Leaving Las Leyes

Busy

2010-03-28T23:57:00.000-04:00

I'd love to promise photos soon. (I will post some if I can locate someone who has taken pictures of my kids during the last 15 weeks). It's been crazy to say the least.

The baby is eleven months old. Wearing 2T. Trying to walk. Says things like Uh-Oh, Mama, Baba, Night-Night, Daddy and Bubba. Hardly a baby. But it all happened so fast. While I was busy doing other things.

There are lots of other things, but here's the biggest one. The Little Brown School. My new baby. (And no, it doesn't count as #4, that one is still in the wings - when the time is right.)

Update

2010-02-09T22:29:00.000-05:00

Okay so it probably doesn't count as an update because so much time has passed that I'd pretty much need like 2 years to fill in the missing pieces. So instead, here's where we are today:

Davis is six. I am pretty sure I have yet to post any pics from his birthday party. Which was held on or around his birthday. In August. He can read. Really read. I am not sure how that happened; one day he was bringing home his little books and I was ripping my hair out listening to him guess at every word without looking at the letters contained therein, and the next day he grabs a book off the shelf and reads the entire thing. And then because I was sure it was a trick, I asked him to read another, and he could! I definitely credit his fantabulous school. I also sort of believe that it is one of those things that works like potty-training. Best not to put too much pressure on them. One day they just get it. He can also ride a two-wheeler. Thanks to Reeves who shamed him into trying since there was no way that Z was going to let some 4 year old show him up. He's playing basketball and soccer and finishing up swim team. We need a better swim team around here. They don't do enough to get the development team interested in the sport, and so I don't think he wants to go back next year.

Guerin is still three, going on three. He alternates between insisting on doing everything just like Davis and sneaking into our bed with all of his blankies (warm and cold) and "pets" in the middle of the night. He'll play soccer this spring, in his own little league and he is so excited! He learned to write his name today (signing Valentine's cards - apparently there's something to this whole learning by repetition thing :)) and my favorite part of his "signature" is that he arbitrarily decides how many lines the E will get - and it varies every time. While 3 lines is your standard capital E - he seems to prefer those with at least 5 and frequently his "favorites" are those with 7 lines. He has at least 50 cute things that he says, most of which are escaping me right now. The only one I can think of this instant is that he calls Allie's crate her "crake". He's definitely quicker than Davis was at this age - he's always angling for something. The other day he spent a good five minutes telling me all about the boy in his class who can't have milk because it makes his tummy hurt (allergies) and on and on and on . . . until he finally concluded by telling me that the valentine's candy we had for his class would make this boy's tummy hurt. So the boy couldn't eat it. So Guerin should get his piece. Right then.

Saida is now nine months old. She crawls, babbles all the time, still likes to growl, thinks it's funny to bitch-slap her brothers in the face, weighs a ton, eats anything she is fed, intentionally or by her brother, is apparently not allergic to peanuts, has an intense fascination with the cats who have an equally intense hatred of all things children, has six teeth, has crazy hair that only grows forwards and necessitates the constant use of hairbows, prefers any dog chew toy to her toys, eats cat food when left unsupervised, does not have time to be held or cuddled, and loves, loves, loves her brothers and her daddy.

Willis Pet Cemetary Update:

No burials since Jezebel. Unless you count the dead cat we found at the end of the driveway.

Allie (that's the newish dog) is still around. Apparently she has more Bassett in her than we knew. She grows in legnth but not so much in height, but she doesn't look too daschund-y. Maybe I'll post some pictures. Next year.

Lucy is still here too, but she's almost legally blind now and she won't be getting any cataracts surgery thanks to Max, who is also still with us thanks to the significant injection of cash we have given him over the past 3 months.

Qweeasy is also still around and crazier than ever. I am considering institutionalizing her if she loses any more brain cells.

That's pretty much it for the February update. Look for more news sometime in April. In the meantime, more fat baby pictures:

Snow Trip 2010

2010-02-08T23:00:00.000-05:00

Still Here . . . .

2010-01-22T00:55:00.000-05:00

A little buried, but maybe we'll resurface in February.
In the meantime . . .

Happy New Year!!

2010-01-03T21:50:00.002-05:00

Santa!!

2009-12-16T09:47:00.001-05:00

Six Months & More

2009-12-14T12:47:00.002-05:00

So I apparently completely forgot a six month post. And all posts thereafter. And then when I went back to at least fill in some photos, I realized I really don't have any.

Pictures of her in her adorable Halloween costume? Nope.

Pictures of her with her brothers wearing adorable matching outfits at her Christening? None.

Pictures of the children in the same outfits at Thanksgiving? Zero.

Pictures of her 3rd or 4th tooth? No.

Pictures of her sitting on Santa's lap? Not one.

So, the few pictures below will have to suffice for our 6, 7 and probably 8 month updates as well as any sort of Halloween, Christening, Thanksgiving and Christmas preparations posts.

6 Month News: At her 6 month check-up, she was 22 lbs 13 ounces and 28 inches long. I'd have to guess she's closer to 25 pounds now. I don't have any pictures (see above), but I LOVE when she wears little tights. They really accentuate the sausagey look of her thighs.

Trip to Mountains: We went to the mountains. We caught fish. We picked apples. We hiked. Once.

Halloween: Princess was a zebra. It was hot (imagine that) so the costume didn't stay on all night. Z was a ninja and Rin was the Ghost of Obi-Wan.

Christening: Check. She cried. A lot. Mostly because someone knocked a chair over right before the ceremony and frightened her.

Thanksgiving: Accomplished.

Campout: Survived.

Christmas: tbd. We do have a tree and plans for a party so we're hanging in there.

Better than Bacon

2009-12-09T22:53:00.003-05:00

My new favorite fat is . . .

I had to take these pictures so that I never forget how absolutely adorable her rolls are . . . I'm sure she'll love me for these photos one day.

The Best Age Ever

2009-11-30T23:20:00.004-05:00

Three is challenging. But honestly, I'd take a three year old at Christmas over any other age. Everything, absolutely everything, about Christmas this year has Rin in awe. He came home from school today to see some additional decorations I had put out, and he wandered around with his jaw hanging open saying "this is amazing Mommy" over and over. I can't wait until he sees the tree and the outdoor lights.

Christmas also provides a great opportunity for adorable little mistakes and sayings . . . I got all of these in just one afternoon.

His favorite Christmas song is Rudy the Deer.
The night before Christmas we make casseroles to leave out for Santa.
At the end of the Grinch show, he said - "That was nice."
Mrs. Claus sometimes helps Santa - like when he gets stuck in a swing.
He sings "We Wish You A Christmas and a Happy Day"
He has a sock with a firetruck on it that he hangs by the fire.
He wants us to get a reindeer for our yard. A real one.
After I put lights, a small tree and a light-up gingerbread house in their room, he looked around, announced that it was "amazing" and then wanted to know when I was going to put the rest of the Christmas decorations for their room up.

Bananas and Pudding

2009-11-12T09:24:00.003-05:00

But not together - that would be gross!!

Allie

2009-11-10T16:29:00.000-05:00

Move Over Superman

2009-10-21T17:46:00.003-04:00

It wasn't too long ago that Reeves was only referred to as "Baby Reeves" in our house (granted, we did call Reeves this until he was at least three). Now we should probably start calling him Super Reeves or His Majesty Reeves, or something else more befitting the position he now holds in Rin's world.

Rin works Reeves into just about every conversation he has. Whether he is talking about his imagined adventures fighting dinosaurs and rescuing giraffes, or if he is just practicing his counting, Reeves' name somehow comes up.

For example, today he randomly asked me, as he does almost every single day, whether Reeves would still be four when he turns four. My answer - No, Reeves will be five then sweetie. Then it starts . . .

when I am five, Reeves will be six.
yes.
when I am six, Reeves will be seven.
yes. that's right.
when I am seven, Reeves will be eight.
uh-huh.
when I am eight, Reeves will be nine.
yep.
when I am nine, Reeves will be ten.
yes. he will.
when I am ten, Reeves will be eleven.
yep. eleven.
when I am eleven . . . um, eleven is the highest number. we'll both be eleven.

Reeves even gets credit for things that are only related to him. We're getting a new dog ~~soon~~ someday, so for fun I ask the boys what we should name it from time to time. Rin's answer is always the same - Henry. Because one time he went to Reeves' house and there was a dog named Henry there. Obviously because the dog was at Reeves' house for an hour, Henry the dog belongs to Reeves and all other dogs shall be called Henry, the best dog name ever, from here on out. He also told me the other day that he would call my friend, who had stopped by to drop something off, Henry. She's about 65 or so and doesn't look so much like a Henry.

