Our world came crashing down

On Sunday, June 26, 2011, our sweet Baby Elli grew her Angel wings.  Born on 9/13 and she will forever be 9 months and 13 days old.

Life must go on, we're just not exactly sure how.  Addi and Livi need us.

I will resume the blog at some point.  I still feel the need to document the lives of Miss Adalyn and Miss Alivia.  But for now, I'll be taking a break.  Our family is devastated and we need some time to grieve and to heal.

3 months old

6 months old

Our final pictures - 9 months old

Fun in the Sun

We've been spending a lot of time outside the past couple of weeks.  The girls ask almost every single day if we can play at the park or go swimming.  They absolutely love it outside and I'm already getting nervous about when the snow begins to fly and we're cooped up in the house all day!! 

When I'm home alone, I typically put Elli in her highchair so that she can eat a snack by the patio door while I supervise Addi and Livi playing in the water.  Or if it's not too hot, she comes outside and crawls around in the yard or plays in her jumper.  As is evidenced by the insane number of pictures in this post, we've been spending a LOT of time in the pool. 

Addi is such a peanut.

"Mom, I've got TWO boats!!"

Drinking water out of the "waterfall"

The girls even helped Elli enjoy her first time in the frog pool.

Splashy, splashy!!

Livi dumping water overboard while Addi supervises.

Elli enjoying the weather in her jumper.

Livi is such a sweet honey pie.

"Mom, what's daddy doing over there?!" (she was very concerned!)

They love it.

9 months already?!

Elli had her 9 month appt on Monday.  Dr K is very pleased with her development and doesn't have any concerns about her...well, except for her really crappy sleeping habits.  The literature that was given at the appt said that "a typical 9 month old should be taking 2 naps a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, in addition to sleeping 10 to 12 hours at night without waking for feedings."  Um, yeah right.  We're on an every 2 hour feeding schedule, but we also have to calm her every 20 minutes it seems like.  It's seriously that bad.

Of course, now that I've come back to writing this for the 4th time while I'm trying to get Elli to settle in, I'm seriously beginnng to wonder if she has reflux.  Why couldn't I have had this thought two days ago when she had her appt?!  Elli is sooooo restless at night.  She tosses and turns and tosses and turns.  And kicks her legs in the air, cries out briefly, kicks her legs in the air again, thrashes her arms, etc.  For the past two months or so, I was thinking she was extremely gassy and it was getting trapped in her belly at night.  Now I'm having different thoughts.

When I really think about it, it makes sense.  She wants to eat c.o.n.s.t.a.n.t.l.y at night.  Well constant swallowing would help keep the acid down and milk is a natural acid reducer.  It seems quite logical to me.  So I don't know.  I guess I'll be calling the office in the morning and seeing if maybe Dr K will prescribe something for her on a trial basis just to see if that helps with her sleeping.  People keep telling me that I just have to let her cry.  But my gut feelng is that something's just not right.  I thought it was gas (which I DID address with Dr K at the appt), but now I have other thoughts.  I can't let her cry it out.  Not when my gut tells me that she's uncomfortable.

Anyway.  She's huge.  Nothing surprising there!  She's 29 1/4 inches long and exactly 21 pounds!  She outweighed the girls by 3 1/2 pounds at this age!  In fact, they were only 19 pounds at a year old, so she's definitely a lot bigger than they were.  I told Nate that Elli is gaining on the girls so quickly in height and weight that eventually people might think we have triplets!!

So she's finally sleeping *well* for now.  Within the next 30 minutes I'm sure I'll have to calm her down from her tossing, turning, and thrashing.  And then within the next 2 hours I'll have to feed her.  So I really should go to bed.

Baby Elli

That's what the big girls call her.  If you ask them what Elli's name is, they always say "Baby Elli."  They never just say baby or Elli, it's always Baby Elli.  Baby Elli is awake!  Baby Elli is crying.  Baby Elli is silly.  Baby Elli is sleeping.  Baby Elli pulled my hair!  Baby Elli is talking.  And it goes on and on and on.  I kind of wonder how long she will hold that name!  But anyway, here are some pictures of "Baby Elli."

She's such a happy girl.

She couldn't resist squeezing this bear's nose.

Hanging on so tight!!

What a ham.

My bright little blue-eyed baby.

Caught in mid-chew.

Poor girl watching her sisters play outside...she wants to play too!

Sisters by Birth, Best Friends by Choice

And, she's off...

