A Valentine's Day Slumber Party

Andrew's happy. I got his watch fixed for Valentine's Day. He broke it in May 2006 when he was trying to haul our luggage off of the bus at al Funduq Select. It was about time we fixed it.

He gave me a yoga block and strap. I guess that makes me an official, and fully equipped, yogi. Except that I don't have a mat yet. I have a feeling that will be arriving on my birthday.

So I got him a watch strap and he got me a yoga strap. Were we on the same wavelength or what?

And keeping with our tradition we made a heart shaped pizza. It didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. It stretched out when I peeled it off the counter and I forgot to prep the pan so it stuck pretty badly.


We had just gotten it into the oven when the real fun began. Matt and Bonnie dropped off Amy so that they could spend Valentine's Day alone. We were excited to have two babies for awhile. I learned a lot and I think I will be forgiving myself for not keeping my house cleaner. Rachel is a very...demanding...child, to say the very least.

Let's just say that Amy cried and it sounded like the whimpers Rachel makes when she's asleep. That's how loud and demanding Rachel is.

She also is a little bit dominant. Definitely an "alpha-female" if I've ever seen one. The first thing she did when she saw Amy was decide they should talk so she promptly removed Amy's pacifier to allow for better babbling. Don't worry, Bonnie, she didn't stick it in her own mouth (because Rachel doesn't take those things). She just threw it on the floor and started clawing away at Amy's seatbelt. We decided we should help Rachel get Amy out before she knocked the car seat, and both of them, to the floor.


While the pizza cooked, Andrew and I encouraged Rachel to be gentle and tried to make sure she didn't accidentally dismember Amy. Rachel really needs to learn to be gentle if we're ever going to have another baby. And with how rough she is, the sooner we start her on that, the better. Starting now she might just be ready for a sibling when we are, although I doubt it. She's a rather aggressive baby.

Here she is using Amy to push herself up into a standing position...yikes! We nixed that idea pretty fast.


She doesn't try to be mean, I don't think...she just doesn't know her own strength. Believe me. I can't tell you how many times I say "soft" and "gentle touch" and "don't pinch mommy" every day. I say them often. She can play nice though when she wants to.

See? Playing nice.

It helped when we stuck them both in car seats although Rachel kept reaching over in the car to pull on Amy's handlebar while we were taking the babies to visit our parents for Valentine's Day and to wish Andrew's mom a happy birthday. We gave each family a copy of our first photo book, One Thousand Words: In the Beginning... and picked up some yummy cookies from the Heisses.


We stopped off at my family's house first and decided to pull a little trick. I walked up to the door with Amy in her car seat and Andrew hid behind the corner with Rachel in hers. I rang the doorbell and Josie busted through the door and started yanking on the car seat and asking if she could "take her out." Then she looked inside and her excitement died.

"Who's that?" she whispered, absolutely puzzled.

And then Andrew came around the corner with Rachel. It was pretty funny.

When we got home we got the girls ready for bed and let them fool around in their jammies for a little bit. I promise that Rachel isn't a bully--she doesn't mean to hurt people and we try to tell her to be gentle. She just hasn't grasped the "nice" concept yet. Perhaps we need to limit rough housing to between the hours of 4 and 5 PM. She certainly does like to wrestle, but I think it is more out of curiosity than an actual desire to cream the other child.

This is my hand, Amy. Hand.
And this is my foot!
Being nice (look, look! She can be nice!)

Amy seemed to be okay with everything until Rachel decided to bite her...or kiss her...I think this was technically a combination bite-kiss which doesn't hurt as much as a true bite and is a little less slobbery than a true kiss.


That's when we decided that we should feed them.

Rachel got fed first. Bonnie's motto may be "neediest baby first" but mine is "loudest baby first." I can't stand the screaming. You can hear Rachel from outside when she's really on one and Amy seemed content enough to kick around on her back.

I started Amy's bottle warming while I nursed Rachel. Andrew wasn't so keen on feeding Amy (he's always been wary of mother's milk and since this was foreign mother's milk, he was doubly so) but eventually caved in and fed her and I daresay he enjoyed himself in spite of the occasional drip.

Rachel let out one little cry before she fell asleep. She was so exhausted (beating up Amy took a lot out of her, I guess). Amy fell asleep pretty quickly, too. It was actually a quieter night than we've had in a long time. Amy kept Rachel entertained, eliminating the need for our song-and-dance routine. I should get cleaning the kitchen now. For a minute I was wondering why I hadn't done that yet...but then I remembered: although I didn't have to spend my time amusing Rachel, my time wasn't freed up because I had to put on my referee hat. A mother's work is never done.