Halloween

Sometime last week was Halloween, did you notice?  If you have any kids, then you probably noticed.  We had the Halloween carnival the week before, and once I get Nate's pictures from his class Halloween thing together, I'll try to post those.  The kids had a great time at the school carnival, it was the first time we have gone where it was pretty nice weather.  Not raining, and not cold, so it seemed much calmer.  

We had friends come over again for the Halloween  trick-or-treating.  It was good weather for that also.  Not super cold, not raining, we were very lucky!  The kids had a great time, much less whiny than last year.  Rachel, didn't seem to care, have I mentioned how heavy she is lately?  Lord, is she heavy, no wonder I sling her all the time!  

The kids got a lot of candy, they have really enjoyed eating it, since they didn't have school the next day, we let them stay up a little late and I told them they could eat as much candy as they wanted to, I don't think Eric was on board with that, since he kept saying, um, I don't think you want to eat that...everyone survived!  

Here are the pictures:

Halloween 2012 - Slideshow

Dr. appointment

Today we had the 4 month appointment. Rachel is doing well, looks good, and growing, oh my is she growing!
Here are the vital stats:
Weight: 15lb 13oz (95%)
Height: 25in (80%)

This is a 2lb 8oz  and 2.5in change from last month
Just to compare Nate's stats at 4months:
Weight: 17lb 13oz (90%-95%)
Height: 26.25in (90%)

Gwen's stats at 4 months
15lb 8 oz (75-90%)
25 in (75%)

So, my girls are about the same...Nate who weighed the least out the gate is currently largest 4month old baby.  Now to attend to 2 crying kids! 

Sickies

Today I have sad news. Rachel has the sickies, we are not quite sure what, and she appears to be fine (and she's my third) so, I will not be taking her to the Doctor. She just has a runny nose and is rather congested, but she isn't acting any crankier than usual. I just feel bad for her congested self, she isn't so pleased with the bulb thingy, but she is pleased with the results. But I tell you her sneezing and coughing is rather pathetic, fortunately it is not frequent. I have a picture in the slideshow of her today. All smiles!

Rachel is getting more and more charming everyday. She has those chubby checks and in a couple days she will be 4 months old! The kids still adore her and Gwen loves showing off that she can carry Rachel. Nate still loves hugging and kissing her, but we still have to work on that she isn't a doll with movable parts. She loves watching them, so that's cool.

I'd like to say more, but you know, I desperately need to go to bed. Well, after I make the kids lunch, who knows how many time the mucous one will get up tonight, so I'd better be prepared!

Enjoy the slideshow!

Oct 22 - slideshow maker

New pictures!

I have some recent pictures of Rachel, would you like to see them?  Oh, wait, first I'm going to write some stuff and then I'll post the slide show.  Rachel is getting bigger, or so people tell me.  I think she is about the same as she always was, I am sure, I've had to put away 0-6 month clothes and she isn't even 4 months yet (3.5 months today!)  She is on her way to making sure she is heard, she was giving me quite the story today.  She chatted up a storm and it seemed like she has something very important to say to the ceiling, or a picture on the wall, or some thing else, that wasn't me.  I have a video, I'll upload it one day. 

We put Rachel in with the big kids tonight, so far so good.  But I imagine this will be more difficult in the days ahead and for me if she wakes up in the night, damn those 50 steps are going to be tough and where am I going to feed her?  These are all things I should have probably considered a long time ago, but there are really no good solutions in this house, and I desperately need to have our room back so I don't have to have my work stuff all around the house.  I need stuff to be contained, and it isn't currently! 

We still can't really tell what color Rachel's eyes are, she appears to be growing hair, it is still likely the same amount of hair, it is just growing longer.  And is it going to be blond?  Many unanswered questions we have here.  She really enjoys sitting up and today she cried every time someone smiled at her.  Which would be sad if her making a sad face wasn't so ridiculously cute.    

Well, by now I know my Mom is like, where are the pictures!  Oh, who am I kidding, she just skipped to this section and didn't read any of this.  (Hi MOM!) 

More Rachel - slideshows

Hi October!

I have a bunch of pictures that I loaded into a slide show, we have taken some pictures and haven't posted them, so I loaded them up! Here you go, enjoy!

