There were many lovely moments today, and yesterday, and over the last week for that matter. But I’m tired and Joe is working most of the day tomorrow, so I’m heading to bed to store up energy for a 2-kid day.
In lieu of a recap, I’ll share a Saturday Haiku:
Grandma Monkey’s here
Cam terrorized the pigeons
Lake, home, hair, park, home
Demi Grey is 4 months old!
She’s still smiley, happy and predictable. Her schedule is 1 hour of play time, nap time, 1 hour of play time, milk, 1 hour of play time, nap and so on. Makes it fairly easy to parent.
New tricks include:
Here she is telling me about her day while we swing in the hammock.
June was a bit of a wild month. It was really challenging for every one of us, but for different reasons. For me, it was going back to work during a thunderstorm of stuff–mostly good, but it just demanded a lot of time and was stressful. For Joe, it was handling Cam and Demi every morning and many afternoons without my help, in addition to working more days a week than not. For Cam, it was a sleep regression that has us guessing every day whether he’s going to nap and not go to bed until 10:30 (or later) or if he’s not going to nap and the nighttime routine is out the window.
And it certainly was for friends and family too (Inny, Poppy, Regina, Brett & Morgan) who put in the extra effort for us to close the babysitting gap.
But, we made it, “…with a little help from our friends!”
A typical morning with dad gets adventurous.
Inny is smiling because even though she is probably exhausted and glued with sweat to both babes, this was likely the most relaxing part of her day.
Demi’s first time in the “circle of neglect”… or the play bouncer. She’s still too small/unstable to stay in it very long, but Inny says she was definitely interested. (Side note: Demi looks so darn sweet in this pic, I can seriously smell her when I look at it.)
Hot weekend days without dad are best spent outside. With no clothes. Who said scootering with no clothes was a bad idea? This looks totally safe.
Sweet Morgan Rose helping Demi with her morning bottle.
Going to work in the morning, leaving a sleeping babe without having had any interaction is SO HARD. It’s so tempting to wake her up just so I can get a smile.
Luckily when I work from home I still get little visitors.
Now that it’s July, things will change a bit. Cam will be going to preschool within a matter of weeks (maybe days), and grandma Monkey is officially a San Diegan (La Mesan to be exact!!!) so we’re going to take a breath and reorganize. With 2 grandmas and preschool, things are bound to be a teeny bit easier than June!
File this under “new talents”. Little sis is sitting in her Bumbo. And I think she likes it too! So funny that Cam fit in the Bumbo for approximately 1 week and then his thunder thighs outgrew the leg holes.
Throwback to Cam in the bumbo!
Father’s Day was mostly wonderful. We hung out at the house in the morning enjoying the new hammock chair Cam got for Joe as a Father’s Day gift (isn’t he thoughtful!?).
Then, we packed up picnic foods and drinks and headed down to Mission Bay to join the Stadlers on their boat. This was such a treat for all of us. The weather was perfect and any day on the Stadler’s boat is a special and memorable day.
The last time Cam rode on the Stadler’s boat, he fell asleep almost immediately. This time he was obsessed with the cabin and climbing in and out of it while munching on cheese and grapes. I have to say, this kid lives a really tough life.
Brett’s mom was a SAINT and kept an eye on the kids while the rest of us enjoyed the views.
Also notable, it was Demi’s first boat ride. I can’t say she loved it. But I can’t say she didn’t like it either. I think she was a little disoriented with all the wind and bobbing around. As always she was a good sport.
After docking, we took turns paddling around the bay in their kayaks. The fathers and their first-borns…
Then Shara and I took a jaunt around the bay. Apparently kayaks have cupholders, so I put mine to use.
After our boating adventures we met Poppy, Inny, Uncoco and Nicole at Modern Times Brewery…
… this is where things took a turn for the worse. Cam fell asleep in the car and after we woke him up, it was nearly impossible to get him out of his funk. He was an 11 on a 10-point grumpy scale. We pressed on and had a lightning round of BBQ with the folks before heading home and prepping for the work week.
All-in-all, it was a lovely day celebrating fathers.
I read this NY Times article a few weeks ago which details how to be mindful while holding a baby and it keeps coming back to my consciousness while I hold Demi. She is my second and last baby and I know the moments of her being so little are fleeting.
I’m lucky that I only commute to work 2 days a week, but they are long tough days and they don’t leave a lot of time for mindfulness, or holding my baby for that matter. I was disappointed tonight when Demi fell asleep earlier than I’d expected. I wanted to wake her up and play with her, get at least a couple more smiles before she drifted off to dreamland.
Just another reminder to take advantage of the moments I get to spend with this little lady, so sweet and soft and squishy and oh her scent! When she is officially not an infant anymore, I might start stealing other peoples’ babies. Fair warning.
In lieu of a Father’s Day card, I thought it would be neat to interview Cam and Demi and mash it up together into a Father’s Day video. Cam was happy to participate and so was Demi. (Please excuse the apple-eating… I knew Cam would answer more questions if he had a distraction).
Your kids clearly love you very very much! Happy Father’s Day Joe, may it be a styrofoam-smashing good time!
I didn’t know what else to title this because it’s just way too many photos from the last 2 days of my cutie patooties. We had a BORING weekend because I wasn’t feeling well and Joe was working, so I don’t have much to show for it, other than these little cherubs.
This is just about the happiest Demi has ever been on her tummy. Almost always she puts her head down and starts chewing on her hands or crying.
And then there is this! Oh my goodness I can’t even stand her cuteness.
Cam wasn’t cooperating with my “diapered baby photo shoot” so I carried on without him and then he crept up onto the chair because I think he was jealous of me oooh-ing and ahhh-ing over Demi. So, my master plan worked!!
And the last one is from this morning. While I find it very difficult to breastfeed in the middle of the night when there are 4 humans and 1 dog all on the same bed, I love love love being next to my sleeping babes. This morning, they slept in later than mom and dad who were seriously off to the races on this busy work week.
Our sweet baby girl is 3 months strong! And by strong I mean she has the craziest grip. Sometimes I can’t get her pajamas on because she’ll grab onto the sleeve as I’m trying to pull it onto her arm and she just won’t let go. She also loves gripping the monkey on her Wubba Nub, my clothing, and unfortunately for me, my hair (which at the moment needs no assistance in the thinning process because it’s already falling out in clumps–thank you postpartum hormone changes).
She is still so smiley and truly only cries when she wants to eat or sleep and we pretty much always know which due to timing. So, she’s taking it easy on us.
Some other fun things: she can now track things with her eyes, which has opened up new possibilities for play time. Her babbling is adorable–she sounds like a kitty. Most women can get her to smile and it’s about 50/50 for men, she’ll either smile or stick out her bottom lip in a pout. She’s starting to be more interested in Cam and watches him as he spins around the room. She mostly dislikes tummy time but is getting better at it. Her neck is now strong enough to where you can hold her upright and her head doesn’t bob around.
She snores and gasps all the time while sleeping and it drives us nuts even though we’ve been told (and we know) that it’s normal and she’ll grow out of it. She also has 1 single thick strand of blonde hair on top of her head amidst all that brown hair. Oh and her eyes are a lovely shade of cerulean blue. Yes, cerulean.
Everyone says she looks just like a darker version of Cam, not so much like Joe and not so much like me, but definitely like she’s Cam’s sister. We’re good with that. Cam’s a pretty cute kid 🙂
Memorial Day was the very last day of my 12 weeks of maternity leave. So bittersweet. I have loved almost every minute of maternity leave bonding with my new little love while also growing closer to my Cambone and learning to be parents of two kids alongside Joe. But at the same time, I also want the balance of work + life again. Challenging myself in the workplace is definitely a part of my balance.
Memorial Day was also a day to BBQ with the fam and celebrate Poppy and Inny’s birthdays a day early. Demi brought the patriotic cheer while Cam thinks we forgot the party hats (he mentioned that to me yesterday and again tonight, so apparently he’s very serious about party hats–noted!).
Today, I returned to work on my 1 year work anniversary–so fitting! I remembered to bring in a photo of Cam and Demi to cheer up my space.
The day was long and the night routine even longer. But while I sat in Cam’s room under the stars, Demi falling asleep in my arms, and Cam telling me about the “4 presents with bows” that he would like for his birthday, I remembered not to treat a gift like a burden. It was at least an hour past Cam’s bedtime, and I was beyond pooped, but I know how lucky I am to have these sweet little beings in my world.
CamO+DemO 