For My Dad

My Dad called today insisting that I put a picture of the kids in their Cardinals gear since it is opening day today, so this one's for you Dad! Pierson does have a "My First Cardinals Shirt" but it is size 18 months and it is packed away until next summer.

Dunder!

Rane is extremely terrified of thunder. It stormed late this afternoon and I thought I was going to have to hold Rane through the entire thing, which lasted about an hour and a half! Anytime it thunders Rane will tear through the house to find Spencer or myself and literally catapult himself into our arms, all the while screaming like crazy. Tonight was no exception and Spencer was at work so I was trying to comfort Rane, make dinner for him and Ella-Ann and feed Pierson a bottle...all at once! Thankfully Ella-Ann was only afraid during the few loud thunder claps so she took over the coddling for me.....


My bright idea to get him out of my arms and to eat his dinner was to turn on toddler music as loud as possible on the television to hopefully drown out the storm, which it did for the most part! After each thunder clap Rane would say, "Noooo more dunder. Nooo moooore dunder, k?" I told him God made the thunder and it will not hurt us. It's just a loud noise. He would repeat that back to me, "God made dunder, just a loud nowise," all the while shaking like a leaf! I couldn't help it, I laughed so hard I was crying!

Gotta Laugh

I have recently started putting headbands on Pierson and every single time we arrive at our destination this is how I find her....dead asleep with her "eye mask" on!

In case you are wondering, I have to wedge a burp cloth (usually rolled up but it came undone in this picture) on the right side of her head when she is in the car seat, or sleeping for that matter, since her head is getting flatter by the day!

Mimi! Mimi!

Rane and Ella-Ann get soooo excited when Mimi comes to visit! I didn't tell the kids that she was driving down on Monday to visit us so when Ella-Ann and I saw her little red Mini Cooper driving down our street as we walked up our driveway (I had just gotten her off the bus) Ella-Ann was SO happy and surprised! The kids jumped into her arms and I don't think they ever really left those arms unless they were sleeping or at school!

Mom loved cuddling with Pierson too, who cooed and smiled like crazy every time her Mimi held her. She is such a sweet little baby! I'm sure she was just happy to have someone's undivided attention for a change! She ate it up!

Mimi stayed with us until Thursday morning and we did lots of fun things while she was here, like shop, eat at Atlanta Fish Market (one of the best restaurants ever in my book), play outside and go to Whole Foods for our morning treat. When my Mom stays with us she sleeps in Ella-Ann's bed and Ella-Ann has a pallet on the floor. She loves having a slumber party with Mimi and gets her entire room ready for it all by herself, including turning down her bed for Mimi. It's so cute.

We really enjoyed our time with my mom and were, as usual, sad to see her leave this morning. She takes Ella-Ann to school as well when she is here and thankfully Ella-Ann was too interested in everyone wearing green this morning to get upset about Mimi leaving!

Snacks with Mimi after she arrived on Monday.

Pierson got all decked out for the occasion!

Rane is obsessed with Mimi. I'm not kidding, ask Spencer. It can be quite annoying because if he is not within 2 feet of her or in her embrace he is constantly shouting, "Mimi! Mimi! Mimi!"

Wow, look! I even made the post!

After my mom left Rane, Pierson and I hung out in the play room. I put Pierson on her tummy on the boppy pillow for the first time and quickly realized she has some seriously good head control!

Rane loves Pierson and he is often right in her little face talking to her. He was giving her a car to play with.....

I love holidays and try to make even the mundane holidays fun for the kids. This morning the kids ate green oatmeal and cereal for breakfast. I even colored Ella-Ann's water green! Tonight the kids ate green eggs, green peas, rice with peas and green milk...all on a green plate! Side note, Spencer and I had Cajun shrimp, not green everything for dinner!

A Golden Weekend

This weekend Spencer's parents came down for a visit. They came down early (arrived around 2 p.m.) on Friday just so that I could get out and about by myself! So nice! As soon as they walked in the door I rattled off instructions for the kids and shot out the door! I went to the mall and all I had with me was my purse! It was so wonderful to walk around the mall by myself with a Starbucks frappuccino in hand!

When I got home the kids were all up and Spencer was home. We ordered pizza for dinner and Ella-Ann got to stay up a little late and spent her time reading books on Papa's Nook. It was the first time she had ever been on anything electronic that read her books and she loved it!

On Saturday Spencer took the kids to get donuts and lots of coffee since all 3 kids were up by 5:20 a.m.! I went in Ella-Ann's room at 6 because she had all the lights on and was playing with her My Little Ponies! It was not how I envisioned my one and only day to sleep in but such is life now with three and I know one day, later rather than sooner I am afraid, I will sleep again! That morning Spencer wanted to go to the mall (he didn't have to ask me twice!) to get some new shoes so off we went without the kids! It was like a daytime date! We found some shoes and a new dress for me and then headed to Nordstrom Rack. Once we got home we spent the entire afternoon in the backyard. The kids loved having their Papa and Nana to play with! They dug in the dirt for worms, brought the cups of dirt to us and would dump them on the patio, played on the playground, played soccer, bubbles, ran around, etc. It was great! Ella-Ann loved the worms! Rane, on the other hand, picked some up and immediately freaked out and dropped them! Who would've thought? We have started bringing a few of Rane's trucks outside to play with and he is in heaven sitting in the mulch/dirt, digging with a shovel and playing with his trucks. Ella-Ann really enjoys it too! Baths were certainly on the agenda that night!

The Jensens went to church with us Sunday morning and then left to go home afterwards. We spent the afternoon outside again....kids digging and playing in the dirt and the making sure all the dirt sticks to them really well by playing with bubbles!

On a side note, I was super excited about springing forward last night because it meant, hopefully, Pierson would be getting up an hour later in the middle of the night to eat. She went from 10 p.m. until 4:30 a.m....her best night to date! I hope we are well on our way to having her sleep all night soon!

Rane thinks he can do everything Ella-Ann can do, including climbing to the top of the jungle gym that we discovered sitting on the side of our house last year and brought it out in the yard only to realize it screams "tetanus shot to whoever cuts themselves on me!" We will be taking it apart soon! Rane climbs to the top and then waits for someone to rescue him!

He was saying "Noooo," in his little pouty face because he didn't want his picture taken.

Ella-Ann didn't want the wood chips in her dirt so she was picking them out. Such a little priss pot!

Every 5 minutes Rane would come to one of us carrying his cup of dirt saying, "Wooook! Wooook!"

Missed Mardi Gras

I love Whole Foods...I really, really do. I get all relaxed and happy when I am there, no joke! They have the best food and if I could eat off their awesome buffet every day I would be one happy camper! Alas, it is too expensive for an every day meal. They have a huge calendar near the checkout lanes that is always full of things going on at the store and often free events. I love, as I am sure I have mentioned many times before, going there for the early bird special for a muffin and coffee. I always take Rane at least once a week (Ella-Ann doesn't know or else she'd be crushed) and then I take all the kids on Saturday mornings if Spencer is working. It is a fun thing for Rane and I to do and he LOVES his Whole Foods muffin! I always get the pumpkin cream cheese and we split it. The funny thing is that whenever you turn right out of our neighborhood (it is the way you get to the store) Rane always, always says "Muffin!!!??? "Hooo Fooos, muffin!?!?" It has become something we do all the time and I enjoy spending quality time with him over a muffin and coffee for 99 cents. Side note, thanks to my dad who took the big kids for ice cream at Bruster's last time they were down, every time I turn left out of my neighborhood Rane asks, "Iii cream?" So either way you turn off of our street Rane asks for food!

