New snow!

Life is flying by - I stop to breathe and another week has gone by. Sam is growing so fast - he's like a chia pet. We all swear he smiles at us even though theoretically he can't yet. And man, oh man can that boy eat! I feel like he's constantly eating or asking "More milk, please mom." Thankfully I have a breastfeeding pillow (thanks, Janet!) so I can feed him while I'm on the computer (as I'm doing right now). It makes for difficult, one-handed typing while he's actually nursing but then he falls asleep on the pillow and I can use both hands to type again.

Natalie considers him Her Baby and many of our conflicts stem from restricting her access to him. "You never let me touch my baby!" She is a passionate child and he is her passion. I was expecting jealousy over the attention he's getting (and I'm sure subconsciously there is some of that) but she has a firm handle of her own wonderfulness and sees Sam as an addition, not a threat to her glory - after all, she gets lots of attention as the big sister!

I struggle at times to handle both my darlings. I want the idyllic, peaceful feedings that I had with her as a baby, but she wants to be part of any activity with Sam so she's practically in my lap too, touching his head, playing with his feet, any body part she can reach. I get quite cranky in my pursuit of peace. I resolved yesterday after a particularly difficult feeding (I mean difficult with Natty - Sam was great) to figure out some better solutions. One obvious one is to forget the "Sam and Mom" time and read Natty a book while I'm nursing Sam. This works well, but the feeding last longer than her attention span. It's a step in the right direction anyway.

We are going to go play in the new snow as soon as Murray and Natty get home from running errands. I had a fun ski (my first of the year) home from Marmee and Papa's last night (alone, fresh tracks, dusk - bliss! and man, am I out of shape) and Murray went this morning. The afternoon activity will be a family one and we're not expecting aerobic exercise - unless we go sledding and then the adults will get a workout pulling the sled up the hill.

Hilarious Natty quote of the day: "I'm a child. Childs talk about princesses. You're an adult. Adults talk about Barack Obama and....beer."