Tuesday, November 30, 2010

guilty as charged

Are kids eating too many snacks?

In our case, the answer is yes. Yes, my kid eats too many crackers. Yes, I comfort myself that at least they're whole-grain. He loves pretzels too. This is the kid who will literally eat salt straight out of the shaker.

Thankfully given the genetics I'm not worried about him being obese. It's more that we're always happy when we can get him to eat.

Read the article here.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

all dressed up

I officially adore this outfit, which Emry wore to his first big public outing, a wedding reception in Petaluma.


Onesie is Five Little Monkeys bought used, pants are speeses, and booties are handmade from Bolivia.



Real men wear dragons.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

post partum

Let's get real about the post-partum body, shall we? We don't all look like this:

Jessica Alba, 3 months post-partum

Or even better, like this:

Rebecca Romijn, 6 weeks post-partum after TWINS

In fact, very many of us new moms - I would guess the majority - look more like this:

me, 2 weeks post-partum

I remember after Elan was born I was a bit shocked by the belly that remained. The same shape as what it had been, just shrunken down, empty and slack. The skin was soft and brown, and I completely identified with how Anne Lamott described her belly three weeks after her son was born in Operating Instructions:
"Oh, but my stomach, she is like a waterbed covered with flannel now. When I lie on my side in bed, my stomach lies politely beside me, like a puppy."
This time I was prepared for my puppy-belly, and grateful to discover that, despite the tremendous growth at the end of my pregnancy, the stretch marks below my belly button were fairly minimal and already a worn-out silvery color.


This time, I am a proud of my post-baby belly. After all, I grew an entire complete human being in there, and it wasn't an easy job. I didn't even mind much when a saleswoman at lululemon thought I was pregnant and advised me to buy a size up because "you're just going to grow bigger." I laughed, and pointed to my one-week-old asleep in his stroller beside me. "Actually, I'm pretty sure I'm only going to get smaller," I said.

4 weeks post-partum

Day by day, Emry grows bigger and rollier, and my belly shrinks down little by little. It is a visible symbol of our separation into distinct people, as well as a reminder to myself that it hasn't been very long since I gave birth, and I still need to take it easy.

I'm pretty sure that celebrities walking the red carpet a few weeks post-partum have stretch marks too, and they're likely wearing some major structural support garments to squeeze that belly into a designer dress. It's a silly ideal to hold up for women - how fast can you lose the baby weight; how fast can you "have your body back"? Not to mention potentially a destructive ideal: Jessica Alba's trainer said she exercised for one hour a day, 5-6 hours a day, and stuck to a 1700-calorie-a-day diet in order to lose the baby weight fast. It's hard to imagine that many women could keep up their milk supply to nurse with that kind of strain on their body. Of course, it is a celebrity's job to look good, and they have the resources (trainers, nannies) to make it happen. I'm certainly not against feeling good, looking good, and being active. I'm just against setting unreasonable standards for women in the already-delicate post-partum period.

And besides, as my midwife pointed out, the post-baby belly makes a perfect nursing shelf. As I snug Emry in between his old home and his new favorite place, I think eventually I will "get my body back" and then how I will miss this.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

rainbow bat & his trusty companion

I realized Halloween has come and gone and I never posted pictures. So here they are.

Elan was a rainbow bat.

Mikhail's mom Karen made the bat wings. Aren't they awesome?

He and I came up with the rainbow bat costume idea in the car one day. I asked him what he wanted to be for Halloween, and he said "a bat." We riffed for a while about possible bat colors, and eventually landed on "rainbow."

I didn't think the idea would stick, but it did.

Meanwhile, Emry was world's cutest peepod.

And later, when the trick-or-treaters arrived at our house, this is what they saw through our glass door. (Check out the Converse booties my neighbor knit for him!)


Don't worry -- we didn't let him hog all the candy.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

totally in love

We are doing great here with the newborn nursing, sleeping and pooping regime. Even the sleeping part? Well, we are tired, but expectations are low so that so far, no complaints. And when I'm asleep, I'm sleeping better than I did for the last month of pregnancy.

We've had lots of wonderful helping hands around too, so that makes everything feel easier. Despite the fact that Elan still gets up before dawn, and Mikhail is still working at least part-time (no paternity leave or vacation time when you're doing contract work), I actually feel like there is a definite baby-moon vibe around the house, as there was when Elan was born, and that makes me so happy.

Emry spends a lot of time looking like this.

Scrunchy monkey.

I held you in my heart for so long, and now you're finally here in my arms.

Thanks to Kristina for the lovely photos.