Maybe we'll post more in 2011...

Hello Stalwart Checkers of this Nearly Uninhabited Blog!

Well, I of course composed dozens of blog posts this year that were never put up. Where to even begin now?

How about a few recent photos:

The wee Dickerson Ladies. They're starting to look alike...

And Rowen can already wear Aurora's diapers (which fortunately Aurora only uses at night!)

Getting the girls ready for our family ski day at Baker with the Skinners. Hours of preparation, bags and bags of gear, but it was still worth it (especially since the madres got most of the ski time:P )

Aurora on a Daddy-Daughter kayaking camp out on Baker Lake (you can see Mt. Baker in the background). I was deeply jealous, of course, but Rowen had a nasty chest cold and I actually had some really great quiet time at home--imagine that! Anyway, after being gone most of the summer Abram certainly deserved to fulfill the desire he'd had for months to take Aurora out on a little adventure one-on-one.

Aurora discovers the "hiking stick" and begins wanting to hike more on her own. Then we found a bunch of wild blueberries and it took a really long time to convince her to ride in the backpack on Grandpa Dickerson's back and our hiking objective really went out the window....

These last few are from our most recent little family hike on Chuckanut Mountain, our local haunt, on Martin Luther King Day. It was so good to get out even though we got a little rain.

Aurora is 2 1/2 now, still loves "beebee" dolls, but is also quite passionate about trains, glueing, cutting, painting, swimming at the Y, and of course going hiking with her hiking stick and any other outdoor venture. She is hillariously vocal about 'hings. ' I love seeing the world from her perspective. Unfortunately there are so many funny and insightful and sweet moments that if I don't re-tell her words to someone or write them down, I forget.

Here's one story from the family hike to Fragrance Lake (pictures above). On the way back from the lake, Abram was running with Rowen in the jogger and I had put Aurora on my back in our Ergo carrier, the first time in a year I think for me (we do have a bigger kelty kid backpack, but the Ergo puts them so close) and I was really enjoying being able to hear everything she had to say in her wispy sleepy voice. I showed her some incredibly thick moss growing on one of the trees and she said, "It warm. It tozy." I thought, hmm, actually its kind of damp and chilly kiddo. Then she looked up toward the weak January sunlight and said "When the sun goes up, dems tozy." (dems = trees, tozy = cozy). Pretty sweet.

One more: Aurora picked out a shirt that is really too short for her and I was really how much taller she is these days and how very quickly she is growing. I pulled her in my lap and squeezed her and said that she was growing so fast and that someday she would be a grown up and I couldn't hold her in my lap anymore. She said, "Yeah, you can hug me, but not hold me in your lap when I get big." Sigh.....

Rowen is still a peaceful soul, some of the time, but she has really discovered her voice of late and chatters, grunts, squeals, snuffles through a scrunched nose, and giggles the days away. She's 8 months now and must be well over 20 pounds because 2 months ago she was just under and already the weight of the average one year old.

She can definitely manuoever her way around a room with her army/seal crawl and loves to sink her four little teeth into anything she can stuff into her mouth. She has recently learned how to wave, flapping her little left hand back and forth at the end of her bracelets of chub. It really does seem at times to be used in socially appropriate moment. Abe also declares that Rowen intentionally leaned forward and smooched his puckered lips this week. So there you have her major accomplishments to date:) We are so, so happy to have her in our family.

Well, there's a bit of catch up for now. If you're valiant enough to have read this far, here's a snippet of us "live."

The video above is from a wonderful Christmas we spent in Indiana with some of Abram's family. We had so much fun with everyone!

about that blessing

o.... I meant to actually write about Rowan/Rowen's blessing, but I have a faint recollection that after writing it one evening, she woke up and I went to put her down and never made it back...

We had a wonderful day with friends and family up in Vancouver for the blessing. My parents and Abram's brother Dallin drove up with us from Bellingham and then we were joined by wonderful friends from our beloved Acadia community: Nora, "Papa Mike," Bridger, Julia, Olivier, Ugo, Hannah, Marley, and Lisa. It was so good to see so many dear friends in our Vancouver 1st Ward as well--we dearly miss being a part of that sweet, loving congregation.

We had some lovely treats in the park provided by Grandma McCune (complete with the decorative touches for which she is notorious:) and played around in the sun-baked grass (can you hear the nostalgia as I look back from the beginnings of wet winter?).

