Holding Baby A

On Monday, my dad picked up the kids at daycare and dropped them off at home, which was nice. I had work to do at school and didn't get home until 7PM. I was pleased that the house was still standing. And I am very thankful that I have a husband who can somehow juggle the needs of three kids.

On Tuesday, Jeff picked up Henry in the afternoon and brought Baby A along for the ride. As he went into the daycare, many people commented on what an adorable baby she is. Miss R arrived home from her sibling visit around 5:45PM. Those visits are now going to take place every other week, as the off-weeks will be attended by other family members who want to see the siblings.

Before we went on a family walk, Henry held Baby A for the very first time and really seemed to enjoy the experience. I was delighted to see him smile at her so tenderly. Miss R held her too, although she has done it before and she lights up when she gets to partake in the cares of Baby A.

We went for a walk with the dogs and then had dinner. Jeff had Baby A in the Bjorn, which seems to work now that she's about 8 lbs.

I noticed last night that Baby A is beginning to eye track. It's still fairly subtle and isn't a sweeping motion yet, but I was surprised and pleased at this development. I brought out Dennis the Red Chicken, the toy that we used when working on eye-tracking with Henry.

Last night was pretty good on the sleep front. I had the first shift and switched off with Jeff sometime after 3AM. That gave Jeff a "solid" five hours or so of sleep. I was able to doze with Baby A in my arms. We are back to the Similac Infant Shield formula, which she seems to be taking well...as long as we occasionally give her Mylicon drops. She does spit up sometimes, but I think that she is more than making up for it in her frequency and amount of milk consumption. We are, however, mindful of possible reflux. She occasionally arches her back in a reflux way, so we are monitoring it.

Jeff woke up around 3 or 3:30AM. He got her a bottle, but by the time he got back to the crib, she was asleep. She let him nap for another 45 minutes before wanting the bottle. And then she slept after drinking it, which was great. Sleep is a good thing.

Before I went to bed around 3AM, I checked on Henry b/c he was coughing. He didn't feel hot but his cough seemed to bother him. Oddly, I found him sans diaper. I was thrilled that between going to bed at 9PM and 3AM, he had not wet the bed. And I wondered what happened to the diaper. I remember him taking off his wet diaper before bed, and I suspect that his distracted parents didn't notice that he needed a new one before falling asleep. He was thoroughly annoyed at me for putting one on him while he was sleeping. But we can't have an unpotty trained Henry sleeping w/o one.

On Wednesday morning, Henry heard me typing in my office and got out of bed b/c he wanted to watch something on YouTube. I told him that he could if he ate his breakfast, which he did not. When the nanny arrived, she asked him what he had for breakfast. He told her that he had "a big bite of oatmeal!" That was true, except for the "big" part. And he literally only had one bite.

I ended up braiding Miss R's hair today b/c it was looking wild. I haven't braided it in months. I think that I prefer her hair short. I'm tore between the ease of her having short hair and the social expectation of little girls having hair long enough to turn into pony tails.

Wet and Wild

On Sunday morning, we met our friends (Carolyn, Zak, Adelyn, and Spencer) at the zoo. We had a good time. Henry showed off his jumping skills...

And had a fantastic time playing in the water area. He got thoroughly soaked and persuaded Miss R to join him. She didn't get as soaked, but she was quite wet...something that she doesn't normally seek out.

As we tried to reign in Henry's antics throughout the visit to the zoo, it occurred to me that we have a list of Jeff-and-Kate-isms toward Henry. The most common of which are:
* "Henry put that down."
* "Henry get down from there."
* "Henry don't play in the trash cans."
* "Henry don't pick that off the ground."
* "Henry back away from the TV."
* "Henry get down from the cat tree."
* "Henry, sit down your seat."
* ...and the list goes on.

Henry and Miss R were pretty good at lunch time. They were very tired toward the end of our zoo trip, but they managed to eat large PB&Js and potato chips. They liked that their lunch boxes looked like tigers that they attempted to ride out the door of the restaurant.

They fell asleep in the car, but they didn't nap long. We took a family walk in the evening. Henry kept trying to pick up and throw rocks. That lead to us repeatedly saying "Henry don't pick up the rocks" and "Henry don't throw the rocks." In the desert, picking up rocks is a bad idea b/c of scorpions.

We had a good dinner. Miss R once again ate really well for her. She had several turkey meat balls. They played after dinner. Then, it was time for bed. I'm taking the first night shift tonight. Jeff's switching off with me some time in the middle of the night.

"I need to check my e-mail" and other Sunday morning Henryisms

On Sunday morning as he tried to break into my office, Henry said: "I need to check my e-mail."

We gave the kids a bath. Miss R had her hair washed first. She wasn't happy about it. Then, it was Henry's turn. Miss R made it known that Henry needed his hair washed given that she had been put through the trauma.

KATE TO HENRY: It is R's fondest dream to see you have your hair washed.
HENRY (wailing): WHAT ABOUT MY DREAMS!!!

We then had breakfast. At the end of breakfast, I pulled Henry's chair back so that he could get down. He said, "Don't tip me over, Mommy." Good to know.

A New Car

On Thursday, I think that the kids went to my parents' house in the afternoon. Amazing how hard it is to recount the day's events a couple days out. I was super busy Thursday, and I ended up staying up all night preparing the conference scheduling and my department colloquium talk. Only got one hour of sleep. Not fun.

Baby A was quite fussy on Thursday, but Jeff gave her some Mylicon drops, which really seemed to ease her digestive issues.

On Friday morning, it took awhile to get the kids out of the house. But they were fine at the drop off.

I picked them up at 5PM and then rushed home to our appointment with Christy, the caseworker from St. Nick's. She hasn't started processing our paperwork particular to Miss R's case b/c she hasn't received our adoption certification yet...which is incredibly frustrating as we were approved two weeks ago. I have sent a query to our agency seeing what the hold up is. All they need to do is send it to her.

The visit with Christy went well. She was amused by the kids. At one point, Henry and Miss R were holding their seats over their heads. Miss R jumped into the ball pit with hers. Then Henry threw his seat over her head. It didn't touch her, but she decided to play up the trauma of being scared. Henry apologized several times "I'm sorry R." But she didn't accept his apology as near as I could tell.

At dinner, the kids ate well. They both had a corn dog each and requested more. That's a first for Miss R. We've never seen her eat a whole hot dog before. The appetite stimulant seems to be working.

Jeff let me sleep Friday night, which was sorely needed. He said that Baby A got up a couple times, but she slept for several stretches.

On Saturday, I got up at 6:30AM, I think, to take care of Baby A. At 7:30AM, Henry wanted to get up. I insisted on changing his diaper. He insisted the sopping thing wasn't wet. I think put him in Buzz Lightyear underware. He wasn't happy about that b/c he didn't want to get Buzz Lightyear wet. I explained that it was therefore important that he go potty when he thought he needed to pee. We'll see how that works. He didn't stay in this underware long b/c Jeff took the kids minus baby to Costco at 11:15AM, where he met up with my parents. He didn't want to deal with Henry in underware at Costco (understandably).

Apparently, Henry sampled everything that Costco offered samples of. Miss R, on the other hand, was stuck at the cinnamon bun area and wouldn't try anything after having tasted the sugary treat.

The kids went home with my parents. They took a nap. Miss R, however, only slept 45 minutes and had a meltdown when my mom removed her from bedroom b/c she was crawling on top of Henry, trying to wake him up. Henry slept another 1.5 hours. Miss R spent her time resting on my mom's lap.

Meanwhile, I made a HUGE sacrifice today and gave up my very first car. My much beloved 1989 Toyota Corolla. I am incredibly sad to see it go, but we needed a car that would fit the whole family. We bought a nice looking Mazda 5. The experience was marred by an inept Mazda staff who kept us waiting for 3 hours 15 minutes for a car on which we had already put a down payment AND had called them a 1/2 hour before we arrived at their office. In addition, we paid today in full (as they knew we would), so it wasn't as though the finance department had to check out our finances and approve us for a loan. For those of you blog readers who are from Tucson, I recommend NEVER EVER buying from Jim Click Mazda. We had hoped to accomplish something today, but instead, the Click staff robbed us of an entire Saturday afternoon.

