Jackie O and the Village

I was blow drying my hair the other day, at the same time Ellie was getting out of the bathtub.  On a whim, we took a round brush and the blow dryer to her wet curls.

And then I called her "Jackie O" for the rest of the day.

Catching bugs, now that the weather is good.

Annie mugged for the camera too . . . 

Then today, we headed out to Gardner Village to enjoy the semi-good weather and let the kids run around a little.   And, we were especially excited because our dear friend, Quinn, is now off 'medical house arrest' and can be around other kids -- meaning that my kids got to meet her face to face for the first time.  (They've been watching videos and checking out pictures since she was born almost 11 months ago.)  (Oh, and if you want to contribute to Quinn's March of Dimes Team, check it out here.  Did I mention that Quinn was a mere fifteen ounces at birth, and could pretty well be the poster child for the amazing work and research done via March of Dimes?! Twenty five days left before the walk -- which also happens to be Quinn's first birthday!)  So, my kids chased ducks and jumped in puddles, Jessi and I talked, and the babies took it all in and wanted to be allowed to chew on everything in the doll store.  Quinn even napped in her Mama's arms -- something I was a bit jealous of, since Isaac will never sleep in mine.  :-)  Can I just tell you how excited I am for Spring and the ever-increasing weather -- I could spend every morning this way!

Cuddle Bug

Annie is my snuggly kid -- she'll curl up in my arms and just let me hold her as she wiggles deeper into my lap and lets out a little sigh of contentment.  I love it.  After hurting her ankle yesterday, she cuddled up to me after we got her bandaged up, and I rocked her back and forth while she calmed down.  Then I rubbed her back -- until she told me that as much as she likes me to rub her back, she thinks she prefers the rocking. (Ellie thinks that being held and cuddled is a fate worse than death -- she's trying to move, how dare we try and hold her still!) :-)  The other day, I'd just gotten Isaac down for a nap after an afternoon of 104 degree fevers (and a 101 degree fever for me), and I decided to lay down for a bit.  Ellie had gone four days without a nap now (someone's trying to drop the nap for good -- I'm not too happy about it), and she was grumpy.  So I tried to coax her into lying down for a bit with me.  "Come on, Ellie . . . come cuddle with Mommy and watch Elmo," I said from the bed.  "No, that okay," she said, then walked to the top of the stairs and yelled at the top of her little lungs, "ANNIE! Get up here right now!"  She goes stomping down the stairs, as I call after her, "It's okay Ellie, Annie doesn't have to come up . . ."  I hear Ellie angrily yell at Annie again, "Go upstairs now . . . Mom wants to cuddle with someone!"  

I told Annie she didn't need to come up, she could keep coloring.  But she did come up after a bit, and she did cuddle with me.

Ellie never did come up to cuddle.  Nor did she nap that day.  That girl just has too much to do!  :-)

Where I'm Convinced That My Other Child Will Become a Tagger or a Tattoo Artist

I already wrote about Annie's budding artistic career.  

I touched on Ellie's own special form of self expression.  

I thought I'd provide some examples of Ellie's masterpieces:

The vast majority of Ellie's toys look fairly similar.  Most bearing her "E L L I E" mark.

(That's Greg and the girls in the background doing their nightly story time routine -- how freaking cute are my girls and my husband?!)

Poor Kid part 2

Isaac slept horribly last night, slept in hours later than normal (only waking up when I snuck in to make sure he was still breathing), then took a FOUR HOUR nap and awoke with 104 degree temperature.  I'm feeling just horrible for him, as he snuggles up against my chest with his feverish little self and drifts in and out of sleep while drenching us both in baby sweat. 
His temp is down to 101 now and he's down for the night.  (Of course, last night that meant he woke up at 7:30PM, then again at 9:30PM, and he stayed up 'til 11PM, then again at 12:30AM, 2:30AM, 3:15AM, 4:30AM, 5:45AM, 6:30AM then he slept 'til nearly 9AM.)
And apparently he shared whatever bug he has, 'cause I'm around 101 degrees now too.  'Cause the only thing funner than taking care of sick baby while sleep deprived, is taking care of a sick baby while sleep deprived and ill. 

