Letters to Binkie

Dear Binkie,

Thank you for your endless support.

Love,

Gigi

Sweeping Book Clubs across the nation...

...is this book called "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett. Have you read it? This book was sitting idly around my house on loan from a friend who had recommended it, and it wasn't until it was assigned at my own book club that I picked it up and started reading. Now, my rebellious streak usually dictates that if something is very popular I give myself some distance from the hype just to survey the hubbub, and so I had been successfully ignoring "The Help" on my shelf until I was cornered by my fear of the book club gals and gave in. And I loved it. It was a bit sobering, and scary, and heartening, and disappointing, and amazing all at once. When I told Marcos the plot to try and sell him into reading the book, I choked up while describing a particularly poignant part, and my sensitive husband took one good look at me and said, "I think there are too many emotions in that book for me". I am not the sensitive one of us two, and if it did that to me, I think he's afraid of what the story might do to him.

To summarize, this book is about the incredibly complex relationships between white women and their black maids in 1960s Mississippi, and I don't know if it's because I live in the South now, but this story really meant something to me. When I see how things were just a generation or two ago in this corner of the country, it helps to explain what I see today.

And warning: you may end up thinking in Ebonics by the end of the book.


And then there is "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins. Both Marcos and I just finished the second book in the series and are eagerly awaiting the release of book three in August. Suzanne Collins is a fabulous writer, and weaves a very smart storyline into a highly fictionalized, technologically advanced and twisted future of America. Another great read for summer months!


And then, there's the "Twilight" series... When my best friend Lindsay was here to help us after Giovanna's birth, we spent over an hour one afternoon listening to her tell us the entire storyline of the Twilight series, and frankly, after years of zero interest, I was sold. So when Rebecca loaned me her copies of all four books last week, I was anxious to delve into them and catch the Twilight fever. And then a huge problem emerged: I started reading. I won't say that I wasn't warned that the writing was terrible, because everybody warned me that it was terrible, but I didn't expect such an un-clever writing voice in such a popular series. I got to page 9 before I had to close the book out of utter disinterest. However, after taking a few deep breaths, I think that I will pick up the book again next week and force myself to read until I can get far enough into the book to ride the riveting storyline and not just trip on the disappointing verbage that is taking me there. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...


What have you read lately that you would recommend?

First beach getaway of the summer

This past Saturday we took a day trip out to Carolina Beach with our friends the Hills. My friend Kim Hill just blogged about our excursion, and it made me laugh because it seems like we're both trying to find a way to describe the experience without saying, "Wow, Carolina Beach really sucks". Because in the bigger scheme of things, we were together + we were at the beach + we brought a great picnic and that meant happiness, but when you zoom in closer to investigate the details, it was kind of a mess. So I think I'll just spare you the details and show you a few photos.


Well, okay, there is one detail that I won't spare you: the weather was less than beach-friendly. The entire sky behind us was a gray mass of cloud, and sure enough, a thunder storm hit soon after we arrived. Luckily, the main accomplishment of ten minutes of light rain was to rid the beach of the wusses (about 50% of the people), and when the rain passed we were left with a little stretch of surf all to ourselves.


For Father's Day I gave Marcos a set of camping chairs to initiate our entrance into a summer of comfortable lounging on the beach, fun movies at the theater on the lawn, and outdoor bar-b-ques. One of our best investments of late...


The Hills in the glassy ocean. We have been friends for two years, and we are still going strong. Below, little Kaitlyn checks out Giovanna.


My friend Kim is extraordinary. And did I mention that I love little Gigi? I can't stop taking pictures of her...


To wrap up our Carolina Beach experience we headed over to the boardwalk and took a ride on the Ferris Wheel. The glaring commercial aspect of the beach was actually our least favorite part: we have been to two other beaches together in the past two years, and we all preferred the beaches that are an extension of a residential neighborhood (like the Outer Banks) over Carolina Beach.


Thanks summer, and thanks Hill family. Let's do this again! Same time, different place...

Happy Father's Day!

"Happy Father's Day
to my
good-looking,
kid-raising,
big-smiling,
hard-working,
fun-finding,
chore-helping,
sweet-kissing,
good-loving,
dream-sharing,
hand-holding,
heart-warming
husband..."

