For some reason, Caroline seems to feel the need to show off for her Uncle. This week, he took everyone's milk cups into the kitchen to rinse, and when he came out, she was seated on top of the changing table (which is above waist height on me), arranging the bottles and tubes of stuff.
He promptly returned her to the floor and she was determined to get back! Here is the tale of her ascent.
On Sunday, Tom and Carla - known in these pages as our go-to "Baby Wranglers" - officially tied the knot. The ceremony was set for 11:30 at Stern Grove, with a tea to follow. The invitation might as well have said, "Sunday, May 20th during nap time", but there was no way the Salvateenies would miss the big event.
Especially not Caroline, who had the most perfect outfit and wanted to wear who new fancy peep-toe jelly shoes. I put them on her a few different days at home to get her used to them and each time she'd beam and stare down at her feet in wonder.
When we arrived, we were greeted by the happy couple's guests like we were old friends or members of the family. Everyone knew about the babies and called them by name.
We staked out a spot in the back for the ceremony.
Max was trying really hard to hear the vows
Daniel was providing musical accompaniment on the stick
Maybe it's a marching band?
"Mommy's glasses are yummy!"
I think Max is doing his little old man impression here
Caroline spent her time climbing on the bench
Being careful as she walks toward the broken end
Getting ready for her balance beam routine
At the reception, Caroline demanded scones.
After some fruit and scones for everyone, the lack of nap started to show, and we excused ourselves to head outside and run around, meeting dogs, chasing squirrels, and talking to ducks. Caroline is pretty sure ducks speak Chicken, because she persistently said, "bock bock bock" at them.
Joe's favorite moment of the day was when Caroline and Juliet, a toddler from Tom's family, looked at each other, pointed, and exclaimed, "BABY!" at the same time.
We are so very happy for Tom and Carla and were honored to be able to share their special day. Hopefully the bride and groom were able to hear their vows over the noise we were making!
"It goes by so fast." I can't count the number of times someone told me that. And I knew it was true. But everything that was happening seemed SO important at the time. Even though I knew things would change, it was completely impossible for me to fathom that at some point I wouldn't need to have burp cloths strewn everywhere around the house just to ensure one would be in arms reach. Eventually, I wouldn't be counting the minutes until the next time I was "allowed" to feed them, or counting the milliliters they're drinking.
And then two weeks ago, my friend Colleen had her baby, Gavin (who, by the way, is totally adorable). During the four days she was in the hospital, we texted back and forth, and I was flooded with memories of my half week. Did they give me morphine after the C-section? I don't remember. How long was it before they finally got me a breast pump? It seemed like such a big deal at the time, and now it's just an anecdote. When Gavin was a week old, I went over to visit. Colleen looked tired and her skin was still that sort of waxy post-surgery color, and yet she was totally gorgeous as she looked at her teeny, tiny little son. (We compared photos from recovery, and I definitely won the "hide that picture from small children" award.) And he is teeny tiny - even though he was 8 pounds, 1 oz when he was born - nearly 3 and a half pounds bigger than Max! Colleen's husband, Brad, was bouncing around showing things off and talking a mile a minute. He radiated pride in his son and reminded me so much of Joe that it made me laugh. I looked around her living room - everything focused on the bouncy chair in the middle of the room - and I realized how long it had been since I spent hours just sitting with a baby on my chest, sleeping.
Today, I went back to drop off a couple of little things I'd found that they could use. They'd had a rough night - Gavin cried from midnight to two-thirty, straight. And I thought how lucky I was that the Teenies never did that. Colleen asked me why nobody had told her about the terrible nights and the incredible exhaustion, and all of a sudden, it hit me. You forget. I'd heard it before, but about the pain of childbirth. But it's true about all the hard stuff. I remember the nights when Joe and I would wake up and feed them serially while we watched the MLB Network through bleary eyes. But when I do, I remember how cute Caroline was balanced on the Boppy on top of the bed, not how tired I was. It's true - you remember the good stuff and sort of gloss over the struggle. I don't know if that's good news to Colleen or not, right now, or if she's even awake enough with a two-week old to think about it, but it does.
