Jade says "Wow!"

MIGHTY CUTE: Jadie is not exactly the chattiest cathy but she sure is cute when she does talk. Her big word of the week is "Wow." Everything is "wow!" "Wow" to the light fixture, "wow" to the dog, "wow" to the doorknob. She is a "wow" machine. And it is a whispered "wow" like she's at an art gallery where there is silence but you are overcome by the coolness of something - that's how she says it "Wow!" It's the week of her birthday - only 4 days away. We don't have big plans since it's the day after thanksgiving and we are generally a bit pooped I think. But we'll figure out a way to at least get Jasper some cupcakes and see if Jade will even try it. She still is not eating solids too much. She'll go nuts every once in a while - like this weekend she liked my butternut squash coconut milk soup. The next day, not so much. At the farmer's market she was into strawberries, the next day, not so much. Just when I think I find something she likes I'll go out and stock up on it only to find that she is completely offended by the item the next day. Ugh! Ugh! Ugh! Girlfriend, you are exhausting.

How Jade Got Her Name

Jadie My Lady: During the few years that we were deliberating on whether to have another baby, I very randomly thought that if we were to have another baby, and if that baby was a girl, we should name her Jade. You know, Jade the stone, Jasper the stone...I made the fateful decision to actually share this with Tim who immediately became married to the name. Married for eternity - no room for a divorce or a separation or a hiatus - Jade was it. As mentioned, we didn't find out if the baby was a boy or girl so we spent the entire pregnancy focused on boy names, convinced it was a boy. I think our top contenders were Jules, Ravi, or Soren. I spent a smidge of time thinking about girl names. And so when baby girl was born, Tim knew what her name was going to be and I had to take a few seconds to come to terms with it. Because, they really do give you just a few seconds. By 8am, the hospital staff person came around and demanded a name - we asked for some more time, she gave us 2 hours. Ah, the pressure. I really wanted a more Indian sounding name but fate was sealed that day years before when I mentioned the name Jade to Tim. And so, we had a compromise and our cutie became Jade Meera Burroughs.

But The Second One is Always Easier, Right?!

NOT FOR US: Me and Tim sure make cute babies. But there's a trade off. In exchange for these uber cute little ones, we need to be tortured for the first 4-5 months. The tool of torture is the yoga ball. With Jasper, for the first 5 months, the only way we could settle him down was bouncing on the big, blue exercise ball. Sure enough at around 4ish weeks, Jade could not be lulled to sleep with just the boob. She, following her big brother's lead, needed to fall asleep with ball and then once asleep had to sleep on my chest (or Tim's chest). I remember the fateful night. She woke to eat and wouldn't fall back asleep. I walked her around and around the kitchen until I was beyond exhausted. The next night it took even more walking to get her back asleep. Oh no, the dreaded ball needs to come back out. Jadie (because by now, her name has become Jadie) was a gassy, colicky, unhappy baby. She cried in the Baby Bjorn, she slept for very short periods of time (and never on her own), and she was always tired and hungry. And I don't mean regular newborn stuff, I mean, she wasn't enjoying breastfeeding (my milk came out fast and hard) and she never got good chunks of sleep so she'd need a nap every hour to an hour and a half. That is a lot of bouncing on the ball. Under this layer of chub, I secretly have 6 pack abs!

Side by Side Comparison

OUR PRECIOUS GEMS: Here they are in the same outfit, 4 1/2 years apart. Guess who is who!