Carpooling and Kicking with Leo

September has brought a lot of new activities for Leo: he started preschool AND soccer.

He goes to a Presbyterian church for preschool. (Sorry, Catholic church. Your tuition was higher and you lacked the carpool line this lazy mom desired.) Leo's buddies John and Dawson also go to this preschool but they are in the three-day class. Leo is in the four-day class because he is gifted. Just kidding. He's in the four-day class because that's all we could get into since the three-day class was booked. But it's working out great. Dawson's mommy kindly takes Leo to school each morning that Dawson goes. They go in the carpool line which is a lot of fun. Then I pick Leo up at 1:00 and he chats the whole way home about his adventures. Here are some things he's told me:

--He was "The Weatherman" last week. His job was to look out the window and then announce to the class what the weather was like.

--He would like to be the "flag holder" one day.

--When the flag holder holds the flag they say the pledge. I only know this because he started saying something that was the same cadence as the pledge and then Dawson's mommy confirmed it.

--Someone named Ellie had a birthday and they had cupcakes.

--He sits on a star that says "L-E-O" for story time. His class' name is "The Stars."

--They have story time every day and they sing some song about how they should be quiet.

--Ms. Amanda, his teacher, calls pee-pee "tinkle."

--At first he wouldn't eat his snack because it was on a paper towel but then he did. He even throws his paper towel away. (His teacher actually told me that.)

--He didn't get to play in the Diego house one day. It wasn't his turn. He had to do another activity. (Seriously, he said "activity.")

On an unrelated note, (well, sort of related to the "tinkle" comment), Leo now pees standing up. And not only that, he just goes into the bathroom by himself, lifts the seat, pulls down his pants and goes! It's so funny to see him do that. I did so good training Frank to put the seat down and now I'll need to train Leo too. Or maybe I should just accept that I'm outnumbered!

Now, for his other first--soccer. Leo is in a sports class again but this one is outdoors and it's four weeks of soccer and four weeks of t-ball. Leo does okay with the soccer skills but he sometimes has trouble following directions. For instance, for one "activity," they were supposed to dribble a soccer ball from one side of the field to another. Leo just stood there looking very confused. The coach had to keep saying, "Leo, kick the ball!" after all the other kids were already back to the other side. Oh, well. Maybe we'll have better luck with t-ball!

Here are some pics from the last couple of weeks:

The cutest part about soccer is how he wears those high socks and shin guards!

The only "first day of preschool" pic I have is this one and it's not even the real first day!
Leo zonked out after a rough day at preschool. I love how he's sleeping on his stuffed Chicken. (She-Liz, that is the chicken you gave him!")

Leo took this picture of me! I think he is a budding photographer. (Well, there was another one with fingers in front of the screen.)

If you look closely, you can see that Gus' shirt says "Gus." We are having a bit of a cool front so Gus is sporting pants for the first time in his life!

Here's Gus and me on our "date night." Frank and Leo went to the Braves game and Gus and I stayed in. It was so lovely!

Call the Guiness Book of World Records. Leo ate 17 mini pancakes one morning! (Oh, and that's syrup in the coffee mug.)

Gus has been here three months

It seems like just yesterday our little Gus was born. But really it was like 90 yesterdays ago! While Leo still seems to require more of our time and attention, Gus is content to take a back-seat to his older, more demanding brother. I'm not sure yet if this is an age thing or a personality thing. Probably both.

Little Gus is just so content. Did I say that last month? He's not jolly. He's not angry. He's just content.

But he does smile a lot more now! When he sees a new face he gives a big grin. And then before you know it, it's gone. He even laughs every now and then. Leo was belly laughing at nine weeks old. We haven't gotten that from Gus yet. Then again, we also haven't had a crying spell that we can't squash with Gus either, and we had plenty of those with Leo!

Two things they have in common: Gus is still spitting up a ton, maybe even more than Leo did! He's actually on medication and even that's not helping. Poor guy. Poor us. Poor all of our clothes and furniture! The good news is he's not upset about it. Just me. I hate spit up! There, I said it!

And the other thing they have in common is that they are both AWESOME night sleepers. I sometimes feel guilty telling people that because I rarely encounter babies who sleep through the night as quickly as my boys. But then I think about Leo and his terrible napping and Gus and his terrible spit up and I don't feel so bad. I mean, I should get something good, right?

Gus goes to sleep between 8 and 9 and we don't hear from him until after 7am. Sometimes after 8. Okay, today he did wake me up at 5am but that hardly ever happens. And I just gave him a little snack and he went right back to sleep. (By the way, breastfeeding is so much better with all these multi-media devices--Blackberry, iPad, etc. I didn't have all this stuff when Leo was a baby!)

