One of Many Reasons I Love my Redding

When I went to get Red from his nap this afternoon he points to a book he was looking at and says, "What is Leo doing?" I think he was being obtusely instructive, as we frequently are. He'll ask a question and we'll put it back to him, "Well, what do you think?"

So I said, "Looks like he's making something."

Redding says, "Yes, he baked a cake. We can bake a cake. We'd be just like Leo."

Seriously? With a lead-in like that? How could I ever say no?

I asked, "What kind of cake would you like to bake?"

After a little consideration, he replied, "Orange."

Thinking to myself that I can not make an orange cake, mostly because I've been out of red food coloring since Andrew requested a red velvet birthday cake, LIKE TWO YEARS AGO... I have some kind of mental block about picking up food coloring of any variety, but especially red. OK?

I said, "I don't think I have a recipe for that. There are lots of different kinds of cakes I do have recipes for chocolate, yellow, spice cake, gingerbread, pumpkin, even coffee cake."

He picked coffee cake. Then he got giddier and giddier as he asked me what we'd put in it and I listed off the potential ingredients.

The boy is deliriously happy. I love it. As someone how genuinely enjoys baking, not just for the end product, but just because it is a little bit magic, I can't tell you how pleased I am that he is so interested.

The funny thing is? He probably won't eat coffee cake, or any other kind of cake. He doesn't like bread, most crackers, eats only the frosting off of cupcakes, won't touch the chocolate chip or pumpkin muffins I make all the time...

He is an interesting child, but he's all mine and I couldn't possibly love him any more.

Buying A Crib

Once upon a time, Andrew and I had a baby. The baby was so early that Andrew and I had purchased exactly nothing. Not a single item. When you have a baby that is born 14 weeks early, you also tend not to give a whole lot of thought to purchasing things while they are in the hospital fighting for their lives.

Nope.

So, when we finally got around to buying a crib, it was maybe a few weeks before Annabella would be coming home. We had been gathering tidbits from other parents, magazines, websites, nurses, and doctors about what we needed. Then the deciding factor: The neonatologist, Dr. Sunshine told us that we better get our act together because before long, our girl would be home.

When you go to buy a crib, be sure to give yourself 6 - 8 weeks lead time for delivery of the crib. When you don't have that kind of lead time, you find a specialty baby store with cribs in stock. These stores can be very hard to find, but they are out there.

Why, oh why, am I writing about a crib? Because the crib that we finally selected is now completing its circle of life, as Annabella's bed frame.

Yes, once our beautiful girl was done with the crib, and toddler bed, we moved her brother into the crib. Now that he is done with the toddler bed, Annabella gets a beautiful big girl bed, as she puts it.

In all seriousness, buying the convertible crib was the best furniture decision we've ever made. I highly recommend it.

Great Day

Almost by sheer force of will, it was a fantastic day today. Annabella was back at school. Redding had a great time at the Y. I got to go to yoga. We even made some yummy minty cookies to decorate. All good stuff.

Realizing that I haven't put up any new pictures lately, I had to come up with a post today, just to get this one up.

I freakin' love my kids.

Out of the Mouths of Moms

The last week has presented certain challenges. There's the trauma of having a child hospitalized. There's the lack of sleep for worrying and cries of, "Mom!" in the night. There's the constant nagging to get fluids into your child.

All that. But none of those begins to touch on the challenges faced by Redding. First, his sister gets loads of attention. She's got mom and dad following her around with bowls, towels, cool cloths for her head... Loads of medicine and tons of sippees of juice, ice water, Gatorade, Pedialyte, anything she will drink. Redding wants a bowl for in his bed. He wants "puffers" like Annabella's. He wants a sippee, which thankfully he can have. He wants whatever she is getting.

So Friday morning, I called the grandparents to enlist assistance in watching Red while I took Annabella to the pediatrician. Poppa was at our house a few hours later and Bel and I were off. Red wanted to see the doctor. I figure, why take a healthy child into the waiting room full of miserable illness?

The doctor briefly examined my normally perky girl. Based on her coloring, lethargy, tender abdomen and the fact that she hadn't kept much down in 2 days, she sent us to the hospital for IV fluids to treat severe dehydration.

So, we stopped home to pick up some necessities. Poppa was out shoveling the driveway and Red was out with him, playing on a sled. I was already weepy over putting Bel into the hospital. I was overwhelmed with gratitude to find Red happy as a clam and my driveway being cleared. Then I had to humbly ask what he had planned for the rest of the afternoon, as I had to go put my girl... And the tears flowed.

Redding winds up spending the rest of the day with Poppa and Gragra at our house, then going to their house for dinner and a sleepover. He gets all the attention of two very doting grandparents. But there's a problem. He doesn't understand why Sissy gets to go to the doctor, to the hospital, gets medicine, etc. Poor guy. Plus he's missing Annabella, Mom and Dad. Poor, poor sweet boy.

Saturday evening Annabella got to come home, but wasn't very interactive with Red. Still she's getting lots of attention and fussing over. Medicine, puffers, all that jazz.

Sunday night at dinner we were discussing how he'd been saying things all weekend like, "I hurt myself, I need to go to the hospital." And, forced, fake cough, cough "I'm sick, I need a puffer."

Annabella hops up from the dinner table with a panicked look on her face, shouting, "I have to go potty, NOW!" She races to the bathroom.

Redding is hot on her heels, "Oh! I have to go potty now, too!" Which is funny because he's not potty trained. He feels using the potty once a day before nap is plenty.

Someone commented that he just wants to have and do everything just like his big sister.

I replied, "Yeah, won't he be surprised when he gets his first period."

A Whole New World

Seriously, the boy is growing up before my very eyes.

He just pooped on the potty. He asked to go. He went.

Yeah Red!

Redding's First Haircut

On Saturday, December 19, 2009, Redding had his first haircut.

Here we have the "before" shot:

Here we have the "after" shot:

In between we had a lot of wailing and some consoling. You can use this as a life lesson, don't wait until your child is 2 1/2 to get their first haircut. Or you can look at it as typical toddler / preschooler behavior. They don't like change.

I would like to thank my dear friend Mindi, who let us tag along with her and her three boys as they went in for their regularly scheduled and wonderfully handsome haircuts. From her oldest, who just turned 5, to her youngest who is about 6 months younger than Red, they did a great job.

Once again, my very capable friend not only managed her highly active brood, but somehow also held my hand while I felt like the meanest mom and in the end helped me get my kids coats on them. I don't know how she does it. She is supermom.

Redding likes his hew hair. Everyone who knows him is shocked by the change. He seems so grown up, somehow more well-behaved. It is bizarre how appearances set expectations. He's not a baby anymore.

Goodbye my bohemian baby boy. Hello my sweet well-behaved little boy.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Last night while I was getting Redding ready for bed, we were chatting. He started in with his standard, "Dogs eat dog food." line of thinking.

"Yes, they do." He's got it now, so why mess it up? I thought.

"Cats eat cat food." Redding chimes in.

Now, I just can't stop myself from asking, "And what do squirrels eat?"

He gives me this quizzical look, eyebrows up, and says uncertainly, "Chipmunks?"

Which makes me wonder, just what is it exactly about the holiday season that brings out the violence in my kids? Killing pandas with axes and wild blood-thirsty squirrels eating poor defenseless chipmunks...

Cookie Time!

I have some serious helpers. They love to help me decorate.

The health department has determined that the cookies decorated by my children should stay within our home. You're welcome.

Charmed

While I was downstairs sorting laundry, Redding was planning covert missions.

He snuck into the kitchen, removed both rolling pins from their drawer. He quietly carried them back to the pop-up princess fort in the family room.

As I walked up the stairs to rejoin him, I was serenaded from inside the fort with, "so they all rolled over and the little one said, 'I'm lonely.'"

Just about the sweetest thing in the world. The sound of Redding singing. And it charms me that whenever he can get his hands on the rolling pins, he sings this song.

Now, if only I could get him to do with for the camera...

Out of the Mouths of Babes

When I went in to get Redding this morning, he was in a great mood. This is definitely not how we start every morning, so I considered myself lucky.

The first thing he says, as I open the door is, "Where is my sissy?"

Once I picked him up, his next inquiry was, "Where are my fruit bars? Where is my box of fruit bars, MomMom?" (He's in a strange phase where he picks random things to carry around they house like a security object. Yesterday it was a box of Archer Farms Organic Apricot fruit bars.)

Finally, once we got the important stuff squared away and I began to change him into clothes for the day he lay back and grinned up at me and said, "I had a dream last night about POOPIES!" So very, very proud of himself. He told me his dream, without me asking and he used a complete sentence. Plus he wasn't the least bit grumpy this morning. How lucky am I, potty humor aside?

Pumpkin Patch Day! Yippee!

It was a beautiful day to be out looking for the perfect pumpkins. We waited and waited for one that was not snowy, rainy, grey, or too cold. We got just what we wanted.

(Yes, that is Annabella lurking in the back of the photo of Redding.)

More photos Here .

Happy Halloween!

As It Turns Out...

The reason why there is never any hand soap in the downstairs powder room, in spite of the fact that I just KNOW I refilled it not a week ago...

Is that any time Redding can get into there unchaperoned he goes to the sink, stands on his step and slowly but methodically pumps the clear soap out of the dispenser and down the drain.

He's just a little more calculating than his sister was at 2. Or maybe the house is just four times as big and he has much more opportunity. It's hard to say.

P.S. Tonight we were at his grandparent's house. He came out of the bathroom and said, "I did my job!" I went and looked, and he'd climbed up on his step stool and just about emptied their hand soap into the sink. He now thinks it is his job. Crazy kid.

Love the Light

Beautiful day for a photo shoot at the park. Wish Fall lasted longer than a minute this year.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Annabella:
I love you, Redding! When we first got you, you were a teeny, tiny little baby!

Redding:
I know, Sissy. I know.

(An oldy, but a goody. Let your toddlers carefully hold your babies, with lots of helping hands and pillows around, so you can get a priceless shot like this.)

Hold Me Back

Memo to You

RE: My Son, Redding

Dear obviously-former-military grandfather type dude from the park last evening (a.k.a. complete stranger),

I do not need to "cut off those curls" as they are not "clearly holding him back." Neither physically nor mentally.

Redding and I weren't the only recipients of your scorn, I heard you harassing the other mom about her child still in diapers. Do you seriously think we feeble women wait at the park for some big old power monger type like you to come along and clue us in on how to parent?

Go find a hobby and while you're at it, learn some proper park parent/grandparent etiquette. Sir.

There's nothing systematic about my desensitization

It seems like at least once a day, for the last two weeks or more, Andrew winds up translating something one of our children said for me. Many times he is just repeating for me, more loudly, what one of them has said.

I was beginning to think that I need to go get a hearing test. But here's the thing... I hear just fine. Seriously, 99% of the time, when I am away from my children, I hear great. I hear the phone ring. I hear knocks at the door. I hear the garage door open. I almost never have to ask and adult or someone on the phone to repeat themselves.

There can be only one logical answer. I've begun blocking out the sound of my children's voices.

When I was but a single gal, auntie, I used to marvel at how mothers could simply ignore their children desperately trying to get their attention. Mommy! Mommy! Mom-meeee!!!!!!! (I'm not naming any names, and I think I managed to keep my mouth shut and not judge. Here's hoping.) But now I totally understand.

There seems to be a limit to what I can or am willing to listen to on a daily basis. In the morning, when we're getting ready for the day, I am mommy-on-the-spot with all kinds of helping hands. By dinner time I am reduced to someone who not only can't hear when one of them is talking to me, can't always distinguish one voice from the three usually going at the time... And I am even sometimes sloppy about responding. Sometimes I respond to what I think I heard and don't bother to clarify.

Fortunately for me, however, I have a built in hearing aide. How so? Each evening Andrew comes home for dinner and steps in to filter whatever important is being said up to me. How can he do it after a full day of work? Perhaps sometimes the voices of small immediate needs are much more enjoyable to hear.

For me, silence is golden. It revives me and charges my batteries. Someday when too much of my time is full of this golden silence, perhaps I'll miss the cacophony. For now, even I have limits.

Hazmat

[Disclaimer: This story is YUCKY. If you are feeling delicate, don't read it. You've been warned.]

When Annabella was 2, I would not have left home without a diaper bag packed with at least 4 diapers, a full pack of wipes, 2 changing pads, 1 bottle, snacks and at least one change of clothes, right down to the socks.

Now, there is Redding. I am literally a day late and a dollar short.

Around 2, I dropped the kids at the Y, so Annabella could enjoy her tumbling class from 2 - 2:45 and Redding could enjoy playing with the little kids. I went upstairs to the workout area. The moment I got settled with my ipod, water, and magazine on a Precor machine, I got paged down to the child care area.

I stopped by my locker and picked up one of the two diapers in my bag, and the mostly empty pack of wipes. This was by no means enough ammo to take on the situation I found myself in.

Apparently Redding drank some of the sandy water from the sand and water table this morning. How do I know? It's happened before. What happens when Red drinks from the sand table? Why, he poops a river of mess that no diaper can contain. Down the legs, up the back, it goes on and on.

It had already soaked through his jeans, from buns to knees when I got there. As I tried to get him changed, it soaked through the back of his shirt.

I contained the damage as well as I could, removing the jeans, soiling the clean diaper I brought with me... I begged one of the staffers to hold his hand and keep him standing while I retrieve by bag. I was hoping for some major super duper mommy diaper bag voodoo. I was willing there to be more wipes, extra diapers, and some clothes... All I found was one more clean diaper.

I managed to get his tshirt off him without making the situation worse. Once the shirt was off, I used paper towels to clean his exposed skin and the outside of his diaper. Once that was accomplished, I took the now dirty diaper off him and tried to wrangle him into the clean one. Did I mention he was standing? Yep. And just as I got the dirty diaper completely off him and into the diaper pail, he began to pee, a lot, all over. Thankfully, he missed his shoes and socks.

So, then, once he finished and I got the clean diaper on him, I began cleaning up his pee. All the while filling with dread about how I was going to get him out of there, and how I was going to draw it out so that Annabella could finish her tumbling class.

They had no clothes around for emergencies, and I surely don't blame them. Not even a shirt from lost and found. So I ran into Annabella's class and borrowed her sweatshirt.

We managed to make it through the next 20 minutes without dying of mortification or pooping on anything else. Bel finished her class and we headed home.

This afternoon, I'm cleaning my diaper bag and packing it with an eye to emergencies.

It Figures, Right?

I hand Annabella some bubble wrap, which she's been begging for, so she can pop it. How many seconds does it take for my girl to put it over her head? Less than 30. How long did it take Redding to follow suit? About 10 seconds after she handed it to him, because I told her to get it off her head. Clearly, my children can not be trusted to make their own good choices.

Movie Time Friday

Driving in the Express Lane

Now an almost 2 year old has a notoriously short fuse. Add to that a double ear infection and cabin fever and you've really got yourself a recipe for toddler disaster.

When this toddler comes busting into the kitchen this afternoon yelling, repeatedly (because that's how he communicates, he yells the same thing over and over until someone understands), "Surt on! Surt on! Surt on!" I am perplexed. It really doesn't make a lot of sense because his shirt is half off.

So, I begin to try and get his shirt back on him, one sleeved arm through the neck hole, then try to ease the whole shirt back over his head...

The already excited child begins to just completely lose his shit. He is gone from this plane of existence. "NNNaaaghhh!" followed by a wailing most pitiful.

So, on the way to driving my child completely mental I stop and ask directions. "Do you want your shirt on or off?"

"On, on, on, on, on, on!!!!!" Is what the little man says.

So, I start in again with trying to get his shirt back on him. And at this point he is beyond losing it, crying and screaming unintelligible baby curses.

Finally, in dawns on me that he wants his shirt off. Not on. That he doesn't know the difference yet, like up and down. This operation takes mere seconds once the gnashing of teeth and screeching of curses is over. On his part entirely. I stayed calm, I swear.

Off he went on his merry way. Shirtless.

Then there was nothing but quiet, peaceful happiness emanating from the family room as I finished up getting the baked penne ready for the oven.

This is what I found when I put said pasta in the oven.

Redding, sitting up on the arm of the couch, hands folded, like nothing was amiss in the world.

Annabella all keyed up and ready to pounce, because she knows there's stuff going on that shouldn't be...

When there is quiet, be afraid, be very afraid.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Red came into the kitchen and wanted, "up, Up, UP!"

So, I picked the poor little guy up.

He spies the phone, "Ont Dada's phone, EASE!!"

"Sorry, you can't have Daddy's phone. Go get your phone from the family room, it's right by the toy box."

"Pooh Ox? Pooh Ox? Pooh Ox?"

Yes, dude, your phone is right next to the pooh ox.

Second Child Syndrome

Redding is not sick. I swear.

Well, he has a cold, but he isn't suffering from anything greater. It's a boon, really, to be a second child. I think, in general, for all families. Each successive child gets to do more things, is more empowered than the children who came before. I was number 4 of 5, but no, my parents didn't let me juggle knives. But my younger sister does throw them...

Why do I have such a hard time with this? Well, for one thing, I had only ever been the parent of an over-protected preemie. One who had to be nurtured along to explore the world, engage in things physically, and pushed to use her own hands.

Today found Red giddily wielding his first bottle of Elmer's glue. He did a great job. He kept it on the paper. I can not even believe it. Did Annabella ever do such a thing before preschool? I think not.

This wild and crazy second child of mine would take on what ever I am willing to let him. He has begged me to let him use scissors. Again, Annabella is a wholly different child, but she didn't get to use safety scissors until age 4. Mostly, I'm sure, because I am a freak. But also because she wasn't so into using her hands to accomplish things.

So I'm torn. Part of me wants to empower the little guy and let him fly. Part of me understands that he is not yet 2, has poor impulse control (as his climbing adventure will attest to), and even safety scissors are sharp.

Somehow, we'll find our way. I'll manage not to stifle his natural curiosity and willingness and he'll manage to not maim himself on my watch.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Redding's phrase of the day:

Uht due-ennnn?

Translation: What are you doing? What is the pillow doing? What is sissy doing? What is that doing? What is this doing? What am I doing? How are you doing?

Brilliant!

I'm putting Red's socks back on him for the millionth time this morning.

I start to put the first one on and for some reason, start counting, "One..." in an extended kind of way. Redding joins in.

I get the second sock ready and he beats me to the punch, "Two..." Which surprised me, because, I seriously do not count with him when I do these things. In fact, counting isn't so much on our radar as letters, which he loves.

But then, just as I finish getting the sock on, he brings me back down to earth by chiming in with, "Seven, six..."

He's not quite 2. I'll take it.

Choices

Redding is talking more and more. He's learning new words daily. It's very exciting.

Because of this, he is less frustrated, less prone to tantrums. It's nice.

One of the goofy things is that he is very vocal about what he wants to eat. He and his sister are both having snack right now. Annabella requested pretzels. Redding? He just wants black beans. No pretzels, thank you. Oh, and lots of apple juice.

Surely, it could be worse.

Here Come the Bugs...

They kids have been super healthy since late December. I kid you not. OK, maybe since January. Annabella had only missed one day of school all year!

Last night when we got home, Bel was complaining of a headache again, as she had been for much of the weekend. Only now she had a fever to go with it. Not to be outdone, Reddings clear drippy nose which we thought may be due to allergies, has gotten much stuffier and now he's got a fever too.

Plus, with the warmer weather, we've already experienced, in our own home: ants, ladybugs, (more) spiders, and 2, yes 2, centipedes. AWESOME Next thing you know the mosquitoes and ticks will be poppin'! Woo hooooooooo!

Toddler Leg Origami

Spring has sprung!

It's in the 50's here today and my kids were out playing on the deck.

Somehow Redding managed to get one leg stuck up into the slats of the gate and one foot wedged under the gate. HOW? Seriously, I don't know. If I wasn't worried that he would hurt himself while I went and got the camera, there would be a picture. He was on his back, so I tried to pick him up to release the upper foot from the slats, and that put pressure on the lower stuck foot. So I went to put him back down on the deck and that caused the upper one to bend in such a way that he began to cry.

OMG. I think I seriously almost broke both his little legs, before I started thinking of it as a puzzle and how to get the little rubber soles of his Stride Rite tennis shoes to let go of the wooden slats.

All I can say is thank goodness Andrew, Deb and David put those slats in last Summer. If they hadn't I'd surely have been trying to figure out how to get his head out just now. And the neck just is not as forgiving as the foot.

Honey Boy

Redding has been acquiring language at an astounding speed lately. He's on fire.

During a recent trip to the grocery store, we were looking for honey. Redding loved the word. Could not get enough of it. So much so that once we found the honey, every time I stepped away from the cart, he would call me back, "ho-NEY! hooooooo-NEY!"

So, since he loves to say honey and he loves to say boy, I started calling him my "honey boy". We were talking about our family in California when we made this movie, so the "miss you" at the end is for you guys.

Enjoy.

Oh, and before your heart completely overflows with cuteness... Yesterday I was shopping at the grocery store with Redding again. We were singing "You Are My Sunshine" and he was really belting it out, having a good old time. Then he stopped, pointed to himself and said, "Sunshine Boy". Which, you know sounded a lot like "sun sign buoy" which just about melted my little heart for good.

Half Way

It is half way through Spring break and I just figured out that if I leave the children to their own devises and just, say, vacuum...

They will actually play with the toys they have. Together. Happily.

Instead of following me around asking me to put on a movie.

Yahoo!!!

Apparently there is something to be said for occasionally ignoring your children a little.

Word Explosion!

Redding is going crazy learning new words these days. In just the time it took to run to Target for a few things, he managed to try out some new words. Like he was tasting them, he'd roll them around his mouth and say them, savor them.

"Booo-oy, buoy, boyeeeee, boy."
"see-lee, sillllllll-e, sully, silly."

"hum, hoe, hommm, home."

Ridiculously sweet. Time to watch those 4 letter words even more closely in front of him, as he's just on fire with the new words today!

Elefun

The kids have this new game. Where they take the nets from Elefun and run around and around with them on their heads. Very funny.

Surely this can't even be safe. Yet, somehow they are so overcome with glee, I can't seem to bring myself to stop them.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Redding is an interesting kid. There can be no doubt about that. He has chosen as his security object the cloth diapers I've used as burp cloths for him and long ago for his sister. He calls them "lovies" which in Reddings own language sounds a lot like wowies. It also sounds a lot like Wall-E. Pretty cute. The kid has got to have is bah-doh (bottle) and his wowie on a regular basis.

There are other words the boy is learning, at a fantastic rate.

Last Friday I made the new traditional homemade pizza. I made his with no cheese, of course, and he was so delighted he ran around the house cheering, "Pee-bah! Peeeeeeee-bah!" Which interestingly sounds a lot like Wall-E says Eve. I kid you not, the kid has only seen the movie once.

Now the fact that he was yelling Pee-bah! a the top of his lungs was not nearly so funny until Andrew announced that Pee-bah was Eve's (pronounced Eva, like Wall-E says it) slutty sister.

Nice.

Wonder Boy

My boy is sick. He's getting all 4 of his canine teeth at once. He was up from 11 to 1 and up for the day at 6 a.m. He's tired.

All that, and this kid stopped playing, came and got me in the kitchen. Did the diaper pull down dance to tell me he had to go, then held it while we went to the powder room and go this potty ready.

Then he peepee'd in his own potty, at home.

He's potty training himself. He's not even 2.

What a guy.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Redding has been pushing for potty training, but until he has some additional speaking capacity, it is really only an exercise in training myself to put him on the potty at regular intervals.

We took a big step forward this weekend. Redding decided the the way you say poop is "booty". It's pretty stinking adorable and I'll see if I can get a movie of it.

The conversation went like this, "Uh oh, you smell stinky buddy. Do you have poop?"

The answer was this, "Boo-teee, boooooo-teeeeee, oh oui oui oui."

It's not that he's not a talker. It's that he likes to say things his own way.

As in, "Do you want me to carry you down the stairs?" I ask, stupidly, because Red has stopped on the top step and is throwing a fit.

"Ding dah. Ding DAH. DING DAH!!!"

Ding dah means carry me.

Auntie Karen, is Auntie Ding Ding. Why? Because whenever we see her, she carries him around.

Nice, huh?

I think we'll call it Redding-ese.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Here's a special Friday treat for you. I know everyone looks forward to OMB.

Redding has been talking up a storm lately. He's been learning songs (he'll pick one part of one verse and sing that over and over), telling me what he'd like to drink, even demanding to use the potty. AWESOME!

One of his favorite things is to say the name of what he's eating, while he's eating it, over and over. This usually happens at meals. At breakfast it is blueberries, blueberries, blueberries. At lunch it is hot doggies, hot doggies, hot doggies. You get the picture.

Last night at dinner, he was eating sausage, bread and red pepper. He was also drinking water. So, he wasn't talking about his food.

He looks directly at me, about halfway through dinner and says something I've never heard him say before. Four times. Clear as a bell. I am 99% sure he wasn't talking about his dinner, or taking inventory of the family, "Dada, sissy, dada, sissy, dada, sissy." You get the picture.

Nope, my lovely little 20 month old boy looked me in the eye, smiled, and said, "Asshole, asshole, asshole, asshole."

Clear as a bell. And no, that is not something he hears around the house.

Boy, you kiss your mama with that mouth?

Cuteness

Annabella running around the house, having a pretend phone conversation. "What? Really? You don't say! Go on... No! Are you sure?"

Suddenly she tells her caller that she has to go. Her phone then rings and she chases her brother in no less than three circuits through the kitchen, dining room, living room, entry, kitchen, etc. telling him that the phone is for him.

Such shocking news, I don't think I'd want to take that call, either!

