Nerdy Suburban Mom

Required background knowledge: The local bakery in Bedford makes the most amazing cookies. They are soft, buttery sugar cookies, coated in crisp red icing and decorated with a white pair of eyes and a smile. Delicious and cheerful, they are a favorite treat.

Lillian has always been a bit “difficult” when she’s low on sleep — either needing a nap, or being woken up early. This morning was one of those bad ones, since she stayed up talking to herself for a couple hours after being put in bed. The usual bribery, threats, and so on ensued, until she was dressed and in the car.

To tide her over until she got breakfast at school, we said she could have a smiley face cookie if she apologized for being incredibly rude and difficult while getting dressed. She was still tired and sad, but willingly apologized and got hugs and kisses. Then, I pulled the cookie out of the bag… and it had a frown instead of a smile!

This is something that the bakery does on every one in three dozen cookies or so, and usually Lillian finds it quite funny. However, when a toddler is feeling sad and expects to see a cheerful expression on her snack, handing her a grumpy treat instead does not go over well. She nearly burst into tears all over again, and Brett and I both felt terrible — it looked like we weren’t as happy with her as we really were.

To help make it up to her, we’re going to be stopping by the bakery after I pick her up from school and get a fresh batch…

On the left, Lillian Marie at approximately three months. On the right, Reuven James at exactly six weeks. The pillow is the same, no perspective games… he’s at least as big as she was.

Lillian has always had trouble napping when she’s not at school. Having other kids sleeping all around her is a good example. She was even so good at it that they let her sleep on a cot instead of in a portacrib before she was two years old, the typical age limit.

Unfortunately (well, perhaps fortunately), we don’t have hordes of preschoolers living in our house, and so weekend naps need to be done solo. And so we end up with weird stuff like…

The giraffe was the most surprising. Luckily it wasn’t the whole giraffe, just the leg (which, being Playmobil, is both durable and easy to put back on the toy). Still, she’s begun to rediscover the one-year-old’s habit of sticking everything in her mouth, and this example is more worrying than most examples I’ve noticed, because she very well could swallow something while she moves around in her sleep.

Reuven is now one month and two days old, so we decided it was a good time to introduce him to the idea of drinking from a bottle. I pumped three ounces of milk, and Lillian and Brett each got to feed him for a while.

Lillian seemed to enjoy it much more than Brett; not only is it not particularly new for him, but he was busy playing Final Fantasy XII. And he’ll be getting plenty of time with bottle feeding next week when I have to go back to work part-time…

This was the scene that greeted Brett this morning:

It’s actually pretty good artwork on the wall. Her typical pictures are just scribbles, and so the strange creature on the wall is innovative! And luckily, the walls are easy enough to wash. The ink on her legs was not coming off as easily, so she got to be tattooed for the day instead.

I couldn’t be more proud of the way Lillian is handling her new role as Big Sister. Of course, it’s not perfect. She does get upset that she isn’t getting as much attention as before, and that it is slower in coming. She’s also begun to dread being alone, which can include sitting at the dining room table by herself while everyone else is on the couch (ten feet away). But there’s a critical point which makes me feel better about this — she blames us for the perceived lack of interest, and doesn’t blame Reuven for drawing us away from her. I can tell because if she’s sobbing over a minor injustice, she will go to him, give him a big hug and kiss, and immediately begin to feel better.

Whenever I pick her up at school, the other kids (from 1 1/2 years old up to 4) crowd around wanting to hold him. Lil makes sure to point out that she is his big sister, and is very helpful and keeps him safe and happy, so she gets to hold him all the time. She also finds noises he makes to be uproariously funny: “Mommy, he BURPED! Mommy, he FARTED! Mommy, he said MNNnnnrrrggg!” (Such things are fascinating to toddlers. I find a fair amount of amusement in him myself, to be completely honest.)

The downside of her being so close to him: they will be more apt to team up against me and Brett, and they’re just smart enough for that to be very, very dangerous…

Most children don’t climb trees when they’re less than a week old. In this day and age, it’s possible many children never climb trees at all. This does not, however, apply to Altschul children; we intend to have them in as many trees as possible over the course of their lifetimes, starting as early as possible.

“Climb” is a bit of a stretch in this case, since Reuven is still not capable of holding his head up without help (and wasn’t even capable of staying awake for this photo session). But you get the idea…