Milestones Pile Up
We traveled up north lately, and enjoyed ourselves, though some of the most interesting things seemed to happen to other family members. They are at the stage of life where they do things that I have never done.
For instance, I had not considered the chances of one of our children helping skin a "harvested", which means "dead from gunfire or arrows" deer. My father hunted antlered mammals with my uncles in the Colorado Rockies every year when I was growing up, but I never participated beyond helping eat the fruits of his labors. Imagine, therefore, seeing a picture of the skinning (which is a little gross) being done by our oldest - daughter! Let's hear it for Laura!
When Leah, our youngest, left home to be married, she couldn't drive a car. She picked up the skill a couple of years later despite periods when she and Dane decided to not own a car, just using one from time to time through companies in Portland that offer cars on a per use basis. That changed last week when they were given a car by older sister Allison and her husband Scott.
There was one remaining challenge. Neither Leah nor Dane had expertise driving a car with a manual transmission. Picking up that skill is a little tricky, and they were frustrated when even open parking lots didn't offer enough room to learn how to use that darn clutch. One of their first times on a public street found them having to stop in an "uphill" position, then start again. Dane is sure Leah will be the one to use this car the most, but at the moment, he's the better of the two at mastering the skills needed. Go get 'em, Leah and Dane!
The aformentioned Allison and Scott were surprised to find themselves expecting a baby after having the second of two boys (no girls) six years ago. The due date for baby #3 was figured to be this past Monday. For reasons I couldn't guess, Allison had always been deadly accurate meeting the date. Even so, nothing much seemed to be happening Monday, other than shopping, until evening, when the delivery machinery began to roll into action. If I had it to do over, I might not have stuck around offering useless advice as the contractions became stronger and closer. If you're going to be in pain, then spectators are the last thing you would want. But we did hang around until it was decided it was time (around 11:30) to head to the hospital.
To make a fast story short, things really kicked into gear once they arrived, with the baby (another boy) popping out at 12:02, just twelve minutes after they arrived. This made Allison late for delivery a total of three minutes for all three sons. The third, who hadn't been named when we left the following morning, and who still might not be, came out so fast that he resembled, Allison was told, a baby born by C section, which means he looked pretty good. He seems, like his brothers, to resemble his father. He looked darn good when I got to handle him about eleven hours later. For the record, he checked in at 7 lb. 12 oz., pretty big considering his mother's small dimensions. Hooray for Allison and Scott!
For instance, I had not considered the chances of one of our children helping skin a "harvested", which means "dead from gunfire or arrows" deer. My father hunted antlered mammals with my uncles in the Colorado Rockies every year when I was growing up, but I never participated beyond helping eat the fruits of his labors. Imagine, therefore, seeing a picture of the skinning (which is a little gross) being done by our oldest - daughter! Let's hear it for Laura!
When Leah, our youngest, left home to be married, she couldn't drive a car. She picked up the skill a couple of years later despite periods when she and Dane decided to not own a car, just using one from time to time through companies in Portland that offer cars on a per use basis. That changed last week when they were given a car by older sister Allison and her husband Scott.
There was one remaining challenge. Neither Leah nor Dane had expertise driving a car with a manual transmission. Picking up that skill is a little tricky, and they were frustrated when even open parking lots didn't offer enough room to learn how to use that darn clutch. One of their first times on a public street found them having to stop in an "uphill" position, then start again. Dane is sure Leah will be the one to use this car the most, but at the moment, he's the better of the two at mastering the skills needed. Go get 'em, Leah and Dane!
The aformentioned Allison and Scott were surprised to find themselves expecting a baby after having the second of two boys (no girls) six years ago. The due date for baby #3 was figured to be this past Monday. For reasons I couldn't guess, Allison had always been deadly accurate meeting the date. Even so, nothing much seemed to be happening Monday, other than shopping, until evening, when the delivery machinery began to roll into action. If I had it to do over, I might not have stuck around offering useless advice as the contractions became stronger and closer. If you're going to be in pain, then spectators are the last thing you would want. But we did hang around until it was decided it was time (around 11:30) to head to the hospital.
To make a fast story short, things really kicked into gear once they arrived, with the baby (another boy) popping out at 12:02, just twelve minutes after they arrived. This made Allison late for delivery a total of three minutes for all three sons. The third, who hadn't been named when we left the following morning, and who still might not be, came out so fast that he resembled, Allison was told, a baby born by C section, which means he looked pretty good. He seems, like his brothers, to resemble his father. He looked darn good when I got to handle him about eleven hours later. For the record, he checked in at 7 lb. 12 oz., pretty big considering his mother's small dimensions. Hooray for Allison and Scott!
posted by Mark at 4:37 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home