It's official

The Picture People take better photos than I do :)

Do you Tu Tu?

Julia does.

This is a little at home tu tu try on in preparation for her 6 month portraits today. Can I tell you that there is no torture quite like trying to get a 6 month old and a 19 month old to sit still and perhaps even crack a smile while surrounded with oh so fun tulle? While I was jumping around like an idiot with some stupid squeak toy and my screechy high pitched "please smile, kid" Mom voice in full gear I realized what an idiot I looked like. I swear I want to install hidden cameras in a Picture People ~ Not to capture the oh so darling angelic tots, but the frazzled, frantic, dork-O parents doing their damnedest to eek a smile out of their kid.

We ended up with an absolutely beautiful one of my girl, and a great one of the two kids together. And I ended up with a headache.

Julia ~ 1/2 of a year!

Baby girl! I can't even believe that you are 6 months old today. I woke up thinking about what I was doing 6 months ago today.....waking up in labor, going to the hospital, laboring and laughing and giddy with excitement at the prospect of meeting my little surprise. Your birth was amazing ~ truly one of the best experiences of my life. Being the first one to say "It's a girl"! the moment that you entered the world is something that I will treasure forever. You have found your groove within our family with ease and grace. You adore your big brother. You are so big, and healthy, and way ahead of yourself in terms of milestones (slow down, baby girl, slow down). I hate braggy type blog posts, but I would be dishonest were I to act as though I am not so wonderfully proud of you ~ so grateful for you, and so in love with you. You love to laugh. You love to smile. You make our family even more fun.

We celebrated your birthday by kicking off our adventure into the wonderful (and horrible ~ the mess, the baby food making, the diapers!...the work for me. Nursing is so easy.) world of solid foods. You are no longer an exclusively breast fed baby....you have joined the land of the eaters. You were so ready that you ripped the spoon out of my hand, put it into your own mouth, and said THANK YOU! when you were finished. I exaggerate, of course, but you ate your first meal of bananas and oatmeal with a gusto. We spent the day at the zoo with your brother and Mom Mom today ~ it was one of those utterly fabulous September days in Pennsylvania.

I feel as though I am not doing you justice here, baby girl, but after a day at the zoo and then a round of golf with your Dad, I am utterly fried.

Calling you my daughter is a joy and a privilege. Congrats on your very first half-birthday, little Jules. Tomorrow you will be closer to one than to none.......and its all going by much too fast. I love you.

Nekkid Time

My little girl is growing up way too fast.

Tomorrow morning both kids are going to highschool. More on that later :)

5!

Julia is 5 months old today!

*~*


I don't know where the time went, little one. 5 months ago I was staring at your freshly born self wondering how on earth your Dad and I managed to make a girl and reveling in your long awaited arrival.

You are a great nurser baby girl and we will likely not start solids for at least another month. You are big, and healthy, and STRONG! You love to play with your feet. You sit so well unassisted. You love your bumbo. The sling is your absolute favorite place, you love to be snuggled right up against me. Your eyes follow your brother everywhere he goes, and you withstand his barrage of kisses like a champ. You have been totally amazing on the beach ~ You will sit in your stroller in the shade and stare at the ocean for an hour or more at a time....you love laying under the umbrella and staring up at it as it blows in the breeze. You are so alert, so talkative, so sweet. Your blue eyes are so bright and beautiful. You don't have much hair, but it looks like you are going to be another blondie like your brother. You roll everywhere and will oftentimes roll yourself right across the room. I would love it if you were late to get mobile (I freely confess that two mobile, young kids terrifies me), but I just don't think that it is going to be in the cards for you ~ You seem to believe that you have places to go already and are well on your way to getting there. You are suddenly trying to grab my food off of my plate. You love to grab my face as though you are trying to kiss me whenever I pick you up. You have one dimple in your right cheek. Getting kissed on either side of your mouth makes you belly laugh. You look up at me and smile the whole time you are nursing. You are a good sleeper. When I go to get you out of your crib in the morning you start cooing and waving your arms and legs like a joyous little lunatic as soon as you see me ~ It starts out my day just right every single time. You are a joy.

