Halloween Festivities

Something truly disturbing is happening to our house.  A few weeks ago, we woke up to find that something had dug up the front lawn.  We decided it must have been a dog and left it at that.  Unfortunately, the lawn is getting worse.  Something is pulling up chunks of it.  I think it may even be crows.  I don't know what to do about it!  Fresh dirt clods appear daily.

This is the sad lawn.  It use to be so beautiful, and now it looks like this.  Ug!

School today had "Crazy Hair Day".  I colored Joshua's hair blue for him. He loved it! And it did wash out.

This was just too cute.  (Its the skeleton at the chiropractor's office.)

See, no more blue hair.  Joshua did his own pumpkin this year and did a surprisingly good job of it.  And Callie cracks me up!

Delaney is sad because I said no candy before dinner.  Could she BE any cuter?!

The Ward Halloween Party was tonight.  Rylee was a corn on the cob!  She was very good and slept through most of it.  And she was proclaimed the cutest.

Joshua was a Pirate and he won this jar of candy corn for guessing closest to how many there were in it.  (316, I think!)

After trick-or-treating through the building, Callie and Delaney sat right down to devour their loot!
Yep, there was  even a pinata there tonight!  Go Marian!

She was a cowgirl, but left her horse in the car.

The cutest little unicorn is telling me not to eat her candy.

And here is my littlest cutie.  She is getting bigger every day!  She is 5 weeks old now.

Fun at the commissary

Today I took my 3 youngest girls to the Commissary with me.  I thought it would be a good day, because payday isn't till Friday and its drizzly out.  I figured it would be pretty quiet shopping today.  Perhaps part of the problem is that we didn't get out the door till after 11am.  I had a friend stop by and we visited for 45 minutes, and then my neighbor dropped by with Halloween donuts!  Hard to complain when its good reasons that keep you home.

The commissary was busier than I expected.  Mostly it was retirees.  I honestly don't mind it being busy, I just mind the oblivious people, and it was full of them today.  I know that I try to keep my cart out of the middle of the aisle, and if I need to scan the shelves for what I need, I'll pull off to the side and keep out of the way.  Nope, I didn't see much in the way of situational awareness and courtesy today.  I saw a lot of blocked aisles, a lot of large bottoms bent over checking out stuff for long periods of time, and I saw a lot of slowly meandering couples aimlessly wandering the floors, seemingly to look endlessly for something.  It was a bit annoying.

I did get my chuckle for the day though.  We had cleared a particularly crowded aisle, and Delaney was howling because I wouldn't let her out of the cart, and we came upon the next aisle, which was empty.  Empty, but for the woman blocking the way into it.  She was standing directly in the center of the aisle, looking vaguely down it as I pulled up behind her.  Again, Delaney was crying (loudly!), so she couldn't miss that we were right behind her.  I waited.  She didn't move.  I waited.  She was still there.  I decided to squeeze past her, so we sidled to the left, where there was just enough room for the nose of the cart to fit.  And then, yes!  We could move by her.  She evidently saw the desire to ram her in my eyes, because she actually gave ME a dirty look and a very rude "Excuse ME!" (the kind that really means, "excuse you, ya jerk!").

And I had to laugh.  Here she was, blocking the aisle, and she's mad at me for squeezing by?!  I suppose I could have loudly shouted "excuse me" before we tried to get by, but I figure everyone should be polite enough to be courteous of others in the store.  I am.  And if I am in the way, I smile and beg their pardon.  I can be nice!

We made it though the chaos and got all our groceries. I only had one elderly lady tell Delaney to stop jumping in the cart and express concern that she'd tip it over.  That was a new one for me.  We did have the usual concern from the old ladies as she climbed all over it, and she spent a few minutes "riding" the cart, with one leg draped on each side of the cart. I figure if she falls, she'll be more careful next time.  I am not going to spend the entire time trying to keep her sitting quietly.  I spend too much time doing the minimum of it, and I don't need the exercise in futility.  In case you were wondering, I do smile and politely thank each person for their concern.

