Has Winter Arrived??? (by Kevin)

I think Old Man Winter has come roaring back into Vermont this week. We finally got some winter weather a week before Christmas. It has not felt like winter in these parts at all. A general lack of snow and temps that rarely broke the 32 degree mark. I think everyone was wondering when Old Man Winter was going to show up. Well a week before Sapphire Elizabeth's Birthday he did.

Temperatures the last couple of days have fallen below the 0 degree mark without the windchill factor. The windchill put us well below -10 degree's the last couple of days. Work has been unbearable with these temps. Barns are frozen, people are in a general bad mood because equipment will not start and I had to pull out my fleece lined work pants on Thursday morning. When the truck gauge reads -2 degrees when parked in the hills of Enosburg Falls, VT you might as well leave the rig on and throw the concept of global warming out the f....ing window.

Wednesday I decided to take the day off and spend it with Emma and Sapphire. I have not taken a day off since December 26th 2008 starting at 10:10 am, nor has Emma. I had 120 hours of vacation time to take and I had not taken one single day. So I have decided to take some time off before and after Christmas. We went for a walk in the morning, before Sapphire's nap, at the Burlington Country Club. We did our loop which is the loop we used to do when Emma had a watermelon inside of her. It was great to get out on a Wednesday morning with the dogs and the family and not be rushed. It was all about slowing down. Sapphire did not make the whole loop, she passed out near the end but that was our intentions. The walk was followed by Christmas shopping and lunch downtown. It went by very fast but we had a great day spending that day together.

The reason why we live in Vermont other then jobs and family is the natural beauty it can show any time of year. Sap flowing pre Springtime, cows on pasture in the Summer, the Autumn colors painted across the hillside to the blanket of white across fields, frozen rivers and mountains. Every season brings it own special beauty you just have to look for it.


The Frozen Missisqoui along RT 105, facing East towards Jay Peak, in Enosburg Falls, VT. The far snow covered peak under the clouds is Jay.

The final countdown is on. Can you believe it Sapphire is almost 1 years old. She has 8 days until her First Birthday. Emma and I have had a blast this first year. It has been tough and we are sleep deprived but we love her so much and she is a great child. She has a smile that lights up the world and we always get comments from complete strangers how great her smile is. She is very special and we are blessed.

"What you looking at? Can't you see I am busy reading, so buzz off."

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Moo Devil or Merry Christmas (by Kevin)

My lack of posts are very inexcusable and I have to make a better effort to get my thoughts on the blog. I have a lot of ideas that go through my head during the course of the day that would be good for the blog but I can not find the time to sit down and write about my day. I have the dogs to deal with, Sapphire to play with and put to bed, then dinner and work after that. I am not on Facebook, I am not going to Tweet and I do not have Myspace so this is the only place I can express myself.

I am going to make a goal to blog about some things I deal with day in day out once or twice a week. So you might be reading a lot about cows, farms and idiot drivers on the interstate.

Last week I came across a cow at Conant's Riverside Farm in Richmond, VT. Conant's is home to 370 mature Holstein's and approximately 300 or so head of young stock run by the father and son team David and Ransom Conant. Of course I must mention that Conant's is the home to the best sweet corn in the state.

I stumbled upon Cow # 4, who resides in Group 3, and was taken by surprise to find that she had decorated herself for the Holiday's. Or, she might be a cousin of "Loco Vaca" and was making sure everyone knew to keep their distance from her. I opted not to rustle her from her roost to find out if she was the cousin to "Loco Vaca", or was just in the Holiday spirit and decorated her horns to make the other girls jealous. She quitely posed for me so I could take her picture, but she kept a watchful eye on my actions. I realized if she was not in the Holiday spirit then maybe she is "Moo Devil": a defender of all cows against humans. Humans that touch and pull on their teats to harvest the bountiful white stuff we call milk. Her mission is to rid the practice of touching teat ends with cold rough hands early in wee hours of the morning. When you are not looking "Moo Devil" swoops in and horns the offender in the ass.So watch out if you are not gentle in mammary gland teat stimulation "Moo Devil" has something to say about that.

Big Girl

Check out this video I took tonight. Sapphie is getting so big!

From New lamb rocker

Enjoying the fall

Sapphie turned 10 months last week. Her major new things this month are: a tooth coming through at the beginning of October; pulling up (on everything); an all-nighter with Daddy, her first visit to Cabot Creamery; and, her first Halloween. We've had a great month!

I've been doing sign language with Sapphie since she was about 4 months old. Today, she signed "more" to her nanny during lunch! I'm so bummed to have missed it, but I'm really excited that my work has paid off. Hopefully, she'll start signing more and not get so frustrated when she's hungry.

