My life.

Life is still pretty good here - mainly because it is not getting dark outside until past 7pm. It is amazing what a difference that makes to me. We've been hanging out in the front yard in the dark recently! I hate it when I leave in the dark and get home in the dark - it seems like life is so dismal and claustrophobic then! I'm still getting to work around 8:15ish or at least by 8:30. I love my job, I just wish I could leave an hour eariler. I would love to leave at 4 every day, but I don't think that I ever could. The nature of my job usually requires me to be there till 4:30 or 4:45. Sigh. I hate getting home when it's dark.

The big news is that I've had to get new glasses. Several new pairs, actually! I kept getting these killer headaches at work, and once even got dizzy and sick. (Scary!) I went to the nurses office and my blood pressure was low (it's always near 100/70 - so this was like 90/60) This concerned the nurse. She then asked me if I could be pregnant - to which I laughed out loud! So then she asks, "Hmmmm. What would you do if you were pregnant?" Me: "Cry." So I went to the doctors who happily found not a thing wrong. So the next stop was the eye doctor who found that I have no far away vision and also no close vision, meaning I needed 2 totally separate perscriptions! Gee, so the woman that can't even balance her check book now needs 3 pairs of glasses to get through an average day! 1 pair of far vision for driving, a pair of 'progressive' lenses for when I'm doing both reading and looking up (like typing or meetings) and a pair of reading glasses. However, I can't TELL you how happy I was that they found what was wrong. I hate it when I feel I'm sick and no one knows what's wrong. And I'm also glad I'm neither pregnant nor harboring a fatal brain tumor.

Stealth Baby's life.

Stealth Baby is Awesome! Joe-Laid-Back! He hardly ever cries and seems to take everything in stride. What a great little man. He had his 6 month appointment on the 8th and (big shock) he's huge. He's a pound heavier and an inch taller than Pumpkin at the same age. 21 pounds, 9 oz and 28 7/8 inches long. He's basically skipped all the 18 month clothes and moved right into 24 month stuff. He somewhat fits in 12 month stuff if it's summer clothes- the problem is his legs are so long that for fall/winter stuff he pops all the buttons, even for 18 months! Whoever said that saving your clothes for your 2nd and 3rd children obviously only had 1! My children the linebackers. It was funny, my pediatrician asked me, "are you feeding him any solids?" and I said that I was waiting for his approval. He looked really shocked and said, "Well, Oh. Of course you have my approval. But you know, there is no reason to start feeding him now when he's thriving on breastmilk. You can wait several more months if you wish, although at some point he is going to begin grabbing food from your hands and stuffing it in his mouth." I have to laugh - sure, I'll not feed this 22 pound lump! Easy for HIM to say, he's not lifting his shirt every 3 hours to maintain that mass!

The big news is he got his first solids on Sat.Sept. 16. Mom came up that Friday for the weekend - but we had so much fun stuffed into Friday that we never found time to feed him (oops!) He really seemed to enjoy the oatmeal cereal. He was ready for it! Unlike Pumpkin he didn't spit it all back out at us, but kept opening his mouth for more! I've never seen a baby so happy for his first foods! And you should have seen his feet move! A friend told me that her Pediatrician told her that babies move their feet as much as their hands. I'd never noticed it before - but I believe it! His feet where going around and around in circles - like your hands at the end of your wrists - as he leaned in his seat for more. And he actually yelled when the first bowl was done. At this point he's now had bananas, applesauce, and cheerios. He doesn't seem thrilled with the applesauce and loves cheerios. It seemed to me that he was interested in interacting at dinner. So, I get out a cute little baby bowl, pour in some cheerios and place it in front of him. Duh! SO he promptly picks up the bowl with both hands and raises it to his mouth at high speed, essentially throwing all the cheerios to the ceiling and over his head, and then he chews hungrily on the bowl for a bit. I've said before that I have parenting amnesia! What made me think that was an intelligent thing to do? But Stealth Baby does love to attempt to stuff 'os in his mouth. I think it's a case where he expends more efforts in the attempt then he is gaining from the calories.

As I said, mom was up for a long weekend. She arrived by 9:30 on Friday (yes, she left Pittsburgh at the crack of dawn - hmm, before dawn, actually) It's great she gets here early, because then we can go swimming at 10. I have a super hard time taking the kids on my own. This went fabulously well - and we even brought Stealth Baby into the water for the first time. (Sept. 15) Oh heavens did he LOVE it. He just goes bananas in water. Even in the bathroom he squeals and splashes and generally freaks out. So you should have just seen him in the deep water with me holding him. He loves to float on his back and thrash his legs about.

I can say we have successfully closed the sleep worry closet. Funny how you worry and worry about things, isn't it? Well, I stayed true to my heart and continued to (and still do) go to Stealth Baby every time he wakes up and love him and feed him. He now goes to bed without problems, usually around 7:30. He gets up once in the middle of the night - randomly between 2:30 and 4, and then gets up with me at 6:30. In a GREAT mood when he gets up. Oh, all that wasted time worrying about if he would ever sleep and 'am I doing the right thing.' Every baby I learn anew that I have to trust myself!

