The Comedy and the Tragedy

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Stretching

Do all third children live in their carseats? Luckily, Molly has been extremely accommodating, adapting to her on-the-go life with very little fuss. But she's starting to love some unbuckled downtime, when she can stretch, do a little shadow boxing, and marvel at the multi-colored wonder of her play mat.

While she may be a slave to her siblings' schedule during the day, once they're in bed, she gets Mommy all to herself!

SuperGoggles

He may be awarded the Dorkiest Swimmer of the Year for the 2010 Campolindo swim season, but Joey officially graduated from a tentative head dunker and cautious wall clinger to a bonafide fish today!

For two weeks he had been an enthusiastic, eager student, doing everything his teachers told him to do, except put his head underwater. This obviously stalled his progress, but no one could convince him that water wouldn't go right up his nose (and we even pulled out the big guns... we had Uncle Kyle try to talk him through his paranoia over the phone). Finally, over the weekend Daddy realized that a scuba mask might be a good crutch, because it covered his nose. Joey practically jumped into the pool today, he was so eager to show off his new tricks: holding his breath for up to 12 seconds, peering at people underwater, and diving down to touch the pool bottom. He was so busy showing off, he didn't even realize he was swimming!

Grandma Cecchin and cousin Marco were on hand to see his maiden float/ wiggle, but we returned to the pool later this afternoon, and he was swimming halfway across the shallow end by the time we left!

Let's just hope he sheds the scuba mask soon. It may be cool for the 5-and-under set, but I saw some 6 year-olds snickering.

Bliss

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Six Weeks Old!

I think we'll be saying this a lot this time around, but good golly, time is flying by with our Miss Molly!

To mark her six-week birthday, we headed to Day One Center in Walnut Creek to put her on the scale there. She's our smallest baby, and I still find myself wondering if she's getting enough to eat. She's still smaller than Joey was when he was born, but she's gaining slowly but surely, weighing in at 8 pounds, 11 ounces, a solid gain from being 8 pounds, 2 ounces at her 4-week check-up!



Her biggest past time is still sleep, but I did manage to catch her in an alert moment last week, at exactly 5 weeks old.



She reminded me so much of Joey at the same age that I went in search of a photo of him... here he is on his first trip to Tahoe at 5 weeks.


If he looks like a man, that's because the burly little guy was already tipping the scales at 12 and a half pounds! Looking at this picture, I now know why he was *never* mistaken for a girl as a baby!! Molly looks much more feminine, and has Clara's coloring, but I'm seeing more of her big brother in her these days than her big sister.

Finally, we had been waiting for that elusive first smile -- and I finally got one last night! -- but of course didn't capture it with the camera. Here's a dream smile to tide you over...

Swim Sherpa

A much-needed margarita night (see below) was my reward for making it through our first week of daily swim lessons. Alcohol was definitely in order for:

- making it out of the house every morning, Monday through Friday, with three kids in tow

- ensuring that two of these children were sunscreened, swimsuited, and begoggled

- feeding, burping, changing, and buckling in the smallest child before hitting the road

and most importantly,

- hauling everyone's gear back and forth from the pool, a grueling exercise that gives me hope that more of this pregnancy weight will fall off by the time our swim session is over. Tragically, a coffee cup does not mix well with all of this carry-on luggage.

Four and a half more weeks to go! Here's hoping that we'll have some certified swimmers on our hands by the time this session is over!

A Return to Poster Paint

Who says fraternities and sororities don't prepare you for the real world?

Crayon Buster

Dear Loyal Readers,

Do you have a budding artist at home? If their enthusiasm sometimes extends beyond traditional media, and perhaps on to freshly painted wall surfaces, then file this household tip away for future reference:

Toothpaste + elbow grease will eventually remove crayon marks from walls on both glossy and matte paint finishes.

I would have taken dramatic before and after pictures of the red crayon that covered about 4 square feet of a certain blue wall, but I was seeing more red than the crayon at the time ;)

Girls, Girls, Girls

The Lamorinda Theta Xis had a baby boomlet this spring... here's the first official shot of our trio of girls snoozing at a Lafayette park this week.

Molly (4 weeks), Dylan DeWeese (8 weeks), and Ava Sills (2 weeks)

Not pictured: Four very active 1 to 4 year-olds, who may or may not have been brandishing sticks, hunting for snakes, peeing in bushes, and attempting to de-limb a poor helpless tree while their mommies (all sporting Hooter Hiders) tended to their itty-bitty siblings and drank coffee ;)

The Snooze Button

The most surprising thing about having a newborn around again? The sheer amount of time they spend sleeping. If she's not eating or pooping, Molly is almost always in a deep sleep, unperturbed by barking dogs, "pets" from over-eager siblings, transfers to and from the car seat, toddler shrieks, and general family mayhem. Here's a snapshot from her first month:

Finally, a video that immortalizes this stage...

The Jack-Jack to his Dash

She's the yin to his yang, the peanut butter to his jelly, and Joey is never happier than when holding "his" baby. But his euphoria reached a whole new level when Molly donned this new suit:

Here he is on a typical night with his brand-new lap baby:

On Grocery Shopping

Dieticians and weight loss cheerleaders always say you shouldn't go to the grocery store when you're hungry. I'm officially suggesting that mantra be taken a step further: Never, ever, ever go to the grocery store with three hungry children, if you can possibly help it, even if -- especially if -- you think such an outing will be a fun diversion for slightly cranky kids.

This is also an extremely dangerous situation if:

1) Your infant is ravenous and inconsolable, despite having been fed in the parking lot.

2) Your oldest is ravenous and inconsolable, and has the appetite and willpower of a teenage boy. Accustomed to eating five bowls of cereal in the morning, he will insist that you fill up the entire bottom of your cart with 5 boxes of cereal and 4 gallons of milk, and be righteously indignant if you don't fill the remainder of the cart with mini-watermelons and pastries from the bakery aisle.

or

3) Your middle child bitterly resents being forced to ride in the shopping cart for containment purposes while her brother roams freely. Allowing her to consume two bananas during the shopping trip will help mitigate the complaints, but only one fool-proof method exists to completely distract her from a meltdown... a stop at the JellyBelly display at the end of the freezer aisle.

If only infants could be pacified by jellybeans, too!

Mommy's New Pasttime

You know you're spending a ridiculous amount of time on the couch nursing a newborn when your 4 year-old renders you like this:



I'm betting that his next masterpeice will be me feeding the washing machine instead. We've added just one tiny child to our family, but the sea of dirty clothes I sort every day screams either orphanage or the Duggar Family.

Freezing Time

We captured a special moment in time last week with a session with a professional photographer. Here's a peek at some of the gorgeous photos we came away with! For more, head to www.ilovejep.com, click on Client Proofing, and enter the password Molly.

Cousin Cuddles

After practicing with a 6-pounder for the past two and a half weeks, Clara was ready for the big leagues. Here she is over the weekend holding chubby cousin Lucy! Check out those rolls... and that chic ensemble!





Meanwhile, Grandma Cecchin held the newest girl of the family, who slept through our lunch! We can't wait to see what these three will be up to in the future!