Lydia Talks! A lot!

Lydia knows her animal sounds.

Lydia knows where all of her face is!

She is also bilingual!

Lydia is going to be BIG Sister!

Today I am officially in my second trimester! Lydia is going to be a BIG Sister! Baby Gaurkee, kindly referrred to as G2, should arrive at the end of summer approximately August 9, 2012. Almost 2 years from Lydia's birthday. They will be 23 months apart which I think will be perfect for them as siblings. They will be able to grow up together and go to school together. God willing they will be the best of friends.

This first trimester was a little bit rockier than the first trimester with Lydia. The waves of undealable nausea would come over me every evening for several hours. I lost 7 pounds without even trying. The exhaustion has also been overwhelming. Luckily, I have not tossed my cookies but there have been a few close ones. Of course teaching all day then coming home to an active and excited toddler is wonderful but by the end of the night I would fall into bed as if I had been dragging an elephant across town for fun just from the Skyway to the Howard Franklin just to see an elephant dragged. Sigh. Some days I have even gone to sleep at 8PM with the amazing support of my husband. But all in all, I can not complain.

There is a very calming sense about the second pregnancy. There aren't as many wonderings or worries. I remember constantly wanting to know if things were okay in there before and this time I just know that things are okay in there. I also feel a lot more movement than I did last time. I think it's a matter of recognizing certain feelings. We have now seen G2 twice on ultrasound and he/she is definitely a wiggling little bugger. Our last ultrasound as the tech was trying to achieve the perfect angle for a specific test, G2 was trying to wave them away until he/she just flipped upside down as if saying, I'm done. The magic of seeing your baby never quite subsides.

We are trying to remind Lydia and there is a baby in mommy's tummy especially since she likes to bounce on mommy. She kisses the tummy and pats it softly. It's very cute. Of course, minutes later she tries bouncing again. We say baby and point and so does she, but considering she calls her dolls babies I wonder if she may still be a little curious on why the term is the same. My tummy doesn't take a bottle or go night night, so it must be.

Parenting

Lydia was born with her amazing personality.

She has a puss and boots from a Happy Meal that my mom has told her that she's afraid of, so Lydia finds it and runs over to my mom and shoves it in her face and laughs. She loves to takes people's seats. As soon as someone gets up, she jumps on in. She was born funny.

At a terrifically early age Lydia had the most stunning sense of balance. She would ride a toy zebra her friend has and stand up on the top of it, let go of her hands and never fall. She runs as fast as she can and kicks the ball. She throws her balls better than some adults I know. She was born athletic.

She will cuddle in bed or sit on the couch and watch cartoons with an incredible focus. She will watch intently and now she follows along with the story. If Mickey says clap, she claps. We have taken her to the movies where she sat for the full film and watched. She was born with the ability to focus.

She speaks Spanish and English. She dances differently to different types of music. She likes some fruit more than others. She eats what she likes when she likes. She sleeps 11 hours every night. Lydia gets mad at the stuffed animals in her crib and yells at them and throws them out. She then forgives then and makes my mom bring them back in. She was born with these unique fantastic expressive parts of her, her father and I didn't parent her that way.

Perhaps it's that old nature versus nurture argument but there is no chance that I could force her to make certain facial expressions or laugh at certain times, that is her nature. I can't not force her to love the cabbage patch doll as much as her stuffed dog Violet. She loves what she loves, it's her nature.  Our role as parents is to set boundaries, instill values, and teach her right from wrong. In the process of doing these things to love her fiercely and remain tenacious. As a parent, I pray for her safety, her wellness and hope.

My kid is funny

The laughter of your child is something that is difficult to put into words. In hopes of not over complicating things, her laughter is simply, divine. My favorite is when she tosses her head back and has a hefty chuckle as if she has heard that one a million times. The sound of her giggle is infectious and it makes every long tiring day turn around to be the best day ever. I want to eat her up sometimes I am not sure I can hold myself back so I hug and squeeze her and call her Lydia.

She has new dance moves every day. Last night she kept pushing the button to her weeble house to get to the dance music  tune and she would stick her hands in the air and her butt out and bounce. One time she crossed her arms and shook from side to side. There was little doubt that she was gifted before but now she is a musical savant too. Hopefully dual enrollment in Columbia and Julliard will be a reality by the time she is ready to be in college which I would say would be by 15 however, she isn't allow to leave home until she is 30. So we will see how that all works out.

So I Wrote a Book...

During the last year I was given a great opportunity to join a colleague in an endeavor to write a book for young adults about religion. Talk about dreams coming true. Not only do I get to write about religion, BUT for young adults which I have been working with now for almost 20 years (18 years to be specific but it's been awhile) in some form or another, BUT I get to be a bonafide published author.

There has been some nervousness involved. Would I be smart enough? Capable? Did I know enough? Granted I had to research a lot. I had to double and triple check my facts because I didn't want any one religion to be looked at poorly by the reader because of something that I had written. Then going through the process of editing. Watching the changes from my words to rephrasing or sharpening of the editors evident red marks on the screen. Sometimes it was too much. By the end, when the typesetting was done and the page looked like what a digital book typically looks like, it sent a rush through my body. My words will be out there. Forever. Published.

Why haven't I been shouting all this from the mountain tops? "I AM A PUBLISHED AUTHOR!" Partly because of humility, I think. Not so humble to claim humility I don't think, however, I do struggle with overt accolades and others thinking that I perhaps would think of myself as better than them because I have accomplished something such as this. It is the Camp Counselor that will eternally live inside of me, that always wants everyone in the room to sit in a circle so we can look each other in the eye, be equals and be supportive. I will go get the extra table or chair to make that happen and I have done this in the classroom, at the bar, and around the dinner table for as long as I can remember. Despite this ideal, I am so deeply proud of the work that I have accomplished. thus it is time to shout! In this moment, I ask all you take a seat around the virtual circle and share in this with me.

If you put my name in Amazon: Christine Ortega Gaurkee the book comes up! I do have a beloved co-author and friend, Jessica Tinklenberg deVega. If you put in her name it comes up too! How cool is that? The title is All You Want to Know But Didn't Think You Could Ask: Religions, Cults, and Popular Beliefs. Release Date is February 7, 2011. (Amazon says Feb. 21st.) You can pre-order your copies!