Here are a few photos encapsulating the glory that is our front yard right now! Everything is ridiculously lush - those purple asters FINALLY popped! We've literally had people reverse their cars in the middle of the street to ask us about them. We have no idea why the asters got so big - we did tie them together with some string so instead of falling all over the place they do look a bit shrub-like.
Our maple is also just starting to turn - so cute!
We keep having so many fun visitors and little trips and new Eddy updates - I can't keep up with them all! This post is dedicated to Grandma Lo - affectionately sometimes "G Lo" (with Grandpa Steeves being "E Diddy" of course!). We can't take credit for these fun nicknames - I'm pretty sure someone at Dad's office came up with them . . .
Anyway, G Lo came up to the Cuse to lend a hand with Edylene the two weeks that transitioned us between Summer and Jesse heading back into the classroom. Lois was the queen of laundry, a champion baby snuggler, the Dali Mama of Dream Dinners, a Syracuse Real Food Coop regular, and all around all-star. We also managed to get Mom hooked on Lost - Jess and I were at the time already on the 2nd Season, so Lois and I spent the evenings (after teacher-man had gone to bed) catching her up with Season 1. Inevitably we began confusing events that happened between Seasons 1 and 2, but the chronology of that show is so helter skelter anyway, I don't think it much mattered . . .
We also put in another flower bed in the middle of the front yard. We got the plants from the Regional Market - you'll see some native grasses, 2 hydrangea on each end, and 2 Joe Pie-Weed which is similar to the butterfly bush plant in that the butterflies love 'em but it's not an invasive species (Thanks Renee for the tip!). 
We didn't go on too many big adventures over G Lo's 2 weeks, just lots of little ones at home and out and about in town. The pictures capture the gist of the visit . . . and they remind me of another project we did! Mom whipped out some Moby-like wraps from two kinds of fabric we'd purchased and surged the edges. The surging ended up creating quite a nice effect! The wrap is very comfy to wear - I'm still getting the hang of how to position Edylene in it and how to get in on in a timely fashion! It does get a bit warm so I'm looking forward to using them more in the cooler weather. And now that Eddy's got some more head control, we can try a few more "holds" in the wrap. Technically, the grey wraps were supposed to be for Daddy and the purple ones for me, but you can see I like rocking both colors ;)
We also had additional visitors along the way - I'll have to do a post of all those folks as well. You may recognize Green Lakes in some of these pictures. 
Well, I started this post a couple days ago when Eddy B was about to be 5 weeks old - now she is 5 weeks and a couple days :) Things get delayed when you are a walking bouncer/shusher/feed trough . . . .
In the weeks since being born, Edylene has gained 3 pounds and grown 2 whole inches! Her 1 month check-up with our family doctor was A-Ok all around. Edylene was a champ with all the dressing and undressing - we think she even gave Dr Manyon a smile! Next month: vaccinations :( I don't think that will be quite as happy a visit! Ah well . . .we'll probably feel bad about it long after Eddy's attention span has shifted to another topic . . .
The past week or so especially have brought a lot of other changes - there must be some crazy neurological development going on in that tiny head. She's started to smile - mostly in response to Daddy's silly faces but there are spontaneous ones here and there too, almost like she's practicing! She's also been a champ during 'tummy time' - she got her head up to 45 degrees the other day, which is a big Yay! in terms of getting some head control. Once she's mastered that, she can start doing more fun stuff like sitting up, reaching for things, ie more playtime! We're also starting to hear a greater variety of noises coming out of her, the start of some cooing perhaps??
This past weekend we enjoyed a visit from the Dumont Crew - D, Mr. Mustard - and Emma! Our big outing for the weekend was a trip out to Grindstone Farm to get our hands on some of the last of the blueberries. The past 2 years Jess and I have enjoyed stuffing our freezer full of summer berries - always enough to last us into the following spring! It seems as though Baby may put a bit of a cramp on that tradition - but we've started a new one! Being a trio we may not pick the same poundage, but it's a lot more fun with our Blueberry Girl in tow! 
It was a perfect day (for me) for heading up to the farm: not too warm, a bit overcast, slight breeze :) I haven't hopped into Grindstone's pond yet, but Emma, Jess, and D all braved a higher-than-it-looks-from-the-ground platform to whiz down the zip line and into the water. No zip lines for me quite yet, but Eddy B and I enjoyed the picking and the eating and the snuggling by the water's edge. 
