Things have been busy-- my ENTIRE FAMILY was here for Colton's baby blessing! So I spent half of last week stressing about cleaning my house before they came (on Thursday and Friday), and then the entire weekend staying up way too late enjoying everyone's company and eating way too much ice cream, and now I'm trying to get my life back on track again before school gets out and it all gets crazy in a different way.
But things are happy and good, in case you were worried. Here are two pictures for now:
Most of us, after church. This was just a quick shot to document the occasion.
And a cousin shot, professionally done by Lindsay Rowe
Even though it's so sad, I kind of love that Ryder is sobbing in that picture. And I also like Bentley's smile. Actually, I really like the look on every kid's face in this picture...
He's been two months old for a while now, but since today was the day of his check-up, it seems like as good a day as any to blog about my favorite little baby!
Now I hope I don't curse my luck with this, but so far Colton is an absolutely delightful little baby! He only cries when he's hungry or tired (or when we play ring-around-the-rosy, apparently) AND he's a good sleeper! So that's pretty much everything you can hope for in a baby, if you ask me!
This picture cracks me up-- the bent ear, the tongue sticking out, the adoring look at Daddy, and those FAT cheeks! My baby is so funny and cute!
He loves his brothers and sister and Daddy, but I'm not gonna lie-- I am definitely his favorite right now. But that's to be expected since I'm his only source for food at the moment. (And since all my other kids prefer Daddy, I gotta enjoy my place in the limelight while I can!) Colton's a good eater, but if he's not feeling on-the-brink-of-starvation hungry (ie, he's not crying yet), then rather than eat, he will take the opportunity to talk with mommy. It's both absolutely adorable and just a teensy bit frustrating, only because that leaves me sitting there rather-- ahem-- exposed, waiting for him to stop talking so I can get on with feeding him. But I figure if you're the fourth child, you gotta make the most of your time with mommy, so I just smile and talk back to him. I don't remember any of my other kids having this much to coo and gurgle about at such a young age, so I already think of Colton as being my Great Communicator. (That's not too high of expectations for a 2-month-old, is it?)
Napping in his swing. Toys provided by a loving Ryder.
Recently he's been sleeping through the night about every third night, which is AWESOME. And by sleeping through the night, I mean he'll sleep from about ten at night until six in the morning-- REALLY sleeping through the night. Even when he has to eat at midnight or two or three or whenever, he's good about going right back to sleep as soon as he's done eating, so that's a relief. I think the worst thing in the world is that first month when babies wake up, eat, and then want to cry. It's enough to make you want to pull out your hair! So I'm glad he understands that nighttime is mostly just for sleeping now! Nothing makes him happier than being swaddled and put in his swing!
When Ryder was this age, I began making him cheer for himself by chanting, "Rah, rah, rah, RYDER!" and holding his hands up for his name. Ryder loved it and would get all excited. I do the same thing for Colton now, except the cheer is "Go go go COLTON!" and I get the EXACT same results. This both makes me happy and confirms in my mind that Colton is sort of a re-run of Ryder. But I always said if all my babies could be like Ryder, I'd want ten more, so if he's just like Ryder, that's the best thing ever, as far as I'm concerned!
All my babies have this knack for pulling duck faces. So I helpfully tell them, "You look nothing like a duck." Which is a quote from this time that Steve Martin appeared on David Letterman and makes me laugh to myself...
His check-up today was an exercise in me looking ridiculous, but I'm getting more and more used to that these days. To begin with, Kendra's preschool got cancelled, so I had to bring both her and Ryder to the appointment. So just by showing up, we're already something of a three-ring circus. Then, as we're sitting in the waiting area, Colton managed to soak through his diaper (or perhaps just miss it entirely) and get me all wet. I was afraid of this happening-- I swear it's his favorite thing to do whenever we're NOT at home-- and had brought an extra shirt just in case, but not an extra pair of pants. Charming. And then he began crying the moment the pediatrician looked at him. So you can imagine how fun the three shots he received were!
Ah, well. A quick feeding cheered him right up (okay, put him to sleep), and then all was well again with the world.
I think Ryder deserves his own post today-- there's just so much to tell about him. Probably because he is CRAZY. In both the good and the bad way.
So where to begin?
