Another Two-Legged Creature

Our house has another two-legged creature. Maizy is walking. I think she probably could have been walking already but she doesn't like failure. So whenever she started to walk and wobble, she would resort back to crawling. It will be slot easier to be out with her walking then crawling. I mean crawling on concrete just can't feel good. I see endless possibilities....the park, jumpy places. Wow, I'm a little too excited about this. And still walking is not her most used or reliable means of transportation yet.

And she is so darn proud of herself!

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Is there a problem?

I have really enjoyed getting to put some of my favorite outfits of Alexis's from when she was a baby on Maizy. I find it very nostalgic for some reason and remember the times Alexis wore it and where we were going. Yup, I'm a total dork like that. Anyway, today Maizy had on one of my old favs.

Maizy is 10 1/2 months old. She is crawling and waving, enjoying her siblings, and smiling and laughing all the time. As I was remembering a time when Alexis wore the very same outfit, I was motivated to try to find the old picture. Just to compare them. I did come across a picture. In this next picture is Alexis wearing the very same outfit! Love it!

But as I found the picture, I found a slight problem. Alexis in the above picture is exactly 4 months old. So the same outfit that Alexis wore at 4 months old, Maizy is wearing at 10 1/2 months old. Wow, I know that Maizy is small, but I guess she is even smaller than I thought. I think back in October when Maizy was 4 months old, she might have still been wearing Newborn! At least we get good use out of our clothes!!!!

Worldless Wednesday

Child Labor or Allocation of Resources????

We have been having this debate lately about how much to put Alexis to work. Is have her get out of her double stroller with Max to push Maizy's stroller through the airport because we don't have enough hands to push/carry everything cruel child labor or just allocation of resources? Is having Alexis sit with Maizy on the bed and entertain her while I fold laundry or something equally as exciting abuse or division of work? These are the questions we have been pondering lately as we use our 4 year old to her utmost capacity. And is it work when she enjoys doing and actually asks to "babysit" Maizy? She really just loves her sister, I think.

Is forcing Alexis to hold Maizy in pictures wrong if she seems to like it so much? She is so proud. I look so forward to the day when they are quietly chattering in their rooms together, sharing secrets, and getting in trouble together. But for now, I am also cherishing these moments when Alexis can be her caretaker and her "babysitter" and her friend.

Embarrassed and Ashamed!

I am quite embarrassed and ashamed that it has been nearly two months since a blog post. What the HELL have I been doing? I've clearly got nothing else to do, but seriously, I enjoy posting so that I can look back on things I never would have remembered and laugh. So I am officially turning over a back to blogging leaf! Here is a quick summary of the last two months. We have MOVED! Yes, that's right, folks. We are no longer nomads, but have a place to call our very own. It is going to be a long work in progress, but we have plenty of space. Over time we will just need to make that space our own and bring the house into the 21st century and out of 1982. We have made a huge dent in that endeavor just by redoing all the carpet, putting in wood floors, and painting every square inch. As soon as I can clean enough to take some "after" pictures, I will post the before and afters. It is pretty amazing. On top of moving, taking care of three children has become second nature :) Most of the time, they are pretty good and easy, but on days like today, I think to myself, "holy shit, this could be a long 18 years".

Maizy is 3 months old now and has some slight torticollis and neck muscle strength issues. No worries, for some reason, I happen to know a great physical therapist (at my office) who has been helping her out. She is pretty small so perhaps that has something to do with it. In fact, just last night, we were with another baby who is two days older than her and he looked like he could eat her for breakfast....actually, make that a snack. He was this adorable, yet incredibly large baby. I know they are both at opposite ends of the normal spectrum, but it really dwarfed Maizy. Not sure how much she weighs....maybe 10 or 11 pounds. I guess we'll find out for sure at the end of the month for her 4 month check up. But she did recently make it across the country to Seattle for a visit (look for that post coming soon). She was the best kid (of our three) on the plane if that says anything.

I also don't have any pictures from end of August to end of September because I lost my camera. I know, smart one. And of course with the move, we didn't have a computer for a while so I hadn't downloaded pictures in a while. So there went documented memories from August 22 to September 18. Big bummer! But I did learn a valuable lesson.....download pictures often.

Random Funny Events of the Week

A few random blog worthy (I think, anyway) things that have happened in the last week or so. The first is Alexis's first manicure....not that she has gotten, but one that she has given. She has herself received many a manicure (not spoiled at ALL), but she really desperately wanted to GIVE me a manicure. I obliged, but here were the results. Needless to say, she was devastated when I told her I had to take off the polish :)



One day on the way home one evening, we had very tired children. Alexis kept complaining that Maizy's crying was bothering her. So she decided to put her blanket over her head. The next thing we knew, Alexis stopped complaining, but Maizy was still crying (hmmm...unusual). Yup, she had fallen asleep with her blanket over her head.



