In July We Went to Vermont and New Brunswick

We had some great family times on our trips this month. With their papa's family, the kids (well, more D than A at this point) are easily occupied because they play with their cousins; with my family, they are easily occupied because they're the only kids among a dozen adults who adore them. We swam in a lake, a river, and a pool, went on lots of little jaunts, found nearby playgrounds, ate seafood (D liked lobster and fried scallops), watched movies (D saw Monsters Inc., Cinderella, Peter Pan and Aladdin all for the first time!), went to the zoo, and a gazillion other little fun things. I'm glad that our kids are accustomed to traveling and to sleeping in different places. The fact that we're all used to sleeping together in the same bed is really practical.

Here are a some photos of D and A, taken while we were on our trips:

Vroom!

Look how similar their eye and hair colours are! Also, you can see the haircut that D provided for both of them: a chop out of the middle of their bangs.

Looking serious and intrepid at the beach fire.

Happy river baby.

How fantastic is this face-painting?! She was astoundingly patient while waiting in line and then sitting to get it.

A is really into putting his feet up.

Carefully feeding a baby goat.

1!

Baby A is one year old today, on the seventh day of the seventh month! His father and I were talking about how we definitely feel like he's been with us for a whole year, although when we remember the birth itself it seems like it wasn't that long ago. When I try to compare with how I perceived D when she was one year old, I'd say that with this second child I have a much clearer sense that a one-year-old is still very much a baby. I've also been much more aware during A's first year that various stages of baby-dom are actually so short. The newborn stage lasts only a few weeks, and then a couple months later they're sitting up on their own, and suddenly, well, they're one!

Here are some fun facts about this particular one year old:

Favourite (aka only) foods: guacamole (and avocado in general), hummus, and rice crackers (to suck the salt off) -- and (I suppose it goes without saying!) breastmilk!
Favourite books: Barbara Reid's Mother Goose book; and he's still into books with pictures of babies, particularly one we got from the library called Baby Moves
Favourite toys: He'll play with any object but he especially likes sitting on an old ride-on toy we have, rolling a ball back and forth, dropping peg puzzle pieces from the high chair to the floor, and examining certain Playmobil pieces that he is consistently able to locate in D's bin of Playmobils.
Cutest skills: giving a "kiss" (A's kiss consists of making a kissing-like noise with his tongue between his teeth. It involves neither puckering of the lips nor physical contact with the recipient of the kiss.); playing peekaboo (At this point peekaboo means putting his hand up against his face for a millisecond and then pulling it away over and over in rapid succession.)
Mobility: D started crawling before she turned one but A is not crawling yet. Just recently he has started to scoot around on his bum a bit - he pushes himself backwards while sitting. He also has a wide reach while sitting and can practically do the splits as he reaches for something. He also likes to be held up in a standing position.
Verbal skills: His all-purpose words are da, ta, na and ma, used in varying combinations to mean any number of things. The most memorable is how he'll stretch out his arm to indicate something he wants to go see (like the swings!) and he'll exclaim, "Da!"

What else can I tell y'all? Any particular questions about him?

We celebrated A's birthday last night while on vacation in Vermont with LePapa's family. The birthday boy seemed freaked out by the candles and was not interested in the chocolate cake, but he did like the singing and clapping. We'll celebrate here at home tomorrow.

He's such a happy and expressive little guy and I feel so proud of him. I'm proud of all the things he's learned to do since he was born and I'm proud to have him in my family. LePapa and I were marveling at the very obvious fact that before he was born we didn't know who he would be or what he would be like. And now he's his very own particular self.

I'll leave you with two photos from the last couple days:

He let his sister and cousin style his hair.

He loooves sink baths! But in this particular sink, he bashed his mouth on the middle part and chipped a tiny piece off one of his front teeth!

Cliché

D and I were talking about friends of ours (a couple) who are away on separate vacations at the moment. I remarked that they are surely missing each other. D looked pensive and then commented, "Sometimes in movies when people miss each other, it kinda rains and there's a gentle song."

In May We Went to California

In May we went to California. So while it might seem that the month of May (okay, June too) was non-existent on this blog, it was actually incredibly memorable.

