Big news this week

We are very happy.

We are a wonderfully happy family.  It just feels so nice. Its nice having Danny home.

Big news this week; Rosie can roll over! None of that easy front to back stuff, she can roll from her back to her front! and not even four months old! She does it with such grace too! She tips her head back, slowly arching her back as she gradually tips over and plays on her belly for a while.

I came home from work to nurse Rosie Tuesday and the babysitter and I were cheering Henry on as he pooped in the potty (more big news, Henry poops in the potty!).    Emily Grace (our fantastic babysitter for the summer) turned to Rosie and asked her if she had rolled to her tummy herself; obviously a rhetorical question as she knew she had put her down on her back.  Since we had missed it, we returned her to her back and she rolled over again.  I called Danny to tell him and he said, 'oh  yeah, I forgot to tell you, she did that this morning'.  Hilarious that he didn't think this the most important news of the day, week, month...!

We enjoyed our weekly outing with Papa today; after gymnastics the kids and I cycle to the square, climb the three flights of stairs (while counting the stairs) to see Papa at work and collect him for lunch.  We walk all the way through town (takes Henry a while as he is easily distracted!) to get chicken and fries. Then ice cream and free topping at Holli's Sweet Tooth and the long trek back across town to drop Papa back at work and cycle home.  It is so much fun!

I made a duvet cover for Henry. Its fantastic! Best of all, he loves it to bits! Pulls it up under his chin so that he is wrapped up in trains! What more could a little boy want!  I was working on a pillow cover with his name on it, but my sewing machine didn't seem to be working right, so Danny thought it appropriate to take it apart. Now its broken! So I have to take it to the Fabric Store tomorrow to see if they fix sewing machines. Then I have to make Henry some blinds for his bedroom.

Not too much else going on. We plod along, doing fun things. Rosie loves her little rattles and jungle gym.  She loves to stand up and was laughing hysterically this morning as we did 'trust falls' on the bed with Henry (an aided fall backwards on to my bed, made to feel like free falling).  She already wears 6-9 m clothing as her body is so long! She sleeps 645pm - 6am. Fantastic!  Henry loves to play in the paddling pool or sprinkler and the City pool opened for the summer, so we have been there. We took the kids to the lake Monday morning and Henry got filthy in the sand and splashed around in the lake. He loves to play markers and we usually do this outside on a huge cardboard box. He ends up drawing on himself (on purpose) and looks like a rainbow.  The other day I drew a Thomas on his leg and he had to feed Thomas each of his bites of food before eating it himself.  Hilarious.  Potting training is going well, as long as he isn't wearing any bottoms.  As soon as he is wearing underwear or pjs or a diaper, he goes whenever he wants. Other than that, he pretty much goes on the potty when we are at home.

OH! They are awake!

Cool Breeze

Newspaper fun

A few weeks ago, a disreputable newspaper stole one of Danny's photos.  A nice, conservative couple was cut out of their photo and placed in front of a bad picture of the Court House. So Danny threatened to sue for Copyright and we went around town taking up newspapers as the couple was very upset about it all.  So now, what to do with a huge stack of newspapers... why shred them of course!

Is this considered child labour?

We mopped the front porch for fun!

He calls the dust pan and brush his 'tiny broom'.

One month older!

Gees! Id complain to the management if I were you! A new baby and an entire month without a blog post.  Needless to say, Im not only busy with my kids, but tired because of them!  Im seriously lucky though, except for sicknesses and growth spurts, Rosie goes to bed between 7 and 8 pm and sleeps until between 5 - 9 am.  I wake her around 1030pm to nurse and she falls back to sleep before she has even finished.  When she is going to wake up in the morning is anybody's guess, but never before 5 am, so I get a seriously good nights sleep. Or I would, if I wasn't paranoid about running out of milk or emergency situations;  yes, I get up to pump around 3 am!  Im sure this will stop and Ill just pump in the mornings, but for now, it only takes 10 minutes and I can stick another 6 ounces in the freezer for some unknown catastrophe in the future.

We have great fun together, the kids and I, and even more fun when we have our Papa to play with.  One of our favourite games as a family is to bounce around on Mama's bed, hiding under the covers (note, Henry calls it Mama's bed, so where does Papa sleep?!)  Henry is so sweet with his little sister.  He likes to hold her hand, and lately has taken to putting her paci in her mouth, it made me nervous at first, but he is reasonably gentle so I let it go.  Yes, we are trying her on a pacifier/dummy.  She doesn't mind it, it keeps her quiet if she is mad about something (the only thing she gets mad about is being tired), but she will fall asleep far quicker if she is allowed to put her thumb in her mouth. The funny thing is, she doesn't seem to care which thumb she sucks on, unlike Henry who is still partial to those two right fingers.  One of her favourite things to do is to stand up, and she likes to watch the fan, just like Henry did! She doesn't really care for 'tummy time' but she is really good at it.  Today she sort of crawled across my bed; not really crawling but she somehow got from one side to the other by shunting her butt up. Bath time remains hilarious as she swims up and down the bath tub.

