21 Hours

     Last week we had the good pleasure of having two weary travelers crash on our couch for all of about three hours. It wouldn't have been a Scott Barnett visit if anyone had gotten any more sleep than that. Scott and Anna took a weekend trip to Budapest and on their way back to Krakow, swung by our place to say cześć! We chatted over homemade (vegetarian) pizza and Vinea, then worked our way into the living room over ice cream bars, and after flexing our deep spiritual discussion muscles for way too many hours, finally ended the night with loopy, loopy laughter and a little (award-winning) wine. Our girls fell in love with them (and their phones/sunglasses/jewelry) and I think it's pretty safe to say they took a pretty good shining to our girls too. We got to have lunch together at a traditional Slovak food restaurant and rounded out our 21 hours by Scott joining me for an English conversation lesson in which he stole the show with his Hunger Games knowledge. Their visit was far too short, but also very sweet. Miss you guys.  


 



Lily and Anna's necklace, which weighs about as much as she does





Halušky and Kofola. Tak to má byt'!



Mother's Day/Mothers Day/Mothers' Day?

     They say you can never fully appreciate what your parents have done for you until you yourself become a parent. This has been true for me. And I even appreciated what my mom did for me. But now I appreciate it even more. Given my last post, I might sound like I'm complaining about motherhood. I don't mean that at all. I'm truly thankful for my newfound appreciation for my mom. And it's not just knowing that she roamed the floors at 2 a.m. with us when we wouldn't sleep. I see my own struggles and shortcomings and remember how she handled things with such grace sometimes. If there's one word I think most describes my mom, it's selfless. Or self-sacrificing. I am working on attaining this virtue, but I am far from it.  

     I have a good friend who married a guy half a world away from her, and made the tough decision to leave her home and live in his. (Sounds familiar : ) It was already hard enough for her to leave her family and her world, but she told me that for months before she left, her mom kept begging her not to leave and telling her how hard it was going to be on her. It wasn't until then that I fully appreciated how my mom had let me go when I moved to Slovakia. Only then did I realize how selfless her love was for me when she never once asked me not to go. And that's not to say it wasn't heartbreakingly hard for her to let me go.* Her only daughter. That's what's so incredible. I would wager to say it was probably the hardest thing she's even done and yet, showing true unconditional love, she loosed her hands and her heart and let me go. And if that wasn't hard enough, then we had babies. Her only grandbabies. And when they were born, not a prouder grandma have you ever seen. She loves those babies like they lived next door to her. And of course she tells us she misses us (desperately) and of course she wishes we were there, but in the end she wants what is best for all of us and lovingly releases that decision to me. And even as I write this, I realize that she will probably be uncomfortable with this post. But that just proves my point, because true love doesn't seek accolades. And my intention is not to give her a pat on the back. I just want to say thank you, mom, for loving me. For loving us. Thank you for your example. Because I'm pretty sure if the roles were reversed, I would act much more like my friend's mom. And I don't say that with judgement. It's natural to want to hold on to those you love. But it's supernatural to let them go. I hope someday very soon you will get to meet Rosy and see Lily (and us) again. In the meantime, here is the next best gift I can give to you. Happy Mother's Day, mom. We love you.    

Demonstrating the effects of sun damage on skin. Wear your sunscreen, kids!

My little sprite. Flitting around, singing along to the songs 



Mother Teresa photo shoot



She asked to put on my sports bra so she could exercise to the lady on tv, but apparently found Ernie more appealing. I don't blame her.





Out for a walk in the sun



Sisters



''This is a five.''



Learning to sit





My favorite new picture








My mom's magnolia tree in bloom



*My mom wasn't the only one to ''lose'' a loved one when I left. I don't want to downplay by any means my brothers' or my dad's loss. Or my own, for that matter. I just wanted to thank her because it's Mother's Day. We miss all of you more than you could know.   

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

     Friends, there's something working against me getting any sleep at all and I have to laugh about it, otherwise I'd cry, and I have. Oh, I have. I've cried, I've cussed, I've beat the downy pulp out of my pillow, leaving the lamp swinging from the ceiling when a concerned Tomáš came in to check on me. If you've never not slept for six months you cannot understand. But if you are a mom, you do. Truth is, I haven't done a whole lot of laughing about it. I've been pretty very whiny, actually. But man (oh, man) am I tired. Evidence of that is the fact that I just typed tured, which is actually closer to the truth when you say it out loud. My-an, emm ah tured. Rosy has inexplicably switched her nighttime sleeping routine to daytime. Much like her newborn days, she sleeps a lot during the day and parties all night. Lily, on the other hand, sleeps beautifully all night long, and in exchange is, of course, up all day except for her nap, if she naps. This is, as you might imagine, the exact time that Rosy tends to be up. Here were my last 24 hours:
4:43 a.m. Rosy wakes to greet the day. Poopy. Change her, feed her, try to lay her back down. She cough-cries loudly her malcontent, meaning I have to get her out of that crib to some new real estate and fast otherwise the whole neighborhood will be woken. Ok, that was an exaggeration, but Lily and Tomáš certainly.
6:30 Lily wakes, needs to be changed, dressed and fed ASAP. Meanwhile I'm trying to load the dishwasher and do a load of laundry, both of which also need to be done ASAP. By the time I'm in the thick of all of these things, Rosy is screamin' ready for a nap. It's about 7 a.m.
7:00 Feed Rosy, walk her to sleep. Watch Lily and do housework til Rosy wakes. Repeat cycle.
1:15 p.m. Get Rosy to sleep just in time for Lily's nap. A miracle. Lay down with Lily until she falls asleep, preventing imminent pants and diaper removal, resulting in not falling asleep. Lily sleeps. Another miracle. All I want to do in the whole entire world is have a cup of coffee and read a little something but I opt to sleep instead. I lay down and just as I start to doze off, the wind blows something outside and I wake up. And again. I go and close the balcony door and try again to sleep. I get no sleep. Rosy wakes.
2:30 p.m. Run defense, trying to keep Rosy quiet so Lily doesn't wake. Lately she won't stand to be anywhere but in someone's arms pretty much so I hold her the remainder of Lily's nap.
4:30 Lily wakes. Repeat morning cycle until Rosy is ready for her last nap.
6:15 Tomáš comes home, I fly out the door for a quick run. Come back, baths, bottle, breastfeeding, bed.
8:30 Watch American Idol. Eat dinner.
9:40 Go to bed, waking Rosy in the process. Feed her.
10-1:50 a.m. Interrupted sleep when she rolls over onto her tummy or loses her pacifier and then fusses.
1:50 Feed her
2:10 a.m. Go to the living room to try and sleep as she makes little noises. Notice that Tomáš is not in his bed. He's on the floor in Lily's room. She sneezes. I go to cover her with a blanket and she starts crying to get up. Her pacifier is out of her crib and (I'm not making this up) she insists on picking it up with her feet, ''Lily do it!!!'' Try to meet her every desire just to get her to sleep again. Discover she's poopy. Change diaper. Go to sleep on couch. Sleep til 4 something when Rosy wakes and rolls around, making happy noises. Poops. Start cycle over again.
     I admit Tomáš does a lot to try and help me. He doesn't complain when at six I go and plop Rosy next to him in bed (for the time being he sleeps in the room next door so at least one of us can function). On the weekends he gets up with Lily and gives her breakfast. The problem is, though, that he does not have lactating boobs. Wait, ok so that is not a problem. I try to be careful what I wish for. But I will jump for joy the day that I get eight consecutive hours of sleep. Or six. Or five. Oh, who am I trying to kid? Even four. With that said, there is a snoring Tomáš next to me on the couch right now, remote control on his chest. You know he is sleeping when a movie with talking dogs is being allowed to play on TV. We should both probably call it a night. 

Happy half year, little lady.


Ta Da!



Flappin' her wings



Oh, daddy!



Tiiiimberrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Night night.