Memorial

Kurt, the girls and I would like to send out some comforting thoughts and deep sympathy to the family of Don Harlow, an old and dear friend of our family. Among other things, he and his wife, Angie, were probably my parents' first couple-with-kids friends from before I was born. My brothers, Val and John, used to play with their two oldest children, Gwen and Sybil. I have remained in casual contact with Don and his youngest daughter, Esther, on and off for years. Their family is always warmly remembered.

He passed away this past weekend after a long illness, was a wonderful man and will be missed.

If you knew him or would like to sign the guestbook for his wife, click here.

Frankenstein's Baby

From yesterday to today, Silvia has transformed from a crawling baby who takes a few steps sometimes to a walking toddler who occasionally crawls.

She walks, oh yes, she walks. With knees stiff and locked, she lurches forward, eyes bright, mouth hanging open in excited concentration. Her arms extend forward and high, reaching out, hands clawed and grasping. Guttural sounds issue from her throat as she approaches her goal. She is...

Frankenstein's Baby. She's alive! ALIVE!!!

Kiss Kiss

Silvia gives kisses. It's pretty much the cutest thing ever this week. We were all sitting on the floor playing this morning. Kurt and Silvia were cuddling and he said to her, "Can I have a kiss?" and she looked right at him, smiled and leaned in to his cheek with her lips parted making a little, "Aaah" noise. Adorable!

We thought it was just a fluke, but then I held her and asked for a kiss and she did the same thing!

She also says the baby version of, "All done!" when she's ready to get out of her high chair. She'll raise both hands, palms up and shrug, then say, "Aaaaa-daaa".

And the walking? The walking is, literally, on the move. She's taking several steps at a time now, all through the day, just because she can.

She'll be 1 in about 2 weeks, I'm not sure how it happened, but I think, I hope, we're ready.

Bye-bye, TV

Well, I finally totally lost it with Anna's TV obsession yesterday, and it's now off. OFF. I'm not sure what is going to have to happen for me to turn it back on.

She's gotten so whiny and demanding and rude about it, always demanding her shows, freaking out every single time that I turn it off, always insisting on more. And it's creepy, too, she'll just lay there on the couch all zoned out, like her brain has left the building. Freaks me out.

We weren't allowing her to even watching that much, maybe 3 shows throughout the day, that's it. But all day every day has been turning into a big struggle about the television; when was she going to get to watch, what did she have to do in order to watch, how long could she get us to let her watch, a tantrum if anyone ever so much as talked about watching something that wasn't her kid show. Ick. The whole situation was making every day into a long TV-whine-fest.

Last night I had turned on a half-hour show so I could make dinner and when it was over, I went to turn it off. Anna flipped out, yelling at me, "NO! You DO NOT turn it off! It's MINE! NONONO! You HAVE TO turn on my show!", and I totally lost it. I dragged her into time out, yelled at her, and then put myself in time out because I was so fed up and angry.
After I came downstairs again, Kurt was feeding the girls dinner.

And Anna was wolfing down her chicken because... Kurt told her she could watch a show after she finished all her dinner! (In his defense, he didn't know what the blow-up had been about...)

That was it for me. I said, "Sorry, no more shows. If she doesn't want to eat, then she doesn't have to eat, but there will be NO MORE SHOWS for the foreseeable future." Of course Anna completely went into hysterics. I cuddled her on my lap for a bit until she started to calm down, but I did not change my mind.

While I was putting her to bed, she was very sweet. We read nursery rhymes and rocked in the chair and then when she was calm, I talked to her about her behavior. I told her that whining and screaming and crying to get things is not polite and only upsets me. I said she has to use real words when she wants something and we went over the manners that she knows how to use. I told her that I will only be able to help her when she can calm herself down and use real words and manners to talk to me.

Anna really seemed to be listening and said, "Yes, momma, I'm sorry I was yelling, I know how to have good manners. I love you." I know that she probably forgot that as soon as she said it, but it was still so sweet!

So that was it for me. The only way to get through to her is to turn off the over-stimulating-mind-numbing television. I know she's also learned a lot of good things from her shows, but the negatives are totally outweighing the positives right now. Kurt and I talked about it and we've just decided that as long as the kids are awake, the TV will be off. Period. I even deleted her shows off Tivo this morning before she got out of bed. It's just not worth it right now.

This morning, we got up and she listed everything she wanted to watch as we walked downstairs, like she always does. And I said, "Sorry, Anna, the TV is broken and there will be no shows today. But we have lots of toys and music and stories, what would you like to do instead?". She pouted for a minute, then asked for her Kindermusik CD and has been dancing and playing all morning. Truly, those music class CD's are a lifesaver! She never gets tired of them, they're nice to listen to, even for me, and she dances and sings and really "interacts" with the music, which I love to see.

She has also been reading her stories and going through all her books that she hasn't been interested in for a long time. She's finally, a few weeks late, discovered the wonderful books she got for Christmas (Thank you, LisaLisa!). We've done some coloring and crafts, but she's also rediscovering playing by herself, which she used to love to do all the time.

And no whining, no fits, no tantrums. No demanding, rude, obnoxious little girl. While television is a nice distraction from time to time and certainly buys me a bit of peace during the day, it seems to be too closely tied to her bad behavior.

The trade-off is completely worth it for me!

The second child gets the short end of the stick

I'm looking all around and I absolutely cannot find anywhere the date of Silvia's first steps! Does anyone remember? It was December, I remember the MOMENT, but I didn't write it down. There's so much that I wrote down for Anna, every little thing. But Silvia? Nope. Poor kid, she's getting cheated, her baby book is going to be empty at this rate. Well, that is, if I ever get around to working on her baby book.

Silvia turns 1 next month. An entire year of special and wonderful first moments- that I haven't really tried very hard to preserve. Poor kid.

SO. Mom? Terry? Kurt? Anyone remember the date of Silvia's first steps? And maybe the date when her first tooth came in, too? Or when I gave her the first solid foods? Or when she started standing on her own?

Sheesh. See, this is why I'm not having any more kids. I can barely keep up with the two that I've got!

UPDATE:

Okay, I've gone back through the blog and my e-mails and I've just about dislocated my brain trying to remember, but I think I've done it. All Silvia's big first moments have been accounted for and recorded in her baby book, thank you very much. Maybe it's a silly thing to worry about, but Anna's book is so nice I don't want Silvia to look back at her own 10 years or more from now and think, "Gee, mine's all...empty. Thanks, Mom."

I know, I know, I'm crazy. I'm combating future guilt, I think that makes me certifiable. So be it.

Two girls, not so little anymore!

5 steps!

Okay, this is proof to me that Silvia really NEEDED special mommy-time all to herself.

She's been taking a step here and there for several weeks, actually took her first step just before Christmas (I think... sheesh, so sad that I don't know for sure!). But as far as walking goes, she just hasn't shown any interest, prefers to crawl all about and cruise along on the furniture.

But just now, we were sitting and playing in the living room and I stood her up, she gave me a big smile and walked towards me. She took 5 steps without falling and then gave me a big hug! Go, Silvia!

Anna's 1st Day of Preschool

Wow. Can it be? This is the end of a beginning, it feels like.

Anna started preschool this morning at a Lutheran Child Care Center about 5 minutes from our front door. It's a very nice school and she is in a small class with less than 10 other 3-4 year olds. She'll be going every three days a week from 8-12:30, which marks the longest time we've ever left her with strangers.

The transition this morning did not go well, but I wasn't really expecting it to. Anna has always been a very sensitive and high-strung kid, so to think that she'd skip off to play with a shed tear would have been nuts.

She cried. She screamed. I sat with her in the classroom for about 5 minutes and pointed out all the neat things and the other children gathered around to see what all the fuss was about. Then I stood up and her teacher, Miss Sarah, pried her off of me as she screamed, "Nononononono!" and then I headed for the door.

I admit completely that I was in tears myself by the time I made it to the hallway. It is really, really hard to see your kid desperate and terrified and wanting just YOU and have to walk away. But I did it.

As I got to my car I looked up and Anna was at the window, holding a toy pinwheel and in the arms of the teacher. She was waving bye-bye to me, so I smiled and waved and pretended that I was not about to completely lose it.

I really think this will be great for her. She is a very bright little girl and she's been getting bored with our standard daily routine, especially since it's cold and we can't get outside as much. I also think that having to work out disputes with other kids her age under a neutral and objective authority figure will be VERY good for her. And it'll be fun and challenging and educational and really set her on the right path for starting school in a few years.

I'm also looking forward to the quality time I'll get to have alone with Silvia while Anna is in school, that'll be really nice to be able to just give her some focused attention for once! And then I'll blink, and Silvia will be starting preschool and I'll be at loose ends and...

then what?

Finally! Pictures from Auntie Mo's Christmas

http://picasaweb.google.com/schwartzmeg/ChristmasInMaryland2007

Happy Birthday, Uncle Val!

http://picasaweb.google.com/schwartzmeg/HappyBirthdayUncleVal

You'll notice at the end of the video clip, Anna says, "NOW I can have a candy cane!" Bribery is a beautiful thing.

Happy birthday, brother of mine, hope it's the best yet. *HUG*

Sleeping Silvia

Some new Anna Firsts

First Snowman

First Starbucks (check out the hot cocoa goatee!)

Bathtub Baby, Cuter than Cute

Third Birthday, Remix

Little Ears, the continuing saga

So after Silvia's most recent ear infection (last week), we decided to have a consultation with an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist to see what preventive options were available.

Her appointment was today and after a hearing test and exam, the doctor recommended ear tubes. I know it's probably the right choice, since Kurt and I are both really uncomfortable with constantly giving her antibiotics and also just hate to see her in so much pain on so regular a basis. I mean, really, she's had a painful infection every month of her life since she was three months old. That pretty much sucks for her, you know?

So her surgery is scheduled for December 10th, first thing in the morning. The procedure itself is very minor, takes about 6 minutes total. The tubes they insert into her eardrum will be very, very tiny, smaller than a grain of rice. The doctor said that within half an hour of the surgery, she should be almost completely recovered. I'm still very uncomfortable with the idea of general anesthesia, but I'm dealing with it and trying to get past the mommy worry syndrome.

Candyland Magic

For Anna's birthday, Monica sent her very first board game: Candyland.

Candyland is AWESOME. It's become the solution to every possible toddler problem. Won't eat dinner? Eat three more bites and then we can play Candyland. Doesn't want to sit on the potty? As soon as you're done, we can play Candyland. Won't share toys with Silvia? Play nice and use good manners or else we WON'T play Candyland after dinner.

Anna loves this game, absolutely loves it. She is always the yellow game piece, she thinks it's so great to get a picture card even if she has to move all the way back to the beginning to go to that picture. She loves it when it's my turn or Kurt's turn or her turn. Doesn't matter, as long as someone "wins the Candy Castle", as she puts it.

Thank you, Auntie Mo! You have given us three year old magic.

Post-Birthday Post

Anna turned three last Saturday, amid tears and celebration. Tears for her, celebration for everyone else. The poor birthday girl was overwhelmed by the presents and friends and cake and presents and friends and also, the cake.

But, in spite of the tears, a good time was had by all. And now, a week later, she's fully into the Thoroughly Rotten Three's. She has been whiny and weepy and bossy and dramatic all day today. Sigh... I hear it's nice when they turn five, five is supposed to be good, right?

Still, amid all the obnoxious toddler-ness, she's still developing as a sweet little girl. She wakes up every morning and begs to see Silvia, showering her and smothering her with hugs and kisses to the point we have to separate them for fear of asphyxiation. She is coloring pictures on her own, staying roughly in the lines and drawing some shapes on her own, too.

Anna loves to sing, she sings everything as she narrates the day, even singing about the potty. Speaking of which, she is doing very well with her potty training and having very few accidents anymore. We took the changing table out of her room last week to celebrate her birthday and Big Girl status.

Silvia, poor thing, is still struggling with a bad cold that she developed two weeks ago. We're taking her into an Ear Nose and Throat specialist next week to consult on the possibilities of ear tubes to help with her recurrent ear infections.

Still, even snuffly and not sleeping well, she's a very happy baby. She's been standing on her own for a few seconds at a time lately, clapping Anna's toy cymbals together with glee like a musical monkey. She's well on her way to eating solids and seems to have a liking for strong flavors just like Anna.

All in all, the girls are good. Now we just need to get Mom a full night's sleep and an injection of patience. Out of curiosity, is there a limit the number of times you can say, "I can't understand you when you whine, if you want something you need to be polite and ask in a nice voice," before your head just starts to liquefy?

Hugs all round, hope everyone is well!

Bath Times Two

http://picasaweb.google.com/schwartzmeg/BathTimesTwo

Silly little video of the girls in the bath together. There is lots of splashing, go figure!

3rd Incarnation of the Frog

This frog costume was really worth the money! The first year, Anna wore it, then Ryan last year and now... Froggy Silvia!

Alfalfa

Twirling

Princess Anna to the Rescue

Silvia may be sick, but she's got a blue-blooded big sister to help her feel better! Check out the princess dress Terry made for Anna for Halloween this year. Whenever I let her put it on, it's nearly impossible to get it off, she loves it so much.

