Visit from Grampa Gus

Smiles!

Monkey grip

Besides grasping with their fingers, newborns have a reflex of gripping tightly with their toes. Last night we had fun watching Kayalá deftly holding a thin stick in her foot.

Long live uncles!

Our cat Cresh is expecting kittens again (oops - didn't get her spayed in time - she was still nursing her previous litter when she went into heat again!). Her boyfriend - or, more accurately, one of her boyfriends - is the male cat named Botas who lives in the downstairs apartment.

The other day as we are going to the little neighborhood store, we pass by Botas. Chely looks at him and says, "Botas is going to be a tato (father) soon!" We get to talking about fatherhood and mention the fact that not all men are fathers. For instance, we note that my brothers, her uncles Adrian and Will, are not tatos.

Chely says, "Oh yeah, because they don't have kids."

She mulls this over further and then says, "But Uncle Ade and Uncle Will have a kid that loves them. Know who it is?"

"Who?" I ask.

Chely points to herself and declares: "Me!"

Thanks, Ade and Will, for being wonderful uncles! Know that you are appreciated and loved!

Will and Ade with baby Chely, 2006:



Happy Aunts and Uncles Day, everyone!

Things to know about Kayalá

Well, I can't tell you yet what her favorite flavor of ice cream flavor is, although it might very well be chocolate. I say that not only because I'm a confirmed chocoholic. I say it not only because we grew and harvested cacao in Santa María Tzejá and even named our house there "La Casa del Chocolate" (hence the blog name). No, my suspicion that Kayalá is on her way to being a chocolate lover is based on the fact that when she was barely days old, Edwin waved a chocolate bar under her nose, and she was definitely interested!

I can't say what her favorite books or colors or animals are yet, or what she wants to be when she grows up. But there are some things about her that I can say in confidence. For instance, her top two favorite activities are a) nursing and b) sleeping.

Kayalá also likes: being held by Tato (her father), listening to and observing Chely sing and play, and listening to music (Bach, Ellen Edson's lullabies, and K'iche' children's music are particular hits). She enjoys gazing at intricate Guatemalan weavings and looking at the funky, ocean-themed, Eric Carle-inspired mobile crafted by my mom and Chely.

She is generally tranquil and easy-going, but she has a sort of unsettled, fussy period in the evening. At that time, she likes to do "cluster feeding" which allows her to fill up enough to sleep for a few hours at least at a time.

She generally likes to be held either along the arm, like this:


or up against the shoulder, like this:

with her grandmother "Bamba"

or on her sister's lap, like this:



Kayalá makes sweet little noises, ahgoos and ghaaas and oohs. I'll try to get a video up one of these days.

Her movements are fun to watch. When we change her, as soon as the diaper comes off she flexes her knees up into the position she held in the womb:

(in this picture you can see a hanging piece of sea urchin,
part of the Bamba-and-Chely-mobile mentioned above)

Like all babies, Kayalá has a sweet smell, but it is also of course her own particular smell. It is difficult to describe smells, but at different moments I have felt that she smells like:
licorice
fennel
biscotti
vanilla ice cream

And as for her smiles...they're pure magic.

Outfits from the '70s

Here Kayalá is wearing clothes that were worn by me, my 2 brothers, and 2 cousins. Thanks, Mom and Great Mary, for saving them!

A Kayalá Series

Sleeping beauties

Chely's Creations

Special visitors

We had special guests this weekend: Micaela, who took care of Chely during my working hours for a year and a half, and her daughter Celeste, Chely's best friend. Celeste and Chely played various let's-pretend games in K'iche' while Edwin and I caught up with Micaela. Everyone took turns holding Kayalá, who is delighting us with her first smiles.

Newborn love

Chely, 3 weeks old

In thinking back to the first days and weeks of Chely's life, what I remember most fondly and most vividly (because, admittedly, a lot of it is a blur) is the pure joy and deep love that overtook me. The awe and the wonder. The sense of miracle and mystery. The utter happiness that coursed through me, the euphoria even.

with newborn Chely

This is not to say that those days were completely easy, a happy go lucky vacation. Far from it! Becoming a parent and learning how to care for a newborn entailed new and intense challenges that definitely overwhelmed me. (More on that in another post, maybe!)

Still, when I think back on that time, my abiding impression is of love and wonder.

When I was pregnant with Kayalá, I wondered if I would feel the same way this time around. I thought that maybe those feelings would be muted since I had already gone through the experience once before.

But lo and behold, I feel just as strongly. The euphoria is coursing through my veins anew! I look at Kayalá and am absolutely flooded by love, floored by love.

Kayalá was born at 11 at night, and you might think that after several hours of hard labor I would have crashed completely. But in fact I barely slept all night! All I wanted to do was gaze at her, absorb the fact of her, take in the miracle of her, think back over the labor and birth, and smile smile smile.

I am in love all over again. Her smell, the weight of her in my arms, her gaze, her breath, her tiny everything...

Kayalá, 3 weeks old

Sometimes when Chely is at school and Kayalá is napping, when of course I could (should? maybe not) be doing a dozen other things, I can't help myself - I just hold her or sit or lie beside her and watch her as she sleeps.

with newborn Kayalá

And this love and joy, while emanating from Kayalá, her birth and her being, are not limited to her. I am imbued with a sense of goodness overall and am filled with a tenderness towards the world at large.

A friend and former NISGUA accompanier, Mary Lois Sennewald (author, by the way, of the fun book "Roadschooling Ryan" about the year she spent with her teenage son learning while traveling), described the early days after a baby's birth:

those precious weeks when a radiance emanates from her and suffuses the house -- certainly the glow of the divine from whom she came.

I am unspeakably thankful for the radiance, the euphoria, the miracle of life and love.

Sweetly Sleeping Times Two

Chely, February 2006:

Kayalá, July 2009:

Brenda Bingo

Chely's godmother Brenda gave her an "ABC Bingo" set that has become one of her all-time favorite games.

The game is pretty much singlehandedly responsible for teaching her the alphabet!

Chely makes observations about the different letters, such as "the R is walking" and "the F is not the same as the T because F has arms."

Thanks, Brenda!

Love, art, and gazes

Kayalá:

sisterly love:

Tato love:

Tato carrying both:

Momma love (nursing one, laughing with the other):

Kayalá and buddy Diego who at 2 months weighs twice what she does!:

artist hard at work (the shower cap/thinking cap?/creativity cap? is from Bamba):

thinking hard at 2 weeks of life:



newborn gaze...pure magic