Take a Stand

After a couple of weeks of "standing" on her knees, Molly finally took the plunge and pulled herself up to a full stand today. I was sitting on the couch and she was on her knees, peering over the top of the couch, when she finally managed to get her foot underneath her and push herself up. She looked a little surprised and was holding tight to the couch cushion, but she demonstrated her new trick a few more times before deciding she was tired and fussy and in need of a nap.

Of course, her newfound ability makes it even easier for her to get into things. Molly has a sock fetish -- she loves to take off her socks and chew on them. Now that it is warmer, we don't often put socks on her (we love seeing those fat little baby feet), so Molly has devised other means of getting her sock fix. She has figured out how to pull herself up on the baby laundry basket and rifles through it until she finds a sock. Once the sock is in her possession, she stuffs it into her mouth and crawls away as fast as she can (apparently, socks are the best sort of dirty laundry to chew). Of course, we then have to give chase and attempt to pry the sock out from between her firmly clenched teeth. Good times. ;)

Max had his checkup with the pediatric orthopedic surgeon on Friday. Max was being his regular charming self -- waving and says "Hi!" to just about everyone we passed on the way to the appointment. When we got there, the doctor checked him over and gave him the all clear -- his leg is perfectly fine and everything is hunky dory. Max must have been pleased with the news, because he gave the doctor a thank you hug and a kiss (which must have brightened her day). I think that was probably the speediest hospital appointment we've ever had, so stopped by the NICU for a brief visit on our way out. A few of Max's favorite nurses were there and they were happy to see how big and strapping their little NICU grad had become! We're hoping we can make the NICU reunion picnic this year, since we weren't able to make the last two. On our way out of the hospital we ran into one of my old co-workers and her little boy -- we hadn't seen each other in about four years and it was funny to bump into each other at the hospital!

We're enjoying our holiday weekend. Grandma was in town briefly yesterday and we had a very important second birthday party to attend this afternoon. Max had a grand old time playing with (or at least around) a pack of kids. He came home full, tired, happy, and grubby -- definitely hallmarks of a successful day in the life of a two year old. He had such a fun time playing with all the yard toys in their back yard that I'm convinced that we need to figure out a plan to divide our back yard into dog and kid zones. Of course, that's assuming we can even find the back yard under all the weeds (that was supposed to be my weekend project, except that it has conveniently rained all weekend ;).

Blistex Memories

Blistex Fruit Smoothies Triple Tropical lip balm. It isn't the brand or the scent that I normally buy (I'm a strawberry Chapstick kind of gal), but it was left over from a pack that we bought for the big kids and I stuffed it in one of my coat pockets to use as "emergency" lip balm. I had no idea that is exactly what it would become.

I'm one of those lip balm addicts -- I have to have some with me at all times or I go into fierce withdrawal. For some bizarre reason, I have had that same tube of lip balm on my person every single time I've been to the hospital over the last few years. I now associate the acrid, vaguely citrusy smell with fear and uncertainty and gut-wrenching worry. It was in the pocket of my winter coat when I walked into the hospital, 26 weeks pregnant with Max, and was shocked to discover that I was in pre-term labor (2 cm dilated, 50% effaced). It was the only lip balm I had with me when I returned to the hospital a week later on the night Max was born. It lived in my coat pocket during all those visits to the NICU -- while I sat by Max's isolette, during all those trying sessions in the pump room, and as I walked the hospital halls. When Max had his urgent hernia surgery when he was 13 weeks old (just days after he was supposed to have been born), it was with me as I slept next to his bed in the pediatric unit. I'll never forget how very small and tiny and still he looked lying in that great big hospital bed, swaddled in rough, white, institutional blankets.

The blasted lip balm was in my coat pocket when I was hospitalized only 22 weeks into my second pregnancy, and it was there when I was hospitalized again at 30 weeks (I was scared to death both times). Since I had already begun to loathe that particular tube of lip balm, I bought a new tube for my hospital bag (Blue Crazeberry Chapstick) ... only to accidentally leave it on my bedside table when my water broke in the middle of the night at 34 weeks. When Max fractured his leg and had to be hospitalized overnight, it mysteriously appeared in the pocket of one of my OTHER coats. And last night, while I sat on a gurney in the hallway of the pediatric ER, holding my teary-eyed little boy, guess what I found in my pocket and gave him to play with? He doesn't seem to have the same bad associations with that particular tube of lip balm, because he was sporting a curious tangerine-colored moustache by the time we were discharged (ever so grateful to learn that Max's fingers, which had been pinched in an interior door, were just bruised and not broken).

