When you are pregnant with your second, or contemplating such a thing, you worry that you couldn’t possibly love another baby as much as your first.
Everyone assures you that this won’t be a problem, that love is not finite, that you will immediately have enough love for them both. My grandmother, a mother of seven, was especially reassuring to me in this area.
Just hours before Ruby was born, I rocked my precious 23-month-old baby Quinn to sleep. It was a […]
My life as a mama is shifting again. My baby is sleeping a little more and needing a little less, my toddler is potty trained, and both girls are finally getting used to each other. They still need me pretty much constantly, but I’m finally getting little patches of freedom. Most nights, I’m staying up after my baby. Some evenings, I’m going out with friends. On the weekends, I’m getting a little alone time.
This is a really, really good thing, I […]
A few days ago, we were getting ready to go out. Not anywhere special, really, just out with a few friends who also have kids, and we were all bringing our kids. Hubby was holding the girls at bay while I got ready. These days, that pretty much means just redoing my ponytail, putting on a clean shirt and brushing my teeth. I might smear on a little lipgloss and throw on some earrings if I can find them, but […]
“I kiss you and kiss you, with arms round my own,
Ah, how shall I miss you, when, dear, you have grown”
–William Butler Yeats
I lay in bed the other day, nurse-dreaming as Ruby suckled away at the breast. My hand cupped her head. As they often do, my thoughts rested on Ruby, too.
I remember the exact feel of her as she lay on my chest just after being born, her sweet healthy gurgle (she was born partway in her sac still), […]
I know I’m a little late to join the pig-pile of vitriol over this whole kid with pink fingernails thing, but I’m slogging in anyway. It’s an interesting topic, and one that struck a nerve with me (and 60 million other people). If you’re sick of it already, feel free to ignore me.
As the mother of two young girls (OK, one of them is only a 34-week fetus but I have already been mothering aka worrying about her for what […]
Quinn has entered the cuteness stage far earlier than I expected. No, not the stage of being cute herself. That’s one she’s always been in and will never, ever leave (note to self: Re-read that sentence when Quinn’s in eighth grade, then cue the chianti).
No, my toddler is in the stage where she remarks upon the cuteness of other things and people. Like her pigtails, my earrings and her friends (especially a certain little boy at preschool, who is actually […]
It happened today. I was at the zoo and I saw a woman cradling a tiny baby and I stopped and stared hard. “I want one,” said a plaintive (and possibly crazy) voice from deep within me.
Well, that is a damn good thing, lady, ’cause you’re getting one in four months! I am quite relieved that my desire for a baby managed to kick in before my baby got here. I got pregnant again when Quinn was just 13 months […]
Ever since I got pregnant with baby #2 four months ago, I’ve gotten hints of what’s to come for my first baby: Immediate move to “big girl” status on or around June 3, 2011, even though she’ll only be 23 months old. That thought makes me really, really sad.
The crazy thing about toddlers is they seem so much like little kids, but they still have so much baby in them, too. I really think that’s as it should be, and […]
Today, at the toy store, I did something really scary: I held up two baby dolls with different skin colors, and I explicitly pointed this difference out to my daughter. “One baby has black skin and one baby has white skin,” I said. “But they both seem like very nice babies. Should we take this one?”
Then I pushed the black baby doll into Quinn’s hands and we gave her a kiss and brought her to the clerk. And I succesfully […]
When Quinn was just a newborn, we brought her out to my parent’s cabin in Lake Chelan. One day, we went to visit a neighbor (and dear family friend) who was having a terrible week: His mother, who lived across the country, was dying, and he was getting painful hourly updates from family members at her bedside.
None of us knew exactly what to say, but we slogged along anyway. At some point in the conversation, he reached out for Quinn. […]