Which one doesn't belong?

Jacob will tell you. It's the one in the back seat with the blond hair. He asked me to hand him the girl and when asked which that was, he identified that one as the girl, and the others were not, apparently. These are like 40 year old toys that he plays with up at Camp. They are all the same, not hippy and jacked like Barbie and Ken, respectively. No long hair, wild doe-eyes and curvaceousness from head to toe like the Bratz. How did he get that this one was the girl and the others were boys?

The only differences I can see is that the 'girl' has eyelashes instead of thick 'man-brows' like this dude, and then 'she' is donning a little ruffled collar, while 'he' is wearing a tie. The blond isn't even wearing pink! Jacob couldn't tell me what it was that made him identify the one in green as a girl. So at four years old, gender stereotypes are that ingrained in his schema of the world that he can instantly identify genders but not even recognize what it is that makes him come to that conclusion...

Backyard Critters

These two are my favorites. The one below looks
like he is flying.

I'm finally spending more time in the backyard again. The first few weeks of Sabine's life were spent mostly inside trying to get my bearings. Now we're getting the hang of this thing and spending more time just hanging out. Well not really, I guess I'm just getting used to doing three things at once and that includes taking pictures.

Here's Jacob's garden that he is super psyched about. We've gotten a lot of lettuce, three cucumbers so far, and are looking mostly looking forward to the tomatoes! He takes good care of his garden. The beetles abound though.

This is the big ole toad that's been living by the back
of our house. We see him all over. When Zach moved
something he startled the toad and it jumped into the
four foot hole Zach had just dug. We rescued him.

Beanie Goes to Camp

Beanie woke up this morning with Zach and I looking over her cute face in the cosleeper. Then she was all, "Oh, I had the most wonderful dream...you were there, and you were there, and Jacob was there."

But no Beanie, it wasn't a dream. There may not be a yellow brick road, yet the train tracks do lead to Camp. It had been two months (during prime Camp season) since we'd been there and we were all dying to go up, especially Jacob. We left for Camp on Friday and came back late Sunday night. Mango came with us, but Ginger stayed behind because we wanted to take the Civic again and all we could fit was one dog. Ginger has a tendency to run away, whereas Mango sticks by us and always comes back, so this was the easiest option.

Zach and I planned this trip sort of last-minute and we decided to surprise Jacob. He spent most of Friday at my mom's so that I could get packed up. When Zach brought him home after work we told Jacob. Much gleeful screaming and bouncing around ensued. In true fashion of our family, it took us at least twice as long as we planned to get out of the house.

When we finally did, it was a good four hours of When are we going to be there? Are we almost there? How much longer till we get to camp? Then, Jacob, who'd been fighting the exhaustion for half the ride, conked out. He is usually very good in the car, looking peacefully out the window at the passing scenery, so Zach and I don't have the stamina for the constant appeals to be there already like others parents might have.

See following photo essay for details about the weekend:

This is what it's like trying to get ready to go
anywhere with Jacob.

And these are the damn faces he keeps making.
It's nearly impossible now to get a picture of him
with a normal expression on his face.

Zach, Jacob and Mango took a ride out to the
island in the row boat.

They played and frolicked on the sand bar for a while.
Anyone else thinking book cover material?

There was plenty of stuff to look at on the lake.

I let a picture of myself be taken.

Then I played around with the camera a bit.

I liked the antique feel of the mirror.

Beanie was so tired after posing for all those pictures!

And I finally got a normal smile out of Jacob...

Baby Parts

Head, shoulders, knees, and toes...


And eyes...

And ears...

And mouth...

And nose....

There's running hand-in-hand on the beach in my future...

I took Jacob to the library today. While he was busy with his 'kid at the library' stuff, I was skimming the parenting shelf. I guess it's because I have a daughter now that I was so apt to notice all the 'mother/daughter bond' books. I also noticed that they all featured a black and white photo on the cover of a mother and daughter holding hands and running on the beach. There was only one book that veered from this theme and even that was just slightly different - it was in a meadow with the mother holding her daughter above her head.

Apparently these are the things you do when you have a girl? I guess at some point in the next several years I should expect to experience the glee of frolicking in the wet sand with Sabine...

Olympic Fever

Or: The blog in which I use the word 'Olympics' an annoying nine times.

Since we don't have cable at our house we recently had to get one of those fancy little boxes that converts your analog TV into digital - or maybe that's not it, I'm not sure. Either way it's an old TV and not digital-friendly so we needed the box. It's hooked up and don't you know we get all these other channels now. One of the channels is The Olympics Channel. That's not at all what it's really called but it's what I'm coining it and I'm giving it capital letters because it is That Important.

Basically it is the Olympics 24 hours a day. Not the real Olympics yet, but all the trials and world championships. It's really helping to build up the Olympics in our minds because we can really prepare and already be aware of the many different athletes to look out for so that our 2008 Olympic experience with be that much more enhanced.

Zach and I love the Olympics. We are both jocks at heart and get completely fired up to accomplish great athletic feats every time the Olympics roll around. I have to say, even though I was a figure skater in the past, I think I prefer the summer Olympics over the winter.

