Happy Boy

I love this picture! Do you want to know what was so funny? I took Ethan's shoes off after being outside. We were sitting on the floor and I smelled this awful odor. I couldn't figure out where it was coming from. I was smelling everything. I finally smelled his shoes. They smelled HORRIBLE. Foot odor. YUCK! I smelled his feet and they smelled just as bad. How can my 2 year old have nasty food odor all ready? After I smelled his feet, he smelled his feet and started laughing. I snapped this picture right after that.

Happy 8 Months, Darling!

Happy 8 Months, sweetie! Where has the time gone? Riley hasn't started crawling yet. I'm excited for her to do so. It'll be fun to watch her interact with Ethan and Mia when she's mobile. I'm guessing that Mia is going to pester her a lot! Riley has been babbling a lot lately. Mike swears that he heard "dada" but I don't think so. She's been saying "bababababa" a lot. I'm still waiting to hear her first words!

Ethan and Mia love giving Riley random things to eat, especially when I'm not watching. My sister, Sarah, brought over some lunch and we were sitting at the kitchen table talking. Sarah was holding Riley and when I looked down at her, Riley was sucking on a french fry. I didn't say anything, but I was thinking, "geez, Sarah, do you really think she needs a french fry?" Sarah then looks down and sees her with the fry and asked me if I had given it to her. I told her "no, I thought you did." We both busted out laughing and we realized that Mia, who was standing right there, was the one who gave her the fry. Ethan, being so nice, put peanut butter bread on Riley's tray. Riley was going to town eating it when I walked back in the kitchen! Thankfully, she didn't have a reaction! They've also given her cocoa puffs, lucky charms, cinnamon toast crunch and cheese crackers.

Riley absolutely loves watching Ethan and Mia run around. She'll sit on my lap for quite awhile just watching them. They can bring her out of a grumpy mood. Ethan still pretty much ignores Riley. Every once in awhile, he'll pat her on the head. Ethan did something to make Riley cry. I gave him "the look" and said in a very stern voice, "you give her a kiss right now." He looked at me and saw how serious I was. He leaned over and gave her a kiss. It was so cute. I had to hold back my laughter! Mia continues to love Riley. She is constantly kissing her but does pester her quite a bit. If Riley is sitting up, Mia will purposely knock her over and pat her belly. Riley HATES this and starts screaming immediately.

Riley still is not a fan of sleep. She wants to sleep with me and this is where the problem starts. I'm a very light sleeper and every movement wakes me up. Riley won't lay next to me. She wants me to cradle her while she's laying on her side. I can tell her neck starts hurting because she starts squirming all over the place. Then, I have to flop over to the other side. I try to lay her in her crib, but she wakes up within an hour. I just bought a book on how to get your baby to sleep without crying themselves to sleep. I hope I'll have some good news to report in a few weeks! Riley's naps are touch and go. She loves to be held while she naps. This isn't always possible, so I try to put her in her crib. She must sense when I do this because her eyes open immediately and she looks at me like, "I know what you're trying to do. Pick me up right now!"

I started to wean Riley from the boob. Mike was pretty insistent on this. I know she's hard to take care of when I'm working, so he thinks this will help. She's been getting a bottle for the two evening feedings, and I still breastfeed her for the morning and afternoon feedings. It's going to be hard to get her to stop breastfeeding all together. She especially wants to do it when she's tired. She'll grab my shirt and put her head on my chest and then she'll arch her back so she's laying like she does when she breastfeeds. Poor thing! The good thing is is that she takes the bottle with no issues now. She gets fruit in the mornings, vegetables for lunch, and a baby dinner for supper. Her favorites are: bananas, pears, squash, sweet potatoes, beef with gravy, and turkey with sweet potatoes.

Ethan is smelling his feet. Riley is extremely interested!

I was out of cheerio's, so I gave her puffed wheat. She liked it!

Hanging with bro and sis.

Playing with Ethan.

Having fun outside.

Hanging out in the green house.

Eating leaves.

Still eating leaves.

Pretty girl.

Happy being outside.

Hanging on the floor.

Halloween Pictures

Here are some pictures of the kids from Halloween. Our friend is a photographer and she took some pictures of them for us! Ethan and Mia were pretty serious, but we got some smiles from Riley! Enjoy!

Quiet Weekend

We had kind of a quiet weekend. Mike took Ethan and Mia back to Chamberlain on Thursday and Friday for a family friend's funeral. Riley and I stayed home because we had my sister's baby shower on Saturday. It's SO much different taking care of one baby instead of three! I couldn't believe the difference! I had a bunch of shopping planned, but my shopping partner (Riley) wasn't into it. I had to carry her everywhere I went because she wouldn't sit in the cart. Let me tell you, 20 pounds gets really heavy really fast! Needless to say, my shopping trips were cut really short.

My mom and little brother came up for the weekend, so it was nice seeing them. Ethan and Mia LOVE my brother, Nathan. He plays with them quite a bit and acts really goofy. They have a ball!

Ethan isn't acting like himself. I can tell that he doesn't feel very well. He has a 100.1 degree temp. I gave the poor thing some motrin and laid him down for a nap. I hope he feels better! All three kids have had their seasonal flu shot and one shot of the H1N1 vaccine. They need their second dose in a couple of weeks. I'm not sure how protected they are against H1N1 since they've only received the one dose. I really hope he's not coming down with H1N1! He doesn't have a cough but has a runny nose and of course the fever. Please pray that we don't get this! I've had to float to pediatrics and take care of a few kids with H1N1. They (and their parents) are absolutely miserable!

What a Day!

Riley slept like crap last night, so I slept like crap last night!

Then...

Ethan and Mia spilled cereal all over the living room. Well, not spilled because that would imply it was an accident. They purposely threw cereal all over the living room.

Then...

Ethan got into the garbage and pulled Riley's poopy diaper out. There was poop all over my kitchen floor that I had to clean up.

Then...

I gave Riley a bath and for some strange reason, the wash cloth went down the drain, and I can't get it out. Now I have a clogged tub.

Then...

Someone left a partially filled coffee cup on Ethan's dresser. Ethan stood on top of his dump truck and pulled the coffee cup down and spilled coffee all over their carpet.

And it isn't even noon yet! It's going to be a long day!

Gorilla Time

Here's a video of Mike scaring the crap out of our three kids! You've got to have a little fun with them, right? :)

Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone had a fun Halloween! We decided to have the kids be animals this year. Ethan was an elephant, Mia was a duck, and Riley was a pig. I was afraid that they wouldn't keep their costumes on, but they did extremely well! Mike has a gorilla costume that he wore. The kids are afraid of the mask part. He scared the crap out of all three of them!

We stopped by to see my sister, Sarah, nieces, Janai and Jude, and nephew, Noah. Janai was a geisha and Noah was superman for Halloween. It was fun to see the kids! Ethan and Mia really like hanging out with Janai and Noah.

We went to a Halloween party later that evening. There was a ton of food and candy there! Ethan and Mia had a lot of fun getting into all of their stuff. Their house isn't toddler-proof, so it was a little exhausting for us to have to chase them around! At one point, Ethan came out of the living room with a potted plant. Thank goodness he didn't dump it out! Mia had fun going through the kitchen cupboards and the recycling bin. We'll see if we get another invite back! :)

We took the kids trick-or-treating that evening. Ethan and Mia are still too young to realize what's going on. They had a blast being outside and chowing down on the candy though!

Jude and Riley.

Ethan, the elephant.

Janai, Jude, and Mia.

Ethan checking out his tusks.

Sitting still for once!

Sisterly love!

All of the cousins: Janai, Jude, Riley, Mia, Ethan, & Noah

It's hard trying to get a picture of all three of them!

Still trying to get that perfect picture.

Checking Mia out.

My cute duck. Mia hated her costume the most out of the three of them. She didn't like the head piece.

Ethan actually really liked his costume on. He got mad at me when I took the head piece off.

My duck and Charlie Brown (Uncle Mark.)

My piglet.