Here’s Sydney and Bean at PSU today, where Chelsea Clinton was appearing. Sydney: Grrrrr!

Look under the fold for more pics… It’s worth it, I think.

Read the rest of this entry »

In case you haven’t noticed, my blogging has been lighter than usual since October. Well the main reason for that has been because I’m pregnant. I told my co-bloggers, so they wouldn’t think I was abandoning the site..

Now that I’m in just out of month 4, I’m finally happy to report that my life doesn’t revolve around the fear of throwing up on strangers. :) For a while, from months 2-4, I was battling morning sickness, and the usual first trimester sleepiness. I’m still concerned about a few things like the fact that at almost 19 weeks I weigh the same as I did when I got pregnant. In fact, one of the most fascinating things about pregnancy is the way it has altered my eating habits and my metabolism. When I was in the throws of morning sickness, for some unknown reason the more unhealthy the food the more likely it was to stay down. I’ve never eaten so many McDonald’s Big Mac’s in my life. What’s even funnier is the fact that I ate that kind of food and lost 6 pounds. I felt like I couldn’t possibly eat enough food to maintain my weight, and I was even more shocked when I read that I was supposed to eat 2600 calories a day (300 extra calories per fetus). I’ve always been a person who loves eating and food, and by medical standards I’m in the overweight category, but suddenly, I didn’t want to eat, and these two little fetuses were performing liposuction on my thighs and butt. My husband kept joking about the fact that I had the incredible shrinking booty, which he thought was bad and my mother and brother thought was great. (Now, there’s a cultural difference if there ever was one–West African ideas about booty beauty and White American ideas about booty beauty.) Fortunately, I’ve gained my 6 pounds back, but I seem to be stuck right at the same weight. I promise I’ll write more about this since it really seems to be the one issue that is bothering me the most–I keep wondering how I’m going to gain 30 lbs in 20 weeks.¹

Of course, I’m going to write about the pregnancy because there are so many juicy issues. The gender issues are obvious, but other issues like body image (which I alluded to above), medicalization, racism, and the rampant classism/materialism that surrounds birth and children. I already have some good stories to tell already, so be prepared. Plus, when the little ones are born, I’ll even have some baby blogging to do.

1. For those who don’t know the weight gain recommendation for twins is higher, but doctors also seem to be all over the place in terms of what they suggest. My OBGYN suggested a 44lb weight gain for a woman of my height who is of average weight. Since I’m overweight, she suggested 30-35 lbs. (back)

I’m feeling too lazy to put a baby blogging post together today, so go over to Damn Cool Pics and check out their annual “Parent Of The Year” photo celebration. A couple of examples:

This has nothing to do with the photo, but did I tell you about the time that Maddox first vomited all over her mother’s shoulder and lap while mom was at the computer? She had a stomach bug, and took ages to fall asleep while being held by her daddy. She then woke up and vomited in daddy’s hair. In the midst of all this, Sydney had the same stomach bug too, and was also vomiting copiously. Oh, and this was the same day the washing machine died, so there was no handy way to wash all the vomit-sotted towels.

Anyhow, I just thought I’d mention that there’s more to the parenting gig than just dressing them up in cute outfits. :-)

Chicago Pop, one of the bloggers at the excellent Daddy Dialectic blog, has more on the general subject of small children vomiting on their parents.

Maddox is simply animal-mad. Both the girls enjoy animals, but Sydney just enjoys animals as much as she enjoys a lot of other things, whereas nothing captivates Maddox more. Especially baby animals. Maddox’s favorite blog is Cute Overload, of course.

By the way, what would people think of switching the title from “Monday Baby Blogging” to “Tuesday Toddler Blogging,” so we could keep the alliteration? Or should I just jettison the alliteration thing and make it “Monday Toddler Blogging?,” so that people could keep on looking for this feature on Mondays? Clearly, the “baby” thing is getting less fitting all the time.

Read the rest of this entry »

That doll she’s holding sings “It’s Raining Men” in this really irritating high voice, not unlike Alvin of the Chipmunks. Sydney played it over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over. And then she played it another 20 times.

Read the rest of this entry »

An earlier baby blogging showed Sydney on the ladder to my bed, so here’s a couple of Maddox on the ladder, too.

Gosh, no cuteness there.

Read the rest of this entry »

Sydney loves hanging off the side of the loft bed like this.

Odd milestone: For ages, Bean and I have been modeling the “see you later, alligator / in a while, crocodile” way of saying goodbye to Sydney (by saying goodbye to each other that way). For the last year or so, Sydney has been imitating us but not quite getting it: if you say “see you later, alligator” to Sydney on the way out of a room, she’d reply “see you later crocodile.”

But in the last week or two, she’s suddenly started responding “see you while crocodile.” Which still isn’t totally correct, but she suddenly gets that it’s supposed to rhyme.

Read the rest of this entry »

Read the rest of this entry »

Not really a good photo, taken while Sydney was jumping around, but I like it for the flying hair.

And so is the rest of her, of course — today is Maddox’s second birthday. (And Maddox’s mother’s birthday, too. I think that Kim may be older than two, however).

We celebrated yesterday with cake, and presents, and a trip to a pumpkin patch. (Or at least, that’s how we’re planning to celebrate — I actually write these baby blogging posts ahead of time. So when I say “yesterday,” I mean yesterday relative to when this post will appear, but five days from now as I’m typing this.)

I really can’t believe she’s two years old.¹ Sydney is nearly four. Maddox is speaking in short sentences and asking “what’s that?” of everything, and Sydney is playing like a kid (exchanging faces with other kids in supermarket lines, for instance). It’s a cliche for a reason — these early years are rushing past faster than I ever could have believed.

1. Or very close to two years old when I write this, two years old when you read this… you know what I mean. (back)

It’s so easy to take pretty pictures of toddlers!

Cuteness squared!

A friend brought over her seven-month-old pug puppy. At first I didn’t get out my camera, because Maddox and Sydney — while delighted to see the puppy — were also very shy of it, and would run squealing whenever Augustus (that’s the puppy’s name) approached. In Maddox’s case, the delight was so intense she actually seemed stoned, and did nothing but recite “puppy! puuuuppy! puuuppppy!” over and over for about ten minutes.

More below the fold.

Read the rest of this entry »

Sydney walked up to the “microphone” and began giving an Oscar acceptance speech. “Thank you to Mommy, thank you to Bean…,” etc. When she finished Bean and I and the few other adults that were in the room applauded her, so she came back to the mic and gave her acceptance speech again. :-)

Sydney’s Aunt Chris, who took the picture, tells the tale:

The story with this is that Sydney wanted to open the door to the building by herself. It was a heavy door, but I said OK and let her stay on the outside to try it. As she struggled, and people began to arrive behind her, I opened the door from the inside and reached for Sydney. A man came up behind her and held the door, above her head. I looked up and was face to face with the governor.

He didn’t have a large entourage, and was wearing sunglasses, but I was pretty sure it was him. I sort of muttered,
“Oh…can I take your picture with Sydney?” He was very gracious and stepped over to pose with her. About that time I started to wonder if maybe this was just some guy who looked like the governor, but then I saw a body-guard type guy in a shirt with the state emblem.

Anyway, I told Sydney that this was a very important man - that’s when she gave him the “I’d vote for you look” in the photo. Actually, he’s pretty much a crook like most of the Chicago/Illinois politicians, but he does take a nice picture.

Later, I told Sydney his name was “Governor Blagojevich.” She said “Wow.”¹ I asked if she could say it, and she said “Governor Gabloblovech.” I said, close - try again, and Sydney laughed, shook her hands beside her head and said “Governor Blah Blah Blah Blah.”

I’m not sure that Sydney realizes that, as an Oregon resident, she doesn’t get to vote in the Illinois elections even if the age issues are resolved. Ah, well. Thanks, Aunt Chris!

1. It should be noted that Sydney says “wow” to almost anything –Amp. (back)