This week has been so great with Meera. Don’t get me wrong– the sleep deprivation is killer (especially taking a toll on me since I’m the one up feeding her every 2-3 hours)… but Meera has become so much more alert and interactive this week. She’s so mellow, and so cheery/happy/smiley so much of the time! Her fussy/cranky period is between 4-8 pm each day. Otherwise, she’s a very easy and fun baby! We’re so grateful for her easy-going disposition!!!
Meera and Kyle
Braydon’s dad took this photo while he was visiting
The boys are getting lots of playtime with Braydon while I’m nursing
And when Braydon’s not around (i.e., at work), they have hit the jackpot!– lots of videos between 5ish-6ish each day (during Meera’s fussy time of day and K&O’s tired time of day)!
Meera loves her mobile in the downstairs crib. She smiles and “talks” to it. She loves it! We call the animals on the mobile “Meera’s friends” and the boys get a big kick out of that.
Mid-morning snack
A typical J-M dinner these days (when Meera’s in an o.k. mood at dinnertime and we’ve managed to get a meal on the table)
Oh my gosh! This was — I don’t know — the funniest/cutest/strangest/sweetest thing I think that I ever did see! This morning Owen was holding Meera on the couch. He somehow managed to figure out how to hold her up with just his right arm so that he could get his thumb into his mouth (he’s lefty and sucks his left thumb). He was sucking his thumb and Meera started to fuss. Next thing I knew he was sucking his thumb and had put his pinky finger into her mouth and she was sucking his pinky. The two of them sat like this for a solid 5 minutes — happily and contentedly.
Recently K & O have become fixated on knowing the specific countries that their friends who were adopted were adopted from. The fact that they (K & O) were adopted from Haiti is big for them/us. We talk about Haiti all the time, and they know lots of other kids (“lots” is relative and used loosely!) who were adopted from Haiti. But they have friends who were adopted from other countries too. They know that Joy Lin, for example, was adopted from China, and they talk about this a lot. They have started to recognize other Chinese kids when we’re out and about and will sometimes comment that they “look just like Joy Lin!”… and have now started to comment (when the kids they see have obviously white parents with them) that the kid “must have been born in China, and adopted from China, just like Joy Lin!” The other day the boys were playing — they set up chairs and it was “an airplane!” They were flying “to China!” The plane was “going overnight!” (thus the blankets). And they were “going to China for “an adoption!!!” They went “to the orphanage!” And “got their babies!” And brought them “all the way back to the United States!”
If you’ve been looking at this blog recently you’ll have seen that in many photos of Meera she is sitting in a black Baby Bjorn baby chair. This was delivered to our house from Babies R Us before Meera was born. We had put it on our baby registry, so someone who loves us obviously bought it for us from there. But… there was no packing slip and no note to tell us who this is from, and I can’t get the info from Babies R Us. I have asked several people who I suspected might have given it to us if they were the giver… but so far have not figured out who it is. This is a very generous gift. And, as it turns out, Meera LOVES this chair, sits in it for long stretches of time every day, and it is by far our most used baby gear item so far. If you are the generous gift giver please email me to let me know it is you so that I can send you a thank you note (I’m finally getting to the huge thank you note project)!!!!
Big Brothers…
And Little Sister…
We found this scene yesterday. I almost jumped right in to yell at the boys for being up on the table (a big no no), but then we realized what was happening. First we watched with overflowing hearts. Then Braydon started snapping pictures. And I grabbed paper and pen so I wouldn’t forget the exact quotes~~~
“We’re your big brothers Baby Meera.
We’re your big brothers.
If there’s thunder and lightening we will take care of you.
If you’re stuck we will save you.
We will take care of you your whole life.
If you’re lost we will find you.
We love you Baby Meera.
We’re your big brothers.”
1 Stroller + 4 Starbucks = Party of 5
My mom left this morning after having spent “six sleeps” taking care of us. She and my dad had been here before/during/after Meera’s birth. They left after we had been home from the hospital one day. We spent our first three weeks home just us as a family of five. It was both a joy-filled and very-tough three weeks… but it was precious time for us (the good parts) and we made it through it (the bad parts), and that is just exactly how we wanted it. My mom’s return though, for week 4, was a hugely welcome relief for all five of us! She became the expert at getting Meera to sleep, she was the boys’ entertainer extraordinaire, she did all the laundry (Braydon’s job) and all the cooking (my job), the cleaning, the moral support, the sit-and-chat-for-hours-on-end-with-the-nursing-mother, etc., etc., etc. This morning when she left we were all sad to see her go. She and my dad return though, in “five sleeps” for the 4th of July — so we were o.k. as we watched her drive off (plus she left us with Braydon’s favorite casserole in the fridge ready to pop in the oven tomorrow). I have had a life-long very (unusually) close relationship with my mother. She’s my best girlfriend and my mom (what could be better?). I don’t know what I’d do without her. As anyone who reads this blog knows, my parents are really supportive of us despite the fact that we live 9 hours apart. As far as long-distance relationships go, it doesn’t get much better than this. We don’t know how to thank them for what they do for us. The only way they really get repaid is with the knowledge that Braydon and I will be making sure that we’re paying it forward in the future— doing the same things they are now doing for us for K, O, and M someday.
I’ve let the boys take their “own” photos with the camera before, but have never posted any of their photos here. But they are starting to take some pretty interesting photos now, and they definitely understand the whole concept of the camera and aren’t just clicking away for the sheer heck of it. They are taking photos of the things that they conscientiously find worthy of the camera shot. This is the first post of their pics, taken by them, for them. This morning they took these shots. As a sociologist, I can’t help it — I just find it all so fascinating. (P.S. Hi to my awesome PhD student Maggie!!!)
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