Thursday, May 28, 2009

little magpie

Two tidbits:

- We never ask Elizabeth if she knows Mommy or Daddy's other name. We've heard too many friends go through their child calling them by their first name phase that we decided we'd just avoid it, or not ask for it. It's just not something we ever discuss. Once in a while she'll call out Rich, but she's never said my name.

- Elizabeth's mimicry skills, thanks to Rich, are slowly developing. She's shy about it - mostly she wants Rich to be different characters, and when you ask her she'll say "Hi! How are you!" in a different voice and then stop self consciously.

So, let's put those two tidbits together - the other morning, she snatched my glasses off my face and put them on. And said, Hi! I'm Susan!





Wednesday, May 27, 2009

sorta Wordless Wednesday



It appears management has a lot to answer for around here. Things not quite up to snuff for the newest resident. We'll get right on that.

And, in other news, the AC failed me. Elizabeth did her part, sleeping til 7:30 am. The little guy? Up at 3:30 for a snack. Then WIDE awake, ready to party, at 6 am. And totally congested. So much for that theory.


Tuesday, May 26, 2009

The AC

We've not been posting much lately, I think because we're both just too tired, too much going on. We're finally wrapping up a long period of colds and runny noses and much interrupted sleep. The Sweetpea has been waking earlier and earlier, while Little guy has been up sometimes 3 times in the night.

Spring is usually a favorite time of year - I love sleeping with the windows open, with the sweet cool night air wafting in the windows, stirred gently by the ceiling fans. But it's not much fun when there's not much sleep.

Saturday night we finally gave in to the coming summer and turned on the AC. And Andrew slept til 6 am, and Elizabeth til 6:30. And Sunday - both slept til 7 am. And today - A was up at 5, but down quickly, and E in til 7 again. I'm chalking this all up to the AC. Perhaps runny noses have been allergies. Or maybe they've been warm and uncomfortable. Whatever the cause, while I love sleeping with the windows open, I love sleeping more. I'll gladly make the trade.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

My two aunt jens

OK, well, the best of intentions and all that. Turns out it was not our router that was the problem. No, it was the entire Verizon system - or at least one of their servers that serves our neighborhood. As I found out when I called Verizon throughout the day yesterday just to hear we are experiencing a significant outage in the (area code) neighborhood area. (What? When you're frustrated don't you call 7 or 8 times throughout the day just to hear the same message?)

E and A have actually three Aunt Jens (yes, confusing!). My sister and R's sister have birthdays two days apart, and we were determined to put up two different posts. But combined happy birthday photos for this year.

Elizabeth celebrated with a gigantic cupcake. Meanwhile, Andrew decided to bypass celebrating in favor of attempting to self feed broccoli with a spoon.

Success! Spoon in mouth! Cupcake icing inching closer and closer to face for second taste.

Can I just eat the rest of it now, please?
Hmmm, is the spoon itself edible?

Cupcake!
Mmm, spoon!

Speaking of broccoli, here's a recipe for an entertaining evening:
1. Steam fresh broccoli.
2. Serve spears to husband and pre-schooler.
3. Reserve a few spears for baby - using handheld blender and attachment, add a little water and whir to mush.
4. Gross out preschooler with mush. After much giggling and prompting, have her taste it and declare, well, it's just mushy broccoli!
5. Gross out husband with green mush.
6. Laugh + eyeroll when husband taste mushy broccoli and immediately gags and grabs for water.
7. Realize that no, the extreme reaction wasn't for effect - the exact same broccoli he had just eaten was rendered inedible by the water and the whirring!

Good times! I'm sure the two Aunt Jens were/are upset to miss out. Or, maybe not.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Happy birthday Aunt Jen B!

It's been a wild computer week here, topped off by total failure of
our router tonight. So even though the picture was taken, posting will
have to wait. Hope you're out having fun

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

wordy wednesday

Well, there's been so much going on, and a ton of pictures to post and stories to be told, but somehow never enough time to post. So a brief update, no pics, for right now as a placeholder and a pledge to get the picture posts back in gear.

Everyone is nearly recovered from the illness, but impacts are still felt. At the worst, the little guy was (not) sleeping with me in our bed, and Rich was (not) sleeping with the (not) sleeping Sweetpea in her big girl bed. The transition to the big girl bed had gone well - very well. We'd say prayers, I'd cuddle for a minute or two, then walk out letting her fall asleep on her own. But now, she wants one of us to cuddle with her "just 5 minutes" which means until she falls asleep. And if she wakes at night, she cries for R to cuddle with her more. So we decided, now that everyone was better, we had to go back to our former routine. But she just does not like being in the big bed by herself. Now, once we leave her, she drags out her Dora fold out couch, pulls her pillow and stuffed animals off the bed, and curls up on the fold out bed. At least she's mostly sleeping, and by herself.

As for the little guy - he's still very congested, and that I think wakes him up. Prior to illness, he was fairly variable. Any given week, 3 nights he'd be up once in the night, 2 nights he'd be up twice, and two nights he'd sleep completely through. Totally unpredictably, but those full nights were nice. When sick, it was the horrible 5 times a night routine. Now, he's back to up 2 times a night. It's slowly getting better, so maybe there will still be more improvement.

We started solids! Sweetpea started at 5.5 months. The little guy is actually a big guy, but he wasn't showing any signs of interest, until suddenly he was. In the course of one week, he went from not paying any attention to what was in our hands or mouths to lunging at anything and everything that moved. So the solids started just a few days after the 5 month mark. There are good pics and videos. We started with oatmeal, followed by avocado and banana. And Cheerios, which he loves - he's even had some luck bringing the cheerios to his own mouth, though there's still plenty of room for improvement. He eats solids once per day - at dinner - and so far so good. Last night he ate half a banana and a quarter of an avocado (and a small handful of cheerios). I think sweet potatoes are next on the menu. Then I have to dig out my baby food book and the ice cube trays and get busy with the making. She moved fairly quickly into self feeding and chunkier foods. We'll see how it develops with him. The plan is to make as much as is practical again. I never cooked and used the blender to puree for anything with the Sweetpea - just did homemade foods that mashed easily. But this time around, my goal is to make a more concerted effort to make the food ourselves. Well, I have good intentions, anyway.

And for those following the school saga - we're still waitlisted everyplace except for our neighborhood school. There have been some recent very encouraging developments in the neighborhood, so for now, the plan is she'll head off to preK there in September.

Photos and videos coming soon!