So that was my day.  And since Rylee slept cozily in the front pack, she has no desire for an afternoon nap, unlike her mother who would LOVE to go lie down for a bit!  And now I shall end this with a few pictures of my darlings.

So cute when she sleeps!  Actually she's not sleeping- she's playing "possum".  You can tell from the ninja hands.

Dan had to pull out his dress blues for a funeral detail and Joshua tried on part of it!

Here is Callie's chin.  She bashed it pretty good and has been quite concerned that people would notice it.  She's quite embarrassed by it, so I have assured her that no one can even see it.  Don't tell her otherwise, please!

Crusty, open eyes, and she is so cute! Her baby acne is getting better, but still a little icky here.  She's still adorable!

Funny/Not Funny

My family cracks me up sometimes.  And other times, not so much. For example:

Delaney with her baby is pretty funny.  She dresses her baby and carts her around.  As a matter of fact, last night as I was up at 2:30 (NOT funny!) I could hear Delaney talking.  I checked on her and she was playing with her baby- putting underpants on her.  So silly!  I laughed my way to bed.

Not so funny is how she wants to hold the real baby all the time too.  Sure, it is cute, but it gets exhausting.  I try to say yes as often as possible, but that's still quite frequently.  I appreciate that she loves her sister, but she is not as gentle or baby-savvy as an older kid.  

Here is her baby again.  Very funny that Delaney needed her hooked into the car seat for our outings today.  I was quite amused.

Very not amusing is this baby.  This is what she does in the car.  Not funny.

This child of mine is a treasure.  She is full of surprises and keeps life interesting.  

This is the desk work that came home yesterday.  It was the correct direction when I uploaded it, but you can still see, even sideways that she has drawn little pictures all over it.  If you look very closely, they are pretty well-done and quite cute.  

However, her teacher did not find them funny!  I wasn't really thrilled about it either. Dan and I had a talk with her about this, as we were also unamused by it. 

Sorry this is blurry.  I find it quite funny that Dan's method of leaf removal is to mow.  It is surprisingly effective though!  Less funny is that it does not pick up all the rotten prickly gum balls that the tree drops.  Those do have to be raked. 

Callie and Me

We'll start with the must-have picture of Rylee:

She has reached the nasty phase.  She has awful baby-acne and is splotchy and pimply.  Although the moron doctor who saw her yesterday said it was heat rash.  (Um... yeah, in my 68 degree house, and the only place she has this "rash" is on her face?!) She also has dry scalp and her hair is falling out.  Add that to her already crusty eyes, and she is just a mess!  Poor thing. 

I love this kid!  Her joy and zest for life make her a delight to be around.  Her sweet, giving nature is touching, and her smile is contagious.  She really cracks me up sometimes!

That's my cutie Callie!  She's my big helper and she loves to hold her sister.  She has had some wide emotional swings lately, but life has shifted a bit, and that's what happens.  

Yeah, big cheesy grin from my girl!

And here I am, with my sweet Rylee.  Well, sometimes she is sweet!  She is quite adorable when she's awake and alert during the day.  Not so adorable at night.

And not so adorable when she's doing this.  The kid must be sleeping or held.  Sometimes I can get 10-15 minutes where she is content in the swing, otherwise it is 5 minutes increments when I can put her down, before she cries.  She doesn't like other people and cries when they hold her.  Anyway, Callie took my picture for me, and you can see that I am wearing the lovely purple heart necklace that she made for me!  Callie is such a sweetie!

What did you do all day?

I decided to chronicle my day to see what I actually DO all day.  So I wrote down everything I did from Sunday night to Monday night.  A not-so-surprising amount of my day revolves around Rylee.  Here is the little darling now:

Wait, I don't let her cry too much, usually I see this face: 

Here is what I did all day:

10pm Sunday night- Rylee falls asleep and I hustle to get all ready for bed. 

10:30- Rylee wakes up.  I fed her.

11pm- I hold Rylee on my lap and update my blog, check email…

11:40 -  Chang Rylee’s diaper, then feed her.

12:10 am Monday morning -  Rylee finally  goes to sleep and I get to go to bed.

2:30am- Rylee wakes up. I nurse her.  She doesn’t want to go back to sleep.  We hang out in the dark living room while I wish to the universe that we could sleep.

4:15am-  She finally falls asleep and we go to bed.

6:20am-  Rylee wakes me up to eat.  Since I have to be up in an hour, I lie in bed to feed her and cross my fingers she doesn’t puke.  She doesn’t and I doze and nurse, then roll her over and we sleep till the alarm.

7:15am- Alarm goes off and I get up.  I make school lunches, put breakfast in the oven and get kids dressed.  I debate if I have time to shower before breakfast is ready and conclude that I do not.  Rylee is still asleep in my bed.

8:00am-  I feed the kids while doing 3 sets of hair into pony tails.  I harass Marian to get her shoes on and get out the door for school.

8:15am-  Joshua and Marian head to the bus stop.  I race for the shower.

8:33am- I’m out of the shower and I can hear Rylee fussing.

8:35am- I feed Rylee and change her diaper.  Then I hustle to get dressed and blow dry my hair and to finish getting ready.  Rylee needs a new outfit as well.  She also needs another diaper change.

9:03am- We’re a little late getting out the door and into the car, but we’re off to preschool.  Callie is thrilled that we’re going to beat Reagan and Tyler (the neighbor kids) to preschool.

9:16am- We’ve dropped Callie off at preschool and we’re on our way out of the parking lot.

9:30am-  I stop by McDonald’s to grab breakfast because I realized I hadn’t eaten any!  Plus, I decided I deserved it; I managed to get us all out of the house on time!  Then we head to Walmart.  I feed Rylee in the parking  lot before we go in.  Delaney drinks her McD’s orange juice.

11am-  We leave Walmart.  It took too long looking for reading lights, and I had nothing better to do, so we roamed the aisles.  I consider it my exercise now.    Since Callie doesn’t need to get picked up till noon, I decide it’s not worth going home, so we stop by the thrift store and meander through there.  (I got a shirt for Marian and a Calvin & Hobbes book for Joshua for $2!)

12:02pm Pick Callie up from preschool.  Rylee screamed all the way home.  She does not like her carseat and hates being in the car.

12:17pm Nurse Rylee, Change Rylee’s diaper, then unload the car

12:40- Remember that Marian has a dentist appointment, try to get a babysitter.  Delaney has a meltdown over Play-doh, we snuggle with one arm while I carry Rylee in the other.  Rylee doesn’t like to be in the swing if she is awake.

1pm- Feed the girls lunch.

1:08pm- Joshua and Marian arrive home from school.  (They have a short day on Mondays, rest of the week they get home at 3:40)

1:20- Hold Rylee, start laundry

1:30- Nurse Rylee.  Change Rylee.

1:50- Rylee finally falls asleep for a nap.  Make S’mores for a snack for the kids.  Rush Marian to brush her teeth, then hustle kids to the car.

2:10- We’re in the car and off to the dentist.  No, I couldn’t get a babysitter, so we all go!

2:30-  We are on time for Marian’s appointment.  Joshua has a book, I brought the mini- DVD player and Callie and Delaney enjoy a video.  Rylee sleeps.

2:50- Marian is done!

3:15- Back home.  Call Dan.  Do laundry.

4pm-  Change Rylee, Feed Rylee while watching 15 minutes of Oprah.  Then I hold Rylee and put in videos for Delaney, look for a pie recipe and prep dinner.  Rylee eventually falls asleep.

5:10-  Rylee wakes up.  I change another poopy diaper and then feed her.

5:30pm-  Dan arrives home.  Dinner is in the oven and I’m holding Rylee.  I get the table set and start putting my pie together.

6:15-  We all sit down for some tasty chicken-pot-pie.  Dan and I alternate eating and holding the baby.

6:30pm-  Rylee falls asleep and I can put her in the swing.  We finish dinner, clean up dinner and I get my chocolate pie into the oven.  I load and run the dishwasher, move laundry over and clean up the kitchen.

7pm-  Rylee wakes up.  She eats.  We have Family Home Evening.  Dan and Joshua give the lesson.    Dan takes care of refreshments. 

7:35pm-  Dan takes Callie and Delaney up to bed while I balance the checkbook and pay bills.  Rylee is content to hang out.  Then Rylee cries and demands to be fed. I change her diaper too.

8:15pm-  Change another poopy Rylee diaper.  I chase Callie back to bed, watched part of “Dancing with the Stars”,  update Facebook, and stall Rylee with the binkey.

8:46pm- I give up and nurse Rylee

9:15pm- Dan takes Rylee so I can get ready for bed.  She pukes on him.

9:35pm-  I’m holding a cranky baby.

9:45pm  Another dirty diaper.

10:30pm-  Feed Rylee, burp Rylee.

11pm-  More feeding Rylee

11:30pm-  After much fussiness, Rylee pukes violently and copiously on me.  Fun-fun.

12am-  Fussy, fussy baby.  Nurse her again.

12:15am- Thought she was down for the night.  She wasn’t.

12:40-  Yay! Rylee is finally asleep and I jump into bed too.

 

 

That's My Boy!

Joshua is a great kid.  He is funny.  He is helpful.  He is a good brother.  He even lets me take pictures occasionally!  

He was trying to see if he could duck his head before I could get a good face shot.  That's why this is slightly out of focus.  I got a great head shot, but he was still in motion when I took it!

This one was a little better.  I have not included the 2 shots I got of the top of his head!  He is a handsome little devil, isn't he?!  

Payment for pictures taken was this:  the opportunity to get some silly shots done.  I think he is sufficiently silly!

This is his Dead Man Pose.  Such a funny boy, he is.  And I love him!

The Joys of Motherhood

Fun is when you nurse your baby in the parking lot before you go in (because she said she wasn't hungry before you left the house, but by the time you arrived at the store she was starving, starving, starving!), and as you finish feeding her, she vomits copious amounts all over herself, the car and your burp-cloth (but only a little on you).  Then you get to change the baby in the car before you go in and you are really glad you packed a spare outfit and your other 2 girls are running amuck in the van and you don't even care.  Yep, that's fun, for sure!

In Hindsight.....

To begin, I wanted to say that my brother and his family came to visit us.  When they initially asked, I hadn't really realized I'd have a newborn at that time.  I had just kind of assumed I was going to be pregnant forever.  So I said yeah, October would be great.  And it actually is great.  They arrived with their 5 children, who are fairly close in age to mine, so everyone has had a wonderful time playing together.  

I wanted Grandpa to see how much his grandchildren are enjoying their tree fort.  The swing is very popular and has needed to be re-tied several times.  Check out Delaney's chocolaty face!  Sorry it is blurry.

Aaron had a very good time raking leaves into that orange bucket and hauling them up to the tree fort and then dumping them over the rail.  Delaney got a bit of a leaf shower, but she wasn't going to give up her swing!

Since we had fun company and Monday was a holiday, we wanted to all go somewhere fun together.  I wanted to go too.  Andy and Kera decided the Zoo would be good.  I knew the Zoo involved a bit of walking, but I thought I would be up to the task.  It also seemed like a good idea to drive to the Pentagon and park there (since it was a holiday and we could).  Then we could see the September 11 Pentagon Memorial and take the Metro from there. So we did that.  However, getting 4 adults and 10 children up, ready and out the door was a lengthy process.  

Oh, and it was quite a bit colder than expected.  I really would have made Marian wear long pants if I'd known.  She was so cold here!  Look at her unhappy face!  I finally dug through the car and found a poncho in the emergency kit there and she wore it all day and loved it.

Look!  Documentation of Rylee's first outing and her first trip to the Pentagon Memorial!  And yes, that is my son in the background, sliding down the bench.  I was embarrassed. 