Dear Children,

While I dearly love you and am personally amazed by your continued development and achievements every day, I need to impart some wisdom.

Saying what you want, over and over, does not get you closer to getting what you want. If Mama is busy or otherwise in the middle of something and has said, "Just a minute..." or "I hear you, you need to wait." or even, "I'm sorry, I don't know what you're talking about."

Yeah, that doesn't mean that you need to say it exactly the same way over again, only louder and more agitated.

Until this morning, I thought you got this trait from your father. It's true, I do love Andrew, but he sometimes has trouble restating so that we can understand him.

But no. This morning, trying to get you two monkeys ready to go to the gym, with appropriate gear, a modicum of cleanliness, and all wrapped up in -14 appropriate coat/hat/mittens/boots... I had an epiphany.

I do it. I tell you to do something over and over getting louder and more agitated each time. I think it has something to do with not having any kind of bargaining chip when it comes to Redding. You can't make a deal, you can't threaten, you can't even really cajole. This kid will do what he wants when he is good and ready.

Mama is going to learn some new strategies, and then I'm going to teach you. Then we can all live together in peace and harmony. Or at least a little less repetitive escalating agitation.

Love,
Mama

What to do?

What do you do with a willful 20 month old who thinks that first morning diaper change means it is time to kick mom with both feet in the chest repeatedly?

Who laughs gleefully in your face as you tell him, "No, don't kick."

And I thought Annabella had a strong will as a tiny girl. Oh no, she had nothing on this kid. He's taking his own road, whether it leads into trouble or pain or glee. He's on it and that's all there is to it.

Oh sure, he looks docile enough here. Enjoying the flower whirligig, but that's just the trick he uses to soothe his prey. He looks all sweet to lure you in closer, closer now...

Then, bam!

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Tonight I let Annabella pick what we had for dinner. She picked tacos. Yeah!

Redding had such a great time with dinner, he chased me around the kitchen while I was trying to clean up demanding more, "Meep and beams." Meat and beans.

He's cute.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Among the cutest things I ever heard, Annabella and Redding running around playing when she home from school yesterday.

"I love you, buddy, I love YOU!" She says as she chases him around the living room.

"Who's a cutie? You're a cutie boy!" As they do another lap. All the while Red giggles.

"You're my best brother!" Another lap, giggling and panting ensues.

"I sure missed you at school today." Again they go around. He missed her, too, asked for her all day.
"Sissy? Sissy? Sissy?"

"I don't know what I'd do without you!" Then my heart melted. I think she must have picked that one up from her grandparents. Melt, melt melt.

I Can Not Believe It

Annabella is writing her own Christmas list, at this very moment.

Even more shocking? Redding went peepee on the potty at Aunty Mindi's house today. Wow. 19 months old and he really wants to use the potty.

Big Talker

Today Redding is eating a lunch that is amazing. Not so much the food, but he can say the name of everything he's having. Hotdog, peas, apple, water. He's really picking up words and phrases at an amazing rate of speed.

I don't talk a lot about his milestones, and I feel bad about that sometimes. He's so perfectly OK and on schedule developmentally... He's a complete rock star and I really should acknowledge that. It may be hard for him someday to deal, because every milestone his sister met was like a freaking miracle. Here he is, oh yeah, he was 7 weeks early, thank you very much. Yes he had restricted blood flow, just like his sister, but he stuck it out. OK, it is not so much a tribute to his toughness, but a tribute to the toughness of the village of people it took to put me on bed rest. But still.

This little guy?

Is completely amazing.

As Much As I Hate

To see Redding sick...

I'm quite certain that there are very few days in my future where I will be able to carry him around all day, because he's not feeling well. At 19 months old and 27 pounds, those days are surely numbered if not already gone since yesterday.

It's bittersweet to see them grow so fast.

Sick or Healthy

My kids are all smiles...

Red is just glad that Stonyfield Farms came out with soy yogurt.

Annabella is happy about her new hat and books from Auntie Tammie.

Together they are just giddy all the time, practically.

I am one lucky woman.

Things I never Thought I'd say over and over

Your brother is a person, not a toy.

He is a sentient being, and he does not have to hold your hand if he doesn't want to.

He's not a toy, he gets to make his own choices about how he spends his time.

Hunting Pumpkins 2008

It was a beautiful crisp fall day. The kids were exceptionally well behaved. The pumpkins were plentiful and Grandma was buying. With smiles like that to warm your day what could possibly be amiss?

Just When I Thought It Was Safe

I may have mentioned this a time or 10,000,000, but I never imagined I'd be able to stay home with my children. If I had any children. It never seemed like something that would happen.

Circumstances really dictated that one of us being home with the kids would be optimal for us. First because we couldn't go anywhere, next because when we finally got out Annabella picked up every germ known to man. Or so we thought. Then Redding came along and although the doctors did suggest we sequester him for a year or so also, we decided to just play it by ear.

As it turns out, any germ, virus, bacteria, or common childhood disease that Annabella didn't pick up, Redding did. We went through Fifth Disease and Hand Foot Mouth Disease last Summer and Fall like they were going out of style. We've hit all the childhood illness hit parade except chicken pox, but with Annabella in school I'm sure it will be maybe another month at most before we have the pox and probably a lice scare.

But with time and exposure, even the earliest of preemies eventually builds a resistance to the common cold, right? Sure! With a fairly healthy Spring and a very healthy Summer under their belts, the kids stormed into the Fall cold and flu season with great vigor. Only to be knocked down by what is probably the flu. Or it started as the flu. It went to Red's ears and Bel's lungs like lightning. We canceled plans, kept Bel out of school, hunkered down, pushed fluids, took lots of tylenol, and did lots of inhaler treatments for Bel.

Here I'd been thinking it would be so easy to get freelance or part time work, put Redding into some kind of child care on the days Annabella is in school. All of a sudden I'd be inspired and meeting people, I'd be getting out of the house on my own on a regular basis. We'd have some extra income to do more projects around the house. You know, the usual completely idealized version of life that only exists in the fully deluded mind.

When all of a sudden -- BAM! Oh right. Yes, one of the reasons we didn't put the kids in childcare before? Because they'd hardly be there. Sick kids don't go to school and they don't go to daycare. And it's not really that my kids are necessarily more vulnerable, I don't think. It's that whatever they inevitably pick up hits them and hits them hard. It hangs on and turns into a secondary infection with amazing regularity.

Or, this could be just an extremely elaborate scheme to justify my serious addiction to Pinky Dinky Do, Super Why, hotdogs, apple juice, and goldfish crackers.

This Is My Life

It seems like for weeks now, my little boy could hardly be bothered to give his dear old mom a hug or, god forbid, a kiss.

Then suddenly tonight, as I'm singing him a song between giving him tylenol and putting him in his crib... Tonight he could not get enough of pressing his sick, drippy, boogie covered face to my nose and mouth, as I tried to sing him his song.

Is the kid trying to get me sick or just shut me up? Either way, I win, because he loves me.

That's Entertainment

It's been a weird, busy week. No time to blog apparently.

Yesterday at her swim lesson, Annabella swam the length of the pool with a float belt on, all by herself. Making me cry at swim lessons. A year ago this kid was afraid of the water. Which just goes to show you, if you kid doesn't like swim lessons, change locations. Evil swim teachers should be drowned.

I had my first experience as a kindergarten volunteer parent. I went with the kids to a farm. With actual animals. Dozens of them, people. And I somehow managed to gracefully and without calling much attention to myself, well, I managed to not touch or feed any of the animals. I took lots of pictures for the yearbook. That's how I did it. And no one even blinked. Except the lady who worked there who really could not believe I did not want a cup of alfalfa to feed the animals. Donkeys, goats, chickens, horses, llamas, a deer, peacocks, cows, and more goats. Loads of goats.

Redding has been adding new words to his vocabulary like a wild man. Mostly around meal time. Olive, broccoli, popsicle. They don't always sound right, sometimes close enough, but it makes for much less yelling from Tyrant-a-saurus Red.

We're trying to plan a trip to a pumpkin patch to round out our pumpkin family. We'll decorate the house this weekend for Halloween. Maybe even carve the pumpkins since it is so chilly.

Next Friday Annabella is having a real Halloween party at school. (You just gotta love where we live for the fact that you can celebrate Halloween at school and the kids can eat all the peanut butter their little hearts desire.) And they'll be doing the traditional costume parade, which I will go photograph.

I can't wait.

Photos and movies coming later today. It's Friday, people. I gotta put up a movie.

Two Thoughts

First, it turns out that Redding was in fact boycotting breakfast. No, he wasn't trying to make a political statement by soundly refusing every kind of fruit and cereal I threw at him. No, he really didn't care for my whole wheat toast. Peanut butter or no peanut butter, and certainly no real butter. Jam, jelly, no thank you very much.

It all came clear this morning as he scarfed down the first piece of sourdough toast he's seen in months. Yes, my friends, my son ate breakfast. Thank your lucky stars. I know I'm thanking mine.

Second, you should not need a band-aid to cover the bleeding left by the band-aid that covered your flu shot. Seriously band-aids should not remove skin. Where does my doctor's office buy these industrial strength band-aids? Parts of my skin are gone. Ouch!

Do You Have Any Idea?

No. Really. Do you have any idea how squishable this kid is?

When he's not yelling at anyone within earshot, pushing his sister out of the way, having a tantrum because someone dared to tell him "no", throwing his food on the floor, refusing to eat, pulling cans from the pantry and smashing them to the floor, walking right into walls or doorways, or generally being a Tyrantasaurus Red.

When those things aren't happening, my boys is super squishy and amazing. He can reach things higher than he should be able to, solve problems, charm the pants off friends, family and strangers. This guy can run, walk backwards, dance, tries to jump, talks up a storm even if no one seems to understand. He bursts into song, gives lots of hugs and kisses, and generally makes the world a sunnier and funnier place.

Me? I absolutely adore both sides of his personality. One one of them occasionally tests my patience.

Hotsie Totsie

Is what it sounds like, when Red says, "I see Daddy." Which means, I want to play.

Cute Redding Things

He asks for asparagus at the grocery store. Even though he sees it roasted and chopped up, he recognizes it in its raw form and reaches and pleads for it from his seat in the cart.

He hums little tunes to himself as he plays.

He yells, "See ya later, Dada!" when he hears Andrew pick up his keys in the morning.

When he wants to play peek-a-boo, he puts his hands over his ears and yells, "I see Dada!"

Apparently, he thinks we are all deaf.

Happy Friday!

I have nothing funny or witty to say today.

Just go on over to Flickr and marvel with me at how grown my children are. I swear they did all that growing in the last 2 weeks.

I'd also like to say a special thank you to all the family and friends who stop by and read. Thank you for supporting what I do. If you like what you read, and think friends of yours might also, go ahead and share. I don't mind. Also, never hesitate to leave me comments.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Things That Test Your Parenting Fortitude (Now With Photos!)

1) The first time your baby cries so hard and for so long that you think they are broken, and nothing, no nothing, you do will calm them.

2) The first time your baby throws a full-body arch at you and you nearly drop them, or you do drop them.

3) The first time they throw up in the bathtub.

4) The first time they poop in the bathtub.

5) The first time they look you right in the eye and tell you, "NO!"

6) The first time they get outside by themselves.

7) The first time your monkey child manages to reach a dirty diaper you are certain they can't reach, as you leave the room to answer the phone. You quickly take care of the call and find the house oddly quiet. Suddenly, you hear a noise. Your child is calling for you on the other side of the gate. They seem odd as you approach. The smell. Good god. Is that... Poop? All over my child's hands and clothes? Oh, no, don't put that hand in your mouth!!!! What is wrong with you? Here, no, here, quickly, you strip the child, wash their hands, check the face and mouth. You secure the child in their crib, once you are certain they are clean. Then you go find the source. The dirty diaper, spread across the floor, where clearly little hands have been unearthing a new treasure. With. No. Is that? Oh, yes. It is. A spoon.

Irrefutable Proof

As if I needed further proof, this morning I got it.

We were all upstairs getting ready to leave the house on an epic grocery journey. While Annabella changed her pants, Redding climbed up on the step in their bathroom and peeked in the mirror.

When Annabella joined us in the bathroom, to get her daily ponytail, Redding started doing a little happy dance on top of the step.

Just about the time I was ready to tell him to settle down, so he didn't fall and smack his face... Out of his smiling face that lit up like a sparkler at sight of his sister... he spit a small black beetle, the size of a ladybug but without any red, onto the counter.

Such a boy.

Who knows where it came from, how long it had been in there, or what he was saving it for.

Yuck.

So Big

Every day with Redding is just shocking right now. He's growing by leaps and bounds.

Yesterday, after spending just about 2 hours with his grandfather, Redding learned to say, "See ya later!"

Crazy.

Just now, I watched him spend a full 5 minutes pulling a straw off a juice box (leftover from a party, I had forgotten that they are not recyclable in this area), work the straw out of the wrapper, and attempt to punch the straw into the juice box.

He almost had it, too. Mind you, he's never had a juice box of his own, but he's watched his sister and tried to steal hers many a time. Before you think I'm mean, I'd like to point out that Redding is not a big fan of juice, especially full-strength juice. So, there's no point in giving him a juice box.

How amazing is he?

Next week? Oh, by next week I'm sure he'll be trying to get out of his crib under his own power. I saw him hitching up his leg this morning.

This is all brand new to me. Please remember when Annabella was 16 months old, she wasn't even walking yet.

And she still can't open her own juice box.

Updates

Apparently I need to make a new resolution: To stop making resolutions I don't keep.

Or something.

August is my birthday month. I turned 36 this year. And then my fingers stop typing. It's a stumper for me. Two times 18. I'm in my late re-teens! Whoooohooo! In all seriousness, I have no consciousness of being that old. Like once I entered adulthood, my age self-concept entered suspended animation. Like somehow I could wake up 14 years from now (seriously, not that long considered I've already lived twice that long) and go, "Uh, no, sorry there's no way I'm 50 years old."

I wanted to have a fit when I turned 30, but as it turns out it was less than 2 months after I got married and Andrew surprised me with 30 roses at a small party for me at my sister Karen's house. Trauma averted.

This year I'm not even traumatized, just surprised, maybe?

Enough about me.

Annabella is 5. That is a show stopper. She's starting Kindergarten in less than 2 weeks. That is a heart stopper. Why so bunged up emotionally? Well, once upon a time, I sat in a small enclosed garden at Lucille Packard Children's Hospital, in a wheelchair. Next to me was my sister Tammie. It was our first visit together after Annabella was born and I was a crying, wretched wreck. One of the thoughts circling my brain endlessly was, "what if I never get to see her off for her first day of school?"

What if. A million miracles later: here she goes!

And she's 5, people! Five. So there's a lot of learning going on every day, about how to behave and such. Just learning how to be, in the world. There's a lot of head butting, because we are both stubborn. There's a lot of frustration, because we both want to get our own way.

In the day to day of "why can't you just eat a meal without being reminded 87 times to eat?" it is hard to keep perspective on what a delight and wonder it is that we are right here, right now, doing these things we do.

She's so amazingly normal (if still maintaining the same level of stubbornness and self possession that has kept her with us through, well, many hurdles, shall we say) that it is hard to even entertain who she is now and where she started out.

Once again, when she's 15 there will be no, "But mom, I can't learn Trigonometry, I had brain bleeds! I was a micro-preemie! I was born three and a half months too early! It's really all your fault!"

I'm not buying it. But I still do, honestly, try to appreciate it. From time to time.

Redding? Oh, danger boy? He's fantastic. Yeah, he's already passed up the milestones for 18 month olds now (he's just 16 months, but was 7 weeks early). Just now I watched him walk up the stairs. Walk. Not climb or crawl. Walk. And no, he can't reach the hand rail. Preemie, what? Adjusted age? Never even entered the picture. Crazy. I'm pretty sure he said "Nicholas" twice today, too.

Be sure to check out the pictures, too, for some amusement. For his actual age, he is in the 40th percentile for height, the 30th percentile for weight, and, oh yeah, the 90th percentile for head circumference. It's a wonder he can stand upright, right?

I'll be uploading a bunch of pictures to Flickr, and posting some here in the coming days.

Summer is drawing to a close, and I will not be sorry to say goodbye to the too hot, too humid Minnesota Summer. Fall is the most beautiful time of year here, anyway.

Hope you've made it successfully through the mire of updates here. Don't be a stranger. Drop me a line or leave me a comment from time to time, would ya? I don't like writing in a vacuum.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Redding goes on and on with his own language.

Just now I realized one bit of his language is English! Well, at least I am somehow able to understand.

Da-doh is cracker! The boy wants a cracker. Woo hoo! My baby boy asked for something without whining for the first time in his little life.

We're throwing him a party, just for the occasion.

Not To Be Deterred

He's learned the word "doggie" and he is talking all the time. He has grown at least 2 inches since we've been here and he's got 2 new molars. This kid is really ready to go go go.

But these last few days, Redding has discovered a world of "no."

From going out on the deck, coming in with a nice old moldy holly leaf in his mouth, to poking the poor dog in her hurt paw or her sensitive sides. From climbing up on the fireplace mantle to pushing on the pressure gate temporarily mounted at the top of the stairs. He stands up in the tub, and drinks from any cup he can get his hands on in the tub.

The boy will not be deterred.

He literally experienced is very first, one minute, time out yesterday. He has not pushed on the gate since. Though he will frequently walk over and touch it a bit. Then he remembers and plays with the light switch. The only switch in the house mounted at his height.

I think I can safely say that he would not get away with deviling me so badly if he wasn't this cute.

Now he is asleep. And for all the trouble he puts me through day by day, he is now (and hopefully ever more) a great sleeper.

Sleep well little man. Tomorrow is another busy day.

Things That Shouldn't Surprise Me

Me? I like food. From back in the days I forced my siblings to watch Great Chefs of San Francisco, to the years I worked for an executive chef. Forget about that time in between, that slight aberration. If we eat anything in our house, it is a very broad variety of both healthy and junk foods.

Now, it did surprise me when Annabella, not yet 2 years old informed us that she LOVED jambalaya. She liked that it was spicy. That was a little weird.

Was I likewise surprised when she stopped pulling apart sushi rolls to get the carrots out, and started just eating the seaweed (nori)? Not so much.

So, why in the world would it surprise me when my son decides just this morning that he can not get enough of dry sourdough toast? All I can say is, just wait dude, until you're no longer lactose intolerant and can have it with butter.

Mmm... Buttered San Francisco style sourdough toast, baked less than 10 miles from here. That's a good way to start a morning, from time to time.

Children's Discovery Museum

The Children's Discovery Museum was fantastic. The water area was vast and hugely entertaining. Annabella could have easily spent the entire day there.

Good thing I discovered the tot water area, which Redding was just big enough to enjoy.

OK, it was actually right there in front of me. Redding could not have been happier with it. So independent, that one. Even in a stroller there were truly interactive things for them to do.

There were interesting things everywhere you looked. It was great. There was even a preschooler/toddler/infant area which both the kids enjoyed.

Not to be missed, the giant bubble area. Annabella really got into it.

Red's favorite part was the little room with the carousel and music and lights. Like baby LSD, for sure.

All this? For two adults and two children? $24.00. Amazing. Hours and days of entertainment.

Shoo-She

Yesterday was another beautiful day on the California coast. It was Tammie's last day off on her long weekend and we decided to take the kids out for lunch and to Happy Hollow.

For lunch, we unanimously decided to go for sushi, to Mobo in Santa Cruz, where Tam and I used to meet for lunch once in a while when she worked downtown.

Annabella went for carrot rolls and cucumber rolls.

She was thrilled with her practice chopsticks, loved sharing Auntie's miso soup, and just plain old giddy.

What do you feed a 14 month old at a sushi restaurant? A better question would be what don't you?

Redding enjoyed all the tofu cubes from my miso soup, even a green onion. He juiced the lemon wedges from our waters, he gobbled up hand fulls of rice, he ate up zucchini and summer squash stripped of its tempura. He even managed to eat some of his baby food.

I think Redding's favorite part was when Auntie gave him her straw and he could pretend to be using chopsticks. It made him endlessly happy.

Our table was perfectly placed, at the back of the restaurant, where Annabella had access to the terrace, with a fountain. There was no one out there when we arrived and did what any giddy 4 year old would do. She put on a dance performance.

It was priceless.

Then we took off for Happy Hollow. When we got over the hill, we discovered it was 100 degrees outside (it had been in the upper 60's in Santa Cruz), so Tammie suggested the Children's Discovery Museum. A truly wondrous place I will blog about later or tomorrow. It deserves its own post.

July 4, 2008

The parade in Aptos was a good time, as usual. You can tell by the size of her smile that Annabella was thrilled to be there.

Redding and his lactose-free-soulpatch were not quite as pleased. Though he enjoyed being rolled around in his stroller, if we dared to stop rolling him he had a cow. I made the mistake of letting him out and he would not be made to stay with us. He was on his way.

Ironically, the parade included a toddler on a leash and later a dog in a stroller. Life today is so confusing.

Movies to come.

Anonymous Beach Urchins

Here's a shot of the kids at the beach yesterday. A good time was had by all.

Full Body Glee

Leaving on a Jet Plane

We, the Von Jenkinschtein family singers, are off on a yodeling tour of the Alps this afternoon.

We will return to the land of 10,000 lakes, 5 environmentalists, and endless Summer itching and sweating sometime this Summer. Closer to Fall, the best season to live here.

I will do my best to keep the blog updated with plenty of pictures of fun, fog, beachy goodness, the shortest 4th of July parade in the world, much wedding festivities, and growing beautiful children.

Wish us safe and sane family travels.

Movie Time Friday (early)

This is an oldie, but I had to share the sweetness. A little over a year ago, Redding was almost 1 month old, Annabella was 3 1/2 and she was very excited to get to hold her brother and sing him a song.

P.S. That squirming and unhappiness of Reddings? It turned out to be lactose intolerance. Poor guy slept poorly until he was 9 months old, because nobody figured it out. Squirmy, unhappy infant? Eliminate lactose from mom or your formula. It can be really easy to have a happier baby.

Nerf

Nerf footballs are pretty safe to have around the house.

Until your 14 month old stinker decides to start using his sharp new teeth to bite hunks out of it.

Crazy boy.

Speaking of Talking

My son just said, "Dude."

Yes. I am proud.

His words, so far, in order of appearance:

- Balloon (he had no idea what he was talking about, but said it repeatedly, clear as day)
- Dada

- Mama

- Giggy (which is his way of saying sissy, which is my baby talk for sister)

- Annabella (because baby talk is for, well, babies)

- Nigh nigh (for nigh-night, again, my baby talk for bed time or going to sleep)

- Done

- Eat

- Dude

His priorities are definitely in line with mine. Family, sleep, food, dude.

What Could Be Sweeter?

Heard from the other room, as I prepare the fresh fruit and veggies for the week:

Come on, walk to sissy.

(insert adamant baby babbling here)

Good job! Good job, big guy!

Not an Emergency

Do you see that sweet face? He's almost 14 months old. He's starting to walk more than just a few steps and he's used a few words other than Mama, Dada, and Annabella.

He's smart, but he's just a little guy, right?

Yesterday, I gave him the phone to play with. I've done this before and it has been quite a pleasant little holiday for me. He loves the phone. He had never completed a call, until yesterday.

I gave him the phone, as I said, and went about my business. When I got back over by him, I noticed it was lit up, so I hit "end." Less than a minute later, the phone rang. The caller ID said, "... County..."

I thought, "What the?" Answered, "Hello?"

A pleasant woman's voice said, "Yes, ma'am, is this the ... residence?"

"Yes it is."

"And who am I speaking with?"

"Dawn."

"Great. This is the 911 operator, ma'am, is everything alright there?"

I was so confused. "Yes, it is, just fine here..."

"Because we received two hang up calls from this residence, a few moments ago."

"Oh dear, I'm terribly sorry. When the phone rang, I found it in the hands of my 1 year old." A little white lie. I could not tell her that I never in a million years could imagine my son managing to push those four buttons, in sequence, quickly enough, TWICE no less...

Needless to say, this cute little boy will be sticking to toy phones from now on, no matter how much he fusses.

I Love Summer

We've been having a good old time since Annabella got out of school. I forgot how great it can be to experience that freedom. Not that I imagine that going to preschool for 4 hours a week was terribly stressful for Annabella. But she seems to be enjoying her new freedom.

Red doesn't much notice the difference. But he sure does love having his big sister around.

Language Skills

These kids, they just keep growing up. Every day it is a challenge to get a quick mental snapshot of where they are in their development, so I can sock it away and cherish it.

Sometimes I even get the camera out and take some photos. But I digress.

On Saturday, Redding used his first word, other than Mama, Dada, and Annabella. He looked up from his dinner and making the appropriate hand sign with just one hand said, loud and clear, "Done!"

OK. No mistaking it. He was done. Wahoo! Since then, I think I've heard him say, "Eat." Yes, the kid does like food.

Annabella on the other hand has been regressing to some interesting talking. Baby talk, because she somehow feels Red gets more attention, so if she can just be a baby again... You know, the usual. But she's also gone back to that strange, Martian sounding yodel thing she does, "Gi-goal-gi-goll-gi-gal."

Must get these things on film.

Movies are coming!

Last night I think I got some great video footage (on the actual video camera, not my little digital camera) of Redding deciding it is time to walk.

This morning, he seems to be rethinking the wisdom of this move. He did fall a lot. He did actually hit both the front and the back of his head. Yes, we did try to catch him.

But last night, he was on fire. He didn't want to sit or crawl, he wanted to stand and walk.

I set him up with his walker, so I could get some footage of it, and the little bugger took a few steps, stopped, turned himself around and started walking toward me and the camera, all under his own power.

What a star! Hopefully I'll figure out how to upload it to my computer in time for Friday movie day.

Oh, he also had his first visit with the YMCA childcare staff yesterday and he did just great. Not a fuss out of him. Which is funny, considering the kid can pitch a fit like someone is trying to murder him if I just happen to walk out of the room he's in.

Apparently the young lady who swept him away yesterday was quite captivating. Yippee!

Here's hoping both the kids stay healthy enough for us to enjoy the new YMCA membership a ton before we leave for California.

Aaaaaaaahhhh, leaving for California. For a whole month.

Now that is a Summer vacation.

I'd like to thank both Karen and Don, and Matt and Emily for having weddings this Summer. And I'd like to thank them both for the incredible timing of having them about a month apart, therefore justifying me imposing on Tammie and Joe for a full month.

Thanks.

Being a Mother

One of the thoughts I've had about being a mother, over the last year, is that I deserve some kind of metal for deciding to have another child. Having Redding was kind of a gift. It was the gift of a sibling for Annabella, hopefully he will be someone she can face the challenges of the world with. Someone to rely upon in the best and worst of times.

A gift to me, in that I am getting to experience what having a full-term child is like. Yes, Redding was born at 33 weeks, but you'd never know it. It is an amazing and precious gift to have a baby that is healthy, that you can read books about without terrifying yourself, that meets common milestones, that is snuggly and affectionate.

Really, though, I owe a great debt of gratitude to the love, support, well-wishes, and even prayers of my family and friends. Without their moral, and outright physical support, there is not way we would have made it to 33 weeks. Hell, without their support, I don't know that we would have made the decision to go forward.

I am grateful to each and every person who loved and supported us through the last 3 years that got us here.

Where is here? Redding has shed his infant persona and is just an amazing little boy. Annabella is no longer a little girl, but a curious, confident big sister. Everyone is healthy, bar the usual coughs and colds, things like that.

For me to survive preeclampsia and HELLP Syndrome twice, well I am shocked by my own strength. HELLP can be fatal, in most cases the thing that kills is permanent liver damage or failure. In both cases, the symptom that signaled it was time to deliver was excruciating liver pain. The day Annabella was delivered, it had started as a nagging pain, which I tried to ignore. I didn't know any better. I was already hospitalized and felt like I was safe. Foolish me. With Redding, it woke be up the night before he was born. I feared it was the same pain, but was unsure because I wasn't out of my mind this time. I got up at like 4 a.m., had some breakfast, called my doctor. She told me to get to the hospital as quickly as possible. I said, "Can I wait until Andrew and Annabella wake up?" Yes, I did. She said that would be fine, as they would have to wait the surgery until they were certain I had digested my english muffin.

OK. Crazy. I also how fortunate I have been to have been under the care of some amazing doctors and nurses. (And one bad nurse who my doctor let have it. Post-partum is when the rest of the HELLP symptoms hit me, and I was on dueling IV's of pitocin and magnesium sulfate. I was retaining every ounce of fluid they let me have, meaning my kidneys weren't functioning. My head was pounding, I was weak. Not to mention that my abdomen was killing me, what with the fresh incision and all. And I could not stop throwing up. Laughing hurts with a fresh incision. Imagine throwing up. So, I push the nurses call button for maybe the third time and crying I tell the nurse, "Please help me, please give me something that will make me stop throwing up." She calls the doctor to tell her what whiner I am. The doctor reads her the riot act saying, "This woman is a trouper, she's been in pain for months now, and this is the first I've ever heard of her complaining. If she needs something, get it for her.")

I digress. That seems like a million years ago. Like it happened to someone else. Other people. Other tiny babies.

It's strange. For me, there's the idea of the baby, that lives in your head while you're pregnant. Once you give birth, that baby disappears or is reformed to coincide with the actual baby before you. For us, there is the tiny, fragile baby in the NICU. That baby disappears slowly, as they become ready to go home. There's the bigger (still tiny), less fragile baby you get to take home. The whole evolution of a person is so amazing to witness. I feel so amazingly fortunate to be able to witness and nurture them along.

One of my personal traditions is to thank Annabella and now Redding on Mother's Day. I thank them for making me a mom. They don't quite get it, yet. But it just seems like the right thing to do.

"Before you came along, I wasn't a mom. Now I am. You helped me to find the most amazing adventure of my life so far. Thank you."

More Friday Videos

Three full minutes of a one month old Redding. It is not exciting. But you get to see a whole range of new baby stuff. Sleep, wheezing, smiling, peeking, grumbling, ear pulling...

I love it, but I'm his mom. At the time of this movie he was home just a few days. He still wasn't 'due' for another 3 weeks. It's crazy. He's so tiny and so sleepy, yet still so busy.

Indulge me, it's almost mother's day.

Use this video to wash the hate-taste of my last post out of your brain.

Sick

All four of us are now sick. I think Red picked up this little gem at the pediatricians office.
Not that it matters where it came from. Everyone is grouchy, ouchy, drippy, and sniffy.

All we deep are Dopey and Doc and we'd be all set.

Movie Time Friday

Annabella and Her Crown

She had told me that her crown made her "beautiful-er". But, much like the Warner Brother's frog, she had no idea what I was talking about once I got her on camera.

April 10 Snow

Red is not please with the snow. Near the end he uses the expression you can often hear him say when he is not pleased. I'm not sure what he is actually saying, but what it sounds like to me is, "Eat it!"

With these two playing off each other, we could almost call this one Frick and Frack.

Ouch

Never in my life did I think I would repeat the phrase, "Get off your brother." so many, many times. Between pushing him out of the way with her foot, "accidentally" laying on him, taking toys away from him, taunting him with things he can't have, complaining to me that his baby food looks gross, and generally being jealous of any time or attention we give her brother, Annabella is actually glad to have a sibling.

How can I be so sure?

It is the way she quietly holds his hand when he falls asleep in the car. It makes my heart hurt, from sweetness.

Not Ketchup

We went to the doctor yesterday for Redding's one year checkup. Other than the fact that he woke up early and we were pushing into nap time, he did great. I've never seen him so grouchy, he hardly flirted with anyone. That is rare.

Redding is in the 50th percentile for height, he's in the 25th - 50th percentile for weight, and the 75th percentile for head circumference. (Yep, my boys got a big head.) That's great. You know what is even better? That is for a baby born at a full 40 weeks, not 33. Way to grow Red!

More importantly, he's doing everything he should developmentally. Not just for an age-corrected 33 weeker, but for a full-term baby.

Meaning what? He's caught up.

Those words are magical to a parent who has had a preemie. Or two.

Baby Jail

Happy Friday! Enjoy last night's show.

Redding's Birthday Cake

If my glasses were just a bit more cat eye or my hair was more bouffant, it would be the ultimate 60's kids birthday party picture.

Red was not super jazzed about the cupcake. Nope, he didn't care that I baked them myself, that they were flavored with vanilla and almond. Real almond, not fake. That they were filled with seedless raspberry jam. That I whipped up homemade buttercream frosting with a hint of lemon.

Do one year olds ever care about the cake? I wonder.

What is Red like at 1?

Here's a little movie I made of Redding at lunch today.

In case you were wondering, yes I am about the biggest dork on the planet. But I love cute baby tricks.

Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Redding!

I can not believe it has been a year.

Without further ado, may I present Mr. Personality...

For more recent pictures and fun, check out my flickr.

Waiting

I call this one "Waiting For Spring" because we are. Still.

Over the weekend, we had a bunch of rain, but the high on Saturday was 64 degrees. A balmy day of Spring, right? Annabella is chomping at the bit to go plant flowers. Please, can we please, can we, please?

Is it Spring yet? How about now? Now?

This morning when we got up, Annabella pulled me into her room to see that it was snowing outside. I opened the curtains in the family room when we went downstairs, and Red just about snapped his neck doing a double-take when I brought him down.

As if to say, "Snow? Again? Are you kidding me? No, really? No. Seriously, Mom, no. Make it stop!"

Update on the Children

Here they are. Happy together on Easter.

It feels like ages since I've written anything about them, especially Redding. Where to begin?

Red is about to turn 1. One year old. I can not believe it. He is really getting to be a big boy. He's been crawling for what feels like forever. He can motor himself from one end of the family room to the other in mere seconds. He can climb stairs like a champ. He's pulling himself up on everything and even occasionally just letting go and standing there.

It's almost like he holds his breath and waits to fall. If you hold his hands and encourage him, he'll take some "big steps". Why big steps? Because otherwise he'll do a little mincing crab-like sidestep like he does when he's cruising.

At the mall the other day he saw a little guy about his size. He lit up with glee and 'yelled' a big hello to the guy, who crawled over to be social. Next thing I knew the other little guy stood up and walked right on by. Red was stunned. Not socially, but like, "Wow, how'd you do that? Come back! Teach me!"

He loves to sing. It's kind of a long, monotone of "Ahhhh-aaahhhhhhaaaahhhhhhaaaaaahhhhhhhhh." Nothing fancy, but he loves when you join in.

He has a little unique expression of joy. He'll bobble his head back and forth and smile. It's like a head hello, or 'hey, how do you like me now?' Either way it charms the pants of family and strangers alike.

Speaking of strangers, I get comments from people in stores and around town all the time. "What a good baby! What a handsome boy! He's so happy! Is he always so happy?"

Yes. Except when he's not. Same as always.

He is a great sport about taking his prevacid, but I'm hoping to get him off that after his 1 year check-up. He's eating his baby mush food like a champ. Everything except blueberries, which don't agree with him. He's even eating some wheat stuff now, which no longer seems to make him throw up.

He's drinking water and sometimes a little juice from a sippee! He's a champ. He even likes when we help him drink from a cup, but I wonder if maybe giggling and drinking are not a good plan for a little man.

He's eating puffs, little chunks of soft fruits and veggies. He's not such a fan of cheerios, sadly. Maybe it will be an acquired taste for him. Or maybe he'll be a Kix boy.

He says "mama" and "dada" and he seems to be phasing out 'giggy' for sissy in favor of 'bay-yah" for Bella. I'm certain Andrew would attest to my auditory hallucinations at this point, but I tell you it is true.

As for Annabella, she is almost done with Preschool. She has certainly enjoyed going to see "all her friends" twice a week. It may be hard to contain her between the end of Preschool and the beginning of our trip to California. We'll see.

She is in the middle of her second round of swimming class. This time she goes without me in the pool. She's a bit nervous, even though she can easily stand in the shallow end. Even so, she occasionally loses her footing, probably because she's thinking of something else, and has slipped completely under the water. She is extremely dramatic with the sputtering and face wiping, even when she's just dipped part of her face in during a drill with the teacher and the one other student in the class.

Sounds like a great ratio, doesn't it? Even so, I think often times that two children are a bit much for this particular swim teacher. They other student is more game than Annabella, so the teacher has him do stuff first. Annabella tried to do it on her own while the other little guy does the drill with the teacher, and by the time the teacher gets to her, she's flustered, ill-prepared, or sputtering all over the place.

Despite these issues, Annabella is enjoying swim class. Pools are fun, but she can't wait to play in the ocean. Amen.

During the last year she's refined her knowledge of the alphabet, adding lower case letters to the mix. She's gotten much more skilled at writing her name, her whole name, and drawing people.

Her imagination is taking over. She can be eating dinner or in the middle of picking up some toys and all of a sudden all the little things around her take on personalities and she's creating scenarios and conversations.

She is an energetic, enthusiastic wonder of a girl. She loves her brother. She still amazes me every day.

That's about all I have to say about my two little stars today. More soon.

Cute Kid Pics

Red turned 11 months yesterday. He is standing every chance he gets. He has developed a sideways crab-like walk which he'll do if you hold his hands, I think because of all the cruising along the furniture he does. He is feisty and wants to go, go, go. He loves to climb stairs. He loves to play with his sister. He is growing so much, you can almost see it daily. He knows "Mama", "Dada", and "Giggy" which is Sissy (ultimately easier than Annabella, I'm sure).

We will surely be in trouble before he turns one. I'm certain he'll be walking. And I just do not know what to do with a little walker with the brain of an 11 month old.

Annabella is 100% jazzed to finish preschool and start kindergarten in the Fall. She wants desperately to take the bus. We'll see if I can handle that. I'll try not to limit her with my own fears, just be reasonable and keep her safe. She's getting better at writing her name and figuring out that choosing to go by Annabella when she got to preschool was maybe not the most advantageous choice she could have made. She is very sweet and nurturing with her brother, when she's not yelling at him, telling on him, or pushing him away from her things, or taking his things away from him. Oh, it is hard to be a big sister.

They are both just growing up faster than I can handle. Isn't that amazing?

Parental Subterfuge

Redding has been working on eating. He's still not too happy when he gets a piece of something that requires gumming in his mouth. Lazy boy.

He really doesn't like his green veggies, either. Not that there are a lot of green veggies you can feed a baby. He has soundly refused multiple rounds of peas and green beans.