Stealth Baby is now up and rocking away. Rocking like MAD! Usually first thing in the morning you can actually hear his crib squeaking as he gets up and his hands and knees and rocks. And the look of intensity of his face! My God I love infants! Everything about them! He started rocking in a coordinated fashion on Sept. 7, and he is already lunging forward instead of just inching backwards.

Oh yeah, have I mentioned that I finally found a nipple that Stealth Baby will take? So that's cleared up some of his eating problems. I also went and bought some really cute bottles 4 oz bottles, (how's that for a weird sentence, cute bottles?) There are called 'wee witness' and have adorable pictures of little dirty kids with halos over their heads. The key is that they are 4 oz instead of 8. Since Stealth Baby is only eating 2 oz at a time, I thought it a shame that they were heating and re-heating the same milk. With a smaller bottle, it is less likely that they have to reheat it often. So it seems to be working. Not that he wasn't gaining wait like crazy anyway.

Finally, Stealth Baby has already discovered that grass comes out of the ground. I swear he is actually trying to be annoying! So I'll lay out the big blanket in the side yard and place Stealth Baby in the exact middle of it. Then I'll turn to see what Pumpkin and Kenny are doing to Precious. By the time I turn my eyes back to Stealth Baby, he has rolled to the end of the blanket and is desperately stuffing grass and mud in his mouth. And you should see him smile at me as I grab him and pull on the blades of grass he mistakenly shoved up his nose. Oh Joyous day! I get to eat grass! So then I'll put him down and actually hold onto his legs so he can't get anywhere. He then discovers that through valiant effort, he is able to pull the blanket enough to uncover the grass below him. Argh. So this happens all evening long.

Precious's life

Precious is awful and wonderful at the same time. At the moment she is going through a very intense clingy stage, which I am trying to put up with. But it's hard to function when she's wrapped around my leg or putting her head on my stomach as I try to feed Stealth Baby. Her emotions obviously overwhelm her. She has unbelievable screaming fits - oh does she work herself up, she just starts shrieking 'no' and screaming so much she gets choked on her own saliva. I swear my neighbors must think that I torture her! I imagine her passions sometimes scare even her and that leads her to being so clingy. So I'm trying to be as good about giving her extra attention as I can.

As I've said before, the child has opinions about absolutely everything! This shirt, those pants, this cup, these shoes - and lots of "nos!" thrown in for good measure. So not only does she distinctly know what she wants, but she is sometimes unable to communicate this preference to us. Like she'll be screaming for the green lid - but what she really wants is the blue lid. And she takes it terribly personally when we give her the green lid, because here she is TELLING us what she wants and we blatantly disregard her wishes. So she's having a very tough life at the moment.

Pumpkin and Kenny are her best friends. She knows who Kenny is and seems to like him. She definitely wants to be included in whatever they do, which is not always possible. On the other hand, she's pretty rough-n-tumble little girl, and takes the knocks and bounces in stride. Which is a good thing since most of Pumpkin and Kenny's games involve chasing each other around the yard and eventually 'accidentally' running into each other and falling over. She also loves to play hockey, which is hysterical since the stick is like twice as big as she is. Oh yeah, Hubby tried taking her for a bike ride in the baby seat on the back of his bike - she HATED it. The minute he slowed down to get near me (I was standing on the sidewalk) Precious began yelling "All Done! All Done!" That was cute.

Hubby's mom and dad came up Sept 22 - 24. Funny story. Sat. night the kids were so dirty and then they spilled juice on the front porch. Well, the bees are getting really aggressive and I didn't want ants, so even though it was dark I pulled out the hose to rise the porch down. So Precious is jumping up and down in the water and it didn't take long for the kids to be running around like mad men in the front yard while I tried to squirt them with the hose. It quickly became a free for all with all of us soaking wet (and having a blast!) Kenny's mom finally came to collect Kenny and James (she must think I am nuts) so I asked Lois to dry off Precious while I took Pumpkin downstairs and cleaned him up. 5 minutes later Precious comes waltzing down the stairs . . . in her swimsuit!! Lois gives me this sheepish look and says, "You know, you just find yourself doing what she asks you." It was SO funny! I felt so much better that Precious can manipulate other people and not just me! She didn't even have a diaper on!

Pumpkin's life.

Pumpkin is still awesome. We are going through a bossy stage, where he somewhat talks back to me. It doesn't really bother me, although I sometimes wonder if I'm not being strict enough with how he talks to me. Hard to explain. Like sometimes he is obviously testing me. Like I'll say, "Pumpkin, shut the door please." And he'll say, "No" even as he shuts it, (which I totally let slide). Or he'll say 'no' and then look at me expectantly, meaning I have to be firm. But most of the time I let him be a little bossy, thinking, it's better for him to have some control then none. Like I'll be singing a song and he'll yell out in an obviously aggressive voice, "Stop Doing That!" and I'll usually say (as calmly as possible, given the circumstance) "Please don't use that tone of voice with me." But again, a lot of the time I let him sass a little bit.

Pumpkin just started "Soccer Sprouts" again. This makes for a tough (for me) Monday since the class starts at 6. Well, usually I'm not home until 5:45 - and there is no way we could eat and get there in time. SO I have to leave work early on Mondays and try to make up the time later in the week. But I think it's worth it. I couldn't stand it if Pumpkin were missing out on fun opportunities simply because I chose to work. Anyway, up until recently, Pumpkin has had a rather vague idea about soccer. Our main goal (here at the ripe age of 4) is the concept of not using your hands. He does love running around. Of course, he takes sports for granted; his dad is willing to throw him a ball, play hockey or ride a bike with him anyday. This is not the case for Kenny. He waits at his house for us to come home, and last Mon. attacked us the minute we got in the driveway - oh he was sooooo excited to play soccer (except he didn't know what it was. He was very pleased with himself when he learned the word. 'This is soccer!' He kept telling me). Well, Pumpkin knows he can play soccer with me anytime - so he was much more interested in riding Kenny's bigwheel. So Pumpkin rode Kenny's bigwheel around the 'sac while I kicked the soccer ball to Kenny. Last night (Oct. 2) I took Pumpkin to soccer (Hubby and I take turns taking him) and it seemed like it was the first time he really grasped the concept of not using your hands. He is fabulous at 'dribbling' the ball and knows to kick it in the net (you should see the look of concentration on his face as he come tearing down the gym) but this is the first time I've seen him use his feet to stop a ball instead of simply jumping on it, or using both hands to scoop it up.

Oh yes - Pumpkin is swimming on Saturdays. It is going really well now that he has a different teacher he that he is not afraid of. He's actually at a totally different pool. These teachers don't seem to push him very hard - but I guess that's the point! Also, at the end of every class they get 10 minutes to simply thrash around and play with water toys. Pumpkin always grabs a bucket and tries to pour it on the one teachers head. I usually take Pumpkin to swimming because that gives me 45 minutes to sit on the sidelines - and I usually write in my journal. Which I really enjoy doing. It's one of the few times I leave Stealth Baby alone with Hubby and can spend some totally guilt free time doing something as useless as my journal. (One page a week!)

Hubby's life.

I am in love with Hubby for reasons I never thought possible. He is such a neat guy. Not just a neat husband, but a great daddy and a neat guy. Hubby has really been paying a lot of attention to this kid called James. James is Kenny's older brother. He is in 6th grade. Poor guy. His parents pay NO attention to him, and (like Kenny) he is rather starved for attention. So (surprise!) he ends up at our house a lot. He'll ring our doorbell and say, "Is Kenny here?" (Like where else would he be?) And I'll say, "Yes James, do you want to come in?" So here is this hulking kid in our basement playing peek-a-boo with Precious and allowing her to cover his head with her baby blanket and pounce on him. It would be really cute except it's also very sad.

I mean, when mom was in town James went to the dump with Hubby (we were dumping some old logs) and then stayed at our house to watch part of the Steeler game. He helped Hubby load up the logs and then unload them, so he actually was useful. Boy must James be lonely! Hubby is SO nice to him, I was really impressed. As Hubby put it, the dump is pretty cool when you're in 6th grade. So Hubby is wonderful. (My dad says, Look like Hubby has a little buddy.) And any time anything that James owns breaks - like his scooter thing that are all the rage with kids now (boy are they fun) he comes to our house and asks Hubby to fix it. It's so neat so see another individual looking at Hubby as if he were the "Man of the House." Which he is, but you know what I mean.

James tried out for the football team - which he had no chance of making since I don't think he even knows what a football is. So it was sad when he got cut. I was impressed that he even took the initiative to try out. So a few days later, there is my wonderful husband out in the street throwing a football to James. It was really sweet. Again, I can't say how impressed I am. James is out there, and Pumpkin and Precious are trying to tackle him and get the ball. And every now and then he lets them have it. I'm excited - this means Hubby is going to be a great dad when the kids are older too! Not that I had any doubt! But it's so cool to know you married the right person.

But James means well - he offers to help all the time! But he also has no concept of right and wrong. Like this idiot threatened some kid by saying "I have a gun at home and I'm going to shoot you." Duh! So James got suspended for a week (which he loved since he sat at home and played video games). But if you talk to him he is actually a very nice kid. In general James and Kenny are not the A+ types of kids I want my kids hanging out with: They play violent video games, watch violent TV shows, bicker and are argumentative. But they both need and want love and just don't know any better. (But is this my responsibility?) On the other hand, I actually haven't found many children I think are good enough for mine. So I make do with what I have. We can always move and try our luck again.

At night we sit on the porch as it gets dark and let the little ones run around in the front yard. Usually James comes over to sit with us as well. I've been amazed at the questions he asks - he's really inquisitive! And he doesn't seem to mind asking questions. If there is a war will I have to go automatically? Aren't we in a war now? What about the gulf war? (Which he had a vague idea of) or about the UN action in Kosovo (which he had no idea about.) And he was saying about how if we go to war he wants to be one of the guys that shoots the gun, so I informed in - James, if you are shooting the gun, I can guarantee people will also be shooting at you. It's not as cool as you think.