Happy James

I'm loving this little James. He talks and coos and goos and oh does he smile. What a fun age. He really is the sweetest baby. He is patient, he is responsive and ready for a smile as soon as I talk to him, he is nice and chunky--my first baby with rolls--I love it!

The only negatives--he spits up like no other. My shirt was covered the other day. Why change when it is just going to happen again? Just tonight I had to wipe up several puddles on the kitchen floor from him (sorry-gross). And the only other bad thing is that I feel like I don't have enough time to spend with him. He is so good that I feel like I put him down as soon as I am done feeding him so I can get something done. I have to tell myself to stop and spend some moments with him. Today my kids were playing at my sister-in-law's in the morning. I ran some errands and as I went to put James in the car he was being so cute and just snuggly, so I stopped for a moment, danced with him to the Christmas music playing in the background and gave him lots of kisses. I really need to stop more often for him. What a cutie.

Scorpion!!

I had just laid James down on a blanket in the family room, I was kneeling down starting to stuff cards into envelopes (yea--maybe they will make it to you before Christmas?!), and Natalie was kneeling next to me. As usual, I was feeling "rushed"--trying to fit as much into the minute because I didn't know when I would have another moment to work on cards. Natalie was trying to tell me something and I was so focused on what I was doing, I didn't notice for a minute what she was telling me. But she was pointing and saying "yucky" or "bug" or something. I figured it was a cricket--we have plenty of those. I finally glanced over at where she was pointing--right in front of her little finger on our green shag rug was a scorpion.

Ooo I really don't like scorpions. In fact, I'm terrified of them! Luckily this is only the 2nd one I have seen inside our house in 4 1/2 years. I picked up the baby, hustled Natalie out of the family room, grabbed a glass and ran back to put it over the scorpion. Then I told everybody to stay out of that room. I called Lena, who I knew had lots of experience with killing scorpions, and she said just squash it with a shoe or anything hard. OK. That sounded like something I could do.

But I couldn't. Every time I thought about doing it, my insides did a somersault. In fact, even writing about it is making me feel the same way. But I had to do something--I have 2 active little kids who wouldn't remember to stay away from that glass and I was envisioning what would happen when they knocked over the glass and the scorpion was free. So....I called my home teacher and neighbor. He lives just across the street and luckily, works from home often. He was there and came to my rescue with a rubber mallet.

He got the scorpion into the glass and took it outside where he finished it off. Phew! Lena gave me the great idea of showing the kids what the scorpion looks like so they can identify one later and know that if they see one, stay away and come get mom. I don't know what good it will do to get mom, but it's what Lena said she told her kids! Maybe next time they can get me and I can call Lena, who now has no problem smashing scorpions. But I really hope there is no next time. I should have titled this post, "I'm a chicken" or something. Even just writing about this is making me feel the creepy crawlies up my back and I keep thinking something is brushing up against my feet.....Ugh.

But props to Natalie for saving the day by noticing the scorpion. It was really hard to see in that shag. Way to go Nats (as Andrew has been calling her lately)!

Yes, I have my hands full

I had to run to WalMart again today (about the 3rd time this week--I always end up needing something else) and got to go with all three kiddies. We parked and entered in the greenhouse/plants area because there are usually less cars parked there and if you check out there, usually you can avoid the longer lines. We crossed the street--I was holding the heavy car seat in one arm and had Natalie's hand in the other, and she was holding Andrew's hand. I was so happy that they would even hold hands to cross the street. They are so independent--when other kids are happily holding their parents' hands, mine are usually saying, "No! I do it myself!"

When we walked into the store, there were the plant carts--double decker, green, flat carts. My kids immediately ran to one and insisted that we use that cart. Actually, I thought it was a pretty good idea--both kids sat with legs outstretched next to each other on the top and James in his car seat fit nicely on the bottom. I didn't have to get much, so there was enough room to stash several items here and there.

We rolled on into the store from the greenery area. I can't even count the number of stares, and yes, there were a few comments as well. First, we were the only GREEN cart in the store. Second, we were the only DOUBLE DECKER cart in the store. And third, I was the only person in there with three kids on one cart (maybe even the only person with three kids).