Misc pictures - flash slideshow

In other news, Rachel is now 3 months old, the kids have been in school for 6 weeks now. I think we are settling into the routine and getting used to waking and sleeping times. I don't know for sure, but we might be getting the hang of school, a newborn and car pool. Nate loves school and comes home very excited and full of information. He gives us so much more information than "I forget girl". Gwen loves 1st grade and she is becoming quite the reader. Of course, she won't admit she's a good reader, but occasionally she will read something that surprises me. And on our 36 hour trip to Maryland this weekend, she kept reading Eric's speed limit, which was hilarious because it annoyed Eric. (yes, I know this is a number but we have been working on those also). Rachel is turning into a better baby, not a good baby yet, still a little fussy. Of course, she puts on a good show for others. This weekend in Maryland at a restaurant the waitress asked if I wanted to give her applesauce, since she was a little fussy. I was a little surprised and said no, she's not old enough to eat solids and she said oh, really how old is she? I told her 3 months and she said "wow, she's a big baby". Thanks lady. She is smiley and started laughing the day after she turned 3 months. She has fabulous double chins that really come out when she smiles. She still hates tummy time, but we think she is close to rolling over, this is our next goal for her...hahaha! Gwen and Nate both rolled front to back at 1 month, so we are trying to adjust to a baby that isn't super far ahead in gross motor skills. I wonder if that is any indication of how she is going to be on the rest of the gross motor skills. She is an adorable baby who seems to love her brother and sister and often follows them. She is starting to vocalize which can be very useful, say when you want Nate to stop squeezing her and you can tell him those noises means to "LET HER GO!"

Oh September

It seems like fall now. Our trees are losing their leaves and it is down right chilly in the morning, and it is hard to plan the day of clothes for Rachel.  I'd forgotten that.  Thought you'd like to see some pictures from the last couple days.  Rachel appears to have the same fascination with looking at books and magazines as Gwen does. 

Now this picture is typically Nate, he certainly needs lots of hugs.  He's always been a touchy feel-y kind of kid and this always having to hold Rachel is really hurting his style.  Also he's missing some sleep and that makes him really need more physical contact.  He'll take it where he can get it, so you have to watch out.  But these needs make for a really sweet picture, doesn't it? 

We really enjoy bike riding, so this weekend we made the kids fend for themselves and hooked the car seat in the carrier and went for a little ride to the grocery store. 

Gwen is much better up the hill than Nate so Gwen and I "charged" up the hills and Eric pushed Nate up the hill.  When we got home I ran into the house and got the camera and tripod and set up for our first family outing picture.  Sure, it might not be the best picture, but look here we all are! 

Then we went in side and I got a picture of just the kids.  Look, everyone is looking at the camera!  HI!

 

First day of First Grade! and meet the teacher for 2!

Oh my, I have 2 children starting school, one started today, the other cried in his room wanting to know why he couldn't start today! (he starts next week!) Yesterday evening we had "Meet the Teacher". We already know Nate's teacher, she was Gwen's first teacher, so Nate is entirely comfortable there. He didn't know the assistant, but I don't think he really cared, he just jumped right in. We also met Gwen's teacher and assistant. Gwen's teacher is new to the school and we met her the night before at the "ice cream social" for new families. I was fairly impressed, since she remembered Gwen's name. Gwen said she only confused 2 of the boys today, still fairly impressed. Gwen's class is small, only 17 kids, and she has 2 new kids to the school in her class. She is enjoying class so far, and already came home with homework! The nice thing about 1st grade homework is apparently she has the whole week to work on it, and since they started on a Wed, she apparently has until next Friday to finish. The nice thing is we don't have anything to do in the evenings/afternoons, except pace with Rachel, so homework can easily be done while I pace. Which will likely be nice for Gwen, I won't be breathing down her neck while she's trying to do homework, just checking as I pass by. Here is another slideshow from yesterday and today. I swear I will post pictures again on here, but only if I don't have more than say 5 pictures, gotta keep the amount of uploading to a minimum!

Meet the teacher/Gwen's first day - flash slideshow maker

My babies!

I took this picture today during "tummy time", the kids as usual give the full assault whenever I try to do the tummy time with Rachel.  Everyone wants their picture with Rachel, to hold Rachel, to kiss Rachel...translation the newness hasn't worn off yet.  I do wonder if it ever will.  Rachel still doesn't care about them, really, but they think she does.  Gwen is convinced that Rachel loves her second best, after me of course, sadly Daddy is in last place according to Gwen.  Nate declares that he isn't in last place because he gives Rachel lots of hugs and kisses.  Gwen is also convinced that Rachel says "hi" to her and waves to her, I haven't told her that Rachel is cooing and randomly flailing about.  I guess the good thing about all the love is I got a pretty cute picture out of the deal, I think...I apparently got Nate mid speak.  Rachel is almost smiling, I think she is thinking, look how I've got these 2 wrapped around my finger! 

I've heard a rumor that Grandpa might get to glimpse the blog this weekend, so I thought I'd put this angry Nate picture up.  It was Nate's idea to put this "present" from my cousin on, so I don't know why he is giving me the stare down when I took the picture.  Nate is likely the only kid in this family to ever wear this thing, but I guess as far as bibs go, this would be a good one to collect the spit-up and stuff, wouldn't want to get a Buck's bib dirty, now would we? 