Henry's No Snitch

On Tuesday afternoon, someone hit Henry in the forehead with a puzzle piece and it left a mark. Henry refused to tell the teachers who hit him. Jeff asked him about it later and discovered it was Joaquin. As far as toddlers can have best friends, I would classify Joaquin as such. Even though they are best friends, I was surprised that Henry was being so protective at the age of 2.

On Wednesday afternoon, there was another puzzle incident. Henry got hit in the head again. This time, I think that the teachers knew it was Aidan. When I asked Henry who hit him with the puzzle, he said "Aidan...it was an accident."

The last month, I've felt that Henry's intellectual development has yet again taken another leap in terms of how he understands concepts and asks questions. It is amazing to see (says that proud mama bear).

I was exhausted last night. I slept between 11PM-1AM. I took over baby duty at 1AM. Baby A was super fussy again. Nothing would console her unfortunately. She finally passed out and I worked on some conference planning between 3-5AM while holding her. At 5AM, she wanted to be held after her bottle and was content to be held against my chest. I dosed (in an airplane sleep kind of way) while holding her on the couch. At 7:35AM, I switched off with Jeff.

The kids doddled in the morning. I dropped them off at 9:30AM. At least Henry and Miss R have been good on sleep.

Questions

Last night was rough. I had to work through the night getting the political communication division program organized. They only give programmers 1 week to analyze reviews, make decisions for acceptances/rejections, organize the papers into thematic panels, and find moderators and discussants. Lovely. I went to bed at 6:15AM. Jeff got a little over an hour at some point in the night. But Baby A was very, very fussy. Quintessential "colicky" baby. Jeff realized that the Similac formula was slightly different than the original one she was on. He didn't think that the Good Start was helping. So he headed to our neighborhood Walmart at 4AM with baby in tow, looking for the miracle formula.

Henry was pretty funny this morning. When Jeff was changing him, he took him to our bedroom b/c the nanny had already arrived. Henry asked Jeff, "Why we in here?" Jeff explained that it was better to change where one had some privacy. I love that Henry is asking questions about his environment. Henry proceeded to strip off his diaper and run in place singing "I'm a Maniac! I'm a Maniac!"

So how we made it out the door in one piece shortly after 9AM. The kids were big pains during the drop off. Henry ran way ahead of us, so that I lost sight of him. And Miss R wouldn't move, so I ended up carrying her to her classroom. Gotta love those precious toddler moments!

Getting Some Sleep

On Monday, Jeff dropped off Baby A at my mom's house in the mid-afternoon so that he could go down to a Foster Care Review Board (FCRB) meeting. The FCRB is a citizen group that reviews a foster child's file once every 6 months to make sure that the child is receiving the services s/he needs. Once reviewed, the FCRB makes a recommendation to the court. Jeff learned that Miss R's St. Nick's caseworker suspects that the case will make it to the court by June. Apparently, with the budget cuts, there is a huge backlog, which is why it is going to take so long.

My dad picked up Henry and Miss R from daycare and took them to my parents' house. After the FCRB, Jeff went to my parents' house and had dinner with my mom and the kids. My dad met me at my college's big dinner, in which one of my colleagues was the main speaker. It was a nice event. One of the primary donors and one of the student scholarship recipients gave inspirational speeches about overcoming diversity.

When I got home, the kids were still up. Henry and Miss R jumped on Miss R's bed causing part of the boards that hold up the mattress to fall. Then, Henry went to his bed, stood at the head, and tried to fall straight back on the mattress again...and again...and again. I ended up passing out on the couch afterward. Jeff did baby duty. Fortunately for Jeff, Baby A had some good stretches of sleep. I really needed the sleep as I have to have all cylinders working for my conference organizing (conference plan due tomorrow!).

