Milestone

Look what I can do!

 At least for a little while.

His reward for work well done -- this is why I bought the 'indestructable' phone . . . 

Thanksgiving Pics and Other Stuff

So, I totally forgot to bring my camera to Thanksgiving this year.  So, that night I hurry and snapped a few pictures of Isaac in his 'Baby's First Thanksgiving' shirt . . .

Which is the same shirt Annie wore her first Thanksgiving in 2006 . . .

(She was 6 months old in these pictures vs. Isaac's 4 1/2 months old on Thanksgiving)

It wasn't until today that I remembered that Ellie did not get to wear the traditional 'Baby's First Thanksgiving' shirt . . . she was wearing a matching sweater with Annie and we also were living my in-law's basement while we were in the middle of our move to this house, and I couldn't find it.  :-(

Here's Ellie's first Thanksgiving, 2008, 6 months old.

Then, just for fun, I put together a bunch of 4 1/2 month old pictures of the kids --

Isaac is the first and third row, Annie's the second row and Ellie's the last row.

And the last few weeks in pictures --

Isaac and his sisters, who had buried him in toys in his bouncy chair (notice there's about 15 toys on his lap)

Daddy and Isaac in his monkey pajamas.

Annie and her baby doll.

 Isaac sitting up in his bumbo chair.  Usually he just tries to use it to propel himself into a standing position, so I can never walk more than 2 feet away when he's in it.

Already fascinated with toy trucks . . . 

 Annie and Isaac marveling over the truck.

Annie in her Thanksgiving day outfit.

 Ellie already in her pajamas by the time I got the camera out on Thanksgiving.

 

Black Friday shopping -- I went to Kohl's around 8:30AM.  Nobody was in line.  Shopped until 10AM, when everyone decided to get in line at the same time.  I got both of the girls new night gowns.  Ellie will ONLY wear nightgowns to bed, and always kicks off her blankets, so I constantly worry about her freezing at night.  So, long sleeve nightgowns in a warmer material seemed like a good idea.  I bought those for the girls, and long sleeve Sunday dresses for the cold weather.  So basically all my 'Christmas' shopping was for now, and not Christmas.

Here's Ellie in her new princess nightgown . . .

 Sisters in their 'matching' gowns . . .

 Isaac and Daddy . . . this outfit of Isaac's is one of my FAVORITES now, as it totally brings out the blue in his eyes.

 "Look Mom, I found my feet!"

He's big into holding onto his feet, but rarely brings them to his mouth like his sisters always did.  He doesn't seem nearly as flexible as them either, as his feet barely make it to his mouth whereas his sisters could basically fold their bodies in half and shove their whole foot in their mouths . . .

Here's Annie at 5 months -- much more bendy :-)

Bright Side in All Things

This Thanksgiving morn, after being woken up WAY too early (4:30AM) by multiple of my sick children, I decided it was a good time to examine what I'm thankful for -- and to see the bright side in all things --

I'm thankful for my sniffly, hacking children -- because their illnesses meant they wanted to spend all morning just cuddling with me in bed.

I'm thankful Greg is at work today -- because it means that even though he'll miss one big family meal, he has a wonderful job that provides so well for all of our other meals.

I'm thankful for my lack of sleep -- because it means I was holding a beautiful baby close to me in the wee hours of the night.

I'm thankful for my lumpy, frumpy body -- because it's physical evidence of the beautiful children I've been able to carry.

I'm thankful for my postpartum hair loss (that typically makes me nearly cry every time I shower and watch handfuls of hair go down the drain) -- because I realized this morning it only took me 12 minutes to blow dry my hair to stylish perfection.  Twelve minutes!  When I was 18 (and had a LOT more hair) it took 45 minutes, minimum, to get my hair dry with a blow dryer.

I'm thankful that my little brother isn't with us this Thanksgiving, living in another continent -- because it means he's doing something wonderful and worthwhile and making more of himself.  We're all so proud of him.

I'm thankful for the pile of laundry that still needs to be folded -- it shows that we are able to clothe our children, and even have an excess.

I'm thankful for the embarrassingly large pile of shoes, boots and coats piled by our front and back doors that clutter the house -- because my children are always warm and comfortable.

I'm thankful for all the bits and pieces of play-doh, the pile of broken crayons, and the dried on glue I had to clean this morning -- it means my children are creative and bright and have lots of opportunities. 

I'm thankful my children fought about what to have me make for breakfast this morning -- it means they have every expectation of being able to eat whatever, whenever they want.  They have not had to know want.  (I'm also thankful we had bowls of Cookie Crisp for breakfast . . . after an impulse buy in Smith's yesterday, that was the first time I've had Cookie Crisp in years!)

I'm thankful for that I still have a ways to go in becoming the person I want to be -- because it allows me to look back and see how far I've come, and make course corrections that'll get me to where I want to be.

Mostly I'm thankful for my husband, my children, my family and my Savior -- and I didn't even have to try to find the bright side of those blessings.  They are the brightest things in my life.

A Letter to my Baby Brother

My little brother's main request of me while he's on his mission is to keep him informed of all the latest Annie & Ellie antics.  So after Annie had her friends over today, I sent him this little story . . .

I did NOT think I'd have to be dealing with this for another 7-8 years or something -- but the little boys from the neighborhood kept coming over today, ringing the door bell and Annie would come to the door and they'd throw their snowballs on the ground (not at her, thankfully! Just onto the front porch.)  Then they'd run away laughing, and high fiving and hiding out of sight.  Annie, and her friend Aniston, would call after the boys, "You're silly billys!" or "You boys are goofy boofys!"  Then they'd shriek and giggle and prepare for the next 'attack', planning on ways to 'get' the boys, going back and forth between shrieking & hiding and giggling & arming themselves.  They'd lock the door and exclaim, "Quick! Quick! Lock the doors before the boys come back and get us!" and if the boys didn't show up again in a few minutes, the girls were out on the front porch armed with snowballs waiting to get them back. This went on for about 45 minutes.  There was much giggling and plotting and such exchanges between the sexes.  It's like she's a teenager already and the flirting is already going full swing!  I hate to tell you this, but at this rate, she may just be married by the time you get back!  :-)

Sniffly Baby

Isaac's got a runny nose.  Fortunately, that seems to be the extent of his illness thus far.  He's a little congested at night, but overall he's his normal happy, laughing self when he's awake.
Of course, he's not awake that much!  He took a FIVE hour nap yesterday.  He took a two hour nap this morning, was awake for an hour and a half and then crashed for another THREE AND A HALF hours.  Then woke up, played for about an hour and was sleepy again.  (Unfortunately, he only slept 10 minutes and was woken up and now he's happily playing with his stuffed elephant, so I'm not trying to get him back down yet.)
So, a bit of a sniffly nose and he's crashing for hours and hours a day.  He gets this from his father.  The girls on the other hand, they get sick and it barely effects their nap/sleep schedules.  When Ellie last had a 103 degree fever she took her normal nap that day and was bouncing off walls the rest of the day.  And yet my son's nose is stuffed up and he's sleeping the day away.
Nobody told me that the gender stereotypes for sick men vs. sick women started so early!  :-)

Sucker for a Good Deal

It may not be completely healthy, but I'm a sucker for a good deal.  I get a complete shopper's high.  It feels better than it probably should.  :-)  And I'm good at it.  Dang good at it.  I get killer deals left and right.  Greg jokes that I save him so much money he's going to need a second job.  :-) 

My absolute favorite deal right now:  Diapers
For a long time, Costco diapers were about as good as you could do.  Sure, there were some amazing couponing that could be done, but for the most part, the cheapest way to buy diapers was Costco.  Especially when you had a Costco coupon book that had a diaper coupon.  But, for the most part, that was as good as it got.  (I have gotten rare clearance deals that coupled with coupons, but those have been few and far between.)
But now -- my heart belongs to Amazon!
Have you signed up for Amazon Mom yet?  Oh my goodness people, the deals are amazing.  Not only do I get free Amazon Prime (free 2-day shipping on any order, no minimum), but when you sign up for diapers or wipes on 'subscribe and save' you get 30% off.  With free shipping and no tax.  The same diapers I was getting from Costco for 22¢ each (before tax) at Costco were suddenly like 14¢ delivered to my doorstep.  (You can cancel the subscription to the diaper order as soon as the order goes through -- I have like 9 canceled subscriptions). 
The best part though -- 'Parents' and 'Parenting' magazines have been running 20% off coupons almost monthly.  Last night I ordered a 180 pack of size 4 diapers for $17.  (9.4¢ a diaper -- more than half off of Costco's price!)  That is beyond an amazing deal.  And it makes me giddy.  It's an illness.  :-)

Oh, and my favorite website right now:  www.artscow.com
It's all photos and photo gifts.  It's in Asia, so shipping can be spendy, except that you can almost ALWAYS get free shipping deals.  They basically can put a picture on anything: decks of cards, necklaces, purses, blankets, umbrellas, mousepads, Christmas ornaments, etc.  And with the free shipping, I've gotten some fun stuff like notebooks with my kids' pictures on it shipped to my little brother in the Argentina MTC for the bargain price of $2.99.  I got photo ornaments of my kids for all the great grandparents.  I got cute coin purses with their pictures on them for my girls (they're OBSESSED with carrying coins lately) for stocking stuffers.  I sent a cute necklace to my cousin on her mission with a picture of her niece on one side and her nephew on the other for $2.99.  I've gotten a nice little chunk of Christmas done and shipped to the far corners of the globe for bargain prices. 

And don't get me started on Kohl's -- oh how I love that 30% off coupon!

Peas in a Pod

With every passing day Annie and Isaac look more and more alike to me.  They have such a sweet bond, and Annie is definitely a second Mom to him (a second Mom who's not allowed to pick him up and carry him around, but a second Mom nonetheless.)  And there are times where I see them sitting together (Annie has him on her lap at every possible opportunity), out of the corner of my eye, and I can't get over how similar they are.

Does anyone else see it?

 

I don't think I mentioned this in Isaac's four month checkup post, but his pediatrician commented on the familial resemblance between me and my kids.  She'd had to leave the room for a minute to take an urgent call, and when she walked back in, she threw open the door, apologized, "Sorry about that," then froze in place.  She scanned our four faces, as Annie, Ellie, Isaac and I were sitting in a row on the few chairs in the room.  "Wow," she breathed, "I guess there's no doubt who they all belong to!" 

Then just a few random pictures from this last week. 

Sleeping baby picture -- 'cause they're the sweetest things ever.

Ellie, Daddy and Isaac before bed.

As it's cooling off, we've been concerned about Ellie staying warm enough at night.  She kicks off all covers, but absolutely insists on wearing nightgowns to bed.  So we talked her into wearing her Elmo footies pajamas underneath her Minnie Mouse nightgown.  It worked for like three days, now she's back to just sleeping in her nightgowns again.  Stupid $8.00 I spent on footie pajamas.

Letter to His Niece

There's pretty much no doubt that Elder Cody is the cutest Uncle/Missionary in pretty much the entire world . . .

(The pictures of Cody and Annie are 1.) them in the sandbox, 2.) Annie hiding behind the table and Cody finding her, 3.) Cody 'riding' on Annie's bike and Annie freaking out that he's 'too big!' and 4.) Annie on Cody's shoulders.)

Listed In Order . . .

This morning, after breakfast, I pulled out some cookie dough from the refrigerator that we'd made earlier this week.  I was going to let it sit out and soften up a bit, then have the girls help me make cookies for Sunday dinner at my parent's house tonight. 
Annie came in, saw the cookie dough and squealed, "Yay!  Cookies!  My favorite!"  I explained we'd be making them for later, and she was begrudgingly okay with that.  "You know Mom," she said, "Cookie are my very favorites.  Out of desserts we eat, I mean."
She started to walk out of the kitchen, the suddenly turned and exclaimed, "Wait! Cupcakes!"  She took a breath, seemed to settle on that and then clarified calmly, "Okay, cupcakes, then cookies."  Then turned to walk out again.  Suddenly stopping in her tracks, she spun around again and exclaimed, "Wait! Ice cream!  Then cake!  Then cupcakes.  Then cookies," then after a pause, "then muffins."  She stood there for a second and seemed satisfied with the current rankings, then turned to leave the kitchen again.  Right as she passed the table though, I suddenly called out, "What about brownies?"
She sighed, then said, "Then brownies."  Then left, back into the front room to watch "Dinosaur Train" while I did breakfast dishes.
About ten seconds later though, a streak of blonde came charging back into the kitchen, stopped right by me at the dishwasher and exclaimed, "Brownies, before muffins!  Brownies, and then muffins.  Okay?"  Then without another word she went back to the couch and watched the rest of her show.

Glad we got that all sorted out though!  :-)

Mr. Big Stuff

Isaac had his four month appointment yesterday.  He weighed in at 16.31 lbs -- dropping him from the 96th to the 75th percentile on weight.  At first the doctor was concerned that he'd dropped 'so far' on the charts, until she looked at him and realized that he put on nearly 2 lbs. in 2 months.  The kid is fine.  We know where some of his weight is going though -- at 25.7", he's now at the 93rd percentile for height.  Wow.  I don't think either of the girls have ever been over 30th percentile!  He's definitely tall.  The measurements were enough to finally convince me that I really do need to get a bunch of this 3-6 month stuff put away and get out the 6-9 month stuff already.  I'm starting to panic about larger cold weather clothes, like in a 9-12 month size.  I never in a million years thought he'd get that big that fast, and now I'm suddenly realizing I may very well need clothes that large for this kind of weather.  Three sizes in one cold season -- this is totally opposite of when the girls wore their 6-9 month clothes for a solid year. 

In other news, the girls have colds.  Nothing major, at least not at first.  But poor Annie's asthma has reared its ugly head with the cold and the weather change.  It's been her worst asthma in years, and it's been a bit scary.  Two nights ago, she was coughing at bedtime, so we gave her asthma medicine along with some contraband cough meds, and she fell asleep.  But about an hour or so later woke up coughing.  A lot.  It was so sad to hear her in there, but she was actually sleeping through it (and amazingly, so was Ellie, her cell mate.)  But, the coughs got worse, and all the sudden I heard it:  heaving.  Sure enough, as I ran in there, I saw her repeatedly coughing and throwing up.  I grabbed her out of bed and got her cleaned up while Greg stripped the bed.  I got out her old nebulizer and gave her a breathing treatment (something we hadn't done in years), and she was able to fall back asleep and we never heard from her again that night.  The next night we took a more preemptive approach and gave her a nebulizer treatment during bedtime stories.  We expected it to go much smoother than it had the night before.  But despite having a breathing treatment before bed, two hours later she was coughing so hard she woke up -- and then threw up 4 or 5 times while coughing.  It was pretty much horrible.  We gave her another breathing treatment, which seemed to work until 2:30 or so, then the coughing started again.  We gave her a regular inhaler and she was able to get back to sleep.
It's the worst, and scariest, her asthma's been in a couple years -- we're not looking forward to this winter.

Add to that, I haven't been feeling well, and Greg started complaining about a sore throat last night. 

Ellie's also kinda sick, and she randomly threw up on me yesterday and today she has no voice.  We are doing a LOT of laundry around here. 

Isaac was grumpy after his shots and slept a whole 3 hours when we got home, but other than that he seems to be the healthy one around here.  Which I'm grateful for.  Maybe we'll put him in charge of the care of the rest of us.  This should go well. :-)

Such a Thinker . . .

I typed while Annie talked as we were getting our weekly email off to Uncle Cody.  He gets to check his email tomorrow in the MTC, so we wanted to get it sent today, since our morning is crazy tomorrow.
Word for word, here's how Annie started off . . .

Cody I love you! Hi. I'm gonna draw you a picture. It's going to be pretty. Maybe. I went to preschool today, and how about let's say 'yesterday', since tomorrow he's checking his email and today will be yesterday and it was preschool today so that's why I want to say it was yesterday 'cause he gets to check his email when yesterday was preschool. Cody, I went to preschool yesterday. When you check your email. Tomorrow.

They May Keep Me Up All Night . . . But, They Sure Are Cute . . .

This face makes the whole not-sleeping aspect of my life worth it.

Why Doesn't Tired Equal Sleep!?

I've whined about sleep on here before (so much so that it has it's own label!)  And it doesn't show signs of letting up any time soon.  Why do my children hate sleep so much!?  Ellie for instance.  Last night she was getting tired, even yawning, while we were going through our (consistent and sufficient) bed time routine.  That we started at 6:30PM!  Do you know when she fell asleep last night?  Around 9-FREAKING-30.  Seriously, kid!?  Adjusted without the time change that's ten thirty at night.  That's just ridiculous.  She just sat in there happily chatting for hours.  Literally, hours.  Annie had fallen asleep clear back at 7:30 or so, so it's not like she even had someone to talk to.  (Annie usually falls asleep a full hour or so before Ellie though, despite Ellie's repeated attempts to draw her into fights/songs/conversations/stuffed-animal-throwing-contests/you name it.  So, my two year old falls asleep at what feels like 10:30 at night, and when does she wake up?  Well, if you don't count the time she woke up at 3:30AM and called for Daddy for 20 minutes, than the answer to that is 6:10AM.  You gotta be kidding me!?!

And she wasn't my worst sleeper last night!

I go back and forth on how I describe Isaac's sleeping.  On one hand, he's my best sleeper.  (On the other, that doesn't mean that much).  I LOVE his daytime sleep.  After having two infants who took three 20 minute naps a day, having a baby who sleeps for 1-2 hour stretches multiple times a day is like heaven on earth.  I could not say enough about how much I love his ability to sleep during the day.

Night is becoming a vastly different story.  He's possibly, at this age, become even worse than his sisters.  He slept for awhile.  At only a few weeks old, he would go 5-6 hours at the beginning of the night (then wake up every 2 hours from then on out.)  But, the last month or so it's gotten progressively worse.  And for a week and a half or so he was waking up every 1-2 hours starting right at bedtime.  I'd often have him waking up at 8:30, 9:30, 11:00, 12:30, 1:30, 3:00, 4:30, 6:00, and then getting up at 7:30AM.  Fortunately, he wasn't staying up long.  If I'd just nurse him for about 2-3 minutes, he'd fall back asleep.  He's gone back to sleeping from about 7:30PM-midnight or 1:00AM without sleeping, which is good for him, but doesn't actually help me out that much, since most of that sleep is when I'm still awake.  (Last night I TRIED to go to bed at 7PM, I'm not even kidding, and would've been able to too, if it hadn't been for Ellie's late night antics.  As it is, I probably fell asleep about 15 minutes after she did, around 9:45PM.)  Even with his increased initial sleep though, it's pretty much every one and a half to two and a half hours the rest of the night.  Of course, I realize he doesn't NEED to nurse this often, but it's so much easier.  Greg and I will sometimes try and delay the actual nursing.  Greg will go and try to get him back to sleep, we'll try the swing, I'll hold him (facing away from Mom and the ever tempting milk) and try and get him back to sleep.  This eventually works, but on average has taken us about 2 hours at each attempt.  And then he wakes up an hour or two later, 'cause at that point he has gone 5-6 hours without eating and legitimately has a claim.  So then I am the walking dead the next day, since I spent the middle chunk of the night wide awake with a crying baby. 

I need to either fully give myself over to the feeling of, "This is just a stage of life and I'm going to be OK with it and just nurse him back to sleep when he wakes up and not stress about it."  The pay off for this is significantly less stress in my life and more sleep (since I don't end up awake long.)  I function remarkably well on this schedule, and only feel a bit sluggish, not drained and zombie-ish, like I do when I wake up for longer stretches during the night. 


Or, I need to figure out how to get this kid to sleep.  Not like 12 hour stretches or anything on the extreme end of sleeping awesomeness, just four hour stretches or so.  But for me, four months is too young to cry it out.  And frankly, as a graduate of about 15 other sleeping schools of thought, I'm not convinced anything else works.  I'd love to be able to idealistically say I don't believe in crying it out and it's cruel and I'd never do it -- but, have you met my first two kids!?  Both of them, at a much older age, were finally forced to sleep by crying it out.  It was the only thing that worked, and the result was everyone in the house got more sleep.  My girls functioned better, they were happier and more playful and sweet, on a full nights sleep rather than the repeatedly interrupted sleep we were all barely getting by on.  As much as I need my sleep, I'm also fully aware that my children need sleep as well, and I feel like it's my job as their parent to help them get the sleep they need.  (And yet, Greg won't let us drug Ellie at night.  Spoil sport.)   So, eventually, I feel there may be a time and a place for crying it out.  I hope not, but I'm realistic about my children.  I just don't think that time is four months old.  But, at the same time, some of the same thinking applies -- he needs his sleep.  We all do, but he's the one who's developing at a rapid rate, and sleep is as necessary for him, if not more so, than anyone else in the house.  And I just don't feel like what we have going is working.

