Babies Holding Babies

This week the girls got a new playmate! Their cousin Mason was born on Sunday. They are absolutely in love with him and fight over who gets to hold him. Audrey keeps calling him "Little Baby Mason."

Jayson was excited to be the first in our family to hold him. He was only 6 lb. 14 oz., a whole pound smaller than any of our girls ever were! 

So tiny and so perfect!

Lydia and Audrey both loved holding him.

 ...and poking him.

Charlie was by far the funniest. We thought that with how much she loves her dolls, she would be all over Mason, but she really wasn't that interested. In fact, she found a shelf that was just her size and hung out in there and got really angry if we tried to get her out, so we just let her hang out in her shelf. It was kind of weird.

But, once Lydia and Audrey were done holding Mason, Charlie climbed right into the chair, grabbed the Boppy, grunted, and pointed at Mason. She wanted to hold him! So, we let her. But, she was very suspicious of him. At first she refused eye contact. I LOVE this first picture. Look her just eyeing him up out of the corner of her eye.

She was so weirded out by him.

Finally, she looked at him, and then she started crying.

Pretty Girls All in a Row

When I was younger, my mom dressed my sisters and I in matching dresses and outfits. I'm not sure what their feeling were on it, but I actually loved it. I loved how special it was to wear coordinating dresses. So, of course, I do the same with my girls, and they love it too. It's not every day, because I don't have that kind of money, and sometimes it's just outfits that are similar but might be different in color. However, I do love putting them all in identical dresses. I quickly realized that 1) It can be hard to find matching dresses in the sizes I need. Sometimes I could just find two in the smaller sizes or two in the larger sizes, but not all three. 2) Dresses can be expensive.

So, this summer, I set out to make dresses. It was surprisingly easy, and I definitely got better with practice. I also made matching diaper/underwear covers because my girls tend to sit like...well, not girls.

Here was my first attempt, a pillowcase dress. I had to mess around with the pattern a bit to increase/decrease the measurements as needed, but the dresses were pretty forgiving.

Here is the pattern:

http://www.nancysnotions.com/text/pdf/LittleDressesforAfrica_pattern.pdf

And a youtube video with instructions that I found easier to follow than the pattern:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQJwdEEsLog

And the diaper cover:

http://www.prudentbaby.com/2010/06/diy-diaper-cover-tutorial-with-free.html

My next attempt was a little more difficult. I found that the smocking was easier than I expected, but it was hard to figure out how big to make the dresses before the smocking, and then what I wanted to cut off would have made the skirt too narrow, but it worked out OK.

Here's the directions I followed for these:

http://www.marthastewart.com/266202/smocked-sundress?lnc=38f9cf380e1dd010VgnVCM1000005b09a00aRCRD&rsc=search_tv

Finally, my wonderful friend Jenni made the girls dresses as well. First of all, they're black. GENIUS! I really don't care if they spill on their dresses because I know that happens and they won't last forever anyway, but it's nice to know that they can last just a little bit longer. Second of all, who the hell makes three handmade dresses for kids that aren't even theirs? I very good friend, that's who. Thanks, Jenni! The girls love these.

I'm done making new dresses this year, but I'll be back at it next summer. I'll be back at it until they're 18, actually.

The Fabulous Biking Werras

Jayson and I took up biking when I was pregnant with Lydia. Or, I should say, he took up biking and I watched because let's just say that no part of me that makes contact with the actual bike and is not my hands or feet was ready to get on a bike. Once I had Lydia, I joined him. We had biked before, but not seriously, and we now do some pretty major road biking, including the Leukemia Lymphoma Society Scenic Shore 150 bike ride that is a 150-mile bike ride that occurs over the course of two days. Leading up to that ride, we go on some nice training rides.

We have always been eager to get our girls interested in biking too, so we started with a Burley when Lydia was one. A Burley is basically a cage that you attach to your bike so you can pull around your screaming, crying toddler as she Houdinis her way out of her helmet. The first summer did not go so well, but the next summer she was two and handled the helmet much better. Unfortunately, I was also recovering from the birth of Audrey, and not touching the bike. The next summer Lydia was ready to go, but Audrey was only a year old and going through the screaming-crying-ripping-of-the-helmet stage. The next summer (are you sensing a pattern here?), I was recovering from Charlie's birth, and also, we had three kids, which do not fit into a Burley without some strategic stacking.

Which brings us to this summer. We got a Trail-a-Bike for Lydia. It is a contraption that attaches to my bike and has one wheel and some pedals. Don't be fooled - her little legs may be moving, but it's all cosmetic - I could strap a bowling ball to the seat and get the same results. This of course, doesn't stop me from telling her she needs to pedal super hard for the next hill or we're not going to make it up! The inaugural Trail-a-Bike ride in our driveway involved a lot of tears and clutching the handlebars with white knuckles asking one of us to hold her on the bike while the other one rode in front of her. After running up and down the driveway next to her, I had enough. Bribery goes a long way though, and we told her that as soon as she could ride the bike, we could go anywhere she wanted and she picked the ice cream store. That prompted her to quickly pick up the necessary skills to keep her butt on the seat while I did all the work.

However, Charlie is one. Which means she's in the screaming-crying-pulling-of-the-helmet stage. We went on our first big ride today and Charlie was pretty miserable. Finally, on the way home, we let her sit up a bit. The Burley is designed in such a way that the harness kind of pulls the girls back into more of a reclining position, and having their head back kind of pushes the helmet forward. We let Charlie sit with the straps under her arms instead of over them, and she loved it. I guess if we had to choose between the harness or the helmet, the helmet wins.

So, the trip was fairly successful. We still need to work on a more stable ride with the Trail-a-Bike. It kind of feels like Lydia is doing the Y-M-C-A back there while I try to balance. I'm scared that she'll make a sudden movement and we'll hit the pavement. I refuse to clip my bike shoes into the pedals so I can act quickly in the case of an emergency. But, we're getting there.

Our Daughters Turned into Fish

One thing that has always been important to me is that my kids know how to swim. All three were exposed to pools at an early age, and started swim lessons as babies. Charlie tends to get the shaft as the third child. Some days she's lucky she has pants on. But, swimming wasn't something I was going to let slip through the cracks with her.

From the start, Lydia and Audrey enjoyed lessons, but didn't take to the water immediately. They were a bit cautious. Not Charlie. Charlie squeals with delight as soon as she sees the pool and the slide and squirms and kicks until we let her in. She crawls into the zero-depth pool until her head goes under water and then looks up at us from under the water with huge eyes and an even bigger smile until we pull her out by one arm. She scrambles to the top of the kiddy slide and throws herself down as we cautiously spot her. She gets a mischievous look on her face and then lays down on her back and if the water is too deep, her face goes under and she flails her arms and sits back up, laughing. She puts her face in the water and blows bubbles, then inhales what I'm sure adds up to be gallons of water each time we swim. When we have lessons, she screams, and splashes and claps as we sing "The Children on the Bus" and "The Hokey Pokey."

Lydia and Audrey have been making progress with lessons, but tonight they both amazed me with how well they are doing. Audrey started the night by jumping from the side of the pool into my arms and as she landed, I would dunk her under. She loved it and asked me to do it again and again. I kept backing up, and she eventually started jumping in by herself without me catching her. She was ecstatic with her progress. Lydia showed me how she could "swim" under water, which really just consisted of flailing her limbs around and waving her head from side to side, but she did keep her head under the whole time! She sits on the side and does a little half dive thing into the water and tries to glide under the water. It's nice to feel confident that she could play in the pool by herself without me having to constantly keep an eye on her. The first five weeks of lessons, Lydia has had her's first and then we make her sit on the side while we have lesson with Audrey and Charlie, but today we let Lydia play in the pool and she did great and I didn't worry about her.

We have been trying to get Lydia and Audrey to go down the bigger slide at the pool, but both have been afraid. Tonight, we resorted to bribery, starting with Lydia. We offered ice cream, candy, even money and she wouldn't take it. Then Jayson offered her gum, and she was ready. Gum? Seriously? Definitely Jayson's genes. She nervously went down and of course, she loved it and couldn't get enough. Audrey also took the gum bait. It took a bit more cajoling to get her down, but she went! I was a little nervous as I saw her little arms splashing around and Jayson rushing to grab her and bring her to the surface, but she wasn't deterred! She went down several more times, with Jayson having to pull her little smiling wide-eyed face up to the surface, but she loved it. 

The best part? They went to bed with barely a peep. Swimming kids are tired kids.

What We've Been Up To...

Lemonade Stand!

Lydia begged me to let them have a lemonade stand. I was hesitant because we live on a busy road. I finally agreed, and warned her, "Just so you know, it's possible nobody will stop." They were able to scam some money from our extended family we had over for dinner, but really wanted somebody they didn't know to stop. Thankfully, a former coworker whom I hadn't seen in years drove by and saw the girls and stopped. She bought two cups and paid them extra, so we were set!

Tattoos!

Grandma Deb watched the girls while we went to a Brewers game. We came home to them covered in temporary tattoos. Temporary tattoos that don't come off even if you scrub their entire bodies with rubbing alcohol. Did I mention they had a doctor appointment too? I think they keep a separate file in a special place for our family. (Yeah, sorry, Audrey was naked. I had her cover her lady parts).

Butterflies!

We went to Family Night at the Zoo with some friends. Lydia really, really wanted a butterfly to land on her. She finally got one.

Charlie really, really did not want any butterflies to land on her, but the butterflies didn't seem to care.

Ice Skating!

It was ridiculously hot this week, so we took the girls ice skating. It was their first time and there was this awesome lady there with her kids who has been a skater and a coach for a long time. She asked us if it was OK to help the girls out a bit and she showed us all kind of tricks to help them learn. She was so, so helpful. The girls had so much fun and made such great improvement that we decided to sign them up for skating lessons in hopes that they'll like it better than dancing. We've been looking for a way out of dancing (neither of us are big fans of it), and told them they can decide between skating and dancing. They have a six-week session that starts next week and we're hoping it goes well.

Look at the little ice skates!

Bedtime Beast

Audrey has been a handful at bedtime lately, and it has started to really wear me down.When I tuck her in at night, I make sure she has gone potty and gotten a drink of water. I make sure her three blankets are placed exactly how she has to have them and she has two ice packs (we've talked her down from three). I make sure she gets plenty of hugs and kisses. I remind her not to yell for me for anything and that if she goes to bed without yelling for me, she will get a special treat the next day.

It never works.

Inevitably, she yells for me because she needs her blankets spread out again. Then she needs to go potty again. Then she needs another kiss. Then she can't find her SpongeBob ice pack. Then she needs her blankets spread again. Each time I go in there and sternly tell her how angry and disappointed I am that she is being so naughty and we won't get a special treat.

Then she laughs.

Luckily, Lydia sleeps through it all. Audrey's requests are usually brief and simple. A few nights ago, when she couldn't find her Elmo ice pack, I told her we would have to wait until morning, which threw her into hysterics and I let her cry until Jayson came home about half an hour later and found it for her. I wanted to see what would happen if I did just refuse to succumb to her requests. I got my answer. She will throw a crying fit that will outlast my patience.

Just last night, she ruined her special treat, which was going to be camping in the backyard. On my second trip back into her room, I told her we would not camp in the back yard this week, and she told me, "We'll talk about this later."

I really wouldn't even mind all that much if I didn't have stuff to do. I have things I would like to finish around the house, an unfinished sewing project downstairs, and I do need to do some lesson plans, despite it being July. Plus, once school resumes, I will have at least an hour of work each night to do after she's sleeping.

So, we will continue to work on shortening the routine and limiting the trips back into her room. And we WILL talk about this later.

Right Now...

(Idea stolen from my friend Angie)

Lydia:
Learning to read and spell, but is in no rush to do it on her own.
Enjoys bossing Audrey around, and often tells her naughty things to do so Audrey gets in trouble instead of Lydia.
Incredibly sweet and knows exactly what to say to make you feel better.
Loves to cuddle.
Likes taking dance lessons, but not so big on sports.
Can hula-hoop really well.
Can count to 100 and add small numbers.
Really likes playing with friends (Taylor, Maddie, and Owen especially), and making new friends.
Refuses to nap.

Audrey:
Can count to 20, but skips 16.
Knows her ABCs.
Wakes up grumpy and can continue to be grumpy throughout the day.
Has a funny sense of humor.
Loves going to the gym.
Is obsessed with her babydolls.
Sleeps with ice packs.
Can be very particular about how things have to be and routines.
Mommy's girl.

Charlie:
Loves to laugh and scream.
Babbles and points and sounds like she has important things to say.
Won't walk, but does stand up and walks holding our hands.
Walks on her knees.
Loves to drink milk and goes through it quickly.
Doesn't say many real words, but does know: hi, uh-oh, and dog.
Wants to eat anything anybody else has and throws a fit if she can't.
Very content and self-sufficient.
Likes to climb.
Rides her little bike all over the house.
Has to do things on her own.
Loves to brush her teeth.