(Apart from some incidences of pink eye, ear infection and carsickness, along with the horrors of missing our freeway exit one night on the way back from San Diego) we had an amazing time. The kids did so great. D was exceptionally happy and kept exclaiming over the awesomeness of "doing special things every day!" and "exploring California!" - oh, and did you know that the trees in California (i.e. palm trees) are the same as the ones in Far Far Away in Shrek 2?!

I'm not exaggerating when I say that the weather was perfect every single day. We loved visiting different beaches, trying different food (our first tamales!), eating frozen yogurt at these buffet-like pay-by-the-weight places, and visiting our friends' local parks, stores and library. This trip felt very different from the kind of traveling we usually do because we were visiting an entirely new place on the other side of the continent. It seemed like there were lots of other nearby spots that we could explore, so we're thinking that as long as our friends live there, we might as well go back to visit every other year or so!

Here are a few pictures. I feel like it'd be a bit weird to post pictures of our friends on my semi-anonymous blog without their permission, so I'm omitting those ones. But their hospitality, authenticity and all-around wonderfulness were unforgettable.

The Pacific

Pirates at Seaport Village in San Diego

Spent an afternoon at this cove beach in La Jolla

The fathers and the big kids brave the waves at Dog Beach

Huntington Beach (D was being baybsat!)

Picnic. (Note how indecent it is, this public breastfeeding! :))

Her first really real time on the big kid swings.

Good sink for a bath

Huntington Beach again

Day in the Life

I heart Navigating the Mothership - and so should you if you like sincere, amusing and detailed accounts of life as a mother of two. Periodically this fabulous blogger does a Day in the Life project. This time, I decided to participate. Here is... Saturday, April 29, 2012, chez nous:

7:15 - 7:45 am - The Family Bed wakes up, chats, and jumps around a bit. 

D and A wake up simultaneously. I take 30 seconds to think about how my body is feeling and to set an intention for the day as per an inspiring article that I read in a yoga magazine yesterday. Report: body's feeling fine and my mantras are "be present with my family" and "go with the flow." Those are often synonymous, non? D tells me that she had a dream about Puss and Donkey and that she wants to wear her leotard and do lots of exercise today.

Chocolate chip pancakes are a regular Saturday morning occurrence.

7:45-9:45 am - These first couple hours are filled with the usual medley of morning activities. D gets to watch an episode of Max and Ruby while LePapa makes pancakes and I get some laundry going. Baby A plays with pieces of a pancake. D and I run around playing one of our patented family games called "Bum bum chicka bum bum." It is significantly less educational than Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. (The preceding was an inside joke directed at readers familiar with the aforementioned children's book.)

This happened while my husband and I finished up our pancakes. Any leisurely eating is such a treat.

10:00 - We decide to walk over to the library. It takes forever to get out the door. At one point, LePapa and A-in-the-baby-sling wait outside while I scramble around and D says, "Why is it taking so looonng? Why do you always have to get one more thing?" It doesn't help that it's super cold outside so we have to get out coats, hats, etc. If only we were jetting off to sunny California sometime soon.

D looking at a book. A was napping in the sling at this point.

Emergency snack by the vending machines.

As we are getting ready to leave the library, D randomly says, "Look at this little trail. This could set me up for life." She was pointing to a crack in the floor and quoting a line from a book, obviously with a lack of comprehension. D has a mini-nap in her stroller on the walk home.

1:00-ish - Lunch. Adults have leftover soup and edamame. D has grilled cheese and corn on the cob.

During lunch, A lets us put the corn cob up to his mouth and he sortof smacks his lips afterward. We have an amusing conversation about jokes. I tell a lame child-friendly joke about a zebra wearing lipstick. D tells a homemade joke that goes a little something like this: "Who makes funny jokes?... Toilet poop!" After lunch we look at books and eat cupcakes.

Practicing his standing skills in a most adorable manner.

Posing during a game of Hi Ho Cherry-O

In the mid-afternoon, LePapa has a short nap and then I have a short nap. I try to bring A with me but he doesn't fall asleep. I try again after my nap and he finally falls asleep nursing for this, his second nap, at 3:40.

