beginnings + endings

Day one of volleyball camp is done, and it was awesome - great to be in the gym and great to have my own thing totally independent and separate from parenthood. I left the house before either of the kids were up and going (that's not to say that they weren't up earlier (as in 5:00ish), because they were), and I missed them. After my day at the gym was all wrapped up, I came straight home and played with them until dinner time - I needed my fix. Anyways, there's not too too much to write about (or maybe there is) - wait, besides the three books that the Amazon man brought the other day - two more illustrated-by-Jon-Klassen books (The Dark and House Held Up By Trees - both more for me than for the kidlets) and 13 Words (Hendrik will LOVE this book come his third birthday, and I love it now) - so I'll get this post posted; I meant to get it up the week before last.

The last few weeks have seen quite a few changes for our girl: she's talking more, sleeping better, roaring, quacking and eating strawberries and drinking whole milk. And the biggest change - that affects me just as much - is that she's nearing the end of her mom-baby milk marathon. Well, to say that it's a marathon is a bit of an exaggeration, but Alana never took a bottle and has gone from five or six feeds a day down to two, in two weeks. And since we're not sure if we'll keep our brood at two or go for one more chile, this may be the end of it all for me - and I'm feeling a little sentimental about it. I feel very lucky to have been able to nurse both my kids, even though there were some big (and little) challenges along the way. And I wasn't really anticipating feeling a little down about it being over; after all, I'm now free to wear non-nursing-friendly clothes and do my own thing alllll day (ie this week of work). But seeing as how it's such an essential, vital, life-giving thing - something that baby really needs - in its absence I almost feel like Alana needs me less. I mean, I suppose then that she's needed me less and less since she started eating more and more (and more and more). Really, I know that she doesn't need me any less - she's just less dependent on me, fully. The best memory of the experience as a whole must be the closeness, the need, the quiet - when nursing became comfortable and easy and night-time sleep started adding up. If I had a little more time, I suppose I could write something a bit more in-depth and poignant, but Allison Tate's list (almost) says it all, about what I will miss about nursing. (It makes me a little teary - nursing moms beware.) My only addition are our top spots, and here they are:

from the porch of our house in Vela, Italy - can't beat these views!

Lago di Garda, Italy

in a castle south of Trento

outside the zoo in Innsbruck

Jamaica: on an overcast day, we had the beach to ourselves

And not pictured: in an ancient, empty, beautiful church in Venice and in the Beijing Aquarium, in the dark, in front of the most massive tank of massive fish I'll ever see in my life.

(The least favourite places must be Ikea Beijing and any time on an airplane - except for our first-class journey on the way home from China.)

There might be more, but that's all I've got for now. I'll enjoy the last 2-3 (+?) weeks of morning noon and night feeding sessions, even if those first ones happen before the sun comes up.