Baby Violet

Penelope and Pig

Things are going well at our house, more chaotic than ever before, but good just the same. Penelope loves her sister, wants to hold her constantly, and beams with pride when others remark on how alert or pretty she is. I wondered if we were lucky beyond belief and had somehow escaped New Big Sister Jealousy, but then last night while I nursed Baby on the couch with Pen reading Angelina Ballerina books to her dolls, Pig leaned over and said very quietly to Baby "Go back in Mama's belly Violet". So we have a normal 3 year old after all. I love that Pen has Pig. Pig says and does all the naughty and not so nice things that Pen would like to do and say. Pig routinely shocks us all with her terrible displays and outbursts. We've all grown extremely fond of pig. I am adjusting to life with a newborn again, I'd forgotten just how much they nurse. I'd say 80% of my day is sitting on the couch nursing the baby. I can do a lot of other things at the same time though. Most importantly, as it turns out,I can read Angelina Ballerina books while I nurse Violet. Violet was born on July 29 at 8 lbs. 12 ounces,her weight went down to 8lbs. 5 ounces, and today at 12 days old she is a whopping 9lbs.7ounces. How crazy is that! Steve had his first day back at work yesterday, and it was just fine. The girls and I went for a walk to the bagel shop. For the first time I had both of my little darlings screaming hysterically at once in a public place. Pen was screaming because the hummus was squishing out from her spinach bagel and mushing everywhere, Violet because she woke up in the baby wrap and was angry about that and also because she wanted to nurse. I remained very calm, there wasn't really anything else I could do, aside from screaming too. I offered to hold Pen's bagel for her while she took bites of it, which she found to be an acceptable arrangement, and Violet was removed from the wrap and plugged into her breakfast, which she found to be acceptable as well. After everyone was fed, we moved on to the playground where I pushed Pen on the swing for like 45 minutes, then I had to stop to nurse Miss Violet and Pig did some naughty mulch throwing (it was o.k. as there was nobody else there) and then began some super naughty leaping off the top of the tall slide. This was great because Pen had to keep climbing down to retrieve Pig and climb back up again, so that when we got home at 12:00 she had worn herself out and was very ready for her nap. We all slept soundly until Steve returned from work bearing Pizza for dinner. So our first day home alone went rather smoothly. I'm sure there will be more exciting things to post, and certainly more pictures, but for now this is about as exciting as it gets.