Dave took the boys to Supercuts today for a haircut after Gabriel's gymnastics. Julian came back with a variation of the bowl cut, about all you can do with his hair, but Gabriel came back with some stylin'! I used to think this was dumb, but frankly, it's so cute and so funny I don't mind at all. And tomorrow the gel will be gone anyway.
Today I found a way to accomplish three things at once: 1) exercise; 2) give Dave a break after dealing with the boys all morning; and 3) pick up lunch! I took Julian and Katrina in the double jogging stroller and ran most of the way to and from Subway. Not the most pleasant of trips along busy Homestead Road, but it accomplished all three goals handily. Back home, I parked the jogging stroller, then noticed its juxtaposition next to my beloved old BMW R65. My old life right next to my new life. If someone had told me 10 years ago that I'd be parking a double jogging stroller next to this bike, with two of my three children in it, I'd have said "No WAY!" (Not to mention if they'd told me who their father would be...!)
A beautiful warm afternoon today, so after naps we spent some time in the backyard. Katrina hung out on a blanket, content for about half an hour lying down, which is becoming increasingly rare. She wants to sit up and look around! I'm all for it.
The boys played with numerous things but the biggest hit was the blue spiky ball, a gift from Aunt Laura and Uncle Ryan that I finally got around to blowing up. They had a great time bouncing on the blue ball and another big ball, then got into a game of throwing them on top of each other's heads.
Meantime, I tried chipping away at the heaps of junk that is our garage, a few minutes at a time between playing with Katrina, holding her, and making sure the boys weren't running over her (when the balls came out, I put her in the stroller). Now I have another carload to take to Good Will. I'm becoming a regular there, and it feels great.
Ah, the skills we moms develop. Try making and serving hard-boiled eggs while holding baby! Tonight, I sat Katrina in my lap and held her in place with my elbows as I peeled and sliced the eggs. Heaven forbid she actually sit back peacefully while I tackle this two-handed task.
Our time outdoors put us late for dinner, so I did an emergency bail-out dinner. In some ways, I felt like Bad Mom for not serving a well-balanced dinner, but in other ways, I felt like Good Mom that my bail-out dinner was tortellini (and, as it turns out, hard-boiled eggs, which both boys liked!) instead of pizza. Actually, I rarely serve them just pasta these days, and haven't fallen back on pizza in months. Not that there's anything wrong with pasta or pizza, but I've come to see just pasta as a junk-food dinner, whereas I used to see it as a healthy staple. Ironic from someone for who junk food is a staple.
Aunt Stephanie sent this wonderful "Animal Boogie" song book and CD with illustrations and lyrics, that is absolutely adorable, and the boys LOVE it. But you'd never know it looking at this boring video clip! The humor is in the inactivity -- this cute song that you're supposed to shake, stomp, leap and fly to, and the boys just sit like complete couch potatoes listening to it.
What you don't see is that they were running around, shouting and out of control before I put the music on -- then they scrambled up to the couch, opened the book, and listened intently, immobile, faithfully turning each page with each new verse.
This afternoon we had some much-needed quiet time when Julian and Katrina both took a nap. Gabriel entertained himself with the Animal Boogie book, quietly singing the song to himself as he read the book. I managed a candid capture of this sweet scene.
Gabriel really amazes me with his ability and desire to entertain himself. He'll play like this for hours, building things, reading, talking through stories he makes up. It actually makes me feel guilty, especially this week. I've been overwhelmed with a mounting sleep debt, a grouchy baby in the afternoon, plus other family worries back East, and really haven't been engaging Gabriel in the precious time we have alone together in the afternoons. Instead, I've been relying on his remarkable independence. I know this won't harm him long-term, but I feel an intense tug of wanting to make the most of our few remaining months together before he becomes a genuine schoolkid.
