Just a cute pic of Parker

Happy Girl

Cecily has been in a pretty horrible mood lately.  With the whole house getting the stomach bug last week, this hasn't been an overly chipper place to be.  Cecily managed to be the only one to stay healthy, but she didn't let that fact get between her and a truly foul mood.

 

 

Thursday, it really came to a head.  Denise took Parker up to the Cabin Thursday morning, so I got all day to spend with my girl.  Parker is pretty all-consuming, so I really appreciate the times that someone is willing to watch him so I can hang out with Cecily.  She, however, chose to celebrate the break by screaming.  Not the I'm-a-baby-and-this-is-how-we-communicate crying, it was more of an I-hate-you-and-everything-you-stand-for sort of crying...  From noon until she finally fell asleep at 7:30, it was a long day...  She'd been crying so long that she was still whimpering in her sleep for half-an-hour after she fell asleep.  By the time Keith got home (at 9:45!), I was exhausted and had pretty much used up all my tears as well.

 

Friday morning, Cecily & I were able to cuddle in-bed for most of the morning (a huge luxury without the 2-year-old ready to start the day at 6:30), and I think I can say that we seem to have patched things over and we both like each other again.  And now, after Sunday, she has returned to the happy little girl I knew was in there somewhere.

 

So, about Sunday...  I will apologize in advance to my more sensitive readers (sorry Brian!), I don't usually blog about this stuff, and I'll try to be as euphemistic as possible, but this is the life when you have little ones.

 

Like I've said, Cecily has been in an increasingly bad mood lately.  I've been blaming colic, reflux, and the general sickiness of our house.  But a little over a week ago, I realized that it seemed like a long time had passed since I'd changed my last dirty diaper.  Long, as in weeks (with an "S"), not days.  As anyone with a baby will attest, diaper-counting is one of the less-glamorous and not really advertised points of having a baby.  Anyway, once I realized that my counting required more than two hands and in-fact exceeded my recent memory, I thought I might have the explanation for our little girl's upset.

 

Unfortunately, knowing the problem and fixing it, are two very different things.  But eventually, after two days of prune juice (for both of us), we hit pay dirt.  Believe me when I say, it was epic.  But it was well worth it; suddenly our little girl has remembered how to smile, and she's even laughing spontaneously.  At this point, it feels something like a miracle (at a level similar to the baby Zantac).  At dinner tonight, she even opened her mouth to try eating some solids!  (She didn't actually eat anything, but opening her mouth is a huge change from her recent eating-by-absorption method).

 

Welcome back baby girl!  We'll try not to let you go quite so long next time.

The "after" photos of my new kitchen shelves

There's a totally useless space between the edge of the cupboards and the pillar in the kitchen, it's the perfect spot for a few cookbooks.

 

 

After a little editing, I was even able to fit all my cookbooks on the shelf.

And, an added bonus: now you can't see my less-than-stellar paint job on this corner.

This is where we found him

Friday night, we put Parker to bed without incident and went downstairs to watch a movie.

 

When we came back upstairs two hours later, we found him here:

 

 

That's my bed, if you're wondering.

He'd managed to bring his doggie and two blankies along for the ride.

Don't tell daddy

Parker watches me get ready most mornings, and he always wants to play with my makeup.  I usually give him a clean powder brush & assume he can't get into too much trouble.  Today, I left him alone for two minutes while I tended to Cecily and found this when I got back:

 

 

I'm pretty sure he found my darkest eye liner.

 

Even after I washed his face, he still looked vaguely like a coal miner.

 

Not that this helps much, but that's actually marionberry, not lipstick on his mouth.

I think he's feeling better

Now, I won't claim that Parker's room was spotless when we put him to bed last night, but I can assure you that it did NOT look like this:

 

 

I think he emptied every drawer he could reach as well as the storage tub in his closet.

 

Like his pillow choice?  He refuses to use a pillow on his bed, but a boppy on the floor?  Sounds great.

Long Weekend: FAIL

Keith & I have a history of catastrophic dates: On our second date, we came back from the show to find Keith's car locked inside the parking garage, and on more than one occasion we've gone out only to discover that the restaurant we were planning to eat at had gone out of business.  So, I suppose that it should have come as no surprise that the weekend where we planned not one, but TWO dates, would be an unmitigated disaster.

 

We had big ideas for the weekend, so big in fact, that we couldn't fit all the ideas into our four-day weekend and had to drop a few, but the main idea was:

Friday Morning: Clean the house top-to-bottom (see Saturday afternoon below)

Friday night: Dinner & a movie with the kids at Keith's folks

Saturday morning: Piper's Birthday party

Saturday Afternoon: Welcome Jeff & Katie & Family for the weekend

Saturday night: Comedy show with some friends

Sunday: Day trip to Whidby with the Gerigs

Monday: Enjoy more hang-out time with Jeff & Katie

 

It started out okay, Parker helped Daddy get ready in the morning:

 

 

Parker & Cecily spent Friday evening with Keith's parents while we had a fantastic dinner & went to see Les Mis.  We picked Cecily up & left Parker to spend the night & meet us Saturday morning at the Needs for Piper's birthday party.

 

...that's where the wheels seem to have come off of the weekend.

 

Our poor little guy woke up at some point of the night very sick.  Keith went to pick him up Saturday morning and made calls to cancel the rest of our weekend plans.

 

Parker spent most of the day Saturday sleeping.  He'd wake up and be fairly chipper for half-an-hour or so, and then get cranky and go back to bed.

 

Keith spent the suddenly free day doing tons of chores around the house.  He changed all the batteries in the smoke detectors, hung up a coat rack, and built me some shelves for my cook books.

