A Rite of Passage

A quick story before bedtime...

After spending a remarkably productive morning cleaning up and organizing the family room while Jane was sleeping in the swing, I should have realized that the girls were being a LITTLE too quiet down in the basement. So, I shouldn't have been all that shocked when Grace traipsed up the stairs at approximately 10:45 this morning, informing me that Sophie had cut her hair. Sophie has been obsessed with cutting things lately and no matter how many times I've taken scissors away and put them out of reach for her, she somehow keeps finding more, so really its only been a matter of time before something like this happens. Nevertheless, I stormed down the stairs to fuss at the little rat and there she was sitting on the couch with a chunk of hair cut off the side, said hair strewn all around her, and a pair of child's safety scissors beside her as she sat unperturbed watching "A Bug's Life." I yelled at her to get upstairs to her room for a time out, and then as she followed me up the stairs the truth came out.

"Gracie cut my hair, mommy!" she said. I turned to Grace in a fury and asked if she was telling me the truth or a lie when she said that Sophie was the one who cut her hair. "The truth?" she said with wide-eyed innocence, followed a few minutes later with a "Sorry, mom!" spoken with noticeable fear and trembling. Aaaahhhh! I was more upset with her for lying (a recurring theme with her) than I was for the hair-cutting -- although I was plenty mad about that as well. I sent her up to her room and let her stew there for a good 20 minutes while I got Sophie a snack and fed the baby. When I finally went up to talk to her I asked her why she lied to me and she started to cry and told me it was because she was scared. I decided to use this as a teaching opportunity and tried to explain to her that the reason she was feeling that way was because the Holy Ghost was letting her know that she had made a bad choice by cutting Sophie's hair. Apparently this was the wrong tactic to take, because Grace made a hairpin turn from sorry and contrite to kicking and screaming that the Holy Ghost didn't tell her anything because she did NOT hear anyone talking to her! No amount of explaining could snap her out of the new mood, and it was only exacerbated when I told her that her consequence for cutting the hair and then lying about it was that she can't get the Kit Kitteredge (American Girl Doll) for her birthday. She was NOT a happy camper.





Seriously, how homeless does she look? The irony is that this was about the same age Grace was when Ethan chopped off HER hair. Oh well. Sophie is pretty vain about her "pretty hair" so perhaps this will help to temper that a bit. And while there isn't a single haircut that can camouflage this mess, Scott came up with the fabulous idea of simply switching the part in her hair -- and it works like a charm. Her cowlick is pretty intense, though, so it might take some coaxing to get her hair to stay on the other side.





In other cutting-related news, ALL of the children are now banned from scissor usage due to another casualty from this week -- Ethan's shoe. I don't know what he was even thinking (and to be honest I don't think he even knows), but he came downstairs from bed a few nights ago with one of his Crocs in his hand with the back strap cut in half. I just don't understand the destructive tendencies at work here! Thanks to this lapse of judgment, Ethan's consequence is that he is basically my slave for the next little bit. I told him he owes me the 30 bucks those shoes cost to buy, and he has to earn the money to pay for it. So far he's earned only $2.75, so this could take a while.





Random side-note. The above picture has proven to be a lifesaver in the morning. In order to squeeze in as much sleep as possible, I've taken to setting out the breakfast spread at night before I go to bed for the kids. And then -- so they don't have to deal with pouring from the heavy gallon -- I put cups of milk in the fridge for Ethan and Grace to pour over their cereal if that's what they choose to eat. I do have to say, though, that I think we might single-handedly be keeping Kellogg's Pop Tarts in business. Specifically the Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop Tarts. Because they're dairy-free, even Sophie can eat them and let's just say they've become the breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack of choice these days.


Other than the scissor trauma, things have been pretty uneventful around here lately. Unless you count the fact that poor little Jane has been sick for the last week with a low fever and stuffed up nose. And the development that Grace and Sophie have taken to fighting with each other like cats and dogs -- not to mention the fact that Sophie has WAY too much attitude for a 2-year-old. Oh, and let's not forget that Ethan has some MAJOR frustration issues and anger management problems -- he seriously goes from 0 to 10 in a split second when he's aggravated. So, yeah. Nothing too exciting going on here! However, I am surviving. That was my only goal for 2009, so overall life is still good -- busy, sometimes stressful, occasionally frustrating, and almost always exhausting -- but still good.

Well, folks that's the latest. Jane is one month old today, and the time has literally FLOWN by. At this rate it will be Christmas before you know it!

Cute little Janie Boo looking beatific at bedtime.

Thank you and goodnight!

Life is Good?

(Expressed hesitantly, with deep fear that I will jinx things and this week will take a turn for the horrible...)


Week one back in the REAL world was a success! The girls got back a week ago, and boy did they have a blast with Sarah and Eleanor (and Andrew, too, I'm sure). Grace didn't even want to come home, evidenced by a phone call home asking if they could stay longer than one week. However, that was not going to be a possibility seeing as to how Grace's first day of Preschool was this week, she and Ethan had a dentist appointment on Monday, and we just plain missed those crazy girlie bugs.

Apparently, Grace and Sophie got hooked on Mary Poppins while they were at Sarah's, and here are my favorite pictures of the creativity that flowed from that:

"Grace Poppins" modeling her movie-inspired hat.

Working the camera. I think this is her Blue Steel look.

Alright, now for a quick run-down on our busy week. Grace started Preschool on Monday, and of course, I was not prepared for that. So, after getting Ethan dropped off at the bus stop, I loaded the 3 girls up and off we went to Target to get school supplies, a backpack, and some "playground shoes" (Crocs are not allowed) followed by a mad dash home to feed the baby, get Grace and Sophie their lunch, and then run Grace over to her school.

She was SUPER excited to go, and even more excited to wear her new school outfit with the dogs on it. The dog on the sweater vest was the cause of a major melt-down, however, when Grace put on her name tag and saw that it was covering up "Lulu." Eventually she calmed down and reassured me that she would be good and listen to her teacher.

Notice the way she's trying to showcase the dog on her vest?

So, as I was taking one last picture of Grace in front of her school, another parent was walking by and offered to take a picture with me in it. My first thought was of how nice that was, and of course I would love to be in the picture with her. It wasn't until I was actually in front of the camera that I remembered what I looked like that day. Oh well. Showering, wearing contacts, and getting dressed for the day are overrated anyway.

Ethan and Grace had their dental check-ups after school and fortunately for me Scott was able to come home a little early from work so that I wouldn't have to take all 4 kids with me. As for the check-up itself, in what has become a recurring theme in our family, Ethan got a clean bill of health, and Grace has 3 new cavities to be filled.

Grace and Sophie finalized their Halloween costume decisions on Wednesday -- Grace wants to be Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, and Sophie wants a ball dress like Felicity's (you know, as in Felicity from the American Girl Doll Collection, of course). The patterns have been purchased along with the material for Grace's costume, and I'm sure they'd love for me to get right to work on them, but I don't think that's gonna happen just yet.

Thursday Scott went out of town for a quick (and I mean QUICK) recruiting trip to BYU. He arrived in SLC at 1:30Pm and left the next morning on the 8:30 flight. While he was there he spent the night at Freddie's, which prompted major water works from Grace who says she wants us to move back to Provo because she just misses Uncle Dodo too much. And while there's no way we'll be able to oblige her in that request, I do have to say that at this time of year especially, I have to sympathize with her in missing Provo.

Friday was the Fall Festival at Ethan's school. Scott opted out of going and so graciously volunteered to stay home with Jane while I took the 3 clowns to the festivities. We stayed for a little over an hour -- 35 minutes of which were spent waiting in line to jump in a Space Walk (or Bounce House or Jumping Castle or whatever you may call it) for a mere 3 minutes because Grace REALLY, REALLY wanted to jump. Fun. Fortunately, the line for the obstacle course was not nearly as long and Ethan was able to get that out of his system once we were done jumping, and Sophie found happiness with a parachute. After a quick romp on the playground we were done and on our way home for bed.

"Look, mom, I'm a monkey!" she kept saying.

Saturday was the icing on the cake for the kids. Ethan has been waiting a whole year for this weekend -- P&G Dividend Day at King's Island. Scott took Ethan, Grace -- and this year, Sophie -- to the amusement park and they spent the day in paradise. Paradise for the kids that is. I don't think it was quite as fun for Scott, but that's what makes him such a great dad, right? Not surprisingly, Sophie was not tall enough for most of the rides, so perhaps it wasn't quite as fun for her either.











Also happening this week was Jane's very first real bath! She LOVED it and didn't cry at all which was very surprising to me. I think all the other kids screamed the whole entire time during their first bath.

I was trying to get a close up of how curly her hair gets when its wet.

She is now 3 weeks old, and according to our home scale is weighing in at a hefty 9 1/2 pounds. As for eating, sleeping, fussing, etc. I would say she is a typical newborn. She's a good eater -- although, I did discover that she has a "bubble palate" after going to a lactation consultant during her second week of life. I had never heard of this before but it's essentially a bubble-like arch in the hard palate of the mouth. Basically, it contributes to painful nursing. Fortunately for me the painful part has started to subside now that the baby is getting bigger and more efficient at nursing. And while Jane is the first of my babies that I've heard this "diagnosis" with, I'd be willing to bet money that all my children have bubble palates based on the initial nursing issues I had with each of them!

As for sleeping -- she spends most of her day naps in the swing or carseat, but she has started to sleep better in her bassinet at night. She still wakes up 2 or 3 times to eat during the night, but I can count on her falling right back asleep for at least the first feeding and sometimes the second as well. So really, I can't complain. Fortunately she's not a super fussy baby and, all in all, things are good!

Jane makes really funny faces, and Scott was able to snap a picture of this one.

And just because I think she's so cute.

