I ♥ Faces Photo Entry

This is for Week 19 of their photo contest for our very BEST close-up picture to go in their photo blurb book.




"I am submitting this photo into the www.iheartfaces.com Blurb Book photo contest. I am granting I ♥ Faces permission to use my photo in a printed version of a book for commercial use and possibly advertising of a photo book on both the Blurb and I ♥ Faces web sites."

Sticker Love

This is what happens in our house when you stay in one place too long.

My 3 year old girl!

Three years ago today, I was off to the hospital to have a scheduled repeat c-section (I have a heart condition :P) with my little Leila. From the moment she arrived, my mother looked in her eyes and said that she would be trouble. Boy, was she right. Leila has been ALL trouble from the start, but it is the best kind of trouble. She is the type of kid that could set your house on fire and give you one glance with a mischievous smirk and all would be fine. You just can't get mad at this kid. Anyone who meets her will tell you the same thing, too. There is just something to her. A little je ne sais quoi.

This also marks the third year of her breastfeeding. I never imagined going this long since Ava self-weaned toward the end of my pregnancy with Leila. I thought she would wean when I was pregnant with Violet. No...she is very much attached to it. I wouldn't even begin to make her wean either. It is the best moments of the day with her when we are still and she nurses. She just loves it so much, and I love our connection. She is only nursing twice a day on average when she wakes up in the morning and after her nap. So, I know she is in the process of weaning, but I can't even predict how long she will go. That's fine. It's what she needs.

I just can't believe she is three already. She isn't my little baby that I wore all tucked into my sling anymore. I am looking forward to all the next year has in store. I think she will start ballet and our home school co-op group. It will be very exciting.

Here are some pics of Leila for you with a couple showing just how goofy she is.

Also, go check out Stephanie at Adventures in Babywearing having a contest on how YOU wear your baby.

When photoshoots go wrong

Leila has a bit of a cold this weekend, but the weather has been so gorgeous that I wanted to get the girls outside for some pictures. Of course, she wakes up from her long nap cranky as can be and really not all that interested in heading out to do anything I want. So, I did want any good mother would do and offered her a bribe of jellybeans if she cooperated. She didn't get the jelly beans.

Ava earned her jelly beans, though.

Sick Day

I was hit with Leila's lovely stomach bug from the weekend yesterday. Of course, this hits me just when Daniel is having to work waaaaay more than normal with a new restaurant opening and having to set up their wine list. This means that he has been gone all days for the past week. By all day, I seriously mean that he is gone from the time I get up until well after I am asleep. I have been in single parent mode. Obviously so not the time I want to be getting knocked down with a nasty bug. My mom came to rescue last night for the worst of it, but I was on my own today.

Thankfully, my girls have taken pity on me and been relatively well behaved. I didn't even need the tv to babysit them. I printed off a ton of coloring pages and worksheets to keep them in school heaven all afternoon. The kitchen table is a disaster area at the moment, but that is a small price to pay.

It is times like this, though, when I think about how fortunate I am to have my girls. They are pretty spectacular in my book. Even when I am feeling my worst, they are able to make me smile.

Nocturnal Supervision

This is what Daniel calls his new style of parenting. *big eye roll*

I left Leila home with him yesterday morning while I took Ava to ballet class with Violet. Leila had been overtired from all of our activity with company in town and therefore acting up like she had been abducted by aliens and replaced with a bad version of herself.

So, I leave the house with Daniel relaxing telling me he has things covered. He suggested to Leila that she color at the kitchen table. Anyone who knows us knows we keep the house clean. Crafts, coloring, anything messy is contained to the kitchen...period. Leila, in particular, knows that she is restricted to the crayons unless told specially otherwise. So it was quite entertaining when I got a rather annoyed phone call from Daniel about an hour and a half after we left the house.

Apparently, he had fallen asleep for "only an hour or so" while I was gone. During that hour, Leila kept herself quietly entertained. By quietly, I mean disastrously. She had decided to get into EVERY single item in our craft cabinet in the kitchen. Daniel said it looked like a craft bomb had gone off in our kitchen.

There was paint all over the kitchen table. She had plastic bowls of water going to assist with any project she needed it with. She had gotten Q-tips out of our bathroom to help her paint like she learned to do last week at a friend's house while making V-day cards. She decorated her shirt with paint and glitter glue. There was mysterious pink powder all over the place like in the cat's water dish and the powder room sink along with the white towel she was using to clean herself off with. Later that night, I finally discovered what the heck that pink powder was when I found the container of Moon Sand in the refrigerator being preserved after she filled it up with water.

My husband did do one thing right, he cleaned the entire scene of the crime up before I got the phone call and made it home. Amazingly enough, she avoided getting paint on anything but herself, a towel, the kitchen table, and paper. My precious, light-colored carpet and furniture was spared.

Because of the lack of any permanent damage to the house, Daniel was quickly able to laugh at the whole thing. He is claiming to be the best daddy in the world for letting his two year go wild with crafts for a whole hour while he nocturnally supervised her. I told him he should look for that reward as soon as he figures out how to pull my foot out of his ass.

Just can't win with her

We had a rare night out for dinner this evening and decided to make it a kid-friendly by taking them to Fuddruckers for burgers. Leila has been on a particularly big burger kick lately, so she was thrilled to get to eat one tonight.

Daniel ordered everything while I took the girls for a much needed potty break. So, we didn't hear everything that was ordered. I take them to sit, and Daniel comes back with drinks. Sodas for us and water for the girls. Pretty standard since I only let them drink milk or water.

Well, he then goes back up to the counter without saying anything. The girls asked where he was going, and I said that the food was ready. Unbeknownst to me, he had ordered them vanilla milkshakes and was proudly carrying the whipped cream loaded treats back to the table. He sat them down in front of the girls.

Ava's eyes immediately lit up with excitement, and she dug as fast as she could probably out of fear it was a mistake and would be taken away in no time. Leila, on the other hand, looks and them and grimaces. She then says in her not too happy with you voice, "But I wanted a hamburger...".

It took some explaining to convince her the her burger was still coming and that Daddy only wanted to get her a nice treat to enjoy in the meantime. After that, she was more than happy to drink it. In fact, she started to steal Ava's when she was too full to finish it.

Little rat...

Better than a rainy day

I am making a wish list of sorts for baby items I am saving up to purchase since I apparently I am not made of money.

1. I am trying to buy my own stash of cloth diapers for Violet. I borrowed all the ones I used with Leila from a friend who has a new little baby that needs them. I am really loving the idea of the one size diapers since we are done adding to the family and will only have one baby that needs them. I don't want to invest a crazy amount of money in all different sizes when I can make one purchase of the one size. I just can't decide if I want to go with the one size diapers from Bumgenius, Fuzzi Bunz, or Happy Heiny. I have heard pros and cons of all of them, but it has also been conflicting. I would love any and all input anyone has for me on these.

2. More Baby Legs. I told you guys I am addicted. While they are not a huge expense, I just want more, more, more. Never mind the fact that Violet keeps spitting up on them left and right. They have made diaper changes go so smoothly since I don't have to fuss with pants anymore.

3. I am in search of a good double jogging stroller to help me get out with the kids and get in shape again. If I could have my dream pick, it would be the BOB Revolution one. Again, as much as I would like it, I am not made of money. I can not afford to blow $450+ on a jogging stroller. So, I am trying to research what would be the best alternative for much less money. Any suggestions?

So, there is my current list. Not much to it, but they are important items for me to hopefully be able to afford soon.

Around the house today

Today was not out of the ordinary. I woke up at 7am to a cranky 5yo. That was fine. I needed to get up anyway in order to get out the door on time. I ended up leaving said 5yo at home with Daddy (again, the beauty of a husband that works evenings) to take Leila and Violet with me to my monthly LLL meeting. I had a great time sharing with other nursing moms. Then, I came home, started a load of laundry, and fed the kiddos lunch before settling them down for their afternoon nap. Or as I like to call it, the magic hour. I even managed to doze off with my snugly baby for a bit. After they woke up, I fed them a snack, started our afternoon routine of learning work, made dinner, and got them in bed. A pretty average day of activity. What wasn't normal was all the funny things my kids were up to today that just had me smiling and laughing at their antics.

First, I came home from my meeting to Daniel telling me about Ava's food person. Her what? Yes, her food person. She gets rather creative when left to entertain herself, and that is when she comes up with bizarre things like this. It even talks.
Second, my little baby must think the Bumbo seat is like the greatest and most comfortable thing ever to take a nap in. Every time I stick her in it lately, she is completely conked out in as little as a minute even after just having napped for three hours straight. I stuck her in the seat for a moment while I was prepping lunch on the counter next to her only to find this before I even had their sandwiches sliced. Yes, I know I just posted a pic of this, but I had to show you how funny a position she found herself in and stayed in until her sisters started screaming at one another about which napkin had their name on it. Plus, it is so cute, and you will just have to deal with seeing another pic of it.

The third and final thing that just made my night came from Leila. She has taken to singing herself to sleep lately. I am always amused to hear sweet little toddler songs coming from her room. Tonight had me a little more concerned, though. She has obviously had entirely too much television since coming down with her awful cold last week because this is what she was singing up there tonight.

I know you are singing along now, too. Oh, I was on the floor rolling over it. I think I know what we are eating for lunch tomorrow.

Rockin' to sleep

Daniel and I have always felt that music is one of the best parts of our relationship. It has really played and integral part of things since we began dating. There are albums that immediately bring me back to specific moments we have shared. We love to go to concerts and make a point never to miss anyone we really like. The few times we have, we just kick ourselves forever after. We always have music on in the house, the car, and anywhere we can get it to play.

The girls are really into it, as well. We love to take them to see live music whenever we can. They have their own iPods, and we have filled it with really diverse and interesting music that should help them grow really interesting opinions on what they like at a young age...we hope.

Each one of them was exposed to concerts in the womb. With Ava, it was Peter Gabriel and the Foo Fighters. With Leila, it was NIN and U2. With Violet, it was Neil Diamond, The Police, Elvis Costello, and Bruce Springsteen. Now, we aren't sure if any of it set in with them, but they do seem to enjoy all of this music when they hear it.

This evening, Violet was being a bit fussy as she has not slept a ton today. We were trying to watch the Super Bowl and the half-time was starting. We were really excited to see Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band playing. As soon as they began to play, Violet perked up to hear the music and got very calm. In the 15mins or so that they were playing, she was lulled off to sleep.

Now, I have no idea if it was the music she enjoyed or if it brought her back to some memory of being in the womb, but it worked so well in settling her. Maybe I will keep that in my bag of tricks, and bust it out whenever I need to get her down for bed.

My poor little sick bugs

This week is turning out to be a bit of a rough one for us. Both Ava and Leila have come down with a nasty cold and cough. That has meant of a lot of me wiping noses and spraying down things they touch and demanding that they wash their hands anytime they touch their nose or mouth. I am trying my hardest to keep Violet from coming down with this. I have the girls pretty much sequestered to the game room with the promise of television as long as they stay in there. Of course, Ava jumps at any chance to watch TV, but Leila couldn't care less about it. So, I have had to swap out toys for ones she hasn't seen a while to keep her occupied.

My only wish is that this were one of those good sicknesses. You know, the kind where they lose their voice and scream and yell at one another, or the kind where they are too weak to punch one another. I have had to put them in a streamed up bathroom to help their congestion, but let me tell you how close that has come to turning into a UFC match. Earlier today, Ava was pushed into the shower by Leila. Luckily, she landed on the side where the scalding hot water wasn't. UGH! I am now having to hang out in their sick sauna with them just to keep the peace. While it is doing wonders for my skin, my hair is now looking like Ms. Frizzle's from The Magic School Bus series. Hey, maybe I will drop some weight in there. One can only hope.

Here is a pic of my sickies eating the delicious chicken noodle soup I made them. Notice the straws...that's how I get them to willingly drink the broth.

Oh, and if anyone has any tips on how to get a 5yo to understand the concept of blowing her nose, I would greatly appreciate it, especially considering her 2yo sister can do it. *sigh*

Oh, the DRAMA!!!!

Ask anyone who has a girl, especially those that also have a boy, and they will almost always tell you that girls are so dramatic. Lately, I have been experiencing this to the max. Funny, with four girls in this house, you would assume it is off the hook with drama here. It isn't that bad normally, though. I mean, do you think we would have continued having them if it was.

Well, I think Ava has been giving Leila some drama lessons recently, but has us mostly rolling in laughter than stressed out. For example, Leila will do something like, oh... I don't know, breathe the same air as Ava. This will inevitably send Ava into a high pitched wailing about her air being taken without asking. Leila will then retaliate against the tattling by pushing Ava aside to get her side of the story across because, you know, she just has to breathe, too. As we are separating the two of them to their opposing corners of the ring, Ava will just go sit and wail as loud as she can. Leila witnessing this will have to out do her by wailing her loudest and then repeatedly smacking her legs with her hands in that exasperated manner with a distinct HUMPH.

My goodness...the competitiveness of the two of them at such young ages has me pretty worried. Our current amusement of this behavior is really all we can do besides sit and cry in frustration. I think I am going to have to reread the book, Siblings Without Rivalry, soon.

Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!

Sorry, I had to get that out.

First haircut

Leila got her hair cut for the very first time last Saturday. I was waiting until after her 2nd birthday to do it since it is "supposed" to be bad luck to cut their hair sooner. Well, I waited a little more than two years just to be safe. I took her to my hairdresser since he is so great with getting down to business with them. Well, that and because he didn't charge anything for it.

Leila was all for William cutting her hair until it actually came time to have it done. Which is what I suspected would happen. I wasn't planning to push her into it. If she wanted to do, that was fine. If not, I was okay with that too. I was there with my mom to get her hair and Ava's hair cut. So, Leila not following through on it was not a huge deal. It just would have been nice to get rid of the rat tail she has been growing finally.

Well, despite her protesting, my mother picked her up and held her and instructed William to cut. Before I could say it was no big deal, the hair was falling and I was scrambling to grab my camera to document it.

Leila was not too pleased at first and didn't want to fully cooperate with us. The trim was very uneven. Then, she realized that no one was trying decapitate her or anything and actually stood on her own to let William clean it up.

I am thrilled with the overall result. I really only had him take the tail off the back and nothing with the front or sides. So, it is pretty much one length. I am hoping this helps with growing it out.

Anyway, here are some pics. I have no before since it all happened so fast, but these are the after.

She is too young to know so much...

Leila was snuggling up with Daniel yesterday while I was taking a shower. All of sudden, my 20 minutes of daily sanity was interrupted with Daniel bursting in the bathroom with Leila laughing. He then instructs her to tell me what she just told him. Of course, Leila doesn't do tricks, so she just ran into the bedroom and hid in the pillows.

He then says, "You will never believe what she just said to me.". He gives me this look that says we are seriously in for it with this one. I ask him what she did this time. He says, "I asked your precious daughter (because she is always MY daughter in moments like these) to give me a kiss. She tells me, "No, Daddy. You give me present. Princess present. You and Mommy buy for me now. Then you get kisses." He pauses... "How do I say no to that?".

I just busted up laughing over that. My precious two year is working Daddy better than many grown women we have seen trolling the bars for sugar daddies. I don't know whether I should be scared or proud.

Hurricane Leila

I am in clothing overload here thanks to Leila Rose. Oh, man. This is the first girl that has been completely obsessed with clothing. In particular, she insists on dressing and redressing herself about a hundred times a day. Yes, she ignores the box of dress-up clothes we just paid $50 for her to use for dress-up. Only real clothes will do. This has lead to a clothing explosion in her closet. It also doesn't help that I have been using said closet to store all of the girls' clothing that is being passed down. Seriously, it looks like a department store dressing room threw up in her closet. I would have taken a picture to show you, but I did not want to incite the same anxiety in anyone that I feel anytime I go near that door.

This week, I cleaned out what was on the floor, washed, and folded it. It has been sitting in the laundry basket in my living room for three days because I dread putting it back in the closet only to be taken out, worn for ten minutes, and thrown back on the closet floor. So, Leila has been in short supply for clothing. That is when the rummaging through plastic storage bins to attempt to fit into a newborn onesie began. When that didn't work, she made her way to the infant dresses and then the toddler clothes she has grown out of already. Oh, and lets not forget the hoards of 3T outfits from Ava that she has been wearing and tripping over non-stop. She is the Very Hungry Caterpillar of clothing.

Last night, I decided I was fed up with the entire thing. So, I unloaded any and every piece of clothing from her closet and brought downstairs to resort and store. I spent over three hours making piles of clothes in each size. Seriously, we have too many clothes, but it isn't like I can get rid of any of it with yet another girl coming along. I still have not refolded anything. I am dreading that part.

Plus, I still don't know how I am going to keep her out of them once I am finished. I think it may entail buying a locking door knob to temporarily put on her closet door. If anyone has any alternative solutions to this, please let me know. I will try anything at this point.

She's out of the will

Leila seems to be getting more and more excited about babies and the fact that I am pregnant now that she sees my belly growing. She constantly comes up to me and want to hug and kiss the baby. She also will lift her shirt up and tell me there is a baby in her tummy with the cutest little voice ever.

My parents were over the other day, and we were all sitting around while the kids were playing. Leila comes up to show me the baby in her belly again, and then she wanted to see my belly. She looks over at my dad sitting on the couch next to me with his grandpa belly protruding. He wasn't paying close attention when she went up and patted his belly saying, "Look, Mommy. Baby belly Grandpa.".

My mother and I just started laughing and laughing over her thinking he is pregnant. He finally realized we were laughing at him, and he asked why. To which, we explained that Leila thinks there is a baby in his belly. He thought we were just making it up to mess with him. Then, Leila goes back over and says it again in her cute little voice. Again, we crack up over it. We meaning my mother and I did. My dad did not find it quite as hilarious. He still claims we put her up to it.

Leila Turns 2yo

Leila turned two years old on April 10. I still can't believe it has been two years since I was hugely pregnant with her. I can say that she has been nothing but a joy to have. She is the one that keeps me on my toes.

She brings so much laughter, mischievousness, and fun to our family. She knows just how to push all of our buttons and does not hesitate to do so. It is just so hard not to laugh at her even when she is making us crazy. It is part of her charm and hard for most everyone else to pull off.

We celebrated her birthday with a small party with us, my parents and a friend of mine, her husband, and her son. We had everyone over to the house for pizza, cake, and presents. Leila was so thrilled to open her gifts. I had set them out the night before knowing they would taunt her all morning until it was time to open them during the party. She just kept eyeballing them the whole time. Once we gave her the go ahead, though, she went right at them. She knew exactly what do and that cool new toys for hiding beneath the paper. She got some great toys including an inch worm, her very own backpack, and a water table.

Then, it was cake time. She did a great job singing "Happy Birthday" to herself along with the rest of us and even managed to help blow out her candles. Now, Leila really has not had a lot of sweets in her short life because she has, well, a mean mommy. My mom likes to hassle me over the fact that "it won't kill her". Anyway, Leila was more than thrilled to bite into her puppy dog cake. She finished almost the entire piece. She left it for a bit only to return back to it with as much joy as the first bite she took out of it. I think that was the highlight of her day. I am still hearing about the cake from her.