This year we are particularly jazzed to share the two weeks of sports greatness with Jacob. I'm stoked to watch the gymnastics with him. Paul Hamm is going to be his new idol (I hope) - bye bye Bob the Builder. Not really, maybe we'll just hear about Bob going to the Olympics and Spud in China for a few months afterwards.

Anyway, it's just really cool to be able to have a plethora of sports viewing round the clock right now...it's the only TV I've watched since the baby was born, you know, besides kid videos. The music they set the commercials to is really pumping me up for 8-8-08!!!

Posted

I think we've pretty much confirmed that what we suspected was going on with Stella is actually happening.

Stella owns quite a bit of the land surrounding her house, including the woods behind her house through which we cut across to get to the street on the other side. If not for that path through the woods I would have to walk a small child and a newborn down a busy highway just to take a stroll or to walk to Jacob's favorite ice cream place. When we moved in Stella told us (and has repeatedly told us over the years) that we should cross her land to safely take a walk because it's not safe to walk on the road we live on.

When I mow the lawn I usually mow one strip through the fields that lead to and away from the wooded area so that we can easily walk through. I haven't mowed since before Sabine was born so last week when Zach was mowing I asked him to mow in there as it had gotten pretty overgrown. He did.

The next day Zach saw Stella dumping something back in the field area. This is what it was:


That's the path he mowed with two little piles of grass clippings at the start of it. Are those piles intended as a physical barrier to keep us off her land or just a passive-aggressive message? Kinda seems to me she's marking her territory.

Stroll down the path a bit and you see this:

That's four large pieces of watermelon rind equally spaced apart (ie, intentionally placed) that she layed down the day after she started with the grass clippings. The smaller white pieces are chunks of bread that she put down yesterday after I watched her walk out back, in an increasingly awkward gait, with a bag in hand.

Is she just being creative with her compostable material or trying to gross us out enough so we leave her land alone? Either way, all she's going to do is attract some pretty good sized wild animals.

Round the corner out of the field and into the woods and you'll see this:

That's all the confirmation we needed. So it's clear we're no longer welcome on her property. The only questions left are will we abide, and what is the cause of Stella's odd behavior? I'm not sure
I want to know the answer - I don't think it's a happy one.

Gives new meaning to "Tree House"

J is for Jacob

You have to look closely....

Sabine: Month One

Dear Sabine,

Today you are one month old. I'm not sure how I'm going to do these monthly things for you, but so far there isn't too much to say, certainly not as much as there is to see. Since I can't stop looking at you and taking your picture, I guess the best way to start is with photos.

To get you to calm down we often bounce you on
the yoga ball. Sometimes you're a fussy baby,
but the funny thing about being a second-time
parent is that I have learned to read your cues
and most of the time as long as we are willing to
bend over backwards, we can set your world
right again.

You are so strong! The way you lift your head
and just keep it there is amazing.

I love all your parts, but one of my favorites is
your little nose!

Lots of smiles all the time. I know they're not
supposed to be real yet, but who can argue
with this cute picture? Maybe they were just
practice smiles in the beginning, but now they
seem to be real.

Oh my God with the spit up! For about a week
you didn't spit up, and then I had to go and say
it out loud. Now you spit up about four times
for every feeding. You're just like Jacob was in
this regard. It's actually pretty funny to get spit
up on constantly. We pretty much both smell like
sour milk all the time.

This is a little birth mark on the back of your
left knee. It wasn't there right at birth, but then
appeared. We thought it was a bruise, but within
a few days it turned red.

You're just so stinkin cute! Always with you head
bobbing around, or shimmying yourself into
nursing position...you're awake a lot of the day
and always looking around at things, grunting
moving about.

Other things: You love to be swaddled and snug...for a few days there it looked like you were going to like your car seat. Nope. You scream your head off just like your big brother did. I guess I should say half the time. The other half you're either sleeping or the motion of the car actually does calm you. Maybe this will increase as time goes on? I can't stand to have you crying like that so I'm constantly pulling over to the side of the road and taking you out for a breather.

You hardly sleep during the day, it's mostly cat naps when someone is holding you, but then at night you are able to sleep on your own and go back to sleep pretty reliably after eating. It seems your father has gotten his way as far as the sleeping goes. Eventually the daytime cat naps turn to longer naps and yet longer still so that it appears you've given yourself an early bedtime and then up for the day at 6am! It's 10:30pm, you and Daddy are up in bed, dead to the world. Jacob is my sleep equal - he wandered downstairs looking for company after Daddy fell asleep. We're downstairs waiting for the banana muffins to come out of the oven, a little midnight snack before our night owl selves finally retire to bed.

Jacob's Barn

Here it is, finally completed! Zach and Jacob were hard at work during the three weeks Zach had off after Sabine was born.

Below is some of the process and a bunch of completed pictures because Jacob wanted prints to "show the guys at True Value" because they all get a kick out of him when he goes there with Zach, and they like to keep up with what projects he's up to. Zach said Jacob really was a big help and saved Zach a lot of time on certain parts of it.