Monday, January 25, 2010

My little cheerleader

... and no, it isn't Audrey.

Carter has said some very funny, albeit very encouraging comments to me lately.

This morning I was wiping off his placemat and Carter said "Good job cleaning Mommy!"

Why, thank you for noticing, little boy.

His funniest encouraging comment? The other day as I exited the bathroom, he said "Good job going on the potty Mommy!"

Can you tell what we have been spending a lot of time talking about lately? ;)

Next week we commence potty training. Hopefully I will have a lot to "cheer" about as well!

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Belated Christmas greetings from the Smiths :)

Just found this on our camera ... it made me laugh so I thought I'd share it!


Friday, January 15, 2010

Six months

Chloe is now SIX, count 'em, SIX months old. Doesn't that sound somehow .... older? It does to me. Six months is when I have found that babies get *really* fun - not that they are a snooze-fest before that (how ironic that I would use the term "snooze-fest" to describe the first 5 months ...) but my babies have always seemed to be so much more interactional and fun at this point.

And Chloe does not disappoint. I commented to Chad the other day - this has been a month full of milestones.

Here are a few:

Rolling over ... which she sometimes does in her sleep and then wakes up screaming!

Eating at the table with us. She is now eating 2 "meals" a day. We also decided to ditch the big ol' highchair in favor of a booster highchair strapped onto one of our kitchen chairs. Our kitchen is just so tight with 5 people now that we didn't want one more thing to trip over. You think I'm kidding. Carter probably bumps his head on our kitchen island once a day because it's so tight in there space-wise.

Chloe has now graduated to the exersaucer. The swing is now folded up and ready to go to the attic. A little bittersweet...

Sitting up and playing with toys. Of course she eventually falls over but she can sit for periods of time now.

Purposeful attention-getting behavior. Chloe will sit on the floor (or in her high chair, etc.) and *try* to make eye contact ... if that fails, she starts making noises intended to get your attention. And once she does get your attention, you are rewarded with a great big smile.

Longer sleeping at night. It is not perfect yet, but she no longer eats at night (like, she goes 12 hours without a feeding!) And I am starting that lovely process abbreviated CIO ... cry it out, baby. I hate it, but it works, and I know she just needs to learn to put herself back to sleep at this point. She goes to bed beautifully, but she wakes up usually once during the night and wants her pacifier, attention, etc. (Lest you call child services, I usually do some kind of initial check to make sure she isn't suffocating and/or a sniff-test to makes sure she isn't sitting in a diaper full of doo-doo or something ...)

And last but not least - scootching (SP?) around .... she normally scootches herself each night from one end of the crib to the other. By morning her head is up against the far bumper. Oh boy. My other 2 were back sleepers and hated their tummies so they crawled late. I have a feeling it's gonna be different with this one ...

So far Chloe is a laid-back little lady. I think being the third ... she kind of has to be. There are 2 older siblings *constantly* shouting or laughing loudly in her face and the funny thing to me is that she seems to enjoy it. (I personally find my kids being up in my face annoying, at least when it's LOUD. Soft hugs and kisses are fine, but yelling in my face? not my favorite.)

So far Audrey gets the prize for being able to make Chloe laugh out loud. She can usually manage to get laughter out of her in a way that none of the rest of us can. You can already see the big sister idolatry happening .... Chloe just follows Audrey around with her eyes and smiles at everything she says and does. (Those of you who know Audrey will know how much she revels in this ...) haha

In other non-Chloe-related news ... Audrey and I have spent the week battling sickness and both recently took trips to the doctor. We both have ear/sinus infections. Now Chloe is waking up with crusty green stuff all over her nose. January is just too much fun around here! I just keep reminding myself - at least this is just a "normal" illness, and not something serious.

And of course, as every mother knows - "This too shall pass" ...

Monday, January 11, 2010

Yup, it's officially January.

It's officially January. I don't need a calendar to be able to tell, all I have to do is look around our house at all the sick people, and yup, I can tell January is upon us. This happens every single year. Maybe it has to do with the traveling and together time we have with everyone over the holidays? If so, there are some "gifts" I would rather not receive ...

Fortunately as the years go by, I now embrace January for what it is. Once Christmas is over, I just head to Rite-Aid and stock up on advil, cold medicine, cough drops, infant tylenol, etc. and then say to the pharmacist "Hey, see you in a few weeks ... I'm sure we'll be back with some kind of prescription for antibiotics!"

So far, Carter & Chloe have both had colds (including eye infections ... trip #1 to the pharmacy for prescriptions). We pretty much need to add a few hundred bucks into the budget this time of year between doctor copays and prescription costs!

Then Friday morning around 3:30 am I woke up and knew I was coming down with it too. (Of course this did not stop me from going out with Chad on Friday night to celebrate our anniversary ... I'd have to be pretty sick to pass up a night out with no kids!) I now have no voice, a stuffy head, and my right eye is starting to get goobery. Good thing I have the kids' eye drops already.

Yesterday I picked up Audrey from Sunday School and she was literally sitting at the table alone while all the other kids were running around. I could tell by looking at her face that something was wrong. She complained of a headache and felt warm. Now her ears are plugged up...

Last night every single one of the kids was up at some point complaining about something ... did they not get the memo that I am sick and need my rest?? :)

Yup. January is here. Only 20 more days to endure ...

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Wordless Wednesday

Nine years ago today ...

Monday, January 4, 2010

it doesn't get much cuter than this ...


...except for maybe Audrey or Carter :)

Not that I'm biased or anything.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Christmas, Part Deux

We are back from our second Christmas celebration! We got home last night at 11 pm. Chad & I have decided that we like driving at night. The kids slept for half the trip, so it really cut down on the "Are we there yet? Can I have a snack? I have to go to the bathroom! Are we there yet?" over and over again. We actually had time to talk uninterrupted for hours straight! Unheard of these days.

We drove up to Buffalo, NY (in a snowstorm!) and spent a few days piled into Chad's sister's house with Chad's family - 8 adults and 8 children (all under the age of 10) under one roof! We had a great time - lots of fun, lots of laughs, lots of silly children ... not a lot of sleep. Chloe decided to start rolling over at night, and she doesn't seem to like feeling like a turtle on its back. Anyhow, today I slept in until 9:30 am so it's all good.

Here are some pictures of our adventures... sorry, there are a lot of them!

Day one: Take the kids to Chuck E. Cheese. There was a lot of kid energy to burn off!


Day 2 - Skiing. Well, for most of the gang. The little ones stayed home with me & Grandma!

This was Audrey's first time on the slopes. It was a little rough at the start but by the end of the day she was asking to go down the mountain "Just one more time!"



Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the little boys were playing trains ...


Day 3 - Bowling!

Audrey & Grandma

Grandpa hangin' with the babies, Brooke & Chloe

Audrey & her best cousin, Carolyn. They had SO much fun together!


Grandpa with Chloe

Chloe trying out the big highchair ... more interested in eating the tray than her food ...

We had cupcakes and sang happy birthday to Carter. His birthday isn't for another month, but it was fun to celebrate with cousins.


Day 4 - enjoy the snow, attempt some family pictures, and get ready to go home ...

Always plenty of snow to be found in Buffalo!

Lunch at the kid table. :)

Grandpa & Grandma with all the grandkids

The whole Smith/Bubar/Shteierman gang!

Again ... many great memories!