Grady's 2 months old

And he's quite the conversationalist...well, today anyway. We had a lovely conversation this afternoon. This is the first time he's babbled and cooed for any length of time. It's amazing to see him changing on a daily basis...and knowing that soon he'll be walking and talking. My little man. Our lives have changed so much in the past few months and things have been so hectic. It was nice this afternoon to just spend a little time in the moment, laying next to him on the floor chatting away!

Halo 3

Joe's X-Box buddy (Phil-dog) arrived from Bellingham last night to play Halo 3 for the weekend. I'm not a fan of video games (still haven't tried the Wii) but its nice to hear the sounds of Phil and Joe discussing how to save the world. It reminds me of home...our last home, that is. Thanks Nickie, for sending him down for the weekend. I hope you get some needed "you" time! =)

A good nights sleep

For Grady, anyway. For all of you keeping track (ok, so just me) he slept almost 8 hours straight last night.

Monarch Butterflies

I earned my good mommy points for the day, and it's not even 9 a.m. yet. I was looking out the window and keep seeing these things fly through the air (and with the "things" that are down here, its rather freaky.) Well upon closer look, they turned out to be butterflies. I saw a dozen in only a few moments. I realized that this is the fall migration of the Monarch Butterflies, which only happens over a day or two and Bartlesville is right in their path South. (For more info http://www.monarchwatch.org/tagmig/fallmap.htm )

Anyway...I quickly hollered at the girls and we ran outside to see them. (Grady was actually sleeping!) We spotted probably close to 100 in just the 20 minutes we were out there. They were flying everywhere. Not quite like the coming of the locusts, but every direction you looked you could see them. The girls thought it was so much fun. They kept yelling, "Look Mommy, there's one..." over and over and over. Its actually a pretty amazing feat. These little guys are so programmed, that they fly South in the Fall, then their great, great grand-butterflies fly North in the Spring. They can even find the exact same spot where their ancestors were hatched.

Reflux

On Monday I called the pediatrician and persuaded them to see Grady today. Life here has been getting steadily worse with this child. Is it reflux, is it a cow's milk allergy, is the hyper lactation, is it colic, is it just the way things are going to be???? What is going on here!!! This child spits up more than anything I have ever seen. Luckily our first few days here I bought another 12 pack of thick burp cloths because I cannot keep up with the laundry he creates. I go through 2 burp clothes and 2 washcloths per feeding. In addition to my change of clothes and his...let's just say that my washer and drying are in constant use.

One blessing is that Bartlesville is a small town. I can get pretty much anywhere from my house in less than 10 minutes. That 10 minutes seems like eternity when you have a screaming kid in the car. Did I mention that he cries a lot? Well, if he's in his car seat, he's crying. The other day when I picked the girls up, I looked back and both of them had their hands over their ears begging me to make him stop. All I could do was laugh...and step on the gas pedal.

Anyway, the doc set us up with a prescription of Prevacid and we dropped it off at Walgreen's. (The pharmacy at the hospital was out of stock.) Well, when I went to pick it up...Walgreen's was out too. I frantically looked up every pharmacy in Bartlesville (which took about 2 seconds) to make sure they had the meds in stock and ended up at Wal-Mart (again). I was not going to wait another second to get anything that might help him feel better.

Here we are a few days later and wow...life is getting MUCH better. Grady actually fell asleep in his car seat at the grocery store yesterday. I was in shock. The last few car rides have actually been peacefully quite. And he sat in his swing for 1/2 hour while I entertained him folding laundry the other day. These are things that babies do on a regular basis, so normally I wouldn't be so excited about them. But now, I can actually put him down for a second or two during the day. Thank you Lord for creating scientist and physicians and medicine that has helped my baby boy!!!

One room is done...

Ok, so maybe its just the guest bath, but hey, its done. Which is a feat for me considering this house didn't come with any toilet paper holders, towel bars or hand towel hooks. I had to track down the matching accessories to our plumbing fixtures, spend hours researching prices (to get the best deal, of course), order the fixtures, wait for them to arrive, then install them wearing a baby and refereeing two other small children. And I sewed the shower curtain to match the guest room bedding....cute huh??? =) I figured the best way to tackle this house...one room at a time. I've got a long way to go since I stared with one of the smallest rooms! =)

Big Sister Molly

Molly just loves this little man. The other morning, I was getting ready to feed him and he was fussing a bit (big surprise) on the bed. Molly started singing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" to him. It was too cute! It calmed him down, briefly, and she was so proud of herself. "He's so cute," is all she says of him. The girls are always petting his head and fighting to put the binky back in his mouth. They take turns kissing the top of his head, usually while I'm trying to feed. I'm so glad that they don't feel jealous of him and how much of my time he consumes. They so love their little brother.

What a cutie pie!

I know I'm a bit biased, but man she is a cutie pie! She went through a little phase where every morning (at about 5-ish) she'd come down the stairs to our room wearing her jammies, cowboy boots, and cowboy hat to say good morning. It was hard to be upset that it was so early since she looked so darn cute! Here she is with her bracelets on, her purse, and her headband (which she put on herself). Love her!

Bye, bye to Nanny

My mom has been here for the last week helping us out. It was wonderful. I'm at the point with the unpacking, that I'm not even noticing all the boxes and bins that need to be taken care of. I was just thinking about using them as furniture. Why unpack it all? Do we really need all this stuff? I've got the essentials out, right? Plus, the movers are just going to have to pack them again next time we move. I'll just save them some time. (Sadly, we did have two boxes that were still packed from our move down from Alaska. They just added a new sticker to the box and loaded it on the truck.) Anyway...she also helped out tremendously with the kids. Although I think she was starting to get the feeling the Grady didn't like her because he kept crying. Mom...he just does that...a lot lately.

Secretly, I think she had fun helping to put things away and organize my house. You know...how its fun to go to other people's homes and clean and organize for them. What? What do you mean? That's not fun for you? (Yes, I know I have a sickness!)

Mom, thank you so much for all your help this last week! We already miss you!! The girls are talking about when we get to go to Nanny's house. And they want to drive there. Apparently they don't remember the 48 hours of "oops" that we spent driving the RV here. Hmmm...I do. Too well. Find a happy place...find a happy place...happy place...happy place...happy...

Grady 6, Mom 5 (hours, that is)

I had 5 hours of consecutive sleep last night. For all you moms out there reading this (and I know there are just thousands! =) you know what a gift sleep is. Sleep deprivation is something that you cannot prepare for with having children...wait a second...is there much of anything that you can prepare for with kids??? My mom tells me she can't remember being sleep deprived with us....maybe the memory lapse is due to the lack of sleep, Mom!?!? I don't know how you can forget this! Anyway...I'm sure last night was a fluke, but it was wonderful.

I am so tired

So, I'm beyond exhausted. This is my third baby. You'd think I'd be use to this by now, right? Nope. I thought I was doing pretty good, until I realized that I was having a hard time recalling simple words, completing sentences and, oh, basic thoughts??? Oh my, Kelly needs a long nap. So I took one today. First time since we got here. I slept for 4 hours with only 1 interruption. Joe had the girls, mom had the baby. It was heaven.

Sam's Club

Let's just say they give Costco a run for its money! Loved it! Wish it wasn't an hour away...but I will go back monthly. I spent $450 (sorry Joe) and didn't even get to the freezer/refrig section. (Ok, so $100 was diapers and wipes for the 2 1/2 bums I have to diaper and wipe...the kids, not mine!) Next time I have to pack a cooler or two to get all the food back.

MOPS

Today was the first day of MOPS. I'm so glad there is a group here. Its at the church where the girls do Preschool/KDO, and where we'll start (and hopefully) finish our church hunt. I'm really looking forward to meeting some other moms here in B'ville.

In other news...Nanny (grandma) is coming tomorrow. I don't know if the kids are more excited or I am!?!?!

My Birthday Weekend

And it was...Joe slaved away on the house at my every request. He built a desktop for my office/craft room...so I'm getting settled there, unpacked a bunch of boxes, took the girls a few times, got up early with them, I even woke up this morning to the smell of bacon and eggs! WOW!!! Molly even got her cake...I mean my cake. I even treated myself to a glass of wine. Joe found the wine and the wine glasses, so why not use them???

Happy Birthday to me...

Today I turned....thirty-something. Yay...for the princess on her Birthday, right? Right! So, no sleep, whiny kids, lots of diapers, cleaning, unpacking, you see where this is going. First thing this morning, though, the girls jumped in bed with a sweet card for me. (I had forgotten it was my Birthday today.) Joe has to work late again, so we'll be celebrating later this weekend. My sweet, sweet daughter Molly has been insisted all day that Mommy get a cake for her Birthday. Apparantly you just can't have a Birthday without cake....I agree!