Another Mystery Solved

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A few weeks ago, Claire was talking about her friend Jad at school.  She told us, “Jad has a wizard in his car!  He really does!  They keep him in a cage!”  Now that seemed odd and a little creepy, but kids this age have a powerful imagination.  I figured either Jad made it up and told Claire, or Claire just made it up herself.  The odd thing was that Claire was so insistent about it, and she referenced Jad’s mom.  “His mom even said they have a wizard in their car.”

So I was at a birthday party for another kid, Lucy, in Claire’s class.  While the kids had their bounce house fun, I chatted with the other parents.  I told Jad’s mom that I heard they have a wizard in their car.  She laughed and said, “Lizard.  Sometimes we keep a lizard in our car when we are watching it for our neighbors.  He does have a little cage.”  We had a good laugh.  She said she remembered when she told the kids about it at school. Claire seemed really surprised and said, “Really?!?!” in an astonished way.

I was telling Kit about this whole story, and the fact that it is a lizard and not a wizard.  Claire was sitting there in the room with us.  When Kit and I chuckled about it, Claire looked a little embarrassed and said quietly, “It’s not funny”, then turned her attention to a toy.  I actually kind of hated to squash this little spec of mystery and surprise in Claire’s world.

Double Pumping

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Kit is still pumping to feed Molly. I hope Kit will forgive me if this is too personal, but Kit has taken untold steps to feed Molly breast milk over the last couple of months, and I wanted to recognize her heroic effort.

Due to her long hours on the job and Molly’s physiology, Kit has not been able to simply nurse Molly. It sounds like such a simple idea to breast feed, but several weeks of serious frustration, worrying, and discomfort on Kit and Molly’s part showed how difficult it can really be. Molly was not gaining enough weight and simply had to have some formula, but Kit was still spurred on to feed Molly as much breast milk as possible.


It may be a surprise to the uninitiated, but this whole breastfeeding topic is so full of controversy that it makes Republicans and Democrats look tame. Kit is no “breastfeeding nazi” by any means. In fact, she is often put off by the guilt-tripping attitude of the breastfeeding crowd. But this fall’s seasonal flu and N1H1 outbreaks, which can be deadly to infants, inspired Kit to get Molly her breast milk. Kit was dismayed by the exaggerated claims of the breastfeeding crowd, so as a scientist herself, she did a literature search on the topic. She saw nothing compelling about breast milk helping with intelligence or obesity, but she did find a credible scientific article suggesting that breast milk might objectively might help fight off sickness to some extent. The amount of help is not fully understood, and of course nothing is guaranteed, but just that glimmer of hope was enough for Kit find another way to get Molly her breast milk.

What resulted was pumping — lots and lots of pumping. Kit has never really complained about it, but her pumping regimen has been a tough haul. Kit is often up at 5:00 am, sometimes earlier, to pump before work. And then she comes home at 6:30 and heads straight up to pump. Dinner time usually involves Claire and I eating dinner together while Kit is off performing the grotesque ritual of pumping, and Molly (the sleepyhead) is napping. Kit shows up some 30-45 minutes later with a few ounces of breast milk in two plastic bottles, and then we warm up her stale dinner while I got Claire ready for bed. The whole thing was pretty disruptive to our whole family routine, especially for Kit. Early on, when Kit was still on maternity leave, she was actually pumping about 10 times a day, and each session took around 30-45 minutes. And then there is the cleaning, the endless cleaning. There are eight pieces that need to be hand cleaned and steam sterilized in the microwave each time Kit pumps, each piece having odd corners, flaps, and hard to reach areas. Admittedly, this one affects me the most, so I had to get it in here.

Through all of this, Kit must feel like a cow, a very sore cow. And she is a cow (I mean a mom) who has gone to great lengths for her calf (I mean baby) just in case it helps. The good news is that something is working because Molly has not gotten a common cold yet, much less the flu, even after weeks of day care. The breast milk may have had something to do with that. I would also give credit to hand washing. Thankfully, Molly’s school is full of hand washing nazis.

Molly’s First Day of School (Ever!)

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Today was Molly’s first day of school. Of course, Molly was unaware of this exciting milestone.

Kit’s mom, Claire, Molly, and I all piled in the car this morning and headed off to school together. Molly is still adjusting to car rides and complained (ie, cried) a bit on the way to school.

Per the teacher’s suggestion, we dropped Claire off first at her class and then headed across the parking lot to the “small building” where the baby Chicks have their classroom. I had been taking Molly along to drop off Claire for a couple of weeks now, and Claire was still so proud to show off her baby sister to anyone who would look, including other kids, parents, and teachers. Yes, everyone in Claire’s class already knew Molly, and many were still fascinated by the sweet little baby in the car seat.

When we first arrived at the small building and set Molly down in the Chick’s room in her car seat, a big baby named Bobby showed up immediately to investigate. Once we got Molly out, he tried to climb into, or maybe tip over, her car seat. The teachers laughed and said that was Bobby.

The teachers suggested putting Molly in “the pool”, which is a round padded area in a sunny corner of the room. The main point of the pool is that is has short padded walls a few inches tall, so she is somewhat protected from Bobby and the like. We laid Molly down in the pool, and she did not complain a bit. She was immediately transfixed by all the neat stuff to look at. There were big windows with curly trees right outside, toys and mirrors in the pool, and interesting sounds from a few other babies.

We dropped off Molly’s milk, formula, bottles, diapers, diaper cream, extra clothes, pacifier, etc. We also filled out Molly’s daily note stating when she had woken up and eaten this morning. Then it was time to go, but it felt weird just leaving her there. Molly did not seem to mind or even notice. She was just looking around happily un her little corner. Still, we hung around a few minutes to make sure everything was okay. And everything stayed okay. So off we went, feeling a little weird, but without notice.

That afternoon when we picked Molly up, they said she had a great day. She did a lot of cooing and sleeping, and she loved to watch the other babies. I think Molly is in good hands and probably having more fun at school than at home.

Everyone’s Wiped Out

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Everybody is pretty wiped out lately.

Kit fell asleep last night in Claire’s bed after reading Claire her bedtime story. She did the same exact thing today after reading Claire her afternoon nap story.

For her part, Claire took her nap from 3:00 pm to 6:15 today, when we had to wake her up for dinner.

Molly spends the vast majority of her day either sleeping or trying to get to sleep.

I am also wiped out, but I never take naps. I had Moly during Claire’s nap today, and while I did not fall asleep, I did end up laying down with Molly just relaxing for a while, maybe 20 minutes. When I checked the clock, it turned out to be nearly two hours. Hell, maybe I did fall asleep.

Sister’s Portrait

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Claire asked me for a blank sheet of paper today, then ran off to her room with the paper and a purple marker.  She emerged about 15 minutes later to hand me the paper, explaining, “See?  It’s Molly!”

Wow!  I did not expect to recognize a real image of Molly, but there she is.  You can see a very clear face in the middle.  I am not sure what the other stuff is.  Maybe blankets, diapers, etc?  Anyways, that face is amazing.  Seriously, that is what Molly really looks like when she is tired. 

A Cat Ran on the Sidewalk

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One of the Halloween activities in Claire’s class this year was for each kid to make up a Halloween story on their own.  The teachers transcribed the stories, printed and laminated them, and posted them on the wall for everyone to read.  Claire’s read as follows:

A cat ran on the sidewalk.  The doggie got the cat.  The mommy forgot her purse.  The little lady laughed.  The little lady wore a hat.  She also had thousands and thousands of coins.

Most of the other kids’ stories were pretty nice too.  A couple were scarcely one sentence long.  And one or two were just descriptions of Star Wars battles that had nothing to do with Halloween.

Curly Q

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Molly is suck a little sleepy head. And when she gets tired, she loves to curl up like a little doodle bug. She literally curls into almost a perfect ball when cuddling. It can be challenging to feed her because it is hard to simply lay her out straight enough to get the right angle for her bottle!

I want Molly

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At dinner tonight, while Molly was upstairs sleeping, Claire said “I want to see Molly!”. Since Claire is off at school and Molly still back home during the weekdays, Claire does not get to see a lot of Molly (awake). Claire said that during school she wants to get home and see Molly and touch her and talk to her.
So sweet.