He likes to randomly yell "Boo-ga-waaaaaaay!" I have no idea what this means. But he takes great pleasure in shouting it at people and then laughing at his joke. And sometimes he'll yell "E.T. go!" (which used to be "ready set go" until he decided that E.T. was cooler) and then begin spinning in circles. 'Cuz, you know, why not?
He loves to play Ring-Around-the Roses, which he calls "Ashee ashee" (for the "Ashes, ashes" part, obviously). When we play it with him, he likes to pick up his feet so we're carrying him. So now all the kids like to do this, too, which means we always have to do it at least three times so everyone gets a chance to get carried around the circle. Colton began crying the last time we did this, though, so apparently he is NOT a fan.
Ryder is basically a fruitarian. His favorite foods are bananas, apple sauce, and cherry tomatoes. And yogurt (which I realize falls under the "dairy" caategory, but it's still flavored with berries!). Occasionally I can persuade him to eat crackers or bread. But not very often. He mostly just likes fruit. This always makes me think of this clip from Notting Hill:
His talking is coming along, but of course there are oodles of mistakes and mispronunciations. My favorite one, though, is that for some reason he can't say the "s" sound if it's at the beginning of words. So "scaredy cat" becomes "hairdy cat" and socks are "hocks." This is one of those mistakes that only parents can ever understand, and I sometimes feel bad for the nursery workers who must try to make sense of him.
Recently he's become obsessed with the drainage ditches, which he calls "down-holes." Every time we go anywhere he has to point them out. And when you start looking for them, it turns out that there are a LOT of downholes all over the place. Occasionally he'll ask, "Me go downhole?" and I'll tell him that if he went down one of those holes, Mommy would cry. This pleases him no end, and he'll repeat the story back to me several times over: "Me go down hole. Mommy cy."
But the BEST thing he says, is his greeting. Rather than just saying Hi to people, he shouts, "Hi there!" (except it sounds like "Hi dere," of course). And he says it so happily, like he's just pleased as punch to have discovered you! Right there!
Craig says it's the best way to come home from work ever.
A "downhole" he found at the father-son campout
He loves Colton and is always asking to hold him or give him kisses. But when they had the father-son campout last week and I asked if he would miss the baby, he answered with a dismissive, "No." I can't say that one surprised me. (He would miss me, he said, so that was good!) He also likes to stack toys on Colton while he's napping. I guess that's a sign of love, right?
Aaaaand he's really good at ignoring everything we say, whether it's begging him to not throw his food on the floor, to leave his shoes on his feet, or to stop throwing toys. But he does it all so darn cheerfully that it's really hard to ever get mad at him. And even when we do get mad at him, it doesn't usually seem to leave much of an impression. Sort of like this guy:
(I realize this places me in the role of some tormenting demon. That's sort of how being a parent feels like, sometimes...)
But over all, he really is the happiest little guy. It's impossible not to love my little Ryder-Pieder.
A couple friends of mine posted pictures on facebook of a tulip field in the area. I've had a special place in my heart for tulips for a long time now, so this immediately turned into a must-see thing for me. Growing up, my Mom and I would go to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival in Washington and it was always amazing (plus, the two hour drive there meant for extra one-on-one time with my Mom, which made it even more fun!). And, my Mom's best friend Janine loved to spend time planting tulips all over her yard ("playing in the mud," as she called it).
Now, you probably already noticed, but I am not the fun one in our family. I'm usually pretty happy to just stay home, and it's Craig's job to make sure that we actually leave the house and do things every now and then. So I think Craig was a little surprised when I announced that we needed to do this. And he may have been less than thrilled when I further announced that it would cost money, but I didn't care and we were going anyway. But he was game, so after the baby was fed (okay, the second time after the baby was fed-- it's hard getting four kids out the door!), we loaded everyone in the car and headed out.
The first thing that happened when we got there was the lady who planted all the tulips announced that since they were starting to fade a bit, she wouldn't be charging. Craig was immediately in good spirits! So we gathered baskets for picking, tried on some wooden shoes, and enjoyed a lovely hour tulip gazing.
What a perfect way to lift your spirits!
Ryder was a fan of the wooden shoes-- look at my son getting back to his Dutch roots!
And I think I looked smashing in these red beauties!
Not Skagit Valley. But absolutely beautiful, nonetheless.
Ryder was getting very sleepy, which led to this adorable picture of him leaning against me. Love it.
And just because Colton wasn't really featured in any of the other pictures, here's what he's looking like these days
And while we're talking about flowers, my irises bloomed this year, too! Aren't they lovely?
We bought a few tulip bulbs in Haymarket and Craig planted them for me as soon as we were home. I seem to be getting better with flowers (thanks to my new tactic of threatening them), so hopefully these will be pretty for me next spring!
I love it when things work out so well and you find yourself spending a perfect spring day enjoying beautiful flowers with your family. What more could you ask for?
Back when I was still pregnant, my friend Vangie suggested a bunch of us run a 5K in May called the Color Run. I knew I would only be two months postpartum, so I wasn't sure I could manage it. But then my friend Delilas signed up to do it, despite the fact that she was having hip replacement surgery just a few weeks before my due date! I figured if she could do it, I could do it. So I signed up.
I had it all planned out in my head. As soon as the baby was born, I would begin walking. And then in April I'd begin running. I could totally be ready in time!
I forgot to factor in a few things. First of all, it takes a lot longer to recover from having a nearly-10-pound baby than it takes to recover from an 8-lb baby. Even more so if you let two different people take a crack at stitching you up. Second, I forgot that babies have no schedule, so there was no way for me to get on a regular exercising schedule. I couldn't just get up early and go, because I never knew when he might need to eat. And most evenings, if I decided to wait until after he'd eaten, he'd decide to sleep extra long and then it would be dark outside. And the days when he stuck to a more normal schedule were the days it rained. I'd managed to find a jogging stroller on freecycle, but even then, there was nothing I could do with Ryder and Kendra if I wanted to take the baby out for a run during the day.
So I basically didn't manage to train at all. I went running twice before the 5K. And I didn't even try out the jogging stroller until the day before, when I used it to walk Bentley to school!
But I went anyway!
And no, I didn't run the entire length. But I probably ran about a third of it! And more important, I had a TON of fun with my friends. And Colton was a perfect little angel baby for the entire thing. So I'm glad I did it.
Picture time!
Delilas and I waiting to pick up our packets
Afton keeps me company while I feed Colton before the race begins
I was really hoping that Tracy would end up with "Happy" sunburned onto her forehead, but it was too cloudy...
Baby's First Tattoo!
The entire group, shiny and clean and ready to go!
So the idea with the color run is that as you run, there are various "color stations" where volunteers throw dyed corn starch on you. So by the end, you're a sweaty, corn starchy rainbow! And just trust me, it's a whole lot more fun than that might sound. I think the stations were pink, blue, orange, and yellow... And then at the end, everyone has a color packet and they all throw them in the air together.
So here we are, all colored up at the end:
Vangie (who pushed my stroller for me for most of the race) and me post-race-- aren't we pretty?!?!
I especially liked how the inside of my elbow turned out-- lovely!
Very glad I had a cover for the stroller-- I don't think Colton would have enjoyed inhaling corn starch...
Lenee, Vangie, Emma and me
The entire gang-- what fun!
There are a few pictures on Craig's phone that I wanted to share, too, so you're not done yet! Until next time!
So, I mentioned in my last post that I had an awesome coupon to use at Victoria's Secret.
What I didn't mention was that this coupon forced me to realize that I am a complete and utter coward. Because as excited as I was to get a free bottle of perfume, I still managed to put off cashing that thing in for TWO MONTHS because I didn't want to go into the store and use it. It's not that I'm afraid of Victoria's Secret-- bras and panties don't strike fear in my heart. At all. (And, actually, I still chuckle to myself when I remember that the cutest pair of overalls I've ever seen was in a Victoria's Secret catalogue. Overalls! At Vicky's! Who knew, right?)
No, what scares me is using coupons. Especially when it means getting something for nothing. I'm always worried that the store clerk will look at me and say, "Really?!?! We're giving you a free bottle of perfume and you're not even going to buy ANYTHING?!?!" And then she'll give me a look of such loathing for being the biggest cheapskate ever that I'll never be able to hold my head up again. Or, even worse, she'll find some reason why my coupon is invalid, and I'll be put on the spot and have to decide if I'm going to buy whatever it is I'm buying anyway, at full price, or if I should just swallow my pride and put it back on the shelf. And I'll feel totally stupid for even trying.
{Shudder}
It's the same reason that I never got into couponing when all my friends carefully explained to me how I could get everything for free if I just clipped the right coupons and went to thirty-seven different stores around the area on precisely the right days. The fear just killed me. And the extra shopping-- who am I kidding? Man, I hate shopping. But the fear was at the heart of it. This is evidenced by the ONE TIME I tried to coupon, and when the woman at Harris Teeter's didn't triple my coupons, I didn't say a word to her about it. I just scooped up my carefully purchased, well-couponed items and vowed to never bother doing that again.
Based on my extensive internet research (WebMD and the Mayo Clinic, thank you very much), I think what I've been fighting off for the last week or so is a sinus infection. I've had the usual cold symptoms-- cough, runny nose, congestion. And my voice sounds like Demi Moore. Or possibly a man. The only thing that makes this different from your standard cold is that by the afternoon, I'll develop a headache around my sinuses and whatever patience I might posses goes out the window. An ibuprofen will usually restore some semblance of sanity to me, and then I'm fine until the next afternoon.
It's weird. Not horrible like some colds can be. But kind of weird.
And I think it's slowly getting better-- I no longer have a cough and my nose is getting less gross.
But the really crazy thing is that for one day, I completely lost my sense of smell! It wasn't something that particularly bothered me-- it turns out that it's hard to notice a lack of scent throughout your day. It didn't really even hit me that this was a problem until I changed Ryder's diaper and was surprised to discover that he was poopy! I'd had no idea, and trust me, usually it's not hard to notice when he needs a diaper change, if you know what I mean!
But the real kicker was later that same day when I went to Victoria's Secret. I'd gotten a coupon for a free bottle of perfume, so I went to cash in on that (up to a $14 value with no purchase necessary-- woot woot!!!). I was planning on getting their "Love Spell" scent, since it smells delicious, but figured I'd give the other ones a sniff, just in case I was in the mood for a change. But the first bottle I smelled had no scent at all, so I just went with what I knew I liked.
When I got home, I sprayed it on me, and was shocked when it didn't smell like anything, either! For all I could tell, I could have just spritzed myself with water! I was complaining to Craig and wondering out loud if maybe the first spritz really was just water and I would need to spray it again to get to the good stuff out when Craig intervened-- "I can smell it from here! Don't spray it again!" he hollered across the room.
Really, I'd had no idea.
I hope I get my sense of smell back sooner rather than later. I imagine food will taste better once it's back.
But in the meantime, would you please let me know if any of my kids smell bad?
Sorry I haven't been blogging as much recently. I've been busy with getting Bentley and Kendra to their respective schools, trying to exercise, feed the family, take people to the doctor, and do my calling. All the normal stuff, plus feeding a baby every three hours (and trying to grab naps, because these feedings are pretty consistently every three hours during the night, too). That would be pretty manageable, except Craig has been super busy, too. He's had yearbook deadlines, papers to write, and a video to edit, so he hasn't been around much. And when he's not around to help out, the blog is one of the (many) things that fall by the wayside.
He's mostly done, though, so hopefully I can get back to handling my life better again. And by "handling my life," what I really mean is "making Craig pick up the slack." Which makes my life SO much better!
Anyway. A couple thoughts from recently...
-My parents are in Africa on safari right now. (Don't even ask me how jealous I am!) They were flying out through Dulles, but weren't going to be there long enough to be able to meet up. Until there was "weather" all across the country, delaying their flight from Seattle, causing them to miss their connecting flight and spend a night near the airport! So guess who got to see them after all?!?! We went and surprised them at the airport, which absolutely delighted me-- you never get to do stuff like that any more! Best of all was getting the opportunity to introduce my Dad to his newest grandson!
The whole gang, including my Aunt Ann and her friend Sharon, at my parent's hotel room
-And Grandpa Rex wasn't the only person Colton got to meet! The following day, Favorite Aunt Rachael took the bus down from New York to visit, too! So we've been having a lot of fun here!
We actually documented someone's visit! First time for everything...
And we had to do a funny face shot, too, of course!
