Saturday, July 28, 2007

The Adventures of Porca and Tomkey

You may remember the twin baby dolls Lauren received for Christmas this past year. She loves them, but they are taking a real beating. They started out as Porca and Tomkey but their names change almost daily. The pink baby has been to Haviland's Cove, on the swings and to the top of the monkey bars, from which she fell into the sand numerous times. She is pretty dirty and doesn't appear machine washable. The blue baby has been to the camp in Newcomb and on many other day trips. Oh, and she decided they wanted to have their faces painted so she colored all over their faces with ball point pen which will not come off. One is a lion and I forget what the other is. The blue baby is mostly named Jason lately and Lauren nurses him when I nurse Addison. He has a funny, rubber mohawk wig that is black and purple. Hope you get to meet them again soon...

We had a nice visit from Bryan and Jill, glad they stopped to see us! I talked with Bryan about how kids choose funny names for toys and such. Some names Lauren has suggested that I like are Davin and Bustin. She also used to have a doll named Tunafisha Jameson Tanya Tanya. I guess I should be glad that Lila was the name she suggested for our baby.

Speaking of Addison, she is now 11 pounds 6 ounces. She had to have 3 shots yesterday :( but she did fine. Lauren covered her eyes and couldn't watch. She wanted Addison to squeeze her thumbs while she got the shots (that's what she does when she has to take her nose spray or have tangles combed out of her hair. Addison is right on track for weight, height, etc. and is generally healthy. We are very grateful. She's a happy baby who is happiest in the morning, she usually gives beautiful smiles to anyone who smiles at her and makes eye contact. She likes to be outside and she loves her vibrating baby seat. She likes to be where the action is and seems to nap the best in her seat wherever we are. I think she likes the background noise and doesn't like to be alone. She's generally fussy in the evening, but usually going outside, nursing or just changing her environment helps her to calm down. She has been sleeping long stretches at night, last night from 9:30 till maybe 3:30 or so. it was the best night of sleep I've had in a long time.

That's all for now...

Monday, July 23, 2007

Little Miss Interpretation

Last week Tyler overheard Lauren singing a song: "Knock, knock, knocking on Kevin's door..."

I took Lauren and Addison to the Saratoga "Counting" (County) Fair on Sunday. It was great. Lauren is pleased by such simple things. Some highlights were the school bus shuttle ride from parking lot D (she was awed by her first school bus ride and helped remember that we were in lot "D for Daddy"). She buckled herself with two seat belts and sat near the back.

She was thrilled to find some farm toys like toy tractors, a barn and farmers in one of the dairy barns, she would have played there all day by herself! It was a nice place for me to sit and nurse the baby while she played, though.

She loved the animals, had some nice conversations with the goats. Wanted to know the names of all the rabbits.

She was ecstatic to stumble upon a dance recital, she sat in the front row and squealed like an old lady at a Neil Diamond concert at the tap dance and interpretive dancers. She planned out her own dance recital with friends from school and parents in the audience. She even plans to dance with boys. Not sure how that will go over with them...

She also loved the maple sugar candy and the play set at the Garden Time display. We stayed for hours. Addison was awake and content for most of the time. Then she cried all the way home (fussy time) but slept for 6 solid hours at night, what a treat...

Nice bonus... we didn't make any messes at home because we weren't there! And Tyler was caulking the windows and doing other outdoor projects so he didn't make any messes either. It was a great weekend... back to work this week.

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Bottle Blues

We are having a hard time getting Addison to take a bottle. She has to learn how to do it before August 20th because that's when she starts daycare. Tyler gave her a bottle last night to try and let me get some sleep. It kind of worked, but she does not like bottles at all. I heard about a kind of bottle that is most like breastfeeding, so I guess I'll buy those and try it.

I was feeling guilty about how much of the day Lauren spends watching movies, so I encouraged her to do other things yesterday. I set up a water play table for her outside, encouraged playing on her playset and doing other things. It was successful in that she didn't watch t.v. until after supper when I turned it on so because I was exhausted and wanted her to be contained for a while. It was frustrating in that she made messes all over the place. A beading center in the dining room. A fort of blankets and books in the baby's room. She created her own water play station in both bathroom sinks and spilled water, soap, mud, etc. on the floor. She tortured bugs by trapping them in jars of water with lids. We did have a picnic lunch on her picnic table outside, which was great, but of course created another mess that had to be brought inside.

I felt bad because she kept asking Tyler or me to play with her in her fort, etc. but we were busy mowing the lawn and taking care of the baby, respectively. I wish she had a playmate her own age that lived nearby. Linnea is a great playmate for her, but they live near Saratoga and are often busy. We try to play when we can, but it's not the same as a playmate or a cousin. I look forward to Addison being big enough to play with her, but at the same time, I want her to stay a baby forever. In a way, she's so easy at this age. She's predictable, stationary and sweet!

To quote Looney Toons, which is always playing in our house now, "That's All Folks!"

Friday, July 20, 2007

Running Errands

I think everyone knows that kids can say and do the cutest things. And of course everyone thinks their kids are the cutest. I'm no exception. It occurred to me that most of the time when my kids do something I think is cute there is no one around to share it with. I thought I would start this to keep my family updated on cute things that the kids do that don't necessarily warrant a phone call in the middle of the day. (Since my family are the only ones that might be interested in these moments.) Don't know how often I'll find the time to post, but here goes...

I was out with Lauren and Addison, after I told Lauren we were running errands. Soon after I heard her say to Addison 'Mommy will feed you when we're done getting earrings".

I asked Lauren what she would wish for if she could have anything. She wished she could live in her own house (she has told us she doesn't want to live with us anymore because we're boring). Her house will of course be pink and full of princess stuff. She will live there with her husband, her daughter, her baby and her dog (sound familiar?) If her husband doesn't like pink he can have his own room.

Lauren currently wants to marry Harry Potter because he sounds like her and he's cute.

At least she no longer wants to marry Tyler or Kobie.

Lauren is expressing her own fashion sense. Yesterday she wore a pink plaid shirt, with a white crocheted sweater, blue plaid skort over pink capri pants, with the infamous striped rain boots, a raincoat and a pink plastic ring to complete the look.

Addison makes the cutest noises and smiles, but that's hard to record here. She likes to stand up with support (she's so proud of herself). She likes to be outside and feel a breeze. She thinks Lauren is hysterical and smiles at her more than anyone else. Oh, and she likes milk.

That's all for now!