luck o' the irish

One thing the hubs didn't know about me before we got married was that I love me a good parade. I think that being a mama has only amplified my love for parades and crazy people walking around. It's almost telling my kids, "look at all the crazies dressed up for st. patty's day! they are being themselves, be yourself!" ok, maybe a stretch but holidays and parades give an excuse for not following everyday social norms.
For example:
The man in the kilt
The dog owners with their dogs that-- I kid you not-- were bigger than me. They were pretty much small horses.
The ability to wear multiple shades of green and not be looked down upon because you do not know how to match colors.
Wearing an orange wig, ok! Wearing green pj pants, ok! Wearing piles of green mardi gras beads, ok!! All of this out in public, you look fabulous! How festive! OK!!

All that to say, on saturday the hubs and I took the boys (H was with her mom) to the st. patty's parade. Dressed in green, we first hit up a local restaurant and then parked ourselves by the road along with tons of other people looking for a good time. J was pretty nervous throughout the parade and kept wondering if fire trucks were going to have loud sirens. :) Baby E just waved his little irish flag, tore the flag, watched a little parade, and just took it all in. He was a wonderful little parade-goer, and believe it or not, this was his 5th (at least) parade. See, I told you I liked parades!! :)

6 months for E!

November 2, 2011
Dear E,
This month you turned 6 months old! You are getting bigger and stronger every day and seem more grown up to me. Here are some stats on you!
*At your doctors appointment, you weighed 19lbs, 2oz and were 26 ½ inches long. That is 75% for weight, 50% for height. (You used to be in the 95% for weight and 25% for height, so you are even-ing out a little bit!
*You ate your first food—bananas—five days before you turned 6 months. You ate it and acted like you had always been eating. You are only eating bananas at this point and today when I gave you avocado you gagged on it so much you threw up!
*You sleep well most nights… from around 8p till 7 or 8a and then still 2 or 3 naps a day. You are still in the bassinette next to our bed, but you love to sleep next to me—the closer the better! (for you at least ;))
*Mama started a part time job and is gone 3 nights a week for 6-7 hours a time. I think it’s good for you to bond with Daddy, but I do miss you, and I think/know you miss me, too! You think bottles are strange according to Grandma A ;) and don’t love them, but you do tolerate them.
*Size 3 diaper, 3 shoe, and size 9month clothes.
*You are almost sitting up without falling over. You can sit, but if you try to look behind/to the side, you fall over.
*You roll, but not a lot. You do, however, scootch backward all over the living room. If I put you down in one place, I will come back to you in another.
*You don’t really like your jumper gym toy any longer. You do like to sit in the boppy pillow with toys all around you. You play great with toys—picking them up and looking at them and chewing all over them!
*You have 4 teeth (as of October 29th… so that is in the 7th month but I thought I’d include it since I’m late in writing this letter.)
*You love J and H and they can get you to laugh easily.. well, pretty much anyone can!
*You grab hold of my ears/hair and pull me towards you and open your mouth to try to eat/kiss me. It is hilarious and sometimes painful!
We love you so much little Bo-bo! Love, Mama

for memory's sake

Today we had a great family day. After breakfast, we headed to the local beach. It was chilly, but beautiful. did not have my camera, so for memory's sake, I never want to forget:

*Eating at our favorite bagel place-- the whole family there and eating yummy food (cheddar jalepeno bagel with cucumber ranch cream cheese) and enjoying eachothers company.
*H making baby E laugh in the car so hard that he was gasping for breath.
*Watching the hubs hold J up ontop of a small dune at the beach to show him the barge coming in the channel.
*The way the way the sky was bright blue and chilly and streaked with white clouds.
*Walking along the pier-- the hubs pushed baby E in his stroller/carseat while E took a nap.
*H walking on the large rocks by the pier and J wanting to, too. "I'm as big as her!"
*Pulling back the shade visor on the carseat to see E smiling at me.
*H wearing my coat. Then later, H taking off my coat, and also her boots/socks to climb the swing set on the beach monkey-style.
*J saying, "I'm tired. I'm too heavy for this." While he walked on the sand.
*Watching other families who had the same idea as us: enjoy this while we can!
*Praying that H would not read the super sketchy graffiti on the light house at the end of the pier. (I used to do that as a kid and totally got yelled at for it..) She didn't read it, but did ask me, "Mom, do you have a sharpie? You are allowed to write on the lighthouse!"
*Coming home and having lunch on the green blanket from Miss B out on the front lawn. J got the peanut butter sandwich he has been asking for days for. There was leaves, sun, cheese sandwiches, carrots, cucumber, homemade applesauce, and venison stew.
*The hubs mowing the lawn to get the yard winter-ready. Starting to put away outdoor toys.

Today was the most wonderful of fall days made even better by the fact that it is baby E's 6 month birthday. We love that little love!

one banana two banana

With baby E, I decided to do things a little different food-wise than I did with J. I have been reading a lot about babies/first foods and decided to wait till closer to 6 months and to skip rice cereal entirely. The first food? Bananas.

On Monday night, with my first offical day of work looming over my head, I decided to chain myself once again to the roll of "food masher". It was seriously on a whim, but he was 5 days shy of 6months, so I thought, "why not!?" That way my motherinlaw could always fall back on bananas if he didn't accept his bottles of mama milk on Tuesday.

The conversation to the hubs went like this,
Me:"Think we should start bananas today?"
Hubs: "Sure."

I then ran around and got the bib, mashed banana, bumbo seat, baby spoon that hasn't seen the light of day in 2 years, and of course, the camera.

I only mashed up about 1/4 of the banana.. maybe even less. I was thinking in my head that he would love it. He has always been a serious eater and has the rolls to prove it. After giving him his first bite, my predictions were correct. He was a PRO and swallowed the very first bite, instead of pushing it out of his mouth like his brother did.

He ate those bananas and probably could have gone for dessert, too, but mama cut him off after that.


I think I'm still in shock that my baby is grown
enough to know what to do with a mouthful of bananas.

soaking it up

this little sweetness is baby e,
who joined our family on Good Friday april 22nd at 9:35p, weighing in at 7lbs10oz and 20inches long. (although... at the doctors office the other day, their measurements were 19 1/4 inches long. and he did not have a conehead that shrunk, so maybe they measured him wrong in the hospital?? either way, we are going with the nice round number of 20 inches.)

he has the sweet disposition that i desperatly prayed for, and i am praying it sticks around. he nurses about every 3 hours and now, at 11 days old is having some periods of more alert time after every nursing. today he lost his little belly button and he will be starting some tummy time tomorrow :)

while it is hard to be at someone's beck-and-call 24/7, i am trying to soak it all in. while i don't get more than 2 or 3 hours of sleep at a time, i still have joy in my heart, because he is here. and healthy. and mine. the hubs has been a dream the past week and a half. he has been filling my water glass, asking me if i need snacks, folding laundry, and the biggest help of all: keeping the older kids fed/happy/entertained/loved.

we are settling into a new way of life around here but it is a good life. may i never forget the soft wispy black hair, the toes that are barely bigger than tic-tacs, the peely new-baby-skin, and the sweet baby smell that accompany almost all of my moments right now.