early thanksgiving

Evan's family came in to town last weekend for an early Thanksgiving. We managed to keep Teresa and Montie from doing much work on the house. I enjoyed having the house so full -- we had Garrett in the guest room, Katherine and Jeremy's kids in the living room and Katherine and Jeremy upstairs in the meditation room. Montie & Teresa stayed at a hotel nearby.

Nonna Teresa with her three grandkids

Iris had tons of people to play with and things to watch. She loved meeting her cousins and aunt and uncles.

David, Iris, and Emma reading books

David, Iris, and Emma

It did take her a while to warm up to Garrett. His big beard really terrified her but after a day or two she was having fun with him -- especially when he sang to her. It was fun to see Garrett with a baby, it's a more tender side of him I don't often see. He was very good at trying to calm her down and keep her happy.

Iris, Uncle Garrett and Iris's favorite toy -- the star

On Saturday, we took the whole gang up to Mt. Falcon park, which is the closest mountain area to our house. Sunday was our Thanksgiving meal, Monday we went to a local playground and then to the Museum of Nature & Science.

The girls -- Sarah, Teresa, Iris, Katherine, Emma

The boys - Montie, Garrett, Jeremy, Evan, David

On Tuesday everyone had taken off except for Garrett. We took him to the Colorado History museum (a bit of a disappointment) and then for lunch at City O' City. Evan suggested that we take him there because it was close to the museum. We forgot that it was a vegetarian restaurant. Taking Garrett to a vegetarian restaurant is like taking him to church. He suffered through it. Luckily, we went to Root Down for dinner, which was a smashing success. We also dropped in to the Wynkoop Brewing Company, which was started by John Hickenlooper, Colorado's current governor and Denver's former mayor.

We had Iris with us all day on Tuesday, meaning she was out of the house for 7 hours. She did really well although getting her to breastfeed in the car was a bit of a hassle. She has been extending the time between nursing sessions and it has been making me nervous. I don't like her going 4 hours without nursing. I weighed Iris earlier this week -- she is 15lbs 7oz. She still hasn't doubled her birth weight, but is keeping on her 25th percentile growth curve.

Garrett asked me whether motherhood was all I had hoped and dreamed it would be. I had a hard time answering that question because I don't remember what I had thought it would be, except that I thought it would be way easier. From what I can recollect of what I thought motherhood would be, it is way better than expected. Even with all the things that we've had to deal with, everything that Iris does is that much more special considering the immense challenges we've had to go through. I'll always worry that I'm not doing enough or that I'm doing something wrong, and it seems very likely that she'll end up just fine. I am not sure what Evan would say about fatherhood and whether is has been what he expected. He adores Iris and loves to make her laugh. I can say for certain that even before all of Iris's medical issues were discovered, Evan decided he wanted never to have a newborn baby in the house again -- too much sleep deprivation. I am hopeful that Iris and I will be able to change his mind in the coming years.

Katherine asked us about what we wanted to steer Iris towards/away. There are many things we want to steer her toward and away from but one of the more important ideas for me is that she should have an understanding of how she can influence the world around her. I want her to volunteer and see how she might be a positive force in society. She'll likely grow up not eating much meat -- neither of us will prepare it for her at home, anyway. We want to teach her to meditate, do yoga -- things that I actually have to start doing again. I suppose my overarching goal for her is to learn what it means to be healthy and to live healthfully and then to do it.