Who, Me?

I still can't believe that Petite Biet came in 2nd over at Circle of Moms Top 25 Blogs! I just wanted to say Thank You Thank You Thank You to everyone who voted. It really made my day month! I am so grateful for all of this growing support. In the giddy spirit of appreciation, here are some snapshots of baby girl being a goof. 

Happy wednesday everyone!

Fly Baby Fly

We fell asleep last night with the windows open (I can't believe I'm saying this in February!), and awoke to an airy apartment and a day brighter and nicer than I've seen in a long time. The sun was shining in, the people on the streets had a little more bounce in their step (probably due to the incredibly light feeling you get when you first ditch your heavy winter coat), and we- we were just itching to get outside. So one messy breakfast later {of homemade apple-spinach-oatmeal (blended together, its really not bad!) for baby girl, and yogurt + fruit + coffee for Mama} and off we went. To the park!

I have been longing to give Biet her first ride on a swing for some time now, but it's been so cold. I wanted her first swing experience to feel more like "I'm flying. I'm flying! I'm flyyyyyyyyyyyying!!" and less "Mama, why are you blasting me with icy winds all over my body!? Mama I can't open my eyes! Mama please stop!".  So, even though Biet was sitting up like a champion months ago, we had to wait for Mother Nature to give us the go-ahead for the park swings. And today she did.

I remember LOVING the swing set since I was a wee little thing.  My sisters and I would take turns pushing one another, or else have competitions of who could swing the highest. Flying up above, everything felt so free. Biet won't be swinging high over the world for a few years yet, but I can see already that she enjoys that weightless freedom. We pushed her over and over and over and over, and she laughed and laughed, and all was well. She was so excited! We could have stayed there all day. I think we'll be back at the park soon. Maybe tomorrow.

**I hadn't worn this dress (from H&M last spring) since being pregnant, but lately have been living in it. I love constantly re-discovering my pre-pregnancy clothes!

Over the Weekend

Although about 50%of my waking hours this past weekend were spent at work, we did manage to get out  together to enjoy the lovely weather... a stroll through the neighborhood, a jaunt in the west village, a record-perusing stop at Bleecker Bob's... we ran around and before we knew it the weekend was over. At home, Biet can't get enough of her ukulele lessons from her Papa, & Nico (when not being lazy and taking up the whole couch) is quite enjoying baby girl's new dinnertime ritual of holding out her hand with food in it and laughing as her sister-dog licks it over and over {{How do you avoid this? Anyone with dog/baby experience?}} Overall, this weekend was a oatmeal-covered subway-catching stroller-pushing whirlwind that looked a little something like this:

**that last photo is of the near-completed Freedom Tower. We noticed a clear line of vision to it from the bottom of 5th Avenue, and it was the first time Gaby and I had really looked at it, so I snapped a photo.

New {Yorker} Friend Friday - Douglas

It's been awhile since the last New Friend Friday, my apologies! I'm going to try to get back into the swing of things and make it a regular feature. This week, I share with you the story of Biet's friend Douglas.

When Biet was just a week old, I wrapped her up and, against my midwife's orders, ventured out of the house and over to Whole Foods to do a little shopping. I was supposed to be in bed, but I was feeling great and was developing a veritable case of cabin fever. Upon arriving to the market, I went to grab a cart and realized "Whoa, I have a tiny 7 lb baby in my arms! How am I supposed to push a cart while at the same time holding her?!" It was a new Mother dilemma. I tried one-hand pushing, ran into a few unsuspecting shoppers, and called that quits. Then a light bulb went off. I took out Biet's blanket, laid it over the top child-seat part of the shopping cart, and placed my little swaddled baby, laying down, in her new cushioned bed. She fit with room to spare. I can't believe she was once so small! That's when I met Douglas.

Douglas is the security man at the Whole Foods on the Bowery, and he is the nicest security man in the world. He chuckled and walked over to me, congratulated me on my problem-solving skills, and began to tell me about his childhood. He was born and raised in NYC, to a strong Mother and with a brood of brothers and sisters. He told me the story of how, when he was a baby, his Mother, not having a crib for him, emptied out her wooden dresser, took out a drawer, and fashioned it with cushioning and blankets as a bassinet. He slept in that drawer until he was big enough to move to a shared bed with his brother. It worked so well that his Mother did the same thing with all of his younger siblings in the coming years. She never ended up having a crib because the babies all slept so well in the drawers! Seeing Biet sleeping in the top of the shopping cart reminded him of that.

Every time we go shopping at Whole Foods, I search for Douglas. We say our hello's and how-are-you's and I show him how big Biet is growing.  If you're ever in the neighborhood, go and say hi! He is such a nice fellow. One day soon Biet will be able to say hello, and I know it will make his day.

These Days...

These days, our lives have been filled with:

- a curious baby girl who finally has enough hair to wear barrettes, yet likes nothing more than to pull them out and eat them
- long family walks around the city
- {ridiculously rich} hot cocoa and {ridiculously dense} chocolate chip cookies from {ridiculously overcrowded} City Bakery - such a decadent winter treat!
- shoe shopping and picture taking in Brooklyn
- listening to live music in Washington Square Park at sunset
- watching old movies + eating gelato + snuggling on the couch at the end of the day after Biet is asleep - another decadent treat!

These days, our lives look a lot like this:



Hope your days are full of love and adventure!

Ladylike : : Lipstick : :

The other day, as I found myself stumbling out of bed with entirely too little sleep, waging a battle of wills with a baby girl who had decided that she was far too mature for naps anymore, and cleaning up the aftermath of a theiving dog who had discovered how to steal brand new groceries from the kitchen counter when no one is looking (goodbye greek yogurt. goodbye bag of oatmeal. goodbye loaf of bread. hello fatty fat dog.), my sister called and asked me what I was doing for fashion week. I looked around at the mountains of laundry I needed to drop off (cheap drop-off laundry service: another reason why I love NYC) and realized that fashion week was nearly over and I'd been so busy that I hadn't even realized it.

Not that I was planning to be front row at any shows or anything (*maybe someday*), but with all of the hustle and bustle it is fun to grab coffee downtown and model-watch, wander into small-label underground shows, and drop into one or two of the gazillions of fashion parties around town. With all of this {amazing, spectacular, wouldn't trade-it-for-the-world} new family business, though, I just hadn't made time for any of that this season. But you know what I do have time for: lipstick.

Feeling ladylike is definitely a bit more difficult with a purse on your shoulder, a phone in your hand, and a baby on your hip. Lately, I've found myself throwing on the .. here comes that dreaded word.. practical outfit instead of the trendy one. My style seems to always be in a state of evolution, and I like it that way. I've been choosing flats over heels, nursing-friendly tees over cocktail dresses, and doing laundry over going out.  But the one go-to that always makes me feel like a million bucks is my red lipstick.  It's a two minute ritual that changes my whole day & can be done anywhere (super Mom-friendly). I've become a master of applying it in a bumpy subway car.

When it comes to red lipstick, I have literally tried them all. This one by Nars is my favorite hands down: stays on forever, perfect color, great pigment, and matte. When I put it on, even if it's simply with jeans and a sweater, I feel really glamorous- ready to go anywhere in the city.  And I think that that's kind of important. Because even if I'm just going out to walk the dog and grab some groceries, I want to feel like a glamorous New Yorker. Every week can be my fashion week.

The Weight

Of all of the things I tell myself I will never forget, of this one I am sure. I will remember, until Biet is a full-grown beautiful woman, until I am a grandmother, until my last days, the weight of my baby girl sleeping on my shoulder.

She has been nursing herself to sleep since her birth, so these past few milk-free nights have taken quite a bit of adjustment for our family. No more five-minute-and-she's-out nursing sessions at the end of the day. No more co-sleeping (waking up to a screaming half-asleep little girl trying desperately to nurse through your t-shirt is no fun for anyone). We've had to search for another way to gently ease Biet into sleep. And we finally figured it out. And it's glorious.

