jennanddave.com

Yesterday evening we went to the circus. Dave and I, unbeknownst to each other, picked up free admission tickets for the kids from a local coffee shop, set them aside, them completely forgot about them. I recall thinking that I should mark it on the calendar, however, that's apparently as far as I got.

Yesterday after lunch, Dave called me up and said "So, I was at the coffee shop and I picked up a free admission ticket for a circus that's coming to town." I said I had as well, and that I had marked the date on the calendar. To which Dave replied "It's tonight!" Only Dave and I can plan an outing weeks in advance and still manage to have it be completely spontaneous.

The circus was small, billed as "Old-fashioned". When we got into the tent and saw how small the ring was, and what the bleacher seating consisted of, Dave was worried about what we'd gotten ourselves into whereas I was all "This is going to be awesome." It was awesome, too. There was a trapeze artist, a balancing act, clowns (Henry's favorite), a woman who hula'd 50 hoops at once, a camel called
"Lawrence of Arabia" (which Henry and Dave went for a ride on during the intermission), goats. I'm forgetting some of the acts, but the whole show was a blast. It was also stinking hot. The four of us sucked down many sno-cones, just to stay cool. One of us also had cotton candy and popcorn. And another one of us had a hot dog. I'm not sure how he passed up the corn dogs. Henry came home sporting an amazing pink cotton candy mustache.

Posted by Jenn at 09:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

...in three days:

Wednesday: Holly, well-baby checkup, healthy!
Thursday: Henry, bronchitis, ear infection!
Friday: Jenn, sinus infection!

Meanwhile, Dave remains healthy...

Posted by Jenn at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Last week Wednesday I was still trying to kick this insidious cold I managed to pick up from who knows where, and by the time Henry was happily crafting at pre-school and Holly was a-snooze in her crib, I climbed into my own bed and tried to catch a few z's myself. I have a hard time napping in the afternoon because my brain tends to run amok for the thirty or forty minutes I stay horizontal, until finally I just give up. There I was laying in bed when suddenly it occurred to me that I had completely forgotten to nurse Holly at lunchtime. Our general schedule is: Holly wakes up in the morning, I nurse her, we have breakfast, she takes a nap, she wakes up, I nurse her, we have lunch,she takes a nap, I nurse her, a few hours later we have dinner, I nurse her, she goes to bed for the night. Mondays and Wednesdays are a bit nuts because Henry goes to preschool in the morning, we have an hour for lunch, then he's off to his afternoon school, so on the one hand it's not surprising that nursing her before lunch fell through the cracks, especially since I usually do it before we pick Henry up. However since her nap went long, I grabbed her and ran out the door to pick up Henry, ran home, set us all up with lunch, then ran Henry off to pre-school.

Yesterday I went and did it again, except I have no excuse this time. There wasn't anything exciting going on, no dashing around town, just the three of us kicking around the house, and when it was finally time for lunch and Holly was devouring apples and blueberries at an alarming rate, I recall wondering about how hungry she seemed. Just before it was time to put her down for her nap, I realized what had happened.

Lest you think this is somehow indicative of how everything else has been going around here lately, let me assure you: it absolutely is.

Posted by Jenn at 01:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

1. Crawl over to ukulele case and shove it across the living room floor until it's pressed up against your Incrediblock.
2. Crawl up onto the ukulele case and grab onto the top edge of the aforementioned Incrediblock.
3. Strain every muscle in your body until you're shaking, and slowly but resolutely pull yourself up to the standing position.
4. Boggle your eyes with wonder that you actually managed to do it.
5. Bang the top of the Incrediblock with pride; watch the lights flash and the music play.
6. Wobble a bit and land on your knees after the ukulele case slides out from under you.
7. Pull yourself back up again and slide around on your be-socked feet until your mom takes pity on you and pulls them off.
8. Enjoy!

Posted by Jenn at 08:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Posted by Jenn at 10:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

This morning Holly woke up and was suddenly able to wave "Hi!" So we made a video, because that's what parents do:

I'm posting this one first because the crawling video is going to take forever to upload.

Posted by Jenn at 03:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

She's crawling!

