Follow up to last post.

So this was supposed to be the follow up to last week's post. Like, the next day. Whoops. One of the more exciting things we have done was go through the car wash.

 

Okay, I thought it was exciting.

 

 

My little people did not.

 

I made the mistake of sitting and watching the car in front of us go through the car wash with my window down. The air dryer was kinda loud, so they were convinced it was going to be the most loudest thing ever.

 

It wasn't. I called them babies. (where is my mother of the year award?!)

 

The actual baby has found her thumb. And I die of the cute every time she sucks on it.

 

this thumb right here.

 

It's better than the alternative though. Which is me. She's given me three hickies so far. Here's one:

 

 

In other news, I'm still as obsessed as ever with having my girls match. We go all the way to jammies in this house.

 

And you can tell by Evan's loving look at her sister that she is so ready for Elyse to be big enough to play with. I came up with one way they can.

 

El can be Ev's very own living baby doll! Just kidding. She's my living doll baby. And I promise I didn't let them leave Luke's room with her still in the doll stroller and I supervised the entire time. As far as doll babies go, I know how quickly they become doll girlies to dress up instead. After Lysie Ann's 4 month post a couple of weeks ago, I pulled up Evie Lane's 4 month post for a little comparison.

 

 

Aren't they starting to resemble each other?! I can't believe the doll baby on the left is now this big.

 

People, that is a size XS dress from the girl's section at Target. Girls. Not baby, not toddler. Girls. *tear* Also, she has on the new hat I bought for her, and my shoes. I think they really complete the outfit. Y'all, I love my boy. I'm so glad my son is my first born. Luke cracks me up daily in all of his boyish charms. But this girl mom thing is a whole different ball game. Most of the time I have no idea what I'm doing, but I'm pretty sure my hair will look great and their outfits will be matching when we get there.

Nothing exciting. Just look at the pictures.

Whew am I behind. Which makes me really sad because the kids have been hilarious and I'm not writing any of it down. For instance, last week I was brining the kids home for the day and there was a ton of traffic on a road that normally is fairly light. I made the comment "Goodness, where in the world are all these cars coming from?" You would think that was a rhetorical question, but Luke responded "I think they are coming from Africa." Africa?! I didn't even know you knew that was a place.

We had another snow day. I went out to take a picture of my new 'hello' phrase I put on the front door and I saw these little tracks. Not something we see around a lot!

 

 

Evan, being 2, is always coming up with funny things to say. She still gets "she" and "her" mixed up. She also has a hard time pronouncing things from time to time. Like instead of corn dog, she tells me "Mom I want a horn dog." She told me it's her birthday, and when I asked her how old she was, she said "thirty o'clock". We were watching hockey on tv and she went through "coffee, cocky, haushy" and I don't think she ever actually got HOCKEY out.

 

Ashely made the frame and printed an Audrey Hepburn quote on some fabric with Evan's birth stats when she was born. I found this print online and thought it was perfect for the girls' room. I just had to add El's name!

Luke got some mustaches for Christmas. I had a little fun with them.

 

Evan did not have fun. But this still has got to be one of my favorite pictures of my little family. If you can't be silly with them, who can you be silly with? And this next one makes me laugh too. Obviously it started out with little sister. Then big sister came along and photo bombed the whole thing. Elyse was not impressed.

 

Hmmmm. So what other things have popped out of the mouth of my babes. Let me check twitter....

 

Ah. Two weeks ago Evan announced in the middle of quiet communion in church that she needed to poop. Yeesh. Then the next day I had jury duty. I live tweeted the whole thing and it was absolutely RIVITING. Not really. I felt bad for my whole 76 followers.

 

That week was Valentine's week. Monday night after jury duty was my grandmother's birthday. I let Lysie girl wear a love outfit to dinner. I thought it was appropriate.

 

I had fun with it this year. I think this was the first Valentine's day where I had absolutely no expectation/hope for some romantic surprise. Seriously. This was probably the first one since I was 15 that I wasn't in some kind of functional/dysfunctional/who-knows relationship. I just focused on the kids and it was nice. It was the first time I decorated the house. I made fabric hearts and hung them everywhere.

I told myself that I wasn't going to buy the kids at present. I don't want them to come to expect something at every turn of the calendar page. Having a special family night does not have to include wrapping paper. BUT. I saw this mug at Target that had a little puppy on one side and said "I woof you" on the other. OMG. It was perfect for Luke and he needed it to be his own hot chocolate mug. And I was right. He loved it. LOVED IT. He felt so special. (Evan got a cup with a crazy straw, so she was happy too)

 

Evan was pinked out for the day and Elyse wore hearts and her "my first Valentine's" bib. We made our own pizzas, which was a huge hit, and had such a nice time. (plus the 4th pizza made a nice lunch for me on Saturday. Ha!)

Laying down to take our picture is just so much easier. Gah. Love her.

Four months

 

 

Baby Elyse you are 4 months old! And what a joy you are. I don't think having babies ever gets old. Watching this new life grow and change is one of my most favorite things. And you are so fun to watch. There is a line from the movie Elf where Buddy says that smiling is his favorite thing.  He's got nothing on you babe. You smile and coo and laugh with utter perfection. Your first true laugh was at your brother. You and I were reading a bed time story with him one night and he got in your face, being silly, and you thought it was hysterical. You are ticklish under your chin, and on your ribs and thighs. Hoisting you over my head like superman always gets a little chuckle too. The only thing is every time you laugh, you get the hiccups. Every. Time.

