Quickie Post

I've got to be speedy this morning because I have to work and as soon as I get off work today I'm going to my mom and dad's for the weekend. Poor Brad has to stay home and get our new ATT U-Verse TV set up :) (oh yeah, and be on call in case any of his patients need their dr...) But I wanted to clear my camera of pictures so I can start the weekend with an updated blog. :)

This week Carolyn and her friends Rachel (left) and Allie (middle) [they were all in dance class together] have been at Zoo School every morning at our local zoo. They have a special program for 3-year-olds, and though the first day of drop-off in a new place was a little touchy, overall, Carolyn has had a wonderful week.
Each day they make a cool craft, and talk about one of the five senses as it relates to the animals. I've heard all about animal sounds, and that the tiger has stripes, not spots, and have been instructed on how to touch an animal (two fingers, not on the head :)) It's fun hearing what Carolyn has to say about what she's learning. It's been a fun week. Today's the last day and next week is back to business as usual- the change of pace has been a nice break for everyone.

Here are the Big Babies in our playgroup- Nora and Taylor (Taylor is 8 months old, Nora is almost 6 months old). There are about to be 2 new babies. My friend Christi (Aidan's mom) is due anytime, and Rachel's mom Heather is due in September (and Brad will be delivering her baby- yay!) It's hard to believe that Nora is already one of the "big" ones!

But she totally is! The last couple weeks she has become so interested in tummy time I know she is working on all sorts of motor skills and preparation for that next big thing- CRAWLING! Sometimes she gets tired of all the reaching and rocking and rolling and she just puts her head down so cute like she's going to take a nap. Sweet.

It's hard to believe it but the days of mobility are already beginning to dawn. Yesterday I laid Nora in the middle of the living room and looked up a couple minutes later to find her on the other side of the room getting into Daddy's magazines! She'd rolled all the way there! It never stops amazing me how quickly she can grow into new skills. We're in for it the next few months... but I'm honestly excited about it! It's fun to see her learn and grow and master new skills. Yeah, my baby's got SKILZ. :)

Etsy!

I set up an Etsy site this afternoon with some listings for my clippies. I'm going to add new listings as I get time to put them together. Eventually, I'd like to have a small business selling the clips I have fun making for my girls' hair. My site is http://IttyBittyClippies.etsy.com

Growing Girls

These sweet girls are growing up so fast that sometimes they just seem like little blurs! This week we had a visit from the Pacifier Fairy. You may not be aware, but the Pacifier Fairy is very close friends with Tinkerbell. She sent Tinkerbell to our house on Monday night to help Carolyn with the transition.

Tinkerbell collected the pipes (Carolyn ran around the house and found them all and put them in the little gift bag). Then Tink left the pipes on the mantelpiece for the Pacifier Fairy and fluttered down to spend the night with Carolyn to help make it easier for her to go to sleep without them. Then the first night started... some of you might remember a similar attempt we made about a year ago to get rid of the pipes... this time has been much more successful- Carolyn is much older now and understands a lot more. The first night was rough. I shed a tear or two, too, over Carolyn's abject misery and grief over the loss of these friends who'd been with her nearly every night since she was so very tiny. She cried about an hour and a half the first night; long, wailing, piteous crying. It was awful to listen to, and even though I knew it was time and that she was ready... I still felt like a terrible person for being the driving force behind something that made her so miserable. But morning came, and when it did, she cried a little more because she was sad they were gone, and then she perked up when she saw what the Pacifier Fairy had left for her.

It was a sparkly Princess stamp set! Carolyn loves stamps and she loves Princesses, so it was a perfect combination! :) And now it has been six days without pipes, and though Carolyn still cries for them every time she goes to bed, the cry has changed from the miserable one to the wilful, angry cry that I know exactly how to deal with. :) With more time I think she'll adjust and be able to fall asleep more quickly and with less fuss (I hope!) And now she is officially a Big Girl. No more diapers or Pull Ups. No more pipes. All big girl now. I won't lie. I feel just a teeny bit sad.

And this one? She is still technically a baby, but I think at the rate she is growing and changing, she will be a Big Girl by next week!! Nora's motor skills have taken a major leap over the past couple weeks. She is so strong!!

