A Gobble Song

Elena has started singing recognizable tunes lately. She'll just start "la-la"ing arond the house-- it is very endearing. She was singing a "la-la" version of "where is thumbkin" the other day and I immediately knew what tune it was. I thought she was singing "Frere Jacques"-- same melody, different words. She knows all the words to the ABC song and Baa baa black sheep, and sings them pretty tunefully. She also loves this little ditty that her old daycare teacher ued to sing "There's a [fill in the blank] on my head, on my head..." I don't know what the original words are. Anyhow, we use all sorts of words for this melody and she'll come up with really funny versions. Today she put her doll on my back as I was changing Jesse on the floor and sang, "There's a baby on your back, on your back!" On the way home from our Thanksgiving walk, I was telling her that turkeys say "Gobble, gobble" and she started singing this to the tune of the alphabet song.

Jesse, new and improved

So Jesse is turning out to be a fabulous baby. He is really smiley and happy when he is awake and generally falls asleep peacefully. He has this sparkle in his eye that is just amazing. You can just tell he has a lot going on in there. He really doesn't like being held all the time-- he prefers to be in his chair watching the action, or looking at toys. His favorite toy is the helium balloon we tie to his foot. He will kick and make it dip and dive for almost an hour. He laughs and smiles at it-- it is really amazing. The following video is really only suitable for grandmothers and devoted aunts who could sit and watch him all day and not get bored. It is a minute and a half video of Jesse falling asleep in our bed. So it is really boring for almost everyone. Watch at your own risk.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFGS3Sqce3U

Thanksgiving greetings from the Krentzes

Happy smiling baby

Giving in: adventures in bad parenting

Yesterday Elena was protesting going to bed-- calling for me from her crib over and over again -- and I wearily trudged upstairs to calm her down and get her to go to sleep. When I arrived, she smiled at me sweetly and said, "Having a tantrum!" Tantrums have become much more frequent as she approaches two years old. They often happen before naps, when she is really exhausted. I fear them so much that I usually give in to whatever weird requests she makes when going down, as long as it doesn't endanger her and doesn't get her out of the crib. For a long while, she wanted Elmo-- this was an easy request. Last week, it was her new rubber boots-- she had to have them on for every nap. Whatever rocks your boat, kiddo. This week, she insists on having a bowl of goldfish crackers... in bed with her. This goes against everything I have ever learned about good parenting, but it is amazing what the power of granting one small (and odd) request can do to her mood. She is immediately soothed and usually goes right to sleep. So here she is, one hand in her bowl of goldfish, peacefully asleep. Tantrum averted. Nap achieved.

Dancing Queen

Kevin took this video of Elena dancing with her Australian babysitter who comes three mornings a week to help me out. The music is from some silly toy that came in the Frosted MiniWheats box. Apparently, they were dancing like this for about an hour.

Thank you, cousins!

Elena has had a growth spurt and has moved into a new set up clothes. It is always fun to go through all her German cousins' old clothes and find the ones that fit. Her current favorite hand-me-down are these shoes. She also wears their old socks everyday.

Jesse at 6 weeks

Handyman Kevin

Kevin has had some free time the last month and has spent it doing some projects around the house. I am always amazed at his ingenuity and persistance in getting these projects done. He always cliams that he has no idea how to do it, then a few hours leter, after some intense internet research, he dissapears to the Home Depot and comes back a pro. (incidently, the eternal optimist, he also says, "this shouldn't take long!" And then it ends up taking three times longer than he thinks. But he always gets it done!) Above is the renovated sunroom. He made the corner posts a good deal wider so that they look more 1926 and less 1950. It ended up being a huge project, and he did it so well! Then he put down the parque flooring and painted everything. It looks great.
Then one day after that project was done, I woke up from a nap to find that he had torn up the sink and plumbing to put in a garbage disposal. This is no easy feat for plumbing and wiring as old as ours. he ended up having to cut pipes, rewire stuff and all sorts of nasty difficult things. But he did it! There is nothing more satisfying than the gentle roar of a garbage disposal. And it will dramatically but down on our garbage. The trash collectors have refused to pick it up a couple times because we are too heavy! (Don't ask what I did with the garbage on those weeks-- I am pretty sure it is illegal, but let's just say I took care of it. To make up for my semi-illegal activity, and to try and reduce our waste even more, I started using cloth diapers for Jesse, so hopefully that helps my record...)

But wait! That's not all. If building columns, painting, plumbing, and wiring weren't enough for our humble cellist, Kevin also finished this new coffee table. He didn't make it, but he did put in the top piece of beautiful Wenge wood from Africa. This entailed finding the wood, having it bookended, glueing it, finishing it with sandpaper and then putting on a protective coating. It looks wonderful! It is just a matter of mintues before Elena scratches it with something... but we can enjoy it in its perfection until then.

Toddler book therapy

I was so impressed with Emory's reaction to "Llama Llama Red Pajama" (see the Pless People blog) that I got it from the library and read it to Ellie. She loves it-- in a kind of "I love it because it makes me so upset" kind of way. She makes me read it to her many, many times a day. Unfortunately, it also seems to have made her regress a bit in the going-to-bed-without-a-fuss department. She has created quite a tizzy the last two nights! Here is a link to her discussing the book after I have read it to her only about three times. (I had to put it on YouTube because I couldn't upload it on Blogger.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddL09Ex4nsM

Morning

Elena washing up after breakfast. Love the frizzy sleep-hair in back.

And more little smiles from Jesse.

Out of the woods

In the last couple days, Jesse as turned a corner! He is much less fussy and even started smiling. Here is an almost smile video. You can also hear Elena's revised war cry-- "Mommy, where are you?" For the record, I am about a foot away from her.

Things do get better, eventually...An encouraging chapter in "Adventures in sleep management."

On a more hopeful note, Elena now takes naps really easily on her own, for the most part. A couple weeks ago, I decided I just couldn't rock her so sleep anymore for naps. Enough was enough. I liked the close time with her, but I just have too much on my plate right now. So I decided that even if she just sat in her crib looking at books, that was better than the lengthy nap-routine. The first couple of days, she sat in her crib for "quiet time" with her books for a little while, then got upset till I brought her back downstairs. Nobody got a nap, and we were all pretty crabby (however, she did go to bed much earlier than usual, which was a bonus). The third day, she fell asleep after a few minutes of "reading." Since then, she has quietly fallen asleep on her own almost every day. The couple of days she can't get to sleep, I insist that she spend a good half hour reading before we get up, then go to bed early. Last night, I let her stay up so that we could watch President-elect Obama's historic acceptance sleep (hooray!) at our friends' election party and she got to bed super late. Today was a perfect nap day and she even thought to to pull up the covers and cuddle her Elmo. Now if we can only get her to do this at night, my life will be truly transformed!

A life of misery

Jesse is a fussy baby. He has a total of about 10 minutes each day when he is contented, quiet, and alert. Then he is nursing, sleeping, or fussing. He seems to get pretty bad gas and
has a lot of trouble getting to sleep when he is over-tired. "Evening fussies" can last for hours or going through all the tricks in the book trying to get him calmed down. Sometimes he just wants to be put down by himself-- shocking! Sometimes he is addicted to the pacifier like it is a drug. Sometimes he wants to nurse constantly. Sometimes, the sling is the only solution. Sometimes is takes the sling, the pacifier, and a walk around the block. Then there are the times when he just melts into me and falls asleep so easily. I absolutely love the weight and warmth of his little body, the softness of his head, and sweetness of his breath. Unfortunately, I rarely ever get to just sit and enjoy these relaxed cuddly moments because inevitably, Elena or the house needs something that requires two hands and bending down. I make sure he gets one (or most of one) nap in the sling each day, but most of the time, he ends up in the swing.
Of course he is cuddled up next me for most of the night, so he is certainly not neglected, but it is sad that I can't give him more attention during the day. I can't remember if this is the way all newborns are, or if Jesse is really different than Elena. I seem to remember that she was not so difficult to soothe... but maybe if I did remember, I wouldn't have had another one? In any case, we love him a lot, but he is a piece of work, that's for sure.

Halloween is best at home

Kevin took Elena trick-or-treating this year! She was Elmo (see earlier post) and was very unsure about the whole thing. Kevin reported that she was absolutely quiet the entire time and would not utter one word or crack a smile to any of our friendly neighbors. This is our Ellie-- she is so shy around new people, she just clams up and won't do a thing. Finally, after about 6 houses, he asked if she wanted to go visit our neighbors Jan and Tom and she said, "no. home." So home they went. Better luck next year?

Jesse at 5 weeks

Sweet babies

Autumn walk

I've been having a really nice time hanging out with the babies every day. It is certainly a juggling act, but the slow pace and simple pleasures keeps things fairly easy. Even getting ot of the house can be a challenge... but we don't actually have to do it that often. Here we are on a fall hike in Ravenna park. Elena learned two new words: moss and fern.

Big sister

Elena is really sweet with Jesse. She carefully gives him the pacifier -- "paciwier" or "paci"-- when he cries and pats him on the head and kisses him. She is also a pro at rocking him in the swing and in the carseat (see video). She loves to bounce him in the the bouncy chair, but we have had to instruct her to use only one finger to bounce him or he is at risk of falling out. It is really amazing to see the beginnings of this relationship.