gone fishin'

so, we're off again! if it seems like our life is one long vacation, it sort of is. we're gonna try our hand at camping (think two man tent with four of us)! we'll be at san luis reservoir until monday.

so didja hear the story about the squirrels in our area? seriously. people are talking about it all over the place. random squirrels are attacking kids in a park in mountain view! what is this world coming to?!

thanks melea:

for this cute pic of you and r as babies!

deed before creed

so a neighbor that had a baby boy about a year ago dropped of a really nice swing, a carrier and TON of clothes for 'renzo. it took r and i about an hour to sort through all the stuff. in the very last box guess what i found. two binkies. two more of THE binky. identical. that's some luck, pal!

today r and the kids and i went to a meeting of the humanist community of our local area. (humanism is defined as "a philosophy that asserts the dignity and worth of man and his capacity for self-realization through reason, and that often rejects supernaturalism.") this group discusses a wide variety of topics (some of the upcoming ones include: Prop. 89, Building a Compassionate Community, The Innocence Project, After Lebanon: The Impact of the War on the Middle East) most of which we are interested in supporting! our good friends (and fellow homebirthers) julie and mark run the children's program (a.k.a. a dogma-free Sunday School). we decided to give it a try and see if parker liked it. it turned out she loved it! so we'll hopefully be making it a semi-regular part of our sunday morning.

a year ago...our family was in sicily. wahhhh. i wanna be in sicily today!

that was some damn boring chicken!

he laughed!

lorenzo just laughed out loud for the first time! g les was tickling him and he cackled. too cute!

ohmygodimtired

but they're purty durn cute, eh? speaking of canadians...one of r's coworkers got hit in the face with a hockey puck at a game on monday! crazy huh?

ocd, yeah you know me

*sigh* this has been a reaaaallly long week. and it's only tuesday. the kids have been alternately (and sometimes simultaneously) fussy for days now. my lower back and shoulders are killing me from bouncing/slinging/walking/twisting/nursing. i'm pooped. i'm tired of the crying/yelling/whining/fussing we've all been doing. in case you thought otherwise, having two is WAY harder than having one. don't let anyone tell you anything different.

our big adventure today was to baby depot. mr. baby has outgrown all of his 0-3 month clothes. thankfully my dad's neighbor gave me some 3-6 month ones (though they're mostly winter things) and he's had enough to get by one. we needed some t-shirts though AND a binky. that's right. a binky. before i had 'renzo i didn't believe in binkys. i mean, i believed that they existed, i just didn't believe there was a need for them. ha. this child likes to nurse-when he's hungry. and only when he's hungry. any other time (when he's fussy, when we're driving, when he wants to go to sleep) he wants a finger to suck on. well, a finger is great by me. but then what the hell do i do when i'm driving alone? or trying to brush parker's teeth? or going pee? i give him the godforsaken binky...and he loves it! IT. THE ONE BINKY.

THIS BINKY.


not ANY of THESE BINKYS. no way jose (as parker says).


just that one (apparently limited edition) binky that they don't make anymore! seriously. that binky was purchased for parker three years ago (that thing never saw the inside of HER mouth!) and is now no longer made!!! so i'm completely terrified that THE binky will be lost or ruined before i can track another one down on ebay or something! you may not that the binky has irregular edges. that's because i dropped it in the flame on the stove by accident one day when i was trying to sterilize it in boiling water. it melted and i nearly burned my fingers off trying to rescue it!

see how he grows

so, 'renzo had his 2 month appointment yesterday which went splendidly. he weighed in at 12 pounds 7 ounces (from 7,6 at birth) and 24 inches long (from 19" at birth). that puts him just above the 50th percentile in both. (for comparison's sake, miss p weighed 9,11 and was 22" at approximately the same age!!!) dr. sabina said he had amazing tone and really didn't seem like he was only two months old. he's apparently as brilliant as his sister. he smiled and cooed at her the whole appointment and there were no tears (from him or me) as there were (and will be) no vaccinations.

back...again!

so we're back from a fun trip to carmel. we had a nice time but all of us have been fighting colds. in any case we really didn't want to leave!


this is lorenzo thinking "omg that's an ugly couch!"


and here he's realizing he's going to be out numbered by women for the rest of his life!

