expressions

sad peas

silly peas!

surprised peas

happy peas

mad peas

Valentine's Day

According to my Lu, "Valentine's Day is a VERY special day." So, we tried to make sure the kiddos enjoyed a VERY special Valentine's Day. On Monday night Clay & I crafted little heart valentine's for them complete with brand new Hello Kitty chap stick attached...chap stick that Santa meant to leave in their stockings but forgot ;) After that it was off to school parties where they exchanged valentine's with their little classmates, decorated cookies & ate tasty snacks all washed down with juice boxes (a big treat in our family). Clay went to Luci's party and was the only dad there...good job Dad!! And after school they checked the mail & opened their Valentine's Day package from Grandma & Grandpa Pierse where much to their delight they found among other things, new sunglasses!

M'girl loves her a card so we made extra valentines for our friends in the 'hood. That night we set about delivering them, complete with some brownie cut out cookies in the shape of hearts - the kids had fun walking in the dark! All in it was a very fun day!

And a funny note...Gus calls his chap stick "goo". As in, "where my goo go?"

4 1/2!?!?!?

time is marchin on my friends. hugh is already 12 weeks old. i still need to post about his baptism and write a letter to g for his second birthday. other than that i think i'm mostly caught up. oh, and finish hugh's birth story.

so the lu was officially 4.5 years old on january 25th. since her birthday is in the summer we decided to bring treats into school on her half birthday. i cannot believe my girl is going to be FIVE this summer. seriously. five years ago seems like a lifetime ago (ha, it was! hers that is ;), but it also seems like i blinked and here we are five years later. how oh how can it be that she'll be heading to kindergarten this fall. seriously, i'm going to need to be sedated that first day she gets on the bus. and you think i'm kiddin, but i'm not.

she chose to bring chocolate chip cookies, and i was lucky enough to make them dairy free so i could have a few. or ten. again, you think i kid. i wish! yes, this photo is in the van on the way to school. cause i thought of it just as we were leaving...more than a few minutes late.

g has hit that fun 2 year old stage. he spends much of his day looking like this. "i MAD, mama, i MAD! i mad RIGHT.NOW." (insert foot stomp after RIGHT and again after NOW)

and here is sweet hugh. gus has started calling him huey all on his own. not kiddin this time. he happened upon that nickname all on his own. we aren't encouraging it. but it is sorta cute when gus says it.

i swear he smiles, i just have a hard time capturing it!

muddy puddles

just had to ruin a good thing

i'm not sure who murphy is, but i hate his/her law. and if i wasn't so tired, i'd probably link to wikipedia's entry on murphy's law. but i am too tired.

the night after publishing my last post, the same day in which i told two friends how well i was doing, the boys decided to send me back over the edge. all three kids have been up multiple times a night since my last post. hugh is back to eating 2 or even 3 times a night. i'm hoping it is just a grow spurt. he's getting out of his swaddle (at 2 months!??!?!) and i'm at a bit of a loss on how to keep him from waking himself.

last night was particularly not fun.

10:00p: i go to bed
11:20p: hugh is up to eat
11:50: i'm back in bed
12:22a: gus cries out. "i havin hard time fallin sleep, mama. i stand up. rock a minute?"
12:40a: i'm back in bed
3:30a: hugh is up to eat
3:55a: i'm back in bed
4:15a: gus cries out. "more cup mama, peease?" luci comes in g's room. asks if i can wash her dresses tonight so they'll be clean in the morning because she doesn't have any dresses to wear tomorrow. i tell her sure - even though my intentions of starting a load of laundry are slim to none.
4:25: i'm back in bed.
5:00a or so: thunderstorm wakes me up. i drift off again at some point.
5:30a: luci comes into our room, asks to sleep with us. the thunder & lightning are scaring her.
6:00a: gus cries out. "more cup, peease? what's dat noise, mama? medicine pease mama?"
6:10a: i'm decide to sleep in luci's bed. i pray for at least another hour of sleep.
7:30a: hugh is up for the morning, followed seconds later by luci.

tired yet? i am.

gus has ANOTHER virus or infection or some ailment that has lead to ANOTHER fever and MORE night wakings. somehow when i hear his little voice asking, "help me, mama" i'm WIDE awake within seconds, off to comfort.

ugh. hoping tonight is better.

hugh @ 2months

my giant babies have heavy heads...what can i say?

sweet boy was 2 months old on 1.17.12!

he's a big one...14lbs & 1oz (93%) and 24 inches tall (87%) already with a 16.3 inch head circumference (80%). he's right on track with his big brother & sister so far.

