Pink

At the high-risk follow-up, Dr. Morales came in to do her evaluation of Nathan while Isaiah was in the other room playing with all the fun toys. As she came into the room, she swept right past my firstborn, who was playing in the doorway, and came straight over to greet me. She remarked that Nathan was looking quite robust, and I was a bit surprised. Not that Nathan isn't a robust little fellow, but she hadn't even so much as glanced in his direction. She must have seen him outside? Between the two kids, and caring for the third, there was a lot that I missed at that appointment. Thank God for Gramma J.

After she'd pulled up Nathan's chart, Dr. Morales turned to admire little September. "She's pretty. She looks like... ah... Nathan... but... ah... She looks like a girl. I mean he looks like a girl."

"She is a girl."

There was a moment of awkward confusion before I realized that she thought that the little bundle swaddled in pink was Nathan, and Dr. Morales realized that I'd had yet another baby.

Developmental Milestones

The boys just had their high-risk follow-up appointment at the NICU. It was fabulous. The amazing people who saved our kiddos' lives in the first place did a comprehensive follow-up to make sure that there were no lingering problems after their rough start. They did all the normal check-up stuff, and then some. I had an extensive consultation with a pediatric dietician. She was very pleased that the boys adore broccoli and cantaloupe, and gave me some good tips on how to get more protein into these little herbavores. Meanwhile, a nice lady (I can't remember if she was a nurse or an occupational therapist) took them into a room full of all sorts of fun toys, and checked for their motor skills and cognitive development. They did quite well. While Nathan is a little further along on language and gross motor skills, she said that Isaiah displayed more focus and concentration, and did better than big brother on putting together a simple puzzle. That made me feel a lot better. I'd been mildly concerned, since Nathan is a few months ahead of Isaiah in the obvious areas. Which is very much to be expected, given Isaiah's rough start... and very sad, too, since that would be the result of irreparable damage. But the nice lady (whatever she was) seemed to think that they were just their own little persons, with different sets of strengths. And both of them normal, praise God!

Of course, just playing with them for a half-hour, she couldn't see everything she needed to know, so she asked me a lot of questions to fill in the blank.

"Can they run?"
"Yes."
"Good. Are they very fast?"
"I'm hard pressed to catch up with them, if that's what you mean."
"Wonderful! What about stairs? Can they climb up stairs with a little help?"
"They can climb up stairs without any help."
"Terrific!"
"Er... that's one way of putting it..."

Wuggies-o-mine, I'm so glad that you can do all these wonderful things... now would you please, please, please refrain from doing them?!

Pears

The other night we had nachos for dinner. I like nachos. Andy likes nachos. Nathan likes nachos--or at least he enjoys dipping chips in cheese sauce and dripping it everywhere...

Isaiah does not like nachos, and he expressed his displeasure by grabbing a handful and throwing them. Dadders told him no. We only throw balls, remember? And Isaiah got an evil glint in his eye, walked determinedly back over to my plate, and threw another handful.

This was a first. Many a time has he defiantly chosen to do what he wanted to do instead of what we wanted him to do. But this time, he really wasn't interested in throwing the chips, except in so far as it communicated his defiance. He chose disobedience for the sake of disobedience.

Watermelon

Dadders bought a watermelon. It is a very plump watermelon, nearly spherical. It looks rather like a ball. It is lots of fun to play with.

I'm glad that it is too heavy to throw.

Peaches

I bought a peach. It was a beautiful peach. The biggest peach I'd ever seen, and perfectly ripe.

Only balls are for throwing. But peaches look an awful lot like balls.

I have a peach. It is an ugly peach, and mangled. I think I can salvage a few bites out of it.

Chivalry

Sir Dougy the Bubble has taken to kissing Princess Persephone's hand.

Oh yes.

Featured Features

Last month it was trucks. This month it's babies.

Last week it was noses. This week it's eyes.

Bay-bee liked it better when it was noses.

Hi-ic!

Tembo-Teff is a very hiccupy little girl. It was quite an odd sensation to have this little creature hiccupping in my womb, and she kept right on hiccupping as she made her way out into the big, bright world outside. While I was in labor, the epidural took all the pain away, and I couldn't feel the contractions---but I could still feel September hiccuping away.

I am an extremely heavy sleeper. From time to time Andy has to wake me up to inform me that the baby is crying. (His precise words, I believe, were "the fish is on." The man is beautifully lucid at 2:00 AM.) But the other night, September's hiccups kept me awake.

Baby!

The wuggies seem to be a bit faddish, at least in their vocabulary. Trucks are so last month. Now it's all about the baby. "Bobm" has slowly evolved into "bay-bee!!!" and the boys are very excited about their accomplishment. Nathan has also discovered that Bobm is part of a larger set of bay-bees, and takes great delight in pointing out the bay-bees wherever he sees them. Jonathan Moothart is a baby, and there's a baby on the diaper packaging. On the way out of Wal-Mart the other day, we saw a couple with a stroller, and although we couldn't actually see it, Meepo knew there must be a baby in there somewhere. Yesterday, when Isaiah was upset over something or other, his brother called him a baby.

Babies are such wonderful things that Nathan decided he needed one of his own. Thus he carries around a little blue beanie bear. He calls it Bay-bee and gives it kisses. Sometimes his baby gives my baby kisses. The other day I was admiring his baby, and I absently squnchled its little teddy-face. Meepo immediately whisked the bear away from me, and looked at me very reproachfully.

"Gen-to!"

The things you find in your closet...

