Today I didn't yell.

I wanted to record the beauty of this day, which was one of the best ever days with John since Sam was born. 

John has been (finally) showing some signs of a struggle to adjust to the new baby.  Luckily it has been directed at us (me) and not at Sam, but I've been really struggling to help him through it, and today we had a breakthrough.  Which means, lookout tomorrow.

Recently I asked him if it was hard being a big brother.  He said, resolutely, NO. 

Then I asked him if he thought it was hard for mom and dad or if we had changed at all.

He said that he thought Brian's eyebrows had gotten grayer but that I looked the same. 

So I asked if we had changed how we acted ... and was punched in the face with, "Yeah.  You yell a lot louder."

Well, today I didn't.

Mama's Bored Photo Shoot

While the bigs were at soccer practice, I dressed Sam up and posed him.

Here are some of my faves:











Click here to see them all.

RIP Clementine

Reconnected

I love these two bigheads.

We are finally back online after being down for most of the week.  Our modem suffered a fatal cooshball attack and another one had to be ordered and installed. Many thanks to Kentrell, my helpful AT&T technician, who now knows my favorite pet's name, favorite singer, mother's maiden name, best friend from elementary's school's surname, and the last four digits of my parents' home phone number.  Security has gotten out of hand if you ask me.

Here are some updates:

• The Sambino can roll from back to front and front to back now.  He is 14 pounds and 24.5 inches.  His head is enormous. The pediatrician says he's perfectly stealable.  He now has a third type of carrier, an Ergo.  Love it.  Need to block ebay from my web browser. 
• John was happy with his two quarters from the tooth fairy.  A neighbor friend told him she got $5 for her first tooth and I promptly informed the both of them that that was before the recession.  Clearly, John's TF is much more fiscally conservative than the one across the street.
• Brian's team lost the first game, but it was a close one (3-2).  John & Sam attended practice yesterday afternoon while I went out with friends for dinner.  There were no issues getting either of them to bed, and Sam slept from 9 p.m. to 4 a.m. again.  John, however, woke up at midnight, 2 a.m., 4 a.m., and 6 a.m. for various reasons (itchy warts, monsters, "Why did you get home so late, Mom?" and "Is it time to get up yet the little hand is almost on the seven?").  Lordy.
• 
  
  Our seedlings are going bonkers.  Even the peppers have decided to grow now that I warmed them up with a heating pad underneath to keep the soil at 80 degrees.  Some of these will be going in the ground soon, and then I'll put more stuff in egg cartons because I've lost my mind.  The entire yard would have to be tilled in order to sustain all of these plants, but I'm still going at it. 

• Recently our backyard neighbor cut down all the trees that made up our backyard shade and the big limb to hang a rope swing.  So, we bit the bullet and made some nursery owner north of town really happy today.  Brian rented a large Dodge Ram pickup and hired a 220 pound 8th grader to help him and John plant them. 

Eight arborvitaes, two Stephens' hollies, a redbud (not pictured), and I'm not sure what that big Christmas-tree-looking thing in the middle is, but I can tell you it ain't the hemlock I requested.  Something about hemlocks being a lot of trouble and I can't be expected to look after it properly what with the new baby and all.  So they brought me a forsythia instead.  Hmph.  Well it is pretty, but the jury's still out on where to put it. 
That's about all the news from these parts.  If you know any good farmhands, send them our way so we can make it through the summer.  And if you have knowledge of canning or have a food dehydrator for sale, we're interested in that too.  I can't stand the thought of a deep freeze on my back porch, but it may come to that if we're not careful. 
As always, onward, upward, and sideways.

Happy 4 Months, Sambino!

News of Note

Earlier tonight, our eldest ripped his first baby tooth out of his gums in a bloody show of manhood.  Unfortunately, he's counting on $1 for this one, but the Tooth Fairy could only find fitty cents.  Note to TF:  Keep cash on hand when teeth are loose.

In other news ...

As evidenced by the below photo, Sam is thrilled about his new plastic. You can see a video of him laughing by clicking here.

In parental news ...

Coach B's first soccer game is Wednesday.  We're hoping for a better season this year.

And Yours Truly has another cold.  My fourth since February.  Not that it's all about me or anything.  I'm just sayin'.

File this one under "Things You Think Are Obvious"

Last night as I was tucking him in, this one said, "Rub my head mom; it reminds me of when I was born."

"OK. Do you remember when you were born?"

"No."

"Well, I do."

"You do what?"

"I remember your birthday?"

"My birthday?"

"Yeah, the day you were born. I remember."

"Wait a minute ... I was born on my birthday?"


Pause.


"Yeah. That's how it works."

"So, Emerson (our neighbor) was born on her birthday?"

"Yes."

"Wow!"

Spring Break 2010

Arizona Snowbowl

The boys are back in town.

I'm so glad they're back.  Here are some shots of the trip:



Is that Shawn White?







The view from Mt. Humphreys, Flagstaff, AZ (12,000 feet!):










Yes, Chris has a beard.















This is Theadora, my friend Sharon's daughter. I love the Flagstaff scene in the background.

And here's a video of our snowboarder!

We haven't been bored at all.

A little sleepy, perhaps, but definitely not bored without the big boys, who have been out west living it up (pics to come tomorrow).  The report from them is mostly positive ... great weather, a little altitude sickness, eating chilaquiles, John is a snowboard star, something about an air mattress that wouldn't stay inflated, etc., etc. 

Sam is on a nap strike. But bless his heart, he's sweet even when he doesn't nap. At all.  Unless I'm wearing him. For two days straight. He still giggles out loud at everything, especially if you say something ridiculous and onomatopoeic like, "How did you get FISH FOOD in your diaper? FISH FOOD? FISH FOOD! FISH FOOD." 

My friend Sharon described him best:  "He just has an ease about him like he isn't struggling with the world like some babies do."

He prefers to be held instead of napping, so this was our compromise:

After I finally got him to sleep just now (at 9:46 p.m.), I had time for the exciting task of Going Through The Mail.  There were two items of note.

First, we received our census form, and I'm sure you'll all be happy to know that ours is already completed, folded correctly, and sealed in its postage-paid envelope. The way I figure it, there are extra points for being First In America to Be Counted. I'm patriotic like that; plus, you can't beat extra points.

The second item of note was our third heirloom seed catalog.

Now, I had already ordered our seeds from another catalog (and planted them in egg cartons) ... but  ...


Put a hold on our bank accounts: This catalog includes 117 pages of glossy, c lose-up, color photos of all manner of vegetables I do not have any room to plant but will probably order anyway.

Such as Vidrine's Midget Cowhorn Okra, Eden's Gem Rocky Ford Green-Fleshed Melon, or how about a little something from the, ahem, 21-page-spread of tomatoes catagorized by color.

Be still my heart.

And, come home, my bigs.

Maybe we are just a titch bored.

But the broccoli has sprouted!!!

Five and a half

John turns five and a half officially today, and we are excited to report that he has his first loose tooth! It's the same one that started coming in when he was six months old. He is very concerned that it might pop out and get lost in the snow on his snowboarding adventure out west. I fear his expectations about snowboarding may be a tad disappointing. He left envisioning half pipes and tricks whose names are numbers and all manner of other dangerous and exciting winter-olympic-like feats. He was also a bit concerned about the tooth fairy finding him. We assured him that the tooth fairy, like Santa, has a GPS.

Happy 5.5 Big Man. May all your snowboarding and tooth fairy and half-birthday dreams come true.

Buh-buh-buh BYE Sharona

I live in fear of what he might tell the chiropractor.

Today was one of those days when I tried to do way too much before noon. I'm sure others of you out there have experienced these days when, despite your beginning the day well adjusted (because of your visit to the chiropractor), you end up obliterating your spinal alignment by nursing the baby in the dressing room at Target.

But darned if you didn't just have to have that new scarf and a bottle of  Armor All.

The only thing good that came of this day was discovering that my chiropractor drinks diet coke (the shame!) and figuring out that Sam is old enough to go on my back in the mei tai wrap.

I know that he doesn't look comfortable in this photo, but he fell asleep within 10 minutes of being strapped on, and slept long enough for me to finish dinner and dust the entire house.  The beauty of babywearing.  And yes, I am still a huge proponent of babywearing despite the new warnings against "slings" by Consumer Reports.  For the record, it's the chin-to-chest position that is dangerous, which can technically happen in a crib or carseat as well as a "sling."  Neither of my current baby carriers can be categorized as slings, but I used a ring sling (Maya Wrap) with John-John and loved it.   As with anything else, combining common sense with knowledge of safe usage practices can go a long way.  

While I dusted, John watched Wall-E for the 733rd time and, Bert-like, counted his seashells from his seashell collection.

When he got home from school, he stood in front of me and dug them out of his pockets.  As he thrust his hands down farther and farther to retrieve the shells, I watched as dust flew up around him, like Pig Pen from Charlie Brown.  All the while, he was 90-miles-an-hour telling me about how his friend Bella, at school, found them amidst the gravel on the playground and how he was going to add them to his collection from the beach in his Ziplock bag and save them for a craft project. 

When he was done, I think said something stellar and affirming like, "You need to go wash your hands." 

Come to think of it, there's another character from Charlie Brown that reminds me of John ...

In other news, Sambino has become a pro at rolling from tummy to back, and this is really screwing up nap time.  But Lord have mercy on my soul is he ever the sweetest bite of deliciousness ever sent from heaven:

And now I'll leave you with a couple John-John quotes, of late:

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  "Man!  All kinds of stuff happened in there!"  (Said after emerging naked from the bathroom, post-bath.  I won't detail what exactly went down, but I will say that cleaning it up depleted my entire bottle of Comet.)
• 
  
  "Man!  I do NOT wanna be in a game of counting pepper on noodles."  (Said after contemplating the fettucini alfredo with freshly ground pepper, which I served for dinner tonight.)
• 
  
  "Hey Dr. Jen, guess what my mom lets me have on some special occasions!  CHEETOS!" (Dr. Jen is our beloved chiropractor who is cute, perky, fit, and uber-health conscious.  She is not a fan of Cheetos, but--we discovered today--she does occasionally splurge on a diet coke.)

Brian, age 6, at a rodeo