Weekend With Traveling Bear

Marshall got to bring home "Traveling Bear" from school this weekend.  This bear makes the rounds every weekend with a different student.  It is the student's job to take the bear everywhere and then each day we write about, take pictures, and draw pictures of what we did with the bear.  All of this is kept in the same notebook so on Friday afternoon I read through the bear's adventures since January.  By the end of reading through the notebook I certainly felt some pressure to give this stuffed bear the time of his life!  Silly, I know.  Pressured by a stuffed bear.  We had a good weekend though.  He'll go back to school tomorrow and we'll have to say our good-byes to the bear who has been the sixth member of the family this weekend. 

 

 

Grocery shopping...

A rousing game of Sorry...

Trying on new swimsuits and wishing it was summer...

Murf's for dinner...

Church...

And lastly, a Sunday evening walk on the warmest day of the year!

 

On a slightly different note...Bridget was rockin' it tonight in her pieced together outfit.

 

 



Meet Doke

 

Doke is Rachel, not Richard, just so we're clear.  :)

 

Doke is the very recent nickname Marshall has developed for Rachel.  Who knows where he came up with this; he's a five year old boy.  Even Bridget has taken to calling her Doke.  We'll see how long this lasts; I'm hoping not long.  I prefer her other nicknames of Little One, Rachey Rachey, and Rachel Bean.



Bridget At Three

 

Weight:  27 lbs.

Height:  37.25 in.

I was ordering a swimming suit online for her the other day and grabbed these stats from the doctors office to be sure I got the right size.  For her weight I should have ordered an 18-24 month size swimming suit!  Geez.  Petite girls.  But really, that is good.  :)

 

I am putting her in underwear on Tuesday!  I have pushed this date back so many times, but I am holding myself to Tuesday, April 1!  April Fools!  No really, I have to get this done.  She is ready.  She's used the toilet multiple times this week.

 

She still LOVES Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  She's even shortened Izzy's name to "Iz".  It is quite cute.  You know that crowing sound Peter Pan makes?  Well, Bridget has that sound down and it cracks me up every time she does it. 

 

Despite pirates, she also loves her princesses.  She has a princess placemat, potty seat, and band aids.  Whenever we drove downtown she loves seeing all the "castles", which are really cathedrals.  :)

 

Since getting her fingers smashed in the door the week of Christmas, she has become incredibly attached to band aids.  After going through boxes of band aids Dr. Esser told her, with some hinting from me, that her fingers were all better and that they didn't need any more band aids.  This hasn't stopped her from finding other places in need of a bandage.  Today she has one on her thumb, which I just noticed she moved to a different finger this afternoon. 

 

Her speech is really coming along.  Back in January and February she did some speech sessions with my good friend Karisa, and I really think it helped!  She now says yes, which she never used to say.  She can string together 15-20 words at a time, but they aren't sentences yet.  Every once in a while a full sentence does come out, like yesterday I heard, "Go away mom!" about 20 times.

 

She loves puzzles and can quickly figure out a 24 or more piece puzzle.

 

She can identify all the letters and knows some of the sounds they make.

 

She has gotten better at counting very recently, but usually starts at 2 instead of 1.

 

She has finally mastered her colors.  I was worried for the longest time that she was color blind because she was always confusing red and green.  Not anymore!

 

She still loves Ranch dressing and will dip just about anything in it.  She will eat just about any fruit, but for veggies, only likes broccoli, with Ranch dressing of course.

 

She will now eat milk on granola.  Her year and a half milk strike has come to an end...kind of. 

 

It is so fun to watch her run around with Marshall.  She loves to play with him, especially at night when they are supposed to be sleeping!

 

She is the greatest big sister to Rachel.  She is quick to go to her when she is crying.  She is usually down on the floor with her at least once a day playing with the same toys as Rachel.  Sometimes she does get a little curious though and gently pushes Rachel over, takes a toy, or takes out her binky just to see what will happen.  The result is always crying. 

 

When she is sad or when she's just been scolded, she will automatically start crying, "A carry you!  A carry you!"  I can't tell you how many times I hear this in a week.  She won't relent until I am holding her standing up or I've successfully distracted her with something else.  These moments are usually my most trying moments as a mom each week.  :)

 

Bridget sent us on quite a year with two visits to the ER, one call to 911, and two x-rays, so we are thrilled to report that she is here with us and healthy!  We love our little Bridget!

 

 



The Cougars Come To Town

BYU's basketball team made it into the NCAA tournament, and as luck would have it, they were playing in Milwaukee!  Richard was beside himself with excitement and spent the better part of our life's savings on two tickets to the game for him and Marshall.  :)

 

The day before the game each team had a free 45 minute practice that the public could attend at the Bradley Center.  I talked Karisa and Anna into venturing downtown with me and all our kids.  I'm so glad they came.  Our little group was quite a circus with seven kids.  I'm glad there weren't too many people there to watch BYU.  With all of our antics of up and down and all around, some people could have been pretty unhappy.  But, it all worked out, we had a great time, and some of us even made it on the news that night!

 

 

Tumbling Class

Bridget took a parent/tot tumbling class with Richard back in February.  It was just four classes, but it was a good bonding experience for those two.  :)  Max and Tim took the class with them as well. 

 

Reports were that Bridget was too shy to do anything for the first class.  I was able to go to the last class though and she had definitely overcome her shyness; she was all over the place.

