She's happiest.

When surrounded by a pile of books.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. She wears this dress no matter what. If it's 70, if it's 85. If it's scooter time or naptime. She loves it.2. My family one bedtime. Kids bathed and clean and with time to spare. Notice I say one bedtime, because usually this is not what bedtime looks like at all. It's chaos. Alla only wants Mommy to do her lotion but Mommy's feeding Fisher. Fisher is ready to nurse and go to sleep and then suddenly he's wide awake and not ready to sleep at all. Mommy + Daddy are also wanting to clean up the kitchen so that we don't have to do that after the kids are in bed and we're trying to enjoy one peaceful hour or so of relative quiet. 3. But on this night it looked like this and I like it in black + white, too.4. Look who's sleeping with his lovey and loving it. Sans swaddle much of the time. You hand it to him, he inserts fingers into mouth, holds lovey with other hand, and curls his little body around it. So darn adorable. Being his lovey pimp seems to have paid off.
5. Her pool may never be the same. Yep, that's Ajax.

6. Someone got a nice little turning-four-months-old present: a used-by-big-sis exersaucer! Next up, the five month activity: swinging!
7. Can't wait to see which toy he likes best. Alla favored the elephant.
8. This seems to be his favorite so far. 9. Speaking of four months old, he went in for his appointment today and is officially 17 pounds 4 ounces. And 28 inches! I had to go back and look at Alla's baby book to compare four-month stats. Don't know her height but she wasn't 28 inches til 8 months. She was 18 pounds 3 ounces at 4 months - wow, almost a whole pound heavier! So definitely he's focusing his growth on height!

10. Alla has a new favorite show, which we were turned onto because of the books. Charlie and Lola is absolutely the most adorable show ever. Go to the library and check out all of Lauren Child's books.

Four months.

In my experience, on the day that the baby is exactly x-number of months old, you will be unable to get the shot you want that will be enlarged and go on the wall and become the official photograph for that month. The kid is a bundle of smiles on the 29 other days that month, but on the day you want his official photograph, he clams up. Hand in mouth. Like all day.

But that was before we brought in back up. Mmm-hmmm, Daddy Tickle Monster.

And remembered the little guy has ticklish thighs!Mama wins this month, Fisher. Happy Four Months, Little Man. Now stop growing already.

If this doesn't make your Sunday.

Then nothing will. I don't think we've had footage this good since Chicken Dance Elmo. Really, couldn't we all use a little more Michael Jackson in our lives?

Ten on Tuesday.

1. Pulling the Bumbo up to the Gymini is a whole extra new fun baby activity!2. More from the new banner series.3. And more. 4. She picked out this flower and asked me to put it in her hair and I couldn't help but remember that she was there on my hip when I bought that for a very special occasion.
5. Somedays you just need your ballet outfit and your hair in a ballerina bun and your umbrella and your fishies to snack on.
6. A Friday art morning. Outside on the deck on a hot morning just-a-painting away.7. Muffin Tin Monday. This has been loads of fun the past three weeks. Alla LOVE LOVE LOVES the whole idea and now knows that Monday means Muffin Tin Monday. I know it looks like a lot of work, kind of, to figure out 12 different things, but you could use a six-cup tin! Ha! No, honestly, it's super easy to just give her a little of a bunch of stuff. And I kind of cheated on this one and put her dessert in the tin whereas usually that's an after lunch thing, but wouldn't you know, she ate the food-food first and then asked me if she could eat her dessert! So, from left to right starting at the top, here's what she had yesterday:

leftover pizza cut into strips, pistachios, chocolate chips, marshmallows, pitted cherries, a mini-peanut butter sandwich cut into a circle, banana chips, graham crackers, strawberry yogurt, strawberries, pretzels, dried apricots

I've heard it suggested that it would be interesting to get a snapshot of the tin after lunch, but I haven't gotten around to that yet.
8. A photo without his hand in his mouth!9. Tomorrow we're going to see Shrek the Third at the "movie center" for a buck. Can't beat that.

10. It's hot here. If it's hot where you are, then try these homemade popsicles. I've had two today:)

Raspberry-Lime-Swirl Popsicles

16 ounces low-fat or nonfat vanilla yogurt
2 Tbsp fresh lime juice
8 ounces fresh or thawed frozen raspberries
4 Tbsp granulated sugar

1. In a blender or food processor, puree the yogurt with 1 Tbsp of the lime juice until smooth. Transfer mixture to a bowl.

2. In the blender or food processor (no need to clean), puree the raspberries with the remaining lime juice and sugar. Pass the puree through a fine sieve to remove the seeds; you should have about 1/2 cup.

3. Pour the yogurt mixture and the berry puree in layers in 4 large popsicle molds or 8-ounce cups. Using a wooden popsicle stick, swirl the layers together. Insert sticks, then freeze the pops for at least 6 hours, or until they're solid.