Poor Little Ears

So late last night, after the high fever for two days and the hacking cough and rattling chest congestion and constant crying, I took Silvia into the Acute Care Clinic. They were worried about pneumonia. She caught the virus that Anna had last week, but while Anna bounced back after a few days, Silvia has developed a sinus infection and another ear infection. She's got mucous dripping down into her lungs, and left untreated, would definitely develop pneumonia. In fact, if she's not improved by tomorrow night, we're supposed to take her in for a chest x-ray.

Now that she's on her 4th ear infection in less than a year, they want to do the surgery for ear-tubes. I really hate the idea of surgery on her, I hate it, hate it, hate it. I know it's minor, and I know that there's a very real danger of hear-loss if we don't act preventively, but... they have to put her under and cut her and put something plastic in her body... I just hate it, it freaks me out. I know that in the grand scheme of things it's not a big deal and it's a minor procedure, etc, etc... but I still just hate it.

I also hate how much obvious pain she is in. You can just tell that the pressure in her ear and the pain and congestion are excruciating for her, she's so miserable. She hasn't slept in two nights, and there's just not much we can DO for her. And the surgery would be something we could DO, but it's not something I want.

I just wanted her to get better and stop getting all these infections. And there's the whole worry about her immune system, that she's so prone already to infection, what can we do to help her? I mean, I can't exactly keep her away from Anna and Anna's just a walking petrie dish most days, it seems. I'm just worried and reacting emotionally. And, oh yeah, I haven't slept in a week. There's that too, right?

And, of course, mom and Terry are both out of town this week, which means I'm on my own during the day, sleep-deprived or not. Times like these really make it stand out how much we completely depend on them and how wonderful it is to have family close to the kids. Nothing like a little absence to make the heart grow fonder... and desperate!

Coming home soon, ladies???

Oh, Poor Anna

Anna's been going nuts lately whenever Silvia gets within 10 feet of any toy Anna's playing with. She starts getting very defensive, "NO! Baby Silvia, that's my toy! No! Don't touch it! Give it back!"

All this she's yelling while Silvia is still sitting 10 feet away, drooling and chewing on her toes.

Today, she got a little too defensive, waving around and smacking the baby with a basket that she was trying to keep sacred.

I put her in time out, "No hitting", and put the basket away, "If you can't play nice, you can't play at all".

This is what I heard her self-narrating while in time-out:

"Oh, poor Anna. Mommy took the basket. Mommy took Anna's basket. No basket for Anna, poooooooor Anna. Oh, Anna's got a cold, *cough, cough*. Poor Anna. Anna's so sad and so sick."

Cry me a river, little one. Your ploys will not work on me! I am... Mommy with the Heart of Steel!

"Poor Anna.... *cough, cough*...sigh..."

The Plague! The Plague!

It started with a high fever on Thursday, and by evening Anna was delirious, coughing and generally miserable. She had a rough weekend and is still bogged down with a steady grouchiness and thick cough today.

Then this morning, Silvia woke up with a raspy voice and runny faucet of a nose.

Oh, joy, the plague has come! Yay! And it's not even my birthday!

On the bright side, they did wait until we were back from vacation to get sick, sweet things.

Pictures

http://picasaweb.google.com/schwartzmeg/Chicago2007

We're Home!

We got back in late last night from our first family vacation together, and while it was a total blast, it's really nice to be home.

The girls both traveled really well, sleeping and playing during the flight and staying close to us and behaving during all the relentless ushering from place to place. I was SO proud of Anna, especially, because she really kept herself together, listened well and stayed calm and happy almost the whole trip.

We got to spend a lot of time with Otto and Gerhard and also with my brother Val. We had one evening dinner with Kurt's Auntie Elena which was very special and sweet. We also spent a lot of time with Kurt's friends and all their kids. It was fun to see all the guys hanging out and see the next generation getting rowdy, too. Anna had a great time with all the little girls, since there's only ONE little boy in the whole group, Brendon, who's 1 and a half.

So, we're home! I'll post the link to pictures a little later today.

Chicagoland

We're here! We've got free internet at this hotel, so I thought I'd take a minute and try to preserve the memories.

I was terribly nervous about traveling with the two girls, prepared for the worst and anxious in the extreme. I had packed every possible necessity, coloring books, stories, even an emergency candy pop bribe in case Anna completely lost her head and I was desperate.