For my Mom

If there is 1 thing my Mom loves it is a picture of groups of kids together, especially cousins and what not. These pictures right here are the closest things my kids will ever have to first cousins, only kid missing is Christopher. And now we have 2 babies a couple months apart, so exciting!  And, even more exciting is Jess's sister had a baby today so there are 3 little babies only 3 months apart, all girls!

Jess doesn't believe me, but I think Rachel is bigger than Emily.  I declare it so!  She just looks bigger to me.

As you can tell, Emily was a little off her game that day, Rachel was pretty good, as far as Rachel goes.  Jess doesn't believe Rachel is a fussy baby, guess she hasn't called during the fussy periods! 

It was nice to see the girls!  We've seen them a lot this year and it has been so nice, fun living closer to "old" friends!

I am out of titles

This newborn thing is harder than I expected.  I remembered that I have difficult babies, but somehow that didn't translate to the fact that the baby wouldn't just slide right into our routine or we would have a slightly different routine, but I didn't expect that we wouldn't have any routine.  Which truly is ridiculous because what newborn has a routine?  She sleeps well at night, of course that is after Eric walks her, to get her into solid sleep.  She seems to enjoy movement to help her get to sleep, she doesn't have the ability to self-soothe yet.  But, all of this is familiar territory for us, both Gwen and Nate had the same problem, I just seemed to have blocked it out. 

Gwen and Nate really enjoy holding her.  I took these pictures during the day one day, Rachel was better positioned, but it is hard to take pictures and monitor, but I think it is important to document this for all of them.  What was funny about this picture is that Rachel was sucking on his arm, Nate thought it was hilarious. 

Here is a picture of the sleeping princess...

This picture from today, I was making lunch, Gwen decided to read to Rachel.

In a couple months, I guess we'll get into a routine and she'll learn how to self-soothe and go to sleep on her own.  The kids will lose interest in her and life will be at the new normal.  I just hope I remember to re-button my shirt! 

Your daily Rachel

or is it Nate? Here is a link to a picture of Nate from this age, what do you think?

Think this girl is also going to be blond? We are currently thinking grey eyes, not light blue like Nate, but darker blue. Although comparing pictures I realize Rachel looks just like Gwen, but with lighter hair, shocker, at this stage all my kids lock the same. In hilarious news Gwen told me that this morning that Nate woke her up. I said oh, I'm sorry, how did he do that. She said I could hear him opening up the candy wrappers. That's right, the sound of Nate opening candy wrappers woke her up. Fortunately she still is a tattle tale and came and told us immediately. Daddy has to learn a better place to hide his candy overnight.

The birthday boss

Today our first born turned six!  Ack!  Actually it isn't a huge deal, you know because she knows everything, so she actually seems so much older.  Or maybe because I just had a baby and she just seems like almost an adult, in comparison.  But anyways, this isn't all about the new baby, this is all about Gwen.
So, how's Gwen's these days, well she's starting first grade this year.  We've been working on her reading this summer, not because she's a terrible reader, but because we are trying to build her confidence, we want her to be comfortable when she starts first grade. Everyone who has had Gwen in their class has said lovely things about her, like I wish I had a whole class of kids like Gwen.  We just wish we would see that kid at home more often!
Gwen is rather bossy, she thinks she is Mom #1, Nate gets the brunt of it currently and is starting to fight back.  I spend most of my time reminding her that I'm the Mom here.  Of course, this is real convenient when Nate is doing something he isn't.  But I keep reminding her that no one will want to play with her if she continues to try and demand people play her way.
Gwen is a sweet and caring sister to her siblings.  She loves to dote and hold her new sister.  And she tries to keep her quiet and happy, which is a difficult task, for sure!  When Nate got his shots last week she was so upset about it that she was also crying and I had to shoo her away, so I could comfort Nate.
Gwen also knows everything about everything, or so she says.  We are talking to her about her attitude and not being so rude.  I am slightly concerned about the teenage years!
Today we had a "playdate" for Gwen.  I had 3 little girls come over, and play with her.  I made cupcakes and the girls played and had a good time.  I shuffled Nate off to one of the girls' Mom who has boys, so it was just us girls!  I knew with the new baby and all the attention she's been getting today had to be pretty special for Gwen, and I think it was.  But I think she took this "MY NEW PRESENTS" thing a little too far.  We try to let the kids have 1 day with their new presents to share or not share according to their will.  At 4 and 6 it isn't going over so well, but I hope with each year it will get easier!
Here is a slide show from today.

Gwen's 6th birthday! - free slideshows with music

Comparison

Gwen, Nate, Rachel

I thought it would be fun to compare a picture of the kids. Although sadly this is as close as I could get to them all being the same position.  So, do you think all my babies look alike?  Chubby, chubby, chubby!

More photos

I found some more pictures to post. None of which have anything to do with each other.  Here is one more from the hospital. 

Just arriving home!

Before Grandma left.  We had a really hard time getting Nate to cooperate!  This one looks pretty good.

I think her hair is lightening up, kind of like what Nate's did.  Also her eyes appear to be gray, but who knows if they will continue to change. 

I'm having a hard time getting pictures because of this right here.  Every time I go to take a picture, the older kids get in the way.  Today during tummy time, the kids were playing and heard me talking to Rachel and ran over and I couldn't even see her anymore, they plopped right in front of me! 

Sure I know it is good they love their sister!  I just wish I could get more pictures so the Grandma's don't get so irritated with me! 

All Rachel, all the time

Alright, now that Rachel is a week old, I guess it is time to post the last of the hospital pictures! 

The first night Rachel and I spent the night alone in the hospital, Eric was toast and apparently was fortunate enough to go to bed at 8p and slept until 8am the next morning.  I on the other hand wasn't so lucky.  Rachel is something of a pistol, now not near as a pain as the other ones, but around 2:30 in the morning (you know when she was 1 day old!)  She really couldn't be settled, I tried nursing and rocking and walking after about an hour I gave up and called in the nurse, who re-swaddled her and she quieted for a couple minutes, and I tried nursing her again and then she went out.  But it was truly a pain in the tail, and a foreshadowing of our first week. 

Rachel at this point loves to be held.  She especially loves it when someone who is not me is holding her, unless she is being nursed and just fell asleep.  Sometimes she will sleep in her pack-n-play.  Sometimes she will not.  We haven't really figured that out yet, it is kind of a crap shoot. 

Rachel doesn't seem to want to spend anytime awake yet.  She will be fine for about 20 minutes, if that then she will start crying.  Fortunately, Eric and I have a lot of experience with crying babies.  We've done this before!  Of course she is 100x better than Gwen and the jury is still out whether or not she will be better than Nate.  At some point Nate started to fall asleep on his own.  I am not sure that Rachel will. 

Rachel has a strong urge to suck.  I am not sure if that is because she is 9 pounds and I am not keeping up with her or she needs that to soothe.  We don't typically use pacifiers, and I am holding out for a while to make sure it doesn't interfere with her growth and my production. 

But, my word, when she sleeps she sleeps like a champ!  All Gwen wants to do is hold her, Nate just wants to kiss her and touch her.  When she cries they come running.  There doesn't seem to be any sibling rivalry, but I wish that it wasn't 100 degrees here so I could at least take everyone outside! 

Rachel's hospital bath

Another difference between this hospital and the last was that they waited until the baby was at least 6 hours old before they gave Rachel her bath.  I thought it would be fun for the kids if we waited for them to be there before she got the bath.  So, late in the day, almost evening of Rachel's first day she got her first bath.  This has to have been the craziest thing I have ever seen.  The aide put down a paper sheet thingy that was to soak up the water in her bassinet. 

She kept squeezing water on Rachel from the wash cloth and then she would wash her. 

I think you can see it here in this picture, the inside of the bassinet is soaked with water. 

Gwen was the ever patient watcher.  Once Nate was sure Rachel wasn't crying out of stress, he just sat back in my lap. 

I can't remember what they were talking about here, but it sure looks interesting. 

Wet and angry, see the water?

Finally hair washing. 

We apparently didn't take any pictures of the clean baby, I think it ended up being time to eat and the kids left shortly after that, Nate possibly traumatized for life.  Gwen happy to help with bath #2! 

Rachel!

Rachel was born this morning at 2:25 am, she is a rather large baby and I will detail her birth in another post, but I wanted to post some pictures.  Here she is right after they weighed her!  Wow!  I can not believe she is so large!

She has been a good baby so far, although I am finding it difficult to keep on her hat.

The big sibs don't really know what to think yet, but they appear to love holding her, and get upset when she cries.  She is so large that really they have to hold her together! 

Grandma enjoys holding her also.  She was holding her and holding her and holding her and Gwen wanted to know why she couldn't hold her again, when Grandma had one of her extended holdings. 

Art project

I decided that we should do art projects everyday! Then we did this first project and we haven't done one since!  The kids loved it, but I feel like it was an utter failure!  We took all our broken crayons and wrapped up some cookie cutters, and cupcake holders in foil and proceeded to put in the broken crayons.  You can see Gwen diligently working here. 

Here are 2 molds, we put them in the oven at 200 or so and then let them melt. 

Nate was our broken crayon label peeler...tough job for a tough kid! 

Gwen and her handy work...

Here they are partially melted

But this was the problem, we couldn't keep the melting crayons contained as hard as we tried. 

We did get some successful crayon pieces and the kids loved it, and now we have way less crayons, but Eric was not pleased with the clean up...I was too pooped to do anything but peel all the foil.  We did eventually figure out that boiling water worked cleaning the crayon wax...we might never do another art project this summer.