James and sleep and James and no sleep

Poor James is having trouble napping lately.  He rolls all over the place in his bed which on the one hand is good because he’s able (theoretically) to find that perfect sweet spot on his tummy all by himself.  On the other hand he gets his arms and legs caught in between the slats of the crib with all the flailing.  And it works him up and he can’t fall asleep.  My other babies have slept with bumpers for this very reason, but I’ve just been lazy about James’.  We have a super cute bumper that matches his bedding, but the ties aren’t long enough and they’re not quite in the right place for our crib.  I’m going to fix them (but now you see where the lazy part comes in).  So it finally occurred to me to just put Natalie’s bumper in there – duh!  Yes, it’s purple with flowers all over it and it really clashes with the skirt and sheets, but it’s perfect!  I spent a year and a half learning how to tie the ties just right and it’s very tall and sturdy.  And maybe the girlishness of it will inspire me to fix the pretty blue one quickly.  :)

This problem isn’t so bad at night because he just does better at night, and is able to eventually fall asleep and sleep through the girls’ shenanigans.  However (totally unrelated to the rolling/getting stuck) he’s sleeping until 5 or 5:30 in the morning.  That’s mostly very exciting because he was waking up earlier than that for a while even though I know he doesn’t need it, and he sleeps from 7:30ish to 5:30 and I’m proud of him. When he was waking up earlier, he’d eat and go back to sleep until a respectable hour of the morning.  Now he feels as though 5am is the morning.  If you know me at all, you know this is not a view I share.  It’s only been three days (I think), but I’m not in a good place.  I just really really really don’t want to be up at 5 or 5:30 for any regularity.  Ever.  I’m a grumpy Momma.  I actually really enjoy those early morning milk snuggles with my little baby boy.  I just enjoy going back to sleep afterward.  I know this too shall pass (to quote my mother), I just want it to pass quickly.  :)  And I feel a little guilty even whining about it because of all the rotten things in this world, having to wake up at 5:00am for three days in a row is awfully shallow, don’t you think?  However, this is my blog and I can whine if I want to.  :)

I think I have lots of cute pics to post and hopefully that will happen this evening.  I’ve been caught up in reading another blog, and have been spending my computer time doing that!  (A couple of times I get interested in another blog and find myself going back to the beginning to read forward until the present.  It’s ridiculous, but fun and kind of like a book.)

Off to check on James, who is still fussing but really needs to take a nap in his bed since he hasn’t yet today and it’s 2:00.

Mostly James, but some of those sister-people too

James has begun to enjoy the exersaucer more in the last few days.

Yesterday Natalie crashed on me while we were waiting for James to settle so she could lay down in there with him.  But then James needed a little help settling (or I might’ve just stayed on the couch, snuggling my girl!), so I lay her on the couch – didn’t bother her at all!

She had a decent nap there, even after everyone else woke up and started moving around.  That poor child is tired lately, and I think all the pollen (or whatever) is bothering her.  She’s often the last one to sleep at night and the first one up in the morning!  She’s been pretty sad at school lately as well.  Usually they can calm her down or cheer her up, but sometimes she’s just sad!  Today was I think the very first day that I dropped Natalie off crying.  BROKE MY HEART!  I left her though because I thought she’d probably snap out of it, I knew her teachers would call me if needed, and honestly she’d have to cry some at home anyway.  I can’t hold her all day.  And I was very excited that her teacher Miss Anne said, “Natalie, do you want to go rock?”  And even though she was crying and snuggling on me, she went willingly with Anne to go rock.  Ahhhh…

Today was Baseball Day at the girls’ school.  Honestly I have no idea what that really means, but they got to wear their Astros shirts!

I wanted to get a picture of the girls, and Anna wanted to pose with them too!  Love all my girls!  I think Natalie’s smile was either right before or right after I snapped the picture.  She was distracted.  :)

Okay… see the playmat in the left of the picture?  I layed James down in the middle of that on his back.  (Oh, and I vacuumed right after this picture, so ignore my dust.  It isn’t there anymore.)  He scooted/rolled quite a little ways!

I am just SO IN LOVE with this little boy!!  He has the best best best big ol’ smiles!!

And look how far he moved!

James and I wore our Astros shirts too, even though we didn’t get to go to school.  :)

Isn’t he the handsomest?!

I just called to make James’ six month check up appointment.  I love it when there’s an opening just exactly when you want to go, you know?  Hopefully that day I will drop two healthy girls off at school, then scoot on over to a very quick easy appointment, then run back home for some snuggles with my James!

But seriously, can you believe he’s about to be SIX months old?  What?  That’s too old already!  I’m not ready!!  I told that to somebody up at church this morning, and you know what she said?  “There’s more where he came from.”  HA HA HA!  I guess that’s true.  :)

Fresh from the Farm

Tuesday we got our first CSA box for the season!  In case you want to know, CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture, and is basically a farm “share.”  You pay money, and each week you get some fresh, local produce that was harvested!  This farm is in Cleveland but they have a pick up location… minutes from my house.  :) :) :) :)

My mom went with us this time, which is good because I can’t actually fit into that tiny store with my children (It’s The Natural Kitchen in the Skeeter’s parking lot.).  In the future I will probably have to wait for Matt to come home before I get my box.  I’m really not kidding about the tinyness of the store.

Anyway… here is our bounty for this week!

Strawberries!!  They smell so fresh every time I open my fridge!

Spring green mix.  This is not my favorite kind of salad green, but my family eats it okay.  I gave one of the two bags of it to my mom.

Broccoli!  Whatever we don’t eat “whole,” I will cook up and puree for James in a couple of months.

Beautiful spring onions.  I’m probably going to throw these into soup or broth, unless anyone’s got a better idea.

Two big ol’ bunches of spinach!  We’ve eaten some with taco salad, mixed some into smoothies (yum!), and we’ll eat some cooked, I think.  As with the broccoli, whatever we can’t use up, I can cook and freeze for baby food (or regular people food, for that matter).

Sugar snap peas – sooooooo good!

Radish micro greens.  I put some on Matt’s salad today.  Not sure what else to do with them, if anything.

As you can see, there is A LOT of salad stuff involved here.  I’m glad we opted for the every other week option, as this is way too much green stuff for our little family every week!

The produce will change up some in the coming weeks of course.  It’s all about what is harvested at that time.  I LOVE the variety, and we’re introduced to things I never would have thought to pick up at the store!  And it’s all fresh, in season, and locally grown!!

Randomness

• Natalie went tinkle on the potty this evening. It's amazing the things you get so excited about as a parent. She's not exactly potty training ready, but I'm so glad we're headed that way. Here little tender-skinned bottom is ready. She loves to sit on the potty, but always just waits for when her diaper is on to actually go. Last week she managed #2 on the potty while my mom was here and today #1, wahoo!! That child is "naked a little while" a lot around here since her poor little bottom needs some fresh air. So we're always watching her like a hawk for a sign she needs to go! And this is already a giant paragraph about going to the bathroom...


• I finally got around to painting my toenails tonight after a long long break. And I tell you, I really really appreciate being not pregnant to do it. It's much easier that way. And I really appreciate having two little girls begging me to paint their toe nails as well. :) Tomorrow, I told them. I'll have to take some pictures of their little pink toes.


• Ray gets a break from us this week while his aunt is in town to take care of him. We miss him, but are excited he gets some good snuggles from his auntie! My mom is off tomorrow so we were thinking of doing something fun with the kids that would be hard to do with four... except we haven't come up with anything. :) The children's museum is closed on Mondays (of course!), and I'm not sure I'm up for something like the zoo yet. James just really likes to be held most of the time, and it is just too dad gum hot for that! Our latest plan is to stay home and do chores and Mom will come over for lunch. We'll splurge on something yummy to eat. Chores may not sound too exciting, but I really need to get caught up around here. We spent the end of last week doing a lot of laying around and making messes. Now that I have some energy and hopefully a full night of sleep, I'm looking forward to getting the place cleaned up a bit!


• I hope we stay/get healthy enough for a full "week" at school this week. The girls sure miss it when they can't go, and I really want them to be able to get their school pictures made! That, and we get a little sick of just looking at each other. :) Matt mowed the yard this evening, so at the very least we'll get to go outside around here. I need to do some yard work. Blah. I'm not sure I'll ever be ready to grow food.


• Matt told me this evening that he thinks Joanna has the stride to be a long distance runner. Matt ran cross country in high school, and I think she's built for it.


• Matt and I love watching TV in the evenings and eating cookies and milk or ice cream or something yummy and terrible for you, especially late in the day. I think we'll phase it out slowly... really slowly. :)


• I've started drinking green tea, and I really like it. My dad sent me some loose tea that he likes, as well as some bags. The bags are your plain ol' green tea and they're very good. The taste is mild and I can almost drink it "black." Is that "green" then? I do like to put a little turbinado sugar in. Yum! One of the tins of leaves he got me has a real woodsy taste to it. It's very hearty. I like it too, also with a little sugar. The one I haven't tried has mint in it as well. Maybe I'll break it out tomorrow. I'm really enjoying the little kick the green tea gives me without a ton of caffeine. I usually need a little pick-up in the afternoon to get me through to bed time!


• James is having a little trouble falling asleep in his bed lately. He scoots around and has a hard time finding "the sweet spot." Usually, he falls asleep eventually, but sometimes I give in and rescue him. His very favorite place to sleep is on me, after nursing. He won't be little long, so I let him do it some. Today in church he fell asleep on me nursing. I have discovered that I can pop the pacifier in when he does this. I can't lay him down or anything, but I can, um... re-robe, if you will, and take off the nursing cover. He gets pretty warm under there, so I like that. Today I was even able to get up, take communion, and come and sit back down all while holding him asleep! I wish I had a picture -- he was so cute with his arms up over his head, stretched out across me. That is until I had a coughing fit and woke him up. :( I just got a tickle, and my eyes watered and my nose ran, and I could barely talk. (And I was trying not to cough hysterically in the service!) Thankfully a sweet lady handed me a piece of gum to suck on -- just what I needed! Thank you, Sweet Lady!


