The Farm

A quick Rowenna update: Rowenna had a 24 hour inpatient stay last week. Her symptoms are puzzling her pediatrician, so she recommended an inpatient stay so they could run a battery of tests. It was one of the most frustrating days of my life and the amount of fail that occurred in those brief 24 hours has me rather astonished. I’ve had my fair share of medical experiences, and never have I felt so disrespected by medical professionals.

The end result is that we do not have a diagnosis or explanation for Rowenna’s fatigue, but we were able to rule out a ton of scary things like cancer, seizures, and brain tumors.

So, the update is that there really isn’t an update. She’s still sleeping, still fussy. While I’m glad we’ve ruled out some truly scary things, I still worry that the amount of sleeping she does is going to affect her ability to learn new skills. We’ve been stalled out on gross and fine motor for about 3 months now.

Anyways, let’s talk about the weekend that followed our hospital stay.

Hubby grew up on a grape farm. I’ve been to the farm during many different times of year, but I’ve never been there when there were grapes ready to eat. This was also Rowenna’s first visit to the farm and she had many people to meet.

Miss Rowenna and Her Toy Hammer

This girl was showered with love all weekend. Her great aunties and uncle were on hand to ooh and ahh, she got to meet her third cousin (how many of us know our third cousins??), and attended two different weddings where people told us again and again they had been waiting 15 months to meet her.

What a refreshing weekend after that hospital stay and all the worry we’ve had for our girl. It was nice to just kick back for 48 hours and watch her soak up all the love. I think the fresh farm air was good for her – she had a great weekend without excessive napping.

Rowenna Trying Ginger Ale

We spent one day at two different weddings. The first had an outdoor reception and Rowenna was in her element crawling around, grinning ear to ear at everyone she passed. Hubby and I had a great time watching people circle around her while she smiled and babbled, all under the watchful eye of her auntie so we could eat our lunch.

Drumming at the Reception

The next day, my mother-in-law hosted a lunch for the great aunties and uncle as well as Rowenna’s new third cousin. We stuffed ourselves silly. Eating on the farm is always a good thing and something to look forward to – and this time was no exception. We also had some time to take a tour of the farm so Rowenna could see everything hubby did while growing up.

Playing in the Hay Loft

Dear readers, let me tell you: nothing smells better than grapes growing on the vine. The entire farm smelled like delicious grape candies. Hubby has tried to describe this to me for years, how he would sit in the vineyard and eat grapes straight from the vine, warm from the sun and sugary sweet. Now I know that words just don’t do it justice.

Grapes are beautiful on the vine. Perfect, deep purple globes. Not shiny like the ones you buy at the grocery store, but sort of matte and soft. They just hang there in bunch after bunch, row after row, practically begging to be picked.

I hope Rowenna can make many trips to the farm during this time of year so she can see this, too, and sit in the vineyard with her family and eat grapes.

In the Vineyard with Grandma and Grandpa

Rowenna has already shown her grape farmer roots. She plucked many a grape off the vine and enjoyed stuffing her face with them!

All in all, a wonderful weekend and just the break we needed before hubby going back to work and me starting a new job.

And in one last bit of fun, Rowenna will have plenty of practice tending, picking, and eating grapes here at home. My father-in-law brought grapes from the farm a few years ago for hubby to try growing in our garden. This year: magic. Beautiful grapes growing right in our backyard! A little piece of the farm right here.

Our Very Own Grapes!