Jaded Optimist

I love my macro lens, but I am lazy…and have yet to use it with a tripod. So a nice bright sunny day, which is normally horrible for photography, allows me to get some handheld shots in while the baby naps.

No more fairy tales for C for a bit. The other day she said “I am the princess, daddy is the prince, and you are the fairy.” What is M, I inquired. “The stepsister!”

Bought a “playground ball” and a T ball set for C to play in the backyard. So she and a friend are out there on Saturday. G wants to give them my big blow up exercise ball to play with. I object—since I do in fact use it to exercise, and we have bought toys for the backyard. G is sure the ball will be fine. He throws it outside. It hits a rose bush. A few minutes later the girls bring it over. With a hole in it. It is ruined. Think G will listen to me the next time? Yeah, me neither.

I love that little M…but some days… Today I gave her a nice bath, because her little head was kinda sweaty the past day or so (80-90 temps and all that). As I am toweling her off…she pees all over the towel. Get her diapered and dressed, and into the rocking chair for nursing. And she poops. Fine. Put her on the shoulder to burp, and she projectile spits up at least several ounces of milk—all down my back, and all over the rocking chair. Move her forward to regroup….and the next projectile gets me down the front, down her front, and fills my lap with milk. Luckily (for me, not for him) G works from home so I was able to call for backup. Sigh. What’s a few more loads of laundry between family, right?

For the most part, we love to hear what C has to say—to hear a little bit of her logic and creativity, and see how she understands the world. At the end of any of her meltdowns, in addition to asking for a tissue (which is the sign that she is calming down) she will come up with an explanation for why she was upset. It usually recasts the preceding meltdown in a light that is more logical and shows her in a better light than the actual things said during the meltdown. For instance, there may be unexplained crying about eating strawberries at dinner, and at the end of the crying she will say “Well, I just wanted to eat the strawberries in daddy’s lap, thaaaaat is why I was crying.”

Other random things I have liked lately “Mommy, do you want to play cats with me? It is just like playing crocodiles, except you are a different animal. Come on, let’s play.” “This sheet is on top of these necklaces and then you lay down on them and they massage you—they bump all the old ssages out and put new massages in and that is how it works.”

But then there are the things that we don’t like to hear. For instance, although he laughed I don’t think G was too happy when at bedtime tonight C said “Daddy, the more you work, the more we love you.”

Um. Not really sure where that came from! The next exchange is fully my responsibility though.

Scene: Putting the girls in the car. M has been changed several times due to spitting up, and now we are running late, and she is in a final outfit. As soon as I click the carseat in, boom, spit up is running out of her mouth.

Me: M, God….

C: Dammit!

Me: C! You cannot say that, it is not nice.

C: Mommy, I was just helping you. You said God so I said dammit. I was finishing it for you.

So goal for this week: less swearing. I would prefer to have as a goal, less spitting up, which would naturally result in less swearing, but M will not play along.

Ugh. 93 here this weekend, and us with no AC. Luckily the temperatures drop at night, but at 3 am this morning it was still over 80 in our bedroom. Poor M is used to sleeping swaddled…but in this heat? So last night I tried to not swaddle her…and no sleep. So did a minimal swaddle and she fell right asleep, but later on had her arms out and woke up at 3 am (which is why I know what the temperature was) which she hasn’t done in weeks.

Yesterday we tried to pretend there was no heat, and went to the Bellevue Strawberry Festival. C and her friend seemed to do OK—C even went and sat in the sun to listen to Rocky Raccoon (gosh, did we feel bad for the sucker in the huge raccoon costume!) and *exercised* to the songs. They also went on blow up bouncy things, got their faces painted, and waited in line for a balloon poodle. The adults guzzled lemonade and sought shade until one of us (ok, me) whined enough that we left.

Today our heat-beating strategy involved going to a movie theater to see Wall-E. C had to be convinced to go (showed her previews on YouTube—“Mommy, let me see another episode about Ollie!”) So now M has been to her first movie—and was pretty good for it even. Overall…eh. It was ok. Good animation, a bit too much shooting for a G movie (in my opinion), and they really hit you over the head with the moral. The story line is just OK though…while I agree with the sentiment (boo on consumerism) there are gaping plot holes. Glad we went, but mostly to be in AC.

Other goings on this week: lots of time spent watering our new plants.

A lot of cuteness

a little of this

and the bald spot continues to gain a foothold.

Oh, and we are flirting with going Piscetarian (vegetarian + fish). I do the meal planning and we have been eating a lot more beans, lentils, veggies (thank you Kirkland Farmers Market) and salmon and a lot less animal meat. For environmental and health reasons. Not C so much though…if we removed ham and chicken strips from her diet she would waste away to nothing. Sigh.

Last day of school (with early dismissal) was celebrated with lunch at Ruby’s Diner, where C was very entertained making a cardboard car. You can tell she is excited for school to be over…and camp to be starting! Later that day, at the Kirkland Farmer’s Market, we found the cheapest cherries and discovered that Cinnamon Kettle Corn is like crack, if crack was puffy, cinnamon covered, and edible.

Thursday saw many crappy pictures at some of the worst places to take a picture—the aquarium and the waterfront carousel. Otherwise, much fun was had by all. We did discover that 4.5 year olds cannot play skee ball, the waterfront Red Robin has some awesome views, and C can sleep through M crying the whole ride back from downtown during rush hour traffic. C spent Friday sailing and hanging around downtown with daddy, who doesn’t feel obligated to photograph every breath of every day, and thus there are no pictures to share.

M continues her cuteness assault, this week highlighting her very cute little feet and a floral cloth diaper.

However, she already seems a bit jaded about the camera.

M loves her big sister and saves some of her biggest smiles for her. Although that might not be obvious from these shots. M’s look says more “Why are you over there holding the camera and not over here saving me!” Perhaps she is understandably nervous about being held by C. 

With good reason (“Mommy! I am not touching the soft spot I am just patting her head.”)

Nonetheless, they do make quite a cute little pair.