Rolly Polly

Despite being given almost no tummy time (dangers of older sibling discourage me from putting him on the floor), we have a roller! Elliott did roll both ways within the first couple weeks of being born, but since he was shaped like a skinny little toothpick at the time, I don't count it. For comparison, Nory didn't roll until she was 5 months old, and Elliott is only a little over 3 months!

Potty Time

Well I've just HAD IT with Nory's sensitive skin and persistent diaper rashes. And this was the first weekend we've had that was both sunny and we had nowhere we had to be. So we are trying potty training! Really, for a two year old, what could be more fun than sun, water, food coloring, and LOTS of sunscreen?

We've only had one morning but so far so good. Nory played in the water all morning and (finally) had to pee. She walked right over, sat down, and went in her little potty! Now she's napping, in a diaper. We'll see how the rest of the weekend goes. Knock on wood, I'd love to be done with diapers for this big girl!

Bus

Nory loves buses right now. Whenever we see one on the road she screams in delight and then yells "ANOTHER BUS ANOTHER BUS!" in the hopes that either Dan or I will be able to conjure one.

So imagine her delight when we saw an empty bus on Queen Anne yesterday which was waiting around like buses do sometimes, presumably due to their schedule. And the kind bus driver invited her in to look around!

By the way, Queen Anne is a terrific place to watch buses. You are guaranteed a sighting at least once every 5 minutes and usually we saw one every minute or two. No wonder Nory thought we were conjuring them.

PS a comment on comments: apparently blogger has decided to stop allowing comments from people without a blog profile, so I have enabled Anonymous comments for now. Anyone know how to fix this?

I am Elliott, 3 months

I am Elliott. I am 3 months old! I no longer cry every time I get in the car seat or set down. I don't like sleeping. I like to smile and "talk" especially to my mommy and my big sister. I weigh 11.6 pounds according to my parents' somewhat unreliable bathroom scale. And best of all, I have this groovy sweater vest that my Auntie Keren made specially for me!

The End of a Long Day

Our friends the Rutlands were in town this weekend, hooray! Having two two year olds in the house for the weekend was so much fun! Nory and Gavin played remarkably well together. But by the time 6:00 rolled around everyone needed a break.

And I think it is safe to say that no matter how big your TV is and no matter where your living room furniture is in relation to it, kids will sit as close to the TV as possible.

Mommy can I hold baby please?

Modernist Cuisine

Well it has been a long time coming... but it finally arrived! My new cookbook. It was written by Dan's boss Nathan Myhrvold. 

Heavy. No kidding, it is 50 pounds.

And big. Volumes 1-5 come in this nice case. Volume 6 is a waterproof kitchen manual. Not the cover - every page is waterproof!

Much bigger than a baby - and heavier than both my kids combined!

I can't wait to read it!

The Amazing Healing Power Of the Bandaid

Whomever invented Bandaids was a genius. As we were watching the USA be robbed in the Women's World Cup final (you owe me $5, Dan L.) on Sunday afternoon, Nory did her own diving header - into the coffee table of the person's house we were at. It was bad.

But nothing two Dora Bandaids couldn't fix! The funny part is that she hit the BACK of her head, not the front. Bandaids are a psychological fix that works for almost any physical injury in our house!

And here is a picture of one of those crazy pigtail days.  Poor Nory got my hair - curly enough to be a nuisance, but not curly enough to be, you know, curly. This results in some very artistic pigtails!

Not neglected

And here I was worried that my second baby would be neglected because he has to share time with a big sister. In reality, when you have a little girl who is obsessed with babies, you also have a baby who probably wishes he was a little more neglected! Although he puts up with her with pretty good humor.

My New House

Guess what Dan got me for our anniversary (yes, a little late)? A new house! And it has already had lots of visitors even though it has only been up for a day! Lots of chickadees and juncos and even one flicker. I love looking out the window at all of our guests. It is amazing how afraid of the dog they... aren't. We also got a hummingbird feeder that has been pretty busy today!

When You Have One Of Those Days

When you have a day where your toddler...

• Draws on her shirt with a sharpie that you swear she pulled out of thin air
• Throws a tantrum every time you tell her to get in her car seat
• Asks for paper, you say "which color?", she says "all of them," you say "no," she cries for an hour
• Grabs a poopy (infant) diaper out of the trash can
• Doesn't want to nap in her new Big Girl bed
• Pulls all of the clothes out of her dresser and throws them on the floor
• Dumps her macaroni all over the kitchen and then screams when the dog eats it
• Covers her brothers face with a blanket over and over after specifically being told not to

And you find yourself wondering...

• Why on earth you became a parent
• Whether or not you will survive the next 16 years
• Whether or not the hospital has a return policy 

You should remind yourself that...

• This is not normal behavior
• She probably is sick

It was a little more obvious today, the day after, when she climbed into bed (on her own) at 10:30am, saying "my tummy's sick," and slept straight through until 4:30pm. It was one of those occasions when I was actually grateful for illness as it offered some explanation for my parenting meltdown from the previous day!

Bed

Last night was Nory's first night in her "big girl bed." It is so nice that she can get in bed all by herself, and I can sit on the bed with her and Elliott and read books!

At the Zoo

As the weeks go by, I am getting more and more adventurous about getting out of the house with two kids. We have a zoo pass for myself and one "flex" adult, and the kids are free until age 3. Last week I went to the zoo with my friend Janelle and her daughter Ellie, although we didn't manage to take a single photo (oops!). This week I went with my friend Abby and her daughter Susanna.

Aren't they cute in their matching pigtails?

This was fun. Really fun, not just stressful fun. For one thing, being at the zoo removed all the pressure from Nory about sharing, which inevitably results in tears and time-outs. It is a safe enough place that I don't have to worry about Nory getting run over or injured while I take care of Elliott. Also, the girls are finally old enough that they actually played together - nothing elaborate, but they actually chased each other around a shady grass area for a long time while I fed Elliott at a picnic table and Abby and I could sit and talk. Like real grownups. Abby might have some pictures of the girls playing, but it was pretty hard to get a picture with both of them in it as they were both running full speed!

I hope for many more sunny zoo dates in the future. Let me know if you want to join us sometime!

The Boys

You would think, with two amazing photographers around all week, we would have gotten a better picture! Oh well.

Dan and his dad look so similar, I can't help but wonder, will little Elliott look like them someday too?