Just kickin'

Both boys are teething. Isaac's finally getting his second molars, and, given the copious amounts of slobber and the desire to chew on anything and everything remotely near his mouth, we're guessing Jacob is working on his very first bottom teeth.

You can imagine that this makes for some pretty rough nights. Poor Isaac woke up yesterday morning at 2, and never went back to sleep. At 5 I handed him over to Dada so I could catch at least a smidgen of zzz's before the Jakester woke up for good.

My guys were treated to a pretty boring mommy, a mommy so tired that even coffee couldn't shake the sleep from her skull. This was the best I could do re: child entertainment that didn't involve TV. Baby photo shoot!








Aaaaaand on that note our baby photo shoot was promptly terminated.

Professors' wives ... unite!

One aspect of being a professor doing research at a university, one that may not be so obvious to an outsider, is the insane amount of travel that is expected. This is especially true in Dada's field, where you have to go out and look at stuff or measure this or take samples of that to constitute your "research". One also must go to conferences or, upon invitation, lecture in far-flung places. When I was a doctoral student, my relatively famous boss was out of town at least a few days every month, so when Dada took this job I was not unaware of what it might entail.

But "being aware" and "surviving with two small whiny offspring" are two very, very different things. Luckily, we have found something of a support-system for ourselves -- wives of other professors in the same predicament. All I need to do is mention that Mike will be gone this week and that week in front of my girls, and they're all like "Dude, bring Isaac and Jacob over and I'll cook you pancakes." We professors' wives must stick together.

Right now our Dada is in town, but now that I am no longer afraid to bring people over to my house, we play the part of the people offering up the pancakes. Today we had Amy and her two young ladies, Eva and Molly (of Friday's crib-sharing fame) over to play. Here's Eva (with me and Isaac). She loves to read. Isn't she so pretty? Look at that thick black hair!



We encouraged the girls to stay and stay and stay some more, fed them lunch, shared our toys and even our little-person potty with them. Eva is a little shy, and this brings out a curious side of Isaac -- the uber-gentlemanly side. When Eva arrived, Isaac welcomed her in. "Eva, please come in," he said. He not only shared his toys, including his huge ride-on Thomas, but showed Eva how they worked so she would have a better time with them. Who is this child, and why in the holy heck is he not this way for me?

Dada is going out in the field later this week, and since he is taking Ella's daddy with him, we will be heading over to Ella's house for some evening entertainment. The sister-solidarity lives on. (and you can check out some pictures from yesterday of Isaac playing with Ella -- and not beating her up! -- on Ella's website)

A sign you've visited Starbucks a few times in recent memory

This evening the boys let me run in and get our traditional Starbucks fare while Jacob slept in the car -- a white chocolate mocha for Dada, an iced vanilla latte for me, and a "cow milky" (AKA Horizon Organic Vanilla-Flavored Single-Serve 2% milk -- it has a picture of a cow on it, hence "cow milky") for the Isaac. Very rarely, we indulge in a seriously overpriced baked good, usually an M&M cookie because Isaac enjoys pick out the individual M&Ms for the eating. Today, after a long day where Jacob insisted on surviving on catnaps alone, I was in the mood for some serious chocolate and bought an espresso brownie. I did not flash it at Dada or at the boy. I wasn't in the mood for sharing.

As we drove towards home, Isaac finished his cow milky...

Isaac: Mommy, hold my cow milky.
Mommy: Okay. (reaching back and taking empty milk carton)
Isaac: Mommy, gimme that. Gimme that bag.
Mommy: "Gimme that back?" You want your cow milky back? It's all gone, buddy.
Isaac: No, mommy. Gimme that brown bag.
Mommy: (reluctantly lifting up the distinctive little brown bag containing my espresso brownie) This?
Isaac: Yes.
Mommy: (lying through her teeth) No, buddy, you don't want this. It's mommy's. And it's almost empty anyways.
Isaac: No, mommy. There's cookie in there.

