Picture update

I unloaded the cameras today and realized how much blogging I have to catch up on. Not that there has been much of significance going on, but we have pictures of our day to day, and so we blog....

Rachel has been on a pirate kick off and on lately, and got a bandanna from Grandpa night to wear when she was being a pirate. She let Ryan borrow it:

He looks like a baby terrorist.

Bubbles!

Annie got a special treat from Daddy when he gave blood (since all the post-donation snacks had gluten he brought them home to share since he couldn't eat them).

Annie showing some love to Ryan. He's a pretty good sport and puts up with her love pretty well most of the time.

Ryan had this reverse male-pattern-baldness going on. Most of his baby hair along the sides has fallen out and is growing in light blond, and the roots of his mohawk are coming in blond, but it looked really funny with the tips being so much darker than the rest of his hair, so we decided a 2nd haircut was in order when he was 4 months old.

Post haircut:

 

Showing off his yoga skillz with a downward dog.

Monsoon season has been pretty great this year with some good storms blowing through, though we've been missing them the last few days. The best one yet was a week or two ago and it rained so hard we had a stream in our front yard, and a river running in the street. The water in the street was almost up to the top of the curbs. We had some great puddle jumping afterwards, and had a nice picnic in our garage to watch enjoy the much cooler air post-rain.

We got to go to the temple a couple of Saturdays ago for the first time since Ryan was born. He took a bottle just fine the week before, but apparently he decided to give bottles up after that. Maybe because he threw up from eating the formula. He has a hypoallergenic formula now that doesn't seem to give him any problems, though we haven't been able to get him to drink a bottle of it, but when he eats it mixed in with his rice cereal and is fine after. Anyway, we went to the temple and my parents were nice enough to watch the kids for us (and clean our house, for an extra bonus--blessings for attending the temple?). They ended up feeding Ryan lots of rice cereal loaded with formula and he survived the 7 hours we were gone without starving or crying the whole time despite refusing a bottle. The girls had a great time and got some new books and stickers, which Annie was nice enough to share with me all over my face the next day.

Whenever Ryan is fussy and nothing else will calm him down we take him outside and he calms right down. He is content to just sit outside and look around for a good long while. Annie is getting more clingy with me lately, so when I go somewhere she wants to come with. If I sit in the hammock/swing with Ryan, she wants to be in my lap, too. (Notice the jungle grass--apparently when the monsoons come, it makes grass grow. I guess that means we need to cut the grass. For the second time this summer.)

And will wrap up this edition of blog update with a picture of Annie in her teeth brushing position: feet in the sink, sucking the toothpaste off the brush. 

 

Summer activities

This summer we decided to be busier than we normally were during the school year. Which I quickly realized was a bad idea. Having somewhere to be every day of the week was a bit much. Rachel had gymnastics and Annie had a little Movers and Shakers class on Mondays, then Tuesday thru Friday they had swim lessons. For the first two weeks of summer. I made a token effort to sign up for the next session of swim lessons, but it didn't work out and I wasn't too disappointed to have our schedule be much lighter. Rachel really enjoyed her gymnastics class.

When I told her that gymnastics would be over at the end of July and dance class would be starting she told me she would rather do gymnastics. I'm glad she enjoyed herself, but dance is a lot closer to home and cheaper, so I managed to convince her this time, and said we'll do gymnastics again after dance is done. 

The last day of class they showed off all their skillz. I stayed with Annie and Ryan and my mom got to go watch her (though I'd seen most of it through the window every week) and took pictures for me. 

Here's Rachel's turn showing off her "floor routine" which mostly involved a somersault (which she can finally do on her own without going sideways) and a donkey kick. We have our own little gymnast. Almost Olympics quality. ;)  

Annie also loved her Movers and Shakers class, spending most of her time on the slide over and over and over, occasionally doing a somersault or playing on the obstacle course or with the balls. We only got her to class maybe half of the time because of sickness or other things that came up, but she enjoyed when we did make it. I decided it was a waste of time and money, though and we won't be doing it again. Rachel loved those classes when she was Annie's age, but I think Annie gets in enough climbing at home just carrying around her stool everywhere in the house to help her reach whatever she wants to climb on, and a lot more social interaction than Rachel got being the only child at that age. Annie has plenty of chances to play with other kids, particularly Rachel, but also friends we have playdates with, so I think we'll forego any of these classes in the future. 

 For the last session of the summer I decided to sign Rachel up for swimming lessons, knowing that she'd miss half of the classes since preschool had started (and it costing $2 for the session, I didn't have to worry about getting my money's worth). I had tried to do some one on one lessons with her myself and she is just the kind of kid that does better with a teacher other than mom. With me she is perfectly willing to throw a fit and get mad or refuse to do something she doesn't like (like putting her face in the water, which is kind of a big part of learning to swim). But with a "real" teacher she'll do what they ask her to do even if she doesn't want to. She actually was sick with a cold for part of the session, so instead of attending 4 out of 8 lessons, she only got in 3, including the last one that turned in to just a free play time in the pool.

 

But in those 3 lessons she really did make some progress and was willing to put her whole head under the water on her own several times that last day. Woohoo! Now if I can just make sure I take her occasionally between now and next summer maybe we won't have to completely start over at the beginning of next summer. :)

Good news!

Rachel's tests came back normal--no celiac disease!! Woohoo! That saves me a lot of headaches. Especially with her starting back to preschool today and the potential for food sharing, treats, etc. (The school district we live in they're on a modified year-round schedule, so school started this week, and the preschool Rachel is in follows the school schedule mostly.)

trauma and puddle jumping

Thursday we started out the day with a little trauma, taking Rachel in to get blood drawn to test her for Celiac Disease (we'll get the results Monday, I'm hoping). It was as bad as I had imagined. I held her on my lap, clamped my legs around hers wrapped my arms around her arm they weren't drawing from, and held her head looking away from her arm while she screamed and cried the entire time, and they had two techs there to hold her arm still while they drew the blood. I hope to not have to do that again for a long time. Or ever. As we left everyone gave us looks of sympathy when they saw Rachel's red face from crying (and I'm sure they realized that the screams they had been hearing for the last several minutes--the door was left open and that girl has LUNGS--were from her). 

After that trauma she deserved a treat, so I took her to McDonalds for lunch, let her play on the slides and stuff, then got her a travel sized Hungry Hungry Hippos game (which Annie seized as soon as she saw it when we got back). The rest of the day she proudly showed off her bandage (which the tech said to leave on for 20 minutes or so, but is still on because she has to show it to Dad when he gets home from his campout this afternoon).

Later that afternoon it rained pretty good at our house, so after the rain was done we headed out to play in the puddles. The girls had a blast.

 

Annie kept getting her hands wet in the puddle, then going to the dry part of the sidewalk, making handprints, then jumping up and yelling "ta da!" 

 

 

 

 

Oh, how we love monsoon season. Bring on some more rain!!

The kiddos

By the time Annie was 3 months old my mom had been hit by a truck, I had visited her (with Annie in tow most of the time) once or twice a day for most of 3 week stay, we had driven to Utah and back, and we had gotten my mom settled in at home and she was beginning to be allowed to put weight on her feet and get around on her own more, and I felt like life was back to (our new) normal with the new baby and I had a handle on things. Here we are with Ryan going to be 4 months old next week, no life-threatening injuries, no big trips, nothing really out of the ordinary going on the last several months, and I still haven't found our new normal. Or maybe I have, and it's just chaos. ;) I have at least gotten to the point where I can make dinner without too much trauma or screaming most days (or maybe I just tune out the screaming better now), and we have clean clothes to wear, even if they are in laundry baskets waiting to be folded half the time. So I guess that's progress. And one day I'll be able to bake something again without waiting for sometime when Jake is around to help me juggle the kids. 

And here is the main problem keeping me from being able to do anything useful around the house:

(We finally got his tax deduction t-shirt picture that we also have of Rachel and Annie.)

 He's a cute problem to have, at least. :) He and Rachel are identical in their sleep habits at this age. I often wish it were Annie he mirrored, since Annie could fall asleep so easily all on her own. With Rachel I would spend what felt like forever bouncing on the exercise ball to get her to sleep, then longer holding her before she was in a deep enough sleep to stay asleep when I laid her down. Then she would often wake halfway through her nap and if I caught it quick enough I could get her back to sleep, but if I wasn't quick enough she was cranky and had to be held until the next naptime cycle began. Ryan is about the same. Only this time around I have 2 other kids vying for my time, making naps more difficult. I have high hopes that his naps will be getting more regular, longer, and easier in the near future. When he is awake he's usually pretty happy, though he does prefer to be held. A lot. :) At least he's a skinny boy.

Speaking of sleeping, this was where Rachel fell asleep the other night:

We had put Annie to bed early that night, so when Rachel asked if she could read a book before she went to sleep I told her she could read it in the hallway before she went to sleep. Apparently I should have been more clear that she should read in the hall, and sleep in her bed.

Rachel is enjoying her summer with a gymnastics class, which she LOVES. She did one session of swim lessons, and may do one last session starting next week, though we've had one "class" with me teaching and she improved more in that half hour than she did in two weeks. We'll probably have a couple more one on one lessons this week, then hope for a better teacher next session. Paying $2 for a 2 week session, you can't complain much if you get a bad teacher in the luck of the draw--I figure it's cheaper than taking her swimming twice, and she gets 8 times, so even if she learns nothing and has fun it's still worth the $2 and I can teach her myself when I take her swimming.

One worry I've had lately with Rachel is whether or not to get her tested for Celiac. She's had a lot of canker sores lately (which are related to Celiac Disease), and several random tummy aches. It doesn't seem like much, but I recently read a study where they screened 1st degree relatives of celiac patients and 20% of them tested postitive for the antibodies related to Celiac Disease, and had NO symptoms. The test is unreliable under 2 years old and less reliable until kids are between 5 and 7 from what I've read, so I'm torn between getting a blood test done (which will involve much weeping and wailing on Rachel's part since she HATES shots) and maybe have an inconclusive result or just putting her on a gluten-free diet for a month or so, then reintroducing gluten to see if she has a reaction. Or I could just do nothing until worse symptoms show up, but I'd rather just have a kid with Celiac Disease, than wait until more damage is done from not treating it and have her develop another autoimmune disease like lupus or type 1 diabetes, and still have Celiac Disease on top of it.  So we're either doing the blood test or the GF diet, we just have to decide which one.

As for the last little kiddo:

She is starting to be a little talker, just in the last couple of weeks picking up more and more words, or at least enunciating them better so I can know what she's saying (though most everyone else still has a hard time). She LOVES jumping and carries the stool around the house, climbs up on it than says "jump, jump!" holding out her hands so I'll hold her hands as she jumps down. Or she takes the stool to the couch or ottoman and jumps from the stool onto the couch or ottoman (then from the ottoman to the couch).

Annie is getting to the fun age where she knows how to make us laugh and shows off for us and is really cute. Which is also the "fun" age of getting a mind of her own and throwing tantrums and biting and hitting and pinching. The cuteness balances out the monster-ness of the (almost) terrible twos, just as God intended, I'm sure. Annie loves nursery and occasionally randomly starts doing the hand motions for Popcorn Popping, or The Wise Man, and today even (kind of) sang her own abbreviated version for me. She loves sitting on the potty, though has has fewer successes lately than she did when she first got interested in the potty. Somehow, though, she always seems to know just when Ryan is almost asleep or really needs a diaper change himself and decides that is the exact moment to come tell me "Poopy! Paw-ee(potty)!" demanding that I remove her (very full) diaper so she can sit on the potty. If only I had 3 or 4 hands I would be just fine. 

I think that mostly sums up life for now. Our floors are dirty, there are crayons scattered in the wierdest places around the house, and I have no hope for clean windows in the next decade, and if Rachel does have Celiac I have no idea when I will find time to make her baked snacks like muffins and granola bars and such, since I have only baked once, I think, since Ryan was born. We're still adjusting, I guess, and we're getting to the new normal bit by bit. The one thing I do really love about not being able to get anything done because Ryan is in my arms so much throughout the day is that I sit and play or read with the girls more often than I probably otherwise would. I have no "I'll be there in 5 minutes when I finish _______" excuse since I don't often get around to starting ______. :)

Rolling, rolling, rolling...

Our little man is growing up. A little too fast if you ask me. I really like the smiley, cooing, IMMOBILE stage of babyhood. Unfortunately that stage doesn't last very long for our kids, I guess. Rachel rolled over at 4 months and one week, crawled at 8 months, and took her first steps at 9 months. Annie rolled at 4 months, crawled at 6 months, and took her first steps at 9 months. And Ryan rolled over on Sunday, two days short of 3 1/2 months old. I was really hoping that he would be slower than his sisters, maybe wait until he was at least one before he started walking. I guess there's still some hope, but it's waning....

One milestone it's okay for Ryan to reach early is sitting up on his own. He stays content where he is a lot longer when he can see more things, and lately he has been happy to sit in the highchair (though Annie doesn't always take too kindly to him sitting in "her" chair: "Dow! Ry-ee dow!" (Ryan down) is her favorite refrain).

He also likes the Bumbo chair. For 10 or 15 minutes. He always lasts longer when Rachel is entertaining him.

 

On a mostly unrelated note (though illustrative of why rolling, followed by crawling, followed by walking, followed by climbing, followed by stool-moving is best put off for as long as possible), here are some pictures of Annie's resourcefulness when we made some no-bake cookies this weekend.

She managed to help herself to one before it was all the way set, but she sure liked it. And didn't make as big of a mess as she could have. :)

And lastly, some pictures of Ryan shortly after rolling over. He first rolled from back to front, but later the same day also figured out how to roll front to back (though he has done that accidentally at least once a while back in his crib). He also has been scooting for about a month, or maybe a little more, mostly in his crib (since we rarely give him tummy time 1.because he alwasy spits up when he does tummy time, and 2.to stunt his motor development ;). We usually find him stuck in a corner of his crib no matter where we lay him down, where he's scooted until he could scoot no more.

I have a feeling he'll be chasing his sisters around as soon as he can, causing trouble right along side them. Look how excited he is at his newfound skillz:

 

Sickie Update

We have finally emerged from a week and a half long sick house. Annie was sick with a fever, but no other symptoms a couple Sundays back, then Thursday night Rachel had a fever, but nothing on Friday, then Saturday the fever returned with no other symptoms, except feeling yucky when her fever would spike. Sunday the Rachel still had a fever, and had to visit the bathroom much too often all day. Annie woke up puking Monday morning and threw up every 40 minutes from 3am to 5am. Luckily the rest of Monday was easy and everyone was feeling fine and had no fevers. Wednesday afternoon Rachel's fever returned, and that night my tummy didn't feel too good (dealing with bedtime for 3 kids while Jake was at mutual and I'm feeling sick is not my idea of fun). Thursday Rachel still had a fever, but by the end of the day was ok. Jake came home from work feeling sick at the end of the day and ended up staying home Friday, then Saturday through Tuesday was Annie's turn with the diarrhea, making for some really nasty diaper (and sometimes entire outfit) changes. We are all happy to be free from that little virus.

And here are some pictures from the week and a half of fun:

We watched plenty of movies, especially the days Rachel or Annie were feeling dead to the world and didn't want to move. Of course Annie LOVES (the idea of) movies. If the doors to the entertainment center are open she will go search through the movies and bring one to me saying "moo-ee!" When she's sick she'll sit and watch the whole thing, but most of the time she gets up and plays with other things, and occasionally checks back in with the movie when she feels like it.

Rachel's ice cream goatee:

Annie's happy little face, despite some yucky tummy rumblings on Sunday:

The girls got out the doll stroller and Rachel was having fun pushing Annie around.

 I suspect Ryan will be sitting there in a few months once he's sturdy enough to become their live doll (they already think he is their personal toy, but they're mostly good about not moving him--Annie, only because she's not strong enough to).

Both the girls have been really in to painting lately. We made some tambourines out of paper plates the other day as part of the library summer reading program's activities, and here they are decorating them:

 

Tuesday I went outside to see if it was cool enough for a walk since it was getting cloudy and windy as a monsoon storm blew in (though it never rained on us:( ) and I found a doll nursery on our front porch that a neighbor had left there for us, since her daughter was mostly grown out of playing with it.

The girls have LOVED having this new toy. We moved their play kitchen out to the garage to make room for it in their room and they spend hours bathing and feeding their baby dolls and putting them to sleep. A definite winner.

And yesterday the day arrived for haircuts. Rachel and I have been having an almost daily fight for the last year when I tell her it's time to get her hair done. She hates getting her hair done, especially the tangles combed out. I would occasionally tell her when she was screaming/whining particularly loud that we could just cut off her hair if she didn't want to have tangles. She would always promptly refuse saying "But I don't want to look like a boy!" I liked her long hair and felt safe threatening a haircut occasionally because she did, too. Until she saw some pictures Sunday of her last time she got a haircut and realized that she could get a haircut and still look like a cute girl. So all week she's been requesting a haircut, and yesterday I gave in and pulled out the scizzors. 

Before:

After:

I intended to make her hair shoulder length. Oops. Close enough. Good thing I wasn't aiming to cut her hair to chin length, or who knows how short it would be. She has one spot in back that is giving me problems, but since I'm not a hairdresser I have no idea how to fix it, and she doesn't care, so I guess I don't care, either. 

This morning when it was time to get her hair done it was so quick and easy. She brushed her own hair, I parted it and put a barrette in and, viola! Done in 2 minutes flat with no complaints. I guess it was worth it.

Since I had the scizzors out, I also took about an inch off of Annie's hair to try to even things out, but I'm not sure it's more even, since she doesn't sit still very well for haircuts. (By the way, this was cut #4 and she turns 20 months tomorrow.)

The final masterpieces: