Linnea: Month Three

Our sweet little #3 is growing so fast. Her latest feats include:
* draining a 6 oz bottle
*busting out of size 2 diapers after only being in them 3 weeks.


* loving to be on her belly while watching her crazy siblings playing around her

* sitting up in her high chair and playing with toys (she hates the recline!)

*already advancing to the exersaucer. I felt a little unsure about it, but her legs are supported on the lowest setting and she'd been sitting up straight in the high chair for a couple of weeks before I attempted it. She loves being in the midst of all the action.


*grabbing for toys, mommys hair, blankets, daddy's chest hair, anything in her reach. her aim isn't that great yet but her drive is strong!
*sleeping through the night(!!!!!). this past week she's made some major night time sleeping headway. her last feeding is around 8:30/9:00 and then she'll go until 7 or 8AM with only needing to have her paci stuck back in her mouth a couple of times a night. How nice is that!?!


She just hand her 4 months checkup (even though I started this post a few weeks ago, I'll include her stats here) and weighed in at 17 lbs 3 oz and measured 25 1/2 inches. She is our rolly polly happy little girl.

Henry Turns Two!

We celebrated Henry's 2nd birthday a day early, since the day of would be packed with working on the floor. While Henry napped after church we got the party ready. Balloons on the doorways, Dora hats and Princess plates (his choice at the store, what can we say? He has an older sister?!?) and made the cake. We were a little short on time though and should've made the cake the night before, so it was still cooling when the party was ready to start. So rather then kick-off with the cake, we started with presents, then pinata and ended with the cake.



Henry is such a cutey. He basks in being the center of attention with a shy little smile and bow of the head. It's amazing how much they change in their 2nd year. While he still isn't saying a lot of words (that darn paci!) he communicates pretty well. His usual technique is grabbing you by the hand or finger and quite forcefully pulling you to whatever or wherever the thing is he wants. Nothing like a beckoning pull while at the computer or sink to get your attention, especially the way he looks at you with an entreating smile.

At his 2 year checkup this week he weighed 33 lbs and is 35 inches tall. While he can sometimes be quite destructive in an innocent or bored way, he is usually very mellow and eager to please. He loves to clean up and help set the table. After he's done eating he will put all his scattered food bits on his plate and give it to me. Then he will usually want to wipe the table off after his hands and face are clean. He loves the vacuum cleaner and broom too. Let's hope it stays that way!



Henry is obsessed with water. He would play in the bathroom all day, filling and pouring and splashing. His latest craze is filling a cup from the fridge door water dispenser, taking a sip and pouring the rest in the sink and repeating until the floor and his clothes are sopping wet. Sigh. Thus the constant towel on the floor. After I've had enough I'll lock the water dispenser, but I try to leave it on in hopes that he'll outgrow it eventually.



He loves playing with his sisters and they love playing with him. When he's napping Evalyn can't wait until he's awake again (usually). And I think Henry gets the biggest smiles from Linnea.



His favorite game to play with Mommy is "Tickle Monster". This is where I "rawr" at the kids and tickle them to pieces (obviously). It often involves me pretending to sleep and then waking up to rawr some more, or hiding behind furniture and jumping out. After a long session of this he'll keep coming up to me "rawring" so I'll tickle him even more. His favorite game to play with Daddy is "Pile on Daddy" which is pretty self explanatory and is usually played right when Matt walks in the door. It often evolves into Horsie Rides to the dinner table.

Lately he's started playing with cars and trains more. His favorite movie is The Polar Express. He gets so excited about the train that he will drag me into the room whenever the train is doing something neat. Pooh Bear, Tigger and Curious George are his other favorite characters right now.

We love our little boy and the joy he brings to our family. And before we know it he'll only play with cars and legos and shun all the girly stuff!

Three Projects and a Birthday

MLK Day weekend my parents drove down to help us with three of our latest projects: install shelves in the office walk-in closet, replace the 1960's oven, and install new flooring in the dining room, entry and kitchen. Plus celebrate Henry's birthday. That was a lot to do in 2 1/4 work days, so we were pleased to get 2 out of the 3 checked off. Plus we saved $1200 on the floors doing it ourselves. That was my mantra as we measured and cut and pushed and pulled til our knees and backs ached and my fingertips were feeling raw. "Saving $1200, saving $1200".

First thing Saturday my dad and I went to work on the closet shelves while Matt took the kids out to play and my mom pulled up the floor moldings, carpet and existing laminate in the entry. We actually lost power right as we finished breakfast! So the shelves went a little slow since we only had one cordless drill to work with. Fortunately my dad had cut the shelves to length before they arrived. And right about the time we needed the skilsaw back in action, the power was restored.


With the floor prepped and spackled (taking much longer than we'd anticipated), we got the first 4 feet of Metroflor laid down late Saturday night.


Sunday we "rested" and celebrated Henry's 2nd Birthday (a day early) with an orange cake, Princess plates, Dora hats, and a horse pinata. He seemed a little traumatized at first that we were hitting his kid-sized horse friend with a stick, but got a little more into it when the first bits of candy flew out. We ended the day with a delicious dinner at a friends house just south of town.


