My cousin, Alissa, and I have long shared a love of singing, and we finally got to sing together! We sang “The Prayer” at the wedding of my cousin Kristine (Alissa’s sister). I was so honored that Kristine asked me to be a part of her special day.
Baby modeling time
Nearly five months ago, Giana did a photoshoot for Up&Up (Target) diapers. She was selected for the Size 1 packaging and she’s finally in stores!
I have to admit – I do not love this image. I know they took other photos that captured her cuteness much better. What’s worse though is that they airbrushed like crazy. The hair is blurry, her face is contrasted in weird places, and the diaper seems to be computer generated. Oh well. Final critique is not our job. Giana did her thing by showing up and being cute!
DINGO – close enough?
“And Dingo was his name-o!”
“Uh…Rafa? I think you meant Bingo, not Dingo,” I said.
“Close enough!” We laughed. Apparently Rafael has been singing about D-I-N-G-O all this time.
Our big girl
My big girl just keeps getting bigger. This is a fact I’m both immensely proud of, because I have been able to nourish her well, and also completely meloncholy about, because it is all happening so fast. I recently put away her tummy time mat, because she just crawls around it now.
I also put away her baby bathtub since she somehow manages to splash to the ceiling when in it. That means she has had her first baths in the big girl tub. She took to it like a little fishie.
I bought her a big girl umbrella stroller. Rafael took one look and said, “No. Those strollers are for big kids.” Yes honey, big kids like our girl.
My big girl even took her first airplane flight last weekend. We sat in the last row, sandwiched between the window and a very pleasant grandfather. Giana charmed the flight crew for a few minutes, then promptly fell asleep after takeoff (and for the rest of the flight!).
Life is so amazing with our girl, and every day gets better and better.
Seven Months Old
I am so excited that our big girl is seven months old!
Giana is such an expressive girl. Usually, this mean she smiles, laughs, coos, squeals, sings and talks to express her happiness. On the flip side, this expressiveness comes out when she is angry and she lets us know with her signature scream!
Giana loves to get on her hands and knees to try and crawl, but she hasn’t really figured out the forward motion yet – she ends up scooting herself backwards! She loves to play and chew on all her toys. Giana is such a joy!
First night away
We had a big event this past week – the first night Giana and I were apart. In a word, it was sad.
Giana and Rafael dropped me off at the airport at 8 a.m. They went on to drop-in daycare and work, respectively. I jumped on planes and made my way to Philly for a work conference and social event. I brought a battery pack adapter and pumped in tiny airplane bathrooms.
Giana did okay at daycare…but she refused to eat. That made for a long evening with her papa. He entertained her with toys and a bath, but when I called at 9 p.m., she was ready to eat and go to bed. I heard her hungry cries over the phone when I called and I joined in the tears! He got her to bed in his arms and managed to get some sleep until 3 a.m.
Finally, at 5 a.m., Giana decided she would eat her bottle that her papa had been patiently offering to her. As day two started, my loves were really getting the hang of things. I was so happy to see both of their smiling faces waiting for me! In addition to smiling faces, my dear man was holding these for me:
As hard as it was for me to be away from my little girl, it was so good to see her with her papa. As her primary caregiver, I can take the little things for granted – like the way she smiles after a good meal or the giggles when her diaper is being changed. When I’m not around, Rafa got to experience all of it. I love to see my man in action as the amazing dad that he is.
Edited to add an amazing photo of Giana and her papa by the amazing Chelsey Paul:
ChelseyPaul.com
A crunchy momma
So here I am, almost seven months into this parenting thing, and I find that I am much more crunchy than I expected to be. I always thought of crunchy moms as hippie, yoga-pants wearing, anti-everything pediatrician suggests. When I was pregnant, I thought I would be a mom who took advantage of every possible modern convenience.
I am much closer to crunchy now! We mostly cloth diaper, which I never expected to do. I love the pretty diapers and I don’t mind the extra load every other day. I even hung a little clothesline in the backyard so that I didn’t spend the savings in cloth diapering in energy to run the dryer.
Today, I made a nice big batch of baby food. I cooked up green beans and sweet potatoes. Then I purred them and froze in ice cube trays. I’ll have healthy, preservative-free baby food for at least a month.
This picture doesn’t do justice to the color of this beautiful veggie! I know Giana is going to love eating this up.
I’m still not really sure how I got this way. I just kept deciding that a little time is worth it if I can make something a little better for Giana.
Beautiful, beautiful baby
Not only am I so blessed to have such a beautiful baby, but I am also so blessed to have a husband with such amazing photography and computer skills to capture her beauty. We had a little photo session in our backyard to celebrate her six month birthday.
She’s a sitter!
Thank you Lord that I have a job working from home. I got to witness Giana sitting unassisted for the first extended length of time!
I’d do anything
“I’d do anything for you,” she said.
I know, mom.
—
When I started my job with my new company, they told me about the company meeting they would be having in April. I said “Sure!” when they asked me if I thought I’d be able to make it. At the time, I figured two months would be plenty of time to get used to the idea of being away from Giana and to pump a week’s worth of food for her. Rafa and I thought he could use a combination of grandma babysitters, vacation days and maybe the drop-in daycare to get him through a week of life as a single dad.
I tried to prepare. But my pumping skills had severely diminished since I left MegaCorp and didn’t have any extra to freeze. I tried to practice leaving Giana behind, but I actually drove home in tears from a two hour trip to the grocery store. When signing her up for drop-in daycare, I kept running into roadblocks. The trip was just a couple of weeks away and I just knew – I wasn’t going to be able to leave my little girl for that long.
I called mom. Would you be willing to drive 6+ hours in the car with me, stay in a questionable hotel and take care of Giana all day long?
“I’d do anything for you,” she said.
—
We loaded up her car on Sunday morning and drove across the whole state of Wisconsin. Giana did great during the drive, except for the blow-out while we were getting some lunch. Mom took her soiled onesie to the bathroom to scrub while I finished wiping down my peanut. We found our hotel, a run-down Super 8 with a super cheap rate. It was only seven miles from the college conference center where my colleagues would be meeting.
Each day of the trip, I would get up and get ready super early. We would load a sleepy girl into the car and mom would drive me to the meeting place. When Giana refused to eat, or when I just missed her, mom would jump back in the car and bring her to me. I stayed with my work friends through late dinner while mom gave baths and started the bedtime routine. Most nights, I came rushing back around 10 p.m., just in time to give Giana one more feeding before we all could go to sleep.
After a week of this, we headed for home on Friday afternoon. We went straight to Iowa so mom could jump in and help with my sister’s garage sale. Rafa came to pick us up and we got to Minneapolis around midnight.
—
We are finally all settled back in: laundry is done, Giana’s routine is almost back on track. The whole trip was exhausting for me. I lost my voice and I am losing a battle with a cold. But I don’t regret it one bit. I needed to have my daughter near me.
I would do anything for her.
I am convinced the whole trip had to be boring for mom. She said it was awesome. She said she loved having so much time with Giana. I have been trying to think of enough words to express my thankfulness, but I can’t. I can’t think of a gift lovely enough to show her how much I appreciate her sacrifice of a week. Hallmark doesn’t have a card that says, “Hey mom, your selflessness helped me be a good mom and employee. I wouldn’t have been able to be both without your help.”
The kind of mom I have is the kind of mom I want to become.
She would do anything for me.