Seven years ago I was on my way to La-La Land after a day of light contractions and rushing to the hospital on a false alarm. A couple hours later my water bag broke with an audible "pop" and I was on my way to the hospital, again. Almost six hours later my monkey was born and my life has never been the same.
Tomorrow my little baby, my first-born, will be seven. How I miss her being small enough to carry around, her toothless smile and adoring laugh, the cute way she'd talk ... sigh.
For memory's sake, a photo from the day she was born (I was 19).
And one of her a couple of days later (gee, it looks like I got punched in the eye).
Here she is one week old:
Three weeks old:
My darling princess almost seven years old:
Have to go to Belo to take care of some paperwork and so the kids and I will be traveling on Monday. Gabriel said he'll try to go for Christmas and then we'd come back together before New Year's Eve.
My mind is in total chaos. A few weeks before I travel I start making mental lists of what I'll be taking. But since this change was confirmed today, that means I have four days (now three) to make my lists, wash whatever the girls will be taking on the trip, pack, throw Alina a birthday party, and be a happy hostess for her friends who will be sleeping over. Help!
I know I'm going to end up forgetting a lot of things. I almost forgot that Alina is going to spend a couple of days at Caraça. After I'd packed her clothes and was getting her swimming stuff I realized that I hadn't gotten warm clothes for her.
I just remembered that I need to take their Christmas stockings. I'd better go pack them before I forget. Again.
My little girl, my darling rascal, has finally begun using the potty. She has known all along what the purpose of one is. So much so that, when she plays with her dolls, she'll make them take turns sitting on the toy potty and then show the imaginary bowel movements to me. Yet for all the coaxing in the world she wouldn't use it herself.
Well, all that has changed in these past few days. From one day to the next she started asking to use the potty.
Ok, she doesn't ask with words, but she makes a distinct sound, grabs her bottom, and points in the direction of the bathroom where her potty is. She's had no "accidents" since Thursday. It's almost too good to be true!
I'm still putting a diaper on her when she sleeps, but at last I have hope that she'll be off diapers sooner rather than later. This is such a happy happening!
Truly. Tremendous. Progress.
I think it was on Friday, she was happily playing when all of a sudden she began holding her bottom and making her noises. She then proceeded to dash to our bathroom, pull the kiddie seat out, and attempt to fit it into the toilet seat. I helped her with that and put her on it.
The exact second she was seated, she let off some gas. I waited a bit to see if anything else would come out, and then asked her if she had finished. She nodded yes, and sure enough, that's all she had to do.
It was hilarious! She probably thought it was going to be something else and so rushed to the bathroom.
She did the same thing later that afternoon and I couldn't help cracking up. The concentrated look on her face was too much! And all her hard work of getting the kiddie seat and trying to be fast, for some flatulence. Too funny!
And then today she started saying "pee-pee" and "doo-doo". Her "p" was a mixture of "p" and "b".
I'm a proud mother.
On another note, we went shopping this morning for Alina's little birthday party, which will take place next Saturday. And in the afternoon we took the girls to their favorite playground. Then on our way home we stopped at Mac Donalds, had a snack, and they played some more in the restaurant's playground. So fun.
Any plans I had for Alina's school this week went down the drain, perhaps to her delight.
The poor child already had a cold when she came down with a fever and body aches on Wednesday. She was feverish yesterday and still achy, so she's been in bed these days.
It was already going to be a shorter school week due to the holiday, but it wound up being a non-school week. I'm sure she's happy about that.
The only thing that has been worrying her is that she won't be better in time for her birthday party -- one of the truly important things in life.
She only enjoys staying in bed when she doesn't have anything bothersome, which wasn't the case this time. At least she's drinking more liquids than usual and her appetite is returning.
I put my laptop in her room yesterday for her to watch a video since she was feeling better. She watched "The Adventures of Robin Hood" and plans on watching "Aristocats" either today or tomorrow.
Oh, yes, and she completed the memorization of Hebrews 11 right before she got sick.
The plan for now is for me to travel to Belo with the girls around the 8th of December and spend about a month there. Alina's school year is almost over and she's really looking forward to traveling and all the fun she'll have there.
Another plan is for her to spend a couple of days at the Caraça Sanctuary with my parents and siblings.
Obviously, she plans on swimming a lot while in Belo, going to the nearby amusement park, going to "Cocana" to get coconuts and pasteis, rollerblading down at the lake, going to the ice cream parlor, and other such fun things.
The original plan was for Gabriel to go to Belo a few days before Christmas, but since his mother's condition has gotten much worse, he'll probably stay. If he does, that means we won't spend Christmas, his birthday, nor New Year's together, sniff.
