Tidbits

The World's Worst Bike Ride

Last summer, we bought a double bike trailer. Ashlyn loved "her bike," but it had been awhile since we'd used it. Even though our trailer warns against riding with a child under a year, I figured that was just a suggestion. I pulled out our head support from his car seat for a little extra help. While Christopher has decent head support, sticking a big helmet on his head threw that off. Of course, the fact that the smallest bike helmet I could find was rather large wasn't helping. As you can see, he was not thrilled from the beginning.

As I started riding, Ashlyn called out to me that I was going "too faster." I slowed way down and ended up riding the brakes all the way down the hill. When I looked back, I realized that Christopher's helmet had slipped down over his face, and he was peering through the holes in the top. I stopped several times to push the helmet back onto his head and just pull him off the side of the trailer. Ashlyn was quite cranky when we tried to stop downtown, so I headed back home. To get back to our house, you must go up a rather steep hill. Even if you'd felt great the rest of your ride/walk, this hill would make you want to die. I'd only ever pushed the kids up this hill in the stroller. When I tried to stop at the bottom of the hill to again push Christopher's helmet back onto his head, the bike and trailer started sliding backwards down the hill. Ashlyn started freaking out that "we're falling. We're falling!" While Christopher hadn't seemed to mind the bike helmet too much up to this point, he'd either had enough or was also stressed by Ashlyn's screaming, and he began to cry. By the time I pushed the bike and trailer up the hill (no, there was no riding) he was screaming. Ashlyn kept crying about "falling" and going "too faster." The only thing that could have made the ride even better would have been if Ranger had been with us, pulling the other direction.

New tricks

On Sunday, Christopher discovered his feet. By Tuesday he'd managed to get them into his mouth. When I told Allen about this, he asked if this was a milestone or something. Well no, but it sure is cute.

Christopher is a big KICKER. He learned about kicking and flailing about in the bath tub. He makes a huge mess every time he takes a bath. Since then, he is kick, kick, kicking everywhere! He kicks in the car seat (when it isn't in the car) and really gets that thing rocking. He looks like he's trying to take off!

He's a pretty smiley baby, but I think he reserves his biggest grins and laughs for Ashlyn. I've felt bad for him not getting as much individual attention from me, but he gets a big sister instead.



Wildlife

Yesterday morning, Ranger discovered one of these:

in our yard. He scratched at the hedgehog, as it balled up. I dragged Ranger inside to let the hedgehog leave the yard. Ranger just barked at the windows. When Ashlyn got up, we went outside to look at it. This made Ranger spaz even more as he ran barking from the front door to the back, repeatedly. That hedgehog just took his time getting away. He meandered through the yard, snuffling and sniffing around, as if there wasn't a dog wanting to get him the entire time. I finally let Ranger out after nearly two hours, where he sniffed the yard sufficiently and then quietly came back inside for a nap.

Weekend plans

I want to go to a medieval festival and, perhaps, swimming. It sounds like Allen will be working all weekend, so I'll probably be on my own. The sudden appearance of clouds this afternoon does not seem like a good addition to my weekend plans. What are you doing this weekend?

Ants, monsters, and sleep

On Monday when I arrived at day care to get Ashlyn, they were outside playing. Ashlyn and a couple other kids were "playing" with bugs. Ashlyn was laughing at them, and when she saw me wanted to show me an orange bug. As she stood up, I realized that she was covered in ants. I tried brushing the ants away, which is when Ashlyn started screaming, "They're biting me." I started peeling off her clothes. The ants were under her clothes, and in her underwear. I'd thought that she was just freaking out because they were on her, but they really were biting her. She had angry looking bites on her back and bottom. Of course, she was fine after a bit. I just didn't even realize that black ants would bite. She's so dramatic, though, that when she told her daddy about it, the ants were "killing her." Killing her? "Yeah, I was dying."
The next morning, as Ashlyn was drawing, I pointed out that she got marker on her nose. She went to look in the mirror. When she came back to me, this is what I saw: She said "I'm a monster! ROAR!" Somehow I don't think she took me seriously about not drawing on herself, when my first reaction was to grab the camera. And, of course, I had to chase her around the house to get any pictures. Later in the day, she added a bit of green. Here she was stuck in Christopher's toy that I keep telling her to leave alone. My mom suggested taking her picture before rescue. Christopher started sleeping through the night at 8 weeks. It was glorious. I declared him to be the "world's most perfect baby," because seriously, whatever else they do, you can handle if you've had a full night's sleep. Since then, he continued to be a good sleeper. Then, he stopped. For the past 4 weeks, he has only slept all night once. He's been getting up once a night, twice sometimes. At first, I thought maybe he was going through a growth spurt (oh,and one week we were in France) but I figured he would go back to his good sleeping self soon. Now, I'm not so sure. I didn't do anything special to get him to start sleeping. I didn't change anything when he stopped, so I have no idea how to get him back to sleeping all night. On the up side, Ashlyn has been sleeping until 7 most mornings, so at least I'm not dealing with her at 6 am.
Even though he isn't sleeping as well, Christopher still remains pretty laid back and mostly happy. He is starting to realize that he could cry for reasons besides hunger and sleep, like just wanting attention. He has started making new sounds and is busy doing that much of the time. He also seems to be working on rolling over, though not there yet.