She loves her feet and one of her favorite things these days is rolling around on the ground holding onto them.

She's really starting to reach for things- and even pushing forward just a little bit. Each day she seems to get a little better at stuff like this. I think she will be crawling within just a few more months... heaven help us!

I think Carolyn liked being "sick" so much a couple weeks ago that she asks nearly every day to lay on a pillow on the couch and watch a movie. Sometimes she gets what she wants. :)

There are times I look at my child and I just am in awe of how beautiful she is. She didn't want her picture taken, but I loved how she looked this night with her shiny golden hair and that helmet on that she likes to run around wearing (though she doesn't ride the bike that came with it nearly as often; it's still a hard skill for her to master and she's like me in that she doesn't like doing things she isn't good at initially...)

Nora is starting to want to sleep on her tummy, so the bumper pads had to come out of the crib this week. :( Until she can easily and reliably turn from one side to the other I don't feel safe having them in there. Right now she's really good at getting onto her tummy and has been able to turn the other way for months, but just doesn't realize how to do it intentionally yet. Tummy sleeping is sort of inevitable... but it always makes me nervous! I wish she wouldn't... but I can't stop her, so I'll just help her be good at it, and make sure there's nothing in the crib to suffocate on. The upside is that maybe this will help her sleep through the night- Carolyn started sleeping through the night as soon as she could turn on her tummy... so more restful nights could be on the way... we'll see! :)

Last week we went blueberry picking together with Nana. Carolyn was much better at it this year! She really enjoyed picking the berries. We are going to go back in a week or two when there will be even more blue ones.

One of my very favorite things about Carolyn at this age is how she is developing so much independence. The other day I told her to go to her room and pick out something to wear for the day, and this is what she came back wearing- a purple shirt with a pink skirt and a matching pink headband in her hair! She's evidently inherited some fashion sense (from the other side of the gene pool I guess because I'm hopeless!)- because she nearly always matches! She's so proud of herself for being able to get dressed without help. And it takes a load off my plate to have her be able to take care of herself a little bit. Though I am glad that I still have one child who will wear whatever I put her in (at least until she spits up on it!) :)

Nora is nearly sitting up by herself now. She can sit pretty well if I have the Boppy around her for a little extra support; she loves being able to look at the world from an upright position.

I've been working on the prep work for a little side business I'm starting to sell the clips I make for my girls' hair. Lately, I've been refining these crocheted flower clips and I've made a bunch of them! As I have things to say about the new business, I'll probably post more about it on my other blog, Creations By EB.

Funny

This made me laugh when I got it in an email yesterday... because I totally talk to myself/the baby whenever I'm out with the stroller! :)

Some Pictures

Our summer is just hopping along. Here are some pictures from the past week...

This is how Nora likes to sleep lately: twisted over onto her side, pipe in mouth, lovey over face, and hands up by cheeks. So cute.

My mom says I used to line things up when I was a kid. Carolyn seems to have inherited some of that tendency- lately she has been lining up the Princesses- and somewhere in the past few weeks she's started to really get the hang of counting past two. She seems to understand the concept of quantity much better than before.

Since Nora really just hates the bottle and ends up just basically not eating the days I'm working, which doesn't seem so good for her, we started some cereal with her this week. Here are the pictures I took of her first "meal."

It was messy, as all first meals are. :)

But she seemed to like it. This weekend while I worked, she ate more cereal than milk. I'm trying one last ditch effort to get her to take the bottle- we will try our third type this week at daycare, and if that doesn't work, we'll just let her eat mostly solids while I'm gone and focus on trying to teach her to drink from a cup.

I have to say, I love this stage of baby-ness. Everything is new and fresh to Nora. She loves to touch and taste and explore everything and even the simplest things, like water poured on her tummy from a toy watering can, bring her delight.

Last week, Carolyn came down with what I think is the same thing Nora had the week before. She had one morning where she just really didn't feel well. So I did what I remember my mom doing when we were sick. I made a little nest for her on the couch and let her watch movies all morning and drink as much juice as she wanted (we had cherry 7up but I think she is too young for that). At one point she asked to have her sister come cuddle with her, and then told me I should take a picture. :)

Nora's outgrowing the newborn tub, so we're moving up to the yellow ducky tub. She loves it!

