Life with a new baby

Things are going well so far with the new little baby. Her name is Amy Lauren. I had my list of names. Then Sunday night I looked through my paf file and the baby name book to find anything. A friend thought up Lauren as a more modern version of Laura, which I liked, but Aaron didn't. I handed my list over to Aaron and told him to pick something. He came up with Amy Lauren. Since baby was 9 days old with no name, I said "sure, sounds nice to me". That's our baby's special naming story:)

My new Pollyanna board. (This is the newer one. Some other time I'll take a pic of the 94 year old one.)


Emily


Karen and snails

Picture time!

(And no, we don't have a name.)




Okay, second baby isn't the current one. Do you know which kid she is?







I have to go take pictures of the other two kids now.

The birth story

It's not long and I'm awake, so I figured I'd type it all up now. I woke up at 6 am this morning with contractions I couldn't sleep through. Aaron got up to go to work, so I decided I better time these contractions and find out whether he should go to work or not. They were 20 seconds about 5-10 minutes apart and were bad enough to bother me a lot. I called the midwife who told me she'd be on her way. Aaron stayed home to clean. Midwife came at about 8:45 and started setting everything up. Sometime later she decided to check my progress. Baby was crowning, so no need to check anything. I hopped in the pool that had barely enough water in it. It felt great, but it slowed things down. (I didn't mind sitting there.) The bag of waters just wasn't breaking, so midwife broke it. Next contraction I pushed the baby all the way out. Then we sat around. Cut the cord. Gave baby to Aaron. Sat around. Finally I got out to go to the bed to push out the placenta, but while I was standing getting dried off it fell out. So, that was it. Oh, baby arrived at 10:58am. She weighs 8 pounds, and measures 21 inches long. She's absolutely beautiful.

Activities

Last week the kids finished swimming lessons. Caitlyn passed level 5, Emily passed 3, and Eric 2. Karen is still in level one. They had fun and now are off to doing new activities. Eric has started gymnastics and is very enthusiastic about rolling around and jumping and such. He's having great fun. The big girls started horse riding lessons today. They learned about horse safety, care, putting on the gear, and some riding. They enjoyed it, but it wasn't the picnic they thought it would be. Now Caitlyn is begging for more and more horses! We'll see at the end of summer whether she'd rather do horses or swim team. Sorry we can't do everything!

Not much else going on around here. I'm just trying to clean a little here and there. Maybe I'll have a baby sometime.

What's up

We've mostly just been hanging out lately. Saturday Caitlyn and I had our unplanned Big Adventure. We drove to Sandy as usual for her viola lessons. We left at 9:30am in order to be at lessons at 10:30am. After lessons we immediately drove the opposite direction to get home before I needed to use the toilet. (I need to go every hour, so going 2 1/2 is quite the stretch.) We were driving along on I-80 when we reached a stand-still just before SR201 merges onto I-80. I stopped and parked the van. It was about 11:30am. Then, we got to go very slowly. Finally we made it to the U-turn at 1:30pm. We were not allowed around the mountain. So, we drove towards I-15, stopping in Taylorsville for lunch, a much needed run to the restroom, and to get some more gas. Then, we headed south on I-15 to SR73 in Lehi. Then, we moved slowly through the traffice east until we had passed Eagle Mountain. Then, we were free. (Lucky we weren't heading East- I think all the traffic from Tooele, Grantsville, and Wendover was driving on SR73.) We finally made it home a little after 4pm. We normally arrive home by noon. I looked up the incident on ksl. Apparently there was a crash with a truck and a fedex truck with 3 trailors- one of them was carrying gun powder and was periodically blasting. Glad I didn't drive by it, but wish the accident had not happened or that there was some quicker alternate route to Tooele. (I was not going over the mountain pass. I hear there is a one lane road on the side of the cliff. No way on a day when there are too many vehicles going up there.)

