Ding Dong Goes the Truck

The other night we were out for a nice family walk after dinner.

All of us, including the dog. Who for once wasn't being an ass and was nicely letting RR walk her - opposed to her trying to walk him.

Normally when we go for a walk I carry ERP. In a carrier of course... he's getting heavy... he's gotta be getting close to 24 lbs. Ha!!

But this evening he insisted on walking.

It was slow going to say the least. RR and TT were in the lead and then would stop and wait. Husband stayed "back" with ERP and had running commentary about being passed by turtles, snails and slugs they were going so slow.

We had made it to our turn around point and were headed home playing "Eye Spy"... the boys insist on playing this game on the walk back home.

We're about half way back to the house and RR and TT tell us they hear the Ding Dong Truck; that would be the ice cream truck for all of you not living in the happy valley.

By the time we are two thirds of the way home they insist the truck is close and break into a run. I yell to RR that I have no cash on me, it's all in the house.

The two big boys (and the dog) are gone in a flash. They are seriously running. So I pick up the pace, to make sure they have enough money.

And the truck song keeps playing. Over and over and over again.

I round the corner and I see the truck stopped at the bottom of our street. TT is standing there alone... in his PJs... because the little wears PJs for after dinner walks. He's just staring up at the truck. Alone.

Then RR comes racing down from the house. He grabbed the singles and change and a store coin out of the change dish on from the kitchen. He has maybe four dollars. He needs at least twice as much if he's going to also get ERP an ice cream.

So now I run up to the house to go get a $10 out of my wallet.

And still the truck keeps playing. Hello!! Over and over and over again.

Our poor neighbors.

But they got it. They found the truck and got money (granted not enough) and got their ice cream.

Oh and the dog... she was dropped in the house... leash and all when RR made a mad dash for the cash.

Oh... and of course not but not least..., ERP and Husband made it to the cart by the time I got back with the cash. Of course ERP insisted on Husband carrying him to get back faster. He heard the "Hello!" as well from the tuck.

Mother's Day 2016

Today was a quiet relaxing day... a low key Mother's Day.

Husband has some sort of plague or something, and as such his asthma is kicking his butt; but all said and done he kept up pretty good (aside from the nap this afternoon, but in all fairness the kids were sleeping as well).

This photo pretty much sums up the day:

Today was day #2 of ERP sleeping until 8am. Husband was already downstairs with the other boys so I carried him down and went back to bed. My boys brought me one of my favorite cereals and coffee and bed. They showered me with gifts: tub for soaking my feet, new foot stuff, hand made pictures from school... and Husband got me flowers.

While I ate with my small mooches, RR made desert, He made two... one for us and one for my mom... so I can't tell you what it was since she hasn't gotten her's yet.

Then we all watched Ghostbusters and called our loved ones. The movie was followed by an early lunch and naptime for the boys. I watched my shows and made my feet all soft and pretty. 

The boys woke and we goofed around... did laundry and woke up Husband.

Then the SUN finally came out. After a week of rain the clouds parted and out came the sun.

The boys ran through the yard, laughing and playing and picking me "sunflowers" (dandelions to the rest of us). 

After that we all made dinner together... lobster, corn on the cob and salad (the little boys had chicken nuggets and Husband had shandwiches... so lobster for RR and I). The small boys had been getting a kick out of the lobsters since yesterday. ERP calls them "dinosaurs". I taught RR how to break up lobsters with crackers. TT and ERP wanted nothing to do with them... until dinner was over. TT feel in love with the lobster shells.

He started bringing all the bits and pieces outside to play on the deck with. Then he started carrying around the heads. He kept trying to get ERP to touch them and ERP kept saying "No, thank you" and running away.

It was so sweet to watch. A moment I'd like to remember forever.

The ugliest part of the day is when ERP tried to climb his slide while carrying a beater full of homemade whip cream (part of desert) and took a tumble off the top landing on his shoulder and head. Thankfully he bounced back after a little bit. And promised mommy not to try and use with slide with hands full of beaters. 

Dinner was followed by a failed bath for ERP and showers for the big boys. Then a failed bedtime for ERP. Thankfully TT was all about bedtime, him and I snuggled and chatted about the day. He told me the blue and pink in the sky looked like they were fighting... and he thought the purple would win.

Oh and some point during today, ERP got himself dressed. Already!! I am not ready. That said I can barely convince TT to dress himself most days.

Happy Mother's Day Everyone.

Once upon a time....

Once upon a time, way back when it was just RR and me; I used to get up early nearly every Saturday morning and have "me time".

It was back before everyone was on Facebook and people hung out on-line on message-boards. Do people even still use those? I was a community leader for a couple of them and on Saturday morning I would drink my coffee in peace while RR slept and spend time on-line. I used to post a weekly feature called "Saturday Stuff" where we would all chat about the nuances of day to day life.

This morning I am awake, down in the dining room alone. Almost like "old times".

RR is technically awake, but around 8:30am I gave him his DS so he could go watch videos and play games in his room. QUIETLY. After all I did get some snuggles from him this morning, which at age 11 I will take them when I get them.

TT is catching up on some much needed sleep. As is Husband.

And ERP; ever since his reflux medication kicked in his sleep has greatly improved. I don't think I updated about that. ERP's been having signs of silent or not so silent reflux for ages. Everything from ear infections to back arching crying and screaming in the middle of the night. At his 18 month well child appointment I went in to it with an agenda. Try and fix this mess he was - his pediatrician agreed to try the reflux meds, and really something else to give he had started to lose weight. So after about one and a half weeks on medication he turned the corner. He stopped waking five or six times a night, like he had been for the last 18 months and was waking one or two times. He stopped the back arching crying and crying in the middle of the night. He started eating, most days. And now he sleeps until eight or nine most days; instead of up and crying and miserable at five or six.

Anyhow; here I am alone. Just me and a cup of coffee, and possibly some of the worst chocolate chip pancakes I have ever made. How chocolate chip pancakes can be "bad" is beyond me. But I did it.

Since I have started writing this the dog is now down here with me. This can only mean one thing. TT is awake. She sleeps under his bed, with his bedroom door closed.... and that's how we know he's up... Lily is out. This works out great at nap-time when he's not napping.

And with that... I have run out of things to write about this morning. And my coffee is getting cold. And I cannot eat this nasty pancake. So... have a great Sunday everyone!

18 Months!

A few days ago the baby, aka ERP, turned 18 months.

How did that happen?

Oh I know. I blinked.

Don't blink.

Ever.


I often forget that he is not a baby anymore, but rather a toddler.

This also leads me to forget that TT isn't a toddler anymore, but rather a preschooler.

And when did that happen?

And don't even get me started on the biggest boy, and his hairy upper lip and deep baritone singing voice.

Anyhow, I digress....

ERP is still a little squirt. I call him Bird. Husband calls him Mouse. He has his 18 month check-up next week and he may finally weigh 20 lbs. He is certainly going through a growth spurt these days.

He may look a lot like TT and have some of RR's mannerisms, but he is certainly not his brothers. He has broken the mold in every way possible. From his blue eyes and curly hair, to his temper and all of those teeth. He is one tooth shy of having all of his first set of molars, and then on to cutting his eye teeth.

And that temper I mentioned. Oh the temper. He pitches the biggest fits. He bites toys and furniture. He turns beat red. He throws things. He just gets so mad. It takes all of mine and Husband's strength not to laugh at his over the top pint size melt downs.

He is still nursing. Which is another post in itself. I recall being so happy with reaching this milestone with TT. These days nursing is the same as breathing. It just happens.

ERP has a total disgust for getting wet. And as we found out the other day, when we went to the park; he also hates sand. Really hates sand. As in "clean my hands every time it touches me" hates sand. He should be a ball of fun at the beach this summer.

So the water thing. He hates it. Unless it's the dogs dish, a small puddle or his water table. Water he has to get into. Forget it. When he has to be bathed, it's a two person job. One to hold him down and the other to wash him. He totally looses his shit. Seriously. And he tries to escape from the water like it was on fire. He will scale you like a cat climbing a tree to get away from a dog.

Actually he tries to climb me a lot. He is without a doubt a "worn child". He is also a mama's boy. He likes Husband enough, until I'm around. When I am around, everyone else if chop liver... assuming you don't like chop liver.

Food. Food is all over the place. Some days he's eats, and eats a variety of stuff. Other days he turns his nose up at everything.

He's all about doing what his brothers do. He loves hanging out with them. He likes RR to take him for walks in the stroller, and he loves playing play-doh and coloring with TT.

But he doesn't plenty his brother's never did. He climbs. Oh, he climbs. On everything. He likes to stand on chairs. He races from one side of the couch to the other. And it's not like we endorse these activities; they happen in a blink of an eye. He certainly keeps us on our toes.

And for everyone that ask - how's he's sleeping? He's not. We'll just leave it at that.

And now... the photos.

Potato Soup

Tonight for dinner we tried something new. Potato soup (and salad, but we have salad all the time).

Now mind you RR hates potatoes. He tolerates them in beef stew and clam chowder. And aside from the occasional french fry, he doesn't eat them. He loathes mashed potatoes; with a passion.

TT on the other hand will eat potatoes any chance he gets, He can make a whole meal out of mashed potatoes and corn and green beans... but then he ends up not eating the green beans.

SO.... as you can imagine color me surprised when RR ate the soup. He didn't finish it, but he ate it. And TT refused to even try it. Really no big surprise, but still I was... as he is super picky and is fearful of new food.

ERP thought it was possibly the best food ever. THE. BEST. FOOD. EVER. Seriously. He was eating it with two spoons at once and drinking it. He had three or four servings.

So not a win all around, but worth making again.

A Year!

ERP is a year old. Actually one year and five days. But, who's counting?

We had his one year well child check today. And guess what? He is still a peanut. Getting more and more peanutty as he gets older. He is a whooping 18 lbs. and is 28.5 inches long - note this was said dripping in sarcasm. For ever inch TT is a giant, ERP is just the opposite. His weight is holding steady at the 3 to 5% but his height has gone from about 20% down to 5%. He's petite as his doctor put it. He is easily 4 inches shorter and 4 pounds lighter than his brothers were at this age.

What he's got that they didn't have - sixth teeth!!  And more coming in. He has four top ones just about in, the two bottom ones (he's had those for months) and some random ones further back making their way on through.

He is "this close" to walking. He's taking a couple steps between Husband and I. He cruises along furniture, but still loves to crawl. And he is FAST.

He is still nursing on demand - read all night long - and eating three meals a day and two snacks as well. He is fully eating table food and has what we are having (as long as the sodium isn't insane). The only food he doesn't like - eggs - scrambled or fried. But he will eat them boiled.

He says "mama" and "dada" and RR swears he says his name. He makes lots of other sounds as well, but I don't think they mean anything at this time.

He is still napping two times a day. Some days he still naps three times.

He is stacking blocks and putting things in and out of containers. He waves bye-bye and loves to clap and read books. In his jumper he rocks it back and forth, and gets some serious air time.

We celebrated his birthday on December 6th with a circus themed party. His brothers even had clown wigs to wear. Husband and brother-in-law did an awesome job with the streamers and I made a five layer rainbow cake.

And I didn't cry. OK, maybe once...

Oh yes... and the crazy hair. He has some serious crazy hair.

Things I don't want to forget from this last months
~ How the hair on the back of his head is so course - and he sleeps on his belly so that's not it
~ How the rest of his hair is super wispy and fine
~ The way he HATES and I mean HATES the shower
~ The way he arches his back and becomes stiff as a board while crying and turning red when he doesn't want to do something - like go to bed or get a diaper change
~ His smile and his giggle
~ The "stork bite" on the back of his neck - I am guessing it's a faint birthmark by now.
~ The way he will happily lay on me in the darkness for hours on end
~ How afraid of meeting St. Nick he was
~ The way he looks in he morning with his hair all a mess
~ How he loves his pacifiers and will crawl around with one in his mouth and one in each hand
~ The way he plays with TT and they are doing more actual playing these days
~ The way RR simply adores him and dotes on him
~ The face he made when he saw his light up book for his birthday
~ His baby smell
~ The softness of his skin and hair

TT-isms

Here are a couple of TT-isms from today. I swear this kid is all about the "one liners" some days.

~ Both of these happened during church this morning.

After hearing the priest say "Jesus Christ".
TT says as loud as possible in a very quiet church.
"Jesus Christ??? We don't say Jesus Christ"

Deacon says "Brother and Sisters"
TT says "Where are my sisters?"

~ Yesterday TT started being obsessed with having salad for dinner. This was a step for him. He loves veggies, and salad dressings, but he normally doesn't like lettuce. Last night he has a salad with dinner, and to no one's surprise he doesn't eat the lettuce. Tonight he asks for salad with dinner again. And again I oblige. Tonight instead he starts pulling out all of the lettuce and asks me:
"Who put these leaves in my salad?"

Friday Five

5 things from this week....

1) Co-workers who bring me chocolate. Specifically Chunky candy bars, the giant size.

2) Dinner date with Husband, first one since before ERP was born (YES!!!)

3) A very cool new babysitter, seeing as our last sitter "left" us when she went away to college and is now a graduate of a 4 year nursing program and working on her Masters.

4) The cool new babysitter's mom, who is teaching HIM, yes our new sitter is a HIM (good role model for RR) the ins and outs of babysitting.

5) Sushi lunch at work, paid for by work

It has been a good week.... because ERP also won the baby contest and RR won the youth cake award....

Pumping on the Run

A couple weeks back I posted about how I had to go on an over night business trip.

Guess what?  I survived being away from baby.  Yup, I did.

It was tough.  The emotional part I was able to get past once I was on the road.  I was so busy the whole trip I hardly had time to think about what I was missing.  But boy, once we were on our way home I couldn't wait to see my guy.

Now pumping (breastmilk) on the go was not as easy as I thought it would be.  First of all, packing was a nightmare.  I had more pump equipment than I had work and clothing combined.  It was like getting ready to be in the Amazon for a week.  Insane.

I opted to manually pump in the car, because my boss' car didn't seem to have the right types of outlets.  This was OK, until it rained.... then I would have to get out of the car; once all of my male coworkers I was with left me, get my stuff out of the trunk, get into the back seat, pump - being careful not to get milk all over the place, get everything repacked and into the trunk.  All while trying not to get wet.  And it rained, did it ever rain.  Rained so hard we had to pull the car over on the interstate we couldn't see while driving.  So here I am pumping in the back of my boss' $60K BMW at nearly every stop on the New York State Through-way.  The one time it wasn't raining, the people parked next to us came back and stood outside their car for the longest time.  The teenage girl eating pretzels was either staring at me, or looking blanking into space... either way that sucked.

At the hotel, while my coworkers took 30 minutes before dinner to relax, I was a mad women running around to get my milk in more ice and trying to get a good pump session in with my electric pump; all while calling home to check on the kids.

Dinner was super awesome and fantastic.   It was great to eat and not have to get up and get more food for anyone, clean up any messes, or tell someone to sit in their chair and eat.  Not to mention it was one of the best steaks I ever had.  And the desert.... it was so good I took a picture of it.

Business the next morning was good.  But by the end of the meeting, oh my aching breasts.  So while my male coworkers figured out where we were going to eat for lunch, I was sitting in the back of the car again; pumping away.  This time, in the parking lot of a strip mall.

More pumping on the NYS highway system on the way home.  More rain.... and finally, finally I was home.  Back with a little over 40 ounces of milk, mostly pumped by hand in the back of the car.  Pretty proud of myself.  And my boys... they were no worse for the wear and so happy to have (and my milk) at home.

Feeding Baby

It's that time again - time to start feeding another little person "real" food.  ERP is nearly 7 months now and is eating all sorts of food.  Like his brother TT before him, we are mostly following the food method of baby-led-weaning.  Which in a nut shell is letting baby fed themselves age and stage appropriate foods.

I like it because it gives me a chance to actually eat my dinner at the same time - it's great we get to eat as a family.

Yup; you really start getting lazy with baby #3 on this whole parenting thing.

Sure it makes a mess, but exploring new food textures is a great learning tool; plus yogurt is a great skin and hair treatment.

This time around however we are skipping grains until ERP is at least 12 months old.  New research shows that the gut does not develop the proper enzymes to digest grains until 12 or so months. Grains before 12 months is linked with higher rates of allergies, eczema and "chicken skin" (which both older boys have).

Foods that ERP has had and has loved
Cantaloupe (thick slice)
Watermelon (again a nice thick slice)
Pickles (not chip style)
Peas (smashed)
Apple (peeled)
Sweet potato (smashed)
Potatoes (smashed)
Yogurt (all types)
Ice cream
Celery (frozen, great for teething)
Peach (peeled)
Banana
Shredded chicken
Hamburger
Sour cream
Guacamole
Red cabbage

Foods that ERP as not loved
Egg yoke
ok... make that food with no s....

What?! 6 Months!!

ERP is 6 months old!? Ack!  Half a year gone.  It has been flying by.

He doesn't have his 6 month well visit until much later this month; but he did have the croup last week and we got a weight on my Pocket Baby.  And what a Pocket Baby he is - a whopping 14 lbs. and 2 ounces.  Don't know how big or small that is?  It's small.  He's a compact guy.

But he is quick and fast and compact.

He is still wearing size 2 diapers when he is wearing disposables.  But I am getting better about keeping the cloth diapers clean for two little ones (TT still needs diapers for naps and long trips out of the house).

What is ERP up to?  Everything!!  He is getting very, very close to sitting up on the floor alone; for more than a minute.  He loves scooting around; but he has to be in the mood.  When he's cranky he just rolls over and then gets mad and screams his head off.

Speaking of screaming he has figured out all his different voices; he has a protest yell, a food whimper, a put me to sleep-cry.  And he babbles and giggles.  Which I love.  I could listen to him giggle all day long.

Sleep is not the best right now.  He naps excellent in his swing.  He is up several times a night.  We can get him to sleep in his co-sleeper with no tears, super extra perfect.  But then he is up around 10:30 and that's it.

He is still wearing 3-6 month clothes.  He has some smaller and some larger sizes he fits into.

He LOVES his jumper.  He LOVES being held.

Still breastfeeding.  No shock I know.  He really enjoys his breastmilk-yogurt flavored with cinnamon.   And I seem to have gotten much close to perfecting the process of making it.

We celebrated ERP turning 6 months with a nice big bowl of his yogurt and some hashbrowns; which I highly doubt he ate any of.

Things I don't want to forget from his month:
~ The time he managed to work  himself across the room by rolling and scooting
~ How excited he gets about his yogurt - he reminds me of a little bird looking for a worm
~ How excited he gets about nursing
~ His happy squeal
~ The stork bite on the back of his neck, it looks like it's getting bigger
~ How adorable he looks with his little "comb over"
~ Watching his brothers help take care of him
~ How much he hates his car seat right now
~ How dapper he looks in his hats
~ How he will pause from nursing, look up at me and blow bubbles at me
~ How he blows bubbles while nursing (silly boy)