29 weeks

A quick photo update for you:
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This evening Jack spent some real quality time with Ivy. So often I feel like he barely tolerates her presence in the house, mostly ignoring her and spending so much time in active jealousy and competition for our attention. But for a few moments after dinner he really stepped into the role of a doting big brother and it was so much fun to see. He got her giggling like crazy as he played "gotcha" with her ladybug toy, and then had a wonderful time feeding her (and actually did pretty well with it, I dare say...)


We had a lovely Thanksgiving at Aunt Betsey's house this year, enjoying a rather uneventful trip to NY. The sleeping could've been better, but it also could've been worse. The kids were both remarkable car travelers and we have to admit we really enjoyed traveling in Gram's posh minivan. Jack had a great time playing with Alex and it was wonderful to meet the newest cousin, 2 month old Isabella.

Finally a few fun shots from the last week. Again, heavy on Ivy pics around here. Turns out the 6 month old is more photogenic these days than our squirrely,non-cooperative 3 year old who really needs a haircut... You'll just have to trust me that he really is pretty cute. Most of the time.
Fun with 3 babies in our living room!! :) Ivy, Lillian and Naomi at the first Second Sunday Soup.

The boy is serious about his jelly sandwiches... :)

Tomorrow morning we are off to visit the baby-head specialist to check out Ivy's flat spot and find out if it is anything to be concerned about. I am doing my best not to worry but I am not entirely succeeding. I am also trying to focus on being thankful that, three years into this parenting gig, we have never had to venture on to the Cleveland Clinic main campus to see a specialist of any sort, before now. Hopefully, this'll be the last time, too.

Good night all!

300 posts!

This is actually post 301. I just noticed my count and I am feeling oddly proud of that number. Now, if I had one of those impressive "professional" blogs, I would probably have a giveaway to celebrate this moment. As I do not have one of those blogs, all you get is a new post...

I am up at 3am tonight because we have a pukey boy. Why these things always have to happen at the holidays is beyond me. The one consolation here is that perhaps Christmas is safe now...

We were supposed to be hitting the road to NY in about 4 hours, for Thanksgiving. Now it looks like we have an unexpected long weekend at home. All the laundry is already done so the sky's the limit for what we do with our time. Unless of course we all get this. Sigh.

As I have an inability to sleep when anyone in the house has a tummy bug, I will pass the time writing about some of the wonderful aspects of my children, to offset this not-so-wonderful part of parenting.

Ivy: Her most recent trick is the "sniff-laugh". I shall have to try to get it on video as I don't think I'll do it justice in words. When she's particularly tickled about something she looks you in the eye, wrinkles up her nose like a little bunny, twinkles up her eyes in a smile, and giggles by sniffing in and out at you. It is like she's sharing some tremendously funny secret with you. It's adorable.

She's a pro at sitting, grabs any toy or object in the vicinity and transfers it hand to hand and then hand to mouth, and bounces on her bum when she gets excited. Her favorite toys right now include an egg separator, her gummy yummy teether, a wooden napkin ring, her brother's hotwheels (oh how she loves them) and a newly discovered infatuation with the light-up phone toy. She's not had much experience so far with the light-up, music-making toy genre before the past few days, but she's fallen hard...

Oh-- the other most adorable thing about her: when she greets us she not only gives us that sweet smile (the smile that is, in fact, the reason for the perpetuation of the species) but she kicks her legs and flaps her arms at the most terrific rate. This is most striking, and hilarious, when she's being held by someone else, facing out, and then sees one of us. She turns into this little ball of arms and legs going every which way. Her excitement is palpable and quite endearing.

To be continued about the boy....

A note about Jack...

I have just noticed that my most recent post is a bit Ivy-centric. So to remedy that, here are some updates on my boy...

On my list of "little things I think I won't forget, but probably will because they won't actually last forever":

Jack's current obsession is with Hot Wheels (and yes, I mean Hot Wheels, the brand. He knows how to find the manufacturer symbols on his cars and he wants nothing to do with Matchbox. All Hot Wheels, all the time... He likes to carry this collection of about 10 cars around with him in-- get this-- a "Deceased Solder's Belongings" bag that Nat got from an Army-Navy Surplus store years ago. It is just the right size, with a nice little drawstring, and he calls it the magic elevator. He has named each of his favorite cars, generally by their color. "Orange Color Changing car" or "Silver Car", for instance, though "Car with the point things on it" and "Hot rod" do break the mold. There is one car that is designated the "mean car" and Jack has a new fascination with having all the other cars fight this mean car and make him go away. Much time is spent with these cars, sitting together on the playroom floor. I am getting better at engine noises but nowhere near Jack's level of (almost-freakish) realism....

The best moment with cars recently? Sunday afternoon at the park. We all went on a walk to Starbucks to capitalize on the crazy-warm weather and Jack and I stayed on at the park for a bit, just the two of us. We climbed up a few ladders together and then settled ourselves at the small slide (as it had no puddle of water at the bottom, an important consideration for Jack), where we raced his cars down the slide, again and again. He carefully lined them up to start and then pushed them down one at a time, exclaiming about whether or not they landed on their wheels. Silver car, his newest acquisition and thus his favorite, invariably won no matter which car actually went the furthest. I sat there with him at the top of the slide and watched the last of the yellow leaves drifting down in the afternoon sunshine, my hands a little cold and my heart so very full of love for this funny, wonderful boy.

28 weeks

The little chicken is growing right along. Today's new skill: eating baby mum-mum crackers. Today it clicked and she realized that these strange little object are for eating! and oh, she enjoyed it! To the point that when she'd eaten one cracker down to a gooey little nubbin and couldn't find any more to chew on, she looked me in the eye and whined with great intensity, clearly asking me to provide her with some more. She's become quite the eater in general. At Chick-Fil-A today she sat up in a regular high chair and opened that little bird mouth the moment she saw me get out her spoon, and munched down her whole container of squash (she loves squash!) with great proficiency.

Her other new thing is making impressively loud sucking noises, for fun and amusement. The best part of this new behavior is the look of absolute pride and enjoyment on her face while she does this. She is a master of the self-satisfied expression...

Here are a few other shots from today. Meet my new favorite hat:

And, yes, they do touch her eyebrows, those lashes...



Our exceedingly goofy children. It is next to impossible to get a decent picture of the two of them together...


And, just for fun, a blast from the past. A pre-Jack, pre-blog era shot, taken in Boulder, Colorado while we were there for Ashley's wedding. I cannot wait for the chance to go back out west! If Miss Ivy ever figures out how to sleep and we feel brave enough to embark on serious travel with her... we *may* head to Denver for Spring Break. Yet another reason to hope and hope that sleep improves, and soon...

The bear is getting smaller...

Really, it's the incredible shrinking bear, just look! It couldn't be that this baby is so big, so fast. Six months. 27 weeks. Incredible.

She's becoming so very intentional these days, reaching and grabbing and communicating and interacting in these very purposeful, person-like ways. New development this week is that everything is going in her mouth now. That plus a slightly moodier and droolier girl is making us suspect teething. Who knows, though. We've been wrong before.

However, in case we're right, here's a photo celebrating her gummy grin, before it becomes any less gummy.


And, a few more from this afternoon, because she's pretty darn cute in a rabbit hat. And wiggly. It was difficult, as you can see, to keep her, the bear, and the 27 week notecard all in their assigned places...




Thinking about children who are becoming more and more intentional-- You should hear Jack talk these days. So very precise and articulate and interesting, that one. Today as we drove home from Aldi Jack said to me, "Oh! Look at that big roof that covers the all whole house!" It was true, there was up ahead a roof on a church that came down very close to the ground. He notices everything and can describe and categorize and comment on it all...This is usually a wonderful and amusing thing, though there are moments we are wishing he was not quite so good at expressing himself. He is not holding back with his opinions these days, especially when we give him a choice of two things that are less than desired and he responds with "Actually I don't want either of those." With this little bit of three-year-old attitude in his voice. Good thing he's cute.

I do believe it is preschool that is causing this latest surge of "growing up too fast!" to happen to our boy. He's definitely different, not just more articulate and opinionated but more familiar with the concept of fighting (thank you creative play with the boys...sigh...) and even hitting (he now slams his fist down when he's mad...). Conversely he is also becoming more attuned to letters and words and numbers in his environment. Nat told him the other day that they were going to get a letter from Mrs. Young (his teacher) and Jack said, "Yeah! the letter C!". It's the letter of the week and this weekend Jack's found C's all over the place, including in the shape of a reciept, without me even asking.
Also, I do believe the boy is beginning to recognize some words. We've been reading this little book about WALL-E the robot, a rather poorly written and repetitive Easy Reader about smashing trash. In fact, a commonly occurring sentence in this book is "Smash Trash." Scintillating. Jack loves this book and we read it one-two times daily. So last night to ease the boredom of reading this book to him, for the umpteenth time, I decided to work on drawing his attention to the words and having him "read" the ends of sentences for me. He's got it memorized so no problem there. I also pointed out a few times that the word "trash" always looks the same. Today at Target he noticed a Hot Wheels racetrack set that was labeled Criss Cross Crash and he exclaimed to me, "mommy! It says "trash!" I thought it was pretty cool that he recognized the "rash" part of that word and linked it to our reading.

Thinking of Hot Wheels: Jack is currently rather obsessed with his collection of cars. He has a little group of them, maybe about 10, which he has given personalities to, and which he carries around everywhere. Used to be in a "deceased soldiers belongings" bag Nat bought at an Army Navy store years ago (hey, its a drawstring bag of just the right size...). Now he's upgraded to a Peanut Butter Jar with a rope handle added by daddy. His "car armor". He's managed to fit an astounding number of hot wheels in there. Its in bed with him right now....

With no further ado, here are a few "action shots" of the boy...

Enjoying a popcorn ball and a movie..

