It seems like lately the only posts that make it to the blog are the annual videos, but at least I'm managing that much! This video is a bit late, but here it is.

Maggie is seven! It's been a great year for Mags and she has really matured into an amazing little girl. She is very responsible and is a fabulous big sister to KK and Thaddy. When I need some help with the little ones, or if they need to be distracted or entertained, Maggie is my go-to girl!
This year she tried soccer, and although she was very good at it and did enjoy playing, she decided not to sign up for the next season. Another first this year was getting to join the new Daisy troop organized at school. Maggie did great selling girl scout cookies and was very proud of her hard work. She also spent lots of time practicing on her bike. She has become good at riding fast and is playing around with riding standing up and other tricks.
We can see that Maggie is growing into a brilliant, thoughtful, resourceful child, who takes pride in the results that come with hard work. She is also incredibly loving and affectionate, and always greets us with hugs and kisses. We are really enjoying seeing her grow and mature!

Time flies!

I can't believe we have an eight year old daughter!! What an amazing little girl she has become. She still lives in her own world, and allows us glimpses into it which are fascinating and wonderful. She is developing her talent for music and piano lessons are going very well. She hums constantly, and many times it is her own compositions, which she often runs to the piano to try out. She loves to read, and it's a good thing that she doesn't need as much sleep as other children, since she often stays up late reading with her book light. She is a happy, sunny child and brightens all of our lives with her spirit. Here is her eighth video:

Outsmarted by a two year old...

We I had just gotten out of the pool and was wrapped in a towel. KK had not been swimming but just wandering around the perimeter playing.
KK: I want a towel too!
M: You don't need a towel. You're not wet.
KK walks over to the pool, steps onto the first step, gets out, comes back to me.
KK: Now I'm wet!
D'oh!

Our Baby is 2!

Amen

Maggie "preaching a sermon" in the beautiful little chapel at camp capers, with KK copying her every move.
M: Jesus loved us very much
K: Jesus loved us very much
M: Jesus loved us so much he gave his life.
K: Jesus loved us so much he gave her rice

Funny stuff my kid said today (KK edition)

"I love you sooooo much!" - while hugging a pencil!

To the cat - "I'm playing with Mommy, my best friend!"

To me - STOP!...Oh you already stopped.

Also, random lines of random songs she has sung randomly today (these are sung independently of the rest of the song:
Whenever I go out, the people always shout, there goes *mumble mumble mumble mumble mumble

Rockabye baby in the tree top, when the wind blows the cradle will rock

Old MacDonald has a farm eieio.

 Go to sleep, my little pickaninny, Mother's gonna get you if you don't.

Maggie's Sixth Year.wmv

Week 16

Week 15

And still nauseous!

Conversation

In the car this morning on the way to drop Kaykay off at the grandparents:
Kaykay: I hear sumpin!
Me: You do?
K: Yesss
M: What is it?
K: It's a man!
M: It is?
K: Yess.... I sink so!

(Mostly) Fruit Salad

We found out that we are expecting baby number four sometime in the middle of November, and since not long after that, I've been posting photos on FB. Not of myself, or the rapidly growing belly wherein grows the baby, but of the fruits and veggies my "What to Expect" app uses to compare the baby's relative size.
It occurred to me today that those FB photos won't last the way blog updates will, so going forward I will post to both.
In order to catch the blog up, here are the photos I've posted to date...

This was posted on December 2, 2011 (7 weeks) and resulted in the nickname "Blueberry" for this baby, which seems to have stuck.


Posted on December 5, 2011 (8 weeks) - Linda Tauman wondered if I was doing berry profiles ;-)



Posted on December 12, 2011 (9 weeks). I don't even like olives!


Posted on December 19, 2011 (10 weeks).


Posted December 26, 2011 (11 weeks). Merry Christmas, Blueberry!


Posted January 2, 2012 (12 weeks) Happy New Year, Blueberry! The year of your birth is here!


Posted January 9, 2012 (13 weeks) One of my favorite fruits!


Posted today, January 16, 2012. Seems to me a peach is bigger than a lemon, but maybe we're talking length here. I hope we're not going backwards!

Mistaken Identity?

Zofia saw this magazine on the newstand the other day and said, "Look, it's Mr. Bean!"
lol

That's not a threat, that's a promise!

Overheard outside the door of the girls' room early this morning, "You'd better not do that or I'll call you Penelope!"

OMG, Y'all!

