More from the balloon rally

Oh, brother

I guess the honeymoon is over.

Will has started to give us a few less-than-subtle clues that he's now feeling the effects of brotherhood.

At Pizza Hut recently, Will told me that he wished the baby was a girl.

"A girl? I thought you wanted a brother. You told me a boy was 'just what you wanted,'" I said.

"I've changed my mind. Let's get rid of this one and get a girl."

Not going to happen, pal.

Will, Papa and a hot air balloon

Pretty cool shot by Jana from a hot air balloon rally in Waupaca ...

Baby Shrek

Despite Charlie's recent lack of bowel movements, he has been a prolific passer of gas. I don't mean to take pride in such a trait, but I like to think that this tendency is keeping colic at bay.

My friend Sharon and I had lunch at the golf course recently and he really showed her what he's got. We're talking man-size noises. In fact, I'm pretty sure she's going to call him Baby Shrek.

Scott and I, of course, have been incredibly amused by Charlie's abilities. In fact, we debated video-taping him but didn't want to be responsible for a viral "farting baby" video on YouTube. Still, I promise you, it would have been hilarious.

The other day, I was at the new mom support group and Charlie let out a belch that caused even the veteran moms to raise eyebrows. But I wasn't embarassed. Nope. As Shrek says: "Better out than in."

The poop files

The baby has not pooped in five days.

Seriously. Five days.

No worries, of course I called the doctor. It seems this is normal. Babies who are breast-fed exclusively average one BM every seven days. He could go as long as 12 days. Wow. Apparently, Will never got that memo.

So, I'm not worried anymore about the lack of pooping, the thing we really need to worry about is the fact that I seem to tell every single adult that I know for the past two days. A few examples:

Stranger on the street: "Oh, what a beautiful baby!"
Me: "Yes. He hasn't pooped in four days."

Good friend from work #1: "How's the baby?"
Me: "Great. He hasn't pooped in four days."

Scott: "How's Charlie today?"
Me: "Still nothing."

Today, day 5, I actually started expanding the details. I can't believe I'm talking about it even as the words leave my mouth:

Good friend from work #2: "What a good baby!"
Me: "Yes, he hasn't pooped in five days. The nurse said I could take his temperature rectally if I want to get things moving. But I'm not going to do that. He doesn't seem uncomfortable so it doesn't seem necessary."
Thought in my head: Stop talking, no one wants to talk about rectal temperature taking.

So, I've resolved to not discuss this further. I'll just pack a few extra wipes, diapers and outfits in the diaper bag and prepare myself for the inevitable.

Battle scars

I locked myself out of the house today.

Just me, not the baby. He was sleeping peacefully on the couch when I went to water the tomatoes. I left through the garage door to turn on the hose. The patio door, usually open to allow for fresh air, wasn't open because it's hot and I didn't want the hot air to get inside and force me to turn on the AC.

So there we were ... the baby inside, me locked out. No obvious way in.

All ended well, I'll just say that before I mention that I'd just changed out of my "leaving the house" outfit into Scott's boxers and a wife-beater tank top -- my "can't even answer the door in this outfit" outfit. I was just going to water the tomatoes! No one was going to see me!

Well, actually, there are any number of people who might have seen me as a circled the house twice, tried every door repeatedly, checked for the spare key where it should have been 16 times, and looked in the window at least 40 times to ensure the baby was not awake and wailing. I finally ran across the street in Scott's underwear, sweating like a maniac and praying that the baby didn't wake up.

My neighbor, also the mother of a newborn, didn't answer her door so I ran back across the street determined to break into my own house. Which I did. It was scary easy (thank god, but, yes, we'll be addressing that) and all was well except for a few scrapes and bruises on my legs.

Ten minutes later, my heartbeat had nearly returned to a normal pace, I'd already e-mailed Scott to inform him that the spare is not where it should be, and the baby? Still sleeping peacefully.

Whew!

Day at the Farm, Part 2

And like any 4-year-old boy, Will also liked the sparklers and s'mores.

Day at the Farm, Part 1

A couple weekends ago we went to a party thrown by some friends some work, an annual affair dubbed Day on the Farm. Will loved the tire swing, goat, pigs, horses, roosters, llama, etc.

Polar bears on Mars?

Saturday night, Will and I made a fire and made s'mores. Mmmmm, s'mores.

As the sun went down and the stars came out, we started talking about the stars. Will empathized with one outlier, which he dubbed "Lonely Star."

We then started talking about the other planets in the solar system, and how there wasn't life on them, including Mars. I told Will that Mars was much colder than anywhere on Earth, so nothing lived there.

"Except polar bears," Will said.

That's right, except polar bears dominate Mars.

Ready for business

Bottle? Check. BlackBerry? Check. Poopy diaper? Check.

Charlie's a young corporate climber ready for business.

Guy Smiley

Charlie's starting to give us some smiles nowadays, and Jana caught this one Friday night at a hot air balloon rally we went to in Waupaca.

Father's Day, Part 3

The highlights of the Bay Beach amusement park were the miniature train, which seemed much smaller and shorter than it did when I was 12 - Will still made a trip with both Mommy and Daddy; and the bumper cars. Will picked an outlying car, and we were really moving at a good pace away from the scrum when Will said "Daddy, let's hit someone!" Which we then did, and took our share of hits. If only I could bottle his laughter during those minutes ...

Needless to say, everyone was pretty pooped at the end of the day.

