Thatch-- 9 1/2 months old!

My little baby boy is speeding along quickly to his 1st birthday. He's a sweet and easy-going guy, a lot like his sisters were. We're still eagerly awaiting the whole sleep-through-the-night thing, but I'm finally breaking some bad habits (aka bringing a bottle to bed) and it seems to be helping. The last 3 nights he only got up once-- which is a vast improvement over the 3 times he usually gets up. Who knew I'd be so psyched for my 9-month old to do a 6-hour stretch?!?

Here are some more stats:
Furniture surfing-- 8 3/4 months
Standing alone for several seconds-- 9 months. At 9 1/2 months he can stand for quite a while. We're thinking he'll be on the early side for walking.
STTN-- *taps foot*
Teeth-- 3rd one at 8 months, then another every 2 weeks since. (fun!) He's just cutting his 7th at almost 10 months.

He LOVES music, and dances non-stop to anything resembling a beat-- be that actual music, a coffee grinder, a drill...
He's also developed a very creative crawling solution. On slick floors like we have, he maintains the baby-seal-drag. On carpet or rugs he does the "normal" crawl. On gravel, grass, or anything else uncomfortable he puts his butt way up and crawls on his hands, left foot, and right knee.
He shakes his head "no" a lot, but it's usually dance-related. He eats everything we do, and ADORES being rough-housed. He's an adrenaline junkie already-- if you surprise him by "dropping" or "throwing" him when he's not expecting it, it gets a huge smile and laugh every time. Luckily I've already been broken-in by his trouble-maker big sister, so we're ready for his toddlerhood. We think.

Laylie: Almost 5!

This picture Tara took is a little scary. My oldest daughter is really growing up. As much as I look forward to watching and helping her become the amazing woman I know she'll be... it still makes me get a little teary. I'm not ready to lose my little girl quite yet. (even though in many ways she's always been about 30) :)

Ms. P

I know I've let way too many things go without being documented... and these kids are growing up and changing so fast it's ridiculous, so a few more things before I forget.

Paisley.
She's coined a unique term of endearment..."ah-nah-no, ah-nah-no." No Idea where she got it, but for the last several months it's been, "Yowe the best mama in the whole wide wode ah-nah-no ah-nah-no!" Or "Yowe my mommy Mommy! Ah-nah-no ah-nah-no."

She's also waaaaaay into the princess thing right now. There's a certain rainbow-striped dress that is "the pwincess dwess" and she's HAD to wear it daily for several weeks now. Usually I can get her to take it off at some point of the day so it can be washed, and occasionally I can get her to wear something else for a little while, but we haven't gone 24 hours without wearing it for about a month. Here's proof...



Some of her quotes that I facebooked:

Paisley holds up a chicken nugget. "It's chicken! It's a DEAD chicken! So we can eat it! Yum!"

Me: "What did you get into?" Paisley: "Nuffing." Me: "Open your mouth...*take picture*...is that chocolate?" Paisley: "Nope." (please note what she's STILL wearing)


Paisley watched Toni Braxton perform on tv, looked down at herself, and announced, "Mommy... I have kid boobs." I laughed, "You have kid boobs?" "Yeah," she said, "see?" *lifts shirt up to show me* Uh-oh.

I SO wish someone else was hearing this conversation with me. Layla: "I'm making a boy robot named Beesbopped." Paisley: "Does he have a penis?" Layla: "No." Paisley: "Wait, he's a boy robot but he doesn't have a penis?" Layla: "I know, weird, huh?" And on, and on, and on...

L&P got sent inside tonight when they disobeyed Daddy for the 2nd time. Layla yelled, "Staying in the house is TERRIBLE!" Paisley followed up with, "Yeah, you guys are JUST JEALOUS!" to which Layla replied, "Yeah! You tell'em Paisley!" When Jacob and I stopped giggling outside we had to go in and have a little talk about still being respectful even when you feel upset. I would have killed for a video of that moment.

P was so happy that "church came to our house!" last night. I love that she thinks of "church" as people, not a place.

Paisley: (talking about Jacob and I) "Layla! They're going to kiss! Watch!" Layla: "Eh, I'm not really into it."

A little more baby-booking...

Thatcher:
Sat unassisted: 6 1/2 months
Crawl/scooted: Backwards-6 months Forward--soon he hopes!
Started babbling: 5 1/2 months
STTN: STILL TBA... he's only up once now though, so we're improving.
Cut first tooth: 6 months, second at 6 1/2
Started solids: 6 months. So far he likes pears, pizza crust (bad mommy) and bananas, isn't a fan of peas or yogurt, and is desperately in love with sweet potatoes.

8 months: moving all around the house baby-sea-lion-style. (works well on shiny floors) T also does "So Big" and claps when we say "yay!" Pulls up to his knees, and even to a stand occasionally. Sleeping is WORSE now... he better be cutting at least 6 teeth to justify getting up 5X a night, or he's grounded. He eats anything and everything, and feeds himself finger foods really well (although no pincer grasp yet)

Most of all he loves loves LOVES water. The bath, the pool, the sprinklers... he is so splash-happy that no other kid wants to play near him. He also tries to push away from me to "swim" by himself (he's also discovered outlets and cords)... I might have another Trouble on my hands soon. Good thing middle sis prepared me this time.

Chickens.

Well, we're chicken farmers now.
The more I learn about the things we eat, the less I want to eat at all... which led us to the idea of raising our own (happy, healthy, free-range, pesticide-free) chickens for eggs. I went online to soak up every possible bit of knowledge about backyard chickens. I tend to get a little, uh, temporarily obsessed with new ideas (which makes the internet a perfect drug) so after a few days worth of research I was ready to get down to chicken business.
The three chicken breeds I chose were Buff Orpingtons, Barred Rocks, and Black Australorps. (chosen because they are all quiet, gentle, and good egg-layers) We used the girls' abandoned playhouse for the coop and decided the chickens could have the too-shady-for-vegetables side of the house. I made a nest box out of a rubbermaid container with a door cut in the side of it, Jacob put 2 roosting poles in the house, and we were ready. We got 3 Buffs from our friend and midwife Wendy, and 2 Barred Rocks from a farmer in Mesa.

Cut to 9 days later....

It's been over a week, and I have to say I LOVE having chickens. I wish we would have done this a long time ago. They are a lot calmer and quieter than I thought they'd be, and the girls love feeding them weeds and vegetable scraps. The 5 ladies have plenty of space (about 15' X 30') so there isn't any smell at all. They spend the day either scratching and eating, or laying in the shade. They do "beg" to be let out into our yard sometimes. We have tons of spiders and other crawlies around our fence line, and they like to do perimeter sweeps. I thought they'd just let themselves out-- it's only a 3' fence-- but they're too fat and lazy to jump, so they stand at the gate and purr until we give in.

The only thing that's been a problem so far is the "egg cackle." Luckily it hasn't been earlier than 9am, and it's not as loud as a dog barking... but it's definitely not quiet. We only have 2 that are laying so far. Rose sneaks into the nestbox, does her business, and goes on with her life. Bluebell lays an egg, then tells the world about it. (buck buck buGOCK! buck buck buGOCK!) The first time was the loudest, and she seems to be simmering down with the more eggs she lays, so hopefully she won't end up on a plate. :)

Mr. T

Well, my last post was about the birth of my baby boy, and he's about to turn 4 months now. Oops. Our first 3 months together were less than relaxing. Though I was hopelessly in love with his adorable Daddy-ish face from the moment he was pulled onto my chest, our first three months had me constantly exclaiming "I'm never doing this again!"
His birth was perfect. Nursing was kind of a nightmare. Again. Lots of pain and parts-bleeding-that-should-never-ever-bleed followed by lactation consultants, moments of nursing peace, serious supply issues, pumping-nursing-pumping, T's slow weight gain followed by weight loss, herbs and supplements, more pumping and a little formula, horrible face rashes and all-night-upset-baby, allergy-to-something-in-my-milk diagnoses... and I quit. I made it a month, which was a far cry from the 1-2 years I had planned on nursing him, but I just couldn't handle it anymore. Sigh. I still have moments of regret and some serious mommy-guilt, but looking at his round, smiley-dimpled face it's hard to seriously believe I've done him any harm. He's happy. He's healthy. He's a sweet little cuddlebug who loves nothing more than falling asleep in mama's arms. So why do I still feel like I've failed?!? Ugh.
Other than the nursing, he's definitely been our most challenging baby. And I say that with full awareness that our girls completely and utterly spoiled us. When T didn't sleep through the night at 7 weeks we thought, "What's wrong?" When he would only nap while being held and screamed if *ever* put down I vowed that our family was done. NO MORE BABIES!!
Recently I realized, at not quite 4 months, that almost all of the hard parts are over. Already. He isn't a fan of going more than 5 hours at night without a baba, but he's only up for 15 minutes and sleeps great the rest of the time from 7:30 to 7:30. He naps on his own 3 times a day. He isn't ever fussy unless he's tired or hungry... and even if one of those things is true he still takes the time to flash us one of his HUGE smiles before letting us know we better get a bottle QUICKLY. He's happy to hang out in a stroller now until it's naptime, and then he will instantly fall asleep on me when I put him in the sling or Mei Tai. He's become a little angel baby, and I don't even mind that he still wakes up at night because I love snuggling back to sleep with my sweet guy in my arms. He's still probably our last baby, but now it's just because our family feels complete.


Okay, a few of the quick stats that 3rd babies usually don't have in their nonexistent baby books...

Smiled: 5 weeks
Laughed: 11 weeks
Held head up: 6-7 weeks
Slept through the night: ...TBA :)
Rolled over (accidentally) from stomach to back: 3 months. He's become quite a hefty guy, so some of the physical milestones might take a little while :)

Oh, and one other cute thing before I forget. Thatcher started literally "turning in" for the night at 2 weeks old. He would turn his body towards us and bury his head when he was tired in order to shut out the world. At almost 4 months he still does it...such a cute and quirky little guy. :)