rivka

Alex did better yesterday, nibbling graham crackers and dry Cheerios and showing more of her customary energy. She had some rice again for dinner, and then we bathed her and put her to bed and held our breath.

She slept through the night and woke up cheerful. She asked me for "a big breakfast." Thinking of how tiny her appetite had been, I offered her a big piece of cinnamon toast, and she accepted. But while it was cooking, "Mom, I want a bagel and cream cheese." "You said you wanted cinnamon toast, so that's what I'm making you!" She thought for a moment. "How about both?"

And, yeah. She ate the cinnamon toast and then she ate a mini bagel with cream cheese. More like inhaled. So I dressed her up in her Halloween costume and took her to school, just in time for the Halloween parade. (I did check with her teacher to make sure that there wouldn't be a ton of sugary treats, because I didn't want to over-tax her stomach. Her teacher reported that each kid would get one lollipop, so yay.)

Michael reports that he has picked her up and that she is tired but well. I gave her nanny free reign to let Alex watch movies this afternoon, so she can conserve her energy and hopefully make a stop at the church Halloween party tonight.

Colin is better too. He hasn't needed to use the bulb syringe for a couple of days, and he has figured out how to nurse without scraping his brand-new teeth on me. I am extremely grateful. He wore his costume to drop Alex off at school and was much admired; pictures of both kids later.

I took the kids to a farm up north of the city this afternoon. They've got a corn maze, a pumpkin patch, hayrides, farm animals on display, a hay bale mini-maze for little kids, a dried-corn sandbox, apples and cider, and every other feature of wholesome harvest Americana imaginable.

When I could get past the self-conscious awareness that "I am having an iconic family experience!" I enjoyed myself.

We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day:



I had been kind of dubious about whether it would be wise to enter the corn maze when I had both kids by myself. (Look at that thing!) But Alex was really, really excited and we decided to go for it. Because we've had torrential rains recently, areas of the maze - especially near the entrance - were unbelievably muddy. They'd put down sheets of plywood which were now only covered in a couple of inches of mud, but if you stepped off the plywood you could easily find yourself in sucking, oozing mud up over your shoe tops.



Fortunately it was much drier and less terrifyingly slippery as you got further in.

I loved the way the maze was designed. If you wanted an intense challenge, you could search the maze for twelve way stations that had irregularly-shaped hole punches attached. If you punched your ticket with all twelve, you "won." But if you just wanted the experience of wandering around in a maze, it wasn't that difficult to figure out which direction would bring you back out. Alex loved it. She led the way, directing us at every intersection with great authority. (There weren't many dead ends, just paths that led into other paths.)



And of course we bought a pumpkin, and rode the hayride, and admired the livestock, and had a snack of hot cider and pumpkin bread. Colin slept almost the whole time, which is exactly what one hopes from a baby in such an environment.

It was a lovely afternoon.

I missed the seven month update, probably in no small part because that's when Colin became mobile. He started crawling right at seven months, followed a few days afterward by pulling up to stand. Now, at eight months, he is a lightning-fast crawler, able to pull himself up on just about anything and then lower himself carefully back down again, and beginning to cruise along the furniture.

He is thrilled. He greets his own physical achievements with a delighted crowing laugh, and meets our eyes with his best "ZOMG ISN'T THIS AWESOME!!!" expression.



He seeks out, with unerring accuracy, anything he isn't supposed to have. Then he puts it in his mouth. Paper is a particular favorite here, but I also removed a large rough pebble from his mouth once. I think he found it in the fireplace?

This is going to sound crazy, but I think he's trying to say Alex's name. He calls out "A-lah" with suspicious frequency.

He has just started to show an interest in a few of his books - the ones with baby photos or animal sounds. I don't know if this is a personality difference from Alex - she was fascinated by books from a very very early age - or if it has more to do with being the second child. He doesn't get read to nearly as often as she did at his age. Mostly if I'm reading aloud I'm reading to Alex.

Still, he doesn't seem to feel neglected:



He has taken to solid food very well. He likes Cheerios, rice, mashed potatoes, bits of soft fruit. He doesn't really go for pureed fruit, but he likes his yellow and orange vegetables and his veggie-meat blends. He doesn't really have a thumb-and-finger pincer grip yet, so he eats Cheerios by swiping at them with his whole hand, making a fist, and then unwrapping his fingers one at a time until a Cheerio appears. Then he pushes it up the hand with his thumb and into his mouth.

Still no teeth, except for the one tiny little white speck on his gum that's been there for months.

He still nurses very often. Nursing these days involves an awful lot of pinching, prodding, nail-digging, and miscellaneous grabbing, unless he's swaddled, so it's not so fun for me. I am trying to train him to hold on to my shirt or hand, with some success. I also hope to teach him the critical importance of unlatching first and then whipping his head around to see what's behind him.

Naps are settling into a schedule: usually three times a day, midmorning, midafternoon, and dinnertime, usually at least an hour each. He still wakes to eat a few times a night. We've had some difficult nights - last night he woke up several times sobbing, not consoled by nursing - but I think that was the only time. Usually a bad night is when he feeds and feeds and feeds and feeds with his eyes closed the whole time. I am not outrageously sleep-deprived, although I am starting to think that it's time to set up the crib. Although I do like sleeping with him and cuddling him at night.

He's such a sweet, affectionate boy. He holds his arms out to his favorite people (Mama, Papa, and his nanny Nia) and tries to climb into their arms. He snuggles in. My absolute favorite is when he absolutely wants to be standing (because, you know, STANDING!!) but is also sleepy: he stands up on my lap and bends over to rest his head on my shoulder.

He really is my darling. So cute, so lovable, so cuddly, so sweet, so happy.

The first day of the first year of nursery school, 2007:



The first day of the last year of nursery school, 2009:



I know this is the quintessential adult cliche, but: look how she's grown. Whoa.

( more pics of both kids under the cut )

Colin had his six-month well-baby visit today.

His head circumference percentile has increased from 95% to more like 98-99%. His pediatrician recommends another consult with the neurosurgeon.

His weight, on the other hand, has dropped one line on the growth chart. Ped says, not uncommon in an exclusively-breastfed baby between 4 and 6 months.

He wants us to work on getting solids into Colin and consider supplementation. We're to have a measurement follow-up in six weeks. I stopped by Whole Foods on the way home and picked up some oatmeal and some fenugreek capsules to augment my milk supply. If that doesn't work over the next six weeks, we'll argue about whether I should supplement with formula then.

I've been having trouble keeping up with the pumping lately, so it doesn't seem farfetched that I might be having supply issues. (I had been wondering if the pump, which I bought used, was wearing out.) We'll see what a couple weeks of fenugreek does for me.

I really didn't need this when I was already incredibly stressed out.

Boy, you wouldn't believe what a vast amount of stuff is required to sustain a baby, a preschooler, and two adults for a week's vacation. My master packing list is terrifying.

We are planning to leave tonight, around the kids' bedtime. This is either the best idea we've ever had or the worst disaster we've ever delivered ourselves into; I don't think there's any middle ground on the question.

Still to do before we leave: Colin needs to be bathed. (Michael is finishing up with Alex's hair right now, I can tell by the screams.) Michael needs a nap. The non-clothes part of the packing needs to happen. And we need to hit the cash machine, plus the wine store for some tasty carry-along treats.

Sometimes Colin wakes in the 5 hours after bedtime and sometimes he doesn't. I am considering pumping a couple of ounces to take along in a bottle, in case he does. I don't mind stopping to nurse for its own sake, but I mind the idea of a crying baby waking up Alex at 11pm while Michael tries to find a safe place to pull off the road.

Just in time for a week of classes, worship, and Theme Talks, he has discovered the joys of happy screeching. I may be less able to cart him around than I had hoped.

We're talking to a few different nanny candidates. I helped Alex make her own checklist of qualities she is hoping for. This time I'm getting most of my questions out of the way over the phone, so that the interview can focus more on actual interaction between the prospective nanny and each of the kids.

In the meantime, Michael is running down the possibility of hiring a temporary sitter to look after Colin until we hire someone permanent, which should take some of the pressure of the search. We'd keep Alex at school full-time in the interim, because she's a lot more likely to be bothered by changes in caregivers than Colin is.

Colin is at work with me today. Right now he is taking a nap on my desk. I've got his changing pad underneath him, and he's tightly swaddled, and between those two things he is perfectly happy napping surrounded by binders and folders and my tape dispenser. I wish I had a camera.

