fun size

happy halloween

we had such a fun day, carving pumpkins and baking brownies for our friend brian's birthday party tonight.
but honestly, t2 looks so much like my dad in this picture it almost makes me cry.
more to come soon. bbbwwwwaaaaahhhhhh bbbooo.

sleep 202

i'm liking the crew cut more and more everyday. except now it's starting to grow out and he looks like a tennis ball. back to the shaver, kid.
last week i had my own run-in with the shears, which this photo makes painfully obvious. my hair has been kind of a disaster in the making, with the bangs being the main object of my rage. last week i just started hacking away until i'd really made a mess and was sure i needed a professional to fix it. $60 later i walked out with what you see here. my hairdresser actually said, "it's the best i can do right now. you really should leave the cutting to me."
wow. ouch.
moving on.
my good friend ginny gill visited over the weekend and in between seeing the city, i picked her brain for parenting tips since she's mother to 4. there's a special place in heaven for her.
we've got the night routine, bedtime and falling asleep down pat. naps are happening on a pretty regular schedule. the next step is getting a solid 10-11 (12?) hours in instead of the 6 1/2 to 7 hours stretches he's doing now. ginny suggested really filling him up with his bedtime feeding. now i know that sounds like a no-brainer, but for some reason i just hadn't thought of that.
so that's what we're doing. stuffing the little booger full.
t2 seems to like this idea. he chug, chug, chugs the nighttime bottle.
and since we're making sleep changes, i'm leaving the co-sleeper behind, too. it's not for any specific reason except that it just feels like it's time to do it. and i want my bedroom back, which i guess is a pretty specific reason.
so down the hall, into his own room and in his own bed he went.
everything i read said ease into the separation easily. put the crib in your room. then in the hall. then in the doorway of the baby's room.
you gotta be kiddin' me. why would i want to give him all that time to realize something is changing?
he drifted off just fine and slept the same amount of time he does when he's in the room with us - 8 to 3:30. well, that's not 100 percent true. he woke up at 1ish and i got up, shhh'ed him and he went back to sleep until 3:30 when i fed him. but i think that was just an 'adjustment/ time change' waking.
anyway, over the next few nights we're going to try to get him back to sleep without eating.
everything i've read (why do i bother reading?) has said not to try too many things at once. but here's my logic - (a) these things are all sleep related and (b) baby has his own nifty bed, his own nifty room and since that change went just fine and dandy, perhaps he'll be open to one big doozie change.
i'm sure he'll thank me later for teaching him to be so flexible.
i'm prepared for this to not work. 7 hours may be all he can do right now and if that's the case well then we'll just try again later. this is not awesome news for tayloe the husband since previously there wasn't much he could do at night since i'm the feeder. but now since tayloe the baby associates me and snacks so closley, it might not be cool for me to be the one trying to get him back to sleep without feeding him. we'll tag team it and see how it goes. there are two tricks - keep our eyes on the prize (a baby that sleeps 12 hours) and knowing when to quit when it isn't working.
so .... it might be a rough week at our house. if you don't hear from me for a few days, don't worry. if the silence persists into a week or more, please call the police.
on to more interesting things like pumpkin carving, which we're doing tonight. we're going to a halloween party tomorrow, too, so i'll be sure to snap shots of the critter in his costume. boo.

Mommy, what's a Clooney?

Look Mommy! That commercial we watched get filmed is now on TV!

a striking resemblence to ....

vern (or as tayloe said, "the fat kid") from 'stand by me.'
"Geez, Gordie, why couldn't you have gotten breakfast stuff like twinkies, Pez and root beer?"

bend it like baldy

not to bore you with more roll over video, but this one really shows his buzz cut. didn't his dad do a fine job? fuzz head.
plus, i really wanted to show his aunt cathy lipp his beautiful cobra pose. he's a good little yogi.
so rolling over is neat and fun and all that, but it's going to be more neat and fun when he figures out how to get back to his back by himself. everytime i put him on his gym mat he rolls over. he's good for about a minute and then he realizes being on his stomach really isn't that much fun. so he cries. so i help him roll over to his back. only for him to roll over again, obviously forgetting everything he just learned.
even wolly, the king of repeat behavior, moans in exhaustion after the third or fourth roll.
still, i keep doing it over and over and over again because it seems to be so good for his muscles and his spine and it gets his little heart pumping. plus, i know this is just the beginning of a laundry list of behaviors we'll do over and over and over again, so i guess i better get used to it.

