Daily Notes

Yesterday we had fun playing "go fish" and memory with the go fish cards. Erin decided she would count her three cards. All of a sudden, she's up at "20, 21, 22...25, 26...30". Eventually she became a broken record counting "20, 30, 20, 30". Great to hear her count so high! I was glad she had a blast counting three cards over and over and over. At school they are also practicing writing her name and numbers. Go, Erin, go!

This isn't recent, but a story Mark and I were talking about last night. When asked "where did you learn that?" Vincent most often says "I made it up." Often we say "are you sure? who taught you that?" Finally, one time when asked where he learned something he had shared with us, he replied "I learned it up!"

Mary's been sweet and content, rarely crying. Most often, she cries to tell me to put her back to sleep! I can't remember if the other kids slept this much, but it seems like she really needs her sleep and knows it too. Fine by me for now!

Daily Notes

The first 8 days of life were very smooth for Mary Clare - she ate like a champ every 2-3 hours, had more than enough wet and soiled diapers, slept well even with noisy siblings around, and even slept 4-5 hours at night a few nights.

Today was the first day that Mary's been fussy. She started waking up about an hour after I fed her. I would feed her again, but she seemed to fuss or be in pain right away. I just hope and pray she's not getting reflux like Erin had and that this is something that will pass quickly.

Auntie Julia finally got a chance to meet Mary Clare today. She stayed with Mary while I took Erin and Vincent to St. M's for Vincent's parent teacher conference (kinda makes me giggle for preschool - but I also go out of my way to talk to his teacher's almost everyday). She also spent time with each of the kids and helped me with the joyful chaos of lunchtime.

After I gave brief instructions to Julia for taking care of Mary while we're out, Vincent looks at Auntie Julia and says "and if she cries, she's hungry and you have to feed her with those" he points to her upper half. I promptly explained to him that only the baby's mommy makes "mommy milk". If it was anyone aside from my sister, I would have wanted to die!

We took a long walk today sort of by accident. I had the two girls in the double stroller and Vincent, sworn to his best behavior, on his scooter (courtesy of the Lopez family - many thanks!). I wanted to just go a few blocks, but then I remembered that coming back the same way we went would be all up hill. Since the kids seemed into it, we opted for a longer walk with a very short area that is steep instead of the long, slow incline of returning the same way.

By the time we were 75% home, we all wanted a rest. Erin then wanted to try the scooter and Vincent was chomping at the bit to ride in the stroller. Much harder for me (20+ more lbs to push), plus Erin is so much slower than her brother on the scooter. She is darn cute, though, with the helmet on and pushing that stroller one cute little step at a time. I'm impressed with her perseverance and delight in pushing that scooter home, half a step at a time, and even on the steepest part of our walk.

Mary slept until our pit stop at which point she was awake and enjoying the scenery all the way home. Her bright little eyes were looking all around, soaking it all in with sweet little lips that seem to smile much of the time!

We were all tired out after that. Erin had a particularly fussy time at dinner and at bath time, but I was also far too tired to be impatient with her - so that was a good thing for me, I think!