A Month of Thanks-giving

These are all my "thankful" status updates from Facebook over the month of November. Some have been edited slightly. And they are in descending chronological order, because it was easier that way...

Day 30: Thankful for a healthy, fully-functioning body and mind (though sometimes I wonder about the latter, haha)

Day 29: Thankful for TOYS. I love toys. I had to have children just so I could justify filling my house with toys :D

Day 28: Thankful for SLEEP...when I manage to get it. 

Day 27: Thankful for my free agency, to choose my own actions and believe the way I choose to believe.

 

Day 26: Thankful to Eve for choosing to partake of the Fruit so that I could experience life on Earth.

 

Day 25: Thankful for Charity, for those who have been charitable to me and for opportunities to be charitable to others.

 

Day 24: Thankful for the Priesthood power in my life, especially to be married to a man who holds that power worthily and who treasures it and keeps it sacred.

 

Day 23: Thankful for my Savior, Jesus Christ, and for a loving Father in Heaven who gave His Son for me.

 

Day 22: Thankful for my brothers and sisters, and for the wonderful time I had with them all this past week! It's especially nice now that they're all married and I'm not the only one ;p

Day 21: thankful for my children. For G and his enthusiasm and love of learning; Z and his observant nature and internal strength; C and his infectious smile and laid-back attitude. I love my boys :)

Day 20: thankful for my husband. Going on eight years! He is still my best friend and soulmate, a loving and supportive spouse and excellent father to my children.

Day 19: thankful for my amazing in-laws! Not only did they manage to raise an exceptional man to be my husband, but they are so helpful to me as well and are truly like second parents to me. I'm grateful to be living in the same city with them as I am so far away from my first family.
Day 18: thankful for my amazing parents. Too much to expound on here...but the older I get the more I realize just how amazing those two people are :)

Day 17: thankful for a creative mind, and the ability to make my mental creations reality...

Day 16: thankful for a reliable vehicle.

Day 15: thankful for photography; even if it does steal my soul... ;)

Day 14: Thankful for my ability to see in color ;) Actually, to be able to see at all. But especially in color; it makes life a whole lot more interesting :)

Day 13: Thankful for math. Even though I'm not stellar with math, nor do I particularly enjoy it, I am thankful for it and all its practical applications. Just don't laugh at me when I break out the calculator to multiply 12x7 :\

Day 12: Thankful for the quiet moments...

Day 11: thankful for our inspired Founding Forefathers and all those who, throughout the years, have risked their lives in defense of my "inalienable rights."

Day 10: I am thankful for food. Not just because my body needs it, but because I thoroughly enjoy eating it :) And thankful to live in a day and place where I have access to a wide variety of tasty, nutritious foods to eat every single day of the year.

Day 9: Very very thankful for indoor plumbing and clean water. Very.

Day 8: Thankful for my musical abilities and a good singing voice :) Thankful that my parents put me through six years of piano lessons (and other music lessons besides). I will sacrifice what I have to to do the same for my kids.

Day 7: Thankful for vinegar! The versatile and all-natural household cleaner! And I love that my son can use it to clean the bathroom and I don't have to worry about him being exposed to harmful chemicals.

Day 6: thankful for Women's Suffrage

Day 5: Thankful for the wealth of information and resources on the Internet. I have learned so much on so many different topics that I otherwise would not have had the option to learn without going to school or buying a lot of books (so it's saved me a lot of money, too!). Of course, anything on the Internet has to be studied with wisdom and a little bit of healthy skepticism to figure out what's true and what's bogus, but I still know more than I would have otherwise. And it's also made my job as a mother easier, with all the educational resources and fun ideas to cheaply entertain my kids.

Day 4: Thankful for the gift of literacy.

Day 3: Thankful for my amazingly comfortable bed; I miss it terribly whenever I travel.

Day 2: I am thankful for my automatic clothes washer and dryer.

Day 1: thankful for a phone with Netflix on days when the baby is being extra clingy and wanting to be held or nursed alot. Or when I have lots of dishes to do...

Nine months! Wow...

Amazing. C is nine months old today.

