Sleepy Sam

Sam is taking a rare but much needed nap. I just thought it was cute, so I had to take a picture. 

Wait, that's MY dad!

 

Awyn and Aidan are very close in age, but I think he outweighs her by quite a bit. He was also less than thrilled to be sharing his daddy. Awyn on the other hand demonstrated a rare willingness to go to somebody other than her mama. 

Birthday Party!

We went to Caelin's 3rd birthday party! He turned three this month. We arrived here in the park 2 years ago in time for his 1st birthday party. Has it really been that long? 

Awyn likes playing and standing

She may be little, but she's getting awfully big! 

It's been a while

I need to go find the camera so I can post some pictures. I've been very busy working. It's been almost full-time with all the training I've been doing. This weekend I worked by myself as I was covering for someone. I think I did pretty well, only a few silly mistakes and one bee sting. Saturday a honey bee flew up my sleeve and it stung me on the fleshy part of my arm. Ouch! I guess they are attracted to the paint on the cars; it shimmers and reflects light and looks like water to the bees. So visitors get swarmed, and they fly into the booth to commit suicide by buzzing around the front window. On average they drop dead after about an hour and a half. I think I need to read, "The Secret Knowledge of Water" as it was recommended by a knowledgeable volunteer.

While working the entrance station on Friday I met my former supervisor. It was fantastic to see her and talk with her. I was able to get all the latest news on my former co-workers, and we had a great chat. I do miss them a lot; they are a terrific crew, caring people, and I really enjoyed working with them. But the job I have now is a better fit for me, as it gives me far greater flexibility in my working hours and days. While I miss putting my degree to good use, and I miss working with the kids, I don't miss the driving. It worked out to nearly 5 hours of driving/day and while the highway along the Rio is beautiful, it is a dangerous, difficult commute. The Coop did work hard to make me comfortable and keep me happy, and I have to give them credit for that. They are some of the hardest working people I know.

I am really enjoying my time at the entrance stations. I get to meet lots of different and interesting people. It really doesn't get boring, especially this time of year when the cars are fairly constant. Awyn and Sam cry when I leave them, but they settle down quickly and play with Lily and her baby. We are truly fortunate to live in so great a place as we do. Oh, and my latest background check is apparantly proceeding. My friend Melinda called me to say that she'd received a letter asking for information on me. I forgot to call my references, and I must apologize. I plan to look up who all you are so I can warn you, but there are quite a few of you as I had to list a reference for every address and job and school I lived, worked or attended for the last 7 years! I also had to list my parents and their personal information. So there's a good chance that NSA, FBI, CIA or other people may be contacting you regarding me. Wow.

Feeding time at the zoo

Sam decided he wanted to feed Awyn, and she thought that was just fine. 

Eric caught me coming home from work on Monday. Most of that uniform is scavenged from Eric's closet, but a little of that is mine, like the hat, badge, nametag and shoes. The rest I 'altered' a bit to fit me. The rest of my uniform is still on order. 

Happy Valentine's Day

Sam is opening a valentine from a friend. He likes it when candy is included. I was working on Tuesday, so Eric took the kids to a party. 

Sam loves Kermit

 

Teeth!

Awyn has decided it is time for teeth. She is getting her bottom two teeth. I was able to feel them this evening, and Eric was able to catch a glimpse. She's pretty protective, so no pictures just yet.

Bath time

Sam was showing Awyn how to splash and make the water swirl. He's really gentle with her in the water, most of the time. 

Awyn really likes her bathing time. I suspect she gets dirty just so she can play in the tub. 

They play really well together in the tub. 

Here's Eric trying to get some of his spagetti away from Sam. He and Sam finished the plate together. 

Noodle!

Sam also loves spagetti, especially the noodles, although he'll eat the sauce and cheese too. His plate has to have it all separate, but he'll eat it mixed together off our plates. This shot is actually of Sam and stolen noodles; he'd just finished off my plate and headed over to his dad's fresh plate. 

Spagetti Dinner

Awyn has gone on a bit of a food jag. She won't eat anything if it's been pureed. Sometimes she'll eat yogurt, but only if she sees Sam eating it first. She likes texture. It can be bland, unseasoned veggies, so long as she can mash it with her jaws, she'll eat it. 

Back to Work

I started my new job on Tuesday. I've had to fill out all kinds of paperwork, another background check, and all sorts of training. I've really enjoyed the training. There's so much to know about this park, and every little bit of information helps. Even if I can't remember everything I was taught, I'll still remember who to ask! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to start with the beginning of the two-week training course, just the last 3 days of it. Still, that 3 days included birding, back-country permits, fee collection, interpretation, archeology, plants and plant identification were just a few of the things covered. I didn't go on the river trip, but I could have. I'm just not ready for an overnight away from Awyn, as it just seemed difficult to pump through the night while camping with a bunch of strangers, and I'm certain Awyn would have her father packed off in a straightjacket after an all-nighter of screaming no-sleep.

Awyn and Sam are starting the adjustment of going to Lily's and doing without me from time to time. Awyn refuses to take breastmilk from anything but the direct source. I was able to go nurse her on my lunch hour and keep her fed this week, but next week it's onsite training, and I won't be coming home for lunch. She's just going to have to do it, I guess.

Naptime

Awyn was comfortable enough in the pack to take a long nap. She snored most of the time. The wind was cold enough that her nose ran for a while.

We went for a hike today, down the Window trail. It was a lot of fun. We left Sam behind for several reasons, but anyway, he had a grand time playing with friends at Lily's house. 

Rocks Rocks Rocks

She really liked the rocks. They were yummy. 

Rocks!

We put a blanket down to minimize the number of rocks Awyn swallowed. Still, I had to let her play with them. I just tried to make sure they wouldn't fit into her mouth. 

Awyn goes for a hike

Awyn loved the hike, and riding on Daddy's back. She is so much lighter than Sam that Eric hardly noticed his pack. Awyn talked to Eric a lot about many things during this hike. That is, when she wasn't sleeping. Awyn even let Eric hold her afterwards, and snuggled very nicely. 

MINE!

Sam definitely didn't like it when Daddy fit Awyn into the Kelty. His brown eyes turned rather green with envy. 

Christmas Picture

Another video link

Ah the fun of videos! Somebody watched and rated my video before I could even view it or post it on my blog, and they only gave it one smiley face! What do you expect when the title and description are all about Awyn crawling? Which is all this video is, Awyn crawling across the floor. She does it very well, don't you think? I haven't posted this before because well, I was being lazy.

Piano Boy

Sam had some fun 'playing the piano' for his dad. Sam was really jamming to this song, and then Eric ran to get the camera. He stopped, thinking he was in trouble, but as soon as he saw daddy was just going to take a picture, he kept going.

Sam Art

Sam took this. It hasn't been touched up or altered. As I said a few days ago, some of his pictures are pretty trippy. 

Our toothless beauty

Can you tell Awyn loves her brother? She sure can smile for him! 

Our brave photographer

I thought I'd include a portrait of the maestro. Some of his art will take me a while to get on to the blog. The connecting cord for the old camera won't work with our new computer, so we'll have to download the pictures to our ancient laptop, then transfer them to a memory key (Eric says he can make it work even though Windows 98 doesn't technically reconize them) and then finally download them to this computer. He grabbed the new camera away from me when I took this picture, and then did a pretty good job of snapping some shots with it. I have an entire series of me stalking him trying to take the camera, from his point of view. 

Scarlet Fever?

The diagonsis from the PA today was scarletina, the modern equivalent to scarlet fever. I'm a little dubious of this, but hey, it could be. I was pretty sure it was roseola. They have similar symptoms, but one is bacterial and the other viral. The PA is a little prescription happy, so he called in a couple of scripts, and I'm definitely not giving her the robotussin, as I really can't see the point. I gave her one dose of the penicillin, but I won't give her a second dose until I hear from her pediatrician. I have to admit, I'm scared of penicillin because I'm allergic to it. I even get contact allergy rashes if it gets on my skin. (OK, so that's probably something mental, you already know I'm a nut case) Other doctors usually give me (and Sam) an alternative antibiotic, as I'm just not ready to find out if it's a hereditary allergy. This PA however usually does penicillin because it cost about $1.50 a bottle.

I don't know what to think. I'm starting to wish I'd just driven to Midland on Tuesday and we'd seen her regular doctor. I thought the PA was joking when he told me to drug Awyn with robotussin before taking her to the babysitter, so she'd be stoned and ready to accept anyone when she woke up. Then I picked up the prescriptions, and there it was, cherussin (baby cherry tussin) Expensive little bugger too, my c0-pay was $13. So I'll hang onto it just in case she needs it in the future, I'll have it on hand, but I won't give it to her without a dr. telling me to, it's codeine cough syrup!