Being able to relax with Will has been wonderful. David's been home the whole week, and will be home next week as well. The week he returns to work, we'll be introducing Will to his grandparents.
Avonlea Jane has been enjoying holding and touching her new brother. She's also been helpful in fetching blankets and diapers for him. She's still learning to adjust how much pressure she uses when touching him, but she's doing well with being gentle.
David has declared that I am incapable of taking it easy, but I've been trying to some degree. My labor and delivery demanded very little recovery time. There were some ramifications from the speed of Avonlea Jane's birth that are absent this time (like the damaged tailbone that took eighteen months to heal--Ow!), so it's been difficult to not want to get on the ground with Avonlea Jane, carry laundry around the house, or go grocery shopping, etc.
The princess is not ready for bed on New Year's Eve.
Our songstress:In this video, she gets a little excited while singing, so at some point we'll post a better video of her repertoire. She loves to sing "The Wheels on the Bus," "The Itsy-bitsy Spider," "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," "Happy Birthday," "Jingle Bells," and "Hop Hop Went the Little Green Frog."
Three days old
Our dancing queen:
Avonlea Jane enjoyed some blue cupcakes friends made in honor of Will.
At four days old, we took our first trip as a family of four to the grocery store. Avonlea Jane loved introducing Will to everyone waiting in line and then informing them that Will has mummies all the time, illustrating her point by pulling my shirt down repeatedly.
That night, we finally were able to celebrate Christmas with Michele. Here, Avonlea Jane is modeling her new custom-made owl "I'm a big sister" pajamas.
The cutest boy ever born!
She's not happy to have to stop playing to have her picture taken. She was enjoying playing with her new doll cradle that belonged to Michele's great-grandmother.
Taking down our tree is an occasion for accessorizing. Now, she just has to learn the lyrics to "Papa, Can You Hear Me?"
On Will's fifth day, we had a small crisis we hadn't planned on encountering for a while: Monsters. Avonlea Jane woke up crying from her nap, "Mommy, I'm scared. It's dark in Jane's room!" She said she was scared of monsters and wouldn't let me get more than a foot away from her. She sat on my lap, hugging me, for several minutes before wanting to call in the reinforcement of Daddy. Then, she took comfort on him (with Will) for several more minutes.We explained to her that monsters were not real; they are just pretend. Since then, she's been telling us, "No monsters; just pretend. Not real. No monsters Jane's house." She has then proceeded to list where there are no monsters: "No monsters Babba and Namaw's house. No monsters Caedmon's house. No monsters Justin's house," until she names the homes of all of her friends.
We've been trying to make sure that while we're busy with Will that Avonlea Jane has a good time. Her Christmas presents and the big sister presents she's received have been very helpful with this. Primarily, we've been letting her watch a different animal movie with us every day. Yesterday, we were happy to make it to her weekly playdate. She was excited to see her friends and introduce Will. Then today, we went to story time at the Peabody-Essex Museum.
Will enthralled with story time
Story time this week was done by a children's musician who had the kids all singing and dancing. Avonlea Jane and David are in front, and she's playing along with a shaker.
Avonlea Jane wanted to hold Will, but he wasn't done with Mommy yet.
She's done a great job holding him and is never bothered by his crying. When he cries in the car, she offers to read him a book, sing him a song, or like today, "cry" in solidarity: "Ahhhhhh!"
Mabel and Maxwell have been enjoying all of the packages that have been arriving. Now, if only they would offer to help us with thank-you notes this week.
One week old
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