Memories

I have many, many amazing memories from my time as a missionary in Germany.  But there's one particular memory that keeps popping into my brain since Avery's arrival.  Really it was such a small thing I witnessed, processed and filed away.  I had no idea that nearly 10 years later this memory would surface. But surfaced it has and I'm glad.

My favorite photo of the Rodgers' Family from the mish

It happened one night at the Rodgers' home.  Either the Rodgers' or the Halverson's would invite us over nearly every week, and often both in the same week, and we loved going the 30 minute train ride from Regensburg to Parsberg.  Great families, great kids, great food, so it was always a highlight of the week.  On this particular night, it was the usual bustling household, filled with lighthearted banter and laughter.  The youngest at the time, Sarah, happened to be a little fussy.  She'd been crying and other people had tried to calm and soothe her but nothing seemed to be working.  After a few minutes, Rachel put down what she was doing (I can't recall what she was doing but probably preparing one of her mouth-watering meals) walked over and picked up her daughter, and simply held her close.  It was like magic, she instantly stopped crying and they just remained there, mother and daughter, gently swaying back and forth.  At the time I remember trying to look away, it seemed such an intimate, private moment, but at the same time I was mesmerized by the powerful bond so evident between them. I could not fathom having such an influence on someone.

Tonight I witnessed another such tender moment when Avery became distressed and began to heartily cry, something that really hasn't happened very often in her 12 weeks on the earth so far.  Andrew picked her up and held her close and she calmed down straight away and fell asleep.  It's amazing how having a daughter changes you, how your capacity for love increases so much you never thought it was possible.  All you want to do is protect the little life that you've brought into the world, while knowing full well that she's not going to stay this size forever.  But for now all we can do is to do our best for her and treasure up these memories.

And for Rachel, for me to remember such a seemingly insignificant moment, one that was no doubt played out hundreds of times in your home with each of your children, is a tribute to you.  I'm sure you can't remember this specific time that I'm recalling, but as you can see it made an impact.  You're an incredible mother and person.  And thanks again for your example and for all the great dinners!

Discovered

Someone's discovered her thumbs and it's driving Andrew crazy. He keeps trying to stop her. I'm in two minds about it, on the one hand I think it can be a hard habit to break but on the other she's pretty good at self-soothing herself with it. Anyway, she's a happy baby and seems to be growing like a weed.

Smiling

We couldn't get on the internet for the past 2 weeks for long periods of time so I'm now updating.

Avery Kate started real smiles on Easter Sunday at 5 weeks old. She's now 2 months old and had her first immunizations today. She's still really good at sleeping at night, although she prefers our bed to hers. She's a good-tempered baby and is very fun to interact with now that she smiles and is attempting to laugh. She's still very squirmy and if you put her down she'll kick and squirm non-stop, but she's now a lot better about being put in her bouncer or on the couch, she can chill for a lot longer now.

Today is also the visit of Barack O'Bama, as they call him here. It's funny to see how the Irish media portray him. "President Obama returns home" is one of the commercials they've been running. Penney's is selling shirts with "Nobody's more Irish than Barack O'Bama" on them. But unlike the Queen, he's not visiting Cork, and I'm not going up to Dublin to see him. Ireland's had a busy week.

Here are some photos of Avery:

I've been trying to get one of her smiling, this is the best one so far...

Having a nap in her favorite place.

The English Market

The English Market got a makeover for the Queen's visit. Here are some photos.

HRH in CORK

For Avery Kate's 2-month birthday, HRH Queen Elizabeth the II decided to visit Cork. It was the last day of her historic first visit to Ireland and the activities of the first three days had gone well, despite the protests and controversy. The atmosphere in Cork was way more relaxed and they were encouraging people to come out and see the Queen. Cork had been getting a bit of a makeover in preparation for her visit. Did you know Cork is the City of Welcomes?

Avery Kate was obviously impressed by the Queen's visit...

Anyway, there were so many people there I had to go back up and get a stool to stand on so I could see, and then I had to lift up my camera above my head as high as I could to get any pictures, and I think I ended up with some amazing shots of the Queen. Haha.

Grand Parade

Exiting the English Market

This one would've been perfect if I could've seen what I was shooting, this is when she waved to our crowd before getting into her car.

Getting into her car

Even the horses have eye shields.

The massive TV screen on Patrick Street.

Great Grannies

Avery Kate got to meet her 2 Irish Great-Grannies a couple weeks ago.

4 Generations of McCahill's

Great Granny Peters

One Month Old

Well it has been a month of this parenthood thing. One of my friends told me it's a steep learning curve but way more fun than school. I'll agree with that. Andrew said yesterday, as Avery was sleeping on his chest, he was thinking about how he was so worried before she was born about having a kid and now it's just like she's here and you can't remember any other way of life. Meanwhile, it seems that Babies R Us has relocated to our apartment. Our chic city-centre apartment has become a sea of pink and pastels, burp cloths and blankets, car seats and bouncers and thanks to the generosity of others, the kid already has a wardrobe bigger than mine. Course she has to wait to wear most of it but she's pretty well kitted out for her first year of life.

Avery Kate is doing well. Still sleeping a lot but getting more alert every day. In her first few days of life she did this little squeaking noise before going into an all out wail. Now she has graduated onto grunting noises, she's very good at them. And she's very squirmy, if she's getting agitated her arms and legs start waving and kicking all over the place. She really likes her arms free, if we swaddle her she will always work them free. She's putting on the weight and starting to fill out her clothes so we are starting to use some 0-3 months sizes now, mixed in with her newborn sized stuff.

She had her first adventure at 2 and a half weeks of life. We had an appointment at the US embassy in Dublin to report a foreign birth and get her US citizenship and her US passport and so we headed up to Dublin and a bit more than halfway there our car broke down, and I mean completely broke down, horrible noises from the engine...so we called roadside assistance and waited for like 2 hours for them to come, so I had to feed her in the car and I think she was too hot because after I fed her and just before the roadside assistance guy showed up she puked up everything on herself and my leg and the car seat. It had to be everything, usually she just spits up a bit but this was like the entire contents of her stomach. It was lovely. So then of course she was hungry again. Anyway, the guy checked the car and was like yeah, I'm gonna have to tow you to nearest garage, which was like 8 km away. So then we pile into the tow truck and Andrew holds her car seat on his lap as we drive through the Irish countryside to the nearest village where the mechanic there tells us our engine's ruined and we need to replace it for 600 euro. The car's not even worth that much so we had to scrap it. Stewy came and got us and we stayed overnight in Dublin and came back with Jenna next day. So, no car and no official US citizenship yet, but an adventure nonetheless...

Here are some more photos:

Example of squirmy arms.