QT with the Santillanes cousins

Greta and Lincoln had a great week with cousins Matthew, Allison, and Emily. Between rounds of serious Playdoh sessions, the girls enjoyed dressing up and cooking for their moms in the Rose Petal cottage, "skating" on the ice at the playground and stomping around in the fresh Friday snow, playing at the local library, painting their hair, and establishing themselves as dancing queens. Lincoln supervised from either his Exercaucer or his "sitting spot", and also provided instruction on cube rolling, hand clapping, and peek-a-boo. Matthew hurried through his homework every afternoon to help lower the estrogen exposure Linc had suffered during the day, and might have had something to do with Linc's recent interest in making more funny noises (neither are saying for sure...)

We headed over to Grandma Vickie's on Friday night and she babysat while Colleen and I enjoyed a design-your-own-handbag party hosted by one of her friends. I really didn't need another purse, but couldn't resist creating one. Plus, I couldn't remember when the last time was that I actually bought myself something not based on my "mom" status...'tho I did make sure the purse was big enough for diapers and snacks and such.

Saturday was incredibly busy. The day started with us shopping for seeds with Grandma for our flower and vegetable gardens (she'll make a trip to Jersey in a month to help us plant everything). Then we met up with the cousins to celebrate Allison and Emily's birthdays (March 27th and 19th). First, the kids enjoyed The Museum of Science & Technology and then we joined the masses at Chuck E. Cheese's (to say I felt like I was part of an Excedrin commercial is an understatement.) After two hours of whack-a-shark, catch-a-bee, and zap-a-bug, Greta charmed the prize lady into getting a snazzy "300 ticket" wand with her mere 36 tickets. We returned to mom's for yummy cake and ice cream: Barbie Mariposa and Barbie Fairytopia cakes Colleen had made!

Oh, in case you are wondering why, in the shots of Allison and Emily's birthday party events at The MOST and Chuck E. Cheese's is Greta the one who looks like the birthday girl, here's the scoop: On Saturday morning, I stumbled across a 75%-off sale on the Easter items at Target...which led to me purchasing a "Princess Easter Basket" for only $3.74. It included a dress, tiara, necklace, earrings, and ballet slippers, which Greta insisted on wearing (and has worn for about 24 of the last 50 hours)...and which inspired her to get the aforementioned new wand!

We are now in Rodman with Grandpa Jerry, Grandma Pat, and Great Grandpa Bob. I'll post about our North Country adventures tomorrow!

Spring Break

Merrill Memories is taking one. Carey and the kids are in Syracuse and Rodman for a week visiting family. I'm working and living like a bachelor the rest of this week, then visiting friends in Washington. We'll all be back together -- and blogging -- April 2.

Sometimes when Lincoln cries in the crib he has a reason

We let him go for about 30 minutes this morning, then when the wailing stopped, we went upstairs to check on him. Both his spirit and legs are broken.

Happy Easter from the Merrills & the Reids

Aaron & Amy trained down for what's become our traditional Easter visit. Spent a couple hours at the Turtle Back Zoo on Saturday, watched a healthy amount of March Madness, and enjoyed a lovely Sunday brunch at Raymond's in nearby Montclair, N.J. I'll drop a few more photos laer, but for now, here's our best group shot from the zoo.

9 days until the Yankees home opener

"Hello, everybody, so glad to see you!"

Greta and Lincoln enjoyed their last Music Together class with Miss Dina today. Unfortunately, we won't be enjoying the Spring session now that Lincoln is no longer free at 9 months old! $300 for two kids is just too much. But I do think they benefited from it. Greta makes up lots of songs and sings throughout the day about absolutely anything and Lincoln impressed the teacher with his on-pitch babbling and sense of rhythm. Here's a photo one of the other moms took of me with the kids.

Lincoln makes it through the night

Ahhhh .... sleep!

Carey tells me she practiced something called "extinction," according to one of the pediatric sleep experts she has read. All I know is she nursed Lincoln at 11:45 p.m. and I didn't hear him again until 7:30 a.m.! That's almost 8 hours of quality REM. I shot a nice video that I'll put up tonight or tomorrow. For now, just wanted to share the good news.

Just a cute outfit...

... and another shot of that first tooth.

Update...

Promise I won't turn this into a daily tally, but since the folks experienced the nadir of Lincoln's sleep habits (so far), thought I'd tell them that he was a much better boy last night. Still very much Jekyll & Hyde -- Hyde from 9-11 p.m. as he cried just to hear his own voice -- then Jekyll-ish throughout the night, waking only at 3 and 6 for a little nip. Not straight through the night by any means, but 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep can feel mighty good after a few days without!

Sleep habits

I won't pretend to have read half the books Carey has on the subject, but I know this: Lincoln David Merrill is a lousy sleeper compared to his sister. Last night was probably the worst since he came home from the freakin' hospital. Cried his lungs out every two hours.

And the best part? My folks were visiting! Dad decided Lincoln's a werewolf who turns hairy and howls at the moon after the sun goes down. Mom advised a stricter routine, even if it means Greta goes without a little TLC each night for awhile.

I vowed to buy better ear plugs.

Anyway, a photo after Lincoln's first nap today. Since he was incredibly exhausted from his sleepless night, he slept for a little under two hours. Most of it on his stomach, with his hand pressed up against his face. Is it too spiteful of me to hope that mark never disappears?

Early Easter

Took the kids and the grandparents to my sister's place in Rye, N.Y., for a Saturday morning Easter Egg Hunt. Taxpayers buy about 250 lbs. of mini eggs wrapped in toxic metal foil and coat the fields with them. Then they let the kids into the arena and it's GAME ON. Here's a parents' view of the scrum:


I kept yelling at Greta to throw elbows and get in there, but she delicately selected six pink eggs and came running back to us behind the ropes for approval. 5-year-old Max cleaned up -- his bag was filled with at least 30. Esme ended up bumming eggs off other kids. Just walked up and gave them her irresistible smile with her hand outstretched. She got about 5. Lincoln will have to wait until next year!

Grandpa's here!

It's still winter at our house!

Greta's favorite thing this past week has been to play "snowball fight" with her dad in the morning while getting dressed. Nothing like cotton balls to make the season last a little longer. Here's hoping they don't create a game involving April showers...cleanup won't be as easy!

All by myself!

That's what Greta proudly said after painting her nails with Hello Kitty polish. God help this Dad.

Easter anticipation builds....

In addition to the aforementioned Easter Tree, Carey and Greta undertook this Window Sticker Project last week. Swapped out the Valentine's Day decals for an Easter theme. Greta was pretty pleased with herself, as you can see.

Easter Tree

Carey started a new tradition with the kids this year. It's something she learned from her German exchange student in high school. I can't find it any German-English dictionaries, but literally it translates as Oster Baum, or Easter Tree. Plenty of Web sites devoted to their creation and nurturing can be found here. Anyway, it was good for an hour or more of play while Lincoln napped yesterday. Here's the finished product.


And here's Greta intently focusing on her branch. My family will note the similarity immediately, but for those of you who don't, Greta is following her father's long-established tradition of color clustering. I used to do it every Christmas with red bells made out of yarn. Used to drive my mother crazy.

Why you shouldn't let kids fall asleep eating chocolate in the car

Role reversal

When Lincoln was first born, Greta had a hard time giving up the back of the double stroller. Now that they've gotten to know one another and he laughs at her jokes, she willingly sits in the front without complaint. But Thursday for some reason she wanted to be in back again. Lincoln, of course, was thrilled to be in the front. You wouldn't know it from his serious, "I'm a Merrill man" expression, but he really was.

Robed beauty

Thought the grandparents deserved a Greta photo after a couple Linc-centric posts. Carey took this a couple weeks ago. Another $3 find at Other Mothers. Makes her look scarily grown-up, I think, mixed with a dash of innocent happiness.

Winsome & toothsome

As mentioned in the wagon wheel video post, Lincoln's first tooth has poked through his gums! Front, bottom, left won the sweepstakes. Pretty hard to get a good photo of it yet, but Carey tried. We're fervently hoping he gets about 10 more in two weeks so he, and we, can get some sleep.

Lincoln's first wagon wheel

The can says: "Your baby is ready for wagon wheels when he crawls on hands and knees with tummy up and off the floor, eats thicker, lumpier foods with larger pieces, uses jaw to mash food with gums, holds small foods between thumb and first finger."

Well, 1 out of 4 ain't bad. He's really good at using his pincher fingers. The rest of it will come, of course, and in the meantime he can enjoy the big boy thrill of holding and eating his own food.



[For the record, Greta was 10-months old (8 months, adjusted) when she had her first. But he has the visible nub of a tooth already, which Greta lacked until -- gulp! -- 15 months.]

Princess cousins

Just found this gem on one of our cameras -- the Kodak M873 that we really don't like because of its grainy image quality.

Anyway, it was snapped last weekend when Max & Esme came to visit. Esme brought some of her own dress up clothes and they both layered liberally from Greta's wardrobe. Reminds me a little of the role-playing games Karin and I used to play at their age in Hilton, N.Y.

The weekend in one photo

(And for readers who don't regularly check out our Friends Blogroll, click on over to Sylvie's Place. I tip my blogging cap to ex-D.C. roomie Dan.)