Durham's Favorite Books

We're signed up for the summer reading program at our local library again this year.  I've taken the kids there twice now to check out books.  I carefully choose books I'm confident will be appropriate for their ages and enjoyable based on their interests.

It never fails when we get home they just want to read the old books that we've read 100 times before.  Here are Durham's current go-to books.  We could read these multiple times every. single. day.

Yup.  This boy likes trucks.  And cars.  Any suggestions for other truck/car books we should try that can expand our choices?  

Sleeping Babies

Cry, cry, cry, cry.

Here we are again.  You'd think after doing this with two kids I'd be an old pro, but I'm not.  Teaching my kids to sleep independently isn't easy.  We've reached that point with Wrenn that she needs to learn to just roll over and go back to sleep.  Dare I say she needs to learn to fall asleep on her own even?  Yes she does.  Time for this teacher to do some teaching.

Cry, cry, cry, cry.

Alrighty.  She's not going back to sleep very quickly.  Perhaps I'll give her five more minutes.  Yes, five more minutes won't be torture.  Remember she's not in pain.

Cry, cry.......... cry.

Oh, ho ho!  Perhaps the little doll is falling asleep.  This wasn't so bad.  I can handle this.

Cry, cry, cry, CRY, CRY, CRY!!!!

Holy moly.  What is going on in there now?  Should I get up and check on her?  A good mother would check on her.  I'll just tip toe to the door to see if I sense anything.

Cry, cry, cry, cry.

Hmmm.  Well at least it isn't as bad as it was before.  Maybe I'll just give her five more minutes.  I'll put the timer on my phone.  I'll even stand here in the hallway and send her good vibes.

Cry................cry.......... cry.

This is good.  I'll just crawl back into bed.  She should be falling asleep here soon.  Mama is so on top of this whole sleep-training thing.

Cry, cry, cry, CRY, CRY, CRY!!!!

Sheesh.  She must be in pain.  I wonder if she's starving.  Do four month olds HAVE to eat at night?  How many bottles did she have today?  Let's see...she started with the first at 7 am and had a bottle every three hours...so that's SO MUCH MATH.  It's too late for math.  I better go check on her.  But I will not pick her up.  I'll just see if she's ok and maybe rub her back.  I'm not supposed to pick her up, right?  Just tip-toe towards the door...

Cry, cry, cry, cry.

Huh.  An improvement in the decibel level means that she's ok, right?  Maybe I shouldn't go in.  We're already 20 minutes in.  I can't let those 20 minutes go to waste.  I'm in too deep to pick her up now.  She's got to fall asleep soon.  I'm exhausted, so she must be as well.  OH NO.  WHAT IF SHE'S TEETHING AND NEEDS ME?  What do I do???

Cry................cry.......... cry.

Ok.  Calm down.  She's obviously ok.  Do not go in there.  Just stay strong.  She'll fall asleep.  Is there anything more important than being self-assured enough to just roll over and go back to sleep?  This is perhaps the most important lesson she'll ever learn.  I can do this.

Cry, cry, cry, CRY, CRY, CRY!!!!

To hell with it.  Let's snuggle for the rest of the night on the chair.  I'll start sleep training tomorrow.

Ainsley's First Tiger Game!

We took Ainsley to see her first Tiger's game on June 21, 2013.  The Tigers were playing the Boston Red Sox and lost the game, but we had a spectacular time just paying attention to our oldest child.  

All four year olds have the wiggles, so we were a little nervous that she was too young for a trip like this.  We decided to give it a try and couldn't believe just how great she did at the game.  Granted, she wasn't interested in the actual game, but she loved people-watching and talking about all the sights.

We dropped off the younger two kids at a relative's house to spend the night so we would have enough time to just devote to Ainsley and our trip.  She and Mama took a nap in the car on the way down and woke up to find ourselves on Woodward Ave.  We parked a few blocks from the stadium and walked to a local restaurant to eat.  I still can't believe how well she walked and sat the whole night.  She must be growing up on me!

After eating we progressed to the stadium about an hour early.  We had just enough time to ride the Ferris Wheel and merry-go-round, grab a few drinks, run into a few friends, and find our seats.  

