Marie's First Attempt at Humor

Marie was playing with some toy cups and I was making her laugh hysterically by pretending to drop them when I tried to pick them up. One time after she caught her breath she reached out for me to give her back her cup. I handed it to her and she looked at it, smiled, dropped it on purpose, and laughed even harder! So cute! It's her first joke!

I was crafty!

I was crafty last night! I know...You all probably need a second to pull yourself off the floor from the shock. I went to a friend's house to learn how to make hairbows for the girls. It was really hard! I spent 2 hours making 2 bows! I'm not really thrilled with either of them but they aren't that bad for my first try. When I got home, I made one more (which also took at least an hour!) and I think it turned out better, so maybe I can be crafty after all!

Here's my first three:




Those are in order of how I made them. The last one was made with a different loop style than the other two. I would normally make 2 matching bows but I had no idea that I would use a whole spool of ribbon on one bow!! I did waste quite a bit with mistakes but I think even if I had done it perfectly that I wouldn't have had enough for 2 bows that size from one spool. I even lined the clips so that they would be non-slip in the girls' hair.

Here's a couple of the girls with their bows in their hair.

Baby Dress Up Day

We had fun dressing Marie up today. First, I put her in a dress I wore as a baby. The dress has been on a doll of mine for about 20 yrs but still looked pretty decent. Do you think Marie looks like me? She also has my favorite doll in one of the pictures and a new one just like it in another picture. I think she looks like me in the first 2 pictures, but not so much in the other two.

Here's me as a baby to compare (w/Nathan). I think I was a few months younger than Marie is now in that picture but it is the closest to her age as I have:


I was showing Xander some pictures of me as a kid with Dad and he said, "That doesn't look like Poppas. That looks like Uncle Nate!

So....moving on. The next outfit Marie tried on was a potential Easter dress for her. I can't decide if I want her to wear one of the Strasburg outfits Mom got for Grace and Greta's first Easter or if she should wear this new one. What do you think? The girls and Xander have green outfits for Easter, so if she went with this one then she'd be going along with the theme. But, the Strasburg ones have such a pretty classic look that it's hard not to use one of them.




Then, I was going to try the Strasburg dresses on to see which fit better and what I'd like to put on her Sunday. But Marie protested. She said she was tired of baby dress up and just wanted to play!!!

Wild West Wednesday

Today was Wild West Wednesday at Xander's school. I forgot all about it until just before we were getting in the car this morning. So, I ran upstairs, changed his clothes really quick and sent him to school like this:




I think he looks pretty good for a last minute switch. Unfortunately, it didn't last long. Wednesday was definitely wild when I got the call to pick him up from school because he was sick! Does he look like a sick kid in that picture??? He was fine when I dropped him off at 7:55 and had been playing very nicely with the girls all morning and ate a good breakfast. He was puking before 9am!! Poor Xander threw up 3 times at school before I got there to pick him up. He seemed not so bad at first when I brought him home but pretty soon he spiked a fever and fell asleep for most of the day. He looked better tonight but still has a fever so he'll stay home tomorrow.

So, Xander was at school today, the teacher called me to get him because he was sick. When I got to school to pick him up I had to sign him out and write "sick" down as the reason on their forms. So- why did I get a call from the school tonight saying my child was absent and I needed to send a note explaining why?? That's bureaucracies and unnecessary redundant paperwork for ya!

Oh- and Marie got the cutest bows off a seller on www.etsy.com today! It's a site similar to ebay for handmade and crafty items. Here's Marie with one of her new bows.

Updates

Greta's upper GI came back normal, so that's good news! The Dr said if she continued gagging and vomiting that he may want to do a scope down her throat but Jon and I aren't in a hurry to do that. It seems more sensory than physical and we'd rather not do anything more invasive just yet.



Jon said Xander did really well at the sleep study. He actually fell asleep before 10pm which is pretty good for him, especially considering all the stuff he was hooked up to. He also said that Xander had a relatively peaceful night which sort of stinks since I just went to his room a few minutes ago because he was screaming and thrashing in his bed!! I wish he had done that last night so they could have seen what happens but I suppose kids never perform when you want them too!



Here's a picture of Xander hooked up for the sleep study. He had wires on his head, face, strapped across his abdomen, and on his legs! His face looks pretty rough today from pulling the tape off and there's still some adhesive on his cheeks that he won't let us rub off. I think he thought it was all pretty cool.

Tests and Sleep

Greta had her Upper GI on Thursday to see if there is a physical reason why she gags and chokes on some foods and textures. Greta wasn't a cooperative patient so hopefully they got what they needed from the test. We should hear soon if it showed anything.

Xander is doing his sleep study tonight. I wonder if he's sleeping yet? They are going to hook him up to all kinds of wires and stuff to see what happens when he sleeps. For those who don't know, X has never been a good sleeper. It started when he was an infant and he screamed for hours every night for, I don't know, 2 years?? And then sounded like a little monkey when he finally did sleep. It wasn't until I had Grace and Greta that I learned that it really wasn't typical for babies to sound like monkeys and that 4 hours of screaming nightly before bed was not the norm! He also has snoring problems and problems with night terrors (but interestingly, no nightmares as far as I know), and very loud daytime breathing. I'm really hoping the sleep study will lead to removing his adenoids and maybe the tonsils too.

Speaking of sleep...Marie is now sleeping in her crib! Her first night was last night and she did amazingly well! I woke her up at 7am because I needed for her to eat. She has been pushing herself up to almost standing and it would be dangerous to do that with the low sides of the co-sleeper so she had to move out. I say "almost standing" because she so far hasn't learned she needs to hold on to things if she wants to do that. So, she'll push herself straight up and then immediately falls face first because she really doesn't have the strength or balance to stand on her own yet.

And, what's a blog post without a picture? These are just some of the big kids. I can't have all the pictures about Marie even if she's the only one who holds still and smiles for me! Grace and Greta are in the old schoolhouse at a local playground. The other picture is of Little Nathan, I mean Xander, and Jon acting goofy. I swear it feels like I am raising my brother some days with Xander!

An Update

I know, I know....I'm a horrible slacker blogger.

So, what's new? Jon had surgery on his shoulder and has been off work for a while. He still doesn't have full range of motion in his arm but seems to be doing pretty well now. My mom came down to help out and we all had a nice visit.

Greta went to the feeding clinic and has an upper GI on Friday just to make sure there's nothing physical going on. We are supposed to work on desensitizing her gag reflex and to give her baby steps to try before actually expecting her to eat new foods.

Grace---not much new with her.

Xander has a sleep study Sunday to see how his breathing is at night and see about getting his adenoids removed.

Marie is getting to be such a big girl. She's 7 months now and on our home scale is right at 12.8lbs. She sits by herself. She's been scooting around for a while but is now starting to actually crawl on her hands and knees! She's still pretty slow but it won't be long until she takes off. She isn't crawling over and pulling up on things yet, but she has occasionally pushed up to standing (off the cat's back or edge of the co-sleeper) and she'll stand if we hold her hands out. She goes crazy splashing in the bath and gets excited when she hears the water running. I think her favorite toy is her color book and I've never seen a baby so excited about turning pages. She loves Kitty and I think she's meowing at her. She has a little meow like squeal she only uses when she sees Kitty. And Jon ands I are pretty sure she is saying Mama. It sounds more like Nama but she definitely seems to be using it for me! She's turned into a dedicated thumb sucker and is still a super sweet and pleasant girl. Here's a recent picture-