The more things change...

1973

2007

Super Daddy!

Greetings from the sleep-deprived land of infancy! Ahhhh -- it seems like just last year Martin and I were visiting this territory. Oh, wait: It was last year.

Emma is so far an absolute doll -- a real cuddle-bug. I know we're still firmly in "honeymoon" phase with her, but you have to understand that Libby had no honeymoon phase at all. Straight to feistiness and frustration-inducing-ness. I keep saying to my mom, "Do you think something's wrong with Emma? She's so quiet and sleepy." Mom just laughs. Who knew infants were like this?!

I would write more about the labor, but it's old news now anyway (thank God). I'm trying to get past daily reliving the feeling of for days on end of just wanting to die from the pain and then the two-hour surgery of me actually having a few terrifying moments of thinking I might possibly really die or something nutty like that. Shudder. Moving on.

Anyway, because of the C-section, I can't lift Libby or hold her while standing. Martin and my parents have taken up the slack with Martin really pulling a super-dad routine and pretty much having Libby attached to his side every waking minute. He's a rock star.



Thanks so much to all of you for your loving e-mails and posts and phone calls and cards. We're lucky to have so many caring and wonderful people in our lives.

More Pics of Emma and Family

As promised, new pics. Now it's back to the hospital. More later.

Introducing Emma Kennedy Barron

After a couple false starts, a painful Saturday of back spasms, a drive to the hospital in a blizzard, oh, let's call it 14 hours of labor, and throw in a 2 hour c-section procedure, Emma Kennedy Barron joined the vital statistics rolls at 12:19pm on December 16th. She weighted in a 7lbs 13 oz. She's got an incredibly shock of brown hair (that I somehow didn't adequatley capture on film...to be rectified soon).







Mother and baby are doing great. Dad's a wreck...

...Big Sister isn't sure what to make of this startling development.

Another update

Saturday night and we're home without a baby yet. It's been a tough couple of days for Kerri. She experiencing horrible back spasms but really hasn't entered labor yet (though I'd argue the point with any doctor who wants to tell me what she's doing isn't "labor"). Bottom line, no movement yet. We'll keep everyone posted and please send good vibes Kerri's way.

Errrrr. Never mind.

Well, we're back from the hospital. With no baby. But I do have a prescription of sleeping pills and a renewed faith that perhaps I can survive another day.

I shan't post another entry until the new baby is in kindergarten. Maybe by then I'll be convinced that Baby really is going to come out someday.

Here Comes Da Baby ...

... only not exactly how I'd hoped. After another largely sleepless night of off-and-on contractions and then a 4 am period of regular contractions that once again fizzled out, I decided that perhaps for my sanity it was time to just go for the C-section and not try the VBAC route after all.

So unless we get to the hospital and they say something like, "My God, woman! You're already at 8 centimeters. I've never seen anything like it!", we will most likely have a baby by this afternoon!

A Baby! By this afternoon! The mind boggles.

We'll keep you all updated and try to post pix soon. :-)

Sigh. False Alarm ... Maybe

I posted that first message after two freakin' hours of solid, every-five-minutes labor, for Pete's sake. And, then, just pffffttt. Bummer. I still have a contraction every once in a while, but they're pretty few and far between. Let's hope for better luck soon (like get-a-good-night's-sleep-and-start-fresh-in-the-morning soon)!

I blame Anna Karenina. I'm 100 pages (100 loooong pages) from finishing, and I think Baby knows that if I don't finish it pre-newborn, I just never will. It's all your fault, Susan, for picking it for book club!

In the meantime, you'll just have to appease yourselves with these adorable Libby pictures.

Libby meets Santa and proves to be very shy.

Thanks, Yiayia, for the beautiful overalls!

still nothing

Just back from lunch and a walk around target. Her contractions have slowed.

Still looks like maybe

at 8:30am (Central) we're still at home. Her contractions have slowed somewhat so I'm guessing we won't head to the hospital till this afternoon. Kerri's getting some much needed sleep (now if only Libby would do the same!)

We'll keep you posted.

Looks Like It's Time ... Maybe?

So I'm confident enough that I'm in labor that I called Grandma and Grandpa K at 5 am their time and told them to hit the road so they can come watch Libby. Time to meet you, BBPD! An early birthday present for Joanna and Martin (the 16th and 18th, respectively).

I woke up at 1:44 with a terrible charlie horse pain in my ab muscle (something that's been plaguing me for a couple of weeks) and then things just seemed not right. My water breaking? Cramping? Wishful thinking? Who knew? So I called G&G to put them on notice and woke Martin to give him a little warning. I don't know about G&G, but Martin was back to sleep in about five minutes with a mumbled, "OK. OK."

Meanwhile, I sat here awake and answered some e-mails, read Libby's sitter's college research paper, and generally stewed and fretted. Baby kept me company by squirming every once in a while. Needless to say, I knew I should try to get sleep, but I was just too excited. Oh, well.

