4 months already!

Sweet Pea turned 4 months this past weekend and she is getting so big. It is incredible the changes that can happen seemingly overnight at this age. We don't have a weight and height because we can't seem to get an appointment with our pediatrician until she is 5 months and with her being baby #3 we are a little more relaxed and just going with it. In my less than scientific method of getting on and off the scale with and without the baby she is about 16 pounds.

Sweet Pea spends most of her day playing on her playmat catching the animals tightly in her tiny fists or in her exosaucer playing with the toys and smiling at her brothers. She has just started to regulate her naps into about 3 a day making bedtime at the same time as her brothers (do you hear Papa Bear and I celebrating?). She is still sleeping about 9-10 hours at night and after a quick dream feed at 10:30 pm sleeps until 7:15 or so.

Our baby girl is exercising her lungs fairly well with her high pitched shrieks when she wants attention and her sweet coos when she feels like making peace with us.

The thing that is the most amazing to me and Papa Bear is that Sweet Pea is so petite (in our world). At her roughly very unscientifically estimated 16 pound weight she is 4 pounds less than her brothers were at the same age. 4 pounds is A LOT when you are talking about a baby! When Peanut turned 4 months old I posted about all of the things that he had already outgrown because he was already 20 pounds at the ripe old age of 4 months. So I think it would be appropriate that I make a list of the things that Sweet Pea is still fitting into:

1. Her 3-6 month clothing. Although I am chomping at the bit to move her into her 6-9 month clothing because it is all so cute AND I am just not used to having a child in age appropriate clothing.

2. Her infant car seat. While she is definitely under the weight limit for the car seat she is probably fast approaching the length limit because she is one long baby girl! It is really nice to still be able to use this when shopping or at a playdate for some where for her to sit.

3. Size 2 diapers - although we have moved her into size 3 diapers to avoid blowouts and I foresee her in this size for at least a few more months.

4. The swing, the bassinet level of the pack n play and all of the other items that she should still be able to use....she still can use!!

5. Shoes that aren't extra extra extra wide. Combine fat feet with a wide foot and you have Peanut and Little Man's feet but Sweet Pea has adorable small narrow relatively petite feet which means that she can wear adorably cute shoes just to keep her socks on/just because I think they are adorable.

And for your viewing pleasure::

I know she looks chunky but that is only a 3-6 month outfit!!

Isn't she the cutest?!

And no, Peanut isn't about to hit her. He is giving her his love rubs....

See!

Guess Who!

Sweet Pea? or Mama Bear (as a baby)? Guess Who!?

Sweet Pea Smiles

Peanut Progress

Peanut has been in speech therapy for a little over 6 months now and we have seen so many amazing changes. There are times that he is playing and talking that I find myself forgetting he has/had a delay. The other day were having snack time and there was a bit of chaos because on top of my 3 we had another 3 year old and two 18 month olds eating with us. I was getting food for everyone and heard 6 little voices chirping away and then I hear "more cheese" and I turn around to see who needed more cheese and to my overwhelming surprise it was Peanut. Now please understand that I wasn't not surprised that he NEEDED more cheese because the boy never stops eating but usually he just says "more more" in increasingly loud tones until I can guess what he needs more of and here he was putting two sweet little words together without prompting. Then this morning Papa Bear took Little Man to school for me (bless the man) and when Peanut realized his brother was gone he went to the door and said "Bye Ja Ja". We also had a very successful speech therapy session today. He allowed the therapist to do some prompting work which is great because his independent side has been pushing our hands away as we try to help his mouth work yelling "do, do" as in " I will do it all by myself because I am so independent that I will fall down the stairs rather than accept your help in anyway". We spent the session today having a cookie and tea party for 7 of his stuffed animals and worked on the words cut, cookie, cup, in, pour, friends, on, and cook. Obviously we are trying to get his hard C sound and he did fairly well. My Peanut is progressing and making huge strides each week. I can't believe he is going to be 2 in just a little over a month. They grow up way too fast!

My Binky Ah-Ha moment

Peanut has the cutest little habit of sleeping with one binky in his mouth and one binky in EACH hand. We find it adorable as he makes a pile of binkys on his blanket before laying his head down. Then when all is just right he puts on in his mouth and grabs a bink in each hand, turns on his aquarium, sighs and goes to sleep. When someone else is going to put him to bed for the night we always have to tell them to make sure he has a binky for each hand and one for his mouth and until today we couldn't remember why or where this little habit had come from.

But as I was putting Sweet Pea down for a nap today it became very clear where this adorable habit came from. I put the binky in her mouth and before I could even get to the door she was screaming again. So I headed back to her crib to see her holding the binky in her hand while screaming that it wasn't in her mouth. I realized that she had pulled it out of her mouth but couldn't get it back in. So I put the binky back in (and here is my ah-ha moment) but a different binky in her hand so that she wouldn't continue to pull the one in her mouth out. She settled down and went to sleep. Ah-Ha!!

I remember doing this same little trick turned habit for Peanut and again, I was struck with how much we forget the little things during the blur of the first few years. I am so glad that I am writing these little stories down so that in 2 or 20 years we will reread them and smile at the memories.

Port Discovery Children's Museum

Today we took all of the kids to Little's Day at the Port Discovery Children's museum. Little's day is a day that is geared towards children under 5 so there were bubbles and moonbounces, kindersingers and preschool crafts. Of course my children were not interested in any of that. There were 3 main attractions that captured my kids. The train, the treehouse and the water play.

The train was a wooden train that they could load crates onto a crane and raise and lower the crane to load and unload the cargo. Little Man was so intrigued and experimented with the weight of the loads and how to raise and lower it quickly without dropping it on the unsuspecting children below. Peanut just enjoyed climbing on the train and pushing the button to blow the whistle over and over and over. Check out Sweet Pea hanging out in the front carrier watching her brothers. She slept in the carrier off and on and was on her very best behavior!

The treehouse was this huge climbing structure that is really geared to much older kids than my boys. But the boys found one area that was perfect for them. They ran up and down this squishy, bouncy blue mat over and over and over. Peanut ran as fast as his chunky legs could carry him and wiped out at least one on each lap but loved it. Little Man ran, slid and jumped showing off some of his gymnastic abilities.

The water play room was awesome! There was a huge water table with levies and dams and spinning things, a large bubble maker that you could stand inside and blow a bubble around yourself, and a water pipe area. Little Man spent most of his time in the water pipe area. He constructed a piping system all by himself to contain the water. Watching him work was so much fun. It was a trial and error process in which he got very wet (we had brought a change of clothes in anticipation of this part of the museum) and stuck with it. Peanut loved this area too and actually had a throw down meltdown when we made him leave after an hour in the room. Oh and he also had to take a break to get a drink because we kept spying him with his head IN the water table so he could get a drink! Oy!

They were troopers and kept up good spirits from 10-2 at the museum and after some quick bites of McDonald's in the car the trip ended like this....

and this.....

Don't Blink...

or you might miss it.

She is growing up way too fast. Playing with her brothers, enduring tummy time like a champ, imitating the faces her biggest brother makes at her. Sweet Pea is not staying as little as I would like her to. I love the infant stage of my children. Each day is different and you literally get to watch them learn about and explore their world. I remember talking to a nurse after Little Man was born and she told me that it would help when nursing to tuck his arm down against my body because he didn't know he had arms yet and so they would just flail about. Papa Bear and I laughed but then we watched him for a few minutes and realized that he didn't make intentional movements and they just flailed about as if independent from his body (yes, that is a Friends reference). Watching Sweet Pea learn about her hands and fingers, turn towards her brother's or Papa's voices, try to watch TV (which Little Man quickly alerts us too each time) is so rewarding. But I blink and she is pushing herself up on her elbows for long periods of time and getting bored with her surroundings. She wants to be where the action is at all times and is most happy when she can see her brothers playing.

Sweet Pea will be 15 weeks tomorrow and she is enjoying toys, mobiles, her brothers and sleeping at night. She isn't enjoying the swing, being left in a room without her brothers, and naps.

Things that I don't want to forget:

How Little Man asks to hold her every chance he gets. He doesn't hold her long but never lets her go without kissing her on her forehead. Peanut immediately MUST kiss her too.

How Sweet Pea literally coos in response to my voice. After eating she will look in my eyes and we will have a little conversation that is half coo, half purr and all the way adorable.

How she squeals/screams in high pitch staccato bursts to let us know that she is not close enough to the action.

The way that she feels in my arms as she fades to sleep at night.

Art Gallery

Little Man's school bag is packed every day with wonderful art projects that he made at school. Sometimes they are free form paintings that he made at the easel during free play and other times they are something to do with the lesson of the week. Our school believes that it is the experience of art that matters and not the final outcome so I am not always sure of what a picture or project is actually supposed to be. Luckily, the teacher will often ask Little Man what HE thinks he painted or drew and then writes in the corner of the picture so that the rest of us can "see" it too. These wonderful pieces of art have resided on top of our refrigerator for the past 2 years and we decided that they were not being appreciated there. The painting of "The Meat-Eater" could one day be a masterpiece but only if it isn't hidden away. So after much nagging, Papa Bear hung a few pieces of nylon rope across the wall to create our art gallery. And in the eyes of this Mama Bear it is as beautiful as any museum I have ever been to!

