Cornett & Company

Holiday Season

2011-12-19T07:13:00.000-08:00

The holiday season is upon us. Christmas songs on the radio, a tree in the living room, and the first early memories of a visit to that great weaver of childhood dreams and wonder, Santa Claus.

Baby Jesus in his manger and stories of the first Christmas fail to strike the same fear as a large man in a red suit and white beard. Note the look of horror on my children's sweet faces as we visited our first Santa last week at Alpenrose Dairy. Begin with the jingling of bells, then add a hearty HO HO HO, and enter one very real Santa Claus with a bag of toys and candycanes!

Jude warmed up enough to collect his reward for being brave, but Ada was having nothing to do with this Santa. We've seen several Santas in the last week, and each one seems to raise their esteem and appreciation for the jolly old elf. I suppose it will wear off, but for now the magic is alive and well!

Christmas season brought a strange new compulsion for me to try and "create" an experience for my children, to build that tradition of magic and wonder that I remember from my childhood. But I think I've settled down a bit on that front. The season makes itself wonderful. Sometimes it's best to just let it happen!

We are very lucky for everything that we have this year. Three holiday parties this past weekend has left us with a short break and time off from school before the big Christmas event next weekend. Jude snapped this photo of us before the Aunt Ginny Holiday Soiree!

The Beach

2011-11-28T08:14:00.000-08:00

A few weekends back we spent a couple of nights at the beach with friends.

Linden took some time off from work, we rented a house, and lucked out on the weather!

Winter beach weekends can be beautiful! The kids ran barefoot all around the dunes of Manzanita.

The friends are a family we know from our co-op preschool.

Highlights of the weekend: hiding in the grass, ice cream, forts in the couch, smoked fish, box wine, sleeping in bunk beds, and failed beach fires.

We love "getting away" with friends. Kids get time to be kids, families all mush in together, and we get to spend time with other parents in the act of parenting. There is a nice intimacy that comes with sharing a big house for a few nights that we just don't get anywhere else! Parenting can be very isolating, and little vacations like this one can bring new insights, tools, and inspiration.

Dump-Tings

2011-11-14T10:31:00.000-08:00

We borrowed a book from the library last week about Ling and Ting, twin girls who are Not Exactly The Same. Jude is loving this book, especially the chapter on making dumplings. Ling makes smooth Dump-Lings and Ting makes fat Dump-Tings...:) He has been asking to make dumplings for a few days now, so last night we broke out the pelmeni recipe and went to work.

Jude enjoyed playing with the dough and smooshing it together.

Ada's job was putting the assembled pelmeni on the tray.

I made most of them.

Here is the finished product. Note the little dough-balls in the corners courtesy of Jude and Ada.

Here's a short video to give you a taste of the dumpling-making scene...

See Doctor Jack!

2011-11-08T11:33:00.000-08:00

I took Ada in for her 18M appointment with Dr. Jack yesterday. Here are her stats:

Weight: 24 pounds, 6 ounces (51st percentile)
Height: 33.75 inches (94th percentile)

Ada charmed everyone in the doctor's office, starting with the pharmaceutical rep who rode up the escalators with us. She helped me "draw" on the autism assessment, played with the kids in the waiting room, and insisted on reading every book in the play area. When they called us back to the office, I said "It's time to go see Dr. Jack!", and Ada marched back to the exam room chanting "See Doctor Jack! See Doctor Jack!". There were a lot of affectionate smiles directed her way.

Ada was once again a little bit wary of Dr. Jack, and didn't display her full range of communication skills, but he still seemed pretty impressed by her verbal abilities and insistence on eye contact at all times. I had Ada up on the table, with my head turned towards the doctor while we were talking, and Ada several times reached over and turned my head so that I was facing her and looking at her. She really likes to look people in the eye whenever possible. Not surprisingly, she passed her autism screen with flying colors.

In general, we think Ada is doing really well and don't have any concerns about her. The only thing that seems a little bit out-of-the-ordinary is that the second toe on each of her feet tends to cross over and lie on top of the big toe instead of touching the ground. Dr. Jack said that there's really nothing to do about that, and it doesn't seem to be affecting her ability to move, run, or do anything, but we'll keep an eye on it to see what happens as she gets bigger.

Dr. Jack did recommend that we wean her from bottles sooner rather than later, for the sake of her teeth. I admitted that we're mostly just lazy and that she'd probably be fine with the switch to cups, and he said that this is common with the last child in a family. She's our baby, so we're not all that eager to push her through the milestones, but this one is pretty important. We also need to make sure to brush her teeth before bedtime.

Ada has been exposed to chickenpox recently, so we decided to give her the second chickenpox vaccine as well as a few others. She did not like the shots at all, but recovered pretty quickly and was happy to pick out a few stickers as a reward for a job well done. She was also very upset by the mouth examination once again. I think we need to start looking at her teeth a little more often so that she isn't so insulted when the doctor or dentist does it.

It turns out that there is actually one photo of the kids dressed up for Halloween this year. Our neighbors up the street snapped this photo after giving Jude two full-sized candy bars ("I need one for me and one for my mom"). No wonder his smile is so big!

Leaf Peeping and Pear Harvesting

2011-10-31T07:39:00.000-07:00

The Cornett and Company rolled out Saturday morning on a short adventure to Hood River. My Oma died this summer, and we miss our infrequent visits up the Gorge to visit her and feel the change of seasons in the Hood River Valley.

Does this look like fun to you? Raking leaves on a sunny day is a pleasure. But there's plenty more leaves still on the tree. We also spent some time cleaning out the house, packing up treasures, and reading old post cards from days gone by.

There was a short walk to the cemetary to visit my grandparents' gravesite. Jude was a little worried that he might fall in the hole, but it has been nicely covered up with grass since the funeral. Aunt Kathy brought a bouquet of fall colors from the yard.

In the afternoon we drove up the valley to McNurdy Farms for some tree ripened Bosc and Comice. Jude very politely asked to borrow this wagon for the long walk back to the car. It was a glorious day.

That night we camped out in Oma's mostly empty house on Eliot Ave. Our kids were tired and happy. We all love a little adventure!

Ada: Eighteen Months

2011-10-26T13:14:00.001-07:00

Our little girl is not so little anymore. She is growing and developing in leaps and bounds. She wants to read books all the time. She likes to wash dishes. She speaks in multiple-word sentences. She loves to make us laugh. She runs instead of walking. She dances every time she hears music. Her blond hair is growing longer and developing ringlets. I can't call her a baby any longer. She is a toddler.

One of Ada's favorite games right now is SURPRISE EYES. She makes a face like the zookeeper's wife in Good Night Gorilla when she realizes her bedroom is full of animals, eyes wide, eyebrows raised, and mouth open, and yells PIZE EYES! It took Jude a while to figure out how to make that face, but now SURPRISE EYES is a common dinnertime game. Ada points, DAT! PIZE EYES, and he complies. Then MOM, PIZE EYES, etc. Eventually we all make the face, and then everyone collapses into giggles. We have got to get a picture or video of that.

Another favorite is "On your mark, get set, GO!". Jude made up this game a couple of years ago. At the bottom of our stairs, there's a wall at the start of a long hallway. We're not allowed to just walk down the stairs, turn the corner, and walk down to the bedrooms. Instead, we back up to the wall, look at each other expectantly, and wait for someone to say the magic words. With Jude, he wanted to race, and would usually take off a second or two before the GO. Ada wants to be the one to say GO. She'll wait for someone else to say "On your mark... Get set..." and then she'll yell GO and take off running. This is one of the (few) games that the kids play together pretty well without adult supervision. While we're getting everything ready for bedtime, they will run up and down the hall together, mostly laughing and shrieking and getting along and not pushing each other. It's a fun part of every day.

Ada still drinks most of her milk from a bottle. She loves her BOP and it is a sure way to soothe her when she's tired or upset. She actually drinks really well from a sippy cup, and I don't think it would be too hard for us to convince her to make the switch, but we're just not that motivated. I'm guessing we'll do it in the next few months.

Ada loves to play outdoors. She'll bring over her shoes and socks, ask for a jacket, and stand longingly at the door. OUTSIDE, she says, and it's hard to turn her down. Once she's out there, she loves to run up and down the sidewalk, climb in and out of the raised areas in front of our house, and play in the sandbox. It seems like her hair is permanently dusted with Oregon Dune sand.

Ada just started calling me "MOM-MEE" instead of "MOM", and this has coincided with wanting more of my attention. She gets upset when I leave her presence, and when I'm around I have to hold her or pay attention to her much of the time. Luckily, playing with an eighteen-month-old Ada is pretty fun, between reading books, pretending that it hurts when she jumps on me, and chasing her around the house. We are having a great time these days!

Ada knows all of the names of face parts and some body parts. She loves the game where we point to eyes, ears, nose, hair, neck. She has started using qualifiers: ADA HAIR, MOM NECK. She is especially drawn to Jude's hair and takes every opportunity to touch it or grab it. He doesn't like that much, but is unusually tolerant most of the time.

Ada loves her brother. Every morning, her first question is WHERE JUDE? She usually gets up before he does, so she gets to accompany mom or dad into Jude's room to wake him up in the morning. She runs to his bed and tries to climb all over him. She follows him around and wants to do what he does most of the time, although lately she has started taking the lead and he will imitate her. For example, when Jude is hungry, he'll use Ada-speak, making the "eat" sign and saying JU TEE EAT. It is a very effective way of communicating. Jude is always watching Ada, and will often tell us what she wants or what she is saying. "Ada wants some more cheese." These two are very in tune with each other, and I think that once Jude gets over his aggression towards Ada, they are going to play together really well. This aggression has diminished somewhat in the past few months, but we still can't leave them alone together for long without expecting some bad behavior.

Ada and Jude both love to crawl around and pretend to be kittens. They MEOW over and over again, and want to be petted and cuddled. Ada, what do YOU say? MEOW.

A few details: Ada is wearing 18-24M clothing as well as some 2T, uses size 4 diapers, and size 6 shoes. She naps once a day in the afternoon, for about 2 hours, give or take an hour. At night, she sleeps really well, going to bed sometime between 7 and 8 and sleeping peacefully until 7 or 8 in the morning. I don't remember the last time we had to go to her at night once she was asleep. She will occasionally resist bedtime, but a few extra stories or sips of milk usually does the trick. I'll post an update on her height and weight in a couple of weeks after her next appointment with Dr. Jack.

We're having technical difficulties with posting photos from Picasa. Will update later. Here is a video from the past week.

Ada can save herself.

Moving Out

2011-10-04T04:48:00.000-07:00

I think we're going to move.

It feels like it might happen any day, but I suppose it could take us a year. We talked it over last month, contacted our realtor, and started looking at houses.

Oh, and I've been packing.

We think the time is right for this. It feels right, and just like the time we got engaged, bought our first house, and had our first child, we're trying not to fight the feeling.

We found a nice little west hills neighborhood close to downtown, close to the club, and close to our friends. We like the schools. We want to live on a quiet road, not on a big hill, with a little yard or place to play.

The kids love looking at new houses, and Jude is helping me pack the china. There have been many discussions in our house about the Pain In The Ass factor (PITA) that has kept us from making this happen in the past. And frankly, we'll miss the trails, the zoo, the Washington Park concerts on our doorstep. But suddenly it seems possible. I think we'll go for it!

We've loved this house! Now we'll find a new one that fits us better.

Four Fit in the Family Boat

2011-09-23T06:21:00.000-07:00

Clear Lake

2011-09-18T20:59:00.000-07:00

We decided to head for the hills this weekend. We reserved two "rustic cabins" and found some partners in crime. Tommy and Julia are several years older than Jude, but the three kids bonded over a love of fishing. They spent countless hours casting from this picnic table into the road, trees, and anyone unlucky enough to walk in their path... It was a little challenging to share two fishing poles among three kids, but they worked it out.

Meanwhile, the dads and Ada worked on their ringers at the horseshoe pit, conveniently located right between our cabin and the lake.

Our "two bedroom cabin" consisted of one room with an open loft and a hospital curtain partitioning off a small area of the main floor. Surprisingly, we all slept really well. Jude LOVED sleeping in the loft by himself, and especially loved climbing up and down the ladder and throwing things at us from his perch ten feet up in the air. We only had a few heart attacks when he got careless too close to the edge.

I managed to get a few good close-ups of the kids this weekend.

Ada is loving her George these days.

Jude and Tommy disappeared for a while this morning, and when we found them they were playing in the greenery between our cabins.

Clear Lake itself is gorgeous, with blue and aquamarine water so clear and cold that you can see ancient preserved trees haunting the bottom of the lake. We were sorry not to have any real fishing gear, as the lake is stocked and the fish seemed to be biting. One afternoon during nap time, the dads took Tommy up to the Great Spring to see the source of the lake. Getting there is a bit tricky, as you have to paddle the canoe up a short set of rapids (they were too much of a barrier for us when we tried it again the next day). We also went on a hike around the lake while the kids slept on our backs. The trail was beautifully maintained and we were passed by several mountain bikers.

Another highlight was roasting marshmallows over the campfire. Curious George roasts marshmallows when he goes camping, so Jude knew what to expect. He was the talk of the camp with his forked stick and contagious excitement. Luckily for us, Jude vastly prefers roasting marshmallows to eating them. In the end, I think he ate one and roasted about twenty. A perfect ratio.

3Y Doctor Visit

2011-09-08T14:33:00.000-07:00

We all made a trip to see Dr. Jack today for Jude's three-year visit. He didn't need any shots, which sort of disappointed him (he asked if he could get a shot next time)! Ada got a flu shot, and wasn't very happy about that.

Jude continues to be very large. Here are his stats:

Weight: 41 pounds (98th percentile)
Height: 42 inches (99.9th percentile)
BMI (body mass index) is about 50th percentile (calculated for the first time)

With an average BMI, there doesn't seem to be any reason to worry about Jude's weight at this point. He did gain a few pounds over the summer, but he also grew a few inches. He is solid muscle, and looks pretty slim.

Jude talked with the doctor about his birthday party, his school, his friends, and his love of stickers. Dr. Jack tried to convince Jude that it's time to stop using diapers. I don't think he bought it. The doctor commented on Jude's language and coordination, saying both seemed pretty well developed. We didn't really have any concerns, other than Jude's recent tendency to hurt himself by landing on his head. The boy is covered in bumps and bruises, and he seems to get fresh ones more quickly than the old ones can heal. Just a phase, hopefully. Or maybe it's part of being a boy.

The doctor's office moved to a new building over the summer, and there are some pretty cool escalators and elevators in the atrium. Everyone had a good time riding up and down (and up and down).

Ada: Sixteen Months

2011-08-29T20:22:00.000-07:00

Ada is now a few days past sixteen months, and I've been remiss in posting photos and an update.

Our girl is quite a character these days. She talks nonstop and she's in the middle of all the action. She runs and walks, climbs up and slides down. We can't even count the number of words she's saying. 40? 50? Here are a few photos from the past week.

Jude: Three

2011-08-22T11:29:00.000-07:00

Our boy is three years old today. How can I describe our son, this force of nature?

Jude has a new obsession these days: fire-fighters ("fighter-fighters") and everything related to fighting fires. His favorite show is Fireman Sam, about the Welsh town of Pontypandy. He is constantly running around the house putting out fires and warning about an impending fire. For his birthday, he asked for a fighter-fighter outfit. Nini took care of that.

Jude loves to play games. He often requests that we pull out one of the adult board games, like "the train game" or Monopoly. He also loves playing Memory and Candyland (this is often part of his going-to-bed routine). Games on my phone are also sought-after treat (at first it was Angry Birds, now he loves a game called Cookie Maker where he gets to bake and eat cookies). He also loves playing games on the computer. His favorite is actually "Typing" where he opens up MS Word and types letters, changes the font/size, deletes the letters, rinse, repeat. By the time that kid is in school, he is going to know how to use Word better than his teachers! He also loves the puzzles and games on PBSKids.org. He can spend hours working on those if we let him.

Another obsession these days is fishing. I still need to blog about Jude's first fish which he caught at Baekeland Camp this summer. He has a kid fishing pole with which he has been diligently casting and reeling in a little red rubber fish for months. Our friend Dave hooked a small rock bass for him and let him pull it in. He was over the moon and didn't stop talking about the "slimy fish with spines down its back" for days and days. Jude will also "play fishing" with just about anything he can find which resembles a rope. He'll let down his blankie little by little over the side of the changing table, or a jump rope over the edge of our deck, or the line from his kite. Give that kid a piece of rope, and he's happy for hours! Jude also caught his first edible fish this summer (we enjoyed the bounty a few nights later). You can read about it over at Nini's blog.

Jude is still an incredible athlete. He has no fear, but he is actually very careful and rarely goes beyond his physical abilities. It can be kind of frightening to take him to the playground these days, though. I'll look over and see him doing something, like climbing on top of the tube slide, or scaling the outside of a high set of stairs, that was obviously not intended by the playground designers. Sometimes Jude insists that we call him by his "real name": Monkey Boondoggle. For a while, we were the Boondoggle family (for example, I was Lion Boondoggle) but now Jude says he is "all of the Boondoggles".

A few funny phrases that Jude says all the time: he says "in course" instead of "in case". Like, "let me know in course you want to go outside." He also says "besides" when he means "decides". "What did Daddy beside to do today?". Other than these minor (and endearing) word mix-ups, Jude seems to speak like a much older child. It can be a little bit difficult for people who don't know him to follow along with what he's saying, but we can catch every word, and I don't remember the last time he wasn't able to express something he was thinking. He is also getting pretty good at expressing his feelings: he'll say something like "I didn't like that" when he has a time-out or "That hurt me" when he falls down. He also lets us know when he's tired or hungry: "I'm kind of starving right now".

Jude continues to be a challenge for us as parents. He is very intense, and emotional, and often seems like he is about to erupt into bad behavior. I get most angry with him when he deliberately uses his strength against Ada - pushing her, kicking her, hitting her. These days, we're trying to do time-outs when he does this, but it's hard to be consistent. Jude also hits me sometimes, or throws things at people. He does a lot of testing boundaries, often just to see what will happen if he disobeys. I got very angry with him about a week ago when he took off down our street on his bike and I had to go about 20 houses down (to the chickens) before I caught up with him. I had to carry him kicking and screaming back to our house, because every time I put him down he would try to run off again. He often claims that he doesn't know what he did wrong, but I don't really think that's true. We try not to have too many rules, and to repeat our expectations to him so that he knows what he's supposed to do. It seems to help, but it can be exhausting to be around him and responsible for his behavior and safety.

Other times, Jude is just the sweetest little boy you could imagine. He'll curl up next to me and relax all of his weight on me while I read him ten books, or tell me all about his day, or watch a movie while lying on top of me. He'll tell me he loves me and give me huge hugs and kisses. He is so happy to see me when I get home from work, and he'll tell Dad that he wants more days with Mom home. He loves his Nini and his Ama, and wants to help Ada climb the stairs or make art or build with blocks. We feel so lucky to be raising this boy.

Giantess

2011-08-14T17:40:00.000-07:00

Ada had her fifteen month appointment with Dr. Jack this week. Here are her stats:

Weight: 23 pounds, 4 ounces (55th percentile)
Height: 32.75 inches (97th percentile)

We have another large child on our hands. The doctor didn't actually believe that this was the right length measurement after looking at her, so he remeasured her and got about the same number. Ada always seems so small to us, compared with her big brother, but I guess we can expect her to be tall compared with other girls her age.

Ada had a few shots, which she did not like at all, and she also complained vigorously when the doctor examined her mouth.

Developmentally, it seems like Ada is doing just fine. She's saying more words than average. Dr. Jack said that her habit of intentionally pestering her brother shows very advanced social skills...:) We are supposed to "put her in time out" when she does things like that so that Jude feels like the rules apply to her as well as him. Of course, the time out is mainly for Jude's benefit at this point.

Here are a few cute photos of Ada from our anniversary evening at the park.

And a short video of Ada kicking the soccer ball and practicing her favorite word...

Ada Is 15 Months Old Today

2011-07-26T15:39:00.000-07:00

A few recent photos.

June Books

2011-06-30T20:45:00.000-07:00

All of the books I read this month were excellent. If you're looking for something to read this summer, you can't go wrong with any of them.

June

(6/4) Island Beneath the Sea (Isabel Allende) - This is exactly the kind of story I love. I can’t believe that this book sat on my bedside table, unread, for months! I’ve read other Allende novels before, and this one is my favorite so far. I learned a lot about the history of the region, especially Haiti. I did have a misconception about some of the relationships between the characters from a too-quick scan of the cover synopsis and Prologue - I thought that Tete was brought into the household for a different reason than was really the case, and that she would end up loving her white master. This made things quite confusing to me until I eventually went back and realized I had made some incorrect assumptions. I think it would have been a different reading experience for me if I had not read those words before jumping into the story... All in all, a great read.
(6/9) The Name of the Wind (Patrick Rothfuss) - Wow. This book was recommended to me by a friend, and I put it on my hold list at the library without giving it much thought. A few months later, it was ready and I picked it up in time for a long plane trip. I could not put this book down. I stayed up way too late reading it. It was that good. This is basically a story of an boy named Kvothe, who is wicked smart, musical, and resourceful, and his life as a child, then orphan, then student at the prestigious University. This is the first of three books in the series (the third hasn’t been released yet) and therefore covers the first third of Kvothe’s life, approximately. There are some elements of Harry Potter, but it is written for a more mature audience. The writing is excellent, the main character compelling, and the story is action packed. Go get it.
(6/12) Matched (Ally Condie) - Another recommendation from Sharon. This book gave me a lot of food for thought. It’s about a society in which people are basically told what to do in every aspect of their lives, from what to eat, what career they will pursue, and whom they will marry. This “Match” is how the book starts, and we follow a teen-aged girl during the weeks and months following her Match. I thought the author did a good job of creating a world which is so different from ours, and yet it was possible to understand how the people in this world thought they were happy and even fortunate. I thought some of the characters were a little shallow, but maybe that’s because I had just been reading about Kvothe. I LOVED the cover art. Perfect.
(6/18) The Wise Man's Fear (Patrick Rothfuss) - Installment Two of Kvothe’s story. I didn’t think this book could match the first, but it was just as good. Once again, I read the whole thing in just a few days, staying up until all hours and giving up my precious sleep. I hope I don’t have to wait four years for the last installment to come out!
(6/26) Old Man's War (John Scalzi) - This book was a lot of fun. An interesting story about aging, war, experience, and humanity. Along with some great aliens and science fiction technology. Fast read, highly recommended.

Little Things: Ada, Fourteen Months

2011-06-26T20:32:00.000-07:00

Ada is fourteen months old today! This post is going to be pretty photo-heavy. Ada is such a cutie these days, but developmentally she hasn't made any dramatic shifts in the past month. The word I would use to describe her these days is insistent. She is starting to want things much more passionately than in the past, and she gets irritated when she can't have what she wants. She'll give a loud cry of frustration when she is spurned. She does recover pretty quickly, so I can't really call them tantrums yet. I think if we hadn't just been through Jude's tantrums from hell, though, we might be singing a different tune.

Here is a cute close-up from dinner tonight.

Pensive.

She is teething, by the way. She has three molars coming in at the same time, and that can't be fun.

Doing some gardening on the back porch.

Ada loves to pull the leaves off of the sage plant and eat them.

Ada and Daddy have the same eyes, exactly.

Ada has this funny mannerism when she walks. Her hands are up at shoulder level with bent arms and it's really cute. I'm going to miss that walk when she gets more steady on her feet. Here's a shot from behind.

At the park.

Mischievous.

So Big!

Ada is doing really well. She gets better at walking every day. Her language continues to improve. Today she saw a dog walking past our house, pointed, and said "Dog". Clear as day. I'd never even heard her try that word before. She does have a heart-stopping habit of making a run for it, often towards the street or oncoming traffic. We have to be really vigilant or she will end up in the middle of the street or halfway up the stairs with no spotter.

Ada seems to understand much of what we say these days. She can follow simple commands like fetching a certain toy or dropping something. She also likes to throw food from her tray during mealtime, and then if we don't clean it up right away she'll come back later and eat it. One very endearing trick: if we're in the living room and ask "Do you want a bottle of milk?", she'll lead us over to the fridge and show us where to find the milk she wants.

Ada continues to eat well and sleep well. She goes to sleep easily at night, and sleeps 11-12 hours. She also takes an afternoon nap of 1-3 hours, usually closer to two. She's still in size four diapers and size 12-18M clothing. She has grown out of the 6-12 month Robeez and is now wearing the 12-18 month size soft shoes.

Here's a short video of Ada's speed walking to finish out this month.

Friday Footage

2011-06-24T21:24:00.000-07:00

We finally found our camera. Here are two videos from today.

"Cat In The Hat" is the dog, by the way. Jude's name for her.

Those boxes lasted through almost a whole evening of boat races...

Turning the Corner

2011-06-20T12:08:00.000-07:00

Writing this post is the blogging equivalent of asking for trouble. And yet, I'm writing it anyway. While knocking furiously on wood. I wanted to capture what it feels like to turn the corner between two and three.

Jude's behavior has changed recently. It's been over two weeks since he had his last the-world-is-ending, out-of-control, snot-slinging tantrum. He is reasonable. He will take "no" for an answer. We don't have to fight with him about every. little. thing. he needs to do in a day.

This is not to say he's suddenly an easy child. He still cries and protests, and we need to think carefully about how we approach him. The difference is that the cries fade in a matter of a few minutes, and he can move on from the thing he thought he NEEDED to something else that would be good enough.

We no longer have to bribe him to get into his car seat. He hops right in and lets us buckle him up without arching his back and twisting out of the way. It's just not something that triggers a fight anymore.

Turning off the TV to eat a meal is accepted with a casual "Ok". No screaming for Just One More Show or kicking and flailing on the floor.

Changing clothes is no longer an issue, most of the time. He'll let us change his shirt and pants if they are dirty, and put on PJs at bedtime. This was emphatically NOT the case last month. He would wear the same shirt for days and days, and insist on sleeping in his play clothes.

Yesterday, he wanted to play a certain game that has too many small pieces to be safe for Ada. He REALLY wanted to play, but Ada was in a mood herself, and only wanted to be in that exact area where we could play the game, and so I wouldn't let him play. I admit it was sort of an experiment to see what he would do. After a brief bout of crying, he pulled himself together and said "Let's play a blocks game instead". This would NEVER have happened a month ago.

We still have a lot of behavioral work to do. Jude can be pushy with other kids, and we can't really set him loose in a crowd. He throws things. He tests boundaries. He is careless with Ada's safety, and kicks her away when she intrudes on his personal space.

This change in him is huge, though. It makes everything else seem so much easier to tackle.

My Legacy

2011-06-15T20:16:00.000-07:00

I spent last weekend in New York, and came home with a treasure trove of photos from my grandparents' house. I had never seen most of these photos before, and fell in love with a few.

This is Nanny, my mom, and me soon after I was born.

The Henning family at the beach in 1963.

Nanny in Venice in the 1950's. This one was on the cover of the program.

Nanny, Bobby, and Peggy as a baby. This one is so sweet and reminds me of seeing our two kids together soon after Ada was born.

Newspaper clipping about my grandparents' wedding. I love the headline.

Nanny and her parents and two sisters, Charlotte and Pat.

Nanny and Bobo in Arizona. I love the cowboy hats.

Nanny and her granddaughters in 1979. I'm the one in the middle.

Nanny would have been pleased with the turnout. The church was full, the music was beautiful, and the speakers were poignant yet funny. All seventeen grandchildren attended the funeral, flying in from all over the country and even as far away as Kenya. It was a day that we will all remember.

Nanny

2011-06-07T10:42:00.000-07:00

My grandmother passed away yesterday morning. I spent the day talking on the phone, checking flights to New York, arranging childcare, cancelling appointments, moving meetings. As my sister would say, I was "all business". Someone needs to tend to the details, and I'm good at that.

Every Monday, we have a babysitter watch the kids while we go to the gym and then out to dinner. It's a really nice part of our week, one that we've really appreciated for the past few months. Last night, I struggled through my yoga class. Things that are usually no problem seemed tougher to me. I was happy when the relaxation phase of the class began so I could close my eyes and let my mind wander.

Dinner time: "What would Nanny like us to do tonight?", asked E Ben. "We should do something romantic. She would like that." We decided to grab a quick bite at our neighborhood Italian place. Afterwards, we went for a stroll around Northwest, then drove up to Pittock Mansion to look out over our fair city. We talked about our kids and the changes in our lives. We talked about our families and all of our grandmothers. About the last hilarious conversation that I had with Nanny in March about French nightgowns and Italian men. We watched the sun go down, then drove home to our sleeping kids.

Nanny would have liked that.

She Speaks!

2011-06-04T22:42:00.000-07:00

I didn't say much in my last Ada post about the words that she is saying these days.

Ada's favorite word is OUT! She must say it hundreds if not thousands of times each day, starting first thing in the morning when she wants to get OUT! of her crib until last thing at night when she is cranky from being tired and just wants OUT! of everything!

Ada has finally started calling me something consistently: MAMA. She will look in my direction when someone says MAMA and will copy when someone refers to me that way. She has been calling E Ben DAT! for a while now.

Ada has just recently started pointing at things and saying AT! I think this means "what's that?". She seems happy when I label things for her and sometimes tries to copy what I say.

Another common word is UNTZ (I wants it!). Ada knows what she wants, and it is usually something that one of us is eating or holding. She has also started selecting a book, carrying it over to someone, and asking for a story using this word. It's a pretty big change, because for the longest time she was fairly uninterested in books. She'd lose interest before most books were finished. Just recently, she has grown much more interested and will happily flip through favorites like "Moo, Ba, La, La, La", "Baby Says Peekaboo", and "Where's Spot?".

And, of course, she loves to say BYE BYE accompanied by a cute wave. BYE BYE!

May Books

2011-06-03T17:50:00.000-07:00

Seven books in May. This is starting to seem like a habit. I devoured the rest of the Samaria series this month, plus picked up a few other quick reads.

May

(5/8) Jovah's Angel (Sharon Shinn) - This is the second book in the Samaria series. I was a bit surprised to start this book and find that it picks up 150 years after the previous book ends. Though there are references to the characters in the first book, I wished that I could have gotten to know them better. This book was different, and interesting. Although I guessed the ending to this one in advance, the story was a bit more unusual and unpredictable. The main character was more approachable, and it was easier to be in her head than in the previous book. Looking forward to the rest of the series!
(5/15) Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother (Amy Chua) - After reading the mostly outraged reaction to this book on the blogosphere, I didn’t expect to find much worthwhile parenting advice here. But I think that Chua has some good points to make about expectation and achievement. She is obviously much more extreme than I would ever be, but I agree that success creates a “virtuous cycle” (as she calls it) which improves self-esteem and engenders future success. I think it’s important for kids to work hard to master something, whether it’s an instrument, athletics, or something else that may not be “fun” until the child gains some competence at the activity. This book spawned a lively debate in our house. I wouldn’t say that I really loved/enjoyed the book, but I am happy that I read it.
(5/17) This Is Where I Leave You (Jonathan Tropper) - Very funny story about relationships among siblings and partners. I found myself somewhat unconvinced about the realism of some of the main character’s antics, but it is comedy after all.
(5/20) The Alleluia Files (Sharon Shinn) - The next installment of the Samaria series. Now that I know these books are only loosely linked (and only in terms of setting, not characters), I’m finding that I enjoy them more. I also find that as these books veer more into science fiction rather than fantasy, they become more interesting to me. Only two more to go!
(5/22) Angelica (Sharon Shinn) - This one takes place in “ancient history” on Samaria compared with the other three, which each jumped forwards several generations. I like how we can see the evolution of knowledge of the oracles over time and we also learn more about the Edori and the history of the planet.
(5/25) Something Blue (Emily Giffin) - This is a sequel to a book I read a few months ago. It is interesting that it is told from the perspective of an entirely different character - one who is not at all sympathetic in the first book. I actually liked this book more than the first one, maybe because it was fascinating to get a glimpse into the head of someone who is portrayed so negatively the first time around. I didn’t entirely buy Darcy’s transformation, but it made for a good story!
(5/29) Angel-Seeker (Sharon Shinn) - I liked this book the best of the series so far. We get to revisit some of the characters we met in an earlier story. This is the first of the Samaria books that is not focused on archangels and their lovers. We still spend time with the angels, but there is more focus on the lives of ordinary people, the different cultures living on Samaria, and how individuals can instigate change in society.

The best part of my day

2011-05-31T16:54:00.001-07:00

The house is quiet. I'm just about to go to bed. I turn on the flashlight and creep down the hall towards Jude's room. Very quietly, I open the door to the laundry room, then slide open the door to Jude's room. This one creaks loudly, but I know it won't wake up the boy. He sleeps like the dead.

I never know where I'm going to find Jude. Much of the time, he's sprawled out on his bed, covers kicked off, mouth wide open, clutching his blankies. Sometimes he's asleep on the floor. Sometimes he's on "Daddy's Bed". Once I found him curled up in the closet. No matter. If he's not in his bed, I carry him over to it. I pull up the covers to keep him from getting a chill in the night. I put his binkie within arm's reach. I smooth the hair over his brow. I kiss him goodnight, murmuring "Goodnight Jude. I love you." He never even twitches. As I close the creaky door behind me, I turn off the lights that he has insisted on leaving on as he falls asleep. The humidifier hums in the background.

Ada's room is trickier. I have to open the door without making a sound. The flashlight beam can't wander too close to her head. She curls up in a little ball in her crib, face against the sheet. If I'm not quiet enough, she'll begin to stir, and then I need to make a quick exit before she wakes completely. I probably don't need to check on her. She can't get out of her crib, and she still sleeps in warm jammies. But I like to see my babies sleeping. It's the only time they aren't moving, seeking, doing. I cover her with a blanket and creep out the door.

Now I can go to sleep.

Little Things: Ada, Thirteen Months

2011-05-26T06:38:00.000-07:00

Happy Thirteen Months to Ada! Here is the one great photo that we've taken in the past couple of weeks.

Our little girl never stops moving these days. The best way to capture Ada is on video, so I've included a few in this post. Here is Ada's peekaboo trick.

Ada's favorite "toy" these days is a random article of clothing (or several). She'll pick them up, wave them around, wrap them around her neck, make a pillow and take a nap, and generally just delight in them. I wonder if this is a harbinger of things to come. Is Ada going to be very different from her Mom in terms of interest in clothing?

Ada loves to walk and to dance. The day I took this video, she went back and forth between making the music start and then dancing to the music at least a dozen times.

I think the biggest change in Ada during the past month is her obsession with walking. She started the month taking a few tentative steps, and now she just wants to be on her feet all day long. She has also begun to be a bit more daring when it comes to speed and balance. She's doing more of the "drunken sailor" walking and falling, rather than only taking steps when she feels completely secure. We do a lot of walking around the house and up and down the street in front of our house while holding one hand. She likes the little bit of extra help to keep her balance. Every day she becomes so much more stable on her feet.

Ada is such a joyful child. She is almost always happy and smiling. She loves to interact with people, especially other kids. She laughs all the time and rarely seems to be in a bad mood. Ada does get a bit frustrated when she wants something and can't have it for some reason. She'll complain a bit by arching her back and making some noise, but she gives up pretty quickly and finds something else to do. We haven't seen a true tantrum from her yet, although I am sure we will at some point.

Ada continues to eat and sleep well. She eats anything and everything, but particularly likes whatever I'm eating. When she was little, I used to bite her food into small pieces before giving it to her, and she likes to recreate that now, even though she can handle bigger pieces. Sometimes she'll hand me a piece of her food, and she wants me to take a little bite then hand it back. Once this has happened, she'll happily eat it. Ada is down to one afternoon nap a day pretty consistently. She sleeps well at night and I can't even remember the last time we had to go to her room after she was asleep for the night. Oh, how I wish I had known she would become such a good nighttime sleeper about six months ago! It would have made it a lot easier to get through those challenging months.

