Could She Be Any Cuter?

Those cheeks make her pretty darn irresistible.







Careful. Don't get too close or she's get you with her pinchers. (Then she'll stuff you in her mouth and hide you in her cheeks.)






Pensive Missy. She doesn't smile all the time, but pretty darn near.

J Frog is Movin' and Groovin'

I was trying to take some nice shots of J Frog,







but as soon as I got down to his level...







he came after the camera!

Taking the Zoo to the Zoo

We've been a little light on the photos of LR, so here is an almost all LR photo post.

Last Thursday we had Chrissy with us so that Abra could have a dentist appointment for a toothache. Her wisdom teeth are coming in. So, rather than spend $10,000 out of pocket... that's right, 10K... you heard me. Anyone want to tell me our health care system isn't broken now? We are sending her home to South Africa to see family and go to the government hospital where she can get them removed for free. I'm not saying we don't have the best health care in the world. We do for the people who can afford it. We have the best doctors and nurses (Cheers, Papa, Grandma Nese, Gigi, and soon Uncle Keeper), cutting edge technology, beautiful facilities, etc., but there is absolutely no way someone like Abra who is here without dental insurance, could pay for something like this. She might get it done, but she'd be on the next plane home. We're just lucky that she has one more month to travel home before her visa is within 2 months of year end. Apparently, it's tough to get back in the country when you have less than 2 months left on your visa. So we have to say goodbye to Abra for a couple of weeks in Sept. Not really sure what we'll do without her - other than beg and plead with Grandma Nese to come visit. :)

Anyway, we packed everyone up for a quick trip to the small Stone Zoo around the corner from our house when we got home from the dentist. They have a new black bear exhibit and a baby jaguar since our last trip. LR really enjoyed watching the bears from his stroller and then getting right up next to the glass where the jaguars were "playing." I think it was play, but you can see from the picture that Mama jaguar took Baby jaguar's entire head in her mouth. LR thought it was pretty hysterical. He was packed in with a bunch of kids, so I could barely see him, but I could definitely hear his scream/laugh every time Mama knocked around Baby.

LR also loves the little playground at the back of the zoo where there is usually a train for him to ride, but since the zoo was about to close, they shut it down early. LR was disappointed, so I let him ride the helicopter before we left. It wasn't nearly as good as the train, so he seemed a little deflated. I'll be sure we ride the train first next time so that we don't get to it so close to closing time. Then LR helped Abra load the babies into the car. He always leans over the seat and entertains them while we pop their car seats into the docks. More screaming from LR, but less screaming from babies. I'll take it!

This is what I call parenting! "Don't make me put your entire head in my mouth again, cuz I'll do it!"

Hanging out the with Au Pairs

Abra's good friend Chrissy was hanging out with us last week. She's an au pair for another family in the area and we love to have her visit. She's great with the kids and LR can't get enough of playtime with her. I love the pic of her with Missy. It's like a glamor shot! She's from Namibia which shares a border with South Africa, so she and Abra really hit it off when they met.

Speaking of people who are good with the babies, LR is always very loving when it comes to them. He just has a huge heart. When he got a cold 2 weeks ago it was terrible trying to keep him from kissing the babies. We had to institute a no-mouths-on-babies rule. Regardless, within a few days both J Frog and Missy had runny noses. I'm glad it wasn't a flu or something worse, but I'm sure that with LR starting preschool next week, shared colds like that aren't far off.

I have vivid memories of getting a stomach flu when LR was 4 months old and trying not to vomit on him when he woke up during the night to nurse. That being said, I wouldn't change a thing about LR. He always wants to give his friends hugs and kisses. He doesn't mind that they give him the straight arm or duck under his arms. He constantly wants to snuggle... well, when he's not playing cars, jumping off tables, running laps, or swinging bats.

