A Fly on the Wall

What my daughters do when left to themselves in their room...

Is it Necessity or Motherhood that is the Mother of Invention?

Maybe it's that motherhood launches you into a whole new realm of necessities that you alone can provide to the new little people that have now taken over your world.

At any rate, we're sick. The girls are now both coughing like barking seals, so we call their coughy virus "croup". We also have some green snot around our house, and SOMEWHERE Lily has learned that it is appropriate to wipe it on furniture. As if being stuck in the house with two sad cranky sick babies isn't enough to make me CRAZY!!

A picture of our insanity and my invention: imagine a nearly-dead but caffeinated mother, who after driving to the library to get some more movies to keep us diverted in the wee unsleeping hours, arrives home only to hear that her daughter wants to drive to a faraway park so she can stay in her carseat. (I need not have warned Lily to stay in the stroller at the library while I picked out movies for 10 minutes, she's so lethargic she didn't even want to get out.)

The dog and I both need some fresh air, so I grab a few things from the house and we take off again for a far corner of Ann Arbor to a park with lots of open space where we can run around without contaminating anyone or be tempted to chat with our usual park's regulars. I realized while unpacking my crew at the park was that this is Mighigan in October - it's cold, and Noelle's jeans and single fleece blanket are really not enough as the sun's warm rays were beginning to hide.

Undaunted, I invented: Lily's spare sweatpants became a hat (upside down with the legs tied together because they kept slipping down over her face), and some spare socks became gloves, the baby was wrapped like a cocoon and strapped in the stroller for some cold-air croup treatment: a walk outside in the park.

We all felt better. Now if we can just all sleep through the night....

Meanwhile in Toddlerland and Babyworld

Noelle is crawling! The little peanut started scooting around a little over a week ago, proceeding to crawl speedily off the bed, and trying to escape her crib, etc. She's a bundle of smiles and giggles, and is even saying "bahbahbah" quite a bit. Noelle also LOVES solid food. She wants to participate if we're at the table, so she's been trying all sorts of new things like oatmeal, cheerios, beans & rice, applesauce, squash and prunes!

Lily loves to play board games! She wants to play CandyLand at least 3 times a day, and last night she tried out Uno! She loves the movie Cars (our only animated movie), and loves playing with cars and making them into airplanes. She also loves playing doctor, and wants to doctor everyone and give them a shot that will "only hurt a little bit" just like Geeda read to her from "Farley Goes to the Doctor". Sometimes her sister is opposed to getting so many shots, or to having her reflexes tested so many times in succession, but in general they get along well and enjoy each other.

Lily is definitely growing in independence! She helped me unload the dishwasher, and loves to go potty and get her "peshal treats" herself. Noelle's cheery disposition is a joy to be around!

We've Moved! Again!

Our old spot had recurrent water and mildew/black mold problems, so upon discovery of more black stuff on our bedroom walls, we got out! We're in a different duplex back in our old neighborhood, about 4 blocks from our first house here in Ann Arbor. Archer and I have both been walking with our old neighbors and their dog Harley, Padme's best dog buddy, and we've been frequenting our favorite park again, too!

It was kind of rough getting moved in a hurry with two kiddos, and Lily got tired of all the upheaval, but we're thankful to be in a nicer (mold free!) place in good repair, with slightly bigger bedrooms and a partially finished basement. My favorite part is the dishwasher, honestly.

Whew!

Summer Summary

September is approaching fast - and it's a brisk 64 degrees already here in Michigan! The summer has flown by with lots of traveling, visiting family, and fun in the sun and with friends!

Here are some highlights-

Summer2009

Top of the Park

Ann Arbor has an annual summer festival that includes a month of music, movies and other entertainment outside on UM campus: bring your family and a blanket and enjoy the fun! Tonight's movie was "Horton Hears a Who", and since it was also Father's Day and a special occasion we decided to get the girls out of bed to go see it. We weren't sure how Lily would do if she was overtired, but we put her down to bed as usual, and decided to get her up right before putting her in the car.

So we baked cookies, cleaned the house, and packed the car with the stroller, blankets, drinks, her sister and the dog, and Archer went down to wake her up.

"Lily, we're going to go see a movie!"
"In Mama's room?"
"In Lily's room?"
"No, we're going to go for a walk to see a movie."
"We're gonna walk and see a moobie?!"
[Insert squeals an clapping that I heard from down by the car.]

It was a hit. She loved the movie, the cookies, the ride in the dark, etc. A great memory.

Crazy Mommy

Today I walked out of a La Leche League meeting with my toddler - without my nursing infant. Lily and I made it down the hall, out the doors, and 5 feet from the car before I realized I was missing something. Someone. "I forgot my baby!" I wailed from the parking lot. I put my two diaper bags in the car, scooped up the toddler and ran back to the church doors, which were, of course, locked. I pounded on the door for a few minutes until another leaving mom (one smart enough to remember her baby) came through the doors.