in the last few weeks he's started to go to bed between 7p and 8p...which means mama is well on her way back to sanity. all i need is that bit of alone time...to watch tv, read, blog, surf the net, shower, do laundry or kitchen or meal planning chores...you know, the fun stuff ;) actually though, my favorite thing about it is that now on the nights clay is home we actually get a bit of time together. i miss him during those first few all consuming post partum months.

anyway, enough about me.

so...let's see. hugh LOVES his big sissy & brother. and they love him too. hugh likes the sound of his name and will usually coo back to anyone who talks to him. he likes his fist, and i just caught him batting at a floating bird today. big boy ;) he also has a little fishy wind chime mobile thing that hangs down over his changing table in his room. he likes to hit that too. he loves the mobile in his crib, and is pretty content to hang out & watch things if he's got a clean diaper & a full belly. he's in size 2 huggies and size 6 months clothes.
he was the gassiest of all my babies until i stopped eating dairy products. like ANY and ALL dairy. like even hidden dairy way way down in the ingredients list & called by some unrecognizable name. i know because he is in pain the next day or so every time i feed him. stinks for me, but i'm tellin ya, he's like a whole different baby when i'm dairy free. so a dairy free i shall be (just heard the lu's voice in my head saying, 'hey! free & be! that rhymes!)

he usually goes down by 8p, up anywhere between 11:30p and 3a, usually just for one feeding. sometimes up 6aish for another feeding, but often not until 7a or later. i can't complain. he's on prevacid still and that combined with no dairy for mama seems to be suiting him. he sleeps best swaddled tightly. he often naps during the day in a loose swaddle in his swing downstairs. usually one or two am naps (two if the first one gets cut short), and one or two pm naps (again depending on the length of the first). naps usually develop after consolidated night time sleep (that we are just now getting to) so i'm not too worried about the consistency of them yet. that'll hit around 4 months.

he likes to eat (see 14lbs above), usually every 3 hours or so, but sometimes every 2 1/2, sometimes every 4. just depends on what we have going on as a family, if he's sleeping, how hungry he acts, etc. can you tell how much more relaxed i am this time? i remember with luci thinking that she would explode or something if i didn't feed her every 3 hours. i literally reached internal crisis mode at that 3 hour mark. not so much anymore.

poor third child...or lucky third child ;)

i recently found this woman's blog and this particular post articulated my truth more eloquently than i ever could have.

http://momastery.com/blog/2012/01/29/one-two-three-4/

if you have time, you should read it.

all in all he's a sweet one. low maintenance & chill...at least when i'm diary free. is it me, is it him, who knows. well, maybe i know ;)

gah-ha.be.big.man.

was what my sobbing 2 year old said today has we dropped him off at our gym's childcare. literally, he was crying, but repeating over & over 'gah-ha be big man" (gah-ha = gotta) through his sobs.

last time he went with just dad & i told him it'd be a fun 'big man day' (cuz hugh wasn't going...just the big boys) and he could go play & be big & strong like his dad. he was all for it that day. i'm not sure what or if anything clay elaborated on after my declaration of the gym = a big strong man, but apparently it stuck with him. cause his own self encouraging mantra of 'be big man' was repeated several times this morning through lots of tears. luckily he was a happy camper when we picked him up two hours later.

and just a fun photo of my big man on the front loader that he got from grammy & grampy for his birthday. he's a big fan...and he'll be an even bigger fan when he can pedal it!

thank you grandma

our grandmas have gone above & beyond in the last two months.

my mom was here for 5 weeks after hugh's birth, then clay's mom was here for 2 weeks, went home for around 2 weeks, and then came back for 10 days while clay was gone with the navy.

she was a tremendous help & good company, as always.

we can't thank you enough.

highey-birday to gus

notice the one boot, one shoe. we believe in letting our kiddos pick their own clothes around here ;)

my boy turned 2 on december 28th. in so many ways he seemed 2 already, yet thinking about him being 2 blows my mind at the same time. confusing, i know. we had a small-ish party at the house with the lawrence family, atkins family, our family & grandma & grandpa pierse. it was perfect for a 2 year old. the highlight of the day (for clay& gus at least) was a game of tag played in the backyard by all of the kiddos (ranging in age from 2yrs - 8yrs) and dads. apparently it was quite fun, and although gus couldn't really play 'tag' per se, he was running, laughing & exuding just pure joy thinking he was right in the middle of it all.

