I posted this spring about our “S Day” Rituals. With the addition of Meera, much of our family normalcy (at least what was ‘normal’ pre-Meera) has been severely altered. The boys have adjusted shockingly well to it all (better than me; I seem to mourn the loss of our family of four much more than anyone else around here — but then again, I’m the one whose life has been most seriously impacted by little Miss M. Don’t get me wrong — I love our new family of five and wouldn’t trade it for *anything*, but I do miss what was… and I seem to miss it more than B, K, or O do). Anyway, I would have thought that K & O would be bent out of shape about all of the kinks in managing our day-to-day living. Six weeks in, we are still heavily in the process of getting our ‘new normal’ worked out. But instead of being freaked out, they’ve been amazingly laid-back about losing much of their usual rituals and routines. The “S Day” mornings, however, are still clung to. Kyle, especially, is determined to keep the tradition in tact. For the sake of his sanity (and all of ours, really) we are trying to do our old “S Day” morning ritual whenever possible. Photos from this past Saturday morning.

Saturday was Meera’s first time in the pool! We had all been looking forward to this — Kyle and Owen especially. I had cleaned K & O’s old baby pool and filled it with some water for the sun to warm up. After her afternoon nap Braydon got Meera all suited up, ready for the big plunge.

She was cold at first, but not upset

The boys were all about it

And wanted desperately to get her soaking wet… which she wasn’t thrilled about

The baby pool was a lot better

Even when splashed

Meera is always pretty content in Kyle’s arms

Well, usually always

With Meera’s crying in the baby pool the boys were done and back to their own pool fun

She calmed right down in her Mama’s arms

While the boys jumped and swam the rest of the afternoon…

Meera was fast asleep under the umbrella… exhausted

P.S. Our baby, who has never slept more than 3-4 hours in a row slept for 7 straight hours that night! 😉

Last weekend my family came for the 4th of July weekend here in Pennsylvania. It has become an annual tradition that MorMor and MorFar always come from New Hampshire for the 4th. Sometimes my sister and her family join us from Maine too — and we are always hopeful each year that they will — so we were were really happy that they came and we had everyone here this year! It was especially special because Auntie Stina, Uncle Tim, and Cousin Sadie met Meera for the first time on this visit. I was so happy to see my sister holding our new baby. And now Meera Grace has officially met all of the members of her immediate extended family. Other highlights of our 4th included:

• MorMor and MorFar gave Kyle, Owen, and Sadie each a remote control motorboat to play with in the pool (HUGE HIT!!!)
• Lots of time in the pool
• Kyle, Owen, and Sadie’s first sparklers and ‘snaps’ (those things you throw that make a pop when they hit the ground)
• MorFar’s dramatic fireworks display in our back yard
• Lots of time spent by everyone holding and doting on Meera
• A Saturday morning trip to open bounce at Bounce U
• On Saturday night we went to Tinicum Park for the annual Riverside Symphonia “Concert Under the Stars” for our second year in a row — picnic dinner, great concert, and awesome fireworks (in the massive crowd Meera appeared to be the only representative of the under-age-one demographic… but she never even flinched during the booming fireworks display)
  
• Great food and drink with everyone pitching in
• Stina, Tim, and Sadie left Sunday morning but MorMor and MorFar stayed an extra day… and MorFar brought K & O to their first real baseball game — The Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs!!! Braydon tagged along too, but this whole baseball thing is really a big thing for K, O, and MorFar (baseball, and Red Sox Baseball in particular, is K & O’s current obsession… will have to post about that another time)

As always, click on any photo to enlarge.

Today Meera and I went to Doctor Alex’s office for Meera’s 6 week old Well-Baby-Visit. Meera now weighs 10 pounds 11 ounces. She’s 23 inches long. She is in the 75th percentile for both height and weight. She is doing great physically and developmentally. Dr. Alex says that Meera is “extraordinarily alert and interactive for a six week old.” Here’s Meera Grace, in a photo of her on the changing table in her room last night, laughing so hard she could barely breath:

Kyle and Owen seem to be competing with their baby sister in the growth competition — they appear to be in some sort of crazy growth spurt right now. Non-stop hungry (you’d be shocked if you could see how much they ate for dinner tonight) and they seem taller than even a couple of weeks ago. Our bathroom scale says that they each weigh precisely 45 pounds. I find it both bizarre/bewildering and amazing/amusing that they continue to both weigh the exact same amount. Recently they discovered something that they find very exciting– they can now touch their feet together under the kitchen table when seated across from one another.

…and its not just Meera and me…
K & O have been regularly having their own spontaneous nursing sessions with their own babies… often while I’m nursing too…
So at any given time in our house you might just find the six of us (me & Meera, the 2 boys & their 2 babies) sitting in the family room nursing nursing nursing —
I gotta say — it is such a riot!!!!!!!

Soon I’ll post about our 4th of July weekend.
Soon I’ll post a big post re-capping the past few weeks.
Soon I’ll post Meera’s birth story.
Soon I’ll figure out how to make time to blog real posts and not just pictures! ;0

As of today, at six weeks old, Meera Grace is now:

• one of the most easy, mellow, laid-back, happy babies on the planet — continuing to have the most sunny disposition and rarely unhappy
• smiling (often waking up smiling)
• laughing (started laughing on July 5 and has laughed many times each day since)
• trying to ‘talk’/interact with verbal sounds back-and-forth when people give her eye contact
• working very hard to suck on her fingers/hands (i.e., spending most of her waking hours struggling to get her right hand into her mouth)
• loving having her diaper changed
• kicking her legs like crazy
• still loving her black Baby Bjorn chair
• still loving her mobile of “friends”
• still loving a nice warm bath
• staring for hours at bright lights and contrasting colors
• sleeping more and crying less (which is saying a lot since she was already crying very little)… even during her ‘fussy period’ between 4-8pm each day
• sleeping through more than you can imagine (i.e., K & O’s loud antics)
• wanting to eat (and demanding it) every 2-4 hours, 24×7, no exceptions
• watching with wide eyes as her crazy brothers play like maniacs around her
• enjoying one bottle each night with her Papi
• adoring her Mama as if she were the center of the entire universe, lighting up when she sees her, cooing and squealing with delight, etc.
• loving life
• fitting in pretty darn perfectly with our family

Today Meera Grace met her Godmother. Beth came from Connecticut to visit and meet her baby bundle. It was a special day for me — to see these two together. Braydon and I could not be happier that Meera will have Beth as a special force in her life. Choosing godparents is tricky and Braydon and I take it very seriously —- the spiritual/religious aspects of it and lots of other aspects of it. Beth was the obvious choice for Meera Grace. Today was the start of many days that they’ll have together. Meera loved being held by Beth. She was deeply content in Beth’s arms. And she smiled huge, huge smiles at Beth for long stretches during the day. I want Meera to know that right from the start she had a really good connection with our dear dear dear dear dear friend Beth.