Archive for July, 2007

After a bath…

Reuven was acting nice and calm after a bath.

Post Bath 1

Really, really calm.

Post Bath 2

In fact: totally zonked out.

Post Bath 3

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Not-so-smart cookie…

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…

Smile!

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Comparing Lillian Apple to Reuven Orange…

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, 3 monthsReuven, six weeks old

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Random Cuteness

Lillian and Stars

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Crazy napping

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…

Lillian’s Chair NapLillian’s Giraffe Nap

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.

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Bottle feeding to free mommy…

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.

Reuven drinks from a bottle

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…

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Reason #58 to not leave kids alone, ever

This was the scene that greeted Brett this morning:

Lillian and her artworkLillian’s Scribble Artwork

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.

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Next time, we all go, 10-hour drive or no!

Brett is down in South Carolina for a few days to close on our new house, and I am utterly exhausted. Dealing with two children is difficult, although the day is made easier since Lillian is still going to preschool daily (to keep her socialized and mellow, and to keep me from going insane). Today’s worse than average, though; I didn’t get much sleep last night (Reu was fussy too regularly, then there was a thunderstorm so Lil needed to come in and sleep in my room, then I had to wake up to take her down to school…), and it turned out the closing attorney’s secretary had screwed up a Power of Attorney document that we needed since I wasn’t going to be physically present. She had to send a new copy, which I then had to take to get notarized (to the bank), then scan, then ship the physical original by overnight mail — and, cleverly, I decided to stop at the post office while I was in town at the bank, and didn’t realize until I was walking out that I probably should have taken the paper home first if I wanted a scan of it.

Duh.

It turned out that just knowing the document was on its way was sufficient. But I still wasn’t able to get any sleep; by the time all that had been sorted out, it was only two hours until I needed to pick up Lillian and I was too frustrated with Life, the Universe, and Everything that I just organized paperwork instead. Once she was home, of course, there’s no way I could get to sleep… but luckily, the forecast is for a clear night, and I expect very little trouble from either child. Cross your fingers.

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