Yesterday afternoon, I was playing with Katrina on our bed, and singing with Julian: "There were five in the bed and the little one said, 'Roll over, Roll over,' so they all rolled over and one fell out!" At the word "out," I'd give her a tiny nudge so she'd complete a rollover, which sent Julian into peals of laughter, and made her laugh too. We did this many times, and at the time I noticed that Julian has gotten really good at singing along.
Today in music class, we did that same song, and I was absolutely amazed at Katrina's reaction. She flailed her arms and smiled and made gurgly noises -- I swear she recognized it from our games yesterday! Is that possible at 5 months old?! She was very engaged and happy in music class today, but definitely responded to the Roll Over song.
Someone also observed in music class today that she's "weight-bearing." I hadn't heard that term before, but indeed, she'll support herself standing for a minute now, of course with help balancing by holding her hands. That's new as of a few days ago. It won't be long before the predictions of early walking will start to pour in, but we have her older older brother as a perfect counterexample to that. Gabriel was weight-bearing starting at around 2 months old, and was standing quite well around 7 months old, with help balancing. Did that mean skipping crawling, and early walking?! Hah! Not even close!
Unfortunately, driving back from music class, Katrina fell asleep in the car. I think my great luck with transferring my first two babies from the car to a crib is shot here, because even fast asleep, she still will not rest her head on my shoulder. What is wrong with this baby?! So of course she wakes up, and that was it. No morning nap at all. Urgh!! So I putzed around at home, cursing my plight, then decided to drag us all to Trader Joe's.
On the way, impulsively, I drove by a nearby park to see if the 2004 Las Madres group still has Thursday morning playgroup there. Yes! Talk about turning water into wine -- a chore I was dreading turned into a delightful visit and park play. Julian had loads of fun playing with Andrew and Gina. Every time I looked for him, he was running happily after one of them, laughing his head off. Ultimately he played with Andrew more, as few kids can keep up with Gina for long.
Meantime, Katrina lounged happily in the stroller with her feet in the air, smiling at everything.
It made me feel guilty yet again, since both Julian and Katrina had a grand time being outside. When Gabriel was a baby, I took him to parks all the time. Now it's a downright rare occasion. I've got to change that, especially since the parks around here are so, so good. Maybe fewer scheduled activities and more park playgroups I also got to practice photographing one of my favorite faces, belonging to this amazingly agreeable baby with the most compelling eyes. I'm just in love with this little guy.
It wasn't as hard an afternoon as they've been this week, even though I had a big deadline because of skating tonight. I made some breakthroughs in practice today, marvelling at how skating reminds me of my high school gymnastics days when you're working on a particular move, have an epiphany followed by the joy of "I DID IT!!" Dance is a little more incremental, you don't have specific tricks that you either do or don't do. Today the tiniest weight shift turned a clumsy flailing into a passable 3-point turn (I think that's what it's called), in which you transition from skating forward to backward, on one foot. Now if I can mirror that to the other one foot...!
Only a few grownup skating classes left in this session. Wah! I'm just getting started! But I'm also getting anxious to take dance again, and swim. Dare I think about my future in increments of more than five minutes?
Skating Day! Julian picked up where he left off last week, both in skating and in whining and complaining. I backed off trying to get him to skate on his own, as he seems to need the security of holding my hand, or even just my finger. So mostly I tried to just keep him moving and skating to get more comfortable.
And, I found the key -- then another one! One key was to make songs up, such as the "march march march" song, to which we pick up our feet (and as a result, skate) as we sing. "The Snail and The Mouse" from Music Together was also a great song game ("slowwwly slowwlly...quicklyquickly!").
The other major key to Julian was the plastic balls the teachers spread out on the ice to chase and kick, which he loved to do. It's not easy to kick a ball from an ice skates, as my tailbone discovered painfully today!! But Julian was pretty good at it, and after kicking a ball, he'd instinctively chase after it, forgetting about the skating part. He was actually gliding for several feet at a time in his pursuit of the ball, which is more than Gabriel ever did in 6 classes.