Little Things: Jude, 2 and 3/4 years

2011-05-22T20:50:00.000-07:00

Jude is 33 months old today. I'm following Amber's lead, and only writing formal updates every three months now that Jude is out of the baby/toddler years. It feels like a lot has changed since the last time I wrote a long post about Jude.

Jude has entered a "why?" phase. He asks "Why?" many (many) times a day. We try to answer with simple but true explanations for everything. So far, he is pretty accepting of our answers. This is the usual flow: "Mommy, why do I have to wear a jacket?" "Because you might get cold if you don't wear a jacket." "Oh." There are some things that are harder to answer, though. "Mommy, why do you call Daddy 'Babe'?". How do you explain nicknames to a two-year-old? He was kind and pretended to understand what I was talking about.

Jude gives the best hugs. When he is happy to see someone, he will give a big hug around the neck, and hold on tight for longer than you would expect from someone who doesn't particularly like affectionate physical contact. He has also started occasionally responding when I say "I love you" with a hug and a quiet "I love you too, Mommy".

Jude has grown adept at translating Ada's gestures and chirps. He often says things like "Ada wants a bite of my toast." And he is usually right. The two of them are still clashing fairly often when it comes to toys and attention, but Jude has begun to believe that Ada is actually a person. He talks to her and answers her when she tries to communicate with him. For example, she will hand him a toy, wanting to play the game where she hands you something and then you hand it back. If he doesn't want to play, he'll say "No thank you, Ada". Of course, she doesn't know what that means, so she'll try again and again, until eventually he's had enough and bats her hand away or pushes her.

Jude can be very challenging behaviorally. He has a rigid idea of how the world is supposed to work, and it is very difficult to change his mind. He is also very strong, and it's no longer possible for us to physically make him do most things, although we can still pick him up and take him to his room if he needs to be removed from a situation. But things like diaper changes, getting into his car seat, changing clothes, and getting into bed need to be done with his cooperation or they won't happen. This means that we often have to wait to leave the house until Jude is ready or we have to be willing to force a tantrum that will make him more compliant in the end. It's a delicate balance between avoiding confrontation (by letting go of the nonessential tasks) and forcing confrontation (for non-negotiables) to keep things moving along so that we can stay on schedule. I remember in my last update that I was thinking that his tantrums were decreasing, but I don't think that has happened yet. On good days, we might not have any tears, but on bad days we might have ten full-blown screaming, kicking, throwing fits.

Jude can be very focused when he is interested in an activity. We have these animal puzzles that Ama bought in Mexico over a year ago. Jude has always loved playing with them, but only in the past few days has he really had the ability to put them together. Once he was ready to learn, though, I only had to show him once how to solve each puzzle, and he worked on putting them together and taking them apart for almost an hour.

Jude loves to play computer games and games on my phone. It can be really difficult to get him to stop playing, though, so we often resort to using a timer and then standing our ground after the timer goes off (this often triggers a tantrum). In the picture below, he's sitting in front of the Kid Laptop at Nini's house.

Jude does love my bear (see below), although in general he is indifferent to stuffed animals. He is much more attached to his blankies and binkie. The other day as I was getting him ready for bed, I had to go upstairs to get his blankies. He told me to make sure that I got both of them, but to put the other binkies away. "I don't need two binkies. I only have one mouth."

This is my first attempt at video editing, so please forgive me for not doing much cutting. I did manage to merge together two separate videos and a title, though! Baby steps, right?

We love our little monkey!

Postpartum

2011-05-20T17:28:00.000-07:00

I originally wrote this post about six months ago, when I felt like I was just beginning to emerge from the postpartum period with Ada. E Ben convinced me to wait to actually post it until I was all the way out, and that was probably a good choice. It is much easier to look back on this period than to describe it while in the throes.

The postpartum period was hard for me. It was hard with Jude, and it was hard with Ada. I ran across this post recently, and it really struck a chord with me. Especially the part about feeling desperate for more sleep and wanting to escape. I remember being angry with people who stayed up late even though they didn't have to. I would have given anything for an early bedtime, and couldn't understand why other people would stay awake voluntarily. My difficulty postpartum is one of the main reasons that we're sure that two children is enough for our family. I was more prepared for the realities of postpartum this time, which helped, but having a toddler as well as a newborn makes it more difficult in a lot of ways.

I think that the majority of my problems were related to nursing and the implications of nursing with a borderline milk supply. With Jude, I constantly felt like he wasn't getting enough to eat and it was my fault. This really affected my mood. Although I knew intellectually that I shouldn't blame myself, it's a lot harder to decide how to feel about something like this, especially with all of the physical changes in the postpartum period. I shed quite a few tears and wondered if I was up to the task of being a parent.

With Ada, she got enough to eat, but there was never any extra milk which would allow me to have a bottle ready so that I could sleep though a night-time feeding or get away for a few hours for some time to myself. As a result, I was exhausted and felt trapped by her needs. It also didn't help that she was a comparatively poor sleeper and needed to be fed often throughout the night in the early days. In both cases, once the kids started sleeping though the night and started taking bottles of formula, my outlook improved almost immediately.

Go read the post. Her words do a great job of describing what it feels like to struggle with adding a baby to a family.

These Are A Few Of My Oldest Things

2011-05-19T21:38:00.000-07:00

One of the (few) ongoing disagreements in our house is about the value of new things vs. old things. My husband likes new things. He enjoys wearing new clothes, purchasing current-year guide books to take on vacation, and riding a brand-new bike. I, on the other hand, would rather not replace something of mine that is still good enough. I prefer to buy something that I will use forever. Part of this stems from the fact that I don't like to spend money. I find it physically painful sometimes to pay more than I think something is worth, or that I think is wasteful. But another part is that I just like old things. I often even like old better than new.

Let me introduce you to a few of my oldest things. In order to qualify for this blog post, the Thing has to be something I've owned since before I went to college and more-or-less in use since that time. So, my wooden rocking horse that I played with as a baby and that my kids now throw around the house doesn't count, because it's been in a closet for most of the past 20 years. Readers who have known me since high school or college will probably recognize one or more of these.

My furry blanket
I don't know how old I was when all of the kids in my family were given a furry blanket. Maybe 10? I remember that my cousin Oliver had the same one pictured below and my brother Duncan had one with some green on it - maybe a monkey on his? This blanket has been everywhere with me. I remember sitting in the grass outside my aunt Paula's house next to Oliver, both of us wrapped in our furry blankets, pretending to meditate (and then fall backwards into the grass, overcome by...something mystical, I guess). It's followed me through all of my dorm rooms, apartments, and rental houses to be the blanket that I used to stay warm while nursing my children. How can I ever give this up?

My Jean Auel Books
I read these for the first time as a teenager - I might have been 15? Actually, I'm surprised that my parents let me read them, with their mature themes (aka graphic sex scenes), but they might not have known, now that I think about it more. These books are old friends; I've visited with them many times over the years. You can see that Valley of the Horses was probably my favorite. The cover hasn't survived. I actually have a lot of books from my childhood, including many children and young adult titles that I hope to read with the kids one day. So this is more of a category than a discussion of any particular book.

Locust Valley Fire Department shirt
I have a LOT of old clothes. E Ben is constantly trying to get me to give away my old clothes and buy new ones, but I resist. Just recently, as I lost a lot of weight after Ada was born, I was able to pull out a bunch of clothes that fit me 5+ years ago and start wearing them again, which really annoys E Ben (he says it gives me justification to never get rid of anything). This shirt is a particular favorite, as I wore it all through high school and college and beyond. It's a bit too threadbare for me now, but E Ben uses it as a race shirt, so it really has been in use for almost 20 years. Not bad for a shirt that my dad bought on a whim at some fire department event in 1993.

My Bear
I'm not much of a stuffed animal person, at least not compared with my sister who always had an army of bears, puppies, and dolls on her bed. Somehow, this bear wormed his way into my life, and has been my companion for as long as I can remember. He's been through a lot with me. He lost his nose a while back and had to be sewn back together (with no replacement button) to avoid losing all of his stuffing. He ended up getting burns across his face and belly from the radiator at my apartment in Hillsboro. I probably should have named him at some point, and maybe now that the kids love him that will happen.

My hairbrush

It is gross that I've been using the same hairbrush for 20+ years? I remember the day that my mom came home with two matching wooden hairbrushes for me and Margaret. I took the lighter one, and she took the darker one. To make sure that I didn't steal her hairbrush, she wrote her name in black indelible ink on the back of hers, and you can still see it today if you look closely (yes, I did end up stealing hers, so her fear was justified). I have no idea what happened to the other one. Maybe Margaret has it?

Do you have any really old Things? What do you think about the old vs. new debate? Do you have any stories about my old things?

More Pool Fun

2011-05-14T09:28:00.000-07:00

One more post from our Florida trip. As I said earlier, Jude learned to jump into the pool during our last day of vacation. Here he is, swimming with his floaty suit.

Jumping in from the side of the pool with Mom.

Hangin' out on the raft, both wearing our goggles.

Another jump.

And a short video of Jude's latest trick.

Mother's Day

2011-05-14T09:19:00.000-07:00

Jude had a very specific idea about how we should celebrate Mother's Day this year. He brought me "breakfast in bed" (which consisted of a cup of tea and some toast) and then fetched my hairbrush so that he could brush my hair for me. It is sort of painful to have your hair brushed by a two-year-old, but I couldn't spoil his fun. See below.

The next day, he brought me another cup of tea in bed, informing me "It's still Muhver's Day, Mom".

Oh, Ada

2011-05-14T09:06:00.000-07:00

You are SO STINKIN' CUTE.

playing at the beach

sitting in the waves with Ama

swimming with Mom

walking on the boardwalk at Pelican Bay North Beach

Naples in May

2011-05-13T11:00:00.000-07:00

Right after Jude was born, my doctor visited us in our hospital room and we asked her for any parenting advice she'd like to share with us. "Between the ages of one and three, it's much harder to travel with your kids. Try to do your travelling before or after that age range." As we were getting ready to take this trip to Naples last week, I remembered these words of wisdom as I suddenly realized that we were attempting a long airplane trip with not one but TWO of these monsters. As it turned out, I was right to be concerned. The travel was much, much harder than we expected, but the beach vacation itself was wonderful!

We went to Naples, Florida to visit my grandmother, Ninette. We usually make the trip every spring, but couldn't go last year because I was pregnant and then caring for a newborn. So this was her first time meeting Ada, and the last time she saw Jude he was just a baby and couldn't even sit up on his own. What a change! We stayed at my aunt and uncle's condo a short distance from Ninette's house, and this made a big difference in the success of our visit. It was great to spend a few hours each morning and evening at Ninette's house, but then retreat to the condo for naps and bedtime. We managed to shield Ninette from the majority of Jude's tantrums and she was able to spend time with the kids at their best.

We went to the beach a few times, and Jude and Ada loved playing in the sand and swimming in the "salty water". Jude wore his floaty suit in the ocean and was able to be fairly independent in the water. Ada loved eating sand and sitting in the waves. Jude insisted on wearing pants for almost our entire trip, even though it was about 90 degrees and humid. Here he is at the beach wearing his polar bear jammie pants.

Ada made a lot of progress learning to walk on this trip. At the beginning of the week, she was still pretty tentative on her feet, but by the end she was walking everywhere. She is still pretty careful, and will take just a few steps before dropping to a crawl to really move across a room (or towards the pool at top speed). Ninette loved watching her toddling around her house and patio.

We spent a lot of time swimming in Ninette's pool. Both kids loved being in the water, and by the end of the week Jude taught himself to hold his breath and jump in from the side of the pool. His head would go completely underwater, he would pop back up to the surface, and then swim over to the steps and do it all over again. I spent a lot of time in the pool with the kids. We all loved the white raft. Here's a cute photo of the kids on the raft together.

One of the highlights of the trip for E Ben was a 45-minute sailing lesson on the catamaran at the beach. He was out for a long time and Jude kept asking if Daddy was sailing on a pirate ship. Or maybe the Man with the Lellow Hat was on the catamaran with Daddy? You can see that we've been watching a lot of Curious George lately.

We're really happy that we made the trip across the country to visit Ninette and spend some time in the sand and water. We can't wait for our next trip to sunny Florida!

Dr. Jack in May

2011-05-03T07:04:00.000-07:00

We took Ada in to see Dr. Jack yesterday for her 12-month checkup. Here are her stats:

Weight: 20 pounds, 9 ounces (41st percentile)
Height: 30 inches (77th percentile)
Head Circumference: 46 cm (76th percentile)

Both her height and weight are down a bit in terms of percentiles, but still in the right ballpark. Dr. Jack was very impressed with Ada's verbal and communication skills. He actually used the word "exceptional", although we try not to let it go to her head. She had two shots, which didn't bother her at all, and had to give a blood sample to test for anemia and lead. She didn't like that part AT ALL. I tried to tell her that I had to do it four times a day while pregnant with her, but it didn't seem to help.

We also had Jude measured and here are his stats:

Weight: 38 pounds
Height: 39 inches

Dr. Jack was happy with his growth (i.e. his weight gain has slowed) and said we don't need to check him again until his 3Y visit.

I'll leave you with this photo of Jude eating "pigs in a blanket" at the Charburger in Cascade Locks. Kids eat free on Easter!

April Books

2011-05-02T14:43:00.000-07:00

Six books this month, including several long ones. It helped that I had a weekend retreat mid-month to catch up on my reading, sleep, and yoga. It's amazing what three days of solitude and relaxation can do for a person!

April

(4/1) Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It (Gary Taubes) - This is not a diet book, but rather a survey of the science and history behind weight gain and weight loss. Considering that I heard about this book from a low-carb blog that I read, I should not have been surprised at the eventual conclusion: eating carbs, especially quickly digested carbs, is what makes us gain weight. The author also had fairly well-substantiated arguments on a few other behaviors that do and don’t help us lose weight and become more healthy (i.e. exercise doesn’t help a person lose weight, low-fat diets aren’t the best choice, dietary fat doesn’t contribute to heart disease). Personally, I’ve eaten a low-carb diet a few times in my life and found that it’s a good way for me to lose weight, so I’m receptive to his message. I don’t think that I want to go all the way to no-carb, but if I needed to lose a lot of weight I might consider it.
(4/5) The Land of Painted Caves (Jean Auel) - Oh, the long-awaited conclusion to the Clan of the Cave Bear series. I very rarely buy books, but this one was pre-ordered and delivered to my doorstep on the day it was released. I exercised extreme self-control by finishing the book I was reading at the time (see above) before tearing through this one. I don’t want to give anything away in my review, but I have to say I was unimpressed. I couldn’t not read this book, after loving the others in the series. I had to know how the story ended, what became of Ayla and Jondalar, etc. But this book was very poorly written. The repetition is sometimes excruciating. There’s not much of an arc to the story and the plot and dialogue seems very simplistic. Auel obviously did a lot of research for this book, but I got the feeling that her research guided the storyline, and it’s just not that interesting to read about every detail of every major painted cave in the “Zelandonii region”. As a parent, I was interested in Auel’s “parenting politics”, as expressed through the parenting choices of her heroine. She obviously has strong opinions about babywearing, cosleeping, breastfeeding, swaddling, EC, etc. As a recent nursing mother, I appreciated the way Ayla’s infant’s feeding needs were at the top of her mind, even when she was pursuing her other interests. All in all, I would say that if I didn’t already care about the characters and want to know what would happen to them, I would not have finished this book. In a way, I’m glad this is the last one.
(4/8) The Help (Kathryn Stockett) - I find it hard to believe that I almost returned this book to the library without reading it! This is one of the best books that I’ve read all year. It’s the story of black maids and the white women for whom they work in the deep south just before the civil rights movement. Although it’s fiction, it feels like a true story. Heartbreaking and uplifting, funny and inspiring. Highly recommended.
(4/22) East of Eden (John Steinbeck) - I’ve read a lot of Steinbeck in my life, but never picked up this one before this month. It’s our book club selection for the month, and I’m happy that I was nudged in this direction. I have to wonder how much of this story is autobiographical, with a sometimes first-person narrator named John Stienbeck. The parallels to the Cain and Abel story from Genesis are not-at-all subtle, with a long discussion about the story prior to naming a pair of twin boys Cal and Aron. I loved the development of the house servant Lee, who is one of the most memorable and wise characters in the novel. There is a strong thread of good-versus-evil, although “good” often equates to naiive and “evil” equates to clever. And while “evil” can be reformed, “good” rarely becomes smarter...
(4/26) Major Pettigrew's Last Stand (Helen Simonson) - I’m learning to trust my library. I picked this book up from the “Lucky Day” shelf, which consists of popular books that would usually have a long wait-list, but not this time! It’s your lucky day! I have a bad habit of not liking to browse for books; I’d rather read something that was recommended by a friend or blog whose opinions I trust. But after this book and The Help, I think I need to give my local library more credit. I read this entire book in one day while recovering from the stomach virus that ran through our household. It was a light-but-sharp romantic novel featuring an elderly gentleman living in a small village in England. It touches on many topics such as the clash of cultures and religions, relationships between fathers and sons, the morality of primogeniture, and the love lives of the older generation, all written in sharp prose with a memorable main character. If you like this sort of thing, then you should by all means read this book. There is a lot of discussion of tea, as you might expect from a book about an older English gentleman.
(4/28) Archangel (Sharon Shinn) - Very fun fantasy novel (the first in a series of five) recommended by my friend Sharon. I read another book by this author last month, and noticed several marked similarities between the two. Strong female character, the unwilling bride taken from poverty to become a very powerful woman, gradually falling for the “guy” (or in this case angel) who "abducted" her, a personal connection/empathy with the less-well-off classes, unexpected powers or skills on her part. I was a bit unsure if I could really get into a book about angels and singing, but that turns out to be a fun part of the book, not one that's hard to read about. I put the second one on hold to read during my vacation next week.

Clutching A Dog Biscuit

2011-04-30T21:48:00.000-07:00

This time, somebody else is in jail.

Can I Buy You A Drink?

2011-04-30T21:31:00.000-07:00

A few days after the Jones family returned from China, Lucia and Magdalena came over to play. Jude and Lucia shared some chocolate milk, one of Jude's favorite treats.

Diaper Source

2011-04-28T21:09:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to post this for a while now. If you don't buy disposable diapers, you can stop reading right now...:)

We'd been buying diapers from Costco after doing some research and deciding they were the least-expensive good-quality diapers out there. A few months ago, I signed up for Amazon Mom, a free service from Amazon (where I shop often) which gives you a free Prime membership for a few months (Prime gives you free shipping even without the $25 minimum order). Note this is available to Dads or anyone else, despite the name.

After I joined, I found out that having the Amazon Mom membership also gives a 30% discount on diapers, if you use their "Subscribe and Save" service. I calculated the per-diaper price, and even with coupons from Costco this is a better deal. Also, the packages are smaller than Costco, which is nice when you're about to switch from one size to another, and they are delivered to your door for free, which is nice when you don't feel like going to Costco just for diapers.

I realize this sounds like an advertisement, but I just wanted to share this with any other parents (or grandparents) who might be reading and could take advantage of the prices. I'll include a link below to the diapers that we use. Full disclosure: I did use my affiliates account to create these links, so if you click on them I might get some money. Although I have never gotten anything yet from an affliliates link!

Huggies Snug and Dry Diapers, Size 4, 140 Count ($21.45 after discount, as of today)

Huggies Snug and Dry Diapers, Size 6, 100 Count ($22.93 after discount, as of today)

Hope this helps!

Little Things: Ada, One Year

2011-04-26T21:27:00.000-07:00

Today is Ada's First Birthday! Our girl is such a delight. She is happy, adventurous, social, and in general has such a sunny personality. We're really relishing these days and weeks where she is so easy-going and fun. We hope to remember these times once the tantrums start happening...:) Here are some details about Ada at this age...

Moving: Ada took her first steps at her birthday party over the weekend (April 23)! It was very exciting, and I was happy that I got to witness this event (I expected it to happen when I wasn't around). Of course, she still prefers to crawl to get from place to place quickly, but I know it is just a matter of weeks before she's walking everywhere. She can stand with ease, and goes from sitting to standing constantly throughout the day.

Communication: Ada says a lot of words. The most obvious one is "Out!". This is what she says when she's frustrated with a situation. She also says "Jude", "Dad", "Bot-toe" (for bottle), "Rada", "Bye-Bye", and many others. She is also very expressive and uses signs and body language to get her point across. It's usually pretty easy to figure out what she wants and needs.

Teeth: Ada sprouted four new teeth in a two-day period last week! I think it was pretty painful for her, because she was kind of cranky for a few days and only felt better when we gave her some infant ibuprofen. She now has eight teeth, four on the top and four on the bottom.

Tricks: Ada's most endearing habit these days is giving kisses. All we have to do is say the word "kiss", and she'll smack her lips in our direction. This never gets old. Ada also loves playing "How Big is Ada? So Big!", stretching her arms up over her head. Jude gets into this one too. See the photo below. She also does a lot of clapping and dancing. She seems to be a bit of a daredevil like Jude, and loves being swung around, flying over our heads, and sitting in the tree in our front yard.

Toys: Unlike Jude, Ada really seems to love stuffed animals and her doll Rada. She'll play with little plush toys for a long time, talking with them and burying her face in their bodies. She doesn't seem to have a specific comfort object yet, but she does like to sleep at night with her blankie and Rada.

Consuming: Ada has recently begun to enjoy drinking water out of a sippy cup. She drinks with all of her meals, and also sometimes in between. She also has a bottle when she wakes up in the morning and as part of her falling-to-sleep routine before naps and bedtime. We're currently mixing formula and whole milk, and will switch to just milk soon. She continues to be a good eater, mostly eating finger foods but still some spoon-feeding. She really likes blueberries, cheese, bread, and tofu. She is not too fond of egg yolks, which is funny because Jude also prefers to eat just the whites.

Sleeping: Ada sleeps pretty well these days. She is down to one nap almost every day now, although she might take two naps from time to time. She goes to bed at about the same time as Jude, and wakes up at around 7am most mornings. She rarely needs us in the night unless she is sick. What a difference from six months, or even three months ago!

Size: Ada weighs a little over 20 pounds, and wears mostly 12-month clothing. She is in size 4 diapers and still wears the size 6-12 month soft-soled shoes. She seems to be pretty average sized, compared with Jude who was always really big for his age. We'll get the official measurements at her appointment with Dr. Jack next week.

Here are a few recent photos. Dancing with Dad at her birthday party.

On the back porch with Ama.

Jude and Ada are SO BIG.

Just hangin' out on the back porch.

Getting ready to party with Nini.

Kiddos in their chairs.

Cupcakes? I'd rather eat fruit!

Happy Birthday, Little Lady!

First Birthday Celebration

2011-04-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

Although Ada is officially one tomorrow, we celebrated her birthday over the weekend.

The day started with a gift from Nini and Ama - a spotted lavender chair to match Jude's Spiderman chair. Here is a video of Ada's first ride in the new chair.

And I can't resist this cute photo of Ada in her chair.

Activities at the party included sandbox time...

Easter Egg hunt...

Dance Party...

Bubbles...

And, of course, cupcakes...

Our goal for the party was for Ada to enjoy herself; I think we succeeded in that. And I think everyone else had a pretty good time too!

More Manzanita

2011-04-12T20:40:00.000-07:00

Miles took some great photos at the beach. Jude and Dad running down the dunes.

Jude climbing back up, trying not to get his hands in the sand.

Playing in the dune grasses.

Boy bath. Jude didn't want his photo taken.

Live crab race.

Group shot of the three cooperative children.

In other news, Jude solved his first math problem tonight. He had four "pasta swords", and I asked him how many he would have if he gave one of them to me. He thought about it for a few seconds, then looked at his four fingers, folded one of the fingers down, and said "this many!", then counted the three remaining fingers. I was pretty blown away by that one.

Manzanita Beach Boy

2011-04-10T21:14:00.000-07:00

We spent a long weekend at the beach last month. We lucked out with a fantastic rental house, right on the beach, and unseasonably sunny weather. Jude had a blast playing in the dunes and on the beach. I love this series of photos from one sunny morning.

March Books

2011-04-05T12:51:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick recap of the books I read in March. I seem to be getting a lot of recommendations from Sharon's blog lately. In the first three months of this year, I've read 17 books, which puts me on track for almost 70 for the year. It definitely helps that I have a lot of books on my list to read and also that the kids are sleeping more consistently, which gives me a few hours most evenings to read. E Ben often goes out when the kids are asleep while I stay home, curled up on the couch with a good book. We're both happy with that arrangement...

(3/5) Secrets of Eden (Chris Bohjalian) - I read Midwives (by the same author) a few years ago and really enjoyed it. I picked this book up off the shelf when I was at the library a few weeks ago, something that I almost never do, and I’m glad that I did. Although I guessed the ending pretty early on, I don’t think it was very obvious and I enjoyed reading the different points of view. Well done social drama mystery novel.
(3/12) Troubled Waters (Sharon Shinn) - This was a recommendation from Sharon. I loved it! This is exactly the kind of fantasy novel that drags me along with it into a new world with new rules and a new way of thinking, which somehow seem to make sense immediately. I read almost the whole book on a flight from Portland to New York, and the rest of it (late) the next night.
(3/14) Something Borrowed (Emily Giffin) - My sister loaned this book to me for my flight home from New York. This is her favorite author, and there is a strong similarity with her other favorites, like Jennifer Weiner. This was a fun read, and when I finished it with an hour to go in the flight, I started again from the beginning (which was a lot more meaningful the second time around).
(3/26) South of Broad (Pat Conroy) - I didn’t know that Pat Conroy had a new book out until I read about it on Sharon’s blog. I’ve read a few of his other books, and I think this is one of the better ones. I do have to chuckle every time certain themes reappear (as they do in every book of his I have read): overuse of the word “damaged”, twin characters, food preparation, the healing power of spending time on the water, Southern culture being so different from the rest of the country/world. I did enjoy it, however, and would recommend to people who liked his earlier novels.

photos

2011-04-04T14:52:00.000-07:00

I'm having a major problem with posting photos from Picasa lately. Here are the ones that I tried to post with Ada's eleven-month entry.

Here is a great shot of Ada's big blue eyes. My weekly Babycenter e-mail said that her eyes are unlikely to change color at this point, so I think that we can count on having a blue-eyed daughter. Jude has my eyes and Ada has her dad's eyes.

So happy, playing in the sun at the coast over the weekend.

This one-knee, one-foot stance is one of her favorites these days.

Ada is great at playing by herself and exploring to find toys. She'll pull out anything of interest and study it, pick it up, throw it around, chew on it, and then eventually move on to the next thing.

Little Things: Ada, Eleven Months

2011-03-27T20:53:00.000-07:00

Ada is eleven months old! She is such a charming, happy, adventurous baby and I can't wait to see what she's like as she continues to get older. Here are a few details about Ada at this age...

Standing: Ada is very stable on her feet these days. She can pull up on anything, and also stand up in the middle of a room. It seems like she can stand for as long as she wants to stand, although she does lose her balance from time to time.

Communicating: Ada has a lot to say. She says "Jude", "Mama", "Dad", "Ba-ba", "Bye-bye", "Baby", "Beach", and many other expressive words and sounds. Her favorite sound is the letter B. She is constantly chirping and babbling, and loves to have long back-and-forth conversations. She is also doing a few signs - "more" and "all done". And she loves to wave to people.

Play: A few of Ada's favorite games include crawling though tunnels (especially tunnels made of arms and legs), playing peekaboo (she will cover her face with a blanket and emerge with the happiest expression on her face) and "How Big is Ada?". The last game involves Ada raising her hands above her head and laughing hysterically.

Sleep: Ada often has only one nap these days, although sometimes she'll still have two. As I recall, Jude had two naps until he was eighteen months old. She definitely does not need as much sleep as he needs! These days, he will often take a longer nap than she takes. She is doing very well with night-time sleep. Most of the time, she'll sleep though the night. Sometimes she wakes up once and goes right back down with a bottle. She is still swaddled to sleep, but I think we're going to stop wrapping her sometime soon. She really doesn't like having her legs wrapped tightly, so we just wrap her arms and leave her legs loose, and she seems content with that arrangement. She seems to want to sleep on her stomach these days, and we'll often find her face-down when we get her after a nap or in the morning. She's also started doing this cute thing where she burrows her face into a pillow or blanket or someone's shoulder.

Consuming: Ada is happy with 24-30 ounces of formula a day in addition to three meals and a couple of snacks. She's a pretty good eater, although she does better if someone can be interacting with her one-on-one during meal time (i.e. handing her bites to eat and changing what she's offered every few minutes). It doesn't work as well to put food on her tray and expect her to just eat it, although that does work if she's hungry. She really likes to eat meat, and her favorite foods are the protein ones.

Size: Ada wears mostly 12-month clothes, with a few pairs of 9-month pants that are still big enough. She's just about to grow out of her infant car seat, and we'll switch her over to the rear-facing Britax for her second year of life. She loves to wear suede-soled shoes for some extra traction on her feet, and currently fits in the size 6-12 month Robeez. We're finishing up the last box of size 3 diapers before we start using the size 4s. She still has four teeth, but I think a few more are about to poke through.

Jude: Ada just loves her brother, but she is starting to pester him a bit. He'll be watching TV, and she'll crawl over to him, pull up on the arm of his chair, and then start patting and pulling his hair. He does not like this at all and will complain or push her away, but that doesn't stop her. Or she'll stand up right in front of the television and screech so that he can't see or hear what's going on. I don't think it's intentional yet on her part, but this is a preview of the future, I'm sure. Jude also has become very possessive with his toys and other things. If Ada is playing with something, he has to have it. At first, she didn't care, but she has begun to object when something is taken from her.

Here is a video of Ada from a few days ago.

We are really enjoying Ada during her last few months of babyhood. She is such a joy.

Progress

2011-03-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

Our last trapeze class on Monday morning was a lot of fun. I started out by revisiting the splits, a trick that I had tried and failed to perfect last summer. To my surprise, this time I was much more comfortable doing this trick and managed to master it during the first half of the class. In the meantime, Margaret learned the set whip (the trick that I had been working on earlier in the weekend).

After that, we both learned a new trick called the single reverse knee hang. This one is a little bit tricky because of the takeoff. Your right hand starts out on the bar, palm up, and then the palm-down grab with the left hand is on the other side, so your hands are crossed at takeoff. Then your body does a half turn during the first swing, and you have to let go and re-grip with your left hand so that both hands are facing the same way. Immediately after this, you pull yourself up and hook the bar with one knee. That part is not too difficult, but it's kind of challenging to put it all together when doing all of these new things at once.

I only got to try this new trick one time, and here is a video of my first, and only, attempt. It is pretty rough, but that's often how it goes the first time trying something new.

Afterwards, I got to try a catch with my splits, and I was able to do the catch both times.

Margaret also caught her set whip, the trick she learned that morning.

Next time, I will probably work on my straddle whip again, then possibly learn how to swing (it's a lot harder than it sounds!). Once we've got that technique down, it opens the door for many other tricks.

We had such a great time taking trapeze classes over the weekend. I really wish there was a flying trapeze rig in Portland! For now, I will have to wait until my next trip to New York.

One-Handed Takeoff

2011-03-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

We arrived at trapeze school Sunday afternoon still sore from our previous class, but ready to learn something new. Our teacher for the day decided that a good next step for both of us would be the one-handed takeoff. This is a basic building block that a flyer needs to master before moving on to more advanced tricks, and provides more independence up on the platform.

After a few warm-up swings, we learned the mechanics of the one-handed takeoff. Grab the bar with one hand, bend your knees and simultaneously dip the bar down, then swing it up to parallel as you hop off the platform and grab for the bar at the same time. It is a little bit terrifying the first few times, and then eventually feels completely natural. Here's what it looks like. I'm doing the whip again so that I don't have to work on two new things at the same time..

Margaret caught her straddle whip at this class. Here's her catch, along with the one-handed takeoff.

In general, this class was not quite as much fun as our first one. It was full, so the pace was a bit slower, and while we did learn a new technique, it was somehow less satisfying than learning a new trick. It probably didn't help that I was very sore and also that I didn't make either of my catches... But it was really helpful to learn the one-handed takeoff and by the next class I felt completely comfortable with it. And I'm glad that I had a chance to practice my whip a few more times. That trick is my current favorite.

Set Whips

2011-03-15T10:22:00.000-07:00

I took a solo vacation to New York last weekend to visit family and take some trapeze classes.

Our first class was Friday night, just a few hours after I landed at JFK and took the subway to my sister's apartment. The class wasn't full, so we were able to take a lot more swings than usual, which was fun but perhaps not the best timing considering that we hadn't been up on the rig in almost eight months. After getting our bearings, we both learned a new trick called the Set Straddle Whip. Margaret did really well with it, but I had some trouble. Here's a video of how it's supposed to be done.

After falling out of this trick a few too many times and feeling like I just didn't have the strength to complete it, I moved on to a different trick called the Set Whip. You'll notice that my feet are between my arms, whereas Margaret's feet were outside her arms. I was able to catch the whip that night, which was a great feeling for me.

We left the trapeze tent feeling exhilarated and very tired. I was also covered with bruises on my feet, knees, elbows, wrist, and chin from a few unfortunate landings in the net. I looked like I had been in a fight, and the next day was even worse since every muscle in my body was sore. But we couldn't wait to get back to our next class two days later. Stay tuned!

Sleeper

2011-03-10T20:56:00.000-08:00

Ada has slept through the night more often than not in the past week. That's progress. I can see a light at the end of this tunnel...

Tyee Lodge 2011

2011-03-09T20:52:00.000-08:00

Last weekend, we took Jude up to Tyee Lodge (owned by the Trails Club of Oregon) on Mount Hood to play in the snow and spend some time with friends.

I spent a lot of time swinging Jude around in the dining room of the Lodge.

Several pint-sized friends also made the trip up to the mountain.

One highlight of the weekend was making popcorn for "kid-table dessert". Jude is not impressed with how long it is taking to get the popping started.

We made forts and had snowball fights the next morning.

You'd think this popcorn was covered in chocolate!

February Books

2011-03-09T12:13:00.000-08:00

February was a little bit more normal in terms of reading. I read four books, including two quick-read "thrillers", one "serious" fiction book, and one non-fiction financial book. Here's my list and a short review of each.

February

(2/6) The Scarecrow (Michael Connelly) - Got this recommendation from the Larry Swedroe 2010 book list. A very fun, fast-paced thriller. I stayed up way past my bedtime to read this one in about 24 hours.
(2/13) The Lion’s Game (Nelson DeMille) - I seem to be on a streak of thrillers. I read the sequel to this book sometime last year, and then this one ended up in my house over the holidays. Another fun one, but I think I would have liked it better if I hadn’t already known what was going to happen...
(2/19) Hush (Eishes Chayil) - I got this recommendation from Kristin Cashore’s blog. This story of a young Orthodox Jew growing up in Brooklyn is both engrossing and a tough read. I learned a lot about Jewish culture and mindset - useful considering that I work with a lot of Israelis!
(2/28) I Will Teach You To Be Rich (Ramit Sethi) - I finished this one just in time to count for February... I’ve had this on my to-read list for a while. I’ve been following Ramit’s blog for a few years, and I found his book to be surprisingly good. I wouldn’t say that I learned much from it, but I thought he did a good job of presenting a framework for putting together a financial plan for people in their 20’s and 30’s. It has the right priorities and a very reasonable investment philosophy. This is actually very close to what I recommend to people, although Ramit is much more entertaining than I am on the topic.

