Sweetheart

There is just no better way to describe Isaac. He is just a sweetheart. He is so thoughtful to all of his siblings. He makes Hannah special pictures and valentines. He is sure to give Genna her favorite purple plate and flower spoon whenever he is setting the table. Anytime I hand one of his stuffed animals to Drew while I am reading Isaac his bedtime story, he is quick to say that he can keep it as long as he wants and then give it back one day. He is constantly trying to impress his daddy. As for me, I get the best part...all the cuddles, kisses, and You're beautiful's a mom could ask for. Sweetheart.

Of course, he has his boyness too. He was playing Peter Pan with a little boy before Hannah's piano, and the moms started talking about boys and their affinities for weapons. I said, "Yeah, he loves guns, swords, and bow and arrows." Isaac stopped playing, comes over, taps me, and says, "Don't forget axes and spears, Mom." See what I mean. Quite the boy.

He is very curious about how things work as well. He had a doctor appointment for a chronic rash around his mouth. Don't know if you have noticed it in any of the pictures for the last few months. I originally thought it was dry skin and have tried every thick cream I could think of, but it was to no avail. He asked the doctor a hundred questions about the swab she was using to get a culture. Curious and a little smarty pants.

Don't forget funny. His facial expressions alone generate a lot of laughter. (Ironically, that's what his name means.) Remember his funny words. We have a few new ones. He says cabinets instead of magnets. When he counts in Spanish, he says saco instead of quatro. And he says tractor instead of chapter. Funny guy.

And boy, I love him.

Drew's 5 1/2 Month Update

The last two weeks have been good. He started sleeping through the night again and only had two days where he woke up before 5:30am and didn't go back to sleep quickly on his own.

Developmental stuff: He is sitting up unassisted for very brief times before he will tip over which is pretty much what Isaac was doing at 5 1/2 months. Although I did not ever realize when this started he is transferring toys between hands. I am sure I just missed this milestone a long time ago, but I just noticed it.

Air travel: This was his second big trip since he was born. This was his first flight and he did great! Both flights he fell asleep at take off. The first flight he was startled awake after a short 40 minute nap and was not too happy so I nursed him and then he was good to go. The return flight was even better because he stayed asleep the whole time (just an hour) and I got to read a book. Can you believe it? Going through security with just a baby is amazingly easy to me now, but I remember when the whole flying experience was stressful even when we just had Hannah. Experience and perspective does wonders!

Sleeping/schedule while traveling: This is always the dreaded part for me. It is just a pain to constantly rework schedules mentally as the days progresses and to worry about him waking up our hosts at night. This is really just a me problem though because really my babies usually do fine. He rolled with the punches and got 3 or 4 naps a day depending how the day went as far as activities that interrupted his naps. He had the most trouble sleeping while we were in Indiana due to the time change(1 hour back) and the close quarters where he had to nap. He was frequently woken up after only 45 minutes when we were at Grandma Bess' room. In the morning on Ash Wednesday, he woke up at 4am (which was 5am in his little internal clock) despite me trying to keep him awake later the night before.

My biggest problem is this transition to 3 naps a day. He can stay awake for two hours, but that is it, absolutely no more. So my problem arises from his early morning wakings even though I am getting used to them. Here's an example day if I let him take two hour naps (which puts him on a 4 hour between feedings schedule)...

If he wakes at 5:30am
nap @ 7:30am
wakes @ 9:30am
nap @ 11:30am
wakes @ 1:30pm
nap @ 3:30pm
(Here is the problem. This is supposed to be the evening 45 minute catnap, but it isn't evening, nor is it early enough for an evening catnap to come later on. Big problem, this means a much later bedtime and moving to a less than 3 hour between feedings schedule for the rest of the evenings.)
wakes @ 4:14pm
nap @ 6:15pm
wakes @ 7pm
bedtime @ 9pm

To head this problem off, if he wakes at 5:30am and I nurse him at that time, I have to wake him at each nap after 1 1/2 hours and go with a 3 1/2 hour schedule for the majority of the day. I shorten his wake times towards the end of the day and end up at a 3 hour schedule then. The main problem with this is that he seems disinterested in at least one feeding a day when he's on a 3 1/2 hour schedule (i.e. nursing 6 times a day instead of 5.)

If he wakes at 5:30am
nap @ 7:30am
wakes @ 9am
nap @ 11am
wakes @ 12:30pm
nap @ 2pm
wakes @3pm
nap @ 5pm
wakes @5:45pm
bed time @7:45pm

So you can see that it lends itself to a better bed time with the adjustments. However, who wants to wake their baby after 1 1/2 hours when they could go 2? It is hard to make yourself do that. When he sleeps until 6:30am, which he does some weeks/days then it is possible to do a 4 hour routine all day and still end up with a reasonable bed time.

He's still smiley and easy going unless he is overly tired. He will go to anyone with not an ounce of stranger anxiety yet.

New introductions: The sippy cup! He is trying out water in the sippy cup. I usually introduce this at 4 months but waited until after this trip on purpose. One less thing to travel with, you see. At the hotel, I did mush up banana and let him suck it off my finger. He loved it and kept diving for my fingers to jam them in his mouth. In a couple weeks, Drew will be trying his first bites of baby cereal. I am gearing up for homemaking his cereal like I did for Genna. Maybe. I think. Almost surely. Time just flies by, doesn't it?

Vacation Part Two: Great-grandma Best's House

On Tuesday we hit the road for about 4 hours to Valparaiso, Indiana to visit Brian's grandmother. Grandma Bess has acquired the nickname Great-grandma Best because the kids just thought that's what we were saying when we talked about her. We haven't seen her since we last drove down from New York when Genna was just about to turn one year old. Our family has grown a lot since then and Grandma Bess was delighted to have us visit. She is 98 years old and, you wouldn't know it the way she gets around and remembers things. She does have trouble hearing a bit, so the kids had trouble speaking loud enough for her to hear. She gave us the tour of her retirement home and introduced us to everyone. She is a popular lady over there! She even made us hot lunches both days we were there. She's pretty amazing!

Drew gave her a run for her money with his heavy, wiggly self, but she managed to hold on to him. This is a great photo of the two of them!

The onsite beautician gave the kids some balloon bracelets and little toys which was very sweet. She was in the middle of doing someone's hair and she ran out to meet the kids and give them these things. She even made a mo-hawk out of the lady's hair (who was getting her hair washed at the time) to get some giggles from the kids.

Poppy flew in to see his mom and his new grandson who he hadn't met yet.

We shared two hotel rooms and with the exception of Drew it was boys in one room and girls in another. Drewy actually had his own private room, AKA a big bathroom. Look how big he is compared to Genna.

The trip, as a whole, was great despite the car trouble Brian had both coming and going.

Vacation Part One:Nanna's House

We have been on vacation this past week. We were making the rounds to see some of Brian's family. I flew with Drew and, brace yourself, Brian drove the other three kiddos for eight hours. He says this is no big deal, but many a mom and dad would disagree. They took me to the airport and went shopping and to dinner, then they went to the girls' basketball game. The next morning bright and early (5am) they left for Cincinnati, Ohio. They arrived just after noon. Of course, I gave him permission to do movies as much as he wanted. After they had breakfast, the endless movies began. I taught Hannah and Genna how to use the DVD players. (I know its kind of weird that they can't work electronic stuff,but we don't use them often and until now there has been no need to teach them.) I had the car ready and packed minus one last minute bag with a list of what needed to be thrown in last minute. Super Dad saves the day again! I definitely got the easy part of this deal. Flying with one baby is a piece of cake after all the flights I have made by myself with the three kids.

So in Ohio, we visited Brian's mom, AKA Nanna. Genna fell in love with her dog, Sadie, and has been asking for another dog at our house. Ummmm...No.

We went to the Dayton Chidren's Museum with some friends of Nanna and their kids. They had a great time there, but what I loved is how much they enjoyed the African room. No one was even in there and our friend was teasingly saying it must be the most unpopular exhibit. Since we have been studying ancient Africa so much this year we took a peak anyway and to their delight they had a mummy on exhibit! They have been begging me to take them to see a mummy, and I have just not been able to gear myself up for a trip to Baltimore with the four of them. So they got to see their mummy and some other artifacts from ancient Africa. We read every single thing written in that room. Love it when they enjoy learning! Of course, most of the museum was just fun stuff with a twist of learning in the mix.

Nanna's friends have a family nearly a mirror image of ours. Our four kids each had a playmate within 6 months of their ages. We became fast friends with the whole family. They took us to their Catholic Church for Mass on Sunday and hosted us for multiple dinners. Here are the kids all together, except for the babies who were alternating naps in the crib.

Just Girls

Just Boys

Nanna just moved into her house recently so Brian and I helped her a bit getting some things settled. I think everyone enjoyed themselves.

Bedtime Songs

Isaac still wants me to sing to him before he goes to sleep for nap and night times. He was hung up on "Rock-a-Bye I love you," an original song he changed from "Rock-a-Bye Baby," for a long time and then he switched to "Joy to the World" for all of Advent and Christmastime. After that came "Hush Little Baby." One night when I just finished singing the line, "And if that looking glass gets broke, Momma's gonna buy you a billy goat," he covered his ears. I stopped and asked if he didn't like my singing. He said, "No, I just don't want to hear the next part when something bad happens to the goat." I smiled and said, "Oh, you don't like it when the goat falls down? Well, we can fix that." So hence another song has been changed to fit my son's taste. The new version of the song continues, "And if that billy goat falls down and gets right back up, you'll still be the sweetest little boy in town."

