Age of Lady Cora: 2 months, 2 weeks, 3 days
Family,
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| "Interview with a Toddler Vampire" - coming this summer to a theater near you. |
3/5 - So today Kaitlyn and I chased bubbles outside. I used the Frozen wand Vol Nana gave her, and it was a BLAST! She was chasing them around holding piggy, and as she caught each one she would say, "Piggy Pop!" So we started calling that the "Piggy Pop Game," and ever since then we've been saying a lot of "Piggy Pop, Piggy Pop, Piggy Pop Pop Pop." Yes - you say it for 10 minutes and then try to get it out of your head - IMPOSSIBLE.
3/6 - So an interesting note - K is getting really, REALLY good at rhyming! She spends a lot of time asking me, "Does this rhyme?" and then supplying two words. A month ago she almost never had a rhyme, but now she's almost always getting one. It's really cool to listen to!
We also spent the day doing a lot of party prepping for K's big shindig on Saturday! For starters, we HAD to clean-up the downstairs, and so we spent the majority of the day simply moving things upstairs. Now yes, I realize this is not a concrete long-term strategy to getting more space back, but it certainly let us breathe easier downstairs. Now granted, the bonus room sort of looked like a bomb went off, but hey - let's focus on one thing at a time, shall we?
3/7 - I took K to DPK today, and she had a blast! We spent something like 3.5 hours there! It was a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed the focused time with her, running around, playing in each room, and just focusing on her happiness. We have started to correct K's grammar when she incorrectly conjugates verbs ("I falled" is a big one at the moment). And while out of the gate she wasn't thrilled about it, she actually has been better lately in terms of repeating what we've said vs. just being obstinate. Small victories...
Another interesting note - she's getting really good at hopping on 1 leg! Her balance has improved dramatically over the past month or so, so much so that she can now hop 10-15 times on one leg! It really is cute to watch - even if she is constantly asking us to watch her. :-)
Other note for today - we visited the ENT, where K was told she needed a 4th round of antibiotics to try and clear the fluid from her ears. I give our doctor credit, as he is trying this to (hopefully) alleviate the need for a second round of tubes. We'll see how we go, but I will confess I'm not hopeful given that we've already gone through three rounds.
3/8 - So today had a few frustrating moments, starting with us leaving the Augmentin out of the fridge after giving it to her that evening. UGH! Apparently the stuff can only stay north of 50 degrees for 1 hour before it begins breaking down, which means we had to toss the whole thing. Luckily, a) it's cheap and b) we were able to get a new prescription, so no harm, no foul. It was just sub-optimal (obviously).
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| I call this the "Someone PLEASE rescue me from this nightmare" pic. |
The two classic poopy moments for the day - Kaitlyn runs into the house after pooping in Target and yells, "Daddy - mommy didn't wipe me good! I only want you to wipe me from now on!" HILARIOUS!
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| This is her feeding pose - note the hand position. Hilarious!!!! |
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| A smile!!!! Proof it does happen!!!! |
K had the line of the day: when talking about what to wear on St. Patrick's Day, she said teasingly: "Dada, you'll have to poke me when I wear purple on Aunt Pattie's Day!" I mean, that was just too funny. And true to form, she actually DID wear purple on St. Patty's Day. But in her defense, none of us but Cora actually wore green, so clearly we weren't in the spirit (I mean with kids when you're not drinking, it's a little too tough to get fired up for that holiday...just sayin'...).
What I will say - Cora's feeds are SUPER slow at the moment. Her pace is about 8 minutes per ounce, which makes a 5 oz feed 45 minutes with burping and her pulling off to cry. When you hear stories about kids draining a bottle in 8 minutes, it just makes you shake your head. But the good news is that she is eating, so I think a combination of the medicine and her growing is really helping to minimize the amount of spit up. This, in turn, makes her smell a lot better, as she's not covered in her own vomit (which settles in her little neck rolls) all the time. :-)
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| JT's dream becomes a reality - K LOVES it! |
3/10 - A big day today: the presentation of the chair for K's birthday! So a bit of back story on this chair (in case I didn't mention it earlier) - a few weeks ago Jenny had a vision of getting the girls matching chairs. She looked online, found exactly what she wanted, talked to my mom, and then ordered it. Well, when it arrived, the seat was designed for an elf. Seriously - it was a seat that Cora could sit in, but K would have NO chance past about May or June. JT was distraught, but she then rolled up her sleeves, ran the numbers, and decided that we could order another one and just give Cora that one (they are monogramed, so we had to order another slip cover). Well, the new chair was the PERFECT size, and I am happy to report that, almost 1 month later, K LOVES IT!!!! She sits in it EVERY day during her shows (so about an hour). It's the perfect size, and she loves it. She's even using it as an urban obstacle course at times. :-) JT had a vision of the girls sitting in their chairs watching movies together, so it's been WONDERFUL to see that dream come to fruition. Way to go, wife muffin!!!!!!
