A Little Rant and a Trip to the Zoo

Sophie was eating a "pop-aco" after her nap one day. I told her to stay in the kitchen, but instead of sitting at the table, she plopped herself down on the floor and let her feet dangle into the living room. Stinker. I ran upstairs for a minute and came down to find someone had scooted herself into the kitchen to steal a few bites.

I forget sometimes how quick Ivy is getting. I panicked for a second, thinking the popsicle (which is just plain yogurt with some fruit juice or puree mixed in) might make her sick, but then remembered that I had started feeding her yogurt this week. She loves it, by the way.

I took her in for a check up this week, and I hesitate telling you her stats. She's little. She's 27 inches long, which is about average, but she still only weighs 13.5 lbs. That's about 2 inches shorter and 4 pounds lighter than Sophie was at that age. (Funny, though, that Ivy actually gets around better than Sophie did at 9 months.)

The doctor was a little concerned and wants her to come in for a weight check next month. She's always been petite and so was Sophie, so I figured she was fine. And because she wasn't eating much regular food, I'm still nursing her every 2-4 hours around the clock. There are babies who are exclusively breastfed until they're a year old who do just fine. The doctor thinks I'm not giving her enough calories. I do think she could stand to gain a few pounds, but it bugs me that doctors think just because she doesn't have fat rolls spilling out all over, she isn't as "healthy" as she should be. It's sort of ironic that the standard is switched when you reach adulthood, regardless of how well you take care of yourself.

Anyways, I've been getting her to eat more food lately, but it has to be from what I cooked for the rest of us. Example: She hates plain, pureed/diced butternut squash, but loves it if it's been cooked in a chile verde sauce. (What a refined little palate you have, sweetie.) I think she's going to skip the rice cereal (which is basically iron-fortified sawdust anyway) and pureed food stage and head right on into table food. Smashed, that is, because she still has no teeth.

So-o-o-o, went to the zoo last week. We hadn't been since last summer, and Sophie loved it (no surprise.) She wants to go there every day now.

When I go to the zoo, I don't take pictures of the animals. I know what a zebra looks like, and it probably won't ever change. Sophie, however, will.

Here's another shot of my "cool girl" reading a book to her baby. Did I mention that she still nurses that baby? Twice a day. Right after she gets up and right before bed. I wish I could get Ivy on a schedule like that.

A Spiral, A Skeleton, and Some Skin

Sophie's into drawing circles lately. And spirals. This one on the porch caught my eye, and I thought it was pretty impressive for a two-year-old.

This handsome fellow is my semi-annual craft. (I don't do a lot of them, can you tell?) I found this kit at Michael's for next to nothing, so I bought it, let Sophie paint all over the pieces, then put it together and we gave it to Steve for his birthday. Appropriate for a chiropractor-in-training, eh? I think he loves it. It's sitting on his dresser as we speak.

Actually for our birthdays we decided that we needed a night out. Our last child-less date was our anniversary last year in September. It was time to ditch the kiddos. Best birthday present ever.

I like the polka dot pelvis.

I don't think I mentioned that I got one of the worst sunburns of my life last week. I took the girls to the pool and had enough sense to put sunscreen on them, but not on me. Seriously, what was I thinking? Thanks to my SPF 15 facial moisturizer, my face was saved, but my poor back, who hadn't seen that much sun in years, fried up like a pizza under a broiler. (Whoa, control your thoughts at 10PM, Nat.) Not only was my skin on fire, but it felt like my muscles were somehow fried, too. I was sore to the bone. I've been basically "untouchable" for almost a week now, which included Steve's birthday, my first adjustment by him at the clinic (I still let him, but it hurt), and one day last week when he got out of class early and we could have gone to the beach. I ruined EVERYTHING!

Now I'm in the itchy-peeling stage. And, well, . . . not to get all nudey on you or anything, but

This is just as much of me as you would see if I had my suit on. I promise.

anyone up to a peel fest? I know my sister would jump at this. Maybe my mom, too. I tried to peel it off myself, but got cramps in my neck.

August Baby Boom

Here are a couple of pics from our birthday shin-dig last Saturday. Along with Steve and me, there were two other girls in our ward who had birthdays in August. (Ok, three, but that one thought it would be more fun hanging out with Mickey Mouse than us. Pah-leeze.)