this morning heather (forrest's fiance) and i took the babes to the la leche meeting. piper is a month old and it seems that she and lorenzo are already fast friends. it's been nice spending time with another couple our age that has a baby too.


and here he's realizing just how much he's grown in a month. look at the size difference between him and piper!

doh!

i haven't forgotten you faithful readers i'm just livin' it up in carmel. my grandparents rented us the coolest place ever and we're having a blast! i'll post pictures etc. from home!

ode to breastfeeding

i have been nursing continuously (with no more than a 12 hour break) for the last 969 days. holy moly. i've been frusterated, in pain, annoyed, really really annoyed, joyful, content, but mostly in love with it. it's the right thing to do (physically, emotionally and spiritually) and i'm happy that i have been able to give this lifelong gift to my children. and that they've given this lifelong gift to me.

among other books, i am currently reading adventures in tandem nursing: breastfeeding during pregnancy and beyond, by hilary flower. while i completely understand that this isn't the route for everyone, this book will be valuable to anyone considering nursing even *just* one baby!

here are a couple of my favorite quotes so far:

from a biological perspective, breastfeeding is to early childhood development what the umbilical cord is to the fetal months.

when a woman feels good in her body, she can mother from a place of contentment and wellness.

and finally:

some mothers spend the night turning back and forth to nurse two children alternately through the night. "rotisserie nursing" [one mother calls it].

a story that is worth sharing from our washington trip: my cousin mechel and i ran out to the store to pick up some stuff one afternoon. we left the kids with their daddies. this was the first time i had left lorenzo for more than two minutes. anyway our outing took longer than expected and when we arrived back at my cousin alison's she came running up to me and said: "we had a first while you were gone!" apparently 'renzo got hungry while i was out and r didn't know what to do. he said in passing to alison, "this kid need a boobie!" my fantastic cousin (who is still nursing her two year old) offered up hers! and 'renzo took it, no problem. i was so thrilled that they didn't just let the poor child cry. nino, alison's son was a little unsure however... lol incidently, this is how my grandpa tony survived infancy. he had a milk cousin!

two months.

mr. baby is two months old today! 62 days. that seems simply impossible to me. it apparently goes even faster the second time around. he's a smiley, happy baby, very strong and determined to be ferried around so that he can see everything. he and parker are dramatically different in looks and personality but from what i can tell now will be life-long friends.



miss p at 2 months


'renzo at 2 months

love songs

you know how when you're in love every song that you hear seems to apply to you? i guess being a mom is like that too. i dug up some old cd's from highschool for the car, ones that i thought parker might like. train was in there. i was listening to the song "meet virginia" and the lyrics that used to make me think the song was about loving a partner suddenly reminded me of miss p... (emphasis mine)

She doesn't own a dress, her hair is always a mess /If you catch her stealin, she won't confess /She's beautiful /She smokes a pack a day, oh wait, that's me but anyway /She doesn't care a thing about that, hey /She thinks I'm beautiful /Meet Virginia /She never compromises, loves babies and surprises /Wears hi-heels when she exercises /Ain't that beautiful/Meet Virginia /Well she wants to be the Queen /Then she thinks about her scene /Pulls her hair back as she screams /I don't really wanna be the queen /Her daddy wrestles alligators, Mama works on carburetors /Her brother is a fine mediator for the President /Well here she is again on the phone /Just like me hates to be alone /We just like to sit at home, and rip on the President /Meet Virginia /Well she wants to live her life /Then she thinks about her life /Pulls her hair back as she screams /I don't really wanna live this life /She only drinks coffee at Midnight, when the moment is not right, her timing is quite-unusual /you see her confidence is tragic, but her intuition magic /and the shape of her body -unusual /Meet Virginia-I can't wait to Meet Virginia-Yea

parker struck me this way from the moment i found out i was pregnant with her. she's a spitfire. her name, while not necessarily my favorite on our list, was so clearly HER name. a little bit kooky. kinda spastic. she's loud and messy and beautiful and i want to be just like her when i grow up. she really keeps me on my toes at all times!

nutin' honey

i have a few long posts that i'll be posting later this week but i finally finished paying my mountain of bills *groan* and i'm off to bed to snuggle with the kiddos.

edited to add: how sad, steve irwin, the crocodile hunter, died from a sting ray barb to the heart. i think he had young children too.