Sleepytime Update

Thank you to everyone who offered advice on sleeping children in the same room!!! I am happy to say that the transition went well. The first night took 2 hours for them to fall asleep, the second night took 1 hour, the third night took 30 minutes, and the 4th night took 15 minutes. Not so bad! James often wakes up when I come in to feed Kate at night, but he just stands up in his crib and looks at me. I keep my back to him. We are both silent. When I come back in from feeding Kate he is almost always asleep again. Yes, I do leave the room to feed Kate. I don't want to push my luck. I have not tried napping them together. Kate naps in our room while James naps in the kid room.


Sometimes James goes to bed first and sometimes Kate goes to bed first depending on the night. (Their bedtime is at the same time, but one will typically get laid down first--Jordan gets James down for the night while I take care of Kate). At first I tried to nurse Kate in the kids' room while James was trying to go to sleep...bad idea. He just wanted to chit-chat. It was way too tempting for him. So now I nurse Kate in our room and then bring her into the kids' room to lay her down. I usually walk in to a little boy happily playing. So, I help him lay back down and replace his blanket and then they go to sleep. When Kate goes to bed first, Jordan and James read, pray, and sing a song in the living room. Then James is prepped on being so very quiet and sneaky, so that Kate can't even hear them enter the room. He's laid down and they go to sleep. Sometimes they play for a time, sometimes Kate fusses for a time, but usually they go right to sleep.


From my experience, it seems that you do just need to bite the bullet and put them in together. They adjust to each other. And they love to be together. Some nights I think it helps them go to sleep. James usually tries to be a big helper and be quiet when we bring Kate in. So, I think it helps him to get in a sleep mode rather than a play-in-my-crib-with-my-bunny-until-I-crash mode.

Again, thanks for the advice!

Toddler Talk

Mommy: James, what do you do on the potty?

James: I close my eyes and breathe in its fat, red smell; I wish that I could eat it now and never, never tell.


This is one funny boy! His comment was a direct quote from the book "First Tomato Soup" by Rosemary Wells (the "fat, red smell" he refers to is referring to a tomato in the book). He has had a knack for memorizing books verbatim since before he was 18 months old, but I'm pretty sure this is the first time he's used a book quote to answer a question from me. I have no idea why he chose this moment to do it, but it definitely gave me a good laugh. I love this little boy.

Kate: 5 Months

She's starting to drool. Teething or just baby? I hope just baby. I'm fine with late teething.

This is the other skirt Amanda made for Kate. She made it from one of her old shirts. We love having a part of her with us. :) I love how the layers curled up at the edges after I washed it. So cute!

This little girl has been trying to figure out crawling for a couple weeks now. Seriously?! She's growing up too fast. She mostly gets up on all fours and hops her legs forward. It's pretty amusing.

Love this face!

Yep. We have another finger sucker. James sucks his thumb. We tried to get Kate to take a pacifier, but failed. She prefers her fingers.

Currently, Kate is working on crawling and sitting up. She loves to be tossed into the air (moderate heights of course). She loves all people. I don't have to worry about handing her to someone she's never met before, she loves everyone. Funny though, she typically won't look at you while you hold her. If you're holding her, she looks everywhere, but at your face. As soon as you put her down, she will lock onto you as if to say, please pick me up. But, then she promptly ignores you in favor of the greener grass elsewhere. I think she must just like the vantage point she's given to view the world when she's being held. She must not want to miss out on anything. She is a very happy little girl. She absolutely adores James and her daddy. She always lights up when Jordan comes into view. She has also become quite a talker. I love her stories. :)

I forgot to mention that we learned she has a milk allergy when she turned 4 months. So, we (she and I) have been off milk. I do so love milk, but I'm learning how to survive and cook without it. (We're kind of used to this though since Jordan is sensitive to milk as well, but the difference is that I have to be completely restricted!) If anyone has any non-dairy recipes that you fancy, please pass them on. The doctor tells me that there is a good chance she will be milk allergy free by the time she's a toddler. Here's hopin'!

Here's a picture with James. I'll post an all around update soon. James is sure growing up. He's such a good helper. He loves Kate. He always wants to sit on this chair with Kate when he wakes up in the morning and from his nap. He likes to cuddle her and give her loves.

And yes...I cut my hair. I also got new glasses, but they will have to be revealed at a later time. (I stepped on my old glasses while in Utah; I needed a new prescription and new glasses anyway though).

Our Trip to Utah

Here are a couple of our adventures in Utah during our two-week trip:

On this trip we drove through Durango, CO. It was a much more scenic route. It began to rain as we arrived in Durango. The sun was setting. It was beautiful. I took a picture with our not-so-fancy camera as we drove and the resulting blurred image looks pretty neat to me.

Here are my grandparents (my mom's parents). Pretty cute couple, huh! My grandpa is quite a character. Hilarious!

It's always quite the game to get my grandpa to give a real smile.

I finally got it!
Kate enjoyed her first baseball game while we were in Utah.
We went to a Bee's game with family.

The highlight of the game for me was walking out of the stadium and seeing a Chick-fil-A cow. So AWESOME!! :) I have a soft spot for Chick-fil-A and I love their ad campaign. I have many memories from my childhood that include sitting in a train in a mall in Ogden (I think?) eating Chick-fil-A (chicken nuggets with BBQ sauce) with my parents. I loved the chicken and I loved the train and I also loved the company. Good memories. Still love that chicken. I also still love my parents. :) However, I haven't seen the train in years.