Overall, it was a great day with her. It was not as hard as her first birthday, though, when I thought that would the very last first birthday we would be celebrating with any of our kids. It helped knowing there would be another baby coming along that we would be celebrating a 2nd birthday with in less time than imaginable.

Here are few more pics from her party.

Lions and Tigers and Bears...Oh my!

Lately, Leila has been hitting a bit of a developmental spurt. She comprehends so much already, and it really just amazes me to no end. I think this probably has a lot to do with being a younger sibling and having to learn the intricacies of family dynamics right away as far as having older siblings.

So, anyway.... I noticed that Leila is beginning to develop fears. It started a few days ago when she wanted her baby doll to sleep with at night. I told her to go get it from the doll crib in the game room. She goes running over there full speed, but suddenly stopped on a dime when she realized the game room did not have a light on. Oh, the fear of the dark phase has just begun. I am still going through this with Ava, so now I have another child to deal with constantly.

I encouraged her to go ahead in and get her baby. I told her everything was fine, but she wasn't budging an inch. So, I went over and nudged her back to walk. She was digging her heals in, though. So, I pushed a bit harder until she started at a slow pace. All the while, I was telling her there was nothing to be afraid of in there. She found her baby doll and took off to the safety of the lighted hallway.

Well, today I discovered she has yet another fear. We have had a major cold front heading into this area. With it brought a pretty significant thunderstorm. Every few minutes, there would be a large crash of thunder. It first started without incidence. However, I suddenly had Leila running up to me screaming her head off like she had just seen her Grrr's head ripped off and eaten by our ferocious Persian cat, Bella.

She crawled onto my blanket clad lap practically shaking. I was in the middle of reassuring that she was perfectly safe when the thunder crashed again. This time, she pulled the blanket up over her head hiding herself from the threatening sound. I could not help myself but laugh at her innocent display of fear. She just could not be anymore precious. This behavior was repeated over the next hour as the storm moved past us.

I just love the innocence of little children. I know the day will come, probably sooner rather than later, when something as silly as a thunderstorm will seem like just that...a silly thunderstorm....instead of a threatening force.

Finally!

Of the three girls, Leila was born with the least amount of hair. She is almost 22mths and has as much hair as Ava did around 18mths and Madison at about 12mths. It has also been growing in oddly. The back and front are longer, but the middle is short. It has a kind of mullet thing going on. The only things I have been able to do with it, thus far, are put it in a fountain on top of her head or push the front to the side and secure it with a clip.

Well, yesterday I was messing with it and noticed that it could quite possibly be long enough to put up in some kind of ponytail. I quickly grabbed a comb and band to attempt it. I noticed that it wasn't long enough on the sides to do one ponytail, yet. So, I grabbed another band and tried pigtails.

Five minutes of wrestling with her to sit still, I managed to make two tiny pigtails sit atop her head. I think she looks just precious. I held her up to the mirror, and she immediately squealed with delight. I put her down, and she ran upstairs to show her sisters. She climbed the stairs into the gameroom and pointed at her hair yelling for them to take notice.

They loved it, of course. Ava said that she looks like Boo from Monster Inc. We all agree. She is too darn cute for words! The only problem is she doesn't look like a baby at all anymore. She is officially a little girl.

Well, she's learning...

I came into the kitchen to find Leila's koala bear on the table. Joking around, I asked her in a stern voice, "What is bear doing on the table?". We have been working with her on staying off of it, so I thought she would giggle over me getting onto bear.

She took it to a whole other level, though. She picked bear up and immediately took him to a time out like she gets when she is on the table. She tells bear, "No, no, no!" while pointing her finger at him. She leaves him there for a minute. Then, she picks him up, says sorry (like the bear said it), and gives him a kiss to say that she forgives him.

This whole exchange was one of the funniest things I think I have ever witnessed from her. Her imagination for 18mths also blows me away.

Here are the re-enactment photos.