I made the executive decision to give this a try this weekend because Nat and Jack have run off for a quick trip to Farley's, leaving me with only one child to focus on. Turns out, one is less than two. I am not sure what we were thinking, when we whined about how difficult Jack was. One baby, and only one baby-- this is so easy! So, I decided to take it up a notch for myself by messing with the girl's sleep. :) Seriously, though, I figured it would be easier to do this when I have no one else to pay attention to at bedtime.
So here I sit, stationed with my computer on the bed, about 6 feet away, on the other side of the wall, from where little Miss Ivy is peacefully sleeping, swaddled and propped slightly on her side, her new crib soother playing nature sounds in her ear. I am ready to spring into action should she cry. I am just not ready to let my 13 week old baby cry it out.
I still can't believe she's been asleep in there for 15 minutes. Maybe more like 18 now.
There may be hope.
So, on to actual updates. The last post was a weekly pics installment, and tomorrow we take more weekly pics, so I guess I have pretty much a whole week to catch you up on. Here goes.
Last Sunday Jack went to Gram-gram's house where he played at the park with Becca and got to watch Bambi for the first time. Nat and I took Ivy on a little road trip to Pittsburgh for Fiona's baby shower. (She is due on August 23rd, which is, incidentally, Jack's original due date...) It was a really delightful day. That whole 1 is less than 2 thing? Also applies when we are away from home. Ivy was remarkably well behaved on the drive out, even giggling a few times in her carseat before falling asleep. We had a nice lunch and a very efficient shopping trip at Ikea, where I dropped a chunk of change on a new wall storage system for my office. (Terribly exciting until I think about the 8 boxes that are currently in my office, waiting to be assembled. The blessing and curse of Ikea...) Then on to the party, where we got to catch up with Jody, Fi's sister who we have not seen in, oh, about 12 years. Baby showers are fun and silly things, and this one was no exception. It was hot but sunny and clear outside and we got to play lawn games while the baby napped for a while. Good times.
It would be so lovely if the day had ended that way, but sadly we had to drive home. We have learned that Ivy's new, improved outlook on time spent in the car ends at about 7pm. Suffice it to say that it was a LOOOONG car ride home. I hate it when nice days end with inconsolable screaming...
The rest of the week flew by with tutoring in Solon for me and some better mornings at home with the brood for Nat. Ivy finally started taking more than an ounce at a time from her bottle this week. It was such a relief to come home to empty bottles and a less-frazzled daddy. Gives us some hope that our full-time return to work will be manageable. It has been such a treat to have us both home to split the load of 2 kids plus this time-consuming house. We've gotten quite used to it, and I think both of us have been feeling a lot of anxiety about the fast-approaching Fall, when we each get to be a single parent for large chunks of time. Rationally I know we'll be fine but it's hard to stop fixating on it. Though I certainly don't want to be caught wishing summer away (
Ok, I'm back. Trial 2 lasted 31 minutes. Not bad! Six minute of rocking and nursing, and now we are 4 minutes into Trial 3. Can I tell you how hard it was to not just settle that little sweetheart into her swing. I wanted to reward her (ok, and me too) with some easy, tucked-in-for-the-night slumber. But, I said I would put her in the crib 5 times. So 5 times it shall be...
Where was I?
Oh yes, wishing summer away... (except for the heat and humidity!) there is a little part of me that is looking forward to getting started on our Fall routine. A lot of what is going on right now is simple fear of the unknown. Once we jump in and just do what needs to be done, well, we'll simply have to figure out how to manage it. And we will. I hope...
Enough of that. Here's our week in brief.
Backtrack a bit to Saturday. We drove out to Mentor to return books at Lakeland and pick up our new double stroller from a Craigslist seller. We also had a lovely McDonald's lunch and walk in the woods at Penitentiary Glen, which turns out to be a wonderful little park which we had never before visited. We'll most certainly be going back, soon, as this park boasts lots of track for little, ride-on trains which run about once a month. Jack was thrilled to see the tracks and decided he would wait right there, by the station, until the trains came. We had to work hard to convince him that they would not be there today, and he'd be waiting a long time and not having much fun if he stayed there leaning on the fence. So he hiked with us and discovered some sticks to play with and all was good.