 

 

What else are you doing? Not sleeping through the night, that's for sure. Sometimes we are down to only one feeding a night, but most of the time it's still twice a night. And to be quite honest, it really and truly doesn't bother me very much. I love you and I love cuddling with my sweet baby.
 

A sweet baby you won't be for too much longer. You are working so hard to sit up. When you are sitting in your bouncy chair you try to do this thing that almost looks like you are doing a crunch. You try and pull your whole upper half up by your neck, and sit there squeezing your tummy muscles to hold yourself up. It only lasts for a few seconds before you relax and rest, but then you try it again.

 

 

Lysie Ann, you have definitely grown. You are wearing size 6 month clothes (although we have to roll your sleeves up, they are always too long), size 2 diaper, and have not slowed down on how much you eat. I say that, but nursing you has become a little more difficult since you've noticed the two busy children running circles around you. Your brother and sister are so much more interesting to watch than what I've got to offer! One thing I've noticed is that you don't spit up NEARLY as much as you used too. It was every time you ate, something would come back up. Now we can go almost a whole day sometimes with nothing! Don't get me wrong though. More often than not I show up to work wearing something that came out of you. You are also working hard at rolling over. When laying on your back, you toss your hips over and can get your lower half rolled, but your shoulders are stuck. You are an excellent kicker though. Your legs are constantly moving- in your chair this causes you to slid down and bounce all around. On the floor/in bed this causes you to move up or in circles (and sometimes it makes your legs get stuck in the slats of the cradle!).

 

 

I think you have the most beautiful profile.

 

 

The way you always clasp your hands together like this kills me. You are so dainty and sweet (except for when you burp. You burp like a frat boy.) Your hands are either holding each other or in your mouth. You are LOVING sucking on your thumb. When it doesn't gag you. That happens sometimes.

 

So all in all, my darling baby daughter, your family is so glad you are here. Your sister loves you. Your brother loves you. I am head over heals for you. Lets just not whiz through this next month, okay?

 

Love Momma.

P.S.- When I was taking your pictures, Luke wanted to lay down with you and take y'alls picture together. Then Princess Evan wandered in, and we had something like this:

He wanted to hold hands and every thing.

And when I say Princess Evan, I mean PRINCESS Evan.

Phone Photos

The last couple of weeks have flashed by. Not too much has changed, but for some reason I feel like I can *barely* stay ahead of the game. Housework isn't getting done like it used to. Patience has been a bit thinner. Bed times (for the kids) have miraculously maintained on time. The only thing I can think of is Elyse is awake most of the time now, so there are actually three kids to deal with as opposed to two kids and a sleeping baby.

Example A: I was trying to get Evan's bath ready after I'd let her have some chocolate pudding (this time WITHOUT the terrible antibiotic mixed in.) Before I could get her physically into the tub, she found the baby and kissed her.

 

And to think I thought it would be a few months before I was wiping smeared food off that child's face.

 

Her neck and back strength has gotten so strong that I finally pulled out the bumbo for her to try out.

 

 

Success! She totally loved being able to see me while I fixed dinner, then she sat on the table with us while we ate. I was a tad heartbroken though. My baby looks so big! To make matters worse, Saturday I spent most of the morning redoing her closet- pulling out the 3 month clothes and organizing the 6 month. Booooooooo.

 

Last Saturday morning Luke had a little fun with his treasure box treasure from school.

 

 

He cracks me up. That boy LOVES to talk. He will talk your ear off for an hour. You listen for 5 minutes and you've found a friend for life. And the conversations get pretty comical too. I think it was Thursday night or so, I finally started live tweeting all the things he was telling me. I'll set the scene: Evan was playing in the bath tub. I was sitting in the rocking chair in my room, illuminated only by one lamp, nursing the baby. He was fidgeting all around as he held a, pretty much, one sided conversation.

 

-Luke: What do you want for your birthday? Me: Mmm, a boyfriend. Luke: No. What CAKE do you want for your birthday. Me: Oh. Strawberry.

 

-"Mom, you need to dust your mirror. You can do that tonight. Dusting things is really cool. Here, I can dust the bottom part with my hand."

 

-"Little MessyPoo seems hungry tonight. I call her Lil MessyPoo because she's messy when she poops." [Elyse]

      

-"You know what is awesome? God let me run really fast. It's my special gift. I just go like this..*runs in place vigorously*..and I just zoom! off."

-"Hey Mom. You know what? Grandad says I'm his favorite grandson. But YOU'RE my favorite grandson. And mom."

 

Yeah. All that was within about 10 minutes. Plus there was a whole conversation about a button he brought me, and how he likes my button jars and when he's 10 he'll sew all my buttons for me.

 

 

Friday night was Mom's birthday, so we went to dinner and then over to their house to have cake. I let the girls be a little fancier than just jeans since Evan loves to dress up so much these days.

 

 

She's not just into dress up CLOTHES. She likes to dress up her face too. In an effort to not have the makeup that I use every day ruined, I went through my basket and pulled out some things that I never wear any more and put them in a little makeup bag just for her. Now, when I put on my makeup, she can have her own to use.

 

 That was Monday before going to Cindy's. Cindy had a nice surprise when we showed up.

And finally, one last one of my Luke boy, just to balance the scales a little. :) This was this past Saturday morning. I'd finally pulled myself out of bed and tried to snuggle up to him while he watched cartoons. Not only does he NOT cuddle, (at. all.) but  good grief he is boney. As you can see, he wasn't too thrilled about me being in his space.