First Summer in a Long Time Without Babies!

Like magic we suddenly have 2 children (not babies, but actual children playing independently and asserting their interests!).  It happened just a couple weeks before Jakob's 3rd birthday at the end of May. 

See the transformation?!
We got him the DVD "Hop" months ago basically as a bribe for staying in bed at night (yes, we were that desperate) and he loves it so much that he insisted he wanted a "Hop" birthday cake.  So we cut up the cardboard case and stuck in on the top of a cake.  He loved it!

Aside from his love (addiction?) to video of all sorts, Jakob is crazy about cars and trains and buses and trucks (okay, hard to find a little boy who isn't).  We try to get him to play dress-up with his sister and wear nail polish, but he won't have any of that girlish stuff.  Oh, hello?  Can you believe this? 

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Annika is all about dolls, stuffed animals, dress-up, nail polish, princesses, swirly dresses and pink, pink, pink.  Again, hello?  Can you believe this?  The "I love pony" part, however, I encourage whole-heartedly!

Miss Bossy Pants drives her brother crazy, but they do have fun together a lot of the time.  Annika can be very sweet and patient and loving with Jakob (when she wants to be!) and Jakob loves snuggling with her and giving her big hugs.  They've turned into wonderful playmates. 

Even thought they are only technically a year and a half apart, you can see on the left how Annika is basically a 50 year old trapped in a 4 and a half year old's body.  It's got to be genetic right down the Lester/Veldof line of women.  She's basically a duplicate of Jerilyn's mother.  Luckily, Jerilyn's mother is wonderful, so we lucked out.  :-)   In this photo she's waiting patiently to find out if she broke a toe (she didn't!). 

Jakob is pretty much a physical replica of Mama Anna.  You could take a photo of Anna when she was his age and Photoshop out the dresses, and there you'd have Jakob! 

He's already a born actor, performing whenever he can with a flourishing imagination.  He loves Buzz Lightyear ("To infinity and beyond," he calls out) and Spiderman - and there's still Thomas on his short list of faves.

Annika doesn't do as much imaginary play, but does spend a lot of her time drawing.  We inherited a kid's size art table that we keep in the kitchen and never a day goes by when she doesn't draw.  Art at school or ECFE is always her favorite activity.

We've seen her social confidence build in the last few months and she now has several good friends and instead of hanging in the back is now more apt to be leading a group of girls onto new adventures. 

There's our update!  Happy summer everyone. 

4 years old and 2 and a half already!

Annika LOVES preschool!  Here she is on her first day, sooo excited!

She's enthusiastic about everything, but especially the art projects.

 Jakob gets special time with Anna while Annika is in school, but 2 days a week he gets to go to "school" too - ECFE which is like preschool based childcare where he's not with either Mommy or Mamma.

This is, of course, a big deal for a kid who otherwise is only with his parents (EVER!). 

Annika is Ms Bossy-Pants to poor Jakob, but he seems to hold his own just fine. If it were up to her she'd be the one setting limits and admonishing Jakob when he broke the rules or whatnot.  We have to keep reminding her that we're the grown-ups and she doesn't get to boss the poor kid around.

Thankfully Jakob is very laid back and congenial about it all.

He's also a born performer.  Give him a stage, get him even near a stage, and he is ON.  Annika for her part likes a little limelight, but it's really to show how good she is at something.  Jakob, on the other hand, wants you to laugh and be entertained.

... except now that he's crying "Mommy, mommy" from his crib.  Nap time over!

We no longer have babies? How'd that happen so quickly?

We do miss having babies, but our children are in some kind of developmental rocket which has made for a really, really fun ride at the Xerxes Ranch.  Here they're insisting on eating out in the backyard on one of Anna's amazing garage sale finds - a picnic table with a blue bench and a pink bench.  Little Ms Pinks, of course, is thrilled with this and insists on only sitting on the pink side.  We're certain the color pink is hard coded into her cells (we clearly didn't put it there).  

Jakob is happiest when he's watching a video or holding an electronic hand-held device in his hands.  Annika could really care less about these things, but they basically drive Jakob's minute-by-minute requests.  

Jakob is still unbelievably strong.  He's already (accidentally!) broken Anna's nose - twice.  And not to leave Annika out, she ran full force down the hallway into Anna's lap (as she was sitting on the floor), knocked her out and ultimately gave her a concussion.  The brutes!  I swear we're going to spend most of the better part of 20 years watching them in various athletic pursuits.  Jakob, likely something big and burly like hockey and football and Annika something more congenial like volleyball (which of course, is also good for tall girls). 

They both are still singing - at the top volume.  "Use your indoor voice" only goes so far.  Annika and Jerilyn are finding themselves very often watching and laughing with/at Anna and Jakob as they perform in various ways.  But, don't worry, Annika is learning well the highly skilled eye-rolling technique made famous by Jerilyn and her mother, Marilyn.  [Basically, Annika is just a Mini Marilyn when it comes down to it.]  Jakob's little personality is still being revealed to us.  His language skills are snow-balling, however, and any minute or so we're going to have another a full-fledged little talking person in the house, showing off is newly emerging personality.  We can't wait!

Parenting is TONS of fun for both Anna and Jer.  We love it, have great kids, and feel very fortunate!

Happy Summer!

Hi everyone,

I hope you're all having a great start to your summer. We're loving it! (Just the fact that we don't have to bury the kids in various snow gear is reason enough to celebrate!)

