Big Boy Emmett

My baby boy turned 2 a couple weeks ago and I would be remiss if I failed to acknowledge his rapidly moving progression towards "big-boy-hood"!

His stats at 2:

h: 40%

w: 22%

head: 73%

He's no longer the chubby baby whose thigh and neck rolls had to be diligently cleaned out... but he's still got the large head to house his intelligent brain!

 For his birthday we did not have cake because he won't eat it. Instead we had his absolute favorite thing: fresh fruit! We lit and blew out the strawberry-candles a dozen times because he thought that was awesome and was laughing so hard we couldn't resist his requests for "again?" He didn't even hesitate before devouring his entire bowl!

 Gwen and Caroline approved!

Trying on his new cowboy boots. His current favorite things are cars, TRUCKS, trains, buses, and any other vehicle. 

While he's still happy, sweet and mostly easy going... he's not afraid to dish out the stink eye when mom blocks his view of construction vehicles! 

He loves riding his car-car all over the place, swinging, and playing "money" (one for the money) with Daddy. His favorite books are Freight Train and his new truck book. His favorite show is probably still Baby Signing Time, though he always asks for Batman, lol! He is very verbal and talks our ears off with demands and stories. He knows the names of 2 dozen friends and will randomly ask about one or another during the day ("Mommy, where's Remi?") and I get to come up with really creative guesses about what his friends might be doing at any given moment! When he wants something, he either politely says, "Emmett have it? Hold it hand?" before taking it... or... he'll just take it. Yeah, we're working on that one! He loves numbers (Chicka Chicka 1-2-3 is also a favorite book right now) and ABCs (his favorite is X. Sometimes E. Everything is X when he says it is. He will adamantly insist that a B or an S are both X and he'll get quite upset if you don't concur!

It has been so fun the past few months to really see his personality come out-- this boy definitely has preferences!  

 Loved the hat... the beard only lasted about 20 seconds!

 He adores fresh peas!

 And loves to be silly with his sisters. He loves to hold hands or sit in laps of his older sisters... or older friends (sorry, Jacob!!! He just adores you so much!)

 And for fun--- a little walk down memory lane. 

4 days old. His entrance was quite unforgettable!

 One week. Photo courtesy of my talented MIL. 

 Our chubby Buddha belly baby!

 A wonderful crying spell that got captured. I figured it could stand in for all the other fits! Mostly bc of  *gasp* being put down!

 Boy loves to eat!

I miss this sweet cherub face!

Luckily I have this one to look at now!

Happy Birthday, Emmett! We adore you!

Babies, Whales, Penguins, and Projects

When you don't feel well or your kids are sick and you aren't sleeping well, something always has to give. For me, blogging goes out the window first. Followed closely by exercise (embarrassing to admit that, but I'm being honest--- who has the energy to exercise when you feel like you're barely hanging on to the day?). Well, I'm happy to report that all of us are mending from our colds and that the bug didn't bite us too hard. It has been much worse. Counting my blessings here. But either way, I've got catch up to do from the past 2 weeks. Accordingly, this is going to be a "recap" post. Individual posts just aren't happenin. You understand, right? and you're not judging me for it, I hope. ;)

 Mr. Emmett turned 5 months! He is our smiley, chill baby-- who hardly spends a minute on the floor without wanting to roll over onto his tummy. He hasn't figured out how to roll back onto his back, so we end up having to rescue him eventually, but he really LIKES being on his belly, so he doesn't complain much. He has successfully scooted his bum under the couch a few times and can rotate around in a circle on his tummy... putting lots of little things within his eager grasp!

 No teeth yet, but he is exploring everything with his mouth and will gum anything that gets close to him. He loves to explore textures with his fingers too--- embroidered/beaded embellishments on shirts and jackets are a clear favorite! Oh, and I think we've decided his eyes are going to be brownish with perhaps a hint of green. Still hard to say, but they are definitely not blue like his sisters. 

