The Green Zone

Ever since lil a started crawalking, we've had to make some adjustments around this place. First and foremost, babyproofing ensued. I never wanted to be one of those parents - you know, the ones that care about safety so much that their house becomes void of all things non-child in nature. The ones who bolt their bookshelf to the wall 'cause it just might topple over on an unsuspecting toddler. Now where's the fun in that?

Anyway, I'm one of them now. We've completely baby-proofed one room in the house and named it the Safe Zone. It's completely barricaded off -- to get in or out you have to either go over a gate, and ottoman or move a pack n play. This makes it a total pain if you are in the kitchen and have to go the bathroom. (Go over one ottoman and then a gate..) But the good thing is that lil a can play as much as he wants in the Safe Zone and I don't have to worry too much.

Hopefully we don't have any emergency and have to run from our bedroom to the garage or something. We'd have to leap two gates and the ottoman to do that. And you know how great I am at running down the steps. :) As long as there are no lemon bars involved, I think I'll be ok.

Oh no. He's mobile now.

That's right - last night he finally figured out how to crawl. Check it out:



Yes, that's eno making yeti-sounds towards the beginning of the video. And, that *is* a dog rope he's going after. Yum.

[If the video doesn't work, download it directly:
crawling.WMV]

On driving with crying babies...

Last weekend, the whole baby-makes-three family went up to visit my sister and her little one. While we were up there, we decided to go visit my sister's husband at work. He had just started his job (he works in sales) and we thought we could sneak in and watch him in action.

So, in an effort to be ecofriendly and efficient, we all piled in my sister's Rav4. I was the designated person to sit in between the two carseats in the back seat where there was just was barely enough room for this post-partum ass. I had to sort of sit under the lips of the carseat base. Yeah, pretty comfy.

On the way up there, both babies slept or played. No crying. It was glorious.

On the way back, things got a little hairy. It all started when my own angel was very sick of being in his carseat. No big deal, I can handle ONE baby crying. Do it all the time -- I'm a pro.

So I pulled a few toys out and tried to entertain him. That's when I heard it...a little muffled cry from the carseat to my right. I was in denial. Little N NEVER cries; I must've heard a bird outside the car.

Then I heard it again.

And it got louder.

And it was at that moment that I realized I was totally unprepared for the job ahead.

Both babies were unsettled and unhappy and we were a very long way from home.

So I tried it all. I sang, I shook an innumerable amount of toys. I even threw my hands in the air like I didn't care. Nothing worked.

Even the losers in the front seat (love ya honey) pitched in after about 20 minutes of laughing at my own series of unfortunate events.

During the melee, I remembered that I had a bunch of toys in the diaper bag in the cargo area right behind me. So I reached back with my GoGoGadget arms and pulled out what turned out to be the motherload. A long strand of toys I pulled out, all connected by a bunch of those rings that have proven to be so useful lately.

I thought I had done it. But sadly, the babies wanted nothing to do with the newfound treasure trove of toys. They took one look at it them and started crying harder.

Little N eventually went to sleep on her own. Know what eventually calmed ano down? The unending ring tones on my cell phone. Gotta love technology.

And look at these little angels. It's like nothing ever happened: