A quick month with Samuel

Samuel will be 4 weeks old at 2:22 tomorrow.  It was a fast month.  We have Grandma Sherri to thank for that, since she was here for 3 of the last 4 weeks.  She went home a week ago, but since then Samuel has been nothing but sad since she left.  Thanks for coming grandma.

I was going to post a picture of her with Samuel, but I don’t seem to have any. 

The girls are adjusting pretty well to Samuel.  Mariah seems to be having the hardest time, since she doesn’t get as much mommy time anymore.  She seems to be acting up a lot more, but it might not be anything new either.

A few days ago Anna wowed us with her smarts about telling time.  She has a clock in her room because she is not allowed to come into our room and wake us up until 7:30.  So, looking at clocks is pretty standard for her.  Well, one morning this week she came in.  I asked her what time it was and she said, “seven thirty six.”  It was pretty amazing.  She usually just says “seven three six,” but now she seems to be able to tell all the numbers between 1 and 999.  Numbers and building things seem to be what she is good at. 

This morning she built a big train out of all the chairs in the play room as well as the slide and our big orange sitting chair.  Although it looks like we just didn’t clean up, it really was pretty cool to see what she made.  She put all the chairs together, but “higher chairs” on top of those chairs so that the babies could sit up higher, and she even had a spot on the ladder of the slide for small animals to sleep.

And one more thing with Anna this week.  When Anna was 2 we bought a little tricycle for her.  Up until this point though, she never had the hang of using the pedals.  She always found it easier to push walk it, then to pedal, kind of like a baby thinks it is faster to crawl the walk.  Yesterday though, I took Anna to the church so that we could help clean the parking lot and trim the bushes.  I knew she wouldn’t have too much interest in the raking and such so I brought the trike along.  She had a great time.  We live on a hill, so even though she is bigger, pedaling just never worked.  But in the flat parking lot she finally understood what pedaling is all about.  And when we came home, she learned to pedal in our cul-de-sac. 

Mariah has learned that is fun to jump off the toy box.

She also like celery.

Here are a few more pictures of everyone:

Almost a week later

 

Samuel has been with us now for almost a week.  It seemed like I should post some more pictures so everyone can see what he has come to look like.  Of course he still looks like a baby.  He is still really red too, which is interesting since Anna and Mariah, well at least Mariah, wasn’t this red for this long.  But it seems to be going away.

Anna wasn’t as afraid of Samuel as she was of Mariah.  After Mariah was born, Anna it took Anna months to acknowledge that she might even be part of the Family.  But with Samuel, in her prayers Anna is already thanking Heavenly Father that he is apart of our family.  And she even wants to hold him.  Mariah however, doesn’t seem to want to relinquish the title of “Swank Baby.”

Like Mariah, Samuel is pretty strong.  It is probably because he weighs so much, but doesn’t seem to have a lot of fat.  That weight must be muscle.  With tummy time he can pick his head up and move it around.  He can’t lift it all the way up to look around, but he is trying. 

So far, the strangest thing to me is to see how much Samuel sleeps.  Our history of babies so far seems to be going from bad to good.  Anna just never slept.  The night after she was born I stood in the hospital with my finger in her mouth just trying to get her to sleep.  I was so tired and really did not enjoy that time.  I can’t remember the night in the hospital with Mariah, so it must not have been too bad.   The night with Samuel was great, except that the nurse had to keep coming in to do blood sugar tests.  This of course meant pricking his heal which would cause him to wake up.  But, he wanted to sleep.  In the whole time at the hospital, I don’t think I had to hold him to get him to calm down and go back to sleep.  He just kept sleeping.  It hasn’t changed much since we have come home.  He sleeps all day, and then once we get him down at night he seems to sleep pretty well.  Sarah would probably say he doesn’t sleep as well I as I think he does, but that is because she feeds him, so I don’t notice when he is awake.  It’s great.

Of course, everything is better here because Grandma is up here helping us out.  Thanks Grandma.

And since we haven’t seen me, Mariah or Sarah here are some awesome pictures of us.

Look who is here

 

It’s been a while since we updated on here, and even longer since I wrote anything.  It seemed like it was time to write something, but Sarah is currently busy so it’s up to me.

Well, here is the latest addition:

No name yet, but we are leaning to Samuel or Caleb.   He was born March 22, 2010 at 2:22 pm.  He weighs 9 lbs, 2.3 oz and is 21.65 inches long.

Sarah went into labor arond 4:45 am, but it didn’t really kick in until around 10 am at which time we went to the hospital.  Sarah was already dilated to a 10, so no epidural for her, but she toughed through it for the four hours it took before junior decided he was coming. 

