Another Month

Another month has passed with no new posts! I might be able to keep up with this better if I could do it one-handed from my phone. Sometimes I think of posts I would like to write, but the days and nights just get away from me.

Anyway, here are some highlights from the last few weeks:

Alain visited NYC for the first time (with parents and Scott grandparents, who babysat while Taison and I went to see Wicked!).
I officially joined the board of the Cambridge YWCA.
Taison finished his year of being chief resident.

Alain just turned 7 months old. He has mastered sitting, and is very pleased with himself to sit up and look around at the world. He loves oatmeal and broccoli (not together) and suddenly hates bananas, but seems to like plantains. Rather than just cry, he often does "sad speech" or "mad speech", in which he combines his ever-growing set of "words" with crying to try to explain to us what he wants or what we're doing wrong. Unfortunately, we don't quite understand these speeches, because they're in baby-talk, not English (or Spanish). It's pitiful and hilarious at the same time to hear him do it.

That's all for now-I'll try to come back to at least add a few photos to this post soon!

Ok, I'm back to finish up, 24 hrs later:

Father's day walk in the Middlesex Fells

Naked baaaabyyyyyyy!

Picnic in Boston-complete with lobster rolls!

Hanging out on a quilt great-grandma Merry made

Beach bear (Crane Beach, MA)

Story time with grandma (and daddy) in NYC

Visiting grandma's old grad school stomping grounds

Smooching on the High Line

On top of the Empire State Building, where he also had a snack (never imagined breastfeeding there)

High Line: 2014 and 2011

Smiles : )

Rainbows

Double rainbow 5/30/14

We miss you and love you, Julian.

Six Months

Dear Alain,

You turned six months old today! Although we celebrated your half birthday last weekend at Grandma and Grandpa Scott's house, I wanted to take some time today to think and write about the past six months we've had with you. Every day, for six months, I have gotten to kiss you, snuggle you, and watch you learn about the world. Daddy has, too. This makes us both so happy. We love taking care of you and sharing our lives with you. You have challenged and delighted us as we've learned about you and watched you develop your own personality.

I have so many favorite things about you that it's hard to list. I love your smile-it lights up your whole face and delights whomever you smile at. I love to nibble on your cheeks and chin. I love to hear your voice-your "victory yell" and laughs and squeals and babbles. I love the face you make right after you roll over onto your back during tummy time. I love your "blank face" that you give people when you are first warming up to them. I love when you fall asleep in my arms. I love to watch you play with Daddy. (Daddy loves the way you look up at him from the stroller when he's about to pick you up.) I love the face you make when you're focusing hard on a task. I love how I can tell what kind of mood you're in just by looking at your feet. I love how you sometimes insist on leaning back and looking at the world upside-down.

Happy half-birthday, my dear, sweet, silly, happy boy.

Love,
Mommy

6 month old "Alain-bear"

20.5lbs, 26.5in long

Loves to play with Farm Tails book, sip water out of a glass, and pull his socks off : )

Mother's Day

I just celebrated my 3rd Mother's Day. Mother's Day #1, I was pregnant with Baby Bell. Mother's Day #2, I was bereaved mommy to Julian and pregnant with Alain. This Mother's Day, I got to celebrate and reflect with one of my beautiful babies in my arms. I love being a mommy to a living child. Alain is such a fun little bear, with so much personality. Even during the hard times when he's cranky or not feeling well, my heart is so full of gratitude that I get to raise this little guy.

Finally Spring

Alain captured how I feel about it finally being spring with this face:

I'm so excited for non-bundled walks, picnics, farmers markets, gardening and exposed baby rolls. Speaking of rolling, Alain has finally learned to roll over (tummy to back) while clothed. He learned to roll naked weeks ago, but the bulky cloth diaper adds an extra challenge.

We haven't introduced any solid foods yet. We're planning to wait until he's closer to six months old, but may start a little earlier because he's getting very interested in what we're eating and drinking. He's still refusing to drink milk from anywhere except me, so we're giving up on bottles and are going to try sippy cups. Should be entertaining.

