on gardening

alice bradley is moving from the 'burbs back into brooklyn, from when she came. i am positive that she has many many reasons for doing so, but the one i can relate to the most is the mulch. when we lived downtown, our house had a yard filled with lovely blooming things that had been planted 50 years earlier and loved long enough to become well established. the grass would not grow, but there was always something lovely and interesting going on. i had ideas then of gardening--of what i would one day do, given a yard of my own. i have a yard of my own now. i hate my yard. i hate my lack of time for it and how it alwyas looks just half-assed. i have these pictures in my head of what it may one day be, but in truth, i just don't see how it's ever going to get there--at least not till the kid is about 10 and able to help trim the holly bushes that threaten to overtake the porch. someone should really do something about all the plants i have that need to go into the ground. someone should also maybe finish the Great Soil Amendment Project of 2008^* that i started last march while still pregnant and filled with illusions of grandeur. someday i will finish it. someday i will plant trees. and bulbs so i have daffodils in the spring. someday i will repot all my houseplants. someday i will mulch. meredith's coming into town this weekend. maybe i'll make her hold the baby while i work on the yard.

* the flower bed in the front of my house is full of builder's detritus and clay. i've been slowly digging this out and amending the "soil" with a mixture of peat moss, perlite, and fertilizer. it's working wonders for the weeds adjacent to the bed, and i am guessing would also be good for the plants in the bed, were there any. the hippie pokes fun at me for "planting dirt", but i maintain that this must be done before we plant anything else. last time i checked, plants and bulbs did not find tar paper and 10-penny nails nourishing. but i digress...

catching up to the present

a lot's happened in the last couple of months while i've been not blogging. time has been going by so quickly, i haven't even realized i've failed to blog it. so--let's catch up, shall we? some visual aids should help us.

labor day weekend, we went to visit my parents. kieran spent some time with some of his cousins and had his first rice cereal. he liked it. :)

we went to see the carolina rollergirls with many friends. fun, but jesus, it was HOT! the kid did pretty well with his first sporting event, in spite of the crazy loud applause.

then he got a nasty cold, but he was still happy.

luckily he was all better by the time we went to the beach, where we spent time with carrie, isaac, ella, meredith, denise, warren, and lani. i've been dreaming about putting his feet in the sand since i was pregnant, so this was particularly satisfying for me. he was very brave about the water on his feet, and he immediately put a fistful of sand in his mouth, as expected. there's a whole set of pitctures here, but here's one of my favorites, too:

there's been some knitting:

the critter started sitting, crawling, and pulling up.

fall came.

my friend tina had her baby, kyla christina. i was there with her, which is always an awesome priveledge and makes me want to become a doula. still thinking about that...

and then--suddenly it was halloween.

y'all want to tell me how the hell that all happened so fast?

and then i voted, but you guys already know about that.

whew! that only took 3 days to get posted. maybe i can get back onto the normal blogging schedule now. clearly, i should not make any promises. but man--i miss you guys!

ps--happy birthday, alyce! love and miss you like a fiend!!!
pps--good thoughts to lisa, who's having a baby as we speak!

i voted

this is the first time i have voted in my life. i have planned to vote for barak obama for president for some time, mainly because sarah palin scares the hell out of me. and i think it says something about our country that i finally registered tovote, not because i was totally gung ho for a candidate, but because i was so filled with bile and rage that i wanted to vote AGAINST someone. but i digress... anyway, i voted. and about a week ago, somewhere in all the reading, i drank the hope kool-aid. cnn just projected that obama was going to win. i have my fingers crossed that the coming change will be good. i am stunned that we have elected an african american as president of the united states in my lifetime. stunned and thrilled.

a month? really?

dang. it's been over a month since i've had the time to write anything here??? i didn't even realize it, which is pretty sad. and you know, i miss blogging--a LOT! i need to get back on it. maybe today i will try to get on here at lunch time and write the rest of the 5-month update i started--oh--at the end of september when kieran turned 5 months old. time flies, people. time flies...

