Dad's Birthday and Protests in Madison

Well, another week, another blog!

The kids had a snow day yesterday. A winter storm dumped another foot or so of snow on us (sigh). Rather discouraging, since last week was warm and melty and we were starting to see patches of beautiful brown mud.

But it's only February, and this is Wisconsin, so what can be expected?


This weekend we went to Rhinelander for an early celebration of my dad's birthday. We couldn't fit 81 candles on the cake, but Emma did her best (I think the final count was 28 candles).


Mom and Dad's driveway was paved in ICE. Even with 4-wheel drive we had to take the sissy way up the driveway, going around the loop, in order to make it up. Luckily Mom and Dad have metal cleats they can slip over their shoes for walks to the mailbox and garage. Yikes-!

Leila enjoyed playing with Grandpa's wooden logging truck. It has a tiny load of removable logs that can be stacked and unstacked... perfect for keeping a soon-to-be 3 year-old busy.

Mom showed Emma how to cross-stitch and got her started on a kit project.

We didn't see Jack this week, but thanks to Facebook and Lindsay I found a new picture of him to post.


He's three weeks old now. Here he is tucked into a corner of the couch, fast asleep. Remember when life was that simple?

The big news this week, of course, has been what's been going on in Madison.

My sister Laurie, her brother-in-law Greg, and my brother John are all teachers in the Madison area (John teaches at the UW). The three of them were active participants in last week's protests at the capitol.

Laurie keeps her own blog and has written a first-hand account of the experience. You can see it by going to the "Laurie's Zoo" link on the top of this page. In case you don't make it to her blog, I've included some of her photos here.

She, along with thousands of others, is frustrated, worried, and angered by Governor Walker's plan to eliminate collective bargaining rights for state employees in Wisconsin. Her and her husband lost their business recently, so feel like they're getting a "double whammy" of the suffering experienced by private and public sector employees in this economy. They live in an expensive part of the state, so are truly worried whether they will be able to afford to keep living in their home if their pay decreases and their expenses go up.

So I'm worried about her! And worried about this trend in our state... what it means for the future and what it means for the rest of the country.

Valentine's Visit from Susan

Happy Valentine's Day!

This weekend was special because Susan came for a visit. She flew in with her mother to spend a few days in Wisconsin and meet baby Jack.

Saturday night Emma had a "sleepover" at Susan's motel room. The motel pool was open till 11 at night, so Emma brought her suit and had a blast swimming and hot tubbin' it with her big sister.

We picked up Emma in Cornell the next day, meeting her and Susan at Grandma Jane's house. Jonathan, Lindsay, and Jack were there too.

This was Grandma Jane's first time seeing Jack. We had lunch and visited for a few hours. In the afternoon Jon and the kids went to the nursing home to see Grandpa Bud. In the evening Susan followed us back to our house in Colfax and hung out for a few hours. It was fun having her around.

We plan to make a trip to Kentucky in April. We'll stay a few days at Susan and Jay's house and then make the 2-hour or so trip from there to West Virginia, to see David act in a play at his college. Hopefully we'll get to do some sight-seeing, too. It's been awhile since we've had a vacation of any kind!

I'll close with a picture of an eagle's nest Jon spotted along the "river road" (Hwy 178) to Cornell. If you look carefully you can see one of the two bald eagles that tended the nest while we were there. The nest is on a big tree overlooking the Chippewa River, and right next to the highway so pretty easy to see. Look for it next time you go to Cornell!

A SUPER Sunday

Jon grinning at the TV set (can you guess why??).

I'm sure I don't need to remind anyone what happened last Sunday: the Packers WON the Superbowl.

We watched the game at home and made a little party out of it; we had all kinds of snacks and munchies. Strictly speaking, I should admit I didn't actually watch the whole game. But I participated more than I usually do. I listened to the national anthem, caught snippets of the game here and there, laughed at a few of the commercials, and saw the Black-Eyed Peas perform at half-time.

That's a lot more interest than I usually show in a football game.

Though not always there, I knew exactly how the game progressed by the noise Jon and Michael made as they watched the game downstairs. There were lots of happy "whoops" and high-fives at the beginning... Packers in the lead. Things were tense in the second half... laments. Frustration, disgust, and an element of pain. General grumpiness. Followed, of course, by Sweet, Sweet Victory and praise of Aaron Rogers. Also some mild speculation over Brett Favre's thoughts at that moment (joined the Vikings so you could get a better chance at the Superbowl, huh, Brett?).

Michael is a Viking fan these days, but for purposes of this game benevolently decided to root for Green Bay again (since he admits to at least liking them better than the Steelers). It was fun having the whole family be on the same page again.


