Growing like summer weeds.

From July 3

Eli turns eleven months old today, and he's upstairs taking a nap right now as I type this. Maia is sitting outside in the backyard in the grass, reading her Ponyo book and "relaxing in the cool air," as she put it. I can hear our neighbor's sprinklers running on his garden, and I think I can even hear a cicada in the trees behind our house. It's in the 70s right now as opposed to the 80s-90s as it has been for the past week or so, so it's possible to feel cool air outdoors even when the sun is up.

We are in a lovely summertime rhythm these days, with various morning playgroups and appointments and storytimes to attend; we get out to a library at least once a week, and to a park usually 2-3 times a week. Downtown Ann Arbor is nearly a daily destination. We'll frequently have coffee somewhere with Brian before he begins his work day, and sometimes he'll even spend the day working at a coffee shop rather than at SRT's office. He's still riding his bike every day, and so his station wagon continues to sit, unused, in our driveway. It's been there since late April. That's pretty darn awesome.

Eli will turn one year old on August 7th while we're on our vacation in the Traverse City/Glen Arbor area, and so part of our packing list will include goodies for our little man's birthday party. He's not walking yet (thank goodness!), but he's cruising all over everything and climbing the stairs, and he's able to stand for a few seconds at a time on his own if he feels like it. He's been sleeping for 11-12 straight hours for a few months now, which is much earlier than Maia ever consistently slept for that long. It feels like a good, real milestone for our parenting philosophy to have made it through two kids' worth of sleep development and challenges without having to use cry-it-out methods. Their sleep patterns have been very different, as have their nighttime breastfeeding patterns, but we've made it through! I imagine Eli will hit a more interrupted phase of sleep at some point in the future--perhaps with teething or walking? Who knows? But we still made it here nevertheless.

Maia actually had a challenging phase of sleep over the last couple of months, at precisely the time that her much younger brother was sleeping uninterrupted. She'd get up several times a night and needed much more parental companionship and help than we were used to. It was rough. We're definitely through the toughest part, but now she sleeps with a light on in the hallway and her door part-way open, and she's greatly reassured by Mommy cuddles just before I go to bed.

Eli is nursing a few times a day--not sure how many exactly--and it's clear that we'll also make it to the one-year milestone for breastfeeding with him. That's something for me to treasure. I have no plans to wean him anytime soon, so it's really just a signpost to pass on our journey, but it is that ideal marker for the American Academy of Pediatrics and their ilk, and so it feels good to pass it with nursing still going strong. He's so busy and active that breastfeeding breaks are one of the precious and reliable cuddle times in our day, and for that reason alone I'd be very resistant to giving that up right now.

The Genisio kids kick ass! :)