My Has the Family Changed!

I knew I hadn't blogged in a while, but wow!  I whole month?!?  Things have changed.

Alli is about the same.  I mean, she's 5, so life doesn't change very quickly on her in a month.  She just recently started getting an allowance.  Her chores are to set the table, to pack her backpack in the mornings, and to hang it up after school.  And she makes $2/week.  This all stemmed from some dance pictures that were taken of her during class.  She wanted to buy them, I didn't have money on me that night.  So she was going to give me money to help and I told her I wouldn't take her money at all unless she had a way of making money to replenish it.  (Of course, she wanted to buy $60 worth of pictures!)  She actually mentioned that some kids in her class get an allowance, so I told her that would be fine, but we also discussed that in general, you should do things around the house because you are part of a family, and not because you get paid to do it.  She hasn't stopped helping in other areas, so I think we are good there (for now).

Natalie has gone through many stages to become a bonafide toddler.  She went from furniture surfing, so getting brave and taking a few steps in between the furniture, to walking many steps between furniture or a wall, to letting go of furniture and going to the middle of the room to pick a toy off the floor and then going back to the furniture....  Yes, many stages.  The thing that turned her into a bonafide walker was gymnastics.  We were there while Alli was in class and I told Molly that I needed to get a video of Natalie walking with her arms up for balance cause it would go away soon.  So Molly whipped out her phone and started calling for Nat.  So Nat started walking towards Molly, and with video rolling, decided she didn't need to hang on to anything anymore and just kept walking around and around.  She then put her arms down for balance and was holding her belly, like "look at me!  no hands!"  So, go figure.  The old video camera peer pressured her!  Now we get the pleasure of coming home from work and having a happy little toddler walk down the hallway saying "Hi....hi....hi...." and then landing on us for a big hug.  OH I LOVE IT!!!

We are trying to prepare for Christmas.  Between figuring out gifts, shopping, working, and trying to get 120 cards in the mail, we are busy.  Oh and the cards this year?  Not so easy.  The printer ran out of ink - twice!  I ran out of address label stickers and have to purchase more.  I still haven't bought all my stamps because the post office's automated machine will only let you purchase $40 at a time with a credit card...  All these road blocks!!  What's up with that!?!?  It's not that I'm actually "ready" with my production line of card mailing, but still!  (Yes, I'm OCD in that respect.  I have to set up my whole production line before I begin.  I could very well have gotten a few cards done, but no.  If I don't have the means to finish all of them, I have no desire to start.  What's up with me?!?!)

Oh, and one more item on the agenda.  We are working with a landscape architect to fix a few issues with our pool, to re-flagstone our patio deck, and to finally put a railing up along the patio edge.  My goal is to have it complete before swim season next year.  We are still waiting on some bids and my fingers are crossed it all comes in within our budget.  It would look so amazing, and I would finally not be so worried of Alli accidentally tripping and falling off the edge onto jagged rocks below!

Alli is done with the belly button / Natalie is SOOO close to walking

From the time Alli was born, she played with her belly button.  Skin on skin - don't you hide it under clothing!  It was her comfort to put her back to sleep.  We had to buy snap-up pajamas and leave a snap open so she could get her finger in there and find her belly button.  This is what I remember, and this is what I never want to forget.

As she grew older, the playing with her belly button grew more as a signal that she was tired.  Yes, she would walk around in her cute little dresses and then joist them above her waste so she could play with her belly button.  I remember thinking that she had better grow out of that!!  :)  And she did.  Soon it was only at night, before bed and while she was lying in bed.  And tonight, as I laid with her in her bed and rubbed her back, I realized that the belly button wasn't needed.  In fact, I realized that she hadn't needed her belly button in a while, but I can't really remember when it stopped.  I know she started kindergarten playing with it, so I suppose it's been a recent development.

Our little girl is maturing, but I never want to forget her special baby characteristics.


And speaking of maturing, Natalie decided to be a bit more daring in her walking.  She now will surf from sofa to ottoman to sofa, taking a few steps in between objects to get to where she wants to go.  Getting brave, but not yet ready to tackle the whole endeavor on her own.  She did make progress today when we were outside and I wound up walking her around only holding 1 hand.  (She had a duck watering can in the other, so clearly she couldn't use it to hold on to me!)  And she did great.  Her balance is really there.  It's only a matter of days or weeks.  And I'm excited for her, and nervous about another stage passing as our family matures.

I never want to forget these moments, but I know I will.  This blog is great though for looking back!

That's ENOUGH!

Last week, our precious little daughter sent us over the edge.  Two nights in a row of keeping us up hours at a time because she wanted to be held while sleeping.  And when I say keeping us up, she was snoring one of the times that I put her back in the crib and she immediately woke up and started crying again.  SNORING!!  Argh!!  So, I started reading and formulated a gameplan.

The gameplan:

1)  Get Alli out of the room so the baby could cry all she wanted to and I wouldn't worry about waking Alli up.  We had thought about moving the baby to a different room, but then I thought that we might have another adjustment period after getting her back into her crib, so we decided to give Alli a special treat and let her sleep on a blow-up mattress in our room.  She loved it!

2)  Change our whole night time routine around.  I realized that every time Natalie woke up in the night, she basically expected the whole night time routine again to put her back to sleep - bottle of water, fall asleep in mommy's lap, then put into the crib.  So, to change her "middle of the night" expectations, I figured I would start by creating new "going to bed" expectations.  I wound up changing the night routine to, give her 3 oz of water, hug and kiss her, and then put her in the crib and tell her to go to sleep.

3)  Let her cry.  With no fear of Alli waking up because of a wailing baby, we let Natalie cry much longer.  So, the general rule was, let her cry for 5 minutes.  If the crying level remained constant after 5 minutes, go in and try to calm her down.  No picking her up.  She was always standing at the side of the crib, so I would lean over and hug her, stroke her head, talk to her.  She usually did not calm down, but I did that for a minute and then walked out again.  Repeat for as long as the 5 minute interval had constant crying.  I did find that after a while, she would cry, then stop, then cry.  Once she got herself to that point, me going in just made things worse.


And so what happened?  The first night, it took 45 minutes to get her to sleep.  She woke up at 1am and cried, but wound down before the 5 minutes was up, so I never went in.  At 4am, it was a different story, and we played the 5 minute game on and off til about 6am.  (There were a couple of times in there that she feel asleep for 20 or 30 minutes before getting up and crying again.  It was weird.)  But then she fell asleep at 6am and slept til 7:30.  Woohoo!!!

The second night when I put her to bed, she cried for just under 5 minutes, so I never even went back in.  She woke up once at 3am crying, but I probably was to blame for that.  I had gone in to check on her and put a blanket over her and she woke up.  Talk about a guilty feeling sitting outside her door listening to her crying and knowing that I caused it.  Agh!  But she settled down before 5 minutes and went back to sleep.  She slept til 6:30.

The third night when I put her to bed, she cried for maybe a minute.  We heard one cry out of her at 11pm, which might have just been a very vocal rolling over.  And she slept til 7:20am!!!  YES!!!  I WON!!!!

We are ready to move Alli back into the bedroom, much to her disappointment.  By the way, because Alli is sleeping in our room, *she* is sleeping in later.  Sigh.  Maybe we'll have to do that on weekends just so we can feel like we get to sleep in!  ;)  haha

No More Milk...

I'm finally over the whole breast milk weaning fiasco, but I figured documenting the process was necessary.

Weaning Alli was very gradual.  We were both ready and I don't really recall anything special happening.  It was uneventful.  Weaning Natalie was forced, due to our trip to Italy.  I let her nurse at night as long as I possibly could, and then I had to cut her off to give my body a chance to get used to the change.  Because I'm worried about rotting teeth, we transitioned her to water at night instead of any milk.  I had hopes that this would also change her mind about waking up through the night if she were only getting water.  Well, *that* was not true.  She *loves* the water.  Go figure!

So, I cut her off 2 nights before we left.  Water was fine, so I guess that was good.  Meanwhile, she was happy and my body was having a hard time.  I pumped right before we left for Italy, and started wearing green cabbage in my bra to keep the engorgement down to a minimum.  And then I crossed my fingers and flew across the world...

