Gardenias in bloom

...and, as evidenced by her forehead, mosquitoes are out in full force as well.

Eating our words

Before we had children, we always swore that we'd never have a backyard full of plastic toys. My, how times have changed. Here's a video of Anna playing on our latest gigantic, plastic acquisition.

For extra credit: See how many other plastic pieces of crap you can spot in the background.

Senseless Parenting

I've had a nasty cold that I can't seem to shake. I'm about 22% sure that it isn't the Swine Flu, so don't worry about me...I'm sure I'll be fine.

The issue with this cold is that I've lost my sense of smell (and my sense of taste--which is a really good diet strategy, amazingly enough) and my hearing. My whole head is full of snot, so all of my head-based senses are compromised--even my eye sight because it feels like my eyeballs are squashed, due to the pressure in my head.

As a result of this cold, I've learned just how much, as a mother, I rely on my sense of smell and hearing, in parenting my children and taking care of our house. My poor children have had to sit around in poopy pants more times than I care to admit this week because I just can't smell them. I'm also certain that our cats have been taking advantage of this time and are going on a pee-spree, in the house. Without my hearing completely intact, I can't hear the kids when they're on the other side of the house from me. It's all really annoying and I'm ready to be back to normal (although not really ready to see what my home smells like, once my sense of smell comes back).

*Totally unrelated: Anna said something VERY funny yesterday. It could be construed as slightly off-color so I don't want to post it on the blog for everyone and their dog to read. If you want to know what she said, leave a comment or email me and I'll fill you in. It is probably the funniest thing she's ever said though, so I'd like to share it with you--just not the whole world.

Awesome Songs Series

Often (usually when I'm in the car) I think of songs that are, simply put: Awesome. Songs that are either musically incredible, lyrically wonderful or hold a special place in my heart for whatever reason. I've decided to periodically post a song that I think is awesome here on the blog.

The first installment to my Awesome Songs Series:

La Grange--ZZ Top

(and yes, I do know what the song is about)

I am, generally speaking, not a huge fan of ZZ Top. Yes, I know, they're a Texas band, it's classic rock...yeah, yeah, yeah, but their music just never really floated my boat. Plus, I have really vivid memories of seeing our rather plus-sized high school flag corp gyrating their hips to "She's Got Legs"--which is enough to scar anyone for life. But, La Grange is just a great, classic tune. It has that great, classic rock chord progression, great drums...everything wrapped up in a nice, neat little package. It's a great, turn-up-the-radio-roll-down-the-windows kind of song. Enjoy.

Siblings (Wordless Saturday)

Tales from the Crib

We are a family of sleepers. I love my sleep...I mean LOOOOVE my sleep. If I don't get a good night's rest, I'm not totally human. I'm an expert napper too. With both of my pregnancies--especially in the first and third trimesters--I took at least an hour-long nap every afternoon. One of my favorite times of the day is bedtime. I love a long shower, curling up with my book for a few minutes then switching off the light and falling soundly asleep. I'm not a deep sleeper really, but I do talk in my sleep often (much to Kevin's amusement) and sometimes wake him up in a daze of half-sleep, instructing him to "GET OUT OF BED...THERE ARE SPIDERS IN OUR BED!". Kevin probably doesn't crave sleep as much as I do--he's much more task-driven and sees every hour of the day as a chance to learn something new or work toward bettering himself (blah. yawn. whatever.) so he often likes to stay up late tinkering on the computer or making music. Once he is in bed though, he's usually dead-to-the-world and (conveniently) rarely hears the things that go bump in the night...or the babies that cry in the middle of the night.

