Less than Twelve Parsecs

Fae's name is Fae.  Yes she goes by many endearment names, depending how awfully cute she is in each occasion.  I'll list the ones most commonly heard, for future amusement: Fae-Fae Foof Foofy Fooferz FoofyPants and PoofyPants  Bebelutz Except when you ask her "Who did this?" while pointing at some recent happening in our house. Then, she will boldly claim any other identity: Who spilled this water?   [Fae]  Daddy! Who scattered all the Cheerios?  [Fae]  Grandma! Wow, this is a huge diaper, Fae! Who peed in this diaper?   [Fae]  Mommy!  [me] Really? Noo, Mommy didn't do that. Who peed in your diaper Fae? [Fae does some more pondering, seeing the questioning look on my face] ...  Mara!  [me] Oh,   I'm not sure about that, Fae... Who did it? [Fae, but this time clearly tentative] Ga-guy?? Surprisingly, there is no confusion at all when it comes to:   Who needs some chocolate?  [Fae]  Fae-Fae!   ...

Well, Fae just took five steps this evening. Full-on steps, no question about it, each little one with a slight hesitation but then pushing confidently forward. They weren't big; she advanced just about a foot forward overall, but that was a huge leap forward in her life and that's what matters. The motivation? She did it because she needed - definitely, absolutely needed - to grab Gaius's enticing Outfoxed board game . Because it had four "choking hazard" pieces on it and thus it was essential for her to get at them and bat her little hands all over the board. Anyway, this is big. She turned nine months of age only a week ago. If you know your baby milestones, this is quite the earliest end of the spectrum - walking is more like a twelve months thing. Mara and Gaius were both right on the curve: walking when they turned one year old. Fae is doing her own thing though. Greg keeps joking that he's gonna Call the Baby Police on her and ask them to pull her over ...

It's a bit unnerving to get out of the house for a walk during enforced social distancing when you have young kids (4-6) who are crazy energetic but forgetful and would not easily tolerate face masks. How do you keep them away from passersby without constant nagging? Today, we had a brilliant approach: short-leash kite flying! What you need: - small kite, 5-6ft long handle-to-tail (see bottom of post) - windy day - kids. It worked out wonderfully, every person instinctively gave us a wide berth, trying to avoid a fluttering kite tail in their face. The kids had a natural constant reminder to stay away from others - they don't want their kite all tangled up! Plus I've had the most fun with kites as I've had in years - thank you,  Aeolus ! Here I am with Fae, we were flying the story kite for the first part of the walk, until Gaius's original kite got its wing broken and we swapped with him: The kites are geniusly simple, from a Kiwi Crate we ha...

If you'd ask me, I'd say we pretty much know what we're doing. Greg and I pondered for over a year about this decision of having a third child. We took it very seriously, and got full consensus agreement within the family (us and the two kids) on whether this is the right thing to do. The cat didn't get a vote. A year later, I can thoroughly say it was indeed the right decision: our family feels complete and happy and wonderful! Thank you, Fae for making it so! The wiggles and giggles and smiles and adventures are all upon us, from morning till night. At 7am, whichever combination of two-out-of-three kids is awake first, they're together smiling and holding hands. Usually one is pulling another's hair, or trying to munch on their thumbs. Yesterday I returned from the restroom to find the children victoriously showing me Fae's sleep sack, that they had just taken off of her all by themselves! Gaius made a specia...

Three months of a new human life in our midst, and not a single morning passed without us hearing these sweet, sweet words: Mara : I want to see Fae-Fae! Genuine, heart-felt, unquestionable desire to just stare at each other smilingly holding hands.  Or explore the world above together. I thought it would fade after the first few months, as novelty often does. But there's no sign of that! As soon as her eyelids crack open in the morning, Mara's very first thought is of Fae. She'd rather be late for school, miss her breakfast, or any other morning mishap, but she absolutely needs to see Fae Fae.  And that carries on through the day, at school pickup, at home, before dinner, at bedtime. And Fae loves it. She basks in Mara's smiles, with her pretty blue eyes wide open, as if to share as much of her soul as she can. <3 But really, I'm not exaggerating. Every. Single. D...

We're in the car, trying to go to our friend's bday party. Gaius and Mara went ahead with Greg, Fae stayed behind with me to get her tummy full and happiness up.  After a good feed there's nothing better than sitting in Mommy's lap, getting ready for a healthy burp. She's quiet and happy and with that genuinely full-of-milk face, eyes half closed, shoulders slumping to rest this little giant head onto Mommy's hand. The sun is setting on our left and the light is so intense that I face her carefully the other way. Do babies even know not to look straight at the sun? I won't chance it.. It takes about 10 seconds till all of a sudden her eyes get big:  Oh My God, it's full of trees! I can't take enough of the surprised look on her face, this is the first time she sees giant pine trees at sunset, against a bright clear blue sky. So I sit and stare at this baby, who is staring at trees. Just basking in it, because of this feeling that it just ...

This morning Fae had some special quiet one-on-one time with Mommy and Daddy. Why? It just happened naturally, she looked awfully cute and sweet after morning nursing, so we just cooed at each other for a long time until Daddy walked in on us. He said: Honey, we need to pack . and naturally lied down in my place to coo with Fae instead, while I got up and started packing. Several minutes later Mara and Gaius excitedly walked into the bedroom of the chalet because they wanted to see Fae. She scrunched her face into a little frown, and started to prepare to almost cry. I say that so awkwardly, because it was how it happened, she never really got to do the actually crying, just that preparation to fuss and get upset. Greg changed her position and she relented. Or maybe she saw Mara's bright smile and was ok. After packing everything up and finally starting to drive to catch her early nap for the ride back, or friends texted us to say Happy Monthiversary to Fae! we had sillily forgotte...

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 ...