Not to be Out Done

I've been saying for over 2 years now that Aron should be more careful about throwing our kids up into the air right after they eat (hear my naggy voice here) "because they're going to barf all over your face." This has never happened to him and I've been truly sure that it would someday and I'd get to say with great joy "I told you so!"

Yesterday Naomi and I had some time together and she ate and smiled and bit me (the girls - ouch) with her new tooth and was incredibly cute and chewed on my finger and we laughed together and then I held her up in the air over my head and smiled at her and she smiled back and then she spit up (BARFED) all over the side of my face (and a tiny bit in my MOUTH blech!), my shoulder and down my front even down to my pants.

Why, Why, WHY God - it was the first time I ever did that. The very first time! It really, really was.

++ Lesson learned (for something like the 80th time in my life - don't keep that list of things you'll get to say 'I told you so' about - it always ALWAYS backfires!

Baptized

Eliot and I went to the park tonight and had a really fun time. We were able to go on our own so I actually got to run around and be goofy and not fear that I'm bouncing Naomi all over the place while jumping in puddles and racing Eliot around in the sand.

On the way home we threw rocks and broken plastic forks in the sewer and watched ants and pushed the stroller and ran through sprinklers and Eliot also rode on my shoulders for a while. After I put him down I kept thinking that I smelled some weird poop smell and I couldn't figure out why.

Then I realized the wet stuff on Eliot's pants wasn't only from the wading pool. He had a major, nasty leak and it was on my shoulder and his shorts and my shirt and both of my arms.

Fabulous, surprise, mystery poop all over the place.

Sealed as a mom. Forever.

Mystery Solved

Little Miss Wake-up-all-the-time-and-never-sleep-and-yell-and-scream-and-be-basically-really-mad-a-lot got her first tooth today. Yeah! Now we know she hasn't been waking up at night for any of the reasons I was starting to imagine (we were freezing her to death with our air-conditioner habit, my milk is drying up for no apparent reason, its bad to sleep in a closet). Soon our little one won't be sporting her 'my dentures are still on the bed-side table' grin anymore.

While I'm talking about milestones I'm happy to report she also had her first taste of beets today and she loved them.

She is also doing her very best to figure out a crawl. She can get on her knees and rock. Hello baby grabbing at my pant legs while I make dinner. Goodbye baby plays in the exersaucer while I make dinner.

I'm So Glad I'm not Britney Spears

In the pat 24 hours I've committed 3 headline-making mothering blunders worthy of the tabloids. If I were Britney Spears I wouldn't have the issue of being caught on an escalator looking bored while my nanny feeds my kid (because there is of course no nanny to do that for me). Instead I would have made headlines in the past for any number of my horrible mommy habits such as not working and not sleeping with my kids and not feeding them formula or having them in numerous classes or teaching them another language yet or hmmm...putting them down from time to time or feeding them hotdogs before the age of 3. Yikes.

If that hadn't done it tho the past 24 hours certainly would have.

Yesterday I took 2 kids (count them - 2) to a soccer game - yes out in public - and I didn't bring any facial tissue (Uncle Terry - I got it RIGHT!) with me and I didn't have any back up in my car, or pocket or in the diaper bag or anywhere! My resourceful son had to figure it out on his own and wiped his nose on my pants and Naomi's sock which he took off of her on his own and tried to put back on her foot (pint of snot and all).

Later in the day I went to Isadora's birthday party over an hour late because I wrote the time down - yes the party that started at 5:30 in my book really started at 3:30. Nice! I went to the party with Naomi who hadn't pooped all day with no diaper bag - just my awesome mini skirt purse and she of course pooped right when we got there. I had to steal a diaper that was too big for her from Nan and Rob (and I guess technically from Isadora) and fold it over on the top. Naomi wore it well - she is very flexible in her fashion.

This morning I really did it tho. After church, like I always do when I'm putting the two kids in the car when I'm by myself in downtown Minneapolis, I put Naomi in her seat, then went to the other side with Eliot and put him in his seat, then ran back to Naomi's side and latched her in and then horror of horrors (truly) I did the thing I've been fearing now for 7 months and 2 days I forgot to go back and latch Eliot in his seat. I drove 5 blocks with Eliot unlatched and I think sitting far forward in his seat before I made a little bit of a quick stop at a light during which Eliot fell onto the floor of the car and of course cried while I waited for the light to turn green, took a turn, drove another half block into an empty parking lot and latched the poor kid in (after of course wiping Eliot's runny nose with a diaper (Naomi's size and clean-ish) I found on the floor of the car). ** and WOW I just manged to use paranthesis inside of parenthesis - which I'm deciding works because this is a blog**

The days of MacGyver Mama feel very far away.

Bringing Tears to My Eyes

This picture is so beautiful to me - not only because the color is so gorgeous because it was an unbelievably gorgeous day today.

Eliot was really intrigued today by what Aron was up to at his soccer game. While Aron was warming up Eliot laughed like crazy when Aron jumped up and down. Then when Aron was stretching Eliot sat on the ground and grabbed his toes too while Aron was doing the lean forward and grab your toes stretch.

During half-time Aron re-taped his left thigh - as you can see here - and Eliot watched with his intense way of watching and then pulled his pant leg up to ask for some tape. As you can see on Eliot's left ankle - Aron taped his socks (just like Aron tapes the bottoms of his own socks).

Eliot was pretty excited about his tape - he showed me and Gramma and looked pretty darn proud.

Priceless kind of stuff that brings on my mommy tears.

The Baby is Back

Eliot's baby spent the last few weeks in the vortex I sometimes also call the floor in the back seat of our car. The baby came back yesterday to a great deal of love and tender care. Eliot read it a few books, and carried it around, and put it on the couch to sit and they basically had some great quality time together. Today the baby went with us to a soccer game and got to sit in the stroller and watch the game.

This weird thing happened in my brain when we got to the soccer game. I was pulling out four of the five cars Nana gave Eliot which go all places all the time lately and then I pulled the baby out and I had this thought - what if one of the guys on Aron's soccer team thinks Eliot is a girly-girl or Aron is a girly-mahn 'cause Eliot has a baby.

I felt protective of both of them.

I don't know what to do with that. All I know is the baby still came out and was still loved and in reality I know its none of my business what some guy on a soccer team thinks of Eliot having a baby. And I still have to ask myself how I will someday deal with the inevitable likelihood that someone, somewhere, someday will make fun of Eliot for something (that I'm sure will be more about their own insecurities - but still it will stink).

7 months

Naomi is 7 months old today. Weird!

I found this picture of Eliot from just before he turned 7 months old. I think they're wearing the same bib! Funny how he is wearing a turtle neck at 7 months and she is wearing a bib and a diaper.

Books

During the tough months right after Naomi came along I sort of (okay sort of is an understatement) stopped initiating reading with Eliot. Until a month ago or so he had stopped reading books when he played by himself. I was feeling huge quantities of guilt about that. Aron started making a major point of reading to him about a month ago.

We cleaned a week ago and put all of his books that were downstairs on his bookshelf. He went through every book one at a time and looked through it and said what he recognized and had an awesome time.

Silly me thought he'd forgotten about the joy of books and I'd somehow 'ruined' his love of books.

Ridiculous!

She is so darn BIG

Check out the red hair on this kid! It doesn't always look that red - this picture just really makes her look like a red-head.

Naomi is trying to crawl. Yesterday and the day before she started finding her knees and pushing her little diapered butt up in the air. Before we know it this kid is going to be mobile.

If she didn't keep waking up at all hours of the night I think I'd put her in the conest for awesome-est baby in the world. As it stands - even with the waking up thing - I think she'd have a chance.

Eliot and the Frog

Eliot spent Saturday night at his Gramma and Grampa Kramer's house (thanks again Vicki and Mike) and while he was there he met a frog. We hear at first it surprised him (it was hanging out in the wheel of his school bus) and he even threw the school bus down in the sand box. They looked at it and checked it out and eventually we hear they had a pretty cool connection (as you can see).

Eliot continually amazes me when he finds new things in the world. He approaches new things with such gentleness and curiosity. He seems to have no attachments to particular things (the other day a bee was flying around and it was just as interesting as the flies we see - not more scary or less scary or more or less beautiful).

They way he is in the world is like a constant prayer to me.

And with that statement I think I've hit a new height in mushiness.

He let it climb onto his shirt

Wow. Its on my belly.

Hey man how 'bout a kiss

This kid knows how to make eye contact

Daddy and Naomi

This little piggy had roast beef...this little piggy had none....and this little piggy is just the cutest little girl I think I've ever known.

Sweet Naomi

Eliot loves the shirt Naomi is wearing here - it has a car and truck on it. Naomi has been called Eliot's baby brother at least four times out in public lately. As they say on Free to Be You and Me - boys are bald and girls have hair - well at least boys shave and girls don't. Any one else out there remember that track on Free to Be You and Me about how the actresses on cleaner commercials are smiling because they're faking it - and really no one enjoys housework? I don't remember that from my childhood. Its really something.

Siblings

Eliot was laying on the couch today and patted his back and said Mo - so Aron put Naomi on his back. Eliot actually thought this was fun despite the goofy look on his face here. He continues to be such an amazing big brother. He had a cookie today and handed me a piece for Naomi. I heard the two of them making noise in the dining room today and walked in and he had some avocado on a spoon that I'd left on the table and he was feeding it to her. Amazing!

A Picture

Yesterday the kids and I went to the park and Eliot was finally intrigued by the wading pool there (I've been excited about taking him to play in the wading pool since before we bought the house last year and he hasn't been interested until yesterday). He got so intrigued by it that he put his feet in - and then decided to step in and I got all excited and broke the rules and let him play in there in his shorts and shirt and regular diaper which sucked up about 1 gallon of water.

At one point he climbed out of the pool and start running around and I saw his little wet foot prints on the cement in a curve as he ran away from the pool and then toward it again. His little 3 inch foot prints started off all wet and splashy and then faded off.

I asked myself at that moment if I'd remember this when he is bigger. If I'd remember how fun it was to play in a pool with my kid for the very first time. If I'd remember how little his little feet are. If I'd remember the fun look on his face as he ran around. If I'd remember his cute little kid voice.

I guess the fact is I have no idea if I'll remember that or any number of other things. Who knows how many things in his life I thought I'd remember that I've already forgotten. When Naomi showed up so many things surprised me and continue to surprise me even tho I supposedly just did them a year and a half ago.

I Love This Picture

Rocks and puddles and two-year-olds are so cool. This is another awesome picture Aron caught while we were in Duluth.

Mattress Shopping

We went mattress shopping today (Eliot is getting a big bed in a few weeks) and decided to try out some king sized beds (we have an on-going debate about the possibility of better sleep with more room). As it turns out Eliot is a really enthusiastic and thorough mattress shopper. He hopped on every bed Aron tried out and laid right down - interestingly the only bed he didn't lay down on (and jumped on instead) was the one we got him. I'm so proud.

Puddles

Aron caught this picture of Eliot in Duluth this past weekend. I'm not sure if this is a better advertisement for parenting or Subarus. They had a great time hanging around in this puddle and I guess Eliot took a pretty good fall in it too.

Eliot is really into rocks and puddles lately. He's also really into cooking and his baby doll and his new snail puppet and feeding Naomi. I love that the world hasn't taught him yet that its 'sissy' to do girl things and 'kick ass' to do boy things.

Magic

I just took Naomi out of her car seat and happened to say to her 'hello magical baby' and then I brought both kids in to put them to bed nearly an hour after their bed-time and they both laid right down seemingly happy to go to sleep. It was peaceful and wonderful. As I said goodnight I thought more about her being a magical baby and was just reminded of how magical the kids seem to me and how magical motherhood feels to me.

Watching these two children grow up is like being part of magic. Seeing myself change and grow and be different as they grow feels like its all magic. Real. Life. Magic. Its interesting that we've turned magic into rabbits coming out of hats and sexy ladies cut in two while laying in boxes.

Holy 8 days without posting Bat Man

I've been really focusing on getting my coaching business back in the swing of things and we went away for the weekend and whew --8 days went by without posting. Goodness!

Nancy pointed out today (after spending 2 hours with all 4 kids - thank goodness cousin boy McGinley-Myers is still 'inside' - and thank goodness for Nan's bravery) that I need to write down the fact that Eliot says 'da boo' for thank you. He has the inflection down - da boo - just like thank you. Priceless.

I'm continually reminded lately of how quickly the kids grow. I swear they both grow daily. Yesterday I walked into the bathroom while Aron was giving Eliot a bath and I was stunned to see how much of him sticks out above the edge of the bath tub when he is standing in it. How did this happen?