Drew's Debut

I just thought this was cute so I grabbed the camera. I love baby talk and especially Drewy's baby sighs and sweet sounds.

Daddy is famous!

The kids think their daddy is the greatest. I mean THE GREATEST EVER. They always talk about how wonderful daddy is, especially the girls. Isaac, of course, is always saying his dad can kill such and such monster and all that boy stuff. I give Brian a hard time about this. What? Daddy hung the moon sixteen times, and mommy is chopped liver? Secretly though, I love it. I love that they think he is the best because I do too. He has truly blossomed as a father and surpassed all my expectations. We are so blessed to have him.

So, the background for this story is Genna has a daddy doll from when he was gone for a year. It is basically a pillow with a picture of him on it. She is the only one who chose to get the doll. Hannah picked out a t-shirt for her Pooh Bear with a picture of herself and her daddy on it. Isaac was a baby and I picked out a lovey blanket for him with the two of them on it. The other day, they were all wanting a turn with it and we were trying to work out a sharing plan when Genna busts out with a question. "Daddy must be famous to have a doll made of him." After Brian and I cracked up laughing, I told her, "Yes Genna, everyone has a doll of your daddy because he is so famous." Why burst her bubble?

Funny words

My mom was really great at writing in our baby books, especially all the words we messed up consistently. I am in the middle of catching up on all the baby books, putting in pictures and writing in weights, etc. It got me thinking about the kids' funny words. I know I talk about Genna's funnies all the time, but the other two have a couple too.

Hannah still says "mow lawner" instead of "lawn mower." I am starting to wonder how long she will get this one backwards.

Both girls used to say "back and forest" instead of "back and forth."

One of my favorite mess ups of Isaac's is for porcupine, he says "pikeyporn." The whole family loves to hear him say "girl" because it either sounds like "gail" or "gor." He also says "Legogas" instead of "Legolas" from Lord of the Rings. Speaking of, here he is pretending to be Legolas. The paddle and ball is his bow and arrow and the chair is is horse, of course. He hasn't seen the movie, but he listens to dad read to the girls sometimes and the girls play Lord of the Rings all the time now and tell him what to do.

Such a boy!

22 Weeks/5 months old

Yesterday, Drew turned 5 months officially, and like every mom that ever lived, I cannot believe it!

And today he is 22 weeks and Happy Valentine's Day to you all!

"Okay, Ill take the fingers out for one picture."


Drew's baby push ups have been surprising his siblings. Daddy thinks he is going to crawl, but I know better. Isaac was doing the same thing at this age and didn't crawl for a good while.


Drew got a bad rash all over his body this week, on maybe Wednesday or Thursday. He was having patches on his knees and elbows, and suddenly it was all over him. I switched from Aquafor and Cetafil to Aveeno Overnight Relief cream and Eucerin on Friday.

Due to his bad excema, I changed his overnight swaddle this week from the Miracle Blanket to the Woombie. He was getting a bit sweaty in the tight wrap of the Miracle Blanket no matter how lightly I dressed him and how low I turned the heat overnight, and it was adding to his skin issues. So we switched on Thursday night. I was hesitant because I do not like change and I thing I get more attached to his routines than he does. I have always dreaded changing anything for babies, but it has to be done. Usually I go gradual on changes to make myself feel better, but there was no way to do this gradually and it had to be done to keep him comfortable. Turned out it was fine.


He is still a loud little monkey, probably our loudest yet. Also, there has been no progress on the rolling from back to tummy or sitting without pushing his legs out and falling back. Isaac started sitting a bit and rolling from back to tummy shortly after he turned 5 months. Drew is also still nursing 6 times a day and napping 4 times, but I am going to try dropping 1 of each this week and see how it goes.

"I think I am pretty cute. Whadya think?"

Valentine's stuff

We have been doing valentine's stuff the whole month of February. Here's what we've been making...

These valentine rice crispy treats were so good! I found this idea here. The foam valentines came from kits I got at Micheal's on sale. Isaac enjoyed the robots and was able to do them by himself once I showed him where all the parts go.

Genna made these butterfly pop valentines for her Best Friend's of Jesus club. I did not get creative here. The ideas for these came from Skip to my Lou. I needed something we could make 22 of and not spend hours and hours on them. I had them printed on colored paper and all they had to do was cut, sign, and assemble them. We did these and Hannah's (below) in stages. I helped cut out a bit because their poor hands were aching.

Hannah's flower pop valentines were for the same club, and also not my original idea.

Hannah coloring some valentines her Mimi sent her and Genna.

Heart shaped peanut butter banana bread muffins

The Seconds

My second born daughter and my second born son are just the sweetest together.