 

Here's the before:

(actually, I haven't taken the after photo yet, you'll have to trust me, it's awesome!)

 

 

All-in-all a very productive day for Keith.  And the end of all productivity for the weekend.  Sunday afternoon, I came down with Parker's sickness, so Keith was in-charge of both kids all day Sunday.  By Monday morning, Keith was sick too, and we had to send (a very healthy & energetic) Parker off to Grandma's house yet again.

 

Fortunately, this little one managed to stay healthy, for which I am eternally grateful, I'm not sure we could handle another sick person in the house.

 

It's now Thursday and I feel like we're finally getting our feet back under us and the house has (for the second time in a week) been thoroughly cleaned.  So, our four-day weekend turned into a five-day weekend, but I don't think it counts as a vacation.

"I not squishing Sessie"

 

Parker seems to have a different definition of "not squishing" than the rest of us.

 

 

Rolling

Last Saturday, Cecily finally discovered how to roll for real.  And once she got started, she hasn't stopped.  In both these photos, she started out on the blanket and ended up some other random spot.

 

 

She can now roll front-to-back and back-to-front, she can also roll back-to-front-to-back-to-front across the floor.  She also has the ability to roll back the way she comes, but she tends to roll until she crashes into a piece of furniture and then just scream until someone comes to rescue her.

New Clothes

 

Cecily's now 6 months old, so I've moved her from her 3-6 month clothes to our 6-9 month clothes.  No so much because she needed larger clothes, but because it only seems fair to give each size a fair shot at getting worn.

Big thanks to cousin Fiona for most of the clothes Cecily will be wearing for the next six months.

 

Parker, on the other hand, is currently potty-training, so we've pretty much given up on wearing clothes at all for the present.

 

This outfit is especially impressive since my Dad picked it out.

 

 

More Parker-isms

Dugga-doo

I sing "The Grand old Duke of York" with the motions for Cecily, both kids love it.  When Parker wants me to do it again, we have this conversation:

Parker: Dunga doo, dunga doo

Mama: Dunga du dunga du.

Parker: No Mama, not dugga-doo, Dunga-DOO!

 

Is not working ... is better now.

Which has recently evolved to "is not working very well"

 

Jack & candle, Jack & Candle!

(...jack jumped over the candle stick)

 

It's true

The conversation goes like this:

Parker: Mama, what kids doing?

Mama: I don't know Parker, what are the kids doing?

Parker: Playing basketball

Mama: Are the kids playing basketball?

Parker: It's true.

 

Probably so

Similar conversation as above, but contextually accurate.  ...and probably is pronounced prah-bee.

 

I miss my sister

Parker & I were having dinner, just the two of us, since Keith was working & Cecily was sleeping and he said this.  He repeated it several times over the evening (and later days) and it's the cutest thing ever.  At least, until I realized that he's quoting a Sleep Country/Foster Kids commercial.

 

I missed you!

He says this to Keith most days when he gets home from work.  I don't believe that this one is stolen from a commercial.
 

 

Mama, where <insert family member's name> go?

I probably spend over an hour a day telling Parker that Daddy, Uncle Doug, & Auntie Kelly are at work, Kyla, Piper, & Fona are at school, Wesley is at home, etc.  We usually hit every member of the extended family several times in each conversation.

Whoopsie-daisy
This one's self-explanatory, but I have no idea where it came from.

 

6 Months!

 

Six months ago, this little spit-fire entered our lives.  ...life has not been the same since.

I'm not entirely sure if I should say these have been the longest or the shortest months of our lives.  Both seem true.

 

Although she's still on the teeny-tiny side, Cecily is growing.  At the very least, her 0-3month pants don't fit any more.  This week, I'll be clearing out her closet & bringing in the 6-9 month clothes.  Not so much because she needs them yet, but you need to give each wardrobe equal representation.

 

Her 6-month appointment isn't until the end of the month, so we'll see then how she's actually growing.

 

Last night, Cecily & Parker had a dance-off, she was laughing her little head off.  Which is quite a feat, this little girl doesn't just laugh for any old thing.

 

She's still given up all tummy-time as she rolls-over almost immediately.  She pretends like she's going to roll back over onto her tummy at some time, but so far she just seems to hang out on her side.

 

We've started Cecily on solids.  She liked the rice cereal and avocado, as well as the banana in the mesh feeder.  So far, she hates the applesauce and mashed pears.  I'm telling you, this kid is crazy.  Keith spent half-an-hour last night trying to feed her pears, I think he got about two bites into her, so that's a start anyway.

 

We've started putting Cecily in the nursery at church, she is a total pro and doesn't even seem to notice that I'm gone.

 

Monday night, Cecily slept from 9pm until 5:30am.  It was a glorious occasion, one for which I am eternally grateful, but don't expect it to continue.  Her average continues to be waking up every two hours, although last night she skipped her 2am feeding, so maybe there's hope out there.  She's napping 2-4 times a day, usually for under an hour, but sometimes she'll take a long nap in the late afternoon, but that one's unpredictable.

 

We've gone back to swaddling her.  She almost instantly pulls her arms out, but she seems to need it to fall asleep.  It is not uncommon to go into her room at 2am to find her wearing her swaddle blanket like a giant scarf around her belly, waving her hands, and laughing at Mama.

 

Cecily loves putting stuff in her mouth, her fingers and clothing are her particular favorite, but she'll take just about anything.  She can even sometimes get her binky back into her mouth, which is a skill I'm strongly encouraging.

 

She loves her big brother and I think she's even starting to see that Daddy's not so bad.  I'm learning that she's a lot tougher than I give her credit for, considering the number of times Parker has elbowed her in the gut.