Two Months Old

We all love our Nellie Bellie!

Nellie is getting big.  She was already 15 pounds 2 ounces at her 2 month check up.  She is in the >97% for weight.  She is starting to get her finger(s) and fist better so she might start soothing herself more and eating less.  She spits up a lot.  I think it is a combination of the heat and eating a lot.  She is a really good baby and is getting better about being put down.  She usually only cries when she is hungry or tired (or being smothered with kisses).  She smiles a lot, mostly for Mommy.  A coos when you talk to her.  Today she rolled over twice from her back to her tummy, which is my opinion is the more difficult way.  She was angry though and I was laying next to her so I don't think she is officially rolling over yet.  Babies can do many feats when they are angry. 

Here she is in an outfit I wore as a baby.

I thought she looked like a synchronized swimmer in this outfit so I put on a little hat to complete the ensamble.

She still enjoys hanging out in the sling.  She rides in it everyday to take Caleb to school and pick him up and basically anytime we leave the house, to the store, for a walk, to the zoo, etc.

Everyone says she looks like Toby.  I think she has a rounder face like Toby, but can see similarities with Lucy too, especially when she is in one of Lucy's outfits. 

 With baby Lucy.

 She is getting attached to her blankie.

Orange

As anyone who knows Toby knows, he is obsessed with the color orange.  Everything that he sees that is orange he says is his.  Orange cars are his.  Once a man passed us in the grocery store in an orange bears hat and he yelled, "that's my hat!" I try to encourage him to say orange is my favorite color when he sees something orange rather than claim that item is his.  If anyone else in the family tries to use an orange cup, plate or bowl he howls.  But the cutest is when he colors he only uses orange.  Whereas the other kids pick out several colors of markers or crayons to keep by their side, his pile is almost always orange.

We were at a party where they had face painting.  We asked for a tiger since it is his favorite animal, can you guess why??  He was the most adorable one there.

Stay Put

As parents expect a newborn to get up a lot in the middle of the night, we even have them sleep in our bed for the first several months.  But once that child starts sleeping through the night, and in his or her own bed, we like to keep it that way. 

The older kids have all gone through phases of coming into our room in the middle of the night and/or wanting to sleep in our room.  Our policy is usually they can stay in our bed for 5 minutes and then have to go  back to their own bed.  Those 5 minutes sometimes really are just 1 or 2 minutes or if we fall back to sleep an hour or two.  Last winter, Caleb was coming into our room almost every night.  It was getting ridiculous so we bribed him.  If he stayed in his bed the whole night for 4 nights in a row he would get a toy prize.  It was amazing, he stopped coming into our room.  Sure, once in a blue moon he comes it, but it worked pretty well. 

Lucy has been our good nighttime sleeper for a while now.  While the boys would get up more consistently, Lucy once she was asleep stayed that way until morning.  Then August came.  She started coming in our room almost every night and multiple times a night (sometimes 4 times).  Getting up with Nellie, and then Lucy several time and sometimes Toby was not letting us sleep very well.  We decided we needed the same bribe, but added stickers.  She remembered that Caleb had to stay in bed for 4 night and was extremely excited about it.  Amazingly she has stayed in bed all night every since.  First thing each morning, she asked if she could get her sticker and then her prize.

Her prize was a Barbie doll.  Someone gifted us with a collection of Barbies.  We got rid of the worn ones, and the ones that look like new (except no box) have been gifts for her (Christmas, Birthday etc).  I chose one that was wearing a dress that looked a little like a dress she had so that they could match.  We ran several errands after taking Caleb to school that day and I let her bring her Barbie with her.  Usually they are not allowed bringing things with them so that I have less to keep track of, but special days call for special rules right?  Well as we were leaving one parking lot she showed me her doll and the head fell off! She was screaming.  Nellie was also creaming since she hates the car.  I told her I could fix it, but after further review a piece of the neck was cracked off and it was trashed.  I guess brittle plastic is what you get when you have an old doll.  Thankfully, I had a stash of dolls and was able to get her a new one, which she said she liked even better. 

First Grade, First Lost Tooth

Caleb is the big man in first grade.

He has been waiting for some time for his first tooth to a) get loose and b) fall out.  In February, the dentist told him that he had 2 loose teeth.  I would NEVER have considered them loose, but I guess the wiggled a little.  Ever since then he claimed he had loose theeth.  Last week Thursday afternoon, he bit into an apple and his bottom tooth got really loose.  We made bets at dinner how long it would take for it to fall out.  I knew that he would not be able to keep his hands off of it, but I was still surprised first thing Friday morning, when he came into our room with his tooth in hand. 

Ghetto to Great

When we moved into our house we bough faux wood blinds for the bedrooms.  When the kids started getting up with the sun we realized we should have gotten something room darkening.  I went to Jo Ann's and got some black out lining.  I figured no one would see so we "ghetto rigged" the lining on top of the blinds. 

