Changing it Up

Eli is growing fast.  He's 7 weeks already which is hard to believe.

We're already cycling through some changes and learning more and more about him.

asleep in his basket at a week old.
that is not how he fits in it now, and
that blanket was outgrown weeks ago

For the last two weeks or so he's been waking up around 5 or 5:30 and then going back to sleep but being very fitful.  Moving all around, waking and going back to sleep, kicking his legs and making cranky noises.  It didn't make for good sleeping for me because he's still in the little basket in our room.  Many mornings he found his way into my bed to nurse some and sleep some and try to keep quiet.  I was getting pretty tired.

So two nights ago around 5am he woke up again and this time I changed his diaper which was plenty full.  He went back to sleep and slept until 7:30 (praise the Lord) and he might have gone longer if the rest of us hadn't needed to get up.
Last night, same thing. changed him when he woke up at 4:45 and off he went back to sleep and he woke up with smiles at 7:20 this morning.  Ah.

that extra 2 hours of real sleep rather than waking and half-sleep is HUGE!

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The other thing he changed is that in the very beginning I was giving him a pacifier to help him suck and calm down because I don't want to become his human pacifier.  Then he just absolutely started to refuse it.  And when I say 'absolutely' I mean it.  He seems personally offended when I offer something he doesn't want and he very loudly lets me know that's not the right thing!

Pacifier face at 2 weeks old

Last night he was cranky and we're not sure why. He kept making the hungry noise and rooting so I'd try to nurse him and he'd latch on enthusiastically.  Then he'd suck, and get loud and push away and start to cry.  But immediately want to try again when nursing was offered.  I know he was getting milk because he was spitting up.  I wonder if it was something I ate.  It was incredibly frustrating because I wanted to help him and nursing usually calms him down, but this time it wasn't working.
 It took both of us bouncing and walking him all over for almost 2 hours to finally get him off to sleep. And then, he woke up after 20 minutes.  I got him settled and again it seemed that he wanted to wake up so I saw the pacifier sitting there and took a chance with it... popped it in his mouth and that did the trick.  He sucked soothed and dropped off.  It dropped out, he started up again, I popped it back in and off he went.. 2 more rounds of that and finally we got a good night's sleep.  whew.

Summer Fun

The beginning of July was much like the beginning of the summer.  We spent the first week or two just hanging out together around the house.  Sabine particularly loved hanging out with her new dolphin: "Gracie" she got as a souvenir from our trip to the Bahamas.  

not sure what this pose is about

This is a "manta ray bed" and her pillow has pictures of Manta Rays and Sting Rays on it.

We got to have one fun morning playdate at the garden playing in the water fountains with her best friend from school.   Here are the girls:

And, who can deny the charm of the outfits she picks out.  Just in time for summer a long sleeved plaid shirt and hot pink flannel pants, covered by her spotted sundress.  Beautiful!!!

Holiday Food

Truly -- The food. It cannot be left out of the blogging. Max and I spent a good long while during the week after Christmas remembering and Oooo-ing and Ahhh-ing over the delicious treats we enjoyed during this holiday season.

Indulgence began with the "Night Tree" celebration at my Aunt Marty's house. It's a lovely celebration of solstice with friends. We gather at Marty's and enjoy soup and company while creating edible ornaments for the birds and animals. In years past we've hiked into the woods and decorated a shrub with the pieces. This year we just went around the corner and caroled to a little tree by the side of the road. Sabine LOVED that part and really got into singing "Jingle Bells" almost word for word. She also watch the clouds moving fast that night and seemed so sweet as she watched.

BUT I digress.... The food... Marty is a ridiculous cook. That night on the menu were two soups. The first is Hungarian Mushroom from the Original Moosewood cookbook. I had two servings and then passed up on the peanut soup which was apparently quite amazing as well.

For teacher and friend gifts this year I made low-fat granola from Cooking Light. It has craisins, pineapple juice, and apricots in it. I add cinnamon because it just needs a little something more. Sabine loved the apricots which she'd never had before. It's an extremely easy recipe and super tasty!

Of course, there were the treats: Mexican Wedding cakes by my mom, a red velvet cake by Gigi, peanut butter blossom cookies, the salty chocolate chip cookies, chocolate chocolate chunk cookies, forgotten cookies, more chocolate chip cookies, and other yummy goodness. SIGH!

On Christmas Eve we kept things simple with homemade pasta sauce that my mom can make like the back of her hand. Hearty and delicious!

Into that we added fresh homemade pasta. The pasta was hung through the kitchen with care. And we enjoyed a simple but delicious Christmas eve meal.

Christmas morning was brunch with the Baked Omlet from the mennonite cookbook from Katie's wedding. French puff muffins which are essentially white bread rolled in butter with cinnamon and sugar!

Christmas day had more and more treats in the country... with the famous mac and cheese!

Then at my parents' house Lasagna with mom's famous sauce. She skipped the French Silk Pie and we all decided 1. this is for the best and 2. we'll schedule a specific time to come into town for it.

With that we cut ourselves off from delightful dining! Now I think we all have the resolution to lose a few pounds. oy!

End of Summer Wrap Up #3

One of Sabine's favorite things this summer was being at our local pool. We joined the Lewis Ginter Recreation Association last year and have enjoyed being at the pool as often as we can. It's nice to see neighbors out and about and to feel connected to community just by being there.

This year we found out that Sabine was finally tall enough to stand on her own in the big pool which was a huge benefit from last year when we had to hold her the whole time. She enjoyed going deeper and deeper - up to her neck even- to try to chase down her inflatable ring. She also really loved it when Max made waves with her kick-board "kickboard waves!!"

Here she is on the last day of being at the pool this summer:

Some of her favorite things to do in the pool included: being "spinny dog" which meant she would hop in circles saying spinny dog spinny dog (this is from a pup in our neighborhood who used to bark and spin in circles whenever Tyco would walk by). She also loved playing Ruby from the TV show Max and Ruby. She did syncronized swimming and called it the water lily (after something on the show) when she would first put her face in the water (hooray!) and then lay on her back in her ring and kick her legs high in the air.

A few times we had our act together really well and took dinner to the pool which Sabine seemed to like pretty well. She didn't like it when the flies came to visit OR the day when the wind kicked up and a storm was definitely brewing. But she did like hanging out on the lounge chairs with us for about five minutes then it was back to the water... no matter how purple her lips were.

On our way out the door for the last time, stopping to be by the "ginter park dolphin"

A little fun playing in the water: Spinny Dog in action!

Wonders

Conversation with the babysitter this evening.

me: how did it go?

T: it was fine, she pee peed in the potty.

me: WHAT?

T: Yeah, she told me she had to go, she said she had an elmo seat and she showed me where it was and then she pee peed in the potty

Sabine: like mommy does

me: WHAT? she's never done that before!

T: well, there you go, she's potty trained!

Totally amazing this child! we went to babies r us this weekend and bought an elmo potty seat with the idea that we'd get her used to thinking about potty training. we've been talking about using the potty and she's been checking out the seat. but we haven't tried it out or pushed the idea.... apparently we weren't moving fast enough for her. at this rate she'll graduate college in a month and our parenting duties will be all done!

(Pics of maine coming very soon)

At a Loss

We got home from our family vacation this afternoon with the knowledge that our house would be a bit quieter when we got here. Sweet Tyco took his leave of us while we are gone and we are terribly grateful to our dear friends for taking care of him in our absence.

He was with max for 15 years and me for nearly 7 (and Sabine for almost 2, of course). And its true, the house is quieter, and will probably be cleaner. We just imagine he's probably running down the middle of some highway or tearing up a down comforter or destroying a kitchen floor and in many other ways creating absolute havoc with his sister, Akira where ever they are now.

these beautiful photos are by Mary Heath Swanson

L'Artiste

Sabine loves drawing so much we figured it was time to make the leap into paint. Washable fingerpaint seemed to be the best place to start. So one day last week we put plastic over the highchair, newsprint over the table and stripped her down to have a go at it. Somehow I thought she might go all Izzy on us and we'd end up with paint all over everything. I think I underestimated my girl's Girly tendencies.... you'll see

First, she is totally unwilling to get in the highchair and insists on painting in my lap.

OK, i get it, you put paint on your finger

Wait, I have to put paint on MY finger?

So when the fingers weren't working, max and i brought out chopsticks and that was much better.


OH, now i see, fingers in the paint really is pretty cool

making a rainbow with mommy

Ah, the tortured artist!

And finally, displaying the "artwork" proudly on our fridge.

Since then we've talked about the painting a few more times. At this point the highlight seems to be that she was 'SO Naked' and that Daddy made cookie monster. She's also told me a few times that the page on the fridge is 'all done' while she tries to pull it down.

Weekend Away

This weekend sabine spent some time in Roanoke while I worked most of the weekend and max was at the track.

She went there with a very specific plan which included: walking the babies in the stroller, feeding the ducks, making cookies, and playing with the toys. I think all of her dreams came true!

From what I can gather from her now, the highlights of the weekend were: riding a noisy train at the zoo, seeing the red pandas eat apples from a bowl, feeding the ducks who were fussing, baking cookies with chocolate chips, and seeing granddaddy mow the lawn and vacuum his truck. Sounds like a full weekend to me.

I taught my first workshop this weekend and I think it went pretty well. At least it was well attended. For me, having her off for the weekend was perfect because I was able to concentrate on putting the workshop together and on my yoga practice before hand. Not to mention, having a break from full-time mommy duty to just do whatever I want is pretty darn awesome. The other great thing about her going away is that it gives me a chance to miss her. Some days I feel like I'm just waiting for her to go off to college (and i know, it will be here before I know it, enjoy the moments), kind of like 'when are you going to leave and give me my life back?' but when she does leave, something is missing.... my life doesn't just go back, now she's gone and i get to miss her. so i was glad to get her back on sunday evening.

This week it's mommy sabine time all week while max is on a shoot and it's going well. we're taking it easy since we both had very full weekends. but we're glad to be back together, and that's a good thing.