A few people asked me if I made myself a birthday cake and what kind. Well, for the party I wasn't in charge of the cake, but I made the ice cream. Because I made a gallon of custard-based ice cream, I ended up with 18 egg whites sitting in my fridge. The only thing to do with that many egg whites is make Angel Food Cake. So I did. Steve wanted this cheesecake for his birthday, but since we've had a lot of sweets this past week, I'll do it this weekend instead.

This photo actually came from a video clip -- another sweet feature I discovered in Picasa!

Explanation and Our Birthdays

I've had a lot of people ask me about that photo, so here's the story . . . (although it really isn't much of one) All of your captions were hilarious. You really didn't expect me to pick just one, did you? (Or to send a piece of cake through the mail, . . . c'mon.)

I was in the kitchen making dinner and had to put Ivy down in the living room because I needed both hands for something. I figured Steve could watch her because he was out front with Sophie and the door was open.

Only he wasn't out front. He had taken Sophie for a walk down the street. After a few minutes I hear a little yelp from the porch (which is literally 8 steps from the kitchen) and I found Ivy on the welcome mat looking a little confused.

That's all. It was a classic case of both parents thinking the other was watching the child. It was just funny to see her on the porch like that. The same thing happened Saturday as we were hauling some things to the neighbor's house. Only that time she made it down without falling out of the house. She's a determined little bugger.

I had a great birthday yesterday. It seemed like any other Monday except Steve came home from school early, he cleaned up the kitchen after dinner like I do it (Am I the only one who has a different definition of "doing the dishes" than my husband? I doubt it. Steve's a rockstar.), and I turned 29 for the first time, which means I've officially stopped aging. It was a good day.

Steve's birthday is tomorrow. He's going to be ahem30ahem. (Unlike women, men continue to age after 29.) I think he's fine with it, though. If it bugs him he hasn't said anything. (Which isn't surprising. I'm the vocal one out of the two of us.)

I have some pics and things to post from a shin-dig we had on Saturday, but in the meantime . . .

Happy Birthday Hon!

How do I Explain Myself?

(Don't worry, she isn't hurt, just upset that I put her back down where I found her so I could go get my camera -- reason #8194 why I probably won't win any "Parent of the Year" awards.)

Before I attempt to explain why Ivy is laying on the porch, obviously in distress, I want to make a game out of it. (#8195)

Leave a comment with your most creative caption for this photo! I'll decide who wins sometime over the weekend. Prizes? I'll send you some birthday cake.

The Evolution of Words

It's fascinating to me how toddlers learn to talk. I love listening to Sophie's interpretations of sounds and words and how words change over time. (Secretly hoping that she'll never say some things correctly. . . we've started calling blueberries "boo-bahs" just so she'd continue to call them that. I know I'm not the only one who does this.)

One of my favorites was the word "orange". It started off as "oooorrrrnng" (like saying it without vowels), then turned into "o-wan-dah". Not sure where that came from, but adding syllables rocks. Now she says it fine.

"Octopus" is coming along nicely, too. I think the last time I mentioned it she was saying "op-i-tiss". Well, like poor orange, it's take a turn in a different direction . . .

Every time I hear her say it it makes me wince a little, then giggle.

Fimming

Ever since our little pool party at the neighbors, Sophie has wanted to put her "fim-suit" back on and "fim". She talks about it everyday. The weather has been delightful these past couple of weeks, but I didn't think 70 degrees was warm enough to "fim". Saturday warmed up, so we (I) blew up the pools. (Manually... er... facially? I felt like I was going to pass out, but not as bad as when I did it 6-months pregnant last summer. We need to get our bike pump back.)

I had planned on blowing them up in the morning, then letting them sit for a few hours to warm up the water. Plans don't really happen most of the time. Sophie was in her suit before 11AM, playing in ice cold water, fresh from the hose. And loving it.

Thanks for the pool, Perins!

Ivy woke up from her nap, we ate lunch, then Sophie wanted to go back out and "fim". I slipped Ivy into her suit, lowered into the water and waited for her reaction. The water was by no means warm. It wasn't ice-cold, but it was. . . cool. I certainly would have gasped had I sat in that pool (and my mom would have sang some opera like she used to when we'd go waterskiing), but Ivy didn't. Unlike Sophie's first experience with kiddie pools, Ivy loved it. I can add that to my "why my girls are polar opposites" list.

