Wade Oval Wednesdays!

What a wonderful summer day it was today. Seventy-four degrees of breezy sunshine with a wash of clouds off and on, a weather forecast threatening storms which never came to fruition. Both the babes slept in today, til after 8:00, and both had dispositions as sunny as the weather. Nat remarked with some surprise as we reviewed our day on the porch this evening, "Both of our children were really good today!... I guess we deserve it." It WAS good, and deserved, to have a day we could relish at its end, finally.

Ivy and I went to Baby and Me group, (we walked there, which makes us hard core) where she is no longer the youngest baby. A mum who we'd met in Baby and Me with Jack was there with her new 2 week old. It was kind of stunning to see how much Ivy has changed from that 2-week-old stage already. I look at her and see a still-tiny baby, still mushy and snuggly and new. But compared to that little bundle, our girl is an independent woman of the world, moving and exploring and interacting to such a greater extent. In the past day she has started, I think, to turn the corner from being 5 weeks old. Suddenly she is coming out of that newborn cocoon and we can see glimpses of the little butterfly to come. For one, the baby acne is starting to fade. She is no longer bright red and only somewhat scaly. Her eyes are open more, and wider, and she is looking intently at the world. During her alert periods she is branching out from just 2 modes-- impassive gaze or angry squawking-- to include a face of wonderment complete with smiles and the beginnings of coos. She showed this off nicely at group this morning, even doing smiling for while with me while I bounced her on my knee. Yep, bounced her on my knee while making ga-ga noises at her. We were, in retrospect, possibly bordering on sickeningly sweet there for a minute.

Nat and Jack joined us for lunch bunch at noon and all told Ivy and I were at the parent center for about 4 hours. Jack was a fabulous boy all morning, per Nat's report. They'd been to the History Museum and to Whole Foods before coming to group. Jack was thrilled to report, upon coming in to group and unpacking the Whole Foods bag, "Look mom! We brought EVERYTHING!" He snacked on blueberries and a bagel before heading off to play "run and run" with friend Max. With whom he played nicely today, nary a moment of their usual discord. Seriously. It was a good day.

Home for naps (which were taken promptly, with no hour-and-a-half of mischief in his room like yesterday). I got some much needed cleaning done on the second floor. Turns out this is a much bigger house now that we are using 3 more rooms than we used to... whew! Why is it the house gets bigger just when my time to clean it gets shorter? We are re-purposing Mike's room as a guest room and decided we needed to repaint this week. Of course, we need yet another unfinished project...So I got a bit more done in there too before relaxing for a bit of chatting, reading, and iced coffee with Nat on the porch, after he got back from his bike ride. Pretty damn idyllic.

After the babes woke up from naps, we headed off for the first Wade Oval Wednesday. We got free street parking (good day continues...) Walking into the park, the sounds of the live reggae band drifting across the green, children kicking and catching and chasing balls in the grass, family upon family gathered on blankets strewn in the shade or sitting at the umbrella tables by the bar tent, the smell of charcoal grilling and corn dogs in the air-- I felt that we had stumbled upon summer, that it had been waiting for us in this exact spot all along. It was perfect. Nat and I took turns sitting on a blanket with Melinda and Will and the babies, while the other followed Jack around. He was simply thrilled to be there. He ran and kicked and threw his ball, wanting to be just like all those other kids. Then we wandered among the blankets where he would occasionally plunk himself down in the grass, legs out front, and sit for a moment watching the music and the people. He must've thought, well, everyone else is doing this, I suppose I should too. He was stinking adorable. He also wanted to pet every dog he saw. We got to meet a few police horses, and a few little girls, 4th grade-ish, who Jack adored. Nat taught him to say "enchante" when introduced to them. Can I tell you how cute he was saying "enchante" in his little boy voice with his little shy smile and his twinkly eyes flirting away?

Ivy was also thrilled to be there. She really did seem to enjoy herself once she woke up, laying on the blanket and looking around, wide-eyed, at the shapes of trees and people and dappled sunshine. Smiling up at us from her stroller as we walked around the perimeter. It is exciting to think she is only going to get more interactive, more and more interested in her world, that there will be more to her than warm baby snuggles and little baby fussing, and soon. I keep saying that I am not really in love with this newborn stage, that it lacks much of the reward of parenting other ages. And yet. It is sad to think that she will never again be as small, as soft, as mushy and bundle-y and simple as she is right at this moment. That she will continue to grow, at warp speed and we will blink and she will be two and I will miss the snuggly weight of her, having her wrapped on my chest, bouncing her in the crook of my arm, comforting the baby-fusses with rocking and nursing and touches to her oh-so-silky head. Motherhood somehow makes it entirely possible to want two conflicting things, completely, at once...

A few recent pictures...

Houston, we have a smile!

At 5 weeks and 1 day old, Ivy is giving us purposeful social smiles! OK, not consistently, and she has to be in exactly the right mood (very alert, diaper clean and fresh, not trying to poop), and the somewhat fleeting and very unpredictable smiling that results from this is impossible to get on camera-- BUT we have seen smiles, 6 or 7 of them this morning, and they are definitely aimed at us, as we smile in return. She's impossibly cute when she finally gets both sides of her face going and both eyes crinkle up. It's like a silent laugh. Perhaps more like a silent guffaw. She's hilarious.

Newborns are really quite manipulative, you know? They are alternately demanding and boring and show us so little positive feedback; we are like starving prisoners with a crust of bread any time we are given the least reward. This smiling--it is like we have won the lottery.

In other news, Jack has had a bit of a rough weekend. It's like the poor kid is a toddler or something, always picking up the latest illness. This time we had a fun little bout with rotovirus. Nat had the distinct pleasure of helping his son learn how to throw up in the toilet, which was done many times yesterday. I got to feel like a wretched excuse for a mother, as my aversion to vomit made it hard for me to be very nurturing to my sweet sick boy. And he was a sweetie, a real trouper, happy as a lark when he was not busy vomiting. Thankfully he's on the mend today, gratefully accepting offers of toast and milk and bananas. Perhaps this was the secret to making him eat, all along-- deny him. It was the saddest thing in the universe yesterday, listening to him say, "milk??? I'm hungry..." over and over and telling him no. He actually commented last night, "I smell your cooking, mom, it smells really guk! Can I have some?" Um, really? He NEVER says that!

This morning the boy amazed me with his memory and verbal skills, once again. He was showing me his green race car and asking me to vroom it with him and I complimented him on what a nice green race car it was. He replied, "Yes, its the one I got with Becca. And Brooks (a little friend whose house Jack has been to exactly twice) has the same one! But his is yellow one like this one, not green. I wish I could go to Brooks house! Or he could come here and bring some toys from his basement!"

Another thing that Jack would like for me to tell you is: He is the proud owner of a Play-doh fun factory. If there was ever a boy who deserved a fun factory its this one, the most patient and good-spirited invalid ever. He absolutely adores this thing. He played with it, first with Nat and then with me, for over 3 hours. He is serious about his blue play-doh worms, this kid. We also made spaghetti for green race car to eat. Good times.

Summer on Somerton...

Summertime has arrived just in time to remind me of what I do love about our neighborhood. Jack and I have just had the loveliest of summer evenings, and such a simple one! We set off to walk to the library (Nat had taken Ivy off to Gram's house for a few hours, so Jack and I could have some "us" time, and the library is one of "our" special things...) Turns out we never made it to the library because we were having too much fun walking around the block.

Shortly after turning the corner onto Somerton, we saw some neighbor-friends out on their porch. Jack had played with the young girl, Rachel, at the park a few weeks ago. He recognized her and was asking "What her playing with?" as we started to walk by. They looked up, we waved, said hello from the sidewalk and chatted for a moment. Then the mom came down to say hi to Corydon, then Rachel wandered down and showed Jack what she was playing with: no less than a Play-doh Ice Cream Shop, a toy combining two of Jack's loves. She invited him up to play and we spent a delightful half hour, talking dogs and houses while the kids made "ice cream", watered the plants, and were generally perfect with one another. Did I mention that it was a 68 degree evening with perfect summer sun drifting through the trees? Can't imagine a better evening to spend on a neighbor's lovely porch, on their lovely street, getting to know some lovely new friends. I do hope we see more of them-- not only do the kids play well together but we share design taste (got a sneak peek at their open concept IKEA kitchen and modern furniture!) and have professors in both families. Plus they are ex-pats. Too cool.

Eventually we headed on to attempt our library trip once more. We then ran into Hazel-the-dog and her mom and had to let the dogs have a wrestling break. She was heading down the block to try to find the deer that had been sighted in the neighborhood so we walked together, dogs bounding and barking alongside (good thing Cor is so cute, she can get away with rotten behavior like that...). On the next block, we ran into a nice couple who have two adopted children-- we'd spent some time chatting with them last summer and like them a great deal too. We ended up all standing and chatting in their yard for a while as Jack ran in circles and waved flags and pinwheels with 2 year old Mary, the sun slowly sinking behind the trees...

Yes, our neighborhood is perhaps the most idyllic spot in the universe, it's true.

Jack and I headed home from there-- maybe we'll make it to the library tomorrow. Or not. I'd take another evening like this one, anytime...

Toddler of the week...

On my chat board for August 07 kiddos, we are doing "Toddler of the Week". It's Jack's week! (don't you tell me I don't have an exciting life!!)

Thought I'd share his update here too!

* Name: Jack Randall

* Nickname: Jackie

*Birthday?: August 28th

*Weight at birth/Weight now?: 9lbs 4oz/ 34 pounds

*Height at birth/Height now?: 20 inches/ no idea!!! :) He's in the 90th percentile for height, though...

*Siblings?: Ivy Jane, 1 month old, Corydon (fur-sister), 6 years old

*Clothing size (tops/bottoms)?: Tops-- 3T, 2T for short sleeves is OK, bottoms-- 2T-3T depending on whether he's wearing cloth or sposies

*Shoe size?: 91/2

*Still Napping? If yes, how long are naps?: Napping most days, from an hour and a half to two and half hours. If he doesn't sleep he still gets at least an hour of alone "quiet time" in his room...

*STTN?: Finally, yes! He wakes some nights if his legs or feet hurt (he has loose ligaments which means he gets pulls and strains easily and his legs and feet can hurt him at night).

*Crib/Toddler Bed/Big Bed?: Just moved into his toddler bed, at his own choosing, when Ivy was about a week old. We've had it in his room with him since March-- one night he just asked to sleep in it and after one night with lots of waking (kind of freaked him out to be in a new spot, I think) he's done great ever since. He doesn't want us to take the crib out of his room yet, though...

*Potty trained/Process of PTing/Haven't started yet?: Haven't really started. He'll talk about it with us but mostly refuses to sit on the potty when we offer him the chance, even when we offer chocolate ( his favorite thing in the world) as a reward. So we're not pushing it. He knows what to do and I firmly believe, just like everything else this kids does, he'll wait til we almost give up on him EVER doing it, and then decide to do it one day and do great. At least, that is sure what I HOPE happens! :)

*Favorite Foods?: Chocolate! :)

Breakfast: Cheerios, zuchini or banana bread, waffles or pancakes, English muffins, eggs
Lunch: PBJ, waffles, quesadillas, granola bars, cheese, yogurt, eggs, cheerios
Dinner: Chicken nuggets, mac n cheese, PBJ, sometmes spaghetti, pizza, cheerios (lol)
Snacks: granola bars, cheese, goldfish, graham crackers, pretzels, cheerios

*Favorite Book(s)?: Anything about trucks or dinosaurs! He really likes Curious George books. He is into going to the library these days and we get 10 new books a week so his "favorite" books change every week right now!

*Favorite Toy(s)?: Little Monster Truck, Big Monster Truck, his favorite red train engine (these 3 sleep with him at night), remote controlled dump truck, his kitchen food, his LP garage, art supplies, books, his tape player (likes to listen to recorded stories on it, more than music.)

*Favorite Activities?:

Inside: Playing playdough, coloring or stamping, vrooming trucks, reading, helping with cooking or cleaning (seriously, he loves to mop!!), videos (much to our chagrin!) on youtube or DVD's (but he can only do this a couple times a day)

Outside: sandbox, playground, bubbles (LOOOOVES bubbles, we use "gazillion bubbles" brand and he runs around shouting "gadillon bubbles!!"

*Favorite Color?: blue!

*Favorite t.v. show/movie?: Movies-- Cars, Dinosaur Shows--Thomas, Wubzy, Kai Lan

*Any special summer activities planned?: We are finally going to use our local pool- bought a pool pass and Jack will be doing swimming lessons! We are also going to take a few trips to upstate NY to the lake cottage-- hopefully a 2 week stay there, if all goes well with sleeping arrangements for the two little ones! Plus lots of summer festivals, cookouts and fires in the backyard, and playgroups with Jack's friends. Preschool (2 half days per week) starts in September! Wow.

*Anything else you want to share?: I love so much about this age! Well, not the manipulation/talking back/ornery rotten behavior he is pulling out recently! lol But the things he says! He makes me laugh out loud all day long. I love the way he kind of mispronounces things while he tries to use new words, constantly. I love the way he really means what he says, whatever it is. I love his silly giggle and the way he loves tickle games and chasing. I love the way he notices everything about the world. It is fascinating to watch him develop into this unique little person, still the same deliberate, focused, serious little man I've seen since he was an infant-- but so independent now, so many of his own thoughts and insights to share with the world. He's so cool! :)

4 week pictures

Trying to keep up! Weeks are very fast things...

One Month

Today is the 8th, which means that Ivy is one month old, officially. I have now been the mother of two children for a month. In some ways, it has gotten easier. For instance,we have practiced and become much more adept at getting out of the house in an expedient fashion, two little ones in tow. Breastfeeding is going swimmingly and the girl is growing like a weed. And despite Ivy's overall lack of a schedule, and indeed the lack of any structure to our daily routine as a whole (with neither parent working at the moment), Nat and I have settled into a rhythm of caring for the two little ones. In general this involves Nat taking Jack while I take Ivy-- the presence of my functional milk ducts making this the most sensible choice-- though I try to tuck the boy in to bed and spend other moments with him when possible. We have even gotten cavalier with our energy levels and have begun to tackle projects and tasks outside of the basics of dishes, laundry and diaper changes (see deck below, and our painted porch floor). I don't take naps any more. (sigh. I miss that.)

Other things are not getting easier at the rate I had hoped. Jack seems to care about his sister, and is sweet and loving to her-- but he continues to pull out new and interesting ways to manipulate our attentions. This involves, thanks to his highly verbal nature, talking back, arguing, and generally being contrary to our wishes at all possible times. Ivy continues to be serious about her sleep-- during the day at least. And really at night as well, as she gets a 4-5 hour stretch of sleep at most times. But she is moving more and more into that phase of babyhood which involves a "witching hour"-- or hours, really-- in the late evening, fussing and demanding much more bouncing and direct ministration that we'd gotten used to, between the hours of 7 and 11, and often throwing in a good long alert period after 11pm. You know, right when we are realizing that perhaps we did a bit too much with our limited energy and we'd really like to be in bed... It is nice to remember that evening fussiness tends to peak at 6-8 weeks. Close to the top of the hill means we are approaching that downslope. And anything is possible for a short amount of time. I also need to remind myself that we can't begin to expect this new little person to have a schedule or a sleep routine anytime before we hit that downslope. If then. And this is normal. And really, it lasts for such a short time in the scope of a childhood. Before we know it, Ivy will be the surprisingly manipulative 2 year old. And in the meantime I must try to suppress the frustration with myself, the thinking that as a second-time mom, I ought to have more of the answers, this ALL ought to be easy, that I shouldn't have had to write this paragraph in the first place...