We also visited Jordan's grandma in Delta, UT.
The new babies, Kate and Lily, met their great grandma for the first time.

(I will send you a copy of these Cindy).

Lily is obviously happy to meet her great grandma. It looks like she's ready for a big hug.

Great grandma singing a song for Lily about Lily.

We went to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point with the cousins.
James LOVES his cousins. When we first got to Jordan's parents' home, we only saw James at mealtimes and bedtime. All other time was reserved for the cousins. He loved it!

James' first pony ride. So fun!

Normally, parents walk beside toddlers as they ride, but James wanted to do it by himself. He did great.

I didn't really take many pictures in Utah. I need to get better at that! For shame. I'll be better the next time we visit.

Kate: 3 Months...and 4 Months

3 Months

James enjoys the various opportunities which come as a result of being a big brother like holding his little sister.

He is rather proud to be Kate's big brother.

He's always looking out for her/keeping her from falling over.

4 Months

My oh-so-talented friend Amanda made this adorable skirt for Kate. She also made her another one that I will post a picture of soon. I love them both. She makes cute stuff. She was rather concerned after I posted that Kate would be wearing James' clothes and a headband (to set her off as a girl), so she made her some skirts that I could use with white onesies. :) Love it.

As I've mentioned before...James just loves his sister. And she is rather fond of him as well.

The bunny we use to gauge Kate's growth every month is the same one we used for James (so we can also compare kid-to-kid). The only problem is that the bunny is James' bunny. The bunny that he sleeps with. The bunny that he is rather attached to. (Alli, you may recognize this as the bunny you gave him when you visited us at the hospital when he was born--he loves it.) You can clearly see his love for his bunny in this picture.

Lots of pictures for the 4 month photo shoot. She's just too cute!

Stats for her 4 Month well check up:
Height: 24.5 inches (I think 30th percentile)
Weight: 12.6 lbs. (16th percentile)

James was a rather lean baby, so when we saw some rolls on Kate we thought we were going to have a little chunk on our hands. I was rather surprised to learn that she was in the 16th percentile for weight. I guess it's all relative to what you are used to. Now that I look at her I realize she really doesn't have much chunk, just a couple baby rolls. I sure love those rolls.

Kate is a sweetheart. She is a very happy little girl who loves to cuddle. She began rolling from back to front on July 5 (her Uncle Scott's birthday). For a month this drove her crazy. She was honestly a compulsive roller. She would roll onto her belly and yell to be relieved by being rolled back to her back. I'd roll her over and she'd immediately roll back onto her tummy and yell for relief. Rather amusing...until naptime. Thankfully this isn't an issue anymore. :) We love having this sweet girl around!

HELP!!!

HELP WANTED

Mother in serious need of advice regarding sleeping children in the same room. Has received advice previously (for which she is very grateful), but is interested in all possible advice from all possible parties interested in providing it. Children began sleeping in same room tonight at 7:30...it is now 9:00...and just...got...quiet...

This is how tonight went (strike that...should read "is going"). Kate fell asleep nursing. Jordan brought James in to lay him down. I was still holding Kate. James began crying that Kate was in his room (prior to this moment, he was so excited to have Kate sleeping in his room). And when I say crying...I mean he was trying to make it loud. Kate, of course, woke up. I burp her and nurse her a little more. She's done. So, I sing to her and rock her, because now she is totally wide-eyed from the recent drama. James is in his crib and standing up. Every now and then he jumps down to his crib mattress. Whether standing or kneeling or lying, he's talking...asking me questions, making observations, recounting the woes of sharing a room. I'm trying to be as quiet as I can to keep from rewarding his talking (we had told him to be quiet and go right to sleep--no talking) and to keep from completely arousing Kate into a playful mood. Occasionally I respond to questions, remind him to lay down and close his eyes (and mouth), and replace his blanket.

Eventually, I see that the effort is futile. Kate will just have to lay down wide-eyed and ready to play. So, I lay Kate down. Then I replace the blanket James has thrown to the other end of his crib, but insists must be replaced before he can sleep. I leave as Kate rolls onto her belly, pushes up with her arms to watch me walk from the room. As the door closes, she begins to cry.

James is quiet at first. Eventually, he begins to imitate her cry...he even gives her a sharp "no, no." We even hear a couple barks and some high-pitched yelps. All of this occurs intermittently over the course of an hour and a half. We think they're asleep...then one of them makes a loud noise (cry--Kate-- or chatter--James) waking or alerting the other. Eventually they get quiet only to repeat the process. It has now been 12 minutes with no sound...wait...James is knocking into his crib...ah yes....the Elmo's World theme song ("That's Elmo's World..."). And now he is giggling. Well, we can just hope it doesn't wake Kate.

Seriously, if anyone has any advice for how to motivate your toddler to just go to sleep and to be quiet, I would appreciate it. I know it may just come down to them learning to ignore the other, but if there is anything that can help in the meantime (James now has the hiccups and he apparently needs to talk to himself about it--9:20), I'd be happy to hear.

An Ode to Motherhood

I recently watched this Mormon Messages video clip about motherhood. It was amazing. I think I may watch it every day.


"...may I say to mothers collectively, in the name of the Lord, you are magnificent. You are doing terrifically well."

The message was taken from this talk given by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. I just read the talk and was uplifted and provided a hopeful boost.

"If you try your best to be the best parent you can be, you will have done all that a human being can do and all that God expects you to do."