4. To unmold the pop: Run warm water over the bottom three-quarters of the mold. Let it stand for 10 seconds then gently pull out the pop. Serve immediately or wrap each pop individually in plastic wrap and freeze until ready to serve.

The popsicles will keep, wrapped and frozen, for at least one week.

Enjoy!

First trip to the zoo.

Weekends around here are kind of busy. Saturdays Mama gets up for a long run, and has to be home before Daddy takes Alla to swimming. At 9:10 am. So I have to get up, get some sort of power snack, feed Fisher, get myself geared up, head out for a five mile run and still be home by 8:45 so they can be on time for swimming. Sundays Daddy's been golfing with his buddy. And sometime in there he goes for a long run, too. Oh, and there's often grocery shopping or lawnmowing to throw in there. Not to mention we have a wee one who I don't want out in the hot summer sun, so that kind of limits our around the town activities.

Not Saturday! They got home from swimming and I whispered to Ron, Let's take them to Como, and fifteen minutes later we were in the car. So saucy of us Killins's, I tell you.

It was like Alla had never been there before, though I assure you we have been there many many times. It's only about a ten mile drive, so we can go for an hour and not invest the whole day. I know she remembers being there enough that when we pulled in she said something about Como and zoo and Como Town and then started screaming about it being her favorite. But when we got in there, she had this new fascination with all the animals like she was seeing them for the first time. She was so so excited, spotting things and pulling us to see them with her. She's suddenly more observant, pays more attention to details, like the sea lions laying on the bottom of the pool and the funny way they blow out their whiskers when they emerge.

I saw a BIG flamingo, Mama! See there are two tortoises looking at me. Let's go find the polar bears. I wanna hug that big giraffe. I see a mama lion, shhhhh. And there's the dada lion.

That wee one spent the day strolling around, easy-going kid he is, sucking those two fingers raw. And then just got bored of it all and fell asleep. We finished up the outing at Snuffy's Malt Shop where Alla actually ate her chickens before her ff's! FF is Alla-speak for 'french fry.'

Wigglenoses.

OK, we are feeling a little bad about letting Alla loose to chase out the big bunny that's been stalking our garden, because now we realize she wasn't stalking the garden at all, but keeping an eye on her little babes!

Daddy accidentally found them when mowing this afternoon. They started popping out of the ground and running for dear life. A few minutes later he's standing at the window holding up a baby bunny in each hand and Alla cannot get out there fast enough to hold them herself.

It was next to impossible to get her to come inside but miracle of miracles, both kids came in, laid down, closed their sleepy eyes, and mama did too. Ron said that when he went in there to get her after nap, she was jumping around doing 'fernagics,' which of course is Alla-speak for gymnastics. And somehow Fisher was sleeping through all of her fernagics.

Reusable bags update.

Check the linky from the Ten on Tuesday post below. Link has been fixed to take you right to the bags! Megan is currently testing some reusable produce bags so we'll be back with a review of those soon:)

Even in the bath.

I swear, I rarely saw the kid's fingers out of his mouth yesterday. Maybe while sleeping and eating. I thought bathtime was a finger-free time, too, til I looked at these pictures. And then I realized, no, he had 'em in there then, too. It's becoming an Olympic sport for him.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. Obsessed with tummy photos.

2. Enjoying Parking Lot Rules. A must-read for parents.

3. Fascinated by The Vaccine Book. Another must-read.

4. Appalled by the price of cherries! $4.49 a pound??? How am I ever supposed to make the chocolate cherry tart??

5. Hooked on frozen bananas.

6. Bored with lunch again. Well, we had leftover chicken salad today so that was lovely, but yesterday I was stumped. If you leave a comment, tell me what you had for lunch today.

7. Compromising with Alla on non-nap days. Parked her in the guest/playroom on a bare bed with lots of pillows and lots of books. She knows when she's tired enough to sleep, and if she's not, then Mama has to do everything possible to maintain her own quiet time. For sanity's sake.

8. But sometimes, the stars do align, and Mama gets an hour and twenty minute nap. Hopefully that lovely stretch yesterday will carry me til the next one.

9. On the menu tonight: marinated grilled flank steak, roasted potatoes, and fruit. I think we have cantaloupe and strawberries.

10. Super happy with the reusable bags Megan recommended! I even get five cents back for each one used at Target! Woohoo. And they hold tons.

Mama Monday: Introducing a new sibling.

I'm buddy-posting here for Erin's Mama Monday! I figure since we just brought Fisher home three and a half months ago, this is still fresh in my mind.

1. When we decided to have a repeat cesarean that morning, it gave us a little bit of time to prepare Alla, instead of being randomly thrust into labor as we'd originally planned. We told her that evening Pondegore would be here and she would get to hold him (or her!)! Luckily my mom and stepdad were already here helping out with Alla so we had the childcare portion all lined up.