Poor kid!

 Isaac is having such a rough time lately (and by lately, I mean since early February!)  The poor thing was up last night (a lot) with a fever and his ever-present-congestion-that'll-never-go-away-ever.  A lot of times when my kids are fighting off something (like an ear infection) that causes a fever, it'll spike at night and be gone all day.  Not this time.  He was just a little bundle of overheated baby most of the day.  He took a long two hour morning nap, woke up for less than an hour, then went back down for another two hour nap.  That does not happen with my kids.  That didn't happen when he was oxygen deprived and in the hospital.  My kids almost never sleep more when sick. I felt awful for him.  In the afternoon, the fever came down for a bit and he was active and fun for awhile -- including crawling all over the place, and up and over his Daddy, where he came crashing down on the hard floor and/or Dad's steel toed boots, and the poor kid now has a giant goose egg going from his temple to behind his ear.  These pictures don't do it justice -- it is nasty.  I'm feeling so bad for him -- plus I have an extra dose of motherly guilt on this one.  See, we found out last week that he had an ear infection.  But, in all my reading and studying, I've come across a lot of information about the over-prescription of antibiotics, and how most ear infections will take care of themselves.  My kids have such a hard time on antibiotics, and I hated to put him through that again.  Plus, this seemed to be a fairly mild set of double ear infections, in that he wasn't complaining too much.  So, we did our research, talked to a local wellness chiropractor, and started liquid herbs, essential oils, garlic oil for his ears, extra sunshine (when the weather cooperated) and a ton of vitamin rich food (I mean, even under normal circumstances, the kid consumes breast milk and veggies and fruit -- he's already on like the world's most healthy diet).  Then we waited.  Yesterday I noticed he was kinda tugging on his ears still, and I told Greg, "I'm not sure this is working . . . what if it's not getting better and I just don't know . . . "  Then last night he woke up with fevers, and I was the first one in line at the pharmacy to get his prescription for amoxicilian filled early this morning.  I feel horrible that he could've already been over this, and instead it got so much worse and he has to feel so miserable . . . there is total Mommy guilt coursing through my veins when his feverish little self crawls up onto my chest and falls asleep.  Poor baby.

The thing on his head is a 'Fever Bug' -- a supposed one time use thermometer that'll show you how bad the fever is.  It never showed over 99 degrees, even when our other thermometer was saying 101.6.  I don't think we'll be using the 'Bugs' again . . . other than the girls to play with.  Oh well, I got them on clearance :-)

Then just one from yesterday -- when he was healthy and happy.

Where I'm Again Convinced One of My Children is a Prodigy . . .

I know I'm like genetically programmed to think my children are geniuses and all . . . but is it just me, or does Annie color pretty darn well for a four year old?

Annie can spend hours coloring -- these are just some pictures from yesterday and today that she's been working on.  (Taken with my crappy non-smart-phone camera . . . the idea of getting out the nice camera, taking all the pictures, downloading the pictures and then resizing large files down in Photoshop all seemed like a bit much, and I was feeling lazy.)

Ellie on the other hand -- her coloring seems to mainly take place on furniture, Mom's books, anything the library lent us, things we've borrowed from people, and walls. 

Isaac just wants to eat crayons. 

While Running Errands

Today on our way to the library, we passed a garbage truck THEN a fire truck and THEN a school bus.  All in a row.
Annie squealed and said, "I think that was possibly the COOLEST thing we've ever seen!"

So Cute That You Almost Don't Notice the White Socks with Black Suit Pants (D'oh!)

Nine Month Well Child Appointment (Well, Relatively Well . . .)

Isaac had his nine month appointment.
28% on weight -- 19 lbs. 3 ounces.  This is about what Annie was at a year old.  And Ellie was 17 lbs at a year.
61% on height -- still fairly tall.
91% on head circumference.  The doctor's comment, "Wow!  He has a big head!"  But she did add, "He doesn't really look like it though."

Everything checked out well, he's crawling and mobile and eating well and babbling and in a rear facing carseat, so apparently we're all good.

Except for the DOUBLE EAR INFECTIONS.  Seriously, y'all.  Double-freaking-ear-infections.  At the well child check up.  But, of course.  How could I have expected anything less after the winter we've had? :-)

Look Who is Nine Months Old . . .

Wow, time flies!

  

It's like I just had this kid . . . and here is he crawling all over the place, standing up to pretty much everything, and trying to eat trash (or anything else he gets his slobber-covered little hands on).

  

I imagine he'll grow up to be an electrical engineer or something -- he is obsessed with cords and outlets.  We have to keep the vacuum pretty much hidden or he'll be there chewing on the cord any chance he gets.

He LOVES Pat-a-cake and other clapping songs.  Well, he loves for me to sing them.  The other day, in my trying to encourage him to clap himself, I sang the song without actually clapping myself.  He seemed a bit perturbed, and then grabbed each of my hands with his and pushed my hands together.  He may not clap, but he will make Mom clap if she forgets.

He still thinks Mom is the most amazingly funny and cool person in the world -- and everyone else is an obstacle that lies between him and his mother.  He will actually grin and crane his head around to follow his Daddy around the room -- and he'll reach for Dad.  Then once Dad has held him for approximately two and a half seconds, he's throwing himself recklessly back in Mom's general direction.

Annie loves to carry him (awkwardly) around the house.  He doesn't seem to really mind -- although it gives me a mini-heart-attack every time I see it.  He's a little wary of Ellie soon.  And rightfully so -- she's pretty sure he's to blame for anything wrong in her world, and she always seems to want whatever it is he's holding.

Ellie making Isaac cry.  Again.

"Look Mom, I can fly!"

Just some random Ellie pictures from today.

 

 You can tell it's spring once the 'fleet' is out in the front yard . . .

Conference Sunday

Conference Sunday, for us, typically means a lot of time with family.

And, as most Utahns have now recognized -- the gathering of large numbers of Mormons downtown also seems to have an odd affect on our weather.  (Seriously -- ALL THIS SNOW?!)  

I'm still wondering what all of those out of town visitors who come to Conference are thinking about it being 70 on Saturday, and the solid 6 inches of snow we had Sunday morning?

All of our large trees had branches hanging to the ground, and our poor trampoline looked more like a snow cave.

But, it's all good -- 'cause we were inside playing Conference games where the rewards are M&;Ms. 

Well, the theory was to play a game where the kids had to listen for a specific word to earn the M&M . . . but it basically just became us eating M&Ms.  Although, Annie did have a little check list of words she was listening for in Conference, and she was A-MAZING at listening for those words over the two days of Conference.  She could be coloring a paper, eating some snack and playing games, but if she heard the word 'temple' it was marked on her check list in two seconds flat.  At last count she had over 45 marks in the 'Jesus' column  (she only really listened to a few talks -- and it didn't matter if she heard Christ, Redeemer, Savior, Lord or Son, it was marked quickly under the Jesus header without so much as a question to us -- I was kinda surprised she knew so many different names for Jesus!)
Here's Ellie enjoying the candy.

The girls were distracting Grandma Ruth with several rounds of Uno.
I don't think she minded.  :-)  Someone sure loves her granddaughters!

 Then later that afternoon, we spent time with more family.

Here's Isaac with my Uncle Karl.

Isaac all, "Dude, Mom, we're fine . . . leave us alone . . . "

(I was a tad worried about one or the other injuring each other.  After Isaac's repeated attempts at standing using Karl's head to stand up against, and Isaac's trying to steal Karl's metal spoon (a comfort device), Karl kept raising his arm to shield himself from the advances of a curious 9 month old, all while laughing and referring to my son as a "turkey!")

Isaac in one of my FAVORITE outfits on him -- 'cause it matches his eyes perfectly.

Ellie, shockingly, showing some attitude.

 Great Grandpa, Ellie, Uncle Karl and Annie all hanging out on the floor together. 

Can't tell you how much I love this picture.

(And yes, I totally did dress my girls in new matching outfits for Conference Sunday.  Is that weird?)

Does it fit?

Daddy came home from his business trip with a new backpack.  

Ellie wanted to wear it around the house, but it was a tad big . . .

So big in fact . . .

(Side note: check out her curls!  This kid is getting curlier hair by the day!)