Thanksgiving

Gillian on the dock at the Farm
View of the farm from the river

We got home a week ago from a lovely trip to Florida for Thanksgiving. We spent our time at Sean's family's river house down in Green Cove Springs, about 45 minutes south of Jacksonville. It was generally restful and a great timebeing with our family and friends. As I mentioned in my previous post, things started a bit rough with two sick little girls, but all in all the trip went about as smoothly as it possibly could have.

Our fabulous neighbor and Gillian's surrogate aunt, Darla, took us to the airport and picked us up when we got home. I want to take a second and extoll the virtues of Darla, for whom I am eternally grateful. Gillian has no family here and Gillian has decided Darla is our family. Darla takes Gillian on dates and for walks and bike rides around the block. Darla brings Gillian Peanuts holiday specials to watch and makes her dresses. Gillian loves Darla and Darla loves Gillian. So, Darla took us with about a small apartment's worth of stuff to the airport. We had:
3 duffle bags
2 car seats
2 instruments
1 purse
1 backpack
1 breast pump
1 camera bag
1 DVD player and bag
1 stroller

If you had seen us, you would wonder if we were moving an entire household or just most of one. It really is silly how much one has to bring for a 5 day trip when there are two kids involved, one of whom was 4.5 months old.

Anyway, planning for the worst, we left three hours before the flight. We ran into no traffic the day before Thanksgiving at 8am. Weird. We got there with a comfortable 2 hours before the flight and there was no one waiting in the ticketing line the day before Thanksgiving at 9 am. Weird. We mosied through the ghost town that was security, and got to our gate. Gillian ate her breakfast, and we had an uneventful flight. The connecting gate was next to the arrival gate, which was good with our 30 minute layover. We got in to Jax and so did our luggage and life was good. Addie didn't even lose it until 20 minutes before we got to the Farm.

Wednesday we spent the evening with Sean's parents, grandmother, and fabulous cousin William and his intelligent, beautiful new wife, Erin. Sean and William are both musicians and played for a long time by the fire after some of Suzi's delicious etouffe for dinner while Erin and I talked for hours. Thanksgiving day, the rest of the family arrived, including Auntie Kim and cousin Liz...about 20 in all, I think. There was lots of food and drinks and catching up, and shooting clays off the dock. It was a great day and the food was phenomenal. I don't think Suzi came out of the kitchen until Friday. Friday we relaxed in the morning and left Gillian with Nonni and Grandaddy while Sean, Addie, and I headed into town to visit my brother's daughter Amber and my sister-in-law and then we had a great dinner at William and Erin's place (William cooked us an amazing Thai dish).

Addie with Auntie Kim

Sean and William
Addie with William and Erin

Saturday we had a great, albeit short, visit with one of my oldest and closest friends and her family. Gillian would have loved to keep Laurel, but Laurel was shy. Laurel was just starting to enjoy herself and warm up when they left. Needless to say, we blew bubbles, planted an imaginary garden, and made playdough monsters before that. Unfortunately, a sick and overtired Gillian threw one monster fit before that that lasted an hour before she went down for her nap. Well, it's never perfect ;-) Suzi and Bill cooked a wonderful dinner for all of us and the girls ate at the kid tabel and watched a Christmas DVD. Suzi overhead Gillian lean over, tap Laurels plate with her fork and say "Eat Your Dinner, Laurel." (enunciating with each tap) As if. Gillian has the appetite of an inchworm. Laurel could run laps around Gillian's eating habits any day.

Gilly and I with Martha and Laurel
Beautiful Laurel

Sunday was Addie's big day and she was baptized at the church where Sean was baptized 36 years ago. We were so blessed to have both her godparents there (Kim and William), her grandparents there, and both of her great-grandmothers for whom she is named. Also, lots of other friends and family joined us to celebrate both at the church and at the restaurant where Bill and Suzi hosted a wonderful brunch. Gillian had another run in with her Licking third cousin (Cooper) who said to his mother "But, I LOVE her." Gillian runs him, and he takes it. Sounds like it's meant to be. She definitely played hard to get with him, telling him when he came to our table during lunch, "go back and sit in your chair and eat your lunch, Cooper." Bossy. But, in the end, they had a lot of fun together picking flowers and playing chase.

with grandparents and greatgrandparents
Gillian and Cooper
Adelaide with her great-grandmother Adelaide and her awesome Nonni!

Sunday afternoon when we got back to the river, we took Gillian for her first boat ride in a decrepit old boat Sean and Bill nursed back to health and enjoyed a gorgeous view of the river and a natural creek, but on the way back the engine died. Luckily, two very nice men docking their own boat gave us a tow back to our dock. Gillian told me "I like the big boat better". Well, it was clean, didn't have a leak, and didn't have any spiders, so I did too. But we were glad to have had a chance to see the river that way. It was a lot of fun, and Gillian is not the least bit afraid of jumping up and down in a boat cruising along the river. Monday we got up and left, and went to the playground Sean played at as a child, had lunch, and went home.

View of the creek from the river
G and I

Sunset

All in all, we have a fantastic trip. Addie didn't mind being passed around, Gillian soaked up the attention of her scores of admirers, and we enjoyed the company of people we love. We are truly blessed and appreciate everything Bill and Suzi did to make it such a special, stress-free vacation!

Gillian basked in the sun of Bill and Suzi's affection!

House of Ill

Things have been rough around here on the health front. Addie has had some serious eczema from the dryness up here (Sean and I have regular bloody noses-ah, radiator heat!). Sadly, she didn't get that gorgeous Charbonnet skin. Nope. She got freckly, fragile, crow-feet ridden Irish skin. So, soap irritates her skin, and moisturizer irritates her skin (even 98% natural Burts Bees baby lotion). So, we had to do steroid cream for 2 weeks to get it under control and now we slather her with Aquifor twice a day. The doctor said to "bathe her less than once a week if possible." She also said that we already clean the part of her that needs to be cleaned eight times a day. Touche.
In other news, Gillian and Addie got sick the night before we left for our trip to Florida for Thanksgiving. In usual fashion, Gillian was miserable (at least physically) during our entire trip. I can honestly say, of all our travels to visit Nonni and Grandaddy, Gillian has been well exactly once. It started with congestion and progressed to coughing, then to vomiting and nausea. Just to be generous, she then passed it along to the rest of us (and by "us" I mean her own family + two others). Sean threw up all day Thursday of last week, and Thursday afternoon at work, I threw up on the floor of the lobby when I was on my way to catch a cab home (trying to get home before the inevitable flat didn't work). If you doubt how serious my concern that I might be dying, consider that I paid $30 for a cab ride home when I have a free train pass. Of my own money.

Addie threw up a few times Friday morning and her weird listlessness freaked my bean. I was stressed about dehydration. But, all in all, the vomiting was short lived- Gillian threw up for 18 hours, Sean for about 6, Addie for 1, and me just the once. The nausea persists for all at the moment. The doc said it is likely an adenovirus, known for starting in your eyes/nose/throat and working it's way down. All I know is that is was the most aggressive onset of any illness of my life that wasn't food poisoning. Thankfully, it wasn't worse, and no needed IV fluids or died. I have read about the joys of families passing bugs around and now there's four of us to share the love.

TEETH!

Addie has been a little neurotic the past week. She has been soaking everyone and everything with drool since the end of September, so I thought it was just the age. But in the past week, it has been almost impossible to get her to sleep, she has been hard to feed, and has not napped well at all. Thinking it might be teeth, we gave her a frozen teether the past few days and she acts like an addict and is all spastic trying to force the entire thing in her mouth. Tonight she chomped while nursing several times, and I had to pull her off...obviously she needed pressure on her gums.

At bedtime she was manically trying to suck on ANYTHING after nursing and getting a bottle so I gave her my finger, and voila, I felt two pointy little razorblades poking through. I thought "WHAT???!!!" She is just 4 months + 11 days old. Gillian, for comparison, was 9.5 months old (7 gestational months) when she got her first teeth. It seems standard that very first teeth are bottom center teeth.

Off to sleep. I am delirious!

More videos, because we have had a drought around here

Because imitation is the best form of flattery...