Our first day in Italy was painful.  I told some of the women we were traveling with that I might actually have to find a breast pump, or a head of green cabbage.  As we wandered the streets of Rome, we came across a vegetable stand and I bought myself a head of green cabbage.  The lady assured me it would make great salads, but I had different ideas...  I spent the first day in Rome walking the city with grocery bag containing a head of green cabbage.  When we finally stopped at a restaurant, I went in and stuffed my bra.  Ahhhh, relief.

That cabbage stayed in all our hotel rooms.  Every night after touring I would stuff my bra.  Every morning I would put a fresh batch in, and then remove them for our day of touring.  By the 4th day of the trip, I had a lump that was so painful it hurt to carry my purse.  But what could I do!  I just kept wearing my cabbage....  By our very last night of the trip, I finally had relief and felt I didn't need my cabbage anymore.

We flew home, and 24 hours after we started traveling, we got to see the girls.  Natalie woke up, saw me, and immediately started pounding on my chest to get some milk.  I figured I didn't care if she nursed - I missed her and I missed the cuddling that goes with the nursing.  So I let her nurse.  But to her surprise, I was done.  Within that 24 hours of traveling, I had completely dried up (and I think I shrank at least 1 bra size!)  She tried a few more times throughout the night, but finally relented to just water.  We are weaned...


Now I have to get her off of so much water.  She loves the feeling of the liquid so much that she'll drink sometimes 25 ounces of water through the night and need to be changed 3-4 times with diapers that are so full they roll up to the size of a large grapefruit.  Now I have to figure out how to wean her from that!

Happy Halloween!

This year, Alli wanted the whole family to go as a "scary" family.  Specifically, she wanted to be a vampire bat.  We had a black cat costume for Natalie, and so we got some witch stuff for mommy.  Daddy had a Jason mask and a machete from years past, so that was our scary family.

Pictures didn't work very well because we didn't get Natalie dressed til after dinner and it was already dark outside, but here's our girls.  Natalie really does have a tail, and Alli has a beautiful dress on under that cape!

Natalie at 1 years old

So this is a little late, but better late than never.  Natalie turned one back on Oct. 5.  We had a small "family" party for her, which included Molly and the Belt family.  She absolutely *loved* her cupcake.  :)

Yesterday she went for her 1 year checkup.  Here are her stats:

Height:  30 inches (73rd percentile)
Weight:  19 lbs (12th percentile)
Head:  45 cm (44th percentile)

Yes, weight has taken a dramatic drop.  In fact, since her last checkup 3 months ago, she grew a whole inch but only gained ounces in weight.  Because of that, we are now going in for a weight check in another 6 weeks.  I think a lot of it has to do with weaning her from breast milk.  All of that milk I had saved and we have virtually run out.  She just doesn't drink the other milk the same, so she isn't getting that many calories.  On another note, she is eating lots of solids - 2-3 jars of food a day!  But she also likes chicken and turkey, so we try to stock that protein for her.

Natalie doesn't use many words.  She has lots of sounds, but she really isn't that interested in using words.  I'm waiting for her to explode into sentences.  She knows what she wants, and she's able to communicate her wants pretty well with pointing, crying, and giggling.

And despite my thoughts of her walking all over when we got back from Italy, she saved her steps for us.  She hasn't done much walking while we were gone, but is now taking 4-5 steps at a time towards us since we have been home.  She stands, balanced, by herself for long periods of time, even with things in her hands and her concentration on other things.

 

I'm Not Ready!!!

That seems to be a common theme for me lately in our house, but I'm especially feeling it this week as I look at the month ahead...

This weekend (tomorrow) is Natalie's 1st birthday!  I'M NOT READY!!!  I mean, we have presents, and will have cupcakes, and I'll figure out food tomorrow morning, but I'm just NOT READY for Natalie to be 1!!!

Next Friday Kim and I fly off to Italy for 8 days.  I'M NOT READY!!!  I mean, we have almost all of the stuff we need to bring on the trip, and reservations made, and all of that good stuff, but I'm just NOT READY to leave the girls for such a long time.

Because we are leaving for Italy, I am weaning Natalie off of me and to bottles only, round the clock.  NEITHER OF US ARE READY!!!  It's hard for me to get up and grab a bottle when I could just feed her myself.  She also is not ready, as evidenced by her pushing the bottle of breast milk away and hitting my chest to show me where she wants the "mommy's milk" from.  This has truly been the hardest thing I've had to wrestle with emotionally.  I feel horrible weaning her early.  But I also know that I don't want to pump through our vacation, and even if I did, the chance of her going back to nursing after 9 days of being with a bottle is just a step backward.  The timing just seems horrible, but we will get through it, ready or not!

And speaking of milk, you know my exploding freezer full of all that stored milk?  I'm counting the ounces now.  She gets almond milk during the day, and only breast milk first thing in the morning and before bed.  I'm hoping with that we get another 2 weeks, and then I'm completely out!  Ugh.  I'M NOT READY to be out of Mommy's Milk!!

Halloween.  Yes, it's a whole month away.  But we are gone the next 2 weekends, which puts our first full weekend back the last weekend of October, when everyone is having their Halloween parties.  Halloween?  I'M NOT READY!  So this weekend we are going to the Halloween store to see if we can get our costumes ready (as if we don't have enough on our plate already!)

So, what do I have to say about the whole month of October this year?  I'M NOT READY!!!!

Kids these days

Peanuts and the Terrible One's

Peanuts is about Alli.  I had taken notice over the last few weeks that she gets terrible dark circles under her eyes during the school week and they clear up on the weekends.  So we kept trying to put her to bed earlier during the week, makes sense, right?  But she couldn't fall asleep and she kept claiming she just wasn't tired.  Then it dawned on me that she eats a peanut butter sandwich *every* day for school lunch.  (Don't ask, it wound up being the only thing she would let me pack so we just decided it was easier to make that every day so we knew she would eat.)  On the weekends though, we rarely have peanut butter.  So I decided to do a little experiment and I told her she was not allowed to have peanut butter sandwiches for a couple of days, nor peanut butter snack bar after school.  It was a dramatic difference in her eyes.  So, apparently, she has a mild allergy to peanuts.  Now her lunches consist of either chicken noodle soup or Boar's head turkey breast sandwich.  Why Boar's head?  Well, believe it or not, she's actually allergic to some of the lunch meats too, and after doing some research, I found that some of the companies use a dairy product in their curing process.  Boar's Head does not.  Interesting!!


Natalie is giving us some new challenges.  You know how the terrible two's are pretty much about the fact that the child knows what she wants but can't express it and so they throw fits?  Yea, we're hitting that a bit early.  Natalie doesn't use many words, but she does point, smile, wave hands, etc. and usually we can figure out what she wants.  But when we can't, or we tell her "no", we have complete and utter melt-down.  It's like the world has ended.  She screams, cries, throws her head back like any good drama queen does...  I told her this morning that she tricked us into thinking she was an easy going child, just so we wouldn't trade her in!  ;)  haha

Surprise!!

Courtesy of Molly, here is a picture of Natalie's surprise look that I mentioned in her 11 Month update:

Riding with style, in her PJs

Go Nat, Go!

11 Months Old!!!

Ok, I'm a little late, but Natalie is 11 months old!!!

The weekend before (Labor Day), we had spent with friends up by Olympia, Washington.  The kids got to play in the sand, go on boat rides, Alli got to go tubing and ride with daddy on a waverunner, and we did a few nature walks.  It was good fun!

So, more about Nat.  Her eyes are a beautiful hazel color.  They are closer to my hazel (more green) than Kim's (more brown), but they are still not my color.  Her green is more of a deep blue.  In any case, very pretty.  She has decided that crawling isn't as much fun to get around as walking, but she needs help walking.  So her latest thing is to crawl to an adult, reach up for their hands, and then promptly turn around and take off - leading the adult to wherever she wants to go, which is typically outside or to the green room.

Ah, yes.  Outside.  This child *loves* the outdoors.  For quite a while now, if we went to the back door to look out the window and didn't actually go outside, she would throw a fit.  Well now, she walks you to the backdoor and if you don't take her outside, she throws a fit.

Molly actually took her to Target this week to get her some shoes because she likes to walk in the gravel.  So now we put shoes on, and walk and walk and walk and walk outside.  And then plop down and play with the rocks some, and then walk and walk and walk some more!  She's funny!!!

