Smiles, Donuts, and a Chuckle

Bobby smiles in response to you talking to him or smiling at him a lot more often now.  I caught a few on camera this last week.

After Bath Smiles

Hannah took these pictures.

Judah got to have his very first donut while we were on our mini vacation.  He still can't have a lot of them because they have milk products on top of the donut, but he can have plain cake donuts.  I was super excited, and it was kind of a let down.  He didn't even finish it!  What kind of person doesn't finish their donut unless you're on a diet or something?  I was definitely more excited than he was, but if we'd have had to tell him he had to eat cereal while everyone else had a donut he wouldn't have been too happy, I am sure.

Bobby is still doing the little chuckles or giggles, but no huge laughs yet.  It's pretty much adorable.

Right before I took this, he was chuckling at Hannah.  

The Well Check in Triplicate

I got a phone call right before we were headed out to our appointment and I just knew it was the appointment lady trying to reschedule.  When I heard her voice, I said, "Oh no!  Please, don't tell me you're cancelling our three appointments," while adding in my head, "Because I just woke up all the kids and got everyone ready to go."  She explained that they were having a little problem with the A?C working too well.  It was very cold inside.  I asked exactly how cold we're talking...40's, 50's.  She said 60's, and I said,  "We'll bring sweaters.  See you there."

I got approximately five, "Are they all yours?" questions, not counting the one lady's double and triple checking to make sure I understood the question.  "You mean all of them?  You're not babysitting for anyone?"  No, no.  I understand what you are asking.  

The kids behaved nicely.  Judah didn't have any immunizations, but I had told him he would be getting shots and a treat afterwards.  Drew had been super worried about the shots and he had to get two.  Bobby, of course, had a ton of them.  While we were in the immunizations waiting room, Judah was begging for a shot and Drew was begging not to make him get any shots.  It was quite the entertainment for the other patients.  Hannah held Bobby (because he had fallen asleep on me) while I took Drew in for his shots.  Genna pushed Judah around in the Bobby's stroller, and Isaac came in to read to Drew to help distract him.  Drew had asked him to do that.  I was very proud of my sweeties for all helping out with the younger ones.  Drew was over it quickly and I bought them all Sonic slushies for being so good (since there is a relatively new Sonic up near the doctor and that is my favorite place ever!)  Bobby had a rough day, sleeping most of the day, but waking up screaming randomly.  I was wearing him in my linen wrap most of the day since we were at co-op and then the fair.

Everyone is in excellent health.  Here are the stats...

Robert Cecil weighed in at 14 lbs even  (91%) and measured 24" (83%) with a head circumference of 40cm (48%.)

Judah weighed in at 29.4 lbs (63%) and measured 34.4" (42%) with a whopping head circumference of 51cm (94%) which means he's got a big head on a regular sized body like Genna did.

Drewy weighed in at 40.3 lbs (81%) and measured 43.3" (97%.)

A fair is a veritable smorgasbord orgasbord orgasbord...

Look, the county fair had a truckload special.  $50 per car with unlimited rides for all inside.  I own a twelve passenger van.  I have this learned behavior (from my husband) to be cheap frugal.  I couldn't pass it up.  Despite the fact that I have a two month old, a two year old, and a four year old.  Despite the fact that my husband would be at work and not be able to come.  Despite the fact that we had three well checks for those aforementioned children that morning where immunizations were given out like fortune cookies at a Chinese restaurant.

I obviously didn't think this through, folks.  I went with two friends after co-op (Oh yeah, we had co-op that day too.) and without them I'm not sure how I would have gotten back to my car beast of a van.  Come to think of it, without them Judah might still be stuck in the fun house, unable to climb the rope or find his way back out today and Drew might still be jumping his heart out on the bouncy house.  Obviously, I did not. think. this. through.

So there were three moms with thirteen kids.  We were a little outnumbered that's all.

Here's some of our crew waiting to slide down the tractor slide.

Judah sliding down

I'll take you for a ride on my big green tractor.

Judah is turned around looking for me in the red boat.  A friend's daughter was watching out for him.  I couldn't ride anything because of Bobby being wrapped on my chest.

Drew's in the front of this red boat having a blast.

We split into two groups so that the bigger kids could go on rides that they wanted to go on, but the younger ones weren't tall enough or brave enough for.  I sent Judah into a fun house that had a crazy climbing part that I hadn't noticed at first.  My friend had to go in and rescue him and her own son.

