Hi

Continued

Two days and many hours have gone by. There is no way to meet deadlines right now, even self made ones. II'll probably keep trying though. It's kind of fun and spontaneous, really!

Got to the curtain but it's not quite right. Still no knitted baby pants.

Infant massage was wonderful, as expected and will continue to be for four more weeks, surely. Wow, what a sweet therapist for teaching us all, bringing cookies, and providing a place for new parents to spend time together. I can tell this massage will soothe Bea. Maybe it will become a tradition right before bath time?

The Bartells, our family away from family, had us over for a warm evening of food, SODA, baby cooing and cute kid visiting. Jill made a killer dessert, oatmeal chocolate chip bars. The soup was a smashing hit, vegetable dumpling! A shout out to Kenny for making another delicious batch of broth. Saving all of those veggie parts really pays off. That was two days ago and boy, it's been steady here at home with lots to do. One quick thing before a slew of pictures: Today was our last postpartum visit at Alma. I love our midwives so! Bea weighs 9 lbs and 10 oz!

xo

This is a -to be continued- post right from the start. I thought it'd be interesting and boring to see what my daily goals are and what actually gets done. Certainly unexpected things will happen. Maybe I should take some time to predict them? I'll start with the goals:

*make it to our first baby massage class (it's totally free!)
*go grocery shopping
*make vegetable dumpling soup for our friend dinner tonight
*finish Bea's knitted pants (this will really take an hour at the most)
*sew up that long curtain in the bedroom (a five minute job)

Some notes: It's sunny and clear out, baby is sleeping in swing, a great time to get dressed. Still no coffee. She slept amazingly last night! I actually woke her up to make sure she was still okay. Mom's are crazy! We got a new rocking chair yesterday from Natural Furniture on Broadway. My sweet mother in law gifted it to us and already it's a staple to our day. I don't think I need to add that to the list of things to do. It's a given, like brushing your teeth. Actually, better run!

It's 9:28am;

go!

Aunties

So, the sisters, ahem Aunties, have been visiting. What a sweet time we've been having. Sister one tried kombucha for the first time and liked it until sister two announced that there was something floating in it. We've visited all of Portland's neighborhoods, smelled Spring's daphne, and have had many lattes. Sisters one and two have impressed me much this week. They have:

changed Bea's diaper,

made minestrone soup from scratch,

tried kombucha, as mentioned above, nutritional yeast, an amaranth bar, coconut milk in their coffees and teas, and vegan fluffy pancakes,

pushed our car, that stalled and died in the middle of Broadway, across a busy intersection,

walked four miles and found their way home from the mall because we didn't have a car, without a tour guide,

and there is probably more.

I love them. Their real names are Deanna and Brittney.

I miss them already!

Bea and I leave the bedroom somewhere between six and seven every morning. She squirms a lot right around then and is very grunty. She likes to stretch out and smile and see the living room in all of it's chilly glory. This morning was sunny. I mean, it felt like the first real spring morning. I never thought I'd say or even think this but, thank you Bea for getting me up early enough to see the morning light wake up our sleepy house.

  

Today is special because two of my beautiful sisters are flying in from Maine, the Aunties! Until then, hang time with my two favorites.

Ciao!

Camellias are special.

Learning how to nurse and knit...

Want to throw some advice this way?

Out the window I see almost daffodils, hungry, fat crows, a grey, white lit sky, and fleeting crocus. We've been eating peanut butter pretzels and chocolate chips. Kenny just did all the kitchen chores and when he dumped the compost outside he noticed a plant, in a pot, growing roots out the bottom of the pot. Awesome. The grass stays green here all year. I love that. I have such an affinity for New England but, have not felt compelled to move back there. I find my heart longs for my family, friends, the Atlantic, and winter and yet I feel so content here on the west coast. Maybe I haven't allowed my mind to know the real distance between states? Dad always says everything is just a plane ride away. I guess I believe him. The truth is, I've put serious roots down here and imagine them shooting down deeper. They have tangled around someone else's sturdy roots and have even planted brand new month old roots. I am happy about these plants that sprout from them. I love who I am here with who I am here with and I'm not afraid of plane rides or spending money.

When it comes to diapering, there is a thin bridge between convenience and being conscientious so before Bea arrived, a month ago now (wow!) I did lots of research on cloth diapering. This subject does not stop at which diaper covers are the easiest to snap closed on a screaming week old or how many prefolds one might go through in a day but is rich in questions like how the heck do you store the dirty ones and how does a person wash the filthy fabrics hygienically? The internet and friends helped a lot. Thanks guys.

One supermom introduced me to cloth wipes! She has an incredible cloth diapering set up (incredible to me is super organized as there are so many wee things that puzzle together to help keep your diapering easy) and even washed her laundry in coin op machines in their apartment building. There is more to this family's story as superdad was temporarily moving to LA, for work. "Gosh," I thought, "if this superfamily can live apart for many months, with a new baby, cloth diaper fully, and trudge laundry up and down stairs everyday then we can do cloth wipes." I probably said this aloud to myself.

Here are Bea's wipes! I just cut up some stained Tj's shirts and sewed up the edges. We wet them with a basic water and Dr. Bronners mixture. That's what's in the spray bottle. There are lots of wipe solution recipes online. Some super fun ones. I like the most simple and these work wonderfully!

Adios!