Three Cheers!

First cheer for Graham, who rolled over for the first time this morning! We were all playing downstairs and decided it was tummy time. Jack loves to do tummy time, too, so he laid down on Graham's left side. Graham then turned with his whole body to look at Jack and was already halfway over, so Jack and I encouraged him to look even further up, and Graham rolled right over! It was amazing, as he had never shown any interest in rolling over before and isn't crazy about tummy time so hasn't done much of it. Immediately after the first time he rolled over, I tried to get Graham to do it again on video. Jack was too impatient to let Graham roll over himself, so the following video ensued. Rest assured it was not a fluke event, as Graham rolled over again later this morning while our friends Emily and Milo were over.

Second cheer for Jack, who did a fantastic job as ringbearer in my cousin Julie's wedding last weekend. They even had him carry *the real rings* (!) on the pillow, a prospect that really scared me when I first heard they were planning on it.

We rode the train to Nonna and Pops' house, which Jack loved. There was even a very nice conductor who came over to talk with us for about 10 minutes. Hilariously, Jack was so starstruck that he lost all ability to communicate. He started taking things out of our bag to show to the conductor and could only manage one-word descriptions.

Meanwhile, I was trying to demonstrate to Jack how he could ask questions of the conductor, who turned out to be excessively chatty with me. Thus for about 10 minutes our conversation went roughly like this:

Jack: (pulling out a book) Book!

Momma: So did you have to go to school for a long time to become a conductor?

Jack: Pretzels!

Conductor: Actually, yes. I went to Choo Choo U

Jack: Peanut butter!

Conductor: for about two months up in Wilmington

Jack: iPhone!

Conductor: Delaware. Out in Kansas, Johnson County Community

Jack: Sling!

Conductor: College has an associate's degree railroad science program

Jack: Breastfeeding cover!

Conductor: but I didn't want to go to school for that long, so I haven't done that.

Third cheer for both Jack and Graham who finally managed to take coordinated naps for the first time in a long time, allowing me to write this post. Graham's been resisting naps of late, and he's had a couple of two-wake nights recently, but he's still a fantastic sleeper. About two weeks ago he even managed to go from 9 p.m. until 6 a.m.! My baby can sleep through the night. I didn't think I'd be saying that until at least 6 months from now.

Graham at Julie's wedding

Jack playing the trumpet noisemaker favors that Dustin and Julie handed out at the wedding. I think everyone slightly regretted about 5 minutes after Jack got hold of it.

Is It Wrong? Yes, but...

The first question: Is it wrong that last night my 3 year old woke me up more often than my 2 month old?

Um, yes. But what can I do about it? Ugh. Last night both boys fell asleep around 9, though we tried to put them to sleep at around 8. Graham woke up at 3 for about half an hour. But Jack had already beaten him to two wake ups--at 1:30 and again at 2:30 Jack called out, "Daddy I need you!" Though he called for Daddy (everything's Daddy this and Daddy that right now for Jack), I went sleepwalking into his room to pull the covers up and give him a nuzzle-kiss, since Ben 1) rarely wakes up when Jack calls out, and 2) can't get up fast enough for my taste even if he does wake up. I, on the other hand, wake up so quickly that my first roommate freshman year of college was convinced that I only ever pretended to sleep; she swears that my alarm never made more than two beeps before I slammed it off. For the record, the second time I went into Jack's room last night, despite his obvious sleepiness, he accusatorily asked me, "Where's Daddy?" No credit at all for dragging myself out of bed.

I've been wondering how much Jack is waking up lately and we just aren't hearing it now because we're so sleep deprived. About a month ago I groggily awoke to hear Jack calling out in the most pitiful voice ever, "Daddy I need you! Daddy I need you! Hew-wo?" The hello was particularly heart-wrenching as I pulled myself out of bed to comfort my poor little boy. But my curiosity about his undetected night wakings deepened last week, while my mom was visiting. One night she accidentally locked herself out of our house after Ben and I had gone to sleep. After using the keypad to open the garage door, she found that even the door from the garage into the house was locked. She then tried knocking, but that didn't wake us, so, cringing, she decided she had to ring the doorbell. No response. After 20 minutes, 2 doorbell rings, and four garage door opening/closings, we finally woke up to her banging on the front window! Neither of us had heard a thing before that. So my guess is that Jack is waking up quite a bit more than we realize.

At any rate, I was extremely tired this morning and woke up with a too-little-sleep migraine. I've recently discovered that migraines seem to be my body's way of reminding me that mothers of two month old babies are not supposed to stay up to have any free time at all in the evenings. Even mothers with two month olds who could very fairly be labeled good sleepers should go to sleep by at least 9 p.m., according to my aching head. It's not a terribly frequent occurrence but is one that is particularly annoying, especially since breastfeeding prevents me from taking Excedrin, which normally will cure the problem in 15 minutes flat. No, to banish my migraines now I have to resort to caffeine, one of the main ingredients in Excedrin, but one that takes longer alone to work and has the side effect of keeping both Graham and me awake all...day...long. Not fun.

So on the way to playgroup, I drove through Starbucks to pick up my first nondecaf latte in a long, long time. Yes, Stacy, they amazingly have Starbucks drive throughs here in St. Louis. Sounds a little excessive when viewed from a city where everyone can walk nearly everywhere. I myself laughed aloud when we moved here and I realized that within a mile radius of our house we have not one but two Starbucks with drive through windows. Quite as amusing as the two Starbucks within view of Farringdon tube station. But when faced with endless stretches of five-lane roads and a distinct lack of good sidewalks that prevent walking almost anywhere, one is forced to use carseats instead of strollers. And when dealing with the hassle of carseats and the ensuing hassle of walking stroller-less with an infant and a preschooler, one quickly learns that a drive through anything is a true gift that should be given preference to a walkup version.

Well, generally drive throughs are a good thing. Today they were not. Due to Disney World-like magic, the line of waiting cars appeared about half its actual length. Had I known there were actually about 8 cars in front of me, I would have hauled the boys inside, carseat hassle or no. But I didn't realize how long it was until we were already trapped into the drive through line, at which point Graham immediately began wailing inconsolably. Simultaneously, the line came to a dead stop. The car at the window must have been paying in pennies, I swear. Five minutes later we haven't moved at all and can't move because of the concrete barriers beside us and cars behind and in front of us. Jack and I have exhausted our repertoire of lullabies, and none of them have calmed Graham in the least. So I jump out of the car and try to soothe Graham while leaving him in his car seat. Two or three minutes. Still no luck. Desperate, I unbuckle the seat and carry him to the front seat, where he remains with me until my venti nonfat iced cinnamon latte is lodged in my cupholder. We exited the drive through, pulled into the parking lot and I returned a very happy baby to his carseat with no problems.

Second question: Is it wrong to drive (even for just a few feet at less than 5 miles an hour) with a baby in your lap? Yes, but I have a lot more sympathy for Brittney Spears right now.

It's All In the Timing

Can I just say that I love, love, love our new daily routine? I mean, seriously, it's great. I never thought I would say that I adore getting up at 6 a.m., especially not while having a two month old baby, but I really do--I love waking up at 6 in the morning. Let me tell you why.

When Ben was working at a law firm, he usually didn't have to be at the office at any set time in the morning. So we never set an alarm, and he usually aimed for leaving our house somewhere around 8:30 or 9. We woke up when Jack did, had a leisurely breakfast together, then got ready for the day at our own pace. Of course, we were always slightly trying to hurry, so my "getting ready" usually consisted of just getting a shower. Ben usually needed to leave before I had time to dry my hair or get dressed, a process that currently involves about 10 costume changes since I have around that many outfits that fit me and I'm not satisfied with how I look in any of them. Jack was also still generally in his pajamas when Ben left for the day. And Graham? Well, for the two weeks of his life that Ben actually went to work at the firm, Graham's wardrobe didn't really consist of pajamas and non-pajamas so much as a general category of clothes that were hopefully not yet spit up upon since the last washing. There was no possibility of the three of us ever getting out of the house before 10.

But now we have a routine that I love firmly in place. We wake up at 6:15, if Graham hasn't already woken us. Graham, the awesome sleeper I deserve after having dealt with Jack's sleep problems for the past 3 years, has been fairly consistently waking up only once a night for the past two weeks! He goes to bed around 9, wakes between 2 and 3, and then goes back to sleep until 5:30 or 6. It's amazing. So we wake up, Ben gets showered and dressed, and I get showered and dressed, fix my hair, and occasionally even get makeup on (which is amazing since for the past six years I've put on nearly all makeup with the aid of a visor mirror) all by 7:30. Jack wakes up sometime around the time Ben's ready, so the two of them are generally done with breakfast by the time I'm ready. Even though the boys aren't dressed by the time Ben leaves around 7:30-7:45, we can still get out the door by 8:30 no problem. It's amazing. I know I just said that a few sentences ago, but it really is amazing.

