The Baby Juggler

This is Going to be Short

Starting the new job tomorrow.  Am posting today because I PROMISED someone I would.  Hi, Apa.

We got the new pup today, her name is Cheshire in honor of our old city.  We are calling her "Chessie".  She is a dream so far, for a puppy.  Will post pics as soon as I have time.

We've been crazy busy which is why I haven't been posting.  J's been devoting all her time for the Big Test which is now done, thank the lord and pass the ammo and all that.

Cute things the babies have said of late.

Mini, looking at her cup of water with no ice while Jr.'s cup is full of ice- "My ice popped."

Jr. while I was putting yet more damn anti-fungal cream on his genital area- "Mommy, I won't eat the medicine (cream)." -pause- "Cause I'm a good boy."

The World According to Costco

Who else loves to go to Costco just to eat the free samples?  Why are we like fish in a tank, hovering near the food cart waiting for the sample lady to place her item on the tray, then fighting each other to reach the food first?  Or is it just me?  Oh, but it's not, cause it was about six other piglets hovering with me. 

So I made the mistake of once or twice going to Costco and getting the kids a hot dog to share (which they are not even that crazy about, but I really like the price and the drink IS included).  Now every time we go to Costco we have to get a freaking hot dog or they lose their minds.  They do not understand why Mommy doesn't do the same exact thing everywhere we go.  Like when we go to the big store at the mall with the play area?  WHY AREN'T WE GOING TO PLAY TODAY, MOMMY?  MOMMY?

Santa, Baby

We went to see Santa this morning with our new play group.  It's not exactly a play group, more an indoor play area cooperative, where peoplebring their kids under age five for fun with many, many toys.  The good thing about this is it gives me a positive rationale to NOT purchase too many toys for my children.  If they have it at the "inside park" then they probably don't need it at home.  We got at least three times a week to play at the facility and the kids get their fill of all the really cool expensive toys and I don't have to dream of buying them.  Or even a Home Depot workbench with all the trimmings. 

But I digress.  SO, we saw Santa this morning.  I don't know if it was the little girl who went prior to our kids, or just the big C himself, but our babes wouldn't sit on his lap.  Just the thought had Mini crying with a gaping mouth, gulping air kind of cry.  So, J and I got to pose with Santa this year.  The picture would actually be very good except that J has her head turned almost parallel(lll?) to the floor.  She looks adorable and gorgeous all at once, of course, just slightly crooked.  The babies look concerned.

I was pleased to confirm one lesbian couple in the group, and a potential other lesbian couple (although the other couple I may not feel quite as warm to, not sure yet, jury is out).  I was getting scared we were the only lesbians with young children in town. 

I have tentative good news.  I just up and cold called a couple of clinics yesterday, and one might create some work for me if it passes board approval and if my credentials are interesting to them.  I meet with the director on Friday morning.  He sounded VERY nice and has worked there 20 years.  I'm intrigued as it would be a good fit for me as far as I'm concerned, except it's non-profit so possibly not as much money as I could make in another setting.

Wish me luck!  And a good hair day.

Edited to add, typepad almost got the back ofmy hand.  It ALMOST lost my post some angel in heaven saved it I don't know how.  Doesn't typepad KNOW how long it freaking took me to find those silly links?  Phew!

What the babies are up to

Mini can climb out of her crib. 

It all started about a week ago.  The babies seem to not able to nurse or bottle to sleep any longer, so after much ado and babies getting up to lots of high jinks, we settled them into their cribs to go to sleep.  While they were awake.

So, we heard some crying, then some shrieking (with glee, not fury), then, as we were for some reason looking at the door to the babies' room, it opened.  By itself.  Well, not by itself but not propelled by me or J.  And it was Mini, with a shit-eating grin on her face, as if to say, "See?  What I did?  Aren't you proud?"

SO, we put her back in both times she climbed out that night before she finally fell asleep.

The NEXT night she climbed out of her crib, then later climbed into Jr.'s crib, then climbed out of her crib AGAIN and must have fallen and hit her head as she began crying.  At our wit's end, we decided to lower her crib rails so that when she climbed out she would at least do it in somewhat more safety.  I explained to her very patiently that once we put her in her crib she needs to stay there.

Tonight, she did NOT climb out but she did cry to me several times, when I would go in, lie her back down (or lay, or whatever), rub her back, tell her she was a good girl, it's bedtime, and she would settle down again for a few minutes.  We only did this three or four times in a short period, so hopefully we are working towards a resolution to what three nights ago I thought was the end of my semi-sane existence.

On a positive note, language seems to be taking off, with the babies putting two words together and I SWEAR it they are sometimes putting three words together. 

