A Dimond in the Rough: August 2011

Sleeping Baby

Little Noah has figured out his sleep. I credit several things to this new development. The first is just being big enough to not need to eat during the night. At his 8 week appointment, Noah weighed 11 lbs 6 oz and was 22.5" long. He's gained over 5 lbs since he was born (he dropped to just over 6 lbs in the first few days). That has to help, right? Treating his reflux has made a difference, too. We started him on Ranitidine BID and I can definitely see a change. Lastly, just plain luck. I have enough experience with kids now to know that sometimes they're good sleepers and sometimes they're not. As soon as you think you've got it figured out, something will change. So we've just been blessed to get between 6-8 hour stretches at night over the last few days. Noah has been sleeping from about 10-6. It's amazing. AMAZING.

He sleeps best with his feet crammed against something. It must make him feel more secure (i.e. remind him of all those months crammed against my ribs).

Summer Fun Day--Legoland

This was my most adventurous attempt at Summer Fun Day. My kids LOVE legos. Actually that's an understatement. I think that if they had to choose between going to Disney World and giving up their legos, they'd choose the legos. The majority of their days are spent building, creating, imagining worlds and then playing in those worlds with legos. So what did I do? I took them to Legoland Chicago last Thursday. Yes, just me. Me and three kids. Crazy? Maybe. Worth it? Definitely.

Downtown Chicago

We used to go to Navy Pier a lot with Nate when he was a baby and we lived in Chicago.

Indiana Jones

Noah wasn't so sure about the black light.

Noah was such a trooper.

Ferrarri

Look at Nate. He's stealing Santa's bag.

I'm so happy that we went--I think that I won the coolest mom ever competition. Noah was such a trooper on the trip. He slept the ENTIRE way down, not even a peep. We had lunch at Jamba Juice and Noah nursed while we drank our smoothies. Then we went into Legoland and he had a really fun time. He loved looking at the lights and displays. He liked the Lego movies. When he started to fuss in his stroller, I put him in the carrier and he fell back to sleep. Once we finished in Legoland, we went out to the car where I fed him again. Then we headed into Ikea for a quick look around. He slept all through Ikea, too. But then I guess that he'd had enough.

It was mostly my fault, the disaster that ensued. Stupid me, leaving Chicago at 5:30PM. The interstate was a parking lot (one of the main reasons we moved form Chicago). I had planned to drive a little ways toward home, stop for dinner and to feed Noah again. But that little way ended up taking almost an hour because of the traffic and construction. There was almost continuous construction from Chicago to Madison on I-90. So we finally found a McDonald's, went through the drive-thru and ate in the car while I nursed Noah. He fell asleep, so I was optimistic that the rest of the drive home would be peaceful, as he had already cried for most of that first hour. But by the time we hit the road again, it was almost 7PM, i.e. Fussy Time. And just being out of the state/in the car does not mean Fussy Time isn't going to happen. Noah screamed and screamed and screamed. I finally stopped in Janesville to try to feed him/soothe him again, but he was just as mad once he got back into his seat. So I decided that we were just going to have to get home as fast as we could, even though he was so upset. I honestly don't think I've ever sped that much in my life. But with the construction, traffic and stops, it took us until 9PM to get home. That was a 2 hour drive down and a 3 1/2 hour trip home. Poor Noah.

Despite the disastrous return trip, I'm very glad that we went. Nate said that his life dream had come true that day. Abbie said that half her dream had come true. (I bought them each a lego set from the lego store before we left Legoland, but Abbie's set had two parts and I was only willing to buy one...) It was an awesome day and I feel proud of myself for driving all that way alone with the three kids. I know that I was a good mom that day--This is something the kids will remember for a long time.

Singer-Songwriter

Abbie spends a good part of each day in song. She loves to play the guitar and make up her own lyrics. I love hearing what she sings about and how happy she is while doing it. Hopefully she won't hate me for spying on her...

Summer Fun Day--Tower Park

Alan has been taking the kids to this park for a couple of years now. It's their secret park. They call it tower park because there's a big hill in the middle, with a fire pit on top, that they use as a tower. They defend their camp from orks and the Snow Monster on that tower. We took a picnic for dinner one night--Two items in one trip!

This is where the Snow Monster lives.

This is the mines. They mine for rocks to make battering rams and other tools here.

This is Tent Home, a hideout in case the castle gets destroyed.

This is the Snow Monster cave.

Really?

This is how I found my figurines one morning. Thank you, Nate, for making something so sweet so dirty.

Summer Fun Day--Paper Mache

Is there anything better than shredding old magazines and getting sloppy with some paper mache? I couldn't believe how easy this was. We're going to paint it and make it into a pinata this week.

Meeting Cousin James

Alan's youngest brother and his wife just had their first baby. Baby James is about 2 1/2 weeks older than Noah. We were fortunate to be able to see them when Michael came out to Madison for a job interview. Here are a couple of pictures of the baby cousins.

James is long and Noah is round.

Pasta Pie

Made in a springform pan, this pasta pie was tasty! I made the sauce from scratch and stood each of those noodles on end. A bit time consuming, but a very satisfying and fun dinner!

Summer Fun Day 1--Zoo

With only a few weeks of summer vacation left until school started, I decided that I wanted to make the best of that time with the kids. We all sat down to create a Summer Fun Day list, a list of all of the fun things we want to do before school starts again. Each day, we try to complete at least one of the items on our list, several if we can. The first stop was the zoo.

Abbie's favorite animal is the penguin. The last couple of times we'd been to the zoo, they were off exhibit, so she was very happy to see them again.