All Is Right With The World

I'm feeling contemplative today and would love to get down some of our thoughts and feelings from our first few days with Juliet.

All Is Right With The World:
I don't remember it being instantaneous that the peaceful, serene feelings came to me.  Rather gradually  happiness seemed to envelope me and the words, "all is right with the world" came to my mind to describe how it felt.  I kept repeating them to myself and trying to relish in the perfectness that they described.   All was right with the world.  That is exactly how a new baby feels to me.  Any hard feelings that I'd held deep within the recesses of my brain seemed forgiven.  I loved everyone and everything.  My baby was with me and she was OURS.  It is an almost cleansing experience.  It wasn't that I didn't feel any sadness at all because I did.  But it was sadness born of love.  Though I had wanted a girl I still mourned, slightly, that my baby boy days were over.  I mourned for myself and I mourned for Isaac.  My heart sat slightly on pins and needles as I listened to Joey telling the kids that we'd had a girl.  Isaac had always said he didn't care what we had but I'd wondered if this was a defense mechanism.  Not one bit.  He was ecstatic to meet her, never making one comment about "boys" or regret.  He loved our baby for exactly who she was.  I think that will continue.

As the afternoon progressed and they kept her away from us for tests, a bath, measurements and screenings I began getting antsy to hold her again.   When we finally got our time with her I couldn't nestle close enough.  I had forgotten how soft a baby is, how sweet they smell and how much I would want Juliets tiny little face to bury itself into my neck and breath her shallow, warm breath.  My heart is a defenseless little puddle held by the chubbiness of her cheeks, the poutiness of her lips, the blackness of her eyes and the flatness of her ears smooshed so delicately against the sides of her head.  To kiss her is to soar.  I can't get off this high that she brings.  It is GLORIOUS!!  Dare I say I want to do this 10X more?  Have I forgotten, already, what it is to be pregnant?  ...Some great love that makes you forget that!!  But we have a little piece of heaven in our home.  And that is a great love.

Her Name:
The name Juliet struck me one day about 4 or 5 months ago and while we vascillated and continued to look for others up until her birth day, it seemed to stick.  I had wanted to use the middle name, Nannette because it would have been more after my Mother since she goes by Nann but Juliet doesn't go with that very well so we settled on Nina.  Nina is my Mom's first name, my grandma's first name and the middle name of my favorite cousin, Jillian.  Juliet is a fourth generation Nina.  I've decided that for giggles we'll have to get pictures taken of the four of them at JC Penney or Olan Mills the next time we're in Houston;)  Wouldn't that be hilarious!!  It seemed strange to call her Juliet at first, probably because we'd never called the baby anything when it was still in the womb...we hadn't had time to get used to it.  Plus, its three syllables and a bit sophisticated...to call something squirmy, and squishy that squeaks by a name that Shakespeare wrote with seems a bit strange.  But its settling on her nicely.  I shorten it to Jet sometimes and she's been called Jules by a few as well.  I like them both for nicknames.


Thoughts on "waiting":
Joey and I decided that if we ever had a third child we would wait to find out the sex because, conveniently, we have all the necessaries for a boy or a girl.  We proceeded with that decision when I became pregnant with Juliet.  I am so glad to have done it that way but wanted to point out the one downfall of that decision.  I didn't feel as connected to the baby while I was carrying her.  I couldn't really imagine her, her name, her interactions with our family, how she would dress, the things we might do together etc. because She was an It.  My imaginations of It were more vague, less reliable, and honestly much fewer than I remember with the other two.  But the excitement leading up to the birth, the curiosity, the discussions/guesses and, of course, the delivery made up for it.  I was concerned a bit by my lack of connection but about two days before she was actually born, it came.  I became MUCH less concerned with "un-pregnanting" myself and obsessed with anticipation of having a Baby again...my baby!  My Mom cut the chord and when Juliet was placed on my chest my heart yearned for my second little girl, instantly.  Once again, heaven entered into the picture.  It was as if heaven came out of my womb;)  (how's that for melo-dramatic!!)  I wanted to kiss and squeeze her but refrained from disscusting the nursing staff by putting my lips all over her adorable cheesy, bloody, grey/blue body.  I let them wipe her down a bit and began planting the kisses on her head and cheeks.  All my MOm, Joey and I could do was smile, laugh, kiss her and make observations about her looks.  None of us could stop smiling.


