Prince and Princess Birthday Party

On Monday we attended a delightfully fun party: a combination of a Memorial Day potluck, a May crowning, and a birthday party for a three-year-old. For the birthday girl, I sewed a play dress, with a matching one for my Mary.

The theme was Prince and Princess, with the kids instructed to dress in costume. I bought Mary a princess dress and gloves at the Goodwill store for $4, and you can see that she got her crown from Burger King, which Daddy happened to take her to for lunch that day.

John's cape I sewed from a $3 table cloth I bought at the Goodwill. I still have a lot of fabric leftover from that! (Note that Dacron fabric in the 95-degree humid weather of North Carolina is a potential recipe for heat stroke! See sweat and flushed faces in the next photo. After John was half melted, we took off his cape and crown!)

The host family is the one that yearly hosts a May Crowning (which this year was combined with the birthday party). I try not to post photos of other people's children without permission, so you will just have to envision the precious picture of more than 20 children, all dressed as princes and princesses, marching with their flowers, and singing "Immaculate Mary." Above, John and Mary place their blue hydrangea flowers at the statue.

After the crowning, all the guests prayed the rosary, standing out in the wooded back yard of our hosts. The three-year-old birthday girl led one of the decades. During the decade that Chris led, John became very brave, made his voice loud, and led a few of the Hail Marys. I was so proud of my shy boy! Even I would feel shy to lead prayer in front of 50 people!

The birthday girl spontaneously knelt for the rosary, the only person at the whole party to do so. How my heart was happy when John went and knelt with her for a decade!

Also at the party was great food, royalty-themed games for the kids with prizes, and an amazing homemade castle cake. Upon waking this morning, one of the first things John said to me was that he wanted his next birthday party and his cake to be exactly like the party we attended the day before. High standards!

From Two to Three Children

I am only ten weeks into the new constellation of our family of five, but I have been thinking a lot about the differences among going from zero to one child, one to two children, and two to three. I have heard almost consistently that going from two to three is the hardest and then, after that, it is not nearly so hard to add more children ("hey, what's one more?"): hearing that often has surely biased my perception. And note that most of the mothers telling me this are providential, homeschooling mothers like me: this affects our perception, as I can imagine that purposefully spacing children to be certain ages (closer together or further apart) would change the dynamic, as would spacing children such that the older children are away at school (daycare, preschool, whatever) versus being around all the time while Mama is learning how to take care of a new baby.

Zero to One

For me, going from zero to one child was mainly about Dying to Self. I didn't realize just how selfish I was as a single person--even though I was a pretty nice, giving, average single person. Nonetheless, to go from being totally self-directed and (seemingly) in control of every moment of my days to being at the mercy of an inexplicably screaming, insatiably demanding baby shatters one's ego. I didn't have any life experience (e.g., coming from a big family) to teach me how to take care of a baby, so I was learning all the pragmatics from scratch. I had previously excelled in school, run my own editing business, and then attended a year of law school, so I was used to success pretty much in all endeavors . . . not in the seeming failure of nursing struggles, not being able to "make" a baby sleep, not being able to "make" my baby eat solids without throwing up, not to mention reaching the toddler age and not being able to "make" my one-year-old obey (a laughable idea to me now).

From a Catholic perspective, having my first baby gave me innumerable opportunities to try to replace sin with virtue, particularly these: Greed with Liberality, Envy with Charity, Anger with Meekness, Pride with Humility, and Sloth with Diligence. Realizing just how spiritually defective I was, having my ego crushed, and slowly trying to increase my virtues through mothering inspired many tears. But death to self is a very good thing, as St. Paul knew.

One to Two

For me, going from one child to two was mainly about realizing I Can Not Do It All. Having just one child, I maintained the illusion that if I just worked hard enough, I could succeed in doing it all, in meeting all of my child's needs. By even trying to meet all his needs, I made some serious errors, such as never making him wait for anything. I remember sitting in the kitchen one night when I was seven months pregnant and realizing that I had never made my child, nearly two years old, wait for anything. And he was about to be thrust into a situation in which he would have to wait for many things for quite a while. And I was in serious trouble.

