Noah and Daddy

Fae and Kevin

Fae makes Noah laugh.

Daddy's Home

Mommy, Fae and Noah are happy to see Daddy come home from his week long business trip. Fae shows off her gift from cousin Sarah and Noah plays with his soccer ball.

Both asleep by 8:45pm.

What a relief.

Where's Fae's milk?

Fae can often be found with her sippy cup full of milk nearby. Well, on Saturday evening, after Uncle Jason and Joleigh had left for the night (we saw a movie downstairs in the theater...) I could not for the life of me find her sippy cup of milk. I figured it would turn up and that, most likely, it was empty.

It is now Monday and I just happened to come upon that missing sippy cup. I was sitting on the sofa and just happened to stick my hand between the crevices of two sofa cushions. I felt a sippy cup. Strange. It wasn't cold and I'd just poured her a fresh (cold) cup. Uh oh, the fresh cup is right in front of me on the coffee table. I pulled out the (old) sippy cup and, luckily, it was upright. Man, it's practically full. Wow, this thing has been sitting out for 2 full days now. I poured it down the drain immediately.

365 Organic Chocolate Teddy Graham (Cookies)

are a lifesaver. We found these last weekend at the Potrero Hill Whole Foods.

1) It's organic.
2) 6 grams of sugar per 19 cookies.

I gave Fae five --- 1, 2, 3, 4, FIVE -- cookies and she was ecstatic about it! She acted confused (but excited) as though she couldn't figure out what she'd done to deserve FIVE chocolate teddy graham cookies. I don't have the heart to tell her that those five cookies have less than 2 grams of sugar.

Rainy days and playdates

The past few weekends have brought us lots of rain and time indoors. What a great time to see our friends with children! Fae has had a play date almost everyday of the past two weekends (sorry, no pictures.). Today we spent the day at home with the kids and we're exhausted.





Noah and daddy got to enjoy the jumper while Fae and mommy played with dolls.

**Binky Update** - Fae is over the binky, in fact she is ok with giving Noah his binky. The downside to not having a binky is that she hasn't found a way to soothe herself so her tantrums are more "energetic" than before.

Bye, Bye Binky!!!

BINKY BEFORE

Fae has, so far, gone over 24 hours without her binky! On Sunday, before her afternoon nap, we took a snip out of her favorite binky.

BINKY AFTER

When she woke up from her nap, she, as usual, requested her binky. We gave her the snipped binky. It was interesting to see her look of confusion when she put it in her mouth (she didn't notice anything was wrong with it until she did this.)

Fae: "Oh. It's broken. Someone broke my binky!"
Tina: "Uh oh. What should we do with it? Should we throw it away?"
Fae: "Yeah."
Yoel: "OK, we're throwing it away," as he steps on the garbage pail lever to lift the lid and toss the binky in it -- making sure Fae can clearly see that her binky has been "thrown away."

We also did some preparatory work before this. We gathered up all of her binkies (which were stored in a nightstand drawer next to her bed) and hid them. Her nightstand is now empty. This is to prevent her from falling back on a different binky which would eventually become her new favorite binky.






Now, every time she asks for her binky, we remind her that it was broken and she told us to throw it away. We have been doing very well with using Gummi Bear Vitamins as a distraction. Costco sells them for around $10 per jar of 200-300 and we have 4 varieties: Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Omega-3, and Immune Booster (with Echinacea.) Each Gummi Bear only has about 1.5 grams of processed sugar. She gets 4-6 Gummi Bears each day between distractions, bribes to get her to sit on the potty more frequently and as rewards.

This morning, she did go looking into the garbage in an attempt to find her binky. And then, just before her nap, she saw Noah asleep on the couch with his binky and had a meltdown because she wanted her binky. The meltdown was more indicative that she was just tired and ready for her nap -- and Yoel had no problem getting her to lay down in her bed for naptime.

We are very proud to say we have a binky-free Fae now :-)

Meltdown...

Fae having one of her infamous meltdowns and, this time, pulls all of the books off of her bookshelf.

Noah is bigger and longer.

We finally made it to our "4-month" visit .. at 4 months, 3 weeks, 4 days! Noah received 4 shots and the Rotavirus vaccine which was given to him orally (by mouth.) He cried for a moment after getting the shots and then got over it. Must be a boy thing.

Length: 24.5" (10th percentile)
Weight: 13 lbs 5 oz (5th percentile)
Head Circumference: 16" (5th percentile)

Mommy, you have ...

beard.

Ugh.. that's not something you want to hear from your kid, especially when you're a woman. I was curled up with Fae in her Toddler bed (because I'm so petite ...) and talking to her when she pointed to my face and said,

"Mommy, you have beard."

Yes, there are some little hairs on my face near my mouth that could be construed as a mini-beard (or, mustache.) I guess I'd better take care of that ...

Where's Kenya?

Fae asks that a couple of times a day.

Kenya's gone to a new home. We adopted Kenya out to our (animal-loving) friend, Tana. We've found that the birds haven't been getting the attention they were previously used to since the arrival of the Homo Sapiens cubs ...

Why?

This week Fae has entered into the "Why?" stages. Almost every statement is responded to with a "why?". It's fun, for now, to respond to her with something that she can understand.

Noah gets a taste of Rice Cereal.

Shaheena, Noah's babysitter, is currently giving him a bit of rice cereal in the mornings. We've also decided that he will be totally on formula (Similac Organic) when he's not with me (during the workday) and breastfed when he is with me during the evenings and weekends.

NYE 2007 @ the Holly Farm

We spent NYE with friends at a venue called the Holly Farm in Carmel (Valley), California. We had a lot of fun playing Bocce Ball, preparing food (fresh Dungeoness crab, steaks, salads, Chilean Sea Bass), playing Guitar Hero and just a little drinking .. adults only, of course.

Back from our week in Cabo (Mexico)

We stayed at the Grand Mayan in San Jose del Cabo and were not disappointed. Links to more photos here.

Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, Thank you .. and Welcome Noah?

Some of you are probably wondering if we ever received the gift you sent for my delivery, Fae's birthday, or Noah's birth ... yeah, we have another kid. His name is Noah. And, no, a birth announcement was never sent out. Sorry about that.

I will hem and haw and say we've just been so busy with two kids. But the fact of the matter is, we need to thank everyone and doing it via the blog is just not acceptable. We are sending out Holiday/Thank you cards this week and they should arrive before the New Year .. we hope.

Lots of love and health and happiness into the new year .. 2008.

the Cranes

Fae's fever is gone... sorry for the delayed update.

I didn't even think to update the blog until the 10th person asked me how Fae was doing -- is she over the fever? Yes, and in fact, the fever did not last more than 24 hours. As soon as it started, it was gone. We had emailed the news to her Pediatrician the first night asking for his opinion and information about what he's seen that could be going around, but by the next morning, Fae had fully recovered and the fever was gone. Her Pediatrician seems to think it is a viral infection and a neighbor mentioned that she has heard of many families who were afflicted recently with this strange 12- or 24-hour bug.

In any case, Fae spent some special time at home with Mommy and pretty much got to do whatever she wanted which was, mostly, watch her favorite shows (Barney, Dora, The Backyardigans, Jack's Big Music Show) and movies (Ratatouille) on TV. I think she will look forward to being sick next time ;)

Fae has a fever today.

Well, I should have known it when Fae wanted Mommy to take her to school today. She never asks for Mommy to take her to school! Not only that, she didn't want breakfast this morning and didn't eat her breakfast at school either. Yoel dropped her off as usual .. then, while I was dropping Noah off at his babysitter, Yoel calls me.

"Fae has a fever of 101.9 and she's got chills."

So I go to pick her up. When I get there, she is bundled up in her red "elf" jacket AND a blanket. She smiles when she sees me and her teachers tell me that's the first smile they've seen out of her today.

We head home but on the way I needed to stop at the bank. She was awful quiet in the back. When we get home and I go to unbuckle her out of her carseat, I discover she has vomited all over herself :-(

Into the house we go. I give her some (Grape-flavored) Tylenol for the fever. I told her it is medicine that will make her feel better and she takes it without a fuss! I pretty much offer her anything she wants: juice? milk? a show? Barney?

She wants the milk and she wants to watch Barney. This did not last long before she wanted to be held again. I held her until she fell asleep.