Rowan's 1!

I won't have time tomorrow to write a post, as my parents, and brother and family are all coming over for a turkey dinner, and gluten free cake round 3. Yes, 3. My parents are here on their house hunting trip, and it's great to get everyone together. We'll only be missing my sister, who actually shares her birthday with Rowan tomorrow. My niece can't miss school or Chinese school, so although understandable, it's a bummer.

I can't believe my baby is 1. It has gone by so much quicker the second time. I guess because life just goes on, and is busier, the year has passed, yet I find myself having more fun and loving both of the girls more with age. Not really loving more, just in a different way. Rowan's so close to walking, and has magically blossomed with personality, almost as if overnight. Little rock star.

So happy first birthday, my little love. And to your auntie Jaime, too.

Girls

Rowan, I think you must have been a cat in your past life. My body has been scratched, kneaded, pawed, and nuzzled since the day you entered my life. I walk around looking like a have rashes on my upper arms, after you've been in the baby carrier. I love you.

Avery, there are times in our days where I just observe you in a silent moment, and feel so much love and bliss. You could be playing contently, or imagining something not quite so clear to me, but your beauty fills me with such joy. I love you.

Thankful is where I'm at today...

Placenta Planting

We planted the previously frozen placenta on Sunday. We bought a beautiful Rowan tree from Art Knapps, and put it down in the very back, as the tree grows to about 25 feet tall, and makes a mess with its berries and leaves. Steve picked the type with pink berries instead of red, which is kind of girly. Now her home birth can live on forever.

They took Avery's placenta away at the hospital for testing because it was all calcified, and I wasn't able to get it back. I'd have liked to plant hers, too, but I plan on planting daffodils around the tree because that's Avery's March birth flower.

On Sunday night, Avery had her first pee on the potty. I was practically screaming with congratulations to her, and Steve pointed out how scary I was instead of happy. He may have had a point... Well, this is pretty exciting because we have poo fear problems, and are waiting for her to potty train, not pressuring in any way. She doesn't mind sitting on it after her bath, but doesn't really seem interested at any other time of the day. Who cares, really, she's only just turned two.

The placenta down in the hole.

Rowan tree planted.

Birthday Madness

We hosted a party for both girls yesterday. The original plan was to have it in town, at Steve's dad's, but the rain came full force, so we had to switch. They are currently under a major renovation inside, and don't even have drywall on the walls, so having the wee ones in there wasn't the safest choice. We've just had the most amazing weather the last week, and it almost felt like summer being between 15 and 20. I haven't had time for a post, as every free minute has been outside helping with some early planting.

Rowan and her cousin.

So the party started at 4, which was nice because Avery had her nap, and we had all the food ready for a BBQ. Rowan, however, skipped her afternoon nap, and was totally freaking out by 5, so I took off her party dress, and wore her, and she quickly gave into a good long nap. I spent the whole day making an Asian salad, and the gluten free cupcakes. I felt a little overwhelmed getting the house ready, taking care of the girls, and prepping my food completely alone, but that's the story of my life. Anyway, the 4 o'clock start was a good thing.

And the party was totally fun! All of the kids had a blast. Steve broiled the burgers in our stove because our BBQ is small, and the wind was crazy out. His dad's BBQ is big, and has room for 20 patties; ours, not so much. Dinner went smoothly, and I had so much help cleaning everything up, it was amazing. I guess that's the beauty of having your family and friends around that you love the most.

Avery was so excited when we were all singing happy birthday to her. It was pretty sweet. It was great having Steve's sisters, and our niece here. I loved hearing all the other kids squealing with laughter, a mix of sugar from the cake, balloons, and new toys, they were all giggling up a storm.

Thank you to everyone that came out for the girls, we love you like crazy!

Gluten/ dairy free cupcakes and icing.

Blowing out the candle.

Opening gifts.

A Daddy-daughter moment.

Human Boob.

I have blog topics run through my mind daily, just finding the time to write them is the challenge. I do, however, feel like the last stretch of posts have been kind of on the down side. Being a Sagittarius, I'm blindly optimistic, and the truth differs in my writing I guess. What point am I trying to make? Maybe I find myself uninspired out of total exhaustion. Maybe I'm prepping my readers for a poopy post...

