Happenings

The winter snow seemed to leap right over us. But finally on the 29th of February we had enough snow to take the little girls out for a sled ride. I just pulled them around the yard for a bit and let Leah do some snow painting with squirt bottles. By late afternoon most of it had melted. We never did get to truly go sledding down a hill this year. Maybe next.
This year Tal and I put more effort into making our cake delicious than beautiful. We were successful. Our Cherry and Cream Cheese Frosting Topped Devil's Food Target Cake was divine. After several people asked for my recipe, I had one mom confide that she thought we had bought the cake and just stuck an arrow in it.
Abi's GATE Night project featured the Declaration of Independence. She learned all sorts of fun facts about our declaration, including that not one of the signers was born in the United States. :)

9 months and On The Move

Eva is a little lady on the move. She has perfected her own version of scooting which falls somewhere between a crawl and a butt scoot. She gets up on one knee and one foot and scoots along. Eva is really fast. She also loves to pull up on things, the couch, chairs and her favorite - Mom's legs. Eva and I spend a lot of quality time like this making dinner, washing dishes, doing mom's hair and make-up...
Eva has five little pearly whites now. They are so cute and a little goofy at the same time. This is Eva's baby which she loves. She will grab her and hug her and grin. Eva is a good little hugger and will pat mom and dad's backs when we pick her up. She also gives the sweetest open mouth kisses on cheeks but is much more thrifty with those. Eva is also a good little babbler. I've heard her say "Ma Ma" before but when I coax her to say "Mama" she grins and says "Dadda." Little Stinker.
Eva's little teeth are perfect for biting. At 9 months Eva refuses to let me feed her baby food anymore. She is insistent on feeding herself. We sweep our floor at least twice a day. Eva loves bananas, pancakes, cheese, apples, yogurt bites, puffs, peas and more. The one thing she will let me feed her is ice cream. Just like her mommy Eva loves ice cream. Eva also learned to clap and can cheer for herself. We say "Yeah Eva" and she claps her little hands together. She is developing quite the sense of humor as well and has both a social laugh when everyone else is laughing and a real giggle when something is funny to her.
Unfortunately naptime and bedtime got thrown way out of whack around nine months. Eva had a bad cold, and then teething, and then another bad cold to where I had to hold her in a semi-upright position so that she could breathe while she slept. After 3 weeks of horrible sleep habits Eva would not got down for naps and bedtimes anymore. It took a hair-pulling week and a half of crying it out (Mom and Eva) and sleep training but I think we are finally getting back into our groove. This picture is of Eva and Kris catching a little catnap after a day of lots of crying, grumpiness and only one 20 minute nap. But today I am thrilled to report a morning nap of 2 1/2 hours, afternoon nap of 1 hour and easy bedtime. Hooray!!! but no bets for tomorrow.

Trick or Treat

So Leah is wearing 3 tutus today, one on top of the other, to be a princess. I was in the bathroom blow drying my hair when I hear a little knock at the bathroom door. I open it to find Leah holding a little green bowl. "Trick or Treat" she says. "Well I guess I better get you a treat" I answer. "Yeah, like JELLYBEANS!!!"

She is sooooo my child. :)

8 Month Eva Parties Too Hard

Little Eva is a party princess. Unfortunately Eva's posse (mom) is pretty lame and doesn't enjoy the middle of the night parties quite as much as Eva. Eva's partying is a result of waking up to nurse about 3:00 am. If mom doesn't get Eva to fall immediately back to sleep then Eva fully wakes up and hello party time for about 2 hours until Eva decides she is tired again. Tonight is a party night; I should know better than to try and squeeze in a bathroom break before nursing Eva. Usually our parties consist of watching Netflix shows and rocking until Eva falls back asleep but tonight Abi, cousin Gabby, and Leah are having a sleepover in the basement so TV watching is out.

Other than the middle of the night partying, Eva at 8 months is a joy. She continues to be a sweet and happy baby. Eva is developing well and we rejoice at each of her new tricks. She is proficient in African tongue click language and Native American war calls with the back of her hand, you know "Ah Ah Ah Ah." She continues to babble Dada but no Mama yet. She just learned to clap and wave. Eva has a whole box of toys that she loves to pull out, scatter around and scoot after but her favorite activity is exploring whatever new item her grabby hands can catch.

Eva also learned to drink from her sippy cup. She loves juice. Other favorite foods include pancakes, puffs, and smashed bananas. She has a really good pincer grasp and can feed herself little bits of stuff well. Eva is broadening her palate to enjoy some of her veggies like peas, carrots, and squash as well as her fruits.

Eva is a scooter right now but soooooo close to crawling. Currently she maneuvers about with a little half butt scoot interspersed with getting up onto one knee and one leg and pulling forward. That other knee is so close, it's just a matter of time until she's crawling. Eva is also starting to pull up on things. The other day she was enjoying pulling up on the magazine rack and pulling out all of the magazines. Oh boy watch out for the destruction that is soon to come. Eva cut her two top teeth and she has the cutest smile. Teething continues to be pretty easy for her and she has only nipped me a couple of times while nursing. Her hair keeps growing and growing, especially in the back. It is blonde and curly and I'm just waiting for when it's long enough for a little piggy tail or bow.

A Pirate Party...Argh!

Argh Mateys! Welcome to Talmage's 9th Birthday Pirate Party.

A house full of 8-9 year old boys wielding pirate swords, now that's scary. I found this cool tutorial at Sophie's World to turn regular party store swords into a safer version optimal for a pirate sword fight. Kris and Abi engineered them. The boys LOVED it! Of course we did have to referee and enforce a few rules like no tackling or hitting in the face but the boys were begging for more sword fights even before the cake and ice cream.

Next I created this treasure hunt up and down our street. The treasure was hidden on our front step where each boy received a ziploc full of candy booty.

Note our unusually warm, dry winter. Can you believe we can play outside games in mid February?

Next we played Capture the Jolly Roger. My cousin/friend Brooke helped me paint these awesome flags. This game turned into another version of pirate sword fight. Oh well.

Tal wanted a Treasure Chest for his birthday cake this year. I checked out the amazing cakes at Coolest Birthday Cakes to get some ideas. The basic engineering was easy. I frosted it with penuche icing for the color but it was not a fave of the boys. Then I stuffed it with more candy treasure. The boys just ate the ice cream and some candy. Next year I'm just going to frost and decorate a box.

For Tal's family birthday party I made ice cream cone cupcakes. Unfortunately the rainbow colored cones were not very strong and I had blowouts on nearly every one. Thank goodness for cupcake surgery and lots of frosting. The cones were fun and made for easy serving and clean-up but didn't retain their crunch so the flavor was a little off. Still a fun idea.

And now.......

10 Things About Talmage:

1. He still loves for me to rub his back at church, sing him songs at night, and listen to Leah's bedtime stories, even if he thinks he is too big for kisses.
2. He is a Video Game Fanatic. He loves to play Wii and more recently XBox. Whenever he gets a new game he plays and plays until he has it beat. ( Who did he get that from? Hint: Kris) But he is always happy to go back and play old games too. He is even breaking out his cool moves on my new Just Dance 3.
3. His new favorite color is Blue.
4. He is starting to get into reading. He just finished the first Percy Jackson book and is blazing through number 2.
5. Tal is a big tease. He loves to tell jokes, especially ones about butts, underwear or farting. He loves to play with, play tricks on and pester his sisters. My ears are specially tuned to his maniacal "I'm doing something naughty" laugh.
6. He can be a huge help. If you give him a list of chores, Tal will jump right in and get them done. Some mornings he hops out of bed, makes his bed, and is setting the table before I even get my clothes on to make breakfast.
7. He wanted Hawaiian pizza and Shasta orange creme soda for his birthday dinner.
8. He loves his new skateboard and is already begging me to go to the skate park down the street.
9. Tal loves to build and create. Currently he is building a fort in the basement to sleep in tonight. He remains a Lego maniac. He has started writing and illustrating the continuing adventures of "Mega Man" a comic book. They are filled with sound effects and explosions.
10. Tal is bursting with energy and always on the go. When he was little I used to call him "Lightening in a Bottle." Thankfully he is learning to harness some of that energy into basketball, Tae Kwon Do, school and other great activities.

I Love You, Talmage.

Musings on Motherhood

Conundrum. Catch 22. The feelings of my heart. Recently my thoughts are a juxtaposition of the differing aspects of Motherhood. I became a mother at 23. My 4th time around at just before 34 is very different. At 23 I had more energy. At 33 I had gained wisdom, tricks, and techniques. At 23 I spent so much time hanging around the toilet I wanted to die. At 34 I vividly remember those hours in the bathroom with each pregnancy, the burning reflux, and the aching of my legs, back and pelvis later on. But balanced against holding that sweet newborn I still think I want to go through it again. With 4 kids I can't seem to find a minute to work out, read, scrapbook, garden or hardly even blog anymore and I really miss and whine about that. But I also feel that with the addition of each child I cut out more of the extras to just survive and sometimes thrive on the essentials. I cheer on the days that my baby takes a good nap so that I can work out and shower on the same day. But I'm also sad that she doesn't need me to sleep next to her like when she was tiny. I relish the night of good sleep when she sleeps in her crib but I treasure the feel of her sweet little body snuggled next to me in the crook of my arm. I simply love nursing her. I can't think of a downside to that one. Feeding my babe bring such a sweet loving feeling to me. I treasure watching each of my children grow, learn, and discover who they are. But at the same time I want them all to stay little cuddled in my arms or on my lap. I recently was tallying up our budget for last year and can't believe that Eva cost over $7000. That much money would pay for a boob job, a trip to Disneyland, a motor bike for my husband, the increase in house payment for a bigger home, braces for my older kids or a lot of other things on my want list. $7000 is a sizeable chunk of our income. How many $7000 babies can we afford? At 22 I was a size 7 and 25 lbs lighter than I am now. At 34 I look better with my clothes on but in many ways I've grown into my skin. At 23 I loved my career and couldn't see ever not working. At 34 I can whine and complain after a long day of peed pants, fighting kids, and a messy house but I love being a mother and wonder what I will do with myself when my youngest goes off to kindergarten or worse yet off to college. How long can I put that off for? Who will I be then?

7 Months and a Big Baby

It seems that this month Eva made the big jump from little baby to big baby all at once. She has reached some major milestones and is growing up way too fast for mom. Eva learned to sit up on her own. Just recently she has also started scooting around on her little bum. Eva has learned to babble "Dadda" but no "Mama" yet. Her hair is coming in really well now and she is going to be another little curly blonde.
She has two bottom teeth, great for biting crackers and anything else that come close to her mouth. Two more teeth on the top are so close to breaking through. Eva has been a really good teether though, no fevers and not much fussing.
Eva started on crackers and pureed food this past month. She loves graham crackers, arrowroot biscuits, puffs, and town house crackers, but Chicken in a Biscuit are her favorite. One afternoon the older kids were having them for a snack and Eva fussed until she received one too. Sweet manna from heaven, Eva was hooked and licked and mushed about 6 crackers. Eva also loves bananas, peaches and pears but the veggies have not been her favorite. She will take one or two bites then rear her head back and toss it side to side trying to dodge the spoon.
Eva is becoming really playful and Leah loves to entertain her. This day Leah begged for rides in the laundry basket so I pulled Leah and Eva up and down the hallway. Another favorite time is bath time when Leah and Eva splash in the water and play toys. Then can play in the water for the better part of an hour. Eva has learned to play peek a boo and can pull the blanket up to cover her face and then down again grinning and giggling the whole time.
Right about 6 months Eva stopped taking her usual naps. Previously I would nurse her to sleep and then transfer her to my bed where she would settle in on her tummy. But just past 6 months her eyes would "Bing" open and that would be the end of the nap. For several weeks a very grumpy mommy and tired Eva struggled along until I gave in to sleep training for naps. Sleep training, or crying it out, is soooooooo hard for me. The sound of my babies crying hits the perfect frequency for my ears to literally ring in pain. We would nurse to the point of sleep with her little seahorse singing lullabies and then I would lay Eva in her crib. The first time she fussed for 10 minutes before falling to sleep, the second time for 5 minutes. I wish I could say it has been smooth sailing since then but I don't lie. Most days she will fuss for a minute and then nap well, but a few times I have rescued the wailing baby after 15 minutes because my breaking heart can't take it. Night time sleeping has also improved. The majority of nights she sleeps until 4 or 5 am before waking to nurse but once in a while we still pull all-nighters. Though I miss the sound sleep of sleeping alone, the lovely feel of a warm baby snuggled next to me is priceless.