Input, Output, and little bit of the blues

Our little artist at work yesterday: photos taken by her wonderful babysitter, Kendall. Kendall is so creative and loves to do art projects with Agatha, including, here, painting with a golf ball.

The pottying has continued in a somewhat haphazard way; she did say "potty, please!" for the first time a couple of days ago, and then promptly pooped in the potty. But attempts to replicate this success in recognizing and asking in advance have not been too successful. The weaning, though, is proceeding apace. I was planning to do it very gradually, removing one feeding a week, but now that I'm in it, it seems better to just finish more quickly. We're down to about one feeding a day, now. I think there were two signs that this was the right time: one, Agatha's teeth had put several painful and non-healing holes in a sensitive part of my anatomy; and two, she seemed less interested, often breaking off after a few sucks, looking up at me and saying, "hi!" In other words, she's started to seem interested in relating to me in a different way. I was a little sad to put an end to this part of my mothering; it is a powerful thing to grow, birth, and nurse your children, and since I don't plan to have any more, this is really an end to that miraculous bodily performance. But it also seems right, and Agatha is making a series of small adjustments that mark her as a child, rather than a baby: taking a long, deep afternoon nap; sleeping a bit later in the morning and waking up happy and talking, rather than crying; playing independently for long periods; being more physically active and assertive; and doing all kinds of things for herself, from brushing her teeth to spooning her food.

She seems to be adjusting easily to less nursing, although she still asks for it before sleep, but I have experienced several days of the blues, which came as a complete surprise. Henry's weaning was easy and entirely led by him, and I remember no bodily effects, but this time I have felt that distinctive hormonal blues that all women experience from time to time. On the other hand, I had post-partum blues with Henry but not with Agatha. I finally made the connection between my mood and the weaning on Monday, and it was a relief to realize the source and thus the temporariness of my melancholy.

Today, another snow day! This makes three Fridays in a row that Henry's been home; two due to snow and one due to strep throat. Surely, with March rapidly approaching, this historically cold and snowy winter will fade away at last. We've spent it baking and eating scones, cleaning the kids' rooms, playing outside (a little; the wind is bitter!), and cutting half of Henry's hair (hopefully we'll get to the other half soon!). Tonight, dinner at Gran's house: hooray!