 Each window had a valance over it so during the day we could pretty much hide the evidence.  Last month, The boys broke one of the blind pieces. 

We needed something new.  At my sisters house I noticed her roman shades and noticed how simple they were.  I figured that I could do it.  I immediately went home and looked up directions which I found here: http://www.readymade.com/blog/home-and-garden/2010/02/10/from-bland-to-blinding-how-to-make-roman-shades
I used the "ghetto" lining and an extra sheet from the boys room and got started right away on Monday.  After a lot of drama getting the rest of the supplies, IT IS UP. 

It does let in a little light, but is much  better than before!!

Now onto the other window... the pieces are all cut so fingers crossed it will be up tomorrow.

Then the girls room. 

Ballerina

Lucy had her last class of ballet today.  Now she needs to decide if she liked it enough to sign up for the next session (which is the whole school year long). 

Nellie wore her ballet onsie.  We had to wake her up to go to class so she was not happy for the picture. 

She likes to sneak out to the hallway to give Toby hugs.

Old House, New House

 

It's like moving to a new house without moving all of your stuff. 

Six

Yesterday was Caleb’s 6th birthday.  I can’t believe how old he has gotten so quickly.  He is turning into such a little gentleman.  I love just watching him play.  He will go out in the back, pull out a chair in the shade and just sit and relax.  Or he will say he needs some alone time and go into his room to read.  I am still working up the nerve to send Caleb and Toby to bed at different times, so we have been letting Caleb read for a while in bed before he has to go to sleep.  He picks out a few books to read and/or look through and has a booklight so Toby doesn’t see from the bottom bunk.  I always tell him that I will come in and let him know when it is time to go to sleep, but I usually get called in and handed the stack of books and light. Caleb idolizes his Dad.  Andy has an Ipod and Caleb got an mp3 player for Christmas.  He likes to listen to it just like Dad.  He has all of the songs that are loaded on it memorized.  It is so cute when he can sing along to the radio, but my favorite is when he belts out the song when he has his headphones on.  He also likes to dress like Andy.  He gets out a polo and his belt, tucks his shirt in and says he matches Dad.  

I don’t think I could have asked for a better firstborn.  He is a leader and a helper and is such a great big brother.  I am not saying he doesn’t get in arguments with his siblings or battle over toys with them, but he usually has their best interest at heart.  He sits next to Nellie in the car and is such a big help.  I had a dentist appointment last week and for various reasons brought all of them with me.  Toby and Nellie were in the double stroller and Caleb and Lucy sat in chairs in the tiny cleaning room.  I put Caleb in charge of Nellie if she needed anything.  As soon as I sat in the chair, he asked where the spit up blanket was so he could clean up her spit up. When she started crying about being in the car seat he took out the emergency pacifier and got her calmed down.  I only felt comfortable bringing Nellie because Caleb was there.  On Saturday was Caleb’s last flag football game.  I stayed home because we had a construction crew at our house.  Since Andy is one of the coaches the kids had to stay home.  Toby cried when they left.  A few minutes later the phone rang and it was Caleb calling from Andy’s phone.  He said that he wanted to talk to Toby because he was crying so hard.  He has the most scuffles with Lucy, mostly because he is the closest with her.  Although she often is playing superheroes or some other game he thought up, he is willing to play house and wedding with her. 

Caleb loves to take pictures

 While he often seems so old he melts my heart with his innocence.  He still wears the Spiderman costume that he got in 2008.  It is getting way too small.  He will still wear it under his clothes thinking he is stealth, but the bulging muscles always give him away.  He has been getting himself dressed right away in the mornings, so on Sundays I often have to have him change for Mass.  His new idea is to put his church clothes over his other clothes so that he can make a quick change when we get home.  Usually you cannot tell he has two layers on, but this week his shorts kept showing.  He wanted his Spiderman cake for the 3^rd year in a row.  This was my worst decorating job of the 3, but I blame it on having a newborn. 

 Caleb made a calendar at school.  He has it clipped to his bed and crosses out the days each night.  For the last month he was counting down the days until August, until his birthday.  I brought up how many days left and reminded lots of people because he beamed at the mention of his birthday.  I didn’t want his birthday to be a let down after all of his anticipation.  Last year he had asked me to call him “birthday boy” all day, so I repeated it again. Andy and I kept thanking him for being born and he kept thanking us for being born.  As shy as he can be about being the center of attention, when it is your birthday it is always awesome.  When I told Caleb that we got him a birthday present that we thought he would loved, he guessed that is was a Spiderman webshooter.  It was a remote control helicopter.  He thought it was awesome, especially the fact that is said ages 14+.  He also got Lego Batman for Wii, a game he had been wanting.  He kept asking for a friend birthday party, but with a newborn I didn’t really feel up to organizing it (we said next year he can have one).  Instead we had a cousin lunch.  Aunt Jaime and Aunt Cathy came up with the cousins for some 6 year old fun. 

 I love you, Caleb.  I am so lucky to by your mom.  I can’t wait to see what your future holds.