Two stars

Mia's Hebrew name is Mira and we discovered this lovely coincidence today: "Mira (ο Cet / ο Ceti / Omicron Ceti) is a red giant star approximetaly 418 light-years away in the constellation Cetus. Mira is a binary star, Mira A being the giant, along with Mira B, a white dwarf. Mira A is also an oscillating variable star and was the first non-supernova variable star discovered, with the possible exception of Algol... The companion star was resolved by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995, when it was 70 astronomical units from the primary; results were announced in 1997.

The HST ultraviolet images and later X-ray images by the Chandra space telescope show a spiral of gas rising off Mira in the direction of Mira B."

More from Wikipedia on Mira

Two sets of letters

Auntie Jess came to put up the letters of your name on the wall of your room. My camera didnt quite get the true colours, Sasha's letters are pink, Mia's are pink polka dots on white.

This is the final day of the shiva for your sister and the heavens let loose in a waterfall of rain and a symphony of thunder and lightning. Meanwhile back in our little house, your name is now beside your sisters and that is a great way to end the shiva week. Tomorrow we go to the synagogue for morning prayers and you get to see Temple Emanu-El where your dad and uncles had a lot of fun as teenagers and learned about our ancestors and their turning to one god from worshipping many gods. Auntie Lynn, with her work among the Cree, can help you appreciate other spiritualities.

Such a comfort

Beautiful Mia comforts us with her presence, excites us with her energy and surprises us with her voracious appetite for mom's milk. Pamela's hours of breast feeding every day warms my heart. How special it is to see a mother who loves to care and nourish her child. My sleep gets deeper, though I quickly realise in the morning that Pamela was up three, four or five times feeding as Mia's appetite increases. We took a short walk today, as we slept in, hopefully tomorrow we can get our earlier and go to Cedarvale where we had such special walks with Sasha. Enjoy the new pictures of Mia at her website.

Such a joy

Mia you give us such happiness and it was a wonderful moment to have Dr Peer lay his hands on you for the first time, measure your length and head, note you have put on 2oz and lie you on your tummy to see you raise your head. The normal jaundice we expect to pass in a few weeks. Burly invited us to PEI in August to visit them on holiday so we have a wonderful time to look forward to.

So much has been said of Mia's connection to Sasha and it has been very comforting. We will treasure Mia in her own right, outside of Sasha's brave struggle. She is gurgling now after a feed. Mia moves from breast to bottle voraciously, she sleeps and lets us sleep, she lets us know when she is hungry without any distress. Hopefully these patterns continue as she gains strength and awareness.

Sasha's day

Today was Sasha's day but I wanted to share pictures of you sleeping peacefully. You had such a lovely rest you kept Momma up with feeds from 10.30pm to 2am! You were so comforting to us as we laid your sister to rest and as we sang the shiva service to Sasha.

Mia is a delight

Our first full day home together was wonderful with lots of feeds, sleep, an early evening walk and then some good socializing. Anita and Erika dropped by, as did my mom and dad and brothers Kevin and Sean and they all got to see Mia hanging out comfortably, eyes open, little hands and feet swinging. She is relaxed except when she turns into the intense little drinker and is hitting nipple and bottle indescriminately. She is an absolute delight.

The walk was lovely, just around the corner to the Barns, bumping into Virginia and Penny, Doug and Oscar along the way and then meeting a 7 month and 2 month old puppies who decided to play between Pamela's legs. Virginia walked out her garden to hug Pam and with her fingers nail full of soil from her great garden her enthusiasm about the Cycle of life continuing was very felt. I love the wall of Cosmo that line her pavement mid summer. And it is always a hoot to catch up with Penny and Doug and see Oscar or Beck, Doug ran in to fetch a celebratory beer. After 9 months Pam loves just a mouthful of beer. Hatch was the first, bringing a single beer to the hospital, which if you know Hatch epitomises his funny spark.