Malena Therese Marchetti » August 2005 Journal Entries » AboutMyBaby - online baby scrapbooks, photo albums, videos, birth and pregnancy announcements

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Wed, Aug 31, 2005 4:51 PM
I have been an emotional wreck the past couple days because of Hurricane Katrina. Thank you to all of the people who have called with their concern about my family in Louisiana. I really appreciate it. I am pleased to say my family was very fortunate and they are all alive and fine, but there is still so much to be worried about. My brother-in-law Ben is in the thick of the volunteer efforts in Baton Rouge (where many thousands of refugees are camped) and he said the best thing to do is send cash. He will let me know the best organization very soon.

My youngest brother Joey had just moved to New Orleans last month where he had started his first semester at the LSU School of Medicine. I was on the phone with him Saturday morning as he was evacuating and heading to Baton Rouge. Neither one of us could have expected what ended up happening. It's funny. In 8th grade Louisiana History class we learned all about the levee systems, why they were built and how one day they would fail. Every one in LA knew this could happen, but I guess every one hoped it never would.

My older sister Aimee is a pediatrician in Baton Rouge. I haven't spoken to her today, but Ben (her husband) says her schedule will be very full these next few weeks as the many refugees are cared for in their new/temporary city. Their former home in the mid-city section of New Orleans is surely under water. I saw a shot on the news showing the exit off the interstate we used to take going to their old house. It was filled with water up to the bridge above it. Part of the elevated sign was submerged.

My dad, who also lives in Baton Rouge, rode out the storm at home (B.R. wasn't evacuated) and he says, although it was a terrible storm, he only had to deal with fallen tree limbs and no electricity. The same goes for Aimee & Ben's house.

My other siblings are fine. John lives in Monroe, LA, which is far north. They had hardly any weather. Amanda just moved to Boulder last month to start graduate school, so she is fine, but, like me, very sad and finding it hard to comprehend this all being so far away.

My dad comes from a small town called Destrehan, which is several miles west of New Orleans and up the Mississippi River. Miraculously, my uncle Larry says there wasn't even any flooding there. My grandparents live there, as do four sets of aunts & uncles. They are all very lucky.

My cousin Madeleine lives in the lakeview section in New Orleans, and although we don't know for sure, we suspect her home to be damaged. Luckily, she lives on the second floor.

Ben has family who lives in New Orleans. Jonathan (Amanda's boyfriend) has family living there. Please pray for all of them...along with all the other families on the Gulf Coast who are suffering.

As heartbreaking as the photos are, we have so much to be thankful for. It still saddens me to think my children may never know the New Orleans I knew...where I was born.

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Tue, Aug 30, 2005 8:00 AM
How sad. Yesterday was Malena's first day without a bottle. Now that she's on cow's milk and doing fine, I decided it was time to transition to the sippy cup. She's been drinking water (and the occasional juice) from her sippy cup for a long time now, so she's used to it. Her last bottle was Sunday morning at our friends' place in Dana Point. It wasn't even in our blue chair. Makes me sad!

Last night when we put her to sleep, she was just screaming. I thought at first that she was missing the bottle, so after 20 minutes, I went in to check on her. She was so upset, so I picked her up and rocked her and sang to her. DUH! She usually gets that with her nighttime bottle, and I totally forgot. :-( After about 10 minutes, she started to fall asleep, so I put her back in the crib. She grabbed her favorite lion and went right to sleep.

In other news, she has been VERY funny lately! I've noticed that when I say NO to her, it's more like "no no no!" in the sweetest way possible. Now, when she's doing something she knows she's not supposed to do, all I have to do is give her that disapproving look and she goes "noi noi noi noi noi!"

She has this tiny teddy bear that sings "Happy Birthday" when you squeeze its tummy. I always sing the song when she squeezes it. The other day, after I sang the song, she goes "hat to ooh" a few times in a row. I couldn't believe it! Then she played with some other toys for about 5 minutes then started "hat to ooh" again until she found the tiny teddy for it to sing again. Even T.J. has seen this, so he believes it. If you don't know, he's ALWAYS the skeptic.

I tell you, this walking thing sucks. She is constantly bumping her head. She got a real good one yesterday when she tripped and hit her forehead on part of the stroller. :-(

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Tue, Aug 23, 2005 8:22 AM
I took away the pacifiers last night. She fell asleep immediately (granted, she was tired from hardly napping) and she didn't wake up until 8 a.m. (she NEVER does that). I replaced the pacis with that stuffed lion she is berserk about. Seems to have done the trick. We'll see how naptime goes today.

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Mon, Aug 22, 2005 9:55 AM
I think I'm going to have to strip Mimi's room of anything visually interesting. All of a sudden, she wakes up early from naps and won't go back to sleep because she sees something she wants...such as her stuffed lion...or the bottle on the floor next to her chair that Mommy forgot to take with her when she finished drinking it.

Actually, I think this week is going to be the end of the bedtime pacifiers. Next week will be the end of the bottle. So sad. My baby is so big now!

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Thu, Aug 18, 2005 9:28 AM
WOW! It has been quite a month already.

Malena is ONE! She had a small birthday party with T.J.'s family while we were at Lake George. I made her a purple flower cake and she slammed her hand into it the second I put it down in front of her. She seemed to enjoy the taste of it. Her pretty smocked dress was a mess afterwards, but I was able to clean it out perfectly. Opening presents was slightly overwhelming for her, but she did enjoy playing with all her new toys.

We had so much fun at the lake. Malena LOVED having her 3 older girl cousins around. It is sad to watch her playing alone now that we are home. She enjoyed swimming in the water and playing on the neighbors sandy beach.

A major milestone was that I spent my first night ever away from her. T.J. and I took the train down to NYC and spent 2 nights there. It was a wonderful time, and much-needed, but I was missing her quite a lot after the first night. Her Nana said she only cried once the entire time we were gone. Guess she didn't even notice I was gone!

In other news...Malena WALKED! She took her first steps in the Albany airport. Sadly, our cameras were in the checked luggage, so we didn't get any photos. I was standing in line to get a tag for the stroller and I was watching Mimi and T.J. from far away. I saw her standing there and she took about 2 or 3 steps toward him, so I ran over there screaming like a crazy woman. Everyone was watching me going nuts and realized that the baby was walking for the first time, so several of them cheered. It was a very sweet moment...I'll never forget it.

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Tue, Aug 2, 2005 6:23 AM
I had a very strange experience Friday night. We went out to dinner with our friends Steve & Talina in L.A. Earlier in the day, I went down the street to beg a teenage neighbor of ours to babysit. She agreed to come over straight after ballet lessons.

All went well, thank God. Malena didn't wake up at all. But, afterwards, I walked Amanda down the street back to her house. It may not sound like a big deal to most people, but being this woman/mother/wife walking the young girl back to her house was just plain surreal. I carried on a conversation with her, but I couldn't help focusing on the fact that I am almost 30 and it truly feels like just yesterday that *I* was this girl!

I've been really sentimental lately and very emotional. I think it all has to do with Malena turning ONE. Where did the year go? Why did it have to go so fast? Is it going to be like this every year?

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