Mia: "Trust me," Burke: "Help me."

reading

Mia asked if she could read to Burke. 

Birdie-monkey hats

Thank you Amanda!


These hats and the basket, along with lots of stickers

afbfb dbbbbbb snsss zzzzzzz s b zzzzzzzzz xsas (Amelia's bit while I went to look after Burke)

and an alpaca activity book arrived in the mail today. It's hard to see in this picture, but the hat looks like this.(scroll down a little) Her two little pony tails will fit perfectly...

This is Burke with the sling that I just made for him. It is not a hard piece of sewing. it it just a lenth of fabric 6 metres long, and about 1/2 metre wide. I love this fabric, it is a twill. I bought 3 metres of it, cut it in 1/2 lengthwise and sewed them together and voila. The fabric is courtesy of their great-grandmother- thank you!. And when we are done with it as a sling I'll be able to peice it to use as the back to his quilt that I will hopefully have started...

Also, this is Burke after I fed him, and I have to say, I love watching as he starts to wake up when he's hungry and starts searching around for the nipple. The little hmph, hmph noises and trying to get anything, his hand or blanket, into his mouth.

And a note on the pic of Mia with the book on her face. Of necessity, I have started letting her read on her own at naptime. I thought she would get up, but she doesn't, so now this is our new naptime routine and she falls asleep by herself after about 30-45 of quiet time. And at night, she is still awake when I leave the room and she stays in bed. So nice, I really got frustrated with waiting until those little eyes closed, but she wasn't ready until now for me to leave her awake. We had tried the cry-it-out once or twice, but she outlasted us.

naptime

 

8 weeks

He's getting so big 

And people tell us she's cute...

 

Carabeth is coping

I've been doing a fair bit of contemplating lately about my life as a stay-at-home-mom (SAHM). I am so grateful for the opportunity, but I've realized that I haven't been taking my self seriously. That is, that when I would think of the role SAHM, my mind would picture the idealized version that we see in the media (movies & cleaning product ads) and I projected that image onto other mothers and assumed that I was the only mother who didn't clean my bathroom every other day, for example. I felt vaguely guilty when people complimented me for being able to do certain thing, because they said I must be so busy with two children now. Guilty because I don't feel busy. I realize the reason that I don't feel busy is because I'm not spending my days working.

I'm starting to see now that part of being a SAHM is the time spent playing with my children, walking with them or just hanging out talking, reading, whatever. That is being a parent as much as having a clean house or a nice dinner. This is what I've been doing, I just have started giving myself credit. I didn't understand how I could be tired at the end of the day. I know from experience in customer service that just being available to people all day, answering questions in a pleasant and thoughtful way is draining and really parenting is the same sort of work. And the only way to see the result of that work that I do every day is not whether the laundry is folded, it is to see how the children are growing and learning. (hard to put into words without resorting to cliches). 

she's finishing my sentences

While making diiner tonight, Amelia was on her stool, doing her dishes as usual. I left the kitchen for a few minutes and when I came back, she had her little fingers in the flour and cornmeal
I had started for the cornbread and was eating it. "Oh," I exclaimed, "you..." "cheeky monkey" she said. Yeah, that fits.

mia and burke

 

no pics

Our computer isn't speaking to our camera right now, so the cute picture of Burke lying on Amelia's belly will have to hold...

Four weeks in, and all is well. for the past week or ten days, Burke has been cluster feeding and fussy from somewhere between 4:30-6:00 until 8:00 or 9:00. really not too bad considering Amelia's fussy time was from10pm-2am. the only problem is that Amelia doesn't go down on her own, I need to lie with her until thos eyelids fall. This all means that I get through my days fine, but then the evenings do me in, and by 9:30 I am exhausted, especially if Lance has had to work late.

Some little things about Burke; he's got tufts of hair on his ears, its very cute and Hobbit-ish and I've got to get a picture before it falls out (for blackmailing purposes 15 years from now!), he gets grumpy and does this growly, complaining noise if one tries to move him or even put a blanket on him while he's asleep. Now, of course, I can't remember the other things I was going to write about. Next time.