luci & i picked out the decorations. she picked out matchbox car stuff, cars stuff, and firetruck stuff (3 different party themes). cause she knew he'd like them all and she couldn't decide. so we had 'transportation' themed cups, plates, napkins, balloons and a cars cake. the one thing we forgot? party hats. actually, i hadn't forgotten. i had decided they weren't necessary. till luci mentioned party hats to gus & suddenly he had to have them. luckily a quick call later to the lawrence family resulted in thomas the train hats (thanks lawrence family) that fit in nicely with our 'transportation' theme. that said, once the party got going we forgot all about said hats. alas, not to let them go to waste, we wore them that night for family dinner & cake part deux.

clay has said repeatedly that the sweet sound of g's laughter on that day will stay with him forever. sounds like a perfect party to me :)

Christmas 2011

Better late than never, right? We had a wonderful Christmas this year. Grandma & Grandpa Pierse came down as they have the last few years & somehow it makes the whole thing feel more official. Having grown up where Christmas = going to our grandparents homes to play with cousins & eat a huge family meal, I'm glad my kiddos at least get to have one set of grandparents here to share the day with.

I waited until Christmas Eve to put any gifts under the tree...which was a good move because Lu & Gus were RELENTLESS in their quest to open gifts. I let them open the gift from cousins Asher & Lila first & on Christmas Eve morning because I knew it would keep them busy all day.

60 cardboard box/blocks will do that.

(the assembly of which also kept mom, grandpa & dad busy for an hour or so)


one of g's favorite gifts...his caterpillar lawn chair from sissy. they used to fight over luci's butterfly lawn chair...but no longer!

and one of lu's favorite gifts...a princess umbrella from her grammy & grandpy.

she's wanted an umbrella for ages. now she wants for rain...

and my baby boy just chilled ;)
dad made a FANTASTIC apple pie. isn't it pretty?

he did the lattice work himself. and this was the first time he'd done that, i might add. impressive, right? maybe he should take over in the kitchen....

look what my baby found!

his fist!

fun with paper

with all of those Christmas & birthday toys, guess what had them giggling up storm?

why, 3 feet of unrolled easel paper, of course.

my girl is into writing fancy like, with balls on the ends of her letters, just.like.mom.

and my big boy. i butchered his hair last week. cause it had to be cut right.that.minute....

for reasons that i can no longer articulate...cause they don't make sense anymore.

but i assure you, i had my reasons at that time.

sadly said butchering was cut short by a blowout diaper from baby hugh. the kind that goes all of the way up to the neck & soaks through the diaper, clothes, a swaddle blanket, and a white swing...including the straps. nothing a little oxi clean couldn't handle.

i'll keep him anyway.

the throes of sleep deprivation

it's that time of post partum. the throes of sleep deprivation. hugh is 8 weeks today, and i haven't slept through the night now in over 8 weeks. he's had a handful of nights where he has only gotten up once to eat - the remainder he's been up 2 or 3x or many hours of the night. i'm hanging in there. some days more gracefully than others. the hardest part of parenting thus far has been the sleep deprivation. you'd think by the 3rd time i'd somehow be better at it, but i'm really not. and of course the wakeful hours are more challenging as there are now 3 sweet little beings depending on me to meet their nearly every need. when mama's not well rested everybody feels it :(

that said, i'm hanging in there. because really - what other choice do i have? interestingly enough i find it hard to sleep during the day when those rare opportunities arise...i'm not so good at go, gO, GO...okay, now sleep, sleEP, SLEEP!

this of course contributes to how shamefully behind i am on posts:
-hugh's birth story
-hugh is one month
-Christmas
-gus is two
-hugh's baptismal weekend (this coming weekend)

so there. at least now i'll hopefully remember to get back to them. i have lovely photos to document said occasions, as i am now the proud owner of a gently loved nikon d40 after much consternation & family 'discussion'. hopefully one day we'll both be grateful we can see the spirit of our 'used to be young' children in the photos i'm now able to take. cause one day, God willing, our roles will go back to being primarily husband & wife instead of mama & dad. and if we make it there, i'm sure we'll be like the rest of the reminiscent parents remembering only the good & the lovely. i mean really, how blessed we would be to have the 12 weeks of total sleep deprivation as the most difficult thing we encounter as parents. it'll be just a minor blip we can laugh about. at least...that's what i pray for.

my in-laws

when i saw this photo i smiled that inside way down in my soul kind of smile.

amanda took it at g's birthday party.

this photo captures the spirit of my in-laws in a way that words cannot.

i love it. (and them ;)

frog boots

somebody got some new frog boots for Christmas from grandma & grandpa.

g is currently in LOVE with boots, so the timing was perfect.

i love this photo...the ridiculousness of g's chocolate face, choice of outfit, goofy expression & toddler pudge combined with luci's melting in the background reveal a great deal about the dynamics of our home these days...