Despite too little, and too-interrupted, sleep last night, I was excited about going to scrapbook with my Mom friends today. It was great looking at other people's ideas, from Betsy's clean and simple style, to Kristi's straightforward but decorated with flair pages, to Lacy's famous masterpieces. And we had enough yak time to yak about things other than our kids! I worked on a labor-intensive but simple page that's downright goofy. It's fun to do those sometimes. This page doesn't need journaling to explain that it's about Gabriel's 5th birthday. Hmm, but it could use a birthday cake embellishment!
Our sitter worked out great. We've used Danielle once before, in 2005, but we only had the two boys then. Danielle is Kristi's nanny, so she's already an expert at three kids. She reported that Katrina was great, didn't cry much, ate well, went to sleep easily. Whew. She took the boys out bicycling and had an episode in which Gabriel got out of sight, for which he got a very stern talking-to by Dad later. Danielle had no trouble with all the things involved in the care and feeding and entertainment of little kids, and she takes it all in stride, much like Peggy. Such a calming influence is a wonderful trait in a sitter. In a person, really. I've often wondered what it would be like to be a calm cool cucumber, instead of the scatterbrained, hyper, compulsive stressball that I am.
Dave went for a motorcycle ride! First lunch in Boulder Creek with Kevin, then the old 100-Mile Classic. He reported that Tunitas Creek Road is still a highlight. Ah, we had many, many rides tearing down that road, rocking over every bump and hole and patch. If I was in good form, he couldn't shake me, and I'd be right with him around the tight corners. Our most fun roads were often the exact opposite of what sport-riders look for: trashy, bumpy, tight, where 30mph is fast. Skyline Boulevard? Mere transit, a highway to get to the good stuff. Maybe the way to meld my two lives is to retro-scrap some of my old moto-life. Someday.
Some goodies in the mail today. Look at this beautiful, adorable sweater from Bonne Maman! You can't see it in the photo so well, but it has some lovely detail, including a triangle-border collar, and some triangle details on the sleeves and bottom hem, made out of contrasting garter stitch. And the color...I love it! I love these strong colors on Katrina. Gabriel was very excited by the flower buttons: "I've never seen buttons like that before!" And isn't Katrina just unbelievably cute in it. Thanks Bonne Maman!
Katrina woke up twice last night, then was up for good at 6:15am. Urgh. This made for an exhausting morning, making me use my baby-free Friday morning to catch up on sleep. But that's as good a reason as any, I suppose.
Another photo for another long-overdue thank-you note. I'm not sure this is the one I'll use, but it sure is a cute picture. Katrina LOVES this soft kitty from Wendy, something of an in-law relation to us. How sweet of Wendy to get our third baby the same sort of ultra-soft toy that Aunt Brittany would have picked. Julius the monkey is still Julian's absolute favorite.
Gabriel helped me practice Katrina on the bottle yesterday, quickly discovering that bottle-feeding is uncomfortable and boring. I agree. But at least she's taking the bottle, with formula, reliably now. One other downside to formula: bad baby breath. Blah!
Funny kid comment of the yesterday: After music class, I strapped Julian into the car, then sat down in the front passenger seat in front of him, to nurse Katrina. Julian asked me why I was sitting there and I explained that I was feeding the baby. Unsatisfied, he asked again, "But who's going to drive the car?"
After putting away toys to get the boys to pee and wash hands for dinner, they were very upset and angry with me. It's SO funny to listen to them conspire about my punishment:
"Let's throw a rock at Mommy." "Yeah, throw a rock at her head." "I know, we'll kill Mommy." "Or give her a black circle!" (as opposed to a gold star, like on a chart) "Let's take her toys away." "Yeah, we'll take her stuff." "Yeah, we'll hide her stuff!!" "And then put her on timeout!" "YEAH!!"
Today I took Julian to an ice skating class! He was typically reluctant and hesitant at first, and then later complained and cried and claimed he was scared. He even fell on purpose a few times, just to make the point. In the end, we left the ice with him crying and crying, saying he was scared.
BUT -- the one thing he was really good at was the actual skating!! To my surprise, despite his clumsiness, hesitance and younger age as compared to Gabriel, he actually was a lot better at balancing and propelling himself than Gabriel was when we did this class a year ago. Julian refused to use the little plastic chairs they give the kids to push around to get a feel for the ice, and instead held my hand while he picked up his feet and pretty much skated. He was even pulling me along at one point, without realizing it.
