The new rolling ILX parenting thread, since the other one was getting unwieldy

Good lord. It frightens me a bit (to have a second) as I know I'm blessed with Ophelia's sleeping pattern. She slept through the night from the age of 4 months and now, if we keep her up until 7:30 pm, she climbs the stairs by herself, without a cry or whatever, when we ask her "Let's go to sleep!" She even points at the net, waves at us and says bye bye when we aren't quick enough. She rarely if ever wakes up in the middle of the night.

So maybe Lulu will be like Ophelia, Michael, you never know! :-)

Thanks Michael, much appreciated. Lulu is pure innocent cuteness (going by her pictures...) but Ava looks like a future heartbreaker. Those eyes! I've really enjoyed watching them grow up in pictures on this thread - as well as all the others.

Charlotte and Oliver this past weekend...

http://homepage.mac.com/alexinnyc/.Pictures/Photo%20Album%20Pictures/2007-09-02%2015.37.57%20-0700/Image-D15E196559A011DC.jpg

Drunken baby Rockettes!
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1205/1305472338_303645184e.jpg

Me and Ben
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1032/1236228740_2d69c31f4b.jpg

Piano lessons from dad
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1229/1232853846_7341d54d85.jpg

Alex, I'm really looking forward to the days when Ava and Lulu are having a good old blanket guffaw together like Charlotte and Oliver, that's just awesome.

Nathalie, don't fear the arrival of number two, you've got no choice but to adapt and hopefully Ophelia will lead her by example into the world of sleep appreciation, it sounds like she could teach Ava a thing or two. The second time around so many things are just second nature and for me at least, I've been much more chilled out about everything. Dropped piece of bread? 5-second rule. A bit of a tumble? Big cuddle instead of a 3-hour wait at A&E to discover her wee noggin's a-ok like you instinctively knew it was. Borrow the car keys? Ok but be back by midnight, Lulu. And you can wipe that lipstick off right now, missy.

During the first few weeks I found it really hard to look after Ava and also meet the chow-down demands of Lulu so I didn't end up breastfeeding nearly as long as I'd wanted, but you go with the flow, as it were. The second time has just gone so dang quick, that's what kills me. Yesterday we upgraded Lulu into a front-facing carseat, she was just busting out of the smaller one. They're growing up so fast, sniff. You want it to last but at the same time it's also gotta be really fun when they're old enough to be giving it some fake fear for the camera, trapped in the jungle under a leaf.

A question for everyone: What are your kid's favortite tv shows/dvds/videos etc.
OMG Molly is obsessed with "Teletubbies" and will totally make out with her Po doll. She does the same with Tinky Winky. I don't know what any of this means. Like, at all.

Also, the theme from "The Muppet Show" makes her dance like crazy but she doesn't really watch the rest of it, or any other show really including "Sesame Street."

Drunken baby rockettes picture is awesome! Co-ordinated moves!

Here's on of my lot from late July.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1373/1343644844_143f2fd315.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/onimo/

Wait, when was the weather like that in July (or this summer)?

Photo properties say it was taken on 23rd July. You missed summer, that'll teach you to blink.

I R serious baby... lovely kids!

I think I posted this before but I'm drunk and lookingat flickr so I'm posting it again coz Megan's gorgeous.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1081/537193047_02651507c0.jpg

It's her birthday next week OMG where did a year go?

She really is gorgeous.

I love the boy I have beyond all sense, but I admit that I would have liked a girl as well.

I always said we'd have two boys close together then a gap then a girl. I'm kind of amazed it worked out exactly as planned. We had no idea we were having a girl until the birth. I'll never forget Anne's face when Megan was born, - she was scared to wish for a girl but when it became a reality it was amazing.

Boys are great too. I like that my two lads are still young enough to think I'm funny and clever and stuff and not just some guy.

Lately in my house it seems like the older Spencer gets, the dumber I become.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1238/1342568408_56c164fdc1_o.jpg

Taken by my husband. She had a rough day (on friday). I think she's more or less over it. But for a minute we feared teh urinary infection was back. I think it was just some bug or something cause my husband and I had/have it as well.

