Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Tea Party

This weekend is Rafi's first birthday party... it's come around much too soon. We have so much to do to get ready and I am a little bit nervous about getting things done. We're having an English tea party :)

Thursday, June 24, 2010

On Sleep


Raf is in bed asleep... which is nice, except Rich is up there lying with him, waiting for me to relieve him of his duties. We co-sleep, which we all love, but we had the goal of having Raf be in his cot for a couple of hours per night so that RIch and I could just have a bit of time in the evenings. This was going quite well - though it didn't happen consistently -but for a couple of weeks we've had quite a bit of regression.

I helped get Raf to sleep tonight, and as I fed him and stroked his hair I remembered how important this is, how his little body collects bodily memories which will remain deeply with him for the rest of his life, and while it can be frustrating at times, and the frequent wake-ups can be difficult, too, it seems much more important to have tenderness and trust incorporated into his corporeal memory, and for his limbs and tissues and hormones - and all the stress that courses through him when he's struggling to get to sleep and stay asleep - to be treated kindly and with patience.

And, as if by magic, Rich is downstairs and Raf is in his cot :)

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Oh what a lovely day...





My first father's day! It was such a lovely day with Al and Rafi, after a week of feeling blah - we did some of the things we love to do, whilst also planning Raf's 1st birthday party which is in less than two weeks!!

Let me recount a few of the highlights - Alex taking Raf out of the bed for a few minutes so I could get a few more minutes sleep-in. Usually Raf is left with me - and more often than not recently I will get an unprovoked poke in the eye to wake me up - so that was a bonus this morning.

Two bike rides - one with Al with Raf in the trailer, with me behind drafting and saving at least 15% energy. It all counts at my age...The second one was on my own, around and down by the river, it was beautiful out.

Presents - a cup with an adorable picture of Rafman on the side, a card with Rafman on it - and a book I can read to Rafman about a cat. Lucky me, photograph's hopefully to follow...

We headed out for lunch, stopping in a lovely toy store to buy Raf's main birthday presents, and a few other little items. Lunch was lovely, in a vegan way I like, plus coffee refills, which again at my age I accept in increased volume.

We headed home, pretty tired - and we're happy to have spent the day together! And I never did get near to starting the staining of the deck!

Otter Pond

We've had a lovely weekend, and I think Rich may write a post later! But just a quick video upload. On Friday we headed to the local trail where there's a beautiful pond. I went in for a swim and we popped Raf to play in the mud/sand and in he followed! He loves water. We headed to Sebago Lake on Saturday and he thoroughly enjoyed himself splashing in the water (pics to come soon).



Friday, June 18, 2010

First Father's Day :)

It's Friday, a little early, but Eich is watching the football so we're calling it a father's day weekend. Here's a film I made about Raf and Rich to mark the occasion.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Raf chats to Rich

I'm starting to work on a little film to remember Raf's first year. i was just looking at the footage from the UK and found this little gem.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Part Four: Reunions

A final post about England... though mostly in pictures. After our trip to Devon we cam back to Cheltenham for a pitstop at Melissa's. We went to a place called Strawberry Fields, which is a fun place for kids to play. Afterward we headed North to the Midlands to meet my parents who had flown in from Spain, Rich's dad and step mum, and my aunt and uncle who my parents are staying with. We went to a pub for some dinner and had a grand old time.





On the final Saturday my sister Melissa hosted a big family reunion. We had such a lovely time, the first time we'd been together in many years. My aunt and uncle were also there... and we were lucky enough to catch 'summer'!















Monday, June 7, 2010

11 months old!

Raf is 11 months old today! I can't believe it's going so fast. My oldest best friend Sam, had a baby last week - little Maisie - and it's hard to believe that this time last year we were just preparing for the arrival of Raf.

We celebrated the 11 month mark with, well, no sleep! Poor little boy is having a horrible time teething, and if that wasn't enough of an ordeal he has been dealing with a horrible fever this past couple of days. Yesterday his temp was 103.5, so this afternoon, having called the on duty nurse line, we went it to have a check up. All is fine, but the boy is still having these feverish moments which we're brining down with medications. Last night he was up almost all night, perhaps our worst night so far. He was crying in pain in his sleep... which was thoroughly heartbreaking. He also vomited all over me around 2am, too, which seemed only fitting.

Still, in better news, we're busily organizing his birthday. This mostly involves getting someone in to help us tidy up our tip of a yard, although I did order the invitations today. In other good news, we have finally found another nanny/babysitter in addition to Jen. We met Jess on Saturday and she is just lovely.. very personable and flexible. She works full time so she'd be able to help out after work and on some weekends. She'll divide her few hours a week with us between caring for Raf and cleaning. This is an absolute God send, frankly. Rich and I are excited about having a second date :)

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Memorial Day

We still have more pictures of our trip, but first a quick post about our Memorial Day weekend.. as well as Raf's seeming shift from baby/infant to toddler. Where did this little boy come from? We returned back to the US with a little boy who is almost walking! He pulls himself on virtually anything and he pushes his little walker around, charging into everything, getting annoyed when things get in his way. We can barely keep up with him...

He is also teething, so the evenings and night have been a tad horrifying. Poor baby. Last night he was up most of the night full of partying energy. I tried to wait him out in bed, playing sleepy games, but by 1am it was very clear that he wasn't going to be asleep any time soon. So from 1-3 I was downstairs with him, and then he was back up at 5 with Rich. It was a trying night, that's for sure.

We didn't really have a plan for the holiday Monday as Raf was so short on sleep yesterday, too. We had planned to take him to Jen's and Rich and I were going to take advantage of Raf having someone to look after him and play tennis. Alas, it didn't work out as Raf and Rich didn't get up until 9am and by the time we got moving it was lunch time. So, we packed up a picnic and drove to Portland, mostly so Raf would nap. We dropped in on Sage and Jen to drop off Sage's very late present and of course Raf woke up. We just about got to Deering park before he had a meltdown. So here we are...

Send sleep vibes our way if you have any to spare :)