So here we sit, timing contractions and wondering what kind of a new little life it is that we're about to meet -- boy, girl? another stubborn stinker who takes the world by storm? a calm little observer who will take it all in? Tune in to find out!

Cutie Patootie

This isn't the best picture to show off how cute Libby looked in this outfit, but oh well. The dress is courtesy Grandma B, and it is freakin' adorable. The cowboy boots are courtesy Aunt Kandi and family. They were the perfect way to complete the ensemb. Thanks, guys!

BBPD News: There is no news. Sigh. Oh, wait! Maybe there is news! Does being so large you're afraid you won't fit through doorways anymore count as news?

Libby's ready for Baby, Mommy & Daddy not so much

Quite the Chef

Libby was in charge of our Thanksgiving meal this year. She did an extraordinary job--especially considering that Martin and I still have to open and close the oven door for her. But she was a trooper and cranked out two kinds of stuffing and two kinds of pie. I can't wait to see what she'll do for Christmas!

Libby Loves Babes

Aunt Kimmy sent Libby a new baby doll to help her prep for the upcoming role of big sisterhood. Martin thinks Kim hit a developmental stage just right because Libby just loves to cuddle with that new little babe (not to mention carry the baby around by her foot, but we won't get into that).

Thanks, Aunt Kimmy!

Finally

Well it's about a month after I'd planned on putting it up (with help from Libby), but the new crib (thanks Bob and Margrethe) is put together, the new matress is in it (thanks playgroup friends), the mobile is attached (thanks Kelly and Airan) and the room is cleaned (thanks me).

I think I'm finally ready for the new baby. Once we arranged the two cribs, the room just felt right. Two cribs fit in it quite comfortably, so we should have a cozy little room for them until we move into a bigger place (in, oh, say 10 years).





We took a little video of the room too.

And finally, it's here.

Smartest Baby Ever!

I gotta say it. My daughter is the smartest baby ever. My baby is awesome. Your baby sucks.

Here's a list of things that my baby can do (that yours can't) that allows me to assert so strongly (and truthfully) that she's a genius:

>>Ask her what a [insert animal here] and she properly responds to the following (in roughly the order she learned them)
dog
snake
cow
bunny
fish
elephant
jaguar
lion (which sounds different because she's a genius)
bear
monkey
cat

>>When we play ABC Animal Zoo she anticipates some of the animals and makes the sound.

>>We were looking through the encyclopedia the other day (yes, she reads the encyclopedia, see the title of this entry) we came across a picture of a spider and she said "boo." Why? Because MONTHS ago, her aunt Kimmy gave her a plastic spider and taught her how to scare people with it.

So please, I implore you, don't fight it. Just give in and accept your new super intelligent overlord, Libby Vida.

RIMFY

You know political scientists have a saying NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard)? Today, we here at the Livin' La Vida Libby household had a RIMFY experience (Right In My Front Yard). I only wish it was NIMBY.

I was giving Libby her lunch in the back of our condo when I heard a car horn stuck in a long beep. This is nothing unusual in urban life, so I didn't even pause. It was only Martin's cry of "Holy @#$!" that gave me pause. I looked down our hallway to see him silhouetted against our sunroom windows. "Is that snow?" I asked, seeing the gray, gray sky and the flakes raining down. No, it wasn't snow. It was the ash and smoke of this:



The truly sad part is that--in her short life--this is the second car arson (as this clearly was) right outside our Libby's door. Classy, classy, classy. I truly do love living in the city, but this is not really part of the experience that I enjoy--or enjoy subjecting my kids to.

Speaking of kids plural, I haven't posted a single belly shot this pregnancy, and I'm down to only five (!!!!) or so weeks left. I know you've all been thinking, "Gee, I wish I could see a picture of Kerri's mountainous belly naked." Wish no more, my friends. Wish no more.


And now as a payoff to enduring the belly picture, here's Libby playing with a headband (she's great at putting it in herself, isn't she?) and Libby just plain being adorable.

Uuupppp-pppuh

Libby's favorite word these days is "up" (as in pick me up; put me up on your lap; help me up on the couch so I can maul the cat; etc.). She pronounces it "uuuuppppp-pppuhhh." Here is her exact face after she is on the "pppp" part (as you can see from the picture, upppp-pppuuhhh also means "pick me up over the gate").


I say it's her favorite word, but I should say one of her favorites. She also likes to say "Hiiii" and "Bye-bye," and she loves to woof-woof at dogs, cats, and squirrels. In the last week, she's also started to say book much better (it's pronounced boo', by the way; I've been saying it wrong all these years) and has started on shoe, which is right now at sort of a tstst-sshh sound.

Alphabet Caterpillar

Libby’s Aunt Lisa and Uncle Ned sent her this Leap Frog Alphabet caterpillar for her birthday (thanks guys!)