Posted by Jenn at 09:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Due to negligence on the part of her mother, my poor, sweet bun-bun has a sunburn on her cheeks and cute wittle nose. I feel very guilty. Yesterday, since it was nice out, we wandered around downtown after dropping Henry off at school. We stopped and chatted with some friends, meandered, enjoyed the warmish breezes blowing through our hair/fluff (depending on which one of us you are). This morning when I came down Dave was holding Holly in his lap and her cheeks and nose were awfully rosy. Oops. Apparently the onset of warm weather does not instantly kick into gear my penchant for slathering my offspring and myself in SPF 5000. Lesson learned. For Spring/Summer 2010 anyway. Right now Holly is resting peacefully upstairs, enjoying a brief respite from both the sunburn (which doesn't seem to have caused even the slightest blip on her radar, whereas as mine is bleeping all over the place), and, because life is totally unfair, teething pain.

This afternoon we're going to look at a house. It's the only house in this town that, from day one, I told Dave would one day be ours, somehow, someway, as God is my witness, etc. etc. The last time it was on the market, five years ago, it was about $50K out of our price range. In the meantime, times have changed, raises have been earned, kids have been had, and I'm pleased to say it is now approximately $150K out of our price range. However, the prospectus for the house has these key words typed out in plain english: "Willing to negotiate". It would probably be better for us if it said "Willing to negotiate. Seriously. Go ahead, make me an offer. Anything. Really." but what the heck. We're feeling wild and crazy.

Posted by Jenn at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Here's are some pictures I took today of Holly sporting her new tunic which fits! It really fits!

She seems much happier in her handknits than her brother.

Posted by Jenn at 10:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

This afternoon I finished seaming Holly's tunic.

Knitting clothes for babies is great because they don't take very long to make up thanks to the itty bitty, totally sweet, cutesy wootsy, squee size, and even if the item doesn't come out quite the way you expected it to, the baby still manages to cute it up. The Ella Rae Baby Cotton was great to knit with, it didn't get tangled up on my gnarly, end-of-winter, dried-out-husks-that-were-formerly-referred-to-as-fingers like the Noro did while I was finishing up Mavis, although I did have to be careful not to split it while knitting, but such is the case with cotton.

All that's left to do is try it on the girl and take lots of pictures.

Posted by Jenn at 09:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

1. Another tooth. Top right. By yesterday morning she had cut half of the top left tooth. Today she woke up with the rest of it peeking out. She's working very hard over here.
2. A raging diaper rash. We've been powdering, creaming, and air drying our little hearts out. It seems to have done the trick.
3. Her voice. Oh, the shrieking.
4. Pretend walking. Now when you stand her up and hold her hands, she takes steps.
5. She got cuter.

I love the big developmental leaps that take place after big trips like this. Always interesting to see what happens.

Posted by Jenn at 05:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

H² have caught colds. Henry was all set to go to school today, but then I noticed lots of sneezing and snuffling. Sure enough, about an hour and a half before drop-off, he stood in the living room and said "Today is a bad day." When I asked why he said "Because it's still winter and I'm sick." So I kept him home. He's not so sick that he's miserable, so I'm trying my best to keep him entertained so he stays out of trouble. It's "J" week at pre-k so for the sake of consistency we've made paper plate jellyfish with ribbon tentacles, right now he's matching numbers of dots to their numerals, and later he'll practice writing his "J"'s. Just so everyone knows, I'm not cut out to be a teacher, certainly not to my own kid. I'm cut out for lounging in bed with a book and a plate of cheese and crackers. The "work" is not only keeping Henry honest, but me as well.

Meanwhile, Holly developed a runny nose a few days ago which I chalked up to teething because her top front teeth are working their way down. However, yesterday it became clear it's actually a cold. It's not too bad so far. Hopefully this is the worst of it.

Posted by Jenn at 01:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Posted by Jenn at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Before Holly was born, I knew that I wanted to go down a different diapering road than the Pampers one I had travelled with Henry. Don't get me wrong: I loves me some Pampers! Disposable diapers are so convenient. However, for a while now I've been experiencing post-disposable guilt over the hundreds of diapers that are sitting in a landfill somewhere filled with, well, you know, and there they will sit for another 500 years. After doing some research (read: asking my friend Megan what she does and deciding to do that, too) I decided to go the gDiaper route. She and another friend lent me their small gDiapers and Megan got me a medium size starter kit plus a few extra gPants as a baby gift. I used the flushable/compostable inserts when Holly was little, but it became very clear after she graduated to the medium/large size insert that our toilet wasn't particularly happy: it started clogging with increasing frequency. Since we don't have a composter, we ended up tossing them into the trash. Not a terrible thing, but not quite what I was hoping for either.

Twice Megan told me she has been using cloth inserts in the gDiapers for her second kid and that they work great, but I was only ready to really register and digest that fact the second time she mentioned it. After doing a bit of online research (for real this time), I decided to make the switch. I picked up a couple of packs of Gerber trifold cloth diapers to use as inserts, and ordered flushable liners to help with poop disposal. So far, I've been very happy with how it's been going.

The breakdown is: After I wash (great washing instructions here) the cloth inserts and liners (which you can usually wash and reuse at least once), I assemble a days worth of diapers so I don't have to worry about it during diaper changes. At first I was a bit of a dope in the way I was folding the cloth inserts. They're a bit longer than the gPants, so I was folding them under a little bit on each end, until I read somewhere that you should fold them under where the "wet zone" is for extra absorption. Totally obvious solution, however, my brain didn't go there for whatever reason. Per Megan's suggestion I use an old pillowcase, which I put in the Diaper Dekor
we used for Henry, to hold the soiled diapers. When it's time to wash the diapers, which I do approximately every three days, I throw the pillowcase in as well. So far we haven't had any issues with smells because the poop goes right into the toilet, but I have read in a number of places that a few drops of tea tree oil, which has natural disinfectant qualities, in the diaper pail would help. I've ordered some just in case.

At night we still use disposable diapers, either Earth's Best (which I prefer for the fit), 7th Generation, or Full Circle diapers, depending on where I happen to be shopping. We generally only use one disposable at night so one bag lasts us a long time.

All in all it was surprisingly easy to make the switch to cloth.

Posted by Jenn at 01:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday Holly worked very hard at cutting another tooth, and when I check this morning, there it was, nice and sharp. The appearance of teeth is every nursing mother's dream come true. Trust me.

She's been restless the last few nights. Mostly I think it's because she's anxious to get a move on. Yesterday I put her on her little gym mat and she got herself up onto all fours and started to rock back and forth, getting a feel for balance. Almost every time we go to her room to get her up from bed, she's on her hands and knees. When Henry was a baby, he enjoyed the novelty of being able to sit up on his own for a while before he decided to think about becoming mobile. It was great. I could plop him down on a blanket with some toys and he'd sit there and play, happy as a clam. Holly, meanwhile, has, in a few short days, completely mastered the art of pushing herself backwards and gets extremely grumpy when she finds herself lodged around a chair leg and can't go any further. I have a feeling that Dave, Henry, and I will be spending a great deal of time fearfully watching Holly from betwixt our fingers.

Posted by Jenn at 01:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Holly has been diligently practicing her push-ups. This afternoon, she was hanging out on her activity mat, batting some toys around, and when that got old, she flipped over onto her tummy and played with a blanket. When that got old, she pushed herself up, then shoved herself backward. Then she did it again and again and again until she found herself in the middle of Henry's pot-and-pan drum set, halfway across the living room. She played there for a while, then loudly declared that she deserved a nap after all of that hard work. One (albeit backward) step closer to upright mobility.

Speaking of push-ups, I did some yesterday and today I've been very aware of the fact that I have arms.

Let's talk about food. Tonight I made oven-baked sweet potato fries to go with the amazing trout Dave whipped up. They were crazy good. At least Dave, Holly, and I thought so. Henry licked one and called it a day.

Meanwhile, I've been dreaming of Spring, compost, and backyard gardens...

Posted by Jenn at 08:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Holly has way too much going on right now. She's cutting her two bottom teeth, one of which, when I did the first of my six thousand daily gum checks, I could actually see gleaming just underneath the surface. (Holly's current favorite foods: applesauce, carrot, thumb. Two of these items are usually organic; one is chock-full of preservatives.) She's been extremely fussy the last two nights at bedtime, which isn't like her, and I think it's safe to attribute that to the hard-core teething that's going on.

Right now she's absolutely pooped, but is fussing in her crib instead of snoozing. A minute ago I heard her binky hit the floor, so I went up to give it back to her. When I turned to check her out as I was shutting the door, I saw her hoist herself up onto all fours. Crawling is looming on the horizon a bit sooner than I expected.

Dave is trying to teach her to say "hi". It's very cute. His voice gets all squeaky and he says "Holly! Say 'hi'! Say 'hi' Holly!" and she'll look at him and say "haaa" and then beam at him. Then he beams at her, 100% the proud daddy, and then Henry and I have to shield our eyes from all of the beaming that's going on because it tends to get pretty bright.

I just want her to stay little and fuzzy-headed for a bit longer, thank you very much, but I think she's got other plans.

Posted by Jenn at 01:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Holly had oatmeal for the first time yesterday evening. It's got her insides completely bound up. We're opening each diaper with great trepidation and secretly breathing a sigh of relief when it's not "The Big One" while desperately hoping that when it finally occurs, it's on the other person's watch. I'm betting it's going to happen approximately twenty minutes after I go to sleep tonight. Nothing like handling something like that whilst groggy and disoriented.

Posted by Jenn at 06:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A couple of days ago Chocolat turned four months old. This morning she had her checkup plus a couple of vaccinations. She spent most of the late morning and early afternoon sleeping all of the excitement off. She's a healthy girl, good weight/height/head circumference. Also, the doctor wrote in her medical record that Chocolat's the most beautiful little baby she's ever seen, so it's totally official. (Not really.) (But that doesn't mean it's not true.)

The other day Henry and I pulled out his old baby toys. He showed Holly how to play with them. It was very sweet. There was a rattle in there that Henry was always intrigued by, but only when we played with it for him. I realized looking back on Henry's baby days that he was like that with a lot of things. Holly, on the other hand, grabbed hold of it and inspected the heck out of it, turning the different parts, shaking it, while chatting away the whole time. I also remember that when Henry showed interest in what we were eating, he kept a respectful distance away from whatever it was he was interested in, whereas yesterday I raised a glass of water up to my mouth and Holly dove for it, arms flailing, hands grasping. It was almost a big mess. I think we're going to be contending with a very adventurous personality.

Posted by Jenn at 05:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Dave's at a conference in Wilkes-Barre so I've spent the day being the sole responsible adult in the household. I've gotten very used to Henry going to pre-school four days out of the week, so Fridays are interesting because I have to entertain a four year old while keeping Holly on some sort of schedule FOR THE WHOLE DAY. Oh, the humanity. We usually have a great time, but apparently one day is my limit because yesterday was all about cupcakes, whereas today...well, let me just say I'm sort of phoning it in. It reminds me how much I look forward to the weekends when Dave is also kicking around the house. The other day we were laughing over the fact that our definition of a relaxing outing is now going out with only one kid in tow. What the frak were we thinking? Two kids. Gah.

It hasn't helped that Holly's got some sort of something going on, something which I think can be defined as gas thanks to something I ate, whatever that was. She had a great nap this morning, two hours, and then after that, nothing. Well, she slept in my arms for ~20 minutes while I was soaking up the glory that is the two hour Khloe Kardashian wedding special on E!. This is interesting for two reasons: 1) she doesn't sleep in people's arms anymore, she'd prefer to be in bed and 2) how could she sleep through the suspense of wondering if Khloe would come to her senses and ask Bruce to walk her down the aisle, anyway? Holly obviously takes after her dad. I'm pretty sure at this point we've headed into the realm of being so over-tired that we're going to have a rough time sleeping tonight. The poor kid. She's got a nice, relaxing pre-bedtime bath in her future. Although I don't have soothing lavender scents, I'll be willing them into the air anyway.

Posted by Jenn at 06:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Holly spent all of last night rolling over, then crying because she doesn't like being on her tummy. It was the worst night of sleep I've gotten since I had to make a 3AM trip to Walmart for Claritin a few years ago. Tonight, she will be swaddled instead of sleep-sacked. Maybe that will help. Now for the good news: while I was reloading her gdiapers for tomorrow, I realized today was the first day I didn't have to rinse poop out of any of the liners. Bonus!

Posted by Jenn at 07:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Posted by Jenn at 08:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Holly just rolled over from her back to her stomach. Seven times. Then? She rolled from her stomach to her back.

I took a video. Naturally. Actually, not so naturally; Dave had to tell me to do it. Once he comes home with the computer that can actually handle a newer version of Quicktime than this one can, I'll upload it.

Right now Holly's upstairs sleeping off all of the excitement.

Posted by Jenn at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This is a dangerous thing to put out into the universe because it increases the likelihood that it will all go to pot, but while my parents were here we seem to have managed to get Holly on a pretty reliable schedule. The problem leading up to this point was that I didn't have the gumption to keep her up a little bit longer between naps than I normally would, what with the active four year old and the general desire to dive into bed any chance I could get, and also craziness of the growth spurt she just went through. Now that she's settled back down into a normal eating routine as opposed to the insane, non-stop gnoshing that was last week, and with the added bonus of having three of us there to keep her occupied, it was a snap. Right now she takes three naps, two long ones during the morning and early afternoon, and a short evening nap. It's fantastic. When Henry was Holly's age, his sleeping habits were all over the place: not much napping, especially not in his bed, and getting up every one to two hours at night. In fact, that's exactly why it took us so long to decide to have another kid; we had no desire to go through that again.

Anyway, the universe can go ahead and kick me in the butt now.

Posted by Jenn at 07:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I know you all have been breathlessly awaiting an update on Holly. The poor little girl has been having a tough couple of days. She's been pretty restless during her naps, although she does okay at night. I suspect a whole bunch of things are coming to a head all at once: she's nearing the 3-month growth spurt; I'm pretty sure she's teething; she's outgrown the Moses basket she's been sleeping in since she was born and is now in a crib. Yesterday instead of her usual morning, afternoon, and early evening naps, she had a string of naps that each lasted approximately an hour. Once she powers through whatever it is that's causing her distress, I bet she'll have a day or two where she completely crashes out and catches up on all the lost sleep. Something similar happened the last time we were in Boston. We disrupted her nap schedule so much over the course of two days because we were out and about, that on the third day, she was up for about forty minutes to an hour before she needed to be put back down for another nap, each of which lasted about two-and-a-half hours. After the kids were in bed for the night, my mom said she felt like we hadn't seen Holly at all that day.

At her two month checkup she was above the 95th percentile for weight, and 75th for height. (She was 22" long at that appt, which was Henry's height when he was born. Crazy.) The doctor thinks she's going to keep her blue eyes, confirming what my mom and I both have been saying for a while now. Dave still doesn't buy it. She looks a lot like Henry did when he was her age, so I've been spending some of my time imagining Henry with long flowing locks.

We stopped by my Grandmother's house at the end of both trips to Boston. Four generations of women. It kind of rocks a girl's world.

Posted by Jenn at 01:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

On Wednesday I had my weekly checkup. While the doctor was busy "checking up", she had a rather discouraged look on her face, but then, suddenly, she got excited and said "3cm! You're dilated to 3cm!" Then she told me she didn't think I'd make it to my next checkup, which is on Tuesday. To which I outwardly replied "That's great!" while privately I thought "Hah! People walk around for weeks at 3cm." What is working in my favor is I've made progress with every passing week, so something's happening. Also I'm experiencing more contractions throughout the day, instead of just in the evening, so hope springs consistently eternal. Meanwhile, I seem to have latched on to the concept that things that have absolutely nothing to do with actually going into labor will somehow influence when it happens. I'm now referring to them as my "Daily Delusions":

Wednesday: After my appointment I panicked and packed up a bag for my stay at the hospital, as well as a bag for Henry to take to Megan's. When I was done I thought to myself "Our bags are packed; NOW I can go into labor."

Thursday: "All of the laundry is done, our sheets are clean, towels are folded and put away. NOW I can go into labor."

Friday: "I've finally gotten around to buying travel-sized shampoo/conditioner/body wash/toothpaste. NOW I can go into labor."

Today: "I've vacuumed and cleaned the bathrooms. NOW I can go into labor."

It's not working.

Posted by Jenn at 01:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Last week on Wednesday we had our 38 week ultrasound, which, technically speaking, was actually our 37 and a half week ultrasound, but who's counting at this late stage in the game? As if it matters how far along I am, because I'm pretty certain this baby's never coming out, that this is how I'll look for the rest of my life and that my only consolation is that at least such a thing as a cute maternity outfit actually exists in this world so I won't have to sacrifice what little vanity I have left. But I digress. Dave always has two questions whenever we have an ultrasound: 1) Is the baby still a girl? and 2) Is there still only one in there? The answer to Dave's questions were two emphatic "Yes!"'s. As a bonus, Chocolat is measuring smaller weight-wise than Henry was at this point, so with any luck her delivery won't be quite so, um, gruesome.

Yesterday evening I had my weekly check-up and was lucky enough to see the mid-wife who has been so good to us. The practice I go to lost one of their mid-wives last month (sadly, she was the other person I really liked)(also, to clarify, she left the practice, hopefully for brighter horizons; I just realized how gloomy it sounds to say "lost"), so the last three visits I've had to meet with Dr.'s, which is not necessarily my preference, especially this close to having Chocolat, which made it extra-nice to touch base with her again. I'm making some progress, but not tons, so it looks like right now we're on track with our due date. She also reiterated that I should definitely call her when I go into labor and she made a note on my chart that my next appointment should be with her, so I get to see her again next week. I could've hugged her.

So, that's the boring pregnancy update, which ultimately could have been summed up thusly: still pregnant; getting bigger and grumpier by the second. The end.

Posted by Jenn at 05:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

...my glucose test. not by much though (and on only two of the three blood draws) so it's not too big of a deal. The mid-wife I had met twice early in my pregnancy (and really liked) was the one who called to talk to me about it. I get to use a glucometer first thing in the morning, then two hours after each meal. She said since I was going on vacation it wouldn't be a tragedy if I happened to miss some of them, especially if the previous meal was at a restaurant, and if my numbers in general are good. It sounds like something I can manage with my diet, and since I tend to be low-carb and low-sugar anyway it won't require much change, knock on wood. I have to bring a log of my results to my next appt which is the Friday after we get back. She said if the #'s did look good, they most likely wouldn't have me do the glucometer every day. She also said if I have any questions to call her directly because she had GD when she was pregnant and she takes a special interest in other women who do as well. She was awesome. I'm so happy that there are two people at Lewisburg ob-gyn that I feel comfortable talking to. And now, I'm totally ready to stop boring you with the details of my experience there and move on already. Frankly, I'm sick of it myself at this point. Thanks again for all of the support. I consider myself extremely blessed to have you all in my life.

Tomorrow we're leaving for the beach. I'll be off-line for a week and a half. Last year when we went with Megan and her family, she and I practically free-based the amazing fudge that people sell there. Since I won't be able to do that this year, I feel a responsibility to warn Dave that I'll be filling that particular void by procuring as much seashell laden objets d'art as I can possibly get my hands on.

Posted by Jenn at 09:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So I've been trying to convince Dave that "Lorelei" is a great girl's name. He says it's too WB. Whatever could he mean by that? I amped up the pushiness about it this weekend, and after suffering through a mini-dissertation on the meaning and mythology behind it this morning, he threw his hands up in the air and said "FINE. IT'S FINE. WHATEVER. GO AHEAD." For the record, Marta Kristen's is the first Lorelei that ever made an impression on me, not Lauren Graham's. Frankly, it would only be fitting for us to name our daughter after a character in a Frankie and Annette beach movie. Well, actually, it would be fitting for me I guess. Dave would obviously just be putting up with it. It's probably not much of an improvement over the inspirations behind our other name choices: Annie (Little Orphan Annie), Dale (Terry and the Pirates), Veronica (Archie Comics), Chocolat Meilleure (Sugar Sugar Rune). I read a lot of high literature over here.

I've been trying to figure out what we need to buy to prepare for the impending arrival of a certain Lorelei/Dale/Chocolat Meilleure and there's not too much. Fortunately babies aren't too tough on baby things what with all of the laying around and fussing that they do, so most of Henry's stuff survived relatively unscathed. The major exception is the stroller which was, by the end of it's two-year tenure, held together by duct tape. It was rendered completely useless one fateful day when Henry grabbed the cup holder/safety bar thingy, yanked it up with all of his might, and broke it in half. That was the end of that. It's just as well we get a second chance at a stroller because the one we chose for Henry was too short for both myself and Dave, and also its sad little wheels didn't navigate the uneven sidewalks of the 'burg very well. I've gotten to test drive a few different models thanks to everyone I know owning a different kind of stroller, so that's helped me narrow it down to one in particular. Naturally it's expensive, but probably worth it.

The only other things we need are new baby bottles (we're going old skool glass because we're cool like that) and we're switching to biodegradable/flushable gdiapers instead of Pampers. I still haven't purchased any little girl outfits. (Did you hear that? That was Dave, sighing with relief.) I was talking to a friend about it a couple of weeks ago and she reminded me that babies don't wear anything other than sleep dresses and those kimono shirts early on anyway, so who cares? She's totally right. Besides, I bet I'll be totally inspired once I actually meet Chocolat for the first time. (Did you hear that? That was Dave canceling my debit card.)

Posted by Jenn at 04:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)