Baby Otto 2014!

Our friends Jim and Lisa had a adorable nugget of a baby boy this week! Please welcome baby Otto to the blog family! So many beautiful babies this year!

Brian and Paul in Hoboken 2014

Brian and Paul met Kevin, the kids, and me for dinner in Hoboken. They picked a very family-friendly place, Arthur's Tavern but I was a little frazzled because my kids are not great dinner companions. It was great to see Brian again! I can't even remember the last time I saw Paul, and so I was very behind. He got to tell me all about his wife, and I even get to meet her in a few weeks at Jackie and Rob's wedding. It was awesome of them to make time to have dinner with us!

Paul and Brian (serious and happy faces)

James is excited by the straw and new World Cup toy!

Miranda behaving for the two seconds of this picture.

• Brian's 30th Birthday- October 2013
• Brian in Washington, DC- January 2013
• Brian in Nashville- September 2012

Visiting Jon & Becky in Hoboken 2014

We stopped by Jon and Becky's place in Hoboken for the afternoon. Jon and Kevin took Ben and James to the park while Miranda and I power-napped together which is why I have a lack of exciting pictures of the visit. But I did get one before we left.

Ben getting into his awesome high chair.

Owen and Family 2014!

My friends Chrissy and Jason's 4 year old Owen IS CANCER-FREE! This is simply the best news ever. We were so excited when they came to New Jersey and had some time for us. So excited! The trip did not disappoint one bit. I practically cried with joy a hundred times.

Gwen's family + Regan's family + Chrissy's family + mine!

Seeing Owen and James play is such a sweet pleasure, and it was the first time I met Gwen's daughter Alana. It was Miranda's first trip to New Jersey and everyone's first time meeting her.

Chris brought the bubbles- brilliant!


Owen chasing bubbles! I love it!


Alana and Hailey


Even Miranda got a bubble!

With so many kids it was great to have so much room. The kids played in the front of the house, the backyard, and the basement. I have so many childhood memories of my own at Chrissy's house (even my Sweet 16 was here!) that it was so fun and strange to see our kids playing there. Especially, since my kids have never been to the places I lived as a child.

A weird kick ball game that involves two balls!

Two little birds laying eggs.

Pretty mamas and their littlest ones

I wish we all lived closer so we could do this all the time!

Indoor chaos is fun!

Great visit!

• The previous visit to Chrissy's family in October 2012.
• The previous visit to Regan's family in February 2014.

Cape Cod- August 2014

So even though we saw Grandma Kathy the previous weekend, we went up to Cape Cod last weekend because it was Aunt Nesie's 60th birthday, she wanted to meet Miranda, and also we wanted to meet Katie's new beau Biggie.

Miranda's second visit to the Cape and Great-grandma Ruth's!

James at Johnny Kelly Park

Same little squinty eyes

Miranda meeting Auntie Nesie

Poor James was already in bed when this kids' party broke out! #CapeLife

Plus James loves the Cape because there's always a million kids around. Even though Ellen is almost four years older than him, he adores her, and she's probably his best friend in the whole world (apart from family). And he got to meet Emalee's kids: Ben, Aubrey, and Jack. Grandma Kathy took him and Aubrey to his first live performance on Saturday to see Ellen perform in Dr. Dolittle at the Harwich Junior Theater!

James and Aubrey


Ellen, Aubrey, and James after the show

We only managed to spend a little quality time with Katie and Mike on Saturday night. We had to head out in the middle of the night again so that Miranda would sleep through most of the travel. Otherwise she's so miserable it borders on child abuse, and parent abuse at that.

Miranda and Auntie Katie

James, Mike, and Harry the dog

More Great-grandma time!

Baby Asher 2014!

Our friends Aubree and Patrick had their second baby, Asher, this week! He's a blog-record-breaking baby at over 10 pounds and record-breaking cuteness.  Oh my gosh, squeal! He looks a little like Patrick's dad right now I think. But we'll have to wait to be sure because babies morph so quickly in the first month or two.

Baby Asher rocks

Big sister Avery meets her new little brother

Clou Blog's 5th Anniversary!

Five years ago on the three-year anniversary of meeting Kevin, and shortly after getting married, I started this blog! A lot has happened since then! For the short version check out my year reviews below. This blog is definitely a labor of love. I really enjoy writing it, taking photos for it, and reading back on the old posts. Especially with a second baby now, it's so fun to look back and see if things were different with the first.

So many things have happened in five years it's hard to believe it's been such a short time. We lost my dad. We lost two very young friends Erik and Chris. We lost three grandparents. We had two beautiful children and our friends now have 36 more children among them (21 of them boys!). There have been another twenty-three friend-weddings in the last 5 years. My mother and Owen beat cancer! Kevin published his first book. Life is a rough ride and we're so lucky to have each other for it. All of us. That's why I've never changed the banner- because we're all in it together.

My year reviews since I began the blog:

2009: Second half of the year, starting from when we got married
2010: First half and second half (when we lost my dad)
2011: First half when James was born and second half
2012: First half and second half
2013: First half and second half

But of course, probably the best part of the blog has been Kevin's 41 posts so far. I'll try to get him to write more!

Us through the first five blog years:

Our Wedding, Cape Cod, June 2009


One-year Wedding Anniversary, Brooklyn, June 2010


Our son James is born!, Long Island, April 2011


James's First Birthday, Long Island, April 2012

Ta-da! Warwick, NY, June 2013


Our daughter Miranda is born!, Long Island, April 2014

Grandma Visits- July 2014

Grandma visited last weekend. We had Thai food one night, and I tried a new recipe in the crockpot another night (with limited success), and we had lots of wine. And most exciting- Grandma got Miranda to laugh for the first time! Take a look at these ridiculously cute photos!

Watching a video together

Grandma got Miranda to laugh for the first time!

This is a rattle.

Go ahead, chew on it.

Yum!

Miranda is 3 Months 2014

Miranda no longer eats and sleeps all the time. She has longer periods of wakefulness and expects to be thoroughly entertained during these periods even though she doesn't like toys yet. She continues to smile and make cute little noises at us, but we're hearing "coo" and "goo" less and less. She loves "chatting" especially with Dada.

Food: The cluster feeding frenzy stopped cold. Honestly I kind of miss it because entertaining her is much harder than feeding her. Maybe. I don't know. It's all hard. All of her fussiness is definitely wanting to be entertained or being tired.

She looks more like my mom when she's sleeping.

Sleep: Pretty much the same as last month. She goes to bed more reliably around 9:30 p.m. and sleeps about 5-6 hours which is super awesome. She'll wake up at 2:30 am or 3:30 a.m., I feed her and put her back in her crib. Then she'd wake up again at 5:30ish, and after feeding, she moves to our bed. More feeding at 7:30-8, and then at 9 or 10 am.

Naps are still difficult as detailed very specifically in my last post.

Growth: She's in size 3 months. We haven't gone back for another pediatrician appointment. We had her 2-month appointment late on July 1st and she was 24.25", and 12.8 pounds. She's about 14 pounds now.

Trying to get the octopus

Skills: She grasps my shirt, finger, or my hair, and tries to swat at stuff in her baby gym. She also swats me away from her face when I'm bugging her. She's still not really interested in toys beyond a passing interest in her rattle, octopus, and mirror. She loves that other baby in the mirror.

Miranda still will not take a bottle or a pacifier, and it's starting to alarm me because I'm her hostage until she takes a bottle.

A lovely toothless smile

Personality: Miranda smiles at us a lot and seems to have quite the little sense of humor already. She still likes to be walked around the house upright, and no she also like rocking in the glider with Dada.

Chatting

Riding around with her Dada

Me: When I went back to work I mentioned that I might have to do fewer hours for a while. In fact, I have been doing way more hours than before. From home. With no daycare. And Kevin went back to work, albeit only two days a week (I know, play me a violin!), but inevitably those are my busiest days.

I lost 24. I've lost no additional weight since month 1. I STILL have about 6 pounds to pre-Miranda and 12 to pre-James.

Three months! Showing a little leg.

Kevin: She's eating a little less so she's not as attached to Mama. She seems more attentive. Her eyes are more alert.

• Miranda at 2 months, June 2014 
• Miranda at 1 month, May 2014
• James at 3 months, July 2011

A Day in the Life of J & M- July 2014

So here's a day at home with James and Miranda at this very specific time in their lives. I'd like to say it's a standard day, but there's no such thing as a standard day yet, that's part of what having a newborn is about.

6 a.m. James wakes up and makes little annoying noises in his room but he stays in his room until 7 a.m. because we've taught him "not to get up until the bunny gets up," which means that his bunny clock lights up.

6:20 a.m. Kevin gets up and gets ready for work. James may or may not be sleeping.

7:00 a.m. James gets up. Kevin feeds him oatmeal and yogurt and often puts television on for him so that I can have a few moments of peace when I get up.

7:14 a.m. Breakfast with Dada

7:15 a.m. Kevin "wakes me up" though I'm often already awake and trying to not disturb Miranda who has always managed to make her way into our bed by then. I carefully extract myself from under her head and leave her in bed. This makes me nervous because you're not supposed to do this, and I forget to set up the baby camera so I can get a shot of the bed (because she's not supposed to be in there anyway!) so I check on her hundreds of times until she wakes up. I drink coffee and try to do some work. James asks for a millions things, many of them repeatedly.

8 a.m.- 9 a.m. Miranda wakes up! Now the party can start.

8:56 a.m. James making a huge mess in Miranda's vicinity. "Playing."

 

8:59 a.m.: James gives Miranda a little choking hazard toy, fantastic!

9 a.m. I feed Miranda. She eats for a while, complaining intermittently if I don't hold her with both hands, or kicking my phone out of my hands because why should I have anything take my focus off her? Why indeed Miranda.

9:30 a.m. Miranda is already a huge grouch. She didn't actually want to get up so early - she just got up because she sensed I was no longer there. Now she's mad. James gets mad too in support of Miranda. I know, let's try putting her down for a nap. Ha!

Miranda: You've got to be kidding me.

9:32 a.m. James helpfully turns on the light and yells, "Surprise!" Sigh.

James: Surprise! Miranda: Break me out!

9-11:30 a.m. Life is basically miserable. I entertain, I bounce, I cajole, I put her down over and over again, and finally after eating again she falls asleep while I'm holding her.

11:45 a.m. I put her down in her bouncer or in the cosleeper, and then I run around trying to feed James lunch and maybe if I'm lucky I eat something too.

12:10-20 a.m. Miranda wakes up super angry that she is not being held. This part of the day happens  like clockwork.

12:14 a.m. Picture from a different day just to prove my point.

I attempt to get her back to sleep and probably fail.

12:20 a.m. Miranda in the swing: the theory is
this will either entertain her or put her to sleep.

So most likely I do not get Miranda back to sleep, and now I'm a professional entertainer for a few hours. But here's the thing, babies aren't interested in anything. Toys aren't a thing yet. So we do the "baby gym" for a while then she stops being fascinated by the octopus rattle, so we go for a walk up and down the hallway or whatever I can think of that's new. 

Trying to hit the octopus

At this point, you might have noticed that Miranda is still in her pajamas. She usually gets dressed for the day when she gets up, but she does sometimes just spend the day in pajamas when Kevin isn't home and I'm not going to try to go out. Not pictured: Me also in pajamas still.

I drew James a picture of him because he needs entertaining too.

Why don't we go for a walk outside you ask? First, there is the issue of getting everyone dressed, and getting the stroller out the door without anyone falling down the stairs because we live in a second-floor walk up. Second-- and this is the more important reason -- I seek to do things that will keep Miranda from crying. Going for a walk in the stroller doesn't do this. She has a knack for knowing when we're a maximum distance from the house then starting to scream bloody murder. Not, "crying," the way a sensible adult might do, but shrieking, screaming, and turning bright red like her village was burned down.

Anyway, now it's 2 or maybe 3 in the afternoon, and she passes out from exhaustion while I'm holding her and I'm too terrified and shell-shocked to even put her down. But actually it doesn't matter because she'll only sleep like 40 minutes anyway because James will suddenly run over and exclaim, "WHERE'S MY PURPLE THING?" I don't know, buddy. I don't know.

2:48 p.m. Mid-afternoon nap in my arms.


Another day, around the same time (1:48 p.m.)

When she wakes up, I think back on my law firm days. Around this time of day I would stroll to the kitchen and get my second or third cup of coffee of the day. I'd carefully consider my Keurig cup choice and sometimes when I was feeling really crazy, I'd follow the Keurig recipe for combining the hot chocolate cups with the coffee cups to make a mocha drink. Dark chocolate and Kona blend? Yes, please. But now, no. Just no. Even if I put the kid down long enough to pour the coffee and microwave it back to life, drinking it isn't any fun because someone is screaming. James or Miranda, usually, but sometimes me.

"DON'T POKE HER IN THE EYE!!!"

"Why?"

"BECAUSE HER EYE IS VERY DELICATE!!! BECAUSE I SAID SO!!! GO TO TIME OUT!!! RIGHT. NOW. RIGHT NOW!"

Maybe it's not James's fault. Maybe I get cocky. I got this... I can put her down. So I try putting her down either in her bouncer or in the crib.

3:02 p.m. I gently place her in her bouncer...

3:35 p.m. Booooo-urns.

Also, there are the diapers, which go without say, but also we decided to finally potty train James after Miranda was born because we feared he'd just regress if we did it before she was born.  So maybe 500 times a day I ask, "James, do you want to use the potty?" But he resists, oh how he resists... not now, he doesn't have to go now... until, well, he does.

Usually, I've given up on doing productive things by now so things get easier in that there are no competing factors, but also much much harder in that there is no longer anything to distract me. And also, you know when you have to pee, but you hold it for a really long time, and finally you're near a bathroom... you know how the the fact that relief is imminent makes it SO MUCH WORSE?  That's what it's like after 4:30 p.m. or so. Kevin comes home between 6:30 and 7, so now that I'm in the home stretch, I think, I'll just lie down and die before I get to the finish line. I think this every day I'm alone with the kids, even though each time I drag all three of us across the finish line. If they are fed, and cleanish, and not miserable, then yay! We made it!

4:22 p.m. (different day) You're a jerk, Mama!
Stop taking pictures and entertain me!!

5:06 p.m. James, please be careful with her head. 

No, don't hit her head with your head!

6:30 p.m. Yay! Dada's home!

Hurray! We made it!

The rest is not so bad. Maybe I've already fed James dinner when Kevin gets home. Maybe I just didn't have it together yet. Maybe we had a late snack and waited to have dinner with him. Doesn't matter, I can't have dinner with him because Miranda exclusively wants to have her dinner when I wish I were having mine. I sit in the living room feeding her while James and Kevin have dinner together. Then Kevin gives James a bath and  lets him play in the tub. At some point I give him Miranda so I can eat my dinner alone in the kitchen. Then I take her back, so that at 7 p.m. Kevin can take James out of the tub, dress him in pajamas, read James a few books, and put him to bed.

6:52 p.m. Post-bath bedtime routine begins

Miranda senses that I have no help right now and proceeds to have another fussy phase. By 7:30 pm when Kevin re-emerges from James's room, Miranda has decided it's time to eat again so I can't hand her off. If she falls asleep, we might be in for a really late bedtime. If she doesn't then we have another fussy time. I walk and bounce her a little, Kevin rocks and bounces her a little.

It's 8 p.m. or 9 p.m. now. I try feeding her, she falls asleep, I put her down, she cries. No, not yet. I try feeding her again. This time she eats a lot. I put her down again. Yes! She's really going to sleep this time!

It's now 9:30 or 10 p.m. Maybe we watch a show. Maybe we both catch up on work. James might wake up screaming with nightmares. Someone goes in to pat him down, and maybe fish toys out of his bed. Then we go to bed at 11 p.m. super exhausted.

Miranda wakes up at 2:30 or 3 a.m, I feed and return her to her crib. She wakes up again at 5:30, I  feed her and she refuses to go back to the crib so she sleeps in bed with me. Sometimes I hear James or Kevin wake up around that time. At 7:15 a.m. I try to extract my arm from under Miranda's head.

Rinse, repeat.

That's life right now. But at least it's my second kid, and this time I know that things will be a little better by 6 months, and a lot better by the time Miranda is a year old. And one day maybe I'll miss all this? No, I don't think so either.