Memories of Us

Friday Quick Takes

1.  Will is really progressing with his language skills, though out of probably a whole minute of chatter, I can still only pick out one or two words.  A lot of his speech is just random sounds made with inflection.  I can't wait to figure out just what he's saying though, because it is obviously serious in nature if his facial expressions are any indication and usually VITALLY IMPORTANT based on decibel level.  Will also has his own words for things.  For instance, "jutch" means car or truck.  I'm sure there are others, but that's the only identifiable one for me.  And that's because we talk about jutches all the freakin day long.  

2.  Jamie leaves in a few days for a while for some training.  I feel pathetic that I'm so concerned about a measely two weeks apart.  I'm really not even worried about being alone with the boys because I'm alone with them the majority of every day anyway.  I'm just dreading the loneliness.  I haven't made many new friends here yet and it's exponentially harder to attend social gatherings now that I have two little kids.  However, considering that it seems we have entered into yet ANOTHER war (or, you know "kinetic military action") I think I'm going to have to get used being alone again.   

3.  Will still drinks his milk out of a bottle.  I'm not sure what to do about it.  He can use a sippy cup just fine.  He drinks juice and water out of his sippy cups for past time.  But for some reason, milk from a sippy cup is just DISGUSTING.  He'll take a sip and either a) open his mouth with a pained expression and let all the milk just run out, down his shirt and onto the floor or b) gag.  I just don't get it.

4.  Jake is already able to sit up.  Well, maybe not exactly "up."  He doesn't have the core strength yet to sit up straight for more than a few seconds, but he can balance on his little bottom just fine.  And honestly, he might actually be able to sit up better than I give him credit for, but he finds his toes so damn interesting that I just can't tell.  Either way, he isn't even 5 months old yet.  Will wasn't a supported sitter until 6 months or so!

5.  I forget what a giant baby he is sometimes.  I took this picture of the two of us yesterday and it kind of surprised me.  He's going to be a BIG KID.  I'm already starting to worry about how Will is going to feel if his little brother is bigger than he is.

6. I'm going to work on helping Jake sleep all the way through the night while Jamie is gone.  When I say "helping" what I actually mean is "letting him cry it out."  I don't think it will be fun.  Jake rarely cries, which makes it all the more heartwrenching when he does.  Once he's sleeping through the night though, I'm toying with the idea of moving the boys in together.  I'm both excited and terrified.

7.  Here's a video of Will watching the Elmo Celebrity Lullaby I posted about the other day.

 

Nuh nuh nuh from Mary on Vimeo.

Family Portraits

I have been meaning, since the day I got pregnant with Will, to have professional pictures taken.  And yet I didn't make it actually happen until yesterday.  Meaning I've left documenting two pregnancies, two newborn stages, Will's entire infancy and a good bit of his toddlerhood, and nearing half of Jake's infancy all up to us and our Canon Rebel digital camera.  And our iPhones, which sadly, have captured a majority of our precious moments.  That being said, I'm really not all that bad with our camera, so we do have some pretty good pictures of the boys and Jamie.  I, however, am not in any of them.  The only pictures of me with the boys are ones I've taken myself, with the camera at arms length.  So sad.  And while I set up a tripod to document my pregnancy with Will, Jake will have to be satisfied with iPhone pictures snapped in the mirror when someday he gets curious about how I looked when he was in my belly.  Come to think of it though, I'm not sure a picture even exists of my mother when she was pregnant with me.  And I would really like to see that.  So, you know, an iPhone picture in the mirror is better than nothing.  And quality aside, there are approximately a million pictures of our sons.  But in the end, I would really like some professional photographs of our family.  So yesterday, after finding a photographer who seemed good and reasonably priced, we had a photo session.

Unmitigated disaster seems like the only description to do it justice.

She started us out on a blanket, with me and Jamie kneeling, each holding a boy.  Will gave her the "stranger danger" look pretty much the whole time.  But at least he was STILL for those first few minutes.  The whole rest of the time (which was over an hour, at the end of which we wanted to DIE) one of us was chasing Will (who only slowed down enough for her to catch a picture when he was walking UPHILL) while the other was trying to keep Jake warm and happy.  And, whatever, they are little.  It's to be expected.  What I found disappointing is that every time I would think, "This is a good moment. I hope she's catching this."  She invariably was NOT.  She was so very focused on trying to get their faces (which were usually scowling) that she didn't seem to capture any moments.  And moments is what I was hoping for.  Jamie and Will crouched down by the little pond looking at ducks, Jake dozing on my shoulder.  I almost wished I had brought my own camera, except that would have defeated the purpose of actually BEING IN the pictures.  Eventually Jamie called it quits because the boys were just falling apart.  We both walked away feeling frustrated with the whole thing.  We had expected an experience like our engagement photo session, where our photographer gave us direction and then just let things happen, snapping pictures all along the way which resulted both in portraits and candid moments.  But I'm not sure we'll be walking away from this with either portraits OR candids.  I suppose I should reserve judgement until we've seen what pictures she did manage to get, but I know which ones she didn't and that really leaves me feeling disappointed.  At least she wasn't expensive.  But now I know what to be looking for on my photographer search.  Also, it makes me want to take some classes in photography because what she did, I could totally do.

In other news, I think Will sang his first song the other day.  Kind of.  We have an Elmo addiction in this house (or Melmo, as he's known around here.)  Anyway, there's this episode of Sesame Street (I stream them on Netflix) that we watch over and over about the Itsy Bitsy Spider.  No, he doesn't sing the Itsy Bitsy Spider.  That would be WAY too normal and not nearly as funny.  In the episode, Ricky Gervais plays guitar and sings a celebrity lullaby to Elmo (who's entire bedroom is decked out in cars and trucks - something that thrills Will to no end).  I started trying to describe the lullaby, but then, internet genius that I am, I realized that you could probably just watch it.

Will cracks up EVERY SINGLE TIME he hears the refrain.  I played it when Jamie got home so he could see Will laughing except this time, Will started shouting "Nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh!" and giggling like crazy.  I play that episode a lot, just so I can watch him do it.  And now, we go around shouting "nuh nuh nuh nuh" at each other all day.  It brings us all such joy.  Jamie said that when he was rocking Will before bed last night, Will finished his bottle, handed it to Jamie, turned around and playfully said "Nuh nuh nuh nuh!"  Will has such a wonderful sense of humor.  Oh, I love that boy. 

One Stinking Bucket

Will woke up at 5 in the morning yesterday.  This was approximately 2 hours after I had finally crawled back into bed from Jake's mid-night feeding.  I was barely functional.  I don't really understand what my problem was though.  I survived on much less sleep when Will was a baby.  But I was SO TIRED yesterday.  Like, unreasonably tired.  Whenever this happens to me, I freak out that I'm pregnant.  Especially when I've been having headaches and extreme thirst, as those were my earliest symptoms when I was carrying the boys.  And so, I was kind of mulling the idea around, wondering if I should get a test.  But then I remembered that I had just finished my period.  But THEN I remembered that, according to that show I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant, you can have fake periods and still be pregnant.  So I was like, "Hmmmm."  But then I came to my senses and realized, it's not pregnancy.  It's Daylight Savings Time.  Still kicking my butt three days later.

So, Jamie was supposed to fly a local training run last night and slept in a bit yesterday morning in preparation.  I had just put Will down for his nap when he finally came downstairs, and so he took mercy on me, took Jake, and sent me up to bed until he had to leave at noon.  As is typical when I nap during the day, I had totally messed up, vivid, exhausting dreams.  The dream I woke up remembering was about Jamie and myself going on this long, arduous, dangerous, Indiana Jones type journey to get mulch.  Yes, mulch.  Like what you put on flowerbeds.  Though I'm not sure why we needed it in the dream.  It was IMPORTANT though.  Like, worth dying for.  Anyway, we got back from our journey and I realized that Jamie has only brought back ONE BUCKET of mulch.  And I was so mad.  Because all that work and fear and risk!  And all he got was one puny little bucket!  And in my dream, other people were actually comforting me because Jamie had been so dumb and only brought back ONE BUCKET.  So clearly, I was not being unreasonable.  And then Jamie sat down on the bed and woke me up because he needed to go.  I told him about the dream before he left for work, and we laughed because, you know, ha ha, what a weird dream.  But secretly, inside, I was harboring a little residual dream anger, you know?  Anyway, so the plane was broken, as the planes always are, and his flight was cancelled last night.  He got home around 11 and we crawled into bed.  But before I fell asleep, I turned to him and said, "You better bring back more than one freaking bucket of mulch this time."  And then I fell fast asleep with a smile on my lips and the sound of his laughter to warm my heart.  It's those little moments that make me so happy to be married to him.  Well, moments like that AND, you know, THESE little guys.