Gabriel, by comparison, held onto the chair for dear life, and it was very hard to break him of it later. Gabriel was a lot tougher about the whole thing, never crying, never saying he was scared, but refused to give up the chair. Julian was much more willing to follow instructions, and when he did, he actually skated far better than Gabriel did, and that's being a year younger than his usually more athletic older brother was.
I told Julian many, many times how great he did and how proud I was of him and how fun it was, so I'm hoping that's his main memory of it for next week.
Funny kid comment of the day: I told Julian that we were going skating, "just you and me." He pondered this quietly for a moment, then said, "Mommy, your name is 'me' and my name is 'you'!"
I had to wake Katrina from a sound morning nap to take her to Tonya's for the skating, but she did fine there. Later in the afternoon, I managed the ideal nap scenario: I went from getting Julian down for a nap, straight from his room across the hall into Katrina's room, and put her down for a nap. They started their naps at exactly the same time, which allowed me to take one too. When I got up, Gabriel had fallen asleep on the floor too. All four of us at once. Wow.
Even more wow: I got Katrina to take a bottle today! Of formula! From me!! Major progress!!! It actually felt strange feeding her from a bottle. I almost felt...well, jealous and left out. Ironic, because I've really been working at the bottle to gain some freedom, but at the same time, I have a visceral emotional response of "wah, my baby doesn't need me."
Katrina went to bed late last night, around 9:30pm, but as a result, slept through until 6:15am. A good thing! If being woken up in a single-digit hour can ever be considered a good thing.... Once again, a challenging evening: baby needs bath, nursing and bedtime smack dab when I need to be preparing dinner. I can pre-prepare dinner to some extent, but there's no getting around the major work happening on eithe side of 6pm or so. But once again, who am I to complain about a baby who wants to go to bed? Especially one so adorable in this Gymboree toile-ish outfit?
Gabriel: tough, no whining, but stubborn and unwilling to try skating without the chair. Julian: wimpy but more talented. Will Katrina once again fall smack dab inbetween? I'll let you know in another 3 years!
I took this picture specifically to make our cold-snap and snowbound East Coast family jealous: The boys played outside today after picking Gabriel up from pre-K, and a disastrous trip to Home Depot. Taking 3 kids to Home Depot is bad enough, but since I knew the boys would be all over Katrina again, I put her out of reach in the backpack. Turns out, the boys turned their boisterous attention to each other, and got scolded once by a Home Depot manager (actually he was probably scolding me, as I was frantically searching for the right-sized screw and trying to hold off on reprimanding the boys again for fear of diluting what little control I had left).
At least they got their energy out playing ball in the backyard, on this mild day, just short of being out-and-out-warm. Katrina got to try another cute shortie outfit today, courtesy of another diaper blowout.
She's decent at supporting herself standing up, once again in between her brothers: Gabriel at this age could hold onto something and stay standing, Julian couldn't stand at all until much much older.
I had very simple goals today. Get in a shower, and pump a little so Katrina can practice the bottle. Incredibly, I met those goals, but it wasn't easy. The shower was only possible because Gabriel entertained Katrina in the Exersaucer and was on the alert to tell me if she started crying.
On top of it, I got a short much-needed nap this morning, while Julian played downstairs with his new connect-the-dot book. And I got in a deep workout at the Y too. Nap, workout, shower...it doesn't get much better than that in my limited daily life.
I keep thinking about ordering a workout DVD I've seen on an infomercial: Hip-Hop Abs. It looks like a lot of fun, and exactly what I need for those days I can't get to the Y. But something on the infomercial really annoys me. They interview people who've gone through the program and who tout its effectiveness, and one of those people is a 40-year-old woman. This is supposed to illustrate just how amazing this program is: it even works on someone as ancient as 40!! Miracles! We can revive the dead! I mean, really! What on earth about being in your 40s limits your ability to work out or be, or get, fit?
Of course, time does take its toll: my skin, my body shape, my hair -- all of it says 40s. And that's fine. I don't deny getting older or the accompanying changes. But this underlying implication that you fall off the face of the earth after 40 is really irritating.
Even a recent letter to the SJ Mercury News supporting older parents damned itself, by saying "Sure, a 60-year-old might not be able to keep up with his 3-year-old's soccer class, but..." What?! Why on earth can't a 60-year-old keep up with a 3-year-old? It's a given when you're 30 that you can keep up with a 3-year-old, just because you're young. But it's not a given that just because you're older, you can't. I have no intention of being outrun by a 3-year-old when I'm 60.
My friends who are still in their 20s and 30s, take note! Don't buy it! You'll turn 40 someday too, and there is absolutely no reason you can't be fit and energetic and completely yourself. It's actually quite light here on the dark side!
OK, rant over. I guess I have extra energy for it after running a mile on the treadmill today. A mile! Me! A sworn treadmill-hater and non-runner! Turns out, I'm motivated by distance, not time. I'm still not crazy about the treadmill, but I sure like how much stronger I feel. I'm gonna need it. Let's see if I still have the energy for this same rant when I'm 50!
I'm so looking forward to T-shirt weather, for numerous reasons. Believe it or not, one of the main reasons is Julian's painful putziness. Some days, every step of a wash-hands process requires a countdown: go into the bathroom, get on the footstool, roll up sleeves, turn on the water, put hands under the water, hold hands out for soap, rub hands together, rinse, etc. "FIVE...FOUR..THREE...TWO...ONE!" That's me, counting down countless times, with increasing irritation each time. T-shirt weather means one step, and one countdown, eliminated: no sleeve-rolling-up. Yay.
This morning, I experienced something I haven't in weeks: I got to wake up when I needed to, not when something -- well someone else woke me. Katrina needed a morning nap by 8am, and I gladly lay down then too...and napped until I darned well felt like waking up. I woke up slightly, then lay partly awake with my eyes closed, dozed off again, then opened my eyes and looked around the room, and let my mind ramp up gradually, then stood up and walked around slowly, taking my time getting dressed. What a treat! So different from being jolted awake and forced to jump up and walk while bogged down by grogginess, every time I'm awakened. Katrina woke up at 11:15, having had a solid 3-hour morning nap. Wow.
I hated to waste my sleep windfall on a necessity, but that's how it is on migraine days. Starting last night, I've been fighting a bad headache, and wasn't able to feel completely good when I finally got up today. Still, needing the sleep and not getting it with a headache makes for a horrible day. And all told, today was pretty good.
Katrina's morning nap pretty much killed the rest of her napping today, unfortunately. After a curtailed half-hour afternoon nap, she needed a lot of attention and holding. Which I don't mind, but it gets to be a strain when ALL I can do is carry around a slightly grumpy baby.
This is becoming a bit of a dilemma: she needs the most attention (holding, nursing, bath, bedtime) right when I need to be busy preparing dinner, often before Dave gets home. Today there was no choice, I didn't even try to start dinner before Dave got home at 6:30. But that meant a late bedtime for boys -- and girl. Well, we'll figure it out. Afternoon amusement included being watched over by big brother while I went to get Katrina some more clothes after a big blowout. Gabriel just loves lying with her and playing, and as long as Julian isn't around, he's usually very careful (though I did have to admonish him again about putting his finger in her ear).
Since it was so nice out, I put on a cute little shorts-thing that I'd been eyeing for a while. I love bare baby legs! (Perhaps almost as much as bare little-boy arms that eliminate the need for a countdown for sleeve-rolling for hand-washing.)
She had a grand time ripping the tissue paper off a gift she got from Bonne Maman today. Inside was an adorable purple corduroy dress with a matching bottom-thing (what are those called, a diaper-cover I guess). Katrina did well trying to sit up, though I was holding her for most of this. Still, several times I had to let go of her, and she sat solidly for a few seconds.
Bonne Maman also sent some wonderful activity books for the boys (thank you Bonne Maman!). Gabriel loves a challenging aircraft-sticker book, and Julian did his first dot-to-dot tonight, from 1 to 10. I was surprised that he caught on right away, and had no trouble doing it -- except staying interested, that is.
Such a contrast between the two boys. Julian grasped the dot-to-dot concept more quickly, and is much better at the drawing part, but will only work at it 5-10 minutes at a time. Gabriel took much longer to understand it, and he was older, and was much shakier in drawing the lines. But he latched onto the task like a bulldog, working at it for hours, and soon demanding to know why the numbers stopped at 50.
I spent a lot of time alone with baby this afternoon while boys napped, and I like that -- time alone with your baby, especially when there are other kids in the house, is precious time. But after baby was in bed, I had fun tonight working on the new activity books with the boys too. That too is precious time. It certainly seems precious now that all three are in bed. That's the most precious time of all!
Happy Birthday Bonne Maman! And Katrina is 5 months old today!
Today we dropped off (yes, dropped off!) Gabriel and Julian at Gavin and Cassie's joint birthday party. I actually wanted to go, but Katrina was taking a solid morning nap, from which I finally woke her up to go. I really wanted to see Andy Z, a popular local kids' musician that Stacey hired for the party. I'd heard a lot about him, but never had had a chance to see him. We arrived at the tail end of the music fun, and I could see in just a few seconds why Andy Z is so popular. He is really, really good! I liked his songs, the way he engaged the kids, the fun boisterous atmosphere. I'm definitely going to be looking out for his concerts and making a much grander effort to get to them now. Gabriel was pretty funny in just standing and concentrating on him though. He did go around in circles and play along with the other kids too, but much of the time I saw, he was like Julian in Music Together: utterly stationary.
Meantime, birthday boy Gavin ran laps around the room.
Then of course, there are Stacey's cake masterpieces. She made a panda cake for Cassie's 3rd birthday, and a spiderman cake for Gavin's 5th, and they were both perfect works of art. Yes folks, she decorates these herself. Really astounding perfect detail. And quite yummy too!
It was a gorgeous, downright balmy warm day, perfect to enjoy the Ryder family's beautiful and diverse backyard. A perfect day and place for a really wonderful birthday party. I can't possibly provide such an idyllic setting, nor can I come close to Stacey's talent in cake decorating, but there's no doubt in my mind after my Chuck E Cheese trauma that a home-baked party is the way to go.
Katrina was in a terrific mood when we got home from the party; she clearly got a kick out of being in a new place and surrounded by so many fun things to watch. She spent the first 15 minutes of our time there spitting up again and again and again, almost completely occupying me with wiping up her bib (she went through two in that time) and everything around her. I swear that girl makes yogurt in her tummy out of breastmilk and then regurgitates it.
Much of the rest of the time, she happily hung out in the stroller, taking it all in, while I chatted with friends and took care of the boys. When we got home, she was all smiles and giggles and cute baby sounds.
The warm day gave me a pang of lament for having another summer in which I can't just go outside when I feel like it and do things in the garage or attend to our long-neglected landscape. Having a babe-in-arms limits life in many ways, but for some reason the tug to get involved in non-baby-compatible projects outdoors is especially strong. I still remember both days when I had a sense of liberation with Gabriel and Julian, both when they were about 18 months old, when they were able to just walk around and hang out while I did things outside. I know it'll come again. And I'll probably think it happened in a snap when it does.
It was a lot harder to get these pictures than I thought, and I'm still not happy with them, but here they are. All five of us have different-colored eyes, though the photo-taking revealed that mine and Julian's are more similar than I'd thought.
Dad. Straight-on pure blue:
Mom. Dark grayish-drabish green around the edges, brown around the pupil:
Gabriel. Straight-on pure brown:
Julian. Dark grayish-blueish, with brown around the pupil:
Katrina. Bluish-grayish, most similar to Uncle Ronan:
What I really get out of this exercise is: Don't take closeups of grownups' faces and put them next to kids' faces, it'll peg your vanity meter.
Here's what I learned in high school about eye color genetics. Each person carries two eye color genes, one from each parent. A brown gene is dominant -- if you have one, it will override your other gene, and your eyes will be brown. So, brown+brown = brown, and brown+blue = brown. The only way to have blue eyes is have two blue genes (blue+blue = blue).
So how is it that two parents with brown eyes can have a blue-eyed child? If you're brown+blue, your eyes will be brown, but you can pass that blue gene on to your child. If your child's other gene from the other parent is also blue, then he'll have blue eyes. If both parents have blue eyes, then no one has any brown gene and everyone has blue eyes. Probably. It's really not that straightforward. I'm told that a brown-eyed child from two blue-eyed parents is possible but rare. More likely, geneticists are covering up for the milkman.
Of course, this is a gross and crude oversimplification of the complex science of eye color genetics. And of course there's much more than brown and blue -- indeed, just in our family of five, only Dave and Gabriel have clearly brown or blue eyes.
But if you believe these basics, for us to have a son with brown eyes means I do have a brown gene, and hence, brown eyes, even though my eyes don't look entirely brown like Gabriel's. I wonder if Julian is the same way. All three of our kids could have offspring with blue eyes, since they all carry a blue gene from Dave.
Congratulations to any of you who are still reading this. Forgive me this strange fascination. It's not the only one, I'm sorry to say, but I'll try to spare you my handedness-orientation ramblings for a few months.
Today I actually made it to see Gabriel in gymnastics class. I got a report from Gavin's dad (thanks, Scott!) that Gabriel is indeed pretty good at it, and has a great time too.
Perhaps too good a time, as happened in his last class. Once he gets too familiar with it, he stops paying attention and starts becoming a problem. Gymnastics is just about over, and I'd like to keep up some activity for him on Saturday mornings. I'm not sure what though, and he's very unreliable when I ask, and the next level of Tiny Tots gymnastics is in the inconvenient afternoon. Hmm. We had fun in the playgrounds outside afterward. Katrina tried out a swing for the first time (she was so-so on it), and practiced sitting up with Dad's help. I had fun running and playing keep-away with the boys, which it turns out, I can do. Their reflexes are fast and they can turn on a dime, but it's still pretty easy to fake them out and outrun them at a trot. But I can see clearly to the day when Gabriel will be able to outrun me. Julian doesn't like the game for long and starts to cry. I guess that can be expected of a 3-year-old when his mommy runs away from him! He's a lot better at climbing than he used to be, though frankly he doesn't strike me as a natural athlete.
I finally completed a simple home-improvement task: putting up "pajama pegs" for the kids. Yay, finally, I'm decorating! Katrina's is a green flower, and the boys' are blue and red stars ($10 each from Land of Nod, with a high cute-to-cost factor!). The idea is that they can hang their pajamas on the pegs for the next night, as PJs around here get worn a few nights in a row. This afternoon, our plain stairwell got quite the colored light show from our stained-glass window. I'm wishing again we'd asked for more color in the window; I was definitely too conservative. Still, I love it, and it's so fun seeing something different every time I go up the stairs. Today during Julian's nap and Katrina's non-nap (a far-too-awake baby today), Katrina hung out while Gabriel worked on a birthday card for Gavin's party tomorrow. At first, I was going to just have him sign it, but then thought I'd see how far he'd get writing the rest of it. I was really surprised, he tackled this project with enthusiasm, if slow meticulousness. Of course, his favorite part was coloring in the "5" that I freehanded. For Gabriel, the number is always the reward. Meantime, Katrina hung out on the floor and took in the activity. She isn't scared of the scary-chicken toy, and actually really likes it. I notice that she really likes the crinkly parts of "multimedia" toys (like the wings on the scary chicken), which the boys never really noticed much.
Here's Katrina making cute sounds while almost cuddling with the chicken toy. (I wish I had a way to edit AVI files; only the first few seconds of this is worth much.)
An occasional party favor item is "Bloonies," a new name for a toy that I recall being a childhood staple. I opened one today for Gabriel, mostly to distract him from kissing Katrina to the point of suffocation (on the whole, a good sibling problem to have).
The Bloonie is a tube of gooey, smelly, toxic and flammable stuff that you squish onto the end of a straw in a ball shape, then blow up into a fragile, sticky balloon that you can't play with. And talk about a baby smothering hazard! I must be forgetting something; I remember this stuff being fun. Then again, as Dave pointed out, in the classic 1902 book Peter Rabbit, Peter's father is caught and ends up in a pie. That never bothered me as a kid, either.
Speaking of kid books, Dave just reported that Gabriel read the entire book Dr. Seuss' "One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish," with only a little bit of help from Dave. He's memorized much of it, but these days he points out so many words I know he's never seen in a book that I do believe he's actually reading. And he really, really wants to read, often sitting with a book and studying it with furrowed brows. It reminds me of the intense unrelenting struggles in his toddler times, and now I see him unleash that same remarkable determination and focus on more positive pursuits. It's fascinating seeing that power now put to good use in a five-year-old.
I had all sorts of grand ambitions to get things done in the office: concentrated, thinking sorts of things that are impossible with baby in tow (like starting on taxes, ick). Still, I fought my usual inclination to put my mind before my body, and went to the Y right after dropping Julian and Katrina off and had a nice little workout. I daresay I'm starting not to hate the treadmill.
At 11:00, I got the call: Katrina absolutely would not take a bottle, and was screaming her head off. Two kinds of formula, fresh and frozen breastmilk, not having it. I zoomed to Tonya's, nursed her, and went back home to make the most of my remaining 45 baby-free minutes.
This is a problem! It hasn't been an issue in the evening when we go skating, since I nurse her before we leave, then she sleeps the whole time we're gone. But during the day, if I'm to be away from her ever, at all, she needs to take a bottle. Preferably of formula, since I really hate pumping.
I tried baby-on-bottle again tonight, with a different bottle. Nothing doing.
I remember that Gabriel too stopped taking a bottle, though he was older and was eating solids by then. Fortunately, Katrina isn't all that far off from the 6 month mark. Ego compels me to keep her exclusively on breastmilk until then, just so I can say that all three kids lived on nothing but breastmilk for the first 6 months of their lives, fresh from the cow.
Katrina didn't nap well at Tonya's either, but she sure did this afternoon. I had to wake her up after 3 hours, so I could take the boys back to Tonya's for sleepover tonight, and drop a meal off at my friend Jodie's house. I keep thinking about Jodie and her preemie baby...and speaking of breastmilk, I remember that Jodie wasn't a fan of nursing, but I also remember Stacey telling me that pumping breastmilk wasn't considered optional if you had a preemie. I can't imagine having to pump if you didn't even want to breastfeed in the first place -- blah! Inspired by Kristi, I attempted to get eye-color photos of the kids today. Kristi's three girls all have blue eyes, and Kristi does a nice analysis of the subtle differences (she's an optometrist, so has a professional perspective as well).
I failed utterly, but got a few funny face shots in the process. I don't know how to get natural-light photos of their eyes without reflections though. Reflections weren't my biggest problem though. Julian absolutely refused to hold still, and only did after I got fed up and said, "OK, never mind, no pictures!" Then he cries and wails and says he'll hold still, not thinking that posing for pictures isn't that much fun anyway. That sort of bluffing never, ever worked on Gabriel.
A calm evening, with the boys away and baby going to bed reliably around 7pm. Lately she's been waking up once during the night, and then pretty early in the morning (6:30am) ? Not bad.
Yay! I'm almost done re-organizing my craft area in the office. It feels great, and functional now, having set it up according to the way I really use it: projects on one side, materials on another. Now I just have to find the time to use those materials on those projects!
I had a nice quiet morning alone with Katrina, who napped from 9:30am to 11am. That pretty much shot going anywhere until it was time to pick up the boys, and then she was falling asleep in the car and acting tired, so straight home we went after getting her brothers.
Gabriel complained yesterday that we aways go somewhere after picking him up, and that's true. Once again, I'm ultra-protective of my time "off" from kids, even with -- perhaps especially with -- three. I'm not going to waste kid-free time grocery-shopping or errands-running at Target! I'll take them all with me for stuff like that!
I realized today that I no longer brace myself for the times that they're all three home. It used to be that I'd pick up Gabriel, or both boys, then steel myself for a difficult afternoon: the boys fighting while I'm nursing baby, two-handed carrying of a miserable newborn; baby crying while I'm trying to get Julian down for a nap. But the boys are a lot better together now; Gabriel in particular has been a joy lately. And Katrina is a lot more predictable and manageable -- and carryable. If she's awake when it's time to get Julian down, she sits in my lap as I read a story to him. I almost prefer that, because I'd much rather spend her sleep time doing things that absolutely can't be done when she's awake. (Well, except that Katrina often isn't much fun to have in your lap, wriggling like a fish out of water.)
Not that I want to rush her babyhood, but sitting up by herself would make both me and Katrina very happy.
No photos today. Not even any funny kid comments, not that were sufficiently coherent to warrant repeating.
I went OUT tonight! Tuesday dinner with our longtime moto-friends. Without anyone else, just me! It felt so good to be a grownup again.
Went to the Y this morning. I needed a good, deep workout. Ahh. Katrina in an odd confluence of very un-baby-like colors. I don't know how this happened. Despite rapidly increasing baldness, she's very cute.
Funny kid comment of the day: Gabriel, on our way grocery-shopping after picking him up from pre-K: "Why do we always have to go somewhere after pre-K?" Then, in the grocery store, after a lady smiled at my little mayhem and asked if I had all boys, Gabriel said, "I wish we were three boys!". Agh!
Not much happened today. Gabriel posed for some face shots to update his login thumbnail photo on our Macintosh computers.