So, some nights we've tried to get him back to sleep in 'gentler' ways (the above mentioned, Daddy, swing, Mommy, attempts).  And oh my goodness, do they suck!  We were up from 1:30-3:30 with him last night (and then he woke up at 4:30 and I just fed him.  Then he woke up all happy and chipper for the morning at 6AM.  As if he's fully unaware we were all up half the night!)  (Oh, and right when he fell asleep -- in my arms, but not nursing -- Ellie woke up.  And shouted for Daddy for the next thirty minutes.  Have I mentioned last night sucked?  And it's quite possible that I cried from sheer exhaustion?)  And he was TIRED.  He could barely keep his eyes open, and yet he wouldn't fall asleep for TWO HOURS.  Couple that with Ellie not falling asleep for THREE HOURS from the first time I saw her yawn . . . and I just can't figure out how, in children so young, tired doesn't equal sleep!?  How do I get Isaac to see he doesn't need to eat every hour throughout the night (and when he does, he just spits it all up all over me and the sheets every night and half of my laundry during the day is from his frequent visits during the night!)  Do I even try, and have more nights like last night in the mere hope that things will get better (I should note here: they never got much better with the girls until we went to fully crying it out.  Which was at a much older age.  But, they were actually not waking up this frequently either.)  Aren't babies just developmentally supposed to get better about this!?  My friend was over with her 3 week old yesterday and mentioned that he used to wake up every night at 2AM, and then just the last two nights he slept until 4AM.  Like he suddenly realized he didn't need to wake up and eat so often.  Why don't my kids learn that lesson like other kids?!   It just doesn't get any better until we finally force the issue.  And I don't feel ready to force it.  But I don't feel ready to endure several more months of such dramatically broken sleep.  I can wake up and feed the baby 2-3 times a night and be OK -- but 5 and 6 -- it just feels so infuriatingly unnecessary.  The kid is HUGE.  He doesn't need to eat this often.  Heck, he didn't need to eat this often at a week old. 

I'm not even really asking for answers here -- 'cause quite frankly, I don't really think there are any.  I'm just venting and hoping that something in my ramblings will resonate and I'll get my answer as to what I should do.  But don't feel like you can't offer advice -- feel free to offer advice, I don't mind advice at all.  (Just don't tell me I'm doing something terribly wrong -- I wouldn't be able to take that after a night like last night, and I'd most likely end up crying.  Again.)

The Hair Compare: The Girls

So, I keep answering questions in the comment section with new blog posts.  Which works well, 'cause then I actually have blog posts unlike the last few weeks where I've been averaging like 1 post every 6 days.

Anyway, my sister in law, Liz, asked when my girls hair (finally) started to grow and when it was long enough to be pulled back into cute baby pony tails and stuff.  The basic answer to that is A REALLY LONG TIME.  I don't quite remember when my girls finally got enough hair to do anything with, but it was a lot longer than most people's babies.  I pulled up a few pictures to try and remind me, and I'll go ahead and post them here . . .

First birthdays -- Annie and then Ellie.  Annie had a bit more than Ellie, and it already had a lot of curl.

Here's Ellie and then Annie at 18 months old.

Then all this made me curious and I started to compare the girls' hair with other people throughout the family . . .

Bald little me is on the left, and Greg has more hair at a few months old on these pictures on the right than our girls' had at a year!

This is Greg's sister, Andrea, at her first birthday party.  Compare her gorgeous thick head of hair to my girls' first birthday pictures!  Greg's family definitely has the hair genes, whereas my girls seemed to inherit their baby-hair-deficiency traits from me!

Greg's older brother, James.  He has so much hair as a baby that he needed it cut constantly.  And it adorably kinda looks like he has a toupee on :-)

In my family I'm not alone in baldness (all of us were fairly hairless as babies).  The baby on the left here is my sister Star, and on the right is Talina (in one of those old-timey touristy pictures from Lagoon, thus the black & whiteness.)

I did eventually get hair -- and when I did it came in and has always been super thick.  The top two pictures are of Greg and I -- I'm around 19 months old, and Greg's probably 21 months old here.  The bottom two pictures are of me around two and then two and a half.  In that last picture I'm almost exactly the same age as Ellie is now.

I kept thinking one of these days I'd get a kid with hair like Greg's family all had, but thus far we've had all bald babies!

Then this pictures is basically just here for Greg.  It's Annie when she's 18 months old and she looks like she's gonna go ninja on that remote control truck.  It's one of Greg's favorite pictures of her.  It also kinda shows how tiny she was at 18 months old.  And she's bigger here than she was at 20 months old, after she got sick and lost a few pounds and was barely over 19lbs.  

