We have a YARD!

Truth told, we've always had a front yard and we've always had a back yard - the problem is that neither of them were exactly in the best shape. The front yard's issues are mostly cosmetic and will be the focus of next summer but the back yard, well, that just needed immediate attention.

Let's just take a quick walk down memory lane.

This photo is from our first month here last summer. Josie is playing in the front yard with the back yard barely visible behind her. You can see whole mess of overgrown trees, shrubs, weeds and chaos just behind the iron fence that still stands.

This is looking out into the yard we just demolished from the side door.  (Technically the thing I keep calling our backyard is our side-yard because we have a corner lot.)  This is how it looked when we moved in.  There were scrubby, struggling pine trees all along the fence to the left, a huge mess of overgrown honeysuckles along the back and overgrown ornamental shrubs along a hump of earth to the right the blocked the driveway from the yard. The old free space was that brown patch there in the middle - certainly not anyone's idea of a good play yard.

This is from the driveway looking out toward the front yard. You can see that big hump of dirt that had to be removed.

From the far end of the driveway - back when we had the Murano and my parents had the gold Jeep. Our house is the one on the left. It used to be a multi-family so there was enough parking space for way more cars than we'll ever need.  The driveway is shaped like a big "L" and the two cars are parked here on the spot that is now grass.

So...we've been talking about addressing the yard for months and Lou sort of just decided to pull the trigger on it last weekend. Josie was set to spend the night at my mom & dad's house and before I knew it Lou was driving a Bobcat down our street and into our back yard. I gotta say, I was a little skeptical but it took two weekends and we have a YARD.  Here's how it all went down.

Rent a big sharp saw to cut the line in the blacktop that will divide the driveway from the new grass -

Work together to dig out the bricks and loosen the roots -

Take some time to play with one of the many interesting discoveries -

Take out the remaining trees -

 Bring on the Bobcat  (used to tear out the tree roots and move the dirt) -

Time to jackhammer that driveway we don't need. Go Louie Go!

The big heap of rubble grows and the roots come out pretty easily thanks to all of this rain -

Josie returns home from Xenia and has this to say about stopping for just a minute to pose in the mud -

 Then cooperates -

And even got to ride in the Bobcat with daddy -

 And make quite a few mudpies -

Here is the yard from the same vantage point as the original picture of Josie in the sprinkler last summer. You can now see beyond the fence all the way through the yard and to the remaining driveway.

The step not pictured here is hiring a local company to carry out the (gasp!) two dump trucks full of blacktop and gravel. We had no idea how much junk this project would make and it cost more than we'd like to admit to get it all hauled away. But, we were still way ahead of the game in terms of saving by doing this work ourselves so no big deal (although it kinda was then).

Awww Man! I just realized that I didn't get any photos of the Dingo - the other big piecesof heavy machinery that Lou rented to spread the big 'ole heap of top soil we had to buy to fill in the rest of the hole from the busted driveway.  There was also cultivation, grading and tilling that took place, and there was a whole heckuva lot of rain that made this job really difficult!

This past weekend, the project switched from demolition to rebuilding. The sod arrived (very very soggy sod) on Saturday morning. It took nine hours from this point to get it done.

 

It didn't seem like too big of a job in the beginning, but over 200 pieces later and even more rain and Lou was pretty much over the whole thing. Here is the first row -

 Ladies and Gentlemen - we have grass!

A break in the rain and we came outside to keep Lou company. Lou found "Boba Fett" buried in the backyard and Josie spent the next half hour playing with him in the bird bath.

 She got two pairs of boots so heavy with mud that she could barely walk in them -

 And Lou pressed on -

 By the time it was all done, Lou was exhausted and covered in mud. And this sprinkler just taunted him.

One last job on Sunday - roll the lawn -

Like I said, he was kinda over the whole thing -

But, it was done! And we officially have a beautiful, lush, green lawn!

Isn't it lovely?!

For The Harrisons

In honor of The Harrison Family, we wanted to post the special heart-shaped grape we found this morning at breakfast. We love and miss you! :)

It's the little things...

Sadly, my "maternity leave" is winding down.  Since I work as an independent contractor/consultant I did not have paid maternity leave. And since I had several months off because of bedrest with the pregnancy (and no paid medical leave or paid sick days), our savings is kaput. So...my buns are back in action in just one week. The good news is that I just have to go back to work part time for now (someone schedule an intervention if I top 25 hours consulting on top of my UC gig that runs through the summer). We did find a new nanny and she starts a week from today. The other good news is that I will still be working from home. The bad news is, well, everything that goes along with the fact that I have to go back to work. I've got more to say about this later but for now I'm concentrating on the simple joys of the past couple of weeks to get me over this emotional hump. 

Like finding this drawing of Josie's, asking about it and hearing that "it says I love you Roly Poly and it has a pink sunrise because pink is Roly's favorite color."

Or cracking up at a very upset Josie who yelled "Awwww man, it's WINTER again" when she mistakenly confused all of these flower petals in the yard for snow flurries.