 

This is probably the closest she will ever come to taking a real gymnastics class.  :)

 



Rachel Louise

Sweet, darling Rachel Louise is quickly approaching eight months old and I have yet to document anything about her life at six months.  So, here is a slew of things about this tiny, squishy, toothless, fluffy-haired girl that we all adore.

 

 

 

At six months:

Height:  25 inches, 15%

Weight:  13 lbs. 13 oz., 10%

Head:  42.4 cm., 50%

 

Basically she is tiny!  She only gained one pound between four and six months!  I was worried, but the pediatrician was not.  She obviously takes after her father's side of the family.  :)  Fortunately though, because she is so short, she still has rolls and rolls on those legs that I just absolutely adore. 

 

 

Eating wise, Rachel has come a LONG way since six months!  At six months she was nursing every three hours around the clock, even at night.  I was exhausted!  We tried re-introducing baby food just before six months, but she wanted nothing to do with it.  When she was 6 1/2 months old we tried giving her a bottle of formula, and she took it!  This was a good and bad thing for me as I was hoping she would take it so I could get a break, but at the same time it broke my heart.  She and I made it 6 months and 16 days exclusively on breast milk (yes, I am crazy and counted that out).  I take a little bit of pride in knowing that I am fully responsible for all her baby chub.  Anyway, she now gets one bottle of formula just before bed in hopes that it will fill that tummy of hers and she'll sleep through the night...no such luck yet, but its nice that Richard can feed her during the crazy evening hours.  By seven months we had made no more progress with baby food, but she was lunging at our plates during every meal.  So, in an attempt of desperation to get her to eat anything besides milk, we offered her some of our food, and she LOVES it!  So far she has eaten pancakes, waffles, bread, crackers, rolls, pasta, pears, apples, rice, and meatballs!  Just the other day I started dipping her puffs in baby food squash and she's been liking that so far.  So now she is still nursing every three hours during the day, twice during the night, and eating table foods at every meal with us. 

 

 

As these pictures illustrate, Rachel loves, loves, loves tags.  She can be entertained for a long time if something in front of her has a tag.  When she's crying I plop her down with a tag and she's as content as can be. 

 

She knows how to play peek-a-boo by pulling a blanket off of her face.

 

She loves to play, "How big is Rachel?"  Always guaranteed for some laughs.

 

She is ticklish on her tummy and on her chest, right under her chin.

 

She can sit on her own so well, but still cannot roll from back to tummy.  She is still very much a non-mover, which in all honesty, I am trying not to worry about, but I also like that I can put her down and know that she will stay there.  :)

 

Rachel's hair has really started growing in the last few weeks, so sadly, it isn't as fluffy anymore.  But, I try to preserve the fluffiness by giving her a good blow-dry after her baths.  It leaves her with some awesome hair styles!

 



 

For the most part she is still taking three naps a day and going to bed at 7:00 pm.  The last week though I feel like she's phasing out her third nap, so hopefully soon we'll be down to two.

 

She doesn't have any teeth, and doesn't show any signs of them coming in. 

 

She loves to put her forehead on yours and then she leans in and starts sucking on your nose.  Honestly, I love the feeling of her little gums on my face.  Gosh, I love this girl.

 

 

In just the last week she has gotten pretty good at getting these puffs in her mouth and she can grab anything off my plate in half a second.

When Rachel gets excited or mad her little wrists, especially her left wrist, turn circles like crazy.  It is so amusing to watch.

 

She is not a fan of her crib and I take full responsibility for this.  Bad mom!  From the time we brought her home from the hospital we had her sleeping in the Fisher Price Rock n'Play that Bridget also slept in as a newborn.  Bridget only slept in that for two months and then we moved her to the crib.  Because of Rachel's reflux we found she slept SO much better propped up a bit, so I just kept putting her in there.  In January I decided it was really time to move her to the crib, which I did for the most part, but then she got her bad cold and ear infections and sinus infection and the pediatrician recommended propping her up to sleep.  So, I put her back in the Fisher Price thing.  Now, I realize we could have just propped up the crib mattress like we have done with our other kids, but that is too much work.  :)  Well, now I am paying for that.  Rachel is almost eight months old and has hardly slept in her crib.  Yikes.  I need to get working on this.  :)

 

To sum it up she is simply adored in this house.  She is really so easy-going and is fine getting carted around in our busy lives.  We love this little girl dearly!

 

 

 



Valentine's Day

We decided to make Valentine's Day a little special for our kids, which we've never really done before!  They woke up to hearts on the wall full of reasons why we love them.  We got Marshall and Bridget some new coloring books and markers.  And we had a "fancy" dinner that night by candlelight.  Marshall didn't have school that day, so we just relaxed and played at home.  The only downer of the day was Rachel was on day three of a fever.  By dinner time her temperature was up to 102, with medicine, and I was so worried about her I don't think I took my eyes off of her the entire meal. But, despite that wrinkle, we started some good Valentine traditions. 

 

Rachel had some happy moments in the afternoon, which was a relief to see.  I took her to the doctor the next day.  Diagnosis:  double ear infections and a sinus infection.  Yuck.

 

Precarious Sleeping Situations

Marshall and Bridget have been sharing a room for months now.  For the most part, it has been much better than I anticipated.  It is still going well, they are just loving piling everything, and I mean everything, onto one bed.  Okay, its getting a bit annoying, but its also making for some good pictures. 

 

 

Needless to say, we're all a little tired in this house.  Naps have been more frequent lately, also resulting in some good pictures.

 

Someone's awake!

Sleeping Beauty