Bowling Fun and Chocolate Mice

Little Man and I had a date day again today. I try to do this once a month or so with him because I do ask a lot of him as the biggest brother and he needs some time out without his younger siblings taking my focus. We decided to go bowling and it was honestly the best time I think I have ever had with just him. The first game was spent mostly on trying to figure out the best way for him to heave a 6 pound ball down the lane without injuring himself or others. He scored a 15 in that game but he wasn't frustrated at all. Each time he got a gutter ball we still high-fived and talked about how close it was. Most of the time his ball went straight down the lane taking a huge curve at the last minute to miss all of the pins. At one point his ball got stuck in the gutter due to lack of power getting it down there and we had to call someone to go get his ball. Of course the rest of the bowling adventure he was very concerned about his ball getting stuck again. After one game I was ready to go get some lunch but he was having so much fun that we decided to go and pay for another game. At this point he had really gotten the hang of things. He would pick up his 6 pound ball and run as fast as he could and then stop abruptly at the line (very carefully not going over it because it would buzz if he crossed the line and he didn't want to make it buzz) and then he would half side throw, half overhand throw his ball down the lane. He got a spare and a strike that game and scored a 49. People were stopping to watch this tiny little boy chuck a big bowling ball with absolutely no form whatsoever and get big results. The best part was his unflagging enthusiasm. It didn't matter if he got 9 pins or 1 pin he still jumped up and down, gave me high-fives and hugs. If I got a gutter ball he would say "Oh mama, that was SO close" and was just the most polite and well behaved gentleman on our date. We followed this up with lunch at McDonalds where we talked and talked about everything that came into his little head. It was the most wonderful 3 hours I have spent with Little Man in a long time.

After our date we came home and worked on making chocolate treats for a chocolate brunch we are attending tomorrow at a friend's house. We used cherries, melting chocolate and hershey kisses to make Chocolate Mice and since we had extra chocolate we also dipped giant marshmallows in the chocolate and then into crushed graham crackers to make our own version of smores.

We now have a very tired, very sugared up Little Man so we are going to put on a movie to finish up the day and try to keep everyone awake and happy until bedtime at 7.

Smores

Chocolate Mice

Little Man Sampling the Goods

Sweet Pea in a pile of clean laundry

(because every post is better with a picture of Sweet Pea)

And in other news....

This just in, the missing spoon has been found. I repeat, the missing spoon has been found!

After yelling into the living room, "Little Man, don't put that spoon down Peanut's shirt" and hearing two giggling boys continuing to play I realized that I would have to intervene. So I went into the living room and tried to get the spoon back. I looked down Peanut's shirt, in his pants, in his diaper and it was no where to be found. He had confiscated Little Man's cup of water and was asking me to share it with me. We did a little bit of his speech therapy back and forth "Mama go, Me go" as we each took a sip of water. After about 10 minutes of this, Peanut and I both saw the missing spoon protruding from his sleeve. As if this were totally normal for him, Peanut retrieved the spoon from his sleeve and started to use it to sip the water from the cup. And the case of the missing spoon was solved....

And in other news....

Sweet Pea has decided that her new favorite past time is screeching at very high decibels for very long periods of time.

Papa Bear and I rushed up stairs together at the sound of Sweet Pea's high pitch screech that signaled trouble. I was thinking a limb stuck in the crib slats or worse. I was wrong. There was no trouble other than Sweet Pea had had enough of her mobile and wanted some attention. This has become our new norm. When Sweet Pea is done with a chair, a location or a point of view she screeches until someone gives her what she wants. This is not to be confused with the very high pitched screech she emits just because she likes the sound of her own voice. Yes, the sound exactly the same so I have been practicing my baby mind reading skills as the house has reached a new level of loudness.

And in other news...

Pajama and pancake day at school was a complete success. Little Man came home full of tales about parachutes and bum scooters and pancakes and hibernation stations. He declared it the best day at school ever ever and then proceeded to act out using a "bum scooter" (I can only assume that he tried to stand up on it and his teacher told him it can only be used sitting down - thus he termed it a bum scooter) and told me all about the chocolate chip pancakes and bananas for snack and all of this fun was had in their pajamas! I am not sure it gets much better than that!

And in other news....

We now have an art gallery....More to come after this short commercial break.....