The Girl & her Friends

Miss A

Miss L and Mr. O in Oregon

Mr. C

Miss S in Oklahoma



The Twins - Misses M and S





The Girl has a broad network of friends both locally and spanning a handful of states. Not all of them are her age - some are older, some are younger. She also has a bunch of new friends from her preschool class. Despite age differences or how often we get to see some of her friends, she remembers them all and talks about all of them on a regular basis.

Miss E and Miss A

Miss G in Utah

Mr. C in Utah, the Girl's designated boyfriend since she was in the womb

Miss R in Oklahoma

Then there are the friends that she hangs out with on a regular basis. Stay tuned for a multiple part series on these little buddies and their unique personalities.

Tea Party

This afternoon the Girls and I were having a tea party. The Girl had set cups out for both of us and Baby Sister. I was just sitting there enjoying my bunny grahams and sipping my tea when I glanced down at Baby Sister and realized that she had reached over and picked up her cup. She was going to be an active participant in this tea party!

Here she is bringing the cup closer to her mouth, intentionally or not.

And this is wear it ended up - close enough in my book! Hurray for motor skills!!

Future Stylist to the Stars?

Maybe not. But this fashionista has a style uniquely her own. It's an eclectic mix where pieces rarely match and the outfit is ever evolving with the addition of various accessories. If you don't like her ensemble wait an hour and it'll change, she changes her clothes no less than 4 times a day (this is not including the handful of pajama changes she makes both before bed and after). I used to try and select her outfits but quickly learned that it wasn't worth the fight. Her outfits are a reflection of her ever-growing independence and I have come to fully embrace them.

4 Months

Today Baby Sister is 4 months old!! Scary how quickly the time has been whizzing by. I feel like if I blink it'll be her 1st birthday. This Baby, like her big Sister, brings so much JOY into our lives. She has such a sweet nature and is very laid back. She is seldom without a smile on her lips and is constantly observing the Girl. I can't wait until she can get up and play with her big Sister...hmmm, no I can definitely wait but I do look forward to it. I just want to soak up every minute.

Here is the Girl at 4 months...does the outfit look familiar? I purposely planned it that way. What can I say, I enjoy taking pictures of them in the same outfit at the same time in their lives and then taking a gazillion pictures so that I can compare. I call it nostalgia, J calls it weird.

On another note, Baby Sister spent the entire night in her crib again last night. I put her in it shortly before midnight and she woke up at 5:40 this morning to eat and then didn't wake up again until nearly 9:00 this morning!

Cheeks?!

Do I see a hint of chub in those cheeks?! Woohoo! Baby Sister just might be filling out a little bit now. Either that or it is an illusion created by the way she is being held. Either way, I'll take it!

Sweet Success!

Baby Sister took two naps in her crib yesterday. I put her down while she was still awake and there was definitely resistance and crying but within minutes she fell soundly asleep. Then last night I lay her down after she was already asleep and magically, instead of those sweet little eyes popping open, she stayed asleep! She woke up once during the night to eat but otherwise remained happily asleep in her crib until 7:15 this morning! I fed her and then just couldn't resist some cuddling so I took her back to bed with me where she slept until 9:30!!! Despite last night's results I'm reluctant to call it a complete success, surely the transition can't have been that easy, right?! I'll give it a few nights before I declare victory.

Attempt #1

So last night was my first attempt at getting Baby Sister to sleep in her crib. I figure the transition from our bed to hers needs to happen soon, before she grows to accustomed to being wedged snuggly between two warm bodies. She fell asleep just before 11:00 and I put her in her crib. Then I went and got myself ready for bed - teeth brushed, contacts out, faced washed...you get the idea. I quickly glanced at the clock before laying down in bed. Sixteen very short minutes later and just as I was beginning to fall asleep, Baby Sister began crying. So I climbed out of bed, padded down the hall to her room, retrieved her out of the crib, settled down into the rocking chair and began to feed her while gazing up at the constellations cast onto her ceiling by her nightlight (twighlight ladybug by cloud b - very fun!). Half an hour later she had a full tummy and was back to sleep and in her crib. I quickly went back to bed. An hour and 25 minutes later - more crying. I lay in bed and listened to the cries for several minutes hoping that Baby Sister's thumb would find it's way to her mouth and soothe her back to sleep. But it wasn't happening and the cries were escalating to screaming. Out of bed and down the hall once more. A little snuggling never hurt anyone and so Baby Sister ended up in our bed for the rest of the night. We'll try again tonight!

Master Builder

First an igloo and now this! J built a playhouse for the Girl from the cardboard boxes that her bedroom furniture came in. She L-O-V-E-S it and we've come to the conclusion that we don't need to buy her any more toys. She's just as happy with cardboard and other such items - toilet paper rolls, empty cereal boxes, etc.

