Winter Afternoons

I'm really ready for Spring. During the warm months, we spend most afternoons after naps outside. Digging in the garden, making mud soup, feeding the birds and squirrels, traipsing through parks, smelling the flowers, watching the clouds roll...sigh. Clearly, Mommy has cabin fever. We are somewhat successful getting outside on the 40ish degree days, but Sawyer starts complaining, Ainsley won't wear gloves and then complains about her freezing fingers, and then Reiley gets really irritated that we have to head inside after 5 minutes. So we've been trying to keep it fun inside.

The girls spend many days as their alter-egos, Lucy (Ainsley) and Ethel (Reiley). Kevin's mom (Grammi) showed them some I Love Lucy clips on YouTube, and they've transformed our lives.

Here they are posing as the lovable best friends. You'll see Ainsley donning her beloved nightgown (which we've successfully substituted with several matching nightgowns since these green ones seemed to permenantly reek of soymilk and grime from repeated uses despite frequent washing). Reiley is also sporting her daily costume of princess gown with long-sleeved shirt on top because she is irritated by how the lacy balloon sleeves slide off of her shoulders (can we say high-maintenance:-))?

We've also been enjoying painting of various kinds, including finger painting in the bathtub. Easy for Mom because of the quick cleanup, and fun for the kids because they can paint their bodies, the wall, the faucet, etc. Ainsley seemed to become Reiley's willing canvas as she pretended to be a professional tub painter and handprint stamper.

Reiley played a makeup artist specializing in over-the-top Rocky Horror Picture Show-style makeup. Sawyer is 3 and 1/2 months now and is becoming much more playful with the girls. He sits with us for snacks in the Bumbo and shows us his rattle holding (and dropping) skills which bring non-stop giggles from his favorite fans. Here is demonstrating great concentration (check out that tongue!)Sawyer's thinking Tummy Time is a lot more fun lately. The girls like to coach him in rolling over and have deep conversations with him. Ainsley sees Tummy Time as an opportunity to mount up and "Ridey Ridey Sawyer like a horse, Mommy!" It was probably wrong of me to take a picture before telling her not to do it, but it was funny.
Here's a video of an almost roll-over. His contentment with being almost there is pretty entertaining.

Growing and Playing

Sawyer is a "Big-a Boy!" as Ainsley likes to say. Sawyer's "unofficial" weigh-in (the two of us on a scale - me on the scale = Sawyer) at 3 months today is 16 lbs! That's double birthweight (and my back is feeling it)! Some of his favorite activities include clasping his hands and looking at them, huge smiles, and cooing at big sisters. Here's Reiley getting some close attention. Ainsley's fun too. Ainsley wakes him up every morning by saying "Sawyer is still sleeping, Mom!" and then pats (waps, rather) him on the tummy or rubs his head lovingly. They're buds.

He uses Tummy Time to smile, eat his hand, and occasionally try to push himself up I foresee another slow one in the motor development department:-). But he's so cute!

Future GQ ad? Few women can resist a man in a bulky cloth diaper.
Some Mama snuggles. Beefy babies are great to snuggle!

Here's a video of a little bit of cooing. I'm trying to remember to take videos of him to avoid the "you must have hated me" conversations that will happen when he's 10 and realizes the overabundance of Reiley videos.

Happy New Year!

Happy 2009 to everyone! Christmas was so wonderfully busy seeing both sides of our family, that we celebrated New Year's in a low-key way. We made some pizza dough for some 2009 pizza (I was sadly led astray by allrecipes.com and the crust was not nearly as yummy as I hoped it would be). Luckily, we made some Magic Bars to celebrate teh New Year as well - nothing says celebration like melted butter mixed with gooey chocolate chips! There was a fireworks display at few minutes from our house at 6 PM. Our poor, deprived children have never seen fireworks because they are asleep by 7:30, making attendance at 4th of July fireworks not an option (unless we enjoy screaming, crabby children). We were all really excited to see them. Ainsley has been talking about the experience for days ("I saw a pink one, and a green one, and a....").
Sawyer came along too, and was happy to tag along until the finale, when he gave us this little frown.

After we got all the kids to bed, we rang in the New Year with champagne at 7:45 PM. We are tired people! We wish you all the best in 2009!

Quite the Charmer

Sawyer is 6 weeks old now, and when he's not sleeping (which he still does a TON of), he's all smiles! Especially for big sisters who give him about an inch of personal space. Here's one of his first smiles while meeting Aunt Kathy (she got the first real smile). I swear, ALL of my kids like her better than me! That's right, ladies, he's a charmer. He'll dream about you in his sleep. He'll be

on the market...NEVER. And this sweet one was for mama (though I'm still bitter about the Aunt Kathy smile!)

Mr. Sawyer

Here are some new pictures of "Mr. Sawyer". I've been affectionately calling him that since he came home, and now Ainsley calls him that about 50% of the time.
Here's Sawyer with Daddy - he's a twin of Baby Kevin!Enjoying morning play time with big sisters...
...and clearly finished with big sister play time

I love this picture of his big, rolly belly, and his look of "are you kidding me, Mom? Pick me up before I get smothered in hugs again."

