Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Rocking the baby

Remember this poem? I remember seeing it in a friend's house as a child, and taking care of the baby lately reminded me of it.

Song for a Fifth Child

by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing and butter the bread,
Sew on a button and make up a bed.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She’s up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I’ve grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue
(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).
The shopping’s not done and there’s nothing for stew
And out in the yard there’s a hullabaloo
But I’m playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
Look! Aren’t her eyes the most wonderful hue?
(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
For children grow up, as I’ve learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.

Baby's first camp out

Our family went camping this past weekend and had another adventure! Baby had his first taste of the great outdoors at not quite 4 weeks old, continuing our family tradition of breaking them into camping at a young age. K's entire family came.

We drove to Lake Alamo, northwest of our house, for a weekend of kayaking on the reservoir. Although it had hit 98 degrees the week before, this weekend was cold and rainy (perhaps the same storm that brought snow up north). Luckily, we still had lots of fun. Friday we arrived and set up camp, then it proceeded to rain most of the evening. We were prepared with a no-cook dinner of fried chicken, potato salad, and hot dogs and marshmallows for roasting. K had the cars parked in a nice square, wagon/corral style to break the wind, and he strung a tarp between two vehicles to create a rain awning to keep us dry as we sat by the fire.

Friday night it rained most of the night and in the morning we heard the tales of who had gotten the wettest. That is one way to make a camp out memorable. We warmed everyone up with a yummy whole wheat pancake breakfast with bacon, sausage, and eggs. The rain also had mostly gone, so everyone was able to go down to the lake for kayak rides. Bunch of us saw an elk. Then in the afternoon we drove back home.

Sunday I went to church for the first week with Baby. We enjoyed meeting members who hadn't seen him yet. I was able to conduct the music in sacrament meeting and do choir practice, while feeding the baby around those events.

Yesterday we worked hard to clean and put away the camping gear. K showed us a bird's nest in a pine tree in our yard with three baby birds in it. They are about half the size of your pinky finger and don't have their feathers yet. Today M woke up feeling under the weather, so we have relaxed and read a lot of library books. I also made some bread. It's nice to be home.