It was a nice weekend - an active, go-get'um Saturday and then a laaazy rainy Sunday. Somewhere in there we also made berry frozen (Greek) yogurt with bits of chocolate and almonds, Emma and Jess whipped up a succulent loaf of cinnamon raisin bread (we can't get enough of that stuff!), and the boys put together our "pub table" out on the sun porch. It's quite a bit taller than we expected, but we wanted it to be tall so we could survey from above the gloriousness that is our backyard while sippin on coffee and hanging with EB.
I'm going to include some pix here of Grandpa Goodglass and Edylene that weren't in the last post - also some of the Grindstone pix are courtesy of D's Iphone :)
This post marks Edylene reaching the ripe old age of 3 weeks and 2 days. It is also the day before I had been planning on going back to school for the Fall semester. Three weeks and change since popping out this little one and already heading back into the madness of grad school - granted it was going to be part time (only 3 classes), but pretty quickly upon returning home from the hospital I began to have anxiety over jumping back into my studies. I'd been in contact with a few of my professors at school over the past few weeks and a couple days ago Jess and I decided that I would take the plunge into Stay-At-Home-Momdom (!) for the next year.
I'm still a bit awestruck that the next year will be - for the majority - Mommy and Baby time. I got a brief twinge of some kind of feeling walking through campus on Friday to drop off my Leave of Absence forms - but I know deep down that this is the best decision for all three of us. I'm free to get to know Eddy B, get to know her cycles and rhythms, be there for daily, weekly, monthly (!) milestones - and luckily, I can draw from the wisdom of several stay-at-home-moms whose kids seemed to have turned out alright ;) Jesse will be pursuing National Board Certification this year (ie LOTS of extra work on top of full time teaching) and it will be easier for him to do that while Edylene is still (relatively) immobile and I can step up to take on many of the domestic responsibilities previously allotted to his sphere (though I maintain I still will NOT be doing the vacuuming). This will also save us a bit this year on day care and in the end, we'll only be postponing my graduation for 6 months beyond what we had already planned if I had gone back part-time. In the grand scheme of things, it seems we'll be getting a lot of benefit for a small delay in my entering the work force - Jesse WILL however, have to get a new calendar with which to count down to that happy day ;)
So, that's the latest news on our end. Edylene is healthy and growing (up to 10 lbs already!!) - I'll do another post tomorrow about our lovely weekend with D and Emma - in the meantime, enjoy the onesie montage . . .
Somehow this post got deleted the first time around - oops! Amazing that we are at 2 1/2 weeks - Jess and I were just looking at photos of Eddy B when she was only a few hours old and she already looks so different! It's partly due to the fact that she's gained over 2 lbs since being discharged from the hospital - as Grandpa Steeves would say, "She likes her grocceries!" It is a comfort to know that at least she is eating well :) 
Every day gets a little better: Edylene seems to be sleeping a little longer at night (though her post-feeding need to "fart it out" does keep us up for extended periods of time) and I'm getting more comfortable in my handling and maneuvering of a squirmy little body (damn you "Baby Hands Steeves"!). Our walks are getting longer as well - Grandma Lo and I figured out how to cut a "moby-like" wrap from some cotton jersey fabric and I've been practicing getting Miss Eddy B in and out of it on a few walks around the neighborhood. We've also been out and about in the stroller - she really seems to like the bumpy Syracuse sidewalks! 
Next came the Smithie Aunties! They hailed from D.C., Boston, and Scotland! Weelll Brainy didn't come DIRECT from Scotland but it's fun to say . . . DMost, Brainy, and Jen trekked up to the 'Cuse for some quality time with the GoodSteeves baby :) One of the highlights of their stay was a trip over to Green Lakes Park for a walk around Round Lake. I carried Edylene in her wrap and Jess and the ladies carried the rest of our stuff (ie water bottles, diaper bag, backpack, snacks). It was the longest walk I had been on since she was born. It was a great walk but it definitely wore me out for the rest of the evening (and into the next day!). I'm not quite up to walking Green Lakes every day but as our first major outing with Baby in tow, it was a success! I was even able to discretely nurse at the end of our walk. We can't wait til Eddy B is a little older and we can hike around with her more and get her in the water - Green Lakes has quite a nice beach - lots of families, a couple playgrounds, sand, snack bar, the lakes . . . .
So, we are still here, taking one day at a time, trying to take the time to enjoy these early weeks and push aside the desire for her to skip to the part where she gets head control, sleeps through the night, and learns to 2-putt with Daddy. We hear that that stuff will come soon enough :)
