Fun times!

This has been an exciting week for Rylee. She has learned to sit up, worked on growing those 2 bottom teeth, and learned to roll over from her back to her front! She already knew how to roll from her tummy to her back, but now she can roll back onto her tummy and wriggle her way around the room. She is getting to be SO big!

And so cute too. The kids set her up in front of the piano and thought it hysterical that she sat there like she was playing.

Rylee was pretty impressed with her new-found skill. I have enjoyed it a lot too. It is nice to be able to plop her down on the floor and see her entertain herself a bit more.

And, this week, while running some errands, Callie asked if we could go to "The Chips & Dips Place". That means Chevy's, and I said yes, because they have the best salsa and my very favorite floutas! Thus the 3 little girls and I went out to lunch and had a lovely time. They were all very good, and I put Rylee in the high chair, which she was able to sit in, and she liked it a lot.

Here's my big girl! Unfortunately, she thought the table was for gnawing on, which was a bit gross, no matter how well I had cleaned it.

Delaney actually ate all her lunch. She saw this picture and said, "That's me, eating Quesadillas" What a cutie pie!

I don't know why she looks scared. She was posing for this.

This cracks me up. My 2 funny, funny girls! I adore Callie's eyelashes!

They got ice cream cones as part of the kid's meal.

It was a tasty cone. I had to restrain myself from stealing Delaney's. She's big enough I can't get away with that anymore!

Ward Activity and Extreme Close-Ups!

We had a very fun ward activity on Saturday. We did a "Tour Africa" theme and had authentic African food and saw African Dancers, and had a good time. Callie was disappointed that we did not actually get to go to Africa, because she had hoped to get to visit Grandma and Grandpa Fox, who are on their mission in Kenya. She was able to overcome her sadness and she had fun anyway. I told the children that I wanted them to try the food so they would know what Grandma and Grandpa were eating over there, and to my surprise, they did!

Joshua made friends immediately with this young man. He had a Nintendo DS and the boys had a marvelous time together with it till dinner.

Delaney has rice, chicken and cow leg on her plate. She was happy with all but the very spicy cow leg. I think that was the general consensus. Except the fried plantain was not so popular either. Perhaps because it looked like a fried potato and someone told Joshua that it was, and discovering banana was an unwelcome surprise.

Callie ate well, see the chicken bone there?! She's hamming it up for the camera.

Yes, they did like the chicken. I think they all liked that the best and ate a lot of it.

We got to see some fabulous dancing. They looked so amazing and danced so beautifully. And the music made you want to get up and join them.

It was all so graceful and beautiful. I enjoyed it immensely. The children watched one or 2 and then ran away. The music was a bit loud!

And now for some fun..... Extreme Close-ups!!

Oh no she didn't!

Delaney got into trouble for poking her sister and had a meltdown, so I left the room. I came back in 5 minutes later, looked up a recipe on the computer and it was only as I got up to go into the kitchen that I saw this:

Oh oh. Is she asleep?!

Oh no she didn't!

Ug, yes she did. She fell asleep. Why is this bad, you ask? It is not just bad. It is very bad. If she takes a nap, she'll be awake till 11 tonight. So not good.

This picture cracks me up. Yes, Mom, she did have 2 cute pony tails and she pulled them out after lunch.

Rylee is now 5 months old. She is a cutie pie and is getting so big!

Check out that runny nose. She's got a little cold and I think she is less snotty today than she was yesterday. Yep, she really is a cutie!

Check out Marian's pants. She has to wear long pants to school, and this is what she does to them. Right now, she is out playing in the snow wearing 2 jackets, gloves, boots, and her pants rolled up like this!

Blue and Gold

My snotty, stuffy nosed baby is wide awake and content, so I'm going to see if I can be productive while she is self entertaining! She's got a bit of a cold and has had such a runny nose. It has made for a rotten past 2 nights. Fortunately, I know it will pass and things will get better!

On Saturday, Joshua had his first Blue and Gold dinner. We had a good time, although the girls were not happy that they actually had to sit there and I didn't let them run rampant. It was cute to see all the boys in their uniforms, looking so proud. And it was a celebration of 100 years of scouting too, which was kinda cool.

