Madeleine's new digs

Madeleine was able to go in and check out her locker for Jr. High today & walk around the school going from class to class....it's great to practice this without the crowds of students that will be there the first day!  She practiced opening her locker a few times & after we realized that there was a glitch that kept it from locking back up, we found a janitor who will take care of it before school.  I just hope he doesn't fix it too well so that she can't open it!....she finally got it down so that she could open it each time!    

I'm so excited for her to enter Jr. High - she is so ready!  Madeleine has always been ready to tackle the next adventure and event that is before her.  She has so much ambition and drive - I love to see her take on new things to do, and how she works through them.  

I know she'll love Jr. High & I'm thankful that she made such excellent friends at Morningside Elementary that will also be attending Wasatch Jr.  We have always been very fortunate in the friend area with Madeleine - I have thought multiple times that this is in part that we chose to have her bump up a grade. Usually the girls her age she enjoys, however she doesn't click with them like the girls in the grade she is in...I usually forget that she has skipped a grade, until it comes around to her birthday and we explain why she is celebrating a year behind what her peers are :)  We feel great about having her pursue her Jr. High experience at Wasatch - it's in a great area, a little more of a drive for me than 2 other Jr. High's that are by us, but then again...I'm hoping that we'll be able to move in the next year and be closer to all of the schools that the children are attending!  Wasatch was rebuilt after there had been a fire which ruined the old Jr. High - the new building is bright, has big halls, an amazing auditorium and a great design where the classes that are similar in what they teach, are put together in a horseshoe shaped pod, so that all English/History/Foreign Language classes are together in one area, and Math & Sciences are together in another pod - I really like the layout of the school.  

I just wish that time would just slow down a bit....it just seems the other day that she was getting ready for Elementary School!

8 months

How can it be that this little miss hit her 2/3 mark for her first year!  I can't believe it's already been 8 months - each day is such a treasure with this girl and she continues to leave us all more in love with her each day.

Life with Emilia at 8 months if full of:
*MOVEMENT!  She reaches for everything & is really active, although is still content to sit in one place to play.  She loves to pull on hair, necklaces, earrings and anything that looks remotely interesting to her :)

*EATING:  She has discovered the joy of little food puffs and can pick them up with her little fingers, but is still mastering getting them into her mouth!  She loves her cereal mixed with pureed food (and I'm finding out how fun & easy it is to make homemade baby food - why I didn't always do it this way I don't know!).  Her favorites foods are - bananas, peaches, mangoes (although she isn't nearly as spoiled as she was having them every day while we were in Hawaii!), carrots which I can sometimes mix in some peas with, and a homemade applesauce I made.  Yummy!  You are still eating sitting up in your Bumbo, which makes some mealtimes comical as you are lunging over the side to try and get anything in your reach.  You have figured out how to push your leg/foot into the table and scoot around a bit, so we definitely have to keep a sharp eye on you!

*SLEEP:  You love when you get to sleep in your crib & it makes a huge difference to have you sleep there!  You sleep more soundly and longer, so it's hard when we're on the go because you just get so tired and try to stay up and be social - because you LOVE people - however, there is a point where you just cranky and want to go to sleep in your own bed!  You are still taking about 3 naps (on good days) - where you go down about every 1.5-2 hours after you wake up and usually the morning nap is about 1-1.5 hours with the afternoon nap about 2 hours.  Then you take a quick nap in the evening for about an hour and then after eating, playing and getting on your pajamas you are so ready to go to sleep!  You have yet to sleep through the night - you get up once or twice, and some nights it's more than that due to your teething and that our schedule has been so sporadic with getting back from Hawaii and then with so many family functions that have been taking place.  I can't wait for September once the kiddos are in school and we are back from all vacations to really establish the best sleep schedule for you - because you are always happy, but you are so incredibly happy when you get the right and best amount of sleep (I mean really - who isn't happy when they get good sleep?!).

ALL SMILES:  You love to see your family - your face lights up when you see Madeleine, Bryson or Jacob - and they can get you to laugh so easily!  They absolutely adore you, and are thrilled to watch you whenever I need a moment away.  You wave both arms when you get excited, and break out into a huge grin and then sometimes giggle when you are happy & you've learned how to whistle.  That's right - whistling!  You can purse your lips and a little whistle escapes and it's just so fun to hear - we're pretty sure that you don't know exactly what you are doing, but we all clap like crazy when you do whistle, so hopefully it will reinforce it in your mind and you'll be able to whistle on demand!