And this is just a day in the life of Papa and the girls on a Monday:

Leave of absence

Sorry, friends and family, for being so ghostly lately with appearances. Life has been particularly hectic with going back to work and all. And work started back with a bang and hasn't stopped. It's hard going back, but not hard like it was the first time. At least I know that Addie has a wonderful, dear woman looking after her all day, so I know she will be fine. It is generally nice to go someplace where something as simple as going to the bathroom doesn't require strategic planning. It is nice to use my brain. I think I will try to do more publications and presentations, and peer reviewing this year. I'm up for promotion and need to earn the new position upgrade I am being put in for. Plus, I suppose it's time to act like a person with a PhD with all the academic stuff. Not that I won't still do plenty of applied public health, but I need more scholastic efforts too.

Anyway, life is good around here, and Gillian is being a human being again. She has been quite sweet and well mannered these days, and I think we might just come out of the acclimation period in a single piece. Addie genuinely adores Gillian and it makes Gillian endlessly happy to be so important to Addie. Oh, I also don't worry about Addie being railroaded by Gillian's gigantic personality. She can give it right back.





I have been remiss in my reporting of Addie's development so, here are the highlights:

1st smile: 4 week 2 days
1st laugh: 8 weeks
Discovered her hands: 7-8 weeks
Discovered her feet: 12 weeks
Able to grasp something she wants to hold: 12-13 weeks
First dolphin sound: 12 weeks (now a regular sound around the house)
Current favorite thing: squealing with delight, all day. Squealing out, making weird gasping sounds in, then laughing at her own cleverness. I need to capture this on video, because it is hilarious



Gillian has reverted to calling her little baby doll "little darling". As in, "Mama, where's my little darling?". Or, "my little darling is sleeping, we have to be very quite". Not sure where this title came from. The only think I can think is the fact that months ago, I think I sang "My Dixie Darlin'" to Gillian. Otherwise, I have no idea where Darling came from.

Anyway, I promise to be more present. After all, I am keeping this blog for us too!

We're back in business

Thank dear God we have a computer again that I can upload photos from!!!! Lots of videos too, but I need to figure out my new fancy editing software. In the meantime, maybe I'll try finding the disk for the old software just so I can get some videos up here. This photo was from a week or so ago at the park. The fall leaves are so pretty, but I got this one of both girls and it looks great in sepia...

In or out

Today we met Amanda and AJ at the playground at Addison and Lincoln. That might not mean much to you out-of-towners, but that is a train and bus ride away. Since Sean works downtown sometimes, we resorted to public trans, which is not something I have done with both kids until now. Obviously, Gillian should get good and use to the train and bus since that is the way of urban life...I have taken it to work nearly every day of the past 8 years. It is a bit of a challenge to haul a stroller, even a Metro Lite, up two flights of stairs with a baby strapped to your chest, so we headed to the station south of here because it has an elevator. Then the train took 15 minutes to arrive (non rush hour delays). An uneventful ride, and Gillian was good...no, she was great. She must subconsciously know about my prior entry whining about her behavior and want to prove me wrong. Anyway, we looked out the window and saw the buildings and I showed her my favorite tree, and she flirted with people on the train. The downside was the 20 minute wait for the bus outside the train station, but Gillian was wonderfully patient. Addie slept. It was a quick trip down Addison, and we went to the playground in Yuppiland (Roscoe Village) packed with Bob strollers and Starbucks-adorned Mamas and stylishly clothed toddler. Besides ours I saw four other Baby Bjorn carriers and started to wonder...."am I a yuppie too??!?" I mean, I have a ghetto Graco stroller and my kid wears Old Navy and consignment shop duds (and I had a Dunkin Donuts coffee), a couple notches down on all accounts, but there I was. There were plenty of baby bumps besides Amanda's too.

