4 Months Old

Christian turned four months old last week and he's doing great. He's starting to sleep better at night, which has been a big, big blessing. We've had 3 nights this week where he's slept through until 5am. Yay for sleep!
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As for the stats: Height - 24 3/4 in (50%), Weight - 14 lbs 2 oz (25-50%)

He's a very happy baby. Very smiley, very quick to laugh. He loves his siblings and would often rather watch them play than anything else, even eat. He started eating rice cereal this week and has done better with it than my other two did. Benjamin batted at everything and refused to let me put it in his mouth. Bella made the funniest disgusted faces when she started eating solids. Christian, however, just seemed intrigued and a bit confused about what I was doing to him. Most everything went in and poured right back out, but he did manage to swallow a few times. Definitely a good sign.

We are hoping for a white Christmas. We made snow paint the other day (water mixed with food coloring in a squirt bottle) and had a great time coloring the back yard. Yesterday we went to the playground and had a blast sliding down the snowy slides and slipping off the icy merry-go-round. What we need is some more snow so we can rebuild our sad snowman that collapsed when the snow melted a bit and now lies on his back in our yard.



Bella's early Christmas present from a friend of mine: her first dress-up dress. She wears it EVERY day. Benjamin's swim goggles are an occasional accessory only, but I couldn't pass up the chance for a picture.


We want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Oral Fixation and the Witching Hour

Two things have been coming to my attention more and more lately. Just thought i'd share. First: my kids are horribly orally fixated and I'm not sure if it's normal or what. Nearly any time they're alone, they pop something inedible in their mouths - legos, polly pocket accesories, styrofoam packing chips, etc. The phrase, "Spit that out!" is one of our most common phrases around here. The other day Benjamin had a lego in his mouth and I demanded he spit it. The moment it hit the floor, Bella ran by, picked it up in mid-sprint and popped it in her mouth as she ran for safety. Ewwwww! What is wrong with my children?? I have an infant, but it's my four year old that can't keep the legos out of his mouth. What is wrong with this picture? I only hope they outgrow it.


Second: the horrid witching hours from 5-7pm can sometimes we as hard as the whole rest of the day combined. Case in point - last night. I sent the older 2 downstairs to watch an episode of Kipper while I made dinner. As soon as I started to cook, Christian started to cry. So I tried to feed him, but he was squirmy and fussy and wouldn't eat. So I set him back down and went back to cooking. He cried and cried the entire time. It took me just over 15 minutes to cook dinner and he cried so hard the entire time that he puked all over himself - and continued crying! Just as I finished dinner and tried to clean him up, Bella came up to me crying because she'd finished watching tv and wanted to put on her pajama but her pajama was inside out and it was the worst thing ever and she was never going to be able to wear that pajama ever again!! So I asked her to bring me her pajama and as she does, I hear "Bam! Waaaaaa!" and in runs Benjamin, who'd decided that spinning circles in the living room would be fun - except that he was really too tired and he lost his balance and slammed his head on the corner of the piano bench. Oh the blood!!! It went all over the floor, him, me, Christian's bouncer seat, etc. It was literally squirting in an arc at times. I grabbed a dishtowel and applied pressure for a minute or two to slow it down, the whole time thinking, "Who could I call to watch Christian and Bella while I run him to the ER?" However, once the bleeding slowed, I could see that the wound wasn't big enough to require stitches. All this withtin minutes and all within the witching hours, as I've come to call them. Those hours between 5pm and bedtime (about 7:30) are the worst! I try never to be out during those hours. I got an invitation today to a playdate with a child from Benjamin's school who wanted to meet at the play place at the mall at 6pm next week! I thought she was kidding at first. Start a playdate at 6pm? Am I the only one who thinks that sounds like a horrible idea? We have more meltdowns, tantrums, and crying at that time than any other time of day. And yet I see gymnastics classes offered at 5:30pm and storytimes at 7pm. I guess working parents have to be considered, but as for me and my house, we retire at 5pm and will not be seen later than that.

Okay, off to bed, just needed to get some things out.

Sleep vs. Blogging

This is probably the longest I've gone without blogging, but I had a really good reason: chronic, debilitating sleep deprivation. Every day Bella's dolls are Mommy and Bella. Mommy is always sleeping and alternatingly screaming at Bella that "you woke me up! I'm still tired! Go away and let me sleep!" Although I don't think I've ever come off that harsh in real life, I'm definitely struggling. Being woken up 2-3 times a night by an infant, a few times during the week by the other two, and then having them jump on my bed at the crack of dawn demanding, "What are you going to make for breakfast? Will you play with me?" makes me place a much higher priority on getting to bed than posting some pictures on my blog.

Funny story some of you have already heard that illustrates how sleep deprivation affects the mind: I had a moment to myself while the kids were downstairs and I thought, "I'm hungry, I should eat something." Sidenote: studies show that people who are sleep deprived have decreased levels of chemicals that signal satiety, so they tend to be hungrier often and over eat much more than people who get enough sleep. Combine that with nursing and I'm pretty much hungry all the time. Anyway, so I'm hungry and I get some leftovers out of the fridge and pop them in the microwave. Hit the 30 second button and step away. Then I think, "I'm hungry, I should eat something." Open up the fridge again to get something and hear the microwave beep. "What's in the microwave?" I wonder. "Who put something in there?" I open it up and then I remember - the leftovers! The leftovers I'd put in there 30 seconds earlier! I'd forgotten them. This is just one of many examples I could share of how dumb I've become, but sadly I've forgotten the rest. ;)

However, setting short term memory loss, irritability, mood swings, and shortened attention span aside, I'm doing great, so I thought I'd take a quick moment and post some recent pictures.

We got a bumbo-type seat for Christian that's become our new best friend. On the floor in his bouncer seat he would cry and cry, but place him in his seat on the table (I know - don't lecture me on the dangers of falling - I never place him near the edge and he's never in it unless we're sitting at the table - I promise!) and he's happy as can be. So he's our centerpiece at every meal and pretty much any time we're doing anything there - play-doh, coloring, working on the computer, etc. He is so happy as long as he's part of the action.



Also, it snowed on Sunday and we made our first snowman and had our first snowball fight. So fun. It was amazing packing snow. It got too heavy and icy by the end of the day but thank goodness for afternoon church because it left us all morning to play. I love snow and cold.

Good News

We finally had some camera luck this week. Our camera eventually did show up at Panasonic's repair facility and we finally got what we thought was our camera back. However, as we excitedly opened the package, we discovered that it wasn't our camera - it was a better one!! My first thought was "Oh no, we're going to have to send it back again, tell them they made a mistake, and wait even longer." However, after looking into it, it was on purpose. They couldn't fix ours, didn't have another like it, so they sent us an upgrade. And what an upgrade! This new camera is worth 3 times what our old one was worth. So nice! We are so happy. So here's a few pics I excitedly took today. I took a ton more but I'm still figuring this fancy thing out so most of them are blurry/too dark/otherwise flawed. Only downside to an expensive camera - I'm going to have to be EVEN more careful with this one!!

Benjamin loves holding Christian and loves playing with him. He's such a great big brother.


Watching his sibs play around.


Bella, in her beloved apron, sneaking some of Benjamin's waffle while she sets the table.

Don't Laugh at my Pickle Nose

Now that Christian is able to hold his head up well and gives such cute smiles, I thought I'd take the kids for some professional photos. Haven't had any since Isabella was Christian's age. I also wanted some pics right now because we still don't have our camera back. (It seems to have been lost in the mail on its way to repair. Grrrrrrrr. We really have no luck with cameras.) The photographer, however, just really didn't click with my kids (ha! click! get it? I know. Not funny.) In my opinion, a HUGE part of being a good photographer at a studio where 99% of your clientele is under 10 years old, is being able to get kids to like you and laugh for you. When you see that something you're doing isn't working, you should have a huge repertoire of gimmicks and move on to something else. Our photographer had only one trick up her sleeve and that was the line, "Whatever you do, don't laugh at my pickle nose." I watched later and this line got other kids cracking up, but my kids took her at her word. She tells them not to laugh, so they don't. Stone faces all around. Instant cold shoulder. Slowly devolving into a complete refusal to even look in her direction. Yikes. I worried the session would be over before it began. Seeing that her line isn't working and that the kids are starting to get really annoyed by her, does she try something else? Does she call in someone else to help? No. She just kept saying it, over and over again, in an ever screechier, ever more obnoxious voice. You could almost hear the desperation in her voice as they stared her down. She finally came up with something new and tried the line, "Does mommy have stinky feet? Ew! Gross! Stinky feet!" Benjamin's response: "No, she doesn't." More stone faces. She momentarily left the room to grab a bean bag for Christian (and tear her hair out, I assume) and I jumped in to give them a pep talk. "I know she's annoying, but she's trying really hard to be nice and we really want these pictures to look good so we can hang them up at home. Please smile for her to make me happy, okay?" The rest of the pictures turned out better. Not great. Very few big happy smiles, but better. Thank heaven. I thought Miss Pickle Nose would doom us. Here are some of the results. My kids really are cute. Serious... but cute.

Another Year, Another Camera

I turned 33 this past weekend. I love birthdays. I love getting older. I love having the day be all about me. :) It also happened to be Halloween, so we had lots going on.

It did start out a little rough, though. Saturday morning, the kids decide play around and take pictures. Benjamin takes a few and passes the camera to Bella. Bella doesn't seem too comfortable with it and I get nervous about how she's handling it so I tell her that I think she's too little for the camera and attempt to take it away. She will have none of that and whips it out of my reach. Out of her reach too. She whips it with such force that it flies out of her hand and onto the ground with the lens still extended. Good bye 4th camera in 2 years. The day before Halloween. Two hours before the Halloween party. The previous three cameras met their demise being dropped in a fountain (by me), being dropped on the floor (that time by Benjamin), and being sat on (by Kelly) We're hard on cameras! Big thanks to Tara for lending me her camera so I at least got a few pictures of my kids in costume this year.

The day improved after that. We attended my gym's Halloween party in lieu of the one at church because the church doesn't understand that sugaring up tiny children at the time when they're normally already in bed is a bad idea. Luckily my gym had their party at 11am, so we had options. I thought my kids looked so cute in their costumes.


And that party rocked. Blow up jump houses (and a blow up dragon!),


lots of games,


pumpkin patch, crafts, rock climbing, stick-on tattoos, food, music, and a trunk-or-treat.


And what Halloween party is complete without a petting zoo?? That was weird, but the kids liked it.



In the evening Kelly and I went out to dinner by ourselves! Yay! That was very nice. And on Sunday morning Kelly got up early and decorated the kitchen, baked a cake, made breakfast, wrapped my presents, and got the kids to make me cards. I got to sleep in a bit and woke up to find the place decked out. So fun. Again, center of attention, very nice. :) No pictures of that day, obviously, but probably for the best since short hair lends itself to some major bed-head! And Kelly got me a toilet for my birthday! Just what I always wanted. No, he's not that lousy of a husband, but he did install a new one this weekend. So exciting for the kids that it might just be the secret to potty training success with Bella! She sat on it twice today - first time in a long time. Maybe that's the secret-she didn't not like toilets, she just didn't like the old one! ;)

In any case, my birthday was a success, and many friends and family sent cards, emails, and gifts, which was wonderful. I am really very blessed. 33 and mother of 3. Amazing. Now I wait patiently for my new camera.

These pics were sitting on my camera and I hadn't posted them. Benjamin is in gymnastics and last week was "family day" when the sibs and parents were allowed to come play too. The place is really cool - the best part being the pit. Benjamin was determined to find the bottom and ended up getting himself and a classmate buried.



It never ceases to amaze me, though, to see how athletic he is. He jumped, climbed, and ran non-stop for an hour. And he's really getting good in his swim class too. So fun to see him excel and to see him so happy.

The Joy of Demolition

I found this idea online and thought it looked fun - making your own wrecking ball. We created tupperware towers and destroyed them with our soccer ball wrecker. It was a bit trickier to maneuver than I'd anticipated, but Benjamin got the hang of it pretty quick and Bella did okay as long as I held the string and pulled it to the correct height and just let her swing the ball. I tried to make it educational by discussing momentum and pendulums and letting them analyze how much to pull up on the string according to where they wanted to hit the tower. In the end, though, the big fun was watching the tupperware containers scatter and then letting Bella use them as "ice skates" as she scooted across the floor with them on her feet. Yes, I washed them before the next use. ;)


We made another trip to Greenfield Village today. We were supposed to meet a friend there but her youngest took an extra long nap and she was never able to make it. (Doesn't that always happen - they nap best when you've got somewhere to go!?)


As we stood in the glass blower shop for nearly 30 minutes watching them make a pitcher, I was reminded of my experience with watching the wallpaper guy at the gym. Benjamin has a fascination with the methods and techniques of various jobs! I asked him every 10 minutes or so, "Do you want to go now?" "No! I want to stay longer!" he say, as he watched in rapt attention. "How can they DO that?!" he'd exclaim in amazement as the hot, soft glass emerged from the ovens. He could have stayed there all day. I finally couldn't stand it any longer and lured him away with the promise of a horse-drawn carriage ride. Even I have my limits.


As a sidenote, I adore the movie Doctor Dolittle - the original 1960s version with Rex Harrison, not the idiotic remake with Eddie Murphy. Somehow my kids and I got on the topic of talking to animals and I mentioned this movie. They were fascinated with the concept so I got it on Netflix and let them watch it. I thought they'd love the animals and the songs, but about 5 minutes into it (and I'd fast forwarded to the first best part), they said, "I don't like this, let's watch Diego." Stomp on my dream, why don't ya? It was my favorite movie as a kid. That and the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and Pete's Dragon, which they've also previously nixed because it was "too scary." So sad. I refused to give up on a classic though, in exchange for yet another episode of Diego, so I basically pulled a "you will watch it and you will enjoy it!" stance and we watched for about 20 minutes before I tired of the whining and turned it off. I'll try again in a few years. Maybe they're too young or maybe I'm the only one who can understand the British accents. Guess I'll have to wait until they're old enough to read subtitles.

Christian's Day

Because this whole week was all about the older kids (as is every week), today I made it Christian's Day. Today we stayed home all day and allowed Christian to live on his own schedule for once. What an incredibly pleasant baby he is when he's not being woken up several times/day or being forced to wait for his milk while we sit in traffic on the freeway for an hour. I was able to feed him when he got hungry and immediately lay him down when he got drowsy and he never cried all day. He smiled and even laughed all throughout the day and we had a wonderful time giving him a bath, playing with him, and cuddling with him. Benjamin also wanted to take some pictures. This is my favorite, followed closely by his picture of Bella (actually smiling!) and his self-portrait.



School, gymnastics, swimming, etc all make a day like this impossible the other days of the week, but maybe Fridays will be Christian's day for a while. It was sorely needed.

Bella's New Look

Bella's always been a little model when it comes to pictures. She loves to strike a pose and smile and say cheese. Today something changed. We went to one of my favorite places - Greenfield Village - and I tried to take some pictures of her. No matter what I said to try to get her to smile, this was the result:


I guess she has entered another phase in her life. She was cracking herself up. Apparently tongues are hilarious. So is spitting. She spit at the librarians earlier this week. Over and over again, each time laughing hysterically. The librarians weren't so amused. Gotta love two year olds.

Full Day

It was a fun, busy day today. It wouldn't be fall in Michigan without a trip to the apple orchard. Benjamin's preschool class took a field trip there today and I brought Isabella and Christian along. It was so fun to see how excited they were about the tractor ride and picking out their own apple. Also, Isabella was convinced she was one of the class. Even when they said that only the preschoolers were to do a certain thing and siblings were to stay with parents, she was bound and determined to participate. As I'm wont to do, I ignored the rules, and let her join in. She sat with them during the presentation and followed her brother everywhere he went. If she'd ever disrupted, I would have taken her out, but she was a perfect little preschooler - even raising her hand to answer questions! :) At one point I overheard a grandma ask, "Is that little girl in the sunglasses in the class? She's so small." No, she just thinks she is.

Afterwards we rushed to Benjamin's gymnastics class and they gave out a coloring sheet at the end which Bella wanted to paint. So we came home and painted. I decided since we'd been to the orchard, we should do a painting related to that. So we made our own orchards by painting the trees and then glueing red tissue paper onto them as apples and apple blossoms. (We did that by wrapping small squares of tissue paper around a pencil eraser and dipping them in the glue.) While we did that, Benjamin asked to go play at McDonalds, so I made them promise not to demand we buy anything there, and we walked over. There were a ton of kids there and they had a blast playing together while I got a chance to rest and feed Christian. Poor neglected third child. This is the place I've found he likes best:


He's not a big fan of his bouncer seat, but he actually fell asleep in his jumperoo shortly after I took this picture. I was commenting to a friend today that with Benjamin I was too inexperienced to recognize his cues early on. Tired, hungry, gassy??? Who knows? My schedule was his schedule and I could have met his needs at all times had I had a clue what they were. Now I'm on the third and I can read him really well. But now I don't have the time to do anything about it! He gets tired and overstimulated while we're at the orchard or while we're at library story time and there's nothing I can do, short of dragging everyone else home. Poor kid.

We got home from McD's just in time to make some dinner and read books before bed. It was a fun day, though. Also, it was the first day that I sported this new look:


I finally did what I've wanted to do for years and years. I got to the point where I so hated my hair that I had nothing to lose. Even if I ended up hating it short, I couldn't possibly hate it more than I already did. Turns out I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE having short hair. I don't really like the way I look with it and I still feel like a total stranger is looking back at me in the mirror, but I LOVE the feel of it and I love the ease of it. I may never have long hair again.

Hobbies

My kids each have their hobbies lately. Benjamin's is building. Whether that's with Jenga blocks, colored foam blocks, legos, or whatever else he finds. He is forever coming to me with his newest creation and describing to me in great detail how it "pooms the bad guys with fire!" or "blasts into space" or "sees when bad guys who shouldn't come in are coming in!" Yesterday during the other twos' naps, he asked me to play with him. So I started doing what I do best - create a perfectly symmetrical, completely non-functional structure. "That's cool! What's it do?" he asked excitedly. Do??? I thought. It does nothing. It just is. See how perfectly symmetrical and pretty it is?? But I looked into his excited and expectant face and I realized I couldn't just say that. So I came up with some grandiose explanation involving rockets, thrust, fire, explosion...you know, all the stuff boys love. "Wow! I want to help!" he shouted. It snowballed from there. Pretty soon we'd used all the blocks in the set and created an entire state-of-the-art defense system, complete with bunker, guard towers, rescue rope, secret passageway, flame thrower, control panels, etc. We both had a lot of fun, but I insisted on taking a picture before he got to kick it all down - the end result of all his creations.


Bella's hobby is cutting paper. She used to have a really hard time handling scissors but she finally got the technique down a few weeks ago and she has become a cutting fool. Every morning she tells me, "I want to cut, mommy!" (Thank heaven there's a comma in that sentence.) That's my cue to retrieve her scissors from the high shelf while she grabs a magazine or two or three from the pile. Then she'll happily sit at the table and cut the magazine to shreds while she waits for breakfast. I'm amazed how long it holds her attention. She really is so cute to watch. Although, beware - I found out that "safety" scissors can actually hurt quite a bit if you try to take the magazines away too early and your daughter isn't ready to quit.

Christian's hobbies are sleeping and eating, but I've also been trying to get him to smile more. The other day as I was getting this picture,


he suddenly pulled one of these:


I was so excited. He's done that more and more lately. I think it transforms his whole face from dazed newborn to charming baby. It's so fun.

And here's a picture I thought was funny. I was trying to get a cute pic of the three of them during tummy time but none quite turned out. However, this one amused me. Benjamin has really been so sweet with Christian from the very beginning. Often holding him or playing with him for long stretches of time. And from what I remember, really, at no time did Bella attempt to crush his head. :)

Now We Just Need to Figure Out How to Stop

All Summer I've had an image in my mind - the image of me, letting go of the back of Benjamin's bike and then standing there cheering and clapping as he rides off sans training wheels. Sunday morning it finally happened. I always take the kids to a playground on Sunday morning before church to get all the extraneous energy out before they're expected to sit still for 3 hours. This week I encouraged Benjamin to bring his bike so we could practice in the big, empty parking lot there rather than our cracked, bumpy, and sloped driveway. After only a minute or two, I experienced the moment I'd been looking forward to. I was so excited! I think almost more than he was! He's been working on it off and on all Summer and this time he finally got all the pieces together and took off. I stood there cheering and photographing and then I heard, "Help! I can't stop!" I got to him just in time to grab his handlebars as he careened into the grass and toppled. I guess that's the next thing to work on! Funny the details you don't include into your dream image. :)


Also, Bella has gotten the hang of her bike. She careens around the neighborhood like a pro now. Before the processes of turning the pedals and steering in the desired direction were tricky, but she's doing great. She also started gymnastics this week. She looked so cute in her leotard that Benjamin insisted on taking a picture. I'm glad he thinks of these things when I don't! It was really fun to be in the class with her. I enjoy the chance for one-on-one time. It's the same mom and tot class I took with Benjamin and it's also interesting to see how different they are in their approaches and abilities. Her first attempt at a somersault involved her belly flopping on the ground and slamming her face into the mat. Not quite, sweetie! ;) She improved quickly, though, and she's a champ on the trampoline! Such fun to see her growing up.


As for Christian, he's spending more and more time awake lately and it's fun to get to know him better. He smiled yesterday for the first time what seemed to be a genuine smile and not just gas. That was fun. He's done it a few more times since too. What a cutie! He's also getting really good at putting weight on his legs and standing up if I hold his torso. He loves tummy time too, but he loves it so much and is so comfortable in that position, that this is often the end result:


So, those are my kids in a nutshell. As for me, I've become a vegetable. Sleep deprivation is hell. Whacky emotions, terrible memory, inability to concentrate or stay on task, falling asleep the moment I sit down, etc. And this is after only 4 weeks? Newborns are so adorable, but the cuteness comes with a price. May he please follow his sibling's examples and start sleeping through the night very soon. And I must say thank you to Kelly for his willingness to take over feedings when I'm too tired to continue. My husband is wonderful.