Hysterical!

Today I was sitting on the couch feeding the little guy I babysit a bottle. I was talking to the baby and not paying much attention to what was going on across the room. Talia was sitting in her bouncy seat and Benjamin was crouched in front of her. Assuming he was turning the vibrating feature on and off, I was surprised to hear the kitchen trashcan lid banging shut. I looked up and Benjamin was walking dutifully away from the trashcan. (Strictly speaking, Benjamin is not allowed to touch the kitchen trashcan, but occassionally he will find something on the floor and want to throw it away, which I allow.) Curious what he was throwing away, I watched him return to his position in front of the bouncy seat. Except this time he was slightly off-center which allowed me to see that he was removing the lint from between Talia's toes.

Best Friends

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned that Benjamin adores Talia! He loves to entertain her, manipulating all the dangling baby toys she doesn’t yet know how to play with. When she gets up from a nap he is delighted; “TA-ya,” he yells. He turns the music on her swing on and off for her and starts the vibrator for her bouncy seat. He retrieves diapers for her on command and tries, mostly in vain, to put her paci in her mouth whenever he finds it laying around (regardless of whether she wants it or not!)

He loves to pay visits to her bed while she is sleeping. He has several methods of peeking in, although “peeking” implies quiet, which he usually is not. First, he drags his plastic stool and drops it some- where in the vacinity, usually 1-2 feet away. Then he totters up on top of it, toes balancing on the stool, hands grasping for the edge of the crib, body diagonal somewhere between. If the stool is not handy or he just wants a quick look he will tolerate looking through the mesh side of the pack-n-play, although this is not preferable because usually all he can see is blankets. These visits usually occur when Talia is either crying or making little squeeky baby sounds in her sleep. His solution used to be to shake the bed. Our family now has a “no bed shaking” rule. Now he typically tries either to drop a paci over the edge or exclaims, “UH-oh…UH-oh…UH-oh” until someone comes to drag him away.

We much prefer all this childish affection to the hostility of the first couple of weeks. Who would have thought he would grow to adore her so!

Cute Grumpy Baby

We're back!

If anyone happens to still be checking our blog, we're back! The last couple of months have been a bit crazy, but life seems to be finding equili- brium here in the Rodriquez household. Seth and I are constantly amazed at the blessing two beautiful children are in our lives. Benjamin has grown to love his baby sister and bestows an abundance of kisses on her daily, both spontaneously and on-demand. Talia is responsive, smiling and "goo"-ing at the nearest friendly face...most of the time. Alas, if only a little more sleeping were occuring on a regular basis, life would be perfect!

To summarize the last two months...
-Kiersten's mom was with us for a month after Talia's birth. My recovery from the c-section was quite a bit more difficult this time around so her assistance was vital to the operation of our household! Benjamin became quite attached to his "Mima." In fact, she definitely ranked a close second to Dada in his esteem. We were sad to see her go, but treasure the memories of that first month.

-We were able to get almost completely settled into the new house within the first couple of weeks, thanks to Mom and Seth.

-Talia has been a pretty easy baby. She has her issues now and then, but overall she eats well, sleeps well (even through toddler noise and crying!), and is pretty mild in temperament. Now if we could just get this sleeping through the night thing down pat....


























-Benjamin is growing up in all senses of the word. He has changed so much in the past two months I think it might be useless to try to summarize. He is no longer a baby, but is "all toddler" and most definitely "ALL boy." Among my favorite developments have been: finally consistently identifying me verbally as "Mama," allowing books to be read (front cover to back cover) to him, giving hugs and kisses with less coersion, and learning to run cars on the ground (as opposed to holding them mid-air and spinning their wheels).





















-Seth recently completed his VERY- LAST- EVER research paper (excepting, of course, the upcoming dissertation). It was (appropriately--if you know Seth--, I might add) on the techniques and tools of ancient warfare. (The picture was taken the evening after the presentation of this paper.) He is also excelling in his new job and just received, for his efforts, a nice raise!
-I have been adjusting to life with two--actually three--kiddos. The third is a 4 1/2 month old baby whom I keep 3-4 days per week. This will last until the end of May when his Mama finishes teaching. The great thing about having three little ones most of the week is the days when I don't babysit I feel like it's so easy to "only" have two!

This is just a quick overview and doesn't nearly capture the heart and soul of the adventure of these past weeks, but hopefully this will allow me to start fresh in my own mind and be able to share the more interesting aspects of life with these wonderful kids!