We were doing a great job pulling the attention to ourselves as it was, even though the kids were doing great and were happy, and then James started crying. He is such a great little baby and doesn't usually cry. He cries because he has a dirty diaper or is hungry--and sometimes because he is the third child and needs a little more attention than he sometimes gets. So this was an "I am hungry and have a dirty diaper" cry. So we hurried up and finished but I felt like I had a spotlight on us as we rushed through the store. People actually moved out of our way--they heard us coming ;-)

It reminded me of a day a week or two ago when I took my kids to play at an outdoor mall playground. I had Natalie in the stroller, Andrew was walking and I was carrying James in the Baby Bjorn. We had gone about 20 feet and already 3 people had commented "You have your hands full!" Everybody we walked by made a comment. I just laughed and thought, you are right--my hands are full!! And some days it feels like they are full of frustration, and messes, and dirty diapers, and kids arguing. And other days it feels like they are full of joy, and excitement at new milestones, and laughter, and love. But my hands are definitely full.

Even as I am writing this during my first free moment of the day, I can hear the little footsteps upstairs as Andrew runs back and forth between the game room and his room. I have miraculously convinced him that a quiet time every afternoon is a good idea. He won't nap, but I really was feeling like a quiet time was good--and he is on board! So he knows he needs to stay in his room, but also needs "one more track" so he keeps running back and forth. I hear the footsteps and then the footsteps and then the door close. So cute. I love the energy and excitement he has.

Just do it

I just had to break the silence! I can't believe it has almost been a month since my last post. I have all sorts of things to catch up on, but the first step was just writing something. As the days and weeks went by, I felt like I couldn't post anything until I had time to write about EVERYTHING that had happened since the last post. Never going to happen. My first post asks Can a perfectionist really blog? This was the first real test for me. So I'm swallowing the last month. If I get to some catch up, so be it. If I don't...I'm jumping in again right now. I have really missed recording things here.

One thing that I really want to write down is a conversation I overheard the other day. Natalie was outside and Andrew was inside looking out at her through the open window.

Natalie: "How you doin Adew?"
Andrew: "I doin great"
Natalie: "Oh, wow. Cool."


It was so fun to hear them interacting and it was a particularly sweet moment because so much of their other dialogue these days goes more like:

Natalie: "My doggie."
Andrew: "No, MY doggie."
Natalie: "No, My doggie."
Andrew: "My green train."
Natalie: "No, My green train."

You get the point.

Still loving the trampoline

Variations to Andrew's daily trampoline comment:

"It's a nice day to have a trampoline" and the other night when we were jumping as it was getting dark,

"Mom...mom...it's a nice night to have a trampoline."

Pretty in Pink

Oh am I glad to have a girl!! It was actually overcast this morning so I opened the side of Natalie's closet with the long-sleeved shirts and she immediately picked out her shirt for today. I've just been laughing every time I look at her today because it is too cute.

This one is for you, John

The kids and I picked John up for lunch yesterday. The kids were squirming in their seats, kicking their legs, grinning from ear to ear and squealing when they saw him come out of the building toward the car. It was so fun--for me and for the kids. It felt like I was somehow cheating by getting to see him during the day.

I had my camera and took a few pictures. John gave me a look and teasingly asked if I was taking some pictures for the blog. Well, so be it...this one is for you John ;-)

As long as I'm on the subject, I just have to say how amazing John is and especially how great he has been since James has appeared. He is so great with the kids. They just love him. Natalie cried after we dropped John back at work, "Daddie." He calls to check in with me and make sure we are making it through the day ;-) and he has even made an effort to get home earlier. Yea! That one is my favorite. He is always so even tempered and can make anything fun. I am so grateful for him!

Three's a crowd

You may all be as surprised as I was to discover that you really can fit three car seats in the back of an Escape. Whoever thought I would be drooling over a minivan!!

Famous Quotes

Andrew has said to me at least once every day this week while he is jumping on the trampoline,

"Mom, it's a beautiful day to have a trampoline."

It has already been 6 weeks!

James is 6 weeks old as of tomorrow. I can't believe it has been that long. I really should have it more together by now! He is a great baby. He sleeps from about 9 or 10pm until about 5 or 6am (sometimes he gets up at 3:30, dang him). I don't think he could do much better than that at night. He is starting to give us little smiles...I LOVE it!! He is a very sweet baby. He just keeps gaining weight too, which has not been the norm with my others. It's nice not to have to worry about whether he is getting enough to eat. He makes cute noises and seems to do really well with going along with the flow.

I had to get a few pictures of him in white and khaki to send to my mom for the Rowberry christmas card, so here he is. Poor third child--I just don't seem to catch him on camera as much as the others.

A Trampoline!

Well, we had a great surprise yesterday. John's mom, who is the BEST garage sale shopper out there, called yesterday morning and wanted to know if we were interested in a trampoline because she had found one at a garage sale, with a net, for $50. Of course we were interested! I was hoping to somehow talk John into the expense of getting one for Christmas and wasn't too sure about how much success I would have. Suzann was able to talk the price down to $40 and we now have a trampoline! And actually, it turns out it is an early Christmas present to the kids from John's parents.

The kids are so excited and have been jumping at every chance they get. Andrew went with John to pick it up and he said, "Are we taking the trampoline to my house?!" He couldn't believe it. Natalie keeps saying, "Jump, trampoween, mom." And I must live vicariously through my kids these days because it's fun for me just to watch. I have gotten on a few times, but man, am I out of jumping shape! Gotta work on that.
(For all of you photographers out there--sorry about the bad lighting and inability to catch motion with my camera--but you get the idea ;-))

Trip to the Park

So, I have been easing back into some of our normal activities. Things like going to the store or to the park (walking there) are a little bit more tricky with 3 instead of 2 in tow. Last night I took the kids to the park by myself for the first time. I guess I should clarify. I have taken the kids to the park, but we have driven. Last night was the first time I braved a walk with all of us.

Andrew took to the sidewalk on his 3-wheel scooter, Natalie pushed herself along on her little push and ride racer, and I pushed James in the stroller. We got there in great form. The park in our neighborhood is several streets away, so we get to cross a few streets and then we turn down a sidewalk that runs right through the park and down to the playground.

Andrew was doing great on the scooter. He would mostly stop at each corner and wait for us to get there before he crossed the street (the push and ride racer was a little slow ;-)). He scooted on ahead to where the path down through the park started. And when I say "down" I mean it is a pretty good little hill for a few feet. So Andrew disappears down that path before I had arrived--I was a little curious of what I would see when I got there. I don't think he has ever really tried to "scoot" downhill before. As I came up on the path, there he was, pushing that leg as fast as he could to keep up with the downhill speed, but still on the scooter and looking like he was in pretty good control. He was so excited that he had done it when he got to the bottom of the hill, but it kind of wore him out I think. He wasn't really able to scoot the same after that ;-)

Natalie had given up riding her bike because even with pushing with her legs as fast as she could, she wasn't close to keeping up with Andrew, so she was standing and pushing the racer from behind when she got to the path through the park. She hit that hill running and those little legs were just flying as she raced down the hill. She had a hard time keeping the bike on the path and was going everywhere at top speed. I just laughed and laughed as I watched her. It was just such a great show.

We got to the playground and had a great time and then it suddenly was dark...and the sprinklers came on. So we headed home, back the way we came. This time Andrew wanted to ride the racer Natalie came on and she wanted to "push" the scooter. This means she was down almost at ground level, pushing on the place where your foot goes. Not very fast, and hard to keep the scooter going in a straight line. I tried to help her and she got very upset "Help you! I do it" So there we were in the now very dark park, literally inching along, and the sprinklers are on. Suddenly I realize that where I am stopped, waiting for Natalie to make any progress at all, is right in the path of the arching sprinkler. There is nowhere to go. I throw myself over the baby so he doesn't get wet and take it in the back. It was a good shower. Still laughing, I try to help Natalie again, but she still insists on doing it herself. Andrew has ridden the push and ride ahead, he's terrified of the big sprinklers. Meanwhile, a new set of sprinklers turns on, right where Natalie is. I race the stroller and James up on the path to where Andrew is, then hurry back to Natalie who is now crying because the sprinkler got her pretty good. Now she will let me help her. Yea!

I pick her and the scooter up and head back to the stroller and Andrew. Luckily the stroller I had has a huge basket area. I put Natalie in there for the ride home and carry the scooter. Andrew of course wanted in the basket too and we tried to fit him in, but he's just too big, so he got to ride home.

We finally made it home--I bet it took us almost 30 minutes just to walk the few streets home. In fact I talked to John on the phone just before we got doused by the sprinkler and he was leaving work. We didn't get home much before he did!!

I can do anything you can do...

I took the kids to an open gym at Rolly Pollys last week. I used to take Andrew and now take Natalie every Thursday morning. It has a long trampoline, a pit with big foam squares to jump into, balance beams and "courses" set up to crawl up, down, around, in and out, swings and bars to swing from. It is a lot of fun. So last Wednesday I took the kids to play there for about an hour. They had so much fun. Andrew had not been there for at least 7 months and he was just going nuts running from thing to thing, swinging, jumping, going down the big blow up slide they had set up. Natalie was having a great time also. She would kind of go more slowly from thing to thing after Andrew had done it. Her favorite thing to do was swing from the trapeze bar.

When I take Natalie on Thursdays she insists on holding my hand when she walks on a balance beam. I have tried to get her to do it herself--I can tell she can--but she wants to hold my hand. When we went last Wednesday, Andrew jumped on the balance beam and walked across it by himself. Along comes Natalie--I held my hand out for her to grab. She wanted nothing to do with that. She said, "I do it." And insisted on doing it on her own.

What an insight into that little person. As soon as she saw Andrew do it without help there was no way she was going to be needing help. She was going to do it herself. Determined, competitive...watch out world!!

Fun with Painting

Last week it was cool enough (meaning under 100--we're still in the 90s...help!!) to go outside and paint. The kids had such a great time and I just got a kick out of them in their smocks. They were so cute. Andrew was into painting blocks of color--red in one spot, blue in another spot and no colors overlapping. Natalie was a little more free with her expression and more social as well. She started painting on her side of the easel and ended up painting with Andrew. And she had no problem painting blue on the black or red on the yellow, much to Andrew's dismay.

Andrew was narrating the whole time: "Great job Natowee." "Great job painting." "No, no Natowee--don't put red on the blue." "I doin' great, mom." "Don't get de paint on de gwound, Natowee."
Natalie's side of the conversation was something like, "Oh" "wow" "I do it" "Oh, yeah." "ok"

It was pretty funny and I just loved hearing his mostly positive reinforcement of her. Warms a mother's heart. So does this shot of Andrew without his pants on under his smock.

And More Halloween Fun

Wow--to be a kid on Halloween! Andrew and Natalie were in heaven. And the fun didn't even start when we started going from house to house. The fun started when people came to our door. Andrew would run to open the door, then run to get the candy bowl, then as he got back to the open door with the candy it would go something like this, "Hi guys! We have canny for you. We have red ones, and orange ones, and green ones." All this narration as he was placing the Mike & Ikes into everybody's bags. He would tell everyone "You're welcome. Bye." And sometimes would throw in a "Happy Halloween" in there also. We would close the door and he would be carrying the candy bowl and saying, "Lots of kids are coming to my house, mom." He was just so excited.

But it was fun to trick or treat also. The first house we think he just rang the door bell, said trick or treat and left before he got any candy. The lady came after him with the candy. He didn't make that mistake again. Andrew was much faster than Natalie so at most homes he would ring the doorbell and get his candy before Natalie meandered up. She was just too cute in that little costume and we even had someone come up to us during the night saying that somebody had told her she had to get a look at that cute Tinker Bell. She finally got into the wagon, but only after Andrew was tired and wanted to ride. As long as he was walking, so was she.

