09/11/2001

I WILL always remember...and I want my children to never forget. Let the media show the footage all day long on this day, every year!

Flying the Cardboard Coop

The chicks turn 3-weeks tomorrow....they are much more feathered (almost a molted look) and are already testing the boundaries of "the box." This morning, I found the yellow one, Uno, patiently waiting on the OUTSIDE of their cardboard box to be put back in for her water and food. [More cleaning.] While changing their food again tonight, she jumped up on top of the water bottle to get a better look at my activities. Ah-ha! That's how you got out! Now I know to move the water to the middle of the box....and to hustle down to the feed store to buy me a more permanent coop.

Fun at the Zoo

We recently went to the zoo again with friends Dean and his mommy (one of my best friends), Tiffany. We spent over an hour in the farm yard alone and then rode the carousel. It was Alessandro's first time on a carousel! He loved it, but was a little nervous when his ostrich started moving up and down...Cute!

Uno, Dos, Tres - 2-Weeks old

Uno (the yellow one), Dos (the striped one) and Tres (the black one) are now 2-weeks old. We thought children grew quickly? How about chickens! They now have most of their wing feathers and some of their tail feather are coming out, too. They have 6-more weeks before all their feathers are in and they are ready to live outside full time.
I've decided, if they can live through the first 2-weeks at our house, they can live through a hurricane! There are many funny stories to tell of the misadventures of these fluffy friends -- funny only because they have survived this crazy life I'm so used to living: living among children.

Adventure #1:
Daddy: [goes downstairs and notices there are no chicks in the box] Girls? Do you know where the chicks are?
Bettina: Yeah.
Daddy: Well, could you show me? I can't see them.
Bettina: [takes a break from watching SpongeBob on the TV and walks downstairs and over to the play shopping cart. Pulls out the child-sized purse from the cart and unzips it. Out come three little chicks.] They're right here, Daddy. Silly!
Daddy: [comes upstairs after replacing the chicks in the box and looks at Mommy.] Did you know that Bettina zipped up the chicks - all three of them - into her purse?
Mommy: Ah, no....
[Mommy and Daddy wonder how long those poor chicks were stuffed into that little bag. Mommy quickly adds the purse to the dirty clothes pile.]

Adventure #2:
[Mommy is trying desprately to make the most of her *free time* while Baby Brother naps. She's on the phone trying manically to sort out business with a friend. Mommy stops talking in mid-sentance after peering out the window, hearing loud, unhappy chirping sounds from outside.] OMG, Anne, I have to call you back. Somethings going on with the chicks. [Mommy goes downstairs and sees Bettina with the garden hose. The back patio is drenched.] Bettina! What are you doing! You know not to play with water without an adult....
Bettina: But, Mommy, we're giving the chickies a bath.
[Mommy notices a totally soaked yellow chick trying to hide in the corner. It takes us three minutes to find the other two who are equally drenched and shivering from cold and fright. Mommy wags an angry finger at the two girls explaining how chicks can get sick and plops the chickies down under a heat lamp. Half an hour later, they are dry and fluffy again.]

There are also the unknown stories...questions like, "Why is there bird poop on the tops of all the books on the bookshelf?" or "Is that bird poop on the top of the guest bed?" I just shake my head, not bothering to ask what kind of carnival ride or game the poor chicks had to endure, and do a lot of laundry.

Go Donate Blood -- Now....

This baby's birth story is incredible and intense. It's about my friend Cindy and Ava's God-father, Mike. You must watch and heed the message. Warning - it may have you crying.....

13-Months - Little Man Looks Like a Litte Boy

Now, I wonder if I'm looking into the future with this shot. It looks to me more like the school picture of an 8-year old....not a snapshot of a little 13-month baby!

Nonetheless, this is Alessandro at 13-months old. The biggest news, of course, is that we're weaned!! Mom has reclaimed her breasts and they are thanking her very much for that. Alessandro is OK with that except he still won't take milk from a sippy cup (grr!). At least, not enough. Another upside is that it is now very easy to put him to sleep. Just a 2-3 minute relaxation routine instead of 15-20 minutes of nursing.

He is also in the middle cutting more teeth. Two more on the bottom have crowned, but there has got to be more. He hasn't slept longer than 2-hours in 4-days and he's screeching like a howler monkey most of the day. I try not to give him too much Motrin, although that and the Baby Oragel seem to work the best in alleviating his discomfort.

