santa 2010

jack said he'd see santa when there was snow. so, today was the day we went to the henry ford. jack was able to tell santa about the crantookey. we'll see on christmas morning what one is! oh, and claudia wants a blue car, according to jack

Dear Santa Claus by Jack Robichaud, age 3

Happy Presents!
Platypus, Thanksgiving, Lighthouses
a Blue Car & Purple Truck
a spoon table
a picket
crantookey
light switch
a cannon with a monster
a dinosaur
a head
a bouncy head
picture of claudia
dog
pink piggy
$5
TV
a cup
nose
crayons
mask
cake
garbage bags

captain jack

halloween 2010

10.10.10–7 years of marriage, 3 month old and 3 year old

i often wonder what my kids will look like when they are older. with jack, the moment he was born i knew just what he'd look like at 3. he still looks a lot like what he did when he was a baby. so, i think i have a pretty good idea of what he will look like at 20. i also know that he will still have a kind heart and a silliness about him like patrick and i. claudia, for me, is more difficult to read. i can't see who she looks like now which makes it difficult to see how she might look at 20. however, i am patient when it comes to my children aging. this time i get to spend with them is going to mean something completely different to them than it does to me.

tonight when jack and i finished our two stories, with gave hugs and kisses. as i left the room jack blew me a kiss and said "see you in the morning" and then "i love you momma". how can the night be better?

anniversaries are so much better with two kids.

must be halloween time

baby on lawn

claudia can roll from her back to her side!

riding!

2 months

claudia is growing big! she already has gained almost 4" in length and is 13.5 pounds. she can pull her legs up in the air and is fascinated by jack's antics. her smile and coos are infectious.

5 weeks

claudia is 5 weeks old and doing very well. the last few days she has slept 5-7 hours which is so amazing for a breast fed baby. she is getting so big, almost 12 pounds. she smiles at big brother jack when he tickles her toes. she loves to be held and i love to hold her. her little eye lashes are growing and she has a little fountain of hair on top. i have an amazing family!

jack is on his way to underpants. he used the "man" potty all weekend while we were at Maker Faire. the man potty is the urinal inside the port-a-potty. i am so proud of jack. he has the most wonderful personality. he's wild, he's empathetic. fun, loving, smart and creative. while at the museum he created a story about a rocket ship while we hid out in the photo both as daddy was packing up the puppets!

official birth announcement

family fun

the past 12 days summed up with this shot!

She's Here

home stretch

yesterday was full of activity for us. we had a nice walk around belleville in the morning. we stopped for awhile and watched the baby ducks at the lake and someone water skiing. jack was very excited to see the activity on the lake. from there we walked back to the park where none of jack's friend's were playing–so we didn't stay long. when we got back home we did a lot of yard work because it's not going to be easy doing that with a newborn (much easier pregnant). for our evening out, patrick and i walked around royal oak quite a bit. i really appreciate that city every time i visit. it's very different than ann arbor in lots of ways. it's nice to find a pastry shop open til 1AM!

even after all that activity, no baby yet. maybe this little girl will stay inside for awhile longer than jack! jack was born at 38 weeks 2 days.

37 weeks

i had a great day today. patrick and i weeded and jack and i watered our new raspberry bush. the burst of energy also allowed me to get the car seat together and my hospital bag (which i never did for jack's arrival).

mother's day 2010

today brings back many memories from 3 years ago when i went into labor with jack. it certainly was a surprise that warm sunday in may 2007. we spent brunch with my family and were on our way to celebrate with patrick's when my water broke. there was no time to dwell on what was about to happen and less time to do a lot of complaining.

soon, jack will need to share his momma bird with another baby bird. that brings me lots of joy because i know that there can be lots of joy in having a sibling and if our little girl is anything like jack, we will have a lot of fun together.

jack gave me a really nice framed photo of the 2 of us on the beach from last summer. that picture means a lot to me for many reasons. it's quiet but stormy and peaceful and joyful. it was the vacation we decided we would have another baby.

jack, mommy & baby sister

almost 3

jack will be 3 in less than a month. i always like these photos that showcase his personality. he is so lovable, easy-going and one of the joys of my life. in 9 weeks, i won't be just my boy and me any longer. we are taking some time next month to do some mom and son things before our baby girl arrives. we will have to do a picnic and lots of park play!

Jackalackey

feeling good

30 weeks

this week has been really good. i am feeling a little less uncomfortable and i am still able to get on the ground and work on our giant fish puppet. i am staying active with this pregnancy thanks to my big boy jack. yesterday we played hide-and-seek for quite awhile. abby and rosey always reveal where i am hiding. jack counts one, two, three...here i come. it is just the cutest thing to hear him count and understand what the game is about.

earlier in the evening jack was using his new scissors from the easter bunny and cutting out paper to give to those he loves. my piece was the first one and it was smaller than a dime. daddy's was bigger and more like the size of an apple. then jack cut one for his baby sister. that one was the largest.

it's official, i've lost my belly button! with jack, my belly button popped but it never became nonexistent. this time, the repetitive stretching has made it go away. i've always had a sensitive button but now it is even more so. watch out, don't touch it, no matter how tempting it might be. rest of the belly is fine:)

this week our baby is moving around a lot. patrick has been able to feel the kicks, but still waiting for jack to be there at the right time. most days i can see the movement across my belly. it's probably the coolest thing about being pregnant.

parenting is hard work

it was about a month ago that nothing i did could get jack to do what i wanted. i was on the edge and i needed to be reasoned with. patrick was a big help like always. he gave me time to be alone and collect myself. since then, i promised myself that i needed to change my behavior if i wanted jack's behavior to improve.

i can't argue that being a working mom is harder than being a stay at home mom or vice versa. being a mom is the most challenging work either way. although there are times that i give into the short term fixes, today i am reenergized to put in long hours to be the best mom i can. at work we talk about taking as much time with each customer interaction and not simply passing them on as quickly as possible. at home, i try to do the same thing with jack (yes, harder to do sometimes). for example, when jack has something to say, i let him know that it is important to me to understand him and let him know that i care about what he's talking about. i've learned to give him choices, ones that i can live with either of his decisions. i am in the middle of reading 4 parenting books. two of them are pretty extreme in views, which i think is great. for example, one book believes in time outs and one does not.

after reading a bit, i am very interested in how to apply the techniques. for the last month or so, jack has been wanting me to do EVERYTHING, not daddy. although patrick doesn't seem to be hurt by his words and actions, he does want me to have a break. so the challenge now is to get jack to make choices that involve help from daddy and not mommy.

parenting is not intuitive and it's okay to read as much as you can. and it's ok to take a break, sometimes it is mandatory.

getting bigger

26 weeks

This week our baby girl's ears are more developed and highly sensitive. i have noticed a lot more movement probably because she can hear jack's laughter and the dogs barks and cried. whenever i feel the baby, she stops moving as soon as jack or patrick try to feel her. jack's going to think it's pretty cool.

she's continuing to put on baby fat and now probably weighs about a pound and two-thirds and "measures the size of (an English hothouse cucumber) from head to heel." love the food reference.

23 weeks

i am feeling pretty good this week. even though i felt little tickles a month ago, it is now that i am able to feel the jabs of our baby girl. in a few weeks jack and patrick will be able to feel it too! this last week i got my first cold. during the last pregnancy i got sick A LOT. so i guess i can't complain too much about a week long cold. i am trying to take care of myself with xtra sleep, lots of water and intervals on the treadmill.

things that i've been craving: fruit, salad and of course pastry!

jack told all the kids at school that his baby sister is coming. it is going to be a magical day when the two meet and a day i won't forget like the day i met jack.

Titan Figure

I make a point to have my son watch me throw snowballs over our house. I assume in five to ten years he will remember tonight as the day his father launched truck sized snow boulders into the stratosphere.

my 33rd birthday

i love this family shot. it tells a lot about who we all are!

Doubling Down on Fatherhood

So we're going to do this again. I guess I was just that good the first time, it's a hard argument to against the proverbial 'why not?'.

A little girl! I'm intrigued by this sudden crystallization of our family thumbnail. Instead of the rock tumbler that is a male dominated clan like the one I experienced, we will have a more neopolitan family of poise and parity. And while I can name a handful of new parents with an elder son and junior daughter, we have none of reasonable comparison in either of our families.

With Jack it has been a rather simple plug and play strategy for me, as I am also a first born son. Basically I can provide and apportion with little more than intuition and timing. With a daughter ... I hesitate to say the same attitude is insufficient, but it's a road never traveled. A child tends to bond to the opposite sex parent, what can I utilize from that arrangement?

It was a bit of a surprise to thumb through a variety of bookstores when I was looking for books for dads about raising daughters. There appears to be a veritable library of information on raising sons, even a section on raising geeks, but fathers and daughters? I found three on my initial inspection.

The first one was written by a Dr. Meg Meeker, M.D., which initially drew me in, as I was expecting a tome steeped in rational thought and chock full of scientific studies. What I got was a Catholic conservative telling me unless I was a huge asshole my daughter would contract a STD by age 12, and that would make her RUINED FOREVER. Essentially she preached there was no such thing as being too overprotective, that my daughter will only think I love her if I'm a dark menacing shadow in her social world and that smoking is a better habit than sex, a topic the woman seemed obsessed with. Indeed, there seemed to be almost nothing in the book about years zero through twelve, it just warped ahead where every third page was a sobby anecdote about one of her patients blaming her herpes on daddy not cleaning his guns on the porch when boys came around.

The other books seemed better, but I'm quickly coming to the conclusion that we have exceptional parenting potential and coupled with the lessons we learned with Jack, I'm as well prepared as I can be.

Hey, I've got two girl dogs, that's at least worth the benefit of the doubt.

Hope she likes kibble.

Frosty Month

I made a puppet.

baby girl

it's official, in june we will be a family with a new little girl. the ultrasound today revealed that our little girl is free of abnormalities, has a healthy heart and weighs about 1/2 pound. she moved around a lot and we got see a lot of her. at one point she was clenching and unclenching her fist. amazing!

17 weeks

jack wants to see inside my tummy for the baby. i hope i can prepare him enough for this little one. baby is growing big and i have been feeling flutters for a couple weeks now. those flutters are in the exact spot that i was feeling jack, kinda cool. baby makes it known that it doesn't like the tummy sleeping anymore. from now on, i am now on my side for the most part.

16 weeks along

week 16 for the sequel

baby is the size of an avocado and will be going thru a growth spurt in the next couple weeks. i think jack is doing the same, both intellectually and physically. his imagination is profound for he makes up stories about gardens and eating monsters.