Ivy's famous tongue-smile. She sat in that pool until her feet were shrivled and she started to shiver a bit, but she didn't complain once.

I love that Ivy's sitting up so well now. She loves it, too. She's graduated to sitting up in the tub by herself and riding up front in the cart. That last one isn't a problem because Sophie insists on walking everywhere we go now. I never thought I would dread going grocery shopping. It makes me sad.

One bowl on the head is just not enough.

Sophie does great impressions. She can do just about every little noise Ivy makes.

Babysitting Co-op

A few of you asked about the babysitting co-op we have going here, so I thought I'd post the rules and such. Kathryn, our brilliant timekeeper, has compiled a set of rules that we follow, and so far it's been a great system. We use Google documents so everyone can see the master timesheet that Kathryn keeps for us.

How it works:

1. Each member starts with 10 hours.

2. You may call anyone on the co-op members list and anyone may call you to arrange babysitting. You are ALWAYS free to say "no" to watching someone's children—no explanation is required.

2. The co-op may be used for daytime or evening hours. It is up to you to arrange when/where babysitting will take place. It can be at the sitter’s house or your house.

3. Hours are recorded in 15 minute increments and the moderator (Kathryn) keeps track of everyone's hours. Each member should keep a record of her own hours on a timesheet as well.

4. Hours are credited/debited at the rate of real minutes for the first child and half minutes for each additional child.

Example: If Cathi babysits Asher and Silas for 2 hours, Sarah will give 3 hours to Cathi. The full 2 hours for Asher, and ½ of the two hours for Silas, which is 1 hour.

Some Rules:

1. Every time you arrange for someone in our group to babysit your children, report your hours to the moderator. Email works best.

Example email: “please credit Sarah with 3 hours of time”

The moderator will then subtract 3 hours from your total, and add 3 hours to Sarah’s.

It is courteous to copy the person who babysat for you on the email so that they know they've been credited. Every month or so the moderator will send out an update of how many hours each person has, and you can always ask for your personal total if you need to know.

2. You cannot go below 0 hours or accumulate more than 24 hours. Accumulated hours in excess of the original 10 hours that are not used for 6 months will be redistributed to the group.

3. If you choose to leave the group and you have less than 10 hours, please babysit until you have 10 hours accumulated. You owe it to the group. Conversely, if you decide to leave the group and you have more than 10 hours accumulated, you are welcome to use the extra hours. If you choose not to, they will be re-distributed to the group.

Other Stuff:

A. We will compile a contact list consisting of name, address, home and mobile phone numbers, and emergency contacts.

B. It is always okay to say no. Just because you are in the group and free for a particular time does not mean you need to feel obligated to say yes to someone or to give an excuse.

D. If someone is babysitting for you and you are running late please call and ask the person if they have anywhere they need to be, or if it's okay for them to watch your kids longer than you first talked about. The babysitter has the right to say no and ask you to send someone else to pick up your kids. This does not happen very often but needs to be said.

Mobility

After Ivy scooted her way across the floor yesterday to suck on some crayons and kept getting into the shoe basket, Steve and I decided that she's finally mobile. Still slow and easily manageable, but definitely mobile. Gone are the days of leaving her on the couch to play, which was nice because Sophie scatters all of her "chokeables" on the floor.

She's working on getting her legs coordinated, but army crawls pretty well -- more than what she does in these clips. Of course, kids never do their best tricks when mom and dad try to show them off.

Everybody Wins

Last week I volunteered to watched a friend's kids for a couple of hours, and immediately after I realized that I would have four kids all to myself. I got a little nervous. People with four kids at home might scoff at me, but I'm still a two-kid mom. It's all relative. Plus their ages are 8 mo, 12 mo, 2 and 2 1/2.

I thought it would be easier to watch all the kids at a fenced-in toddler playground close by where they could run around til their heart's content. I earned a few hours from our babysitting co-op (Does anyone else have one? It's a great system.), my house didn't get destroyed (more than it usually is) and my friend Sarah got a couple of kid-free hours of shopping. I think we all won.

I love that they all have the exact same facial expression.


Sophie's into turning her head away from the camera when I tell her to smile and look at me. Stinker.

The boys played really well together that day. Nobody sat on anyone and no bark was ingested.

Ivy slept half the time, which made my job even easier.

See the mark on her nose? Remnants of her encounter with a puzzle board.