I just never seem to have time to sit down a write a letter. So here in very brief is what is up. Stealth Baby is now eating table food. And boy can that child eat. After being sick for so long of Christmas he ended up losing a bit over a pound. So to combat the Bronchitis they put him on Abuertal – which makes him into psycho baby. Between all that extra medicine enhanced energy and trying to make up for the weight he lost I was feeding him around 5 times a day. And not just snacks mind you , but meals! I was going out of my mind trying to think of different things to feed him – not just over the course of several days, but over the span on 1 day! So he starting getting left overs from the other kids plates. Hmmm, still hungry after lunch? Here, have Precious’s half of a grilled cheese. So now he’s getting a fair amt. of table food. I keep telling myself: you cannot give him hotdogs until he’s one! you cannot give him hotdogs until he’s one! Some very random information – got his eyes checked in mid November and they confirmed what I already knew – that he had a blocked tear duct. The options were prayer (very few get better spontaneously after 6 months of age), sticking a tube up his nose to break the membrane, and if that didn’t work surgery. We opted for prayer with an appointment made for Jan. 11 to have the tube thing done. Basically the first week in December the eye got better! Praise God! So that was GREAT.

Stealth Baby’s 9 month check up was way back on Dec. 7. Believe it or not he was 24 pounds, 11 oz. (Was hoping for 25 pounds!) He’s not to 25 pounds yet because he lost weight when he had Impetigo and Bronchitis over Christmas. Of course, he was the perfect picture of health then. Funny thing – so the nurse asked about breast feeding and I said yes, I still was. And she said, "How often" and I said, "Constantly" SO she is like, "well, can you give me a better estimate." OK, tangent – why is this important? There is some stupid form they have to fill out for the beancounters. The child eats on demand during the night 4 days a week. He’s a beautiful bouncing horse of a baby. Why are you so concerned about breastmilk? So I’m like – well, he snacks every 2 hours but has a real meal every 4 or 5. The nurse laughed out loud and said, I’ve never heard anyone describe it quite like that. But it’s true. I have no idea how often Stealth Baby eats. Basically whenever he seems to want it. PS – the little shit doesn’t like glasses. I’ve been trying to get him to take juice in a class but no go. So I caved in and gave him juice in a bottle. He’s only just now figured out how to hold the bottle on this own and drink out of it. Know what this means? It means that they hold him when they feed him at daycare! That’s what that means! So actually I’m pleased that it took him a month of trying to figure out how to grab a bottle or cup and bring it successfully to his mouth. Of course, he should have been able to do that at 6 months (according to the bean counters) but as a breastfed baby I don’t think that’s relative.

Stealth Baby began trying to stand Nov. 30 – he would spread his legs far apart then use his arms to push back until his was ‘standing’ like an A-frame. Somewhat like a crawl position except his legs were locked into an upright position. He now can pull up to standing from everything and is just starting to ‘cruise’. He is actually not that interested in moving around – but he seems consumed by the idea of standing unassisted. So that’s mainly what he does; pull up to standing, arrange legs, let go of everything and flap arms (and smile broadly,) fall on his backside. Yesterday he started crawling up the stairs. Up until that point he was content (Ok, content is not the right word since any time he was at the bottom of the stairs and I was upstairs he was unappy. How about, resigned) to stay at the bottom of the stairs and complain when left behind. But now he’s figured out how to get up them. Happily I saw him and caught him before he attempted to sit back or anything. Since he still crawls right off the bed if given the chance, I don’t seem him figuring out how not to fall backwards down the stairs. Kid supposedly are supposed to get the concept of space and distance and therefore learn not to crawl off high things. Stealth Baby is clearly not there. He attempts to crawl off the bed, to crawl down the stairs, off the couch. And he’s fallen off the bed a few times – so he’s experienced what happens. But he clearly doesn’t get it.

However, besides his uncanny ability to land on his head, I swear that child is part cat. There is not a single activity that he doesn’t want to be a part of, or can’t screw up. He drives PUMPKIN and Precious nuts. Like, if Precious wants to color (and she LOVES to color!!) Stealth Baby comes over and sits (!) on whatever page she is coloring! And then he wants to chew on a crayon – but not just any crayon, but he has to repeatedly attempt to take the one from Precious’s hand. And then we’ll all be playing a board game (Chutes and Latters or Candyland.) Again, Stealth Baby HAS to sit in the middle of the board. Any toy PUMPKIN has in his hand Stealth Baby has to touch. And heven forbid I open a newspaper. Let the fun begin. We figured out that it is actually easier to set up the big playpen and stick PUMPKIN and Precious in there with their small toys. That way they can sprawl out with the coloring books and crayons and Stealth Baby isn’t chewing on them. When Stealth Baby is in the playpen he screams and yells. He doesn’t get that mad when other kids are in there. I don’t care how it happens, I just want to be able to leave the room occasionally.

Oh yes, just yesterday Stealth Baby got the concept of turning lights on and off. Boy does he love to flip the switch. He’s not so good with turning on, but he’s great at turning off. And you should see his head swing. He’ll stare intently at the switch to make sure he gets his fingers on it, then he flips it down. And then his head swings abruptly trying to ‘see’ the light go off, which of course he misses since it’s already off, then he actually giggles out loud.

PUMPKIN is amazing as ever. Last Monday was a bizarre day and I got into work late. It was a rainy day so we definitely wanted PUMPKIN to go to soccer that night since he had been cooped up in daycare all day. So Hubby took all 3 kids to the soccer gym and I met them there at 6:30 (it was a fun family night, actually.) Since I got there so late we all stayed together to watch. They let the kids ‘play’ soccer – and PUMPKIN now understands the concept of defense! Wow! It is just so amazing to be a part of his life. To see his mind grow. He now somewhat anticipates what is going to happen. Instead of just running madly after the ball, you can see those gears a working – that he sees that a person from the other team is going to get to the ball first, that the other team member is going to kick the ball back in his direction, so just maybe he should hang back a bit and see if he can get the ball on the way back.

I just have to write a one line sentence saying Hubby and I are really having a great time together. I can’t think of Christmas as being stressful, but right now we are just having a blast together. And its not like we are actually doing anything! Just watching hockey, talking about this one show we both like (Farscape), playing Candyland with the kids. I don’t know. But for the last 2 weeks we have been getting a lot of joy from each other’s company. Hmmmm, maybe I’m just in a good mood. J But it seems like a lot of things are working well this month so far. Dinners are going well, I’m getting enough sleep – Stealth Baby gets up for a snack around midnight then sleeps through till I wake him up around 6:45. Last night we had a great dinner. This is funny – I’d even prepared something, but then Hubby got stuck in a meeting and wasn’t going to get home until 6. It was the beautiful day out and a bunch of kids were haing out in our yard. So I bought Ice Cream s’mores from the Schwans guy. When Hubby came home he brought donuts from the meeting. So we had the nutritious dinner of ice cream and donuts.

Precious is a doll-babe. She got a HUGE teddy bear for Christmas. HUGE. As in, bigger than she is (I am NOT kidding.) She also got a Precious-sized thing called a Pika-choo. Well, she simply MUST sleep with both of them. You should see her in her crib – it’s hysterical! So she’s got ‘teddy’ on one side and Pika-choo on the other and she’s smushed in between them. There’s no room for her! And she also has to have one of her other random assortment of smaller teddy bears with her as well. Her crib looks like a toy box that I’ve shoved her into! She really likes the big teddy and likes it to be a part of her night time story ritual. Well, it’s so large I can’t hold both her and it on my lap at the same time and see the book. So it has to ‘sit’ on a chair next to us. It’s really quite amusing. Right now she’s in my bed because Stealth Baby is also sleeping (and Stealth Baby takes shorter naps than Precious. And God forbid he water her up because a tired Precious is hell on earth.) So we had to take big teddie and put him in bed with her.

Precious just loves books. If she’s not carrying a stuffed something, she’s carrying a book. So I’m always taking armloads of random (and I do mean random) books out of the van because she carries one out there every morning. What is really neat is that she already memorizes some stories so she can ‘read’ them. Like, she just loves Green Eggs and Ham – so she will sometimes ‘read’ it to one of her animals. And also the book Guess How Much I Love You. Well, she knows what upside down means now, so that is the highlight of the book.

Precious must be hot all the time or something. She loves to take her clothes off. And if she can’t get them off or if I win that battle of wills and make her keep them on – then she pulls up the sleeves above her elbows and tries to pull her pants above the knees. And no matter where she is, she will take her shoes and socks off at a moments notice. I usually don’t mind, but it’s been quite cold here and I am waiting for her to get sick since she routinely is wearing one less layer than the rest of us. Daycare asked us to get her different shoes because she kept taking hers off and then running around outside in the mud. Joy.

Precious and PUMPKIN both got Blues Clues sing along (?) ‘things’ for Christmas. They’re not radios or cassette players – but you push buttons and songs play and it has a (loud, of course) microphone. Well, you should see Precious (and Stealth Baby!) do the birthday candle dance. Awesome! So Precious bounces around and then yells "Blow out the Candles!" and falls to the floor. What is truly awesome is to watch Stealth Baby – he dances too!! I just can’t believe it! He already knows to push the buttons and then he rocks back and forth dancing in his own little world. Stealth Baby is SUCH a joy.

Today we all went swimming, which was a huge success. My kids just love the water. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a child love the water as much as Stealth Baby. He delights in it! Of course, he’s missing that ‘get a clue’ gene – so he giggles and splashes and crawls furiously down the water ramp. And he keeps crawling until his head is totally underwater. So I frantically rescue him (sputtering and coughing) and place him where he is safe – only to have him made a made dash under water again. Precious was also having a blast. She kept wanting to run down the ramp too, which is not safe, so I’d sing a ‘march’ song. So she’s ‘marching’ by picking her knees up real high and stepping/splashing hard. So she gets to about calf deep and yells (you guessed it) "Blow out the candles" and jumps knees first into the water. She did this for about 15 minutes.

Ms. Ellie was there. She is the one who ‘dropped’ PUMPKIN so he got water up his nose, and PUMPKIN then decided he didn’t trust her. So he refused to swim at Dale City any more. I think she has noticed our absence. So she took PUMPKIN aside to see if he would swim with her. At first PUMPKIN was shy. However, his options were be one of 3 children vying for mommy’s attention or have Ms. Ellie all to himself. It didn’t take long until he was loving her again, which is a relief for me.

Oh yeah – they have these 4 foot floatie tubes that you can use to swim. Well, one of them had a hole the whole length of the tube. PUMPKIN realized (where he thinks of these things?!) he could put part of it under water and then blow through the hole and shoot me with water. So this was great fun – except sometimes I would grab the other end and blow and then he’d get a face full of water. How his mind works is a wonderful mystery.

Well Stealth Baby just got up and I didn’t hear him because I was down here typing. So he started rocking his crib into the wall – which woke Precious up who is now fussy and screaming. Argh! Plus, if you open my fridge you see: 2 cans of coffee, yogurt, butter, potatoes and cheese. Notice we have no milk, OJ, apple juice, apple sauce, eggs, any vegetables etc. So I’m going to have to take Miss Congeniality to the grocery store.

Wish me luck.