Happy Month Day!- George.

Yesterday, I was one month old!

I am so alert! It's getting hard for mama and papa to get me to sleep during the day. Unless I'm being held of course.

Mama continues to think I have a very pleasant disposition, despite the fact that I may be the fussiest of her 3 babies. She is continually reminded of a line from Prode and Prejudice where Mrs. Gardiner observes of Mr. Darcy: "There's something very pleasant about his mouth when he speaks." Coincidentally, Mr. Darcy's little sister is named Georgiana- a fact that did not escape mama when she was naming me.

Mama was dismayed to realize that a whole month has gone by and she hasn't dressed me up in any "Vintage Becky."

This was the dress mama came home from the hospital in. It was probably a little longer on mama as a newborn. June had her turn in this dress too.

Here's the wonderful blessed 4th nuk that I finally decided to take.

Even though it's hard to get a "touch-free" nap from me during the day, my night time sleep is great!

I consistently sleep from 4-7 hours at a time. Mama thinks this may having something to do with the fact that I continue to nurse at least 3 or 4 times between 8 and midnight.

Hey mama, when you're going to take an artsy photo, remember to clean out under the couch.

During mama's insomnia spells this summer, she made a bunch of initial t-shirts for all the new babies she knows. Here's my "G." Did we ever tell you that I would have been named George if I was a boy? That's why the "G" shirt was made well in advance.

Mama heard that some of the other kids liked their shirts so much that they immediately had huge diaper blowout. I decided to follow that trend.

Whoa! Why didn't anyone tell me my head was so big? But I am putting in the effort to catch the rest of my body up. Check out those thigh rolls! They weren't there a month ago!

After my photo shoot, I slept for a while until Henry saw that I was awake. His first concern was to cover my legs so i wouldn't get cold. (I was only 94 degrees outside today.) His next concern was to determine my preference. First, he presented me with 3 empty medicine cups. He said they were filled with water, milk, and juice. I picked milk. Next, he wanted to know which mode of transportation I liked best.
It's too hard to choose!

Looks like he's done this before. Remember when June was a baby? Blech, we forgot about that gross rash he had. Check out how much dark hair June had! Mama might have to set up a comparison of all of us at 1 month.

Engineering marvels- June.

Mama saw this in a magazine and has been wanting papa start this project for us for a while. Today finally proved the perfect day to try it.

What is it? Simply put, it's PVC pipe and a bunch of connectors and a hose. But drill a couple holes and it's a sprinkler that can be taken apart and rebuilt a thousand different ways. It took Henry a while to decide it was more than a fancy way to water the garden and actually get up the nerve to run through it.

I had fun running in the water before I realized my dress was COMPLETELY SOAKED! Oh no! Papa had to take me inside and calm me down with a grilled cheese. (By the way, since our grandmas were in town Henry has caught on that most people don't eat grilled cheese by toasting bread and melting cheese on it in the microwave. Now, he always requests it on the stove.)

You might have heard George crying in the video. She was mad because no one was holding her. But she eventually fell asleep in the swing and let us play for a few minutes.

Before bed, papa let us watch the start of the Clemson football game. I really got into it. At the end you can hear me expressing concern over a "Joey." Joey Votto apparently is the universal term for any athlete now.

Mama's so pumped about this, she made me post it. The Williams family in Madison sent us this AWESOME baby present. Nothing says congratulations on your new baby like two brat fest totes! They also sent Georgie a Madison Farmer's Market shirt. The best of Madison! Thanks, Williams!

Our crazy week- mama.

So we mentioned yesterday that the week was a little crazy too. You'll remember that June has been having ankle problems all summer. When we went into see the doctor for Georgie's check-up a few weeks ago, she took another look at June's ankle and recommended we visit an orthopedist in Greenville.

He took more x-rays and also determined there were no breaks or fractures. The next step was bloodwork and an MRI. Since it's a hike to Greenville, he was able to get us in at the hospital that day for the MRI. It made for a very long day as we had the baby with us and weren't planning on spending the day in the hospital.

At the hospital, June was not pleased to have an IV put in. I got to go back to the MRI machine to be with her when she was sedated. She was pretty mad, but the medicine kicked in almost instantly and she passed out mid-cry. She was very disoriented when she came to and spent a few hours getting back to normal.

After the MRI, the doctor found that June's ankle (bones, tendons, everything) was filled with fluid. And after a visit to the rheumatologist, it was determined that June has juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Poor kid.

The good news is that it only seems to be in her one ankle. And it seems to be mild enough that right now we're only treating it with regular does of ibuprofen. Hopefully, this flair up goes away in the next 6 months. Then we'll have to wait and see if it comes back. The best news is that most kids with JRA don't grow up to be adults with RA.

A quiet week- Georgie.

It's been a quiet, but crazy week here. (More on the crazy later). Here's the quiet. We're still adjusting to life on a school schedule, so there wasn't much to take pictures of this week. It's quite a job getting 3 kids up and (mostly ready) to get out the door every morning before 9. We're car-pooling with John this year, so we have to be sure to be on time every morning. The good news is that all 4 parents are strategic parts of the car pool, so mama never has to make the afternoon pick up during naptime. We're still trying to perfect the morning plan, because mama eventually wants to get back to the gym and her classes start at 9:15, not leaving much room to make the school drop-offs and get me into the gym daycare before all the spinning bikes are taken.

During one of the 15 minute periods that I took a nap without having to be touched, mama and Juner worked on a project. They made a paper mache bowl out of Clemson colored tissue paper. (We had purple and orange paper because papa's college gave me a t-shirt that said "Class of 2031." Adorable!) It was a great project because it didn't take too long and Junie got to "paint" with the flour paste with no fear of staining anything.

You look awfully pleased with yourself, missy.

After catching sight of June's project, Henry decided to give it a shot too. Mama wanted to added about 10 more layers, so the bowl could be stronger and ended up doing the last 5 herself because Henry got bored. Here's his bowl.

And here's Henry mere fractions of a second after throwing it across the room when mama asked for a picture. Now mama doesn't advocate violence against children, but, ooooh, does she want to smack him when she sees this picture. It's been a rough week for those two. It was Henry's first full week of school, and 5 hours a day of work and loud play is a lot for a guy who has had a very quiet summer. It all escalated when mama took the three of us out for a walk/bike ride. When we got a mile from the house, Henry threw a fit to end all fits and the entire neighborhood now knows that Henry thinks everything mama does is wrong and that mama would have gladly left him on the side of the road if it wasn't her legal duty to make sure he didn't get run over by a car. It took a long time to get home and by that point Henry had lost his bike for a week and his favorite computer game for two days. Mama put him straight in bed and he tried every excuse in the book to get some sympathy. It ended when he screamed for 10 minutes that he was afraid and mama finally yelled back "The only thing you need to be afraid of is me coming up those stairs." Eventually, he calmed down and he and mama reached a quiet understanding about what behavior will get you locked in an attic and that asking for a picture at 3pm on a Friday afternoon is probably not going to turn out how you'd like it. Needless to say, mama has checked out the series of "Love and Logic" books at the library to reread.

I continue to be completely cute. GG and GG sent this outfit to me. It says "Mommy says I'm purr-fect" and has a kitty on the back. Thanks, GG and GG! I still want to be held, but about once a day, I let mama put me down in my swing or bouncy seat for about a half hour. She can stretch it out longer if June is running around in front of me.

I can still be lured to sleep by a car ride or a cozy walk in the sling, but when I'm awake, I am really alert and aware of what's going on around me. I've started following sounds and looking around for things. I really like the birds and mirror on my swing. My most alert times continue to be in the evening after the kids go to bed, between 8 and midnight. Because of that, mama didn't feel bad taking me out to eat with her mom's club last night. She did feel bad when it turned out to be a sort of rowdy bar, but the murder mystery dinner theater complete with Vegas show girl costumes and men in drag helped distract attention from me. We really got some bizarre looks when she stopped at the grocery store at 10:30 to pick up milk and fudge. The big night must have worn me out because I slept from midnight until 6:45, then went back to sleep until mama woke me up to go to school at 8:40.

First Clemson Game- Georgiana!

Papa got a surprise call on Friday. It was the President's office saying they had extra tickets to Saturday's Clemson game against Presbyterian College. Any chance we wanted two seats to the game?

So we called in (another) huge favor to the Pennas, dumped Henry and June on them, and headed on to campus for the game! We meant to do some tailgating, but couldn't find our friends among the 100,000 of our other friends on campus for the game. We did eventually find the party our neighbor's department was hosting at the basketball arena and got to enjoy a full catered meal in the air conditioning. There I was cuddled by an array of parents in town for parents' week while mama ate pimento and cheese sandwiches (seriously, even the food here is orange!).

Good thing the weather has cooled down (it was only in the very high 80s). Seriously, has no one told South Carolina summer is over? But you know how I like to be warm. So I slept most of the time while mama and papa tried to keep me out of the sun. Check out my cute Tiger shirt. One of mama's friends from the gym made it for me.

I wanted to crowd surf, but papa said no and stopped mama at the last minute.

These were pretty good seats. Thanks, President Barker. We didn't get any good pictures, but down here ladies do not wear just anything to the game. Apparently, somewhere there's a catalog full of orange and purple party dresses and coordinating accessories that women are expected to wear to the game. All with perfect hair and fancy makeup. Didn't anyone tell mama about this? She showed up wearing no makeup, a t-shirt, and a HAT! No matter how long we live down here, she'll always be that sweaty Midwesterner.

It was a good game and we had about 8,000 opportunities to practice the "C-L-E-M-S-O-N" because they play it after every first down and the full fight song after every touchdown. and Presbyterian College is really not good at all. I think someone said it's been 17 games since their last win. It was 21-0 before the first quarter was finished.

After a while, we started feeling bad for the Blue Hose (and their unfortunate choice of mascot) and started silently cheering for them and hoping they didn't fumble the kickoff return again.

We ended up leaving at the beginning of the 4th quarter when the score was 52-7 and they were recruiting fans to play. It was a nice quiet walk across campus and we beat the crowds out and picked up pizza for supper.

Having whet our whistle on some great college ball, we were all ready for some real football on Sunday. Don't we all look good in our Bengals gear? Too bad no one told the Bengals the season started... Maybe next week.

First day of school- June.

Last Thursday was the first day of school for Henry and I. Well, Henry had a visitors day on Tuesday and a shortened "practice" day on Wednesday, so he insisted that it was really his second day of school.

Still, he was so excited that he dress himself (in his Votto shirt, of course) and headed downstairs while mama got Georgie and I ready. When we came downstairs, Henry had dragged the step stool over to the cupboard and retrieved bowls and spoons. Then he poured cereal for everyone so we wouldn't be late! What a guy. Mama says that maybe on the weekends, she'll leave cups of milk in the fridge so he can make his own breakfast and let us sleep in. (We count on Henry to wake us all up in the morning so we're not late for school. That's why he's the one with the watch.)

Classic Henry and June.

Georgie was mad that she doesn't get to go to school. This year Henry goes 5 days a week from 9-2 and I go from 9-12 two days a week. Since mama hasn't been cleared to go back to the gym yet, she's getting pretty bored without us around.

We're car pooling with John this year. They are so excited to be in Mrs. Williams' class.

Mama didn't get a picture of me in front of my classroom, but I love school. My teachers found out early that I love dinosaurs and the other kids found out not to bother my dinosaurs! This is why i'm going to school. to learn to play with others. It may take a while. Mama was only slightly sad that I didn't look back when we got there and cried when she came to pick me up, but that's what she expected. School was so fun, I was exhausted and threw a fit until she put me down for a nap.

Maybe being a big girl isn't so bad after all. Every night before bed, I strip down and sit on the potty. Mama isn't too thrilled to take on the job of potty training just yet. So she's not disappointed that nothing has happened on the potty yet. But it looks like it might be soon.

Public Service Announcement- Papa.

Papa here.

Some of you may be planning a trip to the beautiful, sweltering Southeast in the future. You may be reading this blog right now, clicking back and forth between tabs, planning a little getaway to Macon, or Birmingham, or maybe even little old Clemson, SC. It's because this may be the case that I provide the following announcement, complete with photographs taken from a recent evening on the back porch.

See, the thing is, the Southeast has a lot of...

BLACK WIDOW SPIDERS
BLACK WIDOW SPIDERS
BLACK WIDOW SPIDERS

You're probably thinking, "Whatevs. Deal with it." Well, let me tell you. We found this little bad boy (actually, bad girl, since they get their "widow" handle from their habit of eating their male counterpart, mantis-style, after they get the "goods," so to speak) in the kids' sandbox. Henry found it; luckily, the child has yet to find a caution he'd like to throw to the wind. Score one for a genetic predisposition to temper curiosity with a healthy mix of caution, safety-firstness, and unadulterated fear.


Actually, these are photos of the second one we found, about three minutes after we found the one in the sandbox. This one was in Becky's garden--which is good, since these days that's about the last place she'd be doing the kind of gardening-type activities that might lead to a spider bite (zing!).

Of course, the Southeast is awash in these suckers, and you never really hear about any kids dying from spider bites. All my colleagues seem to have seen one at some point--Jamie had one in his mailbox, precisely the kind of place you might find yourself placing your hands into a dark, hole-like place. The Hallers apparently offer generous subsidies and free cable to any Widow wanting to take up underneath their house. So maybe I'm just blowing this all out of proportion.

Still, though. These things are exotic--and if I know anything from watching the news these days, it's that exotic things are dangerous.

Woah--I forgot to mention. There is a much less-dangerous, but much more threatening-looking spider called a Wolf Spider. These things are everywhere, and they're pretty scary until you realize they can't make webs, so the only reason they're so big and fast is that they actually have to chase their prey down themselves, the old-fashioned way. They're actually totally harmless. But--oh, but. See, they don't have webs (I mentioned this), so they have to improvise on the whole reproductive front. When it comes time to lay eggs, they just secrete one giant egg and carry it around, attached to their rear, until it hatches. I prefer this method to that of other spiders, who leave their eggs in literally every nook and cranny in my garage.

In any case, when the babies arrive, guess what Mama Wolf Spider does with them? How about this?!?



And this is precisely the horror show that I confronted a couple weeks ago in the garage. As you can imagine, feelings of wonder and respect for the ingenious varieties of nature gradually gave way to a desire to destroy such a blight on the natural order, and I am happy to report that a surgically placed strike can turn such a sight into a cool little spider explosion with spiderlings as the blast fallout.

Phew! Glad I got that all out! I'm thinking of doing this more often--so send in requests!

Three weeks- June.

It's hard to believe our George is three weeks old, though it does feel like she's always been here.

Mama found a few more outtakes from the dreaded net photo session. In this shot, she doesn't seem quite so mad at mama.

We really wanted a shot of her asleep, but she does not sleep all that soundly and kept waking up whenever we tried to get the shot. I thought 3 week olds were supposed to sleep through anything? Apparently not this one.

And she's wide awake for hours at a time. I guess this house is just too loud for a little girl to get any good sleep. The good news is that she is sleeping great at night (with the help of a tight swaddling blanket and a white noise machine). She's usually awake on and off until 11 or midnight and then gives mama and papa a nice 4-5 hour stretch of sleep. She wakes up, eats, gets a diaper change, then generally goes back to sleep for another 2-3 hours. You can't complain about that. And on Saturday night, she fell asleep at 9:30 and slept all the way until 4am! Mama is very happy and says she'll tolerate nursing every 2 hours during the day if it means more good nights like that.

Georgie's other long stretch of sleep usually occurs in the afternoon when I'm asleep and Henry is down for her quiet time. It's these times when mama feels especially sentimental about her new baby and her other two kids. (Why doesn't she feel that way when we're around her?) During these times, mama is especially taken with George and now we have a ton of what we call "couch pictures" from Georgie's afternoon nap on the couch beside mama. (Poor third kid. They never would have engaged in such risky behavior with Henry.)

Georgie had her three week appointment last Wednesday. She weighed 9 pounds 5 ounces (50th percentile) and was 22 inches long (90th percentile!). Maybe she will end up being the tall one. The doctor said everything else looked great.

We like to compare pictures of all of us as babyies and remark how different Georgie looks. Henry and I both had long, black hair. She's barely got any and it's so light. She looks more and more like Papa every day. Over the weekend, Georgiana's baby acne really started coming in. Here's a good before shot. This might be just mama's newborn honeymoon hormones talking, but she thinks George just has a pleasant expression. She just looks happy to be here.

Most of the time, at least. There must be no one touching her in this photo. She is getting better about not having to be held all the time. In the mornings, we can get her to sit in her bouncy seat for almost a half hour and watch us play- on the condition that she's well fed and has a clean diaper.

We're also so excited that we've finally found a nuk that she'll take. It took four different nuks before we found one that she didn't constantly gag on and spit out in total disgust. We know that some kids just don't take nuks, but mama wasn't taking no for an answer. She says she has a three week limit on being what she calls a "human pacifier." And at that time, you better find a way to soothe yourself. Luckily, the winning nuk squeaked in just under the deadline.

With school started back up, we get a lot of girl time alone together. I really like my little sister and mama and papa melt when I say "Georgie-anna" They need to get a video. It's adorable. Check out Georgie's huge fleece sleep sack. We've mentioned before that she really likes to be warm. But it's still 90+ degrees outside. We've come up with a good solution. She wears her summer clothes outside and when she gets inside, mama bundles her up in the big fleece sack (we've still got the AC blasting inside). It's funny that neither Henry or I ever used these sacks, but mama figures it was because we already had 3 layers on in our infancy in the Wisconsin frozen tundra. It works out well. Georgie is cozy and happy and it's easy to get her out when it's time to head back outside into the furnace. Hasn't anyone told South Carolina that fall starts next week?