Small Triumphs

January has been very dull.  At least in terms of major events.  But I'm finding more and more that it's the little things that make a successful (or not so much) day.  So since it's been over a week (I know, I know -- you're suffering withdrawal and I apologize PROFUSELY!) here's a recap of our little successes:

MEGAN

I feel that in general she is doing so much better!  Maybe it's her age (turning 5 next week!) and maybe it's the lack of TV and the increase in quality mommy time (a struggle for me, I admit).  She is happier I think.  She's also become quite the fashionista lately.  Our weather in Texas is so random -- 40 degrees one day and 70 the next -- that she has a variety of clothes in her drawers and I usually need to specify what she can wear.  She still LOVES skirts so this week we had 2 notable choices to keep her legs warm:

On the left: her favorite owl shirt, a fun spring skirt, MY very fuzzy hot pink socks pulled all the way up, and her sandals (which she's pretty much grown out of).  On the right: her favorite owl shirt is under there, a fun fall skirt, tiger pants, purple socks, sparkly shoes.  Makes me laugh every time.

ABBY

We've put the girls in the same room for the 2nd time (last time failed miserably) and things are going a lot better.  Surprisingly (or not, you decide) Abby is the problem.  The girl appears to not need sleep.  Or she sleeps and wakes up to be wide-awake, hyper, and very very loud.  Side note, I no longer listen to any music, etc. because the amount of noise that comes from this little girl fills my quota for the day.  Anyway, Megan gets very upset with her at night because she wants to sleep and Abby literally will not shut up.  That sounds harsh but even with no response she continues to talk, sing, bark (she plays the puppy dog CONSTANTLY) until she literally falls asleep.  And then she's up at 6 a.m.  It's kind've driving me bonkers but I don't know that I can really do anything about it . . . except majorly get her back when she's a teenager and the sleeping patterns drastically change!   Anyway, good example of this: the other night I was in their room trying to get them to go to sleep and Megan started asking me questions about dying and expressing fear of dying, etc.  It was hard not to laugh while I answered those questions, not at Megan but at Abby who is in the other bed saying this -- "I see an owl.  Hoo-hoo hoo-hoo.  It's not a scary owl.  It's Darth Vader.  And there's a little owl in my hair.  He's just a pretend owl."  Rambling on and on.  She's very much into Darth Vader though even though she has NO idea who he is.  Our GPS has a Darth Vader voice (courtesy of Chopper) and she must like it or something . . . .

Oh one more thing about Abby -- we've been potty-training very VERY casually and yesterday I forgot she was wearing underwear and took the kids to the library.  Now you know that that is an event that takes us at least 2 hours.  She stayed dry -- but not by choice I think since she later came running to me to declare that she was wet.  So not really a triumph -- more like dodging a bullet there!

WILLIAM 

This little turkey is still not eating.  Ok small success -- he will condescend to have some avocado.  But it is still an act of war to get it into his mouth and he doesn't really want more.  He just doesn't hate it.  Chopper says he's a milk addict.  If it weren't every two hours I probably wouldn't mind so much.  But he sits for long periods of time (unless Abby pushes him over) and is starting to really go for toys, including folding himself over in a taco to reach them.  But no consistent rolling and definitely no crawling.  And honestly?  I could stand for that triumph to happen soon.

Here's the video!

Megan loves to make William laugh.  It is really cute.  But lately it's harder to make him laugh, instead he does this high pitched sqeal / yelp thing.

The video is about a minute long and it's the same thing over and over so if you're done after 20 seconds I completely understand.  Just imagine -- this is my life about 18 hours of the day.  We have no volume control in this house.

A Week's Worth

So I can't believe it's been over a week since I've posted.  My sister-in-law has actually posted more -- what's wrong with me?????  Actually, I'll tell you exactly what's wrong, I've been spending all my kid-free moments watching the last season of Lost on Netflix and it unfortunately ended up not being worth my time.  I'm so mad about that.  Anyway.

Still not interested in eating.  Ok I take that back -- since he nurses every 2 hours he's definitely interested in eating -- just not any real food.

He did have his 6 month check-up on Tuesday.  His weight was 17 lbs. 14 oz. (56%), length is 26.25 inches (42%) and head is 42 centimeters (22%).  Still a good sized boy but his growth has slowed down a bit.  We spent a few cranky days because of shots but he's back to his happy, mommy-loving self.

We had mid-year parent-teacher conferences with Megan's teachers on Thursday.  It was good to talk to her for an extended time face to face.  They're seeing much of the same behavior there that I see at home (good, I'm not crazy) and struggling with it as well.  She's more concerned about Megan socially than academically although Megan's stubborn streak seems to prevent her from learning sometimes (no mommy, that says Megan!!!).  Her teacher asked me if Megan plays with children outside of school (uh, yeah -- at least 2 to 3 times a week) and does she actually play with those children (sometimes but mostly no).  In a way, I feel less worried about her and more worried about her at the same time.  At least worried about kindergarten.  And yet I know that homeschooling is definitely not the answer for her.  We're going to try some supplemental academics at home and of course continue with our playgroups and stuff and just keep working on managing anger and being nice.

But the thing is, I really think that things have been better.  How could they not be when she voluntarily gives me this?

And I don't care if she's not a social butterfly, I just want her to be nice when she tells the other children to go away and leave her alone . . . 

Chopper has had a very productive week and been an awesome husband and father (I mean, he is anyway but this week was particularly good!).  He started on Monday by doing the lesson for Family Home Evening.  It was Samuel the Lamanite and he made a wall of cake to shoot him off of. 

I made some bow and arrows from Q-tips and popsicle sticks.  It was an idea off the internet that did NOT work but since they really couldn't shoot Samuel down that makes it somewhat successful.  The girls just wanted the cake really.

Then on Thursday we had our Relief Society meeting at our house and he kept our girls and my friend's four kids entertained in one of the bedrooms because we were in the main room.  They had an iPad for a movie (not ours) but when the boys got bored (they were watching Bambi -- I would be bored too), he broke out the glow sticks for light saber practice.  They thoroughly enjoyed it and were so good.  I love these kids. 

Maddy and I had to take pictures of taking pictures . . . 

Chopper has also made dinner several nights.  And it's all been very good except tonight the girls requested purple eggs.  Well, yellow eggs plus red and blue food coloring equals this:

The color is a little off but I'm not kidding that this stuff looked like that awful goop they put in your mouth to take teeth impressions.  That probably doesn't bother anyone else but I had a traumatic experience with tooth mold goop (several actually) and had a hard time eating dinner tonight.

Abby has decided she wants to be a photographer.  When her pictures are in focus they look like this:

Those are my feet and the corner of the fireplace.  I also found several very blurry close up shots of her face.  Apparently she doesn't know which part of the camera is taking the picture.  She also just holds the button down and takes multiple pictures of whatever she happens to be pointing at.  But she's very proud of her work.

Because quite frankly this is the cutest boy ever. 

I have a video too but it's not happening tonight because I really should go to bed.  But now that I'm back on track, I'm sure you'll see it soon!!

6 Months and life's a changin'

Today is the official 6 month birthday although William's doctor's appointment isn't until Tuesday so we'll have stats then.  We decided to start with fruits and vegetables rather than grains simply because he continues to have eczema and slow bowels when I eat wheat.  I know rice cereal isn't wheat but . . . just go with it.  Anyway -- this was also his first time in the actual high chair.  It's time to put up the bouncy seat and I don't think he'll complain.  He loves sitting up and it's nice for him to have a tray for toys.

So here we go -- BEFORE . . .  

DURING . . .

And AFTER . . . 

  Ok let's try again . . . 

 This one's my favorite.

Oh well.  Now that I have 3 children, I know that this is only the first day of many adventures in picky eating.  It's definitely cuter than it will be about 2 or 3 years from now though.

Tough Guy

These pictures have long been requested by Chopper's co-worker Denise.  She sent home a baby gift of Harley Davidson onesie and bibs and it's just starting to fit William.  Actually, he's worn it before but has puked all over it before I could get pictures.  But I think it was worth the wait because he's so cute sitting up too!

And then as I started taking pictures, I realized there's a pink princess crown in the view.  Whoops!  So much for appearing the tough guy -- he's actually a sweetheart!

Birthday Therapy!!!

Ahhh, 33!  I don't care how old I get, I love celebrating birthdays!!  And yesterday was a fantastic, very therapeutic celebration.  It started with massage therapy followed by fabric therapy (oh how I love fabric therapy!) and then some cake therapy (Betty Crocker gluten free cake mix -- how you have saved me on my birthday!) and then date therapy!!!  Hooray!  Chopper and I went and saw The Hobbit and really enjoyed it.

The girls helped me decorate cupcakes with sprinkles which mostly involved . . . 

eating the sprinkles!!!! 

And you should know that later that afternoon after we had removed the table and put the cupcakes out of reach for later, we found Abby flat on the floor LICKING up the sprinkles that had been spilled.  Do you need a reminder about why she never gets sick?

I found these awesome pictures when I downloaded.  Chopper says that he needs more attention on the blog because he is a part of this family.  He recognizes that he's not nearly as cute, or funny, or exasperating as the girls and William but we love and appreciate everything that he is and does for us and as a sign of my dedication to talking more this year about Chopper I am starting with posting every picture that he took of himself: 

Awww, so cute!

Ok back to MY birthday!

 Cake therapy was very much needed (ok all of my birthday therapies were very much needed) but I have been gorging myself on cupcakes for the last 24 hours.  A little drier and denser than a regular cupcake, they are still stinkin' good.  I think my favorite thing about these pictures is the look on William's face.

 This morning I made the kids take pictures with me too to document the occasion.

 

And after church fireman Cinderella tried climbing Rapunzel's hair up the back of the couch.

Birthdays just keep getting better!!!!

Sittin' Up is Hard to do!

We've been working on sitting up lately.  William -- not me.  In fact, he was up today for several minutes and I even ran to get my camera at which point he tumbled over.  He still does quite a bit of leaning forward (you know, resting on that belly fat!) but he's actually fairly stable.  So I tried to take some video and ended up mainly with bloopers.

After all this, I put him in his baby "recliner" seat while I cut an apple up for the girls.  And I didn't strap him in.  Of course he uses that 30 seconds to sit up (from a reclining position) and tumbled face first out of his seat onto the linoleum floor.  He has a red bump on the head to prove it and cried for about ten minutes but he's fine now.

See it?  It's right underneath (well almost) that thing that is my nose.  And his crazy hair!  And I love that he's doing the lip thing.  This kid cracks me up.

He's not discouraged though.  When I put him back in that same chair later on (strapped in this time), he tried sitting up again.  I think he's just excited to join the girls in teasing and torture!