He is very physical and adept at throwing balls and anything else he can get his hands on. Seems very "boy" in the regard for sure. He is great at climbing down stairs carefully, although I still worry if he stands up in the middle of a stair case lest he take a step backwards and fall. He is all over the place in a playground. I'm fine with him climbing around the toddler section, but he can't help himself in following the girls into the "big kid" sections. He climbs up the stairs after them, tries to straddle the teeter-totter and runs across the tall bridges which have me worrying at every corner. He's not bold enough to try the slides yet. He opts instead to master each section of the climbing by scaling a section, backing down carefully and repeating a number of times. His favorite toys remain balls, especially the liquid-filled glitter balls that Grandma bought for him. The one with the floating eyeball that lights up when bounced is one he will always hunt down and claim.

He's added a couple more words to vocabulary: "done," "momma," "juice," "more", "hi" are the ones he can do without prompting and he'll mimic a number more. He can ASL sign "hat," "shoes," "dog," "more," and "done." He's also starting to change his nap schedule, getting ready to drop a nap. We now nap around 10:30am and again around 4pm. Lights-out is around 8:30 or 9pm.

He LOVES the pet chickens we have, as well as any animal that moves! He often watches the chicks in the box and will start walking toward any animal that's near. It was fun taking him to the farmyard at the zoo. He spent half the time watching the ducks in the water and the other half following around the different goats. We love this little guy to pieces!

Uno, Dos, Tres

Meet the newest members of the household....

And, I mean household.... they need to stay indoors under a heat lamp for 2 more months. We picked them up at the feed store where we get Misty's treats. The girls spend time looking at chicks and ducklings while I get all the things I need for the horse. This time, however, we boxed up a couple and took them home.

The guy helping us out to the car asks the girls, "What are you going to name them?" Ava answers, "How about something in Spanish." The man tells her, "My name is in Spanish...why don't you name them Jose?" I remind him that we want them to be hens, not roosters. Ava, still contemplating the Spanish, quotes from Baby Brother's English/Spanish counting table: "How about Uno, Dos, Tres?" Somehow, it sticks. Paul pushes it when he gets home so Tina thinks of other English names for them as well: Pancake, SpongeBob and Popcorn. Who is which, I don't know. I think I prefer their Spanish names.

Although the girls have always admired chickens, I think it was really Paul who placed the idea of getting one in their head. When he was a little boy, his family has some chickens and Paul was infatuated. He used to tell me stories about how he'd get up out of bed in the middle of the night and go sleep next to the chicks or bring one back to bed with him. He laughs about how they pooped in his bed. I think Paul secretly wants to relive those fond childhood memories and share them with his own kids.

Me? I think it'd be cool to raise chickens. Even cooler if they eat all the bugs and spiders that have taken over the backyard in the 4-years since we used it for something other than a construction staging area. I think it will be a great experience for the kids. Fresh eggs are also a benefit. Welcome, Uno, Dos, and Tres! I'm sure there will be many entertaining stories about you to come!

Feeling Like Madonna

Alessandro is just a few days shy of 13-months when I decide I'm ready. With six teeth, breastfeeding has become a not-so-cute-and-sweet event for me. I put up with it because he still will not take milk any other way. He has never taken to a bottle and, although he will drink water and juice from a sippy cup, he refuses milk. I worry about him not getting all the calcium his little growing body needs.
A few days shy of 13-months, I worry no more. I worry instead how my nipples will ever recover as not just one, but both of them are chewed raw and are incredibly painful. "That's it," I huff to our little man, two mornings before our vacation. "You're done! No more boob for you!"
"Finally!" Cheers my husband, who has complained about the lack of weaning for a month or more already.
His cheers only last a day. Soon, Alessandro is upset and frustrated, unable to fall asleep. Paul takes back all encouragement and tries to persuade me instead to "just give it to him" so that he can fall asleep just as easily as his son used to.
My patience draws thin as my nerves get jostled and the pre-vacation anxiety hits. It culminates into the perfect storm when the pain of engorgement, coupled by my PMS hits and creates a hormone frenzy inside my body and temperament. It hurts when somebody even looks that them, much less brushes up against them. The skin becomes so tight they itch and I feel like I'm wearing Madonna's famous bustier - the one with the hard pointy cones. I laugh as I envision myself in it, singing "Express Yourself."
A double-dose of Advil helps and, about the time we make the 3-day trip to Idaho, I'm completely comfortable again. Not only that, but Little Man is starting to become OK with just going to sleep with nothing but a couple sips of juice off his sippy cup. All's more-or-less done and converted in enough time to enjoy vacation. Yay!
Now all I need to do is figure out how to get him to drink milk! I wonder if I somehow sweeten his milk? Will he just get used to it and eventually drink it? I've decided I'll continue trying for at least a week before whining to the pediatrician, just in case he does resolve it soon. Until then, he'll be eating yogert for breakfast, cheese sandwiches for lunch and cottage cheese for dinner!

Yay! Good news from Tahoe

Yay! Word comes from the mountains that Ainsley finally found my camera!! Rumor has it that the couch ate it and only now, 3-weeks later, did it come into sight. I was really starting to sweat it. I wasn't sure I could possibly go much longer without a camera. So many missed photo-ops....the County Fair, swim lessons, their first Tae Kwon Do lesson.... At least we'll have it for the next family gathering in McCall, Idaho!
Also, the mystery of the missing maternity clothes was solved ....all the borrowed/shared bundles were safely located in Ainsley's basement, just as I thought....she WILL be comfortable and clothed while she waits for her January bundle.
It also appears, after a second IntelliGender test, that Ainsley & Patrick are still unclear if the stick was yellow/orange (girl) or green (boy). They are leaning to the yellow/orange (girl), but will probably have to wait until next month's ultrasound to be sure...assuming that Baby is well-placed.

Little Man gets a Little Haircut

Alessandro finally gets a "real" haircut and not one that Mommy tries to pull off one-handedly while he nurses at my breast.

I have to say, it was worth the $16! You can actually see his face! I was worried Daddy would get mad (he always gets mad when the girls hair gets shorter), however, when he came home, Daddy said, "Who's the handsome guy who got his hair cut today?"

Grandma asked if she could be the lucky girl he takes out on a date. Must be some special occasion that he looks so darned dapper! Nah - just my little guy with a little haircut.

Celebrating Alessandro's Birthday at 6-Flags

For Alessandro's "real" birthday, we took time for a family outing, traveling to Vallejo to Six-Flags Marine World. We had a whole lot of fun! We got the tickets free from a friend and didn't realize that we weren't supposed to bring in our own drinks and snacks. They were stuffed in the diaper bag which didn't get searched at the stroller entrance. We were amazed at how much money a family could spend provided they didn't have all the perks we walked in with. $40/adult and $30/child and drinks that cost $6/each, food that was equally expensive, we figured a regular family drops about $250 a visit!! Yikes! Who can afford that? That's what we spent for a weekend in Tahoe over the 4th of July (granded, we did have a locals special).

Apparently, enough people can afford it as the place was full - not too full, but certainly not deserted!

The girls enjoyed the rides, little kid roller costers, shark, dolphin, orca, and sting ray displays/show and of course the water safari ride where everyone got soaked!!

Fantastic day that everyone - except the birthday boy, probably - will remember!

The Facebook Handicap

I realize, now, that with Facebook, my blogging has taken a nosedive! I'm forgetting to add to my blog since it's so easy to just add a blurb to my FB profile. It is less effort and gives me the gratification of instant feedback. I will have to be more disciplined.....

Happy Birthday, Alessandro! A Year of Cuteness...

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

A video montage of the cutest little boy God ever created

I Want To Ride My Bicycle

Always wanting to be in the middle of things, Baby Brother mounted his trike and cruised the lane at Grandma's house like the rest of his siblings....acting as if he does it every day. He loved honking the horn and following everyone down the road. Got to love his sense of independence....Between this and his new steps at the barn, looks like it's time to get a helmet!

More Ballet Pictures

The girls with dance friends Morgan and Madison
photo with Grandma, who sponsors the girls' classes
Very proud parents!

The Big Demonstration

The girls had their big event today...the one they've been rehearsing for 6-months. We can now say that our daughters have danced on the big stage at the Lesher Center for Regional Arts in front of nearly 300 people! The pre-ballet class, the youngest of the show, were the cute little mushrooms that everyone ooh'ed and awe'ed, giggles and smiled about. They were so flippen cute! Grandma got them little rose bouquets that matched their tutus.
Ava has taken very easily to ballet and the steps have come easy to her. She just focuses on smiling at the audience and "keeping the magic in her cheeks." Bettina had a harder time, especially with the "step-hop" routine which looks like skipping. This week, however, she shone through and knocked it out of the ballpark each practice and on stage. They have improved a lot since January when they started at this ballet school.
It was nice to see the other classes dance as well and watch the progression of the different ages and students. From the pre-ballet like Ava & Bettina to the kids who start coming twice a week, then 3-times and finally up to 6-days a week. Who has that kind of money, I don't know, but we will just cross our fingers that we can afford whatever it is that gets their hearts aloft.
For the summer, we're putting our ballet shoes away and will try Tae Kwon Do, gymnastics and swimming lessons instead. Grandma like to sponsor the girls dancing and we will give them all a short break before coming back. We have made some good friends and the girls just LOVE their teachers here.

