Chaos Reigns

I may post about this at a future date, but I was incredibly fortunate to find a fabulous group of women in the hospital mommy's group soon after Liam.  There are 8 babies that Liam is "friends" with, and 7 of them are born within I think 11 days of each other.  It's been so much fun seeing them grow up together, but there is the ineviable side effect of comparing where your child is to everyone else, and it's even harder when you know these other babies are litereally the same age as your child.  A couple weeks ago we were all together having dinner, and of the six children there, 3 were first children and 3 were second children, and the 3 first chidlren were crawling around, while the three little siblings were just sitting.  At first I was worried, and then I remembered how much things change when they start to crawl.  No longer can you just plop them on your bed while you go to the bathroom or answer the phone.  You have to start to worry about little things on the floor that suddenly become baby magnets (and this has been even more difficult this time as Sarah loves playing with little things, like, no joke, marbles and pennies).  So as anxious as I was, I was glad I got to delay the worrying a bit longer.

Well, as the point of the blog (and this blog reboot) was the document "milestones" in my chidlrens lives, and I have no idea when Sarah began crawling, I figure I should mention that yes, Liam is now on the move.  He began spinning on his tummy a couple weeks ago, and then the end of May be managed to get up on all fours and rock back and forth.  And then I left town for a week to grade AP exams, and yes, the biggest fear of all working parents came true - you miss a milestone because you're at work.  Luckily, Liam was at my parents house this particular night, and I saw my son crawl for the first time, June 5th, via FaceTime.

Update:  In the past week and a half I've been home this child moves like a champ.  He also seems to have no fear as he crawls over and under and through things to get what he wants (which is often the smallest or most dangerous thing in the room).  Though he may have some friends already walking, now that I remember how difficult being mobile is, Liam can wait at least as long as Sarah did (which this one I do remember, she was 14 months).  He's far better now than the video below shows, but this was my first attempt at catching it on my first day back.  This video was only taken 10 days ago, and while re-watching it now, I'm amazed at how quickly things change.

And back to the title of this post - I now think this is the most difficult part of having two children thus far.  My eldest is not quite yet self sufficient, and my youngest is no longer portable.  Therefore I am really doubly needed at all times.  My entire life is often one big giant chaotic mess, but I'm also having a blast.

And Then There Were Two....

I guess if this is supposed to chronicle the lives of both my children, I might as well add the story of how Liam was almost not born at the hospital (ok, slight exaggeration).  Sarah was born right on time.  I went into labor the day before, but she came right on her due date.  I knew I was due right around the beginning of the school year, but I wanted to have as much time after the baby was born to stay home, so I was planning on working right until the end.  And anyways, I was in labor for almost 24 hours with Sarah, so I thought I'd have plenty of time.

The third day of school, one of my students asked me what would happen if my water broke during class, and I tried to reassure here that wouldn't happen, and that there would be plenty of time.  That night my sister came over, we had some fabulous Greek food, and I went to bed.  Woke up the next morning (day 5 of the school year) feeling a little odd, so I mentioned to T.J. that he may want to stay near the phone today.  Went to school, feeling pretty good, a little off, perhaps a bit of indigestion, took attendance, all was well.  Then I realized that my indigestion was somewhat regular.  So just for giggles, I started to time my (later identified as) contractions.  No biggie, 5 minutes apart, but only lasting for about 30 seconds. But being somewhat risk averse, I decided to go home, mentioning to my guidance supervisor that if nothing happened I'd be back that afternoon.  While driving home, I had my first identifiable contraction, so I called T.J. at work, told him to come on home, and hopped in the tub.  While relaxing, I called the doctor, and mentioned my contractions were 2ish minutes apart, but only lasting 30 seconds.  They said I should probably come in, so when T.J. came home I told him what to... whoa, was that my water breaking?  This was new.  So my nonchalant let's get to the hospital when we can became "let's get to the hospital now".  I left work around 10:20, got home about 11:00, my water broke at 11:22 and I checked into the hospital at 12:04.

And Liam was born at 1:15.  But I was pushing by 12:30.  Without drugs (not planned), but that's what happens when you go from 4cm (when checking in) to 10cm (15 minutes later).  Whoops.  Just for posterity, I do want to add that on his way out he did something to my back which lead me to be in more pain that night than my accidental unmedicated labor, but 9 months later, all is (almost) well and clearly he is 115% worth it.

So introducing, very very belatedly William Andrew Flynn. 

Let's Try This Again (Take 3)

The little icon when I went to login to this today told me my last post was May 4th, 2012.  I think I had just about given up on this whole blogging thing (especially since it is just for me) but then I realized I have no idea when Sarah started to crawl.  I think by the time we started Gymboree in August she was crawling at 10 months, and I know she started to walk on my birthday/ Thanksgiving day, but I have no idea when she started to crawl.  So I have no idea if Liam is (not) crawling earlier or later than his sister.

Oh yeah, Sarah has a brother.  His name is William (Liam) Andrew and he was born August 31st, 2012, 8 lbs 11.2 oz and 21". I'll have to do a post on him later, but until then...(no, he looks nothing like that now!)

But back to the point of this restart, before I go and continue grading papers, I don't know when Sarah got teeth, I don't know when she started crawling, or even when her vocabulary exploded so much.  And I think that was the point of this blog when I started it.  I know she has many many more milestones to reach (as does Liam) so I figured I'd give this one (more) try.  I'm not playing Candy Crush, and now that school is over maybe I can use my (rapidly shortening) extra time doing this instead.

But the quick milestone update, Sarah walks, talks talks talks talks! and has great imaginative play.  Not quite potty trained yet (I know she'll love that update when she's older) but we keep trying with "two candies" or stickers.  Liam does not crawl, but he rotates, rocks on all fours and has two teeth.  At this point I think he'll walk before he crawls because he loves to be standing up.  Another idea for a future post will be differences between a first and second child, but the one I'll note now is enjoying this lack of movement.  With Sarah I was all about moving, with him, I know the terror that happens with two dogs and a baby on the loose, so I'll take the stationary phase while I can.

My next post probably won't be until school is over, but it is coming.  I promise (I hope)

A Musician Like Her Mom

When Sarah was little she would listen to whatever I wanted to in the car, which was more often than not, NPR (Morning Edition on the way to work, All Things Considered on the way home).  When she was about 1, she started to protest the talk radio, and luckily we had recently acquired a mix of kids music from a first birthday party, so my ride to work shifted from Renee Montange to Raffi and The Wheels on the Bus.  Where before she let me know she was sick of my radio choices by becoming a bit fussy, she now actually requests songs when she gets into the car.  We have the "ahh ahh" song (If all the raindrops were lemondrops and gumdrops, oh what a life that would be.  I'd stand outside with my mouth open wide, ahh ahh ahh ahh..... etc.), the "tut tut" song (A peanut sat on a railroad track... and the train ultimately goes "toot toot"),  and "nana" (I'd like to eat, apples and bananas).  In addition, she can clap, nod, spin, and stomp along with if you're happy and you know it, and repeats some words (such as yummy and whoa) from others.  It's to the point now where as soon as we get in the car, if I put on anything (even other kids cd's) she continues to say "ahh ahh" until I put on the song she wants to hear. And as soon as a song is over she says "more" in a pseudo British accent letting me know that we need more music, now.  Adorable side note, she hasn't quite figured out that she is supposed to sing along with the songs, she "ahh ahh" or "tut tut"'s after the appropriate part in the song.

I did realize yesterday though that I should probably start to more closely monitor what she's watching/listening to.  She does pick up and mimic very well now, and though it made for an excellent episode of Modern Family, I'd prefer that her vocabulary at this point remained limited to body parts, animal sounds and foods.

Words

At her doctor appointment today (where I learned that Sarah is a giant baby in the 82nd percentile for weight, 80th for height and 90th for head) the doctor asked me what words she was saying.  Apparently the average at 18 months is 4-14, and babies that grow up in bilingual environments tend to have delayed speech, but even so I realized I wanted to start compiling a list of words that Sarah "knows" as of 18 months.

(In no particular order other than the order T.J. and I remember them while also watching the Blackhawks game...)

Mama
Dada
Nana
Doggie
Oh no!
Mine
Mah (more)
Chicka (Chicken)
Abble (apple... though this is in the abstract... she doesn't like apples and I'm not sure she knows it applies to juice)
Hola
Bye Bye (as of this past weekend)
Eye
Nos (nose)
aibane (airplane)
Ouch

Then we have the words that have a few meanings....
Kuck (truck and stuck)
Ah Dee (All done, but can also be Auntie and Andi, a friend at daycare)
Baby (baby, but also Bailey)
Bebe (Binky, often shorted to "bee" but also Toby)

And of course, there are the animal sounds...
We used to know kitty cats went "meow meow meow" but we seem to have forgotten that
But the dogs go "Ruff ruff"
Cows go "moooo"
and Ducks go "Quack"

Her favorite current book is "Moo, Baa, La La La" and she can fill in most of the animal sounds at this point.  If the multiple times a night reading of this book continues, I suspect we'll add horse, sheep, and rhinoceros to our animal noise repertoire.

Dipping Sauce

Two things Sarah has always been is a good sleeper and a good eater.  Someone asked me the other day when she first slept through the night, and though I can't remember exactly when it was, I know by the time I went back to work in January she was sleeping quite well, and I suspect it was well before that.  She's gotten to the point now where she sleeps 11 - 12 hours every night, regardless of when she goes to bed.  She's even gotten to the point where if she's tired enough she'll go to the gate at the bottom of the stairs, say "ah dee" (all done) and walk herself upstairs, lay down and go right to sleep without fussing.  I know, I know, I'm extraordinarily lucky.

She's also always been a good eater (one of my first posts on this blog commented just on that fact) but perhaps it is the impending "terrible twos" but recently she's sometimes let me know what she wants and what she doesn't (goldfish, yes, cheerios, no).  Even old staples like grilled chicken are often passed over for an extra serving of yogurt or peas.  And yes, at least at this point in her life, a serving of yogurt or corn can pass as dessert to one who does not know better.  In order to attempt to stem this tide of picky eating, we recently introduced the idea of "dipping sauce". The other night we had turkey burgers for dinner that wasn't going over too well with my little eater.  As one cannot subsist on legumes alone, I pulled out ketchup and tried to see if that would get her to eat better.  See below for evidence!

 Not the cleanest experience ever, but a protein enriching one.  Last weekend when we were out of town, my mom told me that Sarah was dipping her fake peanut butter sandwich into her yogurt.  I guess she learns quickly.

How Blogging is Like Dieting

I waste a lot of time every day.  Scanning facebook, reading the news online, catching up on trashy reality shows, and yet I for some reason haven't had time to keep this updated.  Until I woke up last night in the same panic that caused me to start this almost a year ago, that so much is happening in Sarah's life that is not being documented and though I clearly remember it now, who knows how much I'll remember in 10 years and 10 kids later (ok, hopefully that second is not true).

So how is blogging like a diet?  If you're on a diet, and then you eat poorly for lunch one day, you just keep eating poorly because you feel you've already fallen off the wagon, so why bother starting eating healthy now.  I figured I was so far behind on this that why bother starting to write again, it just wasn't worth it at this point.  Until I realized that every day Sarah continues to do new and amazing things.  And though I'm sure I've missed some minute details that won't be reported here, that doesn't mean that she won't continue to amaze me.  And actually the older she gets the more adorable things that she does.  If I tried to summarize everything that she's done in the past 5 months it would be a ridiculous post (and though I know only a few people read this, I'm thinking of myself reading this in the future).  So I guess I start with where she is now, and as it is spring break and hopefully I'll have some time this week, maybe I'll try to go back and find some cute pictures and update on the past.  Or, like a diet I can't fix the past, but I can keep up with the future.

So where are we now.  Sarah has 12 teeth (four on top, four on bottom, though her bottom right one outside the middle just came in even after four molars).  She understands almost everything I ask her to do, but her spoken language is still limited to "doggie", "ah dee" (all done), "baaa" (baby) "ouf" (out) "uh oh", and "choof" (shoe).  She still loves to play peek-a-boo (it can entertain us in the car, that mirror that allows me to see her was a fabulous purchase!) though pointing out body parts is a fun game too (so far we're up to head (which was first), nose, ear, eye, toes, and tummy, complete with lifting up her shirt). 

Though the last post I had was her first steps on her birthday, she started walking for real on Thanksgiving.  For months she was good at toddling around holding on to just my one finger, so when she decided it was time to walk she took off and hasn't stopped since.  She now not only walks, but runs, climbs ladders, crawls up and down stairs (though recently she has taken to wanting to walk down stairs, which makes me exceptionally nervous).  She still LOVES playing with the dogs, and asks for them first thing in the morning (after greeting us with throwing her bunny out of her crib with a big "uh oh").

So much more has happened I'm sure, but this seems long enough for now!  Sarah, I'm sorry I haven't kept up with this.  I PROMISE to be better this spring... or at least if I fall off the wagon I promise to try to get back on.