It goes something like this:
At the end of the day, Biet gets a meal & a bath, and we warm up a bottle. When she starts to get sleepy (cranky + rubbing her eyes), I swaddle her and rest her in the crook of my arm. If I'm lucky, she'll drink from the bottle, but sometimes she's too smart and looks at my shirt and cries, knowing that Mama has other milk. Eventually she eats, though, and after her belly is full, the real magic happens. I put her up against my chest with her head resting on my shoulder, walk around and around the darkened room, and begin to sing. I feel her relax & her head nestles into me, and then, she begins to join in. A little babble song of many notes emerges from baby girl's mouth as she tries to harmonize with me. Her voice get's loud & soft, high & low, and then, after about 10 minutes, fades to silence. She sings herself to sleep.

This works like a charm every time. She really sings herself into slumber. A few moments after her voice trails off, I quite literally feel her drift into dreamland. When she truly falls into deep sleep, her weight suddenly intensifies. One moment, you have a sleeping baby on your shoulder, and the next, a limp sack of potatoes crushing your back. And I love it. When I feel the weight change, I know that it is time to lay her down in her crib and that she will be calm. I will never forget that heaviness of my baby girl falling asleep on my shoulder. It is the feeling of her at peace, knowing that she is never alone.

Here is Biet just after falling asleep on Gaby's shoulder the other afternoon. **Gaby deserves for credit for inventing the naptime-shoulder-lullaby**

A Milk-Free Week, oh my!

Biet got to spend the entire weekend at her Mama's side (or rather, on her Mama's hip) this week. Since my work week is usually friday-tuesday, this was quite a nice change of pace for both of us. We had breakfast (+lunch +snacks +dinner) together every day at the table, threw spontaneous living room dance parties in our socks and undies after bath time, and walked for hours around Brooklyn in the lovely tepid winter sunshine. One thing we didn't do, however, was nurse.

It hurt my heart a little bit each time Biet's gaze lowered to my shirt and her tiny hands reached out, determined to figure out how to open the zipper of my hoodie (a zipped up hoodie was worn throughout the whole weekend as part of my nursing-layup uniform), but it was necessary. For my long weekend at home was not a President's Day treat, but due to an excrutiating and unexpected infection; an infection which required a myriad of antibiotics and painkillers- drugs which, we decided, we'd rather not pass into our baby's pure little body.

It was not an easy decision to make- abruptly (and temporarily) weaning Biet. We have been blessed with a near-perfect breastfeeding relationship since day one, and the thought of doing anything other than child-led weaning (most likely not for at least another year or two) had never entered my mind. I do have a heaviness in my heart about putting Biet through this, but the risks of passing harsh and untested drugs on to our developing infant changed our plans a bit, and so here we are: whipping up "solid" meals though out the day for our hungry little daughter, bottle-feeding at nap time & bedtime, and keeping her occupied during the day with games and excursions and Nico-time. And the fully zipped hoodie (layered over an impenetrable shirt).

Luckily, Biet is a champion when it comes to eating. You name it, we blend it, she eats it. Fruits, veggies, grains (we make our own baby cereal from raw oats and turn brown rice into flour to add to beans for her), nuts and seeds (no allergies issues whatsoever so far), leafy greens, goat milk (the closest in nature to human milk), legumes, soups, whole-grain pastas, gnocchi (her newest favorite).. she is fast developing an experienced palate. I love seeing her face light up with surprise and enjoyment when she tastes that first spoonful of something new. So far, the only food that received a disapproving sour face was, surprisingly, sweet potatoes. Funny girl.

I'm looking forward to next week when I am healed and Biet and I can happily resume nursing. I still fully intend to accomplish long-term breastfeeding, for both of us.  Until then, though, I'll just keep busily pumping away to keep my supply up, creating amazing baby cuisine in the kitchen, and loving on Biet with all the milk-free snuggling that I got.

 *Our highchair is the Tripp Trapp by Stokke, a gift from Gaby's cousin. We really love it & I would highly recommend it!

Little Things

A close-up look at our apartment life.. Here are some of the little things that make me feel at home:

Happy Valentine's Day

To my husband: 

You really truly make me so happy. 

My one and only, My man. 

You make fatherhood look sexy, and I love you.  

xoxoxo

 Love, 

Your Valentine

The Library

While running errands last week, we found ourselves passing by the lovely New York Public Library. She is a beauty. Where else can you walk, past the lion statues guarding the front, away from the buzzing and honking and rushing of the streets, through a sparkling revolving glass door, to find yourself in marble-walled silence? Within the library exists a certain stillness which is so elusive in the city.  Time slows down, knowledge and wisdom overcome movement and schedules, and all is calm. I immediately discovered two things upon entering the grand ol' library. {1} I still love it, & {2} it may be the most stroller-unfriendly building in all of New York. 
The place is made of wraparound staircases, not an elevator to be found. Majestic, breathtaking, shiny, inconvenient staircases. Staircases & books. Of course I never noticed this before I had a bambino. So we didn't make it all the way up together or stay long (Biet was sleeping anyway), but I did leave the husband and the child to wander through the building on my own for a little while. I so look forward to bringing Biet to story time here in a few months (when she is big enough to both walk and grasp the concept of storytelling). 
The NY Public Library always reminds me of my late Grandfather, my Mother's father, Horace. He used to take me and my sisters, when we were tiny, to the downtown Portland library every week. He would teach me how the books were organized with their secret codes of numbers and letters. He signed me up for my very own (!) library card, and showed me how, with it, I could take home all the books that I wanted. I remember coming to him, after joyously perusing the children's' section for close to an hour, with arms spilling over with of all the magical storybooks I could carry. He would help me sift through to find the very best ones to carry home that week. And we would check them out and drive home, and he would read them to me. 
We called him Grampy, and, as I remember, he was the smartest man in the world. He used to tell me that he had read every single book in the library, and that if I kept at it, I would one day accomplish the same. I remember that seeming like a very exciting and reasonable challenge. Grampy sparked my lifelong fascination with storytelling and love of literature, and for this I am grateful. I'm sure he would have loved the New York Public Library. I know he would have loved the fact that I bring Biet here, and that I will teach her, also, to search through the vast rows and rows of books and to discover her favorites. I hope to instill in her the same wonder that Grampy fostered in me so many years ago. He was a well-traveled man, and I often wonder if he ever stepped foot inside the great New York Public Library. I hope so. 

Tax Day

We journeyed to midtown yesterday for our annual visit to the taxman (which turned out splendidly well - a nice surprise!). His office is on the edge of the classically beautiful Bryant Park, so we gave ourselves a bit of extra time and made an afternoon out of the trip. We strolled Biet through the businessmen and women rushing about, the picture-taking tourists, and the general mayhem of winter in midtown. She loved it. Sitting in her stroller whilst zooming through the noisy, colorful, & (ahem) fragrant movement of the city streets must be her favorite thing to do in all the world (besides nursing, of course). It's almost as if she feels the kinetic energy of it all, and it somehow puts her at peace. Sometimes I tell her "Baby Girl, you get to look at the best mobile in the whole world!"

We walked by the ice-skaters, sat down for for coffee at Grand Central (which became an hour-long nursing-turned-falling-asleep-on-Papa's-shoulder-while-he-sings-to-me session for Biet) popped into Sephora for a minute (I can't quit you, Sephora!), and grabbed lunch. Midtown is usually not my most favorite of NYC neighborhoods, but yesterday, yesterday it was beautiful!

This was the first time our taxman, an old Irish New Yorker with a thick accent and plenty of city personality, met Biet. Last year when we did our taxes, which was far closer to April 15th (this year we are on it!), I was still hugely pregnant. As we introduced them, he looked at her and said "Eh, look at that! You gotchyaself a thousand dollars right there!" {Baby=child tax credit} He's quite a charmer, that tax man of ours.