This past month, he has started crawling on his hands and knees, and pulling himself up and standing up to furniture-- sometimes even with just one hand!

Something tells me he could be taking his first steps by the end of the year...sooo not ready for that...

We had to buy an artificial Christmas tree this year instead of our usual live tree. I was just too worried about C trying to eat the pine needles on the floor and me not being able to keep up with keeping the carpet pine-needle-free. We also have the tree up on the boys' folding toddler table so C can't reach the branches.

Oh, C has also figured out how to climb up stairs and delights in trying to climb up to the podium at church.

He traveled really well a couple weeks ago when we traveled for Thanksgiving; only had a hard time two or three times when he was sleepy and wanted to be held but we had to keep driving so eventually he would stop crying and fall asleep in his carseat.

I've noticed, with this one, that he doesn't get nearly as hysterical as either of his older brothers when he has to cry it out; he's figured out the self-soothing much better and much earlier than my other boys. I still typically will hold him at night until he falls asleep; but there have been several nights where we'll just lay him between us in the bed and he'll just make soothing noises to himself and drift off to sleep.

The only time he gets really mad at bedtime is when he thinks he wants to stay up and play even though I can tell he's sleepy; but I will hug him to my chest and pin his arms down and he'll carry on for up to five minutes but eventually relax, make noises, and finally sleep. He stays asleep much better this way than if I let him nurse to sleep; if he nurses to sleep, he's awake and fussing again within the hour and then I will hold him to my chest until he falls sleep again.

He is still the happiest baby I know. I call him my "little ray of sunshine." I think even his brothers are cheered up by his smiles and laughter whenever they're having a bad day. Definitely glad we decided to go for Baby #3 sooner rather than later, since we got so lucky :)

Tasty Ears

One night C was fascinated with Nick's ears and kept trying to "eat" them. He was at it for several minutes; I got only a small portion of it on video.

Trash to Treasure Creation #4: plastic bag handbag

 

Some of you may recall the earlier plastic bag shoulder bag I made and posted a while ago. I still use that bag quite often. I've received several compliments about it. It's a lot sturdier than I expected it to be. Yesterday, I decided to try making another bag with some solid-colored plastic bags I've collected. It's smaller, more of a "handbag," and just big enough to carry my wallet, coin purse, cell phone, keys, and a pen.

 

While the first bag spoke more to my practical side, this bag is definitely a more fun-loving, stand-out piece that I think I will enjoy carrying around with me.

I need to collect more colored bags now so I can make these for friends :)

Critical thinking of a 3-year-old

This morning, I was out in the kitchen and heard one of my windchimes ringing in the living room as something hit them. I knew from experience that Z must have thrown something at them, and coming out into the living room I noticed right away the plastic hanger which must have been the culprit (he’d been playing with this hanger on-and-off all morning). I scolded him, but then I decided to try reasoning with him, helping him to think critically about what had happened.

Our conversation went like this:

Me: What just happened that was wrong?

 

Z: (pointing to the chimes) Those things just rang.

Me: Yes, but that’s not wrong. What happened that was wrong to make the chimes ring?

Z: I threw the hanger.

 

Me: Do you think it was a good choice to throw the hanger?

Z: No.

Me: What might be a better choice next time instead of throwing a hanger?

Z: (thinks for a moment) Throwing something soft at them. (meaning the chimes)

Me: …well, yes, that would be a little better…

Nick and both laughed at this point.

Z is always throwing things and rather than discourage all throwing (because I realize sometimes he just can’t help himself), I try to dedirect him to find something soft to throw. So, it makes sense that he would come to the conclusion he did, though it was not quite the conclusion I had been hoping for…

Eight Months (plus a day)

C turned eight months yesterday! He has really taken off this last month...

He is crawling now! He actually has been since shortly after my 7-month post. Just the "army crawl," not up on his hands and knees yet. Also just this past week he figured out how to get himself into a sitting position all my himself. He is all over the place now, and he is FAST! Watch out, World...