HOOYAH!

tayloe is three months old today. we didn't wake up with a hair cut in mind, but that's kinda where the day took us.
i dunno, it just seemed like a good thing to do at the time. we started with a trim and then we carefully buzzed the rest. when we were done, t1 said, "well, i guess we'll get used to it."
i didn't think about it at the time, but it's kinda funny that tayloe the husband weilded the sheers because of the two of us, he's the one who failed scissoring as a child. his teacher actually called his parents in to discuss the wreckless abandon with which he cut things as a toddler.
sweetheart, you've come a long, long way. just look at yourself here, snip snip snipping away as if it were never hard for you. we're all so proud.
now before you go saying something like, "but his hair was the best part of him" or "it's bad luck to cut a baby's hair before he's a year old" consider first what a numbskull thing that is to tell a mother who's just sheered her child. and then know that he was developing several severe bald spots and the recessive hairline was moving further and further back. so we just went ahead and did what was going to happen anyway since it was pretty clear that hair wasn't going to stick around.
plus, he got some chewing gum stuck right in the top and it was creating a crazy ugly dreadlock.
ok, that last part's not true.
he's just as cute. now he just looks more like a marine and less like a baby.
baby cuteness is overrated anyway.
also, it's probably going to just grow back exactly the same.
and then what? will we cut it again? will we dye it purple? will we give him a maddox jolie-pitt mohawk? will we let it grow long, pierce his ears and change his name to jacqulin tayloe? ooohhhh, the suspense.
i can't leave this topic without noting that (1) in this video i'm the one who looks like she needs a hair cut and (2) i did save a few locks and even wrote what it was on the ziplock bag so i won't get confused later and think i tucked away a pile of wolly fur for safe keeping (it could happen).
to see the finished (cute) product, go here.
so i gotta give props to baby yoga. t2 and i had so much fun at the class we went to on friday, i've found myself looking around for others since that one only happens once a week. there were even silly songs that i didn't mind singing and he didn't seem to mind hearing and a couple of the poses flat out made him howl with laughter. at the end of the class, the teacher came over to hold him and said, "he has such a peaceful, easy soul." isn't that a kind thing to say?
for some reason, it made me feel very proud.

shake, shake, shake

clearly this gym mat is command central for trying new things. he's been shaking the hell out of this rattle toy thing since we got home. virginia must have given him all new strength.
today we're going to try a yoga class together. it may turn out to be way too california for me, but i'm willing to give it a go. t2 is such a social kid i feel like the best thing i can do for him is to get him out to interact with other people. i've even thought about joining a mommy and me group. euhguthgh. sitting in a circle singing songs with a bunch of strangers? i dunno, it sounds like something i probably won't like.
so you gotta know - the airport on the way to virginia was, well, kinda awful. we arrived early (cough cough, of course), but rushed our way through. security was the worst.
coat off.
shoes off.
computer out.
baby out.
who holds baby?
fold stroller.
stroller won't fit through the machine.
squish stroller, shove it through.
set the alarm off.
sweat, sweat, sweat.
words, words, words.
collect shoes, jacket, baby, stroller, coat, computer, purse, diaper bag, license, boarding pass ..... ack.
it was such a hassle.
i had lip gloss and i think also a lighter in my purse, so that made it extra fun and special.
we stressed us out and the baby had nothing to do with it. in fact, i think he just smiled the whole time and made eyes at the TSA folks.
"yes, those are my parents. have mercy, they're new."
on the way home, though, we were ready. knowing what to expect we hashed it all out before hand -- who'd carry what, who was responsible for what and the like.
we divided. we conquered. we rode first class.
go team.

ok, we're back

i love this picture. it was just me and him out there, watching the sun go down.
i posted a bunch of shots from our trip on my flickr page, so be sure to check those out. i didn't do the best job of capturing all of the great moments from our week away. for example, i don't have a single photo of my parents with the baby and i don't have one of tay and i with him in his gown.
i have a major case of the flakey flakes lately, so these facts don't surprise me.
speaking of which, before i forget here's what i want to remember for next time:
(a) you can't pack too many burp cloths and bibs. stash them everywhere.
(b) if you're prone to losing things - like, say, your wallet - make a copy of your license and give it to someone who isn't prone to losing things.
(c) don't worry that you've become the family no one wants to get behind in the security line. you are those people. you're lucky to be those people, in fact, so just get over it.
(d) don't pack a single thing you don't absolutely need. if you find yourself packing something you don't need, take it out and replace it with a burp cloth and bib.
(e) switch your diaper bag over to a small backpack. it makes getting through the airport much more comfortable.
(f) if you can do a load of baby laundry before you come home, do it. unless, of course, unpacking poop pants makes you happy.
(g) pack the baby's clothes in zip lock bags, putting onsies, pants, bedclothes etc all together. this helped tayloe navigate t2's suitcase without rummaging through it like a opposum in a trash can. erhum.
(h) in the airport, use the baby to your advantage. never be too shy to say, "we need those two vacant seats in first class because we have a baby."
remembering all of this made me tired. more later.