To me, our hospital's signature "scent" will always be Blistex Fruit Smoothies Triple Tropical lip balm. One whiff of the lip balm carries with it a host of other hospital memories -- the smell of the antiseptic NICU soap (with a dash of aloe vera Purell thrown in), the feel of the scratchy hospital sheets, the songs that were playing during my stays ("The Rowing Song" by Patty Griffin is Max's signature song, Molly's is Deb Talan's "Comfort"). It's amazing how the smell of something can trigger so many memories that would otherwise be forgotten.

I'm throwing it out.

Max Likes Elephants

Max has a favorite new video (heck, I even like it!):



He especially enjoys saying "mice" at the appropriate spot.

The Sweetest Sound

Molly gave me a belated Mother's Day present today -- she said Mama! She's been getting closer and closer to those much-anticipated words over the last couple of weeks. She'd been making a lot of "nnnnnaa nnnnaaa" noises that seemed to be directed to me. But when I was playing with her today, she managed to get out the sweetest little "mmmmmmmaaaa mmmmmmmmmaaaa" and even repeated it several more times (Dad can back me up). That and the fact that she took THREE naps today earned Molly a lot of brownie points. ;)

Molly is working on cutting incisor number eight, so she's been fussy and not sleeping well. She's also been on a nursing strike during the day for the past couple of days, so she's been waking up even more than usual at night to eat. She's getting to the age where she really wants to check out what is going on around her and doesn't want to sit still and take the time to nurse. But, for some reason, she has really been enjoying her solid food meals. Mom and Dad weren't quite fast enough getting her dinner ready last night and she was in her high chair kicking and flailing her arms and yelling for her dinner! We started giving her some flattened peas to try eating on her own and she thinks feeding herself is a great deal of fun (even if a lot of the peas end up in her bib or under her chair).

Max has been enjoying his meals too -- the boy has been eating like a horse! His leg seems to have mended nicely and his limp has all but disappeared. He is very happy to be able to resume his after dinner walks, especially when we go to the neighborhood park (happily, the path to the park is two houses down from ours). Molly usually comes along for the ride in her sling and often falls asleep while we walk.

Max, who has always been interested in books, has decided that he's ready for something a little more thought provoking than the latest issue of Babybug. He's recently taken to perusing my library and selecting a novel to "read." Today he grabbed The Brothers Karamazov off of the shelf, carried it over to the couch (where Molly can't pester him), and sat down to read. He sat there for a good ten minutes, flipping through the book, and "reading" out loud (unlike Alice, Max doesn't seem to have any problems paying attention to a book with no pictures in it). Heart of Darkness and Cosmicomics are other favorites, although he usually passes up Bleak House (unlike Mama, he must not be a Dickens fan). Now if only we could get Molly to appreciate good literature in anything but the gastronomical sense. ;)

Once Upon a Potty

Big news about some big jobs over here -- Max pooped on the potty today for the first time! I brought him upstairs to get him ready for bed and he wanted to sit on the potty and read books and play with toys (bedtime stall tactic). So, he sat and sat and sat and sat, and with a little encouragement he ended up using the potty for its intended purpose. I think he had to go and happened to be in the right place at the right time, rather than a conscious potty effort, but it's a start!

Max made me laugh because after he went, he bent over, peered into the potty, spotted the poo, and said, "Uh oh!!" He was pretty enthusiastic about his M&M rewards (now in the locked closet, rather than the boy-eating dresser) and emptying his potty into the toilet. He likes to flush the toilet and watch the poop disappear -- he always sends it on its way with, "Bye bye, poo poo!"

I know we have a way to go before he's ready for big boy underwear, but can you imagine how awesome it will be to eventually only have one kid in diapers? ;)

Mother's Day

After a baby shower on Friday, a long-overdue visit to friends on Saturday, we topped off the busy weekend with a nice Mother's Day. Dad and I got everyone up early so we could go to church with Grandma. I'm pleased to report that for the first time since Molly was born, we were actually out the door and in the car at exactly the time we wanted to be out the door and in the car. :P Hooray! Max and Molly were all dressed up for church and looking very cute, but defied multiple attempts to get a cute picture of them together. I thought it would be nice to get in the shot with them (and assumed I could get them to cooperate better that way), but had no better luck (example: see heavily Photoshopped picture above).

