Frog on a log

Hello there loved ones! March is quickly passing us by. Genevieve is now four weeks old. It is two or three weeks after your daylight savings, we are now having ours. Spring is almost at your door. Autumn, they say, is here. Hmmm….I don’t believe it, unless mosquitoes are a sign of the season. Actually, I’m hearing that this is the worst it has ever been, it is not normal. That is slightly comforting. There are many theories as to why they are out in such great number this year: dried up wetlands just recently covered by a thin layer of water, the lack of lily pads on our dam due to its recent upheaval which is not inviting to the frogs who eat the mosquitoes, sporadic rainfall, etc. They have eased up a little this week, enough to tempt Jacinta and I out into the garden for short little jaunts and harvests, but by the end I go crazy.

Sunday it rained a lovely heavy shower for a few hours in the morning. While Jacinta painted with her pop, Mary rocked Genevieve to sleep, Matt worked on the computer, I took my raincoat and a tin of seeds and ventured out into the garden. I hadn’t planted or done anything but harvest in a few months, so this felt wonderful and liberating. I thought the heavy rain might deter the armies of mosquitoes, but they still found my face and hands and attacked them. Other than mosquito bites and wet packets of seeds, it was a great planting: spinach, lettuce, peas, beets, broad beans, and Swiss chard. Later on in the week, I decided that Jess and I would start the day out in the garden for a new outlook on the day (not feeling locked inside). So we geared up in long sleeves, long pants, bug spray, hoods, and Jess, wearing her new winter mittens. It was hot, but nice to be outside. We watered the new seeds, and harvested. Two days later we went out again, this time not so overdressed and we got munched. Jess doesn’t complain much, I follow suit and try to keep my mouth shut. Harvesting was exciting: a few ears of corn, a bright orange pepper, cucumbers, Warrigal greens, basil and tomatoes! I thought the tomato vines had finished but they just took a vacation, now they are back, bright red and very sweet. We picked a few eggplants, they are so beautiful to look at, but to eat…I like to give them away. I am a wanna-be eggplant eater, with no inspiration to try since my family hates them too. So why do I grow them??? Good question.

Matt had a productive week, including a short trip to Sydney to attend a movie screening and Q & A with the writer who he needed to meet. He also worked one day as a substitute teacher: French and Sport. On his days home he again flowed back and forth between study and building, with an added bonus of bottling his own beer. Jess enjoyed helping him in this process. She was the “sugar girl,” adding a small spoon of sugar to each bottle before the cap went on. He worked quite a few hours writing a piece for an old professor on the paternal heart of the Divine, and also worked on the Creation Spirituality website. He finished off the shelves in the kitchen, which was very exciting for me to fill them up with jars of grains, nuts, herbs and spices. He reinstalled the pump in the dam so I can more easily water the trees and vegetables. The necessary job of weed whacking the entire orchard also fell to Matt. Jess and I are very thankful for this job as we can more easily jaunt through the garden. Last, but surely not least, he fathered our two sweet girls playing games, singing songs, reading stories, changing nappies and rocking our poor colicky newborn to sleep through terrible crying fits.

Genevieve, sweet Genevieve, indeed has colic. I suppose I’ll never know what babies without colic do with all of the time they don’t spend crying because they can’t digest their milk without pain. It’s so hard to watch them in pain, but this time at least we know all of the tricks and that sometimes, nothing works. She sleeps quite peacefully by day with a few wakeful moments to gaze at the shadows, our faces, to drink milk, spit up and fill her nappies. At night life isn’t as sweet for her. It’s shocking to us that Jacinta sleeps through it all, but lucky. She never misses a chance to help change her little sister’s nappies or give her a cuddle. Her need to fuss over Genevieve, as she does with her dolls, is so great that we must curb the urge. “I’m just covering her up!” she’ll say. “But it’s hot Jacinta, please don’t,” I’ll say. We may be rocking Genevieve and Jacinta in her effort to help will offer, “Here! Here! She can have my dolly, that will make her feel better!” Since we don’t have an extra arm to hold the dolly, she will carefully place a little cow on top of her little sister to help her. Matt and I are currently in the midst of a colicky evening, and Matt has just consoled her after two hours of effort by swaddling and rocking her. Standing up and rocking that long gets tiring, but it feels so good when baby finally feels peace, and then, we can also feel a hard earned peace.

