Many beautiful children

My sister-in-law went back to work (fortunately for her, only in-office twice a week for now), and I offered to help watch the babies for her. Yesterday was our first try...and it went great (though I'm not just a little thankful that Dan was home to help)! The day proceeded as follows:

6:30 babies arrive
we feed, change, bounce, carry, feed, change...Lilah slept until 8:30

9:30 big girls head out to a water park with friends
we keep the five littles entertained, feed, and change a bunch...Dixon naps, Lilah tests out a back carry in a mei tai (Baby Hemp Tai)

10:30 I took our boys and Lilah to swim lessons, leaving Dan with Devin and Dixon. Devin slept; Dixon woke up. I played super-mom, wrapping Lilah on my front and backpacking Oliver (Dream Carrier for your tbw mamas). Felt pretty special, I have to admit - look! No stroller! Three kids under three, and a swim bag! ;)

11:45 return with boys and Lilah, who has slept through most of the lesson...all three littles go to sleep, scattered around our living room - Dixon in the pack-n-play, Devin in the cradle, and Lilah on my chest on the couch.

(and yes, mama knows that he was tummy sleeping :p)

We get our boys to nap as well...and when I wake up at 1:40, I realize that miraculously Dan and I have not only managed to get five children under three all sleeping at the same time...but we have both slept too!

*insert happy dance smiley here*

Around 2:00, girls return, and we take on an eighth child for a brief time (friend of Clara's). Eight kids, nine and under. Wow.

4:15ish, mama returns...to quiet! I greeted her at the door like this:

(well, hopefully without that maniacal grin...and the babies were actually asleep...)

We pack them up, and send them out the door...forgetting about six things, of course. But that's not too bad for three two-month olds, I think?

I also played car seat tech, and correctly installed the babies' bucket bases in their car before they headed home...don't worry, I warned mama B that I was a little extreme when it comes to car seats!

*soap box alert*

Note to all caregivers: no more than one inch of  movement at the belt path, please! If using seat belts (vs. latch), be sure to pull them all the way out until the locking mechanisms trigger...then PULL. Put your weight in the base/seat and PULL some more! Read your manuals. Remember, the harness straps over the baby should be SNUG. As in, no pinch-ability...and those chest clips belong at the armpit level!

And of course, your baby is so much safer staying REAR FACING as long as possible. For many newer convertible seats, that means 40-45 pounds. Yep, YEARS. Auto accidents are the leading cause of death for children. Do your part to keep your babies as safe as they can be, please?!

OK. Rant over. Locals, though I'm not certified, I'm happy to check your seats.

I LOVE playing car-seat installer!

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And she's back...kind of

Thanks to the generosity, trust, and friendship of my midwife mentor...I was fortunate to greet today's sunrise welcoming a baby girl earthside. It has been just over a year since my last series of births and my resignation from apprenticeship...a hard year of adjusting to our own family addition, missing what I know is my calling in life...missing friends in the birth community, and missing working with said amazing midwife and friend.

So:

I was called at 2:15 this morning, mama peacefully humming through her contractions, appearing hardly in discomfort, almost sleeping in her chair when we arrived. A sudden shift in moaning, still quiet, yet more intense, piqued my curiosity around 5:00, and I saw mom was standing over a pad, with her water broken....sixteen minutes later, their baby girl emerged, vernix-coated and perfect...7 lb 14 oz, dark hair, mama hardly uttering a sound, daddy watching, siblings sleeping through it all...birds chirping and morning haze just burning off as the Arizona sun lit the sky...

India: Chapter Six

The gala event, Wednesday, February 24, 2010.

Anna and I left the compound in a hired car in the early afternoon for our hair/makeup/draping session at the premier salon in Delhi, Ambika Pillai. To enter the mall where it was located, we went through security, including xray of bags, and a gender-specific pat-down after passing the metal detectors...our driver waited in the parking lot.

This salon (like many others) specializes in Bridal treatments...so hair, makeup and assistance with draping of a saree, or general dressing is all part of the package deal. We were guided into a room to change out of our shirts and into our party tops with a  drape and our street pants ...well, for the party, I was wearing a dress, not a sari, and the poor girl who was with us was horrified when I put on my dress and then started to remove my jeans. For some reason, she couldn't grasp the fact that the dress was all I was wearing, I guess...assuming most of their clients would wear a sari blouse and their street jeans, it was just beyond her comprehension that I not leave my jeans on as well! Thanks to Anna's Hindi, she finally "got it," and I was not resigned to spending two hours in my jeans with a fitted dress over them.

