Look Who's One!
Just one year ago, on Matt’s 34th birthday, with the help of a few loving souls, I pushed Genevieve Joy out into the world. She was so beautiful, tiny, helpless, purple, sleepy, and slow. She is now one and her daddy is 35. Evie is even more beautiful today, but “big,” determined, no longer purple, wakeful, alert, and very fast. Matt hasn’t changed much, being an adult and all. Looking back at the videos from February 2007 and at the birth video just makes me smile. I loved being pregnant and birthing, it was incredibly empowering. Don’t think this means we want to keep on going, Genevieve and Jacinta will do just fine!
We find many ways to amuse ourselves in our little house overlooking the dam. This week the girls and I had a few fun cooking days mainly baking for the birthday party, but also making bread, granola, and banana ice cream. We spent so much time inside cooking and cleaning that we had to eat our meals outside in the cubby house to get some fresh air. Both girls like to sweep now, but enough is enough. Jacinta doesn’t complain, she loves being inside. Genevieve usually pushes on the screen door to escape, but this time she did a lot of bowl licking. The large wooden bowl we use to make bread is also a perfect fit for her bum, she thinks. I had a good laugh each time I put the bowl down for she and Jacinta to share (licking) and Genevieve would sit right in the middle of the last bits of dough. Jacinta didn’t find it as amusing. Evie has watched me so carefully that she’ll put on the oven mitt and try to open the oven door like I do. It is a bit of a worry though. Having babies around hot stoves is no laughing matter. Evie disagrees. She finds it hilarious each time she touches the hot oven door and I warn her “chaud!” (hot). I suppose she’ll learn someday.
Can you learn how to sleep? Genevieve took an amazing two hour nap on her birthday and I thought, “wow, she has learned to nap!” But of course, it was a fluke. Children learn most things by imitation. Perhaps I should start napping in the day time and let Evie and Jacinta watch me, will they learn? Singing, that’s something Jacinta is surely learning through imitation. I pride myself on not using much vibrato in my singing, yet Jacinta imitating vibrato is telling me that I must sing some for her to pick it up. The other day Jacinta found a new stage: the phone. When she told my dad and Barb about the letters she’d been writing, they asked her if she could sing the ABC’s. Off she went, the ABC’s with vibrato! She sang it twice, then sang Baa Baa Black sheep, and two French songs. This is it! She’s always looking for people to watch her tricks. Now she has found a new way to draw attention and admiration.
Besides needing adults to clap for her, Jacinta also needs love and approval from little people. In dance class, she floated around in a dream world for most of the class. By the end though, she made a friend. I was too busy chasing Genevieve to notice, but Jacinta pranced out afterwards bursting with energy, “I made a friend. Charlotte is my best friend in dance class, we danced together! She’s wearing pink pants.” Now the sadness of Lily’s absence is gone because she has a new friend with pink pants who she danced with for maybe 15 minutes. We did see Lily a few times this week though and the battle of wills has begun. We wondered how long it would take them to start fighting and bang. At playgroup they whacked each other a few times over a battle for space in the sandbox. It ended with Lily saying “I don’t like you anymore.” Oh my, I remember this phrase from childhood. Jacinta cried for fifteen minutes and by then, the sandbox was cleared of children for no one wanted to listen to her bellow. She did not learn to compromise that moment, but did eventually pull herself together enough to go and join the children on the slide. I have needlessly tried to explain what would happen if she failed to compromise when playing with children, trying to protect her from the blow. Throw a kid on the playground for a day and they’ll learn a lot, things that take years to teach at home. This is a tough situation for a pleaser, how to make everyone happy and still get your own way, impossible on the playground.
In their wisdom, children are very good at forgiving and forgetting. Lily and Nickolas came over after playgroup for a few hours. I love taking care of Jacinta’s friends because they keep her busy, active and usually happy. If I didn’t have hundreds of chores to do I would have loved to be a fly on the wall in the girls’ room while they played “Mommies and Daddies.” Playing “House” was one of my favourite games as a girl too, acting out daily life and playing the part of the parents: being in charge! Acting out the naughty child was also fun. Genevieve traipsed in and out of the room, but they didn’t give her a role to play. The only thing I did see was when Jacinta came out of the room with three animals attached to her belly, grunted, plopped them onto the beanbag and said, “I just had my babies!” She scooped them up and went back to the bedroom.
Speaking of babies, our old goat Daisy just had twins, Jack and Jill, on someone else’s farm. The new owners have found her to be just as difficult as we did. Perhaps a few kids will make her happy and less needy for human contact. We liked the idea of having baby goats around, until we thought it all out. Baby goats grow up and turn into big, annoying, destructive pet goats. Animals with no purpose besides company and entertainment are fine, when they don’t eat and destroy more than they are worth. Our 5 chickens are pets I suppose, they don’t give us eggs. The two little roosters are handy clocks, they at least set the illusion that we live on a farm. If I gardened more, it might feel more farmish. I did actually get out and plant some root crops this week though: garlic, beets, carrots, onions and parsnips. Back to animals, the infamous chicken pen is almost ready for chickens, big ones that lay eggs. Jacinta, Keith and I planted some seed in the pen and it actually came up! This will give them something to munch in their little chicken forest, besides garden scraps. The roost and nesting boxes need work, but that’s it. I might start looking for some laying hens to buy.
Genevieve had a lovely first birthday and received many lovely gifts, no chickens though. Toys, clothes and shoes were sent by family near and far, she is a very lucky girl. Jacinta had a lovely time hiding all of the gifts for Matt and Genevieve to find Tuesday morning. She did feel the angst though, the burning question, “How can there be so many presents for Genevieve and daddy and none for me???” The lucky big sister did receive a few gifts, not from us though! We think that giving her a little sister was a big enough gift, of course I won’t tell her that for a while. The girls made cards and bought some tools for Matt. His friends gave him more chocolate than we’ve ever had in the house. Somehow, it’s already gone!
Monday the girls and I cooked and prepared for the party all day, knowing Jacinta would be at preschool on Tuesday. We baked two cakes, chocolate and carrot. We baked bread. Jacinta made surprise bread rolls, hiding dried fruits and nuts inside each bun. We gathered baskets, bowls and balls for Bozo buckets and practiced playing. Genevieve loved putting the baskets on her head, as usual, but also threw a few balls in the baskets. Jacinta was giddy getting ready. Tuesday I cleaned, made salads, roasted vegetables, made crêpes, frosted and decorated the cakes, played and blew up balloons. Our friend Trish who helped out at Evie’s birth came to cook and play before the party. Matt sprayed for mosquitoes, and set up the tent and filled it with balloons for the children. Keith hung streamers and cut pumpkin with me. Mary made fruit platter et voila. We actually finished everything, thanks to everyone’s help. Genevieve and Matt enjoyed the party, joyful to be surrounded by good people, good food and out in the fresh air. Genevieve roamed back and forth between the children in the cubby house cooking and digging and the adults and the food on the veranda. At one point she just laid down on top of a ball out in the grass, pure bliss. No one scooped her up, she was free. She had her first cake, and her first juice. It’s good to be one.
The bliss she seemed to enjoy out in the grass that day equalled her beach bliss. I guess for most of us, it can’t get much better: the sound of the waves, the flow of the air and water, the big sky, the wide open space, the soft sand, and the sun. Jacinta loves the beach just as much. When I get out on the wet sand, I get this funny urge to do cartwheels. I’m thirty now, can I still do gymnastics? I guess my body says it’s ok, but I try not to do it around strangers. Oooh…just wait until the girls are teenagers, it’ll embarrass the heck out of them. We spent Saturday afternoon at Valla beach with Michelle and Rory while Matt drove out to Coffs to shop. In addition to researching stereos, he picked up our second camera replacement. (We’re having bad camera luck, but good warrantees). Soon the weather will be too chilly to spend three hours at the beach with little children. When the wind blows it gets very cold, lips turn blue, but if we dry off and play in dry sand, it’s lovely.
As usual, Matt worked a lot this week. He taught at the high school on Monday and Friday, paid work, yay! Besides this, he completed more job applications, and worked on Originally Blessed. He had a couple of phone interviews, a conference call, and did some editing. His finger is healing from the drill incident, slowly. Regardless, he went back to labouring on the cellar walls this morning. He also made a new movie so check on the website soon. I didn’t realize February had ended, but the new movie reminded me.
I’ll close with a story that might make you laugh. This afternoon we visited some friends we hadn’t seen for a few months. Genevieve got out of the car and took a few wobbly steps. Joking, Matt said, “Genevieve’s had a bit too much to drink.” Jacinta heard this and chimed in, “I drank sooo much last night!” Melina and Justin giggled and inquired, “Really?” Jacinta went on to explain that she drank so much at dinner that she had to wake three times in the night to pee. She told them that “the first wee was so big, it was like an elephant’s!” Wow, wow, wow.
It feels like good energy spent when we marvel at these amazing creatures, little people. I suppose life would be even nicer if we sat down and marvelled more often. I hope you are all well, peaceful and in awe of something.
Take care,
Shana
We find many ways to amuse ourselves in our little house overlooking the dam. This week the girls and I had a few fun cooking days mainly baking for the birthday party, but also making bread, granola, and banana ice cream. We spent so much time inside cooking and cleaning that we had to eat our meals outside in the cubby house to get some fresh air. Both girls like to sweep now, but enough is enough. Jacinta doesn’t complain, she loves being inside. Genevieve usually pushes on the screen door to escape, but this time she did a lot of bowl licking. The large wooden bowl we use to make bread is also a perfect fit for her bum, she thinks. I had a good laugh each time I put the bowl down for she and Jacinta to share (licking) and Genevieve would sit right in the middle of the last bits of dough. Jacinta didn’t find it as amusing. Evie has watched me so carefully that she’ll put on the oven mitt and try to open the oven door like I do. It is a bit of a worry though. Having babies around hot stoves is no laughing matter. Evie disagrees. She finds it hilarious each time she touches the hot oven door and I warn her “chaud!” (hot). I suppose she’ll learn someday.
Can you learn how to sleep? Genevieve took an amazing two hour nap on her birthday and I thought, “wow, she has learned to nap!” But of course, it was a fluke. Children learn most things by imitation. Perhaps I should start napping in the day time and let Evie and Jacinta watch me, will they learn? Singing, that’s something Jacinta is surely learning through imitation. I pride myself on not using much vibrato in my singing, yet Jacinta imitating vibrato is telling me that I must sing some for her to pick it up. The other day Jacinta found a new stage: the phone. When she told my dad and Barb about the letters she’d been writing, they asked her if she could sing the ABC’s. Off she went, the ABC’s with vibrato! She sang it twice, then sang Baa Baa Black sheep, and two French songs. This is it! She’s always looking for people to watch her tricks. Now she has found a new way to draw attention and admiration.
Besides needing adults to clap for her, Jacinta also needs love and approval from little people. In dance class, she floated around in a dream world for most of the class. By the end though, she made a friend. I was too busy chasing Genevieve to notice, but Jacinta pranced out afterwards bursting with energy, “I made a friend. Charlotte is my best friend in dance class, we danced together! She’s wearing pink pants.” Now the sadness of Lily’s absence is gone because she has a new friend with pink pants who she danced with for maybe 15 minutes. We did see Lily a few times this week though and the battle of wills has begun. We wondered how long it would take them to start fighting and bang. At playgroup they whacked each other a few times over a battle for space in the sandbox. It ended with Lily saying “I don’t like you anymore.” Oh my, I remember this phrase from childhood. Jacinta cried for fifteen minutes and by then, the sandbox was cleared of children for no one wanted to listen to her bellow. She did not learn to compromise that moment, but did eventually pull herself together enough to go and join the children on the slide. I have needlessly tried to explain what would happen if she failed to compromise when playing with children, trying to protect her from the blow. Throw a kid on the playground for a day and they’ll learn a lot, things that take years to teach at home. This is a tough situation for a pleaser, how to make everyone happy and still get your own way, impossible on the playground.
In their wisdom, children are very good at forgiving and forgetting. Lily and Nickolas came over after playgroup for a few hours. I love taking care of Jacinta’s friends because they keep her busy, active and usually happy. If I didn’t have hundreds of chores to do I would have loved to be a fly on the wall in the girls’ room while they played “Mommies and Daddies.” Playing “House” was one of my favourite games as a girl too, acting out daily life and playing the part of the parents: being in charge! Acting out the naughty child was also fun. Genevieve traipsed in and out of the room, but they didn’t give her a role to play. The only thing I did see was when Jacinta came out of the room with three animals attached to her belly, grunted, plopped them onto the beanbag and said, “I just had my babies!” She scooped them up and went back to the bedroom.
Speaking of babies, our old goat Daisy just had twins, Jack and Jill, on someone else’s farm. The new owners have found her to be just as difficult as we did. Perhaps a few kids will make her happy and less needy for human contact. We liked the idea of having baby goats around, until we thought it all out. Baby goats grow up and turn into big, annoying, destructive pet goats. Animals with no purpose besides company and entertainment are fine, when they don’t eat and destroy more than they are worth. Our 5 chickens are pets I suppose, they don’t give us eggs. The two little roosters are handy clocks, they at least set the illusion that we live on a farm. If I gardened more, it might feel more farmish. I did actually get out and plant some root crops this week though: garlic, beets, carrots, onions and parsnips. Back to animals, the infamous chicken pen is almost ready for chickens, big ones that lay eggs. Jacinta, Keith and I planted some seed in the pen and it actually came up! This will give them something to munch in their little chicken forest, besides garden scraps. The roost and nesting boxes need work, but that’s it. I might start looking for some laying hens to buy.
Genevieve had a lovely first birthday and received many lovely gifts, no chickens though. Toys, clothes and shoes were sent by family near and far, she is a very lucky girl. Jacinta had a lovely time hiding all of the gifts for Matt and Genevieve to find Tuesday morning. She did feel the angst though, the burning question, “How can there be so many presents for Genevieve and daddy and none for me???” The lucky big sister did receive a few gifts, not from us though! We think that giving her a little sister was a big enough gift, of course I won’t tell her that for a while. The girls made cards and bought some tools for Matt. His friends gave him more chocolate than we’ve ever had in the house. Somehow, it’s already gone!
Monday the girls and I cooked and prepared for the party all day, knowing Jacinta would be at preschool on Tuesday. We baked two cakes, chocolate and carrot. We baked bread. Jacinta made surprise bread rolls, hiding dried fruits and nuts inside each bun. We gathered baskets, bowls and balls for Bozo buckets and practiced playing. Genevieve loved putting the baskets on her head, as usual, but also threw a few balls in the baskets. Jacinta was giddy getting ready. Tuesday I cleaned, made salads, roasted vegetables, made crêpes, frosted and decorated the cakes, played and blew up balloons. Our friend Trish who helped out at Evie’s birth came to cook and play before the party. Matt sprayed for mosquitoes, and set up the tent and filled it with balloons for the children. Keith hung streamers and cut pumpkin with me. Mary made fruit platter et voila. We actually finished everything, thanks to everyone’s help. Genevieve and Matt enjoyed the party, joyful to be surrounded by good people, good food and out in the fresh air. Genevieve roamed back and forth between the children in the cubby house cooking and digging and the adults and the food on the veranda. At one point she just laid down on top of a ball out in the grass, pure bliss. No one scooped her up, she was free. She had her first cake, and her first juice. It’s good to be one.
The bliss she seemed to enjoy out in the grass that day equalled her beach bliss. I guess for most of us, it can’t get much better: the sound of the waves, the flow of the air and water, the big sky, the wide open space, the soft sand, and the sun. Jacinta loves the beach just as much. When I get out on the wet sand, I get this funny urge to do cartwheels. I’m thirty now, can I still do gymnastics? I guess my body says it’s ok, but I try not to do it around strangers. Oooh…just wait until the girls are teenagers, it’ll embarrass the heck out of them. We spent Saturday afternoon at Valla beach with Michelle and Rory while Matt drove out to Coffs to shop. In addition to researching stereos, he picked up our second camera replacement. (We’re having bad camera luck, but good warrantees). Soon the weather will be too chilly to spend three hours at the beach with little children. When the wind blows it gets very cold, lips turn blue, but if we dry off and play in dry sand, it’s lovely.
As usual, Matt worked a lot this week. He taught at the high school on Monday and Friday, paid work, yay! Besides this, he completed more job applications, and worked on Originally Blessed. He had a couple of phone interviews, a conference call, and did some editing. His finger is healing from the drill incident, slowly. Regardless, he went back to labouring on the cellar walls this morning. He also made a new movie so check on the website soon. I didn’t realize February had ended, but the new movie reminded me.
I’ll close with a story that might make you laugh. This afternoon we visited some friends we hadn’t seen for a few months. Genevieve got out of the car and took a few wobbly steps. Joking, Matt said, “Genevieve’s had a bit too much to drink.” Jacinta heard this and chimed in, “I drank sooo much last night!” Melina and Justin giggled and inquired, “Really?” Jacinta went on to explain that she drank so much at dinner that she had to wake three times in the night to pee. She told them that “the first wee was so big, it was like an elephant’s!” Wow, wow, wow.
It feels like good energy spent when we marvel at these amazing creatures, little people. I suppose life would be even nicer if we sat down and marvelled more often. I hope you are all well, peaceful and in awe of something.
Take care,
Shana
posted by Matt & Shana & Jacinta & Genevieve Henry at
11:33 PM
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