Sarah is as sweet and cheerful as ever, but my have things changed in one week.  I would have enjoyed Sarah's 6pm-8am night's sleep even more if I had known how drastically her sleep habits were about to change.  Sarah is rolling front-to-back with a vengeance, with her favorite place being in her crib.  These rolls are always accompanied with (mostly) cheerful screams and talking to herself, which would be great except this is always 1. in the middle of the night, multiple times a night 2. when she should be going to sleep,  3. in what was supposed to be in the middle of her nap, but subsequently became the end or 4. in the early morning, so she thinks its time to rise and shine.  And, unfortunately, its likely going to be another month before she figures out how to roll back-to-front.  So I guess I'm going to be a reluctant participant in the roll-the-baby-over game until she learns to sleep on her back.  *sigh*


On a happier note, I bought Sarah this sunhat off Etsy and LOVE it. The hand-me-down bucket hat from Nathan that I had been putting on her was too big and would always slide down and cover her eyes or be too far back to shade her face at all. This new one fits perfectly and does a great job of shading her face. I just hope I can keep the white fabric from getting stained! Oh and the flower's removable, so I usually leave it off when we're just hanging out in the yard, but makes for fancy pictures when on!

Nathan loves to sing these days!  We will be just hanging around the house and I'll hear him start to sing to himself.  So cute!!  Most of the songs are from KFC (kid's church), like "The B-I-B-L-E" and "He's Got the Whole Word in His Hands"; he also loves to sing songs from the library storytime and a new favorite is "Zipp-a-dee-do-da" recently taught to him by Gran.  We also have one kid's cd that we listen to over and over (and over and over and over and...) with more sunday school type songs that he loves, so I just this week ordered another set with 100 children's songs by the same artist (Cedarmont Kids, if you're interested).  And a new favorite activity on the Ipod is to sing along with the kids songs on it.  In fact, a sing-a-long is what kept him entertained at the doctors office during Sarah's four month check up!


When we were at Grandmother and Granddaddy's a month ago, Nathan used the booster seat at the table for all his meals (at home he was still in the high chair).  He LOVED being able to climb up and down out of his chair by himself!  He would climb up while all us ladies were in the kitchen fixing dinner, waiting patiently until it was time to say "Dear God" and eat.  So when we got home, we took the tray off the high chair and he's now sitting at the table like a "big boy."  I now need to get on the ball and purchase a booster seat for him since Sarah will be needing the high chair in just a few short weeks!

With the transition to eating at the table, we've also started expecting Nathan to have some better table manners.  The first few times sitting at the table, he realized that he could push himself easily away from the table since the high chair is on rollers.  This was happening during the meal (for entertainment) and when he decided he was finished eating (for emphasis).  Brian and I were NOT ok with it!  So Gran reminded me how growing up we would ask "I enjoyed my dinner, may I be excused?" before leaving the table.  After trying that for a day or so, Brian and I decided that we would just expect Nathan to politely ask to be excused before leaving the table.  However, he's continued to tell me "I enjoyed my dinner" (although we had to work on the lunch/dinner distinction with him).  And since now he always has a plate at mealtimes, we also are expecting him to take his plate into the kitchen.  Sometimes I have to enforce the expectation, but sometimes he just does it with no prompting!  This past week, he has wanted to take Daddy's plate into the kitchen instead of his own, but as long as he's helping I'm not going to be picky!  I will also usually ask him if he'll take one or two more items into the kitchen for me, but don't push the issue if he doesn't want to help more.  Baby steps!


And potty training.  Some days we celebrate big steps forward, and sometimes we have big wet accidents.  One day about two weeks ago Nathan was in the backyard and I had gone into the house for a minute.  When I came back out he said "I go pee-pee by self."  "You went by yourself?" I asked, amazed and skeptical at the same time.  You see, he always asks for help pulling his pants back up, yet here he was with them situated perfectly, not twisted or anything.  And then I noticed two tell-tail wet drip spots on the front of his pants.  Yes, he had gone "by self"!  I was so excited, hugged him and told him how proud I was, then we called Daddy to tell him the good news.  I had planned on leaving a voice message but Brian thought the call was an emergency, since I never call him during work, and answered the phone so he got to hear the news right away!  Then the next day the kids and I were in the backyard and Nathan told me "I go pee-pee by self" and sauntered over to one of the bushes, did a little shimmy as he pulled his pants down, did his business, got everything pulled back and situated, and sauntered back over to me.  I think this might be one of the memories that I will always be able to picture in my mind!