Thank you, Gibson Greeting Cards, for the perfect fit. Who knew that I'd actually find a Father's Day card this year that was written with Marcos in mind? He is all of the above, and then a whole lot more. Gigi is one lucky girl to have a Daddy like him.

Snapshot: 2 Months

Two months is one sixth of a year, and time is flying by way too fast! Although Gigi's birth seems ages ago, it is nevertheless astonishing to us that she could be so big now.

Here is what being two months old looks like in the life of Gigi (I think she wears it rather well):

• Gigi likes to smile and interact with people. Although she doesn't belly laugh yet, she makes gurgley giggling noises and little happy squeaks.
  

• During the day, Gigi is very alert and present right after a feeding. After about half an hour of play she begins to get fussy and tired. After swaddling her tightly and giving her a binkie and a little snuggle, she generally sleeps well until she wakes up wanting to eat. Although technically I feed her on demand instead of a rigid schedule, her own system is almost like clockwork: she starts to wake up to eat every three hours, right on the dot.

• At night, Gigi is sleeping about 7 or 8 hours straight. Right now she is 10 weeks old, and it was at about 8 weeks that she started doing marathons through the night. Since we're night owls, I try to feed her around midnight so that she lets us sleep until it is time to wake up. Sometimes external influences throw off her routine, but we consider each day after a restful night as a gift to be enjoyed!

• Gigi is, and has been thus far, a text-book baby. Having a newborn is not easy for anyone, but having her be somewhat predictable has helped us tremendously with the adjustment.

• Gigi has a set of lungs: boy, can that girl holler! Luckily, she generally reserves her yelling for legitimate reasons, such as being hungry, or being in discomfort because of a lodged air bubble. Two things she seems not to be bothered by are full diapers and being too cold. I am surprised by how un-phased she is by physical discomfort.
  

• Physically, Gigi is a big deal. At our check-up last week she weighed 12 lbs. 11 oz. (about 85th percentile) and she is just over 23 inches long (90th percentile). Her eyelashes are long and curly (yay, Daddy's genes!) and her chins give us a lot to nibble on.

She's a perfect addition to our family!

Exceptional

"Dr. Goldbach, is she exceptional in any way?" I ask at Gigi's two month appointment. He pauses with his stethoscope in mid-air and laughs. This is what Doctors have to put up with from me, and I'm relentless. "Because I just find that when I come in for appointments I want you to tell me that she is exceptional in some way".

"Well", he starts after a minutes pause, "She's cute...".


But he's catching on! Five minutes later as he's looking over Gigi's weight and length stats that the nurse jotted down, he says, "Wow! She's at the 85th percentile for weight, and 90th for length. Now that's exceptional!".

The Order is in...

Staying at home makes time stretch and wrinkle in funny ways. I freaked and scrambled to get my Father's Day things together last Thursday, only to realize two days later that I was a week early. Whew! I didn't miss The Day.

Which is fabulous, because Marcos just put in his order for a First Father's Day gift: a chocolate covered iPad, inspired by this blog post.


Unfortunately for him, my gift will be more along the lines of iDon'tThinkSo.

The Catch

Gigi is two months old! Last Friday we attempted to feed her with a bottle for the first time, and it was a complete disaster... I was worried that we had waited too long, and that she wasn't going to adjust well to a bottle after being breastfed for two months (hmmm... that's 60 days times more than 6 times a day = plenty of time to become set in her ways). But for me, being able to pump and have her take breastmilk through a bottle could be essential: I might be working part-time at UNC starting in the fall. Besides, being able to go on a date night every once in a while and leave her with a friend would give us a nice break.

So imagine our surprise when we tried again tonight to have Marcos feed her with a bottle, and she took it! At first I was elated, but then I felt the catch: suddenly, in one successful bottle-feeding maneuver, I had been robbed of my exclusive rights to look down at this little face during our regular feeding exchanges. And frankly, it made me sad.


I didn't realize until tonight how protective I am of the feeding time I have with my daughter: being able to provide her with everything she needs is extremely rewarding for me as a mom. If we bottle feed her even on a daily basis it would not be more than once a day, so I know this isn't something that will overhaul my world, but I'm still having a bit of a rough adjustment.

But one good date night later I'm sure I'll be over it.