Jacinta has grown so much since I last picked her up. I am feeling great having my body and strength back and can now carry her a few feet now and then. She was looking forward to this as was I, but wow! I didn’t realize how different she would feel, she is a real little girl! She seems gigantic now, so long in her big girl bed. I remember packing away clothing that I thought would never fit, and now she is wearing and growing out of them. She says things like, “I’m growing bigga!” or “Watch this…I’m using my big muscles!” She comments on growth and how little babies at playgroup are growing just like she is. As she is growing, she is losing her energy for naps, and it is very sad for me. I’m trying to hold on, but I think it may be over. As naps end, she is learning to have quiet play in her bedroom. It doesn’t last long before she really “needs” help changing her dolly’s diaper or “needs” help remembering what happens on this page in her book. She can “read” her books to herself now, almost reciting certain memorable pages verbatim. She sings to herself now, but of course prefers an audience. Her latest creation was, “Frog on a log, Frog on a log, Eating lettuce. A needle a needle a needle a needle,” sung to the tune of Ring Around the Rosy. The most entertaining aspects of her “performance” were the motions, bending her knees and bobbing up and down and her insistence that we give her our full attention. Then she would get stuck on the phrase “a needle,” like a record player not stopping until we stopped her.

On a musical note, I took the girls to choir this week for Genevieve’s first time out of the womb. She was strikingly awake and calm for the entire session. She was mesmerized by the familiar sounds and new faces, but also mesmerizing the choir members. We also had our first outing to town for some herbs at the health food store, just Jacinta, Genevieve and I. Having forgotten my carrier at home, we skipped a few stops and just played by the river. Jacinta has so much energy to let loose since we can’t spend much time outside at home (mosquitoes). Thus, the seagulls don’t get any rest while we are at the river. We are very appreciative of our car after our carless month and truly enjoy outings. I especially enjoy the thrill of holding my big girl’s hand and carrying Genevieve in a carrier rather than inside my belly!

We got out more this week, but also had a few visitors. Matt’s dad and step mom stopped in for a few hours while on vacation to meet Genevieve and check out the new house. A new friend from playgroup brought her little boy over and we all had a great time, moms and children. Jacinta and Nicholas enjoyed building towers, playing hide and seek and molding play dough together. It’s funny how simple little things can make us love certain people. For me, it’s a sign of a soul sister when a friend comes over for the first time, moves right into the kitchen and happily makes lunch while I sit down feeding my baby. On friendships, my Senegalese host brother called from France this week and we had a good long chat. I’ve now known him for ten years, perhaps only spent ten months together, but the distance is bridged somehow each time we come back together in voice or in person. I suppose this is the case with anyone you really cherish, after you catch up time passed in separation falls away and the few moments you have together restart the clock.

This week, again we were blessed by lovely packages from friends almost daily, bringing more mementos of far away loved ones into our midst. Just a minute ago, Matt booked our tickets to the US for this summer. It’s shocking how much airfare has increased since my first trip out to see “my boyfriend, Matt,” it has almost doubled. We will be coming out in less than two months…this means Genevieve is going to have to get over her colic pretty quick because colic on a 24 hour trip might kill us. We’ll fly out on May 18 and return on August 18, spending two entire months working at summer camp in Almont, Michigan. We’ll spend most of the extra time in the Chicago/Milwaukee area with family but as we’ll be car-less, we hope to welcome friends and family to come out and camp with us on the weekends in Michigan.

So this summer we’ll have a chance to make more memories with many of you, but sadly, not all of you. Luckily, distances are easily bridged with those we cherish.

I’m looking forward to being back in my home country with you all. I hope spring comes soon for you (:

Peace,

Shana

Waltzing Patilda

Good evening y’all! Happy St. Patrick’s Day, if you care. I suppose I didn’t know it was a holiday until lunch time, and didn’t even wear green. Oh well. Summer is officially over. I can probably predict tomorrow’s weather, it will be hot again and the psycho mosquitoes will still be waiting in great number on each screen to follow the scent of our blood into the house. My friends are shocked at our mosquito situation because they have so few at their houses, this is comforting. Anissa lent us her mosquito net for Genevieve and Keith dug one out of his shed for Jacinta. It is not very conducive to lazing outside with a newborn and a two year old, nor for doing laundry or taking strolls for fresh air. If ever I have felt trapped inside, it was this week. Give me winter anytime, but swarms of mosquitoes are not my thing. It does not help that our car was still in the shop, one month to fix the kangaroo damage! Matt was at the end of his rope, and lo and behold, they finished the repairs today. He has an even greater need to leave the house than I so this phone call, after a month of frustration, was more than welcome. Promptly after picking up our long lost car, we packed the girls up and went out for the whole day. Ahhhhh…..freedom.

I have learned a few good lessons about parenting this week. I won’t say I learned how to do it well, just how hard certain aspects of it are. I have never before admitted to myself that there are situations to which I have no answer. Although Jacinta is over the novelty of Genevieve, she still loves and wants to be with her as much as she is allowed. She is coming to understand that she is not the center of the universe, and is testing our love. She sees pictures of Genevieve and asks hopefully, “Is that me?” One morning she commented on how “beautiful” her pants were and how, “they are mine, not Genevieve’s.” She wants to see what she can get for sharing our attention, perhaps if we’ll ease up on discipline because we are busier now. Although she is getting even more attention and effort now than before Genevieve, she still feels sadness in sharing her parents. One day in preparation for Jacinta’s naptime, she got sassy and tried to hit me and throw her books. I dealt the best I could, and when I lay down with her I just started crying. Why did I lose it? I could not answer her question, “Why are you crying mommy?” but just reply that, “I am just sad, baby.” I had no quick response or underlying understanding on how to deal with her behavior. I thought our love would be so magnanimous that she’d never have to doubt our love for her. I ignored the necessity of this stage, it is something she has to work through. Perhaps my tears were the recognition of how hard the road of parenting can be and will continue to be, how much love can hurt, and that I don’t have all of the answers.

Somehow, without too much said, after this sad nap Jacinta woke up and spent the rest of the week feeling more loved and getting over her few days of jealousy. I’m pretty sure we were all feeling trapped inside our little house thanks to the mosquitoes and the car. We were also feeling the newness of leaving Mary and Keith’s space and creating different boundaries. This change was certainly welcome by the adults, but for a young girl who spent almost half of her life running between four adults to get what she needed most at the moment, this change has been harder. It has taken a few weeks to come to a new balance, but I think we are almost there. It feels good.

Jacinta is back to her old happy self, and is even more chatty. Today I felt that the “why?” questions might never end. The funny thing about her lists of questions is her pronunciation of the word, “whah?” We find it hilarious and accidentally imitate her anytime she says “whah,” telling her it’s another little bit of our friend Thomas from South Carolina peeping out of her. She’ll then get embarrassed and correct herself saying, “whyee?” In addition to asking questions, she also loves telling stories now. One day we pulled out some stools in the shade of the garden, and sat down. Jacinta said, “I’m gonna chat to ya,” and proceeded to recount exactly what we did last Easter in the garden. She told a few more stories of things that actually happened. It’s so awesome to listen to your children learn to tell stories, Matt and I share the happiest glances if we are both within earshot. It’s hard not to laugh when she starts each one by saying, “Once upon a time…” She is still singing us songs at bedtime, but also in the daytime. My favorite song this week went like this: “Mommy birdie in the tree. Baby birdie in the tree. Take me up in the sky. That’s the end.” We sing a blessing before meals in French and just this week she joined in for the first time, with perfect imitation pronunciation, “Merci merci pour le pain d’aujourd’hui. She has also started singing, “Waltzing Matilda,” a classic Aussie folk song but the entertaining part is that she sings about “Waltzing Patilda.” Given her perceptive ear and quick tongue, she will repeat words like orangutan, rhinoceros, chimpanzee and Congarinni after hearing them once with perfect pronunciation. It’s funny to hear her walking around the house singing “Waltzing Patilda.” She enjoys making up silly words and cracking herself up laughing playing word games. She must like her own mispronunciation of certain words. Also she is stubborn, like me, and will hold strong to her own ideas, just because they are hers.

Genevieve is just starting to show us herself, each day we see a little more personality. She can stay awake for over two hours now and can almost sleep for four hours at a time. She is pumping up her little neck muscles so she can watch everything around her. She is drinking lots of milk, and growing like a weed. Her eyes get brighter, more intense and observant each day. She kicks like crazy when getting her nappy changed, and for that matter can not bear to have any wetness close to her skin. Jess never seemed to care about wet diapers, but not this little chick! Genevieve has had a cold this week, snotty noses in newborns are no fun. She is also showing slight signs of colic, but we are hoping it will not fully manifest itself. Perhaps we are just scared since Jacinta had it and cried for two months. Preemptively, I have decided to give up dairy and hope to avoid the whole ordeal. We shall see.

Food, food, glorious food…I have reacquired the cooking energy that had been lost for a few months. The garden gave me a bit to work with: corn, peppers, cherry tomatoes, pumpkin, cucumbers, and carrots. Cutting out dairy for a pseudo vegetarian is difficult though, no pizza, no quiche, no milk with cereal, no quesadillas, no CHEESE! I’ve been lost, and I must admit: hungry. We had red lentil soup one evening, fish and veggies, another, veggie burgers another, and an African sweet potato and peanut sauce rice dish. After much contemplation, I decided that it was time for me to try eating beef again, as I am needing more sustenance without dairy and more time to be with the girls. Vegetarian food takes longer to prepare in order to get great flavor, and sometimes ends up being more processed than the local grass-fed cattle are. My main goal right now is eating local and with the least bit of processing. My red lentils come from Turkey and soy products are highly processed. So, I’m giving beef another try, and will try to use it in a meal once a week. Our first meal with it was spaghetti and went alright. I feel good about it, I am at peace looking at the cows around me, loving their presence, but also knowing that I am eating them as nourishment. Jacinta tried the meat too, she knows she ate cow. We’ll see if she’ll try it again.

I love eating as a family of four, cooking is so much more fun in this lovely kitchen Matt has built. He is still adding to it, we have a new wooden pot and pan rack hanging above the stove. It looks like a ladder, and has hooks (made out of thick bent wire) to hold pots, pans and some utensils. He has also begun an enormous shelving unit to cover an entire kitchen wall, again out of floorboards, each sanded, stained and routed. We will certainly post a picture of this once it is finished.

Matt is finding a nice balance in working both inside in his head and outside in his shed building furniture. He’ll study and write for a few hours in the mornings, then trek outside in the mosquito filled air down to the shed covered in bug spray to cut, sand, and stain floorboards for the furniture. He’ll break for lunch with us, for a cuddle with Genevieve, or for a game with Jacinta. In the afternoon he may do more brainwork or building, depending on the weather and his energy. He feels good about this schedule and isn’t worn out by the pressure of “hurry up and build us a house!” because it’s already inhabitable. Each piece of furniture just makes it comfier. He has more energy and seems quite content, especially to share his energy with the three ladies of the house.

As I mentioned, I have been shockingly unproductive this week. Matt reminds me that I am doing a lot in bringing up our girls, and of course I know that. But somehow, I didn’t realize how long it would take to do simple things like laundry with a newborn and a two year old. I’ll get through a day and actually feel accomplished that I did laundry AND cooked meals all day long. If I manage to sweep, I feel even better. I sewed “skirts” for the base of our sink and bathtub. This was a simple task, but took two days! I also sewed sleeping bags for Jacinta’s cows with her, but my gosh! Two days? It took me all week to go through my drawers and remove maternity clothes and return my old clothes to the drawers. Genevieve likes to be carried so my shoulders are sore, and in constant need of massage. Matt carries her even more often, but he didn’t spend nine months losing muscle in his arms for lack of lifting.

So another week of settling into life as a family of four has come and gone. We received packages from friends and family in America and Australia almost every day, Jacinta always remembered as the big sister and lucking out with gifts in each box. Friends came to visit almost every day, bringing us joy, distraction and food just when we needed it most. Today, we got our car back and regained complete freedom. Matt went out shopping for things in Coffs Harbour that we have needed for weeks, ate fast food for lunch and had a donut. He dropped Jess, Genevieve and I at my friend Michelle’s house who lives on the river and we played and relaxed outside all day. Gazing at the river today, not worried about mosquitoes munching us to pieces, I saw it with the eyes I had about a year ago. Wide open eyes, ready to see the goodness, beauty and truth out there, rather than worrying about what I lacked and needed to be truly happy again. Life feels good for us now. I feel free, unencumbered and able to enjoy everything, even the goat, but not the mosquitoes.

