Fuzzy Love

Lots to Report

First of all, Olivia is four months old. Unbelievable. And look what she's up to: sitting in that high chair like a little Rory Calhoun. She's not eating yet, but it won't be long now.

We took her to the doctor last week for another well-baby check-up. Her new stats are in and she's a biggun. She's 26 and 5/8 inches long (off the charts) and fifteen pounds one ounce (80th percentile). That's a big baby. And she's into the excer-thingy too.

And she's rolling now too; yesterday she worked those abs and flipped from her back to her front. We're very proud, although now that she can move, life is a tad more difficult. Since Liam never stops moving, it was nice to have a kid that stayed where I put her.

And we're up in Canada again, visiting with my Mom.

We did not buy Olivia a seat, but the plane to Toronto was almost empty so we got a whole row to ourselves. Flying that way is great and I think we should always fly with six seats instead of three. Mark took Olivia across the aisle where she slept most of the flight. And Liam, for some reason, was a dream all day. But then we didn't fly over nap-time, which is hard to accomplish, but it was certainly worth the effort.

And in Liam news, today we went to the mall for a bit, where we checked out a new (to us) children's store out of Montreal called Souris Mini. We only meant to pop in, but they had a little table and chairs with coloring stuff, so Liam was making himself at home and Mark and I were browsing a bit when the clerk asked me, "Do you think your son would like to be in a fashion show?" Well, I didn't know if he'd like it, but I sure as hell would. Because isn't she really saying that my son is highly cute and everyone knows it? Why, sure she is!

Turns out she meant that she'd like Liam to dress up and stand in the front window with a balloon for half an hour. For doing that, we'd get 25% off the outfit, which would be perfect for his Easter outfit (and spring parties). Liam seemed open to it, so we agreed to come back for a 1:30 to 2:00 stint. He wore a rumpled British school boy-type outfit (although he looks a bit AC/DC here, I think) and he knew he looked good. He had a bit of a strut in him those first few minutes.

He spent most of his time in the window box with another two-year-old named Ella, who shared her goldfish, so they got along.

 

And Liam was great. He waved, he sat nicely, and he handed out balloons (although that was not asked of him).

Of course I bought the outfit. Mark thinks the whole experience was designed by Souris Mini to bring in revenue from the moms forced to wait for their kids in the window box, but Liam looked so damn cute...

Waiting For Preschool

Remember our lovely preschool tour? Well, the letters that will inform us if Liam has been accepted or not will be here any day now. I've been checking the mail every day for about two weeks but so far nothing. No one I know has gotten anything yet, so don't jump to the conclusion - however likely it might be - that he didn't get in. Our first choice is still that church basement school, even though Liam and I (mostly me) might have screwed up his chances. Despite the churchness it is a great school at a great price, lots of his friends will (hopefully) be there, and it meets for three days a week at two and a half hours each day. I just think that's more appropriate for a three-year-old (for my almost three-year-old, anyway) than two four-hour days.

Of course we also applied to a safety school: the county-run preschool system that is held in almost every elementary school except, of course, the one two blocks from our house. It only has the longer days, so it isn't our first choice, but then we have no letter from them either. I don't even want to think what we'd do if Liam didn't get into either school. God, talk about rejection. I don't really think he'd be missing anything educational, but I know he'd have a blast with a bunch of other kids and Olivia and I would get some quiet time. I hate to say it, and I'll probably cry my eyes out the first time I have to leave him at "school," but I'm excited about him going.

So we sit by the mailbox and wait. And I talk to the other moms: "Did you get a letter yet?" and no one has and we're all stressed with the waiting. Except for my friend Jenn, who goes to the church and got advance notice that her kid got in. Just imagine what we'll be like when it's time for college.

In other news, Liam got the camera again and this is what he chose to photograph (I think he's improving): breakfast toast,

Harvey the train,

and Oliva and I.