In an effort to round out his diet today, I came up with one of the sneakiest, grossest things I've ever done. I gave him a scoop of peas, plain from the jar. He ate them, grudgingly, but was definitely not enthused. I then grabbed the jar of mashed pears and dumped them in and mixed them up together. About 2 parts pear to 1 part peas.

This? This icky combo? He ate it up like it was going out of style and smiled and giggled the whole time.

As if he was thinking, "Thank goodness mom finally caught on and made those things taste better."

Funny guy.

"Wow" Moment

Red just managed to wrestle Annabella's digital camera off the couch, turn it on , take several pictures of the floor and turn it back off.

I'd say the kid is a flippin' genius, but the thing is, he is still playing with it. He doesn't care if it is on or taking pictures. He is just delighted, giddy even, to be playing with his sisters special toy while she is sleeping in her bed. Ha ha ha ha ha!

New Pictures!

Here is a picture of Redding. I haven't said much about him crawling. There's not much to say. He conquered that skill and is pulling himself up on every available human and object. He will no doubt be walking before he turns 1. I think in this particular picture he is actually embarrassed to be caught coming out of his sister's Princess Fort. I can't say that I blame him.

Here's one of Annabella who is developing a great love of cooking. Or rather, she insists we bake something together at least once a month. Sometimes more often. I comply, but only in the hopes of teaching her fractions and patience, and maybe a little science. Or just to teach her the love of the best chocolate chip cookies, ever.

There's a few more up at Flickr.

More to come as I am apparently feeling better. I don't actually think I feel better, but considering I have homemade chicken enchiladas in the oven, several loads of clean laundry, vacuumed floors, and fairly happy children, I must be feeling better.

Lifestyles of the Sick and Whiney

Somehow Annabella, Redding and I all got sick this weekend. Today Red and Bel are doing a bit better. Less fever, less complaining.

Unfortunately, it is kicking my butt today. My head is in a fog, I am totally congested and coughing up a storm.

I've been meaning to get new pictures and a movie or two done, but it just isn't happening. I'm also in the middle of a data input project. Let's just say there won't be any numbers going in today. If I try, I'm afraid they won't be the right ones.

If you need me, I'll be on the couch.

Motivation

Motivation is when you get up into plank pose and your 10 month old crawls over underneath you and decides to have a little sit there.

"Come on Red, move for Mommy. Please? Please, buddy?"

Can Anyone Identify This Child?

I'm hearing that this child looks nothing like Andrew or I. I'm interested in hearing from anyone out there who can tell me who this kid looks like. His Poppa? His Grandma Pam? His Great Grandmas, Lue or Syren?

I think maybe he has my nose and eyes, but no one else seems to think so.

Having gotten to be up close and personal with this guy right after he was born, unlike with Annabella, I'm pretty sure we brought home the right one, at least.

And no, we don't have a milkman.

Hmm... Here's an old picture of Uncle Eric. Could be some Syren features on that face, but the head shape is all Jenkins, I think, or is it Jenner? Or Rozich?

Or maybe better in color? Maybe it's just the attitude more than the facial features?

Little Valentines

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!

The children were not exactly up for a photo shoot this morning. Here's what most of the pictures looked like...

So like a bad paparazzi scene. Red is the bashful, misbehaving celebrity. Bel is the angry, harassed publicist.

Chicks Dig Mohawks

Well, this chick does. I got Andrew this sticker when I flew to Minnesota for Mindi's baby shower. Yes, once upon a time Andrew rocked the mohawk, just for me, before he shaved his head. He held onto the sticker for a while. Then one day, we needed something new to distract Annabella while we changed her diaper. Viola! A shiny red sticker.

Perhaps it was this early introduction that makes the song "Tattooed Love Boy" so appealing to Annabella. Perhaps it is exposure to some of her uncles and cousins. At any rate, Annabella recently found the sticker while cleaning her room and decided that it deserved a special spot on her sticker wall.

Her sticker wall is a special place to put stickers she has on her clothes before nap or bed time. It's like the sticker hall of fame. I see some time in her future when she'll be tasked with scrubbing the remains of Thomas and Belle from her bathroom wall, but for now it is fine and it saves a lot of tears.

So there I was giving Red a bath and that sticker over his shoulder made me wonder if his hair grew in a natural faux-hawk, like Annabella's did back then. Sure enough! And he likes it, he really likes it!

I personally can't think of anything better than a happy baby in a bath, with a mohawk.

Oh, except running away from my beautiful family for a weekend of girly good times in the Napa Wine Valley. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go kiss the subzero wind chill goodbye. Maybe there will be pictures on Monday. That depends on what the girls say and what kind of trouble we get into.

The Best Children, EVER

Even when she's dressed like a little girl, she manages to look much older sometimes.

Just now she told me she'd rather not watch TV. I'm in shock. All my hard work is paying off, again.

And why are the nude bath photos of Redding so much more modest than the naked baby pictures of Annabella? Maybe I learned my lesson. Maybe my son arranges his own washcloths. I'm not saying.

Things I Learned at Parenting Class

If you live here, in the frozen north, and you are my age, you must have at least 5 children. The oldest are in high school.

(If you have 5 children, why do you need a parenting class? If you haven't learned how to parent yet, you are unlikely to pick it up now. Or what makes THIS child worth learning something for?)

There are some really strange parents and children here. Overheard on the way out of the child care room, a mom bending over her 4 year old son leafing through a pocket bible, "Maybe one of these students will read to you from your God and Jesus book."

(He's 4. Isn't Bible a lot easier to day? Why do you say God and Jesus book with such disdain, if you're willing to let your child foist his religion on unsuspecting high school students? Did you see the looks they shot you, by the way?)

Some people come to parenting classes not to learn something, but to tell other parents how to do their job.

(It's totally awesome. I didn't stick around to see if any actual fist fights broke out. Hopefully the really bossy lady wouldn't be involved so she could tell them to 'use their words'.)

These people will leave their children with anyone.

(Not just the high school students shoved into a room the size of a broom closet, which was hastily prepared for the event. But one mom actually asked if I would watch her two kids while she went and got her car and brought it around to the front of the school. I did, because I was afraid of who she'd ask if I said no. Needless to say, I was pleased when she returned, as I think Andrew would be mad if I brought home two more children than I left with.)

If the air outside is -14 degrees and the wind is blowing hard, it's probably a -35 degree windchill. If you have to walk more than a dozen yards from your car to any heated building, both of your children will be crying by the time you get there.

(And while I'm aware that bare skin will begin to freeze in under 5 minutes in a -35 degree windchill, I'm not sure how tears affect that process. Will the moisture speed it up or will the salt content of the tears lower the freezing point of the skin?)

And the most important thing I learned at parenting class this morning: I have the most awesome kids in a 50 mile radius, at least. They are happy, easy-going, and eventually have conformed to a schedule making them even easier to get along with.

New Pictures

I've started maybe a dozen posts in the last few days, completed none.

Suffice it to say, I'm a day late and a dollar short.

Here's a picture. You can't see that Annabella has an ear infection and a lung infection. You can't see that Redding is crawling his little legs off and eating like a horse. A horse with no teeth, but still a horse.

More news and updates this weekend.

Happy Friday everyone!

Paging Dr. Ferber!

There are some subtle differences between parenting a preemie and parenting a full-term baby. I'm not telling you one approach is better than the other. I'm just telling you that each situation calls for a different approach.

We knew next to nothing about parenting when we had Annabella and her situation called for a steep preemie parenting learning curve. We mustered our resources and did the best we could.

Then, along comes this guy.

Oh, he seemed to be a preemie, in the beginning. The 3 week hospital stay would to tend really sell it. So our parenting approach would come in handy, right?

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. We know preemies, so when he has a fit, we look for medical problems. Seriously. Do we think our child is manipulating us? Uh, no. Do we fell like suckers? Not so much. We think he's ill in some way.

Now Annabella was about as stoic about things as an infant can be. By the time she got home to us, she had been through a great deal of daily, uh, inconvenience, all bent of keeping her alive and healthy. So she was pretty tough. Though we really had no idea at the time. It became more evident as she got bigger and she'd fall down and just look stunned for a second and move on. I actually asked the pediatrician if this was normal, she said it was for preemies who have been through a lot. If this kid cried or complained, generally speaking she was sick.

Redding? He is about as soft as they come. For crying out loud, the kid screamed every time he passed gas for his firs several months. It still makes him howl sometimes. If his head falls 2 inches to the carpeted floor, he cries. If he puts his teether in his mouth too fast, he cries. All this is relatively easy to see.

But when the kid wakes up night after night, howling like he is in agony, that is hard to see. Maybe it is hard to make rational parenting decisions when you're sleep deprived. Maybe because he is so sweet, we got sucked in. Maybe because he will certainly be our last baby, we took extra pains to baby him.

Now, we've been fussing over every thing going into this kid for many of his months. Once we switched to formula, finding the right one, getting medicine for his reflux, giving him mylicon to help with gas, using bottled water for his bottles, food and medicine. We've consulted doctors. We've gotten up with him, fed him, changed him, held him.

Guess what? He likes it. He likes that personal one-on-one attention he gets in the middle of the night. He's even figured what he has to do, how he has to scream and cry and moan to get us to hold him the rest of the night.

With Redding quickly approaching 9 months of age, I could hear the echo of Annabella's first pediatrician, Dr. Scobel. She actually laughed at us when we said we still got up and gave Annabella a bottle in the middle of the night, at her 9 month check-up.

So yesterday at nap time and all last night I ran a test. A test to see if my son is a tool. Tool, tool, tool. Yes, I said it.

When I deposited him in his crib yesterday for nap (he's been sleeping, such as it was, in his swing for months) he fussed. He fussed for almost 10 minutes. Then he took a great 1 hour nap. When I deposited him in his crib for his afternoon nap, he fussed not a peep, and took a great 2 hour nap. Unheard of. A 2 hour nap in the afternoon? Ridiculous. Andrew came home from work to experience a different baby than he'd seen in a long time. Happy, energetic, a big eater.

That added fuel to the fire. This kid can sleep! So, when he went down without a peep at bedtime, I wondered if maybe we weren't home free. Not exactly. He fussed for almost 15 minutes at midnight, and again at 4. He fussed for almost 10 minutes at 4 and then again for about 7 minutes at 4:20.

He didn't make another peep until 7:00 a.m.

No bottles, no changes, no rocking, no nothing. In fact, when I went to pat him and tell him he was OK every 5 minutes during his fussing, it only made him more angry.

This morning he is full of energy, roaming the whole room. So happy to be awake and unfettered, he hasn't even wanted his bottle. I made him an 8 oz. bottle, thinking he'd be starving, having no eaten since 8:30 p.m. last night and he's only managed to drink 2 oz. of it in the last hour.

In conclusion, we made it through the night. Thank goodness for Dr. Ferber and his brand of tough love. And yes, my son is a tool. Tool, tool, tool. My son is a tool.

Forward Motion

Just barely in time to get the job done in 2007, last night Redding figured out how to move forward in the crawling position.

Today he is still mostly interested in rocking, rolling, and pushing himself backward. But he does seem to be a lot less frustrated than he has been.

Yeah Red!

Caption this one: "Uh, youse guys gotta try this, uh, yoga stuff. I never been so relaxed."

Just a Virus

What a wreck we are. It is shocking.

I was feeling pretty sorry for us all. Annabella, Redding and I have been fighting off a cold since about a week before Christmas. Then I took Annabella in to see the doctor today and the waiting room was cram packed with people. It seemed almost every one of them had the same runny nose, tired disposition, and occasional cough we've been having.

My cough is finally getting better. I'm sure Andrew will be pleased to have less (mind you I didn't say no) snoring in the near future. But Annabella seems to be getting worse. She was up a couple times the last two nights coughing and coughing. So much so that I broke out her inhaler. When I do that, I know I need to get her looked at. The good news is no ear infections and no wheezing. I never imagined I'd be a tad disappointed to have a doctor tell me she just has the virus that's going around. Why on earth would I be disappointed? Because for her whole life, 98% of the time it is something more and she's put on antibiotics and maybe an inhaler regimen and maybe even some steroids, and she's feeling better in 24 hours.

Now? Now we've entered the realm where we just need to be patient. Push liquids and rest, and let her body fight off the virus. It is simultaneously gratifying to have her be just like everyone else, and frustrating that we can't just fix her up real quick like.

Redding, tough guy that he is, has stuck with just the runny nose. I'm hoping he'll continue that way. I'm not feeling real super, but as I said my cough seems better, so I'm happy.

Andrew is home from work with a bad headache. He's upstairs sleeping right now. Hopefully in his weakened state he won't succumb to the prevailing virus.

Somebody Pinch Me

My sweet, sweet baby boy is taking a nap in his crib.

Why am I so excited?

This is only the second time he's ever slept in his crib. Pretty cool, huh?

Oh yeah, it also happens to be the second time TODAY that he's slept in his crib.

Reflux medicine helped a little, but it seems lactose free formula makes quite a difference.

Wahoo!

iMovie

As previously stated, I'm not a quick study these days with the software. Not like I once was. I use all my energy trying desperately to be patient and creative for the kids.

Here's a splicing together of the recent evolution of Red crawling. First, he had no control over where he went, this exhausted him. Then he was able to rock a little, but it pushed him backward, which seemed to confuse him. Finally, he does seem to know where he's going, even if he's going backward, he seems to wind up stuck half way under the couch every time I turn around for a minute.

He's a nut. No lack of personality here.

Surprise, Surprise

Should it shock anyone that Redding is already adept at getting a spoon into his own mouth? Not if you've seen the little rolly-polly guy lately, it shouldn't.

Now, if only we could get him to be able to pass gas without screaming or crying...

More movies to come. There are a bunch to share. Just a few days ago, Red couldn't get around. Now he is like an unstoppable force, even if he is technically not crawling.

Great Grandma

Love this picture. Great Grandma Lue rules!

Stats

Shocking. Just plain old shocking for two preemies to be so big.

Annabella was in the 85th percentile for her age a month or so ago, at her school readiness check. At the doctor yesterday, she was in the 95h percentile for height. She's maintaining the 50th percentile for weight, which is acceptable, too.

Redding, on the other hand, is 100% dominating the growth chart for uncorrected age. Where Annabella was over a year old before we stopped adding in that extra 3 months she needed to be established on the growth chart, Red is totally uncorrected already. On the regular growth chart for boys who are 7 months old, he is in the 75th percentile for head circumference and weight, and the 50th percentile for height.

Way to grow kids!

Everything else checked out just great at the doctor yesterday. After much online research I found a doctor just added to the Columbia Park Medical Group in Andover. Dr. Stella Evans was recently added to the staff and she specializes in post-NICU preemies. Not that the kids have a great deal of special needs, it's just nice to have a pediatrician with a solid understanding of lingering issues of prematurity. Like Red may be slightly anemic and probably has a little reflux. Like Bella needing to have chest colds treated quickly and aggressively. Things like that.

Dr. Stella, as she asked Annabella to call her, has a great deal of patience and a wonderful way with children. After having such positive experiences with Dr. Scobel and Dr. Baskerville, it is hard to imagine finding another doctor who is just as great, but I think we did.

Pictures

Like 'em? Check out my flickr photos. Dawn's Flickr Photos.

What's in a Name?

It wasn't long into my pregnancy with Annabella that we knew we were having a girl. Up until that point we had been talking about all kinds of names. Most of the names we were able to agree on were boy names. Morgan Xavier. Ian Vincent. Good names.

When I was about 4 months along, we went to a terrible Thai restaurant in Fremont, for dinner one night. At that dinner we decided to take the gloves off and put all the weirdest names we could come up with on the table. I quickly ran out of names and started throwing out the names of 80's musicians.

Andrew? He's got a million wild and crazy names. Just ask him.

Then, thinking of the lead singer of Bow Wow Wow, of "I Want Candy" fame, I said, "What about Annabella?" Andrew wrote a great tribute post on his original blog, a tribute to her namesake. A girl with a free spirit, an attitude, a mohawk. We had no idea at the time that our little girl would need all the strength of spirit and attitude she could muster. It just worked out right.

Months later, driving to Stanford to visit her in the NICU, we'd request "Punk Rock Girl" by They Might Be Giants for our tough little fighter. It made me smile then, when I needed to most. It makes me almost cry and laugh at the same time now, just thinking about it.

Now, with Red, we went through a whole slew of girl names. I was really looking forward to Bella having a little sister named Lucy. But before very long, we knew we were having a boy. Redding was kind enough to pee on ultrasound for us. Live action. Very entertaining. But no more thoughts of Lucy.

We went round and round, or over the Santa Cruz Mountains to visit family and friends, many times, discussing names the whole way. Even Bella loved getting in on the act, vetoing bad names.

We loved Jack. Jack was the best possible name, until we realized that we were hearing it everywhere. Every small boy we met or heard anything about was named Jack. But we decided a common name wouldn't be so bad. We got so far as to decide that Jack should have Andrew's middle name. Jack Russell. Now that was a perfect name. Except, well, that it is the name of a dog breed. Damn.

Before the dog-boy name, there was Indiana. We were all fired up. Andrew thought Crazy would be a good middle name for Indiana. Indiana Crazy Jenkins. Crazy is my middle name. But then everyone we talked to said that Indiana is now a girls name. Someone tell Indiana Jones. Quick.

Next thing you know, Bob, John, and Frank will be girls names, too.

Then Andrew and Bella went to Minnesota, so I could rest, for like two months and there was a minimum of name talk. For me, there was a minimum of talk overall.

Andrew and Bella got home to California just in time to pick me up from being watched overnight at the hospital. That afternoon, Andrew said, "I know you vetoed last names as first names a while ago, but what about Redding?" And a light came on. It was crystal clear to me, just as Annabella had once been the only choice for Andrew, once he heard me say it. We made it in just under the wire. We picked the name on a Sunday and Red was born on Tuesday.

There were a lot of circumstances that made Redding the name to choose. First, Red was one of Andrew's grandfather's nicknames. It is my favorite color and Annabella's favorite color. It is the name of our favorite character in Shawshank Redemption. The music of Otis Redding holds a very special place in our hearts. Oh, and it's about the greatest sounding name we could ever possibly come up with.

Yep. That's how these two kids got the best possible names. At least we think so.

So Big

This little chunker is as big as Bella was on her first birthday. He's almost 7 months old. Having a new baby who is on a completely different (normal) growth and development schedule, is like having to learn this whole parenting thing all over again. What a kick.

He's moved into a convertible car seat, now that his legs hang over the end of the carriers. Yep, he's moving out of the car seat his sister had until she was 14 months old. Oh my word.

Mad About Red

Halloween is Coming!

This beautiful pumpkin patch is just a few miles up the road from us. We had a bit of sunshine today for the first time in what feels like a month and it was a gorgeous day to be outside.

When I was in college in St. Paul, my friend Anne said that the sky is always bluer in October. I don't know if that's true, but it has always stuck with me. The contrast of the blue with the orange is certainly spectacular.

Accentuate the Positive

Here is a nice close up of Bella on her first day of preschool. She could not have been more excited.

Yesterday we had an appointment with the local school district, to have Bella evaluated for kindergarten and/or special services. You would think that because we've had so many different evaluations for her in the past, that this would be a breeze, right? But I was quite nervous.

I wasn't nervous that Bella wouldn't do well, exactly. I was more nervous that the evaluators would make assumptions about her, based on her being born so early. More nervous that tests would be administered poorly. More concerned that Bella would be in one of her I'm-sick-cranky-and-uncooperative moods.

As it turns out, the evaluations were very much like the ones she's had in the past, both by her developmental therapist, Ms. Vickie, and at Stanford. She was asked to do things with blocks, draw things, etc. The results were then immediately discussed with me.

Bella is doing well. She's not yet doing some of the 4 year old things, but then she's only been 4 for 2 months now. So, she'll probably learn to draw people, hold a pencil better, and hop on one foot in the next year. Preschool will probably help.

The person who checked out her health history, vision, and hearing was very kind and very patient. Bella's vision is about 20/36, which is normal for her age. With our genes, just about the time her eyes mature to 20/20 vision, they'll start becoming near sighted. Sorry kiddo. Her hearing is normal, despite the many ear infections she's had over the last 3 years. Yeah!

As it turns out, everyone who has been remarking on her being tall for her age is quite correct. Bella is in the 85th -ile for height. That means that for girls, age 4 years and 2 months, only 15 of them are taller than her. Surprisingly she's also moved up to the 50th %-ile for weight, she just looks so skinny because she's so tall.

All-in-all, Bella did a great job. She was very bubbly, polite and cooperative, in addition to proving herself to be bright and healthy. She made me proud.

Redding is also developing nicely. He's sitting more, with less help. He has rolled from his tummy to his back a few times now. He's a big talker, and I'll have some movies up in the next week or so to prove it. He's happily eating oatmeal baby cereal. He's not a fan of the rice cereal and the first peas we tried made him fuss all night. So we'll stick with oatmeal alone for another week.

While his ear infection has cleared up with the amoxicillin he was taking, he did continue to get sicker overall, developing a nasty cough. Now, given my experience, hearing a 6 month old coughing is heartbreaking. But the doctor assured me that with the new antibiotic, zythromax, that should clear up pretty quickly.

He's got quite a personality and he's not afraid to show it. Even sick, he's pretty darn sweet and entertaining.

He Did It!

This afternoon, when he got up from his nap, Red had pooped out the back of his diaper. So I put him down on the floor on his belly, while I grabbed a fresh set of clothes for him.

When I looked back, he was on his back!

He rolled! Yeah!!!

Now, to clean the carpet.

Loud Noises!

Most everyone knows how Bella hates loud noises. It started way back in the NICU. She would startle when loud things happened. She would flip out when someone closed a 3-ring binder loudly. Even once home, loud velcro used to make her shake.

Fire engines are cool. Fire engine sirens? Not so cool. Up until I told her that the sound means that someone needs help and the firemen are going to help them. Then they were OK.

Recently, Bella experienced a Fire Drill at school. She was a wreck and spoke of nothing else for days. And days. And days. So much so that her preschool teachers e-mailed me to ask that we talk to her about it at home, to help her feel more comfortable.

Right. As if we'd talked of anything else since.

Yes, my child was the child in preschool in the corner rocking, saying, "Never hurt Charlie Babbitt."

OK, Rainman she's not. Not really. She's more subtle. "I have a question..." "You remember the day the loud buzzer went off?" Every time she had my attention, her dad's attention, or the attention of one of her teachers. Possibly she spoke of it to the other kids, I'm not sure.

Well, we were just beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel on that one. She was beginning to speak of other things, like the seasons, the icky sticky bubble gum song, etc.

Bella has missed both days of school this week, because she has a wicked cough. She's on antibiotics, but she was coughing herself crazy, I she's on her inhalers, too. Poor girl.

She's been on the same inhaler of albuterol for these almost 2 years of occasional use. Last night she had some of that and some flovent right before bed, but by 11 p.m. they were no longer helping and she coughed herself sick. Twice.

I was just about to flee to the emergency room when I decided to try the new albuterol and some steam, to see if that would help.

Within a minute of the new albuterol she wasn't coughing at all, where she had been barely able to get a breath without coughing before. So, we relaxed in the steamy bathroom for a while and enjoyed how warm and nice it was.

After a while, I told Bella to hop in bed and that I'd be right there with the cool mist vaporizer. She did. While I was running around getting the vaporizer set up, and putting Bella’s white blanket in the laundry chute, the smoke detector outside the bathroom went off.

In fact, I was directly under it, less than 3 feet away when it started and I nearly lost it. I was so tired and it was so loud and surreal. There I was in the hall flailing a pukey baby blanket to clear the steam, shutting the bathroom door, cursing myself for my stupidity, when it finally stopped.

I went about getting the water for the vaporizer, unaware that my daughter was cowering under her blankets, shaking like a leaf.

Andrew talked her down. I felt like the worst parent of all time. I know loud noises scare her, I had been scared, but it hadn't occurred to me to go to her once the alarm was done.

I was so shaken; I didn't sleep. I couldn't fall asleep.

Bella and I would have a few more visits last night. More coughing jags, leading to more albuterol. She even asked me to sleep with her for a while, and I did. Well, I didn't sleep, but I did stay with her while she slept. I held her. I held her hand. I held her down when she woke flying off the bed and shaking like a leaf, as if being electrocuted. I told her I was there and everything was OK.

Around 4:30 a.m. she decided she was fine. She wasn't coughing or scared anymore, and I got to return to my bed.

Every parent has been through this kind of thing. Right now I'm thinking of Jodi, when Ethan was having febrile seizures. It is so painful to see your children sick or scared or both. Last night I found myself cursing Bella's prematurity. Cursing myself for my own stupid mistake with the smoke detector.

At 4 years old, 99% of the time I can just think of my girl as a healthy, smart, strong, beautiful girl. Then that sneaky 1% of the time, I am forcefully reminded of the long, hard road she's had to get to 4. Of ventilators, a pulmonary hemorrhage, pulmonary interstitial emphysema, collapsing her lungs on purpose, a drainage tube running from her tiny lungs to the outside of her little body, and the vague and ominous diagnosis of chronic lung disease.

I am reminded what a miracle she truly is and that I need to renew my efforts for the March of Dimes. Being a parent with a sick child is hard enough, without all the extra baggage.

Catching Up

I feel like I could write 8 different blog entries to catch up with what has been going on here since I lost regular access to a networked computer.

I believe I mentioned that Bella wants to be called Annabella at school. When we were at Borders the other night to find "The Mouse and the Motorcycle" she introduced herself to two little girls as Annabella. I asked her yesterday, "So, do you want Dad and I to call you Annabella?" She said, "Yes." I thought we'd have until she was at least 10 for something like that, but this kid has always known her own mind.