Alessandro - 11 Months Old

Alessandro is 11-months old on Saturday. He has covered a lot of ground in his 10th month: he added 4 new teeth (the upper eyes and fronts), experimented and then mastered crawling, learned to turn around to go down stairs backwards and he's now walking...like a drunken sailor, but he's walking!
He loves getting into the cabinets, dumping out Grandma's recycling basket, playing hide-and-go-seek, throwing the letters from A & B's stools and any bath toys he can reach down the stairs, the Cars toy Elio gave him and in his sisters' new Fairy House. He will be forever embarrassed to find out that, when finally in the bathroom cabinets, his favorite thing to play with is Mommy's tampons! He plays with gusto and enthusiasm, catapulting himself into the throws of things. He loves to do what everyone else is doing and just sort of fit in. He now gets angry when he's fed food that looks different than what everyone else is eating - no more jarred foods or he'll screech! "I want what they've got -- whatever that is..."
Twice this week, he's proven he's trying to communicate. His first word, ironically, was the same as the girls': "dog." I found this very interesting since we don't have a dog anymore. He saw a dog at the park and again at Great-Aunt MaryAnn's house. He pointed and said very clearly, "dog!" He has also repeated back to me "done" when he's finished eating and doesn't want any more. He signs "done," too. He has also started waving hello if you tell him "hi" and is saying, "uh,oh" if he drops something. We can't believe that he'll be a year old next month!! It's gone by very fast...

Ava & Bettina Turn Four!

With an "In the Garden" theme, we welcomed Ava & Bettina's 4th birthday with a party with all their friends and cousins. Here's a video montage of all the fun.... Enjoy!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Grandma Calls Her "Fire Foot"

