News Flash

A certain little baby, in a certain little house, where a certain little family lives, just happens to have slept through the night!!! YIPEE! She went from 10:45 last night to 6:15 this morning, allowing Mommy and Daddy to get a good 7 1/2 hours of sleep! (8 hours between feedings). Oh, what a beautiful day! As you can tell, I really like sleep! :)

Ironically, Boo slept through on the exact same day her big sister did...the night before they turned 9 weeks. Babywise says most babies will sleep through the night between 7 to 9 weeks.

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I LOVE Babywise! For some reason it seems like Doctors are against it and I have no idea why?!? We have a 9 week old baby and we just got 7 1/2 hours of sleep! What's not to like?

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My mom saw a episode of "The Doctors" about Babywise and the doctor was saying that he gets people coming in his office with malnourished babies. I'm not sure how that could happen since you are supposed to monitor their diapers and their weight to make sure you detect any problems right away. Boo is in the 75% for weight and one glance at those chubby little cheeks tells you that she is definitely not missing any meals. :)

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As far as I'm concerned it's a really simple program. A 2 1/2 or 3 hour feeding schedule, keeping them awake for a bit after they eat, and putting them to bed awake so they learn to put themselves to sleep. That's pretty much it. The hardest part is keeping them awake, at the newborn stage, after they've just eaten and have a nice, full, warm belly, but that's also one of the most important parts. Now that Boo is over 2 months she is in the habit of playing after she eats so we don't have to wake her up anymore.

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We are so thankful that my sister-in-law told us about it. We've had two successes with it so far and I am definitely using it with any other children we might be blessed with!

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YAY for sleep! :)

Palm Sunday

The children did a little performance at church this morning. Bug did a good job walking up there and staying put, but, like Christmas, she didn't do much singing. :)

Here is Boo wearing Bug's 1st Easter dress. Bug wore her dress from last year...still fits fine, just a little shorter. :)

I managed to get a little of video of one of the songs. I love that our church does things like this. It's such a good experience for kids to be able to do this kind of thing. Plus they are really cute. :)
P.S. Sorry the video is kind of shaky...half kneeling on the floor in a skirt will do that to you. :)

Silly Girls

Here is a little better video of Boo smiling, although she doesn't seem to like being contained. :) Bug is just being her usual silly self. :)

Two Months Old

Boo is 8 weeks old today! That is really hard to believe. Time is already flying by. We had her 2 month check up yesterday and she had to get three shots. :( She also got a live Rotovirus vaccine by mouth...we weren't so sure about that. Bug never had to have that one.

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We are so torn about vaccines. (I didn't see your link until after we'd done it, Liv, and now I'm not sure I want to watch!). My father-in-law is very against vaccines so we've heard all the terrible things that can happen with them, but I've also read a lot of research for the other side of the argument too. This is one of the hardest things about being a parent - making these decisions that could affect your child's life when the answer is anything but clear.

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We've talked so many times about not getting our girls vaccinated, but it seems like the alternative is even worse. These diseases ARE still out there and if everyone stops getting vaccinated we are going to start seeing them explode again. Anyway, you can probably tell we are still on the fence about it. I really wish there were another alternative, but for now we will just keep getting the shots when the doctor tells us to and pray we are making the right choice.

On a happier note: Boo is doing really well! She is growing quickly and they were very pleased with her progress. Her weight is 11 lbs. 9 oz. in the 75%, her length was 23 1/8 inches in the 80%, and her head circumference was in the 75% so she is doing great.

And in the doctor's office she rolled over for the FIRST time! When we put her on tummy time at home we prop her up with the boppy, but yesterday Daddy laid her down on the table so the doctor could see if she would hold up her head and she just flipped herself right over! Our jaws both dropped and the doctor smiled and said, "First time?" :)

Her next appointment isn't till June so it will be interesting to see if she keeps growing at this rate or levels out a bit. She's definitely a healthy girl! :)

Smiley Girl

Daddy has always called K "Bug" and we have started calling S "Boo" so in light of the letter confusion yesterday I will, henceforth, be referring to them as such. :)

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Boo has really started smiling in the last few days...almost laughing at times. She is especially happy in the morning. Here is a little video I got of her with a few little smiles. It's hard to get a video b/c the camera is in the way of my face a little bit which makes her stop smiling. I'll keep trying to get really good smile on camera, but for now here is our smiley girl. You might want to turn down the sound so you don't have to listen to my baby talk. Haha:)

Boo is doing really well in the sleep department! She is 7 weeks so I am expecting her to sleep through the night any day now. She has been making it to 4:30a.m. this past week so I think she's getting close. I had forgotten what it was like to get five hours of consecutive sleep. Lovely. That's what it is. :) Here's hoping she makes it even further tonight!

Busy Weekend

We were quite the busy little bees this weekend! We started off by taking S to her first baseball game! Daddy is volunteering with the local high school team so we get to go see him at all the games.

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It was beautiful outside! This has been the mildest winter we've had in a long time...so nice after the #1 and #2 worst winters (since the 20's) and quite a difference! I remember K and I abandoning several games last year b/c it started snowing. Grandma and Grandpa came over to see the kids and the game and stayed the night on Friday. As you can see, S was riveted by all the action of her first baseball game. :)

Daddy volunteered to help make wooden cars for AWANA at the church on Saturday morning so he and Grandpa went and did that while Grandma played with the kids and I cleaned the house.

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Then we had some good friends over for dinner with their little boy, R. He and K had a great time playing and us adults had a wonderful time visiting!

Then Sunday morning was church and lunch with Noni and Papa. Here are the girls in their Sunday best...minus K's tights...not sure where they went. :)

Then it was naptime and another dinner party with another set of good friends and Uncle Sean too! Here is K with her little friend E. This picture cracked me up. :)

E loves music, so of course he and K had to spend some time delighting us with their musical stylings. Isn't he a cutie?? :)

K's really getting into it here...a little elbow action always makes things more exciting. :)

E's mom is my best friend from high school so it is so much fun to experience the joys of parenthood together. She and I are planning our high school reunion for this summer...I can't believe we are old enough to have these adorable little kids and be planning our 10 year reunion!

And I thought this was a fun picture b/c it shows all three kids together. There is R and his mommy on the left, K and I, and E and his mommy on the right. The boys were born only a week apart and E was born on K's 8 month birthday! (Wow, I feel like I am on an alphabet episode of Sesame Street...sorry if all the letters are confusing!)

Thanks for the wonderful weekend everybody! It was so fun to catch up with you all! K keeps talking about the boys and asking when they are coming again. :)

Lambin'

Noni and Papa's sheep are lambin' once again. They have eleven new babies! K just loves to go out to the barn and help Noni feed the sheep, and she does a pretty good job. The little ones aren't as skittish and let you pick them up.

They are so funny to watch. They jump and frolic around and butt their heads together. So cute!

I think this little one was only a day or two old.

So long folks. We're going to frolic off into the sunset. :)

P.S. I think I had the settings on the blog set so that people couldn't comment anonymously, but I fixed it now.

March Madness

My friend Rachel from http://www.graspingforobjectivity.com/ is hosting a contest for March Madness brackets. She had her daughter, Ali, fill one out and it was so cute I decided to let K do the same. She made her choices this morning during breakfast. Here's a little clip of the action. I'm sure her predictions are going to take it all the way! :)

I don't know if I was even pronouncing it right but she chose Siena and Montana for the championship game with Siena taking it all...and I believe her stellar basketball forecast rests solely on the fact that "Sie-na is my cousin!" And she has a friend named Montana, so we can guess how that one made it to the final game. :) We'll see how her cousin does in college basketball. If you want to play in our tough-competition game, there is already one 2 year old and one 3 year old in there - so don't expect to win :) just go to Rachel's website and fill out your own bracket. Happy picking!

"Laugh With Me!"

I have been meaning to document some of K's funny sayings, but I just haven't gotten around to it. I am going to remedy that today! I have a piece of construction paper in the kitchen where I scribble them down, so I thought I'd better post them before something happens to it. These go back a ways so I'll post the date too.

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October 9th

We went out to dinner and we didn't notice but apparently T had finished his Pepsi b/c the next time the waiter went by she said, "Scuse me!! My Daddy need more Pepsi!"

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October 14th

T was heading out the door for the day and K called out, "Bye honey! Have a good day!" I guess I say that often. :)

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October 19th

We were at the mall that afternoon and K didn't want to ride in the stroller but was having a hard time remembering to stay close to us. I told her if she got too far away again she would have to ride. A few minutes later she was once again running around and darting behind clothes racks. I knelt down and went over the whole safety lecture again and told her she would have to ride in the stroller. She really didn't want to so she put on a big smile and in her sweetest, most convincing voice she said, "I'm sorry Mommy! Thank you for dinner!"

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November 29th

I was telling T about something funny that happened and got tickled. I was laughing so hard that tears started rolling down my face. I was still pregnant with S at the time and I was holding my belly, which was jiggling and making T laugh. Apparently we were getting too carried away because K looked at me with a perplexed expression on her face and said, "Calm down child!"

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December 19th

It was a few days before Christmas and I told K that Aunt Karen was coming in just two days. She jumped up and down and said, "O-tay! I so escited! She nice to me."

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January 1st

This one is the reason for the title. K started saying, "Want to laugh with me?" and then she would proceed to laugh hysterically even though nothing had happened. For weeks she would just randomly stop and say, "Laugh with me!" then double over clutching her stomach and laughing heartily at absolutely nothing. :)

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January 2nd

We were at Grandma and Grandpa's for New Years. K was having so much fun with her cousins that she waited too long to head to the bathroom. She peed all over the floor while trying to get her pants off. I hadn't told her to apologize but when Grandma came down she said, "Damma, I sorry, I pee-pee on your tarpet."

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January 4th

Daddy went into her room because she was still talking in bed at 9:00p.m. He told her to stop talking and go to sleep. She promptly responded with, "No thanks Daddy. I don't need to sleep."

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January 8th

I had been nesting like crazy and K, of course, watches everything I do with observant eyes. I didn't realize how much so until she started taking things off the shelves at Walmart. When I told her to put them back she said, "I'm organizing Mommy. These shelves need organizing."

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Well, that's all for now. I have some more but this post is getting kind of long. I will do another one soon. K is constantly cracking us up with the things she says and does. Sometimes it is just the tone of her voice or an expression on her face. Last night during bath time I told her to stand up so I could wash her booty. Usually she grabs on to the edge of tub so she doesn't fall, but last night she turned around and put her arms on the wall like a criminal who has just been told to "spread em". T and I both burst out laughing. She definitely makes life amusing!

Simply Unpredictable

Toddlers are so unpredictable sometimes. Case in point: One of K's jobs is to feed Webster every day. We have Izzy's food in a bin, but we leave Webby's puppy food in the bag in the laundry room. I was nursing S the other day when this conversation took place...

K: "Webby need food Mommy."

Me: "Okay, go ahead and get him some."

She skips off to the kitchen to get his bowl.

A few minutes later she comes back.

K: "Mommy, I spilled."

Me: "Okay, well go pick it up and then put his bowl in the kitchen, please."

K: "Okay!"

She skips off again.

By this time I'm done feeding S. Assuming that K has things under control I go and change the baby's diaper. At this point T walks in the door, just getting back from baseball practice. He heads toward the kitchen. He's comes into the nursery a few minutes later.

T: "Have you been in the laundry room?"

Me: "No, why?"

T: "You better come see for yourself."

We walk into the kitchen and look through the door to find this...

"Mommy, I spilled" may have been an understatement.

She has performed this chore over a hundred times, but the unpredictability of living with a toddler decided to come to the fore today.

Thankfully Daddy helped her clean up the mess and I didn't have to deal with it. Oh the joys of parenting. :)

Smarter than your average bear?

I have always said that K got her Daddy's intelligence. I mean, I'm not stupid...I was in a gifted class in elementary school, but I also know that T is on a whole other level. In school when we would study he would only have to go over something once or twice and it stuck with him, whereas I had to spend a little more time on it so I am pretty sure that K got his brains. Often times I am astonished and a little bit frightened of how darn smart she is. We admit to being biased in thinking our kids are adorable and brilliant, but K seems to honestly be above average.

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My first clue was when she learned her letters at 18 months, and I didn't even have to teach them to her. I think she just picked them up from the several ABC books we had, but I never actually went over them with her.

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I have been trying to get her to write lately, but she's had absolutely no interest...until a few weeks ago. I have been making the little dashed lines for her to copy for ages and she would never even attempt it. Then when we were making Daddy and Papa's birthday cards she just all of the sudden went for it. This was her first attempt...pretty legible! Only the Y is unrecognizable since she crossed the top as well. :)

But the thing that really freaked me out was her "reading". She started "reading" books to S the other day. These were all books with one word that matched the picture so she was able to read through it just fine, but then one night I was reading to her before bed and there was a stop sign on the page. She pointed to it and said, "sss-tuh-ah-puh STOP!" I thought, okay, she just recognized the stop sign.

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She knows all of the letter sounds so that wasn't too shocking, but then we read a little further and she sounded out and said the word "Plop" and then "Bonk" and finally "Crash". I was flabbergasted. Surely she couldn't have accidentally done all those ones. This was one of our new books so I knew she couldn't have had it memorized. Since then we have been trying out all sorts of words and I have to admit that she is pretty darn close to reading. She can sound out anything and most of the time she figures out what it is.

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Not even three and she's already almost reading! She definitely got her Daddy's brains. Scary. How am I supposed to keep up with this kid??? Of course every time I try to take a video the skill somehow vanishes. This one below is the best I have gotten so far. She was reading several words for Noni and Papa so I ran and got my camera, but of course once I turned it on she stopped doing it. She does not like to perform unless it is on her own terms. :)

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Hopefully I'll get a better video soon, but for now I'll leave you with this one...she really doesn't sound anything out in it, but you get the idea.

P.S. She learned her letter sounds from a video. It's the Leap Frog Letter Factory. She got it for her birthday from her friend Rowen last year. I would definitely recommend it! It's only half an hour and it teaches the letter sounds in a fun, cute way.

Wordless Wednesday - Twirlin'

Photoshoot

We had a photoshoot a couple of weekends ago. We had decided not to have professional pictures done, but then I saw some awesome pictures on a friend's blog...and since we'd had pictures done of K when she was a newborn we changed our minds and decided to go for it.

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My friend's brother, TJ, is a photographer and has a studio set up not too far away from here. He is going to school and not doing too much photographing right now, but he agreed to do a photoshoot for us.

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He is AMAZING! Seriously. I cannot say enough good stuff about him. Besides his obvious talent, he had great...I want to say bedside manner, but that's probably not right. Haha. He was totally relaxed and let us go at our own pace: changing clothes, nursing the baby, and anything else we needed to do. K was very uncooperative, and yet he managed to get a ton of adorable pictures of her! It was great. I was going to put up a link to his website but that kind of kills the anonymity I've been going for on this blog. If you'd like the link or any more info just let me know. I'll put it up on Facebook.

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Okay, well I'll stop talking now and get to the good stuff. :)

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Look at these sweet little feet. I love baby feet.

She looks so serious in this one, but I love how it captures her face.

Grabbing Daddy's finger. :)

Smiling up at Mommy.

More of the serious face. She is very intent when she looks at things. You can just see her trying to figure it all out.

Our two dimple-girls. :)

I think this is my favorite picture of K. I love it.

Although this one is pretty darn cute too. He really captures her joy and her zest for life. She doesn't do anything half-heartedly. Every thing, every emotion, is full out 100% all the time.

Hard to believe she didn't want to take pictures isn't it! I have no idea how he got so many cute shots!

I love this one.

And I love this one too, even though K is making a funny face. It's just so much like her that it makes me laugh. :)

Daddy giving kisses. :)

Me trying to get a smile out of her.

And a family shot.

These are just a some of the wonderful pictures he did for us. I did just realize there are a few more of K that I want to put up. I'll have to save that for another day though. So if you want some awesome family pictures, just let me know and I'll get you TJ's info. We highly recommend him!

Growin' Fast

I can't believe how fast S is growing! She has already changed so much. She is really starting to gain a lot of head and body control. She holds her head up for long stretches during tummy time, and she is already standing up on our laps when we hold her (for ten seconds or so). Here is a quick video of her. I could sit and stare at her sweet little face all day. I have to force myself to get up and do stuff. It goes by so quickly; I don't want to miss anything! :)

"Ithe cweam"

I wanted to get a video of K saying ice cream b/c I love the way she says it. She says it quickly in this first one but I had to post it b/c of the look on her face...you'll see what I mean. :)

Here she says it a couple of times. I love the way she pronounces things. I have a list of her pronunciations at different ages, but I like to get videos too so I can watch her try to wrap her little mouth around those words. :)

Wordless Wednesday

Cousins

We had a great time at the farm this weekend celebrating T's birthday and meeting our newest nephew. He is SO adorable! And so little! S is exactly three weeks older and also three pounds heavier! He was only 6lbs. 14 oz. when he was born and she was 8lbs. 3 oz. so she had a head start. Grandpa got out his grain scale and we weighed the babies. S is already 10 and 1/2 pounds! She's a growing girl! I have always wanted to weigh, nurse, and then weigh again to see how much milk a baby is actually getting. I was able to do it twice and both times she gained 4 oz. after eating. Very interesting!

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Well, without further ado here are the two newest members of the family!

W is already trying to get away...those girls and their cooties! :) Check out all that blonde hair! I have never seen a newborn with such long hair before...they actually had to cut it away from his ears for him to get the hearing screening done at the hospital! He's already looking like a snowboarder!

It was so fun to have all the cousins together! (K had to have a baby to hold too:)

The oldest and youngest girl cousins.

E was so sweet with the babies! I didn't really expect a (nearly) four year old boy to be interested in babies, but he thought they were pretty cool. He wanted to hold W and then he came up to me and said, "Can I hold the girl baby now?" :)

Grandma and Grandpa had a fun surprise for the kids...they turned one of the closets into a set of bunkbeds! What a fun idea! The kids absolutely loved it and it's perfect b/c we are starting to outgrow the five bedroom house! So now when we are all over S and E get to sleep in these fun beds and when we aren't Grandma can just close the doors and they are out of the way!

I think the kids played in there more than they did with all of Grandma's fun toys!

Grandma made us all a delicious birthday dinner. T requested Hawaiian lentils. I had never had lentils before. They were...interesting. Kind of like beans but they look almost like peas split in half. Grandma also made sweet and sour chicken...yum! And T asked for an apple crisp instead of a cake. It was delicious! K helped him blow out the candles and open his presents. :)

The other day Babies R Us had their jammies on sale so we got matching ones for our girls. We thought our sleepover at Grandma's was the perfect time to put them on.

I wanted to grab an informal pictures of all of us before we dispersed. I thought we would all fit on the stairs nicely, but it was a tight fit! It's really fun, though, that we are getting so big that it's hard to find room to take a group picture! With the two new babies we now number 13!

Thanks for a fun weekend everybody!