A Saturday in Cambridge

Recently, I joined the Donor Sibling Registry because I was curious, but mainly because as I consider a second child (!?!) I wanted to know if there were extra vials of our donor out there and knowing about half siblings seems relevant. There was just one child born to the donor when I first consulted the registry. It turns out that there are now 3 children in addition to Violet born to 3 different moms. One family is a 2 mom family who lives in Salem, Ma and has a daughter a year older than Violet and a son just born in March. The other family is a single mom who actually lives on the next street over from us here in Cambridge (!!!) with a 5 1/2 year old daughter and another baby on the way.

So we all met up on the Cambridge Public Library lawn on Saturday. It was a little odd seeing how much the kids resemble each other and comparing notes with the other moms. Our discussions were a funny mix of talking about kids in general, but also some undercurrents of constantly wondering about the genetic similarities of our kids and piecing together what the donor must be like. The 5 1/2 year old is fascinated with the Simian crease on her left hand and loves the fact that the 2 year old and Violet also have these single lines on their hands. Now I have one of these too (as do 1 in 30 Caucasians) but then Violet has them on both hands --one of the mom's pointed out that perhaps that means she gets it from both sides :). The 2 year old definitely has a similar build to Violet being in the 95th percentile for weight and height and I think really looks a lot like her. It's cool that they're so close in age.

We sat under some trees and talked for a while while the kids played. We joked that it was such a stereotypical Saturday afternoon in Cambridge. Not really what I would have ever imagined.... and who knows how much we'll see each other going forward, but I actually hope we do get together from time to time and will become friends. I really enjoyed talking to all of the moms - they were really nice people and we seemed to have similar values - or at least we share a love of making organic baby food and compost. The 2 moms from Salem actually also used to live in the neighborhood - just around the corner from us the other way. It seems like it would be fun for Violet to have half-siblings around growing up. It would also be nice to have more family since we're already down a couple members and it's great that they're local.

Work Life Balance

I want a bigger piece of the pie

Violet's time in a typical week:

Mother's Day

I was honored to receive a beautiful bouquet of flowers and so many nice cards, texts, and best wishes on my first mother's day. My favorite card was from Sophia and Violet (above). Mom was here and it was great to spend the weekend with her. We did typical mom stuff: grocery shopping, pureed 2 lbs of spinach, cooked a chicken, did 3 loads of laundry, and relished some quality baby giggles and Violet love. Last night we even got to go out together to see a movie! Babies of course!

9 months!

Dear Violet,
Today you are 9 months and 4 days old. We went to the doctor this morning and you weighed 22 lbs and were 29.5" long! You are growing so fast! I am so proud of my healthy strong girl. You are such a joy to be around. You are sleeping all the way through the night now. Sometimes you get up very early - 5:30am or 6am, but it's so light out and there is so much to learn and do! You love to laugh and you think it's especially funny to stick your fingers in my mouth. We go on walks together almost every night after work and sometimes you look up at me and just giggle. You are starting to really like the swings in the park and you definitely love watching the other kids in the park. You still love to roll around and haven't taken off crawling yet, but I'm expecting you to any day now. You seem to still be doing very well at day care with a report of "was happy" most days. When I come to pick you up now, you squeal and bounce up and down when you see me. This is definitely the highlight of my day. You are eating 3 meals a day now and you eat all kinds of vegetables. Tomorrow you are having cantaloupe, yogurt and flax seed for breakfast, squash and cereal for lunch, and sweet potato, kale and an egg yolk for dinner. Every day you are growing more and more hair and you love to have it brushed and then taste your brush. Some times I wish I could just freeze you and keep you small forever, however each new thing you learn is just so much fun.
Love,
Mom

Back on my bike

When I picked out daycare, convenience was pretty high on the list of qualifications. I actually found the Learning Zone because I biked past it every day. I had an idea that I might be able to continue biking to work after little Lil arrived, if daycare was right on my path. Well Friday, inspired by my sister's recent bike trip from Houston to Austin and the gorgeous spring weather we've been having, that dream came true and I got back on my bike! Of course the dream was modified a bit by reality. Dropping V off early and picking her up late gives me less time with her which is not ideal and I almost bailed about a thousand times due to irrational 3am fears about falling off my bike or forgetting one of our bags. I had to carry 2 pumps (breast and tire) on my bike. Kids under one aren't allowed on bikes in MA, so I had to drive to daycare and then bike from there. However, I was able to work around all those hurdles and getting back on my bike for the 4.5 miles of hills between daycare and work felt GREAT! After a year and a half hiatus, all of my old riding instincts came back and I even remembered some of the old pot holes. I could definitely feel that I hadn't been on my bike in a while, but surprisingly I wasn't as out of shape as I feared. I guess carrying around a 20lb baby all the time is somewhat of a workout. Nine miles of biking hills each day definitely counts as good exercise and it just enough of a decent cardio workout. This isn't going to be something that I'm going to be able to do everyday, but I'm so glad I'm going to be able to do it at all! I am going to have to find a better system for securing my breast pump on my bike though. Midway through my ride home, I hear a thud and looked back in horror to see my pumping bag (including a full day's supply of precious milk) lying in the road. Luckily no one ran over it.

Hi!