Will's Four Month Pictures

The pictures from Will's four-month session with our favorite photog Kelly Willette arrived a couple of weeks ago but I am woefully behind in updating the blog. Although Will spent literally the entire time with his fist in his mouth, Kelly managed to get some great shots nonetheless.

By the way, Will is wearing his daddy's old Feltman bubbles, courtesy of my mother-in-law who kept them all these years!

Lulu juice

Sometime last year when Jack's verbal ability finally caught up with his inquisitiveness, he pointed to my mother's glass and asked what was inside it. She answered "Lulu juice" (known in the rest of the world as Sauvignon Blanc).

Fast forward to earlier this year. Because Billy is often working after Jack goes to bed, we have our family time in the morning. Jack gets into our bed and drinks his milk while we drink coffee and read the paper. One morning a month or so ago, Billy put Jack in the bed and started to go downstairs to get all morning beverages.

Jack: "Daddy - go get my milk please!"
Billy: "What else?"
Jack: "Mommy's coffee"
Billy: "What do I get?"
Jack: "Lulu juice!"

I want a piece of that....

This year, my birthday and mother's day landed on the same weekend, so we celebrated on the same day. The week before my birthday, my mother and Jack had the following exchange:

Lulu: Jack, do you know what Friday is?
Jack: What?
Lulu: Mommy's birthday!
Jack: I want a piece of that.

Note that upon utterance of the word "birthday" Jack's brain immediately made the leap to cake. Again, Jack exhibits signs that he is clearly my child.

And despite my dairy-free existence, my mother managed to make a birthday cake I could eat (Duncan Hines, FYI).

After helping me blow out the candles, Jack was not content with licking the icing off of the candles and instead stuck his fingers right in the cake. Again, my child.



And thanks to Jack's sugar high, I got the best present of all - a hug from both my boys.

Pasta jewelry

Yesterday, Jack's school had a little Mother's Day celebration. I arrived just as Jack's class was coming down the hallway wearing pasta necklaces that they clearly had made for us. Although most of the kids just waved hi to their mothers, Jack broke ranks and ran over to me. He gave me a huge hug and said so proudly "Happy Mother's Day! I made this for you. And we have a surprise downstairs!" It sounded so much cuter than it reads.

We went downstairs where they sang a song and served us muffins and rice krispie treats that the kids had all made.

It was such a happy moment. My very first homemade gift. I know over the year there will be potholders and clay bowls and popsicle stick picture frames, but my pasta necklace will always be my favorite...

My weekend with the boys

In the midst of my Will-induced sleeplessness, Jack decided to stop taking naps and thus turned into the devil, Billy had a week of late nights at the office thus leaving me to deal with both boys at bedtime, and then he went to a wedding of two of his best friends from college. I was already irritated that I had to miss the wedding (see previous post re bottle issues) but I was teetering on the edge of insanity due to sleep deprivation and general feelings of ill will toward my children. I also spent the week helping set up for the art show and auction at Jack's preschool so I didn't have any time to do errands or clean. Take my word for it that my house looked like Kosovo circa 1993. To top everything off, I hit a car pulling into a parking space in front of school Friday morning. I called Billy in tears. He came home before heading to the airport just to give me a hug and he also sent me these gorgeous flowers.

And that just made me cry all over again.

Nonetheless, we survived a whole weekend without dad (with help from my parents and friends). We missed him terribly of course but we made it in one piece, with no trips to the hospital. I didn't kill either child and they didn't kill me. That, my friend, is success.

Will at 4 months

Will had his four month checkup last week. He weighed in at 15 pounds, 8 ounces and measured 25 inches. Other than that, the visit was brief. I actually spent more time asking Dr. Fred about Jack's recurrent sinus infections than about Will.

What else is Will up to? Let's see. He's a smile whore - if you look at him, talk to him or pick him up, he will smile at you for hours. He loves to stand or sit up. He does not care to lie down, either on his back or his stomach. He particularly hates being left alone. If everyone is sitting up at the table, do not make the mistake of leaving the poor dear in his car carrier on the ground like all the other babies. No, he must join the big people at the table. Come to think of it, he behaves an awful lot like a first child. He adores singing, probably the consequence of hearing Jack's music class every week while in utero.

He and Jack are still engaged in Lovefest '09. They hold hands, make each other laugh and read books together. Jack has an uncanny ability to make Will stop crying, which definitely comes in handy when I've got raw chicken juice all over my hands.


The only weird thing is that at about 3 and a half months, after 2 months of sleeping through the night, Will started waking up in the middle of the night with terrible gas. Sometimes he'd be up 5 or 6 times. For a lucky girl like me who has always had good sleepers, this night waking really threw me. I'm not going to lie - I am not a nice person when I don't sleep. I could live with it if I knew the reason why. I asked Dr. Fred about it at Will's appointment and he suggested that I cut out dairy. Um, dairy is in everything. There is "hidden dairy" in bread, crackers, deli meat - virtually everything. Sheesh. I have been able to live with most of the restrictions but the one thing that is killing me is not having half and half in my coffee. Do you know how disgusting soy milk is? It's nauseating.

There are times when I really wish I could still drink and this my friends is one of them...