siblings

as we at ·ald· have previously blogged, jack gets on exceedingly well with his baby sister.

his frequent request is, "i want to hold the baby!"

and sometimes we actually oblige:

when they're this cute together, how could you resist?

puddle jumper

rainy days and weekends always get me pantless

okay, so that was not the original lyric, but that's what happened when a gloomy sunday kept jack inside rather than out playing at the park.

mommy eventually decided that jack had been cooped up too long and the rain had turned into mere mist, so jack got on his rainboots and we headed out to find some puddles to splash in.

jack had a blast ... every time he saw one iota of standing water he'd yell, "puddle!" and charge ahead to stomp and splash.

we splashed long. we splashed hard. we splashed until our pants got wet, despite the boots. and then we headed home.

but even after he was stripped of his wet, muddy trou, jack still wanted to splash.

so he put his boots back on ...



brings to mind another altered lyric ...

you can leave your boots on

chef boy-oh-boy

breakfast with jack can be a challenge with jack at times.

first, when you ask him what he'd like, he infallibly replies, "pancakes. i want pancakes for breakfast!"

we blame tomie depaola for this.

but, more often than not, mommy will acquiese and prepare pancakes. on the weekends we do pancakes from scratch. during the week? aunt jemima all the way, baby.

one recent morning, jack decided that "chef jack" and "chef mommy" would prepare his morning repast:



he insisted that we wear the toques. but he did not insist that the pancakes be microwaved before he chowed down:

damn you, tommie depaola! and eat your heart out, chef combo!

naked cowboy

shortly after the "ribbon is a dancer" performance ...

jack called down from his bath, "i'm a cowboy!"

and sure enough, streaking down the stairs was a little guy in a cowboy hat.

and we do mean streaking. besides the cowboy hat, there was not much else:



he ran a lap around the ground floor, shouting, "howdy, partner!" before his mamaxana coaxed him back upstairs to get his pj's on.

sort of like the (in)famous naked cowboy of new york ... except no guitar and you don't have to go to manhattan, either!

visit with aunt megan

last week we were lucky enough to have a visit from "aunt megan." jack was very glad to see her, having heard that she was an animal scientist like diego.

she came bearing gifts -- a reptiles & amphibians set and some jungle animals and then she acquiesced to play with them and rescue them with jack's fire truck.

that's all it took. they were bff's.

on one of her last days on the right coast (and we do mean right) ... we headed to the national zoo to check out the animals and enjoy some (relatively) warmer weather:




the trip with aunt megan was much more informative and ... what's the word ... correct than the normal zoo excursion. and jack seemed to enjoy it (or maybe that's just the hot dog and ketchup talking) :

nature walks, rescues, zoo trips, rescues ... aunt megan's trip was the epitome of eventful ... full of events!

pediatric update

we close out the week with a pediatric update from annie's 2 month checkup.

we realize the appointment was on monday, march 30 and we're only now getting around to posting the update, but hey, second child ... it happens.

anyway, here are the stats:

10 pounds, 15.5 ounces (let's just call it 11 lbs., shall we?)
22 inches long
39 cm head circumference

dr. kornfeld said that her weight was perfect. she had gained exactly the right amount to maintain her curve on the growth chart at 50th percentile. not too little, not too much. her height puts her between 25th and 50th percentile but it is so hard to measure them at this age that they seem not to pay too much attention. she seems pretty long to us!

she continues to have a blocked tear duct which is causing a fair amount of ... what's the techncial term?? ... oh yeah, eye goop, but will hopefully resolve itself soon.

and the umbilical granuloma she has did not make enough progress by itself so it was cauterized. guess that means no bellybutton ring for annie ... at least not for a while. but the silver nitrate did give it a cool looking "bling" effect.

our big girl

it's no april fool's joke ... our girl is already 2 months old! and in addition to wearing cute outfits, she is sitting up quite well. check out her head control ...

this was one notable takeaway from her doctor's appointment this week. more on that in a forthcoming pediatric update.