The firsts for us this time:

Sarah’s water broke on it’s own.

He came out face first.

Sarah laid on her side through delivery instead of her back.

He seems to be doing well.  He has already eaten, and he isn’t crying much, but is sleeping a lot.  Just what I like to see.

One more picture.

And since no one has seen a picture of Anna or Mariah in ages, here are a few.

 

Cinderella

I know it’s been awhile—blah, blah, blah.  I promised my mother I’d blog this little story tonight because I found it so adorable that it just needed to be shared. 

Tonight after dinner, Anna said, “Mommy, I’m Cinderella now.”  That is usually the beginning of one of her role-play activities, in which the entire family must always be involved—it’s the reason I signed her up for a mini-acting/storytelling class in the winter.  Anyway. 

“Mommy, I’m Cinderella now,” she says. 

“Oh, really?  And who does that make me?” I ask. 

“Prince Charming.”

“Oh, good.  So does that mean we are going to a ball tonight to dance all evening and fall in love?”

“No, that’s tomorrow night,” she says.

I look at her.  “Uh, then what are we doing tonight?”

“Tomorrow night we will dance, and then we will get married.”

“Okay,” I say, now very curious.  “But what are we doing tonight?”

And, with a roll of the eyes, she says, “Well, tonight we are getting to know each other first.”

One man’s indoctrination is another man’s… wise teaching.  And when she is a young woman, dating to find an eternal partner, I will be proud if she calls me one night and says, “Mom, he tried to kiss me on our second date!  We haven’t even gotten to know each other yet!”

Oh, and here’s the little wicked witch.  Wicked is often the right word, such as this afternoon, for example, when I went to change her very messy diaper and discovered that she had pulled out, one-by-one, every diaper wipe in the container and placed it in the Bumbo seat, where she could, obviously, get to them more easily to change her doll-baby’s diapers.  Duh, Mom. 

Summertime… and The Living Is Easy

I know it’s been awhile since I posted, but anyone who bothers to read this loves me anyway.  Right? …  Right?

It’s been an eventful few weeks.  Or I guess I should say, it’s been a typical few weeks with a few little adventurous moments thrown in for spice.  At the beginning of May, I went on a little personal retreat to visit my family in Utah, and it was wonderful.  I got sick while I was there, and my only adventures outside the house were going to Star Trek and going to church, and you know what?  It was awesome.  I did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for five days.  That may not sound good to some people, but I was delighted.  It was a little hard to come home where people, like, expected me to do stuff. 

We finally found summertime up here, and on the second gorgeous day of this surprisingly warm Northwest summer, we went on a family outing to the beach.  The girls loved the water, and Anna got to build her first sand castle.  The water was much too cold for swimming, but we all got our feet (or bums, in Mariah’s case) wet, and we enjoyed every second of that sunshine.  I even got a sunburn.  It was some quality family time, just the four of us. 

Then a few weeks ago, Uncle Nate came to visit.  He was only here for a couple of days, and I’m sure he was bored out of his mind (since our little lives offer small entertainment), but the girls loved having him here.  They had a playmate around all day, and he was great with them.  He played forty hands of Uno, and he ran through the cotton blowing at the park with them, and he chased them through the house as they screamed in delight.  He even went up and down the stairs to rescue the bouncy balls Anna kept throwing.  It’s a true sign of adoration that Mariah not only played with him, but she even used his name: Nee-nee. 

The rest of the pictures are from various playtime moments over the last little while.  In this one, Anna and Mariah were dressing up their hair with various different headbands and decorations.  Don’t they look stunning and modern?

Anna has developed some interesting playtime methods recently.  Her favorite "quiet time” occupation is going through the house and collecting different odds and ends and making different contraptions and clothes for her dolls.  The particular outfit in the picture is made of yarn, rubber bands, and the gel cling decorations from the patio window.  It’s so fun to watch her creating.  I’ve always worried a little because she doesn’t really enjoy drawing or painting, but maybe she’s just into a different kind of creation. 

Mariah has recently developed a propensity for hitting, which, you can imagine, we find a little frustrating.  You can only give your 20-month-old so many timeouts per day before you start thinking that you need to consider other discipline options.  But despite her violent tendencies, she also proves herself more intelligent and aware every day.  She understands a shocking amount of what people say to her, and she picks up very quickly on what’s going around her.  She’ll barely be two at Christmastime, and I already know I won’t be able to put toys in the cart while I’m shopping and have her not wonder why they’re there.  Maybe it means she’ll grow up to be an excellent ruthless, amoral criminal mastermind.  *sigh*

Anna’s big news of the month is that she finally learned to put her own seatbelt on in the car.  We put her in a booster seat just after she turned three, and now, we can say, “Okay, Anna, go get in the car,” and she does it all herself.  You know, I like babies okay, but I love to watch these kids figure things out, and I love seeing their independence grow every day.  And I love not having to do it all myself.  :) 

Our last pictures are of two of the girls’ favorite new activities.  The first one is called The Stage, and as you can tell, it’s the mattress from Mariah’s crib.  We pull it out when I change her sheets, and they get to dress up and dance around on it to put on show for us.  I’m constantly amazed at the fun they can make from almost nothing. 

 

Our other favorite activity, along similar lines, is to pull all the couch cushions off the couches and make The Island.  They climb and jump around on it, and they have a wonderful time.  Plus, it helps me have reason to vacuum under the cushions more often.  We just always have to put them away before Daddy comes home because he doesn’t appreciate the activity as much as they do.  It just shows what different directions our minds are working in right now.  He’s thinking, “I don’t want to buy new couches anytime soon,” and I’m thinking, “I’ll do anything to entertain these girls for an hour at a time, whether the cushions get saggy or not.”   Luckily for me, I’m home alone with them all day and HE IS NOT.  Mwahahahaha. 

On one final note, we are very happy this week because we are eating our very own salad greens for at least two meals each week and we have at least thirty tomatoes growing on Adam’s beloved tomato plants.  I’ll take a picture soon of their… ahem… gorgeous containers, but when I bite into a fresh, homegrown tomato in a few weeks, I’m sure I’ll be grateful.  We also have peas, beans, blueberries, cucumbers, pumpkins, and a few other fun things growing, and yesterday Adam set up a whole drip-watering system that should make his life a little easier.  All in all, I’d say it’s official that Adam has discovered that he has a Very Green Thumb.  I am practically bursting with pride.  :) 

Hope you’re all doing great! 

Funny, Adorable, and Ever-Annoying

I know you’re all shocked that there is actually a new post from me, but here’s to surprises, huh?  It’s been over a month, and a lot has happened, but I’ll try to just pick out a few interesting tidbits. 

Big Event Number One was when my parents came to visit the week after Conference.  Grandma always comes bearing gifts, and my girls loved their new Spring dresses. 

It was a wonderful week for my parents because they got to play with my girls, it was a wonderful week for my girls because they got to play with their grandparents, and it was a wonderful week for Adam and I because the girls and grandparents pretty much took care of themselves and left us to do whatever the heck we wanted.  I suppose that’s not entirely true—Mariah is still a little attached to “ma-MA”—but I did find myself with a lot of very welcome free time.  We did some fun things like go to the zoo on the first warm and sunny day of the year (which meant that all of Seattle was also at the zoo), go to Jump Planet…

and make our annual visit to the Company Store.  It was a quiet week, but that worked out pretty well, and it took me days to readjust to spending most of each day caring for the girls by myself.  *sigh*

Big Event Number Two, which happened on the last day of my parents’ trip, was Easter.  We actually received our Easter Bunny visit on Saturday morning, and on Sunday we had a special dinner and talked a lot about Jesus and the Resurrection.  The favorite Bunny surprises this year were Mariah’s Fritos…

and Anna’s tutu.

 

Otherwise, things have been pretty normal.  We’ve had fun playing with friends.  We attended our first House Party, coming away full of Juicy Juice and stocked with a supply of other free Juicy Juice brand stuff.  We’ve been to several parks since the sun has popped out a few times in the last couple of weeks.  The girls have especially loved the sun since the Easter Bunny brought some sidewalk chalk, and they’ve discovered that the cement bench in our front yard is a perfect chalk-art location. 

Since it’s getting warmer, we’ve started moving some of our seedlings and plants in containers outside. One of Adam’s special projects last weekend was a homemade greenhouse, which we’re all very proud of.  We’re not sure it’ll be enough to get our tomatoes to survive the exceptionally mild Northwest summer, but we’re sure gonna try. 

Anna’s quote of the month is actually from this morning because I thought it embodies a lot of how the last few weeks have gone.  During Sacrament Meeting today, Mariah was as wild as March Hare, and she took some of her containment frustrations out on Anna by stealing her stuff.  At one point, Anna whispered to me, with a very serious look on her face, “I can’t wait until Mariah learns to be nice.”  It was particularly funny since the moment before, she had been yanking a book away and commanding Mariah loudly to “yeeve” her “ayone.”  (Anna’s “L’s” are still “Y’s.”)  Anna has been downright unpleasant lately, and last week, she had the her first official tantrum.  I think my daughter has finally turned three.

And for those of you who are shaking your heads in disgust saying, “Her first tantrum?  They don’t know how lucky they are!” I just don’t want to hear it.  I know we are lucky, and I’m grateful every day that Anna is still so mild-mannered.  Just remember the first time one of your children had a full-on, ear-splitting-screaming kind of tantrum, and try to have some sympathy.  Please. 

Mariah’s quote of the month is “No.”  I haven’t yet been able to capture on video the real kind of “no” I would like to convey to you.  She gets a very serious look on her face, complete with furrowed brows, she purses her lips very tightly, she opens them just slightly as if to say, “Oh,” and then she says “Nooooo,” dragging it out for almost a whole second and shaking her head.  It’s absolutely adorable, even when she’s being a poop.  She says it about almost everything, which is the annoying part, but it’s pretty age typical.  We just have to laugh because when Anna was Mariah’s age, her word was a shyly whispered “Yeah” for everything, even if she meant no.

Now, combine Anna’s bossy, sassy, know-it-all attitude with Mariah’s love for the word “no,” and what do you have?  That’s right—our first arguments.  Anna asks Mariah to do something, and Mariah stands up, walks up right to her face, and says, “No!”  Then Anna giggles, puts her face very close to Mariah’s and says, “Yes.”  And they go back and forth, giggling and chasing each other around while they yell, “Yes!” and “No!”  That is actually a pretty good representation of the last month or so of our children’s part in our lives: funny, adorable, and ever-annoying.

Here are my last pictures, and they, too, are very representative of that last line.  FYI, this is our hallway, those are Styrofoam packing peanuts, and they took me exactly 45 minutes to clean up.  ‘Nuf said.   

Ciao.

Prayers

I don't have any pictures for this week. I promise I'll get some for next time. And really, it's been very quiet around here. I'll just share two quick stories for the week.

Last Sunday, we got a note telling us that Anna had been assigned the opening prayer for primary opening exercises today. She knows how to say prayers, but she still asks for help sometimes, so we've been practicing all week, making sure she said at least two prayers every day. We've also been working on her prayer voice. See, when she prays, she automatically takes her voice into her very upper register, and she sounds sort of like a mouse. I suggested to her on Thursday that we can just use our regular voices for prayers, and we make sure to say them loudly enough for everyone to hear them. Her next few prayers were yelled at full volume, but by this morning she had toned it down. This morning near the end of Sacrament Meeting, attempting to stave off her boredom for a few more minutes, I asked her what things she was going to say she was thankful for in her prayer. She quickly said, "I am thankful for my family and my toys and my friends... and my sister... and my daddy..." and I realized that although we'd practiced the actual act all week, she didn't have any concept that a prayer for primary is different from a prayer at home. We talked about how prayers in public should be for things related to everyone in the room, and we came up with a few things she could be thankful for and ask for that were true for everyone. In the end, a teacher helped her a little preemptively, and she prayed for at least ten things we had never talked about, but despite some slurred words, that prayer was good and loud, and I was stinkin' proud. As she likes to remind me, she's getting bigger every day.

This week, I've also been noticing how skillful Mariah is at non-verbal communication. Over the last few days, she has managed to tell me what she wanted to wear, what she wanted for breakfast and lunch, which pajamas she wanted to sleep in, and which songs she wanted to sing, all without using any actual words. She is, of course, a very talented pointer, and she has an extremely expressive face, which helps a lot, but it's more than that. Kids have an amazing ability to use what they do know to express what they can't say. For example, I asked her the other morning what she wanted for breakfast, and I pointed at her choices. She ignored all the options I'd given and pointed up to the box of Cheerios. I got it down. Then she pointed at the cupboard with the bowls, and while I got a bowl, she got her own spoon out of the drawer. Then she pointed at the fridge and did the sign for milk, so I pulled out the milk, and finally, she pointed at the bananas and mimed cutting them with a knife. I poured her cheerios, cut some banana chunks on, and poured the milk as she sat watching me intently, and after all that was done, she crossed her arms, bowed her head, and mumbled for a second. Then her eyes popped open and she shoveled in her first bite with a big grin. My friend at church today told me that 18 months was her favorite age with all of her kids, and although I hadn't really thought about it, I realized that it is kind of nice: they can communicate and enjoy, they are interested in the world around them, and no one is sweeter than a toddler who, on a whim, would really like a hug and a kiss. Sometimes it's just easy not to notice because they are also completely exhausting.

Happy Spring!