I only wish I had a picture to document the amazing phenomenon that was my youngest daughter's "sleep training" last night. I used the cry-it-out technique (CYO) with both of the older girls very successfully, but I did it before they were a year old. I'm not sure why I waited so long with KayKay, but that might be the reason it was a bit different this go-round. It wasn't that it took any longer than the others, or that she was any less heart-breaking (I'll talk more about that later) but she certainly was different in one regard. Y'all, she fell asleep standing up!
First she cried for about 30-40 minutes, which was heartbreaking, especially because she can talk, so in between gut-wrenching sobs, she would moan, "Mommyyyyyy!", or "Booooooobie!" Then she sat down and started to nod off.
Have you ever watched someone try to fall asleep on an airplane? That's what this looked like, except the tiny passenger in this case also happened to be in prison and was clutching the bars as if she were about to holler for the warden. So try to picture this baby:

sitting at the edge of the crib, gripping the bars at just about head level, dozing off, with the whole jerky head thing causing her to bonk her head into the crib bars every few jerks. After a few minutes of this I tried to guide her to lay down, but this just woke her up enough to start crying again and stand up. Then she fell asleep standing up! She just laid her head on the edge of the crib and drifted off.
After a few minutes of this she jerked herself awake and sat down again and fell asleep again. Then finally after a while I gently guided her down and she started to cry but just for a second and then fell asleep. Whew!
So tonight I expected a bit more drama. She only cried for about six or seven minutes, then sat down. She sat there and stared at me for a couple of minutes (doubtless plotting my demise) and then fell asleep. After only a couple of minutes, she turned around and laid herself down and that was that!
I just went in to check on her and found this:

Ahhh! A house full of sleeping children! What bliss!

KayKay is walking!

 So, KayKay is finally walking! She'd taken a few steps here and there, but yesterday we went to the library and it seems like something clicked. She was walking all over the place. We shot a bunch of video, but here are the highlights. I love how Zofia & Maggie interact with her. So much love; and the feeling is mutual.
There is also a clip from a couple of days ago showing Kake going through some of the words she knows. She is super smart and seems to understand most of what we say. She can follow instructions and today helped me gather some clothes from around the room and put them in the laundry hamper. She loves to help. Though she understands tons of words, she says only a few. Off the top of my head, here is a list.
Maow! - she says this anytime she sees a cat, a picture of a cat or anyone says the word cat.
Mommy
Dada
Cheese - if someone points a camera or phone at her.
Eye
Hair - which sounds like eau
Ear - which sounds almost exactly like hair
Teeth
Boobie
Hi
Byebye
Mmmmmm - if she wants a bite of something.
Nai Nai - 'nite-nite
No!
Also, she sings Twinkle Twinkle. The tune is totally recognizable, but the words are not exactly. The only part that sounds remotely correct is "up above the world so high", which comes out, "up a a a hi hi hi".
We also sing a diaper changing song, which she now sings all the time. Well, at least the last two words, which are "diaper now". So all day long she is either singing "up a  a  a  hi hi hi" or "diaper noooooow".
Very musical baby.

It's moments like these...

I just went in to check on the girls and found Zofia asleep with an open book still clutched in her hand. Swoon!

Sleep...clapping?

I'm watching tv in bed. Kaykay is sleeping next to me, totally out. In the show I'm watching the audience starts clapping, and a moment later so does Kake! Still totally asleep!
Hee hee!

Get back to work!

I was called out yesterday by Zofia, who told me in no uncertain terms that I'd better get back to blogging on a regular basis, because when Kaykay gets bigger and there are no blog posts about her as a baby, she will be very sad. Wow. So...I resolve to blog on a regular basis and to keep track of milestones and cutenesses of all three girls!
I realized when we were looking at old blog posts that Zofia was "sleep trained" at 10 months old. I can't find any blog references to Maggie sleep training, but Kaykay is now 13 months old and still not sleeping through the night. Tough nights a-comin' people!
Here is some stuff Kaykay does these days:
She knows her toes, nose, belly button and hair. When you say hair she grabs hers and says something that sounds like, "AOWWW". So cute.
She loves to give kisses and has evolved from usually open mouthed tooth kisses to puckering up and sticking her chin out and saying, "mmmmm".
She still loves to be upside down.
She stands up by herself and the word is that she took a few steps to Grandpa at their house the other night.

In other news, the big girls are attending science camp every afternoon this week and the first day went well. They made bug catchers and dissected owl poop!

Continued on Tuesday - Today the girls learned about chemistry! In the car on the way home Zofia explained  the difference between a physical reaction and a chemical reaction. Loving this camp!

That's all for today!

Zofia's Seventh Year

Seventh, I say! I cannot believe it has been seven years since she made me a Mommy. This amazing little girl is daily a blessing to us. Her kind heart, gentle spirit, sensitive nature, inquisitive mind, and quirky sense of humor are appreciated and treasured by all of us.

KK's First Year

Yay! I can't believe she's already one! Almost walking, almost talking, definitely charming everyone with whom she comes into contact. We love you KK!