The kids already were digging into their candy on the ride home in the wagon and couldn't open everything fast enough. After we had two suckers and some pixie sticks open I told them they needed to finish what they were eating before we would open something else!


I was struck by how little my kids are, and at the same time, how big they are getting. (make any sense at all?) Especially Andrew. He is really starting to look so grown up. And he had some of the older boys in the neighborhood saying, "Hi, Andrew" as they went by and Andrew replying, "Hi." It just seemed so grown up! And he was running from house to house to get the candy, saying trick or treat, saying thank you. At the same time, I just saw this little 3-year-old Peter Pan. Everything still so new and exciting and fun. I have to remind myself of how little he still is so i don't expect too much of him!

Happy Halloween

We had a ward Halloween party/carnival on Saturday night, so the kids got all dressed up. It doesn't get much better than being a kid on Halloween--getting dressed up, all the candy you can eat... But, being a mom of a 3 year old and a 1 year old is a close second. I think I'm having as much fun as they are! And the ward party is so great. The highlight of the evening for the kids was the horseback riding. Andrew was so excited and just grinned the whole time. But Natalie...she was ecstatic. She had the biggest grin I've ever seen and wouldn't let anybody help her as she rode around. I have to admit, I was a little nervous with her on the back of that big horse and nothing holding her on. But she was just great. And I might as well have been riding that horse too for as much as I was enjoying it. I felt like I was riding it right along with them.

Close second to the horse was the cupcake walk. They just walked right along to the music. Andrew won a cupcake, but luckily Natalie didn't win one and didn't mind because we would have had a chocolate covered tinker bell. I'm not sure if it was intentional that she never won, but no complaints here.

Just so you know how not with it I am, the party started at 6pm and we didn't get there until after 7. We did have a hard time getting us all out the door and of course I was feeding the baby and so we had to wait to leave, but I thought the party started at 6:30. Instead of being about 40 minutes late we almost missed the whole thing! But luckily we didn't and got there for just the right amount.
James managed to have a poop blowout in the 45 minutes we were there and completely filled his pants. I didn't bring a change of costume, so we wrapped him in his blanket and he got to wait until we got home for some clean pants. Poor guy.

"Hawoween" Cookies

We have been having so much fun this Halloween. It's really the first year the kids have been old enough to get it--both of them. They have been so excited about their costumes and Andrew has been looking forward to his preschool Halloween party and to going trick or treating. The kids and I made pumpkin cookies last Thursday and ate a bunch and delivered some to some friends. It was fun. I ended up cutting out and then frosting most of them, but we did have a few 100% made by the kids. Those were very pretty ;-) We didn't make enough orange frosting and made too much green frosting so some friends got green pumpkins, but Andrew only wanted to eat the green ones and our friends with a 3 year old said he insisted on eating a green one too ;-)

Here are a few pictures of the kids having a good ol' time with the frosting.

And here is the cookies recipe. It is one of my old roommate's recipes and is one of my all time favorite sugar cookies recipes. Yummy!

6 C. Sifted flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 C. soft butter
2 C. Sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 C Sour Cream
1/2 tsp Almond Extract

First cream butter and sugar. Mix eggs, vanilla, sour cream and almond together. Then blend butter and egg mixtures together. Sift flour, baking soda and salt together and then add to the butter and egg mixtures. Beat well. Add more flour if needed. Refrigerate dough. Roll out--thicker than 1/4". Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. Makes 4-5 dozen cookies.

Icing: Mix 1/2 stick of soft butter, milk and powdered sugar to consistency and 1/2 tsp almond extract.

Friends in Need

What would I do without all you amazing friends out there?! Last week especially--so many people have just quietly helped out with little things. It is always hard for me to take help, but I definitely needed some last week. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

"I'd like to be the sort of friend that you have been to me. I'd like to be the help that you've been always glad to be; I'd like to mean as much to you each minute of the day, as you have meant, old friend of mine, to me along the way."

- Edgar A. Guest

Overheard...

Andrew (3): "Get your shoes on Natowee. So you don't get hot wike me."
Natalie (21 months): "Oh, ok."

Translation: "Get your shoes on so your feet don't burn on the hot Arizona ground. " "Oh, ok."

James 3 weeks

He really is 3 weeks old today. I thought I would feel a little bit more on top of things by now! Oh well. I've had a few requests of some more pictures of the New One. He really does a lot of sleeping during the day (not so much at night the last few days) and when you see how "great" my camera takes pictures you'll see why I haven't taken too many.James really is a sweet baby. He is pretty calm and not too fussy. He is growing so fast. The kids are so cute with him. They both want to help with everything. This morning on the way to the car it was me carrying the car seat with Andrew hanging on to the handle and Natalie hanging on to the handle on the other side. I was just kind of shuffling down the hall because there was no room to take steps. I was surrounded on front, on back and seemingly on all sides. But it's so cute that they want to be involved.Every time James even squeaks there is Natalie saying, "Baby James, kying" (crying) and she says it in such a sad voice. And Andrew asks me about 15 times a day, "Mom, is baby James ok?" in a little baby voice. He built a blanket fort the other day and wouldn't rest until "Baby James" got to check it out. He wants to show baby James his tracks. And he is always telling us that Baby James likes this or that. It's very cute how they have just accepted him totally and completely as the newest member of the family.And here is Natalie--she pulled the chair up to the island and is helping herself to some cake someone brought by. Yum!

Overheard...

Natalie: "Baby James, canny?"
James: No response
Me: Run around the corner to find Natalie holding her half eaten and completely sucked on tootsie roll out to baby James.

Just overheard...

James: "Achoo"
Natalie (age 20 months): "Bess you James."

The First Hour On My Own

We dropped my mom off at the airport on Monday at 4:45pm. I got home at 5:55pm because traffic was so bad--a few accidents. Luckily the kids were troopers and so it wasn't too bad. We finally got home and the kids ran upstairs to play in the game room. My visiting teachers dropped dinner off at 6 and I put Natalie in the high chair to get her started eating because James was starting to fuss and I needed to feed him. Andrew came down from the game room and it suddenly smelled like poop. So I asked him if he had pooped his pants. He got that smile on his face that tries to look a little bit sorry--head tilted slightly down, eyes looking up at me, eyebrows slightly raised, a little grin. Then I noticed that there was poop down his leg. Not a good sign.

By this time Natalie was settled in the high chair with dinner and James was crying. I picked up James and went in search of the wipes. I told Andrew to head straight to the bathroom. He headed down the hall and I went to grab the wipes. He came back around the corner and said, "Mom, there's poop on the floor." Hmmm... So I rounded the corner and down the hall was a clump of poop on the floor. Luckily not the carpet and easy to clean up. It must have fallen out of his pants. Did I mention the poop had somehow made it down his leg?!

James was still crying. I told Andrew to stay in the bathroom while I ran in search of a pacifier. I was not going to be able to clean this up one-handed. Of course the paci that is always on hand was nowhere to be found. I finally located it upstairs and as I came back into the kitchen Andrew rounded the corner again and said, "Mom, that toiwet's not working." I put James down in the bouncy seat with the pacifier and headed to the bathroom with Andrew. Sure enough, he had tried to wipe his leg off himself with the wipes and flushed them all down the toilet--the toilet was clogged.

The good news--the water got as high as the lid and then stopped--no overflow to clean up! So I plunged the toilet, then had to get the poopy shorts off and cleaned off and the poopy underwear off and cleaned off (I just hate that!! I was definitely not raised washing cloth diapers. It grosses me out!). I put Andrew in the tub and went back to get crying James who had been so patient, but was crying again by this time.

Phew. I sat down and fed him for a little bit while Andrew played in the tub and Natalie ate her dinner. It was a late night at work for John so he missed out on all the fun ;-) I did manage to laugh incredulously as each event unfolded. And thinking what a good blog post the experience would make put everything in a different perspective. Yea blog!

So that was the first hour home on my own. It could only get better I thought...

It's a good thing these kids are so cute.