1 month already

Coline loves her new bucket bathtub and Leila loves it when Coline has a bath. It is not free of trouble because Leila thinks that Coline is a doll whose hair has to be combed and massaged and styled ("so that it does not go into her eyes") with passion, and so my job has been to avoid Coline being poked in the eyes.

Leila loves poking, and touching people's ears, and checking how far Coline's limbs - and my patience - can stretch. Lately, as we are in a 5-days easter week-end, meaning 5 days without school, my patience has lost elasticity, but I am working on it. And I get lots of help for that. Since mamie-Claire left Silvia has been taking care of Coline every morning for an hour or two so that I can go for a walk with Leila. And so we go and explore the neighborhood and have a picnic of fruit juice and pao de queijo while I think of the next trick to divert Leila from asking me to carry her.

We have had some tricky times as well, when Leila had pneumonia (and this is how I had "baby-Leila" back in a sling), and later when Coline had laryngitis. Everybody is much healthier now, even though we all have a sore throat (Leila gets it from shouting. I get it from not shouting. I wonder why Coline got it). Leila wants to be in my arms whenever Coline gets a feed, but general accept the one-arm compromise that is offered to her, in particular when the Sound of Music distracts her in the background. She currently loves doing the opposite to what we ask her to do (such as not slamming the door because Coline just fell asleep) but she generally is a happy little almost 3-year old who enjoys dancing, singing, and just discovered girly fashion and changing her clothes 10 times a day.

So far Coline has been a super-chilled baby who sleeps the whole night through, hardly waking up to ask for a breast. We, parents, are discovering that it is possible for a baby to be awake without crying and we are feeling blessed for that.