Delaney destroyed 2 plastic cups before we even got to the eating part. They had tacos and it was yummy!

Delaney was happy and had a good time bouncing around. Dan and I took turns holding her and eating. The little stinker decided she was hungry just before the skits and I missed Joshua's performance. I was sad about that.

Callie and her grumpy face. She wanted to eat NOW , and I made her wait till it was actually time to eat. And I let her put as much cheese on her plate as she wanted to!

This is Joshua on what he proudly informed me was his 6th helping! Yikes! He was still full Sunday morning, he said.

Marian enjoying her cake. She does manage to wear almost as much as she crams in her mouth.

Thanks, Alan for making these pictures possible!

And now, a video for my folks.... This is a 45 second clip, done by Callie, and it is a typical kind of video for her to make. Except its shorter and cuter than most! (My favorite part is the "I love you" at the very end. )

Follow Ups

Ug, I forgot it loads the pictures in reverse order. Well, my friends, let us celebrate Delaney's birthday backwards as well! My sweet little Valentine girl celebrated her birthday on Sunday, and had a good time. (I did download the pictures onto the PC, and put them on the thumb drive and brought them upstairs to the Mac and downloaded them onto here, just for you!)

She had fun opening her gifts, but her siblings had more fun and stole all her presents to play with themselves. She didn't seem to care at all.

Rylee thought her tights were tastier than our cake and worked very hard to get ahold of those toes!

Yummy chocolate cake and ice cream. I love a tasty chocolate cake with homemade frosting. So delicious!

Dan, Rylee and the big tub-o-ice cream! You can see that the quality of picture has been going downhill. The girls dropped the camera too many times. And I may have let it fall once or twice myself!

Hello Birthday Girl!

To all those who commented or emailed me about Rylee's nocturnal habits, I appreciate it. It made me feel so much better to know I'm not the only mom who's kid isn't sleeping through the night at 2 months. When moms say that, I always feel like they are implying that if I were doing a better job, my baby would also be sleeping all night. And then I hate them! Okay, not really, but it makes me quite cross. It is nice to feel loved and I wanted to expand a little. I have been emailing back individually, but I may as well address some of the things here......

First off, I have tried her on solids. It makes her gassy and uncomfortable and unhappy. So feeding her cereal at night has been a rousing failure. I am currently giving her a little bit at lunch time in the hopes that she'll get use to it and I will be able to feed her at night and she'll sleep longer. I am not sure if that will help though, since I'm not convinced that she is actually hungry when she wakes up. I think she wants comfort and for her, that means nursing.

Second most popular was co-sleeping. I'd be a much bigger fan of it if I did not have barfers. But to have to decide if I'm going to get up and change sheets, put down a towel and sleep on that, or just sleep in wet pukey sheets..... well, it wasn't worth it. Plus, Dan is very opposed to sharing the bed, and I never sleep well when the baby is with me. I agree that crummy sleep is much better than no sleep though! I have decided that I may sleep in the baby's room on bad nights. Delaney sleeps in there, but has been sleeping on the floor, rather than the bed for the last 2 weeks. That leaves an empty bed right where I need one! On the nights Rylee's not just eating and going back to sleep, I may sack out there. Options are good.

Third, and last, I think, I have ordered the "No-Cry Sleep Solution" book and will see if it has suggestions I can use. I really like the "Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child" book, but he advocates the cry it out option, and I can't do that. Well, not till they are older and just too stubborn to sleep when they should and it's either them or my sanity!

I did start a bedtime routine. Around 10:30, I change her diaper, oil her up, and massage moisturizer on her. If she's tired, I take her to her room and nurse her and rock her and put her down. I she's playing and not sleepy, I hold her till she is, and then I take her to her room. I had hoped to establish a routine and then move up her bedtime to a decent hour. I did have her in bed at 10pm fairly consistently for a week, then I realized that yes, she was in bed, but she only slept for 20 minutes stretches till midnight. So I quit.

I have been doing better with my new and improved cheerful attitude! I feel better and I feel better about myself. I'm sure things will disintegrate to the breaking point, but for now, it is great! And now to explain how my camera got broken.

Callie and Delaney developed a dreadful habit, which helped lead to the demise of my camera. They would sneak the camera out of the bag and then do things like this: