A.B. Kagledom

Hey, where did the patio go?

This is my serious look.

Playing with my toys. This one is REALLY LOUD and sometimes I play with it in the middle of the night!

Posted by kagledom at 07:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Most of the invitations for Simon's birthday are in the mail, we're ahead on the milk supply for the first time since I started working, Adlai has been sleeping well at night (but appears to be a terrible napper), birds are singing and flowers are blooming.

We made a major purchase recently of a backyard play set similar to this one for the boys which I still think is a really good investment but incorporating it into our backyard has turned out to be a major production. First off, we referred our beloved contractor to friends for their home remodel and now he is too busy to help. He is subcontracting the work to a friend and we finally have confirmation that this guy will start ASAP. All of the concrete in the backyard will be removed and just over half will be replaced by the play set area that appears at ground level but is actually six inches deep with mulch so our danger boys won't hurt themselves. The other part of the patio will be covered in cobble stones. Along the way, the enormous patio cover needs to be removed, an outdoor light installed, a sprinkler moved and replaced, a border built to keep in the mulch, the front porch rebuilt...

Fortunately, it looks like it will all be done in time for Simon's birthday (aka Father's Day) and before the delivery of the play set. Crisis averted.

Posted by kagledom at 12:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Toys. Adlai loves them - especially the kind that make a lot of noise. Finally there is someone to appreciate the heaps of brightly colored plastic we've collected over the years. It's also nice that we can leave him in his crib for a while and he'll entertain himself by pulling, pushing, and grabbing the crib toys.

Us. Adlai is thrilled to be anywhere near Simon - even if his arms and legs are being shaken too vigorously or he's getting a hug that is a little too tight. This morning I spied the boys kissing each other - on the lips. This past weekend they played together for the first time. Simon gave Adlai part of a toy to hold and then he pulled the other half to make the toy shake back to Adlai. Adlai is also very quick to smile and coo at us. Unfortunately, his "hugs" often result in hair loss or painful pinching.

Food. So far he hasn't found of food that he doesn't inhale with the gusto of a pack of wild dogs. He's had oat, rice, and mixed cereals, bananas, sweet potatoes, peas, pears, and apples. It is proving especially difficult to find the time to make and freeze my own baby food this time around. We're working at micro-organizing our lives so we can get everything accomplished but what we really need is a (free) full time personal assistant. Volunteers?

Movement. Adlai hasn't yet mastered the push-up but he does manage to squirm his way into being on all fours. He's very VERY squirmy, bouncy, and determined to do everything while standing. Sound familiar? The only difference between the boys in this area is that Adlai is much less frustrated by his inability to move himself across a room. He is frustrated, yes, but he doesn't make that horrible "My life is meaningless unless I am mobile." moan particular to Simon.

Music. Adlai started singing a month or two back. If Simon is listening to music and singing along, Adlai will chime in with "uuuhhhhhhhh aaaaaaaaaaaaaa." The other day I was singing him "Baby Mine" when he gently placed his hand on my mouth and started singing the song on his own. His version went like this: "Aaaaaaaa aaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" (repeat in monotone). Adlai also loves to dance. For a good time, stand Adlai up while Simon is dancing around the room and watch as the excited baby moves his arms, stomps his feet, and squeals.

Posted by kagledom at 01:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A three day weekend following a long weekend away is a wonderful thing. We have lots of friends to see, a birthday for one of Simon's close friends, time to really get going on demolishing the concrete in our backyard, yard work in general, and catching up on the frozen milk storage.

A couple of weeks ago we made formula a permanent fixture in Adlai's life after we realized that he didn't need to cry-it-out if offered three or four ounces of formula before he happily passes out on his own. That's after two full nursings and an enormous meal of solid food in the preceding two hours. He's a crazy hungry kid that way. In any case, after given a few ounces of formula he falls into a food coma and doesn't awaken until between 11:30 and 2 at which time one long nursing is usually enough to fill him up until morning. And after he passes out from the formula, I can safely assume he won't need me so I pump one last time adding to the next day's supply. I am a milk machine.

It is a great thing that we have electric pumps or breastfeeding and working away from home just wouldn't be realistic. However, pumping is just about the last thing you WANT to do during the work day. Sure, there are worse things... Well, I just can't think of any. It hurts, it takes time, it's not particularly business-like, and it's really disappointing when you can't make enough - after four or five twenty minute pumping sessions a day - to feed your kid without the addition of formula.

So it is nice that there is the option but you better believe there will be a celebration when the pump is permanently retired. Seven more months to go!

Posted by kagledom at 07:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Based on the number of posts the week before we left, it should now be clear that I find it impossible to have more than a few things going on at once. Moral of the story: having something due at work and taking care of the boys and preparing for a trip all while being deceptive is hard work. Our vacation, though fun, marks the end of secret trips until Matthew and I are retired old farts.

Adlai's abilities seem to have exploded over the last couple of weeks. He now reaches, grabs, and manipulates objects with five-month-old-Kagle-boy-like precision, he can sit slouched over for a while (if he is focused on the object in front of him), he grabs his feet while on his back and tries to use them to sit up (a great abdominal workout but not a very successful plan as he almost always falls to one side). Adlai, it turns out, enjoys being in WARM water (not cold) and does not enjoy being splashed by his big splashy brother. Alas, he doesn't hold a grudge, the other day he put his arms around Simon and opened his mouth slightly and placed it on Simon's cheek. He didn't pucker up but it was pretty clear the action was intended to be a kiss (his first).

Simon aka "Cold Water Lover Splashy Boy", also made a developmental leap over the weekend. Last night he said he was writing "letters" to his friends. He'd rip a page off of the pad of paper, write something on it, fold it up and put it in a bucket "to mail." I looked over at one point to find that he was actually writing letters on the pages (the ABC kind). Get it? Writing LETTERS. He said "I'm writing my name, 'S I M O N'" as he wrote this...

S...i..m

He's been fascinated by reading recently and, just this past week, started to connect letters and their sounds. "Mmmmmm Mama!" "Hhhhhh Hava!" "SSSSsssss Simon!" As with most things, if you push, Simon stops enjoying the activity and regresses so we have not pushed him to read outside of buying him a Blue's Clue's activity book to play with and renting a Word's World video to watch. I find it particularly fascinating that his desire to read seems so strong. I really thought of reading as one of those things that kids had to be taught in school, you know, by a professional.

Here are some visual highlights of our trip...

Simon built "eggs and sausage" out of candy

Simon rocked every chair he passed at this restaurant

Adlai on the plane

Aunt Judy and Uncle Dave gave Simon this inflated penguin to play with in the pool. He named it "Ducky" and carried it around as his "friend" for the rest of the trip.

Adlai and Grandmother having some oatmeal by the pool

Simon and Grandfather in the water

While in Arizona, the camera always seemed to be in the bag that wasn't with us. Highlights of the Matthew Birthday Tour included:

• A very fun tour of the Cerreta Candy Factory (where Simon made "sausage and eggs" out of chocolate and pretzels)


• A very hot tour of the Mystery House which has a great story but will be less creepy when the owner is no longer living in the place


• A trip to a kachina store in Scottsdale followed by a break at a great ice cream parlor


• Some very nice meals (with the kids, and even though we kept them awake way past their bedtimes, they were very well behaved)


• A failed trip to a wild west town (it turned out to be closed)


• A failed trip to the Wells Fargo Museum (it was closed) with a walk around downtown Phoenix


• Lunch with Great Grandpa Ewing (Hava's Mom's Dad), Aunt Judy, Uncle Dave and Cousin Laryssa


• Lots of swimming and eating of the enormous birthday cake


• Poor Matthew coming down with a cold

and....

The Boppy Photo Shoot!

Posted by kagledom at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

We arrived home this evening. Matthew was very surprised by his gift. Everything went well. Simon fell in love with our "Cassita" and didn't want to return. We spent time with family in Phoenix, swam in the pools, saw a wacky castle, ate ice cream in Scottsdale and felt heat that made the intense Bay Area heat wave of last week seem cool. What was even more amazing is that we survived four entire days without an Internet connection.

Adlai turned five months old and moved from peas (yum!) to apples (yum!) and we did the boppy shots and the boppy video but I'm way too tired to spend any more time here tonight.

Maybe tomorrow...

Posted by kagledom at 07:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today Matthew is another year older. Over the past few weeks, I've managed to convince him that he's getting some lame gifts and that I just can't get it together enough to plan much (maybe we'll have a cake?). Alas, this morning he is going to find out that we'll be on a plane this afternoon headed for Phoenix, Arizona for a well planned family vacation. The Feefadders are even joining in which means FREE BABYSITTING! I hope I'll be able to post while away (after all, Adlai is about to turn five months old) but, if not, imagine that we're in the pool stuffing ourselves silly with southwestern cuisine and can't be bothered.

Happy Birthday, Matthew!

Love,

Hava

P.S. I wouldn't have bought you a Jesus clock even if you begged me. And the new shorts? Those were so I could pack without you noticing...

Posted by kagledom at 07:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Because I lamented our lack of sleep a few days ago, it should be mentioned that Adlai has been waking only once, for a 2 am nursing, for the past two nights. This is great stuff. We credit this change to forcing him to put himself to sleep from a completely awake state. He hates this but, hey, it works. It's also possible he agrees with his brother and mother that stomach sleeping is super comfortable. In any case, our sanity has almost returned. If you want to trick us into making stupid decisions, now would be the time; a few days from now we may be too well rested.

Posted by kagledom at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

There is a lot to say - I've just been holding out for photos - I know you'd rather see the photos, right? Alas, the photos (and video) are still locked away in Digital Cameraland - a place they remain until I manage to find an hour or more to myself.

In any case, Adlai B. Kagledom had his first vegetable on Saturday. Since peas went over so well as a first vegetable with Simon, we decided to try sweet potatoes with Adlai. He hated them. DIS-GUS-TING. It was very amusing. He'd open his mouth tentatively, slowly swallow while giving us the most sour expression, and then shiver from head to toe. But because he is one of our boys, he would still open his mouth for more! more! more disgusting food. By the third night, he found the sweet potatoes much more palatable.

In other news, newly crazy-about-the-rolling Adlai started sleeping on his stomach this weekend. To manage this he had to kick himself out of his torso swaddle which means (drum roll please) we're done with swaddling! This is good news because it was really annoying to reswaddle him every time he woke up at night. He also seems to be falling asleep without the pacifier on occasion - getting rid of it will be our next step in making him a habit free kid.

Saturday Adlai and I stayed out of the pool due to minor colds. Honestly, I can't remember the rest of Saturday - I was sick but we must have done something. Sunday we packed ourselves into the car and drove to Sacramento for Adlai's first long car trip. We feared the worse (our ears still ring from the hours of screaming we endured with Simon) but Adlai was amazing. We didn't hear a peep out of him the entire trip there. On the way back however, I nearly dislocated my shoulder trying to jingle toys in front of him and find and replace his pacifier over and over. Near the end of the trip, when I was about to give up and let him scream, I handed him the unopened snacks - a granola bar, a bag of oatmeal balls, and a fruit twist - he found them highly entertaining until he passed out twenty minutes before we arrived home.

While in Sacramento, the boys met a few of my friends and played with their offspring and we saw Sarah star as Little Red Riding Hood in "Into The Woods - Junior." Both Adlai and Simon found the play fascinating. About three-quarters of the way through Adlai became tired and we danced in the back and he played with Grammy until the end. Simon was thrilled to be related to a star... (Pictures by Grammy)

Posted by kagledom at 08:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A couple of months ago Adlai rolled back to front - but only once. Tonight Adlai rolled back to front and front to back and back to front over and over and over again. He is very proud of himself. And now that he has reached this milestone maybe he'll let us sleep for more than two hours in a row. He has been very wake-y up-y lately. And, holy rolling babies, it feels like, if we don't get some sleep soon, we're going to die. Or maybe our eyeballs will just dry out and we'll go blind. It's also possible we'll kill each other in the middle of the night fighting over whose turn it is to try to get the baby back to sleep.

*UPDATE*
Nope. No sleep.

Posted by kagledom at 07:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)