Little Things: Ada, Ten Months

2011-02-26T13:45:00.000-08:00

Ada is ten months old today!

This is going to be a short one, because I've been sick and just don't have the energy to spend much time at the computer.

Ada's big accomplishment recently is that she is standing independently! She loves to spend all of her awake time on the floor, standing up, then sitting down, then standing up, then letting go and balancing for as long as she can until she falls down. She gets so excited when she can stand and everyone in the house cheers her on. The longest I've seen was about 30 seconds, which seemed like hours.

Here are a few cute photos that Ama took in the past week. Wearing sunglasses from the Dollar Store.

Enjoying a Portland snow day (a whole three inches at our house) in the Ergo with Daddy.

In the stroller with her best friend, Rada.

And another great shot of her wild hair.

Little Things: Jude, 2.5 years

2011-02-22T06:00:00.000-08:00

Jude is two-and-a-half years old today! At Jude's first birthday, a friend (who is a mother to grown children) told me that the most magical time in a child's life is between the ages of one and two-and-a-half. She said that watching and helping a child acquire language is an amazing process, and I have to agree. At the age of one, Jude wasn't saying any words, and at this age, he can say anything he cares to communicate. His grammar might need a little more fine-tuning, and he does struggle sometimes to say what's on his mind, but there is rarely any question about the point that he's trying to get across. It's an astounding change.

Jude is incredibly persistent when is comes to conversation. If he says something and you don't understand what he's saying, he will repeat himself over and over until you guess correctly. It's a very endearing quality.

Most nights when I get home from work, as long as the weather isn't terrible, Jude and I go outside for a "WACE" (race). We bundle up in our coats and hats, we each carry a "sword", which is really a stick, and we take off running down the hill. Jude is very fast and it's often a challenge to keep up with him. He is more trustworthy than usual during these outings. He will never leave the sidewalk and step into the street unless he is holding my hand, and if I yell out for him to stop he will come to a screeching halt. Part of every WACE involves saying "Nice to meet you" to all of the frog statues in our neighbor's front yard, hiding behind trees and bushes on our route, and getting a piggy-back ride home on Mom's back. It's a really fun part of my day, and also seems to help Jude to get outside to burn off some energy before dinner and bed.

Jude loves climbing (he often says "I'm a monkey!"). He climbs up trees, onto windowsills, and up and down his changing table. The other day we were out for a WACE with the kids who live next door, and we eventually came to a stone wall perfect for climbing. The other kids are much older than Jude, but he climbed up so high that I couldn't even reach him. He proudly exclaimed "I'm the highest monkey!". Yes Jude, you are. Here's a photo of Jude in the tree in front of our house.

Jude loves sweets and would eat cookies and cupcakes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if we let him. Tonight at bedtime he related a conversation he had with his grandmother over the weekend: "I like cookies, Neens! I know you do, Jude." That basically encapsulates his eating preferences.

We've been doing dinner as a family most days for the past couple of months. We all sit down to eat at about 6:15, and the kids eat whatever we're eating, although they often get a few extras to supplement the adult food. At first, Jude was antsy and would only stay at the table for a very short time before getting up to run around and play. As the weeks went on and he realized that this was going to be a regular thing, he started spending more and more time at the table with us. These days, it is not uncommon for Jude to sit down and eat with us for 15-20 minutes, which is an ETERNITY for a kid this age. He's discovered that he likes eating with chopsticks, so we've started having a stir-fry about once a week. He does a pretty good job of picking up the food and getting it to his mouth with the chopsticks. See the evidence below.

Jude is very sweet with his sister, but he definitely values one-on-one time with his parents. He almost always sleeps later than Ada in the morning, but the other day he woke up early while she was still asleep. We were tired, so we brought him into our bed to read books and play "take a nap". We were talking about how it was early, and he was usually in bed until almost 8 o'clock, but today he was up before 7. He replied with "I like seven". We laughed pretty hard over that one.

Jude is very attached to his blankies and binkies. Whenever he gets upset, he immediately says "I need my binky and blankies. I NEED them." He'll let the blankies out of his sight long enough to be washed or when he's busy with something more interesting, but I think that in the back of his mind, he always knows where they are. It seems like a harmless obsession, so we haven't made any real effort to take this stuff away from him yet, although we are pretty strict about only allowing him to use the binky in his room. He seems to accept that, and will spit it out before going upstairs.

Personality-wise, Jude is very intense. It is so much fun to play with him, and he enthusiastically greets his friends whenever he sees them. It can be a real challenge to get him to do something that he doesn't want to do, though. There are days when he has quite a few temper tantrums over diaper changes, changing his clothes, getting into his car seat, and bedtime. Other days he is very cooperative. I want to say that the cooperative days are getting more frequent, but it's really hard to tell from day to day. I think in the next few months we'll have a better idea if he's getting more reasonable (and I hope that he is moving in that direction!).

Jude is still in preschool two mornings a week, and loves his teacher and classmates. School has been great for him, providing an outlet for his energy as well as an opportunity to learn some social skills. Initially, we were concerned that he'd be behind since he's the youngest in his class, but he is keeping up really well. I think it helps that he's big for his age and very verbal, but he also seems to be doing well from a maturity and interaction perspective. We just signed him up for three days a week next year (starting in September).

Jude is kind of amazing when it comes to memorizing songs and stories. Sometimes we'll hear him from the other room reciting pages and pages from "The Cat in the Hat". He also sings songs to himself when he's in his room. He knows a lot of words that I don't know. For example, he can sing all of the verses of "Frosty the Snowman" and "The Wheels on the Bus".

Here's a funny picture after drinking some "Jude juice" made with beets and carrots.

And this one captures Jude perfectly these days. He's surrounded by his "accessories" - guitar, binoculars, swords, etc. He's always carrying his gadgets around with him.

And now for the "factual" part of this entry. Jude currently wears 3T clothes (although I think he'll be in 4T shirts and sleepers soon), size 9-10 shoes, and he's in size 6 diapers. He sleeps 11-13 hours at night and still has a nap most days. Sometimes he doesn't feel like sleeping, but he'll still have a "play nap" where he has some quiet time alone in his room for an hour or so. He's pretty good about playing by himself if he doesn't feel like napping, so Daddy still gets some down time in the afternoons. Jude is drinking quite a bit of milk although his intake varies widely from day to day. He also drinks a lot of water. And would eat a LOT of cookies, if given the chance.

Our boy is such a miracle. Happy Half Birthday, Jude!

Six Degrees of Separation

2011-02-15T21:04:00.000-08:00

Jude is going to be two-and-a-half soon. I was looking back at old photos and thought it would be fun to post a few to show the changes he's gone through every six months of his life so far.

Newborn: three days old in the hospital

Six months: Such a change! And yet, at this age, he couldn't do anything but lie on a blanket...

First birthday: He's a real person!

Eighteen months: Climbing in the ruins in Mexico.

Second birthday: It's hard to beat a fire engine!

This month: What can I say?

Mad Scientist

2011-02-07T20:43:00.000-08:00

I have been wanting to post a photo of Ada's hair these days. It sticks straight up and she looks a bit like a certain well-known genius.

We took Ada in to see Dr. Jack today for her nine-month check-up. Here are her stats:

Weight: 19 pounds, 1 ounce (51st percentile)
Height: 29.5 inches (95th percentile)
Head circumference: 44 cm (nurse's comment: "Good", whatever that means)

Dr. Jack encouraged us to start feeding Ada more table foods. She can eat almost anything we are eating these days, as long as it's healthy. The only exceptions are nuts, honey, shellfish, egg whites (although eggs cooked in other foods, like pancakes, are fine), and cow's milk. We are supposed to start mixing her formula with whole milk starting at 11.5 months, and by one year she should be on just milk.

Ada passed the 10-month developmental screen with no issues. She was at or above expectations in all areas. Our little genius.

We are also done nursing as of last weekend. There were times when I didn't think this day would ever come! After dropping down to twice a day, then once a day, Ada finally lost interest. In the end, I nursed her for just over nine months, about the same as Jude. I'm really proud of myself for lasting that long. Nursing did not come easily to me, and though it was very convenient at times, it was also a big weight on my shoulders to be the only one who could provide nutrition for the baby. Luckily, Ada is now very happy to drink bottles of formula. She wakes up in the morning with a song of "MA MA MA, BA BA BA". She definitely loves her BA-BA. And we love her.

Quick Question

2011-02-03T20:23:00.000-08:00

One of these days, she is going to say "yes".

How Did That Happen?

2011-01-31T20:43:00.000-08:00

I was just updating my book list this morning, and I was somewhat shocked to discover that I read NINE books in January. Wow. That is about how many I used to read before I had kids to suck up every ounce of spare time from my day. I guess that's what happens when I support my husband in not drinking for the month of January*. Oh, and the fact that I read four YA selections (three of which were part of the same series) probably didn't hurt.

Here's the list, with a short review of each and the completion date:

January

(1/4) Cutting For Stone (Abraham Verghese) - Loved it! Writing style reminded me of John Irving and the story was riveting.
(1/5) Raising Boys (Steve Biddulph) - This book meant more to me the second time around, now that we have a boy rather than a baby. I’m sure I’ll come back to it as Jude gets older.
(1/9) The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins) - Very fun YA with a great female heroine, quick-paced story, and the promise of more to come. Can’t wait to read the next installment!
(1/17) Half Baked (Alexa Stevenson) - I’ve been reading Alexa’s blog for a while now and I’ve always appreciated her voice - funny and introspective. The book was better, in that it’s a more complete story, but I sometimes grew annoyed with the writing - not that it wasn’t good, but it just seemed like every word was too carefully chosen, like she used big words when simpler ones would have done just as well. Maybe I was annoyed because I write like that sometimes too...
(1/20) Catching Fire (Suzanne Collins) - Not quite as engrossing as the first book in the series, but still fun and a fast read. Cliffhanger ending makes me want to read the next one as soon as possible!
(1/23) Mockingjay (Suzanne Collins) - And I guess I did read the next one very quickly! This was a decent ending to the series, but the first one was the best.
(1/25) Princess Academy (Shannon Hale) - We chose this for our book club this month. It’s a good YA book, with depth and a not-completely-obvious ending, but I’m not sure it’s going to provide enough fodder for discussion next month...
(1/28) Your two-year-old (Louise Bates Ames) - Follow-on to the one-year-old book from Teacher Karen last year. This one was not quite as good, but there were a few really good sections. Jude is classic two-and-a-half these days. The seriously outdated Q&A section was good for a laugh as well.
(1/30) The Virgin Suicides (Jeffrey Eugenides) - Did I really read nine books this month? I’ve had this one on my list for a while, ever since I read Middlesex last year. I knew the story already from the movie, and the writing style did not disappoint. Recommended.

* Meaning: "please drink this glass of wine so that I can live vicariously through you."

Art Factory

2011-01-30T20:37:00.000-08:00

This morning, we went to CHAP (Children's Healing Art Project) with the kids from Jude's class. Jude had so much fun painting. He started out painting on paper, but quickly moved on to painting the fort (made of urns and cardboard). By the time we left, he was covered with paint from head to toe (literally!).

We will definitely be back to make some more messes!

The Battle

2011-01-28T21:37:00.000-08:00

I'm reading Your Two-Year-Old by Louise Bates Ames, the author of a great parenting book that I read about this time last year (did you guess it was called Your One-Year-Old?).

I was struck by a particular sentence from the chapter on "Help with Routines". She writes: "In the (unfortunately quite natural) battle for supremacy between parent and child, children are very quick to spot areas in which parents are vulnerable." She goes on to suggest a casual attitude towards things like mealtimes, dressing, etc., which I have found to be the only way to get Jude to do anything.

My experience with toddlers in general (and my toddler in particular) is that the child is a keen observer of the parent and other adults around him. When he is in a particularly compliant mood, this works in our favor as he knows just what to do to make us laugh with him and enjoy his company. However, when he is in a defiant mood (which is often) the very thought that we might like him to do something like eat a well-balanced meal or start using the toilet virtually guarantees that he will do the exact opposite.

If we can convince him that something is his own idea, he will embrace it enthusiastically. If we offer a suggestion and act as if we couldn't care less whether he follows through, we are often surprised to turn around five minutes later and find him doing what we wanted. If we act as if it is important to us, it doesn't happen without negotiations or tantrums, and usually a lot of noise. It is these "areas of vulnerability" which cause the most stress.

At 9:30 pm, when both kids are sleeping and the house is quiet, it's easy to tell myself to "just be casual" and "don't let him know I care", but how do I remember this tomorrow morning when we're late and Jude is refusing to walk out the front door? Sometimes we do need our kids to do things. We don't have the time to allow the toddler to want to eat breakfast or put on his shoes. Instead, we turn the tables and use the child's vulnerable areas, such as his love of Z-bars or desire to go to the park. And so the battle for supremacy continues...

Happy Ada

2011-01-28T13:29:00.000-08:00

Here is the one-handed wave video that I promised in my last post. You can see a couple of Ada's current habits in this video: waving, tooth-tapping, chewing, and talking.

Little Things: Ada, Nine Months

2011-01-26T06:00:00.000-08:00

Ada is nine months old today! She is changing so quickly these days. Every day brings new feats of coordination, new foods to enjoy, and new conversations. It's hard to believe that Ada is three-quarters of the way through her first year. I won't say it has gone by quickly, but I just know that these next three months are going to fly!

Mobility: Ada is crawling! See the video at the bottom of this post for a demonstration. She's getting very proficient at transitioning between sitting, crawling, lying on her belly, and then getting back to sitting so that she can play with her "prizes" (i.e. whatever she was crawling to get). She is still quite slow when it comes to actually making progress across a room, but I know it won't be long before she is zipping around. Ada is also pulling up to standing on anything and everything. For a few days last week, she would stand up only to be stranded in the standing position, but now she'll very slowly lower herself back down to plop on her bottom. It gets more and more fluid every day. She still does not roll from back to belly very easily, so if we want her to stay put we can put her on her back and be pretty sure that she'll still be in the same spot a few minutes later. She does not enjoy being there, though, so I have a feeling this won't last long.

Personality: Ada is such a happy baby. She has a huge smile most of the time, and loves to giggle, make beaming faces, and generally interact with anyone who wants to play. She is very friendly and loves to be held. She also laughs at her brother all the time. He is a comedian and she finds everything that he does hilarious. Ada does get a little bit fussy sometimes, usually when she is tired, hungry, or has a dirty diaper. However, in general she is very easy-going and patient. It's common to see her waiting in her car seat while we convince Jude that it's time to move on to the next activity, like leaving the house or going to bed. She loves to wave and does this really cute one-handed wave when she's sitting in her eating chair waiting for more food. I'll have to post that video soon.

Verbalizing: Ada has a lot to say. She often says MA-MA-MA, but also DA-DA and BA-BA. I'm not convinced that she has connected words to meanings yet, but the words definitely happen all the time. She also shrieks, especially when she's ready for another bite of food or when she doesn't get enough attention. When she wakes up in the morning, she babbles to herself for quite a while before getting upset that nobody has gotten her out of bed. We take advantage of this to get a few extra minutes of sleep most mornings...

Eating and Drinking: Ada is still nursing 2-3 times a day, but she is rapidly losing interest and I think she'll be done in the next few weeks. As of this week, I'm no longer pumping at work. I can't complain about that! Ada just loves to eat, downing three big meals a day and a couple of snacks. She's enthusiastic about her baby-food purees still, and also loves finger foods. Meals usually start with some spoon feeding from a bowl, then move on to picking up various bite-sized morsels from the tray. She has her favorites, but has yet to flat-out refuse anything that we've fed to her. Ada also loves her bottles - I think it helps that we warm them. I don't know how enthusiastic she would be about a cold or room-temperature bottle at this point. She will happily take a bottle from me as well as others, which makes it easier for us to be a little bit more flexible about who cares for her.

Sleeping: Ada is finally sleeping well at night. She wakes up once for a bottle, then falls back to sleep after she drinks it. The bottle feeding has been drifting later and later, and now it's usually after 5am. I wonder how much longer it will be until she is done with middle-of-the-night feedings altogether? Jude stopped at about ten months. Ada typically naps in the morning and afternoon, although she can skip her morning nap from time to time without it seeming to bother her much. Our day works best when she takes a short morning nap and longer afternoon nap, so we usually try to arrange her schedule so that happens. Ada is still swaddled at night, although we had to move her up to the size large velcro-swaddle-blanket thing. She sometimes breaks out of her swaddle in the night, but often she is still tightly wrapped in the morning. Again, I wonder how much longer this swaddling will last. With Jude, he was swaddled until 11 months, and I would not be surprised if Ada is the same. We've changed around the bedtime routine so that I nurse Ada and then Daddy puts her to bed (often with another bottle) so that she no longer associates nursing with going to sleep. This is working out well as I get to put Jude to bed while Daddy takes care of the last part of getting Ada down.

Growing: Ada is about 18.5 pounds fully clothed (according to our bathroom scale) and still fits well in 9-12 month clothes. She uses size 3 diapers. Her third tooth just came in recently, and didn't seem to bother her much. She now clicks the top and bottom teeth together to make this funny grinding noise. Jude did the same when he got his first top tooth.

Our girl is happy and healthy and growing well. Here are a few cute photos from the last week or so.

Using the backgammon board as an obstacle course...

She's obsessed with the phone already.

A rare moment sitting still.

And a short video from the weekend...

The Beginning of the End

2011-01-16T21:04:00.000-08:00

Weaning your almost-nine-month-old: many people have an opinion. "You're weaning her ALREADY?" or "I'm surprised you waited so long!". As a result, I'm somewhat hesitant to write about my reasons for choosing to wean Ada at this point, but I'm happy to discuss the process...

