My 4 Loves

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

1 month

Penny wearing the tutu that Nie Nie made for her

I can hardly believe that Penny is one month old already. She continues to be a sweet baby with a great disposition. When she is awake she is really content to be held or in the swing. She rarely fusses except when she wants to eat or when her tummy is hurting her. She has been diagnosed with the milk protein allergy like her brothers had. That completely explains the slight increase in fussiness and other symptoms that she has been experiencing. So, I am now on a dairy free diet again which is a challenge but oh so worth it!

She eats like a champ and nursing has come so naturally to us both, which has not been my experience in the past. So far there have been no issues other then the dairy allergy and for that I am so thankful!

She is still sleeping in 2-3 hour stretches, but has recently surprised me with a few 4 hour stints. She continues to sleep in her bassinet next to our bed and will for some time I am sure. I wouldn't be surprised if Penny starts to sleep longer stretches after her tummy heals.

Penny continues to be the delight of her brothers. We have seen very little if any jealous issues toward Penny. We are reminding them more often to keep their hands to themselves etc, but all normal adjustment stuff.

Charlie loves to hold her, lay in bed next to her, tell her how cute she is, help me by getting diapers or her blanket, soothing her in the car if she is crying, and looking into her eyes. He loves her so much and it is so sweet to watch him interact with her. He is so tender and gentle with her. Thomas loves her just as much and loves to tickle her, pat her on the head, cover her in kisses, steal her binki :), throw out dirty diapers for me, hold her and sing her songs. The boy does NOT realize his own strength though and kisses her with such intensity that he often leaves red kiss marks on her check or forehead. But he is so kind to her and gets so excited to see her. And Miss Penny adores her brothers. She turns to look at them when they come close to talk to her. She is comforted by their voices, especially by Charlie. She is so tolerant of all the hugs and kisses, tickles and even a few rough touches that come her way.

The last month has gone very well. We are sleep deprived, but I think both Trent and I are doing pretty good. Penny is definitely a very laid back little girl, but I also think that both Trent and I are more relaxed this time around. I know that I am really trying to take care of myself and get a nap in during the day if I really need one, not stress out about housework or if I don't get everything accomplished in a day that I had hoped to do. Trent has also been wonderful at picking up the slack and doing things that I normally might do around the house. And he does so without complaining or expecting me to do more.

I am also trying to enjoy every moment of our days because I know how precious this time is with all of our children. I am even grateful for the middle of night feedings because it is a time that Penny and I get to snuggle together. I feel so blessed to be the mother of these three wonderful kiddos and I am truly trying to appreciate each moment, even the trying or difficult times.

Trent and I have transitioned very well to having a third baby and continue to figure out new routines and schedules. We even ventured to church this past weekend and it could not of gone better!

We are so in love with this little lady and feel so blessed to be given the opportunity to have our family grow. I am so excited for our future and all that it has to offer.

Best Day Of Your Life

When we went to Disney in April, Tommy was totally obsessed with the daily parade that made its way up and down Main Street USA. We had to catch a glimpse of it each day and were sure to say "Good bye" to the parade before our vacation was over.

He loved the music and dancing, the characters on the floats. But his favorite were the male stilt walkers with their bright colored outfits. His all time favorite was the "Blue Guy".

(man down!)

Months later we are still being visited by the "Blue Guy" on usually a daily basis. Tommy struts around the house, waving his hand to imaginary bystanders. He gets that proud look of his, the tongue in cheek one where if you say anything to him at the moment he smiles, blushes and looks away.

He is so sweet and I just love to watch him have fun and be in "character" mode. He walks through the house on his parade route singing "Best day of your life, you don't want it to stop, here and now." That is the only part of the parade song that any of us remember :)

An explanation of his "costume". The characters in the Disney parade that he LOVED walked on stilts, so hence the containers on his feet. They are his "stilts". The pompom represents the streamer like things that they characters waved around and the snow glove, well I think that is just his own touch :)

Monday, November 29, 2010

Published

Charlie wants to be published in the Lego Club magazine. He made this super cool mobile crane and we are going to send this photo off to Lego. He thinks it is super cool that Lego actually publishes kids pictures and their creations. I think his imagination and mad Lego building skills are even cooler.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Homeschool: Kindergarten & Preschool weeks 8 & 9 Letter I

We have done a little bit of school the last 2 weeks. We started back to our school lessons a week after Penny was born. I have had Charlie concentrating on the basics, Phonics and Math. I also had Charlie do more independent work on the computer for the Study Island portion of his curriculum.

This is a testing portion that K12 offers to help practice different concepts that he is learning. He did really good and I think it is a great exercise for him to do on his own. It really is sharpening his ability to follow directions and computer skills.

I have given Tommy a break from his weekly curriculum but realized today that he needs more structure so I am starting to incorporate more of his work back into our daily routine.

Besides the basics we have tried to do a few fun things as well. We made pumpkin playdough from scratch.

The boys really liked doing this and it was super easy to make. We then made turkeys out of the playdough.

I think they turned out really cute. With the extra playdough and materials we had we made up 2 packages for our friends Luke and Elizabeth and sent them in the mail. We talked about Thanksgiving and how we are thankful for things and people in our lives. We got the idea from my friend Susana, who did this last year.

We also did our crafty ABC for the week, the letter I. We made Iguanas.

Tommy is REALLY into writing the letter "I" lately and even though he knows how to write his name he is much more excited to write "I, I, I" over and over again :) Charlie got creative with his Iguana and added his name and his initials to it. If you look closely at the bottom right corner of his picture you will notice that his Iguana has "pooped"....so typical of my little fella :)

Charlie had a great time making a paper bag city. One of his magazines had a few sheets of store fronts, houses etc that he could cut out and then glue to paper bags and make a city. He loved this project and did it over 2 days.