Five Months Old & May Randomness

It's been a crazy last few weeks.  My little sister Lacy got engaged to Ben (or "Uncle Ben" as the girls are excitedly squealing from time to time.)  The girls birthdays.  Greg worked a ton.  A TON.  Then he worked out of town.  My friend Rachel had twins.  Then ended up with a postpartum infection that nearly killed her.  Literally.  The one surgeon (from her second emergency surgery, the hysterectomy) told us they lost her on the table for a minute.  I spent almost all day at the hospital with her for days, and Greg would bring me the baby to nurse every 2-3 hours.  She's home now, and moving forward with a long, difficult recovery.  Greg's Grandma Verla was also in the hospital, and was getting progressively weaker during this same time, and she peacefully passed away at home on Memorial Day.  My birthday was yesterday (Greg's is Sunday), and then we think life will mellow out for awhile . . . right?

Anyway, today I realized that Owen is now 5 months old.  (As of yesterday).  So some picture taking was in order . . . (he's in the middle two pictures, Annie's the outside ones -- they remind me the most of each other out of all my kids.)

We still have another month of school left, but Annie got her Kindergarten Graduation pictures.  Which crack me up, 'cause it looks like the photoshopped her head on to an adult (with childish hands) body.

Ellie and Isaac

Ellie and Owen -- she is starting to warm up this whole 'big sister' gig a bit more.

My smiley five month old!  (Who is NO where near sitting up on his own, and seems to have COMPLETELY forgotten how to roll over, despite once being fairly proficient.  He is the LAZIEST baby ever and pretty much is just held, cuddled, nursed or sleeping all day) :-)

My girls at their birthday party -- Ellie's four and Annie's six now!

 At six years old Annie is over 43 inches, at 16% on the charts.  Her weight is 46 and a half pounds, at 62% on the charts.  Ellie is still pretty tiny, at 3% for height (36.42 inches), they had her weight at 33 pounds (37%), but they weighed her in shoes and everything, and at home she's only around 31.5 pounds, so that seemed high.  (Isaac is now 30 -- they're almost tied.  And he's not two yet!) Annie's reading blew away the doctor, and Ellie's bubbly enthusiasm and energy cracked the doctor up.  She commented that both girls are really solid, with incredible muscle mass for their ages, and they're obviously pretty active.  Said as Ellie bounced around the room like an energizer bunny on a trampoline.  I proudly told her Annie's been going on 1 mile and longer bike rides up and down some pretty intense hills lately.  They both play outside and play hard ALL DAY LONG.  It's hard to get dinner served before 6:30 or 7:00 now 'cause they're having so much fun playing.

Cousin Bailey making out with Isaac's head -- these two have SUCH a cute relationship.  He's kinda protective of her, constantly fetching toys and getting mad at anyone who upsets her, and he sits there mildly amused or at least passive while she mauls his head.

The girls with the kids we invited to their party -- i.e., the people who's houses we can see from ours!  At one point there were an extra four or five of the neighbor boys hanging out on the bouncy house too -- all these kids come from two streets!

My chunky monkey.

Bailey and Owen are so freaking cute.

Smiley baby!

Mother's Day!  Sandbox flooding is a must at our Mother's Day celebrations!

Mother's Day is extra important when you have a missionary out of country who gets to Skype -- they girls were so giggly when they saw Uncle Cody!  Isaac didn't really get what was up, and obviously doesn't recognize Cody 'in person', but as soon as we had Cody say the same message that's recorded in to Isaac's teddy bear, Isaac's eyes bugged out and he broke in to a huge grin and whispered, "Cody Bear?"  SO CUTE!

May Facebook Updates:

May 31st - Yesterday, around 12:30 in the afternoon, I said to Isaac, "OK Bug, it's probably time to get out of your pajamas!" To which pouted, "No Mom! It not time for pants yet. No pants. Not yet! It not time for pants yet!" Dude, it's after noon. It's totally time for pants.

May 23rd - Annie was telling me about how she's conquered her nail biting habit, then she added, "And I NEVER bite my toenails . . . it's disgusting. And it takes a lot of hard work to get your feet up to your mouth."

"I don't think that spider will come back now," declared Annie after ushering a spider outside, "I keep defeating him!" Possibly had to be here, but her proudly stating that she kept 'defeating' him was hilarious.

May 21st - Annie during prayer tonight, "And please bless that Ellie will start saying her R's right, instead of saying them like W's."
This child is REALLY concerned about her sister's speech problems . . . she's started doing 'speech school' with Ellie, rewarding her with little bits of candy or cereal every time she pronounces an 'R' correctly. I have NO idea where she came upon this idea, or how she's latched onto the idea of 'curing' Ellie's problem, but it's kinda funny, and disturbing :-)

May 19th - I bought two dozen cupcakes for the girls' birthday parties this weekend. Isaac found them this morning and threw them to the floor. Deep breaths . . .

 May 18th - I left Isaac with my sister Talina while I ran to the store -- when I came home, he ran to the door, threw his arms around my leg tightly (and didn't let go for a minute or two) and said, "Mom! You home! Mom! I am SO happy!" It was the sweetest thing in the world.
And I now suspect Talina beats him while I'm gone. :-P
(Later he was pointing at baby Bailey and teasing, "You barely napped Bay! You barely napped!" He speaks so weird for a one year old.)

May 17th - Annie talking to a friend: "Ya know, I really love being five. Everything about it." Sighs deeply, then adds, "I'm gonna miss this when we're six . . ."

May 16th - I left my sister with my kids for an hour or so while I went to the school to finish up something for Annie's teacher . . . between my four kids, her one, and the neighbors, at one point she had fourteen kids at my house. Good thing we're not a daycare, or that would've been illegal :-)

May 11th - Earlier while I was changing a blow out diaper, Annie was whining about something I'd asked her to do. "Do YOU want to come change this diaper while I do your chores?" I asked. Sheepishly she replied, "No, I don't want to clean up diapers."
Ellie helpfully called out from her room, "Mom, not nobody wants to do what you do!"
That does seem to be the consensus.

May 6th - Grandma Karine was dropping off the girls after a sleepover, and as they were walking inside I said, "Hurry Ellie, we are going to Grandma Ruth's house." Ellie cheers, " Yay that's my favorite grandma!" BWAH HA HA HA! Poor grandma Karine!

May 5th - Worst words in the English language "Look Mom! I got basaleen!" (Vaseline). He had it alright -- in his hair, on his head, face, hands, legs, the couch, the carpet . . . I think I'm going to cry.  (After four different attempts to wash the Vaseline out of Isaac's hair (four different kind of soaps), I just shaved his head . . .)

May 4th - Annie is officially a huge fan of "Choose Your Own Adventure" books . . . in particular the historical ones. She's fascinated with the Underground Railroad right now, and they have "Choose Your Own Adventure" one where you get to pick whether you're the runaway slave, the abolitionist or the slave catcher. We'd exhausted the first two options, when she finally chose to do one of the 'slave catcher' adventures -- her response, "Mom, what is WRONG with these people?!"

May 1st - Apparently I have not done enough puzzles with Isaac -- I just got one out, and I was taking apart the puzzle, so we can put it back together, and he started screaming, "NOOOO! No Mom! Don't break it! Don't break it apart! Don't break Elmo apart!"

How do you know Annie's off track? 'Cause it's 7:40AM and she's already come up with FOUR DIFFERENT CHARTS she wants us to make (a chore chart, a reading chart, a prayer chart and a teeth brushing chart . . . I should start charging her for all my graphic design services!) :-)