Life Lately...in December

The tiniest family member is nearly a month old now, and here is some of what we've been up to.

The first two weeks of his life are mostly a blur (aren't they always?)...I think I really started actually feeling better once I hit that two week mark and then once three weeks came around, bam, walking, talking, coherent human. Well, still slightly sleep-deprived, but isn't everyone?

We've been getting used to being a family of 4. Angel had the first week off of work, but as I mentioned, I don't really remember that week. There were several returns to the hospital for biliruben checks, and Angel was pretty busy working on all the paperwork to get the baby's local birth certificate and then get all the necessary paperwork mailed to the embassy so we can apply for an appointment to get his citizenship officially recorded. Then more of November passed, until we got to Thanksgiving, which was fun and food-filled and was around the time I was starting to actually feel better. Angel had Thursday and Friday off and we spent Thursday with my family, and watched "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" -- first time ever for Cyrus! We've been gradually returning to normal rhythms of housework and schoolwork, and preparing to celebrate Christmas. Here, the cultural norm is that moms and babies don't go anywhere for the first month after baby's birth. As long as I wasn't feeling well, this rule was very easy to follow, but I've gone out with baby a couple times after he hit three weeks old...

Baby is working on his selfie skills although we still have some improvements to be made.

We celebrated our 9th anniversary in small pieces over the course of a week--first with a quick change into our wedding wear to continue a tradition 9 years in the making. This was the sort of year in which the photography took place during both babies' naps, on the couch in our living room, with the camera balanced on the tray of the high chair. Totally works. Maybe for year 10 we'll be a little more professional. ;)

On our anniversary itself, to celebrate, after Angel came home from work at 6, we went out for the very first time as a family of four to a local restaurant that I'd never been to before. They had fresh-made pizzas cooked over a wood fire--absolutely delicious! And both boys behaved themselves, although Glenn did feel like being held for about half of the meal.

After dinner we stopped by a park for a quick visit before bedtime. Glenn's first park trip, but he was not a super big fan. Cyrus was!

This past weekend, I spent some time hanging out with my sister to keep her company at the arts and crafts bazaar she was participating in.

This will be her last year participating in this show, because next year she'll be moving overseas, but I'm so proud of her courage in putting her art out there. Her skills have grown by leaps and bounds over the past few years of practice, and she ended up selling out completely of her greeting cards, gift tags, and journals!

On Sunday morning, we dropped off Cyrus to spend the day with Grandma and Grandpa so that we could have an anniversary celebration that was a little bit more like "Just the two of us." Three is closer to two than four is. ;)

We first decided to try out a few things that were new to us by heading downtown to check out some cafes and marketplaces that are very much catering to the "hipster" aesthetic. It was fun to go somewhere new, as new things are hard to come by when you live on a small island...but we mostly came away feeling like, as usual, anytime we go somewhere "trendy"...that we're just not the right demographic for such places. We're probably both old people at heart, with simple, slightly old-fashioned tastes. I'd much rather have either a very cheap breakfast of roti and dhal, or else a classic American diner hash, eggs, and sausage kind of meal than overpriced, cold-pressed, hand-carved, or whatever other adjective artsy breakfast foods. That's just not us.

So after our excursion into the unknown, we went to buy tickets to a movie Angel had suggested, "Knives Out," and then stopped at the Chicken Rice Shop for a plate of noodles for Angel. I opted for popcorn at the movie theater.

The movie was a good pick...however, I learned why nobody brings their infant to the movie theater, not even a very sleepy newborn. Glenn was perfect...as long as I stood in the back of the theater and rocked him. So that's what I did, for the entire movie. So it didn't quite feel like going to a movie together since Angel had a seat like a normal human...but we got to talk about it afterwards. I have been a big fan of the classic murder mystery genre since my early teens--I used to stay up all night reading Agatha Christie novels when Angel worked night shift (oh, the wise choices we make in our youth)--and I really enjoyed this fun take that included so many of the typical elements of a murder mystery and still felt fresh and suspenseful.

Boys in blue! Taken on Monday morning right before Angel left for school.

And pool acrobatics, as usual. I love seeing Cyrus's joy playing with "Papa" in the pool!