The last two weeks have been a tornado, except instead of houses, corn and evil schoolmarms on bicycles, the flying debris has been diapers, onesies and evil schoolmarms. Well, not schoolmarms, just school teachers. I have had a very difficult two weeks at work, of which I would love to tell you, but recent trends in educational theory make me think that might not be a good idea. Suffice to say, I've been doing a lot of thinking about the type of teacher I want to be and how can I achieve those goals.
In any event, all of this has been almost entirely overshadowed by the newest addition to our happy little family. Ms. Brynn Elizabeth Aion has been just amazing.
Last November, after Harper was born, a coworker of mine, who happens to have 4 children under the age of 6, told me that after a few months, another friend would have a baby and suddenly Harper would look HUGE! I am here to tell you that my little (oldest) daughter, overnight, grew into a Godzilla-style giant.
We only slowly noticed how big she was getting. "Hmm...her legs seem to extend beyond the chair when I'm giving her her bed-time bottle." "Hmm...She seems to be able to reach things on the table without climbing." "Hmm...She seems to be able to dust the top of the ceiling fan without the step ladder."
After a day of holding Brynn (all 6 pounds and 18 inches of her) in the hospital and around the house, I admit that I temporarily considered putting H on a diet. The problem with this plan is that I would have to chop of all of her limbs, including her head. Sara assures me that this is a terrible idea as it would hake it very difficult to dress and feed her without those appendages (diapers simply don't stay on without legs to wrap them around.)
H suddenly looks and feels huge. It's possible to pick up a newborn without noticing the additional weight. Harper, however, now weighs 22 pounds, which is not much, but is like carrying 4 of her sister. Her hands and feet are starting to fill out too, so she doesn't look nearly as skinny as she used to.
I know she's still very small as far as children go, but with Brynn around, she just seems like a big girl.
It makes me frustrated that she's not speaking in full, grammatically correct sentences expressing her beliefs either in favor of, or against the establishment of a national religion. Perhaps she knows that particular topic is too polarizing and she is simply choosing to not start a moral discussion that may divide the family...
Clever girl...
Luckily for everyone, Harper is very taken with Brynn. When the elder sister sees the younger, she smiles hugely and looks to us for approval. We're still working on teaching her not drag her sister around the house by a blanket and not to hand her toys with sharp edges. They are, however, very cute together.
A friend of ours came over this week and took excellent pictures of the girls and I think we're going to use some to make postcards and all sorts of other things so that people can display the beauty of our family in their houses.
Here are a few for you to enjoy while I think about what to post in the next entry.
This happens very frequently. It's cuter than I can handle.
This session was exhausting. I'll just wait here until you're ready for me.
P.S. I'm still taking suggestions for what to call the blog. It doesn't seem fair to have to be Adventures in Harper-Space anymore. I may go back to Adventures in Parenting, or to something new like Happily Afloat in a Sea of Estrogen. As always, I'm looking for topics to discuss so I'll take suggestions for those as well as any questions you may have.
P.P.S. I love when people share the link to the blog with their friends and family. The more people who read, the better feedback I can get and the better I can make the blog. Please do share the blog anyway you can, including facebook, e-mail, your own blog, or taking out an ad in your local paper.
P.P.P.S. If you want to make a comment on this new format, and don't see the list of comments, you need to click on the blog title and then go to the bottom of the post. I'm going to see if I can fix this...