Or checking every day to see what was going to emerge from the cocoon in the front yard and discovering one afternoon that it was in fact world's biggest, hairiest, whoa-who-knew-moths-could-be-this-scary biology lesson right in our own front yard. (Seriously, the pictures do not do this thing justice. It was every bit as big an adult hand. We have witnesses.)

And catching the first baby bubble on film...

And this...there has been lots of this...just figuring each other out...

And who can resist using an evening out as an excuse to don your favorite outfit and do a few ballet moves on the front porch?

So, hooray for the little things! Because I learned the first time around that the little things won't stop just because I have to go back to work.  

Cirque Du Soleil

On Friday the whole Schneider clan headed out to see Cirque du Soleil - Ovo. Josie wanted to see one of these shows ever since we watched a few of them on PBS during the membership drive.  Lou & I have seen Cordeo and Quidam but thought both would be a little too much for a kid to handle. Enter Ovo! It's all about acrobatic insects and it was totally kid-friendly.  Little Roly even loved the lights and colors (although the music was a little loud).

Oh - funny story - the night after we got home from the show, we were in bed and Josie said "I loved Circus Chic-Fil-A".  (We gotta start working on this girl's french.  I'll give it to her though, "soleil" and "fillet" do sound pretty similar.)

Spring Break, Cincy Zoo

Josie's Spring Break began on Good Friday and went the whole next week. Carissa was here from NY to keep us all company and we had so much fun! On top of the Butterfly Show trip that I already posted, we also took a family trip to the zoo (that was about a million times better than the post-Bea trip we took when I was way too newly-postpartum). This trip was great. See for yourself...

If you haven't been to the zoo yet this year, you might be as surprised as we were by the new covered parking lot.  It really is quite a sight if you don't expect it. As it turns out, it's a large solar array with over 6000 panels. I believe It's the largest array in an urban setting in the U.S. Pretty cool stuff! 

Untitled

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8

Rainbow Babies

Special thanks to Kelly for sharing this new term with us!

A rainbow baby is a baby born after a miscarriage or any kind of loss...

A "Rainbow Baby" is the understanding that the beauty of a rainbow does not negate the ravages of the storm. When a rainbow appears, it doesn't mean the storm never happened or that the family is not still dealing with its aftermath. What it means is that something beautiful and full of light has appeared in the midst of the darkness and clouds. Storm clouds may still hover but the rainbow provides a counterbalance of color, energy and hope.

The cool thing is that we actually have two "Rainbow Babies".  We had a miscarriage before Josephine and two before Beatrice. I've always struggled with a way to characterize births after losses, and this couldn't be a more perfect way to look at it. 

Quick quote

Last night we were reading a book about a little girl who believes she is fairy princess. She lists off her royal dutie, explaining that she must spend some time each day catching frogs because you never know which one is going to be a prince. Josie's reply after I read this line of the book: "It's not that hard; just look for the one with the crown."

Note: Blogger was down for a few days and all the posts anyone made on 5/11 were lost. This was one of them and marks the reason why I write down these quotes in the first place. Already, just a few days later, I couldn't remember Josie's exact words. Who knows how much I would forget if I didn't record it all here. Three cheers for blogging! 

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8

Now that you're here with me...

Oh do I have a special surprise for you today!

I have spent so much of these first two months in pure "survival" mode - trying to figure out life as a family of four and all that this involves. Now that we are getting into our rhythm and the clock is ticking on my maternity leave, I've had some time to go back and do a few little projects. I'm almost finished with Beatrice's full birth story, but in the meantime I wanted to share these two things: 1) The images from our newborn photo session, 2) The best song, "Here with me" by Frances England, that touched me so deeply the first time that I heard it that it has heard it and has sort of become Bea's theme song. Crank up the volume, listen to the words and enjoy the photos!

Watch below, or for even more fun, click on this link and open the video full screen from youtube.

Mama's Day

Mother's Day is always a little bittersweet for me - and just downright heartbreaking for a lot of people I know and have come to know over the years as we have shared our own story.  This time last year, we had recently lost Camille. Mother's Day is certainly a great day to celebrate our own mothers and a  day for those of us who are fortunate enough to have children to allow them to celebrate us, but for lots of women it is a gut-wrenching reminder of everything they long to have.  I guess all I am trying to say is this - those of us who are mothers are enormously blessed. Those late-night feedings, the diaper blowouts, the hormones and pains of pregnancy - these are all things that so many women would give just about anything to experience. As we celebrate our own mothers and ourselves, just remember not to take anything for granted.

Here is my mother's day gift from precious Josephine. They worked on these all week at school and she absolutely couldn't wait to give it to me on Friday!   In her words, "Mommy, I made you a special Mother's Day surprise. It's a big surprise and I can't tell you what it is...it is a hand-tree...a tree made out of my hand and I made it just for you! We can hang it in your bedroom, actually we should put it in my bedroom...Here open it, it is a BIG surprise!"  

Happy Mother's Day to all the mamas out there - my mom, the women I am lucky enough to share motherhood with who influence and inspire me as a mother so much, all the women out there who have lost babies and children, and all the women out there with aching hearts longing to be mothers.

Two months old

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8