In the last two months...

In the forever since my last blog post there were midterm elections (mostly sucked), Animalia has learned many bad habits from preschool, I was frantic with the last days of work before maternity leave, and I gave birth to a new baby girl. Her name is Magdalena Luna and she is now a month old.

She was 7 lbs 4 oz and 20.5 inches long at birth. At almost 4 weeks, she was 8 lbs, 10 oz and 21.5 inches long. She's definitely smaller than her big sister. Maybe she'll catch up or maybe she'll be more me than her dad in the range of genetic possibilities. Not that I'm tiny but I'm certainly not a giant.

This baby is pretty good, sleeps lots. We wake up 2-3 times per night and sometimes only once. If it's just once it's at 4am. She's noisy and funny and occasionally demanding. When she's alert and awake she just looks around and makes sounds. When she needs a diaper change or is hungry, she wants it NOW. The hunger reminds me of her sister. Her impatience with diaper changes is her own. Animalia could marinate in a dirty diaper. Magdi just howls and grunts and groans and insists that it be changed or else she screams like she's being neglected. She has no patience for long walks unless she's being carried either. Animalia says I look like a kangaroo when I'm wearing the baby.

So Magdi or Madi is what Animalia calls her sister and I think Madi will stick but it could change at any time. Animalia loves her baby sister like crazy, likes to help, likes to hold her, wants to squeeze her hard but doesn't, is a little protective, is very proud. The helpfulness is a little scary, sometimes she's like a bull in a china shop so we watch her closely but so far it's been ok.

What else? I'm definitely more insulated or isolated than when Animalia was born. It sounds a little weird maybe but my gazing at the new baby time is more precious since there's less of it. The days just fly by and I realize that I haven't done as much as I meant to or returned all the phone calls, emails or text messages. I just want to sleep, eat and stare at my beautiful tiny girl.

More sooner rather than later. I just had to get some random thoughts in before I forgot them all... the last few weeks have been a pleasant blur with all the nesting going on.

Ambition

"When I grow up I can be a robot. I can't have eyes. Only lights. And I can be a girl and not a boy."

Two Friends!

Animalia was way too excited when I brought Ana (Raggedy Ann) and Petunia (teddy bear) to sit with her at her tea party last night. It was almost sad when she giggled, "I have TWO friends!" She played tea party with them happily but I couldn't help but think that she needs to see more kids. I need to put more effort into that.

Shump!

Shump. The sound Animalia makes when she is fake eating something. But not something regular. Something delicious and sweet like tea with honey or ice cream. Shump, she says when she is pretending to eat something or when she asks if she can shump something "for her mouth."

Crunch. This means something is healthy. She crunches apples and broccoli because "they're healthy because they crunch."

Neee-owwwww. This is what airplanes say.

ROOOOAAAAR. This is one of her favorite things, roaring. She roars at other children. Sometimes they get scared and run. Sometimes they don't. Sometimes she's a dinosaur when she roars, sometimes a monster. She loves being scared and tells us so. Sometimes she whispers, "Let's scare daddy and see what happens. Ready, set, go!" and then she roars and he acts scared.

She beeps and bloops and ticks and tocks and sings to herself too. Not sure what exactly she's doing with all that but I love to listen in when she's busy.