9 months!

Brynn is 9 months old! Okay, so she was a few days ago. But my excuse (other than being a slacker) is that I was waiting on her stats from the doctor.

• She is 18.5 pounds (about 40th percentile) and 28.5 inches long (about 75th percentile). I don't really see her as being skinny, but I guess in baby terms maybe she is


• She is crawling like crazy these days. It started about a week and a half ago, and she is a changed baby. And a dirtier baby (thanks to dust and dog hair).


• She finally started saying "Da da" the other day (just the sound, not about Braden). Says "Ma ma", "Ba ba", and "Pa pa" too


• Loves sticking her tongue out recently


• Still has only 2 teeth


• Eating lots of things and chunky things - small pieces of bread, spaghetti chopped in food processor, and lots of pureed menu items at school. It's nice because I'm not buying much baby food these days!


• Finally found her pincher grasp and can pick up "puffs" and feed herself. Buys me more time with her in the high chair feeding herself.


• Loves riding in the baby backpack. Stroller - not as much


• Very entertained by her big brother and big sister, though still a little scared of her big sister because she's just a little overboard sometimes (or all the time)


• Loves playing with Ethan in the mornings. Ethan goes in her crib almost every morning and brings her toys and jumps in her bed, narrowly avoiding jumping on Brynn.


• Doesn't like Mommy to hold her quite as much these days since she discovered crawling


• Still sleeping great at night and takes 2 naps most days (not today - just 1 hour this morning)

There's a reason...

why Blythe's middle name isn't Grace.

Crawling video

Here's the video proof of the one-step-forward-one-step-back

She's like, "hmmm....I WAS right next to the white bear. Til I pushed myself way back and sat up".

Coming Soon - baby gates

Brynn can now make forward progress while crawling. I've tried to get video proof, but to no avail. I'm sure she'll be all over the place in no time and video proof won't be too hard to capture. For now, she can crawl about 3 feet forward. She doesn't so much like being in the crawling position though, so after that she then wants to sit. Problem is, she will push WAY back to where her feet are and get into a sitting position, which is usually in the same location she started from. One step forward. One step back.

I did, however, get some pics of Blythe and Ethan over the weekend.

Dry, Dry, Dry!

Whoop, whoop! No more pull-ups! Or at least no more pull-ups for Ethan. He's been potty trained since last March or April, but we've continued to put him in pull-ups at night. His pull-up is almost never dry in the morning, but really I have no idea if he was going during the night while sleeping hard, or in the morning after he woke up and was too lazy to go to the potty since he was wearing a pull-up. Plus we were too lazy to jump out of bed as soon as we heard him up and take him potty.

So anyway, waited almost a year until he had mastered going potty by himself and getting past (sometimes) not announcing to us EVERY single time he needs to go potty. Last night, we gave it a try to sleep in underwear and no pull-up. He went pee before bed, then went to sleep (well, not really). I dried Blythe's hair, put her to bed (or said goodnight and left her to read books on her own), then went to dry my hair. Ethan came in and said he had to go potty. Totally procrastinating going to sleep. I told him "then go potty and go back to bed". But of course, he can't go to bed without screaming "MOMMY!" every night, so I had to put him in bed and say goodnight again and leave while he screamed "MOMMY!" in his bed. Went back to drying my hair. He came back a few minutes later and said he had to potty again. Such a terrible liar he is. Whole process again...screaming "MOMMY!"...go back to drying my hair. Finally he was quiet.

Went downstairs to watch TV. After a little while, Braden said he heard a conversation going upstairs, so he went up to intervene. Ethan was standing in Blythe's room playing her Leapster by her bed, while she lay there with one eye barely opened, clearly annoyed Ethan was in her room. Ethan said, "Blythe asked me to come in her room". I'm telling you...terrible liar.

Oh, it was going to be a long night.

But it wasn't! Ethan slept in this morning. We thought for sure there was no way he would be dry. He had slept too hard and it had been too long. But we were so wrong! Woke up dry, then went potty. He was so proud of himself! So no more pull-ups. I'm sure we'll have accidents, but hopefully they are few and far between.

A little rant

I suck at blogging recently. I've entered the stage of being too tired to blog. Too tired from working non-stop all day to be able to get out of the door by 4 o'clock so I can go get Ethan and rush him over to a swim lesson (where he says in the car he's going to have a great lesson, then gets on the pool deck and hugs my legs for 15 minutes refusing to get in the water while I count off 50 cents per minute that he's wasting playing his stupid little game), then go back and get Blythe and Brynn from school. Or get out the door by 4:15 so I can go get all the kids and take them to gymnastics (and put Brynn in the baby backpack while I "participate" in Ethan's class....and get there early enough to get Blythe dressed for gymnastics so she can do her class as soon as Ethan's ends...and remember to bring snacks and paper and markers or Blythe will have a complete meltdown...yes, she is 5, but she's a drama queen). After said activities, we get home and Brynn is tired, so I can't put her down, but the other 2 immediately want more snacks (because dinner isn't ready, because I haven't even thought about dinner, because I have to hold Brynn and then get her some dinner). Then dinner still isn't ready, so they want even more snacks, then I yell at them to stop bothering me so I can feed Brynn. Then I turn on the TV (aka the babysitter) and hope that suffices at least for a little while. Once Brynn is fed, I take her up to get a bath and Braden is home, so he tries to feed Blythe and Ethan dinner and gets mad at them for not eating their dinner because they've had too many snacks. I get Brynn bathed, fed, and then in bed and then can finally go downstairs to eat (of course, not as a family these days because of utter chaos). I can't have a conversation with Braden because Blythe and Ethan like to interrupt and talk really loud only while Braden and I are trying to talk. Finally at about 7:30, we have some time to spend with Blythe and Ethan and we play a game, or color, or work on letters. Then it's time for more baths (Blythe can bathe herself, but still needs help and needs her hair dried). Then bedtime, which is a fight with Ethan every single night. Every single night he goes to bed screaming "MOMMY!" in his room. I can't go in there after I've put him down and left the room, because the vicious cycle will never end and then it will just suck away even more time.

At this point, I could blog. Or I could pour a glass of wine and watch a TV show or 2. As you can see, option 2 has been more appealing.

Hey, how's the weather?

Ethan and Brynn had an official "conversation" this evening. If only I could speak "Charlie Brown teacher" language, then I might know what they are saying.

The dreaded 5 year shots

It's official. Blythe is ready to go to kindergarten.
Pee'd in cup. Check.
Vision test. Check.
Height/weight check. Check.
Reflex test. Check.
Blood pressure check. Check.
Hemoglobin test (aka finger prick). Check.
Vaccines (4 separate shots). Check.

Too bad she failed 3 of them and will have to redo.

Pee in cup - Fail. Although we were successful in getting some pee in the cup without making too much of a mess, they found protein in her urine. She needs to drink more water during the day and retest in 2 weeks. I just cannot contain my excitement of having to hold that cup for her once again.

Vision test - Fail. She tested at 20/40 vision and they like to see 20/30 or better. I personally think she can see fine. She was reading letters and didn't even try to read that last line when they asked her. But - may just need to keep an "eye" out for her and possibly retest. In 2012 when I add her to my vision plan.

Height/Weight check - Pass! Not really sure how you could fail that one, but anyway, she's 50th percentile in both. Weighs 39.5 pounds and 42.75 inches tall.

Reflex test - Pass!

Blood pressure - Pass (I think). Don't actually know the results of this one.

Hemoglobin test - Fail. 10.5. Whatever that means. Should be a little higher apparently. She needs to take a multivitamin daily to increas iron and retest in a few months. First off, did you know most kids vitamins have no iron? Found that out today as I was trying to buy some. Finally found a special "Flinstones with Iron". Second, I call "not it" on taking her back in a few months for a finger prick.

Vaccines - Ummmm.....I guess technically it's a Pass, but the process in getting from beginning to end...FAIL, FAIL, FAIL! She knew she had to get 4 shots. Okay, so first she thought it was just 1. Just before going to the doctor I told her I thought it was 2 shots (I was thinking it was actually 3). Then doctor said it was 4. Yikes! She acted like it was going to be okay. But then those nurses came in and told her to lie down and pull down her pants and that's when the screaming started. So one nurse and myself pinned her down while the other one did the shots. She screamed SO loud after the first one. Then EVEN LOUDER after the second. And then somehow managed to scream even louder after each one. I don't think there were any other kids at the doctor's office at the time and actually it was surprisingly very UNcrowded at the time, so good thing she didn't scare off TOO many people. It was awful. While I was pinning her down and she was screaming, I was actually fighting the urge to laugh. How awful is that? My little girl in agony and I just want to laugh? Weird how the human brain works sometimes. I guess I had to either cry or laugh and my brain chose laugh. Oh well, as soon as it was over she was completely fine. Never complained about her legs hurting or her finger bleeding. I think just glad it was over and now she was in the clear as far as shots are concerned.

Afterwards she picked out not one, not two, but THREE Hannah Montana stickers. Then we went to 7-Eleven so she could pick out some candy. She chose Wild Berry Skittles (gross). Then we came home and she played with Ginsey the rest of the day. See how traumatized she looks?



Sorry - bit of a wardrobe malfunction!

Anyway, we're ready for kindergarten registration!

8 months old!

Today Brynn is 8 months old. 2/3 of a year old? Boo. I know she must grow and get older, but I don't have to like it!

She is still the easiest, best baby on the planet. So laid back, goes with the flow, and happy just about all of the time. Before this month I would have qualified that with "as long as Mommy is around or Farida (her care provider at day care)". Those conditions, however, have been taken away. She changed day cares so no longer has her Farida. And she's been perfect in every way at her new day care. Eats great, sleeps great (or as great as can be expected at day care), plays well, etc. And Mommy went out of town last week for the first time since Brynn was born, so she was forced into a new dependence on Daddy and she was digging it.

So what is miss Brynn up to these days?

• She cannot crawl quite yet. She really wants to get things and will stretch very far to reach. She'll end up on her belly, but she will just go in circles or make only backwards progress. She'll figure it out in the next few weeks though. Then we'll have to put the baby gates back up. Yuck.


• She loves "talking" and says "Ma ma", "Ra ra", "Ba ba", "Pa pa", but no "Da da" from what I've heard so far.


• She has tried just about every baby food there is and likes (or tolerates) most of them. Does not like green beans and tolerates peas barely. Also not a huge fan of apricots.


• We're having a hard time with moving to the next phase after very pureed baby food. She still chokes on puffs. Now I've tried letting her bite them (with the 2 teeth she has) and that works a little better. We've tried moving to baby food with more texture and she's doing OKAY, but we've got a ways to go. She's slower at this than my other 2 were.


• She can stand with assistance, but doesn't pull up yet.


• She sleeps on her back and barely moves in her sleep. She has never rolled to her stomach while in bed. And she still sleeps with her hands behind her head.


• She can now hold her own bottle. She gets tired and lazy though while doing it.


• I have no idea how much she weighs or how long she is. Guess we'll find out at her 9 month appointment.


• She is growing out of her 6-9 month clothes. Things sized 6-12 month seem to fit her well. Except her feet..she must have small feet as 6-12 month Robeez are still too big.


• She still goes in the exersaucer some and love the Johnny jumpup


• I'm pretty sure bathtime is her favorite part of the day

Anyway, that's Brynn in a nutshell these days!

Ethan never ceases to amaze me

This is the bathroom in Blythe's dollhouse.

It's pretty clear that the toilet is not a real toilet. It's for BARBIE'S. To PRETEND pee in. Right? Pretty obvious, right?

Yeah, that's what I thought too.

Blythe is 5

Blythe is 5 years old today. She's probably celebrating it right now at Taco Bell eating cheese rollups and cinnamon twists while I'm 1200 miles away at a conference for work. Sometimes having a full time job really sucks. We did have her birthday party last Sunday and she opened our gifts to her on Monday, so we have already celebrated it, but it still sucks to be gone.

The big milestone in our household with turning 5 is that she can now chew gum. So Braden took her yesterday to the store to pick out 2 packs of gum. She chose strawberry flavor and Juicy Fruit. Hopefully she doesn't swallow too much of it! Ethan keeps saying, "I five. I chew gum." Keep dreaming buddy.

There are some very exciting things that will happen at 5. Namely, she will go to KINDERGARTEN! Still over half a year away, but it will be here before you know it. I actually have quite a few memories from when I was 5. I remember my first day of kindergarten. I remember moving to a new state. And I remember getting shots. It's very traumatic. Not looking forward to next Wednesday when Blythe gets hers. But I am looking forward to getting past that so she can actually enjoy being 5. She's quite stressed about getting shots sometime while she's 5. So it might as well be soon so she can just move on.

We haven't measured her recently (guess the doctor will next week), but I do know she weighs about 41 pounds. She wears size 5T or 5 or 6 or girls XS or S. At this toddler/girl overlap stage in clothes, it's hard to find what actually will fit.

She's wearing size 10 or 11 shoes. 10.5 would probably be best, but I'm pretty sure they don't make those.

She is just barely starting to learn how to read. She knows the sounds of most of the letters and can put some together (but has a hard time with the vowels). I started using flashcards with a few words a week or so ago and she did okay. "Rug" gets sounded out as ruh-uh-guh though, so even when I say "say it all together fast", it still doesn't sound like "rug", but it's a bit of progress.

She writes letters and numbers very well. She's always wanting to write and asks me how to spell stuff all the time. There are some words she knows how to write on her own. At church one day all the kids got a paper that said, "I am thankful for..." She made a list of all of the things she knows how to spell:
books
dog
cat
dad
ethan
brynn
mary
ginsey
ashley

Other than cat, that's actually a pretty good "I'm thankful for..." list. Interesting how she writes "mary" and not "mom". For a while she wrote "mom" on everything. Every piece of art she made was for mom. "mary" is more challenging to write/spell than "mom", so she's just showing off how smart she is.

She's now started making her bed in the mornings. Thank you, Laura.

She's actually a pretty good dancer. Must have learned all her moves from me (and anyone who's ever seen me dance knows I am being completely sarcastic about that). She can also learn songs incredibly fast these days. Amazing how quickly those little kid brains absorb things.

She starting to use her imagination a lot these days and it's so fun to watch. I always felt that Blythe and Ethan would play well together when they were at least 5 and 3. Now we're getting there and I can totally see it. Blythe has the imagination to make up games and scenarios and Ethan just wants to play along. So they'll play "going to the store" or "going to a dance party" or "ice cream shop".

I think I'm going to like this year. 5 will be lots of fun. Happy Birthday to my sweet Blythe.

Blythe's birthday party

Blythe's birthday is on Thursday, but we had her birthday party yesterday. For the 3rd year in a row, she's had a combined birthday party with her best friend Ashley (who's birthday was on the 10th). Sure makes it nice when you can split the cost of the birthday party in half! Probably this will be the last year as they likely won't be at the same school next year (and therefore won't have the same group of friends).

I just cannot believe Blythe is turning 5. 5? 5 years old? Already? Unreal.

Anyway, the birthday party was at the pool. The new pool where VT swims. All of the friends they invited were from their old school (except Ginsey next door), so it was really nice for them to get together with friends they went to school with for several years (but haven't seen since mid-December).

Last year's party was also at a pool and the theme was Ariel (fitting for a pool party). So this year's theme was....Rapunzel. It was fresh on the mind.


Here they are blowing out the candles. Geez...5? 5 years old?

Despite the one mom who had to jump in after her kid because the sucky lifeguard wasn't doing her job, everyone had a great time. Even Brynn swam and only cried a little when she got splashed in the face (okay, she cried a lot).

Mama Mama Mama

Brynn can say Mama! Or actually "Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma". Here's a video from last week. I thought she'd say it for a day or 2 and then move on to other sounds, but she's still going strong.


Not a great video. Clearly she needs to be louder and more assertive to be heard in this household, but I'm sure it won't take her long to figure that out.

It should be noted that Brynn has NOT said the "Dada" sound yet. She is my only child to say "Mama" before "Dada". As if it wasn't clear before that she's a Momma's girl, we now have additional proof.