What it's all about

The Hokey Pokey.... That's what we're all about.

max decided it was an awesome idea to teach her the hokey pokey this morning, and we have been doing the hokey pokey all day. ALL. DAY. i have to admit, she's pretty good at it especially when i prompt her. of course, elmo joins us and ducks and whatever other party friends are around. she really likes the 'turn yourself around' part. probably because she's good at spinning. i have a feeling i'm going to be doing A LOT of the hokey pokey for the next few months. sweet!

Salutation Nation

We had a family outing this morning to Maymont to be a part of Salutation Nation... an outdoor yoga event that took place all over the nation, put on by Lululemon atheltica (yoga apparel store) I thought i'd just go and take babe and see how much i could get done and just be a part of it, but happily max decided to join in as well. Sabine did really great. she stayed with me on my mat some but then got on her mat and ate her snack and even snuck in a few down dogs here and there. It was great fun for all even if by the end all she wanted was to go look at the pigs and goats in the children's farm. i know she loved it (and max did too, even better!)

Watching the setting up

Waiting to get started

A little assistance for mommy

Check it out! Max rocks 3 legged Dog

Inspecting mommy and daddy's dogs

Anjali mudra for mommy, babe and elmo

Special Delivery

Forget the stork, apparently babies come in the Mail at our house. Sabine's been loving pushing her toy car and her toy mailbox around the house lately but she would really like a baby stroller. I guess necessity is the mother of invention because yesterday she figured out that if she took the mail drop doors off the mailbox it made a perfect seat for elmo and baby. She's been giving stroller rides to all her animals ever since. Ah. so sweet. (and yes, i know she's wearing a long sleeved shirt and it's 90+ degrees outside. she insisted! she really loves all the hand-me-down clothes from cousin izzy. as she says: "izzy, clothes. nice")

What do YOU say?

Here is the ongoing conversation we have with Sabine many many many times a day.

Sabine: "Boo says 'Sweetie Pie'."

Me: Boo says sweetie pie to you.

Sabine: "Granddaddy, Squiggle Wiggle, TOES! fiddlesticks"

Me: granddaddy says a lot

Sabine: "Molly says 'Pretty Cool"

Me: Molly is pretty cool. What does daddy say?

Sabine: Whoa! WHAT? Donk.

Me: What does Tyco say?

Sabine: Tyco belched again.

Me: Excuse you, Tyco

Sabine: Funny Tyco. Tyco Belched.

Me: What does Mommy say?

Sabine: Love you.

and Repeat. Over and Over and Over again. Especially in the car. Today I got a break because as I was flipping through the radio stations I paused on NPR and they were playing opera with this soprano going all out. I would have changed it except that Sabine started singing along! wild trills and all!

Early Summer Shots

Here are some photos from the early part of the summer. Just so you have some idea of what has been going on around here:

First, World Cup Fever! She loved running through the house with the inflated soccer ball and yelling "GOAL!" whenever we kicked it. She did actually see a little bit of the world cup too and tried her hand a commentary : 'Running Running kicking'. That's pretty much what happened, right?

In June she helped make an Oreo crust for Daddy's Key Lime Pie. She enjoyed getting the Oreos out and handing them to me to put into the crust. I don't think she realized just how delicious they are or she might not have cooperated so well. Now whenever she sees Oreos she says: "Pie?"

Oh, that was the same day she crawled into her stroller on her own and couldn't get out.

Finally, she's been enjoying our newly re-built Tree House!! Yay Daddy! While I was off at a yoga trip and Boo was here to take care of Sabine, Max took on a total redo of the treehouse. Now it is secure and stable and has two levels with a ramp in between and a slide from the top level to the ground. Sabine isn't too sure about the slide right now, but she loves running up and down the ramp. Whenever we talk about the treehouse she says: "Daddy, Nice" meaning "daddy made it for me and it was nice that he did"

I think she likes it!

Drawing

Last night Sabine had a babysitter, my newlywed cousin Anne. They were in drawing mode, using the chalk outside on the sidewalk. Sabine got her to draw some shapes all over the place. Anne was going strong drawing circles and triangle and square and thought it all normal until sabine looked at her and said "Hex" . Anne said, Huh? "Hexagon!"

yes, that's right, my one year old wanted to draw a hexagon. i guess she is really paying attention to sesame street because i sure didn't teach her that one!

Yoga Break

When Sabine gets really excited she tends to break out into her Itsy Bitsy Yoga routine. After Liz's shower and all the clean up was over, Sabine was so jazzed up we got the full IBY repertoire.

Here is Down Dog by Aunt Liz

The Yoga Game-face

Another Full Down Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana)

Really Prepping for what's to come

The super advanced hands-free Down Dog

Twisty

Yet another advanced headstand down dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana Sirsasana I)

Up up and away half-moon

Crane pose with Boo for assistance

Full Force Twisty

And, After it all, a balloon break with Aunt Liz

Post Yoga Savasana Bliss

I Love my Yoga Baby!