Preschool has been going well. Annabella is showing a lot of interest in painting and mixing colors, and is learning to recognize her long name. It's much harder than Bella, because there are so many letters and there are two other girls in her class with names that start with A. But yesterday she actually spent about 10 minutes working on tracing her name. I think it may get a lot easier for her to recognize her name if she'll do that a couple times a week.

Annabella's preschool class has two teachers and 13 other children. She loves her teachers and loves playing with the other kids, though she hasn't learned most of their names yet. She certainly knows her teachers names and already has a favorite. Mrs. N is the younger of the two and has taken it upon herself to help fix Annabella's ponytails every day. That apparently scores huge points with Annabella or it is just a sign that she is already fond of my girl.

There is a dress up area at school and every day now I hear stories of playing Princess with Cami. Last week they decided to hold a ball at their royal castle. Something tells me Cami is more a classic Disney girl than Annabella, who is mostly a Pixar fanatic. Or maybe its just Andrew who is a Pixar fanatic. I know Disney owns Pixar, but I like to make the distinction. It's not like any of the main characters have a mother in movies from either.

Redding is turning into an interactive little guy. The other day at Target he actually played a full game of peek-a-boo with me. Pulling a burp cloth up over his own face when I'd say "Where's Red?" Then pulling it down and laughing when I'd say, "There he is!" I thought it was sweet, but was surprised to see we had an entourage of fans following us around the store, to watch my cutie play a game.

It's so different having a 5 month old that isn't mostly a 2 month old, if you know what I mean. It's so refreshing to be able to read a book on infant development and see that he's doing great and to look ahead to what is to come in the next few months. With Annabella, sure I could have read the books, but she reached milestones on her own schedule entirely and I needed to not stress out about it. So I didn't even look. I was just always pleasantly surprised when she did something new.

Redding is also a big talker. He was going on and on the other day, without opening his mouth. It was wild. Not a one-time thing, just talking and talking, "mmmba hmmmmbe ommmmmbe". I kept telling him he had to open his mouth to let the words out; I couldn't understand him that way. But he kept on, quite undeterred.

Now his thing is to try pushing both his clasped hands into his mouth as he tries to form different sounds. Not very easy to understand either, but certainly just as entertaining.

He's about outgrown his 3-6 month clothes and I'm scrambling to find what 6 - 9 month stuff we own. I thought I had some, but I could be crazy.

Speaking of thought I had... Could be crazy... It is quite remarkable what I can't seem to find. I've unpacked every box of stuff for the kitchen (with a lot of help from Andrew) and still cannot locate my toaster or my Brita pitcher. I've actually been making toast under the broiler, because I love it so. It's actually quite quick with the stove we have. But I'm thinking if I don't find ours soon, I get a new red one.

I haven't found some of Bella's special blankets yet. I haven't found most of Red's bigger clothes. I can't seem to find the few warmer coats I had. Yes, I have like 8 zip up sweatshirt jackets. But will they suffice when it's 30 degrees outside? Not so much.

On the other hand, I've found a few dozen scarves and tablecloths I didn't know I had. They seem to have multiplied like rabbits. It's crazy.

Things I knew I wouldn't find: our vacuum (a house-warming present from Andrew's parents when we moved in together back in July 1997) and our lawn mower. We ran out of room. Ask Andrew. Since it means that I have a new Dyson Slim , I say, "whatever." The Dyson is fantastic and super easy to use, which makes having more than 3x the square footage to keep vacuumed a lot easier to take.

Since we've been back we've had pizza from GreenMill and Davanni's. Oh how I missed them. Most excellent pizza. Not quite the California Cuisine of Pizza 1's "My Better Half", but really solid tasty pizza. Good crust, great sauce, excellent toppings.

Speaking of Minnesota institutions, I've been grocery shopping at Cub Foods. True it is a warehouse store and I'd rather be shopping at Byerly's, Whole Foods, or even the new Trader Joe's in Maple Grove, but there are 3 Cub Foods within 5 miles of our house. I noticed the other day that although it is annoying that they don't bag your groceries for you, they have a huge advantage over California grocery stores in that they have room to sell almost anything you could want. The ethnic food section has not just ingredients for Mexican and Chinese food. They have a huge selection of kosher, German, Norwegian, Mexican, Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Indian, and African foods. Plus, in the baking section, they have a rack about 6 feet wide and 8 feet tall containing every cookie chip you could ever want. Not just chocolate and butterscotch, they've got cherry and cinnamon flavors, too. So, while I cold spend an hour at Safeway looking at the food, I could spend days at Cub. And I have. While Annabella is at school for 2 hours 2 times a week, Redding and I go and walk around the different Cubs in the area. Yes, there is one that is better than the other two.

I'll post more soon, and photos will be sorted out soon, so I can post more of those.

We're settling in here. I think we all (OK, except maybe Red) miss California a little and the people there a lot.

Such A Guy

When last we talked, Red was fast becoming more of a tyrant, less of a really fun baby.

As it turns out, between his fussing and the fever he developed and the rash that showed up on Bella, Urgent Care was able to diagnose Fifth Disease or erythema infectiosum, which sounds like something Harry Potter would come up with. AWESOME! Apparently we picked it up on the plane, because we infected my good friend's younger son with it a few days after we arrived.

It's not such a big deal, runs rampant in these parts. The special excitement is that it is incredibly dangerous for pregnant women to be exposed to it, and my good friend is pregnant. Woo Hoo!

She is just so darn glad I could move back to town and bring dangerous infectious diseases with me on play-dates!

Over the weekend Red's fever broke but the fussing mounted. My nerves frazzled. I took him back to Urgent Care (lacking a new pediatrician in Minnesota) and was told by another doctor that he is not teething.

So I called my amazing pediatrician from California. The two teeth pushing through his gums speak for themselves.

Long story short? Ibuprofen is now considered safe for children as young as 2 months old. It helps a lot more with pain than Tylenol. Just like with adults. Amazingly, once I was able to reduce Red's pain level, he returned to the happy, fun child I loved.

Why the title "Such a Guy"? Because my poor little man-child is such a guy about pain it is ridiculous. When Bella was teething, she whined a bit, drooled a lot, had some digestive pyrotechnics. Redding? Inconsolable wailing, as if he was being murdered or asleep, that is all he had for almost a week. That, and a little drool and some digestive pyrotechnics.

I want to think that Bella maybe had a little more perspective about pain, having had so much more of the preemie torture experience. But then the nurse at Urgent Care (who had so very little understanding of sterile technique, don't get me started) drew blood from a finger stick. Again, the child screamed his little head off, as if the woman were ripping his fingers off one by one, not just squeezing the one she poked once with a little finger jabber.

Man, he is such a guy about pain. I sure hope he never gets a diaper rash, he may lose his skull completely.

What Are You Going To Do About It?

This face pretty much says it all. It encompasses the baby gangster mentality. I'm not talking rap gangsta here, I'm talking old time gentleman of Italian descent with connections.

For most babies, days and nights take on a certain rhythm. For this child there is no such thing. He is the boss. He says who, he says when, he says how much. No, really, he tells us when he'll sleep, when he'll eat, how much, etc. It's crazy. Some of it has to do with the drive to keep him from crying. There is a certain amount of wailing that is involved in the general daily training that brings infants into a state of tolerable existence.

Because we lived in such a small house in California, because Andrew worked from home, because we are staying with family now, because Bella has a low threshold for baby crying, because I am a pushover... For all these reasons and more, we have failed to properly socialize our little tyrant.

That may be a bit of an overstatement. The kid goes to bed within 30 minutes of 8:30 p.m. PST. That's fine. He starts his day between 5 and 7 a.m. PST. He eats about every 3 hours, except in the evening when he demands food about every 90 minutes. He naps occasionally, all day long. Early in this trip, he even got into the habit of only waking for one mid-night bottle. That is a huge bonus over waking every 3 hours to eat, all night long.

Last night he did 2 things. First, he got up every 3 hours, for the first time in a week and a half, annoying his sleepy mommy beyond recognition. Second, he saved up his poop all night long, so that when he woke me at 7:00 C.S.T. he howled like a howler monkey for 15 minutes then soiled himself with the smug satisfaction of a golfer's hole-in-one. He did this with a force and volume sufficient to exit the diaper and render everything within 4 feet of him laundry.

At which point he began to giggle and coo and make charming faces like the one pictured above. Like, "Oh, you don't like that? Whatcha gonna do 'bout it? I know a guy, could fix it up for ya, but it'll cost ya."

Fly Away

This kid has some powerful lungs.

You know the baby on the airplane that everyone dreads? The one no one wants on their flight, the one no one wants to start their vacation with? Yeah, he was that one.

Calm as can be during take-off. A sweet angel from ticketing through security. Totally relaxed at the gate and down the gangway. After mom and sis got a snack? Screamy McGee. He's the screamiest.

All the parenting books tell you that the more tense and freaked out you get, the worse the kid will lose it. I tried to stay calm. But just the sheer force of will, trying to make him be quiet made me sweat profusely. Aggravation will do that.

I ran through the gamut, he was fed, clean, not too hot, not too cold, nothing seemed to be pinching or poking or hurting him on the outside. I had given him tylenol for his teeth before we took off, so he shouldn't have been in pain on the inside.

Maybe he just wanted to keep me distracted. If he'd slept and Bella was busy watching her movie (Thanks Auntie Tammie!) I would have had entirely too much time on my hands to dwell on what I was doing.

How do I know that? On Monday morning, Bella, Red and I ran some errands. We exchanged a birthday present, dropped off some stuff at Goodwill, and returned some library books. After that, we drove along Park, down the cliff from Aptos to Capitola and back. We all said, "So long ocean, so long beach, see you next time."

And I cried.

Cried like I can't when saying the same to people. Afterall, it's not goodbye, it's just so long.

The Things Kids Say

What makes Redding giggle? Crazy, as sung by Patsy Cline and written by Willie Nelson. What makes him scream in utter aggitation? I Wanna Be Sedated by the Ramones. Whose kid is this?

What has Bella been saying? "I think my brother needs his teaser now." That's teether.

Updates and Nostalgia

Red had his 4 month appointment at the doctor today. We have good news all around. He is 15.1 lbs. He is 23.5 inches tall. His head is 16.5 inches around. For weight and head circumference he is in the 25 - 50th %ile for uncorrected age. Wahoo! For height, he's just skimming onto the chart at 7th %ile, which isn't super, but since it is the first time he was chartable, we'll take it.

Along with that, he is exhibiting all but one of the developmental skills every 4 month old should have. That is, he isn't rolling. He just doesn't spend a lot of time on his tummy and that is 100% my fault. Guess I need to make him work a bit harder.

Today, Bella helped me run errands. She was a huge help. She is getting to be quite a great helper. In addition to that, she washed her own hair in the tub tonight. Wet it, scrubbed it up and got a little help on the rinse. What a big girl.

Days like today, when everything seems to be going right, I feel so good to be right here where we are. The sun shining, the ocean blue, the kids thriving, the pediatrician who is so superb there aren't even words. Even my teeny tiny little beach cottage seems charming, what with over 1/3 of our belongings in a moving pod outside. A little big of empty space, a little room to breathe.

Our time here at the beach is growing short. I hate long good-bye's.

Before one of my many moves between Minnesota and California, I was completely unhappy and stressed beyond belief. Wracked with doubts about whether or not I was making the right decision. A good friend of mine said, "Well, you can always come back."

True enough.

Growing Children

Sometimes I have these great ideas for blogging. Then, when I actually sit down to do it, my mind is completely blank. Welcome to motherhood. Not that I like to blame my children for my mental malfunctions. It isn't their fault. It's more that I am utterly lacking in focus, because I'm obsessing over agriculture in america, SUVs, the ozone layer, lawn chemicals, superfund sites, teflon, VOCs, and the list goes on and on. I used to worry about these things a little. Now, it actually is difficult sometimes to make a decision, considering the different issues which must be weighed.

Then I am struck like a thunderbolt that I seem to be the only one thinking about these things.

Bella is not concerned. She is jubilant as always.

Redding is not a worrier, as of yet. He is a little concerned about some of the choices I make, however. For instance, the choice to put him on his sister's aquadoodle and trace him.

Everyday I try to do the best I can for them. I try to not get any more crazy. I try not to wreck them any more than they already have been. I try to not destroy the planet any more than I already have...

You get the picture.

Growing By Leaps And Bounds

I cannot get over how huge this boy is. He's already gained over 10 lbs. in 3 months.

He smiles and interacts. He giggles and coos. He reaches his hands for things. He kicks his legs in glee. He can pick up his head when he's on his belly. He reacts with happiness when he hears his dad or his sister or me.

And yesterday I got the final insurance summary for the cost of his hospitalization. Where his sister was a $1.25 million baby. He is just a $250k baby. I have no doubt he will do his best to make up for this value over time.