Henry can count to ten. He gets a little stuck at three, but can do the rest. I am not positive he knows what the numbers mean, but its a good start.  He speaks in sentences now, though you have to understand his language a bit.  He asked the painters today if they wanted some water, and they actually understood him:  "ask man water?" because when I asked him if he wanted some water, he said "man water" so I said he could ask them if they wanted some water, and he did.  He was also concerned that they might be hungry when we were eating our lunch!  We measured him today and since January 1st, he has grown an inch every two months.

Our lives are a whirlwind.  I got an awful stomach bug a couple of weeks ago, during Double Decker weekend, I actually violently threw up Friday night.  Combine stomach bug with holding Rosie in the Ergo, carrying Henry because he didn't feel good and something ridiculous like 95F weather, and I didn't have a very nice day.  Right at the end of a week when Henry didn't take a single nap; I wasn't a happy camper.  Lost 5 lbs in 3 days though!  We instigated the 'baby bed' as punishment if Henry got out of bed during nap time and after just two days, he was napping in his own bed again! Hooray for me.  There is generally at least an hour when the kids nap at the same time and it is bliss! We even bought a baby monitor so I can go outside and garden.  I made it to the dermatologist and yes, sure enough I have eczema on my face, though now it has also spread to my neck and chest, and I suspect the top of my back.  He also told me what the problem with my foot was and what the tiny spots on my arms and hands were (yes, I am falling apart, yes, it is possibly old age!) and no, I cannot use any of the necessary creams whilst nursing. Yeay for trying to give your child the best start in life and having to suffer in sheer agony as your face sets itself on fire once a week.  The compromise I have come to with myself is that I am giving her the best start by breast feeding her and I cannot live with the pain of the eczema, so when it gets really bad I use the tiniest dab of cream I can, until it reduces itself.  I will nurse Rosie as long as she wants to, but I am going to celebrate her weening with a 10 day course in steroids and whatever other creams he has given me for my face.

So sweet!

In Seattle a while back...

Henry, that belly button is not really a button...

It seems like Rosie is in the Bumbo much sooner than I remember Henry being in it...

Baked beans are one of Henry's favourite meals, especially when you add some hot dog pieces to it!

Yet more pictures on Mama's bed!

Where on Earth did this girl's beauty come from!?

Rosie's 2 month checkup

Poor Rosie gets to share everything with H, who got to do it all alone, but perhaps having your big brother there with you isnt so bad.

Rosie woke up at 5am today and started talking to me at 530am, much earlier than usual, so I knew she would be off kilter all day. With a second pair of hands, it wouldn't have been so bad, but alone it was less than perfect for my little girly. She fell asleep in my arms at 615am, just as Henry came stomping in, telling me to get up and get his milk. I would say I was his servant, but I dont get paid, so I guess that makes me his slave. So poor little miss didn't get an early morning nap as she would have liked. She held up well while we took a shower (H and I - she sat in her chair next to the bath chirping). I eventually got her to sleep again around 730am and she had an hour in the Ergo carrier before we headed out.

Henry proceeded to destroy everything he could lay his hands on in the children's bookstore despite me directing him toward the toys that are there for kids to play with. Then as we were leaving, he suddenly decided he wanted to play with them. He thinks its super cool to totally ignore me lately, as you can tell. He has also decided he is not using silverware at meal times (making our spaghettio egg and spinach dinner interesting, not to mention the lasagne we had last night) and he has decided he is not going to pee in the potty but stand next to it, pee on the floor and laugh. Its all just a statement.

Anyway, back to Rosie, like I said, she was a little off her usual schedule so she seemed constantly tired but unable to sleep. When we got to the doctors office she eventually fell asleep in the waiting room as Henry rolled around on the floor eating grapes (from a cup, not off the floor, though Im sure he did that too actually). She dealt with being rudely awoken from her slumber and undressed, very well. Her stats are as follows at 8 weeks 5 days old:

Weight 11 lbs 13 oz 77 %

Height 23.5 inches 89 %

Head circumference 38.5 cm 45 %

One day Ill get round to asking them why one measurement is in Imperial units and the other Metric. These values are all completely opposite to Henry's during the early months, and even now. I should go back and look to be sure but Im sure his weight was around the 20s%, height 50s% and head 80s%.

The only question I had for the doctor was about her using sunscreen and he said to avoid it but obviously its better than her getting burnt, so if there is an unavoidable sun situation, then go with the sunscreen.

He actually told me that she was incredibly beautiful! Not that Im a proud mother or anything! It was an interesting visit. Since she was getting vaccinations I gave her some baby Tylenol and she instantly threw it, and her milk of 1.5 hours previous, back up again, all over me and the 'bed' in the doctors office. I had to go looking for the nurse holding a naked baby and trying to corale Henry, who was being terribly unruly, to ask for help cleaning up the sick. The medicine on her tummy must not have sat well, I havent bothered giving her anymore and she doesn't seem to be getting a temperature. All is well with her health. Doctor and nurse cannot believe she sleeps til 6am each day. The nurse even said that breastfed babies can't usually go that long. Funny thing is, even when she does wake up, she wakes up singing and smiling. She must just be a happy little girly. When the nurse came in with needles Henry sidled up to me to watch sheepishly. He started to get really worried and I asked him if he want to get up to see, and he said he did. So I lifted him on to the bed also. When Rosie started crying after the first injection, Henry started crying. I scooped Rosie up after the last one (there were three) and she stopped crying after about 5 seconds, way before Henry did. His poor little sister.

All was good, Rosie was asleep in the Ergo instantly, Henry was (sort of) in line and we were heading out the door. Things tend to get a bit crazy when we get home, and we were late for lunch so H was grumpy as heck, so I decided just to use the bathroom at the doctors office really quickly, so that I was on top of my game when we got home. I lifted up the seat and as I turned around to pull my trousers down, H decided he was shutting the lid, but left his fingers underneath it and there was instant hysteria. ugh. He screamed most of the way home. Poor Rosie, who probably felt like crap from her vaccinations, slept the whole way. I went into emergency situation mode and made Henry his lunch as quickly as possible, and things improved rapidly after he ate his bagel. Thank goodness.

We played with felt tip pens/markers and he looked like a rainbow. Following a story or two in Henry's bed, he went to sleep and I felt brave. I got Rosie to sleep in her bed and had over an hour of Ergo free time!

Speaking of... I had been carrying Rosie until I went to bed around 10 pm. Three nights ago I felt brave, having been mocked by my husband who said 'do you ever put that baby down?', so I swaddled her up, rocked her to sleep and put her in her bed. Miraculously she stayed asleep. I woke her up around 10 ish for her last feeding of the night and she slept the rest of the night. At first it was blissful - freedom! Now, I actually miss holding her. I miss having her head tucked under my chin and watching her beautiful, innocent, face as she sleeps. I can honestly see why some people don't want their kids to grow up. Fortunately I realise it would be for my benefit if I kept her in the Ergo, and that she probably gets better sleep in her bed, so that's where she is right now. I truly miss her though; no surprise really as I both cherish the one day a week that Henry goes to Mother's morning out and also consider not taking him every week because I miss him when he is gone. It will get interesting next month when I go back to work two days a week, and even more so in August when he goes to Mothers morning out four days a week. How will I cope!?

Poor Rosie really wasn't herself this evening. Her little eyes were red and she was just plain miserable; she squawked unhappily through dinner. While I was undressing her for her bath, Henry ripped one of the band aids/plasters from her leg in an instant and did she scream. Poor little thing. Thankfully, the bath cheered her up as usual and she played happily for 15 minutes. We really do have our night time routine down pat!

And tomorrow is another day...

Cut throat world

I have had my first experience of what parenting life has to come for me, and I hated it. This morning we went to the puppet show and Easter egg hunt and the public library. Puppet show was fun. I nursed Rosie and Henry sat quietly watching on my lap. Then came the 'fun'. Henry was in the under 3s age group and despite the librarians giving the parents a talking to before the puppet show about letting the kids have fun, the parents felt the need to go with the kids to look for eggs. Its not like it is in England, there was no hiding of eggs. There was a maybe 5 m square patch of grass with eggs spread out, so when the parents (often mum and dad) of about 50 children descended on this tiny patch of grass it was manic. Poor Henry wandered into this mess of adults and spun round in a circle as all the eggs disappeared. He looked horrified and thankfully someone put one in his basket and then so did some one else. Two of his eggs were filled with bubble gum, like Im going to let him eat that, and one was a Reeses egg, which he devoured. The librarian took a photo, so check out the Oxford Library Facebook page if you want to see. Why couldn't the parents let the kids just have fun? You aren't going to lose your kid in a tiny square area of open grass in front of the library, oh wait, unless there are tons of adults in there too. Disgusted, along with a few friends, we have organised our own Easter egg hunt Sunday that will actually be fun for the kids.

The fun is in finding the eggs and seeing whats inside, so when we got home I filled a few with some of Henry's favourite things and he had a great time. He got so excited to open the eggs. So I decided thats how we would eat lunch! If it was small, it went inside an egg for 'lunch'; blueberries, grapes, peanuts, pistachios, cheese cubes, crackers, blackberries, then on to the fun stuff; raisins and white chocolate chips. He had fun eating lunch that way!

He ran into my room at 610am this morning, rather a shock to the system. Rosie was unimpressed to be woken up so early (still asleep from 10pm feeding!). I was also unamused. I think something is up, preventing him from sleeping well, as he is currently screaming the house down instead of napping.

Yesterday was our day to go to the park, and go to the park we did, regardless of the rain! Then after nap time we splashed in the puddles...