Photo-dump from the Buckeye State

 Here is why we love Ohio: 1) a backyard AND a swing-set.

 2) a small-town fire department willing to let Phoebe spray the hoses, ride in the truck, and hang out shoulder to shoulder with firefighters.

 3) friends with swimming pools and toys.

 4) stuff with wheels and no downstairs neighbors to hear us wheeling stuff around on the hardwood floors.

 5) creativity welcome here! The kids decorated the four-wheeler, bikes, and tractors for their own Fourth of July backyard parade.

 6) Amish Country. We spent a day at my sister's friends' home...

 ...taking photos,

 going on buggy rides...

 We saw some beautiful places along the ride.

Bruce was not amused by the jittery buggy ride. Oliver clung to me with the same look of fear. Phoebe, however, was over the moon and wanted the horse to go faster.

 7) almost all of my family is there! We visited Grandma, weeded her gardens, and ate many many many cookies.

 8) chickens! We ate fresh eggs and even got chicken hugs.

 9) space! Phoebe and Uncle Chris took to the four-wheeler and sped all over the backyard.

 10) X-Box with Minecraft at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Plus cousins. Yessss.

 11) a bounce house to expend all excess energy.

Bruce and Phoebe pointed out all the "for sale" signs that we saw in Ohio. Now to find a neuro-interventional-radiologist position in another half-dozen years or so...

Growth

Oliver is up to a whopping 3 pounds, 12 ounces today. Growth is slow-going (or so it seems), but it is heading in the correct direction. This week we have been teaching Oliver to open his mouth correctly - with his tongue out and down rather than stuck to the roof of his mouth. We also tried breastfeeding with some success. He is still getting the hang of sucking and swallowing, but progressing well. Now he needs to beef up a bit so he has the energy to wake up and eat by mouth.

Bulking up is easier said than done. He is "eating" via the tube in his nose; every three hours he gets about 1.5 ounces of breastmilk mixed with formula powder to add calories, plus a little extra protein powder (he really is trying to bulk up!). Oliver sleeps almost the entire day, and the nurses like it that way: he is using all those calories to grow rather than to wiggle around or cry. I've only heard him cry 4-5 times since he's been born, and by the time I grab the camera he's done crying. He has a very quiet cry though - like a little lamb.

Yesterday we took advantage of the nice weather and headed to the beach. We met up with Miss J, who I'm told still talks about me but appeared much more interested in Phoebe. Granted, Phoebe was way more playful than I was; I sat in a beach chair under an umbrella almost the entire time. Phoebe ran around collecting shells, climbing rocks, and splashing in shallow tidal pools.

 Bruce helped build a sand castle city with a group of kids, found shells and even a live crab, did a little swimming, and got in a water fight with grandma.

Speaking of grandma, she is doing a fantastic job keeping up with Phoebe's playdates, Bruce's school schedule, and my recovery. Just in the past few days she has made butterhorn rolls, a pineapple upside down cake, blueberry pie, picnic brownies, and pasta salad.

Fall back.

 Fall has been good to us. We went apple picking with friends.

 We ate apple pie and apple crisp and plain old apples for weeks following this little trip to the orchard.

Scott joined up with some friends to run the Ragnar Adirondacks Relay. It was an "ultra" team, so it consisted of six team members rather than the usual 12 (like the one I did at Ragnar Cape Cod). Scott ran three relay legs totaling 32+ miles. He experienced "hitting the wall," but came home hungry for more. He is planning on running a trail marathon in New York in May; I'll join him if my hip continues to cooperate. I ran my first speedwork since Labor Day this week. I felt out of breath and out of shape, but my hip is back up and running. Yea!

 In the anticipation of winter, we have been park-hopping and making the most of the (generally) mild weather.

 Perhaps the best thing to happen this fall is that my mom came to visit. There was a good deal on airline tickets, so she came. We didn't make huge plans because Bruce still had school, but it was nice to relax and talk to my mom all day and all night.

 The kids loved having Grandma around. Like the kids, she has lots of energy - and she slept very well at night!

 Bruce had one day off school, so we played all morning and then headed downtown to take a boat into the Atlantic to go looking for whales.

 It takes 45-60 minutes for the boat to travel to the bay where whales typically feed, so I brought a DVD player to keep Phoebe busy.

 She didn't last long enough to see whales. Thankfully, she was free.

 We saw a few humpback and fin whales. The coolest thing we saw was a humpback jump clear out of the water. Usually when the whales surface, you see their spout blow upward, their fin glide for a bit, and then their back arch and tail flap down into the water. The biologist on the boat said she couldn't remember the last time she saw a whale breach the water like that.

I'm glad we fit the whale watch in when we did. A few days later, Hurricane Sandy roughed up the waters (and land and air!) a bit. My mom ended up flying out ahead of the storm to avoid the inevitable delays afterward. Boston didn't get as much damage as anticipated; it was very windy and rainy on Monday (enough to cancel school) and some areas had power outages, but we stayed inside and were fine the whole time.