We've got a crawler.  I can't believe my baby is already crawling.  I mean, she's 8 1/2 months, so it's definitely time and it's not like she's an early crawler by any means.  But I can't believe she's old enough to be doing this already!  Seems like just yesterday she first learned how to smile.  And now she's crawling.  She's not super speedy by any stretch of the imagination, but she moves.

And in pretty typical Elli fashion, she accomplished this milestone between the time frame that her older sisters did.  Livi was 8 months and 8 days old.  Addi was 8 months and 16 days old.  Elli ended up doing it at 8 months 15 days old.  Just like their birth times...Addi 7:05am, Livi 7:33am, and along comes Elli at 7:25am. 

I know Elli has done a couple other things in between the time frames that her sisters did, but I'm tired right now and can't for the life of me remember what!  Plus it's been a really long week.  So anyway, I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day!!

The story of the mismatched kids

This is just a short little story.  I have a lot going on right now and not much time to blog.

So yeah.  My kids.  And socks.  And their refusal to wear white socks.  Or their refusal to let me guide them in what colored socks they should wear.  Leads to many, many days looking like whoever dressed them was colorblind.

Sometimes I'm able to convince them to wear the socks that I pick out for them.  But it usually takes a lot of bribing and sweet talking.  And on daycare days, I simply don't have the time to do that while I'm trying to get myself ready as well as get 3 kids dressed, fed, teeth brushed, hair combed and out the door on time.  So it's not unheard of for them to attend daycare with purple shirts and blue socks.  Or pink shirts and orange socks.  Or polka dot shirts with striped socks.  Or red shirts and green socks (who says Christmas is in December?).

Anyway.  I pick my battles.  And quite frankly, that's a battle that I'm simply not willing to fight.  It's just socks.  I'm sure daycare will forgive me.

Randoms

I have so many stories to tell as the days go by, but by the time I actually get to sit down to write about them, I pretty much forget all of them.  Maybe a side effect of sleep deprivation?  Or maybe just a result of getting older?  Who knows.  But my memory really isn't what it used to be.

Addi:  Well, she has now had her second tick in her short 2 1/2 years of life.  I haven't had a single tick in 29 years.  So they're definitely attracted to her.  Unfortunately, the head of this second one is still buried in her scalp.  She was talking to grandma on the phone and I was rubbing the back of her head...wouldn't ya know it, I felt a lump.  Looked to see what it was and sure enough, that little bugger was really embedded in there.  I grabbed it at the base with a tweezers, but the head still broke off.  Triage told us to give it a day to see if it works itself out.  I tell you, if it's going to happen to one of my kids, it's going to be her.  Did I ever tell you about Addi swallowing a penny?  I didn't?  Yeah, that was another experience!!

Livi:  She is so sweet.  She really is a little caretaker.  She continues to load up Elli's lap with toys and brings Elli a nuk.  She also kisses Addi's "boo-boos".  She's just such a nurturing little child.  Not to say that she doesn't have her wild side or her cranky side for that matter.  She can throw a tantrum with the best of them!  But when she's sweet, she's really, really sweet.  In other news, each of the girls went through a phase where we couldn't read to them enough.  That was back when they were right around 14 months I think.  We're now back to that with Livi.  She wants to read all the time.  I love it!!  She's also such a polite little girl.  "Thank you, mama (or daddy or grandma)" is one of her favorite phrases.  She's just sweet I tell ya.

Elli:  She thinks that our cat Desi is the most awesome thing on the face of this planet.  If Desi crosses her line of vision, she squeals, she screams, she laughs, she smiles, her eyes light up.  She loves that cat.  Desi doesn't share the same sentiment though.  Elli tends to pull hair if Desi gets too close, so she just keeps her distance now.  And it drives Elli bananas!!  She wants to get at that kitty so bad!!!  If only she could crawl.  But she is making some pretty good strides at crawling.  I thought for a while there that she was going to skip it and just head straight to walking.  But now I think she'll probably be crawling within the next month. She's up on all fours just rocking away and she'll put one hand in front of the other, but then she forgets to move her knees.  She'll get there.

Mother's Day Weekend

We had a fabulous weekend.  On Saturday, we woke up to find out that our big screen TV decided it served its time.  So we loaded up the girls and started our day at McDonald's for breakfast.  The big girls played in the Playland for a while and when they were done, we went TV shopping.  By the time we were done with that, it was nap time.  When they woke up from nap, we went to park #1 of the weekend.

Elli thoroughly enjoyed her first time in a swing.

After a good chunk of time at park #1 we came home and let the girls run around outside...one bonus to a fenced in backyard is that we left the patio door open and they could come in and out as they pleased!! Nate was outside working in the garage and I was inside tidying up, watching Elli, and getting ready for work.  We gave them a T-ball set to play with for the first time ever.  Not sure where they got the idea from, but they both grabbed a couple of Nate's old hats and put them on!!

Batter up!!!

Livi preferred to play umpire.

We're working on the swing - right now it's more of a karate chop.

Livi also chased down all the balls for Addi.

I actually had to work Saturday night from 5-11 so Nate was left to do bedtime routine by himself. And I'm happy to announce that he survived and it went quite smoothly!!

Sunday morning Nate took Addi for an hour long walk! He took her trike with him so she could either walk or ride. And when he came home, he took Livi to Menards to get a few things for the yard. Once they were home from that excursion, we took the girls to park #2. The fun ended when it was time for nap. And once they woke up, we took them to park #3!!

Beautiful.

They had to go down the tallest slide they could find!

Weeee!!  Having fun at the 3rd and final park.

Last but not least, we ended the day with a picture of mommy and her girls.  We all look a bit disheveled from playing at 2 parks that day, but I don't mind at all.  We had fun...and that's all that matters.  But this picture is so typical.  Livi isn't paying any attention whatsoever.  And Addi is so bored she's jamming a finger in her mouth.  Oh well. 

"Hey, Nate!"

Alright, so I find this funny.  However, Nate does not.  The past couple of months, the girls have resorted to hollering "hey, Nate" every now and then instead of daddy or dad.  But the past couple of weeks it's been much more consistent than it used to be.  Here's a typical dialogue in the house...

Girls:  Hey, Nate
Nate:  No, daddy
Girls: Hey, Nate
Nate: No, I'm daddy
Girls: Hey, Nate
Nate: Whatever

I find it hilarious but that's probably because it's not happening to me. A couple months ago when they first started it, they would throw a "hey, Jess" in there and yeah, I hated it.  I want to be mommy, not Jess.  But I'm also a hypocrite because I can't help but snicker when they do it to Nate...and then listening to Nate argue with two 2 year olds before finally conceding is simply funny.

And the winner is...

Elli!!  She is officially our worst sleeper.  What a title, right?  Alivia slept though the night at 3 months.  Adalyn at 7 1/2 months.  And here we sit at over 7 1/2 months and she hasn't done it yet.  In fact, she's not even close.  She was an awful sleeper in utero.  Pretty much twenty four hours a day, she was making some type of movement.  It got to the point where I wondered if she kicked and punched in her sleep!!  It seriously never stopped.

However, I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.  You see, she was actually a fairly good sleeper for the first 3 months.  She would often pull off a good five hour stretch at times (she generally can't even do a three hour stretch anymore).  It all changed when she started noticing the world around her more.  She became too curious.  And that right there is our problem.  She's too stinking nosey to eat during the day!!  When she's home, she's too busy watching her big sisters.  And when she's at daycare, I don't know exactly what the problem is, but it's not unheard of for her to only take 4oz (average is 6-8oz) the entire ten hours I'm away from her!  So then she has to tank up at night to make up for not eating much during the day.

The other problem is that the poor girl has had a cold for at least 3 months, but I think it might now be closer to 4 months.  She has such a hard time breathing when she's laying down and when she coughs, she startles herself awake.  Despite being sick all the time and not getting nearly enough sleep for a baby her age, she sure is a happy little girl!  It's almost scary to think about how happy this child would be if she was healthy and getting 10 hours of sleep at night!!

Our Easter

Here are a few pictures from Easter.  I can't even begin to describe how bummed I am that we still don't have a really good family picture.  We have a few decent ones, but none that I absolutely adore.  Anyway, Elli was the only one who really cooperated.  Those gosh darn 2 1/2 year olds...they really have minds of of their own and if they're not going to cooperate, they're not going to cooperate!!

Even with a cold she didn't mind posing!

Think we could get them to sit next to each other? Of course not!

What a ham.

This was the easiest picture all day.

And maybe this one too.

Well, at least we can see that Elli's bald spot is growing in nicely!!

This is about as good as it gets.

Oh, and if you're wondering why Livi got short-changed and doesn't have an individual picture of herself to include...she was the least cooperative out of all of them.  She sure is a strong-willed little girl at times!!

Okay, here.  Here are a couple I scrounged up of all 3 together wearing their dresses.  It wasn't Easter, but they were trying them on.  And grandma and grandpa J helped Nate get a few quick pictures!!