Baby in a Basket

This is Cailin when she was just a wee sprout, about two months old. I put her in this wicker basket with her knitted hospital hat and did a big photoshoot with her. Her hat was a bit small, but it looked so cute on her. I took so many pictures and put a billion of them on Facebook. There are many framed pictures of that shoot up all over the house.

A few days ago it was Carter's turn. He went in the same basket, but there was no way his knitted hospital hat would ever fit on his head now, so I just fluffed up his hair. Of course this photoshoot was different because I had two assistants helping me. Cailin and Bailey were fantastic baby-distraction-ers. They also spent a lot of time hanging out in my natural light source from the window. That is, when they weren't laying around on the mat under the kitchen sink:
Those two troublemakers really are best friends and they are never far apart. Bailey still sleeps outside Cailin's door waiting for her to get up in the mornings and they spend their days tearing around the house chasing each other. And generally making a lot of noise.

Carter is getting very smiley and talks a lot these days. He chats away happily and falls asleep with a little smile on his face. He is truly the sweetest baby I have ever seen.
Cailin insists on calling him "Buddy". It's hilarious. Everything is Buddy's - Buddy bath, Buddy blankie, Buddy jammies. When he cries, she makes sure to tell him, "It's okay, Buddy."

We had another busy day today. I think Bailey rolled in cat poop (I'm not that interested to really check too hard) and then rolled around in our bed at my absolute horror. Needless to say I washed/changed/fumigated our room so fast it blew everybody's hair back. Cailin helped me do laundry by stuffing clean and previously folded clothes into the dryer. So helpful!

We cleaned here and there. Did a little shopping at Walmart and got some groceries. Nana bought Cailin a beautiful winter coat, but it wasn't received well. I'm hoping she likes her coat better when she doesn't have toothpaste on her shirt and is upset about it.

Cinnamon buns anyone? Looks like we need more brown sugar!

Thanksgiving, Two Month Shots and Such

Thanksgiving was wonderful. It was nice to see everyone and eat my weight in baked goods. This year I'm so thankful for my healthy children, my family and our lifestyle. There are so many people who aren't as blessed as we are with what we have. I try not to take that for granted.

Cailin, Grace and Odin played together all weekend. They are going to be a little gang of troublemakers when they get older, I can already tell. The girls kept locking Odin in the closet and he would cry, Grace would blame Cailin and they'd all march back into the closet to do it over again. They absolutely love playing in Nana's office, especially now with the addition of a very interesting and fun futon. Let the games begin!

Grace loves Carter. She asks me if she can take care of him and wants to hold him. She's quite the mother hen and always lets me know exactly what Cailin, Odin and Bailey are up to at any given moment.

Cailin had so much fun playing with her cousins that she cried when they left to go home. For days after she asked if they went home in (Uncle) Dustin's orange truck to 'go sleepy nap bed'. She's been practising their names since then, saying them over and over and ending with "go home". Apparently my brother's new name is 'Uncle Dustin Orange Truck'. Heh.

It snuck up on me pretty fast, but the day dawned for Carter's two month shots and checkup. Since it was impossible to book him in for his shots in town, I had to book them in a tiny town about 20 minutes from home, halfway between here and Beaver City. His four month shots have been booked (three months in advance) in Beaver City and I'm very glad I won't be taking Cailin with me for those.

Cailin is a very sensitive and sympathetic soul. She started crying the moment we got into the teeny tiny health clinic (which is actually an old converted house slash seniors' hall). She cried the whole time we were in there, reaching maximum pitch when Carter got his three needles and joined in for the chorus (so to speak). I was under the impression that going through needles with the second baby would be a lot easier than the first. Ha. When both my babies were screaming and the tears were flowing, I almost felt like joining in. However, it didn't last that long and we were able to get out of there in a timely manner. Cailin stopped crying once we were outside.

Of course once she was buckled in, Cailin demanded to go see Nana. I obliged since it had been such a stressful morning. On the bright side, Carter did not have any side effects from the shots. No swelling, no fever, no crankiness, no being sick. Unlike some other eldest children. Ahem, Cailin.

Carter's stats:

Weight: 14 lbs, 12 oz

Height: um, the nurse said it was 21", but he was curled up and was 23" tall at his 6 week checkup so I'm going with that.

Head: Pretty big

95th percentile for head and weight, and according to her botched measurement, 10th percentile for height. So the prognosis was that he's short and fat with a big head. But the height is off, so I'm gonna say he's 95 percentile across the board. Big healthy boy!

At any rate, Carter is sleeping through the night, eating very well and hardly ever fusses. He is such a good baby. I have no idea how I lucked out twice.

Other updates:

Cailin finally got her last eyetooth (again), and hopefully it stays out this time.

Bailey has a sore eye today and I have no idea how that came to be.

Carter is in size 3 diapers! Holy cow!

It took about 10 days, but the basement is completely purged, organized and clean. I did stay up til 5am to get the bulk of it done a few days ago. I can't explain how big a weight has been lifted off my shoulders having that done. Five truck loads of stuff left our house - donations and junk. I did the upstairs a few weeks ago, and it only took two days. Everything in our house now has a place, and it makes the tidying up so easy and quick. Carter's room is the playroom for now, and it's organized. He's got a queen sized bed in there at the moment for guests and such. After much thinking and angst, it suddenly dawned on me that he doesn't need a twin bed in there eventually - he's already got a bed. It's a big bed, but a nice bed. So I ordered a jungle comforter for it for Christmas. No need to try and make a guest room out of the (now organized) storage room. Guests can simply use Carter's room for now. Hope they like jungle animals.

Cailin is talking up a storm. Take this conversation we had this morning for example:

Cailin: What horsie say?

Me: Neigh.

Cailin: No, mommy! Horsie say WOOF! *laughs hysterically*

Cailin: Mommy, what horsie eat?

Me: Hay, or grass.

Cailin: Mommy, no! Horsie eat cars! *laughs hysterically*

Cailin: Piggy say oink!

Me: That's right! What does horsie say?

Cailin: WOOF! *laughs hysterically*

Cailin: Where daddy go?

Me: He went to work

Cailin: *twinkle in her eye* No, he went to the store!

Me: No, he's at work

Cailin: He went to bed! Sleepy nappy!

Me: Work.

Cailin: Store! *laughs hysterically*

Seeing a pattern here?

Cailin also knows how to work the iPad flawlessly and uses it to play Angry Birds and watch puppy videos on youtube.

While working on the basement, we've been leaving the baby gate down and Cailin has had free reign in the house. She loves it. While we're not letting her be downstairs without one of us there, she's been having a lot of fun. For a lot of the time I was slaving around in the storage room (upgraded to Storage Room of Mild Disarray), she would lay in our bed playing iPad games with her ever-present bowl of popcorn. Which leads me to my next point.

This kid doesn't eat anything anymore. At best we can get 2 glasses of milk into her, a couple crackers and maybe some cheese and toast per day. Maybe some meat, but always popcorn. I know they go through stages of not eating, but it's never easy to watch.

Cailin slammed the door shut on me yesterday when I took garbage out to the bin. I watched the door slam and then she was able to reach the deadbolt just enough to lock me out. Thankfully the neighbor was outside and graciously let me use his phone to call Ryan. Who didn't have his phone on him. I left him a couple messages while trying to convince Cailin to open the door for me. She cried and begged me to open the door. I told her I couldn't, she would have to be a big girl and do it for me. She got frazzled and upset. She tried her hardest to flip the deadbolt, but once it had turned a bit more (in the right direction even!) she could no longer reach it. I asked her to get her stool from the bathroom and she ran off to comply. She brought back a butterfly hairclip. Gee.

It was a gruelling 30 minutes as I waited outside for Ryan to get my messages and come home. Cailin and Bailey pulled a chair up to the counter, watched the breadmaker churn away at pizza dough and helped themselves to a bowl of popcorn. Watching Cailin and the dog eat/lick/bat popcorn pieces off the counter was almost funny if it wasn't for the circumstances.

After a while she gave up on the breadmaker, popcorn, trying to unlock the door and me in general and sat on the couch watching youtube on the iPad. Carter had cried off and on, but mostly slept through the ordeal. Ryan showed up with a key and everything was good.

I will say this though, our house is like Fort Knox. Every window had a doweling in it and was latched and locked, and all the doors were locked. With the alarm system on top of that, I feel quite safe.

It was Nana's birthday last weekend and we went out for a fire and pizza. Cailin played outside like crazy and had a great time. I brought cinnamon buns (a little overcooked, oops) and it was such a good day. Cailin ate loads of brown sugar and cinnamon helping me bake. She brings me the sugar bag and asks for some sugar. Funny!

We've had quite the month so far. It's been very busy, but good. I'm looking forward to settling down now and just living day to day with the kids.

Picture Time!

Welcome to Fall

CAILIN HAS GIVEN UP HER SUCKIE!! We are on night #4 suckie-free. Still working on that last stubborn eyetooth though. Gah.

Fall is officially here. It's been busy around here with a new baby, but things are organizing themselves into a routine. Carter has been sleeping a lot more at night and being awake a lot more during the day. At his 6 week check up he was 12 lbs and 23" long and has done nothing but grow ever since. He is now in 3-6 month clothes and even some 6 month sleepers. Carter is two months old today! Time sure flies when you're having fun.

Speaking of fun! Cailin is just barrels of fun. She is talking, singing and dancing and generally making life complete and interesting. One of her new favorite chores is to throw stuffed animals in the tub and wash them. She's especially fond of washing Elmo with soap. "Wash Elmo, soap!"
Recently I've been busy organizing and cleaning the house. It took me two days to completely clean, organize and purge all unnecessary items from the upstairs. It is really comforting to open a closet, cupboard or drawer and have a place to put away items. The playroom (which will one day be Carter's room) is also fully organized and cleaned. It's great to be able to toss the toys quickly into their assorted bins and be done with clean up in half the time it used to take. Guess watching those hoarder TV shows and getting panicky about clutter really paid off.

Of course, the downstairs is a different story. Fresh off the victory of a fully cleaned and organized upstairs, I attacked the storage room downstairs (Pit of Doom) with a vengeance. It has now been upgraded to Pit of Despair. Kinda looks like a hoarder took over the basement right now. I had every intention of getting back to it over the weekend, but we spent it at the farm instead. Meh. I'll get it one garbage bag at a time.
Grampy and Pammy came to stay with us for a week and Cailin enjoyed their company thoroughly. She's still talking about them and looks for them occasionally in the playroom. We had a good visit and look forward to seeing them again.