Xiaoniu 小妞

As when Emelia was born, Sue has again taken off for a few days to stay with her mother. This gives her month many chances to fatten her up by feeding her lots of home cooked meals. With two kids to juggle we figured on her taking Emelia for a few days and then switching over to watching James for another three days, all the while taking care of Caitlin. From what Sue tells me even that has been difficult at times. Emelia and James demand plenty of attention and with a newborn that needs nearly constant feeding and changing it’s difficult to ensure that each kid gets his/her due share. Thankfully, the week is coming to a close and Sue will be back home.

Last Friday Caitlin reached the four week mark. She’s come a long way in one short month of life. I adjusted the Baby Bjorn carrier to fit her small size almost two weeks ago and already I need to make it deeper to accommodate her longer body. I don’t know how much she has grown, but it’s significant. She also feels bigger and denser when you hold her. It’s amazing how quickly they grow, especially at a very young age. She’s going to give Emelia a run for her money; Emelia was a quick grower for a long time and only within the past 8 months has she slowed down. Caitlin seems to be doing the same.

Speaking of Emelia, I’m very happy to say that she seems to have fully accepted Caitlin and the necessity of sharing mommy and daddy’s attention. Don’t get me wrong and think that things were difficult before; they were not. Emelia has always loves her sister, but it has recently come to my attention that she no longer shows any jealousy when Sue or I hold Caitlin instead of her. Emelia just goes with the flow and gets her share of attention at a different time. It’s a great feeling when you know your kids get along (for now at least).

Our neighbor dropped off a nice bag of gifts for the kids over the weekend. Her hobby is making quilts and when Emelia was born she gave her a small quilt to hang on the wall. For Caitlin she made a similar, but larger quilt for the wall. Emelia got two gifts. One was a small devil for Valentine’s Day and the second was a Pegasus. She gave two just in case the devil was too much, but having seen it I think it is acceptable. Our neighbor also gave Sue and I a small gift in thanks for helping them out during the power outage. They really appreciated the little bit of power I was able to share from dad’s generator. It’s amazing to see that you can have such thoughtful and very pleasant neighbors on one side and whack-jobs that have the nerve to complain about people mowing their laws in summer on the other side.