A YEAR TO REMEMBER

A year ago I was a totally different person.  I was that person for 33 years in different permutations, phases, hair colors, jobs, and countries, but still pretty much me. Now I am someone completely new. I think it has taken me the entire year to figure out who the hell that is, but I'm getting there.

In any case I can tell you that the end of my previous life was really uncomfortable and I spent the remaining few weeks lying like a beached whale on the sofa staring at my feet, which looked like two blowfish. I wasn't necessarily ready to be a mom, but I was really ready to not be pregnant any more.

I keep trying to remember what I was thinking, who I was in those last few days a year ago and what I would go back and say to the old me now.  Maybe something like " This will be the hardest year of your life and mostly not fun, pretty overwhelming, exhausting, and frightening, but you will survive it and things will get better, more joyous and less terrifying.  You have the most amazing husband and family ever. Your kids are going to be incredible people, but not who you ever expected. Oh, and your feet will go back to normal."

Close to the end

Yes, that's my belly, with our little mascot reaching the summit

Oh my God, for real I look like I'm going to give birth to a full grown Sumo wrestler

Our last meal on the way to the hospital was at IHOP (International House of Pancakes for you non- Americans).  Sam's totally giving me the side eye!

FINALLY

Certain things that kids do are adorable but always happen too quickly to ever capture on video.  I have tried and failed so many times, but it's like photographing lightning, it's over before it starts.

However, Lula gave me an early birthday present yesterday, a sneeze and a yawn in quick succession.  And there's an epic build up to the sneeze.

 Holding her is Mistura, her marvelous night nurse.

DEXTERITY

One of my favorite things so far about having kids is watching them learn.

BATH TIMES TWO

My sister Caitlin is back from Prague and visiting for a couple of weeks.  The two of us crammed into our tiny bathroom with the kids to give them a bath.  It felt like old times.  The apartment we grew up in had such a small bathroom, and only 1 bathroom for 4 people, that bath time felt akin to taking a shower in a subway car at rush hour.

I had the bright idea that since Lula hates baths and Roan loves baths that maybe if we gave them a bath together she would see the error of her ways and love bath time too. Um, no.

TEETH AND NOSES

Two new developments around here in the past week or so.

Lula's top and bottom front teeth have broken through. So far it's the only thing she's beaten her brother at, and she's psyched to try them out.  Lula is having an MRI next week so we are going easy on any feeding therapy with liquids to make sure that her lungs are completely clear and in the interim she has discovered cookies.  She doesn't swallow much cookie, but she loves scraping her new teeth on them and chomping down on them.  She breaks them into little pieces, which i then have to try to fish out without being bitten myself.

Actual bite marks! Can you see em?

Cookie remnants

The other thing is that Roan has discovered his nose. Or rather his nostril. And that his finger fits so snugly in it.  We are trying to discourage it but then he goes after our nostrils, which is worse.  Apparently it's some developmental milestone (Lula's OT called it "single digit identification" or some such). It's also confusing because we are trying to teach him to identify body parts ie "Where's Roan's nose? Where's Roan's ear?" and pointing and picking are verrry similar in his view.

Doing the Seinfeld-style nose pick fake out

TOP GEAR

One of the occupational hazards of being in this house is that there are prototypes everywhere.  Sam likes to test out his newest trash can design (which, by the way, is broken) or his latest idea for a mobile office unit (ahem, still not quite finished) at home.  Truly, his ingenuity cannot be overstated.  He's MacGyver and a Boy Scout rolled into one. He has a way of adapting the most mundane household items to fit a certain precision he has about almost everything.

Consequently lots of things for the kids are rigged just so.

Such as...

Lula's G-tube had a habit of popping out and spilling milk everywhere if she stretched too much so Sam took a hair clip, sawed off the ends and bent them inward.  Works a treat!

Lula's new feeding chair is attached to the base of an Ikea office chair.  Goes up and down, spins, and does wheelies.

Roan kept wanting us to hold his bottle for him. Sam looped a rubber band around the bottle and through the gate and voila!  Instant gerbil. 

DOG DAYS OF SUMMER

Summer has landed like a soggy diaper on a fire pit here in NYC.  Only June 1 and it already hit almost 90º today.  We took the kids to Prospect Park over the weekend and the sprinklers were on.  I kept having these bizarre deja vu moments because they are the same playgrounds I played in as a kid (in Central Park but they are all very much the same).  Fighting for the tire swings.  That slightly gross pasty sand from the sand pit.  Molten hot jungle gyms. Ice cold sprinklers that you would play in until your lips turned blue. What wonderful, messy, magical, chaotic places they are. I am so glad my kids are going to experience them too.