8 months old

Today our Luke is 8 months old! He still has no teeth and does not crawl yet, but he's babbling a "ba ba ba" sound (he'll repeat it if you say it to him!) and dancing! That's right, he's already dancing- play some music and if he feels the beat, he'll bounce up and down to it. So cute! He practically jumps out of my arms to reach for things (including food) and is a little rolly polly once I put him down on the floor. Today he napped perfectly- 2 naps, the first one almost 1.5 hours and the second one 2.5 hours. I would LOVE it if he napped like that every day! He was so happy all day!

edited to add: Here's a post of Beth when she was about 8 months old, for photo comparison. :-)

My mom and two youngest brothers are visiting right now, so we've been spending most of our days with them. My brothers love playing with Beth and Luke, and Beth absolutely adores both of them. It's nice to spend some time with my mom and grandma, too! Here's a pic of Beth on the swing, David and Alex were pushing her too. She has so much fun with them!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there, especially my hubby who is probably one of the best- if not the best- father in the whole world. I'm so glad I picked you, instead of Ronnie Nelson, to be the father of my children!

(Unfortunately I didn't get any pics of Beth and Ryan today. But here are some cute ones of Luke and Ryan playing on the bed.)

Back at home

Today has been a good day. Beth honestly seems 100% back to her normal self with the exception of her nasty cough and runny nose. Luke is also doing better, his congestion seems to be clearing up. I think Ryan and myself see a light at the end of the tunnel, hopefully tomorrow will be even better!

We started our day with some pancakes and eggs for breakfast, as requested by Beth. Then we went to the park to feed the ducks and swing for a little bit- you wouldn't believe how much energy Beth has after being cooped up in the hospital room for a few days (she was in isolation which means she wasn't allowed to leave her room!). So we got out for a bit in the morning, came home for lunch and naps and spent the rest of the day at home.

ryan likes this picture

Beth is doing great with her breathing treatments, in fact they haven't been an issue at all. We just sit in bed and read while she holds it up to her mouth (she wants to!) and then it's over after a few minutes.

Beth is home!

Beth was discharged this afternoon! She was off oxygen for most of the day and keep her intake up above 95%, so our pediatrician felt comfortable sending her home. We are administering breathing treatments at home every 4-6 hours as needed, but other than that she's supposed to be okay. We're staying in this weekend and taking it easy, as we're still not sure if she's contagious or not. I think Luke has really missed me the past couple of days, he's had my milk in bottles but I can tell he's missed me. He's just a little extra clingy, poor boy.

At some point I'll come back and recap from start to finish our whirl-wind of a week, but right now I am exhausted and want to go to bed! Here are pictures.

right after we checked in, she let them put an IV in and take a chest x-ray without any complaint at all!!!

the next day, starting to feel a little better. this is her face she made quite often, i think it was to help the odd feeling of having the oxygen tube stuck up her nose.

her "ET" thumb. this was the oxygen monitor, so cool. it was just on her thumb, nothing was pricking her, but it constantly monitored her oxygen intake.

the hospital had a very nice lady who came and brought toys and special things for beth- a blanket, bear pillows, toys, movies, stickers, and snow cones! this hospital trip was one big dora-themed vacation for her- stickers, movies, books, toys- you name it. it was all about dora!

Going home, yay!

Video

Obviously this is a few days old... from Monday or Tuesday I think.

beth and luke

Bad news

Yesterday Beth had a cold. She woke up with a runny nose and she was breathing kind of hard, and had a little fever of 100.4 or under. She got worse as the day went on, and at 4:00 I decided to bring her to the pediatrician. After examining her, he decided to admit her to the hospital to be monitored, since her breathing was so labored and she wasn't getting 100% oxygen. Last night she had a chest X-ray, which shows she most likely has pneumonia, and given that she's not really responding to the antibiotics it's most likely viral (isn't it always?). So she'll probably spend a couple of nights in the hospital, just to be on the safe side. Last night I stayed with her and right now Ryan is with her while I'm home with Luke. I'm not sure how we'll do this but I'm trying to pump as much milk as possible (which is pretty impossible for me) so that Luke can stay home and away from the hospital. This came on so quickly, and she wasn't really even acting too sick other than her lack of appetite and unusual tiredness- but she was still in a happy mood! Please pray for her quick recovery!

Eating salad

Beth has recently started enjoying salad, I don't know why I'm so surprised! Here she is chowing down at dinner last night!

Then an after-dinner walk. Just a little short one since it was so darn hot, but it's enough to make the kids and the dog very happy!

Beth update

My children are hilarious. I love seeing bits and pieces of us in them- in their attitudes, their looks, their sayings, even their gestures and postures. Ok it's mostly Beth right now, but Luke is starting to become a little kid and show his personality a little more every day.

Beth cracks me up. She loves to mimic right now, mostly words and actions. She frequently will "sit like grandpa," "dance like daddy," or try to copy my facial expressions. She is a follower when it comes to her interactions with her friend Grace. They feed off of each other but Beth will totally follow the mood or actions that Grace initiates. This can mostly be a good thing, but not always, as 2 1/2 year olds and nearly-3 year olds can be moody sometimes! Beth will copy everything I say, which really holds me to a higher standard of speaking. Not that I have a potty mouth, but it means I can't even say something like, "Finley, you're driving me nuts!" because Beth will say it to Luke- "You're driving me nuts!" Etcetera. I'm sure it will get worse! The other day I wiped some goop out of Luke's eye, and not even a few minutes later I caught Beth trying to wipe his eye too, only she wasn't wiping very gently! It's the little things like that, not necessarily bad, but just not things I really want her to repeat either!

And now the musings: I've realized lately that I feel like I'm holding her to too-high standards again, I think I went through this a few months ago right after Luke was born. It's easy to ask her to help me put stuff away, go talk to Luke for a second, go grab this, etc., and brush her off when her requests aren't conveinent for me. She is so mature, I think, for her age, but I've had people tell me they thought she's precocious even since she was 8 months old! Yesterday I was just thinking about her, this little girl who is not quite 2 1/2 years old yet, and how she's still just a baby.

Everyone always says time flies, but not for me. I think it's kind of nice that she acts a little old for her age, because it gives me another chance to actually treat her like her age! So, I'm taking a proverbial step back with her, not in a bad way but I'll treat her like she wants me to. I'll hold her when she asks (which actually means she's less whiny about it the rest of the day, who'd have thought?), I'll look her in the eye when she's talking to me, I'll try my hardest to figure out what exactly she's saying to me, and I won't expect her to share perfectly with her brother. I have high expectations for her but I don't think they're unrealistic- Ryan calls this "managing our expectations." After my ponderings and personal resolutions last night, I had a good day with her today. She just needs to be treated like the little girl that she is!

Here we go...

Yesterday in Wal-Mart I had a "first" with Beth. We were near the baby food aisle and I was looking at items on the shelf, Beth was in the cart about a foot away from me and Luke was in my sling. I was half-listening to her as I was reading labels, but I heard her very clearly say, "Mommy, that man way big!" I quickly glanced behind me and there was an overweight man, hopefully out of earshot, on the other side of the aisle. Of course, she proceeded so say it again since I didn't immediately acknowledge her comment. I had no idea what to say to her or how to handle the situation, this is the first time I'd even thought of what I would say/do if/when she said something rude. Unfortunately I'm not quick on my toes, so I pretended not to hear here and quickly changed the subject about something completely different, got her looking at and talking about something in my hand.

Okay experienced mommys- what do you say to your children when they're rude in public? Yes, I know she's only 2 1/2, but there's definitely a right way and a wrong way to handle a situation like that. I'm going over it in my head again and again, and while I think I have an idea of what to say when it happens again, I want to get advice from my friends!

Stealing tomatoes

Tonight I went out to water and check on our garden. We had our very first ripe tomato! A beautiful cherry tomato. Beth and Ryan were out there too, so we let Beth pick it and told her to take a bite. She popped it in her mouth, chewed it up and quickly asked for another one. By that point Ryan and I had taken a few steps away from the garden, and as I turned around I saw her grab another one of the plant and as I said, "Beth, not yet!" she popped it in her mouth quickly and ran off! It was yellowy-orange, not quite ripe yet. I guess I'll have to keep a close eye on her when we're out gardening!

Tonight was also a big night for Luke- he ate a whole jar of baby food! I never thought my semi-crunchy self would be so excited, but honestly I'm glad he's eating baby food. It's so much easier, and I really feel like it's better than what I'd be serving him sometimes (tonight we had tacos!). So he ate a jar of ham, rice and pineapple and a mesh feeder full of blueberries. I'm totally okay with that. :-)

Today

quick little family picture after mass today. okay, technically after lunch. :-)

Dora and Blueberries

Yesterday (Thursday) we went to see Dora the Explorer! Beth adores watching the tv show Dora, I usually DVR it and she watches one or two episodes a few times a week. I found out a local library was having a special Dora visit, so we went to see the little show. It was cute, I guess, Beth had a fun time and I think that's all that matters!

I didn't tell Beth beforehand that we were going to see Dora, I just told her we were going to the library. I took this picture right after I told her we were about to see Dora- she was so happy!

Luke, however, was unimpressed.

Beth and Grace right before the show started, very giddy!

DORA! (and Adventure Tyler, whoever he is!)

I forget how monster teeth were involved, but all the kids got a pair. I put away my germophobe side and let her put them in, they were so funny looking!

Luke, still unimpressed. It got the best of him.

It's nothing short of a miracle that she wanted to hug Dora. This is the first time she's been interested in hugging a character like this, I was fairly impressed.

This morning we went to a blueberry farm! We got there around 9:00 am- ugh it was already so hot, and we stayed till 11 am. All four kids did great (we went with Grace and Colin too), Beth picked maybe 4 berries first thing and then ate out of my bucket as I was picking, so it was sort of a slow effort! She was eating faster than I could pick! Luke played in our new (used) wagon for awhile, then I held him, then I put him down in the wagon. That's right ladies and gentlemen, I laid him in the wagon awake, did out "shushing" and patting that he's used to, and he fell asleep! I thanked God for this miracle, no small feat! I almost filled our bucket, by the time we left (it was too hot and the girls needed to go potty!) I checked out with almost 4 lbs of blueberries at a whopping $1.50 a pound. I actually wanted more, but maybe this will turn out to be more than I think! Last month's issue of Martha Stewart Living had lots of blueberry recipes, so I plan on making a cobbler, pancakes, and maybe a pie or something else fancy. Plus we'll probably eat some of them just plain!

Happy boy at the beginning of the morning!

Beth's bucket stayed pepetually empty, despite my dropping a handful of berries in there every two minutes.

She also did a little tree climbing!

Thank you, Lord, for the miracles you surprise me with!

small fingers in my bucket

but how could i say no to this face?

Here's Luke at lunch today. He's never gotten so messy before! It was so funny! It's avocado and banana, he was eating them out of a mesh feeder and just smeared it everywhere. I should've gotten a picture of the floor too, everything was just a huge mess!

As an update, Beth had a really good time with her grandparents the other night. I don't think she asked for me but one time, and even then she did just fine without me! Looks like maybe Grandma and Grandpa will be enjoying a little more time with Beth... Hehehe. :-)

Sleep update

As you may or may not know, Luke isn't the best sleeper in the world. I laugh when I read stuff in parenting magazine like, "Most babies should be sleeping through the night by 6 months old." The past few months have been a struggle, and a couple of weeks ago I was at a breaking point. I got my hands on a few books (mostly no-cry, minimal cry philosophy-type books) and devoured them (again). We really made an effort to be home and starting Luke's routine by 6:30 pm every night, following his cues. On a side note, it's really hard as a parent of two children to be really consistent about routines for the younger child. Beth stays up till 8 these days (sometimes later, if we're out) and Ryan and I like to do stuff in the evening with her now that she's older. But...Luke needs to go to sleep by 7:00 pm, his cues are obvious and if we keep him up later then the whole night is ruined. Ryan and I are big time believers in routine and consistency, and we believe Beth has really thrived because of that, so we want to follow Luke's cues and get him to bed when he's ready. So we've been doing his routine and I firmly believe it's helped him fall asleep faster. The big issue has been getting him to stay asleep.

One night I let him cry for a little bit, I told myself I'd give him 10 minutes then go to him. By minute 5 or 6, he made hardly any whimpering noises, and the last noise I heard from him was around minute 9. He slept solidly until 3:15! Usually I'd bring him to bed with us, but I went to his room, nursed him and put him back in bed and he feel back asleep with no problem. He woke up at 6:00! I thought we were onto something, so we've been doing it that way since then. This means I'm up for about 15 minutes a night, in his room, but it also means he's not in my bed screaming and kicking me. It had gotten to the point where he just wouldn't go back to sleep easily when he was in our bed, so as much as I love cuddling with sweet babies, I've realized Luke sleeps better in his own bed. Plus he wasn't being too sweet- seriously, he's a kicker. Ryan and I are sleeping a little better, and not all nights go as smoothly as that first night, but I feel like overall it's an improvement.

Before Beth was born, I told myself I'd never let my kids "cry it out" in their beds. I didn't know what it was like to be so sleep deprived that you literally fell asleep within seconds of rocking a baby for naptime. I don't consider 10 minutes of crying to be too rough, only because I know that he will calm down now. Beth used to escalate if I let her cry in her crib, but Luke seems to be the opposite now. I'm happy that we seem to have found something that works for now, even though I'm still not sleeping through the night and even though I realize we'll probably have to change something else before he finally sleeps through the night. But I don't want to be ashamed either- I know there are groups of people who think any amount of crying is child abuse, and other groups who would plop their babies in bed and not open the door again till 7 am. I'd like to think I'm not on either end of that spectrum, but instead found something that works right now for us.

Pretty pictures

New stuff!

I am going to try to start labeling my blog posts. This means if you want to see only posts about gardening, then click on the link on the right side of my blog. It's going to take me awhile to label everything- I have over 515 blog entries!

Also, I added a poll to the right. Please vote and give me an idea of how you want to see my blog grow. :-)

Bye Bye Bethie!

Today Beth has left us to go spend the night with her grandparents- all by herself- for the first time! They left about 45 minutes ago and I will go pick her up tomorrow morning. So she'll be away from me for less than 24 hours, but spending the night at someone else's house without me present is a whole new thing for us! I have actually only been away from Beth for 4 nights since she was born. Okay, I'll admit I was a little emotional sending her off... But I know she's going to be totally spoiled rotten and will probably not even realize I'm not there. She's been looking forward to this day since we told her a few days ago, so I hope she has a good time!

Tomatoes

My garden seems to be doing well, despite its late start. They all have a lot of green tomatoes (only did cherry tomatoes and Roma tomatoes this year), but nothing red yet. My squash plants are also doing fantastic, they all have flowers. Now if only I can keep the stupid pests from eating my flowers, I might actually get some real veggies this year! We also have a flower on my pumpkin, which I planted on accident. I'm really surprised it lived, but maybe we'll grow our own Halloween pumpkins this year. My red bell pepper has also come back to life- if you remember, only mere minutes after I planted it, it was run over by a dog or a toddler. I left it in the ground, a little green stump with a single leaf. It's developed more leaves and grown to a whopping three inches or so, but it has a little blossom! If it develops, it will be the world's tiniest red bell pepper!

my little garden

Roma tomatoes

sweet 100s cherry tomatoes

Summer time!

It's pool time again! Yesterday was our first outing to the pool. Luke actually had a really great time splashing around in some shallow water of the baby pool, but Beth was reluctant to get in. Last year she was a little water baby, I had a hard time getting her out of the pool (and not only because I was 5-6 months pregnant!). Today we went to a different pool, this pool had a zero-entry (like a beach) and I thought it would be great for the kids. Luke loved it, but Beth still kept her distance. Katie finally convinced her to go into the "deep" water (1.5 or 2 feet!) and Beth seemed to be okay with it... The rest of the time she barely had her toes in and sort of fussed and pouted. I hope she gets used to it because I plan to go quite often this summer!

Here are two pictures from yesterday. As it turns out, Beth's swim bottoms are waaaay too big (even though they're 2T- guess they were made for a diaper to go underneath?) and were falling off, so I will probably put this suit away till next year. And in case you haven't met me or my husband, we might be some of the whitest people on the planet, so I'm pretty sure we created the whitest kids ever. So yes, our kids will wear swim shirts probably anytime we're out before 5 pm! No sunburns on my babies!



These two pictures are from today. Luke doesn't really like wearing his hat, I need to get one for him with a chin strap so he can't pull it off as easily.


As it was, I still slathered up his bald little head with 80 spf sunscreen! Beth has a wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses too, she wore them most of the time except when I happened to take this awesome picture:

I love it. And the only reason I'm posting it is because yes, she was "crying," but I promise you it was so fake that it was funny! This is her swimsuit from last year, it still fits! Actually the bottoms are also a little big now that she doesn't have a diaper underneath, but it fits way better than the pink froggy suit. It's a size 18-24 months, but I've heard Gymboree runs a little big. Anyways, that's okay, I absolutely love that suit, I'm glad she'll get to wear it again this summer!

I got two new swimsuits this year too. After 26 years and two children, my sense of modesty has finally caught up with me. I have purchased two tankinis and stowed away my bikinis. My mother will be so proud!

Diaper thoughts

my complete cloth diaper stash- everything that we use right now. for luke- clover fitteds, nana's bottoms fitteds, thirsties covers, a couple of fuzzi bunz and one-size bum genius. for beth, dream-eze fitteds and one-size bum genius. i also have cloth wipes (gerber washcloths!) and fleece liners that i cut from cheap scrap fleece from walmart.

The past week or so I've had Luke and Beth in disposable diapers. Beth developed a yeast rash due to the antibiotics she was on for her ear infection a couple of weeks ago, and the passed it on to Luke somehow. I had to "strip" their cloth diapers to make sure every trace of yeast was gone, and put them in disposable diapers while treating their rashes (Beth still wears diapers for napping and nights). I have a small confession to make, it's been mighty easy using these disposable diapers for Luke! Since he's starting solids...Yeah, I'll leave it at that. Even though it's been easy just to toss the diapers in the trash, I feel like it's been so wasteful too. Sometimes the diapers are just barely used when I throw them out! I'll just consider this past week a nice little laundry break for me. It's possible to use cloth diapers while dealing with yeast issues, but I just didn't feel like dealing with it this time. I'm pretty sure I could now write a novel on how to cloth diaper successfully, it's hasn't even been a year yet but we've had a wide variety of experiences- and I feel like I know every trick in the book!

Here are a couple of pictures from the other day. I ordered Beth a skirt from Gymboree.com, it's meant to be a real skirt but it's her "ballerina" skirt that she wears every day! She is an excellent dancer when she wears her ballerina skirt! As it turns out, it can be worn with any shirt in her wardrobe, including her monkey shirt:

And here is Luke, watching her dance from a safe distance. He's impressed, can't you tell?

Censored?

Heard at our house today:

"The mommy on the bus goes "beep beep beep" "beep beep beep" "beep beep beep" all through the town!"

Buddies

Colin (14 months old) and Luke are finally able to sit on the floor together, though not much interaction is going on at this point. It's cute to see them "play" together!

(Beth wanted to take a picture too!)