Of course I gave him a bite of my brownie, that boy of mine with the steel-trapish mind.

Jacob and his future wife

The boys and I went to a playdate this morning at the house of our friends Eva and Molly, the most adorable little black-haired, china-doll looking girls you have ever seen. Isaac adores Eva, who just turned three, and apparently Jacob adores Molly, who is one month older than he.

While we were there, Molly woke up fussing from her nap. Her mom and I discovered a great way to cheer her up super-quick -- flop a big ol' man down in bed with her. The tart.

A sign that you've visited Home Depot a few times in recent memory

While dealing with a temper tantrum at lunch yesterday...

Isaac: WANT MILKY!
Mommy: Do you want hot milky or cold milky?
Isaac: HOT MILKY!
Mommy: Now, Isaac, to be hot, the milky has to go in the microwave. We have to wait a minute.
Isaac: WAAAAAAAAAAH!
Mommy: Buddy. Listen to the microwave. Hear how it's on now?
Isaac: (sniff) Yes.
Mommy: How do we know when the microwave is done?
Isaac: (brightens)Beep beep beep! Beep beep beep! (pauses) Like a forklift!

Behind the scenes at Jacob's baptism

Today a gigantic package arrived from UPS just as I had put Jacob down for his nap and GOOD LORD if that man didn't use his magical UPS powers to ring the doorbell extra-loud. Clearly I need a sign for the front door:

Dear unannounced visitor/delivery person/Jehovah's Witness:
Please rob us or whatever.
Just be quiet about it because my children are finally asleep.

The UPS package was from my mom, and my hatred for her and her ability to make loud noises in my house when she is three states away completely vanished when I found in the package a CD of pictures from our time at home. From that collection, here are more pictures of Jacob's baptism, complemented by the disarming beauty of some Dada took with his new digital SLR, to complete the scene for the little record we have going on here.

On the way to the church, Jacob fell asleep in his car seat like a good little baptizee. He is sitting behind the bench there while his big brother cheeses it up for the camera. From left: my cousin and goddaughter, Lucy; me and the ham; Isaac's cousins Sarah and Emily; Isaac's Aunt (and godmother) Robin.



A great picture of my Aunt Cindy (my dad's sister, also my godmother) and Lucy. I should maybe email them this one.



Isaac hi-fives his great-aunt Cindy as the whole Gage family (Lucy, her brother Ross, and her dad Billy) looks on:



Pastor Fiene and I discuss the gameplan:



Aunt Jean and the Isaac. Man, does that kid ever have some hot aunts.



An outtake from the group photo after baptism, as Jake starts to lose it. "Gimme that nap NOW!" he so calmly suggests:

The time/date stamp is wrong, but boy does this person's camera take great pictures.

Pastor demonstrates his time-honored "Pastor Dip" to quell the Jacob-fuss



Back at Meemaw and Papaw's house, our family, who traveled all the way from Missouri to see us (and to see my brother get married), literally showered Jacob with presents. With Isaac down for his nap, Dada, Jacob, and I had a fun and laid-back time opening them. Most amusingly, Jake was really good at helping:







Thank you so much to everyone who came to church with us for Jacob's special day! Thank you also to those who got him such nice gifts. You will be getting a more official thank-you in the mail soon. And a very, very special thank-you goes out to Jacob's new godparents, Uncle Chris and Aunt Jean!

Video outtake

In trying to capture some Jacob emoting on camera, I got this movie. Jacob's face, while indeed lovely, stays pretty boring. The star of the show is the typical banter between Isaac and the Momma.




For those not fluent in Isaac-ese, he requests that I sing for Jacob our most recent ear-worm, the theme song to The Koala Brothers. And because part of my job description is Human Jukebox, I do.