Natalie is also very interested in books.  She especially loves the Winnie the Pooh book that is read (recorded) by her cousins.  That book is funny.  It operates on light.  So one night, Natalie and I were sleeping on the couch and the sun came up and in the windows.  Well, apparently the book was on the floor opened to a page - we woke up when the light got bright enough to trigger the reading.  I think it was Jonathan!  :)

Natalie also makes great "surprise" faces.  Maybe it's because she does something and we give her this surprised look like "Oh!!!"  Now *she* does it all the time, and it's super cute!!

Not a lot of words yet.  Still Mmmma for milk.  Some "mama".  Some "da da da".  A little "uh oh" when she plunges things to the ground.

Lots of fun!

Fun Things to do on the Weekend

It's hot here in Arizona, and that really limits some of the fun things you can do on the weekend, especially if the plan is to stay at home.  Swimming is always good, and we seem to be deviating from our norm and swimming at odd times, like 9:30am for instance.  Ok, that started with jumping in a puddle, and then splashing in the negative edge trough, then stripping down and swimming in the negative edge trough, and then finally progressing to the actual pool.  :)

Riding bikes in the garage is fun, albeit short because of the heat.  And now we need to find a way to have Natalie join in.  So, red wagon, here we come!

And after that, we only have indoor activities - playing dolls, watching movies, playing computer games or other games on the iPad (an Alli/Daddy favorite), playing with "whatever" in the green room...

Our Little Dancers

Today was Alli's first day of dance season.  This year, the teacher said the hair needed to be pulled back for class.  I didn't get to drop Alli off, but I asked Molly to please put her hair up.  When I went to pick Alli up from dance, I found this beautiful dancer with her hair in a bun!

Ok, after adding this post, I realize I should have taken a picture of her head from the side too.  Oh well, next time.



Natalie can't take dance til she's at least 3.  I know she will be in dance because every time she hears any type of music, she dances.  And her dancing has been changing because of all the dancing all of us have been doing with her.  Right now when she dances, her shoulders are going.  She's going to put Alli's shimmy-shimmy-shake to shame before she can even walk!!

The Kindergartner and the 10-Month Old

Today was the first day of Kindergarten in Fountain Hills.  Alli announced that she wanted to be early for school every day, so of course, both kids slept in later than they have in 3 months!  The morning was a rush, but we got lunches made, breakfasts eaten, teeth brushed and still had time to snap a few pictures of our big kindergartner!  I don't think Alli was nervous because she's in the same school that she's been in for 2 years of preschool.  When we got there, we saw lots of friends (kids and parents alike) and teachers that we knew.  We are hoping she has a great time and learns a lot this year!

And wouldn't you know, the same day Alli starts Kindergarten, Natalie turns 10 months old!!  She has been crawling for 3 weeks, but that clearly wasn't her goal.  Lately she's been pulling herself up to standing on anything and everything, and trying to venture out now to take some steps (holding a hand of course).  I think she'll be walking very soon.  She is also teething again, but I can't tell which tooth.  She has 7, so maybe it's the match for the one bottom tooth that came in, or maybe it's the molars.  Either way, she's drool baby again!


Our Kindergartner:

Our 10 Month Old:

Alli and Natalie on the slide

The Great Communicator

Ever since we started Natalie on solids, we've been using some sign language.  "more", "all done", and "milk" are my big 3.  We sorta gave up on signing "milk" when she started verbalizing it with "mmmma", but the others we use all the time at the table.

Natalie has apparently decided she doesn't like any of our signs, so she has created one and only one sign.  It's similar to "all done", but she has chosen to put both hands above her head and start waiving them.  At the dinner table, we have found this can mean "more" OR "all done", and when sitting on the floor this means "up".  I'm not sure I know how to break her of this mi-communication, mostly because it works.  She waives her hands, and we all respond.

The challenging part is when we are eating.  We don't know if she wants more or if she's all done, so we take a guess.  If we guess wrong, we get a bunch of high pitched screeching and more hand waiving.  :)

It will be interesting to see if the great communicator will learn our language anytime soon!

Natalie's 9 Month Checkup

I'm a bit late in posting this, mostly because we had the checkup and then left for a camping trip soon after.  And since the camping trip came with a lot of rain, we then spent a few days cleaning everything up from all the mud.  :)

So, Natalie is very healthy.  She now has 7 teeth (yes, we are waiting for the other pair to come in for the odd-ball bottom one.)

Her stats are:

Height:  29" (88%)
Weight:  18.13 lbs (41%)
Head Circumference: 44 cm (46%)


She is crawling all over the place, which is fun.  She is trying to communicate, but she uses her own language and doesn't really seem to be picking up ours.  Baby sign language is escaping her at the moment.  There is no "more" and "all-done" seems to be waiving both hands in the air.  It's actually quite cute.  We believe "mmma" is milk and "ma-ma" does seem to come out once in a while, in appropriate context, so that might be a word as well.  Natalie is a music/sound person for sure.  Any song (or jingle) that comes on and she is dancing.  It's sooo cute!  And her taste in music is pretty much anything!  Rap, rock, soft rock, classical, mommy singing...

We just lowered her crib due to the fact that she is pulling herself up to at least her knees, and because she is so tall, we are afraid she will actually make it over.  So safety first!

Officially Crawling!

Like her rolling over, Natalie just decided today to crawl.  So she crawled across the room and keeps crawling around like she's been doing it forever.

Yesterday, I kept telling Kim that I swore she moved one knee and then the other, but then she was back on her belly like normal.  So I wasn't sure I saw her knees move, or was hoping that her knees moved, or whatever.  Today confirmed she moved knees!


So that Alli could see her crawl, I put Natalie on the floor in the bathroom and then Alli and I got into the shower.  It didn't take long before we had a visitor with us in the shower, and Alli got to see her crawl across the room.

We are excited, and this weekend we will be buying new plug covers and rubber bands (for our cabinets).  :)

Alli's First Nail Salon Pedicure

I've been painting Alli's toenails for a couple of years now, but yesterday I decided to take her with me for a real pedicure.  Unfortunately, time ran out and I didn't get one, but she did!  It was hard to judge if she liked it cause she was very quiet and just had this bewildered look on her face the whole time.  And I love how short she was on the chair.  Check out the picture:

But that night we got a babysitter, and Abby told us that Alli told her 3 different times that she got a pedicure "from a professional".  :)  I guess she liked it!

Baby Birds

I have a rule around the house:  tear down bird nests that are close to the house, unless they have already laid their eggs.  Well a couple of months ago I kept seeing this bird hanging out by the patio.  It took a while, but we finally found its nest and went to tear it down, but it had eggs.  So we let the family stay and they had about 3 beautiful babies (that we could tell - they really hid the nest well under our patio roof.)  Once the babies flew the coop, I told Kim we needed to get the nest down, but then he went on travel, and we didn't think much of it.  But one of those babies (I think) decided to reuse the nest for their own family.  Grrr...    So here we are going through round 2 of babies, only this generation is not doing well.

Last week, we found a dead baby bird on the patio under the nest.  He barely had feathers.  Poor thing. Then last week, Kim was on travel and I found another baby under the nest on the patio.  This one had some feathers, but very sparse.  Definitely couldn't fly, and it looked injured.  Natalie was sleeping and it was just Alli and I.  I was sad.  I was going to have to kill the baby so it wouldn't suffer.  I've never killed anything except bugs!  Ugh.  Alli wouldn't go in the house, she wanted to watch.  I explained to her why I had to kill the baby, hoping she wouldn't get too upset.  Then I got a shovel and chopped its head off, and immediately started crying.  Alli asked why I was crying and I told her I had never killed anything like that before.  She said "That's okay mom.  You had to do it.  And it's good, because then they will make more baby birds and then we can eat them!"  Oh my gosh.  I was a bit shocked at the lack of emotion, but she'll make a great hunter or rancher someday!  haha


The last baby fell out of the nest this weekend.  It could flutter, but not fly.  It had all feathers, and actually survived a whole night on the ground.  Bagheera apparently discovered the baby bird the nest day, so Kim closed the gate so he wouldn't be able to get the baby.  But after coming home and checking on the baby, all I found was a patio full of feathers.  We have no idea what got the baby, but that was the last of the family.  We really need to pull that nest down.  It is clearly not safe anymore!

Father's Day 2013

This was a Father's Day (weekend) to remember.  The stars and planets must have aligned, cause we just don't get weekends like this often.  It started with chores, or lack there of.  We didn't have much on our list of things we needed - a couple of errands and laundry.  That was it.  So Saturday we knocked out a lot of it, and then went swimming.  This was the start of the fun.