 We had a Family Home Evening lesson on Repentance using Jonah and the Whale. We had a wonderful felt set to play with (a combo of Keeping Life Creative's version with some storm clouds I designed, sailors and people of Ninevah from the LDS Friend, and then I shrunk KLC's version of Jonah so that he could fit on the ship with the sailors. I also added a hinge mouth to the whale because I thought that idea was cute), but the felt set in all its awesomeness is not pictured here because I forgot to go back and take a picture. 

 The girls got to practice putting pictures of themselves inside the whale (I got the idea for that at Blue Skies Ahead, but opted not to make a milk jug whale. We used a 2-D image instead) and then demonstrating what they would need to do to come out. We emphasized that though it is sad, lonely, and dark in the whale, the Lord does NOT want us to stay in there. He provided a way to come out: repentance. 

 The picture of the whale and the sticks with our pics on it were on display all week as a reminder. I can't count the number of times I had to either put a child's stick into the whale (kind of like 'you're in the dog house' only 'you're in the whale') or just ask "do you want to go in the whale? What do you think you should do right now?", but each time we helped the girls remember that they have a Savior who made repentance possible so that they could happily come out of the whale again. 

Preschool this week was all about penguins!

Caroline had a morning where she really wanted EVERYONE to come join her for preschool... so we indulged, though it made the table a little crowded. :)

We did lots of activities with these little abc guys all week. For this activity, I scattered about 7 cards around the room and called out a letter for her to find and retrieve. Lots of fun! Another game we played was matching the uppercase magnetic letter to the correct lowercase penguin. These penguins were free for printing at Gift of Curiosity. But it was really hard to choose our penguin activities because 3Dinosaurs, RoyalBaloo, and a myriad of others also have some wonderful free printables. Man, if my ink was unlimited... :)

This arctic animals tracing page is from the 3 Dinosaurs Zoo pack free printable.

We did a dice rolling game. Count out the penguins... and then eat them of course! :) Started out with one die, then added two dice so that she had to add the two together for increased difficulty. She loved this activity! (Eating the learning materials always makes the activity a hit, don't you think?) One thing I thought was observant of her was the way she started to arrange her penguins in the same configuration as pictured on the die (I didn't take a photo of her doing this, but it was neat to see her copying the composition and making connections from one 'space' to another similarly proportioned 'space'. The artist in me was pretty stoked to see her doing that because that is key to observational drawing!)

Our Penguin book club was a hit with the kiddos! We read A Penguin Story and Penguin and Pinecone. Both are adorable books! Then the kids got to practice being daddy penguins with eggs on their feet, throwing 'fish' (i.e. balls, bean bags, etc) into a box with a hungry penguin inside and singing "I'm a Little Penguin":

(tune of I'm a Little Teapot)

I'm a little penguin

black and white.

I waddle to the left

and I waddle to the right. 

I cannot fly but I can swim. 

So I waddle to the water and jump right in!

We did fun actions for the song and the kids wanted to do it over and over again!

 We made these penguin pals for our craft. I got out the heart punch for the feet and let the kids do it themselves and I think that might have been their favorite part! Originally the design was simple, but when one child wanted to add an orange scarf (because the penguin in Penguin and Pinecone wears an orange scarf) and another immediately asked about his friend pinecone, I knew we were adapting the project! who can stifle such creativity? A little ribbon, some brown acorn caps and buttons, and wuahlah! Penguins with personalized touches! 

Funny: while I was concentrating on tying that scarf on Caroline's little brown pinecone pal, I didn't notice that she had used the WHOLE pile of brown buttons and glued them to her penguin! Guess she wanted him to be stylin (or popular)!

C was pretty sure he wanted his penguins to swim in his milk. :)

On the home front, Gwen has been going perler bead crazy lately! She got a set for Christmas and was eager to try it out... again and again! She has been generous to share with Caroline (who made the above square) and eager to create both small and large designs. 

Pictured here: a purple snowflake, rainbow heart (the perfect landing pad for Toothless), and a very large penguin (that took her several hours to do!)

My friend Rachel posted recently about her projects and asked readers to comment on what they were working on... and I thought. Hmmmm. I should probably finish those stockings that I started in November thinking vainly that I could finish them by beginning of December (with preschool, Thanksgiving, and a 2 month old? What was I thinking?)... Inspired to create by her beautiful creations, I decided that I would love to work on them some more rather than snuggle down and read after the kids went to bed (the ambition to do a project came closely on the heels of feeling improved health! Amazing how that works!). I designed these critters myself (way back in October) after seeing these adorable stockings but wanting to go for an all animal motif (no Santa or snowmen here) for our family stockings. These are 3 of the 6 animals I've created (we also have a moose, raccoon, and bunny. with plans for a skunk when the times comes!). Now that they are ironed onto velvet material, I'm ready to add faces, embellishments and cute stitching to the felt/fabric. Stay tuned for more pics of the project progress!

Out of curiosity, what drops out of your life when your days are feeling weary? and what are you eager to add back in?

I Adore Chubby Babies

It is way harder than I anticipated to get these blog posts completed! Hang with me while I get a rhythm down for getting pics off my camera, editing them, uploading them, and then drafting fun entries!

I adore chubby babies! They just seem like pleasant little fat Buddhas to me. :) Luckily, I have one!

Emmett turned 4 months a couple of weeks ago and his stats qualify him for the Buddha category of cute!

4 month stats:

weight: 18 lb 4 oz (91%)

height: 25 1/4 in (49%)

head: 16 1/2 in (30%)

He wears 6-9 month clothes (here he is wearing a 9 month outfit-- fits perfectly around the waist, but a little long on his legs)

Side effect of a chubby baby is a good sleeper... and therefore a pleasant baby! Emmett is both! He didn't complain about being outside until he realized it was nap time. :)

He is very ticklish! Every time I change his clothes he just giggles and giggles. Here you can see his adorable rolls!

Emmett loves his sisters-- they can get him to laugh every time! Daddy and Mommy come in at a close second. He also loves milk and challenges me to keep him supplied adequately. When I am out and he isn't satisfied yet, he growls and complains at me, all the while gnawing as if that will make more milk appear. But he won't take a bottle (he doesn't get it. He just mouths it around with his tongue but never sucks). Therefore, we have spent the week practicing rice cereal and bananas. He is getting pretty good! Oh, and he is rolling over from back to tummy (but not the other way) like a pro now. :)

We love our sweet chubby Emmett!

#4 Languages-- Especially Sign Language for Kids

I am nerdy that way, I suppose, because I love languages. I love the structure (it is so logical and formulaic), grammar, nuances (often so poetic and fun--like when you learn that 'happy birthday' in Korean is 'it's your life day, congratulations'), and how language seems like a window to culture (much in the same way food is, I think). I used to enjoy learning phrases and snippets from international friends. I envisioned myself teaching Korean or Spanish to my kiddos so I'd have bilingual or even trilingual kiddos...

that hasn't happened. For a number of reasons. The main two are that 1) Eric and I want to give our kids an edge in language development as it relates to the educational system. Reading and writing are paramount, so we've chosen to focus on English to really develop vocabulary and comprehension. 2) I am more interested in immediate communication with my kids and the delay of multiple tongues just, well, I was/am too impatient for the return. I can't stand the fits and tantrums when communication breaks down and I just want to cross as much territory as quickly as possible to remove the language barrier between me and my children.

Which explains why I've chosen to teach my girls sign language. Rather than delay the communication, it speeds it up. Frustrations subside when I know what they want and can give it to them rather than guessing wrong. Both parties are happier. And it also doesn't hamper vocabulary development (they can sign WHILE saying the English word, so there is really only 1 word to learn. Easier than trying to distinguish between a Spanish and English vocab word). Gwen had a huge vocabulary by 2 years thanks to signing... and Caroline is following in her footsteps.

We started signing with Caroline recently, about a week ago. Today, she started signing "ball". I know, that isn't much, but it has been SOOOOO exciting to see comprehension dawn on her face and to have her COMMUNICATE with us rather than just fuss, whine, and cry. I LOVE languages, but I really LOVE communication the most. And it is wonderfully rewarding to see Caroline witnessing the rewards first hand of using language to communicate (it sure beats the alternatives, I tell you what!) I'm excited for her to start telling me she wants food, drink, bath, bed, mommy, daddy... basically, I'm excited for real communication. And that, my friends, is why I LOVE languages.

And Finally, A Brief Birth Story (for Posterity)

I was induced with Gwen, took FOREVER to progress even on Pitosin, and went from mild, crampy pains to sudden excruciating pain when my water broke completely. Even then, I was still only a 4.

So at my wed dr appointment for Caroline when the doc told me I was almost a 4, I really began to wonder what to expect. I had been having contractions off and on for over a week. Nothing consistent. I certainly didn't want to have our lil one arrive suddenly at home, so on Thursday when my contractions became more regular, we decided to go in to the hospital.

We packed Gwen up for an overnight at a friend's house (which she was stoked about, as you can see), and realized we didn't have a prego pic of me, so we took one. You can see from my face that I'm pretty comfortable. Yeah, my contractions were definitely there, but not too painful. Just crampy feeling like I had on the Pitosin with Gwen.

The hospital deflated us. I wasn't progressing. They told us to walk around for an hour and come back. We did. Let me assure you, the hospital did not design a nice path for pregnant ladies to help their labor along. We were off roading it. Came back, got checked again. Contractions were super close together... for about 15 minutes... then they tapered off again. At 9:30 pm the hospital sent us home. While they admitted we'd probably be back around 2 am, they didn't want us to wait around there, I guess.

We picked up Gwen, ordered a consolation pizza, and I prepared myself for what I thought would be a long, increasingly uncomfortable night with a delivery in the early morning on a night of little sleep. I was pretty bummed.

But, tender mercies abound, and sometime around midnight I fell asleep. Woke up at 5 am with absolutely NO contractions. I wondered about false labor, etc, etc, still having no real concept of what to expect.

Between 6:30 and 7:30 I had 2 contractions. Much stronger than the day before, but clearly not a regular pattern. 7:30 they all the sudden picked up the pace and became quite painful. We packed Gwen up, dropped her off at the same friend's house (thanks, guys!), and arrived at the hospital by 8:30 am. I was pained, but still worried that this wasn't the real deal and that they would send me home again. I was relieved to hear that I was almost a 7. They got us a room right away.

Got an epidural, hung out with Eric making phone calls and updating everyone. Started pushing around 10:30. There was miconium in my water, so they called up specialists in case she inhaled any. Also, her blood pressure was dropping with each push (which made me nervous because I was worried about her health but did NOT want to have a C-section after all that work I'd already done!) so we wanted to get her out quickly. OB told me that it would have been easier, probably could have gotten her out in 2 pushes, if she had not been posterior (facing front instead of back). Her forehead kept running into my pelvis. She wasn't coming out. Tried the suction cup, but eventually just helped me out with a healthy episiotomy. After that, she popped right out. No need to worry bout the inhalation of miconium, she was born bawlin and kept it up for a solid 15 minutes.

After a couple minutes of skin to skin, tried nursing. And she took right to it. Nursed for an hour. Yes, an hour. What a blessing, especially in contrast to how much Gwen HATED it!

The nurses and staff kept congratulating us on our speed. Apparently there were 18 other women in labor that morning. I was the last to arrive and the first to deliver. Go us!

So, in summary, hard labor started around 7:30, arrived at the hospital at 8:30, started pushing around 10:30, had Caroline at 10:53. Not a bad labor and delivery, I'd say!

Caroline Isabel

Caroline Isabel

born April 8, 2011 10:53 am

7 lbs 7.7 oz

19 in long

13 in head

head full of dark hair! We love it!

Labor and delivery were actually not too bad at all. I can't complain. In fact, I received some great blessings for which I continue to feel really grateful. I suppose I'll do a longer post about the whole experience, but not today. We are home now. Recovery is going well, Caroline is a champion eater (no kidding--she would eat ALL DAY LONG if I'd let her) and loves to sleep too.

Gwen is only interested in Caroline in small doses. When she arrived at the hospital, Eric said, "Gwen, there's your baby sister, right there!" and she said, "Yup. ....I look out the window?" as she gave only a passing glance at Caroline and bee-lined it for the curtains. :)

She asks to hold "my baby", but is ready to be all done after about a minute. She is mostly intrigued by her sister's tiny features and wants to touch her ears, nose, cheeks, hair, etc. She giggles as soon as Caroline is on her lap, though, which is really cute. She also LOVES the teaset that Caroline brought as a gift. She wants to play "Tea Party" with someone, anyone, ALL DAY LONG. Good gift, Caroline. You've found the key to winning your older sister's heart. :)

Can You Believe I'm 38 Weeks?

Well, I am. Today. Two weeks from today is my due date. I can hardly believe it. 2 weeks sounds like... any day... ya know? But, I am not predicting anything. I am prepared to go for a couple more weeks.

However, now that I've gotten both papers down to size (though it wouldn't hurt to come back in a few days and reread them just to have a fresh view), I feel comfortable with baby coming any time. After all, even if the papers aren't perfect, I know I can turn them in right now, as is, if necessary and still pull off at least an A- in both classes. And that takes all the stress and pressure off. I feel great. and relaxed.

and, lil girl, you officially have my permission to come any time you would like now. :)

Papers Finished....sort of...

Well, I finished both papers today...

but I suffer from the challenge of being verbose. Both exceed the page limits.

One only by 2 pages, but they are 2 full pages of already well-written and well-thought out points, which will still be challenging to cut back.

The other paper, though, I have currently written 37 pages for a 20 page limit. Hmmmm.... That one is going to be harder to work down. I will be cutting out entire sections, paragraphs, taking the AXE to it... a challenge, for sure, since it isn't just tweaking of sentences or paring down little things.

Then again, sometimes choosing to eliminate entire ideas completely makes for faster editing than the little 'how can I say this more concisely' kind of editing that the first paper will require.

Do any of you other writers out there suffer from my problem? Or is it just me who writes way too much...

The good news is, if I work really hard this week and stay on task, I should be able to get both papers completely edited and turned in by next Saturday... which will give me almost a full week and a half of breathing room before the lil one arrives! I am thrilled, let me tell ya! That way I won't be so stressed out if she arrives early...

It's a....

Looks like we're going to have another one of these:

20 week ultrasound gave us a pretty confident look at our new baby girl! See you in April, sweetie! Couldn't be more excited!

ps. this was Gwen's 2 year birthday cake I made and never blogged about.

Lemon, Apple, Avocado

Last week a lemon

This week an apple

Next week an avocado

We're thrilled to be expecting! Eric, Gwen, and I are pleased to announce our 15 week fruit!

Our Trip to Idaho April-May 2010

First of all, the trip was a lot easier than I'd feared. DVDs and stickerbooks are HUGE blessings, let me tell ya!

Second of all, Eric had a birthday while on our trip. Wouldn't you know I didn't take a good picture of him? I love him so much, with all his nerdy math and science interests, his brilliance, and his compassion for those around him. I also had a great time dressing up like a camo-eskimo to go fishing on the windiest day! What a great adventure! Thanks for taking me along, dear!

I wanted to provide evidence that my dear hubby is still young at heart... so you have to wait to the end of the post to see it! Until then, Gwen will have to suffice. (oh, btw, most of the good photos are borrowed from my MIL, a superb photographer. I can't take credit)

So many fun and entertaining people to spend time with:

Grandpa

Aunt Elise

Grandma (helping bake bread is so fun!)
and even time playing peek-a-boo with Great-Grandmas and Grandpa

Gwen grew especially fond of her cousins; enjoying her time copying everything that older "cowboy" cousin did and following him around squealing... or begging to cuddle with baby "F" whom she asked for by name in sign language
Exploration of music was fun at the piano or dancing on the floor keyboard (I love both the fish lips on Eric and the puzzled expression on Papa Allan's face)

Gwen adored close encounters with animals: cats, horses, dogs, birds, and even chickens/ducks at the local supply storeplaying with just about everything she found lying around was a blast!

Identifying features on faces was a favorite game and just because sibling revelry is so funny:

Wonderful trip, guys! Can't wait to do it again!