cooking on the fly

having a kid makes you become first less efficient (A LOT LESS!), and then suddenly more efficient. i am finding a new groove at last. (thank you exersaucer!) i am learning to roughly plan ahead and to make stuff up on the fly. i now go to the grocery store with no real list, but instead, some vague notion that we should maybe have some food in the house and that some extra diapers wouldn't go amiss. and maybe more advil. for example, on saturday i just went to the store with this notion of coming back home with FOOD. and here is my smartest idea ever: buy a whole big family pack of boneless chicken breasts and all kinds of random vegetables. grill the whole pack of chicken. and then for days--you have dinner almost made already. i keep making random stuff with grilled chicken and veggies, and man--it's been pretty good. here are some successes:

one night i roasted a butternut squash--i chopped up half a pear (random) and put it in the cavity of the squash, rubbed the whole thing with olive oil, sprinkled a bit of cinnamon on it, and baked it for somehtng like 50 minutes at 350. when it was done, i scooped out the squashy goodness and mashed it up with a little more cinnamon, and voila. with that we had some cous cous (one of those near east boxes--i think this was the toasted pine nut variety) to which i added a handful of spinach. and by the way, i will definitely be doing THAT again. i just threw the spinach in on top of the cous cous and let it steam for a few minutes, and then stirred it in--it wilted beautifully, and man, it was good. and i think my hands on time for this whole meal was maybe 15 minutes.

chicken caesars. easy peasy. use real parmesan for this, people, and you can't go wrong.

last night i took half a box of pasta and cooked it. then i added it to a saute of mushrooms, halved grape tomatoes, and some frozen soycutash from trader joes(although you could also use pretty much any frozen vegetable or a can of something), a cup of chicken broth, some sprigs of thyme, and a few red pepper flakes. and you know, chicken. fast, low fat, and delicious.

sandwiches with sliced chicken, roasted red pepper, basil or watercress, and herbed mayo. or if you want them to look fancy, drop the mayo and serve them open faced with shaved manchego cheese and a drizzle of olive il and balsamic vinegar. yum.

burritoes!!! take some of that chicken and add some avacado, some salsa, maybe some black beans and cheese, a little cilantro if you have it. roll it up in a tortilla.

tonight we will have some sugar snap peas and something. maybe a stir-fry. i'm sure i still have some other vegetable bits and pieces hiding in that crisper drawer--half an onion, a red pepper, some mushrooms...something...

i realize there's nothing earth-shattering here, but it's made all the difference to my psyche this week. last night the hippie was reveling in the fact that we're eating at home, and that it's not all PB&J (although yum! PB&J!). it's good, finally getting back into the swing of my kitchen.

ps--speaking of PB&J, can i just tell you how good this strawberry and rhubarb jam we found is? we bought it in a general store out newr my hometown, and holy lord--YUM! just sayin'...

blogging from the iPhone: a test

sometimes it's hard for me to accept that this phone i am using has more power and memory than the computers i learned to program on. technology is just crazy, man. a friend asked me to test whether or not i could write a blog post from my iPhone. apparently yes.

fragile

it's morning, and i am sitting alone in my living room thinking about how tenuous our grasp life is. it's that same kind of panic i have written about before i guess, but today it weighs heavy. my really good friend meredith's family is experiencing a terrible tragedy, and i can't stop thinking about it. her cousin's wife collapsed last week and turns out to have an enlarged heart, which led to a cardiac arrest and countless other complications. now, they are concerned that her higher level brain functions may be permanently impaired. i would normally not presume to write about their issues, but they have a blog on which they are posting updates about her condition, so it's already out there. and really, in this case, i think the more people praying for hyatt, the better. she needs a miracle. i have never met hyatt, but she is a young mother with two daughters--her baby is about the same age as kieran, which is probably why this is hitting so close to home for me. i believe that this is something that every mother fears. in addition to your fears for your child, you fear for yourself, because--who will take care of your baby if you can't? even if you have a plan in place, money and care provided, who will be his mother? who will love him like you would love him? it's about the worst thing i can imagine right now, short of losing the baby or his father. anyway--i am a downer on this bright sunny sunday morning. i am sad. i am overcome thinking about this family and what they might lose. and i am praying as hard as i can for them.

i knitted something

it's not a big thing, but i did manage to start and finish and gift something in less than a week--this little pumpkin hat for my friend lisa who's baby is due just a few days before halloween. i feel strongly that all babies should have at least one handmade thing to surround them with love--i may even be a little superstitious about this. and well, i just don't have the time to make blankets like i used to. this little hat though--i have made it before, and i knew i could do pull it off if i tried hard. i knitted most of it in the dark while we were driving to my parents' house for a visit, and then i did the stranding at home (the night before her shower). although i had to stay up late to finish it--it was totally worth it for the smile on lisa's face when she opened it up. :)

for the record, i also managed to knit a little hat in july for our frineds clay and heather whose baby was soon to be born while we were in pennsylvania, but i don't have any photographic evidence of that one. it was a dove grey malabrigo umbrella hat--i used the leftover yarn from my foliage hat, which was still lingering around in my knitting bag.