Father's Day, Part 2

On to the Bay Beach amusement park ...

Father's Day, Part 1

We had a great Father's Day, the highlight being our time at Bay Beach. Our first stop there was at a wildlife sanctuary, where we fed the geese, watched birds of prey, and visited the museum. It was such a nice day with Charlie, Will and Jana.

A brother's instinct

People often ask us how Will is adjusting to being a big brother. Much as he was during my pregnancy, Will has remained very protective and, somehow, become the authority on Charlie.

The other day, as Will and Scott were leaving, Will told me, "Mommy, you need to feed the baby when he's hungry."

Thanks Dr. Spock.

"OK, I will. Thanks for being such a good brother," I said.

"Mommy, you need to sing to him or hold him when he cries."

"OK, will do. I've got it under control."

"Mommy, do you need a job to do today?"

"What?" I started getting a bit defensive by this point, "Sure. Do you have a job for me?"

"Yup. You can make me dinner."

He must be so proud of his mother.

The truth hurts

At work, I often tell everyone that I leave "gifts for my future self." Notes about a project to help make things smoother next time around or to help answer the inevitable questions that someone may ask me.

I try to do the same thing for Will ... provide him little hints to make his life easier.

Fairly late in my pregnancy, Will looks at me and says, "Mommy, I still love you even though you're getting so fat."

In my effort to make Will a good husband someday, I quickly corrected him.

"Honey, even if it's true, you never, ever tell a woman that she's fat."

He looked at me, took that in, and said, "Mommy, I still love you even though you're getting so huge."

More Saturday pictures ... some from Will

A few pregnant pauses

Charlie is already a month old now and it's enough to send a new mom reeling. One minute, you're as big as a house. The next minute, you're as big as a house, but without the convenient excuse of an additional human being in your tummy.

With both Will and Charlie, I never got to that point where I thought, "I'd do absolutely anything to get this baby out." That's supposed to happen -- some biological thing that makes you actually want to go through labor. Despite a few aches and pains, I pretty much enjoy being pregnant. A few of my favorite moments from my most recent pregnancy:

-- We were at a park about two weeks before Charlie was born. After having a picnic lunch, Will was playing on the playground equipment, most specifically the "fireman's pole" that he had recently mastered. He challenged Scott to go down the pole too. Scott did, despite the ridiculous image of a 6'2" man sliding down a 5' pole. Scott, always looking for a laugh, decided to extend the challenge to me. Will quickly came to my defense. "No. Mommy can't do that, she has a baby in her tummy," then, looking at me with his serious face, "Mommy, it's my job to keep you off the pole." Perhaps, if we hadn't seen so many Sopranos episodes featuring scenes from the "Bada Bing," that wouldn't have been so funny.

-- My friend Karen saved my life by providing me with pretty much all my maternity clothes. I loved them all, except for one shirt. It would have looked great on a woman with more height, but the gray color with sequin trims made me feel, um, well, like a circus elephant. I told Scott, "I'm that elephant that they dress up in a tutu, pop a big pink plume on her head and cart her around the ring calling, 'Ladies and Gentlemen, say hello to 'Cha Cha', isn't she pretty?'"

-- Months ago, I bought a pink maternity sundress and waited anxiously all spring for it to be warm enough to wear it. I broke it out the week Charlie was born. It did elicit some comments. My doctor said, "You're still shaving your legs! Good for you!" One fellow employee said, "Wow, can't miss you coming down the hall!" And, Scott's inevitable response: "Here's Cha Cha! Isn't she pretty?"

Flying windows

Here's a new one: I'm lying here contemplating our next blog post when I see something large and white fall from the sky. I get up and look at the front yard, and that thing is a window from our bedroom.

Walk upstairs, and who's standing by the window? Our oldest, shutting the main glass window.

As we explain to him the negative outcomes that could have followed punching out a window, he breaks down into tears ...

Track pictures

Here are some shots of Will running and jumping at Saturday's track event for the kids. Don't you just love the smile on his face?

Track meet

Today there was a track meet at the school in Iola. Will was a little reluctant to participate at first, but eventually warmed up to the idea and really enjoyed himself. Jared offered him $4 to run (later rescinded), Will's first brush with being a pampered, overpaid athlete.



He finished third in both the 40-yard dash and the long jump. His time of 10.18 seconds in the 40 was a tad off what the NFL scouts are looking for - in an equipment manager - but Will ran with such joy that it didn't matter what his time was.



We didn't get a distance for him in the long jump, but I thought I heard it was over three feet. He employed three distinctly different styles: a triple jump, a straight long jump (his longest effort), and a run-straight-through-it style.





I'll post some photos tomorrow.

Our caterpillar

We found a caterpillar crawling around in our front yard on Sunday, and Will didn't kill it accidentally, which was something of a surprise. He found a nice spot for it in a clear container, and we put mulch and leaves in there. We're hoping to see it turn into a butterfly. I think Will's hoping it turns into his first pet.

Brothers

Everyone keeps asking how Will is getting along with Charlie. Just fine, thank you.

Behind the lens at last

After being the subject of approximately 30,000 photos, Will has started taking a crack at taking pictures of us. Here is his first attempt with our Canon Digital Rebel with the SLR lens. I think he did a really nice job, considering you have to tap the shutter button once to activate the auto focus. Of course, it's hard not to get a good shot of me ... and Charlie.

Splish splash

Charlie was taking a bath recently, and I was able to snap some shots. Don't you love that hair? Where does he get that from?