Spring (or so the calendar says)

Well it has been a spring for the record books in Chicago. We aren't breaking the records you want to break as it has been all about rain and clouds this spring. If the temperature gets above 50 or the sun peaks out we make a mad dash to the park.

Juliet has spent April moving in the wrong direction on the baby temperament charts. Our easy newborn is now a "normal" infant. We seem to breed babies who won't sleep anywhere but with people. Seriously the concept of an infant sleeping in their crib totally baffles me. We can't seem to figure it out. Her sister was a bit of a sleeping mess as well but now is an amazing sleeper so if Juliet grows into a sleeper similar to her big sister I will willing take a few rough months at the beginning. And I will admit that once Amelia moved to her crib I kind of missed the full night snuggling....

Recently I told Amelia to pick out clothes for the park and above is what she brought me. Her beloved Rocky Mountain National Park t-shirt, a tutu-ish skirt and ballerina flats. Her outfit screams park (and matching) to me.... I brought along comfortable shoes figuring those shoes would hurt her feet. Our fashionista would have nothing to do with the tennis shoes and rocked her bows the entire way to, all around and home from the park.

Norah Meyer came to visit!!!! She is ALL smiles and when she left to go home we were all pretty bitter that she is a Kansas baby and not Chicago baby. Up next is Baby Duffy who is due mid-May. Will we have another girl to add to the group???

Juliet does have moments of peacefully being awake but the majority of her time is still spent either sleeping, eating or fussing. If anyone has tips on how to handle a baby who spits up a lot please share. Our pediatrician says Juliet is a "happy spitter" and it is a laundry problem not medical problem. I now know why people have and use burp cloths.

No sleep? Spit covering all our clothes? It is SO worth it now that she can flash us a real smile!

Family Patriarch - UPDATE

I just realized that I forgot to mention that Juliet was born on Chuck's birthday. As her  mom I hope she shares his love of the outdoors, taking wonderful care of himself and his sense of fashion!

Auntie M Visit

We celebrated Juliet's one-month birthday with a visit from Auntie M. Mark had been out of town the whole week for work and I tell you had Merrill not shown up I just may have lost my mind. Merrill recently started a new job so she arrived ready for some R&R so between her desire to hang out and two little ones we didn't do too much. Oh and having Merrill around was like having hired help. Seriously I got a sense of how celebrities are able to deal with life. She cleaned our bathrooms, carried Juliet in her carseat as I walked in front, disciplined our toddler and cooked for us.

Amelia's first pony tail. The poor girl still has hardly any hair. After nap time her teachers put the girls' pony and pig tails back in. Amelia has been wanting to have one just like her friends so Auntie M took care of it for her!

A pony tail wasn't the only salon treatment Amelia received from Merrill she also got herself a manicure and pedicure. She LOVES showing off her painted toes.

Well of course Amelia wanted to do some of the painting so she treated Merrill to a pedicure. Who needs to pay a salon when you can have Amelia do your nails in this style?

They are both very into their rain boots.

The one-month old enjoying the quilt GranAnn made her!

Juliet has been working very hard on growing her cheeks. They are starting to take over her cute little face.

Holy Sh*t!!!

Excuse my language but I have a good excuse. A week after sweet Juliet was born my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. Holy sh*t was about all I could think at many moments. Today we are all counting our blessings as my mom is in a great place. She underwent pretty major surgery a week and a half ago and we learned last week that she will NOT need radiation or chemotherapy. After a roller coaster ride of test results we were starting to deal with the reality that she could need one or both treatments.

I had enormous agony over not being in Lawrence with her but the pediatrician (not our normal one) we saw at Juliet's two-week appointment didn't want me to fly with her until she got her two-month shots. Thankfully mom has Merrill, family and an amazing group of friends. She is in great hands both medically and personally! Then at Juliet's month appointment I asked our regular pediatrician about flying with her and she said, "go home and book a flight." So I went home and did exactly that. We kept our trip a surprise from my mom. All our family and friends knew and helped pull it off by telling my mom fibs and shuttling us to/from the airport. We arrived last Tuesday about an hour after my mom got home from her six day stay in the hospital.

It was an awesome surprise!!!! I don't know how much help we actually were but I know that it had to help my mom's mood to have her newborn granddaughter sleep in her arms! And I got to be there the night she found out she would not need chemo or radiation which of course we had a great night celebrating. I only snapped a few pictures of Juliet's first trip to Kansas. I'm not sure my mom wanted pictures taken of her :).

Since Amelia wasn't going to make the trip she painted a few get well pictures for my mom. Okay, she painted herself more than the paper. Forget staying in the lines we have to work on staying on the paper in our house!

With my mom's revolving door of visitors it is important to have plenty of snacks and chilled wine on hand!

The weather was AMAZING so we got to enjoy one of my favorite activities when visiting Kansas which is sitting on my mom's deck enjoying great family, friends, food and wine!

Cheers to an early diagnosis, great medical care and overall a family feeling very very lucky!!!

Family Patriarch

Within a month the Cheney/Evans family lost two very dear men, my dad's cousin Chuck and uncle James. Both men were in their 80's and lived long, wonderful lives so with their passings came two celebrations of life. Also with their passing a new elder family member has taken over the role of family patriarch. Yes, my dad is now at the helm of Cheney/Evans Family, good lord we are in trouble......

Dad's cousin Chuck Winslow enjoying the cabin deck during my Grandpa Don's 85th birthday celebration. Chuck spent his adult life in Phoenix so over the past ten years during trips to Phoenix to see my dad I always looked forward to seeing Chuck. When seeing Chuck he always shared kind words and a smile. Chuck was an amazingly handsome man who until the last couple of years my dad would run into regularly at their gym. When the rest of our family was sluggish after a classic night of Evans family over-indulgence Chuck was hiking Camelback!

My great-uncle James was the character of the family (well maybe he took second to his wife Vivian (above)). As a family we spend many hours telling stories about Jim and the rest of the time listening to Jim tell stories. Jim taught us some of the important lessons in life such as how to play cards, drink whiskey and that when you find something you like always buy two of them. Jim had a love for catalog shopping and his purchases make me smile just thinking about. Vivian has promised that when she finds the camouflage trailer hitch toilet seat she will send it to my dad. I wonder who gets the second one.....

Speaking of Vivian please keep her in your thoughts as she discovers life without the man she was married to for 63 years!!!!!

While we are talking family, my dad has spent this winter scanning and organizing old family photographs. He learned today that his grandma's middle name was Amelia AND she was born, raised and married in Chicago! Of course a granddaugther would remember her grandmother's middle name but what can you expect from a grandson? This was proved when I named off both of my grandmother's middle names (of course one of them Mary Ruth went by both first and middle names so that may not count) and Mark looked clueless.....