Sit and be graceful
Good evening y’all. The sun has not yet set, yet I am sitting here childless at the computer enjoying the crickets and my “time” with you all. Matt is in the lounge room pushing Evie back and forth in the stroller to further our attempt to disconnect her need for proximity to the boob from sleep. She is silent…this is a good sign. Jacinta is sweetly sleeping in her bedroom and has been since 6:45.
Today has been a lovely day for all. The girls and I started out on a quick jaunt in the garden: watering plants, searching for anything edible, (preferably red), checking for caterpillars, pushing Evie around in the pram. Then all four of us drove out to Mary’s aged care center for their annual fete. Fete, pronounced fett is a French word for celebration. Fete, pronounced fate, is an annual fundraising event that many schools and non-profit organization host. They usually include rummage sale items, plants for sale, a bake sale, a “sausage sizzle,” music, and various forms of entertainment like jumping castles or face painting. Jacinta had her face painted to be a koala, and enjoyed her first milkshake at Mary’s fete. She and Genevieve surely charmed the residents, being Mary’s grand daughters. One nice old man, Col, had been waiting “all” of Genevieve’s life to meet her because his wife, named Genevieve, died just before this little one was born. He spoke so gently and sweetly to our little baby, overwhelmed with gratitude for the chance to finally meet her after badgering Mary for so long.
Energized by the milkshake and sausage sizzle so early in the day, Matt came home and worked in the blazing heat on the deck. He is regularly getting a few weekdays at the school now and spending the rest of his workday preparing a huge mailing to advertise his TooManyPhotos service locally. He is also undertaking a whole new project concerning Creation Spirituality. He plans to edit a compilation of essays to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Matthew Fox’s book Original Blessing. He has already gotten approval and is now working on gathering the essayists. All of this has made the veranda a weekend project, which is great for Matt. The peacock also approves as he has made the half-built deck his favourite perch in the evening. As many dishes as I create cooking the way I do, it is quite a treat to watch the peacock out the window as I do the dishes. Although I must admit, Matt does more dishes than I do.
Lately in the evening I have been spending all of my time trying to get Genevieve to sleep. She has become so attached to feeding that she wakes hourly, at least. In my weekly journals I usually try to write about things I have done, outside of my motherly life. This week I can’t think of any because I fell asleep each night after the third or fourth time restless Evie woke up needing a cuddle. This is why we are trying new methods of sleep for I would soon go insane without any solitude. The stroller is our latest attempt, during the hours when we still have the energy to push her back and forth. It works quite well until she wakes up past midnight. This is when I haven’t the energy to get up, so I pull her in bed with me and let her feed whenever she gets restless. We will work up the energy to convince her there is no need to wake in the wee hours of the morning, little by little. The girl is such a light sleeper. If you sit and watch her sleep, she’ll kick out her feet once in a while, make fists with her hands, roll over and snort. Children can be so different, more testimony that they come to earth with a lot of baggage.
Jacinta, our professional sleeper, sleeps through all of this. If she wakes up in the middle of the night, it is not due to Evie crying. Sometimes she might bellow, “DAD! I NEED CUDDLES!” It’s pretty funny, for me at least. What a sweet favour to ask, but her tone does not resemble that of a child in need. Coming out of a deep sleep, she calls out at the top of her lungs, “DAD! CAN YOU HELP ME FIND MY BEAR?” Matt rolls out of bed quickly so she doesn’t wake Evie and helps her find the bear. He asks her if she needs to go to the toilet, and the answer is always yes. After she pees a river, he cuddles her back to sleep. She only calls out for Matt in the night, as she has learned that I am taken. I belong to Genevieve in the night. Hopefully this will change shortly, but I hope to keep up the façade.
Jacinta definitely knows what she wants. These days it seems to be attention, approval, independence, and the knowledge that she has gone as far as she can, boundary-wise. The line we have drawn for her on behaviour, well, she is starting to realize that it is invisible and can be crossed. She watches closely how I deal with having six children in French class, and sees holes. After she sees me ignore the misbehaviour of one or two children, she promptly imitates them. It’s a tricky endeavour, teaching your friends’ children and also your children’s friends. I hadn’t fully thought it through. As we tell Jacinta, we are all learning each day. She is still very iffy on the word “sorry.” If ever, she will only whisper the word, but will sometimes choose to be stuck in her bedroom instead of uttering remorse.