During the day, he's more wakeful. It used to be that when we took him in the car, especially right after eating, he would fall right asleep. Now he stays up. He's got things to do, people to see.

Leo is still "aggressive with love" towards Gus. I cannot seem to get him to be gentle. Just yesterday Gus was propped up on the Boppy and Leo was kindly tickling his feet and saying, "Hey, Gussy Gussy." The next thing I know, Leo's got Gus by the ankles and is starting to drag him across the rug!

But did Gus freak out? Nope. Just me.

I think now that Gus is three months he's not considered a newborn anymore. He's officially a baby. And we love everything about him--his fleeting smile, his rolls, his chins, his long eyelashes, his demeanor, his fuzzy hair and even his chronic sour milk smell!

The Exercise Class Wave

Last Tuesday was my first official day back teaching spin. There was a little confusion about how old babies have to be to go in the play center (12 weeks or 3 months? I thought the former and I was wrong) so I ended up bringing Gus to class with me.

Most of the people in my class were familiar faces and they were cooing and oohing over Gus. They didn't mind him being there at all. Although I do think his cuteness was distracting them from working to their full potentials.

About twenty minutes into class one lady packed up her bike and left. I came to the conclusion that she had a problem with me, my class or even my infant. Others I've mentioned this to disagreed. They offered other possibilities such as: she could have not felt well; she could have always planned to leave at that time; she may have suddenly realized she forgot to be somewhere.

But I know, after almost six years of fitness class instructing, how to spot a unsatisfied customer. Here are the facts:

--It's totally fine to leave a class early, especially if it's one of the reasons stated above. But twenty minutes in is an odd time to leave a class. Often people leave ten minutes before the end, maybe 15. They simply can't stay the full hour. That's okay. Another common check-out time is halfway, after 30 minutes. They figure they got in 30 minutes and now they'll either leave or go do something else for 3o minutes.

--Coming late is also fine. Some people feel bad about coming into a class late. They'll say, "I came to take your class but I got here ten minutes late and didn't want to disrupt it." I really don't mind people coming in late. If the class isn't very full, I'm happy to get more bodies in there. (It's not my favorite when new people come in late, though, because then I have to get off my bike to set them up and explain things which IS disruptive.)

--The main reason I know that this lady didn't like my class was because, as she left, she DID NOT wave at me. If you are leaving a class early for one of the above--and I'll just say it, approved reasons--then you would wave, right? You would give that polite little wave to the instructor that tells me, "It's not you, it's me." And then I'll know that you either: realized you had to be somewhere, only wanted to work out for a little while or you felt like you were going to die. All fine reasons to leave a class early.

The wave I'm describing is much like "the confident wave" I referred to in a previous blog. It's not a hand-flapping side-to-side "HELLO!!" kind of wave. It's not a baby-style up and down "BYE BYE" type gesture either. It's more like a nonchalant, cool wave: Hand up, couple of tiny shakes side to side and then you're out the door. A "Thank you" and a smile really seals the deal. Then we know that we're good, our class is good and our baby is good. Oh, and unlike the confident wave, you can do this one even if you're ugly.

Now, if you're leaving because class was tough and you're about to go to the hospital, I don't really have a wave for that.

God Bless Gus

Labor Day weekend we welcomed Gus into the Catholic Club. Whereas I had to go through months of classes to be in the club, Gus is now a "cradle Catholic." We were so happy that our family came to celebrate with us: My parents, Frank's parents, My sister ("Tia"), and Aunt Julie and Uncle Doug, who also served as Gus' Godparents! We got to meet their son, Franklin, for the first time. He is just a 2.5 months older than Gus so they will be close cousins. The only people missing were Uncle David, Aunt Laura and Cousin Ellie. But they had a good excuse; they are expecting another close cousin of Gus and Franklin's in the next few weeks. (Side note: I will be that baby's Godmother!)

Here is the whole group at Gus' baptism:

Proud Godparents and parents with a confused Gus: "What is this Catholic thing and why am I wearing a dress?"

With cousin Franklin!

Franklin, Leo and Gus--future longhorns. You're outnumbered, Aggie/Bear Ellie!

It's a Matter of Time

Whenever I've had to list out my strengths in a job interview, I usually say that I'm organized, proactive and very healthy. The healthy one usually gets a laugh or a perplexed look so I then add, "I really never get sick. It's helpful at work because I always show up."

It's true that I am still very healthy and I rarely get sick. It's also true that I generally show up--to teach spin class, to an event I've RSVP'd to or to appointments. I cannot, however, seem to show up anywhere on time.

I wouldn't say that I'm chronically late. I'm just always rushing and cutting it close. I don't allow time for any mishaps or mini-catastrophes. For instance, the other day I was heading out the door for the kids' doctor's appointments and I was proud of myself because I was leaving at 10am and the appointment was at 10:30. I then discovered ants in the house on the way out the door and that set me back about four minutes. After starting to leave again and then going back for Leo's favorite muffins, a pit stop and dropping something in the mail, I had lost about six more minutes. That's how I ended up leaving at 10:10 instead of 10am.

Woah, did I just write a whole paragraph on the tragedy of leaving ten minutes later than planned? And did you just read it?

I'll try to liven up this blog. I DO have a point or two:

1. I am addicted to being productive. That is why I cut things so close when it comes to timing. Now, this is not like saying "I'm a perfectionist" as many people do in the aforementioned interview scenario. I'm not masking a strength as a flaw. It really can be a flaw. If I have an hour, I want to get as many things done as I can in that hour so that, when that hour is over, I can say, "Wow. I did a lot." So if it's time to head out the door to go somewhere but I think I can cram in one more thing, I'll do it. The idea of showing up somewhere early makes me feel like, "Well, I could have put those clothes in the dryer. I could have sent that email. I could have brushed my teeth (Ew, I hope I didn't leave the house without doing that.)"

So I think if I could just accept that I can't get 27 things done in an hour, I think I could better manage my time. Also, I need to get comfortable with the idea that being early is okay.

2. I've realized that if I don't feel like I have TONS of time, like the kind of time where you wonder how you will ever even need all that time to get ready, then I will not leave on time. And if I think I have just enough time, that's a recipe for being late.

Yikes. Even my two points didn't do anything for this topic. Still, it was cathartic for me and hopefully helped you explore your own issues (if you have any) with time management.

Or maybe it just put you to sleep and therefore made you late for wherever you were going after reading this blog. If that is the case, I apologize.

Big Boy + Zoo

I'm telling you, these boys are sucking the creativity right out of me. I can't think of a clever way of tying together Gus' two month doctor visit and a trip to the zoo. So pardon the disconnect.

Here's what we learned at the check-up: Gus is big. Huge. Enormous. He weighs 15 pounds and is in the 95th percentile for weight! He's 24.7 inches and is in the 92nd percentile for length. I think his head is big too but in proportion with his body. The doctor actually sympathized with me about the spit-up and gave Gus some meds. (It probably helped that he spit

up all over the exam table as you can see in one of the photos below. This, however, was a very light spit-up day for Gus.)

And here are some zoo shots. It was Gus' first trip and, although he was very excited to go see the pandas, he fell asleep by the time we got to their exhibit.

And this is just me and my big boy, Gus! I mean big baby. Leo would correct me if he saw this. HE is the big boy. Gus is the baby.

Bumbo Practice

I remembered that Leo started sitting in the Bumbo chair around 12 weeks. Here's Leo back in the day!

Since Gus is 10 and some change, we thought we could attempt the Bumbo with him too:

I now know why they call it the Bumbo. When he sits in it, he starts to fall over to one side and drool. And he doesn't care at all! He looks a little pathetic--like a Bumbo.

Here's Leo trying to play peek-a-boo with Gus while he's in the Bumbo. I told Leo that he liked peek-a-boo a lot when he was a baby. Gus isn't into it yet (and Leo probably wasn't at this age either). But Leo said, "I liked peek-a-boo and Gus doesn't. We are opposites!"

Had to emphasize that you put the cloth over your OWN face and not the baby's!

Now he's getting the hang of it!!

The Sam's Shake-up

Overall, I've really been impressed with the kindness of Georgians. I rarely have trouble switching lanes in traffic; most people I encounter use their polite words; folks are always careful not to offend each other. But everybody can't be perfect. Never was this more clear than the woman I encountered at Sam's today.

As a precursor to my story, can I just give a mini-rant about shopping in the 21st century? I've said it before but I just want to shop anonymously! I don't want another card in my wallet; I don't want to be part of your club; I don't want to give you my phone number, email or social. I mean, whatever happened to going in a store, buying some things, paying for them and leaving? It's impossible!