When we swim, I usually take Natalie and Kim plays with Alli.  Natalie and I only hang for about 20 minutes cause it gets cold just sitting in 88 degree water.  But she enjoys splashing and we do that til we are cold, and then we get out and warm up in the 108 degree air and watch Kim and Alli.  Kim and Alli were really funny and have made up several games.  Alli's swimming is getting better and better, and so playing games with her is more and more fun.  Natalie and I went inside to shower up and Kim and Alli stayed playing - for another 30 minutes!

And then we did something super unusual for our family.  We went out to dinner.  (If we don't cook, we usually grab take-out.  But this time we actually went to a restaurant as a family!)  We had a great meal and the kids were awesome, and mommy and daddy got to enjoy an adult beverage to boot.  Hurray!

Sunday the kids started the day by giving daddy the best gift ever - sleeping in!  Natalie woke up at 5:30am and when I nursed her, she fell back to sleep.  So we got to sleep an extra hour (on the chair).  Alli came in to the bedroom around 6am, crawled in with Kim, and fell back to sleep.  They got to sleep til 7:30am!!  This is a small miracle in our house!

Once we were all up, Alli got Daddy's gifts and presented them to him.  (See picture below).  Then we made home-made waffles with sides of bacon and sausage.  And with no real chores to do, we all went to the green room to play.  Alli and Mommy had a dance recital for Daddy and Natalie, and house was definitely played.  (I know as I did laundry later in the day I saw Kim, Alli, and Natalie all in the house in the green room.)  We just played and played, and that just made the day so special.

We got a call from the Belt's and headed over to their house for our dinner and swimming, so Kim and Alli got to play in the pool with lots of kids, and I still had Natalie.  :)  Everyone was exhausted by the time we got home, but we had smiles on our faces and just kept thinking about what a great weekend we just had!

Daddy's gifts:

6 Teeth!

Sure enough, the fangs didn't last.  Last weekend, Natalie's two front teeth popped through and they are already about the same size as the fangs.  She looks so old to me, and yet she's such a baby.

She can stand and hold herself up on things, but she is not pulling herself up to that position.  We have to set her there.  But she can still stand on her own a bit, which is pretty amazing.  We are still waiting for her to crawl.  She gets around, don't get me wrong.  Between rolling and scooting, she can usually get what she wants.  I think the crawling will come once she figures out how to get back to sitting after getting up on her hands and knees.  She definitely likes to sit and play (or stand and play).

Our happy baby definitely has started voicing her opinions.  She loves the outside, and if I'm carrying her while I close up the doors to the house, she starts complaining (cause she thought she was going to get to go outside).  So I usually have to go back out and we walk around the yard checking out all our plants.  :)

She has also learned the fun of hearing her "indian call" if someone moves their hand over her mouth while she makes noise.  She likes it so much, that now we go up to her and start doing the "indian call" over her mouth and that will prompt her to add the voice.  Cutie pie!!  Today at the lunch table we had 3 little indians making indian calls - mommy, Alli, and Natalie.  ha ha!

Last Swim

This weekend, we did what you always do in Arizona when the temperatures climb up well past 100 degrees.  We went swimming.  Saturday we tried something new - we went swimming *after* dinner, when the sun was behind the mountain and we were in all shade.  It was much colder than we were expecting!!  But the whole family was out - Mommy, Daddy, Alli, Natalie, and Bagheera.  Bagheera hasn't been swimming much this year, I figured it was because he has lost his hearing and is sleeping more and just didn't realize we were going to the pool.  But Saturday he was right there with us.  We threw his ball in the pool and he cautiously got in.  He swam to the ball and then turned around to come back to the steps.  He was grunting a big, but looked happy.  Kim helped him up the steps, but when he got to the top we had some problems.  His back legs just kept giving out on him so he kept falling.  Kim was still in the water, doing what he could to help the dog.  Alli was at the steps.  And I was trying to protect Natalie who was sitting on the top step splashing water.  I could just imagine a 75 lb dog falling on her!  We finally got him standing but his tail was lifted and it looked like he might go to the bathroom right there in the pool.  So I freaked out a little cause it would have landed on Natalie.  Kim tried to move him along but his back legs started failing him again.  Kim and I looked at each other wondering what we should do and what was happening.  My fear was stroke.  Kim got out of the water and picked up Bagheera and carried him to the deck.  He got his feet stable and then we watched him.  He started acting normal, and although the back legs weren't necessarily the most stable, he didn't fall anymore.  He was still excited to be around us, and even brought his ball to the water again.  He didn't try to get in though.

Today we went swimming again.  Bagheera came out and we had second thoughts about letting him swim.  He stayed on the top step but he didn't try to go in the water.  I splashed him a little bit so he could cool off but he didn't like that.  He left and went in the house.  :(  Poor old man.

His swimming days are over, and I'm sad cause those were some of his happiest times.  He always loved the water.  At least his last swim was with the whole family!!

Sisterly love

Giant baby attacks!

8 months!

Our Babbling 8 Month Old!

Today is Natalie's 8 month birthday!  Hooray!!!  She has started babbling over the last week or so, and it's really cute to watch her and Alli have a babble conversation.  Of course, Alli is so good at impersonating Natalie that I can't tell them apart if my back is turned!!!

Natalie is trying to get to her knees, but she is not quite there yet.  I'm thinking she'll be there in a couple of weeks, and then we'll see how long it takes her to figure out how to crawl.  It's coming!!

We weighed her today - 19 lbs!  No wonder my arms and back are so well defined with muscle!  hahaha


And, before those two front teeth pop through, I wanted to get some pictures of the fangs.  Unfortunately, Natalie has my curse where she is not photogenic.  Sorry baby.  So I got some fang pictures, which aren't very flattering of her, and then I normal one, which is much cuter.  (And for some reason, the fang photos came out stretched.  Don't ask me why!)  She's a very cute baby, it just doesn't always come across in photographs.  Exactly my curse - oh so cute, but not flattered by photos!  haha

Swimming Adventures

Every year since she's been a year old, Alli has had swim lessons.  We've done them with a lady in town, Donna, who comes to our house and teaches her privately.  Given the rolled edges of the pool, I figured swim lessons in our own pool would be more adventagous for safety.  This year, I decided she need the peer pressure of a group class, so we signed her up for swim lessons at one of the Scottsdale public pools.  The class I thought she should be in was full, so I bumped her up a level.  (I signed her up Friday, lessons start Monday.)  It's hard to tell what level she should be in, but the level I bumped her up to said "needs to be comfortable in deep water".  Hmmmm.....  So Friday I gave her the challenge:  Alli, we need to get you swimming before Monday.  (Really, it was just get her back to her comfort level that she had at the end of last year.)

Friday night we went to a friend's house for dinner and swimming.  They have a pool with a diving board.  "Alli - go dive off the diving board and swim to the side."  After about 2 minutes in the water, she was ready to go off the diving board.  After another 5 minutes of swimming, we couldn't get her to stop!  And she was swimming side to side, off the board, under water, you name it.  Sweet!  She's ready!


Today (Sunday) we did some swimming just Alli and Mommy while Natalie took a nap.  We had lots of fun, but our adventures took a different turn as we swam back and forth across our pool.  We became spider hunters.  Apparently our pool has become a big draw for quite a few species of spider (the smallest one the size of a silver dollar, and the largest the size of my hand).  So we swam, and we killed spiders, and we swam, and killed more.  All together we killed 4 (1 got away).  It wasn't my idea of a nice swim, but I feel like we are slowly getting our pool back after the long winter break, so I suppose this must be part of it.  Alli, once again, swam like a champ!  She is very comfortable in the water, and had lots of fun games for us to play, the last of which was "Shoot the board out of your butt."  Yes, that was the name.  Oh so proud.  It's because of me though.  I was balancing on a kick board, and if you lean sideways, it shoots up out of the water.  She said it shot out of my butt and thought it was hilarious.  Well, after 30 minutes of playing this game, she was a pro at balancing on the kick board and "shooting it out of her butt".  Hilarious!!!  What a goof ball.

Sister Love

Having two kids is definitely more work...  My transition to motherhood with Alli was a long, hard journey for me.  I had to learn that I didn't get to sit when *I* wanted to sit.  Nor sleep, nor eat, nor pretty much anything.  Suddenly, life revolved around the child and my life as I knew it was a thing of the past.

