And then there were two...

Chadd and I don't like to find out the sex of the baby early and choose instead for the best surprise in the world. For both kids I remember the exact moment when I knew what the sex and name that the baby would be. Chadd actually named both kids. He suggested Ashton the first time around and I said, "I like it, but not for my kid." One day my BFF Jillian and I were at a scrapbook store and were looking at stamps. I saw the name Ashton on a stamp and I said, "that's the baby's name." So it goes.

Then I get knocked up again and Chadd says, "How about Lorelei?" I said, "I like it, but not for my kid." So we are in FAO Schwartz in New York and we are just walking around and it hit me. I said, "the baby's name is Lorelei." Chadd said, "what if its a boy?" I said, "she's not." So it goes.

So here we are with Lorelei (to answer your questions: yes I love Gilmore Girls and yes I have a strange adoration for the band Styx- but she was not named after either of those- but Styx does freakin rock). Lorelei is said to be a siren of the Rhine River that lured sailors to their deaths. There is a nasty passage in the river where a large rock has claimed many lives and it is named The Lorelei because it is said that that is where the siren sat. There is a lot of power in that sweet southern sounding name(it's actually German)- and there is a lot of, um, lets say "spit-fire" in our tiny Lorelei.

She was born on Wednesday, July 26th at 7:49 am. She weighed 6 pounds 6 ounces and was 19 inches long. She had no hair. She is loving- to people she deems worthy. She is sassy and loud to everyone. Your best chance at winning her over is to feed her. Here is a picture of the two of us. I actually don't remember much about that first day because I was on a lot of morphine!

Lorelei was hard to feed as a newborn because she just wasn't interested in eating. There were times that I cried after a failed attempt at feeding her because I was afraid my milk would dry up. She eventually found an interest in food and now she is quite passionate about it. I have to buy her food last at the grocery store because she recognizes the containers and will start to scream because I am not giving it to her right then. It does not matter if she has already eaten an entire banana and a container of yogurt; if your eating she wants it. If I want to eat, I always have to get out a snack for her.

There are so many things about Lorelei's behavior that are so different from Ashton's, that I feel like a new mom all over again. She puts everything in her mouth. While I was washing dishes a few weeks ago she crawled into the laundry room where we keep the dog dishes. By the time I rinsed the soap from my hands and took the 5 steps to get to her, she had eleven pieces of dog food in her mouth. Eleven! She loves to eat dirt. She chews on books, dog toys, shoes, paper, batteries, whatever she can get her hands on quickly- it goes straight to her mouth.

Lorelei has a temper. A big temper, which is funny because she is so small. Chadd claims that she gets her temper from me, and I really can't disagree. When she gets mad, she gets really mad. There is trembling and fist shaking and a scream that has octaves never before heard by humankind. She even growls. As a newborn she would growl when she was ready for bed. When we heard that growl we knew that it was a mere matter of minutes before she turned into an uncontrollable, uncaged beast. I called her baby cougar until her growl turned into an all out roar, and Chadd started calling her Little Lion. It's extra appropriate since she is, in fact, a Leo. She has no fear and is very tough. She's already had quite a few bumps and bruises that have not even phased her. I do believe that the combination of daredevil and temper will have me sitting in a principal's office more than a few times.

She doesn't talk much, but is working on a few important words. 'Daddy' was her first word, 'dog' her second. She didn't start saying mama until I left home for a weekend. She stopped saying it when I got home. Why bother when I am always around? She is already taking me for granted and she isn't even walking yet. About a month ago Chadd and I went away for the weekend and she started calling me again. This time by my first name. She's missing a couple vowels and it comes out as 'mlnie.' She is saying words like cup, paci, cracker, with the kind of talk only the mom understands. She uses sign language when something is urgent, like food. With the lack of words and the intense temper, I expect a serious case of early onset terrible twos.
At her one year checkup we found that she had dropped from the 20th percentile down to the first. She is the same size as my BFF's 4 month old, so when she does things, it seems so adorable and funny because she looks so weird doing things like standing, attacking her brother, and sitting their picnic table. She crawls with one leg folded under her and I've only seen this crawl with two other children (they're brothers) and if I figure out how to put a video up you can see this crawl for yourself.


I would have to say that the most favorite activity for Lorelei in her first year was taking a bath. She could be screaming her head off, but when she would hear the water turn on, she would start laughing and pulling off her clothes. Over the summer I put her at the edge of the cold Lake Huron, letting the waves rush onto her legs, and she loved it. Ashton loves the sand and Lorelei loves the sea...Ok, a bit dramatic since she has never been to the sea, but see how the whole siren thing fits in? It's eerie.

To sum up: She loves her pacifiers, peek-a-boo, wearing random things on her head and giving kisses (mostly to the neighbor boy). She does this thing with her thumb where she jabs it into your hand and twists it down like she's putting a cigarette out in your flesh. She likes having her teeth brushed. She absolutely adores her brother. She is still bald and I call her Lex (as in Luthor) because she looks like she was caught in a kryptonite meteor field. She seriously just bit my toe. She is constantly involved in and with things that she should not be involved with and she likes to be naked. She will not be attending college without me.