Dear Daylight Savings,

Dear Daylight Savings,

  You were supposed to help me out here, dude.  As my kids have slowly transitioned to going to bed at 9PM instead of 8:00 or even earlier, I kept just waiting for you to come.  "Daylight savings will save us, our kids will go down at 8 or earlier again," Greg and I would tell ourselves.  And as the kids have been sleeping a little later (8AM or even later for Annie), I would think, "I can handle the waking up earlier.  It'll just be 7AM like it used to, and then we'll have more time to get ready for preschool so there'll be less stress and yelling of, 'What did you do with your backpack now?!'" and "I told you to get shoes on ten minutes ago!"

   I remembered back to Spring, before you made your visit for the season, when my children would sleep from 7:30PM-7:30AM almost every night and our sleep life was perfect (we also didn't have a four month old around, I acknowledge that part isn't your fault).  Then you came, and everything was turned on it's head.  My kids wouldn't go to sleep until 8:30 or so, and yet still woke up at 7:30 or earlier every morning, as if they had a clock in their heads.  They lost an entire hour of sleep that one night and never regained it.  I'm not afraid to admit that I blamed you.  Exclusively.  And rather bitterly.  I muttered a few choice things under my breath about your very existence. 

   But here it was, Fall.  You had a chance to redeem yourself Daylight Savings.  You really did.  I was fully prepared to have the kids up at 7AM again, but I couldn't wait for them to be in bed before 9PM and to gain that hour of precious evening time for Greg and I to talk like adults and not have to yell stuff in the direction of our daughters' room like, "You've already had three drinks, you're just going to pee through your diaper!" or "I've already kissed all your dolls, just go to sleep!" or "If you two don't stop talking, one of you will have to go sleep in the bathroom!"

   Call me naive, but I was hopeful.  Couldn't wait for your arrival again.

   You screwed me over Daylight Savings -- I don't know how you did it, but my kids went to bed after 9:15 last night, and Ellie was up at 6-freaking-30.  You accomplished nothing. 

   Thanks a lot for that.

Sincerely,
Not-Your-Biggest-Fan,
Hilary

The Hair Compare

I got thinking about my answer to a question posed in my last post's comment section.  How does Isaac's hair compare to the girls?  Well, he doesn't have much, that's for sure.  And neither did his sister for that matter -- but I needed photographic evidence to compare.  So, here's all three of my kids at four months old with their (slightly) varying lengths of hair . . .

Here's Isaac

And Annie -- she has a little thicker/longer hair right in the middle of her head near the front, but it was just as thin and sparse everywhere else.  Interesting too, since she lost all of the hair on top right after birth.

Ellie has a bit more in the middle on top than Isaac too (but less than Annie), but her hair is short and almost nonexistent everywhere else.  Isaac's hair sticks up EXACTLY like that in back after baths.

Then, just for my sisters -- here's a picture of Ellie at four months old and then last month at Yellowstone.  Ellie has what my sisters call her 'half moon eyes' -- basically when she smiles her eyes pretty much disappear.  And apparently it started young, 'cause I saw this picture and it made me smile that her eyes were disappearing even back then.

(Edited to add:  I think Annie and Isaac look the most alike, but that Ellie and Isaac have the most similar eyes.)

Guess Who's Four Months Old Now?

