Happy New Year's Eve

I had a list of things to blog about this week, but all have been overwhelmed by baby care and spending time with my mom while she's here. Maybe I'll get to it next week. Meanwhile, baby care is a lot more fun (at least when it happens during the day!).

In the picture above, Sarah was the same age as Hannah in this picture, and they are wearing the same outfit - you can see that Sarah is bigger than Hannah was at that age, and also I think more alert. Sarah holds her head up and looks around, grabs for things with her hands and even pushes her pacifier back in her mouth! Not bad for 11 days old, I think.

Today Mom and I took the kids out for some errands, and wow, it's a lot crazier with three kids than with two! On a totally unrelated note, we saw a woman wearing a full length mink coat shopping in Costco. It seemed a little incongruous, but I'm sure it kept her warmer than I was (I foolishly just wore the fleece from my North Face without the shell, and it was like 3 degrees out!)!

Raining and Pouring

In case things weren't hectic enough, we spent this afternoon at the ER after Hannah decided to do a flying leap off of her bedside table with disastrous results. There really isn't anything like walking into your child's room to see sheets of blood pouring out of her head to freak a mama out. As it turned out, she is fine, and just has a one centimeter long laceration on the back of her head.

To further liven things up, while we were waiting in triage, Sarah had a diaper blow out the likes of which I have never seen (how does such a small baby poop up to her ARMS?!?!?) and of course I didn't have a spare outfit for her, so she spent the rest of the visit naked except for her diaper and blanket. As we were being released, the nurse was looking at the baby, and probably thinking to herself, "Should we let this woman go home with this bleeding toddler and naked newborn?"

We're thankful that Hannah is ok, and hoping we can stay away from the hospital for a while now!

Christmas Highlights

I considered doing a post about how discouraged I am that Sarah screams all night long even though I stopped drinking caffeine and eating chocolate and dairy products. She is sweet most of the time, I just think she has colic at night. Yet another reason to wish I was a dolphin.

Instead of that downer post however, I decided to finally post some Christmas pictures for your perusal.

Sleeping Beauty (I think every parent of a little girl has a picture with that title)
The dining room table set for Christmas dinner

Jack, Josh and Hannah laughing at something

"I will share Daddy's baseball cards with you, Sesta!"
(Jack calls Sarah "Sesta" which is really sweet)

Hannah admiring the doll clothes my mom made for Hannah's new doll

Update

We had a nice Christmas with my family (above: my brother Thomas holding Hannah, Josh, my mom holding five day old Sarah, me, my dad holding Jack) and Josh's parents. Other than overdoing it with the preparations, I've been fine, just having trouble getting back into a groove with the daily schedule, so I've been taking a break from the computer. I'll post more pictures and updates later!

Sweet Sarah

Smiling

I look really haggard here, but I never got to sleep after she was born, so I was really tired!

My dad with Sarah

My mom with Sarah

Hannah meeting Sarah

My mom with Hannah and Sarah

Josh with Sarah at home
Jack is finally warming up to Sarah. This afternoon he kissed her and pointed out all of her facial features (he is pointing out her nose in the picture), as well as bringing her a pacifier when she cried. Of course, when she spit out the pacifier, he tried it out too! Hey, at least he's sharing (germs anyway!).

I'm glad to be home, but am really tired, so it may take me a while to catch up. I hope you're all enjoying Christmas week!

Hannah's Thoughts on Citrus Fruits

Today I gave the kids each a section of grapefruit at lunch to expand their palates. Jack made a sour face when he tasted his, and Hannah said, "Don't worry Jack, grapefruit is a...nak-WIRE taste!"

I'm sure I've used the phrase "an acquired taste" in her hearing before, but it never ceases to amaze me how she will remember things and then use them correctly later!

Cuties

Jack's Words

A friend asked me the other day if Jack was talking yet. As usual, that depends on your definition of "talking." Below are the words Jack says so far. Not bad for a boy of 18 months, I suppose!

