A New Nickname is Born?

Just a quick story. This evening Henry was practicing his sitting on a blanket on the floor. He still isn't particularly steady, and at one point while reaching for a toy, he collapsed forward on his face. I yelled, "Oh no! Henry fell over!" Max's response was, "Humpty Dumpty had a great fall." Not only is this just plain funny given Henry's decidedly egg-like bald head, but it is also impressive that Max was able to take a real-life situation and compare it in a humorous way to a nursery rhyme he just learned the other day. I am continually amazed by the way that Max is learning to use and manipulate language. The human brain is truly a marvel!

Friends and Visitors

We've been lucky to have two special visitors with us these past few days. Jenny was here on Friday and Saturday and she worked her butt off helping me fix up the yard. Scott, conveniently, missed out on this project because he was in Las Vegas for an annual live fantasty football draft with his buddies. Yes, you heard me right. Scott did, indeed, fly across the country for the weekend to play pretend football with his friends. Oh the crazy hobbies men have!

Grandma Rhona arrived on Saturday night and she will be staying with us all this week. She has been a great help already watching the boys so that I can get things done. She and Max have built MANY a tower out of blocks and legos. She also managed to teach Max how to spell his name -- "M-A-X". Pretty cool!

Today Max got a much-needed haircut (compare first and last photos above). He actually didn't cry this time which is a first, and he was quite excited to receive a grape lollypop upon the succesful completion of the event. What a big boy he is becoming!

A Tale of Two Poops

Caution -- This story is not for those with weak stomachs. Non-parents who aren't used to calmly discussing bowel movements as normal dinner conversation should probably avoid this post.

So here's the deal....Last night I had both boys in the bath. I got Max out of the tub and was toweling him off on the mat while Henry continued to sit in his bath seat. Max started to act like he needed to poop and I was in a panic because I didn't have a diaper and I didn't want to leave Henry alone in the tub. So I quickly set Max on top of the toilet seat and told him that he could poop there. Miraculously, he did! I don't really think that this is a potty training breakthrough or anything, but he has been talking about it ever since and he was clearly quite impressed with himself. Meanwhile, while I am holding Max on the toilet seat, Henry decides to poop in his bath chair in the tub. What a mess!!!!! Max watched the whole scene and has been talking about that as well: "Max poop in toilet and Henry poop in bath." Moral of the story--you win some and you lose some.

Henry the Tripod

Hurray! Another milestone for Henry! He managed to sit up in "tripod" position for 15 seconds or so before toppling over to the side. What a big boy he has become all of a sudden.

Four Peas in a Pod

I snapped this photo of Max, Henry, Amelia, and Isaac right before we set off on a walk to the park. It looks like an advertisement for the Phil & Ted stroller! What can I say? Susannah and I both think this stroller is the best double around and we also love the bright colors. Let's just say that when we crossed the street, traffic stopped for us with no problem!

Prior to our trip to the park, I got to spend an hour alone together with all four children when Susannah took her car to the shop. Wow. I have new respect for daycare workers and mothers of multiples! I found that I could handle the two-year-olds and one baby with little trouble (or at least no more than your average amount of trouble. I did find Max and Amelia in the closet "washing" their hands with copious amounts of Purell), but when you add that second baby to the mix, things get dicey. What do you do when both babies are crying at once? Well, apparently you try to hold them both and bounce them looking at each other in the hope that they'll find each other so stimulating that they'll forget their crankiness. It sort of worked. At least for a short time. In any case, I managed to keep all four kids alive and relatively happy until Susannah returned, so I guess that's a victory.

Brunch with the Fingerhuts

Thanks to Lois for the wonderful brunch and these wonderful photographs! I love the one of Max looking sly. This is the look he gets on his face before he does something that he knows is naughty. Today, for example, he looked at Scott and me and then proceeded to pour a bottle of flavored water all over the table. ARG! I also love the photographs of Henry because they show his big, round, bald head in all of its glory. Poor Henry. He clearly inherited the LaLone gene for late hair arrival. My mom was scotch taping bows on my head until I was two! The good news for Henry is that LaLone men do a decent job of holding onto their hair as they get older. Late to arrive, but also late to depart!

Super Henry

This little boy is STRONG! In these photos you can see him pushing up into full "cobra" position to check out his buddy, Isaac. He can also pull his legs under him and pivot all over the blanket. Dear God, I'm going to have two mobile kids on my hands before I know it!

