Just under 3 feet

You know you have gotten a lot of snow when adding another 10 inches to the 2 feet that you already have doesn't seem like much.
No school this week- too much snow.
No work this week- too much snow.
No sanity this week- too much snow.

Enough already. Where is spring? Where are those glimmers of hope that we occasionally get in February with a 60 degree day tossed into the mix? If I had to guess, they are snowed in.
When Ian starts looking forward to returning to work, you know that we have had enough.

We have a date night planned for Saturday- Taylor Hicks in Grease. Then afterwards we are heading to a bar to watch the UK game vs. Tennessee. I think that even if we were suppose to get another 2 feet of snow, Ian and I would be at the show in rubber boots and snow bibs, no questions asked. Poor Taylor. She has also been cooped up with kids all week and now she will be heading to our house to hang with our kids. At least it will be a change of scenery for her. I think afterall, that is all we need- a definite change in scenery, where snow is forbidden.

Here we Snow again

We have survived snowegeddon (24 inches in our neck of the woods), but are preparing for snowverkill, as the papers are calling it. We are looking at another 10-20 inches tomorrow night. We have survived the snow, it is cabin fever we are risking our lives with. Lucy is happy and happy to play inside or out (no school one day last week, and so far, no school until Thursday of this week). Unfortunately, Harper does not share the same philosphy. She is spending her time being naughty. Naughtiness includes antagonizing Lucy by coloring on Lucy's artwork, hitting Lucy in the head, smothering Graham, throwing things down the stairs, climbing the furniture, "washing the windows" with her lunch, taking whatever Lucy or Graham is playing with and so on and so on.
The only things that keep Harper happy are dance parties, books, playing Lucy's curious George beach game, and anything that makes a total mess (tea party, tea party clean up, play doh, etc.) She will also sing Wheels on the Bus and I've been working on the railroad ad nauseum. With her short attention span, each of these is performed several times a day. It doesn't make things any better that she is getting up about an hour earlier each morning due to Graham's early morning feeding time (6am).

Graham is 41/2 months old. In December when we got 17 inches of snow the weathermen we proclaiming that for our region, this was a once-in-a-lifetime snow. In his short little life, he is looking at his 3rd such snow. Let's hope for a once-in-a-lifetime quick arriving Spring. Grammy spends his time drooling, taking notes on how to be naughty from Harper, and being his happym content self. He also likes to watch the snow, and the girls playing in it.

As for Ian and I, Ian has been shoveling not only our sidewalk and driveway, porch but also the street since a plow could not get down our street due to a fallen cable line across the road. And we've both been entertaining, cooking and cleaning for the brood. As for weather damage, we had one large branch fall off the tree in the front yard, falling between the house and our car. Other smaller trees have snapped in two and all have had some natural pruning done. We are trying to help out the birds that we love in our yard but it is hard when food gets covered with snow. We now put out a daily offering for our feathered friends.

It's been a little bit like an unexpected Spring Break having Ian home from work, except that it isn't warm, we can't go anywhere fun and well, it isn't Spring. Maybe it is more like Christmas break, without the promise (and threat, in Harper's case) of Santa.

Anywho, we have food, heat, and a lot of time to spend together, be that happily or (again in Harper's case,) in time-out.

One of these days...

Graham wants to join the girls. One of these days. For now, a seat at the back door watching them play on the porch is what he has to settle on.

Graham is almost 5 months

We are nearing 5 months and Graham has made drastic improvements.

For one, he is the happiest kid on the block most of the time now. Why? Because he is sleeping. On most nights he simply turns his head away from me when I put him down awake and he is asleep. That doesn't mean that he is back to sleeping through the night, but he isn't waking up every 15 minutes anymore and doesn't need to be rocked back to sleep or his paci anymore. When he does wake up he eats, burps and is back to sleep, sometimes he fusses for 5 minutes or so, but usually he just nods back to dreamland.

Naps are a different story. He is better in the mornings but in the afternoons he has a hard time napping for longer than 30 minutes although he is begging for more sleep. He will work it out, in time.

No bottles. Don't care about bottles anymore. We have moved onto cereal and applesauce. Yesterday the kiddo couldn't get enough of the sweet stuff. He was grabbing the spoon and shoving it in his mouth and getting upset if I took too long to get it to his mouth. Harper sat with me while I was feeding him and she actually called him "oinky".

He is rolling over, although I still haven't seen him do it. He likes to wait until I turn my back and then he flips over. It is as though this is a game of his because he is always smiling and thrilled to see my reaction when I see that he flipped over.

His feet are his two new best friends. He will work to pull his socks off just so he can chew on his feet. He will also be in a seated position and will fold over completely to chew on his feet. His feet smell like drool. Not good. Boys aren't suppose to have stinky feet until they are much older. Graham doesn't care about stinky feet, he still wants to chew on them at all times. Shoes are his nemesis. But he will chew on them if he has to.

Unforgettable

Harper has a new saying that is my new favorite. In any situation, when I ask her to do something she replies, "Oh, I forgot." This is the response I get when I ask her to:
"please clean up your puzzles." H- "Oh, I forgot."
"Harper, you need to throw away your gross tissues." H- "Oh, I forgot."
Upon throwing her Cheerios across the room I tell her that she must clean them up. H- "Oh, I forgot."
This response also applies to random facts:
"Harper, did you see the helicopter?" H- "Oh, I forgot."
"Harper, I like your pink sparkly shirt." H- "Oh, I forgot."
Her cuteness? Unforgettable.

A wail of a weekend

I have had enough. After babying Graham for weeks now (I don't just say that because he is a baby- he has been begging for attention at all hours of the day) I have had enough. It culminated today when, after getting up with him 3 times last night for 45 minutes each, he would not nap or let me put him down today. He was even begging for nonstop attention from Lucy. I put him down for playtime and he cried instantly so Lucy went over to entertain him. He stopped crying. Then she had the nerve to turn her head away from him and cease eye contact and so he cried. And he cried and he cried.
On the way home from school today he cried for a solid 20 minutes and I didn't flinch so I thought that since I can handle driving with three kids in the car and listen to Graham scream his lungs out I could handle him crying it out to go to sleep.
6:30- last feeding
6:45- bath and a little quiet playtime
7- Pjs on girls, set them up with a short movie, head into Graham's room to begin the nighttime routine. We rock, we sing, we cuddle. He goes into bed awake at 7:30 on the dot. He cries before he hits the bed, as is his usual routine. I leave him to cry for 5 minutes and return to pat him for a minute and leave the room again.
7:45- return to pat him and tell him that he will survive.
8:05- I go in, he is clearly upset and in pain. I pick him up, instant burp, pats, kiss, back to bed. more crying. Now, I should not return to his room at this point until 8:45.
I read to the girls, say bedtime prayers, sing songs and put them into bed. Then I realize, it is 8:15 and there is no more crying. I wait until 8:30 to go in and check on him and he is sleeping, like a little angel.
It is the first time since New Year's eve that Graham has gone to bed in his bed and stayed asleep for the first hour. No paci. No waking every 15 minutes. It may still prove to be a long night and a long weekend of crying himself to sleep, but hopefully a few nights and we will be over the hump for the time being. Until he teeths and we start all over again.

Taller and taller

Both of the girls have gone through growth spurts lately. We know this for a number of reasons. First, Lucy is eating everything in sight. It is not unusual for her to eat a waffle, a couple of scrambled eggs, half a banana, a cup of milk and a bowl of Cheerios for breakfast, and then be starving half an hour later. Her long sleeved tops are getting too short and some of her pants are suddenly looking like skinny-style pants, but too short and those that have been huge on her all fall are now fitting nicely. The way Lucy knows that she is growing can be summed up in the proclamation, "I can reach the light switch now! I did it, I can turn on the light all by myself!!"

Harper is growing, too. She isn't exactly eating much more, but what she is eating is higher calorie and I think it might be paying off. Her pants are all suddenly fitting and her 12 month clothes (yes, she has still been in 12 month clothes!) are too small. Finally, she is wearing all of her cute 18 month clothes that have been filling her closet and drawers for months. For Harper, the evidence is in the fact that she can reach things on the counter in the bathroom and she can climb up on the toy boxes and Lucy's bed in their room. Trouble for me, success for her- you can say it is a growing concern.

Really, REALLY good

Harper has a new funny thing she does at mealtimes. She sits down, takes a bite of something on her plate and then exclaims, "this is really, REALLY good!" Fruit, meatballs, hummus, whatever. It is all so good that she must exclaim it, between each and every bite. All we need is for her to eat. A clean plate for Harper, that is really REALLY good!

Miss Incredible (or is it Mr.?)

Lucy announced today that she wanted to be called "Sid Eric Incredible". I obliged. Harper then began telling me that she was "Eric". I obliged. Lucy got mad at Harper for taking one of her names and declared that Harper needed to be called "Goya". I called Harper "Goya" and was told "No, no, no. Eric!"
Lucy is at school so I guess I have Eric and Graham here with me and we will be joined shortly by Sid Eric Incredible. Don't get me wrong, Eric and Sid Eric Incredible are great (and apparently have super powers that come in the form of buttons on their clothes. They push them and can fly or go "really fast".) But, personally, I like Lucy and Harper just fine- because they are indeed incredible, with or without super power buttons.

Puzzle me that

Lucy is on a puzzle-spree. She loves them. It all started when I got out the wooden puzzles for Harper. Lucy quickly realized that they weren't so fun for her anymore and remembered that Pops and Grandma had given her a 24 piece puzzle for her birthday. She got it out and labored over it for a little while, but she did it. Then she did it again and again. Then I reminded her of a 60 piece puzzle that she also got for her birthday. She got it out and had it figured out in no time. Since then she has done the puzzles a couple times a day, getting faster and faster at it.
All of this, and today was "puzzle day" at school. She was so excited about it. She was taking her fish puzzle to share and to "show all the kids how smart I am at doing it so fast." And she was going to get to work on other puzzles. So here I am asking anyone who might have an old puzzle out there that you think she might enjoy putting together. Don't buy them, just send us an old one, for if this little whiz kid has her way, she will have opened the package and put together the puzzle in no time, and off to the next one, and then the next.

Talk-ck

Harper talks and talks and talks all day and her vocabulary is growing by the minute. She does, however, still have her own ways of saying some things that we adore.
In the car, once finished with her raisins or other snack she will hold out her snack cup and say "all donet". Many words that end in an "n" sound now have a "t" added to them. On some days Lucy and I add that same "t" sound to the end of our words as well, just to show support.
She adds a very hard "ck" sound to anything ending in a "k" sound. So words like book become "book-ck". And so on, "bus" becomes "busss" and "nap" becomes "naP".
Ian does the best impression of Harper's talking and I overhear him talking in Harper-ese often at night. Lucy usually asks "why does Harper talk like that?"

I have to say it does help us understand her. Words don't blend together and her jibber jabber is actually filled with real words now. Ok, now this entry is all donet.

A little light reading

Harper has had one thing on her mind today, looking through my labor and delivery books. You see, I got them out to give away and she found them. Now all she has been doing today is flipping through them. They really aren't exciting. There are no pictures, but endless pages of black type on white paper. I ask her what she is doing and she replies "reading a book". Sometimes you can even hear her "reading". It sounds like this, "yabagoodoodada latilagayabalk"- or you get the idea. Why these books and not her own or even something or mine that looks somewhat interesting? I don't know but I do know that it is just another thing that is keeping her attention for longer than a minute that I am all too happy to let her do. Uh, oh, she just got to the end of one and said, "all done". Now I might have to entertain her. Where are our tax documents?

Where's Harper?

Harper asks me, no less than a gazillion times each day:
"Where's Lucy?" I respond, "at school."
"Where's Dada?" I respond, "at work."
This continues for another hour, until I wise up and ask her where they are. She knows, of course. Then I'll ask, "Where's Graham?" She will point or she will tell me that he is sleeping or playing, or whatever. Then I ask, "Where's Harper?" Her reply is always, "I dunno!" Confusingly enough, sometimes she goes looking for Harper. As long as it keeps her occupied and forgetting to ask me where Lucy or Ian are I won't correct her. I do hope she finds herself though.

Flu Bug

Our little Lu Bug had the flu this weekend. Other than the 104 temp and the throwing up, she was fine. Really. This kid has a really hard time getting people to believe that she is sick. Perhaps it is the jumping, the playing, the giggles, the constant need for somebody to entertain her or the calling of her little sister down to play with her in the guest room that betrays her illness.
She was simply bored, and sad that she had to miss a birthday party to stay in bed all day. One day of being sick, another day of not much of an appetite, and then she was back on track asking when we were going to make ice cream, when we could go outside and play (with no coat on) and looking forward to school.
Bon Bon and Grandpa were in town so at least she had them to entertain her as well, and Aunt Taylor took some of the Harper duties to keep her occupied since keeping her away from Lucy was pure torture.
To pass the time Lucy watched 4 movies, looked through zoo magazines, books on space, pandas and princesses, decorated a jewelry box (for about 2 hours!) and "worked" on her laptop. All in a day's work. Come to think about it, if I could have the same energy and minimal being "sick", I wouldn't mind a day of movies, books, magazines and "work". I think I might be running a fever. No wait, if I'm sick and Ian is at work then I only have the kids to take care of me. Never mind. I just can't pull off being sick like Lucy.

I'm awake, I'm awake!

Harper got a new cd for Christmas. It is a bunch of nonsense songs that include her name in each and every lyric of each and every song. Her favorite is "Wake up Harper". We just listened to it on repeat for 35 minutes straight. As soon as it went onto the next song she would yell, "No- wake up!"
She forgot and started playing with her barn and looked up and a new song was on. She decided that she would give it a try. Now we have listened to "Hey, Harper! That's your name and it's a very nice name!" 5 times in a row.
Nice name, yes. Not so sure about the cd.