Here's the deal with Rowan. She doesn't want any food, and only seems to like apple sauce, and half chewing baby mum-mums to spit them out all over the place. She hits the spoon out of my hand when I try to feed her pureed baby foods, or rice cereal. That's right, my almost one year old only wants breast milk. I've heard of babies who are exclusively fed milk until this age, and I'm not at all worried about her weight or development nutritionally, it's clear the pork chop has got chub to spare.

Now about our breast feeding relationship, I'm having mixed emotions. I have always been completely open-minded about everything, and I fully support women who extended breast feed, but secretly I have that eery feeling about nursing a baby who's close to aged 2. Why? I don't know the answer, to admit it. I don't think it's society, or any such nonsense, I'm just admitting it to myself, and typing it out here. The blog is written for my daughters first, meaning I write for them, and when one day they'll be reading this. Anyhow, I guess it's product of having two back to back pregnancies, literally, but I am at the point where I want my body back to myself a bit. I remember feeling like this with Avery, like I wanted her sleep crawling little bed monkey out of my bed, around the same age.

Now the plan in mind has always been to sleep separate Rowan in between teething, sometime before her molars come in. Just about the same time as we did with Avery. Old enough to understand and feel secure and loved, knowing we're close, just not in the same bed. I am aware I've written different things about the subject in previous posts, but that is usually a product of exhaustion and frustration. I can't wait for Rowan to not nurse in the night now. I keep letting her because I think she's feeling comfort with her teething, and I know she's far old enough to not need the milk in the night. Sleeping side by side, it's easy and really my only alone time between Rowan and I. I am kind of holding onto these moments because she's still my baby, and they'll be gone too quickly.

I'm not happy about the no food constant nursing in the day. She wants to be on the boob almost every hour. She doesn't nurse for long either, just tops up. I think it has alot to do with her cutting two teeth in the last two weeks, but it's driving me nuts! I get anxiety thinking she'll never stop, she's not a newborn anymore, and why should she be on the boob all day long. Is this common? I didn't go this long with Avery, and I don't know. I keep meaning to look up info on the Le Leche League website, I have heard how helpful they are, just finding more than 5 minutes online at a time, is another story. Oh, wait, here I am writing a blog post. Lol.

Alright, so that's the Rowan deal. Teething, tiring, and totally adorable. She's so close to walking, and transitioning into the one year old stage of not wanting to be held at all, go, go, go.

Avery's new wake up time of choice is 5:45am, daily. I should be in bed right now, they never nap at the same time anymore, so there's no chance to catch up, but I ate a big mug of ice cream a while ago, and now here I am zinging away. Well the new trick is to put on Jungle Book, my Mom got it for her birthday, and snuggle until 7, when she starts asking for "nuggets", which is what she calls gluten free corn pops. It's a sneaky strategy that doesn't guarantee more than a 5 minute doze, but it sure is better than trying to rush myself into being awake. I am really loving the older she gets, and the more cuddly, sweet, and fun she's getting.

So where is my train of thought now? Jamie Fraser time, I'm on the 4th book in the Outlander series, by Diana Gabaldon. Oh, and if any Mommy friends have advice to give on the baby boob machine, I'd love your thoughts.

911

Well it happened. My 11 month old baby, Rowan, called 911 yesterday. I was putting away laundry, in my bedroom, while the girls played independently, but I guess Rowan had the phone in her hands. Now she does play with the phone pretty often, and when she accidentally turns it on, the numbers she's pressed don't show, it just says "phone on." So I just took it away, and turned it off. I never think to press redial to see what she was doing.

A moment later, the phone rings, and it's 911 returning my call. The lady on the other end asked me a bunch of questions about who I was home with, where my husband was, and I could tell she was annoyed that the baby had called. I was laughing it off really, and tried to reassure that woman that everything was fine, and I would never let it happen again.

About 25 minutes later, a private number called the phone. I usually don't even answer those calls because I'm not interested in hearing about how I've won a cruise, or whatever else the telemarketers are selling. I answered, though, and it was a cop, who was sitting outside of our gate. So he came in to check if everything was ok, and to follow up the phone call. Let me say, he was totally hot, and I had to be wearing my ugliest attire of jogging pants, with paint all over them, and lazy unbrushed coffee death breath. Yep, I was red from my face, down my neck. Overall, it was totally embarrassing.

I am happy that they did the check, it's nice for them to make sure I didn't have a gun to my head. Lesson learned, babies really shouldn't play with the phone. My mom tells me not to let them, and I always joke saying, "Baby, call China," as they play with it, and do not roll on the change table long enough to get a damn diaper on. Oops.