Getting the Band Back Together

What the two yutes look like now

Henry Finn (hours old) and Erin Beatrix (days old)

Monsieur Elliott Allan

There's a new baby in the family!  Darren's cousin's wife had a baby boy and that gave me an opportunity to knit a new hat.  Luckily, I had this lovely "Hue of the Moment" skein of Madelinetosh yarn called Road Less Traveled on hand.  As soon as the cute little Tea Collection shirt comes in that I ordered to include in our package of goodies we're sending north for the baby, this lil' human will be sporting the hat below.

UPDATE: The package is ready to ship!

I remembered I had a completed baby blanket ready to go so I'm sending that along with two board books, a toy, and a very cute long-sleeve t-shirt from Tea Collection because, apparently, I am not quite done buying things from that store.  

The salad days

when the child could not talk back, napped,  and was incredibly cute

Babysitting duty

We played with Duplo blocks, wooden blocks, that classic Tupperware red and blue ball with shapes, and a big spiky ball. We also read a couple books, including one of Hen's library books, Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Introducing Remy James!

Our friends, Stephanie and Dan, recently welcomed their third baby boy into the family. Three boys. I don't know how the woman finds the time, frankly. But we saw them out and about recently and I got to snap a couple pictures. Baby Remy was born on October 20, sharing the date with these two rascals who just turned one, and we couldn't be happier for them.

Monsieur Remy

Mr. Milo

Mason

Mica and Nila!

It's our first time seeing Mica and Nila since their parents moved them to L.A. My have those two littles grown! They are nearly standing with assistance, babbling, laughing, and have the typical baby curiosity that has them checking everything out.

Raine, first year pics

Raine's mama, Leah, and I worked at Spoiled Rotten together. I originally got a job there when Darren was in school as he found he was less likely to study on the weekends if I was hanging around the house. Plus, cute baby clothes and a discount - for an aunt (and future mama) what is not to like about that? D and I were sitting at Marsee Baking in our neighborhood enjoying a pastry when I noticed the job posting in the window of the baby boutique across the street. I went in to inquire about the position and came out an employee. Leah is awesome in many ways but some of my favorite times with her were when, all the work was done, of course, we would each take some time to walk around the store and gather the things we'd buy for our own imagined kids. Okay, you had you a girl, she's 12 months old. What do you buy? WHAT DO YOU BUY?!

It has been nearly five years since I had Henry and nearly a year since she had Raine. I'm so happy we're still in touch and that she doesn't mind calling to ask for more pictures. If anyone can understand wanting more photos of your kid, it's me. So, here's a look at Raine over the past year, including some of my favorites from today's shoot.

An unfinished post from the days when an infant was in our midst

Things I forgot to remind Darren to do:
take out the garbage
install car seat base in Mini

Things Darren forgot to do:
take out the garbage
install car seat base in Mini

This got me thinking and while normally I would put a filter on this or not write about it at all yesterday was such an ass-sucking day that I'm going to air some grievances and deal with any possible fallout later.

You see, many may have this vision of the SAHM (that's "stay-at-home mom" for the uninitiated) as a woman who gets to do fun things with a cute and happy baby all day long. A baby who slips easily and peacefully into naps a few times during the day without too much fuss or bother. A baby who wakes from said naps with a smile and a "let me sit quietly and entertain myself while you eat bon bons and watch Oprah" attitude. Forget about laundry and household chores. Those are completed by magic.

This is not how it works.

There are good days with baby, don't get me wrong. And on those days I will happily drive downtown in traffic to pick up my husband from work. Sometimes we'll stop in the Pearl and buy a little something for the youngster in the back we brought into this world. A little thank you gift from mom and pops for being such a tremendously cute and good baby.

But there are also challenging days with baby. And on those days nothing makes baby happy. Not magical boobs, which in the early days could solve pretty much every problem and always could steer baby from a state of wakefulness to sleep. (Ah, the sweet sleep of a newborn.) Not getting on the floor to play with baby, which may work for a minute or two before baby figures out the underlying problem has not been dealt with and reverts to unhappy baby mode. Not wearing baby in the sling. Not placing baby in the exersaucer. Not surrounding baby with toys. Not dancing with baby. Not walking with baby in stroller, an act which can start out okay but turn ugly when you are ten blocks from home and unhappy baby has decided he no longer cares to stroller around the neighborhood.

On these days, my poor husband comes home to bitchy wife who wants nothing more than to be separated from unhappy baby. A short-tempered, angry wife who shoves unhappy baby at him with a quick "You deal with this." An unhappy wife who wants to disappear into a steaming hot bath for an hour but will settle for five minutes as long as she doesn't have to hear the unhappy baby crying through the walls. An unhappy wife ... [ed. who apparently can't gather her thoughts enough to finish the post]

Forty-first Wordless Wednesday requires an obscene gesture

Sunday happenings

Darren, Monsieur Henry, and Beauts spent time running around the neighborhood today while I did some chores and got a package ready for shipping. My youngest sister is having another baby and we just recently learned it's a girl! This will be her fourth. I personally think she is crazy but I am very happy to have another baby girl to buy for. Since I know Amy doesn't read the blog often, if at all, I'm posting a pic because aren't you so very much interested in what I'm including in the package. (I knew you would be. Look on, gentle reader.) Not pictured is the last minute item I picked up because I love these guys and think every baby should have one.

From the top left we have a pair of butterfly pajamas, which I particularly liked because they incorporated colors other than pink, one Hamsters Holding Hands counting board book, super warm Baby's First Christmas footed pajamas, a baby giraffe holding a balloon print from Etsy seller Trafalgarssquare, one Jellycat plush puppy, and a super soft and cuddly blanket from Petunia Pickle Bottom.

And one more makes a brood

I met lil' Kellan today. Darr took Hen for the morning so I could drive over to see the latest Bickel to join the family and, boy howdy, was it ever worth it! What a sweetheart. So, okay, yeah, the baby did fuss the tiniest bit right when I first held him but he quickly settled in and was just adorable from his ultra blond baby fuzz at the top of his head to the zig zaggy wrinkles on the bottoms of his feet. He gave his parents a little bit of a scare at the hospital but he's home now, and it seems as if everyone is settling in and adjusting to the presence of an additional long-term houseguest. Congrats, Bickels!

Twenty-eighth Wordless Wednesday requires identical twins

Twins, day two

It went something like this:

Wake up
Feed babies
Burp babies
Entertain babies
Eat breakfast
Entertain babies
Feed babies
Play Legos with Hen
Put babies down for nap
Make a quick trip to the store with Hen
Come home
Play Legos with Hen
Feed babies
Burp babies
Entertain babies
Play Legos with Hen
Eat lunch
Put babies down for nap
...
This pattern continued until bedtime. What I learned? Two babies are more work than one. We did manage to get the troops out for a walk around the neighborhood so Hen could expend some of his excess energy at the playground.

Twins, day one

Hen and I traveled up to Seattle to hang out with Anya, Mila, and Nica for a couple days. We haven't taken too many photos yet but I hope to get at least one good shot of each twin before Hen and I return home tomorrow evening. Goodness, how much they have grown! They are alert and responsive and find it incredibly funny when you engage with them. Unless, of course, you move the toy peacock towards them too quickly. This, they do not like. They so don't like this they will let you know by crying loudly whilst huge tears run down their cheeks. As I have not yet purchased the necessary device to transfer photos from my camera to Lola the iPad there will not be photos to share today. Here's hoping the girls sleep well tonight. They did not seem fond of naps today.

Twins, part two

Um, uh, yeah, I'm not sure who this is.

Without knowing the other one (see above) I'm sort of stuck here, too.

Methinks this is Nica.

I know this one - it's Mila!

And this is Nica.

Darr helped set up this shot. You're welcome.

