Playdough on the Porch
May 26th, 2011 by ECM
Elizabeth’s Two Year Stats
May 25th, 2011 by ECM
I successfully took all three children to the doctor’s office today (with no major meltdowns) for Elizabeth’s two year old check-up. Dr. Huffard said she looked perfect from head to toe! Here are her stats:
Height: 35 inches (81st percentile)
Weight: 28 lbs 10 oz (75th percentile)
Head: 47.5 cm (51st percentile)
and compare to Tommy at two…
Height: 35 inches (80th percentile)
Weight: 33 lbs. 6 oz. (95th percentile)
Head: 50 cm (75th percentile)
So the funny thing is that Elizabeth seems soooo chubby to us, but Tommy weighed five pounds more at the same height! We knew he was chubby (and we like our toddlers chubby), but in retrospect, he was way chubbier than she is. And her head seems huge to me, but his was even bigger. I guess it’s all a matter of perspective, as the big kids seem huge with a tiny baby in the house!
Finger Painting Again
May 25th, 2011 by ECM
After seeing Bethany’s post about painting with matchbox cars, I knew we had to try it! I had grand visions of Tommy making racetracks like he does with his crayons, but it quickly devolved, as all our art projects are prone to do, into a messy blob. He was done in 5 minutes, too. Oh well! He had fun, and it was warm enough to do it out on the back porch, so the mess was contained!
There You Go
May 24th, 2011 by ECM
dandelions for Mommy
High Fashion (yep, a dress two sizes too small worn as a nightgown, Tommy’s flip flops, a baseball cap from last summer, and of course, the sunglasses, which I really think make the outfit)
There you go…life with a two year old…
Just the Boys
May 23rd, 2011 by ECM
Derek and Tommy took a boys-only trip to Pittsburgh this weekend to see the Tigers play the Pirates!
Sunshine, at Last
May 21st, 2011 by ECM
After seven straight days of rain, the kids and I were overjoyed to get outside yesterday afternoon!
Susanna’s Hymn
May 20th, 2011 by ECM
I’ve shared about picking a special hymn for Tommy and Elizabeth, and when we decided on the name of Susanna, we thought it would be appropriate to pick something by Charles Wesley as a nod to his mother, Susanna. Since the big kids are learning hymns in family worship time, they helped us pick out “O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing” as our Susanna’s special hymn! I love that it’s a triumphant song of praise and yet works well to the tempo of a rocking chair.
O for a thousand tongues to sing
My great Redeemer’s praise,
The glories of my God and King,
The triumphs of His grace!
My gracious Master and my God,
Assist me to proclaim,
To spread through all the earth abroad
The honors of Thy name.
Jesus! the name that charms our fears,
That bids our sorrows cease;
’Tis music in the sinner’s ears,
’Tis life, and health, and peace.
He breaks the power of canceled sin,
He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean,
His blood availed for me.
He speaks, and, listening to His voice,
New life the dead receive,
The mournful, broken hearts rejoice,
The humble poor believe.
Hear Him, ye deaf; His praise, ye dumb,
Your loosened tongues employ;
Ye blind, behold your Savior come,
And leap, ye lame, for joy.
Susanna at One Month
May 19th, 2011 by ECM
I can really tell that I’m in a postpartum fog because I’m in denial that my baby is a month old today. Um, what have I done in the past month? I really couldn’t say. Produced a lot of milk and washed a lot of laundry, I guess. One thing I haven’t done much of at all is fill out Susanna’s baby book or take daily pictures. Mommy guilt washing over me as I type, I’ll make this a detailed update to placate my conscience.
When her Under-Five-Fan-Club helped me get her dressed this morning, Tommy insisted on her Red Wings outfit (because red is his favorite color).
Susie feels like our worst sleeper to date. Her longest stretch seems to be about 4 1/2 hours, not the 6-8 the doctor predicted after her one abnormal 5 hour stretch at 2 weeks. And looking back at pictures of Elizabeth at one month, I’m thinking it’s because Susanna is not nearly as chubby yet as Big Sis. (Compare her to the other kids at this age here and here.) She’s slowly setting into a routine of waking up around 5 every morning, taking one or two shortish morning naps, a long afternoon nap over the lunch hour and ending right around when both big kids are finally down (eliminating the chance for Mommy to nap), a few afternoon or evening catnaps, and the long night stretch beginning somewhere between 8 and 10 pm and ending between midnight and 2:30, depending on the start time. If it’s only the early side, she’ll wake up one more time before the 5 am start to the day. But just to keep us on our toes, whenever we think she’s settled into that routine, she’ll wake up every hour all night like she did last night and then try to sleep all day.
There are no skin or diaper signs of a dairy allergy, PRAISE THE LORD, and I’ve been to the Creamery about 4 or 5 times this month. We’re not out of the woods yet, but I’m feeling much more hopeful about getting to keep eating ice cream and pizza this next year or so.
She’s pretty happy and mellow most of the time, and the past couple of days I’ve noticed her bat at her hanging toys in the bouncy seat and watch the mobile turn in her swing. I need to get down on the floor with her while the big kids are building a block city so she can watch them play.
She’s still mostly nursing just on one side, and judging from my pumping, that’s 3-4 ounces at a time. She’s been taking a bottle well–Playtex Drop-Ins. Ask me if I’m being faithful to pump and bottle feed once a day. The temptation to slack off is strong, especially on days like yesterday when Elizabeth broke a bookend in the 10 minutes I was down here pumping and unable to keep an eye on her. She’s interested in her thumb but takes a paci, like Tommy.
Evenings are definitely Susanna’s fussy time. Last night I wondered if it was the fact that the big kids are in bed and that she finally has Mommy’s undivided attention that causes her to squirm, cry, and refuse to be comforted by nursing or fall asleep. It’s more fun, perhaps, to have Mommy and Daddy trade off cuddling you, rocking you, singing to you, and patting you, with no big kids to distract them. Maybe I have a second little drama queen on my hands. Oh, mercy.
I love her.
“Mommy, Come Look What Your Daughter Did!”
May 18th, 2011 by ECM
Those words should have warned me, but strangely, they didn’t. I thought Tommy was just parroting my comment to Derek at breakfast, when Elizabeth eschewed the spoon and used her hands to eat her yogurt. Nope.
So last night was pretty rough, making for a pretty dead mommy this morning, and today I had to take all three kids out to the grocery store to mail a package for Derek. It was crazy. With Susie in the cart, Elizabeth thought this meant she could ride on the back like Tommy does, which meant Tommy was free to run wild while I stood at the post office window. And his sister thought she could chase him through the bread section. The guy was very nice to me as I interrupted myself about ten times in the course of a two minute transaction to herd my children in. I grabbed a Snapple Raspberry Tea on the way out as a new source of caffeine to get me through the afternoon. Back home, by the time the kids were fed and before I had a chance to sit down and drink my snapple, Susanna woke up and wanted to eat. I set the kids up with crayons and retired downstairs for less distraction while I nursed her. Several minutes in, Tommy called down, “Mommy, come look what your daughter did!” and I told him I’d come up as soon as Susanna was done eating.
When I came up the steps, there was Elizabeth with an empty 20 ounce snapple bottle in her hands in the midst of a very wet living room floor. I must have left the lid off when I picked up her sister. And she was wearing a (formerly) white shirt, too, of course. As I peeled the raspberry tea smelling clothes off of her in the bathroom, I was sorely tempted to just hose her down in the tub with ice cold water, but I controlled my temper in time and made it nice and lukewarm. I do think she could tell how mad I was, though, because she went down for her nap without a peep. And I got out some of my frustration mopping the living room and dining room. Now I’m off to work on getting tea stains out of a white shirt.