7 Months Old

I really can't believe that this baby girl is 7 months-old!  

I also can't believe that she has her 1st tooth!  It is one of her bottom front teeth.  She was a little clingy/cranky, but did not have a lot of the typical teething symptoms.  She does slobber a little, but nothing like I've seen other kiddos do before.  She does chew on stuff a lot.  And Thursday night she ran a low fever.  Then Friday when we were on our way to visit Joe's parents I found her tooth!!  

She is also sitting up on her own very well.  She rarely falls over when it isn't on purpose.  Now that she can sit up she does not want to lay down.  She has given up laying in her bath tub.  If I lay her down she grabs both sides of her tub and pulls herself up to sit again!  Ha!  I've got to get her one of the seats that suctions to the bottom of the bath tub so she can sit up and play in the water.

She also holds her bottle all on her own now.  She is getting so independent!  She has learned how to raise the bottle up to get every sip out of it!  Ha!  And she still gets super mad when her bottle is all gone.  She is eating 1 baby food fruit, 1 baby food veggie, and cereal everyday along with her formula.  Her little belly isn't a big fan of food so we also had to add 3 ounces of apple juice to help her out.  She LOVES it! 

I know she is going to start crawling any day!!  And she talks all the time.  I am waiting for that 1st official word.  I don't think it will be long at all.  

She and Percie are BFFs for real!  It cracks me up.  They really adore each other.

She is sleeping about 8 to 10 hours at night and she takes 2 to 3 naps a day.  Some mornings she takes a short nap, then a 3 hour nap in the afternoon when her brothers are napping :), and usually a 2 hour nap at night after she finishes eating.  Her nap schedule is very convenient for her mama!  Ha!  At night we are able to give the boys a bath, play with them, put Mister Mess to bed, and clean up after supper before she wakes up. 

She is such a cuddly baby!  Even when she isn't tired.  It is so sweet!  I still adore her hugs and kisses.  She squeals and giggles all the time. 

She usually goes to sleep really easy.  She would probably always go to sleep on her own in her bed, but sometimes I like to hold her.  :)  Laying her down is super easy.  She never wakes up.  She most definitely always has to sleep with her blanket and pacie.  Speaking of her pacie, she can pull it out of her mouth to cry and maybe be a little dramatic and then put it back in her mouth when she is ready.  Mess. 

But when her pacie falls out of her mouth at night and in her sleep (her eyes are always still closed) and she decides she wants it back, I have to help her out.  She can't seem to put it back in her mouth by herself then.  :)

And, she does not have any more hair than the day we met her.  :)  So, if you have ever seen her, her hair looks exactly the same, even if it was 5 months ago.  Ha!  I keep telling her she will have hair one day.  She sure does love mine!  She is an awesome hair puller.  She is SO good at grabbing those little hairs that hurt really bad when pulled.  :)  Good thing I usually wear my hair pulled back.  She gets SO excited when she sees me with my hair down.  Ha! 

I am amazed at how fast she is changing.  I think she does something new every day.  I'm not so sure how I feel about that.  :)

Rae

The Boys Room

I think I will give this early morning before the boys wake up blogging thing a try.  I have WAY too many projects to do during nap time to have time to blog then.

The boys room was the first one I finished after we moved in.  It was the easiest because I used all the same stuff from their old room.  I had just finished their old room a few months before we moved.  This time you will notice that the one thing missing is the stripes.  I decided against them this time.  They were a booger to paint!  

*Be prepared for picture over load!*

This is to your right when you first walk in the door. I have plans to paint this chest of drawers.  I think that the room needs more ice blue, but I don't think that would grow with the boys very well.  (and I dont want to be repainting this dresser every time I redo their room!)  I had decided to paint it red because I think that would grow with them.  But there is so much red in this room! So, I'm pretty sure it will be painted green very soon.  Stay tuned to see if I change my mind again.  :))

The TV is not even plugged in.  Ha!  I am thinking about just storing it for when they get older after I paint the dresser. 

I still use the changing table for Mister Mess right now.  But, he is working very hard at learning to dress himself, so it may not be there long.  I have got to have a picture taken to put in that big frame!

Big Brother's bed is definitely staged for this picture!  He has 2 other blankets and quite a few stuffed friends that he insists on having on his bed.   But I can pretend that this is what his bed looks like every day.  :)  (And there is a reason that the mobile is hung above his bed.  We will get to that in a minute.)