One of the greatest things about this is that it not only has a mode where pressing each leg makes the caterpillar say each letter (A, Bee, See) but also a mode where it will say each letter sound (ahh, buh, cuh). Which means you can use it as a simplistic speech synthesizer (cuh,ahh,tuh). Oh the mischief I shall wreck with this.

Or so I thought. My giddiness was short-lived as I went straight for the crown jewel of curse words. Fuh –uw—ha ha, that tickles. What the hell? I’m not trying to tickly you, I’m trying to make you make a c or k sound and thereby make an innocent child’s toy give me thirty seconds of juvenile pleasure.

Alas, ‘tis not to be. After hours of experimentation I discovered the parameters of Caterpillars no-cursing algorithm. I, at first, assumed that it simply had a list of words that it would cause the last letter to giggle rather than finish the word, thereby robbing me of a tiny pleasure. But it turns out that the algorithm is cleverer than that. Instead it just blocks two letter combinations. Not just the obvious ones either, like u-c or o-c but also phonetic ones like a-x.

So they went to a lot of trouble. Why exactly? I realize that I’m not the first person to make children’s toys like this try to do things they really shouldn’t. But really, who exactly am I (are we) hurting? Is a child really going to accidentally hit on a letter combination that comes up with a dirty word? And if so, what exactly is going to happen? Will there head explode? If so, I wholeheartedly support the blocking of said letter combinations. More than likely however, they won’t even realize they’ve made a word (it takes an adults imagination to really make works out of the sound combos). And if the Leap Frog Alphabet Caterpillar is still kicking around when Libby’s six or seven and starts thinking along these lines (too early? She’s really smart) then so be it. If you’re smart enough to make the caterpillar curse, have at it!

Here then is the definitive list of letter two-letter combinations (and one three letter) blocked by the Leap Frog Alphabet Caterpillar as well as examples of words that are banned and thus make my daughter cry (really,no honestly, she’s heartbroken every time she can’t make it say ‘clock’ ). Thanks a lot Leap Frog.

Ax; Ag; As; Ax; Fc; Fk; Fx; Sc; Oc; Ok; Sk; Sx; Tit; Xt; Uc; Uk; Wp

She's a Maniac ...

It's only 7:20 on Oct. 31, and I already have that post-Halloween if-I-have-another-sweet-in-my-lifetime-it-will-be-too-soon feeling. Ugh.

And speaking of sweet, our sweet little flashdancer had a great (and busy!) Halloween. She's been on a nap strike for a few days, so I worried she wouldn't have the energy to make it. I shouldn't have worried. Our little party animal did just fine.

I'm cheating: This picture is actually from a Halloween party Sunday.

We had playgroup at our place today and made a real Halloween party of it! We even attempted to corral the kids into a group shot. This is as close as we got, although I'm impressed it even turned out that well. It was a little like herding cats.


Then we "napped" (Libby cried for 50 minutes and slept for 10 -- about her usual M.O. these last few days) and followed that with a visit to Daddy's work. We came home to find Halloween cards from both grandmas (what perfect timing!), and Libby ended the day with her favorite activity: playing with Daddy and making him put on her new fave, a headband.

Smiley

Libby has the most wonderful laugh and smile, and we can get to see and hear them these days more than ever before. It's wonderful!

Grandma Betsey sent us a wonderful care package chock full of stuff for BBPD, Libby, and Mommy (sorry about your luck, Daddy). In it was a seat cover for BBPD. Daddy decided to put it on and pretend he was a baby. Libby found it so hilarious, she had to emulate her beloved Daddy.


Grandma also sent a pair of snow boots that Libby loved. She clomp-clomp-clomped all around the house with them.

Libby's First Birthday

One year of life with our little monkey. I can't believe it!

We had a truly special first birthday celebration thanks to our family and friends. My parents stayed to take Libby out to breakfast (and I forgot the camera, of course) and then they left for Ohio. Libby has missed G&G; it was like living in Carnegie Hall for a while there was so much applause ringing out constantly. Libby ate up their attention and misses it sorely now.

Daddy took Libby's birthday off, and we spent it running errands and getting ready for our party. Of course, the Maryland contigent also called to wish our girl a good day. Libby was so excited to talk on the phone with Grandma! (She loves the phone these days.)

Then we had a big group of friends here for a pasta-and-cupcake-filled celebration. As Libby sat on my lap and crumbled her birthday cupcake and listened to "Happy Birthday," I looked out on the smiling faces of our friends and was humbled by the wonderful Chicago family we have built here. I'm so glad they could celebrate with us!

World's best "Happy Birthday" singers gather for a meal.


Yum.

I like the feel of this but don't you dare try to make me eat any!

Libby's thinking, "Umm, I'm tired and getting a cold and they keep trying to force cake down my throat. Just put me down so I can play with the kids!"

Sophie and Evie read a book whilst standing on their ears.

Rachel and Sophie play whilst standing on their ears. (Our guests are very talented!)