March 09, 2014

Kind of a quiet week.  Tommy has been having trouble with teething.  He's been staying up two to three hours during the night in pain.  Nothing seems to help - except for drives in the car - which soothe him to sleep.  But the second we try to get him out of the carseat and put him in bed he wakes up and cries all over again.  We got desperate and bought some baby Ora-jel Saturday afternoon. We didn't have to use it yesterday.  He finally slept through the night and has been pretty happy today.

Tommy always wants something cold in his mouth.  One night he grabbed the salsa jar and wouldn't let us have it back.  He just rested his upper gums on the lid and let the cold soothe him for a while.

Lily was hit hard with a stomach bug Thursday afternoon.  More than half of her preschool class got it.  Mommy spent two days disinfecting everything and trying her best to keep Annie and Tommy away from Lily.  The hard work paid off.  No one else got sick.  And after a rough day and night of throwing up, Lily was all better by Friday evening.

Uncle Brady has been so busy with school this winter, but he managed to squeeze in a visit this week.  The kids were so excited to play and wrestle with him.  He is so good and getting down and playing with kids.  Thanks for being a bright spot in our week Uncle Brady!

Tommy's new favorite toy is our pink shopping cart.  He is trying so hard to walk on his own.  This cart makes it much easier.  Tommy pushes it everywhere.  The handle on the front is a bit too high, so he usually pushes it backwards like this.  He feels so proud of himself when he can get around with it.

I had errands to run this week.  Annie wanted to wear her "Anna" dress and her monster mask.  This girl knows what she wants and won't take "no" for an answer!  She wore this outfit all morning to Target, Sam's Club, Winco, the bank, and Broulim's.  She was the star of the show everywhere we went.

Jeremy is still working on the basement.  Here is the beginning of the shelves in the storage room.  We can't wait to get them done - and add shelves on all the other walls.  It is so exciting to have a storage room in our basement.  We're hoping it will help with all the clutter.

No reason for this picture.  Bubba is just totally cute.  This expression reminds me of Jeremy.  This little boy sure looks like his Daddy!

After two and a half days of staying cooped up and trying to prevent the spread of Lily's stomach bug, we were ready to get out.  Saturday was sunny and warm in town.  We decided to take the kids to Baskin Robbins.  It was their first experience at 31 Flavors.  They had a hard time settling on the flavor they wanted to try.  Lily and Annie both chose a fruity sherbet.  Daddy had a raspberry cheesecake and Mommy got her favorite peanut butter and chocolate.  Once again, Annie is sporting her favorite princess dress.  I might need to buy another one so I can actually wash this one every once in a while.  Annie learned the hard way not to eat the bottom of your ice cream cone first.  She bit off the tip and the ice cream started leaking out as it melted.  We're pretty sure she won't do that ever again.

 Tommy loved sharing Mommy's ice cream.  It was the happiest he's been all week. So good to see him smile and feel happy after days of waiting for his top four teeth to cute through.

Happy kids with messy ice cream faces!  Thank you Grammy and Grampy for the BR gift cards.  We really enjoyed the ice cream.  Lily and Annie were dancing around the ice cream parlor.  They loved the opportunity to choose their very own flavor.  Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy ice cream!....and that's sort of the same thing....right?

I find it funny that with all the clothes Annie has to choose from, she always wants her "Anna" dress and "Anna" braid hairstyle.....every single day.  And with all the toys we have, she prefers a good old-fashioned box and her imagination over everything else.  Keep that imagination going Annie!  Your dreams are what make you - YOU!

11 Months

Tommy is now 11 months old.  Only four more weeks until Bubba celebrates his 1st birthday!  He hit a couple of milestones this past month - learning to clap (exactly one week after turning ten months), learning to crawl all the way up the stairs, standing without assistance, and taking his first steps (on February 19).  I can never get him to clap for the camera, but he really loves to do it, especially when we sing.  He took his first steps while Uncle Brady was here visiting.  But he hasn't taken any more since then.  He only walks when we hold his hands or he can hang on to something stable.

He still uses his favorite blankets as teethers/pacifiers.  He is always sucking on a blanket.  It must be comforting.

The bathroom is his favorite place to play.  When we forget to close the bathroom doors, we find huge toilet paper messes and drawers emptied of their contents. Apparently the plug to Mommy's hair dryer makes a great teething toy.

Look at that pucker!  He loves citrus - especially limes, just like the rest of the family.  I could not get him to give up this wedge of lime until it was sucked totally dry.

Love his bright smile and big browns!

Tommy celebrated his first Valentine's Day this month.  He loved opening his cards and tearing up the envelopes - Mommy saved the cards before they met utter destruction.  He also got to try his first frosted sugar cookie.  He is a frosting fan like his sisters.

Lily keeps trying to help Bubba learn to walk.  He just likes to be pulled around by his sister.

Tommy loves working with Daddy in the basement.  He wants to be right on top of anything Daddy is doing with tools and wood.

Lily shared some ranch dressing from her lunch with Bubba.  He licked the plate clean!  Looks like we have another kid with a ranch tooth rather than a sweet tooth.

So big!

Still in love with the bath!

Tommy loves to teethe on cold vegetables.  Carrots and cucumbers are his favorites.  Just look at how happy veggies make him.

Here comes trouble!  Mommy is in no hurry to get Tommy walking.  He is busy and fast enough as a crawler. 

He still has only two teeth.  But the top four look like they will break through together any day now.  He is sleeping great and naps once a day.  He loves trying table foods now and throws food he doesn't like on the floor.  He loves sippy cups but still prefers a bottle.  He really loves other babies.

That's it for month 11.  Almost the end of year #1.

March 02, 2014

Annie had a great week at gymnastics!  She was able to walk the whole length of the highest balance beam without any assistance.  She also walked the other two beams without falling off - even while balancing a bean bag on her head.  I love how she's biting her lip to concentrate.  She was so pleased with herself.  It is great to see her walk on the beam with confidence now.  Great job little Annie!

I am usually the one behind the camera but Lily asked to take some pictures this week.  She did a pretty good job.  And it is nice for the kids to see me in the pictures sometimes.

Each of my babies has now fallen asleep once in their high chair.  It happened to Tommy late Wednesday morning after picking up Lily from preschool.  He was so hungry and so tired by 11:00 that he passed out between bites.  Lily and Annie only did this once during their baby days.  We'll have to see if Tommy will be the same way.

Lily's preschool teacher made custom colored playdough for all the kids in class.  Lily wanted purple.  She was so excited to bring it home and share it with us.  The girls and I played with it for almost two hours before breaking for lunch.  Thanks for the fun dough Miss Erin!

Here's Annie with her FAVORITE snack of all time.  Triscuit Rosemary and Olive Oil crackers.  She doesn't like any other flavor of Triscuits - only this one.  She can eat a whole box on her own if we're not watching.  She grabbed this box on our way out the door to run errands.  I heard crunching in the back seat and had to laugh (and take a picture) when I found her munching away on her favorite crackers.

Tommy is in love with toilet paper!  IN LOVE!  If we don't remember to take the rolls off and store them on the counter top, he will sneak into a bathroom and quietly unroll an entire roll, then start to eat it.  Gross!  The unrolling isn't too bad - we can just roll it or fold it up to save and use.  But one morning Annie had used her little pink potty, and left it full, without telling me.  Tommy went in and unrolled a whole roll into the potty.  Nearly all the paper was soaked and not useable.  But it is so hard to be mad at that cute little face!  He was proud of his work.  So if you come and visit us, don't be alarmed when the toilet paper roll is empty.  We probably hid it somewhere out of Bubba's reach.  Just look up high.  And be sure to keep the bathroom doors closed.  He figured out how to flush the toilet this week too.  This one is gonna be trouble!

 Lily made this cute mask in preschool for President's Day.  Annie loves to wear it around the house while singing "Once There Was a Snowman".  I'm with you Annie - it looks more like a snowman than a president.

Lily helped me make ham and cheese rolls for dinner one night.  She is getting to be a big help with dishes and cooking....when she wants to be.  We bought our annual one box of Girl Scout cookies this week.  Tommy was only interested in the actual box rather than the cookies.

We had some warmer weather this week.  The temps were above 45 degrees and the sun was shining for about three days.  We took lots of walks and bike rides to soak up some rays.  Jeremy is still plugging away at the basement.  Tommy likes to be Daddy's helper.  Tommy loves the sounds of all the tools, and he just loves being with Daddy.

Tommy's little buddy Hunter came over to play this week.  They were so cute together.  Hunter loves his pacifier.  Tommy never wanted one as an infant so he was fascinated by Hunter's.  Tommy kept taking it out of Hunter's mouth, inspecting it, and then putting it in his own mouth - only to be disappointed that it didn't taste/feel good - then return it.  I guess he has short term memory loss because he did the pacifier experiment about 5 times while Hunter was with us.