Holiday Fun

Eek! I can't believe it is December 18th already! It seems that Teddy turned 7 months old two days ago and with that apparently has decided that he can crawl anywhere, over anything and will shove what he pleases directly in his mouth. He is super, super strong, super fast and super big! Almost 25 lbs now. He is after Oliver's cars and Oliver is on the defense, but in a nice way.

I took the kids to see Santa today. Marissa had the sweetest request for a present, she wants a bouquet of flowers for her Christmas present. She later theorized on the ride home about how "ice flowers" might grow from the ice in the North pole. I can't wait to see her beautiful Christmas bouquet under the tree. She also asked for a new ornament for the tree. She has been really into the Christmas spirit this year, she would be pleased to do a Christmas activity everyday of the week I think. Her school is doing a holiday program and today they took a field trip to the middle school where they will perform 2 songs on Thursday. She told me with huge eyes, "Mom, the middle school kids have THE MOST BEAUTIFUL voices EVER. You would not believe how good they can sing." It was pretty cute. She is also very excited, as am I to go and see The Nutcracker on Saturday. Every year when I was a little girl, my family and I would go and see a local performance of The Nutcracker. I am so excited to continue the tradition with Marissa.

Oliver did great sitting on Santa's lap! I was totally uncertain if he would actually go up to the big man or not, but he did! It was kind of funny though, because he was walking right up to him and decided that would be the moment to pick his nose. Right away Santa told him, he better not pick his nose, which duh, I agree, but isn't Santa supposed to be all nice to kids? Is that really the thing to say to a 2 year old to get them to warm up to you? Oliver was so cute, telling him in his little 2 year old voice, "I wanta race car." Which this Santa was totally unresponsive to, just giving the kids directions on where to look for the photo. Then Santa proceeded to poke Teddy's nose with his white gloved finger several times, ew! How many babies had he done that too, I wonder? Please don't let us be sick again on Christmas! Anyway, maybe next year we will go see Santa when he first comes out for visits, I think he was a little burnt out by this point in the season. It made me a little sad to see Oliver's face go from looking all excited to kind of sad being scolded. Oh well. I was just so proud of him to go on up there! What a big boy!

Teddy was amicable as usual with Santa. That kid loves people. We went back to the pediatrician's last week to check up on how his ears were healing post another ear infection. He literally reached for all the nurses and our pediatrician to take him and then proceeded to give them the sweetest cuddles ever. He is such a total little love. I could snuggle him all day if he would let me. It's a good thing he is so into crawling around though, because he is too heavy to hold for long.

Christmas Jammies

Some of Teddy's Milestones:
November 6: First time sitting
November 11: First time scooting
Early December/late November: crawling faster every day
December 3: First tooth (bottom right) bottom left is about to push through any day.
7 months old and size 12-18 month clothes are fitting perfectly on him. Yikes. I thought I would be able to use all of Oliver's clothes for them since there birthdays are so close together, but now I am not sure how long that will last.

Christmas Jammie Photo of all three fail.

Holiday things left to do:
Bake and decorate Christmas cookies with the kids.
Gingerbread houses. I'm hoping I don't have to bake these from scratch, I can't find a kit anywhere. Next year I will buy them way earlier and advent calendars too! November, I promise.

6 Months!

Oh me, oh my, how does my heart ache for the time that is flying by. You are simply the sweetest baby that ever was and I love spending every minute with you.  You are the little heartbeat of this family that everyone adores. I can't wait to see how you keep growing and watching your sweet little personality bloom even more. I think I could count the number of minutes you have cried on less than the fingers of one hand. Somehow, you just know how to make mommy's life as easy as possible. I can't wait to soak in each minute with you for the rest of this first year in your life. I love you so much baby Teddy!

2012 South Pas Spooktacular!

Kids, we have partied hard this week. Amongst the usual stuff life throws at 'ya, broken furnace, no heat, fireplace issues, 'ya know life, we have been partying up a little storm in little kid speak. Park play dates, farmer's market outings, it's been go, go, go this week, pushing the naptimes and bedtimes back, in favor of fun. And, it all culminated in the South Pasadena Halloween Spooktacular last night. Oliver and Marissa, you were so excited to go to the "Halloween Party" as Oliver kept shouting from the back seat the whole way there. I love how enthusiastic two year olds are about things, even when they have no idea what's really going on, too cute!

