8 months!

She eight months old, and still has hair. She has two teeth (and from the 2.5 hour stint she pulled last night, more are coming soon). She wears the same diaper size as her big sister, and really enjoys banging things, dancing, pinching her mother, and putting finger food into her mouth. And she's looking forward to laughing at you soon.

Overalls

All those who have donated overalls to the Lovett-Hammel cause - this pic is for you.

Seven Months!

The one in front is seven months old today! She celebrated by rolling from her tummy onto her back for the first time in our presence. We're pretty sure she's been doing this at daycare for a while now...but we still jumped up and down and cheered just to see her smile.

Trick or Treat!

There was a party at the daycare on Friday, and since neither Gavin nor myself could be there, we left our camera and begged for some pictures. And we were extra nice about it. The person who took the camera must have felt sorry for us, because we now have more than seventy photos of Morgen's day of Hallowe'en fun at school...Here is just one from the beginning of the set. I have a feeling that they staged the shot.

Happy Hallowe'en. It's one of my favourite holidays. Next year I'm going to make their costumes, and take back my wings from the toddler.

What we've been up to...

Nothing much - you know, driving around the living room, hanging out on the couch, camping out on the carpet, banging things together...and growing new teeth. Lillian cut her first one yesterday, and Morgen is working on the last two in her toddler set.

6 months old!

It's hard to believe, but Lillian is six months old. She is starting to sit up, often lounging on one arm and looking around in an arch manner her caregiver calls "Roman." Just imagine our pudgy baby wearing a toga and a crown of laurels, reclining on a pile of cushions while surrounded by a lot of other small people, and you may see what he means. As Gavin reminds me, he's also planning a month-long trip to Italy, so perhaps he's just finding ways to escape there sooner....

And Lillian has now reached the mighty milestone of rice cereal, is interested in playing with her toys (banging things is a real hit right now), chewing on her bib, and watching her big sister jump.

Shhhh! We're too busy for our electronic world right now.

It has been noted by many that our blog has been quiet lately. Consider us mostly asleep in a virtual sense for now...because we're overstimulated in the real world, and any actual quiet time we've had has been sucked up by the dishes, or the grocery shopping, or the crashed-out-on-the-bed-and-snoring.

We went to Minnesota in the middle of August. It was a wonderful trip, and we took lots of great pictures of the girls playing together with their Hammel grandparents and various friends and relations of the family. Especially now that Lillian has arrived, we feel the distance between us and Gavin's home town, and we are making an effort to close the gap with trips and better communication. (ahem)...I am sorry for the electronic lapse...sometimes life does get in the way of good intentions.

We arrived home from the trip on a Saturday, welcomed Grandma and Grandpa Lovett the next day, and then Lillian was left at home with her grandparents while I started a new job the day after that. Grandma Hammel flew in mid-week to take up the baby-care duties and get us through to the start of September, when Lillian was welcomed with eager arms into the baby room of Morgen's daycare.

Those three weeks, from the MN trip and into the new job, were among the more challenging of life with Lillian so far. Lilly went from sleeping 8 to 10 hours in a stretch to sleeping three in a row if we are lucky. When we got back to Toronto and I started work, she started refusing to drink from the bottle during the day. When I returned home at the end of the day, she would greet me with a hungry chuckle and then cluster feed for hours on end. I had two weeks of literally nothing but work, baby at the breast, sleep (which is just fragmented baby time)...and repeat. Add to this the guilt I felt every time someone says "Oh, you've gone back to work so EARLY" - you've got a recipe for few blog posts and many rough times.

Returning to work is part of my larger plan to regain some sense of contributing to our shared financial stability while also furthering my long term career goals. The timing is not what I would have chosen in an ideal world, but we live in the world we live in, and I for one am game for jumping in and trying to wrangle with the reality of that. I have priorities now that I didn't have during previous employment. I won't put as many evening hours in at the office as I once did. But those same priorities motivated me to take the job, so I can't bail out of all the evening duties even if I wanted to. In order to keep the job, I have to just suck it up and, well, do it. This upcoming week includes one lieu day, a 12-hour day, a 10-hour day, and planning for next week's evening commitments. At home, that means quite a challenge for Daddy and the two girls, especially since one of them is thinking she'll see me by 6:30pm every day, so, "why, again, should I take that bottle?? Waaaaaah, to you!"

