What’s New: Teeny, Tiny Babies

Every Wednesday I write a post to reflect on any big events in our family’s life, along with all of the small changes and new developments I notice with Annabelle during the week. Life moves so quickly, and this is my way of keeping track – my virtual scrapbook, if you will. If you write a post, or put together a collection of photos to record the happenings with your own children or family, I’d love to have you link up below so I can follow along. This year, I’m also participating in Mamatography, a 366 day photo challenge, started by Luschka at Diary of a First Child, and this weekly update seems the perfect time to post the photos I take during the week, so you’ll see them scattered about in each post.

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 It has been a slightly slower week around here, since we managed to finish the car shopping on Thursday and we’re still waiting for the arrival of all of our things from Guam. So, we finished up what we could and have simply been settling into a rhythm here, which has been made fairly easy by the mostly empty house. The daddy hasn’t been able to really start his new job, so he has been home with us all week long. No complaints there!

I mentioned last week how well Annabelle had been taking to our new life here. This week there has been a bit of a shift as she has apparently realized we may be here to stay. While driving home from an outing yesterday morning, she let me know that she wanted to, “go back to our other house. Our Guam house.” Then after her bath, as she was settling in for bed she said she wanted to, “get in the big bath at Guam.” In both cases, there was definitely a bit of sadness in her voice that made my heart break a little. I’m still pretty amazed by her ability to hang in there through all of this, but she’s showing that she is not made of stone. A good thing, I suppose.

She really seems to be playing with the idea of babies – what they do, how we interact with them, etc. I don’t recall how it started, but awhile ago Annabelle started asking me to, “Hold you [her] in your arms like a baby.” I’d cradle her and ooh and ah, saying, “Aww, that’s my tiny little baby! Isn’t she sweet!?” Eventually she would tire of held, giggle, and scamper off. It never really went beyond that until recently. Now we play the “tiny, little baby,” game pretty much on a daily basis. Now, Annabelle asks to be held, “like a baby,” and them while I’m holding her, she feeds me lines: “That’s my teeny, tiny little baby.” “She’s so small!” “She doesn’t know how to walk yet. And she doesn’t eat any food. She can only drink milk. She doesn’t say any words yet…” She stays in character for a good little while sometimes, and will even tell us what “this tiny little baby is wanting.” The game usually ends when it’s time to do something, like eat, that babies can’t do. I’ll say, “Boy, I hope my big kid Annabelle comes back soon because tiny little babies can’t eat this kind of food!” At that point, she’ll usually jump up and declare that, “Big kid Annabelle is back!”

While I worried momentarily that this may be a sign of things to come – that she may want to be the baby instead of the big sister most, or all of the time, I’m thinking it’s more likely that this is just as timely as the rest of her imaginative play. She’s role playing to experiment with the idea of babies, and really working through the differences between “teeny tiny babies” and “kids” – something I’m sure she has big feelings about. I suspect this is a healthy outlet for those big feelings and it will ease the transition for her. I’m even more curious to see how she takes to big siblinghood now. It’s funny to see her go back and forth between playing the baby and nursing her own “baby.” So many roles to explore!

Speaking of the actual baby, we’re getting pretty close, so visits with our midwives are becoming regular. Annabelle was napping during our first visit, so yesterday was the first time she was actually around for an appointment with one of them. She hung nearby most of the time, and was able to hear the baby’s heartbeat for the first time, as was the daddy. It was one of those heart about to explode moments when the four of us were crowded around the couch with the fetoscope, which Annabelle, grinning, had in her ears. She often takes the fetoscope out to play with it, and to “measure mama’s belly,” so it was neat for her to see what it can really do. I’m pretty sure she legitimately felt the baby’s movements for the first time this week, too. Of course they have been pronounced for some time now, but she doesn’t usually have the patience to keep her hand in one place while waiting for the movement to begin.

Our things are supposed to be delivered no later than Monday, so hopefully all of that comes through as planned and we can settle in fully as we get ready for this teeny, tiny, little baby to join the party!

What’s new in your family’s life? Feel free to link up at the bottom of this post so we can come by and read about the happenings with you, too!

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…a bit more mamatography