Me & My Creatures

Here I am with my three boys. I realized a few weeks ago that Bruno, Owen, and Leo are all exactly 2 1/2 years apart. (So check back with me nine months prior to 2 1/2 years from now to see if we're planning to have any more kids.) Also, Bruno was born on the 7th, Owen on the 9th, Leo on the 11th, and Bill on the 13th. Others might find this a sheer coincidence, but I find it confirmation of...I don't know what. But something. That there is some sort of order or logic or divine master plan. That our team was formed long ago. That everyone showed up on some sort of Harry-Potter-esque Platform 9 1/2 and got here right when they were supposed to.

Or whatever. They're just birthdays. (Right.)

Hanging Out

A few pics from a lazy Saturday afternoon...

Owen frequently requests to hold Leo, so we put them in the leather chair together. This particular time only lasted long enough for me to snap this one photo (more to come of the boys together in the chair).
And then Leo got a solo shot. This picture cracks me up...
People will comment that he looks like me or like Bill or like Owen. I thought he looked like Owen when he was born, but now I don't really see any of us. Just Leo.

The Crying Game

Here is Leo in the Carolina onesie that was a gift from Nana. (We have to maintain clarity about who the REAL Carolina is in these parts - when you say 'Carolina' in Charleston, people think you're talking about USC.)
And here is the face Leo makes when he hears Owen cry. How heartbreaking is that?!
When this happens, Owen usually stops crying long enough to come over to confirm what has happened: "He's crying because he hears me crying." And by then, he's forgotten what he was crying about in the first place. And Leo stops crying as soon as Owen stops crying. So it works out quite well, really.

My Boys

I am officially outnumbered. And I couldn't be happier about it. Here are my boys, all four of them:
Owen is a real prince with his baby brother. He gives him hugs and kisses, puts blankets on him, bounces him in his chair, gets down at eye level when Leo's having tummy time on the ground, and says in a sweet, high-pitched voice, "There's my baby brother," or, "I'm just rubbing his little head."
I think it just hit me looking at this photo. I have TWO SONS. And there they are. Just tiny little creatures that we created:
Amazing.

The ThighMaster

One of Leo's favorite positions - and the only one that can calm him on certain occasions - is this one: your knees propped up, his back along the top of your thighs, with your legs moving back and forth. It's a human swing, really. Bill calls it "the ThighMaster." It makes him very happy. See?:

Varsity

I am still cutting my teeth as a mother of two. I finally made Varsity when I began successfully making solo outings with both boys. Here was one of our first outings at the park near our house. Owen spent most of the time pushing Leo around in his stroller (one of his favorite activities):
Put me in, Coach. I think I can do this thing.

Adventures in Greensboro

The first weekend in June, we drove up to Greensboro (Leo's third road trip in less than 8 weeks!) to stay with Marcia and Michael and to attend the wedding of our friends Nathan and Jane. There was a great deal of excitement throughout the weekend:

• Marsh and Michael have a cat named Jack. I mean, already Owen's having fun. Owen does not have any cats in his life (my mom's cat Wilbe will only socialize - and by socialize, I mean be in the same room with or be seen by - my mom), so this was a real treat. He took great delight in following Jack around and trying to get close enough to pet him. He was very gentle, so Jack would allow this when it suited him.

• Jack has his own cat door, which Owen referred to as "Jack's own window." Owen was fascinated with this, and played with that window - seeing how it opened and closed, sticking his arm all the way through and then pulling it back in - throughout the weekend.

• On two separate occasions, Jack brought in an offering (or a threat, perhaps, depending on your interpretation) of a live chipmunk. This would result in a group effort to contain and capture the chipmunk so that he could continue to live outside, "live" and "outside" being key.

• Marsh is a teacher who has taught at various ages (plus, she's just good like that), so she is very tuned in to what Owen might like and she has lots of fun toys and games tucked away from former teaching gigs. She broke out this set of magnetic toys - balls and sticks and horseshoes - that was a real hit:

• We got to shower (a victory in and of itself) and get dressed up AT THE SAME TIME. A major happening with a toddler and an infant:

• Right when we were all clean and purdy and ready to go to the wedding (our friends Natalie, Nathan, and Robert Erle were downstairs waiting for us), I went in to wake Owen up from his nap so he could say hello to everyone before we left. In fact, Owen had not been napping. Instead, he had gotten out all of the markers that were in Dee Dee's desk drawer, in addition to a bottle of Elmer's glue. When I walked in, he was holding the bottle of Elmer's glue (cap off) upside down, and a giant clump of glue was getting ready to pour out. I dove to catch it (like the old Dupont commercial - remember that one?) and was successful, but then saw that I was too late. The bed was covered in two dozen markers, and he had drawn all over the sheets (he chose not to use the washable markers for this, but rather the one or two permanent markers that he found). Glue had been applied to several surfaces and was all over his hands (we've been practicing lathering very well when washing our hands, so my guess - by the look of his hands, which were CAKED in glue - is that he was lathering with the glue) and hair and clothes. Bill came in right behind me; we were both stunned. In my blouse and skirt and 4-inch heels (I'm telling you: this was an OCCASION!), I began cleaning up markers and glue before Bill put a stop to this saying he didn't want me to mess up my nice clothes (even though he was also in nice clothes). He told me to go downstairs and be with our friends, and that he would clean everything up. LOVE THAT MAN. In his seersucker suit, he gave Owen a bath, stripped the bed, collected all the loose plastic hair (Dee Dee had given her Barbies a haircut way back when, and the clippings were in with the markers), and put Dee Dee's room back together. Who's ready to go to a wedding??

• On Sunday morning, Michael fixed chocolate chip and blueberry pancakes (some blueberry, some chocolate chip - not a combo, just to clarify), and he prepared a special smiley-face pancake for Owen with chocolate chips for the eyes and mouth. Owen had some chocolate icing on his birthday cake last year and has had a few bites of my chocolate gelato, but otherwise has not been exposed to much chocolate (so much so that he does not know the word, "chocolate." I know. Can you believe it? I've been holding out on him big time.). So the chocolate chip pancakes pretty much blew his mind. His response: "I would like more brown, please."
  

Conclusions from the weekend: Cats are fun. Chocolate is delicious. And Dee-deeism is alive and well.

Many thanks, Marsh and Michael, for putting up with us. We'll give it plenty of time before our next visit. :) Love you, and e-bugs forever.

Smile!

At six weeks, the wide-awake smiles really started coming in, enough for me to finally capture a good one on film (well, not really on film in our digital age, but you get the point):

Happy to be Me

Leo got his first good night of sleep on May 21. Brilliant timing on his part, because on my birthday (May 22), I woke up with more sleep than I'd had in weeks. I felt like I'd been given a shot of steroids. Best birthday gift ever.

Here's our boy, bright and early one May morning (6 weeks old):

Uncle Bug's Pool

Just shy of Leo being five weeks old, we set out on our second annual family vacation to the Grande Ocean on Hilton Head (with bucket-loads of thanks to John Russ, Marriott employee extraordinaire). Or, as Owen liked to say, we were going to "swim in Uncle Bug's pool."

And swim in Uncle Bug's pool, we did. The first few days, the weather was glorious and in the 70s, but a bit cold for swimming in the big pool (what can I say - I'm a wimp). Fortunately, Owen discovered the "hot pool," which became our new favorite hang out:
The Grande Ocean is the perfect place to be with little kids, and especially with a newborn baby. Since it usually takes about an hour to load everyone into the car for an outing (we're still getting the hang of mobilizing with two), it was a real treat to just be able to decide you wanted to go swimming and then about ten minutes later actually be swimming.Leo would accompany in the stroller. If he got hungry, we'd head back to our room lickety-split for some dairy cocktails.Other than swimming, we mostly just lounged about,
walked around (here Owen with his classic "you told me to smile" expression),
and ate delicious food prepared by my sweet husband (you'll notice Leo in his Papasan swing in the background - yes, indeed, Bill did disassemble it and purchase a rooftop carrier to bring it with us on our trip...he also packed his espresso machine...he said, "We're trying to have fun, right?"):
Oh yeah, and there was lots of goofing:

And some surreptitious self photography:

We love you Uncle Bug and Aunt Leigh!
Owen continues to carry around our room key picturing the Grande Ocean pools, saying, "That's where we went!" We are already looking forward to next time...