What I remember about the early months of having two children was how John would throw himself on the floor screaming and weeping every time I nursed the infant, which was easily ten times during the days alone. I remember a blur of a lot of screaming and crying: some of it my toddler's, some of it mine--and for three hours every night, it was my infant's screaming too!

I discovered that I could not do it all, nor would that have been a good thing for any child. It is a virtue to learn how to wait to be satisfied. It is a virtue to learn how to share finite resources (e.g., toys, mama's attention, time). It is a virtue to learn empathy for another human being (one's sibling). It is a virtue to learn how to negotiate conflict. Mothering two children taught me to accept--not to be shattered by--being unable to meet all the needs of my precious babies whom I adore. Now I can live a lot more comfortably in the moments when multiple kids have conflicting needs, when they're all crying. It's called "Mommy Triage." Moment-to-moment, I am discerning whose need takes priority. (Another lesson I learned when having two children is that Mama has needs to and sometimes--gasp!--they take priority. Because if Mama continues to be a self-created martyr, she will collapse and become a terrible mother and wife.)

Two to Three

I have had three children for only ten weeks. They are close in age by The World's standards (23 month spacing, then 28-month spacing), but not that close within my circle of providential, Catholic friends.

So far, I think that this transition is mainly about being organized and diligent. I have been tearful and distressed many times because the workload is simply very hard! It's not necessarily new or confusing work, it's just hard and unrelenting. I have discovered that, at least with my personality, I have to be highly organized. I stick to my routine. If I relax and get off my routine, the house falls apart, the children act chaotically, and I start crying. And even if I remain organized, I find that the work is so hard that I feel like I am walking through life (my very blessed life!) with cement shoes on my feet: it is just hard!

Not only do I have to be organized, but I had to ask for help (which is very hard for me, as I bet it is for many mothers). I hear of many mother friends whose husbands help them tremendously in the day-to-day care of little ones. I have husbandly help when Chris is home, but he travels for work easily half the time, so I cannot rely on him being here. I have to have systems in place such that I'm able to run the home even in his absence: that means being organized and asking for help. I have housecleaners who do my deep cleaning every other week, leaving only the daily maintenance for me. I have a nanny who comes for three hours two mornings per week, and it is during this time that I do all my errands and attend any appointments. I now do my grocery shopping online so all I have to do is go through a drive-through to pick up our food. I know that I am very blessed to have this help, especially in the absence of local family.

I am planning our meals: there is a concept! I started with a six-week plan, which I review each week to change based on any social outings or Chris' business travel. I even have a few of the different nights assigned to themes (e.g., Mexican night, Pizza Saturday, Soup Night) and on Wednesdays I am baking our bread.

I have a to-do list on the refrigerator, keeping me on task at all times, and I live by our family calendar. Although, speaking of the calendar, I think that having three little ones (none in outside school) means having a much more home-centered life. Dragging the kids out and about on errands or too many fun activities throws the whole household out of routine, plus sets up the kids' expectations to be entertained all the time. The kids' eating and sleeping times get changed and then everything falls apart. Thus, I am trying not to waste the kids' outings on grown-up errands, so that I take them out only for a few fun events and Mass. I've recently started doing more play dates than before, but those are at homes, often ours.

I also have a Daily Routine posted on the refrigerator in hopes of keeping me in a rhythm. On one hand, it looks highly structured. On the other hand, I think it offers much flexibility. The eating times and bedtime are the only times fairly strictly set. Neither of the bigger kids nap anymore, and the baby has no routine yet to her nap time whatsoever! I'm involving the children more in chores, so that they are less Mama's Chores ("she does everything for us") and more Family Chores ("we all contribute to the family"). I figure that either the kids are learning to do work by working alongside me, or they're hindering me but at least I know they're not getting into mischief because they're working alongside me! By having the kids work with me more (which they often enjoy anyway), this makes their free play time more coveted, which I hope will inspire them to run off and play more instead of hanging around my ankles, asking for direction all the time.

