Random stuff for the day

I think I want to get this blog going a bit more, so let's see how I go!  

Here are some randoms:

1. Finn is coming along so well now with reading!  He's "behind" where he would be if he were in school, I'm sure, but I don't care. We're going at his pace, he's loving it, and I'm loving getting to be the one to watch it all unfold!  We got some new readers from Costco this week and one book particularly he was laughing hysterically through, partly because it was a funny story, and partly because he was just so chuffed with himself. Makes my heart happy. He's also loving writing stories. For awhile I've let the kids dictate stories to me and I'll type it up for them and print it out like a book and they add their own illustrations, but this past week Finn has been enjoying writing his own stories by hand, with a little help by me

One of the first times he ever just sat down and tried to write something!

If you can't guess, they've been reading the Chronicles of Narnia.  Currently they are reading the Last Battle

2. Along with that, Elle has been doing a bit of reading eggs, but also just listening to Finn and I do his work she's picked up a lot. Today Conor took the girls to the shops and when they walked past the butcher Elle tried reading some of the labels. She got "beef" and "pork" all by herself!

3. I've been having issues with my back the last few months. I think it's just that my core isn't very strong, so when I bend and lift I'm straining my back. Lately it seems like one tweak will finally feel better, I'll have a few days of no back pain, and then I'll go and tweak it again!  Today it's resulted in spasms, which I've thankfully not had up to this point yet. But it's 6:30pm, and my back has been spasming since before 9am!!  It's so awful, and I feel terrible that Conor's having to do everything (and the kids are extra feral because for two days they've been up around 5am!). I feel like one of those "real housewives of Orange County" or something because I'll be popping a Valium tonight when Oliver goes to bed. 😂

Elle - 4 years old

A couple of weeks ago Elle turned 4!!

Birthday cupcakes

There's a show the kids watch and there's a dancing ballerina in a music box - so for a couple months she's been asking for a music box.  I was glad she had something she really wanted because I never know what to get these kids! I took Finn shopping to see what he wanted to get her.  I told him Mommy and Daddy bought her a jewelry box because HE wanted to get her one...so he picked out some fake jewelry for her to go in the music box.

Opening the jewelry box.

"I'm the happiest little girl!!"

Her friends who came to her birthday gave her this skirt and wings!

For the last year we've had a struggle with Elle above just the normal 3 year old stuff.  She started potty training at 3, and it was going really well, until she had a no2 accident (very early on) and refused to use the toilet for that since. We kept her in diapers at nap and bedtime, so she would just hold it til then, and there was nothing we could do to convince her to go on the toilet.  There was a stage a few months ago where she wanted to go to bed with no diaper... but after a couple of days of no no2 as well - well it wasn't pretty.  So we started kind of insisting she wore diapers to bed again.

Recently, especially with the arrival of Oliver, we've been telling her when she turned 4 she wouldn't get diapers anymore.  Then miraculously a week or so before her birthday, she went on the toilet!  And she was SO SO SO proud of herself - and we said no more diapers and she was happy with that and hasn't looked back since!  So proud of her - and she's done really well at night with no diapers, only one or two wet beds a week, which is pretty good as she's only just started not having diapers at bed.

Elle's 3rd Birthday(s)

My Beautiful Silly 3 year old girl.

I've never been inclined to do BIG birthdays for the kids.  I prefer just family - but as we're half way around the world from our extended family, I do feel I want to give my kids something a bit more special on their birthdays.

Getting little goody bags together.

Birthday girl having lunch

Cupcakes and candles

About a week before Elle's birthday Conor asked her what kind of cake she wanted for her birthday and if she was excited about her birthday and she said "and my friends are going to come over, and we play, and we open presents, and we eat cake.."  So I REALLY felt like I had to do something (although I told her that mommy and daddy and Finn will give her presents but her friends will just come over to play... but they brought presents anyways so that made it extra special for her).  Conor didn't want to have anything to do with it, haha, so I decided to just have a playdate birthday during the week, and then a family one on her real birthday which was a Sunday.

Thea LOVED the fun glasses in the goody bags

Finn did too :)

Elle got a couple horsies from one family - the novelty has worn off  a bit now, but for about 3 days those horsies went EVERYWHERE with her

The more kids I have, and the more kids my friends have, the more I get overwhelmed by huge group activities.  And I don't necessarily think the kids notice or even benefit from having 20 friends over compared to 6 friends - quality over quantity, and all that.  So I decided to just invite 2 families over, which is difficult but went with a "homeschool/church school" playgroup as the two families we invited are homeschooling families AND the kids go to Catechesis of the Good Shepherd together.

She let me braid her hair!!!
I decided to braid mine too so we could be twinsies

Being silly with my girl

It turned out to be a nice day.  The kids all played really well together, and even got out to jump in the trampoline.  I bought hot dogs so they wouldn't have to rush out and we could have an easy lunch.

Present time - these are all a bit blurry - she's too fast!

Opening presents - a Dr Suess book

Instruments from Mommy and Daddy

Practising the xylophone

Unfortunately that morning we noticed Elle had a very small runny nose.. and by her real birthday the girls and I were all pretty sick with the cold (and it lasted the WHOLE week, of which Conor was on "holiday" - for the first time since I was on bed rest!!)  It was a bit of a bummer, but the weather wasn't the great anyways so we wouldn't have gotten out to do anything special as it was.  Elle enjoyed her "ice cream cake" (home made ice cream brownie bars), and we got her some instruments so the kids all had fun making "music" (I use that term VERY loosely! haha)

Got a couple books from Grandma and Grandpa
I love that they get books for the kids that Conor remembers from his childhood!

Our tradition of taking pics with the kids holding a car with their age :)

I can't believe she's three - it comes with his pros and cons of course.  Her tantrums can be EPIC, but she can also be so darn sweet!  Now that she's 3 she can go to Catechesis of the Good Shepherd with Finn and she's really enjoying it! (and Thea and I are enjoying having that 1.5 hours to ourselves!)

Impossible to get them all looking and have their numbers showing - but we tried! haha

She's a spit-fire for sure - but can't imagine what the house would be like without her (except the word quiet comes to mind).

Elle - 5 Months Old

On November 30th she had rolled over twice from her front to her back - since then half the time I can't even get her on her tummy for more than a minute because she rolls right over! She looks like she's starting to want to go back to front as well, especially if she is straining to see what Finn is doing out of her eyesight :)

So smily and giggly! She loves to lay on the floor, tummy or back, watching Finn play around her - or even sit in the bumbo for a bit and watch (able to see a lot more around her this way!)

Nap times are pretty consistent. If I can get Finn out of the play room around 10, Elle will have a 30-60 minute nap. Then she will nap again at 130, sometimes just until 3ish, sometimes all the way to 5 or somewhere in between.

It's difficult to see her actual growth in the other pics, so I'll start also doing a picture with her teddy to give something to compare to :)

She's a bit of a glutten at night, unfortunately. She eats and goes to bed at 730, and then eats again between 1030-11, then again between 1-2, again between 4-6.... it's not so fun for me! Luckily though, she generally falls right back to sleep, and if she doesn't she talks and squeels to herself for awhile and then falls asleep.

Just this week she has been grabbing at toys like a mad woman - it is soo fun to watch. She will see a toy within reach, concentrate on it really hard and bring her hands together very slowly to get the toy... then, of course, once it's in her paws it goes straight to the mouth!!

I can't believe she is 5 months... by her 6 month update I may have started feeding her rice cereal, we'll see, that will make the update a bit more interesting!

Elle - Four Months Old

Let me just tell you that this little girl is pretty awesome!

She is getting so much more fun everyday. She loves to look at books, she enjoys being in the jolly jumper (which allows me to make breakfast, do the dishes, vacuum, etc.), she loves the bumbo. Finn hated the bumbo, he would arch his back and never properly sit in it, and if he was sitting he was crying. She loves it (not for too long), she sits in there on the floor in the living room while Finn plays around her, and she just watches him.

Right now she is laying on the floor beside me listening to a little musical crib toy whenever I push the buttons.

She is still a champion nurser. Most of the time she just eats to get it done... sometimes she takes her time, and will rarely fall asleep while nursing. She had been doing a few nights of just waking up once to eat... but it's usually 2 or even 3 times now. It's kind of frustrating, but 99% of the time she falls right back asleep, so I can't really complain.