BRIGHT EYES:  Your eyes are getting darker and your eyelashes are still dark, full and gorgeous.  You routinely have people stop to tell me how beautiful you are - all babies are cute, but you are beautiful...you already have a very striking look.

Other fun memories from this month:
*clapping!  You figured out that bringing your hands together is the body response for when we call out "Yeah!"  A lot of times your hands just flap together (a little bit like a seal), however you do get your hands to connect, and it's so fun to watch you clap for when you enjoy watching something or when we're cheering you on!
* kisses - I've been working with you to give me kisses, and you are starting to understand!  How I love your slobbery kisses!
*playing - you are really engaged with your toys - studying them, turning them around and around to see how they work.  I love to set you down on your play mat/blanket and I can set your little basket of toys next to you and you reach in and just pull out each toy to look at and discover.  You are so inquisitive!
*two huge blow-outs!  You really did not have any major blowout up until this point.  It seems that eating "solids" (your pureed food is about as solid as it gets for you right now) - that your system is just trying to sort things out.  After these pictures were taken, we drove home to get everyone ready for bed...everyone was super cranky!  When I started to unbuckle your car seat, I smelled a terrible smell and realized you had one incredibly messy diaper.  Yuck!  The different food has also caused some diaper rash - which of course is super painful, but thankfully we have the Redmond Clay & your rashes are cleared up quickly.
*bath time - you love having your baths, and I have found an easy way to keep you safe.  I put you in a laundry basket in the tub, and fill up the tub with enough water to just cover your legs and then you get to play in your mini-tub in the big tub.  Perfect solution to keeping all your toys within arms reach, you get to hold onto the side of the basket for comfort & safety, and it's not another contraption that we needed to buy.  I forgot how expensive you wee little babes can be!

Another fun and wonderful month with you!  You light up our lives and we are so blessed to have your sweet spirit in our family & home.  It's not an exaggeration that your siblings constantly seek you out to hold and dote over - you are absolutely adored and cherished!

Sand Babe

One word on why today's diaper was so interesting from yesterday's adventures.

SAND.  

But, wow did this little girl love, LOVED it!  I put her down to sit  in a natural made Bumbo seat on the beach, thinking she would get upset with the feel...but she reached her little hand over & let her fingers scoop up some sand...

 ...and then those fingers popped right into her mouth!  Because that's where her hands are spending most of the time with this cutie who had a tooth pop through last week!  Actually as Bryson/Dad pointed out - this girl was born sucking on her fingers and they have hardly left her mouth since!

Crazy enough - after she tried that sand, she went back for more!  I tried to wipe her mouth & hands clean with a wipe, and she would just dip them right back into the sand.  I finally had to take her to wash off in the ocean....which she wasn't really thrilled with - cold & salty!

 This gal is really one cute beach babe!

 

Waimea Bay 

Monday, June 24th

a breadbox - a red box

While driving in the car to Waimea Bay, the kiddos were starting to act up, so I pulled out the trusty '20 Questions' game.  We usually start off with the questions - 'Is it a person?  place?  thing?  animal?  And then to determine the size, we try to compare it to things we know - Is it bigger than me?  A car?  Our house?  etc.

My mom has her own way of starting the questions - one that appeared a bit old-school.

Right off the bat, she asked, "Is it bigger than a breadbox?"

I looked at her sideways, and ask "What kind of reference is that?  These kids don't know what a breadbox is?"
                                         
From the backseat Madeleine's voice pipes up, "Yes I do!  I know what a RED BOX is!"

I looked at my mom again, but this time we both chuckled and she granted that my point was taken...a breadbox is definitely not the reference of size that these kiddos know about!

sleep training

We're doing two different types of sleep training in our home this week -

1) Emilia had a crazy May going to her sibling's end-of-year performances and having a rather busy schedule for a lil' 5 month old!  The result - her naps were thrown for a loop, and that girl was not as happy at naptimes and the end of the day for bed as she used to be.  I tried during the times we were home to get her to sleep, but she would cry and cry while I would hold her - when before I would hold her and she would fall asleep within a few minutes and then I'd lay her down.

Since she turned 6 months last week, I figured it was time to sleep train the lil' lady.  I started it a few days before the children got out of school, because I knew it would be hard for me to try to put her to sleep for the hour + it was taking once the kiddos were home for summer break.  Also, I was hoping that the sleep training would mostly be finished, as I had a hunch the kiddos would not like to hear her cry.

The sleep training is still going along, although each day is getting significantly better!  There are times when I put her to sleep and she cries for just a little bit, and then soothes herself with either her blanket, a binkie or one of the lovies in her crib (a little square of soft fabric, or one of her stuffed animals - she particularly loves the lamb that Madeleine gave to her a few weeks ago that Madeleine bought for her from her student store.  She has always been super thoughtful of her siblings - and since Emilia has been born she bought her first a little stuffed rabbit and then a stuffed lamb.  I thought both were great because I have called Emilia 'mon petit lapin' (french for my little rabbit) and 'my little lamb' since she has been born.  Such cute & perfect little stuffies for her!).  

Tonight was a great night - although she didn't have the best evening nap and she went to bed later than planned...I laid her down in her crib after singing her some songs, she gave me a big smile and then started to play with the lamb while I left the room.  I heard her cry out for a moment, and then all was quiet and when I checked on her she was all cuddled up on her side holding onto her blankie.  Her little legs make us smile - she is long & lean, but she has these little darling rolls on her upper thighs and her skin is super smooth all over.  We are so in love with this precious girl!

2nd) The other sleep training - or NON-sleep training is with the older three.  In one week (ONE WEEK!) we fly out for our bi-annual pilgrimage to Laie, Oahu, Hawaii.  The time difference is 6 hours behind us, and so I'm allowing them to stay up later than they usually would so that the first few days we can hopefully ease into the schedule and the drastic time difference!  I'm not as worried about the older three - they have usually handled the time change relatively well, but I am worried about the lil' babe, and so if the older three can get good sleep, they can play with her when I need to take a nap!  Also, Grandma Joy will be with us the first week, which between two adults we should be able to function during the day to get everyone to the beach, worn out and then come home to take a nap and get to bed at a reasonable Hawaiian time!

All in all, I'm so thankful that our family loves sleep!  Our children are not the type that have ever been first to rise with the sun...I think that would seriously take years off the life of me and Bryson!  They have woken up this first week of summer break between 8-9am which works perfectly to get things finished in the morning before we need to be out the door for Madeleine's volleyball camp at 11am.

I love my little sleepers!

blessing

On her 6 month mark, I took Emilia in for some photos.  I haven't done any "professional" photos, because technically that is why I have my camera.  However, I take photos as a hobby and I don't think of myself or the photos as exactly professional.  Then again, after the photo session - I'm wondering if I just put in a few more hours and actually read the manual for my camera if I can't up my game that much more to never set foot in a studio.  Ever again.  For the most part I'm always so disappointed in the results!  I don't visit really expensive photography studios - as much as I love pictures I just can't spend hundreds of dollars on a photo session.  So, we usually end up at something like the Picture People.  Back in the day of Madeleine and Bryson as babies I thought Picture People was the bomb.  Then again, I didn't have a really nice camera.  Still, I would mostly take in my own props, and have a clear vision of the picture(s) I wanted to walk out with.  All in all, that set-up worked for quite some time and a few weeks ago when a Groupon came through for a session at Picture People I decided to give it a try with Emilia....after all, I have wanted to get a nice picture of her in her blessing dress (yes - her blessing was like 3 months ago, but I wanted to wait until she could sit up to get the photo).

So, what did we experience?  Well, I hauled in our own props...of course.  And it wasn't just a flower or a basket - I took in my Grandma Miller's old antique chair that my mother inherited.  I loved the old style and thought it would be beautiful with Emilia's vintage looking dress.  The girl seemed to be getting a lot of smiles out of Emilia, but when we started to go through the pictures I noticed that she was just off a few seconds in getting the "golden" photo.  There were a good handful of pictures that I liked, and I did choose my favorite - but when they were printed off I realized that the girl made a huge mistake....one I should have caught!  She put our antique chair covered in a dark red wine/burgundy color, against a backdrop of the same color!  Granted there were some designs in the backdrop, something like a Fleur De Lis, but it was A  LOT of red, and after quickly glancing at the photos I haven't been able to look at them again.  I'm tempted to take them back and have them do a vintage tint on them - or maybe in a few days I'll take them out and be in love with them.  

With that, I decided afterwards to just try my own skills at the same picture - except outside and getting some natural light.  Here are my results (without any editing, because that is part of the skills I need to learn).  

sure sign of summer

Cutting open that first ripe, red & juicy watermelon, to me always screams 'summer's here!' The boys LOVE watermelon & were so excited when I came home from Sprout's with this red jewel! We're so excited that summer is here!!