My baby remained on the floor of the meeting room, grinning at the other moms and their babies, having no idea of the panic and guilt of her stricken mother. Whew.

The Moochik is On

This morning Lily woke up waayyyy too early, so her daddy changed her diaper then put her back in bed, to follow the rule that her radio alarm (moochik) must go off before she can get up/out of bed for the day.

At 7:30am, I hear:
"Daddy, opeet the door! Opeet the door, Daddy- the moochik is ohn!! Opeet the door, Daddy!"

Her dad can't hear her, so I rouse myself enough to get out of my bed and open the door to her room, say " 'morning Lily' " and climb into her bed.

"I awake, Mama!"
"I see that, Lily."

Now calling to her Daddy as she leaves the room and heads upstairs where he is:
"The moochik eese ohn, Daddy, I awake, eend Mama seepy in mah bed!"

Noelle

Our second child is quite a girl. She is cheerful when all is going her way, but it only takes a second (literally) for her world to be ending. She is very much loved by her sister, who is always sure to help her with her pacifier ("fier") and blanket situations.

Noelle is already vocal- she will talk and grin and gurgle a lot! She's very alert, has great neck control and is always holding her head up to look around, which has made tummy time practically unnecessary.

And now she's hungry! How many folks think she's going to be a redhead?!

Archer's Six Jobs

It came to my attention last week that my husband has too many jobs to count. I'm not talking about roles: we all have different identity roles like husband, father, engineer, student, friend, etc. Archer has all those and then lots of jobs, three of which he just secured last week. So I'm going to brag on all that he's doing right now:

• UM Graduate student & research assistant- check out his website for more details here.
• UM Graduate Student Teaching Consultant - helping other grad students improve their teaching
• UM Teaching Info. Technology Consultant - helping students and professors use technology effectively in their teaching
• Washtenaw CC - part-time faculty - teaching computer science C++
• Menlo Innovations subcontractor - software engineer
• Ann Arbor Soccer Referee

The first job is full-time, the others are part-time and seasonal/periodic, but this is still a ton of work for one person to juggle. Which is why I update our family blog and he doesn't.

Church, Yeah!

So Lily has wanted to go to church for several days now: "church? Elia? Ninny?" so we decided that Arch would take her this morning- as the likelihood of her bringing bad germs home to her sister was less important than having her do something "normal" that she obviously was missing.

So this morning she got a bath and into a "cute!" Dress, and got her
baby dressed and ready. "C'mo Daddy! C'mo!"

Happy as a lark, cheerfully hugging Mama bye, saying, "Bye Mama! Bye Nwell!"

Praying my Lily is always this enthusiastic about church...

Noelle Elizabeth

God has blessed us yet again. Noelle Elizabeth Batcheller was born at 2:23am on Tuesday, March 10, 2009. She came after just two hours of labor, only one of them in the hospital. We were able to come home to our house the same day, and get a full night’s sleep! Both Mom and baby are healthy and doing well.

Lily is enjoying holding her little sister, and loves having extended family in town to play with her. Noelle is eating great, and we have been impressed by how much easier our first few days have been.

Noelle’s stats:
8lb 2.2 oz
20 in long average (std. dev. of 0.65 in for the nurse’s measurements!)
Full head of dark hair!

Almost Two

I think God must have a sense of humor, because as Lily is getting more physically independent, we're about to start the rigors of infant-parenthood again: sleepless nights, constant nursing, holding, rocking, changing diapers, etc. And as Lily grows more physically independent, she is also asserting herself as an independent person, which I think is just the beginning of the emotionally challenging part of parenting. For example:
* "Poopy, Mama!" - Followed by half an hour of on and off the potty, with no poopy.
* "Why? Why? Why?" - Out of the blue. There's silence, then 10 "whys". I DUNNO! Why What?! (Or, in Archer's words, when the trail of whys had her asking him why she needed to go potty, "I don't know, ask yourself!")
* "No, Lily. No, Lily. No, Lily." Repeated at least 1000 times, followed by, "Nevermind, we're getting in the car and going shopping." A carseat and the radio are doing wonders for my sanity. (We buy $1.50 in hooks from Stadium Hardware, who just gave them to me because they didn't want to swipe my credit card for that small a charge, and they've seen me every day this week. Lily gets "key-key" (candy) and pats the stone "daw" (dog) they have, and Mama has 10 minutes of peace on the way to/from the store.)

In general, we are doing well, settled into our new abode, and ready for the new baby. Just a few weeks to go!