the secret life of...

lucie is secretly a jedi (pink jedi, of course) channeling the force for carseat safety:


phil is secretly a double-daddy agent, taking aim at papparazi everywhere:


cleveland is (surprise, surprise) secretly hungry and has offered up an option for his snack:


as for this mommy, i'm tired, and hungry, and one of my breasts is full. i'm also madly in love with my babies, but i guess that's really no secret.

something cute

phil and i both acknowledge that cleveland received more than his share of attention (and photos) after he was born. he was our first child and my parents first grandchild. with lucie, phil reminds me frequently, that, as a second child himself, he is very sensitive to giving her equal camera time. cleveland is quite the ham, however, and it can be hard to get good lucie shots when he's around. so here are a couple i took this morning. in addition to being very cute, they illustrate just how crazy her hair gets after a bath.

here she is pre-wash, with that regular cute thick tuft atop her head:

but after a good soak, she sports quite the 'fro:

don't mind her expression, she's also a little milk drunk:)

please hold

it started monday morning. immediately following his 18 month well-child check (where, i might add, he was pronounced 'well') i returned home only to remove cleveland, and about a liter of liquid stool, from his carseat. no need to elaborate anymore...this GI virus, perhaps rotovirus, had struck, and hard. the next several days are a blur of Lysol and laundry. of picking him up out of his crib and depositing him directly into the bathtub, of learning the art of stripping a child of soiled clothing without exposing his face to any nasty little bits (this skill takes time to master). by thursday morning things seem to be looking up. still, i'm wary of traveling far from home, so we stay in and enjoy playing at home.

this is when cleveland's homemade car came in handy again. i could never have expected that it would afford him (or me) the hours (ok, minutes) of delight that it has. he motions to get in it, and takes goggy the dog for a ride. he likes to be pushed around in it (obviously), but is just as content to sit and use his crayons to touch up the paint job. and most recently, it's become a home office.

cleveland has always loved the telephone, and when he can't get his hands on one, he's happy to substitute just about any object, including a favorite, socks (see below):

so cleveland was in his car, and i was finishing laundry on the floor. i had just paired and matched all the socks, when i took a pair in my hand held it up to my ear and said 'hello, cleveland's answering service...yes, he is available, one moment please'. i handed the socks to cleveland, he delighted in taking this call. with seven more pairs, we enjoyed this game immensely. here are a few sound bites of note.

'good morning, cleveland's answering service, can you hold?...i'm sorry he's not taking any calls right now...yes, i appreciate that, but he's very busy and important...yes, i can take a message (hissssssss)...(cleveland it's 'sam the snake' and he sounds angry...i've tried to get rid of him...all right all right)...cleveland's answering service, hello. oh, 'mike the monkey', hold on mike he's been expecting you, let me see if he's available.' (cleveland, it's mike, can you take this...ooh ooh ooh, aah aah aah) 'mike, one moment, i'll put you through'

here, witness the aftermath of another busy day at the office:

crafty mommy

You may have seen my fantastic Halloween costume I made for Cleveland in an earlier post. Since then, I've been on a veritable crafty roll. First, I made play dough...


Then Cleveland and I decorated a car for him. Here's Cleveland getting accustomed to his new ride,


And here he's being assisted by navigator Goggy,


As you can see, these wheels are something to be proud of. I even thought to design a custom license plate with Cleveland's initials. And it was only then, after 18 months on this earth, that I realized my son's initials look like CRaP! Literally:

here's a bit of perriñez family info in pictures (mostly as it relates to children):

Phil and I probably met in 1995 or 1996. We don't exactly recall because we grew up in the same community. But we agree that we became friends in 1998, and dated through college, and graduate school, and finally got married in 2005.


But marriage was just the beginning of the adventure. We didn't necessarily have a definitive family plan, but in late 2007 we thought we were ready to welcome children into our lives, and we had Cleveland on August 28, 2008


Cleveland was a happy fellow, who enjoyed sleeping,

eating,

and the beach!
In the early months with Cleveland, our pace never slowed a bit. here are some of the adventures we went on:

A wedding in Connecticut in September, 2008 (Cleveland - 9 days old)

A trip to Rochester, NY in October, 2008 (Cleveland - 8 weeks old)

A conference in Florida and trip to see Emily's family in Louisiana in February, 2009 (Cleveland - 5 months old)


A conference in Hawaii in April, 2009 (Cleveland - 7 months old)

We knew our family wasn't complete, and last summer we found out we were expecting again! (Yes, it was a surprise, a Hawaiian surprise...) here we are at Phil's sister Valerie's wedding. i was 12 weeks pregnant. the bandage on Cleveland's left hand is from his surgery, to be blogged about at another time.
in July of 2009, we moved to Burlington so Phil could begin med school. i started working at Fletcher Allen, and Cleveland started enjoying life in northern Vermont.


here he is on Halloween. i made his costume! this is a real feat for someone who actually had to repeat the sewing portion of home economics in middle school, and was ultimately charged for breaking more than one sewing machine...this was made entirely with felt and a hot glue gun.

on January 13, 2010 we welcomed little Lucie (Lucienne is her full name).
we've taken to calling her 'beanie' or sometimes 'the bean'. this is because in the nursery, the nurses all commented on how big she was (8 lb, 15 oz). she was the biggest baby by far. it made me think of my favorite bean, the butter bean, by far one of the biggest beans. also, 'Lucie bean' just sounds so cute.

