Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Ever have one of those? That was yesterday. I'm so glad yesterday is over. I say this, not for sympathy, really, but just to be a little more authentic about our life with a 4-year-old, a 2-year-old, and a 2-month-old. I tend to blog about the fun things we do or the silly things the kids do or say. Most days around here are pretty good, and the transition to three kids truly has been easier than I thought it would be, easier even than the transition from one kid to two kids. However, we do have some bad days, and Monday, April 28th, was one of them. Nothing horrific or devastating happened. It was pretty much just tired, under-the-weather kids acting their ages in the worst ways. Sunday wasn't all that great either, so we figure we're not due for another day like that for quite some time now, right?

Where else?

Where do we go on a nice, sunny Saturday morning in the spring? The zoo, of course. It was a great zoo visit with no major meltdowns. The double stroller was key, as Joel was able to get in and out quickly and easily. Thanks, Ryan and Michelle!

2 months

Aubrey had her two month appointment today. Taking all three kids to the doctor's office is quite an adventure, especially when the doctor has a medical student with him and everything takes twice as long. For the sake of grandmas and others who want to know, here are her stats:
10 lbs 12 oz. (50%)
23 in. (75%)

She's doing really well. Nice steady growth trends. She has, however, developed a period of fussiness in the evenings and doesn't like to go to sleep until around 11pm, which is a little late for us. I still can't really complain because she's fairly easily soothed and is still giving me a 6-8 hour stretch at night. I compare all baby experiences to the difficult first four and a half months of Kari babyhood--extreme colic and misery. This is nothing! Thanks for being nice to us, Aubrey, and Kari, life got much better after four and a half months.

Aubrey really likes the Baby Einstein play gym we're borrowing from Eric and Leah. Lots of coos and sweet baby sounds when she's watching those lights go.



Aubrey's expression in this one makes me laugh.

Aubrey's 8 weeks old, and guess what she's doing?

SMILING! I absolutely love it. Just for the record, she smiled at Grandma (Moffat) first a week ago.

This is the unsmiling face we are more accustomed to seeing--still cute.

She looks so old in those smiley pictures. Here are a couple that show she's still our little peanut (who is starting to chunk out, by the way).

Letter for Aubrey

Today we had a baby dedication at church and had the privilege of dedicating our third child to the Lord in front of our church family. I love how Cornerstone does this. The parents write a letter to their baby and read it aloud up front during the service, and then one of the elders prays for the family. Here is the letter we wrote for our baby girl:

Dear Aubrey,

Our first few weeks with you have been the least traumatic out of our three children, which has allowed them to be the sweetest and most enjoyable. You’ll be eight weeks old tomorrow, and already you fit so nicely into our family. Your brother and sister adore you, and almost daily pronounce you “the cutest baby in the world.” You’ve demanded very little and have graciously given us long stretches of sleep at night since the day you came home, so we’re wondering if you’re going to be more laid back and easy-going, but we don’t really know because you’re brand new. We’re looking forward to getting to know you as you grow, getting to know your personality, your likes and dislikes, and just you as a unique individual.

As our third child, you get the benefit of having more experienced parents who know, for example, how to buckle you in your car seat properly (your sister didn’t have that benefit and was forced to be a bit of a contortionist until we figured it out at 6 months old). While we may have more confidence as parents, we also know that we need lots and lots of help as we raise you and that we need to rely heavily on God for wisdom and guidance. He gave you to us, but ultimately you belong to him, and he knows you best. Today we dedicate you to the Lord and commit to loving you, praying for you, and raising you to know and love God with your whole heart. We pray that you will come to know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior at an early age and that you will walk with him all the days of your life. We pray that you will have a strong, unwavering faith in the God who created you, who knows you, and who loves you more than we can even imagine, that you will trust in the Lord with all your heart, not lean on your own understanding, that you will acknowledge him in all your ways and that He will direct your path (Proverbs 3:5-6).

You are so precious, and we are so thankful you have joined our family.
We love you, Aubrey Ann!

Mom and Dad

Who needs a maid

Conversation with Kari yesterday--

Me: Oh, are you doing some dusting for me?
Kari: Yep (duster in hand, dusting our bedroom)
Me: That's helpful of you.
Kari: Well, somebody has to clean this place.

Who decided there should be carpets in bathrooms?

I washed the rug in the kids' bathroom for the umpteeth time today, and it is not going back down. Rugs and semi-potty-trained toddlers just cannot co-exist. Joel was pretty much potty trained before Aubrey was born. We got the difficult part of the process over early, for which I am VERY thankful. However, our just-turned-2-year-old has lost some of his motivation. He really does do well most of the time, but we're trying to think of new ways to motivate him. Right now we're varying the potty treats, which seems to be helping. He's totally capable of holding it and making it to the toilet. We know this because he went for weeks without an accident and rarely has accidents when we're out at the store or running errands. For some reason, though, lately he just doesn't really care. I sort of expected a bit of a regression after Aubrey was born, so I'm not surprised, just a little annoyed with the messes, especially the ones that involve the bathroom rug just a couple feet from his potty chair.

So, those of you were jealous of the relative ease with which Joel was toilet trained can find a teeny bit of satisfaction in the fact that, two months later, we're still not quite done.

Great Grandpa and Grandma visit

It's been a busy last few days, so I haven't been able to blog. (I was talking with some friends last night who also have new babies, and we were laughing about how we can manage to sit and read emails and look at blogs while we're nursing, but typing is a whole different matter.) On Saturday our little clan drove to Keizer and invaded my grandparents' home for the day. The kids were so excited. Great-Grandma was all ready for us and had all kinds of treats for the kids--special plates at lunch, hamburgers, potato chips, grapes (Joel's favorite), and orange Crush (Kari was in heaven, but Joel took one sip and pronounced it "too spicy"--guess he's never tried a carbonated beverage). They loved all the whipped cream she kept giving them on their strawberry pie, too. :) They worked on puzzles, which she let them take home and just had great time running around the house. Pretty fun day. Joel asked Grandma if she could come home in the van with us, but she told him she needed to stay and take care of Grandpa.

Kari looked too funny way in the back seat with her headphones, watching her movie (quite the luxury, I know--makes longer trips quite pleasant for us all), so I had to take a picture. She had her purple sunglasses on just before this. They really completed the look. Joel konked out as soon as we started driving.Grandpa and Grandma's house wore him out.

Remember when...

... our son moved like a paraplegic? We were reminiscing and laughing about the "Joel scoot" at a recent family gathering, so I thought I'd post it for your viewing pleasure. This is from a year ago when I was sure Joel would never learn to use his legs. (He never did crawl, but he did finally walk at 14 1/2 months.) What a difference a year makes. Now he runs.

(no sound on the video. I did something wrong and then decided not to fix it because of my annoying voice.)

Slow Learner

You know, when I was in school I was a pretty quick learner. Since becoming a mom, I think I've gotten dumber and slower. You'd think after one time of leaving the cereal box too close to the edge of the counter, I'd learn that I need to put it away, or at least scoot it back so that my 2 year old can't easily reach it. Nope, it took two times. I came out to the living room this morning to find my freshly-opened big box of Honey Nut Cheerios dumped all over the [not-recently-vaccumed] carpet and Joel snacking on the mess. Last week it was his Kix. I guess that's what I get for not sharing the good stuff. Now he knows Mommy's cereal is yummy! And he thinks using the Shop Vac is fun!