Dr. Cal

Last night I had a strange attack of a fever and chills and body aches and was certain that I was on my way to a serious illness of some sort, just in time for the swine flu quarantine to be lifted and the kids to go back to school.

I was in bed trying to get warm when Calvin came in, unable to sleep, and wanted to snuggle. He asked me if I was OK and I answered that I didn't feel so good and (in my not serious tone of voice) maybe I had swine flu.

Calvin: If you had swine flu, you would have a lot of symptoms. Like you would have a headache and a fever and you would be coughing and sneezing and maybe even throwing up.

Me: Hmm. Well my whole body hurts and I'm pretty sure I have a fever.

Calvin: (unimpressed) That's only two.

Me: My head just hurts really bad and I feel like I'm freezing. Kiss my forehead and see if it feels hot to your lips.

Calvin: Yeah, it's pretty hot. But you can't really know if it's a real fever unless you actually take your temperature, Mom.

Me: Are you a doctor or something?

Calvin: No. I just read a lot of non-fiction books.

Dryer Full of Pink

This sight just made me smile tonight. You know laundry is my arch-nemesis, but it is kinda fun to open the dryer door and see it full of baby girlness, all Drefty smelling and softy soft.

I also loved this the other night. Henry is my note-writing, loving and appreciating boy. And it makes me smile that he always puts "realy" and "serislee" at the end of his declarations. He wants there to be no doubt that he means it.



Jane has definitely turned thumb sucker. She can almost console herself and it's adorable to look at besides that.



In other random tidbits, I now "have a Facebook." I don't know what I was thinking. I'm too old for peer pressure to be a driving force in my life, but there it is. I couldn't ignore the incredulity of everyone in the modern world my friends any longer.

I am really happy that it has connected me with my two older cousins, who are part and parcel of most of my childhood memories. And I will try to be up on it and answer back, Uncle Scott. (Although I don't want you to quit reading and commenting on Code Yellow Mom!)

One other thought is that maybe my blog can become my substantial, "real writing" (witty, succinct, meaningful, addictive to someone besides me) effort, and my facebook can be the random keep in touch stuff that my blog has become. I'd like that. Although I've not been very good at either since putting my social network self out there. (Life is what I'm doing when I'm not online.)

And speaking of blogs, my sister has launched a blog (I'm good at dishing out the peer pressure myself!) and you should check it out. She is cute and related to me and if that's not enough, she is telling all about HER life in Ukraine and tattling a little on me. Undeniably Gypsy. Go tell her Hi and let her know that even though my kids often smell bad, they are still the cutest nephews and niece in the eastern hemisphere.

The Jane: Three Months Old

Time is flying - I just barely posted Jane's 2 month photo shoot, and not much else in between. That would be because my life is mostly about Jane. She's got my number.

Other than baby doodling, we've also been homeschooling. It's like a trial run for next year, which is a good thing, I guess. The boys are doing well and the school has (or at least the boys' teachers have) done a remarkable job setting up a distance learning program online so they don't fall behind in their progress and don't have to go to school for three extra weeks in the summer. The only part I'm not liking is the scanning of the work they do at home to send in to their teachers. My attention span is lacking or something.

Calvin and Henry miss their friends. I am getting a feel, though, for how they will function for homeschool and what things I need to do so they get social and physical stimulation in. It hasn't been as rough as I thought, so I won't complain too much about swine flu nonsense, which is the reason we are basically locked up at home, but I think we will all be glad when we can get out and have the routine of going to school again.

But without further ado, the reason for this post: Janekins.


She is a magnificent night sleeper - usually from 9 p.m. until 4 a.m. and last night from 9 p.m. until 6:30 a.m. (and right back to sleep after feeding, which is why I am blogging right now...) We can't seem to get a daytime routine of naps and feeding and playing going, but the nighttime rest helps a lot to compensate for the snuggling, holding, rocking, soothing that goes on for most of the day.



Jane startles easily. And by startle, I mean that her face registers complete panic and she holds her breath and then wails until she feels secure again. That's been fun with all the boys home all day. Everything about them is loud and sudden. Jane doesn't like it much.

I do love how she looks at me...



She has started finding her fingers and thumb to soothe herself. It is pretty adorable. She puts her whole hand on her forehead and slides it down her face until her thumb slips into her mouth. She sucks for a second until she accidentally pokes her own eye with her still extended fingers. Then starts the process over again. We'll have to work on it a bit.



In general, she spends a good amount of time trying to figure out her arms. She was literally born with her hand on top of her head, and she still puts it there a lot. Lately she's been pausing to look at her arm as it makes its way up and she studies her hands a lot. It's funny how interested she is in it - it seems to be a longer phase of doing this kind of thing than the boys had. The whole time we were trying to take pictures, she had one or the other of her hands in front of her face...






She is starting to have longer times of playing or looking around without crying and that is nice. We're also getting a lot more smiles out of her. Her personality is showing more and more...



She continues to be a champion breastfeeder and is definitely not missing out on any of the good cream...



She seems to be getting so big, but she is really still such a tiny little thing.



Her babyhood seems to be lasting a lot longer than my other babies. That is a good thing, because sometimes I can hardly remember when they were tiny and that makes me sad. The baby years are the hardest for me so far, but they really are so fleeting, and then gone forever.



And although I feel like I'm seeing and appreciating a lot more of her baby-ness, three months has definitely flown.