And this is where Mister Mess' bed would be if the boys were able to sleep in the same room.  :)  The boys really do have a great time together.  They especially have a great time getting in trouble together.  And MM isn't quite old enough to reason with yet.  Big Brother totally understands the rules, but when MM does not that poses a bit of an issue.  I have high hopes that by Christmas they will learn to sleep in the same room.  But, for now Miss Priss' bed is in our room and MM's bed is in Miss Priss' room.  He told me he doesn't mind all the pink because the lights are off when he is in there and he can't see it anyway.  :)  If I tell him to go to his room, he goes to Big Brother's room.  If I tell him it's time to go night night, he goes to his sister's room.  See, he totally gets it!  ;)

There are a few pretty special things in the boys room, and this is definitely one of them.  (You can read about when I first did the room here:  The Room )  My very good friend, Marianne. had this painted for us, and I love it!!

This shelf is also pretty special.  Well, not really the shelf, but the stuff on it.  The books and toys were mine when I was a baby and the football players were in Joe's nursery.  The baby shoes were my dads.

And here is MM's bed in his sissy's room.  :)  And his bed was definitely staged for this picture.  He has several things he insist on having in his bed.  

One of which is "duck duck" as shown in this picture.  They say you always lose something when you move, and this time it happened to be duck duck.  I just knew he would be sad!  But, he only asked about him a few times and slept just fine without him.  All of the boxes are unpacked and duck duck has still not been found.  Crazy!  Well, I was at target one day and I saw a new duck duck!!  He doesn't look exactly like the first duck duck, but he is very close.  When I got him out of the sack, MM looked at him, grinned from ear to ear, and screamed DUCK DUCK!  Ha!  He gave him a hug and a kiss and you could not pry him out of his arms!  Now when we rock him to sleep at night duck duck has to rock, too.  And he insists that you give duck duck a night night kiss, too.  :)

I just realized I forgot to take a picture of their closet.  Big Brother is still asleep so I am not going to do that right now, but I'll add a picture of the closet later.  

Hope you enjoyed the first of many room tours in our new house!  Hopefully I will be able to finish a few more rooms and give you a peak.

Rae

What Has Percie Been Up To?

Why in the world did I think I was going to have more time to blog when I was home?  And how in the world did I have time to work?  :)

I know you guys have been wondering what Percie has been up to!?!

She is loving our new house.  There are many more places she can hide from the kiddos.  :)  She LOVES her new backyard.  The squirrels love to tease her from the huge old trees.  I am pretty sure they throw stuff at her on purpose.  She has plenty of space to run and she loves that!

She also loves going for walks on campus.  She told me she prefers when I leave the kids at home with Joe and just take her.  :)

She has decided she does not mind sharing a bath tub with the kids.  Especially since I usually wait until they are in bed to give her a bath.  :)

And don't worry, her wardrobe is not hurting since we have to buy clothes for kiddos now.  She has her very own closet in our new house!  I love having a place to keep all of her stuff!

She has decided cleaning up the floor of the dining room after we finish dinner isn't so bad either.  Ha!  She has also decided that Miss Priss is her new BFF.  She comes to tell us immediately if she starts crying.  She also loves to sit on the couch when I am holding her.  Miss Priss definitely shares the love.  She tries to kiss Percie with her mouth wide open and it cracks me up!  I have the cutest picture from yesterday that I wish I could share.  Miss Priss fell asleep on her boppy pillow on the couch next to me.  Percie layed down on the couch and put her head on the boppy right next to Miss Priss and they both slept.

She has also decided that Big Brother isn't so bad.  He stays up after Mister Mess and usually watches a movie.  Percie jumps up on the couch and sits in his lap.  And, she usually goes to check on him when he is in time out.  :)  Makes me laugh.  He knows he is not supposed to play in time out, so he will look at her and say "Percie, I'm in time out.  I can't play right now."  HA!  He is not supposed to talk either, but that makes me laugh every time.  She thinks if someone is sitting on the floor, they are sitting there because they want to pat her.  :)

She is scared to death of Mister Mess.  If he is around, you will either not be able to find her or she will be shaking like a leaf!  I mean, I can't say that I blame her.  He is pretty rough with her, but we are working on that.  :)  And she looks at him like he has lost his mind when he licks her.  Yes, you read that right.  We are working on that, too.  :)

She LOVES it that I am home all day, but she is not so sure about the kids being home all day.  Ha!  We were making a family trip to Sonic the other night and were going to take her with us.  She LOVES to ride in the car.  We all got in the car and I looked at Joe and asked where Percie was.  He didn't know.  I went back in the house and she was on our bed stretched out!  Ha!  I'm pretty sure she was glad we were taking the 3 and leaving.  She did not want to join us.  So we left her at home so she could have some peace and quiet.  She used to always be the first one at the door when I grabbed my keys, but not anymore!  I think she is happy to see us go.