But watching the Superbowl wasn't the best thing we got to do on Sunday: earlier that day we went over to the Walters' house, and got to hold baby Jack for the first time.

Jack is doing great. The large bruise he had on the top of his head at birth is completely gone now. He has a couple of little scabs, still, from where the skin broke, but those are healing fast.

Jack is sweet little cuddlebug. He's already handsome. It was fun indulging my inner Grandma and seeing his little closet and dressers full of clothes and toys.

Jonathan, Lindsay and Jack had spent almost a full week in the hospital, and were very glad to finally go home. Saturday night was their first night on their own, and apparently it was a pretty sleepless one. Jack likes to spend his time being held and/or being fed, and has very well-developed lungs and vocal cords (so they said; he wasn't at all fussy while we were there admiring him).


Last week I mistakenly reported that Susan and her mom were coming for a visit that day. It's actually this coming weekend that they arrive.

It won't be a long visit, but hopefully we'll get to see Susan a little while she's here. We know she's very excited to be an aunt.

This week Jonathan starts his new job as assistant manager at Mona Lisa's. It'll be fun stopping their occasionally for drinks and meals.

Let me say again how proud we are of him and Lindsay; they really are stepping up and doing the best they can for little Jack and each other. There seems to be a lot of love there between the two of them.

Saturday was Michael's last basketball tournament of the year. The tournament was in Colfax, and Michael's team won first place! Way to go, guys. Michael and his team worked hard and improved greatly over the past three months.

Well, that's this week's news! Hope everyone is well and making it through our latest cold snap.

And if I don't write again before the 14th, Happy Valentine's Day!

Baby Jack

And here they are... Jonathan and baby Jack.

My stepson Jonathan became a daddy yesterday afternoon (January 31st). His son Jack was 20 1/2 inches long and weighed 7 lbs 14 oz.

Both mother and son are fine now, but the delivery was a bit of an ordeal.

Lindsay's water started to break Sunday morning. I know that because she mentioned it when she contacted me for people's addresses so she could send out thank you notes for shower gifts. She said her and Jonathan were waiting for contractions to start.

They didn't start right away, but she went to the hospital later that morning. While there, the rest of her water broke.

She still didn't go into contractions, though, so they gave her pitocin. Then contractions started... but she spent the next 24 hours or so trying to bring Jack out into the world. As time went by, we became anxious. We went to the hospital late Monday morning and waited outside the room awhile, but of course couldn't disturb her. We left and came back in the afternoon, with the older kids, once they were home from school.

Lindsay was dilated to 10. She pushed for four difficult hours before the decision was made to give her a c-section. We're not medical experts, but that seems like an unduly long time-! And Jack seemed to agree... when he was finally delivered he had a large, dark bruise and abrasion on top of his head. He also had a high fever and an infection, probably from being inside his mother so long after her water broke.

By the time we got to the hospital the second time, his fever had fallen down to "only" 101. We were startled to hear that his condition was such that the Walters, and even Lindsay, had not been able to hold him yet. He was in intensive care and hooked up to all kinds of monitors.

Jonathan was with Lindsay throughout her long effort, holding her hand, helping her drink, encouraging her. When Jack was finally born, Jonathan accompanied the poor little guy to the ICU, so Lindsay could be sewn up and attended to.

Jonathan came out (in hospital scrubs) and explained the situation to us. After awhile we were able to see baby Jack, but not hold him, when Lindsay was moved from intensive care (where she finally got to hold Jack and feed him) to a recovery room.

After we saw Jack, we went home... Lindsay, Jonathan and the Walters were exhausted.

We came back the next day and got another look at Jack in the ICU. We were so relieved to see him awake and looking much, much better. His fever is gone but he still has a touch of the infection left. I'm betting that will disappear fast because while we were there Lindsay was able to go to him and feed him and hold him for a good hour. He was very hungry and the best medicine in the world for him is his mother's milk.

We didn't get to pick him up, but we held his little hand and looked into his eyes. We left the hospital feeling like he's going to be okay.

Lindsay is such a trooper! What a strong, calm young woman. And Jonathan, to paraphrase Susan, is acting like he was born to be a dad. You couldn't ask for a more attentive, helpful young father. He would go back and forth from solicitously bending over Lindsay, to see how she was doing, to walking over to ICU to check on Jack, to making all of us worried grandparents, aunts, and uncles (I'm talking about Emma, Leila, and Michael here) feel like the hard part was over. We're just so impressed with him... when did he become such a mature, responsible adult??

And Lindsay's parents, the Walters... let me say how great they are. So easy to be around, so gracious and inviting. The next time we see Jack will probably be Sunday, at their home. We'll be able to hold him on our laps and maybe even see Susan and her mother... they will be flying over for a short stay for their own first meeting with baby Jack.