Sunday, May 26, 2013

Lord of the Dance starring Master William

 
So, we have always come up with songs that fit the behavior or looks of our kids.  It all started with Addy in her huge cloth diapers when we would sing the Rocky theme song and swing her little fists to the beat.  It was always when she was wearing the green diaper with white lining.  Those ones look just like boxing shorts.  We always laughed that we should make videos of it but we never did. 
 
Tonight I was getting ready to change William's diaper and he was kicking his feet all over the place and making a racket because his cloth cover is in the laundry because yesterday I got distracted emptying the diaper pail while his diaper was off.  Really?  When I finally got back to him he had peed all over and was grinning like crazy.  :)  Anyway, while I've never seen more than clips of Irish dancing or Riverdance, he seems to have it in his blood.  Maybe he's trying to tell us he does want us to call him Master William or Liam.  Anyway, here's his debut.  I think we're a little tired tonight because this was really funny to us.  I hope you enjoy it too. 

 

We did have professional photos taken of our family right after William was born.  Since we've been so busy (and our photographer is about to have her 4th baby) it's taken a bit of time to get them back.  But since I'm in such a goofy mood I'll share this one with you.  Seriously, why did we pay so much money for a picture with William cross-eyed in it?!  :)  Maybe our photographer was in a goofy mood too when she included this one in our CD.  She did get the exact same shot without his eyes crossed and was nice enough to give us that one too. 


William has been busy sleeping, eating, and you know. . . He's also been busy getting out of his swaddle.  We've tried the miracle blanket, we've tried the swaddleme, we've tried both of them together.  It doesn't matter.  If he wants to get his hands out, he gets them out and wakes himself up during his nap by eating his hands.  He won't go back to sleep unless he's re-swaddled.  Good grief!  I'm ready for him to grow out of needing to be swaddled to sleep.  Check out the serious look he has.  He's already got quite the expressive face. 

And just so you know he isn't always so serious, here's his whole body grin.  :) 

 
Ok, off to bed.  Happy Memorial Day!

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Spring Update

Since the last time I posted, we've been busy!  I've attached a slide show of pictures but here's the run down. . .

My sister, Jenny, was able to spend a few days with us on her way to California.  She spent Easter with us at our Pastor's house where the girls enjoyed an Easter egg hunt (they got more eggs than the big kids . . . they had a little help!). 

Then, Brad traveled to N. Carolina for a week and since Dad had a business trip scheduled to SLC, Mom came along and stayed to help.  We celebrated Elsie's 2nd birthday while they were in town. 

Elsie is a piece of work!  She's so funny with her faces and silly things she says and does.  Her vocabulary is exploding (to include things like 'no way!' 'Baby Lilliam cying' 'silly me!' among many other things)  We took her to the Dr for her 2 year check up and while she feels like a tank to me, she's still only 24 lbs (20%) and 34" tall (70%).  She is enjoying riding her strider, playing at the park and imagining going anywhere.  She often packs a bag or bucket and tells me she's going to the jump house.  She continues to be a good eater (with avocados and cookies being her favorites) and she loves to read books and sing songs.  Our most recent adventure with her is that she learned to crawl out of her crib.  It was a pretty funny event, actually, because we were all confused as to how Elsie came to be playing in her room when she was supposed to be in play time in her crib.  She was happy to show us how she got out.  It became not so funny when I was working in the garage during her playtime a few days later and came in to check on the girls.  She was sitting on the floor by the door eating a dove chocolate piece she fished out of my bag.  She was wearing her rain boots and had pretty much had a hay day in the house.  She hasn't done it in almost a week so I think she figured out her consequences were going to be consistent and it wasn't worth it.  :)

Addy is a funny kid.  She loves to perform whether that is reading, singing or dancing.  She talks in New King James English when she 'reads' out of her Bible and the conglomeration of stories she puts together are pretty funny.  She loves her baby brother and does a really good job with him.  She's so gentle, plays peek-a-boo with him and shhh-es him when he cries.  Addy's imagination is unbelievable and if she's allowed to, she'll take over the dinnertime conversation to tell us about what she and 'her girls' did that day.  She makes the whole thing up!  She also has an amazing memory.  She refers to things that happened over a year ago that haven't been mentioned since.  She blows us away.

