My Two Sons

Yesterday at the midwife's office I was checking out when the receptionist told me, "Your son is so cute!" I thought, That's a refreshing change for Jacob, everyone is oogling over Beanie these days that he doesn't get any attention independent of her. The lady went on some more about my son, and then I replied with some detail about Jacob. "Oh he's cute too, but I was talking about your other son."

First let me say that I am not bothered by this, and I don't really care beyond it being very curious that people are confusing Sabine for a boy. I also recognize the fact that I do dress her in Jacob's old clothes a lot. So I am not complaining that people get her sex wrong, and maybe I even ask for it by putting her in blue sometimes, but really...take away the pink hat, does she even look like a boy?


And I know, I know, they all look them same at this age anyway - I've always said it myself. But from the time she was born people have been saying she even looks like a girl! In the beginning a few people mistakenly called her a boy, but she was all curled up then anyway. But just in the last week, or even few days, all of a sudden EVERYONE in public mistakes her for a boy. Sometimes she'll be wearing blue and they just go based on the color. Do you know how much that pisses me off? It's just a color! I reply to them, "Oh but she looks so pretty in blue, can't girls wear blue?" Other times, like yesterday in the waiting room, she had on girly overalls and was covered by a very pink blanket. So even with pink on they still think she's a boy.

Today at the orchard she had on purple overalls with a little blue onesie underneath. It was mostly purple you could see, but the woman still called her a boy. I try to be polite and mix the correction in with another sentence and I don't make them feel bad. Like today - "Oh he's so cute, how old is he?" - "She's 12 weeks," I reply. Then the lady realizes her mistake and says, "Oh, well she's wearing blue." Yeah, but she had ten times as much purple covering the blue. Or the other day when I was getting my hair cut. The lady inquired about my baby boy, I told her it's a girl...then she says that she thought Sabine was a boy because she was wearing brown. It was, infact, brown - actually my favorite onesie - but it had a bow and puffy sleeves. And whoever decided that brown is a boy color?

A little while ago Beanie's doctor's office called. Now these people have never gotten the sex or pronounciation of her name correct...and they have her medical history right in front of them! Today: "blah, blah, blah, Sabe - ian...blah, blah, he...blah." Or the last time they called, "Sab - ine" (like line), and the time before that, "Sab - in". There's also Sab-ian, Say-bine (long I). And yes, I asked for it with naming her that too.

I'm just saying...

Camp: Journal Style

Friday: I’m getting better at packing for two kids. We only left two hours later than expected. The ride was good, I sat in the back and did a little reading in between all the dealing with the kids. Jacob all the way up there - “When are we gonna be there??” He used to be so good in the car. I hope this is just a phase.

Saturday: I was nervous about the night because this is my first time night-parenting two kids by myself. Zach stayed home that week I came up with both kids, but the kids and I stayed in the same bed with Mom so she sort of helped through the night. I had to get Jacob up two times to pee because I forgot his pullups! He stayed dry though. Maybe this is the way to get him going through the night without peeing the bed…maybe the pullups signal to his body that it’s ok to pee and we should just ditch them all together. They certainly do suck as it is. If I'm going to be washing sheets anyway, why bother paying for the leaky pullups?

Uncle Bill brought up this rocket to shoot off at Camp. He had to build it first. It was a big to-do assembling it and then there was all this build up leading to shooting it off. We’re all standing around waiting with the cameras and you had to know it was going to happen…there was a ‘technical difficulty’ and while the guys were tooling around with the controls, trying to figure it out, that’s when it went off and all the cameras that has been at the ready missed the action. Then, apparently the wind was in a different direction than we’d thought so instead of landing in the nearby field, the parachute opened and floated right into the tree tops. I climbed the adjacent tree a ways but we all realized that that wasn’t going to work and we’d have to wait for the wind to blow it down.

Later on Jamie came in rushing to the bathroom and gagging about the poop he’d gotten all over himself. He had pet Ginger outside at dusk and didn’t see the poop all over her. She was tied up on the rope so I’m figuring she took a dump and then rolled all in it.

I had to wash her off in the dark and couldn’t see what I was doing. If it was light out I could have taken her out to the sandbar and washed her there, but no, I couldn’t have been that lucky. When I was done cleaning Ginger off with hand soap and a scrub brush in the dark I headed inside to soak Beanie’s onesie that her butt exploded all over, and then Jacob’s poopy underwear. This is my life; cleaning up poop.

Today was such a full day that I can't remember when it happened, but Beanie ROLLED OVER from her stomach to her back. I'm so proud of my girl rolling over so early.

Sunday: Jacob woke up dry again, after a couple nighttime trips to pee.

We went to church. Even though it's a mile from Camp in a town that boasts a whopping fifty residents, there were three times as many people at the service than there were last week at my church. I noted that the minister was a woman and the organist was a man. At one point in the service she started talking to Jacob and offered him a craft. She came back to where we were sitting and gave out the supplies. The minister apologized for not having any markers and told Jacob, "You can go home and decorate it with things that you like...You wouldn't decorate it with girl stuff like pink poodles (laughing), put things on there that you like to play with, boy stuff." I calmly sat there with my jaw tensed, and by God if we hadn't been in a church...

I found it ironic that the minister was spouting sexist remarks when she's occupying a traditionally male role. After the service she told me that she has 5 kids with a rather large range in age - the youngest just 7 months. That strikes me as remarkably similar to Governor Palin.

We headed into town to wash diapers and go to the store. The laundromat is a fun place to go when you’re feeling crappy about yourself, especially when you walk in with a baby. All kinds of dirty people like to come up to you and touch your baby. And then the freaky teenager with all the zits tells you “that’s a nice looking baby!” and your grip on her tightens. I always leave feeling better about myself because at least I have all my teeth.

Aunt Nancy is obsessed with all things Disney an Disney-like movies. She put in a movie, a version of the Princess and the Pea, with Carol Burnett and Tracey Ullman, to watch. I. really. hate. musicals.

The rocket is still stuck in the tree.

Monday: It's freezing in here in the mornings when I get up with Beanie at 6am. I can't start a fire in this damn wood stove to save my life - literally, haha, because I might freeze to death.

I took Mango out to the island to run around the sand bar. I finally decided that Ginger was going to come too so I forced her into the row boat. I was feeling kind of bad about that, but when we got to our destination she took off like a bullet and had a blast running around the island with Mango. I figured it's the perfect place for her to run around because on land she's got to be tied up, but where was she going to run off to in the middle of a lake?

I spent 4 hours at the stove in the kitchen making eggplant parm. I made three pans of it for everyone. Uncle David came over and all of us had dinner together. The eggplant was freaking good. I should sell it!

Tuesday: I guess I got cocky. I was so tired from the nighttime ratio (1 parent:2 kids) that I only took Jacob to pee once through the night. 5am rolls around and I'm changing bed sheets, peeling wet jammies off Jacob's limp body. Not only did he pee the things that go under him, but he also soaked the things that are supposed to be on top of a person when they're sleeping because of the 'kicking off of the covers'. So I sent the bed pad, sheets, and comforter home with Aunt Nancy and Uncle Bill because there won't be room in our car when we drive home.

I was hanging out in the living room with Sabine, who was laying on a blanket on the floor. Mom came in and decided to take a seat. Beanie started 'hitching', as Mom calls it, all over the floor, getting some actual distance from where she started out on the blanket. I picked her up and moved her back after she'd made it off the blanket. Then she got all like she was going to roll over from her BACK to her FRONT. She hiked up her knees to her chest then tossed herself to her left side. She was stuck on her elbow and kept lolling back and forth. Then all of a sudden she pushed right over her elbow! Ho-ly crap. Mom and I just sat there with our mouths agape. That's early for rolling over, especially the harder way. Jacob rolled at three months and Beanie is just past two months now.

Wednesday: I can't take it anymore. It's 6am and I'm so tired. Zach told me last night he misses the kids so much. Jacob all the time and Beanie in the early morning hours when they have their 'special time' which I prefer to think of as 'the morning freaks bonding time'. I told Zach, "Funny, that's when I miss you the most." The bad news is that both kids are up this early today. The good news is that Jacob woke up dry. Woohoo! Down with the pullups!

The rocket is still stuck up in the tree...

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...