On Tuesday morning, Miss R unfortunately had an accident in bed. Being in Arizona, she was technically dry but didn't smell quite right. That meant that I had to give her a shower, which she was not happy about. In the end, it worked out rather well having her air washed in the morning. It is so much easier to style her hair after it has been conditioned and is wet.

Baby A was picked up around 11:30AM for her visit with bio mom. The driver didn't come equipped with a rear-facing car seat. Sigh. That's the second time we've had to loan our car seat to the drivers, which is pain b/c it requires us taking time to unhitch our set up from our cars. Double sigh. One would think that a transportation service for CPS would understand the importance of rear-facing car seats for infants. Duh.

Miss R had a CPS sibling visit in the afternoon. Jeff picked up Henry from school. Henry had an appointment with Dr. Fike, his neurologist. His growth looks good to her. He tracks just under the 50th percentile in weight and height for his birthdate age. Jeff took Henry to BestBuy to get me a printer. They were out of the one I wanted of course. Henry got a Snoopy DVD out of the deal. Then, they stopped by the Mazda dealership to see if the kids' car seats would work in the Mazda 5. They will. But Henry told Jeff that he didn't like the car. He had another one picked out instead. Nevertheless, Jeff put some money down on the Mazda 5.

In sad news, we have a potential buyer for my Toyota Corolla. It's my first car. I don't really want to let it go, but we need a vehicle that can transport the whole family. My Corolla won't do that. It has journeyed with me to college in Oregon and to grad school in Philly. It is in great shape for a 21 year old car. The potential buyer comes tomorrow.

In the evening, we had Indian food for dinner. Miss R ate the rice, bread, AND some chicken. Either she really likes Indian food or the appetite stimulant is finally kicking in! Henry did a pretty good job eating too, which is nice.

That's about all from here. The kids fought Jeff on going to sleep, but it is finally quiet on the Western front.

Anything

On Saturday night, Miss R was super cranky and ended up going to bed early. She slept over 12 hours, so I suspect that she was very much in need of extra sleep. Henry stayed up late however. Jeff had to do some things for work, and Henry benefited from me taking care of Baby A, who was also up. He saw most of Hook, which made him very happy.

Henry has been interested in comparing and contrasting objects. "This is small." "This is big." At some point over the weekend, Henry took his blue berries and commented that they were small and looked like earrings.

On Sunday, Jeff had to work in the morning. The kids enjoyed playing in the train room. At one point, I was holding Henry and said, "I love you more than...." I was expecting Henry to fill in the blank with "peaches," but he filled in the blank with "anything!"

We had two engagements on Sunday afternoon. We got the times mixed up on an event at a neighbor's house and ended up not being able to attend it. We did, however, make it to our two year old friend Adelyn's birthday party. Henry and Miss R had a wonderful time. They *loved* Adelyn's play kitchen. Henry also enjoyed the plasma cars (we might have to get him one for his b-day). The kids had two helpings of chocolate cake that was very moist and delicious.

We didn't get home until after 4:30PM. The kids had a very late nap. Jeff woke them up for dinner, but both of them were in moods. In the evening, we read books and played a Good Night Moon card matching game. Henry is a matching expert. Miss R is beginning to catch on.

The kids were difficult about bed. To make matters worse, while Jeff was cleaning up the garbage bag that Lily tore apart in the garage, Miss R had a vomitting episode. It looked like chocolate cake to me...six hours after eating it. That made us wonder if Miss R is having some motility issues, which would explain the lack of appetite. In any event, we started her on an appetite stimulant a few days ago. We hope that will help. Hasn't made a difference so far.

Baby A was in a mood too. Very fussy. Looked like a "colicky" baby. I went to the store to get Good Start. We're hoping that it is just a problem with casein, and that the new formula will resolve the problem.

The kids were OK this morning. I think that Miss R enjoyed sleeping in our bed...as her bed had to be stripped b/c of the vomitting, which made its way down to the mattress pad.

Emma is our nanny for today. This is her third time with us.

Northwest Fire Station 32

On Saturday, Jeff and the kids (minus Baby A) slept until 9AM or so. That gave me time to get breakfast started before they officially got up. When we went into The Twins' room, Henry said that he had slept really well.

It took us forever to get out the door in the morning. Henry was laying around in his personal timeout position. We were concerned that he was coming down with something, but that appears not to have been the case. I took Henry and Miss R outside to look at the wildflowers that have sprouted all over the gravel in the backyard due to the rains this month.

We headed to the neighborhood fire station, which was having an open house today. The kids met some of the fire fighters, took a look at equipment, climbed around the front and back seats of a fire engine, played with a fire hose, and ate cookies. We also watched a fireman demonstrate the uses of his various gear.



















After the fire station open house, I took Baby A back home so that I could get some work done. She, however, had other plans. She ate, spit up, got changed, did some tummy time, and had fun swiping at my face. I sometimes think that she is social smiling, but she seems kind of young for that.

Meanwhile, Jeff took the kids to a park in our area that we had not yet visited. There was a lady flying a kite around the park. Jeff told Henry to look at the kite in the air. Henry said, "It's up in the air like Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger!" Miss R enjoyed the park's climbing wall, which surprised Jeff. We didn't think Miss R cared much for climbing. Then, Jeff took the kids to Eegee's for lunch. During lunch, Miss R waved and pointed to people who were in line. Jeff tried to dampen her tendency to point.

The Twins are taking their naps now. Jeff has taken Baby A car shopping. He's going to look at the Mazda 5.

Creative Luger

On Friday, Jeff dressed up Miss R in her sparkly black dress. We could continue to save it for special occasions, but she really likes it and we aren't sure that a significant occasional will come around before she outgrows it. Miss R likes dressing up. Henry looked cute in his new shark shirt. Pants are a problem. He's tall enough for 3T pants, but he isn't fat like other kids so the waistline doesn't work so well.

Friday was paint-your-face-like-an-animal day at school. Miss R's teachers painted her face like a zebra. She told Miss Diana thank you afterward. Miss R seems to be a favorite with her teachers.

When we went to pick up Henry, he had a scwabble with Aidan. Almost an exact replication of a scwabble a couple days ago. Aidan swipes at Henry. And Henry defends himself and strikes back. Miss Cassie told the boys to knock it off. Henry didn't seem to find the scwabble troubling. I get the impression that he's OK with someone starting a rumble. Whether or not they'd be OK with him retaliating is another matter.

I took the kids to my parents' house. Jeff and Baby A met up with us an hour or so later. That gave Henry the opportunity to watch The Three Muskateers. Last week, Henry's phrase was "To infinity and beyond!" This week, it is "All for one, and one for all!"

We went to Peter Piper Pizza for dinner. I had promised Henry a trip to Chuck E. Cheese, but it is across town and I'm not sure we'll make it this weekend. I was hoping that Peter Piper Pizza could replace that promise. I hadn't been to a Peter Piper Pizza since my freshman year of high school. It has improved over the years. There was an arcade for the kids. I spent most of my time in a quiet corner with Baby A. Henry and Miss R enjoyed some "moving" vehicle rides. They also enjoyed the carousel.

When we got back home, Henry was very creative in a dangerous Henry sort of way. He took the tray off of the baby scale used it to luge down his slide in the living room. I wish that he wouldn't go out of his way to be risky, but I was impressed with his ingenuity.

Jeff got the kids ready for bed as I held and fed Baby A. Jeff relieved me of baby duty around 1AM. I got 5 hours of sleep last night and am feeling pretty good. Jeff and the kids are still asleep. Our local fire station is having an open house today. I'm hoping that we'll have an opportunity to visit it. I think that Henry and Miss R would enjoy that. And maybe Jeff and I will make a decision on a car. We're finding it frustrating. The new car people that we've met are...stereotypical car people...that is liars and exaggerators.