The transition to four kids has not been nearly as painful as I was expecting it to be. Then again, when you expect the worst, it's easy to be pleasantly surprised when things are not as bad as you feared. With Ethan in school, there are only 3 kids at home to take care of -- a number which I'm used to anyway -- and once Grace is at preschool and Sophie is taking a nap, I'm down to just one child that needs my attention and help. And then when Jane sleeps while Sophie is taking a nap and I get to take a nap, too -- well, that's just a little lagniappe for me.

So there you go. My first week with 4 kids in a nutshell. Life is good. Hopefully this week will not make me have to eat my words.

And now as promised -- here are comparison pictures of all 4 kids:

Here is a shot of all 4 of their hospital pictures.

I couldn't decide which baby pictures to use, so I picked three from each of them to showcase their hair and skin color to compare to Jane's. Since Ethan and Grace were both born in the pre-digital camera age, I had to take pictures of their pictures which I figured was easier and less time-consuming than scanning them would be. Here we go...

Ethan

(Thankfully Amy has always been willing to help me with my babies.)








Grace









Sophie

And there you have it. Jane is certainly the darkest of them all prompting Ethan to ask me on several occasions why her skin is brown. I, however, have no answer for that one.

If you are still reading this, you win a prize. Hahaha. Happy early birthday, Freddie! Grace really misses you.

The End.

Jane, Jane, and more Jane

It's been a little over a week now, and I don't want to jinx anything, but so far Jane is a jewel. She's already a much better sleeper and eater than Sophie EVER was, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that things will not make a change for the worse!

To finish off the birth story, I ended up staying in the hospital for a mere 24 hours, and to be honest I've never felt more rushed out of a place than I did there. When the doctor asked if I wanted to check out the next morning, it took only about a minute for me to decide that going home would be a much better option than having to thrust our 3 children on someone else for another night, or the alternative of spending another night at the hospital by myself without Scott there to help me.

Since we've been home, the kids have been adjusting fairly well to the new baby. I should clarify here that while they are all fine with the baby, they are not exactly fine with each other. The fighting and fussing between them has escalated quite a bit over the course of this week, but hopefully things will smooth out here in a bit. Thankfully none of them have exhibited any jealousy or sibling rivalry with our new addition, so I should definitely just count my blessings!

Here's how things have played out with Jane: Ethan loves the baby, but is a bit too rough with her -- not to mention that he doesn't quite get the concept that he shouldn't try to talk to and play with Jane when she is SLEEPING. Grace has actually been the most consistently interested in helping me take care of her, and lets me know on an almost hourly basis that she has washed her hands with soap and water and used the hand sanitizer so can she please touch the baby now? She actually has quite the magic touch with Jane, and we've taken to calling her the Baby Whisperer because almost every time she holds the baby, Jane quiets right down and becomes very "calm" (Grace's word, not mine). As for Sophie, she really adores Jane but her form of adoration comes in the form of mostly ignoring her and doing her own thing -- which to be honest is probably more helpful to me than if she were constantly hovering over her.

The Baby Whisperer

Unfortunately the honeymoon phase is coming to an end. Scott was lucky enough to be able to take off all of last week from work and all I have to say is that it's too bad he's nowhere near retirement age, because I could definitely get used to having him home every day. However, tomorrow is back to reality -- although, it's not quite the REAL reality just yet. Thankfully, my sister has so graciously taken the girlie bugs off my hands for the week thus easing my transition into the world of caring for all my children on my own during the day. The girls were ecstatic to go, but I'm curious to see if they last a whole week. Especially since Ethan was already missing them by bedtime on the first night they were gone. He was literally crying and saying he wanted Sophie to come home the next day and although he didn't mention wanting Grace to come home, too, I'm pretty sure the sentiment was implied. He seemed a little better after calling the girls to say goodnight, so hopefully we'll all survive the week!

Ready for an adventure.

And now to end this epistle, here are some more pictures of Jane from her first week of life. I have to say it is so nice to be able to ENJOY the newborn phase this time around! Sophie's newborn phase was merely ENDURED, so this has been a nice change of pace...

This is Jane's sleeping pose -- she does not like having her arms swaddled down -- that one little fist always makes its way under her chin in a "Thinker" pose.

She really seems to like the swing, and here's a picture on the second day home where Sophie and Grace gave her some "comfort" items which hold special places in their little hearts. Sophie gave her a pacifier -- which she WON'T take at all, and Grace gave her a junk -- which of course she's too little to play with. But it's the thought that counts, right?

One of my favorite pictures of her -- she just looks so peaceful.



Her first official photo shoot for mom...






Cute little monkey face.

And here's the most recent picture of Jane awake. Consequently, are blocked tear ducts common with ALL babies? Or just MY babies. Ethan, Grace, and Sophie each had the same goopy-eyed problem that Jane is now sporting.

Well, that's all folks. Hope the pictures satisfy my family members. Jane is waking up now, so I guess it's time for her to eat! Until next time...