Six Months (Two Weeks Late)

Wow, just look at my little one! She is starting to get the best personality now! I am almost two weeks late with this post and Iam blaming it on being really "busy". But, truth be told, I am just in denial that she is so quickly moving from infant to toddler. This is the last the last baby we are going to have, so I am trying to enjoy every (messy) minute. This has been a really big month for milestones! Carolena can sit up by herself now, and I don't even have to surround her by pillows any more (incase she topples). We have been really consistent with the baby food now, and are starting to figure out likes and dislikes (likes=sweet potatoes, dislikes=everything else). She has just recently started sleeping in her bedroom, and has actually let me have some good sleep the past couple of nights. She loves being tickled and likes playing peek a boo with her daddy. She also loves giving kisses now, especially to her grammy. And she is still the happy girl that she has always been. I was blessed with such a sweet little pumpkin!

Can you see her teeth coming in down there at the bottom? She has two in and I think maybe working on another one up on top. They are some sharp little teeth too, I might have to stop nursing earlier than I had wanted to!

And just check out what we do every morning. No wonder I am always running late every day, I just love cuddling with these little monkeys!

A Birthday and a Heavenly Request (or two)

See this cute little guy in the picture above? Well it's his birthday today. 3rd to be exact. I can't believe my baby boy is three! He is such a sweet little darlin. When I drop him off at school, he says "mommy, I yuv (love) you" about 10 times and goes "one more kiss, one more kiss". We have at least a 6 kiss minimum before he lets me leave. His teachers probably think that he has me wrapped around his finger, but they're right. He does. And have I told you he has the smarts as well?? He can do a 48 piece puzzle in under 3 minutes and has the best sense of humor out of any kid I know. I just love this blue eyed blonde hair Irish (looking) boy.

On to Boy #1. This picture isn't the best, but I found one quickly so I could tell you a little story about my boy. So yesterday we were outside. I was sitting on the deck with Lena Lou, Joe Finney was resting inside, and Byrd was playing in the sandbox which is across the yard from the deck. After a few minutes of being outside I hear Byrd in the sandbox yelling at something, so I walk over....

Byrd: (muffled yelling) Argh! Argh!

Me: (rushing over)What's wrong??

Byrd: No Mommy, go away, I was talking to God.

Me: OK, I'm sorry. (walking away)

Byrd: (fists waving at the sky) GOD!!! GOD!!! There are ants in my sandbox, can you PLEASE take care of them?!?!

Well I am not sure if God took care of those ants or not, but I was pretty tickled that after 4 years of trying to get him to say his prayers, his picked that moment to start talking (or yelling)to God.

And then there is my Carolena.

We have had a rough week or so with her. I was trying to wait until she was six months old to introduce solid food to her, but when she was still eating every two hours, I decided to go ahead and start with some rice cereal about a week and a half ago. She loved it. Absolutely tore it up. So then I mashed up a banana and gave that to her. She loved that as well. So for the next few days, she got more rice cereal and banana. Here I am thinking "this is great, she is sleeping better, she loves eating, life is good, no problem". Well, I should have known better. To someone whose belly is only used to breast milk (which is like a natural laxative, seriously people), it was like a shock to the system. The poor thing was backed up for over a week and nothing seemed to help. I had to do things that no mom should ever have to do. We had to whip up a drink we called the "Poo Cocktail" daily and it still didn't work. But finally today, relief. It's amazing how a little thing like poo can control an entire week of your life. I am relieved that she is relieved!

Five Months

Carolena, my sweet little princess, my Lena Lou, baby sister, Lena Love, Carolena Margarita; so many names we have for you! Five months old already! First of all, I love you more and more everyday, little one. The sweet noises you make when you are trying to tell me something and even your precious cry noises are so sweet I can't even get mad when you wake me up a night (which you still do, by the way). This month you had your first taste of rice cereal and kind of enjoyed it. I will probably get you started on baby food sometime later on this month. I was trying to wait until you are six months old, so we will see if you can hold out that long my hungry little girl! You are rolling over from side to side now, and are even trying to sit up on your own. I think by this time next month you will be able to sit up all by yourself. I love the way you give me a big huge smile first thing in the morning and I love how you try to reach up for my face while you are nursing. Your eyes are the color of the ocean in New Smyrna Beach. That is the only way I can describe them. Not really light blue, but not too dark either. Also with a hint of grey. So beautiful. Mommy has been making you all sorts of things to wear this month. The ladies at your Parents Day Out Program said that they can't wait to see what you are wearing every Tuesday/Thursday, so I have gone a little crazy making you things. Everyone says I should start selling the hairbows I make you, but really I just have fun making them for you!

More posts to come!!

Just...can't ....make...it...

So tired he couldn't even make it upstairs!

