The new baby...

No, he's not really ours. He's Erika's new puppy that has been coming to work with her the past few days. Pippen and Trevor are quite fond of him, but Juliette's in a battle for reign over the toys and blankets. And Malik? The big bully has stolen the poor little guy's crate.

Juliette's Loves Live Sporting Events...

Could somebody make this child stop looking at me so I can get something done other than taking her picture?

Rolling...

Funny Kid...

I took the kids to the Children's Museum on Monday. I have such a love/hate relationship with that place. When it's not crowded or under construction, it's great, but it's been under construction forever (new addition slated to open in March 2009) and Monday it was crowded. All the summer camp programs bring busloads of kids who are all running around with their matching t-shirts and I can't even find a clear path with the stroller to keep up with Hayden and Trevor.

We found a quiet spot to play in the nearly empty computer room and I had Juliette in the "tot corner" of the room, playing in a little padded 4x4 ft square area especially for babies. And some 7-9 year olds come running in and one jumps right into the tot bunker, practically crushing Juliette. So I bite his head off and tell him that he has no business being in the baby area. Then he proceeds to build up a tower of the foam blocks in the tot corner and tumble them over onto Juliette. At this point I really flip out and tell him that he needs to move at least 10 feet away from me and my baby and stay there or else I will personally throw him out of the museum. Clearly, I just love other people's kids. Should have been a kindergarden teacher probably.

We play a little more in the rest of the museum and then have our lunch. The place has started to clear out by now and I've eaten so I'm in a little better mood. I tell the kids we can play for a half hour longer and they choose the grocery store area of the museum. I'm watching Trevor fill his grocery basket with every single plastic banana in the museum.

Hayden has paired up with some older kid (maybe 8 years old) and is working the cash register. So all is well. When we decide to leave, the other kid (who seems nice and smart, but a little geeky) says goodbye to Hayden and says he had fun playing with him. Then the kid says "Hey, I don't even know your name." So rather than tell him, Hayden picks up a piece of paper by the register where they were playing and writes down his name and hands it to the kid, saying "that's my name." And I hear the kid say "OK, well bye Mr. Scribble Scribble, it was fun playing with you." If I had a drink in my mouth, it would have shot out my nose when I laughed. It's those unexpected moments of humor that really get me.

Good idea?

The guy in the cube next to me just got a new position and moved to another floor. So I asked my boss if I could switch cubes and just executed the move myself. It only took a half hour since I wasn't too settled in yet. So now I have windows. Was this really a good idea? Giving me the possibility of staring out the window all day? Hmmm...

Peeling Apples...

Isn't it funny how certain things evoke the same memory over and over? The boys have been insisting on "Apple, no skin" lately. So as I sit over the sink, peeling the apple, I always think of my grandfather.

My Grandpa Usher used to organize these "getaway weekends" for the family. So my father, brother, mother, and I used to load up in the car (with the dogs) and head to Janesville, Wisconsin for a weekend at the Best Western Midway Motor Lodge. Doesn't sound like much to you, I'm sure, but it was ever so exciting when I was a child. My father was one of THIRTEEN children, so there were aunts, uncles, and cousins aplenty.

I would have been perfectly content to swim in the pool all day, but my grandpa had all these activities and contests organized. There were ping pong tournaments, talent shows, puzzles, and some crazy contests I'll never forget. One time he had 20 styrafoam cups, each numbered and filled with little pieces of Life Savers he had crushed up. You had to go through the line and sample each one and guess the flavor. A trophy went to the person who guessed the most correctly.

Oh yeah, the apples. There was a contest once to make the longest single apple peel. He had a pile of apples and apple peelers. I was young, I think the longest single piece of peel I came up with was 2 inches long. But I remember my mom and my aunts could peel an entire apple into one long corkscrew piece of peel. Then my grandpa carefully stretched out all these ridiculously long apple peels and declared a winner (with a trophy awarded, of course). It's taken me only 30 or so years of practice, but I'm a real pro peeler now. So when I stand at my sink peeling an entire apple in one smooth motion, I kind of wish there was a Grandpa contest to show off my skills.

Lucky Seven...

Juliette is now officially 7 months old. It was a big milestone day in our house. We've had a lot of fingers in the mouth lately...

But today, we actually had the first tooth pop through those poor sore gums. There's just a hint of a very sharp tooth in the lower left side of her mouth. Yay! They say the first one is the hardest and she didn't even fuss about it. Sweet girl.

So as if turning seven months old and getting a tooth wasn't enough of a milestone, Miss J. also decided to say "MaMa" for the first time today. There's been a whole lot of "BaBaBaBaBa" lately and somehow it morphed into a "MaMa" this afternoon. Just in case you're counting, that's two for me and one for Sean. Hayden said "DaDa" for a long time before he ever said my name, but Trevor and Juliette were all me.

And just to clear up any misunderstanding, Juliette is not bald. If you look below, you'll see that she's really starting to develop a nice head of hair. It's just really fine, really blonde hair. Enough to hold a bow even. If she had any bows...hmmm...maybe I should go shopping...

Here's a link to a slideshow of her pictures if you're desperate for more.

Sitting pretty...

Well, sitting is still taking a little effort for little Miss J, so she can't sit and smile at the same time, too much focus...She's about to get herself into trouble around the house. Not crawling yet, but leave her on the floor and you'll find her 5 ft. away a few minutes later. Lots of rolling right now. Doesn't stop irresponsible mom from leaving her unattended. I like to wait until they hurt themselves before I think about babyproofing. It was easier in the old house...with three floors we could keep all the really dangerous stuff (like all the computer wires) away from the floor where the baby played. Plus we had baby gates everywhere to keep anyone from tumbling down a flight of stairs. Here, it's all one level and everything is accesible. Yikes.

The boys actually were fighting over who got to hold Juliette for a picture. Small miracles. Would be nice if Trevor actually was more focused on holding up Juliette instead of working so hard to lean back into Hayden and trying to knock him down.

But Juliette once again had her fill of mommy and her camera and let loose with a scream...

And I kid you not, Trevor showed up from the next room in seconds, without any prompting from me, and found a pacifier and popped it into her mouth. Is there a more definitive display of brotherly love?

And do you need to see his mouth to know he's smiling here? He's trying to cover his face so I can't take his picture, but he can't help but laugh at my antics to try to get him to look at me.

All is well despite my blogging absence. I read somewhere once that the most common fear people have is that others will discover they're not as (fill in the blank) as people think. The blank can be anything: smart, thin, rich, good mother, together. Do you live in fear that your weakness will be discovered?

I know I don't have my act together and am shocked to hear people say they think I do. I have no illusions of being a super-mom: juggling kids, husband, job, dogs, home. I have no real furniture in my living room, maybe I never will. Juliette is lucky to get a bath twice a week. Chick-Fil-A is a relatively healthy meal for my kids.

What's with the revelations? Only this...It's been a struggle to balance things since I went back to work. And I'm only working part time right now. So something is going to get neglected. If you look at the pictures above, it's obvious those kids are far too sweet to neglect. So it's you, loyal blog readers, who will be neglected. Kindnesses that will go unreturned, emails unsent, thank-you notes unwritten. So there it is...can't do it all. I'm not quitting the blog, just letting you know I'm struggling to post these days. I sit here at 1 am and can't remember the clever thought I wanted to write last week. Trust me, it was really clever. Can't have you thinking I'm not as clever as you thought I was, now can I?

By the way, total digression, but our dearest friends came to visit from Budapest for two weeks and they contributed to the blogging hiatus by distracting us with fun activities away from the keyboard. They're gone now, but I dragged Katie and VJ out for an 8 am photo session one Saturday, in case you want to take a look. And here's a shot of my god-daughter Katie and Miss J. It was a nice break for Juliette from all the usual rough and tumble testosterone crowd...

More on Brianna...


OK, she's not my baby, but I just adore this baby girl so I had to share a slideshow of pictures of the new little angel.

Just fine, thanks for asking...



The family seems to be functioning OK since my return to work. I'm trying to keep it together, but Erika and the kids seem to be adjusting perfectly. The boys continue to dote on their little playmate...

Hard to believe this little lady is already six months old. I'm starting to feel like I should start planning her first birthday party since it will be here in the blink of an eye...

With no time to spare, I decided to whip out the old high chair and start Juliette on cereal the day before I went back to work. First of all, who puts the high chair away all crusted over with nasty food remnants? So the first meal was delayed by a good scrubbing with bleach, but Juliette seemed anxious to get started once she was in the chair...

Clearly, this child was ready and waiting to move on from a milk-only diet. But it was so hard on me. It's like I've given up a piece of her babyhood and I'll never get it back. And of course I resent my job because I feel like I could have delayed it longer if I hadn't gone back to work sooner than expected. But even the La Leche League women told me "Well, they all have to eat solids eventually..." as if I was a little freakish for hesitating to start.

Well, on the bright side, baby J-bird loves her cereal and is taking her bottles just fine in my absence. And Erika seems to manage all three better than I do, so all is well.

Just wait till they send me to Europe for two weeks in September...