Fun in the Sun!

Relaxing on Daddy's Lap
Enjoying a little sun!
First taste of yogurt. Kathryn says "YUMMY!"

Well despite a lot of rain this winter, I believe "sprummer" time may finally be upon us! Paul, Kathryn and I have been taking every free chance we have to enjoy the beautiful weather. We have enjoyed having picnics in our courtyard and taking long hikes. For those of you out there who don't know, there are TONS of great places to go on short or long hikes around Massachusetts. Here are just a couple of websites I have used lately to find some incredible hiking spots: http://www.mass.gov/dcr/
http://www.sudburyvalleytrustees.org/

God is richly blessing us in this time to show us how glorious His majesty is and to also remember the importance of the families he has given us.

Patriots Day

Paul and Kathryn's view of the Marathon

Our little Patriot
A fantastic walk in the woods!
For those of you who are not from Boston, Patriot's Day is the day we celebrate all that our founding father's and mother's did to help us give our freedom. It is kind of like an added July 4th. It is also Boston's excuse to hold the Boston marathon and a mid-day Red Sox game. And for us it is an excuse to spend the day together as a family!

This morning Paul and Kathryn went and watched the marathon from the 5th mile mark, which is about a mile from our house
(I had to miss it as I was booked to teach this morning only!) When I got home we decided to go for a family walk in Wayland. It was a beautiful day and it was such a joy to spend the day hiking with my two favorite people. And it wouldn't be a day of Scharlach fun without a little ice cream(thank you Ben and Jerry's for a buy one get one free coupon!) After putting Kathryn to bed, we bbq'd and had a bottle of beer. What a way to celebrate Patriot's Day!!!

A Very Happy UN-Birthday

Loving being fed by Gammy.
Fun times at the lake!

Today marks Kathryn's 6 month UN-Birthday! She is such a fantastic little girl; learning tons of new things and we are learning so much from her! Recently she has become very fond of making trumpet noises and we now refer to her as "Dizzy" as she reminds us of the great jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, cheeks and all! She also loves trying new foods, some of her favorites are sweet potatoes and bananas, not together of course! She is also testing out her ability to scoot; she gets up on all fours but hasn't figured out how to move herself from point a to point b yet.

What I have learned from her is life is too short to not be actively involved in your children's lives. Paul and I recently made a decision that I would scale back my work schedule in the fall to be home with Kathryn two days a week. God has given me a real peace about this decision and I look forward to the opportunities it will afford our family. I have also learned that because Kathryn is a flexible baby we can take her along on some of my gigs as she loves music and is quite the hit with my colleagues, plus I get to see Paul more as he is the one watching Kat while I am singing.

A Star is Born

Last night the University of Southern Maine where I teach had a 80th Birthday Celebration Concert for Stephen Sondheim. As part of this concert I was asked to sing a duet with another member of the voice faculty and to also sing a solo. The concert was so much fun and my solo included a very special guest-Kathryn. Attached is her first time on stage. She was so much fun to work with and the audience LOVED her!

Rain, Rain Go AWAY!!!!

Observing the immensity of the storm!

The last week has been filled with more rain than I care to think about! With the enormous amounts of rain our basement which has not seen any water in it in over 2 years flooded yesterday. We were really surprised when we woke up Wednesday morning to a little bit of rain in the laundry room. Well, that little bit of rain over the course of the day turned into over two inches throughout the entirety of our basement. As I look at this situation I was first really upset but I soon realized that God used this to provide us with blessings and another way of seeing how He works in our lives even in the midst of our strife:

-Paul and I would not have gone down to the basement on Wednesday, but my mom and dad are visiting and needed something out the dryer so they found the water!!!
-My parents came with me to Maine and so they were able to get a sump pump there(there are NONE in the state of Massachusetts!!!)
-I am thankful we live on the front of the complex as the back of the complex lies on the Sudbury River, which completely overflowed
-Five cars were totaled in the back of our complex due to the water.
-My parents were here for a visit. They were such a help with bailing out the basement and cleaning up today!

5 Months Old-Baby Bites

Yummy food!

Wouldn't you want to eat this?!

Open wide!

Miss Independent

Kathryn is ready to Rock and Roll

Today Kathryn got her first taste of REAL FOOD and man oh man did she love it. When we got up this morning, Paul and I were eating breakfast and Kathryn was sitting in between us and seemed VERY intrigued with what we were eating. I decided to take a little piece of my banana and mush it up and give it to her. She devoured it and smacked her lips for more. That was the final decision maker, Kathryn would begin solids today.

I mixed up the concoction of breast milk with a HINT of rice cereal and we began the fun journey of feeding Miss K. The biggest trick of the whole event was figuring out how to feed her and take pictures AND video at the same time. Good thing for two sets of hands. Kathryn took to the food immediately and even enjoyed holding the spoon and feeding herself.

We can't believe how big she is getting and all of the fun things she is doing. We now have to put a full size bed blanket on the floor for her to roll around on as she easily rolls in every direction, but she gets going too much and then she needs to spit up. We are also realizing that we need to begin the task of baby proofing the house, as Kathryn has taken to scooting on her belly a bit, although she doesn't go anywhere, YET! She is a bundle of energy and has a hard time settling down for her morning nap, she would much prefer to be part of everything that is going on around her. We love her to pieces and it is amazing to think how fast time flies.

Sick Little Girl, but Happy all the While!

So Kathryn has had a little cough since last Friday. No fever was accompanying it so Paul and I decided to monitor it and see where things went. Tuesday night Kathryn didn't sleep well so I began rethinking whether to teach in Maine on Wednesday. However she wasn't running a fever so Betsy, Paul's mom, and I decided I would go ahead and work and she would watch Kathryn as she usually does, and Paul would call the doc to set up an appointment for her to see the doctor today, Thursday.

Well Miss Kathryn had other ideas in mind. She woke up from her morning nap with a 101 degree fever. I drove back down to NH, picked her up and we headed down to see the pediatrician in Wellesley. They took her temperature, which was now 102, gave her some Tylenol, did a battery of base line tests which didn't reveal anything, and then decided to do some other testing. She ended up having blood work, a chest x-ray, and a urine sample taken. I tried to be the brave mom, but when she was getting blood drawn I couldn't look, I just wanted to cry!

Well Miss Kathryn was a real trooper, in fact the doctor said, "I haven't seen a baby in a while who was this smiley, with such a high fever!". When all was said and done the chest x-ray revealed that she has a slight case of pneumonia on one of her lungs. This may sound horrible, but apparently it is pretty normal. Who would have "thunk"? The doc put her on a round of antibiotics and as of this morning she is on the mend, no fever and she was actively playing with her toys this morning. Thank God for answered prayers and for wonderful physicians!!!

From this experience I have a few thoughts to ponder-

*I am thankful that we have an extra bed in the nursery. This way Paul or myself can sleep in her room when she is sick. It made such a difference to be able to respond to her quickly last night before her fever broke.

*I am soooooooooo thankful for an incredibly supportive husband, family and friends. Without them the last 36 hours would have looked much different. This parenting thing really is a group experience and experiment!

*We are so blessed to have such a healthy child. From this experience I have gained more sympathy for parents who have REALLY SICK kids. You parents out there are truly amazing!!!

*To watch your child in pain gives me just a little glimpse into what God must go through when any of His children are sick or struggling with something.