We can't hold him back

Happenings

Life has been so busy lately that it's been hard to find time to blog.  We try and find time eat day to have some fun.  We play princesses and have tea parties, read countless stories, visit family, bake cookies and do art projects.  Evie is getting more and more outspoken and articulate each day.  She's got a mind of her own and she's not afraid to share it!  Pat and I are simultaneously proud and frustrated parents.  2.5 years is a lot of work, but also a lot of fun!  Mitch is a joy, learning and growing each day.  He's such a sweet baby and we all adore him. 

Snip Snip

Just a few pics...

Just a few pictures of the past few weeks...

5 months old already!!

I can’t believe 5 whole months have gone by since our sweet baby boy’s birth.  It just doesn’t seem possible!  Mitchell is growing by leaps and bounds and learning new things every day.  He’s reaching for toys and putting everything in his mouth, including his toes.  He can roll from back to front and front to back, but he spends most of the time on his stomach.  He actually prefers to sleep on his stomach as well.  At first, it made me pretty nervous since all the experts say that ‘back is best’, but as soon as he learned to roll, it was clear that he preferred his tummy and I can’t spend all night flipping him back over.  He’s got amazing head control and can push himself all the way up on his arms.  He’s actually pushed up on his knees for a few seconds as well.  He can also sit up all by himself!  He’s still a little wobbly, but he’s gaining more balance every day and sat unassisted for almost ten minutes over the weekend.   I keep telling him that he can slow down a little bit, but he’s going on full steam ahead!

He eats cereal twice a day now.  I’d like to hold off on the fruits and veggies until he is 6 months.  The majority of his nutrition should still come from nursing/bottles and I don’t want to fill him up on other stuff.  I was hoping that eating cereal at night would help him sleep longer, but that hasn’t really been the case.  He usually gets up at about once a night to eat, but goes right back to sleep.  But our little cat napper is sleeping in longer stretches occasionally and I think we are inching our way towards a more regular nap schedule.  One thing that we have really tried to help Mitch learn is how to fall asleep by himself.  With Evie, we were constantly rocking her and feeding her to sleep and she’d wake up as soon as we laid her down.  We could rarely lay her down awake at night.  I’ll lay Mitch down, he’ll flip right over onto his belly, fuss for a second or two (maybe), stick his thumb in his mouth and go to sleep.  It is AWESOME!

Mitchell is the sweetest, most personable little baby.  He loves to smile and will light up when you talk to him.  He started going through a little bit of separation anxiety this past month and could be a little fussy if someone other than Pat or I (or his babysitter) held him.  I think it’s a lot worse if he can see me or hear my voice so when I hand him off to someone, I try to keep my distance.  If he gets really fussy and isn’t able to be comforted at all by the person holding him, I’ll take him back.  I want him to be secure in the fact that I will always be there for him, but that also know that he’s safe with other people.  It seems to be working because he was a lot better over the weekend!  Mitch wakes up happy almost every day and seeing his little grin makes getting up for work a little bit easier.  He can be a stoic little guy, though, and he will scrunch up his little face in concentration like he’s trying to figure stuff out at times.  He coos and ‘talks’ to us often and definitely makes himself heard.  He’s a very laid back most of the time, but if Mitchell needs something (sleep, a diaper change, or just to be held), he will let you know!  He loves his sister and will follow her actions around the room.  And speaking of Evie, she is so, so sweet to him.  Honestly, she is the best big sister.  She speaks to him in soft tones, and is just so gentle and loving towards him.  She sometimes gets upset and frustrated with him if he spits up or puts one of her toys in his mouth.  I’ve been telling her that he’s just a baby and that he doesn’t know any better, and it’s our job to teach him.  The other day, he grabbed a handful of my hair and pulled, and I mimicked Evie and said “Mitchell why you doing that?!”  Evie looked over and said “Mama – it’s cause he’s just a baby”.  So she does listen to me sometimes!  Like I said, it’s obvious that Mitch loves Evie.  She will talk to him and he will smile and coo.  This will only encourage her to do it more – she’ll say “Look Mama!  He’s happy with me!”

At 5 months old, Mitchell Joseph had definitely won all of our hearts!

