This boy is two today.

Happy birthday darling boy!

Your Nana used to start off every birthday with the sentence “…(how ever many) years ago today, I was on my way to the hospital and about to meet you…” I always liked it when she would say that but didn’t grasp the true meaning and depth of what it meant to her until I had you.

2 years ago today, my life was turned upside down and inside out and I have never been the same. You were the light that your Daddy and I never knew we were missing until you shone your sweet face in our lives. Grandma asked me this morning if I remember what Daddy and I were doing 5 years ago today and the truth is I don’t remember much of life without you.

I do remember that 2 years ago today, I was in the 36th hour of my labor and told that you had to come out via emergency c-section. At that point, nothing in the world mattered except for a healthy baby in my arms. And that you were. Your Daddy held you for the entire first night, staring into your sweet face and unable to put you down. You were so beautiful and looked just like a little angel. As you grew, it became clear that you had a very fun and independent nature and we have loved watching you grow and your delightful and witty personality emerge.

You reached all your milestones early and continue to amaze us with your vocabulary, physical capabilities and outgoing personality. You are so clever, my darling. Poppie is lucky to have such a strong and amazing sibling and I am sure that she will learn lots from you. You have grown into a loving and caring big brother over the past few weeks and we are really proud of you for that. It was hard to share us with a little sister, but you have done a great job.

Finn, you are such a strong, beautiful presence with an intelligent energy that keeps us light on our toes and young at heart. You are a force to be reckoned with and will go far in this world, if it is even big enough for you! Happy birthday darling boy, we love to the end of the universe and back, and then some. We are so proud that you are our child.

Love always,
Mama and Daddy

Happy Birthday Finn!

A day in pictures (and one video), in no particular order:

Cousin William, often called 'Un-Nick' as is every tall thin person we are related to.

Mama and Daddy, two years later... do we look any older? Perhaps more tired...

Grandma & Poppie having girl time while the boys play (does it get more adorable or loving than this?)

Grandad in an old church on a cool beach walk

The cleaners were in the house so we had to drive the littles around until they finished. We got lost, on purpose.

Issy the dog, who is the same age in her brain as Finn. They play like a Norman Rockwell painting, complete with the pulling-on-the-diaper image

A birthday boy, ready for the beach. NOT going to fall alseep in the car.

Cornish cream tea, a new favorite. You want to melt a heart? Have an adorable 2 year old ask for 'cream tea, yah? cream tea, puleez!' Clotted cream has broken my 'no-dairy' diet. Just this once.

Beautiful Cornwall. A perfect place for a boy who loves to dig in the sand, a mama who loves quaint little seaside towns, a baby sister who loves to be carried snuggled against chests and a Daddy that loves to be home again.

Swimming at the end of the evening. One of the main ingredients in the recipe to a good night's sleep for both boy and parents.

An old church on the beach walk that the boys discovered. The girls were exploring a little village a ferry ride away at this moment...

Kids asleep in the car. A tiny, quiet country lane. A quick stop for a kiss, it's been ages (aren't we wild? I guess this is where the bar is set when 1000's of miles of travel, a newborn and a toddler all merge on a couple)

Digging. Need not say more.

Oops. Fell asleep.

Happy 7 weeks today!

Our darling little girl is seven weeks today! She continues to be a mellow, easy baby who sleeps well and rarely cries. She smiles constantly at everyone and loves nothing more than when Finn gets up in her face and tells her about diggers. Poppie has the complexion of an English rose and looks adorable in baby pink (I was anti-pink until the day she was born and now I can't get enough of it on her).

What I love about the English, part I

My absolute favorite English characteristic, one that I hope my children will heartily nurture and surely must run thick in their genes, is the overwhelming love for outdoor activities in the countryside. Walking, biking, tramping through fields, these are all daily practices in Nick's family and whole days are set around walks in beautiful places.

My family is incredibly outdoorsy and you will often find one member or another on some epic outdoor adventure, be it motorcycling through Africa or hiking in the Olympics. But in the US, outdoor activities tend to be just that: epic (and needing a fairly decent amount of planning).

In the UK, outdoor activities are come-as-you-are, dressed as you want, hop-on and let's go! It helps immensely that the terrain is mostly flat and that the wise Brits had the foresight (hundreds of years ago, I might add) to build greenspace around each and every urban space which in turn left plenty of room for paths and trails. (The history of green spaces in the UK are fascinating and the subject of many lectures at Nick and my Oxford master's program, if ever you are interested.) Hunter's wellies are also a functional fashion must-have in this country, which means that most are ready for anything, anytime.

So, in good British fashion, despite the impending rain, this morning, we woke up and decided to go for a bike ride. Four adults, one teenager and two babies rented bikes and rode from the village we are staying in to the next village, which happens to be amazingly quaint and right by the sea. We rode on a retired railway line and didn't hit a road for the entire 5 1/2 mile journey. And there were tons and tons of other people doing the same thing. Of all ages (although I think Poppie was probably the youngest on the trail)!

 We strapped Poppie's carseat into the bike trailer, which was a brilliant idea that we will be doing when we get home. We will also be buying a bike seat for Finn, because he found that to be a tolerable way to travel, unlike the trailer, which dampens his style (unless he wants to sleep).

We started off the trip with me pulling Poppie and Nick riding with Finn, but I am not as fit as I thought and we traded a few minutes in to the ride.

Finn taking Poppie's place on the way home so he could take a nap

We had Cornish pasties and a shandy (beer mixed with lemonade which was delish with the pasties) when we arrived and wandered around the village before jumping on the bikes and making it back just before the rains came. Poppie went back in the car with Grandma and Grandad and Finn took a long nap in the trailer, lulled by the gentle swish of Nick's pedaling and the fresh sea air.

Boy on the Cornish moor

This is the story of a certain little boy who lost his trousers on the Moor. Then ate grass like a cow after chasing a few. All on the way to Cornwall on a beautiful Friday afternoon.

Tired, but happy...

A picture of me and my girl.

At this moment the girls on the family are doing this...

I think Inca is the one having the most fun at the moment, although there is no place I would rather be than in the UK reading a book (about the English countryside life) in the English countryside, next to my dreaming daughter.

A birthday party in pictures

Finn's hedgehog birthday cake

Shepard's pie, lasagne and autumn salad for lunch

Post-pinata (you should have heard the squeals!)

The beauty queen

Pa and the beauty queen

My UK family

More post-pinata mayhem

UK

We made it safe and sound to the UK. Finn has been having a blast with his cousins (ahem, brothers, subtle hint) and we have been going on long walks in the beautiful countryside.

Sheila and Alan live on a beautiful estate that used to be a monastery. I feel like a princess when we walk around the property, it is that magestic.

Auntie Sami and all the cousins came by yesterday with Wellie the dog. Today we are having a birthday party for both Cousin William and Finn so we get to see everyone!

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Hurray for fat!

There are two girls in this family and one is trying desperately to lose weight and the other is trying to put some on. I don't think I need to mention names here. But, I am excited to say that the one trying to gain weight has successfully put on 8 ounces in the past week! The previous 7 ounces took a month to gain, so we are very, very happy. It seems that our soy to breastmilk ratio is working great. We are currently feeding Poppie about 20% soy among three bottles, and I could be wrong about all of this, but I think the soy bottles give her body a chance to digest the undigested galactose from the breastmilk feedings. Her energy levels are way up and she is awake for longer periods of time (previously, as in 5 days ago, we would be lucky if she was awake for two hours per day, TOTAL. The past few days she is able to stay awake for two hours at a time! Many times a day!!). For the first time since birth, I would say that Poppie is thriving!


She even looks more robust, doesn't she?

As far as the other girl in the family? She may have lost 8 ounces in the past week, but unfortunately, it is not nearly as simple as switching to some soy.

Naptime

Taken with my new iPhone camera and edited in the Instagram app.

A trip to Home Depot

Good morning tractor

We don't see this boy without a digger, tractor or 'dozer in his hands. Even early in the morning when we are having cuddles in Mama and Daddy's bed.

Almost 5 weeks old already

This little girl is two days shy of 5 weeks old. She has grown 3 inches since birth. Unfortunately, she hasn't gained an awful lot of weight since then, but we are working on it.

Despite the metabolic geneticist saying she is completely normal, I feel like her weight gain (or lack thereof) is related to her mild galactosemia. She seems to do better with a bottle or two of soy formula a day, so we have decided to augment our breastfeeding.

 She also seems to have more energy with the addition of the soy, further confirming our intuition that her lack of enzymes are slowing her down.

Our midwife sees us four times after birth, which is amazing. She was the only 'expert' that also thought Poppie was a little behind in weight and muscle tone (Nick, my mom and I have had our radars up, but not overwhelming worried about it). The Pediatrician and the Geneticist both said she is on the growth charts and therefore just fine (of course she is on the growth charts, she was a big baby at birth!). Our midwife, who is very natural-based and pro-breastfeeding was the one who mentioned we should 'experiment' with the addition of soy formula and she how she does.

