Hey You, Indoor Face

Elsbeth showing off a gift from her Papa

Isn't that dress just the sweetest? And I love picturing Phil's dad, Mr. Serious Engineer Man, picking it out for her. I decided to dress her up last night for her first non-doctor outing. Phil's mom is here for the week, so after putting Andrew to bed, Phil, Elsbeth and I all went out for tea. (Els likes hers with cream and sugar, just like me.) I live in a state of slight nervousness during my babies' first 3 months since the doctor continues to remind me that a fever during this time is considered an emergency and requires a spinal tap. Thus we sat outside at the coffee shop, away from the other customer's diseased breathing, and I kept her close against my chest the whole time. Hmmmm, I hope I don't turn my kids into weirdos ....

The siblings are doing so well together. Nibblet graciously endures many sticky kisses on her head, and Andrew checks in with her all throughout the day. Today he even requested her presence during his story time. He loves to pick up her gumdrops (pacifiers), rub them around in his hands, then announce to me that I'll have to wash them now.

I was taking Elsbeth's picture earlier today as she was looking so cute in her new hat and slippers (thank you Gillian! the hat fits!), and Andrew crawled up next to her. I was momentarily confused by his odd body position and stillness until I realized that he was mimicking her.

My friend Laura stopped by a few days ago to bring us a fabulous lunch and an adorable pink stroller ... for Andrew. He LOVES this thing.


No dolls in this stroller. This is the manliest pink stroller you've ever seen. Andrew pushes this thing all over the neighborhood, wheeling over sand piles and giant sticks, and puts cool things like rocks or caterpillars in the seat. Here he is showing off his caterpillar, Mike, who has since spun a really awesome cocoon.


Elsbeth had her first bath last weekend. She still had her belly button stump, so I couldn't keep her warm as I sponged her off. Shockingly, Nib was not a fan. I decided I'd wait until she could be immersed in warm water before I'd try that again.


Ahhhh, sweet relief!


Funny Andrew conversation:

Andrew discovered that Daddy had purchased not one, but two boxes of Fudge Rounds, his current favorite tea snack. He ran into the living room with both boxes, stacked one on top of the other, then looked back at me and said, "How cute is that?"

We're looking forward to a fabulous week with Nannie!

Monkey-Hoots

I'm posting with one hand while my girl sleeps in the crook of my other arm, so this won't be my wordiest of entries.

Somehow I must have blinked and Elsbeth is already a week old! A week and 2 days to be exact. She's still mostly eating and sleeping and making tremendous piles of diapers, but we're definitely getting longer stretches with her eyes open - sometimes over an hour. She appears to be incredibly laid back, though I realize to make such a pronouncement this early on is dangerous.

My dad unexpectedly was able to sneak in a quick visit to meet his first granddaughter, which was a treat. Don't you just love that onsie?


Phil was the only one to make it to the Easter service, and I meant to have Andrew dye eggs but we never got farther than the boiling phase. Precious did, however, get an Easter basket with goodies from Mommy, Daddy, Nina, and a package from Nannie. Here he is stuffing peppermint patties into his mouth as fast as he could unwrap them.


Nina had to go home today, blast and wretch, and though I hopefully will manage to care for 2 little sweeties on my own without bloodshed or the fire dept. or gnashing of teeth (OK, there may be a little tooth gnashing), I do find it hard to imagine ever leaving the house again. This is why I'm especially pleased that Andrew has decided our less-than-ideal yard is still an acceptable play area.

Here he is jamming a stick into a drainage pipe he found . . .

. . . rolling balls down the driveway . . .

. . . and "smelling beautiful flowers." I love that the weeds are beautiful flowers in his mind. I also love that he smells things by pressing them firmly against his lips. Could pose a problem if he decides to take a whiff of, say, rotten cabbage, but it works alright for dandelions.

He still seems quite cool with his little sis. He checks in on her activities momentarily throughout the day and has become an expert drive-by-head-kisser.

Nibblet was a little jaundiced, so I had a stretch of feeding her every 2 hours whether she wanted it or not, and Nina and I took turns sitting with her by a window during the day. Here's a little slice of life during window time:

We checked in with the doctor on Friday and she declared her jaundice "minimal." Whoo hoo! No more waking up a sleeping mommy and baby at 3am! She weighed in at exactly 7 pounds, so no more weight checks either. Happiness.


Dang. I'm wordy even with only one hand.

Not Bad For A Quadruped

My baby girl! Elsbeth Ashton Mobley, born April 9th.

Now part of my brain is saying, "You haven't slept in 12 days, your toddler is asleep, and you just fed your infant ... perhaps you should go to bed." However an even bigger part is screaming, "But you don't even have one picture of your precious baby girl on your blog yet!" So I have decided to quickly quiet the voices in my head before catching a snooze between feedings.

Mommy happy to be holding her Nibblet on the outside

We got home today (Saturday) around lunchtime and are doing really well. Elsbeth is a wild and crazy eating machine, insisting on meals every 12 minutes or so. I'm thrilled! (Remind me how thrilled I am at 4am ...)

Daddy loves his little girl

Phil is so at ease with his brand new born - expert swaddler, burper, and even diaper changer. (!)

Nina cozy with Elsbeth

I will not ever be able to express how perfect is was to have my mom here with Andrew while I was in the hospital, and how glorious it is that she's staying for the next week.

And other than already being spoiled by the constant attention from his Nina, Andrew is doing just beautifully with his new big brother role.

My heart is so full! Today, life is perfect.

And Now For Something Completely Different

Hi, everyone. This is Phil, Christy's husband. She's sitting in a hospital bed wrestling our brand new baby girl into those little infant mittens and one of those caps. I'm sure she'll have plenty to share about the whole experience, but for now, I've hijacked her blog to discuss a few of the, um, "quirks" of our favorite little baby factory in Atlanta, Northside Hospital.


I'll lay aside for now the fact that the labor/delivery rooms are more nicely appointed than the Grand Hyatt, replete with hardwood paneling, tile, and lots of extra square footage. Some part of me can't get over the gnawing notion that somehow I (through my own cash and the premiums paid to my insurance company) am paying for all this luxury. But hey, if it makes my in-labor wife more comfortable, I'm willing to give a pass. Instead, I'll point out a few other idiosyncracies that make me laugh to keep from crying.


Exhibit A: Where am I Going?


Now, I visit a lot of buidings in my line of work. I've figured out that it's pretty much universal that there's a logical arrangement of floors from 1-x, with "x" representing the number of the top floor of the building. I can usually figure out "L" for "Lobby" and even sometimes "M" for "Mezzanine," but that's typically the extent of the variation. Imagine my consternation when I come into the Women's Center (don't even get me started on that name for the baby factory) from the 3rd floor garage walkway, step into the elevator, and see this:

Can somebody please tell me what the heck this is supposed to mean? Through trial and error, I have discovered that "1" is actually "3," but not the same "3" as the "3" in the garage - that, obviously, is "G." I still have no idea what "A" is or why it has a star beside it. I do know that it is the location of...


Exhibit B: The Father-unfriendliest Coffee Shop on Earth

Ah, the Lotus Blossom Cafe. What else could offer new dads greater promise than the idea of round-the-clock caffeination available just steps from the room in which your pride and joy will emerge after hours and hours of intense labor, then keep you up by crying every 4.8 minutes for the duration of your stay? Well, that's what I thought until I saw this:


Now, tell me this: at what times of day do people (particularly those who are working through sleep deprivation) MOST need the black liquid happiness that coffee provides? That's right - at exactly the times when the LBC is NOT open for business. From 8:00 am to 3:00 pm on the weekends?? Besides this, the "cafeteria" closes at 7:00 pm. Please. There's a tremendous opportunity to make money that somebody is missing here, money that we poor newbie parents are now forced to spend on...


Exhibit C: Mickey D's!

Yep, that's right. There is a 24-hour McDonald's IN THE HOSPITAL. I have partaken of multiple QPCs in the last 48 hours. I've even enjoyed them, but that's beside the point. The point is that it gets even weirder. On the 4.7 mile walk from the Nursery to McDonald's, I encountered the two signs you see below (I wish I were making this up):

Oh, the irony!

This, I think requires no further comment.

I could go on, but I think you all get the idea. I'm sure you'll all be very happy when Christy returns to blogging in her own space, but I felt the need to vent before I returned to normal (or at least the "new" normal) life in about a day or so and forgot all about this whimsical little place that has been my home since Thursday afternoon. Ciao!

