June and July...around Home

So June was a busy month.. The past few weeks have been a lot of these scenes...

 Roo doesn't usually nap any more. But she does have to take a rest time while the younger two nap. We usually set her up with the bean bag chairs, a stack of books and some comfy blankets and pillows in the kitchen (since we only have 2 bedrooms)...She looks at books and I get some quiet too. This day? She fell asleep.

Friendly after a nap- she came out into the living room and fell back to sleep! This is when the tide finally turned from the over-tired stage.

After nap watching their show and waking up.

The Pip sleeping in (Thank God, for ONE child who likes to sleep in...some times! It's been a bit more rare lately- but she can still sleep in until 8:30/9 a few days a month...A little bit of heaven!)

Too precious...If you notice we have a "super family bed" right now....We all end up in that room most nights anyway, especially in the middle of Friendly's horrid night terror/night mare thing... so we put the beds together for the summer as that's the only bedroom with an a/c).

Here's a pic of the Super Family Bed

And Roo's Version of it:

 On top of sleeping we've had a lot of this...

The girls are now big enough to play out front of our building... There are small patches of grass and they take their stuff out on nice mornings and play house.

Pip's Cheese face (17mos)

Pip is SUCH A HAM!!!! And she's a bit of a dare devil...

This was a special night...We let them stay up just a LITTLE later and the girls and I went lightening bug hunting- we caught 7! And then Friendly let 4 loose in the apartment ("by accident") and we got to hunt them again!

 The HAM! Is it a third child thing? This girl is always trying to crack us UP! And she does...she is hilarious.
She thought the flash was funny and kept asking me (in her way) to take another...I couldn't resist!

 And forts...We've been making lots of forts!!! I'm not sure why dress up clothing was deemed a good material for "fort walls" - but I walked out from getting more blankets and discovered that that is what they had used instead! Tutu's and stuffed animals, who knew?

Take note of Pip's outfit- hard to tel lhere, and I never got a picture of it before she dumped red vitamin juice all over it- but she is wearing an outfit she picked out from FRIENDLY's dresser drawers and insisted I put on her. <3 She looked like a 90's punk or some thing...with a pineapple sequined shirt.

Sitting in the baby doll pack'n play ha!

Classic friendly expression, she INSISTED I snap a photo of her, and then made this face. ha!

I walked into the bedroom and found her scribbling away on the magnadoodle up on the big bed. She made her "cheese" face when she noticed the camera- I wish I had een able to catch her when she was soo intent on the magnadoodle- so fun!

I caught her before she saw the camera and made the "cheese face" yeah!

Add caption Friendly wanted a picture of her special braided hair.

Back it up... Deck Demo

June was a very busy month. Punctuated in an ugly stretch of horrible sleep for our family.

In May Ryan's family visited briefly- on the way to see his sister Jenna graduate from Bible school.  While they were here, they helped us tear down the deck at my Mom's house. It was a BIG deck and they did a FAST fantastic job!!

 A blast from the past... Friendly's 1st Birthday August 2010:

As you can see, it was a very large deck. We left the smaller part. But last year she had the giant (junk) trees taken down, and this year it was decided that the larger area of the deck was eating up precious yard space, and prime area for gardening. So Ryan and his brothers and Dad did this:

And then they did this:

Building some awesome 8ft wide steps- BEAUTIFUL!

 And when it was all cleared up it looked like this:

 We are now in the (tedious) process of laying patio pavers down in that nicely shaped smooth area. Over a few weekends we've picked up the pavers as we could (they are HEAVY and we needed around 70- I can't remember the official number right now). And then one Saturday Ryan and I moved 5,665lbs of sand- we are a force to be reckoned with!

So back to May the week after Mother's Day when the folks were in town: it was a rushed and VERY busy weekend. But we cannot say how much we appreciated the help! It would have taken Ryan the ENTIRE summer to accomplish what they did in 3 das. They seriously rock.

And Grandma B. Got to have lots of special time with her grand girls which was nice and allowed me to do what I love: HELP making things happen. :)

Grandma Debbie and her 2 older grandbabies

Oh so back it up to the sleep deprived thing... It all kind of started that week. Our girls - well really the older two especially- are very sensitive when it comes to sleep. I think most little kids do best when they are kept to a set  (and fairly strict) sleep schedule/routine. The older two have always been very early risers, and it doesn't seem to matter when they go to bed- they are up and at em by 6/6:30 most mornings. And I know for a fact some times they lay awake in bed for an hour before that (they aren't allowed to get up until 6). Pip is the kind of kid (so far) that if you put her to bed late, she'll sleep late- it is awesome. The older 2? You put them to bed late? They wake up EARLIER. And a few days of that and they spiral (apparently) into this horrible over tired cycle that = less and less, and worse and worse sleep. This is the lesson we learned from that week.

The deck demo went late for 3 nights. Not wanting to take them home and wrangle them into bed alone (because honestly, bedtime is very much a two person job with these 3! And honestly, I've been struggling with some serious burn out the past 4 months and the thought of trying to do it after a long day - well I knew it could be fairly peaceful and pleasant with Ryan's help (I mean we both tag team, he has a kid or two- I have a kid or two depending on where we are in the process and it's all under control. Alone? Some one is always doing some thing they shouldn't, and it quickly meltsdown to a mix of bouncing off the walls, manic crying/laughing, and it gets pretty chaotic. So it was: peaceful-ish with Ryan's help...Or Ugliness alone and probably resulting with all of us in tears.)  Usually I am a bit of a sleep nazi - but I figured, "it's a special week- it won't kill them - we'll just put them to bed when we're done for the day." And so we did.

The problem? Friendly woke up at her normal time... The next morning and the morning after that and the morning after that, and then she stopped/refused to nap (she still naps 45-90 minutes a day)...After a couple weeks of this  she started having night terrors/nightmares and then she started sleeping less and less because she was scared to sleep. By the middle of June Ryan and I were at a complete loss and I was BEYOND burnt out.

Thankfully, with some extreme focus (obsession?) on sleep, naps, and some supplementation we were able to get Friendly back to her more-happy-better-rested self. :phew: (I mean, PHEW!)

All this was a good lesson. Loosey goosey doesn't work for the kids we've got. Sleep Sargent Mama needs to stick to her guns (even when burnt out) about naps happening (or rest time for Roo), and bedtimes can only be broken once in a while (and only once in that while!!!).

So it is behind us. That awful awful awful awful stretch of no good very bad sleep. I thought I was sleep deprived with just the night waking I deal with from the teething Pip (which a good night is 2 times, a bad night is 6 or 7- she is cutting molars). Add a not sleeping 3 year old to the mix? Oh my word.

Enough said.

Friendly and Mama on a walk after the Sand Hauling Day (she desperately wanted a special walk with me- in general the girl LOVES any thing one-on-one)

Pictures to come of the finished (or more finished) product SOON!

17 Months and updates...

Oh goodness life is too busy! June FLEW by- just a blink!
What happened in June?

The girls and I took a day trip to Ikea with my Mom- we had a lot of fun!

And Ryan, Pip and I took a day trip up to Albany, NY (over 3 hour drive) to get Pip's Lip Tie revised. She did amazing! Pip doesn't like riding in the car- she has never loved it...But in recent weeks it has been BAD. Intense crying/screaming with trips longer than a couple minutes. Epsecially after the Ikea trip, we were really nervous she would scream the entire trip- especially the ride home. She didn't cry once!

watching elmo and having a fruit pouch on the trip home.

 Her Lip tie is all fixed and healing well! And thankfully she will not require any more dental work since we caught the problem before the "bottle rot" actually started to rot her teeth!

3 days after procedure

With in a couple of days of the surgery she started saying Roo and Friendly's names and has been experimenting more and more with sounds and words. And her smile is so different!

Other things she is doing this month? Oh she started trying to use the potty!

