my little attachment

 

Varekai!

We got to go see Cirque du Soleil tonight. My sister babysat and I managed to tear myself away from my children to go see the show. It is beyond words! I had seen some performances on tv and was curious to see whether it might not be better on tv because of the focus of the camera. No, it was absolutely incredible in person. Not only do you see the amazing performance but you also get to see the concentration on the spotters faces, the smiles on their faces when they finish, their arms or legs quivering as they held their weight, the little adjustments as they prepared to do a move. So worth it. Even worth being away from my almost 5 month old for 4 whole hours. I hope that if the circus comes to town again in a few years that we'll be able to take the children.

look what I found in my garden!

 

getting ready for bathtime

Sorry posts have been light lately, Burke had been needing me to sleep with him for his naps, then as that was passing we finally got new carpets and flooring in our place! The turquoise/teal is (almost) gone and in it's place a lovely silvery chocolate brown. They are finishing the dining room tomorrow, and I will post a picture soon. Luckily our weeks of cold, rainy weather have paused, and it is hot and sunny so that we can have all the doors and windows open to de-fume the place.

Burke just loves baths. He goes in there with Amelia and flops and squirms his little body around (I just support his head), and if he manages to push himself with his foot he does his version of a laugh. It doesn't matter what his mood before, as soon as he's naked and realizes that he's going into the tub, he's happy. 

Adaptive Behaviour

Yesterday, I was trying to nurse a fussy Burke (he's teething) and Amila was happily playing. Suddenly she was quite upset; there was a mosquito buzzing around her and it stayed with her when she came over beside me. She was truly crying and upset. I ended up having her lie on my side while I was nursing Burke on the other side. I realized that from an evolutionary standpoint, it would make sense for children to cry for help if a bug comes close; mosquitos could carry malaria or other diseases that could kill a child before they grew up to reproduce. I'm not sure if this is the case, (it sounds plausible to me), but either way, it helped me understand a behaviour that otherwise seemed silly.

The artist at work

Her art form is drama, the pen and paper are props. She asked me to take her picture, so I took a few, then went to put the camera away and she said "how 'bout dis one mommy, how 'bout dis one?" That's the look she was holding on the bottom left. The bottom right is the only candid shot , taken as we were laughing about all the tomfoolery.

rolling over

He can roll onto his belly now. He lays on his arm, and today he actually wiggled that free too. He's not crazy about being on his belly, so tummy-time is short-lived. He leads the roll with his mouth; that is he is sort of searching for a nipple when he rolls. Whatever works! 

Maybe its a guy thing,

I don't remember Amelia's hands ever getting in the way whan I changed her diapers...

they woke up before 5:30 this morning...

 

siblings

 

Lights up the room

We finally caught that smile on camera. Burke likes being right in the bath better than the little tub. It makes him harder to wash, but if we get laughs like this then it's worth it! 

children can be handy to have around

Mia, Burke and I were at the library the other day, and I went to the bathroom. There I was, Burke strapped to me, Mia waiting to flush the toilet after me and I found out there was no toilet paper. What to do, there was no-one else in the bathroom, then I realized that Amelia could probably help. Why not try, there was nothing to lose, so I opened the stall and she went to the next stall after only a little prompting and came back with one square of TP. And I only had to ask her once to go and get me some more. Problem solved, yay for the set of helpful, if distractable, set of extra hands!

"Int you"

Mia's been saying thank you complely unprompted and unexpectedly when I get something for her. It's not something I've trained her to say to me, we do get her to say it to other people. She's not too obvious about it either, it's just the way anyone would say it, as a matter of course. Now I'll do almost anything to hear that little off-hand "Int you, mommie."

Pink! and Green!

I had a little shower for a dear friend who is expecting her second baby anytime in the next few weeks. I made these little bags and painted blocks with each guests initials. I felt very Martha to have this all done. I am very excited for her baby, and really can hardly wait.

I was thinking last night as I watched my two sleeping babies. I had worried while I was pregnant with Burke how my heart could stretch to hold him too. I knew it would and that i was being silly, but there it was. Of courseeverything was alright as soon as I held him. But last night it occured to me that while I have less one-on-one time with him, the time that I do have with him is not (as it was with Mia) coloured with the novelty and adjustments of being a mom too. I'm not going through an identity change at the same time this time. It also helps that he is such a calm, accepting little guy... 

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!)