Jacob at 4 months

Yesterday, He With the Soul-Melting Blue Eyes turned four months old. During the last month, Jacob continued his evolution from boy blob into plain ol' boy. When he is with me, he is just about the happiest baby I have ever, ever met. He is always smiling and cooing. He learned how to laugh about a month ago. It's pretty dorky. More of a chuckle, really. You get "huh!" and that's it, but it happens a lot and God, it is so adorable. Between that and the hypnotic blue eyes, he turns me into a zombie, hungry for baby ears. Yes, Master Jacob. I will do whatever you ask, Master Jacob. Just let me munch on your gummy ears a little while longer, Master Jacob.

When he is not with me, he is big whiner, even for Dada. "Meeeeeeeeh!" he says. "Where's that lady with the tasty boobies?" he says. Poor Pawpaw got the brunt of Jacob's aggression while we were home. I'd hand Jacob to him any chance I could, and at first Jacob and he were big, TV-watching homies. But it didn't take too long before Jake figured out our game; when he was with Pawpaw, the Boobie-Lady was making herself scarce. Best, he thought, to scream real loud and teach her a lesson.

Physically, Jacob finally remembered how to roll over. He'd been practicing for weeks. It started with his newfound yoga-instructor-like ability to chew on his toes. While we were in Indiana, whenever we'd sit him on the floor on his back he would instantly curl up like a pillbug and rock to one side. It appeared, however, that His Fatness got distracted by his hand in the way, and he'd choose sucking on his fist over figuring out how to roll over his chunky arm. Just once, and the day before he turned 4 months, he rolled the hard way, from his back to his tummy over his left shoulder.

More fun for him and me is that he's figured out how to grab things, so now begins a lifelong love affair with toys. And hot chicks.





Like good little Lutherans, we also had Jacob baptized on June 11th. He was baptized at my parents' church, where my brother was married the day before and Isaac was baptized nearly two years ago. My brother and his brand-new wife served as his godparents:


Pastor Fiene, who officiated all of the above spiritual events, also confirmed my brother back in the day. Lots of history there, so it was no surprise at all that I looked out in the congregation during the baptism to see my poor mother smiling and weepy-eyed. Jacob himself did well. Unlike his brother, Jacob was awake for the whole thing. When Pastor took him from me to do the deed, he struggled a little under Jacob's weight, with a noticeable pause while he was pronouncing Jacob's full name as Pastor tried to figure out how to fit Jake on his forearm, finally giving up and switching positions. And then he sprinkled Jacob's hairy knot, and Jake's eyes widened in interested surprise. Pastor handed him back to me, and suddenly Dada took him out of my arms, angling Jacob so that I could see him. He was grinning from ear to ear, I think to engineer maximum tear production in my mom.

Back home again in Indiana

Tonight I shall regale you with the beginning of the story, that of the week-and-a-half the boys and I spent in Indiana without Dada. It's all quite complicated, how he wasn't there -- we drove to Dayton, all of us together, with his grad students following us; we parted ways, where I drove the remaining 1-1/2 hours to Grandma and Grandpa Ross's house in Indianapolis. Meanwhile, our crazy Dada did field work in Ohio for a few days, then drove back to Delaware, where he did field work on the beach for two days, then drove to Virginia, where he did field work for another two days. I think somewhere in there he slept and ate.

But more important, naturally, is what the boys and I did, and how many pictures I took in the doing. Here are the best ones from my camera, taken before Dada arrived with his sultry new digital SLR (from which we literally have hundreds of pictures). I will sift through Dada's pictures soon, because they will accompany the telling of our spiritually packed and eventful weekend of wedding + baptism. For now, you get to see pictures of my cute boys playing with their relatives and working on their Indiana farmers' tans.

I took this one at the beginning of I-70, right outside of Baltimore. I'm guessing this Cove Fort place is in California?
But look! Only a scant 420 miles to Columbus! And then another, oh, 180 from there to Indianapolis. Aren't you jealous of us, driving all that way with two very young monkeys?