At Whole Foods today they were selling slices of king cake for $2 from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. I thought the kids would enjoy celebrating the day with a big slice of cake. I told Ella-Ann we were going when she got off the bus and she was super excited to go eat some cake with purple icing! I loaded up all 3 kids and drove the 1 mile down the street (it was too windy to walk!) to get some cake. Of course they were out of cake by 3:30 p.m.....should've known. Ohh well, the kids enjoyed eating the consolation treat....a chocolate mousse torte!

Trying to keep Rane from eating his torte so I could snap a picture was like trying to hold back a raring bull in it's pen!

Ella-Ann and Rane's personality differences are even evident in how they eat. Ella-Ann, my (most of the time) very clean and tidy child, meticulously ate her torte one small bite at a time and, at one point, was licking it like an ice cream cone savoring every bite (just like I would do, of course).....

Rane, on the other hand, ate it like an animal and got it ALL over him. He just goes for whatever he wants!

He just smashed the pretty torte into his face and ate it!

Ella-Ann is so funny. I bought a huge mirror at a vintage antique store this morning and, after realizing the mirror was way too large for any space in our home we decided to put it in a closet until we move. I bought it for our future home, so it wasn't a silly purchase...even if we aren't moving until the end of this year! Anyway, while I was preparing a space for it in the closet we had it propped up against the wall in the laundry room. As we were moving it into the closet Ella-Ann comes running to us in her Cinderella costume all bent out of shape. When I asked her what was wrong this was the response I received, "Mooooommm! I wanted to daaaance in front of the mirror!" So instead she did this.....

Glad she is flexible! You know, a princess who can use power tools!

The Tank

Our little tiny baby is no longer so itty bitty. I took Pierson to the pediatrician on Tuesday for her 2-month check up and she weighs 10 pounds 5 ounces and is 22 1/4 inches in length! She is our biggest baby out of the 3 at this age. I cannot believe that she was so tiny at birth and has gained so much weight in such a short period of time. You go Pierson! Honestly, though, she really isn't THAT big because she is still in the 25th percentile for weight and 50th for length and head circumference. Same old, same old for our little babies! She has some pink dots on her eye lids and a red mark on one of her checks so I asked the doctor about them and the spots on her eyelids are angel kisses, which she also has a ton of on the back of her neck, and the check spot is probably a birthmark. All should go away within a year. I don't know about that, though, because I still have my angel kisses on the back of my neck and I am 29 (insert wink)! Ella-Ann has hers as well. The spots also have eczema on top of them so I think once I get that cleared up they won't be as red and noticeable. I love that she was "kissed" on her eyelids before she came to us, my precious Pierson.

Pierson smiles quite often now, pretty much if you look in her direction! In the last couple of days I have caught her smiling at the wall! She has also started to coo a little, which is so sweet. She will smile really big and then let out some noises. This morning Rane was talking to her and when I looked over she was smiling so big at him! She already loves her (very loud) siblings!

Unfortunately she is still in our room and still getting up twice a night. No fun, no fun. She is quite noisy so Spencer and I lay there awake until she settles back down after feedings sometimes. The doctor suggested we move the pack-n-play to another room (hello, have you been to my house to see that there are NO available spots for the baby or else she would be there!!) for at least a few nights because she is possibly smelling me in the room and waking to get attention and/or eat. So on Tuesday night she slept in her pack-n-play next to the kitchen table. Poor 3rd child. Anyway, she slept better because she woke at 2 a.m. after eating at 9 p.m. and then again at 5:30 a.m. It may sound awful but really I consider that up only once! Last night, though, was her best night yet. I let out a yelp for happiness when I rolled over in bed and saw 3:11 a.m. on the clock after hearing her grunt and kick! Horray! I woke her at 6:30 this morning to eat before the other two kids woke up. Glorious night for me! Oh, and she was in the bedroom to boot!

Here is our Sweet P at 2 months....

Ella-Ann and Rane did not have such blue eyes. I think they will stick and be like Spencer's eyes. I love her little pointy chin!

Her angel kisses are on the inside of the lids.

Yesterday was Dr. Suess's birthday so this is how Ella-Ann looked when she got off the bus....