Less than Twelve Parsecs

We spent the last day of 2019 sledding down Snowmans Hill Summit   at Mt. Shasta. Fae was a sweet heart and came along and napped the entire time, trying to grow into her giant outfit: Happy New Year everyone!!! Here's some more glimpses of our day: Mara and her tiny but well proportioned snow man: Gorgeously tall trees all around, compared to Greg and the kids: Boys going down the hill: Mara on her own: And the beautiful human-size nutcracker at our resort - photo taken by Mara:

There's nothing sweeter that a sleeping baby in your arms. That gentle warmth that builds up between your body and theirs. How she sprawls her body onto yours in a feeling of complete abandon, going utterly limp, arms akimbo.  She gives you the gift of half a giggle in her sleep - not a full one, mind you, because her dream has already moved onto a dreamier land. And you smile and try to imagine: what would a baby really dream of? And you dream along with her... In those moments you realize that she trusts you completely, to care for her and protect her into eternity. And you realize you will, with all your power and for as long as you possibly can. I guess that's why they call it Baby Bonding .

2-weeks-old infants are good at three things: eating, filling up diapers, and sleeping a ton. If you're lucky, that is. Most are overqualified in some department and not the others. Fae is pretty solid at all three, if you count 2-4hr stretches as good sleep. I do, given Mara woke up every hour for her first year of life. But the one thing she truly excels at is eating. Well, nursing. She's a total champ at this and takes significant pride in her skill, to the extent that she'll show you her moves anytime. And we do mean anytime... Pick her up? Fists in mouth, right away. Diaper change? Grunt and chomp on fingers! Try to burp her? She grabs your thumb and sucks on it with all her fluttering-tongue tricks.  She'll even do it from a distance! After a looooong and thoroughly sweet diaper change (Greg turns every single one into a story-telling special time), Fae will gauge Mommy-distance either by smell or hearing and project a sharp, loud "Aaah!...

Fae has started sleeping better! 4-5 hour stretches at night, for the past three nights. The first night I thought it a happy fluke. On the second, my body got excited about going out of sleep depravation and tried to get in a bunch of REM episodes, but I kept getting woken up. Each time, I would check the baby but it hadn't been her, so I'd groggily lie back down, yet it would happen again, and again. By 6am I see the door slightly moving and realize it had been Greg all along waking me, not Fae. I go out to find him dejectedly lying down in the shower, having gone through an extremely tough episode of food poisoning :-(. We let him recover yesterday - he needed it badly. And it gave me the opportunity for some quality time with all three kids! The third night - last night - Fae stayed true to plan: 5 hours, then two 3 hour sleep cycles! Jackpot - I got sleep too!  I woke up with Gaius running in the bedroom at 7:30am to tell me that "my chocolates were ...

As per past tradition - look at the  First Month with Two Kids  - the blog post today presents the Merit Awards in recognition of us making it through these past 30 days. The awards range in a large spectrum between hard work and extreme cuteness. The full cast of the show is here: Gaius, Elena, Fae, Greg, Mara and Tammy ! Grandpa Gene makes a special appearance in the latter part of the month. Welcome home, Baby Fae! Here are the first moments at home from the hospital, on Fae's 3rd day of life. We celebrated with our special favorite cake: Whole Foods Chocolate Cake with Cream Cheese frosting. Fae, here's your new family, the older 50% very tired, the younger 50% extremely excited! And indeed, they were so excited to welcome Fae into the family! Though the adventurers were quite wary and shy in the very first moments they met her, at the hospital. The "Not On The First Date" Award goes to Gaius. The first time he saw Fae, on ...