15 Minutes

So Jules had her 15 min of fame the other night at the Phillie's game. The Philly Phanatic accosted her for a dance on the big screen. He shook his mountainous green belly at her, and kissed her head, and generally had a little party with my 8 week old daughter on the jumbotron. I don't know if it was on TV or not....did anyone see it? (Everyone I know was watching the Fly Guys lose :() We did not get pics. (I could totally throw Nate under the bus here as *cough* someone took a bunch of pics of the players, filling the camera card and putting the camera back in some un-findable place in the diaper bag)....but I would never do that to my wonderful husband. This pic shows us post dance, Jules wearing her big brothers Chase Utley shirt and blue socks (that's the camera dude behind us). A million people asked me "How old is HE" ......it clearly shows that I am a second time Mom in that I didn't even bother to correct them as to my sweet girls gender. I know you are a girl Jules,even when we dress you a little bit like a boy. Mom rocks blue all the time, and it was a welcome break from your pink wardrobe, truth be told.
I would love to say that you were your usual sweet easy going self at the game....but MAN would that be a bold faced lie. You were a pain in the neck! I love you so, but.....wow. My little girl subjected me to my first honest to goodness taste of a "fussy baby". (if fussy is defined by screaming inconsolably, that is). For the first time in my mothering career I can say that I had no idea what was wrong with my baby. I am someone who has no trouble nursing my baby in public. My kid has a right to eat, and I have a right to feed her. That said, the forced intimacy of stadium seating is about enough for me......I hate being that close to/touching strangers in the first place, let alone with a relatively socially taboo part of my anatomy exposed. I had brought a bottle of pumped milk, but my little one wanted no part of that in her fervent anger and discontent...... SOooooo, I spent 3 different nursing sessions standing up inside of the public restroom of the stadium. AWESOME. Nothing quite so humbling as trying to nurse a screaming baby inside a stall at a public stadium. I got to overhear some fascinating conversations....mostly those of drunk young women....further stressing me out as I started thinking about the sweet (if angry) baby I had at the breast one day becoming one of THOSE. Argh.

The next morning I took the kids to the zoo. My wonderful awesome playgroup Mama's do an outing once or twice a month, and this week we went to the Philly Zoo. I didn't really think twice about going solo with two babies until I was about to park....but I suddenly felt a flash of Mama fear for the first time in quite a while. Just a moment of "Oh SNAP what have I gotten myself into?" as I negotiated city traffic, and thought about small details like: Luke, Jules, me, keeping every one of us alive, lunch for me, lunch for Luke, nursing Jules, sunblock, diapers (for two) wipes, change of clothes, hats, sling, stroller, water for Luke, water for me, camera, wallet, zoo membership, cell phone, money, keys, diaper bag etc etc etc......

As I hustled from my car (I don't think that I could have possibly parked farther away from the main entrance) careening past herds of schoolchildren on the sidewalk as I off-roaded, passing the slow moving flock in the grass on the side of the sidewalk with Jules in the sling and Luke in the stroller, I heard three different Moms or teachers remark "Wow, she's got her hands full" as they looked at me. Really? I wanted to say? REALLY? You think? Anyway, that's when the fear hit. Holy Crap. I'm responsible for all of these lives. Its hot, and I'm in the city, and I'm alone, and IM SUPPOSED TO BE THE GROWN UP..........but I still feel like a kid sometimes.

Anyway. Long story short, we lived. Better yet, we learned! Luke loved the Monkeys, and the elephants, and just about everything. Poor kid got so excited about seeing the animals that he started pointing out every pigeon to me, shouting DUCK! I tried to explain to him that they were no more than filthy disease ridden sky rats....but I think that it went over his head. So huzzah all you filthy flying city DUCKS, my son loves you. Lunch was a bit of a mess, as I tried to nurse Jules, feed Luke in his stroller, and even occasionally shove a bit of food into my own mouth at the same time....but we all survived.

I'll tell you what. No one ever told me how physically DEMANDING motherhood is. Pushing the stroller up hills, heavy with the diaper bag and Luke, while Jules was strapped to my chest in the sling, in the 80 degree heat and picking up Luke over and over again to show him the animals was a flat out workout!

I came home exhausted.

Nate is away. Jules problem came to light when I thought through things and realized that it had been a day or two since she had pooped. THAT issue was remedied this morning, shortly after I bathed and dressed both kids in anticipation of going to Longwood gardens....as I nursed my girl she unleashed a torrent of 3 day built up baby poop.....up to her neck, down my leg, and generally all over. I can tell you that I have come a long way as such a disaster would have driven me straight to the shower (or tears) with Luke....instead I grabbed a towel, made a mess undressing her.....cleaned her up, redressed her, and got on the road. We had a wonderful time exploring Longwood (my son is such a treat, and Jules had to be feeling like a million bucks after, uh, unloading herself of her burden this morning).

I feel bad talking about this very private issue of hers very publicly, so I will also say that my sweet girl has slept from 10 PM till 6 am the past two nights in a row. Way to go, little one! I appreciate the sleep. AND, its 8 AM and Luke is still sleeping. He went to bed at 7.15 last night. I love that I lucked out in the sleep department with my kids.

Something is wrong with the website as I can neither spell check nor add pics at the moment. Zoo pics will follow.

More on May

Lest you thought that I was exaggerating when I mentioned that Luke had a love affair with mulch, I opted to provide photo evidence. This was little Luke Dawg at the May Day festival that we went to last weekend. The pic of the kids and I is also from there. I cant even imagine a more beautiful and fitting entrance to a May Day festival than a cherry tree laden petal strewn path. Lovely.

The other pic is of sweet Jules smiling at Tracy. My girl looooooves Tracy (as do I).

Luke is doing so many new things its hard to even keep track.

*My boy walks up and down the steps now. No more crawling for him. Big fella.
*He knows where his head, ears, eyes, mouth, shirt, belly and feet are.
*He dances better than his Mama. He has this new twist.....it involves holding his right arm up as though he was do-se-so'ing a partner (or...how I would imagine one do-se-soe's a partner anyhow...my last square dance was some time ago now). Have no idea where he got this new move, but man, it makes us laugh. Him too.
* He says - Ma Ma, Da Da, Shoes, Snack, Juice, Jules, Teeth, Uh Oh, Dog, Hot and a plethora of other things only he can understand.
* He is obsessed with airplanes. Every time he hears one he points up at the sky shouting "Ah ah!". I never before had any idea how many freakin airplanes flew over our home in one day.
* He gives the best kisses in the world, complete with sound effects now.

Ms. Jules is a flirty little fool. I adore it. She seems so BIG to me already for only being 7 weeks old. I have a joint 15 month and 2 month visit for the kids in the coming weeks and I cant wait to get her weighed. (I'm definitely bringing along emotional support as both critters have to get shots....argh).

It's Mothers Day eve. I have lots of thoughts about Mothers Day buy I think that I will have to wait till tomorrow to share them. Right now I have blathered on enough already.

Updates

Arent I a terrible blogger lately? Excuses:

Flyers and Sixers played almost every night last week, which is when I usually write. Playoffs > Blog.
Nate has been away this week, returning today. Sleep > Blog
Spring is in full gear and we have spent all of our afternoons at the park. Park > Blog.


The kids are wonderful. Here is Ms. J giving her bumbo a spin while her big brother proudly looks on.

Luke is a park maniac. He loves the sandbox. He climbs up and on everything. He is utterly fascinated with other kids. He has some sort of mulch adoration.....he spends a lot of time either eating it, rubbing it gleefully in his hair, or throwing it up in the air confetti style. I spend most of my days laughing and marvelling at this funny little person ~ I have absolutely no idea how I wound up with such an easy going, hilarious little critter as Luke. Yesterday was a 4 t-shirt day, between the disaster of lunch, the park and playing outside in the morning. It was also the first time that Luke officially turned the bathwater a little bit brown because he was so dirty from playing outside. I was proud.

Jules is a dream. Her smiles make me melt, and she is sharing them liberally these days. She seems huge to me already, I frequently forget that she is only 7 weeks (today!) old. Her eyes are a beautiful violet color, and she is STRONG! She continues to be an easy baby. She went swimming for the first time last week and it was a hit.

Luke seems to really dig his little sister. Yesterday as we pulled into the garage from the park and I got out to get the kids, Luke was holding her hand in their car seats. Not kidding. It made me tear up (I still have those fun post partum hormones going....we watched No Country For Old Men the other night and it pretty much gave me a post movie panic/crying attack thinking about bad things happening to my kids....argh. By the way, I hated the movie and if anyone out there is at all contemplating watching it, let me take me chance to tell you NOT TO. Hated it.) Coming in from the car is always a process. Yesterday for example, I had a huge bag from the park, groceries for dinner, and the two kids to get into the house. Somedays I think that it would either be a really funny, or really sad, video to share of me hustling the stuff and the kids out of the car and into the house before either one gets annoyed. Anyway, as I bring in Julia in the car seat base and put it on the floor, Luke now runs over to her and bends over so that he is close to her face, and starts saying "Da Da DA DAAAAAA" to his baby sis. Its the cutest thing I have seen in a while. My baby "Baby talking" his little sister.

With Nate away I have quickly learned that the key to this whole motherhood of two littles thing is simply staying one step ahead of them. It's really pretty easy having two so young as long as you don't intend on doing too much other than Mothering, at least while your husband is out of town working. So if you don't yet have a thank you card in your mailbox from me, please forgive me, its coming.

The boss just woke up. Enjoy the pics and Go Flyers.

Milk: It does a body good.

No wonder Ms. Jules is such a sleepy baby. She has been busy this first month of her life! We just had her one month well baby visit and she has gained over 3 lbs and 2 inches since birth.

Not so little Jules now resides at the 95% for length and weight. Way to grow, little one.

Boss 1 and Boss 2

These are the little critters who run the show at the moment. This morning I got Boss 1 fed in his highchair while nursing Boss 2. I placed Boss 2 on the carseat to wash up Boss 1. Boss 2 Started to Cry. Boss 1 ran over and started gently rocking her in her carseat. I grabbed the camera, as he started pointing at her and saying "Jous, Jous" which is how he says her name. Apparently Boss 1 thought I was dropping the ball on taking care of Boss 2. He's already looking out for his baby sister!

The Big Boss (Nate) is away all week. It's hectic! Lots of help from family and friends though. Thanks to all!

The last pic pretty much sums up how I manage. (Shameless plug for Babyhawk slings here....best. invention. ever.)

Please go and vote today.

See why

Its been so hard to write in here this week? So many tiny toes and fingers to kiss on.

Baths and Bags

Its Sunday already. Julia is 11 days old today. I have this very real fear that I may just wake up tomorrow and be 42 or so. The days click on by INCREDIBLY quickly in a little rhythm of meals, nursings, diapers, clothing changes and baths ~ with a healthy dose of laughter and joy thrown in too. I love this precious and fleeting time with these little babies. I feel like I blink and several hours pass by. Luke seems older by the moment ~ Every time I change him I feel like he must surely be 10 or so, he just feels like this giant CHILD to me all of a sudden. I know logically that its just the comparison to tiny little Jules, but still...who stole my baby and replaced him with this wonderful huge kid? Was it John Lennon who wrote that "Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans?". Its so real to me at the moment that so much of life CAN'T be planned for, can't even be envisioned, until you are living it. I could not even fathom loving a new baby like I love Luke, taking care of two little souls, and here I am doing it. It's amazing what the heart is capable of. So many people (strangers, mostly!) relished telling me how difficult life was going to be with two ~ and here we are living it and loving it. Is it easy? In many ways. Its hard in ways as well. I'm sure that harder days lie ahead......but right now all that I have to do is to enjoy and savor today. And not worry about tomorrow. And the rest takes care of itself.

Thank you all for the sweet and thoughtful "big brother" presents that you have given Luke............amidst all of the books and toys and playdough etc whoever brought the present in this blue bag officially wins the 'favorite gift' award. The bag fits utterly perfectly atop his giant round noggin. He wants to wear it all the time. If it falls over his eyes he keeps right on walking confidently ~ sometimes right into walls, which really cracks him up. Me too.

Jules looks like a frilly little cupcake in the above pic. I love her in little dresses! If anyone noticed the world briefly stopping its rotation the other day, it was because I opened a present that my Mom brought for Julia and I squealed "Oooohhh, SMOCKING!!!!!" as I fingered the delicate pink dress. Yes, me. Squealing over smocking for pete's sake. The lights flickered in the house. This, from the girl who gave her poor mother FITS her whole life, insisting on wearing jeans, insisting on building tree forts instead of playing with dolls, insisting on playing Bo or Luke instead of Daisy, the one who wanted the Fonzie motorcycle instead of the Strawberry Shortcake bike. ME! Smocking!

Blue Tube

Lookout WC our family is mobile. We got out the past two days ~ it was almost 60 both days. We had our first trip to the park behind our house, a nice long walk with the kiddos and dog, our first shopping excursion around the borough, and our first restaurant experience as a family of four. Piece of cake. Luke loves sliding boards and Jules is a fan of all things that involve nursing and sleeping. For such a Type A person I sure do make sleepy babies. Grandma is here helping us out as Nate had to go to DC for a meeting and wont be back until tonight. We have loads of visitors caming to meet Jules today and lots of bball to watch tonight. Cheers!

Baby toes and other delights

Jules is a champ. She had her first Ped appointment today. She is (at day 6) already above her birthweight by 2.5 oz, so I am thrilled. Its amazing the inordinate amount of pride one takes in each ounce of weight gained when breastfeeding. Its so edifying to hear that you are doing a good job feeding your baby, and that she is doing a great job eating. Everything else at the Dr's was perfect. A healthy child is such a blessing.

In other TMI news, her umbilical cord stump thingy fell off today. A sure sign that I am not a first time Mom (I am embarassed to admit that when Lukes fell off I cried....it seemed he was "growing up too fast") I was happy to see Julia's gone. I also had a weird emotional attachment to Luke's ~ Somehow I felt really calloused just throwing this last link of the cord which once attached us in the trash ~ I mean, what do you really do with an umbilical cord stump? Flush it? Save it in the baby book? Bury it under a tree like the placenta freaks (sorry all you placenta lovers, but gag!!)? I remember keeping it around for a few days feeling totally flummoxed as to the proper way to dispose of it. I finally threw it, filled with shame, into the trash. (as an aside, did anyone see the Sex and the City episode where Miranda's kids falls off and the cat is playing with it? Always makes me laugh to think about that scene) This morning there was no internal debate ~ I told Nate, threatened to save it and grind it up in his Oatmeal if he was ever mean to me (Nate has a real distaste for all things weirdly human like umbilical cords, vomit, etc etc), and then chucked it in the trash.

I've come a long way, baby.

My girlfriends amaze me. Between my playgroup and church we are having dinner brought to us every night for the next two weeks. If you are reading this, dear girls ~ THANK YOU! You just have no idea how freeing it is to not have to worry about cooking dinner every night. Thank you.

Now that she is above her birthweight the Pedi told me that I no longer have to wake her up at night to feed her. Nice. Last night we went to sleep at 11, I woke her at 3 to eat, then again at 6. THUSFAR, she could not be an easier baby.

Luke has a new game that he loves. Its complicated. It goes like this.

*Identify Jules' location in any given room
*Walk over to her pointing and asking "Whats that?"
*Pull off one sock. Belly laugh.
*Pull off the other sock. Laugh even harder.

Its so damn cute I cant stand it. He has amazed me with the ease with which he is adjusting to another little person in the house.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone!

Another great night. Julia is a wonderful sleeper, I actually had to wake her up to nurse last night. We had our family Easter breakfast this morning and are excited to watch the Nova game and celebrate Easter with my family today. Seeing her in her pink striped fleece sleeper this morning I thought about hiding Jules somewhere in the house and having an Easter Egg hunt for her..... but she is just too quiet, the boys never would have found her.

Luke and Jules are buddies. I missed the actual "high 5" but almost caught it in the picture.

I gave her her first sponge bath and baby mohawk today. She smells so good I could not put her down, so she is dozing, full bellied and plump and so pink and clean in my sling on my chest at the moment. I believe that my slings are going to be responsible for my sanity in the coming weeks and months as they enable to keep my little one close, yet have both hands free. Thusfar she seems a huge fan of the plan.

I think that Luke may have been worried about losing some attention time to Julia, so he taught himself to talk. All of a sudden he's picking up new words almost daily ~ Mom and Dad, Dog, and Duck, Whats That? have suddenly been joined by Snack and Juice. If he can say Juice, he can say Jules, so at some point I should stop playing "where's the baby" and start playing "Where's Jules" with him. I love saying "your sister" to Luke. I hope that they become the best of friends.