Wednesday, 9:03 am

He was clean and fully dressed at 8 am, I swear.

Evan’s 2nd birthday party is 12 days from today and I am at least three weeks away from being ready. It is unfortunate that 12 days is not actually 21 days. Maybe I can move the party to an alternate universe where numbers are read backwards. Or maybe I need to stop saying stupid shit like that and spend my time doing something productive towards this party instead. My problem is I did a bunch of super-early planning and got ahead of myself and felt really confident in my ability to finish up last-minute details at the last minute…except I forgot stuff like “plan a menu” and “hand out invitations” weren’t really last minute details as much as 90% of the actual party. Whoops.

For some reason, I seem to have a lot less free time this year than I did for his 1st birthday. I am totally baffled as to why that might be.

But the invitations I didn’t put in the mail are in my diaper bag to hand out tomorrow and I spent Sunday finishing up the banner I’d been planning to make for the last two months. I also realized I need to put away about four boxes of junk from my front two rooms, since anything glass or breakable or heavy enough to hurt a 2-year-old if it falls on them needs to be out of reach when I invite two dozen 2-year-olds to come run around. I am also considering two semi-sewing projects but I hate threading my sewing machine SO MUCH I might scrap those. I’ll make up for it with some extra balloons or something. Balloons make everything more festive.

Speaking of balloons, the theme of the party is “round things”. I’m a genius, I know. It will make a lot more sense – and be a LOT more fun – when it’s executed rather than just explained. This year is much more about the actual party/activities part than last year, but I can’t resist doing a little decorating too. Here’s some of the stuff I’m working on:

I scheduled the party for mid-afternoon so I don’t have to provide an actual meal, (although if some of our friends are still here for dinner I will order a pizza or two)(pizzas are round so I can pretend it was on purpose) but it wouldn’t be a party without food. And it’s always fun to plan food around a theme. So far, the menu consists of:

– Fruit salad made with round fruit/melon balls
– Caprese salad sticks
– mini meatballs
– pepperoni, round cheese & Ritz crackers
– roll up mini sandwiches
– truffles (made by my friend Erin who made the cake for my baby shower)
– round candy of various types
– cake (that I am going to attempt to make and decorate on my own)

Anything really obvious and/or delicious that I’m missing?

I have zero ideas for beverages, since most soda and/or alcohol doesn’t come in a round form. So I might just get regular soda and water and make cute labels. Or maybe round ice cubes. Or if I get REALLY ambitious, maybe I’ll try to make some bubble tea. Too bad they don’t sell that Orbit soda anymore. (Remember that stuff? I was OBSESSED with the orange kind.)

Clearly I still have a lot of work to do. But no worries. It’s not like I have anything else taking up my time.

Wow, so that lithotripsy kicked my ass. The actual procedure was totally painless, thanks to a wonderful anesthesiologist who looked up every single drug for me and found one that would knock me out but was safe for breastfeeding, but when the doctor said I might be tired for a while he wasn’t joking. I was totally out of it all day yesterday, even without taking any painkillers. I was also nauseous and unable to eat and light headed and running a low-grade fever and generally just extremely miserable. BUT. The good news is I feel much better today and this should officially be the end of my kidney infections. Fingers crossed.

And now for something completely different.

Most of the time, Little Evan is the best most loving big brother ever. He’s so nice and gentle with Caroline it melts my heart every single time. But I think he’s finally realized she might be here to stay and it’s making him a little…upset.

Caroline: No biggie, I'm just sitting in this chair like a big girl.

Evan: Hey, that's my chair. I'm not sure I totally approve of this situation.

OMG MOST TRAGIC THING EVARRRRRR!!!!

Caroline has clearly already mastered the side-eye

P.S. Little Evan’s shirt says “Plays well with others”.

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: