When you think of spring does the word carnival pop into your head?

Friday night we had Alexa and Jackson's 1st trip to the carnival. We bought Abby and Nate wristbands for unlimited rides and started Alexa off with four tickets. I wasn't quite sure whether or not she was going to be down for the rides so I figured I'd play it safe with four and go back and get more if she wanted them.

 First ride of the night was the Gravitron. I was so happy I was able to talk Abby and Nate into going on. I knew they'd love it but it took a little bit of persuasion.

We eventually made our way to the little truck ride for Lexa. She was totally itching to go on. Abby took her and Maura and hopped in a little car. Alexa was in her glory, smiling almost the whole time. Even Abby was a great sport about riding with the babies. Big brother took on the job of riding the second time. This little munchkin has such amazing big siblings.

It's been awhile since we've had a really fun family outing and the carnival was a blast! Jax was pretty content hanging out in the stroller watching all excitement. Nate had fun playing the shot gun game and winning lil' sis a stuffed banana and then winning Abby the giraffe she had been trying to win all night on the water gun game. That boy is such a sweetie. One day he'll make someone an amazingly romantic hubby. Let the spring festivities commence!

Starting fresh!

I keep reading all these blogs and every time I feel sad that I haven't kept up with my own. So today I stop worrying about catching up on past posts and start fresh. My kiddies are growing every day and if I wait until I'm caught up I may never get something down here.

Abby- She's 10.5 now! Am I really old enough to have a 10 yr old? I suppose I am. She's such a great student and an amazing kid! I don't have to check her homework. She studies for her tests without any reminding and for a preteen, she has a pretty easy going attitude. She does however struggle with anxiety at times, but overall she's the easiest one of the bunch. She's really into her Ipod touch right now and loves playing mindcraft. She's super excited to start cheerleading again in the fall. She's still my skinny mini, wearing size 10 shorts and even those are a bit big. She's due to pick up her newest pair of glasses tomorrow and she's so excited because they are "nerd" glasses which despite the name are very trendy right now.

Nathan- He's 9.5 now and all boy. Most days I have to remind him multiple times to brush his teeth, or pick up his clothes, or sit still or be careful. He loves all sports but has really taken a liking to hockey, specifically the Flyers. He just started his first year of baseball and is playing for the Bulldogs. If I may say so, he's pretty good! He is most certainly an active child. It's pretty apparent when you see the mini six pack he has going on. My blondie has developed some super cute freckles on his nose and I can't help but notice them when I see his bright blue eyes. He is most definitely one of my more difficult children...always questioning us and debating with us. Maybe it's the age. PLEASE let it be the age. He's now wearing size 8 or size 10 pants. Another skinny mini. He's doing well in school. All A's and B's but we have to work for it. I have to check his homework every night still and be sure to study with him for all his tests. He has been testing his limits lately and we know it. Good try buddy. We're onto you.

Alexa- My big 34 month old baby girl. She is  my saintly child. I thank my lucky stars that God gave me such an easy going girly. I love dressing her up in the cutest girly clothes and making matching hairbows and necklaces for her. She loves it all! Her hair is finally long enough to put up in "one pony tail like Abby" and even pig tails. She keeps me laughing all day long with the silly ways she says words. She love to read books with me. Right now her favorite book is the Dora dentist book. She's getting excited to go to the dentist for the first time next month. She loves all of the Disney Junior cartoons: Doc McStuffins, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Sophia the First and even some Nick Jr stuff like Dora and Max & Ruby. She's totally head over heels in love with the movie Finding Nemo. That will be her 3rd birthday theme. I'm buying her size 3T and 4T clothes. She's a whole 31 pounds now and super tall for her age. I'm excited to see what percentile for height and weight she falls into. The biggest accomplishment for little miss is that I can officially call her daytime potty trained. She's been pooping in the potty for many months but I was afraid to take the plunge to full time panties for outings but we finally did it the beginning of March and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Hooray!!

 

Jackson, Jax, JJ, Grinch baby, he goes by them all. This one really gives me a run for my money on a daily basis. Everyone says he just looks grumpy. He rarely smiles for strangers and cries more then he smiles. It's a hard knock life for a 14 month old toddler. I can officially call him a walker although he still falls down quite a bit. He has a pretty bad temper which just goes along with his grumpy persona. He has started trying to hit people and if he's told "no" the first thing he does is swing to hit me. He gives great big sloppy tongue kisses if you're lucky enough to get him to kiss you. He has the cutest mohawk and two great big dimples. He's a beast at 25lbs+. He's still wearing size 4 diapers. I've starting buying his summer wardrobe now and I'm buying size 2T.My favorite time of the day with him is right after bath time and after he's been dressed in his jammies. I turn off the light and I stand in front of his crib holding him. He always lays his head on my shoulder and tucks his hands and arms in between our bodies. In that moment he owns me and I forget about all of his daily shenanigans.

GO BULLDOGS!!

I so proud of my Abby girl. She used to be such a very shy little girl. She is quickly blossoming into a very social, outgoing, friendly preteen. After many years of "stage fright" she faced her fears this year and decided to try cheerleading. She's done amazingly well and even made the cheer competition team and has been chosen to be a flyer. From what a few of the veteran cheer moms tell me, that is no small feat.

She had her first game on September 22nd in West Philly. I'm not sure what the score was because to be honest I don't think I watched one minute of the game. My eyes were glued to my little cheerleader.

 

At her first home game I dressed all the kids up in their bulldogs attire and they were the star of the sidelines!

Nathan's shirt



Jackson's shirt

Alexa's pillowcase dress





 








Eat, drink and be merry

So our little man has been trying new foods left and right. I started him on baby food the week he turned 6 months. He's always been a very hearty healthy eater but my previous attempts at baby food were met with lots of gagging and nasty faces so I held off a bit longer then I did with all the other kids. I have come to learn that he LOVES any and all fruits but HATES most veggies. In fact, the only ones I can actually get him to eat are sweet potatoes and squash. All other veggies are met with gagging, crying, and lips locked shut! This little one makes so many silly faces. I just love trying to capture them all.

 

PEAS 

 

1ST GO AT A SIPPY CUP

 

LOTS OF BITING THE SPOON & REFUSING TO LET GO

 

SQUASH

 

MANDARIN ORANGES

SWEET POTATOES



Happy 7 months Jax!

" 7 MONTHS ALREADY?!"

Oh my! It doesn't even seem possible. Can you really be 7 months already? I know people say this all the time but it feels like I just brought you home from the hospital.


Boy this journey to motherhood a 4th time has really thrown me for a loop. My son, you are quite the handful. I may have said this here on the blog before but I'll say it again. If you had been my first baby you would have been an only child. I've often thought that maybe you had colic. Around your six month birthday it seemed to hit its peak and then you looked to be mellowing out a bit. I was thrilled with this up until two weeks ago when I could feel that familiar chaos creeping back up on us. I'm hoping it's just a growth spurt or a new teefer coming in, but you're just not happy.

Eating: You are quite the eater as we can tell by your thigh chub. At 6.5 months you weighed 18lbs 15oz and were 29 inches long. Big boy! At 6 months we started you on jarred baby food. To be honest most days you could care less about it. You're shaping up to be a pretty picky eater so it's a bit frustrating. We started with sweet potatoes and you loved them. Then we did pears and those were also a hit. Then we tried bananas and twice you broke out with red cheeks so I think we'll steer clear of those for awhile. Then in no particular order we tried peas (hated), green beans (hated), carrots (liked), prunes (liked), mangoes (liked), country garden vegetables (hated), blueberries and apples (liked). Notice a pattern? You, my son, do not like vegetables. I've considered trying to make my own baby food so that we can try things like cauliflower, avocado, broccoli etc. etc. We shall see how it goes. You are now drinking 7 oz 3 scoops formula. That's watered down 6 ozs. You're constipation is still a minor issue so we're keeping with the extra ounce of water. Your eating schedule looks like this most days:

     5:00am- 7 oz bottle
     9:00am- 1 jar of fruits/yogurt and 7 oz bottle
     1:00pm- 7 oz bottle
     5:00pm- 7 oz bottle
     7:00pm- 1 jar veggies
     8:00pm- 7 oz bottle

That totals 30 ounces of formula a day. I'd like to cut that down a bit as you start eating more baby food. You have tried Walmart brand baby Mum Mums but they don't seem to dissolve as quickly as I remember the name brand ones so I'm very weary about giving them to you. I've had to fish them out of your throat a couple times. Much too scary for Mommy!

Sleeping: This is a bit of a touchy subject for me right now. My awesome sleeper has recently disappeared and the bags under my eyes have reappeared! Your big sister hasn't helped matters either. I put you both to bed by 8:30pm. Most recently you've been stirring around 12:30am but I don't usually go in to soothe you. Luckily you fuss, toss and turn a bit and roll to the side and fall back asleep. Then by 3am your sister is crying and searching for her binky. I go in to help her as quickly as I can so that she doesn't wake you up. She goes back to sleep without a fight. If I'm lucky I get to sleep until 5am which is usually bottle time. Some nights like last night you wake up one or two more times but fuss for a minute or two and drift back to sleep.

I'm totally in love with your recent attachment to sleeping with the Cat in the Hat stuffed animal I bought for your nursery when I was pregnant. When I first bought it my intention was to sit it on a shelf somewhere just for decoration. When I got it and realized that it's arms and legs where so thin and flimsy I realized it would never sit up nicely so I put it at the bottom of your crib. A couple weeks ago when I was putting you to bed I handed it to you and you immediately cuddled up to it and hugged it tightly. From that moment on you were in love. Every time I hand it to you you start kicking your feet and mushing your face into it. I've always hoped to have a baby that used a lovie or a stuffed animal and you seem to be that baby.

Diapering: You are now wearing size 3 diapers. I've considered buying size 4 diapers for nighttime, but have managed to avoid that by not changing your diaper and putting you in your PJ's until right before I put you to bed.

 

Clothing: It makes me sad to admit that you fit nicely into 12 month clothes. You can even pull off an 18 months shirt. Shopping for fall and winter clothes has been an adventure. Every stores clothes seem to run a bit different which makes me have to try everything on you.

     Carters- Currently you're wearing size 12 months. Onesies fit great and the pants are a bit big, but
     doable. I'm hoping you continue to fit into 12 months for fall and then when it gets even chillier
     you'll probably need 18 months.
     Old Navy & GAP- Currently you fit into 12-18 month shirts comfortably, but 6-12 month pants.
     Anything that can be worn baggie and that I want to fit you for awhile I buy in size 18-24 months.
     Children's Place- Currently you're wearing size 9-12 month jeans and 12 or 18 month shirts. The
     shirts will fit for awhile, but length wise I will have to be buying 12 month jeans for late fall.

So as you can see shopping has been fun!

Bath time: Sometime around 5.5 months I bought a bath sling that made bath time much easier. It allowed me to bathe you with Alexa. This was great until I realized that the bath sling took up 3/4 of the tub and left little swimming room for Alexa. We made the most of it until this past week when I dug out the bathtub ring. You have been sitting very well lately so I knew you could handle it. Like I suspected, you love it and bath time is now a blast.

 

Outings: Our outings have become much more enjoyable with some of your latest milestones. The first milestone that made everything easier recently was when you learned to hold your own bottle. This now means that when we're out shopping I can easily hand you your bottle when it's time to eat. I don't have to do the "one handed double stroller push" which is next to impossible (especially with the stroller malfunctions we were having). The second milestone that made outings easier was learning to sit up unassisted. I can now sit you (with the shopping cart cover) in the top seat of the shopping cart. This makes you much happier. You love being able to see everything going on around you. Oh yea and we have officially switched our sit and stand snap and go stroller into just a sit and stand. You love your permanent seat in the front. We also bought a new single stroller for days when I feel like torturing challenging myself and letting Alexa walk. You enjoy how comfy it is and even fell asleep in it on our last mall trip.

 

Awake Time: This past month we added two new pieces of baby equipment to our baby arsenal. We bought a used walker and piano exersaucer. You love them both and spend quite a bit of time in them. Your favorite by far has to be sitting in the walker and pushing backwards outside. You LOVE being outside! If there's ever an especially cranky time of the day I can cheer you up with a quick walk in the stroller or even just by sitting outside on the porch in our chairs.

As I mentioned before you are an excellent sitter now. You rarely fall back anymore and playing with toys has a whole new meaning now. I've had to invent in some more baby toys for you to sit and play with. Rattles and chew toys will just not suffice when you have learned just how fun it is to sit and play with musical light up toys.

We have seen you roll. We do know it's possible, but it is definitely not your favorite past time. You haven't quite learned that by rolling you can get to the things you'd really like to explore. Soon buddy, soon. You have made some advances towards being able to move around. The other night after bath time I dressed you in your PJ's and left you to play in your room on your belly. When I walked back in you were up on your knees rocking back and forth. You have learned to push backwards and can back yourself into a corner like a champ. I'm in no hurry for you to learn these things. I want to enjoy each and every stage of your development.

I have noticed you have started to find your voice. Most of your life your noises have consisted mostly of crying. Ugh! But lately you've been screeching and yelling more. I often say to you "Babababa" or "Dadadada" in hopes of hearing you copy me but not yet. You do copy me though when I blow raspberries and you think it's hysterical. You love sticking out your tongue too!

Well Jax, or JJ, or Jackson, or buh-eee whichever you prefer, you are keeping me on my toes, but I couldn't love you more. Your smile and your dimples get me every time. In fact I hope you don't soon learn to use those dimples against me. I melt with every smile. I love looking into your brown eyes and seeing bits of myself. It's been awhile since I could do that. I love you munchkin!

Firsts

 FINALLY growing some hair!

8-13-12 (25 weeks)

 

 First time rolling from back to belly

8-21-12 (26 weeks)

 

 First baby brother battle wound (bitemark from Lexa)

8-24-12 (26 weeks)

 

 Pushing up with his arms for a better view of the world living room

8-24-12 (26 weeks)

 

First taste of sweet potatoes 

8-24-12 (26 weeks)

 

 First taste of watermelon

8-25-12 (26 weeks)

 

 Holding his own bottle full time now

8-25-12 (26 weeks)

 

Sitting up alone

8-26-12 (26 weeks)



26 months

My baby girl is acting more and more like a big girl these days. Most recently she has started putting two words together and it makes her seem so much older. Every once in awhile Abby catches Alexa in a copycat mode and she can get her to copy just about everything she says. The latest has been Abby trying to teach Alexa to answer someone who calls her name with "What Mommy?" It cracks me up every time.

Abby: "Alexa?"
Alexa: ".........."
Abby: "What are you supposed to say?"
Alexa: "Whutt Sitsy?"

Abby: "When Mommy calls you what do you say?"
Alexa: "Whutt Momma?"

My girls.

Some of the other things that melt my heart with all of the cuteness...

     -Every morning she follows me into the bathroom. I get my contact case and solution out and put it  on the counter. She says "Tontacts?" And I say yes and she puts her finger on the top of my contact solution and then puts her finger to her closed eye and pushes her finger into her eyelid. I standby and laugh...that is of course after I put my contacts in and can actually see her!

     -If I threaten her with time out she immediately stops doing what she's doing and says "Saw-eee" aka sorry.

     -She loves blowing bubbles in her milk with her straw bowl

     -The first word out of her mouth every morning is "Baby?". Then we go into my room to see baby sleeping in the cosleeper.

     -Anytime someone gets her or if she does something wrong to them she says "Ki?" aka kiss and kisses their boo boo or just kisses them to make them happy again. Recently when she has had an accident and wets her panties she comes up to me and says "Saw-eee" and kisses me.

     -She loves to play doctor with her doctor kit. She brings me the doctor coat and says "Doc-terw PEP-perw" Once when we were in the grocery store I was going over our shopping list. One of the things on the list was a 2 liter of Dr. Pepper. She immediately repeated after me. Since then when she wants to play doctor she says Doctor Pepper.

     -Every time we go to the Marple 10 shopping center she sees Petco and screams "Feesh" because she wants to go see them.

     -She has started saying "lah-ouu" for love you

     -She is obsessed with her PipSqueek Markers. She loves to draw on her "pay-pah". She has filled an entire marble copybook in one week!

     -She has taken a real liken to her kitchen set and shopping cart this month. She cooks food and brings it to us to eat. I love watching her imaginative play!

Some other Lexa facts:

-I'm buying her size 3T clothes for fall
-She wears a size 5 diaper at bedtime and naptime and a size 2T/3T pull up when we go out in public
-No longer sits in the high chair. She uses the booster seat that Mom Mom bought her for her birthday.
-Loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (Mou), Yo Gabba Gabba (Dabby), and Sesame Street (Melmo)
-Steals Jackson's mimi's every chance she gets
- Is putting two words together "What Momma?", "Hi Baby", "Baby Cat"
-Can drink using a regular cup
-Weighs 30lbs
-Naps for 2-3 hrs everyday
-Had her first visit to the aquarium
-Says "huh?" after everything I say and it drives me BONKERS!

 This is the face she makes when she's pretending to nap

 

 Her first haircut....Mommy's Hair Cuttery

 

 My little gymnast! She loves doing tumbles and cheer pyramids

 We spent the day at the park with friends and she's finally beginning to play with her friends instead of just alongside her friends.

This little daredevil kept going down this slide head first even though she slid so fast that every time she fell onto the ground!

 

 

I find myself laughing at this little girl all day. She is just generally a very pleasant and happy little girl. Everyone loves spending time with her! Sometimes I still can't believe she's two already because I'm still waiting for the terrible two's to kick in. She's a real keeper!