Grandma's first pie

My mother-in-law is here for Baby's birth. Unfortunately, I had Babe's a little early, so she couldn't help my husband while I was in the hospital, but she is here to help me for a full beautiful week, and I am grateful. Today she made our leftover chicken into one of Dad's favorite meals, chicken pot pie. She tells me this is her first pie. Apparently she has enough pie experience though, to realize that any pie is better with some decor, in this case her sweet granddaughters' initials.

For the record, I have made more pies than I can count, but hers looks better than most of mine have.

some thoughts during the last five days

*My husband loves his little girls. This picture illustrates it better than I can describe it. He looks this way with the other one too, when she submits to a little cuddling.
*People keep asking how Kiddo likes her little sister. While she hasn't told me what she thinks, she did cry for 20 minutes the day Baby was born when her dad told her that soon I would come home from the hospital with her. (We suspect it had more to do with my absence rather than Baby's addition.) But other than that, she's been very helpful, and is learning to yield some of her time to the baby. She has figured out that "the baby is biting Mama" which is eating time, and realizes that I really can't hold both of them at the same time, although I'm sure I'll learn. In reality, I think it's just one more change in her life. We've done a lot of those recently, so I'm sure she'll do just fine with this next one. And she sure loves to hold her.

*The other night while trying to fall asleep after a late night (early morning?) feeding, I found myself thinking the following: "I preferred the contractions at Kiddo's birth, but the tearing/stiches from Baby's." Now that is an example of choosing the lesser of two negative things.

*My haircut gets the birth of baby seal of approval. It still looked okay after hours of head smoothing to help me relax, and then when I finally got around to showering, and realized I didn't have any shampoo, I cleaned it with Dial soap, and it still did fine. My long hair would not have survived that.

*After only five days, it seems that Baby has been here with our family forever. I love that aspect of having children. As soon as they come, you wonder how your family existed without them.

*Of all the hormonal changes/fluctuations of a woman's life, baby blues irritate me the most. As I cry in the evening I know I'm just reacting to hormones, but I sure feel like I'm a failure at everything, and will never be fine again. It helps that this is my second time through this, so I can remind myself that *really* this too shall pass.

*I have a fair complexion, my husband more so, can any one tell me how we get babies with dark hair, skin, and eyes? And then how that all goes away?

and then there were four

She's here.
7 lb 13 oz. 21 inches.
Thursday, 3:01 am. (Why do my babies come in the middle of the night?)
She has a name, but I still have no idea what to call her here in blogland. For now she'll be Baby.

Hats off to an amazing husband who physically, emotionally, and mentally supported me through what quite possibly were the hardest three hours of my life. At least I have a second beautiful girl to show for it.

two heartbeats

At two visits to two pediatricians, Kiddo has been diagnosed with a heart murmur. Both assumed it was benign, but the most recent told us to get it checked out, just in case, since we had insurance. So today we took Kiddo to the pediatric cardiologist. First we had a short consultation in her office, and as we left the office to go to an exam room, Kiddo waved and called out "Goo-bye doc-toh" as if we were done.

When we got to the exam room, Kiddo started worriedly stating "she cannot look at your arm" and we assured her once again that she wouldn't be getting a shot today. Instead she had an echocardiogram and EKG. Kiddo behaved exceptionally well, and earned the praise of the doctor for her good behavior (apparently these tests are usually pointless on any child from 9 mos. to 3 years because they get so agitated). Kiddo found most of it very interesting. When the lights were turned off she told the doctor over and over "good night" and talked about looking at her tummy, even if most of the exam was a little higher than that.

As the I heard the sound of her heartbeat magnified through the equipment I thought, this sounds familiar. And then I realized that this week I've heard both my girls' hearts beating. They are both doing great.

change is here

My great physical vanity is my hair. It is curly, and almost zero-maintenance. And it's a cool melange of color. What more could a girl want?
It was also really long...

...because it's hard for me to find someone I trust to cut my hair. But it was time for a change. I've been thinking about it for months (perhaps years) but there is the problem of who, and how? Because if you look for people with curly haircuts, they are often all a variation on my haircut, just at varying lengths.

But my walking partner is also a professional hair stylist. So I asked her to cut my hair.

And she did.
So now it is not long. And in this picture looks a lot like my mom's hair color, not my reddish-brownish mix I'm used to. But cute I think. And it didn't freak Kiddo out. And I really don't know whether it is still low maintenance or not, but knowing me, it probably is, because I just can't imagine spending much time on it.

the reenactment

On Tuesday we went out to dinner. As we were driving home we were listening to Kiddo's music. At one point, Daddy started singing along, which is really not okay with Kiddo, so she screamed to let us know. This is not one of our favorite responses of hers, so, as we always do when she screams that way, we turned off the music for one minute. Daddy told her that the music would not turn on again until we got to the bridge. She asked for us to turn on the music, but he insisted we wait until the bridge. In actuality, it turned on a little sooner because he cooled down, and she had, immediately following her scream, said "Please don't sing" which is what she's supposed to do. She is making progress at least. And that was the fun music time that night.

On Wednesday we headed off to the zoo. We again were listening to Kiddo's music. At one point, for reasons I was not clear about she screamed. Then she screamed again louder. Then she started reprimanding herself, "Don't scream." Then she told us the consequences, "We will turn off the music." And she finished it off with the length of the punishment, "We will turn the music on at the bridge." It was a little complicated to drive, considering how hard I was laughing.

the local zoo

Today instead of our typical walk through a local park with ducks, we explored the local zoo. It's an odd little place with some exotic animals, and many not so exotic. While it wasn't quite the zoo I was hoping for, Kiddo did love the excursion.

She was more than happy to check out the peep holes into the prairie dog exhibit. Unfortunately, she was too short to actually see into the enclosure. And I was definitely too big to get in there to help her. She was still pretty impressed. As the first animal we visited, this was also one of her favorites.
She also loved the farm animals. Maybe it was because she could recognize them. ("It's a pig! Taking a nap!" "It's a cow!" "Look at the horse!" Or maybe because their "habitat" is a stall in a barn, it was easier to spot them. But she was the most excited here.

She enjoyed the gibbon, which was the only animal that really did anything, but was equally impressed by the small statue of the elephant within the gibbon's space.

But, being Kiddo, her favorite part was this fountain:

And, I remembered just before we left that there was a train ride, so we took that too. That was also popular. "It's a train! We are going so fast!" she cried with joy (as we pulled out of the station slowly enough for me to have been able to walk faster). Here we are on the train with my walking partner, and Kiddo's great friend (mine too).

But the outing was clearly a success because the trip ended like this:

What a sweet, exhausted, little girl.