All My Children...

It's time once again for one of my geeky comparisons. What can I say, I love hard data. And everyone wonders who the new baby looks most like, so here ya go. So who can get these right? It's Guess the Bocek Baby. And leave a comment saying how many you got right!

I was surprised by just how similar they looked at birth. Guess they really do share the same gene pool. Many people were surprised by how dark Eowyn's hair and skin are, but she isn't the only one. See below for answers!

Once again, in color and birth order:

And, just for kicks, here they are at 4 weeks:

Them's some cute babies, if I do say so myself!

Silly Girl!

Here's Monster being one of her favorite alter-egos (since we've banned her favorite: Naked Girl), Silly Girl.

Urpalicious

The bulk of my experience with babies began when my half-sisters were born, when I was 8-10 years old. And so many of my references come from that time: we call pacifiers "pi-pi's" (Rachel) and baby spit-up is "urp".

Eowyn is the urping-est kid I've had so far. The Dr hasn't gone so far as to say she has reflux yet, but man, this kid can spit up! And it's never in a predictable way, like when you're burping her after she eats. No, it's 10 minutes later, while she's lying on her back looking at you. Or 2 hours later, as she starts eating again and returns 1/4 of her last meal, nice and curdled. Or every time I put her in her carseat. I've never had to use bibs on a newborn before, but we go through several a day with her.

And so, I find myself calling her Urpalicious (which almost always results in having Beyonce's "Bootylicious" stuck in my head for the next hour), or Princess Urpy, or Urpalina. Poor girl - MaraJade was LadyBug or Baby Girl - but Eowyn is just the Urping Queen.

They Change! They green now!

Toward the end of my pregnancy, MaraJade started asking a lot of questions about the baby. "Does the baby have fingers?" "Does the baby walk?" "Does the baby have a nose?" And her most frequently asked: "Does the baby have eyes? What color are baby's eyes?" I explained that they would probably be blue because we all have blue eyes. She responds, "But you eyes are green, Mommy." I say that my eyes were blue when I was little like her, but they changed to green when I was older.

Fast forward a few weeks, and she still loves to talk about everyone's eye color, then go look in the mirror to corroborate that, yes, her eyes are blue. (Typical convo: "Daddy's eyes blue, Tristen's eyes blue, Mace's eyes blue, MaraJade's eyes blue, 'Owyn's eyes blue, you eyes green!") Then last week, after such a talk, she runs to the mirror to check, then runs back, all excited, saying, "Look! My eyes green now! They change! My eyes green now like yours!" And nobody can convince her differently. Yep, they green, Miss Monster.

Eowyn Kathleen Ginny - 1/21/10

So after a long, arduous pregnancy, weeks of bedrest, 2 weeks of seemingly endless waiting after, Eowyn is here!

I think I'll do the birth story on the pregnancy website, for those who aren't really interested here. Suffice it to say, she got here very quickly, all natural, and totally healthy, at 7 lbs., 3 oz. and 19" long. She loves to nurse and only gets mad when she doesn't get food as fast as she'd like or her diaper is being changed. She looks a lot like MaraJade, but also shares a lot of traits with her brothers, so I guess they all just sort of look alike at first. We love her!

Tender-hearted Tristen

I had rented The Secret Garden in the hopes that kids would be interested in watching, as it was one of my favorite books as a child. So PJ pops it in yesterday while I'm cooking Mace's birthday dinner.

Early on, there's a moment where (I wasn't really watching, so didn't see the full context) Baby Colin is crying, abandoned in the foliage of the garden. It passed, and about half an hour later, Tristen comes and sits at the counter with me, still watching the movie. A few minutes later, he suddenly says in a quiet voice, "I just keep remembering the dream part where they left the baby all alone." And then he starts to cry.

I go over and try to explain that (as well as I could remember, and to help him feel better) that was just what Mary imagined she was hearing when she heard Colin crying at night, that he was just crying because his body hurt, and they didn't really abandon the baby (although I think that is what happened - it's been awhile since I read it). He just kept crying, saying, "Why would someone do that to a baby? You can't leave a baby alone like that. He was just crying and crying."

I had to sit down with him for a few minutes and talk some more before he could calm down. I often forget that he's really my most sensitive child since he hides it so well behind 8-year-old boy callousness. But he is the first to tune in to my moods (well, the only one really) and the most easily hurt by things. Sweet T.

What I Did On My Winter Break, by Melanie Bocek

In an effort to distract myself from the reality of bedrest and occupy my mind and body, I started crocheting again. Previously, I had only ever made blankets (OK, started blankets - I'd never actually finished a crocheting project). This time I got the idea to make some hats for the baby, then found all these awesome resources online for patterns and instructions/refreshers for how to make stitches - yippee! I had no idea all you could make crocheting. So I whiled away many hours picking what I wanted to make, starting with hats, then moving to booties, then adult slippers, adult/child beanies/hats and other cute accessories. I compiled quite a few printouts (which my mom got me a binder to organize them in - thank you!), then started going.

In all, I made 4 baby hats, 2 pair booties (working on a third now), 4 kids' hats, hats for the boys' teachers/carpool drivers, fingerless gloves and a headband for my little sister for Christmas, and a headband and necklace for my buddy Makelle (who is also a driver of the Mace - forgot to take a pic of hers, so I used the pattern pic: mine looked pretty much the same). It's been fun, I've learned a lot, and it's really helped keep me from going crazy when Monster insists on watching only what she wants during the day or I otherwise can't watch TV, or in the evenings when Restless Leg tries to act up. Well, that and online shopping. :-)

So here's what I made: