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God willing, I think we'll be here for a while.

NAOMI II

2-month Milestones
Inspired by my previous entry about being a delinquent dad, I did peek at the BabyCenter milestones today and Naomi Janelle seems to be trekking along quite nicely. She's been lifting her head since pretty early on, and now is just beginning to light up our world with voluntary smiles and plenty of cooing and conversation. Venesa and I had a debate this afternoon as to if Naomi was supposed to be rolling over yet. Unfortunately, her tummy time has been stifled by the potential of being trampled by two irreverent siblings and a big white dog; in addition to what mommy suspects to be either reflux and / or stomach discomfort. But funny enough, about an hour after that conversation, bam, Naomi rolled over. Now granted, this particular rollover was induced by an extended pre-nap top-of-the-lungs limbs-flailing cry session. And so what daddy calls a milestone, I'm sure mommy calls a fluke. But I'm thinking, hey, why can't it be both? In any event, it will probably be a while before she does it again... but the timing was humorous, nonetheless.

As for other notables, the bathroom scale has her at 10 lbs even. In the blink of an eye, her sleep patterns have gone from predictable to all over the map; and her bowel movements are reminiscent of what we went through with Jasmine Olivia during her first few months of life. We're both hoping that it's just a transition period and not the signs of insanity to come. But like always, only time will tell.

Confessions

Confessions of a Third-Time Daddy
Okay, so... Naomi turned 2-months-old yesterday... and we have no clue what she is supposed to be doing. I promise you, the gulf between being a first-time parent and having baby number three could not be wider. BabyCenter.com? What is that? Milestones? Huh? Dude, we're just trying to get through the day. Four years ago, I could tell you exactly which Sesame Street character was on Justin's diaper on any given day, plus the day before and two days before that. Now? I can't even tell you what size diaper Naomi is wearing as I type this; much less the brand. And so as I look at the impossibility of providing Naomi with all the wonderful things that Justin got as the first born (e.g., a fully edited video of the first time he did just about ANYTHING) I simply have to come to grips with the fact that this is what our lives have become: FULL TO THE BRIM. Or should I say overfloweth (can I get an amen?). At this point, life is definitely happening faster than I can write about it. And it's most certainly happening faster than I can make a video clip about it (I'm not even sure if I remember how to use iMovie anymore).

As for the inequities amongst our kids... You know, I can't say that I regret that Justin has more baby videos than Netflix, while the two girls basically just have tee-shirts that say, "I'm just happy to be here." Instead, I relish in the fact that we were at least able to capture what little we did. As I watched some of these videos today, I guess I saw them as representing not just Justin himself; but the whole process of our becoming parents... and from there, a family of 5. And in truth, the absence of similar videos for kiddy2 and kiddy3 (see, they don't even have names anymore) is probably the most accurate documentation of what our lives became once we got past one child. Call it proof of love by omission. Or "the inverse blog". I don't know if Jasmine or Naomi are gonna buy that theory once they're old enough to ask about the "missing files"... but as Vinny from Lawng Island says, "Hey... it is what it is."