Look at those chubby cheeks! Can't tell he doesn't eat any solids, eh?

3:45-5:45 pm - I go out by myself. I walk over to a nearby clothing store and buy 2 new t-shirts and a new skirt to wear during our up-coming trip to California (!!) and because I have almost no summer clothes. And it will be summer someday, right? Then I go to the grocery store. I plan to take a picture of the contents of my cart while I wait at the check-out but for the first time ever, there is no line up. While loading my groceries onto the conveyer belt, I spill an entire box of cherry tomatoes all over the floor.

A late supper. D: salmon, baguette with cream cheese, peas, hummus and rice crackers. Adults: salmon, spinach salad, baguette and brie, a shared beer. 

 

 

7:30 pm - While LePapa supervises D and A in the bath, I tidy up a bit. Feeling particularly motivated, I haul out the vacuum cleaner to vacuum the carpet. The noise freaks A out and he's crying in the bath so I go fetch him.

LePapa plays with the camera during bathtime.

8:30 pm - I lie down with the kids until they fall asleep. D falls asleep before A which is very rare these days.

Mayan chocolate ice cream and water while I write down some notes for this post. LePapa does some editing work on the computer.

Ah, the glorious time between their bedtime and ours! I finish my share of the cleaning, read blogs on-line for a while, plan out this blog post, start a novel I got from the library, and then watch/skim a movie until bedtime at midnight. (Shoulda gone to bed earlier cuz the babes awoke at 6:30am the following morning!)

Bonne nuit Tigresse!

This was a good day although LePapa and I both agreed that it felt long. I think I did quite well with my zen intentions. I feel compelled to explain the ways in which this day was not typical but this post is already so long. And so many things aren't even recorded, like: how many times did I nurse A? When did we do the dishes? Who did we connect with on the phone or over email? What books did we read at bedtime? Ah, the minutiae of life. 

Cuties

How cute is this: when D is sitting and playing with whatever (Playmobils, her little Smurf figurines, my old Jem collection, her Shrek toys) she sometimes narrates what she's doing in song. She gets totally absorbed and starts to sing her plot, as in, "and now I'll visit the priii-nnncce, but first I gotta put on my beautiful drreeeessss...".

And how about this: A and I play this game where I stick both of my arms straight up into the air and then let them fall down into my lap with a loud exhalation. And he has started to imitate me by putting his arms up in the air and making a similar noise! He doesn't do it every time but when he does, it's clearly in response to me. I notice him doing another familiar hand gesture too, accompanied by a silly noise that I make when tickling him.

As for D's meaningful gestures, she really likes to sign "I love you" to us in sign language, ever since we learned how to do it from a book. When we're not looking at her, she thinks it's funny to call us and then play a little trick like this:
D "Mama?"
me "Yes?"
D "Mama?"
me "Yes?"
D "Mama?!"
me "What?" (finally looking over at her to see that she's signing Iloveyou) "Oooooh, me too!"
D (laughing) "What did you think when I was calling you?"
me (recounting what just happened)

Back to A: he is loving the bath these days! One time recently I walked into the bathroom with A in my arms and when he saw the water and bath toys in the bath he literally lunged toward it and made super excited grunting noises.

And finally: when D wants to describe something that is big, powerful or extreme, she opens her arms as wide as she can and then brings her hands together behind her back. So for instance, this evening she put her hands behind her back in order to show me just how difficult it was for her to fall asleep.

Firsts

Baby A is actually getting his first tooth! It's the bottom left middle one. The ridges of the top of the tooth are already sticking up through the gums. I'm not sure to what extent this teething has been bothering him. He has been slightly more irritable than usual but he has a runny nose again so that could be a source of discomfort.

And his other first: he went on the swings for the first time on Sunday (and again on Monday and again today)! The return of the swings is a sure sign of spring in our city. His smiles and laughter showed that he liked it! He also likes to sit at the bottom of the slide and watch the children running around.

Finally, I think he's starting to make an animal noise. It's not any particular animal noise but rather a generalized grunt. But he seems to do it when we look at animal picture books so I suspect that he's beginning to imitate us.

The Future

One night after her bath D and I were chatting in the bathroom. D informed me that in a long, long, long time when she's all grown up, it will be time for her to move to a different house and find true love. She will have two children: a girl named Elizabeth and a boy named Carstick.

Body (&) Language

Baby A is expressing himself more and more. Here are some recent examples:

• If he's in our arms and we walk away from something that he wanted to see or touch, he'll let out a little wail of protest. 
• When we go to pick him up, he's starting to raise his arms and lean towards us.
• He will sometimes get upset if he sees me leave the room.
• He is starting to direct our hands toward something that he wants us to pick up or show him. 
• I know I mentioned this before but it's worth repeating: he has really discovered his voice. For a while he was really into "daa" sounds but now he has a huge repertoire, including his enthusiastic staccato "heuh!" when he likes what he sees and his meltdown-weepy-tired "ma na ma na na" lamentations. Sometimes in the morning I see him wake up and he makes his little conversational noises (and smiles) before he even opens his eyes.
• He is not very mobile but when he's sitting on the floor playing with something, he does have a wide reach and will stretch as far as possible to try to grab something attractive. He doesn't really get frustrated with stuff that's too far, though.
• He definitely responds to certain words: Tigresse (our cat), sister, Papa, milk, and doggie. 
• His current favourite books are: Baby's First 1-2-3 Book, Touch and Feel Wild Animals, Discovery Farm, Where's My Bear?, and Baby Animals.
• When he's in our arms and he sees something that interests him (like say, cutlery, for instance) he'll sortof fling himself toward it. And if I'm holding him on my hip and he wants down, he'll pull his legs together to slide down. 
• And finally: when I pick him for the first time in the morning or when he stirs in the nighttime (and on other occasions throughout the day as well) he leans onto my shoulder as if he's giving me a little cuddle. And then after a few seconds he straightens up to look around or to push away and down, looking for some mama milk.

This all sounds a little banal written out in a point-form list but trust me, it's stunning to witness!

Oral Report

Baby A is currently 8.5 months old. We both have a stuffy/runny nose and we didn't sleep very well last night. But as I write this, he's been asleep for 2.5 hours and hasn't woken up yet which is great even for a non-sick night! It took him a bit longer than usual to fall asleep because nursing isn't as peaceful when baby can't breathe easily through his nose. But A is persistent and we haven't had to try any baby nose-de-clogging instruments yet.

And speaking of breastmilk: A is still not interested in food. I am not exaggerating when I report that his very best meals amount to maybe a teaspoon of ingested food. But yesterday we went out for sushi and when I fed him some mushed-up avocado on my finger a couple times, he actually opened his mouth and let me put it in. It was really quite novel because he usually closes his mouth and turns his head away. When we're sitting at the table together we often let him play with food but he never brings any of it up to his mouth. In fact, he doesn't put anything (toys, etc.) into his mouth at all. I ask you: what baby on earth doesn't put everything and anything into their mouth?! Hilarious, he is. When he first started learning to grab things he did bring them to his mouth but he got over that quite quickly. It's convenient not to have to worry much about him putting gross or dangerous objects into his mouth. But of course we must remain vigilant as his habits will likely change!

In the last couple days, I've noticed that he's been drooling, which he hasn't done for months. Maybe it's just related to his cold - like he can't breathe properly through his nose so he has his mouth open more and therefore drools...? Or maybe he's working on a first tooth?

Green Day

Last Saturday D and I were decked out in green not to celebrate St.Patrick's Day but because we went to see Shrek the Musical!

First, let me provide a bit of historical background on our relationship with Shrek. It all began in an East Coast hotel room, circa Christmas 2010, when we saw a part of the Shrek movie on TV. D was intrigued and asked me to tell her stories about him afterward. Then we borrowed the DVD from a friend and the obsession began. It reached its height mid-2011 when almost all her imaginary play involved Shrek and Fiona. Even now, a year later, she's still really into it. She has collected quite a bit of Shrek paraphernalia (I had no idea that word included the letter r!) and still claims Fiona as her favourite princess.

How could we not take her to see the musical?!

On our way on the bus. (Baby A and LePapa walked around downtown for duration of the show.)

While we waited for the show to start, D said, "Mama, I'm feeling a bit nervous." She explained that it was because she was thinking of parts of the movie and wondering about them. I had told her repeatedly that the show would be different from the movie because I didn't want her to be disappointed - but afterward she insisted that it had been a lot like the movie. It was a great: singing and dancing and smoke and lights and amazing scenery changes. 

"Smile!" I said. "I am smiling," she said.

She says that her favourite part was when Shrek and Fiona were burping and farting. She was also really impressed when we went down to look at the orchestra pit after the show and one of the lingering musicians threw one of Fiona's costumes up onto the stage. I guess it had fallen down into the pit at some point. (My favourite was Lord Farquaad. He was hilarious and looked so much like his cartoon inspiration.)

Only readers who have seen Shrek 4 will understand what she's doing here!

I really enjoyed taking her to see a live show. And beyond the excitement of the show itself, it was lovely to spend time with her one-on-one. Those of you who have more than one child know what I mean, eh?

More Quotes

"You keep company of my necklace while I go in my room to sew a dress for the ball."

"Mama, do you know what 'time-out' means?"

"Mama, do you know what 'gonfler' means?"

"Mama, do you know what 'shoot' means?"

"I was just wondering if we could...?"

"When A gets bigger, that'll be a funny name cuz 'A' is funny for a big person."

(At the park) "This is my husband and he's a stick." 

"Mama, did you know that we always have to say the truest? You know, the really true thing?"

*

And seriously, D actually used the phrase "in fact" this evening. She used it to begin a sentence and it didn't particularly fit but she was trying it out.

Also, A is "talking" too! Over the past two weeks he has discovered a lot of new sounds and his babbling is absolutely adorable. He speaks playfully, with conviction and variations of tone and pitch, often employing "daaaaaa."

Core

D: "Look - it's the skeleton of the apple!"

Catch Up

Oh hello there.

It's been a while, hasn't it?

How about some good ol' bullet-point random update facts to get us back into the swing of things?

• Baby A has been sitting up for a few weeks now and he's really good at it (although we still position precautionary cushioning around him when he's sitting unattended)!  

•  We went to visit my parents (5 hours away) and will soon be visiting my in-laws (2.5 hours away). We go on at least six such road trips a year (sometimes more, and sometimes longer distances) to be with family. We always look forward to going away but the driving part can be painful at times, especially when 1. D insists that she would rather be carsick than take her anti-nausea syrup and 2. baby A looks at me sadly from his carseat, unable to comprehend why I won't just pick him up like I usually do. Damn (lifesaving) carseat.

• A is completely uninterested in starting solids. When we let him play with baby-friendly finger foods it doesn't even occur to him to put it in his mouth. And when he sees a spoonful of puree coming his way, he shuts his mouth and turns his head to the side. We're not worried and we're not gonna push it - but we are curious to see how this will develop in future months.

• I loooove reading to my kids. D's recent favourites from the library are Princesses are Not Perfect, The Sandcastle Contest, Gingerbread Baby, and Shrek 2: The Movie Storybook. This weekend we also read It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown at least five times. Baby A is really attentive when we read books that have photos of babies or that have moveable parts. I'm impressed at how many books we can read together without him losing interest. 

• D continues to invite us into her vibrant imaginary world. She says, "Hmm, who should I be today?" and then she decides to be someone from Shrek or herself as a baby or a fairytale princess. She asks us who we want to be or assigns characters to us and she changes her role multiple times a day.

Here are some recent amusing shots of the siblings:

Making it hard to climb in between them. (So precious, eh?)

This is what our living room usually looks like.

Farm visit together.

D is actually watching a movie here and A is kicking Tigresse.

Gettin' Out There

This weekend the four of us trekked over to our nearby large urban park to engage in some outdoorsy winter activities. I harbour a sense of guilt that maybe we don't do this often enough so we were Very Determined to make it happen - even though it meant that D wouldn't have her afternoon nap (which actually turned into a good thing when she was out like a light before 8pm!) (but which didn't seem like a good thing when she cried exhausted tears all the way home from the park).