Alli is a trooper going through her own journey of older sister-hood.  But she is doing a great job.  She is such a great helper at times, but at the same time, has needs for me as well.  So when I finally think I have Natalie down and I can take 10 minutes for myself, the realization faces me that Alli has been patiently waiting for my time.  No breaks.  If I thought the transition from living my own life to being a mom was hard, so is the transition to having to share my time.  I suppose 3 would be easier because there's just no more time to give anyway!  ;)  We aren't having 3....

One of the rewards of all of this though is the love that the two girls have for each other.  You see it in every smile as they look at each other.  I don't think there is a day that goes by without Alli saying how much she loves Natalie and how cute she is.  And there is not a day that goes by that Natalie doesn't just stare at her sister and smile.  And all of that is worth not having a minute to myself!

Kitty Present

Over a year ago, Alli started this thing called "Kitty Present".  I can't even remember now how it started.  But sometimes the kitty is wrapped in a blanket and sometimes a towel (usually only when we are getting out the shower).  The present is always for mommy.  And when she's ready, I get to unwrap my beautiful kitty present and find Alli Kitty!  The monologue usually goes something like this (done with WAY much enthusiasm):  "Oh!  A present!!  Is this for me!??!  I wonder what it is?  I think I'll just have to unwrap it and find out.  Oh, I think I see a paw!  What could be attached to this paw?!?!  Oh!!!  I have unwrapped more of it.  I think it's a kitty!!!  What a BEAUTIFUL kitty!  Let me see your face, Kitty.  Oh!  What beautiful eyes.  You are such a pretty kitty.  I think I will name you Alli and I will take you home with me and keep you in my house."


Obviously, there are plenty of renditions, but that's the jist of it.  So, no biggie when it first started, but it's been over a year, and I have at least 1 kitty present a day!!!!!  I'm soooo tired of acting surprised with my kitty present.  Ugh.  I should win an oscar for these performances!

Alli the gymnast

Alli's pedicure

Natalie & Mommy

Alli's First Dance Recital

Alli's first dance recital went really well!  And here I thought everything was stacked against us.  First, we've been fighting her for months to go to dance lessons.  She started them, I was going to make her finish them before she quit.  Recital time came and she didn't seem thrilled with the costume.  And then to boot, the day of the recital I had to drop her off backstage and then not see her again until after the whole recital was over.  No parents backstage, no snacks, no extra bags of toys.  So 2-3 hours backstage starting at 11:30 for a just-turned-5 year old.  I figured we were for sure done.

But then the day came.  After Alli did her dress rehearsal, we stayed at the auditorium for another hour to watch some of the other dance acts.  These were mostly the other little kids (not the big kids).  She really enjoyed watching the other dancers.

And recital day?  We lucked out.  I packed snacks for her to eat (carefully) in the car, so she was set for food (actually better than we were!)  Backstage, they had all the girls split between 5 different rooms.  As luck would have it, she wound up in a room with all the Belt girls, so she was well taken care of and had friends all around (well, 3 of them, plus the girls in her class).

And when she got on-stage, she just looked so cute.  They all did.  Alli couldn't see us, so she didn't look out into the crowd for most of the dance - she just looked at the girls to each side of her.  But she had a blast.

And wouldn't you know it - signup for fall started the day after the recital, so guess what she wants to do.  Yep, another year of dance.  After all that fighting we did over the last few months dragging her to dance class.  Well, we'll see what happens next year at dance!

(Alli is in the middle.)

I love prunes!

Alli's 5th Birthday!

I can't believe she's 5.

I can't believe she's 5.

I just can't believe she's 5!!!


Well, the birthday party was fun.  We invited 8 kids and we got 8 kids and 7 siblings!  :)  The theme was butterflies, so really, I didn't do much except have Alli make some decorations.  The kids came and just played while the parents chatted.  Then we had lunch, cupcakes, and opened presents.  Voila!  One party.

Alli's cupcake cake was super awesome, especially since Molly made it!  See below - very talented!

Alli's party was Saturday, then we had Mother's Day, and then her real birthday was Monday, where she celebrated in both preschool classes and then at dinner with the family.  For her birthday dinner we had her very favorites - salmon and corn on the cob.  Then we got to open the family birthday gifts.  It was fun, and I think by then, she was pretty partied out.  And why do I say she was partied out?  Cause she didn't want any sweets for dessert after our dinner.  Wow!!  She could have opened gifts forever though.

We have been recovering (and trying to clean up) ever since.

The Freezer Fiasco

Well, you saw from an earlier post that our freezer was full of milk.  And I kept increasing the stock-pile by pumping in the night, so the dilimna of storage was getting worse and worse.  Compile that with some odd noises coming from our fridge, the fact that we spent over $800 last year fixing the fridge because of various things that broke, and we got our tax return back.  So, do you see where this is going?

Yes.  I wanted a new fridge/freezer.  So I went looking...online.  After weeks of reading reviews, looking at ratings, etc., etc., etc., I decided the only brands for us to look at were GE and KitchenAid.  Our old fridge was GE.  Based on online pictures, it looks like all the layout internally was the same.  There were things that I didn't like about the GE fridge's layout.  (You wouldn't think layout would be that important, but it kinda is!)

I knew that we lost a bunch of space in the freezer because of the icemaker unit.  All freezers do, but it seems placement of the unit could make or break your freezer space.  In the fridge portion, GE had this weird dip that went through the ceiling, making the top shelf an odd place for some items.  (Shorter items had to go in the middle where the dip was, where taller items could go on either side.)  They also had this "feature" of a "Custom Cool" drawer, which could either cool things down really quickly for you, or defrost things really quickly for you.  Personally, I took the special shelf out because I wanted to use it as a drawer, but it was a horrible drawer because it didn't slide in and out very nicely.

Ok.  So there was GE.  I looked at the insides of the KitchenAid.  For the freezer, the icemaker was in the door, which meant the shelf space was not taken.  That seemed like a good idea.  In the fridge, there was no hump down the ceiling, and no "special drawer" in the bottom.  So those seemed like good ideas.  The KitchenAid data showed their fridge that would fit our opening had more freezer room, but less fridge room (cubic feet).  We hemmed and hawed over this, and finally decided that we needed more freezer space than fridge anyway, even after the milk storage.

So KitchenAid won.  And we got our new fridge.  So, now that we have it, wanna hear our evaluation of KitchenAid?  :)  We found that we have as much room, if not more, in the fridge, even though the cubic feet is smaller.  I have no clue why.  It must be the layout.  The freezer is WAY bigger.  I have room for another month's supply of milk to store!  Woo hoo!!  But here are some catches...  The icemaker is in the door.  This is great for storage but...  When the ice falls, I can hear it back in our bedroom!!! And every now and then, it falls so hard it actually goes through the door and onto our floor (only a cube or two once in a while, but still!)   hahaha  In general, the fridge is a little louder.  And, for whatever reason, it sits crooked in our opening.  I'm sure our GE did as well, but because it was taller, we couldn't tell.  This one, you can tell.  We tried to level it, but once it looked level, it shook like crazy when you opened the doors.  So, back to unlevel.  Thanks saltillo tile!!!  Note to self:  Don't use saltillo tile under appliances!

But I have to include a picture of our awesome milk storage now.  Yes, we are using boxes since we had to pack up all the milk to switch fridges, and this wound up working well for stacking.

I still have room for more milk, but I'm not pumping in the night anymore, so I shouldn't be stockpiling as quickly.  Natalie is drinking less and I am working on producing less because of it.  I do NOT miss middle-of-the-night pumping and dishes!

Hunger Strike

So Natalie started solids, and is doing quite well.  We haven't gone back to try rice cereal again, but all fruits and vegetables seem to be doing well.  The problem we are now facing is that she loves eating solids so much she has cut way down on her milk.  Like in half.  And you know she isn't getting *that* many calories from the couple of tablespoons of pureed food she is taking in!  So, we are getting a little skinnier.  And there are days that I "hunger strike" back at her by not allowing her to get any solids, which forces her to drink her milk.  I mean really!  Does she *really* think she's in control of this situation!?!?  ;)  Actually, I have only done that twice, and only because she wasn't producing much pee.

Now we have adjusted her milk bottles and are trying to stick to a strict eating schedule so she knows which times have lots of milk followed by no solids, and which times she can have just a little milk followed by solids.  We'll see if that makes things more consistent.  All I can say is, our freezer (and my b00bs) will not allow her to reduce her milk intake that quickly!!!  (More to come on that later.)

Preparing for Alli's Birthday Party

With Alli getting older, preparing for her birthday is a little more difficult.  This year, she changed her mind at least 3 times on what she wanted the theme to be, and at least 3 times on where it would be.  With a bit of prodding from mommy, the final decision is our house with a butterfly theme.  Whew!

So, I went looking for some butterfly invitations.  I figured we could make them.  Why not!  She likes to color.  So I found a couple of examples and printed them out for her.  She chose one, but she didn't want to color, she wanted *that one*.  So I showed her a fancy trick.  I covered up all the letters with a blank piece of paper and then made a copy.  She loved it!  So then we hand-wrote our own information and she proceeded to make enough copies for everyone she was going to invite.

As we were going through her list of friends, she kept adding more and more.  I was a little worried about size since the party was going to be at our house and we were inviting school friends now (not just our regular parent friends that don't mind squeezing and helping!)  So I said "Alli, you can invite all those kids if you like, but I'm going to tell them no presents.  Or, you can invite a small number of friends and I'll let them bring presents."  And her answer?  "I want presents mommy, so we'll just invite a few friends."  :)  Hmmm...  Like she doesn't have enough toys!!  We settled on 8 friends.

So now we had our list of friends and our invitations.  I grabbed just plain letter sized envelopes and told her we were going to use those for the invitations.  First she put the name of each friend on each envelope.  Then I showed her how to fold the paper into thirds to fit into the envelope.  That was all she needed.  She was off - folding her invitations and stuffing the envelopes.  At one point she had Molly help, and here's how:  "Molly, I will fold the invitations and put them in the envelopes.  And then I'll peel this paper off the envelope to stick it, and you throw the paper in the trash and then put the invitation on the counter.  We will pretend to be a machine."  Are you kidding?  My daughter at 4-1/2 is a process engineer!!!  hahahaha

So our invitations are done.  They are not glamorous by any means, but they are very much Alli'.  Here is a cool picture of the few we had to mail (the blacked out parts are the addresses I had to add - Kim didn't want to post any personal information to the web!)

Natalie's "official" 6 Month Checkup

Ok, you ready for these stats??

Height:  27 inches (84th percentile)
Weight:  17.7 lbs (69th percentile)
Head:  41-1/2 cm (18th percentile)


Minus the slight hiccup in starting solids with the rice cereal, she is doing very well with vegetables and fruit.  We are going through slowly though to make sure of allergies.  The pediatrician said there are lots of babies that react to the rice cereal, and they usually recommend going to oat or wheat.  I think we'll wait on that, as long as she doesn't get too thin without grains.

In another week, after we've gone through allergy trials with more foods, we will start feeding solids 2x per day.  I think she's ready now, but I want to make sure to get through some more food selections.

Her appetite (or teething, not sure which) is increasing.  She hasn't been sleeping through the night, and when she wakes up, the pacifier doesn't do it - only mommy's milk.  So I'm guessing she's hungry, but it could be a comfort thing.  Who knows.  All I know is I'm *really* tired!!  :)


Also, her two bottom teeth have poked through and now her eye teeth are coming.  We soon will have a little vampire on our hands!  Mooahahaha

The Love of Babies

Natalie has always had such an infectious smile.  When you smile at her, she will smile back and then bury her head, like she's shy.  It's the cutest thing and always makes you smile even more.

This week, I noticed some new behaviors, and I can only say that they are kisses.  There's no lips puckering or anything like that, but she will use her hands to pull herself close and put her open mouth on your cheek, or neck, or whatever she can reach.  I'd call that a kiss.  :)  She's given me "kisses", and I've seen her kiss Molly.  It's adorable and she gets uber squeezes back!

And soon our family will enjoy some other babies.  We found this behind our recycling can, which has apparently been repurposed for the next month to "protector":

We looked it up.  Quail eggs.  When we found the nest, there were 5 eggs.  Now it looks like there are 13 eggs.  They lay up to 18.  We're hoping the road runner doesn't find the nest before they hatch - road runners *love* bird eggs.  But we don't look back there often, cause we're scared we may run into mama and she might desert the nest.  Apparently, quails lay an egg every couple of days in the nest until they are done and then they incubate.  We are anxious to keep tabs on the nest (carefully) and see how our new babies grow!

Solid Foods!

So Natalie is finally taking in the solid foods.  It's been a little struggle, but mostly because the most common beginner food - rice cereal - doesn't agree with her.  I think she was pushing it out because she didn't like it.  But finally she relented and started taking in, only for us to find out that she puked it all out again.  Poor Nat.  I went on a search for barley cereal, but nobody makes it.  So, time to start with some fruits and veggies, and definitely wait 4 days to see if there is any type of reaction, cause she is definitely our food allergy baby!

Today we just fed her some carrots.  I'm really hoping these don't come back up.  I mean, could you imagine?  Projectile orange puke?  Eeeewwww!!!

But she seemed to like them a lot, so I'm hoping she knows what she can handle and what she can't.  We shall see.

Here's our happy carrot baby:

Natalie is 6 Months Old!!

Our baby girl is getting so big!  She continues to be a very happy baby, even despite the teething that she's going through.  Her two bottom teeth have broken through, and the tops are on their way.  And despite the fact that her teeth are coming in, she still isn't much of a solid food eater.  And despite the fact that she doesn't eat solid food, she's still a whopping 17.8 lbs!!!  Mommy's milk must be loaded with nutrients!!!  :)

Natalie's favorite song is the ABCs.  (It has been for a while, I just never blogged about it.)  Her favorite family member is her sister, except when she's hungry, then it's mommy.  (Sorry daddy!!)

She's currently wearing 9 month clothes, but might move up to 12 month for PJ's soon because of her big feet and chunky thighs.  (Yes, her toes are tight in the footies, and mommy has a hard time zipping up the sleepers through the thigh area.  hahaha)  She is consistently wearing bibs now, mostly because if we don't put one on her, she soaks her shirts down to her belly button in a matter of an hour with all her drool!!!

She enjoys trees, especially when they blow in the wind - that makes her laugh out loud.  It's the cutest thing watching her laugh at a tree!!

Here are some pictures we took on Friday, her actual 6 month birthday.  Sunglasses and headband courtesy of Alli, who found them in a drawer and decided Natalie *must* wear them!

The Plan

Alli loves making plans.  Sometimes her plans are negotiations for things that we suggest, and other times she just makes up plans.  These are usually plans of what we are going to do in the near future, like for the day, or after dinner, etc.  So last night, she asked if she could have candy for dessert.  And we said no.  She didn't eat a good dinner, she was out of sorts all day long, and she had had lots and lots of sweets since we went to three different Easter Egg hunts over the weekend.  Well, she didn't like that answer so she came up with another plan (which of course got her candy).  And we said no.  Now typically, her negotiations work because she comes up with a plan that's reasonable and we will except them, or part of them.  But last night, no matter what the plan, the answer to getting candy was no.  She was pissed, but finally gave up and watched a bit of a movie before bed time.

I went to go nurse Natalie to sleep and I told Alli (and Kim) that in 10 minutes, the movie was to go off and she needed to brush teeth and go to bed.  Both said okay.  I nursed Nat, who went down quickly and then came out to remind the two that it was time to get Alli ready for bed.  And Alli said "I want a pear for dessert".  And we said no.  Not because that was a bad idea, we would have been happy giving her a pear for dessert - the hour before, but not right at bed time.  So she tried to negotiate again and offered up apple sauce.  No.  No, no, no.  We weren't budging.

The "I HATE YOU"s went flying.  We were horrible parents.  And there was crying - lots and lots of crying and begging.  Kim tried to reason with her and told her that if we gave her her way because she cried, it would just make her think she could cry and get her way all the time.  Ok.  She understood that.  So then she tried to butter him up!  (Smart girl.)  Unfortunately, the answer was still no.  But she was starving!  No.

This went on for a while, but Kim finally got her calmed down again and she went to bed.  Whew.  What a rough night.