Back on track

Graham seems to be figuring himself out. He is back to sleeping at night in his bed. I don't even try for naps, just yet. He can sleep in his chair or swing, I don't care, as long as he sleeps. He does wake some at night, but pretty much only to tell us that his paci has fallen out of his mouth and he needs our assistance getting it back into said mouth. No bottle, but I don't even care, sleep is far, far more important right now, plus solids are just around the corner so if no bottle, then we can deal.

With more sleep we are welcoming our happy little fat man back. He is happy on his tummy, watching the girls, looking at himself in the mirror and has even gotten back to his attempts at rolling over. The past few days we have gained some sanity back since the nonstop crying has halted.

Last time I wrote a blog of jubilation I was rewarded with two weeks of crying and no sleep. So this is not jubilation, just news. Just facts. Nothing more than telling it like it is. Right Graham?

How Far Can He Regress?

Graham is just shy of his 4 month bday. So how far, exactly, can he regress? Well, if it were up to him, he would be crawling back into the womb. All the milestones we had reached have suddenly vanished, leaving Ian and I scratching our heads, no, wait, that is too mild. Rather, the regression has made Ian and I feel like we are going insane. No, still too mild. ^%$^%*&(*)(*)(HKLJHOOIUHJLNK(*&(*&(*&*&%&$%& Ok. Expletives make the point.
In the past week Graham has given up his daily routine.
In the past week Graham has decided not to sleep through the night.
In the past week Graham has decided that not only will he not sleep through the night, he will now no longer sleep in his bed or in any flat position.
In the past week Graham has decided that he will not take a bottle.

He has made a fool out of us. I have taken him to the doctor twice. They happily and cheerfully took my $40 and diagnosed him as "fussy". (yes, they actually wrote that in the diagnosis portion of his chart).
He has cried it out. He has been comforted and soothed. He has been given pretty much anything and everything he wants to make him stop crying. We are exhausted and looking forward to a new week. Perhaps as quickly as he turned on us he will adopt a new attitude and turn things around once more and my blog entries can once more be filled with adoring words rather than the damned and cursed.

That's what SHE said

Harper is becoming more and more clear in her speech every day, but I still love some of her Harperisms. Here are a few of the best:
-"Nugs and Bisses"- hugs and kisses
-"Mao" and "Mawe"- the first is what she calls a cat, as in "meow" and the second is her way of saying mouse.
-"meeeeease!"- please
-"I nunno"- I don't know. She says this a lot, it is probably the second most used phrase in her vocabulary, right behind, "why?"
-"Am and Cee"- Graham and Lucy
-"Umms"- hummus
-"Koi yeah"- Chloe, her favorite animal in the world, Gramzie and Pop Pop's dog and she asks "where's Koi yeah?" about a million times a day, always followed up with a half dozen "why?"s

Graham's first Christmas

I nearly forgot the big news- Graham rolled over by himself on Christmas, from his belly to his back. Ian saw it, of course. He stays home for a few days and gets to see one of the great milestones. I was putting away laundry, changing Harper's diaper or some other not-so-fun activity. He hasn't done it since, although he does come close. Ian can have rolling over, I'm working on "mama"!

Christmas Morning 2009

At first their was a rustling, then Harper squawked and then Lucy busted into our room like the Kool-Aid man on a mission, waking Graham and Ian and me in a flash. Santa had come and she wasn't allowed to go and see if she had ended the Christmas wait on the naughty or nice list until we were all together. Ian went out to light the Christmas tree, I fed Graham and Lucy and Harper bounced around the bed like their pants were on fire. Then they went running down the hall with giant grins. And then they stopped just short of the front room.

What has become a Christmas tradition in our house might seem a little odd to some- Lucy gets really nervous. She does not like the attention on her. She stops and walks very slowly into the living room, taking it all in. Harper followed her lead. Lucy saw what would make her feel more at ease- Harper's pile of toys. She quickly began showing Harper all her loot and getting Harper all excited. As soon as we all turned our attention to Harper and her toys, Lucy began exclaiming and enjoying her own bounty. Santa's highlights were playdoh, Elmo and books for Harper as well as a Bozo bop-it bag. Lucy was rewarded a play ironing board, "little pirates and firemen" and a horse costume that she can ride all around the house. Graham got some matchbox cars and pirate books. For the three of them there was a new play kitchen complete with pots and pans, blender, coffee maker and a mixer. The next few hours were a mess of tearing open gifts, cinnamon rolls, playtime and then finally quiet play with each child off and happy with one of their new toys. The kids had been good and Santa had been even better and already the girls look forward to the anticipation and excitement of next year- I know this since yesterday Lucy said that we better all be good, because Santa watches us all year long.