he does tricks!

um, i don't even know where to pick back up so i guess i'll just start with the most recent stuff and work backwards.
just before we left virginia on monday, t2 rolled over onto his belly. before i know it i'll turn my back for one second and he'll be out the door and on his way to the coffee shop around the corner.
it's actually a really funny thing to watch. he kicks his legs up, flips on his side, grunts a lot, puts his foot on the floor to get a little leverage, pulls the arm underneath him out and then flops over.
i think it must take a lot of energy because so far he's only rollypollied just after a meal. that's somewhat problematic because he's full and laying on a full belly causes extreme puke. also, it's not like he's rolling all over the place. he'll do it once or twice and then go back to regularly scheduled programming of laying on his back and solving the world's problems with the purple elephant.
anyway, enough of that. watch the video for the full 411.
our trip to virginia was awesome. we saw so many people and had so much fun and t2 handled himself beautifully. now i'm pretty sure he thinks everyday is a party and he should meet no less than 12 people in a 24 hour period. i have pictures and stories, which i'll share later this week.

just briefly

two things.
for some absurd reason, i watched nanny 911 last night. if you're a parent of young kids or you're thinking about being a parent of young kids, don't ever ever ever watch this show. it's terrifying.
also, i'm deliciously close to prepregnancy weight, but many of my tops and dresses still don't fit because - and this kills me - my chest is too big. bbbbbwwwwwaaaaahahahahahahahaha.
that might be the funniest thing i've ever written.
it should be noted that prepregnancy weight and prepregnancy body are very different things. there's one word to describe me right now.
squishy.
i make a lovely pillow for the baby.

hablo español

i decided that there are some things spanish anna will need to know on sunday while we're gone. just the basics, like our number and the pediatricians number and how much to feed wolly and the baby. instead of taking an extra hour to act things out when she gets here and enduring lots of blank smiles and 'yes's,' i'm going to try to print some instructions out in spanish. i'm going to do this using the free translator doohickey on the internet. we'll see how well it works. i've always kind of wondered.
i'm sure she's going to think i'm a complete idiot.
today's our 5th anniversary. this morning tayloe and i recapped the events of our wedding day to t2. we even told him how the bishop didn't really have the authority to marry us in virginia and how when we got back from our honeymoon, our priest had to declare us wed in the church parking lot after a sunday service. i kinda wanted to leave that part out.
i have all of these great memories from that weekend and that day but my favorite is leaving our reception with tayloe, our little saab packed to the ceiling with camping gear. it was symbolic.
i told tayloe i'd marry him after 3 short months because i knew he was a trip i had to go on. people kept telling me i was certifiably crazy to say yes so soon, but it was like someone knocked on my door one day and said, "hey kid, wanna go on an adventure around the world? it'll be wonderful and it'll be terrible and it'll rain and be sunny and you'll break down and get up and get up again. you'll always be filled with love. it'll be the most beautiful time you've ever had."
and it has been. whenever i doubt my instincts, i think about saying yes and all the amazing things just letting go and doing what felt right has brought me. not the least of which is another tayloe.
and there's so much more ahead of us.
Tayloe mi marido y mi amor, yo le adoro. Aquí está a nuestro viaje.

does every post have to have a title?

i remembered i had this zoot suit today and was so psyched that it fit him. i think it'd tucked it away because it was so absolutely huge the first two months. of course i took, like, 4 million pictures of him in it. i'm pathetic.
last night on the news there was a story about a group of women who donated their breast milk to starving orphans in south africa (there are some 3-4 million AIDS orphans in Africa, whole generations of kids growing up without parents of any kind).
i'm inspired by this and just now have printed out the form to see what i have to do. i'm not exactly overflowing with extra food, but something about these orphans - little babies who have no mother at all - really tugs, yanks actually, at me.
there's this one image that tayloe took in africa of a little girl in a south african orphanage, maybe 10 or 11 months old, in a pair of overalls that have a butterfly on them. she's wobbly on her feet, but standing and smiling right at him. i cried the first time i saw it and whenever i think about it i crack.
what can i say, my heart bleeds. i don't have a choice, really. i gotta pitch in a little.

i see purple elephants

forgive that this video is upside down. if i'd done it right side up, t2 would have seen me and since i'm infinately more interesting than a purple elephant (erhum) this video wouldn't have been possible. yeah, right.
anyway, he's deliberately grabbing for this thing and we think that's pretty cool.

yes, suri, it's dyed

i've been meaning to pose this question for some time and i just keep forgetting (which, frankly, is a trend with me lately).
but honestly now, do you think they dyed suri cruise's hair for those vanity fair pics? i think most of you have heard my reel on tomkat and how fake i think it all is and why. and now i actually live in la and know how totally and absolutely unreal people here can be -- even people who aren't celebs --, so i just can't get it out of my head that there's a good chance, a better than good chance, that this child went under the dryer for these shots. or maybe not.
if it's not dyed, there's for sure product in it. do they make hair gel for babies?
there's no product in t2's hair, by the way. it just naturally looks like we combed it with a pork chop.
so this is our anniversary weekend and on sunday we're celebrating by going to a steelers game (vs. the chargers) in san diego. tayloe usually plans such things, so as a surprise i one-uped him and got the tickets and hired the babysitter behind his back. mmmwwwaaaahhh.
i tried to get mirna, but she couldn't make it. however she offered up her aunt for the job.
mirna: one thing is she does not speak as well.
me: she can talk just fine, she just doesn't speak english, you mean?
mirna: she does not speak as well.
me: english?
mirna: hm?
me: she doesn't speak english well?
mirna: no. she doesn't speak english.
me: ok
mirna: i think this is ok because your baby do not speak english either.
good point, mirna.
all of this reminds me that my mom once had a housekeeper who didn't speak much english. mom asked her to spray the trash can with lysol after emptying it, thinking the gal understood what that meant. a famous hand-talker, i think mom just made some spraying motions to get the point across. (can't you see my mom doing this? "oh honey just [hand-flick, hand-flick, hand-flick] spray a little, you know [hand-flick], of this smell-good stuff in there and be done with it. [hand-flick, hand-flick, hand-flick] ok?)
anyway, days later when mom took out the trash, she saw that the bottom of the can was covered in silver spray paint. that story's always made me laugh.
not to come home to a baby that's gulping a bottle of espresso or asleep in the bathtub, i'm brushing up on my spanish. here are some of my favorite phrases:
(1) Si él es los chillidos, llama por favor su geoff de tío.
if he screams or if there's a major problem, please call his uncle geoff.
(2) Mi otro marido que él recogerá en 11 de la tarde.
my other husband will pick him up at 11 p.m.
(3) Preferimos que él come sólo césped.
we prefer that he eats only grass.

a crappy walk to the park

i have an 'are you kidding me?' file in my head and a couple of recent news stories definitely belong there.
today's amish school shooting is one of them because it took place in paradise, pennsylvania. god, that's maybe the most awful, terrible thing i've ever heard.
the other is that perv. Rep. foley, who had a little too much fun im'ing young boys, was co-chairman of the missing and exploited children's caucus and made a big to-do about cracking down on online predators.
the later proves my long suspected belief that the more people hoot and hollar about something, the more likely it is that they believe and do just the opposite. there's a laundry list of people who prove this point, but i think foley's shenanigans are enough to make it clear for today.
so in short, if your neighbor says to you over and over again "i'd never molest children. it's disgusting. i hate those people," and/or you live in a town that has a happy adjective name, you should probably move.
on top of all of this george michael was found slumped over in his car. again. sigh.
today's t2 news is just a bit happier, but no less absurd.
he woke up at 7 and didn't seem to want to go back to sleep so i rallied and got up and was all ready to go for our morning walk. we were movin', we were grovin', we were up and at 'em. while i dressed, i put him on his gym mat. i left him alone for maybe 5 minutes and when i came back he was sound asleep (see below). he has a habit of bailing at the last minute.
i loaded him up anyway.
on the way to the dog park, a bird crapped on my head AND on the sun shade of the bugaboo. i mean, does that bird even know?
then on the way back, wolly had diarrhea which made a 10-block trail from the park to our house. at first i tried to clean it up, running along behind him holding the carriage in one hand and a plastic bag in the other. but picking it up was like trying to pick up a puddle, so eventually i just gave up and decided if anyone said anything i'd tell them to f off.