She had been still sleeping in our bed at night, again because I'm lazy! I hate having to get out of bed, especially when it's cold and all she needs is her soother. So much easier to just reach over and give it to her! Of course now just to throw it in my face she poops EVERYNIGHT in the middle of the night. Causing me to have to get up out of my warm bed, turn on the bright light, and change her. Luckily she smiles and laughs while I change her, making me love those moments... and then pretty quickly falls back asleep afterwards.

But the last 6 nights or so I've had her in her crib and only one night did she end up back in our bed. She does really well in the crib. Except last night she kept getting out of the swaddle and then she talks (really loudly) while she sucks on her hand. I would wait until she calmed down and then I'd give her the soother and she would eventually fall asleep so it wasn't so bad I guess... better than crying as my mother-in-law pointed out!

Normally for her morning nap she just sleeps upstairs somewhere and I get some housework done. On Tuesday though she was getting fussy at about 10 (she had been so good all morning too), so I took her downstairs, swaddled her and put her in her crib and I did some things around the room and she fell asleep. For an hour and a half!

So the next day at around 10 she was fussing again, so I did the same thing. I had to rock her for less than a minute so she would calm down, but then I put her in and she fell asleep. Only for 45 minutes that time, but it was still awesome.

Thursday? You guessed it... 10 am I put her in her crib and she fell asleep for nap time... she's been doing that every day now (except the weekend).

That's all I can think of for now... she just is the best :)

Elle's Favorite Book

When Finn was just 1 month old I started reading to him. I didn't plan to, but the lady at the library gave me a good book for him, and it quickly became his favorite.

I wrote a post about the book here.

Well I didn't start that early with Elle. Actually it wasn't until a week or two ago that I started reading to her at all. It was different than with Finn because he was much to young to actually show any interest in what I was reading to him, so it was gradual. With her she was very ready and almost as soon as I picked up the book she was smiling at the pictures!

The first book I ever read to her is definitely her favorite, although she does like almost anything you read to her.

So here is Elle's favorite book.

Duck and Goose: 1,2,3

1 goose - 2 ducks

3 clouds

4 friends

5 flowers

6 feet

7 berries

This is probably Finn's favorite page.

He always says "look what happened!" and points at the berry stains on their bellies :)

8 eyes

9 footprints

10 butterflies (this is Elle's favorite page!)

Naptime Bliss

Today I laid Elle beside me in bed for naptime. A delivery guy was going to be bringing a new fridge, so I put in my ear plugs so that I wouldn't hear the dog barking and all of that craziness.

I was just nodding off when I heard something. I opened my eyes to see Elle staring up and me and talking away!

I thought if I ignored her she would stop, so I closed my eyes, but I kept hearing it.

So then I took out my ear plugs and just started talking back to her. Then she went on for TWO FULL MINUTES... just cooing and cooing. And she was so happy. Her eye brows would go up, and she would shurg her shoulders and smile.

It was the cutest thing ever ever ever.

Then she stopped and just looked at me for a bit.

I put her soother back in her mouth and she promptly fell right asleep.

Seriously the best thing ever.

Back to cloth diapering

I pulled out all of the cloth diapers on Thursday.

I sorted them and separated the diaper covers.

I moved the bin they were in to my bedroom.

Friday I bought a pail and some gloves.

And then I ignored it for the weekend... because I'm not a very enthusiastic cloth diaperer - plus, vainly, I just don't think the huge bum is cute. Maybe in sleepers, but it just looks weird in normal clothes.

But for the sake of our bank account I will... especially since I got all the diapers for free from a friend when I had Finn.

So I started yesterday. I guess it's not so bad. I hated it with Finn when I first started because I went from not having to change him for several hours (unless he did #2) and then I would forget he was in cloth and he would constantly leak so I would have to change everything.

This time I'm going to try to remember every two hours to change Elle.

Oh, and I use disposables at night.

Diaper Fails and Potty Victories

Yesterday was a big day for us.

It started when Elle and I went to take Conors brother to his piano lesson. I decided to check out some halloween costumes at Value Village (which I didn't get. I can hardly bring myself to spend $8 on something that Elle will wear numerous times, let alone something she will only wear once!) They didn't open for 15 minutes but Elle was fussing so I decided to feed her in the car. I heard her poo and was going to finish feeding before changing her, until I realized that my lap felt extra warm.

It was the BIGGEST explosion to date, from either of my children. And the first time that it's ended up on my clothes! It was quite a gong show changing her in the car. Lucky I was wearing brown pants (brand new pants - I might add), so no one could tell!

