she found her thumb!

For the last several days Elisabeth has been sucking her thumb. At first I thought it was so cute, and maybe just a fluke. Now it seems that she is doing it fairly consistently and she's getting better at it too. Then I started worrying about it. Because that's what I'm good at. Worrying. OH NO! What if she keeps sucking her thumb F-O-R-E-V-E-R???!!!

And now I just feel like I don't care. Maybe I'll regret not caring one day, but right now I just don't care if she sucks her thumb. Especially if it helps her sleep better. 

There are probably bigger concerns...probably...right?

 Sunday night I was shocked to find that she slept eight hours straight! Her nighttime sleep has steadily been getting better, but I couldn't believe she did that. I was kind of excited. I got 7 hours of sleep that night. And I was in a really good mood on Sunday. She even behaved really well at church too.

Last night she slept from 10pm to 2am. Woke up to eat once and went back to sleep for another five hours.

She's been taking some better naps during the day too.

Hopefully this is "normal" and not because something is wrong. (yes I know, I can hear my Dad saying how neurotic I am right now)

Such a sweet, sweet girl. I am loving all the smiles she's giving us and she is starting to make lots more baby talk too, which I just love!

babies

My friends Arah Erikson and Julie Eggleston took these pictures when were were in Spokane in August.

 Elisabeth was 2 months old

My favorite-holding my sleeping baby

 I am convinced that babies are the best things on earth. I love them! Mostly my own, of course. But even as I look around at all my friends who have just had babies too, I feel the same. They are all so sweet, and so precious and beautiful.

this face sums up the first 3 months of Elisabeth's life

Hi-yah!

Love this little rolly-polly girl! 

Miss Katelyn

Miss Katelyn is 7 years old and is in 2nd grade this year. I worried about her starting 2nd grade this year because last year was such a huge struggle. For the entire family. I worried and fretted the entire year about her academics and about her being behind the other kids and wondered if we should hold her back. We talked about it some, but for me it just never felt like the right thing to do.

We made her work hard over the summer so she could keep some of her skills up to speed. She didn't lose anywhere near as much as she did from K to 1st grade.

The first couple weeks this year got off to a rough start when it came time for homework. She started throwing her usual fits and was being rude and disrespectful, to be honest. I just DID NOT want to go through another year of the same thing.

After a huge meltdown one day I grounded her from playing with her friends for the rest of the week. I second guessed myself about the length of time, but knew that I had to follow through with it. Every time she started to act up I reminded her that if she wanted to throw a fit and be disrespectful that we would add another day on.  She really got her act together that week and has been doing so much better since then.

I also think that nature has a way of intervening. This year we have a baby at home and that doesn't allow for me to sit right next to Katelyn's side as she is doing her homework and reading. I decided to let Katelyn do her reading minutes out loud by herself (where I could hear her) and told her that if there was a word she needed help with, to ask me. At first we were still struggling and she was fighting, but now she is doing great. I also learned that she felt like I would get mad at her if she made a mistake or read a word wrong. Although I never felt that was true, my frustration with her attitude (last year) probably came across that way to her. Now that I have been forced by life to not hover over her shoulder each day, I think she is relaxing more and not as stressed out with the reading and I can already see that she has progressed.

I feel bad for first children. She is pretty much our guinea pig. We have never done parenting before and we get to learn a lot of things, sometimes at her expense. Hopefully we will get better at it.

On a lighter note, Katelyn was able to start art classes this year. She goes to Blodgett School of Art taught by Ginger Blodgett and is loving it so far. Katelyn loves to color and draw and create, so I really wanted her to be able to do this. She was excited when she found out her classmate Abigail Wang is in her art class too. I have stayed in the class a couple of times and it made me happy to see that Katelyn was raising her hand to answer questions and actively participating in the class.

The other day someone was asking about my kids and I said that I had a 7 year old. It was one of those times where it's almost like you realize it for the first time. I have a SEVEN YEAR OLD!!! WOW! Where has the time gone?!? Sometimes I am a little sad to see how fast they grow up, but most of the time I enjoy watching them as they experience life and have new experiences.

Oh yeah, Katelyn told me (well, I inquired) that she has a crush on the new neighbor boy down the street. But shhhh, don't tell her I told you! I asked her what she liked about him, and after giving it some thought, she said, "I like his hair." HAHAHAHAHAHA! Well, he does have good hair :) She also said that she likes his green and black shoes. I asked her if she liked his personality. She wasn't sure what that meant, so I talked to her about it. After a while she said she wasn't really sure about his personality. So funny.

The back story to why I asked Katelyn if she had a crush on anyone, is because the other day we went out for a walk and Justin said he saw Katelyn give this little, coy smile to the neighbor boy. You know, like a special smile.

Miss Alaina

Miss Alaina is now 4 years old. Today she went to dance class for the very first time. She is in a class called "Tiny Toes" taught by Heather Herbert. We missed the first two classes because I was late getting my act together, but we were excited to see that she knew two of the girls in her class (Eliza and Talia Moody). The little girls are so adorable in their leotards and tutus.

Since Alaina has a late birthday she has two more years before she goes to Kindergarten. Since budgets can get tight, we aren't going to pay for two years of preschool. So I am glad she has something special of her own to do this year. Next year she will go to official pre school and I know she will do great.

I work with her at home on her letter recognition and writing her name. She is pretty good at her name too! We also learn shapes and counting and whatever else we can think of.

Alaina still makes us laugh all the time. She has the best facial expressions and uses words that sometimes seem too big for a four year old vocabulary. 

Alaina is a junk food JUNKIE! Oh man, this girl asks for junk food all day long. It's gotten to the point where I almost feel like we can't have any treats in the house at all. We don't even really have a ton of junk on hand all the time either. On the flip side, she LOVES her veggies too. Especially cooked carrots and broccoli. She's also our meat eater.

Alaina seems to have a bright mind and she picks up on things fairly easily. She is quite determined and if she wants something, she will go for it.

She tags along with Katelyn pretty much everywhere. Luckily for her, Katelyn hasn't minded sharing her friends too much. I sometimes wonder if that will change as they get older.

She is very affectionate. She loves to give her baby sister kisses all the time. She also likes to give Katelyn hugs and kisses before she leaves for school. She likes to come in and "snuggle" with me if I am taking a nap in the afternoon. The only problem with that is that she ends up falling asleep too and if it is late in the afternoon and she takes a nap, it is really difficult to get her back into bed for the night at a decent hour.

Alaina doesn't really like walking too much. Even when we go to the school to pick up Katelyn, which is only a few blocks away, she whines and asks to be carried. Or she wants to ride in the stroller.

She also loves to sing and make up her own songs. She dances to them as well.

We love Alaina and are so glad she is part of our family.

Alaina turns 4

 Alaina turned 4 on September 2nd. She had a couple of friends over and some cousins and we celebrated by playing outside, jumping in the bouncy house that Grandpa Meador gave us and by eating cake and ice cream, of course!

 Our neighbor Kyle. The child entertainer.

 Alaina, Angel, Gloria. Blowin' bubbles.

Alaina randomly decided that she wanted a mermaid cake. 

A friend from church made this for her and she LOVED it!

 Present time!

CAKE!!!

Her first white dress

Elisabeth was blessed in our church on September 1st 2013. Her dress was made by Sharon Carpenter
who I met when we lived in Newport, WA. She did such a beautiful job on the dress.

The pictures were taken by my friend Sarah Ritchie.

My friend Angela sent the bracelet and it matched beautifully with the bow on the dress (I had the hardest time getting that bow tied and looking halfway decent).

My sister in law Michelle made the flower on Elisabeth's headband.

This is the only blessing gown I have purchased. With Katelyn and Alaina I had borrowed dresses. This time I really wanted my own and I'm glad that we have at least one that I can pass on to my girls as a keepsake or if they want to use it for their own daughters...someday.

Thank you to all these wonderful, talented ladies who captured the beauty of her special day :)

Justin blessed her: with a desire to grow in the gospel; to help her family to live worthy of the temple blessings and to be an eternal family; to be a help to others; to show compassion and bring joy to those around her, to her family and friends; to have the diligence to do what is necessary to be worthy of a temple marriage and for all the other blessings Heavenly Father sees fit to give her.

Those who helped bless her: Grandpa Peterson, Grandpa Meador, Bishop Mike Stoker, friend Clay Reid, and friend Jeff Wiberg

I was thrilled that she didn't scream bloody murder through it!!!

Elisabeth at 3 months

9/11/2013

 She enjoys bath time for the most part

9/11/2013

Today marks exactly three months since this beautiful girl joined our family. I know this blog is horribly out of sequence, but I just have to get stuff down as fast as I can these days and let go of some perfectionism.

Oh this sweet little child of mine....big sigh...

I adore her, (yes here comes the "BUT") but she is truly my hardest baby yet. She just cries and cries all the time. The crying spells don't last as long any more, but they are still quite frequent. It is very, very frustrating and I am sincerely hopeful that it is due to some sort of physical discomfort and NOT a sign of what is to become of her personality. (please, please,please!!!)

As frustrating and exhausting as it is, I just love her to pieces and am so thankful we have her.

Breastfeeding is still a big, fat challenge which I am also very frustrated with. More so on days that are just harder in general. Like today.

On Monday we went down to Portland and saw and ENT doc down there who did a frenectomy and frenotomy (used the laser to release her tongue and upper lip tie). Although we had her lip done before, it had reattached some. Theses lip and tongue ties really affect a babies ability to breastfeed properly. They have a poor, shallow latch, don't drain the breast properly which can lead to clogged ducts or mastitis, and for me the main problem is PAIN! Nipple vasospasms, breast pain, etc. It just hurts. A lot!

I only wish we had seen this problem, oh, I don't know, like 12 weeks ago! Now she has established her bad sucking habits and we will work with a lactation specialist to see if we can reverse it.

I'm pretty burnt out with it to be honest. I am thankful for what I have been able to do and I'm thankful for what breastmilk she does get from me. I am just ready for it to stop hurting. My long term breastfeeding goals have now become very short term goals. One day at a time.

With all the crying she does, it is such a pleasure to get some sweet smiles out of her. She is getting stronger and better at holding her head up. She has found her hands and plays with them a lot. She is starting to make cute baby sounds, lots of eye contact. At her appointment on Monday she was 11.8 lbs and she is 21" long right now. She is beautiful.

Visit from the Great Aunts

Last week we had a special treat when my mom came to visit with her sisters who are all from back east and who we hardly ever, ever get to see.

My mom is sitting in the middle on the chair holding Elisabeth, Katelyn on the left and goofy Alaina on the right.

In back in the middle is my mom's older (and only) sister, Bev. On her left is Dotty, who technically isn't an Aunt by blood or marriage, but who has been Aunt Dotty forever and ever. On the right is Aunt Linda, who is married to my mom's brother Dean, who recently passed away.

These cute ladies came to Spokane to stay and visit with my mom and Dale (step-dad) and they took some time to make a trip to the Tri Cities to see us. It was really cool to see them after all these years. The last time I saw them, I was 19 or 20..ish. And before that I hadn't seen them since I was in grade school. Really, it was a rare treat.

They all came in the house and all three of them greeted me with a hug AND a kiss on the cheek. We had lunch together, visited, and took a walk down to the school to pick Katelyn up when she got out.

Alaina enjoyed meeting her Great Aunts and here she is snuggling with Aunt Dotty. 

Alaina said she had fun with her :) 

Aunt Dotty brought one of her crocheted blankets for Elisabeth. I thought it was 

really sweet, especially because her hands are very arthritic, so I'm sure it isn't 

easy for her to crotchet any more.

My mom feeding Elisabeth

 Aunt Bev holding a cranky Elisabeth

Mom, Aunt Linda, Aunt Bev

Alaina

(Aunt Dotty stayed back at the house and napped, lucky girl!)

swim 2013

The girls really enjoyed taking swim lessons this summer from Jenna Perry. Jenna was great with the kids and a really good teacher. I loved the time they got with her because of the small class size. Katelyn only had one other student in her session and Alaina was so little that she got a 15 minute private lesson. Because we had a baby and this summer was kind of crazy, the girls only got to do it for one month. Hopefully next year they can do it all summer long and really make some progress!