I’ll close with a story about our little girls. While lying in Jacinta’s bed before a nap she asked, “Where is little Genevieve looking?” I went on to explain that sometimes babies see things we don’t notice, or that sometimes we can not see. I told her that perhaps Genevieve was watching fairies that big people can’t see. Jacinta then pointed in the air to where Genevieve was staring and informed me that, “Genevieve is looking at that fairy, right there.”

Here’s hoping that you will notice a few things this week that “big people” don’t see.

Peace,

Shana

Ps check the website for more pictures in a couple of days (Matt’s too lazy tonight) - Matt

I see myself in her

Good evening loved ones (: I have been sitting here for a while stretching my mind to remember this week. Life with a newborn passes so differently, so slowly and peacefully that it’s hard to recount what you actually do. Matt, Jess and I have all slowed down to Genevieve’s pace, well, close to it. We obviously can’t sleep nineteen hours a day, but we sure spend a fair bit of time staring and making faces at our new little girl, walking around and soothing her, and changing diapers. I get the added bonus of feeding her. Jess has the thrill of making her little sister smile or simply bringing her peace by sitting nearby. Matt is thrilled to have another little girl to cover in kisses who is still a few years away from saying, “Da-ad, I don’t want any more kisses!” like Jacinta does now. We are all quite happy these days, albeit a little tired from the late nights. Becoming a family of four has been lovely: meal times, sharing time and space with each lovely girl, play time, and bed time. Somehow it seems that Genevieve filled in a little hole that we didn’t know existed, and perhaps it’s also thanks to the new house.

Jacinta is finally giving up on her role as a “mommy’s girl,” and is allowing Matt to help her with everything. She quite happily embraces the hours we spend either cuddling or feeding Genevieve, especially when she is allowed to give cuddles and kisses too. Perhaps she has also noticed that we have more time to play with her since life has slowed down so much. Matt is no longer building all day long, and I am no longer obsessed with productivity, as I can not be. Jess usually gets extra stories while I am feeding Genevieve, to which she is convinced that her little sister is also listening. We spend more time building with blocks and playing games than ever. She figured out a good way to include younger babies in her play is to allow them to knock down her towers of blocks. Now she insists that Genevieve “kick” over her towers, with my assistance of course. It is quite entertaining. Just this week I have noticed her games have evolved into creative play in that now she is putting different toys together to make them do new things. Today she played for an hour with a board game including marbles. By the end she was energetically running back and forth fetching things from her bedroom with which she would fill the game box and make the marbles dodge them. Today while gazing into Genevieve’s eyes on our bed, Jess excitedly said, “I see myself in her!” We think she was referring to her own reflection in her sister’s pupils which is very exciting to a little two year old who loves looking in mirrors. But maybe, just maybe she was appreciating the similarities in her and her sister’s appearance.

Although our car is still in the shop and has been for almost three weeks, we got out a little bit this week. I visited the doctor, Genevieve had her hearing screening test, Jess had two swimming lessons, Matt and Jess took bike rides to the park, and I took my first real walk with Jacinta one evening down to “muck walk” at the foot of the dam.

We found a local fisherman who sells fish out of his house. You just go to the door and his wife comes to the outdoor fridge to show you what he’s caught the day before, and takes the money. I bought snapper, tarwhine, and trevalley fish while Jess played on the rocking horse and Matt stayed in the car with Genevieve. Matt even tried the fish for dinner one evening and enjoyed it! We all went into town Thursday morning to run some errands, have juice and coffee at a café, and take Jess to playgroup. It was funny when Matt and I dropped her off as she left our sides immediately and went straight to play. After a quick hello to the other moms, I bid my big girl goodbye and she didn’t seem bothered, but as we walked out the gate she ran and bellowed loud enough to stop all conversation, “DADDY DADDY DADDY!” When she reached the gate, she quietly and nonchalantly said, “goodbye,” and scampered off to play. Matt had never dared enter those gates before, full of so many chatty mothers, so she was perhaps honored to have her daddy there. My friend Michelle took care of Jacinta at playgroup and reported that she didn’t seem to miss my presence much, but wailed louder than she has ever heard her wail when a little boy snatched the baby stroller from her and ran off. Typically she just watches the children do this, stares sadly for a few seconds, then either grabs a new toy or comes to me and asks for food. It’s so hard to watch this, but I don’t interfere. Later on I congratulate her on letting go and feel slightly accomplished in preventing her from growing too attached to material things.

Speaking of attachment, we are all growing quite attached to our new little bundle of wonder. Genevieve is so much fun to watch, even in her sleep. Although most newborn babies do it, you only get to observe the “falling baby” reflex for a few months in a lifetime. It doesn’t seem to occur because of a loud noise, but mid-sleep she will throw both arms up in the air as if she needs to balance herself and put on a startled face with her eyes closed. Genevieve also has a trick with her left arm, a disappearing act. She always finds a way to pull her left arm up into her sleeve and sometimes, out of the sleeve. She loves to ride in the carrier, both on mom or dad, and often wakes as soon as you put her down. So far she has trekked down into the garden a few times, and into town. As the sun begins to lose its intensity and the mosquitoes back off, she is sure to do a lot more “trekking.” She is also starting her training as a chef, very young. She lies on her fuzzy wool rug on the floor and watches me cook dinner, kicking her little legs and searching for bright lights, but usually ends up sleeping by the end. If she could have it her way she’d sleep on us all the time, but it gets tiring! She hates sleeping on her back, but will sleep on her side if packed in blankets. As I write, she is sleeping in her Moses basket on her side, on the floor next to me. She is amazing to watch.

There are quite a few other babies in our lives now also. My nephew Kai just had his first birthday in Milwaukee. Jacinta is looking forward to playing with him when we go to the US. Last time we saw him he was too young for play. Many of my friends have also had babies recently. Just this week our friends Caroline and Heather had a little boy, Reed, who came five weeks early, but what a joy for them. He may have a few weeks in the hospital to help him gain weight, but otherwise he is healthy. Our friends AnneMarie and Bernie, who lost their little girl about a month ago, came out for a visit on Monday. We had a wonderful day with them, sharing Genevieve, Jacinta, stories, and food. They continue to amaze us in their life understanding and strength. As they held little Genevieve, they would comment on whether Teresa’s features were similar to Genevieve’s, all the while smiling at the memory of spending just five hours with their daughter before she passed away. Some adults can inspire as much awe in us as can tiny babies.

The rains came again this week, filling the dam even more, making the grass and weeds grow even higher, but also doing the trees and few veggies a favor. There were peppers, eggplant, a few greens, and a tiny cantaloupe to be harvested. Best of all, we have full water tank for the first time in about six months. The rain inspired Matt to do some “brain work” inside the house, working for a few hours each day on camp planning, the Creation Spirituality website, and writing. He needed a good break from building, so in lieu of boring bank work and given schools that don’t need any substitute teachers at the moment, he worked inside and embraced the opportunity to be with “his three girls,” making life quite lovely and peaceful for me. We take turns sleeping in with the baby while the other keeps boisterous Jacinta busy. Matt mostly lets me sleep in the morning though, he only got one sleep in. One evening he began hanging pictures on the walls, and made our home even more comfortable being surrounded by art and photos of family and friends. We now have a mirror in the bathroom and tomorrow we’ll have a new pots and pans holder above the stove.

Our little house and our little family are both evolving and we are loving the process.

If you’d like to see some more photos, Matt just updated the website www.paintedguitar.com with new pictures. Have a great week, and have fun evolving as we all are!