Here's a few more photos from the day:

We felt very blessed not only to have such a sweet little soul joining our family, but also for the wonderful friends and family that were able to join us in our celebration and gratitude. We miss all you beloved Vancouverites!

July 25 2010

La Familia!

Here's our little angel on the day of her blessing

Laughing with her dad

Mazama Camping Trip

About a month ago, just after Rowen was born, our good friends Mike, Nora, and Bridger invited us on a co-family backpacking trip to the Washington coast. We accepted under the pretense of low miles, shared loads, and sunny weather. However, and not surprisingly, during the planning/packing phase the would be epic of carrying 4 days of provisions, and 3 children amongst 4 adults was deemed unnecessary to enjoy a wilderness outing as families. We opted for a milder car-camping and day hiking destination on the east side of the cascades and the sunshine and mountains of the Upper Methow Valley.


None of us had been through the North Cascades and over Washington Pass and we were not disappointed. As the thick trees, lakes, and forests dropped into the mountains shadows into the open meadows, rocky crags, and open forests of the eastern side of the mountains we knew we had "settled" for a great location.


The trip had a relaxing a mild flavor with great hikes, meals, and lots of time hanging out. Our first full day of the trip Shannon, Nora, and Bridger did a long loop hike up into the upper valley and discovered a open meadows and abandoned cabins. And the next day Aurora, Mike, Shannon, and I climbed Goat Peak and arrived at a fire-lookout opening a view across the valley and deep into the Cascades


Mostly though we had a great time just camping out with the kids. Aurora and Bridger spent lots of time along the river thowing rocks, playing in the dirt, and livin' in the out-o-doors.

Strawberries!

It has been a persistent wet spring delaying the onset of the berry season, but with the sun breaking through the grey we finally have enjoyed the first round of Northwestern berries.



We tried out a new smaller farm this year with great success! Rows and rows of succulent fresh strawberries. When first picked each berries had an almost fluorescent sheen. Aurora had a great time running up the rows with more berries ending up in her mouth than in her bucket, which is what we love about "u-pick"!



With Grandpa and Grandma McCune visiting we picked several buckets of berries. We got a little to carried away with so many berries so fresh and so easy to pick. When we finally pulled ourselves out of the pach we had almost 5 gallons of berries totalling over 40 lbs of strawberries!



It has been a berry past several days, we've made LOTS of strawberry jam, strawberry shortcake, frozen strawberries, and the much loved chocolate covered strawberries!

Pictures of the Fam

Rowen Grace McCune Dickerson

Though it comes just over a month past I am making the time to write Rowens birth story. With today being fathers day, I believe is an appropriate use of my time. While I could not be happier having two beautiful daughters, I still wonder if this is possible. Am I really the father of two kids? I've discovered that I have difficulty comprehending many of the monumental events in my life. The uncertainties of life, my own inadequacies, and the significance of such events are so weighty that I sometimes find it difficulty to appreciate the gravity of the events as they are happening to me. I felt this a lot with Rowen's birth. Finishing grad school, moving, settling in to a new home, getting the garden in, working, taking care of Aurora, being a husband, and all of life's requirements left me little time for it to sink in that this birth is going to happen. Ready or not.


Winni, our wonderful midwife, had told Shannon at her last checkup that she would bet $50 our baby would come late. We were still in the middle of transitioning from Vancouver to Bellingham move and were glad to have that "extra" time.
Especially so since we had recently, with all of our belonging were packed in a 24' moving truck, almost gone into labor. The day we cleaned our apartment and turned in our keys we were camped out on the Calukins-Timmerman couch when Shannon woke me up saying she was having contractions. And they were getting stronger. THis pronouncement was accompanied with focused intent breathing "whoooooo-sshhhhhhooooooooo". I was deer in the headlights. EVERYTHING was packed. I spent about 30 minutes in complete shock, before I settled into the thought of "okay, we are with great friends (the home of our doula i.e. birth assitant), we can do this". By then Shannon had walked around the apartment and things were receding. We were able to sleep, and finish the move the next day with baby still in utero.


The next two weeks were a wash of unpacking, organizing, getting the garden, and settling into a new home. We were still pregnant, but it felt as if we had dodged and early bullet. I zeroed in all the projects around the house and started a interim job painting houses. On the calender we were reaching the due date, but I wasn't too worried since we still had time. Shannon however, was less excited about the garden other projects and wanted to make preparations for the home birth. On May 18th, two days before the due date, it rained. Since one doesn't paint exteriors in the rain, I was home all day to take care of all of the things on Shannon's list; the must do's before delivery.



We enjoyed a full day of organizing, setting up the birthing room, and making a delicious meal. As we sat to eat Shannon started to feel, "something". That something grew into contractions. Irregular but strong. In my mind I'm thinking, "Is this really happening? What about the baby coming late? Today is 2 days before the actually due date!" After about an hour of increasing labor signs something was definately happening, and this wasn't going to be a false alarm. We called Nora, our doula, who came down from Vancouver with her husband Mike and their son Bridger. (These guys are some of our closest, nigh-unto-family friends). They arrived around 10:00pm, just as I was finishing making homemade strawberry shortcake. Between bites, contractions, getting small children to bed, and calling the midwife we enjoyed the charged anticipation of the calmer moments leading up to real labor.

At 11:00pm I was exhausted, I had been up since 6am, making birthing preparations with no expectation that the baby would be arriving within the day. I went to bed to get some rest, knowing that if this is it, there was a lot of work on the horizon. Winni arrived around 11:30 and checked on Shannon, her contractions were strong, but irregular and largely in her lower uterus. She suggested that Shannon try to get some rest, anything that could be slept through would still be "preparatory" labor. Shannon came to bed at 12:30am. Feeling a mixture of disbelief, anticipation, and mutual exhaustion we fell asleep. The next several hours for Shannon were spent breathing through contractions and falling asleep until they built in regularity and intensity. Through which time, she expereinced an accompanying frustration, that these weren't the real thing, given that the contractions were only concentrated in her lower uterus. At 4:30am, I was woken up with the request to apply pressure to Shannon's lower back. This was it. At 5:00 the contractions were lasting up to a minute and coming every 5-8 minutes. Nora, who had been sleeping upstairs with Mike and the kids, came down to help. We called Winnie, who was sleeping a the nearby birth-center, she would be right over.

Winni arrived at 5:30, and heard Shannon laboring instinctively she said, "oh, that sounds like a pushing one". What? She checked Shannon and said, "we are going to have a baby here soon". I was shocked. WIth Aurora, Shannon had labored for nearly 12 hours before pushing. At this point Shannon had only "really" been laboring less than 2 hours. Irregardless of the surprise this was to both Shannon and I, within minutes of Winnie's pronouncement Shannon was on the bed, bent over her laboring ball and pushing.

It is impossible to describe all that happens in the agonizing moments just before delivery. One feels the anticipation of arrival for a new baby and wonder at the miracle of the human body and the process of birth. Simultaneously though, one experiences deep heartache and suffering as you watch the one you love at the pinnacle of pain and childbirth. With that one can help but experiences a pervading helplessness. One desires to support and comfort but knows and experiences that there is little you can do. A partner can encourage, support, and hold but ultimately all one can do is observe the strength of the one you love, and watch as your child is brought into the world. However, when the moment of birth arrives, and for the first time you see the face of your child, hear their cry, and witness their delivery; all sorrow are turned to joy, all pains are surrendered to love, and the world is new again.

Rowen, a beautiful girl, our little red one. Healthy, peaceful, and tranquil. Without hardly a cry she entered our lives and her mothers arms. It was a beautiful morning, the sun shone through our bedroom window and we were surrounded by loved ones, friends and family. Aurora had slept through the night and woke up with her boosom friend Bridger. They were playing happily with Mike as I came up stairs and invited them to come and meet Auroras new sister. Aurora was excited, she touched the baby, and when we asked her what we should call the new baby she said "soup". Which name she continues to use for her new sister. It was a perfect morning. As Winnie and Nora attended to Shannon I introduced Rowen to Mike, Nora, and Bridger. We laughed and smiled as we reviewed the events of the night. Everyone was healthy. Within a few hours of the delivery Shannon and Rowen were asleep together, as the rest of the birth team including our midwife Winni, enjoyed a breakfast of buttermilk waffles, fresh strawberries, and maple syrup. It had been and was a beautiful birth day.