I am very proud of her.  Her whole world changed when we welcomed 3 kids in 4 months into our home.  She has handled it better than I ever thought she would.  She has never growled or shown her teeth or anything at any of the kids.  I am so thankful.  We do not have near as much time as we used to to sit and pat her, but she is learning to be more independent.  Thankfully.  Not sure if I could handle 4 making every step I make all day.  :)

So, even though Percie has to share her time with her mom and dad now, I'm pretty sure she loves having the company.  At least 2 out of the 3.  :)

Rae

The BIG 2!

I cannot believe that this big boy is 2 years old!

I really wish I could share some of the pictures I took yesterday.  We had a great time!  Joe's parents came for the weekend.  They did some work on Grandama's house on Saturday and then came to spend the night with us.  It is so great to have the space that they can do this.  They have not spent the night at our house in 7 years!  We had a great time.  Sunday morning mister mess woke up around 8.  I made a big breakfast and he loved it!  Of course we had some of his favorites, grapes and bananas.  Then we just stayed home and he and his brother enjoyed playing with their toys.  They had a great time.  They really enjoy playing with Nanny and especially Poppy.  If I have heard Poppy once I have heard Poppy a million times!  Ha!  And I love it!!  I am so glad they have him!

Then Daddy grilled hot dogs (another favorite) and we had cheese puffs for lunch.  Well, and ketchup of course.  This kids will eat ketchup on anything!  Ha!  And you will usually catch him eating just the ketchup with his fork.  Yuck.  But he loves it!  Grandmama brought some cupcakes, so we put 2 candles in his and sang to him again.  He kept looking at us like we had lost our minds!  It was pretty funny.  But he does enjoy blowing out his candles and he devoured his cupcake.  :)

Then he opened his presents.  He REALLY enjoyed the play vacuum cleaner that Grandmama got him!  I think I have talked about this kids obsession with all things cleaning before.  It cracks me up!  And I love it.  We have a rug in our living room.  A black rug.  I pretty much need to vacuum it daily.  (notice how I said need, not that I do) I will never buy a black rug again.  Anyway, Mister Mess put his vacuum cleaner on that rug and vacuumed the whole thing for me!  (maybe he has seen that a few million times!  Ha!)  Too bad his vacuum cleaner doesn't actually vacuum.  ;)

He is doing so well!  He is super smart and so much fun!  I am pretty sure he is the funniest kid I have ever met.  Especially when he gets in trouble.  It makes it very difficult!  :)

He is still refusing to say that he is 2.  He says nee which means three.  He does try really hard to hold up 2 fingers and gets so excited when I help him.  But, he likes to count, so I think he just keeps going.  Since I say 2 he says 3!  Ha!  .  So, when I say "Mister Mess is 2.  You say 2."  He says "nee."  Me:  "No, two."  Him:  "NEE!"  Me:  Not three, two."  Him:  "NEEEE!!"  Me:  "One, two.  Mister mess is two."  Him:  Nodding is head yes, "NEEEEE!"  Me:  "Okay."  LOL!!  I have given up on that one for now.  We will work on it again soon...

Mister mess is either going at top speed or asleep.  We laugh about how much sleep he needs, but it is because when he is awake he never slows down!  :)  He loves his "beep beeps"  and "balls."  They are definitely his most favorite toys.  And like I said before, he loves all things cleaning.  Brooms, mops, dust pans, vacuum cleaners, rags, you name it!  Ha!  We have to keep everything put up in a closet that he cannot open.  He loves it so much I would love to let him play with it, but it is just gross!  Ha!  I just can't let myself.  I am shopping for him his own kid sized broom and cleaning set, but I haven't found one yet.  He also can't stand for things to be out of place and he especially doesn't like when his big brother leaves stuff on the floor.  A boy after my own heart!!  :)

He is talking a lot.  We hear new words daily.  But I am a little worried that his speech is not right on target for his age, so we have scheduled a speech therapy evaluation.  Much better to be safe than sorry.  I would much rather him get help now while he is young!  I have no doubt that he understands everything we say, but he might need a little help learning to say things himself.

His personality is precious!  And I can't get enough of his laugh!!

Mister Mess,

Daddy and I have loved every minute that we have gotten to spend with you!  You have brought so much laughter to our family.  We find ourselves asking each other often what we did before we had you.  We have loved watching you grow and hope you continue to grow and learn more everyday!  Thank you for providing us with much entertainment!!  We love you with all of our hearts!

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

SIX Months

Yes, you read that right.  This baby girl is 6 months-old today!!  I can't believe it. 

She is growing and changing so fast.  Last time we went to the doctor she weighed 18 pounds.  She is so stinking cute!

She adores eating rice cereal.  She still cries when it is all gone!  Well, she cries when her bottle is all gone, too.  So she likes to eat...there is nothing wrong with that!  Ha!

I don't have all of her stats because her 6 month appointment isn't until July 9th.  I'll have to blog them after we go.  I just know she is going to weigh 20 pounds and we are going to be looking for a new car seat.  Like I said, growing way too fast!!

She loves laying on the floor and playing with her toys.  She rolls all over the place!  And she definitely has her favorite toys and spends much more time playing with them. 

She can sit alone for a few seconds before she throws herself backwards or falls forward trying to get her toes.  Speaking of toes, she still adores her toes! Ha!  I painted her toe nails for the first time this week with Piggy Paint.  Too stinking cute!

I waited until she was asleep, but it was still a challenge because she is so ticklish she kept waking up!  Ha!  But, I did finally finish. 

Her spontaneous hugs and kisses are precious!!  Some how she usually manages to reach around my neck and grab those little bitty hairs around my hair line and pull me close and cram the back of her pacie (because it is usually in her mouth) in my mouth.  Ha!  It is so sweet.  I love it when she totally catches me off guard.  

I think she is developing a little stranger anxiety.  They had school pictures done at her school this week and she would NOT smile for the camera.  She was hungry, so I thought maybe if they fed her and then tried again after I left (she does love her food) that they might be able to get her to smile.  But they had NO luck!  Her teacher (who we absolutely adore!!) said she was smiling all the way down the hall, but when that strange man (the picture guy) started talking to her and trying to get her to smile she would only frown at him.  Ha!  Such a mess!!  Because anyone that has met her knows she smiles all the time.

She still adores water.  I am pretty sure I get much more soaked giving her a bath than either one of her brothers!  Ha!  She splashes and kicks the whole time she is in the water.  And, she adores the wash clothe.  It makes trying to wash her with it a bit of a challenge because she spends the whole time trying to take it away from me.  Mess!  And if I give her her own wash clothe and try using another one she will drop the one I gave her and still try to take the one I'm using away!  It makes me laugh!

She "talks" all the time!  No more taking her in places where you have to be quiet.  :)  She can make tons of noises now and even mimics the noises I make.  And she is very ticklish!  She loves for me to tickle her belly and she will throw her head back and laugh.  Her laugh sounds just like her brother!

She has the funniest facial expressions.  And sometimes her different cries make me giggle.  It is so easy to tell what she is thinking.  Her "you broke my heart" cry is so sad and maybe a bit dramatic.  :)  I'm afraid we might have a drama queen on our hands.  You can tell her "I'm hungry" cry because you know she means business and nothing but putting a spoon or bottle in her mouth will make the cry stop!  Ha!  She has started fussing just a little bit sometimes when she is sleepy, but it usually doesn't last long.  

She is also reaching her arms up when she wants picked up.  And after I unbuckle her she pushes herself up the the car seat for me to pick her up.  Smart girl! 

I can't wait to start feeding her baby food.  I just know she is going to love it! 

And, I can't wait to stay home with her and her brothers every day!  Yes, next Friday is my last day of work and I will be a stay at home mom!!  I never thought it would be something I would want to do or ever be possible, but never say never.  I know we are going to have the best time.

So, now maybe I will be able to blog a little more consistently.  We will see!

  

Circus Party

Time Flies!

Time definitely flies when you are having fun!  So many things have happened since I last updated.  I really don't even know where to start!

Miss Priss is doing great!  She turned 5 months-old.  She got tubes in her ears and except for the current strep throat that has attacked our whole family, she has been healthy.  She is still the happiest baby!  She loves to be talked to.  And she definitely carries on a conversation with you!  She is giving more and more kisses and hugs.  Another big milestone is we stopped swaddling her at night.  She gets so cold so I was worried about not swaddling her because I do not feel comfortable putting her to bed with a blanket.  I do not mind at nap time because I am awake and can check on her.  But I knew I would not be able to sleep well at night worrying about her.  So, I still put her swaddle blanket on her, I just don't put her arms in it.  So, she is basically swaddled from the waist down.  The first night of that did not go so well because she kept waking up cold.  Like waking up every hour crying.  So, at 4 am I finally gave in and covered her up with her blanket on top of the swaddle blanket.  She grabbed her blanket and brought it right up by her face.  Then she flipped over on her side and went right to sleep.  Ha!  And slept until I woke her up.  So, since my mom crochets, I decided to use one of the more holey blankets that she had made for miss priss to cuddle with at night.  So, I still swaddle her from the waist down and give her the crocheted blanket.  She does the same thing every night...grabs the blanket with both hands, pulls it up by her face, flips over on her side, and goes right to sleep.  It makes me giggle every time!  I don't worry about her because the blanket is very loosely sewn and she can get plenty of air.  And I guess it is warm enough for her.  Ha!

Mister Mess is doing great!  We are having his birthday party tomorrow!  I can't believe he is almost 2!  He is talking like crazy!  I think he has a million new words every day.  Well, maybe not that many, but you get the point.  My most favorite of his new words is "A boo baa, mommy."  Just in case you are wondering, that means I love you mommy!  Ha!  It took me forever to figure out what he was saying!  He had been saying it A LOT and then that night I was rocking him to sleep.  He looked up at me and patted me on the arm and said "A boo baa, mommy" in a very sweet voice.  So I said I love you, too, and he smiled very big!  Finally!  Whew.  That was a tough one to figure out.  So of course now I get "a boo baa" when I ask him if he wants to go to time out.  He is a smart little toot.  One night I was rocking him to sleep and he said "A boo baa, daddy.  Night night, daddy. A boo baa, Daddy."  That is a pretty big sentence for a kiddo who was only saying one word at a time not long ago.

We have also gotten child #3 since my last update.  Yes, you read that right.  There is a child #3.  He is Miss Priss and Mister Mess' 4 year-old brother.  We are so happy to have him!!  He is such a cutie!

I love watching him interact with his brother and sister.  The two boys are trying to learn how to live with each other again.  They have not been in the same home together for quite sometime, so there have definitely been adjustments.  But for the most part, I feel like he has adjusted very well.  He LOVES living with his brother and sister.  He is going to the same child care center as the other 2 and loves it!  He has a very sweet nature and is very smart.

Other big news since my last update is the Joe got a new JOB!  In another TOWN!  So, we MOVED last weekend.  I mean, we haven't been busy at all...get a new kid one week, move to Conway the next week, and plan and have a birthday party the next week.  No big deal, right!?!  ;)  

We adore our new house!  It has so much more space, which is exactly what we needed with 3 kiddos!!  We, with the help of family and friends. have totally repainted the inside and done a few small jobs on the outside.  We definitely have more projects to go, but have already come so far.  This was definitely a very different move from last summer!   I had the whole apartment packed up with boxes labeled weeks before we moved last time.  Not so much this time.  I did not pack one box until the night before we moved.  We were still throwing stuff into boxes as it was being put on the truck.  Oh my.  Joe, my mom, and my friend Michelle packed a lot on Thursday and Friday, but throwing 3 kids and all their stuff into the mix made this a very different experience to say the least!  I am definitely not complaining, just saying how different it was.  But, us and all of our stuff made it, and that is the most important thing!  

Last year, after the first week of living in our new apartment I had everything hung on the walls and curtains hung and all the boxes unpacked, etc.  Not so much this time!  Ha!  But it will get done.  Eventually.  Percie loves her new backyard!  I can't wait to get out there and work on it some and get it looking just the way I want it!

One last story before I go.  I am still working at my same job and the kiddos are still going to their same school.  We figure the less transition at once, the better.  But, that means an hour commute one way for me and 30 minutes for the kids.  Not sure how long this will last!  Ha!  (I am driving an SUV with a third row seat now.  So, big brother sits on the third row seat and mister mess and miss priss sit in front of him on the 2nd row of seats.)  So, one day last week on our way home, Big brother was rolling up and throwing the long strap from the back on mister mess' car seat over into his car seat.  For whatever reason, both of them thought this was hilarious and were belly laughing.  Whatever keeps them happy during the drive.  :)  Mister mess is definitely in the "MINE" stage.  So, Joe and I find ourselves saying "not mine, say please" a lot.  I have never gotten mister mess to say please.  Well, Mister mess would start his "MINE MINE MINE" and then I heard his big brother say "Mister mess (he actually said his name) say please, not mine"  and then I hear the sweetest "Peas, big brother" (He actually said his name).  REALLY?!?  I have been trying for months to get this kid to say please!  Ha!  So, over and over on the way home that day it was "Peas, big brother".  At least Mister Mess has continued with his "peas" and not refused to say it for us!  

That was just a huge example of how much big brother listen to what Joe and I say and how mister mess loves to impress his big brother!

Hopefully it won't be so long before the next update!