Are we yuppies? Roscoe Village is rife with jet setting 20-30 somethings who have young families and live in overpriced houses (think close to a million dollars). Amanda says her block party conversations revealed only one other woman who had a job outside the home, and most of the husbands were lawyers or finance guys. I like to think of myself as a pretty frugal person on most levels and I'm not impressed with name brands, but I like what I like, and I often like things like the Baby Bjorn or Ergo carriers. I buy organic meat, yogurt, eggs, and milk for Gillian, and really like farmers markets where I can get fresh organic produce (is it so wrong to not want my 8 year old wearing bras and having a period because of all the growth hormones??!). I do yoga and read the news. I don't like my kid to put non-wholegrain stuff in her precious mouth. I pureed organic veggies for Gillian when she first started eating solids because I thought Gerber Baby food was death in a jar (before I discovered that Earth's Best was also organic and less time consuming to feed her). Addie even has some organic cotton pajamas (from a consignment shop, but still). I get my hair cut and colored at a salon (usually, though it looks pretty rough at the moment). I even like to go to Sam's and get a few bottles of wine every now and then because they have a better selection and better prices than the grocery (Binny's is buying Sam's!! Oh, the lament-prices already went up!).

I mean, the grounding things are that we live in a condo, we only have a part time nanny, I have terrible fashion sense, and I clip coupons. Aside from my taste for the well-made in life, I don't like WASTING money. I mean, one year I tracked my coupon savings (saved every grocery receipt) and it was $1560. That's a lot of money that didn't take much to make (I have pretty recently discovered that Target groceries, while limited, are usually about 40% less than the grocery store, so I get as much there as I can). I don't care if my sweater is Last Season if it saves me 75% off the original price. I almost never buy things at full price, except shoes for Gillian. But even that has changed. I bought a lot of 6 pairs off Ebay that were gently used-$50 for 2 pairs of Stride Rites (1 pair was a cute set of boots), 2 pairs of Saucony tennis shoes, a pair of Primigi mary janes, and a pair of dress shoes. They are fine, and I am benefitting from the fact that the kid who wore them wore them hardly at all.

Somewhere along the way, I decided that kids don't NEED new things. Poor Addie. When Gillian was born I would have no sooner put her in a used carseat or high chair than moving to the North Pole, but things have changed. Kids are hard on things and they depreciate quickly. No reason to spend that money when I can benefit from someone else spending it. Like Addie's new playmat I got from Craigslist for $15 (originally $79.99), which works just fine and is nice and clean. I'd like to tell you I do these things because it is greener to buy used, and my environmental conscience is the driving factor. Really, it's mostly because I feel like paying full price is getting scammed, and I hate getting cheated.

So, what is the vernacular for a cheap yuppie? Chuppie? Yugle? Grown up?

A wrinkle in time?

Gillian is saying interesting things about "when [she] was a baby" or "when [she] was a little girl". Sometimes it's all mystical, like "when I was a little girl, I slept inside the purple sun and he wrapped his rays around me like a big hug". Sometimes she says things like "when I was a baby, I use to say "guh...guh...guh" because I couldn't say "garden", remember mama?".

Today she said "Mama, when you were my baby, you use to like wearing a yellow dress with a flower on it". She went on to tell me that as a baby I also liked to eat bananas and play in the bathtub. I really don't like to dismiss these things because I think she has demonstrated a really remarkable memory. I mean, she remembers things that actually happened when we were at the beach in June of 2008...selectively, but still (out of the blue she will say "remember that time we were at the beach and Nonni hurt her foot?" or something like that). So, when she says "when I was a baby...." I want to think she might actually remember not being able to say "garden", or whatever. But it kindof freaks me out to think she might remember a past life where I was her baby. I mean, the whole kindred spirits thing might not be complete foolishness; I try to keep an open mind about these things. Besides, everything she says might be true given how terrible my memory is about life's minutia (Gillian and Sean have tht market covered). That is why I blog.

In other news, I think I am going to decorate my house with her art because I LOVE IT. It's like modern art with an edge. I seriously am going to frame a few things because they blow my mind. Some are simple paintings that look Miro like (my favorite artist in the world; the pilgrimage to Barcelona to go to his museum was worth it!!) and some are more abstract and complex, all with names as beautiful and strange. I will upload some photos of her art when I am able. Have I mentioned how hard it is to not be able to get at the pics on my camera?

Postnatal physical damage assessment

Arms, legs, face: Back to normal (thank God since my nose was spread across my face those last few weeks), thankfully no vericose veins.
Hair: telogen effluivium, again. A sweater's worth every shower or hair brushing, though I must admit I get all fuzzy inside when I see the number of white hairs falling out. I really need a trip to the salon.
Round ligaments: have been giving me hell for a month. Time to get use to being back in their rightful place again. Please stop making me feel chronically menstrual.
Moles, skin tags: alive and well and more plentiful. SEXY.
Belly shape: soft, 3-4 month pregnancy pooch. Diastasis recti. Separation of the rectus abdominis muscle into right and left halves. My linea alba has torn asunder. If I lay flat and flex my belly, I get this little hill that rises up between where the muscles are (I can see lumps that are intenstines through the muscles when I lay awake on my back in the mornings plotting my escape from The Madness). You know, the parts that use to be joined. This is supposed to improve, but may never be the same. I should exercise the transverse muscles more to help things get back to where they go, but I have not gotten around to that yet. That and Kegels, which I really should try harder to get around to.
Belly skin: sad. stretchmarks and loose; I am told things will improve. The poor little belly button might never make it back to it's original position. I could use the extra belly skin for a small purse, or a day planner sleeve. Maybe after my post-final-baby-tummy-tuck....
Breasts: about the same as before, but more functional (no weird increase in size this time)
Eyes: chronically bloodshot from utter exhaustion
Weight: 57 pounds down, 3 pounds to go. Yes, I gained SIXTY pounds with Addie, 45 of which was gone within 3 weeks-must have been water (did you SEE that entry with the cankle/fat sausage feet I had? each ankle had three chins!!). At this point, I have no desire to lose much more because I have a milk supply to keep up (that is my mantra when I'm having a little extra treat). I want to get back into yoga, but no cardio just yet for that reason (which is great and not so great at the same time)...
Feet: shoes are pretty tight. I think the hormones might have relaxed the ligaments enough to up me a quarter or half size.

All in all: it could be worse.

By the way-the computer has been dead a couple weeks and our new one should arrive within the next week, at which time I will upload many pictures and videos for your viewing pleasure.

Survival mode

My GOD I am tired. I didn't appreciate the exhaustion of having Gillian and a new baby. Well, having them BOTH at the same time. It's kind of like when Andrea was here and Gillian was running around like a maniac and then planted herself on the couch, feet up the back and head hanging off the seat toward the ground. I just stared at her, nodding when she said "look at me, Mama! I'm upside down!!". Andrea, noticing my glaze, said "look at me Mama, I'm about to fall on my head". The truth is that my life is a lot like this (watch the whole thing-it's priceless):

Gillian has limitless energy. She is a ball of energy. All the time. When she wakes you up at 6 am, she's all shiny, bright, and happy asking you to do something inherently absurd...Tuesday morning, when I had to get up and go to work in an HOUR (I lost that precious hour), she comes in and says something like "come dance with me Mama, you want to? I want to wear my princess to dance in because it twirls around like I like, but I don't want to wear any pants with it, OK Mama? Cause it's not too cold in here, OK? C'mon let's go dance Mama. I dreamed about purple tights last night. Can I wear purple tights with my princess dress? Can I Mama? CAN I? I need help putting on my underpants and my tights and dress...C'mon Mama, WAKE UP!" So, the day starts like that, and it goes all day like that. And, as much as she wears me out TO DEATH, it wouldn't be so bad if she didn't get jealous in the least delightful way.

If I don't give Gillian undivided attention, she does things like deliberately trying to kick the cat or chases them around yelling...or maybe she will scream near Addie while she is trying to sleep. On the way to Michigan to pick apples, she yelled in Addie's face until Addie was crying inconsolably, and she had a timeout on the side of the interstate, semis rolling by at 70 miles per hour. Sometimes she hugs Addie too tight on purpose, is too rough in her playing with her (she looks at us to see what we'll do when she knows she is being too rough), or tries to pick the cat up by her neck. The other day, I walked away from her and Addie on the bed for 5 seconds, only to hear Sean exclaim "what are you doing, WHAT ARE YOU DOING??!!?"; Gillian had a plastic bag over Addie's face. I want to feel sorry for her plight, I really do, but I am a broken record. "Gillian, no yelling at the cat"; "Gillian, gentle with Addie"; "Gillian, Addie is trying to sleep, use your inside voice"; "Gillian, when you yell, it hurts our ears"; "Gillian, please do what I asked you to do"; "Gillian, please eat your dinner". I am completely, utterly wiped out. I am emotionally exhausted.

Dinner is a fight. If we pretend not to notice that she isn't eating, she says things like "Look, Papa, I'm not eating my supper". If we remind her that she doesn't get dessert unless she eats dinner she says things like "I don't want dessert tonight." She'll say "I need help. I need you to feed me". I would love to tow the hard line with sending her to bed with no dinner, except we are the ones who suffer all night with no sleep when she wakes up crying because she is hungry. Bedtime is a fight too. Every night we have the same routine (dinner, bath, playtime, books, tucking in). Every night she tells us she's not tired and that she doesn't want to go to bed. Every night we have to tell her we are leaving now, and every night she pretend cries and says some well articulated poignant thing like "but I don't want you to leave me" or "I don't want to be in here all alone...I'm scared PLEASE STAY WITH ME BECAUSE I LOVE YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU....". Every night the end result is the same and she is in bed, and we sit here like slugs on the couch, cross eyed from all the hell a three year old can pack into the two hours between dinner and bedtime. Entertaining her is a chore too. Our imaginative play has evolved to skits where she is the director. She tells me what to say. "Ask me why, Mama". "Say "I like to eat toes". SAY IT, Mama". If we ask her to do something, she will often say "NO!" and when you ask why, she'll say, "because I don't want to". If you ask why she did something she knows you disapprove of, she'll say "because I want to" (this is infuriating when she hurts Addie and you ask her why she hurt Addie). Tonight she said "I hate you" (I have absolutely no idea where she learned that). Nice. She's 3 going on 15. Can't wait for 15.

We are sometimes uncomfortable with how weirdly attached she gets to older women she doesn't know. At Christmas, she was rolling around on the carpet at Suzi's sister's feet saying "Whoa Leecey (Alyce's grandmother nickname), look at me!" She did that for 15 or 20 minutes, desperate for Alyce's attention. There were no less than 15 other kids between the ages of 1 and 6 for her to play with, and she spent her time trying to get attention from a great aunt. The same thing happened in August when we went to Lake Wawassee in Indiana to visit with Suzi's sister Chee Chee's kids and grandchildren. Gillian was on Chee Chee's lap the entire time, even though there were several sweet little girls to play with. More recently, she monopolized Teddy's grandmother at his birthday party, yelling "Hi!" to her over and over again across the dinner table. Lucky for Gillian, Suzi (ironic that Teddy's grandmother is also Suzi) was a good sport, and was great with her and assured us she was not bothered by Gillian the few times we asked if we needed to take her home.

Sleep is a joke. I am desperate for some alone time when they are both finally asleep that I stay up too late...and since I've been at work twice a week this week and last, Addie has been waking up to nurse 2-3 times every night (we were down to once, at about 4am before that). Most nights for the past month or so, Gillian has also been waking up once or twice a night...because she peed in her bed, or she has a bad dream, or because she dropped burpy on the floor and wants someone else to get it, or because she wants you to cover her up, or because she's lonely, or because she wants a hot washcloth for her face (thanks for that indulgence, Papa). So, do the math. Addie wakes me up a couple times a night, and Gillian does too. I am a zombie.

I hate feeling like this because Gillian is such a wonderful child in so many ways, but this boundary establishment part might kill me. How long does this part last? I spend half my time feeling guilty that Gillian's behavior is clearly due, in large part (the other large part being that she is three), to acclimating to sharing our love and attention with another child, and the other half feeling guilty that Addie hasn't gotten 1/10th the amount of attention Gillian got as a baby. Addie is a sweet baby, and is generally mild mannered, and she deserves better than what I am giving her. And I don't want to give the impression that Gillian is a hellion, but I am honestly in survival mode. We talk all the time about whether our parenting choices are what is causing this behavior. We second guess our decisions on how we discipline her (timeouts, for example), we second guess what we say and how we say things. We feel like we're navigating in the dark here, and we hope to God things are OK on the other side. I say this as I make my second trip to a crying Gillian in her bed since 8:30 (it is 11:30). Another bust night for sleep, it appears.

Sometimes parenting seems monumentally difficult. Shouldn't loving them be enough?