No matter how infuriating our big girl’s stubbornness is, the sweet moments we have far outweigh the battles. Jacinta is quite taken with flowers right now, and will pick bouquets wherever we go, either for herself, her swimming teacher, the librarian, the family. While walking or driving she calls out every colour of flower she sees, even the type of flower if she knows it. She particularly loves the purple butterfly bush Keith and Mary have on the walkway and picks one big flower each week. She excitedly brings it into the house to be put in a little vase, leaving it on the kitchen table. The other night Matt moved it to the windowsill while we were eating. Halfway through the meal, she stood up on her chair, turned around and took a big whiff, sighing in appreciation of its beautiful scent. She sat down again, and asked why the flowers had been moved. We were having fish and chips and didn’t want to knock them over. Good enough reason. They were shortly moved back to the table and she got up again, stuck her face in to inhale and sat down content. “I love these flowers.”
Today we were packing up to go to the fete and she asked if she needed to pack any toys. I told her that there were some in the car. She decided that she didn’t want any toys anyhow. Continuing the thought once buckled in the car by Matt, waiting on me, (as usual), she said to Matt, “Genevieve and I are just going to sit and be graceful.” Last week while dancing I used the word graceful. She wondered what it meant. I differentiated between the flight of a chicken and that of a dove. She has been trying to work out how to be graceful ever since, more so how to use the word. Perhaps she meant calm or patient. Whatever Jacinta meant, it was a beautiful intention for a three year old and strangely confident for her to speak on behalf of Genevieve.
Genevieve gracefully slept and indeed, did not need any toys on the forty minute drive. She has been working hard, tugging on my pants wherever I go and practicing her new standing skills. She is well aware that standing out in the middle of the floor with no support is a big step. You can see the concentration on her face as her little feet grow into this new sensation. Evie is a practiced little crawler and will follow us from room to room if left on her own. She doesn’t whine, she just follows the sounds.
On food, she is moving on from the mush and has started eating little finger foods, but of course still enjoys the mush after a few minutes of chewing. She’ll munch any finger in her path, even her poor little baby friend’s finger. Henry doesn’t cry when she pulls his hair, he gets her back, but her teeth sure made him cry. Poor guy.
I may complain about Evie’s sleep habits, but really I’ve had a great week. I didn’t do much gardening but went out instead. The girls and I spent a lot of time in town and out with friends. We spent a whole day out at Stuart’s Point at the beach and having lunch at a friends’ house. The only bad thing about that day was the psycho rooster that attacked Jacinta’s leg. Spending time with friends is the best thing to do when you have a small baby, as people love to pass around a baby. On Wednesday a few of our friends joined us for a workday on the chicken pen. Matt and Keith cut down tall trees while we drug away the debris and tore down the precarious parts of the old chook pen. Jacinta’s friends Rory and Nickolas were excited to work and be around all of the action. We had a grand feast for lunch and accomplished quite a bit. My friends took turns with Evie so I actually got to do some manual labour, demolition even! The chicken pen has a long way to go, but we’ll eventually close it up and get new laying chickens. The sooner the better because egg prices are increasing: the price of grain is increasing because of the drought in grain-producing areas. Our chicks still sleep inside at night, Mrs. Red sleeps under the house, the clucky ones are locked up in the chick pen and the two “adolescents” sleep up in a tree. Although they’re all just free-loaders, they keep us company.
Well, Thanksgiving is almost here. Lucky for you all in America, what a great reason to stop working and rest: to give thanks for all we have. We’ll stop and give thanks, and miss my family as we always do. I just found out my sister will be having a girl and we only have to wait until April to meet her. It’s a special time, hard to be so far away. We’ll just have to celebrate together from far apart, and perhaps just sit and be graceful. Stay warm and have a love-filled happy Thanksgiving!