Saturday Ride

Yesterday afternoon we took the Girl to a nearby nature trail so that she could ride her bike. It started off well enough, she was excited and ready to go. It quickly went downhill though when she crossed paths with two horses. Two summers ago we went horseback riding on the beach - she rode on a horse with me and loved it. I guess maybe the horses looked intimidating yesterday from the ground vantage
point. She immediately wanted to go home but as we'd not even been there 5 minutes we told her that instead of going home we'd turn around and go in the opposite direction on the trail. About a 1/2 mile into the ride she got over her anxiety and started to enjoy herself. On the way back to the car she got tired of riding and J took over.

Here it is...

...the Girl's new bedroom furniture. Not exactly what I had been looking for - the head board is a bit much, but I did want white and I love the dresser. Plus we got all three pieces for a fantastic price from a family-owned furniture store that is closing. Plus J is not much of a shopper and this set was at the 2nd furniture store we stopped at, he was not looking forward to spending his Sunday afternoon shopping for furniture and I did not delight in the idea of having a crabby shopper.

J picked everything up from the warehouse on Thursday afternoon and later that evening our friend came over to help him get it all up into the Girl's room. In the midst of the chaos - huge boxes, styrofoam, two rambunctious 3 1/2-year old girls and an infant - I left to go to yoga. When I returned home an hour and a half later, the Girl was anxiously waiting for me up in her room. She gleefully showed off her new bed and was ready to get right down to the task of transferring her clothes from the changing table into her new dresser. Instead we opted for clean sheets, stories and bedtime.

She stayed in her bed the entire night! But I was wrong...she didn't last 3 nights. Early this morning she crawled into bed with us.

Growing Steadily

This is our friend at lactation services. The one who has been taking such great care of us - reassuring me that I'm doing a good job and all that I can, devising meticulous schedules and strategies for weight gain, monitoring Baby Sister's progress, gathering toys from other rooms to make sure that the Girl is happily occupied during appointments that have lasted well over an hour. We have seen her 5 times over the past month and we will miss her. At our weight check today Baby Sister weighed 10 pounds 11 ounces - a 5.6 ounce weight gain over the past week during which she nursed exclusively. The third week in a row of steady weight gain above the minimum standard which means that Baby Sister is doing fantastic and our friend is confident that we no longer need her help.

Thumb Sucker

One of Baby Sister's thumbs found it's way to her mouth early this morning and several times throughout the rest of the day. The Binky's days may be numbered.

Sleeping Arrangements

Oh Blogger, you fail to impress me yet again. You certainly love messing with me and my picture orientation! For all of you reading rotate the image counterclockwise. Ha! On with the post!

The sleeping arrangements at our house are tricky these days. Before having children I thought co-sleeping was strange and if you'd asked me I would've told you that when I had kids I would NEVER do that. Fast forward 3 1/2 years and two sweet girlies and this picture tells quite a different story. Baby Sister currently sleeps in our bed (the Girl did too up until she was about 6 months old) and although the Girl starts out the night in her bed, typically she finds her way to ours before the morning comes. I sometimes wake in the middle of the night to find her sleeping at our feet. Other times she is snuggled in the middle directly below Baby Sister but most of the time she is in the middle next to Baby Sister who has taken a liking to sprawling out perpendicular to the sides of the bed. This was the case yesterday morning when I captured this shot. Up until recently, the Girl slept in her own bed all night long every night without exception. But now there is talk of monsters and nightmares and I can't help but wonder if the fact that Baby Sister gets to sleep with us is impacting her nightly migration as well. Last weekend we bought her a bedroom set (she currently just sleeps on a mattress on the floor) and she is excited to have an actual bed. It has been all that she has talked about since Sunday and she was very disappointed when J had to work late last night and was unable to go pick the bed up from the warehouse. I'm hopeful that the new bed will keep her in her room...at least until the novelty wears off. Hmmm, I give it three nights.

Note to Self

Note to self:

Cheetos are not a good snack for the car...or period for that matter (In my defense, they were the baked kind in a 100 calorie pack - does that make them any better?). In addition to having absolutely no nutritional value, they are insanely, terribly messy.

I gave the Girl a bag on our way to the Children's Museum the other day and as you can see she fell asleep with that lovely radioactive-orange colored cheese powder all over her face and fingers. We arrived at the museum and a dozen wipes later walked inside with the Girl's mouth and hands sporting a faint orange tint.

Ballerina Girl

This isn't the greatest picture (that's what happens when your finger is placed partially over the flash - oops!) but I'm posting it anyway because I love the Girl's hair. She wanted a bun like a "real ballerina girl" and she looked so cute.

There is a lot of dress-up play in our house and even more dancing. The Girl tells us on a regular basis that she wants to be a ballerina when she grows up.

Itty Bitty Angel

Yep, she's an angel for sure. She even has her own halo - see how her hair has rubbed off in the middle of her head? It is a distinctive ring that continues around to the other side and I've affectionately dubbed it as her halo.

But truly, she is a sweet little angel. Despite having been tongue-tied and having severe reflux issues she isn't one to complain and rarely cries. Instead she blesses us with her sweet nature, infectious smile and irresistible dimples.

We took her in for another weight check on Thursday and she was 10 pounds 5.4 ounces...an 8 ounce gain over 6 days! Hooray! So nearly 175 ounces later, I've been given the go ahead to quit pumping and nurse exclusively. We will have another weight check next week and as long as Baby Sister continues gaining at a minimum rate of .75 ounces per day we will be home free.

Playtime!

At 3 1/2 months (Really, has the time passed that quickly?!) Baby Sister, who has become a chatty-cathy, is starting to hold more potential as a playmate for the Girl. A fact which the Girl has become aware of in the past few days. This morning we put her in the Girl's dolly crib (which was built by my Dad and originally belonged to me when I was the Girl's age) and later in the morning the Girl climbed in next to Baby Sister on her activity mat. Baby Sister's eyes lit up when she realized that the Girl had come to play with her. You could just read it on her face...already looking up to her Big Sis.

(Come on Blogger, really?! Why must you change my picture orientation and aggravate me so? One of these days I will figure it out, just you wait.)

Bedtime Routine

The bedtime routine at our house starts out much like I imagine the bedtime routine goes at any other house where a 3-year old lives. The Girl picks out some pajamas and puts them on (assuming that she's not already been wearing pajamas all day - which she has been known to do on occasion), we brush her teeth and then it is off to her room for a few stories. Then she climbs into bed, I pull her covers up, we say a prayer, she gives me a kiss, we exchange "I love you"s and then I leave the room. On most nights, when I check-in on her a short time later this is what I find. The Girl dressed as a princess doing a dance on her bed. If by chance it is not a princess dress then she has her clothes back on, or she has even fallen asleep wearing tights before.

(And no, we've not had a bink relapse - this picture was taken about a week before Christmas.)

Ice Skating

Yesterday we took the Girl ice skating. We met up with friends and it was the first time that any of the kids had been on ice skates. I thought for sure that one lap around the rink and the Girl would be done but that was not the case. She loved it! But then again, how could you not, especially when your Daddy has your hands grasped securely in his. In fact, all three kids did great and for the most part spent the entire two hours out on the ice.

Here we go.

Getting a helping hand from Daddy.

The Girl and her friend Miss A.

Miss A taking a lap with her Daddy.

Hang on tight!

One spectator and a sleeper.

The Girl's friend O and his parents.

Getting the hang of it.

"I Looooove Gum!"

For some time now (since before her 3rd birthday) the Girl has been asking if she could chew gum. I've always told her that she had to wait until she turned 4...until today. This afternoon I was about to pop a piece of watermelon-kiwi flavored gum (the kind made by Ice Breakers that are shaped like miniature little ice cubes) into my mouth when out of the corner of my eye, I caught the Girl staring longingly at my gum. I totally caved. She hadn't even said a word but the look on her face was so irresistible and said it all.

When I asked her if she would like to try a piece she was dumbfounded but quickly came to her senses and replied in a shriek, "Yes!" After I reiterated several times that gum is for chewing and not swallowing, I popped one of those tiny ice cubes into her mouth and a look of sheer delight crossed her face. And to see her carefully chewing it was so darn precious. She exclaimed, "I looooove gum!" After several minutes of chewing she decided that she wanted to lie down on the bed next to Baby Sister and so I told her that she had to spit her gum out in the garbage and explained to her that it is a very bad idea to go to bed with gum in your mouth as in almost all cases it ends up out of your mouth and in your hair. She was quick to comply. After a brief time on the bed she got up and requested another piece of gum. I gave her one and just moments later she lost her concentration and accidentally swallowed it. She was so upset and wanted it back. That was the end of the gum for today although I'm sure she'll wake up tomorrow asking for a piece.

She was so proud, it was the first thing she told J about when he got home from work and she also informed me that she is going to tell her teachers about it tomorrow in preschool.

She really did do a great job of chewing her gum despite how it may appear in this picture.

Strollin' with Baby Sister

How fun is this?! Tonight the Girl had her own live baby doll to push around. She loved it and from the expressions on Baby Sister's face I have to think that she was loving it too!!

Disclaimer: There was a parental unit within an arm's reach at all times and the pushing of the stroller occurred in a highly controlled environment with very slow speeds enforced.