The Watermelon Incident

There's always a surprise when I upload photos now...Jacob helps himself to the camera when I'm not around. And here is what I find. You have to look closely to see what this is, and at first glance it will appear that the watermelon is simply resting on the couch, but I promise you, it is not. That is the coffee table with a blue waterbottle (top off) on it, and then a whole watermelon balanced on the waterbottle. WTF? 

So I had no idea that this episode even took place until I saw the photo evidence. What was going through Jacob's head, and where the hell was I when this was happening? Oh right, I have three kids now so this is just what it's going to be like...complete chaos all the time.

Day 19: The Little Potty

I'm going to try to be on the lookout for signs of spring - even though it's 15 degrees below the normal temperatures for this time of year, and snow can still be found on the ground in many places.  In the meantime, here's Sabine's potty as of a couple weeks ago.  Earlier in the year I had a wave of inspiration about the whole potty issue (I was not having much luck getting Sabine to use it).  I'd been trying to bribe her with various things, yet none of them appealed to her. 

Finally I realized it had to be something that could be measured so she could see her progress over time.  She went for the sticker idea, which is great because I have millions of stickers.  I give her one each time she goes pee on the little potty and she gets to put it on the potty.  I think for some reason it matters that it goes on the actual potty and not like, her getting to wear it on her shirt or something.

It's been a few weeks since this picture has been taken and by now it's covered with stickers.  She's still wearing diapers a lot of the time, but more and more of them are staying dry.  I am just so ready to be done washing diapers, and they really stink now so it will great when they're eliminated completely. 

Day 17: The Two-Straw Method

I bet you felt so sorry for Sabine in that last photo, so sad looking, waiting for her taste.  So I have to offer some resolution with this next post.  Eventually the fighting over whose turn it was become so bad, that I had to go get another straw and adopt the two-straw method.  They look like they belong on Happy Days.  Aww.

Seriously though, those shakes were four bucks a pop and I wasn't about to get them each one of their own.  Once you establish the "I want my own" precedent, there's no going back.  I hope this doesn't turn them to a life of anti-sharing when they grow up.  Forced into years of only getting half a serving, my adult children will go through life hoarding their food and hiding away stashes of goodies.

Day 11: Puddle Jumpers

We took a walk in the 55 degree weather while visiting Baby Emma.  The kids were splashing around in the puddle and I didn't even have to tell them to stop or else they would freeze.  It was beautiful out, no jackets needed!

Day 5: Stripey Jammies

Here's Sabine messing around in her jammies.  She thinks she's so funny.  These are my favorite pj's of the kids'.  They are organic cotton from Under The Nile.  Jacob wore them when he was younger, and someone else will get to wear them after Sabine.  I was planning to let Sabine wear these till they couldn't reasonably be fit on her, but now that I know they will be resurrected in a couple more years, I can let them go to storage a little sooner than I would have.

Day 2: Valentines

 

So here I go with another round of pictures a day...I'm trying to decide how long I'm going to pledge to continue this stretch for.  I want to say until the new baby is born because I know that will probably be the last time I'm near the computer for a very long time, but that's almost five months away.  Maybe until I see the first flower sprout up from the ground?  We'll see.

Anyway, these are Jacob's valentines that we made for his school celebration.  No way was I going to buy them from the store. We try to make as much homemade stuff as possible.  I think they came out pretty cute.

The Haircutting Incident

I've been promising for a couple weeks that I would post these pictures of Sabine's very first self-inflicted hair cut.  The pictures actually don't do justice to her non-talent in the hair-cutting department.  It's just sort of looks like normal bangs.  They're not though; all those 'bangs' are the top part of what was Sabine's right braid when she took the scissors to her hair.  

This all happened because I tried to take a shower without locking her in the bathroom with me.  Silly Mommy, wanting time to yourself!  Jacob was nearby doing crafts at the table when Sabine cut her hair, and he's actually the one who alerted me to the fact that it was taking place.  So it's a toss-up as to whether or not I think he had anything to do with it.  Sabine definitely did it herself, I'm just not sure who originally thought up the idea.  But I'm trying to repress that idea because I wouldn't be able to live with Jacob if this was his doing.

Yeah, so anyway, she had braids in, and I didn't think there was that much damage, until we were getting her ready for bed that night.  She wanted her braids taken out; but literally, they came right out when I went to undo them.  The pictures of just hair below are her right (the bigger one) and left braids.  I held one to show the size, but the actual measurement was eight inches at the longest.

I took Sabine to get her hair 'fixed' at the salon, and so now she has official bangs, which I think are hard to pull off on a curly head of hair.  Zach and I don't like the bangs, so I try to pin them back and then do something else with the rest of her hair.  I part it on the left to even out the thinness of the right side. I can get it looking decent, it's just more involved now than simply brushing it.  Wait till summer comes though.  One word:  Humidity.

The pictures on the bottom with Ginger have nothing to do with her hair, they're just cute pictures where you can see the bangs, and I didn't have another place for them.

But I realize this is all relative, and in the scheme of things, it could be worse.  At least she's healthy.  And still cute.

 

Another Six Weeks...

 Well it's been a couple weeks since Punxsutawney Phil declared six more weeks of winter weather.  At least I think he did?  I figure it's pretty hard to pop your head out of a hole in the ground when that hole is covered with three feet of dense snow.  So I'm just going to assume that by the presence of snow on the ground that he made his decision remotely this year.

I've lived in the northeast my whole life and this is the first winter like this that I can remember.  There have been many, many storms and they've been big storms, often with a foot of snow falling over the course of the day.  Jacob's had three school cancellations (unless it was 4.  We lost count) and at least three 2-hour delays.

 I'm sure I've lived through winters like this before, but I don't remember them like I'll remember this one.  Usually snow falls, then it melts, more snow falls, that melts to reveal the still-green grass, and the cycle goes on for a few months.  When I was a kid, adults were always telling me I hadn't experienced a 'real winter' because you don't usually see the green grass in between snowfalls.  Well now at least my kids have experienced a real upstate winter.

12/22/10 - the first accumulation, though you can see it wasn't really enough to cover the unraked leaves.

 

12/27/10- now that's some snow

 

All covered up - it's been a COLD winter too!

1/1/11 - sleigh riding on New Year's Day

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Cast-Offs

Remember back in December when Jacob had a loose tooth and a cast on his leg at the same time?  I never followed up with that post, so I will now that I'm trying to get back into posting more regularly.  At the time I wrote about three big things happening in that one week.  I wrote about Jacob's tooth being the third thing, but it was really just a cover for my finding out I was pregnant.  Anyway, that's sort of the reason why I stopped posting, there hasn't been much time or energy to spend on the computer.

So here's some pictures of Jacob in his cast, and then a picture of him the day his tooth fell out.  His tooth did not fall out the same day as Christmas, but it did fall out the same day that he got his cast off.  So I thought that was kind of funny that both those things happened within a couple hours of each other.  I sent him off to school on a Monday morning with all of his teeth intact and then picked him up a few hours later to get his cast off, but there was no longer a loose tooth.

  

They Come in Threes

That's the line, right?  Things tend to come in threes?  Last week, in the course of 24 hours, three big things happened.  The last one isn't such a big deal though, unless you're a seven year old kid.

A week ago on Friday afternoon I was at a complete stop on our road waiting to cross a lane of traffic in order to take a left-hand turn into our own driveway.  There were several cars behind me who were also stopped, so I guess the jackass in the big pickup behind all those cars decided he didn't want to wait in the line of stopped traffic.  He pulled out into the left lane, facing oncoming traffic, and proceeded to pass the entire line of cars.  I began to take the left turn as he was passing me (but of course I didn't look behind me before I turned), and I didn't see him until just after he'd slammed my front left bumper and kept on going, swerving back into the right lane to avoid a head-on collision.  And kept on going.  And going.

I was in shock because I couldn't believe that someone had hit me, and in even more shock that he left the scene of the accident.  It took me a minute to remember what I was supposed to do, and then I realized oh yeah, call the police.  All I could do was describe the car, he'd been going too fast to catch the license plate, and no one else who stopped had gotten it either.

About 15 minutes later when Zach had gotten home, I was in the driveway showing him the damage when a saint disguised as an ordinary citizen pulled in the driveway and produced the license plate number of the pick-up who'd hit me.  He'd followed him about 4 miles down the road before catching up and getting close enough to read the plate.  Then he drove all the way back here to give us the best pre-Christmas gift ever.

With the license plate number the police were able to get the guy and slap him with a bunch of tickets.  He's 19, a local college student (everyone had said, oh it must have been a college student) from the school down the road, and was driving an unregistered vehicle not belonging to him.

Anyway, we're all ok, the kids were in the car with me, so it could have been much, much worse.  A few feet more and I might not be here, or Jacob, or Sabine, because I figure he was going about 50mph.  But MY KIDS WERE IN  THE CAR WITH ME.  I am so pissed that someone could, and would, do something like that.  We knew it was only a matter of time before one of those ass-hole drivers that we see on our road all the time would come to affect us personally.  Now we have a real incident to refer to when Jacob wants to know why he's not allowed to go in the front yard.  I'm surprised that I'm not more shaken up about what could have happened, but maybe all the other things going on have kept me too busy to think about it that much.

The same night as the car accident, Jacob was on the kitchen counter and decided to jump off onto the floor.  he landed with both feet, but flat-footed.  I think most everyone knows the difference between landing properly and landing with your whole foot like that.  The impact rushes up your whole body and shakes you, almost like getting the wind knocked out of you, but in a vertical way.  In the middle of the night is when he started crying about pain in his foot but we just assumed it was growing pains like he usually has.

The next day it was still hurting him, so we gave it another night and then brought him in for x-rays on Sunday.  They didn't find anything, but that night into the morning brought even more pain so we took him to see a specialist on Monday afternoon and it was decided that there was, in fact, a small break.  He's got a cast now and is getting along pretty well.

The last thing that happened is that over the weekend Jacob presented us with his usual, "I think I have a loose tooth," which is usually wishful thinking on his part, because he'd never had a loose tooth before, and had been desperate for one.  But when I stuck my finger into his mouth to feel it, I was totally grossed out by a definite wiggle in the bottom left toother! 

I actually feel like he got a little cheated on the loose tooth thing because he's been waiting for so long, and now it's kind of overshadowed by the cast.  Two childhood rites of passage at the same time! 

It was hard explaining to people what happened to Jacob's foot, that's the reason we eventually settled on the jumping-off-the-counter explanation, because as best we can figure that's when it happened?  But I almost wish I could use the car accident as the reason, it would be easier to explain why both these things just happened to occur on the same day.  And I've been privately joking with Jacob that the car accident must have shook him tooth loose.

Anyway, I remember the Christmas when I was seven, I was waiting for my two front teeth to grow in and I thought it was so cool that I could sing that song, All I Want For Christmas is My Two Front Teeth.  Jacob keeps asking when his tooth is going to fall out; with his luck of late, I wouldn't be surprised if the tooth fairy and Santa Clause showed up on the same night.  I'll just make sure we don't leave the tooth anywhere near the cookies.  Santa would never forgive us if we accidentally fed him a lost tooth!

Incase I never get around to the baby book...

Jacob had his 7 year well-child visit on Monday.  It may be some time before I get around to updating the baby books, so for the record, he was 45 pounds, 46 1/2 inches.  Oh, and of particular note was that they couldn't complete his hearing test because he had too much ear wax.  Ew!  I felt like a totally negligent mother, but as the doctor was flushing out his ears with water, she told me that it looks like he has really narrow ear canals.  Guilt reduced, but I was sent home with the gear she used and was given a thorough lesson so that I can flush out his ears at home.  Yay motherhood.

Her Baby

I wrote this post on 10/7 (as the date above indicates), but one or another things kept it for getting published until now. As of this writing, 10/15, there have been some developments in the Baby Saga.  Stay tuned for updates.  Because I know you have nothing better to do.



This is Sabine's baby.  It's been three weeks now since she could not be without her.  I know where she came from, and it dates back to a project I had to do in school when I was a kid, but I have no idea just how Sabine got a hold of Baby.  Nor do I remember the moment when she must have pulled her from the deep recesses of some drawer.  I do remember the first day Sabine could not be without her and that was a Friday three weeks ago.  I can't think of how it actually happened that we realized Sabine couldn't be without her, but I recall Sabine bringing her to Playschool on the following Monday and I was so nervous that Sabine was going to lose her.  I remember telling people that day that Sabine had been carrying her baby around non-stop since Friday.

Pretty much every day Baby gets lost.  We all enter crisis mode and search for her until she's found.  I think it was the day before I took these pictures that Baby actually got lost in the backyard.  It was then that I realized I needed to take some pictures of her so that we would have something for the milk cartons in case her disappearance ever became more than temporary.  On this day in the backyard (about a week after the relationship began) Sabine was far too busy taking Baby down the slide and tossing her in the air (all the time going "Woohoo, my baby!") to hold her still long enough for me to get a close-up.  I had to hold her for this top picture and Sabine stood at my legs jumping and pawing to get Baby back.

The name Baby is overly repetitive in our house these days.  We already have a 'Baby' and that's an inflatable giraffe that Sabine loves to play with.  So I tried to get her to call this new one Little Baby, but she insists on simply calling her 'My Baby', so then we just refer to it as 'Her Baby'.  We've also got a Baby Honey; Sabine refers to dogs as puppies, so actual puppies have become 'baby puppies'.  I feel like pretty soon everything is our house is going to have some name variation of Baby.

     

Dear Emma

Dear Emma,

      I know you were probably trying to arrive on my birthday and you simply fell short by a few hours.  Don't worry about it, I, of all people, certainly understand the difficulties of being on time.  I'm also interpreting your time and day of arrival as a slight nod in my direction, as if you were saying, Yeah, I could have come on the 2nd of October, but hey, instead of honoring my mom's cousin in that way, I'll take my time because I know she'll totally get the late thing.

      I'm also writing to inform you that two nights in a row Sabine has spent several minutes looking at your picture on my computer before she'll fall asleep.  "Wan she Baby Emma," she demands.  Last night I thought it was safe to turn off the computer, but she asked to see your chubby little picture again and indicated to me that she wanted to give you a kiss.  Which she then did.

      So Miss Emma, we are glad to have you with us, and I am looking forward, with great enthusiasm, to meeting you.  Oh, and please tell your parents that we'd love some more pictures of you when they get the chance.  Hopefully your mom gets to read you this note because I'm sure you're not reading yet, but if you're anything like your parents you're going to be a very smart little thing.


     Welcome to the world, and tell your parents welcome to the club!

Day 91: Fall Ball

Jacob is playing Fall Ball this year. He had the regular season in the spring, which was his second year, and this is just a short season, about six weeks long. Anyway, Nate is also playing Fall Ball, but this is his first team baseball. The boys ended up on different teams, but happened to be playing each other in the season-opening game. They also both happened to get #1 (mostly because they're on the tiny side and needed the small size). We thought it was funny that Nate (a Red Sox fan) ended up on the navy team, and Jacob (a Yankees fan) ended up on the red team, opposite of what they would have preferred.

We tried to orchestrate this photo with the two of them backs to the camera, yet with their faces toward each other, scowling as if they weren't really good friends. But they couldn't figure out how to turn their heads without turning their bodies, and then also remembering to scowl was difficult. Still, pretty cute pictures.

Day 89: Candy Bribe

At Joey's third birthday party the kids got goody bags (sorry Jen, but the noise-makers never saw the light of day) and this candy necklace was one of the goodies. I don't know how Sabine knew what that thing was, because it was my intention to give hers to Jacob, but when she saw it in the bag she went right for it. I couldn't pry it out of her mouth for anything.

The candy necklaces came with us for the car ride to Camp, but I never needed them. Then they came back home with us and it wasn't until the very last bit of the ride that I had to break out the bribe. Sabine had been crying to get out of her carseat for 10 minutes and nothing would calm her down. As a last resort, I presented the coveted candy necklace and she was game.

After we got home I thought the excitement of seeing Daddy would be enough to make her forget the candy necklace, but it was not to be. Only after 20 minutes of being home did we succeed in getting it away. Here she is staring me down as I tried to take it away on the front steps.

Day 86: The Sand Dunes

That's what Jacob likes to call this place that we walk to from Camp. I don't really know what it is other than a giant pit off of the railroad tracks. I used to think it was a landfill when I was younger. We visited there a few times this trip, as it was a nice retreat from the crowd at Camp. Jacob built and elaborate system of houses for the mice to use when winter hits.

This day's photo was a toss-up between the sand dunes and the walk to the sand dunes. In the linked photo Sabine is walking Ginger (and by the way that's not a pacifier in her mouth, it's a teether for her molars) and it wasn't long after that when Ginger took off, dragging Sabine behind he just like in the cartoons. I'd been warning Sabine to let go if Ginger went too fast, but she didn't listen.

By the way, this photo is late again, still because of the hardwood floors, but they're done now and just drying. It will be a couple days before we can put furniture back on them, and then Zach still has to take on the new walls.

Day 82: Her Ball

While in Cape May, we took Jacob to the arcade. At the end of the week he cashed in his tickets for some prizes. For Sabine he got this ball. For himself he got the same thing, only the bigger version and in blue. Who could have guessed that it would become the new object of Sabine's affection? She can't be without it. When she's looking for it, she'll either say, "my Bah?" or call it "green bah".

In this picture, we were playing outside at Camp just after my brother had arrived on Sunday afternoon and I figured it was about time I take a picture of Sabine with her green ball. So I said, "Sabine, let me see your ball." Little did I know she would turn around like that with a coy look on her face and hold the ball so tenderly to show it off. The instant I snapped the picture I knew it would be a classic Sabine photo. Everyone seems to agree that this is the award-winning photo from the week at Camp. Unless, of course, you count the picture (to come) of my sister falling out of the boat in the middle of the lake, but we're talking composition here, not hilarity.

Day 80: School's In

Jacob started school today. It's the day I've been dreading for a long time. He was so happy and excited, and I know he's going to do fine. It's me I'm worried about. I'm so sad without him, the house is too quiet, and every time Sabine asks for him I have to tell her that he's at school - which feels to me like the 'S' word. Also, I feel like my big dream of homeschooling him is over, like all that planning I did was for nothing. We're just like every other family now.

I cried all day yesterday - when he was getting his Chicken Pox shot, when we were talking about what he wanted in his lunch, when we were tucking him in. In the middle of the night, when we got up this morning, I cried. And then again when we were dropping him off, and on my walk home from the school with Sabine. And each time someone called on the phone to check in and see how I was.

But now it is time to go pick up my baby and I am so excited! I am going to get there early and sit in the parking lot juts waiting.

Day 79: For Jenny

We got back home last night from a week at Camp. The kids and I left the house in order for Zach to take on the huge project of redoing our hardwood floors. Needless to say, because he's a perfectionist, Zach turned the project into something way bigger than originally planned. He tore down all this wood paneling we had in one room, and put up sheet rock in it's place. So now he still needs to tape and spackle, sand that down, and then paint. The floor boards have all been rewoven so that they face the same direction, and some odd-looking patch boards that Zach had put in a few years back were taken out. So for that project he still needs to sand the floors down and do three coats of poly (24 hours in between each) on the wood. And now we're back home. All the furnishings of the house are crammed into half the space we're used to, and pretty soon we're not going to be able to walk on the floors because they'll be in various stages of drying. Yikes!

But that's not what this picture is about. This picture is Sabine on my mom's lap at Camp with my Uncle Bill (who is practicing very hard for his about-to-become-a-grandfather status). Jenny gave this book to Sabine, and it is her favorite book right now. She was rapt when Uncle Bill was reading it to her that night, and I thought jenny would like to see this photo because Uncle Bill is her father.

Day 78: The After Picture

.Because I'm running out of pictures to post, here's the after picture. I'd taken the before pictures, told the lady that I would need a lock of the hair and then stayed glued to the whole process. And in the end, the hairdresser had to scrape together little bits of hair to put in an envelope, and when she put the hair in the palm of my hand, I looked down at it and said, "Boy, I feel pretty silly now."