Actually, they did very well. Isaac is so easy to attend to; all one requires is a DVD player to plug into his brain and he is good for an all day drive. Jacob slept a bunch, and at first when he was awake he enjoyed talking to himself. After awhile he started to get highly annoyed at his car seat, poor man. He exploded on me, both emotionally and poop-ally, as soon as we left Dada in Dayton, and I had to stop at a rest stop to change his entire ensemble. As I nursed him out of his fuss, I snapped my new favorite picture of him, Mr. Big Blue Eyes:



It wasn't long before we were all being spoiled by the indescribable luxury of having more adults than babies around. Here, Dadaw (Grandpa O'Neal) and Jacob enjoy an afternoon chit-chat:



At the house of Meemaw and Papaw (AKA Grandma and Grandpa Ross), Isaac was highly amused by Meemaw's sparkling faux fruit:



And everybody spent lots of time playing in the front yard:





Here's Meemaw teaching Isaac to roll down her big hill of a yard:






Our Jakester, however, was more interested in practicing his new gross motor skillz indoors with props. We hit some yard sales and struck baby gold with your basics -- plastic rings and a mirror:











We also visited Dada's sister's family at their new behemoth kiddie wonderland house. Here are my surly boys with their Aunt Robin and cousins Emily and Sarah. I think we only got those foul-looking faces because I asked them to stand still for a second.



While we were there, Uncle Joe put together their trampoline in the backyard, replete with hard-core safety net, so Isaac could bounce his little brains out:







Poor Jacob was more into his naps than such activities, especially when Mamaw the Sleep-Bringer works her magic tricks:



To lure Isaac out of the sun, Aunt Robin set up the infamous tray of rice, and Sarah and Emily spent more than an hour showing Isaac what it was all about:





During the weekdays, we tried to visit Meemaw and Papaw at their respective workplaces so they could show off their grandboys. As always, Isaac hogs all the fun, whether it's riding on a tractor at the Caterpillar/Kubota dealership managed by Papaw ...



... or spinning in Meemaw's office chair and soliciting chocolate from her coworkers:



Without Dada there, we basically just hung out, keeping our agenda as low-key as possible, and spent lots of time outside relaxing. This was nice, because as soon as Dada arrived it was time to gear up for the wedding of the century. Did I tell you Isaac was the ring bearer? Oh, do we ever have pictures for you. For later.

The Return of the Blog

We got back from Indiana late Monday afternoon, after about two-and-a-half weeks of unadulterated Meemaw and Dadaw/Papaw lovin'. It was nice. There are lots of pictures that will come soon of us just hanging out. Especially since Dada, who joined us late in the game, brought along his brand new digital SLR.

There was a hitching, and now "Aunt" Jean, the darling woman who married my darling little brother, loses her quotation marks. There was also a baptism, and now Jacob will likely not burn in the fiery pit of hell when it comes his time to leave this earth. There are pictures of all of this, and they will come, but it is late, and my coffee buzz is wearing off. My wine buzz is kicking in.

It has been difficult, but I have been a good girl and resisted blogging all this time because today was the revised deadline wherein my publisher expected me to hand in my children's book. AND I DID. Now I don't have to feel guilty to sit at the computer and have a large glass of wine and blog. As I am doing now. Feel the guilt leave the building.

Writing the book at first was rough because I suck at being a girl. I am the worst multitasker, like, ever. My entire motivation for ditching work to become the stay-at-home mommasaurus I am now was that I couldn't do anything, at all, without my thoughts drifting to Isaac and how I should be paying attention to him and not all the other meaningless crap that society tended to call "work". But this week the hubs, who in my mind somehow counts as me, helped a lot and babysat the boys two nights in a row so I could get the book done. I have also been staying up far past a healthy bedtime to work my tail off at it. In the end, it felt good, this burning the midnight oil thing, and it also felt good to ship off a product I can be proud of. Let's just hope my publisher feels the love.

So tomorrow, when it is not one in the morning, I look forward to showering this blog with the attention it so deserves. There is so much to tell, and so much photographic evidence to support the telling. I have missed sharing our lives with the internet. I promise I'll make it up to you. I also promise I'll go visit your blogs. Like right now.