We will all adjust (I hope). I was reminded by my cousin's beautiful wedding this weekend that families are strong, flexible, interesting things, and the Lovett-Hammels aren't going to be broken by a mom heading back to working outside of the home before her kids go to kindergarten. I might need some serious "me time" after the next few months, and Lillian might grow up thinking we don't love her as much as Morgen because we aren't blogging about her every booger, but as a whole, we are going to be fine (and we'll tell Lillian the truth of it if she starts feeling anxious one day). It is just going to be really quiet in blogland until we're through the worst of things, and along those lines, I warn you that we are not on email much these days either. Or out with friends as often. But we are with you in spirit, in the good old-fashioned way.

I will try get pictures of the girls up here eventually. For now: Shhhhh! I'm trying to sleep.

Four Months Old

Four months in to life on the outside, Lillian has apparently grown out of "stage one" of our double stroller and will henceforth command her own, partially upright seat (Stage one is pictured below. The stage two picture is forthcoming).

The Scene of the Crime

When Gavin and I were married six years ago, we were expecting to share our vows amidst our friends and family in the picturesque rose garden of Victoria Park in Kitchener. Of course, it rained the week leading up to our wedding, and so the day before we made it official, the city gardeners cut the roses, leaving a pile of limp looking, flowerless bushes behind. It was like Mrs. Adams' rose garden, minus the spiders and cobwebs, and plus all of our friends and family. I thought it was hilarious at the time - and I thought it was just a fluke caused by the weather and conscientious city employees.

It was our anniversary on Sunday, and to celebrate, we decided to take Morgen and Lillian to Victoria Park to see the rose garden and the park's gigantic spashpad and playground. And guess what? The roses are just as sickly. I noticed a handful of pale red blossoms and a vast number of freshly trimmed rose bush sticks. They must have "trim the roses before August 1" pencilled in on their calendar down at city hall.

Silly Lillian

After months of ignoring her as much as possible, Morgen, I'm happy to report, has begun to see the fun of having a little sister. Today she got just close enough for Lilly's grab and goober maneuver to succeed. Morgen, giggling, said "Silly Lillian!" and then, realizing how much fun it was to say that, proceeded to offer her finger and hand up again.

So, it was fun today, because despite her ferocious size, the baby is still all gums. Wait until she really tries to chew on Morgen, and can crawl after her little big sister in a more determined way. We'll see how silly Lillian is then, won't we?

Rain bug

I discovered to my horror, after nearly six years of marriage, that despite owning and loving the movie Singing in the Rain, Gavin doesn't enjoy actual walks in warm summer rain. Really? Really.

He doesn't like dancing in thunderstorms, doesn't like that transition from being thoroughly soaked to being wrapped in warm towels and sipping hot chocolate or tea. He must not have had a fun umbrella like this to dance around with when he was little. I'm sure that if he had, his opinion would be entirely different. The only thing Morgen didn't enjoy about being out in the rain last weekend was having to come back in so Mommy could feed Lillian.

Scenes from the life

...of a very happy, slightly chunky and definitely advanced three-month old.

Kickin' it Old[e] School

We decided to visit Historic Fort York today - one of the forts that was nearly destroyed during the war of 1812 (although, confusingly, the fort wasn't actually blown up until 1813). I know there are some Americans reading this who are wondering who was involved in the war...Gavin tells me the subject gets lost in between the American Revolution and the Civil War. If you don't remember the war of 1812...it's probably the shame blocking the subject from your memory (not that I'm biased). But enough about America, this is Canada Day! And while next year we'll probably do cake and balloons on the nation's birthday, today we dug into her history. Sort of.

Actually, we marched ourselves down to the old lake shore (now several city blocks north of the actual lake) in order to watch the morning muster and flag raising. I thought this would be an appropriately Canadian thing to do. When we arrived, we learned that this holiday is also the first day of the new "guard" at the fort.

How does that sound, as a summer job for high school and university students? Woollen uniforms, blazing sun, living history. After running out of their barracks and lining up to the tune of fifes and drums, these guards were inspected by their superior officers, turned about, and marched down the road. They raised the flag (the union jack) while the anthem (God Save the Queen) warbled in a key that must have been hard for the fifes to play in. The British Brigadeers was sprightly and sweet in comparison. The ceremony complete, the brits performed a very interesting maneuver that allowed them to about face without ever about facing (if you know what I mean), and proceeded to march around in the sun for the rest of our visit there. Poor lowly guardsmen and women! You can catch them at the fort every hour on the half hour, marching around and looking historic. But if you wait until next Canada Day, you can see it all for free, PLUS there will be the drama of the new guards. Did they all shine their muskets? Do they know how to walk in close formation with twenty of their newest friends?

Happy Canada Day - I hope that Canada is as happy as a 143-year old can be. I'm glad that we went to Fort York today, but next year I'm buying fireworks and sparklers.

Cookies for Captains

Morgen's weekend: More excitement than she could nap through. This weekend, Morgen's favourite phrase "More cookies, Grandma!" was transformed into "Make cookies Grandma!"She played with her oldest friend, laughed with her Grandparents, and went to a party on a farm where there was a homemade playground including trains, a tire climbing structure, and this boat. She saw apple trees up close for the first time, and scored some new toys at the local outlet mall and farmer's market. It was a good weekend to be a toddler.

Lillian's weekend: Milk from anyone and anything. A family escape to Wellesley on Thursday meant that I would have to leave the baby with her Daddy in order to attend a wedding on Friday night in Toronto. Did she notice? Not at all. Several expressed bottles later, I was able to drive away relatively happy and without the baby attached to me. Made it to the weddingthree minutes late, thanks to traffic, but at least I made it. And Lillian will now try to latch onto almost anything that passes within reach of her little lips...sure, it's a normal stage, but I think it was a bit encouraged by her Friday night experience.

Happy Father's Day

We've been celebrating father's day by rolling down hills, hanging out in the shade, and laughing at clouds. To all the fathers and grandfathers out there - we love you!

Lessons Learned

About Lillian

Choose to wear any colour but purple. If you wear purple, and you feed her while wearing purple, she'll projectile vomit all over it, and then you'll have to change everything, including your underwear.

Number of times it took me to learn this lesson?

4 events + 1 test = 5

About Morgen

Bedtime is not a good time to try parenting solo. Toddler routines do not mesh well with newborn spontaneity.

Number of times it took me to learn this lesson?

1 (45-minute screaming session is pretty hard to miss).

Two Months

Lillian is two months old today! She smiles, coos, wiggles, and wears clothes that Morgen couldn't wear until she was almost a year old. She's pretty amazing.

An update following Lillian's two month well baby appointment:

Here are Lillian's fighting stats

Height: 62cm (95 percentile)

Head: 41 cm (95 percentile)

Weight: 6.2 kg (97 percentile)

It appears that we have an over achiever. If this keeps up, Morgen had better be really nice to her little sister or she'll have her butt kicked.

For Mr. Fun

At this moment, Gavin is off with Morgen, on a walk to the library. The library isn't open today, but we have books to return, the rain seems to have stopped, and we thought it would be good for Morgen to get out while she can. So, even though he'd probably prefer to be reading some op-ed piece online, Gavin has donned his alter ego, and Morgen is out with her Daddy - aka Mr. Fun.

Mr. Fun spends a lot of time and energy with his children, and with their friends, and on household chores, or maintaining the strollers, bikes, car, light fixtures. It goes on - he left the relatively comfortable walls of academia to work a full time job to support his children, and their strollers, bikes, car, etc. He gets precious little time to himself these days, and what time he does have he tries to spend on his dissertation.

When we were dating, my parents called him Gavin Maggot-Bane, or Good Boy Gavin (long stories - you'll have to ask me sometime if you are curious) - but those names faded with the onset of parental responsibility. Mr. Fun - this post is for you, and for all the sanity you bring me at the expense of your own.

Choo-Choo Hair Do

The Before Pic: playing with Grandma behind a curtain of toddler locks.

During: Driving a Choo-Choo Train and watching two large TV screens. Because two screens are obviously necessary for toddler hair trimming.

After: Riding home in Daddy's arms (because strollers are for babies who can't walk yet and who don't have pretty hair cuts) with a new friend. One quarter buys you a stretchy beetle bug toy, and twenty bucks gets you a new girl with a page-boy bob.

Not so Terrible to be Two

I'm behind on posting this week. Again. But since you are all friends and relatives, I'm guessing it hasn't ruined your internet explorations. If it had, you would have told me, right?

Watch the blog for all the things I didn't tell you about that happened over the last few days. But maybe don't watch too closely, I'm not making any promises to post very promptly - the latest daycare plague has taken Morgen by surprise and so they're both at home for the next little while. Thankfully, Grandma Lovett is also here, helping me to keep my sanity and making fevers as fun as possible.

Morgen turned two years old today, and a few days ago we celebrated with a party. This year it featured helium-filled balloons (did you know you can pick up recyclable tanks of helium fairly cheaply?), many copies of Phoebe Gilman's The Balloon Tree, lots of friends and friends' parents, and a mildly embarassing children's music moment. Embarassing, because in between organizing lists and getting the menu and party gear ready, I never did practise any of my songs or learn any new ones. There were cadences, but not many that fell in the right places. Whatever. The important thing is that Morgen had a great time, we took terrible pictures, and spent some time playing despite the start of the heat wave. Lillian dressed up for it, and so did I, although about one hour in we both had to change into much less flattering outfits as a result of a gigantic baby vomit. Lillian is already learning how to steal her mother's attention from big sister, oh, yes she is. As I recall, the first time Lillian's outfit made an appearance, it was on Morgen, and she didn't wear it for very long either. So maybe Lillian is just following in big sister's footsteps.

And now those steps are big indeed. Morgen is two years old. Two years old today. What's so terrible about two? (Tantrums? No!! Unreasonable demands? Never!!). She's still soooo advanced for her age, and she's still my baby girl. When she wakes up from her nap and refuses to have her temperature taken and kicks the tylenol out of my hand, I might be inclined to see a shade of terrible in her latest developmental stage. But for now, she's just my little big girl.

Family Ties

Remember this post from when Morgen was a something-month old? Well, last weekend we were surprised to discover that the shirt still fits her (if we leave the snaps undone). And of course, Grandpa was happy to dress for another photo opportunity - even if Morgen was less than cooperative.

In other news, Lillian Dawn met one of her namesakes last week - and managed to be awake for some of it. That would be the sum of our news post bike seat. Pretty exciting, isn't it?

We've been trying to work out our new family dynamics, and we're finding the balancing act a tad challenging. How do we fit "me" time into "us" time, when us is a nursing newborn, a toddler, and two phD students who are supposed to be working on their dissertations while caring and working for the newborn and the toddler? Is there any one out there who has done it and has an idea? So far, we're taking care of the kids just fine, but the adults are starting to look rough around the edges. Don't even ask us about the school work right now.

I've got a bike, you can ride it if you like ...

One of my fondest memories from early childhood are of family bike rides. When I was about 4 or maybe 5, my parents would take us on occasional bike rides around the neighborhood, me perched, in retrospect somewhat precariously, in a makeshift seat behind my mom's bike (a double basket with a blanket for padding) and my brother in a fairly flimsy plastic yellow seat behind my dad's. Such an arrangement would undoubtedly draw criticism today. Still, I loved those bike rides, and I would love to provide similar memories for my girls. So, with that in mind, last weekend I took my bike in to the local bike shop to have a toddler seat installed. And today Morgen and I went to pick it up - and to have our first father-daughter bike ride.

Well, some things have changed over the last 30 years. The toddler seat is now safety certified and made of very hard, durable plastic with a back that provides plenty of neck support. The seat even comes with a bright yellow cushion for comfort. And of course no children's bike ride today would be complete without a bike helmet. Morgen's "bike hat" is pink with little white bunnies.

Other things, however, haven't changed at all. Morgen loved her first bike ride - about a mile and a half during crowded and hectic rush hour from the bike shop to our apartment. And despite the challenges of bumper to bumper traffic and riding in office clothes, I really enjoyed it too. Hopefully someday Jessica, Morgen, Lillian and I can all go out for regular rides.

Preferably at a park or on quiet residential streets. In shorts.

Happy Mother's Day!

My mother's day: watching my children play with their grandparents in Wellesley. Seeing the yellow chair my dad made for me regain former glory with a little help from Morgen and some stuffed animals. Anticipating yummy food, none of which I made myself. If only we could live here!

Accidental News

Big news, friends and relatives: Morgen used her potty this weekend for the first time.

Hasn't she used it before, you ask? Well, in a way, I suppose she has. For the past several months she has sat upon it, kicked it, put Leona her pet lion in it, tried to run around with it, etc. All of that aside, she had never really used it the way it was intended to be used until Friday night, when her full bladder and routine pre-bathtime potty practice coincided. It surprised all of us - usually Morgen says "I have to pee on my potty" and then pretends to go pee "Like Mommy does!" or "Like [insert any potty-trained toddler friend's name] does!" Usually we just praise her for sitting on the potty, and then dump her in the bathtub. But this time, a confused but willing Morgen had the opportunity to use toilet paper, wash her hands and then flush the big toilet once her potty had been emptied into it. Then she was subjected to all kinds of cheers and congratulations by her whole family.

Morgen has been eyeing her potty with a bit of suspicion since Friday. It is as if discovering its true use has somehow diminished the potty's potential to be fun in Morgen's eyes. I'll keep you posted, but I'm fairly certain that Morgen is a long ways away from potty training. We're treating Friday's event like a happy accident - but hey, I'll cheer for happy accidents anytime.

In other news, Lillian continues to sleep during the day and wake up to play and/or cluster feed through the wee hours of the night. And she looks really cute in ladybugs, doesn't she? I think she has the look of a high fashion newborn in the below pic.

Almost three weeks as a family of four

I'm not sure what happened to last week - I meant to put up an earlier post, but somehow the days slipped by and so this post is more of an "almost three weeks with Lillian" update instead. Don't be fooled by the pictures of the baby awake. As Morgen will tell you, Lillian is most often asleep. Morgen finds it a bit annoying, but I'm going to enjoy it while I can. Let's face it, some day the little one is going to wake up and make all kinds of extra demands on her parents and sibling. For now though, she is mostly a sleepy baby - and a very noisy sleepy baby, as you will discover when you meet her.

So far, Morgen has been expressing her displeasure over the change in our family unit in very natural and small ways, most of which are directed at me. She refuses to hug or kiss me from time to time, and she gets upset when she has to go to school while I stay home with Lillian. We decided to keep Morgen in daycare during the newborn period so that she can have some fun, non-baby influenced playtime everyday with her friends and with the amazing people who are her caregivers there. I have to remind myself that this continuity for her (not to mention the rest for me) is worth it in the long term, even though there are a few moments every day when mommy guilt rears its ugly head and I feel like less of a parent than my mother was (my mother who cared for two babies while my dad traveled back and forth to school and work every day). Hopefully, in a few months, Lillian will be more fun for Morgen - and happily, Morgen is very gentle and considerate of her baby sister. Morgen gives Lillian hugs and kisses at bedtime, and while I know she may be doing this to emphasize the hugs and kisses she isn't giving me, I'll take this form of jealousy over the violent kind. We've been giving Morgen little pep talks at bedtime about how special and unique she is and how much we love her, and by the amused look on her face and the way she now prompts us to have the talk in between her book and her lullaby ("Only one Morgen!") I think we're at least providing her with some extra entertainment, making family change more fun, even if it is still change...and by making sure Morgen gets some alone time with mommy every day I hope to earn some of my hugs and kisses back one day soon. Ugh, the little ones know how to get you where it hurts! I miss my hugs and kisses.