Drew's looking more like Isaac everyday. I'll have to do another comparison post to show the similarities.

Genevieve's sweet spirit brings tears to my eyes.

Makes laundry a little more fun

...and reminds me why I do eight loads (that makes it 1 1/3 loads per person) of laundry a week happily.

Well, mostly happily! I'm not crazy!

"Who's decision is it when I can't talk?"

That's the question Isaac asked me when he was having trouble falling asleep tonight. It took me several re-phrasings of this question to figure out what he was asking. It turns out he was worrying about who will call 911 if he can't talk. This was spurred on by part of his lesson today when we had to discuss what to do under certain bad circumstances, like a fire or mommy getting sick or hurt where I can't talk. I showed him our panic buttons on our alarm system and how to dial 911. Hopefully, I stressed enough that it is only if mommy, Hannah, and Genna can't talk that he is allowed to do that. That's our sequence of responsibility (when daddy isn't home, of course.) So he was just wondering who was going to call for him. Cute! I told him that, of course, I would always take care of him and call the police or ambulance if he needed me to do so.

My favorite mom books

Babywise by Gary Ezzo:
Although I do not follow them to a T, the schedules and possible solutions for sleep troubles have been so helpful to me. Teaching a child to self sooth to sleep is such a valuable skill, especially when you have lots of little ones and you can't spend the whole day rocking your baby. I have referenced this book more times than I can count with each child.

Babywise II by Gary Ezzo:
I have not refreshed myself on this one with Drew yet since we still have a few month until it is relevent, but I know there are many per-discipline ideas that were very helpful to me. I especially loved the idea of Blanket Time and it was very helpful with Isaac.

Childwise by Gary Ezzo:
I love this book and is is always inspiring to me to reread sections of it. Although I find it lacks in actual specific and tangible consequences in some areas and it presupposes that certain techniques eliminate all future problems, the founding of moral character utilizing the Socratic method makes it a very inspiring book. I think sometimes we busy moms get caught up in the Don't do that's, the Stop it's, and the Leave your brother alone's that we forget that teaching them why we don't do that or should stop it is what actually teaches them not to do it again and again and again. The author says it all comes down to the Golden Rule, but even more specifically I think it all comes down to two verses in the Bible:

Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self seeking, and it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13 something)

Children obey your parents in all things for this is well pleasing to the Lord.

Sorry I don't know the exact references and am too lazy to look them up on Google right now. But you get the point, nearly every child's offense boils down to one or both of these verses. So my kids (obviously, not Drew) have these memorized and I try to have them tell me which of these verses (and which parts) they did not follow when they are in trouble. It takes a lot of time. It is not easy, but it is so worth it.

Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron:
I got this book with Genna because Hannah had such a hard time moving away from baby food and eating food with the family. It takes time to prepare these foods and I do not do 100% natural stuff like the author does. But there is a lot to be taken from this book. I did the cereals from scratch with Genna, but not with Isaac. I still haven't decided about how much I will make from scratch for Drew.

Signing Smart with Babies and Toddlers by Michelle Anthony:
Love, love, love this method of introducing sign language to your baby. I read several book son baby sign language before finding this one and it is so much more practical. This book tells you how to get your baby to look at you when you are signing and speaking. It tells you when the best times are to sign with your baby and even gives different ways to sign when your hands are somewhat full and when your child is looking at the book you are reading to him.

Your Baby's Health:
This book has calmed my fear time after time and kept me from wanting to run to the ER when I could wait until the next day to see a doctor. It has practical guides that tell you how soon you should see a doctor when your baby has a certain list of symptoms.

La Leche League's The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding:
This book doesn't need any explanation. If you breastfeed at all, it is a must read.

If you are considering homeschooling and thinking you can't do it, I recommend A Mother's Rule of Life by Holly Pierlot. This book gave me the courage to try homeschooling and got me excited about it when it wasn't what I had always pictured us doing. The Well Trained Mind: A Guide to a Classical Education by Susan Wise Bauer is also a wonderful read.

Books I just ordered for my birthday and am looking forward to reading:

Shepherding a Child's Heart by Ted Tripp

Large Family Logistics by Kim Brennemen

After Miscarriage: A Catholic Woman's Companion to Healing and Hope by Karen Edmisten

Brothers

Isaac still is loving his baby brother. He doesn't run around introducing him to everyone now though. We have settled into a new normal.

Secret confession: Drew seems to prefer Hannah over the rest of the siblings. She has a magic touch with babies. He gets visibly excited when he sees her. At Mass last Sunday, Brian corrected Hannah for playing with Drew when really he was laughing at her for no other reason than that she looked at him.

Funny pictures of the two of them...

Believe it or not, he was going in for a kiss on the head.

Sir Isaac Newton's a little bit of a weirdo, huh?