365 Days of Everything Georgia

April 5, 2010 - Just a Spoonful of... Rice?

There are big moments in every life - Sweet 16, high school and college graduations, weddings and who can forget births - but I think in Georgia's life so far, today falls right at the top. Sure, her rolling over was great and still leaves me making goofy noises of encouragement while wearing a humongous grin, but who of us can live without eating? Even if it looks like this:

My little one's first taste of solid, albeit soupy, food. So what did Georgia think of it all? Let's just say she ended up wearing 99% of the white, gruel-like substance on her bib. But she let me put spoonful after spoonful into her little mouth. After all, who doesn't blow bubbles in their food and let it drip down their chin every now and then?

I don't know what it says about this gigantic first today, that when after we were done, Georgia immediately began eating her bib instead of the ever-appetizing rice cereal.

April 4, 2010 - Eggs & Bunnies & Lots of Chocolate!

I woke up with the excitement I haven't felt in longer than I would like to say - anticipation of the day, giddiness for what I knew was to come, impatience to begin the hunt for colorful, oval spheres. It's Easter!

Georgia woke up with a body-shaking, mom-terrorizing cough. Oh yes, she caught my entire cold. It had looked hopeful she would skip the cough part of it. But she's a trooper. She doesn't let a flow of snot from her nose to her mouth or a cough that temporarily disrupts our house stop her from plastering her face with a smile and looking for the fun around every second.

Late last night when I swear I had a fluffy, white tail, I boiled a dozen plain, white eggs...

... which this morning became a little more peacock-like in nature.

How quickly can a little bit of vinegar and dye and a little one nearby take you back to the years of pigtails and ponies?

And Georgia found her basket, with some daddy help. It was hiding in the clothes dryer. A basket which, of course, held her own little bunny.

HAPPY EASTER!

April 3, 2010 - Momma Bunny

The Easter Bunny, AKA "Mommy," was busy in our home tonight until around two a.m. Tomorrow is Georgia's first Easter. I have decades-worth of very fond Easter memories, memories I hold next to my heart and pull out from time to time when I need a smile, a laugh or a bit of security. My mother made those memories possible for me, and I hope I can leave the same with Georgia.

What Easter is complete without an egg hunt? I grew up following little mysterious notes that took me from room to room and egg to egg within the home. Now I've made clues for Georgia (and her daddy).

The last clue ends with the Easter Bunny's stash, that basket brimming with candy and toys and clothes. And yes, despite Georgia's lack of solid-food-eating, there is candy. I guess mommy and daddy will have to figure out something to do with it all. Oh look, there's mommy's favorites - Cadbury eggs! How did those get in there?

Not long before my baby girl celebrates her first Easter!

April 2, 2010 - Lots of Growing Left to Do.

I had Georgia lying on the bed today as I laid out my clothes for work. My suit jacket was laying right next to her, and I couldn't help but notice how much bigger the size 4 was than my little one. As fast as Georgia seems to be growing lately, it's nice to know she still has a lot more growing left to do, and my little one will still be little for a long while more.

April 1, 2010 - Lovely Glasses

It's a world through pastel-colored glasses, and it's so lovely. Easter is just around the corner, the truest indicator of Spring for me. My little girl's closet is filling up with those dresses in shades like ocean turquoise, cotton candy pink, sunflower yellow and lime jello green. Beautiful.

And with Easter being this Sunday, we have to share some bunny treats with Georgia's daycare teachers. We filled little baskets full of pink and purple and yellow hued candies and plastic eggs filled with more little treats.

March 31, 2010 - Toes in the Sand

It was the kind of day that just begs for bare feet, and for the first time ever, Georgia got to feel one of the best textures. Something that just makes a heart exhale and toes tingle with joy - Georgia stuck her toes in the sand. It wasn't the beach (those don't exist in Nebraska), but today the playground by our house was an adequate substitute.

I love Spring and I love kids on swings.

March 30, 2010 - Turnover Triumphs

Georgia has this turning over thing mastered, at least going from her back to her belly. You can almost see a smirk of pride on her face as she finishes the flip. It's become her addiction. She's like a little fish just plucked from the water that flips and flops non-stop from side to side, only Georgia handles the flip while mommy handles the flop for her.

Georgia's Birth Story

The timing of Georgia's birth, in a way, came out of a journey to death. I'd like to think with every death comes new life, and for me, Georgia is that life. She is my saving grace and has kept me breathing when my lungs were screaming to stop, screaming to drown in my own self-pity.

My husband and I decided to try for Georgia just a few months after our walk down the aisle. You see, my mom had been diagnosed with incurable Ovarian Cancer, so I wanted a baby soon. I wanted a baby while there was still time to have my mother there as I brought a new being into the world, to see my mother hold her granddaughter, to ask my mom which of my baby features my daughter bore, to lean on my mother when I had those "new mom" questions and for so many other moments I had played out in my thoughts over and over again through the years.

My husband and I were thrilled to soon find out our little Georgia was growing inside of me, rounding out my belly day by day, pushing tiny feet into my sides, entertaining us with a neverending chorus of hiccups. We went to the doctor's appointments, the baby classes, took the hospital tour and had everything ready for the day we brought our darling home in Omaha, Nebraska.

It's funny though, life seems to fight our planning and always chooses its own course - and so it did. When my belly was just shy of 38 weeks round, the day came. After a 52-year-long life, which was as bright as they come, my mother faded away. She died on Sunday, October 11, 2009.

Early Monday morning, with my doctor's permission, my husband and I got on a plane to fly home to Georgia for my mom's funeral. We got off the plane in Atlanta around 3 p.m. Twelve hours later, at 3 a.m. on Tuesday, I was sleeping at my parents' house. As I lay in the home where my mom had been just days before, that journey toward life took a leap. My water broke and the contractions started coming within minutes. We were more than a thousand miles away from our doctor, our hospital and our house.

So off to the local hospital we went in the dark of night, my husband driving my mom's SUV and not having a clue where he was going. I had to give him directions between contractions. We arrived at the hospital and didn't even know what entrance to go to. We found locked doors twice before finding the right entrance, and yeah, I floundered up to both locked doors!

We checked in and by the time we got to a room, I turned around and there were my sister, brother and cousin in the room with my husband and I and my other sister and father were on the way. We had thought we'd be delivering in Omaha with just my husband and I and the calming classical CD's I'd burned. I guess my mom had other ideas.

So there we were, in the hospital where two years earlier they had cut cancer from my mother, in the hospital where my two nieces were born, in the hospital where my delivery nurse had also been my sister's bridesmaid - there surrounded by those who love me most and the memory of one who just couldn't stay long enough to make it. I delivered Georgia Katherine at 10:46 a.m. She weighed 7 lbs. and 8 ounces.

We left the hospital on Wednesday with a borrowed car seat, a bag full of borrowed baby clothes, a lot of flowers and hearts bursting with every emotion you can possibly imagine. We arrived at my parents' house to a borrowed crib, borrowed baby supplies and relatives arriving in town with funeral clothes and baby gifts packed in their suitcases. On Friday, my daughter and I looked down on my mother in her casket, and on Saturday we buried her. It's the only time my daughter every saw her grandmother.

My mother fought hard to live long enough to meet her granddaughter and in the end, she missed the date by two days. But life doesn't stop, and it's the beauty of my daughter's life that keeps me smiling. And oh how her life makes me smile. I like to believe whenever I'm holding my daughter and she's starring off into the distance, over my shoulder, that she's seeing my mom - a guardian angel for both of us - and that they are already the best of friends.

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April 5, 2010 - Just a Spoonful of... Rice?