2. Alla got to peek on Fisher in the nursery as they were washing him up and I was getting stitched up. But then (hospital policy) I had to spend an hour in my room being watched and taken care of before I could have visitors. So the grandparents took her out to dinner.

3. When she came back she wanted to hold him immediately and was so so in awe of him. Having a cesarean means you aren't necessarily up to holding the wee one right from the get-go and all the time in the hospital so I just wasn't holding him when she came in. I think I made a point not to be holding him any of the times she visited. Fisher was born at 5:46pm so really by the time she came back from dinner and got to my room her time there was pretty short as it was getting late. She headed back home with Nana + Pappi for the night.

4. She came back the next morning first thing and spent the whole morning with us. The leaving part was actually the hardest. I really wanted to be able to go with her, and I could tell it was hard for her to understand why she had to be away from us. She also came back that afternoon after nap for a short visit before dinnertime. Again, extremely hard for her to leave and for us to see her go.

5. The next morning she came back again and we could tell she was getting a little, well, difficult, so we made the decision to have Ron go home with her and her grandfather and my mom stayed with me. This turned out to be a great plan because she got to spend some quality time with Daddy (including Pizza Friday!), and I got to spend some time with my mom (ok, she got to spend some time with her new grandson). That day was good for Alla, also hard for me because I didn't see her the rest of the day.

6. That was also the day that the kids 'exchanged' gifts. Alla had gotten a going-home outfit for Fish to wear the next day. Fisher had gotten her a cool blue BIG SISTER tee shirt, and a new doll of her own to take care of, whose name she had already picked out (on the off-chance that she would get a new doll soon): Lauren.

7. The next day was Saturday. Fisher was 3 days old, and we were going home by noon so we didn't have Alla come to the hospital. We just packed up our stuff and reveled in one last morning of just one kid (ha!), and mentally prepared ourselves for our new life as parents of two!

8. The first afternoon home was the roughest. It was truly Alla testing the waters, not really sure about this new person in the house, and a mama who couldn't pick her up or walk up the stairs but once a day. It was hard and I'll admit I wanted to go back to the hospital. But since then the hard parts have nothing to do with their relationship. She and I race to his bedside when he wakes up from nap cause we have missed him and want to be the first to see his little smile. He looks at her with genuine love in his eyes. And they share a room! So they comforted by one another's sounds and cries and smells and just being there.

Their first meeting...

It starts to get interesting.

When you have new angles from which to photograph. When they can hold (ok, bob) their little heads up for a split second or two with all that yummy drool just hanging out. Oh so much fun.

Happy Fourth.

She seemed to remember the sparklers being a little, well, sparkly last year, and was a bit apprehensive. And if you need a 2007 refresher you'll have to click on the July 2007 link and then scroll down to the fourth because I can't figure out how to link just to that post. And I'm too lazy and lack the desire to figure it out.

But warmed up once she found her technique.

June photo love.

I spent July 1st and 2nd getting my June photo order ready since Adorama put a deadline on its eight-cent pics. Yes, eight cents! In the process I got to love the photos from last month again, discovered a few I hadn't touched, and cannot wait to receive the actual prints in the mail. Here are a few highlights from June, in photographs, of mostly stuff I didn't already post. I said mostly.

From top left: Two happy kids after naps; Daddy and his kiddos on Father's Day 2008; Alla has decided she wants for breakfast every single day 'a waffle like you [Mama] eat' which is to say a plain waffle topped with yogurt and granola and fruit (well, add flaxseed and maple syrup to mine) - on that day we ate breakfast outside; my Fisher's happy little clear-skinned smile; Daddy + Fish; Alla happily seated on her SpongeBob chair outside with her Aunt + Uncle; said Aunt + Uncle with their niece and nephew; Alla enjoying some puddles and downpour with her froggy boots and Dora umbrella; two kiddos in the double jogger; June 2008 family photo; Stahr kids + Killins kids; the wonderful Stahrs who paid us a visit.

Here's to an equally lovely July!

One year ago.

I went to the dermatologist for a check-up and came home with one less mole and the knowledge that there was a baby in my belly.

Alla immediately started showing us her belly, insisting there was a baby in there, too, and naming our baby-to-be Pondegore.

And the rest is, well, you know, looks a little something like this.
I told Alla this whole little one-year-ago-today story this morning as I'm laying there with her leg draped over me and on the other side of me is this little cooing baby and Ron apparently overheard from the bathroom as he's getting ready for work and says let's do it again and I said talk to me in a few years because, let's all be honest, it's a heck of a lot of work. But with limbs draped over me and sweet baby sounds in my ear, as tired as I was at 7:01 am, I thought, more limbs would certainly be wonderful. Someday. Love you, family. What a difference a year makes. A fabulous, chubby seventeen-pound difference.