Toothless

While I was in Maryland (a day before a came back, in fact) Isabel lost her first tooth!!!!  We've been waiting for this day for a very long time!!!!  Most of Isabel's classmates and cousins lost their first tooth at the beginning of Kindergarten.  Her tooth was really loose when I left for my trip and I was really hoping to make it back in time to be there when it came out, but nature had other plans!  The night before I came home the kids and Joel were having dinner with my parents and Isabel's tooth came out during dinner.  Unfortunately, her tooth went down with her tacos and we don't have anything to save for posterity, but it did make for a pretty fun story!

4 & 7

I'm sure you've noticed I've been a bit behind on my blogging lately.  In the midst of all the busyness I've left out a few big events from the last couple of months.  Two of the biggest events have been the kids' birthdays. 
In September, Gabe turned 4!!  We decided not to do big parties for the kids this year.  Instead we told them each they could choose a friend and we'd go do something special.  Our sweet little Gabe looked at me with bright eyes upon hearing this news and said, "Mommy, I know who I want to bring to my birthday!!!"  When I asked him who that might be, he proceeded to name each and every one of his cousins - there are 6 of them!!!  I just love that boy!!!!!  So, in an effort to make his birthday everything he hoped it would be and to keep the cost low, we invited the whole family to join us for dinner at Chuck E. Cheese.  All of the kids had a great time playing and eating pizza and between all of us we had enough tickets for each of the kids to get a prize!  Gabe was thrilled that all of his friends were able to make it to his birthday celebration!!!

In November, Isabel turned 7!  I can hardly believe that I have a 7 year old!  That really makes me feel old.  Isabel's request was to take two of her best friends from Kindergarten to a movie and to dinner and the one thing she wanted more than anything else was an American Girl doll.  For some reason we've been receiving the catalog lately and she had gone through it and circled the things that she wanted.  When I was a little girl I wanted an American Girl doll and I really wanted to be able to get one for Isabel, but those suckers are expensive and I didn't want that to be the only thing she received for Christmas.  About 2 weeks before her birthday, we got another catalog that advertised free shipping and I began to formulate a brilliant idea.  I called all the grandparents and Uncle Druh and Auntie Candice and asked if they'd all want to go in on a doll for Isabel.  Everyone thought that sounded like a great idea so I placed an order and Josefina arrived a week later!!!!!  We invited everyone over on Isabel's actual birthday for cake and ice cream and to watch her open our gift.  She was completely thrilled!  There was A LOT of high-pitched squealing and Josefina has become part of our famly since that day!!  The weekend after her birthday, Isabel invited two friends to come with us to a movie and to dinner.  The kids had a great time and I think this will go down in history as one of Isabel's best birthdays!!!

Maryland or Bust!

Right after Alex was born, my good friend Alexis came to town for a visit! I’ve known Alexis since 8th grade and we’ve been good friends ever since then. Sadly, Alexis moved to Maryland several years ago so that her husband (who I’ve also known since Jr. High) could go to school and get a fancy job with the FBI. Fortunately, their parents still live in Colorado Springs and they come home to visit a couple times a year. So, anyway, Alexis came to visit this summer and I just had the best time visiting with her and talking about all the things that have happened since we saw each other last. I was telling Joel about how much I missed her and about how I wished she lived closer so that I could drop in on her whenever I wanted to (I’m sure as she’s reading this, she’s thinking she’s very glad she lives far away so I can’t drop in on her whenever I want to!). So, Joel suggested that if I wanted to go to Maryland to visit her then we could start looking for a plane ticket. Of course I wanted to go visit her! I immediately began shopping! I found a good deal on a ticket and decided that Alex and I would go to Maryland during Isabel’s Fall Break from school (I figured this way no one would have to worry about getting her to school while I was out of town). So Isabel’s Fall Break was last week and Alex and I have just gotten home from our visit and are re-acclimating to real life! I wish I could say that Alex did fantastic and we hardly even noticed that he was around. But I can’t! Unfortunately, something about being on vacation turned my happy, good-natured, easy going baby into a fussy, cranky, difficult baby. The little stinker cried the whole time we were gone and, frankly, I’m surprised Alexis still wants to be my friend and didn’t kick me out! It all started going downhill when we walked onto the airplane. He didn’t want to eat, he didn’t want to play, he didn’t want to sleep. He wanted to stress me out and cry …..for 4 long hours!!!! I figured he would snap out of it once we arrived and were off the plane, but he had other plans. I spent the whole week holding him, nursing him, and sleeping with him. He did slightly better on the way home, but has still been fussier than usual this week. Also, he brought home a cold as a souvenir.
Well, enough of the bad stuff. Despite my cranky baby, I had a really good time and got to do some really fun things!!! Alexis lives about an hour outside of Washington, D.C. so she took me into the city twice and gave me the grand tour of all the sites!!!