Well, at 3:30am, she started whimpering from her bed.  We thought "crap, she had an accident".  I got up to go check on her.  I felt her butt but nothing was wet.  I asked what was wrong.  And do you know what that little stinker said?  "Mom, I have a plan...  If you give me apple sauce before everyone wakes up, everything will be okay."  Are you kidding me?  3:30am for a plan!?!?!  ARGH!!!  I told her we do not make plans in the middle of the night and to just go to sleep.  I couldn't believe it!!!  She wasn't very happy when she woke up either, because she realized that she did not succeed with any of her plans, but that sadness got turned around with the promise of candy that night if she was good and pleasant all day.  :)


Speaking of plans, my plan is to keep getting up in the middle of the night and pumping extra milk until Natalie starts decreasing her milk consumption and increasing her solid food consumption.  The problem is, that little punk won't eat solids!!!  Every time we try, she just pushes all the food out with her tongue.  She's just not ready.  I think she's in cahoots with her sister to make sure mommy stays extra tired for more months!!!  ;)

Alli's Bum

Alli has an unusual reaction for food allergies.  Her little bum turns fire engine red and itches.  This is typically a reaction to dairy, but it seems like it's getting worse.  Yesterday, she ate a little chocolate that she had gotten from school.  An hour or so later, she was jumping in the bathtub for a "butt bath" because her back butt itched so much.  Apparently, milk chocolate has enough milk in it to set her off now.  Poor thing.  Good thing I bought dark chocolate easter bunnies for the girls!

Nat's Teething Update

We have teeth!  Two little teeth on the bottom have made a hint of appearance.  And I definitely notice when she is using my finger as a teether - ouch!

We have also upgraded to 9 month clothes.  Pretty big for someone shy of 6 months!

Family Dinner

You know when you live a part of your life that seems very stressful but if you tell anyone else about it, or look back on it years later, you just laugh?  That's our family dinners...

Natalie sits with us at the table.  We arm her tray with toys that she can grab.  Right now, she is teething like a fiend, and *everything* goes into her mouth.  Well, apparently she isn't very good at the aim sometimes, because lately, she keeps whacking herself in the head with the hard plastic toys and then she starts crying.  Of course, this in itself isn't that funny, but to watch her cry and then do it again, and again, and again until we take the toys from her is humorous in a way.  (She actually has a small black eye right now from doing this.)

But then add Alli.  So, we have one crying kid.  Then we have the big sister wanting to get her way factor.  Natalie will play with toys and some end up on the floor.  Alli *insists* on picking them up.  Tonight at dinner, she went to get one of the toys and hurt herself (this is also not uncommon for Alli).  So she was crying and trying to put ice on herself.  Natalie was crying (for one of several reasons) and Kim and I were just staring at each other like "is this for real??"  Of course, as soon as Natalie dropped another toy on the floor, Alli stopped crying, started giggling, and then hopped off her chair to go pick it up.  And the cycle continues.

We finally told Alli she couldn't leave her seat anymore and that was another round of crying.  But the funniest I thought was Alli.  Kim scolded her "Sit down and eat your food" and smacked her hand lightly for standing up on her chair and reaching across the table for one of Natalie's toys.  Alli started crying, claiming that Kim hurt her finger, so we told her to ice it (cause we already had the ice pack at the table!)  And then Alli says through tears "but then how can I eat my beans?"  I couldn't contain my laugh.  Luckily, that didn't piss her off this time.  :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

And what a day it has been!  With absolutely nothing to do with St. Patrick's Day!  :)

Today, Natalie tried her first solid foods - rice cereal with breast milk.  She hated it.  Nothing went down.  Her face contorted when we put it in her mouth and her tongue just pushed everything out.  Ok.  Not ready for solids.  Got it.  So stop grabbing my silverware and cups every time I go to eat and drink my own stuff!!!  ;)

Alli had quite a victory with the bicycle.  Ok, it's actually a balance bike, which is a bicycle without pedals.  The kids just scoot with their feet and then learn the balancing part of riding a bike.  Well, she figured out how to balance and she was going back and forth across the driveway for quite a bit of time this afternoon.  Actually, until she decided to get daring and be like daddy, and instead lost control and caught herself right before she hit a cactus - almost.  We found out 5 minutes after we pulled her out of the wreckage that part of her foot really did hit the cactus and Kim had to pull thorns out of her toes.  Bike riding was done for the day.  Oops!

Kim and I toasted with some Irish whiskey - Redbreast.  It was a good day for the fam.  Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Roll Nat Roll!!

Yesterday at work I got a text from Molly saying that Natalie must be rolling over now.  Apparently 3 times throughout the day she would have her on the floor only to look at her again and she was on her belly.  Finally, she stared at her until she saw it happen.  And she did this with video running!  (Nice job Molly!!)  Now Nat is all proud of herself and all over the "rolling onto belly and back onto back" thing.  Usually, it starts with her sucking her toes though.  Funny, huh?

Look out!  Baby on the move!!

Old Man Bagheera

When a big dog gets close to his 13th birthday, you tend to see some old man things creep up.  Well, this is definitely Bagheera's old man year.  About a month ago, he hurt his back jumping out of bed.  We had the vet out, iced it, etc.  Things got better after a couple of days, but the vet said it might be good to not let him jump out of bed.  Ok.  Fair enough.  But Bagheera didn't like waiting for us, so he would jump...  Then a couple of weeks after, he was limping again.  Front paw.  Big knot on the top of it.  Ugh.  We assumed it was from jumping out of bed again, so we put forth a similar protocol.  And then we went sledding.  When we got back from the cold, you could tell Bagheera was just stiff and sore.  We felt bad for him, but we also knew that getting up and down from the bed wasn't going to work well.  We borrowed a dog bed from the neighbors, and he slept there for a while.  Then he was better again, and wanted back up.  Kim abliged by lifting him up to the bed and down in the morning.  This time, he would wait for Kim to get him down.  But after a week or so of this, Kim's back was destroyed.  He said putting him down gently really was what killed, but that was the part Bagheera needed the most.  So, we decided dog bed...  Bagheera is not a fan of sleeping on a dog bed.  He's a people!  And he sleeps in bed, with a pillow, right next to mommy.  He has for over 12 years, so changing that is *not* a fun thing for him.  Luckily, he has relented because we just won't pick him up to the bed.

And I know he's not a fan, because when I get up in the middle of the night to pump, Bagheera now gets up and walks around with me.  He never used to budge when he was in bed.  Poor thing.

Last night though, when I got up to pump, he was sound asleep on the dog bed, having a dream and running in his sleep.  I hope that means he's getting used to it.  I still feel badly that he has to change where he sleeps, but I need a husband that can move!  :)

Our Little Easter Bunnies

Our neighbor Tammy decided to give the girls some bunny ears for Easter.  Surprisingly, Natalie has no problem wearing them.  Not surprisingly, Alli loves pretending to be a bunny.

Here's a cute pic right after finding the ears:

And here's the girls showing off to Molly (our nanny):

5 Month Checkup - Teeth - Toes - Oh My!

I can't believe Natalie is already 5 months old.  Wasn't she just born yesterday??  :)

She's still a very happy baby, despite the fact that she is definitely teething!  One of the top teeth broke through the gum just a bit, but pretty high up.  We aren't sure what that's about - we'll be keeping an eye on it.  But the only symptom we see from her for all that teething is lots and lots of drool.

Today when changing her diaper I noticed she found her toes.  She was hanging on them for dear life!  Even tried to get her toes in her mouth.  (Everything goes in her mouth.)  And she almost made it!  Crazy girl!!

To honor her 5 months, we decided to weigh her.  16-1/2 lbs!  Way to go Nat!  I am absolutely amazed by her growth, especially since she really doesn't eat that much.  She only takes 4-5 nursings a day, and at that only about 5 oz at a time.  That just doesn't seem like very much.


Alli still gets great smiles from her, especially when she says goodbye to her in the mornings before school.  One of these days, I will video that encounter, cause it's WAY cute!!

Wii Teething!

No, it's not a new Wii game, but I have two very separate topics to blog about, so what do you do for a title?  Make up something that sounds like a Wii game I think!


Kim got a hand-me-down Wii system from a friend at work.  We've been waiting to break it out, and this weekend (being cold and windy), we decided was a perfect time.  So Kim introduced Alli to Wii bowling.  The girl was an ace!

Here's a cute picture of her bowling.

And yes, she is in her dress-up-Barbie dress.  You name the hour of the day, she is probably in that or her Pajamas!


As for Natalie, well, she always has been a drooly baby.  But this is getting ridiculous.  She just soaks her shirts, all the way down to her belly button.  She goes through 3 shirts a day because of drool.  My guess?  Teething.  I swear I see a little white nub on her bottom gum, but I've been thinking that for a while.  I don't feel anything yet.  I don't mind those teeth staying inside the gums for quite a while longer!  She already looks much older than she is because of her size - she doesn't need teeth too!!

The Dining Room Table Shuffle

Our family is made up of creatures of habit.  We each have our own specific seat at the dining room table.  Once in a great while, we will change where we sit.  This is usually dictated by Alli deciding she wants to re-arrange the table.  Well, over the last week, I think we switched seats around about 3 times. Highly unusual for our family.  We gave Kim the head of the table back (there was a coo against Alli, who doesn't understand the power of the head of the table, but always insisted on sitting there.)  We switched Mommy to the back side of the table (although this isn't going to last long, cause March usually brings out the lizards and I'm *not* going to sit with my back to the window!)  And after a couple of days with this seating arrangement, we decided to add Natalie to the table.  Typically we would include her by having her in her bouncy seat on the floor where we could talk to her while we ate.  But she's been sitting up really well, so it was time to promote her up.

And look who she gets to sit next to!!

I think Alli plays with the toys more than Nat!!

No More Freezer Room

I've been worried about how much milk Natalie might consume, given her above-average size.  So I've been getting up in the middle of the night to pump to make sure I have enough milk stored.  I've also been making sure I eat TONS of calories to make sure my body has energy to produce the milk.  Now I'm scratching my head because it doesn't seem (date-wise) that I'm that far ahead on my milk storage, but looking at the freezer, I'm not really sure I'm going to make my middle-of-the-night pumping sessions through 6 months.  We are really running out of freezer space, unless I start getting rid of the people-food!

The drawer below the peas has 2 rows of milk.  We have milk stored with our ice cream and such the next row up, and milk laid out to freeze the row above that.  The outside freezer has 2 huge rows of milk.  The rest of the outside freezer is full of food.  Maybe we need to make more shelves!  haha

Gymnastic Stretches

Alli has been given homework for gymnastics, and it's lots of stretching to improve flexibility.  If they stretch every day, they get a little prize.  To help Alli stretch, Mommy does the stretches with her.  We start by running around the house for 1 minute to get our muscles warmed up.  This is Alli's favorite part.  :)  Then we do our stretches.  One of the stretches is the bridge.  Mommy had to help Alli with this stretch the first day because she couldn't get her head off the floor.  Alli, then had to help Mommy with her bridge because she also couldn't get her head off the floor.  Daddy found this funny and snapped this picture:

Yes, I got my head off the floor with her help, thank you very much!  :)

After a couple of days though, both of us are able to get our head off the floor by ourselves.  The bridge is now Alli's favorite thing to do (besides the running).

Notice her Barbie dress-up outfit she was wearing when we stretched.  It seems like most of the time we do our stretches, she is in that dress-up outfit!  And yes, that is Natalie is in her bouncy chair watching.  She's always a part of whatever we do!

4 Month Big Sister Checkup

Everyone says that the older sibling regresses a bit when a baby is born.  I've been waiting for Alli to regress, but instead it seems like she has matured.  Alli wants to take care of Natalie, make her laugh, stop her from crying, etc.  She is not regressing to get our attention (although she will do other things like say "leave her alone and play with *me*").

One of Alli's recent milestones has been to wear underwear to bed.  She had been wearing her pull-ups all this time, but for the last month or so they were almost always dry.  Even so, she never wanted to wear underwear at night.  Then she had an allergic breakout Alli-style, and she decided it was caused by her pull-ups.  And that was it.  No more pull-ups at night.  And she hasn't had one accident yet!  We are very proud of her!

Alli is helpful in so many ways, especially when it comes to entertaining her sister.  Here is a fun picture of Alli "helping" Molly (our nanny) give Natalie a bath.  The full alphabet and numbers are in that little tub!

And here is the result of Alli picking out both of their clothes.  We called it "Jeggings Day!"

Natalie's 4 Month Checkup

Well, besides being congested with a cold, Natalie is doing great!  She grew 2-1/2 inches in the last two months!!  Holy cow!!!

She is a very happy baby and developing right on track.  She can grab things now, and often has long conversations with her elephant.  She loves looking in the mirrors, but really the "fun house" mirrors that come with the baby activity mats.  She's not as interested in the real mirrors where everything looks normal!  She also tends to put *everything* in her mouth.  This is going to get interesting once she is mobile, cause Alli tends to leave everything on the floor.

Here are Natalie's current stats:

Height:  26" (85th percentile)
Weight:  15 lbs 8 oz (96th percentile)
Head Cir:  40cm (23rd percentile)

I'm still baffled at these numbers!


My prediction:  Alli will grow to be 5'2", and Natalie will tower over her younger sister at 5'7".  :)

That's Not Funny Nat!

The other day, the girls and I were playing.  Well, it was more like I was holding Natalie so she could watch as Alli and I played together.  The way Alli plays is she tells you what you should say or do.  "Mom, pretend Francesco is going to race Lightening and Lightening is going to win."  (I have the Francesco car, Alli has the Lightening car.)  So what do I do?  Make Francesco win, which makes her mad!  Well, she started yelling at me and going on about how that wasn't right, and Natalie just watched her sister and started laughing.  Alli usually loves when Nat smiles and laughs at her, but in this case, she turned to Nat, got in her face, and yelled "That's not funny Nat!!"  That made me laugh.  Let the fights begin!!

Does the Laundry Ever End?

Yes, I'm griping about laundry.  Probably because Natalie has once again out-grown a size, and that always makes more laundry.  It's washing the new clothes (in this case, the 6 month sized clothes), and washing the old clothes that were worn that week (in this case all her 3 month sized clothes).  Her drawers are packed!  Between hand-me-downs from Alli and all the clothes people gave us as gifts, I'm hoping we get through all of the clothes before she grows into the next size!!  :)

For an update on Natalie and the probiotic, after a week of taking them, everything started moving along just fine.  But what we have noticed is if she skips a day of taking them, she skips a day of a BM.  So, every day, I make sure she takes 1 bottle at least, and I put the probiotic in it.  It's usually her 9am/10am feeding.  Then we have all day to let it do its magic and that typically is working.  She seems much happier, and I know I am much more relieved.

For an update on my hair, well, it's still shedding.  From what I've ready, when you are pregnant, you get huge amounts of Estrogen in your body.  The Estrogen interrupts your hair cycle's normal pattern (grow for 1 month, then fall out).  They way it interrupts it is grow forever, never fall out.  The problem is, after you have a child and your Estrogen levels go back to normal, your hair goes back to it's normal pattern, but there's a lot of hair that didn't fall out over the last year, so it all goes at once.  This is a horrible trick to play on mothers, and I think evolution should change that somehow!  ;)  So, I'm just waiting to see what I'm left with.  I'm not allowed to take Estrogen (not even in a birth control pill) because it has a tendency to reduce milk production.  So, it is what it is.  Maybe next year, when I'm done being Natalie's cow, I will look into some ways to help my hair.  But until then, I'm not going to mess with anything that might affect her via the milk.

For an update on Alli, I can only say she is an amazing big sister.  Natalie just *loves* her.  I can't stress that enough.  Alli will pull and squeeze and lay on Natalie, and all she does is just give a big smile and a laugh.  It's really amazing.  Alli has been doing great in school.  She reads like crazy and is starting to feel comfortable enough to try to read books she hasn't seen before.  (This is big for her - she wants to know she can do something before trying, so it means she is feeling more comfortable with her abilities.)  We are also amazed at how much she talks.  And talks.  And talks.  Kim and I spent last night at dinner looking at each other and just laughing because we couldn't get a word in edge-wise.  Alli just kept going.  "Mama - pretend you think this red stuff on my pizza is hot lava and try to stop me from eating it."  Now imaging hearing that repeated about every 20 seconds, for 20 minutes of dinner.  Holy crap!!!  We are dying!!!  We clearly do NOT know how to play with a 4-1/2 year old!!!

But we love her to pieces!

We feel very fortunate to have our happy, healthy family.

p.s.  I have no updates on Kim.  He is basically the same through all of this, just a little grumpy because I make him get up at 6:30am every day with me and the girls.  :)