Swings and Misc.

There was a swing on the porch for a while. It was the perfect thing to get rock the baby to sleep for a nap. He was not (and still is not) much of a napper. I was sure sorry to see it taken down to get it out of the way for construction stuff!  However, two large beams have been installed at each end of the porch just for swings! Can you imagine TWO porch swings at each end? If we ever get around to finishing that part...

 I tried to cheaply come up with a way to carry the baby around so I could get something done. I found a video on YouTube of a missionary to Africa demonstrating how to wear your baby in a wrap made up of just yardage.  I tried it but I was unsuccessful, partly because baby was so uncooperative. I made him watch the video twice; “Don’t you want to be like the little missionary baby?” I crooned, showing him the super docile and flexible child on the video. 

Finally I just went out and bought a carrier. Best idea yet!

Even Nancy was excited about the baby carrier. She was eager to start taking her walk with the baby on her back whenever she was babysitting him. I cannot imagine myself as a great-great grandmother even wanting to put such a weight on my back! Even though she often talked about her personal trainer, "Arthur" who lived in her knees and kept her walking for hours a day, she wanted to add a baby weight to it.

Generally I do not leave my children with babysitters except for family. Nancy had finally gotten such a hold of us that she was the default babysitter, her house the crashing place for our busy Wednesdays, and my great relief for grocery shopping trips:  no crying baby attached, I could shop in peace. I went to Nancy's for giant baking days and cooking sprees…I couldn't wait to have an oven! 

And Nancy's house was kind of an oasis from all the dirt and dust back at the site. She didn't live in a fancy house but it was where folks wanted to be. She made people feel at home enough to drop by any time.

One day, Nancy was going on her annual camping trip to Wildcat. She had asked us for years to go and visit her at camp, and even though it was only forty minutes up the road we always felt so busy with the house to take much time off. This particular year we decided to live a little, so yes, we would go one afternoon to see Wildcat! More on that in the next post!