Wednesday, December 27, 2006

14 lbs

At my folks' house she weighed 14 pounds on Christmas day. Today I put her into a Wonderoo set on the smallest rise setting and it seems to fit okay. I guess I'll have to think about switching over the stash to just using our Wonderoos. That will make Gary very happy.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Sibling

Leo loves his baby sister. He talks to her and shushes her and wants to hold and kiss her. He really loves having her around. Really.

When I leave them alone together, I leave the room with two happy, smiling and content children. Two minutes later there is inevitably a scream of bloody murder from the baby. This afternoon I left Squishy asleep in the car to carry in the groceries and Leo chose not to leave the car just yet even though I unbuckled him. Just as I set down the groceries I heard Isa wailing and wailing. I found Leo just climbing back into his seat and when he saw me, he said "Oh no, what I did?". But he wouldn't admit to anything so I just sent him into the house. Later this afternoon, Squishy was happily sitting up against our pillows in bed, looking around and I left the room to get some water. I soon heard bloody murder screaming, the kind that is high-pitched and soon becomes frantic. I came into the room and her face was bright red and she was screaming so hard she was making no sound. Leo was beating a hasty retreat to the edge of the bed and again said to me "What I did?". I asked him what happened and he just told me that Squishy was crying. I then asked him if he should go stand in the corner. He quietly said "Yes" and got down and went to the corner himself. There are no marks on the baby, but he was guilty of something.

I guess I need to stop leaving them alone together for awhile.

Friday, December 08, 2006

Music

As it is Tuba Christmas season, Gary is practicing his euphonium. Leo loves playing music with Papa and excitedly gets out his harmonica to play along whenever Gary practices. We are encouraging this as much as we can as we'd like to get him into brass as soon as he's able.

Weight Check

12 pounds 8 oz at 10 weeks of age!! Yay Isabel! She's exclusively breastfed, so should be compared only to other breastfed babies, which puts her higher on the growth curve than when she's compared to artificially fed babies.

She's doing great, so bright-eyed and alert, loves nursing and smiling and being held. She's a great joy to us.

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Santa Claus

I bought a copy of "Polar Express" today and Leo and Papa just read it together. It's a sweet, sort of sad book. Gary and I just had a conversation about Santa Claus and where the myth fits into our parenting. We are agreed that it is a good idea to have Santa Claus as part of Christmas. We both see it as being a multi-functional myth, in that little children see him as being a real person who brings toys at Christmas, and older children see him as a silly and fun fairy tale and adults see him as the spirit of the season and the spirit of giving and of unconditional love of children. It's all useful and good.

I also see it that the same people who would disapprove of Santa for children wouldn't enjoy a good fantasy/sci-fi novel. That is, fairy tales help to teach children to imagine and dream. I know my mother and father struggled a bit with the idea that they were lying to us. But they decided to teach us about Santa Claus anyway. I really enjoyed Santa as a small child. I remember the cookies and milk and the wonder of the new presents under the tree. I can't pick out when I started to realize that he wasn't real, but was just a story. I remember that for several more years we put cookies and milk out for him and I just knew that Dad ate it. It was still a fun ritual and was fun to pretend.

Monday, December 04, 2006

Salad Spinner

Apparently, Grandma should have sent the larger spinner. Duck doesn't fit in it.

The days go by

With each passing day, Isabel is more aware and interactive. Smiling and laughing and reaching for faces and things. I greatly enjoy our nursing relationship and love watching her change and grow in such an intimate and personal setting. I can see so much emotional and personal detail while we quietly snuggle and focus on each other. I try to carry her as much as possible throughout the day, but sometimes she just fusses and cries so much that I put her into her swing out of exasperation. Much to my surprise she is learning to enjoy the swing for naps. Which means I can get some housework done and spent one-on-one time with Leo.

Leo is growing too. His vocabulary and understanding of the world changes throughout each day. Gary bought him some preschool workbooks yesterday and we're starting to explore critical thinking skills so necessary for such learning. He's learning his alphabet and already knows about half of the letters and is also learning to count. He can now count to three, and with some help can count to four and five. He's looking forward to going to Grandma and Grandpa's house for Christmas, having been told they'll have a Christmas tree. I'm not sure what to tell him about presents, I'd rather that the emphasis be placed on the tree and the visit to the G's; the traditions and the family continuity being more valuable than gifts and toys.

I returned to work this morning. There are about 56 hours left in my project budget for me, then I will be completely done with it and will just be an at-home mom. I'm just doing two hours per day until the hours are gone. That way Gary can go to work after me and our income isn't compromised.

Gotta run, Gary is home for lunch.