Monday we worked straight through and laid down the rest of the floor, getting just inside the kitchen when my parents hit their 3:30 deadline to get in the car and head home. Several hours later after the kids were in bed, we got the last little piece put in by the kitchen door. Whew! It was close to midnight and we were beat. But the floor is just what we were hoping for. The phrase "sweat equity" means so much more now!




It is oh so lovely to simply SWEEP the food and playdough from beneath the table rather than vacuum. Thanks Mom and Dad for all your help!! Next project: replace the wall oven...

Snowy Days

We kept getting passed over early on in winter whenever snow was forecasted. This past week has certainly made up for that. Saturday we had 5 inches on the ground. Yesterday we got another 5 at least. I think it's snowed almost everyday this past week. This is the kind of snow I was expecting for this area, but people kept saying it didn't snow that much.



I do love the quiet beauty that a fresh layer of falling snow brings. I love standing outside at night watching these huge flakes come jetting down out of darkness, listening to the silence. A deer or two passed by while I was watching the snow fall. And the kids have gotten some good exercise struggling through the foot almost that's in our yard right now!



It's been fun watching it accumulate on the patio table as I track it from the kitchen window.



This is our Mt. Shasta sculpture. or "Mountain Shasta" as Evalyn says. Linnea woke up early from her nap the other morning and joined us outside in her cuddly bear suit in the jogging stroller. But by the time I got her bundled and dragged the stroller out, the kids were wet and all done playing. Oh well! She does look super cute in her bear suit though. And she enjoyed her brief chance to watch the falling flakes.

REcycling and Diapers

Sometimes I wish Ashland wasn't on the other side of a 4300 foot mountain pass. Recycling may not be a huge reason, but it's one of many. We've been topping out the largest rollcart/garbage can that Yreka Transfer supplies each week. So I'm looking at ways to reduce our refuse. I guess we were spoiled before in Beltsville where we had 2 pickups a week and it didn't matter if you put out something extra. Here they charge you $2-5 bucks an extra bag. I didn't realize how much we actually tossed out. And that's with filling 2 big plastic recylcing bins every other week.

They do have recycling here in town, but they only pick it up the last Thursday of the month and it's pretty limited: newspaper, aluminum cans, cardboard, glass, only 2 types of plastics that aren't CA redemption. NO greyboard (cereal/cracker boxes/packaging). That is a huge part of our trash output, aside from diapers. And no yard waste either, that I could find.

So I decided to look to Ashland and see if they had a place I could drop off whatever Yreka Transfer won't take. They have not let me down. There's a great little recycling center that takes almost everything, and it's not too far from the Inner Child Cafe that I'm so in love with. : ) Now to find a place in our garage to store the extra recyclables between trips over the border.

All this waste talk has made me think again about using cloth diapers. It's the poopy ones that make me cringe. bleh! I don't even have to ask Matt about that. If we did the switch I'm sure his terms would involve me doing all poopies. I think one of my reasons for not doing it before was because the laundry was in the basement and our bathroom was too small. Well, those obstacles are both gone so now what's my hold up??? I really really wish g-diapers were affordable, that seems like the best of both worlds. You flush the liner away where it gets treated as sewage and you just reuse the covers. No poopies to scrape and wash. Nothing ends up in a landfill on a weekly basis.

And I bet cloth diapers would help Henry want to potty train a bit more.... then we'd be down to just one in diapers!!

New Year's Haircuts

I've been meaning to give home hair cuts another try and New Year's Day was my chance. Evalyn's pretty long locks have been getting more tangled lately and neither of us are very consistent/cooperative about pulling it back and keeping it neat looking. I love the way her long hair waves a bit and how it has so many shades of blonde right now. But it is so hard to keep her from looking like an orphan girl when we leave the house (what with the hair and her tendency to wear the same purple dress every day AND night). Plus I never got it fixed from when she did her own cut job awhile ago.


After watching a couple of YouTube videos, reading some pointers, and buying a haircutting kit that includes clippers for boy/dad cuts, I was willing to try.

My equipment:

swivel barstool
laptop with kid shows playing
spray bottle
sectioning clips
sharp scissors
mirror
combs of varying size for getting out tangles

The Process:




Results:

It turned out okay. I need to get her back on the stool for some touch up. I think the bob cut suits her age right now. It is so tricky to cut accurately! Even with her sitting still watching Tigger and Pooh and Little Einsteins on my laptop.


I was eager to try out the new clippers but Matt has always been opposed to the idea of me cutting his hair. Some fear of going to work or a big meeting with a very bad 'do. He was really looking like a Chia Head or The Fifth Beatle (nicknames are his own inventions). After some coaxing that involved guaranteed fishing time on Saturday and me reminding him that his office is much more low key here than Washington. It took almost an hour since we squeezed in front of the bathroom mirror so he could coach me and see that I wasn't giving him a buzz cut or something drastic.

I forgot to take a before picture, but here's the after. Not too bad for my first time I think. It was good enough that I think he'll let me try again next time. : )