Sleep coach/Food coach

As my friend Monica says, you either get a kid that is a good sleeper or a good eater--never both.  I have heard her say this for years, as her child is now 10 years old and is decidedly a good sleeper, and a not-so-good eater (although her daughter is  definitely becoming more and more food adventuresome so M might one day be forced to reconsider this claim).

We are now almost nine months into this parenting gig now, and I have to say that I am not sure if I buy into Monica's idea.  At first glance, Reed is a Good Eater.  Through and through.  Because--I think he is.  (see below)  It may be due to extenuating circumstances, but I think we have a Good Sleeper, too.  The background on this is that Karen is a self-proclaimed Professional Sleeper.  She loves sleep.  In the summer or winter, in the day or night, in good times or bad.  She sleeps.  I definitely admire this trait, as I may be one of the world's worst sleepers.  I wish I could nap.  I wish I could sleep in till 10 on a Saturday (8 o' clock would be good too).  I wish I could sleep in a house full of dishwasher-emptying clanking or loud music.  Or in a car, ferry, or plane.

 The really good news is that Karen can do all of these things, and she is officially titled Reed's Sleep Coach.  She has the very special touch.  She can get him settled, interest him in sleep, and even keep him asleep.  The other bit of good news is that, typically, when she is able to get Reed to sleep, she is able to sneak a nap in herself.    And that is good for everybody.....!

Here are just some of the pics I have snapped of Karen sleeping with Reed.

I don't know why this one is so blue, but Reed is, I think, about 14 hours old here.  Karen is napping with him in the hospital bed we were afforded in the hospital.

Reed, 2 months.  It seems like Karen might be just sleep-posing, but chances are really good that she is really asleep.

Reed, probably 2 months.  Wow, Karen's shirt is really holey.  Though this pic does not show her face, we can be fairly confident that she is asleep.  And so is Reed!

Reed, 3 months.  They must be having an afternoon nap, because that is our bed, and he was sleeping in his crib at night at 3 months.

Again, in our bed, around 3 months. 

Reed, 4 months.  In the car, on the ferry, on our way to San Juan Island.

OK, Reed may in fact be awake here.  But this is how Karen deals with Reed when she wants to work on her bike in the backyard.

This may be Karen trying to get Reed back to sleep when we are camping. 

Same trip.  Reed, 4 months.  Karen not pictured, but she is always the idea behind the bundling, the padding, etc.

Yep.  This is Barley, our dog.  Karen was sure to bring an extra sleeping  bag for her.  She is sleep coach for All Living Things.

Same camping trip, Reed 4 months.  

Reed, 5 months.  Again, Karen not pictured, but surely she was the one who got him to sleep.

What?!  I think this is me!  Probably only one of two times Reed has fallen to sleep on me.

Reed, six months.  Taking a nap again, in our bed.

 And the piece de resistance:

 Obviously, she takes her role as Sleep Coach very seriously.  In the crib. With boy.  Oh, geeze.

So, as to the other side of the argument:  food.

In my opinion, Reed is a really good eater.  At nearly nine months, Reed has zero teeth.  I guess there have been other babies in the history of this universe who did not have teeth at nine months.  I just hope he gets some before Kindergarten.  Because I don't want to have that conversation with his Kindergarten teacher. 

These are the things that Reed likes to eat:

Salmon, hamburger, carrots, squash (any kind) potato (any kind), beans (any kind), cauliflower, broccoli, beets, tomato, spinach, grain cereal (filled with many whole grains), apples, banana, blueberries, tofu, eggs, quiche, pizza crust, pepperoni, oranges, chicken, and onion.  I have probably forgotten some as well.

I read someplace that if you expose your child to different spices, that they may be more in inclined to appreciate a variety of foods and ethnic flavors.  Ethnic flavors:  Is that an inappropriate stereotype?  I hope not.  I just mean that I am giving Reed different flavors so that he may enjoy having a vast, worldly, pallet of the world.  Here are some spices that he likes, so far:

Cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, curry, cumin, pepper, chili pepper, sage, oregano, corriander, parsley,  sesame, thyme, and GARLIC.  (one time, I prepared for him some garlic mashed potatoes.  he loved them.  I so badly wanted to smell some garlic breath on him the next day.  But he did not have any!!  I don't get it, but ahh well.  As long as he enjoyed them, as he did, it is all good!)

So far, I have identified only two foods that he does not like:  avocado and mango.  I guess what that means is that we cannot plan a move to Hawaii.  If we did, our boy might starve.  OK, we will just be forced to not consider a move to Hawaii.

In summation, I know that we have a boy who is a Good Eater.  No problem.  The boy eats.  He also sleeps, and he happens to sleep fairly well.  I do attribute this, however, to Karen.  She helps him sleep.  She sleeps with him.  She interests him in sleep.  She has the patience to get him back to sleep, sometimes for the 12th time in the night.  She knows how to prep him--in clothes, in sounds, in attitude--for sleep.  She is awesome in this (and others!) arena.  Without her, Reed might be one of those kids labeled as "bad sleepers."  But no matter--we have her, she loves him to pieces, and he sleeps--A LOT.

Again--could we be luckier?  We have a Sleeper and an Eater!  YAY!!!!

Christmas, 2011

Karen's parents rented a house in Maryland for Christmas so that we could all converge in Ali's world because she just had a BABY!!!!!!!  It was a fun week.  And it is true:  Baby's First Christmas is really just about tissue paper, sparkley lights, and trying to knock over as many wine glasses as possible.  And in Nomi's case, it is about eating and sleeping and lots of trips to the diaper changing table.

Watch out, Stocking, I will be bigger than you next year!

This was Reed on Christmas morning.  Totally content to play in the crib with his toy.  No visions of sugar plums or gift-bearing Santas or anything else.  But smiley nonetheless.

 And then it begins...

Aunties Liz and Mary Kate

Auntie Meg and (can can I say this? uncle) Devin

On Christmas afternoon we were invited to Ivy's (Ivy is Brad's sister) house.  We shared a delicious meal and had the opportunity to toast Liz and Brad on their engagement.  It was really nice to be all together and to meet some of Brad's family.

The lovely couple, Liz and Brad

Nomi was three weeks old at Christmastime.  Such a precious peanut!  I thought she resembled a precious miniature teacup.

Big Sis, Frannie

Christmas Babies!

 

 

And yes--I think Reed really is kissing his cuzzie, Nomi!

It's Official!

(backing up in time here a bit to capture some big and fun times!)

Yep--after five home visits, six sets of fingerprints sent off to the FBI, hours and hours of photo collage-making (and the 12 arguments that ensued), four interviews by three different social workers asking what parenting theories we might use to discipline our child and if we intend to introduce said child to religion,  one major heartbreak, countless phone conversations with our adoption attorney, one hugely major awesome birthday spent (mine) in the labor and delivery room watching our child be born, a stressful and illegal OR/WA border crossing with an undocumented infant, and a grand total of a 2 3/4 year wait for the Baby of My Dreams, Reed is finally, officially, and undoubtedly OURS!!!!!

Of course he has felt like our child since we have had him in our home, but in the back of my mind, it seemed like it would not really really really be true until the courts signed off.  (I don't even really know what signing off entails...i just know that it was another necessary step.)  Our attorney gave us two possible court dates for our finalization--one of them being my Dad's birthday.  Naturally, I chose that one--December 19th.  And how awesome is it that my dad made the trip up to be with us that day.  I love that he did this.  I also love that our nearest and dearest were there too.  I know Karen's family would have been there if they had any notice and if there was not another baby being born into the world and if it were not the height of the holiday season.  :)  They were all with us in spirit, for sure.

We all were a little edgy as we waited to be called into the court room.

 This is our clan--including our good friend Kelly, who was kind enough to document the occasion!

The whole process only took about 11 minutes, and 10 of those were spent taking pictures.

The green sweater and green tie were not planned.  In fact, Karen hated that I put him in the tie.  I thought he totally rocked it.

I guess my dad is still a little edgy here.  These four people could have broken it for us, but they all said they were in FAVOR!!

Yes, I am about to start balling here.

Our judge.

The judge and the attorney must have called eachother that morning--they both were wearing holiday ties.

Cory ALWAYS remembers the flowers.  :-)

Kelly!!!!!!

Giddey-up giddey-up, pick up your feet

I am insanely excited about Christmas this year.  I cannot stand it.  We are going to DC to meet our newest niece, and we will introduce Reed to Karen's sisters, Meg and Liz.  I cannot wait.  I really love Karen's family, so I am not surprised by my excitement and anticipation of being with the O'Connell's (all of them).  But I am definitely surprised about my whole new Christmas Deal this year.   If you knew me at all prior to April 26th of this year, you know that I am a Solstice person through and through--because I love the earth and like to hug trees and stuff and also because I have, for long while, loathed the stress and hub ubb of Christmas.  But these are some of the things I am doing and feeling this year which make me not recognize myself:

 When I realized that we needed to buy stockings (to hang by the chimney with care), I shopped online for a good two hours until I found the perfect ones.  I really have never even noticed stockings before...

In the Christmas exchange at work, I got all agro and "stole" a super cute Rudolph plate from one of the senior nurses.  And by senior, I mean to say, the CNO--nurse executive of the whole damn place.  I feel a little nervous of her every other day of the year, but on the day of our party, I stole it from right under her nose.  It is the cutest plate I have ever seen.

I have been shopping for tree ornaments with wild abandon.  I never knew how special and eclectic these little gems could be.  I have loved finding the perfect ones for all my perfect loved ones.

I wanted to go visit Santa with Reed around Halloween and was bummed to find out that he was not due to hit the malls until mid-December.  No matter.  I waited him out.  Reed has now posed with two Santas.  We might be able to squeeze in another in DC, before he heads up north to pack his bags.

I ordered and intend to send out Christmas cards.  (well, they will be New Year's cards by the time I get them out)         CRAZY!

I think my friend Monica said it best--I was the subject of her blog today.   Sounds like she is almost as surprised by me as I am with myself.....

A sign of the Apocolypse
I've written about my friend, J, before. She is the one who is my eco conscience. Whenever I'm about to not recycle something, I hear her in my ear, berating me. She collects rain water, even though she lives in Seattle and there aren't enough barrels in the world to collect all that water, and she only flushes for number two.

Every year, we have a small, non-dramatic spat about Christmas trees. She thinks it is an abomination to cut down a tree to have in your house and decorate, only to put it out on the curb after a few weeks. Christmas lights will end up in a landfill for 10,000 years, etc. etc. I argue that by her logic, she should never buy cut flowers, and we go round and round for 5 minutes and then we move on to talk about me.

J has hated Christmas since I've known her, and that's more than 20 years. She has always volunteered to work on Christmas, and with very good reasons that I wont go into here.

Over the past few years, a few things have finally fallen into place, like a having family nearby, getting hitched to her cool girlfriend, and, this spring, the piece of resistance, they adopted a baby boy. (Tangentially, I love this baby. He is the coolest, cutest baby that ever lived in the Pacific Northwest, not counting California where my baby was the coolest, cutest baby.)

Today they appeared in court, surrounded by family and friends, and it was made legally officially for realsies, that this baby is theirs and theirs alone, and can no man put asunder. (Tangentially, I really wanted to go, but there was no way. Not only could I have been there for this great event, but I could have eaten a killer carnitas burrito.)

The other day, J and I had the following text exchange:

J: Listened to xmas hits all the way to work today and loved it. Who am I?

BH: Maybe you should see a doctor. Next thing you know, you'll be putting up a xmas tree.

J: Ummmmmm, plan on doing that this year too!

BH: Greenpeace is going to have your head! The EPA will have to disband! The World Wildlife Fund will have to stop saving Panda Bears!

J: Yep, I've lost my mind. As well as my Kyoto Agreement card.

Now she likes Christmas. She has ornaments. She's singing carols. She has her girl and her boy. This is a very good sign..

Well captured, Monica.  It is true--my shift feels apocalyptic--even to myself.   And I love it!  I attribute it 100% to Reed.  Obbbbviously!  I kind of always knew that there might be hope for me to get into the Christmas thing once I had kids.   Well, the time is nigh.  It is now.  We got him, and I am LOVING the Christmas thing!!!   Bring it!

I cannot wait!  

ps... i will gladly take suggestions about how to deal with the post-holiday depression.  not sure how people deal with doing christmas full on and then having to wait a whole 'nother year until the next holiday season.  ......

pps, o'connell's--we WILL be getting a tree for our vacation house, right?!  i hope so, because I am bringing all of the ornaments I own!!

Merry Christmas!!  Happy Solstice!!  Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!!!  Happy Happy!!