This is what I mean by laid back. He didn't even make a sound to let me know he wasn't comfortable. I started buckling him in after this.

I watched a friend's two girls on Wednesday, who are about the same age as my two. Just an idea of what life would be like with two sets of twins. For about 45 minutes, all four of them were asleep. I was afraid to do anything that might make noise and wake one. I figured one awake would wake all the others.
Christopher and Eavan. Eavan makes Christopher look skinny!
More to come I'm sure. Ashlyn said they were both princesses. I thought you needed a dress to be a princess, but I guess you can manage with just accessories.

Picking up Ashlyn from day care:

Day care worker: When we were singing a dinosaur song, Ashlyn started roaring like a dinosaur.

Me: Yes, Ashlyn likes dinosaurs. She pretends that they are coming to get her.

Day care worker: It was just so funny, because she's usually so quiet.

Me: ???

5 minutes later, in the car:

Ashlyn: AAHHH! AHHHH! AHHHH!

Me: What's wrong, Ashlyn?

Ashlyn: AAAHHH! AHHHH! AAAHHH!!!!!!! My buddha, My BUDDHAAAAAA! (Buddha is how she says granola bar.)

Me: Hold on, Ashlyn. Stop screaming.

I pull over to try to calm her down.

MP: Is there a problem?

Me: My daughter is throwing a fit, so I'm trying to calm her down. (Go away.)

Ashlyn: AAHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! AAAHHHHHH!!!!

I start driving, turn up the radio, and contemplate the mysteries of my QUIET child.

Movies

Yes, I took a camera to the movies.

Last week I took Ashlyn to her first movie. (Well, technically this was Christopher's first movie and Ashlyn's second. Ashlyn was only 4 weeks old the first time, so this was the first time that she watched the movie.) I was so excited that there was actually a matinee of a little kid movie. I even woke up my child from a nap (the same one who had been on a nap strike) to go. We watched Veggietales' The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. Ashlyn thought it was a bit scary. I thought it was a bit boring. I thought we might have to leave in the middle for a crying baby or a potty break, but we made it. Ashlyn actually sat and watched the whole movie. (She doesn't do this at home.)

Why I can't get anything done around here.

More (positive) change needed

The GIANT knot is on the right side of her forehead. Really, it is the entire right side. Kind of hard to tell in this picture.

Forget that change thing, it is NOT good. Ashlyn apparently just took a couple of days to adjust and is now back to getting up between 6 and 7, though generally around 6:30. But, she has been on a nap STRIKE this week. We've had no naps since Monday, when she slept late. The first couple of days it wasn't a big deal, because she was still pleasant. Then, the lack of sleep hit her and she has been grumpy during the time when she should be napping, then into the evening. This morning, she woke up cranky. She had BETTER take a nap today. If I could choose between a child who slept until 8 but didn't nap and one who got up at 6 but napped every afternoon, I would take the child who napped. I like having the option to nap or read blogs when I'm not nursing (which is why I haven't been commenting much lately,) or work on my quilt, read or just whatever because that was generally me-time (if I could convince Christopher to nap at the same time.)



And, oh the child is MORE dramatic when she is tired. "I'm sad. I'm so sad." Why? "My daddy. My daddy is all gone." Daddy is not all gone. He is just on tdy for a bit. And this morning, she flipped out because she didn't have a fork to eat her waffles and whatever would she do? She knew where the fork was, go get it! Part of me wants to believe that this being dramatic is just a phase, but I think it may be part of her personality.



Ashlyn fell off of the couch headfirst on Sunday, though. She has a giant bump on her forehead. I thought she might have reinjured it during the night on Monday, because when she woke up on Tuesday the coloring was much worse.

Enjoying the sunshine

Christopher continues to be a easy going baby. No changes needed there. (Thank you!) He is starting to reach for his toys and make even more new noises.

Change is good!

Time change, anyway. Ashlyn has slept until 7:30 and nearly 8 this morning. Of course, when you are used to your child being your alarm clock, you might end up a bit late to work! (Christopher didn't get the time change message and thought getting up at 6:30 was just fine, but I guess that would have been 5:30 last week. So really, this is better.)

Random photo thrown in. You needed to see something cute.

In the past week...

We've had crazy weather. Snow on Easter, followed by more snow.

Then this weekend, beautiful.


Ashlyn attempts to hit the ball. Perhaps her boots or back pack are hurting her progress.


Or maybe the way she is holding the bat.

We ended up grilling for dinner, which made it feel more like spring. This is the point when Ashlyn started complaining that she was freezing.

So, maybe still a bit chilly.

On Tuesday, I was rushing to get ready and put Christopher down on Ashlyn's bed while I got her stuff together. Ashlyn started jumping on the bed. As I told her to stop jumping on the bed, I thought I heard something from Christopher, so, being the consistent parent that I am, told Ashlyn to jump again. As she jumped Christopher's laugh just got bigger until it was a full fledged giggle. I tried to call Allen so he could Christopher's laugh as well. He ended up calling me back later, and proceeded to tell me that Christopher had been laughing for a couple of days. This is when Allen received the lecture on "when the baby does something new, you share the news." At this point, he tried to get out of it by saying that maybe Christopher didn't really laugh for him, but it was just a pre-laugh. Either way, I'm calling Tuesday Christopher's first laugh.

Ashlyn has been getting a little out of control with the stickers around here.

And, oh yes, there are many, many other stickers on floors, walls, clothing, etc.

Things that Ashlyn has been doing:

• describes her emotions, quite frequently. She generally describes herself as happy or sad, where sad requires a bit of a sniffle at (fake) tears.
• qualifies everything with "so," as in "I'm so happy," "I'm so awake," or "I'm so all done."
• helps fold clothes, puts away her dishes and clothing.
• makes up songs and dances to them around the house.

We've had a pretty slow week. I've taken possibly a couple hundred pictures of Christopher just this week. His smile is just adorable, but when I put that camera to my face, there will be no more smiling. He immediately frowns and will not be convinced to smile again, no matter the silly faces or noises I make. I did get a couple of half smiles, but seriously, I took many, many pictures to get those.

At least he is looking alert, and not frowning.

Oh, a bit of a smile.
Um, yeah, getting closer to me with that thing, not helping, Mom!

Two Children

I have one child who has been sleeping since about 8. I don't expect to be disturbed by this child until morning (but maybe very early morning.)

I have another child who hasn't gone to sleep yet (it's almost 11.) One problem or another seems to be keeping this child awake and crying. I expect that this child will keep me from going to sleep for awhile longer and probably will have me up early in the morning. This child is two.

Disappointed?

22508 (2), originally uploaded by ashmom.

Ashlyn has always acted like having a baby brother is just fine with her. On Friday, she received a baby doll from her cousins. The name she gave the doll? Mysistah.

8 Weeks, Princesses, and more Attempts at capturing brother/sister photos

Christopher is 8 weeks old today. Allen was in Iraq (or stuck in Kuwait, really) by the time Ashlyn was this age. So, for the next 16 months, Allen will get to experience all of these baby things for the first time. I'm looking forward to all of it.

Right after he started smiling, Christopher was "cooing." I love those first happy baby sounds. He is currently cooing at his sister, who is keeping him entertained with her mermaids. As would any younger brother of a sister, he is so going to play with dolls.
We've had warm weather this week, and Ashlyn has been playing quite a bit with our next door neighbor Bella. When Bella came over on Tuesday in jeans, Ashlyn knew the situation had to be remedied with princess dresses. She also thought Bella should be wearing some of her special princess panties, but I drew the line at the dress.

Goofy princess faces
dancing princesses

Ashlyn has really been a great helper with Christopher. She refills the diaper basket, picks out diapers for me, and throws them away. She will also pick out his pajamas and wants to help with his bath. When it's just me with the two of them, I put his infant tub in the big bath with Ashlyn. They both seem to prefer bathing that way.

I keep trying to get a good picture of the two of them. These are the best of my most recent attempts.

Major Accomplishments

Granny clothes Princess Ashlyn

Ashlyn's favorite dress. She likes to shake her hips to "wiggle" her dress.

My parents were here to help when Christopher was born and left on the 17th. We only had a couple of days to deal with everything on our own before Allen's mom arrived. Granny brought dress-up clothes with her! Ashlyn was so excited about her dresses, for the first week she had them, that was all she wore at our house. I was afraid she would insist on wearing them out all of the time, too.

Queen Granny with her royal grandchildren

Ballerina

My Babies

Sweet Face

Ashlyn is quite interested in everything about her baby brother. For now.

Cheese!
No pictures! Leave it alone!