For a week after we ended up wearing one of Reeves' pajama shirts home from Charleston, Rin would wear nothing else to sleep in, digging it out of the dirty clothes when I dared to try to wash it.

Rin now "hates" blue because it's not Reeves' favorite color anymore. (ASIDE TO KAK: Can we get that changed back because I really need Rin to like blue. 90% of his clothes are blue. And speaking of clothes - Kak, do you think that maybe you could send me some pictures of Reeves wearing longalls? Preferably green ones with a white turtleneck underneath? I have already decided that I am going to use this Reeves obsession to convince Rin that he will wear the outfit I have for him for the Christening, the same outfit he took one look at and said, I will NOT wear those baby clothes.)

Drenched

2009-10-20T20:15:00.005-04:00

If the saying "when it rains, it pours" applies to normal ordinary people, then we are experiencing multiple tsunamis during monsoon season.

Day 1: Put our 15 year old dog, Buster, to sleep.

Day 2: Have the 3-year-old mention Buster no less than 5 times before 10 a.m. Note that this exceeds the total number of times the child has ever talked about the dog in his entire life. Think about maybe telling him that Buster is gone. Decide against it.

Day 4: Spend ungodly amounts of money fixing my car (not the cosmetic issues either).

Day 6: Spend 2 hours outdoors in 90+ degree heat in OCTOBER in Beaufort, waiting for a flu shot. When it's our turn, discover they are out of the kind of flumist our insurance pays for. Spend $70 for "private" flumist because we have spent the last 2 hours promising the boys that they will NOT be getting shots - just squirts up their noses.

Day 6: Child 1 comes down with flu.

Day 7: Child 1 continues with flu.

Day 8: Child 1 continues with flu.

Day 9: Child 2 comes down with flu; Child 1 continues with flu.

Day 10: Child 3 comes down with flu; Children 1 & 2 continue with flu.

Day 11: Child 1 returns to school (yea!). Children 2 & 3 continue with flu. Realize that my car is not actually fixed.

Day 12: Children 2 & 3 continue with flu. Go to the grocery store with them anyway.

Day 13: Child 3 continues with flu. Host an outdoor dinner party in the rain which was NOT forecast. Not even a little bit.

Day 15: Discover that Jezebel has died sometime over the weekend. Find that Max has a raging infection. Bury Jezebel. Take Max to the vet.

Day 16: Chip front tooth to bring grand total of dental expenses since September 2009 to $1950. Learn from seasoned vet that Max's head infection one of the worst he's ever seen. He's probably been a vet for at least 40 years. Further learn that due to Max's head infection, he will be hospitalized for 15 days. Medicaid denies coverage.

Lesson Learned

2009-10-14T20:30:00.004-04:00

Lest I dare forget that my kids are unique individuals with different characters who respond to life's challenges in their own ways, H1N1 came along and reminded me.

Child 1: High fever, lethargy, headaches, lots of sleeping. Five days and counting.
Child 2: Snotty, snotty nose. Lots of snot. Fever stuck at 100-102 depending on how recently meds were given. Generally happy, but prone to more fussiness than normal.
Child 3: Lower fever, uncontrollable diarrhea. All over the kitchen floor. Happy, charming and playful when medicated.

And that Child #3 - he's an observant one. All this time that Z has been sick, Rin has been watching the "special" treatment with envy. He has done everything he could to get himself declared sick from telling us that he ate grass (I think his teacher told the class not to eat grass because it would make them sick??), that he has germs on his pinky, and that he ate the bugs - anything to get to do what Z was doing.

Because Z was the first, and we didn't want him getting anyone else sick (see how well that worked!), we quarantined him to our bedroom. He had to stay up there all the time, watch TV, and I let him have my laptop after day 2 when he got really bored. When he needed something, he would call down through the baby monitor and one of us would bring it to him so that he never had to share air space with the other two. Because he looked so horrible, and clearly felt so terrible, he got pretty much whatever he asked for - candy corn, M&M's, anything to make the quarantine easier on him.

He slept in our room the first 3 nights. Mostly so that he didn't cough all over Rin all night long, but also because at night, his fever would get so high that we wanted to be able to check on him more easily.

So, it doesn't take much to imagine the scene at our house this afternoon. Rin fell asleep standing up,

and eventually awoke burning up. I took his temp and confirmed to him that yes, he was sick. For the first 10 minutes or so, he cried and whimpered and felt horrible and sat in my lap looking miserable. Then the ibuprofen kicked in, he demanded that I take him upstairs to the "sick bed", turn on Dora, fetch him a bowl of candy, and let him play on the computer.

Now it's bedtime and so he has insisted that he gets to sleep on the floor in our room, with the rainbow blanket, just like Z did. I'm letting him - Z is back in his bed, holding his breath that he gets to go back to school tomorrow. I just hope that Rin doesn't actually get as sick as Z has been . . .

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-12T09:14:00.000-04:00

Rin keeps asking when we are going to decorate our Halloween eggs . . .

Sounds like a nice tradition to me. Besides making cookies and cakes, what else am I going to do with all those eggs in the fridge?

A Few of his Favorite Things

2009-10-11T16:06:00.002-04:00

Before I get in trouble for favoring Rin lately, Z is sick so he is quarantined. Literally. He is not allowed to be around us except when we are administering meds or taking his temp. That leaves Rin to get a lot of extra attention. Last night, he starting telling me what was his favorite thing about various people. I think he was confused at first, because he said his favorite thing about Reeves was Reeve's gun that you pull back to shoot the bullets (nice!), but then he kind of got what I was asking and here are the rest of his answers . . .

Mommy - playing wii
Daddy - gives me hugs
Davis - playing Mario Kart, hugging him when he's sick
Saida - talking to her
Granny Boo - letting me watch tv
Haha - talking to him and building puzzles
Grandmommy - gives me candy
Granddaddy - tickles me
Miss carol - painting
Hayes - playing memory with me
Carson - going to his house
Uncle john- going to his house
Moultrie - going to his house
Anna - she's the big girl who lives at john's house
me (Rin) - writing notes for mommy
Daddy - (round 2) i don't have a chance of daddy

Life with Three or A Picnic in the Park

2009-10-08T22:39:00.003-04:00

Davis, with his real haircut. Makes him look too old.

This IS Guerin.

Saida swinging. (Clearly Van was not with us. She was allowed to actually have the swing move while she was in it and no adult had two hands on the swing.)

Combo # 17

2009-10-08T20:13:00.002-04:00

Tonight I'm a cowboy dinosaur so I can say "Yee-Haw" and scare people.

Rin has always marched to his own drummer, a drummer who is sometimes so unique that I wonder if he even owns a drum. His latest method of self-expression is to refuse to wear matching pajamas. Not these kind of matching pjs, (they abandoned that long ago), but pajamas that were sold as a pair. I have to pick my clothing battles with this one, and pjs are a pretty low priority. Besides, who doesn't love a cowboy who roars.

Rin & Friends

2009-10-07T09:36:00.002-04:00

On the way home to Beaufort after a long day spent in Charleston:

Mommy: Did you have fun today? Are you happy to go home and see Daddy & Davis?
Rin: I'm going to tell Daddy Reeves knocked me off the red bike.
Mommy: Well, that was just one thing. Didn't you have fun playing with your friends?
Rin: Yes, but Reeves pushed me off the red bike.
Mommy: It wasn't nice that you guys were fighting. You guys are friends and you need to be nice to one another. It's special to go to your friends' house. Didn't you have fun?
Rin: Yes. It was fun. I went to two friends' today. I went to my friend Haha's house and my friend Reeves' house.
(He then tucked his special Altoids tin that Haha gave him up under him in the car seat and fell sound asleep.)

23 Weeks

2009-10-06T21:00:00.000-04:00

Not at ALL happy about having to pose before getting her last bottle of the day . . .

Here she is a little less angry . . .

Fumes

2009-10-01T21:39:00.005-04:00

I WIN!! And I double-win because (a) I didn't run out of gas and (b) Van never fussed about how far below the E the needle had fallen.

And you might not want to use the Shell station on Ribaut. I think that perhaps they charge you for a bit more gas than you take, because even though I am good, I don't really believe that I had gotten down to -0.747 gallons.

Me & Z

2009-09-30T20:46:00.004-04:00

So by the complete lack of coverage of his too exciting life on this blog, it would seem that I did in fact ship the mouthy older one off to boarding school, but I didn't. So here is proof . . .

(This is from the time that the main dropped on our heads because the halyard pin failed. Originally I assumed it was user error, but after last weekend . . . .)

This is from this past weekend when we had a great start immediately after our rudder-holder-upper-line (that's the technical term) popped in an unfixable manner. Rather than go in, we opted to sail the race with the defective rudder which meant that I would climb back and shove it back down everytime it came all the way up out of the water. Unfortunately, during one of those maneuvers, we must've gotten a little header which combined with the slight weather helm from having the rudder back in and caused us to tack unexpectedly. Long story short, the main was cleated, we were both on the leeward side and the wind was actually blowing for a change. We flipped. Not before I took a inch gash of skin off of my shin. After about twenty grueling minutes, we managed to get the mast out of the mud and the boat righted. Somehow Z has agreed to go back out next weekend.

Not surprisingly, he doesn't draw too many pictures of the two of us sailing. But here's one he did recently of us gardening together. (I don't get nearly as many pictures of us together as I used to - and the volume of I Love Mommy notes has dropped from about 6-7 a day to 1-2 per week. I must stop this growing up and realizing that Mommy is not the center of the universe thing somehow!)

In addition to drawing, he's very into writing. He doesn't ask for help, so he spells whatever he wants to say phonetically. He wrote a letter to his summer girlfriend the other day. Too cute. But he is pretty clear that she cannot be the only girlfriend; in fact, he has a "date" (his words!) at recess tomorrow with the prettiest girl in the class. While he may not completely grasp the dating thing yet (i.e., one girl at a time), he somehow already knows how it works. When I asked what they'd be doing on their recess date, he replied, "I don't know - she gets to decide."

Rin's Funny Words

2009-09-30T11:21:00.001-04:00

Pencil = Pretzel
Nothin' = Muffin
Waygo = Diego
Luncheon = Lotion
Beat Ball = Meatballs
Ashed Tomatoes = Mashed Potatoes
Queasy = Squeaky
Gorilla = Umbrella
Alligator = Elevator
Sun Necklaces = Sunglasses
Paint Fingering = Fingerpainting
Put on my dress = Get me dressed.
And Bingo was his Nemo! = (how he sings B-I-N-G-O)

Added August 2009:

Horn Dog = Corn Dog
Shush it = Flush it
Bone = Bow (as in she has a bone in her hair)

Added September 2009:

Zerzert = Dessert
Granny Boo = the monkey character on Mario Kart
"We have cats to scare away the monsters and bears."

Added October 2009:

Numbery = Memory (the game)

. . .And a ton more that I cannot remember right now but I will try to come back and add them so as not to forget.

22 Weeks

2009-09-29T23:26:00.003-04:00

That is also roughly 5 months (yesterday). Tooth #2 broke through today. You have not been nearly as fussy with this one as you were with the first. I like to think that makes you adaptable.

You are eating solids whenever we remember to feed you. Otherwise, you still take 5 bottles a day. And sometimes you take 5 bottles even when we do feed you. There is nothing that you don't like as of yet (except oatmeal but I think I gave that to you too soon and we haven't tried again recently).

Trying to roll over - still your favorite trick. Maybe we'll work on a new one this month.

You are still very happy. Now I actually have to pay attention to what time it is when you are tired because 99% of the time, when you are ready to go down for a nap, we are within 45 minutes of needing to leave the house. This is a problem now that you don't love to sleep in your carseat anymore - I pretty much used to let you sleep in there all day (See: your hair (or lack thereof where it has been rubbed off by the carseat)).

You love your bath, your food, your bottles, your brothers, your jumpy thing, Lucy kisses, being outside, the pool, eating your dress . . . there's not much you don't seem to like to do. You even don't mind diaper changes.

This week you have had your first real stroller walks (really) in the double jogger with Rin. He loves to tell you about all of the interesting things we pass. Hopefully soon I can rig up a baby swing in the yard so you can get outside more. (I say that on the first cool day we have had since last February, so of course it will be sweltering again by the weekend and we'll go back to hiding inside in the AC.)

21 Weeks or The Other 1%

2009-09-22T20:26:00.005-04:00

Wow - 21 weeks and she's still happy, 99% of the time. Except for when she's cutting her first tooth (this weekend). Or when she's being subjected to pictures in too-small pajamas that she has yakked carrots all over.

Perhaps He Should Write Country Music

2009-09-22T20:25:00.002-04:00

"I am going to cry until this house is flooded and everyone can have a mouth full of tears."

Thank God That's Over!!

2009-09-22T13:46:00.003-04:00

Over the weekend, one evil little tooth stole my sweet baby. But thankfully the personality changes weren't permanent, and she was back to her happy self by yesterday afternoon. Then last night she slept for 14 straight hours! Recovering from her 8-9 hour nights over the weekend I suppose.

20 Weeks

2009-09-16T21:19:00.005-04:00

She still will sleep anytime, anywhere.

Look - I can roll over! (Which really just means now I have to vacuum more often since she has to be put down on the floor instead of on beds, chairs or sofas.)

And here are the weekly pics minus the sign.

Pulling her dress up (and eating it) is a favorite activity. Perhaps I should teach her to at least expect beads or something . . .

19 Weeks

2009-09-09T21:12:00.003-04:00

I had a great video of Saida and her cereal to upload in honor of her 19th week. Unfortunately, the video is like 13 minutes long so Blogger will have nothing to do with it. So here's another picture from the same day.

Adventures in Eating

2009-09-09T18:59:00.002-04:00

Eighteen Weeks

2009-09-01T22:25:00.000-04:00

And Eighteen Pounds and Twelve Ounces!
27 inches.
That's somewhere north of the 100th percentile for both.

Her hair always sticks up like that in the back.

First Day of School

2009-08-31T10:38:00.000-04:00

FINALLY!! After two weeks of watching Davis go off to school, Rin finally gets to go too! He is so excited, especially because one of his teachers is one of Davis' teachers from last year. Just feeding into his theory that is now somehow a "big boy". I am doing everything I can to stop that from happening, but so far, it doesn't seem to be working.

Clearly we did not get a back-to-school haircut. I am considering taking him soon, but I'm not ready.

Perspective

2009-08-27T23:03:00.002-04:00

Do they make a Jumbo Bumbo?

If not, I am afraid that we'll have to invest in an actual high chair which sucks because we've made it without one since I sold Z's at a yard sale when he was very small.

And no, she didn't much care for the cereal. The first one of my kids who didn't take right to it. Go figure.

17 Weeks

2009-08-25T16:31:00.000-04:00

Yes, I know. Rin turned 3. Like 2 months ago. And Z is now 6 years and 5 days old. But doing a post for those milestones is way more time-consuming than just taking and posting a picture of Saida showing off her consistency in the weight gain category by posing in the same chair every week.

Smiley

2009-08-24T21:54:00.003-04:00

Not that I am surprised, but he actually smiles while swimming.

Rin is happy most of the time, but he is definitely having some adjustment issues now that Z is such a big boy all of a sudden and Saida is such a lovable squeezable baby. The other day he asked me to pick his teeth out too so he could be big like Davis. And he spends a lot of time while Davis is at school talking to his trorm poopers (Storm Troopers). Then this morning, while I was paying bills, he went outside, got Lucy, brought her in and carried her upstairs and tried to shut her in his room so that she could play Star Wars with him. He definitely needs for his school to start soon, and he could probably use a little uninterrupted special one-on-one time with Mommy as well.

Sweet Sixteen

2009-08-18T17:16:00.000-04:00

She's so good. I can only hope I'm still occasionally thinking that when she actually turns sixteen. But at sixteen weeks, she's perfect. She goes to the beach, where she happily eats and sleeps, she goes to the pool, where she happily eats and sleeps, she runs errands, all the while eating and sleeping.

Kindergarten!

2009-08-17T16:10:00.003-04:00

Davis started Kindergarten today at Riverview, the Best Elementary School EVER! He was super nervous when I walked him to his classroom this morning, but he reports that he had a great day. Mommy wasn't nearly as upset about having a Kindergartener as I thought I would be - I think it helps that he'll turn 6 this Friday.

(That says "Excited and Happy and Sad and Sick". I asked him if he felt sick while he was at school and he said "No - just when we were walking in.")

Thankfully Hayden & Kate are in his class, and they are even seated at the same table (for now!).

Very serious! He really didn't want to talk to me once he got to his seat. And he definitely didn't want any pictures.

Wow - you'd think I'd have thought about needing to take this picture this morning and made sure we didn't just finish stripping the stain off the deck in preparation for restaining. Oh well.

My Sleeper

2009-08-16T23:40:00.000-04:00

This is not the only time I've left her happily bouncing to come back and find her like this.

What Did I Expect

2009-08-14T09:11:00.004-04:00

My hopes that having a girl in the house would tone the boyness around here down a notch are officially quashed. Saida started laughing for the first time last night. That's great, I love seeing a baby giggle. But look at what she found so hilarious . . .

The part you can't see is that both boys are throwing themselves onto the floor and/or bouncing off the other couch to land on the floor.

Who Knew?

2009-08-12T14:39:00.003-04:00

No one ever told me cankles could be so adorable.

Obviously a Third

2009-08-12T14:05:00.004-04:00

After being gone or on the go most of the summer, we've spent this week at home. It's been nice, except that my once perfect angel stopped taking long naps. If I put her down in her crib, she'll sleep peacefully for 30 minutes, then she wakes up screaming. Before, she'd sleep 3-4 hours at a time, no problem. Sometimes she'd even sleep for 5 or 6 hours, so this 30 minute nap thing was not going over well. Until today . . .

I almost packed the boys up and headed out to run some errands so she could sleep in the car, but I honestly didn't have anything ~~important enough to risk my life and theirs by taking them in public~~ too pressing to do, so when she got tired, I stuck in her car seat and left her on the dining room table to fall asleep. 4 1/2 hours ago. The only drawback to this approach - she's developing the car seat bald spot on the side of her head.

Now I know there is nothing new or exciting about babies sleeping in car seats. I had one that only slept in a swing. The part I find amusing is that she'll sleep in her crib for 11 hours at night, but she won't sleep in it during the day.

15 Weeks

2009-08-11T14:01:00.001-04:00

I Am A Genius

2009-08-10T16:03:00.000-04:00

Rin is potty-trained. The end.

The Dentist Made Me Do It

2009-08-06T14:30:00.002-04:00

Really. I took the boys to the dentist for their bi-annual 6 month checkup, and the dental assistant informed me that I had to pull the tooth. It's been loose for awhile, but I just didn't want to admit that I had a child old enough to be losing his teeth. Well, that and I was deathly afraid of how he'd react knowing his typical reaction to blood. So I barely touched it and it fell out.

Now that he's figured the tooth fairy gig out, he's lost one more and has a very loose one ready to come out. Apparently his math skills are not too bad because knows that he needs to lose four more teeth to get the Wii game he wants.

14 Weeks

2009-08-04T23:08:00.003-04:00

Smile by Daddy.

Still precious. Sweet most of the time. Hungry a lot of the time. Got called a boy tonight. That was Mommy's fault as she was wearing a way too small yellow outfit I found in the back of the car. She had on pink when we left the house, but unfortunately, as she has outgrown the size 1-2 diapers we have, she soaked her clothes and the carseat at the restaurant. Seriously, is my 3 month old child really needing size 3 diapers?

Twelve Weeks

2009-07-21T17:07:00.004-04:00

14 hours later. This is as much as I have managed to add to this post. So - that's it. Here she is. 12 weeks. Still growing. We were in NC for 11 weeks. (I wish that was for 11 weeks not for her 11 week old birthday.)

Logic at Three

2009-07-21T16:59:00.004-04:00

Late afternoon. Rin is asleep, Saida is swinging and Z is ~~bothering~~ helping me put away laundry. Z gets bored and goes and gets his Legos, bringing them to my room, careful not to wake Rin. Rin wakes up. Z and Rin together threaten to awaken Saida so they are sent back to their room to play with the Legos there. A ~~fight~~ dispute immediately breaks out over some special piece of colored plastic. Being uncharacteristically fair to Z, I tell Rin that Davis was playing with the Legos out first, and that he needed to find another piece. Rin's response, "Well, I was sleeping next to the Legos first."

Ten Weeks

2009-07-07T22:47:00.007-04:00

At ten weeks, it's more of the same. Precious, sweet and agreeable 98% of the time. Most of her meltdowns are still food-related. Specifically, the speed of the food delivery. I accidentally posted her weight as 9-12 last week. It was 12-9. I have no doubt she's an easy 13 pounds this week.

Sleep continues to be a favorite activity. If we put her down right (full as a tick and swaddled) she'll sleep 'til morning. Last night she went 10 hours. (Now I just need to train myself and the other two to sleep that long and we'll be set.)

Her brothers still exist (and here's proof).

They are generally very helpful. They are both very proud of her. I hope she realizes how lucky she is someday. Rin still randomly announces to people things like,

"We have a sister at our house."
"We have a sister upstairs, you know."
"We got a new baby sister."

He's not particular about who needs to know, although most of the time he is telling someone like his grandmother or Kak.

Like her brothers, she LOVES the water. (Thank goodness she doesn't realize how ridiculous she looks here.)

Here she is the next day looking way more presentable in a proper bathing suit, (which I had purchased before I ever even got pregnant with Rin, for my Once and Future Daughter), instead of the super classy size L swim diaper pulled up to her neck.

Here's one more of the Princess looking particularly angelic doing what she does best.

Nine Weeks - Weight Corrected

2009-06-30T16:39:00.004-04:00

At the 2 month checkup yesterday, which incidentally, went way better than it did last time I tried it, she weighed 12 pounds, 9 ounces and measured 23 3/4 inches, which translates to: Not Too Fat. We were honestly worried that we might be told that she was getting too big, which would not be surprising considering that she eats, well, a lot. She pretty much eats whenever she is awake. Did you know that one way that the pediatrician assesses whether a baby is too big is by counting creases? Seriously. Apparently two thigh creases is okay, but any more and we're getting into overfeeding territory.

So obviously she's growing way too fast for my taste - I just wish she'd stay little a little longer. She's already out of the newborn phase and starting to act more like a baby. She sleeps through the night most nights (6+ hours) and has for several weeks - I just didn't want to jinx it by mentioning it.

She loved the pool.

Rotten.
She does not get put down when Haha is around. But there's nothing wrong with that. She adores him already.

Myrtle Beach

2009-06-28T13:16:00.004-04:00

Eight Weeks

2009-06-23T23:49:00.001-04:00

Is there an 8 week growth spurt? I can't remember, but I'd have to guess there is because we are now eating some 32 ounces+ a day. And while she's still sweet and smiley and snuggly most of the time, don't ever let her be hungry. Especially not when you are trying to get an 8 week old picture.

Is it normal to eat so much at this age? Probably not. But look at the results . . .

And here's a happy one because it's not fair to the Princess to post only angry and chunky pictures.

Seven Weeks

2009-06-16T17:11:00.002-04:00

Princess Saida continues to baffle us with her excessive sleeping and overall good nature. She sleeps ALL day. Really. Then she also sleeps most of the night. At this age, Rin slept for about 28 minutes at a time. When Saida is not sleeping, she just kind of hangs out. She smiles (started Monday the 8th) and looks around a lot. When Rin was not sleeping at this age, he screamed. Non-stop. But I do hope that she is as easy as Rin was at 6 months and beyond, because he has been a very easy toddler. But enough with the comparisions. Here's the picture:

And here are a couple of pictures of her brothers, who despite their recent absence on the internets here, are still precious and lots of fun.

(Note the Dora sweat bands worn on the biceps and the Obi-Won robe. Having 3 means I took him out in public like that.)

Six Weeks

2009-06-09T21:46:00.002-04:00

She's still incredibly easygoing 99% of the time. This was post-nap pre-feeding, so she was a little angry. The Princess expects to be fed within 60 seconds of waking up. All that sleeping makes her very hungry.

I am pretty sure her objections to the after bath efforts to get a picture were related to her lack of pajamas and how ginormous her naked belly looks.

Way more typical . . .

Here's the Princess helping Mommy remove the Man Eating Squash and Zucchini plants. She slept like this outside for 3 hours. Maybe it's a girl thing all this sleeping? The boys NEVER slept this much. In fact, I am pretty sure that in six weeks she has already slept more hours than either one of them slept in the first six months of their lives.

Rin Swims

2009-06-07T22:34:00.003-04:00

This was rather sudden. Earlier in the week, he would jump off the step to me and "swim" but there was really no forward movement or bouyancy involved. Then, without being told or shown, he just started putting his head in and kicking like he meant it. I am hoping that maybe he'll potty train in much the same way. Not that I am in any hurry. Neither one of us have any interest in the subject, and I just bought another giant box of size 10 diapers.

5 Weeks

2009-06-02T22:09:00.000-04:00

10 pounds and 22 1/4 inches.

Sleeping 6-7 hours at a time and generally happy while awake.

(Really!)Still adored (and largely unfazed) by big brothers.