We did have a scare today. Kaitlyn was carrying her old bunny seat down the stairs when she missed a step and fell. Luckily, she didn't fall that far, but she (and both parents) were understandably rattled. The good news - since that day, she has kept a hand on the banister, and she's no longer carrying big objects up and down the stairs. I didn't realize what had happened at first, so credit to JT for pointing it out (and running to K's aid).
On the K front, she is currently OBSESSED with Finding Nemo. We are watching it regularly as her show (watching half of it), and we are even acting out scenes from it during our pool time. We ride along the E-A-C, run from the sharks, try to break out of the fish tank - you name it. We are even mixing Nemo with the Little Mermaid - today we had to protect Dory and Nemo from Flotsam and Jetsam. :-)
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| K with her best friend Kate on her b'day. |
On the Cora front, she's actually starting to army crawl already! Not only can she hold her head up really high - she is already wiggling off the playmat! She is also starting to reach and grab for items on the playmat, which is amazing to see. This didn't happen with Kaitlyn for a long time, so it's been really fascinating to watch how they are developing differently.
One other item to note with Cora - her deuces are DESTROYING OUTFITS LEFT AND RIGHT! I mean, anytime you put her in that seat - LOOK OUT. Sometimes you hear the eruption. Other times, you just see it leak out of her clothes. It's just been crazy to watch, as she soils at least one outfit a day. And while I just want to pitch them, JT is usually determined to save them. And to her credit, she's managed to save almost all of them (even the ones she fishes out of the trash when I try to bin them :-)). The one problem with the onesie - when Cora explodes, there is NO WAY to get the outfit off her without covering her in poop. This definitely includes her back, but it also usually includes her hair. So yes, she's been getting lots of baths lately. :-)
3/11 - KAITLYN'S FOURTH BIRTHDAY. I mean, HOW, dare I ask, HOW, did this happen? Our little girl is now 4 - 25% of the way to her driver's license!!!!!! Today we had her first big party, and let me tell you - it was a LOT to process. Picture the scene: 18 kids, 13 of which are girls all dressed as princesses. Then add in 22 adults. Now drop the temperature from the 75 it had been the previous 3 weeks to 50. Throw in a Princess castle bounce house and a daughter who refuses to wear anything other than shorts and a t-shirt because her best friend Kate is only wearing shorts and a t-shirt. What do you have? A recipe for CHAOS.
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| Amazing how quickly these things blow up. |
So first off, it was GREAT. We loved it, and I think K had an absolute blast. However, I do think it was a LOT (perhaps a bit too much) for her to process, and going forward I think we'll go with smaller parties. When we sent the invites, we honestly didn't think a) everyone would come or b) all the siblings would join in (not sure why), but regardless - everyone had a blast (I hope at least). K got a ton of wonderful gifts (even though we asked for NO gifts - you know how this goes), and she ate like a champion. She picked out this SUPER CUTE Ariel cake from Publix, and they did a terrific job with it. The bounce house folks came early to set up, and K actually had the run of it for 8 hours!
As for the party itself, K had two meltdowns almost out of the gate. The first happened when she came running in after probably 5 minutes in the bounce house. She was bawling and saying that she needed to potty. We went into the bathroom, at which point I realized that she had peed her pants. I think that, in her excitement to play with Kate, she didn't want to take the time to use the bathroom. So we ran upstairs, changed her outfit, and soon she was back in the game (although she refused to take off the dress that had pee on it because it was her favorite and was purple). She had another meltdown when she hit her elbow (at least that's what I remember), and the bottom line for me - I think she was just overwhelmed by everything going on. What I have learned about K over these past 4 years - she is pensive and likes to process/survey the scene before really diving in. Also, she wants to be comfortable with her surroundings, and that typically means having less going on (and certainly in a less chaotic fashion). For her, less is more. Less clothing, less noise, less options, less people, less everything.
Some of the highlights from the day (as well as the prep):
First, there was the prep:
Then came the birthday breakfast!
Day of, we started with the spread (which was completely demolished by the end):
Add in 18 hungry children and 20+ hungry adults:
Plus one really, really cute Birthday Girl!!!!!
Throw in a few friends...
Plus an Ariel cake (way to go, Publix!!!!!)...
And even a few presents (even though we begged for folks to NOT bring anything)...
And two proud parents to cap off the festivities. :-)
But the bigger lesson - K doesn't want stuff. She doesn't want tons of people around her. What she wants is our time and attention. After all the kids left, she and I went to the bounce house and played. Jenny joined us, and for a bit it was just the three of us, running around and playing, laughing the whole time. That was a sacred moment, as there won't be many of those in a household of four. K doesn't really want "stuff." She loves stuffed animals, books, toys, and opening presents. But she's fine if she never gets anything. What she wants is our time and attention, and that afternoon I was determined to give her every single bit of it. Lately she's been fond of saying, "Dada, look and keep looking!", as she asks me to watch whatever it is she's doing - be that hopping on one foot, jumping on the couch, spinning around, or any other number of things. And while I can't always look, I know that I need to do a better job of looking more often. There's a great line in the move Hook that has always stuck with me where the mom says, "We've only got a few precious years where our children want us around. After that, we're the ones chasing them for a bit of attention." That resonated with me years before I even met Jenny, and as I type this, tearing up a bit thinking about how quickly life passes and how soon I'll be returning to work, I realize that I am in danger of missing some of these precious moments and need to ensure it is always a priority for me.
And so there you have it - four volumes and four years as parents. I was actually thinking about how I would try to summarize all this in the car today, but then it hit me - you don't really summarize life. As the quote says: "You don't remember days - you remember moments." My goal is to try and remember as many of them as possible, which is largely my reason for continuing with this blog. True, I say that it will be a record the girls can inherit of their childhood and a way that JT and I can read when they are in college or beyond and remember these times. But truthfully, it's more than that. Writing it down is a way I prolong each moment, each day, giving me a little more time to hold dear to all these smiles, all these snuggles, all those moments curled up in bed with Jenny and K in the morning, and all those times I hear, "Dada, I love you." Parenting is a tough job, but there is nothing like it. My life - our life - is richer and fuller and complete because of these 2 girls that fill our days with laughter, energy, vitality, and life. I am so blessed to have these three ladies sharing a roof and doing life with me, and I can't imagine how anything could be any sweeter or any better.
Cora is changing so fast, and so are Kaitlyn, Jenny, and myself. K and I are adjusting to changes in our routine, and I have to brag on her for how she's adapted to life with someone else in the home. I know that K wants as much of my time as I can give, and I want to give her as much as I possibly can while at the same time always ensuring that Jenny is front and center as the head of this house and my top earthly priority. Cora and I are finding a rhythm as well, and I'm even getting the occasional smile from her these days. Her sleeping has been a true blessing, and our days have been exponentially easier (and happier!) knowing that we can get a solid period of rest.
There is no other way to say it - the last 3 months or so have been quite the roller coaster of emotions for all of us. It has been a much tougher transition than I expected, but I do see light at the end of the tunnel. I am actually penning this section on April 5, just 9 days before my return to work. This time off has been such a blessing - I cannot imagine trying to work while also trying desperately to establish a routine (and train for a marathon!). But as I sit here in the living room, listening to the rain and enjoying the silence of being the only one in the house, I do think I'm ready to return to the workforce. I fear I am in danger of getting too comfortable with this current arrangement, which would not make me a great husband, father, or person. I think the return to work will help remind me how precious every second with family is and will ensure I keep my priorities and activities in the right order. You can stay tuned for volume 5 to see how that all works out. :-)
For all those who have read these 4 volumes and journeyed with us - thank you. I hope you've enjoyed the ride, laughed a little, cried a little, and perhaps even learned something about yourself or your family.
Cora - In the book of James, he writes: "Every good and perfect gift is from above" (1:17). That is you - our rainbow baby, our miracle, our answered prayer. We love you and are so honored to be the parents that will teach you about Christ, this world, and what it means to be family. Just don't ever cheer for Duke, or we'll have to kick you out. :-)
Kaitlyn - Four years ago you transformed me. You melted my heart and fixed my eyes on something much bigger than myself - building a family. These past 4 years with you have been the greatest of my life, and I don't think you'll ever really know how much I love you, how proud I am of you, and how I enjoy watching you grow. While I know that we have many, many, many more years together, I also know that these past 4 and the next few will be the ones where I have the most focused, dedicated time with you. I do not intend to squander that knowledge or opportunity, and I look forward to many, many more adventures, laughs, and memories with you.
Jenny - My queen, my wife, my love - you are the center of my universe. I love you so much more than I ever thought I could love anyone. You are THE MOST important person in my life and in my world, and every day you find a way to make me happier than the day before. This life, this love, this family we have built - there are no words to say how happy I am or how thankful I am to you. God blessed me with the best possible friend, wife, and soul mate, and I love every precious moment I get to spend with you. We are coming up on 11 INCREDIBLE years, and I can't wait to see what the next 11 years bring. I LOVE YOU, WIFE MUFFIN!!!!!!!!!
Lastly, to the Prayer Warriors - Lindsey and JP, Mike and Carrie, Morgan, Kayla, Dawn, Darla, Megan, Ryan, Mindy and Craig, & the Q-berry family - thank you. As my friend Christina wrote on our FB page when we went official with news of the pregnancy: "For this child we have prayed. For this child we are thankful." Truly, words will never, EVER, be able to express the gratitude I feel towards all of you for wrapping my wife, daughter, and this family in prayer. Throughout miscarriages, mission trips, and a whole lot of waiting, you were there for us, praying and believing with us the whole time. As with tithing, I never really knew the power of prayer until this miracle baby. Thank you not only for the prayers that brought this miracle to fruition, but also for giving me further proof of the undeniable truth that God is real.
And there you have it. 4 years of chasing munchkins now in the books. There is nothing like it, and I can't wait to see what memories we make as we write Volume 5. Until then, Godspeed and God bless.
Love,
Sam, Jenny, Kaitlyn (the Sneetch) and Cora (the Scream)
