Two Down, ... er, up..., One to Go

That's right! Caroline is walking!  The past few days she has gotten more adventurous with her untethered steps, having previously favored "cruising" with her hand lightly grazing the furniture or your hand (or pants, or, if you happened to be sitting on the floor, perhaps your face).  Now she's going three or four steps at a time, easily, and stopping to assess her progress and congratulate herself before carrying on.

Unlike Max, who started walking with a sort of marching cadence and front leg kick, Caroline seems much more concerned about balance.  This is probably a good thing, as Max's preferred method of stopping is falling down on his face (remind me of this when Joe tries to teach him to ride a bicycle in the future!).  Caroline spreads her legs out wide when she walks, so her waddle is a little more pronounced than her brother's.  She is also already about two inches shorter than her brothers, with stubby little legs, so by splaying them out she ends up looking positively tiny when she walks.  Hopefully, as her confidence builds she will pull those feet a little closer together.

Daniel seems to be watching all the goings-on with amusement.  He stands with no balance problems at all and cruises the furniture like a pro.  Every time I see one of the other ones fall down, I think I can sense Daniel thinking, "See? If I just study a bit longer, that won't happen to me!"

Hmmm...Other updates

Saturday, Grandma came over to babysit the 'Teenies while I got my teeth cleaned.  They were having such a good time, nobody wanted to take a nap, so they waited until I got home, and we decided to have lunch first, meaning they went down for a nap right around the time they'd normally be getting UP.  This worked out, though, because our friend Tamara called to see if we might want to get together for a play date with Jonah, her son, a little later in the afternoon.  Interestingly, Jonah refused to take his normal naps that day, too.  We all met up at Children's Playground in Golden Gate Park around 4pm and made a bee line for the swings (there are four baby swings, so it was actually possible to get all four swinging at the same time!)

We tried Max on the swings, and this time he decided he liked it!

After swinging, we walked over to the carousel - it was closing, and I'm not quite adventurous enough to take all three of them on without three adults, so we grabbed some beverages (the appeal of this particular playground is its well-stocked snack bar, complete with hot cocoa and Blue Bottle coffee) while the Salvateenies taunted Jonah with their "lightly sweetened" Cheerios.

On Sunday night, we were invited to a Hanukkah by some of Joe's work friends.  I asked ahead of time if it would be "Salvateenie-friendly" and the hostess told us she would be thrilled to have "wee ones" in the house again for the event.  This was exciting news, as it meant everyone got a chance to dress up in the party duds (well, except me - I learned from my father, who pointed out that grown up dress pants and greasy baby fingers make for interesting stains to explain to the dry cleaners, so I opted for an all wash-and-wear ensemble).

There were three other girls at the party - one eleven-month old and her sister and cousin who were in the pre-school range.  They were all wearing little matching blouses and very friendly.  We sort of took over the living room as baby central as guests skilled in the art of babyproofing ("she's got a lot of grandkids - she knows what she's doing) whisked away things like nut bowls and tea lights from the table.  The hostess was apologetic that she hadn't thought of that when decorating, explaining that her only thought was that they don't have a dog anymore and can finally put food out wherever they want to.  Ah, dogs and toddlers - the great deterrents to itinerant dining!

Caroline wasted no time tearing into the bread rolls

Max would like you to notice how dapper he looks in a tie and vest (and ignore the un-tucked shirt, if you can)

Daniel went a little more low-key in the plaid shirt and sweater vest, but he enjoyed the harmonica music nonetheless

Caroline made a new friend 

And wasted no time putting crumbs in her hair

And then picking them out again

Listening to the Story of Chanukah!

The best part of Chanukah is the latkes and APPLE SAUCE!

"Yummmm"

Uh oh - looks like someone needs a re-fill!

This all led up to Monday night, when we had a bedtime adventure that may be more common for other parents than it is for us.  I'm approximating the sequence of events, as it's all become a blur in my memory.

Daniel went down first, without much of a fuss.  About a half hour later, Caroline seemed ready to go down.  She cried when she got to bed, waking Daniel up, so I had to rescue her so that he could fall asleep again.  Another half hour later, I tried again and they both fell asleep.

Which left Max.  Max seemed ready to go down, so I toted him off to bed, only to have him screech loudly enough to wake Caroline and, eventually, Daniel.  So now they were all up and we all went back in the living room.  I had no idea what to do to get them to sleep.  They didn't seem to be in pain at all, just not willing to go to bed.

I tried to sit with them in complete darkness, but Max got up and wandered over to the tv, stood on his tip toes, and turned it on.  I fed them bananas.  I gave them bottles.  I gave them Ibuprofen and orajel.

Nothing.

Until 3am, when Max turned away from the tv, slumped down to his knees, slid out on his tummy, and went, instantly, to sleep.

This allowed me to get the other two settled in bed and then circle back around 3:30 to transfer Max.  Of course, he woke crying at 5:15 and had to be soothed back to sleep, and then Caroline was up around 5:50 for about fifteen minutes, but in the end they all got back to sleep for the rest of the morning and didn't seem nearly as cranky as we expected them to be (and definitely not as cranky as Mommy and Daddy!).