And a few from preschool. I am rather jealous of Nat who gets to be the parent helper once a month and see all this cuteness in person. But I am grateful that he has taken a few pictures so I can at least have a glimpse. I feel this overwhelming surge of pride when I look at the one of Jack sitting and working so nicely at the art table. My little boy.
And finally a couple from our walk in the Beachwood park a few weeks back.

Quiet...

Sorry for the dearth of posts recently, folks. Life has been loud so the blog has been quiet. I personally am blaming the combination of the end of the grading quarter, report card week, and conference week in quick succession, paired with the additional fun of 6-8 nighttime wakings, between our two little darlings, each night. Somehow I end up without much left to give to writing and reflection by the end of the day. Many days I feel quite accomplished if I manage to load the dishwasher.

Today was a bit of a respite, actually. The long awaited 1/2 day of conferences, a morning spent chatting with parents and then off for the afternoon. November obliged with sunny 65 degree weather, pure bliss. The kids napped at the same time and Nat and I squandered it well, sitting around with a friend and chatting in the sun. We walked as a family to Starbucks and all thoroughly enjoyed tacos for dinner. Jack was less whiny than he's been and pooped on the potty without too much incident. Ivy only wailed for about 10 minutes at bedtime.

So, yeah, today was good.

Coming attractions:
Look for some photos of Jack at preschool, and maybe I can convince Nat to make a guest appearance and write about that experience a bit.

27 week photos to be taken tomorrow. 27 weeks!! Wowza.

Oh, yeah, and we are hopefully going to be picking up some secondhand ski equipment for Jack, tomorrow afternoon. So something to really look forward to? Pictures of the boy learning how to ski this winter. I can't wait.

6 months old!

Ivers is half a year old...

This means half a year of no sleep, no time, extra laundry, extra dishes, and doing just about everything with one hand.

It also means half a year with this little elf of a daughter and half a year of these eyes, and this smile.





Ivy's 6 months stats, from her check-up last week:

15.5 pounds-- 25%
26.2 inches-- 75%
16.1 inch head-- 25%

All was well. Dr. Mann pronounced her an overachiever as she was sitting up on the changing table when the doc walked in. (Of course we think she's behind the times as she sat about 2 weeks later than Jack-man did) The only slight area of concern is that she's got a bit of a flat spot on her head that does not seem to be in the expected location for the normal "baby lays on their back a lot" flat spot. So, we'll be taking her in to some infant head specialist to get her checked in case its a prematurely fused suture. Right now our appointment is not until January 31st-- certainly hope that if there is a concern, its one that can wait a while. Jeesh. Dr. Mann is working on getting that moved up for us.

Ives at 6 months is:

A happy girl, smiles abounding all day long, quick to flirt with strangers and friends alike.

Blue eyed. Remember when we weren't sure what color her eyes were? Those babies are blue as blue can be, and surrounded by the most amazing eyelashes. We've been accused of putting mascara on her.

A night owl. Not so big on sustained sleep at night anymore, this girl. Nor is she a fan of her crib. Still. We have at least 10 minutes of crying most nights before she gets to sleep, followed by at least 2 wakings before we feed her at 2 or so. Followed by her either coming in bed with me or trying her crib again, the latter of which leads to a few more wakings. And then mommy is up at 5 for the gym and work. It's been some long, long nights, people, and some tired, tired days. Its a good thing this little elf is so very appealing all day long or she really might be living somewhere else by now.

Here's hoping the next 6 months bring better rest for us all.

6 month milestones:

Sitting independently, with flops to the side or onto her belly only about 25% of the time. Unlike Jack, who sat ramrod straight and as still as a little Buddha, Ivy leans forward, reaches, and swims with her arms, clearing a 2 foot radius of any object that might be there.

Transferring toys from hand to hand.

Grabbing-- anything! Glasses, plates, cups, hair, dogs, brothers, brother's toys, etc...

She's pushed up onto all 4's a few times...'

Eating-- she seems to really enjoy her solids. Recent foods introduced: peas (loved them!), bananas, marinara sauce

Drinking from a cup -- she loves to hold on to my water glass with two hands and drool into it as she sips.


Today we went to Naomi and Lillian's 1st birthday party. It's impossible to think that it's really been a year since that whirlwind of a week when they arrived, 3 months too soon... Of course it makes sense as Ivy Jane is exactly 6 months younger than the girls. But still.

It was a lovely party, complete with a stunning photo montage of the twin's remarkable growth, from the 2.5 pound little creatures they were a year ago, to the crawling, giggling, cake eating babies we spent the day with today. They are amazing. Their mom and dad are amazing. We love them all so much. What a year it has been and how all our lives have changed. In the midst of the sleep deprived haze that is my life these days, I like to look ahead a few years and see the three little girls running around and giggling in the yard, with Jack and Greg and Tommy riding bikes out front and Greg and Tommy's soon-to-be siblings playing on the deck at our feet. And I like to picture the gin and tonic in my hand and the smile on my face and remember that we are heading there right now, that these are golden and wonderful years with these miraculous little people we've created. And that they'll all learn how to sleep. Someday.