The kids came for a visit:
The thing I noticed the most when the kids walked in was that the peace was with them too.  They had sincere, calm, pleasant smiles.  Not over excited, obnoxious ones.  They too wanted to be quiet, hold her, look at her, reflect.  Especially Isaac.  "Don't you just love her, Isaac?  Do you feel that in your heart?" He said yes and I could tell he meant it.  They brought her some gifts, a "Thank Heaven For Little Girls" jumper to be brought home in and a soft pink pig that makes oinking sounds when you squeeze its sides. They wanted their pictures taken with her and kept their soft smiles all the while.  They didn't want to leave us and kept asking when we were coming home.  They were going to miss us, they said.  Isaac called us the next day about noon-ish and said, "When are you coming home?  You said you'd be home after lunch and we ate lunch like 5 minutes ago!!"  So cute!  We got home around 1:30pm.  He saw us drive up and must have been waiting at the window.  Georgie "checks" on Juliet constantly.  Every morning since we've been home she comes to my bed as soon as she wakes up to "check" on her and lay down with her.  So sweet.

Joey said to me the other night as she slept on his chest, "I just love her, I'm so glad we had her.  I'm smitten."  And that about sums up how we all feel.  Thank heaven for little girls;)  Thank heaven for Juliet!

Juliet Nina Merback

She is here!  July 29, 2010 at 12:43 pm.  7 lbs 10 oz, 20 in.  

Ashley and Juliet are both doing very well.  Things could not have gone more smoothly.  They should be home tomorrow, so more to come shortly.

Our Song..

My Mom and I always had a song.  "You Are My Sunshine" were her pet words for me and we sang it together all the time.  Everytime I hear it I think of her.  It's a tradition between us that I've always appreciated.  When Isaac was born, I began singing it with him.  I sang it with Georgie at first as well but spent a couple of years on the lookout (pretty passively, I'll admit) for another song that would be unique between she and I.  Because Georgie is a cheerful, cutsie little dreamer this one reminded me immensely of her when I first heard it.  

"Cuppycake"

You're my Honeybunch, Sugarplum

Pumpy-umpy-umpkin, You're my Sweetie PieYou're my Cuppycake, GumdropSnoogums-Boogums, You're the Apple of my EyeAnd I love you so and I want you to knowThat I'll always be right hereAnd I love to sing sweet songs to youBecause you are so dear




Up until today, "You Are My Sunshine" seemed perfect for Isaac and I.  But when I listened to "The Luckiest" by Ben Folds again this morning I changed my mind (it's been a while).  The first verse and chorus seemed so appropriate for my thoughts of him and of being his mother.  It is a love song but...we love each other, right?  And the first verse could definitely be about any kind of love;)  We listened to it together this evening and he agreed...this is our song;)

"The Luckiest"

I don't get many things right the first time

In fact, I am told that a lot

Now I know all the wrong turns, the stumbles and falls

Brought me here

And where was I before the day

That I first saw your lovely face?

Now I see it everyday

And I know

That I am

I am

I am

The luckiest

I think I'll start this new baby off with "You Are My Sunshine", just like I did with Gigi and Isaac.  It seems to have become the tradition;)  As we get to know each other a little better each day or each year, I'm sure I'll stumble upon some musician with the perfect words and melody for US.  I can't wait;)  For now I'll just be here with my Cuppycake, waiting for my Sunshine, reminding myself that I am "The Luckiest".  Aren't I clever;)

Summer Crafting Fun

If your kids are crafters and you haven't already checked out:

Do it...NOW;) 

The kids and I are working our way through the age appropriate ones on this list.  We began our trek when we got home from Utah so we haven't made it very far yet. The craft we did today was such a hit that I had to blog about it.

Marshmallow Shooters! 

 All four of us (Isaacs friend, Brett, was over) were practically on the floor laughing

 at the stuff that was going on around here.  

The craft was pretty easy to do.  We bought the PVC pipe and connectors this morning, came home and I cut them with a handsaw in under 30 minutes (I won't tell you about all the mosquitos that I slapped while sawing...ewww  And did you know that hand sawing requires some core muscles...I don't have any!!  Theres' a baby squenched in the middle of them.)  The kids helped me sand the ends, we soaked them in soapy water for a bit, let them dry and then assembled them.  The kids were able to put them together almost entirely on their own.  After this, we busted out the mini-mallows and began firing.  

Georgie came up with the grand idea of shooting multiple marshmallows at the same time.   A machine gun if you will!!

As you can see from this pictures background there are no marshmallows scattered about my floor as one might expect.  The kids were quite diligent about eating up after themselves...ha!  And now I have three half eaten grilled cheeses strewn about my lunch table.  Marshmallows for lunch anyone!!

Introducing Puddles

Introducing Puddles

Our first Family Pet

Meet *Puddles, our new Hermit Crab

*Picture is not an actual representation of OUR pet;)

On Saturday I came home from the Gym to find Isaac and Georgie ecstatic about a pet FLY??! they had caught and built a Lego house for.  Something was wrong with its wings.  A few minutes later the fly was miraculously healed and disappeared.  They were quite distraught about it.  

"We finally had a pet, Mom.  Where will we find another one?"  almost in tears.  I suggested they check their piggy bank and see if they had enough money to buy a fish.  They did...why the heck not!  How much work could a fish be?  Plus, I figured a low maintenance pet could be a good experiment in resposiblitiy. (..and possibly a good first lesson on death:}  Lets hope not;0)   The following MOnday, after doing a little research about low maintenance house pets we headed to the pet store.  We had fish and hermit crabs on the brain.  My vote was for the crab because it seemed a little more "scientific" in its lifestyle. 

Once the kids compared the crabs to the fish they too wanted the Hermit Crab...

"Please MOmmy!!"

"Yes??  YAY!!!"

So, alas, we are pet owners!  Who knew that kids could get excited about a crab?  But I have to constantly be telling then to leave poor puddles alone!  After all, he is a hermit!!

Welcome to the Family, Puddles!

Park City 2010

Park City 2010

Man I love this place.

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe...with ratty lookin' kids;)  Cut us some slack...we're just finishing a long day at Lagoon!!

Gaga's tradition:  

A Scavenger hunt with prizes at the end!!

The girls, reunited!!  

The Will's....absolutely adorable;)

The boys on the lookout for Dinosaurs at the Ogden Dinosaur Museum.

 

As always, Georgie is off in her own little world, feeding dinosaurs or posing by the closest pink or purple thing.  She gets the "own little world" thing from me.  Not sure where the posing comes from!

After the Dino museum we took the kids to the Treehouse Museum, also in Ogden.  If you haven't been, GO!  It was an amazingly awesome imaginary adventure for kids.  We could have spent 5 more hours there.

The first ride at Lagoon found the kids a little wet.  And unnecessarily so.  The weather was PERFECT!

This cute little tushy we made play in ice cold snow run off up Mill Creek Canyon.  It was beautiful and reminiscent of my own childhood picnics up Little Cottonwood with my Gran and Grandpa.   The brown on her bum is mud...just to clarify.

Isaac felt like a hero jumping from stone to stone over running water.  He felt like a hero again when he decided he was tough enough to plunge his whole body into the ice water.  He loved it.

I love this photo.

Our pool day in Heber was a time to conquer fears.  After much coersion, encouragement, tears and then a brave example set by Reese, a girl!!, Isaac jumped off the 12 ft high dive!  What a brave boy!!

And Georgie did the low-but-high-for-her, dive as well as the long, windy, fast slide all by herself.

They grew up a little in Utah.  And that's what they keep doing every day, darnit!!

We also went to the Alpine slides and spent some time with Cousins.  But I didn't take out my camera.  I'm the worst!

Being in Utah is always a double edged sword.  We love it there so much, the weather, the mountains, the flowers, the food, the scenery, the cabin...it's almost more home to me than Houston.  I LOVE being there.  But it makes it that much harder to come back to our real home in Oklahoma.  Or even San Antonio for that matter!  But here we are, home again with the memories and Park City there to always return to.  Thanks Mom and Dad, for the cabin and the great vacation!

Vegas 2010

Vegas 2010

Aren't they sweet!  And there are two more comin' soon!!

The 4 year olds...man I love this age!

Here's Georgie giving Isaac a morale hug.  Boy did he need it.  

We/Jake tried to get Isaac up on skis but the poor little guy was so stressed out about it that it never happened. He hardly relaxed the entire day at the Lake until his ski misadventures were over and we told him that he didn't have to try again.  Now anytime the words boat or lake are mentioned he asks with a panic in his voice, "Do I have to ski"?  We're currently working on Isaacs self-defeating thoughts.  Any suggestions?

Lukey is like a ray of Sunshine.  Every family should have one!!

Surf's up! 

If you haven't tried surfing behind a boat, do.   Nothin' better for kids.

Games of "Chicken" at the pool became a favorite...regular "chicken" and "chicken basketball".

I LOVE Aunt J's laugh...so cute and all encompassing!  

Georgie took quite a liking to Jenny too;)  She loves girls!

I really like this one!

Mimi had Georgie swimming like a Fish before we left.    She's basically pool safe and completely independent!  My pregnant body has been loving that this summer...Pool= lounge time for mommy!!

Loving each other (they really do) 

in front of the Egyptian Goddess of protection;) at the Vegas history museum.

And don't forget the fire...all part of the trip!

We had a great time.  It was so great being with everyone that I EVEN had thoughts of living in Vegas one day;0  Despite the heat, I know we'd love it.  It will be a summer vacation talked about for years and years to come (mostly because of the fire;)...loving Mimi's pool, seeing Jake and Ash's new house for the first time, being pregnant in Vegas heat, and the nap time chat about girls and kissing I overheard between Isaac and Tanner.  Ask me later;)  soooo cute;)  Thanks for coming down for us, Rob, Sarah and Jen.  THanks for the boat Jake and Ash and for cheering on my kids.  Thanks for making it all happen Mimi and Popop!  We wish it could happen more often;(

xoxo