Gobble, gobble!

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend. We gleefully celebrated the fact that we didn't have to travel and still got to be with family! We double-dipped on Turkey Day and spent the afternoon with the McKee & Whitaker families out in Somerville and the evening with the Marsh & Anderson families in Lakeland. We ate too much of everything, played a little football, pet a horse, played card games, enjoyed good conversation, and actually did a little relaxing, too. The McKees sang Happy Birthday to Molly and we shared a big ol' cookie cake (her request--with pink ballet shoes on it).

Amelia is still "a little high maintenance," as I like to say, but the crying episodes seem to be shorter--or maybe we're just learning to cope better with them. But she took all the overstimulation of the holiday in stride! She enjoyed meeting the shoulders of aunts, uncles, grandmas, grandpas and cousins. Nana bought her a swing for Christmas, insisting she might be happy enough in it to give us some non-crying time. And, in fact, she was right. Amelia loves it, even if it's just for a short time--20 minutes of a Baby At Peace is awesome! You will see a photo above of her, not crying, and sitting in the swing. Yippee!

Molly had her 6th birthday party on the Saturday after T-Day, at a pizza joint near our house. Eight kids came, ranging from 7 weeks (Amelia) to 6 years old. There were crafts and High School Musical songs, pizza, an ice cream cake & basketball cupcakes. I will post more pictures of that separately, but here's one of the "big girl" guests. We even had some long-distance guests: the Berthiaumes drove from Alabama and the Smiths drove up from Jackson, MS and, of course, Aunt Meredith lives in Thailand and she was there. How lucky are we! I just can't believe she's 6. She even has a loose tooth. But I will post about that later, when I can compose myself. I'm so dern emotional these days, I get teary just thinking about the Tooth Fairy....

Here are some photos from the week before (Amelia's little smile!) and the big weekend. Her brown dress was a gift from Aunt Julie & Uncle James in Chicago, and M & R have been trying to get me to put it on her from Day One. She is now big enough for 3-month clothes, just in time to show it off for Fall!

Colic (kah' lick)--from the Greek word for "pulling my hair out!"

As I write this post, my beautiful, cuddly, sweet little baby is screaming her lungs out for no apparent reason. She has been doing this for the last 2 hours, almost non-stop, except for very brief nursing times. She cries whether I hold her or not. She is clean and full, not hot or cold. I have given her three different types of tummy relaxing drops, one over-the-counter, one herbal and one prescription-strength. I have read The Happiest Baby on the Block and tried to channel that "calming reflex." I have changed my diet to attempt to isolate any potential foods that might be upsetting her. We hold her every which way except upside-down. She continues to cry.

I hate colic. I hate that I can't make my baby feel better. It seems like she is in pain, as she pulls her feet against her, clenches her fists, alternately cries rhythmically and then in screaming desperation. And yet I cannot help her. "Colic," I have learned, is more likely to happen to the children of teenage parents, to premature babies, to stressed-out moms--this all seems highly unfair, since these are the people who are already facing challenges; to add colic is just wrong! I am not a teenager, and Amelia was not a preemie, and I do not feel particularly stressed-out (except when she is colicky!). But colic strikes even the full-term babies and the 30-something, not stressed-out moms. So here we are.

Hateful really. This too shall pass...

Babar Day

The Dixon Gallery features a new exhibit with prints from the book Babar at the Museum. They are beautiful illustrations in which the artist (Laurent de Bruhnhoff, the son of the original author of the Babar the Elephant books) inserts elephants into classical and familiar works of art. The girls love Babar and his wife Celeste, so when I heard the museum was sponsoring "Babar Day" to introduce the exhibit, I knew we were SO THERE! They made elephant ears & construction-paper Babars, they walked in the cake-walk-style "elephant walk," they ate snacks, they colored Babar pages and they actually looked quite intently at the prints in the exhibit. We were somewhat thwarted in this last event by the mobs of people, so I promised we'd return to the museum on a less crowded day. Long Live King Babar!

Amelia: Week Four

Week Four brought First Smile and First Tears, as well as Halloween and a sweet new pair of shoes.

Halloween Happiness

Here they are, in all their glory. Rebecca was Glinda the Good Witch from the Wizard of Oz. Molly fulfilled her every wish by becoming a "ballerina unicorn." (What made it a ballerina, you may ask. The pinkness, of course.) And our newest beauty was a pea-in-a-pod. We all made an appearance at Rebecca's school that morning for the party--the children walked in a parade for us, trick-or-treated with us and then sang us some seasonal songs in a circle. Papa and Aunt Meredith came along as well. That evening, we headed out to Uncle Matt's/Aunt Laurie's for some trick-or-treating in their neighborhood with our cousins. The weather was lovely, the houses festive and the candy plentiful. We are already discussing next year's costumes.

Belated Joyousness--RED SOX WIN!!

It's mid-November and I have been a Bad Blogger. Let's just say I've had my hands full. I am catching up. Here's Installment One--our young members of Red Sox Nation enjoyed the SWEEP this year! Take a look!