After that we took the Metro to the Zoo.  And yep, there was a lot of walking!  I had not anticipated the trouble of going with 10 children and 4 adults!  I had anticipated that Rylee would need to eat, I just hadn't planned on her pooping through her outfit!  Aack!  I had only a long sleeve onesie in the diaper bag.  So on that 55 degree day I had an infant wearing a long sleeve onesie- no pants, no socks!  I did have her in my front pack and she was swaddled in a blanket and my jacket was buttoned over her.  She was content to ride there, but she did not want to be in the stroller.  She was happy to be carried, but screamed violently if put in the stroller.  So she was fine!

Here we have Marian in her poncho, and Callie having a meltdown.  I think she wanted to walk, but she had a hard time walking with us and had been banished to the stroller.

Joshua was cross because he wanted to be home before 4pm.  He had some grand plan involving the tree fort and the neighbor boy that he wanted to enact then.  I had thought we would be home by 4, but at this time it was clear we would not be.  The Zoo is very poorly constructed, and you cannot get anywhere directly and you have to backtrack a lot.  And some people wanted to see certain things and so it just took a lot longer than any of us expected.  There was also construction going on and the Elephants were closed.  I had wanted to see them.
The kids liked getting their pictures taken at all the little statues.  And we had to stop for snacks frequently.  We packed a bunch, but somehow, it is never enough!

Marian, still in her poncho.  You can see she's pushed up her sleeves, but she would not take off her poncho!  She thought the turtles (tortoises?) were very cool.
Here are my 3 oldest and Andy's 3 oldest in front of the Zoo on the way out.  We did stop by 5 Guys on the way home to grab dinner, but we left the house at 10 that morning and it was 6pm when we got home.  I was so exhausted!  In hindsight, something less strenuous would have been better to try on a first outing.   I didn't anticipate quite so much walking and I didn't think I would spend ALL day on my feet with a baby strapped to my front.  My back ached and my feet were sore!  Rylee slept fairly well last night- just a bit of alertness from 12-2 in the morning.  Other than that, I got good sleep.  

Baby Update

For those of you who are tired of baby news, skip this post!  My life is now consumed by Rylee, so I have little else to blog about.  I probably ought to blog about how fantastic Dan has been, but he hates it when I blog about him.  So I'll just say, he has been a fabulous help and I'm so sad he had to go back to work today!  And, back to the new focal point of my life....

Rylee had her 2 week check up this week.  She weighs in at 8 pounds, 10 ounces.  That's 8 ounces more than she weighed at birth.  She also grew a half an inch and is now 20 1/2 inches long.  She is still erratic in her eating and sleeping.  The doctor suggested just letting her eat when she asked, and to not assume she was rooting because she was gassy.  Surprisingly, that seems to have helped.  She now eats whenever she wants, which could be 30 minutes, an hour or 3 hours between meals. (Its terrible on my milk supply consistency!)  Fortunately, she has done better at night.... mostly!  We visited the chiropractor yesterday and she slept the best ever last night.  That means she slept 3 hours at a stretch- twice!  And she just woke up to eat and she promptly went back to sleep.  Please, please let this continue!

And here is my bright-eyed beauty!  She's getting so doggone cute!  She looks a bit like all my other kids.  I think more Marian here.

Here I think she looks like Delaney as a baby.  Rylee actually likes to lie on her back and observe the world.  Now that her eyes are opening more and she's more interested in the world, its kind of fun.

The pediatrician seems to think she's going to keep the blue eyes, and maybe have blond hair.  She has pretty light hair with red highlights in it, so we'll see what she ends up with!

And next, we have a lesson in children.  This is what happens when you are trying to get dinner ready and tell your 8 year old son to keep the baby safe (from Delaney!) and entertained.  He gets the camera and entertains himself as well as the baby:

Here we have Rylee in sunglasses.  Joshua thought he was so clever with this!

Callie thought it was a hoot to have Rylee "kissing" her puppy.

And Joshua and Marian thought this was hysterical.  Rylee on the phone!  Hee hee ha ha.  They laughed hard enough I had to come and see what they were doing.  And I confiscated the camera.