September 2006 Archives

Our little Juicy Juice just turned 5 months and she couldn't be happier!

Her day consists of getting up around 6, nursing then heading back to bed until around 9 when she nurses again. Then she gets dressed, watches her sister run around, rolls on the ground and squeals. Then she gets loaded into the car for a trip to the park where she is strapped into the Bjorn and gets to watch her sister run around (are you sensing a theme?). Home for lunch where she sits patiently and watches her sister eat the big kid food. Then more napping, rolling and squealing followed by rice cereal for dinner! She loves the stuff and no matter how much I make for her she always cries at the end of the bowl. Bedtime is reading books on the big bed with her sister then off to the living room to hang out with mom and dad before she gets swaddled up and goes to sleep.

She is a very happy baby and smiles often. She is trying hard to roll over but doesn't seem too motivated. She hates tummy time and screams at me anytime I try to get her to lay on her belly.

She can hold toys and chew on them now as well as reach out and grab something that she is interested in (the cats tail, Eula, her sisters arm). She loves her PopPop's voice and smiles anytime he is talking in the room. Naga had some tough luck with her babysitting the other night but we'll break it soon enough!

Overall, a fun month with little Josie Grace.

Check these beauties out! All made by my lovely wife, Binghamton's Bagel Queen.

Sophie still hasn't stopped talking about Buddy the Bee, so yesterday we attended a Kid's Day event at a local furniture, electronics and appliance store where Buddy was advertised to appear (special thanks to Naga for noticing that ad in the paper!)

Fortunately we didn't talk about Buddy in advance, because he must have slept in and didn't make an appearance while we were there. Perhaps even better than Buddy though, Big Bird and Cookie Monster were at the store meeting kids. Cookie Monster was a little standoff-ish, but Big Bird picked Sophie right up and held her for a few glorious moments. You could actually see the satisfaction ooze off of her while she sat in his arms.

I didn't get any pictures since I took the girls myself and had both hands full, but believe me it was lots of fun. Now we have a whole lineup of "so big!" people: the Ernie & Bert statues from the Discovery Center, Buddy the Bee from the park and now Cookie Monster and Big Bird thanks to Olum's: what a fun week!

It's #19 (wow, you are getting up there) for my little sister. I hope you have a wonderful birthday.

As some of you may know, I have gone (temporarily) back to work in a local bakery making bagels. The work is hard and to my dismay, I get scheduled for many more hours than I want each week, however, I am learning so much and gaining invaluable experience.

While I am slinging bagels (up to 280 dozen daily) Jake is home being "Mr. Mom" to Sophie and Josie. He does a great job with them both. You would never know that he has never taken care of small children before. He takes them to the park, down the road to see the horses. Gets bottles, lunches, naps, dinners, and baths all while finding time to play WoW (just kidding).

Now, we all know that seasoned caregivers have those days where the keys end up in the freezer so I thought that I would share some recent funny stories from Jake's adventures in caregiving.

I came home the other night and was getting Sophie ready for bed I started changing her diaper and looked down to see that there was a sock in her diaper. A purple one, soaked in urine laying neatly in her diaper. Now, I am pretty sure that she didn't get it in there herself and Jake has no recollection of it getting in there.

Or there was the day that Jake's step brother parked behind our car. We all noticed the car there but by the time both girls were loaded into the car, given their various toys, cups and dollies, we had forgotten about the other car. Jake backed right into it. The minivan wasn't even ours for a month.

And welcome Maria Eleni!

That's them in the middle, sorry I can't find any pictures of just their family! We can't wait to meet the new arrival, now Josie will have someone to play with more her speed.

The other night we went to Arnold Park for an event hosted by Kyds Coalition, a local drug- and alcohol-awareness group. The park itself is fun enough with tons of playground equipment and kids running all over, but they also provided free pizza, popcorn, drinks, balloons and entertainment. Bobo the Clown performed, and Buddy the Bee, our NY Mets farm team mascot was in attendance.

First some background: Sophie loves the Sesame Street and Muppet characters, and was amazed to find life-sized (or larger-than-life for all I know) statues of Bert & Ernie at our local kids museum, the Discovery Center at Ross Park Zoo. For days afterwards she would wake up from naps and say, "Ernie Bert.. so big!" When she first saw Buddy the Bee she was transfixed: here finally was a walking, waving, smiling character.

Buddy is very popular among the kids, they just rush up and hug him without hesitating. Sophie watched this intently for a while before Buddy leaned down to offer a hand for a low-five. As usual when she's nervous, Sophie would only wave back. After ten minutes or so of her watching Buddy's every move from 2-3 feet away, we offered to take Sophie back to the slide. She agreed, but became very upset when Buddy didn't come with us. To our surprise, she wanted Buddy to take her down the slide.

The mascot overheard and again to our surprise, offered to take her. She picked her up and carried her over to the slide, all the while giving other kids hugs and high-fives. I helped Sophie up the ladder and into Buddy's arms at the top of the slide, and then followed them down. When she got to the bottom Sophie covered her face and started crying, so we thought she was scared, but in hindsight I honestly think she was overwhelmed by the experience.

Sophie & Buddy On The Slide

For the rest of the day Sophie couldn't spend more than five minutes away from Buddy. The mascot was very kind and picked her up every time Sophie ran up to her, took her over to see Bobo and even tried to get her to eat her pizza. Sophie cried when Buddy had to leave, said goodbye several times and talked about him for the rest of night and several times a day since.

Whoever you are Buddy, thank you for making a little girl's afternoon very special!

I don't think I have to say anything else.