The Four Day Update
Maude is four days old now. I still love that we can measure parts of her life in percentages and fractions (i.e., Maude has spent 0.08% of her life spitting up, one eleventh of her life with her eyes open, 45% of her life with her parents saying "shh shh shhhhh," etc.)
Today was her first bath. It's not that we're lazy parents, it's just that the midwife pointed out that there was no real benefit to bathing a child early. Besides, there was a Seinfeld marathon on TV. Maude made it apparent that she's not a reincarnated fish. There was some screaming, but some relaxed times too.
We're finding it hard not to a) compare Maude to Margo, and b) compare our parenting of Maude to our parenting of Margo. Margo's first bath was spent in a doors-closed bathroom, with a heater and hot water running to create a sauna atmosphere. With Maude, we shut the nearest window and checked the water temperature a couple of times. We've come to the conclusion that parenting is not rocket science.
Maude is beautiful, and though some disagree, we still feel that there are times when Maude is the exact mirror of Margo, to the point of holding old pics of Margo up to the actual sleeping Maude to compare. After having a healthy baby, I think that that was my big wish... that the girls look at least a little bit alike. It's just a thing that I have. My siblings and I share a similar nose. Donna and her siblings share a hatred for the fact that the Northwest Territories has shrunk in size over the last 150 years by the same land area as China and Brazil combined - genetics... kooky stuff!
Margo seems good with her sister. She's been pretty free flowing with the kisses, not too territorial, and okay with Maude requiring more attention than she does. There are a few tiny little things that are cropping up: when she realizes that her favourite animals are out of sight, she runs to get them, maybe fearing that Maude will claim them. And last night, as all four of us were in the spare room, she snuggled up to me and declared "My Papa." (note that this is a game that we play, where we claim one of the others as being ours, "my Mama, my Margo," etc. and then have a verbal tug-of-war as to whose Mama/Papa/Margo it really is, but this is the first time that Margo snuggled in to me and said in.)
I would rather get the territorialism out of the way now while I still have the height advantage to put an end to the nonsense. Je suis en train de "Peacemaker."
Honestly, it's been pretty good. Pretty great. As shitty as childbirth may be, the hardest parts are fogged over when you get to be around your own, special little girl. And as I mentioned to Donna today, it's even better now, because as different as the girls may be, we have a bit of a preview of what's to come in Margo, and more experience to handle the harder times.
- Michel
p.s. My sincere apologies to Mom, who puts together a family calendar every year. Whereas Margo will only have to share September's spread with Rebecca and Andrew's wedding in next year's edition, Maude will almost get lost in August's celebrations of Mom, Paul, Rebecca and Nanaiyũ's birthdays, Donna and my as well as Julie and Adrian's anniversaries, and, of course, the anniversary of finding Malaika the dog. Luckily, we know that she loves Margo à la Maude the best.
Today was her first bath. It's not that we're lazy parents, it's just that the midwife pointed out that there was no real benefit to bathing a child early. Besides, there was a Seinfeld marathon on TV. Maude made it apparent that she's not a reincarnated fish. There was some screaming, but some relaxed times too.
We're finding it hard not to a) compare Maude to Margo, and b) compare our parenting of Maude to our parenting of Margo. Margo's first bath was spent in a doors-closed bathroom, with a heater and hot water running to create a sauna atmosphere. With Maude, we shut the nearest window and checked the water temperature a couple of times. We've come to the conclusion that parenting is not rocket science.
Maude is beautiful, and though some disagree, we still feel that there are times when Maude is the exact mirror of Margo, to the point of holding old pics of Margo up to the actual sleeping Maude to compare. After having a healthy baby, I think that that was my big wish... that the girls look at least a little bit alike. It's just a thing that I have. My siblings and I share a similar nose. Donna and her siblings share a hatred for the fact that the Northwest Territories has shrunk in size over the last 150 years by the same land area as China and Brazil combined - genetics... kooky stuff!
Margo seems good with her sister. She's been pretty free flowing with the kisses, not too territorial, and okay with Maude requiring more attention than she does. There are a few tiny little things that are cropping up: when she realizes that her favourite animals are out of sight, she runs to get them, maybe fearing that Maude will claim them. And last night, as all four of us were in the spare room, she snuggled up to me and declared "My Papa." (note that this is a game that we play, where we claim one of the others as being ours, "my Mama, my Margo," etc. and then have a verbal tug-of-war as to whose Mama/Papa/Margo it really is, but this is the first time that Margo snuggled in to me and said in.)
I would rather get the territorialism out of the way now while I still have the height advantage to put an end to the nonsense. Je suis en train de "Peacemaker."
Honestly, it's been pretty good. Pretty great. As shitty as childbirth may be, the hardest parts are fogged over when you get to be around your own, special little girl. And as I mentioned to Donna today, it's even better now, because as different as the girls may be, we have a bit of a preview of what's to come in Margo, and more experience to handle the harder times.
- Michel
p.s. My sincere apologies to Mom, who puts together a family calendar every year. Whereas Margo will only have to share September's spread with Rebecca and Andrew's wedding in next year's edition, Maude will almost get lost in August's celebrations of Mom, Paul, Rebecca and Nanaiyũ's birthdays, Donna and my as well as Julie and Adrian's anniversaries, and, of course, the anniversary of finding Malaika the dog. Luckily, we know that she loves Margo à la Maude the best.
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on Wednesday, August 27, 2008 at 2:26 p.m..
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9:03 a.m.I am on the "Maude is the exact mirror of Margo" team. Imagine the ability to duplicate perfection! You guys are good.
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