Yesterday afternoon, Son One was playing quietly in the living room, Daughter One was asleep in her pack-n-play... and Son Two was nowhere to be seen. As I roamed the apartment frantically, I noticed that I'd left my wardrobe door open, and sure enough the kiddos had gotten into it, scattering clothing all over the bedroom floor. I tried to close the doors, but something was blocking it. In a hurry to find my lost sheep, but not wanting more mess to happen, I just tried to shove the doors close enough to closed so that I could secure the child lock. Suddenly I hear a shriek. And there was Isaiah, curled up for a nap on the second shelf of my wardrobe, snuggled up with his favorite pillow.

Chinese water torture

Most businesses that routinely put people on hold for inordinate periods of time play carefully engineered selections of music designed to put callers at ease and defuse as much frustration as possible. While waiting to speak to someone at California Public Health Services, you can enjoy the beautiful sound of silence...

...interrupted every 40 seconds or so by a bored voice saying "your call IS important to us."

Torture. Sheer torture.

Stanton McDonald Wright, Conception Synchromy 

Stanton McDonald-Wright mapped the twelve colors of the color wheel onto the twelve tones of the chromatic scale, and then proceeded to paint in the various resulting keys and modes. His "synchromies" are astoundingly beautiful---music for the eyes. I've been fascinated with the concept ever since I saw an exhibit of his work at LACMA four years ago... so I spent Sunday afternoon experimenting around with the color wheel while my guys were dooping around the park. 

 

Synchromy

A standard I-IV-V7-I progression in the key of red major.

Trucks

The boy-wuggies like trucks. Trucks are lots of fun. Grandma Duck brought them a fun truck to play with. It came out of her big suitcase. The truck is very fun. It makes lots of cool noises. Some of the noises sound like a drill. That makes it extra fun.

The boys like talking about trucks. They loudly announce it whenever they see a truck. Or when they see something that looks sort of like a truck. The oil drills at Huntington Beach look like trucks. Mommy isn't sure what it is that looks like a truck at church, though.

"Tr" is a very hard sound to make. That does not keep the wuggies from talking about trucks, though.

Mommy is beginning to regret all the time she spent helping the wuggies learn to say "flower" and "foot."

Dadders tried to teach the wuggies how to say "chruck." Mommy thought it was supposed to be "truck." Grandpa Duck and Grandma Duck went to school for a long time to learn about making funny sounds, so it was a good thing they were there. Everybody had lots of fun talking about how to say "truck" all the way home from the beach.

But Dadders still says "chruck." Mommy still says "truck." And the wuggies still say... something else.

Office Supplies

Ways to distract while in early labor...

--Read
--Watch a movie
--Practice breathing excercises
--Visualize soothing waves on the beach
--Listen to soothing music
--Take your toddler to the emergency room

Saturday night, August 27, the contractions were getting pretty fearsome, and I wondered if it might be time to head on over to the hospital. I sat down in the rocking chair, in good view of the clock, to start timing the contractions.

Before I'd had the chance to even start timing, however, Nathan clambered up on chairs (carefully stacked up where they couldn't use them to climb up on the kitchen table) and from there, onto the table by the door. He, the big metal-rimmed basket, and the lamp, all tumbled down in a big tangle.

There was blood everywhere. Andy was at work, and I couldn't get through to his cell phone. The blood was coming from underneath lots of thick blond hair, and I had no idea how many cuts there were, or how serious it was. Isaiah very much wanted to help me clean his brother up, and brother very much did not want to let me clean him up. And I was going into labor...

I eventually got through to Andy via email. He came home and took us all to the emergency room. And the doctor stapled my son's head back together. With actual staples, just like the ones I use to attach hold multi-page documents together!

I'm glad that September decided to wait until the next day to be born. And I'm especially glad that she's a little girl. Little girls provide enough drama of their own sort, or so I hear.... but it doesn't usually involve getting covered in office supplies.

Bob

All through my pregnancy, we couldn't help thinking of September as a little girl. It wasn't just that we wanted a little girl--though we desperately did! Try as we might, we simply could not imagine a third little son being nestled in my tummy. Of course, we were well aware that there was a fairly good chance that we were having another son regardless of whether or not we could conceive of it (no put intended), so we were eager for an ultrasound to clear up the mystery. As Andy put it, we couldn't wait to "find out if September is herself, or Bob."

But the ultrasound didn't clear anything up at all because September (or Bob) was a very modest little baby.

And so we embarked on the difficult task of finding the perfect name for a little person that we couldn't bring ourselves to believe might actually exist. After listening in on lots of conversations about "what do we name September if she turns out to be Bob?" the boys figured out that my belly was called "Bob." They would poke my blossoming tummy, gleefully saying "Bobm!"

We never could agree on a boy's name that we both liked, until one night I had a dream about giving birth to a little boy named Matthias Robert. The dream itself was one of those bizarre pregnancy nightmares, but we loved the name--and it was quite a relief to finally be prepared for the possibility of Bob.

After our little September-girl made her appearance, Dadders brought the wuggies in to meet their little sister. The boys tiptoed into the room, quiet and alert, almost reverent. Nathan came up to me, as I sat on the rocking chair with September on my lap. He looked at my deflated midriff, then at the squirmy little thing on my lap, and pondered for a moment. After considering the situation, he grinned and announced, "Bobm!"

The boys like Bob a lot... and the other day Isaiah spoke his first sentence. "Bobm wuggy!"

We wondered and wondered, and now we know. September is herself...

...and she is Bob!

Premature Balding

Some active toddlers make their parents want to pull their hair out.

Others do the job for them.

September Persephone

Our little girl made her way into the big bright world at 10:09 on the evening of August 28. She arrived almost a month before we expected her, but she was 7 lbs., 20 inches long, with a robust apgar score of 8.9.

And she hiccups just as much as she did in utero.