 
Little Jakob just turned 1 years old May 30! He is the most adorable bundle of chubbiness I've ever seen! He "cracks me up" as Annika says whenever they play the Throw The Bottle Down and Have Annika Pick It Up Game - over and over.

Jakob is finally sleeping on his own in his crib - woohoo! He hasn't started walking yet (nor even crawls), but does scoot around. Honestly, he's such a big baby I don't anticipate him being able to get himself walking very soon; although since he was a wee little one I've been stunned at his strength. Annika never had the ab muscles to pull herself up from a lying position to a sitting one without a lot of effort, but Jakob in contrast has amazingly strong abs (and arms and legs) and can do that almost effortlessly. Pretty amazing.

Annika's greatest joy in life is swinging on the swings and reading books. She lays in her crib for hours every night (and in the morning before we go in and get her for the day) "reading" to herself and carrying on imaginary conversations. She is also extremely empathetic and responsible. It's uncanny. It's like there's a full fledged adult living inside this child. She'll say "Mommy, do you have your phone?" when we go out. For about the last year she's taken on the responsibility to remind us to give Jakob his medicine (for acid reflex). I could go on... Crazy!!!

On the other hand she can be the biggest goof ball, full of joy and energy.  Her whole being just explodes with happiness!  When she and Jakob get laughing, it's absolutely contagious. 

It's just so much fun to see them both emerge as people.

Happy Summer Everyone!

Jerilyn

It's a marathon!

Okay, two children are WAY more to handle than one. Way more fun, but way more energy and coordination. It's a whole different game now. And it's compounded by the fact that Jakob is not a sleeper. I repeat - NOT a sleeper. The fact that he has nasty acid reflex is clearly a contributing factor, it's very true, but I think co-sleeping has something to do with it.

It's much nicer to snuggle, coo, laugh with your lovely milk source than it is to sleep. Luckily, he is a very, very sweet and happy kid (when he's not barfing or crying out in pain) which helps us both in the middle of the night.



When he's not contently playing with something, he almost always finds something particularly funny that completely cracks him up. It's a hoot! And he's just catching onto "give me 5" which cracks us up.



Annika is very loving with Jake. She pats his head, gives him kisses, and makes sure he has various chew toys available at all times. She's also talking up a storm. My favorite is how she says, "I'm sooo hungry" with this being a close second - "Ruby and Jamie's soup is soooo good." Heck, maybe it's just the way she says "soooo" that I love. At night when she's alone in her crib she talks and sings sometimes for 2 hours before finally dropping off to sleep.

We know that one of these days both kids will be sleeping, Jakob will stop nursing (and free up Anna), and we'll actually go out to dinner and a movie. We have faith!!
Wish us luck with that!

Just over the 1 month mark!

Whew- this is a marathon. yes, yes, TWO children is much, much different than one. I now believe all of you who warned me. I get it now. WOW! Anna and I are now splitting the night up so that we can both get at least a little sleep. Most of the time we're stumbling around in a haze trying to be responsible and do things like pay bills and operate a gas powered vehicle.


So far it looks like we've got another laid back child. He's a pretty cool and collected guy - but wow can he toot and burp! What's up with that?!!



I love his indignation in this photo. How dare we blast a bright light into his eyes?! But really, I swear that aside from this brief moment, he's not very demanding. Now, the fact that we hop to meet his every need might play a small part in that :-). .... having just typed that he's erupted in a crying jag that perplexed us both. "But he just can't be hungry again!" HA! HA HA HA! If only I had a dollar for each time I've said that!


Talk about perplexed! Poor Annika. She'll hardly let me out of her sight. She's not quite sure what this new creature is up to in her house, but whatever it is, it's clearly thrown her equilibrium off. I know - all of us first sibs get over this - but my heart breaks a little for her going from our undivided attention to this craziness.


Here she is running through the house - possibly in protest?! I go back to work full time the week of the 20th. Yikes. Wish Anna well!!

Yikes, baby spit-up all over me, laundry to rescue and bottles to wash. Gotta run!

Welcome Jakob Tyler!

Baby Jakob arrived last Saturday, May 30th, after many days of contractions and "is it time's?" Anna started early labor in the wee hours of Wednesday morning of that week and it kept up for days. Finally, on Friday night it was time - for real. By the time we got to the hospital and into a room at about 8pm, Anna's contractions were coming very, very hard. She went from 2 cm to 8 cm about an hour and a half - all without any drugs. (This was not her choice; two C-sections that night took precedence and the anesthesiologist wasn't able to get to her for many hours.) But once she did get the epidural - guess what - it didn't work. By midnight or so Anna was moving into full gear - and still in considerable pain.

"Blow it away," was our mantra... Blow away the urge to push. Finally, by about 2:00 she was fully dilated. The pushing was intense (to say the least). And watching Jakob's head peak out, then recede, then peak out further and further was wild. But then seeing as this little white, rubbery, swollen tiny being get pulled into the world was indescribable.



He's a beautiful boy! At birth 8lbs, 13oz and now up to 9 lbs. Anna is a milk making machine. We're trying to keep him off the human pacifier and onto a rubber one as much as possible so poor Anna can sleep an hour here and there. She knods off sitting in the chair nursing, she's so exhausted. Anna's mom is here and a huge help. How are we going to manage without her help when she goes?


Little Annika doesn't quite understand what's going on, of course. She fluctuates between being curious and apathetic about Jakob. What's changed, though, is that she's become pretty clingy and "needs" her favorite blanket a lot of the time. We'll see how it goes.

That's the news here at the Xerxes Ranch. Stay tuned for more!