The kids are doing swimming lessons now. They were having fun and such, but Karen has come down with illness tonight, so she won't be swimming. Eric starts gymnastics on Wednesday and is excited.

The weather lately is nice, but getting old. Nearly every afternoon we get thunderstorms. It is good for the water and the temperatures. I just kinda wish it was a tad bit warmer.

Events of the day

This morning Emily got her new glasses. She put them on and everything was clear! Her vision is now 20/200. It was 20/60 with her old glasses. Later the kids and I elicited help from the neighbor with bikes. Karen has a little bike with training wheels that she can sort of ride. Eric's training wheels were all bent and broken, so they were removed. Eric now rides without training wheels and is happy for the freedom. Emily and Caitlyn have their bikes all fixed so that they can ride too. The neighbor also removed our metal pole where the mailbox used to be. Emily had her dance dress rehearsal. Benjamin can now say "momma", "no", "yes", cacker" (cracker), and tries to imitate many other words.

I have the pictures from the play to share:






Here's Caitlyn's flower crown that she picked the flowers for and I made. Then it went bad an hour later. The flowers were on their way to death in the garden anyway.

The Play was Saturday. Eric had a solo part. He came out by himself, saluted, and then was stuck in a box. He was sooo cute. I'm sure he was picked for the part out out of the cuteness factor. Caitllyn said her "mama"s well and Eric saluted well. Those two just followed around with the other kids in their group without any other speaking parts. Emily's group was huge and she was probably picked to help fill the ranks. She was the smallest kid of the bunch, but given the biggest clothes. It was wrong of them. She spent the show holding her vest on. She did have one line and said it well- for Emily anyway. Aaron claims to have pictures- not sure when he'll get them uploaded though.

Illness has attacked our family. I can't complain since no one got sick all winter. No barfings at all. In fact- not even a cold. This is some sort of cross between cold and flu. Emily started it out. She was feverish, then developed a cough. Next was Ben who first had a runny nose, then cough, and fever. Last night it was Aaron and Eric. Eric was really weird last night. He cried and cried. I went in to find out what was the matter and he was incoherent. I had him get out of bed. He got down and then started to climb in to Ben's crib. I stopped him and sent him to the bathroom. He did his business, then started crying because I wouldn't let him out of the bathroom. So, I sent him to the couch with blanket and pillow. He slept the rest of the night. I bet he felt better having his head elevated. Ben is still coughing. Emily is hard to tell. So far Karen, Caitlyn, and I are still well. Hopefully we will stay in such a state. Caitlyn has viola lessons tomorrow and she already missed last week.

One day I cleaned the whole front room. I got the corners and behind furniture too! I vacuumed, but that didn't do much. Dh approved the purchase of a vacuum, so now I have a new toy! I filled up the collection container just from the living room. The vacuum sucked dirt out of my carpet. Then I went around and vacuumed clear areas. i filled up the container again. Now my carpet is fluffy! I need to get everything else cleared up and vacuum all. I love my new vacuum. It isn't the greatest, but it is way better than the old one ever was.

Star Trek is IN!

My kids were ahead of the trend last year. Eric dressed as Captain Kurk when the other kids had no idea who he was. He was talking phasers, klingons, "Beam me up", and Spock. Now with the new prequel Star Trek movie others are learning about classic Trek. We were wandering about Albertson's yesterday (instead of just going to the bakery for french bread) and ran across Kellogs' family sized boxes of cereal with Star Treak "Beam me up" badges.They were $2.50 for the family sized box, so I bought 4 boxes.The boxes were opened this morning. Caitlyn got the Romulan badge, Emily and Eric Star Fleet Administrative badges, and Karen got the science officer badge. Now there's hope we might find a t-shirt at walmart or something. Too bad the kids aren't going to see the movie. There's a bedroom scene in the preview. Why ruin a movie with that garbage? Maybe when it comes out on dvd we can skip that part (and any other inappropriate part).

Tonight the 3 kids are in the play Pinocchio. I'll blog more later.

Good news!

Aaron kept his job!!! Apparently the cuts were based on job performance. I'm glad Aaron is a good worker and good at what he does. I went right out and spent money.I took the kids out to McDonald's for dinner. Of course, I'm frugal and our total for 5 kids, 1 adult was $20. Then I found out about a sale on t-shirts at disney.com 3 t-shirts for $12! Emily and Caitlyn have about 3 short sleeved shirts between them, so they each picked out 3 t-shirts. Then they each got a nightgown that was also on sale. Now I'm finished spending. Until Saturday when the kids have eye appointments and will likely need new glasses.

In other news, Eric lost his second tooth today, but his new tooth is already partially grown in. The kids spent their Easter gift money at walmart. The girls pooled their money together for a giant ball and a set of bracelets. Eric bought a ninja set. He just wanted daggers and is thrilled to have pictures of worm-like dragons on the daggers. He says his dagger is called Sting and quotes "The Hobbit" often. A few weeks ago we finished reading "The Goose Girl". I grabbed a couple books and asked the kids which book to read next. Emily went and found "LOTR: The Fellowship of the Rings". The kids begged, pleaded, then voted. We've started the book and will be reading the trilogy for the next year probably. My kids are obsessed!

Found!

A couple years ago a dinner plate dissappeared. It has bothered me ever since. How can you lose a dinner plate? A theaory I had was that my dad (who was visiting at the time of the disappearance) had broken the plate and not bothered to tell me about it, but that didn't sound like him. He's broken dishes before when I wasn't around and told me about it afterwards. The other theory was that somehow it was thrown in the trash and no one noticed it. I think a dinner plate would be pretty noticeable in the trash though.

For the first time in years we actually got down our special dishes for Easter. For the past several years we have been at the in laws for every feast and just used regular dishes for our "after holiday" feast. I asked Aaron to put the dishes away for me, since they are heavy and go in the cabinet above the fridge. While putting away, he found the missing dinner plate!!! That's great since one was broken recently and we were down to 6 dinner plates. Now we have 7.

In other news, tomorrow is downsizing day at Stampin' Up. No one knows who will be cut and who will stay. The employees have been wrapping up their business, making medical claims, clearing out their desks, their email accounts, and finding company owned items at home. Aaron has collected his company equipment to turn in tomorrow if necessary. He is one of two database administrators. They really need both, but conceiviably they could go down to one. Aaron is favored because he also works on servers, has been the virtual machine guy, and can do all kinds of other computer stuff too. The other guy is strictly a dba. The other guy, however has about 14 years seniority over Aaron. We will all have to wait and see. I don't want him to lose his job!!!

Easter

We had a good Easter. Saturday morning the kids found most of the eggs the bunny left. The bunny counted 76 eggs, but only 74 have been found so far. Benjamin is an obsessed child. He loves candy and will feast on it if his basket is left down from the fridge.






Sunday morning we watched Aaron on Music and the Spoken word. It was a great Easter program. Sacrament meeting was a bit dissapointing. The organist, who picks the hymns forgot it was Easter, so the hymns sung only once anually, were skipped this year. Since it was fast and testimony meeting, you wouldn't really even know it was Easter. I'm a bit bummed out by that since I think Easter should be at least as important as Christmas. Well, I made a big deal in my home anyway.

Hot Cross Buns

They were good, but if I want them next year, I think I will just buy them from the store. I spent the day washing all the pots, pans, and mixing bowls from last night's feast. Then Aaron made Paskha (Russian Easter Cheese). He used a whole bunch of pots, pans, mixing bowls, and etc kitchen stuff, which I had to wash. (Come on, a man can't wash!) Add that to a pot, a couple bowls, and kneading bread and I'm all tuckered out.

Passover meal

Today is the Thursday before Easter. Christ had his Last Supper with the apostles. In remembrance of the occasion we had a Passover type meal. I only thought of it this morning, hunted for recipes, then went shopping in the afternoon, so it was the best I and the girls could do. The girls did help too. We had such a feast with little time to prepare that I needed kitchen helpers. We started off with flat bread. I actually made it too, but didn't give it the full time to rise since I had not looked at the recipe early enough. Next came Coriander soup, except it had once dried parsely instead. Before shopping I did not think I needed to know the substitute for coriander. I could have bought fresh parsely, but didn't know I should pick it up. The kids actually liked it because it had meatballs in it. Then we had Carrots with honey sauce. They were very sweet. Benjamin loved them. The others thought they were too sweet. So did I, but I managed to eat them anyway. We also had Baked apples stuffed with figs, apples, grape juice, honey, and walnuts blended together. We all enjoyed the apples. Dessert was Dates stuffed with marzipan. I was very surprised to find that the kids liked figs and dates. We spent dinner talking about the Last Supper and afterward. We had an enjoyable time together. Then I had to enlist help to clean up. There was so much to do and my body was tired.

Now...to plan Easter dinner...

Crochet

I finished the dress and the bonnet. They need the ends tucked in and added ribbon and a button, but the crocheting has finished. I crocheted one bootie and was reminded of why we have several unmatched booties and slippers around here. I hate crocheting for feet! I think the bootie is too small anyway- 2.5 inches in length and thin. It might fit at birth, but baby will be blessed at one month of age and I just don't think it will work. I hate crocheting booties anyway, so I'm adding that one to the collection of single booties. I'm thinking about making a blanket next. Or maybe a couple more bonnets just for variety. A baby's mostly bald head should be covered in the sun, right?

This is what it feels like to be a teen in the modern age

A certain man decided his wife of 10 years and 5.5 children could not be trusted on a computer. The solution? His and hers computers of course! Along with a filter to keep that untrusty 30 year old mom of many from doing anything inappropriate. Oh, and her computer is the 7 year old one, with Linux as the operating system. He gets the one year old computer with all the fancy dodads. What? Wifey wants her files? Okay, so he sets up her computer to get into all the old files. If she wants to print, well there's only one printer, so just have a child run down to get those printouts. No bother about wasting paper from having to print single sided. If she wants pictures from the camera, he'll gladly oblige in his spare time to upload them on the computer. Isn't he the nicest, most trusting husband ever?

Fritatta Di Pasta

Just wanted to share (in case anyone actually reads my blog) the delicious meal we ate tonight. I don't often make it, but it is very good. It would be good for breakfast too, but to involved for me in the morning.

Beat 3 eggs; add 1 cup cold, cooked, cut-up spaghetti type pasta, 1/4 pounds cooked and cut sausage- Italian or otherwise, 1/4 cup parmesean cheese, and 4 oz. Monterey Jack cheese (shredded).

Fry in oil or sausage drippings in 8 inch skillet for 5 minutes. Carefully slide the fritatta onto a plate and use to flip it and cook the other side for 5 minutes. Serves 4-6 depending on appetite and age.

Sales

I sold a booster seat today- for $20 more than what I bought it for. Car seats normally depriciate in value like cars, but this one appreciated. It is unique (super thin) and now sold out everywhere. It was cheap when I bought it. It was a nice seat, but too short. The girls have almost outgrown the high back portion and since we have no headrests in the car, it is useless for us as a backless. Now that we have the sienna, we're not really using the car to transport kiddos anyway, so we don't need all the car seats. Besides, I think we need to buy one more to get everyone to fit just right in the sienna- and it'll be another expensive one. I'm selling for car seat money!

I've got my french horn up on ebay. I had planned for people to bid on it and raise the price. I even put a decent "buy it now" price. So far 7 watchers, no bids and 1 day left. I don't want to sell my horn for $50! I wonder if I can take it down if there are no bids... I'd rather sell locally for $100. Anyone want to buy a french horn?

Pictures!!!

Aaron spent much time getting the pictures on the computer and making it possible for me to edit and upload them onto the internet. Yay!!!

Ben had his first hair cut today.


Eric's birthday


Ben's birthday


Emily's birthday


Emily's cake


Random other photos

The dream

I had a very vivid dream last night. I had my baby- in the hospital and not sure why. My baby girl was big, with chubby, rosy cheeks, and a head full of 1 inch long, thick brown hair. Caitlyn was there (the only family member there) and I told her the baby looked just like her when she was a baby. We named her Alexandra Rhianna. Not sure where my subconscious found that!

Growing up

Eric lost his first tooth on Thursday. He came to show me in the morning. He just had his birthday! He's also reading books without being prodded. He's also been getting out the cursive letter cards and writing words in cursive. When did he learn to write beautifully and spell words?
Benjamin is mister self sufficient. He has been getting into the fridge for a while now, but he just learned how to open rubbermaid containers. One day he ate fudge and lunchmeat for breakfast. Tonight I put him to bed with the crib side up, went to the kitchen to wash dishes and there he was, bouncing on the chair! None of my kids have ever been able to climb out of the crib until about age 5 when they weren't supposed to be in it anyway! Ben's also the kid who learned to climb over the baby gate at 18 months... No wonder the kid doesn't talk. Why should he? He can do everything himself.
I'm nearly finished with the baby blessing dress. Just 4 rows on the bottom and then the sleeve edgings. I got out a crochet book because Caitlyn's been learning. There are a bunch of beautiful baby blankets, booties, bonnets, and sweaters that I now want to make! Not that a June/July baby would need any of that, but they were all so cute and adorable. Eric wants me to make him geometric shape people. They look easy. I might manage to spend a day making one for him and then going back to baby projects.

Eric's Birthday

We Celebrated Eric's birthday on Friday. I had an appointment in SLC which took some time- especially since it was lunch time, so we had to stop for lunch and that took forever. He wanted to finish reading "The Hobbit", so we read lots and did. We searched the internet for a space ship cake and couldn't find one he liked, so he settled for a mountain cake with trains around it. He picked lemon cake and in the future I will remember not to offer that choice. It was moist and had crumbly issues. I made green colored orange flavored frosting. It was a tasty cake. He also finished reading his 25th book this month, so we had pizza. The Book It coupons have been lost, so I let him pick his pizza. He picked a stuffed pizza from Papa Murohy's. Papa Murphy's is economical and tastes great, but it is burdensome to have to cook our own pizzas one at a time, Dinner was very late. He opened his presents: Thomas tub toy, two old Berenstain Bears books, a dice game, and a velvet train art with glitter glue as well as some money from relatives. Then we watched "The Hobbit". Caitlyn complained about the differences between the book and the movie. I hear a new Hobbit should be coming out. I am curious to know if it is appropriate for children to watch. Next day Eric got up early to read "The Bike Lesson". He thinks the book is hilarious. It is pretty neat because being a perfectionist he has maintained that he can't read. In the past few months he has only read beginner phonics books and only to get his pizza reward. He doesn't just read books for his own enjoyment- he'd ask me to read them, but he's read The Bike Lesson 3 times already by himself. He also asked early in the morning when he could take a bath. Then spent an hour in the tub with Thomas an Bulstrode. He's also got his picture half colored. We've played hi game several times too. I think he enjoyed his birthday.

Car seat puzzle solved

Radian car seats do not fit in the third row of a sienna except with latch and there is only one spot on the passenger's side. So, here's the temporary solution:
Middle row: Karen rear-facing Avenue, Baby Rear-facing Tribute, Caitlyn Vivo
Third row:
Ben Rear-facing Boulevard, Eric Forward facing Marathon, and Emily in a booster that fits.

Peace of mind:) That's just two seats for a grand total of $400-$500. I will go play with seats next week. Maybe I can get that down to only one new seat. I played with the seats today. In the back row I can get Rear-facing tribute, Forward facing scenera, and turbobooster. The issue with that situation is 1. Karen has to go forward facing, which would be okay at 4.5 years of age, I'd just rather go to 5 since she's so tiny and she can. 2. The tribute and the scenera are the seats that will fit a newborn, so it still leaves me to buy a new seat, but I could buy a less expensive one. I just don't really like that option. I like fancy shmancy seats better.

News!

It has been awhile again... The great news is that we found and bought our new to us sienna! It is great to drive it around and such. I'm just now worrying about how to get 6 car seats to fit. I've measured the back seat and figured car seat math problems. I've even looked to the future and predicted who would sit in what in which way. I've decided I'll worry about 4 years from now in 3.5 years. Hopefully the multimac will be out by then and solve all of my problems. Actually, I am now wishing it would be out in a month or two because it would solve all the car seat problems now. According to the math one Sunshine Kids' radian rear-facing in the back, middle seat will make it all fit. The problem is that noe in the car seat geek world seems to have ever even attempted to install the radian rear-facing in that position and radians are well known for being finicky seats that are incompatible for various vehicles in various spots in various positions. I need to just get out, find a radian, and see if it will work.

Other great news is that we sold the aerostar. Although, that bench space was great... I'm glad to have a nice vehicle now though.

Benjamin celebrated his 2nd birthday. He just loved opening gifts. He's not too wild about any of them anymore, though. He'd rather play with packing peanuts, toothpaste, and munch all day. Aaron also celebrated a birthday. He's still wild about his Ocarina of Time, however. He plays and plays. Well, when he is free anyway. His latest project is to build yet another computer for another relative.

We've just been hanging about, cleaning house lately. The kids are up to 2 digit math and think it is fun. Today we did addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Eric is the most enthusiastic about these math problems too. Its crazy that if he were in school he'd be sitting with a bunch of kids learning to count to 100.

Baby stuff

Today was the big Ultrasound. All the kids came. I took them to Burger King before hand. (I couldn't find McDonald's.) I got them the kids' meals which is very unusual. They had a blast with their new toys. Caitlyn was very intruigued by the ultrasound and baby stuff, but none of the other kids cared. We are having a girl with the official due date in mid-June. (Read: baby will be born late June or early July.) Caitlyn has a name all picked out- Eden. We will see. Now I have to finish crocheting the baby blessing dress I started when pregnant with Ben and it gives me new reason to fix up the storage room- I can find and sort all the girlie clothes. I just love cute little pinks and purples.

I guess it's been a while (again)

The computer has not been set up and fixed yet, but Aaron got me the other computer so I can access the internet and print stuff off the internet. He found out the 4 memory cards were not compatible with each other, so he sent them back to the company, which gave us 4 new memory cards. I think Aaron has been running tests and such with the computer. He is in no hurry to restore me to all my great stuff. I cannot upload pictures until I get that computer back.

We had a great Christmas. Then my parents came. They bought us a new dining room table and chairs. We're very grateful. We can now fit our whole family around the table and have room for company when they come.

The kids returned to swimming lessons. The first three were in the day as usual, but they only did level one stuff, so I got the kids transferred to evening lessons. The time is a pain, but at least the kids are getting appropriate lessons. Eric is on the verge of swimming. Emily swims. Caitlyn swims well and is learning new strokes of breaststroke and butterfly. Karen is in level 1 since she's taken the class four times already. She's teeny and very immature, but she has the skills for level one.

Benjamin has become the disagreeable toddler. He doesn't want to take naps, go to bed, change diapers, or put on his pants. He is a good boy, though. The other day I got fed up with him kicking me, so I gave him his pants, told him to put them on, and left. He stayed and attempted to put on his pants. After awhile he was willing to have me put them on. Well, time for bed!