Adios Aba

Abuela Anna left yesterday after a whirlwind trip to the doctor's at the last minute. We thought Diego might have some kind of urinary infection, so we rushed to a 1:30 appointment in Capital Hill. Then, Aba left in her volvo, headed to Eugene for a Rotary District Conference. We are now all alone. Today is not the first day I've had to be solo, and soon we will have wonderful friends from San Diego visit us on June 17. Christian's last day of work is today - YAY! He will moonlight about 10 nights this month, but during the daytime, he is off and around the house. We are excited for fun day adventures around the area...time to explore our "new home" now that the crazy year is behind us (almost!).

Baby news includes the introduction of the pacifier. Let me just say, that small device pacifies MY LIFE! Now, before this week, I was a self-declared anti-paci mama. Diego never used one in the orphanage, so he never took to one once I started taking care of him. We did not introduce one to Charley in fear of "nipple confusion" until just the other day. Several of my friends endorsed using them, but I really felt that if I survived Diego's babyhood without using one, I could survive Charley's. Here's the difference: TWO CHILDREN!!! It changes everything! Putting two kids down to nap, fixing dinner with two crying children during the witching hour....car rides where Charley is screaming her head off and Diego is yelling, "Mama, I don't like crying" and covering his ears. Calgon take me away....

Anyhow, I finally sat down to read a few of the books on sucking, and it turns out there is real science behind this pacifier thing. Sucking is a reflex that causes some hormone or something (ask my husband...) to naturally calm the baby. Plus, it teaches them to self soothe. OK, so I tried it, and it works! Now, I can swaddle her up when she gets tired, shhhh her for a few minutes with a rocking motion, stick in the paci, and there you go....she puts herself to sleep for naps now! No more rocking her for 30 minutes to bed! Yee Haw!

Last night she slept from 8 - 11:30 pm, Christian had to wake her to feed her a bottle, and then she didn't wake me up to eat until 5 am! Whoo hoo! I love this child!

So, today we have preschool for Diego (we need to leave in about 40 minutes) and I'm meeting up with another new mom, Lauran, from my childbirth class and we're going to take a short walk, visit, and meet each other's babies. Hers was born May 9 - Chloe, Charlotte's new friend. They live just blocks from my other West Seattle friends, Tracey and Kiran. We'll head home for nap and Sesame Street in the afternoon, then dinner, family time (books for Diego) and bedtime. All in a day's schedule.

Have a fabulous weekend!