I tried to capture a video, but it was pretty hard since he wouldn't let me let go of his hand, and because after he kicks the ball, he scrambles after it!
The balls gave me a pang of guilt that we were doing what I wanted to do (skate), not what he loves to do (soccer). Nevertheless, I'm having far more fun with Julian in skating than I did with Gabriel, whose resistance was a lot harder to chip away with distracting games.
Toward the end of the class, Julian got tired and started complaining a lot, so I got him to sit on a bench for a few minutes while I skated upright to work the kinks out of my back, which had been leaning over for almost an hour helping him skate.
After skating, I dropped Julian back off at Tonya's. Katrina was napping, so I left her with Tonya for the remaining hour. Perfect! I zipped off to the Y and did some treadmill time and a curtailed workout before zooming back to Tonya's to pick up Julian and Katrina, then Gabriel. I am so loving the Y, especially that it's just minutes away from everything.
I arrived home tired, sweaty, hungry, and completely overloaded with all three of them needing something from me. It's amazing how we lower our standards as moms. In the old days, I wouldn't have dreamed of getting changed into regular clothes without taking a shower first. Nowadays, I'm grateful just to get changed at all!
I'm sorry to say that hard afternoons have become a trend I dread. Thankfully Katrina took a decent nap this afternoon, allowing me to get a few little things done, but come dinner-making bath-bedtime, it was all hard labor. She's not quite ready for bed, but is also grouchy enough that I either have to carry her or listen to her cry, which is intensely stressful. I had to either carry her, or quickly rush around packing all two-handed chores into the few minutes I might have before she starts to fuss.
At least the boys were pretty good tonight. Dave had to work late again, so it was the third night in a row of putting all three to bed single-handedly. I've got to do something differently, that shouldn't be such a heavy load.
Weird kid comment of the day: Gabriel: "Mommy, I wish I had four ears!"
Funny kid comment of the day: Gabriel again, echoing me, said laughingly to Katrina, who'd started to fuss after a long period of being happy, "Do you have something in your diaper I should know about?!"
Katrina spends virtually no time lying on the floor, as so many babies do, for fear (mine) of getting trampled by her brothers. And she doesn't last long lying on a bed, she always starts to cry or fuss. So she hasn't rolled over yet, though I think she could. And she did! I put her on her tummy today, which I've only done a handful of times, and she pushed up and rolled easily to her back.
Also in the mobility department: this morning I found her in the crib turned a full 180 degrees.
Katrina and Julian went to Tonya's this morning so Dave and I could meet with our estate lawyers and finalize our trust documents. She did great, taking what would be her longest nap of the day on Tonya's bed.
But at home in the afternoon, she took only a short snooze and woke up grumpy at 3pm. This made me dread the rest of the afternoon, as she requires constant attention and carrying -- standing up, of course. Fortunately today there were times she'd let me sit down, and I got to talk on the phone and do a little Web-surfing, but dinner-making and putting boys to bed was all one-handed while carrying baby again. After dinner, I sat in the family room to protect Katrina while she played on the floor and practiced sitting up (which will go a long ways toward making my life easier). Gabriel and Julian had to join in the tummy time.
Sweet kid comment of the day: Gabriel, talking about Katrina: "I just love her SO much!"
I hope he still feels that way she really gets mobile and starts getting into his Stuff.
Morning badness was Katrina's much-too-short nap, and hence mine as well. I went to bed very late last night and was counting on at least a half-hour snooze during Katrina's morning nap. But she napped barely that long, not long enough for me.
I made up for it with a good workout at the Y. It's funny, I used to not like working out on my own, but nowadays I feel so pressed for time that I can make better use of every instant if I can direct the workout myself. I wish I could alternate hard-workout days of running, weights, pushups and abs with a nice gooey yoga or Pilates class every day. I try not to think about dance classes.
