As requested by the brilliant MKP, side by sides of Baby Evan and Caroline at 3 months:

My thought is that even though they look like SIBLINGS they don’t really look the SAME. Caroline’s head is shaped differently and her chin is pointier. Even though she was born bigger, Caroline is less chubby than 3 month old Baby Evan. I also think Caroline’s eyes are bluer, which makes me think they might stay that color instead of turning grey/green like Evan’s did. They have almost the same nose but I think Caroline’s turns up just a liiiittle more. Also, I think Caroline looks more feminine, but I’m not sure an outside observer would agree.

And right now, you’re thinking I am TOTALLY INSANE because they look IDENTICAL and who spends this much time analyzing every teeny tiny difference in their baby’s faces?

Unless you have more than one kid. Because then you probably totally understand.

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Tomorrow is my kidney stone removal surgery, which is just a same-day outpatient procedure but is causing me a huge amount of stress. What if I’m there all day? Will Caroline take a bottle? Will I be allowed to nurse after sedation? Is it going to hurt? Is passing all the stone fragments going to hurt? Will this finally take care of all these damn kidney infections or do I have an underlying issue that could be more serious? I’m probably overreacting and I’ll be there an hour with no pain and then get to come home and nap because I’m “recovering”, but it’s easy to let my worries get the best of me. Wish me luck!

Three months in and Caroline is still the happiest, smiley-est, cutest baby ever in the whole history of the world. Obviously I’m a little biased but seriously, she gives newborns everywhere a good name. I should rent her out to people who are scared that having a baby will be super hard. Of course, then their baby will end up being all colicky and refluxy and screamy and they’ll hunt me down and punch me right in my smug face. To which I will just say I paid my dues, suckers, and his name is Baby Evan.

For the record, Toddler Evan is pretty awesome. But Baby Caroline makes me want a dozen more babies.

Unfortunately, we don’t have a 3 months well-baby check so I don’t have real stats for height and weight, but she is definitely big and chubby. We’ve moved up to 6 months sleepers and dresses and I’ve already started a pile of too-small stuff to put away. I’m super excited that spring is almost here so I can start putting her in the dozens and dozens of adorable barely worn hand-me-downs my friends and sister-in-law have given her.

Caroline is now awake for a lot of the day, but will fall asleep if we go anywhere in the car or if we wrap her up and bounce her in the bouncy seat. She sleeps for an amount of time that is technically considered “through the night” by baby-sleep experts but still involves feeding her at midnight and 5 am. Which is fantastic, as long as I get an occasional nap to make up for those couple of lost hours. One of these days we’ll work on moving her to the co-sleeper or the crib – or a new crib, if I can convince E we need one – but for now she’s still sleeping the the swing most of the time. Ok, all the time. No judging unless you’ve lived with a baby who gets up every 90 minutes to nurse for 8 months straight.

Favorite things still include smiling, looking at people, sleeping, and making adorable baby sounds. Dislikes are gas bubbles and having onesies pulled over her head.

And now for the gratuitous picture section. Milestones are below:

Ah! It's trying to eat me!

Bebeh feet of the month

2 Month Milestones (from BabyCenter, as usually)

Mastered Skills (most kids can do)
Recognizes your face and scent – Yes, although I’m afraid if I ever start taking regular showers again I might confuse her
Holds head steady – Yes, there is definitely less slamming of her head into my face when I try to hold her on my shoulder
Visually tracks moving objects – Yes, which I find ridiculously adorable

Emerging Skills (half of kids can do)
Squeals, gurgles, coos – OMG the noises she makes are the absolute cutest noises ever in the whole world
Blows bubbles – Yes
Recognizes your voice – I think so, she definitely smiles the most when I talk to her
Does mini-pushup – Yes, she’s super strong!

Advanced Skills (a few kids can do)
Rolls over, from tummy to back – YES! She did it for the first time right on her 3 month birthday. She can also go halfway from her back to tummy but can’t get over her arm
Turns toward loud sounds – Sort of. There are a lot of loud sounds around here. They only bother her about 50% of the time
Can bring hands together, bats at toys – Yes and yes, I’ve started giving her small toys to hold, which doesn’t last very long but she likes to try

Aaaaand one more picture for the hell of it. I was trying to catch her smiling but this is actually more awesome:

Twenty weeks of iPhone photos! I’ve gotten in the habit of taking a LOT of pictures each week so I can have plenty to chose from when I share them with you. I actually had to move all the previous weeks to our back-up hard drive because my computer’s memory was full. Whoops!

Sunday:

Even though there is NO ACTUAL REASON daylight savings time should have messed with our sleep schedules, I'm blaming it for the 5 am wakeup that lead to a 10 am car nap anyway.

Providence. Hey, did you know they have an Apple Store there?

Perhaps the last Apple Store in the country to still have iPad2's available. Or at least they did. Before E and I bought the last 2.*

Monday:

It's officially BabyLegs season, now that someone's thighs are full of chub

The snot levels in the house reached EPIC proportions. At least he doesn't mind the sucker.

Hello lover. My birthday present came early.

Tuesday:

I HAD to get out of the house so we went for a walk with the $25 third-hand jogger.

And apparently that’s my only pic from Tuesday. Like I said, poor Little Evan’s head cold was making him miserable and barfy so we skipped the whole week at Stroller Strides. I’m going to regret that on Monday.

Wednesday:

He thought Brutus looked cold and was sharing his blanket.

All full - milk, water and juice. Poor kid was barely eating so I was trying to keep him hydrated.

New outfit due to naptime puke incident. But he was feeling well enough to ask to go outside.

Thursday:

The weather kept getting better! Little Evan played with his car while I cleaned the porch.

Spring flowers on the door mean it's officially spring. Screw the calendar.

Working out pictures, frames and an arrangement to go around the Modern Bird painting.

Friday:

He insisted Caroline's bloomers were a hat. And then tried to hide behind the glass door. My kid is weird.

OMG MOM! SPRING DRESSES ARE SO CUTE!

Sale at the yarn store! That magenta yarn is going to be a shrug. Someday.

Saturday:

Someone celebrating turning 3 months old by taking a nap.

And someone celebrating being almost 2 by throwing his spoon on the floor 50 bajillion times turning breakfast. Oh toddlers.

*I cannot believe we bought TWO freakin’ iPads. I thought even buying ONE was a waste of money until I got to play with it and fell in love. But E still had some of his reenlistment bonus left after we did responsible stuff with it and when you sell your soul to the Navy for 5 more years sometimes you need shiny electronics to cheer yourself up. And sometimes you really hate sharing so you buy one for your wife too.

Did you take any camera phone photos this week? Link up with one or lots using the linky below and grab the code (so it shows on your blog too!) over at Amy’s . It’s really fun!

The other morning I was enjoying the few peaceful minutes where Caroline is napping and Little Evan is re-discovering all his toys (look! blocks! look! cars! look! empty yogurt container! omg I haven’t seen these toys in forever! or at least 12 hours!) while I skim blogs and think about all the other, more productive stuff I should be doing when I felt a tug on my leg. It was Little Evan, holding one of his alphabet flashcards and pointing at it urgently.

“That’s V, veeeeeeee, V for violin!” I said, “Violins play music!” and I signed music. He looked at it the picture on the card so intensely I started to get a little worried. Why is he so interested in that violin? Maybe he wants to play the violin. Maybe I should get him a violin and sign him up for lessons. Do they offer music lessons for 2 year olds? Of course they do. Wasn’t Tiger Woods already golfing by 2? Am I stifling my child’s musical genius because I haven’t provided him with the world’s tiniest violin and 12 hours a week of lessons and now I am the Worst Mother Ever and he will never live up to his potential???

I’ve been having some anxiety about Little Evan’s development lately.

It’s mostly just the age, I think. So much happens so fast in the first few years it’s sometimes hard to remember the levels of normal can swing widely. Especially now that potty training is rampant among our 2-year old age group. It seems like SUCH an advanced skill, and one that requires so much parental involvement – at least for a while – that I worry I’m failing my child somehow by not doing more to encourage it.

I feel the same way about pretty much everything. Talking. Motor skills. Imagination. Socialization. Teaching him letters and numbers and colors and shapes and animals and please and thank you and no hitting and inside voices and hold mommy’s hand in the parking lot. So far we have mastered…none of those. Not a one. There’s so much responsibility it gets overwhelming and I just want to go lie down and take a nap.

Hey, at least Evan’s good at that.

I was daydreaming through the Pottery Barn catalog a few weeks ago and I noticed a solid black globe with chalk writing on it (of course, now that I want to show you I can’t find it online). What is it with PB and their obsession with chalkboard paint? Don’t they realize any idiot can just buy a can of that stuff and paint things with it instead of spending hundreds of dollars on the ones from the catalog? Although I guess the kinds of people who order entire rooms straight from Pottery Barn are too busy playing tennis and vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard and rolling in hundred dollar bills to bother buying paint. So it’s left to people like me to write chalkboard tray and chalkboard globe tutorials. I even fancied the globe up a bit to make it more fun.

I am the wordiest, most rambling blogger ever, so to make this easier on people just looking for a tutorial all the REALLY important parts are in bold.

Materials:
Globe
Chalkboard paint
Contact paper
Scissors
Paintbrush
Printer and paper (optional)

I actually own 6 (SIX!) old, inaccurate globes in various stages of deterioration. I used the worst of them for this project, since the other ones are kind of cool. But as my mother pointed out, globes are some of the most useless dust catchers ever so don’t feel too bad about painting over one. Especially one that still says “U.S.S.R.”

Also on this globe: East/West Germany and Burma

Although you can tell it’s not THAT old because Burkina Faso is called Burkina Faso and not Upper Volta (it was changed in 1984).

She's in the Peace Corps

Instead of covering the whole globe with black paint and then drawing my own world on it (which would also be super cute) I decided to try leaving some of the map showing through. For my first globe I used my son’s name:

I tried printing it directly onto make-your-own sticker paper (also known as 8 1/2 x 11 shipping label paper from Staples). This didn’t work out so well, as you’ll see that in a minute. Then I cut out the letters and stuck them on the globe.

Unfortunately, when I painted over the letters, the sticker paper absorbed the paint…

…So when I tried to peel the stickers off the top layer came up but the adhesive stuck to the globe.

Using several different kinds of knives (a regular old table knife ended up working best) I managed to scrape MOST of it off and only damaged the map underneath in a couple of places. I figured this was my trial run – and the globe I’m going to let my toddler play with – so it’s not the end of the world. Ahahaha! Globe joke!!

Luckily I was able to try again.

This one was in even worse shape - the equator is held together with scotch tape

Globe #2 is missing it’s little time zone circle disk, which meant I didn’t have to take it off the stand to paint all the way to the top. (Globe #1 popped right off the stand but I discovered it’s way easier to paint most of it while it’s still on it. Less rolling!)

Here’s the way this project actually works best: I used contact paper I found at Target to make stickers. It was with the shelf paper that comes in cute patterns (on the aisle with the mops) but I picked the most basic clear kind to ensure it was just one layer and wouldn’t come apart like the label paper. I printed out the word “LOVE” with a heart for the “O” on regular paper, then traced it backwards onto the paper side of the contact paper. That way when you peel the paper off and stick it on the globe the letters face the right way.

Then I painted it with two coats of the chalkboard paint…

…and peeled off the contact paper to see the map underneath!

Now my useless dust collectors are cuter, chalkboard dust collectors.

Here are the tips I have to make this as easy as possible:
1. Choose a font or shape that doesn’t require a ton of detailed cutting. I couldn’t even get the center part of the “A” in Evan to come out right, which is why it’s not there. Besides, you want big sections of the map to show through.
2. Don’t make your shapes/letters too large or the contact paper won’t lie flat when you stick it to the globe. It’s important to get the edges stuck down really well to prevent the paint from seeping underneath.
3. When the paint DOES get under the contact paper, you can veeeeery gently scrape it off with a blade or craft knife. It’s easiest if you do it as soon as possible, so peel the stickers off as soon as the paint is dry(ish).
4. Be sure to follow the instructions for dry-time on the chalkboard paint before you try using chalk on it, or you’ll end up with permanent marks. They’re not joking about that.
5. I bought all my globes for mere dollars at our local flea market, which is kind of a lousy flea market but apparently a gold mine for old globes. I’ve also seen them at antique stores but those tend to be a little pricier because they’re in better condition or actual antiques instead of junk. Shipping a globe is cost prohibitive, so your best bet is garage or yard sales or a trashy flea market in your area. Just keep your eyes open!

Other cool ideas – just paint the ocean or the continents with chalkboard paint so you can color in the rest however you want. Get really ambitious and outline the continents in another color. Use painter’s tape to make stripes and then write cute, clever things all around the world. Your creativity is only limited by your access to cheap globes!

But hey, even if you end up paying $30 for one at an antique store that’s still a LOT cheaper than $297.50. Yikes.