Sleep Deprivation

For some reason, Liam has been waking up between five and six every morning this week. He shows up on my side of the bed with his pillow and a blanket, we all roll over, and he cuddles in until I eventually let him get up, sometime around six thirty. It's not a quiet cuddle, you see; he talks about when the sun will wake up and can we watch the "td" and if I close my eyes he pats my cheek and says, "Wake up Mommy." He has never fallen asleep in our bed, at least not since I stopped nursing him two years ago. The situation hasn't been helped by Mark's early work schedule this week: up at five and at work by six, so it's been hard to get Liam back to sleep when we are all clearly awake and having fun. So we are all tired. I've been going to bed by nine thirty each night, Liam's been skipping his naps (when he's overtired, he does not nap), and he's been falling asleep earlier and earlier at night. One night this week he crawled up into my lap at six pm and promptly fell asleep. I carried him up to bed and he slept through until five the next morning.

Every trip we've ever taken with Liam has screwed up his sleeping. Could it be possible that this next trip will fix it?

So today we did something we'd been meaning to do for a while: we rode the light rail, the train system that runs from southwest Denver right into downtown. And we went all the way downtown, walked around quite a bit and had lunch, and then took the train back. Liam was very excited about the whole thing, since he's been watching those trains from the car for quite a while. Even better were the three-year-old twin boys that rode home with us; by the time we got to the car Liam was pretty tired out and he fell asleep in his car seat. So we get home. Mark carries a very hungry Olivia into the house while I get Liam. Olivia is screaming her head off, so I put Liam on his feet just inside the door and go to check on her, asking Liam to take off his shoes. Honestly, I had no idea just how tired he was. He immediately plopped himself on top of a pile of laundry by the garage door and went right back to sleep (please note that today is laundry day, it's not like the pile is there all the time). Of course we left him there. He only slept for about half an hour and woke up a bit confused, which is understandable.

Parenting at its finest.

Monkey Bizness

Another day, another trauma. Liam, Olivia, and I met up with some friends at Monkey Bizness, one of those indoor play places with giant inflatable bouncy structures that all little kids love. This one is cleaner than the average, I think, but that's besides the point. On to the trauma: once inside Liam and his friend Lauren headed straight for a giant slide in the back corner of the room. Here's Liam, climbing up the ladder to go down the slide, which is on the right:

I know, he's small in the picture and hard to see, but you get the idea. In the front of the picture is the opening used to enter the structure; there is a matching opening on the other side, but that side is up against the wall, so it isn't used. A small piece of fabric is hooked on there to drive the message home: use the other door people, there's only a wall here. So Lauren and Liam were climbing and sliding while Jenn and I chatted at the only door, or so we thought. Suddenly Jenn asked, "Where are they?" And they really were gone.

I jumped up into the slide area and, of course, couldn't find them but did discover the other door. There was barely enough room there by the wall for me to stand, but plenty of room for a couple of two-year-olds to wander behind the whole structure and end up god knows where, where there might be giant fans and electrical outlets and deep padded abysses. I was thinking like a crazy person: could they be in there? How do we find someone to shut this big thing down? And how long does it take to suffocate?

Jenn, meanwhile, was looking around the rest of the room. When I climbed back to her, out of ideas and ready to panic, she almost immediately said, "There's Lauren!" And, a moment later, "There's Liam!" Instead of going behind the slide, they went the other way, through a very narrow channel that led back out into the main room. Then they took off in separate directions but were both happily playing, completely oblivious to their two parents having heart attacks. Seriously, it was a good ten minutes before my hands stopped shaking.

The culprits:

After that, they went on to have another hour and a half of quality play time (and Liam, at least, a damn good nap) while Jenn and I watched them like hawks.

I wonder how much more of this stuff my heart can take.

The Egg Comes First

Today is garbage day. That means that last night Mark was dumping all the little garbage cans into a big bag while I, holding Olivia, was peering into the fridge trying to figure out what was old and icky. I decided that the four or five eggs in the fridge-egg-basket thingy (reenacted in the above picture) had to go. So, stupidly, I put the basket thing on the counter and yelled to Mark, "There's more stuff in the kitchen!" Liam heard me and came to see what was up.

Now, Liam knows that baby birds come from eggs. He's known that for a while but, it just so happens that he saw a baby bird hatch earlier in the day on television, so he finally put two and two together: we have had baby birds in the fridge this whole time. And here they were, on the counter and within reach. So, with great excitement, he grabbed the basket thing and began cooing over the little baby birds he knew were inside: "Look Mommy! Eggs! Dere baby birds in dere!" I really didn't know what to say. I tried telling him that, no, these eggs were for eating and that he'd seen me open these eggs and there were absolutely no babies in these eggs, but he wasn't having any of it. There were babies in these eggs and those were his baby birds ("Mine baby birds!"). At the same time, I was trying to take the basket back, but I was holding Olivia and, heck, those were eggs in there and I had to be gentle. Of course Mark picked that moment to come into the kitchen and say, "No Liam, those eggs have to go in the garbage."

Liam reacted like we were going to murder baby chickens right in front of him. He took off running with the basket of eggs, Mark in hot pursuit. He did a complete circle past the bookcases, down the hall, through the living room, and back into the kitchen before Mark was able to gently wrestle the egg basket away and it's a total miracle that not one was dropped. Poor Liam was almost inconsolable over the baby birds for quite a while (not helped by his lack of nap that day).

He expressed his disappointment with us and escaped from the world for a little while by putting the kitchen garbage can over his head.

Pink Pirate

You can't really tell in the picture, but the sides of this hat are really quite pointy (and piratey). Or maybe it looks more like a sou'wester. And what does Olivia think of all this pirate stuff?

Arrrrr!

That's Liam in his pirate costume. And, like any good pirate, he recently discovered some treasure. It's actually this little sand thing that Mark's parents brought last time they came and, once you soften the sand with water, treasures can be discovered. Friday was another slow day around here, so we dug (and scratched and scraped) for treasure.

I couldn't get him to keep the eye patch on while we were doing it.

See how the treasures emerge? That, according to Liam, is a "beehive sheeshell." There were other treasures as well, which Liam insisted must remain under water (apparently these delicate artifacts might be damaged if thoughtlessly removed from their natural environment).

There were three rocks (including a clear "diamond"), that beehive shell, and a 1945 Canadian penny. Not a bad haul. And Liam's been fascinated with his treasure ever since.

In other news, it is my brother's 29th birthday today. Happy Birthday James! And I know he's going to love this (James at three):

Snowed In

Okay, not really. But it did snow today, and it was chilly, and after running around outside yesterday in t-shirts, I didn't really feel like going anywhere today. Plus Liam woke up at five am (for no reason), so that also helped keep me on the coach. Instead, we had science day.

Liam discovered this little thingy (I don't know what it is, but it came with the baby nail clippers) that has a magnifying glass on it, so we spent some time looking at various items through the magnifying glass. Notice a leaf, a flower petal, a raisin, and a seashell. You can't see it, but there's also some salt on the (white) napkin. I don't think he could see it either.

Later he was looking at snowflakes, but soon gave up and ate the snow instead. That led to playing in the sink, which led to watering all the plants, which led to, "The plant gwows and gwows up inna sky and toucha the sun," which led to filling up a kitchen sponge with water and squeezing it over the floor: "wain cwoulds!", which led to Mark having a fit (but that's another story).

In Olivia's world, she has a new sweater. That's about it, although I expect that she'll be turning over soon. She certainly works very hard at it. Honestly, though, she is much more alert now and is falling into predictable naps, which is nice for all involved. When awake, she "talks" quite a bit and with great enthusiasm. All in all, three to four months is a good time for babies.

And Mark insists that I post this picture, taken Sunday, of Liam and I on his bike even though it is not at all flattering. (I won't blame you at all if you hum "Fat man in a little coat....")

Olivia Laughing

Okay, so this post is mostly for the grandparents. It's video of Olivia, laughing her head off because we found her tickle spot. Of course it is a big file, and not the greatest quality (especially after Mark reduced the file size from 74MG to about 1MG), but totally worth it (but of course I think so). It will probably work best if you save it to your desktop or something and play it from there.

Olivia Laughing

If you listen carefully, you can hear Liam in the background, "What's going on?" He didn't seem too impressed. And Olivia is talking more too. She says "Aaaaah ooooooooaaahh" a lot and, the other day, I swear to god she said "Goo."

So, honestly, isn't your day better now after hearing a baby laugh?