We decided that I was going to stop nursing Ada in the middle of the night about two weeks ago, and instead give her a bottle when she woke wanting milk. We thought this would be a good first step towards getting her weaned, and it was the feeding that was the most difficult for me. The first few nights, I woke up anyway and found it hard to go back to sleep while E Ben got up to take care of Ada. Luckily, she was perfectly happy to have a bottle in the night, and after the first few nights I was able to sleep through as well. There have even been a few nights where I haven't woken up at all! I think it will probably take a little while longer before I really feel rested, but there's already a big difference. It seems like I can think more quickly and focus more easily. I'm also just happier in general and I have more energy. I get home from work and actually take the kids on missions to do things like buy rain boots and pick up library books. The other nice thing is that Ada will accept a bottle from me in the middle of the night, so E Ben and I can take turns doing the middle-of-the-night duty, depending on who is more tired/awake each night.

So, weaning has begun, and it's going pretty well so far. Ada's now nursing 3-4 times a day instead of 5-7, and she has two bottles of extra milk each day (one in the middle of the night, and one in the middle of the day). As of last week, I'm no longer pumping twice a day at work. I think I'll pump once a day for a few weeks, then stop pumping entirely.

My guess is that Ada will be done nursing entirely by the end of February or possibly even sooner. She is eating so much food now, and loves eating so much, that drinking seems less and less important to her. She's also so interested in what's going on around her, and even when she does nurse it is only for a short time. Also, when I get home from work, she doesn't seem to need me to hold her for the rest of the evening anymore. She has other interests besides a single all-consuming one (nursing) and it takes some of the pressure off of me.

Here are a couple of recent photos. Ada doing push-ups.

And Jude wearing his Alaska hat.

Obsessions

2011-01-12T17:58:00.000-08:00

Jude has a new game that he loves: cutting paper with scissors. He will happily sit and cut for what seems like hours (ok, maybe 20 minutes). Then he runs over and hands me each piece of paper. Each one is a dollar, or sometimes if it's a really good cut, it's three dollars.

We had to tie the scissors to the table to prevent accidents related to running.

He concentrates on this more than almost anything else.

Ada had a good time watching the Ducks in the BCS Bowl.

Now we have to put that onesie away...

On The Move

2011-01-09T17:28:00.000-08:00

Somebody has been teaching herself to crawl.

The game usually starts in the seated position...

Pretty soon, she's leaning forward on hands and knees, trying to get someone or something.

Then we have a long period of rocking on hands and knees, plank and downward dog poses, and general scooting around.

Eventually, she ends up on her belly, tired out from the exertion, expecting rescue. She asks for Daddy, who usually helps her out.

Here's a little glimpse at the view around our house these days.

2010 In Books

2011-01-07T13:00:00.000-08:00

This is my fourth year of keeping track of the books I read. While my total for 2010 is quite low compared with previous years (only 31 books completed, as opposed to 50-60 before), I have read a number of enjoyable and interesting titles. And, of course, this doesn't include the thousands of books that I've read to Jude and Ada during the past year.

Here's the link to my full list for 2010.

And here are a few words on my favorites for the year...

Best Parenting Book: Your One-Year-Old, by Louise Bates Ames. This book was recommended by Jude's teacher from last year. While somewhat outdated in terms of current cultural norms, this book did an outstanding job of explaining Jude's behavior as he grew up from a fairly docile 12 months to an emotional 18+ months. E Ben and I both got a lot out of it. I just discovered that she has two- and three-year-old books as well, and ordered them from the library. Runner-up: Your Baby and Child, by Penelope Leach.

Best Sci-Fi: The Sparrow and Children of God, by Mary Doria Russell. Although a bit preachy for my taste, these books had it all: great characters, world-building, engrossing plot. I couldn't put them down.

Best Novel (quick read): Room, by Emma Donaghue. I read too many novels to have a single category. I read this book in just a few sittings. It's the kind of book that sounds like it will be horrifying based on the premise, but the way it is told it is actually not. I was most taken by the spot-on understanding of the perspective of a child of five and also the mother's incredible parenting despite the environment.

Best Novel (historical): Tai-Pan, by James Clavell. In 2009, I loved Shogun, and last year I loved Tai-Pan. Clavell's epic tales set in Asia provide a great understanding of culture and history, and they are also a lot of fun.

Best Novel (favorite author): Last Night in Twisted River, by John Irving. I've read everything that John Irving has ever written, and own all of his books. I really enjoyed this latest novel by Irving and would rank it among his best. Runner-Up: The Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver.

Honorable Mention: Private Life, Before I Fall, and Little Bee.

I hope to have more time to read in the next year. My goal is to write a short review for each book that I read. I've tried this in the past, but I think my expectations for myself were too high, and I often fell behind and then failed to keep track. That's why I fell back to the very-easy List. I think I can write a sentence or two about each book I read, though. We'll see if that works out. I'm also planning to re-join my book club this year. I had to drop out for the second half of 2010 because it was just too hard to get out of the house in the evenings.

What were your favorite books of the year?

Little Things: Ada, Eight Months

2010-12-26T06:00:00.000-08:00

Ada is eight months old today! Ada is such a happy baby. Her smile lights up the room and she is so easy-going. She rarely cries, and is becoming so much more predictable as she gets a little bit older. She is very friendly, and happy to interact with almost anyone. She is also happy to play on her own much of the time.

Here are some tidbits about Ada at this age...

Eating: Ada is a great eater! She is enthusiastically eating three meals a day and several snacks. She LOVES finger foods, and has tried rice rusks (aka surfboards), Cheerios, cheese, rice, toast, chunks of banana and pear, freeze-dried apples and pear, and noodles. We've also added some meat to her diet in the past month, in the form of Earth's Best Turkey Dinner and the like. She will happily eat fruits, vegetables, cheese, cereal (when mixed with something else) and meat, and seems to have a fairly well-balanced diet at this point. We're still doing a combination of jarred baby food and homemade, and both are accepted well. I think mealtime is one of Ada's favorite parts of the day. She is so happy while she's eating.

Drinking: Ada continues to nurse more-or-less exclusively, although she does have a bottle of formula now and then when I'm at work longer than expected or early in the morning. I didn't expect to be nursing her for this long, but she really loves it. There are times when she REALLY wants to nurse, and nothing else will soothe her. It is also a very convenient way for me to get her to sleep and easier for me than making bottles when I'm the one caring for her. We're going to follow her lead on this, but probably start to cut down on nursing over the next several months. She is already so interested in food that sometimes we can distract her with a meal when she might otherwise take milk. She does fine with bottles when I'm away, but I haven't tried giving her a bottle myself yet. I wonder if she would take one from me...

Sleeping: Ada has been sleeping better lately. We haven't had a really bad night (i.e. three or more wake-ups for a feeding) in a couple of weeks now, and most nights she sleeps from 8pm until 7:30am with one or two short wake-ups for a feeding. We had a week or so where I would nurse her for her first night-time feeding, and she would get a bottle of formula for her second. Apparently she didn't like that much, because she stopped waking up a second time! We're going to try switching to only bottles at night at some point in the next month. I'm crossing my fingers that she'll lose interest once she knows she can't nurse at night and that she might start sleeping through the night as a result. Only time will tell. We still typically rock or nurse her to sleep before laying her down, but I have put her down awake a few times and she's gotten herself to sleep. At night after nursing she also puts herself back to sleep most of the time, so she is learning those self-soothing skills.

Vocalizing: Ada has a lot to say. She often says "Hey, Daddy", although not always when Daddy is around. She shrieks when she wants another bite of food and babbles constantly. Daddy has heard her say "Ju", but I haven't heard that yet.

Moving: Ada is not too interested in moving at this point. She is still happy to sit and play with her toys or observe what's going on around her. She will sometimes pull forward to hands and knees if there's a toy she wants, but then she sits back down to play with it. She'll also do a little bit of scooting around from her belly. Ada can support herself on her feet for a short while, but doesn't pull up yet or stand holding anything other than someone's hands. She'll also bounce up and down from a cross-legged position (it reminds me of Lucia and Magdalena at this age!) and she has started to like the Jolly Jumper, which Jude never liked as a baby.

Appearance: Ada's hair is starting to come in. She's had a long curl on the top of her head for a while now, but no other hair until the past month or so. Now she has a bit of light hair all over her head, although not nearly as much as Jude had at this age! Ada weighed about 17 pounds two weeks ago, so I'd guess she's a bit more than that now.

Tricks: Ada does a cute one-handed clap (one hand moves, the other stays still) and loves to play patty-cake. She is also starting to wave at people.

Here are a couple of photos from the past few weeks. Ada in her holiday dress:

Practicing standing and putting weight on her arms.

Another cute one of the two kids together.

Here is a photo of Ada playing with her toys on Christmas morning.

And practicing standing with Mommy.

We're loving this age, and watching Ada grow up from a tiny newborn to a bouncing baby is a lot of fun these days.

Christmas Spirit

2010-12-23T18:00:00.000-08:00

We got a real tree this year. For years, we've had a fake tree made of sticks. Last year, Daddy and Jude got a permit to cut down a tree from the National Forest, and spent a day driving around in the wilderness looking for our Christmas tree. This year, the process took about five minutes. Daddy drove into a tree lot, pointed to the smallest tree he could find, and waited in the car with the kids while the nice old ladies tied it to the top of his car. We decorated it that night, in a fit of Christmas productivity.

The presents (and assorted goodies) have been collecting under the tree for some time now. Every day, Jude carries his box of Z-bars over to me and asks hopefully "Mommy, is it Christmastime yet?". Just a few more days, Jude.

We have attended several fun holiday parties this year. This fantastic photo of Jude was taken at the Miller Christmas party. I was in charge of the game this year, and by all accounts it was a success.

This family shot is from the Holiday Family Friday at the Owl House (i.e. the New Big House, or benannie's house).

Jude and Ada continue to enjoy each others' company. We tried hard to get a great shot of the two of them together to give away as Christmas gifts, but had to settle for individual shots. It is rare to get a photo where they both look their best. But this one is pretty good!

We are enjoying a visit from our East Coast family. We are thankful to not be travelling this year for the holidays. It is nice to be home, nestled all snug in our beds, with visions of sugarplums dancing in our heads.

Where The Wild Things Are

2010-12-22T20:38:00.001-08:00

Jude is 28 months old today. Like all Cornett men, he has a knack for memorization. Daddy and Uncle Andy know all of the words to almost every song they've ever heard.

This video is quite long, but we couldn't resist showing off Jude's latest skillz. Perhaps you can let Jude read a bedtime story for your kids tonight!

Salad Nazi

2010-12-21T20:18:00.000-08:00

Here is a dinnertime scene from about six weeks ago.

We've been making an effort lately to sit down as a family for meals as often as possible. After a few days of rebellion, Jude has started to take his place at the head of the table, and will actually sit down with us for somewhere between five and fifteen minutes. He has also taken over the job of salad distribution, and he feels the weight of the responsibility. Tonight we sat down for dinner and he said "where's the salad?".

Looking at myself in the video, I feel like I look so ... haggard. It's like I'm low on sleep or something. Oh, wait.

Surfboards

2010-12-20T22:39:00.000-08:00

We've come across the first snack that Ada and Jude can share. They're called "surfboards" (thanks to Nini) in our house. Other people might call them "Mum-Mums".

You know, those rice "rusks" (what's a rusk, anyway?) that dissolve in the baby's mouth.

Ada is currently obsessed with gnawing on just about anything that she can grab in her grabby little hands, including surfboards, chunks of pear, Cheerios, freeze-dried fruit, etc.

Plus, it was an irresistible photo-op.

These kids are so cute together.

Wheee!

2010-12-13T16:11:00.000-08:00

A common scene in our house these days:

Other things we're doing:

Christmas cards

Christmas tree decoration

Christmas parties

Christmas shopping

You might notice a theme...

Daddy Vacation

2010-12-05T21:03:00.000-08:00

E Ben took a much-needed Daddy Vacation to San Francisco this weekend (actually he was gone for 75 hours, but who's counting?), which means that I was on duty while he was away. This is the longest stretch of time that I've been in charge of childcare, um, ever (I never had Jude for this long). I think I did well. I had a lot of help from Terry, who stayed over at our house on Thursday night and took Ada for a sleepover on Saturday night. And I sent Jude to school on Friday morning, so I didn't even have him the whole time. Also, the weather was beautiful here in Portland this weekend, clear and cold, which made it easier. Still, it was a challenge for me. Taking care of the kids 24 hours a day is a lot of work.

Here are some highlights from the weekend (no photos since Daddy had the camera):

Long walk outside with both kids after picking Jude up from school on Friday afternoon. We hit two parks, and Jude got to practice his "May I Pet Your Dog" script (from his current favorite book).
Movie Night (with popcorn) on Friday night. We watched Little Bear Movie, which Jude had never seen before and loved.
Cornett Baking Day on Saturday morning (hosted by Cornett and Company 2). Jude played with his cousins, decorated cookies, and ate quite a few treats as well. Then he came home and took a nice long nap.
ZooLights on Saturday evening. We met some friends from Jude's school, and walked around in the dark and cold for about two hours. Jude loved the lights and he also loved looking at the elephants. The baby elephant Samudra (born the same weekend as Jude) was sleeping when we got there and it was SO cute.
Saturday Night Sleep. Everyone slept well Saturday night! Ada slept almost all night long at Nini's house, Jude had his usual good night's sleep, and I slept for almost nine hours uninterrupted! It was my best night's sleep since before Ada was born.
Sunday Productivity. After a full night's sleep and a pot of strong tea, I was really energized on Sunday. After playing with Jude for a few hours in the morning, I put on a movie for him to watch and cleaned the whole house! Well, as much as I could do in an hour, which turned out to be quite a lot. It felt good to do some of the work around the house that I've been too tired to tackle until now.
Bonding with Jude. These days, I'm Jude's third favorite person (after Daddy and Nini, not necessarily in that order) and it is hard to spend quality time with him when others are around. We had a great 24 hours together, just the two of us. We played games, read books, had an adventure at the Zoo, and in general had a fun time. I loved spending some time alone with my boy!

The weekend went as well as I could have hoped (actually much better than I expected), and I have to say that, after this, the thought of having the kids for a few hours doesn't seem as daunting. Still, I'm looking forward to my first real Mommy Vacation! I don't know when that will happen (it will be sometime after Ada is weaned, for sure). Maybe in the spring?

My Skillz

2010-11-29T20:25:00.000-08:00

I'll often put Ada down in her eating chair with a few Cheerios while preparing her meal. It keeps her occupied and one might make it into her mouth from time to time.

Jude likes to help Ada with everything, so of course he tried to shove the Cheerios into her mouth. "Jude, let Ada do that on her own. She needs to work on her skills."

-----------------------------------------------

The next day, Jude asked for a bowl of Cheerios. I obliged, and sat down at the table to keep him company while he ate. "Mommy, these are my skeels! You can have one skeel. Here it is!" He puts a Cheerio in my mouth. "I'm eating skeels!"

I was puzzled for a while, but Daddy figured it out. Ada was working on her skills with the Cheerios, so now Cheerios = skills. Jude confirmed tonight. "Mommy, Cheerios are skills! I like to eat skills!"

Jones Hawaii photos

2010-11-29T10:23:00.000-08:00

Andrea posted a bunch of great photos from our Hawaii trip. Go check them out!

Tyee Lodge

2010-11-28T17:27:00.000-08:00

We spent a night up at Tyee Lodge over Thanksgiving weekend. The weather was perfect for us, with a few feet of snow on the ground, very little wind, and a few inches of gentle snowfall each day. A few of Jude's friends from preschool joined us up at the lodge to play in the snow and eat popcorn.

We'll break with tradition and start this post with a video. Jude got quite a bit of practice playing ping-pong this weekend. He sometimes hits a ball headed towards him, and his serve goes in a lot more often.

Jude in the parking area just off of Timberline Road.

Jude took this photo of us in the Lodge last night.

Family shot during the trip down the mountain this afternoon. Jude rode down in the sled with the garbage. Ada's asleep in the Ergo, but you can see her feet sticking out the bottom of my jacket.

Ada, laughing as usual.

Sleeping in the Lodge was a challenge for everyone. Jude got the best night's sleep in his new red sleeping bag (it was the first time he slept in it). The rest of us spent most of the night trying to keep the crying kids quiet. It was fun to get the kids in the snow and spend some time with friends this weekend.

Little Things: Ada, Seven Months

2010-11-26T12:07:00.000-08:00

Ada is seven months old today!

Ada at seven months seems a lot like Ada at six months. No dramatic changes, just little changes every day. As Jude says, "Ada is getting bigger!".

Eating: Ada continues to nurse happily and she is eating a wider variety of solid foods. In the past month, we have introduced her to some new fruits and vegetables as well as baby oatmeal and yogurt. We offer her three meals a day, and sometimes she eats a lot and sometimes just a bite or two or nothing at all. She has graduated to the Eating Chair for some of her meals, but still eats in the Bumbo quite often. We have also started experimenting with finger foods such as Cheerios and cheese. She loves the cheese and likes to throw the Cheerios. They usually end up on the floor.

Sleeping: We have our good nights and our bad nights still. On a good night, Ada wakes up once to nurse and goes back down until morning. On a bad night, she might be up 3-4 times. We have a new system where I take care of her at her first wake-up, and she gets a bottle of formula (from Daddy) if she wakes up a second time. This way, Daddy gets to sleep through the first part of the night and I get to sleep through the second part. This has been working well for the past few nights. Ada is napping more consistently too. She usually gets tired once she's been awake for about three hours, and takes two naps a day. One of the two is usually long (at least 90 minutes) and the other one might be short or long. We are still swaddling her for naps and at bedtime.

Mouth: Ada has two bottom teeth and none on the top yet. She has seemed like she was teething a few times recently, but nothing else has popped through. These days, everything goes to Ada's mouth for exploration. She likes to bite and chew on toys and especially paper. I hate to admit it, but she has swallowed a few chunks of paper when we weren't paying attention.

Sitting and Moving: Ada can sit easily and has started to support herself with her arms in the crawl position, but only when placed there. She still has not made it to the crawl position on her own. On the floor, she is happy to sit and play with toys, and doesn't seem too interested in moving yet. Next month, perhaps?

Size: Ada is in 6-9 month clothing and size 3 diapers. I don't know her current weight, but she seems like she is growing a bit from week to week.