She will often tell me she has to Poop and will do it on the potty. She is sooo proud.

she also loves to do any thing that involves her sisters...

Some other fun and exciting announcements to come! I am out of time- up to my elbows in a project.

More soon!

Playground...May Fun!

It's been a busy few weeks! Between car repairs adding a layer of interestingness to our weeks, (some) of Ryan's family visiting, some work at my Mom's that they helped us with (we tore the bigger part of the deck off!), and lots of lovely warm weathre- it has FLOWN by...

Some highlights...A trip to see "Seuessical" at my Mom's school with the big girls

They loved it!

And lots of trips to local playgrounds!

Roo girl is a pro at the monkey bars!

Pip is a pro at ladders!

And friendly can climb into the baby swings by herself- little monkey!

two little monkeys

May was sweet!

16 Months!

Again, trying to catch up a bit...I still haven't had a chance to post Easter Pictures...Soon...Before 4th of July. ;0)

The Pip is 16monts old already! Hard to believe! This was  fun month! It seems her sense of humor has grown daily- she is such a little ham!

She LOVES this car! It is HER car now and it is probably her most favorite thing on earth to ride around in it!

Some one was tired...I had to drag her inside for lunch and nap... Usually she loves to open the door herself (push it)...but on this particular day she fell to the floor and refused to go in- she did not want to stop playing..Safe to say she was definitely ready for nap!

She has gotten really good at waving.

monkey

And monkeying has lead to some lovely wounds on her face- she scraped up her face twice this month!

16months has also brought  back "velcro baby" she is very shy of new people ad she loooves her Mama. She rides on my back like a baby orangutan a lot.

And some times falls asleep!

She LOVES to ride in the wagon with sissies

she loooves the sand pit...she filled that bucket up all by herself!

She cut 2 new teeth this month as well bringing tooth count up to 8 little teeth- 2 new ones on their way soon! 

No real new words this month. While I understand that Roo and Friendly were quite early in the speech department (Friendly especially was using 3-4 word sentences by this age)- and all kids are different- Pip has been concerning me a bit with how little she seems to be able to say. This past month FINALLY brought "Mama" and "Dada" and "Nana" (usually for "nurse", but some times for Nana ... and "maa" for milk) she is still only using these words a couple times a week- definitely not daily. This has concerned me a bit, again you can't compare, but the older two had well over 25 words a this point. The Pip has only had a few sounds- and only 1 or 2 that she uses some what consistently. 

Well, turns out there may be a reason for her slower speech development.Through a series of "hmmm" kind of moments (which I attribute to God nudging me) I came across several pieces of information that mentioned some thing called "lip tie". Suddenly a whole bunch of things were making sense! Pip has been the sweetest most delicious baby. We've enjoyed her SO much, I have also enjoyed my healthiest (physically and mentally) postpartum year with her. So in so many ways she hasn't FELT like my hardest baby...But in reality, she probably has been. She didn't have colic like to older two, she was more content (during day time hours) than the older two ever were. But she was extremely hard to learn to nurse (and if she hadn't been my third, I think I would have had a LOT more trouble), she gained a bit slower than the older two (though still, at a healthy rate), she has been our worst sleeper,  and she has always had an uncomfortable (just moderately though) latch,  and she hast bitten me at least twice a week since birth on! I have always been very committed to nursing my babies, and I haven't wanted to complain because at least she was nursing and gaining/growing well. 

BUT, guess what? Lip tie causes all that. And 98% of serious lip ties are usually accompanied by some sort of tongue tie. So I did my reading and went "hmmm" and checked Pip - and sure enough! She has a very definite lip tie! One of the "bad" kinds that can cause a host of speech, dental, and jaw issues if not addressed! Many people (if not most) have a bit of a ridge up by their frenulum - it doesn't effect any thing- but when the tie is thick and goes down between the teeth it needs to be addressed- and the sooner the better!

Unfortunately there is only ONE pediatric dentist in the USA who will address infant (past newborn stage to under age 2) lip tie (and tongue tie) with out general anesthesia. He also uses a laser instead of scissors which is both safer and more effective at fixing the tie..Thankfully he's with in driving distance (NY- but still drivable)! So she will be getting it clipped (as well as a very probable tongue tie, I need the dentist to check it professionally- but he will address it at the same time he does the tongue tie). We don't have a date set for certain, but some time in early June- prayers for her appreciated! It's a quick 10 minute procedure, with no blood (thanks to the laser). But it will be a kind of hard on her (and me!) as she will have to go down to the procedure room by herself (ie with out mommy) and she isn't going to be happy about that as she is in the height of "stranger danger".

Anyway, I am so excited to have some answers and Mom's (online) who have had this taken care of for their 1 year olds said that as soon as the tie was fixed they just started talking like crazy. I am hopeful it will make speech less challenging for our little Pip!

So her sixteenth month has been quite an informative one!

Mother's Day 2013

A friend asked me last week how my Mother's Day was. I had to think REALLY hard about it- which means it wasn't bad! :) I got to sleep in, Ryan made us waffles for breakfast, I went and got a hair cut, and after that we went to the Spring Fling a tradition from childhood in our home town.

It is the celebration of may pole dancing and crowning of the may queen. We have gone most years since I was a child- I was a dancer in the program every year, and even acted as the may queens attendants one year. :) It's a fun program and it was exciting to see how into all the dancing the girls were- it was the first year they could really appreciate it. 

She was a bit chilly

Beautiful Roo snuggling Daddy

The Pip taking it all in from Mama's back.

It was a beautiful (chilly!) and happy Mother's Day!

15months...

Desperately trying to play "blog catch up!" April and May have been insane months! Just a blur...I wrote this on April 28th-  a couple days after The Pip had her 15month birthday. I had some pictures to add, and the internet was acting up ...And then I never got to come back! 

Goodness, the last few weeks have been so busy! I have so many things I've wanted to update, but haven't had the time...But before another week starts I wanted to update because we had a Birthmonthday. 

Last Friday the Pip turned 15months old!! What a fun and busy little bee she is! She mastered going down stairs by herself this past month. She has been able to turn around and scootch down off furniture, and down steps for a few months now- but this month she really seemed to understand the "turning around carefully" at the top every time part. She loves to practice on any steps she can get near- especially at the playground she likes to practice walking down like a big girl.

It makes mommy tired just to watch.
 
 She hasn't been dong much verbally, she was saying and making the "ma/da/na" sounds for a long time, and had a lot of words. Lately? Not so much. She likes the "ja" sound and she will occasionally prattle on with the "da da ja ja shhja?" I am hoping all this is because she's been mastering somersaults, learning how to run (she's getting speedy!), and figuring out lots of neat physical stuff-  in both fine and gross motor abilities! She loves to color, snuggle, and do pretty much any thing her sisters will involve her in. She talks in a lot of sweet little grunts. Each one has a different intonation she has a grunt that sounds like "uh-hunh" (yes) and "Uhn-uhn!" (no) she has her favorite, "Uh-oh!" and a grunt that sounds like thank you "ah ouuu" and okay "o-a" and her newest little sound is "I love you" she says "a yaj ah!". She is the sweetest little thing. She understands pretty much every thing we say- even when we hope she doesn't! If we mention we may be going some where later she runs to the door where her shoes are kept- pulls them out and brings them to me whimpering that she might get left behind.

Sleeping in her car seat 15months old

If some thing is hers (even if she deemed it hers that second) she can be quite feisty and vocal about the fact that her territory is being infringed upon. She puts out her little hand, scowls ferociously and SHRIEKS her warning call. And if that doesn't work she starts dancing and screams up at me that I'm not DOING ANY THING! She gets her point across.

She loves her sisters, I mean adores them. It is the sweetest thing to see her just drink up their hugs and love- even when the hugs get a little rough and long as Friendly tends to be.

She is a JOY!