Funny kid comment of the day: I forget how this got started, but lying on the bed with Gabriel looking at Katrina blowing raspberries between us, we were talking about who loves who. I commented kiddingly that kids don't have to love Moms, since we're so often the meanies who don't let kids do what they want to do. Gabriel said lightly, "Well, I love you, Mom," then, "but I love Bear even better."
Katrina went to bed at 7pm. I almost don't know what to do with myself!
No blog entry yesterday?! We were movin' on up -- upstairs that is. Finally, both Dave and I spent the whole night upstairs, and we had a big push of moving clothes, furniture, TV, etc upstairs.
I've been spending part of it up there anyway, after Katrina wakes me up, but this time, the night started there. I really like it up there, despite all the moving-in stuff still in the works, but to my surprise, the thing I liked best was a sense of closeness and safety having the boys closeby. Like we were all together again. That's nice. Today we attempted to all ice-skate together. Yikes! This meant the whole family went to the ice rink in time for the public session to start at 1pm. We got there early to size rental skates for the boys and get all of us suited up. Naturally the boys like the Zamboni best.
Well, it didn't go great actually. First I practiced for a few minutes, only to find that my bony and bruised anklebone (from Thursday's lesson) is still uselessly painful, making it very hard to really skate. Then I brought Gabriel on the ice, and he had a hard time -- much worse than he did a year ago. But I know that improvements come about quickly, and at the end of the one lap he did, he was able to semi-skate on his own. The key was starting him off with his hands on his knees, in a secure position, then getting him to reach for my hands as I skated backward in front of him. Still, about ten minutes was all he could take. Next, Julian. He was excited at first, and was very attentive to my instructions to put his hands on his knees. But even holding this position is pretty hard for a first time, so he quickly pooped out. Just as we were almost done, I tried the same thing I'd done with Gabriel: skate backward in front of him and hold my hands out for him, just out of reach, forcing him to reach for my hands. And then he did just fine, alternating feet and propelling himself forward.
Skating is a hard sport to start; it's not fun right away (like soccer) when you're falling all the time. And it was tough for me today: my bony anklebone was really really tender, and then I discovered that my fragile sacro-iliac joint paid a hefty price for all the bending down helping the boys.
Well, even if I never get any of my guys interested in skating, at least I have one last shot with Katrina! Speaking of who: another too-late, too-long afternoon nap for baby means she's back up, late. Guess she'll have her bath after the Oscars.
Please join me in sending positive thoughts to the Wisherd family, which in addition to Jodie, Chris and Aidan, as of today includes baby Reese, 14 weeks early. It'll be a long road for them all.
No skating today, but lots of talking about it. I signed Julian up for a parent-and-tot ice skating class, starting March 7! This is the same one I did with Gabriel last year, that got me wanting to take lessons myself.
Here's a crummy camera video of Gabriel at his last skating class last year:
Funny kid comment of the day: Gabriel watched that video of him skating, and said, "That's when I was, like, completely 4!"
Katrina was just darling today, though she sure needed a lot of naps. Last night her first and only wakeup was at 2:30am, after going to bed around 7pm. Yay! Then she took a good solid morning nap, and I thought I had a good 2-1/2-3 hour window of awake time. As I got ready to take her to the Y, she was fussy and crying and not smiley, and as I was about to carry her out the door, she did that baby-burrowing thing that makes you think they're going to rub their noses off. Tired already?! But who can argue with the burrow? So I took her upstairs and put her down, and after about 5 minutes of half-fussing half-sucking, she went to sleep. Hukay!
I put Katrina in the exersaucer today for a few minutes, and then kept hearing a sudden sort of yipping sound. Turns out, she was quasi-laughing at spinning a toy on the exersaucer. It was so cute I tried to quickly capture a video, but she was distracted by the camera. Still, this video gives a few examples of her giggle (?), though she was doing it a lot more before I tried to capture it (the Heisenberg effect?):
I did an unusual thing tonight: took the kids to the Y after dinner, in an attempt to make a 5:45 hip-hop class. I missed the first half of the class, and enjoyed it even though a class at a fitness center isn't really the same as a true dance class. After the class, I ran on the treadmill, this time looking at distance instead of time. Then stretched and felt great, despite my growing guilt about the time: 7:15pm. What happened to a 6:30 up-to-bedtime for baby?
Turns out, she needed it. As I was leaving the fitness room, the Childwatch was on their way to find me. Katrina was a mess, all red-masked like a raccoon again, and absolutely beside herself. She cried pitifully the whole way home. Gabriel and Julian were having a grand time, playing together to my surprise, and very cooperatively.
