7 25 09Part2

Part II

7 25 09Part1

Part I of Calli's soccer game on Saturday. Of course my camera memory ran out just as Calli started heating up!! She scored three more goals toward the end of the game, one right after the video ends. I was so sad to not capture it on film, but next time!!

Vote For Serena!!

I entered Serena in a beautiful baby contest here. Just go to this link to vote!

VoteSerena!

Click on the 10 and then click VOTE.

You can only vote once a day so keep going back each day to help her win!

Smile and say CHEESE!

Jameson has started to smile. He first did it when my mom was here visiting and he was about a month old. I was really surprised and didn't really think he was doing it at first because it seemed too soon! I remember Serena taking a long time to smile (she was nearly two months before she cracked a grin). But when I got my Your Baby This Week: 6 Weeks email from http://www.babycenter.com/ it told me that babies start smiling around this time. Now I realize that Calli was smiling early as well and Serena was just a late smiler. Funny enough, Calli grew into such a happy baby, always with a laugh or a smile, while Serena was much more stingy with her goofy grins. She is better now and easier to get smiling, but still not quite as happy-go-lucky as her sister. Now I am wondering if this means Jameson will take after Calli. I love my Serena girl more than anything, but I do prefer a personality like Calli had at her age.

Anyhow, Jameson has started smiling more and more and at other people. I have noticed that Calli can usually get a smile out of him. He just adores his big sisters and can just stare at them forever. Calli loves this because she will proudly proclaim "he smiled at me!" The first gummy smiles a baby gives are absolutely adorable and I hope he continues to do it more and more. I much prefer that to the crying! But he has been pretty laid back the last few days and is content just hanging out with everyone. He has been a pretty easy baby, after his rough start to life.

So not only is Jameson getting huge, but Serena is growing up too! She isn't talking a lot, at least not nearly as much as I remember Calli at her age, but I am not concerned. She continues to impress us with everything she understands. She will go fetch a diaper and wipes to change her bottom or get her shoes and sit down to put them on. She helps to dress herself and will even go potty on the toilet sometimes. I am SO not ready to take on the challenge of potty training a fifteen month old while I have a newborn so it's good she likes to use the toilet, but I'm not going to go into full blown potty training mode just yet. Besides, I did that with Calli and that never worked out so well!

One of the cutest Serena moments happened a few days ago when she got ahold of Calli's camera. I was half paying attention to her and half trying to get dinner on the table. I heard her making some noises and saw her holding the camera in the air. Finally I stopped to really see what she was doing and every time she held the camera up she made a noise like "cheeeeeeese". I guess she has seen the CHEESE routine done quite a few times now when I pull the camera out. Serena is also becoming quite the climber. Her favorite thing to do is pull out the kitchen chair and climb onto the table. Then if Mommy was smart enough to leave the napkins on there she likes to go through and take each one out, tear it in shreds and make a big mess.

Our sweet baby! So far all our kids have beautiful blue eyes and I love it!

And here is Serena on the table. Richard went to pull her off and I said "no let me take a photo real quick!" So I ran to grab the camera, pointed it at her and she started to get off the table. Apparently she loves to take (pretend) photos but hates having hers taken!

Calli-isms

On Getting Old

Calli: Mom, sometimes people get older and sometimes they get younger.

Me: No, people always get older. That's the way life works.

Calli: Mommy, I don't want you to get old! I want you to stay just the way you are.

M: I would like that too, but unfortunately I will get older.

C: Like trash that we throw away because it is old?

Yes Calli, like trash that we throw away. I am so glad you have such a way with words. Thanks for comparing your mom to garbage.

On Staying Little

Calli: I don't want baby boy to get big! I want him to stay little forever.

Me: I wish we could keep him little forever but someday he will probably be bigger than all of us!

Calli: Let's shrink him.

M: I don't think it works that way.

C: Yes it does Mom.

*runs over to bookshelf and grabs her thickest book, which she balances on her head*

C: We'll get a big book and smash him so he shrinks.

M: We're not going to be smashing baby brother

C: No, not now! When he gets bigger someday.

Oh, silly me. It would be mean to smash him now, better to wait when he's a little bigger, then it's acceptable.

More Soccer!!

Here is a video of Calli's soccer game on Saturday. She is #2 on the pink team (the littlest blondie out there). She keeps getting better every week, we are so proud of our little soccer star!

Busy Busy!

There is no denying we have been a little busy lately! But it has been nice to get out of the house. When you are a stay-at-home-mom with three very young kids to care for all day, sometimes you just need to get out of the house so you don't lose your mind! Plus I feel pretty proud of myself for doing it. Getting out of the house with three kids is hard. Getting out of the house showered and dressed, with all three kids dressed, fed and looking good EVERY MORNING is even harder. That's what we did last week and I survived. I can remember when I thought having one baby was hard. Little did I know those were the easy days. Yes, we did it to ourselves, having three kids in four years when all of them would be at home still and not in school. But I am glad we did it this way. It may be difficult now, but it is nice to just have the kids all together and not have to worry about starting all over in a few years when another comes along. Plus they get more bonding time being around each other so much.

Calli and Serena fight like cats and dogs most days. It gets on my nerves, but it is not a completely new thing to me! I knew what to expect having two daughters that close in age because that is the same gap I have with my own sister. I knew there would be arguments, there would be tantrums and hitting, and sometimes, just sometimes, there are love and kisses too. This was one of those moments.

This is what happens when a baby gets so tired he can't even wait until you put him in his bed.
Jameson is getting SO BIG already. Grow hair, grow!!

Serena adores her baby brother. She isn't always gentle and she can get jealous (but those incidents are really few and far between surprisingly!), but she sure does love on him. He gets way too many kisses and hugs and love pats. I love how Jameson is staring at her here.

And of course Calli is in love with him too. She has been a really good helper and it's been nice.

Serena loves her kitty!! She decided to hop in the cat bed with Lizzie

Video #2

The were playing a game where they had to dribble around the kids on the ground without getting their ball knocked away. Calli and the other little boy were the last ones standing, she did really well!

Soccer Camp Video #1

Here is Calli's attempt to head the ball

Soccer Camp

Calli completed her very first soccer camp today. She went every morning this week from 10-11:30. The fields were about ten minutes from our house so not too bad of a drive. I decided I was going to stay the first day, but when we got there I noticed there was almost no shade. They had set up two canopies and there was one lonely tree next to those. So I watched for about forty-five minutes before the babies got fussy and ended up going to sit in the car for the second half. The next three days I just dropped Calli off and either ran some errands or just went home. I wished I could watch her, but it was too hard with the other kids. Today was the last day though and I wanted to stay and watch. It worked out pretty well and Jameson ended up being able to sleep most of the time. Calli really enjoyed her whole camp experience and I'm thinking about signing her up for another one in a few weeks. She was really sad that it was over. At the end of the session today all the kids got a shirt and a form that the coach had filled out about how well they had done. She wrote that Calli was a great listener and because of that she was able to learn a lot and improve. That's our girl!!

This is Calli on the very first day of camp

They were playing a game on Thursday
Serena wanted to play too!

Here is Calli on her final day of camp

Jameson doesn't show much interest in soccer yet, but I'm sure that will change

Here are all the campers and the instructor

Our Crazy Household

Here is a small glimpse into our life with three kids. It's pretty nuts sometimes, but we love it (most of the time). Now that Jameson is six weeks old (today) it is starting to get a little easier. The last couple of nights he has done seven hour stretches of sleep. For some reason you can't keep that child up past 8pm and he is wanting to make his bedtime even sooner. The last two nights he has been out by 7:45pm. He sleeps until 3am, eats and goes back to sleep until 6 or 6:30am. So life is not too bad at the moment. How can it be too terrible when you hear laughter like this and see these cute faces every day?!

A Day at the Zoo

On Sunday we decided to go to the zoo. I wanted to try and get there as early as possible before it got unbearably hot. It was still hot, but hadn't hit the hundreds yet. We were also able to cool off a bit by going to indoor exhibits in the zoo. I was excited to go because I thought Serena would really enjoy it. She is in the animal loving stage and the last time she was at the zoo she was too young to appreciate it. The girls both had a great time and Jameson snoozed most of the trip.

Us girls at this display near the zoo entrance

This is how Jameson entered the zoo - sleeping away!
First stop was the flamingos. They were Calli's favorite color: pink!

They have a butterfly exhibit which Calli got really excited about seeing. We had to pay $1 each to go so just Calli and I went in. At first she thought it was neat but then started freaking out about all the butterflies flying around. Every time a pack or even just one flew toward her she freaked.

A butterfly landed ON ME. They told us this could happen and you are not supposed to touch them. You just have to wait until they fly off on their own. Well the longer the butterfly was on me the more scared Calli was getting. She kept telling me she wanted to leave but this darn butterfly would not get off! Finally I had to ask someone what I should do and the nice butterfly keeper lady got it off and we left.

This butterfly flew on Calli and I snapped a picture before she could notice it and freak out. Luckily it flew off before she saw.

Serena really liked the monkeys. They are all looking at a brand new baby monkey, born less than a month ago.

Calli the monkey!

Serena enjoying more monkeys

Richard and the girls with the jaguar. This one was just hanging out, trying to stay out of the sun.

Calli and me feeding the fish

My new double stroller full of kids and hard at work!!

This was my favorite part, for the sole reason that it was an indoor exhibit with air conditioning!! They have a special Africa Live exhibit (although I don't know exactly what is so special about it). Calli and Serena are looking at the hippos in the water.

And here we are leaving the zoo. As you can see, the babies are wiped out, but Miss Calli wanted to take a ride on that train behind us. We decided not this time!!

A Day at the Doctor

I am beginning to feel as if I should just live at the doctor. Or better yet, hire one to move in with us because we seem to have had constant medical needs over the last two years. I have pretty much been pregnant for the better part of those years, so there is a well worn trail from my house to my doctor's office. We've also had many well-child visits for Serena, which are spacing out more now that she's over a year. And then Jameson was born and stayed in the hospital for ten days and has been to the doctor three times so far. Today it was Calli and Serena's turns for appointments. Next week I go, then Jameson again a few weeks after and Serena's eighteen month check-up will be here before I know it. As I said, we need some kind of medical personel on call to come so we don't have to leave the house.

But I digress. As I said, Calli and Serena were the ones needing to be seen by the doctor today. Calli had her four-year check-up and Serena had her fifteen-month check-up. Calli was excited to go to the doctor, even excited about getting a shot. She hadn't had shots since she was two, so of course she didn't actually remember that those are not very fun!

Anyhow, I packed up all the kids and made the trip to the pediatrician's office for the 10:15am appointment. I love the new pediatrician we see because he is so thorough and caring. At the well-child visits he spends 20-30 minutes with us, answering questions, going over things, etc. And since we had two kids at this appointment, he was with us about an hour. Our other pediatrician would see us for 5-10 minutes, but I really love this doctor's approach. It's easier to trust someone with your childrens' lives when they take the time to get to know them and care. And I will always be thankful to him for catching Jameson's low oxygen in the hospital, which led to the eventual diagnosis of pneumonia. I am guessing it would have been caught eventually during our hospital stay, but catching it right away was ideal.

I was a little surprised by the girls' heights and weights. I see Calli as this tall, skinny girl and Serena as the chunkier one (but in a good way, it is CUTE chunky-monkeyness!). Calli weighed in at 33.4 pounds (30th percentile) and was 40.5 inches tall (only the 67th percentile). I was expecting her height to be close to the top of the charts. People always comment how tall she is, but I guess she is really not that tall after all! Serena weighed 22.2 pounds (40th percentile) and was 32 inches tall (90th percentile). I was totally surprised at her measurements! Maybe she just seems bigger to me because the other baby I carry around is a newborn (Jameson weighed in at a chart topping 11.6 pounds last week). So apparently she IS tall and skinny.

They are both very healthy and did so well with their exams. Calli was a breeze of course and I was a little concerned with how Serena would be. She is not that crazy about people she doesn't know, but she did really well! The doctor had me hold her on my lap and she only cried once for a second and then was fine. She even gave him high fives after he was done! Luckily for me Jameson fell asleep right before the physical exams and stayed asleep until......

Calli got her shots. She started to get a little nervous and tell me she didn't want a shot and what can you do really? I mean, you know it's going to hurt and you don't want to lie to them, but you don't want to freak them out any more and tell them it will hurt. She couldn't even sit in my lap either, she had to lie down on the table and get all four shots in her legs. I had to hold her arms, which proved to be extremely necessary because when the first stick went in she started screaming her lungs out. I wanted to just cry of course and it couldn't be over fast enough. Afterward she got band-aids on her legs and I held her for a minute. She told me she never wanted to go to the doctor again! Luckily she doesn't have to go back until she is five, phew! Needless to say, Jameson woke up after that.

Serena got lucky and didn't have to get her shots today. I am sure she would have been just as much of a nightmare as Calli. I got a copy of our records at Serena's last appointment at our old doctor when she was one. They must have forgot to update the records to show the shots she had that day, even though the receptionist specifically told me she was putting them in there. So I have to get that sorted out and then take Serena in just to get the vaccines. And Jameson gets vaccines at his next appointment, so the fun is just never ending for me!

These pictures aren't exactly new, but they are cute nonetheless!

Baby feet! Is there anything sweeter?

First Bath!

So we had to wait awhile for Jameson's umbilical stump to fall off before we could give him a bath. A long while. It took four weeks to finally come off! At his two week check-up the doctor had told me that his cord was very thick and it would take longer than normal to come off. I had been getting anxious at that point because it hadn't even looked like it was going to come off soon. It was a relief to hear that it was normal, but still I got more anxious as the days went on. Finally I lifted up his onsie on the day he turned four weeks and saw it hanging by a thread. It hadn't shown any warnings of coming off; one day it was securely fastened and the next it was just hanging there. I was going to just leave it be, but it was kind of gross just hanging there so I finally (nicely) gave it a tug and it was off. However, I noticed that it didn't come off entirely and there was still a small piece there. Well finally a week later it seems to be *almost* entirely gone. We went ahead and did his first bath last night finally!

Jameson seemed to like his first bath. Calli loved her first bath, she loved all her baths! In fact, the only time she wasn't crying as a newborn was when she was in the water. Serena on the other hand HATED her first bath and every subsequent one. To this day, bathing her is a battle. She will not sit in the tub, she just stands there and cries. Those eventually turn to screams as you get her wet and wash her hair. Yeah, she is a real joy to bathe! Anyhow, we figured Jameson could go either way, but he didn't cry at all during his bath! So hopefully he will love the water like his big sister Calli.

Now we have a clean and nice smelling baby!

Daddy getting Jameson ready for his bath

Mommy and Calli bathing Baby Jameson

Serena wanted to help too!

He is liking his bath!

Daddy's turn!

All done! Sorry about the pink towel Jameson, but you do have two big sisters!

My clean and sweet baby!

Calli giving her baby brother loves

Richard and all the kids

4th of July!

We had a nice 4th of July; it was Calli's fifth, Serena's second and Jameson's first! I am finding that with three kids I am not quite the organized person I used to be so some of my things to do have been falling by the wayside (for instance, birthday cards and gifts!! But better late than never I figure right?!). Anyhow, I had been meaning to get the kids their 4th of July outfits and we finally went out to Old Navy the day before the holiday. I thought I might find some good deals on the clearance but they literally had nothing! So we headed over to Kohls and luckily they had a few things and I managed to come away with three cute outfits. I am thinking I need to shop for Halloween costumes NOW so this doesn't happen again ;).

So 4th of July. When I was a little girl my dad used to take my sister and me to a great parade the morning of the 4th. I remember loving it at first, but beginning to hate it over the years. We had to wake up early and get there early to get a seat. But now I want nothing more than to give my kids those wonderful memories, isn't it funny how life works like that? Anyhow I figured in a big city like this there would have to be some kind of BIG parade, but I have been searching three years now and found nothing that compares. Last year we went to kids' parade that Calli participated in and it was pretty lame, but she had fun. I thought maybe we could do that again this year, but we didn't get ready in time. It was supposed to be HOT so when we didn't get out of the house by 10am, we just decided to stay home. No use bringing the kids out so we can all sweat and be miserable while attempting to make memories!

We did get to go over to our friends' house, who live near Sea World and could see the fire works from their backyard. We went over around 7pm and had drinks and let the kids run around in the backyard in a pool and have fun. Before we knew it it was 9:15pm and the fireworks show was starting. We sat to watch and had some tired babies. Serena was captivated by the show at first and it put her to sleep in my arms. Jameson ate his bottle and drifted off as well. All three were asleep on the car ride home!

So it was a fun day. I just wish it wasn't so dang hot! Despite the fact that it has been eight years since I've lived in my childhood home, I keep thinking each 4th of July "we should bring sweatshirts". Growing up we had a fabulous 4th; there was a block party in our cult-de-sac with bbq and fireworks and my best friend! Oh and blankets and sweaters because it would get chilly out. That is how I remember the 4th so I have to remind myself that no, we do not need sweatshirts when we go out in the summer here!!

You can see the love radiating from Serena toward her big sister!

Serena enjoying her 4th of July breakfast :)
Calli being a goofball

Baby Jameson's first 4th

This is the best picture I could get of the three of them

Calli getting ready to swim

Richard and the kids getting ready to watch the fireworks

Serena and me watching the fireworks (the flash was a little bright for her!)

Richard, Calli and Jameson watching the show

Serena fell asleep

Calli and her friend McKenna