Fragments from a Mommy Brain

"Mommy, what does your milk taste like?" asked Monkey2.
"I don't know."
Spying some drips on my arm -- nursing is a messy business and someone always gets squirted in the eye or nose -- she put her finger on them and then licked her finger.
"It's sweet like sugar!" she announced.

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Monkey3 is intent on moving when she's left to her own devices. Put her on her back, as for a diaper change, and she will flip up on her side. Put her on her belly for "tummy time" as the pediatrician insists, though I think being upright in my various carriers does more for developing her neck strength, and she might roll onto her back, or push herself with her toes, or today I saw her trying to pull herself forward with her forearms and elbows. Really? She's nine weeks old.

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Wrapping and carrying Monkey3 in the Titanoboa is getting some attention.
"Is that from Africa?" asked my mother-in-law as she watched me wind ourselves up in it.
"I don't know," I answered, "but a lot of cultures wrap and carry their babies in similar ways."
She was fascinated, not just in its utility, but with the fabric. "It's almost like a fashion accessory," she observed, "You could wear it to the opera."

Not likely I'm going to the opera any time soon, but I did wear it to a museum, carrying Monkey3 in it on the metro and to the National Portrait Gallery with the Daisy Girl Scouts.
A elderly black woman, all dolled up for an afternoon at the museum, gave me a nod. "I used to carry my children that way."

And the neighbor across the street took off her rhinestone sunglasses to get a better look. "You carry her in that all day?"
"Not ALL day. But it's really comfortable!"

More comfortable than the Bjorn, and I love the Bjorn, but for all day carries, as well as mobility, I really enjoy the wrap. Plus it works as a nursing cover-up. But the click-click-done of the Bjorn can't be beat in parking lots with puddles.

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Monkey1 lost two teeth on consecutive nights. Somehow hers come out in even pairs. She likes the state quarters that the tooth fairy brings. I found a Yosemite one the other day, so I guess the new collector quarters are national parks.

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I'm in print. I decided to close down my other blog, which I kept last spring and summer following a loss after a several years of secondary infertility. As a tool for healing, it really helped.
Our church is building a Mary Garden, and one fundraiser for it was "buy a brick" for the path. These could be inscribed as the donor wished, and I bought one to say "In Memory of Our Baby Saints in Heaven." I walked about and found the brick the other day, near one of the benches to be installed. A photo of the brick provided a nice last page and close for the book. In life, the chapter had already concluded, the page flipped, and Monkey3's story begun.