Monday: A dinner picnic at our local park. Would've been the pool but some little boy who lives here has decided he doesn't like the pool. In the same way that he doesn't like his bath. Until we force him to get in and then he plays for half an hour. But we haven't wanted to make going to the pool into a fight. That seems kind of silly...
Tuesday: A picnic of Boston Market with Gram and Bec at Rocky River park. I think that park may be one of my favorite places of this summer. It has just such a scrumptious view of the lake, and a lovely little playground for the boy in easy view of the picnic tables...It was a relaxing evening with a wet, happy spaniel, a baby who kicked and cooed at the leaves from a blanket on the table, and boy who is so amazingly independent, climbing rope ladders and running around and only occasionally calling up to us to "watch me!!" as he played. Oh, and bubbles too. It was most certainly a "summer is good" sort of evening.
Wednesday: Wade Oval Wednesday kept that "summer is good" theme going. Jack really likes Wade Oval. No trouble getting him into the car for these outings. He likes to pack his own snacks "to take to Wade Oval!!!" and is super enthusiastic about the whole experience. Picnic number 3 for the week, sandwiches and fruit on a blanket and a sticky sultry evening with Mambo music drifting over from the stage. Jack was initially disappointed that his friend Riley from the Parent Center wasn't there tonight, but got over it when he met a pair of two year old twin boys who shared his passion for "spinning around in a circle and falling down with a goofy face, followed by laughing." This was their activity for quite some time until they were joined by a few older boys who shared with them the joy of "running pell-mell around the tree while giggling". It was a riot to watch this group of 5-6 preschoolers, who'd never met before, chasing one another in a circle, dancing and giggling, sitting together and holding sticks... Melinda and Will joined us too and we had a blanket full of babies for a while and it was good.
Thursday: The County Fair! We didn't take a picnic but we did eat outdoors at a picnic table so does that count? Four for four?
We started the day off with the excitement of getting our house refinanced. (looking forward to saving about $330 per month, yes indeedy.) Jack and Ivy were actually dream children at the bank. One of them slept and the other sat quietly drawing and playing i-pod and throwing away scraps of paper for us, with occasional commentary about his train and smiles to charm every adult in the bank.
(Aside: I just have to insert here the Cutest Thing Ever that Jack said on Thursday. He has this little train engine, the one that came to the bank, actually a "lomomotive," he would correct me-- it used to light up and make engine noises at the push of a button. Batteries have since died, however. Thursday morning at the breakfast table, Jack comes crawling into the room, pushing this locomotive on the floor, and he pauses in his whistle-noises to look at me and say, "Look at my lomomotive, Mommy! It doesn't work anymore, but its still predydarncool." Yes, those 3 words were pushed together into one and it was so. Stinking. Cute.)
We left straight from there to head to the Cuyahoga County Fair. It took some doing to talk Jack into going. Like any new experience we bring up, he was sure he wouldn't like it. We pushed through the whining and got ourselves there and braved the hot sun to tour barns of livestock and milk a mechanical cow and tour a rewood log house and stand in line for little circle rides and look at tractors and pay too much for greasy paper plates of fair food that we ate in a noisy pavilion to the sounds of the the 12 year old rock band, with breaks to play in the water-mister. And it was great. The boy had a blast (in fact asking when we were going back, the minute we drove away), the girl was content and easy in the stroller, and there was the most wonderful, adorable calf that we all petted. And amazing people-watching opportunities, of course. I love the fair. Next year-- we are totally coming on Demolition Derby night.
So not a bad week, all told. For all our complaining about how busy we are with two, how changed our lives feel and how little free time we seem to have, we sure are milking summer for all it's worth. And it's not over yet!
(25 minutes in to Trial 3!)
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