ssshhhhh....

I don't know if there is anything sweeter than a sleeping baby. Sydney is a VERY light sleeper. It will be interesting to see if she continues on that path or becomes a deeper sleeper. When I was taking these pictures, the quiet clicking noise of my camera was waking her up. She started in the bassinet as she does every night. After a couple hours, she always stirs and wants to be next to me... it is so sweet. I am sure Ava and Luke both preferred to be next to me but I don't remember them liking it as much as Sydney does.

Singing

Not sure if it is a female vs. male thing but I love the way Ava sings and sings and sings throughout the house while she plays. Happy Birthday (she says Happy Happy,) Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Hot Cross Buns. Old MacDonald had a Farm.... to name a few.

Two more firsts!

Today, smiley girl ate her first bite of food. She ate a whole banana in just 2 sittings... pureed and watered down of course! She had no trouble swallowing it. We went to the doctor yesterday for her 4 month appt. She is 13lb. 11oz. and 25 1/4 inches. 50th percentile for weight and 80th for height. Looks like she is going to be tall just like her sissy and brother. Sydney's other "first" today is not as cheerful as the other... she has her first cold. Doesn't seem too bad so hopefully it won't get worse. I will get some good pictures of her eating later in the week and post them...avocados are on the menu for tomorrow.

Feeding our babies

Yes, this is what it looks likes... Mama, Ava and Luke all breastfeeding our babies and B. Lately Luke has been nurturing B quite a bit. What a good Daddy he will be someday!

4 month comparison

Here are all 3 babies at 4 months. Different lighting in all 3 so it isn't as good as it could be but oh well. I still think Luke and Ava look the most different and Sydney is a good blend of both kids... I think she looks more like Luke than Ava though.

The Bumbo

We recently took out the bumbo for baby Girl. I was surprised she is doing so good in it... I thought she may be a little young for it to sit more than a minute or two, but she can sit there for about five or ten before she gets bored... or it starts to hurt. Never quite sure if it hurts them to sit before their core is strong enough for them to do it on their one. Either way, it is a good exercise for her to learn to sit. I just can't wait for that!

Her sweet little face is such a mystery to me, I still don't think she really looks like any of us, especially with those big, wide eyes! She just looks like herself and I love that about her.

Happy Halloween 2010

We had such an action packed weekend, carving pumpkins, making special pumpkin Sugar doughnut muffins, and going to parties. We had a neighborghood party on Saturday and our dear friends, Erin and Adam had a Halloween party tonight... the kids thoroughly enjoyed both and so did we. Ava far exceeded my expectations.. she wore her duck costume and actually went trick or treating. She walked up to each house, said "Trick or Treat" chose only one piece of candy and then said "Thank You!" She even brought Baby Stella along to every house. Luke was hilarious. He was the first one in the pack of kids to every house to claim his candy. Poor Sydney did not even make it in her costume this year, she was sleeping in the ergo the whole time.

Duck and Batman on the way to the festivities!

Who is this guy??

Busted.... eating candy bars before trick or treating!

Luke found this fellow Batman friend and followed him around the whole night protecting him and posing. So funny!

Ava and Maddie

Luke, the photographer

Ever since about a week or two ago, Luke has a new interest.... taking pictures. He likes all cameras... my new one, old one and the kid one that Uncle Len gave him last year for Christmas. Especially since I received my new Canon D60 from Steve this past weekend, we have been shooting so many photos together. He loves to take pictures along side me. When he wants to shoot with me he says "Mama, say cheese with Luke?"

Happy 4 Month Baby Sydney!

She is 4 months old as of yesterday, October 30th. Sydney weighs 13 and 1/2 pounds, a tiny bit bigger than her sister was at 4 months. We will find out how tall she is at the doctor on Tuesday. This weekend she started sleeping on her belly. She loves it and does not need to be lulled to sleep when she is on her tummy but it makes me nervous. You would think by the third I would be more relaxed... but I am not. Happy 4th Month Baby!!!

What I love about today...

I had a really hard week, this week. It was long, trying and exhausting. Steve had work consuming him Monday through Thursday. Although Sydney had a great week developmentally, she started laughing and interacting a lot more, it meant less naps and therefore; less time for me to go running and just have some ME time. I will never complain about a hard week because the truth is that I have way too much to be thankful for to ever complain. I have a wonderful husband and father for my children, and 3 beautiful children. I have my health and most importantly I have time... time, to spend with all of these wonderful people in my life.... and I am not just talking about Steve and the kids, I am talking about my friends I have met here in Seattle... Erika, Jamie, Erin, Megan, the McClenahan's and Missy. The girls who give me a lot to look forward to on a Monday when I know I will see them sometime that week hopefully. I love knowing my kids are bonding with theirs and they will be friendships that hopefully last a lifetime. I am also thankful for my friends in Nashville that I don't see at all but talk to often and miss, like Brody, Kristen, and Lana. And I am forever thankful for my sister, my best friend and my incredible family... my parents, Nana Lass, brothers and sister-in-laws, nephews, nieces and of course, Aunt Mary Ann and Jennifer. God I hope I didn't leave anyone out. Life is too short to not tell these people in your life how much they mean to you.

You will not catch me writing about stuff like this often, even though I think about it constantly through out the day. It is what drives to me to have patience everyday when I want to scream along with my kids when they are having a tantrum. Sometimes, like today, I want to curl up in a little ball and hide while this magic fairy comes to my house, cooks a wonderful meal for husband and kids, cleans my house and puts my children to sleep. When I am feeling like this, I think back to a year ago and longer than that, when I lost 2 very special people in my life and I THANK GOD that I am here dealing with tiny tiny problems like exhaustion, lack of patience, lack of ME time and I remind myself that I am living a dream and I thank GOD for the time he has given me with every single person in my life, especially my other half.

Happy 10th Anniversary, Steve. Not only do I love the dream camera that you gave me today but I love it for the hundreds of thousands of pictures I am going to take of our amazing children growing up together and I look forward to many family and "alone" trips we are going to go on together and for the everyday life we have left to experience together. I can only wish, hope and pray the next 50+ years of our life will be this fantastic. God, that makes us old but I don't even care because everyday is a gift.

A boy, a box and a flashlight...

Who knew what fun an empty box could be when the electricity is out in the middle of the day?


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Sweet Ava

The older she gets, the more defined her personality is and the prouder I get as her mother. She loves her sister so much and now that Sydney is getting bigger and not so fragile, Ava gets to hug and squeeze her more. When she holds her, she does not want to let to go. Sydney doesn't seem to mind :)

Lately Ava has been asking Daddy and I to hold her. She says, "up, up." I always wanted a kid like that... that wanted to hang out on my lap or just carried around. She is my little shadow and I love it. When I put her on the counter to help me cook or do whatever, the next minute I see her putting Stella on the counter of her little play kitchen, reenacting whatever I had just done with her. After she sees me playing with Sydney with a certain toy, the next thing I see is her using that same toy with Stella. She was even wiping Stella's nose this past week, just like I have been wiping her nose 20 times a day because she has had her first cold this season. Ava does not miss a beat. She is going to be such a great Mommy someday, I can already tell.

And sometimes, she still wants to be the baby herself...

My Baby

I can't get enough of her wide eyed face! I find myself babying her more than I did Luke and Ava because I know she is our last. My favorite moments with her are early in the morning when I wake up and she is just smiling at me. She is such a cuddler. I am glad I have the excuse of breastfeeding her while I sleep so she can stay in bed close to me longer.

"Daddy, Daddy!"

I absolutely LOVE it when Daddy is being silly with Luke and Ava, running around the house playing "Hide and Seek." Luke yells, "Daddy, Daddy" so cute when they are looking for each other. Luke always runs off to hide when they all count to 10, but when he is not found instantly (like within 3 seconds) he gets impatient and goes to find Ava and Daddy or he laughs really loud giving himself away. Ava just runs all over the place like crazy when she is hiding...never even finds an actual spot to hide.

Spiders, Spiders everywhere...

Steve and I have noticed there are a lot more spiders in the PacNW compared to all of the other places we have lived. Even more so this season for some reason. It has been on the news but they have not said why there are so many, just the fact that there are more than usual. Someone at Luke's school said that it means we are going to have a colder this year. Either way, Luke especially loves looking at them but says "Ewwwww, spider web" whenever he sees one. He calls just the actual spider, a "spider web." They stretch across the decks in our back patio area and we look at their ever changing webs everyday.

Sydney laughed!

Sydney gave a little cackle a couple days ago, for the first time. I am also working on transitioning her to napping in her bassinet or crib instead of in the baby carrier. She will sleep there for only about 30 minutes tops, but at least we are making progress :)

The Pumpkin Patch ~ Craven Farms

Today was the perfect fall day for going to the pumpkin patch... cold and sunny. We really had a great time this year watching Luke and Ava together. Last year, Ava was only 10 months so not very into anything. We went on the hayride and walked around the patch. The ground was nice and dry and there were a lot of green pumpkins because there was not enough sun this year. Luke told me earlier in the day that he wanted a tall, skinny pumpkin so we found just that! We also found a huge one that will be fun to carve!