Vocalizing: Ada has started making more consonant sounds like ba, da, and ma. It is all just making noise at this point, but she does love conversations. She also does her fair share of shrieking and yelling to get attention. She has to be loud to be heard above Jude's constant chatter!

Here are a few photos from the past couple of weeks.

Jude holding Ada.

Ada's mean face.

Playing with the Halloween candy.

Playing with blocks.

Working on the crawl.

Thanksgiving with Alex.

A cute close-up.

The view from the Ergo.

Also, here is a short video of Ada sitting down for a few bites of yams at her first Thanksgiving dinner.

On to month eight!

Swimming in Maui

2010-11-24T11:00:00.000-08:00

We spent a lot of time swimming while on vacation.

Ada got to go swimming for the first time this month. She wore this cute little bathing suit borrowed from Liana. She loved dipping in the pool, sitting in the shallow area, and sitting on the little stream that emptied into the pool. The pool water was a bit cold, so she only went in a few times, but it was definitely a fun activity for her!

The most exciting swimming-related event was that Lucia learned to swim on her own! She was still wearing her life jacket, of course, but after watching Jude paddling all over the pool by himself for a few minutes on the first day, she quickly decided that she could do it too. After that, there was no stopping her! She went swimming every day in the pool, and was always trying to get Jude to join her. Jude grew less interested as the week progressed, and by the end of the week he didn't want to swim in the pool at all for some reason. He still liked the ocean and the hot tub, though. Perhaps the pool was too cold for him in the early evening, which is when we usually went swimming there.

The kids spent a lot of time jumping into the pool from this grassy area.

We also did some swimming in the ocean almost every day. Jude loved the waves and also standing on the sand in the shallow area and having fish swim around his feet. Lucia and Magdalena also liked the ocean, although Lucia preferred the pool. And even Ada got to dip her feet in the water a few times and jump some waves.

I don't have any pictures of it, but there was also a great hot tub at our condo. It was large, deep, and very hot. There were also pebbles on the bottom and very strong jets. Even after Jude lost interest in the pool, he still liked to sit at the edge of the hot tub and dangle his feet in the water (it was too hot for him to submerge). Jude and Lucia both spent some time hanging out there and chatting with the other people on vacation.

Little Things: Jude, 27 months

2010-11-22T06:00:00.000-08:00

Our boy is two-and-a-quarter years old today!

I was talking with his preschool teacher the other day, and she was amazed at how much Jude has changed recently. It feels like he grows up by about six months every month. Sometimes it even seems like he is changing more quickly than Ada!

Our boy is a great communicator, and his language amazes me. Lately, we have been having the greatest conversations on the phone. He'll call me (usually when I'm at work) and chat about everything he's been doing. At first I thought that he must be getting prompting from Daddy, but I'm told that it is all Jude.

Jude has been going through a difficult stage lately. At first, I was reluctant to label it "Terrible Twos", but this must be what people are talking about. Jude has fairly dramatic tantrums. They are usually about something insignificant, often related to food or bedtime. It is so sad when he is having one, since it really seems like he thinks that the world is ending. We have started using a timer and giving him a choice of doing things "now, or in one minute". This has been helping, but it is still a struggle to get him to do anything that isn't exactly what he wants to be doing. Getting in the car seat, changing diapers, getting dressed, and many other things are a constant battle.

But when Jude is not fighting with us, he is such a joy. He's happy, engaged, interested in learning, and so funny. We are looking forward to a decrease in his "terrible" behavior, but can't help enjoying him the rest of the time.

Here are some recent photos of our boy.

Playing in the leaves.

Asleep on the chair in Maui. This was the first time he fell asleep outside of his bed or car seat in a really long time.

Jude's favorite "toy" in our rental house was the pile of books. He gravitated towards Julius Caesar. Ama would be so proud!

Just hangin' out.

Jude has been regressing a bit with the baby around. He now wants to wear bibs (he had been refusing them for a long time until Ada started wearing them) and sometimes sit in the high chair.

Phones are still a favorite.

This is a classic Jude shot. He loves to climb, especially on rocks. And he LOVES his Daddy these days. No one else can replace him.

Sunset with Ada and Nini.

Jude and Lucia

2010-11-20T21:02:00.000-08:00

All of our best pictures from vacation are of Jude and Lucia.

Jude and Lucia holding hands in the airport.
Jude and Lucia sitting next to each other on the beach chairs.
Jude and Lucia swimming together.
Jude and Lucia playing in the sand.

Those two had a great time living across the hall from each other for a week. They loved to play together and watch TV together. There was a bit of fighting, especially when Jude didn't respect Lucia's personal space. But every time they were apart, they were constantly asking when they could play together again.

Our favorite quote from the whole week was from Jude to Lucia one late night "Lucia, I'm going to go have a beautiful nap, then come over to your house to play afterwards." We laughed about the "beautiful nap" for days.

Here are a few shots from one day at the beach.

Ada in Maui

2010-11-20T13:48:00.000-08:00

Ada had a nice visit to Maui last week. She spent most of her time sitting on blankets at the beach, eating local fruits and veggies, going for walks with Mom and Dad, and wearing the cute summer outfits that will be too small for her by the time it is warm enough in Portland to wear them again!

She also went swimming for the first time, dipped her feet in the ocean for the first time, and ate sand for the first time. She enjoyed the water and didn't seem to mind the sand.

Ada had a great time on vacation. She got to spend all of her time with her favorite people, and rarely had to put up with things she doesn't like, such as car rides and bottles. She also got to get to know Lucia and Magdalena much better, and loved spending time with them. Ada wants to go on vacation again soon!

More Singing

2010-11-18T10:19:00.000-08:00

I'm not exaggerating when I say that Jude sang this song about 500 times during our week in Maui. Eventually Lucia asked him to stop: "Jude, you're hurting my ears!". Every once in a while, though, she would start singing along with him. The song is addictive.

In case you're not familiar with Fantastic Mr. Fox, the lyrics are:

Boggis, Bunce, and Bean

One short*, one fat, one lean

These horrible crooks, so different in looks

Were nonetheless equally mean

* Actually, it's supposed to be "one fat, one short, one lean", but Jude doesn't like that order and insists on "short" before "fat"...

Hawaii Videos

2010-11-16T19:12:00.000-08:00

We spent last week in Maui with our good friends the Joneses. Nini came along to help out and get a first-hand look at what it's really like to spend a week living with our kids.

Jude did a lot of singing on this vacation. By the end of the week, everyone had the "Boggis, Bunce, and Bean" song permanently stuck in their heads. The ABC song was a close second.

We went to the beach almost every day, and by the end of the week the Hole Project was pretty impressive.

It was a great vacation with great friends. Stay tuned for more!

Tooth Fairy

2010-11-04T09:17:00.000-07:00

Guess who got her first tooth this morning...

I have been checking for teeth daily for the past week or so, because Ada has been uncomfortable and I could see the bumps getting ready to poke through. This morning I did my usual check, and was surprised to find that not one but TWO sharp little teeth had come through overnight.

The Great Puddle Jumper

2010-11-03T12:33:00.000-07:00

It all started with a trip to Goodwill. Jude spotted the frog costume, and Daddy picked up a pair of cute bunny ears for Ada. The costume turned out to be a little bit too small for Jude, but he loved it, so it didn't matter.

Then came the first costume-wearing event, then the second, then the third. By the fourth one, Jude had had enough. It was a long day, with no nap, and we didn't push it. He missed the photo, but had a good time at the party nonetheless. We left after an hour, pumpkin in hand, with no major meltdowns. Given the circumstances, Jude did as well as we could have expected.

The next day was Halloween. Jude had a great morning at the Children's Museum with Ama. He spent three hours leading her around to all of his favorite nooks and crannies. We got him home and down for a three-hour nap, and he woke up in a wonderful mood. It was a lovely evening, and I took the kids out for a short walk before dark. The house about ten up from us had a few Halloween-themed decorations out front, including a life sized man holding a tray of candy. Jude approached bravely, pointing at the spiders, pumpkins, and ghosts. Reaching for the candy triggered some unexpected movement and spooky noises, designed to scare children. It worked. Jude is rarely scared, but he ran back to me crying and begging "Mommy hold her!". I carried him halfway back to our house before he was willing to get down and ride his bike the rest of the way. He had a lot to say to Daddy about the "scary man".

After an early dinner, we got things in motion to go out trick-or-treating for the first time. Our plan was for Ada and Ama to stay home to hand out candy to the hoards of children roaming our neighborhood, while Mommy and Daddy and Jude ventured out in search of treats.

Jude was not interested. He'd spent enough time in his costume and resisted putting it on again. We thought about just letting it go and remembering to attend fewer Halloween parties next year, when Daddy had an inspiration: Silly String. He pulled out a can and started shooting everyone in the house. Jude loved it. When we suggested going outside to shoot the neighbor kids, he was enthusiastic. He even put on the costume.

Out we went, knocking on doors and demanding treats. Jude walked right inside for the first few houses. He thought he had to stay and make conversation to get his candy. "I love your costume, Jude!", said neighbor after neighbor. "I have a FROG!", he would reply. As we approached the Scary House, Jude started to get a little bit nervous, so we decided to turn around and make our way down the hill, looking for Jojo. This is when he really got into it. At every house, we would knock and as the door opened, Jude would announce "I wants candy!". After he took a piece or four and we made our way back to the sidewalk, I would ask if he wanted to keep going or head home. "Keep going!". In the end, we probably made it to about fifteen houses. Daddy said he would consider it a success if we made it to five, so Jude exceeded expectations...

We eventually ran into Jojo and family, and covered them with Silly String. That was fun, but by then Jude was already enjoying our Halloween adventures. We made it home after being out for about an hour, and Jude got to pick out one piece of candy to eat. As he sucked on his Tootsie Pop, he stacked and sorted the rest of his candy, and picked a few pieces to take to bed with him. We got the rest of the candy out of sight, and he hasn't asked for it yet.

All in all, Halloween night this year was a fun community event. We got to see a bunch of our neighbors, meet a few new ones, and Jude got to do something new and exciting. Being outside when it was SO DARK! Asking people for CANDY! We also could not have asked for better weather. I think that next year we'll try to forgo most of the Halloween parties, and also make sure that Jude's costume fits him. Also, we'll stay away from the Scary House. On the other hand, he won't be two next year, so the whole thing might be a lot easier no matter what we do.

Dr. Jack x2

2010-11-02T06:00:00.000-07:00

We took Ada in yesterday morning for her six-month visit to see Dr. Jack. Here are her stats:

Weight: 15 pounds, 11 ounces (42nd percentile)
Length: 27 inches (88th percentile)
Head Circumference: 43.5 cm

Ada is still quite tall for her age, and she is gaining enough weight between nursing, a few ounces of formula most days, and an introduction to solid foods. Dr. Jack encouraged us to increase Ada's intake of solids to 3x a day, and said that we can feed her as much food as she wants to eat. Fruits and vegetables are very healthy and there's no concern about overfeeding. We can also start some finger foods once she gets a few teeth. One new thing is that we're supposed to start giving both kids fluoride drops on a daily basis, since there is no fluoride in our water supply. This will continue until they lose all of their baby teeth, which seems like a long time from now! She did really well with her shots and didn't cry at all. Developmentally, she seems to be right on track. She is sitting very well and beginning to show a lot of interest in toys. We're supposed to have her spend more time on her tummy with something she wants just out of reach to "encourage" her to get moving. Right now she is pretty happy to stay put, but I have a feeling this is not going to be the case much longer.

While we were at the doctor, we mentioned that Jude had been exposed to chickenpox last week. Although the first dose of chickenpox vaccine (which he was given at age 1) is ~80% effective, Dr. Jack recommended that Jude get his second dose just in case, since Ada is still young and has not been vaccinated. So Jude went to the doctor later in the afternoon. I was working, but I hear that he skipped right in, had his shot, and was perfectly happy to get his treat afterwards. Jude shouldn't need any more shots until he is 5.

A Minute In The Life

2010-10-31T16:46:00.001-07:00

I've had some requests from readers to post more videos of Ada. After watching the movie "Babies", we're inspired to do a better job of documenting her day-to-day existence. Here is a pretty good sample of Ada at this age. She is a sitting, laughing, grabbing machine.

Engineer

2010-10-31T12:57:00.000-07:00

We have a new version of the "pipes" game. We now run water through the pipes in the bathtub. It's a hit. The most exciting part is when we can get the water to flow uphill. Everyone gets really excited when that happens...

Little Things: Ada, Six Months

2010-10-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

Ada is six months old today!

I don't want to jinx it, but I feel like we are past the really tough time with two small children. The big questions right now are (1) when Ada will start sleeping better at night (so that I can get more sleep) and (2) when/how we are going to wean her from nursing. I'd like to have a little more independence and also be able to alternate middle-of-the-night duty, but it is also very convenient for me to be able to nurse Ada when I am the one taking care of her. Plus, she really loves it, so that makes it even harder to stop.

I know that this is going to be my last time nursing a baby, which also makes me inclined to stick it out a little bit longer, but I am just. so. tired. It's hard to explain how difficult it is to never get an uninterrupted night of sleep for six+ months in a row unless you've been through it at some point. I think we'll probably end up continuing for another few months, although we may start doing bottles at night sometime soon. With Jude, once we cut back from exclusive nursing, I very quickly stopped producing much milk at all, and I'm afraid this will happen again, otherwise I'd be happy to continue with about half-and-half formula and breast milk for the foreseeable future.

I love this age. Ada is so cute, interactive, and cannot yet talk back...:) Here are a few things to remember about Ada at six months:

Drinking: Ada still loves to nurse, but she has finally (as of about two weeks ago) started taking a bottle. This was a huge relief to all of her caregivers. She is currently drinking 8-10 ounces a day while I'm at work. My milk supply seems to have gone down in the ~8 weeks that I've been back at work, and I'm no longer able to pump as much as she wants to drink, so Ada also has a bottle of formula most days. On the weekends, she'll nurse more than usual, and if I'm away for a couple of hours she'll also have a bottle of formula to stay satisfied.

Eating: Ada really enjoys her food. She has tried rice cereal, sweet potato, butternut squash, banana, prunes, avocado, and pears. Her favorites so far seems to be sweet potato and pears (which were also two of Jude's favorites), and she really does not like rice cereal now that she's tried some other foods. She's currently eating twice a day, and the amount really varies from meal to meal, depending on what we offer and how hungry she is at the time. We usually feed her in the Bumbo seat, and lately she has been grabbing for the spoon, so I usually give her one to hold during mealtime.

Sleeping: After sleeping through the night twice in a row at five months of age, Ada has regressed somewhat and is now up 1-2 times every night (for a while it was 2-3 times). I think that it is because she is hungry and also possibly teething. She's been doing better since we moved her up from one meal to two meals a day. Also, I've been giving her a half dose of Tylenol before bedtime if she seems to be in some tooth pain. This has been helping a little bit, but her nights are still very unpredictable. Ada is also an early riser, usually up for the day sometime between 5:30 and 6:30. With an ~8pm bedtime, this is a lot less than the 12 hours of night-time sleep that babies her age are "supposed" to need. I do think that Ada just needs less sleep than average, because she is perfectly pleasant while she is awake and doesn't seem tired. She is taking 2-3 naps a day. Sometimes she'll take three short naps, and other days she'll take one long nap (2+ hours) and one short one (~30 minutes). We rarely get two good naps out of her (meaning over an hour). Ada falls asleep pretty easily if she's tired. If she's not tired, it takes a lot more work to get her asleep and we often don't even bother trying.

Teething: I have not seen any teeth yet, but Ada does seem to be experiencing some pain in her mouth, she's biting a lot more than usual, and I can feel some bumps protruding from her lower gums. Jude didn't get his first tooth until he was almost 8 months old, so I wouldn't be surprised if it took a few more weeks/months for Ada's first to show up.

Sitting: Ada can sit independently for a few minutes, and with a small amount of support (like a Boppy or pillow behind her) for a long time (like 20 minutes). She likes to sit up on the couch or the bed with a few toys in front of her. She will examine the toys and especially the tags with great concentration. She also loves to watch Jude as he plays nearby.

Moving: Ada is still not moving much, but I feel like she is starting to get tired of her immobile state. She will spin around while lying on the floor on either her back or tummy if there is something behind her that she wants to see. She also seems much more restless lately. She is kicking all the time while I nurse her and she has also started whacking me with her fist unless I hold her hand. Jude was like this from the time he was very young (just could not stay still) but Ada has been more placid until recently. Now, I would describe her as "antsy".

Swaddling: We are still swaddling Ada for bedtime and most naps. She seems to fall asleep much more quickly when swaddled and stays asleep longer. I don't know how much longer we will continue to swaddle her (with Jude we didn't stop until he was ~11 months old) but I don't anticipate stopping anytime soon since it works so well.

Books: Ada is starting to show some interest in books. She usually gets a double dose of books, since she watches while we read books to Jude and also gets a few of her own. I've added Goodnight Moon to her bedtime routine and she appears to like the pictures and the rhythm of the words. It's hard to tell for sure, though, because she likes pretty much everything!

Size: I took Ada in to be weighed a couple of weeks ago and she was just over 15 pounds. We'll find out her length as well as percentiles when we go in for her six-month appointment with Dr. Jack next week. Ada is wearing six-month size clothes and they are starting to get a little bit small. We'll probably move on to the nine-month size soon. We're using up the last package of size 2 diapers and moving on to size 3 in the next few days.

Outings: Ada is very social, and loves to see new faces and people. She really enjoys being out and about, and gets a little crabby if she's home with just the immediate family for a whole day. Daddy takes Ada out for shopping, lunch, and walks almost every day, since he also needs some action. Ada likes the stroller, but she prefers to be carried. She's grown out of the Bjorn, and we now carry her in the Ergo most of the time. So far, we've mostly worn her on the front, but she also does fine on the back, and we'll probably start doing that more often in the next few months. It is hard to get her on our backs without help, though, so the front is more convenient for now.

Talking: Ada can be quite loud when she wants attention. She shrieks and calls out if she feels like she's being ignored. She does a lot of cooing and razzing her lips, and loves back-and-forth conversations. She is not saying any words or sounds consistently, but she does vocalize a lot and seems interested in making noise.

Toys: Ada has just started grabbing and manipulating objects in the past week or so. She likes anything with tags and with a lot of different shapes and colors, as well as toys which make noise. Ada likes soft toys and stuffed animals much more than Jude ever did, so the plush toy collection is now hers...:) She also likes to hang out in the Exersaucer sometimes or play with the dangling toys in the Gymini, but there are also times when she just wants to be held and nothing else will do.

Loving: Ada is very attached to Mommy and always wants to nurse immediately after any kind of separation (even though sometimes she is not hungry). I think it is more for reassurance than food at this point. She also loves her big brother (cannot keep her eyes off of him) and her Daddy (he gets the biggest smiles of all). Nini spends every Thursday morning with Ada (while Jude and Daddy are at school), and those two are starting to form a nice bond as well. Ada is friendly and will let anyone hold her, but when she is upset, only those she knows well can calm her easily.

Coloring: Ada's eyes are still very blue and her hair seems to be pretty light (although also very short so far). As of now, I'm sticking with my guess that she will have blue eyes and blond hair.

Here are a few photos from the past couple of weeks:

Ada's big smile for Daddy...

Hanging out with Danel.

Deep in thought while sitting.

Watching the cooking show in the kitchen (this happens a lot).

Jude feeds Ada a bottle. No, the car is not in motion...:)

Jude took this photo. He LOVES taking photos, especially of Ada.

Our two lovebugs.

Happy half-year birthday, Ada!

Hamburgers, Pancakes, and Lellow!

2010-10-22T14:26:00.001-07:00

Jude made corn bread the other night for dinner, but first he had to figure out the recipe...

Mmm... Cardboard...

2010-10-19T20:50:00.000-07:00

Young children aren't supposed to eat raw vegetables, at least not the very hard ones like carrots. We're encouraged to parboil them to soften before serving. That word seems to be a little bit out of Jude's range. Hence, one of his favorite foods is "cardboard carrots". We giggle every time he says it.

More Language Quirks

2010-10-15T21:35:00.000-07:00

I thought of a few more language quirks.

Jude knows the right word for "boy", but instead of "girl" he says "gullah".

Jude has thankfully not started using the word "mine" yet, but he does say OWN a lot. The most common usage is when he wants to do something "by my OWN", or tells someone to do it "by your OWN". For a while, he was saying "OWN, OWN" when someone was playing with one of his toys. Now he says, very seriously, "Jojo, that's Judey's".

Jude has very specific (sometimes non-intuitive) names for the shows he likes to watch and songs he likes to sing. Just a few examples:

ILA (EYE-LA) for "Good Night Gorilla"
GUY for "Patrick" (a cute musical show)
CHEESE for the "On Top of Spaghetti" song
LUCIA DANCE for his favorite Lucia video
NATHAN AND GRYPHON for his favorite Shields family video

The Splits

2010-10-13T21:24:00.000-07:00

I never did end up writing about my second trapeze class last summer. Perhaps that's because it was less satisfying than the first one. Or maybe because I didn't really get any good videos of myself doing the new trick.

Anyway, we went into the city a second time while we were in New York for the summer. This time, we learned a much more difficult trick, the splits. I was able to do the "heels off" trick again with no problem, but had a lot more trouble with the splits. It just didn't work well for me, and I never really felt comfortable doing it. I was kind of off-balance and felt awkward. Margaret was good at this one, and was able to complete two catches, but mine didn't work out as well.

This was my best swing:

This is how it's supposed to look:

I really loved having the chance to take a few trapeze classes this past summer. I'm hoping to get back to New York for a long weekend sometime early next year so that I can take a few more classes. By then, I'll probably be a few pounds lighter (I've already lost ~10 pounds since the summer!) as well as stronger and more flexible from the yoga classes that I started taking this month. Hopefully I'll be able to pick up a few new trapeze tricks as a result!

First Person, Singular

2010-10-12T12:22:00.000-07:00

For the past few months, Jude has been referring to himself as "Judey". "Judey wants some dinner". "Judey went to school today". "Judey has a double-ouchie". Recently, he seems to have discovered the first person. It's not exactly natural for him, and when he's in a hurry he's still "Judey". But occasionally, he'll very deliberately say "I am hungry" or "I need a new diaper". He watches closely for a reaction, to make sure he is doing it right.

This was one of the questions on the two-year-old developmental questionnaire (does your child refer to himself as "I"), one of the few to which we had to answer "no". I didn't even realize it was a developmental milestone, but now that it is on my radar, I'm very aware of his steps in that direction. Everything is a process, and it's incredible how everything with children is temporary.

--------------------------------------------------------

This morning, we were reading "Pat the Bunny" right after Jude woke up. If you're not familiar with the book, the two kids in the book are Paul and Judy. This was very puzzling for Jude. Why was I calling the little girl "Judy"? He corrected me: the boy was Judey and the girl was Ada. Once I started calling the kids the right names, he was a lot happier.

Homecoming Weekend

2010-10-08T18:24:00.000-07:00

We went over to Lewis and Clark College last weekend for Homecoming Breakfast and a walk. Jude rode on my shoulders for a while, which was a little bit disconcerting for him.

We tried for another family photo.

The next day, Ada learned some card tricks from Danel while the boys played Wii and watched football.

Snippets

2010-10-07T20:11:00.000-07:00

Me: What are you drawing, Jude?

Jude: That's a chicken!

Me: How beautiful! Where are its legs?

Jude: Still in the pen, Mommy!

(as in, he didn't draw them yet...:))

-------------------------------------------------------

Jude, do you like popcorn?

(Note: we are both shoveling it into our mouths)

No!

Really? Why not?

It's too ... white!

-------------------------------------------------------

Jude, who did you play with at school today?

Nathaniel and Riley!

Anybody else?

Finn. That's hard work!

What's hard work?

Playing with Finn is hard work!

Jude makes me laugh every time he opens his mouth. What will he say next?

Language Quirks

2010-10-02T13:43:00.000-07:00

Jude's language is amazing these days, but he still speaks with a few quirks. I'm sure these will disappear soon, and I want to remember them, so I'm listing as many as I can recall here...

When Jude wants someone to pick him up, he says "Daddy hold her" or "Mommy hold her". I think it's because everyone is always talking about holding the baby girl (i.e. "do you want to hold her?", "can I hold her?").
Jude doesn't seem to be able to pronounce the "SP" at the beginning of a word. Instead, he uses the "F" sound. So, we're often looking for a FOON so we can eat applesauce, or talking about the FIDER WEB at the window, or FITTING out the water after brushing our teeth, or FINNING around and around. It's pretty awesome, actually, but can be hard to figure out what he's talking about if you don't know the rule.
The TH sound at the beginning of words is not quite there yet. So we hear a lot of "NIS one" and "NAT one" (this and that). Also, he likes to talk about his favorite FINGS. Also, "Daddy do WAT" (that).
Jude's got most of his colors down, but he still says LELLOW for yellow.

Judey said...

2010-10-01T20:52:00.000-07:00

Jude has a mind of his own, and he finally has the language to get his point across. Here are a few examples from recent days...

Last night, as we were reading Jude's favorite book (Curious George Flies a Kite), we got to the part where George is about to fall into the lake. He said "Judey doesn't like this part" and flipped a few pages ahead to the next part about flying the kite with Bill.
The other day, as I was saying goodbye to Jude (he was going to spend the morning with Grandpa Danel) I strapped him into his car seat and then gave him a kiss. He said "Judey doesn't need a kiss", as he wiped my kiss off of his face. I told him that Mommy needed a kiss, and he was happy to oblige.
After his bath the other day, it was time to put on his diaper. He said "Judey has a different idea" and wanted me to hold him for a minute first. I know it was just a stalling tactic, but it was very sweet anyway.
There is a right way and a wrong way to do everything. He always lets us know. "Mommy do it wrong" or "Daddy do it wrong".
The other day we were playing with the Ben Franklin doll, and he realized that Ben Franklin has the same first name as Daddy. He clarified: "Daddy E Ben". :)
When Jude has a meltdown and later recovers, he always lets us know by saying "Judey's ok now".
Other things that Jude says all the time: "Mommy Linden, what are you doing?", "Daddy Ben, come back please", "Daddy Ben, where are you?".

No More Bottles

2010-09-28T20:54:00.000-07:00

This post is about a month overdue, but I feel the need to describe Jude's bottle journey. Bear with me during this blast from the past.

Jude always loved his bottles. In the early days of breastfeeding, he preferred the bottle to the breast, and this led us to supplement via tube-feeding rather than bottles. We tried giving him a bottle after a nursing session, but he quickly learned that the bottle was coming and didn't bother to make much of an effort at the breast. Once we switched to tube supplementation, he worked harder and this helped me increase my milk supply.

On the bright side, when I went back to work, it was easy to feed Jude. I would pump at work, Daddy would heat up the bottles, hand them to Jude, and he would finish an entire bottle in a matter of minutes. No stress, and (in retrospect, compared with Ada) this love of bottles made the transition back to work much easier for us.

Eventually, at about nine months of age, Jude lost interest in breastfeeding entirely and we switched to bottles of formula. Daddy started doing the middle-of-the-night feedings, and I finally got enough sleep. At about ten months of age, Jude no longer woke up in the night for a feeding, but he would instead drink two full bottles (12 ounces total) first thing in the morning!

Up until this point, we had always been heating up the bottles before offering them to Jude. I think it was August (just before Jude turned one) that we decided to try giving him cold bottles, since it was summer and we thought it might be refreshing. No problem. Jude still loved his bottles, and once again our lives got easier (no more carrying a thermos of hot water everywhere!). We never went back to warm milk for Jude.

After he turned one, we gradually switched him from formula to whole milk. I think it took about a month, but Jude never refused a bottle and didn't even seem to notice the difference. He would use cups for water, but would only drink his "MOKEY" from bottles. We didn't make an issue over it because bottles were easy and didn't make a mess like cups. We figured he would switch at some point, and didn't see a reason to do it immediately. At that point, Jude was drinking 5-6 bottles of milk a day, for 30+ ounces. That's a lot of milk, and he was always asking for more. One day, we let him drink as much as he wanted, and he drank about 55 ounces.

Our pediatrician suggested that we get Jude off of bottles before the new baby arrived, and we made some effort to make that happen. Unfortunately, Jude was not on board with this plan. There were times when he would get upset and the only way to calm him down was with a bottle. By the time Ada was born, he was down to three bottles a day, but we were stuck there and didn't really see how we were going to make the full transition to drinking with a cup. Over the summer, we tried to offer the cup more often, but there was a lot going on for Jude and we didn't want to make this transition time even more stressful by taking away his bottles.

The constant refrain of "JUDEY, MOKEY, BOTTLE, YEAH" (in the whiniest voice you can imagine) was getting on our nerves by the time we left to go to Alaska in August. We packed his bottles, but decided to try to take them away cold-turkey, starting with the plane trip. We only offered him milk from his sippy cup, and when he asked for a bottle we told him that we didn't have any. I thought that since everything was different anyway (different place, different routine) he might accept this more easily than he would if we were at home. And...it worked! At first, he asked for bottles at the times when he would have usually had one (before nap and bedtime) but after a few days he stopped asking. By the time we got home, he was pretty used to the new reality. I did run into the house and hide all of the bottles before we let him in, just so he wouldn't see them and be reminded of what he was missing. But even back at our house, he only asked for a bottle a few times, and without much conviction. He was weaned.

So, just before his second birthday is when Jude finally switched from the bottle to the cup. It's later than it should have been, according to most people, but at least it happened! I'm a little bit surprised at how easily he let go once we got tough about this. I guess the timing was right. I was curious about how Jude would react to seeing Ada drink from bottles, but since she refuses, it has mostly been a non-issue. We do have bottles of "ADA MOKEY" around the house sometimes, but Jude seems to recognize that they are not his and doesn't try to drink them (I thought he might). Even the empty bottles sitting on the drying rack in the kitchen don't seem to tempt him at this stage. He doesn't actually say "Bottles are for babies", but I get the feeling that this is how he sees them now. Our boy is growing up.

Little Things: Ada, Five Months

2010-09-26T19:04:00.000-07:00

Ada is five months old today! Our girl is becoming more of a sweetheart every day. She has such a lovely personality. She's always smiling, laughing, and in general very happy, unless she gets hungry or tired.

Although she can roll, she doesn't do it very often. Usually she will stay put on either her back or tummy. She loves sitting up in the Bumbo and also in the corner of one of our couches. She's a very good "chore companion", content to sit and watch Daddy in the kitchen or Mommy doing laundry. She's doing a little bit of scooting around (for example spinning 90 degrees when placed on the floor) but doesn't seem to have the NEED to move yet. I'm sure that will come.

Ada is getting used to spending weekdays without Mommy. She drinks 7-8 ounces of milk from a sippy cup each day while I'm at work (this is how much I can pump each day, so it works out pretty well). She does usually have a fussy period during the day while I'm gone, lasting up to two hours. I think that if I were there and could nurse her, this wouldn't happen, but she needs to learn other ways of being soothed.

Ada's sleep habits are still erratic. Last week, she slept through the night twice in a row, but then over the weekend she was up 4-5 times each night. At least we know she is capable of sleeping through the night! It will be nice when that happens a bit more consistently. Her naps are also fairly unpredictable, but she does usually nap for 2-3 hours at some point in the day, in two or three naps. She'll usually have one "long" nap and one or two shorter ones. But we never know which is which until they are over!

Ada is loving her rice cereal. We've been giving it to her about every other day, and other than the first night (when she didn't sleep well) she hasn't seemed to have any reaction to it. We're going to add some orange veggies next (sweet potato, squash, carrot) then move on to fruits. She is still nursing 7-8 times a day, for 15-25 minutes each time.

Here is a photo from a few days ago, with a classic Ada expression.

A family photo from last week. It's the best one we were able to get, although everyone is very serious!

Ada's hanging out with our neighbor, Anna.

Sleep Training, Take Two

2010-09-21T21:27:00.000-07:00

With a second baby, some things are easier and some things are harder. For example, breastfeeding is going well. Bottle feeding (while I'm at work) is not. But Ada is doing her best with a sippy cup, and seems to be getting enough to eat.

Ada is almost five months old, and sleep training should be well underway. This is one of the things I would have expected to be easier the second time. We've read the books and we have "sleep training experience" from Jude, but I'm finding that getting Ada on any kind of consistent sleep schedule is challenging. It's not that she doesn't sleep. She does...but not with any predictability with respect to go-to-sleep time or sleep duration. Sometimes she'll take a 2 hour morning nap, sometimes it's 30 minutes. Sometimes her afternoon nap starts at 2, sometimes it's 4. Sometimes she wakes up at 8:30 in the morning, sometimes at 6:30. Sometimes she's up once in the night, sometimes twice. Sometimes she's in bed for the night at 8pm, sometimes it's closer to 10. I don't know if we've ever had two days with the same sleep pattern. Also, we've had limited success with getting Ada to fall asleep on her own. Usually one or both of us ends up rocking or walking her to sleep. If she wakes up, we give her the opportunity to get back to sleep on her own, but it often doesn't work without some help.

I was reading back over Jude's five-month post over the weekend, and was somewhat surprised to remember that at this age, Jude was in bed every night by 7pm and we were looking for babysitters so that we could go out on the town. I can't imagine having that kind of confidence in our ability to get Ada down for the night at that hour, let alone the energy to want to leave the house!

So, what's the problem? I could blame the conflicts with Jude's schedule, or the noisy nursery, or a difference in Ada's "sleep personality". Or maybe it's a question of commitment. It's true that Jude was a better sleeper from the beginning (following in his Mom's footsteps of loving the multi-hour nap) while Ada seems to have her Dad's sleep proclivities (a 20 minute nap is often more than enough to leave her refreshed). But it's more than that. When Jude was a baby, we were able to decide to focus on his sleep schedule and make it a priority. We had the time for that, and few other pressing commitments. Now, there's preschool drop-off, and trips to the Zoo, and grocery shopping, and evening parties, and a million other things that get in the way of being home to allow Ada to sleep in her crib with any sort of regularity. So she's napping in the car seat, or in the baby carrier, or getting to bed late, or being woken up to suit someone else's schedule.

So far it's working out reasonably well. Ada naps most days, and sleeps well enough at night. We have days when we're tired, but also days when we get enough sleep. I think we're still in the "just getting by" phase where we do what we need to do to keep everyone as happy as possible. But I wonder if our haphazard approach to Ada's sleep needs is going to come back to bite us at some point. They say that lifetime sleep patterns are molded during these first months and years. Are we going to be able to "catch up" at some point and get her on an age-appropriate schedule, able to fall asleep without parental assistance? Or is this just something that we have to accept when it comes to raising the second child? The needs of the family are so much more complex this time around.

Pirate Booty

2010-09-20T08:34:00.000-07:00

We attended the Pirate Festival this weekend! Jude was suitably impressed by the weird people in full pirate regalia.

He was also impressed by the giant pirate ship, the marimba band, the balloon guy, and the inflatable bouncy castles. He was not impressed with the opportunity to hold the parrot. At least not after the first try - see below!

He was really, really not impressed by the super loud cannon fire. "Enough."

Nathan and Gryphon joined us for what is rapidly becoming a family tradition. Jude was very brave on the pirate ship slides, but he occasionally asked for help. Nathan was happy to provide it.

Check out this video of the action on Nathan's blog. Thanks, guys!

Rice Cereal

2010-09-19T19:12:00.000-07:00

With a little less fanfare than Jude's first meal, Ada had her first taste of "food" tonight. It was rice cereal, and she ate about 10 small bites. Some of the bites she swallowed, and a few she spit out, but I think she liked it.

You can hear Jude and Daddy in the background, making hamburgers for dinner.