Diaper FAIL!

***

On the other spectrum. Finnian had stayed home with Conor while I was out, and when I got home Finn was wearing underwear (as opposed to a diaper).

First I should say that yesterday Finn kept holding himself, and I kept asking him if he had to pee. Finally he said yes, and I said he should put the pee in the potty. He ran to the bathroom but wanted to go in the tub. Okay. So he took of his pants, I took off his diaper, and put him in the tub and he peed! So then I tried putting underwear on him and told me to tell me when he needed to pee again. But he had an accident 3 minutes later! It was almost nap time, so I just put him back in a diaper.

I guess the same thing happened this morning. Peed in tub, peed in underwear and then when I got home he told me he had to pee again. So we went into the bathroom, but this time I convinced him to pee in the potty and then he could flush it down the toilet. And it worked!!! He peed in the potty, and did again 10 minutes later!!

We'll see how this goes, we aren't going to be home today so I don't know what will happen - he will be in diapers, but I will go buy some more underwear for him on the weekend and let the real potty training begin!!

Elle - Three months old

Time for a different onesie - the other one didn't fit anymore!

I seriously love this little girl so much! She is getting so animated and cuter every day.

I said last month that it was difficult to manage a toddler with a baby that you have to hold all the time, but I feel like I'm getting the hang of it a bit more. A lot of this has to do with the fact that Elle is getting better at laying by herself on the floor for longer periods of time, which is great! I like to put her on the floor when Finn is playing with lego or something, and she just kicks around and watches.

She was loving picture time. I got a great video that I'll put up later of her smiling and laughing for me.

She still doesn't really nap consistently during the day. She will usually have one or two short sleeps in the morning. The other morning she fell asleep in her carseat long enough for me to do dishes and vacuum but then she woke up. About an hour later I went for a long walk with them and she fell asleep in the carseat for about 35 minutes. In the afternoon I put Finn to bed and she is usually ready to sleep, but it takes her awhile to get into her deep sleep. I swaddle her and rock her until she's nodding off and then I put her in her car seat. That way I can rock her for however long she needs rocking while I read or watch a show on my iPod. I'm still very lucky to have a husband who will then take over so I can have a nap!

Night time is different though. And in such a GOOD way compared to her two month update. I started on a routine with her, and it didn't really start off good at all. Unlike Finn, she does NOT fall asleep while nursing. She just eats, quickly, gets it done and that's it... not enough time to nod off. So I thought for sure I would have to rock her or something, but that wasn't working, and we weren't getting her to sleep until OUR bedtime. She also just did not like her basinet. One night I went down, nursed her, and then put her down beside me in bed. It took about an hour, she would suck on her soother for awhile, spit it out, be fine for a bit and then want it back.. and eventually she fell asleep. She didn't need me to rock her or pat her or anything, I was just there to give her the soother if she needed it.

Since then it's been about the same. A couple times I've had to pick her up because she needed to burp, as soon as she would burp I would put her back down and she would be fine. Some nights have taken a bit longer, some a bit shorter. I now go down between 7:30 and 8 with her most nights, and I feel like a normal person again, having the evenings to myself!! A few evenings she had gotten hungry around 7, so I fed her upstairs and when I took her down for bed I just swaddled her and we both laid down. I didn't know how it would work, but it didn't seem to affect her falling asleep negatively in any way. I tried one night with her in the crib, but I was too lazy to keep it up (even though the crib is all of a foot away). I like not having to get up to feed her, I get to stay under my blankets all night :) It didn't help that I had a cold that night so I was already feeling pretty sluggish. Someday we might try again, right now we all like our arrangement.

If I do feed her when I put her to bed, she usually only wakes up once to eat, sometimes not until 6am. Otherwise she still eats twice in the night.

I love little girl clothes!

Elle wore this to Thankgiving at my moms

This was my dress, I wore it when I was dedicated!

Below is me at my dedication - I don't have any more close up pictures, but that's the dress

In her new baby bath!

She was getting too big for me to hold while washing!

Just look at those leg rolls!!

Picture time

Not much going on, here's some recent pics

Conor put Finn in Elle's crib

Ignore my camera cord - Finn sleeping, mouth open

Hike up at Manning

Bird that we saw - there were actually quite a few