By being ready so early, our morning is completely freed for us to do lots of fun activities. Just this week we've been to the park twice, the grocery store, Target, music class, and we made a valiant effort to go to the zoo (parking lot was full on a Wednesday? Seriously?). All in the morning. This makes for very sleepy boys, so we come home about noon, have lunch, read a book, and Jack is down for a nap by 1-1:30. He sleeps well and usually doesn't wake up until around 4. Graham generally eats during Jack's story, then pretends to go to sleep for a few minutes, then eats again and is down from 2-5. That leaves me with 2, that's TWO free hours in the middle of the day. Amazing.

But that's not even the best part. Ben gets to leave the office by 6 p.m. At the latest! And he's home by 6:15. At the LATEST! So my afternoon (post little boy wakeup) consists of playing with Jack for an hour, feeding Graham while reading to Jack or watching a video with him, then playing with the boys together. And then I get my husband back. I love my life.

Why I'm Glad I Have Sons

1. That time I was at the park and overheard five 5 or 6 year old girls fighting. "We're not playing with Stephanie anymore, so just ignore her." Boys don't do that kind of dirty emotional damage to one another, at least not so cruelly or so often.

2. Setting the scene: Same park. Hot morning. Just leaving after an hour or so of playing. Graham's already strapped into his carseat and is crying, having suffered the injustice of being removed from my nipple at a time he deemed premature (okay, buddy, I cut you off when you're sleeping and only waking up to suck as I'm trying to detach you from my chest--that's no longer eating in my book). I walk back up the sidewalk to hold hands with Jack, who had been going for one more slide while I got Graham into the car.

Jack turns to me and says, "I need to pee, Momma!" I cringe. The bathroom's all the way across the playground, and getting there would involve at least 5 minutes and the hassle of getting Graham out of the carseat and into a sling. I only had the complicated Moby wrap with me, which I love but takes five times as long as every other sling to put on. Then there's the difficulty of helping Jack balance on an insanely dirty park toilet seat (seriously, why are they all so much more disgusting than any other public place?) that's far to big for him, all the while trying not to crush Graham against me.

Me: "We're going to the grocery store right now. Can you wait until we get there?"

Jack: "No. I really need to use the potty."

I thought for a (brief) second (made briefer because we've had several accidents in the past week, after months of no problems), did a quick look around and told Jack he was going to learn to pee standing up. No trees anywhere nearby, so he went right in the parking lot so that we wouldn't have to get Graham out. Jack hasn't stopped talking about it, though I've repeatedly reminded him that we only pee outside in emergencies. Still, good tool to have. Can't do that with daughters. I think I've resigned myself to being a boys' momma.

Circus Soapbox

This morning we went to the circus! St. Louis has its own circus that runs for a couple of weeks here every summer and travels to a few other locations during the year. A few mornings during its run here in town they hold special shortened programs, which are perfect for those who have very fidgety children and/or are trying to deal with several young children at once. Today we fell into a category encompassing both needs. Although the circus' interpretation of a Don Quixote storyline was a bit generous to the star of Cervantes' original work, it was fairly entertaining. Some impressive horseback tricks, several trained dogs (Jack's favorite act), and a jaw-droppingly good act involving six trapeze artists on three trapezes rounded out the show, interspersed with some less-than-stellar Sancho Panza clown gags. The highlight for both Jack and me, however, was the cotton candy, Jack's first taste of my favorite fair treat.

Graham amazingly slept through most of the performance. He's been talking lots the past few days and has started spending some time hanging out in the jungle.

He's also a frequent subject of Jack's photography. And Jack's photo portfolio is extensive now (see, e.g., the following picture of the Bendaroo turtle we made last week--there are currently at least a dozen pictures of Turtle on my camera). So much so that we're thinking of getting a new camera for us and giving our old digital camera to Jack; he would love to have one of his own so that he could take pictures whenever he wants, and the kiddie versions just wouldn't cut it.

On a completely different subject, a friend of mine from law school works at the Environmental Defense Fund and just sent a link to this very moving video of the oil spill disaster in the gulf. A few of the pictures are disturbingly graphic depictions of the damage, but I think it's important that we be uncomfortable about what has happened so that we demand highly enforced regulations that will prevent any more such tragedies.