Just before we made it out the door we had a moment of "oh-THIS-is-why-we-don't-do-this-more-often." I was trying to get A into his snowsuit as he wailed and LePapa was trying to get D into her snowsuit while she insisted on quizzing us on the Disney princess book she absolutely had to read right then. We were further discouraged when we tried to take a shortcut to the park (our neighbour was sure there was a hole in that fence!) that turned into a detour.

And then we got there and it was so lovely to see all these people skating on the frozen pond in the afternoon sunlight. And D was oh so delighted to skate for the first time ever (unlike one my best friend's nieces who were likely skating before they turned one) and to sled bravely down an enormous hill. LePapa went down in the sled with her and it really flew because the snow was slick and icy. As soon as they got to the bottom, she said, "That was fun! ENCADRE!" (That's a long-standing family joke based on one of D's little friends mis-pronouncing "encore"). She wanted to go down the other side of the hill which was an even longer run.

"Skating" like this is hard on the parent's lower back.

Baby A was sleeping on me in the baby carrier so I watched and waved and took pictures. I wouldn't have wanted it any other way, anti-skating gal that I am. To make LePapa laugh I said, "Lemme tell ya, it'll be a cold day in hell before I join you on the rink!" (He gets a kick out of anglo expressions.) D said, "I don't know what you're saying!" I did not rephrase the sentiment for her comprehension-level as I'm working hard not to pass on my fear of skating to her.

We brought herbal tea in a thermos - mmmm. Came in handy when D announced that she was "extremely cold" and accompanied her announcement with exaggerating shivering that looked alarmingly realistic.

Educational, Conversational

I was sitting on the rocking chair with a certain baby boy (who happens to be 7 months old today!) and I asked D to climb up onto the futon to turn on the living room light. She added some extra acrobatics to her climbing and successfully reached the light switch.

"You did it! Thanks," said I.

"I became a hero!" exclaimed D.

"A hero? What's a hero?"

"It's...ummmm... when you're really smart. Like Puss."

(No doubt my faithful readers will know that she was referring to Puss-in-Boots, the character from Shrek who now has his own full-length movie and is the star of two books that we own and read regularly.)

On the topic of definitions, D then decided to quiz me: "Do you know what teenager means?"

"What does it mean?" I asked in return.

"It means if you're half grown up and half children."

Later on in the evening, D climbed onto the futon to turn on the light again. This time she announced, "I'm an artist like Uncle D!"

Hmmm, I thought, okay. Perhaps she thinks that hero and artist are synonyms. That would certainly make sense in relation to her adoration of her artist uncle.

"What does artist mean?" I asked.

"When you paint really good," she replied - at which point I figured out that she was looking at some of her artwork hanging close to the light switch.

"Eating"

Baby A has had his first tastes of food! Last Thursday night, we told D that she could feed A some baby cereal the next day. She was so excited that she tearfully protested having to wait all the way until morning. Then she woke up early saying, "I'm ready to feed A!" (He was still sleeping.)

So far he has eaten has been offered rice cereal and homemade carrot puree. He also ate played with some pieces of avocado and cooked broccoli. He likes carrots best, by which I mean that he may have let a little bit of it go down his throat. Obviously nothing tastes as delicious as my milk but hopefully this is nonetheless the beginning of a healthy lifelong love affair with yummy food.

Logic of the Sweet Tooth

D: "I wish that the stuff that we usually eat that is not dessert would be not good for our bodies and dessert would be good for our bodies!"