For his part, Cleveland has proven to be an excellent big brother who loves his sister immensely. he does many sweet big brother things, like blowing her kisses, and covering her with his blanket, and trying to sit with/on her when she is in her bouncy seat. it's my great hope that, at only 16 1/2 months apart, they will soon and forever be best friends.



here's Lucie sleeping on the quilt her Grammy Perriñez made for her.

Ok, that's who we are, where we are, and where we came from. more to come, I'm sure.

you'll never forget THAT again!

my mother always says that to me. and if there's one lesson motherhood has taught me, it's that, despite any doubts or misgivings, or disbelief i may have displayed when she first uttered this, and other words of wisdom, my mother was, and still is, always right. please see below:

this morning i'm in hannaford with Lucie and all is going well. she's awake but happily enjoying her car seat cow toy that I keep jingling in front of her face. then there's a little bit of grumping at the fish counter, and more at the deli, and finally we're in produce and things aren't looking good. i cut my produce list a bit short, and make my way to the checkout. everything's on the conveyor and lucie is now in full blown meltdown mode...i swipe my card, sign the pad and whisk her out of the car seat. the bagger offers to finish and place my cart off to the side so i can tend to her in the bathroom, and away we go. as we're walking down aisle 10 to the facilities, my hand on lucie's back giving her my best HappiestBabyontheBlock shush, i feel what i've been dreading since i first had cleveland 18 months ago...it's a full blown blow-out up-the-back nasty-public poop! into the restroom we go. i strip her down (of course now she's cooing happily...she loves to be naked), get the diaper off, and i'm just thanking my stars for having exactly the right number of wipes to finish this job when it hits me...she doesn't have a change of clothes. indeed, that little elephant sleeper i so stealthily just removed and the gerber onesie that i was able to get over her head without leaving a trace of poop north of her mid-back...those were her only clothes. in fact, yesterday, when i needed to make a quick-change at my mother-in-law's, i grabbed those same clothes out of the diaper bag and put them on. those WERE my extra clothes! what, WHAT do i do now? it's not like it's august and i can march my daughter outside in just a diaper and expect no one to call child protective services. i briefly considered trying to fasten something out of paper bags...or maybe seeing if flour sacks actually still exist in grocery stores. then the cruel reality hit that i would just have to place these poopy clothes back on her and get home as quick as i could.

so the onesie was definitely not wearable. into the diaper back it went. and just as i was apologizing profusely and preparing to stick her arms back in the sleeper, i saw them. on the changing station were thin barrier pads to place down beneath your baby before changing. i've noticed the location for these before, but they are always empty so it never even occurred to me to check. i carefully took one out, and without unfolding it, stuck it underneath her back, placing a small piece inside the diaper, and letting the rest provide a barrier between the poopy clothes and her skin. ahh, a mama's ingenuity...

as the story goes, i spent the next 10 minutes in a stall feeding her, then plopped her back in the car seat and raced home to change her. she slept in the car, oblivious. and now, there are two full changes of clothes in my diaper bag. and for the record, no, i will never forget them again.

shhh...bunny is dead

i don't like 'pat the bunny'. at best, it's a quaint, albeit dated book imploring young children to show off their skills at touching, reading, and peek-a-boo. but something about this book really irks me. maybe, as a brunette (from a decidedly very brunette family), i feel dissociated with the blond (very blond) children, paul and judy. maybe it's the use of the word 'mummy', a word which i associate with an ancient dead body wrapped in gauze and entombed. or maybe it's 'judy's book'. what's with 'judy's book' anyway? look closely at that bunny...i don't believe that bunny is sleeping. bunnies don't sleep like that.

Monday morning, 8:39AM

yes, it's that time again. time to begin the week anew. time to cast aside the memories of the weekend and look forward to what the new week has in store. time to pray that maybe one day this week is a good enough 'outside day' for an 18 month old who is really just getting his booted feet under him. time to face the need to launder the baby bjorn that now houses most every bodily fluid imaginable. yet here i sit, at 8:39...typing. who has this kind of time?

well, here's the thing. both of my children are (gulp)...asleep. asleep? how can this be. if only i knew. the little one is in that nature's touch swing thing which i chided at first and now acknowledge i couldn't (or at least wouldn't be willing to) live without. and cleveland...well, he's still in his crib. this, the boy who emerges at 6:45 AM latest. and no he's not sick, and yes i just checked and he hasn't run away.

so how does it feel to have the time to sit online and sip coffee at now 8:43? am i elated? nope, quite the opposite. in fact i would say i'm rather suspicious. what are my children doing? sleeping...for now, but what does this mean for later? in a world where every week brings a new idiosyncratic behavior (or word), i've learned to be suspicious. are they conspiring? will this sabotage the oh-so-anticipated two hour nap this afternoon? only time will tell.

if you don't yet know me, this post is a great introduction to my psyche, for i am rarely able to roll with the good news without fearing disaster in it's wake. truth is, i'm 'working on' this particular behavior, and i realize that this initial recognition is a good first step. i'm not entirely against spontaneity, just as long as it's not totally unanticipated...