The Talens' Tales

First the picture: Wilbert took this picture on Sunday morning coming back from milking. We awoke to a winter wonderland that was truly beautiful. I had a tough time getting up that morning, but once I looked outside, I praised God for the beauty that I saw all around me. Second, an addition to the list of weird Wilbert sayings in the middle of the night: You want me to get water from each of the taps and put in the bottle? I am not sure why he thought that, but I quickly reminded him that our son needed milk, not water.

Today Joash is five weeks old. He is looking pretty good, don't you think? We are doing well too. We are still getting up when Joash wakes at night to feed and still supplementing with the bottle, but he is letting us get some longer stretches of sleep at night, which is so nice. However, it still can be tough to get up in the night. Wilbert still has some very funny things he says when he is waking up in the middle of the night. Here are some of my favorites. I always say, "Wilbert," and then wait for a response and then say, "Will you please get up and get the bottle for Joash." Here are my latest favorite responses: I don't know. I will get up in 22 minutes. (And my favorite, which may have been influenced by watching Avatar before going to bed) I am in the Navy Reserves and there a plug in the hall to warm up the bottle.

One nice thing about being from two different countries is that we can celebrate more holidays. And since there are a few more people from the states here, last night we had our own American Thanksgiving feast. There were six couples and all of the wives and two of the husbands were from the States. So the Americans out numbered the Canadians, which doesn't happen very often. And we had a feast. There was turkey, ham, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green beans, bread, stuffing and three different kinds of pies for dessert and a pumpkin cake. It was wonderful. And the fellowship was great too. The hosts said there was no assigned seating, so the ladies all sat together at one of the table and guys at the other. It was funny how it worked out, but we had great conversations full of laughter. It was a great way to celebrate a holiday. Hopefully we have started our own tradition here.

Joash loves to cuddle, which we both love to take advantage of. In other news, the snowy, wintry weather continues. It is a good day to stay inside and take advantage of some more cuddling time.

Check out my four week muscles! I can't believe that Joash is four weeks old already. It seems like it was just yesterday that was born. Thankfully things are going really well. Today he had another check up with the public health nurse and he is out of the woods weight wise now. I am so thankful for this. Now we can just do our own thing and let Joash take more of the lead as to when he would like to feed and things like that. He always eats so much better when he wants to eat. As he grows, he is more alert too, which is quite fun. It is pretty clear that he needs his sleep though, too. Today's public health visit overlapped with his nap time and was all out of sorts until 1:00 when he finally settled in for a nap after his second feeding following the public health nurse visit. It amazes me how I can be pretty frustrated with him and then looks at me with his big blue eyes and does something cute that makes my heart melt once again.

It is snowing. I shouldn't complain. It isn't really sticking to the ground much yet and in Minnesota they had a Winter Storm Warning last week. So we really have had it pretty good. And there was a confused woodpecker. He was pecking at some of the wood that separates the different panes of glass on our windows. I tried to get a picture, but I was too slow. I just hope he doesn't return and start pecking on the glass.

Joash looks very calm in this picture. That was not so much the case last night. He was irritable and fussy from about 6-10 pm last evening and nothing seemed to soothe him. We were about at our wits end. Then, when I tried feeding him again at 10, he finally calmed down and fell asleep. And he slept until I woke him at 3 to feed. That means I got four hours of sleep in a row. I am pretty sure that is the longest stretch of sleep I have had since he was born. And after the evening, it was much needed. Thankfully he woke up very happy today, so hopefully we are getting back on track. His weight was up again yesterday, but not quite as much as they would like. So, we are continuing to feed often and supplement as well. But, I can tell that his skin is a better color, he is growing (some of his newborn stuff is almost too small) and he is more alert. The other day he was laying under his gym and he was hitting one of the danging rattles that made a nice noise. He did that for a long time....