Thanks you antibiotics

 

I finally feel like I can poke my head above the water. Here is a recap of the past month. I finally did it. I cut Andi's hair. Really. No whimpy trim, a real cut. She hated having her hair brushed and it was so fine so it always had a big nest in the back. I don't have a good after pic, just her and Lee being presents under the tree.

 

Tenna was too busy pouting to be in the picture. That is pretty common right now. I think she is working very hard to assert her 4 year old independance. *sigh* All the kids were very excited to set up the Christmas tree. Gramma J keeps bringing more ornaments, so our tree looks quite fun and decorated now.

 

The girls were helping me put groceries away one day when they had this fabulous idea. Apparently every royal throne needs some canned veggie towers next to it. I dunno, maybe they are torches, but this is the throne. They even put off eating their popcorn balls to keep them as decorations!

 

And for Mr. man. He is doing better every day. He has been sick, sick, sick. He now weights less than he did a month ago. All the kids (and I) have had pink eye. He is jsut getting over an ear infection and bronchitis. That sucked. I admit the girls spoiled me. When they are sick they just want to be treated and left alone to sleep. He wanted to be held. It was great snuggle time, but I am pretty sure they could have admitted me for mental testing after that much sleep deprivation. Anyways, thank you antibiotics, I love you! Note: if you put ear numbing drops in your baby's ears, make sure they soak in before kissin' on his face...my lips were numb for and hour.

Firsts

 

We had our first serious snow this weekend. We woke up Saturday morning dissappointed to find no snow. By 11am we were running around watching the flakes fall. It was beautiful. The kids were having some fun with umbrellas and making paths in the snow. I am glad they didn't poke their eyes out.

 

Lee has become more active. I tried to capture his lunging progress, but couldn't. He would get up on his knees and throw himself (faceplant style) forward. I'm guessing he is going to be a bit fearless.
We had a family home evening tonight to brush up on baby sign. I have a feeling we will be using "eat," and "more," a lot. I nursed him, then fed him cereal, then little pieces of bread, and he still wanted steak. He is so funny when he wants something. He just stares at it and shakes a little bit. I just couldn't bring myself to giving him steak yet. He has his 6 month check up tomorrow. It goes way too fast!

 

Motivation

 

Little man is officailly rolling in both directions. Apparently all he needed was a little motivation. Here's the story. I put him on his tumm on the floor with some toys while I ate with the girls. He was so quiet I completely forgot about him and when I remembered he was awake I was worried he had died or something! Nope he just rolled onto his back to watch our Friday night show.
He is a very happy boy, people always ask me if he is always like that, and I must say he almost always is. I took him to the fabric store and he laughed his head off at the cut table. He loves it when I fold large sheets or towels so he thought that rolling out bolts and folding cloth was a hoot. They offered to keep him. I declined.

 

The girls have been begging me to rake leaves. Yesterday they laid on the trampoline and squeeled as the leaves fell onto them from the tree. This morning we finally had enough fallen leaves for piles. They had a great time. Andi did have her first splinter though. That is pretty traumatic on little kids! I felt terrible trying to dig it out, but smart daddy produced a sucker to help her bare the pain. It's a good thing he paid atention in his pain management module!
I am sooo behind, but here are a few milestones from the month...
Tenna can do the monkey bars by herself!
Andi now knows the names of dinosaurs I can hardly pronounce and their eating habits.
I gave myself whiplash on the trampoline, but it was so worth it.
Albert is down to 18 months of school left! (But I am not counting down)
Tenna is doing so well in preschool. They did a little show and I was AMAZED at how well she did. She was so focused and was the first to shout out almost all of the letters and all of the colors.
The list goes on...I mostly wanted to update the great-grandparents!

 

The girls love having me jump with them. They mostly sit in the middle and command me to dance around them and sing silly songs. It's a good workout for me and I get to hear lots of giggles, so I don't mind. These sessions usually end in a wrestling match. I recently "surrendered," to Tenna during a match. When I explained to her what that meant she was quite excited to be in charge. Needless to say I could only allow her reign to last for ten minutes. Andi had a turn as dictator as well, but I find she is not as demanding (or creative). Phew!

Fall break for the best dad EVER!

 

Albert and I have been talking about getting a trampoline for a while so he has been a diligent daddy this break and checkd for used ones. Yesterday it all bore fruit and he came home at dinner time and madly set this bad boy up! He totally got the best dad ever award from the kids. They even ate dinner to earn a chance to bounce before bed time! What did he do with the first part of his day? Oh he helped me clean the whole house! I know!
Don't worry he did get some fun reading in this week. We went to the fun center to bounce. He helped a TON with the kids when I was sick. I know you don't look forward to the grind tomorrow, but thanks for making break so fun!

 

Rompin' and Rollin'

 

Yes, it's official. My little man is getting mobile. He has been able to use his legs (while on his back) to scootch for a little while and he has just mastered that art of roling. He is one of those strange kids who LIKES tumy time, so I lay him on his back to play with dangly toys and he flips right over. Silly goose. He is the youngest of the kids to be able to consistantly roll over. He is also getting pretty good at sitting with very little interfierance. I need to start hiding doll slipper and the like, unless I like finding these trifles in poopies. I'm pretty sure I feel strongly enough to get working on that.

Tenna's bangs

 

Here Nicole, a picture of Tenna's self made bangs. The funniest part is, I think Andi took a whole set of these pictures. I didn't take them, and the camera was left at the computer desk, so I guess this is what they did while I was ignoring them to feed Mr. man.

Andi loves Lee too

 

I put Lee down for a nap after getting Tenna from Preschool only to hear him laughing and chattering while I was making lunch. Lo and behold, Andi was having some fun time with brother. He does love a rousing game of peek-a-boo.

 
 
 

 

Obsession

 

Lee LOVES his toes. He cannot get enough. I am amazed that he can reach them with all the chunk in the way. He is very tasty isn't he?!?

4 months, and they still love him!

 

The girls still love their little brother and try very hard to make him laugh. Tenna loves that she can hold him by herself now, though he will be too big and wiggly soon. We joke that he is going to be the first one to outgrow a booster seat someday, and that may not be far off. He is off the charts for height still, though in the 90th percentile for weight. I am most pleased that he has such a calm temperment.

 

Tenna is loving pre-school, and the independance that comes with it. Andi loves some quiet time with mom. Life is good!

A few good words

A: Look at his hair mom! It's blowing! (referring to the horse's hair on a show)
T: Andi, it's 'billowing!'

My nasty kids

 

Andi was eating blueberries the other day, though it looks like she had been in a bar fight. Nice tooth huh? I wish I could figure something out for her hair. It is such a mess. She has beautiful, soft blond hair. It is so thin, however, that she almost always has a rats nest. I tried to get some leave in conditioner. Turns out you have to read the FRONT of the bottle. I apparently purcased a product for "women of color." Not sure if that is a great way to advertise it Pantene, but whatever. Anywho, it makes her hair just look sticky and unwashed. Back to the drawing board.

 

I feel like such a neglectful mom. I think I just put him down less, that's why I have fewer pictures. ;)
He sure is handsome, huh?

Three years with Andi

 

Tenna woke up early this morning to help me get everything ready for Andi's birthday. Andi and Tenna are best friends. She is my baby girl, and daddy's little sweetheart. We are so glad she came to our family. She really keeps me sane some times.

 

She loves her presents. The doctor was very impressed when she told him about her triceratops, stegasaurus and sparkly pink fairy. He remarked on how articulate she is.

 

The girls decided to steal the sprinkles I was saving for the cake...they were hiding in their room eating them. I could not find the food coloring for the icing (andi wants purple) so I tried to use Koolaid...not a good idea for whipped cream icing. It is pretty gross, but hey, there is cake in there, I am sure they will suffer through it! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDI!

 

Bonding time

 

What a different world it is going from two kids to three. My big girls are sooooo good with Lee. Tenna was the first to get a real laugh out of him while playing peak-a-boo. Simple pleasures, huh?
The girls were recently intorduced to She-ra, so they have a fun excuse to run around with their pants off. What were they thinking in the 80's? We have been doing so much this summer, I feel a bit guilty that I haven't taken more pictures. My excuse is that the girls like to hide my memory card. It usually goes into the floppy drive, but this last time it went into one of the other card reader slots. It took me more time to discover it.

 

My tough men

 

Albert may not look too menacing, but you have to know that a guy that can wrestle with cows is tough. Here is the damage to our shovel after a years hard labor with my husband.
My little man is planning on being a bruiser too. He is a quarter pound shy of 14 pounds and just under 25 inches. The Pediatrician said he is just right for a 4 month old, but off the charts for a two month old! I just may get my football player yet!

A month

 

Albert got home from his rotation last week, so I want to give you all a little idea of how things change while he was gone for a month. The biggest changes were, of course, in little man. The graden grew. Andi got her first wasp bite. It may be hard to see the fat lip, but she sure likes posing for pictures. ;)

 

The previous post a few down shows the pics of what the garden and little man looked like before he left. It is nice to have daddy back. He is super busy, working, doing his next rotation....ah, no one can say that pharmacy school doesn't keep a person busy.