Sweet Stuff

Sukhjot was cracking us up last night - with her wobbly attempts at sitting and her repeated chewing/sucking on my cheek bone after lunging open-mouthed at my face. Right before we did bedtime with Sukhjot, the girls has some almost-calm snuggling.
Sukhjot has started wiggling out of her bouncy chair. The bouncy chair has been so good to us but, it appears, its last days may be upon us...
baby face
Kisses from sister. Satvinder says that Sukhjot makes hot cocoa in her cheeks and that is why they are so warm. If the cheeks are not warm, Satvinder wags her finger at the baby and says, "Make more hot cocoa!"

Learning to Sit

Earth Day

We went to the zoo on Earth Day yesterday. The Phoenix Zoo does a lot of conservation and education so I feel good about going there and supporting their efforts.

Another great Earth Day activity was watching the movie Home, which I encourage everyone to see. It is a stunning movie about the interconnectedness of life on this planet. It includes amazing visuals and lots of info. Did you know that humans have impacted the Earth more in the last 50 years than in the entire history of humanity? It is a pretty heavy thing. In the end, there is hope - and even if you feel like you are aware of the environmental issues we face, I still encourage you to watch it. (I saw and learned things I was not yet aware of!) You can watch it for free on youtube: watch Home

This nice camel gave us a ride. They cap the weight load for these camels at 300 lbs. I thought that was a lot but the guy working there shook his head, "Actually they can easily carry 1000 lbs."
Baby girl wearing her hippo onesie.
The sting rays are nearing the end of their stay in Arizona - pretty soon it will be too hot here, I guess. They are so silky smooth to the touch.
Carousel is always a favorite.

What's up with the 6 year old

She's not so into photos.

She is into reading everything she can get her hands on plus still lots of Harry Potter (re-reading those that she's already read.) We get stacks of chapter books from the library. She reads them (the stacks) in two to three days.

Babysitting - usually involves carrying the baby from room to room, identifying which cheek on the baby is the hottest so that it can be repeatedly kissed, and getting in the baby's face and saying something - anything - really really loudly.

Jokes - especially knock-knock jokes. Or jokes about Draco Malfoy (from Harry Potter) being a cry baby.

The Internet! Games galore and more. She likes Pixie Hollow and PBS Kids but she's also started searching Google on her own and finding things. Sometimes she finds things we would rather her not find...like Reddit. She noticed her papa checks out Reddit often so she decided to find it on her own. We'll just add that to the long list of things we did not know our six year old would be able to do.

Constantly amazing us - The other day our friend was visiting and was were talking about ages. Satvinder said, "I'm 5 and 5 quarters." We laughed, thinking she surely didn't "get" fractions yet - just a kid saying random fractions. I started to say, "No, you are..." and then realized, "Oh. You ARE 5 and 5 quarters. Oh my God." She knew exactly what she was saying.

What's up with the baby

Toe Grabbing!
Amused Face: We'll do just about anything to amuse the baby. She loves when we make goofy noises - squeeks and chirps and clucks - and it is not uncommon for all 3 of us to be making such sounds for her. She also is quite found of peek-a-boo, which is a great match for the 6 year old, who enjoys startling people.
Curling tongue: This girl has one cute, funny tongue. It must be really fun to play with...judging by how often she does.

No picture of this - but she's rolling and scootching and ready to go.

Home

So. Having Satvinder at home now is good. And it is hard. I'm still trying to figure out where we want to go from here. In some ways we are both relieved. In some ways we are both struggling.

Things have changed so much for Satvinder in recent months with the arrival of a sibling and the dramatic shifting of my focus and energy. She changed a lot just by turning six - she's a much older child, mentally and emotionally, now than she was just a few months ago. Many of her emotions and attitudes are ones that I expect of preteen and teen kids - not a six year old. Frankly, it is freaking me out a little bit. We are really getting blind sided by issues of respect (disrespect) and the seemingly endless pit of unfulfilled needs.

But interwoven in the challenges are lots of funny, sweet moments like this:
Mangala Sadhu Sangeet Singh introduced Satvinder to Wikipedia as one tool to quench her thirsty, inquisitive mind. Today I found that the living room (previously occupied by my two children) was empty of people. On the tv/computer screen I saw that Satvinder had been researching the word "Infant" on Wikipedia.
Satvinder had scooped up the baby and carried her off to the bedroom. They were sitting in Satvinder's "Reading Club" - a nook between the wall, bed, and wardrobe that she likes to hide and read in.

I guess she wanted to read up on infants and then get some real life experience.

It is only Saturday?

Satvinder requested this picture because she thinks it is hilarious to cover the baby so that only her head shows. So here's Sukhjot being hilarious.
We visited a friend who lives in a home that gives me inspiration for gardens and green living in Phoenix. They have over 40 fruit trees, multiple gardens, chickens, fish ponds and utilize grey water to maintain it. Satvinder had fun holding the chickens.
We attended the open house party of Freedom and the Seed, the merging of two fabulous midwives here in Phoenix to create a beautiful, new practice. I have never seen, in one location, more mamas wearing babies. It was adorable. And I love the banner.
Today our friend,Dylan, had his 5th birthday party - Star Wars themed. Satvinder dressed up like Leia, we called Sukhjot Baby Leia (use your imagination), and I was "casual" Padme (hair is Padme inspired.)
There was a Jedi training camp and Mangala Sadhu Sangeet was Dath Vader, trying to recruit the Jedi children to the dark side. Some of the children were timid and cautious about him but then they ganged up and went after him. This picture shows just a few but later they came at him like an angry mob.

Vision Board and More

Here is Satvinder's vision board that she made last weekend. She wanted me to write the words for her but it all came from her amazing brain and she placed everything. Some highlights:

• Sukhjot pictures are for "funniness." Often on car rides, I will ask Satvinder what the baby is doing (since I can't always see her.) She usually includes the word "funny" in her answer somehow. Because the baby is FUNNY. "She's doing her funniness" or "Her eyes are closed but she has on a funny face."
  
  The feeling is mutual. Satvinder doesn't have to be doing anything funny (though often she is) and Sukhjot sometimes will just crack up at the mere sight of her big sister. I think they already have some inside jokes.


• Animals - yes those bunnies are high-fiving. And yep, that kitten is, indeed, wearing a frog hat. Thank you, Google Images.


• Glitter! Sparkles!


• If the baby's cheeks look extra rosy, that's because Satvinder colored extra rosiness on all the cheeks. Her vision of the future requires rosy cheeks. In fact, she wants to nickname her sister "Little hot cheeks."

At some point every day (or multiple times) Satvinder will shriek "MINE MINE MINE" about the baby and insist on holding her right that very second. Other commonly shrieked phrases are "CUTIE CUTIE CUTIE!!" and "Baby rock star, you're a baby rock star!"

The other day I heard Satvinder telling the baby, "I would do anything for you, Sukhjot. I love you even more than I love dinosaurs." (Satvinder really cares about dinosaurs. On more than one occasion she has cried about them being extinct.)
We walked over to the Heard Museum this week and had some lunch and posing with statues.
Little baby in a cute hoodie! (Or cute baby in a little hoodie...take your pick.)
Me and Little Hot Cheeks. She's almost 14 lbs. now!

Renewal

Easter and Springtime bring forth the idea of rebirth and renewal. It really feels, especially now, that things are changing and evolving so fast. We are all being renewed in both pleasant and unpleasant ways. It is a crazy ride.

Today Satvinder and I worked on Vision Boards - creating visual representations of what we want to manifest in life. Our camera batteries are dead right now so I don't have pictures - but maybe tomorrow I will post some. Satvinder's is pretty cute - pictures of Sukhjot (to manifest funniness) and animals (to manifest "feeding animals",which apparently is something she really wants to do.)

One of the things I am wanting to bring into my life more is writing. Writing makes me feel naked and exposed and vulnerable. And, for some reason, I feel like I need to do more of it. So I'm making myself do more. Tonight I posted for the first time on a blog that I just joined, Just Five Minutes -- Mamas Collaborative Writing Blog
- where mothers write for 5 minutes, unedited, inspired by one word.

I also am wanting to manifest more fresh, local, organic foods into our lives. And I want to have a garden. I have a lot to learn about gardening in the desert but I was excited to find The Phoenix Prermaculture Guild as a resource and for classes. I watched Food Inc. yesterday so I'm feeling extra motivated to make smart food choices. (If you haven't seen it yet...go ahead and watch it. It is horrifying but you really need to know...)

Here are some pictures from yesterday at a neighborhood park:
When she wasn't hooping or riding her bike, Satvinder pushed the baby all around the park while Mangala Sadhu Sangeet and I did some hooping.
Satvinder and Mangala Sadhu Sangeet had races - with him running backwards.

And, no...none it wore her out in the least.

4 Months

Our little Sukhjot is 4 months old today. She a rolling, drooling, smiling, laughing, shrieking, bundle of delight. She smiles more than any person I've ever known. She also gets more kisses - she has all 3 of us coming at her chubby little cheeks all day long.

Today I overhead Satvinder saying to Sukhjot, "I will always love you. Even if you chew on my toys. Even if you break my toys. I will still love you. Otherwise, I'd just throw books at you."

Yes, Sukhjot, we love you.
She has brought so much joy to our lives.
She really likes to sit up. When she sits in this chair, she pats that center piece wildly like she's playing drums.
Chewing hands (her own - or anyone else's) is a one of her favorite hobbies.

Go, Sukhjot! 4 months old and SUPER FANTASTIC!