Oohhh these photos! Best thread ever. Cheered me right up I tell thee.

Also, the countdown now really begins. Braxton-Hicks and sleepless nights. *URGH* :-)

Yuk - but it'll be worth it!

Step on it Nath, there hasn't been an ILX birth for at least three weeks now!

Alice has become such a poser:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1036/1355559502_cda2be0ca4.jpg?v=0

I know! It's countdown to delivery. There is no escape. :-) Just got results back that my blood plates (?) and white bloodcells are a okay. So I needn't worry too much about bleeding.

Fun with animation...

http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m261/disbister/Rockettes1.gif

Ophelia looks like a little angel.

And Alice is quite the ham! So gorgeous, that girl. And the rockette twins!

I am in love with all these babies today.

http://a505.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/82/m_344063b39a6f387467b8b4c98ce94280.jpg
http://a82.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/109/m_f28100f326f60d2a6759723f62298771.jpg

Cyrus and Rufus at the jobsite that is our new house.

More cuties! I loved the pics Scott posted on the other thread, Maria - especially the second one of Cyrus. So freakin' cute I can hardly stand it.

from BabyZone's Newsletter <newslet✧✧✧@babyz✧✧✧.c✧✧>
to xxxxxxxxxxxx✧✧✧@gm✧✧✧.c✧✧
date Sep 10, 2007 12:30 PM
subject When everyone's pregnant . . . except you

:(

all the babes above are just beautiful. that alice!

here's le beep on her 6 month b'day:

http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/2253/6months2go2.jpg

Those EYES!

And Alice. <3 I really wish we could have a gettogether!

Step on it Nath, there hasn't been an ILX birth for at least three weeks now!

I suspect there'll be another one before too much longer.

I thought you were showing, Matt, but I didn't want to say anything.

I really wish we could have a gettogether!

BABYFAP

I want to smooch Beeps' face off (and I love her wee monkey wear.)

(how has it been 6 months already? Holy cow.)

yeah, time, hello? why you fly so fast!? our Julia is already a month old - two days ago in fact.

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h186/grimstitch/smallbw2.jpg
http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h186/grimstitch/smallbw.jpg

i just kissed my computer screen - so cute those cheeks

She is so beautiful Kim! That chin, yum!

=)

she hasn't mastered smiling yet (even by accident) but she has these super serious concerned looks and heartbreakingly sad droopy cheek faces down pat. her burp face in particular is so abjectly pathetic that i crack up laughing nearly every time. and i laugh at her when she's eating too... making cookie monster munching type sounds. obv i'm a terrible parent!

Adrian (3) broek a arm = TEH SUCK

Awww! Poor kid.

xp: ouch! how did it happen?

Technically his left radius. Sitting on a chair, getting ready to eat dinner. We were RIGHT THERE. It happened so fast -- he was tired and probably unable to react, given the several inconsequential daredevil falls he has taken before. Emergency room stay was not completely horrible. Went to second hospital for re-setting, had to leave room for five minutes during re-setting/X-raying, and of course it felt like an eternity. One of the drugs (*makes anxiety face*) he was given was Ketamine, and of course I felt the urge to make a Villalobos joke but no one would've gotten it -- not even Adrian. He has taken it very well considering but has trouble getting comfortable enough to sleep.

Jeeps. Hope it all comes through okay for him (and you and Jodee as well!).

These are probably going to be huge but I'm at work with nothing to reduce them so huge they'll stay:

Beeps the pacifist:
http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/9208/pacifistlm8.jpg

Beeps the couch licker:
http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/551/couchlickerxn2.jpg

Beeps the smileypants:
http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/6610/beatscriblb5.jpg

Poor Adrian.

Here's Lulu at her Nana's...

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1133/1388287390_0498d3d58c.jpg

And Ava getting excited about a fox in the garden...

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1086/1387087375_9cda7e468c.jpg

Exciting news - we've started toilet training with Ava. So far, so good - more hits than misses. We're making a big fuss of her when she gets it right ("I've done it, Daddy!") and making light of her accidents. Keeping the use of pull-up pants to a minimum - hopefully she'll soon be in her Peppa Pig briefs...

(post the flamingo picture!)

Beeps, Beeps, you are the cutest pacifist! Ava and Lulu have their pans ready for banging and have requested to join you on future crawls/marches. They've been practising the call and response technique. "What do we want? Chocolate milk! When do we want it? Now!"

Poor Adrian's busted arm, hope he's getting a little more comfortable as he gets used to it. I await our first broken bone with trepidation, but I'm reasonably sure it's going to happen, and probably earlier rather than later for at least one of our girl daredevils. The frenzied way Ava trampolines on the sofa to Kraftwerk, the naive way Lulu doesn't realise the dog on wheels will certainly roll when she's using it to stand up, it gives me the Fear. You want to protect them all the time but sometimes they just crash before you see it coming.

As Mike says, the toilet training with Ava is going surprisingly well. She spends most of the day nekkid as a jaybird which is her fave outfit anyway. Three days of doing this has taught me that if I use the pull-up pants she'll just use them like a nappy and ignore the potty. I did put some cotton pants on her a couple of times today but she just forgets to pull them down before she sits on the potty, ha!

I swore when I started that I wasn't going to use food as a reward when the girl done good but that went out the window on day one - we play with sticker books pretty often and she's just not wowed out enough by stickers for that to be a real incentive. So it's the forbidden tiny handful of chocolate buttons or jelly beans that's doing the trick, with an end-of-day toy car (50p at sainsbury's!) for an overall successful day (which is basically using the potty as intended instead of a hat for the majority of the day). if anybody else is conquering/has conquered this whole messy toilet thing already and has some tips, I'm all ears!

I took the girls to Chester Zoo when we were at Mike's mum's last week. I know we've exceeded our babe image quota for the day but here are the flamingos for koogs and a leopardtastic Lulu shot so she doesn't feel left out when she's reading the archives in a few years:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1351/1387455361_b2999caee5.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1179/1388177658_5e46182b86.jpg

hey nathalie, you any closer to birthing o's sister yet? I know you're not actually in the hospital yet because you've been pummelling the husbeau at scrabble, but here's hoping there's some action soon!

wow @ leopard lulu! what gorgeous pictures.

The frenzied way Ava trampolines on the sofa to Kraftwerk

Awesome (but not for the danger part, obv).

(Thanks for the well-wishing, everyone.)

Andy, man, I don't know how I'd react. I have TEH FEAR as well, but realize that, as much as I try to protect her, she's bound to fall down or even break an arm/leg. That said, she's surprisingly cautious: She could walk early on, but decided to hold on to my hand for the longest time. (As I type this, she bangs the door shut with an enormous thud. Cautious? Maybe not as much as I'd like.)

As always, the mini-ILXORs are too cute for words. :-)

hey nathalie, you any closer to birthing o's sister yet? I know you're not actually in the hospital yet because you've been pummelling the husbeau at scrabble, but here's hoping there's some action soon!

No, I'm still more than a month off. I feel exceptionally tired, though, as I can't sleep at night. Our employee, who has a caesarian on the 8th, apparently had 3 minute contractions! They were just in time to suppress them. Now she's at home taking pills every two hours and lying down as much as possible. I do have to say that the latter, having a rest, sounds very appealing. Although I hate it, my husband has managed to convince me: I take naps during the day, as I tend to be awake during the night. *sigh* I shouldn't complain though, I am pregnant. :-)

Ah yes, I did pummel him for one game, but boy are you two beating me now! :-) I might sneak in the laptop when I deliver next month. :-) Hello, I'm Nathalie, I'm a scrabaholic! :-)

The frenzied way Ava trampolines on the sofa to Kraftwerk

The Robots is still her favourite but she now has a soft-spot for Elektro Kardiogramm, especially one particular panning, swooshing noise that she imitates and then collapses in giggles - "Here comes the sound!"..."What's that noise, Daddy?" She's decided it sounds like elevator doors closing. I hope we've initiated a lifetime of musical appreciation based entirely on cool synth FX.