We were blessed with a good sleeper in Anna. She slept through the night at around 2 months old. I remember it vividly: Up until this one particular night, she'd been still waking up a couple of times a night to feed. So, one morning, we woke up at a normal, morning hour...say 6:30am. I turned to Kevin and said, "So, I guess you got up with Anna last night?". He said, "No, I thought you got up with her". At which point we both panicked and scrambled to her room, fully expecting to see that something tragic had befallen our wee baby girl. She was sleeping blissfully. Ever since that night, it's a really, really rare occurrence for her to wake in the middle of the night. She's a champion sleeper. She used to regularly sleep for 12-14 hours a night, plus a two-hour-ish nap. These days, she sleeps about 11 hours a night and still takes a solid 1.5 to 2 hour nap every day. We all get along really well in this house.

So, you can imagine my worry when, as I was pregnant with Jack, people would tell me over and over, "Well, you've got one good sleeper--there's no way that you'll get another good sleeper". Then, in those first weeks of having Jack at home, when we were up every two hours and dealt with some colic at midnight every night...I was, to say the least, downtrodden. It was a rough few weeks for us. Compounding the lack of sleep was knowing that at 7:30am every day, Anna would wake up, well-rested and ready to begin her active little day, despite her mother being severely sleep-deprived and mad at the world.

Now, I know that 1 week of good infant sleep is a far cry from declaring complete and total sleep domination, but Jack has been typically going to bed between 9pm and 10pm and sleeping straight through (in his own crib, in his own room) until 4am-ish every morning. When he wakes at 4am, he usually eats a little then goes back to sleep until 7am or so. He also has been taking at least a 2 hour long nap most days as well. I might be overly optimistic here, but this, my dear readers, is very do-able, as far as I'm concerned. I know that it might not always be this way, but for now, the fact that I'm getting more than about 4 hours of sleep a night has left me feeling like a new woman--like maybe I really can conquer the day...or at least face it without tripping over the bags under my eyes.

Jack: Almost 9 weeks old

Stats

Weight: 11lbs 9oz
Length: 23 inches

Not going to bore you with the percentiles 'cause those are dumb anyway. He got 3 shots today and handled them like a trooper. The doctor was very impressed with his neck control (he's a neck holder-upper prodigy). He also took a colossal dump during his exam. Huzzah, my son!

Musings on the parenting of two

I've been a lazy blogger lately--just posting pics of the kids and that's it. I know that's what the majority of my readers want though. It keeps the hecklers at bay. The thing is, I have lots to say but just no time to write it. Ninety nine percent of the time, I'm typing one-handed, as I've got an infant in the other. I'm pretty proficient at the one-handed typing, but it doesn't allow for capitalized letters or proper punctuation, so I'm refraining from doing a one-handed blog post because I have standards.

Currently, the toddler is down for a nap and the infant is snoozing (although he's grunting and cringing, which means that my time is limited) in the swing, so I've found myself all caught up on celebrity gossip; have emailed back all of my neglected friends who religiously send me emails that require a response ("How are you? Please write back so that I'll know your children haven't eaten you") and posted a plea on the mom's group classified section to purchase a pre-owned exersaucer (Anna used her exersaucer as a bouncer and cracked the plastic so badly that a whole bottle of Gorilla Glue couldn't fix it. The company who makes it doesn't sell replacement parts either, so it's currently up in our attic, where our raccoon family {that's a blog for another day} is playing with it).

Yesterday, I corresponded briefly, via email, with a mom that I know from the mom's group. She's pregnant with her second child and has a little boy, a couple of months older than Anna. She asked me if having a second baby is easier. I tried to lie to her, but couldn't, (in good faith) do that. The truth is, it's hard. Exponentially harder. You'd think that it would only be a little harder because infants don't do much. They sleep, they eat...that should give you ample time to parent your toddler still. In theory, that makes sense--in practice, it's hogwash. The thing that I forgot about with infants is that they like to be held. Hell, they pretty much demand to be held. All.The.Time. Jack is a good baby. He's very snuggly and sweet. He promptly falls asleep, while being rocked. I typically rock him for about 20 min (or however long an episode of Dora the Explorer is) and then go and put him in his crib. As soon as his back hits the mattress....BOING, his eyes pop open like a baby doll's. If you leave him there, in the hopes that he'll fall back asleep, you'll be setting yourself up for failure of epic proportions because he'll begin kicking and flailing about until he's 100% awake and 150% pissed. Occasionally, the swing works--like today--but it's not foolproof either. Compounding that is that big sister likes to "help swing" and oftentimes goes up behind the swing and pushes it. So, in order to keep the infant content, I find myself holding him all day long, while parenting Anna one-handed. It's not ideal but it's all I can think to do most of the time.

When I was pregnant with Jack and would see other moms at the park, carrying an infant and chasing a toddler, I'd often ask them, "How is it?". For the most part, they'd smile sleepily and say something like, "There are good days and bad days...". One mother in particular told me, {and I quote} "It's HORRIBLE". That scared me senseless. Now that I'm living that life, I can honestly say...some days really are "horrible". I'm not going to lie and I probably just caught her on one of those "horrible" days. The thing is though that the horrible days are few and far between and aren't at all entirely horrible. Actually, there are brief moments of horrible often...everyday, at some point, there's probably a minute or two of horrible. Case in point: Anna pitching a fit when I pick her up from school and demanding to be carried to the car--which is impossible while pushing a heavy stroller with an infant carrier attached. Also horrible: Jack spitting up formula all over me and, most importantly, down my cleavage while the phone is ringing off the hook and Anna is squealing while chasing the cats around the house.

Also though, there are many moments that are downright awesome. Every time I successfully venture out of the house with both kids (meaning, that I haven't forgotten anyone at home) and we don't cause a scene, I chalk up to a success. The fact that Jack slept for 5 hours straight--in his own room last night is awesome. Listening to Anna, in her room, singing the ABC song (she's supposed to be asleep but as long as she's quiet and content, I'm not complaining) and playing with her toy kitchen is awesome.

What I've learned from the last 2 months:

• I have to be mega, anally-retentively organized to stay sane. For instance, the nights before Anna has school, after cleaning up the kitchen from dinner, I go ahead and make her lunch for the next day, pour her morning milk into a cup to sit in the fridge until morning (sounds silly, but saving 30 seconds on a busy morning is a luxury sometimes); make myself a bottle of water and stick it in the fridge too, so that I can grab it before leaving to take her to school--essentially do as much as I can, the night before, to make for a smooth morning.
  

• On that same tangent, a trick that we learned when Anna was an infant: Before bed each night we pack a cooler with all of the bottles of formula that we'll need for the night and take it with us back to our bedroom. We also have ample diapers, wipes, Nose Goblin sucker, a change of clothes and plenty of blankets and burp towels in the bedroom with us (as is the baby, for now) so that we don't have to traipse all through the house when we're up with the baby in the middle of the night. This helps not to disturb Anna and also makes it a little easier to get up with the baby and also to get back to sleep after having been up with the baby.

• I have to keep my house somewhat clean or I will lose my ever-loving mind. This means that I do at least one load of laundry a day--because the thought of spending an entire day on Saturday or Sunday doing load after load of the week's laundry makes me ill. I try to clean as I go in the kitchen and bathrooms, make our beds daily--even if that doesn't happen until 5pm, empty the dishwasher (which we run every night--no matter how small the load--and make sure to put whatever bottles are currently dirty in, so that I have a few less bottles to hand-wash)...you get the idea. Just simple, daily maintenance that really does take me all damn day to get done, but saves my sanity.
  

• Convenience foods are not evil. I used to shun food that just seemed too easy because I knew how unhealthy they can be. I've discovered Bird's Eye Steamfresh frozen vegetables and more recently the Steamfresh Meals For Two. The Meals For Two really do feed two adults plus a picky toddler (who won't eat any at all and then one of the parents gets to polish it off anyway). I usually make a big salad to go along with it and it's a darn good dinner--especially given the lack of effort it takes to make.

• I shower at night and wash, dry and style my hair before bed too. This means that, if I don't get a chance to do it in the morning (which, I won't) then I don't look too beat up and homeless--which does not help one's post partum self esteem. This is not to say that I look awesome during the day, but I also don't look too greasy and miserable.
  

So, in a nutshell, while it's not easy, and it's very seldom pretty--I'm doing it. I'm totally pulling off this mother of two thing (and, to all of you mothers of 3, holy swizzle sticks! You're rockstars! And kind of crazy.). Is my toddler totally stimulated every minute of every day with fun crafts, activities and other learning opportunities? Probably not. Is my infant thriving in an environment of blissful lullabies, gentle massage and breastmilk only? Nope. Are my children both alive and am I not crouched in the corner, drooling, hugging my knees to my chest, rocking back and forth? Mostly.

Like I told the mom who's about to have her second in a few months--it's not totally horrible and every day you find your footing a little more--you accomplish another once-scary thing about parenthood and you chalk up every thing that happens--good and bad--to experience.

Jack, almost 2 months

Funny how they have the same expression, eh?

Handsome smile

A bonafide laugh!

Easter 2009

Click to open album

Easter 2009

Jack at 7 weeks old

Entertained by the ceiling fan

Almost a smile...

Looks like a smile, but it's actually a cry

So, judging by these pictures, he moves his hands a lot.

Grumpy old man face

Lovely Morning

Brown-eyed girl

Her trademark "2 year old" look. I get this look from her no less than 43 times a day and expect that I'll see much more of it as she enters adolescence.

(That's toothpaste on her mouth)

Oh yeah, and then this happened (please view previous video before this one)

...and then everyone lost their shit (mainly just Anna though).

Ordinary Sunday

When most of us were growing up, the only time anyone took home movies was for special occasions: Christmas, birthdays, etc. While we do film those occasions around here, I also like to whip out the camera and film ordinary things as well. Yesterday, Anna's best friend and her parents came over to hang out in our yard, grill some food and have some fun. The girls fought intermittently, as two year olds are want to do, but called a truce long enough to enjoy some fun in the wagon.

I really feel that, in the years to come, we'll cherish movies like this even more than the canned, predictable Christmas and birthday videos.

The effects of sleep deprivation on a frazzled woman: A comprehensive case study

Ok folks, almost 2 solid months of sleep deprivation are taking their toll. I haven't even had a chance to write Jack's birth story, so you don't yet know how it all went down--let me just tell you that even the night before he was born, I didn't get any sleep, so my last night of decent sleep was Feb. 16.

As a result, my brain is starting to melt and ooze out of my cranial orifices. Case in point: I went to mail a package the other day (Hi, Jen!). The lady at the UPS store asked for my name. I always have to spell both my first and last name because they're both often misspelled. So, I rattled off my first name, spelled it and then rattled off my last name and spelled it as well--as I do every time someone needs to document my name. She asked me to repeat the spelling for my last name and, well....I just couldn't do it. I got this far: J-U-R and then I blanked. I tried 3 times to get it right and couldn't*. She looked at me like, 1. I was stupid or 2. I was an impostor. Finally, I slowed down and got it right. I told her that I had a newborn at home and was existing on about 2 hours of sleep a night. I think she understood. Still, I felt like an idiot.

*Just to clarify, I had not been drinking.

I've noticed also that, due to abbreviated, disjointed sleep these days, I'm having trouble differentiating between dreams and reality. Seriously. I've found myself referencing conversations that I've had, that didn't really happen (except in my dreams) and questioning what's fact and what's fiction on an hourly basis. It's all rather disturbing. The other night, I dreamed that our neighbor was sitting on the other side of our fence, reading a bedtime story to his Rottweiler, Belle. The next day, I caught myself thinking, "How sweet is Terry, reading to his dog?".

I wonder how much longer this can go on?