A Little of This and That

Our little Lillian turned 4 months old yesterday.  She had her checkup with Dr. Davidson and he confirmed that she is still a shrimp, weighing in at 11 lbs 14 oz she is in the 15th percentile for weight and the 15th for height.  She weighs two pounds less than both Emma and Walker at this age.  The doctor isn't worried though and said that she looks great!  She is such a content little thing and smiles so easily at everyone.  She has been such a sweet addition in our home and we feel so blessed to have three beautiful children who, for the most part, adore one another.



In case you can't tell what's going on in this action shot, the kids are pushing her in the swing.  Don't worry I was supervising just in case things got a little out of hand.



Emma and Walker are always the first ones in her room when she wakes up in the morning

As a kid there were few days that there was not music playing in our home.  Some of my fondest memories are of "boogieing" with my mom and sisters to Whitney Houston's I Wanna Dance with Somebody, Madonna's Like a Prayer, or Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up.  It's no wonder then that our home is full of music.  Since getting a docking station for our iphone the kitchen has become my favorite place in the house because I can turn my music up loud and dance around the kitchen while I make dinner and do the dishes.  Even better is that the music almost always attracts the attention of the kids who come dancing into the kitchen to join me.  Walker, who learned his first dance moves from Oklahoma when he was barely old enough to stand, always begs Emma and I to "marry with me" aka dance with him.  I think he has watched one too many princess movies.

There is one more reason that the kitchen has become my favorite room in the house and that is Allan's new hobby...COOKING!!  Every Saturday night he has made something new and wonderfully delicious for dinner.  He has tried jumbalaya, singapore noodles, and turkey chili. 

My favorite so far is the jumbalaya that he made again tonight but added shrimp this time.  Why is it that food always tastes better when you don't have to make it?

Admittedly I also love his extra time in the kitchen because I can usually persuade him to join me for a dance or two.



Little People

It's likely that all of my posts from now until January 1st will have a Christmas theme. I am, after all , an addict and live and breathe everything Christmas from mid November until the highly anticipated December 25th.  One of the first things that I pull from the basement for Christmas decorating is the Little People Nativity that we got from my parents when Emma was just little, or littler.  Every year it's as if the kids have forgotten that we have it and they open the boxes with amazement as if they are getting an early Christmas gift.  Then they spend countless hours over the next several weeks replaying the story of baby Jesus or whatever story Walker has made up for the day.  Yesterday it was the shepherd stealing baby Jesus from Mary and driving away in a taxi.  It's harmless because he's only two, right?!? 

 We have it set up under a little nook in the living room so that the kids have easy access to it. Allan teases me because every night I put the nativity back the way it should be to make sure we have all of the pieces and if we don't I search the house until my Little People Nativity is once again complete.



First Snow and Christmas Books

We had our first snow fall!  It wasn't much but it was enough to have the kids excited.  Walker wants to be outside every second and then back inside every other second.  Every year I forget how much work it is to get snow gear on and off of the kids but I love to see them bundled up in their eskimo coats and mittens.

Thanks to my parents Allan and I were able to get an early start on our Christmas shopping on Friday night.  They took all three of the kids and allowed us to have a delicious dinner at The Keg as well.  Generally I would wait until November 15th to break out the Christmas music, books and movies but the new fallen snow made me giddy at the thought of pulling out all of our Christmas treasures from the basement.  Because of my love of children's books Allan and I began a tradition our first Christmas together.  Every year I get to pick a new children's Christmas book and with those and the ones I've received as gifts I've acquired quite the collection.  Maybe it's silly, but it brings me so much joy to pull out those stories with their beautiful illustrations and stories and read them to the kids.  It makes me so excited to think that one day I will have dozens and dozens of Christmas books to pass down to my children that have been read to them from the time that they were little.

A Better Day

I sat down to write a new post yesterday but we had such a miserable day I couldn't bring myself to do it.  Some days it feels like Emma, Walker and I just can't seem to get on the same page.  Yesterday was one of  those days.  I felt like all they did all day was scream at one another and if they weren't doing that they were screaming at me.  At one point Walker screamed at me for a whole 20 minutes while I was nursing Lillian.  Because he was screaming "put her to bed" over and over again I decided that maybe my sweet children just needed some undivided mommy attention.  So, I made a goal today to drop everything and do whatever the kids wanted whenever they wanted to do it.  We read books, and danced and sang and played knights and cars.  My change of attitude made a world of difference and I had happy kids all day.  The only thing that I insisted get done was bathing Lillian.  When Emma was a baby we bathed her religiously every other night.  Walker got a bath every third night, if he was lucky.  Knowing that I'm sure that you can guess how often our poor sweet baby gets a bath...not nearly often enough.

I love to watch our kids create and they had the perfect opportunity with a take home project Emma had to do for school.  She was asked to take two paper plates and make a space ship.  She and Walker had a great time painting and decorating their spaceships, complete with lasers on the outside and aliens on the inside.  It made a huge mess but sometimes it is more than worth it to watch their little imaginations working.

(in case you've noticed a trend in the pictures I post I will answer your question...No, he does not wear pants.  They come off with his shoes at the front door.)

Pizza and Productivity

We live for the weekends at our house because it means that Daddy's home.  Allan ensures that every weekend is full of fun and productive things to do.   There are few things that we enjoy more than being out as a family to enjoy dinner (except for maybe being out without the children to enjoy dinner.)  This weekend started with some authentic Italian pizza at Famosa's with the kids.  It was the fancy, thin crust kind.  It was very tasty.  

And of course you can't have real Italian without some gelato.

The rest of our weekend was full of errands and busyness around the house, just as Allan likes it.  It wore us all out considerably, particularly Walker who spent most of our Saturday errands asleep in the shopping cart or stroller.

Now we will begin our week and anxiously await next weekend.

Spontaneous Sleepers

Since becoming a mom I have spent countless nights being awakened hour after hour nursing a baby, soothing a scared toddler or convincing a child that 4am is not an appropriate time to wake up.  Even on the days that follow the very worst of those nights I can't imagine ever being tired enough that I could fall asleep like this...  

or this...

Additionally I can't remember the last time that I woke up with this look on my face wondering where I was and how I got there.

Trick or Treats

The long awaited evening finally arrived and the kids were able to get in their costumes and collect and consume a considerable amount of candy. Holidays are so exciting with kids around particularly when they are Walker's age and are really starting to get it. He couldn't believe that all he had to do was go to a door with a bag and say "trick or treat" to get candy. Emma is an old pro and showed him just how to do it. Luckily she was very pleased with her costume. She was genuinely concerned that without Grandma's help it was not going to get done. I can't count the number of times that she begged me to "just let Grandma make it!!" But despite the fact that I had no pattern and no Mom standing next to me to fix my mistakes it turned out pretty cute.  And to my delight she came home after school today and promptly put the costume on again and wore it until bathtime.  She made the perfect Dorothy. Walker, even though he refused to wear his mask while trick-or-treating, was the coolest little race car driver and there has never been a sweeter bug than Lillian.

 

Now the only question is how much candy is too much?!?!

(the kids going through their hoard of candy at 10:00 this morning)