But this afternoon....Katrina's much-needed afternoon nap lasted barely 20 minutes, and she was a mess all day. So was I. I was in no mood to carry her around for hours, but that's exactly what ended up happening. By the time I made dinner for the boys, one-handed and one-hipped, my elbows and wrists felt swollen and my back felt like it was going to break in half.
Then a huge blowout with Gabriel. These are almost more emotionally upsetting to me now, since I'm not used to feeling so angry and out of control with him anymore. But the simplest thing escalates and turns into a huge fight, and I just hate how I react and how I feel. I knew the real problem was that I was way tired and needed time off from baby, but couldn't find a way out. I ended up putting in earplugs just to reduce stimuli, desperate for small ways to reduce stress. I felt so guilty when Gabriel later tried sweetly to help calm and entertain Katrina.
I managed to pass some decent time outdoors with Katrina this afternoon, bracing myself for the long haul to bedtime. She likes grabbing rattles and shaking them around, sometimes startling herself!
Don't be fooled by this smile, it was one of only a few today. Finally, baby went to bed, though she had to cry to sleep despite my best efforts.
Then I put the boys to bed (Dave had to work late) and actually had a great time making up games to get them to cooperate with the steps in the bedtime process. Things like, we all sit down in a circle and touched our feet so we made a star (making it easy to get pajama bottoms on all at once), or marching in a circle in the room and then I suddenly break away (got them right into the bathroom for bath), and Simon Says for teeth-brushing. They laughed their heads off through the whole thing. Music to my frazzled ears.
While sitting outside holding Katrina and talking on the phone, Gabriel came up to me with some wilted oxalis flowers and said, "Here Mom, these flowers are for you," and then with a second handful, "and these are for Katrina." Moments later, Julian followed as well with flowers for us. Awww. My boys.
Then it got "too quiet" and I had to go investigate. Turns out, the boys were out front collecting more flowers in the dump truck. They're not allowed out front by themselves, but my sternness instantly melted away when they looked up at me with innocent eyes and said they were just collecting flowers for me and Katrina. I'm such a sucker for a good line! I tried to do some things in the garage while Katrina happily hung out in the stroller and engaged in her favorite activity: watching her brothers' antics.
Unfortunately, migraine pain took over. Even outdoors, where I can usually overcome the pressure, I couldn't function. Standing, talking, moving -- just being hurt too much. I begged Dave to put off his afternoon chores and watch over the kids (who'd since scattered) so I could rest. Even 20 minutes would make a huge difference.
There's a lot that suggests that my migraines are hormonal, but it's never that simple. Yesterday, Kristi put a bug in my head to pursue food allergy testing. This builds on other suggestions and exploration I've been doing lately anyway, such as Steph's mother-in-law's success with kicking headaches with diet changes. Since Steph has been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, I've been thinking a lot about food and what I eat, and sometimes challenging myself to model my diet after her ultra-strict one, and attempting to educate myself along the way. Though I now see my Starbucks scones as a huge indulgence instead of a daily entitlement, so far all I've done is confuse myself.
Trouble is, when I don't actually have a migraine, I don't even want to think about them. And when I do have one, I can't think at all.
Sleep report check-in: Katrina's been waking up once or twice a night lately, partly because she has a slight cold. But last night, a first occurred: I didn't nurse her at a wakeup. She'd nursed 3 hours earlier, but she's 5 months old now and hardly starving. That wakeup was not for hunger. And indeed, after picking her up, trying to calm and cuddle (futile, as usual, as she responds with a rigid back and flailing limbs), making sure there was no spitup or diaper failure, I put her back down and she went back to sleep. That was a lot better than being awake for 15 minutes nursing. No more nursing for wakeups that aren't hunger wakeups.
I managed to squeeze in some photos of all three kids today.
Then a few closeups of Katrina. She isn't photogenic at all -- she's even cuter in real life! (just kidding, these really are pretty good shots of her). Which one do you think is the cutest? I could spend all day looking and deciding.
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.