And as for an update on Ethan...he hasn't been in our room in the middle of the night at all this week. Cha Ching! Actually I think he's afraid to come in our room now at all because he doesn't even come in when it's morning. All it took was ice cream the first day, a single malted milk ball the next couple days, and then the promise of a "special treat" that last couple of days. He asks for his "special treat" as soon as I see him in the morning, but I've failed to actually follow through. Problem solved, right? Wrong.

Instead of coming in our room in the morning, now he goes in Brynn's room. At around 6:20 or 6:30. One time she was already awake. The other times he has woken her up. I'm sure he knows better than to go in Blythe's room. She loves her sleep and will likely bite his head off if he tries to wake her too early. And now he thinks our room is off limits. So that leaves Brynn. And of course she acts very happy to see him every morning, so why not? Grrrrr.

It's like having a newborn again

Ethan doesn't sleep all that well when he's stressed. And unfortunately for Braden and I, he has been really, really stressed with going to a new school.

He's always been our one that doesn't sleep all that well. But for the past few months, he's rarely gotten up in the middle of the night and I was so shocked when he completely slept through Blythe's stomach bug and the 3 bed sheet changes that went with it.

So last Monday he got up once during the night. Came into our room and wanted in bed. Not sure why he asks that since we NEVER let him in the bed. Anyway, took him back to his room and he was fine. Tuesday night same thing. Wednesday night same thing. GET.TING.OLD.

Thursday night he got up twice. The second time though he had a bloody nose and it was all over him and his sheets. So Braden and I were both up, cleaning up Ethan and changing his sheets (have I mentioned how much I LOVE middle of the night laundry loads???). Anyway, you should have seen the kid by Friday afternoon. The bags under his eyes were PURPLE. How could he possibly not sleep through the night on Friday night?

7 times. That's how many times he was up Friday night. He basically didn't sleep from 10:30 until 2am (and therefore nor did we). I mean, it was just getting ridiculous. And to top that off, no nap on Saturday. I couldn't for the life of me figure out how he was awake and functioning by Saturday evening.

So Saturday he didn't even have school, so there was less stress. Maybe that night would be better. After his 3rd time waking that night (when we woke to the sound of Ethan beating on Brynn's door), he got thrown back in his room and we locked the door (several months ago we turned his doorknob around when we were having trouble with naptime...because we are geniuses). There he was left to cry himself back to sleep and not bother us.

I really don't want to lock him in his room every night or discourage him from coming to get us if he has a problem, so that's not really a long term solution. Long term solutions are so much harder. But I think it had an impact, and then as another attempt to keep him in his room the whole night I promised him a "special treat" if he stays in his room and doesn't come in ours. For the WHOLE night.

Amazingly we got a whole night of sleep last night. At about 7:15 I found him in the bathroom trying to put his pants back on after going potty. So he hadn't even tried to wake me to announce to me his plans to go potty. Nice. He asked about his special treat. It had to be something of significance to encourage him to keep staying in his room. So he had ice cream. With sprinkles. For breakfast.

You're welcome 3's room teacher at day care.

Bathing beauties

We have a couple of bath related updates to make.

First, Brynn is now bathing like a big kid. She was in the infant bath tub, then transitioned to a "bath seat" in the big bath tub, but is now sitting well enough to sit by herself in the big bath tub and play with toys and splash like a maniac.



I bathed her one time with Ethan, but apparently "try not to splash Brynn in the face...she doesn't like that" translates to "splash the living daylights out of the water until Brynn cries" in Ethanese. Didn't go over so well, so maybe we'll try again at some other time.

In other bathing news, Blythe can now bathe herself. All I have to do is fill up the tub and she can take it from there. Soaping herself up, shampoo, conditioner, dry off, empty tub, and put on robe. And I never have to go in there (only on occasion when she can't get the conditioner bottle open). And this whole process takes a mere 45 minutes or so. Oh, forgot "play with mermaid toy for 40 minutes" in that process.

And since I'm pretty sure it's illegal to post pics of Blythe bathing, here's one of her in curlers the other night. Braden and Ethan had a "guys night out", so us girls had a "girls night in".