Mei Mei

Samara has been very protective of her "mei mei" since she was born.  In the beginning, when people would try to look at Lizzie, Samara would quickly pull the top down on the car seat or the stroller.  Even when somebody who Samara didn't know well would hold the baby, I'd see Samara's stress level rise.  She'd often ask, "Why is that lady holding Elizabeth?  Did she wash her hands?"  She tells everyone, "Her name is Elizabeth Helen.  She was upside down (meaning breach)." However, Samara spent most of first couple months, like the above photo, just observing and not too interested in handling her.  She'd hold her for 10 seconds and say, "Ok.  I'm done."

But now that Lizzie is interacting more, Samara is all over her: "Mom, she's not saying cheese! Lizzie, say cheese!"; while grabbing her legs, saying "She's kicking me mom!"; rubbing Lizzie's hand on her face, "Her nails are sharp.  She's scratching me", "she's looking at me", "she's not looking at me", etc.   I'm assuming this is why second children don't have the same 'personal space' issues as first children?!

 Mara can't wait for Lizzie to be able to play more.  I'm sure they will be best friends and worst enemies as they grow up.  We sure love these sweet faces!!

Two Months Old

Lizzie turned two months old on Tuesday.  We can't believe it's already been two months.  We had her wellness visit today.   On the way there, a gecko crawled out of her car seat and scared me to death.  I do NOT like geckos.  She is growing well and we hope she will soon be chubby like Samara was.  Poor Lizzie has had troubles with reflux and gassiness.   She's quite active and strong.   We have to watch her close on the bed.   She's already rolled over from her tummy to back and can push herself forward quite far when she is on her tummy.  She loves a good snuggle and being in the baby bjorn and moby wrap.  That makes using public transportation a little easier. :)

I found this basket on Arab Street right before she was born and had high hopes for the newborn sleeping pictures I'd get of her in it.  Since we don't make the kind of babies that stay sleep, I'll have to use it for someone else's photos.  Lizzie was happy for the first 90 seconds while I let her suck on the basket.

 But when I tried to prop her up on her arms she got angry.  And I can't blame her.  I'd be mad too if my mom put a wool hat on my head in this weather and made me sit in a basket.  Even her crying face is cute...most of the time.

And the best part about month two is the smiles!  She is so scrumptious.  I'm glad I get to spend my days and nights kissing these sweet little cheeks.  

Lizzie's three-in-one Blessing Dress

Where do the weeks go?  Lizzie was blessed over three weeks ago and I finally took a few pictures of her in the dress.   They aren't what I wanted, but blogging must go on or it will never get done.

I'd hoped to get a family picture of us in front of the chapel (since I've never posted one of our meeting house) but that morning was pretty hectic and after church is always crazy.  This was the only picture we got that day.  We were able to do the blessing before my mom left.  We are so glad she was able to be here for this.  In our church, babies are formally given a name and a blessing after they are born as declaration of sorts before putting their names on the records of the church.  Members of the church are baptized when they are eight years old.  The blessing Ben gave Elizabeth was beautiful.

The beautiful dress that a very kind and talented friend generously made for us (thanks, Sally!).  I wanted Lizzie to have a special dress that represented her being born in Asia.  Notice the little mandarin collar and buttons.

   

Darling bracelets that Ben's sweet Grandma sent.  Lizzie got her middle name 'Helen' from Ben's Grandma Clark.  Lizzie is lucky share a name with such a wonderful woman!

Oh, we love this sweet face!  She is perfection.

Enough with the spiritual and on to the comical.  Now for the real story of the dress.  Like I mentioned, I wanted her to have a special dress.   I'd been to chinatown with a friend and found a few cute styles of dresses I liked.  Tailors are everywhere here, but finding one who would make a newborn dress was tricky.  My friend found a cute older lady who said she could do it.  We settled on a style she felt she could make.  I explained what I wanted and she confirmed that she understood it was for a brand new baby.  She even promised to be quick about it so I wouldn't have to go out of the house during my confinement period to pick the dress up.  Her shop is near Ben's work so he picked it up one evening on his way home.  I told him to text me a pic and tell me how it was.  He said it was lovely but kept indicating it may be a little big for the baby.  He got home with the dress, which was very nice and well-made...

...for a five-year old.

I'm sure Ben was trying to gently prepare me, but the word 'little' in Ben-ese apparently means 'enormous'.  In fact, just for fun we had Samara put it on and she was swimming in it.  Ben wisely and intentionally forgot to tell me until we had the new dress that the little tailor lady (let's call her 'madame Foo') told him, "I make dress to fit a newborn baby to age three."  Chego?! (that's Russian for 'did you smoke crack for breakfast?)  All too often that's how it's done here.  They like to do you favors by deciding for you what you really want.  Really, it makes it worse that she actually intended a newborn to wear it when she made it.  It's hard not to giggle when we see the dress.  We've had fun thinking of how it could have been used on a newborn, a swaddle blanket? sheet for the basinet?   Wait...

...I know...she's seen this illustration and read the poem, 

   My Three White Dresses.   She was doing us a favor by making us a three-in-one dress.  The back is elastic so you could easily just add some fabric to the bottom to make it a baptism dress and then alter it somehow to be part of a wedding dress.  Brilliant!!

It would have been one thing if the dress actually did fit a three-year old.  I sent it home to my niece who is six (NOT newborn to age three size).  I should have sewn a tag in it that says "made with love especially for the Western baby (that's mandarin for 6-yr old)".   

Happy Birthday Grandma!!

Happy Happy Birthday Grandma Dear!!!

My sweet Mom came over to help us after Elizabeth was born.   Getting around with no car and a colicky newborn has proven to be much more of an adjustment than we all expected.  My Mom's help has been invaluable.  We're so glad she flew across the world to be with us.   I think the snuggles and extra naps have made it worth it for her. :) 

We've enjoyed showing her a little bit of Singapore, albeit a mini version compared to what our visitors usually get.  We had a little dessert with glutinous rice a couple weeks ago that my mom really enjoyed.  I told her if she liked the desert she'd love mango sticky rice.  I said, "In fact, you'll never go home if you have it."  A few days later Samara said, "Mom, let's get grandma some mango sticky rice today so she'll not ever go back to America.  It will stick her in Singapore." 

Samara treated Grandma to an elephant ride for her birthday.  My mom loved it.   We were so glad we were able to celebrate her birthday.

I tried to do both video and photos while bouncing to keep the baby asleep in the bjorn.  I, unfortunately, thought I was recording when I wasn't and vice versa.  So, neither really worked out.

We love you Grandma!!  We don't know what we'll do without you.

Sweet Pea

These are my reward for having to take a passport photo of a baby.  It's not easy to get a newborn to look at you straight on with eyes open, ears showing, and hands away from their face!  We get to spend the morning at the embassy tomorrow getting the baby US citizenship, a passport, and a social-security number.  Then we get to spend the afternoon at the Ministry of Manpower getting Lizzie her Singapore greencard.  The joys of reproducing abroad!

Baby stretches are my favorite!!

Alert

Elizabeth is two weeks old now and is more alert and aware every day.  We can't wait to see her personality develop!   

The Colors of Heaven

Last night when I was putting Samara to bed, she asked what color heaven was.  I told her I didn't know but that maybe it was all the colors of the rainbow.   Then she asked, "Can you go get a picture of papa's mom so we can see what color heaven is?"