Food Friends

 Molly has been fairly indifferent to the baby (other than being totally freaked out when he starts screaming in his room at bedtime).  But since he's started eating, especially feeding himself, she has found a new interest in Peanut.  Because where Peanut is eating, there is sure to be delicious bits of chicken, salmon, vegetables cooked in chicken broth, and other delectable goodies.

And because Peanut ends up completely covered, there are always a lot of food casualties.  The other day, I went I came back after a minute to find both Peanut and Molly's heads covered with little bits of chicken.  I guess she got a little too close to the action, but I don't think she minded.

Guess What We Learned

 After 1.5 years of promising to help her learn to ride her new bike, Bean can do it! And no thanks to her parents. She got a scooter for Christmas and I think that is what finally helped her get her balance because she picked up the bike on Friday and just took off. (And yes, it really was that warm yesterday--mid 70's and kind of muggy, thanks to a storm that blew through a little while later.)

So, today, this little Bug decided he needed to ride a bike. And he can do it, too.

They're both more comfortable going down a size on the bikes, but I think they'll be confident enough to ride their own bikes soon. Looks like Daddy-o and I might need to get bikes. And a bike trailer. Otherwise, we aren't going to be able to keep up.

Making Progress

Peanut's stats from his 9 month check up--16 lbs 3 oz, 29 inches long.  Using the WHO charts, he's actually gaining ground!  (Too bad the dr. uses the CDC charts, but at least she's aware that those aren't the best for breastfed babies.)

And we've been able to reintroduce egg yolk with no throwing up.  Tried the avocado again today, and so far, no problems there, either.  And then next week, I'm going to try yogurt for me first, and then him if it goes well.  I'm excited that he does seem to be healing and that our food choices are expanding!

A few more pictures of his cute faces he makes:

Sad Face

The Lip Bite

Contemplation

Puckered Lips



Just a Little Forgetful

Okay, so it's a lot worse than just a little forgetful.  I really do think this third baby may have pushed me over the edge into completely mindlessness, and its no longer just the annoyance of never remembering why I went into a room, or grabbing my grocery list to add something and realizing that I can't remember what it was I needed to add. 

Now I am burning food, leaving burners on (hence burning pots and pans), and endangering my children, which is all a little scary.  Guess it's time to accept the fact that at least for now, I'm a bit of a menace and to try to slow down.  As much as I NEED to multitask to fit everything in, I just can't because I also need all of us to be alive on the other side of this sleepless nights period of life.

 I am still hanging on to the hope that once I start catching up on my sleep, my mind will come home.  And to all the people who keep saying it never is quite the same, I'm refusing to listen.

On the plus side, its kind of fun that I can be surprised by so many random things.  For instance, I'd totally forgotten that Mardi Gras is also "Pancake Tuesday", until I saw it mentioned by a friend on Facebook, so now I no longer have to try to figure out what I'm making for dinner, and pancakes are always a fun surprise.  And they don't involve sharp implements so I won't cut off another chunk of my finger (last nights kitchen hazard) and they cook fast, so I can leave it for Daddy-o, thus assuring I won't burn up another pan (Sunday lunch time's oops), burn the food (yesterday's broth), or melt a spatula to the pan (this mornings disaster--I'm not exaggerating when I say that I'm a menace).

Happy Fat Tuesday!

A Little Love in Your Heart

 Happy Valentine's Day!  (Ignore the fact that Peanut is in Christmas jammies--he did get dressed later this morning.)

These kiddos were pretty excited for today--and because I know there is probably a pretty narrow window that I can make Valentine's fun for them and they won't be rolling their eyes at me, I wanted to do something to make it special. 

I spent hours Monday planning food, shopping, and trying to prepare all these special treats and surprises for today.  Their lunch:

Honestly, it kind of looked like cupid threw up in their lunch boxes, but I figured they'd love it. 

 But really, the day turned out like most days.  I stayed up too late Monday night, so after getting up a couple times with Peanut, I was pretty wiped out by morning.  Breakfast didn't turn out quite right and was pretty much a bust, Peanut didn't nap well at all which meant no way dinner was going to work, so I had to change plans.

I guess this is why Valentine's Day is a pretty ridiculous holiday.  I love these people every day, and I try to show them in fun, random way on a regular basis.  It's way easier to do it that way than to try to cram a years worth of love into one day.

And so, when the kids come home from school, instead of shushing them and trying to chase them out of the kitchen so I can make dinner, I'll let them pick what we spend the afternoon doing and we'll all have fun eating pizza on our china and maybe making dessert together.

Hope you all are having a great day!

Our Visitor

Meet Halston.  The kids brought him home as a birthday gift for Daddy-o, and since its been a little cool, he's been staying in our house until the weather is a little more garden-friendly.  He's a very agreable visitor--we don't see or hear a peep out of him, but every morning, he's in a new place, which has delighted the kids.  Doing crafts at their art table, getting ready for our Saturday morning pancakes (or even standing on the toilet, ready to take care of business--not my idea, but for sure a HUGE hit with the 7 & 5 year old sense of humor).  I think this is their favorite gift they've ever given anyone.

 I think its funny that despite our attempts to avoid the whole "Elf on a Shelf thing", here we are with a very similar situation.  I guess the big difference is there is nothing riding on this, and its a slow time of year--might as well have something fun to look forward to each morning.  And I think Halston plans to take up residence in the flower garden eventually.

9 Months

 Seriously, where does the time go.  These last 9 months went by a LOT faster than the 9 months before that.  I'm missing my newborn baby so much these days, but am appreciating that he's very much still the baby.  This little Peanut is doing things on his own timetable and he seems pretty chill about this whole growing up thing.  No teeth yet, still under 17 pounds, no crawling (altough he can roll across the room like no man's business), and he is just starting to master this whole sitting-on-my-own thing.

Which leads us to lots of these cool, break-dance moments.  I love how fast he can flip to his belly when he feels himself start to topple.  This little Peanut continues to make us laugh all day long.  He has the sweetest personality and is such a loving little guy.

His 9 month check up isn't for another week, so I'll have the official weight gain and height at that point.  We're still plugging away at keeping him stuffed, but its slow progress.

Never a Dull Moment

We just can't stand things getting dull around here.  Tuesday night, just as I was getting dinner going, I heard crying and then screaming.  The first was Bean, who came running out of the playroom, yelling "Ow" and something about the blinds cord getting stuck on her arm.  Next came Bug, screaming and crying about getting hurt.  And then Peanut started to cry, too, because he can't hear that much crying going on and not join in (and he was at that point, alone in the playroom, which isn't ever his favorite thing.)

At first, I didn't think much of Bug crying because he always cries and is always getting hurt and its pretty much never serious.  But as the story unfolded through all the tears, I realized Bean had pulled the blinds down (while jumping off a table--yeah, the story just kept getting better) and they'd hit Bug in the head on the way down, which I was guessing probably hurt.  I was hugging him when I noticed that the Santa hat he was wearing was a little redder than normal, and as soon as I pulled it off, the blood just started pouring down his head.

I pretty much flipped out at that point.  Even though I kept telling myself that head wounds bleed a lot, all I could think of was getting him to the doctor so they could make it stop.  I was having flashbacks to this injury 2.5 years ago.

 I made a couple phone calls, dropped the other two kids at a neighbor's house (thank goodness for great neighbors!!!) and rushed Bug to Urgent Care while Daddy-o hurried home to get the other two kids (and good thing since Peanut apparently cried the entire time I was gone--he is pretty attached to his parents these days).

Turned out Bug's head was one of those looks-worse-than-it-is scenarios.  Once they managed to unplaster his bloody hair from the wound, it was pretty tiny.  I had to hold a piece of gauze on his head for about 30 minutes to get the bleeding to stop, but they ended up not even needing to glue it.  The doctor offered but then told me I couldn't wash his hair for 5 days if she did that, and there was no way I could have taken him out in public until I did--he looked a little too Halloween-ish for February.  So she just put some antibiotic ointment on it and stuck a piece of gauze to that and called it good.

Kind of a wasted 1.5 hours, but he got a sucker out of it, and some Angry Birds playtime, so I think Bug was pretty happy with the whole expedition.

Great News!

We've had a good week here at the Nutty house.  (Yeah, kind of similar to the nut house, so good week might be relative--we still have lots of noise, crying, early mornings and random middle of the night visits from kids and babies.)

First of all, (drumroll please. . . ), Peanut slept through the night Monday night!!!!!!!!  Not quite 9 months old and we got our first full night, from 8:30 to 6 a.m.  And I went to bed early enough that I got almost 7 hours of sleep by 4:30 (which is unfortunately when I woke up--its hard to suddenly sleep until 6 when you haven't been able to do so in about 1.5 years).  After the week we'd had previously, this was a REALLY welcome surprise.  And Wednesday night, he had another really good night with just a short feed at 4:30, up at 6:20.  I think we're slowly getting somewhere.

In the same vein, Peanut has also been going to sleep pretty easily the last 3 nights--no marathon back patting sessions or hour long screaming fits as I try to calm him down.  I'm liking the bedtime snuggles, "goodnights" to the baby pictures on his wall, short song and then popping him into bed where he goes to sleep, by himself, without crying.  Go, Peanut! 

And, last night, Daddy-o came home with some fantastic news.  The last few months have had major upheavel at work as they shuffle everyone around, laid people off, and generally kept everyone on their toes.   Daddy-o hung onto his job through all of this (which we are extremely grateful for), but he also didn't manage to escape his manager, who he's worked for this past year and it hasn't been the best fit.  But as of yesterday, Daddy-o no longer reports to him, and has a new manager who he already has a good working relationship with and is looking forward to working directly under her now.  This is going to be a huge relief for all of us and means we are probably pretty stable here for awhile longer.  Always a nice feeling.

Top the week of with some 70 degree weather and lots of sunshine and a no school day today and it can't really get much better than this!   We're off to the park for a picnic with friends.