Back to my real rant: So I walk into Sam's (with Gus, by the way, who is a ticking time bomb like all babies) and the woman who checks my membership card starts asking me if I've heard about some program they have...savings...all kinds of discounts...I'll love it...blah blah blah. I should have just said "no thanks" but I made the mistake of nodding I guess so she then leads me over to this other guy and says I'm interested in this program.

Then the guy explains it in a way that I decide that yes, I do need to upgrade my membership and I follow him over to the customer service desk to do this. But the whole time I'm thinking, "I need to really hurry because Gus is going to wake up and I don't have a lot of time..."

When we get to the desk another employee says to my employee, "Oh, can you ring her up real quick?" about some other customer. He said, "Yes, as soon as I help her" (about me). The customer who needed to be rung up (again, we're at the customer service desk, not a check-out lane) asks me, "Do you mind if I go ahead of you? I'm kind of in a hurry."

I was actually speechless. No, it's not the craziest request ever but what about me made her think I wouldn't be in a hurry too? I mean, she didn't have a two-month old baby with her! And even if I didn't have Gus, she knows nothing about what's going on in my life. I remember when this happened to my friend Claire she fired back: "I guess you think your time is more valuable than mine?" That's totally what I wanted to say but I was really frozen. And since I didn't say anything she said, "Thanks" and got in front of me.

I glared at her. I glared at the guy who HAD been helping me. And then I stormed off. He yelled, "Miss! Miss! Come back!" But I didn't. I just went on with my shopping. If he really wanted me to upgrade my membership that bad then he could have said, "I'm sorry. This lady was here first." And THAT LADY! I have never in my life asked someone if I could go in front of them. And I have been in a big hurry plenty of times. But I figure it's my own fault that I'm in a hurry. I obviously didn't calculate the time correctly. I would never expect the person in front of me to have to wait because of my poor time management.

Then, get this: I'm in the frozen food aisle and the guy comes back there and finds me. Now, I have to admit, that's pretty good customer service, even if it is a little stalkerish. I glared at him some more and rolled my eyes. He said, "That lady was so rude! I'm so sorry. But you could save $2 on these paper towels if you upgrade your membership!" After telling him I felt bullied into that whole upgrading my membership thing anyway, I carried on with my shopping.

But ultimately, I did upgrade my membership...but not until I was checking out, just to make him suffer a little.

Oh, and while I was upgrading my membership and taking a new Sam's picture, Gus screamed his head off.

Thanks, lady. I blame you and that hurry that you were "kind of in."

Potpourri Pics

Usually I can wrap my pictures up in a neat bow, all relating to one topic--something quirky Leo does, a milestone for Gus...but this batch is just that, a batch.

A Grumpy Gus says, "Do I have to go to church?"

Brothers hanging out: one is going for the "no pants" look...

...while the other is going for "pants too high."

SSC! So Super Cute!

Leo was the leader of story time at our house. He told Gus and me to be quiet!

Small Sacrifices for Somalia

Anderson Cooper totally got to me the other night. His coverage of the famine in Somalia made me cry. There are a lot of sad things in the world but people going hungry, to me, is one of the worst. And let me just give a quick shout out to Anderson Cooper, who I think is an incredible journalist. See, AC doesn't treat reporting like a job. It's clearly his passion. He's so sincere when he covers these tragedies. You can tell it really affects him. No wonder he turned prematurely grey.

He talked about a family in Somalia who had lost all their children to the famine. Their last one had just died and they still had his body because they couldn't afford to bury him. Anderson paid for it because, he said, "It was the humane thing to do."

So I started thinking about what I could do to help Somalia. First, I went to the website that AC told me about: www.cnn.com/impact and gave money to Save the Children. And then I started thinking like Oprah: how could I make my donation go further?

Here's my idea: I'm going to encourage people to make "small sacrifices for Somalia." Just think of some little luxuries you could give up for a month so that these people in Somalia could have the simplest necessity. When I told Frank about this he said, "Oh, so you could give up the housekeeper for a month?"

Now that's just silly. No reason for the housekeeper to suffer too!

Instead, I reasoned that if our family could give up going out to eat three times in a month, I could save $100. (I'm talking about restaurants with a waiter, not Chick Fil-a). So I was able to give $100 to Save the Children.

And $100 feeds a child for 100 days!

Here are some other ideas:

Skip the movies for two people one time and you could give $20. If you usually get candy and drinks, you could give $30.

Give up a Starbucks froo-froo coffee (the kind that costs $3+) @ twice a week for a month and you could give $25

Usually buy wine at the grocery store? Sacrifice two bottles at $9 each (you don't spend more than $10 usually do you?) and you've got $18 to give (although you could probably round that up to $20, don't ya think?)

Instead of buying ten shirts at $20 each for your fall wardrobe, buy eight. Then you've got $40 for the famine.

The point is that these are little things that you probably wouldn't even miss anyway. Now, the housekeeper, that I would miss. But going out to eat, that's a small sacrifice. You could also look at it this way: would you really miss a dollar a day for the next 100 days?

And yes, it's true that insecurity in this part of the world sometimes makes it difficult for aid to reach the victims. However, organizations like UNICEF, the World Food Program and Save the Children are constantly on top of this and they do manage to get in. So don't think that your donation won't go where it needs to go.

So make a small sacrifice. Feed these hungry kids. Don't let Anderson Cooper's hair get any more grey than it already is.

Please comment on this blog if you give and then we can really see how much my "campaign" generated!

Gus has been here two months

Gus is excited because he turns two months during his favorite month!

Here is what our little August has been up to:

He's getting really big! I don't know how big he is but he's got rolls everywhere. I love his little thunder thighs and his muffin top that hangs over his diaper.

He's still very content. Smiles are fleeting so they're special. He'll give us a big grin and then immediately it's back to serious-face. The word "poo poo" seems to give him the giggles.

I'm afraid we've got another spitter-upper on our hands. I put him in this outfit this morning and by the time I took the picture, he had made his mark. We had to remove it after this photo shoot. The other day I put him in his car seat, a good 15 minutes after he had eaten, and he started spitting up like Niagra falls. His entire onesie was soaked through; he was swimming in it! I've already traded burp cloths for receiving blankets and I think soon he'll become the bib kid, like Leo was.

He coos. It's cute.

Just last night he slept in his own room for the first time! He still wakes up once at night (or sometimes it's like 5:30 or 6:00 which I count as the morning).

He's often mistaken for a girl. I think it's because of his pretty eyes.

He's just a good, sweet boy. He really only cries when he's hungry or when he's hurt (like if big brother pulls his hand a little too hard).

Leo is very protective of him and every time someone looks at him Leo says, "No! Don't take him! He's ours!"

I can't blame Leo. I mean, Gus is so adorable it makes sense that people would want to take him!

We tried to take the "Gus 11" picture (Thanks, Jacquie, for the awesome t-shirt!) but I think we need a re-do. I must have forgotten that Gus can't hold his head up by himself yet.

Friday Night Bites

The other night Frank and I took “the kids” to Bahama Breeze. When we told the waitress that she could feel free to bring out Leo’s mac and cheese before our food she said, “Hey, were you guys here last week?”

She remembered our mac and cheese request from the week before. And when the guitar player recognized Leo we knew what was happening…

We were turning into our parents.

We now had a Friday night place…a restaurant that we keep coming back to every weekend, rather than venturing out to a new one or even a different one.

For my family there were three restaurants that we frequented on  Friday nights. Now, I don’t mean that we rotated these restaurants. I mean that for a period of about three to five years we patronized Wendy’s (back when they had the salad bar). Then it was Grandy’s. And finally, Golden Corral. (Or it may have been Grandy’s and then Wendy’s but it was definitely GC when I was in my teens.)

It was like a ritual. There was no discussion of where to go. We would just automatically go to the same place.

In Frank’s family it was Little Caesar’s Pizza. Every Friday they would pick up Little Caesar’s and bring it home. Never did they have it delivered. Never did they venture out to Domino’s. And never did they eat it on premise (although I’m not sure if LC’s has seating.)

I guess once you become a family of at least four, you’re so tired of making decisions that you need one thing that’s just consistent. Or maybe you just go with the one that works—the one that makes the majority happy.

But we were surprised that our Friday night staple would be Bahama Breeze. For one thing, when we first moved to Atlanta we made a point to only go to restaurants that we couldn’t go to in Texas. But after four years, we feel like we’ve tried enough Atlanta originals and we’re fine with the familiar. Plus, Frank likes the Aruba Red beer, I like the food and fun drinks and Leo likes the mac and cheese and guitar player. Oh, and Gus thinks it’s a great place for sleeping in his car seat.

Still, if you had told us four years ago that we’d repeatedly visit BB, we’d say, “No way!”

Also, it’s a little pricey for a weekly trip. If we’re gonna adopt a restaurant and become true regulars, we’re gonna need to take it down a notch or we’ll go broke.

Easy problem to solve: There’s a Golden Corral right across the street from BB. I don’t think they have Aruba Red but I hear the mac and cheese is excellent. 

Gender Roles

Here’s Leo being silly in front of the mirror one night before bath time: