Miss Attitude

Raising children makes one very aware of how quickly time moves. Like it seems like Annie was just born yesterday, and yet sometimes it already seems like we have a full blown (crazy, hormonal and moody) teenager around the house.

I was in the kitchen when I heard Annie & Greg come in, obviously in some kind of disagreement. (Turned out he thought it was bedtime, and she thought it was ludicrous she had to stop riding her scooter and come inside already.) As she turned the corner, into the kitchen where I was doing dishes, I heard her mutter, with a full on eye roll, "If you say so, Dad."

Sarcastic "if you say so's" . . . complete with snotty eye roll . . . she's four, people. FOUR.

This among many other Annie-isms, have me a tad worried for the tween years . . .

Big Girl Bike

Annie is thrilled to have training wheels on the bike our neighbor recently handed down to her. Both girls had on helmets in anxious anticipation the entire time Greg was putting the training wheels on. It was chilly outside, and past time to get ready for bed, so they didn't get to ride long -- but Ellie loved sitting on the bike and being pushed the length of the driveway, and Annie took it up around our circle once before she had to come in for the night -- it was a BIG hit. :-)

Isaac's Two Month Check Up

Well, that was fun.

The whole taking three kids to the doctor's thing. We were about to walk into the exam room when Ellie started shrieking uncontrollably, and eventually had to be carried into the room when coaxing (even with stickers) wouldn't work. Guess someone remembers the shot from last time? She soon figured out this was Isaac's appointment and not hers, and she calmed down. (Little did she know . . . flu shot.)

Isaac was fussy most of the appointment. Probably due to it being smack dab in the middle of nap time. But, everything checked out, and he was deemed 'healthy and huge!' Our doctor was extremely impressed by his size. Upon walking in the room, her first words were, "Wow! He's so TALL!" And, he is. But not as tall as he is heavy. Turns out our little chunker is now in the 96th percentile for weight. At 14.66 lbs. At two months old. (To put that into perspective of what's normal around here -- Ellie was 13 and a half pounds at SIX MONTHS.) No wonder his size two diapers are starting to seem so small. And why in heaven's name do I have any 0-3 months clothes out?! Time to pack up anything small I was even trying to kid myself into believing he could still wear. His height on the charts was actually down, percentage-wise, to 66% from 75% at two weeks old. But, our doctor took one look at the height on the chart today and said, "No way, he's taller than that." But never had him measured again, so who knows?

Not shocking for one of my kids, his head is a hefty 93rd percentile.

Everything else checked out, my kids were declared adorable, and nurses wielding needles started to file into the room. I chose now to explain to the girls they'd be getting flu shots. Poor things flipped the heck out. This may make me evil, but I actually had a hard time keeping a straight face while watching the sheer drama that was spilling out of them. Annie was shrieking, "It hurts! It hurts!" before the nurse even used the alcohol swab. The poor woman was all, "I haven't even touched her yet!" I nodded and said, "You should see when she gets her hair brushed." Annie started to calm down when I set her down on a chair with the bucket of stickers to sort through. (They had one nurse come in and take Isaac during the girls shots so I could tend to them, and so he wasn't freaking out from listening to them.) Next was Ellie. Poor thing was hysterical at this point, from watching and listening to Annie. We got her shot done, and she calmed down in less than a minute or so . . . when the nurse brought in dum dums. Next was the baby. He got his shots, cried for about 10 seconds, then settled down laying against my chest withing seconds of being picked up. Isaac was definitely the champ of getting shots among our kids.

By the time we left, everyone was calmed (and Isaac was sleeping in the sling), and we got outside. Where near-hurricane force winds made the SHORT walk to our vehicle a nightmare. Ellie was shrieking the whole time about the wind, crying and gasping and freaking out. Then she dropped her baby doll. Which proceeded to BLOW AWAY across the parking lot. I was trying to get Ellie out of the middle of the parking lot while trying to chase after it, and fortunately a good samaritan took off after it and brought it back to us after it'd blown half way across the parking lot. THEN Ellie dropped her purse and it took off. Sigh. Eventually, we got all of us into our van, all toys recovered and Ellie finally calmed down. Isaac slept through all of this (and through being taken out of the sling and being strapped into his carseat -- someone was TIRED!) I don't think we're venturing out any more today. Heck, I might even change back into pajama pants, just to assure myself we're done with outings for the day. :-)


Here's some 2-month old pictures of all three kids.
It's interesting to me that despite weighing WAY more than the girls, Isaac seems the least round and chubby to me. He's way taller and more solid than the girls were, but he's never had the same rolls and roundness they seemed to at this age, even though they were a lot smaller.

They do all have the EXACT SAME HAIR though. :-)

Bed of Roses

Well, not a bed of roses, but a rose blanket.

Poor Isaac . . . he has some perfectly masculine swaddling blankets laying around. But Dad (aka: the Master Swaddler) insisted that Ellie's old rose swaddling blanket is vastly superior to all other swaddling blankets so we switched Isaac to the best blanket in the house. No matter how girly. :-)
Not that it will be an issue much longer, at only two months old, Isaac is already escaping Greg's Swaddling-Grip-of-Death in less than two hours each night. Both of our girls slept swaddled until 5 months, give or take, so Greg and I are at a bit of a loss with what to do with Mr. Incredible here. Do you see how HUGE he is? How much room he takes up in his crib? (He already fills the bassinet in our room pretty much from top to bottom. I don't know how long we'll be able to keep him in it.) I'm excited for his appointment tomorrow, to find out how long he's gotten and how much he weighs.

Annie's bruised and battered face.

Except that it's just makeup. Blush, to be precise. Applied liberally to the general eye area.
The picture doesn't really do it justice -- when I first walked in and saw her I was shocked -- she looked completely beaten.

Ellie woke up with serious attitude and weepiness this afternoon. I was this close to just putting her back in bed after like 10 minutes. (It continued all afternoon and evening -- maybe I should've saved us all a lot of grief and just gone with my gut and stuck her in her crib again!)
Here she is right after she woke up. She got up onto my bed, where Isaac was chilling out, and curled up next to him and put her arm around him and pouted. It was adorable.

We did get her a little cheered up with a sibling photo shoot on the bed.

But not for long. She was crying again soon. And Annie really sweetly took her into her arms and tried to comfort her.

The only thing that made Ellie happy was getting to hold her little brother in her lap.

Annie enjoyed it too.

My (momentarily) happy trio . . .

Ellie and I posing for a self-portrait.

Isaac trying to get that ever elusive thumb in his mouth once and for all.
Annie gently coaxing his hand in the right direction.

Annie, Isaac and Mommy.

Ellie wasn't in that last picture because she was pouting again.
But she looked adorable doing it.

Annie, on the other hand, was more than happy to pose and smile for pictures.

Random Pictures of the Baby

Earlier today, Isaac spent several frantic minutes (while fast asleep) trying to get his fingers or thumb (or most of his fist) in his mouth. He happily sucked on his middle finger for a minute, but lost it before I got the camera out. Here he is trying again . . .

Almost got his thumb . . .

"Dude, what's up with the flash? You woke me up . . ."

Tonight before bed, I got a few pictures of Isaac's tummy time on his Boppy.
Stretching so big and tall . . .

Pleased with himself . . .

Chillin' in the Boppy . . .

Such a handsome little guy . . .

Isaac very much wants to be able to sit up by himself . . . here he is with a little help from the Boppy . . .

Pretty steady for a (not even) nine week old . . .

"Gassahoppas? Ere are you?"

I love going on family walks in the evening. The girls pile into our wagon, I get Isaac settled in a sling, and we walk. To the park or to go visit neighbors or just to walk the paths that surround our neighborhood. And now that the weather is perfect for evening walks, we're trying to get as many in as we can. This evening we were walking along some of the paths that separate our neighborhood from the one just west of us, and the girls were admiring the many grasshoppers that were hoppin' along. I told them I used to catch grasshoppers when I was just older than Annie. They were impressed. Annie wanted to know how one goes about capturing a grasshopper. I tried to explain my technique, but ended up just saying, "Let's have Daddy catch us one and just show us!" We'd walk along the path until we spotted one (in the meantime, Ellie was loudly calling out, "Gassa-hoppas? Ere are you?" It was adorable.) Greg would then try (repeatedly) to catch one, but by the time we got home and had scared away all the grasshoppers, we had still never caught one.

Greg is convinced that this generations' grasshoppers are much more quick and wily than the grasshoppers that were around when we were young.

I'm sure that's it. :-)

8 Weeks

My little chunky monkey is already 8 weeks old . . . time flies!