The swaddle - Yep, I've still got it.

Ahhhh...these parents have two babies. TWO!

Here's how it went - we drove up to visit Rick and Anya and meet their super adorable twins. We got a hotel room because 1. we wanted to get some sleep and 2. you can't expect to crash at someone's house when they have newborn twins. (Says so in the How to Act When Your Friends Have Multiples handbook.) We brought food (pumpkin bread, mushroom barley sage soup, pasta Bolognese, and apple pie). We visited for quite a bit. We tried to get them to nap. I helped wash a couple dishes. We ate some of their food. We headed to our hotel, about 12 minutes away. 11.5 minutes later, the clutch stopped working. We pulled the car over, quickly decided to push it into a nearby restaurant parking lot, paid the guy (owner? manager?) so he wouldn't have it towed, and walked the rest of the way to the hotel (about two blocks).

One thing Darr and I quickly agreed on, whatever happened we could not call the new parents. Because even though they were working in sleep deprivation mode, they'd be silly enough to offer help. The next morning was spent figuring out the logistics of our situation. Originally, we thought I'd stay with Hen in Seattle until the car was fixed. But since some many things were closed on Sunday and we had trouble getting a rental car (Enterprise says they'll come and pick you up but they won't), we decided we'd all take the train home and head back up to get the car the following weekend. So, that's what we did. This worked out surprisingly well. Hen couldn't have been happier - a tow truck ride, two taxi rides, and a train ride all in one day! The kid was on a transportation appreciation high. Turns out the slave cylinder needed to be replaced (approx. $400) but the estimate they gave us to repair every little nick, dent, and scratch was $5200. Um, no thanks. We'll take the bare minimum required to get our car home. The best thing, though, was that we got another chance to see those babies. Oh my Zeus, are they ever cute! I was like the baby whisperer for about 20 minutes. Nica and Mila were quietly laying on the bed so I could take some pictures, then they let dad hold them so I could take pictures, and, well, they are just lovely. So I took more pictures. You can view more of those pics here.

Two!

There is a much longer story but for now, feast your eyes on this...

Miss Mila (a.k.a. Amelia or Baby B) is on the left and Miss Nica (a.k.a. Veronica or Baby A) is on the right. Only three weeks old and already waiting for their close ups. Mila and Nica were born on October 20, 2011. Both girls weighed in over six pounds, which means mama was carrying around a whole lot o' babies. Congrats, Rick and Anya! Welcome to parenthood.

From the vault: Avery and Hen hit Haggis McBaggis

Baby Raine

My friend from Spoiled Rotten days, Leah, had her baby boy about a week ago and today she stopped by so I could take a few pictures of their little man. He's SO CUTE! If there is anything that could move me to consider contemplating the possibility of attempting to have another one - we're not, ever - it would be photographing a sweet little tiny baby like this guy. I do not have a studio in our condo but I do have this one spot in the living room where I think the majority of the time (excepting a day where the sunlight is blasting its way in) the light is heavenly. Here are a few of my favorites: 

Identical twin girls, ya'll!

Our friends Rick and Anya are expecting identical twin girls in a few short months, and last weekend I got to go to Seattle for Anya's baby shower. It was a book shower so I picked up two of my favorite "girl" books - While Mama had a Quick Little Chat and Princess Hyacinth: The Surprising Tale of a Girl Who Floated. And then I went nuts and picked up a whole lot more. Thankfully, Petunia Pickle Bottom was having one of their spectacular online sales because I basically stole two of their super comfy and oh-so-soft receiving blankets. (I love to give these as gifts, the one I bought for Hen years ago is still in use at the condo.) We could not be more excited to see our friends on their way to parenthood. And I cannot wait to take pictures of those little baby girls.

Baby Bennett

Little Bennett arrived nearly a month ago and his mama asked me to come over and take some photographs. Is this little guy full of personality or what?

07 13 11 * 8LB, 14OZ * 22"