April's Been a Busy Month . . .

We've done a lot this month . . . and taken lots of pictures.

(Sorry if you're on facebook -- these are pretty much all repeats)

Cousin Bonding Time

My sister, Talina, and I got the coolest Christmas presents this year from my Mom.  Thanksgiving Point passes for our families.  Now that the babies are a bit bigger, and the weather is nice, we went today to go activate our memberships.  Unfortunately, pseudo-hurricane-force winds kept us from our original plan of going to the Farm area to check out baby animals, but we had a blast going to the Dinosaur Museum with the kiddos.

Bailey cracks me up around Owen -- these two are gonna be SO much fun to watch grow up together!

Here's our Bailey Boo hanging out in our frontroom . . . Annie & Ellie found her this hat, and insisted she wear it.

Letter to Uncle Cody

The girls helped me write an email to my little brother tonight.  Here's what I transcribed:

Ellie, "Adios amigos!  Adios amigos!"  I don't think she knows Spanish well. 

Annie giggles and corrects, "Hola!"  Ellie added, "Hola pato!"  Since we have taken to addressing ducks in Spanish around these parts.  "Hola pato!  Hola pato!  Hola paco!" she says.  Don't know why it suddenly switched to 'paco'.   Annie, "How are you doing?  In Uruguay?"  Now she's jumping up and down and giggling.  Isaac is in bed for the night, and Owen's lying on the bed getting fussy 'cause nobody's holding him.  I'm prodding Annie to talk about Conference.  Annie says, "Hola."  This is working well.  "Hola pato!" hijacks Ellie, "That's like hello or goodbye for ducks."

Annie finally stops giggling long enough to say, "I got Bingo on one of my Conference papers!"  She ROCKED Conference Bingo.  Jelly beans were consumed in mass quantities.  Annie had a friend call to play about an hour into the first session on Saturday, but she could not be torn away from all of her papers and Conference packet stuff for another half hour.  We have pages of decorated ties, tally marks for most popular words, and coloring pages of President Monson. 

Ellie is singing a song to Owen to try to calm him down on the bed.  It went, "You are stinky, stinky, stinky and you cry, cry, cry!"  It did not seem to help.

"He he he.  It did not seem to help," Annie giggles as she reads over my shoulder. She is now dissolved into a pile of giggles on the floor after reading the last sentence about her reading over my shoulder. 
"When is Cody gonna come home?" Ellie whines, "I want to go on a cruise already!"  Yeah Cody, way to hold up the cruise. :-)  Now she's singing you the "Months of the Year" song she learned at Preschool.  Now she's pointing out where she's finding the word 'Ellie' in the email, "Why did you spell Ellie?" she asks, but then is distracted and starts singing the months again.

Annie is still giggling.  "I'm reading along!" she laughs.  [Reads over my shoulder].  More giggling.  More giggling still.  [Reads over my shoulder].  Loud laughter.  But not the kind cautioned against in Conference.  :-)  Both girls are now in a pile on the floor, laughing.  I don't think Ellie knows what Annie's laughing about, but she's joined.  I told them they now have one last chance to say something to Uncle Cody before bedtime, "I love you Cody!" Ellie exclaims.  She's now singing the Months song again.

Annie giggles upon reading that, but had said a few seconds ago, "I watched half of both parts of Conference."  [Reads over my shoulder].  Giggles.  She really did love Conference, and would proudly show you the papers with the words she heard, and a couple notes from talks. ("Helping" was what she got from one talk.  Score . . . Family Home Evening tomorrow is now on Service!)

"Bye Cody!  Bye Cody!" Ellie exclaims while blowing kisses!  Then she looks at the computer screen and says, "Thanks that we can see you!"  Pause.  "Wait?"  Did she just figure out this wasn't Skype like on Christmas?!

"I love you Cody," says Ellie again while Annie's deciding what to say.  "YAY!  ELLIE! E-L-L-I-E!" she exclaims as she sees her name typed.

"Uncle Doh-doh," Annie giggles.

"I Love You, Doh doh!" Ellie loudly laughs.

"And now she's calling you Doh-dy," Annie laughs as Ellie dances around the room singing, "I love Doh-dy, I love Doh-dy." 

"Dad says I used to have imaginary friends called Doh-doo and Iah," Annie says incredulously.  Greg brought them up when they were calling you 'Doh-doh'.  I don't know if she believes him.  Remember Doh-doo?  He drove a car.  And was married to Iah.  I think Annie's my only kid who's had imaginary friends.  Oldest child thing, maybe? 

"Have fun," Annie finally settles on her parting words, "Have a good mission!"  She thinks for a second, "I love you Cody. Bye."

There you have it, a combined family letter. :-)  Enjoy the attached pictures of poor Isaac in his cast, and Owen on his third month birthday.

