You Don't See That Every Day

We had a baby this weekend. And he is a cutie!  It all started with a parade, and a family reunion. The annual get together at my aunt and uncle's house was this past weekend. I managed to make it to the little town parade too. I got to see some college friends in the parade, which was a cool highlight for me!  And instead of just candy, one group handed out Otter Pops - score! on such a hot day!  Aunts and uncles cousins and far flung relatives along with friends (and plenty of people who I am related to but I don't know) were at the get-together. The dessert contest once again honored my girls' hand at cake-decorating: And there was plenty of time for games and some football throwing. It's always nice to see the older two actually getting along.    And then we took the young un's home. The house was fairly baby-proofed, but thankfully I have some great older kids who are terrific babysitters. (Plug here - anyone need a sitter? Call my older ki...

 The many faces of my Little K. who is 2 years old today. She came into this world right on time, arriving on her estimated due date; it was a long painful delivery but so worth it (of course!)  And now she fills our days with smiles, and tears, happy sounds, and frustration.  I often hear the girls call her name, both to play and to get after her for getting into their 'stuff'. My little two year old loves to be outside. In Oregon, this doesn't happen until later spring because of all the rain. I am going to look for some small-sized boots for her to use soon. Little K also loves music and dancing. She will bop along to the radio in the car, which keeps us all happy (7 people squeezed into our vehicle sometimes leads to unhappy moments) Little K absolutely loves loves loves her big brother. They share a room for now, until the remodel is done. And he is one of the first people she goes to when she wakes up. She goes down for a nap if i promise here we w...

We have a guest blogger with us today.  My 11 year old daughter is at the age - not wanting to play so much with the younger set, and not sure what else to do - so I let her try her hand at this: Guess who got a new bed today. Little K couldn't wait to try it out. She helped(?) take her old crib apart and put together her new one. Everyone felt the urge to sit on it.   "Okay, Mom, you can turn off the lights now, I'm ready for my nap!" (I'm back thanks to my girl for filling in) Yes, Little K is no longer in the crib. I was SO tired of getting her out of bed in the middle of the night to snuggle with me in my bed. Yes, we have fallen into that habit. Now it's time to change.  Because she shares a room with her older brother, I couldn't just let her cry it out. Poor Brother needs sleep! since he has to get up early and go to school away from home.  So I usually just tuck her in next to me and try to sleep. It's getting old, re...

Just another day in paradise- loads of laundry to finish folding while chasing a runny-nosed toddler who would rather not wear clothes. I wouldn't trade it for anything!

"She has strong legs." "I didn't expect her to kick like that." "Oh, she is so strong." I heard these comments from the nurse as I held Baby K and the nurse gave her her immunizations this morning. K was having none of it!; although I had ahold of her arms and upper body, her little legs were flying! Poor baby - she had 5 shots today and was crying to break my heart. Her overall stats look pretty much like her older sisters - long and skinny. With a big head. We also discovered she had an ear infection. No wonder she hasn't been sleeping well. I'm hoping tonight will be a bit quieter, even with the pain of her shots. We've got some pain-relief medicine in her, and right now she is snoozing away in her crib. Overall she is developing well, and for this we are thankful!

Baby K had cake for the first time on her birthday yesterday. And like her momma and siblings, she really really likes chocolate cake. Likes it so much she had to wear it in her hair and smoosh it into her face Thankfully she has enough self control to push the bowl away when she was done, even though there was cake still in it. Something her momma needs to learn.

In one year, From this: To this: Happy First Birthday to our baby K.!

I went for a run the other day with baby K in the stroller. Is there an technique to this stroller running? Am I missing something here? So I tried running with both hands on the handle. That became frustrating because I couldn't swing my arms - which is kind of important when running. If I tried to swing my arms while holding onto the handle, I could see baby's head bobbing a little bit too wildly for my comfort. So I switched to just holding on with my left hand, which happened to have the safety loop attached to that wrist. My right arm was swinging wildly at that point. So I knew that wasn't going to work for long. So I switched to holding the handle, and the safety loop, with my right hand/wrist. That felt even more awkward. I briefly, for a nanosecond only , considered just holding the safety strap and moving the stroller ahead of me with a push. But I didn't. I kept my hands on the wheel, so to speak. But then my shoulders started to hurt, because really, whe...

I finally made it to the beach! After months of pining away for the sand and wind and waves, I got to see my beloved coast. In Oregon going to the coast does not necessarily equate with flip flops, shorts, sun, swimsuits. As you can see in the photos. Even though there was NO WIND blowing, it was still cool. We had a lovely walk on the beach and then we visited my sister, brother in-law and niece. After another walk on the beach with them, I noticed baby K not acting like herself. Her head felt very warm - too warm -- and my mother instincts kicked in. I knew something was wrong, but not sure what. When we made it home that night, her fever was up to 104 and she was having little twitches, what I would call seizures, with her arms and legs. They went away with acetaminophen, but came back later the next day. We took her in to the doctor that evening and the good doc was able to diagnose - red sore throat, and fever ulcers on her mouth. A bug that is going around, lasts 3 to 5 ...

Last night was the first night. We are back at the crucial time in baby's life where she learns ... to go back to sleep on her own.  I, too, have to adjust my habit of going in every time she cries, picking her up and cuddling her. But oh, how those sweet hugs and whimpers break my heart.  I stood strong last night, after I finally turned off the light, and prayed a million Give me strength prayers. She woke up 3 times during the night, with each crying time getting progressively shorter! I was able to lay there and just listen to her without going in. I must admit, I was more worried about my reaction than hers. But we both came through just fine, both rested when we awoke in the morning, and we were up and out of our pajamas by 8 am! A breakthrough for sure!

It's all about the tower. And the crash. We build them up, she topples them over. Claps and cheers to follow. Repeat as needed.

9 months old and already trying out flashcards. She's a genius, I'm sure of it. (And they probably taste pretty good too.) This is actually a typical site in our home. Baby K is into everything. EVE-RY-THING. And it all goes into her mouth. I measured her length yesterday and came up with 28.5 inches. We'll go in next week for the check-up and 'official' measurements. At this stage in life, Baby is exploring the house. She is learning to open cupboard doors; she stands alone for about a second before lowering herself to sitting; she lets us know when she is Not Happy with a high pitched shriek. This is actually something she has been doing for months. (Back when she screamed at me). She is already trying to assert Her Way over My Way. There have been a few little battles over not being able to do what she wants, mainly because it was unsafe or destructive. We're starting to feed more solids -- she had her first pbj sandwich yesterday and really liked it...