We're going to VA again next month to visit family, get our first family photos taken at Meadowlark where we got married (five years ago!) and to have a little welcome/half birthday celebration for Alain. A lot of friends and family in the MD/DC/VA area still haven't met him, so we decided to do a casual open house at my parents. I also liked the idea of celebrating his half birthday, for two reasons. One, we haven't really celebrated him yet. I didn't have a shower when I was pregnant with him (he's a second child, after all), and we didn't do a baptism/christening/naming ceremony/100 days ceremony. Also, I anticipate that most of his full birthday celebrations will be small, since his birthday is so close to Thanksgiving.

I'm thinking about ways to incorporate Julian into our family photos next month. Oddly enough, Taison and I feel like Alain looks more like Julian now than he did at birth. Some of Alain's facial expressions remind us of Julian's sweet peaceful face. It's been hard to find time to remember Julian lately, so it's nice that Alain is helping with that now. We actually just ordered something special for Julian-more on that later because his baby brother is waking up now!

Back!

I've neglected my poor blog for a month! Here are my excuses:
1. Vacation
2. Baby only sleeping 2hrs at a time
3. Baby refusing to take naps
4. Computer not working very well

We're long back from vacation, Alain slept more like a normal baby last night and took regular naps today, and I just restarted the computer. Bonus: Taison just took Alain on a walk. Time to write!

Vacation was wonderful. The yoga retreat at Anamaya was everything I wanted and needed. Beautiful setting, really friendly people, excellent food, restorative yoga. Even without all of these things, spending two weeks with both of my boys (Taison was off for two weeks-we spent one in Costa Rica) was enough of a treat. This was all a bonus...AND we saw the Scott grandparents before and after.

There were about 20 guests at the resort along with us that week. The staff opened the week with a welcome circle, where we shared our passion and intention for the week. We introduced Alain and explained that his passion is breastmilk ; ). I also told the group about Alain's older brother, and explained how important yoga has been to my journey since Julian's birth. As I mentioned above, the yoga that week was restorative. Not too challenging or intense, with a focus on reconnecting and meeting yourself where you are. It was perfect for me-I even tried some cool new poses that I didn't think I could do. We had classes at 7:30am and 5:30pm, each preceded by a snack of perfectly ripe tropical fruit and followed by a delicious meal.

There were some emotionally intense moments for me at points during the week. As the week progressed, I realized how much fear and anxiety I had been storing in my body since we lost Julian: fear of being pregnant again, fear of not being able to get pregnant again, worry about getting Alain here safely. The retreat gave me the time and space to acknowledge and let go of some of that. At the closing circle, we were asked to name what we were taking home with us and what we were leaving behind. I said I was taking courage, and leaving guilt.

And now for pictures of Alain's first international trip:

Alain on the first of eight planes that we were on during the course of the trip. He did great and made friends on all of the flights.

First time in a pool

One of the chefs plating lunch-so many fresh fruits and veggies prepared so many different ways-even Taison was satisfied with the food.

Daddy and baby in the nearby town of Montezuma.

We had to wake him up so he wouldn't miss out on putting his feet in the ocean.

Hanging out on mommy's mat before class

Checking out the water in Playa Hermosa

Sleeping through one of many cab rides. The louder and bumpier the ride, the better the nap.

Cool vacation daddy

Sleepy boys

Hanging out near a waterfall that was an easy hike away from the resort.

Looks easy, right?

The view from our room. The jungle noises at sunset were so loud! Lots of wildlife around-geckos, iguanas, howler monkeys, hummingbirds...

Family beach photo

Still Here! (Kind of)

We're in the midst of baby's first trip out of the Northeast. It's a big one: VA then Costa Rica! Alain did great on his first flight (Boston to VA). We leave for part 2 of the trip tomorrow morning. Sorry no pics this time-I'm posting from my phone and need to go bathe the baby and finish packing!