Keira's preschool, St. Vincent's, asked families to come in and talk to the class about their cultural traditions. I asked Maya to come in to speak about India while she was on break from Berkeley. Luckily she said yes, and she did an amazing job! She talked about elephants and holidays, and had them dot paint an elephant picture and she wrote their name in Hindi. It was adorable! The teachers said that she should be a preschool teacher -- I told them she was going to be a doctor! Keira was beyond excited to have her auntie come to her school. When we arrived, they said she had been talking about it all morning! My contribution was mango lassi, which I made at home and intended for the kids to try at lunch time. When I went into school the next day, all the kids informed me that the mango lassi was "too yucky"!! Hahaha! I love how honest kids are. I guess I didn't add enough sugar for their tiny tastebuds.
For Mother's Day this year, we went out to brunch with our friends at Croce's Park West. It was fun to see everyone, and Keira loved hanging with her best buddy Lily. She wore her "fancy" head band and pink sparkle Topsiders. The brunch was a buffet, which made things difficult with a table full of toddlers and infants! Eden pretty much slept the whole time. Embarrassingly, my shoes fell apart! The top came detached from the sole. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised because I keep my shoes forever -- these particular ones I had owned 15+ years (since high school!). It's funny because Matt is a shoe horse and always says he "needs" shoes, and I always tell him that shoes should last forever -- I guess I'm wrong! Matt left a few hours later to go on a business trip to Germany, and I took the girls up to my mom's house to eat dinner with them. Such a blessing to have family in town. My life would definitely be more difficult without them around!
At two months, Eden weighs 11 pounds 6 ounces (52nd percentile) and is 23 1/2 inches long (90th percentile). Her head circumference is 15 inches (45th percentile). She is a little bit smaller than Keira was at this age. Eden continues to be a joy for me. She is an absolute angel and I am head over heels for her! I know I am gushing, but this is honestly how I feel! She is very sweet -- barely ever cries and when she does she is easily soothed. She sleeps with me in my bed, and will even sleep in with me until 8:30 or 9 if Matt lets us. She will pretty much sleep whenever I am sleeping. She has never slept by herself at night, but Keira used to start the night out in her bassinet and then move to the bed if she woke up at night. It will be interesting to see how they are different. Maybe I will start doing that method with Eden after she has moved to the bottle. At this age, she is still exclusively breastfed but she doesn't really eat at night anymore and we don't have to change her diaper at night.
Eden is a super smiley baby. In my notes about her at one month, I said that she wasn't as expressive as Keira at that age and then the next week she started smiling and laughing! She has the most delightful smile; it melts my heart! She makes a lot of cooing noises and likes to babble. She seems to like to talk to Malini and Matt especially. She has even "talked" to Matt over the phone in response to hearing his voice.
When Keira was a baby, I seemed to dress her in lots of blues and greens and eschewed pink, but for Eden, I just love to put her in pink! I think it looks good with her skin tone. Or maybe I am just "into" pink right now. I can't wait to see what her personality is going to be like. Matt and I keep saying that she is going to be more calm than Keira and less "crazy adventurous" and outgoing, but obviously she is only two months old so who knows how she will turn out. Maybe I have two crazy kids.
I was looking back at photos from when Keira was this age, and most of the rooms of our house were still empty and/or had boxes stacked up in them. That was really a stressful time. No wonder my MS flared up! Our situation is much more comfortable and stable this time, so maybe I will get lucky and stay healthy. I'm feeling good so far -- crossing fingers!
I feel like a switch has been flipped inside of me -- ever since Eden was born, I feel extremely happy and grateful. So grateful for my life, for my family, for my husband, for my two beautiful, healthy daughters. A nice house. Matt and I both have good jobs. We have choices in life. I don't think I fully appreciated how lucky I am before. I'm not sure if it's a hormonal thing, or just that I'm getting older, but I hope it lasts! Matt has always felt like this, and it's one of the reasons that i'm glad I married him. And the funny thing is that now that I am so happy, I don't care at all about our house or money or anything like that. I just want to make our lives less stressful in any way possible, and try to make more time and memories for us as a family (i.e. less time working and commuting). We are considering moving closer to Matt's work so that he doesn't have to deal with the long free way commute and wasting his life away in the car. Maybe in a few months I will have an update about that! We are listing our house as soon as I am back on the MS meds.
