FAQ: 10 Months Old

C&D turned 10 months the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. To celebrate, we played with our new push wagon and prepared for a plane trip to Nana's house. David likes the wagon the best, and when he isn't trying to push it he wants to ride in it, back and forth, back and forth in the living room.

Between C&D's usual mischief, the Thanksgiving holiday, and some mischief of my own I have had much time to post. Here instead are some answers to questions people have been asking us lately.

Everything you wanted to know about C&D at 10 months old, and even stuff you didn't.

Are they talking yet?
Not really. David will most often express himself in smiles, wheezes, sighs, and pouts. Carmen can say or imitate a few words and apparently speaks !Kung. Ever since that one visit from Nana, she loves to engage in a conversation of tongue clicks. Yesterday I found out that she will try to imitate the words in a SigningTime DVD that I picked up at the library. For example, when she heard "cookie" she imitated the lilt of the word and and the "oo" sound. She says things like "dada" and "mama" but, like so many of her other sounds--she really seems to say them purely for the pleasure of hearing her own voice.

Can they sign?
A little. "Milk" is understood, but they don't always sign "milk" to us. Carmen is beginning to sign "all done" more frequently, and if you tease her with O's will sign a rudimentary "more" by putting her right hand on top of her left. David doesn't really sign, but is often much more patient than Carmen and may not feel as much of a need to do so.

What do they like to do?
David likes to chase the cat, touch the cat, talk to the cat, watch the cat, grab big fistfuls of cat. With great concentration he will smear his food--especially the mushy stuff--all over the table or his booster seat tray. His fingers will make hills and valleys of mush, and he will watch the water dripping from his sippy cup fill the valleys and form rivers and lakes. He will also drop his food, spoons, and cups unceremoniously, always to his right, and then peer over and stare at them on the floor, his fingers wiggling and reaching toward them. Sweet potatoes, oatmeal, chicken with herbes de provence (their favorite way to eat it)--it all goes overboard. He likes to knock down towers of blocks, while Carmen tries to figure out how to put them back. They both like to pull themselves up on anything--laundry baskets, toy baskets, nearby adults and each other. They go up, down, up, down, up down. The Baby Bungee Bouncers of several months ago were brought back out of the closet recently, and C&D very much enjoy hopping, hopping, hopping. David will jump and scissor open his legs in mid-air. Books are more popular than ever, especially those with sound effects like Mr. Brown Can Moo and The Big Red Barn. The games I like best are playing "nosey nosey" and "kissy kissy." Nothing is better than a big, slobbery, baby kiss.

Are they walking?
Only if we help them balance. God help us when they figure it out.

How are your nights?
Heh, heh.

What did you do for Thanksgiving?
Took a short plane ride to Nana's house. David wailed the whole way over. Fortunately we were only in the air about 35 minutes. The flight home was much more pleasant, perhaps because David seemed to figure out that has long as he nursed, his ears didn't bother as much as when he didn't. At Nana's we saw our first Christmas tree, with a Thomas the Tank Engine train going around underneath it. We rode in the new truck, which was outfitted with C&D's old Britax car seats. The way to Nana's house in the new truck wasn't so fun because C&D were tired and still upset from the plane ride, but on the way back to the airport my dad played their favorite Los Lonely Boys CD and the babies fell asleep before we even entered the freeway.

At Nana's house C&D played with Uncle John, who made sure that they received an introduction to the various cuts of beef. After a hearty Thanksgiving lunch we enjoyed Aunt Zelda's music on the piano while we rolled all over the parquet floors on a walker borrowed from the Shepherd of the Hills nursery. We only had one walker, so the babies took turns, one pushing the walker and the other riding along.





Sunday, the first Sunday in Advent, C&D went to church to be baptized. C&D thought church was a great place to be loud and silly, so we spent most of the service outside waiting for everyone to come out. Pastor Moore did the baptizing. My parents came and we went out for lunch afterward. The babies dropped penne pasta all over the floor of the restaurant, but thankfully nobody seemed to mind.

Have the babies visited Santa?
Not yet. They might meet Santa on Saturday. December 1st Bellaire had a Christmas festival that we attended, though. C&D saw the petting zoo. David laughed when the llama snorted on his head, but, like Carmen, was really more interested in the other children and the lights and all the other goings-on. They were not even amused by the chickens roosting on the llama. David did like the white twinkly lights on the trees, and Carmen liked Rudolph's nose. We stayed long enough to watch Santa ride in on his fire truck, and then came back home in time for bed.

Well, I had more to say, but have run out of time to say it. Looking forward to starting some new traditions with C&D's first Christmas (they already had their first St. Nicholas Day!) and watching them figure out some of their new Montessori- and Waldorf-style toys (you're going to get us some, Santa, right?).

Amautik Weather

It's finally seasonably cool (no more 83-degree Saturday afternoons for at least a few weeks), and thoughts take me to warm and snuggly babywearing. I wish Houston got colder so I could use one of these Inuit carriers. So cozy!

Every Day Has Its Ups and Downs

Good Karma (What Goes Around, Comes Around)

Matt and David this afternoon:

Aw Duh! for now

Hard to find time to post, lately. The babies aren't sleeping like usual this week, and of course over the Thanksgiving weekend we had more than the usual excitement. C&D are increasingly mobile (mixed blessing?) and mischievous (David discovered the DVD player, doh) and have even begun to try to talk . . . Carmen says "all done" (aw duh! aw duh! aw duh!), "cat" (ca!) and has some pretty serious conversations with David every now and then. Wonder what they're talking about?

Carmen stirs, but watch for a big big big post very soon . . . I'll try my hardest.

Oh, and Fisher-Price is not my friend. Stupid, junky Fisher-Price toys.

Feel better, thanks. Now I can go to sleep. Aw duh! Aw duh!

Busy, busy, busy!

Carmen is sleeping in the swing right now. She has been in constant motion today, even in her sleep. Hopefully the swing will help her rest.

Saturday we drove out to Saratoga for the Big Thicket Association Annual Meeting. I am the BTA Treasurer. After a rough night, an early morning, and then a long drive hearing the babies complain--or worrying that they might start complaining again whenever they did stop--I arrived just in time for the Treasurer's report. I huffed into the meeting room, stared at the crowd, and blinked. What was I doing there and who were these people, again? I don't remember what I said but Matt assured me it did make sense. Whew, good thing.

The babies didn't let us stay long, but we did at least visit a little bit. I want to visit Maxine and everybody again, but I've got to persuade the babies that they need to learn to sleep in the car. Sandi Elsik (in the plaid shirt) reminded me I never slept in the car, myself. I did bring them a couple of new toys and their Los Lonely Boys CD, and they did amuse each other for a little while by talking in their own little baby language to each other ("where are they taking us now?" they said), but it just wasn't enough. Fortunately on the drive back we didn't have to make any stops, although C&D made it apparent to us that they were happy to be home.

Today: . . . Carmen showed Matt that she could stand for a few seconds on her own. David probably could, if he wanted to, but he is more cautious, and instead busies himself by taking all toys out of--and them putting them back into--his wicker basket. The basket has about 30 pounds of weight on the bottom, so C&D can hoist themselves up without tipping it. (Not that they don't try.)

. . . Matt did help David learn the art of unpacking a bookshelf. Next lesson: putting everything back?

. . . a stray cat learned that at lunchtime two frazzled parents might put out two highchairs outside to be cleaned during naptime, and that the highchairs might be full, like they were today, of chicken, oat groats, zucchini, and butternut squash. The stray cat also learned that those two parents, one of whom was cooking and the other of whom was helping a baby stand up while being climbed upon by the other, are too busy to really stop him from having quite a nice lunch, and even the supposed resident cat considered himself to busy to do anything about it.

. . . while we were cooking, Carmen was practicing standing by using David as a bolster. While David is on all fours she'll push herself up, one hand on his back, the other high above her head as if she were riding a bucking bronco.
C&D try climbing up on each other pretty often; Carmen gets mad and complains when David tries to hoist himself up, but David often laughs and pulls on her shirt when she uses little brother as a piece of playground equipment. We tried to catch it on camera, but missed.

Inside the Pitter Patter Catterpillar

David is only brave enough to crawl about halfway through before turning around and coming back out, and Carmen is more interested in finding a way to go over the tunnel rather than through it.

It's a Happy Thanksgiving Present!

Well, not really. Two cute babies don't need excuses for getting presents, right?

Think they'll like it?

A Bicycle Built For Two . . .

two babies!

Wouldn't get it because we don't have a lot of places to use it around here, but STILL, wouldn't I feel like the coolest twin-mama EVER?

An accounting

Promised I would share, and I forgot until I was looking over some numbers (Big Thicket Association budget) yesterday.

At their last checkup (October 25th):
Carmen weighed 20 pounds, 8 ounces; measured at 27 and 5/8 inches.
David weighed at 20 pounds, 10 ounces; meaured at 27 and 7/8 inches.

The weights shocked us, because Carmen still has the remarkable ability to feel as heavy as a bag of lead when we pick her up, whereas David magically levitates up into our arms.

Not Quite Ready

C&D are happy, nondiscriminating eaters. But we aren't quite ready for Earl Abel's.

David figures if he smears his food in the general direction of his face, some of it will land in his mouth . . .

Carmen's aim is much more accurate, but she is not quite convinced that she cannot fit an entire slice of cucumber in her mouth.

They're messy, but they're cute, so I guess we'll keep them.

These Days

What is it like for me to be home alone with C&D these days? Well, Thursday it looked like this:


When they got a little fussy I put on a Los Lonely Boys DVD that I picked up at the library earlier in the week. When the music started David smiled and Carmen started bouncing on her poofy, cloth-diapered butt. Their favorite song is Heaven, judging by the arm-flapping and bouncing. Who needs Baby Einstein?

---

Almost had an accident with a semi truck on Wednesday on the way to the co-op. Blech. Right now my paradise is a place where Central Market, Whole Foods, and the co-op are within easy walking distance. Worst thing that would happen in that case would be, what? Tripping? No such pedestrian paradise exists in Houston, though.

---

From an e-mail Thursday morning:

Carmen proved yesterday to Fiona that she can crawl, too, but she would rather alternate sitting from being on all fours. She moves sort of like a spirograph, around and around and around.

That afternoon, Carmen crawled a couple of feet and directly into the wall. She stopped, sat down, and started twirling and whirling again.

---

On the bookshelf: The Absorbent Mind. What I like best in this book by Maria Montessori (the Montessori) is her clear sense of wonder at the process of child development. Here's a nice little piece from this week:

To know, to love and to serve is the trimonial of all religions, but the child is the
true maker of our spirituality. He teaches us the plan of nature for giving form to our conduct and character, a plan fully traced out in all its details of age and work, with its need for freedom and intense activity in accordance with the laws of life.

Nice. I started Montessori from the Start this past week, too. I think I'll snuggle with Carmen right now and read it a bit.

---

Today our biggest accomplishment was a successful trip and visit to Young and Restless for some knit pants with lots of room for cloth-diapered baby butts. We have a to-do list three miles long; wonder what we'll manage to get done tomorrow?

We Have Crawling!

Well, we did have crawling, more than the three-steps-and-I'm-finished kind of crawling, until David noticed his reflection in the diaper pail and decided to kneel up and talk to it.

Oh, well.

I just loved the sound of those fat little hands slapping the hardwood floor as he crossed the room. This is going to be fun. And the room is almost babyproofed . . . just in time.

This weekend we rearranged some furniture to separate the cribs. When C&D are napping they wake each other up. You would think after nine months of napping in the same room they would stop waking up with each other, but we have many days when we walk in to find them lying in bed, looking at each other, and wondering what exciting events (e.g., the cat walking in, sorting the diaper laundry?) they might be missing in the rest of the house.

So now a swing and crib is in the master bedroom, a crib and two dressers (mine and Matt's) are in the babies' room, and a swing and rocking chair in the back bedroom. A set of shelves in the living room for the babies' toys and books and socks and hats (the two types of clothing we are perpetually losing). We'll see how it all works. Hopefully tomorrow I can finish putting things away.

Tomorrow also the babies get to taste homemade cranberry sauce with their lunch. I think they'll like it. They certainly enjoy the pleasures of the table, gobbling up chicken curries and spiced sweet potatoes and cold, fresh pineapples with equal enthusiasm. The cranberry sauce should be no exception. We're still eating carefully, but we're avoiding our usual allergy suspects and the babies' little tummies lately seem pretty fine. Hurray!

Sweetest Laugh Ever . . .

from the sweetest little boy ever:




(Like the OK Corral? Great little spot for the babies to safely hang out while we make dinner? And big enough for a Daddy to fit inside, too!)

Learning something new every day

They're changing so fast. I started this post DAYS ago and keep adding on and editing out those things that are no longer true. Time to just click "publish!"

------------------------

29 October:

C&D have been living on earth a whopping 9 months since Sunday, and are learning more every day.

Carmen has added a singsong "Da-da-da-da-da" to her vocal repertoire, but, alas, it is not enough. Sometimes when she wants more food she'll frown and twist her little mouth around in an effort to say something that finally spills out of her mouth in one long, wet, raspberry. (If that doesn't work, she'll start screeching . . . better to intervene before the screeching sets in!) Sometimes she signs "all done," but what she really means is, "more." Maybe she does mean that she is all done, and so she expects more? Hopefully in the next few weeks as her dexterity improves (and we begin noticing her attempts at communicating) we'll all be making a little more sense. In this picture she is preparing for Halloween weekend by smearing beets on her face. We won't do beets again until we're sure she has better aim when feeding herself.

David loves giving kisses, which have felt a little more interesting now that those two little bottom teeth are more prominent. We'll have to work on that.

Carmen had two top teeth come through, and is working on two more on the opposite side. With her top teeth and bottom teeth she has discovered she can take little (and sometimes very big) bites of things like sliced water chestnuts and pretzels and raw sweet potatoes and cool, crunchy haricots vert. She also thinks it's lovely to grind them together while I rock her at night. We'll have to work on that, too.

David has learned that it's really funny to be sitting next to your sister, and then give her a big shove and watch her fall over. Fortunately sister doesn't mind too much (right now).

But it's not like Carmen is victim to a big bad brother; the other day, while he was playing quietly alone, she kicked David's rear in a rapid rat-tat-tat rhythm while she flapped her arms and sang. Fortunately brother doesn't mind too much (right now).

Carmen still doesn't crawl; instead she alternates between flopping on her belly and sitting up. She can locomote this way, alternately flopping and sitting until she meets an obstacle (e.g., the wall, or the aforementioned brother). While this is not efficient, she does move forward and back and around like the knight on a chess board, moving nowhere fast but moving, nonetheless, and winding up someplace apparently random that to her might actually be very deliberate. (Although last week, when on the slippery hardwood and wearing a pair of Babylegs, she managed to move nowhere despite a good bit effort for at least ten minutes.) Last week Matt set her down on the rug while he unloaded groceries from the car, and found her kissing her her reflection in the diaper pail when he finished. Coincidence? Of course not, said Carmen. She rolls toward something she wants, too, but not very far. I would suppose rolling across the room would make her feel a little dizzy. She also loves to roll around in the bed, which is a little frightening because the bed, unlike the floor, has edges. For a few weeks now she has felt compelled to do downward dogs when she is on the floor, and her pose is actually looking better every day (what next, cobra? cat-cow?). She pulls herself up to her knees and tries to stand, but occassionally finds herself stuck or a little confused in this new position, and will experiment no further.

David finally began crawling today, but only a few crawls at a time before stopping. We were playing on the bed, rolling and sitting and flopping just like Carmen, and he wanted very much to reach my LED headlamp because it is bright and interesting and apparently tasty, as well. He drags his right leg behind when he moves, and he is not very fast, but I expect by the end of the week I will be glad I am no longer working because I will desperately need to finish childproofing the house. David enjoys standing up very, very much, but has not yet figured out how to transition from sitting to standing. He can easily pull himself to kneeling, so I wonder how many days or weeks will pass before he can finish hoisting himself up. One of his favorite activities is to hold on to or lean on a basket weighted with 30 pounds of barbell weights. Inside the basket are some toys that he will pick up and drop, and a large pine cone from the Big Thicket that he alternately drops, pets, and tries to eat.

Two of C&D's favorite things are the cat and any fish tank. The cat serves as an inspiration for crawling, squirming, rolling, flopping, stepping, or hopping in any one direction, and when he walks out of a room they crane their necks around the corner to see where he might have gone. Likewise, the fish tanks at Whole Foods, the Galleria, even Petsmart fascinate and captivate. The random, fluid movements and bright colors receive complete attention. So Friday, the Friday before Halloween, the zoo was open late and we took the babies to see animals larger and more colorful than the cat, and more numerous than the fish in the tropical tank at Whole Foods.

C&D could have cared less about the elephants, the giraffes, the tigers. These animals were maybe too big for them to get their mind around. Maybe an elephant is no different than an SUV, a giraffe no more strange than a UPS truck, a tiger no more real than a picture in a book. So the babies, politely bored, rode in their slings and watched the many naughty children run around like the wild animals Matt and I were futiley trying to point out.

All this, until I decided we needed to visit the flamingoes. The babies flapped and stomped, and leaned in toward the exhibit until I was afraid they might fall. The flamingoes chased one another and spread out their wings, all pink and loud and very, very real. After the flamingoes' show we decided to take C&D to another place that we knew would be a sure hit--the aquarium. Carmen watched the fish in the tanks while David lunged forward and tried to touch them, his palm lightly slapping the glass. We lingered at the last and largest tank, David standing nose to nose to a group of resting sharks.

Feeling adventurous, the next day we took a visit to the George Ranch with the intention of breathing fresh country air and visiting some livestock. We did, although Carmen and David liked the hay most of all, and David tried stuffing it into his mouth by the fistful. The ranch is wonderful, with several period buildings and actors from the 1830's to the 1930's. We found the hay (next to some pigs, oxen, and chickens) in the barn next to a dogtrout house. We liked going to the ranch so much that we bought a year-long membership so we could visit the gardens and the animals and the friendly pioneers, sharecroppers, cowboys and ranchers as often as we want. Maybe when the babies are bigger we can volunteer there in exchange for the opportunity to take care of some animals and wear bonnets and big straw hats. And eat more hay, clearly. Hmm.

Let's see, what else has happened recently? We had some fun tie-dying some shirts, can you tell? We needed some long-sleeve shirts for fall's cooler days, so I bought some nice, soft long-sleeved t's at Dharma Trading Company and one nice day Fiona and I experimented with different tie and dye combinations while Carmen slept and David rolled around on a blanket and studied the leaves in the trees. We dyed about 20 shirts, including some cut-up onesies . . . we are SO over the color white! More than our attempts at spirals and random splashes of color, I think I like the striped shirts best.

The perhaps unfortunate side effect of our adventure in the fiber arts is that our children are clearly the most color-uncoordinated children this side of Texas. Good thing they're pretty darn cute.

Whew. That's all for now. Will share more when I can!

Butter with that?

David is commando-crawling at an increasingly rapid clip.

Today both mastered hoisting themselves to standing in the crib, and David has already learned to cruise around the crib in circles. Carmen concentrated on ways to get her leg over the rail and get out.

I'm toast.

Because everything is new

This weekend C&D discovered the zoo, flamingos, house-sized aquaria, the George Ranch, and . . . hay.



More later. Really.

Color, paint, sing, play!

College Tuition Increases Outpaced Gains in Aid: Ouch.

Here's something less painful: I'm now a distributor for Mercurius USA. Crayons, paints, flutes, drums, Waldorf supplies . . . and C&D get to try out all the merchandise! Woo-hoo!

Jump Start

Next Height/Weight Checkup is in Two Weeks . . .

P.S. Somebody tell her to alternate sides . . .

Even Better

Today we drove to Central Market for dinner and some Seven Generation kitchen cleaner to replace my Waterpik Aquia (a sad story that I will not recount in this space . . . sniff).

All of our meals now involve C&D eating, too, so they ate sauteed carrots, slippery mung bean noodles, and little bitty nibbles of water chestnuts. After our little family covered the concrete floor beneath our patio table with a sprinkle of orange and white in the style of Pollock, Matt and I realized that we should go out to eat more often. The babies enjoy eating and people-watching, and, even better, we don't have to clean the floor when we're done.

At home the biggest culinary hit this weekend was lightly steamed haricots vert. That's good. Skinny little green beans are easy to clean up.

I think the babies have confused the sign for "milk" with the sign for "mommy." I should fix that before they start school.

I also need to fix our sleep habits. I think Carmen has taken after her mother and turned into a nighttime dawdler (see the time of those post). Tonight she ate, pottied, rocked, then ate, pottied, and rocked again before falling asleep. I suppose she just wanted to make sure I was able to watch Desperate Housewives (and Extreme Home Makeover before, and Grey's Anatomy after).

Babies Wobble But They Won't Fall Down

Well, most of the time, anyway.

Earlier in the week I left the babies alone in the living-room-turned-playroom for a minute while I got a drink in the kitchen. I returned to find Carmen had rolled toward David, and they were giggling and grabbing at one another. I wanted to record it, and instead caught this:



This week we built an enclosure against the kitchen window, where our table used to be. We made my office space a little smaller, moved the kitchen table to the spot where my plants sat, and then fenced off the newly-created space adjacent to the kitchen's picture window. Now that the babies are squiggling, scootching, wobbling, and rolling around, the enclosure will let us keep an eye on them while we work in the kitchen or catch a snack. They seem not to mind it, and David has already tried pulling up on the metal bars (and stopped halfway up, stuck).

Watching the cat on the window ledge outside.

C&D snacked on some broccoli yesterday, but Carmen said she preferred her sock, instead. Good thing we found more BabyGap socks at the consignment store. They are stretchy and pull up higher than most, so she has to tug on them for hours before they finally come off.

Babies Say: Mush Is Out!

Babies Worldwide Admit Mushy Food is Boring

I laughed when I saw this. I think C&D wrote it.

The past couple of weeks they have made clear that the pureed veggies I prepared for them is so two months ago. They don't object to the taste, but are less enthused about the texture. This has been especially true since they've noticed that the sweet potatoes or beets on my plate don't look much like theirs.

So their favorites these days? Crunchy wheat crackers, al dente penne pasta, crisp broccoli off the stalk, sweet potato and yams cut into "fries," bananas, roast lamb, oat o's, savory chicken bones (great teething toys!), the fattest baby carrots we can find, and slimey, slippery pieces of avocado. Almost all organic, of course, I am proud of that. We want to make sure we are doing everything we can to grow strong, healthy people.

We still consider the allergenicity of the foods we are introducing them to (imagine being allergic to avocado, how sad!), but the food processor won't be making any more mushy baby food. Good thing I've got the ingredients for a nice basil and pine nut pesto lined up for tomorrow. Don't want the food processor to sit on its (rubber-footed, skidproof) laurels.

David's second tooth is finally starting to break the surface. I felt it when I felt the first around the time of Rita, but it has been slow in erupting. So now he is close to having two center bottom teeth. Carmen's two top left teeth are on the way out, and she likes practicing her bite on poor, defenseless carrots.

David Wearing Babylegs

Another mirror picture.

Couldn't put a clingy David down this afternoon, and couldn't take a picture of him sitting in my lap because he was squirmy and kept grabbing at the camera--until we went into the bathroom. So, say hi to David, my trusty bathroom mirror, and check out those cute Babylegs!

With winter approaching, the Babylegs should help C&D keep toasty-warm.

Carmen, Fiona, and a Library Book, and, well . . .

Taking a moment to have a snack (well, okay, Dinner Part II) and catch up on a couple of projects before joining everybody else in sleep. I really didn't want to put Carmen to bed earlier tonight. I was enjoying her too much. As I rocked her she nursed, stood, jumped, sang, gurgled, pottied, took off our socks, explored my mouth, hair, and headlamp, and spoke German ("Goch! Goch!), Chinese ("Gu, Gu!"), Sheepish ("Ba Ba Ba!") and British English (Ta! Ta! Ta!). Frustrating, maybe, but I still wanted to kiss her cheeks until she giggled and squealed.

Of course, those things are funny in the evening, but tragic at midnight. Fortunately such antics are rare once C&D are asleep.

Carmen reading Joseph Had a Little Overcoat with Fiona.

I was going to say something else but a long week has caught up with me, because I have already forgetten it. Hmm. Well, just for yummies, here is a picture of David from the Hurricane Rita weekend before I sign off. He is a little tired in the picture, but still his sweet, sensitive self:

So what's that "n" code that shows up when you press "play"?

Let me know. I sure don't know what it is. I'm stumped, and it's icky-looking.

Trembling With Excitement

When David was about 6 months old, we noticed that at certain times he would literally tremble with excitement. He still trembles when he sees something exciting, like a new toy (in this case, a plastic bag), or the cat. Sometimes he yells at whatever he's looking at, as if to say, "Hey, you know I can't reach you because I haven't figured out how to locomote, so you get yourself over here, instead!" When the cat hears such racket of course he ignores it, and thus David is already learning how it is with cats.


And here is Carmen trying to figure out how exactly her arms and legs might work so that she can move from here to there. It's hard stuff, learning how to get around! She's looking away from the camera because she's looking at Fiona. I think Carmen wanted to ask her, "So, think you can help me out, here?"

I Am SuperMom

I am SuperMom. Or, at least, let me pretend that I am.

This picture was taken this afternoon. In my bathroom. Yes, I write on my mirror with Dry-Erase markers. Yes, that is David peeking around my back. Yes, we are about to take a walk. Yes, I would like hazard pay.

Still here, but caught up in, well, living. Work, play, evacuating from hurricanes, cleaning up after evacuating from hurricanes, cleaning up after cleaning up, and trying to reason with two babies who are reluctant to sleep because they would like to practice crawling, talking, walking, exploring, and just being babies.

Trying to crawl. Arms and legs aren't coordinated, yet, so after realizing she is stuck . . .

Carmen takes a break.

David is still squiggling, but gets more excited about possibly walking. He pulled himself up to kneeling today. I wonder what is next?

More will come later, I promise, when things settle down. (Please say they will.)

First library trip yesterday. Found I can relate to the Very Hungry Caterpillar: need to go grocery shopping for the second time in a week tomorrow. The fridge is empty.

Is anybody goin' to San Antone,

or Phoenix, Arizona?

So says the song. We're leaving for San Antonio tonight around 2am. Even if Rita hits Port O'Connor (look it up if you don't have every bitty town in Texas memorized . . . what, you don't have every bitty town in Texas memorized?!) we're going to be experiencing 100+ mph winds in our neck of the woods. That's enough to put us at risk for some severe discomfort, especially if our ash tree falls on our house. The power is most certainly to be out Friday through . . . well, who knows. No power means no air conditioner, not to mention no fridge. Both are pretty indespensable lately, so we're packing up some diapers and toys and visiting Nana's.

A direct hit is still possible, as well.

Of course we're taking the Wi-Fi router to my parents' house, so we'll be online over the weekend. San Antonio will receive some stormy weather courtesy of Rita, but nothing worse than a typical stormy weekend, and nothing worth shutting the city down, so we'll be just fine.

Past, past, past

It's just about 3 hours past C&D's bedtime. That's 9:30pm to you civilians.

It's dark except for the light of the laptop. Carmen is in the bed on her back. She is flapping her arms, stomping her feet like a Fire on the Mountain clogger, and singing, gurgling, and blowing raspberries. (David is asleep in the other bed; thanks, kiddo.) So I am here, deciding that after swinging, rocking, going potty, swinging, rocking, and swinging some more, she can just roll around on the bed to her heart's content and hopefully get whatever's making her antsy out of her system (I wonder if it was the chocolate I ate today?). And I'm trying very hard to keep a straight face. I need a nap, a snack, and I really need to pee, but I also need to laugh. I will in the morning. This girl is crazy.

Yesterday I walked with her up and down the street for an hour. I tied her up in the mei tai, pulled out the phone, and just hoped I would bore her to sleep. For about 20 minutes of that hour she released her energy by singing "Aaaaaaaaah. Aaa-aaaa-aaa-aaaaaa-aaah!" so that the whole street could hear. When the neighbors drove by they were careful not to honk like they usually do; I must have looked like a mama on a mission. After she sang herself to sleep I walked for 20 more minutes to make sure the sleep stuck. It did. For a couple hours, anyway. Did I tell you this girl is crazy?

Hard to admit that she has two bottom teeth now; the second appeared over the weekend. I guess they're growing up, after all.

In other news, David thinks peek-a-boo behind the corner is ab-so-lutely hilarious. Can't wait to play hide-and-go-seek.

She stopped flapping, but she's still talking, and she's 180 degrees opposite of where she was before. Maybe I should try again.

When Somebody With No Teeth Smile At You

Lost all of this week's pictures. Seems that our 512MB memory card might be a little wonky (I'm hoping that's what it is, and not the camera!). Too bad, because the card had video of Matt holding David's hand while we took some tentative, wobbly steps. And of course, David hasn't done it again lately.

David is rocking on all fours, and Carmen is doing something like "Upward-Facing Dog." No crawling, but it's obvious they are enjoying the fact that they can push themselves up. Locomoting is still very puzzling, however.

A second tooth appeared in Carmen's mouth yesterday. David is still yummy in that toothless baby way. At Whole Foods on Friday, a woman teased David to make him smile. At first he hid behind the wrap, but when he did smile, he gave her a nice, big one. She laughed and told me, "That's the only time when somebody with no teeth smile at you and you think it's cute!"

Went swimming today. Met our usual friends then entered the therapy pool for some hard-core splashing. Both C&D tried to drink the water. "Who needs cups?" they said. Carmen splashed hard enough to get water all over Matt's glasses and began her characteristic (these days) screeching when she noticed the pools were too quiet with everybody minding their own business. Both still kick, and both tried paddling a bit with their arms.

Later this week we should get the 60+ bibs we ordered on eBay this weekend. We have several bibs, but only a few of them fit Carmen's neck without looking uncomfortably tight. So we found a lot of 60+ bibs of various sizes and conditions, and we're going to go treasure-hunting when the box arrives Wednesday or Thursday.

Next is socks. We don't have any that fit (C&D are wearing 12-24 mos.). With all their tummy time, some socks are in order to protect their soft little toenails. We're going to get the brightest, stripeyist, craziest socks we can find. This next developmental stage is going to be much about their feet, we should celebrate it! So we're looking for colorful sock lots. Oh, that just reminded me. I need to go check on my bid!

Remember this

I need to remember this. Fiona is out sick today, and Matt is at work.

Carmen didn't want to nap and was tired-fussy. So I put David on my back with the mei tai, and held Carmen in my arms, and just spent a good half hour walking in the shady spot in front of the house, back and forth, back and forth. I am wearing my Majamas (a nightgown that doesn't look too much like a nightgown) and my yellow TdF cap because I haven't had a chance to fix my hair this morning and it is, predictably, standing on end like a rooster's comb.

I'm glad the neighbors are all busy today.

And yes, Carmen fell asleep.

Labor Day Pictures

Pictures from the little angels on Labor Day. This is the park between the Williams Tower and the Water Wall. The Water Wall was actually working today, and C&D saw it. Both babies looked less than thrilled to see it, but I would have enjoyed having it as a background. Well, another time. I'm not sure why David's little shirt isn't buttoned at bottom; ask Matt. I think maybe David was hot or something.

When he got home from work Matt got to help David walk today. Before that David figured out every baby's favorite game: Throw Something &Make Your Mother Pick It Up & Bring It Back to You. David's variation involved throwing a hard plastic toy on our hard wooden floor while Carmen was sleeping. You can guess that even with the white noise on and the door shut, Carmen wasn't sleeping for much longer when that game started.

Then Carmen played a game of her own: I Want Whatever Brother Has In His Hands Or Mouth. Earlier in the day, when Carmen snatched a book out of his hands, David just let her have it and moved on to something else. This evening, though, he protested and tried to snatch whatever Carmen had taken right back. Carmen, of course, pulled harder.

Oh-oh. I didn't think that game would start so early.

Determination

The babies tried their hardest to refuse to sleep today. Last week Carmen fell asleep in the car with the babies' favorite rattle. When the car stopped and she woke up just enough to realize she had been sleeping, she started shaking the rattle furiously, her eyes still closed.

Today was like that. All day. Fiona commented that C&D must be very determined children. They might not nap, but with such determination (read: stubborness?) they should do well in life.

The cat also learned a little about determination today. He was napping with one eye open while David played on the rug. David, sitting up, tried to get the cat's attention. "Uuuuuugh," David said. "Uuuuuugh, eerrrrrrrruuugh!" The cat's ears twitched and he watched David from small slits of eyes. David starting bouncing, waving his arms, and shivering with excitement. I held David's hands and pulled him up to standing . . . and he took a step. And another one. And another one. In a few seconds he had ambled over the three feet to the cat. Toby's tail twitched. He looked at me, then at the baby. David stepped on the cat's furry foot and the cat ran around the corner to hide. David stared at the place where the cat had been, then at the corner. I tried letting him walk back to the rug, but David, temporarily defeated, just sat on the floor.

Later he tried cruising around a laundry basket. He was practicing for next time, maybe.

I should talk to the cat about determination.

Labor Day

Went to the Water Wall today--and the fountain had been turned off! What a bummer. It's a nice place to vist every now and then, not just for enjoying the fountain itself but also because it's nice to watch the social scene that surrounds it.

Because it was early in the day we did enjoy a short sit in the grass. Pictures coming later. I don't think the babies will let me post them tonight. I need to make sure we all sleep well. Long to-do list for tomorrow.

From the CDP:

Dear friends,

September and October are the peak months for births in the US. There are many pregnant women at the Astrodome and many women with very small babies. The situation is so critical they are mixing formula with water from buckets using zip lock bags (account from Mrs. D., one of Nadia's clients, who just came back from volunteering at the center).

We are placing a call to see who would like to help pregnant women at the hospital and immediately afterwards to help with the baby and breastfeeding. (Please let me know also if you speak another language, especially Spanish).

We are contacting local hospitals and the Houston Area Perinatal Collaborative to inform them we may be able to provide volunteer help specifically for mothers who are alone or in precarious situations. People are also sleeping anywhere they can, in chairs, etc., with the lights on day and night. Let us know if you could also potentially offer temporary shelter to pregnant or nursing mothers -

We are contacting some of the public agencies we work with on a regular basis to see how we can help coordinate some of that effort. They trust us for the quality of our work. As you know, everyone is overwhelmed right now, and this will have to be a sustained effort. Anyway we can help with a piece of it makes a big difference.

[Contact info withheld. Ask me if you are interested in helping, or if you know someone who can!]

The mission of the Community Doula Program is to educate and nurture expectant youth in disadvantaged neighborhoods, by cultivating peer Doulas from the communities served.

Botany is For Babies, Too . . .

. . . at least, where allergies are concerned.

I was thinking about Carmen's sensitive tummy today. It hasn't been so happy, lately. I thought about the pears she ate earlier in the week. Her tummy didn't seem to like those much.

Turns out the "pears" were actually gala apples, and the apples had been mislabeled as pears. Gala apples are a little tart. Poor David! No wonder he made such faces! Sorry, little dude.

In either case, be they apples or pears, an unhappy tummy may mean that we have an apple sensitivity on our hands, which means that we also have to be careful with the other things that apples are related to: strawberries (which, coincidentally, she reacts to), cherries (reacts), almonds (don't know because I haven't tried), plums, peaches, and, of course, those darn pears. All of those things and more are in the rosaceae family. See, botany is for babies, too!

Hrmmm. An apple sensitivity would explain a lot, if it were true. Testing is inconclusive at this early age, so all we can really do is avoid those things and see what happens when I add them into my--or Carmen's--diet.

In a way, I hope that's what it is. I'd like to be able to have my finger on all of the foods that bother her; right now there's still some uncertainty because I have to slowly test one food at a time. On the other hand, how can a kid be allergic to apples? How unAmerican! Allergic to peaches? How unSouthern! Hopefully by identifying the problem now, we'll save her from a lifetime of apple (or rosaceae) allergies and she'll be enjoying apple pie with the rest of us a few years down the road.

Better Subjects, Like Pictures

David has been having a hard time getting to sleep lately. He doesn't want Matt to put him to sleep; instead he fusses until I can put Carmen down, and falls asleep with me. As I lie next to him, he'll nuzzle close and flop a little hand on my stomach. I love that little hand.

Today at Onion Creek I sold my first mei tai to Shelby of Anala Goat Company (Shelby is Houston's favorite goat milk supplier). Shelby bought it so you can take her granddaughter with her around the farm. I hope the two of them like it.

Then we went grocery shopping and on the way home nearly got rear-ended by a Jeep that didn't stop at a light until the very last minute. Even with a super-safe car, I'm liking driving around here less and less now that I have babies in the back seat.

Ick. Let's move on to better subjects, like pictures. Let's just move in chronological order, okay?

A couple of weeks ago we settled C&D down for Happy Seven Month-day squash. Carmen liked it pretty well,
but David preferred the tablecloth (the back of a drawing from work!).

Both babies, but especially David, think my Tour de France cap is very funny. We have taken to wearing it and playing peek-a-boo with it when we're looking for a laugh.

The other day I needed to do something in the kitchen and wanted to keep David busy while I worked. I considered giving him a carrot to play with, but I was a little tired of carrots. I gave him a dried apricot from the co-op, instead. He very much liked it, and found out that he could even play with it hands-free! After he turned it into a mushy pulp I replaced it with another one. It's an expensive habit (because they were organic, unsweetened, and unsulphured, of course!), and I have to watch carefully because he could gag on a piece (ever choke on a too-big bite of steak?), but, by golly, he likes it so we'll do it again.

David's eyes teared at the taste of pureed Asian pears and he held his tongue out until the puree glopped on this chest. Like a good sport he did take several more tastes with his spoon.

Carmen ate his portion, instead.

SuperCarmen preparing for takeoff by doing a little warmup flapping.

Carmen likes dried apricots, too, and decided to alternate between tasting hers and decorating the blanket with the sticky mess. Next time I'll keep her and her apricot in the high chair.

David has always appreciated his reflection, but Fiona noticed that he seems to talk most to his distorted reflection on the bathtub faucet. At Ikea last week we found a mirror made up of 16 smaller convex mirrors. Like the bathtub faucet, but bigger and better!

At the end of one day earlier this week, I left C&D on the floor while I got up to get some grub. I returned to David making what I can only call "manly noises." See if you can translate what he's saying:




Last week on a conference call with work I found out that I will probably be dropped from the budget in FY2006. I was expecting the news. That means another transition for us all, but more on that, later, when more details are settled.

Katrina's Babies

We check the news several times a day, keeping track of how many evacuees, how many victims. We cannot believe the collective ineptitude and complete lack of planning exhibited by governments on both the local and federal levels. What a bitter, angry disappointment. At the same time, Houston with very little federal assistance has absorbed, sheltered, and fed about 100,000 new residents without a blink, and with the snap of his finger our mayor (aren't I glad I voted for him!) has opened up our largest public facilities. The power of the people, indeed.

I sent this to some people already, but mamatoto has some brilliant ideas on getting children out of dangerous situations safely. See one, do one, TEACH one!

Pleas for infant formula continue. People can dismiss breastfeeding, but . . .