The Foot Is Like The Hand Of The Leg

Smiles at the thought of blueberries from our bush this summer

A couple days ago, Andrew and I were together in Phil's little 2-door silver car and he became fascinated with the fact that he could so easily reach the window next to his car seat. Our conversation went something like this:

Andrew: Can reach the window!

Mommy: Yes, you can reach the window. This car is small, so it's easier to reach.

Andrew: Can't open it?

Mommy: No, that window back there doesn't open.

Andrew: Bummer.

Our baby dogwood blooming for the first time!

I find so many of my conversations with The Precious amusing these days. One thing that is (usually) pretty funny (though sometimes exhausting) is the way he has suddenly become Mr. Negotiator. He doesn't have to check out the plumbing quite as often as he did a few weeks ago. Instead, his current obsession is dropping and things down into other things (most often pennies down into some new crevice he's found, but it could be anything into or onto anything). So about 25 times a day, I will experience some variation of the following conversation (he still gets his pronouns backwards):

Andrew: You can drop pennies down this hole, OK?

Mommy: Which hole?

Andrew: This where the air comes out?

Mommy: No Honey, I don't want you to drop pennies down the return vent. I can't get them back out.

Andrew: Can drop pennies down this hole where the air comes out, that's fine?

Mommy: No, that's the heating vent. I can't get them out from there, either.

Andrew: Can drop pennies on Shiloh?

Mommy: No, I don't want you to drop anything on Shiloh. He won't like that.

Andrew: You can drop pennies in this bottle, yes you can?

Mommy: Yes, you may drop your pennies down that old water bottle. That's fine.

At least he asks first. My favorite part is how he tacks on affirmative responses he's heard from me to the end of his questions, sometimes nodding his head at the same time. Phil thinks he's trying out his Jedi mind tricks on us. "These aren't the droids you're looking for." It really cracks me up. But you would not believe all the variations this kid can come up with if his first request is denied! "If I can't throw the glass vase across the room, how about if I just toss it gently down the stairs? How about if I just drop it out of the window? Smash it on Shiloh's head? Bump it on the kitty? Drop it on Mommy's toe?"

Funny story from last week, totally unrelated to mind tricks. Andrew and I met Brea and Skeezix* on Friday at a nearby McDonalds that has a really nice indoor play area. You climb up into this giant enclosed tree house area, and there's a big, twirly (also enclosed) slide to bring you back down. Brea and I were visiting at the table while watching our boys play when I look up to see Andrew ... jumping off the bottom of the slide ... completely naked from the waist down! Ahhhhhh!

I hustle over to him and, trying to shield him from the rest of the restaurant with my body, ask him anxiously where in the world his pants are. "Up there," he points to the top of the slide/tree house. Now, I'm too big at this point to climb up the (also enclosed) child-sized staircase, so I sent him back up to bring his pants to me. He ran back up the stairs and slid his jeans and underpants down the slide to me, thought that was fabulous, and wanted to run back up to slide them down again. Fortunately, I was able to convince him that he really needed to wear his pants at this particular establishment.

Brea knew immediately what had happened. Apparently Skeezix has recently discovered he has the power to become completely naked anywhere, at any time (Andrew still can't manage the shirt bit), and she has also seen that Andrew will copy most anything his friends are doing. She, being a svelte individual, squeezed herself up the stairs to find her little boy in one of the tree house rooms in the process of putting back on his clothes. The one grandmother at the bottom of the slide who got quite an eye full just smiled understandingly at me and said, "That's just what they do!"

Adorable video (also unrelated to any items previously discussed): Andrew helping Daddy fix the toilet paper holder that kept falling off the wall.

And in closing, Phil and I decided to shave Sofie ourselves this weekend. She's so insanely furry, and we get really tired of all the hairballs during the summer, that we've had it done professionally several times. But, since she's also part demon, a groomer can't ever get through it without knocking her out, which costs so much. So we figured, between the two of us and some hair clippers, we could get the job done ourselves. I also figured we'd do a horrible job and she'd look hilarious by the end. I was not disappointed.

The "before" shot

Halfway through (actually, we still haven't done any more,
so I'll have to let you know if we ever finish the job)

What she looks like right now. It's much worse than can be captured in a photo.

"You have no idea how many ways I can make you suffer for this humiliation!"