• The kids are in bed, hopefully will be asleep soon, so it's time for some couch time with the hubs!!

Sam’s Birthday Party… and a trip down memory lane

My friend Kathy, whom I’ve known since the sixth grade (so seventeen years), and who also lives in South Carolina, was in town visiting her family this week!  Her son turned two yesterday, and we got to go to his birthday party today!

Anytime I go to Kathy’s parents’ house it feels like a trip down memory lane.  They’ve lived there for a long time, and I spent not a few hours there in high school.

Anyway… The kids had a lot of fun playing outside.  Joanna is driving Sam around in the mini-van.

Sam on the roller coaster.  I think Joanna gave him a little push.  I didn’t catch any pictures of it, but she was pretty hilarious to watch putting the coaster back up on the ramp.  She didn’t roll it over or up, she picked up the thing and hauled it back over there.  LOVE it!

This almost looks like an action shot, but no, she could not actually hula hoop. 

But neither could I.  I blame the hoops.  They’re weren’t weighted right for me.  (BAH! Ha ha!)

Are you ready for a little trip down memory lane?  Here we are with our friend Laura, in May of 1997.  This is one of the earliest pictures I have of me and Kathy.  I’m not even sure where to look for pics from middle school, though there may be some around here somewhere.

And here we are in April of 2011, with our third-borns.

Makes you tear up a little, doesn’t it?  (Okay, maybe it’s just me.)  :)  These boys are just 5 days apart in age!

Here are our first borns, enjoying a ride on the carousel horse…

Which brings me to my next little blast from the past.  And I do want you to know that I find this picture a little embarrassing, but I’m posting it anyway, because that’s how I roll, ‘kay?

Me, Aprilish of 2000, before prom.  Same horse, same living room.

Kathy’s mom and dad have 7 grandchildren, 6 of which are boys!  They were all there, and my crew helped even things out a little, gender-wise.  It’s always fun to watch little ones open gifts!  Sam is very into balls of any kind.  There was one gift that had a couple balls in it as well as a leap frog toy and some clothes.  He pulled out the first ball, held on tight, but kept pulling things out.  Clothes?  On the floor!  Musical toy with bright colors and flashing lights?  On the floor.  Other ball?  Also held tightly.  It was pretty cute.  We got him an Astros shirt, for his Texas roots.  And of course it’s got our name on the back.  :) 

Cake and food time!  The kids got to decorate the table with sports stickers while they waited for food.

Isn’t the cake incredible?  Kathy’s sister made it!

Sweet birthday boy being sung to:

Check out Joanna’s giant cracker sandwich!

Back outside for more roller coastering.  Matt said Natalie must have ridden it about 15 times (before she finally wiped out and had enough!)

Joanna is with Miss Kathy, talking to AJ on Skype (Kathy’s hubby is deployed right now).

Joanna was actually pretty good at hitting the ball!

And running!

Another cute birthday boy shot!

Natalie was pulling all of the little bean bags out of the net and attempting to hold them all.

We managed to get a picture of the two of us with our broods!  Two four year olds, two two year olds, and two five month olds!  (and two twenty-eight year olds.)  :)

The kids got to each take home a ball from the party.  Natalie promptly put them into time out when we got home.

I love my girls…

Bread and Butter

The girls and I were getting very tired of looking at each other by Friday, so I decided we should make some butter!  Matt had just brought home two gallons of fresh milk the evening before, so I skimmed some cream off the top.  I needed some for a recipe later, but I threw a little into a baby food jar.

I’m glad I decided to start with a  very small amount – it would have taken us FOREVER to do a larger batch, I think.

The girls helped me shake the jar.

You can see the motion in this one!

After probably a hour of shaking, we have butter!

I poured off the liquid and stuck it in the fridge to harden a bit.

Then of course I ate some on a couple slices of bread that were conveniently just out of the oven!

I took a picture of this piece of bread because it’s actually “bread” shaped!  Most of our loaves aren’t quite so perfect.

I’m loving our whole wheat bread made from actual wheat berries these days.  Yum yum yum!

I guess it’s really all about fashion.

The girls got several pair of Hello Kitty socks from their Nana and Popo recently, and they love wearing them around the house.  They’re super easy to slide on, and they make such a fashion statement!

The reason I took this picture, though, is because of what Natalie’s got under her arm.  You can tell we’ve been taking temps a lot this week!

Natalie is always putting on her dress shoes.  They’re just about to be put away in the too small bin though.  She’ll have to find a new favorite pair of shoes to wear around the house. 

A pretty standard Natalie outfit: shirt, diaper, shoes, and some kind of hair accessory.  And no outfit is complete without a broom.

I put the kiddos in their Astros shirts on Friday, partially because it made for easy dressing, and partially because I really wanted a matchy pic.

I LOVE James’ smiling face here!!

Joanna’s shirt is pretty big on her, but she really wanted a black one (like her Daddy), so I let her get the XS, vs. the 4T.  I waffled between a 2T and 3T for Miss Natalie, but it turns out they weren’t very different.  James’ is a 12 mos, but I can hardly believe that!

I love their little bare feet with jeans!!

Sibling pile!