Several months ago, Brett nick-named Sapphie "savage beast". She's really living up to this nickname, believe me. She screams, growls, and grunts, especially at her mummy and daddy. She kicks her grammy Liz in the arm, and pulls her mummy's hair. When strangers come along, however, she's all smiles. EVERYONE comments on how happy she is, and does she ever cry? Is she ever upset? We smile and say "of course not!". Enjoy the photos xoxo

p.s. Yesterday was the 1-year anniversary of my PhD, and I forgot. Our tree out front is so beautiful though, and I'm enjoying it just as much this year! Sapphie has already sat on the thick branches. I wonder if we'll still live here when she can climb it...

And by the way, I did get a copy of the Giving Tree. We read it all the time :)

Apples!!!

Last weekend, we did our first apple picking of the season at Shelburne Orchards. For Sapphie, it was her first apple picking ever! We had such a blast. Sapphie ate almost an entire apple (except the skin), and I ate 4. Afterward, we had sausages and Apple Betty with ginger cider. It was such a fun trip!! Here are some of my favorite shots:

Waiting to go to Shelburne. LaLa made her sweater.

Picking apples with Daddy!


And here are some more great photos:

Another Vote for Nurturing Mummies

I'm so tired of hearing "you need to let your baby cry at night"..."she needs to learn to comfort herself"..."she should be in her own bed now"..."you need to get her onto a regular schedule!". Here's my problem with all that: first, my little baby is so tiny, just 9 months old. Why should I let her cry, when my instincts say to comfort her when she cries? Why should I ignore my instincts, follow your advice, and make myself and my baby feel terrible? Why do I need to get her into a routine? To make life more convenient for me? Screw that. I'm a new mom, and nothing is supposed to be convenient. In my opinion, this period of my life is crazy. Insane. Exhausting. Rewarding. And very, very short. Before I know it, she'll be in college. Instead of analyzing all of the different phases that my baby goes through, I am enjoying every single minute. Even when she's up every 2 hours with sore gums, I just want to snuggle her and love her. I have no desire to trouble shoot and try to force her to be in her own cold bed when all she wants is to cuddle and be reassured. But as moms, we get bombarded with the advice of others. Sometimes other moms, who so easily forget that all babies are different (yes, I'm guilty of this. So is Kevin, but we try to remind ourselves all the time). What works for one will rarely work for the other, so kindly keep your advice to yourself (we try to do this too!).

And just when you start to feel that maybe everybody else knows more than you do about how to raise your baby, science boosts your confidence!! New research in rodents has shown, in short, that maternal instincts maybe more important than we've realized. Mice who are good, nurturing mothers - who nurse their young, lick them and comfort them - raise babies who are more healthy and less susceptible to disease than mice who are poor mothers. Specifically, neglected mice were more likely to develop diabetes and some forms of cancer than the nurtured mice. Even crazier, if you take the pups away from the bad mothers and let them live with the good mothers, they become less susceptible to those diseases! What this means is that genes don't tell the full story...the quality of mothering can have huge implications for disease susceptibility and life-long health. If you really want to know the term, it's called epigenetics. It's totally hot right now, and scientists are making amazing discoveries about how epigenetics influences heredity - without changing DNA.
What does this mean for us, as mothers? It means that we need to believe our instincts, cuddle our babies as much as we please, love them, hug them, comfort them, and trust your own motherly intuition, no matter what it is! Ignore everybody's advice. Only you know what to do - it's programmed in your physiology - and if you follow it, you'll have a better chance of raising happy and healthy babies.

On the Move

For almost 3 weeks now, Sapphie has been crawling. Check out the video I took shortly after she started. It's in the slideshow (if you double click on the slideshow, it will take you to a new window and the pictures & video will be big). Doesn't she look like a wounded caterpillar?! Now, she's gotten much better at it. She's really fast and looks more like a wounded soldier. As you can see from the photos, she is having so much fun with the dogs. She crawls onto their beds and plays with them, and she loves to feed them her biscuits!! Winston is going to be in heaven next time we visit the Kouri's.
We went to Northampton to celebrate Danny's marriage to Julie. It was so much fun!! We met Julie (who we love!!), and her family, and it was a fabulous party. Alison and Dan have done some amazing things with their home, and we love it. The best part is their patio. It's so party!! Huge, and beautiful, with an outdoor fireplace. We had a really fun dance party at the end of the night, and Sapphie slept through the whole thing in the Ergo.
At her 9-month check-up, Sapphie got her stats. She's a beanpole! 20th percentile for weight, and 80th for height. That was about the extent of the check-up...everything else looks great.
Her first word ("ba!"), has become the word for everything. She points at the dogs and yells "ba!"...at her book, at her babies, "ba!" "ba!". It's so cute. The only other word she says is "mama!" a lot. When she cries, mostly, or when I leave the room, and it's heartbreaking!! She'll be talking more in no time, according to the pediatrician...
My favorite new thing is how she feeds the dogs - deliberately - whenever she gets the chance. It can be frustrating, but also really cute. She leans over and dangles her biscuit for them to grab. Of course Cooper behaves himself, but Cabot falls for it every time. He takes the food from her little fingers, and is ever so gentle. It's very sweet. She's really got quite a personality. Enjoy the photos and video xoxoxo