY has been covered, I am much more excited to talk about the HOW. There are so many different educational philosophies and methods, and all of them have something different to offer. I was initially drawn to Montessori and Waldorf methods of early childhood education, but there are a lot of aspects of Classical education that appeal to me as well. Enter Charlotte Mason.

Charlotte Mason was a Victorian-era educator whose philosophies were centered upon the idea of "children as persons", which would have been quite counter-cultural in her day and age, when it was commonly held that children should be seen and not heard. This fundamental belief in the "personhood" of children is counter-cultural for us too; in our statistics-based education system, children are reduced to test scores. 

Charlotte Mason emphasized the importance of allowing young children to enjoy their early years (ages 0-6) without any formal schooling. She believed young children should be allowed hours of unstructured time outdoors in the fresh air. And she believed in the nourishing of little minds with only the most wonderful of books. At the risk of oversimplifying, that's what we're going to be doing this year. I'm excited to share more with you as we get started.


"Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life."
- Charlotte Mason

Alice is 3!

This past week, we celebrated Alice's 3rd birthday! It feels like just yesterday that Alice was born, and now she's a big girl with a new, big girl haircut:


I love her little bob with bangs!

We had a small family party for Alice, complete with cupcakes and princess costumes (two of her favorite things). She was not a fan of her birthday candles and looked very worried when M put the cupcakes down in front of her. I guess a little caution around fire is a good thing, but I am always surprised when my adventurous Alice is hesitant about something. She is so full of life and so eager to greet each new day! We love our sweet Alice so much!


Alice Pearl, every day is a jolly holiday with you! You are fun waiting for a place to happen! Your big heart and joyful disposition are so refreshing to my soul. I am very thankful to be your mama. I love you forever, sweet girl!

Wednesday, July 18, 2018

A New Chapter

Hello again!

It's been a long time since I've posted on this blog, and so much has happened that it would be impossible for me to catch you up on everything. Here are the highlights:


- Lucy is 5 years old and getting ready to start Kindergarten in the fall. We will be homeschooling (which is another post for another time). She loves books, ballet, and imaginary play.


- Alice is about to celebrate her third birthday (!!!) next week and has been potty-trained for several months now. Alice is our comedian; she makes us laugh constantly. She also loves to snuggle.

- We bought a house. After living in a friend's barn when we first moved back to Georgia, we rented a little house in a great neighborhood for about a year. We loved that house, but it was TINY. So, we bought a larger fixer-upper and have been {slowly} transforming it for the past 11 months. I'll post more about our home another time.

- We are currently expecting Baby # 3, due November 13th of this year. We don't know if baby is a brother or sister; we want to be surprised this time around! Obviously, the girls are very excited to welcome this new little one to the family!



There is much more to share, and I look forward to recording our adventures once again. Even though I haven't posted in the past couple of years, I have looked back at this blog many times, just to soak up all the memories and show my girls pictures of them when they were small. With all the negativity out there on social media, it's nice to have a space to celebrate what is good and real.