T's parents are here from out-of-state and spent the weekend with us. I only wish we'd had more time together, but we'll get to see them a little more next weekend.
Lately, whenever D.L.F. wants something, he phrases his request in the form of a question, and then answers himself with an enthusiastic, "Okay!"
"Do you want some raisins? Okay!"
"Do you need some help? Okay!"
"Do you want to get the mail? Okay!"
We finally broke down and took D.L.F. in for a real haircut (as opposed to my clueless and haphazard scissor-lopping).
Before
We attended a lovely outdoor wedding today. D.L.F. and Cupcake did pretty well, although D.L.F. started to get cranky toward the end for lack of a nap (plus the heat--it was 100 degrees today with 50% humidity--and neither our car nor our home has air conditioning!). Also, since we moved into our home over a year ago, we had been storing a queen-size bed in D.L.F.'s room. He played on it, it was where we changed his diaper, it was where we sat and sang songs and read books before nap and bed times. Some friends of ours are getting married soon and needed a bed for their new home together, so we were happy to give the bed to them, but it was kind of traumatic for my little buddy. His room looks so empty now! Change is so hard on kids, but they are also resilient, so I know D.L.F. will get used to his room's new look soon. We were able to move some of his larger toys out of the living room and into his bedroom, since there is more room in there now.
I've been expressing to T a lot lately that I need to get serious about losing the weight that I put on when I was pregnant with Cupcake. T tells me he likes the way I look, but he also understands that losing weight is something I want to do--not just to look better, but also for my health and comfort (I've been having back problems). So tonight he showed his support by surprising me with an MP3 player that I can use while exercising, and he said that he wants to help me do what it takes. He and I still need to talk about options, but I'll probably be joining a gym and/or getting some exercise equipment soon. Oh, and, uh, cutting back on the chocolate. That will actually be extremely difficult for me, because I really like chocolate and eat it pretty much every day and get headaches if I don't. Anyway, I love my hubby and appreciate his thoughtfulness and support so much.
I walked to the library this morning with the kids (hooray for the Ergo! It's so much easier to deal with than the double stroller, and Cupcake likes it much better). We signed up for the summer reading program. I did it last year with D.L.F., and it was a lot of fun. For every 15 minutes (or whatever parents decide for their own children) of reading, you mark one space on the path of the child's game board (like Candy Land). There are several check-in points, where you take the gameboard back to the library and pick out a prize. When all the spaces are filled, the child gets to choose either a T-shirt or a gift certificate to a book store. I remember doing summer reading programs when I was a kid, and they were fun, but all we ever got were stickers to cover the spaces on the game board. I was always jealous of my friends who lived within city limits and got to participate in the city's summer reading program that had actual prizes. :-) I'm over it now.
Anyhow, we also unintentionally showed up just in time for storytime. We had never attended storytime before at this library, and D.L.F. had a great time. The librarian read books, sang songs, did fingerplays, blew bubbles, and handed out shakers for the kids to dance around with. The funniest part to me was when all the kids joined hands and walked around in a circle and sang "Ring Around the Rosie." D.L.F. sort of just stood there and allowed himself to be pulled along, but he didn't get that he was supposed to pick up his feet and go around in a circle. It was cute. :-) Cupcake seemed to enjoy watching all the big kids (it was a multi-age storytime for kids 0-6) . Pretty soon she'll be right in there with them!
Last night T asked D.L.F., "What did you have for breakfast?"
D.L.F.: "Eggs!"
T: "What did you have for lunch?"
D.L.F.: "Eggs!"
T: "What did you have for dinner?"
D.L.F.: "Eggs!"
T: "What did you have for dessert?"
D.L.F.: "Lasagna!"
He did have eggs for lunch, but his other answers were made up. :-)
We're back from a whirlwind trip to visit my parents and grandma for Father's Day. D.L.F. and Cupcake were pretty good travelers. We took Cupcake in to my midwife today to have her belly button looked at. She had this weird bubble-like thing, about a quarter-inch in diameter, growing inside her belly button. My midwife said it was a little piece of leftover artery from the umbilical cord and just snipped it off. Also, Cupcake has an umbilical hernia, which basically just means that her belly button bulges out. According to my midwife, it will resolve itself when she starts walking, and she'll probably end up with an "outie" belly button.
This afternoon after I had put D.L.F. in his crib and told him I loved him, he said (for the first time), "I yuv you, Mama." AWWWWWW! That made my day!
I haven't blogged lately because, although I have two laptops, they both only work on their terms, not mine. The "good" laptop has been overheating lately and shutting itself down, and only T knows how to fix it (it involves taking off the keyboard with a butter knife and carefully resetting something inside the laptop...if you don't do it right, you risk permanently ruining the...something...I don't remember...but anyway, I let T do it because I'm too chicken and don't want to be responsible for killing a perfectly good--okay, not perfectly good--laptop). So the laptop I'm using right now is a behemoth that has keyboard issues. The shift key only works about one time in ten, and letters often repeat like ttthhiiiiiiiiss. So I don't enjoy typing on this laptop. I'll blog more when my other laptop gets fixed.
Here is a song (made up by T) that we often sing to D.L.F. as we are getting him dressed. It is sung to the tune of that song that people always sing, "Can, can, can you do the Can Can?" (What is the name of that song, anyway? I played it for a piano recital once--and no, I am not good at piano).
Pants dance
Can you do the pants dance
In your little [insert D.L.F.'s pants color here] pants
Can you do the dance
Dance dance dance dance dance dance dance
[Repeat]
D.L.F. came into the bathroom just as I was stepping out of the shower. He took one look at me and said, "Mama needs socks!"
Well, that's an understatement, I thought.
She had a check-up today and is 10 pounds, 6 oz. She has gained two pounds in the last two weeks! My arms can tell it when I carry her. And her cheeks are getting so cute and chubby. She is a great sleeper. I don't know if that's thanks to the advice in Babywise or if it's just her temperament, but either way, I'm not complaining! :-) She is so mellow and sweet, and is just learning how to smile. Her first month went by so fast! Before I know it, she'll be a year old. Hard to believe....
This morning D.L.F. was watching me use kitchen scissors to snip small pieces off strips of bacon. He said, "Bacon...haircut!"
Oops...I just realized that my friend Lani tagged me almost a month ago to do this meme. Sorry I'm just getting around to it now, Lani!
4 jobs i've had:
1. occasional babysitter
2. sheet music organizer at a band teachers' workshop
3. full-time nanny
4. college cafeteria cashier
4 movies i've watched more than once:
1. The Sound of Music
2. Pride and Prejudice (BBC version)
3. The Man from Snowy River
4. a video of myself reading books and singing songs to D.L.F....he requests it almost every day (it's getting old!)
4 places i've lived:
1. a house
2. another house
3. a dorm
4. an apartment
(What, I'm supposed to be more specific than that?)
4 TV shows i watch:
We don't have a T.V., but if we did, I would watch:
1. The Waltons
2. Little House on the Prairie
3. What Not to Wear (I've seen it several times at my parents', and it's addicting)
4. I heard about a reality show where a family has to go build their own home in the wilderness and "rough it"...I don't remember the name, but it sounded interesting.
4 places i've been:
1. Germany (on tour with the Continental Singers)
2. Ohio (a year of college)
3. Alaska (choir tour)
4. Hawaii (a couple times as a kid and then with T for our honeymoon)
4 people who email me regularly:
Eh...I dunno. A handful of people, including T and my mom, E-mail me occasionally, but I wouldn't say "regularly." I pass on this question.
4 of my favorite foods:
1. omelets
2. dark chocolate
3. cheddar cheese
4. natural crunchy peanut butter
4 places i would love to visit:
1. The United Kingdom
2. Hawaii (again)
3. T's parents who live in a different state
4. a family-owned farm to observe their daily operations
4 things i'm looking forward to in the coming year:
1. hanging out with T's parents when they visit us this summer
2. watching my kids as they learn and grow
3. losing some (okay, a lot) of baby weight
4. seeing what God will do in and through the house church we are a part of
4 friends i'm tagging:
Hmm...I'll cheat and make it simple. If you're reading this and you would like to do this meme in the comments here or on your own blog, consider yourself tagged!
I have been too busy to blog. Everything is going well around here, though. Cupcake was up to 8 lbs., 7 oz. at her 2-week checkup, so she has regained her birth weight and then some. Dear Little Fellow is doing really well now with having a little sister. He is getting better at entertaining himself while I take care of Cupcake. She still sleeps a lot, but my midwives say that's fine--since she's gaining plenty of weight--and that I should enjoy it while it lasts!
Some friends of ours (who just got engaged--yay!) brought dinner over to share with us last night, and we had such a nice time together.
I took both kids out by myself for the first time on Monday. Wow! It took so much preparation...getting myself ready, getting D.L.F. and Cupcake dressed, nursing Cupcake, figuring out the double stroller, packing everything required for a trip out with a baby and toddler, and then hauling everything down a flight of stairs! Oh, and Cupcake spit up all over me right before we were ready to go out the door! I figured, since we were only going to the park, no one would really get that close to me, so I just wiped it off as well as I could, and we were on our way. Five years ago, the thought of doing that probably would have disgusted me to no end, but...things change when you become a mom. :-) It's been too rainy the past couple of days to go anywhere, but if the weather clears up today, I would like try to take the kids to the library. We'll see.
How is it that, by adding one child to our family, our dirty laundry has quadrupled?
I am not as utterly, totally exhausted after Cupcake’s quick birth than I was after my long, very difficult labor with D.L.F. Aside from the normal discomforts of the early days of nursing, I physically feel pretty good. Cupcake is proving to be a good nurser, but she is quite the sleepyhead. I sometimes have to tickle her or pat a cool, damp washcloth on her face to get her to wake up enough to nurse. I am working really hard to get her to nurse eight times a day, which is the minimum number of times recommended. She seems to be getting plenty of milk, though, based on her, uh, diaper output. I am starting to get Cupcake on a routine (more about that later), which is helpful for her and the whole family. In general, she is so far a pretty “easy” baby and not very fussy.
D.L.F. is adjusting to being a big brother. I try to spend lots of time with him while Cupcake is sleeping. It is obvious that he is craving attention from T and me. He loves for me to rock him in the rocking chair and sing to him (he often requests particular songs and helps with the words!). Today he went grocery shopping with T in the morning, and this afternoon, he and T went to church, which met tonight at the home of a family who has a trampoline in their backyard. D.L.F. was excited to hear that he would get to bounce on the trampoline.
Now, about the “routine” we are working on for Cupcake: in the first days of D.L.F.’s life, I refused to even read Babywise, by Gary Ezzo and Robert Bucknam. I had heard of the controversy surrounding the book and the Ezzo’s ministry, and I had read so many “attachment parenting” books that I was quite biased against the concept of putting a young baby on a routine. But then I read about how Jess and Gretchen had successfully implemented Babywise with their children, and I decided it couldn’t hurt to read the book and see if I could glean at least a scrap of useful information from it.
I was surprised to find that the advice in Babywise is very practical, and not cruel or extreme as some reviewers on the internet would make it out to be. The most helpful thing I learned from the book was to make sure that baby is really getting a full feeding, and not just "snacking" here and there. Gretchen does a great job of explaining the basic tenets of the Babywise philosophy, so I will not repeat what she has written, but will direct you to her article here. (Also, it seems that at least some of the negative things said about the Ezzos and Babywise have been proven false. See this web site.)
We have started applying the Babywise concepts with Cupcake, and I am hopeful that they will help her become a content, well-rested, happy baby who understands that we love her dearly and will meet her needs.
