New School

Grace is now officially a pre-schooler. She had gone to Mullins United Methodist Church's Mother's Day Out program for a while now, but this year we decided to send her on. Mullins was a wonderful place for Grace and she learned a lot and made many friends, but as her teacher put she probably needs a place that will challenge her more. Miss Allison was quite surprised on day when she made up about 20 flashcards of objects in the room and Grace could read all of the flash cards before they were placed.

Grace is now attending a fully fledged pre-school three days a week and seems to really enjoy it. Lord of Life is very serious about being a school but still has a loving and welcoming environment. At the parents meeting when the teacher was describing the year ahead I had to force myself not to laugh out loud because of all of the educational buzz words she was using. I just remembered how much Tod rebelled against a lot of them while still teaching at a grade school.

Grace is already keeping Ms. Shannon on her toes. On the second day she read the entire morning message by herself and after dinner made us all sit in a library center she created and proceeded to read to library books she had just checked out to Tod and I outloud. The only help she needed was for gull, screeching, and plenty. We scraped our chins off the floor and I thought for the millionth time oh Lord this child is going to keep us hopping.

The First Month

Okay, I had great ambitions of making up a bunch of different entries and trying to really great stories about all of our adventures but there is a reason neither of my children have a scrapbook. They each have a plastic bin filled with all those things that get put in a book.

So our first month as a family of four went beautifully. Martha is a really easy going baby and Grace enjoys being a big sister. She defends Martha from everyone but herself. The only real disappointment so far is that babies don't arrive ready to play and that they sleep all of the time.

Tod was home for a couple of weeks before the official start to the school year. Hear in Memphis that comes very early. He reported for duty August 1. For those of you lucky enough not to live in Memphis, you won't know about all of the drama with our school district. Mid last school year the school board dissolved itself with the city council also voting to allow this and the city's population at large voting in support. Problem is that no one had a plan what to do next. Luckily the whole matter is a mess in the court system, hopefully we'll be gone before they have to actually take action. Because of all of this the city council decided to with hold funds from the school district (because it doesn't really exist all though it is functioning the same as usual). In response to the budget issue the school district decided to delay the start of the school year until the city paid up. After a lot of back and forth and absolutely no communication to teachers the school started as planned but once again Memphis made a spectacle of itself.

Tod has developed a lovely attitude towards it all and spent July just enjoying being super Daddy and spending a large part of each week in the pool with Grace. The rest of the week we all just tried not to melt.

Martha's big achievements were to grow like crazy and sleep so very well. At her one month appointment she had gained three pounds and grown an inch and a half.

Here are some photos of Martha's first very hot month:

first book with Daddy. Same first book as Grace

What Martha does best

Grace still loves costume assemblage and standing tippy toe

At the local park. Grace loves the dirt and Martha sleeps

Practicing to live up to Aunt Jamie's nickname "M.C. Dillender"
funnier if you remember M. C. Hammer

At the Botanic Garden, and yes those are Grace's pj's but hey we made it out of the house.

Photos at one month

Soccer

One of our new experiences this summer besides adding that whole other family member has been getting Grace started off in the wonderful world of sports.

She started the summer with swim lessons at the YMCA. She is all fish. She would spend all day in the water if she could. She is swimming quite well considering that in June she had forgotten everything from before and decided to be afraid of getting her head wet. She swims well without floaties in the shallow area, and likes to retrieve her "fishies" off the bottom. It was fun watching her progress to being able to get them. First she just used her toes, then she could get them if you shoved her under because she just couldn't overcome her own buoyancy, now she tries to get all four with one dive. The other great thing with spending so much of the summer at the pool was her learning overcome being shy. She became a champ at befriending kids at the pool in order to have some one to play with. She must get that from the Dillender's because I know I was never that good at it.

The second big sporting adventure has been soccer. Grace is a member of the Mullins Monkeys. This has involved Tod somehow getting to be made a coach and now two evenings a week consumed, but it is fun. The first game was the past Friday. It reminded me of the hysterical chaos of watching peewee football where Bob used to play football. It did go much better than I thought it would considering what practices are like.

There is no denying Grace is my child. She was out of the car at the field for oh maybe 45 seconds when she tripped over her own feet and scraped the skin off of one knee. She spent the game alternating between limping and whimpering. She did get out on the field and play some. About like practice, usually miles behind the action with some great moves when she didn't have to fight off the mob to get the ball. The game was a riot. A few Monkeys resorted to falling on top of the ball to keep it away from the other team in an effort not to use their hands. Grace got shoved down and stayed down because she landed on the injured knee. None of the adults on the field realized this so I made a mad dash across the field after the play ended up at the other end with Martha in arms, scooped up Grace with the other arm and ran a circle around the perimeter to get back to our chairs. Then the child asked me why she had to come off the field. Mr. Tod (his official coaching title) explained that if you are going to sit down you can't stay in the game. At least we weren't the parent's of the Monkey that put an opposing player in a headlock after the ball was stripped away from him. Grace did have fun even if she won't admit it.



Don't worry, I like them short.

Welcome to the world Baby!

Martha Claire Dillender

July 11, 2011

10 pounds 6 ounces

22 inches

I know that most of you will already have had all of this information but I am pretending that I did this posting more quickly than I really did. Plus this is a chance to tell the long version. So here it is:

My mother kept coming to Memphis for the week and returning home for the weekends for most of June to be here for the big day. She was very determined to be here since Grace came on the one day that was impossible for her to be present. Also she was a tremendous help to me and a great playmate for Grace. I spent June ready for Martha to make her arrival any day. My doctor was ready to induce early but alas the hospital was completely booked, so I kept waiting and twidling my thumbs ready for the baby to decide to come on out.

My annual family reunion was scheduled to start on the 9th of July which meant that the Cooke's were going to be unrepresented most likely this year. However, so many folks flew in to Memphis on Sunday that we had a meal in Memphis and Tod and Mom and Grace and Dad and I all were able to go join in and see a large group of the family. It was a wonderful treat. Mom stayed to visit and the rest of us headed home to get Grace in bed. Dad and Tod headed of to run and errand, and I went through the bedtime rituals and all. I realized while I was reading to Grace that my contractions that I had been experiencing for weeks were finally in a regular rhythm. Mom and Dad and Tod came home and we sat down to play a game of cards. About half way through the game I announced to the table that I was having contractions every 5 minutes. Obviously they weren't terribly strong but they were quite consistent and growing in strength. Tod and I decided we would wait until the end of the game before we would think about heading to the hospital. I'll have you know that I creamed them all.

Anyway (this is the long version) We headed to the hospital at about 11. Since Dad was in town on his way to Alabama, Mom was able to come to the hospital and no desperate calls had to be made in the middle of the night to arrange for Grace's care. Everything went on smoothly and with the aid of my epidural and potocin Martha made her entrance to the world at 9:40 in the morning. No one thought she would weigh in at ten lbs plus. A few moments before she was born my Dr. said I thinks this is going to be a big baby. (not the thing you want to hear mid push by the way) But she was big and a she and she and I were both quite fine and healthy.

The biggest news of the morning was that Dad was able to sooth Grace in the middle of the night, because yes my 4 and a half year old doesn't sleep through the night, and get her up and dressed and fed and off to school (mother's day out) all by himself. Something he never had to do for Bob or I. Mom and he picked Grace up for lunch and then Grace got to see us late in the afternoon. She was interested in all of the buttons on the bed and playing with the ipod. She was interested in meeting Martha and defending her from Daddy's teasing, but the technology won out in the end.

Martha was wonderfully healthy and did great and we came home the next day. Grace had a bad case of swimmer's ear and so our fist night home as a family Grace ended up in our bed and woke me up at least three times in pain and needing comforting and Martha slept for like 10 hours.

Grace and Mom ended up at the lake for several days which was wonderful to have time to get some calm time with Martha and get acquainted as it were.

I must end with a line of thanks to my super mom. She was wonderfully helpful this summer and helped my stay calm and relatively rested and ready to welcome home Martha. It made all the difference in the world to have her help. Thank you!

Here are a few pictures of the first few days.

Alrighty so much has happened since I last posted anything. First I thought I'd share the new rooms. Grace's room got a bit of work just after the nursery was finished. Grace and Tod went to Saint Louis for Memorial Day weekend and then Grace stayed an extra week on vacation all by herself. She stayed at Casa Dillender and had a blast and then had on night at Riverwoods before coming home. That was the start of so much summer activity!

Here are the rooms:

Nursery first.

There is now a bumper pad with birds appliqued on it, and a mobile with needle felted birds and leaves hanging above the crib. I never have bothered to take a photo of them which is why I never posted photos of the room. Tod enjoyed watching by needle felting. I used the giant melon of a belly to hold my needle felting pad while working. It was perfect. We also added an area rug, just a medium beige nothing to write home about rug but it did help lighten up the room.

One of the little felted birds found a home in a bird house by the changing table.

Grace's room:

Grace's room had an odd assortment of bookcases and shelves of all different wood tones and finishes to hold all her books and toys. So while she and Tod were in St. Louis I made these white shelves as a base unit and bench and added some store bought shelves for up above. And then I cleaned and sorted and discarded and donated the toys for hours to find out what was actually around. I also put drawers in her closet so she could get to her own clothes. She was enjoying being independent about dressing at the time. Not so much right now, but now she only wears two or three outfits a day instead of six or seven!

This is Grace's big girl bed. It was mine, Uncle Bob's briefly, and purchased way back long ago for Granddaddy (my father). I don't think Grace really is impressed by any of this, but I love that it has that long history. The toy box is one that my grandmother decorated for my brother. It was originally a wooden trunk from a summer camp that her mother ran for disadvantaged youth.

It was great to have all of this done and accomplished before delivery. Poor Grace had the corner of the living room to shove her bassinet for the first two and a half months of life. I recommend having a ceiling in all of your rooms and no major construction half finished when bring a child home for the first time if at all possible.

All About Grace

Usually I am the one telling all about what is happening. Like the fact that right at the moment. Baby Dillender is kicking the heck out of me. Grace likes to think that the baby is just tickling Mama. Tickling, nice thought.

But today I am going to let Grace give you all the details. Last week at "school", they made "All About Me" books. Here is Grace's:









(just a quick explanation, Grace loves to draw bones on things. Usually on herself and even once a doll and once on the computer screen.)





(and the last explanation, Grace has on occasion gone to school as Master Yoda, not in costume, but in spirit. Her wonderful teachers, Miss Allison, Miss Rachel, and Miss Rose will not only call her Master Yoda, but also but her name on the roll call on the board as Master Yoda (in the girls list no less).

And lastly, because several people have asked why I only rarely include a photo of myself I have included a photo to let you see and know how I am doing at 34 weeks and counting.

Quarterly Report

Seems that it is time for another update. We (well I) are 25 weeks and counting so we have passed the halfway mark. Yeah! Everything is going well and the little one is getting healthy marks at check ups. We opted to be surprised again so start the betting as to whether Tod will be out numbered or the genders will achieve balance.

We are all well and have been enjoying the beautiful spring weather. Tod's spring break we had tons of sunshine and warm weather and two very helpful visitors.

Because we are who we are and we will never leave this little house, baby number two means another house addition. We figure that this is major house improvement project number four. We've totally lost track of all the small projects around hear. Tod spent his week off hard at work ensuring that he would want to get back in the classroom. His father came and helped with the hard labor and head scratching. It was much needed help and very appreciated. Then later in the week my mother came with a truck and helped keep track of Grace while I pitched in a little here and there. Luckily Tod was able to get all the big work out of the way and the roof on so now we are to the inside work. This means I have to get busy. This time round we were spared any leaks and so currently have not taken any steps backwards like the addition before Grace was born.

Grace is continuing in her inquisitions into everything. Most of all she loves signage and deciphering what "skip signs" say. Skip signs are any sign with a circle and slash through an image such as a no smoking sign. She spots them everywhere and requires a discussion of any new ones that we find. She also spends a great deal of time looking for words to read everywhere. The appearance of spring means that we are spending a lot of time outside again: at the park, in the backyard, on the bike, on the scooter, and just lately in the bike trailer. We live right next to a wonderful new bike trail and now Grace can enjoy it it style.

I hope you all are having a wonderful time and seeing evidence of spring. I'll close with a few photos of the project and a few smiles.