Notes from Home

About 5 months ago Evie told me that sometimes at school during the day she gets sad and really misses home. She also indicated (and I was a bit dubious I must admit given she is the queen of excuses and negotiating) that this is why she is sometimes not such a good listener... she "was just too sad to listen well" In search of a solution we had a talk about what I could do to make her less sad and be a better listener at school. She thought about it for a few minutes and then came up with the idea that I could put a special note in her lunchbox every day so that "I know you still love me". I imagine there is another kid at her school who gets notes and that gave her the idea. Regardless, I thought it was a great solution so for the past five months I have been putting notes in her lunchbox (almost) every day (Yes there have been a few harried days when I forgot, and needless to say she noticed their absence...thus proving that I am indeed not a super mom). The best thing about it is that many of the notes make it back home and so now I have a fair collection of them and just reuse them from week to week. This, if she has noticed, she doesn't seem to care about because I haven't heard anything about it. She has a new teacher this semester so I lost a bunch in the first two weeks of school so I am having to replenish my supply. But the best part about it is that she came up with the solution and it really seems to help her. She has had fewer "bad listener" days and will frequently comment on how happy the little notes make her. I must admit that they make me happy too.

Holiday

Monday was a holiday for Patrick and I but not for Evie. We took advantage of it to spend the day on a date (of sorts.. parts were decidedly practical and un-date-like) It was a lot of fun but it made us both realize just how much we genuinely enjoy having Evie around too. Certain elements were more fun, breakfast out and the trip to Home Depot to exchange an electric dryer for a gas one (yes we have lived here for 3 years and didn't realize we have a gas dryer until we had already bought an electric one and brought it home). The real highlight of the day was something that would have been just as fun, if not more so with Evie. In the afternoon we took a 6 mile hike in Sabino Canyon. Patrick and I took the tram to the end and then hiked back along a lovely trail along the side of the canyon back to the visitor center. It was pretty far up along the side of the mountain so the hike itself was probably best done without her but during the afternoon out she was certainly missed. I remembered at about this point in my pregnancy with Evie taking a hike on Mt. Lemmon so I thought I'd have Patrick take a picture of me on this hike... I do think though that the belly at this point still just looks like I had too much for lunch...or maybe just too much to eat over the holidays :)

Pregnancy 1 versus 2 (Edition 1)

So even though it has been a few years now since I last found myself in this state I have already identified some definite differences between a first and second pregnancies. Some of these are likely due to inherent differences between the current and former inhabitants of my womb and the others are because the former resident is decidedly a factor in everything I do. The first, and unfortunately most notable, is just how much sicker I have felt this time. Now some of this could be post-delivery amnesia because I'll admit I didn't take very good notes the first time....I am this time... there will be no convincing myself that the whole pregnancy thing is all NA beer and roses after the fact again. But I really do think that this babe is rougher on me than the last. At my appointment with the midwife today I was telling her this and she asked me if it was the same father as last time (which it is Patrick, don't worry) because she had a few moms to be recently swear that this is why they felt more sick with one versus another and she thought that was interesting and has been asking around about it.

The other major difference has to do with dealing with a second pregnancy while parenting your previous one (aka the first born). For the most part Evie is delightfully helpful and understanding but there have certainly been some adjustments and fewer "peaceful" pregnancy moments thus far. The best example is yoga. Just this week I have started to feel better and have decided it was time to get my act together and start doing yoga again. When I was pregnant with Evie I did yoga just about every day at home and went to a class at least once a week. My home practice was this wonderful calming experience, quiet and generally involved nice smelling candles and the like. My yoga practice this week looked something like this:


In case you cannot discern what that is... that is my yoga mat in my office with all the couch pillows piled around it and numerous dolls thrown into the mix. I suggested to Evie that I was going to take a few minutes to do some yoga and she enthusiastically requested to join me. For some reason in her mind the best venue for this exercise was my all too small office and I didn't think it would be too crowded. Little did I know that her version of yoga involved a multitude of pillows and dive-bombing onto those pillows with my yoga mat as the launch pad. So there we were, me trying to do downward facing dog and Evie belly flopping onto her pillows... ahhh peace and serenity. Now I recognize that if I want peace it really needs to be between the hours of 8 pm and 6 am but the problem is I want to be sleeping then too. Oh well, even though it wasn't the most serene yoga experience it did leave my heart feeling light and happy because I was able to stretch, and quite frankly Evie is such a cutup that I laughed more during that 20 minutes of yoga then I did for the whole of the day leading up to it.

Difficult subject

How do you discuss death with a three-year old? This, unfortunately has been a difficult question for me these past few days. We have all been touched in some way by the recent tragedy in Tucson and it doesn't seem appropriate to even try, as if I could, keep it from Evie. I, like many of her constituents, have personally met Representative Giffords on multiple occasions and, also like many others, consider her to be one of the brightest stars in an all too cloudy sky of Arizona politics. She is an inspiration and role model for me. When I found out what happened I couldn't function I was so shocked and sad.

But my question remains how best do you explain such a thing to such a pure and innocent soul? Ironically she has provided me with more comfort than she knows. She is not unfamiliar with death because of a beloved cat that past away last year. At that time we tried to give her comfort by talking about souls and some general description of god. This seems to have helped and stuck with her. On Sunday when I was particularly upset, I couldn't mask my emotions at all. Her response was to come up to me, hug me and tell me that it was going to be OK because "all of those poor people who were hurt are now having a party with god." I am certain that it is just one of many times in life when my daughter will teach me something.

Look out world...

Consider yourself forewarned... About 10 weeks ago something "happened" to me. It's presence has been suspected for a few months now and was confirmed last week. Exhibit A: a fuzzy picture of a semi-amorphous being floating in a black sea somewhere in the vicinity of "mommy's tummy"


This small life has been the source of much fatigue and nausea in me and much excitement and planning in Patrick and Genevieve. At this time I am pretty sure the condition is not catching, but it is most certainly expanding. The little life is expected to arrive in the heat of summer, round about mid-July. I guess we had better finally invest in AC.

Oh and in case your interested I have discovered the "best" method for returning to your pre-pregnancy weight... pregnancy! For the first time in three years I am the weight I was when I got pregnant with Evie... What?! you don't want join my weight loss program? I can't imagine why not...

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Ours started off on the right foot with a trip down to San Carlos Mexico with some friends. None of us in the group made it til midnight to actually ring in the new year but I for one really can't remember the last time I did :) It was a bit cold but Patrick managed to get in a brief swim (after which he couldn't feel his extremities but hey..) The kids got in plenty of beach time and a massive sand castle/volcano was even constructed.


Here is to hoping that 2011 is as fabulous as 2010 was!