We've had some pretty rough nights as he continues to teethe. Plus the last week we've all had colds/sore throats and C hasn't escaped it, either. For the last few nights he's been waking up several times in the middle of the night needing to nurse to ease his sore throat. Then of course I've been having to change his diaper in the middle of the night because the increased nursing means he wets himself more often. Hopefully the sore throat will be gone soon and we can all get more restful sleep.

I bought a Toy Story Alien costume for him for Halloween that said "18 months- 2 years" on the label, so I figured it would fit him fine. Then, the day before Halloween I found a Tigger costume in one of the Halloween boxes and decided to try that on him instead (it looked warmer than the alien costume). It barely fit him (the legs and arms were a little too short). But it's a good thing we had it, because later in the evening on Halloween I decided to try the alien costume on him just for a change, and we couldn't even get the second arm in. It was long enough, but just made for a much skinnier baby, I guess.

It's been nice the last month or so, as C's finally able to be placed in the child seat in a shopping cart. Makes shopping in general much easier; though I still try to grocery shop when Nick is home to watch the boys because it's just easier and quicker that way.

We've continued to slowly give him solid foods, and he's started making the connection between Nick and food now whereas before he knew only I could feed him. When the rest of us are getting settled for dinner, he'll look squarely at Nick and say "Na!" which is his way of asking to be fed. It's pretty cute.

He really likes his daddy in general. The other day, the boys were all playing together on the living room floor when Nick got home from work. C whipped around and saw his daddy and immediately started crawling right to him.

It was already a rule in our house before C became mobile, but once in a while I still have to crack down on the boys to keep their Legos and other smaller toys out of the living room. We've even started putting the gate up sometimes to keep C out of the boys' bedroom so they can still play with their toys. For the most part things have gone pretty well, but once in a while we still catch C with a book or a toy in his mouth that shouldn't be there; or leaves, which get tracked in on shoes or on the stroller wheels. We've been vacuuming the floor at least once a week, sometimes twice. Oh, the joys of having a mobile baby...

He likes to grab peoples' hair; I just got mine cut really short to help prevent him pulling my hair so much. Z keeps getting his head too close to the baby and then starts screaming when C grabs a chunk of his hair and won't let go. I'd have more sympathy if I weren't already always having to remind Z to keep his head away from the baby (he still tries to head-butt him a lot).

Still no more teeth. He's tried to bite me a few times while nursing, though. Ouch.

That's all. I think...

Seven Months (plus three days)

With each baby, these months seem to go by exponentially faster! C is seven months old already! A few times people have asked us how old C is now and Nick has said "six months" and I've had to remind him that no, it's seven months now. Crazy...

He has figured out how to roll in both directions now and rolls all over the floor. Sometimes I'll sit him down somewhere, leave the room for a few minutes, and when I come back he's halfway across the room!

At his six-month well-baby, I asked the doc. for copies of G's and Z's baby growth charts to compare them to C's chart. While C's weight gain pattern is more similar to G's than Z's (Z was waaay off the charts for a few months before he became mobile), he is significantly longer than either of them. Which I knew already, but it's fun to see it confirmed on an official record.

He still is such a happy baby, we all just adore him and the boys especially love to make him smile and laugh (though Z is still trying to convince me that C "likes it" when he sits on the baby or otherwise afflicts the poor kid because he gets this little nervous half-smile on his face whenever Z starts in on him).

We've been introducing solids pretty slowly-- a. because if he already has one food sensitivity he's more likely to have more so I want to isolate any problem foods and b. because I'm really just lazy and it is soooo much easier to fit nursing into our busy schedule than everything that goes along with feeding solids. So he gets solids maybe once a day right now-- usually at dinner. The last couple days we've fed him carrots, which he has loved. They are going to stain his diapers, though ;)

A few weeks ago, we were looking in his mouth and discovered his first two teeth had broken through. We could hardly believe what we saw, though, because his first two teeth are his top canines! Which are usually some of the last teeth to grow in. One of them has since recessed, but the other is still poking out. No other teeth yet, though.

Oh, one other thing he started doing shortly after he turned six months: clapping his hands! He seems to do it especially when he wants a little attention, and it works! It sure is cute. I tried to catch it on film, but he stopped as soon as he saw my camera-- of course.