November 13, 2015

thea's baptism

Every time I think I'll get back to posting regularly, all good sleep habits seem to go out the window.  Babies.  They're crazy.  So we're going to keep this short and sweet because truly there isn't much to say anyway!

Thea was baptized on October 18th.  She wore the same dress that both Elsie and Ryann wore, the same dress that my sister and I wore, the dress that my aunts bought for my mom when she was baptized.  So many girls on my mom's side of the family have been baptized in this dress, I absolutely love it.  In my opinion, our family doesn't really hold on to a lot of heirlooms or traditions.  So this dress means so very much to me.  I'm grateful to have it in the family and hope that one day my daughters will have daughters of their own who can also be baptized while wearing it.

The week prior to her baptism Thea had been taking a 2-3 hour nap in the morning, so I thought she'd be great for the 11 o'clock service.  Ha.  HAHA.  I can't remember how long she slept, 45 minutes?  An hour tops for sure.  So by the time we made it to the church she was a mess.  Chris spent the first half of the service out in the lobby with her.  He managed to get her to sleep (I think that was the last time anyone besides myself has gotten her to sleep!), and brought her back in for the baptism.  As soon as the water was poured on her head her eyes popped open.  And moments later she was back to tired and fussy.  So back to the lobby they went.

Ryann and Elsie were also incredibly well behaved.  Not.  Ryann wasn't too bad, but she had zero interest in standing with the family for the baptism, and wouldn't even sit with the other children in the front to watch.  Elsie climbed the steps and was jumping around.  So it didn't take long for them to return to the pews with Gramdma 'Nita.  And while we were trying to take pictures after the service Elsie slapped Chris in the face so he carried her straight to the car under his arm.  Good times I tell ya, good times.

Some day we won't be such a circus when we are in public, right?

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November 5, 2015

thea - three months

Oh Miss Thea.  Dearest third child.  I am late with your post.  The pictures were taken on time, but I just haven't had a chance to sit down and write it out.  I swear I will never miss a month, I won't do it.  But that doesn't mean they'll be punctual!  I love you just the same, and if you didn't regularly feel the need to use me as a human pacifier, and if I hadn't spent a chunk of time watching baseball (totally worth it), I might be more on top of things.  :o)

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No doctor's appointment this month, so I did my best to approximate her weight.  Based on my scale, minus a tad bit for her clothes, I'd guess she weighs in right at 14 pounds, maybe a touch over.  Ryann and Elsie didn't weigh 14 pounds by four months, so I'm still always amazed at how big Thea is.  We'll see if this is a sign that she will be the tallest in our family or something!  Which no, I didn't even attempt to measure her length.  I'm so bad at that.  Aside from a few things here and there, she is solidly in 3-6 month clothing, and wearing a size two diaper.  I still haven't really put shoes on her, so I have no clue what side she would wear.

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Sleep has gotten better to some extent this month.  I've given up on anyone else getting her to fall asleep, and have also said screw it and just nurse her to sleep most of the time.  So I'm not near as exhausted from the little song and dance jazzercise routine I used to do every time she needed a nap.  But she doesn't really stay asleep in her car seat anymore (except sometimes when she does, and it is sitting on the kitchen counter and she still manages to nap for like two hours in the midst of our family chaos), and you never know whether you'll get a cat nap or a three hour nap, so planning a day is just kind of hard.  And when she is tired she is pretty much inconsolable, unless it's a boob.  A boob does the trick.

At night, for the most part we are getting a solid 6-7 hour stretch at the beginning of the night.  Before daylight savings she was sleeping from about 9pm-3:30am.  Then she'd sometimes be up for 1-2 hours (ugh) or go right back to sleep for another three hours or so.  The last couple of nights she's been in bed by 7:50pm, and woken up between 1-3am, then slept until 6:30am.  Thea is still sleeping in the Rock n Play in our room, but my goal is to switch her to her room by the end of the week.  We finally got shades on her windows so it should be dark enough in there for naps.  For now I'm just going to move the Rock n Play to her room, but if she does well in there for a few days, I'll brave the crib.  For some reason I feel like she'll take to it better than Elsie did, but I'm probably just trying to be optimistic or something.

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It is nearly impossibly to catch on camera, but Thea is just so dang smilely (unless she is tired of course).  Her entire body smiles with her.  Chris can get the best smiles out of her, especially right after she wakes up.  Sometimes she seems like she smiles so hard that she loses control of her neck muscles and just has to bury her head in my shoulder.  Or it is some sort of shy move.  I have no idea, but man I love those smiles.  Just can't get enough!  No giggles or laughs just yet, but sometimes I think she is trying to.  She'll do this thing where she sucks in a bunch of air and it makes a noise, and eventually I think it will turn in to a laugh.

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Thea has begun to really track sounds and try and figure out where they are coming from.  When she hears something loud or strange her eyes get super big and crazy and she whips her head around until she can zero in on the noise.  She is also really great and tracking objects and people.  She particularly enjoys watching her crazy sisters.  She is also stupidly good at tracking down screens.  It starts early!  I both hate it and love it.  If the TV is on she finds it, or if someone has a phone out, she zeros in on the screen.  But at the same time, if she is really fussy and nothing else is working, I can sway with her in front of the TV and she usually stops screaming.

She still spits up a ton, we go through like a million burp cloths a day.  Elsie has gotten great at spotting it and will yell at me "Baby Fee-uh is leaking!"  Haha.  I'd love to know what makes my babies so spitty.  I mean, I don't know any differently and feel like spit-up is a problem for a lot of people, but I know there are babies who don't really spit up at all.  Why?!?! How?!?! I'm so tired of both her and I smelling like sour milk.  Inevitably she always pukes in my hair on a day I actually wash it.

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Even though she doesn't tolerate it for long, Thea is getting much better at tummy time.  She can prop herself up on her forearms and look all around.  Occasionally she'll make some sort of an effort to roll over, but it hasn't happened in probably at least a month.  She has started rolling to her side from her back, and if I give her a little resistance she can push over to her stomach, but she can't pull her arm out from underneath her once she gets there.  As much as I just lay her in random places while taking care of her sisters, I can handle little to no mobility for a while longer.  She does manage to pivot her body around on the floor, all the sudden I'll notice her feet are pointing a different direction than when I laid her down.  Lastly in the gross motor skills department, Thea has discovered her hands.  She regularly has her fists shoved in her mouth, and she'll hold one up in front of her face, staring at it like it is the most amazing thing she has ever seen.

This last month has had more good days than bad.  I can see the light at the end of the fussy new baby tunnel.  It's dim, and still a ways in the distance, but we're getting there.

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Thea, I can barely remember the days that you weren't a part of our life.  I'm so glad you're here.

November 3, 2015

halloween 2015

Another year, another costume idea brought to life by my one and only amazing mom.  A while back I decided I wanted to go with a circus theme, and as we got closer to Halloween it only seemed more fitting.  We were going to make Christopher a concessions guy, but he wasn't able to attend the party we went to, so I said screw it and didn't put together a costume for him.  He was so disappointed, I promise.  Ha.

On the 30th my mom, Elsie, Thea and I went to Ryann's school to watch the costume parade.  Ryann was so incredibly excited, and couldn't contain it even a little bit.  I couldn't stop smiling because she was so happy.  After the parade Thea and I stayed for her class party.

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totally missed the focus on that one, but I can't get over the look on her face :)
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That night the girls and I and my mom went to our friend's annual Halloween party.  She definitely throws a good party.  An awesome face painter, a bounce house, great food.  It was a little chaotic with a baby who was really just ready for bed, and I wouldn't have survived without my mom, but I'm glad we went.  The girls loved getting their face painted as usual.  Ryann requested a rainbow brite zebra.  I have no idea where she came up with that but she was pleased with the results.  Naturally Elsie wanted to be a kitty.  No surprise there!

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We kicked off Halloween morning with some monster donuts (thank you pinterest).  The bulk of our day was filled with errands and just hanging out.  A little after five we met our friends for a Trunk or Treat at their church.  Ryann was so funny, I told her we were going to a Trunk or Treat, and she got so mad.  "But mom I want to go Trick or Treating!!!!!!"  Once we got there and she understood what was going on she was rather pleased.  After we made our rounds through the cars, we got a little hay rack ride around the parking lot.  By then Thea was awake and wanting to eat so we went back to our house.  While I fed her Chris took Ryann and Elsie to hit up a few more houses.  Once we were done for the night the girls ate a bit of their candy, and surprisingly both of them more or less requested to go to bed.

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All in all a good holiday!

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November 2, 2015

fall fun

We had another stretch of not so great sleep (from anyone, I swear) plus a ton going on.  So I'm trying to play a little catch up over the next few days.  Or however long it takes me which is going to be forever and I'm never going to be 'caught up'.  Oh well.

As I started typing this I realized I never posted any photos from our Cider Days adventure (back in September!).  It was our first attempt at taking Thea to any sort of event.  I was nervous that she'd be a complete mess, but she did us a solid and slept nearly the entire time in the carrier.  There was camel rides, an exotic petting zoo, bounce houses, some food and a craft fair.  And cider.  But seriously.  Just cider.  No donuts, no slushes, no exciting cider items of any sort.  I was disappointed.  But all was forgotten when I ate a funnel cake drizzled with nutella.  Yummmmm.  We spent way too much cash, but had a good time, and it felt good to get out of the house and really do something.

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Then a few weeks ago we headed out to the pumpkin patch.  It was no KC pumpkin patch, that is for sure.  But we went when it wasn't busy at all so that was nice.  I had high hopes that Thea would again sleep through most of the outing in the carrier, but no dice.  She absolutely could not stand the wind and was gagging and screaming like a crazy baby.  So we ended up grabbing the car seat and lugging her around until she passed out.  The big girls did a bounce house, a little train, and a giant slide.  Plus just some running around and getting dirty.  We snagged a wagon full of pumpkins, drank a cider slush (making up for the lack of one at a cider event!) and headed home.  Maybe next year we'll be up for the hay rack ride, but we'll just have to see!

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