Bettina at the Bothin Burn Center waiting room

We just came back from a great vacation to the Carolinas. We planned to visit family and friends, see some sites, and attend a beautiful wedding. There was one activity, however, that we didn't have planned in advance: the urgent care.
While visiting my cousin's house in South Carolina, Bettina decided to test the theory that a smoldering ash-fire is hot. There were no live flames since the slow vegetation burn hadn't been fed for awhile. Only a little rising smoke indicated that this was nothing more than a hill of grey ashes piled up high just like an autumn stack of leaves.
We didn't see it happen; all us adults were sitting together inside. However, the screaming told us even from there that something was seriously wrong. Three little footprints inside the ash-pile told us that Bettina likely jumped straight in middle then, after feeling the burn, stepped sideways out and then rolled to the ground where we found her. Quick cooperation brought all us adults together into a team: Paul carrying her into the house, me drawing a quick cold bath and removing her clothes, Jimee googling burn treatments and Barry flipping the yellow pages for hospital and urgent care phone numbers. It's uncanny how well everything came together.
We were lucky that the local urgent care was able to see her right away and was able to prescribe some serious pain meds. It was the first question I had upon entering and I repeated the request about every 3-minutes: "where are the pain meds!" She was wide-eyed and screaming at the top of her lungs in terror and pain....for nearly 2-hours straight! They helped us dress the wounds and determined they were not serious enough to keep her in the hospital - just off her feet. Good thing we traveled with the stroller!
When we got home, our pediatrician took a look and sent us to Bothin Burn Center in San Francisco. The doctor, Dr. Deweese (a burn reconstructive surgeon), is not a man with any bedside manner. In fact, I'm not sure he ever looked me or Bettina straight in the eye. He was direct, efficient, and, apparently knows his stuff. It's a good thing he has a great nurse! She knew everyone by name and her sunny and helpful disposition more than made up for his gruff ways.
The first month, we had a steady regiment of bathing her feet, trimming the skin, applying the salve and gauze, taping it off and putting a pair of socks over the whole thing for protection. Bettina calls this part "putting on the banjos (bandages)." Bettina was very sensitive about the handling of her feet and didn't want to share the bathtub for fear that someone would knock her wounds and hurt her. She started using her feet as a crutch for activities saying she couldn't do things because her feet hurt. The doctors assured us she was no longer in any pain. Perhaps just feeling a bit itchy with the healing. We let her complaints go for about 5-days, then told her she needed to start getting tough. I pretended not to hear her when I dropped her off at school, pretended not to worry when I dropped her off at gymnastics, and didn't let on that I was half-expecting a wince when putting on her ballet slippers. Would they be too tight? She danced, tumbled and played just like normal as long as I pretended everything was normal. A very complex mix of relief and anxiety.
It's been a couple of weeks now and, after a bunch of salves, creams and lots of rolls of bandages, Bettina's feet look much better. After weeks of trimming, they are no longer bubbled or wrinkled, and the grey-white skin has been replaced by fresh bright-pink skin. We need to be very careful with this new skin. I tell Bettina (who doesn't like the look of it) that it's skin that's just been born, so it looks different. We need to take care of it differently, as well. Lots and lots of sunscreen and socks for the next two weeks to boot.
At our last visit to the Bothin Burn Center, there were two other patients waiting, both in electric wheelchairs. One of them, a man in his early 30's, asked Bettina who she was visiting. She answered that she was there to see the doctor and asked me why his hand and arm were covered in a bandage. I answered, "The same reason your feet are in bandages, I guess." He then introduced himself. "My name's Ben. What's yours?" Bettina answered. "Did you get hurt?" he asked. "Fire," is all Bettina said. "Yeah, I guess we all know a little about that, don't we. Fire is bad, huh." "I jumped on fire," she answered. I saw a bond and an instant appreciation start to develop between this little kid and Ben as she started to tell him about her accident. There are fliers in the waiting room describing how Bothin Burn Center addresses all aspects of burn wounds, the emotional, social, recreational and even nutritional therapies burn victims may need. Even though we didn't make an appointment to cover these issues with the hospital, I could see that Ben and Bettina were working out their own. I so had wished I could somehow covertly record this moment. It brought tears to my eyes. It wasn't long before Ben was giving Bettina a tour of his wheelchair, allowing her to try all the buttons and sharing his burn story as well. Ben doesn't always need a wheelchair, just after his accident which happened a week before Bettina's. He will, thankfully, get better, just like Bettina, and will be able to give up his wheelchair as well.
We tease Bettina about her feet now. Grandma calls her Fire Foot and we talk about the lessons we all learned about staying safe, especially around fire. It has been an incredible learning curve as well as an opportunity to feel blessed.

Alessandro - 10 months

Alessandro is a huge cuddler with Mommy -- she is just eating it up! At 10-months, Alessandro is very good at cruising and standing up by himself for awhile, but less than a minute. He can cruise along furniture easily and has even attempted a number of times to walk forward between things. However, each attempt just ends up falling forward on his face. Once, he got one step and a sort of trip before catching himself on the table in front of him. I'll bet by 11-months, he'll be walking!
He is able to crawl up steps, like he did in this play-tube at the San Francisco airport. He went from standing next to the tube to pulling himself inside and crawling to the other side. he plays often with his sisters and other kids, giggling infectiously with games of chase and pee-a-boo. He loves to pounce on and grab people, particularly attracted to faces (noses and eyes). On our trip to Raleigh, NC, we visited with cousins including the kids' second-cousins Ella and Rudy. Rudy is about 9-months older than Alessandro and the two of them were hilarious the way the wrestled and giggled with each other. They were certainly talking each other's language: the language of "boy!"
Although he still uses his pacifier for comfort, he is finally getting better about sleeping in the night. He can start to comfort himself at night and now I'm up only once with him per night, usually around 2:30pm. He has also started drinking from a sippy cup (yea!), but not enough that he would take his milk-meal/snack from it. We use it for water during meal times. It's a good start.
Favorite toys: balls, the sea captain from his bath boat, and he is really starting to enjoy opening kitchen cabinets and pulling everything out. I am very soon going to get those baby-proofer door latches, despite Paul's concerns they will damage/change the cabinets too much. I have also had to tell Paul that we need to get a legitimate door handle for the kitchen pantry as Alessandro opens the unlatched door and will throw all the food on the floor as well. he has two very-tall teeth on his lowers and I've been waiting for those uppers for some time. No sign of them yet, although I blame general crankiness on their anticipated arrival.
This month, Alessandro attended his 5th wedding, my friend Natasha's in Raleigh, NC. Here's another picture with a bride and him. We've put his sportscoat to good use!

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