the daily rhythm

The Caballero Sayalero Sullivan-Chin family is settling into their rhythm that changes in small increments toward normalcy.

I am usually the first one up (I guess it depends on how you define "up"), but for those of us who are diurnal, the first activity of the day that requires getting dressed is taking Oso for a walk.

When Sol is crying, Oso gets concerned and wants to hang around. The girls are a little afraid he might get too rough, so we often banish him to one of his "casitas". But he seems to have a genuine concern when Sol is crying. He whines and get agitated. He won't go out for a walk unless he really has to pee and then he turns around and immediately wants to go back inside. I suppose we could very well be talking about a classic case of anthropomorphism here. Maybe he just wants to eat the baby.

So if things go well, Sol will have a morning feed, fuss a little, maybe get a diaper changed, and all before I get back with Oso from a morning walk. 

Sol eats, naps, fusses a little, eats again, naps, gets his diaper changed, eats, naps... and sometimes during or in between cycles, one or more of us naps. 

Here is the whole fam-damily after one of his afternoon snacks.


Today, when Annie wanted to take a bath, Lara could feed Sol by dribbling Annie's milk down her gloved finger with a syringe. Here they are after the second feeding. Everybody happy now.

In August, Annie gave me homework: The First Forty Days: the Essential Art of Nourishing the New Mother, by Heng Ou. Like a good student, I read the book and it is a nice how-to manual for how to focus on taking care of the post-partum mom since so much attention goes to the new baby. Besides providing the new mom with a quiet space where she could get as much rest as possible, the book highlighted foods for recovery. 

At first, it was a little intimidating - even though the author is Chinese-American, and there were a lot of recipes that called for ingredients that I normally don't have in my kitchen. 

But it's really not rocket science. We've made stir-fry with seitan, eggs and cheese, potato-leek soup, black bean burgers and salad, granola, and last night, sushi. If mom eats well, baby eats well. And Annie eats well, pregnant or not, nursing or not. 

The girls have been working on getting Sol to sleep in his bassinette instead resting of on someone. Success!


When Sol is happy, everyone is happy.

(Mostly 2/10)

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