Peace,
Shana
Today has been a lovely day for all. The girls and I started out on a quick jaunt in the garden: watering plants, searching for anything edible, (preferably red), checking for caterpillars, pushing Evie around in the pram. Then all four of us drove out to Mary’s aged care center for their annual fete. Fete, pronounced fett is a French word for celebration. Fete, pronounced fate, is an annual fundraising event that many schools and non-profit organization host. They usually include rummage sale items, plants for sale, a bake sale, a “sausage sizzle,” music, and various forms of entertainment like jumping castles or face painting. Jacinta had her face painted to be a koala, and enjoyed her first milkshake at Mary’s fete. She and Genevieve surely charmed the residents, being Mary’s grand daughters. One nice old man, Col, had been waiting “all” of Genevieve’s life to meet her because his wife, named Genevieve, died just before this little one was born. He spoke so gently and sweetly to our little baby, overwhelmed with gratitude for the chance to finally meet her after badgering Mary for so long.
Energized by the milkshake and sausage sizzle so early in the day, Matt came home and worked in the blazing heat on the deck. He is regularly getting a few weekdays at the school now and spending the rest of his workday preparing a huge mailing to advertise his TooManyPhotos service locally. He is also undertaking a whole new project concerning Creation Spirituality. He plans to edit a compilation of essays to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Matthew Fox’s book Original Blessing. He has already gotten approval and is now working on gathering the essayists. All of this has made the veranda a weekend project, which is great for Matt. The peacock also approves as he has made the half-built deck his favourite perch in the evening. As many dishes as I create cooking the way I do, it is quite a treat to watch the peacock out the window as I do the dishes. Although I must admit, Matt does more dishes than I do.
Lately in the evening I have been spending all of my time trying to get Genevieve to sleep. She has become so attached to feeding that she wakes hourly, at least. In my weekly journals I usually try to write about things I have done, outside of my motherly life. This week I can’t think of any because I fell asleep each night after the third or fourth time restless Evie woke up needing a cuddle. This is why we are trying new methods of sleep for I would soon go insane without any solitude. The stroller is our latest attempt, during the hours when we still have the energy to push her back and forth. It works quite well until she wakes up past midnight. This is when I haven’t the energy to get up, so I pull her in bed with me and let her feed whenever she gets restless. We will work up the energy to convince her there is no need to wake in the wee hours of the morning, little by little. The girl is such a light sleeper. If you sit and watch her sleep, she’ll kick out her feet once in a while, make fists with her hands, roll over and snort. Children can be so different, more testimony that they come to earth with a lot of baggage.
Jacinta, our professional sleeper, sleeps through all of this. If she wakes up in the middle of the night, it is not due to Evie crying. Sometimes she might bellow, “DAD! I NEED CUDDLES!” It’s pretty funny, for me at least. What a sweet favour to ask, but her tone does not resemble that of a child in need. Coming out of a deep sleep, she calls out at the top of her lungs, “DAD! CAN YOU HELP ME FIND MY BEAR?” Matt rolls out of bed quickly so she doesn’t wake Evie and helps her find the bear. He asks her if she needs to go to the toilet, and the answer is always yes. After she pees a river, he cuddles her back to sleep. She only calls out for Matt in the night, as she has learned that I am taken. I belong to Genevieve in the night. Hopefully this will change shortly, but I hope to keep up the façade.
Jacinta definitely knows what she wants. These days it seems to be attention, approval, independence, and the knowledge that she has gone as far as she can, boundary-wise. The line we have drawn for her on behaviour, well, she is starting to realize that it is invisible and can be crossed. She watches closely how I deal with having six children in French class, and sees holes. After she sees me ignore the misbehaviour of one or two children, she promptly imitates them. It’s a tricky endeavour, teaching your friends’ children and also your children’s friends. I hadn’t fully thought it through. As we tell Jacinta, we are all learning each day. She is still very iffy on the word “sorry.” If ever, she will only whisper the word, but will sometimes choose to be stuck in her bedroom instead of uttering remorse.
No matter how infuriating our big girl’s stubbornness is, the sweet moments we have far outweigh the battles. Jacinta is quite taken with flowers right now, and will pick bouquets wherever we go, either for herself, her swimming teacher, the librarian, the family. While walking or driving she calls out every colour of flower she sees, even the type of flower if she knows it. She particularly loves the purple butterfly bush Keith and Mary have on the walkway and picks one big flower each week. She excitedly brings it into the house to be put in a little vase, leaving it on the kitchen table. The other night Matt moved it to the windowsill while we were eating. Halfway through the meal, she stood up on her chair, turned around and took a big whiff, sighing in appreciation of its beautiful scent. She sat down again, and asked why the flowers had been moved. We were having fish and chips and didn’t want to knock them over. Good enough reason. They were shortly moved back to the table and she got up again, stuck her face in to inhale and sat down content. “I love these flowers.”
Today we were packing up to go to the fete and she asked if she needed to pack any toys. I told her that there were some in the car. She decided that she didn’t want any toys anyhow. Continuing the thought once buckled in the car by Matt, waiting on me, (as usual), she said to Matt, “Genevieve and I are just going to sit and be graceful.” Last week while dancing I used the word graceful. She wondered what it meant. I differentiated between the flight of a chicken and that of a dove. She has been trying to work out how to be graceful ever since, more so how to use the word. Perhaps she meant calm or patient. Whatever Jacinta meant, it was a beautiful intention for a three year old and strangely confident for her to speak on behalf of Genevieve.
Genevieve gracefully slept and indeed, did not need any toys on the forty minute drive. She has been working hard, tugging on my pants wherever I go and practicing her new standing skills. She is well aware that standing out in the middle of the floor with no support is a big step. You can see the concentration on her face as her little feet grow into this new sensation. Evie is a practiced little crawler and will follow us from room to room if left on her own. She doesn’t whine, she just follows the sounds.
On food, she is moving on from the mush and has started eating little finger foods, but of course still enjoys the mush after a few minutes of chewing. She’ll munch any finger in her path, even her poor little baby friend’s finger. Henry doesn’t cry when she pulls his hair, he gets her back, but her teeth sure made him cry. Poor guy.
I may complain about Evie’s sleep habits, but really I’ve had a great week. I didn’t do much gardening but went out instead. The girls and I spent a lot of time in town and out with friends. We spent a whole day out at Stuart’s Point at the beach and having lunch at a friends’ house. The only bad thing about that day was the psycho rooster that attacked Jacinta’s leg. Spending time with friends is the best thing to do when you have a small baby, as people love to pass around a baby. On Wednesday a few of our friends joined us for a workday on the chicken pen. Matt and Keith cut down tall trees while we drug away the debris and tore down the precarious parts of the old chook pen. Jacinta’s friends Rory and Nickolas were excited to work and be around all of the action. We had a grand feast for lunch and accomplished quite a bit. My friends took turns with Evie so I actually got to do some manual labour, demolition even! The chicken pen has a long way to go, but we’ll eventually close it up and get new laying chickens. The sooner the better because egg prices are increasing: the price of grain is increasing because of the drought in grain-producing areas. Our chicks still sleep inside at night, Mrs. Red sleeps under the house, the clucky ones are locked up in the chick pen and the two “adolescents” sleep up in a tree. Although they’re all just free-loaders, they keep us company.
Well, Thanksgiving is almost here. Lucky for you all in America, what a great reason to stop working and rest: to give thanks for all we have. We’ll stop and give thanks, and miss my family as we always do. I just found out my sister will be having a girl and we only have to wait until April to meet her. It’s a special time, hard to be so far away. We’ll just have to celebrate together from far apart, and perhaps just sit and be graceful. Stay warm and have a love-filled happy Thanksgiving!
Peace,
Shana
posted by Matt & Shana & Jacinta & Genevieve Henry at
10:10 PM
1 Comments:
Shana, it is Lena from Moscow! I cannot help writing how amazingly alike kids are regardless of their nationality! My younger son who is just couple of weeks younger then Evie does not let me sleep at nights either - "It works quite well until she wakes up past midnight. This is when I haven’t the energy to get up, so I pull her in bed with me and let her feed whenever she gets restless" - this is all about us :)
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