Rock the vote

I picked the kids up from the sitter’s yesterday and decided to go vote.  Admittedly, I didn’t know much about what we were voting on this year.  I probably should make myself more aware of what’s going on in the political world, but right now, I’m slightly uninformed.  Even so, I’m the mother of a daughter and I want to set a good example.  Women in the past fought for our right to vote and I don’t want to take what they did for granted.  I’m not really much of a feminist, but most days, I don’t have to be.  I enjoy certain freedoms that came about because women in the past fought for them.  There are many, many women in the world who do not have even half of the freedoms and opportunities that we do in this country.  Is it perfect?  No.  Do we still have a way to go before there is true equality?  Of course.  We probably always will.  That’s why it’s important to take advantage of the times that we do have to make a difference, however small it may be.  That’s something I want to show my children.

Anyway, I got Evie and Mitchell and went vote.  As usual, Evie kept it interesting.

Here’s what happened…

Me:        Evie do you want to go vote with me?

Evie:     Yes!  I want to go on a boat!

Me:        No, not a boat.  Vote.  We are going to V-V-Vote.

E:            B-B-Boat!  Row, Row, Row your boat gently down the stream…!

Me:        No.  Vote.  Like vest and violet.

E:            Oh.  What’s violet?

Me:        Violet is like purple.

E:            I like purple.

Me          That’s great.  Now let’s go vote.

We get in the car and start driving

E:            Mama – We are we going?

Me:        To Vote.  We have to go to the church.

E:            To the church?!  Yah! I like church.  Mama- what’s voting?

Me:        It’s when we get to pick our leaders.

E:            What’s a leader?

Me:        A leader is the person in charge.  You know the song “We’re following the leader…”.  The leader is the person in front who is in charge.

E:            I like that song!  (sings the song).  Mama - What’s ‘in charge’?

Me:        “In charge” means you are the boss.

E:            What’s a boss?

Me:        I’m a boss.  Daddy is a boss.  We can tell you the rules and what to do.

E:            Oh.

We go into the gymnasium at St. Peter’s, me carrying Mitch and Evie holding my hand.

E:            Mama – what are we doing?

Me:        Voting. (Mitch proceeds to spit up all over my shoulder as I’m signing the voting registry)

E:            Ah! Mama he spit up!  Ah!  Yuck!  Mitchell stop!  Why you doing that?!

I clean us up and we make our way to voting booth.

E:            Mama – what’s that?

Me:        It’s what you use to vote.  You push the buttons on the screen like on the IPad

E:            Oh.  Mama – I do it too?

Me:        You can help me if you promise to do what I tell you to do

E:            (emphatically) I promise!

I try and read what on the screen in front of me

E:            Mama is it my turn?  I do it now? (4000 times)

I let her press the screen a few times

E:            Mama – what’s this button?  It’s purple!  I press it?  I vote?

Me:        No!  Don’t press that button! 

E:            Why?

Me:        I don’t want you to press it.  I’m trying to read.

E:            Why?

Me:        I don’t know what it does.

E:            I want to do it!  I want to press the button!

Me:        Don’t press that button! 

We finally hit ‘Confirm” and leave. We got stickers too.

E:            Mama – you have a sticker and I have a sticker.

Me:        Yes we both have stickers.

E:            Cause we voted?

Me:        Yes Evie.  Because we voted.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween was so much fun this year. 

Evie so excited to go and could not wait to put on her costume.  Our neighborhood always has a little get-together before trick-or-treating.  The kids have a little costume parade and then one of our neighbors has hot dogs and snacks for everyone.  It’s a good chance to meet new neighbors and catch up and we had fun.

This was Evie’s 3^rd Halloween, but it was the first time we’ve ever let her go trick-or-treating.  We only went to a few houses, but Evie was in heaven.  She just could not believe that she could go up to people’s houses and they would give her candy.  She always said “Thank you!” and “Happy Halloween!” too.  We sat outside for a while and gave out candy.  Evie enjoyed this almost as much as getting the candy. She was very generous too, scooping handfuls of candy into the kids’ pails.  Pat and I decided to let her indulge in her candy since it was Halloween and took full advantage.  Later, in a sugar-induced haze, she danced around her room in her nightgown singing “It’s the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!  Come inside!  It’s fun inside!” before passing out in bed around 8.

Having kids can be crazy, but we sure do appreciate fun times like these!