Alexism of the day:

Alex: If you lived in ancient Egypt, you'd really want to have a back windshield wiper.
Me: Why?
Alex: (in tone suggesting that she is too polite to preface her comment with "you idiot") Because it hardly ever RAINS in Egypt!
Me: ...
Me: ...Oh yeah. We don't need a back windshield wiper, because the rain washes our back window clean.
Alex: Yeah.

I really love the way this kid draws connections between things.

In other family news, Colin has found his feet. And his legs, which are also fun to hold. He is very, very, very pleased with himself.

Colin turned four months old last week, and yesterday he had his four-month well baby visit. He is in fine form: happy, healthy, sociable, strong.

He is such a cheerful, amiable baby. When he wakes up in the morning he just beams at me. He loves to make eye contact and smile. He loves having people talk to him - not just familiar family members, but total strangers. He laughs a lot, an irresistable gurgling chuckle. He rarely cries or fusses, unless we're cruel enough to ask him to ride in the car.

He's a very vocal baby. Still not a great variety of sounds, of course - it's mostly lots of big open aaahhs and ohhhhs, with some /g/ and /b/ sounds thrown in. But he vocalizes a lot. He'll make a lot of noise even by himself, playing with his baby gym, but if you hold him face-to-face he coos away conversationally with great intensity.

Of course at four months he can grab and hold things and put things in his mouth. Baby toys have finally become objects of interest. He isn't particularly adept at handling things, but he does have a killer grip.

He's got great muscle tone. He loves to "stand" on our laps and makes frequent attempts to scale the north face of Mount Mama. When we put him on his stomach, he lifts his whole upper body with ease. He can roll over front-to-back. And he's got a powerful kick. Last night at dinner I had him nursing in the sling, and he kicked out one leg hard enough that it knocked Alex's water glass clear off the table.

Speaking of nursing, it's so easy now. In normal circumstances during the day he nurses for maybe 15 minutes every two hours. He latches himself on with verve, drinks until he's full, and then either unlatches and smiles at me to let me know that it's playtime again or else falls peacefully asleep. I do have to be careful, though, because he is not fussy about the targets he chooses for his remora-like latch and he's been known to give me painful hickeys if he misses the nipple. (I know, TMI, sorry.)

Sleep is starting to fall apart a bit, as we've hit the four month sleep regression, but even so it's not too bad. He usually goes down "for the night" around 9:30. I swaddle him tightly and keep him swaddled until morning. From 9:30 to around 7:30, he wakes only to nurse and goes straight back to sleep after he nurses, and during that time he can usually be easily put down in his swing or the cosleeper. Before the sleep regression he was giving me one 5-6 hour stretch and then sleeping for two-hour stretches until morning. Now, I'd say that I get one 4-5 hour stretch and then one- to two-hour stretches until morning, with at least one episode per night of being hard to put down. Which, again, is not so bad. I think things might go a bit more smoothly when the giant-but-thin-muslin swaddling cloths I ordered arrive - they should be more suitable for a larger baby and for summer sleep.

He's working on cutting a tooth. Or teeth. Drool flows copiously, and he likes to chew on things. He keeps his fingers in his mouth a lot, and chews on our hands and on toys. He hasn't seemed to show a lot of teething pain - just drooliness and chewiness. Let's hope that continues.

He loves Alex. She often makes him laugh, and he likes to lie on a blanket and watch her play. She has a special talking-to-Colin voice - hilariously, she will often repeat things I tell him using the special voice, as if she's translating - and hearing it really makes him smile. Unfortunately, one of the things he likes most about Alex is the way he can grab her hair in a death grip. She is remarkably tolerant of him... although she did suggest to me this morning that we put him up for adoption.

So, all in all, we're having a great time with babyhood here. Yay.

I just checked in with our nanny. The kids are still alive.

Colin initially refused to take a bottle but then gave in and is now on his second bottle in two hours. I hope I left enough milk. (At the nanny's suggestion, I left four three-ounce bottles instead of the three four-ounce bottles I had initially planned.) I hope she doesn't have to thaw my entire feeble freezer stash. I hope I can pump lots and lots today.

Alex is on her third change of clothes because they went for a walk and she got soaked and muddy. She is apparently doing great except that she is completely incapable of doing anything for herself (putting on shoes, etc.) while Colin is crying or having a bottle. This is not news to us, but I hoped it would be better for a stranger.

I could hear him gurgling happily over the phone. At the end of our conversation she reported that he was "blissfully asleep in the sling."

It's going to be okay, right? Because I'm feeling a ltitle tearful here.