Our first Metro ride!

The Capitol

Washington Monument

WWII Memorial

Lincoln Memorial

The Reflecting Pool was under construction :(

The very spot where MLK stood

Korean War Memorial

The New Martin Luther King Memorial

Jefferson Memorial

The only picture of us together :(

Casa Presidente

 Dorothy's slippers!!

Kennedy's grave at Arlington

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Iwo Jima Memorial

The Pentagon

I also got to be there for her 30th birthday! I don’t think I’ve celebrated a birthday with her in over 10 years so that was a treat! It was raining pretty heavily that day, so we stayed in and made cupcakes and then had margaritas and watched “our show” (we discovered a mutual love for “Revenge” while I was there) after the kids were in bed.

Sadie feeding Alex a "nack".

Poor girl had to make her own cupcakes because I was holding my crying baby.  Good thing Hannah was there to help out!

Kyle ....he was fabulous with crying children!!

Happy 30th, Al!

I had a lovely visit with my lovely friends!  I plan on going back again soon .... ALONE!  :)

4 Months

Alex is 4 months old!  He seems to be growing up so fast!!  He continues to become more active and more fun with each passing month!  This month has held several milestones for our littlest man:

• He can roll over from his tummy to his back and from his back to his tummy.  I say he CAN roll over, but most of the time he chooses not to.  :) 
• He has found his voice and he babbles quite a bit these days.  He has discovered how to screech and when he is really happy about things he screeches really loudly.  It's very loud, but very cute!  He makes a certain face when he screeches, but I haven't been able to capture it on camera yet.
• We went on our first vacation this month!  Alex and I flew to Maryland to visit my good friends, Alexis and Kyle.  He's usually a very easy-going and happy baby, but he made it very clear to me that he HATES vacation.  He was a little fuss-pot for the whole week we were gone. :(
• He is getting so strong now that he has been spending a lot of time in the exersaucer and in the jumperoo and is spending less time in the swing and the bouncy.  He is too short to touch the ground when he is in the jumperoo so he doesn't do much jumping yet, but he likes to sit up in there and play with the toys.  He does really well in his exersaucer and has even figured out how to turn the seat around to play with all the different toys. 
• He is reaching for EVERYTHING these days.  He reaches for our glass when we are drinking, he reaches for our food when we are eating, he reaches for our face when we get close to him.  I think he is finally seeing things from farther away now and he reaches for anything he can see.  He is reaching and holding toys really well now. 
• He has started giving us baby kisses.  He's so sweet and so passionate and so slobbery!!!!!!  I LOVE IT!  It's worth all the slime when he comes at you with those fat hands and that open mouth!
• He is a thumb sucker for sure!  He especially likes to suck his thumb when he can get a piece of cloth in between his thumb and his mouth.  He often sticks his thumb up my shirt sleeve and sucks this thumb and my shirt at the same time when he is over my shoulder.  ((LOVE!!)) 
• The thumb sucking is pretty handy at night.  Alex has become pretty good about putting himself to sleep.  We can usually lay him down awake and he'll suck his thumb for a bit and then go to sleep on his own.  The other two kids put themselves to sleep too, but Alex is much younger than they were and has just sort of taught himself to do it.  I had to train the other two kids to do it so I'm pretty thrilled about this!!! 
• I'm actually embarrassed to admit that I only took about 4 pictures of Alex with my camera this month.  I took some pictures with my phone and posted them on Facebook, but I don't have much to post here.  I'm still acclimating to life with three kids (I know, it's taking forever!) so some of those things that I used to be so good at are taking a back seat as I reorganize my headspace to accomodate everything!  Anyway, here's the best of what I had:

3 Months ... Finally!

I have been a very very bad blogger this month! Ok, who am I kidding? I’ve been a very very bad blogger for the last 4 months!! I figured if I could blog once a month about Alex’s growth and Isabel and Gabe’s shenanigans then I was doing a good job! Well, that lasted all of two months and I totally dropped the ball on Alex’s 3 month blog! I have a very good excuse for why I wasn’t available to blog on Alex’s 3 month birthday. Keep reading and you’ll find out what it is!

So, our little Alex is growing like a weed! I took him to the doctor 2 weeks ago and he weighed in at 13 lbs 4 oz. He continues to be a very happy, content baby. He has the sweetest giggle and I’m pretty sure he has a dimple in one of his cheeks (just like mom!). He is becoming more and more active and interactive. At the beginning of the month he was getting very excited about his toys. I noticed that when I put him in the bouncy or the swing he would get really excited and kick his legs and flail his arms and he would jabber on while he was looking at the toys hanging above him. By the end of the month he had figured out how to grab onto his toys and put them in his mouth! This was a great discovery for him and for me – I can give him a toy and keep him happy for a little bit longer now! Alex is also working hard on rolling over! Pretty much as soon as I lay him down on his back he immediately pulls himself over onto his side. If I offer him my finger he’ll grab onto it and pull himself over onto his tummy. He did actually pull himself onto his tummy completely by himself one time. I expect that by the end of next month he’ll be a rolling machine! I’ve also noticed recently that he likes to suck his thumb. The silly boy won’t take a pacifier (yes, I’m still trying to convince him that the paci is his friend), but he has taken to sucking his thumb when he is tired. It’s the cutest darn thing you’ve ever seen! Sleep continues to be a bit of a struggle, but I am seeing improvement which gives me hope that WE WILL GET THERE ……eventually! I worked really hard this month on getting him on a schedule and I think that contributed to the improvements. We also switched the kids' rooms around ..... again ....and that seems to be helping too. Alex now has his own room and Isabel and Gabe are sharing a room. On average Alex is taking 3 naps a day and waking up about 2-3 times a night. He is giving me longer stretches of uninterrupted sleep and when he does get up he just wants to eat and then he goes right back to sleep. It could be worse!!!!!!! We will continue to work hard on sleeping!

Isabel and Gabe are so in love with Alex!! They love holding him and playing with him.

This is his favorite toy!

(Don't worry, the curtains aren't staying)

So, now for the reason I didn’t get this blog done at the beginning of the month: Alex got to meet his Uncle Druh and Auntie Candice! They came to town for a long weekend and Alex was busy getting acquainted. I’m pretty sure it was love at first sight!! Isabel and Gabe could hardly contain their excitement. It’s always a HUGE treat when Uncle Druh and Auntie Candice come to visit!

We should have some really interesting stories on next month’s update. Alex and I are going on our first plane ride together!

My Crazy Life ...

I feel as though each time I have a child I lose a significant amount of brain function. I forget things, I lose things, I am late to everything. I think my brain thinks I had a 4th child because it seems to have gotten exponentially worse with the addition of Alex. I lose my phone on a regular basis, I'm late to EVERYTHING, and twice I've forgotten to put nursing pads in only to discover it after I'm sporting a giant wet spot on my shirt. One might say it's due to the lack of sleep. I would agree that that is a major contributor, but as I think about what my life is like now and what my life was like the last time I had a baby I can't help but think that it has to do with the high number of commitments I have this time around compared to last time ......

As I mentioned in my previous post, Isabel started 1st grade on August 18.

We are still getting used to the schedule of being up and out of the house by 7:45 am, but I am thankful for the excuse to get up and moving early because it gives me more time in my day to accomplish what needs to get done! Isabel has been doing a great job in 1st grade!!

(Is that uniform off the cute-charts or what?)

She loves her teacher and is adjusting well to her first year of all day school.

We think she is going to be quite the little math wiz - she seems to grasp the mathematical concepts really quickly. She is also doing very well with her reading. I often catch her around the house in a quiet corner reading a book. She will often grab a book that is above her reading level and sound out the letters until she can make out the word. If I hand her a book that is at her actual reading level she turns her nose up at it. I think she enjoys the challenge of those harder books. She has already had her first math test and we got our first spelling list this past week. School is in full swing!!

Gabe also started preschool a week ago. He is going on Tuesdays and Thursdays for a couple of hours and he is also loving school! His class has 16 kids and 12 of them are boys!! Those are some BRAVE teachers. He wasn't sure he wanted to be left there the first day, but once he gave it a chance he realized that preschool really is as fun as we told him it would be! He looks forward to going and is beginning to make some friends. (We suspect that he has a small crush on a little girl named Violet. He comes home each day and tells us what Violet was wearing and how pretty she looked.......I can't handle the cuteness!!)

Before the end of Isabel's first week of school, it became very apparent to me that Gabe was going to need some sort of activity to keep him busy while Isabel was in school. He was driving me crazy with all his nagging and whining about having no one to play with and nothing to do. He wanted to sit in front of the TV all day long and he was extremely bored. In an effort to save us both from this routine I signed him up for swimming lessons two days a week. That turned out to be a great decision! He loves to go swimming and he's learning a ton in his lessons. Since it's the fall session, all the kids are in school and there are only 4 kids in the pool during his lesson time. He gets a lot of one-on-one attention. So, the swimming lessons give Gabe something fun to look forward to on the days when he doesn't go to school and it also wears him out so he takes a fabulous nap in the afternoon!!

Along with all these fun activities, I walk with a friend on Monday mornings after dropping Isabel off at school, I work 2 days a week, and Isabel has gymnastics on Monday afternoons. We are busy busy busy around here, but only busy enough to keep us from getting bored. Most of the time I really enjoy all of the little activities we have going. It keeps me from getting cabin fever and it gives me a sense of purpose. My mini van and I are becoming very good friends!! :)