Gobble! Gobble!

You guessed it! It's turkey day! As we speak Tom the turkey is in the oven being cooked. The apple pie sits in the cake dish just waiting to be scarfed down. I'm about half done with the dinner preparations. So far so good. Abby and Nathan are dressed in their Christmas outfits from last year (a tradition I've had since they were babies) and Alexa is getting a few zzzz's so she's not so cranky later today. This is her very first Thanksgiving and I'm looking forward to feeding her her first big people food today. I'm thinking it might be sweet potatoes. Yum! In other news about the munchkin...she's rolling over full time now. I think it was one or two days after her 5 month birthday that I kept noticing she was on her belly when I went in to calm her in her crib at night. The next day I laid her on the wide open floor and sure enough she was rolling. I was super excited! It seems like every time I start to worry about her not hitting a milestone then that's when she does it. Go Alexa! I'm loving every minute of being with her and my beautiful family.

Happy 5 month birthday Alexa!

I think I better do this right now while I have 5 minutes to spare. I've finally gotten all three kids in bed and asleep and it's 9:28pm. Yikes! A late dinner throws off everything. Today we celebrated Alexa's five month birthday. Nothing special except our usual onesie pics and a few extra cuddles. But here goes a few things about Alexa at five months old:

~~ still using Mam binkies and recently we bought a pack of the 6m+ ones
~~she cries when anyone other then Mommy, Daddy, Abby, or Nathan holds her unless there's
lots of commotion going on like at a party or family function
~~she soaks the floor when she takes a bath because she splashes so much
~~she cried when I tried to give her a bath in the big tub and I haven't tried since
~~she finally fits into shoes; she would probably fit size ones but they'd be too snug very soon so
I bought 2 pairs of size 2's
~~she placed 32nd place in American babies picture of the week contest
~~has rolled over twice from back to belly and once from belly to back but hasn't done either
since
~~she giggles at everything- silly faces, silly sounds, people laughing, sudden sounds
~~she turns and digs her face into any soft fabric when she's trying to fall asleep. Sometimes
it's my shirt, sometimes her blankie, or sometimes it's just her arm.
~~she's already on the 2nd height adjustment notch on the exersaucer
~~she still can't reach the ground on the lowest jumperoo height adjustment
~~she's eating 7oz's every 4 hours
~~she goes to bed at 8:30pm and is up at 3am almost like clockwork. She eats a bottle and
goes back to bed until 7:30am with a few stirrings for a dropped binky.
~~she is wearing size 2 diapers
~~she is now back on soy formula
~~she no longer has diarrhea with every poopie diaper
~~she's using VentAire bottles and drinks best with the slow flow nipples
~~still spits up with almost every feeding
~~has tried carrots, applesauce, green beans, peas, bananas, pears, and squash
~~will also eat rice and oatmeal cereal
~~ her hair is growing in nicely and I think it's going to be blonde
~~her eyes are still blue
~~she can fit rather nicely into size 12 months t-shirts
~~she has outgrown the gerber size 3-6 month white onesies but still fits Carter's 6 month
onesies
~~she kicks off every sock and slipper I try to put on her feet unless she's wearing shoes on
top of them
~~sucks on her fingers ALL the time!
~~she's not happy if she's laying down and even tries to do a sit up just so she can be upright
~~started eating in her high chair
~~has started screaming when she cries
~~pulls hair
~~plays with anything in your hand- cell phone, cup, remote
~~recently packed away her soothing motions glider, travel swing, and the bassinet portion
of her pack and play
~~she can hold rattles with her fingers now
~~ has outgrown size 3-6 month one piece outfits and her 3-6 month pants are getting short
~~is no longer swaddled
~~likes for me to sing the good morning song to her (she's always loved this though)