Marissa jumped in the bouncies, was enthralled by a pretty terrible magician and ran around with a bunch of her school buddies. We forgot your fairy wings in thecar, but you told me, "Mom, that's OK, I can just use my imagination." Oliver ran wild and did nothing in particular. He was a goof, and had a blast. Teddy was happy to snuggle in the baby carrier and sucked his thumb and quickly passed out, deciding this was one fete he could miss.

Here are a few pictures from our night of fun.

Daddy surrounded by a Wild Thing and Iridessa

 

Oliver was a Wild Thing, chosen by him and so fitting!

Keeping Teddy cozy at home with no heat!

Freaky Friday Nights...

I have to give total credit here to my friend Polly who instituted this with her own family. But, it was such a great idea I had to steal it! Basically, it's just to have a "freaky Friday night" every Friday in the month of October, I totally love it! I actually really did not care for Halloween prior to having kids as an adult, but ever since having kids, it's totally become my favorite holiday. Too much fun! If you have any other great Halloween family traditions, crafts etc. I 'd love to hear them! And, Daddy was able to come home early, quadruple yay!!!! And, Daddy told the best ghost stories around the fire.

These "monster eyes" are super fun, you drop them
and they turn into flashing lights with all different
colors, Teddy was mesmerized!

We actually ate in the dark, the pumpkin was glowing. It's
hard to tell here due to the flash. Teddy fell asleep way early,
I think because it was so dark in the house.

Some things you should know:

Some things you should know:

if you are thinking of having kids or are pregnant and on your way to having a baby:

1) If you decide to dress your baby in one of your very favorite outfits, even if it is your favorite onesie, your baby WILL have the biggest blowout of their lives (even if you just upgraded to a bigger size diaper.)

2) If baby has this blowout, and you finally get baby naked and clean on their changing table, your baby will be sure to pee the biggest pee of their life all over said changing table and surrounding items.

3) You will then put your naked baby in their crib on a hastily thrown in towel and they will giggle uncontrollably indicating that they know very well what they are doing.

4) In the meantime, you will be lucky if your two older children have not decided to play some decidedly dangerous Lord of the Flies type game unsupervised while you now have to wash baby in the tub, wash the changing pad, and try and hand wash that favorite baby outfit. Really favorite baby outfits should come with a warning that say "do not put on your precious infant unless you want it to be stained for life with yellow baby poo." Especially because if you care about the safety of your older children, you will not get to wash that stain for a good 3-4 hours, possibly 3-4 days depending on how your mamma brain is.

5) Now you know, don't say I didn't warn you.

6) Off to check on the soaking progress of that shirt.

7) PS: Teddy is now in size 4 diapers. Daddy tried to convince me that he was ready, but I stubbornly bought 2, 186 count boxes of Pampers size 3 Swaddlers. Welp, one of those is now going straight back to Target, gotta love their returns. To say he is big would be an understatement. He has his 4 month appointment coming up on Friday where I will get his official stats:) We will then see if I have to immediately go out and replace this up to 22 lb carseat he is in:) I am guessing we are very, very close to having to replace it.

I discussed this post with Teddy, and he
is not pleased I am spilling the beans.

Faces

Most of the time when I take pictures of the kids, the pictures I love are where they are smiling and looking sort of normally at the camera, but these days that is not often the pictures I am getting around here. Marissa in particular loves to make crazy faces at the camera. Is this a five year old thing?! Thank goodness for digital cameras otherwise we would probably only have crazy making face pictures from this year and the last.

When I think about why I like them to be smiling in pictures, I think it's because it makes me feel like I am doing a good job as a Mommy if they seem happy in photos. I think I know that they are happy, but it is just like a little seconding motion in my head that all is well in their lives if they look happy in photos. Does anyone else feel this way? The silly face pictures will continue to come no doubt and we will have many for the record/photo albums. Maybe I should make a photo album of just ridiculous faces, that would probably always be amusing to look at on hard days!




Probably, the "Mom, will you please quit
asking me to smile" face. I was trying to
capture the blue ribbons in her hair for "blue day"
at school for the record.

 

Marissa turns FIVE!

 

Holy cow, I can't believe Leo and I have a 5 year old! Well, every year I want to have a birthday party for the kids and Leo wants to do something chill, but this year I won, ha! Marissa had a luau themed party which I tried to plan weeks in advance to leave as little as possible to the last minute, given having a 3 month old and 2 year old. I think we did pretty well. Now I just need to figure out what to do with all of these leftover luau decorations, Daddy is taking care of the leftover Mai Tais;)

As for our big girl, she is really, really growing up. Her expressions, mannerisms, the tones she uses, just everything screams I am a big kid now! It is nice, she is so much more independent then ever before and she started kindergarten just this last week a few short days after her birthday! Quite a week! A birthday with a party on the 19th, our 6th wedding anniversary on the 20th (our baby girl was so close to being born on our anniversary!) and then 4 days later she started kindergarten! Phew, I am exhausted. Note to self for next year when I want to have another big party, I felt totally hungover Monday after the party even though I only had one sip of Mai Tai from sheer birthday party throwing exhaustion! Somebody please remind me next year that I should go with Leo's attitude of doing something very small.

Here are some photos from her big day!!!!!!

bounce house fun!

Devin & Teddy with Nai Nai

This boy LOVES his baby brother!

Ahahaha, I love Teddy's tough guy look here!

Teddy and yea yea



Marissa's Amazing cake, made by a friend of ours, let me know if you are
need a baker to make an amazing cake for your party!

M


Enjoying a hibiscus flower!
 

Minor meltdown @ cake time resulting in this,
everything was fine in the end though.

Aunt Vicky aka Aunt Kiki. I have a feeling Marissa may listen to
her more then anyone else in the world!

Typical Oliver



Luau Girls!

This picture reminds me to tell you to ask Daddy about
the "helium shortage" story when you get older.

Mai Tai Master

TEDDY!

Officially welcoming Theodore Charles on the blog! Teddy has stolen our hearts and is just the sweetest little (big!) newborn. Born May 16th at 11:53pm, he weighed 9.8lbs at birth and was measured at 23 inches long. He made a speedy entrance with an intense three hour labor for mamma. He has been everything you hear about a third baby, very easy going, sleeps a lot during the day, just a chill little guy.  He is also a little bit of a laugher, he is often heard laughing during the day. He really only fusses if something is bugging him (rare) or he wants to EAT! He is a super big eater, still eating every two hours usually at night. I think he needs it though, because he is HUGE! He is already looking as big as Oliver was at 3 1/2 months and his is only 10 weeks old. He weighed in at 14.1 lbs @ only 6 weeks old. Marissa and Oliver LOVE him, as in total obsession. Marissa is all over him all the time and Oliver is always wanting to hold him and talks about when he and Teddy will play together, too cute! He's going to have to wait just a little bit on that one:) I really hope they are as close as Marissa and Oliver are. Things are really going much easier than I ever would have imagined, this is not to say that I am not flat out exhausted by 8pm, hence no blogging, or that our lives have now entered a new level of busy, but I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Teddy has made me realize that your heart is actually capable of growing to love even another child just as much as the ones you already have in such a special unique way. I have been so enjoying the newborn cuddles, noises, just every little thing that a newborn does. I love me some babies. I'm so excited to watch you grow Teddy and I'm so curious to see what little person you are going to turn out to be!

Meeting Teddy

Holding on tight to Daddy

Kissing him goodbye before they took him to the NICU

In NICU with Mamma


*all photos by Blueberry Sky Photography

iphone Photo Dump

Because my iphone is wayyy to convenient to take pictures of the kids on and throwing the camera in the bag is often one more thing I don't want weighing my pregnant back down:) Really though, I need to make more of an effort to use a better camera, because while these pictures may be cute, the quality could be so much better. I've been shooting lots of pictures on my Nikon N80 film camera and I LOVE not having to upload photos and having the prints in my hands right away -  seeing them for the first time is like Christmas morning. I think I can still scan in some of my favorites to put on here, I need to test out how well they come out after the transfer.

We have an independent ladder climber.

Dark, but shows his extreme pleasure with his climbing.

I've been trying to cram in lots of activities before our new baby comes, I remember doing this with Marissa too when I was pregnant with Oliver. Because, lets face it, it just isn't as easy to get out with newborn who needs to eat and poop less than every two hours:) Leo and I are getting ready to tour Marissa's KINDERGARTEN soon! EEK! I cannot believe my baby girl will be going to big girl school next year. I am so proud of the little person she is becoming. We also need to tour some preschools for Oliver because of the wait list factor. We will not be doing a coop again, although it has been a great experience in many ways, it will just be too much with three kids and with Leo working consistent 60+ hour work weeks. The good news is I think he will do great at a non-coop.  To give you an idea of how big he looks in real life, parents at Marissa's current preschool which admits kids at age 3+ years keep asking me if he will be starting school in the fall at Oneonta. Then I have to tell them, ummmm, "he is one." Yup, he is a big boy, but not an ounce of fat on him, he is just a strong, tall lil' guy.

Love this picture of my girl.

Rainy Day Target Shopping Trip,
(can you tell he likes to accessorize?)

Reminding me of Pippi Longstocking here,
she's really into the braids right now!

Yes, we spent approximately 45 awesome minutes
admiring the SoPas firetruck parked outside the farmer's market.

My Little Free Spirit

Marissa and her awesome light-up cowboy boots
 she got from Aunt Vicky for X-mas

Discussing Ripper's Ears With Me

Happy New Year!

Well, I may as well sneak this post in here for the Chinese New Year and our American New Year. It's still January, so it still counts right? Marissa celebrated Chinese New Year at preschool today (edit- last week, yes it's taking me a week to finish this post!), so that got me thinking that I needed to do some prioritizing in my life, including updating this blog more often. I actually love to look back at the blog posts, pictures etc. Yes, I am one of those hugely sentimental, nostalgic, can't part with anything people. Yes, it drives my husband crazy. Just because I am this way, doesn't mean I am a hugely productive organizer of our memories to my dismay however. I was telling Leo that I really need to put our honeymoon scrapbook/photo album together the other night, if that gives you some idea of my up to dateness on photo/memory organization.

Oliver and Marissa seem huge and so grown up compared to the last blog's entry. Oliver has so many more words than October, I really wish I had some sort of a comparison list to go by, mind you most of these are probably still only intelligible to us. Marissa is really loving preschool and is taking an amazing Fairytale Art class at Armory Center of the Arts (highly recommend their classes) that she may love more than preschool itself. I wish I was more organized in having in her in even more activities, and Oliver as well. He sobs huge buckets of tears every time we have to leave "sister" there. He is just slightly attached to Marissa/ I think he really wants to stay and participate too. He pretty much only refers to her as "sister" which I think is adorable. I'm hoping to sign Marissa up for ballet and Oliver for Gymboree on Saturday am's. I really hate to cut into family time, but since he takes whopper naps each afternoon and since M has preschool 3 am's a week, this is our best bet for scheduling.

In pregnancy news, time is flying, literally flying. I am finding myself forgetting what week I am in the pregnancy, something that definitely did not happen to me previously in my other two pregnancies. For the record, I am 23 (edit again, let's go with 24 weeks at time of actual post:) weeks this week! Baby boy is kicking up a storm lately, I'm sure he kicks way more than I even realize, but the only time I really have to pay attention is after the kids are in bed. His kicks are getting strong enough though, that they are starting to make me notice them at all times, regardless of how busy I am. I've been having a smooth pregnancy so far, just like the other two, so fingers crossed for more of that!

Here are some pictures from the Rose Parade which was our 4th annual this year. It is really fun when you have little kids. Oliver was definitely more obsessed with the blimp and snacking in the chairs than the actual floats, but he did like the parade too. Marissa really enjoyed all of the cowboys and said the Candy land float was her favorite this year. She got a lasso/lariat for Christmas this year and can even twirl it above her head like a real cowboy, she did it on only the first or second try, she has a calling I think! Now, if we can just find a ranch to take her to, because she is obsessed with this old book called Cowboy Andy and really wants to visit Cowboy Sam's ranch just like Andy does. So if anyone knows of a great local cowboy ranch please let me know!

Snacking was a big part of the day!

Mr. Shades

Rose Princess Wave

Best View, courtesy of Daddy

Relaxing!

Oliver was WAY more impressed with the overhead blimp than the floats.

Sunblock - It was Hot!