After church, we came home, changed into comfy clothes, and all of us took a nice, long nap. Dad had to work Sunday night, so we opted to postpone my Mother's Day dinner until next weekend, so we could enjoy it properly. So, for Molly's first Mother's Day, we ended up just having a lazy, uneventful day, which was fine by me! My Mother's Day present was a set of Photoshop actions that I had been eyeing, so I've been having some fun playing with my digital photos. I gave myself permission to indulge in a cup of coffee, which tasted sooo good. I also gave myself a free housework and laundry pass and spent the evening being wonderfully lazy and enjoying a good read. Of course, that meant I had twice as much laundry to fold yesterday ... :P

Aside from the baby smiles and kisses that I was given, the very best Mother's Day present that I received was from Dad. He got up with the babies on Saturday morning and let me sleep in until 10!!! I think I'd be happy to get that same present every year!

What Moms Really Want

In spite of the fact that I have a house full of kids, I don't think the idea that I'm a mother has fully sunk in yet. In my mind, Mother's Day is reserved for celebrating our moms and I kind of forget that it's my day too! That being the case, I think they need to change how Mother's Day is observed. Flowers and cards and chocolates are all well and good, but if you want some advice from the motherhood trenches, here's what we moms really want:

On Mother's Day every mom should be allowed to sleep as late as they want and take as many naps as desired. Mom would be excused from all housework, all diaper changing, all bathing, and wouldn't have to sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" even one time. No kiddie videos would be playing in the background and all toys that talk, play music, or have grating sound effects would be mercifully silenced. There would be no grocery shopping, no meal planning, and definitely no kitchen clean up! The laundry would have to wait or, better yet, be sorted, treated for stains, washed, folded, and put away by someone other than Mom. There would be no whining, no tantrums, and no need for "corner time." In fact, all spouses and children should vacate the premises, so Mom can cavort around the house and do wild and crazy things (like sit down for more than five minutes at a time and read more than a page and a half of a book ;).

Of course, although the first 15 minutes in an empty, quiet house would be sheer bliss, Mom would find that the silence would become more and more oppressive and the empty house would feel lonelier and lonelier. She would miss the sound of little feet running across the floor and feel lost without the little hands and faces wanting to examine everything she does. She would miss the silly giggles and the baby laughs and the chubby little arms reaching up to her. Truth be told, she would even miss singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" for the umpteenth time -- after all, where else would her singing ever attract such a devoted following.

What we really want is the very thing we already have -- the best Mother's Day present I could ever have been given was the opportunity to be a mother. And I'm lucky enough to be able to enjoy my present every single day of the year. Nothing can top the happy giggles and exclamations of "Mama!" that I hear as my toddler excitedly wiggles the (baby proofed) doorknob when I come home from work. Nothing can beat the delighted squeals from my baby as she crawls over to me as fast as her little arms and legs can carry her. Never mind the flowers and the cards, you've already given me the very best gift of all -- my children.

Breaking the Curve

Molly had her well baby checkup yesterday and she's a preemie superstar! For those of you who were playing along at home, Molly weighed in at 22 lbs and was measured at 29 inches long. Once again, my formerly petite princess was found at the top of the growth charts -- 91% for weight, 85% for height, and 40% for head circumference (that's actual age, mind you). Big baby! I think the height measurement might have been a little inflated, because Molly was being pretty wiggly. But, then again, the girl is wearing 12 and 12-18 month clothes, so maybe not!

She was doing everything on the developmental checklist, with the exception of the "pincher grasp." The doctor was a little concerned about that and wanted me to let her know in a month's time if Molly still wasn't picking up small objects between her forefinger and thumb. Of course, I immediately started worrying about that, until I got home and told Dad about her delayed milestone. Dad started laughing and told me that Molly has been doing that for weeks! Observant mama that I am, I never even noticed (I guess I'm doing a better job keeping the floors clean than I thought!). So, I plonked Molly down, tore up a couple tiny pieces of white paper, and set them on the carpet in front of her. Sure enough, she daintily picked up the paper between her thumb and forefinger and quickly tried to stuff it in her mouth. So, I guess I'll check that off of my worry list and start thinking about trying Molly on some finger food.

Dad had a dentist appointment at the same time as the checkup, so Max came with me to the doctor's office. His recent round of doctor and hospital visits must have affected him, because as soon as we walked into the examining room he started to HOWL. I sat him down on one of the chairs and he started to feel a bit better after they wheeled in the scale to weigh Molly (after all, it has buttons). Within a few minutes he was checking out the room, trying to steal the nurse's pen, flirting with the doctor, and eyeing the laptop. He got a lollipop on the way out, so hopefully the uneventful visit reinforced the idea that bad things don't always happen at the doctor's office!

The weather is warming up here, so we've been having lots of fun going for walks and rides. Today Big Brother and Big Sister had a track meet, so Max and Molly got to spend a couple hours outside at one of the local high school's sports field. Since Max inherited Mom's fair skin and since we're not taking any chances with Molly, even though she didn't, the babies were well coated with sunblock and sporting sun hats (thank goodness for sun hats with chin straps). Max was less than interested in the track meet and just wanted to go exploring in the grass. Between events, we trudged through the grass behind the bleachers, examining the grass and plants and looking for bugs. Max was fascinated by a big, old bumblebee that was flying around. He'd follow after it yelling, "Bee! Bee!" until it flew up out of his sight. He'd then look around for it until it flew back down to toddler level. The big kids gave it their all at the meet and Big Brother came in second in his heat (even though he was racing against much older kids). It was nice to attend a school sporting event outside for a change -- stuffy gymnasium and bottom-numbing bleachers get old after a while!

On the Move!

It's been a busy few weeks around here, hence the severe lack of blog updates. I can only plead extreme exhaustion and the inability to be more than two places at once (since, as everyone knows, moms always have to be in at LEAST two places at one time ;). The reason for my lack of energy is the fact that Max and Molly are both fully mobile! Max finally started walking again last week, much to our relief. After a week and a half had passed and Max was showing no interest in walking (not to mention the fact that the knees of his pants were starting to wear out after all the crawling around), we were about ready to drag him back to the hospital to make sure everything was ok. But, Max suddenly decided that crawling was for babies and just started walking around. He was pretty shaky at first and walked with a major limp, but he gets better every day. Now he's walking and running around at almost full speed with only a minor limp. We're back to our regularly scheduled evening walks, much to Max's delight (and Molly enjoys the catnap she gets while riding around in her sling).

Max is learning new things every day and is just a funny little guy. He's talking a lot and putting more and more words together. After a month of being stuck in a cast, he got very good at asking for things. Most of his sentences consist of asking for "more" of something ("more dee dee," "more cookie," "more walk"). Dad called me at work the other day and Max wanted to say hi. When he got on the phone, he promptly asked me for "Up! Cookie! Peese!" Apparently he wanted to be lifted up so he could reach the cupboard where we keep the cookies -- he must have figured that Mom was just the softie to hear his request. ;) He's happy that we're able to resume our walks to the park and has discovered the joy of going down the kiddie slides ("Whee!"). He's also very interested in sticks ("stihs"), pinecones ("minemones"), and flowers ("flahs"). We came home for a walk the other day and I noticed that Max's nose and upper lip were yellow. He hadn't had anything yellow for dinner (plus, I had washed his face), so I thought maybe he had somehow colored on his face earlier in the day when he was playing with his crayons. Upon further inspection I realized that the yellow was actually dandelion pollen. Max had been smelling the "flowers" at the park and apparently he likes butter!

Molly agrees with Max that crawling is for babies -- namely, her! Last week Molly started to abandon her (amazingly speedy) army crawl for some "proper" crawling on her hands and knees. She does more regular crawling and less army crawling every day, although if she really wants to get somewhere in a hurry (like over to Mom when she comes home from work), she plops down on her belly and army crawls like crazy. Molly is such a cute crawler -- she looks like a little wind-up toy as she moves around the house. Molly is starting to figure out that she can pull herself up -- she has yet to really pull herself up on anything, but when she was in the crib the other day, she put her little hands on the rail, pulled herself on to her knees, and peered over the railing at us (obviously, we lowered the crib as soon as we saw her do that).

Molly has been much less crabby than she was, which may be a combination of recontinued Zantac, a better nap schedule, and cooperative teeth. She still isn't sleeping well at night, so we need to work on that. Once I get her daytime nap schedule in place, we'll work on the night wakings. Molly continues to be the perfect pesky little sister and drives Max nuts by trying to get into whatever he is doing. He has a special whiney "NoOoOoo" that is reserved especially for his sister. We've had to teach him to take his books up on the couch to look at so that Molly can't maul him while he "reads" (Molly thinks books are good for chewing). Her latest (terribly cute) accomplishment is clapping. Unlike Max's initial cool, one-handed clap, Molly does the classic splay-fingered baby clap. Molly has her 9-month well-baby checkup later this week, so stay tuned to see how much the little chunk weighs (we need a "Guess Molly's Current Weight" pool ;).

Whut?

Since I've been laughing about this for the better part of two days, I just had to share -- check out LOLTrek. Please note that you will probably only find this funny if you a) like Star Trek and b) have a slightly off-kilter sense of humor. Apparently I meet both of those conditions (no wai!). ;)