William is now 10 weeks old and is in the middle of Baby Bootcamp.  Actually, that sounds worse that it's turned out to be.  He started sleeping about 5 or so hours in a stretch at night pretty early on and then sort of hovered there, not really stretching out.  He was often waking up after only a 45 minute nap in the day and I just couldn't figure out how to regulate his schedule.  This weekend I cracked and Brad ordered me out of the house (on Mother's Day!) so he could work it out with William.  It worked.  Somehow I got used to jumping up to get William whenever he cried during a nap instead of letting him work it out.  Since then he's gone 8+ hours at night and is on a very regular 3 hour routine during the day.  He does wake up and fuss occasionally but he goes back to sleep pretty easily.  I feel like a whole new person.  I'm even blogging during nap time instead of sleeping!  :) 

At William's 2 mo. check up we actually ended up doing an ER follow up visit - that's a whole other story- too.  He was 23.3" (65%) and 12.2 lbs (75%).  We got him reflux medicine even though he's growing well because it is suspected the reflux is why we ended up in the ER.  One night William turned pale, dazed and floppy and I called 911 while Brad was at work.  He stayed that way for 40 min even though his vitals were normal.  Children's Hospital called it an Acute Life Threatening Event - which meant they had no idea why it happened to an otherwise healthy baby so we stayed overnight and they did some tests.  The conclusion was that it was likely caused by the reflux but that we probably wouldn't see him do that again.  What a scary ordeal!

William is very smiley now (more so since the reflux meds and getting 8+ hours of sleep!) and squalks and kicks his legs a lot.  He really watches people and he has some pretty pensive expressions already.  He does, however, have to take frequent breaks from the high energy his sisters put out and he doesn't last long around both of them at the same time.  :)  I suppose that won't change much over the years.

Our most recent adventure commenced this weekend when we hosted the 2nd Annual MOPS Yard sale fundraiser at our house.  For the last month we've been gathering donations (enough to fill our 3 car garage!) and other moms and I worked all last week getting everything sorted and priced.  Saturday we were up bright and early to run the sale and we make over $1300!  Wow!  We even had  a TON of clothes left over and some other items that we were able to donate.  What a success.  Then, that night we had a babysitter for the first time so Brad and I could see Les Miserables at the Pioneer Theater Company.  It was a very good show and a very late night.  But, William cooperated and never even woke up while Kristen was here.  I'm sure the exhaustion of the week contributed to my break down on Mother's Day that made Brad kick me out of the house so he could get our son in line.  :)

Yeah, so don't ask about Mother's Day.  I'm taking a rain check on the whole thing so I can enjoy it instead of just being an exhausted mess all day. 

Brad has been busy at work learning to manage 2 new liability teams on top of his auto team.  He's been enjoying the warmer weather by taking the girls on lots of walks to the park and getting the yard in better shape after winter.  He sure does a great job running the show when I'm busy with William.  What a great dad! 

I'm done with all my year's activities for the summer so I'm creating a new routine for me and the kids.  We're starting weekly walks at the park with some other MOPS moms followed by playing at the playground and a picnic.  We're getting good exercise and the kids are getting worn out playing outside.  It's been really refreshing but pushing 2 and carrying 1 is a lot of work!  I'm figuring out how to keep everyone cared for during the day when Brad's gone but I have yet to actually cook a real dinner.  I've defrosted and reheated previously prepared meals and dished out left overs but cooking. . . not yet and William is 10 weeks!  Oh well, no one has gone hungry yet. 

Life is busy around here with 3 littles 3 and under.  Maybe now that I don't need a nap every day I can start to get some things done. . . if I could only find my To Do List.  :)