It's been a long time

We Love Democracy

I took the kids with me to vote. Never too late to start changing the world.

All cute and no bite

Visitor

We had a visitor from out of state for a few hours on Sunday. German Friend, whom I have known for 8 or 9 years, is dear to me. She pops in every few months to connect, bathe in baby love and see our beautiful neck of the woods. The babies recognize her huge heart (and inability to deny them anything) and love to see her. So do I. Every time she leaves Homestead Mama remarks, "Boy, she is good people."

Keep coming, my friend.

A Working Weekend Chez Homestead c. 2007

CIO is working

Homestead Mama put Pequita to sleep last night in our new CIO fashion. Pequita fell asleep in 30 minutes, slept through until a 4:30 am nursing, then awoke for the day at 8:30. She's hasn't slept through the night since she was 3 months old. We all needed the rest. I think the duration was a fluke, and because she was so overtired. Time will tell.

She got real Levi's recently, and they are super. Below, she's in a shirt I just got for her brother - he needs big ones to cover his wrists, as his arms are really long. They set off her new shoes nicely. (Clearly, I have a love of footwear. I am seriously limited in my choices, though, because my ankle is fused to 90 degrees and requires absolutely no heel and modified soles. This is most frustrating. I hadn't factored in the vicarious thrill I could get from choosing my child's shoes. Total bonus.)It took her an hour to fall asleep for her morning nap today, and just as we were going up to pull her out all sound ceased. Encore victoire!

On a sadder note (for me), Monito's eyes are finally turning from blue like mine to something else. Currently, they are hazel and blue and light brown. His fuzzy hair is also not blond like it was at first - he's kind of tawny all over now. Golden, as Homestead Mama prefers to call him.

Signing Time

Pequita is using some of her sign language signs. She's learned the signs for her most treasured and favorite objects, like the windsock in the shape of a fish that her Aunties sent her. It bobs and floats in the wind, and looks like it is swimming. We visit it each day outside, and Pequita flaps her hand open and shut in a clear (to us) hand sign. She loves her fishy with a passion right now. Apologies for the subpar filming. Monito was in my arms wrestling me for the camera.

Equal opportunity torture

Monito is getting his fair share of training. I read in The Wonder Weeks that he is in his 19 week developmental spurt (this explains the recent sleep disturbances and whineyness) and commonly babies are flipping over back and forth without assistance like trout in a fishing boat. Not Monito. I imagine this is mostly because he gets less belly time than he should so doesn't have time to practice. This is not due to negligence but caution - if he is on the floor, Pequita likes to play a game called "Name This Hole on the Baby's Head" using her sharp and poky index finger. She's going through a period of nostril love right now, and he prefers to have his nostrils unmolested; since she never sleeps he spends his time up off the floor with Mommy or in the Bumbo seat. Lest my son fall behind the curve, I've started him on a rigorous tummy time training schedule while I play Chase with Pequita to distract her. From his expression below, I believe he would prefer to be upright. Or have the butler take care of his tummy responsibilities.

Winter is finally coming, with days in the 50s and nights down in the 30s. The house is kept at a brisk 65 degrees 24 hours a day - we flick it up as needed, but mostly we are wool sweater wearers and use two duvets on the bed in the winter. Each kid has their own duvets to top them and a shearling under them. Pequita refuses to wear a hat, and with her head of hair she doesn't really need it anyway. Monito on the other hand is too young to figure out how to pull his off, so spends each night adorably (I think) attired thusly:

Operation Pequita Sleep: Day 8,456,902

To steel myself for another day of solo baby training, I vowed to have the most fun we could have all waking hours. I put a good spin on the day by putting our new CDs into the stereo - Pete Seeger, Raffi and Taj Mahal all singing kid songs shuffled for hours. We danced, played knock-down-the-tower-Mommy-built, and broke in her new shoes by playing chase Maya to much giggling and joyful screeching. For my own amusement I dressed Pequita in a hand-me down outfit from a distant New York City relative. French couture baby, can you imagine? I'll be selling the top after today - it is hand wash wool fully lined with silk. (I don't even have fully lined clothes any more.) Can you imagine trying to get hot dog stains out of that? The cotton jodhpurs we may keep, since she looks quite jaunty in them. By the time she is actually on a horse, though, I imagine she'll be wearing denim.

Pequita is getting better at going down to sleep. By that I mean she spends less time screaming herself hoarse and more time crying and tossing toys out of her crib. Since it seemed pretty clear after a week of crib training that she was waiting for us to return every 10 minutes, today (with Homestead Mama's cautious blessing) we have switched to full on CIO, no visits but with a folk lullaby CD playing in her room. I put her eye-rubbing, ear-tugging, yawning butt down for a nap at 10:30 this morning. She cried and jumped up and down for a half hour, then shifted to intermittent crying / listening for a response / more crying & jumping. I really hope our hand-me-down crib can hold up to extended angry 25 lb baby bouncing. Books, singing & rocking, and 60 minutes of crying brought us to noon. I pulled her out and we had a great lunch. She'll eat anything these days as long as we place it on her spoon and help her get it into her mouth. She grins each time - so proud of herself.

After lunch, we tidied the house until Monito was tired. I put him in a sling where he promptly fell asleep & took Miss Pequita outside, where she slogged around the too-tall yard (nice and exhausting with short legs) trailing after me as I pruned our fruit trees and baby maples. The dogs frolicked around her & she played with their toys. After a respectable amount of fresh air and eye rubbing, I brought her back inside, decanted Monito into his bassinet for the rest of his nap, and started again with Pequita at 1:45 pm. Book/ song/ nurse and into jail, then I retired down to the living room to blog, which ends up being my best emotional outlet these days. She's managing to get some of her larger items tossed out of the crib; each time the crying pauses I hear a loud thud above my head. I assume the entertainment is good for her. At 2:22 pm the noise upstairs stopped. Dare we hope? I crept up and peeked in.Totally sacked out in a lump on her shearling. Clearly, some of her alone time was spent shaking her milk onto the floor below the crib before tossing out the bottle. And how she got her pants off I don't know - they are the black corduroy lump on the floor.

Goddess help me if I'm ruining her. I've already decided to write a letter to Vanguard Investments asking if they can make a Roth IRA that allows for tax-free withdrawal for college OR therapy.

Mt. Baldy

No, not the mountain in California. Monito's head. He's finally developing some fuzz that protrudes above his skin. I was starting to worry.

Halloween

I thought I was above dressing our kids up before they even know what is happening. I was wrong. Yesterday, Homestead Mama and I went to the town she works in and spent the day visiting friends & her coworkers and showing off the kids. We ended up at the local grocery store, which hosts a Halloween costume parade for little kids. It was excellent, and Pequita really loved seeing the other kids in costume. Pequita and Monito got candy from each department in the store, which will have to be, um, taken care of this year on the kids' behalf. Parenting is fraught with sacrifices, don't you know.

Pequita wore her cousin's hand-me-down ladybug suit, and Monito wore the little orange cat suit Pequita wore all last winter (not for Halloween, but just because it was cute and warm.) I've been a little worried about their size and outgrowing the costumes; Monito was barely ok in his suit, as long as he didn't try to straighten out his toes. Pequita, on the other hand, was squeezed into her outfit like a sausage. Each time she bent, sat or squatted she popped a snap. By the end of the night her pant legs were flapping around her legs like a skirt.

Tonight, on actual Halloween, one of the mom's group couples hosted a potluck. It was fun, but intense. A crowded house, adults eating & drinking wine, lots of crazed babies up past their bedtime. Nice people but a nutsy time. Due to the wardrobe malfunction from the night before, Pequita was a leopard in properly fitting pants. A little mascara whisker set and voila. She was in a bit of a stupor by the end of the night. (See her beautiful new shoes? She's still learning how to walk in them.)

It is 11:30 pm: do you know where your Mommy is?

It is 11:35 pm and I am stealing time for myself, it is true. I am watching Sex and the City reruns, and don't want to go to bed. I'll pay tomorrow, but damn, I love being up late at night. Monito is asleep in the bassinet in the living room with me, Homestead Mama should be covering Pequita, at least until her black period (2 - 4 am) during which I cover both kids because H-Mama's perspective is, shall we say, skewed. (Bow now to my boobs of wonder.) We have a day of traveling, lunch and visiting our RE for a Halloween photo shoot on Tuesday, and I'll be able to manage. Does anyone else make decisions that aren't good for them but serve them well?

Speaking of boobs of wonder, I went off Fenugreek for a while. Now that I am back on it, Yowza! The milk is back. Perhaps it is that one or both babes is no longer on a growth spurt, but still, I could feed a village. I like it.

Pigs Are Flying

EDITED: they slept for 45 minutes, 30 of which overlapped. Better then the past 3 months or so.

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Both babies are asleep. I am eating ice cream, then I'm going to take a nap. I hope this lasts more than 10 minutes.

Monday, and we're homebound again

My car is in the shop getting a new muffler today. We are having a quiet day at home. I managed to vacuum, sweep and mop the first floor this morning, and then made homemade noodles for a chicken soup. Some days I can, some days I barely have time to pee.

Pequita has a new expression. It is kind of a mix between "Give me what I want NOW, you nasty Mommy" and "My molars are pushing through my gums and I am miserable, so you will be too". She uses it all the time. Many times it is followed quickly by a solid chomp on your flesh. Yes, the angel is growing up.

Monito has graduated to the neglectosaucer! He loves it. This is good for all of us, mostly him, as he can strengthen his legs and his spastic motor skills.

Does it count as sleep training if I was trying a slightly later nap time and Pequita falls asleep in her lunch, and only barely stirs when I transfer her to her crib? I don't think so. Perhaps the 11:30 am time is too late, and we should stick with the 10:30 scream fest. Any thoughts? It is far more pleasant when she is wasted, but is it a valid train at that point?

Voting will be open all the way up until about 10 am Wednesday, when I'll have to make a decision. Tomorrow we're going to Homestead Mama's work t meet her and another friend for lunch. She works an hour away, so we'll get in the car right about nap time and sleep through.

Thank you

You all have been really supportive and present during this crib-training sleep regression period. Each each email, blog comment, phone call and mid-morning latte drop-off has made the process easier and less lonely. It has meant the world to me to not go through it alone, and as small as a gesture might seem, when I am at my wits end and happen to see a kind email or one sentance comment with a joke to crack me up, it totally helps. That some of you have written multiple well thought out paragraphs sharing your own experiences and suggestions, well, I loved it.

Thank you!