Hair came next - I could watch Anna through the mirror, but my stylist didn't speak English, and Anna was beyond conversational distance...oh, and slightly pre-occupied with her own party preparations! I just let the guy do what he wanted...which was fine - an up-do, I liked it.

But then we moved to the make-up room. I don't wear make-up. A dressed-up day for me is some powder to eliminate my shine, and some chapstick. I'm an anomaly when it comes to Indian parties...the lady put three pounds of base and powder and who-knows-what all over my face and neck, then started on my eyes. Oh, my eyes...

Purple shadow, to the brow, dark.
Eyeliner thick enough to guide an airplane to landing.
Blush dark enough to embarrass the finest red-light-district queen...

...but the best...my lips. BRIGHT RED, dark, lined and filled...

I didn't recognize myself AT ALL. Thank goodness Anna came back and could very quickly help me veto the facial monstrosity...so the make-up lady "minimized" the look...which still left me with purple shadow, blush, three pounds of base, but at least a more natural lip color. Hey, small victories at the hand of an artist accompanied to much more extravagance than this plain white girl can handle.

Make-up complete, Anna's sari draping was the final step. Dressed in her blouse and petticoat, the ladies of the salon started to wrap her...

  

...and work the choora/chura/chooda on Anna's arms. The choora are a set of bangles traditionally soaked in milk and put on by the mother's uncle, worn for 40 days straight, then removed by the groom's sister. Many Indian couples are modernizing this tradition in myriad ways...including my sister, who chose to wear them for the gala event, but skipped the soaking, placing by uncle, and wearing for 40 days...

 

(in the mirror in the right-hand picture you can see another bride preparing at the salon. Her choora are wrapped in fabric so as to keep her from seeing them, I assume...yet another traditional twist to choora-wearing)

You can see, a sari draping for your wedding is no small production...

 

...but the results are amazing, if I say so myself!

 

Some pictures from the party...held at the private Delhi Flying Club officer's space.

The entrance:

Inside the venue:

  

The orange flower strands hanging all over are marigolds - an auspicious flower.

A few crowd shots, just to enjoy the colors and variety of dress...

Children come to all the big parties...

Anu, the new sister-in-law, Anna, me...fortunately for my viewers, you can't really see just how BIG that make-up was on me...

Some of the US contingent...

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The food was buffet...included a "street food" section, with our new favorite funky treat: water balls!

Also included fresh, made-on-the-spot roti...yum...complete with chefs happy to pose for the silly Americans!

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A few days before the wedding, Ashish's sister and sister-in-law told me about a tradition of the sisters stealing the groom's shoes (juta churai) during the ceremony. The shoes are held as ransom, and the groom is obliged to deal with the sister to earn back his shoes.

Ashish was cooperative, and went along with my shoe-nabbing antics...much to the delight of the female family members!

  

And if you're wondering...I let him off easy...I only demanded a wooden Ganesha statue as my ransom...

Beautiful party...beautiful couple...

Liam is three!

We celebrated Liam's third birthday this last Sunday...May 16. In addition to opening a few new toy "mighty machines" (construction vehicles), he got to actually drive one as well...We went to Auntie B's ranch, where the Kubota was screaming his name...

...little bro tried to keep up (taggie in hand, as always)!

My amazing Bass boys:

Ollie enjoyed the chickens and just running around

Here is the birthday boy, looking so big suddenly :(

(please note the Thomas the Train rain boots...the kid has two obsessions: mighty machines, and Thomas)

Meanwhile, inside...

Dixon:

proof that Uncle Dan exists

Birthday Boy gets to hold a cousin for the first time...and big girl always lends a lap:

Lilah:

And we got to try out new cloth diapers for the first time!

Devin

El helped feed

Now we're through the birthday season for a while...kids are 8,6,3, and 1. Girls will be out of school on June 2, heading to a week of art camp (thanks Gma P), then the five of us (sorry, no Dan) are flying up to Alaska for the month of July...

More soon - off to swimming lessons for both the boys!