Shy Missy

Right after my last post, I got some great shots of Missy being shy. We went to a farm to pick peaches this weekend and I had to unlatch the car seats from the stroller to get them into the tram to take us to the trees. It was amazing that the farm owners had not foreseen the trouble that all these families would have with strollers when they changed their policy to force everyone to ride instead of walk 500 yards to the trees. Oh, and it cost $8/person for the privilege. Not to say that LR didn't love it, but we won't be going back to that particular farm, so I'd have to say the choices they made were poor.

So these shots were taken of Missy sitting on the floor of the tram when it started moving. I guess it freaked her out a little.







Eventually she came out of her shell.

Bath Time Fun

It doesn't matter how fussy the babies are, as soon as I drop them into the bath, they're happy. I tend to face them toward each other, but recently Missy has had this thing for the water rushing out of the faucet. She likes to keep her hands under the faucet and lets the water spray her in the face. I think this time around I'm far less cautious about getting water in their faces. I can't remember if I babied LR when it came to getting his face wet, but since these kids don't seem to mind, I'm encouraging lots of water in the face starting early.

Missy has hit another milestone, stranger fear. She's cool with Daddy, Abra, or me, but as soon as someone else walks in the room and smiles at her, she ducks her head. God forbid we hand her off to someone she isn't familiar with. That's when the high pitched, extremely girl-y cries erupt. It's both annoying and adorable at the same time.

J Frog continues on his LR-like track of loving everyone who walks in the door. He always has a smile on his face and doesn't mind going to new people. Clearly, however, his favorite person is LR. I think that's the only reason he's starting crawling. Whenever LR is on the floor playing, then that's where J Frog is heading. Today I had to detour him with wooden cars while LR and I played a board game. Pretty sure he's going to need something more like a barricade soon.

Banner Day

Today is a banner day. I finally hit my goal weight. Too bad it doesn't look as good as I had hoped it would. I'm afraid my skin will never recover from the stretching that occurred while J Frog and Missy played dueling blindfolded conductors while in utero. Daddy has said that if I didn't like the way I looked after losing 40 pounds (65 since their birth) I could have a tummy tuck, but I don't know. (He didn't offer that up on his own accord. I asked. Can you imagine? "Honey, I think you deserve a tummy tuck after you lose all that weight!") I'll never forget what a very wise young rugger said to me while we were jogging the 6 mile round trip from Tufts to Harvard and back. I asked her if she ever thought about getting a breast reduction since she was 5'2" and had double D breasts. She said, "yeah, as an athlete, I definitely thought about it, but then I thought I would find something else to obsess about after that, so I better just learn to be happy with what I have." I must have been 24 at the time and she was 20 or so. She obviously made an impression since I've remembered all this time.

Let's just see how 45 pounds down looks first.

Betwixt the Two of Them

Every night when I feed J Frog and Missy their cereal and veggies or fruit mush, I'm reminded of the nursery rhyme Jack Sprat.

Jack Sprat could eat no fat
His wife could eat no lean
And so betwixt the two of them
They licked the platter clean

When I feed Missy, she grabs at the spoon whenever it comes near. She'll eat what's on the spoon, grab it, and turn it around to gnaw on the handle. J Frog, on the other hand, only had eyes for the bowl. He could care less about the spoon, but when I hold the bowl above the level of his tray, his eyes open wide and he grabs for it. Eventually I'm left with no spoon and no bowl. If only they were as efficient as a dishwasher, I'd have a good system here.

On The Move

While I was being lazy about blogging, Missy and J Frog worked their tails off and started moving. Originally I speculated that J Frog would be the first to move because he was so good on his tummy, but I had to amend that as Missy started log rolling to whatever she wanted. She's been doing that for 2 weeks now or so. I went back to my 2006 posts about LR as he started exploring our old apartment. (Turns out that I can't remember squat anymore, much less what month LR started being mobile.) He was a roller just like Missy and was pretty good at it by the time I posted in mid-April. That would make him 7 months which puts Missy right on par.

This past weekend J Frog started showing signs of pulling himself along the floor commando style. He hadn't done anything dramatic and since he's spent the last two months flying on his belly and spinning in circles, I was incredibly surprised yesterday when he started hunting down LR as LR played with some trains on the floor. J Frog discovered that he could drag/wiggle his way forward. And once he started, he didn't stop. It was as if a switch had been flipped in his brain. I'm afraid that's the end of leaving the babies unattended for a minute or two while I run to the kitchen. With the core muscles that J Frog has built over the past few months, we're going to have to watch out for him.

The second photo makes me laugh. "Look, ma! No hands!"

Happy 34th Daddy!

Happy Birthday Daddy! You are an amazing dad to these kids. Someday you'll look back at the changes this past year brought and think, "why didn't I just pack some underwear in a picnic basket and run." But then you'll look at your artist, cheerleader, and astronaut (in no particular order) children and think, "I spent 12 million dollars for you to be a god damn artist!" And then you'll pony up for the gallery opening, put on a tie for the first time in 25 years, and look in the mirror at the gray scruff. I'll comb your eyebrows and tell you for the billionth time what a good dad you are. That J Frog looks just like you. That Missy's personality is just like yours. And that LR is nothing like you - from which you take solace.

We love you today and tomorrow. We also hope your eyebrow hair doesn't really get that long.
XO,
RuggerMom

Beware of Potty Enthusiasts

This is a shout out to SwingDaddy and Lady M for their continued progress with Bud on the potty training. It's also a warning. As LR's comfort level with the toilet increased, so did his curiosity. I came home from work one day to find that the toilet had overflowed due to mass amounts of toilet paper wadded up and thrown in by LR. (Abra was at the end of her rope that day after having to clean up toilet water.) Now we keep the toilet paper well out of reach which results in me sitting down and cursing every time I pee and realize, too late, that I have to stand up to get the roll.

That same week I sent LR to bother entertain Daddy while he was in the shower. When I got home from work, I went upstairs to pee. After I flushed the toilet, I looked into the bowl and saw something at the mouth of the pipe. I thought that it was strange to get rust there when it was a relatively new toilet. I looked closer and realized it was my good opal pendant which LR had taken off the sink counter and plunked into the bowl earlier that day. My heart skipped a beat as I realized that I had already flushed the toilet once. I was just lucky that it was a little too heavy to go down. I would have been devastated.

So, SwingDaddy and Lady M, batten down the hatches! I'll cross my fingers for you and hope Bud isn't as curious about plumbing as LR.

"I'll just sit here" and Other New Phrases

LR has a whole new arsenal of phrases that he's been using on us. The first one appeared a couple of weeks ago. He says it when he's particularly disappointed. He's never been a pouter, but when we say we can't play because we're still eating dinner even though he's already wolfed down his and jumped out of his chair, he wanders over to the stairs and says, "I'll just sit here." His resolve to sit there never lasts long, but it makes me laugh every time.

The second is the result of watching a show called "Super Why." We try to pick educational programs for LR since we know we're exposing him to more TV than we would like, but I didn't realize how much he's picking up until I heard him say, "I can't. My story says so." That line is used by a character toward the end of each episode. Now when LR doesn't want to do something I've asked him to do, he whips this handy phrase out.

Aside: Speaking of educational TV, the other day LR came rolling into the living room on his stroller and claimed he was going "adagio." The musically challenged person that I am, I asked him what that meant. He said he was going slowly. I asked him how could he go fast. He replied, "allegro." Go Little Einsteins!

The last phrase he's been using is a little sinister. When we need to discipline LR we say, "I will take you to your room." Recently, he's been threatening us with "I will bang you with my hand," or "I will scratch you with my nails," or "I will throw you down the stairs." He's such a sweet kid, that it always surprises me when something so venomous pops out of his mouth. We've explained to him that threats are not allowed and I quizzed Abra and Daddy about what they've been saying to him. Daddy fessed up and said that he's said, "I will throw you out the window" while playing with LR.

The Past 2 months

Great Reading Material

When I came out of the parking garage this morning on my way to work, I passed a man who was holding a small novel in front of him while walking. Normally, walking and holding a novel = not so novel; however, he had it open and was reading it. I looked at him closely because, lord knows, he wasn't paying attention to me staring, and thought like any good mom would, "that's dangerous - he could step in a hole!" After I passed him I absolutely kicked myself for not asking what the title of the book was. If it was so good that he couldn't put it down, I want to read it!

Missy and J Frog are healthy and happy!

Last Thursday, Missy and J Frog had their 6 month checkup. All is well. J Frog grew 3 inches in 2 months. They were so surprised, they measured him twice and then the doctor even questioned the nurse's measuring. He's now 27 inches long and 17 lbs. He's 60th percentile for height and 25th for weight. Missy is 70th for both. She grew 2.75 inches and weighs 17.5 lbs. J Frog's low weight seems to be the only thing left from being a preemie, but even that isn't bad. His legs are plenty chunky and he can drink up to 7 oz. of formula at a time now.

They both got 3 shots and I asked the doctor to space the two on Missy's right leg a little farther apart to attempt to avoid the swelling that both she and LR experience with all their double shots. Not sure if that was the trick or not, but Missy's leg didn't swell that night. That was an incredible relief. LR stayed home with Daddy while Abra and I took the babies to the doctor.

Yesterday I measured LR and he's now 38 inches tall according to his ever-so-accurate Thomas the Train height chart. Abra and I took some time to rearrange the furniture in LR's room and it's all starting to come together. I'm working on curtains and have 4 of 10 panels made. The trick is to keep LR from touching my sewing equipment during the day. I can only really use it at night after they've all gone to bed, so the process is slow going. Will put up pictures of his room when I finish.

Play Ball!

LR learns how to swing a bat with Yianni and Cookie coaching.

LR Singing Movie

Here's one of the movie clips I promised.

That's a Lot of Kids

We get lots of stares when we go out. I'm sure it's worse for families with high order multiples, but I guess having LR in his fancy, high stroller seat puts us over the edge from interesting, to rubber-necking worthy. Sure, there are a lot of us, but we're just like everyone else.

We like to pig-pile on Daddy.












We get tired and go to Mommy for comfort.







Sure we fight.







But we still love each other.

Skills

J Frog prefers to be on his belly all the time now. Ever since he started sleeping on his stomach he's been quick to flip onto his belly every time we put him down. No more leaving him in the swings or bouncy seats unattended. We've officially stopped using the seats because he kept trying to roll out of them. When on the ground he lifts his arms and legs simultaneously like he's trying to fly. Not really sure what he's trying to do, but it looks like a superman impression. He's probably not terribly far from crawling... maybe a month away.

They both love the banana toy. You can see them fighting over it in the photo where Daddy piled them on top of each other. Missy is just fending off J Frog. Despite their differences, they're pretty even when it comes to being aggressive.

As for Missy, her favorite new skill is getting her toes to her mouth. She's been doing that for about two weeks. She still prefers to be on her back to play with toys, but she'll roll onto her stomach every once in a while. Her big new thing is babbling. She can often be heard saying "ba ba ba ba" or "ma ma ma ma." It's funny to think actual words are not that far away.

LR can now play his harmonica while standing in his underwear. Now that's skill! Actually, he's completely potty trained, even at night. Once he started spending days in underwear instead of a diaper, he noticed that the diaper wasn't all that comfy. Two nights ago he was tugging at his diaper as I was reading his bedtime story. I asked if he wanted me to loosen it. He said, "yeah," but then decided to take the whole thing off. I explained to him that he would need to go to the potty during the night if he needed to pee. I said he could call for me if he needed me too. I fully expected him to wet through, but he succeeded in making it through to the next morning. Same thing last night. Not that there won't be accidents, but I'm pretty sure the size 6 diapers can go in the closet for Missy and J Frog.

Gorgeous Kids

Just wanted to share some of the great photos we've taken of the kids recently. Now's the time to play the "who looks like whom" game.

J Frog chillin'












The wonders that a big piece of black velvet can do for your photos...





Playing with a little black and white








Missy is always quick to smile








She puts everything in her mouth now, but loves finding her fingers and...











her toes!