• Mama
• Dada (Daddy)
• Nana (Hannah)
• Sawah (Sarah)
• Gee-gee (Gigi, my mom - he has only said this a few times so far)
• Tank you (thank you)
• Nigh nigh (night night)
• Zee-ba (zebra)
• Woof woof (does that count as a word?)
• Dah (dog - it's the dog sound without the final consonant)
• Bye Bye
• Uh oh (is that a word?)
• Appa (apple)
• Babana (banana)
• Jah (Jack, usually said when pointing to himself)
• Ya Mom (yes ma'am)
• Diss (this)
• Birdah (bird)
• Moo (is that a word, or just a sound?)
• Ah dah (all done)
• Socks
• Ah-mahn (amen)
• Sah cheese! (say cheese)
• Bop bop (beep beep, said when playing with vehicles, for which he also makes a wide variety of mechanical type noises)
  

A Dapper Gent

How cute is this boy??? Today he wore a tie for the first time, and we thought he did very well with it and looked adorable. Yes, the pants are a little too long, but thankfully they are that kind with the adjustable elastic so I pulled that as tight as it would go to make them stay up. In the picture it looks like Jack was striking a pose, but really it was just him being caught in the act of touching Christmas tree ornaments, which he is not supposed to do.

New Swingset!

My parents got the kids a swingset for Christmas and it was delivered today so they got an early present. Boy were they excited! Hannah was plastered to the window all morning watching the guys build it.

When I told her we could get coats and mittens on and play on it she said, "There's a swingset in my yard!!!! Is it MINE???? It's PERFECT and PRECIOUS and BEAUTIFUL!!!!!"

Jack's quote about the swingset was, "Whoa!!! Ya ya ya!"

Thank you Gigi and Grandad!

Hack Jobs

I have to tell you that cutting a child's hair is not for the faint of heart! Hannah's hair still won't grow in the front, but keeps growing in the back and it's super thin and fine, so to keep her from having a mullet I cut it again tonight. Despite my constant chatter of "Be still be still be still!!!!" she managed to jerk her head forward JUST as I was snipping the center back section, so it went WAY shorter than I intended, and then I had to trim the rest to match. Once it dried it really doesn't look too bad, because the front still sweeps to the side so she can still wear bows I think. We're just going to have to put her in a lot of pink and a hairbow every day for a while! Since I had cut Hannah's hair so short, I thought I should trim Jack's too. Now that it's not humid anymore, his little curls don't show much and his hair was looking too long. I didn't cut very much, having been sufficiently frightened by cutting Hannah's hair, so I just trimmed above his ears and along his neckline. I saved the little bits for his baby book. He actually sat pretty still once I let him gnaw on his toothbrush.

Below is a picture of Hannah post-haircut holding her baby. She's learning to be very careful holding her babies. She named the one in this picture "Pink Margaret" for some reason. I also included one of Jack with bad lighting, but you can see I didn't cut much off of his hair. He loves to take his shoes out of his dresser and throw them around, which is why there is a shoe in the foreground. Yes, that is a bruise on Jack's forehead - he tripped and ran his forehead into the corner of a wall. Sometimes I think those helmets neurotic parents buy for their kids are not such a bad idea after all!

Hannah and Pink Margaret

Jack in his new spaceship pajamas with his shoes ready for pitching practice

OK, I'm Calling It

When Hannah learned to walk, she had about a month of taking a few steps here and there, and then one day she just decided to walk full time. The next day she was walking while carrying things, and a few days after that she was running.

Jack has been TOTALLY different. He started taking steps, and then for months was content to walk holding on to things (especially his push toy walker) only taking a few steps on his own every now and then. He learned to do things that Hannah learned after walking, like going up and down stairs by himself, but still would only walk holding on to something. For the past probably two months, he would even walk holding a corner of my skirt, proving to me that there was nothing wrong with his muscles, he just didn't WANT to walk!

About a week and a half ago, I started noticing Jack walking long distances (like across rooms) if he thought we weren't looking, but the minute we looked over or cheered for him, he sat down and refused to walk any more. I started to wonder if he was afraid we were going to stop holding him or hugging him if he walked. Who knows what was going through his busy little mind!

Today I decided I'm calling it. He walked by himself about 90% of the time today, and several times even carried things while walking, which is supposed to be something learned AFTER plain walking. I hope this means he is also over his phobia of walking in public, because he's sort of hard to carry for long distances!

Jack is 17 months and 6 days old. Our pediatrician assured me on several occasions that the normal range for walking is up to 18 months, and that there was nothing wrong with Jack and he'd walk in his own time. She mentioned that what's really worrisome is kids who don't crawl. I have read in several places that kids should never be forced into walking, because crawling helps a crucial part of brain development and it's important for their development that they crawl for a sufficient period of time before walking. I guess Jack is all set as far as that goes, as he crawled for almost 8 months before walking!

I know I say this all the time, but I'm continually fascinated by how different kids are in their personalities and development, even within a single family and even at very young ages. I'm interested to see how Sarah progresses!

Grammy's Birthday Luncheon

When we turned the calendar to October, I told Hannah that the 31st is Grammy's birthday. She said, "We should have a party!" That sounded like a good idea to me so today we had a birthday luncheon/tea for Josh's mom. It was fun to get out the good china, and we enjoyed the last of the zinnias for our flowers. Hannah wanted heart-shaped sandwiches, but my attempt to make heart-shaped rolls sort of floundered because I forgot they would rise and thus most of them looked odd. They tasted good though, and were filled with egg salad. We also had molded peach salad and a chocolate toffee trifle. We had sparkling juice to drink, but the kids had to use sippy cups because I don't quite trust them with the crystal champagne flutes just yet!

Here are the children with Josh's mom

This one is better of Hannah, but Jack was busy trying to steal my mother-in-law's earrings, ouch!

Hannah's Quotes of the Day

An apt comparison from Hannah:

"...that would be bad, like hurting yourself when there are no Bandaids."

We have checked out a number of books from the library about new babies. Hannah has decided that her teddy bear is a new baby, and she goes around cradling it and instructing Jack on how to behave around new babies.

"You hold the baby's head on your arm, but you don't squeeze her neck all up, you gotta be careful of her neck!"

The Pumpkin Patch

Somehow we picked the coldest, most overcast, muddiest day on record to visit the pumpkin patch. Next year we are definitely going earlier in October! Above, Josh and the kids ham it up...
I thought it was a little odd that there was a pen of goats and a llama. Hannah ran up to it shouting, "HEY LLAMA! IT'S ME, HANNAH!" We thought that was hilarious. It reminded us of that Saturday Night Live skit where Mark Wahlberg talks to animals. We half expected Hannah to follow up her greeting with, "Say hi to your mutha for me."
There was also a hay bale maze. We thought that would be fun for Hannah, but she just breezed right through it without being confused at all. So I guess the maze was not complicated enough for a nearly 3 year old, but she didn't know the difference!
Jack enjoyed being pushed in a swing for a while too. We never actually made it out to the pumpkins, because the field was totally picked over and it was a swamp of mud. Again, the kids didn't know the difference. They were pretty upset at having to leave the llama though.

Fun AND Helpful

Today I had a blinding headache and the kids were in desperate need of a diversion. I pulled some chairs up to the sink, put some warm soapy water in each side, and gave them some dishes to "wash" for me. They both had a blast and stayed occupied for a good thirty minutes. Hannah was especially thrilled to be helping, so I think maybe I'll have her help me wash dishes more often. If she likes it and has fun, I think it will be a good thing to help her feel like a big girl.

No Mama, I'm Busy

Hannah was too busy reading to look up at me and smile. I don't know why but she has not been in the mood for picture taking lately. I have to sneak up on her, and then my camera has a slow shutter speed so I usually miss the moment. Hopefully she'll get over it soon!

Starting Down a Long Road

Jack always wants to sit on the toilet when Hannah does, so I've been letting him get up there before and after baths, and sometimes when I'm changing him anyway. He knows what kind of business to do there, and now is at the point where he'll go up to the toilet and bang on it when he has to go. I think this spring or summer I'll put him in underwear and see what happens, like I did with Hannah. It's a long road, no reason to rush it.
For some reason, this picture above reminds me of my brother when he was little.

Using Kids Artwork in Gift Giving

When we switched the calendar to October, I pointed out to Hannah that her grammy (Josh's mom) has a birthday at the end of October. Hannah immediately said, "Grammy needs a party!" When I asked what kind of party she thought Grammy would like, she said, "A tea party!" I thought that was actually a really good idea for a gift for Josh's mom, to put on a little tea luncheon for her birthday to enjoy with the children.

I decided to incorporate some of the kids' artwork into the invitation. I used a black Sharpie marker to outline a teacup on a piece of cardstock, and then let Hannah watercolor paint all over it. After she was done, I cut it out and pasted it to the front of a folded card.
I did the same thing with a birthday cake for Jack to color, and cut it out for the inside of the card. Yes, I know the cake looks like a top hat. I'm sorry.
I got the cut out idea from the Crafts-N-Things blog, and I think I'll use it more in the future for other projects.

Gag Me With a Crayon

I don't know why Jack has such a penchant for eating crayons. Seriously, if I turn my back for one minute while he is coloring, I find him with a mouth full of colored wax. At least today he chose to eat a color that matched his outfit perfectly!

Literary Endeavors

I've been trying to remember to type out Hannah's stories as she tells them so I can have a record of the funny things she comes up with, and because I read that it's a good pre-reading exercise. Here is the story Hannah came up with today - it has elements I recognize from Mary Poppins, plus includes her current fascination with giants thanks to some fairy tales we've been reading, and a few bits taken from our everyday life. We'll have to keep working on development of a coherent narrative thread!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Story, as told by Hannah to her mama, October 16, 2008

"Michael and Jane and their father went to the bank together to see a giant. They were not even a little bit scared of him. The giant was in the way, and Jane and Michael said,"Oh! Giant!" They didn't want that giant to take their money. But he took it away from them.

They were trying to find their daddy because he was lost. Maybe he went to somebody's house, or to the dry cleaner. Or to the backyard of their house. They didn't have a cookout because it was too cold.

One day they tried to buy some candy for their own beautiful Daddy. They got some lemonade and carrots too. They were hugging, because they wanted some cranberries like us. They went to CVS. They saw some cows. They said "moo" and then Jane and Michael tried to bite those cows, but that was silly.

They had to take a bath and go to bed under the covers. They went to sleep. They got to sleep in big girl pants, not in diapers. Just in big girl pants and their pajamas. That was pretty fun.

And then they went to their Grandad's house. He was laughing at them!

That is the end of this story.

A Considerate Football Player

Above is a drawing Hannah made for her Uncle Thomas. She explained that it's a football player, and pointed out his head (very small, on top), his big shoulders, and the circling multicolored bit below are his legs. According to Hannah, the football player is "running very fast, so he won't step on any babies." Isn't that considerate of him? What a thoughtful football player. I'm sure Uncle Thomas will be appreciative. :)

Sleeping Angels

In honor of the fact that my angels are SUPPOSED to be sleeping right now (but one is hollering and the other one keeps coming out of her room insisting that she CAN'T POSSIBLY HOLD IT!), here is my entry for the 5 Minutes for Mom new bedroom set contest. If I win, I'm going to select the Summer Breeze set, but probably in vanilla, not blue.

Here is Hannah, January 2006, asleep in her swing, making what looks like a rapper hand motion (is that M for "Midwest, yo"?)

I just re-read the contest rules and you're only allowed to post one photo, so here is a link to one of Jack when he was a sleeping baby, so he won't feel left out.

I would post an ultrasound and claim it was Sarah sleeping, but let's be honest, this baby never sleeps! She is the most active baby in utero I've had so far. Hopefully she's getting all her energy out now so she can be an angel sleeper for her Mama come December!

Hannah the Helper

Hannah was such a great helper yesterday. She is usually a good helper, but yesterday she was particularly cheerful about it and even took initiative to do things without being asked! Wow!

For example, Jack opened one of the drawers that I have filled with things for the new baby, and pulled out all the little newborn onesies and strewed them about the room. I walked in and said, "Oh no Jack!" Hannah, following me, said, "Mess, mess, mess!" and put all the little shirts back in the drawer and closed it without even being asked. I was amazed.

Unrelated to helping, but very sweet, last night when we were putting Jack to bed, Hannah came up to the bars of his crib and said, very seriously, "Good night, Little Buddy. Mama and Daddy and Hannah love you very much."

Also unrelated, but very funny, lately when Hannah thinks something is silly or incorrect, she says, "Nonsense!" And if she thinks something is bad or icky, she declares that it's "DREADFUL!" Sometimes the words she chooses to use in various contexts really crack me up!

Wind Catcher

This week one of our science activities was making a wind catcher/kite type thing. We used ribbons and strips of colored plastic (from those long bags the newspaper comes wrapped up in) tied to an orange sparkly jelly bracelet. The idea was for the kids to learn about wind, how air moves even though we can't see it, and so forth. The weather was uncooperative, so Hannah mostly ran around with hers in the backyard. Jack was more interested in eating his kite, although he did trail it around when we took the stroller out for our daily walk. I'm not sure they learned anything, but they had a pretty good time.
This is a little off topic, but sometimes I think Hannah really looks like my great grandmother. The look on her face in the picture above reminds me so much of Nana, although I can't really put my finger on why...

Hannah's Craft

This week our science projects didn't pan out, but one of the crafts turned out to be fun. I remembered liking that craft with the squares of tissue paper made into flowers around a pencil end and glued to paper, and figured since Hannah loves pink and flowers she would like it too. She did, but added her own twist.

Concentrating very hard on making the flowers

Hannah suggested that the picture would be prettier with paint. I think she thought I would break out the finger paints, but instead I let her try watercolors for the first time. She did a great job and caught on to the concept quickly.

Finished product

Sports Fan

One of Jack's new words is "BA-baw!" (baseball). This kid loves to throw and catch, and has quite an arm already, much to his Daddy's joy. It's so fun to see his personality come out more and more!

I Am No Child Wrangler

Sunday morning I dressed the kids in light blue seersucker outfits, thinking that coordinating ensembles would make a cute photo opportunity. And then I remembered that I'm not a very talented child wrangler. Hannah wouldn't smile without cheesing, and Jack screamed because I wouldn't let him hold the camera. The only even remotely decent picture I got was the above, where they are playing with Legos. That's the dog sleeping in the background, not a bear rug, in case you were wondering!

Hannah's Whales

I'm not sure why, but lately Hannah has been drawing a lot of whales. At least, that is what she tells me: her pictures bear little resemblance to anything at all. Still, at least she's working on it.

Above is a picture she drew for my mom, and when asked what it was she titled it "Whales and Some Fish."

This is a picture she drew for Josh's mom, and she told me to write her name on it, and to write "These are whales. Whales are not fish, they are mammals. They have babies, not eggs."

That's not bad for a two and a half year old to know that whales are mammals and have live babies not eggs, right? I told her that in passing when she first started talking about whales a few weeks ago. Again, I'm not really sure where the fascination with whales came from, maybe I should check some books out from the library with whales in them. Any suggestions?

Jack Says

One morning as I got Jack out of his crib, a bunch of geese in the pond behind our house started a loud squawking. Jack gasped, pointed to the window, and said, "BIRD-AHS!" I guess I've been emphasizing final consonant sounds a little much!

A few nights ago all of Jack's pajamas were still in the dryer at bedtime, so I had to resort to putting him in the cow costume to sleep in. It's made of soft fleece like regular pajamas so I didn't feel too bad about using it that way. As soon as I put him in the cow costume, Jack looked down at himself, looked up at me, and said, "MOOOO!"

Today Jack was watching me fold laundry and match socks, and I said, "Look Jack, see all these socks for Daddy?" Jack grabbed both of his feet and said, "OX!" Not sure why he dropped the "s" but I got the picture.

MOPS

ll, I decided to join a Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) group that meets near our house. I thought it would be good for me to make some friends with other moms nearby, and also good for the children to make some new friends. I really like the group, and although Jack screamed his head off when I left him (Hannah asked, "What is that lady DOING to my brother???") for a few minutes, he and Hannah both seem to have had a great time.

Our MOPS group meets once every two weeks, and has other play dates and Moms nights during each month. I think that's the perfect amount of time commitment for us right now, and we're looking forward to having fun with our new friends!

How DOES One Say "Bear" En Francaise?

Today Jack started saying "bear" although it comes out sounding like "ber." So I was trying to reinforce that by asking him to say bear, say bear, and after a whlie he got bored of that.

I said, "Say bear Jack!" and Jack blew a motorboat noise at me instead.

Hannah looked up from her book and said, "I think that means bear in French."

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Jack loves to color and draw. He's certainly much more into artistic pursuits than Hannah was at that age, but sadly he also enjoys eating crayons so we have to keep those in pencil boxes unless Jack is under close supervision. In general, Jack is limited to colored pencils and those markers that only leave color on the special Crayola coloring books. He loves to stand on Hannah's desk chair and draw and color away, especially when he lucks out and wakes up sooner than she does.