And even more princessey since the addition of the chandelier to her room. (Thanks Daddy for installing it!)

4 Weeks

2009-05-26T21:21:00.002-04:00

And still perfect. She really does just sleep, eat and look around. I'd say she's content 99.8% of the time. The boys still adore her, but they have not yet learned restraint in showing their love, Davis in particular. He learned somewhere that babies cannot see very far, so he puts his face less than 1 mm away from hers and talks to her. When she grows up she will either have an intense phobia of close-talkers or she won't even notice them. I am just holding my breath that Rin does not copy this. Rin uses a really sweet voice when he talks to her, and likes to grab at her, but he only has about 45 seconds of interest at a time so the future psychological damage from that brother's love will likely be less.

Three Weeks

2009-05-19T15:22:00.004-04:00

Hard to believe it's already been another week with the Princess. She's growing and is honestly a very sweet little girl who is rarely upset. It probably doesn't hurt that I hold her all the time - not because she insists, but because I know just how quickly the day when she won't even want to sit in my lap will come.

Saida, for now you seem unfazed by the noise and love with which your brothers surround you. They both adore you. Rin is doing much better since we've been home from the hospital, and he especially likes to let me know if you are crying. He finds it necessary to tell me that you're crying even when I am holding you. He likes to give you your "chewing fing" (pacifier) and make sure that I occasionally put on girl shows for you to watch.

Z's Cure

2009-05-13T17:30:00.002-04:00

Z drew this to make me feel all better. While it's a lovely picture of Z and I playing outside together, and I am sure that it suggests that I have not been the best mommy to the boys while I have been battling thrush and mastitis (the latter not responding as quickly or as well to the antibiotics as I'd like), unfortunately it has not yet made me "all better".

It did however do wonders for my mood. Who couldn't use a little extra love and encouragement from time to time?

Two Weeks

2009-05-12T18:00:00.001-04:00

This week the Princess has been busy:

attending Davis' t-ball game

. . . celebrating Mother's Day

(LOVE the present which was for MD plus Saida's arrival combined)

. . . enjoying her first real bath because her stump fell off. Sometime prior.

This time no one even noticed.

. . . wearing her Daddy out.

. . . visiting with Haha in Charleston.

. . . going to the park with big brother Rin.

. . . modeling her first hairbow.

She's definitely still a princess.

Rin Loves . . .

2009-05-11T10:19:00.003-04:00

Mostly I was just checking to be sure I can upload video without DropShots since I think I will let my subscription to that service expire. So I guess I can. It just takes FOREVER using Blogger's upload.

The Nursery

2009-05-08T10:40:00.004-04:00

It's a work in progress. The chandelier is on back order until late May, and I am still adding things, but it is a big improvement over the blue and white sailboats that decorated the space for her first night home.

The First Week

2009-05-08T08:19:00.005-04:00

Sleeping in Daddy's Arms & Wearing A Pretty Pink (of course) Outfit from Grandmommy

Cuddling with the Most Interested Big Brother Ever

the Sleeping Face

Meeting Lucy. Clearly the idea of another princess albeit a dog one in the house upsets her.

Big Brother Rin who also adores her but is not so often photographed holding her as that requires my full attention and supervision because when he's "done" he literally shoves her off of his lap.

Her Eyes Are Open!! (Guerin's favorite observation, which is usually followed by his attempts to pet her eyes.)

Rin in the Pool. Finally. The fuzzies have had the pool a lovely shade of green for 3 weeks now.

the Swing: jury's still out.

Big Brother Davis

Saida's First Walk. Which almost killed Mommy who is suffering not from incision pain or anything else I would have expected but rather from the after effects of having the Worst Anesthesiologist Ever who stuck me three times, leaving me with a spinal headache, a large spot on my thigh that alternates between complete numbness and intense pain, and a sore back.

One Week

2009-05-05T08:19:00.002-04:00

The first week at home went pretty smoothly. The Princess pretty much just hung out around the house with Daddy and Mommy and Guerin. Z's busy social calendar prevented him from being home too much. We all went to Rowan's birthday party on Saturday night, but since she was not even a week old and a bug has been going around, I didn't let anyone touch the Princess.

The Princess and the Bath

2009-05-05T07:53:00.001-04:00

She didn't really love her first experience with the water.

But big fluffy pink towels are nice . . .

I have to say, this is obviously a third child. Her "first" bath other than when they cleaned the blood and vernix off of her at the hospital was on Day 5. She looked and smelled so pretty once she was all clean. Maybe we'll try the bath thing more often.

Princess Stats at 6 Days

2009-05-04T10:40:00.004-04:00

Saida had her first check-up in Beaufort today, and she is of course perfect. She is up 1/2 ounce from discharge (7 pounds, 13.5 ounces), her jaundice looks better, and whatever else the doctor checked was fine. She even made sure that she pooped on her dress in the waiting room so the doctor would have a chance to check the color of her stool which was whatever color it was supposed to be. Even the princess' poop is perfect.

More Princess Pictures

2009-05-03T15:07:00.007-04:00

With a few of her brother mixed in. She definitely looks more like Guerin than Davis . . . but don't tell Z that.

Saida Louise Willis

2009-05-02T15:00:00.004-04:00

April 28, 2009
1:22 p.m.
8 pounds, 7 ounces
21 inches

She's perfect.

One More for the Scrapbook

2009-04-27T19:05:00.005-04:00

. . . And we also went to the beach - at least two times - during summer 2009. (Notice the different suits each time. Not an accident.)

Even though we have the beach and sandbar photo trips out of the way, we are NOT ready. Rin has definitely changed his mind about the wonderfulness of getting a new brother or sister. He understands very clearly what is going to happen tomorrow, but if asked his opinion about the whole matter, does not hesitate to tell you that he does NOT want a new baby to come to his house. He's been fussy and clingy and way more affectionate lately.

Then last night he spent the better part of the night trying to crawl under my skin in our bed. Just lying next to me was clearly not close enough. Until now, he has NEVER tried to sleep in our bed. That's Davis' domain and honestly it never even seemed to occur to Rin that it might be a good idea to try to get to sleep in our bed.

To add to the whole mess, he's decided that he's anti-Daddy. Most of the time I think he's just playing around, but he frequently says that he doesn't like Daddy and doesn't want him around. I am not looking forward to him realizing that at least for a few weeks, Daddy is pretty much all he's got.

I spent a lot more time preparing Davis for Rin's arrival than I have spent preparing Rin. Obviously. See above. But there was some logic behind that. First, Rin pretty much goes along with whatever Davis thinks. So as long as Davis wanted a brother/sister, I figured Rin would too. It works when it comes to which Happy Meal he wants and what Star Wars movie is the favorite du jour, so why not for siblings? And secondly, we may have overprepared Davis so when the whole birth thing didn't go as planned, it might have confused him. I figured the less Rin had in terms of concrete expectations, the easier it would be to adjust as needed.

Now I just wish I had a few more days to convince him that he'll always be my baby, and to make him a little more amenable to the idea of a sibling.

Why?

2009-04-26T18:06:00.005-04:00

I often find myself wondering this when I think about #3. Isn't there enough chaos and testosterone around here already? Not that it matters now. We're 39 weeks and 2 days away today. It will definitely be nice to have a baby in the house again. Especially since this is was my baby. I imagine they'll have #3 rigged up to the zipline before he/she can even walk.

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Summer 2009

2009-04-25T23:19:00.000-04:00

Here it is. Proof that the boys did in fact have a summer this year, even if it did start and end in April and consisted of one boat trip to the Sandbar with their friends. But honestly, you don't expect me to (a) come within 10 feet of the ~~sewage~~ water in the Beaufort River within the next 6 weeks or (b) take a newborn out on the boat in the Beaufort heat in July or August? I am sure we'll get another good picture or two of the boys playing at the Sandbar in late September, and together with these pictures, we'll make a great collage that we'll call Summer 2009.

Baby Jack I*

2009-04-24T21:36:00.005-04:00

The boys were so excited to finally meet their new (and only!) first cousin Jack today. Both were a little shy and unsure at first, but they warmed up quickly. Jack was very patient and tolerated their affections well . . .

Now we just have to wait 3 more days to find out if we can add any pink to this picture.

* The I is because my child still insists that we are also going to call our baby "Baby Jack" - which we are not.

New Rooms

2009-04-22T20:25:00.004-04:00

Here are some not so great pictures of the boys' room with the new shelving unit. It's a hard room to take pictures in because of the one window. They LOVE the new shelves, especially the desk, and there is tons of unused storage in there now.

You can't tell from the pictures, but they go from floor to ceiling.

And here are some nursery pictures. Obviously it's not finished. As we have no idea what this baby is, we haven't hung anything on the walls or really done any of the finishing touches. But the color is staying. It's delicious.

Telescope Etiquette

2009-04-20T17:59:00.000-04:00

Don't look into the neighbor's house.

Easter

2009-04-19T11:28:00.003-04:00

T-Ball

2009-04-19T11:16:00.000-04:00

37 Weeks

2009-04-13T22:40:00.003-04:00

And one day. I told you so.

I am pretty sure that I am going about this changing the date thing all wrong. Yes, we changed the date. Now it's April 28. My official due date remains the same - May 3; so now we are delivering at 39 weeks and 2 days (vs. 40 weeks +1). My super patient OB would probably not even blink if I change it again next week, but I am not planning on it.

For one thing, my section time keeps getting shittier with each change. Now instead of a nice early, pre-inductions-going-wrong-clogging-up-the-OR-time-of-7:30, I am scheduled for 12:30. NPO after 4 am. I am so cheating.

Anyway, here's why I am doing it wrong. Instead of pushing the date back and giving myself more time to get ready, I am losing days. Six to be exact. Just think of all the things I could have done during those 6 days. Oh well. Next time what I should do is schedule for 38.5 or something and then when I feel the need to change the date, I can always push it back into the safer realm of the 39th week, thus buying myself 3 or 4 extra days.

And some random pictures . . .

Oh, and there was an appointment today. All is good. No signs of a baby anytime soon. For once the HR was all over the place. It started in the 120's and when I started to complain, it shot up to the 150's! Only to settle right back down in the 130's. Of course such a clear indication that it could possibly be a girl sent me straight to Target to be sure that I have a pink slipcover for my Boppy. Call me crazy, but Target has a great return policy, so I'll at least get to look at the pretty pink for the next two weeks. Because this one is a boy. I am 72% sure.

WWW

2009-04-08T15:15:00.003-04:00

There you go. It's our boy name. Willy Wonka Willis. And in his (if it is a he) honor, we've painted the nursery walls with chocolate. Literally. I just hope in my postpartum delirium I don't actually start licking the walls.

Pictures of the actual nursery to follow one day . . .

27 Days and Not Counting

2009-04-07T21:52:00.002-04:00

I am not really sure how it came to this, but we are finally taking this whole new baby concept seriously around here. I guess before now, delivery always seemed really, really far off so we had tons of time to prepare. Then suddenly, like yesterday, this whole due date thing became a reality and we discovered that (a) the nursery was still covered in paint samples and cluttered with Rin's stuff, (b) everything we need for a baby was still in the attic including the carseat and other such necessities, and (c) we don't really have a plan for what to do if I actually go into labor.

(a) was easy. I tossed Rin's stuff into his new room this afternoon. Tonight Van is busy painting the nursery a beautiful shade of chocolate. I am just hoping that it doesn't make me hungry all the time because it is exactly the color of chocolate icing. Yum. And yes, this particular shade of chocolate works perfectly for either a boy or a girl. It matches the boy bedding we already have, and if it's a girl, I'll just order something in pink that matches.

(b) is done. I threw most of the must-haves down for Van to catch yesterday and have cleaned them up as best I can.

(c) is a little less settled. We do have a plan, sort of. The plan is to go the hospital if we need to. (Just to be clear, I mean go to the hospital prior to May 4 at 6:00 am if we need to. I have no intentions of having a home-Caesarian.) The problem is that we have no idea what would actually be considered good cause for showing up at the Beaufort L&D instead of driving to Charleston. Is it water breaking? Contractions? Some other sign of labor?

Because I so do not want to have a baby at (or even step foot in) BMH again, I am almost maybe considering moving the C up a few days. Definitely NOT before 39 weeks, but maybe to May 1 which is only 2 days before my due date. But there really is no logic to that since we'll be in Charleston from May 1 on anyways . . . so maybe one day in late April, but that's a whole different month. It doesn't change the astrology sign, but it does mean that the birthstone is a diamond (vs. emerald for May). That really makes no difference to the baby; however, I'd prefer it to be emeralds (since I am already entitled to diamonds with the engagement ring and all . . . ). But then how would I be able to choose a day during that week? I can't use Monday since we already have a 27th (Rin). Tuesday would be okay, but maybe too early? Wednesday's Child is full of woe and I already have a drama queen thank you very much. Thursday is the 30th and that's okay but if I can't have a May then I think I'd rather have a twenty-something date, not the 30th since everyone else in the family has a twenty-something date. With all of these difficult considerations, it just seems easiest to leave it for the 4th. But I will still obsess about it between now and then. Clearly I have too much time on my hands (NOT true) or the paint fumes have drifted from the nursery into the guest room/office.

36 Weeks

2009-04-05T19:27:00.004-04:00

This is probably the first and last time I will ever update this thing on the actual day that triggers the update. But today marks 36 weeks, and I am scheduled to deliver a month from yesterday. There's not much to report - nothing has changed and there is no noticeable progress on the nursery front. But 3rd children aren't supposed to have decorated nurseries. He/she will be lucky if I can just remove all the clothes which I am now storing in the crib.

MD appointment from last week:

HR: 120's!!

Weight: +1

BP: 110/60 (it is smart that this OB doesn't let kids attend appointments - I am sure those numbers would be a lot higher if the boys were with me)

Supposedly everything looks good. I am starting to think that this child is perhaps not mine. It is not very active at all. If I had to guess, I'd say s/he sleeps at least 22 hours a day in there. Now that could mean that s/he is resting up to make my life a living hell, or perhaps, just maybe, it's actually a calm and quiet baby. I can always hope . . .

And just for the record, I don't really have any complaints with this pregnancy so far. I get the occasional heartburn, my feet and hands ache at night but they have not been swollen, and I am usually pretty energetic. Actually, the other day when I was getting ready for the EE Hunt, I couldn't figure out why I was so damn tired. I had been working in the yard all day, as I had done for the several days prior, and I wanted to get a few more hours of planting/weeding, etc. in, but I just didn't have it in me. My first thought was, OMG - I am getting sick. Then I realized that maybe it could be that I am pregnant.

I'm sure I just jinxed myself for #4, but I didn't want to look back and think that the whole pregnancy was as hard as I am sure these last 4 weeks will be.

Overheard

2009-03-20T08:25:00.001-04:00

G: Attitude. That's Davis' job.

Z: Daddy, why do you like your clothes hot? . . . Me and Mommy and Guerin wear our clothes cold.

NNW Update - 34 Weeks

2009-03-18T22:13:00.003-04:00

Actually it's more like 33 and 3 days. But anyway, I finally got the doc to give me numbers!!

HR - low 130's
FH - 34
BP - 104/60

Days left: 46

Both of my boys still say it's a girl. I'm on eBay bidding on the few pieces I need to finish the blue sailboat nursery.

It's The Hair

2009-03-13T14:41:00.003-04:00

That's the only thing keeping this one alive right now. I don't know how he does it, but when he's at his worst, he makes his curls get curlier, his cheeks get cuter, and his pudgy little hands and legs look all the more adorable.

More Pictures

2009-03-10T17:42:00.003-04:00

Because words and thoughts take way too much energy.
But by way of an update to my future self, here's a quick list of what's been going on:

32 weeks. And counting. It's a boy. But we don't know that. I am just preparing myself.
2 sick kids.
1 more cortisone shot since no one will fix a pregnant person's injuries.
1 HVAC unit that unexplainably caught on fire.
Millions of allergens, particularly lots and lots of superallergenic pollen. So much pollen that we had to shut the house and turn on the AC. Until we realized the unit had caught fire. Thank god for ceiling fans.
4 stray cats that have returned to our property for their spring pooping. I guess it had gotten too cold to travel all the way to our house in January and February.
3 Broadway shows, 2 of which were excellent.
5 days in a row of wearing the same Star Wars t-shirt.
1 broken washing machine. (I wouldn't have washed the t-shirt for him every night anyway. It doesn't smell that bad.)
$967 million spent at the vet because our reminders were lost in the mail. There was a reason why I had spread the animals' yearlies throughout the year. And it's not just because it's a ~~little~~ ginormous pain in the ass to physically get 6 animals to and from the vet's office.

Sick Guerin. He actually stayed in one place for almost 24 hours.

(These are NOT sissy pajamas. We call them Kung Fu Panda outfits. And I LOVE them.)

Bonus Pictures!

2009-02-15T10:13:00.000-05:00

Celebrating Haha's Birthday

Rin has a new idol. He adores Reeves. He routinely refers to Reeves as his brother, always wants to go see him, randomly announces that Reeves is in our driveway, and will wear anything I ask if I tell him it's just like Reeves' whatever it is. Okay, the last one only works if Reeves actually owns the item, so for now our mileage on that one is limited to blue keds and dinosaur socks. If only they weren't in the same size . . .

Making Cupcakes for Haha.
Yes, Rin is as dirty as he looks. Please don't let the horrifically unsanitary conditions of my kitchen helpers deter you from accepting our culinary masterpieces.

Sorting the Repurposed Christmas Swirly Chips for Valentine's and St. Patrick's Day.

AKA a good way to occupy the children for ten minutes. If you can keep them from eating every other one.

The Watching TV Face.

He has clearly inherited my distrust of Max & Ruby.

That's Penguino II in his lap.

Yep, still pregnant. His baby is blue.

Showing off the Underwear.

Rin recently found the stash of 2T undies, yet he has NO interest in wearing them for the right reasons. He doesn't even tell us when he is so wet and so poopy that it's dripping down his legs. So figuring the underwear with no purpose couldn't make it worse, we just tossed the entire PT Rule Book out the window. Yes, we let him wear big boy underwear over his clothes/diapers if he wants to without even the pretense of using the potty like a big boy. But we don't let him go out in public like this. I have some standards.

The Favorite Pants.
These are Hartstrings 18 mo pajama pants. We have to hide them, but sometimes he finds them anyway. The black socks are also a recent fashion statement, but at least they have images of Darth Vader on them. The Buzz shoes are left over from Z, and he loves them almost as much as Z did. I do occasionally give in and let him go out dressed like this. There is only so much crying I can take.

Valentine's Day at School.
He looks way too old in this picture. It doesn't help that all the kids in his class are at least 6 months older than he is, but still, he shouldn't be allowed to look like such a big boy.

Damn Chinese

2009-02-15T08:22:00.000-05:00

As if selling us cheap poisonous crap, filling our kids favorite toys with lead, and tainting our meat weren't enough, now they are messing with my unborns. I don't put much stock in any of these things, but damn if they weren't right about the first two.

Eleven Weeks

2009-02-14T09:49:00.007-05:00

I am starting to sort of maybe think about getting ready for this new baby. Honestly, there's not that much to do besides buy this, and one of these, and one of these. And reschedule my delivery date to May 4 from May 1 because 5-4-09 is a way better birthday than 5-1-09. Of course, as soon as I do that, it's guaranteed that I will go into labor on some horrible day like 4-25-09 which is definitely not a date I like. For no particular reason other than it contains the #25 which is not one of my favorites.

Besides all the shopping with money I don't have, I also need to get the 40 pound monster who is currently occupying the nursery to move into his brother's room, a process which entails fitting all their clothes into one closet, having Haha build shelves to try to keep the toys organized, and eventually picking up some bed rails for the bottom bunk. Oh, and convincing Rin that the crib is no longer his.

I always expected the latter would be very easy to do since all Rin has ever wanted is to do what Z does. However, the other day when I mentioned that soon the bottom bunk would be his big boy bed, Rin reacted by running into the nursery, pointing at the crib, and screaming "dis Guerin's bed." So we've had a few test runs in the big boy bed. If success is measured by whether he eventually slept on a bed in Z's room, then we've been most successful.

But we have a long way to go. He LOVES the new freedom of being able to play with all of Z's toys; even more exciting is that Z is asleep during this playtime, so he gets to use whichever ones he wants without the fighting. He also really loves the ability to give me half-hourly reports on whatever it is he has discovered in Z's room.

For now, we are just letting the excitement of his new found freedom wear off. He does fall asleep eventually, and when it is like this, how can I be mad?

Strike!

2009-02-14T09:49:00.001-05:00

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

2009-02-04T06:05:00.001-05:00

Me: What day is it today?

Z: It's Friday still because the Groundhog saw his shadow and that means six more weeks of Christmas.

What I Did For My Summer Vacation

2009-02-03T15:44:00.003-05:00

Z starts Kindergaren this fall, and I am sure that one of the first things they will talk about is what all the kids did over summer break. Unfortunately, Z's answer will be NOTHING because Mommy spent all of the vacation money saving the blood from my little brother/sister's birth. I hope I can at least order some sort of certificate or something so that he will be able to share that with his new school friends when everyone else shares their pictures from the beach/mountains/lake.

Even though this is NOT the last one, we are thinking we should go ahead and do this whole cord blood thing. I looked into it with Z, decided it was a racket, and moved on. I never even thought about it with Rin because it seemed wrong to save his blood since we hadn't saved Z's. Now that I've become anti-egalitarian (at least amongst my kids), I have started to consider it again for Third One. While it feels ridiculously expensive right now and requires an 18 year financial commitment, I just can't imagine how cheap I'd feel if we ever needed it.

So my question is, have any of you done it? Why or why not?

19.052

2009-02-03T13:43:00.000-05:00

Mommy's Friends Are Back!

2009-01-28T10:22:00.002-05:00

Okay not really. But I'd probably rather hang out with them than most of the people I've seen on Baby Story this year, and that is saying a lot. Like a ton. Because really, these housewives, they are not my people. But I am just so glad I don't have to watch The Show I Love To Hate anymore. I totally heart Bravo.

Would it be going too far if I stopped volunteering in Z's classroom since it totally conflicts with the Housewives' Wednesday morning episodes? It's not like I can TiVo it since we don't get Bravo at home and that's the only morning they are on.

Rin's Jelly Friends

2009-01-27T21:41:00.003-05:00

Apparently most of Guerin's friends are in the Scyphozoa family. But he loves them anyway. See, he even gave some candy canes to hold and several were allowed to hold Rin's blankie. (Apparently Baby Donut does not share his blankie so freely as no one else got to hold it in the picture.)

On another sheet, not pictured here, he asked me to draw "All The Boys" for him. When I attempted to give the boys bodies, he protested. "Little legs, only little legs." Yet he had no issues with Baby Donut having a human form. I am not sure why; I try not to probe too deeply into his thoughts.

Anyway I really only posted this drawing only because it is absolutely the very first time I have ever seen him draw anything other than color blocks, as in giant swaths of the same color on a paper. Sometimes he also draws lines. Lots and lots of lines. One per page. But tonight he sat and worked on this picture for at least ten minutes, very deliberately going back to each figure to add more appendages in various colors.

I don't know what inspired him but I'd like to think that he such a great time hanging out with his Charleston friends and his Haha today that he felt the urge to memorialize the occasion. Despite the title of the picture (which was actually named by Rin), Kak you do make an appearance. You are the orange figure in the top right corner. The one with the long leg, because Kakie* "is a big guy". (In his defense, that is the penultimate compliment you can get from Rin right now. The ultimate of course is that you are a fast big guy.)

*OMG - How do you spell that? In 30 years I have apparently never written your nickname down; that or I have some serious cognitive issues today.

For Once

2009-01-23T17:54:00.003-05:00

I do not exaggerate.

When I was posting these, Rin was looking over my shoulder. Even he had to comment, "Look at all those books!"

Baby Update II

2009-01-22T07:13:00.000-05:00

I am not sure how this is only the second post about the Third Willis but I suppose it is. You'd think I'd be way ahead on posting on this one since I had four more weeks to even know I was pregnant than I did with Guerin, but I guess there's just not much to say. Hopefully I won't be this indifferent towards the actual baby.

Anyway, I guess I'm 25 1/2 weeks which is somewhere in the 2d trimester. We've done the big U/S but didn't find out what it is. Everything looked as it should on the U/S.* The New OB doesn't seem to be too concerned with numbers because I have to ask for the heart rate, my bp and any other info, so I pretty much don't have a record of these things. That said, I am fine with his apparent lack of concern. This is # 3. I don't even have my What To Expect or other books like that anymore.

The appointments go kind of like this:

Nurse: Any complaints? Headache, nausea, vomiting, diarhea, constipation, abdominal pain?

Me: My scar hurts especially if I sneeze.

Nurse: That's normal.

Me: I know. But you ask me every time so I feel like I should at least mention it.

Nurse: Well it's normal round ligament pain and the pain from the scar tissue.

Me: I know.

Nurse takes BP. I read over her shoulder to see what it was. Always in the 110/70 range.

Nurse puts me in room. New OB comes in.

New OB: How are you feeling?

Me: My scar hurts but I know there's nothing to do about it.

New OB: Okay. Are you feeling it move much?

Me: No. I don't notice it. (I do much more in the last 4 weeks - it's getting more aggressive. Before that, I had to be still and concentrate to feel it move. And honestly, I have other things I should be concentrating on.)

New OB: Tells me some random piece of Charleston news. Let's listen to this baby.

New OB listens to Baby's heart rate while continuing the conversation.

New OB: Asks me about my husband's job and/or Beaufort real estate. Wipes off doppler thingy. Do you have any questions?

Me: No. Well yes. When can we schedule this? (I may have a slight control issue.)

New OB: Oh, you want a date? Okay, next time.

Repeat every four weeks. Increase frequency to every two weeks after February 9 appointment.

But just for the record, here's are the measurables so far.

Heart Rate: Present. 140's the both times I've asked.
Fundal Height: Yes.
BP: Acceptable.
Glucose: Unacceptable. To be retested due to patient stupidity.
Iron: Low despite taking Iron Supplements of Death every day. I hate iron supplements.
Due Date: May 3.
Gender: Unknown. My prediction: Boy
Weight Gain: Overall around 10 lbs. Which is bullshit because 6 of those showed up in the three weeks after I started working out again. I did nothing all fall because of some achilles tendon/plantar fascitis issues which had me wanting to cut my legs off (really). In late December, I got a cortisone shot in the bottom of my heel and it worked. Finally. So now I am doing almost an hour of cardio 5 days a week and weight training at least 4 days. And I am eating way healthier now that the Halloween Candy/Vacation Food/Christmas Cookies, Cakes, etc. are gone. So needless to say, I am NOT impressed with the obvious 6 pound variance the OB's scale has developed in 2009.

* On a semi-related tangent, I watched the WORST Baby Story ever the other day at the gym. I seriously think there's a shortage of intelligent pregnant people these days. Exhibit A: Woman aborted the first two pregnancies due to "fetal defect" but neither was really life-threatening to the baby as far as I could tell. It was a quality of life issue? Fine. To each his own, right? But that just doesn't seem like the type of person you'd put on a TV show. Exhibit B: Woman was a custodial stepmom to Husband's two daughters. Woman announced on national TV that they were so lucky to be having this baby because until she got pregnant, their family didn't feel complete. Woman also stated, Husband will love this baby because it's a boy and that's what he wants. Woman went on to say that this baby would be "more special" because it was hers and Husband's biological child. Exhibit C: Both Woman and Husband repeatedly called her ultrasounds "amnios".

And has anyone else noticed that the 2d episode in the morning is now almost always a same-sex couple? I don't know why this bothers me; I have zero problems with same-sex couples or with same-sex couples having kids. But I can't help not wanting to watch.

I also really didn't like the couple from NY the other day who had to climb through their skylight in their master bedroom to access their rooftop terrace. And it bothered me even more when they hosted a dinner party up there and had like 15 people climb onto their bed to get through the skylight to go up there. Then the 15 people traipsed back down, stomping all over their bed, passing dirty dishes through the skylight. C'mon. Just go out to dinner. That's not right.

And there was another couple whose in your face religious beliefs made me want to run and hide my kids from the Church.

Perhaps I need to stop watching this show which I have come to hate. Unfortunately it's almost the only thing I can stomach on the elliptical machine TVs from 9-10. I wish they'd bring back the Bravo show about the haircutters.

More Palmetto Pride

2009-01-21T18:04:00.002-05:00

I never liked him. I think he's the second closest thing to pure evil that we have in SC politics right now. Even so, I didn't think he'd go this far. At least he's put himself in some great company. Gotta be proud to be from South Cackalacky today.

Not So Fast

2009-01-15T16:50:00.005-05:00

A lot of people worry about how a new baby will affect the current "baby" of the family. Not me. First, Rin has been acting like he's five since forever so I lost my baby a long time ago. Second, it's hard to think of him as babyish when he's taller than most 4 year olds and will be in Depends instead of diapers if he grows any more this winter.* Seriously, we're already in the size 6s and it's not like there's a whole lot of extra room. He's literally grown like 3-4 inches in a month or so. He weighs in at 39 1/2 pounds. None of his 3T clothes fit which in and of itself is tragic because Davis ~~didn't outgrow~~ wore his 3T clothes until after he was 4 which means that I don't really have any little boy clothes (read overalls and longalls) in any sizes bigger than 3T which means that Rin has had to wear pants. And shirts. Seeing him master the new zip line, ride a bike, climb on and off the kitchen counter or do any of the countless other things that he can do doesn't make me sad that he's growing up. Seeing him in a pair of cords and regular shirt, now that's an emotional meltdown waiting to happen.

*Don't even suggest it. We are not potty-training. In fact, I am currently looking for books about how to keep a child in diapers against his will if necessary because there is no way in hell that I will deal with a newborn and a half-trained kid. Unlike many mommies I know, I do not define potty-trained as wearing big boys pants all day while still peeing or pooping in said pants 1 to 2 to 20 times each day. Potty trained is when you can get your own pants up and down unassisted, use the toilet, wipe your ass, flush the toilet and wash your hands all by your self. Anything less is Mommy-trained.

But Momma I Was Saving That For Later

2009-01-13T17:12:00.003-05:00

Today was a brownie day. And I have at least five good reasons why my boys and I deserve brownies this afternoon.

The weather sucks.
A very kind uncle sent us some special white chocolate brownie mix which arrived today.
In a moment of weakness brought on by my severe guilt of letting Rin ride out his double ear infections for ~~a few days~~ three weeks, which incidentally is apparently seven times longer than watch and wait approach for avoiding unnecessary antibiotics for ear infections, I took four boys to the pediatricians at naptime minus twenty.* None of said boys had been afforded any opportunity to expend their energy at preschool today. (See #1.) I am pretty sure that their teachers had replaced Outside Play Time with Give the Children Chocolate Bars Time.
I broke the DVD player five minutes after I told the boys they could watch a movie.
The baby likes brownies. (Which isn't really true. Actually this baby will probably require a salt lick in the crib just to keep up with the copious amounts of sodium to which it has become accustomed. I add salt to everything. This from someone who never ever adds salt to anything. I've started eating radishes again just because they are the only food that I know of to which it is acceptable to add a visible layer of salt.)

So, we made brownies. And of course, per usual, Rin came running when he heard the beaters. And because he doesn't feel good and I never tell him no anyway, I obliged. And after he finished licking the salmonella-laden beaters, I gave Mr. Independent Messy Hands a wet wipe so he could do clean his hands by his damnself. Then I helped him down from the counter which is when I noticed a glob of brownie batter left on the back side of his hand. I grabbed the wipe and quickly took care of it. A meltdown worthy of a major life castaphrophe ensued. Apparently he was "saving it for later."

*Why the change of heart? I suppose it was mostly because the ladies at the nursery mentioned that Rin was crying every time he put his finger in his ear. At first I was tempted to tell the kid to stop sticking things in his ear, but remembering that he's been up crying 5 of the last 7 nights and having noticed the scratches near his ear which looks supsicously like they could have been caused by him perhaps clawing at his ears, I gave in and made the appointment.

. . . and Cerveza

2009-01-05T16:04:00.007-05:00

Perhaps it's time for some Spanish vocabularly lessons? Z seems to know as many Spanish words and phrases as the average stupid American. Everytime I get on the phone with a client, he starts singing Feliz Navidad.

Is That All You've Got?

2009-01-04T10:36:00.005-05:00

Angry that I won't let him play his new Christmas game for the 198th hour since he got it 10 days ago, he threatens me with, "Do you want me to color you a not so beautiful picture?"

I am hoping that he chose his words because he doesn't really want to hurt Mommy and not because that's the worse punishment he can come up with for me.

This means "No candy for Mommy even if she did get some for Christmas."

That's My Child (and Why NNW Had Better Not Have This Much Testoterone)

2008-12-15T16:48:00.005-05:00

The one who will only wash his hands in the girls' bathroom at school, causing all the little girls to shriek and yell that there's a boy in the girls' bathroom.

The one who climbs the bookshelves at school when his teacher isn't looking and manages to knock down the water-filled aquarium containing the class' pet aquatic frog and then "helps" by trying to stomp the escaping frog.

The one who hurts himself (but never cries) so often doing ~~stupid~~ normal toddler (?) things at school that the teachers don't even bother with boo-boo reports half of the time. Today it was falling off of a stool because he was too busy watching the girls to pay attention to what he was doing.

The one whose favorite game du jour is called Head Hurt. He runs full speed into the back of the couch, tucking his head like a football player at the last second to make contact with the wooden frame. He moves the couch this way. Sometimes, for added effect, he falls backwards onto the tile floor immediately afterwards.