I n B l o o m

2nd Hand Living

One of the things I love most about the place I live (Mt Airy) is how people live so sustainably. On one corner of my little "village" -- the corner that happens to be my favorite one -- there are all of the following: a co-opperative, member-owned food market abounding in local foods & produce; a glorious coffee shop that has the BEST coffee in the world, I'm convinced, not to mention award-winning baked goods & crepes; an electric bicycle shop (not mopeds, not scooters...electric bikes!); a moving arts studio; an elementary school; an art garage; and a little shop most of you have heard me raving about called The Nesting House, where all they sell is sustainably-made or second hand kids' clothing, toys, & necessities.

Since moving here 6 years ago, I've changed so much. One of the most noticable and remarkable changes has been my ardent pursuit of sustainable living. And today I'm making a new pact, with you all as my witnesses: whenever possible, I am going to only buy clothing & toys/"supplies" for the girls that are recycled, sustainably made, or used.

Today when I went in to the Nesting House to buy a few pairs of pants for Violet, I had a nice realization: I get MUCH nicer & cuter clothing there than I ever could buying new. I could never afford the amazing clothes I find there if they were new! And, quite frankly, I'm getting kind of picky about how cute my kids look. One little taste of cuteness potential, and watch out...

A Melissa & Doug puzzle from Nesting House

 
my amazing pants stash

best. pants. ever.

My Muppets Take Manhattan!

"The Muppets Take Manhattan" was one of my favorite movies as a kid. And now I got to take my little muppets to Manhattan to adventure all around the city yesterday. And we had a BLAST! We took the subway into the city, which was so exciting to Avy that she almost died of a glee overdose. It was the first time she has been on the subway since she's old enough to know what's happening. So here is our photo journal of our fun trip yesterday. To see the pictures full-sized, just click on any of them. Enjoy!

Here Avy is enjoying her train ride
(Also, note her super-awesome "Sun Day Afternoon" sunhat from The Nesting House!)

 

And here's Violet literally hanging out on the train

We got off the train at 50th Street so we could overstimulate the girls in Times Square. It worked.

(thank you, Hipstamatic iPhone app...)

(this is Violet's overstimulated face)

Then we went to the M&M store, which also overstimulated everyone -- in a good way
(even though we didn't have any chocolate, Avy's face in this picture is objectively terrifying!)

After that we went to the new flagship Lego Store in Rockefeller Center. That was exciting but no pictures were taken, sadly. We were too excited about all the amazing Legos. After that, we headed to St Patrick's Cathedral, which was amazingly beautiful. Upon entering the building, Avy said "This place smells like the Birth Center" (referring to the incense smell, which we burned a lot of when I was in labor with Violet.
It's moments like this that I really adore Avy) :)

 

After that we headed toward Central Park where we had big plans to spend the rest of our day at a little amusement park for kids called Victorian Gardens. More on that in a minute.

 
Here's Avy cutely hitching a ride from Grampy.

While on our travels, we met Elmo who - from afar - Avy wanted to hug, but when she got up close and he asked her to give him 5, she death-gripped me and started crying. So much for Elmo love.

Then we got to Victorian Gardens where Avy went on her first "roller coaster" ride and laughed and squealed with joy the entire time. I was so thrilled! A girl after my own heart! Woo hoo!

 

We told her to make a funny face for the cameras. Here was her face:

I even got her to put up her arms. Here's her doing with with Allen (we went on 4 times).

So we had a great time in Manhattan yesterday. Everyone slept SOOOO well last night. It was great.

Re-Blooming

If I could read the future, would that make my life easier or harder? Who knows. But right now I'm wishing I could have some assurance about what might come in the sort-of-near future. Like any mother, I am always wondering things like "Are people staring at me right now thinking I'm an awful mother?..." OR, depending on the day I'm having, I'm thinking "Why can't everyone be as attentive & nurturing to their child(ren) as I am?" (toot, toot goes my little horn).

Then there are the times of insomnia where everyone is sleeping but me, and I'm running the full list of the other usual questions: "How do I protect my children from people who stifle them?" ... "How do I delight in the girls more & surround them with people who also delight in them?" ... "How do I challenge them - but not too much?" ... "Is our house really big enough for 4 people?" ... "When will my car NOT look like the dumpster behind Babies-R-Us?" ... "Oh, crap, when was the last time I washed my hair?" ... Things like this.

I'm not a huge worrier, but it's amazing how closely knit maternal instinct & "fret" can be. I'm taking "mother bear" to the max.

On the other hand, I find myself asking questions about my own future more frequently now that I have relative closure on the kid-front (that's right, people - this uterus is closed for business, at least for a while). What kind of career do I want to pursue? Do I want to pursue one career or be a renaissance woman, dabbling here & there as I see fit? How will I spend my days on the "good days"? How can I chase after my many passions but also feel kind of settled? Do I ignore some & not others? How do I choose? What if I pick wrong? Or WORSE! What if I pick wrong and it costs us MONEY?! Ahhh! (I promise. I'm not a huge worrier. Really....eh-hem....)

These are the kinds of questions that make me really wish I had a mentor or a really wise, older friend who knew me inside & out and could give me some perspective. I'm such a fickle person though, because when it really comes down to it, I just want someone to dig answers out of my own head instead of giving me their own opinions.

My two daughters give me more joy than I could have imagined anyone would. Now, when I watch movies or shows where a mother has a choice between saving herself/her partner's life & saving the life of her child, my insides leap for joy when she picks the child! I get it now. I also understand my parents better. I understand all parents better.

Thanks for listening to my ranting. You're good listeners.

Crawling and Eating and Babbling, oh my!

We've been busy around here. Avy is the most amazing child in the world, I'm convinced, and she makes me laugh more than anybody. Here are some of her new "tricks"...

1. She's crawling. Okay, so she's crawling backwards, but that still counts because she gets exactly where she wants to go! She's all over the place now. I'll sit her down on the floor (on her butt, that is), and go into the kitchen to pour myself a bowl of cereal and come back and she's eating our Christmas tree on the other side of the room. (She's also ingested about a pint of dust tumble weed, I've calculated.)

2. She's eating. Solids, that is. Her favorites are squash (acorn and butternut are all she's tried so far), peas, and pumpkin. She has also had sweet potatoes (they give her crazy gas - so we try to stay away from those), apples, bananas, avocado (she's allergic), tofu, pears (this is the only fruit she likes!), and plums. I make all of her baby food, which is not only super exciting and really fun for me (not to mention fast, which surprised me), but it's also incredibly cheap and much better for her because I only buy her organic things. This has inspired our diet to become much healthier than ever before. (If you want to join my baby-food-making movement, please let me know. I'm looking for food-making buddies!)

3. She's babbling like CRAZY! This is my favorite new thing of hers. She has her own language and is chattering all the time. (She's just like Allen.) :o) Her most frequently used words/sounds are "Dada," "Ya-Ya," "yish," and sometimes she says "Mama." Her favorite times to talk are (a) when someone else is talking, or (b) in the car while she's staring in her car mirror (I'm convinced she thinks it's her baby friend, not herself). This is just the best part of having an 8-month-old, hands down.

I couldn't end this entry without mentioning Allen's favorite new thing she does (and my second favorite), and that's clapping. You haven't seen anything good until you've seen a baby clapping. It's unimaginably cute, and the more excited you get when she does it, the more she does it. Which brings me to my next point...

I've been updating our Picasa online picture album very faithfully (regardless of my lack of dedication to writing in this blog lately...), so check them out! There's at least one of Avy clapping, not to mention Halloween pictures, baptism pictures, crawling pictures, eating pictures -- the list goes on and on. The 7 Month Old ones especially won't disappoint. Here's a preview for you.

Teething Bites

Since last I posted (yes, it was a month and a half ago -- I have things to do, I'm sorry!), Avy has become the most amazing child in the world. She laughs, she "talks" (in her own language), she's sleeping without being swaddled (a HUGE feat!), she's started sucking her fingers and thumbs, she plays alone (when she feels like it), and she LOVES the car. Woo Hoo! And now that she's getting older, she's really starting to look like a little girl instead of a baby. A few days ago I was looking at her and we were having a little conversation where I was telling her how awesome she is, and I found myself talking to her like she was an adult, telling her that she is beautiful and that I love her awesome personality. She looked at me like she understood, and I swear I saw a 10-year-old in her eyes. It made me cry, of course. My baby is growing up.

She's really amazing. For those of you who haven't seen her in a while, you wouldn't even recognize her! She is in the 95th percentile for height, weight, and head size. She is officially the size of an average 7-month-old. This adds a strange twist to our lives because she looks like she should be able to crawl and sit up by herself because of her enormous size ... but alas, she cannot. But she's getting there! She's so advanced. She did sit up by herself with the help of the Boppy for one whole minute on Tuesday!! She's also really cooperating well when I take her to my office at Bryn Mawr to get some work done. She loves my office, which is a huge sigh of relief since she's coming to work with me! (Exciting times!)

But there is one thing that's been hard (on my fingers), and that's TEETHING! Poor Avy is chewing on everything she gets her hands on. I think she's actually hurting pretty badly considering she's shown an excellent pain tolerance in the past (like when I hit her head on the corner of my dresser by accident in the middle of the night and she didn't even wince), and now every time she's biting on something she groans. The worst of it is this: she hates teething rings and cold, wet rags, which would sooth her so well if she liked them. She chews on her plastic chain link toys all day, but that seems to only help for a little while then she gets frustrated. Does anyone have any ideas? Please share them if you do. I'll try anything to help her!

