We’ve been home for a few months now and it’s been a nearly seamless transition to life in the US. It may have been a different story if we didn’t have our house to come home to, full of furniture and belongings we left behind. The 3.25 years we spent abroad seems as if it were a bubble in our time line and we’ve slotted right back into place. Only now as a tiny family.
I find I have days where I don’t even open up my laptop. I’m not disconnected in any way, I have my trusty iPhone on me always. My online time allocated to nap times when I’m not joining in on the napping. Jana is not a sleeper, so I take advantage of those moments when I can steal a few winks for myself. This also has meant the majority of photos I’ve been taking and posting are camera phone shots. It’s easy, I have the phone on me always and I can instantly upload the photo or video on the spot. I do now wish for a point and shoot camera that I can instantly upload from, just so the photos are of a better quality than the generally grainy phone shots.
We’re still not fully settled in since our belongings were delivered at the end of April. We have a bottleneck for storage in our house. It’s on the long list of projects Mark is working on during this “sabbatical” from working. Once the workshop is finished, he has a kitchen to build, crib to fabricate, a dresser to finish, an attic to transform into a walk in closet (access from our room) and eventually a Lake House to build. What is to be Jana’s room is still full of boxes and an extra two beds. Our office is an impromtu clothes closet. It will be nice to have a place for everything and everything in its place when all is said and done.
Here’s where this turn’s into a “Mommy Blog” where I go on and on about this tiny being that has consumed my time and who I clad in all manner of insect related baby clothes (pictured above, a 6.5 month old Jana who has two teeth and has been sitting up on her own for a month now). As you might have inferred from above, Jana is sleeping in our room in a co-sleeper/bassinet next to my side of the bed. Her clothes are taking up half of my dresser and the top of which is her changing table. Mark has a design in mind for the crib, which she will be needing soon, being in the 90th percentile for length, she is outgrowing her current bed. My dad started the work on the dresser that will be Jana’s. It was my dresser when I was little and it belonged to my great grandmother. Under the layers of paint, my dad discovered a gorgeous mahogany piece of furniture. It will get a treatment to highlight it’s lovely qualities.
Jana continues to delight. I’ve been cooking up a storm for her as she’s started in on solids. As people who love to cook and eat, Jana will not have a bland palate from the start. Everything is new and exciting. Her first solid was an avocado. She loves her pears with ginger, her apples with cinnamon, cherries with yogurt, mangoes, blueberries; her peas with zucchini and leeks. She likes leeks in her other veggies to which I add to make them a little more savory and flavorful. I made a carrot, sweet potato, chicken curry for her (steamed carrots, sweet potato, chicken, onion and garlic, added cinnamon, ginger, coriander and cumin) which she devours (served with barley cereal and prunes on the side it’s more like a tagine and super tasty!) Today was batch of butternut squash, turkey, garlic and sage that she ate with gusto and ate a lot! I also cooked up a carrot, beef, onion, garlic and tarragon dinner which is frozen in six portions in tiny cups to try in the coming days. My freezer is full of these mini portions of fruits, veg and dinners.
I can’t say enough good things about gDiapers, both the disposable inserts and the cloth. We’ve been cloth diapering at home which complements our EC’ing efforts nicely. We go weeks without having to deal with a dirty diaper, as Jana is very good about communicating her need to use the toilet (we started this at six weeks). The EC’ing has been so easy to do, no complaints here.
Now we just need to get this baby to sleep more consistently. I’m going on well over seven months of broken sleep (I did not sleep well in the last few months of pregnancy). This has me in a “zombie mom” sleep deprived state at times. I would love to have more than 2.5 hours of sleep at a time. I feel like Robert Duval in “Apocalypse Now” where adds, “Some day, this war’s gonna end,” in the middle of some unimaginable scene. As I hallucinate in a half awake dream state that Mark can share some hilarious dialogue from if I don’t get around to posting about it, I add, “Some day, this baby’s gonna sleep.”
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I have spent a year with you in my arms, your soft breath in my ear. Where others complain their little ones no longer want to cuddle, I have relished every second that you and I have snuggled. You have been in my arms for just about every single one of your naps (with exception of the naps you have spent in your father’s arms). I was sad when you grew to be too big for the co-sleeper bassinet, I missed looking over and having you at arm’s reach. Now, I have no regrets that you sleep in our bed every night, even though you do take up much of the bed.
