Such sweetness in this little Penelope. She's just bursting with joy most of the time. In the last 3 days, despite our sickly household, I've noticed her range of expressions expanding and she has developed the famous vocabulary of an almost 6 month old. This consists of "lad lad lad", "blablabla", "dadadad" and the rare but oh-so-pleasant "mamama". She is completely excited by anything related to a spoon, making her first two sessions with rice cereal a huge success. For some reason I don't remember Ru and El being that enthusiastic about solid food - but maybe that's a third kid thing.
I see clearly now that this is the point in a mom's life where she looks at her baby and says, "where is my baby going?" I know there are tons of moments in your child's life where you do this, but I don't remember getting to appreciate it quite so much with twins at this stage. All I wanted to do was get them walking and talking. And now I would like for Penny to just slow it down and be a lump of kissable, squeezable heaven for a bit longer... but she has these tremendous big sisters around her doing all kinds of exciting things and she wants to play too. So much for keeping your kittens small and fluffy...
Grannies around the neighborhood swoon when they make Penny smile (which is not that hard, she smiles at creepy toothless drunks and coconuts at the market) and makes moms with two kids say, "Wow. We do think about having another one of these days." (Intoxicating baby vapors seeping from her pores!!)
Fuck it though. She's going to grow up. And there will be times when I'll ask myself, "how the hell did I get myself into this Mom business", or "where did my tiny baby go?"; and there will be times when I'll know that the process of helping my children grow into good people is the best thing I have to offer the world. I just wish it seemed like some of the great moments in my kids lives were happening in slow motion so I could fully appreciate every important detail... or that we could have brief rewinds to snuggle into the back of their tiny baby necks.
Or better yet, I would love to fast forward through cold and flu season.
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Happy Pneu Year!!!
There it is folks... the quintessential descriptive photo of Christmas '07! Ruby and Eloise sacked out in the stroller with pneumonia. From my perspective, this has been a rough time watching these little lovelies try to enjoy their holidays feeling like complete crap. They use the nebulizer for asthma and breathing difficulties every 4 hours, they are on antibiotics that aren't helping and they get horrible diarrhea as a side effect. The intense coughing makes them vomit and Myles and I also managed to get a 48 hour stomach virus in the middle of all of this.
Oh yes, and Penny has a cold. She's doing alright for now. We are really a fucking mess though.
Myles' dad made the trip down for Xmas dinner at my mom's house and got to witness Ru and El's intense desire for presents. Once we opened our goodies here, we then headed to Milton, where a large crowd of excellent family friends bestowed gifts on the "sickies"... but once the goodies stopped flowing, Eloise was hanging on my sleeve whining, "are there any more presents" over and over, like a meth addict looking for a fix! Presents are like crack-cocaine to a 3 year old. And the worst of it was that Eloise got to the point where she would unwrap a book and say, "that's not a good present!". HORRORS! What was I to do?
Actually, there was a fair amount of giggling about the girls' behavior - everybody was aware of their sad feverish demeanors and understood what was going on in the "manners" department. But honestly, I had forgotten that gifts could make kids into such monsters.
Oh yes, and Penny has a cold. She's doing alright for now. We are really a fucking mess though.
Myles' dad made the trip down for Xmas dinner at my mom's house and got to witness Ru and El's intense desire for presents. Once we opened our goodies here, we then headed to Milton, where a large crowd of excellent family friends bestowed gifts on the "sickies"... but once the goodies stopped flowing, Eloise was hanging on my sleeve whining, "are there any more presents" over and over, like a meth addict looking for a fix! Presents are like crack-cocaine to a 3 year old. And the worst of it was that Eloise got to the point where she would unwrap a book and say, "that's not a good present!". HORRORS! What was I to do?
Actually, there was a fair amount of giggling about the girls' behavior - everybody was aware of their sad feverish demeanors and understood what was going on in the "manners" department. But honestly, I had forgotten that gifts could make kids into such monsters.
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Rockefeller Center!
All seven of us wandered down 5th Avenue after our dinner - my dad proudly pushing Penny in the stroller while Myles and I took turns carrying the big girls and pointing out the beautiful window displays. Upon arrival at the big tree, I noticed my dad's eyes all welled up with tears. He confesses that the whole experience just reminds him of coming to Rock Center with his parents, sneaking a peek through the crowds and bundling up together for warmth.
I must say, seeing your grandchildren experience these old family traditions has to have twice the cheese-factor impact. The fact that my DAD - of all people - was filled with sentimental warmth and coziness just makes me proud. Here's a guy who still thinks George Bush is doing an "okay" job... (I cannot believe I just admitted that to my blog readers, but if you know me well enough, you knew that anyway... sorry to disappoint those in the dark) and most of the time I like to write off my dad as being devoid of all human emotion. But there it is! Holiday traditions, family, "American" Christmas hoo-ha... it really pulls at a Republican's heartstrings.
So although I don't agree with his politics, I'm happy that I can occasionally relate to my dad's sentimentality. I remember that he has always kept my mind aware of how the "other side" feels (or doesn't feel!) and for that, I am grateful.
Ruby, Eloise and Penny, what will you teach me when I am old? You have already taught me that living in Manhattan with a family would be next to impossible... unless we won the lottery. What's next?
I must say, seeing your grandchildren experience these old family traditions has to have twice the cheese-factor impact. The fact that my DAD - of all people - was filled with sentimental warmth and coziness just makes me proud. Here's a guy who still thinks George Bush is doing an "okay" job... (I cannot believe I just admitted that to my blog readers, but if you know me well enough, you knew that anyway... sorry to disappoint those in the dark) and most of the time I like to write off my dad as being devoid of all human emotion. But there it is! Holiday traditions, family, "American" Christmas hoo-ha... it really pulls at a Republican's heartstrings.
So although I don't agree with his politics, I'm happy that I can occasionally relate to my dad's sentimentality. I remember that he has always kept my mind aware of how the "other side" feels (or doesn't feel!) and for that, I am grateful.
Ruby, Eloise and Penny, what will you teach me when I am old? You have already taught me that living in Manhattan with a family would be next to impossible... unless we won the lottery. What's next?
Finger Lickin' Good!
BLT Steak. A phenomenal restaurant. I was so well fed and so buzzed by the end of my meal. Is it obnoxious that I took my 3 kids to such a swanky place? I felt like that twitty person that Sex and the City would make fun of... the annoying shit that ruins people's dining experience... except for the fact that my kids were angelic. Penny barely let out a peep! (For the record, she was changed on the bathroom floor of 3 very glam places - no changing tables to be had anywhere. The new Marc Jacobs collection store had such a delicious smelling bathroom that I decided to cart out the poopy diaper in my diaper bag, for fear of being a terrible space-contaminator).
My Parents Rock
Without these two we wouldn't have made it through our weekend in NYC. First and foremost, Manhattan hotels are completely unaffordable, so we are most thankful for their gift of a place to stay, but we also needed their extra hands to assist us in getting from place to place, restaurant to restaurant, cab to cab. New York is just plain nutty. Decadent, rushed, beautiful, filthy, impeccable and surreal. The entire trip sent my head spinning - honestly. After jetting around to all kinds of sights and shops I would sit down for a minute and have difficulty focusing on objects and keeping the room still. (That's without a glass of wine people...)
At the end of the day it was lovely to have my dad torture my mother in a photo session with Ruby's new unicorn. She was so completely irritated by his antics. I love that shit.
At the end of the day it was lovely to have my dad torture my mother in a photo session with Ruby's new unicorn. She was so completely irritated by his antics. I love that shit.
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