An Angel Boy-O n' Baby-Related Brainstorm

I am sooo behind on all the baby-related blogging I've been wanting to do. As for our private family blog? -I'm TWO MONTHS behind. Blak. Granted, no one's making me do this, but blogging is like journaling for me, to help me work through stuff and to remember. In an attempt to catch up some, I'm gunna rack my brain and write out some tidbits as they come to mind:

The boy-O repeatedly sets himself up for a baby-mauling, for instance, placing his face within the grasp of his sister's reach... he loves it when she grabs his nose and holds on! And solely for the sake of his sister's amusement, he deliberately offers his hair for baby-pulling. He says she has a "death grip," and has tried several times to let her hold a finger of his for long enough that it will turn purple.

Sometimes when the boy-O couldn't find a binky fast enough, he'd instead offer his sister one of his fingers and then he giggle and laugh at how strongly she could gnaw on him and drool all over his hand.

Although he repeatedly expressed enthusiasm to learn how and actually asked to be taught at least twice, I never once had the boy-O even attempt to change one diaper. I realize now this was a mistake, as it would have been easier to teach him now, while not only his enthusiasm for her so strong and new, but while she'll still lay there mid-change, and her breastfeeding-only diapers are pretty inoffensive. Next we see him, I'll be sure to have developed a diapering tutorial for him and to take him up his diaper-change offers.

During the first of the two times the boy-O and I had remembered to watch "So You Think You Can Dance," he'd been told to run get his jammies on during a commercial break. While upstairs, he went into our bedroom to check on his sleeping sister, where he then loudly whispered "HI" into her baby monitor's receiver and scared the crap outta me so badly, I screamed. He thought it was so hysterical, he nearly passed out from laughing so hard.

The angel boy-O became quite popular in our development this summer, with several kids coming by each day, asking if he could play. It was grrreat! One child in particular would come by and be told the same thing as the day before, "He doesn't come home from summer camp until 5:30pm or later." She would always show up again at 5:30pm, sharp.

One night not too long ago, post-Montreal trip, my honey-man was working hard to console and reassure my new-mommie-going-back-to-work insecurities, and the boy-O must have heard enough from his bedroom upstairs to know something was wrong. He'd gotten up and was sitting at the top of the stairs, hidden from view, listening. When the tears began to flow, he revealed himself, quickly coming down the stairs, eager to offer me hugs and kisses. He told me not to cry, and not to worry so much. He also told me to not be so hard on myself, and to know that he thinks I'm doing a wonderful job as a mommie, and told me I'm the best step-mom in the world. And he melted my heart, like he has so many times before.

Although we've been enjoying (bwah-ha-ha!) 3-digit temperatures for weeks now with the freak exception of the past couple of gloriously, blissfully cooler days, the pool's temp never reached high enough for the baby girlie to join the boy-O's swimming excursions. He wanted so badly for her to go swimming with him. Two days after he left, the pool reached 90 degrees, finally baby-friendly. What awfully bad timing! And btw, her swimsuit is so cute, it's criminal.

The day before the angel boy-O was to leave, I took him and his sissy to get their picture taken together. The results are sooo killer cute = WHAT A FREAKIN' UNDERSTATEMENT, and no, I AM CERTAIN I'M NOT BIASED HERE. Since then, I now proudly refer to the two of them together as my darlings. In no particular order of importance, here's a few details from the session: 1) For their first pose together, the boy-O sat on the floor, cross-legged, with his sissy in his lap, ans she was delighted, and he was so proud, and I was so vehclempted at the sight of them captured for print. 2) I had them both barefoot for their pictures. 3) During the baby-girlie's solo shots, the boy-O served as the her spotter, sitting off to the side, waiting at the ready if it be necessary to save her from nose-diving out of the chair in which she'd been placed. There's one proof in which you can see his jean-clad knees to the left of her. 4) At one point during her solo, she was refusing to pull even a grin for us. The boy-O and I were singing and dancing behind the photographer, really working it to illicit a smile, to no avail. For one of the proofs during that time, you can see a bemused look on her face, absolutely unimpressed with our efforts. 5) And for the boy-O's solo pic, the photographer asked him to say 'booger' just before taking what wound up to be my absolute favorite solo shot of him from the session.

I went to see Julie & Julia with my sister and one of her best friends last night. Baby-girlie has been to a good handful of movies now: Disney's Earth, Up, the 3rd Ice Age, and the latest Harry Potter. She's a good lil' movie-goer, really, she is! She usually lies in my lap doing one of three things: 1) watching the movie, 2) watching my face lit by the movie, or 3) sleeping. This time around, for a first, before the wee one conked out, she decided she'd add to the movie dialog, blowing raspberries during the first 15 minutes of the movie. My sister assured me she was not too loud, only too cute. Yes, she began blowing raspberries this week, and the week before that, she began gurgling. She is such a drooly girl - - she can soak through a bib in an hour!

Over the past week, zee baby-girlie has been aggressively reaching after Otis - - I believe I've mentioned already that Otis is the only one of our two cats who ever comes within her reach. More often than not, whenever she's made a move for some kitty contact and she succeeded, she simply places a tiny hand on Otis, slowly patting and brushing him with her fingers. Not too long ago, she did manage a baby-fistfull of tufts from his undercoat, but she hasn't done anything more notable than that one time until today. Yup, not until today... Today, as she was gently patting away at his rump-end, Otis decided to change position. Raising his backside first, about to stretch, her little hand slid down his back and toward his head, and she nabbed his right ear! I'd always been so concerned about watching her with his face and whiskers, I plumb forgot about the ears! Almost as soon as she had deftly closed her little hand about his ear, I'd forced my thumb into her fist to release him. Thankfully, after years of "baby-proofing" the kitties, Otis wasn't too alarmed by the ear grab, although it was more like a scrunch. As he' whipped his head around in response to the sudden crunch of his ear, he seemed more surprised than anything to see it was her. And she squealed with pure baby delight!