Large and In Charge

I was talking to a mom in Elise's music class the other day and she said her friend had a big baby boy, too. She said that at 14 months, this little boy weighed over 30 pounds. Yikes!!! Please don't do that to me, Clark. Or if you do, please start walking by 8 or 9 months because my back is already sore from carrying you around all day.

My Little Sweet Potaters

Clark tried sweet potato today. He took three bites and threw up. So that's that, I guess.

And some more Elisey-isms:

* Elise is developing quite the sense of humor. Like her mommy and daddy, Elise thinks it is very funny to change the words of songs. I often sing songs to the kids and leave the last word or two off of the end of each line, waiting for them to "fill in the blank." But Elise has started putting whatever words she wants into the song. The other day I was singing 'You Are My Sunshine' and I sung "... you'll never know dear,..." and Elise grabbed my chest and said, "... how much I love BOOBS!"

* Today Elise was in the back of the car, singing to herself. She was trying to sing 'You Are My Sunshine' (this song gets abused a lot) and she said, "The other night, dear, Mommy was drinking..." I guess the cat's out of the bag.

Rock and Roll, Baby Clark!

Clark just turned over from his tummy to his back! Yay, Baby Clark!

He's been turning from his back to his tummy for a while (which is supposed to be harder for babies to do, but Elise went from her back to her tummy first, too) but he couldn't get his big ol' baby body up over his shoulder to turn from his tummy back onto his back. He finally figured it out today. Then he started rolling all over the floor in the girls' room. My little tumbleweed!

Yay!!!

More of the Same

I recently heard that Henry and Georgia's mom is continuing to make bad decisions. Not the kind of decisions that will necessarily affect her case plan or make any difference in court... but bad decisions none the less. Decisions that show that she can't or won't put her children's needs over her own. Sad.

Not Digging the Rice Cereal

Clark had rice cereal for breakfast this morning. His first time. Not impressed. He ate it but he was not at all enthusiastic the way he was with the avocado and the bananas.

Sorry dude. I wish everything you ate could always taste as delicious as avocado. I really do.

Cornrow Breakthrough!!!

I'm so happy. So so happy. I had a breakthrough in learning how to cornrow Georgia's hair!

Here's the deal. I did not learn how to cornrow hair when I was growing up. I barely learned how to braid hair at all. That sort of thing just wasn't on my radar. And the little bit of hair stuff I did learn how to do was all for white girl hair.

For me, at least, braiding white girl hair and braiding coarser, more textured hair is two totally different things requiring two totally different techniques. I was trying to braid Georgia's hair in big, sweeping motions like I had learned to french braid white girl hair. Consequently, Georgia's hair was turning into little french braids, but they didn't lay flat enough to her scalp and I could never seem to get the braids very tight. The rows of hair looked like french braids, but they didn't look like CORNROWS.

I watched some videos on the internet recently and realized that I wasn't holding my hands the right way to make good cornrows. The technique for braiding cornrows is different than it is for french braids. I wasn't holding my fingers in the right positions. I studied and studied a couple of select videos. But I've never been very good at watching someone do a physical action and then imitating it with my own body. Like, I really suck at it. I tried tai chi once and it nearly left me in tears, I'm so bad at trying to imitate movements. Tai chi is supposed to be the opposite of a bringing-you-to-tears kind of stressful situation. I lack a certain awareness of my body, I guess. So I scoured the internet for some sort of written instruction on how to hold your fingers to make cornrows. I could find lots of general directions, but nothing that was explicit enough. Nothing that broke the finger positions and the hand movements down far enough to answer my questions and end my confusion.

So I just started watching those instructional videos over and over again, pausing and rewinding, while I practiced making cornrows with the hair of one of Georgia's dolls.

Then finally I figured it out a little. I managed to make a nice, fat cornrow. I undid the braid and tried to do it over again. And I couldn't get it. GRRRR! But I was encouraged by my one success, and I spent the next day practicing on the doll until my fingers not only figured out how to make the braid, but could remember how to do it over and over again. Muscle memory.

So tonight I cornrowed Georgia's hair. Woo hoo!

On a scale of 1 to 10, my overall skill before the recent breakthrough was about a 2. I'd say I'm about a 5 now. My hair parts still look crappy, the cornrow still isn't quite tight enough, I still can't add the hair in perfectly evenly, and it's hard for me to keep the cornrow straight down the middle of the section of hair that I'm braiding. BUT I'm so so so pleased with my own progress. I feel like less of a loser-mom. Now I'm an at-least-you're-making-progress-mom.

Good Argument

Elise is obsessed with bicycles lately. Today while we were shopping...

Elise: Mommy. I neeeeeeeeeed a bicycle.
Me: You NEED a bicycle?
Elise: Yes.
(pause)
Elise: I need to learn, Mommy.
(pause)
Elise: I be careful.
Me: You're making a pretty strong case. I like that. Daddy and I will talk about it.

How can you say no to such well-reasoned cuteness? Hopefully she really means "tricycle"...

Walks

I really love taking the kids on walks. Elise, Henry, and Georgia are finally big enough that they don't have to ride in strollers, so they run all over the place and do cute things like stop to look at flowers and bugs. Clark loves to be outside, too, and he sits happily in his stroller, looking around. They're all so joyful when we go on walks as a family. Super happy mommy time!

Bananas, A Startling Revelation, Court Documents

* Clark had bananas with milk for the first time today. He looks like a little food critic when he takes his first bite of food every morning. He wrinkles his forehead, rolls the food around in his mouth, pauses, rolls the food around... he looks very thoughtful. He seemed to approve of the the bananas.

* Elise (yelling): "NO HANDS! MOMMY! BEANIE NO HANDS!"
Me: "The cat has no hands?"
Elise: "ALL FOOTS! MOMMY! ALL FOOTS!!!!"

* The necessary paperwork has now been filed with the court so that the hearing to terminate Henry's mom's parental rights can be scheduled. So now it's officially official. The State is moving forward with trying to legally sever Henry from his mother's care.

New Poop

Clark's poop has officially changed to the poop of a solid food eater. It's less runny. More paste-like. And the color of avocado. I know it's just poop, but it seems like some sort of milestone. I guess since babies don't do much for the first few months, any change seems noteworthy.

Clark is still talking up a storm of baah-buhs and mamas. Husband says he said dada a few times (suspiciously, only Husband was in the room when it happened...). Clark has little babbling fits that are super cute and funny. He really seems to want to engage with the older kids and he's working hard to catch up with them.

I love you, Clark!

So Sweet

If Elise accidentally injures someone, she now says, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you." It's so cute that I instantly forgive her.

Folliculitis

Elise has had a rash in her diaper area for a couple of months now. First we tried three different kinds of over the counter anti-fungal creams (all with different active ingredients) one after the other, and they all seemed to be treating the rash initially but then the rash never fully went away. After that, we got a prescription anti-fungal cream and had basically the same result-- what we thought was a little bit of success at first, but the rash was never fully cured. Now Elise's doctor thinks that she might have folliculitis, which is an inflammation at the base of hair follicles.

Elise has always had very sensitive skin. When she was a baby, I could only wash her with Burt's Bees shampoo, or she would break out with dry, red, blotchy skin. If she does have folliculitis, I blame her soft, sensitive little baby skin for it.

She has a new antibiotic ointment to try out and we'll see if that clears up the rash. If not, Elise's doctor will refer us to a dermatologist.

Clark's First Food

Clark ate his first food on Saturday! Avocado with breast milk. He made a little face at first, but then he gobbled it up. He didn't have any solid food on Sunday because we were traveling, but he had some today and he just loved sucking the avocado off his spoon. Big boy! Of course, he likes solid food.

Goal Change

the state has officially changed the goal of henry's case plan from reunification with his mother to adoption. that means that the state will be seeking to terminate his mother's parental rights.

nothing happens quickly in foster-land. there will be court hearings and who knows what else that will now be going on for the next few months. i'll keep you updated.

Great Grandparents

elise and clark got to see their great-grandma today. i never met any of my great-grandparents. i'm so glad that they get to know their great-grandma and that she gets to know them. i wish i knew more about my great-grandparents.

i remember my dad's mom talking about her mother-- i remember her saying that her mother was a very pretty lady, and that she wore tortoise shell combs in her hair. my mom's father's parents grew grapes and made wine, and my great-grandmother refused to speak english and would only speak italian. i don't know much else. i guess i should do some research into my own history. i'm sure i'll find out lots of interesting stuff.

Elise's 2 Year Old Check Up

elise had her 2 year old check up today. she is 34 1/2 inches tall (60th percentile) and weighs 25 lbs 10 oz (35th percentile).

clark got weighed, too. he's 19 lbs 14 oz.

Mama, Mama, Mama

* Clark said "mama" more times today, so it's not a total fluke. Not that he knows what he's saying-- he's just experimenting with sounds. Still pretty cool, though.

* Today Elise said, " Mama, I NEEEEED a bicycle." I said, "How about a tricycle?" and took out Henry's trike and let her ride around the living room. After a few minutes she stops and says, "Mama, I NEEEEEED a motorcycle." Oh, lord.

Mama

Clark has been saying "mama" today!

YEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSS!!! He said mama before dada! Got me a mama's boy!

Go Away, Mommy!

Elise has been refusing to poop on the potty. I know that she's pooping in her diaper because she hides then shouts, "Go away, Mommy!"

I hope she gets over this phase quickly.

Bumped Into Bo, Georgia's Tooth, Etc.

* I opened the door at Georgia's dentist's office today and saw Bo and his mom sitting there. (Bo is the foster son that lived with us for a year, before Henry and Georgia came to live with us.) It was really nice to see them. I'm so glad that we developed a good relationship with Bo's mom because that would have been SUPER awkward otherwise. Yikes! But instead we sat and chatted for about 15 minutes. Bo is doing great, by the way.

* The dentist said that there's not much for us to do about Georgia's chipped tooth right now, other than watch it. Apparently nerve damage and blood vessel damage takes about a month to show up in damaged teeth. I didn't know that. So now we're watching to see if she gets any little pimples or blisters on her gums or any discoloration in her tooth.

* Clark has been saying B sounds for the past few days. Mostly when we're changing his diaper. If Husband or I lay him down, he starts jabbering away, "Buuuuh! Ba ba buuuuuuh!"

* Husband calls Henry "Buddy" a lot. Like, "Hey, Buddy! Don't forget to pick up your shoes!" Elise has picked this habit up, too. But she not only uses "Buddy" to speak to Henry, she also uses it to talk about him. It sounds funny. She'll say, "Mama! Buddy spilled his juice!" or "Buddy won't hold Elisey's hand!" She calls Clark "Babu" sometimes, too, which is my pet name for him. And then one day we were watching an animal show and the narrator started talking about baboons as images of baboons came on the tv-- Elise misheard it as "babu" and thought that was sooooo funny. "Babu, Mama! Babu! Ha ha ha!" Or maybe she's been calling him "baboon" all along and I just didn't hear her correctly...

* Elise woke up just now, after she'd been put in bed for the night. I comforted her and then as I was leaving the room I asked, "Is there anything I can get you?" She said, "Butterfly wings."

Boob-itis

Yesterday Clark didn't nurse as much as usual. As it got later in the day, my right breast really started hurting. By about 4 o'clock I was super-uncomfortable. Clark had nursed some, but not enough I guess, and so I decided to express some milk to relieve the pressure. I was so engorged that I didn't even have to touch my nipple-- I could just touch anywhere on my breast and milk would go shooting out.

I expressed a little bit, but I had to meet a friend so I hurried up and left the house. Clark nursed for a very long time while we were gone, but by the time I got back home I was feeling really awful. The pain in my breast was killing me and I felt a woozy and weak. All of a sudden, I felt sickness just wash over me. I got a headache, chills, I felt even weaker than before. It was terrible.

My breast hurt so badly that I decided I needed to express milk again. I expressed and expressed and expressed. Through tears from the pain, I expressed. I had enough milk in there to feed a baby for days-- it just kept shooting out. And as my breast emptied, I could finally tell that a certain area wasn't emptying at all. I had a hard and extremely painful place that went from just below my armpit to about 3/4 of the way to my nipple. It felt like lots of hard lumps. Some big, some small. As I expressed, I worked those lumps toward my nipple. It hurt. But I figured I must have a blocked duct and the only way to unblock it is to force the milk out.

My breast felt a little bit better after I was done, but my body felt like I'd been hit by a truck. The headache was still there, I was seeing little lights in my peripheral vision, I could barely stand up, I was getting not just chills but hot flashes, too, and I had a fever. Oh man. I put ice on my boob to keep the swelling down and took a nap on the couch.

Then when I got up for bed, I expressed again. I could really feel where the blocked areas were and I knew I just had to work through the pain. I couldn't BELIEVE that milk was still coming out. It was SO MUCH milk! Eventually it felt like all of the hard places were gone, so I went to bed.

I was much, much better this morning. My breast is still a little sore, but nothing like last night. I think I did the right thing by expressing so much milk-- I don't know if the ducts were just blocked for some crazy reason or if I have an infection, but I'm clearly recovering instead of continuing to get worse. What a miserable experience. I'm glad that's over.

Chip

Georgia fell yesterday and bit her tongue and chipped her tooth.

She was sliding out of a chair and didn't quite get her feet underneath of herself. She only fell from as high as she stands, but she was holding a spoon in her hand and I guess she didn't want to let the spoon go and so she didn't do a good job of catching herself. She hit her chin on the floor. She bit through the side of her tongue and chipped her right front top tooth.

The chip isn't that bad, but I'm going to take Georgia to a dentist anyway, just to make sure there are no sharp edges that need to be filed down. Husband took her to the emergency room to have a doctor look at her tongue, and the doctor said it would heal on its own. It isn't a big enough cut to do anything about. I guess tongue stitches aren't very common. I wanted to have a doctor look at it, though, because the wound kept opening up when she'd move her tongue around.

Poor Georgia. She's fine today. A little fussy when she eats, but I guess her tongue still hurts a bit. I'm glad that chipped tooth is a baby tooth.

Well, all of our kids have been to the ER and/or an urgent care facility multiple times now. They keep us busy, that's for sure.

Happy Birthday, Lady Bug!

2 years! Oh man. Happy Birthday to my baby baby. My love. My sunshine. On this night two years ago, I was just meeting Elise for the first time. Nothing that happened before that matters anymore. Elise was born two years ago, and somehow it feels like that's when my life started, too.

How did we celebrate today? We bought a balloon, went to the zoo (Elise calls it the "zoom") and met up with Husband during his lunch break, then while Elise napped I set up the ball pit, and after she woke up she played in the ball pit and then we baked her cake. Elise wanted spaghetti for dinner, so we had spaghetti with fake meatballs and chocolate cake and then she wanted to go to the mall, so we walked around the mall until the kids' bedtime.

It was a lovely day. Elise enjoyed herself. So did I.

Um...

... clark just peed on my boobs.

Growing Like Weeds

The kids won't stop growing. I think it's time to cut off their food supply, because this is getting out of hand. Henry, who isn't even 3 yet is already wearing 4T, Georgia isn't 2 yet and she's wearing 3T, and Clark is 5 months old but he's starting to transition into 12 month sized clothes. Elise is the only one who wears the size of clothing that matches her age.

I went to this huge sale today and bought the kids a bunch of new clothes. For about $100 I got over 40 items of clothing (which sounds like a lot of items, but I was shopping for 4 kids, so it wasn't a full wardrobe for any of them). It wasn't crappy stuff, either. Nice stuff. Yay me. Elise found this shirt with mermaids on it-- it was actually pretty cute but it wasn't her size. I told her it didn't fit her because it was too big, but she sneaked the shirt into the pile of clothes I was going to buy. I didn't see it again until I was already paying. I went ahead and got it... what a weasel!

Baby Baby Baby Ooooh

I don't know what they've been doing at Henry's preschool lately, but for the past week he's been singing "baby baby oh! baby baby oh!" and I'm about 95% sure that he's trying to sing this Justin Bieber song:



We play all different kinds of music for the kids and have dance parties in the living room and whatnot, but Justin Bieber had been intentionally left out of our rotation. Until Henry started singing it all the time. Then we began playing that song for the kids because Henry seemed to really like it. And now everyone in our f-ing house is singing, "baby baby baby ooooooh, like baby baby baby noooooo..." I can't get it out of my head.

Ugh.

Also, Henry and Elise had their first real honest-to-god verifiable conversation ever tonight. Henry bit his tongue while he was eating dinner and started crying. Elise said, "What wrong Henry? Henry? What wrong?" And Henry, through tears, said, "Mouth!" Elise touched her lips and then said, "It your mouth Henry? Mouth?" And then Henry nodded his head. It was pretty awesome. They've talked at each other plenty of times, and one of them has communicated an idea to the other many times before, but the communication only went one direction. This is the first time I've really seen them go back and forth like that.

Elise can totally hold a regular conversation now. You can just sit down and talk to her. It's a lot of fun. Especially if she's leading the conversation, because it bounces all over the place. Here's our conversation this morning over breakfast:

Elise: Baby Clark go to the hospital.

Me: Yes, he did go to the hospital.

E: Mommy with Baby Clark in hospital.

M: I did stay with Clark in the hospital. You stayed at home with Daddy. And you visited Mommy and Baby Clark in the hospital. Do you remember that?

E: Yes. Mommy with Baby Clark. Baby Clark boo boos.

M: Yes. He had boo boos. He's fine now, though. All better.

E: Yes. All better. Baby Clark all better. Oh! Llamas!

M: Llamas?

E: Yes. Llamas live on farm.

M: Some llamas do live on farms.

E: Llamas live on farm. Llamas eat grass. Yes. They do.

M: That's true.

E: Baby Clark hospital. And llamas live on farm. And, oh! Helicopter!...

Nom Nom Nom

Clark wants to eat solid food so badly. He often sits in my lap during meals and he tries so hard to grab my food and shove it right in his mouth. Sometimes he even cries that he's not getting any.

Elise started solid food about a week before she turned 6 months old. I think I'll let Clark try solid food just a little bit before he turns 6 months old, too. I'll probably start him on avacado, like I did Elise. That worked well for us.

Here's Pink In Your Eye

Continuing his crusade to contract every childhood illness as quickly as possible, Clark now has pink eye. My poor little baby.

We tried SO hard to keep him from catching it from the girls. We didn't touch Clark without washing or sanitizing our hands. We didn't let the big kids touch him. We kept all of his toys super clean. Sometimes it's just impossible to keep the germs away. Clark caught the runny nose that the girls had and I think it just backed up into his eyes and then caused a little infection.

As always, Clark doesn't seem to notice. He's his usual bouncy, happy self.

Happy 5 Month Birthday, Clark!

5 months! Clark, you're so amazing and wonderful and beautiful and perfect. Such a happy baby! Always laughing and smiling at me. Cuddling and cooing. I love you so much. I don't even mind the stretchmarks. I'd cover my whole body in stretchmarks to have you as my baby. I'm the luckiest mommy ever.

Hello, Old Wardrobe

I can finally fairly comfortably fit into my old pre-pregnancy clothes. Yes, yes, I still have a couple of pounds to lose. But the real issue was my hips. Clark destroyed my pelvis and my hips were super wide FOR-EV-ER. I honestly was beginning to believe that I would have to buy all new pants. That my hips would never come close to going back to the same size they used to be before babies. And I think that they're still a little bit wider. They probably always will be. But at least I can wear my old blue jeans again.

More Elise Talk

1. Today Elise was brushing my hair. Hesitantly she said, "Hmm... you're looking better, Mommy." Thanks, Elise. I can use all of the help I can get.

2. Today Elise was "reading" Clark a book. She was flipping through the pages of "The Color Kittens" and talking about what was on each page. About halfway through she said, "Oh! I forgot to mention something." No, I thought, I must have misheard her. That's a fancy thing for someone her age to say. Then she flips back a few pages and leans over to Clark and says it again. "Baby Clark, I forgot to mention something..."

3. Elise is very into figuring out who eats what. According to her, cats eat meat. Cows eat grass. Dolphins eat water. Elise eats apple juice. And then tonight, "Caterpillars eat birds."

ABC Song

This is the kids' favorite thing to watch on youtube:



It's totally annoying at first. But it'll grow on you.