Two Years

Monday was our second wedding anniversary. Last year, we celebrated the day in Rome, with Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, our chubby three month old in tow. This year, we celebrated mostly at home, with the still-chubby one year old, and a two week old who’s working hard in the chub department. We bravely (or foolishly?) decided to go out for dinner with Magdalena, even though the hours of about 5:30-9:30 are the hellish ones where she cries a LOT. I was praying she would just sleep, or nurse, through dinner. Well, she didn’t… so we mostly spent our fancy evening juggling Queen Colic, taking turns getting up and walking around with her.

The hostess was very sweet, and put us in a kind of side room, with just one other young couple, who I’m sure are now scared away from having children forever. However, high-class restaurants are apparently not made to accommodate babies who may or may not wet through their clothing or just need a diaper change. The tiny bathroom had no surface whatsoever to lay down a wriggling infant, but at least the toilet had a lid. Thank God babies have no memory.

Anyway, at least we did “get out”, as chaotic as it seemed. It’s the season of life we’re in, though– babies, and everything that comes with them.  The second anniversary is supposed to be cotton, and I must say, we have lots of cotton going on up in here: cotton diapers, cotton burp cloths, cotton tiny baby clothes, and cotton toddler clothes. So we must be doing something right!

And now, here are some of my favorite shots from the day it all began two years ago.

 

 

In case you want to know the whole story, you can read all about how we met here (Part I, II, and III).

One Week with Magdalena

It’s hard to believe, but we’re over one week in with Magdalena ex-utero. Everything so far has been going really well, mostly due to the fact that Magdalena is a very normal baby, in that she eats like a piglet, sleeps without needing to be held the whole time, and poops like a champ. Come on…everyone knows when you have a baby that poop becomes an ever-important topic of conversation. Also, we’re blessed to be at my parents’ where we get a LOT of help with Lucy-wrangling and meals.

Don’t let the fancy get-up fool you, this girl will give you a run for your money!

Lucy is still super in love with her baby sister. The moment she lays eyes on her, she can’t rest until she’s been able to give Magdalena about 30 “kisses” and name every facial feature. She also likes to rub the inside of her arm over the velvety newborn head and chant, “hay-uh”. It’s pretty much the sweetest thing ever, and I need to capture it on film.

It’s been interesting figuring out how to juggle two babies throughout the day too. We successfully took them both to Mass for the first time, and we were only a little late. Both girls behaved pretty well, all things considered. I know right now is also a much easier time, since Magdalena still sleeps a ton and I can attend to Lucy. Oh and Tom has been off most of last week, and will be for most of this week, which is monumentally helpful, because Lucy decided this weekend would be the perfect time to start waking up at 4:30 and 5 am. Tom is shaving off eons in purgatory through this experience!

Other fun adventures together as a family of four (!):

– First walks in our double stroller (which simultaneously will succeed in getting us back in shape since it’s like pushing a small tank)

– Trip into Georgetown to go to the doctor, with a pit stop at Dolcezza’s for gelato. Maggie opted for straight milk, while Lucy sampled all of our flavors and surprised us by showing an aversion to the chocolate and hazelnut combo. We don’t know whose child she is, and feel we must immediately get back to Rome and set her straight in the gelato department.

– Watching both girls sleeping peacefully in their car seats

-Meeting cousins, aunts, and uncles!

Lucy and Maggie at one week

 

Happy Birthday, Magdalena Clare!

I’m so happy to finally announce her arrival!

Magdalena Clare Cox.

Entered the world on July 14th, at 5:01 AM.

7 lbs. 14 oz.

20 inches

Very, very loved, especially by Lucy. She chants “BAY-bee, BAY-bee” whenever she’s around, repeatedly asks to give her “mahs” (kisses, which are actually the force of her large and heavy head pummeling towards her tiny sister), and is generally unruffled by her sudden permanent residence in our household.

We had a great birth at our birth center again, and I will definitely write out the birth story later. Despite all my rantings, she was most likely born at 40 weeks on the dot, according to the midwives. She has been a very, very good baby over the past four days. I know she will probably enter the fussy newborn stage soon, but for now, we are relishing in a newborn who actually sleeps and eats well. It’s a whole new(born) world after Lucy!

Thanks for all your prayers and congratulations! More to come, but for now, here are some pictures to tide you over!

6 hours old

Hands frozen in mid-air…we have no idea how she sustained that position as long as she did…

With Bis-Nonna (great grandma)

Magdalena, doing what we both wish we could be doing…

Dolly, her other name for Magdalena

Musings of a Crazy 9-Months-Pregnant Lady

I apologize for the long, long silence on here. We’ve spent the last week thinking that the baby would arrive. Iactually thought that baby would arrive before last week, so as you can imagine, I’m starting to get antsy/impatient/overwhelmed/despairing, etc.. Lucy Agnes just had to come two weeks early with very little warning, thereby setting an impossible standard for all future siblings to follow. And this one hasn’t. We also probably have the “official” due date wrong by about a week, but since I’d been following that thewhole time, I’m having a hard time switching my brain over. Either way, I’m definitely past term, and am either 39 weeks today, or 40 weeks on Tuesday, depending on the due date of choice. Ugh.

Forget those in-front-of-the-mirror bump pics. I’m too lazy, so here you go. 

I know, I know, most women go a full 40.5 to 41 or even 42, yes, yes, yes. BUT, the timing is just very precarious here. Tom had last week and this week off, and we really wanted baby to come early last week, so he would have time off to be home and help. The week after this, he has another week of camp to run, and then a little time off, and then is off to California for his brother’s wedding. And then he comes back and BAM, we’re moving. So… hmm. No control, that is what we have here in this situation. I’ve had at least 3 “false alarms” where I had contractions for a few hours, only to have them die away at the bite of a cracker or some other nonsense. That never happened with Lucy, she was all, “Oh, real contractions, water breaks, and here I am a few hours later!” so again, I’m trying to adjust to this very different experience.

On a less pessimistic note, we have been doing some fun things to fill the time we have at home before the craziness. We took Lucy to a little local zoo last Sunday, which she enjoyed (though the rocks on the path were maybe a bit more interesting than any of the live animals for her).

Bottle feeding baby goats and lambs

In the Budgie aviary, feeding the little guys

 

Lucy celebrated her Baptism day with a cookie cake, or “ke-ca cock” (I know. We tried to correct the pronunciation several times).

 

We’ve kept up with the World Cup, and cheered on our national team up to the bitter end.

We also went on an epic Ikea shopping trip yesterday and got so many things for the new house. Tom was duly overwhelmed by the maze/trap that Ikea is.

And in general, we have been going on lots of long walks, splashing around in the baby pool, and trying valiantly not to think about labor and despair that it will never happen/happen when the timing is poor. This baby has his/her own timing, that is for certain!