And Amelia is so sweet with him. she loves to help with diapers and clothes. And when her bedtime is going smoothly, it involves me nursing Burke, and Amelia lying with her head on my shoulder, stroking Burke's head.

Ooops, naptime's over now, bye!

Family picture

Here we all are, in our backyard. Burke is now three weeks old! I will write more soon, but it's almost bedtime and Burke is getting ready to wake up for the next meal... 

oh, the cuteness!!

 

birthday sweater

Here's Amelia in the beautiful sweater that auntie Molli made for her. I can't believe she's 2 already! of course, she looks huge to me now, compared to, oh about 9 days ago...it's all relative.

Lance and Amelia are over their colds. I am too except for a bit of a cough. Now I get to go for a root canal on Thursday (my first ever!)(sounds fun). Burke is such a good sleeper, he should be fine without me for a few hours, plus he's happy to suck on our fingers or his thumb if he finds them, so I think if I send a bottle along he should be fine. Amelia would've been a different story. She nursed more frequently, and only ever accepted the nipple. 

and his name is Burke

 

all eyes on mommy

 

here he is...

He (unnamed as of yet) was born Sunday, Feb. 12 at 9:58 am. I had started having subtle contractions Sat. morning and by two in the afternoon, knew they were for real. I laboured at home till 2 am, then we went to the hospital. (a dear friend, who also made Amelia tis fantastic cape, stayed over with Amelia and looked after her on Sunday). At the hospital, I was only 3 cm dilated! I felt like I had done a bit more work than that... They kept us (second child, things could just pick up), and I slowly but surely progressed. The doctor who was on call, (my dr. shares on-call duties with a group) came into the hospital at 6 am and stuck around. At 9:15 am, my nurse (who I wasn't liking) went on her 45 min break, and my body took that opportunity. My water broke, I fiercely pushed and within a few minutes he was born. (no drugs throughout). That last pushing was like nothing I had ever expected. oh my!! I damaged my voice. I yelled, things like 'I can't do this', and 'get it out of me'. Lance wonders where in my yelling the air intake came, I kept up the yelling so long. I hope those rooms really are soundproof.

Way at the back of my mind, I knew once the head was out it'd be ok. And it was. I held him right away and uninterrupted for the next 45 minutes. He figured out the nursing right away, and now is better at it than Amelia was at three weeks. They let us go early because everything was looking so good, so we left the hospital just after 4 pm. And here we are, doing well, sleeping, eating, nursing, and taking care of a sore throat ( i went in with a cold, and the yelling did not help).

love you all!!

ps, 7lb 11oz or 3505 gramsand i can't remember length,

contractions. started. today.

Here is a picture of Amelia at the aquarium earlier this week, but the real reason for this post is that my labour started this morning, so probably by the end of the weekend we three will be four... (and the baby turned last weekend, so everything's hunky dory!) 

like father, like daughter

need I say more? 

nothing to do with anything

I was just listening to CBC this morning and there's an interview with Aubrey Nealon. He' has written and directed a film called A Simple Curve. about growing up with hippie, back to the land parents in the Slocan Valley in eastern BC. Molli and I are two of those children, and I am aquainted with Aubrey. I haven't seen him for 10-15 years, but I'm looking forward to seeing the movie. Molli and I didn't spend as much time in the Valley as this group of people, but the experiences he's described in the interview still resonate.

What do you wear to do dishes, Dahling?

This is Amelia while I make dinner.

And we could use some upside-down thoughts for tiny baby, s/he's head up right now. It's not a problem yet, but we just need to start thinking that way (especially since I'm aiming for 3 weeks from now. (due date is 5 weeks, Amelia was 2 weeks early and that's still considered term, and sounds good to me!) 

Hormonal? Maybe? Full Moon too?

Good friends babysat Amelia tonight so that Lance and I could go see Narnia. I was already a bit weepy but thought I had it under control by the time we parked. Then, one of the (many) previews was for a Disney movie about a team of sled dogs that had to be left behind in Antarctica and who saved themselves (you can imagine the story...) (its called Eight Below). I started weeping. Back under control. Movie starts, so far so good, until the mother has to send her children away from her in war-time London. Weeping. Ok, ok. Fine for the rest of the movie. Then, as we're leaving the theatre with everybody else there's a little girl a few steps down looking back up the steps with big dark brown eyes calling "mommy". I stop where is her mommy?? Oh, there she is, ok, good. I start weeping. Walk to the car, fine. And on the car ride home, poor Lance keeps sneaking looks at me (is she ok now, how about now, will this red light set her off?)

Not much longer now, right?

random moments

top left, Amelia modeling sone of Daddy's outerwear, (all Arc'teryx, of course!)

top right, Amelia and bear, with bibs on, both eating, (I don't know why they're eating off the floor)

bottom left, the soup that they were eating (eggplant top, fig newton, juice, water, salt, red pepper and a little olive oil!)

bottom right, reading.

hanging out with Daddy

She made this face first... 

a nice morning

Amelia and I had a nice morning today; I had been needing to clean the window frames in our bedroom; they were moldy and all three of us have been waking up a bit stuffed up. Amelia kept herself busy on the bed, we had little conversations about what she was doing (putting the baby to sleep, singing and reading to baby) and what I was doing (cleaning with a special cleaning toothbrush, that only Mommy and Daddy could use, not children - not Mia(her nickname for herself)). At a certain point, she decided she wanted to help, so she tottered off downstairs by herself to get one of her cloths and came back and wiped the windowsill. Very sweet. I know I'm going to have to stock up on moments like these now while it's still just the two of us, everything will be different soon, good too but different. I'm scared of the change but excited and impatient to meet our new family member!

updates

Sorry for the lack of posts or pictures! We've had a very nice season. I am so loving having a home where people can be. Where more than two people can fit in the kitchen, and not be in single file. Where people can sleep over and they can have their own room! We had some friends over for New Year's Eve and I was ready 1.5 hours before they came. The house is easier to keep tidy because the living space is just that, not also the storage space. Ahhh. Plus, we got a dishwasher!! We took advantage of a friend in town for the holidays (how's the arm C?) and did some plumbing adjustments and got the dishwasher installed. I haven't lived with a dishwasher for 13 years. WOW.

Of course, the main impetus in getting a dishwasher now is the impending expansion of our family. I'd say since mid-december I have been feeling very pregnant. I'm fairly certain I'm not any larger than I was with Amelia, but I feel like it. And this one is more active. And I've been getting heartburn, which I've never experienced before. But I also already find myself thinking of this as a new member of our family whereas during my pregnancy with Amelia, everything was abstract, and I had to constantly tell myself that there would be a baby soon.

So now Amelia and I are trying to get back into the swing of things, She's been a clingy sleeper the past few days, she doesn't sleep long If I'm not there with her. And now I have to start pulling out the baby things, getting space for them in the upstairs. 7 more weeks, but Amelia was 2 weeks early, so if you see me carrying a piano up the stairs in 5 weeks from now, don't try to help! ;)

too...tired...

I heard a little cry from Amelia towards the end of her nap-time, but then nothing else for about 15 minutes, so I guessed she had gone back to sleep. She had, but she made it this far first. This is how I found her, sound asleep, I was able to take two flash pictures before she woke up. She had needed her diaper changed, so that's what woke her in the first place. As I was changing her, she was complaining that her knee was hurting. I guess so!! 

There she is!!!

 

can you spot the little girl???

 

ninneready

Ninneready means Dinner ready, and Amelia says this when she's hungry, but also lately when she's stalling her nap. Today was the first meal-time for some of the animals and so they needed their "bib-on" then it was "ninneready". 

peety (pretty)

I had a perfect Rockwellian or Dickensian moment last night. I put up the tree after Amelia went to bed and was just putting the last ornaments on as she woke up. She started down the stairs backwards, complaining a bit, but then she saw the tree. I had turned most of the lights off so I could experience the tree. And Amelia has seen a couple of Christmas trees out and about and has really liked them. So, she completely stopped crying, said her version of "Christmas tree" and came down the rest of the stairs.She said "peety" for the first time without my saying it first. She was so happy, her eyes were shiny and she had such a beautiful soft smile as she carefully examined the decorations. It was really almost too perfect, like a made-for-tv-movie. (this picture is from this morning)