Not only had Alexis fallen asleep, but Maxwell had as well. Two sleeping children and one screaming one....heaven!



A few days later, we went to help my mom set up her school for preparation for the first day. While there, Alexis started screaming blood curdling screams that her stomach hurt. Like imagine screaming enough to make me ponder the fact that we were going to end up at some Urgent Care or ER. She screamed ALL the way home. The car ride was actually quite amusing as Maizy was crying (typically car behavior for her), Alexis was crying and screaming, and Max was happily singing. A very loud car ride! Anyway, of of no where, Max says, "Mommy, Alexis is crying." Really, Max? I hadn't noticed. She continued screaming at home. I told her to sit in the bathroom for a while, but she sat down on the floor and then layed down. All of a sudden the yelling stopped. I looked in, and she was asleep on the floor. She stayed there for about an hour. After she woke up she was better. No clue.



The last event to date was that Max got his 3rd haircut. Since his first two were primarily disasters, I basically outlined exactly what I wanted this time. Click here for what happened the first time. And I guess 3rd time is a charm because he got a very cute hair cut.

Role Acquisition

Since Maizy has arrived, Alexis and Max have each taken upon new roles. Alexis has proclaimed herself Maizy's second mother. She always wants to hold her, kiss her, rub her head, hold her hand, give her a pacifier, etc. Max has acquired the role of protector. He will protect her toys from others, always asks where she is if he doesn't know, reminds us to put her blanket on, check on her while she is sleeping, etc. It just makes me ponder how this happens. How are these gender roles so innate that at 2 and 4 we already can see them? I mean how does that happen? I might not know these answers, but I do know that Maizy is an insanely lucky girl to have Alexis as a role model and Max as her main man.

Sweet Siblings

Alexis and Max have been lovin' on their new sister!!!!! Here is a compilation of the fun!!!

And even Riley has gotten in on the action......

So Far Behind

Well, life has gotten a little crazy over the last month since my last posting. Here are a few updates:

First and foremost we welcomed our 3rd child and 2nd daughter into our beautiful and amazing family on June 22, 2010. She weighed 6 pounds, 8 ounces of perfection!!!

It was a very easy entrance as compared to the other two, but then she decided to go and stop breathing on us! The day after she was born she was sleeping in her cart and started making some noise. My mom picked her up and she started making some weird noises. Then I realized that she was beginning to turn blue and not breathing. My mom ran out of the room and luckily right outise of our door was the nursery nurse. She ran in, grabbed Maizy, and ran out. She came back a little while later and said that she had a lot of mucus balls in her airway. She sucked them out and said there was one more she couldn't get so she would give her some formula to try to get her to swallow it down. Great! Then she came back to our room. At 3pm, they came to get her for her 24 hour PKU test. While she was down in the nursery for this, she stopped breathing again. This time they hooked her up to the pulse ox machine and all sorts of other monitors, had her in a little incubator and took her down to NICU. We were able to visit with her down there and feed her every three hours. She was also very jaundice so they put her under the lights. She had some really cool shades on:

She behaved herself in the NICU so the next morning they moved her to the special care nursery. She was still hooked up to all kinds of monitors, but didn't need the one on one care. I was discharged from the hospital that night and we had to leave our room by midnight, but Maizy had to stay. I could not envision myself walking out the door without her soooooooo.....we stayed in the lobby. Literally, we slept on the "couches" in the lobby. And I use the term "sleep" very loosely because every three hours I had to go upstairs to feed her so we were only in the lobby for about 2 hours at a time. But unfortunately at her 2am feeding, she started dropping her oxygen levels while eating. We thought it was maybe positioning, but she did it again at 8am. So she had to stay another night to monitor her eating behaviors. We think the problem was that she only had the suck-swallow part of the suck-swallow-breathe cycle. Luckily the neonatologist took pity on us and let us stay in the "Nesting Room" that night. Basically, in the special care nursery, the babies there all need monitoring for some time so this is a room where parents can stay with their babies as a trial run before taking them home. They are still monitored, but the parents are responsible for caring for them rather than the nurses. Here we are with Maizy in her cart in the background and Ben on the so called bed:

Finally, we got to come home!!!! Maizy could not have a happier brother and sister!!!!

Welcome to our family, Maizy Daniella!!!!