Why I Love Harris Teeter

Have you seen the shopping carts they have over there? Max was in heaven driving this thing! I couldn't have gotten more entertainment value out an expensive go-cart ride at Malibu Grand Prix! From a logistical perspective, however, we had some problems. As you may notice from the photo, there was not a lot of room for groceries. I forgot to bring the Baby Bjorn, so Henry had to ride in the cart itself. I stuffed produce all around Max in the driver's seat and I loaded a bunch of stuff under the cart as well. The check-out guy took pity on me when I was paying and brought out a second cart to load my groceries into. He walked us out to the car and loaded the groceries in. God bless that guy!

A completely unrelated but entertaining anecdote-- Today Max, Henry, and I took Fang to the vet for a check up. As you can probably guess, this is not an ideal outing for two small children. We had to wait for 20 minutes in the waiting room. Max was running all over the place, Fang was huddled miserably in his carrier and Henry was drooling and whining in the Baby Bjorn. Right before we were called in, a dog came out of an exam room wearing one of those Elizabethan collars. The dog was out of sorts and backed into Max because she couldn't see where she was going. This scared the living daylights out of Max who turned around, knocked over a table and started screaming hysterically. The poor dog was further traumatized by all of this and I don't think that Fang will every fully recover. Max calmed down once we went into the exam room saying sweet things like, "Poor Catty. It's ok, Catty. Don't be scared." As we were leaving the vet, however, we ran into the SAME dog and owner who were waiting outside. Max went hysterical again and demanded to hold my hand. Well, I didn't have a hand since I had the cat on one side and the baby in the other arm. I leaned over precariously to the side and Max contented himself with holding my elbow as we edged past the dog. Good times.

To Sleep Perchance to Dream

Good news on the sleep front! For the past two days, Henry has slept through the night! Needless to say, I feel like a new woman. It is amazing what a difference it makes to get an uninterrupted block of sleep. Henry didn't achieve this amazing feat quite on his own, I'm afraid. He had been waking up pretty consistently between 2 and 4 each night for a feeding. He is a big guy and he eats well all day long, so it was clear to me that he didn't really "need" this feeding anymore. Convincing Henry of this, however, was another story. For several days I cut down the time that I was nursing him during the night. Then, on Saturday, I just didn't go in there at all when he woke up. Any parent who goes through sleep training will tell you how horrible it is. Henry cried for an hour, fell asleep, woke up, and cried some more. I was awake almost the entire time with my stomach in knots. Scott was awake all night too, right, Scott? Ha! That guy can sleep! I'm so envious! Anyway, back to Henry... When he woke up in the morning, he was bright and cheerful (see above photo) and he didn't seem to hold anything against me. Years from now he may have to discuss all of this with his therapist, but as far as I can tell, there has been no lasting psychological damage. Sunday night I was braced for more of the same, but the next thing I knew, it was 6:30 in the morning and Henry hadn't woken up at all. Last night -- more of the same! Keep your fingers crossed that this trend continues. Sleep deprivation is absolutely the hardest thing about parenting a newborn and I am very, very happy that it looks like we're finally moving beyond this phase. Before you know it, I will be up all night worrying about the two boys when they're out driving their cars and hanging out with their girlfriends doing God knows what with God knows who and not answering their cell phones when I call and missing their curfew....

A Few of My Favorite Things

I feel like maybe I've been giving Max a bad rap these past few weeks. Yes, he is a crazy man, but he does have many redeeming features. Really! Here are ten of my favorite things:

1.) When he sings Twinkle, Twinkle, he says, "Like diamond in sky" and sounds like a Russian.
2.) Yesterday he told me the cat's name is "Fang Gerber"
3.) When I told him that I had a mosquito bite, he leaned over and kissed it "to make it better"
4.) He told me today that he loves reading books. Ah, words to warm an English teacher's heart!
5.) When he talks about Scott going to work he says, "Daddy work hard in office upstairs. Daddy miss Max sooooo much." That will melt your heart.
6.) Max loves to help--sweeping, vacuuming, cooking, washing Henry in the tub, whatever
7.) When Max gets up from a nap or in the morning, he puts Bunnykins on his pillow and pulls the covers up to tuck him in.
8.) Max likes to pretend that he is sleeping, complete with loud snoring noises.
9.) Max insists upon feeding the cat every morning and every evening. If nuggets fall on the floor, he is careful to replace each one in the bowl.
10.) He gives the best hugs I've ever received in my life (sorry, Scott!)

Total Mess

So you know you've had a hell of day when you post to your blog THREE TIMES. ARG!!!!!! I just finished nursing Henry upstairs after his nap and when I came downstairs, this is what I found. I was pretty zen about it (even managing to take the photos), but then things took a turn for the worse. I explained to Max that he was never to play with the eggs again, that they made a big mess and that some of the eggs were raw and unhealthy. Then, he walked directly back to the fridge, pulled out an egg, looked me in the eye and dropped it on the floor. Oh Lord! I feel like I'm dealing with a teenager already. Let's just say that my response to this particular action was very far from zen. Very, very far.