Annie reads the last sentence, "Does he even know we have an Owen?" Annie asks.  I assure her I've sent you letters and pictures about him, and you're aware of Owen's existence.

Love you Bug!

Three Months Old

Three months old.  Already?!

I think each of my boys have their own look, but I was kind of amused by some of the similarities in their 'Three Month Old' pictures.  Isaac's on the left, Owen on the right.

So, Isaac officially broke his tibia.  It took almost a week to get diagnosed, but he's all casted now and hopefully in three weeks we will be past this little medical drama.   One can hope!
Poor boy though, he'd figured out how to crawl around really well in the splint.  The full cast is a bit trickier -- he won't even attempt standing, and even crawling is tougher.  He is sleeping a lot better now though.  Here's hoping this next three weeks goes by really, really quickly.

Random videos of Isaac making himself comfortable watching movies in his cast, and a tiny tantrum.  (The tantrum video is the last one -- it's the best). And me trying to get Owen to talk and smile for the camera (since he'd been happily cooing and chatting the ten minutes before, of course.)

Poor Isaac and Weeks of Pictures

I've been a blogging slacker.  I'd blame double ear infections (Owen) and a potentially broken bone (Isaac), except that all just happened in the last couple days.  I don't know why I wasn't blogging the weeks before that.  So, here's some pictures of our lives from the last couple weeks . . .

Poor Isaac was going down the slide with Daddy, when his foot got twisted between Dad's leg and the slide on a turn.  It was x-rayed, the doctor said it seemed like a break, but they couldn't see one, so they put on a molded splint and wrapped it, and we go back in on Friday for more x-rays. 
He was REALLY miserable the first day.  Being immobile and angry about it.  He thrashed his hardened leg around the place in anger, injuring innocent bystanders (i.e., me).  The next morning (after a blow out diaper that he SMEARED ALL OVER MY BED AND HIMSELF) we took off the splint only to discover one nasty looking pressure sore on his heel.  No wonder he was so miserable (and kept us up much of the night).  The next day we got it rewrapped, and he's been crawling around and climbing one legged every since.

We've noticed he's keeping his whole hand (sometimes both) inside his mouth when upset or hurt.

Curled up to watch a movie.  We've watched lots and lots of movies.

Some random cute pictures of my boys sleeping . . .

Comparison of sleeping Isaac and his Dad sleeping as a toddler too.

 

My poor Grandma was recently moved to an Assisted Living Center after a nasty fall at home.  Since then she's been in and out of the hospital repeatedly.  We've tried to get over to visit regularly, bringing the kids when she's not at the hospital . . . 

Grandma with Owen and my niece, Bailey

Four generations

My Grandma, my boys and me.

Owen was just cooing at her, it was adorable.

The girls with their Great Grandma

My little chunky monkey

Annie & Isaac

Blessing Day

Owen wore the same tux Isaac did for his blessing.  It cracks me up to see his serious little faces when I was trying to get pictures of him in it . . . and I couldn't help but think of one part of a song that I'd just heard on a commercial, over and over again in my head while I looked at the pictures later . . .

And I somehow managed to get 250 pictures down to this . . .
Man, I love good excuses to get together as family.

Two Months

On March 1st (due to the lack of a Feb. 30th, my baby boy turned 2 months old. 
Already?!

Out of all my kids, he seems the most 'newborn-ish' for the longest amount of time.  He still seems to spend all of his time eating, then being cute and happy for a few minutes, then being angry at the feeling of tiredness, then sleeping.  When he's awake and alert, he's so adorable and happy.  But then it's not long before he's fussy and crying and wanting to go back to sleep.  He also seems to be the 'floppiest' still -- he just wants to lie around in my arms (or my lap, he LOVES lying in my lap while I'm sitting cross legged), and unlike his other siblings, doesn't want to be held up in standing, or even sitting, position for very long.  Add to that he has a little cousin only two and a half months older, who practically came out of the womb as a two month old (she was the smiliest, most alert, bright eyed newborn I have EVER seen.  She never seemed floppy or sleepy, it's like she was just up and ready to go since birth) . . . and Owen just seems so young to me.  Which isn't a bad thing by any means, I like having my sleepy newborn.  (Less thrilled by the fussy, overly tired, crying thing -- but, you take the good with the bad.)   He doesn't cry anywhere near what Annie did, but he's fussier than Isaac was . . . I am now convinced though that I was just never destined to have a laid back, chill baby.  :-)  

Now for the two month stats:

Weight:  11.9 lbs. (55%)

Height: 23.62" (75%)

And the shocker --

Head: 15.4" (26%)
(Although I think this was possibly measured a bit smaller, and at his last appointment he was 37%).

That is miles away from my other kids.  I remember Ellie at times having a 90%+ head circumference and being 2% in weight.  Greg and I used to joke that we didn't know how our kids didn't look like bobble heads, since all three older ones have always been higher than 85% on the charts (Isaac was 98% at his 18 month appointment.)  