Well, I've posted many new pictures, so don't forget to check out my Picasa Web Photo Album. I've got so many great pictures of her there, so don't miss them!

Social Smiler

In the middle of the night when Avy wakes up every four hours (or every hour during a growth spurt) to eat, part of me wants to just bag the whole deal and go sleep in the car until I've had twelve hours of sleep. I groan and complain and get extremely agitated with every whine and cry Avy lets out. I wake up Allen not because he can do anything to help, but because I don't want to be the only one suffering. I'm impatient and rude to her, for some reason thinking that it might actually teach her a lesson at 6 weeks of age. But then -- when I least expect to love her -- something happens that changes the whole world and I forget all my frustration: she smiles.

They call it "social smiling" -- the kind of smile that is a result of happiness or excitement, not just gas anymore. (That could be the tag line for baby-smile advert ... "Not just gas anymore!") Avy's smile doesn't look the way I thought it would. It's even more amazing. It's wide, it's tall, it involves a wiggly tongue, and it is usually accompanied by several dimples (reminiscent of my own - hooray!) and an unbelievably endearing coo or shriek. When grown-ups smile it can be charming and warm, but when this child smiles it SLAYS me. This morning I was taking a video of her being happy on her changing table, and she looked like she was about to cry so I said, "Oh no! Don't cry! SMILE!" and immediately she broke into a huge toothless grin.

That's what gets me through the days.

These days...

First: the three new web albums!

Avy - Week 4

My First Mothers Day

Avy - Week 5

(The "Week 5" one is my personal favorite, by the way.)

This week has been so different from the previous four. Since getting over her nasty (and very sad) cold that she had all of last week then gave to both Allen & me, Avy has been a new woman. She has started to sleep longer between middle-of-the-night feedings (she's now up to 4-5 hours!), she has been less high maintenance about being held all the time (as you will read about in the captions of the "Week 5" pictures), and she has started smiling quite a lot (which blows my MIND). What a joy to watch a developing person learn and grow into her personality. She's amazing.

Another thing I've loved about her, particularly this week, is how endeared she is to Allen. They have a really special relationship. She won't take her eyes off of him whenever he holds her. She loves to cuddle with him. She stops crying after only one second of him singing to her or beat boxing (which she remembers from her time in-utero, no doubt). It's beautiful seeing a father and daughter bond like they have. A lot of people have asked me, "So, how has having a baby affected your marriage?" and I tell them that one of the best parts of having Avy is seeing the bond between them. A new side that I've never seen in Allen has come out with her in the picture. It's really great, I have to say.

Having a daughter is lovely. She has the cutest clothes, which I love dressing her up in then showing her off. And she has a truly remarkable personality that I can't wait to see more of. I highly recommend motherhood. It's changed my life, of course.

Avy's first 3 weeks of life

I know the best thing I can give you is a few solid online photo albums. So, I'm not going to waste any time! Here they are!

Avy Ray Drew - Week 1 of life

 

Avy - week 2

 

Avy - Week 3

So there you go. There are three good ones - laid out by week. I'm constantly updating these albums (since we take approximately 8,000 pictures per day), so keep checking in on them. Eventually the frequency of new albums posted will decrease, so enjoy this over abundance of pictures while it lasts!

Avy is amazing! There are, of course, some things that drive me crazy (like the fact that she has to be held about 90% of day-lit hours, which gives me the ability to do NOTHING but that); but for the most part, we have a super laid-back baby! She's awake more now in the 3rd week, which I love. She looks around discovering things, which I love to watch.

She is also an over-achiever in her developmental milestones. Her umbilical cord stump fell off at 4 days (supposed to fall off at around 2 weeks), which has left her a beautiful belly button that -- as my aunt Linda points out -- looks just like a Cinnabon. She rolled over on Monday ... twice (she can't be trusted), which doesn't usually happen until the second month, I think. She's already taken a nap in her regular crib (doesn't usually happen until 4-6 months). She sleeps so well at night, only waking up twice to feed, then goes right back to sleep. She naps HARD twice a day (giving me at least one solid nap per day). And she has been lifting (and holding up) her head since day 3! At this rate, she'll be walking and talking in a few weeks. :o)

My labor story is just about as good as it gets. On Wednesday, April 11th, I woke up, went downstairs where Allen was reading on the couch, and I said to him, "Allen. Today's the day. I can FEEL it!" Don't ask me how, but I knew that I was going to go into labor that day. And I was right! At about 11pm my water broke, and within half an hour, I was having hard contractions every 2 minutes, so we left for the Birth Center after midwife Betsy gave us the OK. I did all of my laboring in the hot tub that was in my room (the Yellow room, if anyone's familiar with the Birth Center), then after about 3 1/2 hours of labor Betsy asked me to get out for a minute so she could check my progress, and I was 8 cm dilated. SUCH GREAT NEWS! I got back in the tub, and she said, "You may feel the urge to push really soon. When you do, you can go ahead and push." I couldn't believe I was already there -- I was shocked in fact. And then about ten minutes later, I felt my first urge to push and started pushing. (This was the weirdest feeling I have EVER felt, by the way. Your body literally starts to push for you!) After only about 15 minutes of pushing, Betsy told me I needed to get out of the tub and go to the bed because I was progressing so fast. I pushed for maybe 20 minutes (about 6 pushes, if I can remember right), and there she was! I'm so thankful for such a great labor!

While my labor was AMAZING, my recovery period has been somewhat frustrating for me. I don't like sitting in one place for very long, as most of you know, so I've been pretty bored. Friends visit and I watch a lot of movies and TV series  on DVD (I've watched two full seasons of "Felicity" already -- thanks to Kathryn Wiepert!), but now that I'm feeling better I'm ready to go outside and run errands and take walks ... but Avy doesn't like to be put down, so that creates quite a problem. Any adventure that requires me putting her down anywhere results in her screaming and me pulling my hair out. I hope this doesn't last.

Avy cracks us up, though. She has the craziest sounds (loud ones, too) -- especially while she's sleeping! -- and has a very developed personality already. Nothing beats when she first smiled at me, which was yesterday. She was lying on our bed while I got some breakfast, and when I came back I got close to her face and said, "Goodmorning, Avy! Are you ready for another fun-filled day with mommy?" And a huge toothless grin shot across her face. Aw man. My heart melted!

Allen's last day of classes is today, then he has finals until Wednesday, May 16th, then we all get to play together! I can't wait! My intense bordem will finally come to an end!!!

Florida, Snow Storms, and Trippy Dreams

So I found this old post that I had saved as a "Draft" in my 35th week. I thought I'd post this one before I updated with post-birth blogging! The title, "Florida, Snow Storms, and Trippy Dreams" never got its fulfilled post; it says nothing about Florida (where I had just taken my last trip as a pregnant woman) or Trippy Dreams (which I had an abundance of in my last months). But now that I've actually had the baby, I have less time to write about those things (to complete the entry, that is) on top of the post-birth updating that is WAY overdue! So you'll have to settle. Here it is...

Well, here I am at 35 weeks (tomorrow). My midwives say I am showing signs of possibly going early, which I am ALL for! This poor little thing is getting cramped and bored in there. As you can see she's not such a little thing anymore, either. She has her feet up in my ribs now, and more than occassionally I get kicked in the stomach so hard it feels like the Terminator's in there. Sorry ... I mean, the Governator. Last night I had just fallen to sleep and all the sudden WHAM! I got a foot right in the left side and then it took me a while to fall back to sleep.

Right now I'm at my parents' house having a birthday sleepover with my mom & dad for my mom's St. Patty's Day birthday. We rented a bunch of movies, bought a LOT of comfort food, and we are officially snowed (and iced) IN. There are about 4 inches of nasty snow & ice outside that's been coming down all day. It's pretty sketchy out there. People have been skidding down the street all day. Allen's in Virginia with his dad speaking at a men's retreat. I, of course, have this terrible anxiety that I'm going to go into labor when (a) it's the worst storm (and road conditions) of the winter, and (b) Allen's not in town and has no way of getting back here quickly. I think I'll be fine, but these worries cross your mind when you're more than 8 months pregnant and your husband's out of town.

A changed woman

When I wrote my last entry, I was feeling pretty floppity about my new pregnant body and about how lonely it made me feel. I wrote that a few days ago. But yesterday, I did something ingenious -- something I recommend every pregnant woman do! ... I got my hair cut!

All women know that getting your hair cut is just about the most therapeutic thing you can do when in distress about something. When you break up with your boyfriend, you cut your hair. When you go to college, you cut your hair. Whenever (in whatever way) you become a new woman, you MUST display this newness to the world in a tangible format. And hair is always the way to go.

So here's not only my new haircut (which is so fun and cute, and I love it!), but also two new pregnancy pictures for you of me at a little over 6 1/2 months:
   
(click the thumbnails to see the full-sized image)

This is quite a change from my 5-month picture (which I don't think any of you saw -- sorry!):

I would post the picture of my exposed belly with Allen making the "Ohhhhhhhh! You're so CUTE!" face, but I think that's a little too graphic. Some of you might not be prepared to see a pregnant belly for the first time, let alone a picture of MY belly, period! So I'll refrain.

So what have we learned here today? ...
#1. Heather is GROWING!
#2. When pregnant and feeling floppity and yucky, CUT YOUR HAIR! and all will be right again.

It feels so good.

ps: If anyone has found my butt, please return it to ASAP. I seem to have lost it.