I'm trying to add another layer of routine into our day through prayer (morning prayers at seven, when we're always in the kitchen anyway, Angeles at noon, Rosary after dinner, and prayers at bedtime): speaking of prayer, another blog post I'm working on is about our goals for family prayer, what we do, what are you doing, and sharing some ideas as mothers.

I've posted my daily routine at the end of this blog post. Some of it I am sticking to very well, some of the items are brand new goals at which I might fail entirely, we shall see!

I am finding the need for this level of routine to help counter the uncertainty and chaos that is unavoidable in having three littles, one of them an infant. I am still carrying Margaret almost all the time, she is still nursing at least 15 times per 24 hours, and waking about five times per night (one of them an hour-long stretch most nights around 3:00 a.m.), so the sleep deprivation is torturous right now. I wish I could do all my chores at set times, but I can't, so, for example, I wash dishes once or twice a day as I can. I do things "in the cracks." It might take me four days to wash the cast iron griddle after making pancakes one morning. I might not vacuum at all in between bi-monthly housekeepers coming--and that is not a pretty sight! The other day, Mary found my vegetable wash (thank God that is all it was) and sprayed the citrus liquid over every floor of my downstairs plus on the TV screen before I caught her. Asked why John watched it all without coming to get me, he said he didn't want to miss any of his TV show. All that is to say: do not let my hopes and dreams of my routine fool you into thinking I've got it "all going on" with my children newborn, two, and four!

I'd love to hear the perspectives of other mothers on the transitions from one number of children to another number.

DAILY ROUTINE

Kids Katherine

6:00-7:00 a.m. Kids wake up
No TV before breakfast Put away clean dishes

7:00 Morning Prayers as family (new goal--should take 10 minutes)

7:30-8:00 BREAKFAST TIME, done & cleaned by 8:00

8:00 Everyone upstairs: make beds, get dressed, hair & teeth, bring down laundry.
If done quickly enough, there is time for 30 minutes of TV at 8:30.

M/F: House chores
W: 9:00 Mass (new goal)
T/Th: Errands (while nanny is here)

10:00 SNACK TIME
M/W/F: Circle Time (Saint of the Day, book of Mama’s choosing) (new goal--should take 15-30 minutes)

11:30 LUNCH TIME

12:00 Angelus Prayer (new goal--should take 2 minutes)
Free play time or quiet time in own bedrooms
Good time for baking or dinner prep-cooking

2:30 SNACK TIME (no eating after 3:00)

Free play time
Kids clean up den before TV allowed
4:30 One hour of television Cooking dinner

5:30 DINNER TIME

Family Rosary (one decade--takes 10 minutes)

6:30 Everyone upstairs for bedtime routine: bathing, pajamas, pick up bedrooms,
laundry in hampers, teeth, night prayers.
If done quickly enough, there is time for reading stories.

7:30 Lights out for kids (then Mama collapses in a heap, has to hold the baby the rest of the evening or she'll scream, and is usually passed out asleep within one hour--ha ha!)

Same Weights

Interesting (to me) little factoid . . .

At two months old exactly, all three of my babies have been essentially the same weight even though they were born at widely varying weights. They were all fed the same way too (exclusively breastfed).

John: born 6 lbs 10 oz, then 12 lbs 5 oz at two months.

Mary: born 8 lbs 9 oz, then 12 lbs 10 oz at two months.

Margaret: born 8 lbs even, then 12 lbs 8 oz at two months.

Well, it's interesting to me anyway!

Mary Prays

John knew most of his basic prayers by two and a half years old, but has always been shy about them. Mary is anything but shy, which is why she happily agreed to let me videotape her! (Normally the children are not allowed to hold any toys during the family rosary, but Mary had earned this doll mere minutes before for a pottying accomplishment. So I invited her to teach her dolly how to pray.)









With only these two kids under my belt so far, my opinion is that the way to teach kids their prayers is to pray in front of them every day versus any specific memorizing method. Mary knowing her prayers (and she actually knows them even better than she performed on video--but isn't that always the case?) is no more remarkable than her having memorized the Madeline book. But it is cuter, in my opinion!

John wouldn't pray out loud until recently, although I knew he knew his prayers because I'd "catch him" praying alone (out loud) on the stairs or in his room and I'd spy on him. Now he is suddenly enthusiastic and prays the rosary in an exuberant, shouting voice. This may well have to do with competing with his little sister, as they both want to say the words first! The latest thing is that they actually beg, "No, let me say the words!" As if we're stopping them!

The prayers they know almost entirely are: Grace Before Meals, Grace After Meals, the Sign of the Cross, the Hail Mary, the Our Father, the Glory Be, the Apostles Creed, and the Guardian Angel prayer. I'd like to add in the Act of Contrition and I'd like them to learn some of these basic prayers in Latin too. If they can easily learn Frere Jaques, there's no reason they can't learn a Latin prayer!

A Hidden Altar

"The Polish Madonna" (image source) is one of my favorite (if folksy) representations of the Blessed Virgin Mary because it reminds me that she and I both have many domestic duties (often considered drudgery) in common. If the Blessed Mother could do these many tasks with cheerfulness and (often hidden) purpose, then I can try to do so also.

Lately I have been feeling a gamut of distressed emotions about motherhood and how I am fulfilling (or not fulfilling) my duties. This morning (I think that) God has sent me two little messages to help cheer my dark spirits a bit.

At breakfast, I grabbed an old copy of the Catholic newspaper The Wanderer, where I stumbled upon a poem that touched me:

"Motherhood"
by Mark Ambrose

Mary was wholly hidden. No one knew
the archangelic greeting--where the path
of wisemen led--the flight from royal wrath--
Simeon's prophecy--the child who grew,
before her eyes, in wisdom, age, and grace.

Even as God incarnate hid his face
with human features, heaven's handmaid kept
her glory hidden in a humble heart.
To make her master's home was her whole art:
to cook and clean, and watch him while he slept.

Mary has set her seal on motherhood,
and all who follow after cannot falter:
A mother makes herself a hidden altar
on which she offers God a glorious good.


Later, John said something that helped redeem what I see as some worthless days lately. Margaret was crying loudly during a diaper change, so John came over and kissed her. He then told me:

"I gave her the biggest kiss in the world, so now she has all my love and I have all her sadness, so she won't cry anymore."

What a sweet brother! And from a Catholic perspective, that John wanted to take on Margaret's sadness (suffering) reminded me of Jesus taking on our sins and suffering. That my four-year-old has never once shown irritation at his baby sister's loud shrieking (or how much of my attention is diverted to her) makes me feel like maybe I'm not doing everything all wrong.

I've been meditating on the transition to three children and hope to write a blog post about my thoughts on it so far, in which I want also to hear from other mothers what they thought of the transition specifically from two to three. More to come!

Making Faces with Brother

Margaret at nine weeks is now reactively smiling nicely but I haven't been able to capture any really good photos of it yet. Below are faces she was making in reaction to her big brother. (And two minutes later she began screaming and I had to pick her up again.)

Experience the Best Teacher

John and I have been arguing for weeks about how I would not let him use the unsweetened baking cocoa to make his chocolate milk. Cruel mother that I am, I told him that the cocoa was not sweet, would not taste good plain in milk, and he had to use Ovaltine instead.

It is because I am still a relatively new mother that I let myself get sucked into these arguments and it took me several weeks to realize how to put an end to them:

This morning I let John try a big heaping spoonful of dry baking cocoa.

The shudder of disgust that went through him gave me a wee bit of satisfaction. He asked for a cup of water to wash out his mouth, and then for his Ovaltine milk.

The Benefits of Screaming

You know you are a mom of three children four years and under (which I don't think is that remarkable, actually!) when the ear-splitting screaming of the infant is at least a relief from being able to hear the two bigger kids fighting over Yet One More Toy Squabble that makes Mama consider relieving said children of the objects of their consternation by dumping them all in a giant black garbage bag.

Yes, Margaret screamed a whole lot today, for unknown reasons--and that means I split up fewer sibling fights because I couldn't hear them! I wore the baby sun up to sun down and she would scream herself hoarse, inches from my face.

John and Mary have been invited to a three-year-old's Prince and Princess Party, so I am working on their costumes. At the Goodwill store, I was able to find a ready-made princess dress for Mary. For John I found a huge table cloth for three dollars, which I sewed into a king's cape today. (And how did I sew this cape? With Margaret screaming in my ears!)

I found a bit of highly textured, golden fabric in my stash with which I made a cross emblem. My prince is going to be a holy one!

Later I cleaned up those loose threads with Fray Lock.

I'd like to recommend Giada de Laurentis' recipe for Quick and Spicy Tomato Soup. A parish volunteer made it for us after I gave birth to Margaret, and today the children and I made a double batch: one for us and one for a new mother at our parish. I like that the soup contains pasta and beans, so it sticks to my ribs more than regular tomato soup. And let me tell you, it pairs well with grilled cheese sandwiches with bacon on Mama's homemade bread!

Birthday Party Dress

I finished sewing the Oliver + S Birthday Party Dress for Mary.

The Oliver + S patterns normally receive rave reviews, but I sure struggled with this one. I became completely stalled out on it about a month before Margaret was born: I kept reading the instructions and it was like reading Greek. So, when my Aunt Stella, who has been sewing for 40 years, visited me, I hauled out my half finished dress and obtained her help. She was able to decipher the pattern easily by looking at the drawings, and she agreed that the written instructions were very awkward. Together we were able to finish the dress.

I do wish it were a few inches longer. However, I'm not a skilled enough seamstress yet that I can be making a pattern for the first time and figure out ahead of time that I want to lengthen the hem or change something.

First Wagon Ride

Today we joined friends of ours to visit the Lazy-5 Ranch, which currently has two newborn giraffes.

When we got there, Mary (2) and Matthew (one month shy of 2) ran pell-mell after a little bird.

The bird ran until it reached this planter box, sat down in her spot, and fluffed up very big in self-defense.

The toddlers turned on their heels and ran back to us in fear! It was quite funny.

We decided for the first time to ride the wagon through the safari instead of driving our car through. I think the kids really enjoyed it, even if it did make us mothers a bit nervous.

This is a photo of another wagon full of people to show an example of what we were riding.

My friend took this photo, which I thought was sweet because it shows me being a bit of a "pack mule" mama (I'm wearing Margaret on my front) and my dear Mary tagging along after me like a little duckling.

Releasing the Butterflies

Today we released our Painted Lady butterflies!

Edging toward freedom

Landing on its first shrub!

John had never been this close to a live butterfly before.

All five of our butterflies survived, but note the one above with crumpled wings. He is the one who became entangled in the silk upon his emergence from the cocoon. I thought he was dead as he struggled wildly, then stayed still for about 24 hours. Somehow he must have freed himself later! He crawls around the habitat and cannot fly, so we decided to keep him as a pet for the remainder of his two-week lifespan and feed him nectar, so he doesn't become instant food for birds.

