Mazen will be 5 months old in a few days, and given that and the fact that we saw the pediatrician on Friday for his 5-month checkup, this post will be all about Maz.
Some fun facts: he's 9.4 kilos (almost 21 lbs), so he's doubled his birth weight (and is way, way off the charts for weight).
He's 66 cm long, so he's near the top of the charts for height.
His head is 45.5 cm in diameter, and is also off the charts for size.
His personality continues to develop-- he's extremely sociable, very smiley, loves to watch everything that goes on. He's fascinated by his big brother, by the cat, by all the adults. He loves to be out-- if he gets fussy, all it takes is putting one foot on the balcony for him to calm down. He loves looking at the flowers and trees. He's very talkative and gives his opinion freely on everything he sees.
He recently discovered his toes and does not want to let them go. Even while sleeping. On Friday at the doctor's office, the doctor put Maz on his back; Mazen grabbed his toes. The doctor sat Mazen up; Mazen kept a tight hold on his toes. The doctor tried to put Mazzy on his tummy, which was difficult because Mazen didn't want to let go of his toes.
He likes to be in bed, asleep, by 7pm, and isn't the kind of baby who wants to nurse to sleep or be rocked to sleep. He just wants to be put down. This was a huge adjustment for me, because Geo was and is a very high-maintenance guy when it comes to sleep. The long daylight we have now means that he's often up by 6 or 6:30, which I'm frankly not thrilled about. But one gummy smile is enough to forgive the early wake-up call.
He's a delight; a joyful, darling, amazing delight. I am such a lucky person.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Sunday, June 20, 2010
A short conversation
Yesterday I was in the bathroom putting on makeup, getting ready for Mazen's christening. Geo walked in to chat.
"Mama, what's that stuff you're putting on your face?"
"It's makeup". (Obviously I don't wear makeup very often!)
"What's it for?"
"It's to make me look pretty."
"But you already look pretty!"
"Aww, thank you!"
"Aren't I sweet, mama?"
"Mama, what's that stuff you're putting on your face?"
"It's makeup". (Obviously I don't wear makeup very often!)
"What's it for?"
"It's to make me look pretty."
"But you already look pretty!"
"Aww, thank you!"
"Aren't I sweet, mama?"
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Ten minutes of quiet
That's all I have before I have to go pick Geo up from school.
So a short update: we're getting ready for Mazen's baptism. It'll be a small deal, some of our friends can't make it because they are out of town, another set of friends has sick kiddos, so it'll be mostly family. We're hoping the godmother can make it from Norway; there is a strike in some of the airports this week (Murphy's law remains a constant companion to us here). The cake is ordered, flowers will be bought Saturday morning, along with snacks and drinks. The tablecloth is ironed, the clothes prepared. Geo and are going to get him some shoes this afternoon.
All the tiny details that take up lots of mental energy and time...
The magazine outline deadline has come and gone. Looks like another varied and interesting issue. I have to say, this job has been so fulfilling; I feel like I've gotten much more out of it than I've put into it.
And my ten minutes (interrupted by a baby waking up from his nap and being put back to sleep) are up.
So a short update: we're getting ready for Mazen's baptism. It'll be a small deal, some of our friends can't make it because they are out of town, another set of friends has sick kiddos, so it'll be mostly family. We're hoping the godmother can make it from Norway; there is a strike in some of the airports this week (Murphy's law remains a constant companion to us here). The cake is ordered, flowers will be bought Saturday morning, along with snacks and drinks. The tablecloth is ironed, the clothes prepared. Geo and are going to get him some shoes this afternoon.
All the tiny details that take up lots of mental energy and time...
The magazine outline deadline has come and gone. Looks like another varied and interesting issue. I have to say, this job has been so fulfilling; I feel like I've gotten much more out of it than I've put into it.
And my ten minutes (interrupted by a baby waking up from his nap and being put back to sleep) are up.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Sick Day
I'm breaking my own cardinal stay-at-home-mom rule today: always be showered and dressed by noon. I'm taking a sick day. So is Geo, for that matter-- he had a fever yesterday afternoon/evening, slept 13 hours last night (and slept in so late school would have been out of the question even if he hadn't just had a fever). He woke bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and was MAD that he wasn't going to school.
I had a rough night myself last night. While the four of us were in bed by 8:30pm (sad, isn't it?) I was the only one who didn't get to go to sleep until sometime around midnight. It went like this:
8:30pm, get into bed (children have BOTH been asleep since 7), finish listening to a podcast
9:00pm, start drifting off to sleep
9:30pm, Geo wakes up screaming from a fever nightmare. C sleeps through the screaming. I go soothe him back to sleep. This takes about an hour.
10:30pm, back in bed.
10:35pm, Mazen wakes up to nurse
10:55 pm, start drifting off to sleep
11:05pm, Geo wakes up crying. I went into his room intending to give him something for the fever, discover the fever is gone. Get him back to sleep.
11:45 back in bed, start drifting off.
12:30 am, Mazen wakes up to nurse
12:45am, start going back to sleep.
1:15am I am violently and suddenly ill, presumably from something I ate at the picnic on Sunday.
The night went on, more or less in that vein. Geo woke up and cried out a couple of times, but fell back asleep instantly. Mazzy gave me a couple of 3-hr stretches, and slept in until 7:15. C got a good night's sleep. I feel like crap.
And, Murphy's law being in full swing, this is the day I had mentally devoted to finish filing my tax information (before you tell me that the deadline was April 15th, know that expatriates have a 2-month automatic extension). It's also the day before my magazine deadline. I was counting on a quiet house this morning.
The good news: none of the illnesses seem to be serious, the tax forms have been filled out in pencil and will be inked in at some moment when children are not around, and the magazine will be fine. Focus on the positive, focus on the positive, focus on the positive. I will sleep again someday.
I had a rough night myself last night. While the four of us were in bed by 8:30pm (sad, isn't it?) I was the only one who didn't get to go to sleep until sometime around midnight. It went like this:
8:30pm, get into bed (children have BOTH been asleep since 7), finish listening to a podcast
9:00pm, start drifting off to sleep
9:30pm, Geo wakes up screaming from a fever nightmare. C sleeps through the screaming. I go soothe him back to sleep. This takes about an hour.
10:30pm, back in bed.
10:35pm, Mazen wakes up to nurse
10:55 pm, start drifting off to sleep
11:05pm, Geo wakes up crying. I went into his room intending to give him something for the fever, discover the fever is gone. Get him back to sleep.
11:45 back in bed, start drifting off.
12:30 am, Mazen wakes up to nurse
12:45am, start going back to sleep.
1:15am I am violently and suddenly ill, presumably from something I ate at the picnic on Sunday.
The night went on, more or less in that vein. Geo woke up and cried out a couple of times, but fell back asleep instantly. Mazzy gave me a couple of 3-hr stretches, and slept in until 7:15. C got a good night's sleep. I feel like crap.
And, Murphy's law being in full swing, this is the day I had mentally devoted to finish filing my tax information (before you tell me that the deadline was April 15th, know that expatriates have a 2-month automatic extension). It's also the day before my magazine deadline. I was counting on a quiet house this morning.
The good news: none of the illnesses seem to be serious, the tax forms have been filled out in pencil and will be inked in at some moment when children are not around, and the magazine will be fine. Focus on the positive, focus on the positive, focus on the positive. I will sleep again someday.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Pour ceux que j'aime
So it's been a tough road recently, parenting Geo. I don't know if it's being four, being a big brother or being in school (most likely all of the above) but I've felt like my sunny, cheerful boy has been replaced some days by a totally different person. Angry, temperamental, sort of teenager-ish. We've had lots of door-slamming and foot-stomping and all-around unpleasantness. Many, many days it's been much easier to be a good mom to Mazen, whose needs are so simple. Eat, sleep, change diaper, coo, smile. With Geo, it's negotiating difficult relationships at school, teaching the finer points of manners (examples: the truth bomb posts), reminding him not to pick his nose; the constant, joyless grind part of parenting.
And then there are these flashes, these moments that shine through to remind me what a great kid he is and how much I like this little person.
Today he brought home from school a box for C and I. It's a combined Mother's/Father's Day gift. I opened it up; it was prettily painted. Inside were three folded pieces of paper, one blue, one green and one orange. Geo picked the blue one first, unfolded it and "read" me a poem. Then he "read" the orange one, then the green one. Hearing his French, watching him make the hand gestures that the teacher must have spent so much time drilling into the heads of 28 four-year-olds, was so moving. And he was so proud of himself! At the end, he told me, "See, mama, I know how to read!"
And then, after his shower I was getting him in his pj's. C went out to dinner with an out-of-town colleague tonight, and Geo was telling me how much he missed his Baba at dinner. "I didn't even get to find out what he had for lunch," he told me sadly. Because every night at dinner, Geo asks C how his day was, if he saw his friends, and what he ate at lunch.
And later, putting him in bed, he recited one more time "Un petit poeme pour ceux que j'aime" and told me they'd been working on it for a long time, Maitresse had told them to keep it a secret.
It was the best kind of secret.
And then there are these flashes, these moments that shine through to remind me what a great kid he is and how much I like this little person.
Today he brought home from school a box for C and I. It's a combined Mother's/Father's Day gift. I opened it up; it was prettily painted. Inside were three folded pieces of paper, one blue, one green and one orange. Geo picked the blue one first, unfolded it and "read" me a poem. Then he "read" the orange one, then the green one. Hearing his French, watching him make the hand gestures that the teacher must have spent so much time drilling into the heads of 28 four-year-olds, was so moving. And he was so proud of himself! At the end, he told me, "See, mama, I know how to read!"
And then, after his shower I was getting him in his pj's. C went out to dinner with an out-of-town colleague tonight, and Geo was telling me how much he missed his Baba at dinner. "I didn't even get to find out what he had for lunch," he told me sadly. Because every night at dinner, Geo asks C how his day was, if he saw his friends, and what he ate at lunch.
And later, putting him in bed, he recited one more time "Un petit poeme pour ceux que j'aime" and told me they'd been working on it for a long time, Maitresse had told them to keep it a secret.
It was the best kind of secret.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Of Neti Pots and Nit Combs...
Geo was talking to me this morning in the kitchen, while I was making his breakfast.
"I want you to get me a treat this afternoon," he said.
"Yeah? What kind of treat?" I assumed he meant a lollipop or something-- his usual after school occasional treat.
"Ummm... You know, you could get me a rocket-ship with a 'mote control that really flies," he said, as if this idea had just occurred to him (he's been asking for a 'mote controlled rocket ship for about a year now).
"You know, I've looked and looked but I've never seen one of those for sale in the village."
"Maybe in Paris."
Little does he know that the only things I'll be buying him today are a neti pot (to clear his sinuses) and a nit-comb (should be self-explanatory). It turns out, after a visit to an ENT specialist, that Geo's tonsils are swollen, causing a sort of mechanical ear infection-- fluid can't drain properly-- which affects his hearing. So we're on a quest to improve things for him, and one recommended treatment is a neti pot.
As for the nit-comb, well, it's springtime and the lice have officially made their appearance in his class. Since the weather has been warmer, the kids have been required to bring baseball caps for recess, which means that transmission is just too easy.
So. Neti pots and nit combs, and nary a 'mote controlled rocket ship to be found.
Looking at the bigger picture: snot and parasites! Who said parenting wasn't glamorous? Because they were totally right.
"I want you to get me a treat this afternoon," he said.
"Yeah? What kind of treat?" I assumed he meant a lollipop or something-- his usual after school occasional treat.
"Ummm... You know, you could get me a rocket-ship with a 'mote control that really flies," he said, as if this idea had just occurred to him (he's been asking for a 'mote controlled rocket ship for about a year now).
"You know, I've looked and looked but I've never seen one of those for sale in the village."
"Maybe in Paris."
Little does he know that the only things I'll be buying him today are a neti pot (to clear his sinuses) and a nit-comb (should be self-explanatory). It turns out, after a visit to an ENT specialist, that Geo's tonsils are swollen, causing a sort of mechanical ear infection-- fluid can't drain properly-- which affects his hearing. So we're on a quest to improve things for him, and one recommended treatment is a neti pot.
As for the nit-comb, well, it's springtime and the lice have officially made their appearance in his class. Since the weather has been warmer, the kids have been required to bring baseball caps for recess, which means that transmission is just too easy.
So. Neti pots and nit combs, and nary a 'mote controlled rocket ship to be found.
Looking at the bigger picture: snot and parasites! Who said parenting wasn't glamorous? Because they were totally right.
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