Time sure flies.  It seems like just yesterday I was overdue and thinking I'd never have this baby, and now I have this giant baby who's growing up faster than his sisters did.  Or at least it feels that way.  I can't believe Isaac's already four months old (yesterday when all the pictures below were taken was the official 'four months old' mark actually.)  This kid just lights up my whole world.  Yesterday he burrowed his little head into my neck, then popped back up and grinned at me, then snuggled down again as if he was in heaven itself.  Oh my goodness, this kid just melts my heart!  Have I told you how much he adores me?  It's like I'm the most amazing, fascinating, capable person on the face of the planet . . . at least in his eyes.  He grins whenever he sees me . . . he'll catch a glimpse of me from across a room, out of the corner of his eye, and he'll crane his neck and body as far as he can to just smile in my direction.  He squeals and giggles whenever I walk towards him (and heaven forbid I walk past him, like to grab the baby wipes or something before changing a diaper, 'cause if I don't stop when I get to him he'll instantly burst into tears.)   I can make him laugh by just smiling at him, and I seem to be the only one he's ticklish for.  Oh sure, all of this 'mommy's the best' stuff will bite me in the butt later, but for now I'm reveling in it.  Infanthood with my girls was an amazing, but extremely challenging time in my life.  There was often hours of screaming which I felt powerless to stop, and there was that whole "we'll only calm down for Daddy" factor.  Summed up, my girls as infants were more stressful and challenging.  I often felt either clueless or incapable.  I loved them fiercely, but I was often left feeling like it was a bit one-sided as they screamed for hours, only stopping to nurse.  But this kid.  He's like a giant burst of fresh air to motherhood.  He makes me want to have five or ten more babies.  (But I won't!)  The other day he was squealing and laughing every time I'd turn to see him, and Greg was laughing at our exchange.  I scooped Isaac up, smothered him in kisses, and turned to Greg and jokingly said, "Don't tell anyone, but he's my favorite."  Obviously, I love all my kids, they're amazing and wonderful and I love them to the depths of me.  But this baby is so much easier, so much more less stressful, and if him and I were to be quarantined in some tall tower somewhere, we'd be in some blissed out Mommy/Baby state, coming only out to eat and throw out used diapers.  I often look forward to Ellie napping and Annie going to a friend's house, just so Isaac can lay out on my bed and 'talk' for an hour or so, him just laughing at everything I sing or say to him. I'm not in survival mode, like I was with the girls, and I'm truly enjoying this stage of Isaac's life. 
Don't get me wrong -- going to three kids has had it's obvious difficulties come up.  My house is usually too messy for my liking, there are many days my girls eat cold cereal in yogurt for breakfast ('cause they're both things Annie can get out with no help), and I would nearly sell my soul for a good night's sleep.  (This child still does not understand that he can go more than 2-3 hours at night without waking up.)  But, all in all, this has been the easiest baby we've had, which has made this whole period of Isaac's life very joyful and fun for our family.  He's easy going, so that I don't need to stress if Annie's preschool field trip will keep us out past nap time, or if he'll suddenly be starving to death and screaming if we drop off the books at the library on the drive home.  Most of the time, Isaac just goes with the flow, taking in the world around him.  And smiling at his Mom.

Here's some pictures of Isaac at four months old.
I was hoping to get his huge open-mouthed grins and squeals documented here, but he wasn't overly cooperative.  He was too fascinated by the camera.  But note that he vastly prefers being naked to wearing clothing . . . I stripped him down to a diaper for the purpose of getting bigger smiles for the camera.  And he wants to ALWAYS have a hand shoved in his mouth (his or mine, he doesn't care, he just like to gnaw on flesh).  He doesn't suck his thumb for comfort or anything useful like that, but it's in his mouth (either by itself or alongside the rest of his fist) a good chunk of the day.  Oh, and Annie is freakishly cute with him.  She adores him, and wants him sitting in her lap all the time.  She sings and coos and talks with him for long stretches of time, and she mimics my tone and pitch and repeats anything I say to him. 

Miss Smarty-pants

This morning, while Greg and I were acting as the bottom of a family dog-pile as all three children had joined us in bed once they woke up, Greg turned to me and whispered, "So, are we still thinking of going to the Z - O - O today?"  To which Ellie responded by jumping up with joy and shouting, "Yay!  The zoo!  The zoo!"

When did my two year old learn to spell!? 





This, of course, proves Annie wrong (see the below facebook status update I posted a few nights ago:)

Despite being in bed for OVER an hour now, the girls are still wide awake and bickering.  Right now Ellie is happily calling out random letters, "Q! E! I! J!" while Annie is wigging out and screaming, "You can't spell Ellie!  Those aren't even real words!  Stop saying letters, those aren't really words!"  You are only two, you don't know how to spell!"
For some reason, this only seems to be encouraging Ellie . . .

This One's for You Lacy!

Up at Yellowstone, after Grandpa Robert had taught my girls a little song that went, "Buffalo poop!  Buffalo poop!  Buffalo poop, poop, poop!" Aunt Lacy taught the girls "The Scat Song".  Have I mentioned my family might not always be 100% appropriate and sometimes gets a little too much joy from seeing my small children say and sing less tasteful or appropriate things . . . just thought I'd mention that . . .  :-)  And that since teaching my children this song, Lacy calls at least a few times a week to have Annie sing the song to yet another of her friends?  Figured I'd make it easier and just put the song in one easily referenced place . . .

Then, just for fun, some crazy-faced-Ellie-dancin'!