The days just seem to get away from me

Well the countdown to Christmas tree time is here. This weekend coming up is Burt's last weekend with the family. I can't say I'll miss him as I think we need some time apart. We're at each others throats. I'm trying my hardest to get the house organized before he's gone for that month. I'd like to get the basement organized and all the totes labeled. I really need to catch up on laundry and stay caught up. And start getting my pictures (developed and undevelopes) taken care of. I was saying the other day that I'd really like to get back to scrapbooking. I miss having that creative outlet although I barely have time for my hairbow business. I'm still spreading my business everywhere I go. Today at Pathmark the cashier complimented Alexa's flower and headband. I of course told her I make them and gave her the name of my facebook page. I figure even if I'm not selling things everyday I can still put my name in the streets. I've been baby-sitting Chase a lot lately. I love the money but hate the extra work. Somedays I feel like I'm just being torn in all directions. Is this what it would be like to have four kids? I'm not sure I'm ready to sign up for that deal yet!
In other kidlet news...Abby is doing great. She came home from school the other day telling me "Mom, Ms. Seitz really likes me. She calls me Abby Cakes." She's the teacher's pet as usual and I'm proud. She loves school and I hope that stays with her. She's doing great in Girl Scouts. She had her introduction to Brownies ceremony last week. She got her very first Brownie pin. And she just looks so cute in her brown sash. Nathan is having a hard time at school with this little girl names Kylie. She's picking on him and I don't know why. He really is the sweetest kid you could ever meet. And perhaps that's why she's picking on him. She's mistakening his niceness for weakness. How dare she! Boy scouts is going well too. This past Saturday morning he and I walked door to door in Aldan handing out the can food drive bags. I enjoyed my time with him one on one. Alexa is growing by the day. We went out this weekend and bought her a new high chair and a new toy. I put it together on Sunday morning and she had her first meal in it Sunday night (pears). I've sat her in it a few times while I was doing kitchen work and she just plays and plays. Mommy likes it! Today is mine and Burt's 8 year anniversary. Woo-hoo! Sometimes I wonder how long I'll stick around but for today it's been 8 years!!! Tomorrow Alexa will be 5 months old. She's getting cuter by the day and I don't think I could love her more then I already do. Her smiles melt my heart. Everyday I look at her I'm reminded of one great thing about Burt. We make adorable babies together. Oh yea and he's a wonderful father to Alexa. The other two...well...he needs some work.

Baby's 1st halloween has come and gone

So here first major holiday has come and gone. I didn't feel the least bit sad about it until I came here to post. Perhaps it's because I still entertain the idea of having another baby but what if she is my last? She has grown so much and so quickly in these past 4.5 months. I feel like it's been a lifetime.

Halloween night was fantastic! We had our traditional english muffin pizza dinner. I dressed the kids and put on their make-up. As usual we were running a bit late so everything was very rush rush. I attempted to take a few cute pictures of Alexa and then of all three kids together outside and then we were off. Every year we go trick or treating with my friend Linda in Ridley Park. There are always a lot of houses giving out candy and there a very few steps. That makes this one happy momma as that is very stroller friendly! The kids were excited even though I know they were a bit chilly. Alexa snoozed for much of the way. But when she wasn't snoozing she was in mommy's arms looking all cute and cuddly.

Let's see...in other Alexa news...She has been trying to sit up while she's in her bouncy seat. She hasn't quite made it to a fully sitting position but boy is she trying. Yesterday's tripped to Babies R Us gave us a tray for the bumbo seat and another pack of bottles. We are now using Playtex VentAire Bottles. They seem to be doing the trick for now. We have been through just about every brand of bottles out there which seems ironic to me as when I was pregnant I would always say I don't know why people have to buy so many different bottles. The baby can't make you use a certain kind of bottle. Man oh man was I wrong! We started off trying Gerber Nuk bottles. Alexa didn't seem to know how to use them and it would take like a half hour to eat one ounce. Then we moved onto the Playtex Bag bottles which seemed to work well until she was put in the NICU. There she used the good old fashioned brown rubber nipple and did well. I refused to continue using those though. The NICU nurses suggested we try Dr. Browns bottles as they were supposed to work well for reflux and gas. We splurged on them and used them for a couple of months. Although a pain in the but to clean they really seemed to be helping. That is until I noticed she was throwing up at every feeding. I tried many different things and in the end switched bottle brands again and that seemed to work. Even though I know we were cleaning them the best that we could I still think there are too many ways and places for bacteria to build up in them. Again we went back to the Gerber Nuk bottles. This time she seemed to like them. Until I noticed that after drinking from them she would grunt and grunt and grunt. I started to think they were causing her too much gas and again we switched. And so here we are buying another 3 pack of VentAires. Fingers crossed we have found the match. We've even made the switch back to soy formula and she seems to be doing great. Way less spitting up, no more diarrhea and a much happier content baby. Thank you Good Start Soy!