Here Comes the Sun

Julia loving all the activity at Maggie's

Julia and her Godmother Amy catch up!

I love this picture of Julia and her Great Grandmother. She is a lucky little girl to have you in her life Grandma.


Rub a dub two filthy babes in a tub


Slam DUNK. Whenever Luke slam dunks it he yells "BOOYA!" and it makes me laugh every single time.

I remember this children's book that I used to read to the little girl that I helped home school out in Seattle. I can't remember the title, but it was about the Winter Solstice. It talked about the return of this light, and how that was really what was being celebrated on the darkest day of the year. It was a beautiful book, (I think that it talked about the 'little fingers of light'? ~ If this rings a bell with anyone please let me know as I would love to find it for my kids). With the solstice behind us now, I see the light returning to our lives.

Both of our kids were incredibly easy newborns. They nursed, they slept, and they made the adjustment to motherhood easier than I had anticipated. Having been through infancy/the first year already with Luke, when Julia was born I had enough foresight to know that I had about 6 months before things got hard. Probably really hard. Exclusive nursing, no messy solids, and a non mobile baby would mean that life was still relatively easy aside from the sheer physical work associated with nurturing two small babes at the same time.

As predicted, September was the perfect storm of challenge and change. Julia started crawling. Julia started eating two meals of solids/day. We had a kids free vacation in early October, that, while wonderful, was tremendously stressful to me as I was so worried about leaving my babies for 4 days, worried about pumping/leaving enough milk, and worried about maintaining my supply while away. I really really wanted to make it to a year of breast milk only/no formula, and that vacation felt like a (much needed) but huge threat to my goal. The onset of winter illness started with colds and an ear infection or two. I felt trapped inside the house ~ Luke finally went to one nap and Julia got into rhythm with two long naps which meant that I pretty much had a child napping all day long, which made getting out hard. Nate was travelling a lot. It was busy.

Suddenly I feel as though things have gotten much easier. We survived that vacation without any formula (I actually had about 100 extra ounces of milk in the freezer when I got home, and worried for nothing, as usual :)), and Julia is nursing away at almost 10 months old. Getting to a year will be a breeze at this point, and I don't really see us stopping then, truth be told. The kids play together without needing us for at least an hour every morning and usually longer every evening. They love each other and are already entertaining one another. I am getting better at being more flexible with Julia's naps, and am beginning to again take advantage of Nate working from home so that I can get out more with one child while the other one is napping. Luke and Julia are both in just really happy and easy and funny stages. I have gotten used to laundry/diapers/meals for four people. They are at an age where we are starting to do crafts, and puzzles, and more artistic projects. They learn new things daily. Julia is sleeping till 7 and Luke till 8 lately, and both of them are sound asleep by 7.30 every night. I am so looking forward to the spring ~ I can't wait to be at the park with two little ones running around, instead of having two babies in vastly different phases. I know that I will get Luke and Julia on the same nap schedule sometime in late Spring or early Summer, which means fun morning excursions, and some actual alone time during the day for me. I can't wait to have the two of them on the beach. Soon Jules will be entirely off of purees and we can all eat as a family outside on our deck. There will be no winter coats, or multiple layers, or hats to worry about. The evenings will be long. The park trips will be daily. I feel really grateful to be where we are right now. After the difficulty of fall, life seems so easy, just knowing that Spring is in sight.

We had a great visit to Scranton and the Burg this weekend. It was a joy to spend some time with Aunt Maggie, Kelly and Amy and their families, and to see Grandma M (my kids Great Grandmother). While at their house sometime on Friday, little Julia cut her very first tooth! Her bottom right center tooth is just poking through the gum. She also seems to have sprouted more hair almost overnight, and she becomes more interactive by the day. She loves to be a part of things now ~ she watches everything Luke does, when he laughs, she laughs. She says hi when she waves. She sleeps beautifully. She stood in the middle of the room for about a full minute the other day without holding on to anything at all. She just started giving those big wet sloppy baby kisses this week. I love it. Thanks to Aunt Maggie and to Tony and Carolyn for having us ~ we love you and it was great to see you. Thanks for helping us start off our 2009 surrounded by the love of family.