Going to the Y: a good thing. Timing: still working on it.
Dave left this morning at what my old boss used to call "O'Dark Early" for a business trip, which meant I got to play single mom with all three this morning. Not so bad, once I persuaded the boys to get dressed.
I'm so lame with their breakfasts: cold cereal and milk, and that's it. But now at least I've convinced Julian that bits of banana in his breakfast is yummy. And it makes me feel better, if nothing else.
It was a rainy day today, with breaks in the clouds resulting in moments of intense sunshine. I saw a perfect scene from the office window: the magnolia tree in full bloom, brightly lit by sun, with a dark stormy background. By the time I got outside, much of the effect was gone...or did it just look different close up?
I think this was the 4th day in a row that for at least half an hour, all three kids were asleep at the same time. Of course, I don't "put" Gabriel down for naps -- he just does it himself.
Funny kid comment of the day: Julian decided to weigh himself, and pulled out the digital scale that I use to weigh things for shipping. He first said, "Mommy, it says Zero!" then came over to me and told me in a whisper, as though he were letting me in on a secret, "it doesn't work very well on the carpet." I went back to my typing, and the a few moments later, he announced, "Mommy! I weigh 30 hours!"
Since Dave got back late from his business trip, I took the opportunity to meet my mom friends for Coffee Night after skating. I took some extra practice time, since I juuust figured out how to do back crossovers without lifting my foot to do the crossing, and wanted to solidify it (ahh, extra weight on my heels!). This is so much fun.
I had a great skating class and practice, so was in a great mood afterward to meet up with my friends. It was so nice to talk about kids and family without any kids or family actually there! Good skating, good company, good cheesecake. Nothing like a good break from kids and family to make you look forward to kids and family again.
No more infant seat! Today I installed our old Britax Roundabout for Katrina. I should probably get another cover for it; it's the same old denim cover I got for Gabriel. It's so faded it's white now. She LOVED being able to see out the windows, and play with Gabriel, and I LOVE how much easier it is to get her in and out of it. Plus now I can use my regular stroller, the same old Graco CityLite, which is a zillion times easier to control than the Snap-n-Go caddy for the infant seat. One tiny step away from babydom!
I had a chance to talk to Gabriel's teacher today, and commented that we'd entered the lottery for an alternative elementary school that has a flexible classroom format. That might suit Gabriel well, who's strong in certain things and not so much in others. She said he's definitely interested in math and science. "Art and drama? Forget it!" She also said he'd do fine in kindergarten socially, emphasizing that he sticks up for himself. "Defend" was the word she used. Gee, how big a part of kindergarten is that? Especially at Collins? This evening, I had fun playing the Music Together CD for, and with, the boys. I showed Gabriel how to follow along the words to a song in the music book, which he loved doing. I was very surprised when he was able to read most of the words in the song "Roll Over:"
There were five in the bed And the little one said Roll over, Roll over So they all rolled over And one fell out
He has trouble with words like "there" and "they" (and apparently I do too, since I can't offhand name the parts of speech that they are). I'm pretty sure he mostly recognizes the words, and isn't really phonetically reading them. But he picked out the song titled "Kookaburra," certainly not a word you come across in typical book reading, so there's some "reading" going on. Writing on the other hand...
The boys were very cute sitting with their songbooks, turning the pages and trying to match the words to the song playing, looking at the pictures, pulling out instruments for the play-along. Katrina was tired and grouchy at the time, needing constant holding, but she was sufficiently distracted by the music and our singing, reading and some dancing (of course).
Speaking of tired Katrina, she had two naps today. The morning nap was greatly delayed by an OB appointment I had this morning, but the afternoon was was fairly normal. Still, by 5pm, she was tired. I managed to keep her up and happy until about 6:30, which I'm targeting for an up-to-bedtime. It went perfectly, she was happy in the bath, and very ready to go to sleep. Yay!
This morning I had a dream that at my annual OB appointment today, my OB told me that the strange cramping I've been feeling was because I was pregnant. AGGGH! That nightmare happened last year!! Not this time. No answers on the cramping though.
A cloudy afternoon made for a perfect photo-op, though Katrina needed a nap and wasn't quite in the mood. Not to mention, getting her brothers to cooperate is quite the challenge. Who can blame Katrina for this worried look?
"MOM! HELP!!" I need a professional! That goes for lots of things.