As I'm finally publishing this post, the pictures have become dated. My babies pack on the pounds fast. I'll post more soon!

Let's Go Fly a Kite

Saint Louis enjoyed some really beautiful fall days (highs in the 70s, full sunshine) the week after Sawyer was born. We hit a park every afternoon, and Kevin and I got the itch to fly a kite. A few snags in the plan included A) no kite, and little luck in finding one; and B) little experience with successful kite-flying. As luck would have it, a trip to Once Upon a Child for more Sawyer clothes yielded a two-pack of "Easy 2 Fly" kites. Two first-born, over-achievers should be able to handle "Easy 2 Fly" - right?

We now had kites in our possession; however, the weather was now even colder than usual - cloudy and in the 40s. Determined, we arranged for Kevin to come home from work early to take advantage of a windy, but not freezing day. Reiley, having poured over a treasury of Spot stories (by Eric Hill) from the library, which included a tale of Spot flying a kite, was thrilled for the chance to fly a kite. She was also mildly concerned that our kite would get stuck in a tree (which was Spot's fate), and unlike Spot, we wouldn't have a talking, top-hat wearing kangaroo to jump up and save our kite from the tree. We promised we would hold on tight to the kite.

We packed all the kids and my mom (GrandMar to the kids) into the van and set off for our local elementary school down the street with a big soccer field perfect for kite-flying. Kevin spent a nerve-wracking 5 minutes trying to launch the kite. Kevin and Reiley share similar frustration tolerances, and I could sense their anxiety escalating simultaneously. "Is the kite ever going to fly high in the sky, Mom??"

After several sprints from Kevin, the kite was successfully launched to the sound of cheers from the rest of us! I love the sprinting stance from Kevin in this picture.

The kite rode on the wind for about 20 minutes, which gave everyone a chance to hold it and watch it, and for parents to attempt artsy photos.

Reiley was so genuinely thrilled to fly the kite. It was another opportunity for me to experience excitement and wonder through the eyes of my children. Such a simple act - flying a diamond-shaped plastic sheet in the air - created a great family memory for all of us.

Ainsley was mildly entertained by flying the kite, mostly because she was able to sing "Let's Go Fly a Kite" from Mary Poppins repeatedly. She became distracted by the playground next to the soccer field, and after we had spent a while with the kite, we headed up to the playground. The grown-ups were in charge of steering the kite away from the trees around the playground. Unfortunately, on my watch, the kite plummeted onto the school roof, and then into a nearby tree. Reiley, reminded of Spot's misfortune, burst instantly into tears, and asked us how we were ever going to save the kite.

The tree was too high to climb, and Kevin proclaimed it a lost cause. However, GrandMar and I combined our woman power to grab the string and pull it down with some random things we had with us and saved the day!

Here's a video of our adventure

Welcoming Sawyer Home

We've had a busy two weeks welcoming Sawyer home! He's breastfeeding well, sleeping A LOT (he's only awake about 4 hours a day), and so nice to snuggle! Here's the little man with his eyes open. I was too lazy (I have about 5 minutes to throw this post together) to get the red eye out. We are starting to think that he might end up with brown eyes. The dark blue that he had the first few days has changed to a murky grey/brown color. I've had some dissenting opinions regarding my theory, but I think my Mom hunch is right (or do I just really love brown-haired, brown-eyed boys?).

The girls were SO excited when his umbilical cord stump fell off and they were able to take a bath with him. He was very calm in the bath and tolerated Reiley's thorough washing of him, and Ainsley's attempts to drag him out of the bathtub so that she could sit in it (yes, Ainsley is experiencing some middle-child angst right now; Mommy is trying to give her lots of Ainsley-alone snuggle time).

I think that he looks especially beefy in this picture. His face is really starting to fill out, but his legs are still super-skinny, which looks hilarious sticking out from his huge cloth diaper.

Reiley and Sawyer have some special snuggle time whenever he's awake. She'll hold him for 20 minutes at a time, stroking him and filling him in on what's going on in the world (Obama's presidential win, the weather, where we are going to go during the day, etc.) It's one of those sweet scenes that warms a mother's heart (and makes my eyes well up with big, post-partum tears).

The "I have two big sisters" dress-up games have officially begun. Fortunately, we don't have any play make-up around with which to decorate my dear son.

The girls like to read to him, though they become quickly frustrated that he can't sit through a 20-minute story.


Ainsley's favorite Sawyer game is anything that involves sitting or laying by him. She'll quickly dump Baby Jesus to save a spot on her lap for Baby Sawyer. Unfortunately, she also tries to roll Baby Sawyer off in the same way. We're working on that one!
We'll keep you posted, and will hopefully get more Sawyer eyes-open pictures as he has more awake hours during the day.