Artist in the Family

It appears we have an artist in the family.

Ally has taken up posing for the camera. Sometimes she'll be a good sport and mug for the camera. But lately, it's mostly been strange poses.

She'll say, "Take a picture of me!" and run off to assume her pose, which usually consists of sitting in a strange position and looking away with a pensive or blank look on her face. After I snap a few, she'll come running back, yelling excitedly, "Let me see! Let me see!"

Sometimes she'll be super-pleased with the results. Other times, she'll insist on doing it again, maybe in a different part of the room.

Here are some classics.


The yoga-esque pose is her favorite.










This is what she came up with when I requested that she take a picture with her brother.

I have to admit, the kid's got a good eye. :)

mr. spit-up boy

when most people see a little baby, they reach out their arms and ask to hold them. but lately, my son has been generating the opposite response. he has become known by family and friends as mr. spit-up boy. after he's nursed, everyone steers clear of him. he has the most amazing projectile spit-up, ala the exorcist. i'm talking, it shoots out about a foot over your shoulder, spraying everything along the way. he has marked our sofa, rugs, hardwood floors, countless clothes. i have to change outfits at least twice a day, because he just coats them.

so now, most people wait until he has thoroughly covered me with spit-up, and then they consider him safe to hold. and even then, they hold him facing outward. there are constant cries of "oh s**t!" in our household, followed by major scrambling and grabbing of burp cloths and paper towels to clean up the mess.

i suppose this is pretty common with babies. it's just that ally didn't really do this much, so we're just not used to it. i hope he gets over this soon. until then, i'll be sporting a streak of white down the front and back of the left side of my shirt.

** check out Mr. Spit-up Boy in action.

To swaddle or not to swaddle

griffin is now 11 weeks old, and i've been trying to figure out if we should still swaddle him.

we have been swaddling him with both blankets and the "SwaddleMe", but it appears that he is the houdini of swaddles. every night i burrito wrap him with his arms at his side, and every morning his arms are out and flailing about. it's almost like he's taunting me. "you can't keep me (and my arms) down!"

right after i swaddle him, he sometimes starts wriggling and crying angrily. so then i think, maybe he doesn't want to be swaddled. maybe he wants his arms out? after all, i'd be pretty upset if someone wrapped me up tight like that (unless it was part of some bondage thing, er, never mind).

but when i don't swaddle him, he jerks his arms about as he's falling asleep, and he often ends up bopping himself on the nose and then bursting into tears. the other night, i left him unswaddled with his blanket tucked around him. i left the blanket close to his face, and he immediately began happily sucking on it. well, i had barely left the room when he started wailing. i returned to see that his flailing arms had pushed the blanket away, and now he was upset that the blanket had mysteriously disappeared. i repositioned the blanket by his face, and within seconds his arms shot up and swatted the blanket away again. he was doing battle with himself, and he was losing -- it was both hilarious and sad. after a few minutes of this, i gave up and just swaddled him. when i left the room, he was furiously sucking on the blanket, fully determined not to let it get away this time.

ally liked to suck on her sleeve when she was falling asleep, and perhaps he will too. but until he has better control over his arms, i guess he'll still be my little burrito boy.