hats are the new blanket.

critter vs. crocodile

he's chompin' it on the nose. and almost crawling--yikes!

four months

it is seriously hard for me to believe that kieran is already four months old. the last month has been dominated by change--i feel like we almost have a whole new baby every day. and lord, it's fun seeing him learn and develop and gain control of himself! he smiles all the time. he loves it when people talk to him. he laughs big deep belly laughs at his father and at me when we play with him. he's already 100% BOY. he's constantly on the move--watching things, trying to figure stuff out. he works at this most of his waking hours.

we had his 4-month doctor's appointment this past tuesday, where we got to get all the stats and brag about all his physical prowess. we answered what felt like 1000 questions, and we got a green light to start feeding him solid foods. he's doing great--doing all the things a baby his age should be doing, chubbing up properly, and generally thriving. things i mostly knew, but it's still reassuring to get the official word on it. what's not fun are the shots. they made him tired and feverish and cranky, not like our happy little man at all. and man--that's so hard to watch when there's nothing you can do for him. it makes me feel so helpless, as i know all parents do when their little ones are feeling so hot. glad it's over for a couple of months.

anyway--new this month are: deep belly laughing (he almost cackles with glee), "walking" with some help, rolling from front to back and subsequently across the room, opening his fists and exploring objects with his fingers spread wide (spirit fingers!), responding to speech with sounds of his own--he's been making sounds for a long time, but this month, they have become both responsive and more directed--i say something, he says something back, etc., tracking our food with his eyes and trying to get it with his hands--the kid is definitely ready to eat! putting his feet in his mouth, adding some consonants to those long strings of vowels.

he new dislikes: not being able to get to something he wants quickly enough, getting stuck by the arms of his playmat or the legs of the coffee table

new likes: the exersaucer!!! the crinkly wings of his bug toy (or anything else crinkly), putting anything and everything in his mouth, being picked up by his hands and feet (we only do this over the pillowtop mattress on our bed), playing with daddy is his FAVORITE right now!

visitors from out of town this month: aunt meredith, uncle jeff

right now, he's just so much fun to watch. don't get me wrong--i love playing with him, and so do the hippie and jennifer. but he's just fun to see figuring things out. often in the evening, i put him in the exersaucer, and just sit on the floor beside him while he spins the little barrel of beads, pulls on the animals attached to the exersaucer, and crinkles the wings of his bug. he looks SO serious figuring it all out, and then when he notices you looking at him, the brightest, most heart-melting smile breaks across his face. so awesome. :)

as usual, current pictures are here. the one above is a bit blurry i know, but i love the look of glee on his face. :)

roly poly

yesterday morning i laid the critter down on his play mat and went into the kitchen to make tea and grab some cereal so i could have my breakfast while he had his. i came back to find him half way across the room, tangled in the legs of the coffee table and fussing to be set free. he may not be crawling, but he's surely on the move! time to babyproof...

on motherhood

i am still getting used to the idea that i am someone's mother. there are days when i can't believe it. there are other days when it's all i want to be. there are days when i am silently missing having time for myself. it's more of a roller coaster than anything i have ever experienced in my whole life. and i knew it would be. but after these first few months, here is what stands out to me about it all. in summary...

1) nothing anyone tells you will prepare you to be a mother. also. you have your own opinions on how it should be done, and they will not agree 100% with anyone else's opinions about it. people are glad to tell you what THEY think, but in the end, you will do what you know in your gut is the right thing for you and for your family. and you silently wish for everyone to shut up. and sometimes you feel judged. but then your kid smiles at you and at everyone else, and you feel proud, and you think--i'm not sucking so bad at this.

2) i have never been so close to panic so often as i have the past four months. i am afraid for kieran every minute of every day that i let myself be. at least once every night, i have to mentally tamp down the panic attack that threatens to totally obliterate me. what if i suck? what if he dies in his sleep? what if he chokes? what if he wrecks a car or drives drunk or is the target of an attack or a serial killer or a disease? it's a whirling mass of fear that i carry in my gut with me now. i am sure i will have this until the day i die. most of the time i can wrangle that mess onto the back burner, but some days...whew...

3) breastfeeding is a full time job for two months. anyone who tells you otherwise hasn't done it. it sucks and it's all consuming and you are nailed down under that baby for what feels like every minute of every hour of every day. but it's so sweet and awesome, too. after those first two months, it gets a boatload easier, but it's still hard sometimes, especially when you have to work. there is a special place in hell for the inventor of the breast pump to which i hook myself three times a day. i feel like a cow, and i hate it, but i keep it up because i want the precious milk for my baby. that stuff is liquid gold, especially when you are a shitty producer like i am.

4) being a mother who works outside the home sucks. i am envious of mothers who get to be at home with their children. i am envious of my nanny for getting so many of the good hours with the critter. i would give anything for his care to be MY care, even though i know he's getting awesome care from her, too. i miss him. and i want to make a good home for him, which feels almost impossible to do from the office chair. the worst days are the slow ones when i don't have enough to do--that just makes me feel like i am wasting my time. speaking of...

5) what i lack is time. time with the baby, time with the hippie, time to clean the house, time to plant a bush in the yard, time to paint my toenails, time to read, time to knit, time to organize ANYTHING, or put together the stuff i bought at ikea a month ago or finish any of the 1000 half-done projects i have all over the house. i know that this will get better, but sometimes it wears very thin. and i know everyone goes through this same thing. i can't seem to find a balance between being a good mother, a good partner, and a whole woman unto myself--i KNOW all three are important. i am working on this, and i think i will be working on it for along time to come. i need a new "normal." and i'm just not quite there yet.

and yet...

all of that--and more than that--all of the things that threaten to crush and overwhelm...and yet...it's just amazing. there are no words sufficient to the task of describing what it's like to wake up with this little creature by my side. to watch him developing and learning and soaking up this huge new world he's in. there are no words for the love you feel or the gladness with which you shoulder the responsibility for him. there are no words for the joy his laugh can bring. and the fact that he looks to me with utter trust for his love and support and care--well, that's overwhelming, too. i feel like every cliche. he is worth it all.

beer from god

THK and i packed up the kid and went to tyler's last night, and this is a picture of the lovely beer i had there. the beer's from the folks at unibroue, a gorgeous strong red ale called maudite. the picture's from my brand new iPhone, and i think it came out pretty damned well for a phone pic. yay for a new toy!

a post with no pictures...

...in which i will tell you that i am knitting, and LOVING knitting, and not having time to take pictures of the knitting. BUT. this is marathon knitting. i have a deadline. and the knitting is a surprise for someone who MAY read this blog, so i can't go showing it off yet. i'll throw some pictures onto ravelry as soon as there's something to actually show--right now i have a long, pink strip, so it's not that interesting anyway. what's awesome though is that i am knitting!!! lord, how i've missed it...

dragonfly

this guy was sitting on my car antenna, perfectly aligned with my car. he looks a bit creepy in macro, but man--i LOVE his wings. click on the picture to see him in greater detail--he's best viewed large.

three months

last thursday, kieran turned three months old. time is totally flying over here, and i swear, he gets more fun every single day. he's met all his grandparents but one, and they all love him. he's a hit at parties, and enjoys spending his weekdays in the company of his wonderful nanny, jennifer. he sleeps between 8 and 9 hours at night pretty consistenly with 3 or 4 naps during the day. very predictable. mostly. (of course, now that i said that, he's going to stay up all night tonight!) he smiles at everyone and is friendly and engaging. he babbles and coos and "talks" to us all the time. he cries when he's hungry or tired or needs a hug or a change of scene. otherwise, he's happy all the time.

the critter's physical development is a little scary. he has kind of unreal upper body strength for a three-month-old baby. he can pull himself slowly across the floor toward a thing he wants to get. he's able to roll over from front to back at will, and then he gets stuck on his back like a little turtle. he's THIS CLOSE to rolling back, but he still doesn't quite get that he need to tuck his little arm in to roll over. and boy--does it make him MAD! he likes to be UP and SEE and LOOK at everything! twice now, he's gone from being kind of propped into a sitting position to sitting on his own with his hands on the floor in front of him. he likes to "stand", putting most of his weight on his feet and holding onto our fingers. i fear the kid's going to be walking by 8 months. SCARY!

mostly i just can't believe how lucky we are. i pray every day this luck holds out and that he keeps on trucking in such a great fashion. he's really an awesome baby, if i do say so myself. :)

no, i am not biased at all...why do you ask?

kieran likes: looking at the cats, grabbing soft things and putting them in his mouth, shaking rattles, eating!, his daddy's voice, snuggling into my neck, music, mirrors, reading books with me (he stares at the words and tries to turn pages), bathtime

kieran dislikes: when i am not quick enough at latching him on, being tired, not being able to get to a toy he wants, being in a dirty diaper, wearing socks

we call him: the baby, kieran grey, the critter (when speaking about him), critter critter (when speaking to him), that handsome devil, the kraken, little man, buddy (his daddy calls him that)

tea merchant 101

while we were in pennsylvania last week, we went to a lovely tea shop in duncansville called tea merchant 101. from what i gather, the owner, joseph doyle mixes his own teas and does this mainly as a hobby. he teaches classes on tea, the history of tea, etc. thus the name, tea 101. i can't say enough about how wonderful the shop was. it was small enought o feel intimate, but large enough to hold 101 varieties of tea. there was a good mix of white, black, and green teas as well as rooibos and herbal blends. he had the biggest selection of beehouse teapots i have ever seen, and plenty of other accoutrements as well--honey, jams, tea pots, bags for loose teas, etc. all beautifully presented and obviously selected with care. the owner was friendly and helpful and delighted to see us. the hippie and i went a bit nuts and bought a gajillion types of tea, as well as a tea pot.

while we were there, a huge storm rolled in right as the baby decided it was time to eat, so we stayed for a cup of tea and possibly the best coconut macarron i have ever had. the hippie had a lovely scone, and his mom had a fabulous little snickerdoodle. we all tried different teas so that we could taste them all. the service, tea, and food was all just great.

the whole experience was delicious--there were only two small details i would change if i could. 1) i firmly believe that a tea shop or any place that serves tea should have milk. little plastic things of half-n-half just don't cut it for me. and 2) i would like some type of cream and jam with my scone rather than just honey. for the full experience, i really think you need some devon double or clotted cream.

bottom line though--this place is a wonderful hidden treasure! if you are ever in the area, i would HIGHLY recommend stopping in for a stress relieving visit and a wonderful, fragrant cup of tea! also, joe will ship tea anywhere, and if you are a fan, i recommend both his english and scottish breakfast blends--some of the best i have ever had.

some other reviews at teamap.com.
more pictures here.

sage

as expected, given murphy's law, etc., my friend amy had her baby pretty much the minute we left town last week. she and her husband, kelly, are the proud parents of a cute, healthy baby boy, william sage. don't you just wanna eat these cheeks?

here's a full body shot in case one look at him isn't enough. :)

roadtrippin' with the critter

here's some cuteness to start off with, and then i'll tell y'all about our trip. expect this post to be peppered with random pictures of the cute that may or may not have anything to do with what i'm talking about. :)

so--we went on vacation last week, a big road trip north to see family and friends and just hang out. the critter did WAY better than we thought he would with all the car time. i think the key was to have low expectations, not try to adhere to a schedule, and to be willing to stop when he needed to. the kid's got some kind of cracker barrel radar--i swear every time he started to fuss in the car, we were right next to a cracker barrel. HIGHLY recommend stopping there with little kids on the road--they are super kid friendly, have clean bathrooms, and are reasonably quick. plus--hello? bacon!!! just sayin'...

we stopped at our friends ralph and mary's for the weekend and just hung out--very low key and pleasant. they are just easy to be with. they had a fit over the critter, fed us delicious things, and took supremely good care of us. they are the kinds of friends who make you feel more like welcome family than guests in their house. love that. they loved kieran, of course, and he got lots and lots of good attention from them. i think it made them miss having a baby in the house--their youngest is 9 years old.

after the weekend, we made our way to the farm up in pennsylvania where the hippie's family lives. we tried to take more advantage of the area this time around. i keep thinking about eating more local foods and less things shipped from half way around the world, and it was really cool to be in farm country where the local foods are plentiful and readily available. we went to a local butcher shop that gets its meat from the cattle and hog farms in the area; we bought steaks, bacon, and chicken salad. the bacon was some of the best i have ever had--so good that we brought a bunch home--and the steaks were delicious as well, grilled up with just a little sea salt and pepper. the only difficulty was in getting them to cut the steaks thick enough for us--the woman at the counter looked at me like i was insane when i asked for inch and a half thick steaks. we also spent some time rumaging around in a crazy antique store that seemed to go on forever and was filled to the brim with all manner of Thing, everything from wrought iron gates to garden statuary to books to milk bottles to doll houses to marble topped wash basins to silver spoons. and more... we bought four books, including a french-english phrase book from WWII that was issued to american soldiers going to france (it has phrases in it like, "run for your life!" and "my leg is injured, and i will need stitches."), and two lovely silver serving spoons for ten bucks. ten bucks!!! if we had had the hippie's truck, we would have come home with a lot more... we also stopped in at this lovely little tea shop that was such a fabulous experience for me that it will get its own post later.

in addition to exploring the area, we spent a fair amount of time just chilling on the farm. i picked blueberries every day for breakfast, even when it was pouring rain. i petted little kittens and played with the dog. i walked up and down the lane with the baby in his sun hat. sadly, i didn't take many scenic pictures this time like i did last summer--i just kept snapping pics of the baby!

the hippie and i also took an evening to go visit his friends from college, clay and heather. clay has been to our house many times, but this was the first time i had met heather and their beautiful daughter, carlee. oh, and dora, the bassett hound--such a cute puppy--she licked the baby's whole face in about 3 nanoseconds. you should have seen his expression! heather and clay are about to have their second baby (next monday!), so we didn't stay too late, but it will still awesome to see them. heather is definitely My People, and if she lived closer, you can bet she would be getting added to my sunday, come-over-and-do-your-thing thing we've got going on.

on the way back, we stopped back in at ralph and mary's for one night, which turned out to be filled with people and drinking and the lovely chaos of a house full of boys (plus one girl)--so fun to watch! they were up and down the stairs, playing 20 games at once, lighting things on fire (literally), and just having a good time. it was like looking into kieran's future or something. i really can't wait till he's big enough to rage around with the big boys. as a thanks for being our hotel on this trip, i brought mary a bunch of stuff from the farm: blueberries, milk, bacon... i think her son had a religious experience over the whole fat, straight-from-the-cow milk. it really is pretty awesome!

last, but not least, the critter had his first trip to ikea on the last day of travel. he loved it, of course. or maybe that was me, and i'm just projecting onto the kid. either way--he did great, and we acquired many kid-related items for him as well as many storage related items for us. i really do love that place. swedish meatballs for lunch, shopping, and a nice, relaxing place to breastfeed the baby before getting back on the road. they have an awesome baby care room, which has chairs and pillows for breastfeeding as well as a changing table, a sink, free diapers, and toys for any older kids you have to play with. it was even nicely decorated and had a mobile hanging over the changing table. figures that this kind of attention to detail is found in the US only in a store based out of another country. that's a rant i'll save for another time, lest i digress... i heart ikea.

anyway, the trip was good--better than expected with that baby on the road. still, i am also glad to be home. now if i could just get caught up!

ps--updated critter pics in the set if you click here, and more to come...

brother, sister, sorta

we are really lucky to have some fabulous childcare. my friend jennifer has been a nanny for years, and has a wonderful way with children. her own child started kindergarten a couple of weeks ago, just as i was coming back to work. perfect timing for jenn to take on a new baby. serendipitous, if you will... and the baby so far has been easy with this transition--happy and healthy. he will sleep anywhere and eat anything you put in his mouth. he's laid back and awesome. and his peace of mind with jenn makes it SO much easier for me to come to work in the morning, let me tell you! i know she will treat him like her own baby, and i trust her completely.

what's interesting about our arrangement is that it's providing the critter with a surrogate big sister, jennifer's daughter, gabriella. i suspect that their relationship will be long and sibling-like, which is fine by me. i love that, whether we choose to have another baby or not, kieran is in a position to take advantage of our chosen extended family. and this will be good for G as well. she's adorable with him, and has been from day one. she held him in the hospital before he even came home. and once home, she asked a thousand questions about him every time she saw him. she strokes his head and plays with him and makes him smile. she loves him to death and is possessive of him when other children are around, but she also wants him to go home at the end of the day and give her mama back to HER. she asks those questions that a big sister asks--do you still love me as much as that baby? jenn was telling me that G came home from school the other day to find the critter napping in HER room--a clear territory violation. she finally decided that this arrangement was ok as long as jenn promised never to change a poopy diaper in her room. i am still laughing about this. but how cool is this--it's like jenn and i are sharing our family with each other. our baby is surrounded by people who love him, and so is gabriella. it's cliche at this point to say that it takes a village to raise a child, but man--our village rocks.