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.

3-year-old

At age 3:

34.5 lbs
40 inches tall

Napuda!!!!

I had to go backwards, searching many blog posts to figure out if I'd ever written about this word and I hadn't. Which is weird because we say it almost every day.

So the deal is that at some point a long while ago I started to yell out a made-up word, nakuda, when Animalia was naked, like in the middle of a diaper change or just after a bath. Nakuda, like naked. And when Animalia began saying it, she missed the k sound and inserted a p. Napuda (pronounced nah-poo-dah). Which still means naked. And can mean any form of naked. Dad wearing his boxers and a tshirt? Napuda! Me showing her my pregnant pansa? Napuda! When she's getting out of the bath she actually requests that her dad yells Napuda! at her.

Sometimes she abbreviates it to Naputs, especially when she's had a long, hot day and she walks in the house, stripping off her clothes and shoes immediately. Then she's naputs (nah-poots). And that's pretty much what she does the second she gets home almost every day. Naputs.

3 years old

I'm so disappointed in myself for not blogging. Not really though. I'm just busy, braindead, tired, pregnant, working, mothering, laundering, etc. No really. I think I was asleep before 9pm more than once this week too.

Animalia just turned 3 years old. We celebrated some the week before with family that was in town for a couple of days at the same time as celebrating her 14-year-old cousin's birthday. Then we celebrated again at Disneyland which has to be it's own post with pictures. Then we celebrated with Nana and Tata on her actual day. Pretty low-key. Pasta, cake, ice cream. Would have been lovely but Animalia was really grumpy and fell asleep in my lap during the pasta. I only realized at that point that she had a fever. Poor thing.

So we went to Disneyland, got back, Animalia got sick for a few days, took her to the doctor who decided that she was fighting off an upper respitory infection for which she prescribed a nasal spray that wasn't covered by our insurance and cost slightly more than $100.

So there's all of that.

And then there's all of the stuff we're looking forward to:

Animalia starts preschool on October 11 at a new Reggio Emilia program mere blocks from home/work. It's half days. Bilingual. She loves the classroom and she cried when we left our visit. Later, she asked Nana if the teacher made her leave so that her mama doesn't hit her. Seriously. Sigh. She's trouble.

We're looking forward to the New Baby. Well, mostly me and a whole lot of it has to do with maternity leave and not being pregnant anymore and spending precious moments gazing into her eyes. Animalia, when asked one day if she was the baby, responded that the baby is in her mom's pansa. But she goes back and forth. Sometimes she points out a tiny piece of clothing at a store and asks if that was hers when she was born. On vacation she wrapped up a towel and said it was mama's New Baby and wouldn't let her dad touch it. I think she'll freak out everytime he touches the New Baby but maybe she'll not. I have no idea.

So everything is going fine. She's still really hilarious.

I'm being punished...

For some terrible thing I did. Or maybe Animalia is considerately preparing me for the sleepless nights coming after The New Baby is born.

Last night, she fell asleep at 8pm, woke up around 1am, thrashed around in my bed for awhile, then at 2am decides she needs to go potty after which I drag her back to bed where she kicks and rolls around and puts various parts of her body on top of me. I think she fell back asleep around 3am but I'm not sure as I was asleep at some point. At least she fell back to sleep then and not at 6 again but I'm exhausted and so is she.

The last two days

Have been torture. Animalia wakes up at 3 or 4am and is instantly and happily awake. I try in vain to put her back to sleep and she doesn't go to sleep. She wants to watch Scooby Doo and have a snack. This morning it was fruta, jugo, and Goldfish Crackers. See... at 3am or even 4am I shouldn't be awake. Waking up this early is bound to give me diarrhea or some other random and uncomfortable ailment. But there we are, in the "libbing room" watching Scooby Doo.

I don't think I've mentioned her love for Scooby Doo here. She loves him and I guess if that's the way we ruin our daughter then that's the way we do it.

Anyhow, there I am, eyes barely open. Then at around 6am she asks me to lay down with her on the couch. We cuddle, she falls asleep, I doze until my alarm goes off and I have to stumble around sleep deprived to get ready for work. I carry her sleepless body to the car where she seems awake enough for a brief conversation. Then she stops talking and I look back-- asleep again! I am terribly jealous of her, being chauffered around in a padded seat, comfortable enough to fall asleep. I take her to Nana's house and she continues to sleep as I arrange her on the couch.

She sleeps til 10:30. Of course that means that she didn't take a nap which could mean that she's in a terrible mood, an angry, vengeful mood. Or it could mean that she's tired enough by the day's end to fall asleep tonight without incident. Or she could wake up at 3am and be ready for her day again. And then I'll continue to be sleep deprived and diarrhea-ish.

Fixing it.

"Stop picking your nose," her Dad tells Animalia.
"I'm not picking it! I'm fixing it!" she replies.

Best excuse for nose picking ever.