Ah, Jamisen loves his little sister. He wants to hold her, make her laugh and mimic what his Mommy and Daddy do. He even tried to play peek a boo with her tonight! (video above of him trying to hold her; must click through to blog to see it as it does not embed in email).
Notice the sweet car carpet? I can’t wait to start bribing … er, I mean, rewarding (!) him with Hot Wheel cars for potty training to drive around that carpet. He still shows absolutely no sign of wanting to potty train. But really, could you blame him? He would have to quit playing to go to the bathroom in the toilet. This week, funny story, I was feeding Lily (so, completely occupied) and I hear a little voice from Lily’s crib. It’s Jamisen and he says, “Mommy, I am washing my hands with nail polish.” And, yes, yes he was ‘washing’ his hands with nail polish. What a funny little guy. =)
Baby Lily continues to delight and amaze at all times. She is growing extremely slowly (and because of that, eats 3X per night, every night). She is in the bottom 5th percentile for height and weight. She is only 9 pounds, 14 ounces – and is over 3 months old. She is 22″ long and is perfectly proportionate for all of her measurements. Her Grandpa assures me that there’s a reason my name was ‘Shrimpette’ growing up so she must take after her Mama. At this point, I realize I should have moved to California and camped out at all the movie studios, offering Lily for day rates to be the token ‘newborn’ in all the hospital drama shows given that she is STILL smaller than a percentage of babies born every year in the United States. Hindsight. 20/20.
Lily is coming to work less and less – only 8 hours this week – and I miss her dreadfully during the day. Thankfully, I get to see her most days since instead of working out at lunch, I’m usually found at home reading a toddler book to Jamisen to help get him to nap and feeding Lily. This is a short time period in our family life. I’m trying to take advantage of it and get my work outs in other ways (dance parties at work, impromptu work outs with Jamisen and quick runs around the neighborhood). I’m staying so non-working-out-y active that I’ve hit 365 days (a year!) of goals yesterday on NikeFuel (photo proof here). My goal is 3000 ‘fuel points’ per day (though I did decrease that goal for baby delivery and the foggy haze of weeks after that). If you have any other genius ideas for getting real-deal workouts in and juggling newborns, family, work and everything else, I’m open to mostly anything (just don’t make me strap on a night light and go running in the dark like my CEO buddy Patrice from Net Solutions).
Jamisen gets more and more energy with each passing day. He literally radiates energy from his every pore and sometimes, he gets so excited that his entire body shakes – almost like those teensy dogs that can’t keep it together when someone throws the ball to them multiple times. Here he is (above), pushing me to get back into shape after Lily and helping me fit in my workout.
Jamisen loves this geodesic dome that his Grandpa Faiola spent hours (FIVE!) putting together for him. He has conquered it (!) and happily climbs to the top all the time now – a full 2 years before he’s supposedly ready for it. If he falls, he just tries again. I love that persistence!
If there was one thing that Grandpa Faiola (AKA: my Dad) taught me …. well, one of ten gazillion great lessons … it was that it’s fine to introduce kids (within reason) to things that are supposedly above their age group according to the ‘experts’ or in this case, the toy designers. We let him explore and when he’s ready, he goes for it and we’re right there to catch him if it doesn’t work. Granted, that may jump back to bite us at some point in the future, but right now? We’re going with that theory and Jamisen is thriving with it.
I just got done dealing with our strawberries for Fall/Winter (cutting them down, getting rid of old plants, fertilizer, new soil) and planting for Fall harvest. I put in some new kale plants, cauliflower, beets, lemon cucumbers and broccoli. I want to get in some Fall carrots but might be too late. Our tomatoes are going crazy and I need to go harvest them this weekend so they don’t all go to the birds or languish on the ground. Upcoming projects are cutting back the blackberries and raspberries and building a trellis system that will withstand their weight. This year’s failed miserably. If you have any favorite blackberry/raspberry hanging systems that you use/build, please let me know. This is my very first year with a garden and I’ve learned a lot so far thanks to a friendly local Bellingham gardening store and the help of Dr. Google but would love your advice too.
My life in a nutshell is a joyful blur of kids, cooking, gardening, husband, soaping, working (but not so much working out!) and reading. I remain tired but happy and am buoyed by all of your successes. I read your blogs, Facebook posts, Teach Soap Forum posts and now, Soapcrafting Club posts with awe and amazement. Your soapy creations inspire and delight me every day.