Poppie is a lucky little girl to have the whole spectrum of care: from intuitive, to more natural, to the western-trained specialists and experts. With all of those different minds working towards her optimal health, I am sure this girl will be just fine.

One day, this little hand will do all sorts of amazing things...

Comments, please!

Nick and I started this blog when Finn was a baby with the intention of giving faraway family and friends glimpses of our life and in particular, the antics of our firstborn child. Since its inception, this blog has been a conduit for communication, a news reel, a personal journey and a form of therapy. But, it has also turned into a baby journal (albeit writ large and very public) for Finn, and now Poppie, to look at years, and years from now.

And this is where you come in.

The majority of the feedback and comments we receive about the blog or its contents are via phone, email or in person. Which is wonderful, but years and years from now, those will be lost. Finn and Poppie won't read, hear or see those comments. They can, however, always read comments that you post on the blog, as those won't go away or get lost in the anthems of time.

So please feel free to comment and leave a little note for the future.

xoxo

Meet Poppie...

...in person video!


(Please excuse the quality of the video. It was taken on my ancient iPhone, but thankfully someone got me a new iPhone for my birthday, which I get to pick up on Friday! So stay tuned for more videos, in high-def!)

Happy Birthday, Nana!

Finn on the ferry on the way to celebrate Nana's birthday

Today is a special day. Nana was born today and without her, this precious little face (and the one below) would not be here. Thank you for being born, Nana. We love you lots and lots and lots!

(Finn's first words when he saw Nana this morning? 'I miss you Nana'. He has never said those words before and we didn't know he had them in his vocabulary! Cute part? He last saw her less than 14 hours ago.)

Official status

We had our first (and final) visit with the metabolic geneticist physician (the amazing, gentle and incredibly knowledgeable Dr Ronald Scott) and Poppie was officially given a clean (and healthy) bill of health! Her form of galactosemia is so mild that she will never have to do anything about it ever in her life and we can go home and raise a happy, healthy, little girl! He is writing letters to our primary care doctors to let them know her status and from here on out, we can pretty much forget about the words Poppie has galactosemia.

We are so pleased, so relieved and so blessed.

xoxo

More news on Poppie

Both of our babies are sleeping right now, so I have a minute to catch my breath and catch up with all that has happened in the past week. We had another pediatrician appointment this morning and had a long conversation with our geneticist who has been monitoring Poppie's results since they came back abnormal and for the first time in days, I feel like we can sigh a collective sigh of relief.

Poppie indeed is Duarte variant galactosemic, which is just a few enzymes shy of normal. She should have no lasting side effects of her condition, but may have a slight intolerance to lots of lactose (no ice-cream sundae birthday parties, at the worst). Her genotype is D/G, which means that Nick and I are both carriers of galactosemia, but we will need further testing to see if we can ever produce a classical galactosemic child (typified by G/G genotype who produces no enzymes and has the worst effects of the condition). Finn is either normal (N/N) or a carrier of the condition (N/D or N/G).

The numbers that gave the Pediatrician enough alarm to call us on Friday with the news that she was classical galactosemic are out of the normal range and look scary on paper. But, with further clarification from the geneticist, Poppie has roughly 20% enzymatic activity, which is enough to process the amount of lactose that a normal adult consumes. As a young baby, while she is eating 100% breastmilk, her levels will be a little on the high end, but once she starts solids, those figures will go down. However, if she can't handle the milk well (doesn't thrive, loses weight or shows other side effects) then we will go onto a partial-soy formula diet until we reach the solid food stage. Which isn't as bad as it could be.

Tomorrow, we are meeting with the metabolic geneticist physician, who is the leading researcher in metabolic disorders in the US. He will examine Poppie, answer all of our questions (of which we have many) and test us for the genotypes we carry so we can make a decision about future children. But all, in all, today feels hopeful.

I also just want to thank everyone for their thoughts, prayers and meditations on Poppie's health. I also want to sincerely thank our doctor and doctor-to-be friends who have called, stopped by and offered support, advice and a general calm to what was a very scary situation for us. Our 'tribe' is magnificent and we are so, so blessed to be a part of this extended network of amazing, loving, talented and supportive human beings.

xoxo

Sunday chores with Daddy

Meanwhile, swimming in a sea of pink...