Daily Pictures

John has been choosing his own outfits since about three-and-a-half. I get a little chuckle when he emerges downstairs, happily dressed like a conservative 40-year-old man. Of course, I realize it's because those are the clothes I buy him and that he finds in his drawer, but I love how he doesn't have any concept of what is "cool" and what "cool kids" wear. We think he looks very handsome, thankyouverymuch.

When we went for a walk later, John donned a brown felt hat of mine so the sun wouldn't make his hair too hot.

Bonus pictures of Margaret

Yesterday was One of Those Days. I wore or held Margaret from 6:00 a.m. when she woke till 10:00 p.m. when she fell asleep for the night, with a ten-minute break after dinner and a ten-minute break later when I tried to wash dishes, both of which times Daddy held the baby and Margaret screamed.

Cicada Field Trip

Source of photo

On Wednesday we attended a class on the brood cicada--the kind that shows up every 13 or 17 years, in contrast to the annual cicada that shows up yearly. The teacher was the 14-year-old eldest child of eight red-headed, homeschooled kids who live on several acres (eight?) of wooded property, currently chock full of cicadas. There were four guest moms, so about 24 children in attendance.

The event started with the "formal" class held on the porch. The young lady did a wonderful job, teaching many interesting facts, holding the interest of kids of a wide range of ages, and handling beautifully when very young kids would enthusiastically give wrong answers.

Then we all marched through the woods to the very large coop for the 39 chickens. The kids were set loose to hunt the forest floor for dead and live cicadas to feed to the birds. Even for the adults, watching 39 chickens dive to the ground to catch the prized possession of one nasty cicada was hilarious!

Meanwhile, the teacher gave us a secondary, extensive lesson on raising chickens. It was quite the juxtaposition to listen to this skinny, fresh-faced, lovely girl telling us about the first year when they slaughtered their chickens inefficiently with a dull axe, but the next time they learned how to do it properly by cutting both arteries and the trachea.

Along the way, the kids also found a lizard, a toad, a giant bug larvae, a snake skin, and the biggest dead mole I've ever seen (the size of a rat!). We also visited the new family of kittens living in the work shed, where very exciting equipment like a full-sized tractor are kept.

You can certainly imagine that a grand time was had by my two kids!

A Day in the Life

Hear ye, hear ye! Margaret fits in my Ergo! I tried her on in my Ergo this morning, expecting that she would not yet fit, but wondering how much she had to grow. Turns out she fits very comfortably (and I don't have the Ergo newborn insert). Wearing the baby this way will be so much easier on my back!

I was thinking this morning about how mothers do calculations all the time, including the one where I weigh my exhaustion level against how long an activity will occupy the children and how much mess it would require of me to clean up. This morning after we baked the week's bread, the kids wanted to find out what would happen if they mixed flour and water and poured it out on the countertop. I decided that their fascination level was high enough that this activity was worth my having to clean it up later. But often I'm wrong about these "calcuations"!

Do you stay-at-home mothers find that you spend most of your days in the kitchen? As I'm just really "coming back on line" this week (no more of Chris' time off, no more meals delivered to me, my aunt having flown home), I am reminded about just how much time I spend in this room. Not that this is a bad thing, but I do find myself trying to make the kitchen area really pleasant for me because it is my Working Office.

I start out the day down here. Even my Morning Offering prayers and my pray-for-people list are posted right above my kitchen sink. I put away clean dishes, cook breakfast, clean up from breakfast. After getting the kids ready, I come right back to the kitchen for whatever is in store: laundry (I wash in the laundry room and fold on the dining room table, both areas of which are adjacent to the kitchen), homeschooling activities at the kitchen table (right now our butterflies are living in the kitchen), baking bread or sweets, sweeping the ever-messy floor, and, of course, the cycle of cooking. I keep my computer in the kitchen because if I kept it anywhere else, I wouldn't get to use it. I wander away from the kitchen to the adjacent den many times per day to nurse and change the baby. But, seriously, I'm in this kitchen most of the time from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. when we migrate upstairs for the kids' evening routine. It's quite surprising for me to ponder how important this room is to my life, my vocation, and our family! Do you other moms have a similar experience?

Speaking of kitchens . . . I am trying to take back the healm and start cooking our dinners again. While my aunt was visiting, I took advantage of her occupying the children to plan our meals for six weeks. My goal is then to review the meal plan each week and make necessary changes based on any social outings or if Chris will be traveling for work. I think I've written on the blog before about what a weak spot meal planning is for me, how it paralyzes my brain! Therefore, I feel much relief at having meals planned so far into the future.

Then comes the work of actually cooking them. Oh yes, I have been known to plan the meals, buy the groceries, and not cook the meals! I've been doing well this week. I am taking a lesson from my dear friend Rebecca who is a much more dedicated cook than am I. She learned after her very first baby that her only way to cook nice meals for the family was to start in the morning and work at elements of the dinner all day until it was done. That is what I have been trying (after my third baby) and it's working out beautifully. Today I already have the week's bread baked, the chicken roasting (which will also be used in a couple meals later this week), and the pinto beans cooked (in the slow cooker, which I did for dinner two night's ago), as well as the rice. All I have left to do is prepare the beans with this recipe I am trying, and prepare the corn salad--one or both of which tasks I hope to do before taking the kids this afternoon to a homeschooling family's farm-ette where we will be learning about brood cicadas!

Margaret at Eight Weeks Old

Chris' clients gave Margaret several baby outfits, including this darling yellow frock!

In good news, Margaret is starting to show some small signs of a routine. I think she'd often sleep till about 9:00 a.m. except that the bigger kids almost always wake her when they rise at 6:00 a.m. So then I change and dress the baby, nurse her while drinking my coffee, and she usually falls asleep in my sling to start cat-napping and cluster-nursing for the morning. During that time, I've realized through extensive trial and only error that I meet with failure if I try to transfer her off of me to sleep elsewhere. So she cycles through being awake and happy in a bouncy seat or swing for fifteen minutes at the longest, crying, nursing, sleeping in my sling for maybe half an hour, repeat cycle. Sadly, as the third baby, she is left to cry more than the first two. A few times per day, I choose to set down Margaret to blast through some chores that are exceedingly difficult to do while wearing her, and she screams her lungs out for the 15-20 minutes. She doesn't seem to "learn" or "get used to it," as I hear about letting babies cry. I mean, it'd be nice if she did, but in the meanwhile it's just a sad necessity of my having to meet the needs of my whole family and not just her.

Around 11:00 a.m. she falls deeply asleep and it seems that several times per week (ooo--so often, right?) I am able to transfer her off of me to sleep on the bed for two to three hours. And then the angels sing from on high and I rejoice. Then she wakes and spends most of the rest of the day cluster nursing and cat-napping in my sling while I do my chores. She seems to fall asleep for the night (in my sling) consistently between 8:00 and 10:00 p.m., so that could be worse. These days she starts her night sleeping flat on the bed (praise God!), but by 3:00-4:00 a.m. consistently needs to sleep the rest of the night with me elevating her on my chest or she repeatedly spits up and cries the rest of the night.

So, all in all, things are slowly improving and becoming more predictable. Ever so slightly anyway!

Painted Ladies Emerge

The Painted Lady butterflies emerged today! The red you see that looks like blood is actually butterfly meconium.

Unfortunately, one of our butterflies seems to have died. When I was transferring the chrysalids into the butterfly habitat, I was unsuccessful at removing all the silk, which is very strong. Now I know why the instructions said to remove the silk: when the butterfly removed, her wings became tangled in the silk and she couldn't break free. She struggled valiantly and I felt I couldn't intervene without probably killing her. Eventually she stopped moving, so we think she is dead now.

Watching the action!

The instructions said to put flowers in the habitat and cover them with nectar, as if it were dew. I let the kids cut one bloom each from my hydrangea.

Applying the nectar