Take My Advice

Tonight's child hygiene snafu was enough to shake me out of my non-blogging funk.

Take my advice: when What to Expect the First Year suggests rubbing mineral oil or petroleum jelly into baby's hair to remove her yellow, scaly cradle cap ... either live with the scales, or take the time to drive 2 minutes to Walgreen's and buy the mineral oil.

Do NOT use decide to use petroleum jelly just because that's what you have on hand. DON'T.

After 5 or 6 hair washings with regular baby shampoo, and 3 with a paste of baking soda mixed with baby shampoo (per interweb advice) she is only about 5% less greasy. Which still makes her as sticky and greasy as (fill in the blank - oil slick, 1950's teenage gangster's hairdo, VERY FULL POT OF VASELINE).

Should have snapped a photo but I was too traumatized working to quickly remove as much as a could, with household supplies we had on hand, given it was already running up on past bedtime by this point and I didn't have many options.

Verdict: on balance, interweb advice recommends cornstarch (and as I don't cook, I presently own none), followed by combinations of many non-baby friendly things like HOT water rinses, dish soap and multiple multiple shampoos.

They also say some will just absorb into a healthy scalp. Let's hope her scalp is SUPER healthy and starts to absorbin' quickly because I just feel terrible about putting her to bed like that tonight ... basically, dirtier than she's ever been going INTO a bath!

Mike accused me of "freaking out" but really, ladies, isn't our little girls' sweet smelling, soft hair out of the bath one of the highlights of mothering them? It is for me. I get a huge kick out of brushing it and I bury my head in her little fringe at her neck when I'm putting her to sleep.

Tonight it was like snuggling up with heavily glazed ham. And she looked ridiculous - it was all slicked down and awful. I was thinking, oh crap, Mike's not gonna want to try and clean it tomorrow until I get home, but he cannot take her to the grocery store looking like this!

Thankfully she's blissfully unaware of how yucky she looks. Before bed she was happy as ever, just grinning away under her balding old man's combover hairdo.

UPDATE: This morning, she woke up less greasy, though certainly not all shiny and fresh haired. I've downgraded her from glazed ham to day old porkchop.

Rachel's 8 Month, Mommy Fueled Photo Shoot

She's loving her tummy now because she can finally hold herself up for a long time, plus wiggle and scoot to her desired destination, eventually.

Rachel's signature move from this stage of her babyhood is the head tilt. She literally loves looking at life from all angles. Sometimes with a face so very serious (her other signature) and sometimes, so giggly and happy.

Our darling girl

One Year Olds We Love, Part 1

Given the population explosion that happened in my circle about this time last year - with four darling children born in the month of May - I'm thinking this will be a series.

But we'll start with their senior partner ... Baby Shane. Only the most smiley, charming, handsome baby boy you'll ever meet.

He's always laughing, except lately, when he's yelling for Mom - his number one most awesome and favorite person ever in the world EVER - for better or worse. I'm quite certain many of my readership can relate to that mix of being overwhelmed by their need ... and by the amazing feeling of one little person loving you so much.

What I love about Shane: He likes cuddling and rocking and passes out as he's having his nighttime baba. A true mom's baby. I love cuddlers and don't have one right now. Rachel's kinda hands off at night night time. Sometime I just want to rent Shane out about 7 p.m. when he's sleepy.

What I also love: even though I haven't spent as much one on one time with him as I did with Bridget - the curse of the Seconds - he gives the best greeting and wiggles around and will come to me almost every time.

So endearing and more a sign of what I bet will be a lifelong sunny personality than any special love for me. Even though, I certainly have a very special love for him ... our second little man of the gang ... and as Matthew's Grama would say, a VERY handsome devil.

Happy birthday, Baby Shane. I agree with your mom that you WILL still be Baby Shane when you're 24.

Absolute Love and Joy ...

... Is when you hear your little 3 year old little son sing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" in the most sweet, earnest voice, with eyebrows wiggling around expressively, working so hard to remember the words, while you sit with him eating dinner, sharing a slice of pizza, and feeding your baby daughter who's giggling and kicking around, watching him. And he's telling you, "Now your turn, Mom" and then "Now, it's MY turn, let's SING it toGEDer, Mo-oooom."

I should have gotten the video camera. Someday, I will give my right arm to hear that little boy voice again, I will wish I could see just 10 seconds of him singing. But honestly, I was too caught up with the moment ... and how truly good life with kids can be sometimes.

Matthew's Had Milestones, Too

And this about sums it up. TWO Lightning McQueen third birthday parties. Two LM cakes. One LM hat. Several LM action toys. And one billion times a day to talk about LM and said items, leading up to and since then.

Just kidding. There's a LOT more about my little buddy's third birthday that I want to say, and plan to. But I thought a photo of the most handsome three year old on the planet might hold ya over for now.

Staged Sibling Love from Easter at Grama's

Still doesn't make it any less heartmelting, does it?

Milestones I Can't Not Blog

I'll skip the preamble (so awkward trying to catch up on missed history with old friends, and same with blogs, isn't it?) and get straight to the good stuff:

Rachel baby update ...

Said her first word, 'Dada' on Friday May 1. Guess she wasn't content to let baby Shane have the spotlight with his own first birthday all to himself (that's my girl).

Mike swears she said it reaching up and then looking at him. I find she says it to me, Matthew, her feet, the wall next to her changing table, and really any passing object. But damn, I'll be glad to hear her mislabeling objects as Mama soon!

Think Matthew was the same way with the Dada first. Now before I go all working mommy guilt on you and think, ohhh, he's home more that's why ... my very own baby book and my little brother's, which were written by my mom who stayed at home at the time, noted her irritation at us ungrateful babies not only SAYING Dada first, but preferring him over her for a period of time as late stage babies. So Dads, if you got it, you got it.

Rachel is also on the verge of crawling. And I'm having that same "What am I thinking?" reaction every time I sit and watch and encourage and put my arm out for her to push off of/coaching move. Several babies I know just hit the crawler phase and guess what - I KNOW it sucks, made life X variable times harder, and that the gating / security system I will have to put up will know no bounds. Also, Libby may just conveniently stop remembering the way to our house. I know she's terrified, too.

Rachel is definitely a more curious kid than Matthew. She's a grabber and a taster. She watches. She's been scooting backward at a good clip for a couple weeks now, and she will back up around completely around the perimeter of the kitchen just to get one teeny tiny leaf the dogs dragged in that I didn't even see til it's in her little spitty chubby pincher and then mouth.

She just gives off a different vibe. Matthew didn't play with cords or go for light sockets. He was into his books and toys from the beginning. I will not state in print the amount of child proofing that I never did with Matthew ... he just, didn't explore.

But Rachel - she will be a nutcase. And I think I love it! It's that first sense I'm getting of her, her personality, that crazy little side of her I always knew for some reason would come out. I look at my knick knacks on the lower shelf of our front table (gone) and the bundles of cords (tied up) and the gate above our basement stairs that is presently more in name only than something that would keep a baby from going down the stairs because it's got a huge gap underneath (will be adding a second one at the step above it) and the office supplies I just neatly organized into baskets on LOW shelves all over our office (oh HA HA HA those are all gonna need to be empty and probably bolted to the walls).

I can just tell she's gonna be a monkey, a climber - and a stinker. And for some reason - maybe cuz that's still conceptual versus a reality yet (that will ruin my free time and oh, you know, occasionally risk her safety) I just get a kick out of it.