-On a completely different note, Bentley is finally really reading. And by that, I mean that he has caught the vision of reading and stays up late holding his book up to the window to catch the light from our neighbor's porch light. And I have to tell him to put his book away during dinner and he'll respond by saying, "But Mom, once you can read, it's like that's all you want to do!" I know, son. I know. This whole "problem" thrills me more than just about anything.
Case in point.
Unbeknownst to me, Craig snapped this picture at the same time. I guess he was trying to make a point about where Bentley gets this rude behavior from. Or something.
-While I'm talking about Bentley reading, can I just mention how thankful I am for the teachers at his school who have been teaching him this? At the beginning of the school year when I sat down to practice reading with him, I quickly realized that I have absolutely no patience and no skill for this sort of thing. I don't know how to teach a kid to read! And trying to get him to do it properly made me want to pull out my hair (or worse yet, scream at him for not doing it right-- can you think of a worse way to get a kid to want to read???). So I'm glad that his teachers have done such a good job. Clearly, I was not cut out for that task...
-A month ago when it was Easter, we got to spend the day with Craig's parents, doing your traditional Easter day stuff (egg hunts and eating ham and candy. What more could you ask for?). We didn't take nearly enough pictures, but here are a couple:
I know Ryder's blurry here, but I LOVE how happy he looks!
And a not-blurry picture
Grandma holding Colton (all swaddled up)
And, because this has sort of turned into a photo dump (that wasn't my intent, but oh, well), here are a bunch more that I like:
Daddy Daughter Nap Time (and they're actually asleep here, not just pretending!)
Bentley makes me laugh these days
And Ryder sort of frightens me. Who sits on top of stacked benches to eat a banana?!?
A crazy turtle Craig found in our backyard
Colton looks good in blue
And he's been smiling at us! (Sorry it's blurry, but you get the idea.)
He also rocks the mohawk look.
I love this picture: love the hair, love the facial expression.
Have I made up for the fact that I hadn't posted in over a week? Next time, I'll be back to my usual blathering about nothing. I promise!
Sometimes I feel bad for Colton, since he doesn't get nearly as much
one-on-one time with Mommy or Daddy as his older siblings (especially
Bentley!) have had. But then I watch as his three older siblings rush
to give him kisses as soon as our morning prayer is done, and I realize
that he's not getting any less love. He's just getting it from a lot of
different sources.
And I wonder if he's not actually getting a better deal than Bentley did.
It was two years ago that Craig planted a cherry blossom tree in our front yard for me. And I'd been begging to have one for two years before that. So when it never bloomed, I was disappointed. I assumed that it had been mislabeled at Lowe's and wasn't a cherry blossom tree after all. For the last few weeks, I've been trying to figure out if it would be worth chopping the stupid thing down and finding a tree that would actually get some flowers for me.
Apparently it knew its life was in danger, because it finally produced a few blossoms for me:
Yeah, there were probably about ten flowers on the entire tree. But it's better than nothing! I'll take it.
Who knew that threatening a tree would actually work?
It's funny. Craig and I have both noticed a change in how people react when you have your fourth kid. With all the others, we got the usual compliments-- Yay, a boy! Yay, a girl! Ooh, so cute! What a chunk!-- nice, congratulatory comments like that. And we didn't really think too much of it, except to enjoy how nice it all was.
But with #4, everyone (especially if they aren't Mormon) wants to slip in something about us being "done." It's not necessarily rude, it's almost more like a fact-- they'll say something like, "You got your perfect birth-- now you can be done!" or "You know it's time to stop when..." Or they'll point out that we can stop, since we have both genders represented. (Actually, my doctors have been saying that ever since we found out that Kendra was a girl. Everyone is very concerned that you not get stuck with all the same gender among your children.)
I guess this means we have officially crossed the line from "normal" family size to "kind of big." My friend Christina assured me that once you have five kids, the comments change again so that they're more along the lines of, "Wow, how many kids are you going to have???" She said at that point you're so out of the realm of normal that it just makes people curious.
That might be kind of a nice change, actually. I can handle being an oddity-- otherwise I never could handle being Mormon! But people trying to tell me what to do makes me just want to go and do the opposite. I find my inner voice wanting to growl, Watch me go and have another kid!
But Craig seems to think that this line of action would be a bad idea at this point in our lives. So I'll desist. For now.