And I won't condescend and tell her to soak up every minute of it because "it goes by so fast". Talk about guilt! There are times that I've caught myself feeling BAD for checking my email or talking to someone on the phone because I should be "enjoying" every minute of my kids - even though they're TOTALLY happy in the other room playing in their little kitchen. Sometimes, when I catch myself feeling guilty, I wonder how my parents feel. A long time ago, people were telling them to appreciate every moment of me as a baby - and my mother has already told me I was nowhere near as much fun as the Teenies. I wonder if they ever sit around and think about what it was like when I was little? I'm pretty sure they don't remember the exhaustion.
Tony and Alyssa came to visit the Salvateenies today. I suggested they come over at 2, by which time they are generally awake and lunching. Today, though, I actually had to wake them up at 2:40, three hours into a very successful nap. They sat down to a lunch of fish sticks and popcorn shrimp with watermelon. Alyssa works with toddlers in a pre-school, so she was a big help talking them through the new food and was not nearly as distressed by Daniel's decision to dunk his watermelon in the cocktail sauce as Tony was.
Tony is not a baby person. He's not anti-baby at all, more just a bit at loose ends what to do with them. Well, that and he doesn't like to get his hands dirty (literally).
We decided to go to the zoo to check out the "family farm" and the playground, and Alyssa helped with diapers and dressing. Tony offered to put one of Max's shoes on.
He made a valiant effort, but Alyssa had to take over in the end.
When we got to the zoo, it was already 4pm, so we only had an hour. We made a "B" line for the petting zoo and let them loose to run around in it for the first time ever. Caroline loved feeding the goat, while Max preferred to pet her. Daniel thought it was most fun to run full speed toward the duck pond and terrify me.
On the other side of the "farm", they have little toy tractors for the kids to play on.
Max didn't feel like playing on the tractors, so he hung out with Tony. Neither of them looked too uncomfortable.
By the time we left the petting zoo, there was only a half hour left before closing, so we eschewed the rest of the animals and went to the playground. There isn't a ton for kids their size/age to play on, but the zoo playground has SIX BABY SWINGS, compared to most parks that have only two or three, so we spent a lot of time swinging. There was also a slide that everyone took a try on. Caroline even climbed up the slide!
And the climbing, of course, did not end when we got home.
This may just make getting out of the van a little bit less of an ordeal. At the very least, it should mean I don't have to call and beg family members to meet me at the house to unload babies.
In other news this week, Daniel had another fit modeling job for Gymboree. This one involved arranging babysitters (Uncle Kelly) and driving half an hour downtown for a five minute job - they had just one Halloween costume for him to try on:
This picture is so cute I may have to abandon the other ideas I had for costumes this year. Plus, Daniel seems to like it!
Max was not to be outdone in the costume department, incorporating an Easter basket into his new "look".
Which meant that Caroline had to go looking for something to put on.
I don't know if she found a costume or not. I was too busy laughing.
As you may recall, Caroline is a mountain goat. She has climbed on so many things that we actually bought her a slide to climb on. Here she is preparing for her Olympic slide routine:
Her brothers were a less-than-amazed audience:
But the newness of the slide wore off quickly and there were new surfaces to master. While Uncle Kelly was babysitting, she decided to try to get up close and personal with the tv by climbing on the bead run.
When her uncle explained that was not an acceptable path to take, she decided to master the baby jail. See how she gets her toes in the little opening to give her leverage?
Success!!
But the grass is always greener on the side of the fence, and the surface is more attractive outside the baby jail.
It's amazing the way she calculates what she needs to do to get where she wants to go. She is relentless.
After being told it was not ok to climb from the baby jail onto the media stand, she looked for another path. The bead run had been moved away, so she had to improvise.
Yes, even with Mr. Potato Head's arm in her hand, she manages enough upper body strength to drag her little bod up onto the top, only to be carried immediately back down to the floor. I swear we need to get this girl a rock wall.
Luckily, at Grandma and Grandpa's today she indulged some of her calmer pastimes, like checking out old photo albums. She just loves looking at babies - even when that baby is her brother!