We got up to walk around every few innings.  The highlight of the during-game walks was getting an ice cream cookie.  We sat in a quiet, little corner slowly eating our cookies and sweating away.  

By the end of the game she was starting to get tired but managed to stay awake for the post-game fireworks.  All in all, she loved it and declared that she wanted to move to the city!  On the way back to the car she said, "I think some of these people sleep during the day and stay awake at night!"

You betcha, girl.

It's so exciting to see her learn about different people and different areas that I can't wait to start taking her on longer and more eye-opening adventures!

Wrenn Four Months Old

Another month gone by, and she's changing so much.

Feeding:  She's eating 5 ounces every 3 hours.  She'll usually eat 25-30 oz in a day.  We're looking forward to starting some solid foods in the next month!    She's also challenging her brother's title as the family's biggest puker.  

Sleeping:  Oh my.  Our sleeping arrangement has gone from pleasant and predictable to chaos.  Wrenn started rolling over even in her swaddler, so we had to stop swaddling her at night.  The moment she wakes up her hands will shoot to her face.  She scratches herself, tries to fit her fist in her mouth, swats her pacifier out of her mouth.  Ugh.  Tears, tears, tears.  I'm reluctant to start letting her cry it out, but I suppose that is where we are headed.  Most nights go like this:  Wrenn has her final bottle at about 8, falls asleep while drinking.  I burp her and put her down asleep in her crib positioner.  After 30 minutes, she wakes up and her hands slap herself into a tizzy.  I go get her to calm her down.  Repeat over and over again until midnight.  After that I usually just let her cry because I'm too exhausted to continue calming her.  She will usually then sleep until 5-7am.  Her naps always start out in the crib but end in my arms because, well, she's just such a good snuggler!  

Diapers:  Size 2

Clothes:  Size 6-9, or 12 months depending on the brand.  She's so drooly now that we either put bibs on her or go through four or five outfits a day.  

Disposition:  While she's still the most smiley of all of our babies, she's definitely a Mama's girl.  She prefers to be held and held by Mama.  She'll cry broken-hearted alligator tears until someone comes to pick her up. Once you pick her up, she'll immediately stop crying and give you a big smile.  We've had three or four days of terrible crying, but it seems like nothing when compared to Durham's colic.  

Places:  She went to two parades this month.  We walked down to watch the Memorial Day parade and the Bavarian Festival Parade.  She slept through most of these adventures.  She also went to a graduation party and to see the hot air balloons.  We took her to a few softball games as well.  

Fun Facts:  She's so mobile!  Our other two kids had to be bribed into moving.  They were late to roll over, crawl, and walk.  Wrenn can roll in any direction and straight down the hallways sometimes.  When she gets to her stomach, sometimes she gets so mad that she'll get up on her knees.

Milestones:  She can grab toys and put them in her mouth now!  We've been putting her in the larger jumper, which amuses her for about 10 minutes or so.  (Ten minutes of freedom!)  She laughs now.  She also gets scared.  Sometimes brother or sister will play too loudly next to her and cause her to start to cry.

All Three (Try 3)

All righty.  This time I meant business.  I was going to get a shot of all three kiddos looking good and happy if it killed me.

I decided to do this about two hours ago.  I should have probably planned ahead more, but I like to live on the edge.  I texted a few family members and friends to see if they were available to help, as I'm single parenting this weekend due to softball reasons.  All the friends/family I texted were previously engaged.  This is to be expected.  I guess other people make plans and have lives.

I was going to do this alone.  Me and three kids.  7pm.  Matchy-type outfits.  The park.

I went in with the expectation that I could end up with hilariously terrible pictures, which would frankly be more indicative of our current chaotic life anyway.

We went to the park, unpacked, loaded kids and blankets and camera into the stroller and strolled.

Our first few attempts didn't go so well.

You see, Durham is getting a few molars in.
That and he's just never in the mood to put up with his sisters' and mother's shenanigans.  

And just when ya get Durham to cooperate, someone else melts down.  

Come on, guys!  Let's make some picture magic!  

Maybe this was a bad idea?  There seemed to be ridiculous numbers of people in the park to see me torture my children with my camera.  One even had the gall to say, "having a rough time?"  

Yeah, buddy.  But I am the master of these children and we WILL DO THIS AND HAVE FUN.  

It is at these points in my life when I come up with stupidly brilliant ideas.  I just kept thinking that it would be great if I could find a place that sells wine in portable glasses through the drive thru.  

Now I don't plan on drinking and driving.  I just need someone to pour the damn wine for me so I can start drinking immediately upon getting home.  If someone doesn't pour it for me, I'll end up changing diapers, getting jammies, washing bottles, cleaning spit up, and everything else until 11 pm when I pass out from exhaustion without my wine.  

I just need someone to pour it for me.  I only have so many hands.  

Anywho, back to the camera.  

I decided to let them run off some steam.  

This worked well until Durham ran away without coming back.  Then I had to leave Wrenn crying in the stroller to run a solid half mile to fetch him.  

And another disc-golfer made some comment for which I'm sure he'll burn in hell forever.  It was probably something he thought was cute like "got your hands full, huh?"  

Yeah, buddy.  I'LL CUT YOU IF YOU EVER SPEAK TO ME AGAIN.  

I may have taken that too far.  

Anywho, back to the pictures.  

After running off a little steam, we strolled safely locking the two littlest ones in the stroller.  We strolled so long that Wrenn fell asleep.  Durham started to calm down.  Things were looking up.  

It was time to pull out the camera again.  

Let's DO THIS.  

Boom.  Maybe the key was to get just individual pictures?

Boom.  Actually, Ainsley was a perfect angel the whole evening.  She's getting to be so much like me.  She loves a good picture.  She was just as fed up with her uncooperative siblings as I was.  

She kept suggesting poses and places to take pictures.  She's such a little diva.  

Wrenn was too sleepy for me to pull her out and torture her again.  

I decided that we had spent long enough in the out of doors subjecting the public to our antics.  It was time to go home and get everyone a drink.

Which did include me, as Wrenn was still sleeping in her carseat.  Thank the Lord for small favors.  

As I went through the pictures, I managed to find two that weren't terribly horrific.  They almost make the ordeal seem worth it.  

Sweet, little angels who never act up.  Ever.  Look at those SWEET KIDS.  

My babies.  

Time for another glass of wine to celebrate my triumph.

Friday Fun Nights

We live in a tourist town.  I've never really found the tourists annoying.  Rather I love all the unique shops and festivals and entertainment our little town has to offer.  It's so nice to be able to go on a little family vacation just 2 minutes from the safety and comfort of our own home.  

We decided to head out last night for one of many jaunts we take as tourists in our own town.  It was perfection.  No one was grumpy.  No one cried.  Durham didn't even seem upset by his new molars that have been giving us problems for weeks now.  

Per-fec-tion.  

I'm not sure that Ainsley loves anything better than head-in-hole things.  She wanted so badly to be the girl with the pink dress.

 We walked around downtown slowly seeing the sights.  Two water fountains, mimes, polka music, and even an ambulance to excite our Durham.  We also saw local girls doing a dance concert, a man on stilts, and lots of people we knew.  There were musicians on multiple corners, window shopping, and horses.  So. Much. Fun.  

Those streams of water are just begging to be touched.  

Wrenn happily sat in her carseat the whole time.

The man on stilts made balloon animals for each of the kids.  

 All good family trips downtown end with ice cream.  At least for Ainsley and Mom and Dad, they do.  Durham isn't a fan of sweets or food that is cold.

Ainsley happily ate her superman ice cream with sprinkles though.

It was a fun little night, and so perfect because the kids were home, bathed, and in their own beds by 9pm.  

I love this little town.  

Lazy Summertime

I did it again.  I planned too many activities for our summer.  

We'll be going to two Vacation Bible schools, ball trips on three different weekends, fireworks, zoos, farms, birthday parties, library, Tiger's games, Houghton Lake, NYC, Iowa...

The list goes on and on.  

I just looked to see how many days this summer have nothing planned for them.  

Ten.  

Just ten to stay home and enjoy ourselves.  

Here's one of those days to stay home and nap and watch too much tv and just enjoy each other.  

We were lazy.  We barely left the house.  Not even to go outside and play.  We were hermits.  It was lovely.