Four Months

My Sweet Little Carolena,
You are four months old now! I can't believe it! Stop growing because I want you to stay little forever. You are doing so many new things now. You are my little roly poly rolling all over the place. You are just starting to be able to hold things in your hands and love to chew on things. You are such a little goofball and do this really silly belly laugh that makes mommy smile. You are sleeping much much less during the days now, and are sleeping really well at night. Sometimes you even sleep through the whole night! I think you might be a thumb sucker because your hands are always in your mouth and you don't really like the pacifier. You love being the center of attention (as you should!) and you cried all through your baby dedication just so people would notice you. You still want to eat every three hours or less during the day, but I think you really just like being close to mommy. The brothers give you lots of attention (which you love) and you always have a big smile especially for B4. Bath time is still tons of fun and you would stay in the water all night if I would let you. Your favorite thing to do right now is to sit in your play center and push all of the buttons that make noise. I love you my sweet girl!


I couldn't do another post without a picture of my two (hooligans) boys.

More soon!
Emily

Unless You Are a Type A Personality,

don't volunteer to be a room mom in your kids preschool class. I am not organized. I am not a leader. As a matter of fact, I am much more of a follower. Give me something to do, and I will do it, but I am not good at delegating, and I certainly don't have a "take charge" sort of personality. That being said, I don't think I have done a horrible job of being room mom, but it stresses me out for sure. I feel like I am always asking people to volunteer for this or that and frankly, I don't like doing it. I cringe every time I see a class party on the calendar because I know I am going to have to ask people to do things that they don't really want to do. I will be so happy when this year is over and I don't have to ask people to volunteer to bring in store bought cupcakes and juice. I will be happy when I don't have to ask people to donate $5 each to buy lunch for the Teachers Appreciation Luncheon. But I will be really happy that I don't have to pretend like I have a Type A Personality.

Onward and Upward...we have been busy little bees around here. As I mentioned in my last post, I made some pants for the boys last week, but I also made a cute little outfit for my princess as well. What do you think?

Other than the ruffles looking more like cuffs, I think it turned out alright. I definitely need more practice, but I am starting to feel a little more comfortable with the sewing situation. On that note, check out the outfit Carolena is wearing below...it was a gift from her (really super talented) grammy.

And we had a little time on our hands yesterday so we played dress up...

and some more dress up...

and then cuddle time with Joe Finney....

My girl sure loves her brothers. They take such good care of her. I feel sorry for any boyfriends she has when she grows up. They won't stand a chance around here!

Laziness

That's what it comes down to. I have lots of things to post about, and pictures to post, I am just way too lazy to upload the pictures to the computer. Not like its a hard thing, takes about 1 minute. For some reason I am just not that motivated to do it. I need to work on that.

So, lots of things going on around our house lately. Carolena hit the three month mark last Thursday. I did take a picture of her in her crib (which I will post in a minute) but I was too busy hosting Craft Night to get around to posting on the blog. Craft Night was a huge success and a TON of fun. If I would have known that I could have that much fun crafting (and maybe drinking a little wine :)) I would have gotten a group together much sooner!! A couple of people actually completed projects, but there were some of us (I won't mention any names!) who had just as much fun talking about crafting and hanging out with other creative ladies. Again, so much fun, I can't wait until the next one! I'll have to take pictures next time.

Another big day for us was B5's eye surgery today. It was a long exhausting day and I am glad to be done with it. We had to be there at 6:45 am, which came way too early after being up most of the night with my little princess (who, by the way, has a terrible little cough). The nurses gave B5 some Verset, which they appropriately call " goofy juice" to calm him down before they took him back to surgery. He was definitely "goofy" to say the least. At one point he pulled my hair around my chin and said "mommy, you look like a boy". And then a couple of minutes later, "mommy, take a picture of my butt". Take a look at my boy in his total drunken state...

And since I was feeling so guilty about him having to go through surgery, I let the boys pick out their own outfits to wear to grammys house tonight. Don't they look fancy? They wanted to wear the pajama pants that I just made them a couple of days ago. Go figure.

And on to my little Carolena. She hasn't been feeling that great lately and has had a pretty nasty cough and cold. But I thought I would go ahead and try to get her 3 month crib picture. This is how it went

And then this

So then I tried taking her out of the crib and got this

and I thought that would have to work. So here goes:

My Sweet Little Carolena, I can't believe you are 3 months old already!! You have the most amazing smile that melts my heart every time. You are getting so vocal already and love to talk to your mommy and grammy. You are also a big fan of grandpa and Uncle Bill. I think you are starting to find your hand and have figured out how to kick things to make things move. You are starting to wake up to the world and are napping much less than before. You are so content and only really cry when you are hungry. You still love taking baths and are starting to roll around just a little bit. I have you sleeping in your chair in mommys room because you are sick right now, and need to be sleeping on an incline. Your grammy made you a really fancy Valentines Day outfit, and I made you an outfit to wear this spring. We are really having fun making you stuff! I love you to pieces my little pumpkin pie!

I have found a really great photographer who not only has been taking beautiful pictures of Carolena, but also shares my love for a things crafty. Check out her blog at sarafloydphotography.blogspot.com to see the pictures she took of Lena. Look under "Baby C @home", and "Baby C".

I will leave you with this picture of the boys on thier "Dance Party Train". I think I wanna hop on!