Drew got accidentally poked in his eye by Isaac and his anger management problems surfaced.  When I tried to intervene, he turned on me.  He made a scene.  I had to sit down on the ground holding onto him until he was able to regain his composure.  He had another melt down when I told him that we had to move on from the bouncy house to a new ride.  He first ran back up the slide where he knew I couldn't reach him.  So I waited him out until he thought he was out of the woods and slid down the slide again.  I reach over and grabbed him (Remember I still have a baby strapped on my front!) and picked him up kicking and screaming.  I was getting looks!  I swear people thought I was kidnapping him until he started yelling, "Stop, Mom!"  It was ridiculous!  By this time it is way past dinner time and starting to get crowded from the after school/work crowd.  I am sure that had something to do with this, but still he can't get away with acting that way.  My other friend (You know the one who helped deliver Bobby?  As if she hadn't done enough for me, right?)  took Drew and helped calm him down so the other kids could finish up with their last few rides.  If he had been my first child, I promise you I would have thought I was a failure as a mother.  Thanks be to God, I learned with the first three that every kid has an embarrassing moment in public.  Most kids have many.  Drew is exceptional and has more than many.  I discipline him and strive for consistency just like with the rest of the children, but he takes a lot longer to learn his lessons.

On a brighter note, the kids had a wonderful time.  Isaac got to go on the Ferris Wheel which was his main goal.  Hannah played a game with her own money and won a prize while Genevieve went on the ride that has swings that swing way out as it rotates.  They all shared a funnel cake.  Then we had a long walk back to the cheap seats.  That's where they make you park your vehicle for the truck load sale.  Cheapest trip I'll ever take to the fair.  That's for sure!

Judah wants to be like the big boys.

Judah is very into using the potty right now.  I'm not quite sure if he's ready for actual potty training yet (or maybe I'm the one who's not ready,) but he is asking to go sometimes and is really putting pee and even a little bit of poop in the potty each time. He definitely knows what to do, but I'm not interested in doing this before our move at all.

We were watching the Republican debate with the big kids, and Judah was being silly.

He is also trying to dress himself, mostly unsuccessfully so far.  He wants to squeeze every ketchup bottle and shake every salt shaker himself.  He demands to climb into his own seat and try to buckle it all by himself.  Independence is nice, but at this stage it is so slow.  I have to make myself slow down and give him a chance for all the reasonable things because it is so much easier to do it myself.  How else will he learn?

He's been waking up a little earlier than usual lately, around 6am.  The other day Brian heard him and went in his room to try to lay on the big bed with him and catch a few more z's because Bobby and I were still sleeping.  Brian told me later that he was climbing all over him and getting books to look at, but at some point got really quiet.  Brian lifted his head to look at him.  Judah was crawling over to the door and stood up really quietly, put his hand on the door knob, and then looked at Brian to make sure he wasn't watching.  Well, he was watching; so he let go of the door knob.  Brian asked him what he was doing.  Judah replied, "I was sneaking to Mom's room."  Cutie!

He loves animals.  This is my uncle's dog.

Food Challenge Day!

Friday was Judah's first food challenge.  His allergy numbers didn't get worse so they recommended a food challenge with baked milk.  I was to bake these muffins with a specific recipe (which I remembered at 11pm the night before and mixed up the batch to bake in the morning) and bring them in fresh the morning of the challenge with a hungry Judah (no breakfast.)  We arrived at the hospital at 7:30am.  I was mistaken though and his appointment wasn't until 8:30am so I had a challenge of my own which was to keep him happy until he could get the promised muffins.  He was loudly (but politely at first) asking for a muffin every three seconds.  Some other patients were chuckling because he was asking so cute and I had to keep saying, "When we get in the office, you can have your muffin."  Ten minutes into that things started to dissolve into Hungry Toddler Meltdown City.  ever been there?  It's not a place you want to visit.  Trust me.  I tried distracting him.  After many failed attempts, he allowed me to hold him and walk around looking at all the pictures on the walls.  Bobby was asleep in the stroller, so he was no problem to stroll with us.

Once we finally signed the consent forms and were allowed to eat the muffin, it turned out he could only have a quarter of a muffin for the first 15 minutes.  Then he could have a half, wait fifteen minutes more, etc.  I started to panic thinking I'd be holding a hungry mad little boy, but he listened well to the doctor and waited really well.  He had to get his blood pressure taken each time to get his muffin, so that got him all excited each time.  Apparently, many kids get full and have to be talked into eating more, but not my hungry hippo.  We had to then wait for a total of four hours just to make sure he didn't have a reaction.

Did I mention Isaac and Judah got a haircut on Thursday by me?

He got bored of books and the few toys I brought and we busted out a pencil and old receipt.

After the first quarter he did start to tell me his mouth hurt which made me nervous, but he must have bit his tongue or something in his eagerness to eat that muffin because nothing happened and he was okay.  So he is now cleared to have small amounts of baked in milk AND things processed on equipment with milk.  YAY!  This opens up so much!

There were a couple of other food challenges going on at the same time.  One boy around the age of 10 was there doing a peanut challenge.  His doctor asked if he wanted to pick out a movie and the boy started to walk over to do that.  He got halfway there and turned to me to ask if my son would like to pick one out instead.  What an amazing young man!  It is so rare these days to see such thoughtful consideration for others in young people, and even in older people.  I thanked him, but declined the offer and told him to pick out whatever he wanted.  But it just made my day to see such kindness.

The morning wiped us both out and Judah was asleep before I pulled out of the parking spot.

Drew's Birthday and Party

Drew's 4th birthday was last Sunday and his party was the very next morning.  The four year old privilege is to get out of a car seat and into a booster AND not to have to take a nap.  He can opt for a nap or rest time in his room now.

His birthday morning we went to Mass and he got his birthday blessing from our priest.  Then we came home and opened presents.  He had already opened his gifts from my side of the family at the beach and so he only had a couple to open on Sunday morning.  He got a Mass kit, a Nerf gun, and two painted peg superheros that I painted him.  You can tell what's important in this family...our God and our guns.  :)  And don't forget the superheros!  The children also made him some special gifts.

 He chose to go to Barley and Hops which is our family favorite on Sunday nights because they have two free kid's meals for every one adult meal.  That is a rare thing at restaurants, where we can get four free kid's meals, and it saves us around $25-30.  So, good choice Drew!  I'm not ashamed to say we made the suggestion that we go there.  ;)  They don't sing to the kids there, but they did give him a giant bowl of ice cream for free too.

He's a beautiful boy if you don't mind me saying so.

Monday Brian took off to help me at the birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese.  We chose a Monday morning because I am not a fan of a crowded Chuck E. Cheese and thought most kids would be in school.  Wrong!  It was a teacher in service day or something.  That's the first thing that went wrong.  Second, we arrived just before 10:30am to throw our own party (meaning I didn't hire Chuck E. Cheese to run my party because I am too cheap,) but the website was mistaken and they didn't open until 11am.  So we improvised and had cake first in the gazebo out front.  When the cake part was over, they were opening the doors so it worked out okay, but it had me a little stressed.

The cake, by the way was a complete cheat.  I made Lego brownies.  Way too easy.  But it worked, and I have a newborn still.  Well, he's kinda is a newborn.  He's two months today, but his head is still floppy so it counts as having a newborn.

These Lego head favor bags were a cinch to make.  I just used a Sharpie and made the faces.  Then I baked rice crispie treats and lemon cookies to fill them.

We bought the pizza, drinks, and tokens.  Then the real fun began.

Bobby slept through it all.  Judah had fun sitting on rides that I didn't put tokens in to carry on my mother's tradition of tricking the kids into believing that is what they are for.  Who needs the Bob the Builder Truck to actually move?  Use your imagination, right?

Problem number three came when some of our friends who I hadn't invited because I thought they were going to be in school showed up as a complete coincidence at the same time.  I felt absolutely awful!  We invited them to join us anyway with my deepest apologies for not inviting them.  I didn't know school was out until two days before the party.  Strike three and I'm out!

Drew got this Spiderman sleeping bag for his birthday and he brings it down for movies (and the Republican debates) and has slept on the floor in his room with it too.

This actually makes sounds just like the Chewy in Star Wars.  It's been a popular toy.  Thank you, godparents!

Two months is a big milestone.

I'm too cool to be 2 months old.

Bobby is 2 months old now.  He weighs over 13 lbs on our scale.  He smiles in response to our smiles and he has made those beginning chuckle sounds a few times when smiling at me, but no full laughs yet.  He is also calmed by my presence or my voice a lot of times.  When I come to get a crying Bobby from his crib, he often quiets down when he hears me and waits for me to unswaddle him and pick him up.  If one of the kids have him and he's crying, when I take him he usually immediately calms.  Genevieve is greatly offended by this and always says, "That's not fair!  How did you do that?"  Actually, it's totally fair.  I have sacrificed much for this little man to even be alive and cared for, and it is a nice reward to be able to calm him by my presence.

3-6 months clothes and size 2 diapers

These two love to get their diapers changed together.  We just set up an assembly line for mommy.

He likes his bouncy chair and his play gym.

Bath time is neither a favorite nor a hated activity.

He's a serious guy and I haven't got one of his good smiles on camera yet.

 His sleep is getting better now.  His naps are getting longer (some days anyway) and so are his stretches at night.  He usually has one stretch varying from 4 to 7 hours at night.  Here's a rough schedule...

7:30am wake and nurse
9am nap
10:00am wake and nurse
11:30am nap
1pm wake and nurse
2:30pm nap
3:30pm wake and nurse
5pm nap
6pm wake and nurse
7:30pm bedtime
8:30pm dreamfeed
11pm dreamfeed
wakes up between 3 and 5:30am (He does this most nights but occasionally makes it until 6:30am in which case we start the day early and celebrate.)

I feel like consistent mornings and bedtimes are important for establishing a routine.  I am trying to keep the morning wake time as close to 7:30am as possible to be consistent with the start of the day.  I even set my alarm just in case and wake him if he's still sleeping.  Also, I adjust things in the evenings so he can be in bed at 7:30pm or 8pm at night.  I have never done the two dreamfeeds before, but it is really working well with him to get that extra nursing in before bed right now.  His waketimes are stretching out to 1.5 hours more often, but not all the time.  If he's fussy, I am putting him down early.  If he wakes early, I am feeding him and carrying on with our cycle.  Most days he ends up back on track by the end of the day.

For the most part he is mellow.  I've had many people tell me that.