Family Bedtimes

At bedtime we always read four books. Three of the books wait in their little pile on the side of the bed but the fourth is in a hiding place (usually in A's co-sleeper). This fourth book is called "Last One." Its identity developed out of D so consistently asking for "Just one last one" that we started to prep for it. We have an implicit understanding that Last One will be especially carefully selected: a new one, a favourite, or one that we haven't read for a while - bref, something to elicit a bit of excitement. After her bath and just before reading time, D will often ask, "Did you remember to hide Last One?" We also sometimes hear, "But I don't want that to be Last One!"
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Sometimes bedtime is tough (surprise, surprise). Luckily, D is generally a happy participant in the bedtime routine. She likes to play in the bath, likes to jump on the bed and likes to read books. The problematic moment comes when the lights go off and D wants me to lie with her until she falls asleep. (Actually, I`m pretty sure she thinks I`m going to sleep for the night too.) It`s okay with us that she doesn`t fall asleep alone; the problem is that she wants ME to lie with her. If I happen to be out of the house she`ll be fine going to sleep beside LePapa, but if I`m home and busy with A, or if it`s just LePapa`s turn, crises can ensue.

__

A`s bedtime usually coincides with D`s bedtime. Once in a while, we`re feeling all thrilled that they`re both asleep at the early (to us) hour of 8:30pm and then A wakes up and makes it clear that he had not gone to bed for the night but was instead indulging in a third nap. And then he`s up late.

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Sometimes at my own bedtime I climb into bed between my two sleeping children, my husband an arm`s reach away, and I have a serious moment of grateful bliss. I am a mama bird, all satisfied and relaxed because everyone is together and peaceful in our family nest. Alternately, sometimes I wake up in the morning after a night of interrupted sleep and I say to LePapa, "Can you please get up with them so that I can have just a few minutes in this bed without anyone touching me?"

Optical Delusions

"Mama, when I'm all grown up can I wear your glasses?"

"Mama, when I'm all grown up will my eyes be blue?"

Half a Year

Baby A is (over) six months old now! He merits a post detailing what he's like at this point in time...

I suppose the first thing to report is that he's still a smiler. I mean, he can wail if he needs to (like when I took a bit too long coming back from the grocery story yesterday - oops) but in general he is an extremely happy boy. People continue to comment on his engaging and joyful smile. It's awesome.

He really likes to grab things and he now has his own little basket of baby toys. He doesn't put stuff into his mouth so much; these days he'd rather hold things and contemplate their textures. He has an impressively wide reach while sitting in his bumbo and has managed to knock over some items, such as his father's coffee cup. The bumbo has come in really handy. He sits in it while we eat or cook and is generally content for quite a while. This is a phenomenon (that is, sitting contentedly) that we never experienced with his sister so we are quite amazed.

And speaking of his fabulous older sibling, D loves to give A a hug and kiss every now and then and to report on what he's doing. She'll say, "Did you hear A making those baby noises?" or make up something like, "A's talking about computers again." or "A's saying, 'why is my house moving?'" when we're in a car. In turn, A is visibly adoring of his sister. He finds her almost as riveting as he finds the cat. Sometimes he'll sit by her in the bumbo while she's playing on the carpet and we parents marvel from a distance at this glimpse of future shared play.

He hasn't been sleeping as well for the past while - and by "while" I mean approximately six weeks. We don't really have a concrete theory on why he's waking up more often in the night. At first I thought it was teething... and then maybe the unfamiliarity of travel... and then he had a bad cold... and perhaps now it has just become the new norm. Sometimes he wants to nurse but sometimes I just need to pick him up and cuddle him for a few minutes.

His napping habits have changed in the different way: a couple months ago, he would only nap in our arms or in the baby carrier and he would wake up almost immediately if we tried to put him down on a bed. Now we can gently put him down (usually on his belly) when he's asleep and he'll keep on sleeping. He takes 2 or 3 naps a day of varying and unpredictable duration.

His eyes are brownish-gray at this point and his hair is similar to mine and D's. His skin is as soft as all the clichés about baby's skin and his cheeks are endlessly kissable. I just love his little body as well as his personality: he's curious but not demanding, generous with his smiles but fiercely attached to his family, and mellow without being passive. Six months in, we're entirely convinced that he's the perfect addition to our family.

Elves

Looking at a picture of Santa Claus and his team of identical elves, D commented, "Look, there's Santa and his little twin things!"

**

Yes, we're back. I neglected this blog while we were away on holidays and then couldn't access it once we came home because our laptop was dying of old age. But now we have a brand new laptop and it works fast. No more "I'll click on this email and then go tidy up while it loads onto the screen." So here's to lots of posts in 2012!