If You Bring a Mouse to School

HQ has gotten more and more bold and more and more gentle with her little brother. She tries to hug him many times a day and gives him almost as many kisses as I do. :)

Trying to hold her little brother's hand.

Getting a better view.

 Izzy has decided that I need some schooling too. She has since made me a "phonics book" which is basically a bunch of pictures she drew and stapled together. She also made me a dot to dot (it was a heart!) and a few homework papers.

Homework Izzy made for me to do.

 The girls have really gotten into playing make believe in the last few days. I LOVE it! They come out in different outfits and attitudes. HQ usually turns back into the little mess monster, but they still have fun.

What happened here?
Izzy got hit in the head with an Elmo slipper...
 

I found myself cleaning the same things over and over again so I just have to learn to let a few things go. Also, I need to get the girls to clean up after themselves more often! Something I am just not consistent enough with. I feel it's were we make our biggest mistakes. 

Izzy wanted this picture taken... :) 

She was telling Locke a story.. OH GOODNESS do I ever want a video camera!!

HQ snacking in her old car seat.

 After HQ's nap the girls through a "surprise party" for mom and Locke's day. Izzy put HQ in her old tutu and wrapped up my things as gifts. Locke was given a breast pump..

Checking herself out.

After the party Izzy wanted to play "reading group" which basically meant she handed me 20 books to read to her and HQ (she even picked out HQ's favorite).

She's so pretty :)
Not so interesting side note: I made her hat

Reading: "If You Bring a Mouse to School"

Well, I am down 30 lbs! I still have a ways to go figure wise to get close to where I was, but I am feeling good and making constant progress. Izzy and I have been doing postnatal yoga together. She enjoys having the just mommy and me time. Plus she says she feels a lot stronger and healthier already. My little goof!

We Have a Car!

"Whacha lookin' at?"

First time in this new book and she read through it nearly perfect!
She was quite happy about it :)

Very interested in the very exciting children's music video.

We got a van tonight! Yay! What an AMAZING blessing! Ty's mom got a new car and sold us her old one. So now we are the proud owners of a 7 seater van. We are so excited! We can now go back to church, Izzy's school, library reading groups... we can get out of the house!! Super Yay! To celebrate the girls wanted to make cookies.
  

Making Cookies.
Izzy is stirring the ingredients while HQ is squishing the butter.

"I'm going to decorate these wonderfully!"

Izzy made a special note for Ty to go with his cookies when he got home. It said "Dad Mmm those cookies are good" And she drew some cookies on it. I thought that was pretty cute.

Ty was only home for a total of about an hour today, but we still managed to really enjoy today. He's gone almost all day tomorrow and Thursday too. Bleh! At least he has Friday off!

Dumb Dairy!

So I felt awful this morning. When I went to change Locke's diaper I noticed that he was wearing two diapers. I realized that in the middle of the night in all my tiredness I must have just put the new diaper over his dirty one... fortunately he didn't seem to mind too much, but it could have been why his last sleeping sleeping stretch was much shorter. Poor little guy!

Grilled dinosaur sammiches per Izzy's request! 

Not dinosaurs, but just as tasty :)

Locke took a nice long nap in the afternoon which gave me and the girls more time to work on some other stuff. Organizing, cleaning, and homework. HQ seemed envious of Izzy and her ability to play with paper, so I gave her some paper and crayons. Of course we now have a one of a kind kitchen table complete with HQ original artwork. Crayons are better when used on wood apparently!

She got it on the first read through!

We discovered that Locke has somewhat of a dairy aversion, so that means no dairy (or soy) for mama! I guess it's a good thing I am back on the anti inflammatory diet then. It's very limited dairy intake anyway. But until the dairy clears our systems we have a unhappy gassy little guy!

The Donuttery

Today was a fun day for the girls. Ty was home all day and they love it when he's around. Izzy dressed him up as a bad guy who liked to steal children. She said that HQ was the "super sleepy princess who wears heart pants".

We took Izzy out to "The Donuttery", a local donut shop, for her treat today. She got her usual sprinkled donut, but she decided to go patriotic today and got the red, white, and blue sprinkles. She figured that donut matched her dress the best. HQ got a blueberry muffin and I had nothing. I am back on the anti-inflammatory diet (which I was on up until about 3 years ago and never felt better!). Being pregnant with HQ I gave myself too much leeway since I wasn't able to cook most of the time (lame bed rest) and then kept the lazy eating habits all through now.

Snow White and her fellow Princess "Pink Princess Starfish Sally" on their way to The Donuttery.

When HQ holds Sally she's just a regular starfish, but
HQ doesn't mind :)

"Reading" to Locke

Ty on the phone with his mom.
HQ kept saying, "hi!"

Izzy looking at them...

Izzy wanted to read up on sewing machine safety today. After finding all the unsafe things in the picture Izzy had some new ones to add. "Don't sew next to a bomb", "Don't cut your hand off with scissors", and "Don't use your sewing machine in the bathtub because you could get 'electricity'". All excellent points. 

Locke passed out while Izzy talked.
He actually flipped over from his tummy to his back today! Crazy.

Izzy started her Christmas list today... item number 1 a stuffed Unico (the unicorn) toy.

Just Like Daddy!
HQ picked up the controller and was super excited that she could make the guy on the TV move around.

Ready for bed!

Locke is asleep. I better get a couple hours of sleep in before he wakes up for a late night snack.

Terrible Mother

Third day in a row that Izzy wakes up and throws on her gymnastics outfit... I think she trying to let me know that she is ready to go back to class! I told her we wont be going back until her brother is at least six weeks old. I don't want to take him to a place covered in kids and their germs just yet. SO I guess that the closest thing to going to gymnastics class is wearing the proper attire. Unfortunately her outfit is now quite snug.

I'm not sure what she was trying to do here, but it sure looked funny!

To make up for some of the time we lost on phonics I did have her read 2 pages today. Yes, I am a terrible mother for making her do homework on a Saturday.. but she didn't mind and it isn't a regular occurrence. She still had plenty of free time today. PLUS! She does get to go out for her "great job with homework this week" donut tomorrow. It has been quite a while since she has had anything like that. :)

While tidying up the living room HQ climbed into the toy box to play with the toys.

 When we put Locke in his little swing he usually just likes to hang out in there for 10-20mins so long as he knows I am in the room. He also seems to like to fall asleep in there. Today when he fell asleep HQ placed her blanket on him and gently started to stroke his head. She is usually a pretty violent head stroker, so it was a nice change!

Looking up to his biggest sister.

I am so excited to watch these little people grow into bigger people!!

Babies are Safe in Backpacks

Just another day at home with me and the kids. Izzy has become a real pro at her homework. This week was dinosaur week, so we learned about dinosaurs! She loved it and was quite surprised to learn that most dinosaurs were more than likely vegetarians. She also told me and HQ a few times that she's rather not ever run into a t-rex.

HQ decided to reclaim her old car seat.

I spent more time working on the girls room today. Trying to de-clutter I picked up a stuffed dalmatian toy that I have never seen Izzy play with before, and in fact never seen it move from their room. I couldn't even remember where we got the thing. I asked Izzy if it were OK if we donated him. She immediately looked offended and said, "But Mom, he's special to me. The fireman gave him to me after we got into the yucky car accident in our blue car. It reminds me of when the angels protected all of us. Even my little brother." I was stunned! I felt terrible. Needless to say, she is keeping the dalmatian!

Izzy's backpack is full of babies.

After spending some time on their room we took a break. My break consisted of feeding Locke while Izzy's consisted of stuffing bags full of her dolls and stuff animals (her babies) and carrying them around the house. She told me they were safest and warmest in her backpack.

:D

HQ seemed completely back to her old self today. She played like normal and didn't complain while I fed her brother. She managed to find other thing to do during that time. She hugged and kissed him more today too. I guess she finally realized he's here to stay and I am so happy she seems OK with that!

Eating Elmo

Patient Patients

Today was Locke's first check up with our family doctor. We LOVE our doctor. I interviewed/visited many many doctors until I found the one to trust our kids with. It took me nearly 4 years to find her. What I really wanted was a doctor who focused on preventative care, but also had the ability to actually treat you when you need it. Most doctors focus on the latter. It's also neat because she blocks out a full half hour or hour for you (depending on your needs) and if you have an appointment at 11 (or 10 or 2..) you will get seen at your scheduled time. I have nothing but good stuff to say about her!

Patiently waiting... until HQ discovered the wall of vitamins/supplements...

Locke and Dad also wait patiently.

HQ helping to get her brother naked for his check up.

 Locke is growing, feeling, and sounding just fine. Dr. Barrett also enjoyed seeing the girls even though they were extra rambunctious when we got into the exam room. I think next time I may have to schedule his a appointment when we have someone to watch the girls!

They discovered the rocks in the floor.
Izzy asked, "Hey Mom! Can we glue rocks in the floor in our room too?"

 This afternoon while Ty work our little friend, Selah, and her mommy stopped by to play. Selah is just a couple weeks younger than HQ. They haven't hung out a whole lot yet since I haven't had a car and poor little Selah hasn't been feeling well lately. It was interesting to see how they responded to each other. I don't think HQ spoke one word the whole time she was here! I could tell she enjoyed having another little person around. She usually sees kids much bigger than her or babies a lot smaller.

At home, looking good.

HQ and her blurry little buddy Selah.

It was a nice visit. It's always refreshing to hang out with another younger mom. Most women wait to have kids these days in their 30's and 40's. I always knew I wanted to have them younger. I wanted to have energy and patience to run after and play with them. You get more set in your ways as time goes on, and the older you are when you start to have kids I think the harder the transition to putting that little person first most the time. I also would like to think that I would be a younger grandma and be able to "help out" more. Many of the women I know who waited can't enlist the help of their mother or mother in law. I think that would stink!  

Well, Locke is now demanding my attention. I best give it to him :)

Little Humanitarian...

This was the first morning since Locke's birth that I was without Ty when the kids woke up. It was easier than I thought it would be. Perhaps it's because the girls slept until 8:30 and Locke slept until 8:45. Usually Ty ends up getting up with the girls while I am feeding the baby.

Shopping at Target

 I am so happy to be back to the point of the TV rarely being turned on and being able to play with the girls without a big ol belly in the way or being too tired after two minutes.

It looks like we should be getting a car that can fit all of the kids by this time next week. Such an awesome blessing! Ty and I can't wait. :)

He looks grumpy, but he's actually quite content after his bath.
He also loves his swing! 

Back to Phonics :) 

Izzy asked me if every kid in the world did phonics. I told her no, not every kid even gets to learn how to read. She responded, "Are they sad? They can borrow my phonics when I'm all done.. OR they can do it first. I don't mind then I can ride my bike instead." My little humanitarian...

Cookie Chaos

Bleh, my phone froze so now I can't access my pictures (or use it as an actual phone) until it runs out of battery! Shucks.

Today it felt like things were almost completely back to normal. We are back on track with Izzy's lessons and phonics and I was finally able to spend sometime in the girls' room today helping them clean it. It has been a crazy mess for almost a month. I have to do things in little spurts since I am nursing, so Locke pretty much dictates when I am "allowed" to do anything else for now.

Izzy and I spent some time with HQ working on her colors. She enjoyed it for about 10 minutes until she discovered that Izzy giggled much harder when HQ put her color cookies in the wrong colored cookie jars. We then had cookie chaos and there were colored cookies all over the living room!

Before bed tonight Izzy wanted me to read her the book "Why Why Why are there Schools in the Sea?" (a book about the ocean) tonight. We took over an hour going through it. She was just so interested in all the sea creatures that we went back and forth between that and our big book about the ocean (to look at some realistic pictures of the animals). She has decided that she would not like to pet a Great White or Tiger Shark but she wouldn't mind riding on the back of a Blue Whale...

Easily Irritable Boogery Mess!

 Locke is just two weeks old and we have already experienced what it's like to have all the kids sick at the same time. Fortunately they all only have colds, but oh does that ever make our home the lazy, easily irritable, boogery mess!

On our way to Grandma's house yesterday. 

My brother dropped Izzy off at SD's last night, so today it was just me and the two smaller boogers while Ty worked. HQ went on and off between trying to "help" with her little brother and trying to squash him. I'm still not sure she quite gets that he is a little person and not a baby doll yet.

I just love her big doe eyes!

Staring contest with mommy!

Still not feeling well, HQ sits and watches a documentary with me.
She's really sucked into it!

I can't wait until Ty comes home tonight. As most mom's know the first few weeks after having a baby there is more than likely very little to no romantic things going on. You are both just way to tired for it and it is probably one of the last things on your mind (number one is usually "when can I get some sleep?") But Ty and I have decided to try to watch a movie together (at home of course) tonight. He is picking up a goody for us after work and hopefully we'll find something lighthearted to watch. I am pretty wiped out, but I could sure use some time with my husband. Yay!

Green Veggies

My cute lazy little guy

We love St. Patrick's Day in our home. Last names don't get much more Irish than my maiden name. Every year we make a Grasshopper Fudge Cake (for the quick and yummy recipe we used this year click here) and slow cook a Corned Beef Brisket. However since I am sans car we did without the brisket for tonight and will be heading to my parents tomorrow for a St. Patties Day dinner.

Exhausted Siblings

 I was so happy that I had time today for each of the girls separately. HQ just wanted to snuggle and snuggle for a long time! I was glad that for the first time in two weeks she was the one to get up from snuggling first.

As I fed Locke, HQ got herself into the apple sauce.
Izzy is trying to clean her up in this picture.
 

Izzy and I did chores and played a board game together. She loves to help out, so it's great bonding time for us. Between baking, vacuuming, picking up toys, and doing dishes Izzy was quite proud of all the things we accomplished around the house. She then said, "Boy, being a mom and a big sister sure is lots of work!" Izzy also made sure we only served green veggies with dinner tonight to be more festive since we weren't having our "Irish people's dinner".

Making the green cake batter for our swirls. 

"Oh Mom, it looks so cool!"

Ty has tomorrow off and it's normally a school day, but we don't have a car to take Izzy there so a lazy morning at home it is! Time to get little Locke to sleep.