Excuses, Excuses

Annie is the proud owner of many, many, MANY purses. And like many people who have far too many accessories, she's loaded with excuses as to why she NEEDS these things . . . my two favorite excuses from today:

"I have so many fancy things I need to carry this many purses everywhere!"

and

"Mom, I have to have three purses -- what if people need help holding their stuff?! That's what I'm here for!"


Unrelated to her purse-obsession, earlier today Annie was singing to Isaac, and telling him jokes . . . and to her delight, these things were making him smile from ear to ear. After awhile though, he was starting to get tired and the smiles weren't coming so readily. At one point I listened to this one-sided sibling exchange:

"So Isaac, here's another one . . . Knock knock . . . Who's there . . . Canoe . . . Canoe who? . . . Canoe come inside and play with me . . . [long pause] . . . OK Isaac, let's try that again . . . Knock knock . . . " She proceeded to tell him the whole joke all over again. He still didn't smile, she was bewildered, and I gently explained that he might just be a little young for word play jokes. :-)

First Day of Preschool (Again)

Annie's in preschool for her second year, and couldn't be happier. She was also excited that it was freakishly cold outside this morning so she could wear the new outfit (or one of the new outfits) that Grandma bought her for school.

Here she is, ready to go!

Ellie and Annie posing together.

Here was Annie last year on her first day of school . . .

Annie and Ellie last year.

Back to the present -- here's Annie showing off her new backpack. She'd just been planning on using her old backpack, until she saw this one. Which was in the closet, waiting for Ellie to start preschool next year. Annie took one look at it, and began negotiations, and before I knew it, Annie was walking around with her new backpack while Ellie was happily dragging around Annie's old one. They'd traded. Ellie didn't fare so well in the trade. I didn't know if I should step in and put a stop to it, but as an oldest sister myself, I couldn't fault Annie for getting away with what she can. :-) (Ellie proudly took her 'new' backpack with us when we walked to and from Annie's preschool -- she seems happy with the trade, so who am I to argue.)

Annie and Isaac before school.
I wish I'd gotten her hair done a little earlier, 'cause in all the pictures it's still wet. It dried super cute and curly -- which was a huge relief for me, since I hacked off a couple inches of it yesterday and wasn't quite sure how it would work.

Ellie posing with her 'little' brother -- anyone want to start placing bets on how long it'll be 'til he outweighs her?

My kids.

Red Butte in Pictures

Greg and I took the kids, and my brother Cody and my sisters Talina and Star, with us to Red Butte Gardens today. We spent hours wandering around and enjoying the outdoors. And having cartwheel competitions and taking pictures. Thinking about it, and from watching other photographers there, we were probably the only people at Red Butte today who took almost 200 pictures and not a single on of them was focused on any kind of plant life. :-) The kids (including my siblings) all had a lot of fun.

Here's Aunt Star and Annie walking on the stepping stones in the pond.

Ellie found a pine cone.
And approximately 7000 acorns . . . and she wanted to carry every last one in her pockets.

Star doing an impressive cartwheel -- Cody and Talina standing getting ready to go next.

Cody's technique is very, um, interesting. And cool.

The girls weren't about to be left out, and both tried and tried . . .

"Hi Dad!"

Over in the Children's Gardens (where they'd been changed from jeans into shorts), Ellie played in the water . . .

Annie raced through the mazes with her Aunts and Uncles.
Which was amusing, since most of the passageways are designed for the 6 and under set.

Ellie getting 'caught' by someone in the maze.

Talina, amused by the kids. Or amused by Cody. Probably Cody.

Here's Star and Isaac.

There hadn't been any pictures of him until now, 'cause he slept the first hour or two we were there.

Annie

Annie behind the waterfalls

Isaac, highly amused by something Star just said.

This was Greg's favorite picture he'd taken of Annie all day.

This was my favorite one I took of Isaac all day.

Talina, Star and Isaac, with Cody chilling out on a gigantic lizard in the background.

Annie posing by on her lizard.

Taking time to smell the flowers . . .

Look, it's me! :-) I was actually there. You know, to feed the baby. Change the baby. Keep the baby asleep. :-)

Ellie, Talina, Star, Annie and Cody were chasing each other around the edge of the sandbox pit.

It was so much fun. I just loved getting outdoors and walking around for hours. Especially in such a pretty place. I couldn't stop thinking about how soon Cody's going to be leaving for his mission . . . and it makes me both sad that he won't be here, and motivated to get as many of these kinds of activities in before he leaves as possible!