Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

Ethan's rolling on his way!



(I apologize for the plumber's crack in the above shot. I didn't notice until AFTER I'd loaded the photo. It's still a good picture, but he'll hate me for it when he's older.)

A few days ago, I noticed Ethan starting to roll over -- he'd get halfway, and be on one side. Thursday he scooted all the way around in a circle on his side, like a miniscule break dancer!

Here he is a few weeks ago, trying:



Then, today, I was working at the computer while Ethan was lying on a blanket on the floor. I put him on his tummy for a while, and he rolled to his side again, and then very quietly he rolled all the way over onto his back! Whether it was due to the motivation of a full poopy diaper making him uncomforatable, the absence of an ever-intense older brother, or just plain gumption, he succeeded!

I took a photo!

Ethan's first successful unassisted rollover:



Then, I waited a little while and he rolled back to his stomach! That's definitely a first to be proud of! I got some still pictures, but was unable to get him to do it a second time to adequately capture it on video. Perhaps I will soon!

Here he is, very proud of himself after rolling back onto his tummy:



And he's only 3 months, 2 weeks, and 4 days old! (Thanks, ticker!) :) That's about 15 weeks for the mathematically challenged.

Just so you know, he's growing fast, too. At his last checkup he was 14 lbs 7 oz and 24 inches long. And though I don't hold much stock in those percentiles, that's the 75% all around for height and weight. (He's bigger than average, where Jacob was just long and skinny, and about a pound less at 3 months.) Ethan now coos and gurgles all the time, as if he wants to join in our conversations. Even Jacob notices and says "Really, Ethan?!" It could be an SNL skit.

Ethan also like to suck his thumb to self-soothe, somthing Jacob never did. It has earned him a nickname, so don't be surprised if you hear his older brother say, "Hey, Thumbsucker!" It's quite hilarious.

Next big milestone: crawling. Uh-oh. I'll really be in trouble then.

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Babies Don't Keep

This week, we have:

taken food to a friend across town

been to the Zoo

eaten too many french fries and brownies

went on two long walks with the new stroller

done about seven loads of laundry

visited the office, twice

played at a local park

vacuumed the third bedroom for the first time since we moved in

Today I had more grand cleaning and organizing plans that I pushed aside for my little boy. And I'm so glad.

I hope I will always have today's memory of holding feverish Jacob in our dwarf-size tippy-back armchair, with his body tucked under my arm, and reading almost the entire Rhyme Bible Storybook with him. To keep it going, I even filled in the gaps between each story with an explanation of how it fits into the larger picture of God's Big Story. Then, since he was sleepy but wouldn't sleep, I read to him in our big bed until he couldn't keep his eyes open anymore. Before I took a nap myself, I looked over at his little brother, conked out in his crib, and contentedly settled in for a short rest.

Some wonderful moms have quoted the last stanza of the following to me before, but I didn't realize it was an entire poem until tonight. It's my new mantra. (See: dinner, which consisted of leftover bagels Gaines brought home from work.)

Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing and butter the bread,
Sew on a button and make up a bed.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue
(lullaby, rock-a-bye, Lullaby loo).
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(pat-a-cake, darling, and peek-peek-a-boo).
The shopping is not done and there's nothing for stew
And out in the yard there is a hullabaloo.
But I'm playing "Kanga" and this is my "Roo."
Look! Aren't his eyes the most wonderful hue?
(lullaby, rock-a-bye, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
For children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

Ruth Hulburt Hamilton, 1958

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The Saga of the Double Stroller

For the past few months, if I've gone walking with both boys (and it has happened too few times), I've put Ethan in a baby carrier and Jacob in a stroller. That's not really ideal for a long walk or a hot day or a trip to the zoo. So, some generous family members gave us some money to get a brand new double stroller. Woo-hoo!

Thanks to my mom friends for suggestions! After months of research, reading reviews, and scouring the daily deals, I finally decided on exactly what kind of double jogging stroller I wanted and would best meet our needs (and our budget). Here's the story of what happened after I found it.

4-29-09 3:30 p.m. Ordered Baby Jogger City Classic Double Jogging Stroller in Navy. Got a great deal since it was a 2008 on closeout!



4-29-09 3:32 p.m. Realized I wasn't signed in to eBates! Cancelled order.

4-29-09 3:40 p.m. Reordered said stroller and got back $14.00 with ebates! Woo-hoo!

05-01-09 12:54 p.m. Price-matched stroller and got another $50 back!

05-04-09 10:30 a.m. Stroller arrives!

05-04-09 2:30 p.m. Opened box and realized that stroller had been damaged:



05-04-09 3:22 pm Chatted online with company to request a course of action.

05-04-09 4:00 p.m. Took pictures of damage and sent them to the company.

05-04-09 5:00 p.m. Attempted to repackage stroller in original box so that it can be resealed. Unsuccessful. It was difficult!

05-05-09 3:30 p.m. Spoke with representative. They could have picked it up that Friday. "Um, how do I get it back in the box properly so it can close?" They had no clue. They suggested I wait until I have new stroller and see how IT is packaged. Oh, well.

