Another Month of Bella

Dear Bella,

Okay, so let the crazy times begin. Let's just say that this new schedule we're on might be wearing us a bit thin. You're sick of seeing me 24-7, I'm sick of being cooped up with kids week after week, and we're all sick of being sick. The weather is not helping us recover one little bit.

You actually had your worst illness to date this month. You and Lia were back and forth puking then happy every other day until finally you spiked a fever of 104 on the holiday weekend and you got your first trip to the ER and your first round of antibiotics for a craptastic ear infection.

You were such a trooper with the hours of waiting and the doctors. I could go on for days about stupid medical rules in this country, but I'll spare you because at least now we know how big you are: 37" and 28lb. Next time it will just be easier if we measure you ourselves. :0)

You're learning in giant leaps and bounds now. It's so much fun to watch, and I really need to get my butt in gear and organize school time each day. You can draw for ages (now you draw arms and legs on your smiley snowmen - people!)

You can't possibly learn enough to fill your brain each day. Right now you've mastered concepts like big and little and are working on soft and hard. Your days are spent mothering and doting upon your friends, making sure they are well read and well fed at all times. At night I often find stuffies already snoozing on my pillow for the night. You might not nap, but they sure do.

Grandma came for a surprise visit and you wanted song after song.

What song would you like, Bella? A new song!

She's good at that stuff.

Your responses crack us up every day. Instead of yeah, you reply with a long contemplative Yeyyys. Sometimes you really just want to say No! (because it's your right) so you say, No! ...But yes.

And the sibling shenanigans have begun. You like to tell Lillia when she's in the wrong by shouting, Nonono, Lia! Your mom said no! You have started shoving her when she gets to close (much to her shrieking dismay) and if I leave you alone for more than a minute I often return to Lia's cries because once again you have her in a hug headlock or you are trying to ride her.

Your current favorite things? My new kimper, the ipad (drawing with no mess ....and videos at bedtime!!), and staying in your jammies all day long. I suppose there are quite a few benefits to getting very sick.

What else is there to say? You're quickly approaching three in all the attitude it brings. This month has been countless sleep struggles with you being sick, and you have now started peeking at bedtime in defiance of the bedtime authorities. That's a pretty good metaphor for the entire month. Three is on its way (well, in real time it's already here, but shhhh, don't tell this post) and I have a feeling it will be a new level of adventure.

Love,

mama

P.S. Where would I be today without my attitude? As hard as you can be to live with, I wouldn't dream of any other personality for you.

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nap secret

No we still haven't figured out how to get Bella to nap, or how to get her to survive a day without napping.

Lia just goes along for the ride. And hm, what's that? A disembodied hand behind me?

I think not.

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Baby wearer

Stuffed down the front of her shirt, Dolly is never left out. We're baby wearing twins.

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Something New

Whoops!

Looks like I missed a day. Now that I think about it, yesterDAY was quite busy and Lillia grumped all night, so it's no wonder.

However.

I am about to embark upon a project called 100 Strangers.

I'm looking forward to getting out of my comfort zone, finding interesting people and getting to know them. Not to mention improving my photography in it all.

We nodded to plenty of interesting people while hiking today, but I didn't manage to stop, chat, and get portrait out of any of them. In fact, we were quite the site to see, me, Ronnie and Dave each wearing a child. Everyone thought Haydee and Lillia were twins.

Alas, no portraits. Still, It's good to know I can always find great subjects on one of our favorite trails.

So that at least I felt I was warming up to the idea, I snapped this while walking. This group looked so blissful. In fact, everyone on that trail was.

oh, and this one for good measure:



Thanks for the warning.

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makes mouths happy

making cookies with bella. i told dave what i had in mind for this shot, and he did pretty good, i think :O)

we've been down and out with a cold. lillia is a sloppy nurser to begin with, but add a stuffy nose and we've been miserable. she and i are on the mend and bella is just starting her run of it.

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if i had known

that this is how naptime would look with a newborn and an emotionally needy two year old, hmmm....

at least she's napping.

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getting to know you

Dear Lillia,

Guess what? You're here! You know, even after another long labor (well, not the real laboring part, but you know...) I still look down at my belly and think, Where'd it go? How does it happen so fast? One minute it's just Daddy, Bella, me and the belly, and the next moment our lives are fuller and our hearts are bigger.

Of course, it's hard to say exactly who you are after just one week two weeks out in the world, but I spend most of my day shaking my head in amazement. I knew you were different than Bella - I had this intuition that the soul sharing my body was light hearted and peaceful. In fact, that's one reason I thought you were a boy, you were just so very very different. I just didn't know how different. You came out with brown fuzzy hair, which I thoroughly enjoy. I'd better stop petting it or you'll lose it before anything new comes in!

You sleep. That in itself is a miracle to me. You are so so so laid back. I think you've used your lungs once a day in the last three days, and that's it. (Okay, so it's a bit more this week, but I'll take it.) You are a mama's girl. Bella would go to anyone, and craved the movement and excitement and attention. You are soothed the very moment you and I touch. It is a strange feeling for me, and so rewarding.

You don't like the car much, but will fall asleep if you can have your hand wrapped around my finger. You take a pacifier (whoooaaah, I try not to use it.) and you purr in your sleep. Instead of waking up with little squeaks like Bella did, you grunt and cry and squeal. Your cries are extremely whiny, which I find hilarious. Bella was insistent, but not whiny. Until you came along, I simply thought everyone else's babies just seemed whiny. You also sigh great big sighs through your nose, and it sounds like the snort of a horse.

The hardest thing I'm learning is that your calm little spirit does not like to be unsettled, and the things that unsettle you are so different than Bella's, so I feel like a new mom again. As easy as you are, I have very few tricks up my sleeve for you. You crave peace. You are just learning to enjoy walking around with me, and finally this week you are accepting being worn. You sleep much better by yourself - you'll sleep on my belly, but anytime else you'd much rather sleep in your rocker. Coming from two years of a baby who needed constant contact and stimulation, this is beyond my comprehension.

Bella was a squished little baby - you got to float around in an ocean, goofing off for nine months. Now that you are out, you want nothing to do with swaddling. At three or four days your whole body was already completely relaxed. You still like to nurse with your hands in your face, and if you are on your belly you sleep with them there, too, but usually you spread out like a lazy teenager. I've never seen such a loose newborn before! Someone brought to my attention that in addition to her small home in my belly, Bella was likely scrunched up in a ball because she was in so much pain from her stomach. It breaks my heart to think so, but now that I see you, it makes sense.

I'm starting to understand you a bit more every day. I now know that if anything is wrong in your body, you will refuse to nurse. It's amazing to me that you understand that, and that you are patient in letting me remedy your problems, whether it be to burp you or put you in a better position. You're a gentle little nurser and like to snack, falling asleep while being burped or changed.

These might all sound like little things, but you don't know how many times I looked down at my belly over the past nine months and thought, Please, please, please be a healthy, easy child. I love Bella to pieces, and every struggle with her has had its rewards times a thousand, but I am still raising her, too. I'm so grateful to add you to the family, my little peace bomb. My world starts to spin when I think how lucky I am that you chose me. You calm my soul one little sleep grin at a time.


Love, mama

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Wear Your Baby

No really, do.

It's International Babywearing Week!

We would never have survived Bella's infancy without wearing her. She's a wonderful, vibrant, sensitive child and all that adds up to what they call High Needs Baby. (We just call her Bella. Or zero-to-sixty.)

How do parents of colicky and emotional children survive without baby wearing? We wore her more often than not, and let me assure you she also knew when we were pretending to walk (ie just swaying) so we got lots of exercise, too.

In FACT, how do parents manage to survive parenthood without wearing their children. When do they get anything done?

Things you can do while wearing a baby:

Garden

Knit on the go (if you could before...), and the sling makes a great pouch for the yarn ball.

Take photos! (even if you couldn't before...)

Dash through the airport and gather enough sympathy to not miss your flight.

Hike up a mountain while holding your husband's hand.

Run after and/or wear another child.

Cook (hands and feet in, please!).


For a more in depth post on our babywearing philosophies, see this post from this spring.

And in case you thought it was just me, here's proof that it runs in the family:

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Visit to the mountain(s)

Welllll, I have a whole bunch of posts ready, but since I can't access all my photos, they're sorta... in limbo. What's a story without a photo?

But a few weeks back we went up to Mt. Rainier, and had a blast on a foggy, cool day. I could not get over how tiny Bella seemed on that giant mountain.

Bella had so much fun climbing up the mountain, which however, made for a very slow climb for the rest of us. She fell asleep on my back half way up, and conveniently woke up long enough to warm up and play with the stuffed animals in the lodge. I'm very used to squatting down into strange positions to take photos while carrying her, but I think people are still surprised. I had to get shots of my favorite high mountain wild flowers (the paintbrush). It's been a while since I've seen them, and they don't grow very close to the path.

During our picnic outside, we had a some sweet company, though I think we were the only ones to notice.

One of Bella's favorite activities is walking back and forth on gravel, so she was in seventh heaven in the parking lot. My camera was acting up, missing shots here and there, so I had Dave keep asking Bella to say "Skyyy!!" (which is what she does when she wants us to lift her up to the sky) so I have lots of cute shots of her goofing around to make up for the one I missed.

On our way back down the hill, I made Dave hop out of the car and take photos at every opportunity. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself!

Stay tuned for part two when we go back the following week - and the mountain makes an appearance!

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