Raccoon Spotting and How we are doing

Hanging out in the crib. When both of them start to get restless, I suggest to Moi they play in his crib. She loves that, and he seems amused as well.

The crew and Grandpa Russell a few weeks ago.

Throwing rock in Alum Creek. I forgot how much she loves to do this.

Eating Tweety Bird Ice cream from the ice cream truck.

I love this picMoira on the "dizzy go round". This is what they call the Merry Go Round in one of her music class songs.

We had a visitor last night. Actually he/she has been hanging out in our garbage can for awhile now. Our garbage can doesn't shut very well, and the lack of Kodos has been apparently giving the raccoon free reign to dump out our garbage every night. Last night, he didn't even wait until it was dark. Around 7:30, I saw him out on the back stoop looking into our house like he was a dog wanting to come in. This is a BIG raccoon! I saw him and 2 of his friends last week when I was up in the middle of the night with Grady. The funny/disturbing thing is, they are so NOT afraid of humans. We banged on the door, opened it, turned the back light on and off, he was not fazed. He was about to do a number on the trash AGAIN, so Chris went out with a big glass of water and dumped it on his head from about 3' away. He finally retreated! Moira was so excited about it, it was by far the most exciting thing that happened all week. She kept saying "What's wrong? The raccoon is just having a healthy snack from the garbage can?" We got a new airtight/raccoon proof garbage can today, so hopefully that will take care of the problem. Oh, and he was also hanging out in her baby pool, which has some water in it from the other day. Gross! Don't worry, Chris will be properly cleaning and disinfecting it, if not trashing it.

We went to Alum Creek Damn park this afternoon. It was a lovely day, sunny and about 60. Moira had fun on the swings and the "dizzy go round" . Also, it was very exciting b/c the ice cream truck drove by. We had to get her a something! She picked out a tweety bird orange/cherry treat and said "It must be my lucky day!"

Grady has been sleeping okay. Mainly one 4 hour stretch in the night, then occasionally another 4 hour stretch. Well, that was just once. Usually he'll go down for another 2-3 hours. It's just frustrating b/c he is so gassy, that is what is waking him up. His tummy seems to be able to go a good 4 hours between feedings, but he just toots so much! It wakes him up, it wakes me up. The Dr. claims it peeks at 6 weeks and then gets better so keep your fingers crossed for all of us! He is a pretty content baby though, although Chris has named him "Mr. Malcontent". But I am comparing him to Moira who would scream and cry for no reason, Grady seems to mainly grunt and sometimes cry, but not inconsolably for very long (although it has happened on occasion). The other day he was crying and Moira said "What is that noise Grady is making?" I said "He is crying!" and realized she hadn't heard him crying very much. He does throw a big baby temper tantrum right before his long stretch of sleep. That's how I know he's about to go down for a long time b/c he'll just scream his head off for about 5-15 minutes and then he's out. That's been the hardest part of having 2, is getting him down for his naps. I thought the second one would just be oblivious to any noises the older kid made b/c he was so used to it, but he actually does need some sort of routine where I take him in his room, rock him, swaddle him, etc. Moira makes it her mission to go bother him by playing her recorder in his face, shaking his crib, etc. When I tell her to leave the room she goes and makes the loudest noises possible right outside the door. I finally got fed up and told her I was going to throw whatever she was playing with in the trash can if she didn't stop making noise. Apparently she didn't believe me, so I threw her "ba ba sheep" out the back door to the neighbor's yard b/c I knew if I put it anywhere in our house, she'd hurt herself until she got it back. Not surprisingly, that's the only time I've had to do that, as she tend to listen to me more or less. Although I did bust her in his room with her pants off and her butt in his face when he was in his swing one day saying "do you want to see my butt butt?" Not sure if that was a nice move or a mean move, but she was doing it fairly quietly so I let it go... In her defense, I think she just wants to be with him and that is why she is being difficult when I put him down. She says things like "No! You can't! I want him to be with him! I want him to watch me dance!" She's been so proud of him too, whenever we go anywhere, instead of being jealous that people want to oh and ah over the baby she gets a big smile and says "This is my baby brother Grady! He is so cute!" and things of that nature.
In general, at 5 1/2 weeks after Grady's birth, I feel like we are doing really well. We are much better than I expected, however this is the benefit of having low expectations ;) My c-section recovery was a lot harder than I expected, as was breastfeeding, but Moira has been just terrific. I was worried that she would understandably be jealous and act out, but she really hasn't YET (although I would have thought she would have by now). Chris has been wonderful and really pitched in, doing dishes and laundry at night, putting Moi to bed, taking her out just the 2 of them on their own on the weekends, and even staying up late every weekend night to give Grady a bottle so I can get a good chunk of rest. This is especially sweet when you know that when he is on "Grady duty", he just doesn't sleep, he waits for him to get up. He (Chris) has major sleep issues anyway and the thought of being awoken by a screaming baby is just too much, so he doesn't even bother trying to sleep. I am too tired to object to his offer to help on the weekend nights, and can't feel TOO sorry for him, since he CAN sleep during the week. (I think Moira is the only one sleeping through the night here! Although she took a massive late afternoon nap today, so probably not today). I am not as tired during the day as I thought I would be. We are getting out, doing things, etc. Having a second baby is not nearly as lonely and frustrating for me as the second one was. I guess I have more confidence and know so many mom friends, they have all been my life savers during the day! We have had so many meals brought to us and so many people have offered to help and let us invite ourselves over and come over to visit when we are lonely. The hardest part of the day is around the time Chris gets home. Moira starts getting riled up and pushes my buttons. She probably needs to go to bed a bit earlier, but I still can't seem to manage the 2 of them as I put her to bed, so I just wait for him to get home around 7:45 (ugh, long day!) But in general, I think we are doing pretty well!

In other "I think we are doing okay" news, we hosted our annual St. Patrick's Day Playgroup party. Kind of last minute, I felt like we might be able to pull it together. In our playgroup, we have a tradition of having little parties for all the major holidays. Patty does Valentines Day, I do St. Patricks, Wendy does Easter, Amy does Halloween, and Cheryl does Christmas. I really wanted to do St. Patty's Day. Fortunately, it was nice out, so we mainly hung out outside. I made little goody bags, we had a pinata left over from her birthday that we didn't use (that Moira requested we fill with suckers, lollipops and ring suckers), and we had a casserole and some snacks. It was fun!