Some common things heard in our house this week:

"Dat unnn (that one)"

"Dunno"

"I want it"

"No, I doooond (no, I don't)"

"mommy eyes"

"mama eyes"

Oh, speaking of which, they began to say "Mimi" last Friday for "Mommy" (me) follwed by "mommy" but Sunday afternoon.  They now clearly differentiate "mommy" (me) and "mama" (J).

They can point to and say some semblence of the following body parts:

eyes

ears

nose

mouth

teeth

tongue

lips

cheek

chin

forehead

hair

tummy

bellybutton

elbow

arm

fingers

hands

genitals

knees

ankles

feet

toes

Geniuses, can we all agree on that?

Other people and multiples

While washing my hands (and just squeaking by with being finished) after changing an exceptionally poopy diaper (aside- I detest the word "poop" but there really is no other polite way to phrase that without sounding like I've got a stick up my ass.  A woman to whom I was mother's helper before I was old enough to babysit on my own insisted  that I say "BM" or bowel movement.  She would not let me say poop or any other form of the word) we lost water sevice to our house.   This is the third or fourth time this has happened since we've lived in this house and every time it's been in error.  I call the water company and they inform me that our water is not off.  Umm, yes it is. 

But this post isn't really about water.  Because we had no water, I decided to take the babies to lunch, and ask a friend to join us.  Lunch occurred at a "meat and three" type of a restaurant, with us ordering and getting our food from the counter, then carrying it and our drinks to the table.  I managed to hold the tray and push the stoller with my stomach, directing it with increased pressure, much like riding a horse using dressage.  I should give lessons in stroller pushing.  Stroller Pushing 101, the grocery store, and so on...  SO we get to the table, I leave and get two high chairs.  I begin unpacking the babies' supplement lunch and milk cups.  I get the table toppers prepared, the food unpacked, about five minutes of me running around the stroller while babies get fussier and fussier while my friend starts eating.  Ummm... can I get a hand?  Just grab a baby and strap 'em in.  Throw a bib around his/her neck. 

This phenomenon of people not assisting in situations with multiples is not an isolated incident.  My triplets listserv, from which I have removed myself cause I just get annoyed at the urban legends being sent around, people would talk about this all the time.  There is sometimes a distaste for family gatherings because we know we'll often be the only people watching our multiples.  It is NOT the same for two people to take two babies out in public, as it is for one person to take out one baby.  I have done both.  I don't know why it's harder for two people to take out two, it just IS.  The work that multiples make is NOT linear, it is exponential.  Twins are not twice as hard as one baby, they are three (or more) times harder to care for.  Triplets (I can imagine) are not three times as hard as one baby. 

One time at the park, a woman nabbed Mini (she took of pounding the pavement with her fat little cankles) as I was trying to get Jr. into the stroller.  I was VERY appreciative.  I was also very surprised.  People usually just stare or ignore us.  Further down the continuum, when I push the handicap button to stroll my double-wide (stroller, not ass, although it is easy to make that mistake) through the narrow doorway, I did not do that so that you could squeeze in front of me, asshole lady in the green hat.  OK?  Humph.  But I digress.

Please, three or four readers of mine, please help your friend/parent of multiples out.  Heck, help your parent of a singleton out!  Don't be afraid.  Really.  We don't mind!

Babbling and boring posts

The babes, they are babbling.  It's weird, I think I must have been asleep during the babbling stage of babyhood.  And now, it seems my almost 18 monthers are babbling.  With words thrown in for good measure.

Some of the language they pick-up and respond to shocks me.  I signed "gorilla" to Mini one time and after that every time I said gorilla (we got a zoo membership) she signs her version of gorilla.  Some signs I make-up for the babies, because I think they are more intuitive than the real sign.  "Sad," for example, is normally both hands , open towards one's own face, crossing each other, as if representing darkness blanketing the face.  Instead of signing the real sign, I make a fist and rub it at the corner of my eye.  It started the day I realized Mini was crying for effect, not because she was upset (I WILL attend the Academy Awards one day, count on it).  I could just tell she was acting.  So I mocked made-fun of scarred for life teased her and said, "are you sad?" while signing the made-up sign.  She laughed and we moved on.  About two days ago I used the sign with Jr. for the first time.  Yesterday, I was asking him if he was sad that his book that he has chewed to shreds is now almost destroyed.  I asked him quietly, conversationally, calmly.  His back was to me at the time.  He turned around and made a gesture near his eye.  I realized he was trying to sign sad! 

Tonight while Mini was nursing to sleep, J. was softly singing the Hokey-Pokey with Jr.  I was talking to Mini at the same time, but she heard "put your xx leg in and shake it all about" and started to shake her leg!  I can't say she actually chose the correct direction (left or right).  I don't brag that she's THAT much of a genius but still.... 

Mini says "Mama" FINALLY.  ALL the time.  Jr. is just starting to say it consistently.  I think he's been saying some version of it for  a while that I just didn't understand.  Now I get it.

Jr. has taken to running back and forth along the couch, while I try to act like I'm not having a heart attack and calmly rescue him from his impending head injury.  They LOVE testing me, truly they do.  And I am loving every minute with them.

SPEAKING of every minute, I got my first day off since the babes were born!  In honor of my birthday, J. gave me the day last Saturday.  My biggest induglence was going to a local burrito place and eating a whole big platterful of chips and queso.  Yum!  Interesting clientle at 3 in the afternoon, I'm here to say.  I sat there and read and eyeballed the hockey game to check the score.  This was a very generous gift, considering J. is usually working from home with the babies, working from home as in her "work" work, or AT work.  Or mowing the lawn, or cleaning out the basement, or fixing a bicycle.  She doesn't catch a break and I certainly don't tell her enough how much I appreciate her.  Honey, your turn next for a day off, ok?

I'm sorry to say, I have finished all five of the existing Clan of the Cave Bear series (really the Earth's Children's series, but who in the hell would know what that is).  These books will definitely become re-readers in the future, I am missing the characters.  I have low expectations of seeing book six anytime soon, since it apparently took the author many many years to get book five out the door.  Damn.

Now am reading silly time killers.  Any good recommendations?

Babies are officially smarter than me

Have you noticed that, since I can't remember capitalization rules in titles, I just keep switching it up?  Now I'm going with the no capitals.   Soon, I will use invisible fonts, and present with no titles at all.  You can invent your own.

We have separated half of our dining room into a play area by using some of the peices of the play area as a wall, and then a gate from the kitchen doorway to the play area portion of the dining room.  In this manner, I am able to park my kids and their toys while I carry groceries up from our basement garage (without fear for them tumbling down the stairs onto their heads). 

Picture this:  A small kid's table from Ikea next to a short play yard barrier.  Just outside the play yard barrier, a generic particle board/laminate desk we use as the downstairs changing table.  Me, cooking lunch or dinner or something.  Babies who had been pretty fussy all week(especially Jr. with his mysterious virus/rash/swollen-back-of-head-lymph nodes) suddenly playing quietly but not too quietly- small toys softly banging and clanging, reassuring in their regularity.  Imagine babies who had slowly creeped from getting on their cute little Ikea chairs to getting onto their table and sitting there while playing with toys.

Now imagine me, innocently deciding to check on them, since it had been a few minutes, and LO!  Mini is sitting on the far corner of the changing table- OUTSIDE of the play yard- Jr. is STANDING on Ikea table, laughing his ass off at the shock on his mother's face, saying, "if you think we can manage to shock you like this at this age, imagine what we'll do to you when we are teenagers!" 

You know your kids are getting older when...

You turn around and find your 17-month-old boy sitting on the chair, typing away on the computer.  Mouth agape, you ask Nag-ee if she put him there.  Nope...   Uh-oh.

Scientology! Now With a Brand New Attitude!

First, about the babies. My adorable, cuddly, whiney, non-eating babies.  By the way, if you don't want to hear about eating, all bets are off.  And I have a weaning question.  And I'm too lazy to Ask Moxie, so any advice here is appreciated!

Babies are coming-up on 17 months old.  17 months!  Dear God!  How'd it happen?  And I am very very grateful for the "full" nights sleep I get 4-5/7 nights per week.  I truly am! 

They are funnier and funnier, they love to sing and dance, repeat any behavior that elicited a laugh.  Mini is talking AND signing away, putting two words together using sign language.  Jr. seems to be in a holding pattern as far as talking and signing are concerned (which is kind of strange, as he was way ahead of Mini in the talking game for a while).  I have decided not to worry, as he can still say the words he KNOWS when encouraged.  He loves to sing " E-I-E-I-OOOOOOO" whenever the mood strikes him.  He will be on the changing table and we'll be talking about a diaper change, when he'll suddenly break out in song.  I'm thinking Broadway, aren't you?

Jr. is OBSESSED with trucks.  We have many of these types of books lying around.  Jr. stares and stares ot the pictures, turning the book upside down, then rightside up.  We noticed he will choose the pages with trucks and other motor vehicles and spend more time looking at those pages.  So Nag-ee, in all of her wisdom, bought Jr. a variation of this book.  Since then, as I'm driving in the car, I'll hear a frantic and primitive cry, as if my baby is in desperate need in his car seat.  I'll carefully turn to look, preferably at a stop light or stop sign, and see him pointing at a truck or backhoe or bulldozer that he can see from the car window.  He points and gleefully cries, "dat!"  While I wait for my heartbeat to decelerate to its normal pace, I contemplate what it must be like to be a baby, sitting in a car seat, and needing mom's IMMEDIATE ATTENTION and so cries out as if a bee is stinging him, or possibly a venomous snake is coiling around his neck in the backseat of our Odyssey, him in his Britax Marathon Cowmooflouge seat.  But nay, it's just a truck!  A streetcleaner!  OUTSIDE MY CAR WINDOW, MOM!

Mini as yet seems to have no such obsession.  Although I actively try to engage her in the truck fascination that is widepread in our home, she is happy to look and point and say, "tuk," but those trucks, they just don't grab her.  She is more concerned about the state of my breasts, about her boppy, which she can now call a "boppa."  We breastfeed every morning.  Some days we go the whole day without her requesting the breast in the middle of the day.  Other days I feel like I have my breast out every few minutes, for a little snack or even a big meal.  We still breastfeed at bedtime, although our newest development is (get this, you'll really laugh when you hear this one) that she has begun to drink from 2-4 ounces from a BOTTLE before bed!  It all began when she would play with Jr.'s bedtime bottle, fonding it, carrying it, holding it upside down and dripping the contents of it onto the carpet, the bedding, the ottoman.Sometimes she would put it in her mouth and drink a couple of CCs.  Once, she even drank an ounce!  Well, the past week I've been making her a small bottle at bedtime as she has been drinking one or two ounces from Jr.'s regularly.  And last night and the night before she finished both bottles!  SO, my 17 month old will now take a bottle.  Huh.

On weaning, am I doing the right thing at this age in not offering to nurse during the day?  Some days she seems to drink enough milk from the sippy, others it seems like she takes in very little.  Some days I DO offer, if I really think she needs the fluids or nutrients.  I think she must get a decent amount in the morning and bedtime to not need much milk during the day.

Also, on pumping.  I am still (most of the time) pumping at work once a day the three days a week I work.  CAN I STOP DOING THIS NOW WITHOUT FEAR OF DRYING UP?  Oh my God, it would be so great to not pump at all anymore.  So, what does the Internet think about that?

On Scientology-

Nope, am not becoming a Scientologist BUT.  Well, back-up a bit.  Have I told you I have a People addiction?  I know, I know, it's ridiculous and sick, but I LOVE it.  Hey, I watch televeision RARELY, go to movies now once in a blue moon.  I don't spend money on DVDs and read books via the library.  I don't even have my own subscription to People, but get my co-worker's sloppy seconds.  SO LET ME HAVE MY BIT OF POP CULTURE, alright, Internet?  And guilt-free to, mmmk?

So, a comment in People about Katie (Holmes, if you need to ask, sheesh, youn living under a rock?) needing to stay out of the limelight until she learns Scientology talk, saying ONLY positive things, made me stop and think.   I can learn to do that.  I need to learn to do that.  I have anger and resentment filling my life, wasting my energy most of the time.  What would it be like to free myself from that and just be positive?  I'm gonna try it.  I am. 

Have I Mentioned Lately How Lucky I Am?

I am almost afraid to say this, because it might jinx something, but the babies are napping and going to bed like clock-work.  Our days run like a well-oiled machine, with eating times and sleeping times perfectly ordered, with some play or errands in between.  This means I've been catching-up on my reading, playing this stupid videogame that Yahoo suckered sucked me into (I have never before bought a video game in my life, and that's two in two months!), and napping.  Ahhh... napping.  I've definitely been making up for lost time. 

It is amazing to me to put the babies in their cribs and (most of the time) to have no crying, no pleading to be taken out.  They just hang, or play, or sing to me and each other until they fall asleep.  Occasionally I will hear an indignant cry, short-lived, which I imagine is a reaction to one baby falling asleep, leaving the other one upset to be so abandoned, or a toy removed from one baby's crib by the other.  I imagine toys being passed through slots, dropped to the other crib from above, or a tug-of-war happening between cribs.  Often at the end of a nap, I go in to find several stuffed animals have been exchanged during the course of the pre-nap playtime.  Ummm... for those of you who worry about placing a blanket over a fifteen-month-old?  Apparently I got over that a while ago.  Nagee and Nanny have both slowly been adding stuffies, small books, and toys to the crib clutter, and it seems to be ok (after letting this post sit as a draft for several days and stweing over that, I have removed some of the items from their cribs). 

Being anal-retentive, regimented, well-organized when it comes to planning our day has its drawbacks.  I tend to be less spontaneous, I tend to not be as adventerous or ambitious about outings with the babies, especially outings where I am solo as I hate dealing with the repurcussions of being off-schedule.  BUT, it gives me precious free time.