Blessed "Circle of Neglect"

Henry is loving the exersaucer these days, but not as much as I am loving it! A friend of mine refers to this particular device as the "circle of neglect." Was ever a more appropriate description coined? I can deposit Henry in this thing and for a few blessed moments, I can, for example, make a cup of coffee, go to the bathroom, answer the phone, sit in a chair and stare at the wall (at least until Max leaps on top of me or takes to bludgeoning his brother with mallet. Yes. Both of these things have happened). Henry is a good baby and I am EXTREMELY grateful for that, but he's still a baby and that means he can do absolutely nothing by himself. He can't sit. He can't reach a toy once it has fallen out of his hand. He certainly can't stand up and move around. The exersaucer allows him, for a few moments, to taste the delicious freedom that will be his in a few more months. And it also allows me, for a few moments, to taste the freedom of not having a little creature permanently attached to my hip. Ahhhhhhh......

Good Friends

Bridget, Johnny, J.J. and Keegan are headed off to Spain in a little over a week and chances are, we will never all live in the same place again. It would be easy to turn sad and sentimental at this point, but that really isn't my goal in this post. The simple truth of the matter is that these friends have been like our family here. In this era of modernity and choice and privilege, people don't stick close to home anymore. Children go off to college and then they move even farther away once they graduate. I have a sister in London, family all over the state of California and friends all over the country and the world. There are so many opportunities to do so many wonderful things with our lives, but what have we lost in the bargain? It seems to me that there's no such thing as "roots" anymore. I grew up for the first eight years of my life within twenty miles of my extended family. I played with my cousins all of the time, had frequent Sunday dinners with one side of the family and walked a few blocks to my other grandmother's house several times a week to swim in her pool. Will my own children even know their cousins? Will visits a couple times a year be enough to form bonds and a sense of connection?

Those issues aside for the moment, Scott and I clearly made a choice, at least in the short term, to build a life for ourselves 3000 miles away from most of our family. In the nine or ten years that we've been here, we've had to build up a substitute family and Bridget and the gang have definitely fit the bill. From the "crazy" pre-baby days living in apartments in D.C. through home ownership, first pregnancies, and second babies, we have been there to love and support each other. But, as I've said, we're a mobile generation and D.C. is a transitional town. Bridget's headed to Europe and Scott and I have our own plans in the works. All of this leaves me nostalgic and more than a little ambivalent. What will it be like to start over? Will I be able to build up in my children a sense of groundedness or is that even something that I should be aiming for?

As for Bridget, Johnny, J.J. and Keegan, we wish them excitement in their new adventures and all of the happiness they deserve. They will always, always occupy a special place in my heart.

Oh, Henry

So it may seem like Henry gets the short end of the stick with this blog. The truth of the matter is simply that he's a low-key guy. He sleeps. He eats. He plays. He cries occasionally. He does some cute things. Max, as you may have gathered, is full of drama all of the time and he literally DEMANDS attention. Poor Henry, the second child, more often than not just comes along for the ride.

I remember when I had just given birth to Henry, a pediatrician came to check him out. She told me that Max would be the tough one and that dealing with "baby stuff" the second time around was much less intimidating than with a first child. "Yeah right," I thought, "Babies are a huge pain. I remember. Max is no big deal." It turns out that the pediatrician was right and I was wrong (shocking, I know). I've never done the toddler thing before and I have discovered that two-year-olds are hilariously funny and immensely frustrating. More than that, even, they are just different--one day to the next and one minute to the next. Max is constantly changing and it is hard to keep up. Henry is changing too, of course, but in the predictable ways that young babies change--one developmental stage at a time. This is not to minimize how amazing Henry's growth has been. A few short weeks ago, he was little more than a lump. Now he can smile, roll over, play with toys, "talk" and so much more. His biggest recent "accomplishments" include rolling over in bed so that he can sleep on his belly ( so much for the "Back to Sleep" campaign) and smiling adoringly at his big brother. Henry LOVES Max. It is so sweet to watch. He may give me an occasional grin when I've done something noteworthy like give him the boob, but his face just lights up whenever he catches sight of Max. You can tell that he just can't wait to be able to get up and run around after him (and with those strong Gerber legs of his, it won't be long). I love both of these boys and I love watching as a relationship begins to grow between them.






Max gives Henry a hug and a kiss.