I think Owen will be the Talina of our family.  (My family will get that.)

And just for fun, to compare to his big (and I do mean BIG) brother:

Isaac at this age:

Weight: 14.66 lbs. (96%)

Height: 66%

So Owen was taller, but Isaac was much heftier.  (Seriously, over 14 and a half pounds at only TWO MONTHS old?!  Ellie was 13lbs. 9oz. at SIX MONTHS old.)  The funny thing about Isaac was that he actually looked thinner than the girls at this age -- who both had chipmunk cheeks and chunky thighs.  Isaac didn't look like he had any 'extra' weight on him, he was just so freakingly solid.  Of course, all my kids shoot up on the charts for the first four months.  Then they stop growing for awhile, maybe getting a bit taller and putting on a bit of weight, but the spend the next 8 months slowing dropping back down the charts.  Our gigantic baby, Isaac, had slimmed down to less than 21 pounds at a year old, at 19% on the charts, and at just over 29" was at 29% on the charts.  But now at a year and a half, he's quickly climbing the charts again.   I find it so interesting that all three older kids, despite being very different sizes and weights from each other, followed very, very similar growth patterns.  

And lastly, some pictures from the day he turned 'two months old'.  I'd taken Ellie and Isaac to the doctors, so Aunt Talina and cousin Bailey came over to play with Owen and Annie.

Ellie Stories.

This morning began the same way most mornings began.  Early, and with Curious George.  As I was carrying Isaac out of his bedroom this morning we were singing "5 Little Monkeys" (Jumping on the Bed, vs. the Swing in the Tree version . . . both of which he loves).  When we came in and Ellie had turned on my television to Curious George, and Isaac exclaimed, "George a monkey!"  So we sang about a monkey jumping on the bed again.  "One fell off and broke his head," I sang and Isaac giggled as I grabbed my head dramatically, "Mama called the doctor and the doctor said . . . " I continued, when Ellie loudly interrupted, "DADDY.  Daddy called the doctor."  At first I just assumed that this was just one more example of Ellie's preference for her Dad over Mom, but she clarified, "George doesn't really have a Mom," she explained sadly, "He only has a Dad.  The man with the yellow hat.  So Daddy called the doctor."  Um, that's a good point, Ellie.  I hadn't thought of that.

Another Ellie story -- yesterday I was getting the kids ready and I asked her to get dressed.  She responded, "I can't right now, Mom.  I gotta practice whistling."

And for good measure,  a Bad Mommy moment.  So, I tend to keep my kids off youtube . . . a few of their favorite Sesame Street clips are on there, but I only let them watch the ones we've found on hulu.  It seems like whatever clip you're watching on youtube, you're only one click from a swearing Elmo or foul-mouthed-rapping Dora.  And it makes me angry that the site is littered with children's things made crude, dirty or inappropriate.  Anyway, so typically I don't let them watch much on youtube.  With one exception.  Humphrey the bear singing, "Put it in the Bag" (bump, bump).  Ellie had asked ALL morning yesterday to watch it, so after Annie got home from school I pulled it up and they watched it, twice.  Then a Goofy cartoon started (Ellie kept calling him Doofy or Goofus or Doofus, which was amusing me, she just could not seem to remember the name 'Goofy'.)  Half way into it, the baby started crying.  I'd planned on coming right back down, but there was a diaper to change and an outfit to change, and by the time I came back down, the kids were just finished watching a foul-mouthed Cookie Monster video, and there were a bunch of 'Family Guy' clips set to start next.  Dang it.  Annie looked instantly guilty, and Ellie was laughing hysterically and repeating some line about the doctor telling him to take his pants off.  Stupid internet.  So, we sat down and had a talk about what isn't 'appropriate' for little kids to be watching online, and how 'bad' stuff can come up on the computer, and if Mom's not there, how to shut off the computer or close the current screen and to come tell Mom and we can talk about how it made them feel.  The conversation was mainly for Annie, who seemed a bit concerned about what she'd seen.  Ellie was still giggling about the 'pants off' line and saying, "It was funny!  So funny!"  We extended the conversation to include what we do if we're at a friend's house or somewhere else, and Mom's not around, and we hear of see something that we're not comfortable with.  At this point, Ellie finally gets serious, and responds, "When I was at Kate's house, she said she was the boss of me.  But, she's not the boss of me.  And it made me sad.  And berry un-come-bur-ta-bull."  The last line was so emphatic that I burst out laughing.

And lastly, an Isaac story.  Isaac loves the book "Go Dog Go" and asks for it by name, often. So I laughed when he'd finished reading it with his Dad, and Greg asked, "Do you want to read it again?" Isaac responded, "No. All done now with dogs that go."