Cousins

Do you see a family resemblance?!


The first one is Baby Gray at 19 weeks and the second is his cousin Baby Boy Otto at 16 weeks. DeAnna and I are due just five weeks apart (me July 29th, her Sept. 5th) and I'm pretty sure these two little guys are going to be great buds!

Urchin

Check out the mug I woke up to this morning...

She may or may not have helped herself to a chocolate frosted cupcake that Daddy left sitting out the night before...you be the judge! That's not actually the point of this post though. The point is, LOOK AT THAT CRAZY HAIR!!! It has been wearing on me for the past month or so and today I decided I had to do something about it. In my mind there were two options:

1. Cut those crazy bangs and let the rest of her hair grow out.

2. Keep trimming that crazy hair until her bangs catch up.

I really really don't want to cut her bangs so I chose the latter. I didn't do such a hot job but I do think she was looking much more presentable by this afternoon!

I should probably take her in for a real haircut sometime soon to even things up a bit :)

Loss

Yesterday was my birthday, number 28, and as always I was reminded how fortunate I am to have dear friends near and far. Each year I receive cards and kind words from all over the place, sometimes from folks I've not heard from all year. For as long as I can remember one of those cards has arrived from a very special grandmotherly figure who has been such a source of consistency and calm throughout my sometimes chaotic life. This year that card was missing from the stack and I learned this morning that she passed away yesterday. It seems somehow fitting that she would go on a day that is meaningful to me. On a day that I was always reminded of her presence and will now always remember her. I understand that the last few weeks had been very difficult for her and I am grateful that her body is finally at rest, but her quiet strength will be sorely missed by many.

Eunice was a part of my life from the time I was born and was always such a positive influence. She opened my first bank account, came to visit me at my first job, and was there to celebrate my graduations and wedding day. She never missed a birthday or anniversary and her cards were always charming, each including a witty or poignant remark. She lived down on the farm with Grandpa Elmer and, although the animals are no longer there, her home is just the same today as I remember it when I was a child. Same furniture in the same spots, same marble run toys, and same music box on the same table. Eunice's arms were always filled with the bounty of her garden. She could cook up the most delicious asparagus, corn on the cob, and farm fresh eggs, and she'd always send you away with your own arms full of whatever was in season. If you were lucky you might even get an egg with two yolks :) I have so many beautiful memories from my years visiting the farm, feeding animals and visiting their babies, climbing on hay bails, riding through the cornfields on a go-cart, swinging in the tree around back, and just being with such wonderful people that I knew inherently cared for me so deeply. It's hard for me to comprehend that this wonderful person, who was just such an invariable presence, is no longer with me. Her spirit, though, will remain alive in the legacy of vivid memories she's helped to create in my life and in the stories I'll pass on to my children for many years to come.

Monkey

I forgot all about these until I went to upload the pictures for the previous post...

She helped herself to two entire bananas AFTER she shared my bowl of cheerios with cut up bananas. I have no idea how she peeled them!

There is something new to laugh about at our house every single day!

A Princess and a Prince

Being a pretty pretty princess is EXHAUSTING!

We took Sofie to the mall today to have 18 month/Easter pictures taken. Her hair was NOT cooperating and as a result the pictures didn't turn out that great, but I think these ones are pretty priceless :)

...and, and, AND!!! My little prince FINALLY kicked his Daddy on the evening of Wednesday, March 18th!

Weekend Fun

Daddy bought a new (to him) wee little Toyota Yaris yesterday. It's just the right size for Sofie...see?!



She calls it a, "tuck" and it cracks me up every time. I don't have the heart to tell her that it's about the furthest vehicle you can find from a truck! We are excited about Ben's purchase and looking forward to very very good gas mileage.

Ben spent the night at Uncle Kyle's last night and this morning as it was nearing the time that we were expecting him home we heard some banging around outside as we often do. There is an alley way that runs right in front of our windows and there are often trucks delivering furniture, packages, or coming to fetch the garbage and Sofie finds them very entertaining. I told Sofie to go look out the window to see if it was daddy and his new truck making all the noise this time. She ran off to look out the window and I heard her gasp then as clear as could be she said, "I see my Daddy!!!" Sure enough, there was Daddy making his way home up the alley. We went out to meet him by the elevator. It was the cutest thing!

There has been a very exciting development I am happy to report. Yesterday morning and again this morning Sofie has taken a shower with me. As I was recently lamenting about one of my two greatest fears, "Oh poor me, mamas who have two children never get to have a shower...sob sob!" a mommy friend of mine shared with me that her daughter regularly takes a shower with her in the morning. What a glorious idea, right? You plop one kid in the shower with you and then she can't poke her little brother's eyeballs out. Except that I had tried to take a shower with Sofie a few months ago and she was very upset about the whole experience. So upset, in fact, that I ended up turning the shower off and filling up the bathtub instead. I didn't have much hope for the whole shower idea, but I thought it was worth another try and miraculously Sofie has forgotten about whichever horrible monster ruined her last experience. Instead of getting upset she stood patiently at the end of the bathtub, Elmo fishing pole in hand, and got good and wet while I took my shower. Then I soaped her up and tada! Clean kid, happy mama. I'm so thrilled to have drastically reduced the amount of baths that I have to give her. I'm not sorry to admit that bathtime is one of my least favorite times of the day! Here's my big girl after her shower yesterday morning.

Today was a beautiful sunshine-y day so we took Sofie out to the local playground. She spent most of her time swinging...



Playing boo...

...and climbing climbing climbing up up up...

...to reach this BIG (if you're as small as she is) sliding board.


We had a really nice time together as a family. On the way home from the playground Sofie was getting pretty loopy. She had skipped her nap earlier in the day (spent an hour gleefully chatting with herself in her crib while she was supposed to be sleeping) and then run herself ragged at the playground. She was cracking Ben and I up with her overtired antics, cycling through her favorite words, singing and giggling, and then out of nowhere came this:

What a cute little goofball! Needless to say, she had passed out by the time we arrived home. What a wonderful weekend we've been fortunate to enjoy!

The Proof is in the Pudding

Meet Gray!

Profile and chest, close up.

Profile and chest.

Arm and hand.

Feet.

Goods :)

Sponge's Spot 20 Weeks

Well little Sponge, it is hard for your mama to believe that you are already halfway done! One week ago today we had a mid-pregnancy ultrasound and found out that you are a little boy. I was, and am, so shocked and excited by that news. As much as I've always wanted to have the experience of having a son, somehow I never could quite picture myself as the mama of a little boy. Perhaps it's because of the overwhelming number of little girls in our extended family. I am looking forward to the new challenge of parenting a child of the male variety and having lots and lots of fun looking at all the baby boy clothes and accessories! Our ultrasound also showed that my placenta (your placenta) is lying a little bit low. This can cause big problems late in pregnancy, but it almost always moves up before then as the uterus expands. I'm not very concerned about it at all, but it has bought us another ultrasound around 28 weeks to check out that pesky placenta's position and to get another peek at you of course! I'm pretty excited about that.

My apprehensions about being the mom of two wee ones have pretty much settled themselves into two categories at this point. The first involves grocery shopping and subsequently unloading our groceries and somehow managing to get them up to our third floor apartment. I'm having nightmares involving two screaming banshees and grocery bills that are double our norm because the crazed mama is desperately pulling anything and everything off the shelves in an effort to get the heck out! Most likely I imagine I'll try to make a trip on the weekend and leave you kiddos with daddy. I've already stretched my weekly grocery visits (because the stinkin' produce only lasts a week darnit!) into biweekly visits in an effort to ease myself into a new routine. The second source of great anxiety involves showering each day. I do vaguely remember that this wasn't such an easy task with even just one newborn and that it just sort of fit in where (and if!) it fit in. I've grown so used to Sofie being self-sufficient for the 10 minutes that it takes me to shower that I think I've gotten spoiled! I can just envision her poking your eyeballs out or trying to pick you up by your head while I try to keep an eye on you guys (and flood half the bathroom) with the shower curtain pulled halfway open. I suppose I'll do my best to shower while you sleep. Oh please please sleep better than your sister did!

I am convinced that your name is Gray Benjamin, but your daddy's not too sure. He seems to think that it doesn't flow well and that Gray is not a full name besides, but I've vehemently vetoed Grayson and Grady and Grayling. Our conversations are sounding a lot like this lately...

Me: "Gray Benjamin sounds great...it's like J. Edgar Hoover or F. Scott Fitzgerald!"

Daddy, dryly: "But it isn't an initial."

Me: "But who cares? It acts like one, A. or J. or K!!!"

I don't really care what he thinks, though, because I am the mama and I get to write your name on the birth certificate so I win. I refer to you as Baby Gray and Sofie is practicing your name (I bet you can guess what she calls you...)

I am in the glorious in-between stage physically, although I've gained 20 pounds already and I am resigned to the fact that I will never be of the adorable, glowing pregnant lady variety. Instead I am of the awful, swollen pregnant lady variety. It's a little depressing, but what can you do? Growing a baby is a pretty monumental task and it just isn't that friendly to the poor old bod. My skin isn't breaking out ridiculously like it did with your sister (one of my clues early on that you might be a little boy) and that is a very nice change. It's nice to feel you bopping around (you were quite active during your ultrasound) and I'm looking forward to the day when daddy can feel you too. You are rooting your way into our hearts, little guy, and we can't wait to see how you'll make them grow!

Pumpkin Mini Muffins

I sort of have an informal scale of vegetable goodness. It pretty much goes like this:

1. Anything green.
2. Everything else.

As recently stated, Sofie is not such a fan of much of category #1 (she makes an exception for peas) and, although I try to get something green to land in her belly every day, some days we just need a sneaky veggie alternative. That's where the pumpkin mini muffins come in. Sofie thinks that they are a tasty treat and is happy to gobble them up.

Here's the recipe:

1 box of spice cake mix
1 15 ounce can of pumpkin pie filling
1/2 cup of water

I like to bake them in little bite size mini muffin wrappers. The recipe yields around 72 and I like to freeze them in sets of four for convenience. The mini variety bakes for about 10 minutes, but you can make them in any cakey variety you like following the baking instructions on the back of the box. Easy peasy little trick :)

Eighteen Months

Sofie you've been eighteen months old for over a week now and for a week your mama's been in a blogging rut. I've been trying to sit down and write to you, composing snippets in my head, but finding mindless distractions to keep me from actually laying it out on a page. Mostly because it feels like such an enormous task to try and capture who you are in just a few paragraphs on a blank page. Know that you are and will always be so much bigger than your mama's gleaming eyes can quite take in.

Over these past eight months that I've been home with you I've become some sort of professional parent and as a result you've become quite involved in all there is to offer a small child. Routine weekly activities include story time at the library (Mondays), music class (Tuesdays), open gym (Wednesdays), and periodic lunch dates at the mall with playtime at their indoor play area afterwards (random Thursdays). Usually there's a trip to the grocery store, Target, and a play date or two in the mix as well. You love to go and when I tell you that we're getting ready to leave you round up your shoes (or sometimes mine if yours are already on your feet) and follow me around holding them up for me and saying, "Go?!" Then you remind me that we'll need your coat and hat while you stand with your face practically touching the door until I release you to flee into the hall and around the corner onto the elevator. Often you've decided that Nona also needs to get some fresh air and you're oh so happy to push her right out the door in her stroller on the occasions when I've deemed it appropriate. Once we've made it into the car we often share this dialogue:

You: "Happy?"

Me: "No...we're not going to music class today!"

You: "Nicky?"

Me: "No...we're not going to see Nicky today!"

These are by far your most frequent requests. You've become rather shy upon joining a crowd, even in spaces you've been many times before. You tend to cling to me for ten or fifteen minutes until you've got your bearings and then you join in happily, still checking in with me from time to time. It's quite a change from the little hammy socialite you were as a wee one. You're still quite pleased when you've attracted someone else's attention and you're a very good flirt, peeking coyly around me with a great big grin on your face. You also love to join in when others are laughing, often without having any idea what they're even laughing about.

You're a tender little girl and you often settle in for a snuggle and a few back pats. You're very fond of your daddy and he is happy to solicit kisses (regular, butterfly, or Eskimo...pick your poison) from you every night before bed and every morning before he leaves for work. You always greet him on his arrival home from work with complete glee. You are crushed when you think he is being even remotely gruff and you melt into tears (the other day a particularly hearty sneeze solicited this response!) You are his little girl and he is wrapped around your chubby little finger.

You love to climb and you've been honing your skills regularly since we got our new kitchen table. You like to climb up into your booster seat via your chair or perhaps the chair next to it. Mama watches at the edge of her seat as you straddle the two. You know that you're not supposed to climb up onto the table, but that makes it all the more fun right? You sneak up when I'm not paying attention and then crouch down onto your bent knees with your torso folded over your legs with a grin on your face until I discover you there. Then you giggle heartily at my expense as I once again plop you back down on the ground. Daddy cut the legs short on our old table and you have two little chairs that match. I had to put them up because you were following me around the kitchen as I prepared dinner "helping" me mix things up and getting things out of the drawers for me and just generally making me very nervous, especially when there were lots of hot pans on the stove. Hopefully, we'll be able to get the chairs down again some time soon, when you have a better understanding of just how dangerous a task dinner can be! I'm looking forward to warm summer days at the playground where you can climb 'til your heart is content. We were out at one recently on an unseasonably warm day and you just had so much fun climbing up, up, up and then back down again, over and over and over again.

Your language skills are coming along although mama is quietly somewhat concerned about your inconsistent pronunciation at times. You will attempt to repeat almost any word, though you'll only repeat the last one if a string of words is presented to you. You run around all day saying things like, "That's daddy." and "Here's shoes!" and "This milk." and "There's duck!" I've never heard another kid phrase things quite like that. You like to help us read your favorite books and you know your parts well. In, "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" you're responsible for mouse, cookie and milk. In, "Goodnight Moon" it's mush and hush. You're also very fond of the CD and songbook from The Music Class. We listen to the CD when we're in the car and I'm always tickled when I hear you singing along from the back. I'm amazed at the things that you remember. Communicating with you is so much fun and I can't wait to hear more and more as you grow bigger.

You've just started to get a little bit finicky about what you will and won't eat. If you don't like something we've given you, you just open your mouth and let it fall right back out. Most of the time it tends to be something green or something that has been mixed with something green. I'm starting to get a little creative with the vegetables and I'm very grateful that you still think that the green juice ice cubes that nana makes for you, chock full of good for you green stuff like parsley and spinach, are a special treat. I try to remember to give one to you every day. You're a big fan of fruit and cheese and yogurt and you'd be pretty happy if I served them to you for every meal. You are still nursing a couple of times a day. You've been through a few dry spells, usually when your teeth are bothering you or your nose is stuffed up, and I've wondered a couple of times if you were done, but you always find your way back and ask to nurse again. I considered weaning you, but your nursing is so unobtrusive these days that I'm content to let you work that out on your own. It should be interesting to see how you feel about sharing if you're still nursing when your baby brother makes his appearance!

Sofie, you are just a little ray of light in our lives. Each day you challenge me, make me laugh from deep down in my belly, and make me want to be present and alive in every moment. Each night I lay you down in bed, give your glo-worm a squeeze and cover you up. I kiss my hand three times, touching it once each to your left cheek, forehead, and then your right cheek. Then I kiss my finger and rub your little button nose and tell you that I love you. I've never meant anything more deeply in all my life.