Mass Hysteria

Last week Sunday mass went very well.  The kids were slightly less squirrelly than usual and I actually heard the homily.

I should have known that couldn't last.

This week was an adventure.

It began as we started to get out of the car in the parking lot.  It was a cold, rainy Sunday and none of my kids brought coats.

So we got inside, only a little damp, and got seated.  Mass began and Molly decided it was time to fill her diaper.  Loudly.  So I made my first trip back to the bathroom, luggage in tow, and changed the baby who had miraculously not soiled her beautiful outfit. (Yet.)  Back up the aisle, seated again, I fought with Lily who was in rare form (in a bad way) and was making me wonder exactly how to discipline her in a very quiet way in mass.  I seemed to alternate telling her to GET DOWN (from climbing the pew in front of us) with GET UP HERE (as she tried to slink away under the pew to get behind us) throughout the whole mass.

Then at one point she decided mass was over and just LEFT and started to walk out.  I chased her down and brought her back.

Soon after, during the consecration, Tessa turned to Lily and said, "That is Jesus's blood."  Lily said, "JESUS'S BUTT? That's not Jesus's butt!  It's Jesus's BLOOD!"

While all of this was going on Molly was nursing on and off and crabbing about life in general and sucking her fingers.  Which is all par for the course UNTIL she gagged herself with her two fingers and threw up all over me.  And I mean ALL over.  There were puddles on the pew and on the floor and - and this is the grossest part - in my bra, and it just kept coming.  I was soaked.  SOAKED, I tell you.  Thankfully I had two blankets with me, one cotton afghan and one receiving blanket.  So I wiped up everything I could with the afghan and covered myself up with the receiving blanket and back we went to the bathroom.  Just for reference, we sit in the front, the bathroom is in the back.  So I make my way, luggage, baby, puke, and all, back to the bathroom.

I changed Molly and wiped myself off as well as I could and got back to mass, which was thankfully only a moment or two from being over.  I zipped up my jacket over my wet shirt, because we were not going home, we had a breakfast over in the hall to attend, and I was not going to miss it just because I smelled like sour milk.

And breakfast was lovely anyway.

Random thoughts on a Wednesday

1. Apparently what Molly needed for a happy commute this morning was bare feet and a full tummy. After starting the ride at full tilt screaming, she calmed down somewhat after Ben removed her socks and was fully content after we parked and I nursed her.

2. Overheard in the car:
Lily: Is "stupendous" appope-wee-it?

3. Overheard in the car the other day:
Max: Mom, can we have ice cream when we get home?
Me: Maybe...
Lily: She said yes!

A Sad Day

I have been enjoying Lily's misuse of pronouns lately. There are few things so cute as their exploration of language and playing with the proper words. Mostly she has just been replacing the word "I" with "my" with adorable results.

For example, when I told her yesterday that I was taking her to Nana's house, she replied, "My love Nana! Oh yes, my do!"

Another one that has been common for her is that when she wants to show something to me she will grab my hand and lead me to it saying "Show me, show me, show me..." all the way there.

But today she brought me a book and said, "See the spiders? Let me show you!"

One more stage of babyhood left behind.

Aquaphor

When I started figuring out that the skin rash that Lily fights all the dang time is probably eczema, I got lots of suggestions here for aquaphor. But I resisted. I was trying really hard to avoid petroleum based products and just generally had good and healthy intentions.

Her skin has gotten particularly bad over the last few days and last night was really bugging her. So I put her on the bed and slimed her up with her usual stuff (Burts Bees Body Butter) which had been miraculous when we first used it. Suddenly she was WRITHING all over the place, grabbing at her skin saying OWIE OWIE OWIE. Yikes - right into the shower she went and we washed (just water and a soft cloth) all of that off her body. We're done with that one! Gee, I wish I hadn't JUST BOUGHT that container YESTERDAY! Anyway, I had a tiny sample of aquaphor laying out so I slathered her up while she was still wet. This morning she woke up and her skin, while not clear, was at least 75% better than last night.

Me!!!

It's been a while.

Here is a cute story to tide you over for now.

We often ask everyone around the house things like, "Who wants popcorn?" or "Who wants to go outside?" of course everyone in earshot will raise their hand and say, "Me!" So when Lily asks to nurse ("Nuh, nuh, nuh) I will ask her, "Who wants to nurse?" and she will raise her hand and say "Me!"

Well lately she has dropped the "nuh" part of it and just starts out by raising her hand and saying "Me!"

It has gotten so ingrained that last night she did it in her sleep! She was in the middle of our bed and I had my back to her. I heard her saying, "me, me, me" so I turned over and she was raising her hand and saying it but was still mostly asleep. As I pulled her in to nurse her she gave a little happy giggle.

Some weeks are like that.

Sometimes it is a doozy of a day that can get you, sometimes it is a whole week. I have been extra busy mostly because of a week I had last week - it started of with a bang. Tessa came home from school with a fever the bloomed into full blown croup, and by the end of the day Max had it too.

On Wednesday the littles were still sick, nothing new there. But then James was hit by a car on his way to school! Talk about a heart stopping phone call. Thankfully, he was the one who called me - laying in the street, waiting for the paramedics, he called me. So I knew he couldn't have been too hurt. Still, I rushed over there and saw my poor baby in a lot of pain, being loaded into an ambulance. After a short stay in the ER, we discovered that he is very bruised and has a hairline fracture in a lumbar vertebra. There isn't a whole lot they could do for that, just tell him to get lots of rest and not jar his spine around.

Thursday began bright and beautiful with a visit from the vomit fairy. Three kids down with that one. It was a short virus though - only about ten hours. But still... little people who cannot understand that we puke in the toilet or a bowl can make a HECK of a mess.

It was interesting to discover that Max had some kind of vomit sensor for Lily. He would say, "Mom, Lily is going to throw up!" and 30 seconds later, I kid you not, Lily would fountain up her stomach contents. By the end of the day I learned to listen to him when he said that.

While it sounded like a horrible week, it was an easy week to focus on the good and to be thankful. James accident could have been so much worse in so many different ways. But he is fine (if sore) and the kids are all well again.

Lily is ONE!

A slightly belated one year update for Little Lil.
Like I mentioned in my last post, things have been a bit on the busy side, so Lily got her one year check up with the pediatrician at 13.5 months. Oh well, close enough to call it good.
Her official stats:
Height: 28.5 in (15%)
Weight: 19.1 lbs (10%)
Head: 18.25 in (75%)
So now we know why she is always falling on her noggin! She is top heavy!

Lily is fantastically smart. (But I am sure all parents think that!) She knows lots of signs and even more words. She loves to run and - even better - climb. She is upwardly mobile in the worst way. She is absolutely driven to scale anything that is near her and is even remotely climbable. She also likes very much to empty things, which you would think might be a help in getting the house unpacked, but it really isn't. It really, really isn't! Any time I walk out of the room for even a moment to do something frivolous like change the laundry she immediately commences one of her search-and-destroy missions. She has great talent with toilet paper and can get it to reach nearly across the house without breaking.

At this pediatrician visit we discovered that she has genuine doctor anxiety. She started freaking out the very moment we walked into the exam room. Poor baby. We postponed any shots just to keep this visit light and easy for her.

She is still nursing at least a hundred times a day and still happy to spend most of her time in my arms when she is not climbing. She loves being outside and she loves all of her big brothers and sisters, but she especially loves James.

Baby Laughter

We were waiting for our food this evening in a fast food place. It was just me, Lily and Posy out at the mall (buying glasses). I was playing with Lily, eliciting a string of giggles from her. Everyone around us was just transfixed by the sound of baby laughter.

And I realized that there are so many people who don't get to hear baby or young child laughter every day of their lives.

I thought about how empty my life will feel when that sound is not something that I hear every single day. Thank God I can hear it today and many years to come. I hope that when I have grandchildren they are nearby so that I can hear their laughter as well. You just can't be sad when a little one is laughing.

Baby Sign Cuteness

Lily has really caught on to using baby signs and several words in the last week. She regularly signs more, eat, drink, all-done, bye/hello, book... there may be a couple more but I can't think of them right now.

This afternoon I was putting her down for her nap and she didn't want to nurse because she knew that would make her sleepy. So I turned her around and just held her on my lap and she starts signing "All Done" over and over while trying to slide off my lap.

Current words she is using are mama, dada, cat, dog (says is and signs it at the same time), cheese (chs), shoes (shs), brother (bubba) Tessa (Tuh) and probably a few more that I can't think of. She tries to say a lot of things but doesn't use all of them regularly.

Baby Steps

Toddlerhood, here we come!

The Next Step

Today Lily took four slow, well contemplated steps. (And then would not repeat the trick.)

Running is not far off!

She is 9 months and 1 week old.

Waiting for a Sign

Lily can say a few words now. She says mama, dada, ball, car, cat and probably a few that we haven't decoded yet. But at this stage of the game what I am really waiting for is for her to start signing. That is when language just takes off - at least it has for the last two kids.

She seems to be doing some "sign language babble" and moves her hands in specific ways that mean something. But just like verbal baby babble, it seems that one motion can mean several things and basically what she is saying (signing) is "I'm trying to tell you something."

For now though, we have a little foreign language speaker and we wait each day for her to start speaking our language. Someday soon it will happen, but right now we are in the communication waiting room, waiting for that moment when her face lights up and she knows we can understand what she is saying to us.

Our EC Journey

Now that my graduation post is finally written, I will swing back to the other end of the spectrum and discuss baby stuff.

I have read about EC (Elimination Communication) for some time now, but never thought is sounded realistic. But things changed last week.

Since we are hoping for some kind of potty training miracle to fall from the sky and hit Max, was have potty chairs littered around our home right now in hopes of never missing an opportunity. Last Monday, I think it was, when Lily woke up first thing in the morning, I was changing her diaper on the floor. Right next to me was a little potty chair, so I figured, why not put her on it, she very often poops within the first few moments of waking up in the morning, maybe I can get away with not having to change one poopy diaper.

Well she didn't poop in it, but she did pee in it right away. Over the next several days, I put her on the potty each time she woke in the morning or after a nap and sure enough she peed every time!

I have also caught at least the first half of her morning poops most morning since then. The second half is trickier since it happens about a half hour later.

Yesterday and today she has started something new, sometimes when I try to put a diaper on her she thrashes around and pulls at it while I am changing her. If I put her on the potty then, she will pee right away and then she is fine having her diaper put on. A couple of times now I have been nursing her to sleep only to have her wake up and start thrashing and crying, fighting me like crazy, so I put her on the potty, she peed and then was perfectly willing to go to sleep.

My mind is so boggled by all this.

In the mean time Max is making a real effort to go in the potty. Since there is obviously no pressure on Lily to actually go in a potty, it has been easier for me to let go of some of the pressure I have been putting on Max as well. He has been spending part of each day in big-boy- pants and has had reasonable success in those. When things get really busy though, he is still in a diaper. There is a coveted yo-yo ball waiting for him atop the fridge for his first poop on the potty.

And just so you don't think I am certifiable, my goal with Lily is not to get her into panties before a year. I figure it is a few less diapers to wash and will keep her in touch with her body's signals of when she needs to eliminate. That is what this is all about. Most days we have caught 2-8 pees and 1-2 poops. she still goes in her diaper, and I would not expect her to hold it until I got her to a bathroom. But it is much easier to keep her dry and happy this way. It really hasn't taken any extra time, either. I have to change her diaper anyway...

After checking out a book from the library on Elimination Communication (The Diaper Free Baby) I realized that I have done this to some extent with most of my kids, I just didn't start this early. Usually I would introduce a potty chair shortly after a year old and put the child on it upon morning waking, before or after baths, or when Jay or I would go. Within a few months they all seemed to get the basic idea and most of them were fully trained by age 2. (Max was obviously an exception to this, but then there is always an exception to the rule, isn't there?)

But and 8 month old? This is completely new territory for me, but we are enjoying it all the same.

CHOMP

Guess who got a tooth a few days ago?
Guess who appears to be getting another one?

Lily Goes Vertical!

Lily is growing and developing by leaps and bounds, she has recently begun to crawl and pulling up has followed closely behind it.

Just today she mastered pulling up all on her own:

Step one - find something low to reach up to.

Step two - Once your hands are up off the floor, straighten your legs.

Step three - Look around for where to go next.

Step four - Go for it, you're almost walking now!

So not only is she pulling up, but she is already, as you can see, trying to cruise furniture.

Then... if that wasn't enough, she achieved another balance milestone tonight. She hates crawling on the tile, and will usually just cry when she gets to the edge of the carpet. But tonight she REALLY wanted to get to me, and I was about four feet beyond the edge of the carpet, so very carefully and very slowly she crawled on her hands and FEET. She had to set her knees down a couple of times to get her balance but she only did it when she had no other way to keep moving.

Lily 6 Month Update

Stats:
Height: 24.5 in (20%)
Weight: 14lbs, 14oz (25%)
Head 16.5 in (50%)

I can't believe six months is already here. Lily is doing well, although we have the beginnings of anyone-but-mom-is-the-devil. She still has kind of a needy temperament, but if I carry her a lot she is happy and super sweet.

She smiles all the time and her smiles are changing over the last few days to be more like a regular smile instead of the wide open mouthed baby smile.

She can sit for a couple of minutes on her own and is starting to get up on all fours a bit. She would probably do it more if she ever let us put her down! She is just starting to get the idea that she can move her body to get something she wants, but doesn't yet know how to coordinate all those movements. She loves the bath and will kick and splash and laugh all the way through it. She loves to give big open mouthed kisses and playing with her toes.

Don't hate me, but she is back to sleeping almost through the night. I think it is mostly because naps are so hard to come by. She can't nap if we are out and about unless she is in the car. She really needs to be at home in her own bed or swing to get a decent nap. She still loves to be swaddled for sleeping, but she can sometimes escape the miracle blanket by morning. She doesn't love the car, but doesn't hate it anymore and no longer needs to be swaddled for car rides.

She has sampled solids (rice cereal) but for now is happy with just playing with spoons while we eat.

James Entertains Lily

I asked James to watch Lily the other day while I folded some laundry, then I heard him playing guitar and was going to go yell at him to take care of his sister. It turns out he was doing a wonderful job taking care of her! She was spellbound!

Random Thoughts on a Monday

After looking at the calendar this weekend I realized there are no free days left at all until after Easter. I need to find it somewhere inside of me to be super-organized.

Posy is one step ahead of me. I was looking at the giant piles of undone laundry last night while prepping the kids for bed. I told Posy to go and round up a uniform skirt (clean or dirty, it didn't matter) for Tessa, because I knew that Ben had clean uniforms. She informed me that she had made sure there were skirts for Tessa when she put the clothes in the dryer. How many 13 year olds can think ahead like that even for themsleves let alone for someone else.

I made it to the first of four sessions of the parish mission today. Well, I kind of made it. I got there right on time if it was starting at 9:15. But it had started earlier. And it was in the Church instead of St Bridget's Room like it usually is. SO it probably wasn't appropriate for Max to be eating his cheez-its and drinking juice. Oh well, I'll be better prepared tomorrow.

Lily had her first try at playing violin yesterday. She watched all through Tessa and Max's lesson intently, so Dasha put the violin (Max's 1/16th size) against her shoulder to see what her response would be. She immediately turned her head and sucked on it. Okay, so maybe she is not a prodigy. Yet.

We introduced Max to Star Wars. C3PO is now known as Seepah-wee-ah-doh. R2D2 is just plain R2D2.

I have dinner planned up to (but not including)Thursday and I even have all the groceries to make the stuff. Go me!

A Friday in March

I am going to grab moments as they hit me today and post what I can think of:

The garage is underway! We have been working on it and slowly but surely it is getting almost un-embarrassing. But you don't get pictures until it is done.

I found Max a little while after breakfast eating right out of the cereal bag in his sisters' room.

Thursdays would be a really nice day to have a clone of myself to be in two places at once. Bedtime and picking up Posy from choir (40 minute car trip) happen at the exact same moment. But I really can't think of a day when it would be BAD to have another one of me around. Like today, one of me could hold the baby while the other one does vast quantities of laundry. Then when the baby goes to sleep, that one of me could mop the (sticky, gross) floor.

Lily likes to suck on her toes. I can't think of anything cuter than a baby sucking on their own toes.

While I nursed Lily down for her nap, Max found a Sharpie. 'Nuf said.

I received an email from someone interested in my rosaries!

Just found while cleaning the kitchen: a cup of water with three q-tips soaking in it. It boggles the mind...

Also found: two mostly empty juice boxes put back near-but-not-in where the juice boxes go.

As of 11:30 AM, I have washed two loads of laundry, folded/hung up two loads, tidied the family room, cleaned the kitchen, fed Max lunch, and about a hundred other small jobs not even worth listing. But the list of what I haven't gotten done is still FAR longer. There, the dryer calls!

Lily 4 Month Update

Lily's 4 month check up:

12lb 10oz (50%)
23.5 inches long (50%)

Not yet rolling or grabbing things, but very strong. She loves to be in her Jumperoo, and she still loves to be swaddled a lot.