last day as a baby

At this time last year, I was doing all the admission paperwork for having Gil. I had no way of knowing what a wild ride the next 36 hours would be.

I've loved the experience of having this second baby. I think I've appreciated it more because I knew this time how quickly it would pass, how the baby stage would move away from me so incredibly quickly. Rather than something that I was trying to conquer, the baby stage was soething I savored this time around.

Both of my babies were easy sweet babies and they were both good sleepers. I think that made all the difference for me. But they were easy in very different ways. Vake was cheerful all the time but very high energy- he was always a baby on the move and not a cuddler, particularly. Gil, on the other hand, has his people and he delights in them. And his Mama? I am Chief of Staff. Which is totally different from Vake's approach but totally wonderful.

I nursed both boys until they were a year old. This morning, as I got Gil out of the crib and sat down to nurse him for the last time, I felt such a cliched combination of satisfaction, grief and accomplishment for a job well done mixed in with a measure of being glad to be able to turn the page and not be constantly thinking about the next feeding. He nursed really well this morning- which has been increasingly unusual for him- almost as if he knew, which of course he didn't and doesn't- that this morning was the last time.

From the second they are born, you are preparing yourself to give them up, to give them away. What a difficult thing, right? Each growth for them is, in some way, necessarily a loss for the parent- for the mother, particularly. And it is all moving so fast.

Looking back over these thoughts, I've basically given voice to every cliche in the book- and you know what? Maybe they are cliches because they are true.

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Christmas Eve 2012

 What a difference a year makes!  Last year at this time, I was so tired and huge, but this year, we had an absolutely GREAT Christmas Eve.

We went to the 4:30 Christmas Eve Service at our church- so great to finally have both boys in church- Gil is phasing out of the morning nap but so far we haven't really made it to the 8:45 service with him.

After the service was over, Daddy and Vake sat down to write Vake's last note to Santa for this year.

 As we've discussed, the main requests were Den and Dart.  Vake did not know what his brother wanted.

 We put the cookies, carrots for the reindeer and the note by the fireplace.

 And we hung all the stockings with care.

 (and for reasons unclear to me, took a snack break during the stocking hanging)

 And then we were ready for the Santa magic.

How you know Christmas was a success

Your child has a train from his beloved godfather on his pillow.


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Christmas Outtakes

 It is a little past 10 on Christmas Day and what a happy day it has been- more on that tomorrow when I post about the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day fun- and when I am not so full of delicious dinner.  I leave you with these Christmas gems.

I was trying to get a close up of the Christmas shirt and overall combo- turns out it was the only matched set I bought and a BIG THANK YOU  for that, because this is the, wait for it, only set of pictures I got in these two pieces of clothing all holiday season.

 Perhaps it would have been better if I had just laundered the shirt and the overalls, pressed them and put them on the bed and taken pictures of them without the childrens.

 Really?

The days are long but the years are short.

A call from Santa!

Tonight, as we were sitting in our living room, there was a knock on the door. Aunt Annie and Aunt Becky from next door came in, and suddenly, there was a telephone call. I answered the phone, and the voice on the other line was an older man. He asked to speak to Vake.



And you know who it was? Santa!


It is about to be Christmas!

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Haircut!

Like his brother, Gil (until today) had a little baby mulet-just this short, scrappy section of long hair.

No more.

Today, when I went to get my eyebrows done, Hien demulleted him.

We're fresh out of babies on the Boulevard.

Who knew I would be so gutted? As a teenager, I always preferred babysitting for olde children but boy oh boy do I love my little babykins.

And the thing that's hard is that the daily routine is mundane enough that if you're not careful, you can wish the days away. But these days that make up the years are so short. And I am already so acutely aware that my boys don't need me as much or in the same way that a newborn needs his mother. I remember sleeping with each of them and just loving so much, and those days are behind me now.


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And the Dino will lie down with the Lamb?

 

 

 What a fun night we had.  Tonight was the GHTC Christmas pageant.  For those of you following along at home, you know that Vake loves dinosaurs and you also know that the pageant has been on our minds.  Vake and I had talked about how all the animals were excited that Jesus was being born, so when he announced that he wanted to be a Christmas dinosaur, what could I really say? 

Anyway, the director of Christian Education didn't have a problem with it, so Vake was my Pteranodon and Gillie was my sweet little lambie. 

 Everyone was excited to get ready for the pageant.

 "And the Dino shall lie down with the lamb."

 Here I am with my sweet little lambie.  Forgive the fact that I look old and exhausted.  I think I might be both, although in my head I am neither. 

 Vake was such a trooper.  He marched down the aisle, he sat with the other nativity animals and the angels. 

 Too sweet.

 By the end, it was almost more than he could bear.  He was crazy excited that he was in church with his costume on.

 We're in the final countdown to the 25th!

Songfest

Today was the children's pageant at preschool.

The three year olds are the backbench angels. I rocked it out in court this morning and touched down with a couple of minutes to spare.

The pageant was really sweet. The older children (the true pre-kindergarteners) were the nativity characters and the younger ones (Vake's age) sang along.


Here's a pic of most of Vake's class. He was surprisingly into the hand motions.

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Christmas Dinosaur

I just sent an email to our director of Christian education.

Dear Mary Cay,

Hope all's well. Just wanted to drop you a quick note to see if it ok if vake is a Christmas dinosaur instead of a sheep at the Christmas pageant this year. We will byoc (bring your own costume). We understand if it is not ok. Vake and I have talked about the fact that dinosaurs were not at Jesus' birth.

Thanks!

Alison


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Location:North Blvd,Richmond,United States

The teachable moment that wasn't

Today was action packed. Vake and I had Sunday school, then he had a birthday party, and then we went with Eric and Gil to a church to prepare a meal for a group of homeless men who stay overnight at a group of area churches.

It was a simple meal and there were about 35 men there for the night. Chili, cornbread, ham biscuits, and cookies. Heavy on the inexpensive carbs, light on fresh fruit, veggies and protein. But prepared carefully and well.

And my whole plan was to start the conversation about the holidays having a component of giving back. But I failed. I got there and there was so much hustle and bustle that I just let him watch a movie sitting on the floor. He didn't help prepare the food, nor did he help serve it. I don't think that he talked to a single one of the people who came through the food line.

And obviously, that's fine. He's three, not thirteen and not thirty. But it makes you realize that working on that sensitivity chip is not as easy as you might think.


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Location:North Blvd,Richmond,United States

The boys and Santa

We took another shot at a Santa visit today with a similar outcome.  Vake was very excited about the whole program and was actually pretty thrilled to walk up to Santa and ask him for Den and Dart.  For those of you who don't know who Den and Dart are, they are two minor characters in the Thomas the Tank Engine pantheon.

Here's what the internet has to say about Den and Dart: Dart works at the Vicarstown Dieselworks to support and assist Den. Den and Dart have worked together for so long that Dart can often guess what Den is thinking before he can get it out himself. Although not so much the thinker of the duo, he is usually the doer and can be the chattier of the two. He quickly buzzes about the Dieselworks, occasionally bashing, crashing, and clanging into things. He can be heard to grumble "Dizzy Diesels!" when something goes wrong. Dart is very able in his work and a valuable team player. Despite being small in size, he is feisty and fast. Dart also like jokes, sometimes to the annoyance of the other Diesels. If feeling bothered, particularly by the steam engines, Dart is far from devious, but can get grumpy, gruff, irritable, and sometimes cheeky too, but otherwise he is the quick-witted assistant of the Dieselworks.

But I digress.  Probably just because we spend hours a day doing imaginary play with the characters from Sodor.  Whew.

Anyway, each year the Mullens invite us to the Commonwealth Club for the Santa breakfast.  It is really, really nice- the food is fancy and they have jugglers and balloon animal makers and it is a lovely, lovely environment.  They have a Santa, and they take pictures, the whole "visit with Santa" experience.  It went as badly for Gil today as it did last week.  Which is surprising, because Gil is generally so mild mannered.

The rest of the day was quiet around here.  I have a couple of loads of laundry to finish, and I tried to clean out the boys' playroom- which by the way- I will be painting in the new year- finally giving up on the hot pink....

Gil at 11 months

So hard to believe that a year has already flown by. Seems like literally just yesterday that I was getting ready for this little angel.

At 11 months, Gil is:

Cruising from place to place,
An amazing crawler,
An excellent eater. Like his big brother, he loves his veggies and fruit,
Recognizes his own name,
Still is incredibly snuggly,
Is less and less interested in nursing, but can hold a cup with the best of them,
Transitioned out of an infant bucket seat this month into a rear facing seat,
Still generally takes two excellent naps a day,
Has six teeth (two on the bottom, four on the top),
Has a phenomenal belly laugh,
Is incredibly mild mannered- he is the child I have to check on in the crib,
Seems to be developing a little bit of stranger anxiety, and
Is longer and leaner than his big brother.

Gil is wearing mostly 18-24 months clothes with a few 2ts mixed in for good measure. He wears a size 4 diaper. No shoes yet- right now we are still doing the soft bottomed shoes.


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What is it with my children and Santa?

Eric and I took Vake and Gil to Legendary Santa today.  Vake did much better.  Gil picked up where Vake left off last year. 

My dream is that someday I'll have a Santa picture with two smiling boys. 

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

So hard to believe there's only something like 27 shopping days! And it is getting us closer to baby Gil's first birthday, which seems insane too!

So this weekend, Eric and I got the tree up and he put the lights out front.

Vake was pretty uninterested in purchasing the tree but has repeatedly requested to help decorate it.

Next week, I think that he and I are going to work on salt dough ornaments- we'll see how it goes.


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What a weekend!

Totally exhausting and totally fun! We had Dennis' brother and sister in law and their two kids with us- what a treat! Vake and Keala got along swimmingly and michaela was so patient with all her little cousins! Here's the whole crew on the front porch.




Vake has, of course, Thomas in hand. As a by-the-way, Miss Mary Frances got her first haircut this weekend.




And here is a gratuitous shot of my love love baby. I have realized that he has more holiday clothes than I can shake a stick at!




And to top it all off, Eric and I raked the backyard, I taught Sunday school, we went to an engagement party, and took the kids to Westover! Whew!
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Thankful

It's 7:15 a d the house is full of people and silent. I am sure Gil is awake but he's not making noise yet. Baby Mary Frances is out cold in the crib in our room. Vake is still fast asleep and all of our Rivera house guests are out cold.

My little big man has truly enjoyed celebrating this season. Here he is a the school's feast.


And now is the time when I can count my blessings.

What a lucky life I am living. I am young and healthy with a husband who is better to me than I deserve. I have two strong little boys. A great house. A job that I enjoy. An amazing mother and sister. Child care that not only shows up every day, but treats my children like her own (Taren, thank you!). Friends who are like family.

And I am also thankful for the adversity that I've had in my own life and see in the lives of others because it makes the blessings stand out in relief. Wow.


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Around here...

...all of a sudden it is colder.  The change in seasons really snuck up on me this year- it was such a warm and for the most part lovely fall.  But it is definitely cold now and only getting colder. 

And work and life as always are so busy- it will be Christmas before we know it and the baby (my baby!) will be a year old- yikes!

Vake's doing so well now- such a little empathetic (for the most part) boy.  He had a (now relatively rare) temper tantrum tonight and when I came in to tuck him in and we were talking about it, I told him I was still "cross" and he looked at me with the most serious eyes and said "Oh no.  Oh no."

Now that I am the supervisor for my unit at work, I'm growing professionally- and trying to figure out how to be a good boss- and that's a challenge, too.  The next time I look up, it will be 2013.

Perfect afternoon

This afternoon, Vake, Huff and I skipped naps, hopped into the car, got gas and slurpees and headed down to the country. Doesn't get much better than that. Love it!


I ran the Richmond half marathon on Saturday. Was slower than I wanted to be and have been in years past, but just finishing was nice.

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Allergic?

Gil woke up yesterday with a terrible rash over all of his body. I had court so Eric took him to the pediatrician.

An amoxicillin allergy. Isn't that surprising? Neither Eric nor I has that allergy, so you can imagine our shock.


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Sunday morning trains

Like brother, like brother.


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Halloween 2012

 Look at my "Mommy and Baby Pteranodon"- I have no idea if I've spelled it right and am candidly, too tired to care.

I picked the boys up from Taren about 4:45 today and we hoofed it over to Grandmary's.  Gil was a little less jazzed about his hood than I thought he would be, so after some "portraits" we took it off.

 And I popped Gil in a stroller so that his brother could do some trick-or-treating.

 This was Vake giving a dinosaur roar.  He had obviously been practicing all day long at preschool- he definitely had it down.

And speaking of things that he had down, he was clear on what was happening this year.  He said "Trick-or-Treat" when the doors opened and said thank you when he got candy.

Halloween preparations

Costumes? Check.


Jackolanterns? Check.


Delighted son? Check.


Happy family? Check.


We are hanging in there!


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It might be a long couple of days...

...what with Hurricane Sandy and all. We will keep you posted.




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Saturday fun

So Saturday started with a bang for me! I ran the last of the training races for the 1/2 marathon. 12 miles! Long way. It is so funny, every time I do one o these races, I find myself saying "never again" anytime the training get above 10 miles, but here I am doing it again!

When I got home, Gil helped me with a mountain of laundry while Vake went to a birthday party.





Then, we had a costume viewing. Too cute.


We are hunkering down for the storm now, I am having a hard time believing we need flashlights, water and batteries as we have not gotten a single drop of rain yet.


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Whew! What a day

Vake had a tough night last night, for reasons that will become clear in a minute. About 3:30, he came up to my room for what felt Ike the millionth time.

Generally speaking, I always try to put him back in his own bed. He is a sleeping thrasher and I always find that I have to take him back to his own bed anyway, but I was just too tired. So he slept with me.

Here was the scene in our room this morning.


Now of course, his little brother is still on an impressive sleep schedule which means he is raring to go by 6:30. This was what was going on at the foot of the bed is while vake snoozed. And as it turned out, vake was tired because he had a case of strep throat.


I am pretty sure this is the first one of 2012. But so annoying. He had been acting a little "off" but I couldn't put my finger on what was wrong until he had a rash coming out of his nose.

And thank god for Jennifer Mullen. I was stuck in court so she took him to the doctor, who told me it was strep.

Then, as the final piece de resistance, look at what I saw when I went to drop Cornelia off! That's right. A daddy copperhead. Yikes!


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