Next time: what made Nathan say "bummer" during our stay at Granddaddy and Grandmothers' house, more manners and proof he's growing again!

Yikes! I can't believe that its been three weeks since I've taken and posted pictures of our Sarah Bear! She is now over four months old, meaning that Nathan and I got to take her to her 4 month  check-up last week, and here are her stats:
     Weight: 15lb 10oz (88%)
     Height: 25 inches (77%)
     Head: 16.5 inches (75%)

Sarah continues to sleep well during naps and at night, but I've rediscovered that she sleeps best when she's only awake for about an hour and a half at a time. When we're at home I watch the clock and usually she is just starting to yawn or rub her eyes as I'm carrying her to her room. But I think she's going through a growth spurt because for the past few days, she's been sleeping even more then usual. She slept 14 hours last night - from 6pm to 8am! She's also seemed hungrier these past few days, which is another reason I'm thinking growth spurt. Thank goodness I pulled out her 6-9 month clothes a few days ago and went shopping yesterday to fill in some holes.

Sarah's already started cradle roll at church on Sunday mornings! She has been able to sit up comfortably in her bumbo for a while, and with it being "spring forward", I knew she wouldn't need to take a nap in the middle of class. So I propped her up in the little bucket seat with a blanket and hoped for the best. When I came to get her, her teachers, Kelly and Sue Ann, said that she had done great, was interested, cheerful and gave them some happy screams (which she does ALL THE TIME these days)! Last week was cradle roll success #2 because she got up early enough to take a short nap before church, and we'll see how tomorrow pans out.

Sarah continues to love her doorway jumper. In fact, she's suffered some minor injuries due to her exuberant bouncing!
She developed little blood blisters on both her little toes last week. I'm sure it was because she started jumping barefoot due to the warmer weather, so now I'm careful to make sure she has socks on before I put her in the jumper.  She is also drooling like crazy ALL THE TIME (so I don't think she's teething), but its the worst when she's in her jumper and gnawing on the rings in front of her.  We'll pull her out and her shirt will be soaked halfway down her chest.  I've tried putting bibs on her, but since they're right in the path between thumb and mouth they end up in her mouth and sucked on.  Plus she needs a new one for every waking period, so I don't have enough to keep up!

Its been a while since I've written about what's going on with Nathan these days.  Its easier to upload some pictures or a movie then to sit down and actually write a post about the details.  And especially since Sarah's still changing so much week to week, its easy to focus on that and overlook how Nathan is maturing and changing by leaps and bounds as well.  Since these are things that I really want to remember, and after thinking about this post for weeks, here we finally go!

Nathan's round with the "terrible twos" has improved over the past few weeks and months.  At the beginning of February, EVERYTHING in our daily life was a battle with Nathan.  Getting dressed, eating breakfast, potty breaks, nap time, brushing teeth, bath/showers, always screaming, multiple time outs, etc, etc, etc.  That was when I made a desperate call to Nana to PLEASE COME RESCUE ME FROM MY SON!!  And she was here about 48 hours later, an answer to prayers!  We had a great visit with her and then about a week after she left, it was like a switch flipped and Nathan became much more cooperative.  I didn't dread the daily routine and Nathan wasn't in time out about ten thousand times a day.  Since then, we still have good days and bad days, good hours and bad hours, but overall I think (pray!) that the worst of the terrible twos is behind us. 

While Aunt Karen, Gran, and PawPaw were here for a visit about a month ago, we got to talking about Nathan's speech.  I guess I didn't realize how difficult (impossible?) it was for other people to understand him.  Since I know his mispronunciations and the short-speak he used, I could understand about 95% of what he said.  But time after time, even without realizing it, I was having to translate for the family.  So after that discussion, Brian and I have tried to make a point of helping him correctly pronounce words by over-enunciating them and getting him to repeat back.  Thankfully Nathan enjoys this fun "game" and we've made great strides.  Just to name a few: "poo" is now "computer", "showl" is now "shoulders", we're working on "video" and "granola bars" (one day it took me about 15 minutes to figure out that "nowl bard" was "granola bars"!).  And, most excitingly, "Na-Na" turned to "Nafan" and within the past week or two he has starting using "I" instead of always referring to himself in the third person!

More to come next time, including singing,  table manners and additional responsibilities, and potty achievements!

I just heard about this cause recently and wanted to share. The video is 30 minutes long, but I thought it was worth my time and I hope you think so as well.

Joseph Kony is the head of the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army) which is a militant group that has been active in Uganda for over 26 years. The army's MO is to abduct children - the girls become sex slaves and the boys become soldiers for the LRA, forced to mutilate people and sometimes even kill their own family members. Kony is the #1 most wanted international criminal of the ICC (International Criminal Court).



UPDATE: Apparently there is lots of controversy surrounding this campaign. Here is one site I found with background and information from both sides of the issue.

What's a girl to do when she has such a ham for an older brother? Develop a ready laugh, of course!

During our time in Knoxville, the bug man came to spray Granddaddy and Grandmother's house, so it was a perfect time to head over to Nana and Granddad's for a visit.  Even though I packed for those few hours like I was taking a whole other trip, I forgot to bring along my camera.  Then I realized that I had my Ipod and was able to snap a few pictures. 


Nathan wasn't in the mood to pose for pictures, so this is the only decent shot I got with him in it. I also started taking a movie of Nathan riding the tricycle with Granddad's help, but his sixth camera sense alerted him that I started recording and he promptly toppled the trike over in his rush to "SEE!" what I was recording. And after that, he was done with the trike for the day!

Granddad and Nana had a special gift to give Nathan this visit - blocks.  And by blocks, I mean more blocks AND custom, hand made blocks!  They bought Nathan a new set of the architect blocks that he loves so much, which included a few new shapes and more then doubled the number of blocks that Nathan had.  But on top of that, Granddad bought some wood and cut additional large rectangle and long skinny rectangle blocks for Nathan AND some long, skinny roof rectangles.  I have to say that especially the blocks that Granddad made have revolutionized our building.  Thanks Nana and Granddad!

During the last week of February, Gran was gracious enough to accompany the kids and me on a road trip to Knoxville. Sarah had visited Grandmother very briefly while she was in the hospital, but it was time that Grandmother and Granddaddy had a proper visit with their 14th grandchild! It had also been months since Nathan had seen them, and me too, for that matter. 


Granddaddy took a wonderful four generation picture of the girls that I know we will always treasure!


A couple of events during the visit were quite memorable for Nathan. The weather was beautiful for most of the visit (except for when we were having severe storms and under tornado warnings, that is!) so Thursday morning Nathan eagerly began exploring the backyard. At one point, Gran, Nathan, and I all sat on the big swing together and *CRASH* we ended up on the ground! Thankfully no one was hurt, but Nathan kept telling everyone for the remainder of the visit "big brown swing bwoken!" Then he would suggest "get new swing Wal-mart."


Nathan had a blast showing a surprised Mommy how he could climb up and down the swing-set ladder all by himself. (It took me a minute to realize Gran was taking a video not a photo, which is why I look goofy grinning at the camera at the beginning of the clip.)


Nathan had a great time searching for, collecting and stacking sea shells that were mixed in with the gravel on the path at the back of the house.




Nathan really loved the playroom for the first time this visit. We had planned on having a fire one evening but never got around to it, so Friday afternoon Granddaddy built a "5 minute" fire for Nathan with some newspaper and kindling. Nathan was SO excited about it!


Nathan's favorite activity was playing at the pool table. I have such fond memories of playing around the pool table with cousins when we were little, where we would grab the balls from the return and roll them out as fast as possible onto the pool table, while others were at the far end corralling them back into the returns. So I showed Nathan a tame version of the game, where he would roll all the balls onto the table and then tell me "ready, set, go!" and I would run around as fast (and noisily) as possible and put them all back int he returns. His favorite two balls that he would want to carry with him around the house were the solid yellow ball and the cue ball.

Although there were a few rough patches during the visit, mainly due to Sarah napping poorly and ending up WAY overtired, we all had a wonderful and very memorable time with the great-grandparents!

...Broccoli!



Since I didn't caption this one, here's the lines if you have trouble understanding:

Mommy: How's that broccoli Nathan?
Nathan: Good! Good!
Mommy: Good, I'm glad.
Nathan: Need dip.
Mommy: Are you going to sit back down again with your broccoli?
Nathan: Need dip.
Mommy: Oh, you need your dip.
Daddy: Dip.
Mommy: Careful!
Nathan: Do not... don't knock... dont' knock... don't knock that over.
Mommy: That's right, don't knock your dip over.
Nathan: Yeah. Make big mess.
Mommy: It might make a big mess.
Nathan: Mmmm. Mmmmmmm. (as he chews broccoli) Daddy take movie. Daddy take movie.
Mommy: (Trying not to lie but direct attention away from the phone) We're just watching you eat your broccoli buddy.
Nathan: See!

Next post will be pictures from last week's visit with Granddaddy, Grandmother, Granddad, Nana and Gran!

Two weeks ago at playgroup, one of the other moms was talking about how her little girl (6 or 8 weeks older then Sarah) wasn't rolling over yet even though she was on her belly lots while she was awake. This made me realize that I never was giving Sarah tummy time while she was awake! Although she always sleeps on her tummy, I would always put her in the swing, or jumper, or prop her up in the corner of the couch when she was up.

The next day I gave Sarah LOTS of tummy time. Then on Saturday morning (16 weeks and 1 day) Sarah woke up with lots of fussing, and I walked in to find her on her back!! She had rolled over for the first time! I picked her up and set her down on the floor, and she immediately rolled over again! Since then I have found her asleep on her back once or twice (so thankful that at least sometimes she can roll over and remain asleep), and she has rolled during tummy time a few times.

I think Sarah's sleep cycles have also been changing over the past week or so.  Instead of always having nap lengths of one, two or three hours (almost exactly to the minute!), she's now waking sometimes at the 40 minute mark.  She has not been waking up during the night like Nathan did (thank you again God!!), although these past few days she's been getting up at the super-early time of 6:30 or 6:45 (yes, I'm being sarcastic about the "super-early" part).  I'm continually amazed at how easy I find having an infant if that infant actually sleeps well!

I also keep forgetting to record in these posts some of Sarah's cute mannerisms while nursing.  For a long time, Sarah has been running her upper hand back and forth across my shirt while she eats, most often when I'm nursing her to sleep.  But more often these days she tries to suck her thumb at the same time she's nursing, which doesn't work at all, so I have to hold onto that upper hand to keep it out of her mouth!

On the sofa, belly out, sippy cup of milk, watching home videos on the big screen. This is the good life!

"Special" relatives, that is! We were so fortunate last month to have Aunt Karen, Gran and Pawpaw visit on the same weekend! Pawpaw and Gran arrived on Thursday, Aunt Karen on Friday, with all of them staying two nights - giving us a great time all together and one night to have special with them separately! We ended up hanging around the house for the whole weekend: cuddling Sarah, playing blocks, spending time outside, getting the big ball stuck in the tree (again!), laughing and telling stories, eating lots of yummy food, and just enjoying every minute we had together!

Sarah spent lots of time napping on her delighted Aunt Karen...

... and her equally thrilled Pawpaw.

Nathan was excited as Aunt Karen debuted his name train...

"N... A... T... H... A... N... NATHAN!"

And Gran always loves spending more time with the kids.

Whenever the blog gets neglected, you can assume its usually one of two scenarios:
1. I'm worn out at night because of a rough work schedule for Brian and/or a rough phase with the kiddos.
2. I've checked out some great books from the library and am spending every free minute reading (and therefore not doing anything productive).

I'm happy to report that this past week its reason #2.  And now I'm in Knoxville with Gran and the kids to visit Grandmother & Granddaddy (and a bonus visit with Granddad, Nana and Uncle David), so I probably won't be posting again for a few days.  But I did have a little down time this afternoon and got a new video uploaded, so enjoy this meager offering!