So did its previous occupant (though she was a little older when we introduced it...) :) I think they are starting to look less alike now. Nora's hair seems to be darker than Carolyn's was at around the same age. Maybe she will keep the darker hair. Who knows; guess we'll see by next summer! :)

Another Catch-All Post

Things got so crazy for us right after we got home from vacation that I never quite finished blogging... Our last night in San Diego we went out JUST THE FOUR of us!! It was the first time we'd done that since any of us had kids. It was really great to just enjoy being together. What a blessing these friends are in our life. Carolyn loves to hold her baby sister. Whether Nora really enjoys it is... debatable. :) We recently moved Carolyn's glider/rocker into the living room to make room for the playhouse in her room, and I'm loving having a rocking chair in the main family area.

Behold the great and awesome power of the TV! Mary Poppins captivated both girls!

Oh how sweet the sleep of the finally-not-feverish! Nora came home from our vacation with some sort of nasty bug. :( She had a fever pretty much solidly for 2 straight days, as high as 103.6; it went down with Tylenol, but never really below fever level. She felt pretty lousy and nobody slept very well for a few days. The doctor said she had a minor ear infection but that didn't really seem to explain the persistent fever to me. I think she had some kind of goofy virus- now she has some pretty nasty cold symptoms, though the fever is, thankfully, gone! As a side note, I had forgotten how very much I HATE sucking a baby's nose out with that blue sucky bulb thing!!

This weekend I went with my mom, sisters, and Nora to South Haven. Carolyn stayed home with Daddy and Papa.

I'd never been to South Haven before; it's quite pretty! I love how Nora likes to look over the shoulder of the person holding her. She is the perfect "hip baby" now.

Probably my favorite part of the weekend was going blueberry picking on Sunday.

Even Nora had a great time, as long as she didn't have to be contained in that sling for too long. :)

Each year we are trying to take a picture of Carolyn with Daddy so we can see how she's grown.

Here she is at two.

And here she is at one.

Carolyn is really getting into pretend play! She likes playing "doctor" like her daddy.

I generally get picked to be the patient. She always gets to be the doctor. :) This day she told me all about how she was going to take my "bug pessure." :)

Yesterday we met up with some old friends in Michigan City. It was so great to catch up with them. They brought some cherries to share. Carolyn loved them. :)

I enjoy this candid shot of the kids sharing a bag of cheese puffs.

And here we are all together. A lot has changed in the past 4 years since we last saw each other, but we are all so blessed to still be able to pick up where we left off a few kids ago. :)

And now, I think my blog is updated! :) Yay for me!

Out.

Got this email from my dad's iPhone today. :) I'm in South Haven tonight spending a girls' night away with my mom, two sisters, and Nora. Carolyn's staying home with Daddy and Papa, and it looks like they wore her right out!

5 Months

She was actually five months old yesterday... but we were traveling all day on our way home from San Diego, and when we got home, Nora was running a temperature of 103.6, so the traditional five month post got a little eclipsed by dealing with her first significant illness. :( Not my favorite thing. We were up nearly all night because she cried every time I put her down, and that stubborn fever didn't break until about 4am. This morning I took her to the doctor, and all they could find wrong with her was some fluid behind her ear, which the doctor said didn't 100% explain the persistent higher fever, but that nothing else serious appeared to be wrong. So we went home with some amoxicillin and have spent the day giving Tylenol and sponge baths and trying to encourage Nora to eat.

She's been pretty miserable today, but you'd never know it from these pictures. There just never was such a joyful girl!! Of course she has her moments like any other baby, but she really is every bit as delightful as she looks in the pictures I choose to post on this blog! I would write more about how much I'm enjoying her at 5 months, but she is crying and I would rather hold her than write about her. So just soak in the pictures of my sweet girl and rejoice with us in celebration of five month of Nora! :)

Our Day in Disney

So yesterday we DID Disney! It was a total first for me because I never went as a child (though I never really suffered for the lack of the experience, I still wanted Carolyn to get to see Disneyland while she's so into the characters). We had a GREAT time. It was busy, but not so crowded that we were always bumping into people. It was warm, but there was a nice breeze. The kids got a little grumpy toward the middle of the day, but some gracious friends offered us their nearby apartment for a place for midday naps. All in all, a wonderful day, everything I hoped it would be.

Carolyn got some PINK PRINCESS mouse ears that were (almost) worth the 20 minutes we waited in the store to have them monogrammed. She actually seemed to enjoy wearing them (some of the time).

There was quite a lot of waiting in lines, but really we didn't do anything that was totally unreasonable and we found our own ways of amusing ourselves while we waited. :)

I think the highlight of the day for Carolyn was meeting the characters she loves. She was so awed and excited to see Tinkerbell! It could have been any fairy really, but after over half an hour in line, I was glad to see the little green one that she knows. :) This is such a great age for this because you could tell that Carolyn really believes that this is THE REAL Tinkerbell! It was so special for her to get to see her and talk to her.

And here is THE CASTLE. It's actually Sleeping Beauty's castle, not Cinderella's, but I'm not sure Carolyn understood the difference... She was still thrilled.

I was so proud of her because she actually went on some of the rides! She's got such a fear of merry go rounds and anything similar that I didn't think she would even do the Dumbo ride without screaming, but she did, and she LOVED it! She kept asking to go higher in the sky. :) She faced her fears and found some fun on the other side, and I thought that was just great.

Nora did beautifully! She was really quite happy (except when hungry) all day. She loved all the colors and lights and activity all around. She especially loved the Its a Small World ride where you see all these moving puppets with tons of glitter and lights and sparkly stuff. Her eyes were so wide! This age is just about the perfect time to go if you need to haul an infant around.

Inspired by our success on the Dumbo ride, we tried the teacups next. :) It was fun!

There was some debate over whether it would be worth the hour-plus wait to meet the princesses... but we decided to do it and Steve, Carolyn, and Emma went to do some roller coasters and other things. We were really glad we stayed because I think that what followed the wait that only turned out to be 40 minutes was the best part of the whole day for Carolyn!

Carolyn got to meet Ariel!!!

I think the real highlight of the trip for her was meeting Belle! This woman was so very sweet to Carolyn; she really took her time with her and Carolyn told her all about meeting Tinkerbell, and her baby sister Nora, and her birthday, and everything. It was a really "magical moment."

Tough to get a good family picture in a place like this... we'll just settle for everyone's eyes being open! :)

My mousey girls. :)

Happy little mouseykins! I found these little ears that were on clips and when I put Nora's hair in a little ponytail on top of her head, they stayed in pretty well. How many 5-month-olds could hold clips like that in her hair?

After supper, Carolyn wanted to ride Dumbo again, so Daddy took her. I think it was really fun for him to experience it with her.

While Daddy waited for Dumbo with Carolyn , I took Nora for her first merry-go-round ride for something to do. We had a nice, calm ride. :)

We watched the Disneyland parade perform in the streets. It was a fun, upbeat show with fun music and characters dancing (though none of the princesses was there). Carolyn was totally fixated with Mary Poppins (she just watched the movie for the first time in the last week or so). She was so excited about her that when the dancers invited the kids into the street with them to dance that she let go of the rope that she was supposed to be holding onto and tried to climb onto the platform to get to Mary Poppins. She was SO upset when I came to grab her and take her away from the platform. She really believed that she was going to be able to dance with Mary Poppins and was so disappointed that she didn't get to. :( Poor kid. But she got over it when we got her a frozen cherry slushy thing. :)

It was a lot of fun to do this with such great friends!

Emma and Carolyn waiting for a ride- all hyped up on the frozen cherry beverage. :)

The last decent picture I got before the fireworks started. Carolyn and Daddy in a spaceship getting ready to fly high up in the sky!

The fireworks at the end of the night were awesome! The only problem was that Tinkerbell had said when we met her that she would be in the fireworks show... and she wasn't there! You try explaining that to two three year olds who spent the whole show asking when Tinkerbell was going to come out!!

Overall, we had a wonderful day. We didn't get back to San Diego til 1:30am and we are pretty tired today... but it was worth it. What a special memory to have as a family. :)