My vote for co-sleeping

I hadn't really thought about co-sleeping one way or another before Little S was born, it just turned out that's what we did. It was easier to get Little S to sleep and back to sleep, easier to feed on demand, and since getting enough food in her is a concern it just made the most sense. Occasionally I feel like I screwed up by not keeping her sleeping in the cradle when she was little and would still do it.

I've read all the books and know what I would need to do to get her sleeping in her crib, but the biggest message was that the methods won't work unless you're ready to make the change. I realized I wasn't. At this point, it's not a big deal for me. She sleeps well, I sleep well, why worry.

Last night cemented in my mind that I was doing the right thing. Sometime around 3:00, I woke to what sounded like her gasping and choking! I was immediately able to roll her on to her side and then pick her up and get her over my shoulder to pat her back. She was able to cough out whatever it was and go back to sleep pretty quickly. My mind took a little longer to rev back down thinking about what if she'd been in the other room...SIDS...how could I live with myself...I know that she probably would have coughed a few times and been okay-hopefully. But, What If? I know that I have a lifetime of What If's and second guesses ahead of me.

===============================================

Back to happy baby things.

I can see that baby clothing stores are going to be a problem. I went to one last week that's attached to a grown-up resale shop because Mommy needed some work clothes that would fit her squishy middle. We don't need any baby clothes, we have PLENTY for probably the first 6-9 months of he life, and I'm sure Christmas will restock her for the next year. But, I made the mistake of looking anyway. How could I not get this:

It's a swimsuit that says "My First Speedo". And with Olympic fever and Mommy ready to sign her up for swim lessons at the first opportunity, how could I resist. It is for 6-9 months, so hopefully it will last a while, but it's already pretty snug-as any good swimsuit should be.

We've been having a spate of "foot in mouth" disease lately, or maybe it's her yoga practice:

Show-off!!!

She's also getting pretty good at locomotion. She has spun herself 180 degrees in the crib and then back through wiggling. She also is rolling almost to her belly from her back.

She's had enough of Mommy blogging while she does her crib workout-time to wrap this up!

Dog Owners!

Be VERY careful with any dog toys you have, and I encourage you to think seriously before purchasing and Four Paws Dog Toys.

Read this poor guy's story:

The Chai Story

The Internet age

I got this email the other day:

From: Big S
Sent: Sunday, August 24, 2008 12:58 PM
To: Various adoring family members

Subject: S's first email

Today, while I was on the computer and Little S showed a lot of interest in what I was doing. I could only assume that she wanted to send an email to all her family. So here, in it's unedited entirety, is what she wanted to type to all of you.

' m k                            cfFRDGTGGGGGGGGG                 N N N .ZM MGNM             nngvv t wercdb t hyssvfceh   hhhhhhhjkmn4    ,  nm,   i,h78[om     n mnbv nb tl.mk vf f4 vcfg   chcbbbbbbbbbbbgwa6r    cc78ed zxz6gncc     zswfr, ` bgvclo;p.l m,.le,hvc freslo    56frjuhyn89jhiunhb vf`

Kids today. When I was her age, I didn't even know what a computer was. I don't know if this is code, but I'm pretty sure "freslo" is espanol for happy, as in "Yo es muy freslo" What an amazing child. Unfortunately, we had to cut her diatribe short because she ended up drooling on the keyboard.

Big S and of course, Little S

The life of the (good-bye) party

You know that guy? Mr. life of the party? He's funny, drinks more than anyone else, and it's not really a party if he's not there? That guy was Rudy. But it seems that even Mr. life of the party gets tired of being that guy eventually, but no one will let you just retire from that role. You'll always be the party guy. So sometimes you have to pack up, move to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and go back to school for a different career in order to retire your party hat. Which means one last party to say"Good-bye."

No good-bye party for Rudy would be complete without a PBR fountain

And, we had to make sure his dorm room had decorations

When we all met, there weren't any of these on the scene

(Big and Little S sizing up Big Dutch Guy and Big Dutch baby. Evidently while showing off Little S's Pabst swilling abilities.)

I guess some of us have traded our party hats for Ergo carriers, while others move to Couer d'Alene. But while none of us are as young as we used to be, I'd like to point out the party was on a Wednesday night! We can still party on school nights on occasion.

So Mr. life of the party-

Here's hoping you'll occasionally want to dust off that hat and wear it around Portland again.

CHEERS!

lines. A brief rant

Queues, lines, whatever you call them, are an important part of orderly society.
At some point, most of us are taught not to cut in line. Clearly, that lesson didn't make it to Mr. Bike Commuter in the dress shirt.
There was a red light. There were two bikes stopped back at the solid white line. Does Mr. BC become the third bike in line? Nope. I'm sure he sized up "guy on the Mt. bike" and "girl on the fancy looking road bike with tri-handlebars on it who happened on this day to be in street clothes with a backpack and Merrell clogs instead of clipless bike shoes" and figured we would just be in his way when the light turned green.
I totally could have taken you Mr. D-bag Bike Commuter, but, I was being too polite to pass the guy in front of me just to avenge you, considering I had to turn in a few blocks.
Next time though? Oh, it's on.

Summertime, summertime, sum, sum, summertime

We've had some decidedly summer weather this week. A string of temps of 102, 100, 99 and Sunday in the 90's. Until today, there hasn't been much humidity, but today, it's positively dripping.

We've had a good week on my last full week with Sofia before heading back to work. We went to our friend Sunny's pool. She had a really hot poolboy that day:

Big S had a great time with Little S in the water

Here he works on her mad Olympic kicking skillz

On Friday, Little S and Mom were fortunate to be able to beat the heat back at Big Dutch Baby's place. We wore our coolest sun dress that day, compliments of Grandma W

and apres swim, we went topless to work on our tans with the more worldly Baby A.

She's two months older, so we hope to learn a lot about the way of the baby from her. And, how to laugh. Baby A is so adorable and just laughs, and laughs, and laughs. May Little S be as happy as Baby A, and may Baby A be that happy and love life that much every day!!

Not satisfied to just stay inside the air conditioning on the hot days, we topped off Saturday with a trip over to the Laurelhurst club for the wedding reception of friends Steve and Shannon from the Red Lizards . Reception because they actually got married in June at the top of Council Crest, which they ran to along with some hearty souls from the running club.

The bride looked beautiful and completely unfazed by the heat. It was great to see so many friends we hadn't seen in a while, and extra fun to see everyone all cleaned up and not in running clothes. Plus, lots of people got to see Little S who hadn't met her yet. There were pictures being taken, I'll try and add some once someone posts them.

We'll wrap up the great heat wave of '08 by spending some quality time in the A/C watching the Olympics.

Not a bad way to spend the last week before my time with Little S is curtailed by work.

On the road to MILF-dom

Okay, that may be a bit pretentious. (Me? Self-assured, a little arrogant? Never).  How about "Battling to Get the Pre-baby Body Back"? That sounds more accurate.

Day two of practice for Heather going back to work, started with Big S having an early work meeting. So Little S, furry S, and I headed out for a run. But, we now had extra time, so we got to be out for about an hour of jogging with some walking thrown in. Furry S was tired, and little S napped through the middle of it. I was happy to know I could survive it.

Continuing my triathlon day, I again biked to the pool and got my laps in. The good news about a public pool in summer is that you don't really have to bother with sunscreen, you can just absorb it from the sheen floating on the water. YUM! And yes, I am well aware that's not the grossest thing in a public pool, thankyouverymuch.

Every time I'm there, I just can't wait for the day little S starts her Olympic Training swim lessons. She's scheduled to have some fun pool time this week. I came home to this:

My heart swells seeing that scene. I'd take the picture to work with me, but it just makes me tear up-being so overwhelmed with love for my two S's.

3 month picture-o-rama

Anyone who knows me knows that I generally am late for everything. All for good reason, usually just too many things packed in too short of time. That's why it won't really come as a surprise that I'm a little late getting the 3 month pictures of her taken, let alone posted here. Again, with a good excuse. Big S was out of town. He's back, so here they are.

The three month shot of the family.

I like this one better, but she was wiggling. Not a big surprise. Photos of her are hard to get with all her wiggling. (and our slow camera.)

She was so adorable and cuddly in this sleep sack on a cool summer night. (Note that cute does not equal sleeping well, but I had high hopes)

Big S took this. Moments earlier she had been splayed out like a guy watching football on the pillow.

 

Thinking of just what to write in somebody's birthday card...

 

Hmmm... Oh yes. This is witty enough. Her first ever artwork!

(I really need to take the time to work on thought balloons for some of these. Oh well. It's not about me being witty, it's about sharing pictures of the kid.)

It's just like riding a bike!

What is? (you! mind out of the gutter-you know who you are!)

Riding a bike is! It's been almost a year since I last put foot to pedal on my trusty steed, because trust me, morning sickness and biking up hills don't mesh well.

Turns out you can pump up the tires, slap on a helmet and still remember what does the shifting when. I didn't go far, just to the pool and back (how very duathlete of me) and, it was the hottest day in a while (mid 90's), but it felt great. So. Very. Portland.

I loves me the biking. Just got to grow this little one some more so she can be on the bike, or pulled behind.

(not me, not my kids)

and then do her own pedaling. Or not!

(not my husband, still not my kid)

 

I hope this poor kid knows all the athletic endeavors expected of her. Of course back in my day, they were called "being a kid".

13 weeks tomorrow.

It must be summer

Because our weekends are full of parties and BBQ's. Saturday was full of adventures; the library, the farmer's market, and little L's 2 yr. old b'day party!

 

(birthday boy and cousin E, mid-jump in the crib!)

The good thing about really little kid b'day parties is that they're really more about the grown-ups, hence the wheelbarrow full of beer! Yum! The kids still have a good time and run around playing with other kids, eating cake and watermelon, but they haven't quite figured out it's supposed to be all about the birthday kid. As long as everyone has fun, that's all that really matters! I think Sofia had fun:

At least Christi is! (you're a natural- you should really consider joining the ranks of the breeders!)

 

Sunday was another BBQ. This time at running friend Pete's house. Ostensibly, it was to celebrate everyone who had done the Blue Lake triathlon earlier in the day. This year, it was only 2 friends, who both did awesome! Not that long ago, we all would have done it. Lives change. I'm still trying to figure out what mine will look like with this new addition.

Malea and Sofia, both sporting purple. Sofia's been pretty happy despite some sort of stomach bug, poor thing. Hope for a quick recovery before we get more shots this week!

Who knew?

Tonight, after a full and fun day, Sofia and I were solo on our nightly walk. The evening was cool, necessitating a jacket for me and a blanket over the baby. She was happy, making her litany of little sounds. I was happy after such a great day and this feeling washed over me. It was such extreme happiness, I felt it down to my core. It was so wonderful, it was hard to find the right word. Happiness? Euphoria?

Finally, I realized this little one has taught me the real definition of bliss. I didn't know it would be this amazing. Thank you amazing daughter.

A mid summer's night eve

Another exciting night out in Lorpi-land. This time my running club had their BBQ to cap off their fun-filled Tour de Goose event.

Even though mom isn't running anywhere right now, I haven't seen my running friends in a while, so it was nice to catch up with them. There were multiple strollers and while she was the youngest, she wasn't the only wee one there. Of course we had to put on our running shoes for the event

 

She's pretty much wearing as much as a collegiate Cross Country runner would wear, maybe more.

Okay, they probably aren't sporting any diapers. No room in those outfits. And their running shoes probably don't have flowers embroidered on them. 'tis a pity really.

 

On the way home, I had a shake my head moment.

This being a big city, I shouldn't really be surprised when people do stupid things. But when the car in front of me slammed on their brakes on a VERY busy 4 lane street and I saw a dog crossing, at first I was worried that the dog would get hit. Then I notice that this puppy is on a leash and it's street youth owner just made the decision to cross then and there. Yo top it off, the kid is yelling at the driver.

Really?? Put your own life in jeopardy, but don't involve another helpless living creature in your bad decisions.