melted smoosh

tomorrow I'll be eight weeks postpartum with baby number five (which my eighteen-year-old self would find simultaneously unbelievable and also inevitable!).  while each baby, delivery, and postpartum experience is unique, there are some essential components to a smooth recovery. the way in which all of these things is accomplished may vary, but ultimately, you need to feed your baby, feed yourself, tickle your brain, and care for your body. here's how I've been doing all of that this time around!  1) the Willow Go wearable pump. oh my goodness, you guys. this is such a game changer. I am pumping exclusively for George (minus the occasional bottle of ready-to-feed formula when we're out and about). there is absolutely no way I would still be pumping if I had to sit down with my trusty double electric Spectra four or five times a day. my insurance pays for a new breast pump every three years, so I decided to try out a wearable mostly because my sister had such a good expe...

  1) May Crowning. May has been known as a special month to honor Mary, the Mother of God, ever since the 1700s (I had to look this up!). both our church and our school had special May Crowning ceremonies where the children process into the church and lay flowers at the feet of Mary, and a specially selected child places a crown on Mary's head. before I joined the Catholic church, I thought such Marian devotions were idolatrous. the only figure we should be crowning is Jesus, I thought (and should we even have figures at all?). of course, any tradition has the potential to be misunderstood and divert focus away from the true intention of the practice, which is to honor Mary just as Jesus honored her. the act of worship is reserved for God, but the act of celebrating our universal spiritual mother is a welcome foil to the cultural denigration of women over the centuries. 

  1) basketball tournaments. Greta and Cece both played in tournaments at the beginning of March and did very well! it was a great way to cap off the season for both of them. Cece's team played aggressively and made it to the semifinals where they lost by just a few points. we were so proud of them!  no one needs to remind Cece to put her arms up! #33's first foul on the board... the coaches love her aggression I was on call for work this week and got paged literally nonstop during the hour of one of her games. fortunately I was able to watch through the glass doors and managed to get this photo of her snagging a rebound Greta's coach entered them in a 5th grade tournament that was a lot of fun. the JV team is comprised of 5th and 6th grade girls so during the regular season, the 5th graders tend to hang back a bit and rely on the more experienced players. the school's JV team was so large this year that they split into two, but for the 5th grade tournament, all of the ...