Peace,

Shana

Genevieve Joy Henry

Good evening my dear friends and family. I come to you this evening with a heart so pumped up with love and joy that I can hardly hold it all in. This week Genevieve Joy came out of my womb and into our lives in full form, another little girl! ( pictures @ www.paintedguitar.com) We now have two amazing little females to love and hold for as long as they will let us. Again we have been showered with love by our friends and family both near and far. Phone calls, emails, flowers and gifts poured in from many who could not pop in for a visit. Nourishing meals, gifts, and congratulations were brought by friends and neighbors. All the while we had friends from Sydney here to help out and Mary and Keith to do anything we needed. What more could we desire? Perhaps some quick continental drift to bring us closer to you all in the US, but that may be going too far (:

Genevieve came to us on Monday morning at 11:15am. The date was February 26, which is also her daddy’s birthday. Since it is my nature to give too many details, I must tell you the story of her arrival as it is so fresh in my mind. Sunday morning I awoke feeling a bit queasy, this was the first sign. I had an incredibly lazy day, pretty much consisting of resting, reading stories to Jacinta, sitting in the spa, chatting with Jenny and baby Jonathan and eating big protein heavy meals that Mary prepared. Matt and Ted fenced in the teepee garden (hopefully for the last time) with some heavy duty wire in the hot sun. After a fun night of chatting with Jenny and Ted, joking about what would bring on the labor Matt and I went to sleep at about 11:30. I woke up 15 minutes later for my first contraction. By 1am we were packed up in Keith’s truck with Jacinta and Jenny in the back, all excited and on our way to the hospital in the rain. By 2am we met Trish in the car park and were being escorted to the birthing room with beanbags, toys, suitcases and lots of food in hand. It was a long slow night in and out of the hot shower and bath, bouncing on the birthing ball, sleeping for short spurts in between contractions. It was hard work for everyone. Matt described his job as chasing me from one spot to another to do whatever was needed. Jenny ran and fetched things so Matt could stay by my side like ice cubes, drinks, pillows and eventually cuddled Jacinta to sleep. Trish’s job was keeping Jacinta happy and comfortable, and what better way than unlimited fruit and stories until 3:30am? Luckily Jess did go to sleep freeing Trish to take turns with Matt rubbing my back while the others slept.

By day break the labor starting picking up, and soon it was decided that the baby was posterior, meaning the excruciating pain in my back wasn’t just me whining. This made me feel slightly better, just knowing the reason for the extra pain. I was running very low on energy but couldn’t keep anything in my system. At about 11am, just as I started doubting my ability to go on, my waters broke. We called in our midwife Judy and I desperately asked, “Can I push?” Within five minutes, little Genevieve slid out and joined the family. What a beautiful relief! She weighed 7 pounds and 12 ounces and was 21 inches long. Matt’s mum who was working nearby that day happened to pop in at the exact moment Genevieve was born, motherly instincts I suppose. Jess, Jenny and Trish left the hospital by 1pm to go home and get some sleep. Both Genevieve and I were healthy and recuperated enough to leave the hospital by 7pm, with Matt of course. It was an amazing day to remember having been supported by so many, with Jacinta’s wonder and participation, and with such a lovely finish, a beautiful baby girl to celebrate.

This week we have spent catching up on sleep, learning about life as a family of four, eating tasty food gifts, and visiting with friends. Matt now has three ladies to hang out with and is very pleased. I grew up in a family of four, my dad being the only male so this is very familiar. It is even stranger though that like my mother, I gave birth to two girls at the age of 26 and 29 and that the girls are two and a half years apart. As you can imagine, Jacinta is overjoyed to be a big sister. She runs and fetches us nappies, wipes, changing pads, and the spray bottle. Her favorite part of changing nappies is spraying the cloth to wipe Genevieve’s bum and opening and closing the velcro on the nappy covers. This evening she saw that I was “leaking” as I was feeding the little one and ran to fetch me a “leaky pad” without even asking. She is learning to be gentle, how to hold her little sista’s hand, how to clean her hands and allow Genevieve to suck on the tip of her finger, how to hold her, how to roll up her sleeves, and how to make her smile.

Jacinta is getting extra attention from all. Being relaxed and unable to be my normal overly productive self, I have more time to play, draw and read with her. There may be a baby in my arms but that doesn’t seem to be a problem so far. She has been taken on special outings and this makes her happy. “This is what big girls do,” she’ll gloat. Matt took her out to see a dolphin show with Jenny, Ted and little Jonathan. Upon return she always walks in the door and says, “Where’s my little sista?” In the first few days she had a few extra tantrums, but we’ll never know if it was fatigue, newness, too many visitors, jealousy, or the cold she had. Things have cooled down and life feels lovely as a family of four. Bed time has become even sweeter with our new addition. We all huddle in or around Jacinta’s bed, take turns reading stories, cuddling the baby and singing songs. Jess always sings her song last, this week’s theme has been the rain. Each song she makes up is about a different animal in the rain. One night she said, “This is about a birdie, in the rain,” and sang “Raindrops keep falling on my head.” The songs grow in content as she learns how to tell stories. Tonight’s song went like this, “Little seagull Little seagull in the rain…. Humm humm humm. Mommy seagull looking for worms…little seagull stays there. That’s the end.”

Little Genevieve looks and acts just like her big sister, Matt and I laugh remembering the first few days with Jacinta. We find ourselves trying to wake her so we can play with her and gaze into her beautiful blue-gray eyes. Jacinta and I try to imitate all of the funny faces she makes. We thought Jess resembled a cute little turtle each time she stretched her little neck out and opened her eyes in search of something, and also call Genevieve our little turtle. She hiccups in her sleep and while awake. She spends time on the wooly rug looking around, gazing off in the distance or at our faces up close. She punches her little arms and snorts and snuffs when she is not being held and wants some “mama milk,” as Jess calls it. If she is being held but not feeding and wants to be, she’ll peck at you like a chicken and throw her head dangerously into your shoulder to give you a clue. My mom asked on the phone, “Are her legs as strong as Jacinta’s were?” They sure are, she loves to kick around while being changed and if they were bigger than one inch in diameter, she might actually hurt you! We love dressing her in Jacinta’s old clothes, and now even in her cousin Kai’s clothes that my sister sent. It brings back beautiful memories and starts creating new ones too.

As do all babies, Genevieve loves to be held and needs to be cuddled for at least thirty minutes before she wants to sleep. Matt got his birthday girl and is cherishing this time knowing that one day, too soon, she may be like Jacinta and try to refuse kisses, cuddles and tickles. They sleep together on the hammock (in the house), he wears her around in the carrier, and will even let her sleep for hours on his chest as Jacinta liked to do. Although I had no problems with bleeding this birth, I am still quite sore. As my uterus shrinks back to its normal size, I am having post natal contractions quite intensely in my lower back, right knee and stomach. I do not recall anything like this last time but hear it is normal. I am enjoying the affection of a newborn and will soon have the energy to hold and cuddle her even longer.

On the “home front,” Matt was able to labor a little bit this week. Most importantly, he installed the old pink cast iron bathtub and now, we can bathe in our bathroom! We all celebrated with a bath to christen it and it’s great. He did a few fiddly jobs like filling in cracks and working on drainage. He weed whacked the teepee garden so it is no longer a jungle. I have not been down in the garden for over a week, but feel peaceful about letting it go for a while longer.

In addition to the birth on Monday, we also received wonderful news from our church where Matt was employed back in Michigan. A grant was approved to employ Matt (and family) as an “artist and theologian in residence” at the summer camp in Almont where we met eleven short years ago. We will be in Michigan for all of June and July and able to catch up with friends and family in the weeks before and after summer camp and also on the weekends. I will be freer than Matt for visiting as they don’t expect as much from me having two little girls to occupy. I do hope to do some work in camp gardens, music and perhaps cooking classes. What a blessing to be able to bring our newest family member out so soon to meet you all. I also feel really lucky to be around for my step brother’s wedding and my dad’s 60^th birthday. (Is that right Daddy?) We will be in Michigan for Jacinta’s third birthday. Matt will also have the opportunity to attend a few conferences out West concerning Creation Spirituality Communities on which he has been working over the phone on conference calls for the past year. As travel plans emerge, we will keep you posted.

Although much has happened in the past week, it feels as if time slowed down to allow us enjoy it longer. Spending time with a new little being is magical, it is like stolen time. I used to wonder how the second baby could be anywhere near as amazing as the first. It is, though! Each little movement is incredible. Perhaps it’s the fact that this little being was in my belly, how can that be? It’s nature, yes, we all know how it got in there, but it is also pure magic and I will forever be in awe of these little hands reaching out to feel what air is like.

Here’s to a week full of awe and lovely creatures. Thank you for your love and support, it came in handy this week!

Peace,

Shana and family