05-11-09 Received tracking number for new stroller. Expected to arrive Wednesday!

05-14-09 11:00 a.m. My new (unblemished) stroller arrived! Hooray!

05-14-09 11:30 p.m. Repackaged old stroller in box with Gaines' help. It was actually fairly simply once I had an assistant!

Now we have TWO large stroller boxes in our entryway:



05-20-09 This is the date the damaged stroller is scheduled for pick-up. Yay!

I will say that despite the inconvenience, I'm glad I returned the stroller. and it was a fairly streamlined and trouble-free process. At least I didn't have to take the box up and down our stairs! The last FedEx guy who dropped off our stroller on Wednesday quipped: "I'm sure glad you're home!"

I would highly recommend both mystrollers.com and BabyJogger.com for their excellent customer service and personalized help!

Now I have a stroller in perfect condition, and the only bumps will be my fault.
I can't wait to take it for a test run (and see if it really does fit in our Civic's trunk)! If only the rain would go away! Hopefully Monday will be my first time to take the boys out on a walk together in their new ride. We already tested it out indoors and Jacob was rarin' to go!

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Quick Thoughts on the LOST Season Finale

(I do not think these contain spoilers. If you saw the episode, though, feel free to make comments ON OUR BLOG and know that those will NOT be spoiler-free.)

1. The opening scene blew away all my expectations and cancelled out quite a few of my guesses, especially about Jacob. Best. Episode. Ever.

2. What happened at the end of the episode IS "the incident." The past will not be rewritten.

3. Juliet = Desmond when he turned the key in season 2

4. All of the castaways who were in 1977 will be returned to 2007 or sometime thereafter.

5. Jacob vs. "unamed guy in black" showdown will be "the war" that has been coming

6. "unamed guy in black" = the Smoke monster

7. I must read more Flannery O'Connor. See: recurring theme of resurrection

I'm sure I'll come up with more tomorrow, but for now: discuss!

UPDATE: This recap by some guy named Todd touches on many of the religious themes of the show, and even dubs" unnamed guy in black" as Esau. Thoughts?

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All things Randy G

Remember way back when I actually posted semi-regularly to this blog and wrote about a Randall Goodgame concert? Well, me neither.

But, I would direct you over to the Rabbit Room, where the song that made me cry, "California," is the song of the day. Which means you can listen to it for free!

Go on, check it out. Plus, as a bonus, you get an interview with the G-man himself. If you want more Randall, here's his blog. And he also sometimes updates their adoption blog, which is pretty nice.

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Poems for Mothers

As heard today on the Writer's Almanac:

To My Mother
by Wendell Berry

I was your rebellious son,
do you remember? Sometimes
I wonder if you do remember,
so complete has your forgiveness been.

So complete has your forgiveness been
I wonder sometimes if it did not
precede my wrong, and I erred,
safe found, within your love,

prepared ahead of me, the way home,
or my bed at night, so that almost
I should forgive you, who perhaps
foresaw the worst that I might do,

and forgave before I could act,
causing me to smile now, looking back,
to see how paltry was my worst,
compared to your forgiveness of it

already given. And this, then,
is the vision of that Heaven of which
we have heard, where those who love
each other have forgiven each other,

where, for that, the leaves are green,
the light a music in the air,
and all is unentangled,
and all is undismayed.


"To My Mother" by Wendell Berry, from Entries. © Pantheon Books, 1994. Reprinted with permission.

Another poem, found while searching for something else, but entirely appropriate since I was up with Jacob at 3am last night:

Little Sleep's-Head Sprouting Hair in the Moonlight
by Galway Kinnell (one of my favorite poets)

You scream, waking from a nightmare.

When I sleepwalk
into your room, and pick you up,
and hold you up in the moonlight, you cling to me
hard,
as if clinging could save us. I think
you think
I will never die, I think I exude
to you the permanence of smoke or stars,
even as
my broken arms heal themselves around you.

Read the rest of the poem at this poetry society page.

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A Whale of a Tale

This afternoon, after Jacob had just gone potty and he was washing his hands, I ran to check on the laundry. I hear the toilet flush. I think, 'Uh, oh, we already flushed the toilet.' Then Jacob comes running up to me and says, "My whale is gone."

Now, I knew exactly what he was talking about, because he had been playing with the little blue plastic whale bath toy earlier. He was running all over the house, saying that the whale was eating the furniture and the walls and things like that. Cute. But not so much when he tries to flush it.

I investigated and sure enough, the facts added up: the toilet is now slow to flush, the whale is missing, and my boy usually tells the truth about things like this. So, I've already put in a call to maintenance to come unclog our toilet. We'll see what happens...I hope it's still in the actual toilet and not farther down the pipe. Surely it can't get that far? It's at least bigger in diameter than a toilet paper roll. And I'm so pround he told me immediately after it happened!

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For Your Consideration

Exhibit A:


Exhibit B:




And everyone says they look alike. Sheesh.

Brownie points to anyone who can guess which is which and how old each brother is at the time of the photo. :)

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