Cold Spaghetti

Yesterday morning, Will, Kate and I headed to Audubon Park to feed the birds. We were fresh out of tuppence, so we brought a bag of bread heals to surrender to the flock. We were barely two steps away from the path when a group of white ducks and a sorry-sounding black and red goose came charging — and I mean charging — our way. Will was overpowered by them at first. Then he got cool and started to take control of the situation. Pretty soon, he was telling them, “be nice,” “take your turn,” and “wait a minute!”
When finished, he ran around the park with them. I was surprised at how little this phased them. Will also periodically stopped and commanded them to “go see Mommy!” (Note picture below.)
In addition to the ducks and goose, Will fed (and chased) squirrels, turtles, and birds. It was a very beautiful — if not incredibly humid — morning in the park. I was disappointed (but not surprised) that Will wasn’t able to walk far along mediation path. It may be time for a double stroller if I want to really get out walking! 

Baby Kate rocks out in her custom t-shirt, made by my friend Hongyun. I think it means “Happy Baby Kate” — but to be honest, I can’t remember!?

Ever the sensitive and helpful boy, Will is intently interested in how Kate eats. From time to time, he approaches her, lifts his shirt, and announces that he wants to feed Baby Kate. I’ve tried to explain that only Mommy makes milk for Baby Kate. Will simply shows me his chest and says, “No, Mommy, I have bubbies too.” Touche.

I was steaming my pumping supplies yesterday in the kitchen, where Will was entertaining himself by “helping” with these chores. Suddenly, he disappeared. After five minutes of silence, I walked to the front room to investigate.

Will was sitting in my chair, with a breast shield properly connected to tubing, which was properly connected to the breast pump. (Impressive, considering it has taken me a few tries on some occassions to get all the contraptions in order.) The pump was turned on low, humming away. Will was holding the breast shield to his stomache, freezing his face in concentration to show he is working on a Very Important Task.

“What are you doing, Will?” I asked.

“I pumping MILK!” He said. And added, “I pumping MILK from my BUBBY.”

Now that is a helpful guy.

Farmer’s Market Lunch: crepes, fruit popsicles, and sack of kettle corn to go — $18
Getting your 2-year old to share — priceless

We woke up Sunday morning and decided to take Will to see the sharks. We weren’t going to let the deluge falling from the sky stop us! We were bold. We got the kids through the rain to the car and drove downtown.

Only to turn around when, after 15 minutes of walking through the Hilton Hotel, realized we couldn’t get from their parking garage to Riverwalk and the Aquarium without going up or down 4 different sets of stairs with Kate’s stroller. (The Hilton lot is one of the only places to park that is validated by the Aquarium.) Screw it, we said, ticked off that Hilton Hotel doesn’t have to follow ADA compliance rules, but Abeona House can’t open until it has a handicap ramp and wheelchair access to a bathroom.

We explained to Will that the sharks were closed due to the rain. Rain, rain, go away, we said. Then we came up with the idea of going to the Children’s Museum. Will was thrilled at the suggestion. Two minutes later, we were outside the doors of the Museum… which were locked, because it was closed. Damn.

Trying to redeem ourselves, we tried to talk up the fun of going home, making forts, and — wow — eating lunch inside the fort! Will was so impressed by our offer that he promptly fell asleep.

Three hours later, Will woke up from his nap. The first words out of his mouth were: “It’s not raining. Go see sharks.”

So for the second time that day, we set off for the Aquarium.
This is Will watching one of the divers feed the fish in the “walk through” tank.
Visiting his friend the moray eel. I have a picture of Will at this display when he was about 14 months old. Apparently, the fun of watching the eel pop out extends into several age groups.
Checking out the otters. In this picture, Will happens to be watching otter-butt.
Petting a SHARK. Whoa. 

Thanks for your visit! Sample videos are here, here, here, and here. And Paul juggling is here.

Skip, Emily, and my Mom visited on Saturday! Our day included: walk to neighborhood bakery for morning muffins, Abeona House for Will and Kate’s Music Together class, lunch from Whole Foods, drive around town while Will slept, Audubon Park for Paul’s juggling group, dinner at Jacque-Imos, games at home, and hanging out with the kids. Pictures below!

We are a co-sleeper family. We co-slept with Will for all or part of the night until he was 2. Currently, Kate is so-sleeping with us. We’ve started to let her sleep in her crib for a few hours each evening, bringing her in with us when we go to sleep. The kids are sharing a room, so we figure this is a test in Will’s ability to deep-sleep. If he passes, maybe we can re-start hosting those wild parties we were so famous for before he was born.

Until then, we’re sticking with co-sleeping. As a breastfeeding mom, I love co-sleeping because it means I barely have to wake up to comfort my hungry child and I never have to wake up to the sound of a baby crying. It also means I sleep incredibly lightly and rarely ever have deep sleep. Of course, my light sleep isn’t only because of sleeping with a baby. I now know that part of being a mother means you always sleep with one eye open, no matter what. And people wonder why we mothers are so easily pushed over the edge.

I’ve also realized that I don’t sleep soundly because everyone in our family makes horrible bed partners. Paul snores. Will sleeps side-ways. Kate is a bedtime rock star. Although I’d like to believe I’m the perfect bed partner, I imagine that I’m no great fun, either. Since we’re all incapable of sharing, perhaps one day our family bed will turn into four separate beds. Maybe the Brady parents were on to something with the twin beds in the Master Bedroom.

For now, we’re going with the low-on-sleep, high-on-cuddle family bed arrangement. Even with the kicks, punches, feet-in-face, snoring, farting, rock star nights… the mornings (as seen in these pictures) are really fun.

…if only that shutter moved a little bit faster without the flash!! *sigh* Little Kate just can’t keep that head still yet.
This one is my second favorite, done in portrait mode with flash and some color editting in Picasa. Any photographers out there have comments on these to help me as I learn?