Adventures in Being Myself

It has happened AGAIN. For the third time in as many years, a child in our community has died at the hands of a parent - the person who is supposed to love them the best, the person every child blindly trusts and loves, the person charged with protecting them. In 2006, it was Michelle Fontanez, a 13-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted and strangled by her stepfather. The Florida Department of Children and Families admitted it "failed" Michelle by not monitoring the family, despite repeated reports of abuse. A shake-up at the agency accomplished nothing but damage control and a vow that not another child would be harmed. Then, just last spring, a beautiful, beaming, 3-year-old little boy named Zahid Jones was brutally beaten to death by his mother's boyfriend. Like most people in our community, I couldn't read the newspaper accounts without crying. Zahid was the same age as my oldest nephew, and he was so little, and his mother's boyfriend was so big and so an...

About one year into our blissful togetherness, Peegie and I agreed that we would make our Valentine's Day gifts to each other. Peegie is extremely creative . Over the last eight years, I have received Chippendale's calendars customized with pictures of Peegie's face juxtaposed onto the dancers' bodies; Peegie Picnics; a hand-drawn hieroglyphic that says "Peegie and Paige, Best Friends Forever;" and many other equally imaginative and thoughtful gifts. Peegie is also a planner , which means that major holidays never sneak up on him. Even Valentine's Day, with the whole "let's make the gifts" thing. He is always prepared, and always knocks my socks off with a handmade gift that tops the gift from the year before. I am neither creative, nor a planner. Despite the fact that Valentine's Day happens every year on February 14, somehow I always end up in a panic on February 13, no handmade gift and, even worse, no good ideas. Clearly, Peegie is ...

Dear Zane, First we had each other, then we had you, now we have everything. We love you, sweet baby boy! xxoo, Mama and Pop

Our Sweet Baby Zane is back (finally). As part of his 2-month checkup yesterday, he was stuck in the leg FIVE times. I am totally on board with preventing the reemergence of epidemic diseases that are totally preventable, but, yesterday afternoon, I questioned our decision to vaccinate our sweet, angelic baby boy. The poor heart was so out of sorts, and the worst part was he had no idea WHY he was so upset. He looked so pitiful, it was heartbreaking. Peegie and I, of course, knew why he was fussy and crying, so we were reduced to spoiling him with lots of naptime, lots of holding, lots of sleeping on our chests and lots of soft crooning of blessings into his sweet little ears. It worked. He nursed very well last night at bedtime, and he slept very well. When we awakened at 6:30AM, Baby Z was all smiles and sweetness again. Score one for the benefits of attachment parenting.

Having an 8-week-old baby in the house means that Peegie and I experience the 5:00AM hour quite frequently. Like most people, neither Peegie nor I find much humor in the 5:00AM hour. All of that changed this morning. We have established a pretty good nursing/sleeping routine for Zane: nurse at 10:00PM/11:00PM, burp, swaddle, comfort, kiss repeatedly, down to sleep until 4:00AM/5:00AM. When Zane awakens to nurse, Peegie gets up with him to change his diaper and brings him to me to nurse. This morning, as they came back into the bedroom, Peegie was laughing convulsively. At 5:00AM. Zane loves to be swaddled. He is a snuggler and will immediately settle into sleep when swaddled. Apparently, he also loves to stretch . Hence the convulsive laughter at 5:00AM this morning. As Peegie began unwrapping Zane to change his diaper, Zane began stretching and groaning (the type of groan that generally accompanies a good stretch...) The groaning and stretching continued in perfect harmony as Peegie ...

(Author's note: this post duplicates a post at Worst Mama Ever) Today is a big day in our household. Zane had his 2-month checkup this morning and, although we haven't broken him and he's still breathing, I thought FOR SURE we'd be admonished for something... something ...about how we are managing our baby. After all, we are first-timers, with a one-percenter , and we don't even know what we don't know. Alas, he is "perfect." At two months, Baby Zane weighs 10 lbs. 6 oz., is 22-3/4 inches long and his head is 40 cm in circumference. Apparently we are doing not just a good job, but a "fantastic" job growing our little human. He is happy (smiling, cooing, "giggling" with his whole body), healthy (nursing 7 times a day, sleeping well) and beautiful (baby acne is gone, and he's got the adorably fat buddha belly). As Peegie said this afternoon, "parenthood...who knew?"

Peegie and I are having so much fun with our little buddy! EVERYONE warned us that he would grow faster than we can blink, but we really had no idea just HOW FAST "fast" really is...we can hardly believe he will be eight weeks old tomorrow! Our days are filled with smiles and coos, and our nights are filled with sweet baby sleep sounds and (usually) seven total hours of sleep. Here are two photos from the last week: Bathtime with Pop. Zane adores his Pops, and Peegie adores his little buddy. We are THRILLED that he seems to be a water baby! To be fair, we are extremely proud (and biased...) parents; but, have you ever seen a more beautiful child?? We are just smitten with our sweet baby Zane!