The candy pop is still in it's wrapping. The trip out here went perfectly smoothly. There was no line at DIA, the security screening went by quickly and easily, Anna loved the trains to the gate, and we got settled in our seats on the plane with no trouble. Anna was very excited about the flight, she had her own seat and asked to sit there like a big girl rather than in our laps. Silvia played and babbled and charmed all the people sitting around us. She is now the official mascot of Southwest, I believe. She slept or played the whole flight and Anna colored and read and played games. Total peace.

We landed and picked up our rental car with no problems and Kurt drove us straight into the city to our hotel, again with no mishaps. It was a perfect arrival. We got settled and then headed out to Portillo's for dinner, delicious! Kurt has gorged on chicago dogs and italian beef at just about every meal since we got here.

The first night with us all sleeping was a little difficult, Anna was excited about sleeping with Kurt and took a long time to settle down. The city noises were loud and kept every up. Silvia was very confused and woke often in the bed with me and we all got up at about 5:30 Saturday morning.

But spirits were high, even though we were exhausted. It has just been so NICE to spend all this time together. I feel like I am getting a lot of help and a big break from the day to day duties with the girls becuase Kurt is here to share it all with me. And the girls are loving spending so much time with daddy. Kurt and I are joking that we haven't seen each other since we got here, but it's really nice to just have all day to chat and pass banter back and forth and focus all our attention on just being a family.

Saturday we went to the Aquarium and Anna LOVED the fish and the sharks and the dolphins and the penguins. Then she had a meltdown, she was just exhausted. After that we all went back to the hotel and she crashed out in the baby's crib for about 2 hours. Uncle Val met us and played with his nieces and then we all met Kurt's dad, Opa, for dinner on Navy Pier.

We slept a bit better that night and spent yesterday just catering to the girls; letting Silvia make friends with every passing pedestrian, taking Anna to the carousel and on a boat ride, eating ice cream and looking at fountains. They both passed out in the stroller by the afternoon and Kurt and I slowly walked along the river with them, just holding hands, joking around and talking. It was perfect.

By evening the girls were wiped out, so we packed up and headed straight to our next hotel. We're in Schaumburg now, where Kurt grew up. We ordered in Uno's Pizza and had a pizza party in our jammies. The beds were much more comfy and we all slept pretty good, though Kurt is learning that Anna is a real bed hog.

Today is another relaxing day. We're going to go visit Opa and Uncle Gerhard and do a little shopping, then spend some time at the hotel pool.

Hope everyone is doing well! Silvia is crawling and standing and pulling up on everything and talking up a storm. Anna has really been very sweet, but isn't eating very much, hopefully she'll be tempted by something soon.

The times, they are a-changin'

Silvia is crawling.

CRAWLING. As in, moving about of her own free will to explore as yet unplundered areas of the house. As in, being in one place when you look and then, two minutes later, being in a completely different place.

With someone's shoe in her hand.

And her mouth.

As in, nothing will ever be the same!

Still, as disturbing as her newly developed freedom is for me, it's very exciting and cute for her. She's just so pleased with herself, she's practically giddy every time she gets those slippery little fingers on something new.

Like another shoe.

Also new in this household, Anna is branching out. She's actually deigning to eat, or at least try to eat, what Kurt and I have for dinner. Tonight for instance, she announced that she loved hamburgers. Then she had a fingerful of ketchup and changed her tune.

"Anna, don't you just love hamburgers?", I asked, trying to encourage her to take another bite.

"Mmmm-hmmm, Mama. I sure do love... KETCHUP!"

Oh, well. At least she's trying new things, right? There's no way to find what you like unless you first give it a try. Like V-8. Anna now absolutely adores V-8. She drinks an 8-oz can of the stuff a day, loves it to pieces, asks for it before asking for cookies or chocolate milk.

So, since a can of V-8 adds up to about 1 serving of vegetables, that means she's getting about... umm, let's see, do the math... yup, 1 serving of vegetables a day! Hey, I'll take what I can get.

We leave for our first family vacation on Friday, we're heading out to Chicago for 10 days to visit family and friends. Wish us luck! Two airplane rides and several nights in the hotel with one room for the four of us are scary prospects for me, but I'm trying to remain hopeful and positive that it'll all work out grandly.

Denial is, after all, the first step to sanity.

Pictures and The Pirate

http://picasaweb.google.com/schwartzmeg/2007_08_23

Here's some pictures and a short video of Silvia doing her pirate impersonation. Enjoy!